International forces in Afghanistan have mismanaged the fight against the Taliban, leading to a rise in violence, and now risk losing people's goodwill, President Hamid Karzai told an Indian news channel.
You're welcome, Hamid.
Karzai has often criticised the Western conduct of the war in Afghanistan, saying civilian casualties must stop. In turn, the president, who wants to stand for re-election next year, is often criticised at home for being overly influenced by the United States and Britain.
Trying to run as an outsider, is he ...
In an interview to be aired on Indian television on Monday, he said foreign troops had failed to go after "the sanctuaries of the terrorists" which Afghan officials say exist over the border in Pakistan.
Karzai did not directly mention Pakistan but the Afghan government has said that the West should have done more to crack down on Taliban and al Qaeda bases in Pakistan. "It was a serious neglect of that, in spite of our warning," he told CNBC TV 18, adding that other former members of the Taliban who had given up arms were unfairly hunted down within Afghan territory.
"Some of the Taliban who have laid down their arms, who are living in the Afghan villages peacefully, who have accepted Afghanistan's new order, they were chased, they were hunted for no reason, and they were forced to flee the country."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
Good Taliban help Karzai's fellow Pashtos cultivate the opium/heroin industry.
#4
Listen twit, remember who brought you to the dance. You'd still be in Fremont, Ca. if we didn't need a puppet. Our "mistake" is in not exterminating more of your "civilians". All Talibunnies are civilians. Let them put on a fluorescent orange bunny suit so we know where the targets are. We'll take them out in one week, no problemo. Don't tell us you've been subverted. There may be an accident in your future. Other dancing puppets can be had.
The UN Security Council was set Monday to adopt a resolution empowering states to send warships into Somalia's territorial waters with the government's consent to combat piracy and armed robbery at sea. The French-US text, under discussion since late April and amended at the request of Indonesia, was expected to receive unanimous support from the council's 15 members later in the day, according to diplomats traveling in east Africa as part of a council delegation.
The agreement came after the sponsors reached a compromise with Indonesia last Friday ensuring that the anti-piracy drive would specifically target lawless Somalia.
Indonesia had raised concerns that measures adopted to tackle piracy off the Somali coast should not set a precedent for international intervention in its own piracy-prone waters.
Why not ...
The waters off Somalia -- which has not had an effective central government for more than 17 years and is plagued by insecurity -- are considered to be among the most dangerous in the world.
The draft would give a six-month mandate to states cooperating with Somalia's transitional government (TFG) in fighting piracy to "enter the territorial waters of Somalia for the purposes of repressing acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea."
The states must do so "in a manner consistent with such action permitted on the high seas with respect to piracy under relevant international law," it added, while the TFG must provide advance notification of such action to the UN secretary general.
The draft also urges states whose naval vessels and military aircraft operate on the high seas and in airspace off the coast of Somalia "to increase and coordinate their efforts to deter acts of piracy and armed robbery at sea in cooperation with the TFG."
It also calls on them to cooperate with interested organizations, including the International Maritime Organization, to ensure that "vessels entitled to fly their flag receive appropriate guidance and training on avoidance, evasion, and defensive techniques and to avoid the area whenever possible."
The text, which cites Chapter Seven of the UN Charter invoked in cases of threats to international peace and security, also urges all states "to render assistance to vessels threatened by or under attack by pirates or armed robbers, in accordance with relevant international law."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
also urges all states "to render assistance to vessels threatened by or under attack by pirates or armed robbers, in accordance with relevant international law."
Sorry, Our ships can't go that far, we're low on oil, Talk to the folks closer, such as the Saudis.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/03/2008 16:07 Comments ||
Top||
Somalia's opposition alliance on Monday ruled out direct peace talks with the country's transitional government unless it sets a timetable for the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops.
Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, however, at a separate meeting with the United Nations Security Council, said the Ethiopian force backing his fragile government would not leave until fighting stops and a U.N. peacekeeping force is deployed.
Leaders of the Security Council delegation were upbeat about their talks with both parties, but the comments by the government and opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia made clear that there is still a wide gap that must be bridged before a peace process can be launched.
The 15-member council came to neighboring Djibouti to encourage the Somalian government and the opposition alliance, which is based in Eritrea, to hold direct talks to end 18 years of violence and conflict. Somalia has been in a state of anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, and violence has escalated.
Britain's U.N. ambassador John Sawers, who is co-leading the mission, has said the council is concerned over the threat to a fragile 2005 peace agreement that ended Sudan's 21-year civil war between the Arab-dominated government in the north and southern rebels.
The Somali government delegation and the U.N. had been hoping for a face-to-face session between the two parties.
Somalia's Information Minister Ahmed Abdisalan said the government wants an agreement to stop all hostilities and start a dialogue on peace.
"I am willing to do whatever it takes to promote peace and stability in Somalia," said President Yusuf, who was the target of a mortar attack by Islamic insurgents as he was leaving for Djibouti on Sunday.
Abdulrahman Abdishakur Warsane, vice-chairman of the opposition alliance known by its initials, ARS, said: "We told the Security Council that the ARS is ready for peace and we are committed for peace." But he stressed that the Ethiopian presence was the main obstacle to peace.
Regional countries mediated an agreement on a transitional government in 2004, but it remains very weak. The countries called in troops from neighboring Ethiopia in December 2006 to oust Islamic militants who had control of the capital and most of southern Somalia.
Despite their ouster, the Islamic insurgents remain a potent and disruptive force in the country and a continuing threat to Yussuf's government, which is backed by both the European Union and the United States. The insurgents are not participating in the meetings in Djibouti.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic Courts
Islamic extremists could escape prosecution and instead receive therapy and counselling under new Government plans to "deradicalise" religious fanatics.
The Home Office is to announce an extra £12.5 million to support new initiatives to try to stop extremism spreading. The central element of the Home Office plan is a new national "deradicalisation" programme that would persuade converts to violent and extremist causes to change their views.
