Via Legal Insurrection, this blog seems to offer sensible, factual analysis of world events. Based on the few posts of his that I read, it's prolly worth bookmarking.
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] The United States will encourage Ethiopia not to return to Somalia as it would be against the interests of both Horn of African nations, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson said on Saturday. Ethiopia invaded Somalia in late 2006 to topple an Islamist movement in the capital Mogadishu. The intervention sparked an Islamist insurgency which is still raging despite the fact Ethiopian troops pulled out in January.
Sparked? I thought the mighty AEthiop army wandered across the border because the Islamists had gotten entirely too rambunctious.
"The Ethiopian government continues to look very closely at developments in Somalia," Carson told Reuters in Kenya ahead of a visit to Ethiopia on Monday. "Given the long-standing enmity between Somalis and Ethiopians I will encourage the Ethiopians not to re-engage in Somalia. It is not their interest to so and their efforts might in fact prove counterproductive to the government," he said in an interview.
Neighbors and Western governments fear that if the Somali administration is overthrown, the lawless nation will become a safe haven for Al-Qaeda to train militants to destabilize the region.
Residents in several regions of Somalia have reported seeing Ethiopian soldiers in the past two months. Addis Ababa initially denied this but later acknowledged it had made "reconnaissance" missions. It still insists no combat troops are in Somalia.
"Ethiopia has a right to defend its borders, should do so vigorously if individuals cross into their territory, and their efforts should be directed at defense of their territory and not necessarily involvement inside of Somalia," Carson said.
We only don't interfere with certain countries. Others we try hard to shove into line, it seems.
Carson held talks with senior officials from all Horn of Africa countries, including the Eritrean foreign minister, during an African Union summit in Libya this week.
Washington has accused Eritrea of supporting the hardline Al-Shabaab insurgents who are fighting to oust Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. It says Eritrea has aided the movement of weapons and foreign fighters into Somalia.
If Ethiopia is not permitted to invade Somali, perhaps they ought to wander across Eritrea's border in force instead.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Perhaps they can send some troops to help Honduras as BHØ doesn't seem interested in supporting a constitutional government. /s
Actually now that I think about it, it's not such a bad idea.
#6
I would rather read that the "US urges Somalians to stay out of the U.S. I have completely unassimmilated Somali neighbors. The women are covered from head to toe and acknowledge no-one's existence outside of their family.
The mother vigorously cursed at my autistic son for staring at her.
The father shields his face while driving past our house if my wife and daughters are outside. They Somalis seem to have ample funding from the feds, state, and city of Tucson. They have three sons and two daughters (covered head to toe). They live in a city owned house for which I presume they pay peanuts in rent. Mother and father clean rooms at a local resort. They have accumulated three late model cars since moving to Arizona two years ago. I am not a nativist but I cringe seeing my tax dollars(which I have been paying since the 1960's) used in this manner. What in the hell is going on in this country???
[Maghrebia] As Algerian military helicopters hovered overhead to ensure security, repentant terrorist Hassan Hattab on Friday evening (July 3rd) visited his son and two daughters in the eastern Algiers neighbourhood of Benzarga, L'Expression reported. It was his first public appearance since 1992. In footage of his visit aired on Al Jazeera, Hattab launched a new appeal to Algerian terrorists to lay down arms and benefit from national reconciliation. Hattab, who surrendered to authorities in 2007, said that he and other repentant GSPC members had begun an initiative to convince al-Qaeda members to stop acts of violence.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2009 00:00 ||
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THREE proud centuries of tradition have come to an end with the revelation that Britain is no longer capable of making rifles to arm its own troops. Instead, experts believe, all European armies will one day be using the same type of weapons.
The news, branded a national disgrace by one critic, comes after a warning that Britain is in danger of overspending on defence.
The nation has been at the forefront of the design and manufacture of small arms from the Brown Bess musket of the 18th century to the Lee Enfield rifle of 1914 and the Vickers machine gun. The last attempt to produce a British rifle was the SA80 but the weapon was widely criticised for its poor quality until its manufacture was taken over by Germany's Heckler and Koch.
