While a new constitution is currently being prepared for Afghanistan under U.S. supervision, former Afghani Premiere and head of the Islamic Party Gulbuddin Hekmatyar slammed the constitution as a game of the "puppet government" aiming at giving legitimacy to U.S.-led occupation forces.
Instead of to him...
Being under U.S. occupation and the lack of a central government that controls all Afghan states are not suitable circumstances to issue a constitution, Hekmatyar said in a statement. He also called for fighting U.S. occupation before proceeding to prepare a constitution. âA new constitution can not be issued while U.S.-led forces are still occupying the Afghan capital and towns, deploying their military bases in Bagram, Khawagah, Roush, Khost, Gardez and Qandhaz and killing and detaining Afghans,â Hekmatyar said. "The game of constitution making by (the) Afghan puppet government is a joke and farce like the Loya Jirga," the statement said, referring to the traditional tribal assembly which created the current 18-month transitional government last year. He added that to pass a new constitution, the country should be free and the people should have freedom of opinion, will as well as independence. The country should also be governed by a popular government, approved by the Afghan people, he said.
"I know they want me, that's why I don't even have to ask them!"
"Under the Geneva Convention, no occupation force has the right to make changes in text books and the constitution of occupied countries," the statement's added. âThe Shura Council representing the people should be the sole body preparing the new constitution. It should monitor all its stages. Such a constitution should observe customs, traditions and cultural heritage of the people,â Hekmatyar said.
"Our cultural heritage and traditions call for beating our women and shooting each other over trivial matters."
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/21/2003 1:17:50 PM ||
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A leading Belgian politician has proposed abolishing his country's war crimes law, which has soured relations with the United States after it was used to file charges against President Bush and other prominent Americans. An EU politican making sense?
Former Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene made the proposal after repeated U.S. demands for the repeal of the 1993 law. The criticism has sparked a widening political debate about the future of the legislation, which allows Belgian courts to prosecute war crimes regardless of where they occurred. ``I think our ambitions are higher than our possibilities and that can jeopardize the role we have to play as European capital,'' Dehaene told the Canvas television network late Friday. Hey Fred, here's an EU politican who understands cause and effect. Should we have him bronzed and mounted on a pedestal?
Why do you think he's a "Former Prime Minister"?
``It's a bit crazy to think we could be the conscience of the world,'' he added. Oh, Ethel, my pills!
The leading party in the center-left government on Saturday rejected calls drop the law but said it would have to be further amended. ``We have to keep the spirit of the genocide law, but we have to adapt it to ensure that people from democratic nations and NATO allies are not affected,'' said Karel De Gucht, chairman of Flemish Liberal Democratic party. Earlier Friday, Dehaene's party, the main opposition Christian Democratic and Flemish party, said it would propose amendments to the law limiting its scope to Belgian citizens. There's an original idea — a law that affects your own citizens!
The law was first used to convict four Rwandans involved in the 1994 genocide there. Since then, cases have been filed against a slew of world figures, including Saddam Hussein and Cuban President Fidel Castro as well as British Prime Minister Tony Blair and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld. The government has already pushed through changes that allow authorities to reject complaints against citizens from the United States or other countries judged to have fair legal systems. Under those changes, complaints filed last week against Bush, Rumsfeld, Powell, Blair and others were blocked within 24 hours. Washington says that is not enough. ``The law that allows the filing of these cases ... is indefensible,'' State Department spokesman Philip T. Reeker said Friday. ``These cases demonstrate that, even with the recent amendments, the law does not work and we believe should be repealed unless you want NATO headquarters moved to Prague.'' That would dismay leftist goofswingnutsanarchistsmoney-grubbing lawyerssimple-minded rustics human rights campaigners who say the silly unique Belgian law provides a court of last resort for victims of war crimes around the would. Repealing the law could kill efforts to put Chad's fallen dictator Hissene Habre in a Brussels dock this year on charges of torture, murder and other crimes. Campaigners are seeking Habre's extradition from Senegal, where he has lived in exile since 1990. Um, 13 years later and he hasn't budged. And you think your efforts are productive because ...
