(SomaliNet) The U.N. Security Council called on Wednesday for more funds for a hard-pressed African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia and asked the U.N. secretary-general to keep planning for a U.N. force there, Reuters reports. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said last month Somalia was too dangerous even to send an assessment team to prepare for a U.N. peacekeeping force.
There's no peacekeeping to assess. Ethiopians tried to do some peace-making and see what good it did them.
The Somali government has long urged the United Nations to send peacekeepers. The AU force, known as AMISOM, is supposed to number some 8,000 troops but only around 1,600 Ugandans have actually arrived.
The Security Council issued a statement after talks on Somalia on Wednesday reiterating its backing for AMISOM. "(It) urges again the international community to provide financial resources, personnel, equipment and services for the full deployment of AMISOM," it said.
"But not us. Someone else."
The council also asked Ban to continue to develop existing contingency plans for a possible U.N. deployment and asked him to report back on progress by February 8.
The statement welcomed a briefing this week by Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah, U.N. special envoy for Somalia, who called for a new strategy from the international community to tackle the humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa state. Ould-Abdallah said Saudi Arabia should be asked to lead a new drive to reinforce the AU peacekeeping force, though not necessarily with its own troops. Such a force, including Asian or Middle Eastern troops, could be an interim step before a U.N. peacekeeping force could be deployed.
There's an idea. Let the Saoodis do it. It'd be like letting the fox into the henhouse.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/21/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
An underreported attack on a South African nuclear facility last month demonstrates the high risk of theft of nuclear materials by terrorists or criminals. Such a crime could have grave national security implications for the United States or any of the dozens of countries where nuclear materials are held in various states of security.
Shortly after midnight on Nov. 8, four armed men broke into the Pelindaba nuclear facility 18 miles west of Pretoria, a site where hundreds of kilograms of weapons-grade uranium are stored. According to the South African Nuclear Energy Corp., the state-owned entity that runs the Pelindaba facility, these four "technically sophisticated criminals" deactivated several layers of security, including a 10,000-volt electrical fence, suggesting insider knowledge of the system. Though their images were captured on closed-circuit television, they were not detected by security officers because nobody was monitoring the cameras at the time.
So, undetected, the four men spent 45 minutes inside one of South Africa's most heavily guarded "national key points" -- defined by the government as "any place or area that is so important that its loss, damage, disruption or immobilization may prejudice the Republic."
Continued on Page 49
#1
At least 8 technically-savvy armed men conduct a complex, coordinated break-in of a highly secure nuclear facility, with inside knowledge and likely assistance as well. Three possible motives (none of which include stealing a computer or 'making a statement'):
1) ecoterrorism,
2) conventional (ie. Islamist) terrorism, or
3) criminal gain.
My guess is the latter - a gang was attempting to steal at least a critical mass of weapons grade uranium for sale to bin Laden or his successor.
Next question: Was the breach actually stopped or did they successfully steal a bunch of uranium? I know if I were the South African authorities I would certainly not be admitting that a theft had occurred, at least in public.
#2
Another breach in Canada reported in Day of Islam of material for a dirty bomb should have set off alarms too. Coincidentally, nuclear medicine material is in short supply,delaying heart scans, and made only in Canada. AQ employee is suspected.
#4
is still unclear why the two groups of intruders sought to break into this particular facility.
Dumbass, they staged a diversion across the compound while their compatriots made the real breakin, (As any fool can plainly see, I can plainly see that (Hat tip to Three Stooges/Curly))
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/21/2007 14:09 Comments ||
Top||
#5
We had a van load of mooslimbs scoping out the Three Mile Island reactor after 9-11.
When you think about it each one of these reactors is one giant dirty bomb. Minimal security. Scary.
At least four Jamaat-e-Islami leaders were sued yesterday for allegedly cheating 55 people in the name of sending them for Hajj. They are Maulana Hafizur Rahman, Sadar upazila 'Shura' and working committee member, Satkhira Pourasava Ward No 8 party secretary Aminul Islam and Kalaroa upazila Jamaat leaders and Kalaroa Alia Madrasa teachers Sheikh Maruf Hossain and Amirul Islam Belali.
