[Tolo News] Iran supports a group of political and religious Afghan leaders within parliament in a bid to boost influence in the House of Representatives, the Guardian reports
The article published by the Guardian included names of three Afghan MPs including Ahmad Ali Jebrayili, Sayed Hossain Alami Balkhi and Mohammad Akbari, who have been accused of having close political ties with Iran.
But the MPs strongly rejected the allegations.
Iran has made efforts to convince members of Afghan House of Representatives to make policies against coalition forces in Afghanistan, an article in the Guardian said.
"This is a mere lie. We have stood against any country working against our national interest. And when Iran sentenced a number of our fellow citizens to death, I had the strongest stance against it," Sayed Hossain Alami Balkhi, an Afghan MP who has been accused of having ties with Iran, told TOLOnews.
Ahmad Ali Jebrayili, a former Afghan MP in reaction to the allegations said: "I want to proudly announce that I neither have ties with America, nor with Iran or Pakistain. If USA or any other countries have any evidence proving my ties, they can present it," "I am not backed by any foreign country and I do not like to be backed. I'm a brave, honorable and freedom loving Afghan," said another Afghan MP, Ustad Mohammad Akbari.
The article wrote according to the cables released by WikiLeaks that Mirwais Yasini, deputy for the Afghan House of Representatives, had told a US official that he was under pressure from an Iranian intelligence official to change an agenda in the House, and that Yasini had refused to do so.
Mr Yasini also dismissed the accusations.
"Not only Iranian intelligence hasn't contacted us about bringing any change in the Agenda, no other neighbouring countries' intelligence have done so. We haven't had any meeting with anybody. I dismiss the claim," said Mr Yasini.
Buying off some elements in Afghanistan's House of Representatives, Iran has developed the ability to turn Afghan parliament into an ineffective organisation, the leaks have claimed.
We tried to get comments from Iran's embassy in Kabul about the allegations, but without success.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010 00:00 ||
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[Daily Nation (Kenya)] Amnesia Amnesty International has released a hard-hitting report with stinging findings on the harassment of Somali refugees by Kenya's police and soldiers. Did they do a similar report about Somali refugees harassing Kenyan cops by throwing grenades at them?
The report also questions the sincerity of Cabinet Ministers Otieno Kajwang' (Immigration) and George Saitoti (Internal Security) over their commitment in handling Somali refugees within Kenya's borders.
The release of the report coincides with Kenya's crackdown on foreigners following last Friday's grenade attack on a police car in Nairobi's Eastleigh area. Many Somalis, both Kenyan Somalis and immigrants with refugee status, live in Eastleigh.
The report titled "From life without peace, to peace without life" makes a gory reading as it gives a detailed account of the suffering of the refugees fleeing the war-torn country and entering Kenya.
The report documents brutal police beatings, outright extortion, sexual abuses by hosts and other refugees in Kenya; overcrowding, poor health and sanitation in camps as among the vagaries of a Somali refugee's life in Kenya.
Mr Eric Kiraithe, the Kenya Police spokesperson, was contacted about the findings and he said that police do carry out investigations and act whenever culpability is uncovered.
He cited the suspension of senior coppers following June's release of a report by the Human Rights Watch, but maintained that the report also had many inaccuracies.
"Sometimes, those who compile these reports do very little fact-finding on the ground," said Mr Kiraithe.
"We had a joint team with UNHCR and carried out our own investigations. Where there are cases of corruption we acted on them and the officers are still serving their suspension.
"However, The infamous However... that's restricted to trafficking. But when it comes to refugees, they are usually in very bad shape because they have trekked for long distances. Our officers respect the rights of the refugees."
He said, the police will investigate the Amnesty International findings and act on them appropriately.
The global rights' body says that though the refugees decamped violence and the constant danger of death in Somalia, they just ended up in an "open prison" in the "severely overcrowded" camps in Daadab.
Refugees in the Daadab camps also revealed that members and sympathisers of al-Shabaab "were present in the camps or travelled through them and at times recruited refugees to fight in Somalia."
Aid workers and United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society High Commissioner for Refugees, the study notes "also report an increase in cases of sexual violence, including rape, early and forced marriages, and unwanted pregnancies in the camps."
"Amnesty International believes that, for the police to work better with the refugee communities, a strong signal must be sent to the refugees and the police alike that police abuses will not be tolerated, and that coppers are not above the law," the report notes.
The rights lobby notes that refugees in Daadab, Nairobi and Liboi are normally forced to give bribes or be sent back to Somalia, yet this is against the principle of "non-refoulment" under international law.
"Somali refugees are particularly vulnerable to abuse by the security forces in Kenya, given the ambiguity of government policy towards them and the real risk that they can be forcibly returned to Somalia," the study notes.
This "ambiguity of government policy" culminates into a veiled indictment of Mr Kajwang, for promising a delegation from Amnesty International that Kenya will set up a screening centre for refugees, yet "to date", the one in Liboi had not be reopened. Mr Kajwang' could not be reached because his phone was off.
Kenya's border with Somalia, the whole 682 kilometres, was officially closed in 2007, but refugees continue to stream in through the mostly non-existent border.
"Closing the border has not addressed the security concerns of the Kenyan authorities. In practice, it has proved impossible for the Kenyan authorities to effectively close and control the border. As of September 2010, 34,872 Somali nationals were registered in Kenya, demonstrating that the closure has not stopped asylum-seekers from entering the country," Amnesty International says in its report.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010 00:00 ||
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Iran is planning to place medium-range missiles on Venezuelan soil, based on western information sources, according to an article in the German daily, Die Welt, of November 25, 2010. According to the article, an agreement between the two countries was signed during the last visit o Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Tehran on October19, 2010. The previously undisclosed contract provides for the establishment of a jointly operated military base in Venezuela, and the joint development of ground-to-ground missiles.
