BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - The United States has offered to take command of the NATO force in Afghanistan next year following the current British stint in charge of the expanding peacekeeping mission, diplomats said Tuesday.
The handover to a U.S. general is expected to take place in February as part of an overhaul of the NATO mission. The changes will include introducing a more flexible, multinational headquarters to replace the system of rotating national commands which has been in place since the start of the operation in August 2003.
One senior NATO diplomat said the offer reflects the U.S. commitment to Afghanistan even as the expansion of the NATO mission into the volatile south and east of Afghanistan means more European and Canadian troops can free up U.S. troops currently based there. The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers Thursday, said the U.S. would likely remain in command for a year, as the alliance drops the current system of six-month command rotations.
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said his country would like to take command in 2008.
And I think we should let them.
NATO is scheduled to expand its peacekeeping mission from 9,000 to 16,000 by late July when it is scheduled to take on security in the dangerous southern region. Later this year, it hopes to complete its expansion by moving into the eastern sector, which will likely take its total numbers to 21,000. The U.S. is hoping to reduce its troops numbers this year from 19,000 to 16,000. The U.S. will also maintain a smaller combat force independent of NATO with the aim of hunting down Taliban and al-Qaida remnants.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/07/2006 00:00 ||
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Gee, let's send Wesley Clark
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/07/2006 0:49 Comments ||
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"Ah! The generals! They are numerous but not good for much!" - Aristophanes
It was before "Black Hawk Down," before Somalia became the only country in the world without a government, that I took my first trip there. It changed my life. This was in the mid-1980s, when the United States was underwriting a warlord dictator in support of our Cold War interests, at the clear expense of basic human rights. As a young, wide-eyed activist-in-training, I couldn't accept the idea that my government would use defenseless Somali civilians as pawns on its strategic chessboard -- in a strategy that ultimately produced only state collapse, civil war and famine.
Twenty years later the enemy has changed, but the plot is hauntingly similar. In recent trips to the capital, Mogadishu, I have seen evidence of U.S. support to warlord militia leaders in the name of counterterrorism operations. Since the beginning of the year, pitched battles between U.S.-backed warlords and Islamist militias in Mogadishu have claimed hundreds of lives and displaced thousands of families.
Now "our" warlords -- and by extension our counterterrorism strategy -- have been dealt a crushing defeat by the Islamists, as the latter have consolidated control of Mogadishu. Our short-term interest in locating al-Qaeda suspects has thus been undermined, and the risk of a new safe haven being created for international terrorists has been greatly increased.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2006 03:19 ||
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The U.S. counterterrorism approach in Somalia isn't working:
Much as I don't like to hear it, this guy has a valid point. If we learned one thing in the last century, it is that supporting the bad guys will result in bad consequences.
I don't have the answers, and I'm aware that it is not realistic to think we can micromanage world affairs. But he's right when he says that what we are doing isn't helping. So...back to the drawing board. We need a better way. Let's figure out what does work instead of supporting murderous thugs. We need to do something - but doing the wrong thing won't cut it.
#3
This is probably going to sound racist, I don't mean it as racist.
Take a poll among non-african blacks and see how namy, if any, want to help "The Mother Country"
Bet the numbers are very low, once away from that hell hole why return?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/07/2006 8:31 Comments ||
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Here's the answer.... "live long and prosper" by staying the phuech out of Africa.
More or less what the Clinton administration did with Afghanistan.
Another reason to go to Africa is that it is the ideal place to highlight racist, arabo-fascist nature of Islam (think Darfur) and with time, have non Arab Muslims seeing the light about it.
#5
Much of this guy's premise is bull. This war has many levels: economic; ideological; etc. But at the most basic level, it is a war of attrition...destroying the enemies men and material to the point they are no longer able to wage war. Holding a particular piece of ground is the least important. It's not unimportant. You still want to deny the enemy safe havens and the ability to regroup, but it's less important than other factors.
Even in Iraq, it's not about controlling Basra or some other geographic site for its strategic military value. The purpose of a prosperous and democratic Iraq is on the ideological plane and to some extent, the so-called 'fly paper' effect on the attrition plane.
Therefore, I see the recent Somalia events as not a success, but not a failure either. The combatants in Somalia would have been combatants if the U.S. was involved or not. At least this way, it caused the Islamonazis to expend more than they would have otherwise. If the enemy is fighting a war of attrition, you had better be doing the same or you will lose.
#6
Another reason to go to Africa is that it is the ideal place to highlight racist, arabo-fascist nature of Islam
Please spare America the KIA/WIA price of "highlighting." Africa is a cycle of doom, heretofore, Afghanistan has been the same. The jury is still out in AF. If the world is NOT witting to Islam, not much we can add to the POI.
#7
Please spare America the KIA/WIA price of "highlighting." Africa is a cycle of doom, heretofore, Afghanistan has been the same.
You prefer a second 9/11? The WOT is first of all an ideological battle: it will be won when salafism in particular and Islam are universally hated and we haven't made a move about this. We should be helping those who fight Islam and taking advantage of any opportunity to expose its crimes. Africa seems me a good place to start even if I am not sure I would like to start in Somalia.
#8
You want to win in Somalia? Fine, Americans do not have to die to do that : arm the Somalilanders with captured stores from Iraq (Somalia was a Soviet client state and the weapons used are Soviet); purchase spare parts from Poland, Ukraine, and the Czech Republic for the vehicles; and help the Ethiopians setup a decent logistic train into Somaliland. Then recognize the Somaliland government as the legitimate of overarching Somalia, and give their troops training in Ethiopia. They would be able to fight and win at that point, and no Americans need die for that 3rd world sh*thole. Otherwise, stay the hell out unless or until there is hardcore evidence that the Somalis intend to pull a Taliban in regards to Al-Q.
Posted by: ed ||
06/07/2006 15:15 Comments ||
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He worked for the National Security Council during the Clinton administration.
'Nuff said about what this opinion is worth.
Posted by: Cowboy is a compliment ||
06/07/2006 16:05 Comments ||
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I agree w/Beso&wolf. I don't particularly want to go that sh*thole and un-f*ck their dumb @sses.
I have no problem helping anti-islamists w/weapons or SF training but no U.S. troops for that place.
I didn't say it was a good idea to send troops there just taht it was idiotic to let Somalia in Al Quaida's hands. A new place where to train and plan, just like Afghanistan was.
THe idea was to findf the Somali Massood (ie a capable guy who is not too bad politically) and, unlike Massood, abandonned by the Clinton administration, arm him and crush the Islamists, all while fighting the political fight againt salfism, a thing neither the Bush and the Clinton have dared to do.
#15
Ther question of Somilia is: How should we deal with AQ and islamo-fascisim who have sworn to destroy us and our Nation and whoa are at war with us?
"There is only one tactical principle which is not subject to change. It is to use the means at hand to inflict the maximum amount of wound, death, and destruction on the enemy in the minimum amount of time."
- General George Patton Jr
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - The Sudanese government told a high-level Security Council delegation Tuesday that it would not give immediate approval for a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur, but was willing to keep talking about the takeover from African Union troops.
Senior representatives of the 15 Security Council nations met Tuesday with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, Foreign Minister Lam Akol and members of Parliament on a visit to the capital Khartoum. During closed door meetings, they discussed at length the transfer of peacekeeping responsibilities from a 7,000-strong African Union mission that has been unable to quell fighting in Darfur to a more muscular U.N. force.
"There has been no agreement and discussions continue," Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, who is leading the U.N. mission, said of a U.N. peacekeeping force for Darfur which the U.S. is strongly in favor of.
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Posted by: Steve White ||
06/07/2006 00:00 ||
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Nothing new to see here. The UN circle-jerk continues, while people die. Withdraw the diploweenies. Level Khartoum. Then send in your wank-team again to see if the response is more favorable.
(SomaliNet) Intellectuals and politicians of Mudulod clans of Hawiye tribe had intensive meeting overnight on the clan interest deciding to establish an Islamic court independent of the current Islamic courts' union. Reports say. In the meeting, Mudulod officials discussed over the situations increased in the capital and how to form an Islamic court for the clan and separate from the Islamic courts union.
The meeting was unusual and attended by former president Ali Mahdi Mohamed, Muse Sudi Yalahow and Bashir Rage Shirar, who are both members of the defeated anti terror alliance, Hussein Sheik Ahmed Kadare, who is well known politician in Somalia. The spokesman of Mudulod clans Hussein Sheik Ahmed Kadare read out to the reporters the articles issued from the meeting saying: The unity of Mudulod clans is untouchable and uninfringeable To form unified leadership by Mudulod clans including councils of defense, tradition, mobilization and economy.
That Mudulod see the fighting in the capital spreading to neighboring regions as land expansion by Islamic courts union and that might resume the elapsed civil war, like the four-month fighting which raged between Habar-gidir and Abgal clans, so all groups is being informed to withdraw from Mudulod lands . An appeal for sub-clans of Mudulod in Jawil area in Hiran region to end the hostility and asked for the chief of Hawadle clan chief Abdirahman Chief Khalif to mediate between the rival brothers to end the conflict.
To revive the former Islamic court by Mudulod clans in north Mogadishu which would have its former administration and it is independent from the Islamic courts union in Mogadishu. The meeting came after the Islamic courts announced officially they have taken over the control of whole the capital city of Somalia Mogadishu after they defeated and overrun the militia of what they called alliance for evil and Satan.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2006 00:00 ||
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these folks need a LEVIATHON badly
Posted by: yo momma ||
06/07/2006 2:11 Comments ||
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(AKI) - Egypt's interior minister Ahmed Dia al-Din on Tuesday denied accusations by an MP that many prisoners are being kept in secret underground prisons built beneath buildings. "No dungeons exist on Egyptian soil. Such allegations are unacceptable - all Egyptian prisoners are supervised and guarded by the state police and kept in conditions that most certainly comply with international conventions and Egyptian law," al-Din told parliamentary commission studying revisions to the rules governing the detention of prisoners . Nagi Al-Shahabi, leader of the 'al-Gil" (The Generation) party has claimed he can provide many people who are prepared to testify that they have been detained in dungeons in Egypt after their politically motivated arrests.
Meanwhile, Egypt's state prosecutor (SSI) on Tuesday announced the imminent release from custody of four political activists, among them two female journalists and left-wing activists, Nada al-Qassas and Rasha Azab. The women were arrested on 7 May after taking part in a pro-democracy demonstration in the capital, Cairo, that led to the arrest of many protesters. Al-Qassas and Azab are still in Qanateerwomen's prison and are expected to be released on Wednesday. The two other activists detained on 7 May, Ashraf Ibrahim and Hamdi Aboul Qenawi, are also to be released, the state prosecutor said adding that a further 21 activists will be kept in custody for a further 15 days. The nine leaders of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood movement - Egypt's most powerful opposition force - who were arrested on Sunday will be detained for 15 days, the SSI said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2006 00:00 ||
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all Egyptian prisoners are supervised and guarded by the state police and kept in conditions that most certainly comply with international conventions and Egyptian law
Which should tell you all you need to know about "international conventions" and Egyptian "law".
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
06/07/2006 7:19 Comments ||
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A South African High Court judge has ordered that countrys minister of home Affairs, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula to immediately furnish information about the deportation of a Pakistani Khalid Mahmood Rashid.
Judge Poswa gave the minister until midday today to comply with his earlier order to supply the details in which the South African government is accused of illegally handing over Rashid to British intelligence. Rashid has been missing since he was arrested by South African immigration officers in November. There are fears he might have been handed over to British intelligence as a terror suspect.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2006 03:40 ||
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Fine example of ANC backlash to the rule of law. How dare anyone werk with those nasty, racist old British Colonials. This is no longer the Cape Colony, this is now Malukakimalzulukistan.
