[Tolo News] Despite President Karzai's persistent calls for and end to air strikes, a top NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... official said air strikes on houses are coordinated with Afghan forces and "they continue to be necessary".
Speaking in Brussels NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu called NATO air strikes still essential saying the alliance takes Karzai's concerns very seriously and would continue to make every effort to avoid civilian casualties.
"In many of these operations, Afghans are in the lead," she said.
On Tuesday President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... renewed his warning against NATO saying air strikes on Afghans' homes will no longer be tolerated.
"From this moment on, air strikes on the homes of Afghan people are not allowed," Karzai told news hounds.
President Karzai said he repeatedly told his international partners to avoid civilian deaths in their air strikes.
NATO air strikes on the homes of Afghan people will make foreign forces look like an occupation force and the world knows how Afghans treat occupiers, Karzai said.
"If this is repeated, Afghanistan has a lot of ways to stop it, but we want NATO to stop the raids on its own, because we want to continue to cooperate," he said.
Reacting to Karzai's criticism of NATO air strikes, Pentagon Chief Robert Gates said his criticism of air strikes that lead to the death of civilians shows his peoples pain and the need for joint probes to avoid such deaths.
"I think President Karzai is reflecting the pain and suffering that the Afghan people have had to endure," Gates told news hounds yesterday.
"I think he also recognises -- and the Afghan people do -- that we are their ally, we are their friend and we are trying to help them develop the capability to protect themselves," Mr Gates further said.
Civilian casualties has long been a controversial issue and a factor straining Kabul relations with Washington.
Another NATO Spokeswoman Maj. Sunset Belinsky highlighted the need for the operations to continue in the country.
"Coalition forces constantly strive to reduce the chance of civilian casualties and damage to structures," Belinsky said, "but when the gunnies use civilians as a shield and put our forces in a position where their only option is to use air strikes, then they will take that option."
President Karzai's warnings came after 14 non-combatants were killed in a NATO air strike in Nawzad district of the southern Helmand province.
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06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] The Afghan High Peace Council still fails to identify who to hold peace talks with, a number of parliamentarians said on Wednesday.
Strongly criticising the government, some politicians said the government still doesn't have a clear definition of who the enemy is.
Lawmakers described the war in Afghanistan as a war with no goals.
Parliamentarians called the loss of prominent Jihadi leaders irrecoverable, saying the government should clarify the track of the war.
"Every word is vague and ironical and we are living in a situation with no clear enemy. Our President is lost and the peace council fails to find those it should hold peace talks with. We are being killed every day," said a member of parliament, Mohammad Saleh Saljoqi.
Another member of parliament, Fawzia Naseryar Gudarayee, said: "chained liquidations are performed based on an organised plan by Pak players with their international supporters."
Speaker of the House of Representatives also voiced concern over the growing deaths of civilians either in the Taliban-led attacks or foreign forces' operations.
"The casualties which include high-ranking government officials, innocent children and women are either caused by suicide kabooms and bombings or ground and air raids of international forces," House Speaker Abdul Rauf Ebrahimi said.
Mr Ebrahimi said politicians are due to meet President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... next week to discuss a wide range of issues, including civilian casualties, introduction of the remaining members of the cabinet and the destiny of elections special tribunal.
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06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Afghanistan's defence minister is holding talks with Indian officials about increasing defence cooperation as his country prepares to handle its own security by 2014.
Afghan Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak told news hounds before Wednesday's talks that his country would welcome help from India.
A statement from India's Defence Ministry says bilateral cooperation and efforts to train Afghan cops were likely to be discussed during the meeting.
India has been helping the Afghan government rebuild its police force, judiciary and diplomatic services.
Afghanistan's armed forces will take over the war-torn country's security by 2014 when US and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the style of the American pants... troops leave Afghanistan. The United States plans to start withdrawing its troops in July.
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06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
ION CHINESE MIL FORUM > FORMER PRESIDENT OF INDIA [Kalan]SAYS INDIA WILL BE A SUPERPOWER BY 2012, as proven by India's [successful?]upcoming rocket launch of multiple satelites into orbit.