At a moment when NATO members found an agreement, in the recent Lisbon summit (19-20 November 2010), to develop a Missile Defence capability to protect NATO's populations and territories in Europe against ballistic missile attacks from the East (namely, Iran), Iran's counter-move consists in establishing a strategic base in the South American continent - in the United States's soft underbelly.
According to Die Welt, Venezuela has agreed to allow Iran to establish a military base manned by Iranian missile officers, soldiers of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Venezuelan missile officers. In addition, Iran has given permission for the missiles to be used in case of an "emergency". In return, the agreement states that Venezuela can use these facilities for "national needs" – radically increasing the threat to neighbors like Colombia. The German daily claims that according to the agreement, Iranian Shahab 3 (range 1300-1500 km), Scud-B (285-330 km) and Scud-C (300, 500 and 700 km) will be deployed in the proposed base. It says that Iran also pledged to help Venezuela in rocket technology expertise, including intensive training of officers.
Venezuela has also become the country through which Iran intends to bypass UN sanctions. Following a new round of UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic, for example, Russia decided not to sell five battalions of S-300PMU-1 air defence systems to Iran. These weapons, along with a number of other weapons, were part of a deal, signed in 2007, worth $800 million. Now that these weapons cannot be delivered to Iran, Russia is looking for new customers; according to the Russian press agency Novosti, it found one: Venezuela.
Novosti reports the words of Igor Korotchenko, head of a Moscow-based think tank on international arms trade, saying that if the S-300 deal with Venezuela goes through, Caracas should pay cash for the missiles, rather than take another loan from Russia. "The S-300 is a very good product and Venezuela should pay the full amount in cash, as the country's budget has enough funds to cover the deal ," Korotchenko said. Moscow has already provided Caracas with several loans to buy Russian-made weaponry, including a recent $2.2-mln loan on the purchase of 92 T-72M1M tanks, the Smerch multiple-launch rocket systems and other military equipment.
If Iran, therefore, cannot get the S-300 missiles directly from Russia, it can still have them through its proxy, Venezuela, and deploy them against its staunchest enemy, the U.S.
But that is not all. According to Reuters, Iran has developed a version of the Russian S-300 missile and will test-fire it soon, as declared by the official news agency IRNA, two months after Moscow cancelled the delivery to comply with United Nations sanctions.
Just like Iran has copied everything else, and all of it works, too, you can ask them ...
Iran, in fact, has its own capabilities for constructing missiles that could carry atomic warheads. According to a study recently released by the International Institute of Strategic Studies in London, Iran is presently aiming to perfect the already existing solid-fuel, medium-range missile that can carry a nuke to hit regional targets, such as Israel. If a missile base can be opened in Venezuela, many US cities will be able to be reached from there even with short-medium range missiles.
The situation that is unfolding in Venezuela has some resemblance to the Cuba crisis of 1962. At that time, Cuba was acting on behalf of the USSR; now Venezuela is acting on behalf of Iran. Back in the 1962, thanks to the stern stance adopted by the then Kennedy administration, the crisis was defused. Nowadays, however, we do not see the same firmness from the present administration.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/09/2010 09:04 ||
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#1
will we see a photoshopeed three-missile picture with a giant Chupacabra in place of Godzilla?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2010 9:56 Comments ||
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#2
Short round is desperate for a war to get the population behind him!
Posted by: Paul ||
12/09/2010 11:38 Comments ||
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from haaretz
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been at the center of a world-wide media storm over the massive leak of U.S. diplomatic cables last week, should received the Nobel Prize, a top Russian source told country's state news agency RIA Novosti on Wednesday. and in related news, the Berkeley City Council will be considering a resolution to honor Bradley Manning
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/09/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Yea, as long as he does not leak Russian material, all's peachy. And who in their right mind would? For a polonium tea?
Concerning Wikileaks, Governor Mike Huckabee said:
"If we want to keep our nation's secrets 'SECRET,' store them where President Obama stores his college transcripts and birth certificate!"
#3
well, he does have more accomplishment under his belt than one of the more recent recipients
Posted by: abu do you love ||
12/09/2010 1:05 Comments ||
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#4
I agree. Julian Assange is a hero. At great personal cost he is making sure that whistleblowers have a safe way to get information out about Governments all around the world. Not just the US Government but my government, african governments... all governments.
It is a triumph for the people and the people love him for it.
#5
No, the 'people' don't love him everywhere. Do you have a direct line with "the people" in Russia? So, can I have your visa account number? No? Because cracking open the vaults is fine as long as it is not close to home. Pure hypocrisy, that. Free information provided it is the others information and not your own.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
12/09/2010 1:17 Comments ||
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#6
the people love him for it.
The emphasis on love, freeeee love sometimes with a condom malfunction tossed in. Careful all you groupies, wouldn't want to catch a wikileak mid coitus.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
12/09/2010 1:25 Comments ||
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#8
if you read the comments on news.com.au on every wikileaks story you will see that the people love him.
and this is why: "sam of perth" put it best when he said:
Sam of Perth Posted at 4:55 PM Today
"Why has Wikileaks got so much traction? Because the mainstream media has failed the public over and over. Remember when Latham ran for PM? The media here was hopeless at showing the public the true measure of the man. The GFC? Great coverage after the fact. The war in Iraq? They beat that fake drum as hard as the govt wanted them to. They also failed to fight the internet filter. That battle was fought by ordinary people. The last election campaign showed clearly the trend for governments to try to replace facts and policy with worthless spin. The mainstream media should have been heaping derision on both parties. Instead many articles sounded like party press releases. Democracy is meaningless when citizens do not have access to real information on which to judge the actions and character of their govt. It is the media's job to ensure that the public has that information. If they were doing their job then Julian Assange wouldn't have his. I salute the brave people at Wikileaks!"
#10
anon1 -- have you made a contribution to Fred's bank account for hosting Rantburg (in case you don't know, he needs money to settle a lawsuit against him for postings at Rantburg)... so you have the privilege to express all your accolades of glory, worship of a false god, bowing down before our enemies, and for your innocent view of Assange?
