[CBS News]A portion of American taxpayer dollars slated for development projects in Afghanistan is alleged to end up in the hands of the Taliban, the GlobalPost reports. The United States Agency for International Development is investigating if its funds are being used by contractors to pay the Taliban for protection from itself.
Payoffs to the Taliban are a widely known practice in Afghanistan, according to a report by GlobalPost last month. When the money is not paid, they wreak havoc in the area, blowing up bridges, kidnapping contractors and bringing projects to a halt.
GlobalPost reporter Jean MacKenzie writes, "the Taliban allegedly receives kickbacks from almost every major contract that comes into the country." MacKenzie adds that the deal are "at times highly formalized" and "the Taliban actually keeps an office in Kabul to review major deals, determine percentages and conduct negotiations. The arrangements are often more personal, as when a local supplier pays off a small-time Taliban commander to allow free passage of goods through his patch of insurgency-controlled terrain."
One source told the GlobalPost that the Taliban takes as much as 20 percent of development aid awarded to contractors. An embassy worker in Kabul described the arrangement as "organized crime."
Dona Dinkler, the chief of staff for congressional affairs at USAID's Office of Inspector General in Washington, D.C., told the GlobalPost that the allegations are a cause for concern, but added a note of caution. "It's a real hard thing to prove. Who is going to survive to testify about that? That is our challenge. But that doesn't mean we stop trying. We want to get to the bottom of it," Dinkler said. USAID has only one inspector and two auditors in Afghanistan following the billions of dollars in aid money that the United States provides.
It's not about the jihad, it's about the payola. They don't enjoy the destruction, murder and rape, not really. And the drugs, of course, but that seems to be drying up. Only the rubes fall for that old jihad shtick.
WASHINGTON -- The military's anticipated request for more troops to combat the insurgency in Afghanistan has divided senior advisers to President Obama as they try to determine the proper size and mission of the American effort there, officials said Thursday.
Even before the top commander in Afghanistan submits his proposal for additional forces, administration officials have begun what one called a "healthy debate" about what the priorities should be and whether more American soldiers and Marines would help achieve them.
Leading those with doubts is Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., who has expressed deep reservations about an expanded presence in Afghanistan on the grounds that it may distract from what he considers the more urgent goal of stabilizing Pakistan, officials said. Among those on the other side are Richard C. Holbrooke, the special representative to the region, who shares the concern about Pakistan but sees more troops as vital to protecting Afghan civilians and undermining the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been vocal in favor of more troops, and while some officials said she had not shown her hand during the current deliberations, they expected her to be an advocate for a more robust force.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has voiced concern that putting so many troops in Afghanistan would make the United States look like an occupier, but during a news conference on Thursday he sounded more supportive of the prospect.
"There is a unanimity of opinion about what our objective is, and the objective is to disable and destroy Al Qaeda and remove that threat to our national security," said David Axelrod, the president's senior adviser. "Obviously, there are a variety of opinions about how best to achieve that objective, and it's valuable and important to hear those views."
The emerging debate follows the delivery Monday of a new strategic assessment by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who took over all American and NATO forces in Afghanistan in June. Mr. Gates has now forwarded the general's report of about 25 pages to Mr. Obama.
Although General McChrystal included no specific force proposals in his review, officials expect him to send a separate request in the coming weeks. Military strategists, including one who has advised General McChrystal, said he might offer three options. The smallest proposed reinforcement, from 10,000 to 15,000 troops, would be described as the high-risk option. A medium-risk option would involve sending about 25,000 more troops, and a low-risk option would call for sending about 45,000 troops.
Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon press secretary, cautioned that talk about troop levels was speculation. "Anyone who tells you that they know how many troops the commander is going to ask for and the options he may or may not present doesn't know what he's talking about, because that has not been determined yet," Mr. Morrell said. He said that Mr. Gates had not made up his mind about what he would recommend to the president.
Mr. Gates could be the key adviser on this decision, and some military analysts predicted that he might recommend what Pentagon officials call the "Goldilocks option" -- the medium-risk one in the middle. Because he was first appointed by President George W. Bush, Mr. Gates could provide political cover for Mr. Obama should the president reject the biggest possible buildup.
