China is considering sending ships to fight pirates off the Horn of Africa in what would be the countrys first significant long-range naval combat mission since the 15th century. Senior Colonel Huang Xueping, spokesman for Chinas ministry of national defence, told the FT an anti-piracy mission was still in the consideration stage. But he said: There will be an announcement very soon.
Since late October, more than 30 ships have been attacked by pirates based in Somalia and up to 19 vessels captured. These include a Chinese fishing vessel with 30 crew seized off the coast of Yemen on Tuesday. It was freed on Wednesday by a multilateral force, according to Xinhua, the official news agency.
The UN Security Council on Tuesday authorised states to conduct land and air attacks on pirate bases in Somalia. This follows the sending by Nato of ships to accompany World Food Programme vessels. The European Union, India, Russia and the US have also sent ships and helicopters on anti-piracy missions to the area.
Beijing in recent years has tried to placate foreign fears over its military expansion by claiming it is pursing a peaceful rise as a power. Other than for a 2002 global tour and a handful of port calls to the US and Europe over the past decade, Chinas navy has not ventured far out to sea since the 15th century voyages around the world undertaken by Zheng He, the countrys most famous explorer. But the country is increasing military spending at 15-20 per cent a year and the US and Japan believe it is developing a blue-water navy.
Contributing to an anti-piracy mission off Somalia would be a way to demonstrate that blue-water navy without raising hackles. Who could say no? So they get some kudos and valuable experience with little to no downside in risk.
A senior defence official told the FT in November that China wanted eventually to be able to add aircraft carriers to its navy, although he emphasised Beijing would not use [an aircraft carrier] to pursue global deployment or global reach.
Course not. They'd keep it at home and just shine it up ...
Any Chinese anti-piracy operation is expected to be small and observers doubt Beijing would be comfortable taking part in a bigger international operation if it carried a significant risk of combat, even under a UN mandate.
A Western military attaché in Beijing said the hope was that China would send one destroyer and one supply ship to the area and loosely co-ordinate with other forces there.
But that they would put themselves under somebody elses command, for example become part of the [EUs] Atlanta operation, seems unimaginable, said the attaché.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm suprised they haven't started with "lily pad" type carriers.
Sudanese government soldiers and militia have forced kidnapped men, women and children into labour and sexual slavery in the war-torn region of Darfur, a coalition of African charities said on Wednesday. It's okay if they do it to each other. That's just their culture, y'know.
The Sudanese military said the allegations were not worthy of comment and a government spokesman was not reachable for further response. You could leave a message with his house slave, though.
The Darfur Consortium said it had uncovered evidence for the first time that men were abducted and enslaved as agricultural labourers during attacks in western Sudan, where regional conflict is poised to enter a seventh year.
Most of those abducted are women and girls, who are subjected to rape and forced marriage, even used as sex slaves and domestic workers by soldiers in Khartoum, while men and boys are forced into farm work, the study said. "The abductions for forced labour and sexual slavery are being used by the Janjaweed, Sudanese Armed Forces and other allied militias, alongside torture, the killing of civilians, the destruction of villages and other human rights abuses as part of a systematic policy of ethnic cleansing to displace and seize the land" of non-Arabic speaking ethnic groups," the report said.
The area is then repopulated with Arabic speaking people, including nomads from Chad, Niger, Mali and Cameroon, it added. UN officials estimate that up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have fled their homes since February 2003, when two Darfur rebel groups rose up against the government demanding resources and power.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
UN officials estimate that up to 300,000 people have died and 2.7 million have fled their homes since February 2003
Doesn't really compare with the suffering of the Palestinians under the Zionist Entity.
#2
Millions have been slaved in Southern Sudan over the decades. I was reading about it since the 80s. I really think the US should have supported an independent Southern Sudan long ago and put the Sudanese government on notice.
The U.N. Security Council on Tuesday authorized countries fighting piracy off the Somali coast to take action also on Somalia's territory and in its airspace, subject to consent by the country's government.
The United States said for the first time that the United Nations should deploy a peacekeeping force to war-torn Somalia and that Washington would push for a Security Council resolution by the end of the year to authorize one.
The text, co-sponsored by Belgium, France, Greece, Liberia and South Korea is the fourth approved by the council since June to combat rampant piracy off Somalia's coast.
