[Quqnoos] Dr Abdullah has said on Monday that the head of Afghanistan's election body should be replaced ahead of the run-off election.
President Hamid Karzai's main rival in the Nov. 7 run-off election, Abdullah Abdullah, said the head of Independent Election Commission (IEC) has "no credibility". Nor does anyone else in the whole election matter ...
Addressing a press conference, Dr Abdullah also called that the Afghan ministers of Interior, Education and Tribal Affairs should be suspended from their positions during the election period. Dr Abdullah accused the ministers of being biased towards President Karzai and campaigning for the Afghan incumbent.
"We will wait for the commission's reply until October 31 and until then we suspend all of our relations with the commission," he told reporters in Kabul.
He refused to say what he would do if these conditions were not met.
President Karzai has shown disagreement with Dr Abdullah's call to sack Azizullah Ludin, the head of the IEC. "The change in the election commission is not in the interest of our country," the BBC quoted President Karzai as saying.
"There were some senior electoral officials who were not in favour of mine, but I didn't consider bring a change in the leadership," Karzai said, "I wanted them to have their freedom and campaign for their favorite candidate and vote for him."
To prevent a possible fraud in the run-off election, more than 200 district election officials have been sacked or replaced.
In reaction to the statement by Abdullah Daoud Ali Najafi, deputy of Mr Ludin said "It has no affect on us at all,"
Meanwhile, US ambassador in Kabul, Karl Eikenberry Berry, called on both candidates to avoid any actions that undermine the process.
The statement by Abdullah could further complicate the process as the run-off is considered a solution to the current crisis in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] The deaths of 77 children at Sudan's main orphanage has sparked an investigation, officials said on Tuesday, in a case that has lifted the lid on the plight of abandoned infants in Africa's largest state.
"We have seen the official figures and they are horrifying. I welcome the decision that there will be an investigation into the current situation at Mygoma," Nils Kastberg, UNICEF's Sudan representative, told Reuters, referring to the state-owned orphanage where the deaths occurred.
The manager of the charity operating in the Khartoum orphanage defended his record, telling Reuters he had saved thousands of children and adding that deaths were inevitable given the condition of babies when they arrived.
"The numbers were high... But last month we received 46 premature babies. Many of them were suffering from septicemia. What am I going to do?" Mohamed Muhedin Elgemiabby, head of Ana Assudan, the charity contracted to care for the children in Mygoma, said.
"Most are delivered early. They were born in unhygienic areas. They are found in water canals, in sewers ... They need incubators but it is very difficult to find incubators."
The United Nations estimates hundreds of babies are abandoned in Khartoum every year by women in the predominantly Muslim country unable to bear the stigma of having a child outside marriage. Half of the infants die before getting help.
Most of those found on the streets of the capital are taken to Mygoma where authorities try to find new homes with families.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
See also WAFF > SOUTH SUDAN TO VOTE ON SPLIT FROM MUSLIM NORTH IN REFERENDUM.
Mygoma is the refugee camp? or just the place where women who were raped by moslems and gave birth to babies they did not want- end up sending the babies?
#3
RIAN.RU > OPED: AFRICAN IMPASSE:TERRORISTS OR PIRATES, EITHER WAY.
ARTIC > Worse for Africa than local Piracy is the GREATER THREAT OF ISLAMIST TERRORISM. A REAL WOT CANNOT BE WAGED [ nor WON] IN AFRICA UNLESS AFRICA'S ECONOMIES CAN BE EFFEC DEV [+ protected], THUS REMOVING A PERVAS BREEDING GOUND FOR ISLAMIST-, ANDOR OTHER VIOLENCE-CENTRIC ARMED MILITANCIES. The US-Allies cannot help Africa's troubled regions very much, espec its SAHEL REGION, due to the settling of other conflicts elsewhere [AFPAK, IRAQ].
* Lest we fergit, ME > MR. SPOCK in "THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY" > OLD VULCAN SAYING: "ONLY OBAMA [Nixon] COULD GO TO AFRICA [China]".!