A member of the ruling family of Qatar, accused of once harboring Al Qaeda members, has asked a federal judge to vacate a default judgment entered against him in a Sept. 11 lawsuit. His lawyers say he has no connection to the 2001 attacks.
Sheikh Abdullah Bin Khalid Al Thani, Qatars interior minister, made the request in papers last filed Friday in US District Court in Manhattan.
In a declaration filed with US District Judge Richard C. Casey, Al Thani said he had never appeared on any official list of persons under investigation for terrorist activities in connection with such matters outside of this case.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2006 03:51 ||
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An activist from the Respect Party has urged British Muslims in east London to stop co-operating with police. Yvonne Ridley, who became a Muslim after her kidnap by the Taliban in Afghanistan five years ago, has accused the police of being heavy-handed. She told BBC News British Muslims should "withdraw all support" for the Metropolitan Police. Her comments come in the wake of an anti-terror raid on a house in east London in which one man was shot.
I don't know how to make this plainer but the major concern for the muslim community in the UK should be to avoid losing what little trust, if any, the British public has in them.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
06/07/2006 03:49 ||
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what a worm ... And why is she still in this country again ? couldnt handle the heat in Afganistan , or perhaps it was the daily threats on womens lives , or maybe she just wasnt Islam enough ?
Respect Party = her and Galloway ? sheesh , they know how to pick winners ..whiners..
Yes , well said Howard , although I like the idea of these moonbats sticking up for muslims , kinda makes their case even more tenuous
#12
How many other Yvonne Ridley's are in the British news media?
Posted by: ed ||
06/07/2006 12:25 Comments ||
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Don't cooperate. The police will do their business no matter what. They may tend to get a little rougher during their operations. I think Britain ought to use on of those offshore islands north of Scotland to create their own Gitmo. Not nearly as comfortable as Cuba.
#16
I think what pikhalbadger is referring to is the ancient Druid tradition of burning men alive in man-shaped, woven wicker cages... unless it was hurling them into the swamp to drown... At any rate, it wasn't very nice at all, and part of the reason why the Romans set out to exterminate the lot of them. I'm not sure which islands are his, though. Sorry.
Kyrgyzstan will include al-Qaeda on a list of organizations banned in its territory, Kyrgyz Security Council Secretary Miroslav Niyazov said at a press conference on Wednesday.
"Kyrgyzstan intends to put the terrorist organization al-Qaeda on the list of organizations banned in the republic's territory," Niyazov said.
Several years ago, the Kyrgyz Supreme Court banned the activity of four terrorist organizations and movements in Kyrgyzstan, particularly the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Hizb ut-Tahrir, the East Turkestan Liberation Organization, and the East Turkestan Party.
"The inclusion of al-Qaeda on the list is under consideration now," Niyazov said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2006 03:38 ||
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The airframe's based on the IL-76. And it looks like it's a major loss...
Following the humiliation of the cancelled A-50I/Phalcon contract with Israel in 2000, China salvaged this A-50I from Israel via Russia in 2002 without the Phalcon system. It was reported that a significant amount of resources have been invested into this high-priority project at the 603 Institute/XAC/14th Institute following an executive order issued by the Chinese President. The compete system first flew on November 11, 2003 as KJ-2000 after overcoming various technical difficulities. So far 3 KJ-2000s have been converted, the newest member being B-4043. More KJ-2000 platforms are being converted from the existing Il-76MD transport fleet and fitted with AWACS systems locally without Israeli involvement. The first two KJ-2000 was handed over to PLAAF in 2005. Currently both #762 and B-4040 (?) are stationed in Zhejiang Province, facing Japan and Taiwan.
If I remember correctly, the chineese SSN/SSBN program had a similar incident where the core of the design team went out on a test cruise. The sub pulled a Thresher. The chineese still havent replaced the talent killed off by that accident.
You would think they would learn to better protect their technical experts by keeping them in the lab, and out of the field. They're hard to replace.
Posted by: N guard ||
06/07/2006 13:32 Comments ||
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They're hard to replace.
That's why they don't have dups to do the field testing. But they're graduating 600,000 engineers each year.
#6
India has yet to rebuild their own indigenous AWACs effort after the crash of the test aircraft (nicknamed the flying chapatti) with all scientists on board lost.
They're buying 3 Phalcons from Israel (also on the Il-76 airframe)
Posted by: john ||
06/07/2006 15:41 Comments ||
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john: nicknamed the flying chapatti
Why the flying chapatti*? Did the radar dome cover the entire fuselage?
* That reminds me - I need to grab a bite at one of the Indian restaurants near St. Mark's Place.
Offensive remarks can fuel anger at society, some say `They judge you just because you're wearing a scarf'
A darker side of Toronto's diversity is emerging on school campuses in the aftermath of arrests in an alleged terrorist plot involving at least five suspects younger than 18. Most of the other 12 are in their late teens or early 20s, which raises the question: How could young people brought up in our own backyard, in a place that seemingly affords them every opportunity, be motivated to carry out a potentially horrific act of terrorism in Toronto?
While speculation has focused on mosques and prayer halls as possible places of indoctrination, students across Greater Toronto are suggesting that alienation might just begin at school. One of the accused is Saad Khalid, 19, a former student at Meadowvale Secondary School in Mississauga. He and two other former Meadowvale students charged in the case Fahim Ahmad and Zakaria Amara were known by some of the teenagers the Toronto Star talked to there this week. The current students declined to be identified, in part because of an announcement made by a school administrator strongly encouraging them "to refrain from talking to reporters."
But white students, as well as those of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent, painted a picture of a divided student body, with a so-called "brown corner" at one end of the school where Muslim teens hang out, often speaking in their mother tongue. They also pointed to the trend among some Muslim students to take on a more visibly orthodox appearance as they progress through Meadowvale.
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#1
It's official: terrorism is the fault of high school cliques.
*grrrr*
While speculation has focused on mosques and prayer halls as possible places of indoctrination, students across Greater Toronto are suggesting that alienation might just begin at school.
The excuse-making begins. Can't be allowed to look at the parents, the mosques, the religion -- so we have to blame the whiteys. After all, white teenagers *NEVER* make rude comments to each other.
one end of the school where Muslim teens hang out, often speaking in their mother tongue
Not assimilating. Check.
They also pointed to the trend among some Muslim students to take on a more visibly orthodox appearance as they progress through Meadowvale.
Becoming more radical -- rejecting assimilation. Check.
Abdullah Khan... "Now some Muslim kids think it's cool to be a terrorist. A kid will make a paper airplane and throw it, then say it's like flying it into the Sears Tower. They think it's part of the religion, but it's actually haram (a sin)."
Uh-huh. Well, let me tell you, "Slave of Allah", there are a hell of a lot of your co-religionists who not only say it's not a sin, but that it's a requirement. That you can even skip things like daily prayers, fasting during Ramadan, etc. if you're a jihadi, because jihad is the highest service to Allah.
Funny thing is, they can support that position with quotes from the Koran and hadiths a lot more easily than your position can be supported.
So I'm glad to hear you think it's a sin. Why don't you work on those misguided Muslims; once their interpretation is limited to a literal handful, then we'll be getting somewhere.
As he sat outside Mississauga's Thomas L. Kennedy High School, Grade 11 student Roa Farah said the responsibility to prevent kids from choosing a violent path is everyone's, not just members of the Muslim community.
It'd be nice if we had signs that the Muslim community was doing anything. You know, like rejecting wahabbist literature, Saudi money, exposing and kicking out Islamist imams, etc.
She spoke of the backlash against Muslims when terrorism makes headlines.
Of course she did. It's one of -- if not the -- first thing a Muslim mentions when a jihadi strikes.
Did the interviewer try to get her to condemn Osama bin Laden or other jihadis? Mighta been fun to watch her squirm, trying her best to give the impression she was doing so while not actually doing it. I've seen it before; it's quite a sight.
"The first thing (people) think when they see a Muslim is that you're a terrorist," the 17-year-old said. "It's not a justification, but people get to a point where they're oppressed and spit it out the wrong way."
"It's not justification... but..."
FOAD, Roa.
Pardon me, I'm more than a little pissed off today.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
06/07/2006 7:41 Comments ||
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I didn't know oppression in Canada was so extreme. Those poor muzzies!
Seriously, this clueless hand-wringing has to end. Do the Canuck moonbats really believe that school-yard taunting (endured by students everywhere since schools began) is a leading cause of terrorism? Are they that out of touch? If so, maybe they need to be awakened, perhaps by a large boom.
#3
Are they that out of touch? If so, maybe they need to be awakened, perhaps by a large boom.
I'm convinced that would only result in them surrendering faster.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
06/07/2006 8:14 Comments ||
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Well said, Rob. The stuff in the UK press today is really quite astonishing and not at all good for the blood pressure.
I went to a UK school with a mix of ethnic backgrounds. At the time of the Rushdie affair it became patently obvious that some muslim kids had a screw loose. I remember one of them standing on his desk and screaming about his God when challenged in a debating class... he had to be physically restrained by a teacher in the end. The result? Condemned as a nutter by his peers and duly ostracised - exactly what we're seeing on a societal scale in the UK. The more bananas you are the less you'll be liked for it.
Posted by: Howard UK ||
06/07/2006 8:36 Comments ||
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If I wore a cowboy hat with a feather in it everyday, and never took it off no matter what....... I'd be "judged" TOO. Welcome to the world.
#7
The problem is two fold. It isn't that other kids are treating them badly (in some cases, I'm sure it's true. Kids have done that forever.) They act like kids from East Asia, the Caribbean, Latin America, and every other part of the globe never had to deal with the same exact crap they're dealing with now when they were "the new kids with the funny way of talking/dressing/eating".
Not only that, but unlike the other groups of "different" kids, they feel that this gives them the right, almost the religious justification, for striking back at the country that is giving them and their families a reprieve from the craptacular hellhole they just crawled out from.
#13
At least they have been paying attention in Quran class. Quran 4.89: They desire that you should disbelieve as they have disbelieved, so that you might be (all) alike; therefore take not from among them friends until they flee in Allah's way; but if they turn back [to their homes], then seize them and kill them wherever you find them, and take not from among them a friend or a helper.
Posted by: ed ||
06/07/2006 11:58 Comments ||
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#14
Canada, and Toronto in particular has seen a large number of Asians immigrate into the area in the last 20 years also. But you don't hear about chinese kids in Canada causing trouble of any kind. I'm sure there is the usual street gang stuff, but they don't try to build 3 ton bombs and behead the Prime Minister. The only people up there doing things like that are well... how can I put this? Oh yeah, Islamonuts.
Qutb started the contemporary Islamic debate on separation by his re-interpretation of separation (mufassala) and migration (hijra). He argued that the first Muslim community developed in clearly defined stages that must be emulated today. First was the proclamation of the message (dawa), then the separation (mufassala) from unbelievers, and finally the fight to implement Gods new society on earth (jihad). Separation from jahili society is a necessary step for establishing boundaries and identity. It is not conceived of as total physical separation, but as a spiritual separation whilst staying on in society to proclaim and recruit. In the Islamic golden age, when a person became a Muslim he made a clean break with his past, separating himself totally from the jahili environment, and starting a new life with the Quran as his only guide.
#18
Islam isolates these children, who are taught to avoid the infidels and shum non-islamic activities and connections and thoughts. Islamism aleinates these children and provides them with the reason for their their isolation - global jihad and khalifate.
The stricter the muslim, the wonkier the kid. Burqa-mommy doesn't have a face. Other kids mommy's have faces. Other kid's mommy's are evil and must die.
When Canada's most quoted and often controversial imam, Ally Hindy, appeared at the Brampton courthouse this past weekend to support the group police describe as a homegrown terrorism cell, few were surprised.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, and with Canada's focus on terrorism, Hindy has either known, or involved himself with, virtually every high-profile Canadian accused of terrorism offences.
