You opium dealers in white may pass. You guys in black hold it up, we have a court order to audit your books looking for a link to the Taliban.
Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan will be ordered to attack opium traffickers and drug facilities when there is proof of direct links to the Taliban, CBC News has learned. The new order follows a heated debate among NATO allies over whether the attacks could be declared war crimes.
Defence Minister Peter MacKay told CBC News soldiers would indeed target drug traffickers and their production facilities. "We're not going specifically to eradicate poppy crops, but we would go after proven drug traffickers with operations linked to the terrorists," he said.
MacKay, who is rumoured to be a candidate for the post of secretary general of NATO, said Afghanistan's police force will continue to have responsibility for "ordinary ... criminals."
"What we're trying to do is step up our activity to cut off the linkage that allows for the supply of this explosive material that has been so deadly and so devastating. There is no question that there is direct linkage between the funding of terrorist activity and the poppy crop and the funds that are elicited from that poppy crop."
Commanders on the ground will decide whether Canada has the means to carry out individual operations aimed at drug traffickers, and all will meet Canada's legal obligations, MacKay said.
The plan was criticized in Parliament on Friday. "Does the government believe that such military action will resolve the drug problem in Afghanistan and does the government support NATO orders that potentially put our soldiers at risk of violating international law?" NDP Foreign Affairs critic Paul Dewar asked.
Dewar said that the drug operation is not the kind of work Parliament approved when Canada's mission in Afghanistan was extended until 2011.
More than 2,500 Canadians are serving in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province, a volatile region where Taliban-led attacks against foreign troops are frequent. British, Dutch and American troops are also in the southern area as part of a multinational NATO-led task force.
The issue had divided the 26-member military alliance. Commanders on the ground had earlier refused an order from the organization's top commanders to target the drug trade because the NATO order failed to distinguish between drug traffickers and those who directly support the Taliban.
International law forbids nations from using military force against criminals, including drug traffickers.
Really? They have that in writing somewhere?
Drug traffickers with links to the insurgency could be considered a legitimate target.
The attacks would be legal if intelligence can prove links to the Taliban, said Payam Akhavan, a former UN war crimes prosecutor who now teaches at McGill University in Montreal. "The question of burden of proof really revolves around intelligence gathering," Akhavan said.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said Thursday there is "full agreement" within NATO's chain of command on the decision. "We have full agreement ... that we can go indeed after laboratories where the poppies are brought in and turned into heroin ... or after the guys and the people who bring in the precursors," he said.
So-called precursor chemicals are materials that help refine opium into heroin.
"NATO will not act outside international law. This nexus between the insurgency and the narcotics business leads to the killing of our soldiers in Afghanistan," he said. "That really is a price too high to pay for our soldiers."
U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan Tracey Ann Jacobson has said after a meeting with President Emomali Rahmon that the Tajik leader "confirmed his readiness to offer the country's airspace for nonmilitary NATO supplies bound for Afghanistan."
The announcement comes after Kyrgyz officials announced they would order the closure of a U.S. air base at Manas that sends supplies and personnel to Afghanistan.
Jacobson also said that a bridge on the Panj River on the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan would soon function 24 hours a day.
The bridge -- in the Panj district of Khatlon Province -- was funded by the United States at a cost of some $30 million.
Jacobson said the Tajik government proposed building another bridge in the Farkhor district of Khatlon Province that also borders Afghanistan.
She added that the Tajik and U.S. militaries will have two six-week joint training sessions this year for special forces in the Regar district bordering Uzbekistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Russia granted transit rights Friday to non-lethal U.S. military supplies headed to Afghanistan but only after apparently pressuring a former Soviet state to close an air base leased to the Americans.
The signal from Moscow: Russia is willing to help on Afghanistan, but only on the Kremlin's terms.
Kyrgyzstan announced the closure of the Manas air base but American officials suspect that Russia was behind the decision, having long been irritated by the U.S presence in central Asia.
The Russian decision to let U.S. supplies cross its territory opened another route to those through Pakistan now threatened by militant attacks, but U.S. officials were still left scrambling for alternatives to Manas.
Russia wants to open discussions on thorny policy issues that Washington and Moscow have clashed on in recent years _ NATO enlargement, missile defense in Europe, a new strategic arms control treaty. More importantly, Russia's expectation is that Washington must go through Moscow where Central Asia is concerned.
Russia may also be showing Washington that its positions aren't immovable _ particularly where Afghanistan is concerned. Russia fears Afghanistan is collapsing into anarchy, leading to instability or Islamic radicals migrating northward through Central Asia.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia had agreed days earlier to allow transit of U.S. non-lethal supplies to Afghanistan.
"We are now waiting for the American partners to provide a specific request with a quantity and description of cargo," Lavrov said Friday in remarks broadcast by Vesti-24 TV. "As soon as they do that we will issue relevant permissions."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Agreed days ago? About the same time they came out and said Irans reactor will be operational this year?
