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Shootout near presidential palace in Mog
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Africa Horn
Somalia: Government asks for US aid
The transitional federal government in Somalia is asking the United States government for help in building up competent police, military and intelligence organizations as it attempts to overcome years of conflict and impoverishment.

Dahir Mirreh Jibreel, a U.S. representative of the Transition Federal Government in Somalia submitted to the State Department requests containing three-page letter. Jibreel distributed copies of the requests during a meeting on Wednesday with a small group of reporters that was hosted by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative public policy research group. The statement also calls for congressional approval of Somalia stabilization and reconstruction legislation as well as encouragement of private U.S. investment in Somalia.

The transitional government lacks funds to pay civil servants and the list submitted to the State Department includes a request to fill that need until the country is able to generate its own revenue. Shortly after the transitional government was installed in Mogadishu, United States made an initial down payment of $40 million in revitalization assistance for Somalia. About $16 million was earmarked for humanitarian assistance, $14 million to fund a multinational force whose deployment is still pending and $10 million in development aid.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Izzat Ibrahim 'not in Yemen'
Yemen denied that it was harbouring one of Saddam Hussein's top aides as alleged by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani. Talabani said in an interview that Izzat Al Douri, wanted by Iraq and suspected of directing insurgency there, was in the Red Sea state.

'We deny...that Izzat Al Douri is in Yemen,' a senior official said. 'Such information is baseless and unfounded. Yemen is very transparent when it comes to political asylum.'
"We asked around; nobody's seen him."
Several Iraqi officials have said Douri is in Syria, but Talabani said his government had been following his movements and established that he was in Yemen. Douri was Saddam's deputy in the Revolutionary Command Council, which functioned as both executive and legislature. He is believed to be the leader of have links with the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2007 10:16 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  OK, so he's in Yemen.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/20/2007 11:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Maybe he's in Quetta watching Blinky's blind side...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/20/2007 11:55 Comments || Top||

#3  And to think that he could have been rich and retired after a successful series of British Army war movies.

"Sargent Phlegm, another lively chorus of 'Bless 'em All' from the lads!!
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/20/2007 15:00 Comments || Top||

#4  Izzat Ibraham? Nah. It's his brudder Whodat Ibraham.
Posted by: GK || 01/20/2007 15:32 Comments || Top||

#5  I'm sure he's in a little cottage in Saudi Arabia - just feet from the Yemen border. I'm sure there's another little cottage just across that border in Yemen where he goes when Saudi Arabia is asked if he's THERE.

I'd like to take a shot at that hand of his - with a 155mm impact fuse on a beehive round.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 01/20/2007 15:37 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
North Korea and US reach 'agreement'
North Korea said on Friday it had reached a “certain agreement” with the United States in nuclear talks in Berlin, and praised the rare direct dialogue between the two bitter foes. US envoy Christopher Hill and the North’s Kim Kye-gwan ended three days of unprecedented discussions in the German capital on Thursday, giving no sign of any breakthrough in the dispute over the communist state’s nuclear weapons programme. In a statement on Friday, Pyongyang’s Foreign Ministry said: “The talks took place from Jan. 16 to 18 in a positive and sincere atmosphere and a certain agreement was reached there.”

“We paid attention to the direct dialogue held by the DPRK (North Korea) and the US in a bid to settle knotty problems in resolving the nuclear issue,” the official KCNA news agency quoted a ministry spokesman as saying. But Hill, arriving in South Korea to brief officials in Seoul, appeared puzzled by the reference to a deal.

“I’m sorry, I’m not really sure what he’s referring to,” Hill told reporters, but added: “We had very useful discussions.”

“I want to emphasise once again that the negotiations for the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula take place at the six-party talks,” Hill told reporters. “But we’ve always felt it useful to have discussions between rounds of six-party talks.”
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  North Korea claims agreement reached, US negotiater puzzled, "not sure what he's referring to."

Pwned!
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/20/2007 12:06 Comments || Top||


Ex- defence chief suggests military action against N Korea
The United States should consider military action against North Korea if China and South Korea refuse to prod Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons program, former US defence secretary William Perry proposed Thursday. Perry, the Pentagon chief under former president Bill Clinton, said the United States should consider destroying a large reactor under construction in North Korea capable of making about 10 nuclear bombs a year. Perry said that the danger of the North Korean nuclear weapons program was by now obvious to China and South Korea and that they should be willing to join the United States in any concerted diplomatic initiative. “An additional inducement for China and South Korea would be the concern that if they did not provide the coercion, the United States might take the only meaningful coercive action available to it - destroying the reactor before it could come on line,” Perry said.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A Clinton appointee making perfect sense. How did this guy get passed the Clinton vetting process?
Posted by: Mike N. || 01/20/2007 0:57 Comments || Top||

#2  I'd bet money Perry is only suggesting this because he knows its not going to happen with Iraq/Iran on our plate. It something with which to beat Bush over the head. It goes like this "Bush can't take out the real threat because of the Iraqi misadventure".

If Bush said "Good Idea Perry. I'm launching a pre-emptive strike". The left would have a cow.
Posted by: Lanny Ddub || 01/20/2007 1:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Exactly. It's part of the 'what about North Korea/Sudan/let's go only with Afghanistan/oh, look-puppies!' strategy.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/20/2007 1:45 Comments || Top||

#4  IIRC, Perry was the sole Republican appointee in the Clinton administration. That's why he sounds like an adult.

However, I'd like to see Japan take the lead on NK. Sadly, the world's tyrants, collaborators, and weaklings have little reason to take the US seriously right now. But Japan could cause some fouled drawers in Pyongyang, Seoul and Beijing. You'd think the possibility of being bombed, invaded, and occupied by a resurgent Japan would quickly make cooperation with the US a very attractive option.
Posted by: exJAG || 01/20/2007 7:06 Comments || Top||

#5  William Perry is a Democrat (he also served in the Carter administration). William Cohen (a nominal Republican) succeeded him as Secretary of Defense.
Posted by: mrp || 01/20/2007 8:08 Comments || Top||

#6  Oops! Thanks, I get these guys mixed up. William Perry, Dem weenie, not be confused with The Fridge.
Posted by: exJAG || 01/20/2007 8:36 Comments || Top||

#7  Doh! I made the same mistake. Looking on wikipedia for a picture, I came across this:
Perry adopted "preventive defense" as his guide to national security policy in the post-Cold War world. During the Cold War the United States had relied on deterrence rather than prevention as the central principle of its security strategy. Perry outlined three basic tenets of a preventive strategy: keep threats from emerging; deter those that actually emerged; and if prevention and deterrence failed, defeat the threat with military force.

