Afghanistans parliament voted to dismiss the countrys foreign minister on Saturday amid an uproar over Irans forced return of thousands of refugees. Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta lost a no-confidence vote by a large majority in a second round of voting, after the first round on Thursday hinged on a single spoilt ballot. Refugees Affairs Minister Akbar Akbar earlier lost his job in Thursdays vote, according to the Associated Foreign Press.
Spanta was accused of not doing enough to persuade Iran to ease its policy of forced repatriation, while Akbar allegedly failed to help accommodate thousands of refugees forced out by Iran this month. Nearly two million Afghans are still living as refugees in Iran more than half of them illegally despite millions of Afghans having returned from Iran and Pakistan after the toppling of the Taliban in late 2001. Iran says it wants the illegal Afghans out of its country by March 2008. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) says more than 52,000 were forced out between April 21 and May 8, according to government figures.
According to the Afghan Constitution, Spanta has lost his job but President Hamid Karzai could decide to keep him on as acting minister until he chooses a replacement for him, officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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Nearly two million Afghans are still living as refugees in Iran more than half of them illegally despite millions of Afghans having returned from Iran and Pakistan after the toppling of the Taliban in late 2001.
KUWAIT CITY - The United States has decided to release the last four Kuwaiti prisoners in Guantanamo Bay in the coming four months, a new Kuwaiti daily said on Saturday. Al-WassupAl-Wasat daily, quoting informed sources, said US authorities had informed Kuwait, a staunch ally of Washington, that its remaining citizens in the military base do not constitute any danger to American national security.
Wrung dry, squashed flat, re-programmed and ready to be camel mechanics.
The daily quoted the sources as saying the prisoners would be released before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan which begins by mid-September.
The United States has so far freed eight of the 12 Kuwaiti prisoners in Guantanamo. They have faced trial in Kuwaiti courts and acquitted of charges of joining Al Qaeda and fighting US forces under Afghanistans ousted Taleban.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair will visit Washington next week, the White House said on Friday. President Bush will host Blair on Wednesday and Thursday and the two are expected to discuss "a wide range of issues." They include "our shared goals of strengthening democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan, advancing peace and security in the Middle East, preventing Iran from obtaining the means to develop nuclear weapons, ending the genocide in Darfur, and promoting free and fair trade."
The announcement comes a day after Blair said he will stand down as Britain's prime minister and Labour Party leader after a new leader is confirmed by a party conference, which is expected around the end of June. Blair has endorsed Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown to replace him.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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The government has been enabling the terrorist murderer of Theo van Gogh to read books in his prison cell that endorse his ultra violent interpretation of Islam. The murderer himself said so on Friday before the appeal court of The Hague.
On Friday, as on Wednesday, Mohammed Bouyeri appeared before the judges to testify in the trial of seven alleged members of his terrorist group Hofstad. The judges asked him how he believes a Muslim should respond to somebody who offends the Islam faith. Bouyeri's reply: "Off with his head. Slaughter him." As the 29-year-old Amsterdam-born Moroccan sees it, the Justice Ministry encourages his ideologies. According to Bouyeri, it is obligatory to behead everybody who offends the prophet Mohammed, "and I am confirmed in this conviction by the books I get" in prison.
Bouyeri murdered Van Gogh on an Amsterdam street by riddling him with bullets, cutting his throat and planting a large knife in his heart. "Allah sent down a soldier on 2 November 2004 to cut his throat", he declared. Bouyeri would not say whether he had meticulously chosen Van Gogh as his victim. "I do not know, but it was not out of the blue". Asked whether the seven suspects were in any way involved in the murder, he declined to say anything.
Bouyeri is regarded as the Hofstad group's leader, but he is not a suspect in the trial because he cannot receive punishment since he already got life imprisonment for the terrorist murder of Van Gogh.
A German newspaper reported this week that five men were detained but released for allegedly surveying a U.S. military installation in Hanau. The group of men included two Germans who had converted to Islam and three Turks with German passports, according to a report Tuesday in the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper. The report credited another publication, the magazine Focus, in stating that the men are part of an Islamic group that may be involved in jihad-type activities.
U.S. Army public affairs officials contacted Friday in Hanau and Heidelberg referred questions regarding the possible surveillance of the Hanau installation to the U.S. European Command in Stuttgart. Questions regarding host-nation law enforcement efforts are best answered by the host nation, wrote Capt. Darrick Lee in an e-mail. As you may know, we generally do not discuss specifics of such events because of security concerns.
The Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper quoted the Hessen state minister of the interior, Volker Bouffier, saying that terrorism is always a latent danger in Germany, with particular concern about the airport. Bouffier recalled that in 2000, four Algerians who apparently planned an attack on a Christmas market were arrested in Frankfurt. The men were released because there was no evidence theyd done anything illegal, the report stated.
On April 20, the U.S. Embassy in Germany posted a message stating that Americans in Germany face an increased threat of terrorism and warned them to be on the lookout. The next day, EUCOM officials announced security exercises would start immediately at a number of military bases throughout Europe, but the announcement did not say if the exercises were in response to the Embassy alert.
Less than a week later, on April 26, military officials evacuated Wolfgang Kaserne a U.S. shopping center in Hanau after a security guard reported hearing an explosion just outside the base. German and American police, bomb-sniffing dogs and a helicopter swept through the area in search of the cause. On April 30, U.S. military officials in Hanau said authorities were unable to find the source of the loud noise that was reported.
Any increased security at bases since then has been largely invisible, although shoppers on Friday at Heidelbergs commissary noted that military police were checking IDs inside the store entrance.
At least one million secular Turks have gathered in the city of Izmir to protest against the government in a rally organisers hope will unite the opposition ahead of elections in July. The protest was overshadowed by a bombing on Saturday in the city which killed one man and injured 14. It was not immediately clear who was behind the bombing. My very first guess would be it was the kind of people they're protesting against.
Streets and buildings in Turkey's second largest city, including army barracks, were covered in a sea of red Turkish flags and portraits of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. "Turkey is secular and will remain secular," protesters chanted. "No to sharia (Islamic law)."
Local police told Reuters at least 1 million people attended the seaside rally, with no major incidents reported. Organisers, many leftwing groups, had hoped to attract 2 million people. They only made it halfway, so it must be a failure.
Turkey's main opposition centre-left Republican People's Party (CHP) and the smaller leftist Democratic Left Party (DSP), which are in talks to form an alliance, hope to use the rally to build momentum ahead of the July 22 election. The government of Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, has been forced to call a general election months ahead of schedule to defuse a conflict with Turkey's secularists over a presidential election.
