Approximately 40 U.S. service members, including two JTAC airmen, and about 20 of their Afghan counterparts went to Do Ab after intelligence reports indicated insurgents overran the district center.
The airmen and soldiers from the 133rd Infantry Regiment, Task Force Ironman, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, TF Red Bulls, fought through a massive ambush from an enemy force numbering in the hundreds, killing more than 100 insurgent fighters in an intense seven-hour battle.
The service members involved said the most amazing part of the whole conflict, though, was there was not one coalition forces casualty. The airmen from the Washington ANG were the key to the battle, they added.
If they hadnt been there dropping bombs, I dont know that we would have gotten out of that valley, U.S. Army Sgt. Edward Kane, an infantry team leader from Portland, Ore., with the Reconnaissance Platoon, Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 133rd Inf. Regt., TF Ironman, said. The enemy was getting closer, and their shots were getting more accurate.
The geography of the valley made it extremely challenging for coalition forces.
This is a fairly remote valley, surrounded by high canyon walls. It had been a while, nearly two years, since any American forces had been there, said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Chris Adamson, 116th ASOS squadron commander from Tacoma, Wash.
We received several reports indicating that the local Afghan Police had been overrun by 400-500 Taliban fighters, but the information was of questionable value.
Muammar Gaddafi is welcome to live out his retirement inside Libya as long as he gives up all power, Libya's rebel chief told Reuters on Sunday in the clearest concession the rebels have so far offered.
Gaddafi has fiercely resisted all international calls for him to go and vowed to fight to the end, but members of his inner circle have given indications they are ready to negotiate with the rebels, including on the Libyan leader's future.
Gaddafi is still holding on to power, five months into a rebellion against his 41-year rule and despite a NATO bombardment and an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for crimes against humanity.
"As a peaceful solution, we offered that he can resign and order his soldiers to withdraw from their barracks and positions, and then he can decide either to stay in Libya or abroad," rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said in an interview.
"If he desires to stay in Libya, we will determine the place and it will be under international supervision. And there will be international supervision of all his movements," said Jalil, who heads the rebels' National Transitional Council.
Speaking to Reuters in his eastern Libyan stronghold of Benghazi, Abdel Jalil, Gaddafi's former justice minister, said he made the proposal about a month ago through the United Nations but had yet to receive any response from Tripoli.
He said one suggestion was that Gaddafi could spend his retirement under guard in a military barracks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/03/2011 17:35 Comments ||
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Too late, ICC has an arrest warrant, if they can find someone to serve it. Now, if Sporting Rebels Alliance wants to declare war against the ICC to secure peace in Libya...
Black magic and African shamans are the latest weapon that Gaddafi has made recourse to in order to extend the life of his regime. Shamans and witches from Mali, Mauritania, Gambia, Morocco and Nigeria have the main task of repelling the rebels, who are moving in ever closer to his stronghold in Tripoli. Gaddafi has urged the most famous shamans to help him defeat the rebels, according to the colonel and pilot Saleh Al Ubaidi, who has recently gone over to the side of the rebels and who was quoted by the daily paper Asharq Al Awsat.
The pilot said that the shamans send their priests onto the battle field with magic talismans in the hope of preserving soldiers loyalty. After the February 17 revolution, shamans claims Saleh Al Ubaidi have been used by Colonel Gaddafi as a parallel intelligence agency. Quoting a source very close to Gaddafi, the pilot said that the leader had requested help from a Gambian shaman, and the latter recited the text of a talisman over Gaddafis mantle to protect him from NATO and rebel attacks. Al Ubaidi added that Gaddafi always wears this mantle, even when in high temperatures. He went on to say that the leader also never takes off a silver ring made with the brains and bones of a hyena, which shamans believe has special powers.
(ANSAmed) - TUNISIA, JULY 1 - Today Tunisia's commission of political reform announced that it adopted (by majority) a ''republican pact'' that will be the basis of the future new Constitution, and in particular it states the rejection of any normalisation with Israel.
While announcing the pact the president of the commission, Yadh Ben Achour, did not offer any details, but the Arab speaking Tunisian press published its content, which defines Tunisia as a free and democratic country, whose official language is Arab and whose religion is Islam.
The pact, that will serve as the basis of the future Constitution, categorically rejects ''any form of normalisation with the Zionist State'', and supports the Palestinian cause.
#2
With Islam, it is *always* the lesser of evils. And lesser evils are still evil.
Come to think of it, on April 1st, some wit could likely cause severe consternation throughout the ummah by writing that the small, but very wealthy, imaginary Muslim nation of Zamunda(*) has had a regime change, and its new constitution says:
1) Peace, friendship and trade with Israel.
