[Al Arabiya] The Khartoum government will accept the result of a self-determination vote in southern Sudan but wants international sanctions eased, Vice President Ali Osman Taha told a U.N. meeting Friday.
"The outcome of the referendum will be accepted by our government," said Taha after hearing warnings from U.S. President Barack B.O. Obama and U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon.
Taha appealed however for international sanctions to be eased against Sudan and condemned an international warrant for the arrest of Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir on war crimes charges.
The self-determination votes in South Sudan and the small region of Abyei, both key oil producers, were part of a 2005 peace accord. Diplomats fear that preparations for the votes are seriously behind schedule.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya] A senior Coptic bishop has caused a furor in Egypt by suggesting that some verses in the Koran, the Mohammedan holy book, were inserted at a date after it was first set down, press reports said on Friday.
Bishop Bishoy, secretary of the Coptic Church's Holy Synod, suggested last week that certain verses of the Koran had been inserted into the holy book after the death of the Prophet Mohammed, implying doubt over their validity.
Mohammedans believe the Koran was handed down to Mohammed verbatim by the Archangel Gabriel over a period of around 23 years.
During a recent meeting with the Egyptian ambassador in Cyprus, attended by some media, Bishoy said certain verses of the Koran contradict the Christian faith and that he believed they were added later by one of Mohammed's early successors, Caliph Uthman Ibn Affan.
Most of the Koran contradicts the Bible and vice-versa. Funny how that works in competing religions ...
The remarks sparked outrage among both Christian and Mohammedan leaders, saying they could lead to sectarian tension, and Bishoy told a lecture on Wednesday there had been a misunderstanding.
"My question as to whether some verses of the Koran were inserted after the death of the prophet is not a criticism or accusation," he said. "It is merely a question about a certain verse that I believe contradicts the Christian faith," Bishoy told an audience in Fayoum, south of Cairo, in statements carried by al-Masry al-Youm.
"I don't understand how that can be turned into an attack on Islam," Bishoy said, insisting his remarks had been taken out of context.
Mohammedan "strong response"
Sources at Cairo's al-Azhar -- Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning-- told the independent daily al-Masry al-Youm that the institution's head, Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, was preparing a "strong response" to Bishoy's remarks. Sounds like rioting in the Egyptian immediate future...
Tayeb is said to be "very angry" at Bishoy's statements because "it is the job of religious leaders to ensure national unity," the paper said. "... not to seek truth."
Your job is to submit in humiliation until you submit and convert, our job is to help the process along by humiliating you at every opportunity.
Salem Abdul Geleel, deputy minister at the ministry of religious endowments, also criticized the comments.
"The faith of Mohammedans is a red line that can in no way be discussed by a non-Mohammedan ... Just as we do not discuss the faith of non-Mohammedans," Abdul Geleel said in a statement carried by the opposition daily al-Wafd.
The Egyptian constitution guarantees freedom of expression, but there is great sensitivity when it comes to religious matters. Simmering tensions occasionally flare up into violent incidents between Mohammedans and Christians in Egypt.
Three Egyptian Mohammedans are currently on trial for gunning down six Copts after they came out of Christmas services in Nagaa Hammadi in southern Egypt.
That's what "Between Muslims and Christians" looks like in Dar al Islam.
Coptic Christians make up around six to 10 percent of the 80 million population and complain of systematic marginalization and discrimination.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"The faith of Muslims is a red line that can in no way be discussed by a non-Muslim"
Translation:"Silence, I kill you!"
This is a terse but exhaustive summary of moderate Muslim's attitude towards free speech.
It should also put the Koran burning controversy in perspective.
To placate muslims e.g. in Afghanistan we would have to ban any discussion of Islam.
#3
It is an attack against Islam because you do not toe the line.
Let me pop smoke for you. The Torah is the denomenator of human interaction. The Bible is witness' accounts and testimony - the Koran is an illiterate's dictate.
Usually two out of three ain't bad. But only the decendant of an ape would be born with an imagination like that. But of course questioning how an illiterate wrote it down in the first place...or would know...likely mo was a book burner - violent, self ingraciating, could not read.
[Al Arabiya] The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's main opposition group, does not plan to heed calls for a boycott of November's parliamentary elections, a senior member of the moderate Islamist movement said on Thursday.
"The official decision has still not been announced by the movement's political bureau," but "the plan for the Muslim Brotherhood is to participate in the legislative elections as in all elections," the group's front manHamdi Hassan told AFP.
"We have said that we will boycott the vote if there is unanimity among the opposition parties on such a boycott, but this is not the case. Instead, the opposition parties are gradually announcing their planned participation, so the position of the Muslim Brotherhood is to do likewise."
Hassan said the group planned to field "at least 160 candidates" for the 506 seats being contested, with the number potentially rising to allow members to run for some of the 62 seats reserved for women.
But he warned that if the government ended up "falsifying" the vote there would be "unprecedented violence, "... and believe me, most Mohammedan violence is precedented!...
because the people no longer fear the security services."
He also slammed a decision taken three years ago to replace the judges previously responsible for monitoring the polls with appointed officials.
The officially banned but tolerated Muslim Brotherhood clinched 20 percent of seats in the 22D5 legislative polls by running as "independents," in a surprise win that commentators said rattled the ruling National Democratic Party.
Earlier this month Mohamed ElBaradei, the former UN nuclear chief turned Egyptian reformer, called for a boycott of the upcoming elections ... which is a guarantee you're not gonna win...
and warned of civil disobedience if demands for political reform are not met.
