H/T Hotair
NATO said on Saturday it was nearing a deal to use Russian land and airspace to supply its security forces in Afghanistan, but Western diplomats denied any trade-off with Moscow to keep Ukraine and Georgia out of NATO.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said he was hopeful of increased cooperation with Russia. An alliance spokesman said NATO was negotiating accords on land and air corridors for its troops and equipment, which could be announced when President Vladimir Putin attends a NATO summit next month. "I hope that Afghanistan might be an area where NATO and Russia can make strides to cooperate more closely together," de Hoop Scheffer told a security conference in Brussels.
Diplomats said a NATO-Russia council meeting on Monday would discuss a "package of deliverables" also including the possible leasing of Russian planes and trains, Russian training for Afghan helicopter pilots and counter-narcotics assistance.
"Discussions are under way. There is no deal done. We are working towards an agreement at the Bucharest summit," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said of an upcoming April 2-4 meeting in the Romanian capital. "We are negotiating land and air transit agreements plus the possibility of making more permanent our cooperation on counter-narcotics training," he added.
The U.S. secretaries of state and defense, Condoleezza Rice and Robert Gates, will visit Moscow on Tuesday to discuss with their Russian counterparts a wider package of issues including missile defense, conventional and nuclear arms control as well as cooperation on Afghanistan and Iran, the diplomats said.
NATO's 43,000-strong operation in Afghanistan is facing a severe challenge from resurgent Islamist Taliban fighters. The former Soviet Union intervened in the mountainous central Asian country in 1979 but was forced out after heavy losses in the 1980s inflicted by Islamist guerrillas partly armed by the West.
NATO and Russia already cooperate in training Afghan and central Asian counter-narcotics officials as part of efforts to contain Afghanistan's huge opium trade. But NATO-Russia cooperation in general has proven difficult and been overshadowed by disputes over a planned U.S. missile shield in central Europe and Moscow's decision last year to freeze its compliance with a European conventional arms treaty.
Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza said on Saturday that Russia's offer of help was made in the hope of persuading NATO allies not to admit Ukraine and Georgia to a Membership Action Plan -- a key stage on the road to joining the Western defense alliance.
NATO diplomats said the summit was unlikely to give the two ex-Soviet republics "MAP" status -- the first step towards eventual membership -- because of reservations among some west European countries, especially Germany. Critics point to the low level of public support in Ukraine for NATO membership, and Georgia's heavy-handed treatment of opposition protests last year, including the imposition of a state of emergency and closing down of a television station.
German Foreign Ministry political director Volker Stanzel suggested NATO should await a solution to Georgia's "frozen conflicts" with the Moscow-backed rebel regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia before moving ahead with MAP. "What's the point of insisting on this precise year for giving MAP to Ukraine and Georgia?" Stanzel told the Brussels Forum conference staged by the German Marshall Fund think-tank.
Other diplomats suggested the Bucharest summit could give Ukraine and Georgia some lesser upgrade to their existing ties and stress that NATO's door remains open.
De Hoop Scheffer said it was too early to tell what they would win at the summit but added of Russia's position: "Red lines drawn by others cannot be accepted by NATO."
#3
And seriously, NATO is on the verge of becoming meaningless due to the Germans sitting on their fat asses refusing to pull their weight in Afghanistan.
So what does membership matter when NATO will be gone within a decade, maybe sooner?
(Xinhua) -- NATO's deployment in Afghanistan should be more flexible, the Dutch and Slovakian foreign ministers said Thursday. The two officials called for an end to the current deployment arrangement which confines member states to one operation region.
Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen and his Slovakian counterpart Jan Kubis said this would help change the current situation where only a handful of countries operate in the most dangerous regions of Afghanistan, according to the NRC Handelsblad newspaper published Thursday in the Netherlands.
The two ministers believe that the present method, where the country is divided into five regional commands, should be abandoned, and that commanders on the ground should be able to deploy troops anywhere in the country "on their own authority."
At present, the 42 countries taking part in the 43,000-strong NATO-led force in Afghanistan are stationed in five distinct regions.