Foreign Minister Louis Michel on Friday became the first Belgian politician to be accused under the law. A small opposition group lodged a complaint concerning arms sales to Nepal. The Guardian waits to the end to give us the money graf: they'll repeal the law precisely because their own are being indicted.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/21/2003 11:19:44 A ||
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MUZAFFARABAD - Police in Pakistan's part of Kashmir on Saturday arrested nearly 300 members of an opposition party to stop a protest against the region's top elected leader. The party members were angered last month when Sardar Sikandar Hayyat, the region's prime minister, floated the idea of dividing Kashmir permanently on the basis of religion. Most of the arrests were made in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan's side of Kashmir, as the demonstrators gathered before a planned march to the parliament building, where they wanted to hold the rally, police Deputy Superintendent Ghulam Sarwar told The Associated Press.
Opposition groups have rejected the idea, saying they want all Kashmiris to have a chance to vote to separate from India, either in order to become an independent state, or to merge with Pakistan. Hayyat withdrew his proposal, saying he was "closing this chapter once and for all."
"We want it all! All, y'understan'?"
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/21/2003 11:41:13 A ||
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I thought they were assisting us in the WOT based on Priciple not for goodies! yeah, ....right
F-16 fighter jets and total debt forgiveness are shaping up to be Pakistan's price for US demands that it rein in fighters along its borders with Afghanistan and India, analysts and reports said as President Pervez Musharraf headed to the United States yesterday.
Isn't this the second or third time we've bought this particulr commondity?
Mr Musharraf is due to land in the US for a nine-day trip visiting Boston, Washington, New York and Los Angeles and meeting President George W. Bush at Camp David on June 24. Washington's 'tight' war-on-terror ally, as Mr Bush calls Mr Musharraf, will seek the write-off of Islamabad's remaining US$1.8 billion debt to the US, a new trade pact giving Pakistani exporters greater market access and an end to military sanctions. The release of F-16s paid for by Pakistan more than a decade ago would be a top priority. How about we give em to India, would that change your mind Perv?
Politically, some analysts believe Mr Musharraf may seek approval for tough action against the opposition for virtually paralysing the eight-month-old parliament with a campaign to make him surrender the power he seized in a 1999 coup. He oughtta crack some Qazi and Fazl heads on his own behalf
Having Perv do some serious turban-thumping would seem to be to our advantage. Pak "democracy" seems to involve more holy men, guns, and spittle than most of us would consider normal...
Two US-based publications reported this week that the long-awaited release of 28 F-16s, paid for by Islamabad but blocked in the early 1990s because of Pakistan's nuclear programme, is nigh because of its lynchpin war-on-terror role. 'Those aircraft, along with debt forgiveness and trade status, will be Washington's reward for Pakistan's support in the war against Al-Qaeda,' the private Stratfor think-tank wrote in a report published on its website on June 17. The Defence And Foreign Affairs journal said the release of new Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters would be announced during Mr Musharraf's visit. They should get 1990's models - that's what they paid for
The Pentagon late Thursday denied the reports, calling them 'completely false'. US demands on Pakistan focus on curbing militants making forays into Afghanistan and Indian-controlled Kashmir. 'The Bush administration has a wishlist of its own where Pakistan is concerned - including winning an agreement to cease cross-border operations in Afghanistan as well as into Indian-controlled Kashmir,' Stratfor said.
You can't do that while Qazi, Fazl, Hafeez, and Salahuddin are running around...
US demands could go as far as the thorny area of hot pursuit rights for its troops in Afghanistan, it added. damn right!
US troops are thwarted in their Al-Qaeda hunt by the easy passage of rebel fighters over the porous border into Pakistani tribal regions. Islamabad-based analyst Aqil Shah said: 'The Pentagon would definitely be concerned about what is now seen as the renewed Pakistani assistance towards resurgent neo-Taliban. 'American commanders in Afghanistan are not happy with what the Pakistanis are up to. There's a concern that he's delivered on Al-Qaeda, what about the Taliban? There are allegations that Pakistan through the Taleban is destabilising the Karzai administration.'