A pretty grown-up view of foreign affairs for a Clintonista.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/20/2007 10:39 Comments || Top||

#8  Worked reeeaaaal well, didn't it?
Posted by: Pappy || 01/20/2007 20:27 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Australian Muslims under siege
Australia’s Muslims gathered on Friday for prayers at mosques around the country under a suspicious spotlight yet again after another radical cleric inflamed tensions with his extremist views. The widening gulf between Australia’s small, mainly Sunni, Muslim community of some 280,000 people, and the rest of the country is leaving many Muslims feeling under siege and young Muslims trapped between two cultures - Islam and Australia.
"Oh, hold me, Mahmoud! I feel so... so... so under siege!"
"Oh, Achmed! Me, too! Whatever shall we do?"
"Mind the caltrops..."

Friday newspaper headlines read “Jihad sheik” and “Crazy sheik’s DVD of hate” after news that Sheik Feiz Mohammed, head of the Global Islamic Youth Centre in Sydney, had called for child martyrs for Islam in a series of DVDs called the “Death Series”. Muslims arriving on foot under a blazing hot sun at Sydney’s Lakemba mosque look nervously at a television crew, scared by previous encounters with local media they believe portray Islam and Muslims as evil.
It's a total misconception, of course. Just because they spew hatred and call for child martyrs, where's the problem?
“I’m Australian, I was born here, this is the only country I know. We will defend this country against anyone,” one angry Muslim says in publicly declaring his patriotism for Australia.
Good idea. Hunt the shiekh down and kill him.
Suspicion, misunderstanding and ignorance lie at the heart of the widening gulf between Muslim and non-Muslim Australians.
What's not to understand about child martyrs?
“There is still an element of fear out there,” says Keysar Trad, spokesman for the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia, and one of the faces of Islam in Australia. “I have had people put the head of a pig on my car and pigs’ trotters (feet) in the letterbox. I have had hate mail,” says Trad, who came to Australia with his family from Lebanon in 1976.
Gee. Golly. Gosh. That's terrible. I mean, it's not like Muslims were blowing people up or cutting their heads off or anything...
Trad says that when he arrived as a boy, Australia was a very conservative and Christian nation, and he was forced to hide his Islamic faith. Religious prejudice then was based on ignorance, unlike today when Muslims live under the shadow of terrorism. “A lot of people do not view Islam as modern or civilised. Today, Australia is less Christian, but less tolerant of Islam. Buddhism is more readily accepted because people see it as a force for peace and spirituality.”
Whereas they see Islam as a force for warfare and bloodshed. I wonder why that is? After all, it's the Religion of Beslan.
Like many migrants in Sydney, Muslims have grouped together for support, living in a handful of southwestern suburbs. One is nicknamed “Little Lebanon” due to the proliferation of Arabic signs and Muslim women shoppers in hijabs and scarfs. But this limited interaction between a small community and the rest of Australia has seen them categorised simply as Muslims, no matter where they were born.
They keep telling us what they want, and then they keep getting upset when we take them at their word.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lessee -- rape gangs issuing from the Little Lebanons to attack the uncovered meat on the streets and beaches... what's not to like?
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/20/2007 5:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Wouldn't it be a shame if John Howard were take a page from the Hadiths, and deal with Ausi Muslims the way Mohammed dealt with the Jews of Medina?
Posted by: gromgoru || 01/20/2007 7:26 Comments || Top||

#3  This mean I can clean the red backs off the siege engine and get it out of the shed?
Posted by: Classer || 01/20/2007 8:46 Comments || Top||

#4  Gromgoru :). That would be living the supreme example, wouldn'it it?
Posted by: Jules || 01/20/2007 8:49 Comments || Top||

#5  That's not a siege...



...now that's a siege!
Posted by: Steven Segal || 01/20/2007 9:10 Comments || Top||

#6  scared by previous encounters with local media they believe portray Islam and Muslims as evil.

just do something -- anything -- to prove the contrary.
Posted by: PlanetDan || 01/20/2007 9:40 Comments || Top||

#7  Jules, I happen to believe that reciprocity is the basis ethics.
Posted by: gromgoru || 01/20/2007 9:44 Comments || Top||

#8  “There is still an element of fear out there,” says Keysar Trad

Could it be the directive "Allah" gives to "strike off their [infidel] heads, maim them in every limb!"
(8:12), and those who carry out the directive that
creates fear?

Sow to the wind; reap the whirlwind.
Live by the sword; die by the sword.

Oh, and "Sheik" Hilali running for Parliament in
Lakemba? I'd like to see that. :)

How will he run? "Sheik Hilali's One Ummah Party?"

Bring it on! :)
Posted by: Mullah Lodabullah || 01/20/2007 10:54 Comments || Top||

#9  Suspicion, misunderstanding and ignorance lie at the heart of the widening gulf between Muslim and non-Muslim Australians

That's because the liberals still think your gutter death cult is peaceful. The rest of us have a clue.
Posted by: Icerigger || 01/20/2007 11:34 Comments || Top||

#10  The guy the Muslims themselves declared to be their "leader" spouts hatred, bigotry, and violence, and the Muslims get pissed that people view them with suspicion?

This isn't the first time this has happened. It KEEPS HAPPENING. And the response is always the same: any negative reaction to the putrid words of Islam MUST be "Islamophobia". It can't be rational to believe what someone says. It can't be rational to despise someone who excuses rape and defends gang rapists. It can't be rational to view someone who supports murdering children with suspicion. It can't be rational to look askance at the people who support these monsters.

Feh. They don't know "siege" yet. When it happens, they'll know.
Posted by: Robert Crawford || 01/20/2007 11:49 Comments || Top||

#11  Feh. They don't know "siege" yet. When it happens, they'll know.