That's how a suave former member of the international diplomatic set says, "Nice little country ya got there. Be a shame if something happened to it." The thing is, I don't think he's got the connections to do more than suavely hint at those two sentences, and I'm pretty sure if I know that, so does Mubarak, pere (pretend the proper accent sits over that first e, 'k?), the one currently carrying the title of President of Egypt.
But the only other party to join him so far is the small al-Ghad party, whose founder Ayman Nur was the sole serious challenger to incumbent Hosni Mubarak in the 2005 presidential election.
Members of Egypt's liberal Wafd party voted in favour of participating in the November elections at their general assembly on Friday, although 44 percent supported a boycott.
Widespread irregularities were reported during elections in May for the Egyptian parliament's upper house, with the Muslim Brotherhood's Supreme Guide Mohammed Badie saying security officials had removed posters of his movement's candidates and prevented them from campaigning or meeting electors.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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[Ennahar] France, targeted by Al Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and Algeria, country of origin of Islamic emirs, are linked by their common interest in fighting against terrorism in the Sahel and have always maintained the exchange whatever their differences.
"We have intelligence cooperation with our Algerian friends" who are "extremely committed to the fight against terrorism," said Thursday, French Defence Minister Herve Morin.
A week after the abduction, claimed by AQIM, of seven people including five French in Niger, France wishes to show how it considers Algeria as a key player.
After months of tension, relations between the two countries have improved. "we are in a stable relationship (...): it won't deteriorate more but there are still obstacles," told AFP the president of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly Axel Poniatowski.
Algeria is still smarting from being registered by France on the list of countries of risk for transport or support of Paris to a Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara. France always accuses Algeria of protectionism following measures penalizing its entreprises.
However, The infamous However... several cases have been settled, including the one of an Algerian diplomat recently cleared by French justice to the great satisfaction of Algiers.
But even at the height of the crisis, cooperation in the fight against terrorism has never been interrupted, say officials and experts.
"What is real is that there is a genuine common interest to cooperate actively in the anti-AQIM fight," Poniatowski said.
AQIM was born of an allegiance to Al Qaeda in 2006 of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat ... now known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb... (GSPC) from the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), which in the 90s, had bloodied Algeria and orchestrated attacks in France.
"Algeria is a key player. Its advantage is to have AQIM home. In the region, it is the most powerful country, the richest, the greatest," said Jean-Francois Daguzan of Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS).
"The Algerian regime has long infiltrated these groups, they has the means to act, a major diplomatic and military experience," confirms Kader Abderrahim of the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS).
In addition, "the Algerians did not wait for kidnapping in the Sahel to act on their southern flank," said the researcher, recalling that Algiers "was an important intermediate on the issue of the Tuareg, nomads who roam the vast Sahel-Saharan strip where AQIM operates.
For its part, "France has deployed devices in the Sahel countries, notably in Mauritania: it has the means that she can exchange with Algeria," Poniatowski says.
This cooperation is also for President Abdelaziz Bouteflika a way to see recognized the "regional leader", says Khadija Mohsen-Finan from the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI).
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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[Ennahar] Sources close to former Moroccan Minister of Interior, Idris El Basri have uncovered information that the falcon of the royal palace would have revealed to some people who visited him at his Paris home in the end of 2005. The latter revealed secrets about the Algerian bands of Islamic bandidos, followed with interest by the royal palace since the early nineties.
This new information held by Ennahar, of unpublished testimony by the dear departed Idris El Basri, on the Mauritanian Mustapha Echafi'i, 50, who served as adviser to the president of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore, and who was an officer with the Moroccan military intelligence, known as "DGED" (Directorate General of Military Studies and documents) for many years, when he had in hand the kingdom's Ministry of Interior.
Mustapha Echafi'i was known only by the security services and some African and European diplomats for his role as an intermediary between the heads of several African states, in favor of President Compaore of Burkina Faso, before the Moroccan authorities do think to use him in 2003 with the advent of muscle Salafi group for Preaching and Combat's kidnapping of 40 European tourists in the Algerian Sahara.
Since that date, Mustapha Echafi'i was the only person to have participated in operations of release of Western hostages, kidnapped in Mali and Niger, and even in Mauritania, moving directly to the stronghold of the terrorist organization in northern Mali to negotiate and bring the ransom paid by European governments or intermediaries from Libya.
According to sources close to former Interior Minister Idris El Basri, recruiting Shafi'i by Directorate General for Research and records was not to infiltrate the terrorist organization in the great desert, a hypothesis rejected by El Basri, especially as it would have helped to accentuate the crisis with Algeria since the terrorist attacks of 1994.
If the organization AQIM had chosen Echafi'i to represent her during the various negotiations on the hostages and ransoms, information held by Ennahar confirm that Echafi'i, who has decamped his country (Mauritania) for years, has not hesitated to reveal the intentions of the royal palace against muscle of the terrorist organization.
Repentants and a number of Islamic snuffies jugged in the Algerian Sahara in the past three years, spoke of the non-existence of Moroccan Islamic snuffies in this region since 2007. This absence was not spontaneous on the part of the terrorist organization but the work of an agreement between General Yacine El Mansouri, head of the DGED (military intelligence) and Mustapha Echafi'i Mauritanian officer, to prevent terrorist acts on Moroccan territory and ensure the recruitment of Sahrawi in the terrorist organization to strengthen the Moroccan thesis on peace and security in the Sahara.
