ISRAELâS armed forces have been ordered by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, to be ready by the end of March for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran, military sources have revealed.
The order came after Israeli intelligence warned the government that Iran was operating enrichment facilities, believed to be small and concealed in civilian locations.
Iranâs stand-off with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over nuclear inspections and aggressive rhetoric from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, who said last week that Israel should be moved to Europe, are causing mounting concern.
The crisis is set to come to a head in early March, when Mohamed El-Baradei, the head of the IAEA, will present his next report on Iran. El-Baradei, who received the Nobel peace prize yesterday, warned that the world was âlosing patienceâ with Iran.
A senior White House source said the threat of a nuclear Iran was moving to the top of the international agenda and the issue now was: âWhat next?â That question would have to be answered in the next few months, he said.
Posted by: Captain America ||
12/10/2005 20:23 ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2005 21:27 Comments ||
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"by the end of March"
Right, like "military sources" would announce D-Day 100 days in advance. I predict Qom will light up for Hanukkah and burn for eight days and nights.
Egypt raised security along the Suez Canal today after receiving information about the possibility of attacks by al Qaeda on ships in the strategic waterway, a canal official and security sources said.
An official from the Suez Canal Authority, who asked not to be named, told Reuters the warnings had come from Egypt's embassy in Denmark but did not give details about how the embassy received the information.
Shipping in the canal, which is a major international trade route running between the Mediterranean and Red Sea, has not been affected by the measures, he said.
''The Egyptian embassy in Copenhagen sent warnings to the Suez Canal Authority saying it had receive information about possibilities of al Qaeda carrying out terrorist attacks inside the canal waterway against passing ships,'' the official said.
Security sources, who also asked not to be named, confirmed that security had been heightened.
Egypt's Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment.
The canal official said the measures included raising security on a road parallel to the canal used by security and the authority.
Other measures previously put in place involved preventing fishing in the waterway and closing some small roads leading to the canal especially in the area between Ismailia and the northern entrance of Port Said, the official said.
Oil tankers, container ships and warships regularly pass through the canal, which is a major source of revenue to the Egyptian government.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/10/2005 00:58 ||
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#1
As I recall, Israeli shipping is not permitted through the Suez canal, so those cargos, at least, won't be at greater risk from this threat. I wonder who decided that not enough of the world is seriously annoyed with Islamist terror groups, and that now would be a good time to add more enemies?
Saudi Arabia suspects Osama bin Laden might be losing some control of his al Qaeda terrorist network, said the new Saudi ambassador in Washington.
"For the last year, we have been developing an impression that bin Laden is not what he used to be," Ambassador Prince Turki al-Faisal told reporters at the Saudi Embassy this week.
Prince Turki said bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, appears to be positioning himself to take over the network if bin Laden dies or is incapacitated. Al-Zawahri this week issued a videotape in which he said bin Laden is alive and in charge.
"Zawahri has been clearly showing the world that, if he is not No. 1, he would be No. 1 should bin Laden disappear," the ambassador said.
Prince Turki, a former head of Saudi intelligence who knew bin Laden, said his government thinks the terrorist leader is alive and still plotting attacks. The ambassador said he thinks bin Laden ordered the London subway bombings in July.
"Bin Laden is still capable of issuing orders and having them carried out," Prince Turki said.
The ambassador said both men will be a threat to the Western world and to Saudi Arabia as long as they remain at large.
"Bin Laden has to be captured. Zawahri has to be captured. The longer they are uncaptured, the stronger the aura of invincibility they acquire," he said.
Prince Turki explained that one of his top priorities as ambassador is to improve the image of Saudi Arabia in the United States, where some members of Congress and some foreign policy analysts have accused the kingdom of supporting terrorism and abusing human rights.
"I've come here to try to expand and improve relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia," he said, adding that he has been well-received "at all levels" of the U.S. government.
"The United States has an image problem in the Arab world. We Saudis have an image problem in the United States," he said.
The Bush administration put Saudi Arabia on a list of countries with religious intolerance.
"That has made us more determined to show the United States we should not be on that list," Prince Turki said. "If we had similar lists in Saudi Arabia, I wouldn't be surprised if the United States would be on a list for some issue."
Prince Turki, who presented his diplomatic credentials to President Bush last week, said he got some advice from King Abdullah on how to deal with the straight-talking Texan. The king most recently met with Mr. Bush at his Crawford, Texas, ranch in April.
"Before I left Saudi Arabia, I asked his majesty how to deal with President Bush. He said, 'Just be open with him,' " the ambassador said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/10/2005 00:53 ||
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#1
I think we should concentrate on killing Zarwahiri that guy is smart and dangerous. Zark would be pushed even further up the line and he maybe a great foot soldgeir with his emotional dicisions and blood lust but in leadership letting that emotion enter the decision making process cost you and cost you big time. Bin Laden if he isnt dead he must be pretty weak no videos or even a audio tape to speak of for a long time now.
#2
"For the last year, we have been developing an impression that bin Laden is not what he used to be," Ambassador Prince Turki al-Faisal told reporters at the Saudi Embassy this week.
Decomposition does that...
Posted by: Ol Dirty American ||
12/10/2005 10:13 Comments ||
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I agree with C-low here. Zark is the eminent threat. Zark does not seem to have any larger plan or vision other than to destroy the western world.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/10/2005 11:13 Comments ||
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Prince Turki explained that one of his top priorities as ambassador is to improve the image of Saudi Arabia in the United States, where some members of Congress and some foreign policy analysts have accused the kingdom of supporting terrorism and abusing human rights.
Police questioned eight suspects on Friday after a suicide bomber blew himself up on a crowded Bangladesh street, killing himself and six others in the latest attack blamed on extremists wanting to create an Islamic state.
The suspects were detained in Netrokona town, the site of Thursdayâs bombing, said police investigators who canât be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media. The officers refused to provide further details.
âThose who have carried out the attack have thrown a challenge for us. But we shall capture them,â Junior Home Minister Lutfozzaman Babar told reporters late Thursday.
The blast occurred as hundreds of people had gathered on a narrow street in the northern town of Netrokona after police safely detonated another bomb found abandoned in a building.
The explosion sent shrapnel ripping through the air, killing seven people and injuring dozens, including another bomber who police said failed to detonate his explosives.
Rezaul Hossain Sumon, a 20-year-old college student with shrapnel wounds all over his body, said about 400 people had gathered in the street to catch a glimpse of the bomb police had just detonated.
He said he saw a man on a bicycle pull a cord tied to his body just before the explosion.
âI was close to the man and I saw him pulling the cord,â Sumon said from his bed at a hospital in nearby Mymensingh town. âI immediately collapsed and Iâve no idea how I landed up here in the hospital.â
Police blamed the attack on Jumatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, a banned Islamic group believed to be behind a wave of blasts that have killed 21 people in the past two weeks.
A police officer at the scene, Ali Hossain Faquir, said a handwritten leaflet warning police to follow Islamic law and stop protecting âman madeâ laws was found near the site, about 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of the capital, Dhaka.
The previous attacks largely targeted government offices and courts, and Home Ministry spokesman Khandaker Monirul Alam told reporters in Dhaka that the attackers have âadopted a new tactic, and targeted innocent people.â
The suspected second bomber was under police guard in a hospital, police officials said on condition of anonymity according to policy.