In its report, the political think-tank the Institute for Public Policy Research said: "It is delusional to believe that the UK can go it alone. We need a major increase in European defence and security co-operation to strengthen Nato."
Last night Tory MP Patrick Mercer, an Army officer for 25 years, said: "I understand the economic argument but losing the capability to produce our own assault rifle is a national disgrace. Economics are important but so is the capacity to maintain control over strategic defence issues."
Some military historians also regretted the loss of tradition. Paul Cornish, curator at the Imperial War Museum, said: "It's extremely sad, since Britain has had a proud tradition of developing and manufacturing small arms. I think the end was pretty much written when the Government privatised the Royal Ordnance factories which, until the Eighties, had been subsidised by the taxpayer.
"I suppose that if the SA80 had been more successful, orders would have flooded in from around the world and things might have been different."
Historian and author Antony Beevor took a more pragmatic view. "The fact is that there is no room for tradition," he said. "Old local loyalties are gone. The important thing is that we buy the best, not just in terms of arms, but also armour and equipment, and it doesn't matter where it comes from."
Last night, the Ministry of Defence said: "We don't make our own assault rifle because there isn't a British company that still manufactures them. In any case, we are happy with what we are using."
Last week's report by the Institute for Public Policy Research recommended that the Ministry of Defence should make savings of £24billion from its budget. Among the possible targets for cutbacks is the nuclear submarine fleet. This includes the new class of Astute vessels, seven of which were recently said to be necessary if Britain was to be able to keep up its attack capabilities.
Last night experts warned of the dangers of eliminating the new sub marine fleet. Peter Felstead, editor of Jane's Defence Weekly, said: "It's happened with our assault rifles and now there's a risk of it happening with our nuclear submarines. It's one thing to decide to abandon our capabilities to make assault rifles because it's cheaper to buy them off-the-peg elsewhere. It's quite another to do the same thing for our nuclear submarine industry.
"The problem is that nuclear submarines are so complex that once we lose that technology, it would be impossible to ever get it back again."
Britain has a decision to make, and apparently it is making it by dribs and drabs rather than all at once. The decision is simple: will Britain be a first-class world power or not? If the former, it must maintain a credible military and expeditionary force. Britain may not need to make rifles but it must have an indigenous arms industry that can ensure a credible military.
If, however, Britain no longer wishes to be a first-class world power but rather a regional power with influence in Europe, than by all means dump the nuclear attack submarines, the aircraft carriers and the expeditionary forces that could work in places like Iraq or Afghanistan. A home defense force and a modest contribution to an all-European defense force is all that is needed if Britain wants to be a regional power and nothing more.
Understand the consequences to each decision, and decide, preferably openly and not piecemeal.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/06/2009 14:34 ||
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"The problem is that nuclear submarines are so complex that once we lose that technology, it would be impossible to ever get it back again."
That's the idea, guys - that's the idea. If we can just make manufacturing weapons impossible, then we can eliminate all wars. It's the same sort of thinking that comes up with ideas like unilateral nuclear disarmament.
#2
Steve - I'm afraid they already made that decision perhaps as long ago as the 1945 elections, and certainly by the Suez affair.
It's more a question of being a second, third or fourth rate power, and even more importantly a first rate cultural power. We share that dilemma with them, and neither of us are doing well lately, but their combined losses in both areas are disheartening. Perhaps King Charles successor (if there is one) can be a cultural and political warrior.
Hal: I understand that point and it does seem that some in our country want to tred that same path, with much the same results. But one should not delude himself into thinking that one can be a first class cultural power and a fourth class military power. Life doesn't work that way.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/06/2009 15:27 Comments ||
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I'll bet Delaware got just as upset when people learned all their weapons were to be made in Pennsylvania.
If Europe wants to be one "country" then they need to stop whining over stuff being made in Germany or Belgium or wherever.
#6
Suez, indeed, was the graveyard of the empire. U.S. interference led to decades of Arab dictatorships/tyranny/despotism/terrorism. (And the Hungarian freedom fighters were simultaneously given the shaft.)
#1
Gateway Pundit has updates, as well as a great pic of pro-government demonstrators denouncing CNN ("communist news network") along with Chavez, Castro, and Obama.
