(somaliNet) The supreme leader of the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys reiterated his call on the Somali people to be unite for repelling any aggression from what he ascribed outside invaders citing the Ethiopian troops.
In an interview with Shabelle Radio in Mogadishu, Sheik Aweys condemned the US proposal at the UN to deploy African peace keepers in the country and saw it as exacerbating the tension. Sheik Aweys, who is believed to be the Godfather of the Islamic Courts, said that US government does not to see an Islamic state in Somalia. It is not a surprise but common [knowledge] that the current Bush administration is known to be the enemy of Muslims in the world,
Sheik Aweys, former military colonel, made it clear that his Islamist movement was formed to restore peace and stability in the country. He welcomed any efforts of reviving the reconciliation and peace process but he cast doubt the mediation role of the Kenyan government as partial accusing Nairobi of installing the stand off between the interim government and Islamic Courts. We do suspect the Kenyan government because it is tending to one side, that is the government in Baidoa so we could not rely on them as real mediator, Sheik Aweys said adding that later there have been ongoing negotiations between the Kenyan government and Islamic Courts after sending delegations in a bid to calm the situation. Now we are hopeful that the negotiations will end in success before Khartoum talks with the government. Earlier, Kenyan government certified that it is playing a neutral role in the political match in Somalia.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2006 00:00 ||
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I figger the ten "Islamic Scholars" who said this are now on somebody's hit list. Can't be flying in the face of all the other fatwas amd tradition and stuff like that there.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/04/2006 8:50 Comments ||
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#2
The only way this will have any value is if they get buy-in from Islamic political organizations around the world. That is, having organizations from the Muslim Brotherhood to the Islamic Courts of Somalia endorsing this decision.
#4
As a result, the custom can no longer be practiced by Muslims. Now awareness of
this decision has to be spread in the 33 affected countries.
In other words, it will be going on until I become a grandmother. Maybe a great-grandma. The 3458th most high ranking imam will declare it a zionist plot and we're back to square one.
Next step would be for several heads of State to make a speech using the new fatwa.
Once that's done, the world needs to request a similar fatwa on honor killings (another even nastier aspect of modern Islamic culture which is not mentioned in the Koran nor in any of the strong hadiths but derives from the general anti female tone of many other Koranic verses as well as support in the Hadiths, Sharia, etc.).
TOKYO (AP) - Four ex-employees of a Japanese company admitted illegally exporting measuring devices that can be converted for use in producing nuclear weapons, a company spokesman said Monday.
Former Mitutoyo Corp. President Kazusaku Tezuka and three other men admitted the prosecutors' charges against them on the opening day of their trial, Mitutoyo spokesman Kazutoshi Sato said. Mitutoyo issued a statement last month admitting the company broke export and foreign exchange laws in the case, which involves the alleged export of three-dimensional measuring devices without proper government authorization.
The company, which is also a defendant in the trial, said it would not contest the charges and pledged to cooperate fully with the investigation. ``We deeply regret the inconvenience and problems this matter has caused,'' Sato said. ``We are continuing our restructuring efforts to prevent it from happening again.''
Prosecutors suspect the company of exporting two of the devices illegally to its subsidiary in Malaysia via Singapore in 2001. The devices measure cylinders with great precision and can be used on centrifuges employed in uranium enrichment, a process that can produce civilian nuclear fuel or fissile material for a nuclear weapon, government officials say. Malaysia being part of the Khan conspiracy.
Though Malaysia is not on Japan's export blacklist, Japanese laws still require companies to get government authorization for sensitive exports valued at over $8,500 regardless of the country.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Anything for a buck, I guess.
Wasn't it Mitsubishi who sold some high precision milling equipment to the USSR that allowed them to create quiet propellers for their subs?
#5
Most people think of Mitsubishi as a car manufacturer, not a submarine-propeller milling machine outfit. I remember them as the manufacturer of the well-known Japanese fighter of WW II, the Zero.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/04/2006 7:03 Comments ||
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Suna Erdem, Istanbul
When Hakan Tastan wanted to amend the religion on his Turkish identity card, his enthusiastic championing of Christianity exasperated the official barring his way. Eventually, the official gave up trying to oppose the controversial change. Change this heathens religion and make him go away, the devout Muslim told his clerks.
More than ten years later, the missionary zeal of Mr Tastan and his fellow Christian convert, Turan Topal, has led to much graver things than being called names.
They face up to nine years jail after going on trial last week for insulting Turkishness during their religious work, under the notorious Article 301 of the Turkish penal code. It is the same law that put Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel literature laureate, in the dock, and which the European Union wants amended.
The case against two members of the tiny Turkish Protestant community has attracted criticism from the EUand cast a shadow over Pope Benedict XVIs visit this week.
Mr Topal and Mr Tastan, who are charged with illegally gathering information on people and insulting Islam, have faced public anger in Turkey, where a mistrust of Christians has been growing, fuelled by the Iraq war, the EUs critical attitude, the Popes comments linking Islam with violence and the Danish cartoons row.