2) Sharia courts disbanded, and henceforth the country will only have a secular, Common Law legal system.
3) Religious political parties are forbidden, but otherwise, the 70% Muslim majority has agreed by referendum to religious freedom for all minority religions, that they may build their own churches, temples, synagogues and mosques without government hindrance.
4) The freedom for women to dress, drive and work as they want, for liquor and Haram food to be sold legally, and for religion or non-religion to be based solely in personal conscience, with proselytization and conversion being legal as well.
5) Wahhabism, Salafism, and any organization associated with terrorism are prohibited, and individuals aligned with those groups are forbidden to enter the country.
(*) Zamunda was Eddie Murphy's imaginary nation in the movie Coming to America.
[Dawn] Moroccans on Friday overwhelmingly approved curbs on the near absolute powers of King Mohammed VI, with 98 per cent voting "yes" in a referendum put forward after protests inspired by uprisings in the Arab world.
Interior Minister Taib Cherkaoui announced the result on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
after 94 per cent of polling stations had reported results, adding that voter turnout had been 72.65 per cent.
Faced with demonstrations modelled on those that ousted long-serving leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, Mohammed VI announced the referendum last month to devolve some of his powers to the prime minister and parliament, saying the reform would "consolidate the pillars of a constitutional monarchy."
Critics were quick to denounce the result and the youth-based February 20 Movement, which organised the weeks of pro-democracy protests, announced it would hold another demonstration on Sunday.
"The movement will demonstrate peacefully on Sunday to protest against this ridiculous result," Najib Chaouki, one of the movement's leaders, told AFP.
"This referendum was illegal because it was marked by massive violations of democratic principles," he said.
Cherkaoui insisted the vote had been conducted properly and said it reflected widespread support for the new constitution.
"The referendum went ahead in a normal atmosphere, and showed the degree of interaction between the people and the content of the constitutional project," he said.
In a clear bid to show the vote was supported by the young, Cherkaoui also noted that 30 per cent of voters were under the age of 35.
The United States had hailed the referendum on Friday, with State Department front man Mark Toner telling news hounds it was "an important step in Morocco's ongoing democratic development."
"In this period of profound change, we think it's important and we congratulate the people of Morocco and their leadership for the peaceful referendum," he said.
Under the draft constitution, the king will remain head of state, the military, and the Islamic faith in Morocco.
But the prime minister, chosen from the largest party elected to parliament, will take over as the head of government.
State television showed Mohammed VI, dressed in traditional Moroccan robes and wearing a red Fez hat, cast his ballot in the capital Rabat. He made no public statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
"The movement will demonstrate peacefully on Sunday to protest against this ridiculous result," Najib Chaouki, one of the movement's leaders, told AFP.
These people don't know when they have won. Iknow, let's have a Supreme Islamic Council decide
#2
Moroccans curb king's power while Donks expand executive powers. Someone is headed in the wrong direction. On this July 3rd, we pretty well know who that is.
(KUNA) -- US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Elihu B. Washburne ... said that the Arab Spring Uprisings represent a true opportunity for democracy in the Arab region, noting the need for international support of these changes.
The remark was made during a meeting on Saturday between Clinton and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who both, discussing the latest events in the Arab region, expressed their continued commitment to practice pressure on the Libyan regime, for its required implementation of UN Security Council resolutions, said a US official statement.
The two officials expressed anxiety over the unfolding events in Syria, calling for the start of a comprehensive national dialogue. They also urged the need for a solution to the Israeli-Paleostinian struggle, noting the urgency to return to the negotiating table as fundamental to any such efforts.
Separately, Clinton applauded the level of economic reforms taken by the Spanish government, calling to enhance them and pledging US commitment to these efforts.
Spain still faces huge economic challenges, mainly limiting unemployment and restructuring its financial sector, she said, expressing confidence Zapatero's government would be able to overcome these obstacles.
In another meeting with Spanish Foreign Minister, Trinidad Jimenez, the US official had said that NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... was involved in the major task of limiting the attacks of Libyan forces on its people, and in the jumpstarting of a democratic transition process that would achieve the legitimate aspirations of the Libyan people, granting them their right to live in peace.
The US and Spain both agree that the sole solution to the Libyan crisis, is for Ghaddafi to abandon his post and stop his attacks on civilians, she added.
Clinton, who arrived in Madrid on Friday, had earlier met King Juan Carlos. Her visit to Spain is the first since assuming office back in 2009.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2011 00:00 ||
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#5
I am in a video mode tonight and It's late so I will put this in. Sometimes pictures can speak volumes. The youth and vitality of a country are the future. Such a crime to waste it in every part of the world;
A dramatic mission to capture the freed Lockerbie bomber from Libya and return him to face justice in the United States was revealed last night.