Mr. Gates has long been worried that a large number of American forces would alienate the Afghan population. But at a news conference with Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mr. Gates said Thursday that his concerns about the American "footprint" had been mitigated by General McChrystal, who has indicated that the size of the force is less important than what it does.
"Where foreign forces have had a large footprint and failed, in no small part it has been because the Afghans concluded they were there for their own imperial interests and not there for the interests of the Afghan people," Mr. Gates said. But he said that General McChrystal's emphasis on reducing civilian casualties and interacting more with Afghans "has given us a greater margin of error in that respect."
Mr. Obama has already ordered 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan this year for a total American force of 68,000, on top of 40,000 NATO troops. Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Holbrooke pushed for those reinforcements, while Mr. Biden resisted. "It is true that Hillary was very forceful; I had some disagreement in degree with her," Mr. Biden later told USA Today. "The president ended up landing on a spot that was where she was."
Mr. Biden has argued that a sizable increase in resources for Afghanistan invariably means less for Pakistan, a concern born out of his frustration as a senator during the Bush administration pushing for more aid to Islamabad. In some ways, he has told colleagues, Pakistan is more important than Afghanistan because extremism is on the rise there, Al Qaeda has operating room and the government of Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation, remains vulnerable.
Other American officials said they worried that General McChrystal simply did not have enough forces to turn around Afghanistan. Mr. Holbrooke just returned from Afghanistan, where he heard from military officers who said they needed more help to execute General McChrystal's strategy of protecting the population from the Taliban, rather than just hunting militants.
As the president's senior uniformed adviser, Admiral Mullen has said he worries about the impact of a buildup on the nation's already stretched armed forces. In July, Mr. Gates announced a temporary increase of 22,000 troops in the size of the Army.
Mediating the debate will be Gen. James L. Jones, the national security adviser. "My job is to make sure the process works the way the president wants and everybody is at the table," he said. "I try to be open-minded and not prejudice anything."
He said he would ensure that dissidents got to voice their views to Mr. Obama. "He encourages vigorous debate," General Jones said. "The thing not to do in a meeting with the president is to sit on your hands and hope you don't get called on, because that's a guarantee that you're going to get called on."
#1
The problem here is the Pozer for prez has pozer help. None of them can spell victory, or understand the term strategic operations. All the want to do is suck up to zero and drink from the coolaid. Good lord was it like this with JFK???
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/04/2009 14:27 Comments ||
Top||
(Reuters) - Growing opium is hardly worth the risk any more for Dost Mohammad, a farmer in Helmand, a province of Afghanistan which by itself produces almost enough opium to satisfy all the heroin addicts on earth. "Opium farmers benefit nothing from the crops and spend their day and night in misery," he told Reuters. "We spend six months in the field working hard, then the government can destroy it in a single day."
According to the United Nations, prices for opium have plummeted in Afghanistan, causing farmers to switch to other crops. Two years ago, a farmer growing opium could earn 10 times as much as a farmer growing wheat on the same piece of land. Today, it is only worth three times as much. For many, that means producing the drugs is no longer worth the risk or effort.
According to the U.N.'s annual report into Afghanistan's drug harvest, 800,000 Afghans abandoned the trade this year. Opium, which accounted for 27 percent of Afghanistan's economy in 2002, now accounts for just 4 percent.
Now let's see... if I punched the numbers into the calculator... 4 into 27 carry the... times 100 of course... One seventh of what it used to be? That's an awful lot of former jihadis now on the dole.
Across Afghanistan, 22 percent less land is cultivated with opium than last year. In Helmand, the reduction is steeper. Areas that last year were almost completely planted with the tall, colourful flowers were this year patched with green wheat fields.
Adam Khan, a smuggler who trades opium in several districts in Helmand, said the low price and the government's eradication operations in districts and villages previously controlled by the Taliban have badly affected the trade. "I used to sell five kilos (11 pounds) for 40,000 Pakistani rupees ($480). Now it is not more than 15,000 to 16,000," he said.
Farmers who have their own small plots to work on have been branching out into planting other crops, but big landlords connected to dealers are still hiring labourers to plant opium, farmers say.