The vote took place at a high-profile ministerial session attended by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, Chinese deputy foreign minister He Yafei and U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
There is zero chance of a UN 'peace keeping' force for Somalia. What this appears to be is cover for commando style raids to free ships. The number of countries that have the capacity, and the political will to ignore the collateral fluffy duck (especially islamic fluffy ducks) damage is pretty short. Off-hand I come up with India. Not sure China and Russia have the capacity.
#2
The United States said for the first time that the United Nations should deploy a peacekeeping force to war-torn Somalia and that Washington would push for a Security Council resolution by the end of the year to authorize one.
In case nobody remembers their history, that's been tried. Didn't work out too well.
Of course, if they wanna blow Eyl off the map as a message to the local swashbucklers, I can't think of too many folks that would have a problem with that.
Somalia's president on Wednesday defended his efforts to fire the country's prime minister after being sharply criticized by the U.S. and Kenya, while lawmakers said they would seek to impeach the president.
Kenya's foreign affairs minister on Tuesday called Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf an obstacle to peace and announced sanctions against him, including a travel ban and freezing any assets in Kenya.
The U.S. State Department also criticized Yusuf, with deputy spokesman Robert Wood describing the prime minister's removal as undermining "efforts to promote peace and stability in the region."
"It cannot be true that I'm an obstacle to peace. It is propaganda," Yusuf said in a rare telephone interview with The Associated Press from the southern Somalia town of Baidoa, where parliament sits.
Yusuf unilaterally fired Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein this week after months of public feuds over the best way to bring peace in Somalia, but parliament soundly rejected Yusuf's decision and voted to keep the prime minister. The president said Wednesday that parliament's vote was illegal and that he had a right to appoint a new prime minister.
But lawmaker Ibrahim Isaq Yarow said that a resolution to impeach Yusuf had the support of 117 legislators in the 275-member parliament. The resolution alleges Yusuf has violated 14 articles of Somalia's transitional charter, including illegally printing money and committing unspecified injustices. No date has been set for a vote.
Yusuf called the impeachment attempt "illegal and an affront to the law of the land." He said he could not be impeached before Somalia's attorney general investigated the allegations.
The government dispute does nothing to stabilize the administration, which wields virtually no authority in the face of powerful Islamic insurgents who have taken over most of the Horn of Africa country. Ethiopia, which has been protecting the Somali government, recently announced it would withdraw its troops by the end of this month. That will leave the government vulnerable to Islamic insurgents, who began a brutal insurgency in 2007.
Civilians have suffered most from the violence surrounding the insurgency, with thousands killed or maimed by mortar shells, machine-gun crossfire and grenades. The United Nations says there are 300,000 acutely malnourished children in Somalia, but attacks and kidnappings of aid workers have shut down many humanitarian projects.
The lawlessness allows piracy to flourish off the coast; bandits have taken in about $30 million in ransom this year.
The United States worries that Somalia could be a terrorist breeding ground, and accuses the most powerful Islamic faction, al-Shabab, of harboring the al-Qaida-linked terrorists who blew up the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The Bush administration is pushing for U.N. peacekeepers to be sent to help stabilize Somalia, but U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday that he had talked to at least 50 nations over the past four months about such a force and seen almost no support for the idea.
"Not one nation has volunteered to lead," Ban said. "The replies have been very lukewarm or negative. ... There are one or two who have expressed their willingness to provide some troops."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
It's always a good laugh to read about the Somali "government". And ya get bonus points for adding their "efforts to promote peace and stability in the region."
The Muslim brain surgeon cleared of masterminding the failed car bombing of a nightclub and airport is set to pocket millions in compensation.
Dr Mohammed Asha, 28, was acquitted by a jury of any involvement in the terror attacks on London and Glasgow. Last night he revealed he was considering suing the Home Office and police over his wrongful arrest which had obliterated his life. Legal sources said he could expect at least seven figures.
Dr Ashas co-accused British-born Iraqi National Health Service doctor Bilal Abdulla was yesterday jailed for at least 32 years for the bungled raids that left an accomplice dead. Prosecutors at Woolwich Crown Court alleged Jordanian Dr Asha a close pal of Abdullas had co-ordinated the attacks in a series of meetings and phone calls. But the jury found he knew nothing of his friends plans.
Last night he was still in jail and faces deportation after being told his presence is not conducive to the public good. In a statement read by his solicitor Tayab Ali, Dr Asha said: This case has obliterated my life and the lives of my family. His legal team said he intends to apply for bail and fight deportation.