The complaints were lodged with Satkhira Deputy Commissioner (DC) Md Kefayetullah and Kalaroa police station, demanding their arrest and punishment.
It has been alleged that each of the 55 pilgrims deposited between Tk 170,000 to 190,000 with Jebrik Travels in Dhaka for going on pilgrimage to Makkah as per directives of the frauds. But they could not go to Makkah, they alleged.
Of the victims, Habibur Rahman, cousin Abdur Rouf, aunt Anowara Begum and mother Fatema Begum of Ghushuri village in Kaliganj upazila said to this correspondent that they had deposited Tk 9,50,000 with Satkhira Islami Bank through two Jamaat men. Other victims, Abu Taleb and Abdul Khaleque of Gunakarkati village and Amjad Hossain of Adalatpur village in Assassuni upazila and Abdur Rashid of Godara village in Kaliganj upazila also echoed in a similar manner.
Victims, Abdullahel Baki and his wife Arefa Khatun of Kalaroa Sadar and Romjan Ali of Tulshidanga village and others alleged each of them deposited Tk 190,000 to Sheikh Maruf Hossain and Amirul Islam Belali for going to go on pilgrimage to Makkah.
They alleged that the frauds took them to Dhaka on December 14 but they failed to send them to Makkah.
Earlier, owner of Jebrik Travels fled the scene following lodging of complaints against them with the Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) in Dhaka.
I'd flee the scene too if someone lodged a complaint against me with the RAB. It's flee or end up being frog-marched to a weapons-cache in an unnamed upazaila at 3 in the morning, and I already know how that ends ...
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2007 00:00 ||
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Two suspected al-Qa'ida operatives released from Guantanamo Bay walked free from court yesterday although they are still wanted in Spain in connection with terrorism-related offences.
One of the men, who is accused of distributing extremist propaganda produced by Osama bin Laden, had half of his £50,000 bail met by the Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave.
Jamil el-Banna (45), who was said during a brief court hearing yesterday to have helped run a cell called the Islamic Alliance, recruiting people to fight jihad in Afghanistan and Indonesia, returned to his London home last night.
Continued on Page 49
This article starring:
JAMIL EL BANNA
al-Qaeda
Melanie Cumberland, for the Crown Prosecution Service
#5
Well, we see which way the water is running in the merry mother country. We have the idiot Prince, the addled actress, and the fool who heads the Anglican church all turning Islamic. If the general populace doesn't rise up, like they have so often in their long history, their elites are going to sell them out to the turbans. Of course these elitist asses will be the first to have their heads roll after the takeover.
#7
In December 2002 Redgrave paid £50,000 bail for Chechen separatist Deputy Premier and special envoy Akhmed Zakayev, who had sought political asylum in the United Kingdom and was accused by the Russian government of aiding and abetting hostage-takings in the Moscow theater hostage crisis of 2002--in which 128 hostages lost their lives in a muzzie attack.
Now officially on the "Piss on Their Grave" world tour.
#10
Yes, I jest. She (and her friends) will blame the years of captivity for any misdeeds, assuming the targets of those misdeeds didn't have it coming for being white/male or Jewish or something.
#13
She does these public service announcements about cancer research and sounds all serious about "...refusing to die from (breast) cancer..." apparently the cancer that is islam doesn't concern her...
#15
Vanessa Redgrave goes in the misguided fool column. I guess she has never been mugged or had one of her family members murdered by one of these thugs.
Former Guantanamo terror prisoner David Hicks is a threat to Australia's national security and has to report regularly to police and stay indoors from midnight to dawn after he is released from prison next week, a magistrate ruled Friday...
#2
Didn't he admit to firing at Indian border guards from Pak positions in their portion of Kashmir?
Send him to India... even if the case gets dismissed, he'll spend 5-7 years locked up in remand.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/21/2007 13:47 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Hicks' father, Terry, said the conditions would be tough."All David Hicks wants to do is get back in the mainstream, get on his with life, get on with a job, try to get into a university," Terry Hicks told Southern Cross Broadcasting radio. "David has been under immense pressure for six years and now he's got another 12 months of pressure."