Ezekiel 38 - Islam's use-by date.
Posted by: Angel in the Whirlwind || 01/20/2007 11:55 Comments || Top||

#12  I have the sinking feeling that first the West will have to undergo a very unpleasant period of belt bombings/gas attacks/nukes, and then a purging period to defang the Left, before the Muzzies will see a true siege. But when the true siege comes, I expect that the West will go Roman on the Muzzies, literally.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 01/20/2007 16:11 Comments || Top||

#13  I also expect that certain of the counter-Muzzie groups will adopt Vlad Tepes as both a mascot/symbol and as a role model for dealing with the Muzzies.
Posted by: Shieldwolf || 01/20/2007 16:13 Comments || Top||

#14  Muslim community considers candidates for NSW election

The Islamic Friendship Association says the Muslim community will consider putting up candidates for the New South Wales election in south-western Sydney seats, including Premier Morris Iemma's seat of Lakemba.

The association's founder, Keysar Trad, says Muslims are tired of being picked on by politicians.

He also says it is unlikely the controversial Muslim figure, Sheikh Taj el-Din Al Hilali, would stand as a candidate.

Mr Trad says the Muslim community, including the sheikh, will hold consultations about putting up candidates in seats including Auburn, Bankstown and Lakemba.
[...]

I'm tired of Mozzies whining on and on and on about how "picked on" and discriminated against and "under siege" they are.
Posted by: Whiskettes4Hilali || 01/20/2007 21:22 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Redford thinks he still matters and demands U.S. apology for Iraq
This political demand for a Presidential 'apology' was his keynote speech for the opening of the Sundance Film Festival, after which he instructed the festival attendees to put on their "Focus on Film" buttons. Lame, lame, lame.
Posted by: Thoth || 01/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  hmmm, division of church and state.
maybe we need a division too of theater and state.

I dislike having actors use their fame to speak out, and that folks actually listen and give a rats ass

it taints memories of old time movies for me. I don't think I'll ever be able to watch an old Redford movie again without getting angry about the politic'ing crap.
Posted by: Jan || 01/20/2007 0:15 Comments || Top||

#2  As honest injun as ALL THE PRSIDENT'S MEN came out in 1977, now back to 1976.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/20/2007 0:16 Comments || Top||

#3  Hell, I didn't realize Redford was still alive.
Posted by: Captain America || 01/20/2007 1:21 Comments || Top||

#4  I think he should apologize for screening a movie about bestiality first. Ick!
Posted by: Swamp Blondie || 01/20/2007 1:25 Comments || Top||

#5  division of theater and state

I totally agree, that should be a new slogan
Posted by: Spomort Greling4204 || 01/20/2007 1:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Not just beastiality, but under federal law it's child pornography.
Posted by: badanov || 01/20/2007 4:18 Comments || Top||

#7  I apologize for having ever watched a movie with Robert Redford.

Posted by: JFM || 01/20/2007 5:18 Comments || Top||

#8  Redford, the Dan Quayle of Hollywood.
Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy || 01/20/2007 5:41 Comments || Top||

#9  "I think we're owed a big, massive apology."

Nah, Quayle was more erudite than that.
Posted by: Bobby || 01/20/2007 7:23 Comments || Top||

#10  So that guy that was in Jerimiah Johnson voiced an opinion that I'm supposed to take seriously?
I don't think so, he's as big a lefty jackass as Martin Sheen. You don't see either one of those guys parting with their truckloads of cash to further the common good - therefore they're hippocrites which voids any opinion they manage to drool out.
Shut up and perform little monkey.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 01/20/2007 7:57 Comments || Top||

#11  Spot on Mike!

Damn hypocrites need to put up, or shut up and perform like the trained monkeys they are.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/20/2007 8:53 Comments || Top||

#12  Sure, Bob. Right after I get my apology for "The Way We Were".
By the way, Bob. You really haven't aged well...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/20/2007 9:18 Comments || Top||

#13  What is he still doing in the US?? Did'nt he say if Bush was elected he would move to Canada? Time for him to GTF out of the US.
Posted by: 49 Pan || 01/20/2007 9:28 Comments || Top||

#14  Redford owes the US an apology for An Indecent Proposal.
Posted by: doc || 01/20/2007 9:40 Comments || Top||

#15  In Phoenix, Arizona we have the display of human cadeavors. They preserve the bodies through a process and it looks interesting. I could've swore Redford was one of them.
Posted by: Art || 01/20/2007 9:44 Comments || Top||

#16  What no apology demands on the repression of women by Islam? Spit.
Posted by: Icerigger || 01/20/2007 11:28 Comments || Top||

#17  Bobby! Two words for ya man. Horse Whisperer.
Posted by: Mike N. || 01/20/2007 11:43 Comments || Top||

#18  I help horses with people problems.
Posted by: Robert Redford || 01/20/2007 11:44 Comments || Top||

#19  two more: Legal Eagles
Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2007 11:45 Comments || Top||

#20  Ima always think that An Indecent Proposal and Horse Whispers would make a hell of a marquee.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/20/2007 12:05 Comments || Top||

#21  Another leftover lefty. Looks worn down like Jimmah. No one gives a half shit about your idiot opinions Redford. Glad to see your little fest is degenerating as fast as you are. Crawl back under your rock for another year.
Posted by: SpecOp35 || 01/20/2007 12:23 Comments || Top||

#22  Maybe he could do a movie about Wormwoods new book.
Posted by: Mike N. || 01/20/2007 14:04 Comments || Top||

#23  While we are piling on: The Electric Horseman

Not only Redford, but bonus star Hanoi Jane Fonda. Not the one where she sits on an anti-aircraft gun, tho.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/20/2007 14:44 Comments || Top||

#24  Redford, thought he was dead.
Posted by: Spiting Spaiting7319 || 01/20/2007 15:07 Comments || Top||

#25  I know Sterling Van Waganen, co-founder of the Sundance Film Festival. I may call him and ask what he thinks of Ole' Bob politicising the Festival.
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 01/20/2007 16:30 Comments || Top||

#26  Bob has ALWAYS politicized the festival
Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2007 16:43 Comments || Top||

#27  It is Our Rantburg Honor to Bestow the

Guru of Anus Award to Robert Redford

For his Lifetime of searching the edges of his own Pretentious Asshole.

see 'The Asshole Quest' on Sunday, 8 Central 9 Pacific cBS.