Posted by: ryuge ||
12/18/2008 05:09 ||
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SEOUL - North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il has inspected a steel plant, state media said Thursday, its second report in two days of visits by the reportedly ailing leader.
Kim gave field guidance to the February General Steel Enterprise in the northern province of Jagang, the Korean Central News Agency said without specifying the date of the visit. Noting that it is very important for building an economic power to develop the steel industry, he set forth the tasks to be fulfilled by the enterprise, the report said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Remember the "Fireworks Boys"?
TAMPA - Defense attorneys for a 27-year-old Egyptian man who pleaded guilty to trying to help terrorists are asking a judge to sentence him to eight years in prison, not the 15-year-term being requested by prosecutors.
Ahmed Mohamed, a former student at the University of South Florida, is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday for posting a video on the Web site YouTube in which he demonstrates how to use a remote-control toy to detonate a bomb. The purpose of the video, Mohamed has said, was to help "martyrs" who target U.S. forces overseas.
In a sentencing memorandum, defense attorneys maintain Mohamed should be spared an excessively long prison sentence, partly because there is "no evidence that anyone actually used the information that he produced to harm any American or any other person. There is no evidence of any victims of this crime." Hmmmmmm. Too bad he copped that guilty plea. Kinda complicates things.
Prosecutors, in a memo submitted to the court last month, maintained that Mohamed came to this country to gather information about explosives "to cause harm within this country."
Mohamed was arrested, along with his friend, Youssef Megahed, last year in South Carolina after deputies there said they found explosives in the trunk of their car. Megahed is still awaiting trial on charges of illegally transporting explosives.
Mohamed's attorneys, Linda Moreno and Lyann Goudie, also say in their memorandum that Mohamed has been subject to abuse while in jail pending prosecution.
Mohamed has been repeatedly strip-searched and not allowed to cover himself, they write. "His cell has been routinely searched and property tossed in greater numbers than those of other inmates. When he has been returned to his cell, his personal belongings are often arranged in the form of a cross. His religion has been demeaned, with the guards taunting profanities at Allah, the Islamic word for God. His Koran was often thrown on the floor and his prayer sheets tossed in the toilet. Aw, geez. Not the Koran shit...
When he attempted to pray during his rare recreation time, he was physically prevented from doing so and his privileges were terminated, including the elimination of recreation time altogether. He was repeatedly humiliated and disrespected. How do they know this? He told them.
"This adverse treatment has caused him psychological harm and prompted defense counsel to assistance from the United States Attorney to relocate him to a more humane facility," the attorneys added. "As a result of such inhumane and debilitating treatment, counsel has observed Mr. Mohamed's physical health deteriorate. From the time of his arrest, to the first meeting with defense counsel, Mr. Mohamed had lost over 40 pounds. Mr. Mohamed had also been placed on suicide watch while housed at the local detention facility as a result of his noted depression."
The prosecution memo says Mohamed has lashed out at corrections officials: "The coldest statement of this defendant and the most telling as to his hatred and disdain for the United States came in a hand-written letter which the defendant sent to a Hillsborough County jail deputy on April 1, 2008. In that letter, which he signed, the defendant 'congratulated' the jail deputy upon the fact that the Pentagon had recently announced the death of more than 4,000 U.S. troops in the Middle East."
The defense attorneys argue that Mohamed will serve his federal prison sentence under harsh conditions. "Mr. Mohamed will face a stark existence with long term psychological effects," they write. "He will be kept in virtual isolation, 23 hours each day, and denied any meaningful contact with his family and the outside world, except an occasional visit with his lawyers. Correspondence by mail will be greatly restricted due to the government's administrative review procedures." Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Sounds like...prison.
They maintain that such isolation has been documented to psychologically damage inmates.
#1
On the bright side, he'll have plenty of time to finish his degree.
Posted by: ed ||
12/18/2008 1:55 Comments ||
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I think he'd be better off dispensing with the complaining and concentrating on showing his 'best' side; he could even do the taqqiyah thing and have a jailhouse conversion to Seventh Day Adventist or something - it might do more towards getting out of jail early.
The parents of American-born Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh are asking President George W. Bush to set their son free before Bush leaves office next month. Is Mike Spann alive again?