The Netherlands, Britain, Australia and Canada are deployed in the more volatile south of the country, while other countries such as Germany refuse to station their troops in such dangerous areas because they see their mission as mainly a reconstruction one. The two ministers said, "In the next two to three years, while Afghanistan's own security forces gain in strength, we will have to let go of our own 'adopted' provinces and focus on the country as a whole."
Leaders of NATO member states will meet in Bucharest in April to discuss military strategy. Verhagen said he will put this matter on the agenda.
A couple of weeks ago, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized the NATO countries that have refused to provide troops in the south where the fighting against the Taliban is at its heaviest.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2008 00:00 ||
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#3
I think (I'm not sure) that the Dutch and the Slovaks are the good guys in this argument: they want more flexibility so as to force the Germans and French to carry their fair share of the risk.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/15/2008 12:31 Comments ||
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Late on Thursday evening, Chadian President Idriss Deby and his Sudanese counterpart Omar Al-Bashir signed a peace agreement in Dakar
The Russian Federation welcomed on Friday the agreement on border control between Sudan and Chad. The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement the agreement came in the right time and is considered a step in the right direction. The ministry expressed hope such agreement would ease tensions and normalize bilateral relations between the two countries, the statement added.
Late on Thursday evening, Chadian President Idriss Deby and his Sudanese counterpart Omar Al-Bashir signed a peace agreement in Dakar, capital of Senegal. The peace agreement signature concludes a negotiation process initiated by Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade to end the armed conflict Chad and Sudan.
Al-Bashir arrived in Dakar Wednesday afternoon to attend the 11th Session of the Islamic Summit Conference.
I'm guessin' a few "side" agreements were reached as well. Bah.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
03/15/2008 00:00 ||
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Saudi Arabia's nuttiest most dangerous revered cleric said in a rare fatwa this week that two writers should be tried for apostasy for their "heretical articles" and put to death if they do not repent.
Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak was responding to recent articles in al-Riyadh newspaper that questioned the Sunni Muslim view in Saudi Arabia that adherents of other faiths should be considered unbelievers.
"Anyone who claims this has refuted Islam and should be tried in order to take it back. If not, he should be killed as an apostate from the religion of Islam," said the fatwa, or religious opinion, dated March 14 and published on Barrak's Web site. "It is disgraceful that articles containing this kind of apostasy should be published in some papers of Saudi Arabia, the land of the two holy shrines," he said, referring to Muslim holy places in Mecca and Medina.
"The rulers should hold these papers to account ... and all those who took part in the publication should know they were involved in the sin of heretical articles."
Barrak, who is thought to be around 75, is viewed by Islamists as the leading independent authority of Saudi Arabia's hardline version of Sunni Islam, often termed Wahhabism. He said the articles suggested Muslims were free to follow other religions. Rights groups have correctly accused Wahhabism of a xenophobic attitude which demonises other religions.
"My articles have been met with fatwas before but it never got to this level of directly inciting murder or directly accusing someone of no longer being a Muslim," he told Reuters. "If this is allowed to pass, this country will be transformed into an arena of bloodshed. It will be chaos."
Saudi Arabia regularly executes drug traffickers, rapists and murderers, but it is rare for calls to be made to put people to death for opinions expressed in public.
So called Liberal when compared to the rest of the country reformers are engaged in a battle with religious kooks hardliners over the direction of the country as if they could make a difference, supposedly a key U.S. ally and the world's biggest oil exporter.
Diplomats say powerful nutters clerics allied to some key members of the inbred Saudi royal family have prevented the government under King Abdullah from moving forward with so called social and political reforms.
#2
Any murder pronouncement like this should immediately result in such individuals being placed on an international criminal registry, subject to arrest if they leave their country, which is now "harboring a fugitive".
Such cowards happily threaten people until their threats turn on them and put them at risk for prison. Then they suddenly become very pacifistic.
Nine vehicles were torched and over half-a-dozen people reportedly sustained bullet wounds during the strike called by the Sunni Tehreek (ST) for Friday. Meanwhile, the police have reportedly taken over a dozen ST workers in custody since Thursday night and the ST has claimed that the arrests were because its workers were just trying to create awareness among people by distributing leaflets, etc.
