President Obama will reveal his new Afghanistan war strategy in a speech Tuesday evening to cadets at West Point, but his most skeptical audience is likely to be the powerful Democrats on Capitol Hill who oppose a troop buildup.
Top Democrats have made it clear to Obama that he will not receive a friendly reception should he announce what is considered the leading option: sending 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan. The legislators have indicated that a request for more money to finance a beefed-up war effort will be met with frustration and, perhaps, a demand to raise taxes. You mean, more than Obamacare? Only need to raise taxes if we have a military? "Trillions for health care! Not one red cent for self-defense!"
On Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) described what she called "serious unrest" in her caucus over the prospect of another vote to finance billions of dollars for an expanded war. It is, she said, the most difficult vote she can ask of the members of her party. "We need to know what the mission is, how this is further protecting the American people and is this the best way to do that, especially at a time when there's such serious economic issues here at home," she told bloggers on a Tuesday conference call. But Obamacare will improve the economy? Cap and trade?
In June, Pelosi strong-armed anti-war Democrats into voting for a $100 billion measure to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. During an interview in July, she recounted her appeal to the lawmakers: "Will you change your mind and one more time vote for war funding?" She also promised not to ask again. "This is the very last time," she told them.
Now, barely five months later, Pelosi and Obama will soon have to go back to the war well, even as they seek difficult votes from the same Democrats on health-care reform, climate change legislation and regulation of the financial industry.
Senior aides said the president's first task will be to seek the understanding of an uneasy nation for his new approach to a war that began eight years ago. Among the reassurances he will offer, they said, is a promise that an end is in sight.
"We are in year nine of our efforts in Afghanistan. We're not going to be there another eight or nine years," Gibbs said. Germany and Japan - 64 years; Korea 59 years, but we got out of Vietnam in way less.
But members of the party's most liberal wing, such as Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), have expressed serious doubts about the overall direction of the president's strategy.
"Devoting billions more dollars and tens of thousands more troops to Afghanistan is not likely to significantly improve conditions in that country, and it will not help - and could even hurt - our efforts to dismantle al-Qaeda's global network with safe havens in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, North Africa and elsewhere," Feingold said.
Even the Democratic Party's more hawkish lawmakers, such as Sen. Carl M. Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, have said they have deep reservations about the wisdom of a troop buildup.
Kerry has said he is "very wary of it because of past experience and because of some of the challenges that I see." Levin has insisted that more be done to train Afghan troops like we did in Iraq before sending more Americans. Doing nothing is better than not doing it my way. I think there is more at the link, but I'm tired. So tired.
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/26/2009 13:00 ||
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#1
Even the Democratic Party's more hawkish lawmakers, such as Sen. Carl M. Levin, chairman of the Armed Services Committee, and Sen. John F. Kerry...
Sheesh. As if we needed any more proof that the Quislingcrats and their MSM sock puppets inhabit a parallel universe...
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
11/26/2009 13:41 Comments ||
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#2
"Devoting billions more dollars ... is not likely to significantly improve conditions in that country, and it will not help - and could even hurt...
Are you sure she's not mixing this up with the Stimulus Package(s)?
#3
Ricky - I think that was a typo - should have been "mawkish"
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/26/2009 14:04 Comments ||
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#4
"Will you change your mind and one more time vote for war funding?" She also promised not to ask again. "This is the very last time," she told them.
This is NOT strong-arming the anti-war Ds, it's HIJACKING US foreign policy. Pelosi knew this when she said it.
Germany's top general Wolfgang Schneiderhan has resigned over an air strike in Afghanistan in September which the Afghan government says killed many civilians.
The announcement was made in parliament by the German defence minister.
He told MPs that the chief of staff of the German army had tended his resignation. Deputy defence minister Peter Wichert had also resigned.
It follows reports that information about September's air strike near Kunduz had been withheld.
It was a German commander who called in that air strike on two fuel trucks seized by the Taliban.
He feared the trucks would be used to carry out an attack on a German military base nearby.
The US fighter jet bombed the fuel tankers. It's believed that dozens of Afghan civilians were killed.
#1
You have to make the judgment calls based on what you know at the time. The taliban use human shields or nearby civilians as a tool of war. It's part of their kit.
To me resigning plays into the hands of the enemy. They will use your moral compass as a weakness to be exploited.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/26/2009 13:15 Comments ||
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#2
as I recall the civilians locals were siphoning off the stolen fuel
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/26/2009 13:24 Comments ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Saudi Arabia denied on Wednesday reports that its military encroached on Yemen territory to attack Shiite rebels in their homeland, as King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz held talks with the visiting Spanish Prime Minister.
