Britain's multimillion-pound attempt to battle the drug trade in southern Afghanistan has been a failure, the country's first vice-president has claimed. Ahmad Zia Massoud has taken the unprecedented step of speaking publicly about his country's drugs problem in an exclusive article for The Sunday Telegraph, warning that despite Britain's efforts, the poppies have spread "like a cancer".
Afghanistan's opium harvest has more than doubled in the past two years and in a report last week, the United Nations said it expected production to hit a "frighteningly high" 8,200 tonnes this year, an increase of 34 per cent on last year. Particularly embarrassing for Britain was the figure from Helmand province, where output jumped by 48 per cent.
It is now clear that your counter-narcotics policy in the south of our country has completely failed"
"It is now clear that your counter-narcotics policy in the south of our country has completely failed," Mr Massoud says. Writing in the paper today, Mr Massoud describes the drugs eradication policy as "too soft", adding: "We are giving too much carrot and not enough stick."
Britain has spent £208 million over the past three years on counter-narcotic operations but Mr Massoud argues that the failure to shut down the opium trade amounts to a victory for the Taliban. "The opium directly supports those killing Afghan and international troops," he writes. "I believe that failing to achieve a substantial reduction this year in the opium crop will be equivalent to supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan."
In contrast to the British authorities and the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, he said that spraying of the poppy crop was needed to break the deadlock in the south. British military commanders are reluctant to get involved with anti-drug operations, fearing that it would drive farmers into the arms of the Taliban.
#1
Do you have any idea what size carrot it will take to counter the carrot that opium trade has to offer? The carrot idea is ludicrous.
Now let's talk about stick. How much Roundup can you buy for a few million dollars? Spray the crops just before they harvest it and watch the commotion. It won't be long before feeding their jihadi families will take precedence.
#2
Eradication efforts - complete with assistance to farmers who agree to alter crops - are going well elsewhere.
I was around when US troops were prohibited from making direct attacks on Viet villages, because of the hearts-and-minds policy. Watch "Rescue Dawn" for an accurate account of how heavy bombing can pacify an area and demoralize an enemy. Allowing a people to get away with harborage, is a recipe for massive enemy recruitment. Where drugs are involved, the enemy will hardly choke on prosperity.
We need a move in the US Congress to express No Confidence in Karzai and his palace cronies.
#3
Round_Up, that's so inside the box. Agent Grape would be more effective. A long term air campaign utilizing the BLEU30x2 cluster munition will keep the opium farmers pinned in their hutments all day. For maximum effect it should be parachuted in unshielded from the atmosphere, arriving cold. General Nitetrian has approved the go ahead for Project Byrds_Alive Gut Ripper.
#5
Besides the Afghani economic reliance on the drug trade, I suspect the European NATO troops also have little interest in curbing the profits that pour through the banks and prop up the global economy. Targeting the local farmers is counterproductive and no one is really interested in taking on the real powerbrokers profitting from terror financing.
#6
It's simple. Shoot the farmers. They are not innocent peasants. They are the enemy. They know what they are doing. Forget their hearts and minds. Just shoot them. Look, we conquered the country and we did it for the simple reason that they attacked us first. But just because you conquer a country doesn't mean you have to rebuild it or win over the people. You don't have to be nice. The primary objective is to make sure they don't attack us again. When you are the conquerer they live and die at your discretion. Do what needs to be done or else pack up and go home.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
09/02/2007 16:39 Comments ||
Top||
#7
Afghan VP: 'Britain is losing the Afghan drug war'
Who would know better than a central facilitator?
We need a move in the US Congress to express No Confidence in Karzai and his palace cronies.
This to be accompanied by a demand that Afghanistn's constitution be rewritten so as to exclude all references regarding shari'a law. Any refusal to do so should be met with the imposition of a brutal military dictatorship.
Legalizing, regulating and taxing the demand end of the heroin supply chain would be more effective.
Far too logical, Sea. You also disregard how many major global players would no longer get billions of dollars in vig related to heroin trafficking. They would be very displeased. Who do you think drives all the opposition to legalization of any sort?
#8
I agree with Sea.
Criminalization of alchohol gave a huge boost to the Mafia.
Legal tobacco maintains a reasonable control on traffic of the product (until the taxes become too high.)
Apply the same logic to pot, cocaine and heroin. Buy the product direct from the growers and distribute it free to the users - cut out all the middle-man profit. If people want to kill themselves, let it be their problem and not mine. As a humanitarian gesture, offer meaningful help to addicts who actually want to quit.
#9
Any legalization of presently illegal drugs must comed with the provision that drug addicts (I'd add alcoholics in there too) DO NOT GET ANY SUPPORT FROM MY TAX DOLLARS.
If you want to screw your life up, fine by me, but I shouldn't have my hard-earned dollars confiscated from my by the gummint and handed over to you to pay for a room, food, or anything else. You wanna toke up/snort up/shoot up/stay drunk, knock yourself out, but I shouldn't have to pay to support your sorry ass.
I'd offer gov't-sponsored rehab ONCE, if that. Charities are better able to handle that anyway. You wanna stay high/drunk, then sleep in the gutter for all I care. Cause, meet effect. You commit a crime to get your fix, you get free room and board at the local jail/prison. If the Lefties and the do-gooders think you need to be "helped," they can pay out of their own pockets to help enable you, or take you into THEIR homes.
Harsh? Maybe. Real-life sensible way to handle this shit? Yewbetcha.
And an automatic long prison sentence for anyone caught selling drugs/booze to children.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/02/2007 20:35 Comments ||
Top||
#10
And an automatic long prison sentence for anyone caught selling drugs/booze to children.
Agreed, Barbara, and also agreed that anyone receiving government sponsored recreational drugs is immediately disqualified for welfare and food stamps. If the government product was distributed free of charge, there would also have to be stiff penalties for all resale as well. That would choke off any secondhand flow towards welfare and food stamp recipients. Odd as it sounds, a user might have to undergo drug testing to verify that they had consumed their government allocation.
"We deny any payment for the release of South Korean hostages," an official at South Korea's presidential Blue House said. But the Taliban disagreed. "We got more than $20m from them [the Seoul government]," a commander, who did not wish to be named, told Reuters. "With it we will purchase arms, get our communication network renewed and buy vehicles for carrying out more suicide attacks. The money will also address to some extent the financial difficulties we have had."
The commander is on the 10-man leadership council of the Islamist Taliban movement, which is led by the elusive Mullah Mohammed Omar. He rejected an Afghan government claim that a senior Taliban leader, Mullah Brother, was killed in a US-led operation on Thursday in the southern province of Helmand. "This report is just propaganda," he said.
"As a matter of fact, he's meeting me at the Kandahar CarMax tomorrow morning. We gots some shopping to do!"
#1
Seems like they paid to me. The fact that a few were released at a time suggests to me that the money was poured into and transferred out of a secret account somewhere. Duh.
#2
Better that we had killed the hostages and their captors alike than let this happen. Perhaps next time around any South Korean hostages need to be killed accidentally during an "unsuccessful" attempt at liberating them so no more money changes hands. This $20 million ransom will help buy the deaths of hundreds of our soldiers. For starters, $20 million of any foreign aid going to South Korea needs to be deleted yesterday.
(SomaliNet) Foreign aid groups have said a growing number of Eritreans are fleeing their authoritarian regime and joining in exile a previous generation who sought refuge from a long and deadly freedom war against Ethiopia. A news source said the young Red Sea state - which obtained its independence in 1993 - has an estimated population of 4.2 million but an estimated 850 000 Eritreans have sought refuge abroad.