Echafi'i maintained since 2007 visits to the stronghold of the terrorist organization in Timbuktu, Gao and Kidal, to negotiate or to bring the ransom money. He had, for the first time, met the chiefs of the terrorist organization in June 2003, during the kidnapping of 40 European tourists in Algeria who have entered illegally from Tunisia.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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(Rooters) - SA's ruling communist African National Congress will press on Wednesday for a new tribunal to seize the farms and property punish unscrupulous reporting. Lionel, do you see any similarities between what is happening here and what Obama is spouting in the States?
No Geoffrey, no similarities at all. Why do you ask?
[Al Arabiya] Donor nations voiced support for Yemen on Friday as the poor country struggles to contain a rising al-Qaeda threat and tackle other challenges that have made it a top world security concern.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague chaired the meeting of bigshots from Europe, China, Russia, and Gulf states, including European Union foreign policy boss Catherine Ashton and U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns.
"No friend of Yemen can stand by when the economy of that state comes close to collapse ... Or when the authority of the government is challenged by extremism, by violence, by crime or by corruption," Hague told the meeting, held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. "We are committed to protection of the people of Yemen," he said.
Alan Duncan, Britain's international development minister, said "the underpinning issue (of help to Yemen) is the protection of the stability of the state overall and let's be honest: there are massive dangers to the country, the region and the wider world if ever Yemen becomes failed state." "We're not sure how we could tell if that happened, but we've got top people working on it even as we speak!" "We filed the report right next to the box containing the Ark of the Covenant."
"You have a country that's running out of oil, running out of water and running out of time," Duncan said.
Al-Qaeda's threat
After a Yemen-based arm of al-Qaeda grabbed credit for the botched bombing of a U.S.-bound airliner late last year, fears have grown that Yemen could unravel into a failed state allowing Islamic myrmidon groups to thrive and launch attacks.
Officials expressed worry about mounting radicalism in Yemen, whose massive population of jobless youths are seen as a ready target for Islamic myrmidons, who are staging increasingly bold attacks on international and domestic targets.
"Yemen's security and stability and progress matters not just to Yemenis ... making sure this is not a country al-Qaeda can infiltrate with impunity," British junior foreign minister Alistair Burt said after the meeting.
"The world has a vested interest in making sure Yemen is a success," he said.
The government in Sanaa faces a host of conflicts, including an intermittent six-year conflict with Iranian catspaws in the north and mounting unrest by southern separatists.
The government of President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh is working to cement a shaky truce it made this year with northern Iranian catspaws to end a war that has raged on and off since 2004.
But security is only one of a number of entrenched problems in Yemen, where only about 60 percent of adults are literate and water scarcity poses an existential threat.
People who attended a closed portion of the meeting said foreign officials praised Yemen for implementing some economic and political reforms, but said much more was required.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
Hugo's doing the salesman routine, promising low-interest credit cards and discounted (subsidized?) appliances - TVs and Washing Machines. No word how those'll work when the power grid is down 18 hrs a day and there's nothing on the shelves to buy
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/25/2010 16:35 ||
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#1
wonder if they will give up their freedoms for a washing machine or a stove?
wonder if 0bama will try something like that next month before our elections?
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
09/25/2010 20:34 Comments ||
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#2
"wonder if they will give up their freedoms for a washing machine or a stove?"
What freedoms?
"wonder if 0bama will try something like that next month before our elections?"
Don't the Dems do that already?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/25/2010 20:52 Comments ||
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Thousands of people attended the Islamic Movement's annual rally in Umm al-Fahm Friday and were privy to a special message from Turkish President Abdullah Gul, pledging his country's support to the Arab-Israeli cause.
In his message, read over the phone by the Turkish advisor for Mideast affairs, Gul assured participants that "Your brothers in Turkey will always lend their support to the protection of the al-Aqsa Mosque and all other holy sites in Jerusalem."
Gul's advisor also spoke of May's Gaza-bound aid sail, aboard which were, among others, Head of the Islamic Movement Sheikh Raed Salah and Knesset Member Hanin Zuabi (Balad), saying "this freedom sail represents the profound link between us. Together we will protect the holy sites."
#1
the muzzies built a mosque on top of another religions holiest site. (surprise)
now the muzzies are concerned and profess solidarity when trouble breaks out.
Funny though when interviewed almost to a person Israeli Arabs want to stay and live in Israel, instead of in 'Palestine' or other disputed areas.
Wonder why is that?
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
09/25/2010 20:30 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Is the day coming when Israel returns the favor with a pledge to the Kurds? What is Turkey thinking?
Turkey: We expect formal apology, compensation from Israel over Gaza flotilla
Turkish president addressed UN general assembly and praised UN report on Gaza flotilla raid, which says Israeli forces violated international law.
Turkey is still waiting for an apology from Israel over the Gaza flotilla raid, Turkish president Abdullah Gul told the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday.
Israel owes Turkey the courtesy of an appropriate response to their classic Ottoman behaviour, so beautifully described by Mark Twain in his Innocents Abroad. It seems that after a three-generation flirtation with modernity, they are reverting to type. A clear reminder that in the old days the Flotilla incident would indeed have led to war, and that all the Turkish army's best toys are Israeli might clear the air a bit, as well.
Then again, they bellow and scream about everything ...
Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan has vowed to bring back Dr Aafia Siddiqui, a US-trained Pakistani terrorist neuroscientist justly convicted of firing at US soldiers and FBI agents in Afghanistan in 2008 as she tried to flee from their custody by force.