Posted by: RD || 01/20/2007 17:07 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
UN has failed on Kashmir: Mirwaiz
All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq expressed disappointment at the United Nations’ failure to resolve the Kashmir issue and urged Pakistan and India to take more initiatives. Addressing a press conference with Azad Kashmir Prime Minister Sardar Attique on Friday, he rejected a solution that did not involve Kashmiri people. He said there was a complete consensus between the APHC and the Azad Kashmir government and both agreed that war was not a solution. Farooq said he was not a traitor to the Kashmir cause and all his efforts were aimed at freeing the Kashmiri people from Indian oppression. To a question, he said he wanted militant groups to support the peace talks.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This is the muslim sense of entitlement at work.
Posted by: john || 01/20/2007 6:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Tell Mirwaiz to get in line...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/20/2007 9:22 Comments || Top||


Blinky-in-Quetta story refuses to die
Reports in the American press, based on the claims of so-called Taliban spokesman Mohammad Hanif, that Mullah Omar is hiding in Quetta refuse to go away.

Another one appeared in the Christian Science Monitor on Friday, filed by its correspondent David Montero from Islamabad, who claimed that the naming of Quetta as the refuge of the former head of the Taliban regime was creating an “international uproar”. Hanif has said that the Taliban leader is under ISI protection. Abul Haq Haqiq, also known as Dr Mohammad Hanif, made the statements in a videotaped interrogation released by Afghan intelligence on Wednesday, following his alleged arrest while crossing from Pakistan into the Afghan province of Nangarhar.

The Monitor report noted that Hanif’s claims were the latest in a “stream of international criticism of Pakistan”. Afghanistan officials, including President Karzai, have accused Pakistan of harbouring Omar, and news of his whereabouts was amplifying questions about Pakistan’s commitment to the war on terror, the report quoted unnamed analysts as saying.

Hanif also told his Afghan interrogators that the Taliban, with help from the ISI, were responsible for more than 100 suicide attacks that killed 270 civilians and 17 international soldiers. The Monitor quoted Prof Rasul Bahksh Rais from Lahore as saying, “It’s extremely important news. When we add all these accusations together, they pose a real problem for Pakistan’s credibility, that it is playing a double game.”

Hanif told the Monitor in mid-December that Omar remained a central pillar in Taliban operations. He was not always present at meetings of the upper leadership, but all decisions were conveyed to him for approval, claimed Hanif. “Without Mullah Omar, we would not be able to reorganise and have this intensity of our attacks.” He was speaking by telephone last December from an undisclosed location. The newspaper said, “If true, Hanif’s taped confession would constitute the highest level official statement from the Taliban that Omar is in Quetta. It would also verify that the operational centre of the movement is in Pakistan. Many have long claimed this, chief among them Karzai, who last February delivered a series of dossiers to Islamabad detailing the addresses of Taliban leaders in Quetta.

Pakistan rejected the validity of those files, just as they immediately rejected Hanif’s claims, calling it another salvo in Afghanistan’s escalating blame game. ‘This is the most absurd statement that can come out,’ said Maj Gen Shaukut Sultan, a spokesman for the Pakistani military. ‘Pakistan is fully committed to fighting terrorism.’ Hanif’s accusations against Afghan intelligence officials may have been coerced, some observers say.”

The Monitor report noted that Hanif’s new claim contradicted what he had said earlier to the newspaper. “Mullah Omar is in Afghanistan and all (Taliban) leaders too. There is no Taliban in Quetta,” he said at the time. In his conversation with the American newspaper last month, Hanif dismissed reports that Pakistan was providing aid to the Taliban. “Pakistan is not helping. Basically the Afghan people help, themselves,” he said. However, he contradicted himself again in Thursday’s taped interrogation, claiming that a former ISI chief, Gen Hamid Gul, was providing financial and logistical support to the Taliban. Hamid Gul has dismissed the charge as “nonsense.”
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  As long as the UN keeps up the subsidy for phony Afghan "refugees" in Pakistan, bin Laden and company will have a safe harbor.
Posted by: Sneaze Shaiting3550 || 01/20/2007 1:22 Comments || Top||

#2  If I was Blinky, I'd be getting pretty nervous.
Sounds like he's becoming a liability to Pakistan who is, of course, our ally in the War on Terror...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/20/2007 9:28 Comments || Top||

#3  What's to worry about? He moves from Quetta to Faisalabad for six months until the attention span deficit kicks in.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2007 13:48 Comments || Top||


PPP pledges to block president's re-election
The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) will use all options available, including parliamentary resignations, if President Pervez Musharraf tries to get himself re-elected through the current assemblies, PPP Secretary-General Raja Pervez Ashraf said on Friday. “The current assemblies cannot elect the president for another term just as they cannot present the 2008 budget,” he said. “The president has come into power by force and has taken the country hostage.”

He was talking to reporters at a ceremony to announce that two union council naib nazims from Attock had joined the PPP. The naib nazims said they would continue their struggle for the restoration of democracy under Benazir Bhutto.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


'Fake documents have landed 1,264 Pakistanis in foreign prisons'
The Senate was told on Friday that 1,264 Pakistanis had been detained over the last three years in various countries for carrying fake documents and visas. Replying to a question by Senator Talha Mahmood, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said that of the detained people, 428 were arrested in the UK, 311 in Saudi Arabia, 88 in Germany, 87 in Singapore, 52 in France, 38 in Japan, 28 each in Italy and Poland, 24 in Austria, 16 in the US, 25 in Canada, 12 in Hong Kong, 19 in Norway, 18 in Croatia and 17 in Denmark. He said that a small number of Pakistanis’ detentions had also been reported in other countries.

Responding to the senator’s questions, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Khusro Bakhtiar said Pakistani missions abroad had approached these Pakistanis. “Our embassy officials visit detention centres regularly to provide legal services to detained Pakistanis,” he added. He said the missions also helped detained people by providing them services of volunteers from the Pakistani community who knew about legal systems. “Emergency passports are issued to Pakistanis whose cases of immigration, asylum and overstay are decided by courts of host countries,” he said.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "It's in our blood!"
Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2007 10:06 Comments || Top||

#2  I suspect the times plagerized this story.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/20/2007 12:07 Comments || Top||

#3  Really reinforces the idea that Paks are the bottom ot the barrel pond scum wherever they appear doesn't it ?
Posted by: SpecOp35 || 01/20/2007 12:27 Comments || Top||

#4  Only 16 in the U.S. is disappointing. I demand that ICE up their quotas to surpass all of the other countries combined. America will not finish in last place!
Posted by: Whinens Griper7231 || 01/20/2007 13:17 Comments || Top||

