[Dawn] The Taliban are not involved in peace talks between an insurgent faction and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and will not agree to talks until Western troops are withdrawn from the country, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
Karzai's office said on Monday he had held his first direct talks in Kabul with a senior delegation from Hezb-i-Islami, one of the three main insurgent groups in the country and rivals to the Taliban.
The meeting was an unprecedented success in Karzai's efforts to reach out to insurgents this year, a crucial time when Washington is sending a "surge" of extra combat troops before planning to start withdrawing next year.
Although the talks appeared to be preliminary, the publicly acknowledged face-to-face meeting was a significant milestone: previous contacts with insurgents have been furtive and conducted through mediators, mostly overseas.
The Hezb-i-Islami team, which included the son-in-law of the group's fugitive leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, brought a 15-point peace plan including a call for all foreign troops to withdraw this year, though a spokesman said the demands were negotiable.
A separate peace with Hezb-i-Islami could markedly change the balance of power on the ground in the east and northeast of the country where the group is mostly active.
But the main prize would be talks with the Taliban themselves, more powerful than at any time since they were driven from Kabul in 2001 by US-backed Afghan militia.
A Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, said his movement, which refers to itself as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the country's name when it ruled from 1996-2001, had not altered its position: that no talks could be held until troops withdraw.
"The Islamic Emirate has a clear position. We have said this many, many times. There will be no talks when there are foreign troops on Afghanistan's soil killing innocent Afghans on daily basis," Mujahid said.
"If the representatives from Hezb-i-Islami are in Kabul for talks, it's their choice," he added.
Taliban encroach on Hezb-i-Islami turf
The Taliban, the biggest insurgent group, have their bases in the south, but operate throughout much of the country and have encroached on Hezb-i-Islmai turf in the northeast and east in recent months.
Taliban fighters clashed with Hezb-i-Islami militants in the north of the country two weeks ago, which the government said led some Hezb-i-Islami guerrillas to seek its protection.
Although direct contacts between the government and senior Taliban officials have been denied by both sides, Western officials say they believe indirect and lower-level contacts have taken place throughout eight years of war.
The outgoing UN mission chief in Kabul, Kai Eide, said last week he had held meetings with Taliban representatives over the past year, which ended abruptly this year when Pakistan arrested the number two Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
Some Afghan officials have said the government had made contact with Baradar, and blame Islamabad for arresting him to ensure that it has leverage over any future talks.
Karzai's spokesman has said the government had no "direct" contacts with Baradar, but declined to comment on whether it had had "indirect" contacts.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2010 00:00 ||
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Afghan President Hamid Karzai has met delegates from Afghanistan's second-biggest militant group and is studying their peace proposals, his spokesman said on Monday.
Hezb-e-Islami is headed by warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who is black-listed as a terrorist by the United Nations and the United States. The latter accuses him of taking part in and supporting attacks by al Qaeda and the Taliban.
Karzai has been pursuing peace talks in the hope of ending the crippling insurgency led by the Taliban, while the United States implements a troop surge designed to weaken the militants.
Hezb-e-Islami had said it would only hold peace talks with Karzai's government once all foreign forces had quit Afghan soil. The latest move could thus be seen as an early success in the president's reconciliation efforts.
"I confirm that a meeting between the Hezb-e-Islami delegation and the president took place a couple of days back," presidential spokesman Waheed Omar told AFP.
"They brought with them a peace plan, a proposal, and the president is studying it," he said, confirming that the president had yet to respond to the plan.
The US State Department designated Hekmatyar, a former prime minister, as a terrorist in 2003, accusing him of taking part in and supporting al Qaeda and Taliban attacks.
Hezb-e-Islami's spokesman Haroon Zarghon told AFP that the delegation of senior members handed Karzai a 15-point document they hoped would form the basis of peace talks.
Of the 15 points, "one of them is to set a clear timeline for the withdrawal of foreign forces and another the formation of an interim administration", Zarghon said by telephone from an undisclosed location.
The delegation currently in Kabul is headed by Qutbuddin Helal, Hekmatyar's deputy and also a former prime minister, Qaribul Rehman Sayeed, Ghairat Baheer and other prominent figures who formed Hezb-e-Islami, Zarghon said.