The United Nations believes traders are hoarding stockpiles, perhaps as much as 10,000 tonnes, or double the annual illicit demand for the drug.
#1
"One seventh of what it used to be? That's an awful lot of former jihadis now on the dole."
The numerator, the amoung of opium produded, hasnt gone down that much. The denominator, the rest of the Afghan economy, has grown. In 2002 there wasnt much of an afghan economy at all. In 2009, despite all the hand wringing, the nonopium piece of the afghan economy has grown a lot IIUC, esp in the north and west.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
09/04/2009 10:18 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I'm ashamed. Usually I don't miss the really obvious stuff.
[Maghrebia] Moroccan officials attending Libya's 40th anniversary celebration of Moamer Kadhafi's accession to power left the country abruptly on Wednesday (September 2nd) to protest the presence of a Polisario delegation, AFP reported. In addition to the departure of Moroccan Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi and the official Moroccan contingent, the Royal Armed Forces cancelled their scheduled participation in a military parade, MAP reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
[Maghrebia] Mauritania's ruling Union for the Republic (UPR) will soon launch a nationwide awareness campaign on the dangers of terrorism and extremism, PANA reported on Wednesday, (September 2nd). Speaking at a Nouakchott press conference about the initiative, party chief Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Mohamed Lemine also called for a constructive political dialogue with the opposition in order to establish a democratic, pluralistic system.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
[Asharq al-Aswat] Asharq Al-Awsat- Yemeni authorities said yesterday that they killed and captured a number of Huthists at several battlefronts in Sadah Governorate north of Yemen while Abdul-Malik al-Huthi called on his supporters to wage a long-term war against the government forces. The latter and the Huthists exchanged statements of making progress in the fighting and achieving their military objectives.
Elsewhere, the Shiite religious authority in Al-Najaf denied knowledge that the Huthists have an office in the city, downplayed the importance of the presence of such an office, and considered it unnecessary and inappropriate.
Hamid Al-Khaffaf, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's official spokesman said "his eminence has not expressed an opinion and has not made any comment on the events in Yemen." He added in a telephone contact with Asharq Al-Awsat from Beirut that the "higher religious authority has no knowledge of the presence of an office for the Huthists in Al-Najaf. The authority believes its presence is inappropriate and it is not right to involve the higher authority in this matter."
One of the Yemeni clerics living in Al-Najaf confirmed this denial. Sheikh Ali Muhammad al-Yamani, director of "Al-Thiqlayn" Center in Sanaa, told Asharq al-Awsat" in Al-Najaf where he has been studying at the religious hawzah for more than nine years that the Sadah crisis started in 2004 and accused the authorities of discriminating against the thoughts of the 12 imams and the Shiite ideology in general. On the Baathists' presence in Yemen and the extent of their influence on the Yemeni Government, he said: "There are many Iraqi pilots who fled to Yemen after the fall of former Iraqi regime. They attacked the Sadah Governorate and specifically the markets and civilians and their bloody attacks caused much damage and mass killings in Sadah."
As to the Yemeni Government's accusations that the Huthists have connections with Iran and the latter is providing them with weapons and finance, Al-Yamani said: "We deny categorically any connections with Iran. We consider it an Islamic country just like other countries and any rapprochement with it does not exceed the common doctrinal beliefs."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
A Muslim community leader who claimed he had been kidnapped at knifepoint after a BNP hate campaign has been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. The BNP had been accused of whipping up racial tensions in the area after it issued an inflammatory leaflet about Mr Ramjanally's Islamic community group, the first in Loughton.
Noor Ramjanally, 36, of Valley Hill, alleged in August that he was abducted by two men, bundled into a car boot, driven to Epping Forest in Essex and told to stop his religious work. His alleged ordeal became a cause célèbre among the Muslim community after it was reported in national press. He had also alleged that his Loughton home was firebombed in July and that he had received hate mail threatening his family.
Mr Ramjanally, who was involved in organising Friday jumu'ah prayer sessions in the town's Murray Hall community centre, had claimed he feared he was about to be murdered when the car stopped and one of the kidnappers said Let's do it here. The pair were then said to have marched him deep into the forest before warning him: We don't want the Islamic group in Loughton'. The father-of-one said he thought the attack had been inspired by the BNP. He said: I thought that my life was over. They just said Get out' and walked with me for two or three minutes into the forest.