#5  ICE isn't looking very hard.
Posted by: ed || 01/20/2007 14:11 Comments || Top||

#6  Remeber after 9/11 when it was announced that all adult Muslim males would have to register with the government? Big exodus via all exits (lots to Canada, lots and lots went back home), especially of Indians and Pakistanis. Had this question been asked 9/10, I'm sure US numbers would have been significantly higher.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/20/2007 18:29 Comments || Top||

#7  I may have to change out this keyboard -- too many lost letters. I'm a much better speller on the old keyboard, darn it!
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/20/2007 19:15 Comments || Top||


Kachkol accuses JUI of misleading masses
Opposition leader Kachkol Ali Baloch on Friday accused the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) of misleading the masses and being involved in political hypocrisies. Talking to Daily Times, the Baloch took exception to recent comments by Balochistan JUI chief Maulana Sherani that Baloch nationalists were misleading the people of Balochistan. Baloch said it was the JUI that was getting innocent people to vote for them in the name of Islam. “Following the elections, Maulana Sherani initially sought the release of his two former provincial ministers who were convicted of massive corruption and cheating the provincial exchequer,” he said, adding that Sherani later joined the Balochistan government and retained all major portfolios, forgetting an accord with the PML to enforce shariah laws in Balochistan.

He also talked about the “drama of boycotting Balochistan Assembly sessions” last year by MMA ministers, who said that Balochistan was being mistreated by the centre in financial affairs. “In fact, Maulana Sherani and his followers blackmailed the government and stopped it from disqualifying JUI nazims who had been issued unrecognised degrees by seminaries,” said Baloch.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


International-UN-NGOs
U.S. Says U.N. Agency Aided N. Korea
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon responded quickly to U.S. accusations that the U.N. development agency funneled millions of dollars in cash aid to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, calling on all U.N. funds and programs to conduct an urgent outside investigation into their operations.

Ban's decision to press for outside audits not only of the U.N. Development Program's activities in North Korea but of all U.N. programs indicated he was determined to avoid a repetition of the scandal over the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq which bubbled for months before former Secretary-General Kofi Annan agreed to an independent investigation.

In the North Korean case, U.S. officials questioned whether funds intended to help the country's impoverished people had been used for other activities including nuclear weapons development. The U.N. program, known as UNDP, said it has operated in North Korea since 1979 and no concerns have been raised about its funds being used for the North's nuclear arms program.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: ryuge || 01/20/2007 07:08 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "It simply boggles the imagination that they simply dole out cash without controls,"
If that isn't reason enough to pack up and leave the UN, I don't know what is, considering 1/4 of that money is from US taxpayers. That organization hasn't served any American purpose in a very long time. The UN simply exists as a way for foreign diplomats to leech off America, all the while telling us how awful we are.
BTW - I'll wager the family farm Bans' audits will merely be exercises in whitewashing.
Posted by: JerseyMike || 01/20/2007 7:44 Comments || Top||

#2  only place to buy the local currency was from the country's central bank _ which means hard currency will continue to reach Kim's regime.

Does this sound like money laundering to you?

I ain't quite up to snuff on the precise definition but this sounds awfully close...
Posted by: CrazyFool || 01/20/2007 9:02 Comments || Top||

#3  sounds like they cut out the middleman
Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2007 10:12 Comments || Top||

#4  We cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you.
---Chilkoot Charlie
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 01/20/2007 15:06 Comments || Top||

#5  Moon is South Korean correct?
Posted by: Mike N. || 01/20/2007 18:27 Comments || Top||

#6  Rather than burden taxpayers for money to imprison theives, would it save money to send them all to the U.N. as executives for aid programs?
Posted by: whatadeal || 01/20/2007 21:52 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Think We're Losing Iraq? Take a Look at the Dinar
War rages in Iraq. America is preparing to launch an offensive in Baghdad, Iranians are infiltrating the country, and, according to the United Nations, civilians in Iraq are dying at a rate of 100 people a day.

Yet the Iraqi currency is rising in value. Tuesday, the rate of exchange had reached 1,308 dinars to the American dollar — up from 1,470 last November. Money changers in Baghdad say they cannot keep up with the demand and that Iraqis who used to hang on to their American dollars for dear life are rushing to exchange them.

What gives? The answers are as murky as anything in Iraq, and the actions of both good and bad guys seem to be helping the dinar.

On the good guys' side, the Iraqi Central Bank is getting its act together after having built foreign currency and gold reserves of at least $16 billion, up from a mere $5 billion in 2005. That is serious enough to create a strong backbone for the local currency. On its Web site, the central bank noted that it has increased its main interest rate to 16% from 12% — a move that has boosted the dinar, too.

For its part, the American Army, or some units of it, is beginning to pay contractors in "dinar checks" instead of dollars. That has the double benefit of reviving the moribund banking system — you've got to go to a bank to cash it — while boosting the local currency.

Bad guys are doing their bit too, interestingly. Corruption is said to account for perhaps as much as 500,000 barrels of daily oil production "disappearing," which means stolen. Even when disposed of at a discount, this stolen oil would fetch a minimum of $20 million American dollars a day for those corrupt officials siphoning it off. Experts are certain that not all of this leaves the country, however. At least half the money ends up being "recycled" into the Iraqi black economy to buy loyalties, services, arms, protection, and villas with swimming pools. In the end, this money creates jobs and demand for more dinars.

Ironically, both Iran and Syria, which are working hard to undermine Iraq, are boosting the dinar too. By pumping millions of dollars to support Shiites and Sunni insurgents, buy arms, and make bombs, they are also ratcheting up demand for dinars, since the fighters, the militias, and the secret cells all need to be paid in local currencies instead of dollars so as to keep a lower profile.

The biggest spender in town, the American Army, seems to be deliberately helping with the new pay-in-dinar policy, as noted by Major Richard Santiago, commander of 3rd Finance Company, 3rd Soldier Support Battalion, Division Support Brigade. "Issuing dinar check payments improves the economic and financial stability of Iraq by promoting the Iraqi banks while using their local currency. It also decreases the cash requirements our finance offices need in order to meet mission requirements," Major Santiago told the defense-oriented Web site GlobalSecurity.org a few days ago.

Of course, the dinar has a long way to go against the dollar. In its heyday in the 1980s, one dinar fetched almost three dollars compared to the present — reverse — ratio of one dollar to more than 1,300 dinars.

