KABUL, July 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Thousands of Afghan refugees in Saudi controlled Arabia are facing acute problems while changing their Pakistani passports to Afghan passport. Most of them have been put behind the bars for holding Afghan passports without visas. Due to long wars and unemployment the Afghans first migrated to the neigbouring Pakistan from where they left for Saudi Arabia by Pakistani passports.
You have to sympathesize a little, it's not like the Taliban was issuing documents to regular schmoes.
Haji Azim, representative of the Afghan Refugees in Riyadh, told Pajhwok Afghan News via telephone that about 60 Afghan nationals, who changed their passports, had been arrested in the last two weeks. These Afghans were arrested because they had no visa on their passports, he added.
The Afghans were compelled to arrive Pakistan from Saudi Arabia and then to Afghanistan. He said the Afghan nationals would face harsh treatment if they reached Pakistan. He said: "We have been tortured in Pakistani airport for alleged links with terrorist and al-Qaeda."
Since the ISI has to cover its tracks somehow.
Haji Habibullah, one of the Afghan refugees in Saudi, told this news agency via telephone the Afghan embassy in Riyadh did not help in resolving their problems. About 450 Afghan nationals were apprehended for having no visa, he said, adding President Hamid Karzai had promised cooperation during his recent visit to Saudi Arabia.
Confirming the problems to Afghan refugees, Afghan ambassador Mohammad Kabir Farahi told this news agency via telephone Afghans were facing hurdles in Riyadh but the Saudi officials had promised cooperation. He said passport changing was not a legal problem, but it took times to ascertain if the applicants were really Afghans.
Since people holding Pak passports come from all over the world.
About 15,000 copies of passports had been issued to Afghans in Saudi Arabia in one and half year, he said, adding over 50,000 Afghans were living in here with legal documents.
However, Haji Shahzad Gul, who lived in Saudi Arabia for four years, said he had returned from Saudi month and a half back. Gul said he changed his Pakistani passport to Afghan some two years back, but Afghan embassy was yet to get information from Pakistan embassy. He said: "I was afraid of being nabbed in Saudi because the information was yet to reach here." He believed his country's embassy could solve the problems and urged afghan government for further cooperation.
Afghan foreign Minister Dr Rangin Dadfar Spanta said a joint commission to solve problems of the Afghans living in Saudi Arabia was constituted. The commission besides resolving passports will also work to redress their other problems. He also informed about his upcoming visit to Saudi and said:" I will really discuss the issue with the Saudi officials and I will try to resolve problems of my countrymen."
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07/22/2006 00:00 ||
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HERAT CITY, July 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): About 16 dissidents, including two former local Taliban commanders abandoned violence and joined government in the western Farah province under the campaign of National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), officials said.
Hazrat Mohammad Sharif Mujaddedi, chief of the NRC in western province, told Pajhwok Afghan News they did not want to disclose identity of the dissidents for security reasons. He said the Taliban fighters decided to shun violence and support Karzai's administration by mediation of the local elders.
He said the arms surrendered by the dissidents were included machineguns, 25 hand grenades and some other ammunition.
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'With a title like "All Is War (The Benefits of G-Had)" and a song about a suicide bomber, a new album by British Muslim rapper Aki Nawaz has raised eyebrows before its release, even at his own record label.
The Pakistan-born rapper's group Fun-Da-Mental were set to put the new disc on sale July 17, 10 days after the first anniversary of the London bombings. But its words and themes -- another predicting US decline at the hands of Muslims -- caused two directors at Nation Records to threaten to quit if "All Is War" hit the shops. "I know what I'm doing, everything I did was intentional," a determined Nawaz told AFP.
The release was held off, but Nation now says the album will come out online on August 7, then go on sale in stores on either August 14 or 21. Nawaz named the two who threatened to resign as Andrew Heath and Martin Mills, silent partners at Nation. A spokesperson for Mills's separate record label, Beggars Banquet, however said they would make no comment "at all" on the matter.
For a group that has not tasted mainstream success, Fun-Da-Mental's new album has generated plenty of media coverage. On the track list are titles like "I Reject", "Electro G-Had" and "Cookbook DIY", the last the voice of a suicide bomber that -- given the timing -- brings to mind the four, home-grown bombers who killed 56 people and wounded about 700 more in last July's attacks on the London transport network.
"Elements everyday chemicals at my reach;
Household bleach to extract the potassium;
Chlorate boiling on a hotplate with hate;
recipe for disaster plastic bomb blaster...
I'm strapped up cross my chest bomb belt attached;
deeply satisfied with the plan I hatched."
In a twist, the ambiguous rap ends by referring to a government-paid scientist with a "private room in the White House suite".
Another song, "786 All is War", predicts the downfall of the United States at the hands of its citizens who call in Muslims to liberate the country.
One track compares the speeches of Latin American revolutionary Che Guevara and Osama bin Laden, head of the Al-Qaeda terror network, attempting to show the two shared a similar drive to resist imperialism...
#1
Funny, french rap has a strong muslim streak too, in addition to its sexual/racist undertones (all while females are whores who long for the hunky black/arab male, while french males are wimps and pussies) even more in its underground version, with open calls for ethnic war. This was brought under scrutiny by rightwingers after the ramadan riots, and it was truly unbelievable such hate speech could be tolerated and even encouraged by big business (one famous "mainstream" group, sniper, was the artist of the month at the leftist fnac retail centers right after the riots; they were made famous by their anthem, "France is a b*tch, she betrayed us, we owe her nothing").
Is US rap, an unknown territory for me, thanks God, also marked by islam? Or is it limited to Europe and its muslim ethnic minorities?
#3
anonymous5089, I'm under the impression that American rap is mainly limited to sex and gang violence, but not religion. And there is also a Christian strand that uses the format to talk about Jesus saving the singer, and another (that black film actor who was in I,Robot most recently, for instance) that chooses to rap about striving for success and finding true love and such. Over here rap belongs to the youngsters across the spectrum.
IIRC chavez stresses the "arab" roots of the "latin culture", and islma is supposedly making gains in South America, as the ultimate 'in your face' to the gringo/western world order, remplacing leftism. The alliances are shaping nicely.
Caracas, Venezuela, July 19, 2006Venezuela is being granted observer member status in the Arab League, which is also expected to support Venezuelas bid for a UN Security Council seat. These two announcements coincide with the second Arab-South American Summit, which is took place this week in Caracas.
Under the shadow of an escalating war in the Middle East, the second Arab-South American Summit got underway this week in Caracas. Building on the first ever meeting a year ago in Brazil, delegations from fifteen Arab countries and twelve South American nations are gathering for two days to assess the progress of political, economics, cultural, environmental, and technological agreements reached in 2005. In addition, leaders attending this weeks summit will undoubtedly focus attention on the host countrys admission into the Arab league, the UN Security Council bids of Venezuela and Egypt, and the current crisis engulfing the Middle East.
#2
Hey hugo, the gigs up...we know your trying to be the socialist internationals new bully. Yep, thats the ticket, let another dictator assumume the mantal, perpetuating a long record of systemic abuse of everyone, not annointed by you and your cronies. World socialism has a record, Pol potty, mao, stalin, saddam, asshat, amahdijad, lil kim....all the same cloth and tired message. We need a New N not the u n, a force for freedom and democracy as opposed to the distorion, subversion and perpetuation of a select group of elitists whose sole purpose is world domination. hugo you and your ilk are what you are, the momentum of a remnant ideology, a cancer, to be excized.
Georgia's parliament has called for the withdrawal of Russian peacekeeping troops from the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. They called for the Russian troops to be replaced by an international force.
The resolution, supported by 144 members of parliament, calls on the government to act immediately, but it is not binding. It was passed mainly with the votes of parliamentarians loyal to President Mikhail Saakashvili. Seventy of the 214 deputies did not vote.
Abkhazia and Ossetia have run their own affairs since breaking away from the control of Georgia's central government in wars in the early 1990s. Georgia accuses Russia and the peacekeepers of siding with the separatists.
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07/22/2006 00:00 ||
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BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - The United States will pay Kyrgyzstan US$20 million (euro15.7 million) in annual rent - an eightfold increase - for the use of a military base in the ex-Soviet republic under a new deal reached last week, a senior Kyrgyz official said Friday. The rent is part of an overall US aid and compensation package totaling $150 million for Kyrgyzstan over the next year.
