[Quqnoos] Dozens of foreign insurgents have recently been stationed in the relatively stable north-western Afghan region, Defence Ministry says. A spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Defence, Gen Zahir Azimi, said most of the foreign insurgents are central Asian countries nationals.
"We [the Afghan government] and the international community are concerned of a growing insurgency in the north and north-western regions," Gen Azimi told a news conference on Wednesday.
The Taliban are trying to 'expand their domination' from the restive southern Afghanistan to the north and the western parts of the country, Azimi further warned. Taliban militants are reportedly present at large groups in the northern provinces of Kunduz and Baghlan, where they have recently carried out multiple attacks against Afghan and international forces.
The widespread violence in the Afghan north has provoked 'serious concerns' both for Afghan government and the people as NATO and US troops have shifted their supplying route to the north through the Middle East.
Taliban militants across the Afghan border in Pakistani have set dozens of US and NATO supplying trucks on fire over the past two years, forcing the international troops to seek an alternative supplying line.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
Guinea's military leader has expressed fears for his own safety, days after the killing by the army of dozens of people protesting against his rule. At first I dismissed this as self-serving bullcrap, but read on and he may actually be saying something. Does seem as if he has a healthy survival wish, doesn't it ...
Speaking to Radio France Internationale Capt Moussa Dadis Camara described himself as a "hostage" -- both to the people and to the "unstructured" army. Yeah, I'm not surprised he doesn't control the whole army. Depends on tribes and ethnic groups, like any African country.
He had promised to step down before an election next year, but has since suggested he would stand for president.
On Monday troops opened fire on crowds protesting against his candidacy. Some other rival trying to sabotage Camara by letting his troops loose for an atrocity that Camara gets blamed for.
"I have been taken hostage by the people, a part of the people, with some saying that President Dadis cannot be a candidate and others saying President Dadis has to be a candidate," he said in the interview.
He said that if he announced he was not standing for election, another military officer would take over the country. Yeah, that's pretty much what I figured.
Rights groups say 157 people died when soldiers fired live rounds at the protesters on Monday. They say eyewitnesses told them of soldiers raping women in the streets during the crackdown. Of course, it's the BBC so there is no mention of the tribes of the soldiers and protestors.
The junta says far fewer people died, and claims most of them were trampled to death. Elephant's foot and a 7.62, what's the difference except diameter anyway?
Capt Dadis, whose leadership has been described as erratic since he seized power in a bloodless coup last year, called for a UN team to investigate the deaths. He claimed that the protesters -- who included members of the army -- had been trying to overthrow him. "The protesters had planned to remove me because that was their plan -- the whole city had to rise, with soldiers taking part in this movement," he told the radio station. Sounds like every coup.
He also urged opposition activists to join a government of national unity. "I need additional allies! Who's with me?"
But leaders of the main opposition blocs rejected his offer immediately. Sidya Toure, of the Union of Republic Forces, told the BBC: "This does not interest me in the slightest. We have days of mourning here. Our population is very shocked. "We want all of the power, not a part of a sharing government."
"The first thing for us is to know who has given the order to kill people here, who is responsible for that."
There has been widespread condemnation of the violence, with the head of the West African Regional grouping, Ecowas, telling the BBC that what happened was "unacceptable" and could not be left unpunished. On Wednesday, France announced it had suspended military co-operation with its former colony and said it was considering freezing aid to the country. But analysts say international bodies have little leverage as Guinea is a resource-rich, wealthy nation enjoying heavy investment from foreign mining firms.
[Seattle PI] A prominent Muslim cleric has criticized a new Saudi university launched by King Abdullah for allowing men and women to take classes together. Sheik Saad Bin Naser al-Shethri, who is a member of the powerful government-sanctioned Supreme Committee of (Islamic) Scholars, was quoted Wednesday in the Al-Watan daily as demanding an end to coed classes at the newly opened King Abdullah Science and Technology University.
"Mixing is a great sin and a great evil," al-Shethri was quoted as saying. "When men mix with women, their hearts burn and they will be diverted from their main goal (which is) ... education."
Al-Shethri's comments indicate there may be significant opposition to the country's first fully integrated coed university among the kingdom's powerful religious establishment.
The multibillion dollar postgraduate institution, which officially opened its doors to students last week, has been touted by King Abdullah as a "beacon of tolerance." The school boasts state-of-the-art labs, the world's 14th fastest supercomputer and one of the biggest endowments worldwide.
Saudi officials have envisaged the university as a key part of the kingdom's plans to transform itself into a global scientific hub - its latest efforts to diversify its oil-reliant economy.
Al-Watan, which is owned by members of the royal family, accused al-Shethri of trying to undermine Abdullah's reforms and suggested such criticism breeds terrorism.
"This is what al-Qaida awaits as a pretext and justification" for its actions, the paper's editor-in-chief, Jamal Kashukshi, said in an editorial.
Another pro-government daily, Al-Riyadh, also rejected al-Shethri's comments, describing them as "a creed which puts us behind the rest of the Muslim world."
More than 800 students from 61 different countries have enrolled at the school so far. The university aims to expand to around 2,000 students within eight to 10 years.
Of that total, 15 percent will be Saudi, university officials have said.
The Saudi government hopes that the school will succeed in promoting scientific freedom in a country where strict implementation of Islamic teachings has often been blamed for stifling innovation.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
"When men mix with women, their hearts burn and they will be diverted from their main goal (which is)...