A police bomb expert described the device they found and detonated - a metal container wrapped in red tape and packed with glass splinters - as âa small, not powerful bomb.â
âIt was probably used as a decoy to attract people,â he said on the condition of anonymity due to the continuing investigation.
The second bomb, however, was packed with high explosives and iron balls that tore through the crowd and instantly killed four people, including the bomber. Three others died later from injuries, police said.
At least 45 people including nine police were injured, many seriously, witnesses and police said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/10/2005 01:17 ||
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DHAKA: A banned Islamist militant group blamed for a series of bombings in Bangladesh has threatened to kill women, including non-Muslims, if they do not wear the veil, a statement said.
The statement by the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen came hours after Thursdayâs suicide bomb attack in a northern town that killed at least eight people, the latest of a series of blasts blamed on militant groups in their campaign for an Islamic state. âWomen will be killed if they are found to move around without wearing burqa (veil) from the first day of Zilhaj,â the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen said in the statement sent to a Dhaka newspaper office. Zilhaj refers to the Arabic month beginning early January.
âWomen, including non-Muslims, are hereby advised not to go out of home without burqa. Seclusion has been made compulsory for you,â said the statement in Bangla language, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters on Friday. The group, which wants the introduction of Sharia laws in mainly Muslim Bangladesh, also ordered women students at Dhaka University not to step out after sunset, prompting police to increase security around the campus.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/10/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
We can't blame the religion can we? Well I can and do.
#2
Koranimals enforce veiling lunacy in Muslim majority sections of France. That mentality will come to your neighborhood, unless we boot those pigs out of the West, and put down their homelands. Each and every European city is facing the fact that Muslimutts are using Saudi subsidies, to build enormous mosques in downtown cores. While Bush sends Condi to lecture Putin on the need for "freedom" for Islamofascists, the piecemeal territorial occupation of Western Civilization proceeds almost uninterrupted.
Check out this current postcard from Nice, France, where Civilized counter-terrorists are fighting the construction of a terror center in downtown Nice, near the beaches where Koranimals will soon be in position to enforce Shariah.
Sukhumi believes a renewal of Georgian-Abkhaz fighting is a possibility and is sure that Tbilisi is preparing for it. "The Georgian authorities lack time. They failed to settle the conflict politically, because we defined our course long ago, and that is independence and Abkhazia can accept neither extended autonomy nor special status. Tbilisi has begun a buildup," Abkhaz Defense Minister, Lt. Gen. Sultan Sosnaliyev said in an interview published by in the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper on Friday.
The Georgian army has qualitatively changed recently, he said. "The Georgian military budget is the largest in the Transcaucasus. It has reached the level of $300 million and is equal to the entire annual Georgian budget in the times of Eduard Shevardnadze. U.S. experts train Georgian soldiers and officers study abroad. Modern arms and equipment are delivered to the country. Military training is carried out constantly. They are creating this army for a reason," Sosnaliyev said.
In his opinion, Georgian-Abkhaz war will break out when the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline begins full operation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/10/2005 01:32 ||
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Abchasia is a part of Georgia whose separatistic trends are flamed up by Russia. Russian government cannot forgive collapse of USSR and independence of Baltic states, Georgia, Ukraine etc.
#2
Since the US Presidency is struggling for it's own survival, it's gonna be interesting to see how Russia will react. There's not much leeway for Georgia to act against Abkhazia these days, and it could easily backlash.
#4
Since the US Presidency is struggling for it's own survival
What the hell have you been drinking? In no way is the American Presidency "struggling for it's own survival". What you may not understand is that this country's people are much more unified than much of our own rhetoric (and that of the foreign and our own media) would have you believe.
Yeah, we have our internal disagreements from time to time - but make NO mistake - judging that to be a weakness of the President - or more importantly the People of this country - would be a HUGE, MONUMENTOUS, PRODIGIOUSLY COSTLY, and possibly FATALmistake by any party or entity who would assume that simply because we have some internal disagreements we are, or have become, weak and ineffectual.
#5
How could the presidency [sic] be struggling for survival? Bush won definitively (twice!) and cannot run again, thus his political survival is guaranteed until his successor is sworn in to office in January, 2009; the Democratic party does not appear to have any viable candidates for the position, nor a party platform more meaningful than, "You Republicans are all meanies, and we disagree with everything you've done ... even if we did vote for it at the time"; and a majority of the U.S. population is getting a perspective on the situation -- from relatives, friends and community members actually involved in the fighting over there -- that is radically different from that put out by the the traditional news media and the professional pundits, who like to think they guide the peeepuls' thinking.
#7
Plus he's enormously ignorant about the US political system, but as I said, he's posting from Belgium and such ignorance is, alas, pretty common in those parts.
#8
Ah. I didn't realize he is writing from Belgium. I lived near Brussels for a year when the trailing daughters were young -- a great deal now becomes clear.
#10
If it's OK for Georgia to break away from Russia, then its OK for Abhazia to break away from Georgia.
Anyways, Georgians are letting Chechens use their territory for refuge/staging raids on Russians ---thereby forfeiting any claims to my sympathy.
The European Union secretly allowed the United States to use transit facilities on European soil to transport "criminals" in 2003, according to a previously unpublished document. The revelation contradicts repeated EU denials that it knew of "rendition" flights by the CIA.
The EU agreed to give America access to facilities - presumably airports - in confidential talks in Athens during which the war on terror was discussed, the original minutes show. But all references to the agreement were deleted from the record before it was published.
The issue of "rendition" flights - in which terror suspects are flown to secret bases and third countries for interrogation - overshadowed last week's fence-mending visit to Europe by Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State.
Asked in Parliament last week about reports of 400 suspect flights passing through British airports, Tony Blair said: "In respect of airports, I don't know what you are referring to."
The minutes of the Athens meeting on January 22, 2003, were written by the then Greek presidency of the EU after the talks with a US delegation headed by a justice department official. EU officials confirmed that a full account was circulated to all member governments, and would have been sent to the Home Office.
Posted by: Captain America ||
12/10/2005 20:49 ||
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Well, well, well .....
the hypocrisy of Europe is breathtaking, but no longer surprising.
Posted by: too true ||
12/10/2005 20:51 Comments ||
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"oops! Hey! How about that Kyoto thing?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2005 21:53 Comments ||
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Between 40 and 60 cars are still being burned nightly in France more than three weeks after a wave of suburban violence subsided, a senior interior ministry official said Thursday.
Stephane Fratacci, the ministry's director of public liberties, was arguing against a writ brought before France highest administrative court -- the State Council -- for the country's month-long state of emergency to be suspended.
The jurists who brought the suit said that the measure was no longer needed as normality had been restored in the poor neighbourhoods where the rioting broke out on October 27.
But Fratacci said that last Saturday night 79 vehicles were burned, 46 on Sunday and 50 on Monday. And he urged "the greatest caution" ahead of the end-of-year holidays which regularly see outbursts of violence in suburbs of France's major cities.
Meanwhile a collective representing some 70 left-wing associations and unions was to present a "symbolic" petition before the country's Constitional Council Friday demanding abrogation of the state of emergency.
"This law, which is extremely dangerous for public freedoms, came into effect without ever being brought before the Constitutional Council. Another step was thus taken on the road of destruction for our state of law," the collective said in a statement.