Posted by: Mike N. ||
02/07/2009 2:00 Comments ||
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#2
"We are now waiting for the American partners to provide a specific request with a quantity and description of cargo," Lavrov said Friday in remarks broadcast by Vesti-24 TV. "As soon as they do that we will issue relevant permissions."
#4
"to allow transit of U.S. non-lethal supplies to Afghanistan."
Oh, food, medical supplies, new socks, but no ammo. No weapons. That's nice. That's real help.
#5
Russia wants to open discussions on thorny policy issues that Washington and Moscow have clashed on in recent years _ NATO enlargement, missile defense in Europe, a new strategic arms control treaty. More importantly, Russia's expectation is that Washington must go through Moscow where Central Asia is concerned.
Is the price worth it Barak Obama?
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2009 14:08 Comments ||
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#6
I don't think Obama gives a rats patootie for foreign issues except insofar as they might pose a problem for his intent to force a hard left revolution here under the guise of laws and regulations. That's why he was perfectly happy to have Clinton at State and Gates at DOD for now.
#7
Clinton considered issues of acts of war a bother to his domestic agenda. The Big O is picking up where Clinton left off.
The US will appear weak, our enemies will take advantage of this to further their agenda. They will exploit weakness. They will slowly back us into a corner. They will infiltrate this country at an accelerating pace. The Big O will really mess something up that will cost this country thousands in casualties. Everyone will go apesh*t, the Big O's presidency will go down in flames, we will be bankrupt, and if we have enough stout hearts, we will rebuild this country from scratch. But we will have lost a great deal. A great deal.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/07/2009 18:15 Comments ||
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While the world celebrates the planned closure of Guantanamo there is another US military prison full of terror suspects -- at the Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan. How Obama deals with the camp will indicate how serious he is about breaking with his predecessor.
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2009 14:09 Comments ||
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#4
I hear those shipping containers are just piling up in the US; no return cargos, not even scrap paper anymore, and not worth the cost of shipping them empty. So, fill them up and ship them to China, freight pre-paid.
#5
A man I knowBuilt a very noe underground hom from 3 huge cargo containers, he dug a pit, settled them inside, backfilled and cut doors between, I've been in it on a tour, very nice, damn near no heating and cooling bills. Light comes through inside polished tubes about 3 feet across, which double as ventilation ducts.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/07/2009 19:06 Comments ||
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#6
Dammit, my rednek spelling cut in
A very nice underground home.
Posted by: Rednek Jim ||
02/07/2009 19:10 Comments ||
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(AKI) - Fighting and instability in Sudan is likely to escalate dramatically if the peace agreement that ended the north-south civil war unravels. The landmark 2005 accord is coming under the pressure from insufficient mutual trust, fighting in the western Darfur region, and the possible war crimes indictment of president Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, a senior United Nations official has warned.
"The humanitarian implications of a relapse into conflict and chaos throughout Sudan are, to put it mildly, sobering," UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon's special representative for Sudan Ashraf Jehangir Qazi told the Security Council late on Thursday.
Qazi was giving the top UN decision-making body a briefing on Suduan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) that in 2005 ended the two-decades-long conflict between the north and south, in which at least 2 million people were killed and some 4.5 million more driven from their homes.
Presenting Ban's latest report to the 15-member body, Qazi stressed that making unity attractive to the people of Southern Sudan, where a referendum on possible secession is due in 2011, should remain the focus of the parties and the international community over the next two years.
"Without any exaggeration, 2009 could be a make or break year for the CPA and for the prospect of peace in Sudan," he said.
The report called for "a tangible peace dividend," including the provision of basic public services, particularly for the people in the south and in the border areas, to convince them of the benefits of remaining in a united country.
Qazi also repeated the need for border demarcation between the northern and southern regions and a focus on disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration.
In his report, Ban expressed concern that some Sudanese officials had warned Sudan may seek to "redefine its relationship" with the UN mission to the country should an arrest warrant be issued against al-Bashir by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur.
Qazi said the impact of an ICC decision on the CPA and the Darfur situation would need to be discussed. "We have received assurances of protection and cooperation from Sudanese authorities at the highest levels," he stressed.
"But these assurances have been qualified by warnings about public outrage. There have also been public threats and incitement to violence," he said.
"Political and security circumstances permitting, the UN is committed to continue its work in accordance with the mandate entrusted to it by the Security Council," he added.
The UN mission in Sudan is charged with enforcing the CPA.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Somali pirates, holding an Egyptian merchant ship and 28 crew members, have agreed to release the vessel after the company agreed to pay a ransom. Blue Star owner, Abdel Rahman Awwa, told reporters on Friday that after days of negotiations with the pirates, it has been agreed the ship will be released as soon as the ransom is paid, our Press TV correspondent reported on Friday.
He said he expected the pirates to release the ship "within hours." He did not say how much the company had agreed to pay but company sources said it was more than USD 3m.