Make war not love. And al-Shethri considers himself a scholar! King Abdullah actually deserves kudos for allowing women to be educated at all, let alone in mixed company! Laura Bush leaves a legacy for her husband's admin.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Al-Qaeda has suffered setbacks due to U.S. pressure but its presence in Yemen threatens to turn that country into a dangerous base for training and plotting attacks, a top U.S. counterterrorism official said Wednesday.
Isn't that true for any country in which al-Qaeda sets up?
The extremist network has been steadily weakened since its attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, with its haven in northwest Pakistan smaller and less secure, Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, told a U.S. Senate hearing. But Leiter said the group's regional affiliates were a growing threat, citing a branch in Yemen as cause for serious concern.
Saudi and Yemeni arms of al-Qaeda announced in January their merger into "al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula" (AQAP), and U.S. officials are worried the group is gaining a dangerous foothold in Yemen.
"We have witnessed the reemergence of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, with Yemen as a key battleground and potential regional base of operations from which al-Qaeda can plan attacks, train recruits, and facilitate the movement of operatives," Leiter said.
"We are concerned that if AQAP strengthens, al-Qaeda leaders could use the group and the growing presence of foreign fighters in the region to supplement its transnational operations capability," Leiter said before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
A suicide attack in August on Saudi Arabia's anti-terror chief Prince Mohammed bin Nayef was carried out by a bomber who crossed from Yemen.
The senate hearing came as reports that more than 30 people in northern Yemen were killed in a series of clashes between the army and its Shiite rebel foes.
Wouldn't it be more likely that the Yemeni Shiites were tools of Iran rather than tools of Iran wielded by Al Qaeda? It seems to me that in other semi-anarchic countries Al Qaeda thrived by getting along with the government rather than directly confronting it. Even in Pakistan Al Qaeda isn't involved in the Taliban vs. government fight, but rather trying quietly to train up its next generation of management and technicians off in the corners of the wilder provinces.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
#1
It is a proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Key points to watch are SAADA, JAA Farism and Shafei
The Zaydism in the north / Shapeists
The Sufi influence from Qutar
The Sayidist - (Saudi)
War in assist of border security (Libyan influence)
Marktoob
To corrall the gulf of Aden is the plan, using Yemen and Somalia as the staging areas as well as Sudan is their jackpot.
Yemen is the pay dirt for AlQ now as they have been forced out of almost every other country.
This is our new war abrewin Men.
#4
I could be wrong, but it was wargamed this way:
Iran is one of 3 operatives. They have design on the gulf for control over saudi oil among other things.
Saudi arabia has traditionally had more influence in Yemen, but as in Sudan, the country is split Sunni and Shia. Ergo both Saudi Arabia and Iran (Hezbollah) have stake in what goes on there.
Al Qeada is also in the AO. They are working as the Takfirists. Yemen and Sudan gives them control of the gulf region.
If Iran wins, they block Saudi oil.
If Saudi wins, things remain the same.
If Al Qeada wins, They try to use it to topple the Saudi Arabian government by starving them of their exports and imports in Jeddah. Direct influence over Mecca.
Yemen is probablyh the most ripe place for Al-Q to run to. Their next pick is Sudan. With this, they control a pretty hefty slice of the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea.
#6
Thank you, newc. Much there to ponder. I can't see us invading Yemen, which really should be Saudi Arabia's lookout, much as Waziristan is Pakistan's. So perhaps the Navy can quietly pick up some Predator work, given that the Air Force is busy shooting at things in the Af-Pak arena?
#7
I think we are tapped out on those operations, other than having the US Navy to continue running interference against the pirates.
This should be more of an Intelligence and proxy endeavor.
It's a real complicated area with many different actors. It was months ago when I read up on it, trying to get ahead of the curve, yet I have to dig up my documentation on it to be of any further help.
[Bangla Daily Star] Harkat-ul-Jihad al Islami (Huji) was the first militant group to use the remote hill areas in Chittagong for arms training. It set up training camps in the hills in the early 90s. It packed up when the law enforcers began cracking down on the militants after Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh staged countrywide serial blasts on August 17, 2005.
JMB, which used to have training facilities mainly in plains, however moved to hill forests.
Militant camps in the hills have become an issue much-talked about with Rapid Action Battalion's recent busting of a JMB camp in Khagrachhari.
Speaking to The Daily Star about the origins of militant training in the country, Huji insiders say their organisation started recruitment in the late 80s.
Initially, its activities were concentrated at madrasas in Chittagong. It began training the recruits how to operate firearms and explosives at some makeshift camps in far-flung hill areas there in 1989.
Its job became easier after Rohingya insurgents entered Bangladesh in 1991.
"At first, we had to use dummy firearms. But it all changed as a large number of Rohingya insurgents turned up with sophisticated firearms," said a source who had training from the outfit.
When the Rohingyas took refuge in Bangladesh, insurgents slipped in with them and started building camps at the places Huji had already been using. For shelter, food and other help, they gave Huji access to their firearms and explosives.
As the relations grew stronger, many madrasa students involved in Huji went to Myanmar to fight for the Rohingya insurgents. Several of them were even killed in action.
Foreign militant leaders and officials of Islamic NGOs that financed militancy campaign to take root in Bangladesh visited the camps, posing as Islamic scholars.
Both Huji and the Rohingya militants used madrasas and mosques in Cox's Bazar, Teknaf, Ukhia and other areas in Chittagong division as a cover for their activities. Their similar looks and dialect helped them escape unwanted attention.
Throughout the first half of the 90s, law enforcement agencies had either ignored or tacitly encouraged militant activities thinking it might help them deal with the local insurgents, said intelligence sources. The militants ran camps also in deep forests of Fatikchhari, Putia, Hathazari, Raozan, Rangunia and Satkania in Chittagong.
