Snark, snark, snark. I don't have to put anything inline because these guys do a pretty good job of it themselves. They would fit right in here at the 'Burg...
The LTTE officially launched its long awaited Great Counter-attack™ on Saturday by nobly blowing up the bund of Kalamadukulam tank and DROWNING 1,000,000 Sinhaloids who were all having a picnic near the bund. To celebrate it, we Tactically Withdrew® from our last totally worthless insignificant ghost town of Mullaitivu on Sunday.
As usual, the 150% non-cowardly Tigers chose not face the SLA in battle because we all know that it will result in a bloodbath of homophobes. So the Tigers mercifully decided to blow up the bund and flood all the Tamil areas, beautifully flooding paddy fields and creating a breeding ground for cholera and other water-borne diseases which will kill ONLY the Sinhaloids and NOT the Tamil civilians there. Snarky Ouch!
The Sea Tigers then rode the 50-metre high waves and launched a marine assault on the Sinhaloid army with great success. This is the first time in history that a marine force has used boats on land! It is another testament to We Tamil ingenuity! Our totally credible sources state that at least 1,000,000 Sinhaloids were killed in this much anticipated Counter-attack™ and 5,000,000 were taken prisoner. Not only that, but the LTTE continued its Great Counter-attack™ by marching towards Kilinochchi and fighting has been reported in Jaffna too. Love the catchphrase!
Military sources say that the Vishvamadhu tank has also been blown up, drowning another half a million Sinhaloids. The 57th and 58th Divisions are totally bogged down by these man-made tsunamis. Contact has been lost with more than 10,000,000 troops, presumed drowned. The LTTE has already taken possession of 2,500,000 SLA dead. Two SLAF Kfirs and Ten 3-Man Migs were also victims of the floods. Larf. Actually does a pretty good job of the wishful thinking that occurs on the news sites of terrorist groups. The Serbs were shooting down American planes left and right, soldiers dying on the barricades, etc.
(Xinhua) -- UN Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah on Monday welcomed the overwhelming vote by Somalia's Transitional Federal Parliament in favour of expanding the legislative body by an additional 275 Members.
"I am extremely encouraged by this vote and I would like to thank Somalia's leaders, the Parliamentarians and all those who have helped work towards such a positive step," Ould-Abdallah saidin a statement issued in Nairobi.
The Parliamentary vote, which took place in Djibouti on Monday, resulted in 211 MPs voting in favour of expansion with six against and three abstentions.
The Somali Transitional Federal Government and the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia agreed last October on the outline of enlarging Somalia's Transitional Federal Parliament and forming a Government of National Unity.
Up to 200 new members of Parliament, selected by the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) are expected to be sworn in Djibouti while the expanded Parliament will subsequently elect a new president.
The other 75 seats are being kept for members of civil society and opposition who are not members of the ARS.
"This is a very good result and will demonstrate to the Somali people that their leaders are committed to moving forward together to restore peace and stability," said Ould-Abdallah.
The international community hopes a more inclusive Somali government will be able to reach out to armed groups who are still fighting the interim government and targeting African Union peacekeepers in the capital Mogadishu.
"It means Somalia will have a new President who will be able to attend the African Union Summit of Heads of State in Addis Ababa on Feb. 1, demonstrating the progress that was made here in a short space of time."
"The international community has also made a key contribution with support for the Parliamentary meetings and, as always, Djibouti has provided most welcome hospitality and backing," said the UN special representative.
ARS leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed announced on Sunday he would contest the presidential election. Sharif and Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein are seen as the two main presidential contenders.
More than a dozen candidates are expected to vie to succeed former President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed who stepped down last month after falling out with the prime minister over a UN-backed peace deal.
The lawmakers are also mulling whether to extend by some 10 days over Wednesday's deadline for choosing a new president, to allow contenders time to campaign.
But Ould-Abdallah had earlier urged the parliament to respect its Jan. 28 deadline for selecting Yusuf's successor.
Under the constitutional charter, a new Somali president, who in turn will appoint a new prime minister, should be chosen by parliament within 30 days of the resignation of the last one.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
So now it's, what, twenty pounds of shit in a five pound bag?
(Xinhua) -- Somali parliamentarians meeting in Djibouti City has overwhelmingly endorsed the enlargement of the legislative assembly to include opposition members in accordance with a power sharing deal reached last year, reports reaching here said Monday.
Somali lawmakers have held their session in the Djibouti People' s Assembly in the capital where 220 members of parliament converged to approve the crucial legislation that will pave the way for an inclusive parliament and a National Unity Government.
Sheik Adan Madoobe, speaker of the parliament and the acting president of Somalia who chaired the session, announced after the vote on the enlargement motion that out of the 220 members present211 voted in favor of the motion, 6 voted against while three abstained.
The parliament is expected to amend the country's interim charter to allow for the extension of the one-month deadline for the election of the president which will expire on Wednesday, after former Somali leader Abdulahi Yusuf Ahmed resigned on December 29.
Under an agreement reached between a major opposition faction, the Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia (ARS), and the Somali transitional government, the membership of the current 275-member Somali parliament will be doubled to include 200 members from ARS and 75 from Somali civil society groups, women and diasporas.
Reports from Djibouti say that the new 200 opposition members of parliament will be sworn in Tuesday while the remaining 75 will be included at a later date when their allocation is agreed upon.
Meanwhile in Baidoa, tension mounts as uncertainty prevails following the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops from the town which has been the seat of the Somali transitional parliament for the past three years.
Two people have been killed and four others wounded after a shootout between Somali government forces and local militias vying for control of strategic locations as they prepare to confront a possible assault on the town by insurgent fighters stationed around it.
Both Somali government officials and Islamist commanders have said they want peaceful resolution of the standoff in the town which is witnessing widespread looting of government properties including the presidential residence and parliament house.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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A northern Swedish city has decided to cancel a planned Holocaust Memorial Day torchlight procession due to the recent IDF offensive in Gaza, it was reported Tuesday.
The official reason given for the decision, made by the municipal board and local church in Lulea, was safety concerns, but Bo Nordin, a clergyman and spokesman for the church, cited the war in Gaza.
"It feels uneasy to have a torchlight procession to remember the victims of the Holocaust at this time," Nordin told Swedish National Radio. "We have been preoccupied and grief-stricken by the war in Gaza and it would feel just feel odd with a large ceremony about the Holocaust."
The decision drew fierce criticism from various organizations as well as residents of the city, and a defiant group of Lulea locals has decided to hold the torchlight procession anyway.
"To compare the Holocaust with Gaza is like comparing apples with pears," said Inga-Lill Sundström, one the organizers of the ceremony.
Meanwhile, Auschwitz survivors and state officials were gathering to mark the 64th anniversary of the Nazi death camp's liberation as part of worldwide Holocaust remembrance ceremonies.
The yearly commemoration, in the depth of the Polish winter, marks the day the advancing Soviet army liberated the camp in 1945. The anniversary has been established as an annual Holocaust remembrance day by the United Nations.
More than 1 million people, mostly Jews, died in the camp's gas chambers or through forced labor, disease or starvation.
Tuesday's commemorations at Auschwitz include a wreath-laying ceremony and prayers at the foot of the former camp's main memorial, which stands between the twisted ruins of two crematoria.
Events elsewhere include a speech to the German parliament by President Horst Koehler and a ceremony at the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp outside Berlin.
More and more Swedes are being detained abroad on suspicions of involvement in terrorism, Swedens foreign ministry reports. Lars? Swen? Thor?
Currently, nine Swedish citizens suspected or convicted of terrorism are being held in other countries.
“In recent years, weve seen an increase in a variety of such crimes. It most often involves a deprivation of liberty but can also involve information about people whove been killed in an area where terrorism is being fought or information about the finding of a Swedish passport in such an area,” said Ministry of Foreign Affairs consular section deputy director Helmer Broberg to Sveriges Radio (SR).
Broberg believes the increase is a reflection of the fact that more resources are being devoted globally to fight terrorism. Well, that's one reason.
He added that terrorism cases are harder to work with compared to other cases because secrecy can make it hard for the foreign ministry to get information.
Of the nine Swedes being held, three have been convicted of terror-related crimes.
The remaining six are still awaiting trial. The words "Islam" or "Muslim" are missing in this article, like the word "Democrat" in a MSM piece devoted to political corruption.