But don't tell nobody 'cause it's a secret...
Under a formerly secret deal between Barack Obama and Libyan rebel leaders, Abdelbaset Al Megrahi would be killed detained by opposition troops and then his severed head would be handed over to US Special Forces.
Senior Democratic Congressional sources in Washington have disclosed to The Mail on Sunday that President Obama has told the Libyan rebels through intermediaries that a condition of continued support from the US is that they must hand over Megrahi if they enter Tripoli.
I'm betting we have this arrangement for any number of Qadaffi's people, people who know stuff that we want to know, or who are just downright evil and need to be whacked. We really don't need the details splashed all over the world press, either...
The mission would involve Megrahi being flown to a neutral Arab country by US Special Forces once he is handed over by the rebels, and then on to America to face trial. British SAS soldiers are unlikely to be directly involved in the operation.
Since it would be embarrassing as all hell for them...
Megrahi, 59, a former Libyan intelligence officer, was convicted in 2001 of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, which killed 270 people in 1988.
He was freed from a life sentence on supposedly compassionate grounds by the Scottish Government in August 2009 and flown to Libya after foolish conniving doctors said he had terminal prostate cancer and supposedly had only three months to live.
At a White House meeting with David Cameron last summer, President Obama described the release of Megrahi as 'heartbreaking', adding: 'I think all of us here were surprised, disappointed and angry about the release of the Lockerbie bomber.'
[An Nahar] Kuwaiti naval forces on Saturday ended a mission to secure Bahrain's maritime border they began in March amid a crackdown on Shiite protesters, the official KUNA news agency reported.
"The Kuwaiti naval task force in the Kingdom of Bahrain ended today (Saturday) its mission to contribute to the protection of the maritime border of Bahrain and securing it in cooperation with the Bahraini navy, which began in March," KUNA said.
The announcement came the same day that Bahrain opened a national dialogue said to be aimed at re-launching political reforms.
Soddy Arabia deployed about a thousand troops to Bahrain in March while the United Arab Emirates sent some 500 police -- deployments that freed up Bahraini security forces to crush a month-long Shiite-led protest movement calling for reforms in the Sunni-ruled, Shiite-majority kingdom.
A Saudi official said on Tuesday that the Peninsula Shield force of Gulf troops sent to Bahrain were to be "redeployed" but will not withdraw completely.
Kuwaiti Sunni Islamist MPs had announced before the naval deployment that they would move to question the prime minister in parliament for not sending troops to Bahrain.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2011 00:00 ||
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ATHENS, Greece (Ma'an) -- The captain of a US boat carrying activists who tried to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza was jailed Saturday in Athens, organizers of the flotilla said. John Klusmer is being charged with two felonies, organizers of the boat told reporters at a news conference in the Greek capital. The investigation will begin Tuesday, they said.
Klusmer was handcuffed and jailed Saturday afternoon. He and the organizers initially understood the charges to be misdemeanors. They later discovered the charges to be felonies upon arrival at the station.
US Boat to Gaza organizer Jane Hirschmann told reporters the captain was charged with disobeying a police order not to leave the port and disturbing sea traffic.
The captain's four-member crew is being detained on the boat. While passengers are free to go, they are staying on the Audacity of Hope as a show of solidarity with their captain and crew.
Hirschmann said the second charge was the result of a complaint lodged against the US Boat to Gaza by Shurat HaDin, an Israeli law center which is funded by American activist and pastor John Hagee. Hagee is a fundamentalist Christian who operates a pro-Israel group in the US.
Hirschmann called the charges "bogus" and added that "We hope to move on this before Tuesday and try to make sure that that [our captain] gets out."
She says the flotilla is not seeking a new captain for the Audacity of Hope. Passengers "are very worried about the captain and feel responsible for the captain. But they're also very determined people on the boat. They chose to stay on the ship," Hirschmann said.
Hirschmann and other organizers said the ships that make up the flotilla would not sail alone. When asked if the US boat had been effectively sidelined, Hirschmann responded, "We don't know, we're the Audacity of Hope and the audacity of hope triumphs over the audacity of violence and the audacity of threats. And our boat has not been impounded. Yet."
Also in Athens, Palestinian lawmaker Mustafa Barghouti remarked that "We consider this boat, this flotilla, one part of peaceful non-violent resistance, one part of peaceful non-violent struggle."
Boilerplate follows:
He added that "this kind of struggle of the international community, joined with the Palestinian struggle -- which is going on non-violently and peacefully
True, for a very specific definition of violence and peace that mean the exact opposite
-- is one way of liberating Palestinians from occupation. "It is also one way of liberating the Israeli people from the same occupation and the same apartheid because the Israelis themselves will never be free as long as the Palestinians are not free," Barghouti added.