The Constitutional Council vets new laws to ensure they are in keeping with the 1958 constitution of France's Fifth Republic. However its powers cannot be invoked by groups of private citizens.
On November 9 the government of President Jacques Chirac activated a 1955 law to declare a nationwide state of emergency in order to quell the most serious rioting in France since the student disturbances of May 1968.
The following week parliament approved a law to extend the emergency by three months.
The emergency powers enable state-appointed governors -- or prefects -- to declare curfews, ban public meetings and issue house-arrest orders.
#4
So "79" is "As many as 60"? This could have interesting implications...
Posted by: A. Einstein ||
12/10/2005 21:05 Comments ||
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Stephane Fratacci, the ministry's director of public liberties, was arguing against a writ brought before France highest administrative court -- the State Council -- for the country's month-long state of emergency to be suspended. The jurists who brought the suit said that the measure was no longer needed as normality had been restored in the poor neighbourhoods where the rioting broke out on October 27.
Wonder how'd WoT go, if --- in addition to terrorists --- western security services started targeting their tranzi allies.
Police have arrested at least seven people suspected of financing and giving logistical support to an Islamic extremist group with links to al-Qaida, officials said Friday.
Interior Minister Jose Antonio Alonso said police who made the arrests late Thursday and early Friday in the Costa del Sol region had turned up no evidence that the detainees were planning an imminent attack in Spain.
Alonso said the detainees were suspected of aiding an Algeria-based Islamic extremist organization, the Salafist Group for Call and Combat.
Police made the arrests in apartments in the cities of Malaga, Marbella and Torremolinos and continued to carry out searches Friday, news reports said.
Alonso did not specify the nationalities of the detainees but news reports said the seven were Algerian and included one woman.
On Nov. 23, Spanish police arrested 11 Algerians suspected of providing financing and logistical support to the same Algerian group, which is also known as GSPC. The arrests were in the eastern cities of Alicante and Murcia and in Granada in the south.
A week later, a judge charged four of the suspects with belonging to a terror cell but released the other seven on the condition that they surrender their passports and check in with the court weekly.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/10/2005 01:11 ||
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"killed", not "arrested", please
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2005 9:40 Comments ||
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The Italian Intelligence and Security Services (SISDE) is warning against the strong influence of Islamic terrorists in Albania, BTA news agency reported. Its concerns were voiced in a report prepared by SISDE for the Italian parliament and cited by the Greek "Ethnos" newspaper. The report claims that a new Islamic organization called "Jihad al Jadid", a cell of Al Qaeda, which is linked to Greece, has recently appeared in Albania. Jadid al-Jihad is one of the aliases used by the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, so it's likely them. They've been active in Albania for sometime now.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/10/2005 00:51 ||
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#3
I'm sorry, 2b -- that should read, "All y'all." I didn't mean to imply that it was just you that was confusing me (not that it's a difficult task at the moment. Sorry again.).
BERLIN - The UN ombudsman in Kosovo has said that the US Bondsteel military base in the province holds a prison that brings to mind the one in Guantanamo Bay, a German daily reported on Friday. âThere can be no doubt that for years there has been a prison in the Bondsteel base with no external civilian or judicial oversight. The prison looks like the pictures we have seen of Guantanamo Bay,â Marek Antoni Nowicki told Berliner Zeitung.
Marek apparently has never seen a prison before. They all pretty much the same, I'm told. An Illinois medium-security prison looks like a similar prison in France which looks like Gitmo which looks like Kosovo.
It backs up a statement by Council of Europe human rights commissioner Alvaro Gil-Robles in November that the US military ran a Guantanamo-type detention centre in Camp Bondsteel.
Gil-Robles told the French daily Le Monde he had been âshockedâ by conditions at the centre, which he witnessed in 2002. The camp resembled âa smaller version of Guantanamoâ, he said, referring to the US prison in Cuba, where hundreds of terror suspects are detained without trial.
"Why, it had WALLS! And guard towers! And a fence! Just like Guantanamo! How can they do that?"
Silly person! They do it by utilizing the corps of engineers, of course. Unless it's a USAF base, in which case the airwing brings their construction specialists along with them to build runways etc. and they just throw up the prison too.... heh
Gil-Roblesâ claims were vigorously denied by the US military in Kosovo.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/10/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Prisons also look a lot like high security military compounds,double fences,concertina wire walls,guard towers,etc.
#2
All Military Bases have Prisons, unless they're very, very small, say a single building or such.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/10/2005 8:11 Comments ||
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Forgot to mention that even Military Ships have Prisons (The Brig)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/10/2005 8:13 Comments ||
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I see prison's everywhere. The US has secret prisons at the UN, in Nashville - Elvis is there you know, and under my house! Oh wait, I forgot my foil hat, ahh much better, the prisons are gone. Sorry for the interuption
It is starting to look as if the UN is yet again going on a PR campaign against the US over prisons, to discredit us in world opinion. Time for Bolton to get tough on these asshats, again.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/10/2005 9:57 Comments ||
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#5
A carrier-deployed Marine air group would be better. Not only can it "change some minds" at the UN, it can give the City of New York a taste of what war is REALLY like, so they can get off their high horse. It'll also eliminate the need for that hugely-expensive remodelling contract that the US is expected to foot. It will also give the rest of the world an idea of why it's not nice to piss on the United States.
Give john Bolton a half-hour to get out of the building, and go for it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/10/2005 17:02 Comments ||
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Would free up some useful real estate too.
Posted by: too true ||
12/10/2005 17:35 Comments ||
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Local militants, known as Taliban here, killed two more âextortionistsâ and hung their decapitated bodies upside down on pylons. The victims, both Afghan refugees, were members of the so-called Hakim group that had reportedly attacked the Taliban some time back. The attack led to reprisals and clashes that have so far claimed 21 lives.
Witnesses said the Taliban, who had been carrying out a search for remnants of the Hakim group for quite some time now, found the two Afghans when they were attempting to flee the North Waziristan.
The two were caught on Thursday night, brought to Miramshah and summarily executed. Their decapitated bodies were later tied to pick-up trucks and dragged on roads before being strung up to power supply poles near Zakim Hospital.
The bodies were later removed and thrown in the open after the scene had caused a traffic jam. The bodies remained unattended, witnesses said.
The Taliban continued their âsearch operationâ in Eidak and Hoormaz villages.
The militants have issued warnings to people against providing shelter to members of the Hakim group. People have also been asked to learn a âlessonâ and give up crimes. âThose who indulge in crimes and other vices shall meet the similar fate,â they said.
Witnesses said that the Taliban armed with rockets and other heavy weapons continued to patrol roads in Miramshah.
An official in Peshawar defended the governmentâs âwait-and-see policyâ.
âIt will be inappropriate to take any action (against militants) now, considering the fact that the militants had tremendous local support in their action against those thugs. Any action against militants might be construed as in support of the bandits,â the official said, seeking anonymity.
He said the political administration in Miramshah had been asked to convene a jirga on Saturday to discuss the situation.
On Friday, political agent Zaheerul Islam met a group of clerics led by former MNA Maulana Deendar.
Meanwhile, the brother of Hayatullah, a journalist who was kidnapped last week, told Dawn that the Taliban had written to him denying that they were behind the kidnapping of his brother.
He said the whereabouts of Hayatullah remained unknown.
