(AKI) - Opium cultivation in Afghanistan has fallen by almost 20 percent this year, according to a report by the United Nations anti-drug agency. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said the fall was due to good local leadership coupled with bad weather.
The office's Afghanistan Opium Survey 2008 showed a 19 per cent decrease in opium cultivation to 157,000 hectares, down from a record harvest of 193,000 in 2007. "Last year the world got hit by a heroin tsunami, almost 700 tonnes," said UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa. "This year the opium flood waters have started to recede."
The survey also found that 18 of the country's 34 provinces are now opium-free -- up from 13 last year. In addition, cultivation now takes place "almost exclusively" in provinces affected by insurgency. Some 98 per cent of Afghanistan's opium is grown in seven provinces in the southwest of the country -- Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Farah, Nimroz, Daykundi and Zabul.
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Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Yeah, and I'll bet the price is up 20%. Less work for the same profit.
Angry that the United States has not removed it from a list of states that sponsor terrorism, North Korea said Tuesday that it has stopped disabling its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and will consider rebuilding it. We had this yesterday. This adds some detail. They're almost right -- NKor isn't one of the core terrorist havens, so they shouldn't be on the list. Their depredations are often criminal, but they're usually not terrorism.
The announcement comes two months after the communist North released long-awaited details of its plutonium program and dynamited the cooling tower at the reactor, moves that prompted the Bush administration to say it would drop North Korea from the terrorism list and lift some trade sanctions.
Since then, though, the United States has declined to take North Korea off the list, citing lack of progress in the North's promise to allow outside experts to verify the scope of its nuclear program.
North Korea halted work on disabling the Yongbyon plant on Aug. 14, according to a statement from the country's Foreign Ministry. Under U.S. law, the Bush administration could have removed North Korea from the terrorism list on Aug. 11. "North Korea decided to immediately suspend the disablement," said the statement, which was carried by the country's official Korean Central News Agency. It added that the North "will consider soon a step to restore the nuclear facilities in Yongbyon to their original state."
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Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
OK, so he's just crazy. If he'd stop acting like a crazy , we'd take him off the list!
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/28/2008 6:08 Comments ||
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#2
Their depredations are often criminal, but they're usually not terrorism.
There was that time the Norks killed half the South Korean cabinet with a bomb planted on an airliner.
Posted by: ed ||
08/28/2008 8:33 Comments ||
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Momin Khawaja was ready to provide and "pull the trigger" of a deadly weapon for an Islamic extremist terror cell when he built a remote-control detonator device in 2004, said the Crown attorney in the terrorism trial of the Orleans man. Describing the software designer as "a zealot with deadly intentions," federal prosecutor David McKercher said yesterday the 29-year-old man acted as a "quartermaster of terror," eagerly supplying money and militia-like gear for a London-based jihad group that planned a fertilizer bomb plot targeting a U.K. nightclub, shopping complex and gas and electric facilities.
In a blistering rebuttal to a defence motion asking the trial judge to quash all seven terrorism charges against Khawaja, McKercher said Justice Douglas Rutherford should take Khawaja's self-description as "the West's mortal enemy" in literal terms. "Momin Khawaja was prepared to provide and metaphorically pull the trigger of a very powerful weapon," McKercher said of the so-called "Hi-Fi Digimonster" the software developer allegedly built for a U.K.-based bomb plot. "Others in the group had provided the power of the blast, the ammunition," said McKercher, referring to 600 kg of ammonium nitrate fertilizer seized by British police at a depot in March 2004.
Omar Khyam, the leader of the conspiracy who was convicted with four other plotters in 2007 by a British jury, "was pointing the weapon and the barrel of the weapon was still swinging when the plot was interrupted by authorities," said McKercher. If the plot had been carried out, "Momin Khawaja would be perfectly content with the brutally deadly results of his handiwork of which he, along with the rest of the world, would learn about in press reports the following day," said McKercher.
The defence has argued Khawaja wanted to be a "front-line jihadi soldier" in Afghanistan and should be considered a combatant in an armed conflict, not a terrorist as defined by Canadian law. But McKercher compared the defence argument to a "three-card Monte" game or a shell game, where defence lawyer Lawrence Greenspon keeps shifting the walnut shells to conceal "the hard kernel of truth."
"Terrorist activity is terrorist activity whether it's under the shell marked 'Canada', the one marked 'United Kingdom' or the one marked 'Afghanistan' or 'Pakistan,' " said McKercher. "They all have publics who can be intimidated," said the McKercher of the potential of terror attacks on airplanes, schools, subway stations or aide workers.
Greenspon has said Khawaja was building the "Hi-Fi Digimonster" to use in Afghanistan but McKercher said Khawaja's own e-mails to Khyam discussed the logistics of getting the devices into the U.K., not Afghanistan. A British security service surveillance bug in February 2004 also picked up Khawaja telling his associates in a London flat the device's signal couldn't be blocked out in an urban area -- evidence, McKercher said, of Khawaja's thoughts of using it in a city, not a remote area such as the hills of Afghanistan.
McKercher also noted an RCMP explosives expert told the court that unlike a traceable cellphone detonator signal, a remote-control detonator like the Hi-Fi Digimonster would leave "no identifiable markers" after an explosion. The Crown also said Khawaja's weapons training could have been used to launch rocket-propelled grenades at office buildings in the U.K.
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#2
Guilty. Since they no longer have a death penalty, the best that may be hoped for is an "accident" after the trial concludes, on the way to the lockup.
