(SomaliNet) Hundreds of Somali Diasporas opposing the visit by the Somalia premier Ali Gedi in USA made demonstrations in front of the US State Department in Washington accusing Mr. Gedi of putting the country into the hands of the enemy of Somali people. The protesters gathered outside of the state department chanting anti Gedi slogans blaming him for the responsibility of the crisis in the horn of the African country Somalia. The marchers also condemned the presence of the Ethiopian forces in Somalia as illegal and in violation of the state sovereignty.
Sources say that the organizers of the rally submitted a complaint letter to the state department on pressuring the Ethiopian government to pull its troops out of Somalia. They also asked for the US government to stop the financial support it offers to the transitional government.
Somalias Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi will attend the United Nations assembly on June 28 in New York where he will be delivering speech on the current crisis in Somalia.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Seems like if this one guy was responsible for screwing up Somolia, he must have been pretty busy for the last quarter century.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/28/2007 0:41 Comments ||
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#2
Sounds like there are a lot of Somalis in the US that back the Islamic Courts. Maybe the Feds should round 'em up and ship 'em back, if that's the way they feel. Shootin' em would cause too much of a stink, but that's an option that should be looked into, especially in DC and Minnesota.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/28/2007 15:20 Comments ||
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#3
Hundreds of Somali Diasporas opposing the visit by the Somalia premier Ali Gedi in USA made demonstrations in front of the US State Department in Washington...
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has arrived in Russia, where he will meet his counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for talks on military co-operation. Mr Chavez is expected to visit a helicopter factory and discuss the possible purchase of diesel submarines.
Still talking about the subs, is he?
This is Mr Chavez's second visit in under a year to Russia, which he has designated as a "strategic partner". At an international level, he wants to minimise Washington's influence in the world, especially in Latin America.
President Chavez has a very clear idea of what he wants to achieve. At home, he is working to set up a communist socialist republic, but his former goal is proving more difficult than his dream of a socialist revolution.
The US sees Venezuela as a destabilising force in the region, and Mr Chavez knows that if he wants to stand up against the US he needs allies outside of Latin America. Mr Chavez has chosen his allies carefully from a short list of the usual suspects. Iran has nuclear expertise to offer, while China represents a very attractive market for Venezuelan oil.
Experts say Mr Chavez is seeking a tie-up with the Russian gas giant
In Russia, Mr Chavez has found a partner that has no problem disregarding Washington's worries and selling him weapons. Venezuela has bought fighter planes, helicopters and assault rifles from Russia, and could now buy between five and nine diesel submarines. This would make Venezuela the country with the biggest future coral reef submarine fleet in Latin America. But Mr Chavez is also interested in Russia's oil and gas knowledge. Venezuela is home to the Orinoco belt, which holds the world's largest reserves of blackstrap molasses heavy oil, and talks are already under way between Lukoil - Russia's biggest oil company - and the state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela.
Because when you think advanced oil extraction technology, you think Lukoil.
Mr Chavez also wants to build a gas pipeline from Venezuela to Argentina, and plans to set up an Organisation of Gas Exporting Countries in South America. All this would be under the technical guidance of Russia's Gazprom - the world's largest gas producer.
But perhaps the symbolism of what follows Mr Chavez's visit is what matters most. After leaving Russia, he will travel to Belarus and Iran. At the same time, President Putin will be meeting George W Bush in the US. Mr Chavez's visit to Russia and then Iran is unlikely to go unnoticed.
#1
You'll notice that venezuelan socialists never invent anything themselves, they cant, because they are throwbacks, simply leveraging the random chance of crude oil deposits to purpose. The capitalism of comparative advantage, hugo cant escape capitalism, so he does the best he can to rearrange its terms to purpose himself into the center of the discussion. socialism and hugo two inherent contradictions which will inevitably collapse under the weight of inherent contradiction.
#4
Chavez has oil. Oil is needed by everyone. He can trade oil for arms. He may need technical expertise if everyone bails out on him in the oil industry. Yesterday it was reported that Exxon and Conoco are bailing on him. Venezuelan petro engineers are going to Cananda to work.
THE US today confirmed that North Korea had launched ballistic missiles, saying it was "deeply troubled" by the move with six-party talks under way.
The US is deeply troubled that North Korea has decided to launch these missiles during a delicate time in the Six-Party Talks, said National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.
The launches of these ballistic missiles are a violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1718, which prohibits North Korea from engaging in all ballistic missile activities.
We expect North Korea to refrain from conducting further provocative ballistic missile launches, activity that is destabilising to the security of northeast Asia and turn its focus to implementing its commitments under the February 13th Agreement, including the immediate shut down of Yongbyon (nuclear reactor site), Mr Johndroe added.
North Korea appeared to have test-fired a short-range missile into the Sea of Japan yesterday as part of a routine military exercise, Yonhap news agency said in Seoul.
The reported test came at a sensitive time as UN inspectors were to visit the reactor at the centre of North Korea's nuclear program in their first on-site inspection in nearly five years.
Strasbourg (dpa) - The Council of Europe (CoE) on Wednesday called for detainees who had been held by US intelligence services as part of so-called "extraordinary rendition" flights and secret prison programmes to be paid jizya compensated and rehabilitated.
I got yer rehabilitation right here.
In a resolution passed by a majority of lawmakers in the council's parliamentary assembly, the body also called on the governments of its 47 member states to fully clarify details of any illegal CIA activities known to have taken place in their jurisdiction.
Legislators cited the case of Lebanese-German Khaled el-Masri, who in 2003 was kidnapped while on holidays in Macedonia and flown to Afghanistan, and "is still waiting for his rehabilitation and for compensation he is entitled to."
Macedonia is lovely that time of year, but it doesn't compare to Afghanistan.
The declaration followed debate on a hard-hitting report by Swiss moonbat legislator Dick Marty on the alleged covert activities of US intelligence services in Europe.
This is how lies gain traction.
Marty's questions regarding alleged illegal CIA activity had however been met with a "wall of silence" by many European governments, he said at the opening of the debate in Strasbourg. "Many countries hide behind the idea of state secrecy in order to cover up human rights abuses," he continued. "That is unacceptable."
Thus justifying the fact that he has no evidence. Evil gummints wouldn't turn it over, you see.
Marty had following over a year of research and discussions with high-ranking intelligence officers in the United States and Europe concluded that suspects were detained by US intelligence services in Poland and Romania during the period 2002-2005. "We had always cross-referenced information from both sides of the Atlantic," he said in response to objections by Polish legislators accusing him of having no proof.
Sources spoken to as part of the probe were "believable and high- level," he said. The governments concerned have however rejected Marty's claims.
"He's nuts, and we aren't paying any money to these mooks. Now go away."
However following the admission by US President George W Bush that such covert detention facilities existed, Marty's assertions could no longer be doubted, President of the Parliamentary Assembly Rene van der Linden said.