Nearly 15 people, including two ST workers, sustained bullet injuries because of aerial firing in separate parts of the city. The injured include Saleem, 30, (New Karachi), Shahrukh Khan, 18, (Shafiq Mor), Yawer, 42, (Korangi), Sajjad, 10, (Soldier Bazaar), Kauser Khan (Gulistan-e-Johar), Ghulam Hussain (Risala), Manzur (Saeedabad), Sakina and Mateen (Orangi Town), Atiq (Ranchore Lane), Ali Gohar, Yousuf, an unidentified person (North Karachi) and two ST workers, Saqib and Muslim Qadri, from Shah Faisal Colony and Taimoria respectively.
Meanwhile, nine vehicles and one café were reportedly burnt in different parts of the city.
We have taken 11 ST workers in custody since Thursday night, said Karachi Police Chief Niaz Ahmed Siddiqui. Seven of them were taken into custody as they fled after setting fire to two vehicles in Landhi Town, while four others were taken into custody from Saddar Town as they forcefully closed shops early Friday morning. Cases will be registered against them for taking the law into their own hands.
Siddiqui said that strict security measures were taken by law enforcers because of which the whole day passed relatively peacefully and without any major incidents. Just four vehicles were burnt Friday, two of them at Yousuf Plaza and two at Sukhan, said Siddiqui.
He further said that nearly seven people were reported hurt and it is difficult to judge in which incidents they had sustained bullet injuries.
However, ST central leader Shahid Ghouri, while taking to Daily Times, denied the police chiefs accusations and said that the ST did not cause any disturbance in the city as it was a strike against those who are hurting the Muslims. He added that it was the responsibility of all Muslims to make the strike successful.
Nearly 20 ST workers were taken into custody from different parts of the city, claimed Ghouri.
Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Jamat Ahl-e-Sunnat, Jamiat Ulema-e-Pakistan (JUP), Tanzeem-ul-Madaaris Ahl-e-Sunnat Pakistan (TMASP), traders, transporters and others groups supported the strike.
Major markets including Jamma Cloth, Bolton, Motan Das, Electronic, Empress, Ranchor Line, Garden, Automobile, Mobile Phone Market on Abdullah Haroon Road, Rainbow Centre, Zaib-un-Nissa Street and others remained closed. The majority of the petrol pumps and CNG stations were also closed while their administration set-up tents around the property to ensure safekeeping.
Public transport also worked at a short frequency because of which attendance at public and private schools, colleges and offices remained low. Police and rangers mobiles patrolled the streets to keep the law and order situation under control.
To protest the blasphemous publications, rallies and demonstrations were organized in different parts of the city after the Friday prayers. JI Karachi organized a demonstration outside Masjid Nauman at Lasbela Chawk. JI Karachi Ameer Muhammad Hussain Mehanti demanded the Pakistani government protest Denmark on a governmental level, oust the Dutch and Danish ambassadors from Pakistan and announce a break-up of diplomatic and trade relations with both Denmark and Holland.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
What the hell does burning toyotas in Karachi have to do with cartoons printed in Amsterdam?
A flight carrying Pakistan Army soldiers bound for the United Nations peace mission in Liberia was stopped after a bomb scare on Friday.
Airport officials received a telephone call that said there was a bomb on the flight. The scare created panic among passengers and Civil Aviation Authority officials at Lahore Airport. Police and Bomb Disposal Unit searched the airport and the flight. Senior policemen also arrived at the site. Officials said the schedule of the flight had been a secret.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2008 00:00 ||
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A top Taliban commander on Friday warned Afghan refugees against spying on militants for the Kabul regime or the US forces in Afghanistan, witnesses said.
Maulvi Faqir Muhammad also produced five Afghan spies at a large gathering of refugees at Sui in Mamoond tehsil of Bajaur. All Afghan refugees living in Bajaur were summoned to the headquarters of the Taliban for the meeting, in the region overlooking Afghanistans Kunar province. I am pardoning the five arrested (sic) Afghan spies, but if you do not live here peacefully, there will be no pardon in future, Faqir Muhammad, who leads the Taliban in Bajaur, told the meeting in which reporters were also invited.