* SAME > [MTV Global Survey] HINDIS [Indians] ARE HAPPIEST [young = age 16-34] PEOPLE IN THE WORLD, JAPANESE ARE THE MOST MISERABLE.
> US, US = under 30%.
> World Average = 43%.
* DEFENCE FORUM INDIA > JAPAN OPENS UP FIRST OVERSEAS MILITARY BASE IN DJIBOUTI. | DIJIBOUTI BASE "IN [Japan's] NATIONAL INTERESTS".
[Iran Press TV] Khartoum has officially asked the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... to withdraw its peacekeepers from the African country after the formal secession of South Sudan on July 9.
UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy said a letter from Sudan's Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti was given to the UN Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday in which the Sudanese official said Khartoum did not want to continue with the United Nations Missions in Sudan (UNMIS) after July 9, AFP reported.
Karti said the January referendum in which southerners voted for separation from the North, marked the end of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement that ended more than two decades of civil war between the North and the South.
UNMIS was established in 2005 to guarantee that the two sides comply with the peace deal. The force includes 10,000 servicemen, most of whom are troops.
On July 9, the peace agreement will end and there will be no justification for the presence of UN peacekeeping forces, Karti said.
Le Roy said it would be up to the UN Security Council to decide how to react to the request.
The South has asked the UN to continue the missions even after the formal declaration of secession.
Khartoum's request comes as tensions are running high between the two sides over the disputed oil-rich town of Abyei on the border between the North and the South.
The North's army took control of the region on May 21.
African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... adviser Alex de Waal said on Tuesday that both sides have agreed to establish a common demilitarized zone on the border. However, The well-oiled However... they have not reached an agreement over the demarcation of the border.
Col. Philip Aguer, front man for the South's army, has said that the South will support the recent agreement on the condition that both sides agree on an actual border.
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06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[Beirut Daily Star] An Egyptian general has admitted that the military conducted forced "virginity tests" on female protesters in March, CNN reported, actions that have outraged Egyptian activists who called for demonstrations to condemn the incident.
"The girls who were jugged were not like your daughter or mine," the U.S. broadcaster quoted the senior general, who asked not to be identified, as saying. "We didn't want them to say we had sexually assaulted or raped them, so we wanted to prove that they weren't virgins in the first place."
"These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square, and we found in the tents Molotov cocktails and [drugs]," he said.
Activists on online social networking sites scrambled to organize demonstrations to condemn the military's actions in the wake of the CNN report.
"Women were in the front lines in Tahrir. They have always played a role and they deserve for their dignity to be regained," wrote one group of activists on their Facebook page. Activists and bloggers say they will hold a day of online protest Wednesday to voice their outrage, adding to criticism of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took control of the country from ousted President Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... in February.
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[Beirut Daily Star] A high-ranking Egyptian military official denied comments carried by CNN saying the military had conducted forced "virginity tests" on female protesters in March, state al-Ahram newspaper reported on Wednesday.
According to CNN, an Egyptian general said the military had conducted the tests, confirming reports by rights group Amnesia Amnesty International in March. The CNN report prompted activists to call for protests to condemn the action.
The military official, who was not named, denied the news and called on media "to practice precision before publishing these accusations, and tarnishing the name of the armed forces with such accusations that seek to cause a rift between the army and the people."
Rights groups said at least 18 women were incarcerated on March 9, when army officers forcibly cleared Tahrir Square in Cairo, centre of the protests that toppled former president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... in February. A military council now rules Egypt.
Some of those jugged said the abuse included forced "virginity tests", beatings, electric shocks and strip searches while being photographed by male soldiers, Amnesty reported.
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06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
So they were for it before they were against it?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/02/2011 6:02 Comments ||
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#2
They were always for it. Pesky western infidel reporters...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/02/2011 8:53 Comments ||
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[Ennahar] The official front man of the group whose initiative was launched last year by the founder of the Salafist ...Salafists espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam that seeks a return to practices that were common in the 7th century. Rather than doing that themselves and letting other people alone they insist everybody do as they say and they try to kill everybody who doesn't... Group for Preaching and Combat, Hassan Hattab, Abu Zakaria, who was a member of the Council of Elders and President of the Medical Committee of the GSPC, wants to put an end to the controversy between some parties regarding a future release of Islamist prisoners involved in terrorism cases.