Talks: He said Hezb-e-Islami would "for Afghanistan's well-being and prosperity" also encourage the Taliban to pursue peace negotiations.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir threatened on Monday to expel international election observers after they said April's vote may have to be delayed. "We brought these organizations from outside to monitor the elections, but if they ask for them to be delayed, we will throw them out," Bashir said in comments broadcast on state TV. "We wanted them to see the free and fair elections, but if they interfere in our affairs, we will cut their fingers off, put them under our shoes, and throw them out," Bashir added. I certainly hope that statement makes more sense in Arabic than it does in English...
The only long-term international observer mission in Sudan said last week that the country may need a slight delay in its first multi-party elections in 24 years to deal with logistical problems, with hundreds of thousands of names missing from the voters' list weeks before the polls.
Carter Center officials issued a report saying Sudan's April presidential and legislative elections remained "at risk on multiple fronts" and urged Sudan to lift harsh restrictions on rallies and end fighting in Darfur ahead of the ballot.
The Center declined to comment until it was able to review the president's speech.
Bashir expelled major aid agencies from Darfur after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for him in March last year for war crimes in Darfur.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Help me out here! What goes under the shoes, the observers or just their cut-off fingers? If Dhimmi himself goes, maybe Omar can show us.
Saif al Islam al Gadhafi, the second oldest son of Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffi, has seen his months-long efforts to negotiate peace between Libya and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) end with an agreement that lies behind the freeing Tuesday 23 March of three top leaders and scores of members of the group. The LIFG, whose leaders had been closely aligned with al-Qaeda, in September 2009 ended 20 years of fighting with Libya, and its leaders wrote a new jihad code of ethics that refutes some of the more extreme behaviour endorsed by al-Qaeda.
Reuters AlertNet reports Saif as saying that all prisoners at the Abu Salim prison will be released soon and the prison open to the public. Saif, who was instrumental in negotiating Libya's emergence from international isolation in the past decade, said some of the 214 prisoners had been kept in jail even after they were acquitted by the courts or finished their sentences,' reports Reuters.
Libya's ambassador to France Salah Zarem Tuesday told Swiss public radio RSR that Max Goeldi, held at another prison, Al Jadaida, will be released when he finishes serving his four-month prison term. He was sentenced by a Libyan court for visa violations.
Saudi Arabia on Wednesday condemned Israel's "arrogant" policies of building settlements in east Jerusalem, saying they violated the rights of Arabs and Muslims and cast doubt on its seriousness in peace negotiations.
In a strongly worded statement carried by the official news agency, a government official asked the Quartet sponsoring peace talks, consisting the U.S., EU, Russia and the U.N., to take Israel to task for its recent announcements to expand Jewish housing in east Jerusalem.
"Saudi Arabia is looking for explanations from the international Quartet for these arrogant Israeli policies and the insistence on challenging the international community," the official said. "These comments cast doubt on the peace process and the seriousness of the international efforts to relaunch negotiations."
Palestinians want east Jerusalem, annexed by Israel in 1967, as their future capital and see new settlement construction as land grabs. Israel insists the city cannot be divided and says it has the right to build anywhere.
The statement criticized Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for saying during his trip to Washington that settlement construction in Jerusalem would not be halted. He said Israel does not consider Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem to be settlements. About 180,000 Israelis live there.
"The kingdom strongly condemns the statements by the prime minister of the Israeli occupation in which he denied the rights of Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims in holy Jerusalem, without the slightest consideration for the legitimate rights of the Palestinians, especially in occupied holy Jerusalem, or for the international efforts to relaunch peace process," the statement said.
Netanyahu's comments came during a spat between the U.S. and Israel over its settlement construction as Washington is pressing to restart peace talks.
Israeli officials announced the construction of 1,600 new apartments in east Jerusalem during the visit of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to Israel.
The Saudi statement said the timing was "surprising and astonishing."
On Wednesday, Israel's Jerusalem municipality approved 20 new apartments for Jews on land bought by an American Jewish millionaire in an Arab neighborhood of east Jerusalem while Netanyahu is in Washington on a fence-mending visit.
Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, had initially backed efforts to start indirect U.S.-mediated talks, but there has been widespread outrage over the announcements of new construction.
#1
Are not the new settlements in east Jerusalem in an area that has been known, for tens of centuries, as the "Jewish Quarter"?
When the Arabs got control of east Jerusalem in 1948, did they tear down old Jewish places of worship in the Jewish Quarter, save the stones, so they could build urinals from the saved stones?