The Blue Star was seized on January 1 while it was sailing east with a cargo of 6,000 tons of the fertilizer urea. It is one of at least eight vessels which Somali pirates have hijacked from the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Kenyan lawmakers are demanding their government to clarify who is the owner of the military cargo aboard the released MV Faina.
The Kenyan Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense which was assigned to investigate the Faina's cargo mystery wants the government to clear the air on the controversy surrounding the real owners of the military equipment aboard the freighter, our Press TV correspondent reported Friday from Nairobi.
The Ukrainian vessel, MV Faina, released on Thursday, Feb 5, is loaded with 33 refurbished T-72 Soviet tanks and crates of light and heavy weapons. Kenyan authorities said it had bought the tanks for its army but foreign diplomats said the arms were bound for south Sudan - a potential embarrassment to Nairobi, which brokered a peace pact for the region on its northwestern border.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service has confirmed that military equipment shipped by the Faina is destined for Kenya. "The cargo on board the ship was transported under a contract between Ukrspetsexport and the Defense Ministry of Kenya," the service's head, Mykola Malomuzh, said at a briefing in Ukrainian capital, Kiev, on Thursday.
The investigating committee said that they were still looking into the issue, and now that Faina is released, "we hope to find answers", Adan Keynan, the chairman of parliamentary committee was quoted by our correspondent as saying.
The ship is expected to dock at Mombassa port in the middle of next week.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Over three million Somalis, or a third of the total population, are in dire need of humanitarian assistance this year, UN analysis says. The heart burns bleeds.
According to the assessment by the United Nations Food Security Analysis Unit (FSAU), the UN's World Food Program (WFP) has distributed 34,000 tons of food in 2008 to 3.4 million people in this strife-torn country.
The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), for its part, is working to create a permanent sustainable water system. UNICEF and the UN World Health Organization (WHO) are helping to protect some 1.5 million children aged five and under against preventable and water-borne diseases, the UN report said on Friday.
Supplying steady assistance to Somalia will remain the biggest challenge as less aid is coming in, and the situation is certain to worsen now that the European Commission has pulled out from among the top donors, it added.
The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported that only 18 percent of funds needed for humanitarian work in the Horn of Africa country has been disbursed.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Since the population of Somaliland and Puntland is 6 million. That leaves about 100% of "Somalia" dependent on infidel charity.
Posted by: ed ||
02/07/2009 14:19 Comments ||
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#2
Hey, Muzzies, you get Western aid once you drop the Islamist flag and allow churches to operate unharmed. As for the USA, please don't let any of these infidel hating people into our country.
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
02/07/2009 21:49 Comments ||
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#3
Jack Salami, does it bring you comfort to know that at least a small number of Somalis are choosing to return to their homeland, if only for the pleasure of killing and being killed?
Home Minister Sahara Khatun yesterday strongly condemned the Pakistan investigation agency's claim of Bangladesh's involvement in the Mumbai terror attacks last year.
"Militants and terrorists do not belong to any territory, country and nation. I am shocked at such claim," she told reporters after attending the concluding ceremony of annual sports competition of Rajuk Uttara Model College.
The three-day long competition of the college ended yesterday amid various colourful programmes and prize distribution among contestants on the college premises.
Asked about the measures the home ministry would take in removing terrorism in the educational institutions, Sahara said her ministry is taking necessary steps in this regard.
"We are trying and I said times and again that we want to get to the root of the problems," she added.
Action would be taken against terrorists irrespective of their party affiliation, she said.
Addressing the programme as the chief guest, the home minister sought cooperation from people of all strata of society to build a peaceful Bangladesh by eliminating corruption, terrorism, militancy and extortion.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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The UN says that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) must set all hostages free, following this week's release of six men. Oh, yeah. They'll get right on it. Or...what? Now now, let's not be hasty ...
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Eric, you know these people. We need a feel good story to counter the bailout bumout, LimBush and that disgusting Fox TV. How can we.....make this happen? Remember, money is no object.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has taken credit for paving the way for this week's hostage releases in Colombia. Doesn't that kinda hint that he was involved in the hostage-taking? Or at least in the holding?
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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(CNN) -- Kyrgyzstan's government said Friday that financial concerns and the killing of a citizen are among the reasons the country will close a U.S. base that has been a key operations point for U.S. efforts in Afghanistan.
But mostly finances.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called the decision to close Manas Air Base "regrettable." Just a few weeks ago, during a visit to the region, Gen. David Petraeus -- who oversees U.S. operations in the Middle East and Central Asia -- talked about how important the base is.
But Kyrgyzstan President Kurmanbek Bakiyev announced Tuesday that "all due procedures" were being initiated to close the base. He made the announcement at a news conference in Moscow after reports of a multimillion-dollar aid package from Russia.
Aibek Sultangaziev, spokesman for Prime Minister Igor Chudinov, said Friday that his government feels that the U.S. base has accomplished its mission of helping Afghans install their new government. He added that his country is upset that the case involving a U.S. serviceman who shot and killed a Kyrgyzstan citizen has not been resolved.