Dr Aafia was justly handed a too-short 86-year sentence by a federal court in Manhattan, US, on September 23.
Azam Tariq, Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan mouthpiece, told rediff.com, "Protests and rallies could not compel the Americans freeing Aafia but only the holy jihad can do this job. If the Americans were targeted around the world, no infidel would dare to arrest or punish any Muslim daughter."
The alternative is that we'd just drone-zap more of your hard boyz, starting with your worthless carcass ...
Talking via telephone from an undisclosed location, Tariq said, "Dr Aafia is innocent; and the champion of justice has done injustice in this case. The mujahid forces will never implore the Americans for her release but will bring back the Muslim sister through sheer force."
Go for it, tough guy ...
Pakistan Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has reiterated the government's commitment to go through the motions leave no stone unturned while bringing back Dr Aafia while quietly relieved that she's off center-stage, also known as prisoner 650, and said that his government will use all means to seek her repatriation.
Reacting to Gillani's statement, Tariq said, "It is only lip service, neither the issue was taken seriously up by the government nor can Pakistan act against America's wish."
Well, he's right about the 'lip service', I'll give him props for that ...
Azam added, "Americans will have to pay for this barbaric act; the act of injustice with Aafia is unbearable. Mujahideen will target the Americans all around the world and the infidels forces will meet their fate soon in the form of destruction."
But then you're supposedly doing all that already. What changed? Sending in the 'A' team?
Given the accelerating Predator activity since President Obama took office, the A team is probably long since become worm food and from thence gone once round the great circle of life.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/25/2010 08:58 ||
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[Dawn] The Pak Foreign Office on Thursday said India should take steps to end violence in Indian Kashmir if it expected to engage Pakistain in a result-oriented dialogue.
Of course, the only step that would satisfy Pakistan is the one where India vacates the place, taking all non-Muslims with them... but leaving all the movable and immovable property including all females and pretty pre-pubescent males.
Notice their idea of a "solution" doesn't involve vacating Pak-occupied Kashmire...
"It is important that ongoing atrocities in Kashmir be stopped forthwith. If India is genuinely looking forward to a result-oriented dialogue with Pakistain, it is incumbent on India to improve the situation on the ground," Foreign Office front man Abdul Basit said sanctimoniously at a weekly media briefing.
Mr Basit's pontificating came at a time when Pakistain is considering an Indian proposal for a meeting of the foreign ministers on the sidelines of the current UN General Assembly session in New York to revive the stalled dialogue.
The front man reiterated a call for India to revisit its policy regarding Kashmir. He further cautioned that there was little scope for 'meaningful and result-oriented dialogue' with India until it made amends.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya] The U.N. atomic watchdog threw out on Friday an Arab-backed resolution urging Israel to accede to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency, on the last day of its annual general conference, voted against the resolution, with 51 votes against, 46 votes for and 23 abstentions.
Israel warned the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Friday that an Arab-led push to target the Jewish state in a resolution could deal a "fatal blow" to future cooperation on boosting Middle East security.
Every once in a while Israel lets the final solution show.
An Israeli delegate at the annual assembly of the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) made the statement during a tense debate on the draft resolution, which calls on Israel to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
"Adopting this resolution will be a fatal blow to any hope for future cooperative efforts towards better regional security in the Middle East," Israel's IAEA envoy Ehud Azoulay said, shortly before the expected vote.
Arab representatives said Israel's presumed nuclear arsenal threatens regional peace and stability. The Jewish state is the region's only country outside the NPT.
The United States has urged Arab states to withdraw the non-binding resolution, saying it could derail broader efforts to ban such arms in the Middle East and also send a negative signal to the relaunched Israeli-Paleostinian peace processor.
"It is...unfortunate that this resolution is being pursued at a time when peace talks in the Middle East are being restarted after a long delay," U.S. Ambassador Glyn Davies said.
"The divisiveness and confrontation caused by this resolution threatens these talks just as they are being rekindled," he told the assembly.
Israel says it will not consider joining the NPT until there is comprehensive Middle East peace. If it signed the pact, it would have to renounce nuclear weaponry. Arab states say there cannot be peace in the Middle East until Israel gives up nuclear arms.
Israel has never confirmed nor denied having atomic bombs, under a policy of ambiguity to deter its Arab and Islamic foes.
Israel and the United States regard Iran as the Middle East's main proliferation threat, accusing it of seeking to develop atomic weapons in secret. Tehran rejects the charge.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... Iran withdrew Thursday its bid for a seat on one of the key policy-making bodies of the U.N. atomic watchdog because it was unable to secure consensus backing for its candidacy, diplomats said.
The assembly subsequently approved the allocation of the two seats to Jordan and the UAE.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya] The political movement of Shiite holy manMoqtada Tater al-Sadr rejected an offer by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to release its members locked in Iraqi calabooses in exchange for their support for him to retain his post, a prominent member of the movement told Al Arabiya TV on Friday.
Bahaa al-Araji, a politician from al-Sadr's political bloc said in Al Arabiya TV's talk show "Who Will Rule Iraq" presented by Suhair al-Qaysei that the Sadrists are in favor of Iraq's Vice President and head of the National Coalition political party Adel Abdul Mehdi to be the new Iraqi prime minister.
There is an estimated 2,000 Sadrists detained in Iraqi prisons; some of them were charged with encouraging a sectarian war while others were accused of rebellion.