One of the main destinations for those Eritreans who manage to slip through the regime's tight net is the Islamic paradise of neighbouring Sudan. "Scores of Eritrean asylum seekers now cross into Sudan every week, joining about 130 000 of their compatriots living in 12 refugee camps as well as urban and rural areas," the UN's refugee agency said in statement issued in late August.
"Honey, life here in Eritrea is just getting unbearable. I'm getting drafted and I'll have to leave you and the children."
But Mahmoud, where could we go?"
"How about Darfur?"
"Darfur? Really? Oh Mahmoud, we're saved!"
"In 2000 we started voluntary repatriation, in which 98 000 Eritreans returned home," said Annette Rehrl, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Sudan. "Due to the deteriorating political situation in Eritrea, the repatriation operation was stopped. Since November 2003, we have received about 23 000 new Eritrean asylum seekers," she added. The new arrivals are "mainly young males in their late teens or early twenties. They claim to escape the brutal and life-long army service, mandatory in Eritrea," she explained.
The UNHCR pointed out that while much international attention was given to the crisis in Sudan's war-ravaged western Darfur region, little was being said about Eritrean refugees flocking into Sudan, in what it described as "one of the world's most protracted refugee situations."
"Spurred by the rigours and abuses of the national service system, draft-age Eritreans and high school seniors have been fleeing the country in the thousands over the past five years or have gone into hiding," Human Rights Watch said in a report released in January.
According to the World Bank, large Eritrean communities are also found in Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, the United States, Italy, Britain, Germany, Canada, Sweden and Australia. The UNHCR in Ethiopia said it receives between 400 and 500 new demands every month from Eritrean asylum seekers. In Uganda, the flux of refugees is also intensifying. The UNHCR's spokesperson in the Ugandan capital Kampala, Roberta Russo, said while 425 Eritreans had sought asylum there in 2006, 691 had sought asylum in the first six months of 2007 alone .
The Eritrean authorities have minimised the scale of the phenomenon.
"Lies! All lies!"
Between 2005 and 2006, asylum application by Eritreans increased by 57 percent in industrialised countries, with Britian, Switzerland and Sweden on top, the UNHCR said.
Hundreds of thousands of Eritreans had already fled their country during the 30-year war with Ethiopia that kicked off in 1961. Eritrea remains locked in a bitter border dispute with Ethiopia and the United Nations has warned of the potential for renewed fighting.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Wives of Saudi men detained as part of a Saudi crackdown on militants fighting to topple the US-allied monarchy held a protest on Saturday demanding the men be tried publicly. The protest was the second this summer, after a similar one in July, which led to the brief detention of some of the women.
The women gathered outside provincial offices in the town of Buraida north of Riyadh, said Mohammed Saleh al-Bijadi, a supporter of the protesting women. We demand that the men are granted their right to have lawyers and that they face a public trial, said a statement handed by the group of eight women and their children to the authorities. A ministerial committee should be formed to investigate violations and torture inside the prisons, and our sons and husbands must be brought back to prison in Buraida.
The detainees, who have been held for periods ranging from two to five years, were removed to Riyadh in June for induction in a correction programme run by clerics that authorities say has led more than 700 suspects to repent. Their families say they have suffered mistreatment since they were moved to Riyadh. An Interior Ministry spokesman was not available for comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
#1
It sounds like the wives have been watching too much American television. I can't imagine that Saudi law/custom includes the right to a lawyer and a public trial.
The US opened nuclear weapons talks with North Korea in Geneva yesterday, following a conciliatory offer of food aid to the flood-ravaged country. Chief North Korean negotiator Kim Gye Gwan arrived at the US diplomatic compound for the first of two days of talks that the US hopes will help crack the main obstacles that stand in the way of ending the country's nuclear weapons programme for good.
Kim, however, declined to make any forecasts. "It's not our custom to predict the results before the meeting," he said.
Washington has been careful to describe its one-on-one talks with North Korea as coming under the umbrella of six-nation talks to dismantle the North's nuclear weapons programme. But hours before the talks began, the US government expressed condolences for North Korean loss of life and homes in widespread flooding, and offered to discuss with Kim Jong Il's government provision of "a significant food aid package, including monitoring procedures", with no mention of the six-party talks. US State Department spokesman Tom Casey noted that severe August floods have worsened the already desperate situation of the North Korean people, and that the food aid would be on top of US antibiotics already being provided.
"This nuclear issue is a tough one," US assistant secretary of state Christopher Hill told reporters after his arrival in Geneva from Washington. He said he would try during the weekend talks to resolve some of the US-North Korean differences so that the overall "six-party talks" can wrap up key issues by the end of the year.
#1
Make sure to include a few ricin-spiked bottles of Courvassier. In the magic Kingdom they will magically grow legs and work their way to whoever really needs to drink them the most.
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt was to meet Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Baghdad on Sunday for talks expected to be dominated by Stockholm's stricter policies for Iraqi refugees. Bildt, accompanied by Migration Minister Tobias Billström, arrived unannounced in the war-ravaged Iraqi capital on Saturday and went soon after into a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari. At a press conference afterwards, Bildt warned that Sweden was tightening up its preconditions for granting asylum to Iraqis fleeing the violence ripping their country apart.
"Ja, sure! We're clamping døwn øn them!"
"Sweden has now between 80,000 and 120,000 Iraqis," Bildt said. "But there is no automaticity in the Swedish asylum system. It's not that everybody who seeks asylum will be granted asylum.
"Ønly møst øf them!"
"It depends on each individual process. Every single case is tried on its merits." "between 80,000 and 120,000 Iraqis" Translation: The government of Sweden has no earthly idea how many Iraqis are living within the kingdom's borders.
Sweden receives the largest number of Iraqi refugees in Europe, and Iraqis have become the country's second-largest foreign population after Finns. According to the Swedish immigration service, between January and July this year 10,800 Iraqis requested asylum in Sweden, up from 8,950 for the whole of 2006. There were fewer than 3,000 asylum seekers in 2005.
In July, Sweden announced it had adopted stricter policies on whether Iraqi asylum seekers will be allowed to stay in a bid to slow the flood of arrivals. Iraqis from the southern and central regions of the country now have to prove they have been personally threatened to be given residency, the immigration service said. Previously, only northern Iraqis could have their asylum requests dismissed. Immigration service head Dan Eliasson said at the time the change in policy resulted from a recent court finding that found "there is no armed conflict in Iraq, according to the definition from Swedish legislation." If one reads between the lines of the articles published on Swedish online sites, there's plenty of armed conflict (and plenty of casualties) in Sweden, too.
"If they are not personally threatened or harassed, they cannot remain in our country," said Eliasson. He said the situation in Iraq does not warrant an automatic decision to grant someone Swedish residency. Those not meeting the test will be asked to return to their country voluntarily with government assistance. They could be forced out if they refuse, he said. Here's a clue, stupid Swedish government officials: The slaves of Allah do not "voluntarily" co-operate with kuff'rs. Prepare to use force, with whatever "force" you have. Considering the state of affairs in Malmo and the Stockholm suburbs, Sven, you're going to need everything you've got.
Aside from holding talks with Maliki, Bildt was also on Sunday expected to meet Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi and leaders of Iraq's sharply divided communities, the minister's spokeswoman, Sara Malmgren, said. Interesting. The Kurdish asylum advocates were put through the wringer, but the Sunni and Shi'a had their applications rubber-stamped.
#1
According to the Swedish immigration service, between January and July this year 10,800 Iraqis requested asylum in Sweden, up from 8,950 for the whole of 2006. There were fewer than 3,000 asylum seekers in 2005
Wonder if the immigration service checked to see if there was a corollary of Sunni applications with the failure of their attempts on once again suppress all the others of Iraq? Did the 'surge' happen around the time the others got the edge on the Sunni based terrorism?