Three days following indictment for conspiracy, spreading false information and incitement to commit a crime, former Zulia state Governor (1990-1993) Oswaldo Álvarez Paz, was arrested on Monday night at his residence by order of the 25th Control Court of Caracas. What's a 'show trial' called in Spanish?
The court issued the arrest warrant at the request of attorney 21st Gineira Rodríguez. The arrest was performed by a taskforce of the Bolivarian Service of National Intelligence (Sebin), former Disip, at the residence of former presidential candidate (1993), on Monday night.
Álvarez Paz's attorney, Omar Estacio, told Venezuelan private TV news network Globovisión that the legal proceedings against the defendant were "politically motivated."
The charges against the opposition leader are related to comments made by Álvarez Paz during talk show "Hello Citizen," broadcast by opposition TV channel Globovisión. He said that the Venezuelan government has links with subversive groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the Basque separatist group ETA. Jailed for speaking truth to power ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/24/2010 00:00 ||
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[Kyodo: Korea] An American citizen facing trial in North Korea for entering the country illegally was a Christian who taught English at a South Korean primary school, the New York Times reported Tuesday, quoting former colleagues. North Korea has earlier identified the man as Aijalon Mahli Gomes, 30, of Boston, who was arrested in January, and said he would be put on trial because the country had ""confirmed criminal evidence.""
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
English teachers in Asia. Is there anything those incompetent fools can't do?
[Kyodo: Korea] North Korea slammed Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto on Tuesday for calling the North"s state system ""illegal"" and comparing it to the Nazis. ""This guy malignantly spoke ill of the DPRK and its system, calling them "illegal state" and "Nazis","" the official Korean Central News Agency said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People"s Republic of Korea.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
With NORKS I use the rule, "The louder they squeal, the more accurate the statement".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/24/2010 0:08 Comments ||
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#2
Maybe it was all that goose-stepping that gave him the clue...
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2010 10:49 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] French president Nicolas Sarkozy has promised to eradicate all bases of the armed Basque nationalist and separatist organization ETA.
"We will eradicate one by one all ETA bases in France. We will flush them out one by one. We will dismantle all of the support networks of this terrorist organization," Sarkozy was quoted as saying by AFP.
Sarkozy was speaking Tuesday at the funeral of a French policeman slain last week by suspected ETA gunmen in a Paris suburb.
The state ceremony was also attended by the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.
Sarkozy said he will not let France become a staging ground for terrorism.
The EU has designated the ETA as a terrorist group blaming the organization for the death of more than 820 people during its 41-year campaign.
The 52-year-old policeman, Jean-Serge Nerin, was shot dead after confronting a group of suspicious individuals 50 kilometers south of Paris.
The sole person arrested in connection with the killing has admitted to being an ETA member. Police are looking for at least five other suspects.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Imagine the fuss if they were Islamic terrorists instead of nationalist ones.
India on Wednesday insisted that US must provide a direct access to its investigators to interrogate Pakistani-American David Headley, who has confessed to plotting the Mumbai terror attacks. "One day or the other, (the) US will have to agree and expedite the issue that Headley will have to undergo interrogation by our agencies", Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily told reporters, a day after Washington said no decision has been taken to this effect.
Asked if the US denying access to Indian investigators is "unfair" and "unjustified" as the Indian government had allowed the FBI to interrogate gunman Ajmal Kasab in Mumbai, he said "we don't want to pass a value judgement on their policy and matter".
"But this is a matter we need to hard press our argument and you know we have a strong bargaining and tell them (the US) what's necessary...we have to make a strong case which we have already made out. Here (Mumbai attacks) he (Headley) is involved, he is really involved," Moily added.
Four days after US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Robert Blake publicly stated in Delhi that Indian investigators would have an access to Headley, US Ambassador Timothy J Roemer in a statement on Tuesday said "no decision on direct access for India to David Headley has been made."
Sources in the Home Ministry had said on Monday India is likely to send a team of investigators in April to question 49-year-old Headley.
Aswat al-Iraq: Al-Iraqiya List warned on Tuesday against the assassination of its leaders after the preliminary results of the parliamentary elections, asserting that this will not change the list's national course.
"There is a fear that some competitors could refuge to the assassination mean against the list's leaders after the preliminary results which show the advancement of the al-Iraqiya List," Jamal al-Batiekh, from the list, told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
He called on the political blocs to accept the elections results because they represent the locals' will.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu struck a defiant note early Tuesday declaring "Jerusalem is not a settlement," after new U.S. criticism of Jewish home construction in disputed territory in and around the city.