An alliance if brokered between al-Sadrists and Abdul Mehdi's National coalition will shift Iraq's March election's competition between the two winners, al-Maliki's State of Law bloc and Iyad's Allawi's Iraqiya List in favor of Abdul Mehdi.
Allawi came two seats ahead of al-Maliki in Iraq's last election demanding that it is his constitutional right to be the new prime minister only to change his stance when his bloc lent support to Abdul Mehdi.
Abdul Mehdi also said that he received nomination support from the Kurdish blocs as well.
Sadrists have always opposed the U.S. presence in Iraq, and were against the 2008 U.S.-Iraq security pact and see it as a prolongation of a U.S. stay in the country.
Sadrists have 30 parliamentary seats which make them attractive for other rival political party contenders to pursue them as a political ally, and to collect more votes to form majority.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya] Iraq and Syria have agreed to restore full diplomatic relations by dispatching their respective ambassadors back to their posts, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Friday.
"I met the Syrian foreign minister to inform him that the Iraqi government has decided to restore full diplomatic relations by sending back our ambassador to Damascus," Zebari said by telephone from New York, where he is attending the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society General Assembly meeting.
"The Syrian side welcomed that and agreed to send their ambassador to Storied Baghdad as soon as possible."
The announcement came 10 days after Syrian President Bashar "Pencilneck" al-Assad met an aide to Iraq's acting prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, signaling a thaw in ties between the two men that could boost Maliki's chances of forming a government
The move could help improve Syria's ties with the United States, which started a rapprochement with Damascus last year.
Washington has been pushing for enhanced security cooperation between Syria and Iraq that virtually stopped when the ambassadors were withdrawn.
Iraq and Syria recalled their envoys on Aug. 25, 2009, amid a diplomatic row sparked by Iraqi accusations that Damascus was sheltering hard boyz who orchestrated massive truck bombings in Baghdad.
That flap threw into disarray extensive efforts made in the previous years to boost ties, which had been weak under former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.
It was triggered by Baghdad alleging that Syria was harboring two Baathist leaders, Mohammed Yunis al-Ahmed and Sattam Farhan, who plotted one of two devastating attacks that killed 95 people and maimed about 600 in the Iraqi capital on Aug. 19, 2009.
The bombings at the ministries of finance and foreign affairs, which occurred within minutes of each other, accounted for the worst day of violence seen in Iraq in 18 months.
Iraq aired a video showing a former police chief confessing to the bombing at the finance ministry.
The policeman said he had received orders from his Baathist boss Farhan, who along with Ahmed, also a Baathist leader loyal to Saddam, was based in Syria according to his video testimony.
Having the backing of both Iran and Syria, two regional powerbrokers with large stakes in who rules Iraq, could boost Maliki's chances of forming a government in Iraq, still without an administration six months after an inconclusive election.
Syria has a 600-km (375-mile) border with Iraq and hosts hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees. A project to re-activate an oil pipeline from the Iraqi oil centre of Kirkuk to Syria's Banias terminal has also been on hold as a result of the tension between the two countries.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
The Sunni nations in the region will not like this one bit. They already feel that Iraq "fell" to the Shiites, changing the balance of power. Any friendliness between Iraq and Syria will be seen as opening a Shiite "pipeline" from Iran, pointed right at them.
[Dawn] Israel must send a message that it is prepared to extend a freeze on settlements if the peace negotiations with the Paleostinians are to continue, Arab League chief and Jerry Lewis look-alike Amr Moussa said Friday.
No. Anything else?
"A viable, serious process of negotiations cannot go at the same time with the settlements that are being built in the occupied territories," Mussa told a press conference on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Such settlements would "affect the territorial integrity of territories that would be the territories of the new state of Paleostine," he added.
He insisted Israel must show it is "stopping building settlements" adding that "continuing or prolonging or extending the moratorium is a must and is a symbolic message that the Israeli policy is serious about this."
Israel on Friday raised the possibility of a compromise on settlement construction just ahead of when the freeze is supposed to end, threatening to derail newly-won US-backed Middle East peace talks.
"Israel is prepared to reach a compromise acceptable to all parties," a senior Israeli government official said when asked about US President Barack B.O. Obama's call for the 10-month moratorium to be extended.
Mussa urged caution, saying: "Let us wait and see what happens in the next couple of days. If they continue eroding the territorial integrity of the Paleostinian land, if they continue changing the democratic composition of the territories, if they continue changing the geographical character of the territories, why are we wasting time?" he asked.
The US administration said Thursday it was proposing "ideas" to Israeli and Paleostinian negotiators in a bid to break the stalemate over settlements.
The B.O. regime played a key role in getting the two sides back to the negotiating table on September 2 after a 20-month pause in the peace talks.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya] Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas Friday rejected any compromise that does not guarantee a "complete halt" to Israeli settlement activity, his advisor Nabil Abu Rudeina told AFP.
"A total freeze must be maintained on settlement activity in the Paleostinian territories, including in Jerusalem. We reject any partial solution," he said two days before a 10-month partial moratorium on settlement construction in the occupied West Bank ends.
"Partial solutions do not create a suitable climate for the pursuit of negotiations," Abu Rudeina said of the direct talks with Israel that resumed at the beginning of the month after a 20-month break.
Oh well. I guess Israel will just have to go back to making money, inventing new things, and preparing for the brief war that will follow her bombing of Iran's nuclear sites and Hizb'allah's weapons storage depots... and anything belonging to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Don't forget about the bombing of the presidential palace in Damascus ...
