A top U.S. envoy is planning to travel to North Korea shortly in a last-ditch effort to salvage a faltering accord to end Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs, sources said Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008 00:24 ||
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#1
Complete waste of time and effort, send a loaded B 52, on second thought send many loaded B-52's, and see they return empty THEN ask if they'd like to "NEGOTIATE" any further.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/28/2008 12:15 Comments ||
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#2
RJ - just a single Tomahawk missile with a high-penetration warhead into the containment vessel. The Israelis did that to Iraq's Osirak reactor, and it never restarted. I expect them to do something similar to Iran. If the containment vessel is breached, it's hard to control the nuke reaction, and you have a choice between continuing to operate and becoming a radioactive cloud, or shutting down totally and starting again somewhere else.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/28/2008 14:22 Comments ||
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#6
Osirek was, as I recall, above ground. The Iranian reactors are deep below ground, in the best bunkers (?) the Germans can design... or perhaps it was the French, or the Russians, or... North Korea keeps their missiles deep in their mountains, I thought; where do they keep their nuclear stuff?
Europe's anti-terror chief has launched a stinging attack on the political correctness that he says is hampering the campaign against militant Islam.
Gilles de Kerchove, the EU counter-terrorism co-ordinator, said last week that concern about stigmatising Muslim populations was hampering policy-making and thus prevention. 'One of the problems ... is that some member states are extremely reluctant to be explicit about the link with religion,' said de Kerchove. 'Religion has been hijacked and distorted for political ends.'
De Kerchove's statement comes against a background of infighting within the EU over counter-terrorism policy. The European Commission has been working for several years on a paper analysing militancy in Europe and outlining policy to combat radicalisation. The Council of Ministers is still waiting for the now long-overdue paper, on which future policy will be based.
EU officials claimed last week the delay was because Jacques Barrot, the French Commissioner for justice, freedom and security, had grave reservations about the definition of terrorism in the commission's policy paper and had delayed signing the policy document as it 'went too far in blaming Muslim communities'.
A spokesman for Barrot refused to comment. 'There is a paper that is being prepared. Our services are working on it and there is no fixed timeframe at the moment,' he said.
De Kerchove praised the Home Office's emphasis on countering the extremists' message through the media. 'We have to provide an alternative narrative,' he said. 'A lot of research is showing that young people being radicalised are looking for thrills as much as anything ideological. We need to show the violence for what it is, bloody and indiscriminate, and the people who do it for what they are, ugly criminals not heroes.'
#1
God Bless your efforts Gilles de Kerchove, it sounds like you "get it", loads of good fortune dude, you'll need a couple of tons every morning for the next few years Sir!
Please kick "Red Ken" in the Ass so hard his brains migrate up to his head, where they're needed!
#4
We can all be grateful Red Ken was retired from the London mayoralty in the last election, RD. His brains, I'm sure, haven't moved at all since then.
In a significant development, which will affect the future relations between US and Pakistan, highly placed government sources have told TIMES NOW that US President George W Bush has cautioned Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh against taking Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari at face value.
Govt sources have told TIMES NOW that Bush told Manmohan Sing that he had huge doubts about ZardariÂ’s ability to deliver on assurances made to India on curbing cross border terror.
Bush shared his assessment with Manmohan Singh during the course of their bi-lateral meeting when the two discussed terrorism in South Asia. The Prime Minister in turn is reported to have told Bush that though the Indian government didn't push Zardari too hard India did convey to him its strong views on terror from Pakistan soil.
Highly placed government sources have told TIMES NOW that Zardari went out of his way to tell the PM that India needed to give him some time as he was only a week-old President.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/28/2008 11:08 ||
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#1
OMG, did Bush slip up again and tell it like itis? With his blunt Texan manner of speech he tends to do that.
#3
Bush speaks truthfully to an ally, and probably causes a few cases of striped-trouser wettings at Foggy Bottom as a result. Nice two-fer Mr. President.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday denied that American and Pakistani forces exchanged fire along the Afghanistan border this week, even as the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff acknowledged that the two sides engaged in a brief firefight.
Zardari told The Washington Post in an interview Friday that Pakistani border forces shot warning flares Thursday at two U.S. helicopters that he believes inadvertently crossed into Pakistani territory from Afghanistan. He said there was no gunfire exchanged between the two sides.
"We fired flares at them," he said.
Zardari spoke at about the time that Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters in Washington that Pakistani forces fired on two U.S. helicopters supporting a ground unit Thursday and that American troops responded with small-arms fire.
"There was a cross-border fire incident yesterday," Mullen said, corroborating reports from U.S and NATO military officials. He urged both sides not to "overreact to the hair-trigger tension we are all feeling. Now, more than ever, is a time for teamwork, for calm."
One day after blasting the United States for violating Pakistani territory in a speech before the U.N. General Assembly, Pakistan's new leader sought to defuse tensions between the two countries and present Pakistan to the American public as a reliable ally in the U.S.-led fight against terrorism.
Zardari played down the significance of American incursions into Pakistan in recent weeks, referring to a Sept. 3 operation that led Pakistan to accuse U.S. commandos of killing 20 people in a South Waziristan village as a "one-off" incident.
He praised President Bush's leadership in the fight against terrorism. "Obviously, the world is a safer place," he said. "It could have been worse."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008 00:24 ||
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Taliban hostilities show no sign of abating despite the deployment of 8,000 troops in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the army's claim of killing 1,000 Taliban, according to The Times.