Controversially, the new plan makes clear that people who fall under the influence of violent organisations will not automatically face prosecution. Instead, the presumption should be that some such individuals would face therapy and counselling from community groups instead of criminal charges.
Documents being distributed to local councils explain that many people who get drawn into extremism have often suffered some sort of personal trauma or crisis that makes them vulnerable to exploitation.
"We do not want to put through the criminal justice system those who are vulnerable to, or are being drawn into, violent extremism unless they have clearly committed an offence," a Home Office report says. "It is vital that individuals and communities understand this and have the confidence to use the support structures that we shall be developing."
Most of the new funding will be set aside for grants to community groups that challenge the messages of violent extremists should be supported. The plan includes a suggestion that local councils should map their areas religion, surveying and recording the faiths and denominations of local residents. It's not profiling if the government does it. /s But consider the benefits - if the "faith-based" surveys are Google-mapped, then every Brit and tourist can safely skirt the "no-go" zones". Allahu Akhbar!
New guidelines for councils say: "A deeper understanding of local communities should be developed to help inform and focus the programme of action - this may include mapping denominational backgrounds and demographic and socio-economic factors." What I'm sayin'
Why not just put religious denomination on the Brit passports like the Paks do?
The Home Office has told councils they must be prepared to ask police to vet anyone involved in projects that receive government anti-radicalisation funding. If a group is found to be promoting violent extremism, local agencies and the police should consider disrupting or removing funding, and deny access to public facilities, the document added. So the press can't call the funding "payola".
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said: "A key element of our strategy aims to stop people getting involved in extremist violence.
"We are investing at local level to build resilient communities, which are equipped to confront violent extremism and support the most vulnerable individuals." Riiiight ...
FRANCE'S 1960s screen icon Brigitte Bardot has received a 15,000 euros ($24,440) fine today for inciting hatred against Muslims. In December 2006, the film star-turned-animal rights activist wrote a letter to France's then interior minister, current President Nicolas Sarkozy, arguing that Muslims should stun animals before slaughtering them during the Aid al-Kabir holiday.
She outraged anti-racist groups by saying: "I've had enough of being led by the nose by this whole population which is destroying us, (and) destroying our country by imposing their ways.''
Ms Bardot, now 73 and suffering from arthritis, was absent from today's court hearing in Paris. She wrote to the court saying: "I'm sickened by how (these organisations) are harassing me.''
"I will not shut up until stunning is carried out on animals before their ritual slaughter."
Ms Bardot already has four convictions on similar charges. In 2004 she was fined 5,000 euros ($8,145) for inciting racial hatred in her book Un Cri Dans le Silence (A Cry in the Silence).
France is home to Europe's largest Muslim community, estimated at five million people.
#2
Notice that Ms Bardot was not complaining that the Muslims kill and threaten to kill people. She, like many animal activists, was more concerned that they did not kill animals "humanely". She is not concerned that Islam is replacing Christianity in Europe, she is concerned that these foreigners are using "primitive" methods to kill animals.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
06/03/2008 12:40 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Racism huh? BTW, what Race are Muslims again?
#6
Notice that Ms Bardot was not complaining that the Muslims kill and threaten to kill people. She, like many animal activists, was more concerned that they did not kill animals "humanely". She is not concerned that Islam is replacing Christianity in Europe, she is concerned that these foreigners are using "primitive" methods to kill animals.
Nope, nope, nope, she's quite concerned with that, and has taken some serious flak for having said that open out loud (on teevee, for example), but the animals rights is her angle, because it's her thing, I guess.
Note that she's always been quite rightwing, even in her youth, and she's been married to a National Front bigshot; the LGF-aligned Dissident Frogman (who does a great job nonetheless) even had a post a few weeks back, where he said one shouldn't support BB too much, because, well, she was and is a racist.
#7
Here is an article on BB before the world went crazy on political correctness.
France's Bardot Denounces Muslim 'Invasion' (Reuters, 10:28am EDT, 4/26/96)
PARIS - Brigitte Bardot, sex icon turned animal rights activist, said Friday she might be forced to emigrate because France had too many Muslim immigrants.
Bardot's column in the conservative newspaper Le Figaro denounced immigrants in unusually virulent terms, highlighting her long campaign against the Muslim ritual slaughter of sheep.
Labeling herself "a Frenchwoman of old stock," the film star pointed to her grandfather and father's battles against German invaders in two world wars, and to her own rejection of lucrative Hollywood offers during her "cinematic glory."
Bardot wrote: "And now my country, France, my homeland, my land, is with the blessing of successive governments again invaded by a foreign, especially Muslim, over-population to which we pay allegiance." "We have to submit against our will to this Muslim overflow. From year to year, we see mosques flourish across France, while our churchbells fall silent because of a lack of priests," added Bardot, who is married to a supporter of the extreme-right National Front
which campaigns on an anti-immigrant platform.
Bardot, who has given her name and support to an animal protection foundation, repeated in gory prose her condemnation of Muslim heep-slaughtering rituals during the "atrocious" Aid-el-Kebir feast of the sacrifice. "Tens of thousands of poor beasts whose throats are slit...with blades that are more or less sharpened, by clumsy 'sacrificers' who have to repeat their gesture several times, while kids splashed with blood bathe in this magma of terror, of blood
squirting from badly-slit jugulars," she wrote.
Bardot has in the past attacked the celebration of the feast in France by more than two million Muslims, mostly North African Arab immigrants. Leaders of France's Muslim community have hit back, saying her attack was politically-motivated.
After quoting 19th century novelist Emile Zola on the love humans owe to animals, Bardot threatened to go into exile unless authorities acted on her
grievances. "Could I be forced in the near future to flee my country which has turned into a bloody and violent country, to turn expatriate, to try and find elsewhere, by myself becoming an emigrant, the respect and esteem which we are
alas refused daily?."
Three years ago, the screen legend had said that the extreme right-wing views of the man she married in 1992 could cause the break-up of their marriage, her fourth. "I argue with Bernard (d'Ormale), I find the National Front too extremist...I would've been better off falling in love with a shoe salesman," she said.