He has also been one of the most vocal critics of Canada's spy service and the RCMP the federal agencies that investigated the alleged cell of 17 people who were arrested Friday night and Saturday morning as part of a massive police raid. Hindy claims police and the spies unfairly target Muslims, and that their invasive tactics have dissuaded many in the community from co-operating with federal authorities.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2006 03:49 ||
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But to a muslim all muslims are innocent regardless of what they say to the non-muslim world. We know this from past expierence. Anything you do for big mo is permitted.
Some of the 17 Muslim men accused of plotting terror bombings in Canada also planned to storm Parliament, take hostages and behead the prime minister and other leaders, according to accusations revealed Tuesday by the lawyer for one of the suspects.
Authorities further allege that the suspect, Steven Vikash Chand, plotted to take over media outlets, including Canadian Broadcasting Corp., his attorney said after a brief hearing at the Ontario Court of Justice.
Specifics of the charges against the other suspects were not released, but Chand's lawyer, Gary Batasar, asked that the allegations against his client be read in court. He told The Associated Press later that others face similar accusations, but did not say who or how many.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2006 03:15 ||
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"It's breathtaking that this is going on in Canada,"
Indeed shocking, and will likely continue until all Canadians immigrate elsewhere, and the muzzies take over.
#2
"To see the homegrown nature of it is shocking to me."
I've concluded most liberals are simply naive. They try to justify unreasonable hate and can't understand how evil people will do the most unthinkable and despicable acts to another human being. I'm surprised CSIS actually preempted the attacks. Not much you can do about stupidity when they refuse to learn....maybe this will be a real turning point for Canada.
The terrorism suspect who allegedly plotted to behead the Prime Minister was a Canadian soldier for four years and likely received weapons training.
The Toronto Star has learned that Steven Vikash Chand was a member of the Royal Regiment of Canada, a reservist unit that meets in Toronto.
Chand, who later converted to Islam and went by the name Abdul Shakur, is charged with belonging to a terrorist group, receiving training and recruiting or training others to participate in terrorist activity. The charges partly involve allegations that Chand and eight other suspects spent five days last winter in a remote field in Washago, Ont., to participate in terrorist training.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2006 02:57 ||
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A soldier for 4 years and likely received weapons training?! Are there Canadian soldiers who don't receive weapons training? What idiot wrote this piece (of sh*t)?
To be fair, he planned to behead the PM. The Canadian cavalry probably traded in their sabres years ago...unless he planned on beheading him with multiple rounds of .223
The United States could learn from the problems with its Cold War recruitment of ex-Nazis to spy on the Soviet Union as it tries to penetrate al Qaeda, historians said on Tuesday. The historians, who examined newly released CIA documents, told a news conference that America's use of war criminals in Cold War intelligence mainly produced unreliable information, sometimes with disastrous consequences for U.S. interests. "We have not found any evidence that hiring these tainted individuals brought little other than operational problems and moral confusion," said Timothy Naftali, the newly selected director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.
Robert Wolfe, former National Archives expert on German war records, drew parallels with a U.S. intelligence efforts to penetrate modern enemies including al Qaeda. Intelligence failures involving the Sept. 11 attacks prompted the Bush administration to dispense with guidelines that had discouraged the CIA's from using informants with unsavory backgrounds. "The alleged 'intelligence' those (Cold War) recruits peddled was mostly hearsay and gossip designed to tell their American interrogators what they wanted to hear," Wolfe said. "Their unreliability was surpassed only by the harm that ensued from recruiting some who turned out to be Communist double agents," he added.
Historians cited examples such as former German SS officer Heinz Felfe, a Soviet spy who used his ex-Nazi credentials in 1951 to join the American-sponsored West German intelligence service known as the Gehlen organization. In the end, he exposed 15,000 intelligence "items" to the Soviets, including the names of CIA agents, and compromised most West German counter-intelligence operations against the Soviet Union before his arrest in 1961, according to a CIA estimate.
About 8 million pages of documents from agencies that also include the FBI and the Defense Department have been declassified under the disclosure act. The working group established by the disclosure act is also examining federal government affiliations with war criminals from Imperial Japan. The CIA had previously released more than 1.2 million pages of documents relating to former Nazis in compliance with the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act of 1998.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2006 03:42 ||
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blah, blah, blah. But once again making a point that we need to learn from... The right way to go is not to elevate the bad guys to the status of good guys.
So the question then becomes...what should we do? I don't know. It's time to make the effort to find out. There always is a way. We just need to find it.
#2
You mean that FDR's adminstration playing up good Uncle Joe, who by the way killed more of his own people than Hitler ever did, during WWII wasn't elevating bad people because of operational necessity?
India's June 6 announcement that it will test-fire its Agni-III missile sometime in August came just a day after U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace said such a firing would not affect the pending U.S.-Indian civilian nuclear deal. Pace also indicated that the United States would like India to assume a much greater role in patrolling the Strait of Malacca. Pace's four-day visit to New Delhi and his comments have a geopolitical undercurrent: The United States is developing India into a junior partner in the Indian Ocean region.
Analysis
U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace wrapped up his four-day visit to India on June 7. Pace indicated June 5 that Washington would accept India's test-firing of the Agni-III missile; the next day, New Delhi announced that the test-firing would take place in August. Pace also said the United States looks forward to India assuming greater responsibility in patrolling the Strait of Malacca.
Pace's trip to India marks the first time the highest-ranking U.S. military commander visited since Washington and New Delhi signed a 10-year defense cooperation agreement in 2005. That agreement set in motion negotiations of a U.S.-Indian civilian nuclear deal that involved the United States giving significant help in India's development of a nuclear power infrastructure in exchange for India's putting some restrictions on its military nuclear program. The nuclear deal has been stalled in the U.S. Congress; U.S. President George W. Bush has found it increasingly difficult to push his international agenda forward because of his precipitous decline in popularity in opinion polls. India knows that Bush has faced much opposition to the nuclear deal, and so put off testing its Agni-III missile for fear of further endangering the agreement. This is why India did not respond in kind, as it typically does, when Pakistan tested a missile -- the ShaheenII/HatfVI ballistic missile -- May 7.
Pace's June 5 announcement that Washington would not see the missile test as a nuclear-proliferation concern changed New Delhi's reasoning. India, realizing that the United States likely would not approve the civilian nuclear deal until at least autumn, was happy to get the go-ahead from at least the U.S. executive branch.
India's attention to -- and desire for -- U.S. approval suggests that India is playing its role in the development of a strategic partnership between Washington and New Delhi. The relationship is a potentially deep one: the United States will provide India with nuclear technology, development capital, and military hardware and training; in return, India will help safeguard U.S. interests in the Indian Ocean region. The partnership could also powerfully demonstrate to Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf that the United States would not act to block a resurgent India from attacking Pakistan (not that such a scenario is likely) and also help take New Delhi out of Iran's orbit.
A formal alliance it is not; India does not want to be seen as being anti-Moscow or anti-Beijing, even as it develops stronger ties with the United States. Geopolitically, China and India have been off of each other's radar screens (despite a piddling border skirmish in 1962), as they are geographically sealed from each other by the natural wall of the Himalayas and jungle.
India wants to continue to buy arms from Russia, such as parts for the MiG-29Ks that will be flying off the deck of the INS Vikramaditya aircraft carrier, which is to be handed over after a Russian refit in 2008. New Delhi wants the United States to continue to train the pilots of those MiGs for carrier operations. The United States has also agreed in principle to sell India an Austin-class Landing Platform Dock, the USS Trenton, significantly enhancing New Delhi's maritime power-projection capabilities.
In return, Washington would like India to do exactly what it wants to anyway: shoulder responsibility and become a powerhouse in the Indian Ocean, second only to the U.S. Navy. The United States hopes that an India more involved in the Malacca Strait and with an improved navy will make China nervous. As Malacca is a chokepoint for Chinese trade and energy supplies, the naval frontier is essentially the only potential conflict point between New Delhi and Beijing, which otherwise are for all intents and purposes a continent away from one another.
Pace's visit merely formalized what has already been occurring: a coming together of Indian and American interests in a confederation of convenience. Washington would like New Delhi to break out of its shell and exert enough influence in the region to at least annoy China and a recalcitrant Pakistan. India would like to get whatever it can from its latest patron, the United States, in order to help alleviate its massive infrastructure problems, which are preventing India from becoming a major world power.
Posted by: john ||
06/07/2006 17:21 ||
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A top American general Monday painted a rosy roadmap of India-US military ties to "send a strong message to our potential enemies" and contribute to bringing "peace and stability" in the region.
"Our engagement will send a strong message to our potential enemies that we are capable of defending ourselves and that India and the US are going to protect their citizens against harm. That would be very stabilising (for the region)," US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, Gen. Peter Pace, declared at a media briefing on the first day of a two-day visit to India.
Posted by: john ||
06/07/2006 17:27 Comments ||
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Blood vessels popping in Islamabad and Beijing?
Posted by: john ||
06/07/2006 17:28 Comments ||
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In August India will launch its maiden long-range Agni-III missile off the southern Orissa coast, upgrading its missile program.
"There are some technologies relating to special systems which will be evaluated during this intervening gap," said the Defense Research and Development Organization.
The Hindu newspaper said Wednesday that the Agni-III, a surface-to-surface missile, has a range of 3,500 kilometers (2,100 miles). It will carry nuclear warheads and is the most powerful missile to have been built by India.
The DRDO said the launch, originally slated for January or February this year, was postponed because of the visit of U.S. President George W. Bush to India in March. The nuclear cooperation agreement signed during that visit included India's plans to separate its civilian and military nuclear facilities.
A local news report said that the July 2005 joint Indo-U.S. statement called on the U.S. Congress to amend laws to allow the export of nuclear power reactors to India after India submitted its separation list.
A DRDO official said the Indian federal government decided to hold the launch of the Agni-III until Congress amended the law. But it could be October or November before Congress does so.
"We will not wait till then," the DRDO official said, adding it would be risky to launch the Agni-III during the peak southwest monsoon period of June and July.
"We have so many new technologies (in Agni-III). We will be testing them one-by-one in June and July," he said.
Visiting U.S. top General Peter Pace said the United States would not see test-firing of the Agni-III as destabilizing.
Posted by: john ||
06/07/2006 17:19 ||
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Agni-III, a surface-to-surface missile, has a range of 3,500 kilometers (2,100 miles).
With a 1.8 ton warhead.
Range with a 1 ton payload is over 7000 km. The Indian 200 kT thermonuclear warhead is thought to weigh 500-700 kg. The 20 kT fission warhead designed for the Prithvi missile weighs less than 200 kg.
This is an ICBM. The range is being obfuscated to avoid controversy.
If just the first stage solid motor was used for an SLBM (sufficeiently short to fit inside India's ATV nuclear submarine's SSN hull), it would have a range of 2500 km with a 700 kg warhead.
Interestingly, India took the first stage of the Agni-2 to make the Agni-1 SRBM that is aimed at Pakistan.
Posted by: john ||
06/07/2006 17:41 Comments ||
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Additionally that black reentry vehicle is thought to hold about 100 kg of fuel. It is a manoeuvering RV.
Posted by: john ||
06/07/2006 18:04 Comments ||
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Shaukat Azizs claim that the World Banks promised loans/assistance for the next four years is a vote of confidence in Pakistans economy is a half-truth. Of course the macro-economic figures show some progress. But the reason for the World Banks decision has more to do with geopolitics than Mr Azizs shabby management of the economy
The Punjabi idiom, tagrian da sateen weeh sau hunda ey (the hundred of the powerful is seven times twenty [instead of five times twenty]) comes to mind when I think of Shaukat Aziz & Co. A few weeks ago they were bragging about having broken free of the shackles of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and now they are jubilant over the $6.5 billion promised by the World Bank under its Country Assistance Strategy (CAS). But this self-contradiction is normal for those whose hundred equals seven times twenty.
