UNITED NATIONS (AP) - A Scotland Yard counterterrorism expert was named Thursday to a new post overseeing security and protection for U.N. staffers in 150 countries from Iraq and Afghanistan to Congo and Kosovo. The appointment of David Veness culminated a lengthy search to fill the role as the world organization's security operations head following a highly critical report that blamed ``dysfunctional'' U.N. security for unnecessary casualties in the Aug. 19, 2003 bombing at the world body's headquarters in Iraq.
Veness will leave his job as assistant commissioner at London's Scotland Yard in charge of protection, terrorism, security and organized crime to become the U.N.'s first undersecretary-general for safety and security on Feb. 28. ``It's probably the biggest security challenge in the world,'' Veness said. ``This is a formidable responsibility, and if you take yourself seriously as a professional then you ought to think about standing up to the plate.''
Veness' new department will combine operations that dealt with U.N. headquarters, overseas operations, and U.N. peacekeeping missions. He will have a bigger staff: Last year the U.N. General Assembly added $53.6 million to the security budget, boosting the number of security posts in New York from 31 to 122, and in the field from 129 to 250.
Veness told a news conference that creating the department ``is an exciting, a timely and extremely welcome initiative.'' Veness said his team must face ``the grim reality'' that U.N. humanitarian operations and other activities can be targeted by ``extremist terrorist or other violent threats.'' He said he sees the critical part of his job as advising the United Nations on how to do its important tasks while ensuring adequate protection for U.N. staff.
The Cambridge graduate joined the Metropolitan Police in 1964 as a cadet and rose through the ranks. He has extensive experience in protecting Britain's royal family and diplomats. Queen Elizabeth II knighted him last year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/14/2005 1:08:43 AM ||
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Does ensuring security include preventing the Blue Helmets from 'seducing' all the nubile females in the area?
Colombia on Wednesday invited the world's bounty hunters to scour its jungles and mountains and drag back rebel chiefs in return for cash rewards. "It would be great if all the bounty hunters in the world came to capture those bandits. The money's there for them, and the rewards are good," Vice President Francisco Santos told reporters.
The Colombian government has put rewards of up to about $2 million on the heads of outlaws like Manuel "Sureshot" Marulanda, veteran Marxist commander of the 17,000 fighters of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Santos' comments came after officials said they had paid an unspecified reward to an anonymous informant who helped them catch Rodrigo Granda, a top rebel who authorities called the FARC's "foreign minister." Granda's capture has caused a diplomatic squabble with neighboring Venezuela, which says he was kidnapped from a street in Caracas. The Colombian government, which has long suspected Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez of sympathies for the FARC, insists they nabbed Granda within their borders.
President Alvaro Uribe owes his 70-percent approval rating to a military campaign against the FARC but the group's top commanders keep safe in hideouts in the country's extensive mountains and jungles.
Posted by: tipper ||
01/14/2005 2:19:51 AM ||
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OCALA -- A 22-year-old unemployed waiter appeared before a federal judge Thursday to face charges he manufactured and illegally possessed the deadly biological agent ricin. U.S. Magistrate Judge Gary R. Jones delayed Steven Ekberg's bond hearing until Tuesday to give Ekberg's mother, Theresa Ekberg, time to hire an attorney. Steven Ekberg was arrested by the FBI on Wednesday evening at her home. In court, Ekberg said he graduated from Forest High School in 2000 and studied at Central Florida Community College in Ocala for a career in law enforcement or as a security guard. State records show he has a concealed-weapons permit.
Ekberg said he is taking anti-depressant medication, including Xanax and Paxil, and receives psychiatric care and counseling. "Do I feel he's a terrorist? No," said Ekberg's mother said as she left the federal courthouse. "There's no sinister motive behind this." She said her son enjoys collecting "different and strange things. That's all."
"It's just a hobby, really"
Acting on a tip received by Marion County deputy sheriffs Jan. 1, federal, state and local agents began trailing Ekberg. On Jan. 7, two undercover agents met Ekberg at the Croc Club lounge in Ocala. According to sheriff's reports, Ekberg told the agents he usually carries three weapons with him. Ekberg lifted his left pant leg and showed them a .357-caliber Glock handgun in a holster strapped to his ankle. Ekberg then told them he keeps another gun in his truck. Undercover agents walked outside with Ekberg and arrested him on charges of illegally possessing weapons inside a bar.
Agents also found .45-caliber handgun in his back pocket along with a small amount of cocaine inside a pill box, authorities said. Inside a backpack, agents found several live rounds for the weapons and a notebook with a recipe to manufacture an explosive, according to the sheriff's report. Ekberg was charged with possession of cocaine, a felony, and a violation of a concealed-weapons permit, a misdemeanor, because he carried a gun into a bar, authorities said.
Later that night, agents searched the home on Southwest 10th Street, where they found several assault weapons, including an AK-47 rifle and an Uzi. All the weapons were seized. Agents with the Marion County Fire Department's hazardous-materials team found a white powder inside a box at the residence. On Wednesday, a state lab in Jacksonville confirmed the substance was ricin.
At a news conference Thursday, federal agents and sheriff's officials said Ekberg appears to have acted alone. "We do not feel Mr. Ekberg is associated with any terrorist organization or entity," said Chris Bonner, a senior FBI agent.
"Our crack profiling staff have determined he's a lone white male...."
Bonner said manufacturing ricin is extremely dangerous if it is inhaled or ingested and can kill a person within hours. Ricin is a poison that can be extracted from castor beans when castor oil is made. It gave Washington authorities a scare in 2004 when it was found in correspondence mailed to a U.S. senator, and in 2003 to the White House and the federal Department of Transportation. If convicted, the maximum penalty Ekberg faces is 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. He is being held at the Marion County Jail.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/14/2005 12:53:56 PM ||
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The article neglected to use the words: "white supremist, loner, survivalist, anti-government, etc., etc., etc."
The guy probably stopped taking his medication and going to therapy.
#2
How stupid do you have to be to show complete strangers your CWC weapon and tell them about all your other weapons? Usual BS MSM reporting in that they don't indicate what the tip was about or what story the cops used to get together with this nut job.
Posted by: DO ||
01/14/2005 15:00 Comments ||
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Internet Haganah had a picture of some pretty healthy looking castor-bean plants growing outside a central Florida mosque...
For international bureaucrats and United Nations diplomats, the city of Geneva, Switzerland is a lakeside paradise. Lately, Geneva has come to the attention of ordinary Americans -- at least, those following the war in Iraq and the confirmation hearings of Alberto Gonzales, President Bush's nominee for U.S. attorney general. But the city is old news to human rights activists, owing to the four famous Geneva Conventions: the first, adopted in 1864, on the treatment of battlefield casualties; the second, in 1906, extending those same principles to war at sea; the third, in 1929, on the treatment of POWs; and the fourth, in 1949, on the treatment of civilians during wartime in enemy hands (two additional protocols were added to this in 1977 regarding the protection of victims of international and non-international armed conflicts).
For the shrinking majority of Americans who have not attended law school, the first and most striking aspect of the Conventions is their age and the unique circumstances that led most states to sign them. Ironically, the liberal Carter and Clinton supporters who regard America's Constitution as "a living document"--that is, subject to fashions that change with the times--nevertheless hail the Geneva Conventions and Protocols (the second of which was never signed or ratified by the U.S. Senate) as eternal monuments akin to the Pyramids. The Conventions themselves, written over almost a century, were noble attempts to civilize European wars between nation-states. They wrote into international law something that most, if not all, Europeans had already been practicing for centuries: treat your country's war enemies as humans, rather than as dogs. They made it clear, by the way, that these rules dealt with enemies captured in wars between nations and states--that is, between armies operating under the political and military control of governments. The Conventions' impact was significant at the time. Thus, Hitler treated American and British POWs relatively decently (though Japan did not), in part because the Fuhrer saw them as fighting on behalf of "civilized" states--unlike, in his mind, the ipso facto barbarians of Stalin's Soviet Union.