A leading Swedish newspaper on Saturday said the country would not apologise for the recent publication of a Prophet Mohammed (PTUI PBUH) cartoon, which has predictably inflamed devout Muslims around the world. Dagens Nyheter said in an editorial, Sweden has a duty from now on to defend its principles and present an open dialogue. It said offended Muslims would not receive the apologies they were asking for.
Swedish newspaper Nerikes Allehanda published a blasphemous cartoon on August 18 to illustrate an editorial on self-censorship and freedom of expression and religion. The Kabul Times, a religious Afghani newspaper, published on Saturday an article by religious leaders expressing their indignation at this provocation, according to Swedish press agency TT. The publication of the cartoon has prompted angry reactions from Iran and Pakistan, which have both summoned Swedish diplomats to protest. The 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference has also condemned the publication and urged the Swedish government to punish the artist and the publisher and demand an apology.
Svenska Dagbladet, another broadsheet, said Sweden was now in a situation which could escalate and slip away from Swedish control. Some observers did, however, note important differences with Denmark, where the publication of cartoons deemed offensive two years ago caused deadly riots in several countries. Unlike its Danish neighbour, Sweden has a reputation for taking in refugees and immigrants, the paper said. Sweden is the primary destination in Europe for asylum-seeking Iraqis, who are the second-largest immigrant community there.
On Friday, 200 Muslims protested in Oerebro, a town west of Stockholm where the Nerikes Allehanda is based. Ulf Johanssen, the newspapers editor-in-chief, spoke with the head of the demonstration, but refused to offer any excuses to the protesters. I regret if many (people) felt offended, that wasnt my objective, Dagens Nyheter quoted him as saying.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
Blasphemous hell. When you muslims poop in everyones living room, expect to have your noses rubbed in it.
Posted by: ed ||
09/02/2007 0:39 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Unfortunately, the EU has the last word, and they believe that Muslims are a benign minority that needs protection from "islamophobia." I am getting sick of that word. A phobia is an irrational fear. Being a little wary about a cult that makes war sacred, is hardly without cause.
#3
The Kabul Times, a religious Afghani newspaper, published on Saturday an article by religious leaders expressing their indignation at this provocation
Try to remember that the West's mere existence is "provocation" to these psychotic murderers. People holding hands in the park, a husband kissing his wife on the doorstep, men and women cavorting at the beach or attending a concert, a movie, a lecture or even church together is a "provovation" to these intolerant genocidal bastards.
It's long past tea to end this farce. We need to scrape away the entire top tiers of Islam's clerical aristocracy at the earliest opportunity. Muslims must be informed that they will have oneand only onechance to rewrite their Koran, one chance to alter shari'a law, one chance to ban taqiyya and kitman, one chance to reject violent kihad, one chance to abandon genocide against the Jews and one chance to recognize Israel.
Should Muslimsfreed of their radical clergynonetheless refuse to meet the above requirements that might let there be some chance of coexistence, then we must simply start razing Islam from the top down. When whatever remaining surviving portion of Islam finally concedes the above points, stop and wait for the next terrorist atrocity and then begin razing anew until the terrorism stops FOREVER.
Either terrorism ends or Islam does. Muslims must choose which.
#4
Sweden knows that even if they were to kick EVERY Muslim out of their country, Sweden will go forward, no sweat! My advice to the Swedes, use the 'Singleton Ratio' on immigration; match the percentage of a country, that country permits of your people; case closed!!
WaPo 'balance', on page 6.
As the Rotarians dined on fried chicken, Sen. Johnny Isakson shared a few thoughts about Iraq. "Today, the news that comes back is pretty good," the Georgia Republican said from the podium to the packed downtown ballroom. "We're making progress on the military side and the security side. It is my sincere hope that we can, as soon as we can, reduce our troop forces, turn more over to the Iraqi army. But we should only do that when they are ready."
This is not a slice of electorate that is holding its breath, like California waiting for Congress to end the war. When Isakson suggested that the U.S. military could have a presence in the region for "a long time," no one flinched. They nodded at his depiction of the conflict as "the ultimate war between good and evil." And they put down their forks and applauded when he exclaimed, "To lose, all we have to do is quit. And I know the men and women of the United States military, and I know the heart of our country, and we don't quit!" Just a buncha Georgia rednecks, doncha know?
While many lawmakers have faced antiwar protesters over the past month's summer recess, in the heart of Georgia there are reassuring voices talking of a mission to accomplish and a victory that must be won. Many of the 21,500 new troops that President Bush ordered shipped to Iraq in the spring had come through nearby Fort Benning, and Isakson has shared the quiet but firm resolve of many of his constituents.
Congress will return to Washington on Tuesday and the following week will hear from the top American commander in Iraq, Gen. David H. Petraeus, on the progress of the war. As he spent three days traveling through northern Georgia last week, Isakson predicted that Petraeus and the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan C. Crocker, who will report on political developments, would provide "real tangible evidence that the surge has worked, that there's more stability, a lack of satisfaction with the progress, but some progress on the political side."
That view highlights the challenge of the debate over the war's future. While the strongest opponents are demanding a firm timeline to begin troop withdrawals, many lawmakers remain ambivalent. They want to end the conflict but are leery of moving too soon if there is any sign of progress in Petraeus's report.
Isakson's brief tour around the state seemed to reinforce his sense that it is not time to give up. Democrats, he said, can count him out of any effort to force Bush's hand. "This date certain to withdraw and declaring failure and whatnot is unacceptable, if you believe in what we're doing. And I believe in what we're doing."
The senator's cautious optimism brought a wave of relief from voters he spoke to -- along with a touch of skepticism. "I think a lot of our elected officials don't know what to do," said Marquette McKnight, a local businesswoman, after Isakson's speech to the Rotary Club. "I'll be really interested to hear the general's report. When we hear about the surge -- that means numbers to people in Washington. For us here in Columbus, who know those young men and women, it takes on a different tone. You're wondering, what is the truth?"
"We have 200 wounded soldiers right now in our wounded unit," Wojdakowski said as he outlined plans for a new hospital. He boasted of positive feedback he has received from the field about the camp's basic training regimen. "They're pretty happy with the guys they're getting and those guys' ability to go to war pretty quickly, which is what's happening to them today," Wojdakowski said.
Later, Isakson toured an indoor shooting range, where new recruits fire simulated bullets at a theater-size video screen that showed scenes from typical Iraq combat situations.
"In the last two years, we have really refocused our soldiers on their capability to use their weapons, more so than when we weren't at war," Wojdakowski explained to Isakson. "We learned that lesson with Jessica Lynch and some other things that have happened in Iraq and Afghanistan, that every soldier needs to be comfortable with his weapon. So we shoot twice as many live rounds as we did two years ago."
A film showed actors staging a "small arms struggle" after a makeshift bomb blew up a Humvee. "Friendlies, hold fire!" the soldiers shouted. They shot and reloaded, paused and shot again. The tally was 106 shots fired and six lethal hits.
Isakson quietly took in the scene, clearly moved by the soldiers' youth and determination. All Georgians, they were assembled especially for his visit. When the young men lined up to say goodbye, Isakson shook each hand. "Hi, I'm Johnny Isakson. Where are you from? Where did you go to high school? Thanks for all you do; God bless you." Looking at Wojdakowski, he added, "Good bunch."
The next day, as he traveled through northern Georgia, Isakson rattled off a series of recent developments in Iraq that suggested to him that the tide may be turning. Even a recent wave of suicide bombing that killed more than 400 people in northwestern Iraq, he said, is an indication that insurgents have become desperate, having been squeezed out of Baghdad and al-Anbar province.