Lindh was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty in 2002 to serving in the Taliban army, which violated U.S. economic sanctions against Afghanistan at that time. At a news conference in San Francisco Wednesday, Lindh's mother, Marilyn Walker, asked the president to show mercy during the Christmas season by commuting her son's sentence. In the spirit of "the holidays", how about we throw him off a tall building to celebrate New Years? When he hits, it'll be 2009.
Lindh initially asked for a commutation in 2004 and his lawyers have renewed the request each year. The U.S. Department of Justice has never acted on the petition and a spokeswoman didn't immediately return a telephone call. Geez, musta lost the paperwork. Try again next year, mumsy. Next year it will likely work ...
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Lest we fergit, the infamous US NINTH ruled America to be an illegal and unconstitutional nation, hence LINDH technically couldn't had broken any US laws since (1) the USA doesn't and can't exist, (2) the Law was illegal andor unconstit at its inception, (3) or since Lindh's Date of Birth [Yoohoo, looking at you POTUS BARACK]. AND WE ALL KNOW OR SHOULD KNOW ITS AGZ THE LAW TO BREAK THE LAW, ESPEC ONE THAT CAN'T ANDOR NEVER "LEGALLY" EXISTED, AS A MATTER OF LAW, NOW DON'T WE?
* OOOOOOOOPPPPPPSIES, its somebody's bad.....
Gotta go, my head is hurting from the all the LEGALISMS.
#2
Joe, ya gotta put away the migraine machine. It's killin' us here....just killin' us.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/18/2008 0:45 Comments ||
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#3
"The parents of American-born Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh are asking President George W. Bush to set their son free before Bush leaves office next month."
Frankly, they have a much better chance with the next President.
#5
How bout he has this POS executed before he leaves office? Heck throw the bulk of the people in Gitmo. "Bush the Bloody" has a nice ring to it and Obama can threaten the Bush might come back to power if the reat of the world doesn't tow the line.
#6
For Christmas? Does Johnny Jihad celebrate Christmas? Doesn't matter. When he's turned down the Islamicists will contrast the merciful and just tradition of Islamic rulers releasing prisoners on religious holidays vs. the cruel Christian Bush who refused to do so.
India on Wednesday moved to secure its nuclear power plants, fearing that these strategic targets could be attacked by terrorists. The government introduced a no-fly zone in a 10-mile radius of the Kalpakkan nuclear power plant near Chennai in Tamil Nadu. Indian television also reported that restrictions had been reinforced on flights near oil installations and the centre of Delhi, Indias capital.
The Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement that it was placing a ban on aircraft flying below 10,000ft over the nuclear plant in the interest of the security of India, according to The Times of India, the Indian daily newspaper.
The move follows Novembers devastating attack on Mumbai by terrorists allegedly linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a banned Pakistani militant group. Indias security forces are bracing themselves for a more sophisticated terror threat. Palaniappan Chidambaram, the home minister, has highlighted the vulnerability of Indias coastline to attack from the sea. Security forces are also worried about an air strike.
There is speculation of an air threat from rogue countries, which are inimical to Indian interests, said Kapil Kaul, the chief executive in India of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation. Mr Kaul said India's security apparatus had been galvanised by the Mumbai attacks. The sacrifices of those 180-plus people has done good for generations in India, he said. The entire security apparatus of India has changed. India was too soft as far as security was concerned and that has changed.
Wednesdays restrictions in Indian airspace also follows a threat by the Deccan Mujahideen, the group that claimed responsibility for the Mumbai attacks, against airports in Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore earlier this month.
Defence analysts on Wednesday said the tighter security around nuclear plants was a precautionary move. The government has been conducting a review of its anti-terror response since the Mumbai strike and tougher anti-terror laws are currently under debate in parliament.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Only a real moron would attack a nu--mmmm, nevermind.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/18/2008 14:25 Comments ||
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#2
Kalpakkam at Chennai (Madras) and BARC at Mumbai (Bombay) are the two main strategic nuclear development centers in India.
Kalpakkam has a reprocessing facility attached to it and probably fabricates weapon pits.
Chennai: The declaration of a no-fly zone above Kalpakkam up to an altitude of 10,000 feet and within a radius of 10 km comes as no surprise to the strategic community, as the key atomic energy installation has been identified by India as a non-civilian facility and will, therefore, not open for international safeguards.
In both the civilian nuclear cooperation agreement signed with the United States and the safeguards agreement it entered into with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), India has agreed to separate its facilities into civilian installations and military or strategic ones. The civilian facilities alone will come under international safeguards and be open to inspections.