Turkey's secular elite, including opposition parties, top judges and army generals, successfully blocked the election of Abdullah Gul, the foreign minister. They feared Gul might try to undermine Turkey's separation of state and religion, a claim he and his ruling AK Party strongly deny.
The political crisis has brought about mergers between opposition parties in the hope to pass a 10 per cent threshold of votes in July to enter parliament. Opinion polls show the centre-right AK Party is likely to win most votes in July but it may fail to win an outright majority, forcing it to form a coalition government.
A series of large anti-AK Party rallies over the past month have again brought to the surface the great divide among Turks, who are predominantly Muslim, over the role of religion amid fast economic and social change. Izmir, a transit point for Turkey's tourism industry, has traditionally been predominantly secular and pro-western.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 10:20 ||
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Security officials from Europe's largest countries backed a plan Saturday to profile mosques on the continent and identify radical Islamic clerics who raise the threat of homegrown terrorism. Shucks, an it hasn't even been six whole years since 9-11-01.
The project, to be finished by the fall, When it will have been six whole years...
will focus on the roles of imams, their training, their ability to speak in the local language and their sources of funding, EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini told a news conference after a meeting on terrorism. Seems like it should also focus on their love of automatic weapons, but I guess the Euros didn't want to push it.
Italian Interior Minister Guiliano Amato said Europe had extensive experience with the "misuse of mosques, which instead of being places of worship are used for other ends. "This is bringing about a situation that involves all of our countries and involves the possibility of attacks and developing of networks that use one country to prepare an attack in another," Amato said. That's because we in the West have been subjected to 2000 years of conditioning by Christianity and Judaism, with the emphasis on the former. Bloodthirsty holy men are a rarity and Christian churches are places of peace and sanctuary. You don't expect to find weaponry there, with the exception of the occasional Knight of Columbus lugging a ceremonial sword to a function. If the preacher's spraying spittle at anybody it's delivering the promise of fire and brimstone for the congregants if they don't toe the line, not for the generic enemies of the congregants, who're allowed to go to Hell at their own speed. The purpose of the mosque in Islam is to whip up the serried ranks of the Abdullahs, kneeling as they are in submission to the Voice of Allah, to go out and kill people. So it's not really misuse of the mosques that the Euros are worried about.
The transit attacks in Madrid and London -- along with several thwarted terror plots -- have raised concerns across Europe about the susceptibility of disaffected young Muslims to the messages of extremist clerics. Whoa! Picked right up on that one, didn't they? Bali was in 2002, Beslan was in 2003, Madrid in in 2004 and London in 2005.
British police have said the bombers in the July 2005 London suicide attacks listened to the sermons of Abu Hamza al-Masri, a radical cleric who was sentenced last year to seven years in prison for inciting followers to kill non-Muslims. Britain also recently ordered the deportation of a Jordanian-born cleric, Abu Qatada, accusing him of links to terrorism and being a threat to national security. Abu Qatada is appealing. "Considered" means they talked about it, not that they had the nerve to do it.
Adel Smith, a well-known Muslim activist in Italy, said mosques in Italy are already extensively monitored and called the EU plan discriminatory. What'd you think he was gonna say? "Hell, yeah! Monitor us suckers closely 'cuz we're dangerous!"? He's on the other side!
"I think this is nonsense, I think mosques have been well monitored for some years," he said in a telephone interview. "It is a form of religious discrimination." Tusk tusk. I feel so guilt ridden.
Frattini emphasized the need of deeper dialogue with the Islamic communities "to avoid sending messages that incite hate and violence." People kept emphasizing the need for deeper dialogue with the Nazis, too. And the Sovs had people-to-people delegations traveling on a daily basis.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I read this three times and still couldn't believe it.(Not your comments Fred) I can't believe this pack of maroons is finally getting a clue. It's a beginning.
#2
Whoa! Picked right up on that one, didn't they? Bali was in 2002, Beslan was in 2003, Madrid in in 2004 and London in 2005.
What more will it take? Spot on commentary, Fred! Islam has outgrown its usefulness to this entire world. Per .com, I invite any and all arguments to the contrary.
#5
Before you fatwah for the Islamization of Europe please turn on this tape recorder, if you feel like it and it doesn't offend your faith or imply blasphemy against your God or his Prophet (Euro Peace Be Upon Him). We both agree that American foreign policy, scribed by Jewish string-pullers and their moneyed interests, brought this upon Europe. Euros love Islam; Muslims love Greater Andalusia.
DAVID Hicks's US military lawyer, Major Michael Mori, has been passed over for promotion and knocked back as a trainee judge in what appears to be payback for his work on behalf of the Guantanamo Bay detainee.
Boy howdy the O Club chili is strong tonight ...
Major Mori, 41, whose zealous defence of Hicks since November 2003 was admired by many Australians and instrumental in Hicks' lenient deal, has an uncertain future with the military and could potentially be assigned to non-legal work. While it was expected he would be reassigned once his defence of Hicks was complete, it is believed Major Mori has been offered remote postings, including Guam and Chile, with only limited options for remaining on the US mainland.
The Sydney Morning Herald also believes Major Mori has recently been rejected for promotion from major to lieutenant-colonel and refused an application to attend a military judge's course at Army Judge Advocate General (JAG) School, which would have qualified him as a military magistrate. Major Mori has ruled out rumours he was looking for a new career in the food service industry Australia, but could not be contacted this week.
#9
Mori ventured into an active and dishonest political campaign on behalf of himself and his client, and is now living the consequences. No doubt other military lawyers are taking notes.
And Major: don't go to Australia. You have been misled about how much they love you there.
Lawfare takes a smack in the chops. Good one.
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is calling on his supporters to turn this year's Memorial Day into a day of antiwar activism, saying that the best way to honor the troops is to demand an end to the Iraq war.
"Each of us has a responsibility as Americans, a duty to our troops and to each other, to do all we can to support the troops and end this war," the former senator from North Carolina said yesterday during a commencement address at New England College in Henniker, N.H. I want to end it too, John, just not as quickly as you.
"This Memorial Day weekend, that means more than just getting in your car, driving to the beach, or a parade, or a picnic and saying the words, 'We support our troops,' " Edwards said. "We must take responsibility and take action together -- as citizens, as Americans, as patriots. To support the troops. To end the war." Support the cops. Terminate their employment.
John hasn't had a good couple of weeks on the campaign trial -- the hedge fund issue really hurt him. He's trying to rally his base here.