And the NYT dismisses their chances
A group of Miami men accused of planning to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago as part of an Islamic jihad will return to federal court this week as prosecutors try for a third time to win convictions.
The government's first two efforts ended in mistrials. And legal analysts say the prosecutors face an even greater challenge this time because, nearly three years after the men were arrested, the public mind-set has changed. "The fear card was what they were playing," said Bruce Winick, a University of Miami law professor. "If it didn't work the first two times with the juries that were selected, I think it's less likely that it will work right now because that fear of terrorism is a little more distant in our minds."
Former jurors in the first two cases have said they could not agree in part because of disputes over what some considered a lack of evidence. Prosecutors tried to prove that the original seven defendants, a group of laborers from the tough Liberty City neighborhood, provided "material support" to a terrorist organization, and planned to destroy buildings. But they relied mostly on the men's words, citing their loyalty oath to Al Qaeda and aggressive comments made to two F.B.I. informants. More concrete evidence did not emerge. Testimony showed that a search by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of what it called the group's headquarters did not yield guns, explosives or blueprints for an attack. Besides a samurai sword, no weapons were found.
"There was really nothing that indicated that this was a real threat," said Jeffrey Agron, a lawyer who served as the foreman at the first trial in 2007. "Another thing was the credibility of the confidential informants. The first informant, in the minds of most jurors, had no credibility, and with the second informant, a lot of the jurors felt he was trying to lead these guys on."
The first trial ended in December 2007 with an acquittal for one of the seven, Lyglenson Lemorin, and a mistrial for the other six: Narseal Batiste, accused of being the ringleader; Patrick Abraham; Burson Augustine; Rotschild Augustine; Naudimar Herrera; and Stanley G. Phanor. The second trial followed a similar path. Each side laid out many of the same arguments, and another jury deadlocked. On April 16, Judge Joan A. Lenard of Federal District Court ordered a mistrial for the second time. About a week later, prosecutors said they would try again. Assistant United States Attorney Richard Gregorie, at a hearing where the decision was announced, said another trial was necessary to "safeguard the community." Mr. Gregorie cited some of the violent comments allegedly made by Mr. Batiste, including a threat to "kill all the devils."
Mr. Winick said that no new evidence was expected, and that this would probably be the last trial for a case that he, some former jurors and other legal scholars have seen as politically driven. The timing in particular has attracted scrutiny because the arrests came just a few months before the 2006 elections, and they were widely publicized by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, who outlined the most sensational evidence at a news conference.
Mr. Winick said that by that point, "The plot, to the extent there was a plot at that point, was falling apart," suggesting that it would have made more sense to continue observing the group, rather than making arrests. Winning a conviction at this point, he and others said, will be difficult. "I don't see it ending any differently than before," said Mr. Agron, the former juror. Mr. Winick agreed. "It's a case where a government informant got a bunch of guys together to swear a loyalty oath to Al Qaeda," he said. "It's a B movie really, more than a criminal case."
#3
Even now, Islamic fascists are grinning and rubbing their hands.
If we ever neede proof that no matter what kind of education you have, being a leftist is proof positive of lack of intelligence and common sense, here it is.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
01/27/2009 7:03 Comments ||
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#4
Obama to America: Internationally speaking, I'm gonna get rolled...
#13
Asked why Al Arabiya had been granted the president's first interview, an aide said: "We want to communicate directly to the entire world America's new foreign policy."
And the new foreign policy is different from the old how again? What a bunch of baloney. While the messenger is new, the message is more or less the same. I seriously doubt the new messenger will prove any more persuasive. I can only hope that all of this is part of a good faith effort on behalf of the O administration for when he decides to attack Iran to prevent them from acquiring a nuclear weapon, which my gut tells me he will (although my gut's track record isn't terribly impressive).
#15
He gave his first interview to an Islamic TV channel? It's a bit like a schoolteacher spending the first lesson of the term pleading with the disruptive kids at the back of the room to please behave because I'm a decent guy, not like your last teacher. It's easy to predict how this'll pan out, even though I doubt any one of us had a teacher who was actually that stupid...
#16
Asked why Al Arabiya had been granted the president's first interview, an aide said: "We want to communicate directly to the entire world America's new foreign policy."
But he sought a conciliatory tone throughout the interview, at one point avoiding even restating American policy, and his own platform, than an Iranian nuclear weapon is plainly unacceptable.
BO's silence or refusal to state clearly our policy is sending a clear message in my view, one that I don't like.
Posted by: Jan ||
01/27/2009 14:04 Comments ||
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#17
Maybe he'll start selling Middle East dictators down the river like Carter did to the Shah. We all know how well that worked out.
The US deducted $55 million under its reimbursement programme for expenses incurred by Pakistan on the war on terror after American auditors raised objections to a claim submitted by the country.
US authorities deducted the amount while releasing only $101 million out of Pakistan's claim of $156 million for expenses incurred on the campaign against terrorism till April 2008, said Shaukat Tarin, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance.
The move was the outcome of objections from American auditors as well as a change in the US format for releasing such funds, he said.
"The Pakistan government will re-submit a case for the release of the amount which has already been spent from its resources (on) the war on terror," Tarin told reporters here on Monday.
Tarin said increased defence spending due to tensions with India in the wake of the Mumbai terror attacks had put pressure on the national exchequer. Maybe if you didn't attack India, you wouldn't have the increased expenditures. Nah, they'll never understand that one.
The government could not resist unabated US drone attacks in Pakistan's Tribal Areas because of 'certain limitations', Leader of the House Raza Rabbani told the Senate on Monday.
He told the Upper House during a heated debate that Islamabad could not shoot down American spy planes because of limitations that he did not elaborate.
But Rabbani assured the House the government would not compromise on the country's sovereignty and integrity.
Responding to Jamaat-e-Islami's (JI) Prof Khursheed Ahmed, he said it would be premature to draw the conclusion that US President Barack Obama would continue the previous US administration's strategy to carry out drone strikes inside Pakistan.
While Prof Khursheed said the US had made 80 drone attacks killing more than 100 civilians since the PPP-led government took charge, Rabbani said only 32 attacks had taken place.
The leader of the house denied the federal government had been 'apologetic' about the attacks and cited the strong protest it had conveyed to the US ambassador after two strikes in Waziristan on Friday.
He said the government believed any action inside Pakistan must be carried out by Pakistani forces, and Washington should share with Islamabad any credible intelligence that it has.
The JI senator called Friday's attacks "the Obama administration's first gift to Pakistan", lamenting that Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had said such strikes would stop after the new administration took charge in Washington.
He said Pakistan should block supplies to NATO forces in Afghanistan if the US made any more drone attacks. The airforce chief had said on record, the senator claimed, that Pakistan had the capacity to shoot down the American spy planes.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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Pakistan is not a terrorist state and should not be portrayed as one, Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid leader Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi said on Monday. Elahi said there was a need to portray a positive image of Pakistan internationally, one that strongly opposes extremism. He was talking to visiting US educationists, George Washington University Professor Dr Judith Findlay and American International School Board Member Richard Pinal at his residence. They appreciated the educational progress during Elahi's government. Elahi said the overall situation of the country was peaceful, barring the Pak-Afghan border situation. He added even the World Bank was surprised at the educational reforms during his stint as chief minister of Punjab. The visiting educationists also appreciated the student exchange programmes between the US and Pakistan during Elahi's tenure, saying that the programmes helped clear misunderstandings between students and societies of both the countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#6
It's NOT a terrorist state. It's a failed state comprised of some two dozen tribal groups trying to live together, despite centuries of disagreement. The "state" of Pakistan has no writ, or limited writ, in one-third of the area it claims (Tribal areas, Kashmir, etc.), and is losing ground in Punjab, Sindh, and Baluchistan. It may have been a "noble experiment", but it's failed miserably. It's time for the adults (India, Afghanistan under US control) to take over again.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/27/2009 14:08 Comments ||
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#7
It was never a noble experiment.
LIFE Magazine's Margaret Bourke-White at Pakistan's birth in 1947...
In the weeks to come I was to hear the Quaid-i-Azam's thesis echoed by government officials throughout Pakistan. "Surely America will build up our army," they would say to me. "Surely America will give us loans to keep Russia from walking in." But when I asked whether there were any signs of Russian infiltration, they would reply almost sadly, as though sorry not to be able to make more of the argument. "No, Russia has shown no signs of being interested in Pakistan."