Sultangaziev said the government also believes that the United States is not paying as much as it should for the base and has concerns about ecological problems resulting from the base.
Petraeus, speaking to reporters in Kyrgyzstan on January 19, said that U.S. assistance to the country "adds up to about $150 million per year in various programs, some $63 million of which is connected to Manas."
The base employs more than 320 Kyrgyzstan citizens, he said. And, he added, the United States supports "Kyrgyz counterterrorist, counternarcotics and military forces to about $25 million per year as well."
He said the prime minister had asked him about the killing at the base, "and I noted that the investigation into that case has been reopened and that I would brief him when the findings and actions are complete."
The incident took place in December 2006. The U.S. airman was transferred out of Kyrgyzstan, and the dead man's family was offered compensation. Bakiyev said Tuesday that he was not satisfied with the inquiry and that his government's "inability to provide security to its citizens" was proving a serious concern.
Closing Manas base would not affect only the United States. Petraeus said the site "plays an important role" in the deployment of Spanish and French soldiers into Afghanistan, in addition to U.S. troops.
The Kyrgyzstan government's decision will go before parliament, where it is expected to win approval. The president would then sign the law, and the United States would have 180 days to hand over the base.
The Pentagon said Friday that discussions, led by the State Department, are continuing with Kyrgyzstan. But Sultangaziev described the talks differently. He said that there is standard contact between the U.S. Embassy and the Kyrgyzstan government on the working relationship between the two countries but that the government's decision about the base has been made.
The mountainous former Soviet republic is Central Asia's second poorest country. The U.S. base has been in operation since December 2001 under a U.N. mandate. Kyrgyzstan also is home to a Russian military base, at Kant, that officially opened in 2003.
Sultangaziev rejected any suggestions that Russia may have pushed for the closure of the U.S. base. He said the announcement of Russia's aid package was a coincidence. The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported Tuesday that Russia would offer Kyrgyzstan a $300 million, 40-year loan at an annual interest rate of 0.75 percent and write off $180 million of Kyrgyzstan's debt.
Clinton said Thursday, "It's regrettable that this is under consideration by the government of Kyrgyzstan, and we hope to have further discussions with them. But we will proceed in a very effective manner no matter what the outcome of the Kyrgyzstan government's deliberations might be."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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A Turkish prosecutor has launched an investigation into whether Israel committed genocide and crimes against humanity in its offensive in Gaza, his office said Friday.
The investigation follows a complaint lodged by the Islamist-leaning human rights association Mazlum-Der against several Israeli officials, including President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and army chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi.
"Every complaint merits an investigation," the spokesman said when asked whether a probe had been launched into Mazlum-Der's complaint.
Under Turkish law, prosecutors are obliged to look into all complaints to determine whether there are grounds to initiate a full-scale investigation that could lead to formal charges.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
A Turk prosecutor probes genocide? Rich, very, very rich.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Why were we using depleted Uranium in a bombing campaign in Kosovo? I thought that munition was designed for use against armor?
How is DU supposed to cause cancer as just scattered residue of expended munitions? It's a heavy metal and I would not want to be ingesting it, but is it worse than lead, or mercury etc?
#5
...Sigh...once more for the idiots who keep trying to turn this into another anti-American horror story: Yes, DU gives off dust on impact. Yes, it does give a short-ranged, very brief burst of gamma radiation on impact. And NO, those cannot harm you, because if you are close enough to breathe the dust or absorb the rads, YOU WILL BE DEAD ANYWAYS FROM THE IMPACT.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/07/2009 17:12 Comments ||
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A police mole who infiltrated an alleged homegrown terror cell volunteered to attend a so-called terrorist training camp and act as the "eyes and ears" of the RCMP, an officer testified yesterday in a Brampton court.
Sgt. John McIntyre said Mubin Shaikh was never tasked to go to the two-week camp in December 2005, which was frequented by members of a group known as the Toronto 18. "He was an informer in December, he was providing information to us," McIntyre told Superior Court Justice John Sproat. "To my knowledge he attended the camp on his own volition."
McIntyre said he was "specifically" told to treat Shaikh as an informant, adding informants are "eyes and ears only. They are not to be directed."
Supt. Jamie Jagoe, who at the time was in charge of national security investigations in the province, also testified yesterday. He, too, said that in late 2005 Shaikh was treated as an informant a decision he "certainly agreed" with. Their evidence, along with that of other officers who have testified this week, supports the position of Crown prosecutors John Neander and Marco Mendicino, who argue Shaikh was not a state agent at the time of the camp. That designation, they say, came two months later when he signed a formal contract with the RCMP.