#3
Well, blood from casualties on his side. I can empathize with the guy, I might do the same in his shoes...'fake but accurate'. At least it doesn't purport to show something that didn't occur.
Great photo, btw. Composition, lighting and color are perfect.
#4
Tht too, Grom. The constitutional government; congress, the supreme court, the AG, etc.; is in charge in Honduras. It is lefties who conflate the "democratically elected" dictator ex-president with the government itself.
Does the State Dept and Obama really love lefties would be dictators as much as it seems?
Posted by: Lord garth ||
07/06/2009 13:47 Comments ||
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Gee, KBK, would you empathize if military or police personnel or pro-government demonstrators did the same? "Fake but accurate" is just fake, moving the bar for the goebbelist media and its numerous slaves.
[Iran Press TV Latest] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expresses concern over a series of missile launches by North Korea, saying such moves are 'unhelpful' for peace in the troubled peninsula.
Ban told reporters in Geneva on Sunday that the test firings had defied UN resolutions. The UN chief also noted that Pyongyang had closed all diplomatic channels following the recent moves. "North Korea has now closed all doors of communications and dialogue."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
That's why I come here; to get the NEWS!
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/06/2009 9:23 Comments ||
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They was just wishin' us a happy Fourth of July is all...just a little fireworks.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
07/06/2009 10:41 Comments ||
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Ala WORLD MIL FORUM, VARIOUS > Without RUSSIAN or CHINESE PRE-APPROVAL, the USA will "DARE NOT" lead/conduct an invasion agz NORTH KOREA???
* SAME > IIUC CHINA FOREIGN MINISTRY: SIX-PARTY TALKS WITH NORTH KOREA IS NO LONGER REQUIRED; + NORTH KOREA SPEEDS UP ITS ABANDONMENT OF CHINA.
SEOUL, July 5 (Yonhap) -- Top South Korean and Japanese negotiators at the six-nation disarmament talks on North Korea's nuclear weapons program will hold a meeting in Seoul on Monday to discuss how they will implement U.N. sanctions against the North for its recent nuclear test, officials said Sunday.
South Korean chief negotiator Wi Sung-lac and his Japanese counterpart, Akitaka Saiki, will also exchange views on North Korea's recent belligerent acts, including Pyongyang's recent launches of short-range missiles, officials the South's foreign ministry said.
"The meeting between chief negotiators from South Korea and Japan is aimed at checking the current situation after North Korea's second nuclear test and the adoption of the U.N. Resolution 1874," said an official at the ministry.
The Monday meeting is also regarded as a preparatory step to tune positions of South Korea and Japan as five members of the six-party talks, including the United States, Japan and Russia, were set to begin a series of diplomatic efforts to lure North Korea to the negotiating table, according to the official.
China's chief envoy for the disarmament talks, Wu Dawei, already started a visit to Russia last week. Wu plans to visit South Korea, Japan and the U.S. to discuss the North Korean issue. Wu is scheduled to visit South Korea on July 12-14, according to the South Korean ministry.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/06/2009 00:00 ||
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Japan can actually stop Korea's nuclear weapons pursuit. All it has to do is to declare that, because North Korea is developing nuclear weapons, it must do so also to deter an attack by the North. Also, in lieu of the danger posed by NORK, Russia and China, it will change its constitution and re-arm. That will engender a pucker-factor in China and Russia as nothing else would, and they'll rein in their crazy sock puppet.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/06/2009 16:29 Comments ||
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I believe NORTH KOREA = KIMMIE fired its missles at GUAM, as based on my visual observations of several strange fireballs = fiery streaks, including one spherical-shaped full explosion, in the night skies oer my home island. REMINDED ME MORE OF "MISSLES/ROCKETS", AS OPPOS TO FIERY "METEORS", ETC. USDOD AIRCRAFT WERE ALSO OBSERVED BUSILY DARTING TO AND FROM ALL OVER AGANA + AGANA BAY.