At last weeks hearing, a friend was punched and bystanders told them to leave the country if they didnt like it.
Where are we supposed to go? We are Turkish. I am a patriot. I hang out the Turkish flag on national days and have a picture of Atatürk (the founder of modern Turkey) in my office, says Mr Tastan, 37.
There is a lot of misunderstanding about us here, said Mr Topal, 45. They think that missionary work is part of a foreign-financed effort to split the country.
Turkey is home to about 100,000 Christians, most from ethnic communities such as Greek Orthodox, Armenians and Syriac Christians, whose status is legally defined.
For Turkish Protestants, a community of about 4,000, that came into existence 20 years ago, there is no recognisable role. Mr Topal was one of the first converts 17 years ago. Mr Tastan, the son of an atheist and grandson of an Alevi Muslim, said that he read the Koran and then was given the Bible by a friend.
He converted during his mandatory military service. The pair and their lawyer, Haydar Polat, think that their indictment is part of a plot.
The three plaintiffs, young men aged 16, 17 and 23, contacted them through a friend saying that they wanted to find out more about Christianity. After two meetings, charges were filed.
The two missionaries were accused of calling Islam a backward religion and claiming that Turks would never become civilised unless they converted. They were also accused of trying to sell women and of possessing guns.
I dont mind going on trial for my religion. We expected to be accused and imprisoned for that the Bible says so, Mr Topal said, adding that Saint Paul was stoned for preaching in the Roman city of Ephesus, where the Pope held a Mass on Wednesday.
But some of those accusations are so revolting its upsetting it just shows the mentality behind the case. They have this idea that we are rich and get a lot of money from abroad, Among the accusing lawyers is Kemal Kerincsiz, an ultra- nationalist campaigner behind many of the high-profile 301 trials that have embarrassed the Turkish Government.
Mr Topal and Mr Tastan have forgiven their accusers. We have a woman in our group who puts up with so much from her husband who is a Muslim. But even she has to love him because the Bible says so, Mr Tastan says.
#3
The case against two members of the tiny Turkish Protestant community has attracted criticism from the EUand cast a shadow over Pope Benedict XVIs visit this week.
WTF? Only the Times could spin this this way. A rational human would see that this case PROVES the Pope's point and his arguments are true.
Posted by: BA ||
12/04/2006 12:14 Comments ||
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#4
What an unexpected equation:
Insulting Turkishness = Insulting Islam
Turkey's "secular" status is an oil slick of civility on a ocean of Islamic camelshit.
Copenhagen 4 December 2006 Last night some people protested against the construction of Mosques on European soil by defiling a proposed site with pigs blood. A video of the act - showing the men pouring a red liquid on the ground, and speaking in English, was released to the media, anonymously. Until now the Muslim community has not allowed itself to be provoked to over reaction.
A bit long, but I think registration is required, so I give you the whole thing.
OSLO -- Two months after he helped kidnap a Muslim cleric in Italy, records show, an undercover CIA officer boarded a flight to Norway on another secret mission. Two other U.S. spies followed a few weeks later and checked into the same hotel.
Shortly after the agents arrived in the spring of 2003, an Islamic militant living in Oslo known as Mullah Krekar received a warning from an anonymous Norwegian official, according to Krekar's lawyer. The message: Krekar, then head of a Kurdish insurgent group, was a CIA target and should watch his back.
The spies left Norway by the end of the summer, according to records of their travels compiled by European investigators. If the CIA was planning to abduct Krekar, like other Islamic radicals it had secretly apprehended in Europe after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, those plans were quietly abandoned.
But it would not be the first or last time that the U.S. government had sought to push Krekar out of Norway. For more than a decade, the Kurdish cleric had enjoyed protection in the Nordic country as a political refugee, even as he frequently slipped back into his homeland in northern Iraq to lead an armed separatist movement called Ansar al-Islam, which has carried out attacks on civilians and U.S. troops.
The case shows how the United States has struggled to deal with Islamic militants who are allowed to live freely in Europe despite being labeled serious security risks. Others have included radical clerics in London and supporters of the Hamburg cell responsible for the Sept. 11 hijackings.
Posted by: Bobby ||
12/04/2006 06:39 ||
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#1
Why not bring back the Old West's "Dead or Alive" concept?
I'm sure a a reasonable sum would have bounty hunters chasing his ar*e all over Norway and back into the "safety" of his minions in Iraq. He wouldn't be suck a smart ar*e then.
#2
tipper - That's an idea whose time has come back around. But something tells me it would be more effective and efficient to start right here in the US -- say with WaPo...
#5
Garrot him and leave him hanging in the doorway of his mosque. Sends a nice, firm message. I doubt the CIA was behind this, unless they've gone so far downhill they're pathetic.