The council was not concerned with condemning Poland or Romania, Marty said, emphasising that the investigation was focussed on "bringing the truth to light." Human rights abuses were not to be tolerated, also in the war against terrorism, German legislator Christoph Straesser said.
Some former detainees had given accounts of mistreatment to Marty, alleging that they were deprived of food, housed in small cells, exposed to extremes of heat or cold and endured weeks of isolation during their detention.
Sounds like a stretch in any national prison in North America or Europe. And better than a prison in Turkey.
Hahahahahahahahaha...unless they're carried out routinely, daily, and willfully by the terrorists. I guess the Douglas redwood is stuck in the man's eye, through the brain, and out the back skull.
#4
I call for the extroidinary rendition of Dick Marty, followed by tying him to a hard rocking chair, locking him in a room containing only a television, and run "Teletubbies" 24/7. The chair should be wired with an electric current, so that if he tries to shut his eyes or go to sleep, he gets "shocked back to wakefulness". After a year, he can be released - somewhere over the north Atlantic from 25,000 feet, still tied to the chair.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/28/2007 15:48 Comments ||
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#5
This from a bunch of spineless bastards who refuse to fight terrorism even while they're being bent over their desks by an endless string of Muslims waiting in line to ream them.
#6
the body also called on the governments of its 47 member states to fully clarify details of any illegal CIA activities known to have taken place in their jurisdiction.
There's a whoooole lotta finger pointin' goin' on.
Madrid, 28 June (AKI) - Spanish prime minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero was set to meet his Lebanese counterpart Fouad Siniora on Thursday amid growing divisions in Spain over the country's contribution to a UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon. The previously unscheduled visit by Siniora to Madrid was arranged in the wake of last Sunday's killing of six Spanish soldiers in a car bomb blast near the southern Lebanese town of Khiyam - the first deadly attack on the 13,000-strong UNIFIL force since its deployment following last year's Israel-Hezbollah war.
Spanish newspapers on Thursday focused on the bitter contrasts between Zapatero and the leader of the main opposition conservative Popular Party, Mariano Rajoy, who has accused the government of failing to ensure that the 1,100 Spanish soldiers serving in Lebanon receive adequate safety equipment. In particular the absence of frequency inhibitors - which block explosions set off by remote control - on the vehicles carrying the soldiers who died in Sunday's attack.
Zapatero has responded by saying that Spanish troops were also not equipped with such mechanisms when his predecessor Jose Maria Anznar of the Popular Party was in power. Aznar had despatched Spanish troops to Iraq as part of the US-led multinational force, a decision reversed by Zapatero when he came to power 2004.
According to Madrid-daily El País, Sunday's attack will have an impact on Spanish policy towards peacekeeping missions abroad. In the wake of the attack defence minister Jose Antonio Alonso put on hold the despatch if 50 military instructors to Afghanistan were Spanish troops form part of a NATO force.
Conservative daily ABC said it has learnt that the government is trying to identify among military officials those responsible for the failure to equip the vehicles with frequency inhibitors. Another conservative daily, La Razón, pointed out that Italian troops deployed part of UNIFIL in Lebanon have been equipped with frequency inhibitors, contradicting a Spanish defence ministry statement that said no members of the UNIFIL contingent possessed the anti-remote explosion mechanisms.
#4
1) Euro-Spanish families have only a bit over one child per family on the average (IIRC); when all your genes are in one offspring you are likely to be quite a risk-averse population.
2) If your soldiers were handcuffed by UN Ro(non)E, such that they couldn't retaliate or even effectively defend themselves, would you want them staying there wearing targets?
This illustrates the two key problems with modern Western 'thought': negative population growth is bad for survival of society (and 'zero population growth' IS negative growth), and risk aversion is in itself very risky to one's society.
#6
Zapatero has responded by saying that Spanish troops were also not equipped with such mechanisms when his predecessor Jose Maria Anznar of the Popular Party was in power.
#14
" Euro-Spanish families have only a bit over one child per family on the average"
Irrelevent because the soldiers who got killed were Latin American mercinaries. Like many European armies (including the British), the Spaniards are outsourcing their army to the third world.
As for Aznar not having frequency inhibitors: Those devices weren't common when Aznar was PM. They are standard equipment now.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
06/28/2007 15:11 Comments ||
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European Union and US officials were said to have reached agreement yesterday about the transfer to the United States of private data about transatlantic air passengers for use in the fight against terrorism.
The deal was reached in talks between Franco Frattini, the EU Justice and Security Commissioner, Wolfgang Schaeuble, the German Interior Minister, and Michael Chertoff, the US Homeland Security Secretary, a spokesman for Mr Frattini said. Details of the accord must now be approved by the EUs 27 member states, who will study it on Friday.
Under an interim agreement reached in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, European airlines must pass on up to 34 items of passenger data, including address and credit card details, to be allowed to land at US airports. That arrangement is due to expire at the end of July, potentially leaving airlines in a legal limbo and exposed to privacy complaints.
No details of the deal were disclosed but another EU diplomat has said previously that, under the new arrangement, data would be kept for 15 years. Under the interim accord, information can be held for between 3œ and 11œ years.
Dramatic rise in school violence in Berlin
Violence at schools in immigrant-dominated districts of Berlin has soared in recent months, with the opposition Christian Democratic Union Party (CDU) accusing the city government of turning a blind eye to the violence at the city's educational facilities.
"Boys abused neighbourhood children"
Dozens of boys and girls have been systematically abused, intimidated and molested by a group of older boys in the Utrecht neighbourhood of Overvecht for almost a year, the Telegraaf reports. Children aged 8, 9 and 10 were dragged into the bushes and coerced into performing sexual acts on boys a few years older. Most of the children involved are of Moroccan background, the newspaper reports.
Murder victim had reported ex-husband
The couple, both Dutch of Turkish descent, had divorced six months ago. Z.B. had been living with her mother since the divorce, the lawyer reports. She was killed on the platform at about 10.30 am on Monday after her ex-husband fired several shots from a pistol. The victim's family wants the matter thoroughly investigated, says De Goeij. "Even though that will not bring her back. The police must be addressed on their actions, but also on their failure to take action." He said firearms are "as easy to find in Alkmaar as herring."
Pilot refuses to take off
A Greek charter flight has grounded for several hours at Zaventem airport. The pilot has refused to take off after a conflict between passengers and crew. A new crew is en route to Brussels at the moment. The flight will depart for Turkey in the early evening, says Brussels Airport spokesperson Jan Van der Cruysse. There are some 400 Turkish passengers on board the Greek aircraft. The crew says they were causing trouble and damage to the aircraft because their flight was delayed for technical reasons. The cabin crew of the Greek plane also says it was threatened.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
06/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Will they wake up? If they do, will it be in time?