Too bad you can't go back and live in the past. You're ideas and thoughts belong in the 60's. And it's that generation (mine) that is now royally messing up our country with beliefs just like yours.
So ante up -- you owe him for your box to stand on at the corner of 5th and Main in Rantburg for you to express your "freedom of speech."
Put your money where your mouth is, and pay for your freedom of speech here since those who are and have been giving of their lives to give you this freedom doesn't seem to be the chosen route for you.
#11
Give Assange a Nobel Prize. After all he did something...... And I should get one for optimizing the dose of coagulant in the village I am in so they will get even better water. And everybody should get a Nobel Prize. Everybody's a winner.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/09/2010 2:13 Comments ||
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#12
Anon1 - With your attitude .. when the Chicoms take over OZ I will smile...
Posted by: Water Modem ||
12/09/2010 2:26 Comments ||
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#13
Yes Sherry, I have donated to Fred - and well worth it. Good on Fred for hosting a site.
I support Fred for the same reason: freedom of speech.
Fred had the courage to host this site at a time when PC McCarthyism was shutting up everyone who wanted to even mention the word "islam" in connection with "terrorism".
I think Wikileaks is also VERY IMPORTANT for the same reason.
It is a force for greater freedom in the world.
And for evidence of just how much we need it you can see a video right here,
Video link and subsequent description deleted, to protect those Rantburgers not allowed to see WikiLeaks information for security reasons.
Sorry about that, anon1, but at this site your freedom of speech ends when it causes problems for those fighting the War on Terror (or whatever we're calling it these days).
#16
Also - the Wikileaks cables could never have done as much damage to the standing of the US in the world as has been done by the reaction to it.
People are outraged not by what is in the cables but by how the US and other Governments have used their power to interfere politically in the workings of apolitical businesses like Visa, Mastercard and Paypal.
Worse was interference in the legal proceedings of Sweden and the obvious political hand being played out in Australia.
This is absolutely the opposite of what people want to see from their governments.
There is so much anger now about this that random groups launched hack attacks.
If the powers that be had simply allowed events to unfold and made their case that it was damaging relations then the public might have had sympathy for their position.
What is going on now is deeply divisive and it has nothing to do with the actual content of the cables, and everything to do with the political interference in civic life. It really is outrageous. And that is coming from a political conservative that holds no truck with the usual leftie whinging protesters.
#17
In other news Vladimir Putin suggested the Nobel Prize to be renamed the Anna Politkovskaya Prize
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Politkovskaya
Caviar and polonium will be served
Posted by: European Conservative ||
12/09/2010 5:55 Comments ||
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#18
But that video has been in the public domain for a long time in a degraded form -
Don't you think it is important for people to see?
No. Some of our readers are troops out there fighting. We at Rantburg will not do anything to endanger their ability to do their job, or that will cause them to be pulled from doing that job.
Reporters wandering onto the field of battle are at risk at being caught in the crossfire, and have no reason to complain when they intersect a hail of bullets or an IED. Reporters hanging out with the enemy have no business complaining when they end up in the same cross-hairs as those they are standing next to. Choices have consequences; sometimes those consequences involve Darwin.
#19
Political interference in civic life. It really is outrageous, says anon1.
And the release of classified material is what?
Assange stated goals, a few years back, were to damage US economy and political system. He decides how the political games to be played, not American people.
It's a dangerous slippery slope. And for me it is greased by the fact that partial funding of WL is coming from Tide Foundation. And if you do not know what TF is, let me just make it extra easy for you--Soros.
This fact is no longer advertised by WL, because people may get a "wrong, incorrect" idea that WL may be a tool of Soros' megalomaniacal goals and intents.
By a coincidence, the stated goal of Assange and Soros are uncannily nearly identical, with Soros being a bit more open about the OWG ideas. I see dots and they are connected.
The Aassange's application of declinations and tenses with the word freedom are utterly failing to convince me about his noble intentions. He has a decent salesman training selling secrets for profit, so I suppose that the concept of a sales pitch is quite familiar to him. He just finds a lot of fools that gobble it up hook, line and sinker.
He did not help anyone. Actually, not true, he did--the release of strategic US locations makes the job of Islamic radical elements even easier. And they do appreciate it. A friend of mine that monitors Islamist sites and forums (private intel op) noticed how giddy they are.
Radical lefties are pleased too.
What does it tell you anon1? It does seem that they do understand, on an analytical level, what is going on and who is being helped by this sordid affair.
#20
People are outraged not by what is in the cables but by how the US and other Governments have used their power to interfere politically in the workings of apolitical businesses like Visa, Mastercard and Paypal.
(facepalm) Oh, yeah, I forgot....if Visa, Mastercard and Paypal make a business decision that keeps ol' Jools from getting cash, it couldn't possibly be because they thought it may not be a good publicity move during the height of the Christmas shopping season to be associated with the little bugger. Oh no. It had to be because the CIA got to them like they got to the Swedes.....and the Swiss, too, who later closed out another one of his fundraising accounts due to his, ahem, difficulties with telling the truth about his legal residence as required by Swiss law.
I guess if you are all about FREEDOM! it's ok if you tell a few lies here and there.
Can't wait to see Australia's cables all over the internet. After all, I like freedom, too and I'm just sooo bored to death reading about Britney....if I say I'm all for freedom and not admit that I'm looking for "the good parts" that are trashalicious then I can pretend I'm all classy and stuff.
#22
twobyfour, only some of us. See: Congress while writing massive pieces of legislation, anything having to do with the Obamas, people with the "correct" political viewpoints. Campaign promises to the contrary be damned.
#24
"Why has Wikileaks got so much traction? Because the mainstream media has failed the public over and over."
THAT part is true. But while it may explain WL popularity and does to SOME extent justify WL, there is too much dangerous and potentially dangerous content for me to condone. If you're going to release classified material you'd better be d*mned sure you know what you are releasing and what the potential consequences are - and THAT'S impossible for JA or pretty much anyone else.