Another favorite trick is a large syringe full of air directly into the heart. Does wonders.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/04/2006 12:54 Comments ||
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#6
Maybe it is time to send the Provolone brothers - Vitobjorg and Guidostrom - to talk with the mad mullah. No violence, just a friendly chat about the cold, inhospitible Norwegian climate from two private citizens acting as goodwill ambassadors for their country. Uncle Sam would be grateful.
Stumbles? She agreed with every word. The French at best despise the Israelis, and the French socialists would be pleased as punch to see Israel extirpated.
Ségolène Royal, the French presidential candidate, was embroiled in a damaging row on a visit to the Middle East yesterday after appearing to condone a Hezbollah MP who denounced US insanity and compared Israel to the Nazis.
Ms Royal, the first woman with a realistic chance of winning the French presidency, was struggling to extricate herself from the controversy sparked by a meeting in Beirut with MPs, including Ali Ammar of Hezbollah.
There's your first mistake, Ms. Royal: you're meeting with a known terrorist organization.
In a 20-minute tirade Mr Ammar attacked unlimited American insanity for sending troops into Afghanistan and Iraq. He then said that Israeli Nazism was no better than Hitlers Third Reich.
Ms Royal, who is on her first overseas trip since winning the Socialist Party primary, replied: Thank you for being so frank. I agree with a lot of the things you have said, notably your analysis of the US.
She agreed with all the important parts.
Her remark provoked a furore in France, where Philippe Douste-Blazy, the Foreign Minister, said that she had a simplistic vision of the Middle East. François Goulard, the Research Minister, said: Ségolène Royal obviously doesnt know what shes talking about.
To the contrary. She agreed with what was said. Take a poll in France, and a majority of Frenchmen would have agreed with what Ammar said.
Ms Royal was trying to limit the damage last night. She said that her interpreter had failed to translate Mr Ammars comparison between Israel and the Nazis. If he had, she would have walked out, she said.
That dog won't hunt.
Ms Royal went on to claim that she had not meant to attack Americans in general for insanity but only the Bush Administration over the war in Iraq.
Euros rather miss the point that we in America don't separate our government from our people. Even in the Clinton years the man was my president. Insult our government and you insult us.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/04/2006 00:00 ||
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To the contrary. She agreed with what was said.
Not sure. Her IQ is in the range of a comfortable root temperature. Not in Fahrenheit but in Celsius grades.
#5
JFM, you are the without a doubt the funniest Frenchman of all time!
I realize that doesn't mean much considering French fondness for Jerry Lewis. Maybe I can think of a better compliment later.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
12/04/2006 19:25 Comments ||
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I'm not entirely happy posting this under Home Front - WoT, but it's as good a place as any, I guess, since we're at war today.
Every year for more than a decade, at the height of the season, Morrill Worcester would pack up a truckload of his Christmas wreaths and head down from Maine to Arlington National Cemetery. Without fanfare, he and a dozen or so volunteers would lay red-bowed wreaths on a few thousand headstones of fallen Americans.
There was no publicity. No crowds gathered. The gesture was one man's private duty, born of a trip to Washington he won as a 12-year-old paperboy. Of all the monuments and memorials he saw, it was the visit to Arlington that stuck with him -- the majesty and mystery, the sadness and the pride, the sight of all those neat rows of government-issue white headstones.
Years later, after he had started his Christmas products business, at the crunch point of one season Worcester asked some men who were building his new factory to find some wreaths and buy them for him.
#5
Damnit .com Caught me at work again. My coworkers are going to think I'm stressed out or something...a little warning so I don't get caught with a wet face anymore
The Indian government is seriously concerned over Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed using territory and elements in Bangladesh and Nepal for movement of terrorists and finances. The modus operandi is recruitment of Indian youths by LeT and Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HUJAI-BD) for training in Pakistan and Azad Kashmir and then sending them back to India for sabotage and subversive activities. These outfits are well organised, interlinked and have the latest hardware and communication equipment, according to a paper prepared by the Union Home Ministry on internal security situation.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2006 00:00 ||
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You created Bangladesh, India, so I guess it's your mess to clean up. Wipe the whole place out and start over, or annex it as a province of India. Either solution is ok with me.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/04/2006 13:01 Comments ||
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Wipe the whole place out and start over, or annex it as a province of India.
HT Drudge.
By TERENCE HUNT
AP White House Imaginary Friend Correspondent
WASHINGTON Unable to win Senate confirmation, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton will step down when his temporary appointment expires within weeks, the White House said Monday.
Bolton's nomination has languished in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for more than a year, blocked by Democrats and several Republicans. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a moderate Republican who lost in the midterm elections Nov. 7 that swept Democrats to power in both houses of Congress, was adamantly opposed to Bolton.
Critics have questioned Bolton's brusque style and whether he could be an effective public servant who could help bring reform to the U.N.
President Bush, in a statement, said he was "deeply disappointed that a handful of United States senators prevented Ambassador Bolton from receiving the up or down vote he deserved in the Senate."