Wehell, thus far I don't see the Bammer going to L'Affrique???
[Al Arabiya Latest] Bahrain's parliament on Tuesday approved legislation penalizing contacts with Israel, a move which could complicate Gulf Arab leaders' efforts to promote peace talks with Israel.
"Whoever holds any communication or official talks with Israeli officials or travels to Israel will face a fine ... and/or a jail sentence of three to five years," member of parliament Jalal Fairooz from the Shiite al-Wefaq bloc, an opposition group that was the driving force behind the move.
"The motivation is that steps are being taken by certain countries to allow certain talks to be held with Israeli officials. Israeli delegates have managed to participate in events in Arab countries with no treaties with Israel."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Detective Branch of Police (DB) yesterday arrested two sons of Lt Col (retd) Mohiuddin Ahmed, a death convict in Bangabandhu murder case, for suspected links to the bomb attack on Awami League lawmaker Fazle Noor Taposh.
DB picked up Nazmul Hasan alias Sohel, 34, his younger brother Mahbubul Hasan, 30, from their residence at Gawair Prembagan of Ashkona in the city's Dakkhinkhan at around 3:00am.
Later they were produced before a Dhaka court, which placed them on a five-day remand.
Mohiuddin Ahmed condemned to death in August 15 killing case is now detained in Dhaka central jail.
With the arrest of the two brothers, six people have so far been arrested in connection with the bomb attack on Taposh.
Of the arrestees four persons are from among the families of convicted killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Earlier police arrested Mehnaz Rashid, eldest daughter of Lt Col (retd) Khandaker Abdur Rashid on Saturday, Kamrul Haque Swapan, younger brother of Major (retd) Shariful Haq Dalim, and Freedom Party leader Abdur Rahim on Thursday.
On Sunday detectives arrested Sheikh Shafiullah Sofu from his Segunbagicha residence on the same charge. Police told reporters that Sofu was former organising secretary of Freedom Party.
Both Dalim and Rashid have been holed up abroad since the trial of August 15 killing case began in 1996.
DB sources said they suspect that detained Sohel and Hasan might have link to the bomb attack on Taposh.
They added that police might get important clues from the two brothers about the bomb attack.
All the arrestees are being interrogated in DB custody, police said.
Assistant Commissioner (AC) of DB Nasir Uddin Khan told The Daily Star that they seized two passports of Mehnaz and also came to know that Mehnaz made trips to Pakistan every year.
Meanwhile, wife of detainee Sheikh Shafiullah Sofu yesterday at a press conference made an appeal to the Home Minister seeking release of her husband claiming that her husband was not a freedom party activist or leader.
When DB officials arrested Sofu from his residence, they did not let her know on what charge Sofu was arrested but the following day she found in the newspapers that Sofu was arrested for suspected link to the bomb attack on Taposh and Sofu was a leader of Freedom Party.
"My husband is a BNP activist but a tenant of my house was a Freedom Party activist," she claimed.
However, Additional Deputy Commissioner (PR) Walid Hossain of Dhaka Metropolitan Police told The Daily Star that Koly Begum's allegations and claims are baseless as DB personnel arrested Sofu following the information extracted from the other detainees.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Twelve members of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) yesterday appealed to a Dhaka court to let them retract their confessional statements in the BDR mutiny case.
The carnage at the BDR headquarters on February 25-26 left a number of BDR high officials including its director general dead.
Metropolitan Magistrate Rashed Kabir put the petitions in the file of the carnage case.
In the petitions, the BDR jawans told the court they were tortured mercilessly to give the confessional statements. "How's your liver?"
"Um, fine I guess. Can I retract my confession?"
[thump] [owwwwww]
"How's your liver now?"
"[groan] I think I'm getting cirrhosis."
Meanwhile, 16 BDR jawans were shown arrested in the case yesterday and taken on a five-day remand each. They were arrested from Pilkhana headquarters after the February 25-26 bloodbath.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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North Korea accused the United States Tuesday of stepping up production and deployment of "bunker-buster" bombs to mount a pre-emptive attack on its nuclear sites. Well, we could hope that their propaganda is true....