#25
The end result of total transparency as Anon and Asange want is a mafia-like verbal commands only, no paper trail to avoid embarrassment. Either that or everything is coded. I don't think that's particularly helpful to democracy.
#29
I am all for free speach, but unfortunately the Wikileaks information will be used out of context to influence a large portion of this world's uneducated masses, who have not been raised in an enviroment which questions their religious and political leaders. They hear and then do. They leave the thinking (right or wrong) up to those whose motives are myriad but not usually good. Information is ammunition for the enemy since they can spin it any way they want, only the naive will think what came out in Wikileaks could somehow be disseminated untainted by world and religious politics.
#30
The Russkies just might be floating this balloon to divert suspicion when they move against Assange. They might intend to award him the "Polonium Prize" instead (though probably not by putting it in a condom).
#33
"Reporters wandering into a field of battle are at risk of being caught in the crossfire"
Yes they are. Reporters are routinely executed, caught in crossfire, and worse. Does Daniel Pearl ring a bell? Daniel Pearl (October 10, 1964 – February 1, 2002) was an American journalist who was kidnapped and beheaded on video by terrorists. Anyone who is a reporter or journalist who goes afield is at risk. Anon1, what do you do for a living that all this seems so surprising to you? Any reporter who goes to a war zone could be killed for a reason, or no reason at all.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
12/09/2010 18:27 Comments ||
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#34
FaI: same true for any civi who does the same...
Posted by: abu do you love ||
12/09/2010 20:03 Comments ||
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#35
I'm convinced anon1 is a prankster. NOBODY could be that verbose, stupid, naive, and unaffected by everyone's obvious disagreement, yet still put out the same rote spew. Perhaps Army First guy, but that's it. Gotta be a fake...
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2010 20:18 Comments ||
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#36
I am convinced that anon1 is no where nearly as innocent or unaffiliated as she likes to appear. It would be interesting to know how many other anon1's are making such regular and extensive appearances at similar sites and what their talking points are.
(KUNA) -- President of South Korea Lee Myung-bak cut short his tour of the Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN) region and is only to visit members Indonesia and Malaysia, as of Thursday, over tensions with North Korea.
An Indonesian Foreign Ministry statement said the leader is to attend the inauguration of the 3rd Bali Democracy Forum along with the Indonesian president.
Media meanwhile said officials from the two states are to discuss bilateral relations and military, defense, and economic cooperation.
The President is to visit Malaysia later in the day for a two-day visit, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties between the two nations. He is to attend a celebration on this occasion along with the King of Malaysia.
A Foreign Ministry statement reported that the meetings of the delegation with bigwigs and businessmen would cover regional issues as well as boosting cooperation and interaction.
The president is to meet the Malaysian Premier and sign a Memo of Understanding on cooperation in the fields of criminal law and the judiciary, it said.
Seoul assumed a state of alert since North Korea's attack on a South Korean island in November 23, which killed two navy officers and several civilians.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Military chiefs from South Korea and the US agreed Wednesday to continue joint drills to effectively deter North Korean aggression and refine Seoul's leading role in dealing with local provocations, giving the South more authority in the case of future attacks by the North, media reported.
In a joint statement issued after their talks in Seoul, Gen. Han Min-koo of the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff and his US counterpart Adm. Mike Mullen said they "agreed to primarily refine the ROK-supported, US-supporting plans for local provocation in order for the alliance to resolutely respond to further North Korean aggression," according to Yonhap News Agency.
Han and Mullen also "agreed to continue combined exercises designed to effectively deter North Korean aggression and strengthen the joint capabilities to respond," the statement said.
As the talks between Han and Mullen were underway, distant sounds of artillery fire were heard from North Korea near the tense Yellow Sea border. Yonhap said the sounds appeared to be coming from the North's routine drills, citing the South's military officials. No shells fell south of Korea's maritime border, it said.
Military tensions on the Korean Peninsula spiked to one of their highest levels in decades following the North's artillery assault on Yeonpyeong Island on November 23 near the Yellow Sea border. The brazen assault marked the first time North Korea has targeted a civilian area on the South's territory since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.
The two sides "acknowledged that the artillery fire on Yeonpyeong was a deliberate and illegal armed attack which violates the UN charter and armistice agreement" that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, the statement said.
Just days after the attack, South Korea and the US conducted four days of high-profile naval drills off the Yellow Sea with a US aircraft carrier participating. About 28,500 US troops are stationed in South Korea, a legacy of the Korean War that ended with a cease-fire, leaving the peninsula technically still at war.
In his separate meeting on Wednesday with Seoul's military leaders and other brass hats, including Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin, Mullen said the US wants China to play a "very important" role in trying to rein in North Korea and deterring the communist state from any future provocations.
China, about the only nation with any influence on North Korea, has been under increasing pressure to do more in curbing the North's military aggression.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010 00:00 ||
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[Chosun Ilbo] An Austrian businessman has been slapped with a 3.3 million euro fine and a nine-month suspended sentence for selling luxury goods to North Korea in contravention of UN sanctions. The goods purchased from the Austrian are thought to be birthday gifts for North Korean hereditary supremo Kim Jong-il.
The Criminal Court of Vienna found the entrepreneur guilty of violating the international trade embargo, the Kurier daily reported Tuesday. The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1874 in 2009, imposing further economic and commercial sanctions on the communist state, including a ban on the sale of luxury goods to the regime. The name of the man was not disclosed.
Prosecutors initially indicted the entrepreneur for supplying two top-end Azimut Benetti yachts to North Korea. He also allegedly sold eight Mercedes S class cars and several Steinway grand pianos, dealing with a North Korean intermediary close to Kim Jong-il.
But the man was rumbled through monitoring of illegal dealings in Italy. Austrian Court official Christian Gneist said the entrepreneur was fined the exact amount he received as payment.