There is nothing wrong with seeking soft loans (which come with low interest and long amortisation period) as long as the proceeds are used wisely and constructively. However, if Pakistans history is any guide, the promised funds are only going to benefit the ruling classes that have always prospered under military regimes. Thirty-three billion dollars of foreign loans on Pakistans books did not do much to improve Pakistans economy, its infrastructure, or reduce poverty.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john ||
06/07/2006 00:00 ||
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Thirty-three billion dollars of foreign loans on Pakistans books did not do much to improve Pakistans economy, its infrastructure, or reduce poverty
Exactly. Of course they are happy about the new loan - it goes into their pockets.
#3
The Punjabi idiom, tagrian da sateen weeh sau hunda ey (the hundred of the powerful is seven times twenty [instead of five times twenty]) comes to mind when I think of Shaukat Aziz & Co.
I can dig it.
Posted by: Arthur Anderson ||
06/07/2006 15:07 Comments ||
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#4
Who actually expected government welfare to work any better than it does on individuals?
#5
Pakistan reportedly used the 1971 earthquake relief funds to kick start their nuke program.
The current earthquake aid is probably being put to similar use...
Posted by: john ||
06/07/2006 16:33 Comments ||
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Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the government are in secret talks to make an 18th amendment that would allow the next general elections under the supervision of the present set up rather than an interim government, sources told this agency. Rehman was not available to confirm the report.
Sources said that important PML members and government dignitaries had held secret talks with the opposition leader on the proposed amendment. Under the 17th amendment, only an interim government is empowered to hold general elections and members of the interim cabinet can't participate in the elections. If talks between the government and Fazl are successful and an amendment is made in the constitution, the present set up in the centre and the provinces would hold the next general elections. The ruling party and its allies, including FATA members, have the support of 204 MNAs in the National Assembly, whereas it has 56 members in the Senate. If the JUI-F supports the amendment, the government would have enough votes to get a two-third majority.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2006 00:00 ||
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"and she's got these huge labonzas"
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/07/2006 14:14 Comments ||
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"...you grab the goat like this and then you bounce him up and down real fast..."
Security forces will continue retaliating with fire if attacked in Waziristan or other agencies in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), NWFP Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai told a jirga (tribal council) from North Waziristan that called on him at Governor's House on Tuesday. All civilians who died in violence will be compensated and all innocents among those who were arrested during the ongoing unrest will be released, the governor told the jirga that consisted of tribal elders, clerics, student representatives and journalists.
Orakzai showed concern over the recent incidents of violence in Miranshah. "I am deeply grieved over the loss of precious lives," he said, but added that security forces had to retaliate "in self-defence".
He called upon tribesmen to help the government bring peace to Waziristan. "We have to put out the fire that has engulfed the entire Waziristan, and turn it into a land of peace." He said that a planned grand jirga would have representation from all segments of society, adding that the jirga would be fully empowered to make decisions.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2006 00:00 ||
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Nepal's Maoist leader has warned that the rebels will go back to war unless Nepal is made a republic following constituent assembly elections, local media reported yesterday. The new government and rebel Maoists have observed a ceasefire for over a month, after King Gyanendra was forced to end his total rule in April after weeks of anti-royal protests. "There is no political way out unless the country opts for a republican setup. If the parties are not ready to accept republicanism as per the aspirations of people...we are ready to wage the final war," Prachanda said at a meeting in Morang district in eastern Nepal, the Nepali language daily Samacharpatra reported.
The new government has agreed to a key Maoist demand, for elections to a body that will rewrite the constitution, and both sides have agreed on a ceasefire code of conduct.
So the Maoists have won, and now it remains to dispose of the bodies.
Since the king handed back power to parliament in April, his powers have been dramatically clipped, he has lost his control of the army and has been removed from politics. The Maoist leader, whose name means "the fierce one," warned that there were people in the new government trying to undermine the fragile peace process. "Some of the ministers in the present government are brokers of America. They are working to make the talks unsuccessful, sideline us and take all the credit for themselves," the Nepali Language daily Samacharpatra quoted Prachanda as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2006 00:00 ||
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brokers of amerikka?--gee you think goldman sachs has clandestine offices in k-k-katmandu with bob seger as head managing director
Posted by: yo momma ||
06/07/2006 2:28 Comments ||
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yo momma, please translate that into something a simple suburban housewife can understand.
THE deputy to UN chief Kofi Annan today defended his candid critique of American policy towards the United Nations, dismissing suggestions it was anti-US or partisan.
UN Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown spoke to reporters a day after calling for more consistent US leadership at the UN in a speech to mostly Democratic foreign policy-makers in New York.
He said the speech was not intended to be "partisan or provocative" but was meant to convey the idea that "America needs a global foreign policy and the UN is a critical part of that".
The speech slammed the prevailing US "practice of seeking to use the UN almost by stealth as a diplomatic tool while failing to stand up for it against its domestic critics".
It also said that while Washington is constructively engaged with the UN on a host of issues such as Iran, Afghanistan, Lebanon or Syria, "much of the public discourse that reaches the US heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as (conservative radio talk show host) Rush Limbaugh and Fox News".
"Exacerbating matters is the widely held perception, even among many US allies, that the US tends to hold on to maximalist positions when it could be finding middle ground," Mr Malloch Brown said yesterday.
The remarks prompted a furious reaction from the US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, who described them as "a very grave mistake" and urged Mr Annan to repudiate his deputy.
Mr Annan refused to do so and said through his spokesman that he "agrees with the thrust" of his deputy's speech.
The slanging match coincides with a continuing deadlock between wealthy and developing nations over UN management reforms put forward by Mr Annan in the wake of a series of corruption scandals.
The world body faces possible financial gridlock at the end of the month, when a $US950 million ($1.29 billion) spending cap on a two-year $US3.798 billion ($5.14 billion) UN budget agreed last December expires, if wealthy and developing countries fail to reach agreement on the reforms.
Washington has threatened to withdraw funding if the reforms are not adopted by then, and EU countries have said they will have to take another look at their contributions.
Mr Malloch Brown, a Briton who took over as deputy secretary general in March and will step down when Mr Annan's term ends on December 31, said his remarks were part of a bid to nudge rich and developing countries towards a compromise and avert a financial crisis.
He said he had come under fire from the 132-member Group of 77 developing nations in recent months "for telling them that they too need to get their house in order and engage around this reform agenda".
Mr Malloch Brown said the impasse was in part due to "a perception among many otherwise quite moderate countries that anything the US supports must have a secret agenda aimed at either subordinating multilateral processes to Washington's ends or weakening the institutions".
"This organisation is slipping toward a very serious crisis," he told reporters. "We have to stand up and appeal for engagement, sanity by both sides."
"This is the time where it is important that truth be spoken and everybody understand each other.
"The worry for me is that the reaction to the speech will polarise things in Washington."
Noting he was routinely described as "the most pro-American senior UN official", he said the speech was a "call from a friend to think hard about how the US could handle the UN better".
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/07/2006 20:34 Comments ||
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Noting he was routinely described as "the most pro-American senior UN official", he said the speech was a "call from a friend to think hard about how the US could handle the UN better".
"By not paying so much attention to our corruption, crimes against humanity, and endless priviledges."
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/07/2006 20:48 Comments ||
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...said his remarks were part of a bid to nudge rich and developing countries towards a compromise and avert a financial crisis.
Oh, you mean a shakedown. Well you folks are good at that...
#6
Here's an idea, jerkface: GET THE HELL OUT OF THE US.
And take the Useless Nitwits with you. All of them. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/07/2006 21:59 Comments ||
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The traditional or official "20%" figure given for US-specific $$$ contributions towards the UNO total budget is gener accepted by most analysts as a "low-end", minima conservative estimate - read, NOT LESS THAN. ON 9-11 AMerica's enemies told America to either accept Socialism-Communism and OWG or Amer will be destroyed, to which Dubya rightly interpreted as synonymous wid saying America either DE FACTO = OVERTLY rules the world, or Amer's enemies will destroy America so DUBYA > AMERICA DECIDES IT AND ITS ALLIES WILL RULE THE WORLD. AMER WILL RULE IN THE AMERICAN WAY, I.E. MOSTLY ECONOMICS/DEMOCAPITALISM-BASED. As after WW2, Radical Islam MUST be made into US-Western economic and democratic modern global allies, AND WHETHER THE RADICS-ANARCHISTS LIKE IT OR NOT. America restrained itself before and after two World Wars and most of the Cold War until REAGAN and BUSH 1 came along - NO MORE!? BILL CLINTON may had tried to use the still-expanding 1990's Reagan-Bush 1-Repub economy to save and justify Failed Leftism-Socialism and the Democrats, BUT DEM POTUS CLINTON'S HANDLING OF THE ECONOMY ALSO INDIR MADE IT [MORE]SEVERELY-CATASTROPHICALLY DIFFICULT FOR AMERICA'S ENEMIES TO EFFECTIVELY COMPETE AGAINST AMERICA, IFF TO COMPETE AT ALL. FOX NEWS was really brutal on the UNO in general this morning, "the evidence is in" describing the UNO's crmininal/malicious, mostly conspiratorial efforts to hamstrung America, from DESERT STORM thru OIL-FOR-FOOD thru IRAQI FREEDOM thru present, etc., in order to control America's $$$.
#8
Bolton has no control over Rush or Fox news. This isn't Burma as much as Kofi and his boys would like it to be. That is if they were in charge. We take a lot of shit at the U.N. for a country that bankrolls them to the extent that we do. Without the U.S. dollars, the whole thing would be for not. Think about that you f*cking skidmarks!
#10
from LGF: Kofi defends same - time to cut to the frigging 5% bone and tell em to find a new home. GTFO:
Even though the target of the speech was the United States, the victim, I fear, will be the United Nations, Bolton told reporters after speaking with Annan. ...
Bolton accused Malloch Brown of employing a condescending, patronizing tone about the American people and said, My hope is he looks at the potential adverse effects that these intemperate remarks would have on the organization and repudiate it.
Annan, however, agrees with his deputys views, U.N. chief spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
The secretary-general stands by the statements made by his deputy. So there is no question of any action to be taken against the deputy secretary-general, he said.
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/07/2006 22:21 Comments ||
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#11
I just had a head-slap moment. You want to know what this is about? It's about Eric Shawn's book "The UN Exposed". He's on Fox, and I'd bet good money he's touted his book on Rush, or Rush has mentioned his book without having Shawn on the show.
I think Shawn must have drawn some blood.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/07/2006 22:22 Comments ||
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#12
good call. Surprised the UN didn't call for him to be silenced... "to avoid harming the UN mission"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/07/2006 22:38 Comments ||
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#13
did you watch it tonight.
Shawn is upset. FoxNews takes it as an attack on their existance.
While at it Ann Coulter declared war on the left...
#14
and Hillary (stupidly) engaged - check out the Drudge Report
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/07/2006 22:44 Comments ||
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#15
Shawn is upset. FoxNews takes it as an attack on their existance.
That's because it is. If the UN's partners in corruption get back in power, we'll see the "fairness doctrine" and all sorts of other crap reinstated to "bring balance to the airwaves". The left hates free discourse, and will stop at nothing to shut down anything that doesn't toe the line.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
06/07/2006 22:51 Comments ||
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#16
And Shawn does have them by the short curlies, thanks to his efforts and those of Claudia Rossett and a few others. I consider his stalking questions to Sevan to be classics.