The United States is deploying the bombs "to attack underground military targets and nuclear facilities" in the North, the ruling communist party newspaper Rodong Sinmun said in a commentary. Maybe they know something that we don't know.
This proved that Washington has not abandoned "ambitions to stifle" Pyongyang by force, it said. If you make the assumption that the bunker busters will be used in North Korea alone. There are many more targets than just Nork.
Government newspaper Minju Joson carried a similar commentary, saying the United States was producing such bombs for a pre-emptive strike on the underground facilities.
"The only choice our republic can make at a time when its dignity and safety is under threat is to strengthen its war deterrence by all means," it said.
The South's unification ministry said in a report last week that North Korea has 20 nuclear-related sites manned by an estimated 3,000 workers.
The criticism came despite the North's attempts to set up a meeting with the United States, as it comes under sanctions pressure over its nuclear ambitions.
The North in April abandoned a six-nation nuclear disarmament deal and announced it was resuming the reprocessing of plutonium at its Yongbyon complex.
It carried out its second atomic weapons test in May, triggering tougher United Nations sanctions.
This month the North expressed willingness to return to the six-party forum but only if it first holds satisfactory talks with Washington.
Envoys from the two sides held rare face-to-face talks in New York Saturday in an apparent preparation for a possible bilateral meeting.
South Korea has reacted cautiously to recent peace overtures from its neighbour.
Vice Unification Minister Hong Yang-Ho told a forum Tuesday there are no signs so far it is willing to give up its nuclear weapons.
Hong said Pyongyang has shown "no substantive change" to its position on nuclear disarmament. Be reasonable. Rant. Throw tantrum. Make ominous threats. Grab a reporter or two. Drown a few with a river discharge. Rinse and repeat.
In an unusual development, the North's state media Tuesday reported that a South Korean pig farmer has defected across the heavily-guarded border and is now "under the warm care" of authorities. Defective South Korean pig farmer. Who would have known?
The South-North defection, if confirmed, would be extremely rare. Seoul officials said they were checking the report. "We can't believe this. Let's do some fact checking. Any psych reports on this guy?"
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/28/2009 16:07 ||
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#1
In truth a bunker buster bomb can be just as effective against Kimmie and his demon-seed, as it would be against `fissionable` materials...
I think that is what is raising concerns, pig farmers not withstanding
Anthony Zinni stepped up his call for the Obama administration to quit dillydallying and send more troops to Afghanistan to fight the insurgency.
A counterinsurgency strategy, he said, would work better over the long run than continuing narrower counterterrorism operations that target Taliban and al Qaeda leaders.
The retired Marine Corps general, who had been the top commander in the Middle East and Central Asia, said the Obama administration needs more forces in Afghanistan quickly. Zinni said his own son was among the troops waiting to be deployed, adding: "I think that we owe them a decision. For the life of me, I can't figure out why we're still waiting for one."
Zinni, who spent considerable time working with the Pakistani and Indian governments while he headed Centcom during the Clinton administration, told the International Peace Operations Association's annual conference that a counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan could better resolve the nettlesome problems with Taliban and al Qaeda fighters and drug production. The association is a trade group for battlefield contractors; Zinni is chairman of BAE Systems Inc., the U.K. defense giant's U.S. arm.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"I think that we owe them a decision. For the life of me, I can't figure out why we're still waiting for one."
How about "Because we have a moron for a president who has never run so much as a hot dog stand in his life."
#3
Called it yesterday.
"Or waits until the decision is made for him."
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/28/2009 0:42 Comments ||
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#4
We are talking here about a man who has made a career out of inciting others to make his decisions and fight his fights for him while he dithers the on sidelines waiting to see who wins so he can side with the winner.