The wife of a Haitian immigrant facing deportation despite his acquittal on terrorism charges testified Wednesday that she and her husband quit a Liberty City religious group the government claims plotted attacks on Chicago's Sears Tower because of disagreements with its spiritual teachings and authoritarianism.
Charlene Mingo Lemorin -- testifying for the first time in the long-running case -- told an immigration judge that she never heard her husband, Lyglenson Lemorin, or any of the group's leaders or members speak about ''jihad'' or any terrorist action. Instead, Mingo told U.S. Immigration Judge Kenneth S. Hurwitz that she and her husband objected to alleged group ringleader Narseal Batiste's advocacy of polygamy, as well as his urging they distance themselves from friends and family. ''We saw many things we didn't like about their teaching and the way they were leading us, and we started pulling back,'' Mingo said, speaking so softly that at one point the judge had to ask her to move her chair closer to the court's recording microphone.
Lemorin, 33, was acquitted of terrorism conspiracy by a federal jury in December, but the U.S. government placed the legal U.S. resident in deportation proceedings on virtually the same charges. The standard of proof in immigration court is lower than the ''beyond a reasonable doubt'' threshold that applies in criminal trials.
Batiste and the five remaining defendants in the so-called Liberty City 7 case face a third trial in January after two hung juries. Lemorin's attorneys have called Batiste to testify next week to bolster their contention that their client was only marginally involved in the group, and left after Batiste began talking about an alliance with al Qaeda and attacks. They also plan to call Lemorin, who did not testify in his criminal trial, to the stand in Hurwitz's courtroom at the Krome immigration detention center, where he is detained.
As in the criminal trial, lawyers for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have pinned a significant portion of their case on an ''oath'' to al Qaeda that group members took at the behest of Batiste. Lemorin told investigators that he was ''tricked'' into the oath. Mingo said she was ''shocked, shocked!'' to learn of the alleged oath on TV news after Lemorin and the other six men were arrested in June 2006, and said she doesn't believe her husband took it willingly. By then, the couple and their three children were living in Atlanta, where they went to get away from Batiste's group, she said. They chose Atlanta because Lemorin has a sister there and it offered a better family environment than Miami, she said. Mingo said they accepted Batiste as a mentor for spiritual reasons and were initially excited by his teachings.
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India on Thursday reacted strongly to the comments by UN High Commission for Human Rights (HCHR) on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, terming these as "unwarranted" and "irresponsible" and bluntly told it that New Delhi does not need "any advice".
New Delhi pointed out to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) that terrorists have been targeting innocent people in the state, like in Jammu on Wednesday, and the security forces have been making efforts to ensure that no innocent lives are lost and in this endeavour laid down their lives.
"We regret that the OHCHR has issued a statement on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir. This is uncalled for and irresponsible," External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said in New Delhi.
"India does not need any advice in respect of the protection and promotion of human rights of its citizens," he asserted.
The UN body, in its first comment since protests and violence erupted over Amarnath land transfer issue in Jammu and Kashmir, voiced concern over civilian casualties and asked India to conduct "a thorough and independent investigation" into all the incidents.
Sarna said the OHCHR should be aware that Jammu and Kashmir has been a "victim of terrorist violence" for almost two decades and all through this period, the authorities have acted within the law and with restraint.
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Posted by: john frum ||
08/28/2008 16:15 ||
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WASHINGTON - With violence worsening in Afghanistan and Pakistan, top U.S. military officers conducted a secret strategy session with commanders from Islamabad on an aircraft carrier in the Indian Ocean.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that he came away from the meeting encouraged that Pakistanis are focused on the problem of militants using the country as a safe haven. But he indicated he's not satisfied that Islamabad and Washington are doing the best job they can against the growing threat. He also said he had no new details on the investigation into an operation that Afghan officials say killed between 76 and 90 Afghan civilians last Friday. The U.S. has said it killed 25 militants and five civilians during the raid and resulting air strikes on a compound in the Shindand district of Herat province. "We work exceptionally hard to minimize any collateral damage — zero collateral damage is the goal," Mullen said, adding that the U.S. regrets it when it occurs.
The meeting on the aircraft carrier Tuesday came after several weeks of Pakistani offensives against militants in Pakistan's volatile northwest — an effort American officials welcome but say has come nowhere near to stemming growing problems near the Afghan border. The meeting aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln was the latest of several between Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and General Ashfaq Kayani, chief of staff of the Pakistani army.
Mullen told a Pentagon press conference that this time he also brought Gen. David Petraeus, the top American commander in Iraq, who will soon leave to become the senior commander in the Middle East and Adm. Eric T. Olson, head of the Special Operations Command, and Lt. Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, acting commander of American forces in the Middle East. Also present was Gen. David McKiernan, NATO's commander in Afghanistan and Rear Adm. Michael LeFever, American military liaison in Pakistan.
Mullen declined to give details about discussions with Kayani, but said he has been moving in the right direction. "Clearly, he's got a challenge," he said. "I'm encouraged that he's taken action and I also think it's going to take some time."
A U.S. official familiar with the discussion at Tuesday's meeting was "more collaborative," compared to a similar meeting a month ago when Mullen took a "more firm tone" in warning Kayani that Islamabad was not doing enough to counter militants waging cross-border attacks in Afghanistan.
Pakistan's military said in a statement that it was a "prescheduled meeting aimed at discussing security matters at strategic level. The discussion was held in an open and cordial manner." Pakistani army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said the commanders analyzed the security situation in the region and that no new agreements were struck.
U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity about the meeting ahead of Mullen's press conference said it was not prompted by any recent political or military events, but rather planning for it began during Mullen's previous meeting with Kayani — a month ago in Pakistan.