In 2004, police happened to bust two militant camps in Hathazari and Rangunia upazilas. The Hathazari camp was set up just two months before the raid. By the time it was closed down it was used to train over 60 youths in arms operation.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: HUJI
Yu Seong-jin, who was freed on Aug. 13 after 136 days of being held incommunicado in North Korea, has recounted his ordeal in North Korea in an interview with the Chosun Ilbo. Yu was an engineer for Hyundai Asan at the joint Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex.
Yu said North Korean investigators tried to charge him with being a spy during interrogation. "They showed me a copy of a newspaper article that carried the name of 'Chosun Ilbo.' They said, 'Look! This South Korean newspaper reports that you are a National Intelligence Service agent who attempted to help a nurse defect from Libya" in August 2000.
The Chosun Ilbo never carried such an article. It appears that North Korean officials went to the trouble of mocking up a copy of a newspaper story by adding the Chosun Ilbo masthead.
The interview took place at Grand National Party lawmaker Chung Jin-suk's office at the National Assembly on Wednesday. "At first, I thought the copy of the newspaper had been fabricated. But after protracted interrogation, I came to think that my fatherland had forsaken me," Yu recalled.
Yu was at Chung's office for an interview with the lawmaker prior to his testimony in a National Assembly audit of government offices on Oct. 6.
The engineer was arrested by North Korean authorities on March 30, apparently for badmouthing the regime.
Yu admitted he criticized North Korean leader Kim Jong-il and the North Korean system at Kaesong but denied working as a spy. During interrogation, North Korean investigators threatened him with life imprisonment. Yu recalled saying, "Why should a South Korean citizen stay here eating meals supplied by North Korea? You'd better kill me." In reply, the investigators told him to jump out of the window of the hotel where he was held, which was on the third floor.
Yu claimed that he effectively tortured as he was forced to sit ramrod straight on a wooden chair for more than 13 hours a day for 136 days. "I was not allowed to bend my waist or raise my hands or move my legs," he said.
During the investigation, Yu had to use up 30 ball-point pens writing 700 A4 sheets of a "confession." "The officials left some parts in a document where 'Kim Jong-il' was supposed to be written blank and told me to fill them in," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
German authorities said Friday they arrested a man with dual Turkish-German citizenship suspected of attempting to recruit supporters for al-Qaida and procuring material that could be used to make a bomb.
The 24-year-old man, identified only as Adnan V., was arrested Thursday after police searched an apartment in Offenbach and a business in nearby Frankfurt, federal prosecutors said. The searches revealed "a small amount of a potentially explosive compound and a homemade electronic device which, according to an initial evaluation, could be used as a detonator," prosecutors said in a statement. The man also "is suspected of seeking members or supporters for ... al-Qaida by circulating propaganda material over the Internet," the statement said.
They said there appears to be no direct link between the man and a recent spate of videos by extremists that have cited Germany's troop presence in Afghanistan.
The man was to be brought before a judge later Friday to determine whether he remains in detention pending possible charges.
[Al Arabiya Latest] "Maybe the terrorists should come down and have a drink with us," suggested Bob Kalman, as he enjoyed a beer in one of the huge tents at Germany's world-famous Oktoberfest in Munich this week.
"It might solve a few of the world's problems if people got talking," the 30-year-old marketing manager originally from the Scottish city of Glasgow, now looking very German in his lederhosen, said.
At Oktoberfest, which every year attracts around six million visitors from all over the world, armed police were searching people as they came in, and cars were banned from parking nearby.
Private security guards were also searching people's bags as they entered the festival's immense tents, and once inside there was a visible security presence. There were also a large number of surveillance cameras.
A string of threats against Germany by Islamist militants in the run-up to last Sunday's general election has prompted security to be stepped up around the country, including at Oktoberfest in the Bavarian capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Europe
U.S. President Barack Obama met the man heading U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, on Friday, a White House spokesman said. The meeting on board Air Force One in Copenhagen lasted 25 minutes, spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters on the plane.
McChrystal flew to Denmark from London, where he met with Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Thursday, and delivered a stark assessment of the Afghanistan insurgency to military and defence experts at the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
Gibbs declined to give details of the discussion between the president and McChrystal, which followed a high-level meeting on Wednesday in Washington between Obama and his top foreign policy advisers over the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.
#3
It's okay, 25 minutes is plenty of time for the good general to make clear to Bambi what needs to be done.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/02/2009 11:00 Comments ||
Top||
#4
#1 It's about time. Musta heard that some folks thought it suggested he didn't really care what McChrystal thought.
Posted by: gorb 2009-10-02 10:28
gorb; this is simply The One trying to (re)cover his tracks. The longer this farce of a presidency goes on, the more the world realizes what we allowed to occupy the Whit House.
#6
Clearly, the public awareness of his lack of attention to the War in Afghanistan lead to an immediate call for the Theater Commander to drop what he was doing and meet in Copenhagen for a whopping 25 minutes. Now look, I have in my career done senior level policy decision briefings for senior Generals and political figures. If it is really the most important decision you have to make, do you really give GEN McCrystal 25 f**king minutes of your time on the plane in Copenhagen while you lobby for Chicago for the Olympics?
What a pathetic, clueless embarrassment we have for President. God help us!
#7
No doubt the general dropped off study materials before he left. President Obama is brilliant -- after all, he was editor of the Harvard Law Review, and he a poor African-American from a broken home -- so he should have no trouble extracting the essential information on the flight back home, now he doesn't have to plan an olympics.