This hope of tapping the U. S. Treasury was voiced so persistently that one wondered whether the purpose was to bolster the world against Bolshevism or to bolster Pakistan's own uncertain position as a new political entity. Actually, I think, it was more nearly related to the even more significant bankruptcy of ideas in the new Muslim state -- a nation drawing its spurious warmth from the embers of an antique religious fanaticism, fanned into a new blaze.
Posted by: john frum ||
01/27/2009 15:56 Comments ||
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But to recap the usual factors held responsible for the founding of Pakistan, Islam was not in danger in pre-1947 India. Indeed, considering the sectarian violence and religious bigotry we face today, it was in better health then. Nor was democracy the issue because even if partition had not happened, India was getting democracy once the British left. The Indian Independence Act promised that.
So what was the compelling reason for the Muslims to insist on a separate homeland especially when there was no going around the uncomfortable fact that, no matter how generously the frontiers of the new state were drawn, an uncomfortably large number of Muslims would remain in India?
The purpose of Pakistan, transcending anything to do with safeguarding Islam or promoting democracy, was to create conditions for the Muslims of India, or those who found themselves in the new state, to recreate the days of their lost glory.
Posted by: john frum ||
01/27/2009 15:59 Comments ||
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#9
Pakistan is just Strategic Depth for Islamist India.
Security forces continued their operation in Bajaur Agency on Monday, targeting several Taliban hideouts in various areas of the agency. However, no reports of casualties to the Taliban were received. Troops targeted Taliban positions in Charmang, Banda, Bhai Cheena and Kausar areas using artillery and mortars, with officials claiming to have destroyed several Taliban hideouts. Meanwhile, the Taliban abducted a person from agency headquarters Khar. Political administration has strengthened security measures in the agency by deploying additional law enforcement personnel in various areas of Bajaur. Residents complained they were facing problems in obtaining basic commodities because of the closure of business centres in the area for the last two months.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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The Awami National Party (ANP) agrees to change the North West Frontier Province's name to Afghania, ANP chief Asfandyar Wali said on Monday.
"We don't want to get into the controversy of renaming the NWFP anymore. We have proposed the name Pakhtoonkhwah for the province. However, since Chaudhry Rehmat Ali had said that the name should begin with the letter 'A', we would agree to the notion that the province should be renamed as Afghania," Wali told reporters at the Parliament House.
He said all political parties should sit together to evolve a consensus over the draft of the 18th Amendment.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Aw hell - just go all out and name it Pashtunistan.
You know you want to!
The government will not allow the Taliban to impose their political and ideological agenda on the people through the use of force, President Asif Ali Zardari said on Monday.
The president was talking to a delegation of parliamentarians, senators and ministers of the Pakistan People's Party that met him at the Presidency.
The meeting was jointly chaired by the president and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, but Gilani left the meeting early, as he was due to leave for Davos, Switzerland, early on Tuesday morning (today).
Zardari said the Taliban would not be allowed to challenge the writ of the government in Swat or any other part of the country.
During the meeting, the PPP leaders informed the president about the non-cooperative attitude of ministers and the bureaucracy, complaining they were treated like members of the opposition, Daily Times learnt.
The PPP parliamentarians told President Zardari that the ministers did not even attend their phones, which further encouraged bureaucrats of various ministries to ignore them. The most vocal during the meeting were Amjad Dasti from Punjab and Nawab Wasan from Sindh.
"Most the complaints were against Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, Interior Adviser Rehman Malik, Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf and Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah," party sources told Daily Times.
The PPP legislators were also critical of Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, saying he had ignored the problems of the people in their respective constituencies.
Rumours of a change in the government, mid-term elections and the lawyers' long march also came under discussion in the meeting.
The sources said the president rejected the rumours of the change in the government, saying the PPP government would complete its five-year term and no one should have any doubt about that. "The government will complete its term and no conspiracy against it will succeed," the president said.
Long march: Zardari also asked the PPP leaders not to be afraid of the lawyers' long march. "We will tackle this march as we did in the past. Let them exercise their democratic right," the president was quoted as saying.
Challenges: Zardari said the PPP government was not afraid of the challenges confronting the nation. "We are not afraid to lead ... we know the way." The president said that the party was committed to its principles of democracy and would not deviate from its stance in any case.
Several PPP parliamentarians spoke on the occasion to express their views on the country's current political situation and to highlight the problems of their constituencies.
President Zardari said he had decided to hold such consultative dialogue with the party legislators every time parliament was in session. He said he valued such consultations, adding "trust and wisdom is not the monopoly of any individual".
Truth and wisdom, he said, emerged only as a result of discussion among a large number of people, in which each individual contributed with his/her ideas and proposals.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm sure the people of Swat will be thrilled to hear this. Is news allowed on busses?
A day after 43 officials were summoned to Taliban courts for opposing the group -- Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Monday that a parallel Taliban judiciary is unacceptable. "We will not accept a policy like this," Gilani told reporters after attending the inaugural session of a conference on medical education. The prime minister expressed concern over suspected US drone attacks in the Tribal Areas, and hoped that the new US administration would review its policy. He admitted that the situation in Swat and Balochistan was not normal, but said he had sought a report on developments in these areas to make future plans. About an upcoming lawyers' march, Gilani said it was the legal fraternity's democratic right.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
So is Gilani going to head up a party to go and rescue those 43 dudes? No? Didn't think so.
Reporting from Mosul, Iraq -- For decades, Arab soldiers and Kurdish guerrillas battled by gun, by mortar, by rocket. Now, elections are the latest weapon in the struggle for land and power in Iraq's north.
The ballot box has become a battleground in Nineveh province, a high-stakes combat zone where Kurds and Arabs will face off over the future shape of the country -- and confront each other over the past. The outcome could set the stage for another round of violence, which both sides insist that they do not want.
In the last few years, almost 2,000 Kurds have been killed in Mosul," Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani told The Times this month. "We have not responded in the same manner and we have not reacted in any act of vengeance; but of course everything will have its limits."
The rival ethnicities are grappling with the legacy of Saddam Hussein's policy of displacing Kurds to create an Arab majority here. Whereas the Kurds believe they are correcting a historical wrong, Arabs see humiliation. They accuse the Kurds of harassment, arbitrary arrests and torture in the run-up to the election Saturday.
How the struggle plays out here, where Arabs clearly outnumber Kurds, will go a long way toward determining the outcome in other disputed territories, such as the oil-rich northern city of Kirkuk, where no side has such an outright majority.
"If these problems are not solved, there will be some extremism here in [Nineveh], on the Kurdish side and Arab side," Deputy Gov. Kharso Goran warned, sitting in his riverside office in the provincial capital, Mosul, flanked by the flags of Iraq, Kurdistan and his Kurdistan Democratic Party.
The Kurds have governed their own region, Kurdistan, since 1991 and have pushed to expand the area to include the northern and eastern belt around Mosul and the Sinjar region of western Nineveh. That has exacerbated Kurdish-Arab tensions, which U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker recently labeled one of the emerging challenges of the year.
"The people of these areas do not want to belong to Kurdistan," said Sheik Abdullah Humaidi Yawar, a senior leader in Hadba, a Sunni Arab nationalist movement. Yawar is considered the front-runner in the Nineveh election.
"They want to stay included in Nineveh," he said. "The Kurdish parties have proven to the people for the last five years that they are racist like the former regime."
The Sunni Arabs are playing catch-up after their boycott of U.S.-sponsored elections in 2005 handed the Kurds control of Nineveh. The Kurds used the last four years to cement their grip on the disputed areas in northern Nineveh bordering Kurdistan, with a sizable presence of Kurdish border guards, intelligence officers and Kurdish-dominated Iraqi army units.
The Kurds had hoped to formalize the new reality in a constitutionally mandated referendum, designated to settle the fate of similarly contested areas across Iraq, including Kirkuk. But the date for the referendum expired a year ago, and with it the Kurds' opportunity to quickly seize what they believe is rightfully theirs.
Now both Baghdad and local Arabs appear intent on beating back the Kurds, through a mix of intimidation, negotiation and show of force.
"When we have the ability to protect these areas, we will ask Kurdistan to leave them," said Yahya Abdul Majoud of the Iraqi Islamic Party, which is considered the less extreme Sunni faction in the north. "If they agree or not, it's not the Kurds' choice," he said, adding that the Iraqi army should replace Kurdish units in Nineveh in six months to a year.