Coulter nails the Jersey Girls for the Cindy Sheehan wannabees they are. I wish she had done this way back when that fraud began to emerge, but still she does us all a great service with her guts to rip away the phoney cloak of impunity these activist "widows" have wrapped around themselves.
As thousands of Fort Lewis Army troops prepare to head back to Iraq, one of their officers is making a stand. A lieutenant says he is going to refuse to go, saying it's an unjust war. Anti-war groups are rallying to his defense.
Lt. Ehren Watada of the Stryker Brigade writes, "I refuse to be silent any longer. I refuse to watch families torn apart, while the President tells us to stay the course. I refuse to be party to an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing to deserve our aggression. "I wanted to be there for my fellow troops. But the best way was not to help drop artillery and cause more death and destruction. It is to help oppose this war and end it so that all soldiers can come home." - signed LT.
His name had been kept a secret until now, but Lt. Watada's father confirms that his son is taking this bold step and told the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper that he's proud of his son.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Seems to have missed the incident when a military doctor refused orders in Gulf War I. She spent time in the United States Disciplinary Barrack, Fort Leavenworth. Had her sentence commuted by Pres. Clinton. However, she has a federal felony conviction on her record. Jobs are not quite as lucrative with that kind of information on your resume.
All members of the armed forces are volunteers. The wordings of the current oath for commissioned officers is as follows:
"I, _____ (SSAN), having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God."
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
06/07/2006 9:54 Comments ||
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#4
Lt. Watada asked for reassignment and tried resigning his commission, but the Army refused. His attorney tells us from Hawaii that Watada is not against all wars, just this one.
So his beef's with Iraq supposedly? Call him on it. Tell him he's going to Afghanistan instead.
Let's see what happens then.
Also, a little research indicates proud papa is an escapee from the Age of Aquarius, so who knows what he's been putting in his head.
#5
This LT is in for a shock. The Army HAS to make an example of him. Decisions about what wars to fight are a bit above his pay grade.
But - once he is openly "wobbly", there is no way to send him on involuntarily - because no one will trust him to fulfill his duty when crunch time comes.
So - he is looking at charges for (best case) insubordination) or (worst case) desertion or mutiny. Hard time, then dismissal - probably with Less Than Honorable discharge.
Unless - he secures reassignment to the Afghan theater - through some "give the kid a second chance" miracle.
He just better be glad that GEN Patton's not around any more!
#8
I am with tu on this, call him out and send him to Afghanistan. But then what troops would follow him in combat of patrol? For those that have served can you imagine your reaction to a Lt that refused a deployment? If they need a fire squad there would not be a shortage of volunteers.
#9
What was the final disposition of the case of the sailor who refused to embark in San Diego about a year ago? Name was Perogin or something? That's the only other similar incident I'm aware of.
#11
What was the final disposition of the case of the sailor who refused to embark in San Diego about a year ago?
Pedro or Pablo something, IIRC. I'm too lazy to go look. I do remember the irony that the ship he refused to board was sent to do relief work after the tsunami in Aceh. Curse that Evil Bushmongering War Machine!
#12
This guy has it all worked out. My guess is the Army will give him a dishonarble discharge rather than punish him as they should. He might do some time but not much. When its over he will write a book telling how brave he is and it'll be the toast of the left going into the 2008 elections he'll be a minor celebrity.
#13
Until he leaves the service you can bet that every day will be a living (subtle) hell for him. OUr guys know how to fix problems without leaving a trace.....there will most likely be mass quantities of under-inflated tires on a car that suddenly develops extremely poor gas mileage, his family will also suffer ostracism; in other words: he's Phuqued. and that's before the Courts-Martial.
#16
The more I learn about him the more I smell a rat. First off he signed up AFTER we invaded Iraq, second dear old Dad is a Vietnam War protester, and that makes me feel like he was a plant. If the Army can prove he planned this all along, then they can (and should) HANG him for muntiny.
#17
The liberals are already prompting up this asshole. Cue Cindy Shithan, all the Hollywierd celebs, Feingold, etc.
Since there is no draft and he volunteered, there should be no such thing as conscientious objector.
Does Leavenworth have a nice ping-pong table?
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/07/2006 20:27 Comments ||
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#18
Technically speaking, Leavenworth is the civilian prison, both federal and state. Fort Leavenworth, on the north side of the town and on the west side of the Missouri River, is the military installation where the United States Disciplinary Barracks [USDB] is located. Inmates go through a lengthy classification process and are assigned to facilities accordingly, though, if convicted, this dude will be segregated from the general population till the standard appeals process is completed. He could end up on the grounds detail, in the plant nursery, the upholstery shop, the barber shop,... Trustees can even work in the community at the local auto dealership service department or even KFC among many opportunities. There has been talk of closing the military prison and just shipping the inmates to the federal system. However, their life expectancy and health will not be optimal given the quality of care they currently enjoy. Youre not going to find gangs running floors at the USDB. And unlike untrained reservists, the guards at the USDB are professional. So much so, that their credentials of training make them recruiting targets of most state and local detention operations.
#19
I'd think a prison on the Aleutians with minimal blankets? Hey! He's a pacific islander..should feel at home
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/07/2006 21:26 Comments ||
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#20
In my day, all recruits andor officer candidates the needs of the Army, the Armed Services [including Coast Guard], USDOD and the United States of America come first. Its the same or predomin the same for US Merchant Marine officers. GOOD FENCES = GOOD NEIGHBORS > PEACE THRU STRENGTH > PROTECT THE PEACE BY PREPARING FOR WAR = WILLING TO FIGHT SAID WAR. Gotta wonder whether he's willing to risk the women in his family become one of 72 Virgins - eeerrrr, RAISINS??? What is he gonna do when he realizes America's enemy(s) will still kill him and his own and his country no matter how ALAN ALDA-esque, no matter how many concessions or how reasonable or compromising or non-threatening, etc. he is???
#21
And iff my memories of the MASH TV Show is correct, not even HAWKEYE's numerous, famous,
"Liberal" anti-War Rationalist Humanist intellectual-comical quips saved or prevented him from doing what soldiers wid guns pointing at him told him to do.
COLCHESTER, England (AP) - A military court Tuesday cleared three British soldiers of killing an Iraqi teenager who drowned after allegedly being forced into a canal. Sgt. Carle Selman, 39, Guardsman Joseph McCleary, 24, and Guardsman Martin McGing, 22, were cleared of manslaughter charges in the death of 15-year-old Ahmad Jabbar Kareem, who drowned in the Shatt al-Basra canal in Basra in May 2003.
Last month, Vice Judge Advocate General Michael Hunter ordered a fourth soldier, Lance Cpl. James Cooke, 22, be found not guilty of manslaughter. He did not give a reason for his ruling. Prosecutors alleged the teenager and three other suspected looters were put into the water to "teach them a lesson."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/07/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The BBC hasn't cleared them so they are still guilty.
#2
No, the BBC is still using nanny-like, disapproving tones regarding this one. Whoever brought this to court should be severely beaten with sticks. I smell the left and HR do-gooders personally...
Posted by: Howard UK ||
06/07/2006 3:47 Comments ||
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#3
I don't know how it is in the UK, but in the US, the BBC is seen as little more than a mouth piece for tyrants and terrorists. Who gives a *&^^ what those self-righteous, know-it-all, wimpy cowards think?
US troops Tuesday faced fresh accusations of unlawful killings of civilians in Iraq, as the main Sunni Arab party accused them of murdering more than two dozen innocent Iraqis in a series of incidents across the country in May. "The US forces have violated human rights many times across Iraq," said Omar al-Juburi, spokesman for the human rights department of the Iraqi Islamic Party, which is led by Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi.
In the latest in a string of allegations against US forces, Juburi said 29 Iraqis were killed in May in separate incidents involving US forces in the towns of Latifiyah and Yusifiyah, south of Baghdad, and in the capital itself. "On May 13, US forces launched an air assault on a civilian car in Latifiyah and killed six people inside the car," Juburi told reporters. "On the same day US forces attacked with aircraft the house of a civilian, Saadun Mohsen Hassan, and killed seven of his family members." Juburi said US forces carried out another air strike the next day on the house of Sheikh Yassin Saleh Shallal in the town of Yusifiyah, "killing 13 people, including women and children." Three other Iraqis were killed in US raids in Baghdad, he said.
The nearby towns of Latifiyah and Yusifiyah have been the scene of increased insurgent activity and several US operations.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2006 00:00 ||
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#2
A pattern is developing on behalf of the gullible media. Zarq is stroking us for all he's worth.
But who hides behind civilians and fires? Who beheads, shoots civilians in the head and stomach? And, who positions dead civilians for optimal impact?
Posted by: Captain America ||
06/07/2006 0:57 Comments ||
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Capt.: Unfortunately, the MSM don't give a $h!t. They really don't. The press finally got what they've been praying for and now it's open season on our troops. The Media Front has gone hot and we'd better figure a way to counter. I'm not hopeful....this has been our worst area of endeavour and our enemies have finally figured it out. This has to get turned around pronto or a gullible US public will be duped into accepting surrender.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
06/07/2006 1:08 Comments ||
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#4
The press is nothing but another combatant. Our enemies have always known this. Too bad the American nation has forgetten this since WW2.
Posted by: ed ||
06/07/2006 1:21 Comments ||
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#5
It's a wolf I tell you, I'm not lying, why would I lie?
#6
inother news--a deranged camel jockey from mecca said he spoke to the angel gabriel then junped on his horse at night and flew to jerusalem--lots of credability in the land of islogic
Posted by: yo momma ||
06/07/2006 2:33 Comments ||
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#7
The way to counter them is to shoot them like the traitors they are, after a short trial of course.
#8
Zarq and hsigunsex muzzie followers have learned a thing. They have no compuction about killing innocent people but they know we do. The North Vietnamese used the same tactic.
Any MSM clown who reports this stuff as fact should be taken out and shot.
#9
I expect no less from the MSM, but look at who is making the allegation.
We have the main Shia parties subverting the Govt for the Mullahs and now the main Sunni party suddenly playing the atrocity game, knowing it will be trumpeted by the MSM. Hell, if it weren't for the coalition forces, these worms would be on their way to Allan in far greater numbers, courtesy of the Shia shitheads.
So who can tell them apart, anymore, in any meaningful way?
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, yesterday gave the ruling Hamas movement an extra four days to accept a political platform that implicitly recognises Israel or face a national referendum on the issue.
The extension came after a midnight Monday deadline set by Mr Abbas expired without agreement on resolving an increasingly tense power struggle between the Fatah president and his Hamas-led government.
Mr Abbas spoke by telephone for more than an hour to Ismail Haniya, Hamas's Gaza-based prime minister, but failed to break the deadlock. A statement from the presidency said Mr Abbas agreed to an extension due to mediation by Arab and Islamic leaders.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2006 02:56 ||
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#1
"It might then face pressure for new elections within months of gaining power."
#2
I have to hand it to Abu Mazen on this one. He just might be able to weaken Hamas with this one, and that would be good for the Palestinians. This could be the first positive thing a Palestinian has done for Palestine in a long time. If they recognize Israel, it could be the best move ever.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
06/07/2006 11:30 Comments ||
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#3
Implicit recognition isn't good enough any more, Mr. Abbas. The security fence is nearing completion, and then the borders will be set. Although this is a nice stick to beat Hamas with, I admit, and to force the Palestinian people to openly clarify where they stand.
#4
The document written by the prisoners is not acceptable to anyone but Pals. Israel won't buy it but this could start talks. Trouble is Pals won't understand that their referendum only gets them to a table. They, and others, will think it's a done deal if they accept this start point.
Then the slaughter continues. The MSM seem to feel that the acceptance of all the terms of Hamas by Israel is a given. None of these articles indicate a start point - just a done deal.