/or at least he'll leaf through the binder, prepare a some "insightful" questions and, hoping against hope that the substance of the general's recommendations do not leak out, make the most face-saving decision he can figure out on the spur of the moment.
#8
By hanging out with McChrystal on Air Force One President Barry can now say that Copenhagen was mere pretext to his vital dialogue with his commander.
#12
Landstuhl? Really EC? He was on a thumb-sucking ride home after getting his ass handed to him. His last thought was wounded warriors. Don't you know the sacrifices he, M'chelle, and Orpah! made for Teh Peepuls? And this is how he's treated?
I'm glad our warriors didn't have to deal with him
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/02/2009 16:16 Comments ||
Top||
#13
Paul Mirengoff at Powerline reports on the rumor that Gates will resign within a couple of months and Obama will nominate Chuck Hagel to replace him. Paul essentially believes Gates resigning is probably true, but skeptical about him being replaced by Hagel.
I doubt any of that came up at the meeting, though.
#15
"Hagel is a bagel" was the mantra to remember who NOT to vote for in NE. But I guess considering who on the left to choose from, he would be one of the better choices.
Qari Tahir Yaldashev, a leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, died in a US drone attack in South Waziristan last month, senior government and security officials said on Thursday.
'The man has kicked the bucket,' a senior government official said.
'The man has kicked the bucket,' a senior government official said. Security official said that Yaldashev died in a drone attack in Kanigoram, South Waziristan, on Aug 27.
'The man died on the spot,' the security official said. 'This is a big blow to a violent foreign militant group that had spearheaded the campaign against Pakistan and its state agencies,' he said.
An Uzbek, claiming to be the bodyguard of 30-year-old Yaldashev, had called Radio Liberty late last month to report the death of IMU leader. The man, who had declined to give his name, spoke the Uzbek language and said he was calling from somewhere in Pakistan.
The IMU leader died of head injury, the man told Radio Liberty. At the time, Pakistani officials had declined to confirm the death of Tahir Yaldashev, though speculations have been doing the round for quite some time.
But now a senior security official has said the IMU chief was killed in a drone attack. 'He is dead beyond doubt,' the official said.
Tahir Yaldashev, known as Qari Farooq in South Waziristan, was born in Namangan, Uzbekistan, in 1967. His real name was Tahir Abduhalilovich Yoldashev.
Together with Jumaboi Ahmadinovich Khojaev he founded the IMU in Kabul in 1998.
[Dawn] The United States should provide information about top militants in Pakistan, a government minister said on Thursday, as Washington stepped up pressure on Islamabad to go after Taliban leaders. That will lead them to figuring where the leaks are and plugging them...
The United States, struggling to contain rising insurgent violence in Afghanistan, says top Islamist militants, including Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, are in Pakistan. US ally Pakistan rejects that. "No, no! Certainly not!"
'They have given only apprehension that some of the Taliban like Mullah Omar and all that, they might be in Quetta,' Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters. "It's only a silly rumor that they meet at 1121 Street of the One-Eyed Houri in room 108 at 3pm on Thursdays and Saturdays..."
The United States says an Afghan Taliban shura, or leadership council, headed by Omar is centred in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta. 'We categorically told them that they are not in Quetta, and if they have any real-time information, they should give it to us and we will take action,' Malik said. "But we happen to know they're in Karachi this week..."
The US commander of foreign forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, said in an assessment leaked last week the Afghan insurgency was clearly supported from Pakistan. Picked right up on that, didn't he?
'Senior leaders of the major Afghan insurgent groups are based in Pakistan, linked to al Qaeda and other violent extremist groups, and are reportedly aided by some elements of Pakistan's ISI,' McChrystal said, referring to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency. Probably we know who the ISI officers are...
McChrystal identified the Quetta shura as the biggest threat to the US-led mission in Afghanistan. That being the Mullah Omar branch of the Taliban. The Haqqani shura, operating out of Wana, can pretty much be considered a part of al-Qaeda now, with Zawahiri in regular attendance.
The Washington Post said this week U.S. officials were expressing concern over the ability of Omar and his lieutenants to launch attacks into Afghanistan from sanctuaries around Quetta, capital of Baluchistan province. US ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson told the Washington Post this week the Quetta shura was 'high on Washington's list'. Not that there have been any drone zaps we've heard of...
The deputy chief of the US mission in Pakistan, Gerald Feierstein, told a group of Pakistani reporters that Omar and his command centre were in Baluchistan, a news agency reported. 'We have already expressed our reservations to Pakistan. Their movement is unacceptable and we expect full cooperation from the Pakistan government in this regard,' the Online news agency quoted Feierstein as saying. Good Gawd. I hope he's not holding his breath...
Feierstein also said al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan's ethnic Pashtun lands on the Afghan border, the news agency said. When he's not traveling. Beardless. In a neat business suit. With a UAE passport. As "Mr. Abdullah"...
The United States stepped up its attacks by pilotless drones on militants in northwestern Pakistani border sanctuaries last year as the Afghan insurgency intensified. But Feierstein said no proposal for expanding drone strikes to Baluchistan was under consideration, Online said. That's too bad...