Edwards, who is in the top tier of Democratic candidates and leads some public opinion surveys in Iowa, the first caucus state, has made his opposition to the war a central part of his campaign. He apologized for his vote authorizing the invasion in 2003 -- a point of distinction between Edwards and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), another candidate -- and has called on Congress to stand up to President Bush. Edwards left the Senate in 2004 after one term.
Because he was all for standing up to the President, right there on the floor of the Senate ...
Edwards, the former vice presidential nominee, suggested that people hold prayer vigils and send care packages to troops as part of the May 28 day of activism. That's nice.
"On this Memorial Day weekend, let us all take responsibility for the country we love and the brave men and women who protect it," Edwards said. "As citizens, let us volunteer in support of our troops, to offer our service in honor of theirs. As Americans, let us take a moment to join in prayer for our troops in thanks for their sacrifice. And during this weekend, let us gather as patriots." Almost makes me wanna like the guy.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/13/2007 06:36 ||
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this pathetic little ambulance-chasing whore is getting desperate, and will do anything to try to stay in the first tier for the donk primaries, regardless of the harm to the nation or troops
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/13/2007 7:58 Comments ||
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#2
"We must take responsibility and take action together -- as citizens, as Americans, as patriots. To support the troops. To end the war."
If Osama bin Laden is alive, he's laughing at us. Way to go, Edwards.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/13/2007 8:53 Comments ||
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Edwards left the Senate in 2004 after one term.
So did he really decide not to run for a second term, or was it decided for him?
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/13/2007 10:12 Comments ||
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It was clear he wouldn't win. Like his partner, John Kerry, both spent little to no time doing their elected jobs while campaigning to be elected to higher office. Massachusetts just didn't care as much. The've been used to being treated shabbily - they keep electing the fat drunk
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/13/2007 13:15 Comments ||
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#5
There used to be a word for this...
Lessee.....
Hmmm....
Could it be...
S..E..D..I..T..I..O..N
Yeah that about sums it up nicely.
Posted by: DanNY ||
05/13/2007 13:58 Comments ||
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Edwards can take his cockamamie idea and fark himself with it.
Sideways. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/13/2007 17:39 Comments ||
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In Louisiana, we had a term for people like Edwards - "alligator bait". It still applies, especially to this weaselly little rat. 'Gators will eat anything, even John sKerry and his former VP candidate - Breck hair and all.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/13/2007 17:53 Comments ||
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Too bad we can't just lock this POS slimeball in a room with some veteran Marines. The scumbag wouldn't last five minutes.
I consider this homefront WoT Politix cuz, US terrorists are mostly Aliens, Farmer Branchers know it.
FARMERS BRANCH, Texas (AP) - Voters in this Dallas suburb became the first in the nation Saturday to prohibit landlords from renting to most illegal immigrants. The ban was approved by a vote of 68 percent to 32 percent in final, unofficial returns.
The balloting marked the first public vote on a local government measure to crack down on illegal immigration. "It says especially to Congress that we're tired of the out-of-control illegal immigration problem. That if Congress doesn't do something about it, cities will," said Tim O'Hare, a City Council member who was the ordinance's lead proponent.
#1
Well, just wait until the ACLU hears about this! [retch]
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/13/2007 14:08 Comments ||
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FYI California (yes the LLL California) passed some VERY restrictive immigrant laws about six years ago; However, La Raza and other RACISTS groups have held it up in LIBERAL courts.
#3
Yes, but if every town in America makes the ACLU take them to court, it will provide a problem for those funding these lawsuits. They don't own every judge in America. It might be a good way to get rid of the ACLU - run out their bank accounts with one lawsuit after another.
#7
Demand a American driver's license as a first step. Social Security card is another step, even though forgeries of both can be obtained. Checking the rental history is always helpful (if they haven't been around for more than a year, where were they previously?), and should be done anyway to ensure a troublemaker isn't moving in. The last but one landlord is better than the current one, who'd say anything to get rid of problem, although I always spoke to all the listed references. Copies of federal and state tax returns, a local checking account (does the bank confirm the stated balance, and that the owner doesn't have a history of bouncing checks), run a credit check with one of the three credit bureaus (which will show the last ten years within the United States)... except for the social security card, the others were all standard on my application forms when I was a small-time landlord. Except for the tax returns -- I demanded the last three years of those to verify income history of a gentleman who was self-employed, and he gave me copies without demur. For those with only a brief verifiable history within the US, I would certainly demand a copy of the person's green card or work visa, as a matter of principle.
It really isn't hard to establish that a person has not been in the country for very long. Faced with an application that demands the kinds of things I listed above, especially when assured by the rental agent that all items would be checked within the next few days so he wouldn't have long to wait for a decision, an illegal would no doubt quickly fade away, whereas someone who'd turned his life around would even more quickly explain extenuating circumstances -- I've not run into any illegals, but the other I have, and he was one of my best tenants, so pleased was he to be given the chance. :-)
When federal prosecutors begin to present evidence Monday against terrorism suspect Jose Padilla, their case is expected to rest heavily on a single document: his alleged application to become an Islamic warrior. The federal indictment says Padilla filled out the mujahedin data form on July 24, 2000, "in preparation for violent jihad training in Afghanistan." The indictment alleges Padilla and two codefendants sought U.S. recruits and funding for foreign holy wars.
Prosecutors plan to call a covert CIA operative to testify in disguise about the document's provenance and chain of possession, and will go on to introduce more than half of the 200-plus transcripts from wiretapped conversations among the defendants.
Nowhere in the indictment is there mention of the sensational charges leveled against Padilla when he was arrested at O'Hare International Airport in May 2002. Then-Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft said U.S. agents had thwarted a plot between Padilla, who is a U.S. citizen, and top Al Qaeda figures to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" or blow up apartment buildings in U.S. cities.
The case against Padilla, now 36, has come a long way since then, and illustrates how the administration's policies of detaining suspects in the war on terrorism can backfire. The allegations that Padilla was part of a dirty-bomb plot were dropped in November 2005, when the Pentagon transferred him out of a military brig in Charleston, S.C. My guess would be that the dirty bomb information was based on intel, which'd be harded to use in court, while Jose's abasement of himself to al-Qaeda is on paper, which can be introduced as evidence. The subtlety of all that seems to escape the jouralism major writing this.
He had been held at the brig for 3 1/2 years as an "enemy combatant" with status more like the detainees at Guantanamo than a U.S. citizen incarcerated for the charges he would eventually face in federal court. Much of the time he was without human contact, daylight, any timepiece or a mirror. He was subjected to "stress positions" and extremes of heat, noise and light. And interrogations without an attorney present, the government has said, elicited information the Justice Department included in a widely publicized June 2004 report on Padilla's alleged contacts with Al Qaeda.