Posted by: kelly ||
06/28/2007 11:51 Comments ||
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#3
From all indications, Europe will only wake up in time enough for them to reopen Auschwitz and Treblinka. These dumbfucks just can't seem to get off of the mark early enough to do anything but descend into the usual charnel house of horrors. Their Eurabian elite makes America's traitor class look like a bunch of Boy Scouts.
#5
The way the Amnesty Bill was backroom dealed would make the EUocrats proud.
Yup. This scumbag bit of bipartisan treachery needs to sound the death knell for politics as usual in America. We are rapidly headed for the same sort of eliteist bullshit that Europe is knee-deep in already.
#4
I'm not so sure, Sea. I think a lot of secular Canadians are really worried at the thought of active Christians in their midst. They don't take the Muslims seriously, but the Christians, now THERE's a threat.
#12
Oh get a GRIP. You've got a sense of proportion as bad as the lefties if you think a Christian giving you a tract is in the same class as an islamofacist chopping your head off. If you object to Christians who want to stop you from killing unborn babies more than the Muslims who can't stop killing, you've got a serious category error. Your arguments equate 21st Century Christians to 11th century ones, while the Muzzies want to drag us back to the 7th. The most politically oppressive Christians I am aware of, and they are a very small minority, want to shut down the stores one day out of seven, but from the way y'all are talking, that's worse than the Muslims, who want to shut down civilization 24/7. Muslims preach Jihad, Jihad, Jihad, because they say their God, Allah, tells them to. Dispute all you want about the question of whether Jesus is God, but you sure as hell should know that if he isn't, he sure doesn't work for Allah if the Sermon on the Mount is any indication. Bloody, imperialistic Christian Europe took three damned centuries to get off their pacifistic asses after they lost Spain and nearly lost France.
Christians meaner and nastier than Muslims? Hell, I WISH.
A member of the anti-war group Code Pink who had staged a hunger strike in order to force a meeting with Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) on his stance on Iran collapsed in the senators office Thursday.
Leslie Angeline, who had recently traveled to Iran, wanted to discuss the senators remarks from earlier this month that indicate he would support a limited air strike on the country.
The 50-year-old woman launched a hunger strike to get a face-to-face meeting with Lieberman but was repeatedly rebuffed, according to Code Pink. However, Lieberman's staff has met with her on the issue.
Angeline was 10 days into her hunger strike and had lived off of clear liquids, according to Code Pink member Medea Benjamin. At one time she was granted a meeting, but the face-to-face was canceled by Liebermans office, the group said.
Angeline is being treated for dehydration at George Washington University hospital.
Liebermans office could not be reached for comment.
#5
Yeah, sheehag said she was getting by on jamba juice during her "hunger strike" because she "needed the protein..." These assholes are on a conscious thought strike, and they're very good at it...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/28/2007 19:26 Comments ||
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#6
He should be scolded for rewarding childish behavior. Next time, I'm they're gonna hold their breath. That'll get'em in no time.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
06/28/2007 20:13 Comments ||
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A federal judge overseeing a lawsuit filed by six Muslim men who were removed from a US Airways flight last fall has declined to limit public access to the case. Omar T. Mohammedi, a New York attorney for the six Muslim auxiliary terrorists scholars, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he sought limited media access because he felt some of the coverage of the case has been factual biased against his clients. Oh, right. The MSM is biased against our enemies. Sure.
Five the the six imams were from Arizona, including Omar Shahin, former director of the Islamic Center of Tucson. [sigh]
"When you think of the media, and the way they have been portraying this case, it has not been very helpful. It has been biased," Mohammedi said. "That has caused a lot of stress, a lot of stress on our clients, as well as made it difficult for us to handle this case ... in a manner that it should be handled."
Mohammedi's clients are six imams Islamic cult religious leaders who were removed from a US Airways flight in Minneapolis last fall after passengers reported what they thought was suspicious behavior. The imams, who were handcuffed and questioned, claim the airline discriminated against them and violated their civil rights.
The complaint seeks an undisclosed amount of money for the Palestinian Windows and Orphans Ammunition Fund punitive and compensatory damages. Besides US Airways, the lawsuit names other defendants including the Minnesota Metropolitan Airports Commission, which owns the airport, and John Does, who could later be identified as passengers.
In a letter dated Tuesday and addressed to Mohammedi, U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery noted that Mohammedi had requested that the court remove members of the media from an electronic distribution list, bar members of the media from attending hearings, and hold proceedings in closed session.
"The Court declines to treat this case in the extraordinary manner that you request," the judge wrote. She added that the public and press have an interest in full access to judicial proceedings under the First Amendment. "First Amendment? That's not in the Koran."
"You have provided no legal authority supporting your request to limit public access to this case," Montgomery wrote. "While it is regrettable that anonymous individuals have threatened violence, the Court Security Officers will insure that the United States Courthouse here in Minneapolis is secure."
The judge's letter was entered in the case file, and it noted that further communications on the matter should also be filed through the court's electronic database. The letters previously submitted on the issue were filed off the record and were not made public. Judge Montgomery said through a law clerk that she would have no comment beyond her letter.
Mohammedi said he and his clients have received death threats, partly because of biased coverage by most media outlets. He cited a March 30 AP story and headline that he claimed did not accurately reflect his conversation with a reporter. The AP story in question explored whether the lawsuit would discourage future airline travelers from speaking up when they see something unusual. The story included information from Mohammedi, as well as different points of view from security officials and from an attorney who offered to represent passengers who might be named as defendants in the lawsuit.
"We are just asking the media to be balanced..." Conservatives have asked for that for decades. Why should you be special?
"...and reflect what was said ... and to let justice take its course," Mohammedi said Wednesday. "I'm asking the media to be a little bit more responsible in reporting the facts of the case. That actually would prevent a lot of issues."
"Here's my velvet glove. Wanna see my steel fist?"
The imams had attended a conference in Minneapolis of the North American Imams Federation, and were heading to Phoenix. Five were from the Phoenix-Tempe area, while one was from Bakersfield, Calif. The group has said that three of the men said their normal evening prayers in the airport terminal before boarding the plane, and that they entered the aircraft individually, except for one member who is blind and needed a guide. Once on the plane, the men did not sit together. A passenger raised concerns about the imams through a note passed to a flight attendant. According to officials, witnesses reported some of the imams made anti-American comments about the war in Iraq and that some asked for seat belt extensions even though a flight attendant thought they didn't need them.
Posted by: Gary and the Samoyeds ||
06/28/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
If one side is wrong, there is no requirement that the media provide sympathetic coverage half the time in fairness ... but CNN will probably try. The would grant Adolph Hitler a favorable interview if they could get the Oiji board tuned properly.