There are now suspicions that Hayatullah might have been picked up some intelligence agency for taking pictures of the pieces of missiles that reportedly killed Hamza Rabia of Al Qaeda. The pictures showed US marking on missile pieces.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/10/2005 01:00 ||
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"Taliban were behind Waziristan killings"
No kidding? And all this time I thought it was Swedish pirates.
#2
Typical Taliban crap. Catch um, cut their heads off and drag um trough the streets and dump the bodies in the market. Besides their support for UBL remind me again why we would invade such a stable government? I wish the honorable Sen McCain would talk to this type of brutality rather than a little bruised ribs and photo ops weâre blame of.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/10/2005 11:21 Comments ||
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#3
Where are the Hellfire-breathing Predators? This is a perfect opportunity to show their usefulness, to win friends and intimidate the opposition. They should be in the sky in droves!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/10/2005 20:26 Comments ||
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Headless corpse walks around in Bhera
According to Khabrain, a dead person without a head was walking around in the vicinity of Bhera and all villages around the area had suspended activity at night to avoid confronting the sarkati laash (headless corpse). The experts of amiliyaat (magic) said that this could not be a jinn because jinns did not do this trick; it must be a saya which they would exorcise in 48 hours. Meanwhile the people had taken to staying (dubbak) at home.
UK bomber buried in Samundari
According to the Nawa-e-Waqt, the UK suicide bomber of July 7, Tanvir Shehzad, was brought from London and buried in a village in Samundari in the Punjab. His father belonged to Azad Kashmir from Mangla and had migrated to the UK. Tanvirâs brother and sisters ran a restaurant in London while Tanvir was a student. He was buried in Samundari because his father was given alternative land for the ones he had lost to Mangla Dam. The people of Samundari who attended his funeral said he was a not a terrorist.
Open the safe of 12 billion!
Writing in the Nawa-e-Waqt, Irfan Siddiqi said that now that the West was not willing to pay cash to Pakistan for the relief of the quake-stricken, Pakistan should open the safe (tijori) of $12 billion in the foreign exchange reserve and come to the help of the people. He said that one could not go on wearing the necklace (jhoomar) of Islamabadâs capitulation on its Afghan policy.
Stop âThe Messageâ film!
Quoted in the Nawa-e-Waqt, Lahore chief of Jamia Ashrafia, Mufti Hamidullah, said that the film The Message being shown on a TV channel must be stopped forthwith because it was showing the likenesses of some Companions of the Prophet (pbuh), which was forbidden. He said the film was a conspiracy against the Muslim ummah and a most heinous plot to bring insult to the names of the Companions. He said that the TV channel showing the film should be punished for showing it. The NWFP assembly had already tabled a resolution against the film.
Allah happy, Bush unhappy!
Quoted in Khabrain, leader of former Lashkar-e-Taiba Hafiz Saeed said that the Quran had not been made the constitution of Pakistan which was a great injustice and for which Pakistan was being punished. He said Pakistan should not beg from America, India and Israel because this was a great sin. He said if the Quran was made Constitution, Allah would be happy but Bush would be unhappy. According to the daily Pakistan, Sheikhupura police registered a case against him for bringing the name of the Musharraf government into contempt.
Nawaz Sharif gets a new face
According to Khabrain after having given himself fake hair on the head, ex-prime minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif had got his face lifted from a Pakistani surgeon. He was satisfied by the young look he had got from his new hair but was bothered that his face was too fat and did not go with the new hair. The doctor lived in Sarwar Palace - the Sharif family home in Jedda â and gave him a new face.
World is a dirty place
Quoted in the daily Khabrain, Allama Tahirul Qadiri said that Muslims had become low after adopting the world whereas they should have cared only for the Hereafter. He said world was dunya in Arabic and its root meant low (ghatiya). It was wrong, he said, to become involved in this world.
America is slow to rescue
Writing in the daily Pakistan, Nasim Shahid said that America was very quick when it wanted to attack and occupy a country but was slow in aiding others. Hameed Gul said that every day, Americans promised the arrival of aid but it appeared that this aid was being sent from America on slow-moving mules. Had Israel been hit, this aid would have reached immediately.
Cricket stars hate five-star hotels
According to Khabrain, Pakistan cricket stars left their training camp in Lahore and went to Gujranwala to spread Islam (tabligh). The 18 cricketers included Inzimamul Haq, Saqlain Mushtaq, Muhammad Yusuf, Shoaib Malik, Salman Butt, etc. They said that they did not like the five-star hotel in Lahore where they were staying, but loved to live in the mosque instead.
Donât take Israeli aid
Writing in the Jang, Hamid Mir stated that Pakistan should be very careful while accepting earthquake relief aid from Israel. Very soon, America and Israel were going to attack Syria or Iran (with Israel attacking Iran), in which case Pakistan would be fighting on the side of Iran and it would look very odd if Pakistan took Israelâs aid.
Lady DSP and naked men
According to Sarerahe in the Nawa-e-Waqt, there was a lady DSP in Multan who had developed the technique of extracting confessions from men after making them naked. Male prisoners had complained that the method of torture was extremely cruel. According to the daily Pakistan, DSP Talat Habib stripped young man Amir, then made him stand upside down against a wall in a totally naked condition. A case was registered against her.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/10/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
extracting confessions from men after making them naked
**Paging Human Rights Watch...White courtesy phone please**
Didn't we just recently convict.. oh, never mind. I just love the double standard.
Posted by: N guard ||
12/10/2005 0:57 Comments ||
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#2
Note the reference to $12,000,000,000 in the Paki terrorist entity's foreign exchange reserve. On Sept. 11, 2001, those terrorist animals had only one half billion in that account. The difference? Bush began to subsidize that piece of unflushed sewage posing as a country. With Waziris, Balochis, Sindhis, in open opposition to the Punjabi supremacists who more than any other entity, are responsible for exporting the 911 terror, Bush saved a terrorist government.
In exchange for occasional arrests of spent and useless al-Qaeda members, the subsidy continues. If Bush had given orders to flatten Kandahar, and Tora Bora, foreign trade with the terror entity would have dried up, and Pakistan would be in collapse. Instead, the Northwest Frontier Province government - whose parliament held a minutes silence in memory of their countryman who murdered 2 CIA agents - continues to use US subsidies - 12.8% of the provincial budget, to aid neo-Talibani terrorists.
#5
They said that they did not like the five-star hotel in Lahore where they were staying, but loved to live in the mosque instead.
It really is Bizarro World over there, isn't it?
Posted by: UN High Commisioner For Five Star Lodging ||
12/10/2005 11:37 Comments ||
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#6
The Pak cricket team has been undergoing an islamist makeover. They now pray together, with frequent religious lectures. The only Christian member has converted to Islam.
Posted by: john ||
12/10/2005 12:06 Comments ||
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#7
Lady DSP and naked men
Well, if she gets fired, at least she has a possible career as a dominatrix - "mistress paki seeks kafir infidels for islamic punishments"
Posted by: john ||
12/10/2005 12:10 Comments ||
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#8
Instead, the Northwest Frontier Province government - whose parliament held a minutes silence in memory of their countryman who murdered 2 CIA agents
Mir Aimal Kasi - Executed in Virginia Nov 2002.