A senior defense ministry official said reports in various media that Saudi forces had attacked the rebels inside Yemen territory were "lies" and "fabrications," the state news agency SPA reported early Wednesday.
The unnamed defense official noted that Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz had expressly ordered the armed forces only to expel the Houthi rebels from Saudi territory and not to cross the border, SPA said.
Houthi lies
Earlier, on Tuesday the Houthis, Zaidi Shiites locked in a five-year-old war with the Yemen government, said they had repelled a multi-pronged assault involving air raids and ground shelling launched by Saudi forces along the border on Monday.
"The Saudi attack continued on three fronts, but two were broken by Monday evening," it said.
Witnesses in the frontier area told AFP that clashes between the Saudis and rebels continued on Tuesday, and that there were intense artillery strikes and air raids on Houthi positions all along the border.
But it was not clear if the bombardment and air raids were carried out by Saudi or Yemeni forces.
In August Yemen's government launched a "Scorched Earth" campaign against the Houthis, who Sanaa says aim to undermine the government.
On Nov. 4 Saudi forces overtly joined the fight for the first time using air and heavy artillery strikes after a small band of Houthis entered Saudi territory and killed a border guard.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Motiur Rahman Nizami got the 43rd position in the list of 500 most influential Muslim personalities of the world.
The Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding of Georgetown University published a 200-page book mentioning Nizami's position. Internationally reputed Professor John Eposito has edited the book. The book recognised Nizami's contribution in social and political reforms in Bangladesh as well as spreading Islamic education and preaching of Islam. He was also praised for his contribution within Jamaat and to democratic practice in Bangladesh.
The book selected 500 personalities among politicians, scholars, preachers of Islam, social work, development and culture. Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud topped the list followed by Iran's Supreme Leader Grand Ayatollah Hajj Sayyid Ali Khamenei. King of Morocco Mohammed VI, King of Jordan Abdullah II bin Al Hussein and Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan got the 3rd, 4th and 5th place in the list.
This article starring:
MOTIUR RAHMAN NIZAMI
Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2009 00:00 ||
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The fast-moving international case against a Pakistani-Canadian businessman charged with plotting a terror attack in Denmark and suspected of others in India moved into Pakistan on Monday night with news of the capture of another suspect.
Illyas Kashmiri, a former Pakistani military officer and now a reputed commander of the Pakistan-based Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI) militant group, is believed to have been detained by Pakistan at the behest of the FBI, according to an unconfirmed report in The Times of India. Ilyas was reported titzup a month or two ago. Since he's still breathing in and out it's likely his "detention" will involve house arrest and in a few days he won't be home anymore. I think there's a limit of five days in the guest house ...
It's not clear when and where Kashmiri may have been taken into custody or if he is among as many as five people reportedly arrested by Pakistan in connection with the plot in recent weeks, including some former or current Pakistani military officials. In that case it probably wasn't him. Maybe a warrant was issued for his arrest, but since he's in North Wazoo it'll be a purely paperwork exercise.
If confirmed, Kashmiri's arrest will expand the global nature of the case, which already has connections to Chicago, Copenhagen, Mumbai and Kanata (a suburb of Ottawa, Canada). It would also highlight the intercontinental reach of suspected terrorist operations.
Canadian Tahawwur Hussain Rana, 48, and Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley, 49, were arrested in Chicago by the FBI last month and accused of plotting the murder of an editor and cartoonist at the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which ran controversial cartoons of the prophet Mohammad in 2005. They face charges of conspiring to provide material support for terrorism and providing material support to terrorism.
The pair live in the Chicago area, though Pakistan native Rana has family in Kanata, including an ailing father and a brother, Abbas, a well-known Parliament Hill journalist with The Hill Times.
#1
Pakistan: We detained him, please remit.
FBI: I forget, how much for staged detentions?
Pakistan: $5,000,000.
FBI: Gee, I thought we only paid $3,000,000.
Pakistan: Yes, that was under the Bush Administration.
PAKISTAN has paid an informer the equivalent of nearly $US120,000 ($128,770) after arresting a lieutenant of the country's Taliban warlord before a major Muslim festival, the military says.
It is the first time Pakistan has announced paying a reward since it offered $US5 million ($5.37 million) for information leading to the capture, dead or alive, of Hakimullah Mehsud and 18 lieutenants.
"Security forces have arrested wanted terrorist Abdullah Shah Mehsud" in the northwestern town of Tank. "He had a head money of 10 million rupees," the military said in a statement today. "The head money has been paid to the informer."