#1
Here's a hint George. Nothing, and I mean nothing, is going to make the Donks happy except your own resignation. Save us all the heartburn of wasting our time making excuses for you, if all you're going to do for the next two years is drop good people because the powermongers in Congress make noise. Face it. The next two years are going to be a fight [because you decided the border, spending, half hearted efforts in the ME, etc weren't worth paying the political capital to do it right - that's called leadership] or you can surrender and roll over. If all you're going to do is the latter, just resign today and let Chaney finish the last two years. It will be interesting times.
(Note: you do know, doncha, that you're supposed to Blame Bush, not Chafee, et al. Fuck the Constitution thingy, where the Senate Dhimmidonks and RINOs rule over such affairs - that's not personally satisfying or therapeutic for the raving fuckwits who need an icon for their frustrations. So, in their need for assigning blame, they've joined the BDS Krowd - Bush is Toast anyway. In essence, it's Fuck Reality, it sucks ass... Lol.)
#6
George Mitchell said to be 'on short list' for UN ambassador...
That's great, GW. New blood, not the same old hack face. What year is this?
Here's an idea. Don't appoint anybody. For all the good the place does, what the hell's the difference?
#7
Why is the Monty Python song, "look on the brighter side of life" going thru my head right now?
#define Black_Thought
I 'spose I should be looking up how to convert to islam now, and avoid the rush.
#undefine Black_Thought
Posted by: N guard ||
12/04/2006 14:59 Comments ||
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A few days old, but it hit the spot. I hope it's not a dupe, lol.
Kelly gives thanks Golfer spends time with troops in Iraq
It's not likely that Jerry Kelly will ever forget his 40th birthday, which just happened to fall on Thanksgiving Day.
While his family was at home in Madison enjoying turkey with all the trimmings, Kelly was standing atop one of Saddam Hussein's former palaces in Baghdad, where he saw smoke from a car bomb.
Kelly and four other PGA Tour members spent eight days in Iraq as part of the USO's "Operation Links Handshake Tour." The group was organized by Frank Lickliter II and included Donnie Hammond, Howard Twitty and Corey Pavin, who edged Kelly to win the 2006 U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee. "It was a life-changing experience," Kelly said in a telephone interview Friday. "It was the coolest thing I've ever done."
The golfers visited 14 bases in Iraq, entertaining the troops with golf exhibitions and swapping stories with soldiers in conversations that stretched into the early morning hours. "We hit balls off of Saddam's palace, off the back of a tank, off the wing of an Iraqi MIG fighter," Kelly said. "We stopped a soccer game in the Kurd region and hit balls off the field into Turkey. We hit balls in Mosul. "We did a ton of stuff. We wish we could have spent more time with the guys. They were like, 'Thank you so much.' We were like, 'Are you kidding me? We're the ones who are thankful.' "
The group was escorted by soldiers and ferried between bases by Blackhawk helicopters; the golfers had to wear full body armor and helmets, but Kelly said he never feared for his safety. "We saw the smoke from the mortar rounds but we never felt threatened," he said. "We knew danger was there but it wasn't at the bases. These (insurgents) have to run, set up their mortars and run away. They know they're history if they come near the place."
The golfers ate in mess halls and bunked with the soldiers in fortified sleeping quarters. They visited a hospital, where Kelly and Lickliter spent 10 minutes talking to a soldier who had been burned. They visited the governor of a province who two days earlier had survived an assassination attempt.
They visited Camp Patriot on the Persian Gulf, where Hussein's invading army lined up Kuwaitis against a brick wall and gunned them down. "You could still see the (bullet) pock marks in the wall," Kelly said.
Kelly has supported the war effort and couldn't say no when given the opportunity to visit Iraq, even though it meant spending Thanksgiving away from his wife, Carol, and 8-year-old son Cooper.
"If you're going to talk the talk you better be able to walk the walk," he said. "Coop has been saying a prayer for the soldiers every single night. It's part of our lives."
He came away with a new appreciation for what the soldiers are accomplishing and expressed in strong terms his disdain for how the war was being covered by the American media. "Our soldiers are so selfless," he said. "We need to be promoting them and telling people what a great job they're doing. All they're hearing is bashing.
"One guy told me, 'I'm hesitant to do the job I was trained for. I don't want to return fire because I might be on CNN the next day.' That's sad. That's a guy risking his life for us. He doesn't want his family to see him on CNN being portrayed the way those guys are being portrayed."
Kelly said everywhere he went in Iraq, the soldiers were showered with affection. "They're spreading so much goodwill," he said. "All the kids are coming up to them and hugging them and mobbing them. People were waving at us. They want us there. There's a Sunni-Shiite faction that is fighting for power. Both of them want us to leave so they can have their civil war.
"If we left now it would be so bad for those people who want us there and need us there and are getting the freedoms now they never had."
During one emotional late-night conversation, Kelly and a soldier compared notes on how they handled pressure and fear. The soldier wanted to know how Kelly dealt with the pressure of being in contention in a tournament on the PGA Tour. "He said, 'The hardest thing for a soldier to do, despite all his training, is to return fire when he is fired upon,' " Kelly said. "It shows the smallness of the position I'm in, comparably speaking. Fear of failure (in golf) and fear of death, come on, there's no comparison."