While identifying 14 thermal reactors offered for IAEA safeguards between 2006 and 2014, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had specifically ruled out opening up the facilities in Kalpakkam, about 80 km from here, where the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research is located.
"India is not in a position to accept safeguards on the Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (PFBR) and the Fast Breeder Test Reactor (FBTR), both located at Kalpakkam. The fast breeder programme is at the R & D stage and its technology will take time to mature and reach an advanced stage of development," said his statement on the implementation of India's separation plan as envisaged in the Indo-US joint statement of July 18, 2005.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/18/2008 15:40 Comments ||
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President Asif Ali Zardari said on Wednesday that use of force was the only option against 'power-hungry militants' using force to impose their political agenda on the masses. "There is no alternative but to fight the militancy in the country, as they want to seize political power through the use of force," he told parliamentarians from FATA in a meeting. During the meeting, which is part of the president's series of dialogue with politicians on the situation in the Tribal Areas, Zardari said his government would not allow anyone to "hold the nation hostage". The legislators were told the government had decided to lift a hiring ban to fill all vacant positions in FATA development projects. Interior Adviser Rehman Malik said the government would hire 2,500 new Levies troops and raise 100 new FC platoons.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
While out of the other side of their mouths ....
President Zardari said there is no evidence the Mumbai attack was launched from within Pakistan. Pakistan's high commissioner to India said the captured Mumbai attacker is not a Pakistani citizen.
Armed activists of the defunct Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) on Wednesday raided several markets in Landikotal in Khyber Agency and seized firecrackers from all the shops in the area, terming them 'un-Islamic'. The LI men later torched the firecrackers at a public gathering and warned the residents against selling and using firecrackers, saying their use was un-Islamic. Residents said they were not against such activities by the vigilante group. Yeah, them firecrackers is dangerous. You could put someones eye out or sumthin...
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Rejecting Indian claims yet again that there is 'clear evidence' suggesting the Mumbai terror attacks originated inside Pakistan, President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday told BBC there is still no conclusive proof. Why don't you ask your wife? Oh, wait...
Zardari has previously pointed out several times that there is still no firm proof that gunmen who attacked Mumbai came from Pakistan. The president, however, promised Pakistan would take action if a link was proved. Zardari told BBC's Alan Little in Islamabad that Pakistan was prepared to act if adequate evidence of any Pakistani complicity in the attacks emerged. "If that stage comes, and when it comes, I assure you that our parliament, our democracy shall take the action properly deemed in our constitution and in our law," he said.
He said that Western intelligence agencies had not offered firm evidence to justify claims that the attacks were orchestrated from Pakistani soil, and he would not jump to conclusions until a full investigation had been conducted. Mr Zardari said claims that the sole surviving attacker had been identified by his father as coming from Pakistan had also not been proven. Mere conjecture, I tells ya!
The arrested man has been named as Muhammad Ajmal Amir Kasab and is in Indian police custody.
The president also said that Hafiz Saeed — the leader of the banned charity Jamaatud Dawa (JD) — would remain under house arrest. "Let me assure you that if there is any investigation to be found pointing towards his involvement in any form of terrorism, he shall be tried for that reason," said Zardari. But there won't be, so he won't be.
JD is accused of being a front for Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LT) — which is being blamed by India for carrying out the attacks — but the charity denies the charge. Zardari said that he had asked India to co-operate in an investigation, and he would not leap to judgement while that investigation was still in progress. He said that while he was not in denial about LT's continued activities, "when you ban an organisation, they emerge in some other form". "So best just to leave them alone!"
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Hafiz Saeed, chief of the banned Jamaatud Dawa, cannot be tried without solid proof, Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar said on Wednesday. He was talking to reporters outside parliament during a break in the meeting of the parliamentary committee on national security. According to a private TV channel, Mukhtar said Saeed had been detained under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) regulation, which only allowed detaining a citizen for 90 days. The detention could be extended, he said, but India had not given solid proof to the Pakistani government about the involvement of Saeed or the banned Lashkar-e-Tayyaba in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month. "In the absence of solid proof, neither Hafiz Saeed nor any other leader detained at the moment can be tried in any court of law," the channel quoted him as saying. "In our opinion there's no such thing as solid proof."
The crackdown against banned organisations including the Jamaatud Dawa would ensure the Pakistan soil is not used for terrorist activities, Mukhtar added. He said Pakistani army was on high alert despite India's assurance it would not go to war. "In our opinion there will never be solid proof!"