Barghouti called on the Greek government to allow the US Boat to Gaza and all other ships to sail, adding that the flotilla and other acts of non-violent resistance that are happening in the occupied Palestinian territories resemble "the best traditions of Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and Gandhi."
While the latter two are proclaimed for their saintly peacefulness, there has been a great deal of violence associated with their movements -- Gandhi was fond of advising Nazi-era German Jews and Hindus in Pakistan to stay put and allow themselves to be killed in order to shame the killers, and encouraged the murder of Muslims fleeing north during the division.
#1
Jane Hirschmann is a self-hating Joooo member of Jews Say No! in New York City and one of the national organizers of the U.S. Boat to Gaza. Hirschmann has been active in anti-war efforts for the past four decades. She is a psychotherapist and the co-author of three books.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/03/2011 11:36 Comments ||
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Ms. Hirschmann is a leftist and a dieting expert, and all leftists are recursive.
Thus, she wants to go to one of the poorest regions on the planet and put them on a diet.
#3
"While passengers are free to go, they are staying on the Audacity of Hope as a show of solidarity with their captain and crew."
Pussies. If they really wanted to show solidarity with their captain, they'd join him in jail.
Posted by: Barbara ||
07/03/2011 14:18 Comments ||
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#4
JaneHirschmann is a self-hating Joooo member of Jews Say No! in New York City so let her live in Sderot for a couple of years. Lives in New York safe and sound.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
07/03/2011 18:27 Comments ||
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What the heck, let them through. The Palestinians will welcome the piece activists in the own special way.
Supporters of Ayatollah Khomeini and the Islamic Republic of Iran are gathering in Kansas City this weekend, as the Muslim Congress convenes their annual national convention. The topic? The Divine Concept of Freedom. Apparently, the American concept of freedom is insufficient, and theyve chosen July 4 to express their dissent.
The Muslim Congress is a network of more than 120 Shia mosques, schools, and organizations operating in 24 states that are little more than fronts for the Iranian regime. In fact, the U.S. government is in the process of seizing through civil asset forfeiture a number of their mosque properties in five states owned by one of their member groups, because they have laundered money for the terror and weapons procurement branches of the Iranian government.
At the conference this weekend, they will be receiving a communication from the spiritual leader of one of the most murderous militias in Iraq, a group directly supported by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Muslims are the enemy within the gates.
[Dawn] President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... in his meeting on Saturday with British Home Secretary Theresa May, underscored the need for further enhancing intelligence sharing with the UK to combat militancy and terrorism.
Matters pertaining to Pakistain-UK bilateral relations, the role of Pak-origin British citizens in Pakistain and their positive contributions and operations against terrorism were discussed during the meeting.
Hereditary Chairman, Pakistain People's Party, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was also present during the meeting.
British Home Secretary Theresa May was accompanied by Charles Farr, DG Security and Counter Terrorism, and senior Home Office officials Fiona Cunningham and Faye Johnson while from Pakistain's side Secretary General Salman Farouqi, High Commissioner Wajid Shamusul Hasan, Spokesperson Farhatullah Babar and other bigwigs were also present during the meeting.
Briefing the media, Spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said while discussing Pak-UK bilateral relations, the President highlighted the historical equation of the two countries and underscored the need to enhance multifaceted strategic partnership between the two countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Much like the aid monies the UK and Pakistan share, i.e. one way.
[Dawn] The CIA suspended its use of an air base in Pakistain as a launch site for drones three months ago, a US newspaper quoted American and Pak officials as saying.
Although drones striking inside Pakistain are now flying from Afghanistan, US personnel and drones remain at the air base in Balochistan, the officials told Washington Post, adding that security at the base for the officials and the drones was being provided by the Pak military.
The officials said that the drone launches were stopped in April 2011, weeks before the Abbottabad operation and after a dispute over CIA contractor Raymond Davis.
US drone strikes in the past three months have been launched from near Jalalabad in Afghanistan, officials told Washington Post.
The US has been using drone attacks to target al Qaeda-linked bully boyz over the past few years in Pakistain's tribal areas, a source of concern for the Pak government, which says civilian casualties stoke public anger and bolster support for militancy.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
No doubt the Pakistanis will demand these bases be shut down too. And keep the aid dollars flowing.
[Dawn] Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... has asked the opposition to show courage and accept the mandate of Kashmiri people.
"The opposition should accept its defeat gracefully and should back the government efforts on the Kashmire issue so that we can present its strong case to the world," the prime minister said while talking to a group of journalists at his residence here on Friday.