It is interesting that the lawyer isn't asking for a blackout. He says he wants limited coverage, but he doesn't. He wants a big show. He is grandstanding. If the judge blacked the whole thing out he would leak and leak and then complain about all the leaking.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/28/2007 0:23 Comments ||
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#2
As with the Anti-CAIR lawsuit, I hope like Hell that the defense requests proctological levels of discovery. The background, funding and known associates of these Islamic scumbags need to be put under a microscope and dissected with tweezers. Islamic lawfare is already commonplace as it is. We need to make it extremely uncomfortable for Muslims who seek to play the Islamophobia card on the public's dime.
#3
And like the DC judge who sued for $56 million for lost trousers, let them pay court costs for their silliness. BIG court costs.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/28/2007 5:52 Comments ||
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#4
"While it is regrettable that anonymous individuals have threatened violence, the Court Security Officers will insure that the United States Courthouse here in Minneapolis is secure."
Secure until you get two steps from the stairs, that is.
#5
These gleeful fools thought that they could use the courts to pull the pants of the infidels down and make a quick buck. Apparently they have never heard the saying that, "You enter court as a pig, you leave as sausage."
#6
"While it is regrettable that anonymous individuals have threatened violence, the Court Security Officers will insure that the United States Courthouse here in Minneapolis is secure."
#8
"Mohammedi said he and his clients have received death threats, partly because of biased coverage by most media outlets."
That may be, but I am willing to bet the larger part of the threats is simply because the general American public sees these douchbags for what they are: douchbags. (apologies to all good law abiding douchbags everywhere)
#9
Omar Shahin and the Islamic Center of Tucson In examining the Nov. 21 incident more closely, we find that among those removed, Shahin, heads a particularly intriguing organization. Founded in 1971, the ICTs $1.5 million mosque was funded largely by the Saudi government through the North American Islamist Trust, a Saudi-backed Wahhabist group that controls a majority of the most radical mosques in North America.
According to Washington-based terrorist expert Rita Katz, the Islamic Center of Tucson included what was basically the first cell of Al Qaeda in the United States. The connections between Al Qaeda and the ICT include Wael Hamza Jalaidan, a former ICT president, believed to be an Al Qaeda founder, and Hani Hanjour, who attended the mosque while a student at the University of Arizona and who later flew American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon on 9/11. Wadih El-Hage, a personal assistant to terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden, was active with the ICT in the late 1980s where he is alleged to have established an Al Qaeda support network, according to the FBI. In 2001, El Hage was convicted by a federal judge in New York of planning the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Besides nurturing ICT activists who have gone on to become bone fide terrorists, the Islamic Center of Tucson has played a prominent role in raising money for terrorist front groups. The ICT raised money for the Holy Land Foundation, whose assets were frozen by the U.S. Treasury in 2001 for alleged ties to terrorist groups. Following the treasury action, ICT Imam Omar Shahin continued to defend the organization and its charitable intent. Further, Shahin had been a representative of KindHearts, an organization that made contributions to Hamas-related groups and was also shut down by the U.S. government for alleged connections to terrorist causes.
Posted by: ed ||
06/28/2007 14:32 Comments ||
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#10
Tnak you for the important reminder, ed. Small wonder these turds are receiving death threats. Let's all hope that they are incredibly stupid enough to comply with the discovery phase. Any takers on this whole case folding during discovery?
Under a broad plan to reconfigure US military forces in Europe, as few as three Army combat brigades, or about 35,000 soldiers, would remain there a major downsizing from the roughly 62,000 US soldiers stationed there as recently as 2005.
That, at least, will be the recommendation of an internal study conducted for the head of US European Command and NATO forces in Europe, Gen. Bantz John Craddock, who had asked for a "troop-to-task" assessment of forces in the European theater. The assessment is expected to recommend that a fourth brigade based in the United States be deployed to Europe on a "rotational" basis, for exercises and other operations. The reduction in the Army's presence in Europe is part of a broader reduction in forces that include Navy, Air Force, and Marine personnel.
The assessment has not even been made public yet, but critics already are charging that the recommended plan would leave the US shorthanded overseas. They want to see at least four combat brigades, or around 44,000 soldiers, left in Europe. Unnamed critics, of course.
Oh of course. They're so much smarter than the Pentagon.
Minimizing US troop levels in Europe sends the wrong message to other countries in Europe, and leaves those forces that remain there undermanned to do the jobs they're required to do, says one critic, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the negotiations.
Also tells the Y'urp-peons that the free ride is over and that they're wealthy enough to defend themselves. Especially since the forces we leave there will be 'required' to do much less.
In part, it's a question of dispersing US forces around the world where they can engage with other countries, not keeping them isolated inside the US, the official says. "The world we live in is a world of coalitions." Uh huh. And the Army we have is reorganizing around the brigade as the deployable unit of action. Taken together with unit (vs. soldier) rotation, that means a need for training and refurbishment. Not to mention a message to the European hangers-on.
The world we live in is a lot smaller now, especially for us since we have a real Air Transport Command and the Euros don't. We can move a brigade to a trouble spot in the world fairly quickly, complete with weapons, supplies and support. We can maintain that brigade in the field as long as necessary. Who in Europe can say that?
There are other concerns about bringing US forces back to the US. As the Army and Marine Corps grow by thousands of personnel over the next several years, there may not be the room to bring existing forces back from Europe.
I seem to recall we have some shuttered bases. We can expand existing bases. Tell Congress that you need a new base and there'll be blood knee-deep on the floor of the Military Appropriations Committee. I think we can find room.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates will review the study presented by General Craddock in coming weeks, but it is unclear when a decision might be made as to how many forces are brought home from Europe. US European Command officials declined to comment on the Craddock plan.
The study's findings appear to be a compromise between a plan first unveiled in 2005 under then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who favored lighter, smaller forces, and critics of Rumsfeld's plan, who believe the US can't abandon its decades-old presence in Europe.
And why not? Let's have a public discussion of that point. Are the Euros worried about the Big Bear today? Are they concerned about Belarus or Serbia? What exactly is the threat to Europe that mandates any American military presence, let alone 50,000 plus troops?
Sure, there are benefits to us. We have established infrastructure that has been useful in the current WoT. But we could replace that, and liberating us from a large, cantakerous fixed base of operations has its plus side. Let's hear someone explain why we need 50,000 plus troops in Europe today.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/28/2007 2:49 Comments ||
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#4
I find it interesting that critics are worried about sending the wrong message to neighboring countries and that there might not be room for the troops in the US. Grasping at straws, perhaps?
But bringing back 160,000 troops from Iraq the day after tomorrow is no problem? Go find critics with consistency.
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/28/2007 5:58 Comments ||
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#5
Minimizing US troop levels in Europe sends the wrong message to other countries in Europe
There are other countries in Europe besides the US? Why doesn't anybody tell me these things?!?