He also said the ISI 'as an institution' had no links with the Taliban but 'some elements' were Taliban sympathisers. The ISI 'as an institution' still hasn't given up on the "strategic depth" idea. The "some elements" that deal with the Talibs are a regular, if classified, part of the organization. The rogue element idea mighta worked in 2002, but seven years later it doesn't hbold water. Seven years -- a third of a 20-year career -- is enough time to dump the rogue elements.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Yes, please give us details - enough so that we can reconstruct the metadata & figure out who's been doing such a great job identifying & locating these top militants. We want to arrange for these spies patriots a hearty round of AK fire congratulations for a job well done.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
10/02/2009 8:07 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Just feed them the list of the ISI leadership. Let them do the cleaning themselves. Yep, yep, it's him and him and him and his brother. Really and truly.
[Dawn] Just days after US ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson said that Quetta had beomce a major base for the Afghan Taliban, United States Deputy Chief of Mission in Islamabad Gerald Feierstein also stated that Mullah Omar is operating from Quetta.
Feierstein was of the view that Osama bin Laden is operating from the tribal areas of Pakistan and maintains that the control centre of the Afghan Taliban is based in Quetta.
He said that the United Stated has conveyed its concerns to Pakistan government and that both governments are in touch on the matter.
On the issue of Blackwater or any private security company operating in Pakistan, Feierstein said that all such rumours are unfounded.
Feierstein stressed that the security agency Inter-Risk was only providing security to the United States embassy in the federal capital and said that all the dealings of the agency were fair and transparent.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
In other news, Schaschlik mit Schweinefleisch und Toast, along with large quantities of beer has been found to cause weight gain.
[Dawn] Balochistan Chief Minister Aslam Raisani has dismissed as baseless western media reports about the presence of Taliban Shura in Quetta.
'There are no Taliban in Quetta and adjoining areas and western media's perception in this regard is totally wrong,' he told this correspondent here on Wednesday.
The US and British newspapers had reported that Taliban leader Mullah Omar is leading a shadowy central council in Quetta.
Mr Raisani said that a US drone strike in Balochistan would endanger supplies of goods from Karachi port to Kandahar and logistics support to Nato troops in Afghanistan.
He said the people of Balochistan would react strongly to US drone attacks because they would consider them a violation of Pakistan's territorial integrity.
The chief minister said the Baloch people would take up arms in case of such attacks which would be taken as aggression.
He said seven incidents of torching of Nato tankers had already taken place and drone attacks in any part of Balochistan would intensify hatred of the US government.
Mr Raisani said he had held meetings with Pakhtoon and Baloch tribesmen who assured him that they would not allow Taliban militants to use Pakistan's territory for attacks on US and Afghan forces.
He asked the US and Nato authorities to pay compensation for reconstruction of roads which had been damaged by heavy Nato containers and tankers passing through Balochistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
I believe this shit as much a they used to believe "CHE LIVES, after being shown a photo ofhim with his half blown off.
HE'S LONG DEAD MORONS.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/02/2009 0:21 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Grrrr, whth his head half blown off
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/02/2009 0:25 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Balochistan Chief Minister Aslam Raisani has dismissed as baseless western media reports about the presence of Taliban Shura in Quetta.
Lots more tall wimmen in burquas around here, though.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
10/02/2009 13:16 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Lots more tall wimmen in burquas around here, though.
We can't tell if they're bearded, 'cause they're in full burqa mode.
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] The disgruntled remnants of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leadership, who have converged in Mir Ali subdivision of restive North Waziristan Agency, have decided to step up their attacks in the country following the passage of the Kerry-Lugar Bill by the US Congress, The News learnt it reliably here on Thursday.
"As the security forces dismantled their network in Malakand, Swat, Dir and other areas, the remnants of the TTP leadership gathered in Mir Ali subdivision of North Waziristan and restored their contacts with the Taliban Movement of Afghanistan," said a source in security agencies on condition of anonymity.
"They [TTP leaders] held a meeting in Mir Ali region late Wednesday night and decided to step up their attacks on the US diplomats and nationals as well as the diplomats of other countries that are supporting the Kerry-Lugar Bill because they think it will have deep impact on their activities," he added.
The source said the TTP leaders also resolved in the meeting to accelerate efforts for targeting the top leadership of the PPP and Awami National Party (ANP). He said, according to the TTP leaders, the US and Nato forces were committing heinous crimes in Afghanistan as well as in Pakistan.
"Some calls of the TTP leaders to the Afghan Taliban have been traced and now the exact location of the callers is being traced to target them," the source said.
The source said that after the broadcast of a video clip showing dead body of Baitullah Mahsud, the TTP leaders were extremely disappointed and perturbed. He said that it was due to this desperation that they were now thinking to accelerate their terror campaign in the country. He said it was also because of the frustration of the TTP leaders that the outlawed outfit claimed responsibility for suicide bombing in Bannu on Saturday last but stayed short of accepting responsibility for the bombing in Peshawar the same day whereas it was a fact that the TTP was involved in that attack, too. When approached by The News for comments, a spokesman for the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on condition of anonymity that the security forces were aware of the convergence of the TTP leaders in Mir Ali region of North Waziristan. He said they also knew that the TTP leaders were desperately trying to launch massive attacks against the security forces as well as the general public to terrorise innocent citizens. "The militants will, however, be eliminated from all parts of the country just like they have been driven out from Swat, Malakand and Dir," the ISPR spokesman remarked.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
#1
have decided to step up their attacks in the country following the passage of the Kerry-Lugar Bill
They get reports on Congress out there in the wilds of the Waziri countryside? They must be a lot less isolated than I am in the exurbs of the American Midwest!
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] The government on Thursday expressed its 'surprise' at the latest volatile interview of US Ambassador Anne W Patterson and said there was clearly a "huge disconnect" between Washington and the US Embassy in Islamabad.