Pakistan's five-month-old government initially sought to calm militant violence by holding peace talks. But U.S. officials have been pressing for tougher action against insurgents. Pakistan's army is now fighting insurgents in at least three areas of the northwest and claims to have killed several hundred militants in the recent offensives.
"They are doing more and becoming more effective," one U.S. defense official said privately of the effort. "But there is still a long way to go" in the tribal areas. The second U.S. official said Pakistanis need to launch a "more concentrated effort."
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KARACHI: Two studies conducted by faculty and students at the Aga Khan University into the attitudes toward suicide bombing among educated people in Karachi and in the tribal areas showed surprisingly divergent results.
Fifteen percent of participants in the Karachi-based study supported suicide bombing and said that Islam and other religions supported it. This raised a heated debate among the participants of a concurrent session during the 12th National Health Sciences Research Symposium at the Aga Khan University on Wednesday, some of whom, with backgrounds in Psychiatry, felt that those who become suicide bombers almost invariably suffer from psychiatric disturbances.
Professor Abdul Wahab Yousafzai, who conducted the study in the tribal areas of Pakistan, showed that those surveyed strongly believed that religion should influence political thinking (88 percent), that it is important for Muslims to live in an Islamic state (76 percent), but that suicide bombing is not legitimate for Muslims (80 percent) and that suicide bombing is not the result of Islamic fundamentalism (68 percent). At the same time, 83 percent said they did not support suicide bombing.
Whereas the study conducted in Karachi by students Faraz Kazim and others showed that 15 percent supported suicide bombing and 84 percent believed suicide bombing is the result of religious fundamentalism, while 55 percent believe that suicide bombers have some underlying psychiatric illness.
However, nearly 50 percent of all those surveyed in Karachi believed that suicide bombing was acceptable in Palestine, Kashmir and Lebanon. Commenting on this, Dr Murad M. Khan of the Psychiatry department at AKU said that the likely reason for this belief is partiality toward the underdog in asymmetrical warfare.
At the same time, the Karachi study also showed that 82 percent believe that suicide bombers are religious fanatics, while approximately 60 percent feel that suicide bombers are relatively uneducated people, who are outcasts from society and who feel frustrated. Some 70 percent say that it is the poorest factions of society that produce suicide bombers.
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Posted by: john frum ||
08/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
after seeing what happens here in our own country, I believe that 13% is the percentage of nut cases-that can be rallied to any cause.
#3
15% of 200,000,000 is a lot of exploding fun-boys.
They should all go off at once, we could watch from here, it may look like the Aurora Borealis or something.
#4
None of the 9/11 hijackers were poor or downtrodden. In fact, most suicide bombers are from either the upper/middle class, or they're coerced into blowing themselves up. Very few are from the ranks of the poorest in any nation.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/28/2008 12:58 Comments ||
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#5
Will those 15% please step forward and receive their bomb packets? Good. Now, on the count of three, pull on the red string. One, two, three, boom. Problem solved.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
08/28/2008 13:17 Comments ||
Top||
#6
However, nearly 50 percent of all those surveyed in Karachi believed that suicide bombing was acceptable in Palestine, Kashmir and Lebanon.
Interesting
Posted by: john frum ||
08/28/2008 15:11 Comments ||
Top||
#7
so of a 100 Karachiites. 50 think suicide bombing is bad in general. 15 approve in general. 35 take the stand "its wrong and unislamic EXCEPT against Israel and in Kashmir"
That breakdown doesnt surprise me after following this stuff for years.
Jamaat-e-Islami NWFP chief Sirajul Haq warned on Tuesday that the pro-US policies were creating problems for the country and foresaw a geographical change in case the policies were not changed immediately.
Addressing a press conference at the Hyderabad Press Club, the JI leader said that the Army had imposed a war on the tribal areas on the directives of the US. He said nearly 0.4 million people had migrated from the Bajaur Agency after a war-like situation was created in the region. These poor people are living in a miserable condition in camps, he said. He added that the Army was violating human rights in the tribal areas.
Siraj challenged the claim of the NWFP chief minister and the adviser on interior, saying no foreigner was living in the Bajaur Agency. He called for an end to the military operation in Bajaur and other areas before Ramzan.
ìWe would like to save the country and everything happening in the tribal areas is happening on the directives of the US,î he said, adding that the government was pursuing the policy of Musharraf and had even stepped further in this regard.
The JI leader said when Pakistan was holding talks with India, then why it didnÃt start talks with the people in the tribal areas to resolve the issues and conflicts. He said only the US was the beneficiary of the present situation in the country. He added that in case those opposing the US policies were labelled as Taliban, then the majority of the people of the country were Taliban. He said the JI was ready to hold a grand Jirga of elders in the NWFP if the government was ready to implement the decisions of the Jirga.
The Jamia Fareedia, which was closed after the Lal Masjid operation last year, is likely to reopen in the next two or three days, Dawn News reported on Wednesday.
According to the channel, Lal Masjid Ulema Action Committee head Qari Saeedur Rehman said that the government was likely to permit the reopening of Jamia Fareedia following negotiations between Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief Fazlur Rehman and Pakistan People's Party Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari. He also said that the committee would hold talks with the Interior Ministry over the reconstruction of Jamia Hafsa as well as the immediate release of former Lal Masjid chief cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz. Aziz was caught trying to escape in a burqa at the peak of Lal Masjid crisis last year and has been in custody ever since.