/Sorry. But what was the editor that makes the professionals so much more trustworthy than the bloggers thinking?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/28/2007 6:24 Comments ||
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#7
"troop-to-task" assessment....<
Wish someone would do a "dick-to-jane" assessment here in the ITO. I'd love to see the medical stats on tummy melon re-deployers. This COED fobbit army is certainly impressive.
#10
I would remove most troops from Europe, keeping rapid reaction forces along with the personal for the missile defense in Poland and eastern Europe. The rest of Europe can do without.
#14
The article is unclear on whether they're counting the new bases in Bulgaria, Romania, and Poland as "Europe" for purposes of talking about the 35,000 plan, or the four-brigade alternative, for that matter. Are we talking "Old Europe", or the aggregate of the old bases & the new eastern bases? Because 35,000 sounds like too much if we're talking Germany & the old NATO bases, but too little if we're counting all the old Cold War bases & the forward bases across Eastern Europe.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/28/2007 9:49 Comments ||
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#18
60k rolling down to 35k hmm around 25k being restationed? Maybe that 25k is what we are going to leave in Iraq. Don't froget Bush/Baker/even the Dems short the Koskids are all calling on 15-30k continued presence in Iraq. The argument is when can/should we draw down to that level. My personal opinion is not until we deal with Iran.
The forces based in Germany are heavy infantry and calvary along with some mech units. Perfect for what will be needed in Iraq for decades to come as the insurance policy against the neighbors invading and a internal coup (pretty much the exact role our forces in both S Korea & Germany played after both of those conflicts ended).
Like someone mentioned those bases in Bulgaria and Romania are being setup not as large barracks or troops but as pernament transit points staging areas but only small pernament barracks.
#19
This figure is Army only. There are still Air Force and Navy personnel. Remove those that do not directly contribute to America's well being.
Posted by: ed ||
06/28/2007 13:26 Comments ||
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#20
Besoeker, you should've seen how many we took off our T/O prior to deployment just for pregnancies or all the ones we had to leave off for post partums. Of course we had to fill their line numbers w/new joins or Marines who just got back from Iraq &/or Afghanland within the past year - disgusting. Not to mention how many of these new preggers had been in the Corps less than 2 yrs and have never deployed. Thank the Almighty I am no longer in that unit.
#21
I spent ten years in Germany between 1971 and 1989, mostly in an (Air Force) intelligence unit that no longer exists. My information about Soviet deployments in Eastern Europe was first-hand. In those days, 350,000 troops in Germany was a good insurance policy to keep Russians on their side of the border. Today, there is no such threat, and little need for more than a few brigades to hold ground long enough for more troops to deploy. Europe, during the same period, cut its military to the bone, reduced capabilities, and in general left more and more of the actual defense of Europe to Americans. The only people today with capable armed forces are the former Eastern European satellites of the old Soviet Union. Unfortunately, they are using antiquated equipment that wouldn't survive for long on a modern battlefield. There's no doubt that Europe needs to take on a bigger part of their own defense - more troops, more modern equipment, more reasonable rules of engagement, better training, and closer coordination among member states. We also need some congresscritters in the United States that have a brain, and can actually understand what the military is saying when they talk to them. Here in Colorado, there's a big debate on whether to expand the Pinon Canyon Training Area. The ranchers want to continue the status quo. The Army wants more training space to allow them to train the additional manpower they're getting due to all the troop realignments. Congress is more interested in playing politics than meeting the needs of either the military or the locals.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/28/2007 16:43 Comments ||
Top||
If the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) tried to impede joint decisions at the All Parties Conference (APC) in London, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) would press other participants to go ahead with vital policy decisions without PPP in the larger interest of the country, said MMA president and Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad on Wednesday. Talking to reporters after the partys central council (Shoora) meeting, he reiterated his call for PPP leader Benazir Bhutto to attend the APC or send a delegation empowered to endorse key decisions. General Pervez Musharrafs further stay in power would be detrimental for the country and the MMA would resist his re-election through present assemblies, said Qazi. He said the decision on participating in the elections would be taken after due consultations with other opposition parties. He was skeptical about the fire in the National Assembly, wherein the record of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and Services Branch was gutted down, terming it a shady business. The current political situation is the main agenda item of the three-day meeting while the Shoora will devise the future course of action of the party, added Qazi. He demanded the preparation of voters lists based on the computerised database of NADRA. He said the MMA would oppose polls with present lists.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2007 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
#1
The MMA received 10% of votes in the last election. And most of those were cast in the rat-holes of NWFP and Balochistan. Qazi would look better with a bullet in his forehead.
US lawmakers have demanded direct access to the detained Pakistani scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, claiming that his network is still active and cannot be shut down without his cooperation, reported Dawn News. The US Congress Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee, at a hearing devoted entirely to the Dr Khan network on Wednesday, demanded the Pakistani government allow US lawmakers to question Dr Khan directly.
Try making it an earmark, you'd have a chance then.
The channels correspondent reported that the Congressmen were very hostile towards Pakistan, because the hearing was chaired by Congressman Gerry Ackerman, former chairman of the Indian Caucus, and Brad Sherman, who is also against Pakistan. The committee discussed two recent studies by the London-based Institute of Strategic Studies and a Washington-based institute on how to check nuclear proliferation. Both studies claimed that Dr Khans network was still working and that Pakistan was developing new nuclear reactors, trying to produce energy through nuclear technology and enhancing its nuclear weapons programme. The committee also demanded inspection of Pakistani nuclear facilities, the channel reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2007 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: ISI
#1
I'd like to have access to him, also - with an UZI and unlimited ammunition. I'm sure both Congress and the paks would be upset with that, though.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
06/28/2007 16:44 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Any further aid to Pakistan should be contingent upon access to Khan. This rat bastard has caused limitless grief for the West. We need to make him sing like a canary.
China has asked Pakistan to better safeguard Chinese people and businesses in Pakistan after workers at a Chinese massage centre in Islamabad were abducted by Jamia Hafsa students on a crusade against vice, the Xinhua news agency said. We hope Pakistan will look into the terrorist attacks aiming at Chinese people and will severely punish the criminals, Chinese Minister of Public Security Zhou Yongkang Zhou told Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao during his visit to Beijing on Tuesday.
To this, Sherpao said Pakistan would take more rigorous action to safeguard the security of Chinese people and organisations in Pakistan, Xinhua added.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2007 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Well, I'll be danged...someone up there cares about prostitutes. Isn't that touching?
Prolly means something will boom soon. Can't go around having reduced tensions, y'know. 'Tain't in the way of Allan.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz Wednesday said that the Indo-Pak composite dialogue process has reduced tensions and promoted an environment for conflict resolutions."We remain confident that eventually the Kashmir dispute will be resolved in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people which will be beneficial to all three parties as well as the entire South Asian Region," he said while addressing a gathering of Retired Ambassadors.