But in the 1960s, the winds shifted. Soviet influences came to dominate the UN General Assembly, producing Protocol II, which gave "national liberation movements"--the pro-communist, anti-Western groups trained and subsidized by Moscow that remain in power in places like Namibia and Zimbabwe--"rights" similar to those of regular armies. Protocol II, now revered by Senator Ted Kennedy and his allies, was rejected by Washington at the time. Senate liberals believe that the Islamist terrorists captured in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere are genuine POWs, deserving POW treatment under the Geneva Conventions. Those who demand that the Taliban and its al Qaeda supporters be treated as POWs assume that the Taliban was a legitimate government--an implication that places human rights advocates in the unsavory company of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Pakistan, the only governments to grant legitimacy to the Taliban.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: tipper ||
01/14/2005 8:43:07 AM ||
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No problem. Conventions of Geneva: apply ONLY to people who play by the rules. Example: you aren't supposed to fire at a hospital but if the enemy is firing at you/spotting artillery/hiding in/from it then he instantaly becomes a war criminal subject to summary exeution.
#2
treat your countryâs war enemies as humans, rather than as dogs. Would that be an anglo's dog, or a muslim's dog? I wouldn't mind be treated as an anglo's dog....especially a British or American one. Lucky dogs!
The United Nations, which for years has been seen as a "slumped punch bag", is about to get on the "front foot" to fight back against its critics. Such is the promise of Mark Malloch Brown, the Briton who next week takes on one of the trickiest jobs in international affairs.
Mr Malloch Brown, a Cambridge graduate, is to take over as chief of staff to the UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, effectively the UN's number three, charged with reforming the world body at a time of unprecedented crisis.
While he admits the severity of the challenge and the need to "freshen up" the Annan team and change the whole culture of the UN, he said there would not be a "night of the long knives", a reference to Harold Macmillan's Cabinet cull.
"Macmillan tried too big a shake-up late in a term and it doesn't work," he said. "The Sec-Gen chose his people and has had some of them with him for eight years. A wholesale removal would just not be the right signal."
But with the UN reeling after a disastrous year for its reputation, one full of scandals and rows with America, its primary funder, he willingly acknowledged the need for a "freshening up" of the team. "After eight years any team is tired," he said, promising a "whole package" of reforms to change the UN's famously bureaucratic culture.
"It's not that he [Annan] is not a reformer. But in these conservative, gridlocked organisations, you need crisis to drive change."
A former journalist for The Economist and current head of the UN Development Programme, Mr Malloch Brown was speaking in his office in the tower block directly opposite the 38th floor of the Secretariat.
He faces a huge challenge. His appointment came out of the blue, infuriating many UN old-timers, who regard him as an interloper.
At least he does not have to start by fostering a personal relationship with Mr Annan. They have known each other since 1983 when the Ghanaian was a personnel director and Mr Malloch Brown launched a brief and unsuccessful bid to be a Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate.
He broke off the interview as an assistant came in waving a note. The "SG" [secretary-general] was on the line.
The interlude over, he expressed confidence that the UN and aid donors had learned from the mistakes of the 1980s, notorious for "white elephant" projects and corrupt Third World officials lining their pockets.
Just back from touring the countries worst hit by the tsunami, he added that a silver lining to the catastrophe was that the enormous private response in the West indicated that aid was back in favour.
"The tsunami is the latest and most dramatic expression ⊠of a fundamental shift in public opinion in Europe and the US," he said. "Aid is winning a constituency. Oxfam has more members than the Tory Party."
He added too that he was now "nicer" about the Republicans, a prudent precaution when conservatives in Washington are bubbling with outrage over the oil-for-food scandal. With a fortnight to go before the unveiling of the long-awaited interim report by Paul Volcker into the scandal Mr Malloch Brown, 51, who is married with four children, faces a ferocious initiation.
Already the UN has been exposed as guilty of systematic incompetence in running the $56 billion (£30 billion) programme in Iraq.
More damaging still, at least £900 million was skimmed off UN-managed sales of oil from 1996 to 2003 by Saddam Hussein. Among the foreigners accused of benefiting from bribes was Benon Sevan, the UN head of the programme - a charge Mr Sevan denies.
Mr Malloch Brown is cautiously optimistic that the "stickiest period" is behind them and that both the UN and America are keen to move on from the rows over the invasion of Iraq. But, he conceded, a deep rift remained.
"You can see the diplomatic ship turn but public opinion takes a long time to follow and may not ever complete the U-turn successfully ⊠While there may be calmer waters ahead of us ⊠whether we can navigate into them given all the battle-scars of the last year or so is not yet clear."
So what if the Volcker report levels serious corruption charges against the very top of the UN?
"If there is corruption the SG will want to consider the consequences.
"He is very much in the mood that he has two years to go. It has been a terrible year but let's seize the opportunity [for reform] that has eluded us so far."
I don't think we're winning friends and influencing people:
Via An American Expat in Southeast Asia:>
Late last night and early this morning with little sleep and after a flurry of phone calls we reported on the Abu Bakar Ba'asyir trial in Indonesia, how it not going as planned, how a former US State Department translator and interpretor for George W. Bush with his own unknown agenda has now betrayed his country and how this is related to he ceasefire in Aceh.
Kindly understand that unlike Mr. Burks, I am not a professional translator and interpretor, tapi saya cuba sebaik mungkin.
One has to wonder what would make a man betray his country in such a way, to act as a witness for a terrorist organization and to confide the name of a CIA agent to our enemies. Whatever it is, the damage that Burks has done so far, in and out of the courtroom, will have long lasting effects.
The story has now been picked up early this morning by newspapers in both Australia and Jakarta.
From Jakarta
"...Syafii also claimed that the United States government had meddled in the legal process against Ba'asyir..."
"...a former U.S. State Department translator seemed to give credence to Syafii's allegations"
From Australia
"...Mr Burks told the court he left the State Department because he had resented the insistence that he sign a security pledge..."
"...The prosecution attempted to undermine his testimony by forcing him to admit he had taken the drug ecstasy twice, years before the meeting"
May I have a suprise meter here?
THE MORO Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will not surrender its commanders who led an attack on an Army base in Maguindanao despite a 72-hour deadline by the military, one of its leaders said Friday.
"The MILF will definitely punish those responsible for the attacks, Naughty! naughty little boy! For that you have to go play in the harem for the next few nights! Hey! Stop smiling!
but turning them over to the government is out of the question," Jun Mantawil, chairman of the MILF peace panel said in a statement posted on the rebel group's website. "This is an unfortunate turn of events particularly after the diversion peace talks regained some ground with its resumption in Kuala Lumpur recently," Mantawil added.
Meanwhile, the military said it would continue pursuit operations against the rebel commanders if the MILF would not surrender "With or without them surrendering, we will continue to undertake our law enforcement duties," military spokesman Brigadier General Alexander Yano told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo via telephone. "Our mandate is to pretend to hunt them down as plain criminals regardless of what their action plan is, with or without the 72 hours⊠We just gave them the chance to voluntarily surrender their arms," Yano said.them.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
01/14/2005 12:50:40 AM ||
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I'll bet the Cattlemen's Union was behind this. Did they put a rock under their heads after they killed 'em? In any case, they should've hired Tom Horn to handle it. I hear he's a convenient scapegoat to have around - in case the press decides to get all uppity and everything stirring up the cattle public.
The Indonesian Government has received unexpected support from the United States over its move to regulate the movements of Western aid workers in the province of Aceh. Aid groups have been worried by an increase in the Indonesian military's role in reconstruction and relief efforts. But the US ambassador says there have been no delays for Western aid workers. The director of US aid in the region, William Frej, concurs. "The collaborative relationship that the aid deliverers have with the TNI [Indonesian military] up there, that is one of the really remarkable stories of this whole event," Mr Frej said. "The Army has been very collaborative, supportive, cooperative in both protecting relief workers as well as getting supplies out." Many aid groups are more skeptical, worried the Army will once again begin its military campaign against separatist rebels in Aceh. The US ambassador says the 14,000-strong US force near Aceh will leave at Indonesia's request.
Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/14/2005 4:49:47 PM ||
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Given yesterdayâs Daily Press Briefing from the U.S. Department of State, Iâd say the âhostile, ungrateful Indonesiaâ theme is a MSM creation. Anything to boost sales and circulation, eh? An excerpt:
QUESTION: Richard, could you explain why the U.S. feels it is so important, despite obvious concerns that the Indonesians have about the foreign military presence there, if they're saying, look, we don't need any more help, we'll be able to handle this on our own, why the U.S. believes it needs to tell the Indonesians that you need to stay?