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Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2008 00:00 ||
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The United Jihad Council (UJC) will hold public rallies across the country on September 5 in an expression of solidarity with the people of Indian-held Kashmir, Dawn News reported on Wednesday. The channel quoted UJC sources as saying that the decision to stage demonstrations was taken during a meeting of the council. Hizbul Mujahideen Supreme Commander Syed Salahudin will lead the rally, said the channel.
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Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2008 00:00 ||
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The Pakistani embassy in Washington has reiterated its demand that the US hand-over detained Pakistani neuroscientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui's three children to Pakistan, if they are in the US custody. The embassy has also asked the US government to hospitalise Aafia, who is detained in a high security prison in New York, facing charges of attempted attack on US officials in Afghanistan. The embassy has also demanded prison officials stop Aafia's body searches before and after meeting with visitors.
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Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Hey Pakistan,
Demand in one hand and defecate in the other. See which one fills up.
You have NO bargaining chips we're willing to consider. You can try to stop us importing supplies and equipment through Karachi, but that would only result in Rawalpindi/Islamabad becoming a desert wasteland. You are less than nothing. Go away, or I will taunt you again.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/28/2008 13:04 Comments ||
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Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said in unequivocal terms that the government is against every type of terrorism and would enter into a dialogue with only those who would lay down their arms and renounce violence.
He expressed these views while talking to the Chief of Army Staff, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who called on him at the Prime Minister House on Tuesday. The meeting continued for two hours. Host of issues with regard to the situation in the tribal areas and defence and mutual interests of the country were discussed during the meeting, sources said.
Gilani said Pakistan would be made a terrorism-free country. He said the implementation of the government strategy would be ensured till the complete elimination of the menace of terrorism and extremism.
The prime minister said the dialogue would only be initiated with those who had laid down their arms. He added that the implementation of the government strategy would be ensured for the establishment of peace in the tribal areas.
People living in the tribal areas intend to see peace and we have complete support of them, he said, adding that the militants would be flushed out from the tribal areas. No one would be allowed to challenge the writ of the government, the prime minister said.
Gilani said the war against terrorism and extremism would continue till its logical end. Declaring the Pakistan Army an asset of the country, the prime minister said every need of the military would be fulfilled.
The sources said Gen Kayani briefed the prime minister on the law and order situation in the tribal areas and the affairs related to national security.He assured him every type of cooperation for peace, the sources added.
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Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2008 00:00 ||
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[11124 views]
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#1
I'm disappointed. Hoped to get a good bit of sarcasm from the readers on this one. Come on, guys, this is an easy one.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
08/28/2008 13:09 Comments ||
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(AKI) - The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has voiced its concern over the violent protests seen recently in Indian-administered Kashmir.
"OHCHR calls on the Indian authorities and in particular security forces to respect the right to freedom of assembly and expression, and comply with international human rights principles in controlling the demonstrators."
"OHCHR calls on the Indian authorities and in particular security forces to respect the right to freedom of assembly and expression, and comply with international human rights principles in controlling the demonstrators," said a statement issued on Wednesday in Geneva. Not a word about Gilani's statements about being part of Pakistain.
The UNHCR didn't say a word either when the Islamists were ethnically cleansing the Kashmir valley of Hindus and made 300,000 of them refugees in their own country
"The use of force should be proportionate to the threat posed and firearms must only be used in dispersing a violent assembly to protect individuals against an imminent threat of death or serious injury," it added. I think I've finally found the secret (that comes naturally to a certain mindset): If you fulminate, habitually utter blood-curdling threats, and refuse to be bound by the chains of logic or reason, the human rights poltroons will always criticize the other guy. Try to behave in a moderate, civilized manner and it'll never be good enough.
Since June, at least 37 Muslims and three Hindus have died in police shootings on protesters in the Musim-majority Kashmir valley and the mainly Hindu area of Jammu. The latest clashes were triggered by a state government plan made public in June to donate land to a Hindu shrine trust in the Kashmir valley. The decision was later reversed after massive Muslim riots protests, which angered Hindus. OHCHR also called on the demonstrators to use only peaceful means when protesting.
Army officials said suspected Muslim militants on Wednesday took seven people hostage after reportedly killed one soldier and three civilians and injured two other soldiers in Indian Kashmir's second city, Srinagar.
The UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) has been deployed to observe a ceasefire in disputed Jammu and Kashmir since 1949. Kashmir was split between India and Pakistan after they won independence from the United Kingdom in 1947. They've been there since 1949, which is 59 years by my perhaps inaccurate count. I'm wondering if anybody's gotten their money's worth out of that.
India doesn't allow UNMOGIP anywhere near the LOC on their side. In the 1950s, they caught UN peacekeepers moving boundary markers to favor Pakistan. One former UNMOGIP commander has questioned whether the accession of J+K to India by Maharajah Hari Singh actually occurred, a quite bizarre claim since Lord Mountbatten was present and signed it
What you got to say about that Murtha.
RIVERSIDE, California (AFP) - A former US Marine was acquitted of manslaughter here Thursday in the shooting deaths of unarmed Iraqi prisoners during 2004 fighting in Fallujah. Jose Luis Nazario, 28, was found not guilty of all charges after a landmark trial at the US District Court in California, southeast of Los Angeles.
The case was the first time a former serviceman had been tried in a civilian court for actions taken during combat.
Prosecutors told the jury that Nazario had ignored clear rules about how to treat prisoners and ordered the execution-style killing of four "unarmed, submissive, docile" detainees during a house search. Nazario is alleged to have shot dead two of the captives himself before ordering two subordinates to kill the others.
However the prosecution's case was weakened after the two subordinates -- Marines Jermaine Nelson and Ryan Weemer -- refused to testify against Nazario last week and were declared in contempt of court.