Fuck you, pops. According to you, he was on the verge of being a pineapple for the last four years. You're a bigger lyin bag of shit then he is...
#5
He gets an armchair ride from the Australian media. The local paper in his hometown, the Advertiser, published a "David Hicks timeline" yesterday, featuring all the bleating about torture in custody and so on. The timeline started on the day he was captured!
#7
The local paper in his hometown, the Advertiser, published a "David Hicks timeline" yesterday, featuring all the bleating about torture in custody and so on.
Well, if they're reporting that, then they're lying...
The plea bargain included a ban on him speaking to the media for one year, and agreement that if he made any money from selling his story the money would go to the Australian Government. He also agreed that he had "never been illegally treated by any persons in the control or custody of the United States".
Earlier yesterday, the chief prosecutor, Colonel Morris Davis, said that if Hicks's guilty plea was not genuine and was being offered only to escape Guantanamo Bay, that would be perjury. Hicks, who is said to have renounced Islam while in prison, took the oath before giving an explanation of behaviour, swearing to tell the truth "so help me God".
A study carried out by the German Ministry of the Interior showed that 40 percent of Muslims living in Germany have a 'fundamentally oriented' attitude to Islam. In other words they consider Islam more important than other religions or they believe armed struggle will take them to paradise. The Islam scientist Michael Kiefer had the following to say about the results of the study: "The statements of the school pupils questioned are indeed cause for concern. They revealed that a quarter of young Muslims feel extremely distanced from democracy. And their anti-Semitic prejudices are far more pronounced than in a comparison group of non-Muslims."
#1
You mean they move into Germany, pick up their unemployment check, and while laying about all day learn jihad instead of bratwurst and pilsner?
shocking.
Next they will tell me, "well, if we all just spoke the same language we would not have these miscommunications." and make aradic a mandatory school language.
Love the Germans, great breakfasts and sausages, beer....hey, wake TFU!
Is it laziness or their Iman says to bankrupt the country/cant work for infidels!!!!
Posted by: Paul ||
12/21/2007 10:55 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Someone should study why the children of Islamic immigrants tend to become radicalized. Or is it that a certain age group among Islamic peoples are becoming more radicalized worldwide.
Personally I think the Europeans are being a bit slow in addressing their problems and when they finally do it will be bloody and the Europeans will be racked with guilt for generations.
#5
* quarter of young Muslims feel extremely distanced from democracy.
Democraphobia? Judeophobia? Time for "cultural sensitivity & diversity training" for Muslims?
Or time for more Western attempts to mix iron
& clay in pursuit of multicultural delusion?
#6
Darth, it may start that way but if we learned one thing from the last couple of centuries is that the Europeans are very good at killing. Far better than the neighbors they fairly easily dominated when they had the will to do so.
#8
Far better than the neighbors they fairly easily dominated when they had the will to do so.
Will is no problem, when you have your back to the wall. Warm bodies, on the other hand... To make war, you need young folks, men in fighting age. Europeans are aging, childless (this is covered with a broad brush, but the trend is true). Time is NOT on their (our) side, if one looks at the violent outcome.
#9
To make war, you need young folks, men in fighting age.
Ummm, no, the draftees of WW2 were around 35, you would like to have young men, but the whole idea is to have MEN, (Women included here. Guts, not gender.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/21/2007 14:21 Comments ||
Top||
#10
To be political incorrect for a moment, the lions of Islam are pathetic fighters in a straight up fight. WW2 vets could defeat them if they didn't care about collateral damage.
#11
Exactly. This Klingon desert warrior crap plays well with the rubes but it is a piss poor fighting strategy. Real soldiers defeat them every time, easily. The Danish army could invade and occupy any muslim country on earth - including Iran and Indonesia - given the logistics and with the gloves off.