MR. BOUCHER: They're not saying that.
QUESTION: Yeah, they are. I mean, you know, I spoke to --
MR. BOUCHER: No, they're not.
QUESTION: Richard, the Vice President was very clear in his statement yesterday, the Indonesians --
MR. BOUCHER: I just spent five minutes explaining our discussions with the Vice President.
QUESTION: I understand that. I was listening to you.
MR. BOUCHER: But the Indonesians are not saying we don't need the help, go home.
QUESTION: They are.
MR. BOUCHER: No, they're not.
QUESTION: Yeah, Richard --
MR. BOUCHER: They are not saying it to us. We are talking to them directly. We are talking to them every day on the ground in the operations.
QUESTION: But they're making public statements. They're making --
MR. BOUCHER: They're not saying it to us. They're not saying to anybody involved in this relief operation, "That's fine. Go home." When they do, when they can take care of it, that's fine, we'll go home.
QUESTION: So when the Indonesian Vice President says -- or, excuse me, the Foreign Minister says, we will be able to handle this as of March 26th, foreign military and aid groups can leave, how do you interpret that?
MR. BOUCHER: That is not what he said to us when we asked him about it. We asked him about his public remarks and he gave us an explanation that I've just passed on to you. That's what he says.
QUESTION: So you're saying that they are not giving the U.S. an explicit --
MR. BOUCHER: No one is asking us to go home.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
01/14/2005 8:22 Comments ||
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The entire "gratitude" thing is a ruse. Americans give because that IS who we are, not because we require something in return.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/14/2005 9:15 Comments ||
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The entire "gratitude" thing is a ruse. Americans give because that IS who we are, not because we require something in return.
It would be nice tho, to hear good words about our efforts from the recipients. All the badmouthing of the U.S. that makes it into print has gotten rather tiresome as of late.
#9
It isn't an MSM thing. If the story was overblown, that's one thing. The fact is that the Vice Pres of Indonesia said what he said.
On Fox, I heard President Bush saying that the US realizes that the Indonesian people are grateful, I realized that this now is going to be the story for the MSM. Smooth some feathers, oil some skids. I'm sure most Indonesians are appreciative; too bad it's not a complete picture. We have decided to yield to be liked. The alternative possibility is simply too hot to touch.
#10
Agreed, the bullshit is MSM inspired. First they bitched because Bush wasn't fast enough, then they bitch because there isn't enough gratitude shown. What a crock of hot, steamy bullshit.
There have been interviews on Fox News where victims have stated very positive things about America, but you won't hear it from the MSM.
They are too freaking cynical. And it doesn't play into their agenda.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/14/2005 17:57 Comments ||
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Just checking back after a long day out of the office. I, too, wouldn't mind a little balance. I don't doubt that some f*3kt@rds in Indonesia are talking crap, but 1) they are the decided minority, and 2) they do not represent the official Indonesian position (e.g., kind of like Kerry negotiating with the N. Vietnamese). Ever since the tsunami disaster, the official Indonesian statements have uniformly been full of gratitude, like the following:
PRESS RELEASE No.: 03/PEN/I/2005 **snip**
Today, Acting Leader of the Australian Labour Party, Senator Chris Evans has visited the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia for formally expressing the condolences and sympathies of the Australian Labour Party to the Indonesian government and its people, as well as the victims of the recent natural disaster in the Provinces of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam and North Sumatra. **snip**
On behalf of the Indonesian government, H.E. Mr. lmron Cotan conveyed his appreciation for the commitment of assistance offered by the Australian Labour Party, and is looking forward to working closely with the Australian Labour Party and the Australian government for the relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction programs in the affected areas.
Canberra, 10 January 2005
And
PRESS RELEASE No. 94/PR/XII/2004 **snip**
The Government of Indonesia highly appreciates the humanitarian assistance pledged and dispatched by friendly countries from all over the world as well as by international organizations, NGOs, and even individuals. **snip**
Jakarta, 30 December 2004
Nobel Peace prize laureate Shirin Ebadi said today she had been summoned by Iran's hardline judiciary, risking arrest if she did not attend. "I have received a summons to a revolutionary court," she told the French news agency, AFP. The summons says Ebadi must present herself to courts within the next three days to explain herself, otherwise she would be arrested.
Ebadi represented the family of Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian-Iranian photographer murdered in custody in 2003, whose high-profile case has strained Iran-Canadian ties. During the trial of Kazemi's alleged killer last year, Ebadi accused the judiciary of covering up facts that implicated high-ranking government officials in the murder. Ebadi claimed that she had "no idea" as to why she had received the summons, stating that she would wait until the last moment to answer the judiciary. Ebadi was the first female judge in Iran prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But she was stripped of her post when ruling clerics decided that women were by nature unsuitable for such responsibilities after the revolution.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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yikes. I'd be putting a suicide tablet in my teeth..just in case. It's not like these boys play nice.
#2
ebadi has been playing a double game the past few years ---
she indulges in factually incorrect criticisms of America and Israel thinking this will keep her out of trouble with the Mullahs who she also criticizes...
A major problem for her is that when she criticizes the Mullahs, she invokes Quran which must really tick of the heavyweights partly because she is obviously female but even more because she doesn't hold to the party line about what the Quran means
In an apparent reference to the presence of US troops in Iraq, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard's Corps (IRGC) official called for Iran to mobilize its troops against the "dangerous Zionist threat". Speaking to Revolutionary Guards and Iran's Bassij (paramilitary police) forces in Khuzestan on Tuesday Deputy IRGC Commander Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr said, "The Islamic Republic will not tolerate American presence in the region".
Which is probably why there are so many Medes and Persians in Iraq at the moment...
"The presence of this country('s forces) poses a dangerous threat to our nation's interests", Zolqadr said. "The (Revolutionary) Guards cannot ignore their presence", he added. At the meeting another IRGC veteran Kazemini called for Revolutionary Guards to counter US presence. "America wants to prevent the spread of Islamic revolution in Iraq so as to break the Shiite crescent in the region, especially in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon", he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Hey, this is the message of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness which could not be suppressed in the modern age.
Posted by: No name ||
01/14/2005 1:28 Comments ||
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"America wants to prevent the spread of Islamic revolution in Iraq so as to break the Shiite crescent in the region, especially in Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon"
Personally I think America just wants to straighten the Shiite crescent into a straight line :)
#3
Paranoid about democracy next door? Perhaps they should be, but the fight will be from within, not from next door.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/14/2005 9:20 Comments ||
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Perceptive little bugger isn't he. Fortunately, I think he is probably smart enough to realize the consequences of any overt action more concrete than running his mouth.
Iran's parliament has taken initial steps to pass a bill which bans advertisement of imported products as part of a campaign against Western cultural influence, newspapers said on Thursday. Passed by parliament's cultural commission, the bill prohibits advertisement of imported goods on television, public places and public transport. It will become law after being passed by parliament and ratified by the Guardian Council, Iran's legislative watchdog. "According to the bill, the advertisement of foreign goods are banned in public places, on state media and buses," the semi-official Iran newspaper said. The ban also targets posters, billboards and public signs. Cultural commission members were not immediately available for comment. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, conservatives have tried unsuccessfully to ban the sale of icons of Western culture such as Barbie dolls and Coca-Cola. Colourful advertisements promoting everything from motor oils to luxury brand watches and perfumes have mushroomed in most major cities on billboards and buses.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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All we want from you (stinking infidels) is your nuclear & long range missile technologies!!!
#8
If you read the fine print on the side of the Mecca Cola can it reads: "Long term affects from drinking Mecca Cola involve sudden urges to graze in grassy plains and the emergence of a hump in one's back." If these symptoms develop, seek spiritual help at once.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/14/2005 22:50 Comments ||
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Unauthorized Egyptian passenger aircraft have been increasingly violating Israel's airspace near Eilat, prompting the IAF to station Hawk anti-aircraft missile batteries and fighter planes close by, ready to shoot down the Egyptian planes if they take a hostile turn. In several cases, fighter jets have actually been scrambled, then returning quietly to base.