In the latest interview to the media, Patterson had claimed the Taliban leadership was hiding in Balochistan and coordinating anti-US operations from Quetta. After reports in the US media, including the interview of Ambassador Patterson, Deputy Chief of the Mission at the US Embassy Gerald M Feierstein told the media on Thursday that Osama bin Laden was alive and that the Taliban leadership, including Mullah Omar, was present in Quetta.
Asked to comment on these allegations, the Foreign Office spokesman told The News: "This is all very speculative. Pakistan, as the world is acknowledging, has shown zero tolerance to terrorism. The US has passed real-time intelligence to Pakistan in the past and we have acted on it. Similarly, if the US claims to have such intelligence about the Taliban activities in Quetta, then they should pass it on to us."
Another senior official, who was privy to the New York meetings, told The News, "In meetings at the highest level in New York recently, this issue of the Quetta Shura did not arise. A passing reference was made to old reports about Balochistan but they (US participants) insisted that they could not confirm the same. No great concern was shown nor was there any mention of future strikes in Balochistan. We were asked to intensify our efforts but nothing of the sort that we are hearing from the US Embassy. There appears to be a very serious disconnect between Washington and the US Embassy here."
Responding to a query, the official ceded this "disconnect" had been there for several years now but did not elaborate on the government's possible response to this latest serious development. Normally, the US ambassador is summoned and a protest note handed over by the foreign secretary.
On Wednesday, another official told The News the government at the military level had already taken up the matter directly with Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman Joint Chief of Staff, and General David Petraeus of the US Central Command. It remains to be seen how the Ministry of Foreign Affairs handles these allegations.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Pope Benedict urged Pakistan on Thursday to guarantee protection of minority Christians, and President Asif Ali Zardari assured him that all stakeholders and political forces would be consulted to check and stop the misuse of blasphemy laws.
Zardari met the Pope at his residence south of Rome at the end of a four-day trip to Italy aimed mainly at promoting trade.
A Vatican statement said Zardari's talks with the Pope and Vatican officials centred on minority Christians in Pakistan following violence against their communities two months ago.
"Emphasis was given to the need to overcome all forms of discrimination based on religious affiliation, with the aim of promoting respect for the rights of all citizens," it said.
Seven people -- including four women and a child -- were killed in violence that broke out in Gojra in August. The Christians' homes were burnt after unsubstantiated accusations that some of them had desecrated the holy Quran. Some 40 houses were burned down in the violence, which was condemned at the time by the Vatican, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the World Council of Churches.
The Vatican statement said the talks also focused on "elements that have favoured such incidents", an apparent reference to groups that have exploited Pakistan's blasphemy law, which allows the death penalty for blaspheming Islam.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
I think they do it mostly for fun of seeing leading Westerners pretend to agree to what the later know is bull, rather than being branded Islamophobes.
The ISI is a professional agency and does not have links with any militant outfit including the Taliban, a TV channel quoted ISI DG Ahmad Shuja Pasha as saying on Thursday. Then his lips fell off.
Pasha made the comments during his meeting with CIA chief Leon Panetta, National Security Adviser James Jones and other officials in Washington.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: ISI
[Iran Press TV Latest] A Pakistani minister has warned the United States that Islamabad will not allow strikes on suspected pro-Taliban hideouts in the troubled Balochistan Province.
"America will never make the mistake of drone strikes in Balochistan," said Aslam Raisani, chief minister of the province.
The minister also noted that such attacks can fuel anti-American sentiments across the troubled region.
"Any type of American attack will have serious implications. I hope America will not make this mistake - such attacks would harm the American interests in the area and there may be a public reaction against any such attack," the AFP news agency quoted Raisani as saying.
The development came after the US Ambassador to Islamabad Anne Patterson said the 'Quetta Shura' (Quetta Council) was now high on her government's list of priority targets.
"In the past, we focused on al-Qaeda because they were a threat to us. The Quetta Shura mattered less to us because we had no troops in the region," she said. "Now our troops are there on the other side of the border, and the Quetta Shura is high on Washington's list," she said in an interview with Washington Post .
The council operates around the southern Pakistani city of Quetta. It is said to be led by the Taliban's reclusive chief Mullah Omar who is running his 'shadow government' in Afghanistan.
However, Pakistani officials reject the US allegations and say Washington overstates the threat posed by the Taliban leadership council in Quetta.
Since August 2008, nearly 70 attacks by US unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have killed more than 550 people in the restive northwestern region of Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
MMMmm, Must be working.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/02/2009 0:17 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Maybe the next Drone strike should be a nuke one on Rawalpindi/Islamabad??? I'm sure THAT would cause some heads to spin, and not just in Pakistan!
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/02/2009 23:36 Comments ||
Top||
In the first glimpse of him since his capture more than three years ago, a thin but healthy-looking Israeli soldier said in a video released Friday that he is being treated well by his Palestinian captors and appealed to Israel's leader to bring him home.
Israel received the two-minute video of Sgt. Gilad Schalit from Hamas militants after it released 19 female Palestinian prisoners earlier Friday in an exchange that is the first tangible step toward defusing a key flash point in Israeli-Palestinian hostilities.
The images of Schalit were the first to be released since his capture 3 1/2 years ago by Hamas-linked militants in the Gaza Strip. Dressed in olive drab military fatigues, Schalit sat in a chair in front of a bare wall reading a prepared statement tucked behind an Arabic-language newspaper, displayed to show the date, Sept. 14.
At one point, he rose from the chair and walked toward the camera and back, apparently to demonstrate he could stand on his own. He smiled several times during the video.
