In 1802, the United States established a military academy at West Point, N.Y. Its mission was to ensure that the fledgling nation would have an educated officer corps and a steady source of skilled engineers to design, build, maintain, and defend the nations infrastructure. Two centuries later, Afghanistan is trying the same formula with its new military academy in Kabul. The academy will graduate its first class of engineers this month.
The government hopes graduates will help rebuild roads, bridges, and an electricity grid ravaged by decades of war and neglect. Just as important is creating a professional army officer corps that supports Afghanistans newly drafted constitution and is not fractured by separate allegiances to local warlords, says U.S. Army colonel and IEEE senior member Barry Shoop, one of dozens of West Point faculty members who helped plan and build the school and continue to advise its Afghan faculty and staff.
COL Shoop spent a year leading counterIED research at JIEDDO both technically and in theater.
Modeled on West Point, the National Military Academy of Afghanistan is often referred to as East Point. The 109 young men who were sworn in as cadets in 2005 underwent what Shoop calls a rigorous Western-style university curriculum. All will graduate with bachelor of science degrees in one of seven majors, which include civil, mechanical, systems, and information systems engineering. The four-year course of study combines engineering instruction with the study of calculus, statistics, chemistry, and physics. Students also take courses in regional, world, and military history as well as three years of foreign language instruction. Graduates of the academy are all expected to speak, read, and write in both Dari and Pashto, two of the primary dialects spoken by most Afghanis, as well as English or Turkish.
The graduates, who will be commissioned as second lieutenants in Afghanistans national army, are obligated to serve 10 years on active duty in exchange for the tuition-free undergraduate education and free books, supplies, housing, and food they receive while attending the academy. This service commitment has not hampered enrollment, says Shoop, who is the chairman of West Points electrical engineering department. Applications increased by 50 percent to 1789 in 2007.
When asked what East Point will do for Afghanistan, Shoop mentioned the refurbishment of the campus, which is on the site of a former Soviet air academy. When we identified the site, he says, we found buildings that were structurally sound but had no power and no running water, on grounds littered with land mines. But with the expertise of engineers from West Point and an assist from some U.S. Navy engineers, Afghan army personnel restored the basic infrastructure, setting the stage for the addition of features that are critical to running a modern university, such as a computer lab with Internet access. The changes there are emblematic of what can occur across the country when the academys graduates go back to their home regions and share the benefit of their education, Shoop says.
#1
I remember when the East Point opened. The incoming cadets are just as cute as the new West Pointers. Some interesting comments were posted on the thread recently (they don't seem to have a midnight roll-over like Rantburg).
Guinea-Bissau moved on Saturday to bolster security to prevent an al Qaeda retaliation attack in the West African country, which last week extradited five suspected members of the armed Islamist group. Border controls will be tightened, internal security improved with more police patrols and the scrutiny of foreigners will also be stepped up, the government of the small former Portuguese colony said in a statement.
The security measures come after one of the al Qaeda suspects extradited to Mauritania on January 12 promised revenge on the country, which is preparing for carnival celebrations in the coastal capital Bissau from February 2.
The cabinet statement said an inter-ministerial commission "to prevent a terrorist attack" would include the defence, interior and justice ministers as well as representatives of Guinea-Bissau's military and intelligence services.
The al Qaeda suspects were arrested in connection with the killing of four picnicking French tourists in a Christmas Eve attack in southeast Mauritania, which led to the cancellation of this year's Dakar motor sports rally. The attack, and the killing of four soldiers in Mauritania's northeast also claimed by al Qaeda's North African branch, raised fears that the group was extending its operations further south, after attacks in Morocco and Algeria. "I recognise that my country is vulnerable to organised crime but measures have already been taken against a terrorist attack," said Prime Minister Martinho Ndafa Kabi.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Posted by: tipper ||
01/20/2008 06:38 ||
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#1
"Whenever people associate the word 'sharia' with Muslims, they think it is flogging and stoning to death and cutting off the hand," he says with a smile.
That pretty well sums it up, and the Islamic attitude, as well. You can bet that this bird was smiling at the prospect of having that much power over dhimmis.
#2
1. shoot the DR 2. If you let them in on financial raesons , divorce and other small arguments, how long do you think it will take before they want in one the bigger ones like theft murder and such
#7
"The introduction of sharia law in Britain raises complex questions, as some of its basic tenets are incompatible with the fundamental principles of our liberal democracy
Pardon me madam if I shock your polite multi-cultural sensibilities. But, if I may be so bold to say, I equate that statement with a large steaming pile of dung from a dog with an intestinal disease. There are absolutely no questions here complex or otherwise. Any set of laws that include barbaric rules such as those pertaining to the marriage/divorce of pre-pubescent girls must be unequivocally rejected in whole. These customs arent simply incompatible with a liberal society. They are completely contrary with the liberties of a modern civilization. Furthermore, anyone from your Human rights ilk who suggests that theres any room for debate on this matter should be loudly ridiculed for being the half-witted knaves that they are.
#8
Islam is like a creeping fungus or cancer that eventually takes over and kills off the body. Kind of like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" but real.
Demonstrating the extent to which he sees himself as "defender of faith", the Prince of Wales wrote to Mahathir Mohamad, the former prime minister of Malaysia, saying that he was "determined to continue the battle to spread the message that proper fundamentalism is in the best interest of the future of our world."
Charles told Mahathir, who later claimed that Jews "rule the world by proxy", he understood the "frustrations" Muslims experience "as a result of apparent Western misunderstanding and misrepresentation. I have, for a long time, despaired of the ignorant and thoroughly evil 'role' of the tabloid media in deliberately misrepresenting Islam and reducing everything to the level of the absurd."