The beefed-up air defense is also there to deal with potential attacks by Saudi Arabian F-15s, deployed at the Tobuq air base just 200 kilometers away despite Israeli protests. Israel has received intelligence that al-Qaida has recruited Saudi fighter pilots and fears they could stage a 9/11-type surprise attack.
The air force, which is on constant alert for potential suicide aircraft, has been increasingly on edge over the past few months as the unapproved Egyptian violations have multiplied.
Since the 1979 peace treaty, Egyptian aircraft have been permitted to fly over Israeli airspace in certain corridors. Even before then, they were able to use an international air corridor from the Jordanian airport in Aqaba, southward along the Gulf of Eilat, toward Sharm e-Sheikh and Cairo. However, many Egyptian aircraft have been taking a western shortcut, without prior Israeli approval, right over the Eilat port and Taba border region. For the watching IAF, this is nerve-janglingly close to the populous hotel area.
In the past six months, there have been at least 25 unauthorized penetrations of Israeli airspace by Egyptian aircraft. All of them have been by passenger jets, not military aircraft. The matter has been taken up "at the highest levels," but so far the Egyptians appear to have done nothing to stop it.
The air force wants to be in a situation in which it can take immediate action should the foreign aircraft suddenly make a maneuver that appears hostile, like changing course and heading toward one of the major hotel complexes or the massive oil storage depot. A decision on downing such a plane would have to be taken within minutes, at most.
As it worries over the potential risk, the air force has begun renovating the long-dormant Uvda air base, about 45 kilometers north of Eilat, to station fighter jets. the IAF has also recently deployed Hawk anti-aircraft batteries closer to the city.
Israel's monitoring of the region's airspace for potential hostile penetrations has, understandably, always been thorough. But since 9/11, the air force has been particularly alert, monitoring potential areas of threat via designated zones.
Only four people have the authority to order the downing of a passenger jet — the prime minister, defense minister, chief of General Staff and commander of the air force. The threat of a hijacked plane being crashed into an Israeli target is so worrisome that a test-drill, with aides to each of the key quartet, is held every week.
Jordanian jets, too, fly over Israel, but they have never been known to violate the procedures by departing from agreed routes. For the moment, indeed, overall airspace cooperation with Jordan is very good. The Jordanians have even granted Israeli carriers permission to fly over the Moab mountains on their flights to Eilat in order to avoid potential clashes with IAF training flights.
The Egyptian flights aside, one of the main worries in the IAF relates to Saudi Arabia's F-15 squadron in Tabuq. Until last year, Saudi Arabia had been restricted by the US from deploying F-15s at Tabuq to minimize friction with Israel. But the US, which sold the planes to the Saudis in 1991, lifted that restriction as a modest concession in return for Saudi approval for overflights for US aircraft and missiles striking Iraq.
Last September, Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya'alon warned of a possible strike by an F-15 flown by a Saudi pilot who had been recruited by al-Qaida. He said Israel had asked the Americans to pressure Saudi Arabia to move the squadron out of quick striking range, but nothing changed.
Recently, the Saudis have been "behaving differently" and scrambling their planes when Israeli fighters maneuver over the international waters of the Gulf of Aqaba and Red Sea. It is believed the change in behavior indicates an increased defensive, rather than offensive, mind-set.
Nevertheless, the presence of the jets so close to Israel, combined with the increasing incidence of unauthorized penetration by Egyptian passenger planes, is now keeping the IAF very much on alert.
Algerian authorities are mopping up the main extremist group responsible for the deaths of dozens of people, having wiped out another movement, Interior Minister Yazid Zerhouni said in an interview published yesterday. "There are a few remaining pockets" of the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), "which we are losing no time in putting out of action," Zerhouni told the government daily El Moudjahid.
The GSPC has become the principal extremist group in Algeria's Islamist rebellion that has left some 150,000 people dead since 1992. It was allegedly founded on the instructions of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. It has effectively taken over from the Armed Islamic Group (GIA), once considered the deadliest radical movement fighting the secular authorities, but declared by the authorities last week to have been smashed. Zerhouni said only between some ten and 20 GIA members remained, nearly ten having been killed in recent days.
According to authorities the GSPC has between 300 and 500 members. Earlier this month some 50 of its fighters reportedly killed 18 people in an ambush of an army convoy south of Algiers. Nine armed Islamists were killed a week later in the same region by the army, reports said. The group was linked to the kidnapping last year of 32 European tourists, most of them Germans, in southern Algeria. Some were freed in a raid by Algerian soldiers, but the rest were forced to trek across the desert into neighboring Mali, before they were eventually released, allegedly in exchange for a ransom. One of the hostages, a German woman, died in captivity.
When the GSPC emerged in 1998, it was led by Hassan Hattab, now reported to be dead. His successor Nabil Sahraoui was killed by aides in June and the movement is today headed by Abou Mossaab Abdelouadoud, whose real name is Abdelmalek Dourkdal. Howver observers believe the GSPC group responsible for Monday's attack was backed by militants from other regions and is led by Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who security forces say recently returned to Algeria after going into hiding in Mali. L'Expression newspaper said that following the arrest in October of the radical group's number two leader, Amari Saifi, who was handed over by Libya, Belmokhtar has rallied hard-line members of the GSPC who have managed to survive in the south of the country thanks to smuggling and drug trafficking. The GSPC, which includes well-trained army deserters, concentrates its attacks on the security forces. The GIA is held responsible for the massacres of civilians in the name of what its leaders saw as a war to enforce compliance with strict Shariah in a secular state.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2005 3:49:26 PM ||
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I'm gonna miss 'em. Prolly the only accurately named faction of assholes anywhere ever. *sniff*
Via Michelle Malkin... News which the MSM loves to ignore from Afghanistan....
Yeah.. yeah... its from a blog but is a good read....
You dont think the MSM would report this would you?
"I have been in the Army over 27 years and have been here 15 months. My tour was a year and I extended it because I knew my first week here one year wouldn't be enough for all the work that needed to be done. Though many people here would rather be home, I have never met a troop of any service or any coalition partner who doesn't feel they are contributing something positive to the cause. I love the attitude of the troops over here.
"[We have] the pack of regular kids... that hang out at the front gate everyday. They sell their trinkets, junk, cigarettes, DVDs (bootleg), etc, to our guards and the Pakistani truck drivers bivouacking outside awaiting entrance onto the base... Last November I gave base ID cards to seven boys. The group is up to 18 boys ranging from six to about 14, and two girls, both about 12 maybe, one city slick and the other not too shy herself. It's a program to teach kids all the boy and girl scout virtues, allow them on the base to hang out and learn from Americans, pick up trash at the Friday bazaar in return for a share of the money we collect from the vendors to clean up afterwards, and recover something of a fun childhood the last few generations never knew...
"The luckiest boys in Afghanistan took tae kwon do with the Koreans and got their own uniforms, they have the biggest wardrobes of any 10 kids in Afghanistan. We pay for them to go to winter school (they take winters off since they can't heat the classrooms. We pay for three teachers and bought space heaters for three classrooms), they get to go to the dining facility every Friday before cleanup, and went on Thanksgiving and Christmas. [These kids also] act as translators for the guards, MP, and truck drivers as their English is coming alone fantastically...
#1
Very, very cool. Thx, CF - that erased the negatives of the day instantly. Green and those who share his attitude and actions make me feel humble and jealous! They rock.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has cut all contact with Mahmoud Abbas until the newly elected Palestinian leader reins in the militants, media reports said. The report, which was carried by three Israeli television stations, came a day after Palestinian militants killed six Israeli civilians in a bombing-and-shooting attack on a Gaza Strip crossing. Sharon's office had no comment on the report. The stations did not cite any sources.
Agreed! This is a true image of Palestinian intentions. The Islamofascist Palestinians are the sharks. So, the only real choice for Peace is Islamofascist EXTERMINATION.
And now for another chapter in "As Baluchistan Turns..." This is more of a summary of how we got to where we are now. It's also full of quotes from "analysts" and "observers", so take your salt pills...
A tribal movement for greater political and economic rights in a strategic Pakistani province has the potential to explode into a major insurgency unless the government offers concessions, commentators say. Ethnic nationalists in Pakistan's resource-rich but poverty-stricken Baluchistan have been waging a low-level battle against central rule for decades, involving mostly ineffective small-scale bombings and rocket attacks.