Posted by: Fred ||
12/18/2008 00:00 ||
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SECURITY agents destroyed the shoes thrown at US President George W. Bush by an Iraqi journalist during checks to ensure they did not contain explosives, the investigating judge says. "The shoes were examined by the Iraqi and American security services and then destroyed," the judge said.
Journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, 29, has been in custody in Baghdad since Sunday's dramatic shoe protest against Bush, which made al-Zaidi an instant sensation in the Arab world.
But the judge said the lack of the key piece of evidence in the case would not prevent the investigation from proceeding. "I would have preferred to have had the shoes as evidence for the case but since Muntazer al-Zaidi has confessed to his action and that the television pictures confirm it, the investigation can continue," he said.
The journalist's brother has said he was hospitalised after being beaten by security guards and was suffering a broken arm and ribs, as well as injuries to an eye and a leg. There were no details on his condition today.
In Bethlehem, about 50 Palestinian journalists staged a bare-footed protest to show solidarity with Zaidi, who relatives and colleagues said had hurled the shoes because he detested Americans and Bush. The sit-in came as hundreds of pilgrims gathered ahead of Christmas celebrations in the city where Christians believe Jesus was born.
#4
While throwing a shoe at someone is an insult in Arabic culture, it's also a profound embarrassment for the host -- in this case, Maliki and the government. They're not going to be very nice to Mr. al-Zaidi.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2008 10:37 Comments ||
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#5
Well now that Saudi guy has 10 mil he can spend on good booze, the baccarat tables in Monaco, and blonde Russian hookers.
Insh Allah...
#8
Appears our shoe tosser has had a change of heart...
BAGHDAD (AP) - A spokesman for Iraq's prime minister says the journalist who threw his shoes at President George W. Bush has asked for a pardon.
Spokesman Yassin Majid says that in a letter sent Thursday to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki the journalist described his behavior as "an ugly act" and asked to be pardoned.
Majid says that Muntadhar al-Zeidi in the letter recalls the kindness the prime minister once showed him during an interview in 2005 and asked for al-Maliki to show him kindness once again.
Al-Zeidi, a correspondent for an Iraqi-owned television station based in Cairo, Egypt, could face two years imprisonment for insulting a foreign leader.
BAGHDAD -- Up to 35 officials in the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior ranking as high as general have been arrested over the past three days with some of them accused of quietly working to reconstitute Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, according to senior security officials in Baghdad. Isn't the Baath party sort of, like, illegal? This suggests to me that there was another coup in the works. Time to make a few quick examples out of these folks - Iraqi style.
The arrests, confirmed by officials from the Ministries of the Interior and National Security as well as the prime minister's office, included four generals. The officials also said that the arrests had come at the hand of an elite counterterrorism force that reports directly to the office of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.
The involvement of the counterterrorism unit speaks to the seriousness of the accusations, and several officials from the Ministries of the Interior and National Security said that some of those arrested were in the early stages of planning a coup. None of the officials provided details about that allegation.
But the arrests reflect a new set of political challenges for Iraq. Mr. Maliki, who has gained popularity as a strong leader but has few reliable political allies, has scrambled to protect himself from domestic rivals as the domineering influence of the United States, his leading backer, begins to fade. Rumors of coups, conspiracies and new alliances abound in the Iraqi capital a month before provincial elections. Critics of Mr. Maliki say he has been using arrests to consolidate power.
But senior security officials said there was significant evidence tying those arrested to a wide array of political corruption charges, including affiliation with Al Awda, or the Return, a descendant of the Baath Party, which ruled the country as a dictatorship for 35 years, mostly under Mr. Hussein. Tens of thousands of Iraqis died or were persecuted, including Mr. Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, by the Baath Party. It was outlawed after the American invasion in 2003.
While most members of the Baath Party were Sunni Muslims, as Mr. Hussein was, those arrested were a mix of Sunnis and Shiites, several officials said. It was unclear precisely how many Interior Ministry officials were detained.
A high-ranking Interior Ministry official said that those affiliated with Al Awda had paid bribes to other officers to recruit them and that huge amounts of money had been found in raids. He said there could be more arrests. Some of those under arrest belonged to the now-illegal party under Mr. Hussein's government. Mr. Maliki's office declined to comment. But one of his advisers, insisting that he not be named because he was not authorized to speak, said the detainees were involved in "a conspiracy."