Shiite Muslim Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has already put his weight behind Nineveh's Arabs. He has started trying to purge the two Iraqi army divisions in Nineveh of Kurdish officers, who have been accused of working for Kurdish ambitions, Kurdish officials say.
Since the summer, Nineveh's security command, which reports to Maliki, has twice threatened to forcibly evict Goran from his Kurdistan Democratic Party offices in east Mosul.
The Kurdish political parties are sure to not go quietly. They warn that an aggressive campaign to dislodge them from the disputed territories and marginalize them in Nineveh politics has the potential to spark serious confrontations. If Baghdad backs the hard-line Arab nationalists, Goran said, "there will be a problem between Kurdistan and the central government."
Goran has a visceral dislike of Hadba, which exemplifies the new nationalist wave. He accuses the movement of having ties to the militant group Al Qaeda in Iraq and Hussein's Baath Party. Hadba is headed by Atheel Najafi, scion of an old Mosul family, famed breeders of Arabian horses who once sold and raced horses with Hussein's sons Uday and Qusai.
Najafi and his colleagues regularly accuse Kurdish army units of torturing detainees and hint that the Kurdistan Democratic Party has plotted at least one assassination attempt against a Hadba candidate. Najafi vows to force Kurdish troops to withdraw from the disputed territories.
"When we have strong authority and power in Mosul, the Kurds will change their stance," Najafi said. He pledges to bar Kurdistan's two main parties from any leadership positions in Mosul.
Najafi describes the dispute as the latest mutation of an old conflict between the Kurdish parties and the central government.
#1
The Iraqi civil war will start in Nineveh/Mosul. Probably sometime in 2009.
The Kurdish militia will initially trounce the Iraqi Army which will then probably fragment amid the usual Arab genocide claims. Iran won't stand by and watch, nor will Turkey.
The Obama Regime will either abruptly withdraw or side with the Arabs.
I hope the Kurds are stockpiling ammo. They will need it.
In the first entry of his week-long diary, BBC diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams joins British troops on a raid near Basra as they witness the progress made by the Iraqi Army.
Up before dawn as word comes of an Iraqi army search operation at Az-Zubeir, south east of the city. The operation involves 50 Iraqi Army Brigade, who our British hosts from the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment are mentoring, so we are invited along to watch.
We race through the deserted streets of Iraq's second largest city, not really knowing what the morning will hold.
The British MiTTs (Military Transition Teams) are not here to direct Iraqi army operations - those days are long gone - but to observe and offer discreet advice. To keep a low profile, the Brits leave their imposing Mastiff armoured personnel carriers behind and ride in soft-skinned Iraqi jeeps. They do not want to draw attention to themselves, a lesson from the days when highly visible British soldiers became a magnet for militia attacks.
The job of "mitting" will end soon, probably well before the final British departure date of 31 July, and this certainly feels like the beginning of the end.
Help and equipment
Britain's role in training and mentoring the 14th Iraqi army division is almost done. As this morning's display shows, the Iraqis are organising and conducting their own operations with minimal British support. To be sure, an RAF Lynx flies up and down the road as we near az-Zubeir, and an occasional whine gives away the presence overhead of a tiny British drone, a Desert Hawk.
Britain is still providing the sort of help and equipment the reconstituted Iraqi armed forces cannot muster.
But as the true size of the raid becomes apparent, causing astonishment among the British soldiers watching, it seems clear the Iraqi army is operating with considerable confidence. Or at least that is the impression it hopes to convey.
As the sun comes up over the desert, our convoy stretches as far as the eye can see. It seems that 14 Division has thrown almost everything it has into the operation. It unfolds at a fairly leisurely pace, with several U-turns and, when we reach the town, a lot of standing around. But the British are still impressed.
"They've got it pretty well locked down," remarks Maj Adrian Grinonneau as we pass street after street blocked off by armoured vehicles and well-armed Iraqi troops. "This is unprecedented from our viewpoint," he says as more and more troops arrive.
And to emphasise that, this is an Iraqi operation through and through. He adds: "We're not giving them guidance, we're not giving them direction. Operationally, they're mustard."
The search, in a dirt poor town with a reputation for lawlessness and violence, yields dozens of weapons, from an ageing Sten gun to an assortment of Kalashnikovs. More than 120 weapons in all. Some of the house searches look a little staged for our camera and the town's sleepy atmosphere seems at odds with the overwhelming military presence.
But with just five days to go before Iraq's important provincial elections, it seems the army is glad and able to make a big statement. And for the watching Brits, that means that it'll soon be time to go home.
#2
Nope, that's not going to happen. The Kurds have the best indigenous soldiers in the region, good equipment, and pretty good leadership at this point. Be it Sunnis, Shi'a, or Iranians, I wouldn't mess with the Kurds. Turks might want to consider that point as well.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/27/2009 8:06 Comments ||
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#3
Peshmerga are light infantry. No armor, no artillery, never mind Air Force.
Sixteen Saddam Hussein-era Iraqi officials, including former deputy prime minister Tareq Aziz and Saddam's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed -- nicknamed Chemical Ali -- faced a new trial on Monday for repressing Shi'ite Kurds.
The trial is the seventh being held against senior Saddam officials for crimes committed before the Iraqi dictator was ousted in a 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
Saddam was hanged after his conviction in the first trial, for ordering the killing of Shi'ite villagers after an assassination attempt.
The latest trial will examine the repression of a community known as Feyli Kurds, who come from the mountainous border area between Iraq and Iran, and, unlike most Iraqi Kurds, are Shi'ite Muslims rather than Sunnis.
Thousands of Feyli Kurds were driven from the country under Saddam, who declared them to be Iranian citizens and forced them across the border. Others were repressed, imprisoned and tortured in the 1970s and 1980s.
The trial is being presided over by Raouf Rashid Abdul-Rahman, the Kurdish judge who sentenced Saddam to die.
Majeed -- nicknamed Chemical Ali for using poison gas to kill 5,000 Kurds in a 1988 attack -- has already been sentenced to death twice.
The first death sentence was for his role in the mass killings of Kurds in the 1980s and the second for a bloody crackdown against Shi'ites in the 1990s. His execution has been delayed by political wrangling.
Aziz, a fluent English speaker who served as the public face of Saddam's regime in the west, is also standing trial in a separate case over the deaths of dozens of merchants executed for price fixing when Iraq was under U.N. sanctions.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Keep him in trials until he begs for waterboarding -- then hang him.
A Gaza growth industry...
(CBS/AP) Some were killed when tank shells hit their homes. Others died when bombs erased their offices. Still others - like Islamic Jihad fighter Mohammed Bedawi - met their end battling Israeli troops. "The drone hit him," said his cousin, Abed Bedawi, 21, referring to the unmanned surveillance planes often seen in Gaza's skies. "He was laying a bomb for a tank when the drone fired a missile at him." Whoopsie. Adios, Mohammed...
Now they are all memories, their faces rolling off the presses at the Nibras print shop. Dead guy...dead guy...dead guy...dead guy... ... I'd collect them all but there are so many ... Continued on Page 49
AN Iranian freighter carrying weaponry for Hamas has been blocked by Egypt from entering the Suez Canal, amid concerns that Tehran is trying to supply the Palestinian militant group with missiles capable of striking Tel Aviv.
Reports yesterday said Israel was closely tracking the ship, which is docked in the Red Sea outside the Suez Canal after Cairo refused to permit it to cross the waterway to the Mediterranean. The stand-off comes after a report to the Israeli Defence Ministry from the Pentagon said the US Navy had boarded another Iranian vessel and said it was carrying artillery shells and other weapons.
"This is a big test for the Egyptians," a senior Israeli defense official told The Jerusalem Post. "So far the Egyptians have prevented the ship from crossing the Suez and we hope it will stay that way."
Israeli defense officials told the paper Iran was trying to supply Hamas with new Grad-model Katyusha rockets and to replace high-grade explosives that were exhausted or destroyed by the Israeli Defence Force during this month's war in Gaza. The IDF is concerned Iran will supply Hamas with long-range Fajr missiles capable of reaching Tel Aviv.
A US Navy task force fighting pirates in the Gulf of Aden has been instructed to track Iranian arms shipments to Gaza. Reports last week said troops from the USS San Antonio boarded a former Russian cargo vessel that was flying a Cypriot flag and was reportedly carrying weaponry destined for Hamas.