Iff these phenomena were indeed Kimmie's missles, as I believe them to be, then IMO US-ALLIED INTEL HAS GROSSLY UNDERESTIMATED THE STATE OF NOKOR'S MIL/NUCTECHS, and by extens prob also THE NOKOR MISSLE, NUCLEAR THREAT IN GENERAL INCLUD FOR IRAN.
One of these fireballs "burned up" high in the shy oer CENTRAL-SOUTHERN GUAM, whilst the rest did same seemingly just offshore AGANA BAY = WESTPAC [downward trajectory]. The single explosion I'd observed as above could either be a successful US BMD hit, or more likely one of NOKOR's infamous missle failures.
"NUTSHELL" > IMO ANY US-ALLIED INTEL INTERPRETATION SHOULD BE THAT MOST OF THESE MISSLES CAME THROUGH AND HAD EFFEC REACHED GUAM ISLAND + SHORT DISTANCE BEYOND.
* NK Missles can now reach as far away as Guam
* NK can fire its missles in BARRAGE.
* SURFACE/MARITIME VESSEL LAUNCH, aka NOPNO-TRADITIONAL NAVAL/MIL LAUNCH [ASBM = Anti-Carrier Asenal-Fire Ship]???
* DID THE US FAIL TO STOP THE LAUNCHINGS, OR IN THE ALTERNATE ALLOWED NOKOR TO LAUNCH???
IFF THE US IS WRONG ABOUT NOKOR'S MISSLES, IS IT WRONG ABOUT NOKOR NOT HANING ADVANCED NUCMATS FOR STRATEGIC + NUKE WEAPONS???
** GUAM PDN NEWS/OTHER this AM > REPORT: NORTH KOREA MAY TEST/LAUNCH EXTENDED RANGE SCUD ["SCUD-ER" IRBM].
#2
"WE" want them either dead or to realize their "Religion" is a cripling nightmare, and change for the better.
Guess which will come first?
(Piss in one hand and Pray in the other, see which gets wet first)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/06/2009 14:04 Comments ||
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[Geo News] India is "very cautiously" and "responsibly" evaluating the conflicting signals emanating from Pakistan on punishing the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks and was waiting for its "visible and credible" actions against them.
Voicing his disapproval over the release of JuD leader Hafeez Saeed, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna today said India has not yet received any official communication about Pakistan government's appeal against the release of the terror mastermind in a higher court.
"The brain behind the terror attack has been released. We have not heard about Pakistan government taking it up in an appeal. So, in the light of that conflicting signals are emanating from Pakistan," he said while talking to local news publication on his way back from his four-day trip to Japan.
Krishna said India has to "very cautiously and responsibly" evaluate these signals.
Asked about the "credible action" India expects from Pakistan, he said "well, it is very simple, we want perpetrators of the attack on Mumbai to be brought to justice. That is the only thing India is asking for and we are waiting."
"I have repeatedly said that it has to be visible and it has to be credible. There must be some commitment on the part of Pakistan that they are going after the Mumbai attackers," he underlined.
Krishna said if required he would meet his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi on the sidelines of the Non-Aligned Movement summit meeting in Egypt later this month.
"If there is a requirement, I will be too willing to meet with the Foreign Minister of Pakistan. Anyway, we are going to be under the same roof. So, let us see how things move on," he said, adding that India has never hesitated from holding talks with Pakistan at any level.
"I don't think that some of the other developments, parallel developments which have taken place in Pakistan would add credibility to Pakistan's desire for the Composite Dialogue to move forward," he said.
On suggestions from the international community that India should talk to Pakistan, Krishna said New Delhi has never said no to talks with Islamabad.
"India has never said no to talks with Pakistan. India has taken a very consistent position that we will talk. But we will talk about terror. We will discuss about terror. India is ever willing to talk about terror," he underlined.
On US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's visit, Krishna said he had spoken to the American leader and was looking forward to it.
The Minister said he would raise the issue of terrorism emanating from Pakistan with Clinton when she visits New Delhi later this month.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2009 00:00 ||
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Israel's settlement policy helps strangle the Palestinian economy and makes the Palestinian government more dependent on foreign aid, the European Commission said Monday.