#5
"The MSM seem to feel that the acceptance of all the terms of Hamas by Israel is a given. None of these articles indicate a start point - just a done deal."
Good point, TW2412 - it's the setup to blame Israel later, whether or not the Paleos manage to actually say some tiny little semi-civilized thing or not. Which will be pure taqiyya anyway, if it comes. MSM SOP CYA.
DAMASCUS: Hamas is ready to hold talks with its rival Palestinian Fatah group to solve a political crisis in response to a mediation effort by Yemen, a senior Hamas official said on Tuesday. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh has offered to host talks between the two groups, which are locked in a power struggle in the Palestinian territories, Moussa Abu Marzouk, Hamas' deputy politburo chief, said. "We don't know if Fatah has accepted, but Hamas is ready to hold talks in Yemen at the highest level," Abu Marzouk, a member of Hamas' exile leadership in Syria, told Reuters. "We are ready to travel to Yemen immediately once Fatah agrees on holding the talks," he said. Relations between Hamas and Fatah deteriorated after Hamas won Palestinian elections in January and formed a government isolated by the West for its refusal to recognise the Jewish state and its rejection of peace deals with Israel accepted by Fatah when it was in power.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2006 00:00 ||
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Ok since Hamas and Fatah are both in Gaza, why not hold talks there? I hear the Airport is a pretty quiet place.
(AKI) - Well placed Palestinian sources have told Adnkronos International (AKI) that Hamas' exiled political leader, Khaled Mashaal has asked the leader of Greece's Socialists, Georgios Papandreou, to organise a "secret" meeting with Israeli deputy premier Shimon Peres.
But don't tell nobody, okay? It's a secret.
Officials of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government have refused to comment on the report.
"We can say no more!"
Mashaal, who is based in Damascus, Syria, together with the rest of his Islamist group, officially rejects any negotiations with Israel whose right to exist is not recognised by Hamas. Papandreou, a former Greek foreign minister is leader of the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) and is president of the Socialist International.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
well--the islamists and the leftists have a common ground--see eg oslo--the commies would've never fallen for this--i gotcha taquiyya right here mahmoud
Posted by: yo momma ||
06/07/2006 2:38 Comments ||
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Some Shimon Peres Secret Meetings (allegedly)
1956 - Paris, France Maurice Bourges-Maunoury
1986 - Rabat, Morocco - Morocco's King Hassan II
1987 - London, UK - King Hussein of Jordan
1993 - Oslo, Norway - Yasser Arafat
l994 - Bucharest, Romania - Yasser Arafat
1996 - Cairo, Egypt - Hosni Mubarak
2002 - New York, USA - Ahmed Qurei
2004 - Herzliya,Isreal - Ahmed Qurei
2004 - Davos, Switzerland - Pervez Musharraf
2005 - Jerusalem - Mohammed Dahlan
2006 - Amman, Jordan - Mahmood Abbas
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas extended a deadline on Tuesday to grant Hamas another 48 hours to accept a manifesto implicitly recognizing Israel or face a referendum on the issue. Abbas had set a Tuesday deadline for Hamas to embrace the manifesto on Palestinian statehood but delayed a showdown after what officials said were appeals by Arab leaders. A referendum would also be seen as a confidence vote on the Hamas government, whose election led the West and Israel to cut off funds to the Palestinian Authority. Recent opinion polls suggest most Palestinians support the document.
The manifesto calls for a Palestinian state on all of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which Israel captured from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 war. "Abbas will within 48 hours issue the decree for holding the referendum," his spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdainah, said after the president met with the Palestine Liberation Organization's Executive Committee.
Yasser Abed Rabo, a PLO official close to Abbas, said the president would hold a news conference by the weekend to announce a date for the vote unless Hamas changed its mind. But despite the failure of talks late on Monday, both Abbas and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyya left the door open for further dialogue. "We demand more meetings and more dialogue and we should not start by using ... time as a threat," Haniyya told his Cabinet at its weekly meeting.
Abed Rabbo quoted Abbas as saying he would agree to talks with Hamas on resolving the dispute over the manifesto up until the day the referendum was held.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2006 00:00 ||
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Muslim women are potentially important allies in the war on terrorism, but the United States must avoid pushing Western values to win their support, according to data presented yesterday at the Gallup Organization.
The Bush administration has promoted women's rights throughout the Muslim world to gain support in the region, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. But a worldwide Gallup project found that many Muslim women are not as concerned about changing their status as Westerners might think.
In Lebanon and Turkey, 9 percent to 11 percent of women said sexual inequality was a major problem, but negligible concern about the issue was found elsewhere. Jordanian women did not mention it when asked what aspects of society they disliked, and 2 percent of women cited the issue in Egypt and Morocco.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Muslim women are potentially important allies in the war on terrorism, but the United States must avoid pushing Western values to win their support
Then, pardon me, I don't want their support. I'm sick of being told I have to give up my ideals to curry favor with people who have to ask if they're permitted by their "god" to provide assistance to me if I'm in an accident.
In the Muslim world, the focus is on the role within the group, not the individual.
Then the Muslim world is contemptible and against everything Western civilization -- in particular the United States -- has been doing for the last few hundred years. I mean, fer crissake, would we have accepted this crap about Nazi Germany ("the focus is on the role within the volk") or Imperial Japan?
Another aspect of the Gallup project highlighted this lack of understanding between the two cultures. When interviewers asked Americans what they most admired about Muslim societies, more than 50 percent answered "Nothing" or "I don't know."
Does that show a "lack of understanding", or a lack of anything admirable in Muslim societies?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
06/07/2006 7:26 Comments ||
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#2
Ms. Rugh said too many Americans rely on outdated information about the Muslim world and have difficulty understanding how those societies work.
Indeed you say? Please give us an update from the year 1062 until today. Shouldn't take more than 15-20 words.
#5
Why, thanks Ms Rugh, for enlightening me about the rights I would enjoy as a Muslim piece of property woman. I guess the other rights I would enjoy, like the right to undergo honor killing and female circumcision, never leaving my house without a suitable male escort, and sharing my husband with another wife kinda slipped your mind. Apparently those "rights" didn't with your fellow Americans.
I think I'd like to propose a new answer to your question about what Americans admire about Muslim cultures. Mark me down as "not one damn thing".
#6
If they don't want to come out from under the Bourka, if they enjoy being beaten and subjigated, if they enjoy a culture built on total psychosis, then.....how can I say this delicately.....f*ck 'em.
#8
The Bush administration has promoted women's rights throughout the Muslim world to gain support in the region, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan. But a worldwide Gallup project found that many Muslim women are not as concerned about changing their status as Westerners might think.
Which explains a multitude of problems we are having both at home and abroad.
#9
Clitorectormies kind of take the spice out of life and without spice depression and alienation are just around the corner.
How would you feel if you saw Pamala Anderson enjoying herself on the internet and you know you can never feel any enjoyment and never had because you got clipped so young?
Alienation and bitterness?
Now if the genetic engineers could figure out how to grow a new working one... the situation might look up for these wimmin.
#10
My question is why are American leaders still encouraging muslim immigration? Haven't we learned by now that islam is incompatible with our way of life. Heck it's incompatible with our just staying alive. What is the motivation behind it? With high legal and illegal immigration, at least the the elites are getting rich from the cut rate labor, and it's not like they have to live in the same neighborhoods or with the consequences. The Saudis can't be paying the entire government all off, so why the rush to self destruction?
What is the point of allowing 20,000, and growing, permanent immigrants from just jihad crazed Pakistan each year. Instead the US should be working toward muslim emmigration before the situation develops like the Netherlands where the native born are escaping. Does the FBI really need the make-work of following jihadists around?
Posted by: ed ||
06/07/2006 11:38 Comments ||
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#11
Isn't the largest employer outside of the Afghan gov owned and run by a woman who suppies trinkets to Overstock.com?
Don't they now have their own shopping section where they can go for tea, take off their burquas and be served by other women?
#12
Ed, could not agree more. This cult brainwashes all born into it. Really, only the females can turn this rotting piece of crap inside out. But, they are kept so ignorant and compliant, it never occurs to them. The thought is abhorrent to them. We cannot really deal with these people. It is just like matter/anti-matter. Mixing results in annihilation. We must get these people out of our society. We have to squash the lefties who want to provide rights and opportunities to them. They will only destroy us from within. We can't change them. And, they will never change. We must destroy ALL of them.
The recent upsurge of ethnic unrest in Iran highlights serious vulnerabilities in the country's security system, and there is widespread consensus among security circles in Tehran that the whole intelligence apparatus needs to be radically restructured to combat this new generation of threats.
Without such serious and wide-ranging intelligence reform, Iran risks facing a generation of ethnic unrest on its periphery and possibly disintegration further down the road.
This comes at the worst time possible, when Western intelligence services are aggressively targeting the country in general and its civilian nuclear establishment in particular.
While ethnic separatism is not - in the short term at least - a serious threat to Iran's cohesion and territorial integrity, it is widely feared that ethnic tensions could be exploited by Western powers, some of which are already active in intelligence-gathering and sabotage operations in some provinces.
This seriously weakens Iran's position in negotiations with Western powers to head off the crisis over the country's controversial nuclear program.
Yet while the elites in Tehran recognize the urgent need for intelligence reform, there is no agreement (as yet) on how to go about this.
In Iran it is often taken for granted that the country has no real ethnic problem. Iranians point out their country's millennia-old history and are at pains to explain how the concept of "Iran" acts as a super-narrative, thus effectively suppressing any serious separatist impulse.
While this argument has many merits, it is ultimately a half-truth. By and large Iran's various ethnic minorities (who together make up 40% of the country's population) see themselves as part of the Iranian nation and are relatively well integrated, especially in comparison with neighboring countries' ethnic minorities. Significant ethnic unrest in Iran dates to the emergence of the modern Iranian state and its irrepressible drive to centralize, at the expense of local autonomy.
The center-periphery divide has been one of the most prominent (and troublesome) features of the modern Iranian nation-state forged by Reza Shah in the 1920s and 1930s. This divide usually comes to the fore when the periphery senses the center's weakness.
The immediate aftermath of the Islamic Revolution of 1979 is the best case in point as the collapse of the shah's regime temporarily weakened the legal and administrative structures of the country. This in turn led to serious ethnic unrest in Iranian Kurdistan, Khuzestan, the Torkaman areas in the northeast, Balochistan, and to a lesser extent Azerbaijan.
The troubles were very short-lived (save for Kurdistan) as the Iranian state quickly recovered from the shock of revolution. From 1980 onward Iran was free from ethnic tensions (save for a very low-intensity conflict with an assortment of small Kurdish organizations backed by Saddam Hussein), leading some elites in Tehran to conclude that the Islamic Republic (by virtue of promoting "authentic" Iranian culture, as opposed to the Persian nationalism of the shah) had overcome the center-periphery divide.
Events in the past two years have proved this to be a delusion.
The disturbances in Iranian Azerbaijan (which comprises the provinces of East Azerbaijan and West Azerbaijan) sparked by a provocative cartoon in one of the Tehran dailies is indicative of the ethnic unrest that has surfaced throughout the country's periphery over the past 24 months.
Iranian Azeris are by far the country's largest ethnic minority (making up perhaps a quarter of the country's population). But Azeris have been the traditional ruling classes in Iran since the Safavid period of the 16th century. Even the Islamic Republic (which is significantly more "Persian" than the shah's regime was) is dominated by ethnic Azeris.
The spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; the commander of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), Rahim Safavi; former premier Mir Hossein Mousavi; and a host of other leading figures in the regime are Azeris.
While there are no separatist movements in Iranian Azerbaijan, any volatility in that strategic region unsettles the entire country. The Islamic Republic is also mindful of Turkish intelligence activity in this area. There are real fears that elements in Turkish intelligence (working with pan-Turkist nationalists in the Republic of Azerbaijan) are actively seeking to foment unrest among Iranian Azeris.