He said the man admitted the offense but pleaded mitigating circumstances saying he did not know he was part of the crime. "It doesn't have anything to do with atomic bombs. I am not interested in politics. I am a businessman," Rooters quoted him as saying. Shipwrights Azimut Benetti of Italy avoided punishment as they merely sold the yachts and cooperated with the investigation, according to Italian police.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
This in a country where Kimmie turns around and gives blankets as gifts to top government officials.
Of course they'll consider it. They'll sponsor a liberation front named after the guy, name a street after the guy, smash the windows of a Marine Corps recruiting station in honor of the guy, and all the while consider themselves to be better than you and me.
This year's omnibus spending bill refuses to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay and would block the transfer of any suspected terrorist detainees to the United States in what appears to be the final blow for President Obama's campaign pledge to shutter the facility.
The massive spending bill Democrats released early Wednesday morning would prohibit the Obama administration from spending any money either to transfer detainees to the United States or to buy a replacement prison in the United States, as Mr. Obama had planned.
Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the US. They were found inside a house in the suburban Escondido neighborhood just north of San Diego, which is now being called "the bomb" house.
The man renting the home, 54 year old George Jakubec has pleaded not- guilty to a series of federal charges for possessing and manufacturing explosives as well as bank robbery. The indictment says investigators recovered nine detonators, 13 grenade hulls and unknown quantities of high explosives.
The high explosives include PETN -used by the military and by the failed shoe bomber-and HMTD, described as "exceedingly shock sensitive" and potentially ignited by merely opening the container in which it is stored.
They were found in large quantities in mason jars and containers filled with liquids and white powders packed from floor to ceiling in the home as well as strewn across the floor in clumps. Neal Langerman, a chemical expert for Advanced Chemical Safety, said that Jakubec could have taken out the entire neighborhood in one fail swoop with the amount of explosives he possessed
Authorities decided that the extreme danger these hazardous materials present, burning the house down is their only option. More than 50 agencies, including bomb squads and hazardous material experts have elaborately planned the burning taking place today and have taken strict measures to make it effective and safe.
The bomb squad and Fire Department will ignite remote control incendiary devices to set the fire, which is intended to reach upwards of 1800 degrees. If all goes as planned the fire will neutralize the toxic chemicals in the home in about 30 minutes and will simply look like a home fire.
A 16ft firewall made out of dry wall was erected and covered in fire gel to protect the surrounding homes. HAZMAT has put in place dozens of air monitors in the vicinity to determine if the weather conditions comply. Winds of less than 5 miles per hour are necessary to go forward with the burn to ensure that the smoke -expected to reach several thousand feet high--will travel upwards preventing any toxic chemicals it contains from affecting surrounding areas.
The main highway I-15 running just behind the neighborhood has been shut down since early this morning and will remain closed until it is deemed safe to reopen.
Evacuations began last night. Sheriff's deputies, Sheriff's Search and Rescue Volunteers and Escondido Police officers knocked on doors to urge residents in more than 60 homes to leave and seek shelter at designated evacuation sites.
Scores of ambulances, HAZMAT vehicles, bomb squads, local law enforcement and fire officials line the street on standby in the event of any problems.
This all began when authorities responded to a call on November 18th when a gardener working on the home ignited an explosive by simply stepping on it and suffered critical injuries.
Jakubec was an unemployed software engineer, living with his wife who described him as obsessed with his chemical "hobby."
In total, nine pounds worth of explosives were removed from the home by authorities. With the criminal investigation still underway, there is no telling what Jakubec intended to do with these hazardous materials.
#6
I watched on a live stream - there were pops and bangs, but none as much as I'd hoped. The guy was a paranoid fruitloop with three bank robberies under his belt
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/09/2010 20:22 Comments ||
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#7
Let us hope that our homegrown paranoid fruitloops don't form business relationships with jihadis.
[Emirates 24/7] A quarter of the detainees released from Guantanamo prison have likely joined global insurgencies or terror groups, the US director of national intelligence said in a report Tuesday.
Of the 598 inmates released from the US facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba where suspected faceless myrmidons were rounded up after the September 11, 2001 attacks, 150 have either taken up arms or become involved in financing or recruitment, it said.
"Eighty-one (13.5 percent) are confirmed and 69 (11.5 percent) are suspected of reengaging in terrorist or turban activities after transfer," the intelligence oversight agency said.
Of those, the intelligence community believes 13 are dead, 54 are in jug and 83 remain on the lam, the report said.
It added, however, that of the 66 detainees released since January 2009, when President Barack B.O. Obama ordered a wide-ranging review of inmates, just two are confirmed and three are suspected of returning to combat.
But it added that "the number of former detainees identified as reengaged in terrorist or turban activity will increase."
Obama ordered Guantanamo prison shut down within a year in his January 2009 Executive Order, but he missed his deadline because of knotty legal issues and difficulties in finding third countries to take detainees.
The controversial detention center has long been a rallying point for anti-American sentiment and has been criticized by human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... groups.
But Obama's Republican opponents seized on the latest report as proof that the administration was acting too hastily in trying to close the facility.
"Unfortunately, these latest numbers make clear that fulfilling a campaign promise to close Guantanamo Bay is overriding what should be the administration's first priority - protecting Americans from terrorists," Kit Bond, the top Republican on the Senate intelligence committee, said.
"If one of these dangerous detainees attacks our troops or civilians, I don't know how the Administration will explain to the American people that we had him in jug, knew the risk he could return to the fight, and let him go anyway."
The prison, located on the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba, currently holds around 170 detainees, including three who have been convicted and 58 who have been placed in indefinite detention without trial.
Scores of other inmates have been transferred to third countries, where they have been released.
Efforts to try some Guantanamo detainees in civilian courts were dealt a major blow last month when a jury cleared a former inmate of all but one of the 286 charges brought against him for the 1998 US embassy bombings in Africa.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Afghanistan, Pakistain and Tajikistan agreed with Russia on Wednesday to step up efforts in fighting the Afghan heroin trade which kills at least 30,000 Russians a year.