The French have also dispatched a frigate to the Mediterranean to participate in the clampdown on the Gaza Strip and to prevent weapons shipments from reaching Hamas, the Post said.
Israeli defense officials told the paper that since the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead, large quantities of explosives, machine guns and other weaponry had arrived in the Sinai peninsula, but the Egyptians were taking measures to prevent them from being smuggled into Gaza.
#1
Ah, so now I know why the French are involved; they're not big fans of getting the Iranians more involved in Gaza.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/27/2009 15:37 Comments ||
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#2
The French are working very hard on the diplomatic side to rehabilitate Hamas without the demand that they discontinue their war against Israel. Haaretz has an interesting article about it. One wonders whether the French ship is really going to interdict weapons or aid in the delivery.
#3
Rather than just forbidding transit, it would be nice for the Egyptians to board the vessel and seize contraband or better yet, have the crew disembark and blow the ship up.
#4
The Cypriot vessel had to be let go by the US Navy on pirate patrol because of jurisdictional probs in international waters. How can the French prevent arms shipments on the high seas? Egyptian interdiction in this case would be most helpful but even the Navy is hamstrung when it comes to patrolling the oceans.
#7
Why can't Israel fly some jets out (or send a warship) to blow the damn thing up??? Trying to re-arm Gaza now should be interpreted as an act of war!
#8
The Egyptians should board the ship, remove the contents, then allow it on its way. If the Iranians protested, the Egyptians could claim they had confiscated tons of heroin.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Tuesday that Israel will no longer show restraint against Palestinian attacks from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. "Israel is going to act according to a new equation. We are not going to show restraint anymore," Livni told a gathering of the New York-based World Jewish Congress in Jerusalem.
Her remarks came after an Israeli soldier was killed and three others were wounded in an attack near the Gaza border in the most serious assault since a temporary cease-fire went in effect last week. "We need to change the rules of the game until they learn that the rules have changed and the equation has changed," she added.
Livni said that Israel needed to negotiate with the Fatah-run Palestinian leadership in the West Bank towards a two-state solution, while continuing to fight against Hamas in Gaza. "For me an agreement with Hamas is not an option," she concluded.
#2
They're not really serious - yet. They haven't asked the US to let them borrow a dozen B-52s. When that happens, Hamass will pucker so tight they'll all sing soprano.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/27/2009 14:15 Comments ||
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#3
They haven't asked the US to let them borrow a dozen B-52s
Obama wouldn't give it to them anyway. I don't think O's performance on Al-Arabiya did anything to discourage Hamas.
#4
Old Patriot, Hamas thinks missiles are big stuff. They won't be able to conceptualize B-52s until afterward, and then it'll be too late. DoDo is right, though: President Obama would never give Israel such toys to play with.
#5
Given that the Paleos have no air defense, a converted 747 -- cheap on the market these days -- could carry quite a payload. You don't need a Buff. Just saying ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/27/2009 15:40 Comments ||
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During Operation Cast Lead, Israel warned Syria that it would bomb sites and facilities in Damascus if Hizbullah fires rockets on Israeli towns and communities in the North, Egyptian paper Al Ahram reported Tuesday. The report said Israel conveyed the warning to Syrian President Bashar Assad through a European interlocutor. Israel warned Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah against entering a confrontation with the Jewish State and even demanded he make an official statement on the matter, according to Al Ahram. The Jerusalem Post could not independently verify the report.
#5
Two katyushas were fired by a paleo group, this was condemned by the hizbullah ("please, don't kill us"). I think Israel was very pleased to have to deal only with those very isolated and symbolical attacks... 2006 may have been a badly managed war by the joooos and a PR Grand Victory for the hizbullies, but it just miiiight be that behind the bluster, hizbullah really didn't enjoy the beating it got (and didn't expect). Plus, iran may be a bit short on cash, lately, apparently, the checks for 2006 still haven't cleared.
#6
As per BHARAK RAK [INDIAN MILDEF FORUM] > seems HAMAS' ROCKETS came close to hitting the US ANTI-MISSLE RADAR Station at BEERSHEBA???
* SAME > DON'T FORGET THE IRANIAN CONNECTION
[IRAN trains + funds + arms HAMAS]???
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > TIME RUNNING OUT FOR A TWO-STATE SOLUTION/60 MINUTES: GROUPS OF ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS SAY TWO-STATE SOLUTION [ + Israeli-Paleo PEACE] IS NO LONGER POSSIBLE?
In approxi 10 YEARS [2019-2020], ISRAEL's PREDOMIN MUSLIM ARABS WILL OUTNUMBER ISRAEL's JEWS IN ISRAEL PROPER + WEST BANK + GAZA.
Israel's options, besides emigration, are indic:
A. DEMOCRATIC OPTION(S):
1. engage in violent ETHNIC CLEANSING agz Paleos.
2. remove the Paleos from the West Bank [Gaza?].
3. Give Paleos legal rights to formally vote in Israeli elections.
B. NON-DEMOCATIC OPTION:
Basically, TEL AVIV = ISRAEL formally adopts and engages in SOUTH AFRICAN-STYLE APARTHEID vee Paleos. SUCH APARTHEID POLICIES TEND TO BE BOTH UNPOPULAR + TEMPORARY.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that Israel had a right to defend itself and that Palestinian rocket attacks on the Jewish territory could not go unanswered. probably this is not about today's events, but the main part of Op Lead Cast
"We support Israel's right to self-defense. The [Palestinian] rocket barrages which are getting closer and closer to populated areas [in Israel] cannot go unanswered," Clinton said in her first news conference at the State Department. seems goofy since Hamas has been hitting populated areas since they even before they took over Gaza
"It is regrettable that the Hamas leadership apparently believes that it is in their interest to provoke the right of self-defense instead of building a better future for the people of Gaza," she added. and since the Obama Admin's policy is to blame Bush for everything, she added this
More broadly, Clinton said her initial round of telephone calls with world leaders has yielded positive signs. "There's a great exhalation of breath going on around the world as people express their appreciation for the new direction that's being set and the team that's [been] put together by the president," she said.
"In areas of the world that have felt either overlooked or not receiving appropriate attention to the problems they are experiencing, there's a welcoming of the engagement that we are promising," she said.
"It's not any kind of repudiation or indictment of the past eight years so much as an excitement and an acceptance of how we are going to be doing business." of course the next section repudiates away
"We have a lot of damage to repair," she said, referring to U.S. foreign relations as they stood when President George W. Bush left office January 20.
statistical analysis by research assistant in CAMARA but printed in Commentary and carried on the middle east forum website
The recent history of foreign assistance shows a distinct correlation between aid and violence. Perhaps aid itself does not cause violence, but there is strong evidence that it contributes to a culture of corruption, government malfeasance, and terrorism that has had lethal consequences for both Israelis and Palestinians over the past decade.
#1
You know that Health and Human Services eventually removes the children from the care of parents that continue to use aid/welfare money to buy drugs and lotto tickets rather than feed, cloth, and properly house [that's not in filth ridden abodes] the kiddies. How hard is it for other bureaucrats to figure this one out and if they can't why are they permitted to remain bureaucrats?
When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
and the women come out to cut up what remains,
jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
and go to your gawd like a soldier.
-Rudyard Kipling
The tools at the Australian spin this as some kind of depraved PR effort designed to prevent another kidnap drama for Hamas/Hezbollah and their media allies. The real reason, however, is the horrible fate of almost everyone unfortunate enough to be captured alive by these devils.
Our own troops in Afghanistan and Iraq have similar policies, though not officially: Save a bullet or a grenade for yourself.
ISRAELI soldiers fighting in the Gaza Strip offensive this month were ordered to kill themselves rather than be captured, and if necessary to kill any Israeli soldier they saw being taken into captivity, the Yediot Achronot newspaper has reported.
"No matter what happens, no one will be kidnapped," the paper quotes one company commander telling his troops before the fighting began. "We will not have a Gilad Shalit 2."
Corporal Shalit, the Israeli soldier taken prisoner three years ago, is being held by Hamas, which is demanding the release of more than 1000 Palestinian prisoners, including hundreds convicted of terrorism, in exchange for his release. The newspaper quotes similar orders given in different Israeli field units, which reportedly reflect a new army policy.
In the past, there were standing orders, known as "Hannibal mode", for firing at a vehicle taking Israeli troops into captivity to disable it and permit a rescue team to reach it, even at risk to the captive soldiers inside the vehicle. The new orders tighten those instructions, reportedly by permitting the vehicle to be blown up.