[When] we were deep into the forest. They said: We don't want the Islamic group in Loughton. I feared for my life. They said, If you don't stop, we'll come back'. Then they disappeared. He said he then used a passer-by's mobile to dial 999.
But today, Mr Ramjanally was himself arrested amid suggestions that he made the whole incident up.
Admittedly, it is a very dramatic tale. Perhaps Mr. Ramjanally should contemplate changing careers while he languishes in prison.
A body delivered to the British Embassy in Baghdad has been identified as that of Alec MacLachlan, one of five Britons kidnapped in Iraq three years ago. Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced "with deepest regret" yesterday that the 30-year-old security guard was dead. "My thoughts and I believe the thoughts of the whole country are with the MacLachlan family," he said.
MacLachlan was kidnapped along with Alan McMenemy, Peter Moore, Jason Creswell and Jason Swindlehurst by a group of men posing as security forces and government workers at the Iraqi Finance Ministry in Baghdad on May 29, 2007. The bodies of Creswell and Swindlehurst were handed over in June. Moore is believed to still be alive, the Foreign Office said in a statement posted on its Web site. It is Britain's longest-running hostage crisis since 1991 when Church envoy Terry Waite was freed after being held for five years by the Islamic Jihad Organization in Lebanon.
Moore's father, Graeme Moore, has accused the government of not doing enough to free the men seized in Baghdad, saying in a June 22 commentary in the Daily Mail newspaper the Foreign Office "had been useless." Moore was working as a technology expert for U.S. management consultants BearingPoint Inc, and the others were employed as his bodyguards by Montreal-based GardaWorld.
Several videos have been released by the kidnappers, a group calling itself the Islamic Shiite Resistance of Iraq that has called for nine imprisoned associates to be freed.
Creswell and Swindlehurst died from gunshot wounds. It wasn't immediately clear how McMenemy had died. His body was identified within 24 hours of the Foreign Office announcing it had been delivered to the U.K. embassy.
British authorities are working with Iraqi officials to secure the return of Moore and McMenemy and to bring the kidnappers to justice, Brown said. "That is what every family should expect of us and that is what we are going to do." I'm not sure if it's appropriate to use the image of military funeral for the return of a non-military body. If it isn't, please feel free to delete or change it. I deleted it. AoS.
North Korea says it has entered its final phase in uranium enrichment.
The reclusive regime's state-run media also claims scientists are finalizing the reprocessing of the spent fuel rods with the extracted plutonium being weaponized.
Media reports in Seoul say Pyongyang informed the United Nations Security Council of its activities in a letter.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
And Year 2012 ANTI-US NUCPROLIFER = NUCLEARIZATION proceeds/moves along nicely.
[Kyodo: Korea] U.S. Special Representative for North Korea Policy Stephen Bosworth arrived Thursday in Beijing on a two-day visit in which he will meet with Chinese officials to discuss issues related to denuclearization of North Korea. ""Both parties will exchange opinions on issues related to the denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula and the six-party talks as well as issues of mutual concern,"" Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a regular press briefing.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Nuke them, and loudly claim their own Nuke misfired.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/04/2009 12:06 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Brett Favre goes to Minnesota, Micheal Vick goes to Philadelphia, somehow it only makes sense that Brian Bosworth would end up in North Korea.
[Kyodo: Korea] China on Thursday denied accounts by two U.S. journalists jailed for illegally entering North Korea that they were seized on Chinese territory by North Korean troops. ""According to the understanding of relevant departments, such a situation as described by you did not happen,"" Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a news conference when asked about the accounts by Laura Ling and Euna Lee. The two were sentenced to 12 years hard labor by the North before being freed last month when former U.S. President Bill Clinton traveled to Pyongyang.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Dutch prosecutors say they have ordered the release of four terror suspects who were expelled from Kenya after being detained for unspecified "suspicious activities" close to the border with Somalia.
Prosecutors said last month the four 21-year-olds were believed to have been heading for a "jihad training camp" in lawless Somalia when they were detained in Kenya. The were flown to Belgium and arrested on a Dutch warrant. But prosecutors ordered the men's release Friday after investigations turned up no new evidence against them.