Even the hard of seeing can make that out...
The prospect of sacking the Parliament as a way out of the political stalemate may also be discussed, Islamabad-based diplomats believe. 'Musharraf probably will take some discreet sounding. He'll say 'it's not working, Parliament is in a state of complete gridlock',' a Western diplomat told AFP. 'He's becoming increasingly frustrated, he can't do anything with his reform agenda. He is now staring down the barrel of an eight-month-old parliament, and no legislation has been passed except the budget.'
That was the turbans' objective from the first.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/21/2003 10:28:05 A ||
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There are several reasons why this is the perfect time for India to enter into a strong alliance with Israel:
Chanakyan theory of statecraft
Certain similarities that make them compatible in the 'clash of civilisations'
A realisation by Indians that Israeli concerns are valid
The rabid opposition of India's Marxists
Let me emphasise, however, that it is not necessarily the case for India to be forever wedded to Israel, or indeed, to anyone else: all tactical alliances are fluid and based on expediency. Indians, naïvely, go for lifetime commitments, when a light-hearted affaire de coeur is the right answer. The BJP has learned this art of compromise, but the Congress never did. But that's no surprise considering their 'leaders' are selected more for their ability to kiss Nehru dynasty ass than for any inherent competence.
Chanakya in his classic Arthashastra speaks about the national interest. He has a dictum that by definition, a state's immediate neighbours are enemies; in India's case this is amply borne out by China, Pakistan and Bangladesh. As an illustration, China was not India's enemy for 2,200 years as some Chinese strongman said recently: that was because there was a country in between, the buffer state of Tibet. As soon as they swallowed Tibet, they became India's neighbour, and therefore, enemy.
Posted by: rg117 ||
06/21/2003 3:04:02 AM ||
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Does this sound like good news or what?? caught it via Drudge
Human remains removed after US Hellfire missiles target source of dictator's satellite phone call
Jason Burke in Baghdad
Sunday June 22, 2003
The Observer
American specialists were carrying out DNA tests last night on human remains believed by US military sources to be those of Saddam Hussein and one of his sons, The Observer can reveal.
The remains were retrieved from a convoy of vehicles struck last week by US forces following 'firm' information that the former Iraqi leader and members of his family were travelling in the Western Desert near Syria.
Military sources told The Observer that the strikes, involving an undisclosed number of Hellfire missiles, were launched against the convoy last Wednesday after the interception of a satellite telephone conversation involving either Saddam or his sons.
The operation, which has not yet been disclosed by the Pentagon, involved the United States air force and ground troops of the Third Armoured Cavalry Regiment based around Ramadi, a major town 70 miles west of Baghdad.
Despite previously unfounded US claims that Saddam had been killed during the bombing of Baghdad before the invasion by America and Britain, the sources indicated that they were cautiously optimistic that they had finally killed the target they described as 'the top man'.
Asked about rumours circulating in senior military circles about the incident, one US officer with knowledge of the raid on the convoy said: 'That is unreleasable information. The Pentagon has to release that information.'
The Pentagon last night refused to comment on what it called 'operational matters'. However, other military sources indicated they were optimistic the tests would show that Saddam and at least one of his two sons, Uday and Qusay, were among the dead, although they stressed that a conclusive identification of the men killed in the attack had not yet been made.
The convoy, composed of several four-wheel-drive luxury vehicles, was attacked after the telephone call was intercepted. An air strike was then organised.
The sources confirmed that Uday Hussein, the deposed dictator's eldest son, was thought to have been travelling with his father in the convoy. The convoy is believed to have been heading for the Syrian border and was intercepted near the frontier town of Qaim. Several such convoys heading for the border were destroyed during the conflict in March and April.
Another US military source confirmed that there was 'an incident in the Western Desert' and said that information about it was 'unreleasable pending verification'. Other sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, revealed that they were awaiting confirmation that the remains were those of Saddam and Uday following full DNA tests. It was not known when the tests would be completed, but the sources indicated it was 'imminent'.