Shah Mehsud was number 17 on a list of wanted militants released on November 2 that carried rewards of between 10 and 50 million rupees for the leadership of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
TTP has been blamed for some of the worst attacks that have killed more than 2550 people in a wave of carnage in the last 29 months in Pakistan. About 2000 troops have died fighting Islamist militants since 2002.
[Al Arabiya Latest] As the Pakistani government hastily presented a Baluchistan package in parliament in its last ditch effort to appease the estranged people of the insurgency-hit province, a group of Baluchi officials held a conference in Washington, where they demanded an end to occupation by Pakistan and Iran.
The conference, organized by the American Friends of Baluchistan, who called for the establishment of an independent Baluchistan state protected by the United Nations for an interim period, was attended by several prominent Baluch leaders from Pakistan and Iran as well as activists for the cause of Kashmiris and Sindhis.
A resolution adopted by the conference charged that both Pakistan and Iran were committing systematic genocide of Baluch people and appealed to the world community to force Pakistan and Iran to announce a timetable for withdrawing their.
The resolution claimed that thousands of Baluchi men, women and children had been murdered, while thousands of others were abducted and put in jails, where they disappeared without a trace. The group demanded those responsible to be tried at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Other people in attendance at the conference were Selig Harrison, the Asia Director at the Center for International Policy, former US government officials, second secretary of Norwegian embassy in Washington and former leader of Mukti Bahini, the guerilla movement that fought a war of independence for Bangladesh, former East Pakistan.
Founder of American Friends of Baluchistan, Ahmar Masti Khan, expressed his joy over the fact that the conference proved far more successful than he expected.
Herbiyar Marri, a Baluch separatist leader, also addressed the conference through video link.
Other prominent speakers at the conference included former president of Baluch Students Federation, Aziz Baluch, the supplier of stinger missiles to Afghan Mujahedin on CIA's insistence, Andrew Iva and the former president of World Sindhi Congress, Sagheer Sheikh.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I think the expression is "No way in pluperfect Hell is there going to be an independent Baluchistan." Mostly for two reasons. One is the Chinese built, strategically critical, deep water port at Gwadar. The other is that Baluchistan has minerals vital to the nuclear programs of both Pakistan and Iran.
That being said, both Pakistan and Iran would rather kill every single Baluchi instead of part with those lands.
#3
Interesting point, Moose, but the Baluchis could solve that by saying to the Chinese, "help us become independent and you can have your deep water port. Our treat. Heck, we'll throw in an airfield and landing rights."
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/26/2009 12:14 Comments ||
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#4
Pluperfect Hell? That sounds dire. And very, very correct.
The UN commission investigating the assassination of Benazir Bhutto has formally sought a three-month extension from Islamabad to complete its work, sources said on Wednesday.
Chile's UN Ambassador Heraldo Munoz, who heads the commission, hinted about the delay in submitting the report.
"We're working hard and advancing, but there is a great deal of work to be done," he told reporters, citing the security situation in Pakistan as a factor contributing to the delay.
According to sources, once the government agreed to the extension, the commission would ask UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to extend its mandate.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
they milking that cash cow aren't they
Posted by: chris ||
11/26/2009 9:40 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Tehran says it does not view Tel Aviv as a threat anymore because clearly Israel has lost its one-time influence in the Middle East.
Nearly a year after Israel butchered over 1,400 Palestinians during a devastating incursion, Iran's Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani said on Wednesday that Israel No longer intimidates regional countries.
"There was a time that Israel, because of its desire to dominate and kill, was seen as a mortal threat in the region," said Larijani on Wednesday
"But after the three-week war on Gaza it became more and more clear that Tel Aviv is Nothing without the financial and political help it gets from Washington," he added. "Israel has become a lifeless political corpse with No ability to fend for itself."
Larijani was referring to Israel's military foray into Gaza last December which led to the death of more than 1,400 Palestinians, the majority of whom were civilians.
With regards to US calls for Iran to accept a western-backed nuclear proposal, Larijani said that over the past thirty years, Washington has Not for a moment changed its tyrannical frame of mind.
"We should Not fall for the smiles and kind words that US officials deliver to us," said Larijani. "The US political stance over the IAEA proposal shows that Washington aims to swindle us out of our enriched uranium."
The Iranian Parliament speaker was referring to a draft deal brokered by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei.
The proposal, in its current state, asks Iran to send most of its domestically produced low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad for further refinement.
Iran needs 20 percent-enriched uranium to power the Tehran nuclear reactor, which produces medicine for cancer treatment and other scientific necessities.