Isakson added: "Whatever the case, I think you'll see some amendments in the mission" by the administration. "We all know we can't sustain the surge levels passed April 1, so you're going to have a troop change, anyway. "I can't say what General Petraeus is going to say. But it may well be that you have a lot of sound and fury, and you get no legislative action, because of the relative success of the surge."
One touchstone for the senator on Iraq is Lucy and Rick Harris, parents of 1st Lt. Noah Harris, a former University of Georgia cheerleading captain and star student who struck up an e-mail friendship with Isakson. In June 2005, Harris was killed in a rocket-propelled grenade attack.
"Our presence here is not just about Iraq," Harris wrote in his first missive to the senator, six weeks before he died. "It is sending a message to the people of the world that freedom can be a reality."
"This is wonderful, it's democracy, it's what it's all about," Lucy Harris, a retired teacher, told Isakson over barbecue. She said that she had followed the war debate closely through news reports and blogs. She remains a strong supporter of Bush and the Iraq mission. But the feuding over policy, she said, "makes us more wise all the time -- even though it sometimes seems as though we are not. I try to look at the whole picture, every day."
In three days on the road, not one Georgia resident urged Isakson to go back to Washington and end the war. Far more typical was the pleading of Richard Monroe, the Clarkesville city manager, who approached the senator at a reception and said, "As a Vietnam veteran, I hope we don't publish a withdrawal date." Isakson shook his head and answered reassuringly, "Oh, no, that won't happen. This thing's turned around."
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/02/2007 07:47 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
As i am from GA and still live here it seems too me that alot of other ppl could learn alot from all of us GA rednecks when it comes to supporting our troops over seas instead of wanting too run every time something bad happens.
#5
The Toronto sun refused to publish the cartoon - using the alternate provided. They claimed, in response to a Letter to the Editor complaining about the missing cartoon, that the alternate was "funnier". The is the same paper that gives voice to columnist Salim Mansur. A man who must have several fatwas out on his butt by now. A man of vision and truth visa Middle East matters.
Yet the Toronto Sun was too scared of backlash over a cartoon. Not the words of the provocative Salim (to islamists certainly), but a cartoon.
I'm disappointed they went belly up over a cartoon. What power the cartoon protestors and wild rolling eyed islamists wield now. Go Denmark - go Sweden.
Wimps - to be manipulated so. Shame on you Toronto Sun.
QUETTA: Provincial Police Officer Tariq Masood Khosa on Saturday warned that stern action would be taken against saboteurs and their patrons. He told participants of the 87th National Management Course of the National Management College, Lahore that the government would allow nobody to create law and order situations in the province. In order to ensure consolidation of power better enforcement of law, the Levies force of the province had been merged into the police, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#4
Actually you are both wrong. A controlling interest is when you hold sufficient shares to win shareholder votes, given the remaining shares will not vote as a block for various reasons. It's generally considered to be in the range of 20% to 30%.
THE US troop surge in Iraq has thrown al-Qa'ida off balance and produced a dramatic reduction in sectarian killings and a drop in roadside bombings.
David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, said the build-up of American forces in Baghdad since late January had produced positive outcomes. These included the killing or capture of al-Qa'ida fighters, causing the terrorist group to lose influence with local Sunnis.
The strategic gains against insurgents would lead to a changed and possibly longer-term role for Australian troops, shifting from security operations to a focus on training Iraqi soldiers and police.
General Petraeus told The Australian during a face-to-face interview at his Baghdad headquarters there had been a 75 per cent reduction in religious and ethnic killings in the capital between December last year and this month, a doubling in the seizure of insurgents' weapons caches between January and August, a rise in the number of al-Qa'ida "kills and captures" and a fall in the number of coalition deaths from roadside bombings.
"We say we have achieved progress, and we are obviously going to do everything we can to build on that progress and we believe al-Qa'ida is off balance at the very least," he said.
General Petraeus's overview comes a fortnight before he is due to present a crucial report on military progress in Iraq to the US Congress and President George W. Bush.
Australian Defence Minister Brendan Nelson, after being briefed by General Petraeus in Baghdad, said he now had a clear picture of progress in Iraq. He said John Howard and Mr Bush would discuss future military requirements for the conflict when they met at the APEC summit in Sydney next week.
Australia's 550-strong Overwatch battlegroup, based at Tallil in Dhiqar province, is likely to complete its mission by the middle of next year, following a British troop drawdown from southern Iraq.
Dr Nelson said it was "fair to say we will continue to look for increased opportunities for training" for Australian forces into next year.
General Petraeus said the surge strategy, involving the deployment of an extra 20,000 troops in Iraq, would continue for a few months before the troop level in the country was phased down. But the objective was to hold all the gains that had been made so far.
He acknowledged there was still too much violence and that al-Qa'ida and militias with the "malign involvement" of Iran were still serious threats. But the surge strategy had turned the US forces into pursuers instead of defenders. "And that is a much better place to be than to be doing a deliberate attack into their defences, like we had to do in Ramadi," he said. "Ramadi was like Stalingrad."
According to General Petraeus's figures, which will be put to Congress, the number of ethnic- and religious-related deaths would be down to a quarter of what they were last December by the end of August. He said "ethno-sectarian deaths" were the most important measure of progress.
"If you look at Baghdad, which is hugely important because it is the centre of everything in Iraq, you can see the density plot on ethno-sectarian deaths," he said.
"It's a bit macabre but some areas were literally on fire with hundreds of bodies every week and a total of 2100 in the month of December '06, Iraq-wide.
"It is still much too high but we think in August in Baghdad it will be as little as one quarter of what it was."
The number of weapons-cache captures had doubled from 1977 in January this year to 4141 in August.
General Petraeus said "improvised explosive devices" -- roadside bombs -- were the largest killer in Iraq and in "another indicator that is reassuring, this has come down for about eight of the last 11 weeks to the lowest in at least a year, Iraq-wide".
"We see al-Qa'ida as public enemy No1 because it is the enemy that carries out the most horrific attacks designed to re-ignite ethno-sectarain violence," he said.
"That is not to say militia extremists supported by Iran are not of enormous concern because they are.
"There is growing concern by the Iraqi Government, by us, and our own Government as we have learned more and more about the degree of this malign involvement of the Iranian Quds force with the militia extremists that have been supported by them, trained, equipped, armed, funded and even in some cases directed."
Dr Nelson, who went to Afghanistan and Iraq this week and is now in Washington, said General Petraeus had presented a detailed presentation on security inside the country.
"We finished our meeting with a very clear picture of his thinking of the assessment of the security situation, not just in Baghdad but also in the south and the work being done by us and the British," he said.
"No one should underestimate the importance to what is happening in Iraq of our contribution and the significance of it to the Americans and the Iraqis themselves.
"We will wait until we see the President's response to the report and we will shape our forward planning around that response.
"I think it is fair to say that we will continue to look for increased opportunities for training."
The Defence Minister said Australian forces were highly regarded as trainers and whenever he asked the Iraqis to nominate what they wanted they "always said training".
"Our support for continuing support and involvement in Iraq is a minority position but we have a moral responsibility to these people to see this job through," Dr Nelson said.
#1
"preview" to the Donk's worst nightmare. Having staked so much on defeat, watch them slime Petraeus and whine. I hope the American people remember what victory tastes like...it's not poisonous like the Dem snake oil
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/02/2007 18:26 Comments ||
Top||
This is the best anti-war stuff the WaPo could come up with for the front page of the Sunday edition?
Iraq's crucial oil and electricity sectors still need roughly $50 billion to meet demand, analysts and officials say, even after the United States has poured more than $6 billion into them over more than four years.
Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Bush administration has focused much of its $44.5 billion reconstruction plan on oil and electricity. Now, with the U.S.-led reconstruction phase nearing its close, Iraq will need to spend $27 billion more for its electrical system and $20 billion to $30 billion for oil infrastructure, according to estimates the Government Accountability Office collected from Iraqi and U.S. officials.
Even with the funding, a dollar or two which just might come from a stable Iraqi government the GAO notes that it could take until 2015 for Iraq to produce 6 million barrels of oil a day and have enough electricity to meet demand. A commanding general of the Army Corps of Engineers says it could have enough electricity sooner -- 2010 to 2013.
"The U.S. money was intended to get those industries started on recovery," said Stuart W. Bowen Jr., the U.S. special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, who is charged with finding waste, fraud and abuse in the multibillion-dollar effort. "We were working with a dilapidated, run-down system. It still has a long, long way to go."
A former top-level Pentagon official who was involved in rebuilding the oil and electricity sectors put it more bluntly. "People said the money was to rebuild the country, but it was just a down payment," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he still works for the government. "The money was never enough to handle all that was there. It was merely a Band-Aid."
If the problems aren't fixed, it will be difficult to establish a strong economy and improve the standards of living, and could cause people to lose confidence in the government. Hopeless, I tellya, hopeless! Oil and electricity are two of Iraq's most important industries, each depending heavily on the other. Iraq imports about $2.6 billion worth of petroleum products a year. Oil exports account for 90 percent of the Iraqi government's revenue, but oil production is crippled without enough electricity for refineries and pipelines. Electricity, in turn, cannot be generated without the fuel that powers most of Iraq's power plants. It's a chicken-or-the-egg sort of deal.
U.S. officials say they found the country's infrastructure in worse shape than they expected, hit hard by the Persian Gulf War of 1990-91 and a decade of economic sanctions. Oil wells hadn't been cleaned. Power plants had antiquated equipment and no parts available for repairs. One U.S. auditor said he spent a day with 22 Iraqi electrical engineers who proudly showed him how they jury-rigged a generator using the sawed-off bottom of a Pepsi can showing how the clever Iraqis overcame sanctions.
The Americans put $4.6 billion into more than 2,600 projects to repair electricity-generation facilities, transmission lines and distribution networks. They put $1.75 billion into improving the country's oil infrastructure.
Another huge problem: Armed groups regularly attack oil and electricity facilities. But we gotta have a political solution!
Analysts say Iraq needs to invest money to improve its infrastructure for pumping and processing oil, upgrade and maintain equipment, and train workers at power plants and refineries. One U.S. adviser said, "They need more of everything."
"Our piece was to jump-start the infrastructure here," Brig. Gen. Michael J. Walsh, commanding general of the Army Corps of Engineers' Gulf Region Division, said in a telephone interview from Baghdad. "Everything we've been doing in the last four years was just enough to start it. Now the Iraqi government needs to continue." Two more pages of 'news' at link
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/02/2007 07:34 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
Note that prior to the Gulf War, the only parts of Iraq which had reliable electrical power were those where the Sunni ruled and lived. When you expand the grid to actually encompass the entire population, getting it all together overnight rather than years is known as 'moving the goalposts'.
HELSINKI - Iraqi Shia and Sunni Arab officials met in Finland on Saturday to discuss ways to end the sectarian violence crippling the country, a spokeswoman for the group organising the gathering said. The seminar has started well, Crisis Management Initiative director of operations Meeri-Maria Jaarva told Reuters.
Jaarva said Sunni and Shia representatives were attending, but declined to name them.
An official from the powerful Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC) said one of its senior officials, Akram al-Hakim, was at the meeting. Hakim is a minister of state for national dialogue in the Iraqi cabinet. The official, speaking in Baghdad, said Sunni Arab politician Saleh Al Mutlaq and a senior official from the Shia Dawa party of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki were also there. Finnish national broadcaster YLE said representatives of anti-American Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr were attending, but two senior aides to the firebrand in Iraq said they were not aware of the event.
Jaarva said discussions began on Friday. Participants were looking at ways to stop the violence in Iraq and how Iraq could use peace models from Northern Ireland and South Africa to settle its own crisis.
The conference is organised by CMI and the University of Massachusetts John W. McCormack Institute. CMI is a non-governmental organisation headed by former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, who has been active in Kosovo and Aceh, Indonesia talks since his presidency ended.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/02/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
A second key British general has criticised US post-war policy in Iraq. Maj Gen Tim Cross, who was the most senior UK officer involved in post-war planning, told the Sunday Mirror US policy was "fatally flawed". His comments came after Gen Sir Mike Jackson, head of the Army during the invasion, told the Daily Telegraph US policy was "intellectually bankrupt".
John Bolton, former US ambassador to the UN, dismissed Sir Mike's criticism as "way off the mark".
Darth was being diplomatic.
You get the idea the Brit leadership is a little defensive?
The Ministry of Defence played down the comments by Sir Mike, now retired, saying he was entitled to express his opinion on his former job.
Maj Gen Cross, also retired, said he had raised serious concerns about potential post-war problems in Iraq with the then US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld. But he said Mr Rumsfeld "dismissed" or "ignored" the warnings. "Right from the very beginning we were all very concerned about the lack of detail that had gone into the post-war plan and there is no doubt that Rumsfeld was at the heart of that process," he said. "I had lunch with Rumsfeld in February in Washington - before the invasion in March 2003 - and raised concerns about the need to internationalise the reconstruction of Iraq and work closely with the United Nations."
Maj Gen Cross, 59, who was deputy head of the coalition's Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance, said he also raised concerns over the number of troops available to maintain security in Iraq. "He didn't want to hear that message," he said. "The US had already convinced themselves that following the invasion Iraq would emerge reasonably quickly as a stable democracy."
He added: "There is no doubt that with hindsight the US post-war plan was fatally flawed and many of us sensed that at the time."
In an interview published on Saturday, Sir Mike told the Telegraph that a claim by Mr Rumsfeld's that US forces "don't do nation-building" was "nonsensical". He criticised the decision to hand control of planning the administration of Iraq after the war to the Pentagon. He also described the disbanding of the Iraqi army and security forces after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein as "very short-sighted".
"We should have kept the Iraqi security services in being and put them under the command of the coalition," he said.
Because, of course, their professionalism and deep tradition of apolitical obedience would make them quite useful from the start.
First we would have had to find them since they'd all gone home.
Politicians from across the spectrum have come out in support of Sir Mike's comments, made ahead of the serialisation of his autobiography in the Telegraph.
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Conservative former foreign secretary and defence secretary, told the BBC that Mr Rumsfeld was "incompetent".
However, Mr Bolton told BBC Radio 4's PM programme that Sir Mike had "read into a version of history that simply is not supported by the evidence". "And I can see where he'd have a parochial view from the military perspective. I don't think he saw some of the larger political debates.
"I'm not saying that we got it right in Washington because I've made my own criticisms. His just happen to be way off the mark, very simplistic, I think in a sense limited by the role that he had." He said it was important to know whether Sir Mike had raised his concerns when he first had them.
The Telegraph also reports that, in his autobiography, Sir Mike says the US approach to fighting global terrorism was "inadequate" as it focused on military power rather than diplomacy and nation-building.
The US Department of Defence said: "Divergent viewpoints are a hallmark of open, democratic societies." A spokeswoman for the US State Department said she would not comment on Sir Mike's views.
His comments follow a series of critical remarks from US officials about the British attitude towards Iraq.
BBC defence correspondent Paul Wood said Sir Mike's comments may put further strain on the British-US operation in Iraq.