In other words, they either don't want to be part of Pakistan (who does?) or they want to be part of Pakistan but to run things themselves, without any Pak involvement, which amounts to the same thing...
But this month has seen a surge in activity, culminating in a bloody attack on Tuesday that has cut off supplies from the country's main gas field for days, disrupting industry and raising doubts about the government's ability to maintain order. The clashes killed as many as 18 people and forced the government to rush in additional troops to protect the vital national snarglies gas fields. "These attacks show that there is a lot of discontent among Baluchis," said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a newspaper editor and expert on tribal affairs.
Is there anybody in Pakistan who's not seething over something or other? Anyone? Bueller?
"It shows Baluch youth are again ready to take up arms and fight for their rights."
Pak youth seems to be uniquely ready and willing to take up arms and fight for something or other. That's kinda the Paks' basic problem, isn't it?
Sparsely populated Baluchistan is home to reserves of natural gas and oil that provide for most of Pakistan's needs. It is also the site [of] a key infrastructure development project, the Gawadar sea port, which is being built with the help of China. The exploitation of resources by the Pakistani government has long been opposed by Baluchis who argue they are not reaping the benefits. They fear projects like Gawadar will also benefit other ethnic groups more than Baluchis.
They'd prefer that no other ethnic groups be benefited. And they're not too sure they want to be benefited, since there are perceived advantages to remaining poor, primitive, and in the grip of holy men...
The resentment dates back to the creation of Pakistan in 1947 and the region has seen several armed conflicts with the federal government, including a bloody insurgency in the 1970s that was brutally crushed by the military.
"We don't wanna be part of Pakistan!"
Baluchi militants say the attack on the gas fields was retaliation for the rape of a doctor in Baluchistan last month which they blamed on security forces. They have also been worried by plans to build at least three more military bases in the province, which they see as evidence of plans to tighten rather than relax central control. Sanaullah Baluch, a spokesman of the Baluchistan National Party, a legal group that says it has no links to the militants but shares their aims, said natural resources, ports, shipping and security should be controlled by the provincial government.
No links to the militants, but hey! we think they should be in charge too...
"We oppose cantonments, we oppose the federal government sending troops. We oppose colonial policies," he said.
"We don't want no damn' furriners sniffin' 'round our wimmin!"
Analysts say the nationalists have been further alienated from the political mainstream under the military-led government of President Pervez Musharraf since 1999. Nationalists had shared power with civilian governments in the 1990s but were effectively sidelined after pro-military groups forged a coalition with an Islamic alliance to control the provincial assembly.
... and the Law of Unintended Side Effects kicked in...
Evidence of deteriorating security came in May when three Chinese technicians working on the Gawadar port project were killed by a bomb claimed by Baluch nationalists. Baluchistan has also seen a series of attacks in recent months by Islamic extremists furious at Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led war on terror and moves toward peace with India. But experts say chances are remote of cooperation between Islamic militants and left-leaning Baluch nationalists.
It's two separate flavors of nuttery...
Musharraf has been incensed by the recent nationalist attacks and warned he was willing to resort to force if necessary. "It isn't the 1970s when you can hit and run and hide in the mountains," he told the Baluchi militants. "This time you won't even know what hit you." Yet analysts said Musharraf could not afford to resort to force, with the military stretched chasing Islamic militants in the northwest and needed for security against neighbouring India. The Friday Times weekly said Musharraf needed instead to find ways to accommodate Baluchi representatives in national politics, a view echoed by commentator Ayaz Amir in the Dawn newspaper. "If one fortieth of the ... flexibility shown towards India were shown towards the Baluch people, Baluchistan would be Pakistan's most peaceful province," he said.
India's not nutz. Mostly.
Actually, the way things are in Pakland, with the exception of Quetta, Baluchistan is Pakistan's most peaceful province.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
01/14/2005 11:43:17 AM ||
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You know, Pakistan will have to be taken care of, eventually! But, Saudi Arabia is also dangerous.
#2
Baluchistan has also seen a series of attacks in recent months by Islamic extremists furious at Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led war on terror and moves toward peace with India. But experts say chances are remote of cooperation between Islamic militants and left-leaning Baluch nationalists.
it's out of my league, but it sounds like standard MSM BS talking points to me.
#4
The Islamists in Baluchistan are in favour of Pakistan's territorial integrity and are pro-military, anti-India, anti-America.
The Baluch nationalists are left-leaning, secular, anti-military and look upon India favourably. (I don't think they like America much though)
Just like in the NWFP, the loyalist Islamists are allies of the Pak military, while the ethnic nationalists are enemies of it and so are kept out of power.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
01/14/2005 18:22 Comments ||
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THE Pentagon considered developing a host of non-lethal chemical weapons that would disrupt discipline and morale among enemy troops, newly declassified documents reveal. Most bizarre among the plans was one for the development of an "aphrodisiac" chemical weapon that would make enemy soldiers sexually irresistible to each other. Provoking widespread homosexual behaviour among troops would cause a "distasteful but completely non-lethal" blow to morale, the proposal says.
Someone tell Andy Sullivan! He'll blog about it for months weeks.
Other ideas included chemical weapons that attract swarms of enraged wasps or angry rats to troop positions, making them uninhabitable. Another was to develop a chemical that caused "severe and lasting halitosis", making it easy to identify guerrillas trying to blend in with civilians. There was also the idea of making troops' skin unbearably sensitive to sunlight.
Now this is thinking outside the box.
The proposals, from the US Air Force Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio, date from 1994. The lab sought Pentagon funding for research into what it called "harassing, annoying and 'bad guy'-identifying chemicals". The plans have been posted online by the Sunshine Project, an organisation that exposes research into chemical and biological weapons.
#6
This (the gay gas) was done in an issue of Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers as told by Fat Freddy's cat. I believe the gas was known as "Tee Hee Hee." The story climaxed with Nixon getting exposed.... if you can visualize that.
#8
The only thing missing from the sex bomb is that the homosexuals would perform in Sully's favorite bath house. No wonder he is (was) upset.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/14/2005 11:16 Comments ||
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Most bizarre among the plans was one for the development of an "aphrodisiac" chemical weapon that would make enemy soldiers sexually irresistible to each other.
Kind of like an industrial strength version of Love Potion #9???
The militant Hamas movement said Thursday that Palestinian president-elect Mahmud Abbas was not empowered to reach a ceasefire with Israel. The senior leader of the terrorist movement, Mahmoud al-Zahar told movement's website that Hamas will not hand over its arms to the Palestinian Authority. "No one can take away our arms from us, as long as there is occupation," he said.
"Just ask our late great leader Rantissi! Nobody took his arms from him by Allan, though his torso got blown into the next county!"
Abbas, elected Palestinian president Sunday, has said that instead of cracking down on the militant organizations, as the international community demands, he will instead seek a dialogue with them to persuade them agree to a ceasefire.
"Please don't kill me!"
Al-Zahar's remarks came a day after the two terrorists members of the armed wing of the radical Islamic Jihad movement killed an Israeli settler and wounded three soldiers, before being killed themselves, in an attack on Israel's southern Gaza Strip Morag settlement. "We will demand Abbas protect the Palestinian people from the Israeli attacks," he said.
Sharon, please deal with this mutt.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/14/2005 1:03:24 AM ||
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I am sure if Abbas want to declare a ceasefire he will. The truth is he will not be able to enforce one. He may start wacking Hammas members to get their attention.
#2
Italic: The senior leader of the terrorist movement, Mahmoud al-Zahar told movementâs website that Hamas will not hand over its arms to the Palestinian Authority. âNo one can take away our arms from us, as long as there is occupation,â he said.
Mahmoud, remember the late Ahmad Yassin your mentor ???
The message is : My name is IDF, You killed my brother. Prepare to die !
#5
Rome was the largest state in the world at the time (except maybe Han China, which was so far away as not to matter, given the tech of the time) Israel is a small country, and trade dependent at that.