If you start out at the level of the absurd there's not much reduction required.
The hitherto private letter, which Charles wrote in September 1996 after Mahathir had given a lecture to the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, of which the prince is patron, has just been published in Malaysia in Dr Mahathir's Selected Letters to World Leaders. "We now live in a Press State where everything is dominated by the lowest common denominator and by the most ludicrous of 'sound bites'," Charles also told Mahathir.
"Relations between countries seem to be decided by tabloid newspapers nowadays and I resent it deeply. Important issues are reduced to the level of farce, as I know to my cost having expressed an interest in the contribution made to this country by ethnic and religious minorities and by my desire to include other faiths, such as Islam, in the celebrations surrounding the forthcoming Millennium. In an attempt to show how much we share in common and how much we can learn from each other, I have discovered how easy it is to be misunderstood and misrepresented. I have even received several letters accusing me of becoming a Muslim!"
Charles said he saw the appeal of "proper fundamentalism" in "a world, in my part of it at any rate, which is increasingly without meaning, without roots, without a spiritual dimension and which worships the God of Technology." He finished his letter with the rallying cry: "There is much to be done !"
#1
After 911, the bat eared prince said that he read the koran (toilet paper) because it gave him "peace." Dhimmi dork. The UK needs to become a republic; make the royals work.
#3
I believe he is Muzz, from his ongoing lopsided statements in their behalf. Is he just going batshit nuts ? Alzheimers ? Syphilitic brain degeneration ?
#6
Demonstrating the extent to which he sees himself as "defender of faith", the Prince of Wales wrote to Mahathir Mohamad, the former prime minister of Malaysia, saying that he was "determined to continue the battle to spread the message that proper fundamentalism is in the best interest of the future of our world."
the wonders of inbreeding..
one would think the Royal Dhim-Wit would support England's contribution to civilization.
#7
Come to think of it, there is *one* useful service that HRH Charles could perform. But since it's hard to do to yourself, maybe some "Asians" with swords would help.
The Russian military's Chief of Staff says Moscow is ready to use preventative nuclear strikes to defend itself.
Speaking at a conference at the Academy of Military Sciences in Moscow, General Yuri Baluyevsky said Russia must be ready to counter possible threats. "We do not intend to attack anyone, but we consider it necessary that all our partners in the international community clearly understand that for the defence of our sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Russia and its allies, the armed forces will be employed, including preventively the use of nuclear weapons," he said.
Analysts say the General's remarks do not mark a shift in policy, but are the latest in string of assertive comments.
#2
And it's with Russians saying crap like this that the dems say BMD is a waste of money. Yeah, divert it to domestic spending. Those inner city yoofs won't care if they glow in the dark someday...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
01/20/2008 8:50 Comments ||
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#5
Actually, this IS a major change in policy or at least the policy from the Cold War. Their policy had been that they would not be the FIRST to use nuclear weapons. Now they are saying that they will be. That is a major departure from their public policy of the past.
The deal was that in the past, the Russians had a strategy to overwhelm Europe with a conventional force. Our strategy was that in such a case, we reserved the right to respond with tactical nuclear weapons. Russia went on record saying they would never be the first to use nuclear weapons to get the anti-nuclear agitators in the West to push for a similar pledge from Western leaders. That would pretty much guarantee a Soviet win in Europe.
This article originates from the BBC which is pretty much a propaganda organ of the left (and by extension, Russia) so it doesn't surprise me that they try to tone it down with "remarks do not mark a shift in policy" with unnamed "analysts".
They do very certainly reflect a major change in policy. One probably aimed at Iran more than us, though.
In 1982, at a special session of General Assembly of United Nations, the USSR pledged not to use nuclear weapons first, regardless of whether its opponents possessed nuclear weapons or not. This pledge was later abandoned by post-Soviet Russia. India and China are now the only nuclear powers that have declared a no-first-use policy on nuclear weapons.
#8
REDDIT > ... INCLUDING RUSS ALLIES [read - IRAN?].
See also WAFF.com > PRESSTV.jr - PRAY THE NEXT US PRESIDENT BOMBS IRAN". GUILIANI Adviser-Aide Norman Podhoretz argues that ANY POST-DUBYA POTUS SUCCESSOR, REGARDLESS OF PARTY OR BELIEF, MUST HAVE THE COURAGE TO DISCHARGE BUSH'S RESPONSIBILITY AND ATTACK/BOMB IRAN, ostensibly for the good of the USA + World vv danger of NUCLEAR ISLAMISM = NUCLEAR ISLMAIST RADICALISM.
PODHORETZ > "If NOT - God help us all -the stage will be set up for the outbreak of a nuclear war that will become as inescapable then as it is avoidable now".
* TOPIX > NORTH KOREA - US MILITARY BUILDUP IN SOUTH JEOPARDIZES RELATIONS, INTER-KOREA PEACE. NK rants agz USAF deployment + SOKOR decison to emplace new AEGIS missles on its warships. ALso, IRAN WARNS GUKF STATES OF CONSEQUENCES OF RELATIONS WITH US, ISRAEL.
* See also TOPIX/RENSE > IRAN PREPARES FOR US AIR ATTACKS + IRAN GOVT READIES FOR POSSIBLE US ATTACKS; + NY TIMES > A NEW GLOBAL QUANDRY - COSTLY FUEL MEANS COSTLY CALORIES [Food]. FOOD PROBS/RIOTS have occurred in Pakistan, India, Guinea, Mauritania, Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan, etc. as higher oil-fuels prices affetcs the collection and transportation of food.