The package includes $11 million in payments for landings and takeoffs at the base, as well as outlays for the purchase of local fuel and technical assistance, Kyrgyz Security Council secretary Miroslav Niyazov told The Associated Press, disclosing for the first time the details of the deal signed July 14.
Niyazov said the United States will also provide Kyrgyzstan with three Russian-made Mi-8 helicopters under the agreement, which resolved months of discussions over payment for continued US use of the Manas Air Base, set up in 2001 to support operations in Afghanistan. Kyrgyz officials were unhappy with what Niyazov said was the previous annual rent of $2.5 million, and wanted $200 million. The money to be allocated under the new deal is subject to approval from the US Congress, which signs off on US foreign aid and assistance.
The base, near the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, became even more critical for US operations in Afghanistan after neighboring Uzbekistan evicted US forces from a base there amid harsh Western criticism of Tashkents human rights record. Kyrgyzstan also hosts a Russian base near Bishkek.
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#3
This is a smart move. If they have any problem with their indiginous muzzies, they can kill them till the touble stops. Who would protest? They get the external radical muzzies to focus on the west by directing intelligence and resources where they want.
Bet the Sheiks wish things were as simple as they are for Jed Clampett.
The Mosque of Paris has filed suit against a satirical weekly for publishing three cartoons of Islam's prophet - two of which were among those published by a Danish newspaper that triggered violent protests five months ago, judicial officials said Friday. The suit was filed against Philippe Val, executive editor of Charlie-Hebdo, a satirical magazine known for its caustic humor, and against the Rotatives publishing house for the cartoons, which appeared in a February edition.
The Mosque of Paris considers the publication of the cartoons to be "a deliberate act of aggression aimed at offending people of the Muslim religion in their attachment to their faith," the officials said. They were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter and asked not to be named. The mosque is the largest in France, where there are an estimated 5 million Muslims. A preliminary hearing was set for late September.
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#1
Your case was carefully considered, then dismissed out of hand as having no merit whatsoever. The court added, as an aside,"F**k you Muzzie scum if you can't take a joke."
Christine Axsmith, a software contractor for the CIA, considered her blog a success within the select circle of people who could actually access it.
Only people with top-secret security clearances could read her musings, which were posted on Intelink, the intelligence community's classified intranet. Writing as Covert Communications, CC for short, she opined in her online journal on such national security conundrums as stagflation, the war of ideas in the Middle East and -- in her most popular post -- bad food in the CIA cafeteria.
But the hundreds of blog readers who responded to her irreverent entries with titles such as "Morale Equals Food" won't be joining her ever again.
On July 13, after she posted her views on torture and the Geneva Conventions, her blog was taken down and her security badge was revoked. On Monday, Axsmith was terminated by her employer, BAE Systems, which was helping the CIA test software.
As a traveler in the classified blogosphere, Axsmith was not alone. Hundreds of blog posts appear on Intelink. The CIA says blogs and other electronic tools are used by people working on the same issue to exchange information and ideas.
CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano declined to comment on Axsmith's case but said the policy on blogs is that "postings should relate directly to the official business of the author and readers of the site, and that managers should be informed of online projects that use government resources. CIA expects contractors to do the work they are paid to do."
A BAE Systems spokesman declined to comment.
Axsmith, 42, said in an interview this week that she thinks of herself as the Erma Bombeck of the intel world, a "generalist" writing about lunch meat one day, the war on terrorism the next. She said she first posted her classified blog in May and no one said a thing. When she asked, managers even agreed to give her the statistics on how many people were entering the site. Her column on food pulled in 890 readers, and people sent her reviews from other intelligence agency canteens.
The day of the last post, Axsmith said, after reading a newspaper report that the CIA would join the rest of the U.S. government in according Geneva Conventions rights to prisoners, she posted her views on the subject.
It started, she said, something like this: "Waterboarding is Torture and Torture is Wrong."
And it continued, she added, with something like this: "CC had the sad occasion to read interrogation transcripts in an assignment that should not be made public. And, let's just say, European lives were not saved." (That was a jab at Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's trip to Europe late last year when she defended U.S. policy on secret detentions and interrogations.) A self-described "opinionated loudmouth with a knack for writing a catchy headline," Axsmith also wrote how it was important to "empower grunts and paper pushers" because, she explained in the interview, "I'm a big believer in educating people at the bottom, and that's how you strengthen an infrastructure."
In her job as a contractor at the CIA's software-development shop, Axsmith said, she conducted "performance and stress testing" on computer programs, and that as a computer engineer she had nothing to do with interrogations. She said she did read some interrogation-related reports while performing her job as a trainer in one counterterrorism office.
Her opinion, Axsmith added, was based on newspaper reports of torture and waterboarding as an interrogation method used to induce prisoners to cooperate.
"I thought it would be okay" to write about the Geneva Conventions, she said, "because it's the policy."
In recounting the events of her last day as an Intelink blogger, Axsmith said that she didn't hold up well when the corporate security officers grilled her, seized her badge and put her in a frigid conference room. "I'm shaking. I'm cold, staring at the wall," she recalled. "And worse, people are using the room as a shortcut, so I have no dignity in this crisis."
She said BAE officials told her that the blog implied a specific knowledge of interrogations and that it worried "the seventh floor" at CIA, where the offices of the director and his management team are.
She said she apologized right away and figured she would get reprimanded and her blog would be eliminated. She never dreamed she would be fired. Now, Axsmith said, "I'm scared, terrified really" of being criminally prosecuted for unauthorized use of a government computer system, something one of the security officers mentioned to her.
Axsmith said she's proud of having taken her views public -- well, sort of. "I know I hit the radar and it was amplified," she said. "I think I've had an impact."
In the meantime, she's been thinking about Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, the Navy lawyer who successfully challenged the constitutionality of military tribunals at the Guantanamo Bay prison.
The National Law Journal named Swift one of the 100 most influential lawyers in the country, but the Navy has so far passed him over for promotion. He told the Los Angeles Times then, "One thing that has been a great revelation for me is that you may love the military, but it doesn't necessarily love you."
"That's how I feel," Axsmith said, recalling what Swift said. "I love the CIA. I love the mission. I love the people. It's such a great place to work."
#1
She's not very smart, so I don't see her departure as a loss. Since people seldom actually learn from their mistakes, altering behavior by (Duh!) thinking before acting, I would watch her closely for awhile -- that lack of circumspection and discretion will probably be repeated.
#2
much to do about nothing. She was blogging on company time and they fired her. Anyone who blogs knows how time consuming it is. Maybe they got ticked with what she wrote, maybe not, but she's an idiot to think they'd be so enthralled by her posts that they would consider her time on her blog to be money well spent.
#3
It was not the blogging. If one reads the article, it says "The CIA says blogs and other electronic tools are used by people working on the same issue to exchange information and ideas". It was the content of her web-log.
"I thought it would be okay" to write about the Geneva Conventions, she said, "because it's the policy."
The problem was that Ms Axsmith decided both promulgate her policy and derogate the official one.
She likely would have been fired as well, had she blogged derogatively on specific individuals.
Question and verify facts and reasoning. Policy is left to the politicians so as to keep the machinery that delivers said facts to the decision makers honest and unbiased. Or at least thats how it was supposed to work. You worked for the nation, not for your political faction.
Why cant's the f**king lefties realize that the rules are there for a reason - and they apply to ALL? Especially on Intelink, and other internal restricted/classifed systems.
Good riddance - I hope they yanked her ticket and marked her non-clearable, and untrustworhty.
Buhbye Christine. Lotsa luck getting employed - and don't be surprised if there is a polygraph or 3 in your future as to leaks.
They why didn't you follow the f**king rules bitch?
A God Damned software tester CONTRACTOR spouting her uninformed opinion straight from what she *should* know are completely biased and factually incomplete slanted MS reports.
We're busting our balls out here and her cheap little lefty ass is scrawling on the virtual Walls dicking around instead of doing her job.
Toss her ass out on the street and fine her company for hiring dolts. Fine her for all the legal stuff you can and put her immediately into collections and throw a lien on her hosue to ruin her credit. Arrest her and hold her for 72 hours on suspicion of fraud.
Lets see her try to find a job with a ruined credit history and an arrest record - and a felony charge pending. Have a nice time living under a bridge bitch.
Yes, I'm mad as hell about this kind of crap.