The latter denied everything that was announced by "those who claim to speak on his behalf or on behalf of Hassan Hattab" and added they have made no statement until now.
In a statement yesterday to Ennahar, Abu Zakaria said that this is the first statement he makes to the press, and that as the official spokesperson on behalf of the initiative, he ignored all about the statements to the press, either those relating to the release of Islamist prisoners who are in prison for terrorist activities or those relating to the initiative addressed to the President of the Republic asking him to promote national reconciliation into a general amnesty.
The initiative made by the former Emir of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat ... now known as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb... (GSPC), Hassan Hattab, alias "Abu Hamza"
Abu Zakaria, who has benefited from the provisions of the Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation, expressed his surprise at the controversy raised by this information, and avoid accusing any party whatsoever. "I did not speak to anyone neither did Hattab, and everyone must take responsibility for his words. We made no statement" he said before adding: "Any time we have things to say, we do it officially. We are in contact with high authorities and we have not heard of such initiative" he concluded.
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06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , the former Egyptian president, and his two sons will go on trial starting August 3 in a Cairo criminal court for alleged graft and for their suspected role in killing protesters, Egyptian state news agency has said.
According to a court official, Mubarak would be tried on charges of corruption and intentionally killing protesters during the 18-day uprising that ended his 30-year rule on February 11, the Middle East News Agency reported on Wednesday.
Judge Ahmed Rifat would preside over the trial of Mubarak and his sons, Ala'a and Gamal, at the North Cairo criminal court, a judicial source told the AFP news agency.
Mubarak could face the death penalty if convicted on charge of "pre-mediated killing"- or having played a part in a crackdown that left more than 800 demonstrators dead, Egyptian justice minister said earlier this month.
Mubarak has been in jug at a hospital in Sharm el-Sheikh, the Egyptian resort town by the Red Sea coast, since April 13 after reportedly suffering a heart attack during questioning.
Mubarak was in no condition to be transferred to a prison hospital and would for now stay in the current health facility, Egypt's public prosecutor said on Tuesday.
Ala'a and Gamal are being held in Torah prison on the outskirts of Cairo, the Egyptian capital.
Al Jizz's Ayman Mohyeldin said the medical team recommended against bringing the former president to a Cairo prison facility after examinations deemed his health "too unfit, too unwell" at this time.
"If indeed legal proceedings are to go forward ... most likely and it could very well possibly be that the court goes to the former president at the hospital," Mohyeldin said in his report from Cairo.
Public and transparent
Last week Mubarak was fined $90m for cutting of internet access and mobile phone services during the country's massive protestswhich began in January.
A high-powered body of the country's military, which has been running the country since Mubarak stepped down, has been under pressure from ordinary Egyptians to bring to justice officials of the ousted regime, known for corruption and authoritarianism.
Our correspondent said Egyptians wanted the trial to be public and transparent.
"People want to see the charges, people want the evidence brought forth and hear from the defendant himself, in a public and in a transparent manner," he said.
While former regime officials have been put on trials which have "really been happening behind closed doors, with some of the actual victims unable to attend the actual trials, and more importantly, they are unable to see the evidence that is brought forward," he reported.
Questions remain as to how Mubarak's trial will be conducted - whether victims and their families will be allowed to attend and whether there will be access for media and international observers, but having a trial date is "in the eyes of many a very important step forward", Mohyeldin added.
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06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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* SAME > IRAN URGES [near-term = immediate] IMPLEMENTATION OF SECURITY AGREEMENTS WID PAKISTAN, as per bilateral cooper agz Terrorism, illegal drug trade, crime + other graft.
IMO read, AT LEAST FOR STARTERS.
Not to be outdone, KSA is repor giving its support to Pakistan.