Statement by Governor Warner Regarding the Scheduled Execution of Mir Aimal Kasi:
RICHMOND â Governor Mark R. Warner today issued the following statement regarding the request for clemency in the case of Mir Aimal Kasi:âIn the morning of January 25, 1993, several vehicles were waiting at a traffic light on Route 123 near the main entrance to the headquarters of the Central Intelligence Agency. Mir Aimal Kasi, armed with an AK-47 assault rifle, emerged from another vehicle stopped behind those waiting at the traffic light. Mr. Kasi began to walk among the vehicles, firing into them with his weapon. Within a few seconds, Mr. Kasi had murdered Frank Darling and Lansing Bennett, and wounded Nicholas Starr, Calvin Morgan, and Stephen Williams. âAfter a ten-day trial in November 1997, a Fairfax County jury found Mr. Kasi guilty of capital murder of Mr. Darling, murder of Mr. Bennett, malicious woundings of Mr. Starr, Mr. Morgan, and Mr. Williams, and five charges of using a firearm in commission of the foregoing felonies. On February 4, 1998, the court sentenced Mr. Kasi to death. âMr. Kasi has admitted to the crimes for which he was convicted and shown absolutely no remorse for his actions. After a thorough review of Mr. Kasiâs petition for clemency and the judicial opinions regarding this case, I have concluded that the death penalty is appropriate in this instance. I will not intervene.
Posted by: john ||
12/10/2005 12:15 Comments ||
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Their candidates have been assassinated, their party offices attacked, but hopes are mounting among Iraq's Sunni Arab politicians that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, will not make a serious effort to disrupt next week's national elections.
Despite threatening to block previous votes, this time the Jordanian militant, believed to be responsible for most of the suicide bombings in Iraq, has been silent. "He's changed his strategy because he has discovered how confident and determined we are to vote," Azhar Abdel Majeed al-Samarrai, a leading candidate for the Iraqi Consensus Front, an alliance of the main Sunni parties, told the Guardian yesterday.
But predictions of calm are always risky in Iraq. US forces are gearing up for a massive security operation for polling day on Thursday and the Iraqi government has closed the borders to non-Iraqi Arabs and declared a state of emergency in Anbar and Nineveh provinces, where the majority of the population is Sunni.
"We are not complacent," Major General Rick Lynch, a senior military spokesman, told reporters. "The insurgency wants to disrupt the democratic process." His statement is in line with the Bush administration's long-standing juxtaposition of bullets versus ballots, and its repeated claim that the insurgency is bound to target any election.
But the clear desire of many Sunnis to vote next week has changed the dynamic within the insurgency. "Zarqawi is in a dilemma because many Sunnis want to vote," a senior western political official said this week. The same dilemma confronts Iraq's homegrown insurgents, who rely mainly on the Sunni population for support and recruits.
A Sunni cleric from the influential Association of Muslim Scholars told worshippers at Baghdad's Umm al-Qura mosque yesterday it was a "religious duty" to vote next week. "The date of December 15 is a landmark event. It is a decisive battle that will determine our future. If you give your vote to the wrong people, then the occupation will continue and the country would be lost," he said.
A crucial moment in the campaign for Sunni votes was the recent murder of Sheikh Ayad al-Izzi, a cleric and engineer who was a leading member of the Iraqi Islamic party and a candidate for the Iraqi Consensus Front. He had just left a campaign rally in Falluja on November 28 when gunmen drove past his car and killed him and two colleagues. A huge crowd came to his funeral last week.
"I think Zarqawi will become smaller and smaller, especially after we lost this man from our list," Azhar Abdel Majeed al-Samarrai said yesterday. Perhaps under pressure of mounting Sunni anger, al-Qaida in Iraq took no responsibility for the murder and even put out a statement denouncing it.
Ms Samarrai, a university lecturer in microbiology, was speaking at a conference of around 600 women supporters of the Iraqi Islamic party in the Baghdad suburb of Yarmuk yesterday. Their heads covered with scarves, they listened intently to poems, speeches and songs which were more nationalist than Islamic.
Even as it confronts Zarqawi, the Islamic party is a firm opponent of the American occupation. "We will liberate our country from the enemy no matter how many troops he brings," a group of three men sang from the stage. "The whole world will witness that." Women clapped in time to the music. Many held up pictures of the murdered candidate. "Rise up, Baghdad. Rebel, Baghdad. You will not be shaken by the forces of the enemy," another song went.
Ammar Wajeeb, another leading party member, told the audience that Iraqi women had been through a lot in the past two years. "Your suffering has probably exceeded that of Palestinian women. Most of you have endured the killing of a father, brother, husband, or other relative," he said. "Count your blessings. A few months ago I was in Britain for the first time. Compared to women in Britain I felt Iraqi women live with such honour and dignity."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/10/2005 01:35 ||
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Yes, we will ultimately emerge victorious, despite having delayed the victory for two years by boycotting elections. Forest? Trees?
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/10/2005 8:07 Comments ||
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#2
"Compared to women in Britain I felt Iraqi women live with such honour and dignity."
The honor of chattel, and the dignity of ignorance.
#3
" Despite threatening to block previous votes, this time the Jordanian militant, believed to be responsible for most of the suicide bombings in Iraq, has been silent. "He's changed his strategy because he has discovered how confident and determined we are to vote," "
That, or he is dead. One or the other...
Posted by: Ol Dirty American ||
12/10/2005 10:08 Comments ||
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#4
*snicker* Al Guardian is reduced to acknowledging the Iraqi's have embraced democracy - even the Sunnis. Sure they did their best to pepper the article with sour grapes But look how pathetic their attempts are becoming:
Here the poor disheartened Guardian is forced put unrelated sentences together to make it look appear they are singing to rid the country of the evil American Occupation:
Even as it confronts Zarqawi, the Islamic party is a firm opponent of the American occupation. "We will liberate our country from the enemy no matter how many troops he brings," a group of three men sang from the stage. "The whole world will witness that." Women clapped in time to the music. Many held up pictures of the murdered candidate. "Rise up, Baghdad. Rebel, Baghdad. You will not be shaken by the forces of the enemy," another song went.
#5
This story makes you have to almost pity the poor Sunnis. This tiny minority ruled Iraq and they grew to believe that they did so because they were superior, entitled, and destined to do so.
Now they wake up to realize, it ain't so moe. You got nothing, no oil, no numbers and your only thuggish friends aren't helping you, but are using you to achieve their own goals unrelated to your own.
But I've got to give the average Sunni credit for one thing - they are smart enough to realize what their situation in and make the best move possible - attempt to get involved in the democratic process and move forward. Good for them.
As the countdown for parliamentary elections begins, Iraq's Sunni community is likely to show up in strength at polling stations. Unlike Iraq's previous elections, which have been boycotted, the hardline Sunni factions, who are known to have links with resistance fighters, have been appealing in mosques for a larger turnout during the December 15 elections. A cleric from The Association of Muslim Scholars told worshippers that the upcoming elections would be a "landmark event."
"It is a decisive battle that will determine our future. If you give your vote to the wrong people, then the occupation will continue and the country would be lost. Participation in the elections is a must and it is a religious duty," he said. Buoyed by inroads made by resistance fighters, Sunni factions have now begun to acquire a larger political profile. They were represented at last month's Cairo conference, where Iraq's Sunni-dominated neighbouring countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan were present, apart from Iran and the United States.