Sorry. He's so very forgettable, that chinless wonder who's all that's left of a classic Middle Eastern brute.
Just hate to see a job left undone ...
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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Which will keep their spokespeople busy until the next round of kidnap-murders.
[Al Arabiya] Representatives of rival Paleostinian parties Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Fatah met in Damascus late on Friday to discuss efforts toward reconciliation, a Hamas official said in the Syrian capital, as Egypt released a top Hamas official after holding him for 10 days.
Fatah official Azzam al-Ahmad will meet with Hamas political supremo Khaled Meshaal, who lives in exile in Syria, Hamas political official Ezzat al-Rushuq said earlier in the day.
The talks will be the fruit of efforts by Meshaal after he met in Saudi Arabia with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, who has been instrumental in past efforts by Cairo to end the dispute between the two parties.
Hamas-Fatah rifts
In the last general election in 2006, Hamas unexpectedly defeated the secular Fatah, headed by Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas.
Tensions between the two came to a head the following year when Hamas forces in the Gazoo Strip routed those loyal to Abbas's Paleostinian Authority, confining the latter's authority to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Egypt has made several attempts at reconciliation, but the last round of talks ended in October 2009 when Hamas refused to sign an Egyptian document after it was inked by Fatah.
Under the terms of that document, legislative and presidential elections were to have been held in mid-2010.
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09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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[Gulf Times] Israel should loosen restrictions in the West Bank and Gazoo immediately as a sign of good faith that new peace talks can produce a deal within a year, the Paleostinian prime minister said on Thursday.
Israel already has. What will the Palestinians do to show good faith, or is that a silly question?
"Part of what really needs to happen in a hurry, if not the end to the occupation itself, is for there to begin to be signs of it ending," Salam Fayyad told an audience in Washington.
Paleostinians want "manifestations or events suggestive of an occupation on its way to ending, an occupation that's viewed as being rolled back. We do not see that," he said.
Israel and the Paleostinians resumed peace talks for the first time in nearly two years on September 2, pledging to reach a comprehensive deal within a year.
But the resumption of talks has been accompanied by renewed violence, including deadly assaults on settlers in the West Bank and a shooting attack by a settler guard on a Paleostinian that sparked riots in East Jerusalem.
Fayyad said his government was committed to the peace processor, despite the violence and questions over whether Israel will allow a freeze on settlement construction to expire over vehement Paleostinian objections.
But he warned that Israel had taken few concrete measures that suggested it believed peace was possible within a year.
"If that's going to happen, then it stands to reason that we should be right in expecting to begin to see the occupation begin to be rolled back."
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09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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The man who found Daniel Pearl's murderers (possibly Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, himself, although the article doesn't name names) among other interesting activities. Definitely someone I'd prefer on my side.
Five months after the confirmation of army Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander to be the head of the PentagonÂ’s new Cyber Command, it would appear that the first evidence of active cyber warfare has appeared. Ars Techica summarizes emerging consensus.
Researchers have found that the highest concentration of Stuxnet infections is located in Iran. That discovery, coupled with the very high level of sophistication exhibited by the malware, has led some researchers to speculate that it was crafted by a major government body with the aim of disabling Iran's nuclear power plant. See also
Iranian media reports say the country's nuclear agency is trying to combat a complex computer worm that has affected industrial sites in Iran and is capable of taking over power plants.
The semi-official ISNA news agency says Iranian nuclear experts met this week to discuss how to remove the malicious computer code, dubbed Stuxnet, which can take over systems that control the inner workings of industrial plants.
Experts in Germany discovered the worm in July. It has since shown up in attacks in Iran, Indonesia, India and the U.S.
Friday's report said the malware had spread throughout Iran, but did not elaborate. Foreign media reports have speculated the worm was aimed at disrupting Iran's first nuclear power plant, which is to go online in October.
#3
I doubt the source code is available anywhere. I think most of what's known about the worm is from sniffing infected test-networks to see what kind of activity it generates.
P.S. Just saw Skidmark's post, that's not the application source code, just the worm's network output.
#4
This one is such fun, for the moment. The Iranians must be running like headless chickens, trying to figure out what the Israelis did (it must be those Juices, who else would be that clever and that devious?)... and what other Juicey traps have yet to be discovered (plus American ones -- the idea that the Baha'i might engage in such dirty tricks probably hasn't occurred to them). If they're smart they'll take everything off line, take it all apart, clean, measure, and reassemble, and rewrite all the computer code from scratch on new computers after burning the old ones. Yes, I realize this will put them considerably behind schedule, but the alternative is that it all goes kaboom one day soon, and they have to start from the very beginning, including training a new set of scientists and technicians.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/25/2010 15:19 Comments ||
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#8
Keep in mind all the infernal circuitry the USA now imports from China. The possibility of logical back doors written into firmware or burned into integrated circuits boggles my mind.
#9
...maybe. How many hours did it take some teenager to crack the exclusivity code on the IPhone and make it an open device? Americans have a tendency to be lazy till something gets their attention which ignites their ingenuity. Nothing like the ComChi making all such an effort only to see their handiwork trumped within a days by some geeks, if they haven't already. You don't think the script kiddies haven't been poking around the firmware and circuits?
#10
Proc: considering that by definition script kiddies are unable to write their own code and simply run scripts written by their betters... I would say "No" to your last question. However, I agree with the overall thrust of your comment.
[An Nahar] The Internal Security Forces General Directorate refuted on Friday former General Security chief Major General Jamil al-Sayyed's recent statements in which he said that police intelligence chief Col. Wissam al-Hasan had telephoned him on the morning of the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri on February 14, 2005.