Shaikh's status during the camp is the subject of a motion by defence lawyers Mitchell Chernovsky and Faisal Mirza, who allege their client was entrapped by Shaikh. He was found guilty in September and they are seeking to have his charge stayed. The accused was 17 at the time of the offence and attended the camp in Washago, Ont., which took place under the close watch of more than 200 covert officers. The defence have also argued Shaikh committed some of the same criminal acts their client is accused of.
Court has heard Shaikh purchased supplies for the camp and provided transportation to it. Once there, he acted as a trainer, offered religious leadership, emphasized the militant nature of the jihad, helped set up military-style activities and provided firearms training with an illegal 9-mm gun.
China urged Canada Thursday not to take three Uighur Muslims held at Guantanamo Bay saying they are "terrorists" and should be left to international law as a leading human rights organization accused China of omitting mention of serious rights abuses against the Uighur minority.
The three Uighur Muslims, whose lawyers have filed applications for refugee status in Canada, are among a group of 17 Uighurs captured in the wake of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and held at Guantanamo for the past seven years.
" We have expressed our position many times about those Chinese terrorists detained in Guantanamo and we are opposed to any country accepting those people "
Jiang Yu, Chinese FM spokeswoman
"We have expressed our position many times about those Chinese terrorists detained in Guantanamo. We are opposed to any country accepting those people," Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters in Beijing.
"We hope the parties concerned can resolve conveniently this issue according to the international laws and regulations."
Uighurs, who are mostly Muslim, form the largest ethnic group in northwest China's Xinjiang region that borders Central Asia. Some hope for independence from China.
Jiang was asked to comment on an appeal from Amnesty International, a Canadian Uighur group and several churches for Canada's government to take in the three Uighurs.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
Right. Let China repatriate them. Let them work their magic in "re-educating" them. They seem to deal fairly effectively with the Wiggers.
#2
The first thing China will do is harvest every usable organ from their bodies and toss what's left out for the hogs to eat. They'd do that with any other non-Chinese they decided had made them angry, and a few Chinese.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/07/2009 21:16 Comments ||
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Pakistan wants aid from the Obama administration without any "strings attached", the country's ambassador to the US Hussain Haqqani has said.
Haqqani has said that "assistance that is conditional is never good."
His comments come in the wake of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's plan proposal to triple civilian aid to Pakistan but impose clear conditions on military assistance to ensure the money goes towards fighting terrorists rather than building up Pakistan's defences against India.
But to this the Pakistani envoy had a poser. "There is no bullet that has been invented that Pakistan can be given to shoot at the terrorists that cannot be used in case there is a war with India," he said in an interview to Financial Times.
At the same time in an effort not to get his nation on the wrong side of the new US administration, Haqqani pledged that Pakistan would focus on fighting its "primary threat."
He outlined this threat as currently coming from terrorists and not from "eastern neighbour (India)."
The Obama administration is expected to unveil its foreign and security policy as its Vice President Joseph Biden speaks at the international security conference in Munich in Germany.
Haqqani's advice was that while Islamabad can discuss what the Americans would prefer... any conditional aids are not going to serve the US or Pakistani interest.
#5
Another political payoff ambassador, chosen for his help to the government as opposed to competence, the kind who drive the embassy staff crazy. Sadly, we have quite a few of those, too. What does Ambassador Haqqani's boss, the Prime Minister, say on this subject?
Mobs sacked property and protesters called for revenge in central Pakistan on Friday after a bomb killed 33 people near a mosque in one of the country's deadliest anti-Shiite attacks, as Pakistani forces killed at least 52 militants in a crackdown of Taliban fighters.
Police said 33 people were killed and 52 wounded when a suspected suicide bomb ripped through a crowd near a Shiite mosque in the town of Dera Ghazi Khan in the central Punjab province late Thursday.
The attack was the deadliest bombing since October in Pakistan, where extremists opposed to the government's support for the U.S.-led "war on terror" have killed more than 1,500 people in just over a year and a half.
One person was killed and eight injured Friday during protests in the town of Uch Sharif, 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of Dera Ghazi Khan, police said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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India for the first time yesterday directly accused Pakistan's military intelligence agency of involvement in the Mumbai attacks.
In a speech in Paris reported by the Indian media yesterday, Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon said the perpetrators "planned, trained and launched their attacks from Pakistan, and the organisers were and remain clients and creations of the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence)."
The stunning November assault on India's financial capital, when 10 gunmen killed 165 people during a 60-hour siege, has led to a furious blame game that has sharply escalated tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
In January, India handed Islamabad a dossier of what it said was evidence linking "elements" in Pakistan to the attack.
India has blamed the assault on the banned militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is active in Indian-ruled Kashmir, but the Pakistan-based organisation has denied responsibility.
Pakistan has confirmed that the lone surviving Mumbai gunman, who is now in Indian custody, is one of its citizens, but it insists that the attackers were "non-state actors."
India had previously blamed the ISI for a suicide attack on its embassy in Kabul last July, in which 60 people, including India's military attache and a diplomat, were killed.