The attack on the convoy came two days after US authorities captured Abid Hamad Mahmud, one of Saddam's top aides. The Washington Post reported yesterday that Mahmud, who was seized by American Special Forces near Saddam's home town of Tikrit, had provided information about Saddam's whereabouts.
The paper reported that Mahmud had told US authorities that the deposed Iraqi leader and his two sons survived the war and that the sons, along with the aide, escaped to Syria, only to be forced to return to Iraq.
The officials said the aide had described a plan by Hussein and his sons to split up to increase their chances of survival as US forces closed in on Baghdad in April. Mahmud was captured last Monday in a raid near the Iraqi city of Tikrit that also netted a number of other, less senior Saddam Hussein loyalists, officials said. But neither the deposed Iraqi President nor his sons were with Mahmud.
'We're not yet sure he's telling the truth,' one senior defence official said of Mahmud's information. 'He could simply be reciting a set of talking points.'
However, the report, from the most significant member of Saddam's government caught so far, contributed to an increasing sense among US authorities last week that the net was closing on the ex-Iraqi leader, who was believed to be hiding somewhere north of Baghdad.
Accounts differed yesterday over the extent to which Mahmud had helped pinpoint the locations of Saddam and his sons. NBC News, which first reported that Mahmud was talking, said some of his information has included places where Saddam or the sons may be found.
A Special Operations group known as Task Force 20, made up of army and navy counter-terrorist teams, had been spearheading the long hunt for Saddam and family members.
US officials last night confirmed reports that Mahmud had told his interrogators that he, Saddam and the sons at one point fled to Syria and then re-entered Iraq. Syria has angrily denied US charges it harboured Saddam or members of his family or that it had any knowledge that top former Iraqi leaders might have taken refuge across its border during or since the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam.
Officials told Reuters that the 'information, or perhaps disinformation,' from Mahmud had intensified the hunt for Saddam Hussein and the sons by US Special Operations troops and paramilitary intelligence agents in Iraq.
White House officials said on Friday it was unclear if the former Iraqi leader was alive or dead. 'We know that this guy (Mahmud) was his (Saddam's) shadow at one time. But who knows what's true and what's not here,' one US official said last night.
Mahmud was regarded by Washington as the most wanted Iraqi figure after Saddam and his sons.
The presidential secretary was the ace of diamonds in the US 'deck of cards' of 55 most-wanted Iraqis and the highest-placed of them caught so far.
US forces have now captured at least 32 of the 55 on the list
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/21/2003 8:21:22 PM ||
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A previously unknown group, the National Front of Fedayeen, vowed Friday to keep attacking US soldiers in Iraq until the occupying forces leave the country. A man, his face hidden in a checkered red and white headscarf, delivered the warning to US President George W. "Bush and his henchmen" in a video-taped message broadcast on Lebanon's LBCI satellite channel.
"Who was that masked man?"
But he strongly denied any links to the regime of ousted Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein.
"Nope. Nope. Not us..."
Three young men, also masked, stood behind him, gripping rocket-propelled grenades during the video which lasted 90 seconds.
That's in case the studio happened to be attacked while they were taping...
"We swear to deliver one strike after another in retaliation for the terrorist and inflammatory acts carried out by their barbarous forces, including arbitrary killings and various humiliations of the population," the man said, reading from a statement. "Before God, we are committed to strike them even harder and more cruelly than in previous attacks," he said. "Also, we tell them if they wish that their soldiers are healthy and safe they must immediately leave our pure land, otherwise we will avenge every Iraqi who has been killed, humiliated, or whose house has been robbed," the masked spokesman said. "The Iraqis have returned from your great lie to free Iraq."