A soldier in a commando unit that operated behind Hamas lines said his unit was equipped with "special weapons". "We were instructed to use them also against any vehicle carrying a kidnapped soldier," he said.
And an Israeli company commander told the newspaper he had instructed his men to resist being taken prisoner "even if this costs you your life".
Israel's Channel Ten television station broadcast a recording of a battalion commander instructing his men just before they invaded the Gaza Strip, in which he says one of Hamas's main goals was to capture soldiers to exchange for imprisoned terrorists. "No soldier from the battalion will be kidnapped, even if that means he blows up on his own grenade together with whoever wants to take him," the commander says.
Israeli officers reported several attempts, none successful, to kidnap soldiers during the house-to-house fighting in Gaza and to take them away through tunnels.
In its wars with Arab countries, Israel has had prisoners taken, but at the end of the fighting all prisoners on both sides have been exchanged. But in its conflict with militant groups in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, Israel has had to give up hundreds of prisoners -- mostly Palestinian, sometimes Lebanese -- in exchange for a handful of Israeli captives or for the bodies of dead soldiers.
Differing views about the stricter Hannibal mode were voiced yesterday by two fathers of soldiers who were taken captive by Hezbollah in Lebanon after being mortally wounded. It was an absolutely logical decision, said Haim Avrahami. "Better to pay the price of a soldier and spare him, his family and the nation the awful agony (of his imprisonment)."
But Zvi Regev, father of one of the two soldiers whose capture by Hezbollah in 2006 touched off a month-long war in Lebanon, condemned the new instructions. "We must leave a window of hope that the soldier will return," he said. "I'm shocked just to hear of the possibility that our soldiers will get orders to fire on other soldiers of ours."
The bodies of the two men's sons were returned in exchange for hundreds of Arab prisoners.
Meanwhile, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported yesterday that the No2 man in the Hamas hierarchy in Gaza, Mahmoud Zohar, was wounded in the final days of the fighting in Gaza, and taken by ambulance to a Cairo hospital. There was no indication of his condition and no confirmation from other sources. The No3 leader, Interior Minister Said Siam, was killed during the offensive in an Israeli airstrike.
The newspaper, citing Palestinian sources, said Hamas had executed one of Siam's bodyguards for allegedly informing Israel of his whereabouts.
#1
This is crap. You do not order soldiers to kill themselves because you lack the political will to fight if they are being held hostage. That does not work in so many ways that it makes me sick.
Not only is it going to screw up morale, but it's also going to cause war crimes by soldiers "playing it safe". At the national level, it shows that the Israelis are starting to lose control of themselves.
And once they do lose control, it will be the difference between ethnically cleansing the Paleos by pushing them into Egypt, and mass murdering them.
#2
My uncle & his buddy went from arming P-40s to sitting in a foxhole on Oahu for several days after 7 Dec 1941. They expected to meet Japanese forces face to face. They were quite aware of how the Empire had been treating its prisoners. They both agreed to save their last bullet for themselves.
#3
i don't see any reason not too mass murder the paleos, the "civilians" elected their government if thats what you call it and i would rather die than captured tortured and eventually killed anyway by these animals
#11
Come to think of it, tw, some cases of suicide are part of Jewish tradition. Masada gives an example of ancient Jews doing exactly what these soldiers are doing. The Chanukah story of Hannah's sons has them committing suicide instead of idolatry. These were long before the Shoah.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
01/27/2009 23:40 Comments ||
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Slobbery piece by Al-Jizz that reads like the BBC guys are moonlighting ...
While Israel waged their bloodiest assault on Gaza in decades, their warplanes targeted tunnels on Gaza's border with Egypt in an effort to halt alleged arms shipments. Now, Palestinians are busy restoring the bomb-damaged tunnels, and consumer goods are starting to flow into Gaza again.
Al Jazeera's Jeremy Young describes the process of filming inside them.
The famous tunnels in the southern part of the Gaza Strip are easy to find. Everybody knows where they are, but getting inside is another story.
Israel has maintained its blockade of Gaza, preventing goods from being imported, and Palestinians use the tunnels to transport every product imaginable from northern Egypt into the territory.
The Israelis correctly argue that the tunnels are used by Hamas to smuggle in weapons. About 95 per cent of them were damaged or destroyed in Israel's recent three-week military assault on Gaza.
Our fixer had spent three days trying to get us access inside the tunnels. He said that he called 10 different tunnel operators and nobody would allow us to film there for fear that their tunnel might be targeted by an Israeli raid.
In the end, he succeeded and we arrived at 8:30 on Saturday morning at the first tunnel having agreed not to film any faces of the people that worked there. We sent Tony Zumbado, our cameraman and Mike Kirsch, our correspondent, inside the tunnel, which was at the end of a shaft about 20 metres deep. They used a pulley system, which is normally used to bring goods up and down, to send Mike and Tony down.
This tunnel was not yet operational, as they were still making repairs after it was bombed during the war. It extended an estimated 800 metres under the border and into Egypt.
While we were interviewing one of the tunnel operators, a senior supervisor arrived and began yelling and screaming. He was furious that we were filming there saying that they would get no benefit from our report.
As our team moved to get back into our van, he said he would not allow it to leave and he would blow it up if we moved it. He ran to the entrance of the tunnel and dragged barbed wire across to prevent us from leaving - tunnels are a serious business in Gaza and he had no interest in risking its future.
The second tunnel we visited, they agreed to allow Tony to go down. This tunnel had been operational for just one day. Some of the items that they had brought up from it included guns, rockets and ammo generators, computers, rice, chocolate and powdered milk. The owner had spent about $90,000 on the tunnel, which was a joint operation with eight partners and it had opened only about one week before Israel's assault on Gaza began on December 27.
Once Tony reached the bottom, however, the generator shut down. It took about 20 minutes for the tunnel operators to get the generator going again and Tony was successfully hoisted out.
At the first tunnel, the supervisor who was so angry about our presence, finally calmed down after about 15 minutes of rigorous negotiation from our fixer. He had demanded the material that we had filmed so we gave him one of our tapes, pulled the barbed wire back and drove our van out into the street.
But he then he walked over to us with tears in his eyes. He apologised for his earlier explosion. He explained that the whole situation following the war was very difficult for everybody in Gaza and that was why he had lost control.
He returned our tape to us and told us if we wanted to come back and film at the tunnel that we would be welcome. We told him that he had no need to apologise, thanked him and drove away.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Donald Wildman can do a "Cities of the Underground" on Gaza.
#3
What a sweet man who threatened to blow us up! The situation with those horrible Jooos is just really tense, he never meant any harm! Don't forget, Islam=peace, and threats of explosive murder is just part of the colorful local culture.
[Now please excuse me while I go throw up].
#4
Israel failed miserably in shutting down the tunnels. Two nukes would have been all it took - one about a third of the way in from the Med, and one right on top of the Rafah crossing. Use burrowing nukes, so you can get good earth movement. The holes left by the explosions will make great salt-water lakes and improve local fishing.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
01/27/2009 14:30 Comments ||
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Ma'an's version...
European Union's Commissioner Louis Michel visited Gaza City on Monday, where he called for maintaining the ceasefire, opening border crossings and lifting the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.
Standing in front of the missiled UN storehouses, bombed by Israel during the three week onslaught, Michel expressed his astonishment at the damage caused by the Israeli offensive.
Israel violated international and human rights, he said, and affirmed that civilians were directly targeted during the attacks. He expressed shock at the evidence that 50% of victims were civilians including women and children.
"The most painful thing for me was the sizable of destruction in infra-structures, economic facilities and factories which used to provide work opportunities for the Palestinians. [The destruction of these] was an unjustifiable violation of international law," he stated.
At the same time, Michel condemned all military action against civilians, including Israeli civilians, referring to the home-made projectiles the Palestinian factions launch from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli towns. He described that as "terrorism" because those attacks target guiltless people.
He added, "Today I believe more than any other time in the past that military operations can never be a solution. Instead, the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip should be maintained, and crossing points should be completely open not only for passage of humanitarian aid, but also to refresh the economy in the strip." And the BBC's version...
EU envoy lays Gaza blame on Hamas
A senior European Union official touring war-torn Gaza has blamed the ruling militant movement Hamas for the humanitarian crisis there. Humanitarian aid chief Louis Michel called the destruction left by Israel's offensive "abominable", but said Hamas bore "overwhelming responsibility". He said there would be no dialogue with with the "terrorist" movement until it gave up violence and recognised Israel.