"We are neighbours linked by the same piece of land, and we have the potential to strengthen our work in fighting a global menace," Russia's anti-drugs tsar Viktor Ivanov told his Central Asian counterparts.
The quartet of heroin-inflicted countries signed an agreement to destroy opium crops and drug-making labs, as well as exchange information on drug trafficking and dealers.
Russia is struggling to contain a potentially crippling heroin crisis. The world's largest per capita heroin consumer, with at least 2 million addicts, Russia is now facing an HIV/AIDS epidemic that is spreading amongst drug users from dirty needles, Western health officials say.
Heroin from Afghanistan -- which produces around 90 percent of the world's total -- is smuggled through its mostly non-existent border with impoverished, ex-Soviet Tajikistan, then via Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan and onto the Russian market, Ivanov said.
Through Pakistain, heroin passes through India and on to China and other Asian countries, he added.
Ivanov said that up to a quarter of Afghan heroin ended up in Russia. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has called the Afghan drug trade, estimated to be worth around $65 billion annually, a threat to national security.
Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai has sought to improve ties with Russia, and in August asked for Medvedev's help in security and battling the drug trade in his nation, site of a decade-long war that cost the lives of 15,000 Soviet troops.
"We alone cannot overcome the evil of drug production," said Afghanistan's Counter Narcotics Minister Zarar Ahmad Muqbel.
In June, Russia rolled out a global initiative to combat Afghan drug trafficking that included a crackdown on opium poppy growing, but it was met with a tepid response from the United States and Nato.
Moscow says it believes US-led Nato forces fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan are reluctant to uproot local drug output, which surged after the 2001 invasion.
"Nato has not found a way to get to the root of the problem, which is Afghanistan's drug production," Ivanov said.
The United States has said repeatedly that eradicating poppy plantations would push disgruntled Afghan farmers into the hands of the Islamic exemplars.
Ivanov praised an unprecedented joint Russian-US anti-narcotics operation in Afghanistan in October, in which four drug labs and nearly a tonne of heroin were destroyed in a raid, widely seen as a measure to improve ties between the Cold War foes.
"We really want to see more such operations. And hopefully very soon," Ivanov told Rooters, declining to give a time frame.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- The United States withdrew its demand that Israel extends the period of freezing settlement construction as a condition for resumption of direct talks with the Paleostinians, Israeli media said on Wednesday.
Radio Israel quoted "senior" US sources saying the administration is communicating with both parties, but separately, to decide the next step.
The Israeli premier's Special Envoy to the talks Yitzhak Molkho is to meet B.O. regime representatives within the next few days, it added.
This comes after a US official disclosed on Tuesday that representatives for both sides would head to Washington next week to attempt and resume the talks.
US officials had previously said the US was considering a return to the indirect talks, in view of failure to restore direct-negotiation mode due to dispute over the settlement freeze.
The Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak had stated yesterday that talks with the US over extending the settlement freeze were put to an end, "because the latter is pre-occupied with the WikiLeaks and the North Korea dossiers at present." Haaretz newspaper meanwhile reported the same development on the settlement freeze, and said the "B.O. regime decided conditions weren't ripe for successful negotiations, even with new settlement freeze; instead, they will aim for proximity talks." Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill... is expected to outline Washington's strategy for Israeli-Paleostinian relations when she addresses the Saban Forum in the US capital on Friday.
The paper reported a political Israeli source saying, a new approach was selected instead of the three-month settlement construction freeze. The two parties are instead seeking a path that would lead to a whole year of negotiations that would in turn aim at reaching a framework agreement, the source said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas received a letter from the US while in Athens last night, concerning the talks.
Paleostinian Authority Spokesman Nabil abu Rudaynah said, "The Paleostinian reply to the letter would come only after deliberation with the leadership and with the Arab Group." "President Abbas had meanwhile phoned Arab League Secretary General Jerry Lewis doppelgänger Amr Moussa ... who has been head of the vaporous Arab League since about the time Jerry and Dean split up ... upon receipt of the letter, to discuss the US stance and the probable next move by the league."
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12/09/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Israel's security cabinet voted on Wednesday to partially lift a ban on exports from Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-controlled Gazoo that was first imposed four years ago, an official statement said.
"The security cabinet decided to implement new measures which will allow an increase in the export of goods from the Gazoo Strip," said the statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.
"The measures are designed to improve the lives of the population, who live under the repression and terror imposed by Hamas," it added, without giving details.
Israel relaxed restrictions on imports to Gazoo in the face of an international outcry over a deadly commando raid on a flotilla attempting to break its naval blockade of the territory on May 31.
But it maintained its export ban and tight restrictions on the movement of people to and from the densely populated coastal strip.
An Israeli official said the decision would not totally lift all export restrictions.
"The exports will be to the West Bank and the international community at this stage, not to Israel," he said on condition of anonymity.
The official said it remained to be worked out how the goods would be inspected and that it would take several week to be fully implemented.
The decision covers four categories, agricultural items, furniture, textiles and "others," including goods such as ceramics.
The Quartet of major players in the Middle East grinding of the peace processor, the European Union, Russia, the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society and the United States, praised the decision but said there was a way to go in facilitating Gazoo trade.
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12/09/2010 00:00 ||
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#3
I have mixed feelings about the cyberstorm going on right now; I used to like wikileaks until they started posting US classified material, and still disagree with how the government is handling the problem, but don't feel that tangentially related companies should get DDoS'd over them.
The attacks branched from threads on 4chan's Anonymous, which is anything but monolithic. I suspect most of the attackers are easily-led teenagers; the rest of 4chan's denizens are mostly college students who would get in trouble with their school's IT department for DDoSing anything.
The program they're using, LOIC, is ridiculously easy to set up and use, and there are guides all over. It's basically like deliberately installing a virus, except they know what it does and who's controlling the botnet. Literally anyone who can read can join in the attacks, which is why they've been so successful so far.