Maulvi Faqir Muhammad told the refugees that they could not live in the area as agents of the Afghan government. You can live here but only as peaceful Afghans and not as spies. No spying or involvement in bomb explosions will be tolerated and all Afghan refugees should take this warning seriously, the Taliban commander was quoted as saying.
It was the second meeting the Taliban leadership addressed in less than a week, underlining the growing influence of the militants in the region.
Addressing a rally near Khar, Faqir Mohammad had said on Sunday that US President George W Bush was the biggest enemy of Pakistan. As compared to Pakistani rulers, Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar are the biggest well-wishers of Pakistan. They are not enemies of Pakistan, the cleric had said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2008 00:00 ||
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A summit of leaders of Muslim states will condemn Israel for "war crimes" against Palestinian civilians and reject terrorism as against the teachings of Islam, a draft of a communique to be adopted on Friday said. Wrapping up a two-day meeting in Senegal, the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) also called in the document on wealthy member states to finance a $10 billion solidarity fund aimed at fighting poverty, especially in Africa.
After several days of difficult negotiations, the OIC leaders were set to approve a new charter to give a more active role to the Islamic body, which critics say has failed to back up its words with action in the past. The draft Dakar declaration obtained by Reuters called for Iraq's sovereignty and security to be respected. It also expressed concern over what it called "increasing pressure" on Iran in its nuclear dispute with the West, which it should be resolved peacefully.
At the summit, heads of state and delegates from countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia expressed their opposition to what they called a wave of "Islamophobia" in the West which threatened the world's around 1.5 billion Muslims. But they also distanced themselves from acts of terrorism committed in the name of Islam, one of the biggest preoccupations of the international community since the September 11, 2001 attacks by al Qaeda in the United States. "The conference asserts that terrorism is completely against the peaceful teachings of Islam that favor tolerance and kindness and the rejection of violence," the draft communique said, adding terrorism "must be denounced without reservation".
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Yep. The Jews suck and we ain't terrorists.
Good night. We'll see everybody again next year, Drive safely...
Leaders of Islamic countries, at the conclusion of their 11th summit in the Senegalese capital, rejected Friday as incompatible the link between extremism and terrorism with Islam.
I need a ophthalmologist and some suction cups, my eyes just rolled all the way back and got stuck.
The leaders of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), in their "Dakar Declaration," called for organizing an international meeting to encourage dialogue between Muslims and Christians. A "dialogue of civilizations" is needed, read the declaration, approved after the two-day summit.
The OIC leaders said they "strongly condemn" all forms of extremism and dogmatism which were "imcompatible with Islam, a relgion of moderation and peaceful coexistence." Therefore, added the leaders, "we believe that it is important" to organize an international meeting on "Islamic-Christian dialogue" which would bring together government and non-government parties.
"Or else!"
The OIC leaders, who pledged to work hard to improve image of Islam, condemned all forms of terrorism, and said it was not linked with any religion, race, color or a nation. However, they said the Legitimate Resistance against foreign Occupation® should not be considered as an act of terrorism.
"It's...something else. Not the same. Not even a little bit."
Earlier today, the OIC leaders approved a new Charter of the organization following differences between member states. The new charter includes new articles dealing with membership criteria, the right of self-determination and voting modalities.
#2
Yah, muslims aren't dangerous. Having sacramental obligations to emulate (sunna) a "prophet" who participated in 60 military operations, and who told followers that they get 72 virgins in heaven if they die as a martyr, hardly should cause alarm.
#5
I can't recall the last time a Mennonite blew himself up in a crowed market. When was the last case of a Lutheran group flying an airplane into a building full of people.
Denying the problem doesn't meet the first step criteria for getting it fixed.
#6
Well I'm sure the progress will just flow like a river after this ground breaking summit.
Maybe next year them and the Arab League can have one together to see who throws better banquets.
On Tuesday, a protest was held by Hamas supporters in the Gaza Strip where sheep, camels and donkeys where paraded before journalists (with some farm animals wearing Hamas headbands!) alongside signs reading "Save the Children of Gaza" in a protest against Israel's decision to blockade the Gaza Strip. Israel blockaded all non-essential items from entering Gaza after several Israeli towns were hit by Palestinian rocket attacks.