#6
I dont need a Pal whos a good guy. I need one whos not clueless. Who actually wants to be president of an independent Palestine, and knows that peace with Israel is the ONLY way to get there. The problem with such clever pragmatists, though, is that while they may not be suicidal for death and destruction, like Arafart, they arent suicidal for peace either, and will weave, and tack, and avoid action till pressed.
"and avoid action till pressed, then revert to form."
We'll be right here, in this same situation of murderous hate versus self defense 5 yrs, 10 yrs, even another 60 yrs from now. Paleo State or no. Fence, wall, or no. Nothing changes except the weaponry and methodologies.
Go ahead an be optimistic, that's cool. I just see no reason to be, myself. We are treading water until the day that the bad guys (And they're not clueless, they are smart murderous asshats who want to kill you, that's all.) get their hands on something that will kill a lot of Israelis and, possibly, cause the dissolution of the Israeli State by rendering much of the land uninhabitable. That would make them happy, for awhile, anyway.
#10
seeing as how the hatred has spread from breast to baby for thousands of years, I know it's unlikely things will change during our small tear drop in the ocean of time. But a moment of optimism after the death of The Wicked Warafat, is only proper.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - About half of Iraq's 15 million voters are likely to participate in this month's election, a senior election official said in one of the first such estimates of possible turnout. To encourage as much participation as possible, Iraqis living in dangerous areas will be allowed to vote in safer areas, the official said.
Farid Ayar of Iraq's Independent Electoral Commission said he expected seven to eight million Iraqis to vote on Jan. 30. "That won't be bad. It will be OK for Iraq at the moment," he said Thursday outside his office in Baghdad's heavily protected Green Zone, home of the US Embassy and Iraqi government offices. "There are some elections in Europe that attract a 40 percent turnout. We are not better than Europe," he said.
Sure you are.
Residents of Fallujah, a city west of Baghdad that suffered extensive destruction when US troops retook it from insurgents in November, will be allowed to vote in areas where many took refuge to escape the fighting, said Ayar, who is both the commission's spokesman and a member of its governing board. And in Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city and the scene of increased insurgent activity since December, residents of some violent neighborhoods - mostly in the western part of the city - will be allowed to vote elsewhere in the city. In all cases, he said, voters will be allowed to register and vote on the same day.
In all, there are 14 million eligible voters inside Iraq, he said, plus another 1.2 million abroad, who will be allowed to vote in 14 countries, including the United States, Britain, Iran and Syria. Such flexibility reflects Iraqi authorities' belief that a high level of participation is important for the election to seem credible.
The roughly 50 percent turnout forecast by Ayar would be respectable given the tenuous security in Baghdad, home to nearly a quarter of Iraq's estimated 25-26 million people, and the fierce insurgency in a large swathe of land to the capital's north and west. Insurgents have killed several electoral officials in recent weeks - some in broad daylight in the heart of Baghdad. Others have quit their jobs out of fear for their lives. "Like in any other Third World country, there will be violence and intimidation. It will not be a quiet election," Ayar said.
The Jan. 30 election will signal the emergence of Iraq's majority Shiites as the dominant group in racially and religiously diverse Iraq, ending decades of oppression by the Sunni Arab minority. So, while the Shiites are embracing the vote, the Sunni Arabs want it postponed, arguing that it is too dangerous for Iraqis to vote.
Especially their opponents.
Sunni Arab clerics have called for a boycott of the election, which will produce a 275-seat parliament whose primary task would be to draft a constitution. If adopted in another vote due by mid-October, that constitution would be the basis for a second general election by year's end.
The question of security remains the toughest for organizers. On Thursday, European lawmakers said Iraq's deteriorating security situation will keep the European Parliament from sending observers to monitor the election.
Wussies.
The US military's ground forces commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, has said that while most of Iraq's 18 provinces are secure enough for elections, security remains poor in four provinces. Those provinces - Nineveh, Anbar, Salahadin and Baghdad - are home to about 25 percent of Iraq's population.
Shiite areas in central and southern Iraq have been spared much of the violence that has hit other parts of the country. But the Danish Army said Thursday that the southern city of Basra, where Shiites are a majority, has grown tenser. Two suicide bombers blew themselves up Monday in Basra, while a third one detonated a bomb Tuesday, said the report by the Danish commander in the area, Col. John Dalby.
On Thursday, another senior US military officer - 1st Infantry Division commander Maj. Gen. John Batiste - said he expected insurgents to continue attacking US and Iraqi forces in the run-up to the vote in areas under his responsibility. But said he was confident that voting will take place in his area, including such trouble hotspots as Samarra and Baqouba. "They will go after the Iraqi security forces when they can find them in small numbers," he said of the insurgents. "They will attack us from a distance."Â
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/14/2005 12:57:03 AM ||
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Half of eligible would do nicely. A good start.
Lessee, KhaleejTimes, published from Dubai, United Arab Emirates... And what, pray tell, could these people possibly know about voting and elections and democracy and such? Other than at second or third hand, like so many who pontificate for their own enjoyment.
I consider them one of the better think tanks/independent analysis groups going. Sydney's kind of left in her outlook, but her analysis is usually solid. Rohan Gunaratna's a smart fellow, too.
A serious split in the Southeast Asian terror group Jemaah Islamiyah is leading breakaway factions and other militant outfits to establish training camps in the southern Philippines, an analyst said Thursday. Differences over whether to attack Western targets has caused rifts in Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah, driving some militants - with or without affiliation to JI - to operate independently of the region's biggest terrorist organization, said Sidney Jones, a leading expert on Islamic radical organizations with the Belgium-based International Crisis Group.
The "serious disarray" in JI not only raises "the possibility that individuals in JI may decide to go off on their own without reference to the central command structure, but that they can pull together the foot soldiers required in an ad hoc fashion," to stage attacks, Jones told reporters in Manila. She said Indonesian radical groups have established bases in the southern Philippines including the Banten group of West Java, which was believed to be involved in the Oct. 2002 Bali bombings and last year's blast outside the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, Jones said.
Another small Indonesian outfit established links in 2003 with Abu Sayyaf extremists in the southern Philippines, while a third operated a camp in territory held by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, the Philippines' main Muslim rebel group, she said. "The shift from a dominant organization - JI - and a single military academy to this array of much smaller groups and ad hoc arrangements ... also seems to mean that the Indonesians who are here are more likely to undertake operations alongside their hosts than was the case with JI," she told reporters.
A JI member arrested in Sabah, Malaysia, in December 2003 said the Abu Sayyaf asked him to conduct training in infantry tactics in the southern Philippines, Jones said, adding that about five top JI fugitives are probably still hiding in the country. Police Intelligence Director Roberto Delfin said authorities know only that Jemaah Islamiyah has camps in the southern Philippines but called reports of camps by other foreign militant groups mere "speculation."
#1
I recommend Sidney Jones reports for anyone who want to know the history, leadership, and activities of Jamaah Islamiah. They are almost certainly the best source of infomation available to the public.
Posted by: Paul Moloney ||
01/14/2005 0:13 Comments ||
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Rohan has edited my work (I think Fred's seen at least some of the final copies) and he is definitely the go-to man on everything concerning al-Qaeda. The man is nothing short of a walking encyclopedia on the subject.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/14/2005 2:48 Comments ||
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ICG products on Indonesia are outstanding, same for Yemen and "Stan-land", but products on other theaters are sometimes very weak. Still, ICG is an extremely good source of information. Given the cell structures and layered operations structure for JI that previous ICG products have laid out, this doesn't ring as a surprise. All it takes is for a non-JI leader to insert himself with his own flow of weapons/exposives/money, and he's got cells waiting to execute.
#4
But the entire ICG has to be taken with a grain of salt. Here's a list of their US board members:
Morton Abramowitz, Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State and Former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey
Kenneth Adelman, Former U.S. Ambassador and Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
Zbigniew Brzezinski, Former U.S. National Security Advisor to the President
Wesley Clark, Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander
Stanley Fischer,Vice-Chairman, Citigroup Inc. and former First Deputy Managing Director of International Monetary Fund
Carla Hills, Former U.S. Secretary of Housing; former U.S. Trade Representative
Swanee Hunt, Founder and Chair of Women Waging Peace; former U.S. Ambassador to Austria
Elliott F. Kulick, Chairman, Pegasus International
Joanne Leedom-Ackerman, Novelist and journalist
Douglas Schoen, Founding Partner of Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates
George Soros, Chairman, Open Society Institute
William O. Taylor, Chairman Emeritus, The Boston Globe
Posted by: mary ||
01/14/2005 18:08 Comments ||
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mary...thanks..that kind of puts it into perspective doesn't it?