How long this is going to last is anyone's guess.

It could be argued that, in a sinister way, everything terrible that could have happened in Iraq has happened, so what else could sap confidence in the dinar — short of an abrupt American withdrawal? A good point indeed. The same logic applies to oil, which has been falling in price like a rock even though demand has not diminished. As with oil, the dinar was pushed by psychological factors that attached a monetary premium devaluing it. As Iraqis get used to the fear, the premium lifts.
Posted by: Steve White || 01/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  J. Paul Bremer should get the lion's share of the credit for the incredibly difficult and unrewarding job of laying the foundation for Iraq's economy in the future.

Taking a page from MacArthur's restoration of Japan, but doing him one better, Bremer has assured, all else being equal, that Iraq will be the powerhouse of the Middle East in the future.

Ironically, what he did will become textbook for nation building in other countries. For example, since Iraq was a "tabula rasa", a blank slate, he could choose from the very best economic innovations and practices from around the world, with utter pragmatism.

Even better, in other countries, those practices were never "perfect", because of the process they had to go through to be used in the first place. Unnecessary baggage that inhibited them, and mistakes made in innovating them.

But in Iraq's case, Bremer had the ideal situation found only in games like "Sim City", except as created by the finest capitalist economists in the world, in Bremer's opinion.

So Iraq has been given the best in the Middle East in banking and finance, stock markets, insurance and currency. Again, all else being equal, all it needs is time and some degree of stability.

Eventually, I expect the Iraqi Dinar to be one of the top currencies in the world, and their stock market to be followed as closely as the DOW and NASDAQ.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/20/2007 9:36 Comments || Top||

#2  And if the GWOT (and Iraq Campaign) are going so badly, why is the price of oil dropping? The Dow is high and unemployment low, so it's not that the US economy is collapsing and dropping demand for oil. And if the US economy is strong, the world economy can't be but so bad. Conservation efforts are a slow process. That leaves increased supply (Sunni Gulf nations putting economic pressure on Iran via the oil pump?) and decreased risk perception as major factors. Either or both signal progress on the Islamofascist front.
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/20/2007 10:57 Comments || Top||

#3  Oddly enough especially in light of what Glenmore says petroleum demand dropped last year. I can't tell if that's just imports or drawdowns from inventory tho.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/20/2007 12:04 Comments || Top||

#4  From the link above
Jet fuel demand declined by 2.8 percent to 1.6 million barrels a day, as airlines conserved fuel as best they could.
That's about 10 times what what Nazi Germany ran Europe with.
Posted by: Shipman || 01/20/2007 12:25 Comments || Top||

#5  For some reason, Shipman, I'm not able to get your link to load. Anyways, it seems that I remember reading somewhere that in late 2005/early 2006, when gas here was over $3/gallon (and for at least a quarter, or maybe even 6 months) that China's demand had dropped by 1/3! They just simply couldn't afford it. India was probably in the same boat. That probably carried over and impacted the total somewhat.

Add to that the fact that an entire city (New Orleans) pretty much lost every single car (and bus) in it's perimeter. Those who stayed behind in Mississippi didn't fare any better. These "little things" add up to some serious drop in demand (worldwide).
Posted by: BA || 01/20/2007 20:43 Comments || Top||


Extra US troops to stay in Iraq until at least June
TALLIL AIR BASE, Iraq - US troop reinforcements will stay in Iraq until at least June, outgoing coalition commander General George Casey said on Friday, adding that he was pleased with the progress so far of a new US strategy. After meeting visiting US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, Casey said recent arrests of suspected death squad leaders showed that Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki was beginning to take the steps he had promised to end the alleged impunity of Shia militias.

“So far so good, but as I said, we’ve got a long way to go yet,” Casey told reporters with Gates, on his first Iraq visit since this month’s unveiling of the US change of policy, at his side.

Casey said it would take until about June to see results from the reinforcement of US and Iraqi forces in Baghdad. Only then could decisions be made about how long the 21,500 additional US troops sent to Iraq would stay, he said.

But the US general said there was already evidence that the Iraqi premier was genuine in his determination to crack down on the sectarian bloodletting gripping Iraq, following the arrest of a commander of the Mehdi Army militia of Shia radical leader Moqtada Al Sadr earlier in the day.

“We have had a series of operations against Al Qaeda, against Saddamists and against death squads. And we have picked up five or six death squad leaders in the last two or three or four weeks,” Casey said. “I think it is indicative of the prime minister and the government’s commitment to target all those who break the law.”
Posted by: Steve White || 01/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Mahdi/Immam + Jesus in Spring" still set to appear. Yoohoo, calling MADONNA + WHITNEY, + PAULA + MARIAH + BRADGELINA, + mere man Oliver Stone.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/20/2007 0:22 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
'Free 1,000 terrorists for Shalit'
Jewish law permits the release of a thousand terrorists, including those guilty of murder, in exchange for captive Cpl. Gilad Shalit, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the spiritual mentor of Shas, ruled this week. Yosef's son David, who heads the Yechaveh Da'at Beit Midrash in Jerusalem, drafted the halachic decision, which was later approved by his father. Yosef's opinion, was first published in the haredi weekly Hamishpacha. "It is imperative to free as many terrorists as necessary to save Shalit's life," wrote Rabbi David Yosef. "In life and death situations like this one, we must not make calculations precisely on how many terrorists should or should not be freed or whether they have blood on their hands or not."

In a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post, David Yosef said that neither he nor his father had consulted with military or intelligence experts before issuing the decision. "The purpose of the decision is to give halachic backing to the government if it makes the decision to free terrorists," he said. "If the experts decide that the risk of letting those terrorists go is worth taking, they should know that they are acting in accordance with Jewish law."
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So would be the execution of 1,000 terrorists if Shalit *isn't* released.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/20/2007 9:39 Comments || Top||

#2  Howzabout pictures of a thousand terrorists for a picture of Shalit?
Posted by: SteveS || 01/20/2007 10:30 Comments || Top||


Nasrallah predicts Olmert and Peretz will also resign
Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah promised Friday evening that his opposition alliance would intensify its campaign to bring down the government, pledging to mount an "effective" action in the coming days. In an interview with his group's Al-Manar television, Nasrallah said Hezbollah's consultations with its allies were drawing to a close and they would release a statement shortly that spelled out the steps to be taken. "I believe this action will be effective, very important and very big," he said. He would not divulge the plan but urged all Lebanese to support it.