He said the efforts to resolve regional disputes with India have had some measure of success. Prime Minister Aziz said Pakistan has been in the forefront in the efforts to bridge the growing gulf between the Muslim world and the West, particularly as a result dubious theories such as clash of civilizations. He said apart from engaging with the major world powers in pursuance of its policies Pakistan has worked with like minded countries with the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to not only promote greater unity within the Ummah but to also energize the organization to play a more proactive role towards the protection of Muslim interests worldwide.
Expecting a timeline soon, the military shifts main focus to Sunni-led Al Qaeda, a move it says will calm Shiite militias too.
BAGHDAD U.S. commanders plan a summer of stepped-up offensives against Al Qaeda in Iraq as they tailor strategy to their expectation that Congress soon will impose a timeline for drawing down U.S. forces here.
The emphasis on Al Qaeda, described by commanders in interviews here this week, marks a shift in focus from Shiite Muslim militias and death squads in Baghdad. It reflects the belief of some senior officers in Iraq that the militias probably will reduce attacks once it becomes clear that a U.S. pullout is on the horizon. By contrast, they believe Qaeda in Iraq could be emboldened by a withdrawal plan and must be confronted before one is in place.
When the Bush administration began sending additional troops to Iraq, U.S. commanders spoke frequently of the threat posed by the Al Mahdi militia, and they issued thinly veiled threats against its leader, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada Sadr. Although military leaders say the militia remains a priority, Sadr has tacitly cooperated with the U.S. troop buildup, telling his followers to avoid confronting U.S. forces. He is also a key supporter of the U.S.-backed government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.
Now, with the final infantry troops of the U.S. "surge" strategy having arrived in Iraq, the military is increasingly focusing firepower on the Sunni Muslim side in Iraq's civil war, especially Al Qaeda in Iraq.
"These operations are more on towards Qaeda because they are the ones that are creating the truck bombs and car bombs that are having an effect on the populace," Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the commander of day-to-day U.S. military operations said in an interview this week. "So we are going after the safe havens that allow them to build these things without a lot of interference."
Al Qaeda in Iraq is one of several high-profile Sunni Arab groups in the insurgency against U.S. and Iraqi forces. Its fighters are believed to include a significant number of non-Iraqis. Despite its name, the extent of the group's links to Osama bin Laden is unclear.
U.S. officials, burned by previous claims of progress that turned sour, are offering only the most guarded of forecasts for the current offensives.
"This is the most diabolical enemy out there. I've never seen anything like it," the top U.S. commander here, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, said in an interview.
"It is far and away the most complex situation we've been in during my time in uniform," he said. "I've done two other tours here, and this is far and away, orders of magnitude, more complex."
The point of the current mission, said David Kilcullen, Petraeus' top counterinsurgency advisor, is not to help Iraq "turn a corner" that would allow the U.S. to leave the country in a state of peace. Instead, U.S. strategists hope to beat back militant groups enough to give Iraq's Shiite-led government a chance to achieve some measure of stability. Next steps include: Withdrawal of Combat Troops, Congress cutoff of funds for Iraqi Supplies, Iranian invasion with tanks entering the Green Zone, Helicopter evacuations from the Embassy roof, hundreeds of thousands of Camel People fleeing Iraq, Killing Fields in Israel?
"I don't know how many times senior leaders in America have said we have turned a corner in Iraq. We've turned a corner so many times we are all getting dizzy," said Kilcullen, a former officer in the Australian army.
"We haven't turned the tide. We haven't turned the corner, there isn't light at the end of the tunnel. But what we have done is take a failing enterprise and put it on a sound long-term footing."
A reduction in U.S. forces will happen, he added. "We will downsize. Absolutely," he said. "But what we are trying to do is put the operation on a sound footing so the Iraqis can handle it, and we can make it sufficiently stable."
The push against Al Qaeda in Iraq, including the offensive over the last two weeks in Baqubah, north of Baghdad, offers several potential advantages for U.S. forces.
The fight involves the kind of high-intensity operations that play to U.S. strengths. It pits American forces against an opponent that the U.S. public already considers an enemy, and provides clear "metrics" for measuring success.
After largely steering away from body counts of insurgents for most of the Iraq war, U.S. officials recently have been reporting the number of militants killed in operations against Al Qaeda.
Beyond these immediate advantages, the strategy is driven by the belief of senior officers that they have a window this summer in which to suppress Al Qaeda activity before a withdrawal timetable is determined.
Al Qaeda's attacks against Shiite religious sites and civilians brought the Shiite militias into the conflict last year, Petraeus said. Reducing the threat of Al Qaeda will reduce the militia threat, he added.
"Al Qaeda gave them an excuse. Al Qaeda is their raison d'etre," Petraeus said. "So you really have to reduce Al Qaeda's ability to carry out sensational attacks."
If the U.S. can show dramatic progress against Al Qaeda, other pieces of the Iraqi puzzle may fall into place, Petraeus said. For example, Petraeus predicted that pushing back Al Qaeda would help advance what he sees as the most promising development of recent months, the decision by some Sunni tribal leaders to turn against Al Qaeda militants.
#1
And yet still all that is mentioned is tactics, not strategy.
For example, when the US pulls out, it is a very real assumption that the Shiites will drive the vast majority of remaining Sunnis from the country.
So with Iraq a Shiite and Kurdish country, what we don't want to have happen is either Iraq becoming a province of Iran, or the Shiites turning against the Kurds.
Our strategy, therefore, should have as a fundamental axiom that this should not happen. Which does not necessarily mean protecting the Sunnis, just avoiding what might happen after.
And what about US bases? The sooner that the Iraqis accept the idea of us just being there on bases, but out of sight, the better for us.
The strategy for this is that instead of just picking up and leaving, we first withdraw to our bases, as insurance against chaos. Bush can make a few loud noises about pulling the troops home, while still leaving enough there for our purposes.
Since our bases are all surrounded by enormous kill zones, hopefully this will pull any remaining baddies out into the countryside to attack us and die.
#2
A dear friend and colleague of Mr. Wife's was one of the last Vietnamese pulled off the embassy roof into the last helicopter out. He refuses to say aloud his opinion on the current situation. I haven't dared ask what he thinks of the current posturing.
BAGHDAD (AP) Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as "Chemical Ali," and two other regime officials will probably be hanged in Kurdistan if the appeals court upholds their death sentences, an Iraqi official said Tuesday. The official said no final decision had been taken but the executions would probably take place in either Irbil or Halabja.
Death sentences are automatically appealed, and the appellate court faces no time limit in reviewing cases. If the sentences are upheld, executions are supposed to take place within 30 days.