I dont think there's much of an ideology behind most of the attackers beyond "lol we took down MasterCard, lets see if we can take down Visa and PayPal" and "Sarah Palin's mad lets get her too XD", though the actual directors of the attacks seem to be more libertarian than anything else from what I've read of their manifestos.
#4
Whoops, meant to say attacks branched from threads on 4chan's /b/ board. Anonymous is the loose coalition of script kiddies that reside there among other imageboards.
#5
this is just more proof that people are easily manipulated by high sounding words, when in reality all they are doing is feeding ammunition to the enemy who will use it indiscriminately to fire up thier mindless minions who will in turn kill, maim and destroy. Thanks wikileaks.
#6
Libertarian? Hardly. These are a bunch of little fascists that want to silence anyone that angers them. A gigantic tantrum. This isn't about liberty at all, its about emotionalism, rage, and leftists shutting up those who would disagree with them.
They should track the IP addresses and prosecute every single one of these they can get their hands on.
Umm... no. Have you ever been to the ocean of chaos of 4chan? Have you read any of their statements? They're about as radically anti-authority as it gets. Anonymous's major uniting factor (aside from the Internet Boss thing) is freedom of speech.
A lot of the Wikileaks outrage is over government interference on the internet; they're just as pissed over ACTA and the MPAA/RIAA's attempts to lock down computing as they are over this, it's just that the credit card companies provided a convenient target, and when they actually went down the entire thing snowballed.
They know that they dont have the ability to shut down any major websites for a prolonged period of time - this is just to make a political point that there are angry supporters of Assange out there.
Anonymous, by its very nature, prevents any kind of coherent organization. Go onto their IRC channel and you will see. The only reason they've done anything is because LOIC is so easy to use.
About prosecuting them; I estimate there are about 70,000 attackers, most of whom will claim they had a computer virus that did it. If there was a way to prosecute Anonymous over DDoS attacks, the RIAA and MPAA would be doing it now. They might get one or two of the exceptionally dumb ones, but that's about it. LOIC is in essence a voluntary botnet, so the 'I had a virus I didn't know' excuse should work. Also, I'm almost positive a large percentage are minors.
This group of people have been evading consequences for internet vandalism/vigilantiism for years.
The directors of the attacks have lofty ideals of an internet free of government oversight - but I think most of the actual grunts are just in it for the thrill of vandalism.
Ten years ago it took some kind of knowledge to pull off a DDoS so something like this couldn't have happened, but today any 15-year-old can download pre-configured software and DDoS through an open WiFi point to their heart's content.
We've never ended murder, rape, or robbery. However, we know we can abate the level of it by in fact making examples of others. How hard and how heavy really depends upon will and response.
If they realize they can't remain anonymous and can eventually be tracked down and hammered for their act, a good number will tread a little more lightly instead of acting like spoil bratty children.
#13
DDoS'ing isnt murder, rape or robbery; at best it's a minor crime akin to vandalism.
In the anonops IRC channel, attackers are being instructed to use someone else's wifi when conducting these attacks, and to delete LOIC and claim they had a virus if arrests start happening.
It's very hard to establish guilt over DDoS attacks in court if the attacker has even half a brain, and prosecuting a significant number of these people would end up dragging a large number of innocents into the equation (thus making the government look like authoritarian pricks in the media).
Even if you could prosecute very many of them, you'd be ending up following the MPAA and RIAA's strategy against torrenters, which has been wildly ineffective at curbing activity from the same type of community.
A few will get arrested and dragged through the coals, but the vast majority will not care, or worse, view them as martyrs.
My real question is this: how the heck did Wikileaks get such a trove of classified materials without anyone knowing, and why isnt there a witch hunt over the people actually leaking the intel TO WikiLeaks? It cant have all been Manning... Closing the flaws in our security systems will be easier than trying to take down a website (even if WikiLeaks does go down, there are enough likeminded people out there that the hydra will just grow another head)
#15
DDoS'ing isnt murder, rape or robbery; at best it's a minor crime akin to vandalism.
In your mind it is. However, when you shut down businesses' websites that do hundreds of thousands of dollars of transactions daily, it worse than simple robbery of a store, a home, or a citizen.
#16
I agree that the DDoS war is wrong, but at the same time, no single individual (outside of the directors) is contributing that much to the attacks - it's because there are so many attackers that the DDoS is doing anything. Just running LOIC because everyone else on a given imageboard was doing it isn't equivalent to a violent crime.
In an ideal world, I there would be some way to catch the people directing the attacks against specific targets. But if they aren't stupid, nobody will ever find out who they are.
This isnt related to the DDoS=riot topic, but I just read that EasyDNS has decided to host WikiLeaks after coming under attack from everyone who mistook them for EveryDNS
(by the way, thanks for the links, tipper - the PandaLabs one is a good timeline)
Also I have one of my own - it's a pretty good breakdown of where some of the more ideological attackers stand. (As one would expect, the viewpoint is kind of strange and the comments are full of idiocy)
[An Nahar] Hizbullah MP Mohammed Raad on Wednesday said the Special Tribunal for Leb is a violation of the Lebanese Constitution and accused U.N. Sherlocks of procrastination.
He said some the concerns raised by Hizbullah to the U.N. Hariri investigation committee during a March 2010 meeting were not answered.
"We waited for a response and despite the promises, we have not seen a reply," Raad told a presser to address the legal aspect of the STL.
He said creation of the Tribunal violated both Lebanese and international law, adding that the International Community has "encouraged an illegitimate government to achieve de facto authority."
A weakened Lebanese government under PM Fouad Saniora approved in November 2006 a U.N. plan for an international tribunal to try suspects in the liquidation of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri -- despite the resignation of six ministers and the objections of the President.
Raad, who held the presser together with judicial expert Judge Salim Jraisati, said there are political motives behind the 'deliberate' Western and Arab media leaks.
"Why was Syria accused in the beginning and then the course of the investigation was changed? What is Israel's role in the investigation? Does the Court take Israel's statements?