The dossier on the dirty-bomb allegations was augmented by testimony that senior Al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah gave while in a secret CIA prison overseas, according to court papers filed in November. Zubaydah is now being held as a "high-value detainee" at the U.S. military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But none of that will be admissible in his conspiracy and material-support trial.
In pretrial rulings on defense claims that the government mistreated Padilla, U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke effectively severed the conspiracy case from the dirty-bomb allegations. She has warned prosecutors that any attempt to tie Padilla to those purported plots would mean the defense could introduce evidence on controversial and classified military detention and interrogation tactics.
The conspiracy charges came about when the Pentagon abandoned its effort to jail him indefinitely as an enemy combatant. The Supreme Court had been considering a review of his status and rights. He was transferred to the Federal Detention Center in Miami and added to the government's case against former school administrator and onetime San Diego resident Kifah Wael Jayyousi and computer programmer Adham Amin Hassoun. Cooke ruled in February that Padilla was competent to stand trial, despite testimony by two mental health experts that he suffered post-traumatic stress disorder from the years in military custody.
The 44-year-old Jayyousi, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Jordanian birth, and 45-year-old Hassoun, a Lebanese-born Palestinian, had been under surveillance since the mid-1990s, the indictment says. They were arrested around the same time as Padilla. The indictment alleges all three defendants were followers of Omar Abdel Rahman, an Egyptian Muslim cleric known as "the blind sheikh" who was given a life sentence in 1995 for inciting terrorist acts, including the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.
According to the charge sheet, Jayyousi sought help from North American Muslim groups through his newsletter, the Islam Report, in which he called it "a religious obligation" to aid Muslims under siege in foreign conflicts. The government describes Hassoun as East Coast representative of two humanitarian aid organizations that it alleges are fronts for the support of violent jihad.
Padilla, who converted to Islam during an unrelated previous incarceration, was recruited and sent abroad to train for the defense of Muslims under siege in Chechnya, Kosovo, Bosnia, Somalia, Libya and elsewhere, the government alleges. The indictment has few specific references to Padilla's alleged involvement in a conspiracy. Excerpts from wiretap transcripts refer to his telling Hassoun in July 1997 that he would be ready to leave his South Florida home "soon."
The indictment also says Padilla flew to Cairo more than a year later, and it says Hassoun and another alleged recruit spoke in September 2000 of Padilla having "entered into the area of Usama," presumably referring to Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. The government alleges the defendants used code for their activities, such as "fresh air" for action in a conflict area; "tourism" for travel and upkeep expenses while abroad; and "football" for armed combat and "the other team" for foreign forces perceived as oppressing Muslims.
Jayyousi is alleged to have opened a bank account in October 1993 in the name of "Islamic Group." According to the indictment, Hassoun managed the account over the next eight years, from which at least $40,000 allegedly went to jihad recruits' travel and training. Assistant U.S. Attorney Russell R. Killinger has made clear in pretrial proceedings that the government will attempt to link the Muslim aid organizations to Al Qaeda-affiliated groups, primarily through the purported jihad training application.
#1
Jose Padilla is a piece of islamic scum. Hang him for a month or so, and feed what remains of his carcass to the vultures. Deny him a "decent" burial in any US cemetary.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/13/2007 17:58 Comments ||
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A tipster who led officials to plotters planning to attack Fort Dix was an example of how authorities often rely on everyday citizens to alert them to crime and how those citizens must balance privacy and public safety concerns.
Authorities do not regularly contact electronics stores and photo processing shops to see whether they've spotted suspicious activity, according to several of the large chains. Instead, homeland security officials said they generally speak to businesses in response to specific intelligence.
For instance, dive shops were alerted several years ago after officials heard "chatter" about an underwater attack on ships in a harbor, said Roger Shatzkin, a spokesman for the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness. And the office notified hospitals when it heard that people might pose as accreditation teams to infiltrate medical centers, he said.
Otherwise, "We continue to push the public message that everyone has the responsibility to report things that are suspicious, unusual or out of the ordinary," Shatzkin said.
Authorities do have regular contact, however, with businesses they consider important in terrorism-related cases. New Jersey troopers on the anti-terror beat routinely visit businesses in critical areas to "build relationships" and distribute fliers promoting their tipline, said Sgt. Stephen Jones, a State Police spokesman; the State Police would not specify what it considered critical areas.
The FBI's outreach efforts include the "InfraGard" program, which claims 14,800 private-sector members nationwide. The goal of the program is to encourage private businesses in key areas such as computer security to share information in order to prevent attacks. "We want to foster relationships so people can feel comfortable coming to the FBI and reporting crimes or suspicions," FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said.
Authorities hailed the clerk, who handled the video at a Circuit City in Mount Laurel, as a hero. But not all tipsters are well-received. Six Muslim men who sued US Airways after they were removed from a flight in Minneapolis in November when passengers reported what they thought was suspicious behavior have also threatened to sue those passengers.
Circuit City spokeswoman Jackie Foreman said the tip actually came from a pair of employees, and that the Richmond, Va.-based company has "communicated its appreciation" to the workers for recognizing their "civic responsibility."
The Geek Squad, a corps of 12,000 computer repair technicians working from 840 Best Buy stores, calls the police about once a month with issues it discovers during the course of doing business, said Paula Baldwin, a spokeswoman for the Minneapolis chain.
#1
The Geek Squad, a corps of 12,000 computer repair technicians working from 840 Best Buy stores, calls the police about once a month with issues it discovers during the course of doing business
The father of one of the six men described as radical Islamists and charged with plotting to massacre soldiers at Fort Dix says the business he's nurtured for years is all but ruined since his son's arrest. My heart [urp!] bleeds. Really.
Muslim Tatar, who has owned Super Mario's Pizza for five years, says that his lunchtime crowd from nearby McGuire Air Force Base and Fort Dix has largely disappeared, replaced by empty tables and nasty words from passing motorists. "Hey, Bob! Let's go have lunch at that pizza shoppe owned by the father of that guy who wanted to kill us all!"
"No, thanks, Herb. I'm eating at my desk."
"Now I am a target," the 52-year-old Tatar told The New York Times for Saturday newspapers, adding that his business is "99 percent dead." Can we get a tissue over here?
They targeted the Army post partly because one of them had delivered pizzas there and was familiar with the base.