Three of the men are Dutch and the fourth is Moroccan with Dutch residency. Prosecution spokesman Wim de Bruin said the investigation is continuing and Dutch authorities are awaiting information from Kenya.
[Geo News] Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Hamid Saeed Kazmi talking to Geo News for the first time after surviving attack, said he laid straight on the back seat of the car when the assailants opened fire at his car. He said he tried to use his mobile phone but failed to do so. The driver tried to speed up to avoid attack but the car hit a tree, Kazmi said lying on the hospital bed. The Federal Minister said he has no personal enmity with anyone. However, he said, despite demands no security was provided to him by the government after receiving life threats. He said he lost a lot of blood and thanked three doctors for providing their blood. He said there was only one gunman with him at the time of attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
[Al Arabiya Latest] Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan live in fear of persecution and even execution or murder on false charges of blasphemy against Islam, the World Council of Churches (WCC) says.
The Council, a global body linking Protestant and Orthodox churches in 110 countries, has called on the Pakistani government to change a law that allows for the death penalty for blaspheming Islam. Since the law was adopted in 1986 religious minorities in the country have been "living in a state of fear and terror ... and many innocent people have lost their lives", the WCC said in a statement.
So the traditional Muslim plan is working as intended.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Dawn] Involvement of ministry employees can not be ruled out in the assassination attempt on Religious Affairs Minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said, adding that police will soon capture the culprits behind the incident.
Talking to reporters, he said someone in the ministry's office might have aided the attackers and investigation in this regard was underway.
Police found no bomb at the crime scene, he said, adding that, two pistols, a Kalashnikov, a shopping bag and some other articles were recovered from the site.
Responding to a question, he said we have some clues in the case but we can not comment on them. Minister Kazmi was provided two guards therefore it can not be said that he was without protocol, Malik said.
We will soon capture the culprits and once the investigation is completed we will inform the public in full, he said. Replying to a question, the interior minister confirmed the submission of an application by Hamid Saeed Kazmi seeking a bullet proof vehicle for himself. The Cabinet division is responsible for the security of ministers and other important officials.
At the moment the government has some seven to eight bullet proof vehicles, Malik said, adding that even he travels in private vehicle. On the directives of President Asif Ali Zardari, the government has decided to purchase more bullet proof vehicles, he said.
We have detained various suspects and the investigators are interrogating them, he said, adding that the attack on Hamid Saeed Kazmi was targeted and those who conspired it would soon be taken to task.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
One couldnt imagine that not all employees of the religious affairs ministry are moderates, eh?
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
09/04/2009 10:11 Comments ||
Top||
[Dawn] Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Qamar Zaman Kiara has said the government would not bow down to cowardly acts of terrorism and terrorists would not be spared.
The information minister, flanked by Federal Health Minister Ijaz Ahmed Jhakarani, was talking to media men outside the Polyclinic after enquiring about the health of Federal Religious Affairs Minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi.
Strongly condemning the assassination attempt on the minister, he said the government was expecting such incidents. But the activities of terrorists cannot suppress the government's resolve to fight terrorism, he said.
Speaking on the occasion, the federal health minister said the condition of Hamid Saeed Kazmi is stable and he would soon be able to walk.
However, he said, the injured constable is in serious condition and doctors are trying their level best to stabilize him and the nation should pray for him, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will soon approve the construction of hundreds of new housing units in West Bank settlements before he declares a moratorium on building in those locales, according to a senior government source. The source from the prime minister's bureau said last night that Netanyahu informed U.S. officials of his decision to authorize the construction a few weeks ago.
The immediate future of construction in West Bank settlements will be determined in talks between Israeli officials and the Middle East envoy of U.S. President Barack Obama, George Mitchell, who will visit Israel next week. The issue could be decided in Mitchell's two-day visit, which will begin on Thursday, according to the source.
The hundreds of units whose construction Netanyahu is expected to approve will join some 2,500 housing units currently being built, whose construction will not be halted.