The Arab League sponsored conference acknowledged that resistance to foreign occupation in Iraq was legitimate. The participants, however, made it clear that they opposed terrorism as perpetrated by the Al-Qaeda linked Abu Musab Al Zarqawi's group. Reinforcing their rejection of terrorism, Sunni clerics have urged kidnappers to release an American, two Canadians and a Briton who had been abducted on November 26.
During prayers in the Al-Imam Al-Aadam mosque in Baghdad's y Sunni Arab neighbourhood, cleric Ahmed Hassan stressed on the "necessity to release the four kidnapped foreigners who have helped the residents of Azamiyah."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/10/2005 01:13 ||
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Buoyed by inroads made by resistance fighters,...
So they ARE winning?
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/10/2005 8:03 Comments ||
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Like somebody mentioned (I forget who), it's politics, Middle East-style.
On the final day of a town-to-town military sweep in November along the Euphrates River, hundreds of men in Ar Rabit, a farming village, were rousted from their homes by American and Iraqi troops and shepherded into long rows on a harvested cornfield.
With the help of a group of locally recruited informants, most with their faces concealed by balaclavas and scarves, the troops pulled 12 suspected insurgents from the lineup, bound them in handcuffs and blindfolds, and took them away.
American military commanders have repeatedly hailed the contributions of the informant group, called the Desert Protectors, saying their help in recent weeks demonstrates the increasing willingness of local residents to cooperate in fighting guerrillas on Iraq's fiercely independent western fringe.
But even as they promote the Desert Protectors, apparently the first unit of its kind in Iraq, the commanders admit that the new alliance is, at present, little more than a marriage of convenience that could break apart at any time.
"This is the land of 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend,' " said Col. Stephen W. Davis, the Marine commander who oversees security for western Anbar Province from a base here. "The best friend you got today could be your enemy tomorrow."
That caution was echoed by Lt. Col. Dale Alford, commander of the Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, which is operating in the towns along the southern Euphrates riverbank.
"They're going to pick the side that allows them to get back to work," he said. "We just got to make sure it's us. As long as they're working on our side, that's all I care about."
With their heavy reliance on the Desert Protectors, American military officials have wandered into the complicated realm of Anbar tribal politics, which they admit they only partly understand. Officials working closely with these informants say they are aware that some could be acting on tribal grievances and implicating innocent people.
During the entire operation, which began on Nov. 5 and lasted more than two weeks, about 800 men were sent to detention camps for further questioning, according to Colonel Davis. Of those, more than 300 were sent to Abu Ghraib prison and the netherworld of the Iraqi detention system; the others were released.
In many cases, testimony from the Desert Protectors was the only evidence against suspects before they were taken away in trucks and helicopters for further interrogation.
One man, his face hidden, identified suspected insurgents in lineups by flashing a thumbs-down sign over their heads, providing the basis for the detentions of most of the 96 suspects captured along the northern side of the river, according to Army and Marine officials. Those included the 12 in Ar Rabit on Nov. 21.
One member of the Army's Tactical Human Intelligence Team, which chaperoned the informants during the sweep on the north side of the river, said his unit had felt it necessary to rein in the informants.
"They were fingering, like, 25, 30 at a time," recalled the soldier, Special Agent Timothy Price. "We said: 'No way. We need to have evidence.' They want to get everyone who's not their tribe."
The story of the formation of the group, as told by the Marine leadership in western Anbar, is simple. Far western Anbar was in recent years dominated by two tribes, both of which were participating in the anti-American insurgency, military officials said. This year, officials say, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the group run by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, struck an alliance with one tribe, the Salmanis. The partnership drove out the other tribe, the Abu Mahals, in a battle in Husayba last summer.
In late summer, members of the Abu Mahal tribe, many of whom had sought refuge in Akashat, a desert town 75 miles southwest of Husayba, approached the American military. In a program approved by Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top American commander in Iraq, the Americans provided weapons and training to the men, some of whom, Colonel Davis said, had been trying to kill American marines only months before. The informants' main role in the operation would be to move with the troops and identify insurgents.
But the composition of the Desert Protectors is more complicated than the military account suggests. While officers and troops who work closely with the informants said the group was made up of Abu Mahals, several Desert Protectors said the membership was more varied, and even included Salmanis. The membership reflects a complex arrangement of new alliances that cut across tribal lines.
"We haven't really focused on figuring them out," a member of the Army's interrogation team said at a desert holding camp north of the Euphrates. Motioning toward a clump of detainees squatting on the sand, he added, "We've focused on figuring everyone else out."
Members of the Marines' Human Intelligence Exploitation Team, which worked with the Desert Protectors on the south side of the river, refused to be interviewed, as did the head of the intelligence unit for the Marines' Regimental Combat Team 2, which coordinated the sweep.
Military officers said that the informants were involved only in the first wave of field screening and that other evidence was also considered, including whether a suspect's name appeared on the military's lists of known insurgents.
Each case was further screened by intelligence experts and lawyers at military bases, they said, and more than 60 percent of the initial detainees were released.
Asked whether the American and Iraqi leadership might be losing potential allies by subjecting possibly innocent people to this harsh process, Colonel Davis replied: "Welcome to insurgency. You will find no finality except for death on this battlefield. There are no absolutes."
The group said to be holding four peace advocates said Friday that it was extending to Saturday its deadline for American and Iraqi authorities to release all prisoners in exchange for the captives' lives.
A group calling itself the Swords of Righteousness Brigade seized the men - an American, a Briton and two Canadians - two weeks ago, and threatened to kill them on Thursday if its demands were not met.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/10/2005 00:55 ||
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This year, officials say, Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the group run by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, struck an alliance with one tribe, the Salmanis. The partnership drove out the other tribe, the Abu Mahals, in a battle in Husayba last summer.
Notice how the NYT doesn't detail for us HOW the Slmanis sided with AQ and "drove out the other side". Proabably just politely asked them to leave, ya think? The only thing that gets the NYT's panties wadded is that the Abu Mahals joined with our side.
Soldiers uncovered a Palestinian tunnel Saturday morning while working on a concrete, anti-sniper barrier near the Erez Checkpoint, north of the Gaza Strip. The tunnel began only few dozen meters back, but its entrance was hidden from view by a garbage dump. burrowing seems to be the only thing they've done successfully. Has anyone checked their DNA vs gophers?
OC Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Yoav Galant praised the "determination" of his troops in preventing "a terrorist attack within Israel."
This was the first time since the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza in August 2005 that Palestinian terrorists have tried to burrow underneath the border fence surrounding the Strip.
On December 7, 2004, an IDF unit killed four terrorists and lost a soldier of its own after uncovering a tunnel, starting in a chicken coup in northern Gaza and heading towards Israel.
In most other cases, however, tunnels have been used to smuggle arms from Egypt or have been employed in sapping operations - such as the December 2004 attack on an army post in Rafah, which left five Bedouin soldiers dead.
An IDF spokesman said that the Palestinian Authority had been warned twice about the recent tunneling efforts of terrorists but has done nothing about it.
Meanwhile, infiltration attempts continued throughout the weekend.
On Friday, a navy patrol shot two swimmers, killing one, believed to be carrying bags of weapons from Egypt to the Gaza Strip.
Military sources said that this is third time in the span of a month that Palestinians have tried to smuggle in weapons or try to launch attacks by
sea.