Tatar's son, 23-year-old Serdar Tatar, was arrested Monday along with five others. Authorities say the men were preparing to buy automatic weapons to use in an attack on Fort Dix when they were arrested. They targeted the Army post, which is 25 miles east of Philadelphia and primarily used to train reservists, partly because one of them had delivered pizzas there and was familiar with the base, according to court filings. Authorities said their objective was to kill "as many American soldiers as possible." So Pop was screwed either way: if Sonny got nabbed in the process of preparing jihad, then his customers would find someplace a little more friendly to eat. If Sonny was successful then all his customers would be dead. Maybe Pop should just forget about it and sign up for a plumber's apprenticeship.
Five of the men are charged with conspiring to kill uniformed military personnel, an offense punishable by life in prison. In addition to Tatar, they are Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, 22; Dritan "Anthony" or "Tony" Duka, 28; Shain Duka, 26; and Eljvir "Elvis" Duka, 23, Agron Abdullahu, 24, is charged with helping illegal immigrants obtain weapons, and could face 10 years in prison if convicted.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
And just when he thought things couldn't get any worse, the lawyer from Nintendo called ...
#6
Gee, I guess we should be ashamed that we carry a grudge when you try to kill us. Get ready for the Circuit City kid to get all the blame heaped onto him for this. I expect CAIR to try to ferret him out and sue the hell out of him, because they can.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/13/2007 17:59 Comments ||
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#10
So Newsday offers up a regurgitated version of yesterday's New York Times report. What investigative journalists they have on staff, to be sure. At least the New York Times reported that the pizzaria had hung up three huge banners that said, "Under New Management" in the hope of recovering some of the lost business while he worked to make it true.
#11
My heart pumps piss. Americans who are intent on surviving need to start boycotting all Muslim owned businesses out of sheer principal. I could give a damn if some nice Muslims take it in the shorts along with all their jihadi kinfolk. The number of American Muslims doing jack shit about rehabilitating Islam is so close to zero that such minor collateral damage won't even show up on radar.
#12
Whenever I hear one of these sob stories, I perform a thought experiment. Suppose a Serb kid living in USA decided to blow a few random Americans for Billary's crimes (and they are crimes, IMHO) against Serbia. What the aftermath for his family will be like?
By the waters of the Arabian Sea, a remote Pakistani fishing town is being transformed into a massive deep sea port to cash in on the inexorable rise of the Chinese economy. Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz recently claimed Gwadar could "change the map of shipping in the world" and serve as a regional energy hub for shipping and refining oil from the Gulf.
Tribal insurgents are suspected in the killings of six Chinese workers in the Baluchistan province since the project got off the ground five years ago including a May 2004 bombing that killed three Chinese engineers.
"It will greatly benefit Chinas trade to Europe, Africa and Middle East," said Moonis Ahmer, an international affairs professor at the University of Karachi. "It will also give a boost to the economy in southwestern Pakistan."
"You can never rule out the strategic use of the port if China has sufficient economic interests in the region that it wants to protect," said Ayesha Siddiqa Agha, a Pakistani defense analyst. "But that would provoke India, which it does not want to do."
China, which has long-standing ties with Pakistan, has financed $198 million of the total cost of $248 million to build the port, with the rest covered by the Pakistan government.
Much of the transport infrastructure needed to link Gwadar with Pakistans northern neighbor is yet to be built, but potentially, it will nearly halve the overland distance from Chinas landlocked western provinces to the sea: from about 2,500 miles to Chinas east coast, to just 1,250 miles south to Gwadar.
The link road should be complete within five years, says Ahmed Baksh Lahri, chief of the Gwadar Development Authority. Longer-term plans also call for road and rail links from Gwadar that would pass through strife-torn Afghanistan to Central Asian states.
That should transform the local economy beyond recognition, but Gwadars 70,000 residents are skeptical. Fishermen the main vocation here complain they have already lost out. "The port area was our prime fishing area and we used to make thousands (of rupees) every day, but not now," said Lal Bakhsh, a fisherman in his 40s, explaining they now had to cast their nets further afield in the Arabian Sea.
Currently it appears the chief beneficiaries of the Gwadars boom are outsiders. Qasim Khan, who comes from northwestern Pakistan, runs a prosperous real estate business. He said investors from big cities like Lahore and Karachi were buying tracts of land in Gwadar, anticipating values will appreciate sharply.
That is a source of resentment among ethnic Baluch. Militant tribesmen in the province, Pakistans poorest, are already waging a low-level insurgency, accusing the central government of pocketing too much revenue from Baluchistans natural gas reserves.
I can well imagine the number of nuclear warheads the Indians have assigned to this juicy target.
The road link to China via the Kakoram pass in Kashmir.. the tunnels and bridges will be the aim points for the new land attack version of the BrahMos cruise missile.
Posted by: John Frum ||
05/13/2007 10:01 Comments ||
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This resulted in a fast one by George W. Bush.
The Chinese shelled out the big bucks for this modern deep water port, along with its construction, as critical to the Chinese economy.
But because the US has been cozying up to Pakistan, they have made the port available for the use of the US navy--which means that any Chinese ships using it will be under our close scrutiny. Chinese OPSEC isn't that great outside of China, so who knows what intelligence goodies we might get out of the deal.
Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif blamed the government for violence in Karachi and praised people for not taking part in the Muttahida Qaumi Movements (MQM) rally. Talking to a TV channel on Saturday, Sharif said that President General Pervez Musharraf tried to create a rift in the nation through this tactic. He said that only a few hundred people came to MQM chief Altaf Hussains rally. He condemned the attack on the Aaj TV office by unidentified men, saying that it was attack on the freedom of expression.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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The ghost of Zia ul-Haq appeared to him and suggested he decline.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry refused to go from the airport to the Sindh High Court in a helicopter provided by the Sindh government shortly after he arrived here on Saturday. Justice Chaudhrys flight arrived at noon, and the Sindh inspector general of police and Rangers officials told him that a helicopter was waiting. He refused to travel on the helicopter as he wanted the president of the Karachi Bar Association and other lawyers to accompany him. The IG tried to force the CJP onto the chopper, but his lawyer Aitizaz Ahsan and other lawyers took him to the waiting lounge. Soon after, Sindh Interior Secretary Ghulam Mohatarem reached the airport and held talks with the CJP. He gave him two options, to go via helicopter to Governors House or return to Islamabad. The CJP and his lawyers rejected both options.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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President Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday the people of Pakistan were with him as he tacitly supported the Muttahida Quami Movement for holding a successful rally to show the governments strength and blamed opposition parties and advisers of the chief justice for law and order problems in Karachi.