Other groups have also stepped out of the shadows this week to take credit for the hit-and-run attacks that have bedeviled US forces since they ousted Saddam in April. One faction calling itself the Iraqi Resistance Brigades claimed responsibility for "all" attacks against US-led occupation forces in Iraq, in a statement read on the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera news channel. Coalition forces have blamed diehard Hussein loyalists for the repeated attacks on US troops in Sunni-populated regions extending from Baghdad to the north and west of the country that have prompted the US army to launch major operations to root out resistance.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/21/2003 12:04:34 P ||
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#1
Someone should give the terrorist more broadcasting hardware. The more they broadcast, the easier they are to find.
BAGHDAD - U.S. forces broke into an abandoned community hall early Saturday and seized piles of intelligence equipment and top secret documents bearing the seal of the former Iraqi secret service. Upstairs above the hall, which also was used as a funeral parlor, the troops found two large rooms stacked with cryptograph machines, secure transmission devices and binders of documents, with more papers strewn on the floor. Some of the documents made reference to Iraq's nuclear program, including manifests for the delivery of communications equipment to the Iraqi nuclear agency. One letter, dated Feb. 7, 1998, from the National Security Council of Iraq was addressed to the Iraqi Nuclear Organization, with a carbon to the Mukhabarat. Most of the equipment appeared to be old models, but some were still in their original boxes and had apparently never been used. They included equipment made by prominent U.S. and European companies like Motorola and Thompson. "It's potentially significant," said Capt. Ryan McWilliams, the battalion intelligence officer, who examined the documents at his unit's headquarters. He said there were "potentially some pretty strong documents regarding the intelligence service."
Soldiers examining the papers by flashlight with an Arabic interpreter found many of them were marked Top Secret and Personal. Dozens of boxes of paper files and some of the electronics were loaded onto vehicles and taken away. About 50 soldiers from the 1st Armored Division, belonging to a unit nicknamed "the Gunners," sealed off part of Baghdad's Azamiyah district with seven armored vehicles and stormed the building around 1 a.m. After trying to break through the door with a sledgehammer, the troops were surprised when a squatter opened the lock from the inside and welcomed them in.
I hate it when that happens...
Azamiyah had been a center of support for Saddam Hussein's regime and was the neighborhood where he, or someone presenting himself as Saddam, last appeared in public before the capture of Baghdad was completed on April 9.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/21/2003 9:48:18 AM ||
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Indonesian police said Saturday they arrested 10 suspected members of Jemaah Islamiyah, the al-Qaida-linked militant Islamic group blamed for last year's Bali bombings. The men were suspected in a series of church bombings across Indonesia on Christmas Eve 2000 that killed 19 people, as well as five smaller bombings earlier, Chief Detective Lt. Gen. Erwin Mapasseng said. He said the men's "controller" at the time of the 2000 bombings was Riduan Isamuddin, or Hambali, the alleged ex-operations chief of Jemaah Islamiyah, who is still at large and believed to be Osama bin Laden's point man in Southeast Asia. Mapasseng did not say when the men allegedly last had contact with Hambali. The latest arrests were made between June 12 and June 16 in towns and cities throughout Sumatra island. He said the men were also believed to have been involved in a bank robbery in Medan city, on Sumatra, on May 6 in which three people were killed. Mapasseng said the detainees had justified their alleged actions by saying they were "in a war situation."
And I'll guarantee there's more where they came from...
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/21/2003 9:39:18 AM ||
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JPost - Reg Req'd
BAGGED A BIGGUN'!
Jun. 21, 2003
Senior Hamas terrorist killed by IDF in Hebron
By JOEL LEYDEN
The Israel Defense Force's has just confirmed that a senior Palestinian terrorist was killed tonight in the West Bank city of Hebron.
Abdullah Kawasme, the head of Hamas' military wing in Hebron, was killed in a gunbattle as security forces moved in to arrest him, a military source told the Jerusalem Post.
Kawasme is suspected of several recent terror atacks including a bus bombing in Haifa on March 5th and the Jerusalem bus bombing on June 11 which claimed 17 lives and wounded over 100. No. 79 in your deck of cards extended version -
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/21/2003 6:30:00 PM ||
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US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Friday that Syria's response to US calls to clamp down on Palestinian militants was so far "totally inadequate" and would continue to sour ties with Washington.