Officials from the prime minister's bureau said Netanyahu "will agree to consider a temporary freeze on construction in the West Bank for a few months after he approves the additional building permits. The precise length of the moratorium is still subject to debate, and the U.S. and Israel are negotiating on this issue. Netanyahu does not agree to a freeze exceeding a period of six months, while the Americans are insisting on a nine-month period.
In addition, Netanyahu wants to exclude 2,500 housing units on which construction has already started, and the construction of schools and other public structures in the settlements. Israel is demanding that the Palestinian Authority and Arab states make their own concessions in exchange for a freeze.
The difference between Harvard and MIT, example 4.57x103. Barry studied politics as an undergrad, then law, in the usual seven years. Bibi did undergrad and graduate work in architecture and management, and studied politics at the doctoral level, in about five years.
#2
Officials from the prime minister's bureau said Netanyahu "will agree to consider a temporary freeze on construction in the West Bank for a few months after he approves the additional building permits.
Good move.
Wait a while. The paleos will just waste time and Obama will become a lame duck.
#5
tw, that's an interesting bit about his education, but truth be told the only thing I want to know about Bibi is whether he has enough ammunition. Bunkerbusters especially.
Posted by: Matt ||
09/04/2009 19:58 Comments ||
Top||
[Al Arabiya Latest] An Israeli art exhibition featuring photos of Palestinian suicide bombers pasted on to classic Madonna with Child paintings was cancelled on Thursday amid protests from victims' families.
The works, entitled "Ferror (Female Terrorism)" by two Israeli artists, show the faces of seven Palestinian women suicide bombers grafted on to famous paintings of the Virgin Mary.
Neither the organizers nor the artists could be reached for comment, but several hours ahead of the planned opening workers were seen removing the paintings from the walls of a Tel Aviv gallery.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That is pretty much the difference between Islam and Christianity in a nutshell.
#3
I think the diff between TBVM and the she-bombs? Two rather diverging "pious" female imagery.
As for the israeli artists, well, it's nice to know the jooooooos have the same kind of "thought-provoking" Artists, kinda beats the wingnut meme of the violently ethnically homogenous/race-conscious Isreal willingly and gleefully dissolving the white europeans into Globalization and mongrelisation (pretty apparent the israeli jooooos have lotsa moonbats, and top-level ones, too).
Of course, those folks would complain that they used Mary as a backdrop for their PC-wankfest. Oh, well, some people are never happy.
(As an OT aside, should somebody here speak french, I can get a link toward the two MOST BESTEST antisemitic french wingnut websites, one is actually pretty good and interesting on several levels - that guy is being parroted by all the lesser, reflexive juice-haters -, the other is... it's a silly over-the-top parody made by Mossad jokers with too much time on their hand, right?)
Well, I can batter my way through it (French parochial school nun-taught French is never quite forgotten, I think mainly due to fear of further bodily harm (except said bodily harm would now have to reach out from the grave, but I don't even want to consider taking the chance)) but I lose a lot of nuance. So post away.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
09/04/2009 8:59 Comments ||
Top||
#5
I thought this had something to do with the recent concert in Tel Aviv
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
09/04/2009 10:10 Comments ||
Top||
[Straits Times] THE most-wanted Islamist mastermind allegedly behind deadly July suicide bombings in Jakarta is likely hiding out on Indonesia's main island of Java, a top anti-terror fighter said on Thursday.
Malaysian Noordin Mohammed Top, one of Asia's most-wanted militants, is believed to have chosen to stay on the densely populated island despite a nationwide manhunt, security ministry anti-terror chief Ansyaad Mbai told AFP.
Noordin was believed to have narrowly escaped a massive police raid in Central Java in August.
'We're sure Noordin is in Indonesia, basically in Java,' Mr Mbai said. 'Even sometimes he has gone out of Java but he always comes back. Basically there are groups in Java that support him... his favourite place is Central Java.'
Noordin, 41, who heads a violent splinter faction of the radical Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) network, is suspected of being behind July 17 double suicide attacks on Jakarta's JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels. The bombings, which killed seven people including six foreigners, were the first attack in Indonesia in nearly four years.
Noordin allegedly also masterminded a 2003 attack on the Marriott that killed 12 people, as well as the 2004 bombing of the Australian embassy and 2005 attacks on tourist restaurants on the holiday island of Bali.