Addressing a PML rally here, Musharraf said he had the highest regard for the judiciary and wanted it to be fully independent. I am also for independence of the judiciary, he said, adding that those who were politicising the judicial crisis had a different agenda aimed at disturbing law and order. The government had warned them against going to Karachi but they did not listen to the advice, he said. Referring to the killings in Karachi, he said these people died in their struggle for real independence of the judiciary.
He said the government did not want to hold public meetings during the judicial crisis but it decided to do so because the opposition was exploiting the issue. We waited for two months and then decided to show our strength, he said, adding that it was the largest gathering he had addressed. Musharraf said that Pakistan was on the track of progress. No emergency is being imposed the people are with me, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
People are with me: Musharraf
They'd better be. And even that is still bad news for the West.
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain claimed that the MQM rally on Saturday had been peaceful and the situation had deteriorated when Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry arrived. Sources said that the rally was thinly attended by MQM standards despite the resulting situation, with only a few thousand people supporting the party. Addressing the rally here, Hussain said the CJP had been asked by the Sindh home secretary to postpone his visit but had refused to listen. He said the CJP was responsible for the deaths that had been caused. He demanded that Chaudhry apologise to the nation for taking judicial matters onto the streets. The MQM chief questioned the relevance of the slogans Go Musharraf Go to judicial independence. He said the peaceful MQM rally had not been against the CJP, but had been organised to protest the politicising of the CJP issue, adding that the party would continue its struggles for the independence of the judiciary.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I hope our government has a plan in place if all hell breaks loose in Paki land - they have jihadists AND nukes.
One of Iraqs most powerful Shiite political parties dropped the word revolution from its name on Saturday in an apparent attempt to keep its distance from Iran. The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) will henceforth be known as the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq. Party leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, a top Shiite cleric, announced the name change at a news conference called to confirm his re-election at the head of the party, which is part of Iraqs ruling coalition.
Revolution means change. This is what we sought from the creation of the Council, Hakim told reporters, explaining that the fall of former dictator Saddam Hussein had made the revolutionary tag obsolete. The Council participated in realising political changes in Iraq, the most important of which was regime change. So this word became unnecessary, he said, flanked by Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi, a SCIRI member.
Hakim and his brother, the late Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim, founded SCIRI as an opposition movement in exile in Iraqs Shiite neighbour Iran in 1982, under the protection of Tehrans Islamic regime. Maybe its part of distancing themselves from the past. They were founded in Iran after the revolution there and the situation has changed a lot since then, Kurdish legislator Mahmud Othman told AFP.
Joost Hiltermann, Iraq analyst at the International Crisis Group, said: Despite being the largest Shiite party, SCIRI has always been unpopular. It has never had much popular support because of its past. It was created by the Iranian secret services in the 1980s and so it has a lot of political baggage. It wants to disassociate itself from Khomeinis revolution and from Iran in general, he explained.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Despite being the largest Shiite party, SCIRI has always been unpopular..."
Probably didn't serve very good pastries at the party; and with no beer on tap..
#2
A nationalistic sense is important for stability. They either realized or were advised that keeping a healthy distance from Iran at least, or being hostile to Iran at best, is the way to keep power.
On the eve of Sunday's summit between Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah II, PA and Jordanian officials denied rumors according to which the kingdom is interested in a confederation with the Palestinians.
The summit, which will be held in Ramallah, marks the monarch's first visit to the PA territories since 2000. "Rumors about a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation are completely untrue," said chief PA negotiator Saeb Erekat. "We must not relate to these rumors at all. The Palestinians are working toward establishing an independent Palestinian state."
Erekat said the Abbas-Abdullah talks would focus on ways of reviving the Middle East peace process. "The Jordanian king has long been involved in efforts to revive the peace process and oblige Israel to [accept] the pre-1967 borders so that the Palestinians would be able to establish their won state with Jerusalem as its capital," he said. "The two leaders will discuss all possible ways to resume peace talks [with Israel] on the basis of United Nations resolutions, the road map and the Arab Peace Initiative."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Great- King Abdullah can pick up the tab for supporting these losers.
#2
"The Jordanian king has long been involved in efforts to revive the peace process and oblige Israel to [accept] the pre-1967 borders so that the Palestinians would be able to establish their won state with Jerusalem as its capital,"
That's enough to nullify any and all accords. Palestinian acts at the Church of the Nativity FOREVER disqualified their right to have ANY say-so over Jerusalem. I'd sooner see the Saudis oversee Notre Dame cathedral.
#3
I've long wondered when the Jordanian bedouins are going to lose patience with the now majority of Paleo refugees in Jordan, and encourage them to leave.
#4
Pre 67 borders kills the negotiation before they start. These clowns are going to have to accept that the have blown any chance of that.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
05/13/2007 1:48 Comments ||
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#5
The Palestinians do not deserve any right of return to Israel. They deserve to be dropped off in the middle of some desert with just a couple of canteens of water.
#6
No Canteens, pray to allah, he will provide.
(Huge Grin)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/13/2007 12:26 Comments ||
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#7
So why does Jordon want to jump in bed fleas now? It wasn't so long ago that the largest deaths of Palestinians occured when King Hussein of Jordon slaughtered more than a hundred thousand when Arafat attempted to overthrow his government.
#8
JohnQC---beat me to it! KA2, remember Black September term yer daddie dealt with? Better get that survival instinct out of slumber. With Paleos, yer gonna need it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/13/2007 14:05 Comments ||
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#9
For the Hashemite kinglets, the West Bank has always been about recapturing lost territory -- they've never given so much as a thought to the welfare of the inhabitants. After years of Intifadas and such, the Palestinians have finally returned to the economic level they were accustomed to under King Abdullah II's predecessors. Quite a descent from being the wealthiest, best educated Arab population outside the oil countries -- and probably the best educated even when the oil countries are included -- because they lived under Israeli rule. Back in about 1965 Yasser Arafat's predecessor as head of the PLO/Al Fatah said that the liberation of the so-called Palestinian people was not his real interest; rather it was a ruse to enable the amalgamation of the cis-Jordan Arabs with their true nation, the Kingdom of Trans-Jordan.