Powell told a news conference that since his last visit to Damascus to seek cooperation in efforts to combat terrorism, the Syrians "took some limited steps. The limited steps are totally inadequate." The United States has been in contact with the Syrians over the issue, the secretary of state said. "We will continue to press them. We will work with our colleagues in the international community to put pressure on Syria," he told reporters after talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. He said that lacking stronger action by the Syrians, "it is clear there will not be better relations with the United States and it will ultimately affect their interest."
That's diplotalk for "they're gonna keep screwing around until they've really cheezed us off. Then they're gonna wonder why we're thumping them."
Since the US-led invasion of Iraq, which Damascus opposed, Washington has been urging Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to clamp down on radical Palestinian groups based in his capital, especially Hamas and Islamic Jihad. "We look for all activities of those groups out of Syria to be closed down," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said on June 13.
But Bashar's afraid that if they do that, the gunnies will turn on the Syrians. Plus he's afraid of losing face as a tough guy.
On a Middle East visit to try to save a US-backed "road map" to Israeli-Palestinian peace that has been battered by a flare-up of violence, Powell said Syria had not stopped backing the Palestinian and Lebanese groups as requested by Washington. "They took some limited steps. Those limited steps are totally inadequate. We have gone back to the Syrians to let them know that we find their actions inadequate," Powell said at a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. After meeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in May, Powell said Syria had closed some militant offices in Damascus. Syrian officials said later the offices served as media outlets and none had been shut down.
"We agreed, and then did exactly the opposite, but that don't mean we're liars, does it?"
They said they were interested in dialogue with, not ultimatums from, Washington, which lists Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism.
A "dialogue" consists of a conversation in which each side has something to say, for instance:
Side 1: "Shut down the goddamned terrorist operations in your capital or we'll kill you!"
Side 2: "Hokay."
What's so hard to understand about that?
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Thursday asked that the mandate of its force between Lebanon, Syria and Israel be extended by six months, calling it "essential." The United Nations Disengagement Force (UNDOF) was first put in place in 1974 after the Arab-Israeli war of October 1973. Its mandate had been scheduled to end on June 30.
It's been around for 31 years? 31 years and it still hasn't caused a disengagement? Babies have grown from infantry to adultery in that time!
"The situation in the Israel-Syria sector has remained generally quiet," Annan said in a report to the UN Security Council distributed at the United Nations. "Nevertheless the situation in the Middle East is very tense and is likely to remain so, unless and until a comprehensive settlement covering all aspects of the Middle East problem can be reached," he continued.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/21/2003 1:11:24 PM ||
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"Stop shooting immediately or we will surrender!" Oh, sorry, wrong ultimatum. BUNIA - The commander of a French-led emergency force on Saturday gave tribal fighters controlling Bunia 72 hours to get out of Dodge the northeastern Congolese town or have their weapons taken away.
"And what will you do without weapons, hah? Answer me that!"
The head of the Union of Congolese Patriots - a militia drawn from the Hema tribe - said he agreed to pull out his fighters. ``I have no problem with that and, in fact, I have already started withdrawing troops from the town,'' Thomas Lubanga said. "Since we stripped the town clean, it's time to move on!"
Lubanga said the emergency force agreed that his militia's leaders can keep bodyguards, who will appear armed on the streets only when they are with those they are protecting. Brig. Gen. Jean-Paul Thonier, head of the more than 600 French troops in Bunia, handed Lubanga the ultimatum, which expires at 11 a.m. Tuesday, spokesman Col. Gerard Dubois said. Why 72 hours? Seems simple enough, I think 12 hours would do. "Get outta town or else!" And then follow through.
Hema fighters gained control of Bunia, capital of resource-rich Ituri province at the beginning of May after battles with rival fighters from the Lendu tribe. More than 500 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the fighting, which prompted the U.N. Security Council to authorize the deployment in Bunia of the emergency French-led force of 1,400 with a mandate to shoot to kill. The 700 U.N. troops already in Bunia since April have a lesser mandate that only permits them to cower inside protect U.N. installations and unarmed military observers and to fire only in self-defense. They did not intervene in the fighting in early May.