The case came to light after Weemer underwent a background screening for a job in the US Secret Service in 2006, and gave details of the incident after being asked if had ever taken part in an unjustified killing. The revelation triggered an investigation by the US Naval Criminal Intelligence Service which saw Nazario's squad mates questioned.
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#2
Why didn't they bring to to trial that retard ex-Marine Jimmy Massey to trial. He was the one running around to anyone with a camera telling them that he and his unit killed little children....
Seriously, thank GOD this Marine was acquitted. His unit, 3/1, had some of the roughest terrain in the roughest battle of the Iraq war.
Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr extended indefinitely a ceasefire for his Mehdi militia on Thursday and ordered his followers to protest peacefully against the U.S. occupation.
"The freezing of the Mehdi army is considered valid until further notice, and anyone who violates this order will not be considered part of the Mehdi army," Sadr said in a handwritten statement read by senior aide Hazim al-Araji in the cleric's offices in the southern holy Shi'ite city of Najaf.
The influential anti-American cleric has issued orders curtailing and redefining the activities of his Mehdi Army fighters after Iraqi government and U.S. forces defeated them in Baghdad and the southern city of Basra this year. Sadr said earlier this month he would dissolve the militia if U.S. troops start withdrawing from Iraq according to a fixed timetable -- something Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has sought in negotiations with Washington.
In June, Sadr decreed that only a select group of the Mehdi Army, named after the revered 9th Century Shi'ite Imam Mehdi, would be authorized to battle U.S. forces in Iraq.
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Via JihadWatch.org
Police say they wanted to show "the desperate level al Qaeda has reached" when they released video footage of a teenage girl with an explosives vest strapped to her body.
...
Police in Baqouba, where the girl - who says she was born in 1993 - was caught on Sunday, said she was fitted with the explosives by female relatives of her husband, whom she married five months ago.
One police official alleged that some in the girl's family had links to the al Qaeda in Iraq terror network. Rest at link Continued on Page 47
Posted by: ed ||
08/28/2008 09:04 ||
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#1
Cheap divorce?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
08/28/2008 13:21 Comments ||
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One in 10 Baghdad families that fled sectarian violence is now returning home as the security situation in the capital improves, a spokesman for the Iraqi military said yesterday.
"Of the 92,000 displaced families in Baghdad, 11,000 have returned to their homes and we hope that this number will increase soon," Major General Qassim Atta told reporters. "Al Qaeda had a plan to divide the capital along sectarian lines, ensuring that each sect is well separated from the other," he added.
A government study in February found that 43 percent of the 212,063 families displaced across the country are from Baghdad.
Tens of thousands of families fled their homes in the city and in other regions after the eruption of sectarian violence following the bombing of a Shiite shrine in the central city of Samarra in February 2006. According to the United Nations the wave of violence ended in the summer of 2007 and a tentative return began in autumn last year, especially in Baghdad.
"There are terrorist groups who do not want families to return, but the government and the army are closely tracking the situation," Atta said.
Last week the son of senior Sunni lawmaker Adnan al-Dulaimi was arrested on allegations that he had placed a bomb in the home of a displaced family in a majority Sunni district of Baghdad.
Corruption plagues democracy
Corruption is a grave and gathering threat to Iraq's fragile democracy and its strides in curtailing bloodshed, a senior US official in Baghdad said. Unchecked, corruption "threatens the stability of the democracy, because people won't support a government that is widely viewed as corrupt through and through," Ambassador Lawrence Benedict, anti-corruption coordinator at the US embassy in Baghdad, said in an interview this week.
"Senior officials in the Iraqi government have characterised corruption as the second insurgency -- that's pretty strong language in a place like this," Benedict said. "Iraqis view it a serious problem, and we certainly share that view."
Widespread graft is drawing scrutiny as Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki's Shia-led government seeks to match success on the battlefield with government reforms and political progress.
After more than five years of war, violence across Iraq has dropped to levels not seen since 2004. But Iraq scored only above Myanmar and Somalia in 2007 in Transparency International's ranking of perceptions about corruption in 180 countries and territories.
Radhi Hamza Al Radhi, former head of Iraq's integrity board, told the US Congress last year the cost of corruption across Iraqi ministries was believed to be at least $18bn.
Iraq, blessed with the world's third largest oil reserves but scarred by years of authoritarian rule, crippling sanctions and war, is a country primed for such pitfalls, Benedict said.
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#1
As wrong as dictators are in some respects, there is one thing they do for a very good reason: homogenize the population. Importantly, this is a good idea under most circumstances, and should be encouraged by a democratic government as well. Just done differently.
Instead of just ordering it, a wise government creates a win-win situation for homogenization, with business incentives both for outsiders to move into an area, and more importantly, for local to want the outsiders to move in.
#2
I think of homogenization as mixing together until components are smoothly distributed. What dictators tend to do is more like de-homogenization, where the component parts are separated completely (and frequently the 'undesired' components are eliminated entirely.)
NAJAF, Iraq -- The city's first airport is weeks away from opening, but already a bigger one is talked about. Land prices are soaring. Merchants say they don't remember business ever being so good.
Four years ago, Najaf was an urban battlefield with American troops fighting Shiite militiamen loyal to cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Today, the Shiite holy city is a hot spot of a different kind thanks to improved security, a free-for-all market economy _ and a direct pipeline to the Shiite-led government.
The boomtown buzz in Najaf is more remarkable for its limited company. It's matched only in the northern cities of Sulaimaniyah and Irbil in the self-ruled Kurdish region in northern Iraq, which has been mostly a bystander in the war. Now, Najaf may point to some of the same ambitions for wider autonomy by the most powerful Shiite party _ with possible far-reaching implications for the country.
The Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council hopes to maintain its domination of Najaf's local government in provincial elections expected late this year or early 2009. Its broader goal is a self-governing region in Iraq's Shiite south _ with its oil wealth and important religious shrines.
Shiite rivals oppose such a move, fearing it would cement the Supreme Council's sway over Shiite affairs. Sunni groups, meanwhile, argue that a Shiite autonomous region would fall under Iranian influence and lead to the eventual breakup of Iraq.
"We already are making every effort to win Najaf" in the provincial elections, said Ridha Jawad Taqi, a Supreme Council lawmaker. "We may well make it the capital of a future region."
It's already getting a major facelift _ even as plans to build new commercial towers and hotels in Baghdad remain little more than blueprints. Other ideas, including a giant Ferris wheel bigger than the famous London Eye, are even farther out the fringes.
But in Najaf, the rumblings are real. Construction crews race to keep pace with millions of Shiite pilgrims _ some from as far away as India and Britain _ who visit the shrine of the revered Imam Ali or bury their dead in the massive "Valley of Peace" cemetery. The city's ancient bazaar stays open until around 11 p.m., quite late for a market in most parts of Iraq these days due to security concerns. Shoppers fill narrow alleys to buy gold and silver jewelry, spices, worry beads and perfumes sold in small ornate bottles.
Ahmed Redha, head of the state Investment Authority in Baghdad, estimated that US$38.8 billion in projects are on the drawing board for Najaf and many will be undertaken by private companies. The core of the plans call for new luxury hotels and more than 200,000 housing units, he said.
Continued on Page 47
#1
Something Iraq really needs is planning and zoning. For example, their quality of life would jump if they would just require some measure of control and decorum for their electrical wiring.
(VOI) -- The spokesperson for Baghdad Operations Command (BOC), General Qassim Atta, on Wednesday said that violence in the Iraqi capital has been reduced by 89 percent, in comparison to the past two years.
"Military operations throughout Baghdad have fallen to their lowest level in two years," Atta said in a press conference at the convention center in Baghdad. "These operations dropped by 89 percent in August 2008, compared to the same month of 2007 and 2006," he said. "This issue mirrors the defeat of terrorist and outlawed groups," he noted.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
And the American press is indifferent to this great news. Baghdad residences are probably more enthusiastic about this turn of events.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
08/28/2008 13:13 Comments ||
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#2
Richard the MSM will morph this story to complain that we aren't being repaid.
Egypt says it has uncovered 140 tunnels connecting the Sinai Peninsula with the Gaza Strip using advanced American equipment, Israel Radio reported on Wednesday. This information was relayed to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak by the Egyptian Defense Minister Muhammad Hussein Tantawi and Intelligence chief 'Umar Suleiman during Barak's recent visit to Egypt.
The U.S. has recently been testing tunnel detection systems along Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip and a team of U.S. military engineers was sent to train Egyptian forces to operate the equipment. Egyptian soldiers have also been trained in courses in the U.S. for this purpose. The equipment includes instruments that measure ground fluctuations and signal a tunnel is being dug. The Bush administration approved spending $23 million on such equipment to help detect the tunnels.
Both the U.S and Israel have been critical in the past of the way Egypt has dealt with tunnels that are being used to smuggle weapons, terrorists, money, illicit materials and general goods into the Gaza Strip.
Egypt helped broker the shaky cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that came into effect in June, and Cairo can play a key role in making sure that truce stays intact. But the real motivation...
Egypt is keen to show it is making an effort to crack down on the smuggling, especially since Cairo receives an annual $1.4 billion in aid from Washington. U.S. lawmakers have suggested aid to Egypt be suspended unless Cairo shows a more active stand in curbing smuggling into Gaza and introducing democratic reforms in the country.
So the mere suggestion of cutting aid has motivated the 'Gyptos. Good; I'd like to make some more 'suggestions' in various parts of the world ...
U.S. officials say Cairo is playing a positive role regarding peace efforts in the Middle East. The U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv confirmed to The Media Line that the U.S. was indeed providing equipment to the Egyptians but officials are not commenting on how Washington assesses Egypt's performance on stopping the smuggling since the new equipment came into use.
The Israel Defense Forces says 20 tunnels have been uncovered by the Israeli army since 2006. Some were used by Hamas as a passageway for terrorists between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, while others were intended to be used to infiltrate Israel and carry out terror attacks, the IDF said.
Continued on Page 47
#2
"Why don't we use our equipment on our own border tunnel problem?"
We are. It just doesn't make the news.
Posted by: Full Bosomed1072 ||
08/28/2008 11:10 Comments ||
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#3
Gaza is also the perfect "proof of concept" for this tool too. Our border is very long and tunnels hard to find. Gaza, short border and many, many tunnels. Perfect the technology and method there, then apply it here.
#4
a team of U.S. military engineers was sent to train Egyptian forces to operate the equipment.
I'm sure training continues ongoing, bigjim. Mr. Wife's experience in that part of the world was that the people are open and charming, would feed you their last grain of rice even if the family went hungry, but were incapable of noticing they hadn't yet placed the order for the bloody chemicals that they'd called him over as an emergency to start manufacturing with two months earlier. He wasted both Thanksgiving and Christmas over there, waiting for what would never have appeared had he not finally called in the order himself. He also mentioned seeing Egyptian soldiers with sandals and weapons held together by duct tape. As an engineer he does have proper appreciation for the usefulness of duct tape, but seeing it on things supposed to go boom made him very nervous.