#7
It ain't dithering, folks - he's just trying to figure out the best timing for orchestrating the "helicopters on the roof" moment the Dems are lusting for.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
10/28/2009 9:50 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Zinni has personal problems. He craved to be in politics, but neither political party was interested, so he lashes out at both of them. W. Bush didn't return his calls, and neither did Obama, when Zinni wanted to be his VP.
The mastermind of the 2002 Washington, DC-area sniper attacks will die by lethal injection next month, Virginia officials said Tuesday. John Allen Muhammad declined to choose between lethal injection and electrocution, so under state law the method defaults to lethal injection, Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said.
Muhammad is scheduled to be executed Nov. 10 for the October 2002 slaying of Dean Harold Meyers at a Manassas gas station during a string of shootings.
The three-week killing spree in October 2002 left 10 dead in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
Muhammad and his teenage accomplice, Lee Boyd Malvo, were also suspected of shootings in several other states, including a killing in Louisiana and another in Alabama. Malvo is serving a life sentence in prison.
Muhammad's lawyers have asked the Virginia governor for clemency and plan to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court early next month.
This article starring:
John Allen Muhammad
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Too damn lenient, shoot him with his own rifle and wait 30 minuites (Or so) until he quits wiggling around, then douse him in gasoline and light it, record the whole thing.
Rememberr he shot people at gas stations as they filled their car. NO MERCY.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/28/2009 1:02 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I say stick him in the trunk of the car he used and let him die there.
#2
Personally, if I were a terrorist suspect, Id rather be picked up by a Special Forces team in the Hindu Kush, be shipped to Cuba, have my case reviewed by military lawyers, be allowed a Middle Eastern diet, and be provided with a Koran and arrows pointing to Mecca than simply wait to have my head exploded without warning by a Hellfire missile, while sitting inside my mud-brick hideout in Waziristan alongside my soon-to-be-incinerated family.
#7
SteveS, if it is an MQ-9 Reaper instead of an MQ-1B Predator on the combat air patrol, you don't have to choose. You can be killed by an AGM-114 Hellfire missile, a GBU-12 laser guided bomb, or a GBU-38 JDAM. The Reaper can carry 3,000 pounds of ordinance on the wings and deliver it with precision, panache, and pleasure.
#8
To the the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions:
What about that?
Gunmen attacked a guest house used by U.N. staff in the Afghan capital of Kabul early Wednesday, killing at least seven people including three U.N. staff, officials said. A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility, saying it was meant as an assault on the upcoming presidential election.
#10
Its interesting the UN waited this long to bring this up. They had years to address it under Bush - but they knew he'd tell them to go pound sand. The UN sees Obama's weakness and will try to capitalize on it even more.
Posted by: Yosemtie Sam ||
10/28/2009 12:36 Comments ||
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Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/28/2009 12:47 Comments ||
Top||
#13
My vote is arclight strikes using nukes. Bring back the mininukes and drop however many a B-52 can hold in a nice pattern over an area. Then repeat when the UN inspectors go in to investigate.
#18
The primary objection of the UN seems to be that it's effective. Their thought process seems to be "Let's get those US troops out there where they can get killed. Maybe they'll get sick of it before they get around to us"
#20
Since they accuse of all these horrible things, we might as well do them and get the job done. It'll be over far more quickly and it'd be a permanent solution to the problem.
From the game of Paranoia, comes the right saying for this problem.
Iraqi refugees in Syria will this week start receive U.N. text messages they can redeem for fresh food in local shops, the World Food Program said on Tuesday.
The "virtual vouchers" worth $22 per family every two months will supplement traditional aid which rarely includes perishable goods, WFP spokeswoman Emilia Casella said, announcing the pilot project supported by the mobile company MTN.
"They will be able to exchange their electronic vouchers for rice, wheat flour, lentils, chickpeas, oil and canned fish, as well as cheese and eggs, items that cannot usually be included in conventional aid baskets," she told a Geneva news briefing.