In an unusually harsh statement, the commission said that "it is the European taxpayers who pay most of the price of this dependence." Some things never change---not in Europe
#1
Perhaps the European taxpayers should choose to discontinue paying. Foreign aid is a discretionary item in the budget, after all, quite unlike pensions and social welfare/social security payments to citizens.
[Haaretz Defense] audi Arabia has indicated to Israel that it would not protest use of its airspace by Israeli fighter jets in the event the government resolves to launch a military assault against Iran, according to a report which appeared in the British newspaper The Sunday Times.
The Prime Minister's office issued a statement in response Sunday morning, saying that "the Sunday Times report is fundamentally false and completely baseless."
According to The Sunday Times, Mossad chief Meir Dagan held secret meetings with Saudi officials, who gave their tacit approval to Israel's use of the kingdom's airspace.
"The Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israeli air force flying through their airspace on a mission which is supposed to be in the common interests of both Israel and Saudi Arabia," The Sunday Times quoted a diplomatic source as saying last week.
The report also quoted John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, as saying that it would be "entirely logical" for Israeli warplanes to fly over Saudi Arabia en route to bombing nuclear targets in Iran.
Though any Israeli attack would be roundly condemned by Mideast leaders at the UN, Bolton said Arab leaders have privately expressed trepidation at the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran.
"None of them would say anything about it publicly but they would certainly acquiesce in an overflight if the Israelis didn't trumpet it as a big success," Bolton told The Sunday Times.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Of course Israel has to formally deny this rumor. They might still overfly Saudi Arabia on their way to Iran.
#3
I don't understand why this "secret Saudi-Israeli agreement" ever got out. Doesn't seem like it benefits either party. Maybe they will hire Governor Palin to teach them how to keep a secret. She could use the money. Looks like her attorney fees may have just begun.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/06/2009 8:50 Comments ||
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There are secrets and then there are secrets. It's no secret that Israel has but three routes for their airplanes to deliver ordnance in Iran:
a) fly over Jordan and Iraq
b) fly over Turkey
c) fly over Saudi-controlled Arabia
Even the Iran air defense generals know this. So it isn't a secret to speculate openly about option (c), and it helps rattle the cages of the Mad Mullahs, who recently have been pre-occupied.
This isn't a revelation of a secret, it's part of the psy-ops war.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/06/2009 9:29 Comments ||
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mebbe. Or mebbe its just fleet street rumor mongering.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
07/06/2009 12:32 Comments ||
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Sure, and nobody is better at that than Fleet Street :-)
But combine this 'revelation' with the news that a Israeli Dolphin class sub transited the Suez Canal and "Stumblin' Joe" Biden's statement that the Israelis are free to do as they wish, and if you're an Iranian general or admiral, you have to be worried.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/06/2009 14:47 Comments ||
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a(n) Israeli Dolphin class sub transited the Suez Canal
on the surface. Who knows how many were submerged. Heh
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/06/2009 21:26 Comments ||
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Cynthia McKinneys mom said shes learned that her daughter is on the way home. Leola McKinney said a friend who contacted the U.S. Embassy in Israel reported that the former congresswoman was released from Israeli custody and taken to Ben Gurion International Airport.
We finally got word that she was released, Leola McKinney said late Sunday afternoon. We dont know what time she is supposed to fly out. All we know is that they took her to the airport.
I would be more relieved when I know shes on the flight, Leola McKinney added. But I am relieved that shes away from there.
McKinney had been in custody since Tuesday, when she and 20 others were swept up by the Israeli Navy while allegedly trying to sail through a navy blockade. The group says it was attempting to deliver humanitarian supplies to Gaza. McKinney and the rest of her group could have been released soon after they were taken into custody but they refused to sign a document admitting they violated Israels blockade, according to McKinneys parents. The group was due to appear in an Israeli court Sunday.
Leola McKinney said she had no information about the court hearing. Leola McKinney said she had not spoken with her daughter since shortly after she was taken into custody.
Cynthia McKinney and other members of the Free Gaza Movement left Cyprus Tuesday on the Greek-registered ship Arion. Their ship was stopped when they tried to pass through the Israeli Navys security blockade at Ashdod. The group was taken into custody and their ship was seized. Israel officials promised to deliver by ground all of the humanitarian supplies that were on the boat.