Screw them - either join the team or be considered an opponent - an enemy, foreign or domestic and expect proper treatment.
The next lefty that gets in my way gets hit. Hard. They're pissing away all the work we're trying to do then acting surprised when they get bagged for it. F**king termites on the body politic of the Nation.
Yeah? And just a little unhinged as well. She posted an opinion, on a secure site, she didn't leak sensitive information to the NYT.
Get some perspective. Pull her ticket, fire her, but leave the ladies credit alone. Crap like that is why some folks would like to have an open season on government workers for certain agencies.
#10
Idiom Police -- actually -- I'm a first class bad speller! Use to do lots of teachers' workshops, that entailed my writing stuff on a blackboard. Some teachers would totally lose control of the topic, till, I did something about that misspelled word on the board.
And that became my time to let them know, during my first six years of schooling, including a spelling test every Friday, I always aced the test, got the pennys, the nickels, the candy (Snickers were a real favorite for scoring 100) got the gold stars. And would hammer them, on their teaching methods of teaching spelling! I was a product of their enlightenment of methods of teaching spelling.
But, as now, even then -- I'm still the worst speller around. My Dad, on Thursday nights, would come up with some tricks, and lots of tears in studying these words, for me to memorize the spellings. Those W words of what when where why, almost cost the love of a father and daughter.
Anyway... then, WordPerfect entered the world. That thrill of using an apostrophe in letter places to begin to guess at the spelling, became my life-long friend. See, this idea of looking it up in the dictionary, never made sense, because I didn't have the vaguest ideal of how to spell the word! The dictionary served me only to define the word after I found out how to spell it.
Sorry -- not the correct forum for this kind of Rant! Just wanted to "pook" a little fun at you.
And things are kinda "tense" around the world, and thus, around Rantburg U. Hoping a little humor would help.
#11
It's just that with a nym like Idiom Police, you are rather setting yourself up for it. You can change it if you'd like, although it would be helpful, for me at least, if for a few days you would be newnym (formerly Idiom Police) -- a kindness to my creeping senility. ;-)
Since Sen. Voinovich made his public conversion last week, you knew the NYT had to be working on a Bolton hit piece. Sure enough, it's here in the Sunday edition.
UNITED NATIONS, July 22 In recent months, as one international crisis followed another, John R. Bolton has fulfilled the role of the United Nations most influential ambassador at full strength, firmly articulating the position of the United States government regarding Iran, North Korea and the Middle East.
His performance won over at least one crucial critic, Senator George V. Voinovich, Republican of Ohio. Mr. Voinovichs opposition a year ago forced Mr. Bolton to take the job as a presidential recess appointment, an arrangement that expires at the end of this Congress in January.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has scheduled a hearing this Thursday on Mr. Boltons renomination, and a floor vote could come in September. My observations are that while Bolton is not perfect, he has demonstrated his ability, especially in recent months, to work with others and follow the presidents lead by working multilaterally, Mr. Voinovich said in a Washington Post opinion article on Thursday in which he confirmed that he would vote for Mr. Bolton.
Continued on Page 49
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07/22/2006 23:06 ||
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Senator Edward Kennedy called President George W. Bush's handling of the escalating violence between Israel and Hezbollah gunmen in Lebanon ``a disaster.''
When Alexander sliced the Gordian knot I'm sure some fat guy in a toga described it as "a disaster," too...
``We have effectively abdicated our position in that part of the world, complicated by Iraq and a diversion of attention with North Korea and Iran,'' Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in an interview on Bloomberg television's ``Political Capital With Al Hunt,'' to be aired this weekend. ``Unless the United States is involved, and involved and engaged in using its good offices and trying to find the forces on all sides to advance the cause of peace, we're going to continue to see cycle of violence,'' Kennedy said.
What we're seeing is the blow-off from 50 years of post-Nasser politix. Shuttling diplomatically back and forth, trying to placate actors who've long since perfected the techniques of bad faith, has accomplished precisely nothing. The "stability" it built turned out to be stagnation. Kennedy and his intellectual companions bitch and moan about the U.S. "support" for tyrannies, but every time we act against a tyranny they're right out front, honking that we're doing it wrong.
Fighting between Israeli military and Iranian-backed Hezbollah has left more than 300 Lebanese and 34 Israelis dead since it began July 12 when Hezbollah captured two Israeli Defense Forces. Both sides have vowed to continue the fighting while Lebanon has indicated its regular army is ready to fight should Israel invade. Democrats generally have been mild in their criticism of Bush since the conflict erupted last week.
Ted can't control himself, though. He suffers from ideological incontinence...
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
You conshervativesh don't undershtand. It'sh not the actionsh and thoughtsh. It'sh who doesh and thinksh them. The right ish never right. The left ish never wrong. If the right opposhesh an oppreshor, then shaid oppreshor cannot poshibly be all that bad. If the left opposhesh shaid oppreshor, shaid oppreshor is shcum. If the left shupportsh a free country, shaid free country ish the shalt of the earth. If the right shupportsh shaid free country, then freedom ish shlavery. Plain and shimple, don't you shee?
#11
And I'm supposed to listen to anything from a man that kicked a womans face in to save his own life and let her die? I have more respect for our enemies than for this monster. At least our enemies are honest about their actions.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/22/2006 11:24 Comments ||
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#12
He's just not a happy person.
Would you be? He was supposed to ascend to the throne of Camelot, not become a sales man at a camel lot.
#13
This is why the 18th of July should be a national holiday. That's the date in 1969 Mary Jo Kopechne gave her life to keep this drunk ever being president.
Posted by: Steve ||
07/22/2006 12:11 Comments ||
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#14
Never looked at it like that Steve, great point. She is a national hero in my eyes.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
07/22/2006 13:58 Comments ||
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#15
"What the American people have seen is this incredible disparity in which those people who had cars and money got out and those people who were impoverished drowned."
President Bush on Saturday slammed Syrian and Iranian support for Hezbollah and underscored U.S. support for the Israeli reaction to the provocations by the Shiite guerrillas in Lebanon.
"For many years, Syria has been a primary sponsor of Hezbollah and it has helped provide Hezbollah with shipments of Iranian-made weapons," Bush said in his weekly radio address on Saturday.
"Iran's regime has also repeatedly defied the international community with its ambition for nuclear weapons and aid to terrorist groups. Their actions threaten the entire Middle East and stand in the way of resolving the current crisis and bringing lasting peace to this troubled region."
Bush reiterated that Hezbollah started the crisis on July 12 when "the terrorist group Hezbollah" launched its raid into Israel that led to the kidnapping of two soldiers. Israel than began its offensive and Hezbollah rocketed Israeli targets.
"I believe sovereign nations have the right to defend their people from terrorist attack, and to take the necessary action to prevent those attacks," Bush said, also emphasizing that "we have called on Israel to continue to exercise the greatest possible care to protect innocent lives."
Bush said the United States is concerned over how the warfare will affect Lebanon's "young democracy" and he hopes Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will make strides in her diplomatic efforts next week in her trip to the Middle East and Europe.
"This is a difficult and trying time for the people of Lebanon. Hezbollah's practice of hiding rockets in civilian neighborhoods, and its efforts to undermine the democratically elected government have shown it to be no friend of Lebanon.
"By its actions, Hezbollah has jeopardized Lebanon's tremendous advances and betrayed the Lebanese people."
#1
He's boxing in the US Congress by stating Iranian culpability so plainly. Let's see if how the usual suspects in the Senate try to wiggle out. They won't succeed, thanks to this being about Israel. Once again, the Bad Guys have overplayed a weak hand.
The clear reference to the Iranian's defiance of the "international community", disregard for treaty obligations, the right of sovereign nations to self-defense, and the need to take obvious preventative actions to protect innocents will have the same effect in the Tranzi world. Damned hard to successfully argue with it as stated.
Carefully building the boxes and checking them off.
#2
Hezbollah's practice of hiding rockets in civilian neighborhoods, and its efforts to undermine the democratically elected government
Checking boxes indeed. This slams down all those whining about damage to civilian property, and puts paid to the false dichotomy of political/military arms.
After the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the Indian government has come under immense pressure to adopt a more robust policy toward tackling terrorism. While on the external front there is demand for stern action against Pakistan - some are even calling for military strikes on terrorist camps based in Pakistan - on the domestic front there have been strident calls for reviving draconian anti-terrorism legislation that was repealed a couple of years ago.