There are more than 1.2 million Iraqis now living in Syria, according to government figures. Many of those who fled war and insurgent violence in their homeland initially had some savings and possessions but are increasingly desperate, Casella said. They could go home. Things are much better in Iraq. That they stay in Syria says something about their pre-war status ...
Virtually all the 130,000 Iraqis who now regularly receive WFP food assistance in Syria have mobile phones, and the U.N. agency often sends text messages to tell them where food staples will be distributed, the spokeswoman said.
The Rome-based WFP, which aims to feed 105 million people in 74 countries this year, has never before used mobile phones to deliver food vouchers.
The Syrian pilot will initially reach 1,000 beneficiaries in and around Damascus, and may be extended, the WFP said. Casella described it as a way to help refugees eat a more diversified diet while also supporting local farmers and businesses.
"We are not giving food away, we are actually creating an additional market for local shopkeepers," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Virtually all the 130,000 Iraqis who now regularly receive WFP food assistance in Syria have mobile phones,
This alone proves they don't need aid.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/28/2009 0:58 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Palestinian "refugees" move over---UN has a new money making scheme.
#3
So is the UN is distributing phones to refugees so no is discriminated against if they cannot receive text messages? Is the voucher good per refugee or per family or per phone? Is Syria the only place using this program or do I smell a colossal rat?
#4
It's a test market, Lumpy Elmoluck5091. If it works well in Syria -- or better than the current paper voucher system -- the WFP will expand it worldwide.
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Sri Lanka said it is accelerating the settlement of Tamil refugees held in transit camps since the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May, after coming under international criticism for delaying their release.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa appointed a team comprising lawmakers and government ministers to oversee the return of refugees and development in the north, the Ministry of Defense said on its Web site yesterday. The government plans to further accelerate the development in the north on a priority basis to restore normalcy in life, the ministry said in a statement.
United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said last month more than 280,000 displaced Tamils are being held under conditions of internment. Sri Lanka rejected the assessment, saying security must be established in the north and mines cleared from former conflict zones before the settlement program is completed.
The number of displaced people has been reduced from 288,000 to 196,088, helped by the success of the mine-clearing program, Mahinda Samarasinghe, the minister for disaster management and human rights, said two days ago.
More than 10,000 people were resettled in recent days in an area around Kilinochchi, the northern town where the LTTE had its headquarters, the government said yesterday. The area was heavily mined, it said.
A special task force is involved in clearing mines and the government has bought 24 de-mining machines to help speed the process, the Defense Ministry said. An estimated 1.5 million mines and unexploded ordnance contaminated 500 square kilometers (193 square miles) of the north when the war ended, Lieutenant General Jagath Jayasuriya, Sri Lankas army commander, said yesterday in the capital, Colombo. About 65 percent of that area was inhabited by civilians and 25 percent is agricultural land, he said at a seminar on the threat from landmines in former conflict zones.
The LTTE laid millions of mines in areas under their control, disregarding the danger that could be suffered by innocent civilians, Jayasuriya said, adding that the mines considerably delayed army drives into rebel-held territory. For the resettlement process, landmines pose a serious threat, he said.
The reports of an increasing number of civilians leaving the transit camps are welcome, European Union foreign ministers said in a statement yesterday. It is crucial that the government in Sri Lanka now ensures that these refugees can return home voluntarily and with dignity, the ministers said.
Rajapaksa earlier this week appointed an independent committee to investigate a U.S. State Department report that civilians were shelled by the army in the last weeks of the war. The report listed killings and other abuses carried out by the army and the LTTE.
While the government described last weeks report as unsubstantiated, Samarasinghe said it was the responsibility of a democratic state to investigate such charges. Though some elements try to interpret this report as a charge sheet against Sri Lanka, it clearly says it has no legal basis, Samarasinghe said Oct. 26.
The State Department said last week the incidents of abuses listed in the report are based mostly on reporting by the U.S. embassy in Sri Lanka, international organizations and the media and are credible.