Menon said India had long suffered from "terrorist organisations, their support structures, official sponsors and funding mechanisms, which transcend national borders but operate within them."
He also criticised foreign arms sales to Pakistan in the name of fighting terrorism, saying it was like selling "whisky to an alcoholic."
The United States has been one of Pakistan's key military backers, including providing F-16 fighter jets in return for political support for its operations in Afghanistan.
Earlier Pakistan will announce the results of its investigation into the Mumbai attacks next week, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Friday.
Gilani said last week his government was investigating what India has called evidence linking "elements" in Pakistan to the November attacks on its financial capital, in which 10 gunmen killed 165 people during a 60-hour siege.
"The investigation report will be presented to me by Monday which will be made public on the same day or the next day," Gilani told reporters in the eastern city of Lahore, where he was on a private visit.
Meanwhile Pakistan's oldest English-language newspaper, Dawn, reported that investigators probing the Mumbai attacks for the government in Islamabad had uncovered evidence implicating a banned Bangladesh-based militant organisation, Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islmani (HuJI).
The report, based on unidentified sources, also mentioned the possibility that one of the gunmen was of Bangladeshi origin.
The probe "is likely to indicate that the Mumbai attack was the handiwork of an 'international network of Muslim fundamentalists' present in South Asia and spread all the way to Middle East," Dawn said.
"Although the Bangladesh connection has emerged quite prominently in the investigations, there are also clear indications that some of the planning for the attacks was done in Dubai and there is also an element of local Indian support," it added.
There was no immediate official Pakistani confirmation of the Dawn report.
HuJI has been blamed for a series of attacks in Bangladesh, including the 2004 grenade blasts at a rally in Dhaka at which the current Premier Sheikh Hasina was speaking.
It was also accused of responsibility over a series of synchronised bomb blasts across the northeast Indian state of Assam in November in which nearly 80 people were killed.
The group's chief Mufti Abdul Hannan was sentenced to death late last year after he was found guilty of masterminding an attack on British ambassador to Bangladesh in 2003.
Bangladesh said Friday it was unaware of any evidence implicating HuJI in the Mumbai assault. "First of all we don't have any information. If anyone has any information, share with us. We are ready to cooperate," Foreign Secretary Touhid Hossain told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: ISI
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday voiced concern about a Pakistani court''s decision to free Abdul Qadeer Khan, who operated an alleged nuclear proliferation network. They had to wait until Bush was out of office and they had a feel for how mushy B.O. is...
"I am very much concerned and will have more to say about that," Clinton said when asked for reaction during a brief appearance before the news media with visiting Philippine President Gloria Arroyo. Maybe he should go for a stroll in Fort Mahmoud Park, huh?
Gordon Duguid, a State Department spokesman, told reporters earlier that "it would be unfortunate if the court released him," citing the "serious proliferation risk" that he represents. "The proliferation support that Khan and his associates provided to Iran and North Korea has had a harmful impact on ... international security and will for years to come," Duguid said. Duguid said the US government could not immediately confirm the information with the Pakistani government, whose members were not reachable as they had begun observing the Friday sabbath. In Islamabad, a Pakistani court Friday declared Khan a free man, five years after he was effectively put under house arrest for allegedly operating a proliferation network. The chief justice of the Islamabad High Court, Sardar Mohammad Aslam, made the decision after a closed session with lawyers for the government and Khan -- revered by many Pakistanis as the father of the country''s atomic bomb. The 72-year-old Khan has been effectively under house arrest in Islamabad since February 2004, when he confessed on television to sending nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea, although he later retracted his remarks. Military ruler and then president Pervez Musharraf pardoned Khan in 2004, but he was kept at his residence, guarded by troops and intelligence agents. On January 12, the United States unveiled sanctions against Khan, 12 associates and three firms linked to his nuclear proliferation network. The sanctions forbid the 16 people and firms from having business dealings with the US government or private US companies in what the State Department says is a renewed bid to make sure the network has been shut down entirely.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Its not like he was being punished. Releasing him isn't much different than what was already going on anyway, I suspect.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
02/07/2009 2:11 Comments ||
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The chief justice of the Islamabad High Court, Sardar Mohammad Aslam....
Rahm, Rahm, Eric......wake up, wake up, jot down that name. He's a Dem right? Did he pay his income taxes? Names, names, we need names.
Israel must decisively crush Hamas and immediately follow up by pumping investment capital into the Gaza Strip lest the group regenerate. To create, Israel must first devastate.
Posted by: Age Of Pericles ||
02/07/2009 12:58 ||
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"More than 1330 of Islamist fighters had entered Palestine," said a threatening email received by many Israelis on Thursday night. The message warned that several prominent people would be abducted and killed. "This is jihad, victory or martyrdom," it concluded. The message was sent in English, Arabic and Hebrew from an email account registered on Google's Gmail service, which enables any person to open an account for free without requiring identification.