A series of bomb blasts ripped through suburban trains in Mumbai on July 11, killing 182 people and injuring more than 700. Investigations into the blasts are on. Hundreds have been rounded up and questioned, with three people arrested on Friday morning.
Meanwhile, India's political parties have swooped down on the tragedy to score points vis-a-vis their political rivals and consolidate their vote banks. First off the block was the Hindu right wing - the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shiv Sena and the Vishva Hindu Parishad. Others who have joined in the race include the Samajwadi Party (SP), which appeases Muslim extremism.
Within days of the tragedy, the BJP organized an anti-terrorism rally in Mumbai, which was addressed by Narendra Modi, the chief minister of Gujarat. The choice of Modi as the mascot for its anti-terrorism campaign was not without reason. Modi was at the helm in Gujarat when mobs led by Hindu right-wing activists massacred thousands of Muslims in 2002. And in the years since, he has adopted a virulently anti-Muslim, pro-Hindutva (an exclusivist Hindu ideology that the right wing advocates) agenda.
In Mumbai, Modi launched a blistering attack on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government's "soft" approach to tackling terrorism and demanded that Delhi re-enact the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) or else give the states the power to enact their own anti-terrorism legislation. Several other BJP leaders, including L K Advani, home minister when POTA was enacted in 2002, have demanded that it be revived. So far the government has ruled out re-enacting the legislation.
Some believe that POTA or similar legislation is essential to prevent terrorism in India. They miss the point that when it was in effect it didn't prevent terrorist attacks. India's parliament building was attacked in December 2001, when POTA was an ordinance. The Kaluchak army base in Jammu was attacked (May 2002), followed by a string of terrorist strikes on the Akshardham Temple (September 2002) and the Raghunath Temple in Jammu (March and November 2002).
In fact, POTA might have been instrumental in fueling terrorism. Its misuse - POTA was used by the Modi government in Gujarat to harass Muslim youth after the riots - is said to have contributed to deepened rage, prompting hundreds of them to join extremist outfits fighting the Indian state.
Those who are clamoring for tough new legislation to tackle terrorism are also ignoring the fact that existing legislation provides police with powers they need to fight terrorism. Soon after POTA was repealed by the new Congress-led government, some of its provisions were retained by amending other laws. For instance, the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 1967 was amended to include POTA provisions for banning terrorist organizations and their support systems, including funding.
The militant organizations banned under POTA therefore continued to remain illegal. This legislation imposes penalties that are as stiff as POTA's for a wide range of offenses, including committing a terrorist act, harboring terrorists, being a member of a terrorist group and holding proceeds of terrorism. And as under POTA, intercepted communications are admissible as evidence. And in insurgency-racked Kashmir and the northeastern states, even tougher laws - the Public Security Act and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act - are in operation to fight terrorism there.
After the repeal of POTA India might not have a special law against terrorism, but there are laws that contain provisions specifically meant to combat that problem.
In Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act, 1999, gives police and intelligence agencies ample powers. Yet these laws and the powers they provide the police were not sufficient to prevent the serial blasts on July 7.
To prevent terrorism, intelligence-gathering must be improved. The online Public Affairs magazine points out that "terrorism must be preempted at the planning stage, and key to this is human intelligence ... Once the terrorist planning stage is passed, and the sleeper cells and modules are activated, it becomes harder to contain the violence. Between planning and managing the logistics, officials say, there was a long gap in which terrorist attacks could be foiled, but this gap is shrinking as the terrorists get more proficient, and more confident when they see the state not pursuing them single-mindedly."
Intelligence and police officials complain of political interference neutralizing their work. They say that the definition of a terrorist seems to change with changes in government. In the process, even if they provide input regarding possible terrorist attacks little is done by the political authorities to prevent it from happening. There were several indications that terrorists were planning to strike in Mumbai, which apparently was conveyed to the Maharashtra government. The government did not act and the result was the July 11 strikes.
It is not just laws, then, that will prevent attacks but the political will to prevent them. And the political will is often not there because politicians are constantly eyeing their vote banks even when decisions related to national security need to be made.
Despite the ban on the Students' Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) and its reported involvement in terrorist attacks - the probe into the Mumbai blasts suggests that SIMI activists executed the attacks - the Uttar Pradesh government has defended the outfit. The SP, which heads the government in Uttar Pradesh, is eyeing the Muslim vote and is projecting itself as a champion of the Muslims. With the state due to go to the polls next year, the SP is wooing the Muslim vote by turning a blind eye on Muslim extremism. It is impossible, say police officials, to crack down on terrorists when the government backs them. Similar is the case with Hindu extremists in states ruled by the BJP. The UPA makes decisions regarding national security keeping in mind their electoral impact.
The Congress party blames its main rival, the BJP, for deepening Muslim alienation from the Indian state and for the flow of Muslim youth to extremist outfits. It has a point. The destruction of the Babri Masjid by the BJP and its fraternal outfits in 1993 and the anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat have provided a boost to Islamic extremism in India. Videos of these events and anti-Muslim hate speeches delivered by leaders of the Sangh Parivar (the family of Hindu organizations of which the BJP is a part) constitute part of the material that Muslim extremists use to motivate their operatives.
But the Congress is no less guilty. In 1984, mobs led by Congress leaders massacred Sikhs in Delhi. The Congress carried out an intensely communal campaign in the elections soon after. It criticized the BJP for not banning the Bajrang Dal (a Hindu extremist outfit that is part of the Sangh Parivar) under POTA. But it has not proscribed the organization either for fear of turning away the Hindu vote. It made a big show of repealing POTA to score points over the BJP and to appease Muslims but quietly included many of its provisions by amending other laws. In states where it is in power, it has been soft on Muslim extremism and allowed terrorist modules to proliferate. The number of terrorist modules busted in 2005 was a third of the figure for 2004.
If Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf turns off the terror tap, a significant proportion of India's problem with terrorism will no doubt be addressed. But with terrorism in India increasingly taking on an Indian face, India will need to focus on setting its house in order. Its politicians will have to stop playing politics with terrorism.
Posted by: john ||
07/22/2006 15:33 ||
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Tribesmen held a rare meeting on Friday to try to broker a peace deal between the government and Taliban and Al Qaeda militants operating near the Afghan border, officials said. The 45-member grand jirga or council including tribal elders, local legislators and Islamic scholars gathered in Miranshah, the capital of restive North Waziristan region.
Hundreds of people have died in recent clashes between security forces and fundamentalist Islamic rebels in the semi-autonomous tribal zone, but the insurgents launched a unilateral ceasefire there last month. The government and the tribesmen say they are trying to find a political solution in accordance with tribal customs and traditions, instead of dealing with the problem through military means. We are passing through a very difficult and delicate phase of our history, Ali Mohammad Jan Orakzai, the governor of North West Frontier Province, which borders the tribal region, told jirga members on Thursday. The current situation demands that we must take every step with caution and a deep sense of commitment and responsibility.
Officials said the immediate task of the jirga would be to get an extension in the truce which expires on July 25. But the rebels also gave a string of demands, including replacing army troops with tribal police and the release of all tribesmen detained in military operations.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Grand jerkoff works every time
Posted by: Captain America ||
07/22/2006 0:51 Comments ||
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NEW DELHI - India said on Friday that Pakistan should arrest the leader of a powerful Kashmiri guerrilla group based there and hand him over to New Delhi if it was serious about fighting terrorism. The call came after Indian officials said Pakistan-backed Islamists may have carried out or planned last weeks bomb blasts in Mumbai that killed more than 180 people.
The self-styled chief of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Syed Salahuddin, who is freely roaming in Pakistan and in PoK ... should be arrested and handed over to India, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters, referring to Pakistan-administered Kashmir as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
Not going to happen, the ISI will whack Perv if he even thinks of doing it.
The Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, led by the Pakistan-based Salahuddin, is the biggest militant group fighting Indian rule in Kashmir.
Radical Iraqi Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday predicted Israel would collapse like New York's twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001, if Sunnis and Shiites join in their fight.
"I will continue defending my Shiite and Sunni brothers, and I tell them that if we unite, we will defeat Israel without the use of weapons," Sadr said during a speech in the southern city Iraqi city of Kufa. (AP)
#2
Sunni and Shiite? His do-rag ass has a lot more to worry about than how he and his Sunni brothers will team up with each other to overthrow the Jews.