He said those who organised "huge" public meetings during the Azad Jammu and Kashmire electioneering and spent their energies in criticising the government did not present any solution to the issue. They should have talked about the problems the Kashmiris were facing instead of trying to score off their opponents.
"The solution to Kashmire issue is in the manifesto of my party. The Kashmiris have reposed their confidence in the PPP for raising their issue and its pro-people policies," he said.
Prime Minister Gilani made it clear the PPP would continue supporting the Kashmiri people at moral, political and diplomatic levels. He said long-lasting peace in the region could not be maintained until the Kashmire issue was solved.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] The Indian government has removed all references to Bangladesh in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's observations that have sparked criticism both in Bangladesh and India.
"... With Bangladesh, our relations are quite good. But we must reckon that at least 25 percent of the population of Bangladesh swear by the Jamiat-ul-Islami and they are very anti-Indian, and they are in the clutches, many times, of the ISI [of Pakistain]. So, a political landscape in Bangladesh can change at any time. We do not know what these terrorist elements, who have a hold on the jamiat-e-Islami [sic] elements in Bangladesh, can be up to," the Indian PM said while speaking to editors.
This was posted on the PM's and Press Information Bureau's (PIB) websites on Wednesday (June 29) night as part of the transcripts of Manmohan's meeting with editors.
But the transcripts of his remarks on Bangladesh were removed Friday noon from the websites of the Prime Minister's Office (http://pmindia.nic.in) and Press Information Bureau (PIB) (http://pib.nic.in).
No explanation was available on the websites as to why Manmohan's comments were erased from the transcripts.
However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... the PM's media adviser Harish Khare was quoted by the Indian Express yesterday (July 2) as saying, "The prime minister's remark was off-the-record. We put it out by mistake. It has been corrected now."
The official spokesperson of the external affairs ministry said in New Delhi yesterday, "Our attention has been drawn to some off the record remarks attributed to the prime minister during his interaction with editors in New Delhi. It is clarified in this regard that these attributed remarks were by no means intended to be judgemental."
Although no official protest to Manmohan's comments was made by Dhaka till last night (Saturday), Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury termed the comments "irrelevant".
But Jamaat-e-Islami bitterly crticised the remarks.
Meanwhile, ...back at the game, the Babe was wondering why the baseball kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally it hit him... ruling Awami League General Secretary Syed Ashraful Islam said yesterday, "We are not sure whether his [Indian PM] comments were published correctly. Our foreign ministry will collect accurate statement and then give reaction in this regard."
Speaking at a press briefing at the party chief's political office at Dhanmondi in the capital, the LGRD Minister said, "It's a good news that the Indian premier is coming to Bangladesh soon. Important discussions will take place between the premiers of Bangladesh and India." He hoped this will bring peace in the entire South Asian region.
On June 29, the blurb on the Indian PIB's website was headlined "Preliminary transcripts of the Q & A session between the PM and Newspaper Editors."
But after erasing the Bangladesh chapter, the headline now reads "Transcript of the Q & A session between the PM and Newspaper Editors."
While the PMO's website reads: "Corrected transcript of the interaction between the PM and Newspaper Editors."
Meanwhile, ...back at the chili cook-off, Chuck and Manuel's rivalry was entering a new and more dangerous phase... the Indian Hingh Commission in Dhaka yesterday clarified that the remarks were by no means intended to be judgmental.
A blurb issued by it says, "Our attention has been drawn to some off the record remarks attributed to the prime minister during his interaction with editors in New Delhi. It is clarified in this regard that these attributed remarks were by no means intended to be judgemental. The prime minister and his government and the people of India have the greatest affection for the people of Bangladesh and hold our relations with Bangladesh to be of the highest importance.
"India recognises the stability of the democratically elected government and is committed to the non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states. In recent years, ties between India and Bangladesh have seen exceptional heights with close cooperation in a wide range of areas. The focus on both sides has been development cooperation, poverty alleviation, capacity building and education. It is in this context that the external affairs minister of India is undertaking an official visit to Bangladesh. We are fully committed to our bilateral relationship with the people and the government of Bangladesh."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Netanyahus personal investment in his relationship over the past year-and-a-half with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou in which he increased diplomatic ties with the floundering European nation seems to have put the final nail in the Gaza flotillas coffin.