Speaking lucidly and reading clearly in Hebrew, he sent his love to his parents, recalled in detail a 2005 visit his family paid to his military base and appealed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "not to squander this opportunity" to bring him home.
"I read the paper to find material and hope to find any material about my release and my imminent return home," he said.
Schalit, 23, said he was in good health and that his captors were treating him "excellently." He was clean-shaven and his hair was closely cropped, but he was not wearing glasses, as he did before his capture.
The video's arrival in Israel, together with the Palestinian prisoners' triumphant return home to a flag-waving and cheering crowd, gave hope to each side that a wider, long-awaited prisoner swap was in the offing.
Hamas is demanding freedom for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as their price for Schalit, whose capture and drawn-out captivity has touched a raw nerve in a country where most families have loved ones in the military.
Friday's deal could also herald an end to a crippling, Israel-led blockade of Gaza that has prevented the territory from rebuilding after Israel's war there in December and January.
Israel imposed the blockade after Hamas, a violent group backed by Iran and Syria, seized power in Gaza two years ago. Israel has made it clear that it will not ease the embargo before the serviceman is freed.
Hamas' prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, hailed the deal as a "triumph" for the armed Palestinian resistance against Israel.
The video opened with Schalit holding a daily Arabic-language newspaper published in Gaza on Sept. 14 Hamas' proof the footage was taken recently. He gave his name, the names of his parents and siblings, identified his hometown and recited his Israeli identity card number.
"I have longed for a long time for the day I will be released," he said. "I hope the current government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu will not squander now the opportunity to reach an agreement and that I can finally realize my dream to be released.
"I want to send greetings to my family and tell them I love them and miss them very much and wish for the day I will see them again," he added.
Channel 10 TV commentators said Israel had demanded that Schalit get up and take a few steps to prove he was able-bodied. The details about his family's visit to his military base, they said, were meant to prove the man reading the text was not an impostor
A spokesman for Netanyahu, Nir Hefetz, said that "although the path to Gilad's release is still long and arduous, the fact that he is healthy and well encourages us all." He also held Hamas responsible for the soldier's well-being.
Israel's lead negotiator in prisoner swap talks viewed the video first in Tel Aviv to determine its authenticity before ordering the Palestinian women released. The video was then transferred to Jerusalem, where Netanyahu viewed it.
A copy of the disc was delivered by helicopter to the Schalit family in northern Israel.
About 200 people waving Palestinian flags greeted vans carrying 18 of the women into the West Bank. The prisoners, wearing the headscarves of devout Muslim women, blew kisses to the crowd through the vehicles' open windows.
Later, the prisoners were greeted by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in his walled compound as elated relatives threw fistfuls of candy in the air.
Zhour Hamdan, arrested in 2003, was reunited with her eight children and saw her first granddaughter, 1-year-old Selina, for the first time. Her daughter Nasreen, 26, said she had not been able to visit her mother for more than a year because of Israeli movement restrictions.
"It's indescribable," Nasreen said of the reunion. "We are preparing a tremendous celebration at home."
Abbas told the women their "sacrifice will not go in vain" and prayed for the release of other prisoners.
Another woman, 41-year-old Fatima Ziq, returned to her home in Gaza City, where she received a hero's welcome and was greeted by Haniyeh in a chaotic scene.
Haniyeh called Friday's swap "a day of victory for the Palestinian will, for the Palestinian resistance, for Palestinian steadfastness," he said.
Another prisoner will be released to Gaza on Sunday, bringing to 20 the total number of women freed as part of the exchange, Israel's prisons service said.
The women had been jailed for relatively minor offenses and were close to release.
Reporters and cameramen thronged the Schalit home as an army general walked in with a manila envelope containing the video. Policemen stood guard outside the house.
A spokeswoman for the family said the Schalits would have no immediate public comment.
Schalit was captured in June 2006 by Hamas-linked militants in Gaza who tunneled under the border into Israel, killed two other soldiers and dragged him bleeding into Palestinian territory. Before Friday, the only signs of life had been three letters and an audio tape.
Israel and Hamas shun each other, and German and Egyptian mediators have been acting as go-betweens in swap talks.
The Palestinians want Israel to trade up to 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for Schalit, including many convicted of deadly attacks on Israelis.
#1
He seemed awfully pale for an Israeli, and I didn't see a year as part of the newspaper date. No doubt the Israelis are comparing the front page of the newspaper Sgt. Schalit held with the ones published on that date of this and previous years. I wonder how it is that Hamas agreed to an actual video now, when they had refused so often before...
[Al Arabiya Latest] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned on Thursday the United Nations would deal a "fatal blow" to prospects for peace if it endorsed a report critical of Tel Aviv's 22-day assault on Gaza as Arab Israelis staged a general strike to protest for the right to live in dignity in their "homeland."
Israel has been stepping up public attacks on the report into its air, land and sea attack on the Gaza Strip -- calling it unbalanced and one-sided -- before a meeting on Friday by the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council.
"Advancing the so-called Goldstone report will deal a fatal blow to the peace process," Netanyahu said at the start of a weekly cabinet meeting.
"Israel will not be able to take further steps and take risks for peace if it is denied the right of self-defense," he said, echoing comments he made last week at the U.N. General Assembly.
Formal negotiations on Palestinian statehood have been suspended since the Gaza conflict.
Richard Goldstone, a former U.N. war crimes prosecutor who led the U.N. inquiry, urged on Tuesday the 47-member state Human Rights Council to adopt the report which found that the Israeli military and Palestinian militants committed war crimes.