This article starring:
Ali Hassan al-Majid
Hussein Rashid Mohammed
Sultan Hashim Ahmad al-Tai
Posted by: ||
06/28/2007 00:18 ||
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Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Baath Party
I'd prefer to hear he was to be executed with the same chemicals he used on the Kurds. But a 4" drop with piano wire around his neck until very dead would be acceptable. In public. With free throw-away cameras for everybody.
#4
tie him to a stake in the center of town and let the Kurdish wymyns have at him with sporks
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/28/2007 8:32 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Frank, let's be fair just let him loose in the center of tuwn in a jogging suit. If he can out run the crowd and makes it to Turkey he's scott free. Must be simple to outrun a few thousand kurds.
Posted by: bruce ||
06/28/2007 14:54 Comments ||
Top||
#6
I hope they feed him a really big meal the night before.
ANKARA - The head of the Turkish armed forces insisted Wednesday on the need for a military incursion into northern Iraq to hunt down Turkish Kurd rebels based there, but said he would require the governments green light to do so. I cannot say that we will go in and finish off the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers Party), but a cross-border operation will deliver a big blow, against the rebel group, Chief of General Staff General Yasar Buyukanit told a televised news conference at a commando training camp in the southwestern town of Egirdir.
It will be very useful, he said.
Oiling up the truncheons and the PR machine at the same time ...
Buyukanit said the army needed a political directive from the government for such an operation. All cross-border operations have a political target, Buyukanit said. Military planning starts with a political directive.
Since April, Buyukanit has been calling for a strike against PKK rebels based in the Kurdish-held autonomous north of Iraq where, Ankara says, they enjoy free movement and obtain weapons and explosives for crossborder attacks against Turkish targets. Turkey also accuses local Kurdish leaders of tolerating and even supporting the PKK rebels.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/28/2007 00:00 ||
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[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Let them cross and then bomb them, but save some for the next Iranian incursion,
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/28/2007 0:25 Comments ||
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#2
Buyukanit, you may get what you wish for -- a turkey shoot.
CAMP TAJI, Iraq For a second time this week, a large cache consisting of improvised explosive device-making material and mortar rounds was turned over to Coalition Forces by the Neighborhood Watch in Taji, Iraq. The Taji neighborhood watch contacted Coalition Forces June 25, after the driver of a truck fled the scene when the volunteers stopped a suspicious vehicle moving through the rural village of Abd Allah al Jasim. The vehicle contained 24 mortar rounds, two rockets, spare machine gun barrels, small arms ammunition and other IED-making material.
This grassroots movement of reconciliation by the volunteers is taking off all around us. The tribes that had once actively or passively supported al-Qaeda in Iraq now want them out, said Lt. Col. Peter Andrysiak, the deputy commander of the 1st Ironhorse Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division.
The neighborhood watch is made up of a group of 500 volunteers, from a number of tribes in the area, who want reconciliation with the Coalition Forces and the Iraqi government. The volunteers are currently being vetted for possible future selection for training as Iraqi Police or some other organization within the Iraqi Security Forces.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/28/2007 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
A tipping point, not for their role as a battlefield in the War on Terror but as a society, when they take responsiblity for protecting the safety of their own community, with all that entails. Congratulations, Tajis!
#2
If we withdraw soon enough, there should still be enough al Quaeda around to execute these neighborhood watchers and send a message to anyone else around the world that it is bad for their health to cooperate with the enemies of Islamism.
#3
Having fought with and advsing the Iraqi Army around Taji for 9 months last year, I can tell you this is a significant story...especially in this village's area. It would appear 1-1 has it going in the right direction.
#4
I'm thrilled you think so, TopMac. My little brain merely stirs together what the experts like you say, and then I type it up as if I'd thought of it all by myself.
Egypt will absorb hundreds of African and Eastern European citizens who infiltrated Israel over the past six months. The government will hold a discussion regarding the refugees from Darfur, who represent a small part of the infiltrators, and it appears that they will be allowed to stay in Israel.
Ynet has learned that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has complied with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's request during the Sharm el-Sheik summit, and agreed to accept the several hundreds refugees in Egypt.
Teams from the two countries will study the issue in the coming weeks, and formulate the details of transferring the refugees.
A few weeks ago, Olmert convened all the relevant bodies to the problem in his Jerusalem office to discuss the situation. Representatives of the IDF, the police, the Border Guard, the Justice Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and the defense Ministry predicated in the meeting.
The police presented the participants with worrying statistics indicating that since the beginning of 2007, some 1,000 people infiltrated Israel from Sinai. The infiltrators come from African countries such as Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Ivory Coast, and from Georgia and other Eastern European states. They come to Israel in search of a better life and economic prosperity.
Contrary to common belief, just a minority of the infiltrators 20 percent are from Darfur. Israel is now seeking humanitarian solutions for some 200 of them.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Wednesday that Syria was sending weapons to Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and vowed to bring up the issue before the Arab League. "In recent weeks, ammunition, weapons and fighters have been brought to the camps," Siniora told reporters on a visit to France.
Siniora added that he had asked the United Nations to renew the mandate of international peacekeepers in his country, despite an attack last weekend that killed six members of the force. "I am in no position to tell now" who was behind the Sunday car bombing in southern Lebanon that killed three Spaniards and three Colombians, Siniora told a news conference, adding that the investigation was continuing. "I think the whole world is looking at this seriously. This is an affront against the international community, against security and stability in Lebanon," he said.
Siniora said he was talking to every member country of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, and was hearing an "unequivocal commitment." He said he has asked UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to renew the UNIFIL mandate, which expires at the end of August. The 13,000-member force from 30 countries, deployed nearly a year ago, is to implement a UN Security Council resolution that ended the 34-day war last summer between Israel and the Syrian and Iranian-backed Hezbollah. UNIFIL's job also includes creating an area free of weapons in southern Lebanon and bringing peace to the Lebanon-Israel border.
The visiting Lebanese prime minister was meeting Wednesday with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner. He met Tuesday with President Nicolas Sarkozy and with visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. France is trying to organize a conference on the Lebanese conflict bringing together representatives of various parties involved, and Siniora said he supported it. However, he held out scant hope that such an initiative could bring peace, saying that the "first goal" of such a conference was, above all, "to break the ice."
Lebanon is facing its most serious political crisis since the end of the 1975-90 civil war. Siniora's Parliament-backed government and the Hezbollah-led opposition are locked in a fierce power struggle. Rival Lebanese politicians have not met since a national dialogue conference ended last year without agreement.
Paris has had some difficulties in arranging the conference. An initial end-of-June date was extended to mid-July, but neither the French Foreign Ministry nor the Lebanese prime minister has been able to pinpoint a date.