[Bangla Daily Star] Two major opposition parties -- the BNP and the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami ... a Pakistani catspaw remaining active in Bangla politix, loosely affiliated with the Pak religious party of the same name and closely affiliated with most of the terror organizations in Bangla. A member of the BNP's four party governing coalition.... -- called a countrywide dawn-to-dusk hartal ... a peculiarly Bangla combination of a general strike and a riot, used by both major political groups in lieu of actual governance ... for June 5 to protest against cancellation of the caretaker government system.
This is for the first time during the present government's tenure that all the four parties, which form a four-party political alliance and which was apparently ineffective since the December 2008 parliamentary elections, are going to stage a protest programme simultaneously.
However, The journalistic equivalent of the teenager's whateverHowever... it is going to be the fifth hartal of BNP.
BNP Acting Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Jamaat Acting Secretary General ATM Azharul Islam announced the programme from pressers at their party offices at Naya Paltan and Moghbazar in the capital Wednesday.
The announcement came hot in the heels of a political debate brewing over the dissolution of the CG system by the Supreme Court.
The Appellate Division on May 10 in a verdict declared the caretaker government system unconstitutional and void, but observed that the system may be practiced for holding two more parliamentary elections for the sake of "safety of the state and its people".
On Monday, the premier did not give consent to continuation of the interim government system when the parliamentary special committee on constitutional amendment, at a meeting with the PM, proposed two different models of caretaker government for two more general elections.
Addressing a presser at Gono Bhaban on Tuesday, Hasina said now there is no way to maintain the caretaker government system after the SC declared it illegal.
The special committee, on the same day, urged BNP to come up with proposals if they want to maintain the caretaker government system, apparently for putting pressure on the main opposition.
The committee believes only a political consensus can now solve the crisis prevailing over survival of the caretaker government system after the Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional and void.
Rejecting the move to scrap the caretaker government system, the BNP termed it a ploy to destroy democracy and a blueprint to establish one-party rule.
The BNP, its allies and others like-minded parties have decided to announce agitation programme including hartal to forge a public opinion against the government move.
BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia Three-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ... , also head of the four-party alliance, on Monday night convened emergency meetings of her party's standing committee and leaders of four party alliance and decided to go for a simultaneous movement.
"No free and fair election was ever held under Awami League governments in the past and it won't happen in future also. Election under Awami League won't be acceptable; and people will resist its ill motive," BNP said in a statement issued after a standing committee meeting Tuesday night.
After the presser on Wednesday, Mirza Fakhrul said: "We are rejecting the government decision and declaring the hartal for June 5 across the country to protest the decision."
He, however, said the areas going to Union Gay Pareehad elections on Sunday will be out of the purview of the hartal.
"Caretaker government was a settled issue. There was no debate on it. Has the court any jurisdiction to deliver a verdict on a settled issue? It's not mandatory for the people and parliament to accept the Supreme Court verdict," he added.
Announcing the hartal, Jamaat's Azharul said, "Caretaker government system was introduced due to the failure of political government to hold a free, fair and credible election. The situation still exists so the need for a caretaker government is not over," he said.
"The ruling Awami League wants to come to power once again using an obliged election commission. The nation will not accept their announcement of dissolution of the caretaker government system," Azhar said in a written statement.
BJP, IOJ, NDP and NAP expressed their solidarity to hartal through separate blurbs issued on Wednesday.
Earlier, BNP observed four hartal programmes on June 27, November 14 and 30 last year and February 7 this year to realize it's various demanded.
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06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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WOULD-BE terrorists searching the internet for tips on how to build bombs were instead taught how to bake the perfect cupcake after an intervention by British intelligence.
Intelligence agency MI6 launched the cyber operation against jihadi magazine, Inspire, in an attempt to hamper attempts by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) to attract "lone wolf" terrorists, The Daily Telegraph in London said.
Surfers trying to download the English-language magazine's Make a bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom feature were instead redirected to a site boasting recipes for The Best Cupcakes in America.
The baking site, which is published by The Ellen DeGeneres Show, promises treats for "today's sweet-toothed hipsters" including the mojito cupcake, made using white rum and vanilla buttercream.
The 67-page Inspire contains instructions on how to make rudimentary pipe bombs using sugar, match heads and a miniature lightbulb.