He said all five golfers were awed and humbled by the experience and all have vowed to return to Iraq next year.
Kelly spent only a couple days at home before taking his family to Colorado for a ski vacation.
"We're off to Telluride today," he said, then added with a laugh: "I hope I don't get hurt."
Iraq's national security adviser says he is shocked by UN head Kofi Annan's suggestion that the average Iraqi is worse off than under Saddam Hussein. Mouwaffaq al-Rubaie also accused the UN of shying away from its responsibility towards the Iraqi people.
The UN secretary general, who leaves office after 10 years on 31 December, told the BBC that the situation in Iraq was now "much worse" than a civil war. He also expressed his sadness at being unable to prevent the invasion in 2003.
Mr Annan told the BBC's Lyse Doucet that the current situation in Iraq was "extremely dangerous", and that he sympathised with the plight of ordinary Iraqis. "If I were an average Iraqi, obviously I would make the same comparison, that they had a dictator who was brutal but they had their streets, they could go out, their kids could go to school and come back home without a mother or father worrying: 'Am I going to see my child again?' Of course, back then a man watching his daughter being married had to worry about whether Uday would show up at the reception.
"The society needs security and a secure environment for it to get on. Without security, not much can be done - not recovery or reconstruction."
Mr Rubaie rejected Mr Annan's comments, asking: "Doesn't Kofi Annan differentiate between the mass killing of Iraqis by the security and intelligence apparatus of Saddam Hussein and the present indiscriminate killings of civilians, Iraqi civilians, by the al-Qaeda terrorists in Iraq?"
He added: "I'm shocked and stunned by what Kofi Annan alluded to, that the condition was better under the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein."
Asked whether the situation in Iraq could now be classified as a civil war, Mr Annan pointed to the level of "killing and bitterness", and the way forces in Iraq were now ranged against each other. "A few years ago, when we had the strife in Lebanon and other places, we called that a civil war. This is much worse.
"We have a very worrisome situation in the broader Middle East," Mr Annan said, linking the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Lebanon with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and tensions over Iran.
He admitted that the failure to prevent the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a major blow to the UN, one from which the organisation was only beginning to recover. "It's healing but we are not there yet, it hasn't healed yet, and we feel the tension still in this organisation as a result of that."
Referring to the invasion, Mr Rubaie said: "The UN, I believe, shied away from the responsibilities towards the Iraqi people in 2003."
#4
Saddam wasn't so bad - he made the trains ran on time. Or was that a different fascist?
And Iraqis weren't subject to kidnappings by Shia death squads - it was by Baathist death squads.
And they weren't subject to random roadside bombs and mortar attacks - it was focussed attacks resulting in mass graves for whole villages.
Yep, Iraqis were better off under Hussein.
#7
"If I were an average Iraqi, obviously I would make the same comparison, that they had a dictator who was brutal but they had their streets, they could go out, their kids could go to school and come back home without a mother or father worrying: 'Am I going to see my child again?'
There, fixed that for ya, coffee. Methinks it'd be a great week/month for Kofi to be carted off-stage (27 days and counting), both Carter and Castro to become stable, and for the MMs to dismiss Ahmadinijad in a surprising show of rationality. Of course, some call me an optimist.
Posted by: BA ||
12/04/2006 12:08 Comments ||
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#8
I hope five minutes after he leaves office, someone explodes an IED in Koffee's face. He has been the absolute worst person ever to serve in the UN in any capacity. The death toll attributable to his actions must be in the tens of millions, ranging from the Congo to Rwanda to Darfur to Somalia. I hate to think how many little girls have been raped by UN "observers" on his watch, but that must be a huge number, too. Justice demands this man's blood, violently and with malice of forethought.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
12/04/2006 13:06 Comments ||
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#9
Last year I went to Iraq. Before Team America showed up, it was a happy place. They had flowery meadows and rainbow skies, and rivers made of chocolate, where the children danced and laughed and played with gumdrop smiles.
Posted by: Sean Penn ||
12/04/2006 13:50 Comments ||
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#10
If you replace the term Iraqi with Sunni what he says is correct. But you know the Sunni aided and abbetted both Saddam and Al Queda so if they're having a tough time of it now, they can just bite me.
While President George W. Bush acknowledges the need for major changes in Iraq, he will not use this week's Iraq Study Group report as political cover for bringing US troops home, his national security adviser said. "We have not failed in Iraq," Stephen Hadley said as he made the Sunday TV talk show rounds. "We will fail in Iraq if we pull out our troops before we're in a position to help the Iraqis succeed. The president understands that we need to have a way forward in Iraq that is more successful."
The White House readied for an important week in the debate over Iraq: Bush planned a meeting Monday with Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the Shiite leader of the largest bloc in Iraq's parliament, and awaited the recommendations Wednesday from the bipartisan commission. Yet his administration, hoping to find a new way ahead in Iraq, found itself on the defensive from the second recent leak of an insider's memo on Iraq in a week.