Police believe they narrowly missed Noordin in a dramatic televised raid in August on a safehouse in Temanggung, Central Java.
Noordin was initially reported dead at the end of the 17-hour siege but the body later turned out to be that of a florist working in the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotel complex who helped plot the attacks from the inside.
Mr Mbai said Noordin's apparent escape - one of a series after years on the run - showed there were holes in Indonesia's anti-terror fight.
'I'm disappointed with the less vigilant (approach of authorities),' he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Jemaah Islamiyah
Russia has a contract to provide Syria with powerful MiG fighter jets but has not begun delivering the planes, according to a Russian newspaper report.
Kommersant cited the head of Russia's state-run United Aircraft Corporation, Alexei Fyodorov, as saying that a 2007 contract to sell MiG-31E interceptor fighters to Syria has not entered into force.
The paper said Russian arms sales officials have denied that such a contract exists.
The speedy MiG-31E can fire simultaneously at several targets up to 180 kilometers away. Deliveries to Syria would be liable to alter the balance of power in the region.
Kommersant cited Fyodorov as saying a contract to provide Syria with Mig-29M fighters is being implemented.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
But unless they send skilled pilots they are simply aerial tragets for the IAF.
#2
...Given the -31s capabilities (it's simply an uprated Mig-25), all this does is bring Sryia up to about 1985 or so.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/04/2009 12:05 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Meh. My money is on the Izzies destroying them on the ground if anything happens anyway.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
09/04/2009 12:21 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Hehe.. if Syrians buy Mig31's then Israel is not their main enemy. Mig-31 are long range very high altitude fighters with almost no maneuverality.
Posted by: Large Snerong7311 ||
09/04/2009 17:40 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Now now, Snerong, ev'ryone knows that a MiG-31 is better than a MiG-29. It's got two more numbers. How can it not be better when it's got two more numbers, riddle me that!
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/04/2009 18:05 Comments ||
Top||
#6
it's even a higher prime number!
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/04/2009 18:10 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Hehe.. if Syrians buy Mig31's then Israel is not their main enemy. Mig-31 are long range very high altitude fighters with almost no maneuverality.
Well, think of what they could do to a strike group returning from Iran.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Iraqi Premier Nouri al-Maliki has called on neighboring Syria to explain alleged granting of refuge to suspected bombers wanted by Iraq.
"Why must they insist on sheltering the armed organizations and those wanted by Iraqi courts and Interpol on Syrian lands?" Maliki was quoted by his office as saying.
The Iraqi leader added "neighboring countries" could no longer use the excuse of Iraq's occupation by US forces for backing insurgents, since American forces left Iraqi cities in June.
Iraq and Syria continue to exchange insults following the August 19 bombings at Baghdad's finance and foreign ministries that left about 100 people killed and hundreds others injured.
On Sunday, Iraq aired a confession from a suspected al-Qaeda militant who accused Syrian intelligence agents of training foreign fighters like him in a camp before sending them to fight in conflict-plagued Iraq.
The dispute comes after a thaw in relations between Syria and Iraq earlier this year. The Syrian foreign minister Walid al-Muallem traveled to Baghdad in March and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki paid a visit to Damascus the day before the terrorist assaults.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
The leftie "Iraq is a victory for Iran brigade" are now saying (see Mark Lynch in FP) that the iraqis are falsely accusing Syria, on Irans behest, to under cut the optician's talks with the US. Nice package huh - ties together the meme that we fought the Iraq war to benefit Iran, with the meme that Syria is innocent, and that the talks are going swimmingly. elegant as it is, I find it a bit of a stretch. If its false, and maliki is either telling the truth, or lying for other reasons, it would imply that Iraq is closer to US interests and further from Irans than advertised.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
09/04/2009 10:15 Comments ||
Top||
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran's parliament approved on Thursday 18 ministers, including the first-ever woman, and rejected three in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's proposed new 21-member cabinet following his disputed re-election in June, state radio reported.
Ahmadinejad, who had four of his first-choice nominees rejected by the assembly in 2005, has three months to propose new candidates to replace those voted down by the 290-seat parliament.
But the woman set to head the health ministry, Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, had been expected to be confirmed after she presented an elaborate four-year plan on Tuesday.