PEAK OIL > GLOBAL LIGHTS OUT + THE OIL DRUM > WE ARE STARTING TO DIM. See also REDDIT > GLOBAL MASS STARVATION IS BEGINNING? and related articles.
*TOPIX > IRAN, CHINA LAUD NEW TIES.
* WAFF.com > XINHUA.NET - MEDITERRANEAN, EU MEMBER NATIONS BACK NEW CRITICAL MEDITERR UNION. Propsoed MU merger will also include ISRAEL, PA, and major NORTH AFRICAN MUSLIM NATIONS. Some EAST EUROS, CENASIA MUSLIM STATES [GUUM-SCO] inquisitive of potens joining same. ALso from WAFF/TOPIX > PAKISTAN'S NUCLEAR THREAT - A STATE OF DENIAL + POST-BHUTTO PAKISTAN: A LOOMING NUCLEAR ROGUE. Can Pakis' mostly US trained/educated Nuke Perts, Govt. Handlers work together to prevent internal instability and espec NUCLEAR-CAPABLE SECTARIANISM WITHIN PAKISTAN???
GUAM K57 TALKRADIO News [Pacific News Center] > US MULLING MILITARY AID TO PAKISTAN, espec for NUCLEAR SECURITY amid new Taliban = Islamist violence???
#9
Again, DUBYA = USA is entrenching REGIONALLY + GLOBALLY, policies which de facto threaten the Islamist GLOBAL AGENDA. Regardless of PC diplom rhetoric to the contrary, IT IS NOT ENUFF [in LT]FOR THE ISLAMIST GLOBALISTS FOR THE US = POST-DUBYA POTUS SUCCESSOR TO SIMPLY STOP ENTRENCHING AND LEAVE THE ME = MUSLIM NATIONS.
#10
RIGHT WING NEWS > THE CASE FOR MILITARY ACTION AGAINST IRAN; + PAYVAND > RADICAL LEFT GROWING AS AN IMPORTANT/POTENT POLITICAL FORCE + IRANIAN.WS > RADICAL LEFT, IRAN'S LAST LEGAL DISSIDENTS, UNTIL NOW. MARXIST-LEFTIST Students and Intellectuals - THEY HATE MOUD + MULLAHS, BUT SSSSSSHHHHHHHH ALSO HATE THE WEST.
OTTAWA The Canadian minister of foreign affairs, Maxime Bernier, said Saturday that he had ordered officials to rewrite an internal government manual that listed the United States among countries that potentially torture or abuse prisoners.
I regret the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual used in the departments torture awareness training, Mr. Bernier said in a statement. It contains a list that wrongly includes some of our closest allies. I have directed that the manual be reviewed and rewritten.
The United States government has repeatedly said that it does not torture prisoners, an assurance that has been accepted by Canadas Conservative government.
Although the Department of Foreign Affairs would not specify which countries would be removed from the list, the United States is a close ally and had complained to Canada about its inclusion.
The 89-page PowerPoint presentation now under review is used to train diplomats on how to detect and handle cases involving the torture of Canadians held by other countries. It became public after being turned over last week to Amnesty International Canada as part of a lawsuit. The document includes the United States on a list of nations under the heading: Possible Torture/Abuse Cases. Another slide, titled Definition of Torture, lists six U.S. interrogation techniques that it describes as nonphysical, including blindfolding, covering heads in hoods, forced nudity and sleep deprivation. The presentation concludes, All of the above have the same long-term effects as physical torture.
According to whom?
It was not clear from Mr. Berniers statement if the rewriting of the manual would remove all references to the United States or any other nation. When asked if that would be the case, Neil Hrab, a spokesman for Mr. Bernier, replied in an e-mail message: The statement speaks for itself. The manual is being reviewed and rewritten.
Other countries identified in the document include Afghanistan, Israel, China, Egypt, Iran, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Syria. The American military base and prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, is included on the list separately from the United States.
Afghanistan is included on the list although the Canadian government says that prisoners turned over to the Afghan government by Canadian troops are not ill treated or tortured in violation of Canadian laws. Amnesty Internationals lawsuit is an attempt to end those handovers.
But if they're not being tortured why would AI care?
The current Canadian government has rejected calls from human rights groups to ask the United States to return the one Canadian currently held at Guantánamo Bay.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/20/2008 23:45 ||
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#1
Yes, we had an article on it a week or so ago. A Turkish-born translator has been trying to get Congress to take seriously her charge that she translated messages which basically arranged payoffs to high US officials during the Clinton administration in exchange for US nuclear secrets.
She keeps getting interest only to have the promised hearings never happen. Now the FBI is saying that there is no file on the matter. She is gagged from talking about this to the US press, but broke the story in the London Times. The Rantburg article and comments are here.
Pakistan has decided to hand over two Al Qaeda suspects to the US on the latters demand, SAMAA TV reported on Saturday.
The channel quoted official sources as saying that the accused, Khan Baba Abdur Rasool and Noor Rab Khan, were arrested in 2005 for having links with Al Qaeda. The channel said that the Interior Ministry, after getting approval from the government, had directed the additional deputy commissioner (General) to complete all formalities to hand over the suspects to the US. US had demanded suspects custody three weeks ago.