Bardot abruptly ended her film career in 1972 and has since devoted herself nearly full-time to animal welfare causes.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/03/2008 18:43 Comments ||
Top||
#9
I recall seeing "And God Created Woman" when I was in college. Don't ask me what it was about. I understand there was a re-make in 1988 with Rebecca De Mornay--the hooker from Risky Business.
COLUMBUS, Ohio-- Documents filed with the US District Court in Columbus today, indicate that Christopher Paul has agreed to plead guilty to a charge of Conspiracy to Use Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Paul, born Christopher Kenyatta Laws, grew up in Worthington, OH. He is accused of conspiring with convicted terrorists Iyman Faris and Nouradin Abdi to use Weapons of Mass Destruction against tourists in Germany.
Christopher Paul is expected to plead guilty on Tuesday at Noon. According to court documents there is no minimum penalty for the crime. The maximum penalty Paul could face is life in prison, a $250,000 alternative fine, 5 years supervised release, and a $100 special assessment.
This article starring:
Christopher Kenyatta Laws
Christopher Paul
Iyman Faris
Nouradin Abdi
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The maximum penalty Paul could face is life in prison, a $250,000 alternative fine, 5 years supervised release, and a $100 special assessment or an Obama Presidential pardon in 2009.
An American lawyer pleaded on Monday for the Pakistan government to intervene on behalf of a prisoner being held at the U.S. detention centre at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Zachary Katznelson, a senior counsel for Reprieve, a charity that campaigns for prisoners facing injustice, made the plea on behalf of Saifullah Paracha, a 60-year-old Karachi-based businessman, who has been held in detention for almost 5 years.
Suspected of having contacts with al Qaeda, Paracha was detained in Bangkok in July 2003 and taken to Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan, before being transferred to Guantanamo Bay in 2004. "High-level political intervention is the only hope for Mr. Paracha to receive justice," Katznelson told a news conference in Karachi.
The lawyer said he had met Paracha several times at Guantanamo. "Mr Paracha, who is suffering from heart disease, is kept in a steel-made cell for 22 hours. Only two hours he is taken outside in a bigger cage. This is what the Americans call recreation for him," said Katznelson.
Katznelson said Paracha's case has been pending in U.S. courts for more than three years because of delay in proceedings sought by U.S. authorities.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
Taliban-related militancy is on the rise in Nowshera district of NWFP as music shop owners and private educational institutions having the co-education system are receiving threatening phone calls and letters.
Home to three cantonments of Nowshera, Risalpur and Cherat, Nowshera is reckoned among the most peaceful and developed areas in the NWFP. However, the district, bordering with the restive Darra Adam Khel area, has been witnessing terror activities since late 2007. The blowing up of a second CD shop in the Ziarat Kaka Sahib in less than a month has triggered a wave of panic among locals who complain about increasing Taliban activities in nearby hills.
Militants blew up a CD shop in the bus stand area of Ziarat Kaka Sahib on May 31. A similar explosion occurred at a cassette shop in Kaka Sahibs main market on May 6. The shop owner, Shah Sawar, had received threatening letters asking him to wind up his business, locals said.
Local journalist Sohail Kakakhail told Daily Times that Taliban activity had also been reported from a nearby Bahadur Khel village.
No Taliban: Nowshera District Police Officer Yameen Khan, however, ruled out the presence of Taliban in the area. He said that a special investigation team had been formed to investigate blasts at CD shops in Ziarat Kaka Sahib. About the deployment of the Frontier Constabulary in some areas, he said it was meant to improve the security situation.
Residents said threatening letters were also sent to a school in Kaka Sahib, being run by the Workers Welfare Board. An official at the school said threatening letters and telephone calls were received a few months back. He said the caller told the school administration to ask its female staffers to wear veils and make separate arrangements for male and female students.
The official said that school Principal Col (r) Rashid called police and investigation was launched, but no progress was made. Militant activities have also been reported in the area in the past.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
Baitullah Mehsuds jaunty appearance at a press conference in South Waziristan underscores the wide latitude Pakistans government has granted the militants under a new series of peace deals, and its impact in Afghanistan, where and American commanders say cross-border attacks have surged since March, says a report published in the New York Times on Monday.
The report claimed that the impunity of Mehsuds behaviour has outraged the Bush administration, which is pressing the Pakistani government to arrest and prosecute him.
Reluctant: Bringing Baitullah Mehsud, the head of this extremist group in South Waziristan capturing him and bringing him to justice, which is what should happen to him, is what the United States wants from Pakistan, John Negroponte, the US deputy secretary of State, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month. But the Pakistani government, which at times has considered Mehsud an ally and is now fearful of his power, appears reluctant to hunt him down.
Days before his news conference, Pakistani forces pulled back from South Waziristan as part of the peace deals. American and Pakistani officials accuse Mehsud of masterminding the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister, in December and sending scores of suicide bombers in Pakistan and in Afghanistan, while forging a symbiotic relationship with Al Qaeda on Pakistans frontier, the report pointed out.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
ION TOPIX > THE NASRALLAH SPEECH: HEZBOLLAH RULED [and RULES!], THE WEST IS FOOLED. Massive WAR OF IDEAS = PROPANGANDA CAMPAIGN has begun.
#4
So the next time he shows at a "press conference", whack his ass with a Predator. And don't worry about killing a few "journalists" along with him, there's plenty more where they came from...
The uproar over the 2005 publication of Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad may have faded in the West, but analysts believe angry Islamic militants may still be seeking revenge.
The attack occurred more than two years after cartoons first appeared in Denmark caricaturing the Prophet Mohammad, sparking outrage in the Muslim world. Islamic precepts prohibit any depiction of the founder of their religion, much less a caricature. Denmark has faced renewed terrorist threats since several Danish newspapers reprinted one of the caricatures in February.