Adoption of the report would mean it is referred to the U.N. Security Council for further action.
Goldstone has urged the Security Council to bring the allegations to the International Criminal Court in The Hague if either Israel or Palestinian authorities failed to investigate and prosecute those suspected of such crimes within six months.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
Tearful relatives of slain regional al-Qaida commander Noordin Top buried him in a traditional Muslim funeral at his Malaysian boyhood village Friday, two weeks after Indonesian security forces killed him in a shootout.
After years of hunting for him, Indonesian police caught up with Noordin in Solo, Central Java, on Sept. 17. He was one of four militant suspects killed in a lengthy siege. Regional leaders say Noordin's death could help undermine militant activities throughout Southeast Asia.
Indonesian authorities handed over Noordin's body to his Malaysian-based wife and brother, who flew it back to Kuala Lumpur on Friday and returned to Noordin's home village in Malaysia's southern Pontian district.
Several hundred people watched as the body was taken into a mosque for ceremonial rites just before dusk. Family members, some with tears brimming in their eyes, hugged each other and shouted "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great" as Noordin's body was lowered into a grave near those of his parents and a dead brother. Police sealed off part of the cemetery to allow only Noordin's relatives near the grave.
"My stand is that Noordin was a good man. He was a good Muslim, but I don't support his activities," said Noordin's brother-in-law, 50, who only gave his first name, Supriyo. "We do not support what he has done, but ... as family, we continue to respect him."
The United States and Iran tentatively stepped back from looming confrontation on Thursday, as the Islamic republic reached an agreement with major powers that would greatly reduce Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium and reset the diplomatic clock for a solution to Iran's nuclear ambitions. The Mad Mullahs win again.
The outcome, which President Obama in Washington called a "constructive beginning," came after 7 1/2 hours of talks in an 18th-century villa on the outskirts of Geneva that included the highest-level bilateral meeting between the two countries since relations were severed three decades ago after the Iranian revolution. See how easy it was, Bush?
But the difficulties that lie ahead were illustrated when the chief Iranian negotiator, Saeed Jalili, held a triumphant news conference at which he denounced "media terrorism," insisted that Iran has always fully met its international commitments, and refused even to acknowledge a question from an Israeli reporter.
The sudden show of cooperation by Tehran reduces for now the threat of additional sanctions, which was the plan all along has been made repeatedly by the United States and others over the past week after the revelation of a secret Iranian nuclear facility. The United States will need to keep the pressure on Iran to avoid being dragged into a process without end. Ahhh... The WaPo recognizes the risks....
Under the tentative deal, Iran would give up most of its enriched uranium to Russia in order for it to be converted into desperately needed material for a medical research reactor in Tehran. Oh, so that's what it's for, this month.
Iran also agreed to let international inspectors visit the newly disclosed uranium-enrichment facility in Qom within two weeks, and then to attend another meeting with negotiators from the major powers by the end of the month. The series of agreements struck at the meeting was in itself unusual because, in the past, the Iranian negotiators have said they would get back with an answer - and then fail to do so.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/02/2009 05:54 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
[Al Arabiya Latest] American President Barack Obama said on Thursday Iran heard a unified message from the international community at talks in Geneva and Tehran must now take steps to ensure its nuclear program is not for weapons.
"The Iranian government heard a clear and unified message from the international community in Geneva. Iran must demonstrate through concrete steps that it will live up to its responsibilities with respect to its nuclear program."
Obama said that Iran must follow through on its promises of transparency in its nuclear program and that the U.S. was prepared to move toward increased pressure on Tehran if it does not carry out its international obligations.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Obama said that Iran must follow through on its promises of transparency
[Iran Press TV Latest] IAEA Secretary General Mohamed ElBaradei is set to visit Iran "soon" to hold talks with Iranian officials, says a spokesperson for the UN nuclear watch.
"Director General ElBaradei has been invited to Tehran by Iranian authorities. He will travel there soon to discuss a number of matters," DPA quoted Gill Tudor as saying in Vienna on Thursday.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief's visit to Tehran is expected to take place soon after a meeting between Iran and the major world powers was held in Geneva.
Political directors from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the US, Britain, France, Russia and China, plus Germany (P5+1) held talks with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili on Thursday.
Tudor did not give further details about ElBaradei's upcoming visit to Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/02/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
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.
[Seattle PI] A prominent Muslim cleric has criticized a new Saudi university launched by King Abdullah for allowing men and women to take classes together. Sheik Saad Bin Naser al-Shethri, who is a member of the powerful government-sanctioned Supreme Committee of (Islamic) Scholars, was quoted Wednesday in the Al-Watan daily as demanding an end to coed classes at the newly opened King Abdullah Science and Technology University.
[Al Arabiya Latest] "Maybe the terrorists should come down and have a drink with us," suggested Bob Kalman, as he enjoyed a beer in one of the huge tents at Germany's world-famous Oktoberfest in Munich this week.
[Iran Press TV Latest] A Pakistani minister has warned the United States that Islamabad will not allow strikes on suspected pro-Taliban hideouts in the troubled Balochistan Province. 
Tearful relatives of slain regional al-Qaida commander Noordin Top buried him in a traditional Muslim funeral at his Malaysian boyhood village Friday, two weeks after Indonesian security forces killed him in a shootout.
The United States and Iran tentatively stepped back from looming confrontation on Thursday, as the Islamic republic reached an agreement with major powers that would greatly reduce Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium and reset the diplomatic clock for a solution to Iran's nuclear ambitions. 