F*** these shithead Shiites. The only ones we should've have given any kind of respect to in Iraq was and is the Kurds. I think for fun we should start rumors that we are going to let Saddam free to straighten out their asses.
Has it ever maybe occured that he was an asshole extroardinaire for a reason? I'm starting to see his point, and that is scaring the shiite out of me.
#3
I wish we would stop playing footsies with this guy. Drop a JDAM on this terrorist and be done with it. Israel is not scared to drop 23 tons of munitions on a mosque. We should do the same.
This guy is especially dangerous because he is a cleric. Clerics are the terrorists Viagra. We tell the Saudis to control their clerics but, we do nothing about the Sadr.
#4
According Bablefish "Muqtada al-Sadr" is Iraqi for "Howard Dean." Muq's comments will prove useful for ensuring Americans really don't give a shiite when we "redeploy" to Iran and Syria and let leave Iraqi to the tender mercies of their militias.
Posted by: regular joe ||
07/22/2006 9:20 Comments ||
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The PA government warned on Wednesday that the continued Arab and international feeble reaction towards the Israeli atrocities in Gaza Strip and the West Bank is sending the wrong signal to the IOA to go ahead with their massacres against the unarmed Palestinian people. Spokesman of the PA government Dr. Ghazi Hamad said in a statement he issued Wednesday that his government was profoundly concerned with the serious IOF aggressions and the spilling of innocent Palestinian blood in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, especially the Wednesday's bloody assaults on the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza. Nine Palestinian citizens were martyred, and 108 others were wounded in the Israeli shelling of that populated camp.
The PA government, further, denounced the deliberate IOF troops targeting of medical teams carrying out their human duties, and the frenzied IOF troops' operations and demolition in the West Bank city of Nablus where they killed and wounded tens of Palestinian citizens and demolished a number of official buildings. He elaborated that the systematic Israeli hostilities were meant to derail and strangle efforts of the current elected PA government, stressing, however, that no matter the Israeli measures would be and regardless of their intensity, they will never succeed in breaking the determination of the Palestinian people or demoralizing them.
Hamas, for its part, issued a statement deprecating the Israeli intentional targeting of journalists and media institutions in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, urging the journalists to steadfastly challenge the Israeli occupation government's attempts to muzzle them.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Human shields are the responsibility of those using them, according to the conventions. Is the PA asking to be charged with war crimes?
#4
Nope, SOP, not any more than they have grasped the concept that they brought this on themselves by kidnapping a soldier. They have absolutely no idea of the whole "cause=effect" thingy.
#5
World attention spans are short. They are bored with Hamas and have changed the channel to watch the Hezbollah fireworks show. Tough luck, Paleos, your show has been cancelled and about that West Bank thing, forget it.
This threat dates from April, but it hasn't been disseminated. I corrected typos.
Supreme Leader's Word
The government that arises from people and the ruling system that is supported and maintained by people, cannot be frightened by threats. I say it now and from this place: Let Americans understand that if they commit an aggression against Islamic Iran, Islamic Iran will hit their interests every where possible in the World. We are not like those who ildly take somebody's strike without response. We call for peace and stability. We do not engage in hostile action against any country. The proof of that is clear. You see, which country have we attacked? With which country have we waged war? Which country have we threatened? We are not like that, but if somebody strikes us, we will respond with a much stronger strike.
Sunnis began competing with Shiites for jihad credentials, after the overthrow of the Iranian Monarchy. A joint resolution against Israel, issued by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, would start the competition anew. Israel needs to neutralize the Iran threat on its own, rather than put Israelis at the mercy of Western indulgence of enemies who pose an inter-generational ICBM threat to the US Homeland.
Iran former mullah president hails Hezbollah as "heroes" against "non-believers"
Jul 21, 2006
Mullah Rafsanjani on Friday hailed Lebanon's Hezbollah cronies as "heroes", but rejected mounting allegations that Iran and Syria were behind the Shiite movement's conflict with Israel. "The Hezbollah forces have done a great job and have resisted well. They and their leader, our dear brother Hassan Nasrallah, are heroes," the influential mullah and former president said in his Friday bassijis' gathering in Tehran.
Iran has been accused of financing Hezbollah, although the Islamic regime insists it only gives "moral" support to its fellow hardline Shiites.
"It is misleading to say that Iran and Syria are carrying this out," Rafsanjani said of Hezbollah's fight against the Jewish state. "These are careless statements."
Israel launched its offensive against Lebanon on July 12 after Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers.
"Destroying a country is not proportionate to capturing two hostages," Rafsanjani said, attributing the ongoing Israeli assault against Lebanon as ?part of an evil US plot for the Greater Middle East".
"The United States and Britain do not allow the Security Council to order a ceasefire. The UN Secretary General (Kofi Annan) makes proposals favoured by Israel," Rafsanjani added.
But he said that "most deplorable of all" were fellow Muslim nations.
"Arab and Islamic countries... do not even bother to condemn the fact that Muslims are being butchered by non-believers. This is a historic catastrophe," mullah fumed as he goes for 'chest-beating' mode.
According to state television, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also telephoned Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to call for an emergency meeting of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the "activation of the Islamic world to stop these Zionist crimes".
Ahmadinejad has previously described Israel as a "tumour", and has said it should "wiped off the map" or moved as far away as Alaska.
On Tuesday Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accused Iran of helping to coordinate Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers in a bid to distract attention from the controversial Iranian nuclear programme.
"The moment for the abduction owed nothing to chance, it was determined with Iran to distract the attention of the international community from the Iranian nuclear programme," Olmert said, according to army radio.
"Hezbollah is supported by Iran and Syria," British Prime Minister Tony Blair also said on Tuesday.
It is supported "by the former in weapons -- weapons, incidentally, very similar if not identical to those used against British troops in Basra -- and by the latter in many different ways and by both of them financially."
Turkish army has entered Iran Kurdish areas to kill Kurds with the Iranian army.
Turkey is demanding the right to kill the PKK (read all kurds) in Iraq.
Turkey and Iran are discussing a joint attack into Iraq. (this is Turkey's OIC interest)
I am very worried that civilans still live near US bases in Turkey. Turkey appears to be switching sides.
When Turkey switches we have a real mess. Fighting between Greece and Turkey, Turkey and the US. Iran with Nukes supporting the idiots in Turkey. A mess!
Of course the sky might not be falling but I would like to see US families and civilians out of Turkey now.
#2
One other thing. We need some cruise missiles to destroy totally and completely a WELL in IRAN that a certain MORON believes the HIDDEN IMAN will emerge from.
It needs to be plastered now even though it sounds stupid to do so! Its not stupid and NUTJOB is unhinged enough to be totally set off kilter by such an act.
Has Time finally decided to do a straight news story?
Although some conservatives have been fretting that Lebanese rocket fire and Israeli warplanes are making President Bush look helpless, administration officials revealed to TIME today that they have plans to harness the chaos as a "leadership moment" for Bush that could wind up helping his flagging goal of transforming the Middle East.
These officials said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will leave Sunday night for a week of diplomacy in the region and will go with the modest goal of forming an "umbrella of Arab allies" in opposition to the militant group Hizballah that incited the conflagration by kidnapping two Israeli soldiers.
"She's not going to come home with a ceasefire, but stronger ties to the Arab world," an administration official said. "It's going to allow us to say that America isn't going to put up with this and we have Arab friends that are against you terrorists. What we want is our Arab allies standing against Hizballah and against Iran, since there is no one who doesn't think Iran is behind this. We're going to say to Hizballah and the terrorist groups, 'This will not stand.' That is the way to bring real change to the Middle East. If you just have a ceasefire, then soon or later, they go back to fighting."
Rice was to announce her plans at a briefing this afternoon, officials said. Officials were using the word "umbrella" instead of "coalition" to avoid reminders of the struggling coalition the U.S. led into Iraq. Administration officials said the plans Rice will discuss include security, humanitarian relief and reconstruction in Lebanon. "We do not want Hizballah to get the opportunity to rearm and rebuild," a Bush aide said.
Another administration official told TIME this morning that the diplomacy "is going remarkably well," pointing to phone calls the President has had with Middle Eastern leaders, the journey by two envoys to the region, and frequent conversations between National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley and his counterparts.