Christine Fair, a South Asia analyst for the RAND Corporation, says the controversy over the cartoons may have faded in some areas, but not in Pakistan. "Here in the West, these things spike and then they taper off. In other words, there's a lot of media interest, then everyone forgets about them," she said. "I'm struck when I go to Pakistan that there is just constant anger over the cartoons, and it's not something people have forgotten. Just because it's out of our media cycle doesn't mean that it's out of theirs."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
The United States is turning up the heat in the hunt for the California boy turned al Qaeda operative, Adam Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. If caught and convicted, Gadahn could face the death penalty.
The State Department along with the Department of Diplomatic Security announced the beginning of a publicity campaign in Afghanistan urging locals to provide any information on Gadahn's whereabouts, with a reward if the information leads to his capture.
Radio advertisements with information concerning the $1 million reward have already begun airing. Additionally, printed materials including matchbooks, handbills and posters will be distributed throughout the region in the coming weeks in attempts to elicit cooperation from members of the Afghan community. "As the first person charged with treason against the United States since World War II, the capture of Adam Gadahn is a high priority for the Justice Department. This man has advocated the overthrow of the United States government and applauded the murder of United States citizens. He deserves to be prosecuted, and I hope this new campaign will help bring him to justice," said United States Attorney Thomas P. O'Brien.
Gadahn, a native of Orange County, was charged with treason in 2006 after he became a leading propagandist for Osama bin Laden, appearing frequently in al Qaeda videos calling for attacks on America. He's believed to report directly to bin Laden's right-hand man, Ayman al Zawahri.
Gadahn, a one-time heavy-metal music fanatic, converted to Islam as a teenager. He first surfaced in an al Qaeda video in 2004, using the nom de guerre "Azzam the American." He spoke perfect English and warned, "The streets of America shall run red with blood."
In addition to his propaganda role, Gadahn is believed to be helping al Qaeda with English translations and understanding American culture and vulnerabilities.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
I can see him working the C carney midways in about 10 years.
Posted by: George Smiley ||
06/03/2008 0:20 Comments ||
Top||
#4
If caught and convicted, Gadahn could face the death penalty.
yea right..
What in a military Tribune? Fat Chance...
All Lawyers [including Judges] are absolutely TONE DEAF.
They are deaf, dumb and blind to the fact that decent AMERICANS hate our justice system, especially when applied on notorious fuck-sticks like Adam Gadahn.
The trials are excruciatingly long.
The results are excruciatingly twisted.
Perhaps most excruciating of all is watching them turn into show trials where every Liberal shit-stain attacks the WOT and our Armed Services..
What the Legal Establishment doesn't get or refuses to recognize is that what passes for "justice" satisfies the Citizens like a 10 second dry hump after 10 months of begging like hell.
>:>
#5
I'm pretty sure that Adam won't go down without a fight, requiring Coalition forces to implement self defense measures. Until it's absolutely certain that he will in no way resist apprehension again. Ever.
Posted by: ed ||
06/03/2008 7:22 Comments ||
Top||
#8
the capture of Adam Gadahn is a high priority for the Justice Department.
Hah, since when has the 'Justice' Dept. been involved in the capture of personnel on an active battlefield? I suspect that power and authority is over in a different Executive department. It appears that the boys at Justice didn't get the news. Since when can remains DNA be put on trial? And who's allocation of 72 virgins was he?
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/03/2008 15:08 Comments ||
Top||
#12
US "intelligence" finally figured out that he's probably dead, and this is the only way they can think of to get a confirmation. If he doesn't get turned in, they can assume he's titzup. Brilliant!
(AKI) - Denmark called an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday after a suicide car bombing outside its embassy in the Pakistani capital Islamabad.
At least eight people died and around 30 others were injured in the blast, which damaged the embassy and left a huge crater in the road outside the building. Danish media reports said a Pakistani cleaner at the embassy died and three other Pakistani employees were wounded.
No Danes were injured in the attack, the Danish foreign ministry said. But it issued a warning to its citizens against travelling to Pakistan.
No Danes were injured in the attack, the Danish foreign ministry said. But it issued a warning to its citizens against travelling to Pakistan.
Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, blamed the attack on 'dark forces' that want to destroy Pakistan's relationship with others. "We will not give them that victory," he said at a media conference in Copenhagen. He said the relationship between the Danish and Pakistani governments remained strong and that the bombing was also an attack against Pakistan's government. The minister said that both governments were working together to find out who was responsible for the attack. "It is terrible that terrorists commit such acts," he said.
Denmark had downgraded the embassy and transferred many of its staff in recent months, after threats arising from the reprinting of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed in Danish media The attack on the Danish embassy also damaged the nearby home of the Australian defence attache, but the Australian government says no one there was hurt
This article starring:
Per Stig Moeller
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Jhangvi
The cross-border strikes of the United States-led coalition forces in Afghanistan are killing civilians in Pakistans Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Chairman (CJCSC) General Tariq Majid has said.
Majid was addressing the participants of 7th Shangri-La Dialogue organised in Singapore by the London-based International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS). The general said the strikes incited vengeance of tribesmen and created the perception that the war on terror was in fact anti Islam.
Yup. They're just peaceful primitives. They were well-disposed toward all the world until we started breaking things for no reason.
He stressed that notwithstanding tactical and operational successes both inside Afghanistan and by Pakistan, the strategic goal of security stabilisation has remained elusive. The security situation has become more tenuous as the challenges to domestic and regional stability have increased manifold, the CJCSC added.
This article starring:
General Tariq Majid
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
Sorta matches the cross border strikes out of the Pak tribal areas that have killed Afghan civilians, women and children hit hardest. The general needs a lesson in basic Cause>Effect analysis.
This is being discussed as "rumor" on some Milblog sites. H/T Greyhawk via Major John who simply stated, "Very interesting. In the near future, I will probably be able to explain why... I might be out of the loop for a few days, traveling and all that."
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Well I guess enough people are openly discussing this now in Baghdad that its okay for me to write about it. Mind you, all the following is classified under the category of gossip:
The Iraqi Army and the Marines are preparing for a major campaign against Mahdi Army and Iranian targets in Maysan Province (Amara). Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki may even put the entire elected leadership of Amaramany of whom are Sadristsout of a job, by flexing his authority under emergency powers. There is even talk of air strikes against military targetsweapons depots, transportation vehicles and individualson the Iranian side of the fence; these are targets that are arming and otherwise supporting the Special Groups throughout Iraq.