This article starring:
Baba Abdur Rasool
al-Qaeda
Noor Rab Khan
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Just quickly glancing at a map, you can get to Afghanistan through Pakistain. Otherwise you have to go through Iran, which ain't gonna happen, or former Soviet Central Asia, which tightens the Russian sphincter.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
How long would it take the Pakistani government to fall if the US walked away, or even supported the Taliban/AlQ takeover of the Pakistani "government"?
After that, basically anyone with a plane with sufficient range could fly right over Pakistan with impunity and take care of business in Afghanistan. It may or may not make sense to help them back onto their feet. Of course, the nukes would need to be confiscated for this to work. Maybe this is why they are so testy about the US knowing where they were and what the security arrangements are.
#3
There is access from Pak Kashmir (which India considers its sovereign territory) and a slice of the NWFP (not under Pak control in normal circumstances). The infrastructure on the Indian side supports hundreds of thousands of troops. And after 9/11, India offered the use of its bases to the US.
So there are simple cartographic adjustments that remedy this dilemma.
Posted by: john frum ||
01/20/2008 8:13 Comments ||
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#4
How easily could we resupply the troops via these other areas, as compared to running truck convoys through Pakistan?
#8
Afghanistan just graduated its first class of engineers from the new military academy, which was set up with US help. Pashtuns do NOT dominate the selection process for admission there. They've sent their first two cadets to West Point, as well.
Iraq and Afghanistan break up the potential swath of fundamentalist Islamicists from Egypt and the Saudis through to Pakistan and, with a jump, to Indonesia. The value of having moderate, more or less friendly governments there is obvious to me, as is the value of helping both those countries to adopt more functional economic models. It will take longer in Afghanistan than in Iraq because they're starting with so much less in place.
As the article notes, West Point played a key role in the development of the US. Early cadets formed a national as opposed to state/religious identity and were the primary leaders in building roads etc. that enabled the frontier to be opened and settled.
It will take time, but these cadets will have a transformative impact on Afghanistan if we stay the course and support them for a while.
#10
There is a thing I don't understand. To wit, why some people can believe both: (a) you can westernize a Muslim country by occupying itto expose it's people to "Western Values"; and (b)Muslim minorities in western countries are implementing Jihad.
p.s. Speaking of the things I don't understand. I don't understand why spending trillions "to assure stability" in ME is economically viable when a 10th of the sum paid as a subsidy to local producers would assure energy independence.
#11
The same reason the US suffered through an oil embargo and trillions of dollars of damage to protect "that shitty little country".
Posted by: ed ||
01/20/2008 18:52 Comments ||
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#12
BTW, gromguru. This is the first time I have agreed with you in a long time. Legislating a floor on oil prices would have taken away the OPECs weapon to crash prices and bankrupt any energy project. And it have cost the US nothing.
The US could have spent 1/2 of what we do on muslims, and by now, have one nuclear reactor coming on line every week, providing heat and electricity and converting every ton of coal ($10-20) into at least $500 worth of petroleum products. The US could have spent 1/100th of what we do and we could have gotten the arabs fighting among themselves and made a fortune on weapons sales and schadenfreude.
In the end, nation building in Iraq and Afghanistan are not important. They will turn on the infidels as soon as we are no longer useful to their leadership's attainment/maintainment of power.
Posted by: ed ||
01/20/2008 19:07 Comments ||
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#13
Umm ... IMO while nation building would be useful, the immediate payoff is US bases in both countries.
The problem is our 'allies' who encouraged the insurgents in Iraq (and kept selling nuclear tech to Iran). Combined with Bremer's idiocy, it meant several years of casualties we arguably could have avoided.
If we're not there, others will be -- to our detriment.
#14
We don't need bases to arm the Afghan Tadjikhs, Uzbeks and Hazaras to overrun the Pushtoons and steal their wimmen. We didn't need bases to watch Iraq and Iran were slaughter each other, much to our benefit. We didn't need Iraqi bases to have Saddam Hussein check Iranian power. Instead, Iraq is in danger of being run from Tehran. Bases are over rated. We don't need them if we don't care about civilizing these savages.
Posted by: ed ||
01/20/2008 19:44 Comments ||
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#15
But ed, without supervision either the Strong Man starts funding his pet jihadis and preparing for regional domination, like Saddam Hussein did, or Al Qaeda types set up shop in a bribable corner and start preparing for world conquest. And then we'd have to invade again. Might as well just stay on hand.
#16
The sanctions against Saddam were eroding fast even as our pilots and aircraft were being worn down from enforcing the nofly zones. The food-for-oil program was a corrupt mess and Saddam had bribed many in the UN, the press and Europe.
At the same time the sanctions on nuclear tech to Teheran were also eroding as the Germans and others sought to make money and ensure oil to Europe from Iran.
It would have been nice if that were just an interesting set of facts "out there" but the oil producers are still central to the European and Asian economies, and our economy depends on selling to those countries.
Moreover the stability of the oil producing countries was and is being eroded from within by the Islamicists. Sooner or later we were going to either move in with serious force or throw in the towel and go the route of Britain and the continent. And for me, at least, that's unacceptable.
#17
Whether Oil For Food collapsed or not, Saddam would still have check Iranian power. Blood enemies and all that. Now the struggle is to check the Iranians from having a contiguous path to the Mediterranean. In the time since 2001, the Iranians hae powered up Bushehr, have thousands of centrifuges producing enriched uranium, bringing on line plutonium producing reactors, and building 500km missiles. The Iraqi invasion had little effect on Iran's nuke program, other than speeding it up with Putin's help (and soul).
This Marxist inspired Kumbaya foreign policy w.r.t. mullahs who study and practice deceit, ambush and slaughter will be the death of the west.