It said in a statement: "By reviewing the data of phone calls from Col. Hasan's phone, it was revealed that Maj. Gen. Sayyed was the one who telephone Hasan ... and not the other way round."
It added that the call took place at 5:05pm, which was after Hariri's assassination, "which raises questions over the accuracy and credibility of Sayyed's statements."
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09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Former head of Leb's General Security Department Brig. Gen. Jamil Sayyed on Friday renewed his campaign against Prime Minister Saad Hariri and State Prosecutor Saeed Mirza and police intelligence chief Col. Wissam al-Hasan.
He called on Hariri to provide "clarifications" to some of his MPs and the Lebanese public opinion, in general, and to the Islamist Salafi Movement, in particular, on what his aides -- particularly Mirza and al-Hasan -- have done by distorting and blurring the investigation with the so-called 'cell of 13' which is headed by detainee Hasan Nabaa.
Sayyed noted that members of Nabaa cell "admitted without pressure that the group hid Ahmed Abu Adas and his comrades, particularly closest buddy Khaled Taha, at al-Ansar group at Ein el-Hilweh camp at the end of 2005."
Members of the so-called "cell of 13" were found to have had close operational links to Khaled Taha.
The arrests of the 13-member cell took place in Leb in Jan. 2006. The detainees were also linked to the 2005 assassination of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri.
Khaled Taha, one of the ring members who remains on the lam, is believed to have recruited Ahmed Abu Adas, the turban who made a dubious taped confession about his involvement in the Hariri murder.
Mirza and al-Hasan "distorted investigations with the so-called cell of 13 in harmony with March 14's political decision," Sayyed claimed.
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09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Addressing the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Friday, President Michel Suleiman stressed that "Leb will not accept the naturalization of the Paleostinians on its territory because that will generate repercussions and dangers against its national security."
"Leb reiterates its condemnation of international terrorism, from which it had suffered, and there must be a differentiation between it (international terrorism) and legitimate resistance to occupation," Suleiman told the annual convention of world leaders.
"The international community must oblige Israel to withdraw, without preconditions, from the Lebanese territories it is still occupying, knowing that we preserve the right to reclaim the occupied territories through all means possible," he added.
The president lauded the efforts of the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society Interim Force in Leb (UNIFIL), stressing "the importance of maintaining cooperation between the (Lebanese) army and UNIFIL."
Suleiman concluded his speech by saying: "We are confident that Leb will remain open to dialogue and loyal to its message that it had been built upon from the beginning: right and raising the ideals of freedom and consensual democracy."
Earlier Friday, Suleiman warned the international community that Leb will not accept any regional agreement that contradicts its interests.
"Leb will not accept any solution in the Middle East if it contradicts its supreme national interests," Suleiman told the U.N. Security Council in New York.
"Leb is still looking forward to a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East on all tracks on the basis of the Madrid Conference and the resolutions of international legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative."
Suleiman pointed out that "Israel's constant threats against Leb and planting of spy networks require a firm and a deterrent stance from the international community."
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09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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[Gulf Times] The tribunal probing the murder of ex-Lebanese premier Rafik al-Hariri wants again to question people linked to Hezbullies, but the powerful Shia group has not decided whether to co-operate, the party's number two has said.
In an interview published yesterday, Sheikh Naim Qassem said:
"Yes, there was a new request after the month of Ramadan to (question) people who could be linked to Hezbullies in one way or another."
"But we have not taken any decision on the matter for now," Al Afkar magazine quoted him as saying.
In March, Hezbullies leader Hassan Nasrallah confirmed that investigators from the Special Tribunal for Leb (STL) had interrogated members of his party.
Then in July, he claimed that the tribunal, set up three years ago in line with a UN Security Council resolution, was likely to indict members of his Islamic exemplar party.
Nasrallah made clear that his party would not go along with any such decision by the tribunal which he has slammed as biased and part of an Israeli plot.
Qassem did not say whether the latest STL request was to interview people already questioned, new people or a combination of both.
A war of words between Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri's camp and Hezbullies, largely related to the UN-backed probe, has escalated in recent weeks, raising fears of renewed sectarian violence.
Hariri's Western- and Saudi-backed coalition has accused Hezbullies of wanting to bring the court down.
For its part, the party, which is backed by Syria and Iran, has accused those close to Hariri--son of the slain ex-premier--of having "manufactured" evidence to implicate Damascus in the assassination.
Last Saturday, in a show of force, armed Hezbullies bodyguards escorted from Beirut airport the former head of the country's security services, who has been sought for questioning by Leb's top prosecutor over recent remarks.
The Hariri camp branded the airport incident as an "invasion."
Asked about this by Al Afkar, Qassem said the Hezbullies members who went to meet Brigadier General Jamil Sayyed were accompanied by "their bodyguards," adding that "what happened at the airport was totally normal."
Sayyed was held for four years without charge in connection with Hariri's murder. Earlier this month, he accused the current premier of selling his father's blood in order to frame Syria for the killing and urged the Lebanese to topple the government.
A senior Christian politician warned on Thursday of sectarian war if the tribunal issues indictments against Hezbullies.
Suleiman Franjieh, leader of the pro-Syrian Marada movement, called for the cancellation of the tribunal if it issued the indictments, which senior Lebanese political sources expect could come at the end of this year or early next year.