#1
an M14 rifle is reportedly sold at P90,000, and an M16 Armalite rifle, between P50,000 and P70,000.
90,000 = $2k USD, 50,000 = $1.1k USD. I'd like to have an M-14!
The .30 caliber ammunitions for Garand rifles, the standard issue to government militiamen, are in demand, too.
Wow, they still use the Garand? Not saying it wasn't a great rifle in its time, but jeez, get some AKs or SKS or something.
#2
FREEREPUBLIC > PHILIPPINES CONFIRMS ALLIANCE BETWEEN MUSLIM SEPARATISTS AND COMMUNIST REBELS; + BIGNEWSNETWORK > IRAN, NIGERIA TO INCREASE COOPERATION.
#6
The best time to invest in guns in ammo is always before they might be needed, or before you figure they will want to take them away. Ironically, because of their long shelf life if properly stored, they are a good investment.
An excellent example from a few years ago was a modular .50 cal rifle that could be carried in a small case, since outlawing .50 cal is a major priority of the gun control crowd.
If you are already a gun owner, once a crackdown is started, you might buy a small handgun, just so that when they are confiscated, once they have taken it, they will think you are "gun free".
Importantly, don't forget to invest in ammo, since because gun control isn't getting anywhere, they are trying out ammo control.
Israeli media claimed Bashar al-Assad had arrived on a purchasing spree, and his main aim was to buy the Iskander-E tactical missile system, in addition to Pantsyr-S1 and Buk-M2 ground-to-air missile systems and Su-30, MiG-29SMT and MiG-31E fighters.
The parties are also discussing the expansion of a Russian naval maintenance base at the Syrian port of Tartus.
Any movement of Black Sea Fleet forces from Sevastopol to Syria, as some Middle East publications suggest, is, of course, out of the question. But a supply and maintenance center for warships on missions in the Mediterranean will come in handy for Moscow.
#2
Be sure to buy some more of the Russian defences that worked so well when Israel snuck in to blow up their budding nuclear facility. That'll work just great.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
08/28/2008 13:20 Comments ||
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UNITED NATIONS - The Security Council extended the mandate of U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon for a further year on Wednesday, but Israel and Lebanon accused each other of obstructing their work. Israeli and Lebanese envoys welcomed the unanimous council vote but traded charges of violating the U.N. resolution that set up a cease-fire in South Lebanon after a war two years ago between the Jewish state and the Lebanese Hezbollah Shi'ite Muslim group.
Extending the mandate of the 13,000-strong UNIFIL force until Aug. 31, 2009, the Security Council called on all parties to respect the cease-fire and to cooperate with the United Nations to achieve a long-term solution. UNIFIL has been in Lebanon since 1978 but was beefed up after the 2006 war. Security Council Resolution 1701 also gave it tougher rules of engagement, charging it with keeping armed men and illicit weapons out of the area south of the Litani River.
But Israeli Deputy Ambassador Daniel Carmon said there was a "presence and massive redeployment of armed Hezbollah elements ... both north and south of the Litani River" and a "continuous transfer of weapons from Iran and Syria to Hezbollah" in "blatant violation" of Resolution 1701.
Carmon also took aim at a policy statement adopted by Lebanon's new unity government and backed by parliament on Aug. 12 that recognizes Hezbollah's right to use all means possible to regain Israeli-occupied land claimed by Lebanon. He told the council this "dangerous development" would complicate UNIFIL's ability to fulfill its mandate and "raises concerns of the commitment of the Lebanese government ... to extend its authority over all its territory."
"We expect UNIFIL, under its renewed mandate, to exert its authority to take all necessary action, in areas of deployment of its forces, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind," Carmon said.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/28/2008 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11125 views]
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#1
Well, its good to see that the UN is doing its part to hire the handicapped. Blind and deaf people can always find work in UNIFIL.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
08/28/2008 12:43 Comments ||
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The arms race between Israel and Iran is moving to the sea.
In Iran, the production of domestically-made submarines recently began. The Iranian defense minister, who visited the production line Monday, said the purpose of the submarines would be to defend the oil pipelines in the Strait of Hormuz, through which up to 40 percent of the world's oil supply passes.
But of particular interest to Israel is the fact that the submarines will have the capability to launch what the Iranian state media called "various kinds of missiles." No further details were provided.
Meanwhile, the Israel Navy has its own plans. Two years after Hezbollah almost sank one of Israel's top warships in the Second Lebanon War, naval supremacy has moved up on the military's list of priorities.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
[online poker has been pooplisted.]
Posted by: online poker ||
08/28/2008 4:57 Comments ||
Top||
The US has begun five-day military maneuvers in the Persian Gulf, claiming it is preparing for a 'potential confrontation' in the region.
According to a US navy statement issued on Wednesday, the joint war games led by Britain's Royal Navy Commodore Peter Hudson have also brought together vessels from Britain and Bahrain and started Sunday.
Earlier in August, a large armada of US and European naval vessels were reportedly deployed to the Persian Gulf to reinforce the US strike force in the region. The deployment took place following a military operation, which saw more than a dozen warships from the US, Britain and France conducting war games in the Atlantic Ocean.
The current statement by the Bahrain headquarters of the US 5th Fleet claims that the joint maneuvers are aimed at better protecting coalition ships against vessels 'deemed threatening'.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
Egypt has urged Israel to stop making threats against Lebanon, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said on a visit to Beirut on Wednesday. "We reject any threat to the unity and sovereignty of Lebanon... especially from Israel," he told a news conference after meeting Lebanese President Michel Suleiman. "Yesterday (Tuesday) we spoke with the Israelis during Defense Minister Ehud Barak's visit to Egypt, and asked them to stop thinking about threatening this friendly Arab country," Abul Gheit said.