#5
We'll probably have to call in the Australians to mop up and secure their area when the brits leave. They've shown that they can handle stuff like that unsupervised.
#6
I have doubts that any other approach to Basra would have done any better than the Brits. Given the proximity to both Iran and our key supply route, and the limited forces of the Coalition, I don't think a full confrontation would have been feasible. Plausibly deniable appeasement may have been the least unpalatable option. It's a problem, but ultimately a problem IRAQ has to deal with itself. Nobody can impose and enforce a solution from the outside without unacceptable casualties (to one or all sides.)
[The conference] drew participation of more than 50 religious, political and legal experts from 20 countries including; Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Kenya and the United Kingdom.
Amman - Muslim scholars and political and legal experts from 20 countries started a conference here Saturday to discuss possible mechanisms of encoding the Islamic principles, values and philosophy of government.
The conference, organized by Al-Quds Center of Political Study in cooperation with Konrad Adenauer Institution, aims to compile a single Islamic constitution specifying the Islamic rules and philosophy regarding government, democracy, human rights and multi-party system.
Dr. Mohammad Abdul-Mohsen Al-Muqate', professor of law of Kuwait University, tabled to the conferees a blueprint of an Islamic constitution in five chapters. "The blueprint is an attempt to involve all conferees in free and frank debate on the issues raised," Al-Muqate' told KUNA.
"Chapter I deals with the basic principle of the state political system,
Chapter II deals with rules of government and state authorities,
Chapter III deals with freedoms and human rights,
Chapter IV covers the financial and economic aspects of Islamic Sharia,
Chapter V deals with relations between specific and general rules of Sharia."
The two-day event is trying to work out a viable blueprint of Islamic constitution and trans-border guidelines of government in Islamic and Arab countries.
Beside Al-Muqate's paper, the first session of the conference, chaired by deputy chairman of the Academy of Islamic Jurisprudence Qotb Sano, probed research papers tabled by Iranian scholar Mohammad Shariati and chief justice of Indonesian Constitutional Court Ahamed Rastandi.
The second session dealt with a paper tabled by Yemeni scholar Al-Murtadha Al-Mahtouri titled "Rights and Duties of Citizens - an Islamic Perspective" and another one by Egyptian scholar Sameh Fawzi on citizenship and human rights in Islam.
The conferees also discussed a paper written by Dr. Aisha Al-Hejjami, of Marrakech University, Morocco, on Islamic jurisdiction and universal jurisdiction and another one by Arous Al-Zobair, of Algeria.
In his address to the opening session of the conference, Director General of Al-Quds Center of Political Study Arib Al-Rentawi said the opposite ends of the spectrum of the Islamic trend played major roles in the Arab and Muslim worlds as well as in foreign countries. The relationship between the Islamic trend and the ongoing political and democratic changes in differs in a community to another, he pointed out.
For his part, representative of Konrad Adenauer Institution in Jordan Hardy Austere said the conference aims to probe ways of translating Islamic values into constitutional principles and rules and ensure the rule of law and justice. "A state of constitution and democracy regulates the principles of its society and identity of its citizens," he noted.
Anyone else's spidey sense tingling? This can't possibly end well.
The two-day event is trying to work out a viable blueprint of Islamic constitution and trans-border guidelines of government in Islamic and Arab countries.
I will grant that prolly not much more than tea and general beard stroking is likely to happen in two days, particularly if they stop for prayers...
It drew participation of more than 50 religious, political and legal experts from 20 countries including; Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Kenya and the United Kingdom.
A non-government think-tank, Al-Quds Center of Political Study works out researches and develop a profound understanding on challenges facing Jordanian people and government.
Absolutely coincidentally, King Abdullah of Hashemia is having face-to-face talks with King Abdullah of Saud-Occupied Arabia today...
Konrad Adenauer Institution is a German political organization that started activity in the Middle East 20 years ago to push forward Euro-Arab dialogue and cement Germany's bilateral ties with Arab countries.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
09/02/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
Why all the fuss? I don't think it should be too hard to get it to fit it on one sheet of toilet paper.
#2
"Al Kuds" is of course the rip off of the Hebrew "el-Kadish" (the Holy) designation of Jerusalem. There is no record of a single Caliphate EVER having visited that city. It had limited significance to Muslims until the foundation of Israel. Arab leaders did NOT visit it from the foundation up to the Israeli capture of 1967.
The cardinal principle of Islamic governance is: deceit.
I have been spreading the word that Obama is named after the parrot headed winged horse ("Barack") that Islam's phony "prophet" supposedly flew to "el-Kadish" during his "night journey to heaven and hell." People need to know both that and the fact that he was a Muslim indoctrinate up to the age of 9, at least. (By the way, on the "night journey" the "prophet" saw his parent's "heads boiling" in hell, and asked Gabriel to plead with allah to place them in a spot where they would only simmer. What would Freud make of that tale?)
#3
Amman - Muslim scholars and political and legal experts from 20 countries started a conference here Saturday to discuss possible mechanisms of encoding the Islamic principles, values and philosophy of government....and moving to Salt Lake City.
#4
the Hebrew "el-Kadish" (the Holy) designation of Jerusalem.
Could that be Aramaic, McZoid? My Hebrew is very rusty, but it seems to me that Yerushalayim ha-Kadesh (accent on the final syllable) would be more correct...
#5
It is precisely gatherings of this sort that merit a liberal application of cruise missiles. These are the leading experts in how to implement Islamic theocracy. The gathered individuals represent some of Islam's biggest movers and shakers for entrenching shari'a law in Muslim societies. They are the devout enemies of freedom and all human liberty.
High context Islamic cultures are exceptionally dependent upon the pronouncements of such authorities. Scholars of this sort have built up generations of personal connections to obtain this sort of recognition and positions of power. By striking an assemblage of this sort we could cripple a huge portion of Islam's ability to issue edicts and fatwan that are so necessary for moving shari'a implementation forward.
I'll ask you to please note the topic of, "trans-border guidelines of government in Islamic and Arab countries". This is a naked reference to establishment of a pan-Arab caliphate. Those who seek a caliphate represent the West's primary and most virulent enemies. Killing scores of them at a single stroke would send the much needed message to this world's Muslim community. Namely, "Those who plot to make Islam the dominant global force will DIE."
human rights in Islam
They utter this tortured oxymoron with a straight face. It is the face of EVIL.
#6
This would be a blueprint for a new Dark Age. Maybe Francis Fukuyama did not have it right after all - we are not at the end of political evolution where the trend toward the establishment and widening of liberal, capitalistic democracies is irresistable.
It was easier to discredit Communism than the toxic, murderous cult of Islam - Communism had real pretensions about creating a better world which could be disproven scientifically and factually. Islam simplistically enforces unquestioning obedience to primitivism and superstition. There is no easy way to win a debate against such an irrational mindset.
Information on US targets has leaked from the Pentagon. B2 bombers and cruise missiles would strike up to 400 sites, only a few dozen of which are linked to the nuclear programme. B61-11 bunker-busting tactical nuclear weapons would be the ultimate weapon against the heavily fortified installations; first in the crosshairs would be the main centrifuge plant at Natanz, 200 miles south of Teheran.
A Pentagon source said: "We have a targeting list and there are plans, but then there are also plans for repelling an invasion from Canada. We don't know where everything is but we do know where enough is to cause them enough damage to set back the programme."
#2
I'll repeat what I've said here before. While I am no big fan of Bushshould he bomb Iran and face a subsequent attempt at impeachment for doing soI will publicly demonstrate against any such unwarranted action.