Hezbollah and its allies have staged street protests and sit-ins, camping outside the prime minister's office, since Dec. 1 in a bid to topple the government of Fuad Saniora. Newspapers have said if Hezbollah steps up the campaign, it is likely to employ tactics such as a general strike and the blocking of major roads. When asked if the opposition would close roads, Beirut port or airport, Nasrallah declined to respond. He said the campaign would remain non-violent, as has generally been the case. One person was shot dead in a street clash, but the protests have been largely peaceful.

Nasrallah said Hezbollah would never use weapons in its political struggle in Lebanon, repeating that the group's arms were for fighting Israel.

Earlier Friday Nasrallah said that the resignation of Israel's military chief proved that his group had won the July-August war with Israel, and forecast that the country's defense and prime ministers would also have to resign. "It is natural and logical that (Israeli Defense Minister Amir) Peretz should fall. I expect him to resign. He will be the next victim," Nasrallah said in an interview on Hizbullah's Al-Manar television station.

He predicted that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would also pay the price of Israel's failure to crush Hizbullah and secure the release of its soldiers in the 34-day war. "In the end, (Olmert) will either resign or be overthrown," Nasrallah said.

Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz resigned Wednesday, saying he had to take responsibility. Internal inquiries by the Israeli IDF found widespread problems in the forces' performance during the conflict. His resignation generated calls for Olmert and Peretz to step down as well as the three leaders have been widely blamed for the war's shortcomings.

Nasrallah said that Halutz's resignation showed that Hizbullah achieved a "historic, strategic victory" over the Israelis. "What is happening now confirms that," Nasrallah said, adding that when he heard of the resignation, "I felt happiness." He said the deterrent power of the Israeli armed forces had "collapsed."

"There is a crisis of confidence in the Israeli army, unprecedented since its inception," he said. The war began on July 12 after a Hizbullah cross-border raid in which two IDF soldiers were kidnapped. Israel launched a ground invasion of southern Lebanon and a massive aerial bombardment that destroyed huge chunks of Lebanon's infrastructure and hundreds of homes. Hizbullah fired thousands of rockets into northern Israel. More than 1,000 people were killed in Lebanon and about 160 Israelis.

The conflict ended Aug. 14 with a UN-brokered cease-fire under which some 15,000 Lebanese troops and about 12,000 U.N. peacekeepers have taken control of southern Lebanon, where Hizbullah used to be the dominant military force.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1 
Nasrallah's secret intelligence source revealed
Posted by: doc || 01/20/2007 9:44 Comments || Top||


Lieberman: 'Peretz is an idiot'
Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman responded on Friday to the harsh criticism by Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's decision to delay the vote on the appointment of Israel's first Arab and Muslim minister MK Ghaleb Majadle was because of racism. In an interview with Israel Radio, Lieberman said that Labor Party Chairman Amir Peretz was fully aware that the delay was only because Olmert wanted to shuffle his cabinet after the January 31 verdict in the trial of former justice minister Haim Ramon so "the fact that he is prepared to say that proves he is an idiot and doesn't understand anything about politics."

Lieberman stressed that he was not opposed to Majadle's appointment and his problem was not with Majadle's race but with the inexperienced Peretz continuing to be in charge of the army. The Israel Beiteinu chairman reiterated his call on Olmert to replace Peretz saying that "every additional moment with Peretz as defense minister is a blow to Israel's security."

Majadle's appointment is not expected to come to a vote in Sunday's cabinet meeting, despite the Labor central committee's decision to allow Peretz to nominate him. Peretz's associates vowed he would fight Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to ensure that Majadle's appointment as science, culture and sport minister would not be delayed. "If Olmert doesn't bring Ghaleb's appointment to a vote on Sunday, he is giving into the racism of [Israel Beiteinu leader Avigdor] Lieberman," a Peretz spokeman said on Thursday.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  And not the only one.
Posted by: gromgoru || 01/20/2007 7:20 Comments || Top||

#2  There's something about that name that gives people common sense, very rare in their political parties.
Posted by: Jackal || 01/20/2007 11:31 Comments || Top||

#3  Olmert/Peretz out. Bini + Lieberman in.
Posted by: SpecOp35 || 01/20/2007 12:31 Comments || Top||

#4  When I saw the headline, I thought it was *our* Lieberman and thought "How delightfully outspoken!"
Posted by: SteveS || 01/20/2007 14:58 Comments || Top||


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Ahmadinejad:North Korean wannabe
As tension builds up between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the international community, a potentially more significant conflict is taking shape within the ruling establishment in Tehran.

The conflict is centered on what looks like a looming economic crisis. Inflation has risen to 17 percent, its highest rate since the 1970s. A cascade of business closures has pushed unemployment, already high even by Third World standards, to its highest level in three decades. The value of the national currency, the rial, has dropped against regional and global currencies, and remains on the slide. According to official estimates, including some offered by Ayatollah Shahroudi, the Islamic chief justice, the flight of capital from Iran has turned into a flood.

In Iran, as in most other Third World economies, the absence of modern investment opportunities gives real estate a leading role in attracting savings at all levels. As soon as an Iranian has some extra income, he tries to buy a piece of land or an apartment. As a result, real estate has been a key measure of Iran’s economic performance. By that measure, the Iranian economy is heading for meltdown. The money that would have been invested in real estate inside Iran now goes to Dubai and Turkey. In recent months, Iraq has also become a magnet for Iranian investors, generating a boom in the Shiite “holy cities” of Najaf and Karbala. A few companies also offer investment opportunities in real estate in Syria, Romania and Bulgaria.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Glomorong Thavick1009 || 01/20/2007 08:21 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Living in a nondescript three-bedroom house in a poor neighborhood in Tehran and driving a battered Iranian-made car, Ahmadinejad has used “qana’at” (frugality) and “twazu’e” (modesty) as key concepts in his doctrine of “self-sufficiency”.


sounds like an Iranian Jerry Brown spouting Juche
Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2007 10:57 Comments || Top||

#2  and driving a battered Iranian-made car

Unsafe at any speed!
Posted by: Raj || 01/20/2007 13:24 Comments || Top||

#3  Living in a nondescript three-bedroom house in a poor neighborhood in Tehran and driving a battered Iranian-made car, Ahmadinejad has used “qana’at” (frugality) and “twazu’e” (modesty) as key concepts in his doctrine of “self-sufficiency”.