#12
It is a fundamental error to assume that Europe today is just the Europe of the past slumbering. They are vastly different, having lost a unifying culture, unifying religion, unifying sense of national identy, all the factors that create homogeneous national will. Consequently, under severe internal stess, it is increasingly likely to get a balkanized, fractured or even chaotic response. I think much of Europe, including the UK, is likely lost to Western Civilization.
It is a fundamental error to assume that Europe today is just the Europe of the past slumbering. They are vastly different, having lost a unifying culture, unifying religion, unifying sense of national identy, all the factors that create homogeneous national will.
Agree. Europe will burn within the next 15 years. There will be resistance, but to late to save Western Europe's cultural treasures.
#14
"The Danish army could invade and occupy any muslim country on earth - including Iran and Indonesia - given the logistics and with the gloves off."
Well, hell, #11 Ex - we can help them with the logistics part.... :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
12/21/2007 23:06 Comments ||
Top||
Munich prosecutors said Friday they have dropped an investigation of a German who was arrested earlier this year on suspicion of having recruited a fellow citizen for terrorism in Pakistan. The man, identified only as Tolga D., was arrested in August as he entered the country. Besides allegedly recruiting a German, he was accused of having distributed videos promoting jihad, or holy war.
Anton Winkler, a spokesman for Munich prosecutors, said he has now been released from custody after being fined for incitement over the videos. The rest of the investigation was dropped, he said, without elaborating.
Michael Murat Sertsoz, a lawyer for the suspect, said his client was "a small fish" and that German federal prosecutors, who pursue terrorism cases, had declined to take over the case. Sertsoz said that "the accusations against my client collapsed in on themselves," the weekly Focus reported.
Indian doctor Mohamed Haneef, whose work visa in Australia was cancelled in July even as he was granted bail in a case of terror charge that later collapsed, is now entitled to return and take up employment.
This was indicated by the new Immigration and Citizenship Minister Chris Evans in Perth, following a ruling by the full Bench of the Federal Court of Australia in Melbourne on Friday.
The three-judge Full Court dismissed with costs an appeal by Kevin Andrews, Immigration and Citizenship Minister in the Howard government that lost the general election last month.
Mr. Andrews, who annulled Dr. Haneefs visa in a character test under Australias Migration Act, filed this appeal against Federal Court judge Jeffrey Spenders order that in August set aside the visa cancellation.
The crux of the former Ministers argument was that Dr. Haneef, at the time of the character test, was found to have had an association with two second cousins, who were suspected to have been involved in terror plots in the United Kingdom.
On a separate track, the terrorism charge against him, which was dismissed by an Australian court in July, centred on his mobile phone SIM card that he left with one of his cousins in the U.K. before taking up a job in Queensland in 2006.
Upholding judge Spenders ruling that Mr. Andrews had misinterpreted the scope of the character test, Chief Justice Michael Black said: In a unanimous judgment, the Full Court has concluded that the association, to which Section 501(6)(b) of the Migration Act refers, is one involving some sympathy with, or support for, or involvement in the criminal conduct of the person, group, or organisation with which the visa holder is said to have associated. The association must be such as to have some bearing upon the persons character.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/21/2007 15:30 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
What hospital would take the risk of giving Dr. Haneef a job?
Pakistan's ISI and al-Qaeda have threatened to blow up the offices of the BJP's Assam unit and All Assam Students Union here and also to kill AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya.
A letter addressed to the BJP state unit's president, Ramen Kalita, by eight persons claiming to be ISI and al-Qaeda active members in Assam threatened "to bomb out the main BJP and AASU offices like the World Trade Centre (in USA). Your offer to (Bangladeshi writer) Taslima Nasreen to stay in Assam Is against Islam and its tenets. If you don't stop your activities immediately a powerful bomb will be exploded in your main office," cautioned the letter made available to the media on Friday.
The hand-written letter, in immigrant Bangladeshi style Assamese dated December 11 on plain paper and received by post yesterday, alleged that the BJP under Kalita's leadership was "resorting to mental and physical torture of local Muslims. Samujjal Bhattacharya's death is also certain for his activities as AASU advisor", the letter threatened.
WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush said on Thursday he was not satisfied with the central Iraqi governments record on reconciling the countrys rival sectarian groups and carrying out reforms, vowing to press for more progress.
Bush conceded Prime Minister Nuri al-Malikis government needed to do more work but insisted it is functioning and passing budgets when asked if US troop reinforcements this year had given it enough room to press ahead with reconciliation as well as political and economic reform. Your statement says security does not provide room for government to stand up and function, but it is happening. Therefore, we will continue to press them on these laws and power sharing with the central government and provinces and the oil lot, Bush told a White House press conference.
Key benchmarks Washington is using to measure progress in Iraq are the adoption of a law regulating the oil and gas industry, and a law allowing former members of Saddam Husseins Baath Party back into the government.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/21/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
US President George W. Bush said on Thursday he was not satisfied with the central Iraqi governments record on reconciling the countrys rival sectarian groups and carrying out reforms
#2
national reconciliation -- key for an eventual US withdrawal
-- remains elusive.
Behold one of the key errors that has shaped the viable yet disappointing trajectory of the Iraq operation. Dunno if it was mostly the mistaken and gullible acceptance of the Arab psywar concept that "occupation" was something that had to be avoided at all costs (i.e., don't bother about us folks, we're just passing through, really we are, honest). Or an even more inept effort to cater to impatience and irresponsibility at home. Either way, disastrous move.
And I've never been much impressed by this goat rope of pressing the Eye-rakis on a laundry list of Sunni US demands. The logical extension of this - explaining the Surge as merely an effort to create "space" for the Iraqis to jump through our hoops - was a mistake of Carter/Clinton dimensions. It seems that the public temperature in the US has cooled sufficiently in direct response to the security gains (uh, that is "security", for those at the NSC, DOD, and in the senior ranks who seem unclear on the concept - not "reconstruction" or "reconciliation") to keep the ship afloat.
The prez would have to answer questions about this issue anyway, but making it part of our actual declared strategy/policy was just short of idiotic.
We went to Iraq to advance vital national security interests, and of course we will always be the arbiter of success on that mission. Especially given our adoption of a weak occupation model, our only leverage on the Shi'a has always been the threat of abandonment - which of course produces precisely the opposite result to what we desire, both among them and the Sunnis.
BAGHDAD - The US military said on Thursday it was investigating the killing of an Iraqi policeman in what appeared to be a knife fight with a US Marine at a joint security station in the western Anbar province.
I'm told that it's generally a bad idea to get into a knife fight with a Marine ...
Major Jeff Pool, a spokesman for the US military in western Iraq, said the investigation was still at an early stage but the death appears to have resulted from an argument escalating into a physical altercation on December 17. He said in an e-mail statement that the policeman died of his wounds, while the Marine was taken to a military hospital. Both men received lacerations in the fight. The statement did not identify either man.
Pool said US military commanders met with tribal leaders in Anbar province to discuss the latest killing. He said both sides regret this incident and are working to assure incidents such as this do not occur in the future.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/21/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
I'm told that it's generally a bad idea to get into ANY fight with a Marine ...
There, fixed that for you.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/21/2007 14:16 Comments ||
Top||
The Navy this month completed its fourth conversion of a U.S. nuclear ballistic missile submarine into an extremely powerful, conventionally armed cruise missile launcher and covert transporter of U.S. special operations force.
The last converted missile sub the USS Georgia is now being readied for deployment around the world at its home port of Kings Bay, Ga., said skipper, Cmdr. Rodney E. Hutton.
The conversion of the nuclear missile submarines into Tomahawk-firing submarines is one element of a new Pentagon strategy of building up forces to be ready to counter any emerging threat from China.
Cmdr. Hutton said the Georgia will operate in the Pacific, as well as other oceans and can swap out its entire crew at Guam, a major strategic U.S. military hub in the Pacific.
In a telephone interview from the submarine, Cmdr. Hutton said the new Tomahawk submarines are "extraordinary force multipliers." Two of the submarines, each equipped with 154 long-range cruise missiles, can provide the same firepower as all the Tomahawk-firing ships in the 2003 Operation Enduring Freedom, as the Iraq invasion is called.