The Asian and European economies depend on selling the to the US. Have you forgotten the $736 billion US trade deficit? Bring that economic activity home and Americans (esp. the lower and middle classes) will be much better off.
The US has 250 years of coal and 500 years of shale (at current use rate and recovery tech). Double our coal production and produce 13-15 million barrels/day of nuke produced H2 F-T petroleum. In the mean time, shift to electric based transportation. Then WE will be the major oil exporter. Or the threat will collapse oil prices to $30/barrel.
Posted by: ed ||
01/20/2008 20:41 Comments ||
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Posted by: ed ||
01/20/2008 20:47 Comments ||
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#20
Ed, unfortunately we cannot re-create a high paying manufacturing base overnight, nor build the nuclear capacity needed to replace oil in various ways in less than several years of all out, emergency efforts -- efforts for which there is not yet domestic support politically.
In the meanwhile, 9/11 was a turning point that signalled we could no longer ignore what was building in the middle east and elsewhere.
I personally doubt that our presence in Iraq has sped up the Iranian nuke program. They've been hell bent on that path for some time IMO.
I could be wrong, but that's how I read it. Nor do I think Saddam could hold the Iranians in check much longer. It's become clear that in the last years of his regime the infrastructure in Iraq was falling apart very badly, including the oil production infrastructure. If he had fallen to internal enemies, or just died, the resulting chaos would not only have hit the world economy hard it would also have given Iran exactly that open path to the Mediterranean you mention.
I might be wrong, but I'm damned if I can see how we could avoid something similar to what we're doing now unless we were ready to absorb the consequences. And I just don't see Clinton as having left us in shape to do that very well.
#21
Even today, a nuclear plant can be built in a few years, including the long lead items. The barriers are not technological or even financial. They should be continuously coming off assembly lines by now. Instead we have entirely wasted 6 years. We have sent an extra trillion dollars to those who want to kill us. Better to spend the dollars to kill them first and take the oil.
On the contrary, industrial capacity can be built surprisingly quickly. Witness American industrialization in WW2 or the German and Soviet industrialization of the 30's. It is technical knowledge worker base that is hard to create, which we are also willy nilly exporting. All for the benefit of a few moneyed elites who, when the shit hits the fan, will be able to get on their jets and yachts to a safe haven.
What 1991 showed was the Shiites and Kurds could not overthrow the Sunnis, Saddam breathing or not. At the time of the ceasefire, when the regime as on it's knees begging Gen. Schwartzkopf, there was only one Iraqi division between the US Army and Baghdad. But it was enough to kill and suppress the Shiite and Kurd civilians.
I am absolutely horrified at the stupid strategic decisions made by this administration. They have strengthened our enemies, given them resources, and weakened us at home. Sometimes I wonder whose side they are on, but then I realize the Democrats would give up the game even quicker.
We live or die on our wits and resources. There won't be an Army coming from across the ocean to rescue us.
Posted by: ed ||
01/20/2008 21:22 Comments ||
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#22
I keep pushing, and someday someone's going to say "I've got a great idea - let's divide Pakistan between India and Afghanistan, along the Indus River", and I'm going to say things that aren't allowed to be said in this forum. I will also agree, and shout HURRAH! once it's a done deal.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/20/2008 23:45 Comments ||
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A sense of insecurity prevails in the city that was once known as the city of flowers due to growing number of suicide bombings that have killed several policemen and innocent citizens and attacks on CD and video shops, internet cafes and snooker clubs.
A sense of siege and insecurity heightens, as the Islamic insurgency creeps into the city, which is one of the most important cities of the country, from the adjacent tribal agencies. The streets and bazaars of Peshawar have borne the brunt of the countrys war with Islamic militants.
The militants have found safe heavens in the city outskirts, from where they strike at the military and the police, order schoolgirls to wear the veil and plan bomb attacks on CD and video centres. Suicide bombings, bomb explosions and missile attacks have become a routine business in the city. While occasional grenade attacks and explosions were not uncommon since 2006, there was no incident of suicide bombing or rocket attack inside the city.
Mohammad Yaqoob, who is an MBA student at the university of Peshawar, told Daily Times, We, Sunnis and Shiits, used to spend our nights in Peshawar streets while gossiping and enjoying Qahwa (green tea). The spate of suicide bombings since 2006 has not only disturbed people psychologically, it has also fanned sectarian violence between the Shiits and Sunnis.
Mohammad Esa Khan, who is a resident of Mahala Jangi in Jahangir Pura, where a suicide bomber detonated himself at Imambargah, killing 12 people and injuring 25, said that few years ago Sunnis used to offer juices and water to Shiits on 9th and 10th of Muharram. He said, When I am out of my home in the city, I consider myself in danger. Anyone can become victim of the suicide attacks. Mehrun Nisa, a school teacher, said that she and her friends were now afraid to go out to bazaars.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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I dunno why, but they're all being renamed for Robert Byrd...
The caretaker NWFP government has decided to change the names of schools that were named after leaders of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), a private TV channel reported on Saturday. Talking to Express News, the NWFP Education secretary said names of the schools would be changed to reflect their respective districts or famous figures.
The formerly ruling religious alliance had named the schools it established after its politicians, according to the provincial Education Department. The Education Department had dispatched a summary containing such school names to the NWFP chief minister, the channel reported. It said that the names included those of MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmad, Maulana Mufti Mehmud, father of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and former provincial minister Sirajul Haq.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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NEW DELHI, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- India has increased the security of politicians in Jammu & Kashmir state following reports of a possible terrorist strike.