Hamas allegedly paid Gazan farmers $28 each and transportation costs to attend the rally. Fatah supporters refused to participate. But there was only one problem The Hamas-garbed farmed animals wouldn't stop defecating into the street and having sex with each other during the protest.
From the always-excellent Popbitch:
In Gaza this week there was a demonstration by animals for human rights. Eight camels bearing "Save the Children of Gaza" signs; two dozen donkeys, including one in a Hamas headband; 10 horses and nearly 100 sheep were brought to the UN building. After a few minutes the beasts started a dirty protest. Some defecated in the streets, while the donkeys started shagging each other. Journalists found it almost impossible to do a straight piece to camera without some animal porn behind them.
No word on how many reporters ended up breaking into laughter upon sight of the spectacle attendees included journos from, among others, the New York Times and the BBC.
#6
In the fall of 1966 at Berkeley, I was sitting in on a presentation by the Maharishi Yogi on Transcendental Meditation. He was the rage at the time, so I decided to go and have a look.
The Maharishi had long black and gray flowing hair and beard, and was sitting on a rug cross-legged with a white flowing robe. He was surrounded by vases of flowers. Quite a figure he cut.
So he started explaining his meditation thing. Some people in the audience had some good, pointed questions. Bottom line: pay $50 and take the course. The discussion centered around Zen. People asked if his system went beyond or was similar to Zen. He said something like, "TM will put Zen out of business." Well some of the audience started getting pretty hot under the collar, and the discussion started to get ugly.
Just then, 4 stray dogs came into the hall, and went behind the Maharishi on stage. Two started copulating off to the side in plain view, but out of view from the Maharishi. People started laughing. The Maharishi started laughing, but he did not know about the dogs. Pretty soon everyone was laughing hysterically, holding their sides, even the Maharishi, though he still did not have a clue.
Just shows you, it is all a big dog f*ck when you see the big picture. LOL!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/15/2008 16:47 Comments ||
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#7
ROFL, Paul!
Damn, but you've had an interesting life.... :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/15/2008 16:50 Comments ||
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#8
Save a child. Shag a donkey, you Gaza perverts.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/15/2008 17:43 Comments ||
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#9
Methinks no pics were released on grounds it did not contribute to the Dignity of hamasniks and/or properly illustrate their Suffering.
A Hamas parliamentarian has openly admitted to developing a "death-seeking" culture that uses women, children and the elderly as human shields against Israeli military attacks. "[The enemies of Allah] do not know that the Palestinian people have developed [methods] of death and death-seeking," Hamas parliamentarian, Fathi Hammad said in a speech televised on Hamas' Al-Aksa television station two weeks ago. (A transcript was made available by the Middle East Media Research Institute on Thursday.)
"For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land. The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahideen and the children," Hammad said. "This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist [Israel] bombing machine. It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: 'We desire death like you desire life,'" he said.
Days after that speech, Israel launched a military operation in the Gaza Strip to halt rocket fire against its civilian population. More than 100 Palestinians were killed during that operation. Israel said 90 percent of them were armed militants, but Palestinians complained that half were civilians, many of them children.
Israel was severely criticized by the international community for the military operation. "Israel is faced with moral challenges unprecedented in their complexity," the Israeli Foreign Ministry said at the time.
In a statement on its Web site, the Israeli Foreign Ministry accused Hamas of deliberately launching rockets from areas populated with civilians; using civilian homes to shield its arms and explosives manufacturing facilities; and using civilians as human shields at places where air strikes were anticipated. "In order to avoid civilian casualties, Israel sends warning messages before attacking terrorist targets, advising civilians to leave. Israel prefers to attack empty buildings used to manufacture rockets, even taking into consideration that the terrorists too will be warned and their lives spared," the Foreign Ministry said. "Hamas, on the other hand, calls on civilians to come and to protect with their bodies the precise locations they expect Israel to attack. Since they know that Israel will usually strike from the air, they send the children to the roofs to prevent the air force from targeting that building."
The human shield tactic is not new. In November 2006, at least a dozen Palestinian gunmen avoided Israeli capture in Gaza when they took refuge in a mosque and called on women and children to shield them so they could escape.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2008 00:00 ||
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#5
How can a culture in which the males ADMITTEDLY hide from their enemies behind the defenseless bodies of their women and children be considered anything better than completely degenerate? I would have thought that the Muzz would have rather had their throats cut than publicly admit such a fact. No wonder they've got to physically beat their women into submission; how could their women NOT hold them in uttermost contempt?