Leola McKinney said the trip would have received no publicity if they had been allowed to deliver supplies to Gaza. They [Israel] made an issue out of it by taking the boat and escorting them into Israel.
Billy McKinney, Cynthia McKinneys father and a known Juice hater former state legislator, said his daughter was only trying to show the devastation in Gaza Anybody who has a humanitarian spirit would not want to see those people live in those conditions.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/06/2009 00:00 ||
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Darn Israel, I was hoping they would send their asses to jail, mostly hers. Now we are gonna have to put up with this nut job on all the news channels. Now you know with all the starving Norks she would never help there.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/06/2009 0:11 Comments ||
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#2
Rats. I was hoping Israel would trade her to Iran for some fake oranges or potatoes, anything but send her back here.
#5
I am sure there were some serious long-term issues involved: only G-d knows how much worse the mental make-up of the average Israeli-imprisons Palestinian terrorist would be seriously infected with even casual contact with a world-class froot-loop like McKinney.
#1
The next step in the evolution of a revolution. Military take over security. This is actually a good thing here. Now the regular guy that was fence sitting on the issues in Iran has to choose a side.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/06/2009 11:04 Comments ||
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The core of the criminal regime in Iran finally shows its teeth.
[Khaleej Times] Iran's ex-president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani said on Saturday that there was no power struggle in Iran following the crisis triggered by alleged fraud in the June 12 presidential election, ISNA news agency reported. "The election scene was a competition within the system and should not be considered by some as a power struggle or crack in the system," Rafsanjani was quoted by ISNA as saying in his first reaction to the post-election turmoil.
Rafsanjani, who backed opposition leader Mir-Hossein Moussavi in the presidential election, was accused by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, both before and after the election, of corruption.
Due to the open support of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for Ahmadinejad, there had been press reports and speculation that the influential Rafsanjani might start a power struggle against both the president and the leadership.
"These kind of interpretations are de facto an insult against the Iranian people ... We have to maintain the long-term interests of the establishment," Rafsanjani said.
The former president and current head of the Experts Assembly an influential clergy body - however made the reconciliatory remarks in a meeting with families of officials who were arrested and detained since the outbreak of the protests against President Ahmadinejad's re-election.
Besides the arrests of hundreds of dissidents, journalists and protestors, a number of former officials have also been detained by Iranian security, including cabinet members of former president Mohammad Khatami as well former parliament deputies.
Visiting the families of the detainees was a clear sign of Rafsanjani's sympathy and support for the opposition. The cleric has also refrained so far from acknowledging the re-election of Ahmadinejad whose internal and external policies Rafsanjani strongly opposes.
"Unfortunately after the elections, some problems were caused for some people which left a bitter taste and I don't think that anybody is happy about the status quo," Rafsanjani said referring to the deaths of at least 20 protestors and eight pro-Ahmadinejad militia in addition to the arrest and imprisonment of hundreds of critics.
The moderate cleric however said he hoped that the crisis would be settled and the prisoners freed through wisdom and goodwill.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2009 00:00 ||
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[Mail and Globe] Iran's hardline rulers are set to punish reformists linked to the boldest anti-government protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution, despite the damage this might inflict on the system's legitimacy and relations with the West.
Now that security forces have quelled the street turmoil that erupted after a disputed June 12 presidential election, the leadership is preparing to put on trial some of the hundreds of political activists and opinion-makers detained since the vote.
Hints abound that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, shocked by the furore over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election in a vote critics say was rigged, is striking back.
The editor of hardline Kayhan daily urged on Saturday that losing candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and reformist ex-President Mohammad Khatami be tried for their "terrible crimes".
On Friday, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the Guardian Council that certified the election, said British embassy local staffers accused of inciting unrest had confessed and would face trial. They include the mission's chief political analyst.
The hardline Javan newspaper said 100 lawmakers had asked the judiciary to prosecute the leaders of "post-election riots", citing Mousavi and another defeated candidate, Mehdi Karoubi.