The jihadi magazine is produced by Anwar al Awlaki, one of the leaders of AQAP, who has lived in Britain and the United States, and his US colleague Samir Khan.
Britain and the US both planned separately to disrupt the magazine on learning of its publication, but the US decided against action as they believed it was cutting off a source of intelligence, the British newspaper reported.
My solution: Should have had instructions to build a large bomb out of 10,000 pounds of fertilizer, which should be more than enough to blow up a bus. Of course, before they cook up the big batch, they'll need to test a small sample to make sure they have duplicated the process correctly. Just take a very small sample and hold a match to it and see if it fizzles. About 100 pounds of material ought to be enough to perform this test ....
Britain has stopped distributing an animated movie meant to stop young Muslims from becoming extremists, said its maker on Tuesday.
The short film, "Wish You Waziristan", is a cautionary tale about two British brothers who travel to the Af-Pak border region in order to become jihadis after seeing a racist beating.
Naturally.
The title uses British street slang to make a pun on the phrase "Wish You Were Here" and the name of Waziristan. The six-minute film cost $54,000 in taxpayers' money to produce.
Martin Orton, managing director of Bold Creative, the production house behind the film, said "The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has decided not to release it. We think it's a brilliant piece of work and we think that if it had a chance it would work brilliantly in what it is supposed to do. But quite sadly we haven't had the chance to do that."
The movie had been commissioned by the previous Labour government in 2009 and no decision on its fate had been taken by the current coalition.
British Muslims questioned how persuasive it would have been. Mohammad Shahid Raza, an imam at Leicester Central Mosque, said, "The film sounds naive and simplistic."
#1
Bet you what was shown was a white person beating up a muslim. The least likely. Black on Muslim is the most likely, then muslim on muslim, then muslim on white.
All part of the rich diversity of crime Labour imported.
#1
FTA: The UWO-affiliated college is caught in the crossfire of a decision to accept money from Muslim groups - one local, one international - to help fund a new chair in Islamic studies.
#2
That's in my home town from which I thankfully escaped. I know what those people are like and what motivates them (hint - money). In the end they'll accept ALL the Moose-limb money that's offered.
[Dawn] An American admitted terrorist who is the US government's star witness in the trial of a Chicago businessman accused in the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks said Tuesday that another bad turban with ties to al Qaeda had once plotted to attack US defence contractor Lockheed Martin.
David Coleman Headley, who has pleaded guilty to laying the groundwork in the three-day massacre that left more than 160 dead in India's largest city, testified for five days in the trial of his longtime friend, Tahawwur Rana, in exchange for avoiding the death penalty and extradition.
Rana has pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to accusations that he provided Headley cover as the Pak-American conducted surveillance in India before the attacks. Rana, a Canadian national who has lived in Chicago for years and owns an immigration services business, has pleaded not guilty.
Though Rana is on trial, it was Headley's testimony that was closely watched for any clues in the fight against global terrorism, especially in the wake of the May 2 killing of the late Osama bin Laden ... who is no more... by US forces outside Pakistain's capital city and amid suspicions that the country's government may have known or helped hide the former al Qaeda leader.
On Tuesday, Headley told jurors that in August 2009, he used one of Rana's work computers in Chicago to begin researching details about Lockheed Martin and its CEO for Ilyas Kashmiri, a Pak terrorist leader who has ties to al Qaeda.
"He had people who had conducted surveillance," Headley said of Kashmiri.
Headley said Kashmirei was angry over the US drone attacks inside Pakistain and wanted to target the defense contractor. Kashmiri leads the bad turban group Harakat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, which has launched attacks in India and Pakistain, including a 2006 suicide kaboom against the US consulate in Bloody Karachi that killed four people, according to the State Department.
Headley did not provide details about the plot, which was not carried out, but said Rana did not know about it.
Rana's defense attorneys have tried to discredit Headley, who spent days detailing for prosecutors how he took orders from the Pak intelligence agency, known as the ISI, and Lashkar-e-Taiba, the bad turban group blamed in the Mumbai attacks. Headley also has pleaded guilty to plotting an attack against a Danish newspaper that in 2005 printed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, which angered many Mohammedans. Rana also is charged in that plot, which was never carried out.