As I understand, Lenin was pretty frugal early on too. We all know how well that turned out.
Posted by: xbalanke || 01/20/2007 17:30 Comments || Top||

#4  And Hitler was a non-smoking vegetarian who never married or displayed personal wealth. So what?
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/20/2007 19:18 Comments || Top||


Nasrallah: "Very big action" against gov't in days
Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday promised that his opposition alliance would mount an "effective" action to bring down the US-backed government in the coming days.

Speaking in an interview with his group's Al-Manar television, Nasrallah that consultations among Hizbullah's political allies were drawing to a close and they would release a statement shortly that spelled out the steps to be taken. "I believe this action will be effective, very important and very big," he said. He would divulge the plan but urged all Lebanese to support it.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  see Michael Totten's latest post to see the "victory" Nasrallah brought to his people...utter devastation to Haret Hreik, Hezbollah’s dahiyeh and de-facto “capital” south of Beirut. He's desperate
Posted by: Frank G || 01/20/2007 0:06 Comments || Top||

#2  Chedar revolution kaput?
Posted by: gromgoru || 01/20/2007 6:52 Comments || Top||

#3  Chedar revolution kaput?

Why? What's happening in Wisconsin?
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 01/20/2007 9:09 Comments || Top||

#4  What's happening in Wisconsin?

The people are rising up and burning all of Robert Redford's movies. Yay, Cheeseheads!
Posted by: SteveS || 01/20/2007 10:27 Comments || Top||


Iran masses troops along borders with Iraq
(KUNA) -- An Iraqi Kurdish source said Friday that Iran is massing troops along its borders with north Iraq. A Pishmerga source said that Iran has beefed up its troops stationed along the main border crossing (Pashmakh), midway between the Kurdish Penjavin city and the Iranian Miriwan city. He added that Iran sent more reinforcement troops to the Kirban border position with Iraq, between Daza castle north of Suleymania. Also the Iranian border authorities are applying a lot of pressure on businessmen at the border crossing and tightening the inspection process there.
Posted by: Fred || 01/20/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  A suggestion:
Posted by: DMFD || 01/20/2007 0:13 Comments || Top||

#2  FREEREPUBLIC/OTHER > REUTERS > US ANALYST SEES MASSIVE, BROAD US ATTACK AGZ IRAN. War, not merely a surgical = limited attack, and in 2007.
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 01/20/2007 0:35 Comments || Top||

#3  Massed Iranian troops would be better signified by the graphic showing Hitler with the "Kick Me" sign on his back.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/20/2007 2:24 Comments || Top||

#4  Aha! So the Turkish forces massing on the border fighting Kurd seperatists with help from US and Iraqi forces in northern Iraq is a ruse to move forces between Syria & Iran!
Posted by: Skidmark || 01/20/2007 2:26 Comments || Top||

#5  Cluster munitons and lots of them along with fuel air explosives will solve that problem.
Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom || 01/20/2007 3:30 Comments || Top||

#6  US lawmakers seek to bar attack on Iran and Iran masses troops along borders with Iraq

Cause ==> effect
Posted by: gromgoru || 01/20/2007 6:56 Comments || Top||

#7  Iranian troops massing on Kurdish Iraq border.
Turkish troops massing on Kurdish Iraq border.
Are these moves designed to pre-empt Kurdish Iraq from declaring an independent Kurdish state?
Is the US quietly cooperating in order to keep the Kurds in play regarding the rest of Iraq?
Posted by: Glenmore || 01/20/2007 11:01 Comments || Top||

#8  You could be right. The Kurds declaring independence right now would be one problem that CENTCOM don't need.
Posted by: Mike N. || 01/20/2007 11:53 Comments || Top||

#9  How nice of them to put them all in one place for us...

Blackvenom-2001
Posted by: Blackvenom-2001 || 01/20/2007 13:33 Comments || Top||

#10  Could be a diversion to keep the Kurdish battalions from going to Baghdad.
Posted by: ed || 01/20/2007 14:10 Comments || Top||

#11  I don't think that's it Ed. Our Air-Power will wipe out any adavantage the Iranians could hope to have if they did invade and the Kurds know this. The No-Fly Zones set up in the 90's of Northern Iraq proved that well enough. After three days the Iranians would be WALKING back to the border for lack of transportation.
Posted by: Charles || 01/20/2007 19:06 Comments || Top||

#12  Not saying the Iranians plan to cross the border. But the threat is designed to keep the Kurdish troops in Kurdistan.
Posted by: ed || 01/20/2007 19:11 Comments || Top||

#13  Yes, but...

This time the Iranians believe the Democratic majority in Congress will prevent any warlike response from President Bush.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/20/2007 19:20 Comments || Top||

#14  Still applies to the situation since the Kurds know the troops are paper tigers and a huge pair of scissors. You could be right that it's what the Iranians hope will happen, but the Kurds are smarter than to believe anything will happen to them with US airpower nearby.
Posted by: Charles || 01/20/2007 19:20 Comments || Top||

#15  If you were a Barzani in the path of any incursion, would you bet your life on US airpower or would you place troops in the the path?
Posted by: ed || 01/20/2007 19:28 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2007-01-20
  Shootout near presidential palace in Mog
Fri 2007-01-19
  Tater aide arrested in Baghdad
Thu 2007-01-18
  Mullah Hanif sez Mullah Omar lives in Quetta
Wed 2007-01-17
  Halutz quits
Tue 2007-01-16
  Yemen kills al-Qaeda fugitive
Mon 2007-01-15
  Barzan and al-Bandar hanged; Barzan's head pops off
Sun 2007-01-14
  Somalia: Lawmakers impose martial law
Sat 2007-01-13
  Last Somali Islamist base falls
Fri 2007-01-12
  Two US aircraft carrier groups plus Patriot missile bn planned for ME
Thu 2007-01-11
  US Warships picking up Al-Q hardboyz at sea
Wed 2007-01-10
  Troop Surge Already Under Way
Tue 2007-01-09
  Major battle on Haifa street in Baghdad
Mon 2007-01-08
  US Gunship Hits Al-Qaeda In Somalia
Sun 2007-01-07
  Iraqi Papers Sunday: Iranian Coup Plot Foiled?
Sat 2007-01-06
  Top Dems Oppose More Troops in Iraq

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