A domestic probe by Sri Lanka is an attempt to evade an international inquiry into violations during the war, Human Rights Watch said in an e-mailed statement today. The government is once again creating a smokescreen inquiry to avoid accountability for abuses, said Brad Adams, the Asia director of the New York-based group. Only an independent international investigation will uncover the truth. The HRW is about as pro-Tamil as they are pro-Paleo ...
The U.S. and UN shouldnt play along with the governments pretense it will conduct its own probe, he added.
The political climate in Sri Lanka, where the government brands critics as LTTE supporters, means a credible domestic inquiry is unlikely, Human Rights Watch said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
See also PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > THE BALKANIZATION OF SRI LANKA AND THE ROLE OF THE SCTO/SCO AND NATO CONFLICT IN SOUTH ASIA.
Schemas for South Asian "BALKANIZATION" seemingly include incorporating PAK'S NWFP PROVINCE INTO AFGHANISTAN???
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran said it would not send all its uranium abroad but accepted the broad framework of a United Nations-brokered deal but wants "very important changes" in the plan, a state TV channel reported on Tuesday.
The television quoted a source close to Iran's nuclear negotiating team as saying Tehran will offer its response within the next "48 hours" to the deal, which has already received the backing of Western powers.
It did not give details on what kind of changes Tehran would seek to the draft agreement hammered out by U.N. nuclear agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei in consultations with Iran, Russia, France and the United States in Vienna last week.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
I know a 7000-KM = future 13,000-KM? ICBM from PAK that Tehran can borrow [one day].
* TOPIX > HIZBOLLAH: WE WILL DEFEND LEBANON FROM ISRAEL [ vee FORCE]; + SYRIA: LEBANON NEEDS TO THE CORE OF THE ARAB WORLD [Arabism].
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration has been accused of extensive financial fraud after a dispute between government agencies revealed a $35 billion discrepancy in revenues from the country's oil sales.
A report by Iran's State Audit organization found a series of inconsistencies in the amount of revenue recorded by different organs of Ahmadinejad's government. The discrepancies, totaling around $66 billion, are equivalent to Iran's average oil revenues over an entire year.
Ahmadinejad's regime has been accused of misappropriating oil revenues for years. While the gist of the State Audit organization's findings were made public months ago, the extent of the inconsistencies it uncovered were first revealed Monday by Farda, a conservative local media outlet associated with Teheran's mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, frequently cited as a potential future contender for president.
"The amount was really surprising," Hossein Bastani, the co-founder of Rooz, an Iranian dissident journal, told The Media Line. "In the past the Iranian parliament questioned what had happened to $1 billion in the 2006 budget. Until this week, that was the largest amount of money to have disappeared. Now we are talking about $66 billion!"
"We do not think that this money is stolen, not at all," Bastani clarified. "What is important is that the government is using such huge amounts of money in a non-transparent way. Whether it is to assure the re-election of Ahmadinejad or other secret military or intelligence projects doesn't really matter. Every dollar made from oil exports should be sent to the Central Bank."
The largest of the discrepancies centers around $35 billion worth of imported goods. While Iran's Central Bank reported almost $220 billion worth of goods to have been purchased for import into the country between 2005 and 2008, the country's customs administration reports only $185 billion worth of goods to have actually arrived in the country.
The report also found significant inconsistencies between the revenue the government reported as earned through exports of oil and other goods and the amount of money actually deposited in the country's central bank.
While Iran's oil ministry recorded $255 billion in revenue generated from the country's oil sales over the past four years, Iran's Central Bank reported receiving a much larger sum of money, $280 billion, during the aforementioned period.
A further $2.6 billion discrepancy in revenues from non-oil exports was reported and the Central Bank found a $3 billion discrepancy between the amount of money recorded as being in the country's foreign exchange reserves and the amount of money actually there.
Oil constitutes Iran's largest source of revenue, making up 80% of the country's foreign exchange revenues. Heavily dependent on oil, Iran's economy has been badly damaged by the recent fall in oil prices.