(KUNA) -- The Middle East Quartet ... The Quartet are the UN (xylophone), the United States (alto), the European Union (soprano), and Russia (shortstop). The group was established in Madrid in 2002 by former Spanish Prime Minister Aznar, as a result of the escalating conflict in the Middle East. Tony Blair is the Quartet's current Special Envoy.... on Saturday "strongly urged" the peace activists on Freedom flotilla II, docked in a Greece sea port, not to sail to Gazoo in an attempt to break the blockade on the Strip, because various goods are going through by land anyway and there is no need to endanger their lives, recalling what happened in May last year when nine Turkish activists died on Freedom flotilla I tried to do the same thing.
"The Quartet strongly urges all those wishing to deliver goods to the people of Gazoo to do so through established channels so that their cargo can be inspected and transferred via established land crossings," The Quartet - UN, US, EU and Russia, said in a statement issued here.
The Quartet "regrets the injury and deaths caused by the 2010 flotilla, urges restraint and calls on all Governments concerned to use their influence to discourage additional flotillas, which risk the safety of their participants and carry the potential for escalation," the statement added.
The Quartet also recognized at the same time that Israel has "legitimate security concerns that must continue to be safeguarded." The statement said the Quartet "remains concerned about the unsustainable conditions facing the civilian population in Gazoo but notes that efforts have improved conditions over the last year," including a marked increase in the range and scope of goods and materials moving into Gazoo, an increase in international project activity, and the facilitation of some exports.
In that regard, the Quartet "commended the recent approval by Israel of materials" for new homes and schools to be constructed by UNRWA, but noted that "considerably more needs to be done to increase the flow of people and goods" to and from Gazoo, including a liberalization of the market in steel bars and cement.
The Quartet members "continue to urge full implementation of Israels June 2010 policy decision and further meaningful steps to improve the situation in Gazoo consistent with Security Council resolution 1860 of 2009.
They vowed to work, including through UN and Quartet envoy Tony Blair, with Israel, the Paleostinian Authority, donors and the international community to ensure that the needs of the people of Gazoo are being met.
Quartet members said they are committed to working with Israel, Egypt and the international community to prevent the illicit trafficking of arms and ammunition into Gazoo and "believe efforts to maintain security while enabling movement and access for Paleostinian people and goods are critical." The Quartet members did not miss this opportunity to "call for an end to the deplorable five-year detention of Gilad Shalit."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/03/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] In a country with a history of scores left unsettled, Hezbullies is in a strong position to ride out an indictment accusing a high-ranking member of one of the most dramatic political liquidations in the Middle East.
The Shiite beturbanned goon group has spent the past year laying the groundwork for thwarting any move to implement the all-but-inevitable indictment in the 2005 murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. It has warned to "cut off the hand" of anyone who tries to arrest its members and repeated cast doubt on tribunal's investigation.
The work appears to have paid off.
Since the Netherlands-based court released the indictments Thursday, there has been no real sign that Lebanese authorities are willing to arrest the four suspects, including Hezbullies beturbanned goon Mustafa Badreddine. To do so, they would have to directly confront the Iran- and Syria-backed beturbanned goon group that is firmly in control of the Lebanese state.
Hezbullies leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah planned a speech Saturday to address the indictment.
The most prominent of the four people named in the indictment is Badreddine, who appears to have a storied history of militancy. He is suspected of building the powerful bomb that blew up the US Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, killing 241 Americans, mostly Marines, according to a federal law enforcement official and a book "Jawbreaker," by Gary Berntsen, a former official who ran the Hezbullies task force at the CIA.
He also is the brother-in-law of the late Hezbullies military commander Imad Mughniyeh and is suspected of involvement in the 1983 bombings of the US and French embassies in Kuwait that killed five people.
Hezbullies has always had serious muscle, boasting a guerrilla force that is better armed and stronger than the national army.
But the group has amassed unprecedented political clout in the government, having toppled the previous administration in January when then-Prime Minister Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. -- the slain man's son -- refused to renounce the tribunal investigating his father's death.
The new premier, Najib Mikati, was Hezbullies's pick for the post. He issued a vague promise Thursday that Leb would respect international resolutions as long as they did not threaten the civil peace.
The ambiguous wording leaves ample room to brush aside the arrest warrants if street battles are looming. The Cabinet is packed with Hezbullies allies, so there is little enthusiasm within the current leadership to press forward with the case.
And the indictments do indeed threaten to ignite fresh violence in Leb. In the six years since Hariri's death, the investigation has sharpened the country's sectarian divisions -- Rafik Hariri was one of Leb's most powerful Sunni leaders, while Hezbullies is a Shiite group. It has also heightened other intractable debates, including the question of the role of Hezbullies -- and its vast arsenal, which opponents want dismantled.
Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... , a Hezbullies ally and leader of the tiny Druse sect, warned Friday that the indictments could lead to new civil strife in Leb and painted the case as a matter of justice versus stability.