Siniora said that a proposal for a meeting by the Arab League has hampered putting together a Paris conference. The French proposal came first, the prime minister said, and "the climate is favorable to moving forward with the French proposal." Dialogue is the only way to resolve Lebanon's problems, Siniora said. "We want Lebanon to be a nation, not a battlefield."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2007 00:00 ||
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[3 views]
Top|| File under: Fatah al-Islam
#1
Armed refugees and foreign occupiers - Syria/Iran - turned Lebanon into a battlefield. Sinoiora has done nothing to assert state sovereignty over Paleo and Hizbollah controlled Lebanon. And he was hardly neutral during last year's hot pursuit intervention by Israel.
A friend of Ahmed Elomar, one of four Australians arrested in Lebanon, said he would be surprised if the boxer was involved with terrorism. Elomar, 24, who uses the name "Trigger" in the boxing ring, was one of four dual Australian-Lebanese citizens recently arrested in the country's north over alleged connections to the militant group Fatah al-Islam.
The reigning Australian super featherweight champion, who fought on the undercard for an Anthony Mundine fight last year, left Australia two weeks ago with his wife and two young children. Sydney Muslim youth leader Fadi Rahman said his friend was a devoted family man. "He's of very good character, a very kind person, he's fairly quiet, a family orientated person," Mr Rahman told Network Ten. "It would quite surprise me if he was involved in such a thing."
Boxing coach Tony Mundine, the father of Anthony, said he was also surprised by the reports. "He was very polite to me and at our boxing tournament, he was very, very nice and very gentle," Mr Mundine told ABC Radio.
Australian consular officials continue to be denied access to the four men, with Lebanese authorities saying they want to first complete their questioning. "We haven't got consular access to them and we have been told by the Lebanese defense ministry that we'll get consular access once they're charged," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said in Israel on Wednesday.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) is refusing to confirm the name of any of those arrested. But the family of Ibrahim Sabouh, a devout Muslim who moved from Sydney to Lebanon with his wife and family a year ago, say he is among the four.
The other three are Elomar, former taxi driver Omar Hadba and another man, Mohammad Basal, media reports say. News Ltd has reported that the four men are linked to Sydney-based hardline Muslim cleric Faiz Mohammed, who is based at the Global Islamic Youth Centre in Liverpool, in Sydney's south-west. Calls to the centre were not returned on Wednesday.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) would not confirm whether the four men had previously been known to them. "The AFP is conducting inquiries into these men through its senior liaison officer in Beirut," a spokesman said. "It is not appropriate for the AFP to comment as to whether these inquiries could result in an investigation in Australia."
DFAT also is investigating reports at least one other Australian had been taken into custody, and that an Australian had been killed during the fighting.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/28/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Fatah al-Islam
#1
Yeah, when I'm introduced to a guy named "Trigger", my first thought is, "Wow. What a nice guy he must be."
#2
Tu3031, when I think of "Trigger", I think either that the guy was named after Roy Rogers' horse, or his parents were classic sf fans (but then, that Trigger was a woman). Neither case fits.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
06/28/2007 18:13 Comments ||
Top||
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.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has arrived in Russia, where he will meet his counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for talks on military co-operation. Mr Chavez is expected to visit a helicopter factory and discuss the possible purchase of diesel submarines. 
Strasbourg (dpa) - The Council of Europe (CoE) on Wednesday called for detainees who had been held by US intelligence services as part of so-called "extraordinary rendition" flights and secret prison programmes to be 
Conservative daily ABC said it has learnt that the government is trying to identify among military officials those responsible for the failure to equip the vehicles with frequency inhibitors. Another conservative daily, La Razón, pointed out that Italian troops deployed part of UNIFIL in Lebanon have been equipped with frequency inhibitors, contradicting a Spanish defence ministry statement that said no members of the UNIFIL contingent possessed the anti-remote explosion mechanisms.
European Union and US officials were said to have reached agreement yesterday about the transfer to the United States of private data about transatlantic air passengers for use in the fight against terrorism. 
If the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) tried to impede joint decisions at the All Parties Conference (APC) in London, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) would press other participants to go ahead with vital policy decisions without PPP in the larger interest of the country, said MMA president and Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad on Wednesday. Talking to reporters after the partys central council (Shoora) meeting, he reiterated his call for PPP leader Benazir Bhutto to attend the APC or send a delegation empowered to endorse key decisions. General Pervez Musharrafs further stay in power would be detrimental for the country and the MMA would resist his re-election through present assemblies, said Qazi. He said the decision on participating in the elections would be taken after due consultations with other opposition parties. He was skeptical about the fire in the National Assembly, wherein the record of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and Services Branch was gutted down, terming it a shady business. The current political situation is the main agenda item of the three-day meeting while the Shoora will devise the future course of action of the party, added Qazi. He demanded the preparation of voters lists based on the computerised database of NADRA. He said the MMA would oppose polls with present lists.
US lawmakers have demanded direct access to the detained Pakistani scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, claiming that his network is still active and cannot be shut down without his cooperation, reported Dawn News. The US Congress Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee, at a hearing devoted entirely to the Dr Khan network on Wednesday, demanded the Pakistani government allow US lawmakers to question Dr Khan directly. 
China has asked Pakistan to better safeguard Chinese people and businesses in Pakistan after workers at a Chinese massage centre in Islamabad were abducted by Jamia Hafsa students on a crusade against vice, the Xinhua news agency said. We hope Pakistan will look into the terrorist attacks aiming at Chinese people
and will severely punish the criminals, Chinese Minister of Public Security Zhou Yongkang Zhou told Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao during his visit to Beijing on Tuesday.
BAGHDAD U.S. commanders plan a summer of stepped-up offensives against Al Qaeda in Iraq as they tailor strategy to their expectation that Congress soon will impose a timeline for drawing down U.S. forces here. 
BAGHDAD (AP) Saddam Hussein's cousin 
ANKARA - The head of the Turkish armed forces insisted Wednesday on the need for a military incursion into northern Iraq to hunt down Turkish Kurd rebels based there, but said he would require the governments green light to do so. I cannot say that we will go in and finish off the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers Party), but a cross-border operation will deliver a big blow, against the rebel group, Chief of General Staff General Yasar Buyukanit told a televised news conference at a commando training camp in the southwestern town of Egirdir.
CAMP TAJI, Iraq For a second time this week, a large cache consisting of improvised explosive device-making material and mortar rounds was turned over to Coalition Forces by the Neighborhood Watch in Taji, Iraq. The Taji neighborhood watch contacted Coalition Forces June 25, after the driver of a truck fled the scene when the volunteers stopped a suspicious vehicle moving through the rural village of Abd Allah al Jasim. The vehicle contained 24 mortar rounds, two rockets, spare machine gun barrels, small arms ammunition and other IED-making material.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said Wednesday that Syria was sending weapons to Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon and vowed to bring up the issue before the Arab League. "In recent weeks, ammunition, weapons and fighters have been brought to the camps," Siniora told reporters on a visit to France.