To call Muzz males craven, cowardly bastards is to be guilty of incredible understatement.
#11
I take it Fathi is one of the Pali's "idea men"?
Well aren't they lucky.
He is right about one thing. Death is about the only "industry" they "excel" at.
#14
How can a culture in which the males ADMITTEDLY hide from their enemies behind the defenseless bodies of their women and children be considered anything better than completely degenerate?
Btw, not just hams; IIRC, and JFM could correct me, this has been SOP for arab demonstrations that turned violent, in morocco (where the army used to machinegun the crowds) as well as in France during the algeria war.
#15
"[The enemies of Allah] do not know that the Palestinian people have developed [methods] of death and death-seeking," Hamas parliamentarian, Fathi Hammad said in a speech televised on Hamas' Al-Aksa television station two weeks ago.
Wrong, goat breath. We've all known for quite some time that Islam is a death cult.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
03/15/2008 17:46 Comments ||
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#16
Hamas wants death? Give them death till their bellies are stuffed full of it. Then shove a wafer thin Mint Of Death down their throats.
Posted by: ed ||
03/15/2008 22:30 Comments ||
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(Xinhua) -- Israeli, Palestinian representatives and a U.S.-appointed roadmap monitor meet in Jerusalem on Friday, local newspaper The Jerusalem Post reported. Lt. Gen. William Fraser, the U.S. envoy to oversee the implementation of the roadmap peace plan, convened the meeting with Palestinian acting Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Israel's representative Amos Gilad, a senior official from Defense Ministry, at King David Hotel in Jerusalem. It was the first time for Fraser to meet both Israeli and Palestinian teams and the meeting was also the first time the two sides have met since Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suspended negotiations with Israel in the wake of escalation in the Gaza Strip two weeks ago.
During the meeting, Fraser is expected to touch on an recent upsurge in violence on the ground between Israel and the Palestinians, the report said.
The violence continued Friday morning, as Palestinian militants launching another four rockets from Gaza into Israel, causing no casualties.
Meanwhile, Fraser will not make public the report on compliance with the roadmap obligations he is expected to present at the trilateral meeting, the report said, citing diplomatic sources.
But the U.S. envoy is due to present his report to each side and then pass it, including both parties' responses to it, to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who in turn will decide how to proceed further. Rice appointed Fraser as the road map monitor after the Annapolis Conference in November, and he has since visited the region a number of times.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2008 00:00 ||
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Israel recently conveyed a warning to Syria through a third party that it would hold Damascus accountable if Lebanese Hezbollah launched attacks on the Jewish state, Israeli and European sources said on Friday. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the warning stemmed largely from Israeli concerns that Hezbollah would launch salvoes of cross-border rockets to coincide with any major Israeli offensive in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
The sources said the message was conveyed in February through at least one European intermediary following the assassination of a top Hezbollah commander and before this month's five-day Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip in which more than 120 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were killed.
After the group's senior commander, Imad Moughniyah, was killed in a bombing in Damascus, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah threatened Israel with "open war". Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah and its main backer, Iran, accused Israel of being behind the assassination, a charge Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office denied in a rare public statement.
A European source familiar with the matter said the message conveyed to Damascus said Syria could be targeted by Israel even if Hezbollah's attack emanated from Lebanese soil. An Israeli source with knowledge of government affairs said: "The message was passed around late February, before the last round of fighting in Gaza." "It has become clear to us Syria has to understand there is a price for its use of proxy terrorism, especially as Damascus is itself a proxy -- the long-arm of Iran," the source said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
good - every Hezbollah attack should bring destruction in Damascus.
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/15/2008 8:49 Comments ||
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#2
good - every Hezbollah attack should bring destruction in Damascus Tehran.
A prominent Iranian politician has used an interview with The Times to signal that many conservatives are unhappy with President Ahmadinejads confrontational attitude to the West and that they favour greater dialogue.