"The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 years ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today. Jerusalem is not a settlement. It's our capital," Netanyahu said.
His speech in Washington to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, an influential pro-Israel lobby group, contrasted sharply with an address Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made at the same forum hours earlier.
Nevertheless, Netanyahu said that he is confident that Israel will have the "enduring friendship" of the United States, omitting to mention the worst U.S.-Israeli row in years.
"We have the enduring friendship of the United States of America, the greatest nation on earth," Netanyahu told 7,500 applauding delegates.
"From one president to the next, from one Congress to the next, America's commitment to Israel's security has been unwavering," the Israeli premier said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] The US President Barack Obama should demonstrate he is a "serious" supporter of Tel Aviv by appearing publicly with the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, says a Jewish Republican Representative.
Eric Cantor, the only GOP Jewish member in the US House of Representatives, told AFP on Tuesday that he felt "very disheartened" as there was no scheduled joint press conference or any photo event between Obama and the Israeli prime minister.
"At a time when there's some question" about the health of the alliance, said Cantor, "the president should be taking every opportunity to stand up publicly and reaffirm that we stand with our ally Israel."
Cantor said the president should appear publicly with Netanyahu "if we're serious" about showing that the US-Israeli bilateral ties are not strained.
Jewish Senators and Representatives in the US are widely believed to be far more committed to Israel than the US, often going out of their way to demand complying with every request that the regime makes, whether military, financial or political.
Cantor's comments came a day after the US top diplomat, Hillary Clinton, addressing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference, pledged "personal commitment" to guarantee Israel's security, describing White House ties to the Tel Aviv regime as "rock solid, unwavering, enduring and forever" support for the security of Israel.
It is common for top US Administration officials and congressional leaders and representatives to race to AIPAC conferences to express loyalty and support for the regime that occupies Palestine.
According to the non-profit anti-lobby organization 'Common Cause' and similar groups in the US that campaign against political contributions by powerful corporate and lobby groups, an overwhelming majority of American Senators and House Representatives receive financial contribution and importance lobbying support from AIPAC.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Finally, a foreign dignitary that Obama won't bow to.
A top Hamas figure welcomes the UK's deportation of an Israeli official, whom he said was involved in the assassination of one of the Palestinian resistance movement's leaders in Dubai. The Israeli diplomat in Britain is deported, the Hamas gun-runner in Dubai is dead. I'd say that's a fair trade ...
On Tuesday, London issued the expulsion order for the agent, reportedly serving with the Israeli Spy Agency Mossad, over the use of fake British passports in the assassination of a Hamas commander in Dubai.
Salah al-Bardawil, spokesman for Hamas's parliamentary bloc said in a statement later that "we in Hamas welcome the British position and the decision to expel the Mossad official in the Zionist embassy for his role in the criminal assassination," AFP reported.
The January 20 foul play in a luxury hotel room was caught on CCTV cameras, leading the Dubai emirate to put the name of 27 suspects on the wanted list.
The Dubai Police Force said suspects used the identities of 12 British citizens as well as passports from Ireland, France, Australia and Germany.
Last month, the British daily The Sunday Times wrote that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been informed in an early-January meeting with Mossad chief Meir Dagan where the premier was briefed on the assassination plan.
Hamas has also accused Tel Aviv of carrying out the hit, and Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim has said that "Dagan and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will head the list (of international arrest warrants) if it is proven that Mossad is behind the murder."
"We hope this condemnation will rise to the legal level and result in the trial and prosecution of the (Israeli) occupation leaders for this and other crimes they have committed against our people," Bardawil added in his Tuesday comments.
Reacting to the recent expulsion, however, Aryeh Eldad, National Religious Party lawmaker in the Israeli Knesset (parliament) said in comments quoted by the Sky News that "I think [the] British are behaving hypocritically...."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2010 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] The Wa'ed Society for Detainees denounced on Tuesday UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's meeting with the family of captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, describing the move as "shameful."
The society said during the UN chief's visit to the Gaza Strip, "he did not care to listen to the suffering of the relatives of detainees who lined up to meet him and talk to him," a statement said.
The statement added that the society was dismayed when Ban Ki-moon met with Shalit's family to discuss human rights, but completely "ignored the plight of Palestinian prisoners." The society pointed to numerous children who gathered during his visit, holding photos of detained parents.