In a counter-proposal, Tehran has suggested keeping the LEU in a room sealed by the IAEA inside the country until the higher-enriched uranium arrives. Under this proposal, the exchange would be completed in two stages -- 400 kg of Iran's LEU would be exchanged with 58 kg of 20 percent-enriched uranium in each stage.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/26/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Tel Aviv is Nothing without the financial and political help it gets from Washington
In other words, Obama has quietly informed them that he won't stand behind them next time there's trouble. Green light, boys...
#2
I think Bibi won't take any Persian nonsense,and with or without an OK from *THE ONE* he's going to do what he thinks he needs to do. And he has some delectable incredibly hot mushrooms in some silos in the Negev.
So-called speaker Ali Larijani knows full well that if Ahmadinutjob, the super-secret holier-than-holy virgin-enabling hidden 13th Imam, tries anything stoooopid, Ali, himself may be glowing a Bright green in the dark at night.
#3
This has been a Muslim fantasy since at least the 1980s, and probably long before. A Lebanese electronics engineer once assured me that the US spends half its defense budget to buy weapons for Israel, as this is the only way Israel could have beaten several Arab armies at once.
When I offered to refute this, he almost put his fingers in his ears and went "La-la-la-la I can't hear you!" The reason being that to admit that the Jews defeated the Muslims because they were *better*, would amount to denying Islam itself.
You mean, Allah *doesn't* favor Muslims? But Allah *does* favor Jews? Impossible! Unless the Jews cheat!
This means that if the US would withdraw all aid from Israel, then Israel would just stop existing. So the US is to *blame* for all the troubles in the Middle East.
As an aside, this is also why Iran calls the US "The Great Satan", because only Satan could stand in the way of Allah, in support of the Jews. Muslim logic. So America is the personification of Satan.
#4
Well, it's all in your point of view Ali. IMO, if it wasn't for American alliance---giving us something to lose, we'd cleaned the Muslim cancer from Middle East decades ago.
Cotabato, Philippines - A politician whose family was targeted in a southern Philippine massacre that left 52 people dead described the attackers on Wednesday as monsters, saying his murdered sister and aunt were pregnant.
Esmael Mangudadatu also said his wife was sexually assaulted and mutilated before being killed in Monday's slaughter, which he and police alleged was organised by his political rival from another local Muslim clan.
"We can't call him an animal because I have pets and they are tame. No, he is a monster. They are monsters," Mangudadatu told reporters.
He was referring to Andal Ampatuan Jnr, a member of President Gloria Arroyo's ruling coalition who police said on Wednesday was the top suspect in the massacre.
The killings occurred after about 100 of Ampatuan's gunmen allegedly abducted a convoy of Mangudadatu's aides and relatives, plus a group of journalists. The victims were abducted as they were travelling in a six-vehicle convoy to an election office where Mangudadatu's wife was to register her husband's candidacy for governor in next year's polls.
Ampatuan was planning to also run for governor and carried out the massacre so he would not be challenged for the post, according to Mangudadatu.
The victims were shot at close range a short time after being abducted, then dumped or buried in shallow graves on a remote farming road close to a town bearing the Ampatuan name, police said earlier.
Mangudadatu said Wednesday he had sent his wife, two sisters and aunt, along with other women, to register his nomination because he had been warned that it was too dangerous for him to do it himself. Not very courageous, you might say, but very sensible, you have to admit.
"We sent women because in the Muslim culture you don't hurt women," he said. Yeah, sure. It's so true, people don't even talk about it anymore.
"My youngest sister was five months' pregnant, while my aunt was into her sixth month of pregnancy."
All of his relatives in the convoy were killed, along with two female lawyers and at least 13 journalists, according to police.
Mangudadatu gave a sickening description of his wife's fate. "My wife's private parts were slashed four times, after which they fired a bullet into it," he said. "They speared both of her eyes, shot both her breasts, cut off her feet, fired into her mouth. I could not begin to describe the manner by which they treated her."
It was not immediately possible to verify Mangudadatu's claims about mutilation.
Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluna, a regional police chief whose jurisdiction covers Maguindanao, the southern province where the killings took place, declined to comment when asked about Mangudadatu's statements.
However a mortician's aide at the scene of the mass graves told AFP there on Tuesday that one unidentified woman victim appeared to be pregnant.
Ampatuan has not commented publicly on the allegations. His father, the governor of Maguindanao with his own private army who is also a member of the ruling coalition, has promised to cooperate with investigators, according to a presidential adviser.
However police have not reported making any move to arrest Ampatuan, saying they must first gather all the evidence. This area seems to be a very civil, lawful and orderly place to live.
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.
Cotabato, Philippines - A politician whose family was targeted in a southern Philippine massacre that left 52 people dead described the attackers on Wednesday as monsters, saying his murdered sister and aunt were pregnant.