Irans logistics trail goes from Maysan through southern Babil/Hillah Province (al-Hamza) and from there into central Iraq, i.e. Baghdad. Theres another route also going from Maysan into Qurnah and then onto Basra. The southern route has been effectively crippled. And the last stretch of the northern route that used to take weapons from south-western Baghdad all around to Sadr City has also been shut down.
Mind you, the information is murky and sometimes contradictory. For example, it seems that Iran has denied entry to several top ranking Special Groups and Mahdi Army commanders that only a few months ago Iran was playing host to. As a consequence, theres been a glut of high-level and mid-level Sadrists bidding their time in Amara.
Now, Maysan is a weird place: even after draining the marshes in the early 1990s, Saddam could not claim full control of the province. And ever since the late 1980s, Irans Revolutionary Guards has maintained forward bases deep inside Iraqi territory, such as ones around the town of Al-Mijerr al-Kabir. Iraqi opposition groups were active in these areas right up to the fall of the regime. Furthermore, Iran had a large recruiting pool among Marsh Arab refugees who lived in camps almost right across the border.
The talked-about airstrikes would take out forward Iranian border stations that have recently been moved into Iraqi territory, especially around oil fields. Then there are weapons depots of rockets, advanced RPGs and assorted weaponry right near the border ( on the Iranian side, though) that are on the target list, as well as buildings and Iranian individuals involved in facilitating logistics for the SGs, also on the Iranian side.
Although this has gone largely unreported, but US airstrikes were busily taking out Iranian trucks smuggling arms through Maysan within the first three weeks after Operation Cavalry Charge. Im not sure, but some Iranian citizens may have been killed as a result. The new target list is a stepped-up extension of this bombing trend. It would also break the taboo over launching bombing runs against nuclear and terrorist facilities deeper into Iranian territory.
Of course, this is all still in preparation phase. It is unclear whether the Iraqis and Americans will go through with all or any of it. And given that its all out in the open, it could be US PSY-OPS to scare the Iranians away from backing the SGs.
But arrest warrants for Maysan officials are being prepared, and intelligence is being gathered about other Sadrist leaders who have gone into hiding there.
I expect the battle for Maysan to be difficult: this would be Irans last stand in Iraq. The fighting would also be occurring on topographical and human terrain that the Iranians have been studying and cultivating for decades. It could start incrementally, and the ante could be raised as the operation faces increased resistance, eventually leading to bombing runs inside Iran.
But then again, Sadrist morale is very loweven with all the squeaking and squawking weve been hearing from the pressand the Iranians seem unwilling to confront an outgoing American president itching for a parting shot.
It should be noted that the vast majority of Sadrist support in Baghdad and Basra comes from families that trace their roots to Maysan Province. Furthermore, Maysan is home to the largest concentration of Iraqi tribes with unknown Arab ancestrymost likely remnants of pre-Islamic ethnic groups and whatever was left in the wake of rebellions by black slaves and gypsies in Abbasid times.
#2
The US-ISREAL, etc. is being contained or diverted despite potent mil presence or capabilities + ISLAMIST NUCLEARIZATION-WEAPONZ + US may unilater rdux or downsize under a POTUS Obama + Large Areas of Asia-Pacific is being effec destabilized despite advent of US Power.
2008 - 2012 > POST-DUBYA US PERIOD > ALL OSAMA, ZAWI, MULLAH OMAR, + MOUD etal. NEED IS FOR THEIR HIDDEN IMAM-MAHDI = COMPETENT BATTLEFIELD COMMANDER-LEADER TO APPEAR AND MILITARILY KICK US-ALLIED HINEY OUT OF THE ME-CENTRAL ASIA, andor MUSLIM WORLD???
The above being said, something is seriously wrong in the upper echelons of Radical Islamist leadership iff their Combat-Field Commanders STILL CAN'T WIN OR PREVAIL WID THE ABOVE, OR IN THE ALTERNATE NEED DIVINE HELP TO DO SO.
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner have spent two days in Iraq on a previously unannounced visit to meet with political leaders in Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. French Foreign Minister Kouchner praised the political stability and security in northern Iraq's Kurdish region during his visit to the area on Sunday.
Speaking at a news conference late that night alongside Kurdistan's President Massoud Barzani, Kouchner hailed the cooperative efforts between the regional government and Iraq's central government in Baghdad. The French foreign minister noted that he met jointly with Kurdistan's President Barzani and Iraq's President Jalal Talabani last year. Both men are Kurds, a minority in Iraq, and they head rival Kurdish political parties. Now, Kouchner says, the president of the region and the president of the nation are friends who can work with each other - and all other groups - to rebuild Iraq.
But a main source of contention between the Kurdish government and the central government continues to thrive - the status of the disputed territory of oil-rich Kirkuk province in northern Iraq. Article 140 of Iraq's constitution says a referendum will decide the status of the city and province of Kirkuk and other towns in the region. That referendum was due to be held by the end of 2007. But, last December, lawmakers in the Kurdish region approved a six-month delay to give the United Nations a greater role in preparations. Those six months will be up at the end of the June.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Lots of, what you call it---black staff, in Kurdistan?
#2
Actually, at least 1 of the biggest undeveloped oil fields in the whole of the Middle East is thought to lie under Kurdistan. There are projections that that particular field could add another 1-3 million barrels a day to Iraq's exports by itself, and does not even count the natural gas that could be exported to Europe through Turkey.
Jordan and France Friday signed two agreements for cooperation in the peaceful development of nuclear technology and political coordination on regional and international issues, according to an official statement.
The accords were signed by Jordanian Foreign Minister Salah Bashir and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner, who also held talks on latest developments in the Middle East.
The nuclear cooperation agreement provides for using nuclear reactors for generation of electricity, the extraction of uranium from phosphate mines in Jordan, the training of Jordanian manpower and arrangements for nuclear safety, Chairman of the Jordanian Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) Khalid Touqan said.