"If the indictments come out against Hezbullies in the trial of the Hariri assassination, there is war in Leb ... and today the atmosphere is just waiting for a spark," Franjieh told Lebanese television channel LBC.
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09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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[Gulf Times] The former head of Iran's judiciary has attained a senior Shia holy manal rank, joining a handful of men eligible to become supreme leader of the Islamic Theocratic Republic, according to Iranian websites.
The Kalame opposition website said Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, who ran the justice system from 1999 to 2009, had become a marja-e taqlid (source of emulation), meaning that people may choose him as their personal spiritual guide.
"Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi announced himself as a source of emulation on Tuesday. He issued his resaleh (thesis interpreting Islamic law)," the website of opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi said on Thursday.
Despite widespread criticism of the treatment of political dissidents and offenders against Iran's strict morality code, Shahroudi is seen by some as a moderate conservative who imposed a moratorium on the execution of adulterers by stoning and on public hangings.
He withdrew from politics and moved to the holy city of Qom to resume his theological studies after crackpot President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election last year.
Shahroudi's public re-emergence with an enhanced religious status comes at a time when Iran is under international pressure not to carry out a stoning sentence against a woman accused of adultery and plotting to have her husband murdered.
Amid fierce political infighting among rival factions in the conservative Islamic establishment, it may also raise questions about the succession to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who outranks the president.
"Shahroudi is part of the establishment and yet he is recognised by the clergy at large as someone who has attained the status of mojtahed (a big turban) and could be a source of emulation," said Baqer Moin, biographer of Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Theocratic Republic.
The Iraqi-born holy man remains loyal to Khamenei but has good relations with reformist ex-president Mohamed Khatami and veteran powerbroker Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, another former president who heads two key state bodies.
Under the constitution adopted after the 1979 Islamic revolution, the supreme leader must be chosen from among the top religious legal scholars.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Following the recent political tension in Leb, the Syrian ambassador to Beirut has accused Israel of plotting to spark another civil war in the country.
They have to indulge their paranoid fantasies at regular intervals, or something truly dreadful will happen.
Syrian Ambassador to Leb Ali Abdul Karim Ali said on Friday that Lebanese leaders should know that Tel Aviv is working around the clock to spread political conflict in Leb.
"All prudent and wise leaders in Leb [should be ready] to face up to such a probability," Naharnet quoted the Syrian ambassador as saying.
He also called on Lebanese political factions to return to dialogue to resolve their internal differences.
The Syrian diplomat added that "the victories achieved by the Lebanese resistance, in addition to what it is achieving now in terms of the integration of the 'army-people-resistance' golden triangle is sufficient to achieve victory" against the Israeli plot.
Ali's remarks followed days of disputes between Hezbullies and Prime Minister Saad Hariri's al-Mustaqbal party -- which echoed Western calls for the disarmament of the Resistance Movement.
The party also accused Hezbullies of involvement in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
Hezbullies Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has rejected the allegations as a "dangerous project" launched against the movement by Israel sympathizers.
The two sides finally agreed to halt public feuding and return to dialogue to settle their differences.
Leb was the scene of civil wars from 1975 to 1990 and an estimated 130,000 to 250,000 civilian were killed. Another one million people, or one-fourth of the population, were maimed, half of whom were left with lifetime disabilities.
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09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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Iran's diminutive PresidentMahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad says questioning the truth behind the 9/11 attacks does not mean Tehran is apathetic toward the victims of the tragedy.
"The event was very suspicious, but I do not wish to pass judgment. I simply tried to offer a proposal for a humane solution to problems that have risen as a result of 9/11,"Ahmadinejad told a press conference on Friday.
"We are, of course, saddened by the fact that people were killed in 9/11. We have expressed our sympathy and solidarity with their relatives," the Iranian president added.
"But we would also like to bring to your attention that hundreds of thousands of people in our region, innocent people, were killed as the result of 9/11."
In his speech at the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, President Ahmadinejad criticized the US response to the 9/11 attacks, saying it was just a pretext for invading Iraq and Afghanistan.
One day before the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the Architects and Engineers for 9/11 Truth said evidence regarding the destruction of the World Trade Center towers has emerged that show planted explosives were used in the demolition of the buildings.
Gregg Roberts, who is a member of the non-profit organization disputing the results of official 9/11 investigations, said the "official story is a lie, it is a fraud."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/25/2010 00:00 ||
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Hossein Derakhshan, 35, who has both Iranian and Canadian nationality, won his nickname after developing a blog platform for Persian characters that was widely copied by online activists and commentators.
Mr Derakhshan's family speculates that he might have been victim of a power struggle in the country's ruling conservative faction, given that he was arrested so soon after praising the regime. He had also received a guarantee from the High Council of Iranian Affairs Abroad that he would be safe if he returned.
The Texas Board of Education took a non-binding vote recommending that references to Islam be reduced in textbooks on world history in response to concerns by social conservative board members. The resolution concluded with a warning to publishers that "State Board of Education will look to reject future prejudicial social studies submissions that continue to offend Texas law with respect to treatment of the world's major religious groups by significant inequalities of coverage space-wise and by demonizing or lionizing one or more of them over others."
#1
Why is it called a social conservative move to order equal outcome of space and spin?
I'd order that Islam be given more space and the space be used to warn the students about its dangers in historical context.
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.
[Al Arabiya] The political movement of Shiite 
Iraq and Syria have agreed to restore full diplomatic relations by dispatching their respective ambassadors back to their posts, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Friday.
[Iran Press TV] Following the recent political tension in 