The Ministry of the Interior is dedicated to Iraq's internal security, and includes the police forces. The ministry has a history of being heavily infiltrated with Shiite militias, though it has improved considerably over the past two years.
A police officer, who knows several of the detainees but spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said they were innocent, longstanding civil servants and had little in common with one another. Those who once belonged to the Baath Party were lower-level members, he said, insisting that the arrests were politically motivated.
Interior Minister Jawad Kadem al-Bolani, who has not been implicated and is out of the country, has his own political ambitions and has been expanding his secular Iraqi Constitutional Party. Iraq is a nation where leadership has often changed by coup, and as next month's provincial elections approach, worry about violence is increasing. So are accusations about politically charged detentions.
The counterterrorism unit involved in these arrests is alleged to have conducted a raid this summer on the Diyala provincial governor's office, during which an employee was killed and a provincial council member, one of the few Sunnis Arabs on the council, was arrested.
At a later protest against the arrest, several other Sunni politicians were detained. A number of politicians who follow the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, and who have set themselves up as political rivals to the prime minister, have also been arrested over the past months and charged with terrorist activities.
Anxieties about the government's treatment of political enemies were also raised this week as the American military, as part of the recently approved security agreement, turned over to Iraqi custody on Monday 39 senior officials from the Hussein government. Some have been convicted already and others are scheduled to stand trial, the United States military said in a statement.
Saleh al-Mutlaq, a Sunni lawmaker, charged that the safety of the prisoners was in jeopardy. "I think these people are not going to be treated well and that is the American responsibility," he said.
Badeei Araf, a lawyer who said he represented 11 of those being turned over, said at least two appeared on the "most wanted" deck of cards that the United States publicized early in the invasion in 2003. But, he said, neither Ali Hassan al-Majid, known as Chemical Ali and awaiting execution, nor Tariq Aziz, the public face of the Hussein government, were among those transferred.
Correction: December 18, 2008: An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that one of the Iraqi officials arrested was Gen. Ahmed Abu Raqeef, the ministry's director of internal affairs.
#1
Sounds like SOCOM hard at work spotted these birds and took notes. The counterintelligence types involved with this have earned their case of Scotch.
#2
I had to go check the original article to make sure it was actually written by NYT reporters - it reads like real news and not the typical Pravda piece.
WASHINGTON- A US government report raises the possibility that private security firm Blackwater could lose its license to protect US diplomats in Iraq and advises making contingency plans, two sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.
Five Blackwater guards were charged on Dec. 8 with killing 14 unarmed civilians and wounding 20 others in a 2007 Baghdad shooting that outraged Iraqis and raised questions about the firms ability to keep working in Iraq.
The State Department relies heavily on North Carolina-based Blackwater and other private security companies, many of which are staffed by former U.S. soldiers, to protect its diplomats in Iraq, the West Bank and other dangerous places.
The two sources described the draft report prepared by the State Department Office of Inspector General (OIG) on condition that they not be named because it has yet to be made public. The department faces the real possibility that one of its primary worldwide personal protective services contractors in IraqBlackwater USAwill not receive a license to continue operating in Iraq, said the report, referring to a license issued by the Iraqi authorities, the sources said.
The sources stressed that the report did not recommend dropping Blackwater, the largest security contractor in Iraq. One source said that inspector general reports typically recommend that agencies prepare for worst-case scenarios.
A State Department spokesman said the department will not make a decision whether to retain the companys services in Iraq until a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into the 2007 incident is completed.
The shooting occurred as Blackwater guards escorted a convoy of U.S. diplomats through Baghdad on Sept. 16, 2007. The guards, U.S. military veterans, were responding to a car bombing when shooting erupted in a crowded intersection. In a 35-count indictment, the U.S. Justice Department charged the guards with 14 counts of manslaughter, 20 counts of attempt to commit manslaughter and a weapons violation count. When the charges were unveiled, Blackwater said it believed the guards acted acted within the rules set forth for them by the government and that no criminal violations occurred.
Undersecretary of State Patrick Kennedy, who led the State Departments original investigation into the 2007 shooting, said the department is always ready to protect its diplomats. The State Department takes very seriously its obligation to provide security for its personnel around the world in an appropriate manner, he said. We are always prepared to deal with changing circumstances.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
Looks like State's Diplomatic Security (DS) branch will be hirnig again soon. Conveniently not mentioned were DS personnel overseeing and supervising the convoy.