The exact number of people who received the message is unclear at the moment. It is also unknown whether the email was only sent to Israelis or to a wider variety of people. Many of those who received the message said it had been sent to their private email addresses which are unknown to external sources.
Surfers reported of additional message which arrived in their mailboxes on Friday morning, expanding the text included in the original message and offering them to join the organization as spies. Some of the emails included shocking images and links to YouTube videos. The additional emails were titled "The End of Israel", and were sent by a person calling himself "Youth of Islam" from the address i.am.hitler2099.
"The interesting thing is that I'm indeed an Israeli, but I live in New York. The email was sent to my hotmail account registered in California," said Ron from New York. Adam, another Israeli who received the message, was surprised to find it in his mailbox. "This is an address which rarely receives spam (junk mail), as it is only used for personal needs. I really dont understand how they could have known this address belongs to an Israeli," he said.
The email was sent on behalf of al-Qassam, Hamas' military wing, but since it was sent from an anonymous address it is unclear whether this was an official Hamas message or an enthusiastic supporter who decided to send the threatening messages of his own accord. The message was sent in a number of languages, and it appears that its senders used automatic translation services for the English and Hebrew versions as it includes many grammatical errors.
This is not the first time Hamas or people on its behalf use electronic means in order to threaten Israelis. During the fighting in Gaza, many Israelis received threatening text messages on their cell phones and messages sent via the Skype software from the Palestinian organization. Midoman strikes again? ;-)
The Islamist group Hamas will reject a long-term truce with Israel being mediated by Egypt unless the deal includes lifting the blockade on the Gaza Strip, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal said on Friday.
Addressing a rally in Damascus, Meshaal said Hamas has only received "vague" proposals from Egypt without an Israeli commitment to lift the siege, which Hamas regards as an illegal collective punishment on Gaza's 1.5 million population.
"The enemy has yet to offer a lifting of the blockade and a reopening of the border crossings. They have given no guarantee and we will not agree to any truce except in exchange for a lifting of the blockade and a reopening of the crossings."
Meshaal, whose speech was aired on Syrian state television, told more than 1,000 supporters that Hamas emerged "victorious" from Israel's deadly offensive that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians and wounded 5,000 others. "It is the first real war that the Palestinians won," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"It is the first real war that the Palestinians won," he said.
I wonder what this idiot would consider "losing"?
Hamass won't accept any Israeli conditions other than total surrender, and Israel would be a fool to accept that. It's time to REALLY bomb the sh$$ out of Gaza - including hospitals, mosques, nursing homes, kindergardens, schools, grocery stores, and UN compounds - anywhere where Hamass hides. Too bad we have such a chicken-sh$$ president that won't stand behind Israel and whatever it does.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/07/2009 22:09 Comments ||
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UNRWA informed the IDF on Friday that it is suspending its humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip after Hamas stole supplies the United Nations organization had transferred to the Palestinian territory.
The seizure of the 200 tons of supplies took place Thursday night and in response, UNRWA officials informed the Gaza Coordination and Liaison Administration that it was suspending its deliveries to the Gaza Strip until further notice. The supplies confiscated included flour and other basic commodities.
The transfer of 40 truckloads of humanitarian supplies - some 800 tons - planned for Sunday has already been canceled.
Officials in Jerusalem said the announcement by UNRWA constituted a UN approval and confirmation of Israel's position, that Hamas is using the Palestinian population in gaza "cruelly and cynically" and is solely responsible for hardship there.
Welfare and Social Services Minister Isaac Herzog, who was appointed by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the end of Operation Cast Lead to coordinate Israel's humanitarian effort in Gaza, told Israel Radio that theft of humanitarian aid exposes the true face of Hamas and of its supporters in Iran.
It was the second time this week that Hamas stole UN supplies transferred to the Gaza Strip for impoverished Palestinians.
The first incident took place Tuesday evening when armed Hamas police broke into a Gaza warehouse packed with UN humanitarian supplies and seized thousands of blankets and food packages.
The seizure took place after UNRWA staff earlier refused to hand over the aid supplies to the Hamas-run Ministry of Social Affairs.
"We received a phone call this morning from UNRWA officials that they have decided to suspend their deliveries after Hamas stole supplies from one of the organization's warehouses in the Gaza Strip," explained a senior official.
The official said that the IDF noticed the trend already during Operation Cast Lead last month, when despite the fighting, Israel transferred close to 80 trucks a day to the Strip.
Nuaf Atar, a Fatah operative captured during the operation, told the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) that Hamas government officials "took over" humanitarian aid Israel allowed in to the Gaza Strip and sold it when it was supposed to be distributed for free.
UNRWA Spokesman Sami Mshasha confirmed that the organization had suspended its deliveries to Gaza after Hamas stole its supplies.