"I see the SSGN becoming one of premier platforms for any conflict today or in the future," said Cmdr. Hutton, using the Navy's term for nuclear-powered guided-missile submarines.
#4
beating swords into plowshares a lotta very sharp and accurate stilletos
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/21/2007 18:29 Comments ||
Top||
#5
"In the town where I was born,
Came a man who made the laws.
And he told us of his life,
In the legislative halls.
"So he sailed to Washington,
And he found a sea of green.
And he funneled some back here,
As the Trident Submarine.
"We all live off
The Trident Submarine,
Trident Submarine,
Trident Submarine...."
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
12/21/2007 19:18 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Ummm, "Air Torpedos" (Sounds good to me)Hope they can be launched submerged.
So much for the vaunted Russian "Supersonic Underwater Torpedo."
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/21/2007 19:20 Comments ||
Top||
#7
I am still hoping that we take one of the least in good condition Tridents and convert it to scientific research purposes. Either run by the US Navy, or the Office of Naval Research, which is much of a muchness, a "noisy boat" doing research could be worth billions or even trillions to the US.
The geological mapping alone would be worth a fortune. It could also map toxic and nuclear waste dump sites, or squirt enormous quantities of undersea concrete on them to entomb them.
The pure research would be great, too. Estimated operating cost would probably be $20-40M/ year, which is peanuts compared to what we could learn that nobody else could.
Thailand and Malaysia opened a bridge over their restive border on Friday, a new artery for commerce between relatively prosperous Malaysia and poor Muslim communities on the other side.
Muslims have been waging an insurgency against security forces on the Thai side of the border since January 2004, a conflict that has killed more than 2,600 people. Thailand and Malaysia say local economic development holds the key to peace.
"We are certain that the growth and prosperity in the border areas, and especially for the people in southern provinces of Thailand, will benefit not only Thailand but also Malaysia," Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said.
The Muslims of Narathiwat and surrounding Thai provinces are ethnic Malays, a minority in Thailand but the majority in Malaysia. They speak the same language and share the same religion as their kin living in peace over the border.
On the Thai side, there are almost daily gun and bomb attacks. Insurgents have usually aimed their attacks, including beheadings, on people associated with the Thai state, such as security forces, judges and even teachers. Since July, security forces have launched almost daily raids on suspected insurgent hideouts in villages and towns and have detained dozens of people without charge.
"Malaysia stands ready to give its full support and cooperation to the government of Thailand in its endeavour to find comprehensive solutions to the problems there and establish permanent peace in the area," Abdullah said. But bilateral relations have been strained at times over the insurgency.
Bangkok has in the past accused its neighbour of harbouring insurgents, who have waged a sporadic separatist rebellion ever since Thailand annexed the region a century ago, when the Muslim south was a sultanate.
MOSCOW - Russia dampened on Thursday Iranian hopes of an imminent launch of the Bushehr nuclear power station Moscow is building in the Islamic republic, saying it would not be launched earlier than the end of 2008.
A spokeswoman for the Russian contractor on the flagship project, Atomstroiexport, confirmed that it would take at least a year to start the power station. We can predict that the Bushehr station will be launched no earlier than the end of 2008 due to the current situation, Irina Yesipova told AFP.
On Tuesday the deputy head of Irans atomic energy organisation, Mohammad Saeedi, said he hoped the 1,000 megawatt plant in the southern city of Bushehr could come on line within three months at up to 200 megawatts before being cranked up to full capacity nine months later.
Yesipova said the Russian timeframe was not a question of delays, but of the amount of time needed to deliver fuel and carry out tests on the station. Yesipova said it would take nearly two months to complete the delivery of nuclear fuel to Bushehr. Six months after that tests would start on launching the station itself, she said.
I wouldn't short-cut the testing, Mahmoud, given Russian quality and all. Of course, this raises all sorts of interesting possibilities for a sneaky, quiet CIA, assuming we had one of those handy ...
Six months after the end of deliveries of fuel we will start tests with the fuel. When the tests are successfully completed we can launch the station. I cant say how long the tests will last. A deviation from the schedule risks having a negative effect on the security of the power station, she said.