The defense's main focus has been to portray Headley as a liar who has lived multiple lives. Attorneys have asked Headley to detail how he worked as an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration after two heroin convictions while also first becoming involved with Lashkar.
Under defense questioning, Headley has admitted that he lied in his initial statements to law enforcement when he said Rana had no knowledge of his plans. On Tuesday he admitted that he had sought a psychiatrist for a "mixed personality disorder" diagnosis, but did not disclose that treatment when asked by the judge in the case. He also acknowledged that he omitted details about his second wife when he spoke to his first wife.
Defense attorneys showed clips of Headley's initial statement to Sherlocks, which showed a stark contrast to the man who has been speaking in a soft and nearly monotonous voice while appearing unaffected by days of questioning. In the video, a visibly agitated and fast-talking Headley keeps asking prosecutors if they had made any other arrests yet in the case.
Still, experts have said undermining Headley's credibility is a challenge for the defense. His testimony has involved numerous emails and transcripts of phone calls with others listed in the indictment.
"He's certainly an imperfect individual, but the fact that the US government put him up there and put him up there first, seems to suggest a reasonable level of confidence in what he has to say," said Stephen Tankel, a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who has written a book on Lashkar.
Besides Rana, six others are charged in absentia, including Kashmiri, a man known only as 'Major Iqbal,' who Headley said was an ISI major, and Sajid Mir, Headley's Lashkar-e-Taiba handler.
Headley said he started working with Lashkar in 2000. He testified that the group and Pakistain's Inter-Services Intelligence agency operate under the same umbrella, though Pakistain has repeatedly denied the allegation. Headley said Lashkar and ISI coordinated in planning the attacks and that Rana was apprised of developments.
Rana and Headley, who are both 50, were schoolmates at a Pak military boarding school and have remained in touch.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[Associated Press of Pakistan] The unfortunate and tragic death of Syed Saleem Shahzad is a source of concern for the entire nation but the incident should not be used to target and malign the country's security agencies, said an ISI official Wednesday on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the job. "Just because he said we wuz gonna kill him and then he turned up dead don't mean we dunnit. He coulda done it hisself!"
"The reported meeting between the journalist and ISI officials of the Information Management Wing was held on 17th October 2010 to discuss a story he had done for Asia Online on 15th October, and the meeting had nothing sinister about it," said the official.
"It is part of the Wing's mandate to remain in touch with the journalist community. Main objective behind all such interactions is provision of accurate information on matters of national security. ISI also makes it a point to notify institutions and individuals alike of any threat warning received about them", he said.
The ISI official further said that "the reported e-mail of Mr. Saleem Shahzad to Mr Ali Hasan Dayan of HRW which is being made the basis of baseless allegations leveled against ISI has no veiled or unveiled threats in it."
The official pointed out that in the words of Mr. Syed Saleem Shahzad himself, "the conversation was held in an extremely polite and friendly atmosphere and there was no mince word in the room at any stage".
It is regrettable that some sections of the media have taken upon themselves to use the incident for targeting and maligning the ISI, said the official. Baseless accusations against the country's sensitive agencies for their alleged involvement in Shahzad's murder are totally unfounded. In the absence of any evidence and when an investigation is still pending, such allegations tantamount to unprofessional conduct on the part of the media.
The "ISI offers its deepest and heartfelt condolence to the bereaved family and assures them that it will leave no stone unturned in helping to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice," the official stated.
At the same time, said the ISI official, the media should act with responsibility to avoid any possible legal course. It should refrain from baseless allegations against the ISI that seek to deliberately malign the organization in the eyes of the people of Pakistain, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
For a taste of what Shahzad was going on about and why he was whacked, here is an article he wrote for Asia Times on the attack at PNS Mehran:
(via Information Dissemination)
[Dawn] A leading Pak commander on Wednesday sought to play down "media hype" over the prospect of an imminent military offensive to meet US interests in North Wazoo.