Under the second agreement, Jordan and France set up 'a political group that seeks to boost coordination on regional and international issues and forge a long term strategic relationship between the two countries,' the statement said.
Bashir expressed his country's support for French President Nicolas Sarkozy's Med Union scheme and said Jordan 'looked forward to the Paris summit in July when the plan will be officially launched'.
Bashir and Kouchner stressed the need for extending support to the Israelis and Palestinians in their ongoing negotiations with a view to achieving 'tangible progress before the end of the year in the run-up for ending the Israeli occupation (of Palestinian lands) and setting up a viable and independent Palestinian state', the statement said.
The two ministers also discussed the outcome of the Lebanese national dialogue that was launched in Qatar earlier this month and called for 'boosting Lebanon's national unity and the continued implementation of the provisions of the Doha agreement'.
Israel's continued blockade of the Gaza Strip is misguided and has helped rather than harmed Hamas, a senior State Department official told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.
The State Department is likely to convey its unhappiness regarding Israel's Gaza policy to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert when he arrives in Washington before dawn on Tuesday. His three-day visit will include a meeting with US President George W. Bush and a keynote address to the annual AIPAC policy conference. So, are they totally brainless, or do they simply hate kikes?
President Bush will meet Wednesday at the White House with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. They will review progress in the Middle East peace process. This will be their second round of talks in less than one month, following Mr. Bush's trip to Israel in May for ceremonies marking the 60th anniversary of the nation's founding.
Presidential spokeswoman Dana Perino says the informal discussions at the White House will focus on the peace process. She says the administration is doing all it can to get a Palestinian state defined before the end of the year, noting the president and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are keeping in close touch with all the parties involved. "We continue to be engaged to try to help them, but we are not going to be able to solve the problem for them," said Dana Perino. "They are going to have to continue to work together."
She says the process is long and difficult, but stresses the two sides are not giving up. "And we know that their governments are talking to one another - the Palestinians and the Israelis," she said. "But there is a lot of tension, a lot of historical complexities that enter into this. But I believe that the president will see from Prime Minister Olmert that they continue to negotiate in good faith. And this president is going to push them, because the Israelis and the Palestinians both have to live up to their 'roadmap' obligations, if we are going to reach the goal of defining a state by the end of the year."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
Hold on to your wallets.
Syria's president said the recently restarted peace talks between his government and Israel will eventually need U.S. sponsorship, according to an interview published in local papers Tuesday.
Israel and Syria have announced that they have resumed indirect peace talks through Turkish mediators. "The negotiations in their preliminary stage will be conducted indirectly and do not need a sponsor. But in later stages they would require international sponsorship especially from the United States, a superpower that has special ties with Israel," Al Ittihad newspaper quoted President Bashar Assad as saying.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that Washington has not yet been asked by Syria or Israel for a role in their talks and indicated that Washington wants for now to focus on the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, which the Bush administration helped to relaunch last year.
In the interview Assad also said that Israel must return all Syrian lands seized in the 1967 Middle East war as part of any peace deal.
Israel captured the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau, in the 1967 Mideast war and later annexed the area. Many Israelis are reluctant to relinquish the Golan, which overlooks northern Israel and borders the Sea of Galilee, a key source of drinking water.
Assad also denied that his country has a secret nuclear program. In September Israeli warplanes carried out airstrike against a Syrian site claiming that it was designed to produce atomic weapons.
On Monday the International Atomic Energy Agency said Syria would allow in U.N. inspectors to probe allegations that the country was building a nuclear reactor at the remote site. "The site they attacked wasn't a nuclear site," Assad was quoted as saying. "If there are nuclear programs, why they didn't ask for inspection instead of bombing."
Assad is on a tour of the Gulf to consult with leaders on regional issues including the Arab-Israeli conflicts.
Posted by: ed ||
06/03/2008 09:02 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
Iran's supreme leader said Tuesday that "no wise nation" would pursue nuclear weapons but his country will continue to develop its nuclear program for peaceful purposes.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared to be reacting to suggestions by the International Atomic Energy Agency that Tehran may be withholding information on secret attempts to make nuclear weapons.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the IAEA, told the 35 nations on the agency's board that the Islamic Republic had not provided requested information needed for his investigation.
"Iran is after the peaceful use of nuclear energy and we will strongly pursue and reach it despite the envy of our enemies," Khamenei said at a ceremony Tuesday honoring the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. "No wise nation is interested in making a nuclear weapon," he added.
The U.S and its allies accuse Iran of having a secret nuclear weapons program. In turn, Khamenei accused the U.S. of using nuclear energy to maintain its dominance over other nations in the world. He also warned against nuclear terrorism, saying that one day "world terrorists could attain nuclear weapons and take peace away from all the people in the world."
Iran is normally the focus of IAEA board meetings. But it was sidelined Monday by ElBaradei's announcement that Syria will allow his inspectors into the country to investigate allegations that a remote building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike in September was a nuclear reactor built secretly with North Korean help.
It's the start of an international fact check of U.S. and Israeli assertions that Damascus had tried to build a plutonium-producing facility under the radar of the international community, and the possible launch of a wider investigation of Syrian nuclear activities.
Diplomats told The Associated Press that during the June 22-24 visit, agency officials will also ask for information on the alleged existence of up to three such facilities that have not been declared.
The diplomats, who demanded anonymity because of the sensitivity of their information, indicated they had their knowledge either from the U.S. or from IAEA officials. One of them said the IAEA was following up on a U.S. intelligence-based tip of alleged unreported facilities to process any nuclear material. The diplomat emphasized the IAEA had not seen the intelligence itself.
Reprocessing capabilities would be required if the U.S. and Israel were correct in their claims that Syria was trying to build a reactor at the site leveled in Syria's eastern desert in September to gain the material needed to create the fissile core of nuclear weapons.