Bush could do much to polish his currently tarnished legacy by pre-empting Iran's nascent nuclear capability. If he can summon the courage to proceed with this vital campaign I will be most happy to praise his efforts loudly and publicly.
#3
There is no need to use nukes on Iran. All that is required is to take out the refineries, POL storage and distribution systems, electrical generation and distribution systems and Iran stops cold. Without diesel, gasoline, and electricity, nothing moves and production stops. Taking out the military would be nice, but not really necessary.
I prefer the reports that talk about the US obliterating 10,000 sites - those reports including references to the targeting teams putting bombs on target for everything of significance that they could identify within Iran - and simply running out of additional things to target (before we ran out of munitions).
I have some reservations about "bombing Iran back to the pre-stone age" - but I will somehow manage to get over them. Maybe after a beer or two.
I think of historical anecdotes - such as the ones about how the world learned to never molest one of Ghenghis Kahn's horse messsengers; or the story of Lidice, Czecholslovakia - and I think it might be useful for the Islamic world to have a new reference standard - for, say, the next 2,000 years - about the price you pay for threatening a fully capable modern secular democracy.
The Persians have threatened the exterior world before - and they will probbaly threaten it again in the future - but let's make it the DISTANT future - at some date in the 4000's.
#6
can't fight if you can't move (I assume all fixed missile sites and marked mobile sites would be obliterated (love that word) in the first barrage). Food and electricity shut off, it'd be hard to get the country going. My bestest wish is that the fixed assets owned by the MM's are destroyed first. Let Mutual of Qom pay them off....
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/02/2007 20:12 Comments ||
Top||
#7
I prefer the other report that said we plan to annihilate their military and IRGC. A B-52 can carry 32 SDBs, which means a typical chalk of three bombers can take out 96 hardened targets simultaneously, from high altitude and at a standoff distance. They can carry 51 250lb JDAMs, for 153 simultaneous targets on the ground.
That is most, if not all, of the tanks, tracks and tubes of an armored division, in a single mission. And all within a few seconds of each other.
Ironically, once we got air superiority, one of our most important weapons delivery aircraft would be the C-130.
TEHRAN: Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a surprise move on Saturday replaced the head of the elite Revolutionary Guards force. State television said that General Yahya Rahim Safavi would be stepping down to become a special military adviser to Khamenei, and would be replaced by fellow Guards Commander Muhammad Ali Jaafari as the new overall head of the Guards. Acknowledging General Safavis 28 years of honest service in various military fields and 10 years of successful leadership of the Revolutionary Guards, I appoint you top adviser in military affairs, said a decree from Khamemei.
A separate decree read, General Jaafari, taking into account your valuable experience and your brilliant record in the Revolutionary Guards, I appoint you as head of this revolutionary organisation.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/02/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
THE Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians military capability in three days, according to a national security expert.
Theyre about taking out the entire Iranian military
Alexis Debat, director of terrorism and national security at the Nixon Center, said last week that US military planners were not preparing for pinprick strikes against Irans nuclear facilities. Theyre about taking out the entire Iranian military, he said.
Debat was speaking at a meeting organised by The National Interest, a conservative foreign policy journal. He told The Sunday Times that the US military had concluded: Whether you go for pinprick strikes or all-out military action, the reaction from the Iranians will be the same. It was, he added, a very legitimate strategic calculus.
President George Bush intensified the rhetoric against Iran last week, accusing Tehran of putting the Middle East under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust. He warned that the US and its allies would confront Iran before it is too late.
One Washington source said the temperature was rising inside the administration.
One Washington source said the temperature was rising inside the administration. Bush was sending a message to a number of audiences, he said to the Iranians and to members of the United Nations security council who are trying to weaken a tough third resolution on sanctions against Iran for flouting a UN ban on uranium enrichment.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last week reported significant cooperation with Iran over its nuclear programme and said that uranium enrichment had slowed. Tehran has promised to answer most questions from the agency by November, but Washington fears it is stalling to prevent further sanctions. Iran continues to maintain it is merely developing civilian nuclear power.
Bush is committed for now to the diplomatic route but thinks Iran is moving towards acquiring a nuclear weapon. According to one well placed source, Washington believes it would be prudent to use rapid, overwhelming force, should military action become necessary.
Israel, which has warned it will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, has made its own preparations for airstrikes and is said to be ready to attack if the Americans back down.
Alireza Jafarzadeh, a spokesman for the National Council of Resistance of Iran, which uncovered the existence of Irans uranium enrichment plant at Natanz, said the IAEA was being strung along. A number of nuclear sites have not even been visited by the IAEA, he said. Theyre giving a clean bill of health to a regime that is known to have practised deception.
That's what the IAEA does best.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, irritated the Bush administration last week by vowing to fill a power vacuum in Iraq. But Washington believes Iran is already fighting a proxy war with the Americans in Iraq. The Institute for the Study of War last week released a report by Kimberly Kagan that explicitly uses the term proxy war and claims that with the Sunni insurgency and Al-Qaeda in Iraq increasingly under control, Iranian intervention is the next major problem the coalition must tackle.
Bush noted that the number of attacks on US bases and troops by Iranian-supplied munitions had increased in recent months despite pledges by Iran to help stabilise the security situation in Iraq. It explains, in part, his lack of faith in diplomacy with the Iranians. But Debat believes the Pentagons plans for military action involve the use of so much force that they are unlikely to be used and would seriously stretch resources in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Lots of planes and logistics people available.
Posted by: lotp ||
09/02/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Debat's beliefs are debatable. 3 days is not that long to pull off logistics of manpower and equipment rather well.
#2
Why three days? Don't want the EMPs of one nuclear device going off interfering with the next? >:-}
I don't know how Iran is going to fill a power vacuum if they have to keep their troops where they can defend the homeland. Unless their mullahs are enough to do the trick.
And I would guess that a massive attack is going to garner an entirely different reaction than a bunch of pinpricks. If their military and logistics are screwed up completely, they won't be able to supply Iraq what the boneheads there need to continue their false insurgency. We should also be able to depend on quite a few Iraqi forces to go along with us on a march across the border to Tehran. And give them a $100 bonus for each recognizable head of one of the ruling class bad-guys, be he Iraqi or Iranian.
#3
gorb, there is really no need to march across the border. Just target nuclear facilities, the known locations of IRG and IAF (army to a lesser degree, perhaps), level Qom and localities known to contain target rich environment (bancha mulla) and let Iranians sort things afterwards. If after some time problem spots remain, remove them... rinse and repeat. One day, Iranians will get it right.
#4
You could leave the army, what you would need to hit though is the navy and air force. We cannot have the Iranians interrupting shipping in the Gulf.
#5
I think the IRG would have to go. AFAIK they are the rabid fanatics of the mullocracy there. The regular army guys sound like they'd be OK though. Are my instincts correct?
#6
Let me once again reiterate what I believe is the only successful plan for Iran: Destroy their nuclear infrastructure; annihilate their military; and partition their nation.
The #1 reason for doing this is that we CANNOT assume that they do not already have one or more nuclear weapons. Were the North Koreans to have provided them weapons grade uranium and plutonium long ago, then all they would have to do is assemble a bomb.
As cover for this, creating their own enrichment operation, as a false front, would be brilliant. It would give them the time they needed to both build weapons *and* enlarge and improve their delivery systems.
Then, if the US just destroyed their enrichment operations, then forgot about Iran, they would have perhaps a decade to become a *substantial* nuclear power, not just the owner of a few bombs.
Their ballistic missile program would be mature, and they might even have missiles capable of reaching the US.