"The Secretary-General described Shalit's capture and detention by Palestinian resistance factions as 'unacceptable' but he remained silent regarding the cases of thousands of Palestinian detainees," the statement read.
To society called on the global community to listen to Noam Shalit's speech before the UN Human Rights Council to remember the suffering of Palestinian prisoners, and "the hundreds who are kept in jail without charge or trial, under administrative detention."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] A U.N. team investigating the assassination of Lebanese former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri on Tuesday began filming the site of the 2005 Beirut murder in three dimensions, a U.N. spokeswoman said. It has been five years. Detlev Mehlis had the case cracked in about 90 days. They've been treading water and throwing dust ever since.
"We are undertaking an actual 3D modeling of the Hariri crime scene to reconstruction the scene and whatever happened there using digital scanning techniques," spokeswoman Radhia Achouri told AFP.
A U.N. tribunal based in The Hague was set up by a Security Council resolution in 2007 to try suspects in the murder of Hariri, killed in a massive bomb blast on the Beirut seafront in February 2005.
Achouri, the tribunal's spokeswoman, said the filming would be finalized within 10 days but denied it was linked to recent progress in the investigation.
"It is happening now because it is possible and has nothing to do with the actual progress of the investigation for the time being," she said.
"It was an issue of establishing the need. We deemed it necessary and can now afford to do it physically and in terms of resources," Achouri added.
An AFP photographer at the scene said members of the U.N. team wearing identity cards around their necks were filming and photographing the assassination site outside the once popular Saint Georges Hotel.
Before the tribunal was set up, a U.N. commission of inquiry said it had found evidence to implicate Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services in the Hariri murder, but there are currently no suspects in custody.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner says there has remained "no other choice" but imposing new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
"The defiant attitude adopted by the Iranian government now leaves us no other choice: we have to seek new sanctions," Kouchner told the French Senate on Tuesday.
"We will continue to seek dialogue but what responses have we got so far? Nothing tangible," AFP quoted France's top diplomat as saying.
Kouchner also claimed that Tehran's nuclear program did not have "credible" goals.
The French foreign minister's allegations against Iran's nuclear program comes while the International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors have declared that they have found no evidence of any diversion of nuclear materials from civilian to military applications by Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
But what does Medicins sans moral compass say?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/24/2010 11:09 Comments ||
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A senior Russian official says despite efforts by certain Western countries, halting Iran's nuclear program will be a "difficult task" to accomplish.
Mikhail Margelov, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Federation Council of Russia, in an interview with radio Echo of Moscow questioned the "efficiency and effectiveness" of sanctions against Tehran.
The officials said, "Iran is the most powerful country in the Middle East and the Muslim world."
The US and its allies have been trying to use their privileges at the United Nations Security Council to push through a fourth round of sanctions against Iran, while China and Russia have been reluctant to go along with the plan.
Although UN nuclear watchdog inspectors stationed in Iran have not been able to find evidence to support Western claims of diversion in the Iranian nuclear program, the US and its allies allege that Iran intends to develop nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian program -- a claim rejected by Tehran.
Iran says, as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, its nuclear program is peaceful and aimed at civilian application of the technology.
Margelov also said that he does not believe "sanctions will serve as a means to come to an understanding between Iran and the international community."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/24/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Margelov also said that he does not believe "sanctions will serve as a means to come to an understanding between Iran and the international community."
#2
halting Iran's nuclear program will be a "difficult task"
True, at least if you exclude force as an option.
questioned the "efficiency and effectiveness" of sanctions
Master of the obvious.
"Iran is the most powerful country in the Middle East and the Muslim world."
KSA is wealthier. Iraq now has a better trained military. Several neighbors have powerful (at least for now) friends.
#3
Lest RUSSIA fergits what MIGHT be in its future, VARIOUS > MILITANTS CALL FOR "JIHAD AGZ INDIA" DURING KOTLI/POK RALLY [ POK = Pakistan Occupied Kashmir].
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.
Saif al Islam al Gadhafi, the second oldest son of Libyan leader Muammar Qadaffi, has seen his months-long efforts to negotiate peace between Libya and the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) end with an agreement that lies behind the freeing Tuesday 23 March of three top leaders and scores of members of the group. The LIFG, whose leaders had been closely aligned with al-Qaeda, in September 2009 ended 20 years of fighting with Libya, and its leaders wrote a new jihad code of ethics that refutes some of the more extreme behaviour endorsed by al-Qaeda.