Further stifling of dissent risks discrediting "republican" institutions that have in the past cloaked Iran's clerical rulers with a degree of popular legitimacy, analysts said.
"Once the attempt to steal the elections didn't go as planned, Ahmadinejad opted for the politics of elimination," said Trita Parsi, president of the Washington-based National Iranian American Council. "That too will fail, I believe.
"The violence and brutality shown by the government will not be forgotten. It came at the expense of whatever legitimacy the government had left," he said. "Khamenei and Ahmadinejad can only rule by force now. Their reliance on the security apparatus is greater now than ever before."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I wasn't aware that this government needed legitimacy. They have the guns and Allah's Will and a healthy lust for power on their side. They need more to force a brutal clamp down on any dissent? I don't get it.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/06/2009 8:42 Comments ||
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#2
only an idiot or an america hater would have given this govt legitimacy before the election
and some idiots and america haters are still fans of the govt
Posted by: lord garth ||
07/06/2009 21:12 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Iran's Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani arrives in Doha to hold talks with Qatari officials on the realms of mutual interest including regional issues.
Larijani, heading an Iranian delegation, arrived in Qatar on Sunday and was received by Emir of Qatar Sheik Hamed Bin Khalifa Al-Thani at al-Bahr palace.
The two-day visit comes at the invitation of his Qatari counterpart, Mohamed Mubarak Al-Khuleifi.
Before his departure, Larijani told reporters that the visit was originally scheduled for an earlier date but was postponed due to Iran's presidential election.
Regional issues including the developments in Palestine and Lebanon will be high on the agenda of the talks, Larijani added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/06/2009 00:00 ||
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David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, said yesterday that he expected the eighth of the nine British Embassy employees arrested ten days ago to be released soon but a lawyer representing the ninth -- a political analyst named Hossein Rossam -- said he would be charged with threatening national security. Mr Miliband expressed "cold anger" at the way the nine had been treated.
That and a pound note will get you tea in Trafalgar Square ...
The regime freed Iason Athanasiadis, an Anglo-Greek journalist arrested on June 19. However, a lawyer for Maziar Bahari, a Canadian-Iranian journalist working for Newsweek, said he faced charges of "instigating riots and acting against national security".
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/06/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
That would be a pound coin.
/pedantic intervention
Irans biggest group of clerics has declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads re-election to be illegitimate and condemned the subsequent crackdown. The statement by the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qom is an act of defiance against the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has made clear he will tolerate no further challenges to Mr Ahmadinejads victory over Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Its a clerical mutiny, said one Iranian analyst. This is the first time ever you have all these big clerics openly challenging the leaders decision. Another, in Tehran, said: We are seeing the birth of a new political front.
This is a pretty big deal; it makes clear that Khamenei and Short Round are now nothing more than a bunch of thugs with guns. So much for the islamic part of the Islamic republic.
Professor Ali Ansari, head of Iranian Studies at St Andrews University, said: Its highly significant. It shows this is nowhere near resolved.
The Association of Researchers and Teachers is based in Qom, the clerical nerve centre of Iran, and includes many leading ayatollahs with impeccable revolutionary credentials and big personal followings. The association did not support a candidate in the election, but has now lined up firmly behind Mr Mousavi. In a rebuke to the regime it declared on its website: Candidates complaints and strong evidence of vote-rigging were ignored . . . Peaceful protests by Iranians were violently oppressed . . . Dozens of Iranians were killed and hundreds were illegally arrested . . . The outcome is invalid.
It called on other clerics to speak out, demanded the release of all those arrested in the past three weeks, and directly challenged the authority of the Guardian Council, a body of 12 senior clerics that has openly backed Mr Ahmadinejad and his patron, Mr Khamenei. How can one accept the legitimacy of the election just because the Guardian Council says so?, it asked.
The associations statement also shows how deeply the political establishment is divided, and the extent to which the Supreme Leader now derives his power from military might, not moral authority. It makes it much harder for the regime to arrest Mr Mousavi and other opposition leaders.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/06/2009 00:00 ||
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Khamenei and Short Round are now nothing more than a bunch of thugs with guns
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