However, sources on the ground contend that these fears are mostly "perceptual" in nature and Turkish intelligence lacks the sophistication to operate effectively in Iran. Their job is made harder still by the fact that the majority of Iranian Azeris live in the capital Tehran and have very little interest in seeking greater autonomy for the Azeri-speaking provinces.
The Kurdish-speaking regions present an altogether different problem. There have been robust separatist groups in the region for decades. The main threats in the 1980s were the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (DPIK) led by the charismatic Abdulrahman Qasemlou and the communist "Komala".
The DPIK was fatally undermined in April 1989 with the assassination of Qasemlou in Vienna. The coup de grace was delivered in September 1992 when Iranian intelligence assassinated Sadegh Sharafkandi, Qasemlou's successor, in Berlin. These assassinations were complemented with aggressive counter-insurgency tactics and a determined effort to isolate the extremist separatists from the mass of Iranian Kurds (who make up about 5% of the country's population).
Victory over the DPIK and Komala has not eradicated separatist instincts, as evidenced by the rise of PEJAK - the Party of Free Life in Kurdistan. There is very little information about this organization in the public domain. It has emerged over the past three years, partly inspired by the "liberation" of Iraqi Kurds as a result of the collapse of the Iraqi state.
Informed sources in Tehran contend that the group maintains two large mobile camps in Iraqi Kurdistan and is supported by elements in the local Kurdish administration. Apparently, support for PEJAK straddles the divide between the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) in Iraqi Kurdistan - lending credence to Iranian allegations that PEJAK is ultimately sustained by US support. The Iranians argue (with some justification) that only the United States has the clout to bring the KDP and PUK together.
Possible US support notwithstanding, it would be a mistake to ignore the local roots of PEJAK. According to informed sources in Tehran, the organization is made up of about 450 amateurish fighters and support staff. A sizable minority are graduates of Tehran and other leading Iranian universities. The average age in the organization's leadership council is 28; the average age in the organization as a whole is 24. This makes PEJAK markedly different from the DPIK and the previous generation of Iranian Kurdish separatists, which were composed of much older fighters and political activists.
While the Iranian government is scrambling to collect intelligence on PEJAK (with sources on the ground adamant that the organization's camps in Iraq have been lightly penetrated), there is little appreciation of the local, national and international factors that are driving the emergence and consolidation of the new generation of Kurdish separatists.
The political elites in Tehran pin most of the blame on the US intervention in Iraq in 2003 and the subsequent unprecedented empowerment of Iraqi Kurds (to the extent that they now wield decisive influence in the national government). While this is undeniably a major inspirational factor, it ignores more complex and intractable variables.
At the grassroots level, the splintering of the Turkish PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) has massively boosted Iranian separatist Kurds, as many former PKK fighters have transferred their skills, experience and in some cases their direct services.
Moreover the steady erosion of Iranian military and intelligence activity in the extremity of the Kurdish regions in the 1990s has inevitably made it easier for such groups as PEJAK to operate. That said, PEJAK is now almost entirely based in Iraq and occasionally stages cross-border attacks.
The threat it poses is minimal, but the new generation of Kurdish separatists in Iran (who are far more educated and worldly than their predecessors) are bound to create larger and more effective organizations in the foreseeable future.
There is a similar situation in Balochistan. Although Balochistan is markedly different from Kurdistan insofar as it has never produced serious separatist movements, a new generation of Baloch separatists is changing that.
They are aided by serious instability (bordering on low-intensity civil war) in Pakistani Balochistan and the general rise in Sunni Islamic militancy in that region. Indeed, separatist Iranian Balochis are wholly distinct (in the Iranian context) insofar as they employ Islamist rhetoric.
The emergence of Jundallah (like the emergence of PEJAK) took the Iranian security establishment by surprise. Jundallah took responsibility for an attack on a government motorcade in March that killed 20 people. Later that month, the nascent organization seized a number of hostages, later executing one of them, who it claimed was a member of the IRGC.
Jundallah killed another 12 people in an attack in May, thus marking its emergence with an orgy of violence that has seriously unsettled the local administration in impoverished Balochistan, which is home to about 1.4 million Balochis.
Jundallah is led by Abdulmalak Rigi, a 23-year-old Iranian Baloch. Jundallah is believed to be overwhelmingly dominated by young men from the eastern fringes of Balochistan, mostly ranging in age from 16 to 30. The average age in the organization is 22, thus conforming to other patterns of nascent separatisms in Iran.
Jundallah also operates under different names. For instance, the attack last month was claimed in the name of "Fadayeean-e-Eslam" and strongly condemned by Jundallah itself. But according to a report in Baztab (a website close to the IRGC), the public messages of both entities hail from the same spot in Pakistan - thus lending credence to suspicions that Fadayeean-e-Eslam is a front for Jundallah.
The Iranian government does not seem to have a coherent strategy for dealing with Jundallah. This is partly rooted in a lack of intelligence, but also because of a fundamental refusal on the part of the political elites in Tehran to accept that the country now faces credible new security threats.
Instead, the political elites dismiss such organizations as Jundallah as foreign-funded mercenaries with no roots in local communities. In Balochistan, this is a gross mischaracterization as (unlike in Kurdistan and the southwestern province of Khuzestan) there is no evidence of Western backing for the militants.
Even in the strategic province of Khuzestan (where Arabs and Persians each make up 50% of the population), strong local factors drive the instability. While there is undoubtedly US and British covert activity in Khuzestan, these are not (yet) directly related to the ethnic unrest.
The political elites in Tehran have a short-term vested interest in conflating the two, at the expense of the country's long-term stability.
Intelligence reform
The inability of the country's large and hitherto impressive intelligence/security establishment to predict the emergence of a new generation of separatists has come under sharp scrutiny.
The best-informed critique was provided by Foad Sadeghi of Baztab (which is owned and managed by Mohsen Rezai, the former commander of the IRGC), who lamented the lack of "strategic unity" inside Iran's vast intelligence apparatus.
Referring to the disturbances in Balochistan (which Sadeghi blames on a bunch of amateur young terrorists), the author concludes that Iranian intelligence is now ill-prepared to meet the impending challenge of Western intelligence organizations.
One reason for this state of affairs (the author argues) is that Iranian intelligence has not faced any serious threats since the mid-1980s. Indeed, the only organization it has had to contend with on a consistent basis is the Mujahideen-e-Khalq, a largely defunct organization that is widely dismissed as an extremist cult.
The thrust of Sadeghi's (and other Baztab authors') argument seems to be that a proliferation of "parallel" intelligence organizations is undermining the efficacy and professional integrity of the Ministry of Intelligence (which is considered the "mother" organization of the Iranian intelligence establishment).
There is very little discussion on the need for upgrading training and improving recruitment in this new intelligence discourse. Another serious flaw is a lack of discussion on the historical and constitutional context of intelligence reform.
When the Ministry of Intelligence and National Security was formed in 1984, it marked a revolution in the constitutional arrangement of intelligence organization in Iran. During the shah's era, the SAVAK (Security and Intelligence Service) operated as an organization outside the orbit of conventional government scrutiny.
From 1979-84, the new intelligence organizations (mostly tied to the IRGC) operated in the same fashion. However, the desire of Iranian revolutionaries to prevent SAVAK-style abuses and fully subordinate the intelligence establishment to proper oversight by the government and the majlis (parliament) led to the creation of a "ministry" of intelligence that in effect positioned the bulk of the intelligence apparatus inside the civil service.
This state of affairs worked well in the first decade of the ministry's existence, but began to unravel from the mid-1990s onward. As the Intelligence Ministry grew, its professional and ideological zeal steadily eroded. Moreover, the very abuses that were never supposed to happen occurred in the late 1990s, as rogue elements within the ministry murdered more than half a dozen dissident activists and writers inside Iran.
Although the ministry owned up to the abuses, its reputation never recovered from the shock of January 1999.
It was at this point that a proliferation of so-called "parallel" intelligence organizations is supposed to have taken root. No writer or analyst in Iran (or elsewhere) has looked at the evidence pointing to so-called parallel intelligence organizations critically enough to form credible conclusions.
For instance, Foad Sadeghi of Baztab claims that 10 such "parallel" organizations are in existence, without explaining who controls these organizations and what motivates them.
Evidence on the ground suggests that the judiciary operates a small number of intelligence outfits, but these are neither large nor sophisticated enough to be considered intelligence organizations. They are mostly composed of elements purged from the Intelligence Ministry and are specialists in surveillance, kidnappings and tough interrogations. While they operate under the remit of the judiciary, they have access to the technical resources of the Intelligence Ministry.
While these small security outfits are a nuisance to student activists and other forms of dissent in the Persian heartlands of Iran, they have neither the resources nor the expertise to fight ethnic unrest on the country's periphery.
Responsibility for these highly specialized tasks is invested on the Intelligence Ministry (and to a lesser extent IRGC intelligence, which has a good working relationship with the Intelligence Ministry).
There is now mounting evidence that the Intelligence Ministry is failing to meet the new security challenges, thus strengthening the position of those who call for its dissolution.
According to informed sources in Tehran, pressure to dissolve the Intelligence Ministry is coming from inside the ministry itself. The recent ethnic setbacks coupled with the ministry's inability to combat British and US intelligence-gathering and sabotage operations in Khuzestan have led to a collapse in morale.
There is now broad consensus at the upper echelons of the ministry that four different intelligence organizations could emerge from the carcass of the ministry; a foreign-intelligence organization (similar to the United Kingdom's MI6, or Secret Intelligence Service as it is now officially known), a domestic security service (tasked with fighting ethnic separatisms and other forms of serious dissent), a counter-intelligence service (tasked with combating the activities of foreign intelligence services on Iranian soil), and a financial-crimes intelligence unit.
It is highly unlikely that a division and reconfiguration of this kind will ensue, but pressure for the dissolution of the Intelligence Ministry can only grow in the foreseeable future. Without intelligence reform, Iran could face growing ethnic unrest and even possible disintegration.
#1
So the Iranian Intelligence community is noticed to be lacking in its core responsibilities just as the rulers are about to be tested severely? Interesting times for the Mullahs and their hangers-on, to be sure.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/07/2006 18:42 Comments ||
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#5
On a separate news note, ZARKEY has allegedly called on Sunnis to attack Shias in Iraq, plus Radics have again called for REGION-WIDE attacks, to include Africa and North Africa, against Israel andor US-Western interests in same. NO IRAN INVASION BY AMERICA = HARDER, BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE, FOR RADICS TO PC JUSTIFY ANY "RETALIATORY" NEW 9-11's AGAINST AMERICA SO THAT THE ANTI-WAR, PRO-ISOLATION, PRO-ANTI-AMER SOVEREIGNTY, PRO-OWG US DEMS AND ALIGNED CAN GOVERN.
NCRI propaganda, may exceed minimum daily salt requirements.
NCRI Speech by Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of the regime's Council for the State Exigency and second powerful man in the clerical regime was disrupted by protests in the holly city of Qom yesterday. In face of the chaos created he had to break up his speech and leave the town immediately. He was planned to address another meeting in the town but it had to be cancelled.
"Gold-lame curly-toed slippers, don't fail me now!"
Aftab, the state-run internet site, reported that "protests were organized and the protesters were located in six different places and each one was protected by three." The news website added that a number of young people and local residents went to the meeting place as soon as the news broke out in the town and started chanting anti-regime slogans.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/07/2006 10:55 ||
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Iran on Tuesday welcomed an array of international incentives aimed at persuading the country to freeze crucial nuclear activities, but stressed that there were issues that needed to be resolved before any agreement could be reached.