Last Saturday, the navy sank a Palestinian fishing boat, which crossed into
banned waters and then fired on the IDF ship.
In the West Bank, soldiers also clashed with Palestinians.
Friday night, paratroopers arrested five Hamas members in the West Bank city
of Nablus. In the course of the operation, soldiers came under fire twice
and had a bomb thrown at them, but there were no casualties.
Meitar, a special forces unit attached to the Artillery Corps, arrested a sixth Hamas suspect in Kfar Jaiyus, east of Qalqilya.
Before noon, a Nahal infantry unit was subject to a drive-by shooting near Kabatya, south of Jenin, while security forces operating west of the city
likewise came under attack. Later in the afternoon, the Nachson Battlion took fire near Anabta, east of Tulkarem.
No Israelis were killed or wounded in any of the incidents.
Saturday morning, two Israeli men made a quick escape from Bethlehem with the aid of Palestinian Authority police officers. By order of the IDF,
Israeli civilians are banned from traveling into Area A, but the two men did so anyway.
Palestinian cops rescued the pair after their car was stoned by locals.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2005 20:00 ||
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JERUSALEM - The Israeli Navy has stopped using the Suez Canal out of concern that it will be targeted by global militants, the Jerusalem Post reported on Friday. âWe donât want to draw terror,â a senior naval officer told the daily.
The report said the decision had no strategic significance for Israel, because its navy rarely used the Suez Canal in any case. But the decision should be a warning for Egypt, it quoted an analyst as saying. âThe question is, what does it say about our confidence in the Egyptian security services?â asked Michael Oren, the author of a book on the 1967 Middle East war, âSix Days of Warâ and a senior fellow at Jerusalemâs Shalem Center research institute.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/10/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Oren's book is a beauty - I'd recommend it as a Christmas present to anyone who wants the 6day war clarified in the words of the participants...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2005 9:44 Comments ||
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#2
I have the book, and you're right. It's superb and recommended to anyone who wants to know more.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/10/2005 15:36 Comments ||
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DAMASCUS - Palestinian group Hamas chief-in-exile Khaled Mishaal said from a discrete, safe distance from being helizapped on Friday a nine-month truce with Israel was over. âThere is no room for truce. I say to our brothers in the (Palestinian) Authority that we are witnessing political stagnation...,â Mishaal told a rally in the Syrian capital Damascus. âI say it loudly, we will not enter a new truce and our people are preparing for a new round of conflict.â
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/10/2005 00:00 ||
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Truce? Was there ever a Truce? Doesn't that mean like no fighting? Did I miss something?
More like a "continual" round of conflict. Geez.
Posted by: Jan ||
12/10/2005 0:53 Comments ||
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#2
And then he was hellizaped right after saying it.
#3
If I was Isreal I think I would have carpet bombed that rally. Then denied the whole thing. When everyone started freekin out the Isreali gov could maybe just said ohh it must have been some of those crazy radicals. We are investigating and will soon arrest the perpitrators right before we release them with paid leave RR. What the Paleo's do it all the time. You know what they say cant fight em join em.
Tehran and Iranian opposition websites in recent weeks are rife with rumors that the regime is about to replace ultraconservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Such allegations feature claims that the new president was rebuffed when he tried to meet with regime stalwarts, such as the head of the country's wealthiest religious foundation, and when he sought guidance from leading mainstream clerics.
Contributing to the speculation on official displeasure with Mr. Ahmadinejad was Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's grant of executive branch oversight powers in October to the Expediency Council, a state agency headed by Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, who lost the 2005 presidential race to Ahmadinejad.
If the speculations prove true, Ahmadinejad would not be the first Iranian president to be removed from office. The Islamic republic's first president, Abol-Hassan Bani-Sadr, was elected in January 1980 and kicked out in June 1981. Indeed, there are parallels between the circumstances facing Ahmadinejad and the situation that confronted Mr. Bani-Sadr. For Bani-Sadr the international environment was difficult because of the
Iran-
Iraq War and the hostage crisis, while Ahmadinejad must contend with global concern over his country's nuclear program, its support for terrorist organizations, and his belligerent foreign policy declarations. On the domestic front, Islamic fundamentalists who were consolidating power in the revolutionary government competed with Bani-Sadr, while Ahmadinejad faces rivalry both from an older generation of conservatives and from pro-reform political organizations.
In 1981, the Iranian parliament declared Bani-Sadr incompetent because of his continuing disputes with his rivals, thereby opening the door to his impeachment. The founder of the revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, gave him a chance to repent, but Bani-Sadr rejected it. Mr. Khomeini then used his constitutional right to dismiss the president, who fled to France.
Ahmadinejad's relationship with the parliament is troubled as well. Legislators rejected four of his initial 21 cabinet nominees in August, and in early November the nominee for petroleum minister withdrew when faced with intense criticism of his inexperience and his wealth. The legislature rejected the third nominee later in the month, and is now considering a fourth one. The sharp decline in the Tehran stock exchange index is attributed to uncertainty over Ahmadinejad's populist economic policies, and his replacement of experienced officials in the banking sector has not inspired confidence.
Yet that is where the similarities between Ahmadinejad and Bani-Sadr end. Most important, Ahmadinejad continues to have the support of Supreme Leader Khamenei, who said in a Nov. 14 meeting with the country's Friday prayer leaders that criticism of the president must stop. "Everyone must support this government," Khamenei said, according to state television. "The extent of my support for this government and this president is the same as my support for the previous presidents."
Indeed, Ahmadinejad's most notorious actions are backed by the regime. His controversial October speech - in which he advocated the elimination of
Israel - was praised by Khamenei and defended by the Foreign Ministry, while the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps declared that he speaks for the nation. Even his former opponent Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani, who has criticized some of Ahmadinejad's actions, defended the president's remarks by referring to the "illegitimate Israeli government" in an Oct. 28 sermon.
It is extremely unlikely that the regime will replace an elected president today. The vetting of presidential candidates by the Guardians Council, an unelected and clerically dominated body, precludes the election of anybody who might challenge the system excessively. The constitutional system of checks and balances, furthermore, ensures that unelected entities can always control elected ones. Finally, the regime touts its holding of regular and frequent elections - although they are flawed by normal standards of fairness - as an indicator of the success of its so-called democracy.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/10/2005 01:26 ||
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I would bet dollars for dimes that the backwood's overachiever who leads the Iran terrorist entity, is charcoal by the end of March.
#2
Yet that is where the similarities between Ahmadinejad and Bani-Sadr end. Sounds like an awful lot of similarities!
"Everyone must support this government," Khamenei said, according to state television. "The extent of my support for this government and this president is the same as my support for the previous presidents." Yeah, the same as the last guy who wasn't re-elected.
Even his former opponent Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani, who has criticized some of Ahmadinejad's actions, defended the president's remarks by referring to the "illegitimate Israeli government" in an Oct. 28 sermon. Ya suppose any other sermons condemmed Israel? Big difference between saying it inside the mosque, to the true believers, and announcing it in the international arena.
It is extremely unlikely that the regime will replace an elected president today. But they can have an "election" any time they like, and the more, the better. Mebbe, oh ... in the spring? March?