How do you fire, even if only in self-defense, when you're unarmed?
The UPC and Lendu fighters clashed again the day after the French arrived. Since then, UPC fighters, some as young as 10, have been swaggering down Bunia's rutted streets or zooming around in stolen pickups, carrying assault rifles that are often almost as big as they are. Residents are frightened of the fighters and afraid to go out to their fields to bring in food because of numerous attacks and rapes that have occurred since the UPC gained control of the town. France, many African nations and Thonier back Secretary-General Kofi Annan's call for a force of 10,800 with a more robust mandate when the current mandate expires June 30. The United States has said that political will to resolve Congo's conflicts and not more troops is the answer. There we go again getting sensible and all.
On Saturday MONUC spokesman Hamadoun Toure said two unarmed military observers abducted near the town of Beni, 95 miles southwest of Bunia, were safe and that the United Nations was working closely with the rebel group that controls the area for their release. Toure did not identify the two observers, but the Russian Foreign Ministry on Saturday identified one as Russian Maj. I.E. Biryukov and the other as an unnamed Tunisian. These guys aren't stupid enough to whack a Russian, are they?
Oh, sure they are...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/21/2003 11:41:47 A ||
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JPost - Reg Req'd
TEHRAN: Iran said Friday it would continue to limit the operations of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, setting the stage for confrontation with the world body. The refusal announced by Iran's nuclear chief on state television indicated a hardening of attitude toward the International Atomic Energy Agency. In its nightly news bulletin Friday, Iranian television said the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, would not permit environmental sampling at "some locations." It did not name the locations. "We've had no problem concerning environmental samples, but we've been telling the IAEA that this location is not a nuclear location, so that if you want take environmental samples, this is outside the framework of the protocol," Aghazadeh said. He did not identify the location.
"No, no! It's not a nuclear location! There's no need to verify that it's not a nuclear location if it's not, right?"
"If we accept to operate outside the framework of the protocol, it will have no ending ... and tomorrow ten other locations may be named," said Aghazadeh, who was shown speaking to a state television reporter. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei has asked Iran to permit monitors to take environmental samples at a location where the country has allegedly enriched uranium a step in producing nuclear weapons. Inspectors were turned away from a site at Kalaye, west Tehran, earlier this month after they came to take environmental samples. The Iranians have allegedly tested centrifuges at the Kalaye site. On Thursday, the IAEA challenged Iran to prove it does not have a nuclear weapons program, but rejected Washington's effort to bring the matter before the U.N. Security Council. IAEA - one of those letters has to stand for Asshats. Threaten, cajole, it's all talk. I feel better when I hear the President say we will not tolerate Iran nukes... that means something, because he'll have to follow through on it
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/21/2003 11:26:16 A ||
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#2
Hey, will we drop leaflets beforehand, y'know, so the locals will know about the potential for getting contaminated and all? I mean, I know there's nothing there cuz Aghazadeh sez so, but...
El Barradai is a Grand Whore of the Eternal Order Of Blixie Obfuscators and Apologists - a Blixie Officer, in short. He plays his OWN bizarre game, not the one he was hired to do. He asks SOME of the right questions, then won't follow through on the obvious lies and prevarications.
In a funny way, I kinda feel sorry for him. What can Iran bribe him with? Blix prolly got a suite of apartments on the Left Bank (apropos,no?), a country chateau in Provence and all the champagne, caviar, and chocolates he can eat. Poor old El Barradai must content himself with a hareem and a shitload of dates (pun intended). Sigh. What's a technical functionary to do, these days?
HARARE - Zim-Bob-We's opposition leader dismissed his two weeks in jail on treason charges as an ``occupational hazard'' Saturday and said he will not stop putting pressure on President Robert Mugabe. Morgan Tsvangirai, 51, was released on bail Friday with a warning from a judge not to say anything that would violate laws against advocating Mugabe's overthrow. "Thanks your Honor, and can you point me to the nearest demonstration?"