Israeli leaders have issued several warnings to Lebanon since the formation of a national unity government in Beirut in which the Hezbollah-led opposition has 11 ministries and the power of veto over cabinet decisions. "The moment the Lebanese government confers legitimacy on Hezbollah, it must understand that the entire Lebanese state will be a target in the same way that all of Israel is a target for Hezbollah," Environment Minister Gideon Ezra said on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made similar remarks the previous day, warning that Israel would fight a far more devastating campaign than the 2006 war if Hezbollah led the government.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed on Sunday to destroy Israel if it carries out these threats. "If (a war) were to happen as they are threatening, our victory this time will be decisive, unquestionable and final," he said.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
Israel should turn this around and say to Egypt that *they* should provide substantial peacekeeping forces to keep the Lebanese from killing each other, and the Syrians trying to dominate Lebanon as a proxy for Iran.
Iran could hit back with missiles if Israel attacked it and could also rely on allies in the region to strike, the commander of the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday.
Israel, like the United States, has not ruled out military action against Iran if diplomacy fails to resolve a row over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
The West and Israel accuse Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons, despite Iran's insistence that it wants technology to make electricity so that it can save more of its vast oil and gas resources for export.
"Our strategic calculations show that if the Zionist regime wants to make the smallest move against our interests, either independently or with America, in the shortest time all the territories under the Zionist regime's control will become unsafe," Guards commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari said.
"That country is completely in the range of the Islamic Republic's missiles. The missile capabilities of our armed forces is such that the Zionist regime, with all its capabilities, would not be able to confront it," he added.
#2
IRAN NEWS DAILY > IRGC TO SET UP INDEPENDENT MISSLE COMMAND; + AHMADINEJAD: IRAN'S ROLE IN SCO TO BE DETERMINING, as per desired future potent SCO Role/Position in Asia + around the World.
Lebanon has issued an arrest and is seeking the death sentence for Libyan leader Muamar Gaddafi and six other Libyan officials over the disappearance of a top Lebanese Shiite cleric 30 years ago, judicial officials said Wednesday. Good idea. Now send somebody to arrest him.
Gaddafi was also indicted for allegedly "inciting the abduction" of Imam Mussa Sadr, the spiritual guide of Lebanon's Shiite community, investigating magistrate Samih el-Hajj said in a charge sheet. An "arrest warrant" was issued for Gaddafi and six other Libyan suspects who were also indicted for taking part in the alleged abduction, according to a copy of the charge sheet obtained by AFP.
Sadr, who founded the opposition Amal movement now led by parliament speaker Nabih Berri, disappeared while in Libya with two companions Mohammed Yacoub and Abbas Badreddin in 1978. There has been no trace of the three men since. Have you checked with Amelia Earhart?
Libya maintains that the trio left for Italy on August 31, 1978 after their stay in Tripoli and that it has no idea what happened to them afterwards.
Despite a widely held belief in Lebanon that the three Shiites were killed after a dispute with Gaddafi, the al-Sadr family strongly believes the imam is alive and remains in a Libyan jail. Muammar goes in to personally poke him with a barbecue fork once or twice a week.
The arrest warrant against Gaddafi was issued in virtue of Lebanese law which allows magistrates to take such measures against suspects who fail to respond to an official summons. In February, a Lebanese court had given Gaddafi two months to appear for questioning over the disappearance of Sadr, after an official summons sent to Libya through diplomatic channels was not heeded by the Libyan leader.
Lebanon reopened the case in 2004 after relatives of Sadr and his companions lodged several complaints with the authorities demanding action and amid accusations by the influential Shiite Hezbollah movement of Libyan involvement.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
08/28/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under:
#5
Lebanon has issued an arrest and is seeking the death sentence for Libyan leader Muamar Gaddafi and six other Libyan officials over the disappearance of a top Lebanese Shiite cleric 30 years ago.
Good police work!
Posted by: J. E. Hoover ||
08/28/2008 15:45 Comments ||
Top||
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.
(AKI) - Opium cultivation in Afghanistan has fallen by almost 20 percent this year, according to a report by the United Nations anti-drug agency. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime said the fall was due to good local leadership coupled with bad weather.
Angry that the United States has not removed it from a list of states that sponsor terrorism, North Korea said Tuesday that it has stopped disabling its nuclear reactor at Yongbyon and will consider rebuilding it. 
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said in unequivocal terms that the government is against every type of terrorism and would enter into a dialogue with only those who would lay down their arms and renounce violence.
(AKI) - The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has voiced its concern over the violent protests seen recently in Indian-administered Kashmir. 
Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr extended indefinitely a ceasefire for his Mehdi militia on Thursday and ordered his followers to protest peacefully against the U.S. occupation.
BAGHDAD 
Egypt says it has uncovered 140 tunnels connecting the Sinai Peninsula with the Gaza Strip using advanced American equipment, Israel Radio reported on Wednesday. This information was relayed to Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak by the Egyptian Defense Minister Muhammad Hussein Tantawi and Intelligence chief 'Umar Suleiman during Barak's recent visit to Egypt.
Iran could hit back with missiles if Israel attacked it and could also rely on allies in the region to strike, the commander of the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday. 
Lebanon has issued an arrest and is seeking the death sentence for Libyan leader Muamar Gaddafi and six other Libyan officials over the disappearance of a top Lebanese Shiite cleric 30 years ago, judicial officials said Wednesday. 