Referring to the Iranian sides expectations of a faster launch, she said the official who made this statement was probably not appraised of the technical issues. There is a technical schedule of work and we cannot deviate from it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/21/2007 00:00 ||
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French President Nicolas Sarkozy has warned of "confrontations" if Lebanese presidential elections were not held on Saturday, giving Syria a "last chance" to comply with his demands. Al Hayat daily said Wednesday that Sarkozy told Arab reporters in Paris he has held three telephone conversations with Syrian President Bashar Assad to push him into facilitating the election of a Lebanese head of state. Sarkozy said he was "from now on" waiting for "deeds" and not just "words and promises."
The French president also announced that he has asked Assad to "use his influence for the election of a president in Lebanon" and stressed the "importance of delaying discussion of the formation of a cabinet until after the elections."
Sarkozy said he warned Assad that he will have to reveal details about the obstruction of the parliamentary session scheduled for Saturday if the legislature failed to meet again. "The last chance is Saturday. If there was no election, I will reveal my analysis to what has happened," Sarkozy told Assad, warning that "confrontations could erupt again and two (competing) governments could be formed."
Fears are already running high that failure to meet Saturday's deadline could spur the formation of two governments, a grim reminder of the end of Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war when two competing administrations battled it out.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2007 00:00 ||
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U.S. President George W. Bush said on Thursday his patience with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had run out long ago. "Syria needs to stay out of Lebanon," Bush told a White House news conference when asked whether he would be willing talk to Assad about stabilizing Lebanon, which is caught up in a political crisis.
The Bush administration has tried to isolate Damascus diplomatically, though Syria sent representatives to a U.S.-hosted Israeli-Palestinian peace conference last month in Annapolis, Maryland. "My patience ran out on President Assad a long time ago," Bush said. "The reason why is because he houses Hamas, he facilitates Hezbollah, suiciders go from his country into Iraq and he destabilizes Lebanon," Bush said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2007 00:00 ||
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Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem criticized on Thursday the United States in the Lebanese presidential crisis, accusing it of allegedly blocking Syrian and French efforts to end the deadlock that has paralyzed Lebanon. The remarks by Moallem followed a visit to Lebanon by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch, who this week accused Lebanon's Hezbollah-led opposition of obstructing the vote for the country's top post. Moallem's comments reflected consistent Damascus support for the Hezbollah-led opposition in the neighboring country.
The Syrian official, speaking to reporters in Damascus, also expressed regret over what he described as failure of the French mediators in Lebanon to distance themselves from the American stand. Lebanon has been without a president since Nov. 23, when Emile Lahoud stepped down without a successor. The sharply divided Lebanese parliament is expected again -- for the tenth time -- to try Saturday to elect a president, but prospects are unlikely because of a lack of agreement between rival groups.
The latest crisis follows a yearlong political struggle between anti-Syrian politicians who support U.S.-backed Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and hold a slim majority in parliament, and the opposition, led by Hezbollah, which has strong ties to Iran and Syria.
Moallem said Syria and France, whose foreign minister has been mediating among the Lebanese, both support the choice for Army Commander Michel Suleiman as a consensus presidential candidate the rival sides agreed on. He claimed Damascus and Paris had also agreed that Suleiman's election in parliament should be followed by the formation of a national unity government.
Moallem said Welch's comments earlier in the week in Beirut ``confirm that America does not support consensus and instead wants there to be a conqueror and vanquished in Lebanon.''
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2007 00:00 ||
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Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem on Thursday brushed off criticism leveled at his country by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, claiming that Syria was actively trying to solve Lebanon's political crisis.
Army Radio reported that Moallem, in a press briefing in Damascus, said that his country fulfilled a positive role. He expressed hope that Presidential elections would be held in Lebanon soon, but added that, ultimately, the decision on when to hold the vote was in Lebanon's hands.