Touring some of Gaza's worst-hit areas of Israel's 22-day assault which killed about 1,300 Palestinians, including 400 children, Mr Michel described the situation as "abominable, indescribable".
"At this time we have to also recall the overwhelming responsibility of Hamas," he said. "I intentionally say this here - Hamas is a terrorist movement and it has to be denounced as such."
Thirteen Israelis were killed in the conflict, and Mr Michel later visited the southern Israeli town of Sderot, the target of Palestinian militant rocket fire. There, he called on Israel to lift its blockade of Gaza and accused both sides of violating humanitarian law. "Please open the crossings, you have to broaden the range of products that you let in," he urged Israel's authorities. "We, the EU, condemn Qassam attacks and military options which target the civilian population."
The former Belgian foreign minister insisted there would be no dialogue with Hamas, saying its use of terrorism against Israeli civilians meant it was not a legitimate resistance movement.
Some aid agencies have expressed doubts about how effective a reconstruction drive in Gaza can be without the involvement of Hamas, which controls the territory, says the BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Gaza.
Announcing the extra aid, Mr Michel said people in the EU were sick of paying for the same infrastructure being destroyed over and over again in Israeli military action. The EU is the main donor to the Palestinians, having given three billion euros since 2000, Mr Michel said. "Every year, we spend 600 to 700m euros. Today we decided on a supplementary payment of 60m euros."
Hmmmmmm. Something seems lost in translation
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#5
In other words the several years long harrassing by Palestinans firing rocketys at Israel will have zero cost for them.
If Palestyians had had to work hard for eraning a living and work harder for every Kassama and work still harder for paying every cent of disruption they cause in Israel (including the disruption of activity) there would be no war.
Ma'an -- The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades denied media reports that armed Hamas-men opened fire on a group of its members, injured two of them, and arrested the others as they were trying to launch rockets.
"The goal of these malicious rumors is to derail the Palestinian objectives," said a statement from the Brigades. It also called the media to be more accurate when reporting the news.
The Brigades, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, further commented on their continued rejection of the unilaterally declared ceasefire, saying their actions would only be dictated by the higher interests of the Palestinian people.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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(AKI) - An Al-Qaeda operative and former Guantanamo detainee has attacked the Lebanese Shia movement , Hezbollah, for failing to defend Palestinians from Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip. In a video released on the internet, Abu Hureira Qasim al-Rimi directed his attack against Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah. "I would like to send a message to Hassan Nasrallah - Answer me, why have you shed all these tears for Gaza and for the people of Gaza? Didn't you say that you had warehouses full of 20,000 missiles that could reach Tel-Aviv?" said Abu Hureira Qasim al-Rimi in the 19-minute video message.
Al-Rimi then proceeded to attack Hezbollah for failing to help Gazans during the recent three-week long Israeli offensive that began on 27 December. More than 1,330 Palestinians were killed and another 5,000 were injured during Operation Cast Lead. Thirteen Israelis were killed during the conflict. Proving that verbal ferocity doesn't make up for being undisciplined dishpits and piss-poor shots...
"Didn't our brothers in Gaza deserve you launching, in their defence, one thousand, two thousand or three thousand rockets instead of these tears? " he said. "Is Lebanese land more valuable than the blood of the Palestinians? What is the difference between you and (Egyptian president) Hosni Mubarak who protects the Jews?," said al-Rimi. "Our community must know the truth about these facts and understand who is 'selling' our cause."
In the video, al-Rimi appears next to the leader of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian PeninsulaAbu Basir al-Naser al-Wahshi. The video, entitled "From here we begin and we will meet each other at the al-Aqsa mosque," refers to Islam's third holiest site, located in Jerusalem.
This article starring:
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Abu Basir al-Naser al-Wahshi
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Abu Hureira Qasim al-Rimi
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Where was al-Rimi when he made this video? Leading his rabble across no-man's-land into Israel? Or even rabble-rousing in a public square in Beirut? Nah. Probably somewhere nice and safe and comfy. But not as safe and comfy as Gitmo.
Officials in Egypt are attempting to persuade Hamas to accept Israel's current offer of a cease-fire in Gaza before a far less accommodating government under Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu is elected, the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported Monday.
The newspaper quoted the officials as telling Hamas that polls in Israel show the opposition leader is likely be voted prime minister in February's general election, adding that he would form a coalition with "extremist parties."
They reportedly said that Hamas stands to "lose everything" under these circumstances.
Hamas' Gaza spokesman Ayman Taha, meanwhile, has said recently that Israel has offered his Palestinian Islamist group a 10-year cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.
Egypt is also demanding a truce of a number of years' duration. But Taha said the group would agree to a cease-fire of anywhere between one year and no more than 18 months. Another Hamas spokesman, Ismail Radwan, said a long-term cease-fire "kills" the right to resistance by the Palestinians.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Egypt is the only Arab state that, even remotely, approaches the status of a Country and a Nation---sometimes that shows.
Hamas official Osama Hamdan said Sunday that Fatah movement must end peace negotiations with Israel before any reconciliation talks can take place.
The remarks were bound to complicate Arab efforts to reconcile Hamas, which controls Gaza, and the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
Speaking at a rally in Beirut Sunday, Hamdan - a close ally of Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal - said that the group welcomed Palestinian dialogue, but any reconciliation should be based on a resistance program to liberate territory and regain rights. He also demanded that the PA end security coordination with Israel, and maintained that the Israeli-Palestinian peace process had ended.
"Those who committed mistakes must correct their mistakes through a clear and frank declaration to stop security coordination with the [Israeli] occupation, release [Hamas] prisoners and later end negotiations [with Israel] because the peace process is irreversibly over," said Hamdan. "It's time for us to talk about a reconciliation based on a resistance program to liberate the [occupied] territory and regain rights," he added.
Asharq Al-Awsat also reported Saturday that Hamas had suggested representatives of the Palestinian Authority be stationed at the Rafah crossing, but that they be residents of Gaza, not the West Bank.
Israel has been allowing some supply convoys into Gaza, though its borders remain largely closed. The Israel Defense Forces says more than 125 trucks a day - on some days nearly 200 - have entered Gaza since fighting ended on January 17th, but aid workers say the numbers are not enough.
This article starring:
Osama Hamdan
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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The Gaza Zoo reeks of death. But zookeeper Emad Jameel Qasim doesn't appear to react to the stench as he walks around the animals' enclosures.
A month ago, it was attracting families - he says the zoo drew up to 1,000 visitors each day. He points at the foot-long hole in the camel in one of the enclosures. "This camel was pregnant, a missile went into her back," he tells us. "Look, look at her face. She was in pain when she died." "Captain!"
"Yes, general?"
"Keep a sharp eye out for camels! Make sure you rocket them all!"
"Yes, sir!"
Around every corner, inside almost every cage are dead animals, who have been lying in their cages since the Israeli incursion. Qasim doesn't understand why they chose to destroy his zoo. "Major!"
"Yes, general?"
"Make sure you attack the zoo!"
"Of course, sir!"
And it's difficult to disagree with him. Most of them have been shot at point blank range. "The first thing the Israelis did was shoot at the lions - the animals ran out of their cage and into the office building. Actually they hid there." "Sir, there are lions in the zoo office!"
"What're they doing?"
"Making a phone call, I think!"
"Well, shoot them!"
The two lions are back in their enclosure. The female is pregnant, and lies heavily on the ground, occasionally swishing her tail. Qasim stands unusually close to them, but they don't seem bothered by his presence.
As he takes us around, he is obviously appalled at the state of the animals. The few animals that have survived appear weak and disturbed. It's something in the air of Gaza, I think...
"The foxes ate each other because we couldn't get to them in time. We had many here." There are carcasses everywhere and the last surviving fox is quivering in the corner. ... with no one left to eat...
The zoo opened in late 2005, with money from local and international NGOs. There were 40 types of animals, a children's library, a playground and cultural centre housed at the facility. Inside the main building, soldiers defaced the walls, ripped out one of the toilets and removed all of the hard drives from the office computers.
We asked him why they targeted the zoo. He laughs. "I don't know. You have to go and ask the Israelis. This is a place where people come to relax and enjoy themselves. It's not a place of politics."