"We had constructive talks," Ali Larijani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, told state television after meeting with Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief. "The proposals contain positive steps and also some ambiguities which should be removed."
He did not elaborate on the ambiguities. But officials with knowledge of the talks in Tehran said they centered on Iran's insistence that it will continue its production of enriched uranium, which can be used to make electricity or weapons.
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Posted by: Dan Darling ||
06/07/2006 02:55 ||
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#1
how about this for an incentive?
You quit being interested in nukes and we don't nuke your ass.
Iran yesterday gave a cautious reception to an international proposal aimed at resolving the crisis over its disputed nuclear drive, saying the offer contains "positive steps" but also "ambiguities." The package, presented by European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, offers a variety of incentives and fresh multilateral talks if Tehran agrees to suspend uranium enrichment work, which can make both reactor fuel and weapons. "There are positive steps in the proposal, and there are also some ambiguities that should be cleared up," Iran's top national security official, Ali Larijani, said on state television. "We consider that the European will to solve the issue through talks is a correct step, and we welcome this," he said after receiving the proposal and holding two hours of talks with Solana.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Might just be the afterglow from Solana's knobjob.
At least I hope so. The only way to stop the Mullahs is their own arrogance forcing the decapitation stroke. If they suddenly get smart, they'll eventually get their nuclear Muslim Viagra. Then the future of the world will be dhimmitude or death. Never again will the potential to stop the proliferation, especially among jihadi Muslims, be as great as now.
#4
This is Dubya & Admin now, not Billary - strongly doubt MadMoud-Mullahs will get as many chances as Saddam did becuz the Commie Clintons and DemoLefties needed to claim PC credit for the Repub economy in order to save their Party and ideo. War and Real World Probs are for GOP-Conservatives, SPEND SPEND SPEND OTHER PEOPLE'S TAX DOLLARS and TIPPY-TOEING NAKED THRU WAVY GRAVY TULIPS WID OUT A CARE IN THE WORLD is for Dems. REAGAN > expanding economy + winning Cold War = massive deficits and turning America into a nation of hamburger-flippers; while BUSH 1 > still-expanding economy, winning DESERT STORM, and "jobs. jobs, jobs" = "worst POTUS/Recession/Economy in US history"; DUBYA > we already know what the MSM says about him. Meanwhile, Bill Clinton remains a Saint and the "Perfect" POTUS/Politician, the ideal standard of how America = Amerikkka, Democratic Republic/Federalist = USSA-CCUS, Hated Despicable Fascist= Beloved but Misguided/Errorful Half-A-Comunist Washington-NPE should be.
(AKI) - Impoverished and living in Lebanon illegally - many of the 3,000 Iraqi Chaldean Christians who have fled their homeland now dream of a better future abroad with Australia the most desired destination. Most of the refugees left Iraq in the wake of the US invasion of the country and while the bloody sectarian stuggle that followed has mostly pitted Shiite and Sunni Muslims against each other, the small Christian minority has not been spared the bloodshed. But some Christians abandoned the country in the 1990s when it was still ruled by Saddam Hussein. "I come from the northern Zakho region, and in 1996 together with my wife and children I fled because we were feeling threatened by an environment that was becoming more and more hostile," Sacharia Chamun,38, a father of seven, tells Adnkronos International (AKI).
The family of nine share two small rooms in Beirut's Sidd al-Bawshriyye suburb in a building that overlooks an open drain used by a nearby print works shop to dump acid and chemicals. The stench in the house is overwhelming and Sacharia's wife, Nada, 34, says the acid fumes are to blame for her respiratory troubles. "We will never return to Iraq, because we wouldn't have a future there," she says. "We are waiting for a visa for Sydney where we will all be able to join our relatives."
In 1996 the family crossed the border from south-western Iraq into Jordan, but after frequent harassment from the authorities they moved to Syria. Having failed to find work in Damascus, Chamun then decided to move to Lebanon where he hoped to count on the support from other Iraqi Christians living there. "Here in Lebanon, even if you're illegal you can still find work and survive," Sacharia tells AKI.
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Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2006 00:00 ||
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Australia is smart. The Christian immigrants make great neighbors. When I was in San Diego, there were many African immigrants. The Sudanese Christian kids were awesome. You could leave a wallet sitting on a table full of kids and despite their poverty, it wouldn't even occur to them to touch it - something you wouldn't do in those neighborhoods with the native born . With proper support systems many went on to college and better lives. I read an article about one them recently - doing very well. They were beautiful children - tall, so black they were almost blue, and graceful. It made me remember why we in America love immigrants. The Somali kids were mired in the same hate/revenge/humiliation baggage that comes with Islam and were far more suseptible to gangs and the welfare mindset. It was the beginning of my own recognition of the legacy of our Christian heritage.
One reason that we in the US have fared so much better than Europe is that the majority of our immigrants are Mexican or from South America. The values of faith, forgiveness and charity come with them.
As someone who believes that all are created equal, I can't escape the observation that it certainly helps when you integrate those who already have a leg up on the benefit of those concepts.
BEIRUT: A newly founded opposition group vowed to topple Premier Fouad Siniora's Cabinet and called for early parliamentary elections "to prevent the collapse of a country and a nation." The Lebanese National Gathering - announced Tuesday in a news conference by former Premier Omar Karami - said the ruling class has failed to rebuild the country, strengthened sectarian tensions among the Lebanese and attempted to transform Lebanon into a regional battlefield.
The group included some 30 politicians among them former pro-Syrian ministers Suleiman Franjieh, Eli Ferzli, Albert Mansour, Abed Rahim Mrad and Michel Samaha. Once Siniora's Cabinet is toppled, the gathering said it will then attempt to form a coalition government, draft a new electoral law, hold new parliamentary elections and then form a national unity government.
"We are an opposition group with clear goals. Our duties are to monitor the government's performance and correct it until we topple it through democratic means," said Karami. Although the gathering did not include Hizbullah, the Amal Movement or the Free Patriotic Movement, which also criticize the government for what they claim is inadequate performance, Karami said they will soon draft understanding agreements with the three parties.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2006 00:00 ||
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BEIRUT: The UN probe chief investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri made a last round of meetings with officials in Beirut on Tuesday before heading to New York, where he is soon to present his second report on the murder to the UN Security Council. Brammertz's meetings came as UN special envoy Terje Roed-Larsen continued his own round of talks with regional leaders. Roed-Larsen is in Abu Dhabi meeting with the leadership there as part of a regional tour to find a solution to the Lebanese-Syrian crisis. He has already visited Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
After a meeting with Brammertz at the Foreign Ministry, Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh said: "No official in Lebanon or elsewhere knows anything about the content of the report, and we all have to wait until it is actually published before making any comments about it."
As the June 15 deadline for the report approaches, US and Syrian officials have been airing their respective expectations on its contents. Brammertz's first report avoided implicating Syria, unlike two previous reports by his predecessor, Detlev Mehlis. As has become his habit, Brammertz remained tight-lipped and refused to talk to the media, expressing irritation at their presence and preventing them from taking photos of the meeting at the ministry.
Salloukh said the chief investigator was expected to hand in the report to Secretary General Kofi Annan on June 10 or 11, and "it is not clear if it will be the last report of its kind." "Brammertz is studying the possibility of staying as head of the commission, since the government had officially asked for a term extension until the investigation is completely and thoroughly done," said Salloukh.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2006 00:00 ||
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DAMASCUS: Opposition figures in Syria on Tuesday denied any links with the National Salvation Front (NSF), a group of exiles who have called for the overthrow of President Bashar Assad's regime. "There was neither coordination nor consultation" with NSF figures who held a congress in London earlier this week, lawyer Hassan Abdel-Azim, a member of the steering committee of the Damascus Declaration, told AFP. "The National Salvation Front and the Damascus Declaration are two totally different things. We have previously said that we have no links with the National Salvation Front," he said. The Damascus Declaration, launched in October 2005 by several opposition parties inside Syria - including communists, nationalists, liberals and ethnic Kurds - called for "radical and democratic change" in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/07/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
who cares--hama rules baby--hama rules
Posted by: yo momma ||
06/07/2006 2:49 Comments ||
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June 7, 2006: The relationship between terrorist leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi and and the mainline al Qaeda leadership continues to deteriorate. Zarqawi's recent audio messages have not only attacked the U.S. and the Shia-dominated government in Iraq, but also Iran. He's even claiming that the U.S., Iran, and Shia in general, are in cahoots to destroy Islam. He has also called for continued attacks against Shia. Except for his verbal attacks on the U.S. and the Iraqi government, he is almost totally distanced himself from the central leadership. Other al Qaeda leaders have been trying to down play anti-Iranian and anti-Shia rhetoric, and have been strongly discouraging attacks on civilians.
Given that Zarqawi has become a loose cannon and that his actions are handicapping Al Qaeda's efforts, it seems reasonable to expect that an accident may befall him at some point in the near future. If handled right it can be made to look like he went out in a blaze of glory fighting American troops or that he was foully murdered. Either way, al Qaeda gets rid of a problem and gains another "martyr."
Posted by: Steve ||
06/07/2006 09:58 ||
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#1
They could simply call the hotline and rat him out.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) - The Sudanese government told a high-level Security Council delegation Tuesday that it would not give immediate approval for a U.N. peacekeeping force in Darfur, but was willing to keep talking about the takeover from African Union troops.
(SomaliNet) Intellectuals and politicians of Mudulod clans of Hawiye tribe had intensive meeting overnight on the clan interest deciding to establish an Islamic court independent of the current Islamic courts' union. Reports say. In the meeting, Mudulod officials discussed over the situations increased in the capital and how to form an Islamic court for the clan and separate from the Islamic courts union. 
(AKI) - Egypt's interior minister 
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and the government are in secret talks to make an 18th amendment that would allow the next general elections under the supervision of the present set up rather than an interim government, sources told this agency. Rehman was not available to confirm the report. 
Nepal's Maoist leader has warned that the rebels will go back to war unless Nepal is made a republic following constituent assembly elections, local media reported yesterday. The new government and rebel Maoists have observed a ceasefire for over a month, after King Gyanendra was forced to end his total rule in April after weeks of anti-royal protests. "There is no political way out unless the country opts for a republican setup. If the parties are not ready to accept republicanism as per the aspirations of people...we are ready to wage the final war," Prachanda said at a meeting in Morang district in eastern Nepal, the Nepali language daily Samacharpatra reported. 
As thousands of Fort Lewis Army troops prepare to head back to Iraq, one of their officers is making a stand. A lieutenant says he is going to refuse to go, saying it's an unjust war. Anti-war groups are rallying to his defense.
(AKI) - Well placed Palestinian sources have told Adnkronos International (AKI) that Hamas' exiled political leader, 
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas extended a deadline on Tuesday to grant Hamas another 48 hours to accept a manifesto implicitly recognizing Israel or face a referendum on the issue. Abbas had set a Tuesday deadline for Hamas to embrace the manifesto on Palestinian statehood but delayed a showdown after what officials said were appeals by Arab leaders. A referendum would also be seen as a confidence vote on the Hamas government, whose election led the West and Israel to cut off funds to the Palestinian Authority. Recent opinion polls suggest most Palestinians support the document.
BEIRUT: A newly founded opposition group vowed to topple Premier Fouad Siniora's Cabinet and called for early parliamentary elections "to prevent the collapse of a country and a nation." The Lebanese National Gathering - announced Tuesday in a news conference by former Premier Omar Karami - said the ruling class has failed to rebuild the country, strengthened sectarian tensions among the Lebanese and attempted to transform Lebanon into a regional battlefield.
BEIRUT: The UN probe chief investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri made a last round of meetings with officials in Beirut on Tuesday before heading to New York, where he is soon to present his second report on the murder to the UN Security Council. Brammertz's meetings came as UN special envoy 