Raad said these concerns were raised to U.N. Sherlocks.
He believed that pursuing the false witnesses' issue will give the probe credibility, "especially since it focuses only on phone calls as evidence."
"What justice is that where a false witness enjoys immunity? And Bellemare sought not to pursue those.
"Media leaks and statements which dealt with the investigation since the liquidation until now are not spontaneous. They violate the confidentiality of the investigation.
Judge Jraisati agreed with Raad that the STL was a violation of both Lebanese illusory sovereignty and Constitution.
He explained the violations of the STL work in seven points.
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12/09/2010 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Iran claimed victory Wednesday in renewed talks with world powers over its controversial nuclear program and vowed to make no concessions in the face of international pressure.
Chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said the six world powers have accepted Tehran's conditions for the talks as Iran's conservative media praised Jalili for his "solid" stance.
"They joined the talks maintaining their own view, but Iran said the talks should continue based on Iran's conditions. So they have shown serious change," Jalili said of the talks that resumed this week.
"We frankly asked that talks should be for the sake of cooperation, and they accepted. If they remain committed to this agreement, then the talks have been successful," he said in an interview carried on state television's website.
After a 14-month break, the talks on the Islamic republic's nuclear program resumed in Geneva this week, with an agreement to meet again in Istanbul at the end of January despite clear differences.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said after the two days of talks ended on Tuesday that it was agreed to hold the Istanbul talks to "discuss practical ideas and ways of cooperating towards the resolution of our core concerns about the nuclear issue."
Barely an hour later, however, Jalili said both sides agreed only to further "talks based on cooperation" and that everything else was "not true."
Iran's diminutive PresidentMahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad repeated Wednesday that the country would not back down on uranium enrichment, which is the key issue of international concern over Tehran's atomic program.
The hardliner however said "Iran is ready for nuclear cooperation and nuclear material production with the group of P5+1," the official IRNA news agency reported, referring to the United States, Russia, China, Britain, La Belle France and Germany.
"Under no circumstances Iran will back down on its rights in nuclear fuel cycle, the 20-percent enrichment of uranium and building (nuclear) plants," he told university students in the central city of Arak.
"The West had better cooperate with Iran in the nuclear field," he said, calling on global powers to lift sanctions against Tehran.
Iran is under four sets of U.N. sanctions over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, the sensitive process which can be used to make nuclear fuel or, in highly extended form, the fissile core of an atom bomb.
Tehran rejects suspicions by the West and Israel that its uranium enrichment program masks a covert bid to acquire nuclear weapons, maintaining it is developing nuclear technology for solely peaceful purposes.
Analysts said the Geneva talks have failed to dissipate deep distrust between world powers and Tehran, but that they marked the beginning of a new phase of dialogue.
Iran's conservative media Wednesday praised Jalili over his "solid" stance and hailed the talks as a good start.
"Jalili returned from Geneva with full hands," said a headline in Khabar, which is close to parliament speaker Ali Larijani.
Hardline newspaper Siasat Rouz, which is close to the Revolutionary Guards described the talks as a "first positive step."
"The 5+1 has to reach a great agreement with Iran," the pro-Ahmadinejad hardline newspaper Vatan Emrouz wrote in an editorial.
"They know well if there is another gap lasting a few months in talks with Iran there will be no issues left for an agreement as Iran might enrich 1,200 kilos of uranium to 20 percent and be self-sufficient in" nuclear fuel production, it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Bangla Daily Star] Soddy Arabia proposed an Arab-led military force to destroy Hezbullies in Leb two years ago, a US diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks suggests.
Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal presented a senior US diplomat with a plan for a force backed by US and Nato air and sea power.
The US responded by expressing scepticism about the military feasibility of the plan.
Hezbullies is a Shia paramilitary group and political movement.
While Syria and Iran are Hezbullies's main regional allies, Soddy Arabia has strong ties with the country's Sunni community and the current Prime Minister Saad Hariri, son of the murdered ex-prime minister.
The cable is describes a meeting in May 2008 between David Satterfield, a senior US State Department official, and Prince Saud al-Faisal.
At the meeting the prince "argued for an 'Arab force' to create and maintain order in and around Beirut. The US and Nato would need to provide transport and logistical support, as well as 'naval and air cover'. Saud said that a Hezbullies victory in Beirut would mean the end of the Siniora government and the 'Iranian takeover' of Leb".
The cable came days after armed Hezbullies members took over parts of central Beirut threatening to overthrow the government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
According to the cable, the Saudi foreign minister argued that a Hezbullies victory against the Siniora government "combined with Iranian actions in Iraq and on the Paleostinian front would be a disaster for the US and the entire region".
He argued that the situation called for an "Arab force drawn from Arab 'periphery' states to deploy to Beirut under the 'cover of the UN'".
Saud al-Faisal said Mr Siniora strongly backed the idea.
Over the past two weeks, Wikileaks has released thousands of classified messages from US envoys around the world.
Washington has called their publication "irresponsible" and an "attack on the international community".
Posted by: Fred ||
12/09/2010 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Iran is planning to place medium-range missiles on Venezuelan soil, based on 
(KUNA) -- Military chiefs from South Korea and the US agreed Wednesday to continue joint drills to effectively deter North Korean aggression and refine Seoul's leading role in dealing with local provocations, giving the South more authority in the case of future attacks by the North, media reported.
[Chosun Ilbo] An Austrian businessman has been slapped with a 3.3 million euro fine and a nine-month suspended sentence for selling luxury goods to North Korea in contravention of UN sanctions. The goods purchased from the Austrian are thought to be birthday gifts for 
Officials say it's the largest cache of homemade explosives ever found in a single location in the US. They were found inside a house in the suburban Escondido neighborhood just north of San Diego, which is now being called "the bomb" house.
(KUNA) -- The United States withdrew its demand that Israel extends the period of freezing settlement construction as a condition for resumption of direct talks with the 