In a rare interview with a Western newspaper Muhammad Baqer Qalibaf, the Mayor of Tehran and the former Iranian police chief, spoke of the emergence of a political third movement in his country that lay somewhere between Mr Ahmadinejads hardliners and the reformists. Mr Qalibaf, 46, was speaking on the eve of parliamentary elections today in which pragmatic conservatives identified with himself and Ali Larijani, Irans former nuclear negotiator, are competing against conservatives loyal to Mr Ahmadinejad.
Mr Qalibaf was defeated by Mr Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential election, but if his pragmatic conservatives do well today analysts expect him to challenge the increasingly unpopular President again in next years presidential contest.
His decision to talk to a British newspaper was a signal he wants to have a higher profile in the world appropriate for someone who wants to run for president, said Barbara Slavin, an Iran expert with the US Institute for Peace in Washington. As Ahmadinejad runs into trouble on the economy Qalibaf is beginning to present himself as a plausible alternative.
Mr Qalibaf at no point criticised Mr Ahmadinejad directly, and certainly did not suggest that Iran should change its nuclear policy. Indeed, most Western analysts would still describe him as hardline. However, he did spell out positions on several issues that were at odds with those of the President.
Speaking in Farsi, he repeatedly accused the West of failing to understand Iran or respect its sovereignty but he acknowledged that tensions had worsened and that there are problems on both sides. He talked of the need for Iran to realise that it is living under international rules. Mr Ahmadinejad has scoffed at the United Nations, which last week approved a third batch of sanctions against Iran.
Mr Qalibaf said that it was wrong to think that there was a dominant desire for confrontation and conflict in Iran, adding: I would like the West to change its attitude to Iran and trust Iran and rest assured that theres an attitude in Iran to advance issues through dialogue.
A self-styled moderniser, he wanted to know more about David Miliband, the youthful British Foreign Secretary, whom he met at the Davos World Economic Forum in Switzerland in January. I think theres a new generation of politician emerging in the West, he remarked.
Asked about Mr Ahmadinejads statement that Israel must be wiped off the map, he replied that there are different approaches and recalled that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, had demanded a referendum in the territories of old Palestine. Mr Qalibaf also described himself as a free marketeer, whereas Mr Ahmadinejads record suggests that he believes strongly in government intervention. He has spent oil revenues so freely that Iran now suffers from rampant inflation.
Mr Qalibaf is a former Revolutionary Guard commander and airline pilot. He is an ambitious man with little love for Mr Ahmadinejad, and has a record as an efficient manager, but it is highly unlikely that he could win the presidency without the support of Ayatollah Khamenei.
A recent biography of Mr Ahmadinejad by the journalist Kasra Naji claims that the Supreme Leader switched his support from Mr Qalibaf to Mr Ahmadinejad in 2005 after Mr Qalibaf sought to court the moderate vote by appearing in white suits and Ray-Ban glasses and being photographed in aircraft cockpits.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2008 00:00 ||
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Irans President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday labelled the United States enemies of all humanity because of Washingtons military tactics in the Middle East and support for Israel.
They are not just the enemies of Islam they are enemies of all humanity, Ahmadinejad told a press conference on the sidelines of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit in Dakar.
Asked about US military tactics in the Middle East including the presence of US warships off the coast of Lebanon, the Iranian leader said: These measures dont show their power, they show their weakness.
Hostilities: Attacking women and children doesnt show authority or power. Ahmadinejad also said he believed the dispute with the United States and its western allies over Irans nuclear programme was over but that hostilities would continue. We believe that as far as the law is concerned the nuclear dispute is finished but that the hostilities with these countries will continue, Ahmadinejad told the press conference.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
OK, anyone else getting really tired of this rhetoric?
Reminds me of a 'little encounter' in Colorado - outside havin' a smoke and the guy, trying to impress a gal, kept talking in an obviously fake accent about how much a police state the US is. I thought, if so, he would not be stating his 'anti-government' folklore with a total stranger there next to him so I ask, "What is it which makes the US a 'facist police state' where I can ask you that question. Reply: George Bush's policies (long story short, best most coherant part of the conversation).
Besides, just yesterday we read about a sgt and his juliet having to be bundled out of Iraq because the neighbors just would not understand; never said if she was sunni or shia IIUC.