#10
There is double-cross, triple cross, plot and counterplot in the world of islam. Makes Machiavelli look like a school child. There is one constant. As much as these muslims don't care about each other--they always come back to the Jewish people living in Israel. They are united in their desire to remove them from Israel one way or another. The 1967 war had just about all the surrounding arab nations attacking Israel. Today, things are not much different. Muslim nations curb their enthusiasm somewhat or at least hide it--probably because of the balancing force the U.S. provides and the spunky self-preservation of Israel. Stateless terrorist proxies basically do today what muslim nations did before. Israel and the U.S. should get into their roles as the little satan and big satan (muslim labels) with enthusiasm. Since we are in this war for a long time to come, we need to take it to them and send these terrorists to hell. Despite my use of the term "terrorists," I can't help but feel that this is a war against islam. Someone convince me that the war isn't against islam since everything I see points to that.
#11
Despite my use of the term "terrorists," I can't help but feel that this is a war against islam. Someone convince me that the war isn't against islam since everything I see points to that.
We are not yet at war with Islam. That we are not is on account of sheer stupidity. Islam has been at war with the West for many decades and we are total fools to have ignored it for this long. The tipping point is coming. Muslims simply will not rest until they have finally committed some sort of heinous atrocity that will enrage the West and see the entire MME (Muslim Middle East) turned into smoking glass. With each passing day of inaction the lack of total war against Islam brings this fateful nuclear scenario ever more closer. Islam's very nature ensures that it will have to be exterminated.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told an inquiry the army command did not perform well in last summer's war in Lebanon and acknowledged he gave short shrift to warnings troops weren't ready, but insisted Israel had no option but to fight, according to testimony released yesterday. Israel had no option but to fight, and should fight the next time Hezbollah does the same thing. But it's pretty obvious that the troops, whether they were ready or not, performed a lot better than the command. You had an air force general in charge of the whole shebang, and he tried to run things as an air war with the ground forces as an afterthought. Then the orders to the ground troops could be counted on to be countermanded or contradicted within 24 hours. The poor guys went in ready to take Hezbollah apart and the politicians spent the time dithering while the missiles rained down upon civilian targets.
Olmert's comments came during hearings by a special commission that issued an interim report last week severely censuring the prime minister's wartime performance - an appraisal that triggered a wave of resignation calls and may yet cost him his political career. The only reason he hasn't resigned is that he doesn't feel shame like normal people. Even Peretz is stepping down, and he's about as clueless as they come.
The war began July 12 when Hezbollah staged a cross-border raid in which three Israeli soldiers were killed and two were captured and taken into Lebanon. They haven't been released yet, and by now the public's come to the realization that they're either going to have to fight the war all over again or cough up every Hezbollah sadist and murderer in Israeli jails. Once they've done that, the war will have been for nothing.
Israel launched a full-scale military campaign hours later. Initially strong Israeli public support unraveled after the 34-day war failed to achieve Olmert's two declared aims - recovering the two soldiers and crushing Hezbollah, which pummeled northern Israel with almost 4,000 rockets in the fighting. The failure to destroy Hezbollah has to be blamed on Olmert. He's the one who kept pulling the punches and changing his mind even while the U.S. held off the nay-sayers in the International Community.
Olmert acknowledged senior security officials told him troops hadn't conducted military exercises along the Lebanese border. But he said he "didn't really pay much attention" because the defense establishment "always" complains it is short of funds for training. A final report is due this summer. In a statement, Olmert's office yesterday denied he was trying to shift the blame. In other words, he's denying the obvious again.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
In other words, he's denying the obvious again.
#2
No shit, Sherlock! They are going to have to do a lot better if they want to deter another Hezbollocks attack or help to bend Iran away from their nuke plans.
#3
Do you recall how hard Olmert coveted and then maneuvered to win the office of Prime Minister?
Well whoopee.. he won the privilege of being the Prime Minister of Israel but didn't have a clue about the primary responsibilities of that station and still doesn't.
Olmert is the first Israeli Prime Minister who let her sworn enemies [neighbors] attack her first and then let the bitches continue to attack her for the duration until they sued for peace on their terms.
According to most reports, Hezbollah is not only still alive and breathing right next door in Lebanon, but has by Fall's end, completely re-armed to boot!! Hey, and their allies the pin heads of Syria were/are left untouched, FAT DUMB and Evil, perched to murder more Israelis when ever it's advantageous to them.
To those who cover up for Olmert by saying he bowed to White House pressure and stoped because of it.. I call BS.
Once the IDF soldiers were kidnapped and the Hezbollah and Paleo missiles started flying can you imagine these Israelis quiting, Moshe Dyan [Haganah], Golda [Irgun], Begin [Irgun], Shamir [Stern], Sharon [Haganah] while right next door Hezbollah remains strong or while the Syrians are still untouched...
While tensions rise in the Gaza Strip ahead of a possible IDF operation in response to daily Kassam rocket attacks, 16,600 jobs have been created there in the last three months, with unemployment down - over the past six months - by close to 7 percent. According to Col. Nir Press, commander of the IDF Coordination and Liaison Administration, a drop in terror threats to the Karni Crossing has led to an increase in the transfer of raw materials into Gaza, creating new jobs. Nevertheless, he stressed, unemployment in Gaza remained at just over 30%. Gaza has a better employment rate than Zim. That's why they don't get to chair the UN's Sustainable Development thingie.
The increase in jobs in the last quarter followed a similar rise in the previous quarter, when 19,100 jobs were created, including 10,500 in agriculture. This past quarter, only several hundred out of the 16,600 new workers found jobs in agriculture, with the majority finding work in transportation, communications and construction. I'da guessed most of them were gunfighters — "The al-Clantons are hirin', Billy!" — but that's prob'ly just me.
On Thursday, Press met with the Dutch representative to the Palestinian Authority as well as a Gaza-based Palestinian agricultural union chief at his office at the Erez Crossing to sum up the Gaza flower export season that ended this week. According to the Coordination and Liaison Administration, 34 million carnations were exported to Europe from the Gaza Strip this past season, up from 17 million in 2006. The Palestinian farmers told Press during the meeting that they made a profit of 4.5m.
A World Bank report issued last week blamed Israel for stifling the Palestinian economy by limiting movement in the West Bank and Gaza. Press told The Jerusalem Post the increases in jobs and flower exports were due to both improved coordination and a Palestinian effort to deter terrorists from attacking the Karni Crossing, the main artery for cargo in and out of the Gaza Strip. Attack main artery for cargo in and out=cause; Close down main artery for cargo in and out=effect.