"As much as justice is important for the deaders and the maimed, so too civil peace and stability is the hoped-for future," said Jumblat, whose own father was a victim of a political liquidation in Leb and who was once an ardent supporter of the tribunal before switching alliances. "Civil peace is more important than anything else."
He pointed to widespread fears that the case could further divide the country, which has been recovering from decades of bloodshed, including a 15-year civil war that ended in 1990 and more recent sectarian battles.
The younger Hariri and his allies, now relegated to the opposition, and the international court will likely push for action against the four. But there is little they can do to force the government to do so.
Lebanese authorities have until the end of July to serve the indictments on suspects or execute arrest warrants. If they fail, the court's recourse is to publish the indictment. Details in the indictment about the investigation into the killing -- so far kept under wraps -- might in theory prove embarrassing to Hezbullies, but the group is unlikely to be severely hurt by them.
While Jumblat appeared to be offering a stark choice -- either turn a blind eye to a dastardly crime, or run the risk of chaos -- Hezbullies's leader has taken another tack.
Nasrallah has worked tirelessly to convince the Lebanese that the tribunal is not fit to deliver justice. For more than a year, he has gone on a media offensive against the tribunal, taking nearly every opportunity to call it biased, politicized and a tool of archenemy Israel.
He also said early on that he knew Hezbullies would be accused of the crime, a pre-emptive strike that dampened the impact of Thursday's indictment and bolstered his credentials as the man in charge in Leb.
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07/03/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
I believe the operative phrase is "You and what army?"
[Dawn] Hezbullies's leader has defended the men indicted in the murder of a former prime minister of Leb as "brothers" with an "honorable history."
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah spoke Saturday for the first time since the indictment was announced Thursday. A high-ranking Hezbullies bad turban and three others were accused in the 2005 liquidation of Rafik Hariri.
The suggestion that the group was involved in the crime threatens to plunge this Arab nation on Israel's northern border into a new and violent crisis. The Shia bad turbanHezbullies denies any role in the killing and vows never to turn over any of its members.
The case has further polarized Leb's rival factions.
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[An Nahar] The U.N.-backed Special Tribunal for Leb is "political" and "disreputable" and its indictment against Hizbullah members is of no importance, Iran's parliament speaker Ali Larijani said Saturday.
The Netherlands-based STL investigating the liquidation of Rafik Hariri on Thursday charged four members of Hizbullah over the 2005 liquidation of the former Lebanese premier.
"The court is so disreputable for anyone to pay attention to its results," said Larijani, who is on an official visit in Azerbaijan, the Iranian parliament's website reported.
Larijani said the court's ruling had been influenced up by the United States after failing "to prevent the formation of the (Prime Minister Najib) Miqati government," in Leb.
"The Americans feel they have been slapped in the face and they are seeking to make up a story" by indicting Hizbullah members, Larijani said.
Hizbullah, with its allies, dominates the Miqati government formed in June.
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[An Nahar] Yediot Ahronot Israeli newspaper reported on Saturday that the international investigation committee in the 2005 liquidation of ex-Premiere Rafik Hariri will "introduce a new list of accusations against Syrian security officials."
The reports said that handing the names of the accused to Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... has been "postponed due to the Syrian unrest."
"According to estimations, two members from President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... 's family will be on the list, his brother Maher Assad and his brother-in-law Assef Shawkat," they said.
The newspaper added that the "Lebanese suspects, Mustafa Badreddine and Salim Ayyash, left Leb and are currently hiding in Iran."
Arrest warrants against four Lebanese suspects accompanied the release of the in the Special Tribunal for Leb, which was released on Thursday.
The four individuals are likely Hizbullah members.
Meanwhile, ...back at the sandwich shop, Caroline was experimenting with ingredients... Der Spiegel German magazine leaked that "new indictments in the STL will include Lebanese, Syrian, and Paleostinian suspects."
On a related note, security sources told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the Israeli army ruled out any military escalation along the Lebanese border after the release of the indictment.
"The military is monitoring the situation in Leb and it is on full alert, but it doesn't expect that it (the indictment) would have a direct affect on the situation along the border," the sources said.
Yediot Ahronot noted that "Hizbullah has no interest in heating up the situation in Leb or at the border with Israel. It is currently worried about the situation in Syria and the president (Assad) who is becoming weaker."
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[An Nahar] Iranian Defense Minister Ahmed Vahidi dismissed as "ridiculous lies" U.S. claims that Tehran smuggled weapons to Iraq and Afghanistan, the semi-official Fars news agency reported Saturday.
"The ridiculous and repeated lies of the Americans are aimed at justifying their own errors," General Vahidi was quoted as saying.