Hamas has approved for the first time the establishment of a new bank in the Gaza Strip under its authority, a move that could open a door to bypass a financial blockade imposed by Israel and its Western allies. Islamic National Bank chairman Ala al-Rafati said the new financial institution had received a license from the government run by the Islamist group which controls the Palestinian coastal enclave and planned to open for business early in the new year.
Hamas said it will not control the new bank, an assertion disputed by its rivals in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where President Mahmoud Abbas's Western-backed Palestinian Authority is based. Rafati likewise asserted that the bank had no factional affiliation, saying the venture was designed to boost local investment in Gaza's economy "in an environment of resistance," a reference to the conflict with Israel.
The Western-backed Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) in Ramallah, which registers and regulates established banks, said it would shun the Islamic National Bank, meaning the institution may have to function autonomously, without access to funds in the West Bank or to the global banking system. "The PMA has not authorized the licensing of such a bank, and, accordingly, if there is such a bank, we will pursue every legal action to prevent it from operating," said PMA governor Jihad Wazir.
Matt Levitt, a former senior official at the U.S. Treasury Department, said such a bank would face serious obstacles. "This would be mostly a bank in name only," said Levitt, an expert on militants' financing at the Washington Institute. "It's unlikely that any international bank, let alone any Israeli bank, would have anything to do with any bank registered with Hamas and not with the West Bank-based government."
Despite the boycott and other hurdles, a senior Western diplomat said the new bank, which will operate under Islamic rules that bar charging interest, could prove profitable. "You get all the money ... from the tunnels ... and then you actually use it for investments within Gaza. You get a rate of return and you're using this liquidity more efficiently," the diplomat said.
United Nations' refugee agency on Thursday suspended food distributions to Palestinians in Gaza Strip after it ran out of food stockpiles.
In a statement sent to the media, the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said Israel closed all the crossing points into Gaza and humanitarian aid and fuel supplies cannot get through. The largest relief organization in Gaza said the stockpiled flour ran out and forced it to halt the regular and the emergency distributing programs.
Israel imposed severe restrictions on shipments to Gaza Strip since early November after a wave of violence erupted between its forces and Palestinian militants, violating an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire. Since November, Israel only allowed several aid convoys, whose shipments were distributed quickly, leaving the organization unable to store food rations.
As the agreement, which calls on Israel to ease Gaza blockade in exchange for lull, coming to an end on Friday, the armed Palestinian groups stepped up rocket attacks into Israeli border communities and the Jewish state responded by tightening the closure.
The UNRWA said the suspending of food distributions would affect the 750,000 Palestinian refugees out of Gaza's 1.5 million population.
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
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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.
Somalia's president on Wednesday defended his efforts to fire the country's prime minister after being sharply criticized by the U.S. and Kenya, while lawmakers said they would seek to impeach the president.
The parents of American-born Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh are asking President George W. Bush to set their son free before Bush leaves office next month.
Armed activists of the defunct Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) on Wednesday raided several markets in Landikotal in Khyber Agency and seized firecrackers from all the shops in the area, terming them 'un-Islamic'. The LI men later torched the firecrackers at a public gathering and warned the residents against selling and using firecrackers, saying their use was un-Islamic. Residents said they were not against such activities by the vigilante group. 
Rejecting Indian claims yet again that there is 'clear evidence' suggesting the Mumbai terror attacks originated inside Pakistan, President Asif Ali Zardari on Wednesday told BBC there is still no conclusive proof. 
Hafiz Saeed, chief of the banned Jamaatud Dawa, cannot be tried without solid proof, Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar said on Wednesday. He was talking to reporters outside parliament during a break in the meeting of the parliamentary committee on national security. According to a private TV channel, Mukhtar said Saeed had been detained under the Maintenance of Public Order (MPO) regulation, which only allowed detaining a citizen for 90 days. The detention could be extended, he said, but India had not given solid proof to the Pakistani government about the involvement of Saeed or the banned Lashkar-e-Tayyaba in the terrorist attacks in Mumbai last month. "In the absence of solid proof, neither Hafiz Saeed nor any other leader detained at the moment can be tried in any court of law," the channel quoted him as saying. 
BAGHDAD -- Up to 35 officials in the Iraqi Ministry of the Interior ranking as high as general have been arrested over the past three days with some of them accused of quietly working to reconstitute Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, according to senior security officials in Baghdad.