The latest, first reported in Sunday's New York Times, showed that Donald H. Rumsfeld called for a "major adjustment" in US tactics on Nov. 6 - the day before an election that cost Republicans the US Congress and Rumsfeld his job as defense secretary. Hadley appeared on ABC's "This Week," NBC's "Meet the Press," and `Face the Nation" on CBS. Warner and Levin were on NBC, Biden was on "Fox News Sunday" while Feinstein appeared on "Late Edition" on CNN.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2006 00:00 ||
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Shows to me again Dubya means to stay in Iraq-MEast, EVEN IFF IT MEANS HIS LIFE, i.e. becomes a PC/Deniable target for Amer Hiroshimas/new 9-11's. STAY ARMED, BOYZ, becuz you know the Waffle-happy, ERROR/FAILURE = SOCIALISM, ISOLATIONISM = SOCIALISM, EMPIRE = SOCIALISM, etc. Lefties + Blamecrats, are gonna PC accuse Dubya of being a selfish, insane/irrational Leader = NON-SECULARIST who'd put Iraqi-specific lives, Security, Nationalism and Democracy, even his own life + family, at risk/higher priority over Americans. As said before, 'tis reason(s) why the RINO CINO Left are RINO CINO > LEFTIST-SOCIALIST = GLOBALIST POLITICAL POWER HAS PRIORITY OVER EVERYTHING, EVEN THE SAFETY + CREDIBILITY OF THEIR OWN NATION + PEOPLES. The Failed and Failine, Angry Left don't just wanna hurt the USA, they wanna DESTROY the USA; they want the USA under OWG + Socialism AT ANY PRICE! 9-11 > ITS NOT "POLITICS/POLITIX AS USUAL". IFF THE LEFTIES DON'T RULE, THEY WANNA TAKE THE WHOLE WORLD WID THEM TO HELL!
The head of the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq, Sheikh Harith al-Dhari, arrived in Sana'a on Sunday for talks on ways to end violence in his war-torn country, Yemen's official news agency Saba reported.
The agency quoted al-Dhari, who is one of Iraq's most prominent Sunni figures, as saying upon arrival that he would hold talks with Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh on the 'tragic situation that the Iraqi people is passing through.' He said his meeting with Saleh aims at 'discussing a way-out from this dangerous impasse.'
Yemen officials told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that al-Dhari's talks with Yemeni officials would also touch on a Yemeni plan to host Iraq's political rivals for reconciliation talks. Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu-Bakr al-Qerbi said last week his country was negotiating with the Iraqi government and its opponents to convince them to attend a reconciliation conference in Yemen. The minister said the Arab League and Iraq's neighbours were also involved in the discussions but gave no date for the proposed conference.
Al-Dhari has rejected an arrest warrant issued last month against him by Iraq's Shiite-dominated government for allegedly provoking sectarian violence through his public remarks backing insurgents. How do you "reject" a warrant for your arrest? Isn't such an action usually followed by a warning to stop or somebody'll shoot?
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2006 00:00 ||
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LAWYERS for Saddam Hussein and two former aides sentenced to death lodged appeals today, the Iraqi prosecutor said, following a trial slammed by some rights experts as unfair and fundamentally flawed.
The defence had been given until Tuesday to submit their appeals. The case is already with the appeals court, which will decide whether the hangings should be carried out. Meanwhile, Saddam is still on a trial for genocide against Kurds.
Chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi said he had witnessed the handing over of the documents, although Saddam's chief lawyer said it had not yet happened.
"Lawyers for Saddam Hussein and two others sentenced to death came to the court today and presented their appeals," chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi said. He said he had witnessed the handing over of the documents, although Saddam's chief lawyer said it had not yet happened.
Saddam was sentenced to hang a month ago for crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shi'ites from the town of Dujail after he escaped assassination there in 1982. His half-brother Barzan al-Tikriti and former judge Awad al-Bander also received the death penalty for their part in the killing, torturing and deporting of hundreds of Dujailis.
The nine-judge Appellate Chamber, which could amend both the verdict and the sentence, has unlimited time to make a ruling, but if the appeal fails, then Iraqi High Tribunal rules say the execution must follow a final decision within 30 days. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a member of the Shi'ite majority persecuted under Saddam's Sunni minority rule, has said he wants the execution carried out this year. Legal experts, however, have said appeals could yet take months and there is ambiguity about what constitutes the "final decision".
New York-based Human Rights Watch condemned the verdict as unsound, saying the court had been guilty of so many shortcomings that a fair trial had been impossible.
The tribunal has still to make public the reasoning for the November 5 death sentences, although it has promised to publish them on its website. The lengthy ruling is eagerly awaited by international jurists keen to assess how the court performed. But in a comprehensive report last month, New York-based Human Rights Watch condemned the verdict as unsound, saying the court had been guilty of so many shortcomings that a fair trial had been impossible. It said the court lacked the expertise for such a complex trial, had failed to give the defence advance notice of key documents, while statements by government officials had undermined its independence and perceived impartiality.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Notice the nice "conclusions before evidence" approach of HRW? Typical. They don't have the written judgment, but they're ruling on the trial's quality.