The Wall Street Journal on Friday quoted unnamed U.S. officials as saying Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard Corps supplied allies in Iraq and Afghanistan with rocket-assisted exploding projectiles.
These weapons have already killed American troops, said the officials quoted by the newspaper.
Iran has also given long-range rockets to the Taliban in Afghanistan, increasing the bad boys' ability to hit U.S. and other coalition positions from a safer distance, the report said.
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#1
Those crates of weapons fell off the back of the truck as they were going to market.
[Al Jazeera] The leader of Hezbullies has implied that Israel was behind the killing of Rafik al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister who was murdered in 2005.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was speaking for the first time since the indictment on Thursday by the UN Special Tribunal for Leb of four members of the Lebanese movement over the murder of Hariri.
Discussing the tribunal's investigations into Hariri's murder, Nasrallah said: "We mentioned the possibility of having Israel involved in the murder and the fact that [Israeli] agents were present at the murder scene one day before the murder.
"No one in the STL even asked the Israelis anything. This is normal, why? Because the tribunal, since its formation, had a precise goal and no one was allowed to talk to the Israelis ... Instead of investigating the Israelis, [the STL] gathered information from them."
Speaking on Saturday in a telelvised speech, Nasrallah said that computers related to the case investigated by the STL were transported through Israel on their way out of Leb and asked why they had not been shipped out of a Beirut port?
He said Hezbullies would produce a document that proving the computers were transported from South Leb to Israel.
Speaking from Beirut, Jamal Wakim of the Lebanese International University told Al Jizz that the charges over computer data were "the most important point" in the speech.
He said: "It proves the implication of Israel in trying to divert and manipulate the international court."
Nasrallah said the tribunal aimed to spread sectarian strife in Leb but that it would fail to inflame conflict between Sunni and Shia Mohammedans
He confirmed that the four men accused by the UN of the liquidation were members of Hezbullies and said they had "an honourable history of resisting Israeli occupation".
He also said the charges were an attack on his movement, and authorities would not be able to arrest the four suspects.
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Muslims: While one finder accuses, three other fingers point back to them.
Osama Bin Laden spent his final months in hiding worrying about the future of Al Qaeda, emails recovered from computers in his hideout reveal. The terror leader was spending as much of his time dealing with concerns about funding and the toll being taken by CIA drone explosions as he was plotting attacks, according to U.S. intelligence officers.
Officials said the emails depict an organisation beset by mounting problems as its leader remained obsessed on a follow up attack to September 11.
Al Qaeda leaders expressed their concerns about the organisation's finances in frequent emails to Bin Laden. In one, the head of the group's counterintelligence unit, which was set up to protect against infiltrations by traitors and spies, complained that they were losing the 'espionage war' as he struggled with 'a very low budget'. Bin Laden himself complained about the organisation's financial hardships and in one email ordered a deputy to form a group to raise money through the kidnapping of diplomats.
Organisers also complained of the strain on resources being brought by strikes from CIA unmanned aircraft. Bin Laden's number three, Atiyah abd al-Rahman, said that Al Qaeda fighters were being killed faster than they could be replaced.
In the months before the Arab Spring, Bin Laden warned affiliates in Yemen that there was not 'enough steel' in Al Qaeda's support structure to allow even tentative steps towards creating an Islamic state.
The emails suggest that despite the problems, Bin Laden was still focussed on attacking the U.S. 'The trove makes it clear that Bin Laden's primary goal - you can call it an obsession - was to attack the U.S. homeland,' a senior U.S. counterterrorism told the Washington Post. 'He pushed for this every way he could.'
The emails also include correspondence between Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, who succeeded him as Al Qaeda leader. The pair express frustration that the conflict between the terror group and the U.S. is not more widely perceived by Muslims as a religious war.
The messages, which were analysed by the CIA in Virginia, were mostly composed by Bin Laden on computer in his compound before being smuggled out on disks or thumb drives to be sent from outside.
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.
(KUNA) -- US Secretary of State 
ATHENS, Greece (Ma'an) -- The captain of a US boat carrying activists who tried to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza was jailed Saturday in Athens, organizers of the flotilla said. John Klusmer is being charged with two felonies, organizers of the boat told reporters at a news conference in the Greek capital. The investigation will begin Tuesday, they said. 
Asif Ali 
Prime Minister 
Quartet
Walid 
President-for-Life Bashir 
Osama Bin Laden spent his final months in hiding worrying about the future of Al Qaeda, emails recovered from computers in his hideout reveal. The terror leader was spending as much of his time dealing with concerns about funding and the toll being taken by CIA drone explosions as he was plotting attacks, according to U.S. intelligence officers.