Federal security agencies said they received an alert of a possible suicide attack by a Pakistan-based militant group on politicians in Jammu & Kashmir, including Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. This has put central security agencies on guard and sweeping changes, including fresh training for security personnel, have been proposed, local media reports said Friday.
The federal Interior Ministry sent directives to the state government asking its special guard, which is in charge of the security of the chief minister and others, to undergo rigorous training either by the elite National Security Guard or any other professional agency, a ministry official said.
The directive has come in the wake of several intelligence inputs that Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed might carry out a suicide attack on Azad and other state politicians who have been holding several roadside meetings ahead of legislative elections in the state.
Posted by: john frum ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
Because of the Iranian program to prevent Iraq from having a combat air force, I suspect that we will set up the Iraqi airbases, along with trained maintenance personnel, then train the Iraqi pilots and air command in the US.
Then, when the time comes, the new planes the Iraqi government purchases, and their new pilots, will suddenly arrive together at the fully operational and secure airbases, and there won't be a damn thing the Iranians can do to stop it.
#6
Actually intially you're looking at probably modified light attack craft (turboprop variants or jet trainer variants) at first, and probably eventually a staging up to F-16 types eventually. Modern build F-16s with their whole packages can cost well in excess of 85-100 million bucks each.
The commissioner for European Union foreign policy, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, called for Israel to lift its travel restrictions on the Palestinians and for the Europeans to play a stronger role in the Mideast peace process. She said Israel and the Palestinians should develop a common plan for handing over security measures to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
In an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur Friday on the sidelines of a Bertelsmann Foundation event in Kronberg outside Frankfurt, Ferrero-Waldner said that it was essential for Palestinians to see improvements in their lives in the coming three months if the fledgling peace negotiations with Israel are to move forward. Something must happen so that the people gain confidence in the peace talks, she said.
In addition to economic help for the Palestinian territories, the Israeli travel restrictions and street blockades had to be lifted. We must break through this vicious circle, Ferrero-Waldner said. "On the one hand, Israel needs security. On the other hand, the dynamics will only turn positive if we give the principle of hope a chance, she said.
The Israelis should work together with the Palestinians to see how restrictions can be lifted little by little, so that responsibility for security gradually flows to the Palestinians, the commissioner said.
That's been tried before. Didn't work then, won't work today.
She noted that Abbas was specifically working toward such a plan for the city of Nablus in the West Bank.
Ferrero-Waldner urged a stronger role for the EU in the Mideast peace process.
Ah yes, more flacid soft power!
In addition to the financial support and help in reconstruction and building up security, the EU could play a role in monitoring the transfer of responsibility for security. The EUs special ties could be used in the process, she said.
Unless they're zip-ties, it's not going to help.
We have a certain head start on the issue of trust with the Palestinians, while the Americans have the same head start with the Israelis, Ferrero-Waldner said.
#1
Will the Europeans come to meetings wearing the oh-so-fashionable checkered Palestinian head cloth tied round their necks -- to show their evenhandedness? Let them fix their own Muslim problem before bullying others.
Israels targeting of a Hamas government office which caused serious casualties at a nearby wedding party was a war crime and those responsible should be punished, a Nations United Against Israel United Nations official said Saturday. John Dugard, UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in thePalestinian territories, also slammed the killing of Palestinians in other attacks and the closing of border crossings.
The killing of some 40 Palestinians in Gaza in the past week, the targeting of a Government office near a wedding party venue with what must have been foreseen loss of life and injury to many civilians, and the closure of all crossings into Gaza raise very serious questions about Israels respect for international law and its commitment to the peace process, Dugard said in a statement.
Recent action violates the strict prohibition on collective punishment contained in the Fourth Geneva Convention, Dugard charged in the statement put out by the UN human rights commission. It also violates one of the basic principles of international humanitarian law that military action must distinguish between military targets and civilian targets.
He said that Israel must have known about the wedding party in the Gaza Strip near to the interior ministry when it launched missiles at the ministry building on Friday.
The massive air strike destroyed the former interior ministry building in Gaza City, now abandoned, sending a tide of shrapnel crashing against adjacent apartment buildings and killing a 47-year-old woman. Around 50 people were wounded in the blast, including several children. At least 30 of the victims had been attending the wedding party near the building.
Those responsible for such cowardly action are guilty of serious war crimes and should be prosecuted and punished for their crimes, Dugard said. The United States and other participants in the Annapolis conference in November to relaunch the Middle East peace process are under both a legal and a moral obligation to compel Israel to cease its actions against Gaza and to restore confidence in the peace process, ensure respect for international law and protect civilian life, he said.
We attacked the building and nothing else, an Israeli army spokeswoman said of Fridays raid, calling the target a headquarters of the radical Hamas movement which controls the Gaza Strip.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
01/20/2008 01:06 ||
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#1
UN logic
Hamas launches of missiles against civilians is good.
#2
Why Israel even *has* border crossings into Gaza is the real mystery. They should have long ago unilaterally declared Gaza to be autonomous, then cut them off entirely from Israel. Including power and fuel.
Then Israel could just shrug and say, "Not our problem". And shoot anyone who tries to cross the border. That is fully consistent with international law, and how other countries do it.
Every time the lob a rocket or mortar round over the border, respond with an artillery barrage directed at the *vicinity* of where the rocket or mortar came from.
If it kills civilians, the Israelis just shrug, and say they were responding to an attack, and have the right to do so. If their enemy launches an attack from a civilian area, it loses its protection, again, under international law.