In 2006, Karni was closed for nearly 100 days due to intelligence warnings of planned attacks. Last summer, a vast tunnel - intended to be filled with explosives - was discovered being dug under the crossing. "Last year, when there were the security warnings Karni was closed... and a lot of flowers went down the drain," Press said. "Since September, however, Karni has been open daily except for some days when it was closed due to labor strikes on the Palestinian side."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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All Gazans have jobs: Terrorist and Euro-Parasite
Lebanon's president warned Saturday he will not cede power to the US-backed prime minister if parliament fails to elect a successor, a move that could plunge the country into a constitutional vacuum. Neither will Olmert. Wow. Whudda coincidence! President Emile Lahoud, who is allied with Syria, insisted on a new "national unity" cabinet that would choose a successor acceptable to the country's deeply divided political factions, said the president's spokesman, Rafik Shalala. But Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, who is already facing an opposition campaign to oust him, has vowed to take over if the president's office becomes vacant. "If there is no election for some reason ... the government will assume responsibility and its main preoccupation will be to ensure election of a president," Saniora said in an interview with al-Arabiya last week.
Parliament is responsible for choosing a new president before Lahoud's term runs out Nov. 23, but it has not met for three months because its speaker, who is allied with Lebanon's opposition movement, has refused to convene a session.
If there is no president, the constitution calls on the prime minister and his Cabinet to assume his duties. But some in the opposition, which is led by the Shiite Muslim Hizbullah guerrillas, are calling on Lahoud to appoint another administration; a move the majority says amounts to a coup.
If there is no president, the constitution calls on the prime minister and his Cabinet to assume his duties. But some in the opposition, which is led by the Shiite Muslim Hizbullah guerrillas, are calling on Lahoud to appoint another administration; a move the majority says amounts to a coup.
The leaders' non-compromising positions are certain to deepen the country's political crisis and raise historical fears about the creation of two competing governments. In 1988, when Lebanon was in similar straits, the army and administration split in a dispute that ended in one of the last battles of the 1975-1990 civil war.
The majority anti-Syrian coalition swept into power in 2005 and has been trying to oust Lahoud, seen as one of the anchors of Syria's continuing influence in the country. They hold a slim majority in parliament and see their chance to elect one of their own to the post. But the opposition has vowed to reject any candidate they don't approve of and is threatening to boycott any vote.
The president's spokesman would not say whether Lahoud would appoint a rival administration before he leaves office, but made it clear he would not cede power to Saniora. "The president's position is clear: he will not hand over the country to a government over which there is a radical dispute among a large segment of the Lebanese people," Shalala said on the private LBC television station. "He (Lahoud) considers the Saniora government illegitimate and unconstitutional," he added.
All five Shiite Muslim ministers and one allied Christian resigned from the Cabinet last November. Since then, Lahoud, the parliament speaker and the opposition have refused to recognize the Saniora government, maintaining it violated the constitution because it lacked Shiite representation. Shiites make up about one-third of Lebanon's 4 million people and are believed to be the country's largest sect.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/13/2007 00:00 ||
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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.
Afghanistans parliament voted to dismiss the countrys foreign minister on Saturday amid an uproar over Irans forced return of thousands of refugees. Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta lost a no-confidence vote by a large majority in a second round of voting, after the first round on Thursday hinged on a single spoilt ballot. Refugees Affairs Minister Akbar Akbar earlier lost his job in Thursdays vote, according to the Associated Foreign Press.
KUWAIT CITY - The United States has decided to release the last four Kuwaiti prisoners in Guantanamo Bay in the coming four months, a new Kuwaiti daily said on Saturday. 
Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair will visit Washington next week, the White House said on Friday. President Bush will host Blair on Wednesday and Thursday and the two are expected to discuss "a wide range of issues." They include "our shared goals of strengthening democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan, advancing peace and security in the Middle East, preventing Iran from obtaining the means to develop nuclear weapons, ending the genocide in Darfur, and promoting free and fair trade." 
At least one million secular Turks have gathered in the city of Izmir to protest against the government in a rally organisers hope will unite the opposition ahead of elections in July. The protest was overshadowed by a bombing on Saturday in the city which killed one man and injured 14. It was not immediately clear who was behind the bombing.
Security officials from Europe's largest countries backed a plan Saturday to profile mosques on the continent and identify radical Islamic clerics who raise the threat of homegrown terrorism.
Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards is calling on his supporters to turn this year's Memorial Day into a day of antiwar activism, saying that the best way to honor the troops is to demand an end to the Iraq war.
The father of one of the six men described as radical Islamists and charged with plotting to massacre soldiers at Fort Dix says the business he's nurtured for years is all but ruined since his son's arrest. 
President Pervez Musharraf said on Saturday the people of Pakistan were with him as he tacitly supported the Muttahida Quami Movement for holding a successful rally to show the governments strength and blamed opposition parties and advisers of the chief justice for law and order problems in Karachi. 
Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief Altaf Hussain claimed that the MQM rally on Saturday had been peaceful and the situation had deteriorated when Chief Justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry arrived. Sources said that the rally was thinly attended by MQM standards despite the resulting situation, with only a few thousand people supporting the party. Addressing the rally here, Hussain said the CJP had been asked by the Sindh home secretary to postpone his visit but had refused to listen. He said the CJP was responsible for the deaths that had been caused. He demanded that Chaudhry apologise to the nation for taking judicial matters onto the streets. The MQM chief questioned the relevance of the slogans Go Musharraf Go to judicial independence. He said the peaceful MQM rally had not been against the CJP, but had been organised to protest the politicising of the CJP issue, adding that the party would continue its struggles for the independence of the judiciary.
One of Iraqs most powerful Shiite political parties dropped the word revolution from its name on Saturday in an apparent attempt to keep its distance from Iran. The Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) will henceforth be known as the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq. Party leader Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, a top Shiite cleric, announced the name change at a news conference called to confirm his re-election at the head of the party, which is part of Iraqs ruling coalition. 
On the eve of Sunday's summit between Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah II, PA and Jordanian officials denied rumors according to which the kingdom is interested in a confederation with the Palestinians. 
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told an inquiry the army command did not perform well in last summer's war in Lebanon and acknowledged he gave short shrift to warnings troops weren't ready, but insisted Israel had no option but to fight, according to testimony released yesterday. 
President Emile Lahoud, who is allied with Syria, insisted on a new "national unity" cabinet that would choose a successor acceptable to the country's deeply divided political factions, said the president's spokesman, Rafik Shalala. But Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, who is already facing an opposition campaign to oust him, has vowed to take over if the president's office becomes vacant. "If there is no election for some reason ... the government will assume responsibility and its main preoccupation will be to ensure election of a president," Saniora said in an interview with al-Arabiya last week. 