Israel has accused Hamas of firing rockets from civilian areas. Qasim reacts angrily when we raise the subject. "Let me answer that with a question. We are under attack. There was not a single person in this zoo. Just the animals. We all fled before they came. What purpose does it serve to walk around shooting animals and destroying the place?"
Inside one cage lie three dead monkeys and another two in the cage beside them. Two more escaped and have yet to return. He points to a clay pot. "They tried to hide", he says of a mother and baby half-tucked inside.
Qasim says that his main two priorities at the moment are rebuilding the zoo and taking the Israeli army to court. For the first, he says he will need close to $200,000(Dh734,000) to return the zoo to its former state - and he wants the Israelis to cover the costs. "They have to pay me for all this damage."
We ask him why it's so important for Gaza to have a zoo. "During the past four years it was the most popular place for kids. They came from all over the Gaza Strip. There was nowhere else for people to go."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Gaza is a zoo and it's full of animals. (I didn't know it had keepers, though.)
Posted by: Steven ||
01/27/2009 13:43 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Why would Israelis target the zoo? Does anyone know?
There were 40 types of animals, a children's library, a playground and cultural centre housed at the facility. Inside the main building, soldiers defaced the walls, ripped out one of the toilets and removed all of the hard drives from the office computers.
Actually, that sounds pretty bad. Any news supporting the story?
Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Athar Abbas on Monday said the military was acquiring the latest technology to jam the illegal radio transmissions of the Swat Taliban, a private TV channel reported. The ISPR spokesman told the channel that the Taliban's FM radio transmitters were mobile and could not be destroyed immediately. However, Abbas said, the acquisition of the technology would help block the illegal transmissions. Some fairly old-technology radio direction finding equipment will nail them down within anywhere from a half kilometer to about 100 square meters. Multiple intersects from remote-operated airborne equipment can nail them within comfortable artillery range, and then there's suddenly no more Mullah Fazlullah. That's what they're trying to avoid, of course.
General Abbas said the Taliban were trying to create an atmosphere of fear in Swat and wanted to extend their presence to other parts of the country, the channel reported. He told the channel that the Taliban were trying to project themselves as a parallel government in the valley, but the military would control the situation soon. "Define soon?"
"Next 100 years. Maybe 150."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I knew how to use a frequency counter and direction finder with a scanner 30 years ago. Why is this technology just now being used?
The recent military operation in the Gaza Strip against Hamas has restored Israeli's deterrence among its enemies and in the perception of the whole world, Prime Minsiter Ehud Olmert said on Monday.
"We have reestablished in the perception of the whole world the power and deterrence Israel has always enjoyed," Olmert told a gathering of the New York-based World Jewish Congress in Jerusalem. "It is not worthwhile starting a war with Israel."
The premier said that the 22 day-long attack on Hamas in Gaza was "essential, fundamental, and also successful."
"The lesson was taught which hopefully will change realities," Olmert said. "Those who thought Israel was afraid of using power, would hesitate, and not have the courage now know we will not hesitate to use our force to defend our country."
Olmert added that in light of the bruising military operation, the international community was determined to stop weapons smuggling to the Gaza Strip, and at the same time he voiced the hope that Palestinians living in the Hamas-controlled territory would reject the Islamic regime and soon live in peace with Israel.
"We are not that far away from achieving a full comprehensive peace with the Palestinians," Olmert concluded.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Leastwise it shown Lions of Islam(TM) that they cannot hide behind their own "civilians"---the cornerstone of the current Jihad.
#2
And killing their human shields (which they really don't care about, otherwise they wouldn't be killing so many of them in the first place) has been soooooooo successful... the top two items right now are that Hamas has started shooting again.
The phrase "national security theater" comes to mind.
NEW YORK, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Two men accused of belonging to a U.S. branch of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers pleaded guilty on Monday to conspiring to funnel resources to the rebel group, a court spokesman said. John Smith Sathajhan Sarachandran, 29, and Bill Jones Nadarasa Yogarasa, 54, pleaded guilty on the eve of their trial at U.S. District Court in Brooklyn to conspiring to provide material support to a terrorist organization, spokesman Robert Nardoza said. Sarachandran also pleaded guilty to attempting to purchase guided anti-aircraft missiles.
The trial of two co-defendants, Sam Brown Sahilal Sabaratnam, 29, and Tyrone Thompson Thiruthanikan Thanigasalam, 40, is expected to go forward on Wednesday. Several other individuals -- including Karunakaran Kandasamy, the suspected head of the U.S. branch of the rebel group, who stands accused of overseeing the organization's activities and fund-raising -- have been charged separately and are expected to go on trial later this year.
Prosecutors said the Tamil Tigers rely on sympathetic expatriates to raise money, get weapons and spread propaganda. To coordinate these activities, the Tigers have established "branches" in at least 12 countries, including an office in the New York borough of Queens, prosecutors said in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
This would be page 2 I would think...
Anyway this is the other part of crushing the LTTE, going after their immigrant supporters. The LTTE even terrorizes them here and extracts taxes to fund the rebellion.
US President Barack Obama's administration will engage in "direct diplomacy" with Iran, the newly installed US ambassador to the United Nations said Monday.
Not since before the 1979 Iranian revolution are US officials believed to have conducted wide-ranging direct diplomacy with Iranian officials. But US Ambassador Susan Rice warned that Iran must meet UN Security Council demands to suspend uranium enrichment before any talks on its nuclear program.
"The dialogue and diplomacy must go hand in hand with a very firm message from the United States and the international community that Iran needs to meet its obligations as defined by the Security Council. And its continuing refusal to do so will only cause pressure to increase," she told reporters during a brief question-and-answer session.
Her comments, reflecting Obama's signals for improved relations with America's foes after eight years under former US president George W. Bush, came shortly after she met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on her first day on the job.
Iran still considers the US the "Great Satan," but a day after Obama was sworn in, it said it was "ready for new approaches by the United States." Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said his country would look into the idea of allowing the US to open a diplomatic office in Teheran, the first since 1979.
Rice said the US remains "deeply concerned about the threat that Iran's nuclear program poses to the region, indeed to the United States and the entire international community."
"We look forward to engaging in vigorous diplomacy that includes direct diplomacy with Iran," she said. It would include "continued collaboration and partnership" with the other four permanent members of the Security Council - Britain, China, France and Russia - along with Germany, Rice said.
"And we will look at what is necessary and appropriate with respect to maintaining pressure toward that goal of ending Iran's nuclear program," she said.
In recent years, Iranian and American officials have negotiated in the same room on talks about Afghanistan that involved other countries' diplomats. They also talked face to face in Baghdad but the agenda was limited to Iraqi security.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2009 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(Xinhua) -- Somali parliamentarians meeting in Djibouti City has overwhelmingly endorsed the enlargement of the legislative assembly to include opposition members in accordance with a power sharing deal reached last year, reports reaching here said Monday. 
The Awami National Party (ANP) agrees to change the North West Frontier Province's name to Afghania, ANP chief Asfandyar Wali said on Monday. 
In the first entry of his week-long diary, BBC diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams joins British troops on a raid near Basra as they witness the progress made by the Iraqi Army. 
The search, in a dirt poor town with a reputation for lawlessness and violence, yields dozens of weapons, from an ageing Sten gun to an assortment of Kalashnikovs. More than 120 weapons in all. Some of the house searches look a little staged for our camera and the town's sleepy atmosphere seems at odds with the overwhelming military presence. 
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Tuesday that Israel will no longer show restraint against Palestinian attacks from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. "Israel is going to act according to a new equation. We are not going to show restraint anymore," Livni told a gathering of the New York-based World Jewish Congress in Jerusalem.
In the end, he succeeded and we arrived at 8:30 on Saturday morning at the first tunnel having agreed not to film any faces of the people that worked there. We sent Tony Zumbado, our cameraman and Mike Kirsch, our correspondent, inside the tunnel, which was at the end of a shaft about 20 metres deep. They used a pulley system, which is normally used to bring goods up and down, to send Mike and Tony down.
(AKI) - An Al-Qaeda operative and former Guantanamo detainee has attacked the Lebanese Shia movement , Hezbollah, for failing to defend Palestinians from Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip. In a video released on the internet, 
Officials in Egypt are attempting to persuade Hamas to accept Israel's current offer of a cease-fire in Gaza before a far less accommodating government under Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu is elected, the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported Monday. 
Hamas official 