Lieutenant General Asif Yasin Malik, the corps commander supervising all military operations in the northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... told news hounds: "We will undertake operation in North Waziristan when we want to." "Right now we don't want to. We got... ummm... important personal business to take care of..."
"There has been a lot of media hype about the operation," said Malik in the Mohamad Gat area of tribal district Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Bloody Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... , where the military flew news hounds to show off apparent progress in battles against home-grown Taliban.
"We will undertake such an operation when it is in our national interest militarily," the general said, describing North Waziristan as "calm and peaceful as it was weeks ago".
Asked whether there was a need for such an operation, he said only: "Maybe ultimately we will go to North Waziristan".
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Edward Stettinius, Jr. ... last Friday urged Pakistain to take decisive steps to defeat al Qaeda, when she became the most senior US official to visit the country since US Navy SEALs found and killed bin Laden in the country on May 2.
The fact that the al Qaeda terror chief had been living in a garrison city just a stone's throw from Pakistain's top military academy raised disturbing questions about incompetence or complicity within the armed forces.
Under US pressure to crack down on bully boy havens on the Afghan border, Pakistain has already committed troops against home-grown forces of Evil in much of the tribal belt, dubbed a global headquarters of al-Qaeda.
Pakistain has always maintained that any North Waziristan operation would be of its own time and choosing, arguing that its 140,000 troops committed to the northwest are already too overstretched fighting elsewhere.
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06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ennahar] An Algerian journalist accuses the Paleostinian resistance of terrorism; there is no difference between them and the Al Qaeda organization he said.
The pseudo-journalist blamed the Paleostinians to conduct operations in the occupied Paleostinian territories for the Israeli settlers who were in his opinion, innocent civilians.
Mohamed Sifaoui who enjoys the status of political refuge in La Belle France and benefits from the protection provided by the French security services, was speaking at a TV program broadcast on La Belle France 2, three years ago, while presenting his book "My brothers killers ... how I infiltrated a cell of al Qaeda," claims to have infiltrated the Islamists in La Belle France.
In his book, Sifaoui tries to win the sympathy of the Jewish lobby in La Belle France. He took advantage of the presence of the Jewish singer Enrico Macias, to defend Israel and criticize the Paleostinian resistance he accused of terrorism. According to him, there would be no difference between the Paleostinian resistance and the Al Qaeda organization as they commit suicide kabooms against Israeli innocent civilians, according to his sayings.
Sifaoui has, throughout the show, tried to pretend he was being persecuted wherever he goes, giving a very bad image on the North African community in La Belle France. He puts all Mohammedans in the same brush, accusing them of being Islamic myrmidons.
Note that Sifaoui had accused one of his neighbors, while residing in the capital, exactly Kouba, whom he denounced to the French security services. He accused him of being involved in terrorist networks. The unfortunate man was tossed in the clink by the French security services.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Iran's parliament has voted to refer President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad to the judiciary over what politicians say is a violation of the constitution.
Although it's unclear whether there will be a lawsuit against Ahmadinejad, Wednesday's vote in parliament shows the majority of Iranian politicians are siding with the Guardian Council -- the country's constitutional watchdog body -- in an ongoing controversy with the president.
The politicians voted 165-1 in favor of legal action against Ahmadinejad over his move last month to declare himself caretaker oil minister after he sacked Masoud Mirkazemi under a Cabinet reshuffle plan.
A parliament report says Ahmadinejad's action was in "obvious violation of the constitution." Remaining politicians in the 290-member assembly were either absent or abstained.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2011 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.
[Tolo News] Despite President Karzai's persistent calls for and end to air strikes, a top 
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
Khaleda Zia
[Dawn] An American admitted terrorist who is the US government's star witness in the trial of a Chicago businessman accused in the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks said Tuesday that another
[Associated Press of Pakistan] The unfortunate and tragic death of Syed Saleem Shahzad is a source of concern for the entire nation but the incident should not be used to target and malign the country's security agencies, said an ISI official Wednesday on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the job. 
Mohmand
Hillary Clinton
[Ennahar] An Algerian journalist accuses the Paleostinian resistance of terrorism; there is no difference between them and the Al Qaeda organization he said.
Mahmoud 