Every one of their objections is either based on inacurrate or incomplete info, or is disingenuous, applying standards or approaches they know are not relevant in a civil (inquisitorial) trial system.
The trial was not complex; advance notice is not as important in an inquisitorial system because the panel can take the manner of introduction into account - not to mention the fact that the defense had literally months and months to challenge or interpret the evidence due to delays; any fair-minded observer of the process, day in and day out, knows the defense had ample opportunity to do anything it wanted.
The court has problems, but one can safely disregard HRW's perspective.
#2
By lodging appealsin the proper manner, Mr. Hussein and his lawyers implicitely accept the court's right to impose judgement, thus accepting the legitimacy of the entire endeavor.
#3
Damn the order, the troop should'a just tossed the grenades down the hole. Probably would have saved a lot of people killed by his loyalists since and sent their old command structure into an early turf war making their identification that much easier for clean up.
Arab marauders smashed up a Talmud Torah in the northern city of Acco (Acre) over the Sabbath, painting Arabic graffiti and swastikas on the walls, destroying furniture, and scattering holy books.
The latest and gravest escalation in the struggle between Jews and Arabs in the mixed city of Acco, between Haifa and the Lebanese border on the Mediterranean coast, occurred this past Friday night. Rabbi Avraham Shushan, a rabbi at the school at which the vandalism occurred, told Arutz-7's Shimon Cohen that a worshiper who arrived for early Sabbath morning prayers was the first to discover the destruction:
"He saw the lights on and the windows broken. He went in and the sight shocked him. All the walls had swastikas, and the Arabic words 'Hamas' and 'Allahu Akbar' [Allah is great]. Destruction all over - it looked like Sodom and Gomorrah. The vandals went into the classrooms, dumped out the equipment, turned over the principal's office, and threw the Torah books in all directions. They took expensive equipment worth thousands of shekels. The worshiper went by foot to the police and called them to come, which they did... He told me about it on Saturday night, and I called Rabbi Yashar, the rabbi of Akko. He came and cried out, 'What is this, Nazi Germany here?'"
Rabbi Shushan said that in his 30 years in the city, he had "never experienced an Arab pogrom like this one... I don't know what's going on here."
Several days ago, a band of Arab youths attacked and cruelly beat a Jewish girl. Six months ago, local Arabs burned trees standing at the entrance to the Talmud Torah, and during the recent Simchat Torah holiday, Arabs surrounded students from the local Yeshivat Hesder [who combine Torah study and army service] and threatened them, until one student was forced to fire in the air to disperse them.
Knesset Members of the National Religious Party-National Union visited Acco a month ago, warning of the deterioration in the city. The police claimed at the time that the violence and clashes were of a criminal, not nationalistic nature.
"When we toured the city a month ago," MK Uri Ariel said today, "it was claimed that we are provocateurs and looking for trouble. This pogrom in the Talmud Torah proves that the bitter reality is that in the year 2006, anti-Semitic pogroms take place in sovereign Israel. The police in Acco must give an accounting as to how it is that Arab rioters feel free enough to carry out such a despicable act. We won't allow the police to evade its responsibility."
"We have no illusions," Ariel said. "We know what the Arabs are trying to do. They have composed a new Declaration of Independence, and they want to change the [Israeli] flag and anthem. The Arab citizens understand the trend, and they go out and paint swastikas in yeshivot."
In another city with a large Arab population, Ramle (near Tel Aviv), an Arab organization is renewing its activities for more say in city affairs - and is hoping to similarly encourage Arab populations in other mixed cities such as Jaffa and Lod as well.
Just this past Friday, the Israeli-Arab organization Mossawa presented a position paper demanding recognition as a Palestinian-Arab national minority and the right to return to Arab villages abandoned during the 1948 War of Independence. In what some view as a drive to turn Israel into a bi-national state, Mossawa also demands:
* Allotments for immigration and citizenship
* Educational and religious autonomy
* Changes to the Israeli flag and national anthem
* Appropriate representation in national bodies
* Special division of national resources
* Ties with other Arab countries
"They were overruled, however, by Olmert and Livni, who asserted that there are other considerations. "
Smells like advice/pressure from Rice again, who was just there. This attitude that if you hold hands with these muzzie terrorists, everything will turn out fine is assinine. If they were shooting rockets at her place or The White House I would think their opinions might change. But, who knows, maybe they wouldn't. Maybe they'd just curl up in a fetal position and wait for the end.
#2
One of the few levers I could imagine being used to achieve this result is that the Palestinians are threatening to kill Shalit if the Israelis don't ease up. You'd think this was a hard lesson learned long ago by Israel. NO NEGOTIATING WITH TERRORISTS. What with all the advance phone calls, it appears as though they've gotten back into the habit of doing this.