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/10/2005 7:59 Comments ||
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#3
Ahmadinejad is effective for the MM's:
he can implement hard-core crazy policy, threaten Israel, the Great Satan, Saudis and Europe, bamboozle the UN and IAEA, all the while the MM's sit back, saying "hey! It's not us! The guy's crazy!...and elected!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2005 9:37 Comments ||
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#4
Ahmadinejad is Hitler with nukes. He just hasn't completed his purges yet. He's working on it.
Iran is closing in on production of nuclear weapons and even U.N. sanctions may not deter the aggressive government in Tehran, a top State Department official said Friday.
Describing the Iranian government as "very aggressive, very determined to develop nuclear weapons," Robert Joseph, undersecretary for arms control and international security, dismissed Iran's contention that it seeks only civilian nuclear power. "We know this is not the case," Joseph said at the University of Virginia's Miller Center in Charlottesville.
Iran has methodically taken all but one last step to turn out nuclear weapons, he said. "Once they begin to enrich, that is the point of no return."
Negotiations between the European Union and Iran to stop Iran with offers of economic incentives have foundered. Still, Joseph said the United States was relying on diplomacy to try to deter Iran. In the meantime, he said, the Bush administration has held off seeking economic sanctions against Iran in the U.N. Security Council in order to solicit the support of Russia and China.
However, Iran is so determined to produce nuclear weapons that sanctions might not stop the accelerating drive, he said. Negotiation to halt North Korea's nuclear weapons program is "easy compared to Iran," Joseph said. Unlike North Korea, Iran has huge resources and "is not motivated by a desire to stay isolated. Iran has a very aggressive agenda," Joseph said. He cited, as an example, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statement that Israel should be "wiped off the map."
Speaking Friday in Oslo, Norway, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei said the international community was losing patience with Iran over its nuclear program. ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he hopes the outstanding nuclear issues with Iran will be clarified next year. "They are inching forward and I'm asking them to leap forward," said ElBaradei, who shares the award with the IAEA.
He said he hopes outstanding nuclear issues with Tehran will be clarified by the time he presents his next report on Iran in March, because "the international community is losing patience with the nature of that program." "The ball is in Iran's court. It is up to Iran to show the kind of transparency they need to show," ElBaradei told reporters. He encouraged European negotiators to continue talks with Iran.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/10/2005 01:24 ||
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Still, Joseph said the United States was relying on diplomacy to try to deter Iran.
The only thing that might deter Iran is a credible threat. If anyone in Washington has one, now would be a good time to dust it off.
#2
A credible threat would not deter the Iranians. Making one would only telegraph the punch. there's no reason for Israel to do anymore than they've already done.
#3
Credible threat?? The only credible threat they understand is when they hear Bomb-a-rama's namesake flying overhead! Time to dust off the B52's and make a few low passes over that country.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
12/10/2005 9:46 Comments ||
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#4
What needs to happen is for somebody to 'mix up' the path through the enrichment cascade such that it gets 'over-enriched' and reaches critical density (mass) in the system. Oops.
Or some other creative accident.
#5
How about some creative entropy here and there ath critical nodes, like oil pumping stations, terminals, large transformers, etc. to halt the flow of oil and put a dent in the cash flow?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/10/2005 11:58 Comments ||
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#6
"Creative entropy"? Izzat like - rapid releases of energy which also happen to randomize formerly stationary parts? Like, mebbe - explosions?
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/10/2005 12:47 Comments ||
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#7
With the US presidency showing a total lack of strength, the Iranians are pushing to see how for they can get and trying to maximize their gains..It's interesting to see how Israel will react.
#8
lyot, either this problem gets solved or the Europeans have painted themselves into a corner. and all W had to do was act multilateral. He hasn't had to do a thing and he's got all his enemies where he wants them. That sounds like real smartswithout having to use any strength.
#12
How about some creative entropy here and there ath critical nodes, like oil pumping stations, terminals, large transformers, etc. to halt the flow of oil and put a dent in the cash flow?
Political impossibility for the US. Oil prices would skyrocket and left would crush Bush with another year of "War for Oil!" chanting.
#13
Oil prices would skyrocket and left would crush Bush with another year of "War for Oil!" chanting.
Regaling the country with more "No War for Oil" protests would be an exercise in stupidity. The idea of a war for oil is to make it cheap, not expensive.
JPost breaking news
A senior instructor of Hizbullah's guerrillas escaped an assassination attempt Friday night when a bomb blew up his car seconds after he got out of the vehicle, Lebanese police said. damn
The explosion in the eastern city of Baalbek caused no casualties, a police official said Friday. "missed him by that much"
Double damn.
Hizbullah blamed Israel for the "treacherous assassination attempt" and warned that it will retaliate. F-5 macro
"We shall have Dire Revenge!â¢"
"The Zionist enemy is fully responsible for the operation's planning and execution," Hezbollah said in a statement broadcast on its Al-Manar Television. "The Islamic resistance will fully shoulder its responsibility in this regard and do what is necessary," the statement added. The IAF denied any involvement in the incident. "We know nothing - perhaps he should ask Pencilneck"
Neither Hizbullah nor the police would identify the official who drove the car, a Mercedes. Al-Manar said he was a member of the group's military wing, and the police said he was in charge of training guerrillas.
Doubt if it's Mugniyeh. He's probably in Teheran, where it's safe from this sort of thing. For now.
Al-Manar said the explosion took place near the house of Sheik Mohammed Yazbek, who sits on Hizbullah's Shoura Council, its top decision-making authority. A reporter for The Associated Press said the bomb exploded 300 meters from Yazbek's house. A small crowd quickly gathered at the scene. Police tried to stop media from taking pictures and threw a tarpaulin over the wrecked vehicle. no car swarm!
The type of bomb was not immediately clear, the police official added.
My guess is it was a car bomb. What's yours?
A series of mysterious bombings have taken place in Lebanon since former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was killed with 20 other people in February. The attacks have often targeted journalists and politicians known to be opposed to Syrian influence in Lebanon. Nobody has been arrested for the explosions, and the government has acknowledged that it is nowhere close to detaining the culprits.
Yasss... The culprits, and those behind them, remain such a mystery...
It was not clear whether Friday's bombing was related to this series of explosions or the latest attempt to kill a senior member of Hizbullah's military wing. Two Hizbullah military personnel have been killed by car bombs in the past two years.
Perhaps in retaliation for other car bombs?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/10/2005 00:00 ||
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#1
Mugniyeh was reputedly last seen in Khuzestan, helping the local Basiji brownshirts suppress the Arab uprising there. My guess is he's too far up to the food chain to be an instructor these days, but it's still a damn shame it missed whoever it was.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
12/10/2005 0:50 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Hizbullah blamed Israel for the "treacherous assassination attempt" and...
But of course! The Jews are responsible for everything!!!!
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DHAKA: A banned Islamist militant group blamed for a series of bombings in Bangladesh has threatened to kill women, including non-Muslims, if they do not wear the veil, a statement said. 
BERLIN - The UN ombudsman in Kosovo has said that the US Bondsteel military base in the province holds a prison that brings to mind the one in Guantanamo Bay, a German daily reported on Friday. âThere can be no doubt that for years there has been a prison in the Bondsteel base with no external civilian or judicial oversight. The prison looks like the pictures we have seen of Guantanamo Bay,â Marek Antoni Nowicki told Berliner Zeitung.
Headless corpse walks around in Bhera 
DAMASCUS - Palestinian group 