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow appeared on network morning shows to urge patience with the administration approach and to point out how active the Bush team has been. "The president never said this would be easy," Snow said on NBC's "Today" show, speaking of the wider war on terror. "Everybody who wants this kind of egg timer diplomacy, who thinks, okay, these things ought to happen quickly -- you don't understand human nature. Terrorists are not going to say, 'You know what? That's right. I'm going to pick another career.' Many times, they're going to fight to the death. We hope that is not the case in Lebanon."
#1
Officials were using the word "umbrella" instead of "coalition" to avoid reminders of the struggling coalition the U.S. led into Iraq
Is that so? How do you, Reporter, know this? Umbrella is a good word. And not one that immediately brings to my mind, a reminder of the struggling coalitions the U.S. led into Iraq.
Come on -- you're just kiddin' me! Right? Oh... well, I just happen to disagree with you. So there.
#2
WTF. We have been hand delivered a pretext to destroy Iran's capacity to develop an ICBM threat to the US Homeland. It is not a time for diplomacy.
How on earth does securing - read: buying - a temporary Arab buffer against Iran, advance US security? Unless Condi hasn't been reading today's news reports, Shiites and Sunnis have been protesting jointly, against Israel.
Iran has Shiite allies from its western border all the way to the Levant. That means it poses a permanent missile threat to Israel, that will be unleashed when Iran is indulged.
The US doesn't need to make friends in the Middle East; it needs to destroy enemies.
#3
Article: Although some conservatives have been fretting that Lebanese rocket fire and Israeli warplanes are making President Bush look helpless, administration officials revealed to TIME today that they have plans to harness the chaos as a "leadership moment" for Bush that could wind up helping his flagging goal of transforming the Middle East.
What conservatives? Conservatives are saying that this is Bush's chance to have Israel take out Hezbollah without GI's doing any of the heavy lifting. It's liberals who are saying that Bush looks helpless, which is simply a distortion. It is within Bush's (and any American president's) power to get Israel to stand down, in accordance with Time's terror-supporting agenda. The question however, is why Bush would do so - against American interests and in accordance with Time's pro-terrorist policy preferences. Once again, Time creates a skein of pro-terrorist goals directly contrary to American interests and suggests that Bush is a failure for not wanting to help the terrorists.
#4
Time: Rice was to announce her plans at a briefing this afternoon, officials said. Officials were using the word "umbrella" instead of "coalition" to avoid reminders of the struggling coalition the U.S. led into Iraq.
Uncle Sam doesn't need any damn umbrella. The whole concept, like the coalition, is just a fig leaf to reassure Americans that we are not shouldering the burden alone in the Mideast. The sad reality is, however, that we mostly are. But the umbrella concept as dreamed up by Time is moronic, of course. The friendly Arab countries in the region aren't providing an umbrella to Uncle Sam, we are providing an umbrella to them. What Time has failed to point out in its see-no-evil approach to analyzing Arab motives is that this "umbrella" is nothing like the Iraq coalition - it is aimed primarily at getting the Arab countries not to support Hezbollah with actual dollars. That is all it is - an attempt to get Arabs to not finance Hezbollah despite the fact that it is locked in combat with Israel, the little Satan. This has nothing at all to do with Time's view that Bush is looking weak by not screwing Israel.
#5
I've noticed that in the last few days the media have gone from slanting the facts to outright making things up in the hope that by saying it loudly enough it will become true. That SecState Condoleeza Rice actually has to announce that she is not going to engage in shuttle diplomacy, that a ceasefire will not be imposed, that Press Secretary Tony Snow has to outright contradict reporter Helen Thomas's presentation of what it pleased her to refer to as facts that were no such thing... this goes beyond not being able to understand science enough to understand the reality (or not) of global warming. This is simply shameful.
#6
I hope diplomacy works, but I can't see it succeeding. How can Israel end the missile threat, without engaging both the Shiite suppliers of Hizbollah, and the Sunni armers of Hamas?
#7
The mantra of the left and liberals is that violence never resolves anything. It is fairly clear to the average person in this situation that violence might actually accomplish what fifty years of talk have failed to do. The result is a level of cognitive dissonance in liberal minds.
Of course, they are stuck with their other problem; if Bush does something it is wrong, if he does nothing, he is also wrong. Plays havoc with a progessive mind.
Posted by: john ||
07/22/2006 7:23 Comments ||
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#8
Umbrella...Wasn't that what Star Wars was going to be? But that could never work.
#9
That whole "violence doesn't solve anything" idea is, at best, half right.
Mindless, stupid acts of violence can lead to more violence. Carefully planned and professionally executed violence rarely does. It's the difference between a street thug and a, um, "problem solver".
If those idiots who blabber that phrase ever stopped to think about the men and women who dabble in the darker side of human nature to ensure they sleep soundly at night, their heads would REALLY explode.
#12
The best point is that it is a very good idea.
The Sunni nations all realize that the Iranians are behind this, and in the long run, want to stick it big time to the Sunnis. I think that Condi has really helped convince them of this.
So by filling the below-the-river gap with an "umbrella" of Sunni soldiers from Egypt and Jordan, it will solve a lot of the problem.
That is, any Hezbollah who goes down there will be quickly snuffed by unsympathetic Sunnis whose nations are relatively at peace with Israel.
Everybody in the region knows that Sunnis are used to managing Shiites, usually without slaughtering them, so the southern Lebanon Shiites won't get too excited about having Sunni soldiers watching over them. They will probably be relieved that Hezbollah isn't going to be strong-arming them anymore.
The best part is that it will change the balance of power in Beirut. Whereas the native Christians and Sunni are timid, Egyptian and Jordanian military can be their backbone, so they don't have to fret as much that the Shiites will again start up the civil war.
Western tourists fleeing from the Israeli-targeted Lebanese capital Beirut continue to arrive in Turkey on their way back to their home countries.
Some 515 Canadian citizens, who were stranded in Lebanon, arrived in the Turkish port of Mersin on Thursday aboard two passenger boats. The Canadians were welcomed by Turkish Red Crescent Society representatives in the port where some of them received treatment. Canadian ambassador to Ankara Yves Brodeur was also present to meet the Canadian tourists.
The stranded tourists were taken to the city of Adana where they spent the night. They will fly to Canada on Friday. More Canadian citizens, who are awaiting evacuation from Beirut, are expected to arrive in Turkey today.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/22/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
It's only a matter of time before they set up camps, demand territory concessions and start blowing stuff up.
Posted by: regular joe ||
07/22/2006 10:02 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejected the ``false promise'' of an immediate cease-fire in the spreading war between Israel and Hezbollah on Friday and said she would seek long-term peace during a trip to the Mideast beginning Sunday.
The top U.S. diplomat defended her decision not to meet with Hezbollah leaders or their Syrian backers during her visit. ``Syria knows what it needs to do, and Hezbollah is the source of the problem,'' Rice said as she previewed her trip, which begins with a stop in Israel.
No, Iran is the source of the problem. But maybe she's just being diplomatic.
Rice said the United States is committed to ending the bloodshed, but not before certain conditions are met. The Bush administration has said that Hezbollah must first turn over the two Israeli soldiers whose capture set off the 10-day-old violence, and stop firing missiles into Israel. ``We do seek an end to the current violence, we seek it urgently. We also seek to address the root causes of that violence,'' Rice said. ``A cease-fire would be a false promise if it simply returns us to the status quo.''
There's a clever turn of phrase, the 'root causes' argument. Sling that one back at the Democrats.
Asked why she didn't go earlier and engage in quick-hit diplomacy to try to end the death and destruction that has gripped the region, she replied, ``I could have gotten on a plane and rushed over and started shuttling and it wouldn't have been clear what I was shuttling to do.''
Rice plans meetings in Jerusalem and the West Bank with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, as well as sessions in Rome with representatives of European and moderate Arab governments that are meant to shore up the weak democratic government in Lebanon's capital Beirut.
Rice's trip resumes a role the United States has long played as the key Mideast peace broker, but Rice is not expected to try to get a signed deal during her brief visit. ``I know that there are no answers that are easy, nor are there any quick fixes,'' Rice said. ``I fully expect that the diplomatic work for peace will be difficult.''
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/22/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
She made her position crystal clear. Israel has a green light. The US is 110% behind Ohmert. This is what she is going to tell everyone she meets. Apparently the media think something else is happening.