And that is the bottom line. Israel only has problems because it wants to be "half friendly" to people who hate it. If it would just treat them like other nations treat their enemies, it wouldn't have as much of a problem.
#4
The UN seems pretty damn good at condemning Israel for trying to protect its citizens against the uncivilized blood thirsty Palestinians. Where's the UN condemnation when the Palestinian rockets land on Israeli territory and take innocent lives.
The UN proves itself to be more and more useless everytime one of them opens their mouth.
A senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip on Saturday accused rival Fatah of plotting to assassinate Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh as he prayed and said the would-be suicide bomber had been arrested and had confessed.
Tension between Islamist Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction has increased since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in a brief but bloody civil war in June. Fatah still holds sway in the occupied West Bank. "There was a plan by a suicide bomber wearing an explosives belt to assassinate Haniyeh as he prayed in the mosque. He was arrested and confessed," Saeed Seyam, who oversees Hamas government security forces in Gaza and is a former interior minister in the Hamas government, told reporters.
A Fatah spokesman dismissed Sayam's allegations. "We deny any involvement or considering any bomb plot in mosques against any Palestinian figure, whether it be Haniyeh or anybody else," Fahmi al-Zareer said. "Fatah will never use this method of killing and assassination," he added. He accused Hamas of previously killing opponents in mosques in Gaza.
Seyam said the security officials who made the arrest had seized a video tape which showed the would-be attacker together with those training him. He named a number of suspects but did not single out the identity of the would-be bomber. Seyam said another bombing had been planned to blow up Hamas television station headquarters in Gaza.
Seyam said Tayeb Abdel-Rahim, a senior Abbas aide, had been "involved and aware" of the plot against Haniyeh and had assured the would-be bomber his family would be looked after and moved to safety in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Hamas has seen Abdel-Rahim as an arch-enemy since he oversaw a major crackdown on the group in 1996 when acting as a senior adviser to late President Yasser Arafat, after Hamas carried out a wave of suicide bombings inside Israel. Abdel-Rahim was unavailable for comment on Saturday.
Zareer said Seyam's allegation "served to revive tensions" between the two groups. Seyam said Ahmed Dogmush, a former senior Fatah security officer in Gaza, had been one of the masterminds of the assassination plot and that several others involved were still at large in the West Bank and in Egypt. "According to the information we have, some of those at large are still determined to carry out a bombing in the mosque where Haniyeh attends prayers," he said.
Hamas police said they would reward anybody who gave information leading to their capture. Last week a Hamas security official said the group had arrested a Palestinian with 4 kg (9 lb) of TNT ready to be detonated by mobile phone at a Gaza rally where Haniyeh welcomed home hundreds of Haj pilgrims.
This article starring:
Ahmed Dogmush
Fatah
Fahmi al-Zareer
Fatah
Ismail Haniyeh
Hamas
Saeed Seyam
Hamas
Tayeb Abdel-Rahim
Fatah
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
What's so hard to understand in "no popcorn without body counts"?
Israel kept up strikes against Gaza militants on Saturday, killing at least two in a new raid, as its lockdown of the impoverished Palestinian territory started to take its toll on residents.
A pre-dawn air strike north of Gaza City killed two fighters of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas which has ruled the increasingly isolated territory since seizing power seven months ago, medics said.
A second strike on a car in Gaza City left no casualties. Israel has escalated operations in Gaza, killing at least 36 militants since Tuesday while Hamas has launched about 200 rockets into southern Israel in the same period, lightly wounding more than 10, in the biggest flare-up of violence since the Islamist movement took power. On Thursday Israel announced it would close all crossings into and out of Gaza for several days to all but essential humanitarian aid, intensifying its almost two-year siege of the territory aimed at stemming rocket fire.
As news of the new measures spread, residents across the Gaza Strip stocked up on diesel fuel, leaving several service stations empty. We have already run out of diesel and we can only supply gasoline for two hours a day because they did not tell us there would be a reduction in fuel, gas station owner Ibrahim al-Berberi told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Israel needs to get a backbone and turn on a proper siege. No water. No fuel. No food.
An old fashion starve them into the choice of submission or death.
Its not like Islamic folk don't understand the meaning of submission. It's just from the other side of that Master Sub relationship.
#2
Der Spiegel showed an embarrassing amount of ignorance about the oil business in that interview.
These MSM curs just don't grasp that some of the Arab oil men are the most learned petroleum market experts in the world. Think Allen Greenspan in a burqa. He was not kidding that his peers (not the peanut gallery in OPEC, like Chavez), want stability. They crave stability and spend most of their time trying to maintain it.
They do not want fluctuations in the oil market. They hate inefficiency and speculation. They also know that there are all sorts of idiots out there trying to screw things up for them.
And they also know that the MSM, and most of the people they have to deal with, know squat about how things work. OPEC only controls step one and part of step two of maybe a ten step process to get oil from the ground into gas tanks. They could drop the price of crude oil to ten cents a barrel and the price at the pump wouldn't necessarily change one penny.
#3
OTOH, compare wid PEAK OIL > GLOBAL LIGHTS OUT; + THE OIL DRUM > WE ARE STARTING TO DIM. World energy blackouts or failures, aka why BIO-ENERGY won't cut it = doen't compare to NUCLEAR???
General Michel Aoun has asked his son-in-law Meathead Gibran Bassil to represent him at the quartet meeting which will take place after Moussa returns from Damascus. Aoun 72, a key member of the Hezbollah-led opposition and leader of Free Patriotic Movement said he is sick and is being treated for kidney stones.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa was able to have his first breakthrough last Thursday when he succeeded in arranging a quartet meeting between the opposition and the majority . The meeting which lasted for nearly four hours was attended by Moussa, Lebanons former president Amine Gemayel, Parliament majority leader MP Saad Hariri, and General Michel Aoun.