A nuclear expert outside the U.S. government indicated that at least one of the facilities was suspected of processing uranium. It, like plutonium, can be used for fuel or reworked into fissile warhead material. Reprocessing uranium is also part of the process of turning plutonium into usable warhead material. He said the IAEA asked Syria several weeks ago for access to four sites the bombed facility and three military sites that were identified by U.S. intelligence.
Two of the military sites are operational and one is still under construction, the expert said, speaking on condition of anonymity because his information came from private discussions. U.S. intelligence has linked one of the three sites, at least loosely, to the production of nuclear reactor fuel from uranium, he said. The U.S. says the Israelis flattened the alleged reactor because it was close to startup.
Of the four diplomats who spoke to the AP, two said the Vienna-based IAEA was looking for two undeclared nuclear sites. The others spoke of three. The Syrians have already been informed about the suspicions, one of the diplomats said.
Posted by: ed ||
06/03/2008 08:53 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#2
He also warned against nuclear terrorism, saying that one day "world terrorists could attain nuclear weapons and take peace away from all the people in the world."
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad predicted on Monday that Muslims would uproot "satanic powers" and repeated his controversial belief that Israel will soon disappear, the Mehr news agency reported.
"I must announce that the Zionist regime (Israel), with a 60-year record of genocide, plunder, invasion and betrayal is about to die and will soon be erased from the geographical scene," he said.
"Today, the time for the fall of the satanic power of the United States has come and the countdown to the annihilation of the emperor of power and wealth has started."
Since taking the presidency in August 2005, Ahmadinejad has repeatedly provoked international outrage by predicting Israel is doomed to disappear.
"I tell you that with the unity and awareness of all the Islamic countries all the satanic powers will soon be destroyed," he said to a group of foreign visitors ahead of the 19th anniversary of the death of revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Ahmadinejad also again expressed his apocalyptic vision that tyranny in the world be abolished by the return to earth of the Mahdi, the 12th imam of Shiite Islam, alongside great religious figures including Jesus Christ.
"With the appearance of the promised saviour... and his companions such as Jesus Christ, tyranny will be soon be eradicated in the world." Be careful what you wish for, Nutjob.
Ahmadinejad has always been a devotee of the Mahdi, who Shiites believe disappeared more than a thousand years ago and who will return one day to usher in a new era of peace and harmony.
His emphasis on the Mahdi has been a cause of controversy inside Iran with critics saying he would be better solving bread-and-butter domestic problems rather than talking about Iran's divine responsibility. Yeah, they're trying to figure out how to ditch Dinnerjacket and replace him with someone who at least knows when to keep his mouth shut.
* IRAN's NUCDEVPROGS are in continuance - its only matter of time before Radical Militants get the NUCTECHS [iff don't have already].
* ISRAEL is being surrounded and contained.
* NO US-IRAN WAR has yet occurred and the USA may not only stay put in IRAQ, but may actually downsize under a POTUS OBAMA.
*PAKI is resisting a larger US presence there + is agz unilater US milactions in Tribal Areas.
* IRANIAN INFLUENCE + RADICAL ISLAMISM is spreading in ASIA-PACIFIC + AFRICA, etc.
* RUSSIA may become a Muslim-majority nation by 2030-2050 [read - RUSS NUKES]. NORTHERN INDIA + SE ASIA is being destabilized.
* MCCAIN HAS WIN 2008 TO BECOME POTUS MCCAIN.
*AFTER 2010 [2012?] > THE US-WEST MAY NO LONGER BE ABLE TO INITIATE ANY MAJOR INTERNAT MILACTION WIDOUT CONSIDERING AN ISLAMIST RETALIATORY NUCLEAR-WMD RESPONSE = MILSTRIKE/TERRSTRIKE.
WHATS NOT FOR OSAMA, ZAWI, + MOUD, etc. TO LIKE -THE US = US-ALLIES IS TECHN WINNING THE BATTLES BUT HAVEN'T YET WON THE WAR???
#3
FREEREPUBLIC > RUSSIA CAN BE PART OF THE ANSWER ON IRAN. Methinks Osama, Moud + Radical Islam have already decided on the issue as per RUSSIA, CENTRAL ASIA, + PERIPHERALS ala 2008-2012/13, AND AREN'T TAKING "NO" FOR AN ANSWER???
Bwaaaaa ha ha! ROTFLMAO! You guys, stop teasing the UN like that!
Syria will allow in U.N. inspectors to probe allegations that a remote building destroyed in an Israeli airstrike was a nuclear reactor built secretly with North Korean help, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday.
The invitation signaled the start of an international fact check of U.S. and Israeli assertions that Damascus had tried to build a plutonium-producing facility under the radar of the international community. It could turn into a wider probe of possible secret Syrian nuclear sites.
Syria has denied wrongdoing, asserting the attack destroyed a non-nuclear military building. Syrian officials in Damascus did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment on Monday.
IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei did not say whether inspectors would be granted access to the site during the planned June 22-24 visit, but a senior diplomat with knowledge of the planned inquiry said they would be able to visit the facility.
While steering clear of a judgment of what was hit in remarks to the agency's 35-nation board of governors, ElBaradei noted Damascus "has an obligation to report the planning and construction of any nuclear facility to the agency."
Diplomats told The Associated Press that during the visit, agency officials will also ask for information on the alleged existence of at least two and possible three undeclared such facilities. The diplomats, who demanded anonymity because of the sensitivity of their information, indicated they had their knowledge either from the U.S. or from IAEA officials.
One of them said the IAEA was following up on a U.S. intelligence-based tip of alleged unreported facilities to process any nuclear material. The diplomat emphasized the IAEA had not seen the intelligence itself.
Plutonium reprocessing capabilities would be required if the U.S. and Israel are correct in their claims that Syria was trying to build the reactor leveled in Syria's eastern desert in September to gain the material needed to create the fissile core of nuclear weapons.
But a nuclear expert outside the U.S. government indicated that at least one of the facilities was suspected of processing uranium which, like plutonium can be used for fuel or reworked into fissile warhead material. He said the IAEA asked Syria several weeks ago for access to four sites the bombed facility and three military sites that were identified by U.S. intelligence.