Posted by: john ||
07/22/2006 7:34 Comments ||
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#2
We also seek to address the root causes of that violence
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Anxious Americans hauled bulging suitcases down a rocky Lebanese beach and into the waiting hold of a U.S. Navy landing craft Friday as the accelerating U.S. evacuation moved thousands away. As many as 5,000 U.S. citizens were slated to leave - the largest number in one day since the evacuation began Wednesday. U.S. Embassy officials said that more than 8,000 of the 25,000 Americans in Lebanon when the bombing started will have evacuated by Friday night.
U.S. Marines helped push baby carriages and lifted children into the boats ferrying thousands of U.S. citizens, many who had been visiting family in Lebanon, to seven warships that waited in the Mediterranean. Dogs sniffed luggage for explosives. Troops handed out water bottles and military rations to evacuees, many of whom had been waiting in the sun since 5 a.m.
The USS Trenton, normally a troop transport, left Beirut carrying 1,775 Americans to the neighboring Mediterranean island of Cyprus, as did the USS Nashville, with 1,000 evacuees. Officials hoped a commercial vessel, the Saudi-owned Rahmah, would leave with another 1,400 Americans headed for Turkey.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/22/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The Civil War of Lebanon has a horrible legacy:
Approximately 1/3 of the population left the country. Of that group, about 1/2 the refugees were Christian. The Shia went from being the smallest fraction of Lebanon's population to being the largest.
It would not surprise me if a large portion of the "Lebanese-Americans" being evacuated are Christians.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/22/2006 12:21 Comments ||
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LARNACA - Cyprus complained on Friday it felt left alone by the international community over the unprecedented evacuation of foreign nationals from Lebanon to the tiny holiday island.
Since the sealift began in earnest on Monday, some 20,000 foreign nationals have come through Cyprus, the majority of whom have now left for home, putting massive pressure on facilities at the peak of the holiday season. Up until now Cyprus has been basically left alone and unassisted in its effort to help so many thousands of people, Cypriot government spokesman Christodoulos Pashardes told reporters. This astonishingly large number is already challenging our acknowledged success so far and testing our infrastructure and the ability of Cyprus to effectively respond to this serious humanitarian problem, he added.
Cyprus has called for the immediate intervention of other countries, especially from the EU, to help it handle the thousands of people from poorer countries who need to be swiftly repatriated. Its key request is to make more aircraft available, especially for third country nationals.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/22/2006 00:00 ||
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Lesson for Nasrallah: "The violence done to Lebanon shall overwhelm you."
BY FOUAD AJAMI Pity Lebanon: In a world of states, it has not had a state of its own. A garden without fences, was the way Beirut, its capital city, was once described. A cleric by the name of Hassan Nasrallah, at the helm of the Hezbollah movement, handed Lebanon a calamity right as the summer tourist season had begun. Beirut had dug its way out of the rubble of a long war: Nasrallah plunged it into a new season of loss and ruin. He presented the country with a fait accompli: the "gift" of two Israeli soldiers kidnapped across an international frontier. Nasrallah never let the Lebanese government in on his venture. He was giddy with triumphalism and defiance when this crisis began. And men and women cooped up in the destitution of the Shiite districts of Beirut were sent out into the streets to celebrate Hezbollah's latest deed.
Siniora claimed he was mistranslated or misquoted the other day when he referred to Hezbollah as a "state within a state," but whether or not he was, the statement was accurate. Hezbollah's an externally imposed creation in Leb, an instrument of Iran's grab at being a great power. Lebanon's an oligarchy dressed up as a democracy, and Hezbollah's outside the structure of the oligarchy. Its aims aren't those of the Lebanese, but those of the caliphate.
It did not seem to matter to Nasrallah that the ground that would burn in Lebanon would in the main be Shiite land in the south. Nor was it of great concern to he who lives on the subsidies of the Iranian theocrats that the ordinary Lebanese would pay for his adventure. The cruel and cynical hope was that Nasrallah's rivals would be bullied into submission and false solidarity, and that the man himself would emerge as the master of the game of Lebanon's politics.
The aim of the Islamist enterprise, whether it be Sunni or Shiite, doesn't include the wellbeing of the common man. The commons are mere fodder. They make no secret of their dislike of liberty, despite the benefits it brings. They consider the benefits to be outweighed by the costs starting with the loss of prestige of the holy men...
...Nasrallah's brazen deed was, in the man's calculus, an invitation to an exchange of prisoners. Now, the man who triggered this crisis stands exposed as an Iranian proxy, doing the bidding of Tehran and Damascus.
Leb's a land of subtle politix and shifting alliances, but I don't think anybody's ever regarded Hezbollah as anything other than an Iranian proxy. Their problem is that they realized it was too powerful for them to take on without another civil war. Its presence being a given, something they couldn't do anything about, they regarded it as just another factor, a resource to be used if convenient, as they tried to coopt it into the existing fairly stable structure...
He had confidently asserted that "sources" in Israel had confided to Hezbollah that Israel's government would not strike into Lebanon because Hezbollah held northern Israel hostage to its rockets, and that the demand within Israel for an exchange of prisoners would force Ehud Olmert's hand. The time of the "warrior class" in Israel had passed, Nasrallah believed, and this new Israeli government, without decorated soldiers and former generals, was likely to capitulate.
There's a difference between Olmert and Sharon. Had Nasrallah tried the game as played this time when Sharon was PM he's have known what to expect. The game would have been different, and much more subtle. Sharon, after all, did once trade hundreds of prisoners for three corpses. He might not have tried anything at all if Moshe Dayan or the divine Golda had been around. He discounted the fact that the Israeli left is loud and it's obnoxious, but that Kadima's got to measure itself against Sharon. Sharon carried the baggage of his prior life in Lebanon, which gave him stature to maneuver within Israelis politix and scared the crap out of the Arabs. Olmert's got to perform as well to be a "Sharonist." The current crisis hasn't shown him particularly well; he hasn't been decisive when he should have been, and he's fallen into the trap of "sending signals," moving tanks around Gaza seemingly without rhyme or reason. He's backed down when he didn't have to the demand for Hezbollah to be disbanded seems to have been dropped, most notably. But his choices have been constrained by the enemy and if he doesn't act decisively someone else will.
Now this knowingness has been exposed for the delusion it was. There was steel in Israel and determination to be done with Hezbollah's presence on the border. States can'tand don'tshare borders with militias. That abnormality on the Lebanese-Israeli border is sure not to survive this crisis. One way or other, the Lebanese army will have to take up its duty on the Lebanon-Israel border. By the time the dust settles, this terrible summer storm will have done what the Lebanese government had been unable to do on its own.
I'm guessing it'll be at a severe cost to Lebanon, though. The civil war is the elephant in the Beirut dining room, just like Syria's the guest who wouldn't leave.
In his cocoon, Nasrallah did not accurately judge the temper of his own country to begin with. No less a figure than the hereditary leader of the Druze community, Walid Jumblatt, was quick to break with Hezbollah, and to read this crisis as it really is. "We had been trying for months," he said, "to spring our country out of the Syrian-Iranian trap, and here we are forcibly pushed into that trap again."
I think Wally realizes that the push didn't come from anything in the Leb political process, but from outside that process. Hezbollah acted as a tool of Iran, in response to international pressure on Teheran. Beirut's paying the consequences and Damascus is trying to reap the benefits.
In this two-front warHamas's in the Palestinian territories and Hezbollah's in LebanonMr. Jumblatt saw the fine hand of the Syrian regime attempting to retrieve its dominion in Lebanon, and to forestall the international investigations of its reign of terror in that country.
Syria's presence in Leb was actually welcomed by most, as it imposed peace among the factions. In the mid-80s the continuing carnage in Beirut seemed like it would never end.
In the same vein, a broad coalition of anti-Syrian Lebanese political parties and associations that had come together in the aftermath of the assassination last year of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, called into question the very rationale of this operation, and its timing: "Is it Lebanon's fate to endure the killing of its citizens and the destruction of its economy and its tourist season in order to serve the interests of empty nationalist slogans?"
There's the weak spot in the oligarchy. Notice they said nothing about Teheran? The anti-Syrian bloc's been caught up in its own internal negotiations and machinations. And the pro-Syrian bloc Nahbih Berri, Suleiman Franjieh, and the "security" apparatus still retains a lot of strength. If they didn't, President Lahoud would have been bounced last March.