Moussa wanted to have a follow up meeting to cover the issues that were not agreed on during the first meeting , in order for the parliament to proceed with the election of a president on Monday Aoun who was appointed by the Hezbollah-led opposition to negotiate on its behalf initially asked for the postponement of the quartet meeting , but upon the insistence of Moussa he appointed Bassil as his replacement .
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has condemned Israels crimes against Palestinians, saying the Zionist regime and its allies should be brought to justice. In a telephone conversation with Hamas political leader Khaled Meshaal on Saturday, Ahmadinejad said, Crimes against Palestinians have reached their peak. The Zionists and their masters should know that they are regarded as accomplice in these crimes and will be put on trial in future. Today the Zionists have reached a dead end in Palestine and will not benefit from their criminal acts.
He called on the Palestinians to be patient and rely on God, saying, I am sure that the Palestinian people will pass through the hard times honorably and successfully. Ahmadinejad said supporting the Palestinian nation is a religious duty, and Iran will stand by them to the day of victory.
Meshaal, for his part, expressed appreciation for Irans support for Palestine. He briefed Ahmadinejad on the latest developments in the occupied territories and asserted that the Zionist regime must end the siege of Gaza. Although Gazas agricultural and industrial sectors have been harmed seriously and Palestinians are under heavy pressure, they will continue resistance to achieve victory, Meshaal observed
This article starring:
Khaled Meshaal
Hamas
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Nut-job, get this. A Dead criminal targetting civilians with rockets is still a crimimal, as are criminal shooters targetting kibbutz workers from South America. No crime committed, apart from murder by your proxy, IMHO.
#2
Nut-job, get this. A Dead criminal targetting civilians with rockets is still a crimimal, as are criminal shooters targetting kibbutz workers from South America. No crime committed, apart from murder by your proxy, IMHO.
Arab League chief Amr Mussa said after talks Saturday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad he was satisfied and moving step by step toward mediating a solution to Lebanon's political crisis. "The discussions were important. I am satisfied," Mussa told reporters. "We are advancing step by step," said Mussa, who arrived Friday in Syria from neighboring Lebanon, which has been without a president since November 23.
Syria has been accused by the United States and its allies of blocking the election of a new president, and Damascus has leveled similar charges against the United States.
MPs from Lebanon's Western-backed ruling coalition and the opposition are due to meet again on Monday to try to elect a president, after 12 previous parliamentary sessions were postponed. "I am neither pessimistic nor optimistic," said Mussa, who also met Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Shara and had dinner Friday with Foreign Minister Walid Moallem and Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jaber al-Thani.
Mussa has been trying to win support for a three-point Arab plan calling for the election of Lebanese army chief General Michel Sleiman as president, a national unity government in which no one party has veto power and the adoption of a new electoral law. Although the ruling coalition has backed the plan, the opposition insists that it be granted a third of the seats in a new government so it can have veto power.
Syria's state news agency said Mussa and Assad discussed ""contacts set up in Beirut to resolve the standing problems between the (feuding Lebanese) parties.""
Mussa said on Friday that he had made progress in negotiations between the factions although he was still far from a solution. "We have taken measures that I hope will result in defusing the crisis," Mussa said, following marathon talks.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah criticized on Saturday Arab leaders who have been pushing the league's plan to end the crisis, saying they should refrain from giving lessons about democracy. "I find it strange that Arab leaders speak about ... democracy when their own regimes know nothing about it," Nasrallah said at a Beirut rally, while reiterating that his group supported the Arab League plan.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/20/2008 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
In 1802, the United States established a military academy at West Point, N.Y. Its mission was to ensure that the fledgling nation would have an educated officer corps and a steady source of skilled engineers to design, build, maintain, and defend the nations infrastructure. Two centuries later, Afghanistan is trying the same formula with its new military academy in Kabul. The academy will graduate its first class of engineers this month. 
Demonstrating the extent to which he sees himself as "defender of faith", the Prince of Wales wrote to Mahathir Mohamad, the former prime minister of Malaysia, saying that he was "determined to continue the battle to spread the message that proper fundamentalism is in the best interest of the future of our world."
The Russian military's Chief of Staff says Moscow is ready to use preventative nuclear strikes to defend itself.
Pakistan has decided to hand over two Al Qaeda suspects to the US on the latters demand, SAMAA TV reported on Saturday.
A sense of insecurity prevails in the city that was once known as the city of flowers due to growing number of suicide bombings that have killed several policemen and innocent citizens and attacks on CD and video shops, internet cafes and snooker clubs.
Israels targeting of a Hamas government office which caused serious casualties at a nearby wedding party was a war crime and those responsible should be punished, a 
A senior Hamas official in the Gaza Strip on Saturday accused rival Fatah of plotting to assassinate Hamas leader 
Seyam said 
Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad has condemned Israels crimes against Palestinians, saying the Zionist regime and its allies should be brought to justice. In a telephone conversation with Hamas political leader 
Arab League chief Amr Mussa said after talks Saturday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad he was satisfied and moving step by step toward mediating a solution to Lebanon's political crisis. "The discussions were important. I am satisfied," Mussa told reporters. "We are advancing step by step," said Mussa, who arrived Friday in Syria from neighboring Lebanon, which has been without a president since November 23. 