#7
On a wider front, the hope is that the tsunami disaster will give new impetus to a generally more co-operative and less unilateralist approach to solving the world's security problems, both man-made and natural, and greater recognition of the benefits of deploying more assistance, persuasion and empathy, and less military force: more soft power, less hard; more Ukraines and fewer Iraqs.
You gotta love this line from Mary's link above. Ah..yes, we just should have had an election in Iraq. The people should have worn orange and Sadaam would have stepped aside.
It must be frustrating for these clowns. They keep telling us how dumb we are, yet we keep having success where they have only inaction and failure. They keep telling us that we aren't really successful and we just shrug and do good work anyway.
In the good old days, they pronounced what we were to believe, the NYT, Time, Newsweak, NPR/BBC/CBS/NBC/CNN all repeated it. The editorial cartoonists all drew it, Hollywood celebrities applauded, and the lemmings all nodded in agreement. They never understood that we read and rejected their self-proclaimed authority. But, living in their own self-cycling echo chamber, how would they know?
Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres will be in charge of Israel's activities regarding the economic rehabilitation of Gaza after disengagement, political sources said Thursday night. In addition, he will be in charge of the development of the Negev and Galilee. Peres met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a meeting that extended late into Thursday night to define Peres's precise areas of jurisdiction. Before meting with Peres, Sharon met with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom to appraise him of what he was offering the new vice prime minister. Sources close to Shalom said the foreign minister was pleased with the meeting, and does not feel his authority is being curtailed.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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"Economic rehab"? Hopefully he's just gonna build houses like Jimmy Carter instead of actually make policy.
#2
Peres built Israels military industries back in the '60s. Hes a very capable administrator. Thats how he got his original rep, and was able to muscle in with all the generals.
President-elect Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday the Palestinians intend to start carrying out their commitments under a US-backed "road map" charting a path towards statehood and peace with Israel. The road map calls on Palestinians to end all violence and crack down on militants while Israelis are meant to pull back troops from some areas and freeze settlement growth. "There are mutual obligations in the road map and we're serious about starting to implement our obligations immediately," Abbas told Christian clergymen visiting the Muqata headquarters of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. "We hope the Israelis will implement as well their obligations according to the road map," said Abbas, who was elected on Sunday to succeed Yasser Arafat as president.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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President-elect Mahmoud Abbas said on Thursday the Palestinians intend to start carrying out their commitments under a US-backed âroad mapâ charting a path towards statehood and peace with Israel.
Jordanian security officers, retired generals, scholars, and politicians gathered here earlier this week with a handful of European specialists to discuss reforms of the security sector in the country, representing a historic foot in the door into the last untouched frontier of public discussion in the Arab world - the security institutions of the armed forces, police, and intelligence departments. The one-day gathering, cosponsored by the University of Jordan's Center for Strategic Studies (CSS) and the Geneva Center for Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), brought together 40 people for frank and constructively analytical discussions revolving around two core issues: What is the appropriate role for the security services in the country's public and private life and where should be the dividing line between strict security threats and the tendency of security-relate institutions to involve themselves in sectors such as the mass media, higher education, and appointments to the bureaucracy? What kind of oversight or control of security institutions must the civilian institutions of society exercise, especially an elected Parliament and the Cabinet?
The seminar was the first of its kind in the Arab world, according to both DCAF and CSS organizers, who see the reform of security institutions as a critical missing element in the wider political and economic reform agenda in the Arab region. Among the topics discussed were the wider moves towards transparency and accountability in Jordanian governance, the challenges of institutional development, Jordanian security and defense reforms within the regional context, and external assistance. The gathering did not aim to issue any recommendations or conclusions, but rather to start a long-term debate about issues both Jordanian reformers and their European colleagues see as crucial to enhancing wider the Arab reform process. CSS director Dr. Mustafa Hamarneh told The Daily Star in an interview that they have joined and led this endeavor, "because we wanted to start a specialized debate in the country on the security issue. When you open up the whole national reform process for discussion, you cannot keep untouched islands here and there, and security is a crucial issue for serious discussion, evaluation and reform."
The discussion clarified some of the key issues that need to be explored, most of which are widely discussed privately among Jordanians but never in public, given their obvious sensitivity. Some of the issues proved more complex than some participants might have assumed. A CSS presentation of the results of a recent public opinion poll it carried out, for example, showed that the public in Jordan expressed the highest degree of confidence in the security and defense services among all state institutions (around 60 percent on average, compared to just 30 percent confidence in Parliament and 11 percent in political parties). Yet the public also fears retribution or punishment by the security services and other state institutions if it speaks out on democracy aspirations or criticizes the government; that fear has increased from 70 to 80 percent in the last five years.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2005 9:14:55 PM ||
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They shoulda let me know. I could have introduced them to Sonia, my old girlfriend...
A "SEX bomb" that would make enemy soldiers irresistible to each other was considered by the US military. Declassified documents reveal the Pentagon toyed with the idea of an aphrodisiac chemical weapon in 1994. The gas would have made enemy soldiers sexually irresistible to each other. The weapon's developers said homosexual behaviour among troops would deal a "distasteful but completely non-lethal" blow to morale. The plans, unearthed from a US air force laboratory in Ohio, were published in New Scientist magazine.
Posted by: God Save The World & Bernie ||
01/14/2005 9:11:45 PM ||
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#1
Sounds more like a queer bomb to me. Wouldn't work on Arabs and muzzies.
Posted by: Stephen ||
01/14/2005 2:20 Comments ||
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#4
Uh, you people do know that the Muslims, at least the Arabs, are already there, doncha? The Middle East has the heaviest concentration of male homosexuality on the planet, hands down, bar none.
#6
I understood that in the Middle East, only the one on the receiving end is considered homosexual. The other one is merely making use of a substitute for his missing sheep. Am I wrong, .com?
Regardless, suddenly feeling an overwhelming attraction to the grungy person in the next foxhole would have to be disconcerting.
#7
Wonder if this idea originated with the intern staff in Bill Clinton's Oval Office?
Posted by: Mike ||
01/14/2005 7:18 Comments ||
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#8
tw - Lol - Sooo sorry, but I no thinka lika imam on fatwa Friday... I have no doubt that they could split hairs and spin it like that to justify themselves - that's sooo very Arab, lol! When I stumbled across this shit, and I did a few times, I did not interrupt them to ask.
#11
Some GI friends came back from Afghanistan and told me about Man Days. He said it was so bad Coalition Forces had to stay out of sight or risk being harrassed or even worse raped. Tell me these people are normal. Sex Weapons won't work in Afghanistan, but may help population control which is the only way to keep these people in check.
#12
The Southeastern portion is Afganistan is heavily populated with homosexuals. This information was provided by a US interrogator. They had to take precautions against the homofreaks.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/14/2005 11:19 Comments ||
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#13
Abu: Achmed.
Achmed: Yes Abu?
Abu: You're looking particularly buff today, your buttocks, they are like that of 13 year old boy.
Achmed: Thanks for noticing, your so sweet, the 6km runs every morning are doing me well.
Abu: I thought you were doing the Atkins diet?
Achmed: Oh no, I tried that, a damn zionist plot I tell you, I like the zone diet personally.
Abu: I hear the zionists are making a new chemical weapon to corrupt us.
Achmed: I've heard the same, apparently they want us to become over enchanted with members of the same sex.
Abu: Is that all? I thought it was to make us crave pork?
Achmed: Oh no, now that would be disgusting.
#18
On a more serious note.
Though an excellent resource in many ways, New Scientist is a de facto auxiliary of the British academic establishment. It must therefore be regarded as susceptible to Islamist, Marxist, or Hate-America media cult influence. Any of its stories that reflect poorly on the US or, especially, the US military, must therefore be viewed with the utmost scepticism until fact-checked by objective media.
Remember that it was The Lancet, a nominally far more rigorous publication than New Scientist, that published the incredible Goebbels-inspired fantasy alleging that 50,000+ Iraqis had been killed in US air strikes.