In retrospect, Ehud Barak's withdrawal from Israel's "security zone" in southern Lebanon in the summer of 2000 had robbed Hezbollah of its raison d'être. It was said that the "resistance movement" would need a "soft landing" and a transition to a normal political world. But the imperative of disarming Hezbollah and pulling it back from the international border with Israel was never put into effect.
Left to their own devices, the oligarchy would have argued and compromised and blathered about Resolution 1559 for the next ten years. My guess is that even if or when Israel thoroughly thumps Hezbollah, there will still be elements that resist full implementation. They'd rather allow another Hezbollah to grow.
Hezbollah found its way into Parliament, was given two cabinet posts in the most recent government, and branched out into real estate ventures; but the heavy military infrastructure survived and, indeed, was to be augmented in the years that followed Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon. Syria gave Hezbollah cover, for that movement did much of Syria's bidding in Lebanon.
My guess is that someday we'll "discover" they were the agents for the "unsolved" car booms in the time since Hariri's assassination.
A pretext was found to justify the odd spectacle of an armed militia in a time of peace: Hezbollah now claimed that the battle had not ended, and that a barren piece of ground, the Shebaa Farms, was still in Israel's possession. By a twist of fate, that land had been in Syrian hands when they fell to Israel in the Six Day War. No great emotions stirred in Lebanon about the Shebaa Farms. It was easy to see through the pretense of Hezbollah. The state within a state was an end in itself.
Bingo. Spot on. Had the Syrians handed the deed to Shebaa Farms to the Leb government there would have been other reasons for the Resistance to maintain its armaments, just as there are reasons for the Paleos to maintain theirs.
For Hezbollah, the moment of truth would come when Syria made a sudden, unexpected retreat out of Lebanon in the spring of 2005. An edifice that had the look of permanence was undone with stunning speed as the Syrians raced to the border, convinced that the Pax Americana might topple the regime in Damascus, as it had Saddam Hussein's tyranny. For Hezbollah's leaders, this would be a time of great uncertainty. The "Cedar Revolution" that had helped bring an end to Syrian occupation appeared to be a genuine middle-class phenomenon, hip and stylish, made up in the main of Sunni Muslims, Druze and Christians. Great numbers of propertied and worldly Shiites found their way to that Cedar Revolution, but Hezbollah's ranks were filled with the excluded, newly urbanized people from villages in the south and the Bekaa Valley.
Hillbillies. Rustics. Syrians.
Hassan Nasrallah had found a measure of respectability in the Lebanese political system; he was a good orator and, in the way of Levantine politics, a skilled tactician. A seam was stitched between the jihadist origins of Hezbollah and the pursuit of political power in a country as subtle and complex and pluralistic as Lebanon. There would be no Islamic republic in Lebanon, and the theory of Hezbollah appeared to bend to Lebanon's realities. But Nasrallah was in the end just the Lebanese face of Hezbollah. Those who know the workings of the movement with intimacy believe that operational control is in the hands of Iranian agents, that Hezbollah is fully subservient to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
No! Reaaaaaaaally? But they're so subtle about it!
The hope that Hezbollah would "go Lebanese," and "go local," was thus set aside. At any rate, Nasrallah and his lieutenants did not trust the new Lebanon to make the ample room that a country at warand within the orbit of Syriahad hitherto made for them in the time of disorder. Though the Shiites had risen in Lebanon, there remains in them a great deal of brittleness, a sense of social inadequacy relative to the more privileged communities in the country.
The cliche Lebanese is sophisticated and cosmopolitan, Phoenecian rather than Arab. Leb's wealth comes from trade, not from olives grown on Shebaa Farms. The Islamists are alien to the culture that's been there for 4000 years.
That raid into Israel, the capture of the two Israeli soldiers, was a deliberate attack against the new Lebanon. That the crisis would play out when the mighty of the G-8 were assembled in Russia was a good indication of Iran's role in this turn of events. Hassan Nasrallah had waded beyond his depth: The moment of his glory would mark what is destined to be a setback of consequence for him and for his foot soldiers. Iran's needs had trumped Hezbollah's more strictly Lebanese agenda.
There's more at the link...
Posted by: Fred ||
07/22/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
The more I read by Ajami, the more I realize why CBS dropped him like a hot rock during the first Gulf war, when he was one of their regional experts.
OKLAHOMA CITY - A woman whose Marine son died while serving in Iraq is fighting to keep his name off anti-war T-shirts.
Judy Vincent learned last year that Cpl. Scott M. Vincent's name is among about 1,700 included on a T-shirt being sold by an Arizona man over the Internet. The front of the shirt reads "Bush Lied" and the back reads "They Died." Wow. How original. Did somebody copyright "No blood for oil"?
The Bokoshe woman, whose son was killed in April 2004, pushed for Oklahoma legislators to pass a law that makes it a misdemeanor to use a soldier's name or likeness for advertising purposes without consent a misdemeanor. The law goes into effect this November.
U.S. Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla., introduced a similar bill in Congress two weeks ago after Vincent asked him to do so. Republican U.S. Reps. Charles W. Boustany Jr. of Louisiana and Geoff Davis of Kentucky introduced similar legislation around the same time.
The shirt vendor "has the right to voice his opinion, as we all do," Vincent said.
"But I do believe the First Amendment stops when you use a person's name or likeness to make a profit. I don't care what he thinks about the war. I do care that he's making money off my son's death."
The shirt vendor, Dan Frazier of Flagstaff, Ariz., recently issued an open letter to family members who contacted him to protest the use of their loved ones' names on the shirt. He praised the soldiers' bravery and sacrifice and insisted he was not trying to degrade their service, but said he would not stop selling the merchandise. Yes. He "supports the troops". You betcha...
"Every name matters, and will be retained to help underscore the horrific loss of life that has been caused by President Bush's rush to war under false pretenses," the letter states.
Responding to the federal legislation, Frazier posted a statement on his Web site vowing to fight it in court if necessary, but added that he would probably run out of merchandise before any law might take effect. He said it sold poorly and he is unlikely to make more.
#5
this is a merchandisers dream come true. And I'm guessing he doesn't care that he's an asshole. He won't make more shirts, but this publicity will help him sell what he's got on hand.
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.
KABUL, July 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): Thousands of Afghan refugees in Saudi 
HERAT CITY, July 20 (Pajhwok Afghan News): About 16 dissidents, including two former local Taliban commanders abandoned violence and joined government in the western Farah province under the campaign of National Reconciliation Commission (NRC), officials said.
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan - The United States will pay Kyrgyzstan US$20 million (euro15.7 million) in annual rent - an eightfold increase - for the use of a military base in the ex-Soviet republic under a new deal reached last week, a senior Kyrgyz official said Friday. The rent is part of an overall US aid and compensation package totaling $150 million for Kyrgyzstan over the next year.
The Mosque of Paris has filed suit against a satirical weekly for publishing three cartoons of Islam's prophet - two of which were among those published by a Danish newspaper that triggered violent protests five months ago, judicial officials said Friday. The suit was filed against Philippe Val, executive editor of Charlie-Hebdo, a satirical magazine known for its caustic humor, and against the Rotatives publishing house for the cartoons, which appeared in a February edition.
Senator 
Tribesmen held a rare meeting on Friday to try to broker a peace deal between the government and Taliban and Al Qaeda militants operating near the Afghan border, officials said. The 45-member grand jirga or council including tribal elders, local legislators and Islamic scholars gathered in Miranshah, the capital of restive North Waziristan region. 
NEW DELHI - India said on Friday that Pakistan should arrest the leader of a powerful Kashmiri guerrilla group based there and hand him over to New Delhi if it was serious about fighting terrorism. The call came after Indian officials said Pakistan-backed Islamists may have carried out or planned last weeks bomb blasts in Mumbai that killed more than 180 people.
Western tourists fleeing from the Israeli-targeted Lebanese capital Beirut continue to arrive in Turkey on their way back to their home countries. 
WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejected the ``false promise'' of an immediate cease-fire in the spreading war between Israel and Hezbollah on Friday and said she would seek long-term peace during a trip to the Mideast beginning Sunday.
LARNACA - Cyprus complained on Friday it felt left alone by the international community over the unprecedented evacuation of foreign nationals from Lebanon to the tiny holiday island.
Pity Lebanon: In a world of states, it has not had a state of its own. A garden without fences, was the way Beirut, its capital city, was once described. A cleric by the name of 