Two of the military sites are operational and one is under construction, the expert said, speaking on condition of anonymity because his information came from private discussions. U.S. intelligence has linked one of the three sites, at least loosely, to fabricating nuclear reactor fuel from uranium, he said.
Of the four diplomats who spoke to the AP, two said the Vienna-based IAEA was looking for two undeclared nuclear sites. The others spoke of three. The Syrians have been informed about the suspicions, said one of the diplomats.
Neither the U.S. nor Israel told the IAEA about the bombed site at Al Kibar until late April, about a year after they obtained what they considered decisive intelligence: dozens of photographs from a handheld camera of the inside and outside of the compound.
The U.S. says the Israelis flattened the alleged reactor as it was close to startup.
Since then, Syria had not reacted to repeated agency requests for a visit to check out the allegations. Satellite photos appear to show construction crews using the interval to erect another structure over the site a move that heightened suspicions of a possible cover-up.
Pressure on Syria to respond positively mounted with the approach of the latest meeting of the IAEA board that opened Monday.
One of the diplomats, who is familiar with the communications between Syrian and agency officials, said that Damascus apparently waited until the weekend to issue an invitation.
In announcing the Syrian visit to the board, ElBaradei repeated his criticism of Israel and the U.S., taking Washington to task for waiting so long to brief him on its suspicions, and Jerusalem for its airstrike.
Diplomats have recently suggested that the Americans may have waited even longer, telling the AP that Washington may have had indications of Syrian plans more than five years ago. They demanded anonymity because their information was confidential.
"It is deeply regrettable that information concerning this installation was not provided to the agency in a timely manner and that force was resorted to unilaterally before the agency was given an opportunity to establish the facts," ElBaradei said.
His comments to the closed meeting were made available to reporters.
ElBaradei was also outspoken on Iran, in connection with the agency's investigation of activities that point to a possible secret weapons program, repeating comments he first made in a report last week with even more clarity.
"It is regrettable that we have not made the progress we had hoped for" on the allegations over Iran's nuclear program, he said, adding that the alleged activities "remain a matter of serious concern."
ElBaradei said Iran had not provided the agency with "all the access to documents and to individuals requested" nor had it given "substantive explanations" to supports its statements.
"Such clarifications are critical to an assessment of the nature of Iran's past and present nuclear program," he said.
Iran denies ever trying to make weapons. It is under three sets of U.N. sanctions for refusing to freeze uranium enrichment.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday there was no need to review cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency now, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Ahmadinejad was speaking a day after Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman suggested the Islamic Republic might have to limit its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), criticising a report released by the agency last week.
The Vienna-based U.N. agency said in a May 26 report Tehran's alleged research into nuclear warheads was a matter of serious concern and that it should provide more information on its missile-related work.
The United States accuses Iran of seeking to develop nuclear arms. Tehran denies the charge but its refusal to suspend sensitive nuclear work has prompted three rounds of U.N. sanctions since 2006.
Iran's new parliament speaker Ali Larijani, the country's former chief nuclear negotiator, last week said the current levels of cooperation with the IAEA were in jeopardy if major powers continued to "kick around" Iran's disputed nuclear case.
Asked whether Iran planned to review cooperation with the agency, Ahmadinejad was quoted by IRNA as saying: "There is no necessity now to review that."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
I gotta agree with the Mahmoud the Weasel on this one. It's hard to review what doesn't exist.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has begun a five-day meeting in Vienna to examine Iran's nuclear activities, as well as suspicions that Syria secretly might have tried to build a nuclear reactor. The IAEA report issued last week said Iran has not provided enough evidence to refute that it is trying to make nuclear weapons.
U.N. atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei also of course criticized Israel and the U.S. at Monday's meeting for not passing on intelligence about Syria's alleged nuclear reactor and attacking the site before the agency could warn the Syrians off had a chance to inspect it.
He told IAEA's 35-member board that it was regrettable that force was resorted to unilaterally before the agency had an opportunity to establish the facts in Syria. The inspectors will investigate the site that Israeli warplanes destroyed in September.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Full disclosure from Iran? OK.
Mo, we think you're a gullible fucking idiot we can play like a bass fiddle.
Happy now?
Posted by: Angomosing Darling of the Hemps4638 ||
06/03/2008 12:37 Comments ||
Top||
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.
The UN Security Council was set Monday to adopt a resolution empowering states to send warships into Somalia's territorial waters with the government's consent to combat piracy and armed robbery at sea. The French-US text, under discussion since late April and amended at the request of Indonesia, was expected to receive unanimous support from the council's 15 members later in the day, according to diplomats traveling in east Africa as part of a council delegation.
COLUMBUS, Ohio-- Documents filed with the US District Court in Columbus today, indicate that 
Taliban-related militancy is on the rise in Nowshera district of NWFP as music shop owners and private educational institutions having the co-education system are receiving threatening phone calls and letters.
Baitullah Mehsuds jaunty appearance at a press conference in South Waziristan underscores the wide latitude Pakistans government has granted the militants under a new series of peace deals, and its impact in Afghanistan, where and American commanders say cross-border attacks have surged since March, says a report published in the New York Times on Monday. 
The uproar over the 2005 publication of Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad may have faded in the West, but analysts believe angry Islamic militants may still be seeking revenge. 
The United States is turning up the heat in the hunt for the California boy turned al Qaeda operative, Adam Gadahn, who has been charged with treason and is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan. If caught and convicted, Gadahn could face the death penalty. 
(AKI) - Denmark called an emergency cabinet meeting on Monday after a suicide car bombing outside its embassy in the Pakistani capital Islamabad. 
Jordan and France Friday signed two agreements for cooperation in the peaceful development of nuclear technology and political coordination on regional and international issues, according to an official statement.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday there was no need to review cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency now, the official IRNA news agency reported.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has begun a five-day meeting in Vienna to examine Iran's nuclear activities, as well as suspicions that Syria secretly might have tried to build a nuclear reactor. The IAEA report issued last week said Iran has not provided enough evidence to refute that it is trying to make nuclear weapons. 