MMA President Qazi Hussain Ahmad and Secretary General Maulana Fazlur Rehman will meet PML-N patron Nawaz Sharif and President Shahbaz Sharif in Jeddah next week to discuss forging an anti-government alliance. MMA sources said that both leaders would leave for Saudi Arabia tomorrow (Saturday) for Haj. They will hold talks on a wide range of issues with Nawaz and discuss ways to start a decisive anti-government campaign. Sources said that the MMA leaders would call on Nawaz to press the Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy to join the MMA's agitation. Sources said that the MMA could contact PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto, suggesting the opposition start the campaign after Eid.
Apparently they won't both fit into this week; they have to lap over into next week to make room...
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
Yes, democracy would be just the thing so we Islamo-nutjobs can take over the country.
Those infidel Hindoos again, I'll betcha, unless it's Zionists. Or both...
Zafarullah Khan Jamali, a former prime minister, on Thursday claimed that an outside involvement in a disturbing Balochistan's public order could not be ruled out. Mr Jamali told reporters that everyone had a right to demand for anything within the law. He said the trouble began after a female doctor was raped. "A federal government committee headed by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussein has yet to submit its report on Balochistan," said Mr Jamali. He said the Pakistan Muslim League was united and dispelled an impression that the party leadership was undergoing any change. "I always have a good meeting with Pir Pagara," he said. "I recommended Chaudhry Shujaat Hussein as the party president after Mian Azhar resigned," he said.
Yeah, but what about that "foreign hand"? You're leaving us hanging here...
Fine. It's the Toastmasters Local 1582 of Rapid City, Iowa. But don't tell anyone, okay?
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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The government on Thursday introduced multiple legal reforms to drastically amend the existing criminal and civil statutes and also finalised the draft of a bill under which federal courts would be established throughout the country. The two acts would be discussed at the next session of the NA, Law Minister Wasi Zafar told reporters while announcing the new reforms. Under the proposed amendments, the police's [powers] to arrest people have been curtailed. If a policeman arrests a person on suspicion, he will immediately have to get the arrest verified by the police station chief. If a person is illegally detained, the arresting officer will be liable to 7 years' imprisonment. Similarly if a police officer refuses to register a First Information Report (FIR), a case can be registered against him under Police Order, 2002.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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This assumes there is someone in the police station who can read and write enough to fill out the FIR form.
Dr Ghazi Ghulab Jamal, federal minister for tourism, has underlined the need for improving the country's image internationally to convince tourists that there was no security problem in Pakistan.
Boy, that'll take some doing!
Maybe they could hire the Daily Kos. Look how well it worked for Howard Dean.
He said this on Thursday at a meeting for 'Gandhara Week', which is being arranged from March 28 to April 3. GG Jamal said Pakistan had spectacular tourist destinations, which could be used for boosting the government's revenue. "We want to promote tourism industry, starting with Gandhara Week," the minister said. He said an International Car Rally from China to Pakistan through Karakoram Highway (KKH) would be held and events to highlight the Indus Civilisation would also take place. He said Pakistan Railways (PR) would help promote tourism in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Tribesmen expect a massive army attack in Sui, said Nawab Akbar Bugti, head of the Bugti tribe which is reportedly behind the strikes on the Sui gas plant, on Thursday. Bugti said thousands of forces were moving into position. "It is very possible that a fully-fledged military operation may be launched within 24 hours," Bugti said. He claimed that 3,000 regular troops with "heavy cannons" would reach the area within 24 hours while a further 6,000 Frontier Corps troops were already there as well as 750 guards. "In this situation the future of the negotiations between Islamabad and the Baloch nationalists is bleak."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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The government will send in the army if the situation in Balochistan worsens, the chief minister of the province said, as the prospects of more violence beckoned despite an uneasy calm on Thursday. Rebel tribesmen, angered by the alleged gang rape of a woman doctor by security personnel, have attacked state-run gas facilities in Sui over the last five days resulting in the deaths of at least eight people. "We cannot say regarding the involvement of a foreign hand in the worsening situation," Chief Minister Jam Yousaf told reporters in Gujrat. He said the weapons used by the attackers had been smuggled in from Afghanistan. "I have not made direct contact with the nationalists in Balochistan, but the government is in touch via the parliament committee. A decision will be made after the report of the committee," Yousaf said. He said his government was investigating the rape of the woman doctor.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Posted by: God Save The World ||
01/14/2005 9:18:45 PM ||
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It's just like guns. Don't start blaming the hardware -- it's the people that are causing the problems. I have never seen a laser that didn't have a warning sticker on it and plenty of warnings in the manual.
Posted by: Tom ||
01/14/2005 8:28 Comments ||
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#2
Well stated Tom, its not the lasers but the idiots employing them. Same with guns, SUVs, etc.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/14/2005 11:21 Comments ||
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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.
The Indonesian Government has received unexpected support from the United States over its move to regulate the movements of Western aid workers in the province of Aceh. Aid groups have been worried by an increase in the Indonesian military's role in reconstruction and relief efforts. But the US ambassador says there have been no delays for Western aid workers. The director of US aid in the region, William Frej, concurs. "The collaborative relationship that the aid deliverers have with the TNI [Indonesian military] up there, that is one of the really remarkable stories of this whole event," Mr Frej said. "The Army has been very collaborative, supportive, cooperative in both protecting relief workers as well as getting supplies out." Many aid groups are more skeptical, worried the Army will once again begin its military campaign against separatist rebels in Aceh. The US ambassador says the 14,000-strong US force near Aceh will leave at Indonesia's request.
Nobel Peace prize laureate 
In an apparent reference to the presence of US troops in Iraq, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard's Corps (IRGC) official called for Iran to mobilize its troops against the "dangerous Zionist threat". Speaking to Revolutionary Guards and Iran's Bassij (paramilitary police) forces in Khuzestan on Tuesday Deputy IRGC Commander Mohammad Baqer Zolqadr said, "The Islamic Republic will not tolerate American presence in the region".
Iran's parliament has taken initial steps to pass a bill which bans advertisement of imported products as part of a campaign against Western cultural influence, newspapers said on Thursday. Passed by parliament's cultural commission, the bill prohibits advertisement of imported goods on television, public places and public transport. It will become law after being passed by parliament and ratified by the Guardian Council, Iran's legislative watchdog. "According to the bill, the advertisement of foreign goods are banned in public places, on state media and buses," the semi-official Iran newspaper said. The ban also targets posters, billboards and public signs. Cultural commission members were not immediately available for comment. Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, conservatives have tried unsuccessfully to ban the sale of icons of Western culture such as Barbie dolls and Coca-Cola. Colourful advertisements promoting everything from motor oils to luxury brand watches and perfumes have mushroomed in most major cities on billboards and buses.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has cut all contact with Mahmoud Abbas until the newly elected Palestinian leader reins in the militants, media reports said. The report, which was carried by three Israeli television stations, came a day after Palestinian militants killed six Israeli civilians in a bombing-and-shooting attack on a Gaza Strip crossing. Sharon's office had no comment on the report. The stations did not cite any sources.
A tribal movement for greater political and economic rights in a strategic Pakistani province has the potential to explode into a major insurgency unless the government offers concessions, commentators say. Ethnic nationalists in Pakistan's resource-rich but poverty-stricken Baluchistan have been waging a low-level battle against central rule for decades, involving mostly ineffective small-scale bombings and rocket attacks. 
A serious split in the Southeast Asian terror group 
Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres will be in charge of Israel's activities regarding the economic rehabilitation of Gaza after disengagement, political sources said Thursday night. In addition, he will be in charge of the development of the Negev and Galilee. Peres met with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in a meeting that extended late into Thursday night to define Peres's precise areas of jurisdiction. Before meting with Peres, Sharon met with Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom to appraise him of what he was offering the new vice prime minister. Sources close to Shalom said the foreign minister was pleased with the meeting, and does not feel his authority is being curtailed.
MMA President 
Dr Ghazi Ghulab Jamal, federal minister for tourism, has underlined the need for improving the country's image internationally to convince tourists that there was no security problem in Pakistan. 
Tribesmen expect a massive army attack in Sui, said Nawab 