Parliament also approved Ahmad Vahidi, a man Argentina says was involved in the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center that killed 85 people, after five days of heated debate that saw several nominees opposed by conservative lawmakers.
MPs voted against energy, education and welfare ministers, but the cabinet can still start working and Ahmadinejad has scheduled its first meeting for Sunday, state radio said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/04/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
DUBAI (Reuters) - A website often used by al Qaeda supporters said on Thursday it would soon carry a "present" to Muslims from Osama bin Laden on the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan. The Islamist website gave no further details, but messages by the al Qaeda leader have usually appeared within about 48 hours of being announced on the Internet.
In June, CIA Director Leon Panetta said the U.S. intelligence agency believed bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan and hoped joint operations with Pakistani forces would find him.
#1
In June, CIA Director Leon Panetta said the U.S. intelligence agency believed bin Laden was hiding in Pakistan and hoped joint operations with Pakistani forces would find him.
#2
My recollection is that the donks screamed bloody murder when there was a suggestion of such things when George W was prez. Of course my memory could be faulty what with all the stuff going on in the economy.
#3
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > INDIA ON THE SOVIET UNION'S PATH OF NATIONAL DIS-INTEGRATION!? 1991 redux = perennial military/defense overspending + pan-ethnic chaos. INDIA = USSR = may no longer be able to ignore or "write off" the "write off(s)".
A common battlefield brain injury could originate in the blast waves of nearby explosions, even though such waves cause relatively small accelerations of a soldier's body. That is the conclusion of physicists in the US who have used computer simulations to study the causes of traumatic brain injury (TBI), a poorly understood condition that appears to be on the increase.
According to the simulations, the blast waves of grenades, landmines and other devices can bypass a soldier's helmet, distort the skull and inflict potentially dangerous loads on the brain. These loads may be sufficient to cause TBI, even when there has been no contact with shrapnel from the explosion.
"This is a potential new mechanism," explains William Moss, a physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California and an author of the study. "There are so many candidate possibilities [for TBI] that have been put out by the Department of Defense and others they're frantically searching for an answer to this problem."
TBI has many symptoms and can lead to disabilities or even death. It has become more prevalent as modern armour has cut the number of outright kills from explosives, but no one is sure of the cause. Physicians know that it is linked to explosions, but just which of the many effects of explosions the impact of shrapnel, the inhalation of toxic gas, or the blast itself, perhaps has been a mystery.
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.
[CBS News]A portion of American taxpayer dollars slated for development projects in Afghanistan is alleged to end up in the hands of the Taliban, the GlobalPost reports. The United States Agency for International Development is investigating if its funds are being used by contractors to pay the Taliban for protection from itself.
WASHINGTON -- The military's anticipated request for more troops to combat the insurgency in Afghanistan has divided senior advisers to President Obama as they try to determine the proper size and mission of the American effort there, officials said Thursday.
Mr. Gates could be the key adviser on this decision, and some military analysts predicted that he might recommend what Pentagon officials call the "Goldilocks option" -- the medium-risk one in the middle. Because he was first appointed by President George W. Bush, Mr. Gates could provide political cover for Mr. Obama should the president reject the biggest possible buildup.
North Korea says it has entered its final phase in uranium enrichment.
[Kyodo: Korea] China on Thursday denied accounts by two U.S. journalists jailed for illegally entering North Korea that they were seized on Chinese territory by North Korean troops. ""According to the understanding of relevant departments, such a situation as described by you did not happen,"" Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a news conference when asked about the accounts by Laura Ling and Euna Lee. The two were sentenced to 12 years hard labor by the North before being freed last month when former U.S. President Bill Clinton traveled to Pyongyang.
Dutch prosecutors say they have ordered the release of four terror suspects who were expelled from Kenya after being detained for unspecified "suspicious activities" close to the border with Somalia.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Christians and other religious minorities in Pakistan live in fear of persecution and even execution or murder on false charges of blasphemy against Islam, the World Council of Churches (WCC) says.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran's parliament approved on Thursday 18 ministers, including the first-ever woman, and rejected three in President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's proposed new 21-member cabinet following his disputed re-election in June, state radio reported.