Catching someone who is calling the US a police state can be a blast.
Start out by saying: "You! Citizen! Stop!", then demand to see their papers. If they ask why, tell them that YOU are asking the questions.
Usually they will soon start to object, so you can snap at them "Do you know that if you do not answer my questions, what can happen to you? Do you expect to be arrested, beaten, tortured, and shot in the head in a basement for speaking out against your nation?, CITIZEN!"
"Of course not. I am NOT a secret policeman, and this is NOT a police state. But you *ARE* a dumbass! Enjoy freedom while you've got it, you stupid SOB!"
#7
And just when I was going to pick this guy as my new spiritual adviser.
Posted by: B. Obama ||
03/15/2008 16:09 Comments ||
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#8
Y'know, maybe it's not such a bad idea. We can spend a year or two developing some "clean" nukes - 50 or 60 thousand of them - and just wipe out all the cities of the Earth with them, killing the majority of their population at the same time. Then we can start all over and maybe end up with some SANE inhabitants, especially in the Muddled East.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/15/2008 17:55 Comments ||
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#9
"maybe end up with some SANE inhabitants, especially in the Muddled East"
I bet you believe in the tooth fairy too, OP. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/15/2008 19:17 Comments ||
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Former soldiers, Marines share their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan
Grim-faced and sorrowful, former soldiers and Marines sat before an audience of several hundred yesterday in Silver Spring and shared their recollections of their service in Iraq.
The stories spilled out, sometimes haltingly, sometimes in a rush: soldiers firing indiscriminately on Iraqi vehicles, an apartment building filled with Iraqi families devastated by an American gunship. Some descriptions were agonized, some vague; others offered specific dates and locations. All were recorded and streamed live to the Web.
The four-day event, "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan — Eyewitness Accounts of the Occupations," is sponsored by Iraq Veterans Against the War and is expected to draw more than 200 veterans of the two wars through tomorrow. Timed for the eve of the fifth anniversary of the war's start next week, organizers hope the soldiers' accounts will galvanize public opposition. Rest at the link
Michelle Malkin has links to alternablog coverage of this...
#2
So far, it appears that ehe MSM is steering a wide berth. Even they can see the phony soldier landmines from a good distance...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/15/2008 12:14 Comments ||
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#3
Whew for an minute there I thought our troops burned villages raped, pillaged, and plundered reminicent of Jenghis Khan. Just as I thought it would be: Big on Accusations but well short of any facts.
#4
Let me clarify that I would consider a CREDIBLE accusation that included: City, Date, Name, action, and maybe time. Hell I can make up war stories, in fact troops have been doing that since Ug big up the first stick and beat Og to death. You can read their stories on caves all around the world.
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.
Nine vehicles were torched and over half-a-dozen people reportedly sustained bullet wounds during the strike called by the Sunni Tehreek (ST) for Friday. Meanwhile, the police have reportedly taken over a dozen ST workers in custody since Thursday night and the ST has claimed that the arrests were because its workers were just trying to create awareness among people by distributing leaflets, etc. 
A summit of leaders of Muslim states will condemn Israel for "war crimes" against Palestinian civilians and reject terrorism as against the teachings of Islam, a draft of a communique to be adopted on Friday said. Wrapping up a two-day meeting in Senegal, the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) also called in the document on wealthy member states to finance a $10 billion solidarity fund aimed at fighting poverty, especially in Africa.
Leaders of Islamic countries, at the conclusion of their 11th summit in the Senegalese capital, rejected Friday as incompatible the link between extremism and terrorism with Islam.
(Xinhua) -- Israeli, Palestinian representatives and a U.S.-appointed roadmap monitor meet in Jerusalem on Friday, local newspaper The Jerusalem Post reported. Lt. Gen. William Fraser, the U.S. envoy to oversee the implementation of the roadmap peace plan, convened the meeting with Palestinian acting Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Israel's representative Amos Gilad, a senior official from Defense Ministry, at King David Hotel in Jerusalem. It was the first time for Fraser to meet both Israeli and Palestinian teams and the meeting was also the first time the two sides have met since Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suspended negotiations with Israel in the wake of escalation in the Gaza Strip two weeks ago. 