By destroying their nuclear infrastructure, we assure that they cannot use their locally enriched uranium to build bombs. By annihilating their military forces, they are severely weakened as a nation. But only through partitioning, slicing off Iranian Kurdistan, Khuzestan, and all the way bordering the Persian Gulf through Baluchistan, can we deny them the money and resources to rebuild.
Fortunately, George Bush has directed an enormous amount of anti-missile defenses to the region, in case they are far ahead of schedule, and launch either conventional or nuclear missiles.
But we cannot dilly-dally, nor play around as we did with Iraq. This will have to be full scale war.
#9
I am not hopeful of revolution. If it happens, then good, but it should be of little consequence to our main objectives. And I should add that such a partition also has the added benefit of denying Iran the ability to either profit by or to menace the oil the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, or the Arabian Sea.
I see the basic strategy as the USAF reducing as much of the Iranian military and IRGC as possible, then the US divisions quickly enter Iran, and begin a 'T' slicing maneuver North, and South then East. It would be of great help if the Pakistani army then annexed Iranian Baluchistan.
This would amount to eight or nine approximate provinces (though we would be inclined to slice according to geography, not tradition): Azerbayjan-e Gharbi; Kordestan; Kermanshah; Lorestan-Llam; Khuzestan; perhaps Yasuj; Bushehr; Hormozgan; and Baluchistan.
Map:
http://tinyurl.com/6tpmp
The Kurdish Peshmurga would be the occupying power of the three provinces of Iranian Kurdistan; and the Iraqi army would occupy from Lur province to Bander Abbas.
Iraq would be given control of the Bushehr reactor, which might or might not be allowed to remain in operation.
#10
If the Iranians try to counter with an Israeli strike simply for GP, then Israel should be invited by the US to join in the offensive! None of this ' just stand by and be placid', crap such as what the US wanted in the first Gulf War! The US should start by cleaning out the MOAB stores during that first three days also!
#11
Whether you go for pinprick strikes or all-out military action, the reaction from the Iranians will be the same.
Just as how a woman cannot be "a little bit pregnant", neither can there be a "small" war with Iran. If we strike at all, it is to totally disable their entire military structure. Once all major IRG bases and missile sites are demolished, Iran's army should be given 15 minutes to surrender unconditionally or face similar destruction. Much like with Islam overall, start by clearing out the top tiers and see if opposition continues. Keep sweeping the ranks until they sit down, shut up and surrender.
Theyre giving a clean bill of health to a regime that is known to have practised deception.
Which is why Mohammed El-baradei must be brought up on charges of criminal collusion with Iran. It goes beyond all imagination how the fuck we ever allowed a Muslim to run inspections of another Islamic country's nuclear program.
#12
I see no way that the USA can prevent the Mad Mullahs from closing down oil shipping in the Persian Gulf right after hostilities start & perhaps from damaging the giant oil fields of Saudistan. The world and US economy is in precarious shape at the moment & probably for the next year, at least. Even if the Mullahs power structure is completely rubbed out in 3 days, such an interruption in oil exports from the Gulf will have severe, bad, & lasting effects on the non-Islamic world.
Years ago the Mullahs imported subway digging machines to construct huge tunnels. How many tunnels & underground emplacements are there now, where are they & what's in 'em?
#13
Years ago the Mullahs imported subway digging machines to construct huge tunnels. How many tunnels & underground emplacements are there now, where are they & what's in 'em?
Iran's nuclear R&D facilities. It's why America has placed such emphasis upon development of conventional and nuclear "bunker buster" weapons. We have made quantum leaps in "burrowing" missiles and can likely defeat even the most deeply buried Iranian facilities. After all, they have to have electrical power, ventilation and water enter somewhere. Those utility feed-throughs are vulnerable to attack. Imagine the effect of detonating a properly staggered sequence of thermobaric "vacuum" bombs near major ventilator shafts. We could pump down the interior of any connected facility to the point where its occupants' lungs would emerge from their throats. And that suits me just fine.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/02/2007 17:45 Comments ||
Top||
#15
Take out the refineries, POL storage, electrical generation and distribution and watch Iran drop back to a pre-industrial society. Modern militaries run on diesel. No fuel and nothing moves. No electricity and everything else stops. Those are big, static targets that can be taken out with cruise missiles. After that, the military and nuclear targets are just icing on the cake.
GCC Secretary General Abdulrahman Al-Attiyah, in Jeddah Saturday, said Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki sent a letter to his GCC counterparts wishing to launch free trade negotiations with the six-nation Gulf bloc. This Iranian desire is not new and it was preceded by contacts to launch negotiations for the establishment of a free trade zone (FTZ) between Iran and the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Al-Attiyah told a joint news conference with Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Dr. Nezar Madani.
The GCC Foreign Ministers, who concluded a one-day meeting earlier today, would convey a message to the Iranian side that a technical ministerial committee would study the Iranian letter, he said.
"We'll get back to you. Insh'allah."
Posted by: Seafarious ||
09/02/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
The GCC Foreign Ministers, who concluded a one-day meeting earlier today, would convey a message to the Iranian side that a technical ministerial committee would study the Iranian letter
And will get back to them after it becomes clear how well the rest of the world is going to receive their BS lies on the nuclear issue.
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.
"We deny any payment for the release of South Korean hostages," an official at South Korea's presidential Blue House said. But the Taliban disagreed. "We got more than $20m from them [the Seoul government]," a commander, who did not wish to be named, told Reuters. "With it we will purchase arms, get our communication network renewed and buy vehicles for carrying out more suicide attacks. The money will also address to some extent the financial difficulties we have had." 
(SomaliNet) Foreign aid groups have said a growing number of Eritreans are fleeing their authoritarian regime and joining in exile a previous generation who sought refuge from a long and deadly freedom war against Ethiopia. A news source said the young Red Sea state - which obtained its independence in 1993 - has an estimated population of 4.2 million but an estimated 850 000 Eritreans have sought refuge abroad. 
The US opened nuclear weapons talks with North Korea in Geneva yesterday, following a conciliatory offer of food aid to the flood-ravaged country. Chief North Korean negotiator Kim Gye Gwan arrived at the US diplomatic compound for the first of two days of talks that the US hopes will help crack the main obstacles that stand in the way of ending the country's nuclear weapons programme for good. 
A leading Swedish newspaper on Saturday said the country would not apologise for the recent publication of a Prophet Mohammed (
QUETTA: Provincial Police Officer Tariq Masood Khosa on Saturday warned that stern action would be taken against saboteurs and their patrons. He told participants of the 87th National Management Course of the National Management College, Lahore that the government would allow nobody to create law and order situations in the province. In order to ensure 
Oil and electricity are two of Iraq's most important industries, each depending heavily on the other. Iraq imports about $2.6 billion worth of petroleum products a year. Oil exports account for 90 percent of the Iraqi government's revenue, but oil production is crippled without enough electricity for refineries and pipelines. Electricity, in turn, cannot be generated without the fuel that powers most of Iraq's power plants. 
HELSINKI - Iraqi Shia and Sunni Arab officials met in Finland on Saturday to discuss ways to end the sectarian violence crippling the country, a spokeswoman for the group organising the gathering said. The seminar has started well, Crisis Management Initiative director of operations Meeri-Maria Jaarva told Reuters.
TEHRAN: Irans supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a surprise move on Saturday replaced the head of the elite Revolutionary Guards force. State television said that General Yahya Rahim Safavi would be stepping down to become a special military adviser to Khamenei, and would be replaced by fellow Guards Commander Muhammad Ali Jaafari as the new overall head of the Guards. Acknowledging General Safavis 28 years of honest service in various military fields and 10 years of successful leadership of the Revolutionary Guards, I appoint you top adviser in military affairs, said a decree from Khamemei.