Ahmadinejad's regime has been accused of misappropriating oil revenues for years, but some Iranian analysts said the recent issue had been overblown by local media, attributing the dispute to an internal government spat over accounting practices.
"The two organizations at loggerheads over this are the Ministry of Oil and the State Audit organization," Dr Seyyed Mohammad Marandi, a lecturer at the University of Tehran, told The Media Line. "Neither side is accusing the other of fraud and while there are some newspapers who have talked about missing money, that's not what the agencies themselves have said... They just have different ways of carrying out their auditing and I think they are trying to resolve their differences."
Dr Marandi said it was unlikely Iranian officials would be able to steal billions. "You can't manipulate statistics without it being discovered and auditing is not something a major government agency would fool around with," he said. "If you try to make a buck by getting out of a taxi and asking the driver to write you a receipt for $20 when you only paid $15, in any country that form of fraud or theft would be the most easy to discover. So usually if there's corruption, it's would be found at the middleman level in kickbacks or bribes for oil tenders."
Other analysts argued that while the accounting inconsistencies may not point to corruption, they were likely the result of funds appropriated for illicit government initiatives. "Economic mismanagement is a huge issue and one of the most unreported causes of discontent in the country," Dr Emanuele Ottolenghi, an Iran expert and the executive director of the Transatlantic Institute, told The Media Line. "There is liberal use of state revenue to fund activities that are not necessarily audited, such as nuclear procurement, terrorism and funding insurgencies abroad. These things don't appear in the state budget in a transparent fashion."
"There is growing resentment among workers over state money being used to fund the Palestinians or similar causes rather than for infrastructure that would help the Iranian population," Dr Ottolenghi said. "So the fact that there is profound economic mismanagement, corruption and vast disparities in accounting is neither new nor surprising. What's significant is that somebody in the political system is using it as a tool to criticize the government."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
They have to fund their nuclear agenda as covertly as possible ...
Posted by: Oscar ||
10/28/2009 7:40 Comments ||
Top||
#2
And they have to fund Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and sundry terrorists throughout the House of Islam.
What's the Generally Accepted Accounting practice for calculating Return on Investment for a homicide bomber?
[Iran Press TV Latest] A senior Iranian commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps says the precision of Iranian missiles has been increased to nearly "100 percent".
Iranian experts have broken the monopoly of the major powers over modern defense and military technologies, the deputy commander of the IRGC Navy, Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, said, noting that such advances have increased the accuracy of the Iranian "vessel and missile equipment".
"Iran's modern technologies have increased the precision of the equipment to near 100 percent," IRNA quoted Fadavi as saying on Tuesday.
Fadavi stated that the IRGC has put programs on its agenda that will make Iran the leading country in the world as far as navy speedboats are concerned.
The Iranian commander said that Iran is among the few countries that have the capability to launch missiles from speedboats with very high precision.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/28/2009 00:00 ||
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#3
Versus, oh I dunno, CHINA'S SO-CALLED
"CARRIER-KILLER" DF MISSLE???
"As far as NAVY SPEEDBOATS are concerned" > and we all know how well that stopped the USN in its tracks [NOT], as per the GHOSTS OF IRAN'S NAVY = KUWAITI REFLAGGED TANKERS PAST.
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.
[Bangla Daily Star] Detective Branch of Police (DB) yesterday arrested two sons of Lt Col (retd) Mohiuddin Ahmed, a death convict in Bangabandhu murder case, for suspected links to the bomb attack on Awami League lawmaker Fazle Noor Taposh.
[Bangla Daily Star] Twelve members of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) yesterday appealed to a Dhaka court to let them retract their confessional statements in the BDR mutiny case.
The mastermind of the 2002 Washington, DC-area sniper attacks will die by lethal injection next month, Virginia officials said Tuesday. 
Iraqi refugees in Syria will this week start receive U.N. text messages they can redeem for fresh food in local shops, the World Food Program said on Tuesday. 
[Iran Press TV Latest] A senior Iranian commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps says the precision of Iranian missiles has been increased to nearly "100 percent". 