Shalit must be considered to be already dead. Personally, I cannot even believe that this individual is still alive. Even if Shalit could help them build a nuclear weapon, out of pure hatred, the Palestinians would still kill him.
Olmert, by himself, has shown enough equivocation to have been responsible for this daunting reversal in Israeli prosecution of terrorist activities. With the security barrier in place, rockets represent one of the few solutions that defeat its function. To allow such a blatant breach of national defense to continue unabated is manifestly idiotic. Irrespective of the rockets' effectiveness, they represent a significant psychological boost for the terrorists. The Israelis know well enough to disallow such morale improvements. Concomitantly, the Israelis should also know well enough not to demoralize their own fighters with such half-hearted repsonses.
If, indeed, this is a result of external pressure from Rice or the White House, it bodes very ill for any hopes of an attack against Iran. The Israeli situation is a pimple compared to the tumor that is Iran.
Islamic Jihad said Sunday the week-old Gaza Strip cease-fire is on the verge of collapse, due to what it called repeated Israeli violations. "The calm is on the edge of collapse due to the continued Zionist violations and the attacks against our Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza," Abu Ahmed, a Gaza-based spokesman for the group's armed wing, said in a statement. "Nobody should blame [Islamic Jihad] for any reaction its brigades take in the coming hours in response to the violations by the Zionist occupation," he said.
Abu Ahmed called on the Palestinian factions to "reconsider the tahadiyeh [short-term cease-fire] given the violations of the Israeli occupation and the declarations of [Defense Minister[ Amir Peretz." Peretz told a cabinet meeting on Sunday that security forces will continue to operate in the West Bank. Islamic Jihad accused Israel of "more than 70 violations" of the ceasefire but did not specify what they were.
Hamas announced Sunday it is pulling out of Palestinian faction talks on extending the cease-fire with Israel to the West Bank. "The comprehensive tahadiyeh must come as a part of a comprehensive national plan, and at this time, the talks on a cease-fire are being held at the expense of talks on internal Palestinian issues," Hamas said in a statement, hinting at the freezing of talks on the formation of a Palestinian unity government.
Also Sunday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh arrived for talks with Syrian officials and the leaders of Damascus-based Palestinian factions on faltering efforts toward forming a unity government. Haniyeh, who is on his first tour abroad since his Hamas-led government took office in March, was greeted at the airport by Syrian Justice Minister Mohammed al-Ghafari. In brief comments to reporters upon arrival, Haniyeh said his discussions would include "the siege imposed on the Palestinian people."
Asked to comment on the demand by PLO leaders that his government resign over the failure to form a moderate coalition acceptable to the West, Haniyeh said, "it is too early to talk about it."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/04/2006 00:00 ||
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DAMASCUS (Rooters) - Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday to discuss efforts to form a unity government, the official SANA news agency said.
"The meeting affirmed the need to support the Palestinian people fully and work on breaking the siege imposed on them," the agency said. "Shoring up Palestinian national unity is also paramount in delicate circumstances such as these."
Haniyeh, of the ruling Hamas movement, is in Damascus on a regional tour, the first since he took office in March.
Hamas' exiled leader Khaled Meshaal lives in Syria along with several high-level members of the group, which is locked in a dispute with the minority Fatah faction over forming a new government.
Palestinian politicians say Syria has been gently pushing Hamas to compromise on the government issue, but Hamas leaders say the group is entitled to key positions in the government that reflect its dominance in parliament.
Haniyeh said in Cairo last week that talks on a government of national unity would not run into a dead end.
Haniyeh arrived in Damascus on Sunday from Qatar, which agreed to pay salaries of 40,000 Palestinian education workers for several months, helping to ease an economic crisis caused by Western sanctions.
Western countries imposed the sanctions to force the Hamas government to recognize Israel, renounce armed struggle and accept peace accords with Israel struck by the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which does not include Hamas.
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.
Suna Erdem, Istanbul
Iraq's national security adviser says he is shocked by UN head Kofi Annan's suggestion that the average Iraqi is worse off than under Saddam Hussein. 
The head of the Sunni 
LAWYERS for Saddam Hussein and two former aides sentenced to death lodged appeals today, the Iraqi prosecutor said, following a trial slammed by some rights experts as unfair and fundamentally flawed.
by Hillel Fendel
Islamic Jihad said Sunday the week-old Gaza Strip cease-fire is on the verge of collapse, due to what it called repeated Israeli violations. "The calm is on the edge of collapse due to the continued Zionist violations and the attacks against our Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza," Abu Ahmed, a Gaza-based spokesman for the group's armed wing, said in a statement. "Nobody should blame [Islamic Jihad] for any reaction its brigades take in the coming hours in response to the violations by the Zionist occupation," he said.
"The meeting affirmed the need to support the Palestinian people fully and work on breaking the siege imposed on them," the agency said. "Shoring up Palestinian national unity is also paramount in delicate circumstances such as these."