On Wednesday, Sarkozy stated that he was "reaching the end of the road" with Syrian President Bashar Assad and demanded action from the Syrian leader.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2007 00:00 ||
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Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem also submitted that the present selecion of Syria-sponsored sock puppets is satisfactory and there is really no need to worry that the election may go out of hand.
Lebanese TV aired a video recording of a Hizbullah operative being held in an Israeli prison. In the clip, which was aired on Channel 1 Thursday evening, the operative, Khader Ahmed Mohammed Zaidan, said that he is hoping for a deal that will facilitate the release of himself and his friends. "The movie is being released for the holiday and its purpose is to apply psychological pressure on Hizbullah," a Lebanese broadcaster says in the background of the footage.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/21/2007 00:00 ||
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VIENNA: Syria received a letter purportedly written by the head of the same nuclear black market that supplied Iran and Libya with its atomic technology but did not respond, President Bashar Assad said in comments published yesterday. "We just forwarded the letter to our iranian puppetmasters, who were much pleased to buy an off-the-self nuke. Wait, did I said that outloud?".
Mr Assad's comments appeared to be the first time that a senior Syrian official had linked the country to Abdul Qadeer Khan, the top Pakistani scientist who was exposed in 2004 as the head of an international black market in nuclear technology.
Mr Assad also told Austrian daily Die Presse that the target hit by Israeli combat jets in September was not a nuclear site, describing it only as a "military facility in the process of being built". "Really."
Israel has kept silent on what it thought it was targeting in the strike, but media reports have cited unnamed US officials and analysts saying it was a North Korea-style nuclear reactor.
Former UN nuclear inspector David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, subsequently circulated commercial satellite images taken before and after the Israeli raid that he saidsupported suspicions the target was indeed a reactor and that the site was given a hasty clean-up by the Syrians to remove incriminating evidence.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, which looked at its own set of images, has said nothing publicly about them, but diplomats linked to the agency have said they were too grainy to draw firm conclusions.
Yesterday, one of the diplomats said the Syrians had not reacted to agency requests for more information.
Khan's network was the key supplier of both Iran and Libya.
Mr Assad said that in early 2001, "someone brought a letter from a certain Khan". "Khaaaaaannnn!"
"We didn't know whether the letter was real or a fake from the Israelis who wanted to entice us into a trap. In any case, we turned it down," he said. "We had no interest in nuclear weapons or a nuclear reactor. We never met with Khan."
Libya has voluntarily scrapped its nuclear arms program since acknowledging its existence in 2003.
Iran has admitted to being a Khan customer of know-how and equipment but insists it wants to perfect the technology only for generating reactor fuel.
Posted by: anonymous5089 ||
12/21/2007 12:53 ||
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Is there anybody (except India, Israel, US of course) whom Khan didn't peddle his Chinese blueprints to ?
Posted by: john frum ||
12/21/2007 13:48 Comments ||
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I think it's safe to say:
Taiwan
Japan
South Korea
The Phillipines
Australia
Columbia
and last but not least
Malta
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.
At least four Jamaat-e-Islami leaders were sued yesterday for allegedly cheating 55 people in the name of sending them for Hajj. They are Maulana Hafizur Rahman, Sadar upazila 'Shura' and working committee member, Satkhira Pourasava Ward No 8 party secretary Aminul Islam and Kalaroa upazila Jamaat leaders and Kalaroa Alia Madrasa teachers Sheikh Maruf Hossain and Amirul Islam Belali.
Former Guantanamo terror prisoner David Hicks is a threat to Australia's national security and has to report regularly to police and stay indoors from midnight to dawn after he is released from prison next week, a magistrate ruled Friday...
WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush said on Thursday he was not satisfied with the central Iraqi governments record on reconciling the countrys rival sectarian groups and carrying out reforms, vowing to press for more progress.
MOSCOW - Russia dampened on Thursday Iranian hopes of an imminent launch of the Bushehr nuclear power station Moscow is building in the Islamic republic, saying it would not be launched earlier than the end of 2008.
VIENNA: Syria received a letter purportedly written by the head of the same nuclear black market that supplied Iran and Libya with its atomic technology but did not respond, President Bashar Assad said in comments published yesterday.