"This is the second incident this week and this is a point of great concern for us and sets a bad precedent and if we are to provide services to people in Gaza after such an ordeal we need assurances that our work will be unimpeded," Mshasha said. "We cannot subjugate our work to the Ministry of Social Affairs in Gaza."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"Officials in Jerusalem said the announcement by UNRWA constituted a UN approval and confirmation of Israel's position, that Hamas is using the Palestinian population in gaza 'cruelly and cynically' and is solely responsible for hardship there.
At which point the UNRWA will resume shipments as any confirmation of Israel's position will never be countenanced.
Posted by: Marilyn Glomotch6962 ||
02/07/2009 2:29 Comments ||
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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Friday pressed Hamas to release the humanitarian aid shipment it seized in the Gaza Strip and provide assurances that no further aid would be taken.
Ban's spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters that Ban "demands that Hamas immediately release the (U.N.) consignment of humanitarian goods it seized last night, in the second such incident this week, and to refrain from interference with the provision and distribution of humanitarian assistance."
She added that Ban wanted guarantees that it would not happen again.
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said earlier it has stopped importing aid into the Gaza Strip after the Hamas government seized hundreds of tons of food assistance.
The decision came after 10 truckloads of rice and flour, more than 200 tons, brought in by the agency were seized on Thursday on the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, UNRWA said.
Hamas reacted quickly by saying that the aid supplies were seized "by mistake" and will be returned.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Or he'll send the dreaded strongly worded letter.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/07/2009 0:14 Comments ||
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Yes. A simple misunderstanding. We accidentally stole that. See, Abdul saw hundreds of tons of food on trucks and figured it was a local family coming home from the grocery store. We rob those people all the time and well, I guess ole' Ab didn't notice the UN markings. You can see what an easy mistake it is to make. Our bad.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
02/07/2009 2:07 Comments ||
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Sharper than a serpent's tooth the ingratitude of a child.
#4
Time for Israel to send some more "aid" to Gaza - 155mm HE "aid". Spare no one, no building, no road, no infrastructure. Render it all one mass of rubble, and then bounce the rubble several times.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/07/2009 22:16 Comments ||
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The leader of Hizbullah's parliamemtary bloc, Mohammad Raad, rejected calls to implement the Arab Peace Initiative, urging Arab and Islamic nations to unite in their stance against Israel. "There must be a review and reconsideration of stands against those who pursue with placing bets on a settlement that would legalize the Zionist occupation of Palestine," Raad said at the opening session of the seventh pan-Arab Islamic conference in Beirut.
"This option [peace with Israel] cannot be promoted in the Arab and Islamic worlds anymore," cautioned Raad.
Hizbullah's second in command Sheik Naim Qassem similarly declared that Israel's recent assault on Gaza effectively "buried" any future prospects for peace.
"We, in Lebanon, have gone through an experience that our Palestinian brethren had witnessed and benefited from it in Gaza. Accumulation of experience would lead to more victories," Raad pledged.
With Israel still reeling from the international backlash prompted by its massive assault on Gaza in December and January, Raad warned against further military and diplomatic blows that would mark any renewed threat to Lebanon.
"Any imbecility that the Israeli enemy may commit in Lebanon would reflect badly on them," he said.
Raad hinted at the military readiness of the resistance, in the event of future hostilities. "What we have prepared for the enemy is more than its military commanders can imagine," Raad added. "Safeguarding the resistance and its principles is a responsibility we all share. This requires fortifying our principles so that they do not divert," Raad explained.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Doesn't any read the papers? They have The One on their side now, they don't need no stinking peace.
The BBC's Allan Little reported on the Balkan wars of the 1990s, following at close range the fighting between Bosnian, Serb and Croat forces. But, one day in 1993, he came face to face with a different group, the "Bosnian mujahideen".
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.
Somali pirates, holding an Egyptian merchant ship and 28 crew members, have agreed to release the vessel after the company agreed to pay a ransom. Blue Star owner, Abdel Rahman Awwa, told reporters on Friday that after days of negotiations with the pirates, it has been agreed the ship will be released as soon as the ransom is paid, our Press TV correspondent reported on Friday. 
Over three million Somalis, or a third of the total population, are in dire need of humanitarian assistance this year, UN analysis says. 
BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury yesterday said his party would give its best effort to help try war criminals.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has taken credit for paving the way for this week's hostage releases in Colombia.
Mobs sacked property and protesters called for revenge in central Pakistan on Friday after a bomb killed 33 people near a mosque in one of the country's deadliest anti-Shiite attacks, as Pakistani forces killed at least 52 militants in a crackdown of Taliban fighters.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday voiced concern about a Pakistani court''s decision to free Abdul Qadeer Khan, who operated an alleged nuclear proliferation network. 
"More than 1330 of Islamist fighters had entered Palestine," said a threatening email received by many Israelis on Thursday night. The message warned that several prominent people would be abducted and killed. "This is jihad, victory or martyrdom," it concluded. The message was sent in English, Arabic and Hebrew from an email account registered on Google's Gmail service, which enables any person to open an account for free without requiring identification. 