Tsvangirai, the head of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, was arrested June 6 following a week of anti-government strikes that further undermined an already feeble economy. He is accused of calling on supporters to oust Mugabe and inciting them to violence. If convicted he could face a death sentence. On Saturday, he denied that he called for Mugabe's overthrow and said he would continue his political work. ``An old coot man of 79 is holding the country to ransom to stay in power. It is a sad indictment on him when the country is on its knees,'' Tsvangirai told reporters at his home in suburban Harare. He described his two weeks in jail, much of it in a dirty cell with 75 other prisoners facing murder and rape charges, as ``an occupational hazard.''
Yeah, well promise you won't do the same thing when Bob kicks it and you're in charge...
``They can continue to punish us and arrest us. My message is: We will not retreat. If they think we will capitulate, they are living in Cuba a dream,'' he said. While this month's strikes and protests paralyzed much of the country, planned street marches were prevented by a massive show of force by police, troops and ruling party boys with guns militia backed by armored cars, water cannons and helicopters. Tsvangirai said he and his supporters would continue to exert ``as much pressure as we can'' to force the ruling party, ZANU PF, to negotiate. ``We have stated all along that we will use constitutional and peaceful means to put pressure on ZANU PF to come to the table,'' he said. ``Mass action is not being abandoned.'' "We'll be back!"
Tsvangirai is due back in court on July 10 to face the new treason charges. He and two senior opposition officials are already on trial for treason for allegedly plotting to assassinate Mugabe two years ago. The three politicians, who deny the charges, say they were framed by the government to weaken their party. Tsvangirai described conditions in the main Harare prison as ``scandalous'' but said he was not mistreated. I imagine it was like Nelson Mandela in prison — no one would dare lay a hand on him.
To get out of jail Friday, Tsvangirai had to pay a cash bail of 10 million Zimbabwe dollars - about $12,000 - which his wife delivered in four cardboard boxes. He also had to hand over property deeds or rights to other assets worth $120,000. If he'd had waited a week, his wife would have needed a tractor-trailer to deliver the cash.
The opposition launched a campaign Saturday for donations to replenish party coffers and repay loans used to pay the bail.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/21/2003 11:12:17 A ||
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They'llstarve to death eating those little skinny guys...
UNITED NATIONS - France and many African nations are backing Secretary-General Kofi Annan's call for a larger U.N. peacekeeping force with a more robust mandate in war-torn eastern Congo, but the United States appears reluctant to agree.
Something about a quagmire...
Many Congolese are hoping the United Nations will intervene to stop fighting in the region. On Thursday, attackers abducted two U.N. observers, reportedly to demand that the U.N. mission in Congo be given a stronger mandate.
Lemme get this straight: "We'll kidnap your guys and torture them and eat them unless you send more troops to get this place under control..." Yeah. That makes sense. Not a lot of sense, but sense...
At present, U.N. troops in Congo are deployed under a mandate that only allows them to fire in self-defense. They have not attempted to stem the violence between rival factions of the Hema and Lendu tribes that has killed more than 500 people in and around the eastern town of Bunia since the beginning of May.
"We're observers. Go ahead and do something. We'll observe it."
Hamadoun Toure, spokesman of the U.N. mission in Congo, said Friday that the two unarmed U.N. military observers were abducted Thursday from their residence in Beni, 96 miles southwest of Bunia. Toure declined to identify the observers. A rebel faction that has allied itself to the Congolese government said they had identified the attackers and claimed captors were holding the observers to demand that the U.N. mission in Congo be given a stronger mandate.
A rebel faction allied with the government... That makes sense, too.
"The captors said they are holding them to press demands that (the U.N. mission) be given a stronger mandate, like the one given to the international force in Bunia," said Mbusa Nyamwisi, leader of RCD-ML. The rebel faction, RCD-ML, was supposed to guarantee the security of the observers, who are monitoring cease-fire agreements meant to end the 5-year civil war in Congo.
Posted by: Fred Pruitt ||
06/21/2003 9:34:04 AM ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