The newspaper said in a report on Saturday that a constant supply of fresh fighters from inside the country and across the border in Afghanistan is helping the Taliban to stay in the fight.
Bajaur Agency is a main operating base for Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Pakistani intelligence believes that Ayman al-Zawahri, the second-in-command of Al Qaeda, has been a visitor. The report says the roots of the Marriott hotel attack and other incidents of violence across Pakistan, however, are to be found in Taliban strongholds such as Bajaur.
"Militant groups that have been banned have mutated into small cells and found a common cause with Al Qaeda," the report said, and cited Pakistani security and intelligence officials believing the attack at the Marriott had signaled the beginning of a new phase of the Al Qaeda offensive in Pakistan.
The newspaper also quoted former NWFP chief secretary Khalid Aziz as saying in a statement that Pakistan's co-operation in the war on terror would cost it dear.
Many believe the Marriott attack was in reprisal for the military campaign in Bajaur, which has turned into full-blown guerrilla warfare, according to the report. "With growing numbers of civilians paying the price, the fear is that the motivation to turn against the authorities - perhaps by carrying out another hotel bombing in another big city - is increasing for many," the report says concerning the impact of the operation on the population.
It says that the Taliban in the agency are not a problem for Pakistan alone as a critical US coalition forces supply line runs through FATA that are de facto under the Taliban control. Increase in fighting multiplies attacks on convoys carrying supplies for US forces in Afghanistan.
A key dilemma is the growing conflict between Pakistan and the US over the US violations of Pakistani borders, the report states. Pakistan has said that attacks from across the western border, which have caused civilian casualties, have hindered its own antiterrorism efforts and increased support for the Taliban.
"Pakistan is caught between more aggressive military actions by the Americans on the one hand and the [Taliban] on the other," said Maleeha Lodhi, the former Pakistani envoy to Washington and London. "Pakistan's leadership confronts the challenge of reconciling domestic opinion with international demands, squaring this circle is going to really test the Zardari-led Government," Maleeha said concerning public resentment to Islamabad's policy on war on terror.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008 00:13 ||
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A massive crackdown on IM-SIMI activists and arrest of a number of them across the country for their alleged role in several recent blasts may have dented their capacity but a larger network remains in place and can be activated by a fresh leadership.
Strategic think tanks and intelligence officials claim there are hundreds of activists who can be used for terror-related activities and who can still carry on with their covert war against India.
"While the Indian authorities have arrested many of these people, there are still others, perhaps hundreds of them, still on the loose," says Stratfor, a leading US-based strategic think tank, also known as the "shadow CIA".
The arrests of senior SIMI leaders do not appear to have affected the larger SIMI network's operational ability. It pointed out that in the immediate aftermath of the first round of arrests, the "tempo of militant activity seems to have increased following the arrests of Nasir, Nagori and others".
Saturday's attack in Mehrauli, within two weeks of the serial bomb blasts in the national Capital that had killed 26 and left hundreds injured, reinforces some of these assertions. The desperation of jihadi outfits is such that they seem unmindful of being intercepted in busy market places, virtually dumping bombs amid high alerts. Some could be taking the help of local criminals in terms of logistics.
The concerns were also reflected in a security review meeting, chaired by Union home minister Shivraj Patil, on September 14 (a day after the serial blasts in Delhi) when Intelligence Bureau (IB) chief P C Haldar himself explained as how it was difficult to reach each and every terror module of the outfit which enrolled a number of local people in every city having a substantial figure of Muslim population.
Haldar is learnt to have mentioned that the modules of IM which were busted in the wake of the Ahmedabad blasts did not throw much light on other sleeper cells which might be there waiting to strike after getting command from top -- the structure (organizational) of which is still unknown.
The modus operandi of terrorists is similar to Bangladesh-based outfits that employed similar tactics in 2005 when 400 bombs went off in a synchronised terror attack in that country. B Raman, former RAW official, says some terror groups like LTTE, Taliban, Kashmiri terrorist outfits, Maoists and Ulfa of Assam use both regular weapons and IEDs. Others like al-Qaida have tended to prefer IEDs and suicide bombers even as they do engage in fighting.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008 00:08 ||
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Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and United States Deputy Secretary of State John D Negroponte will co-chair the third meeting of the US-Pak Strategic Dialogue in Washington on Monday.
According to the State Department, the strategic dialogue is "a symbol of our commitment to a stable, broad-based and long-term relationship serving the interests of both the United States and Pakistan. The Strategic Dialogue's working groups -- education, economic growth, energy, science and technology, and the new agriculture working group -- develop specific proposals for joint action by the US and Pakistan to achieve our shared objectives. At the conclusion of the meeting, Deputy Negroponte and Foreign Minister Qureshi will release a written joint statement".
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008 00:07 ||
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#1
Our overriding interests in Pakistan should be eliminating the ISI and closing madrassas. The rest is irrelevant.
The United States is getting 'good actionable intelligence' on Al Qaeda in Pakistan's Tribal Areas but not the Taliban, a senior official co-ordinating with Washington in the war on terror told Daily Times on Saturday.
"The US has good intelligence on Al Qaeda members in our Tribal Areas, and Washington also appears more interested in Qaeda than Taliban," the senior official said, asking not to be named.
The killing of Abu Khabab al-Masri, head of Al Qaeda's weapons of mass destruction programme, in the first week of August in South Waziristan speaks volume for the good intelligence the US is getting.
Since early this year, the US has carried out around a dozen strikes through unmanned spy planes in Bajaur and the Waziristan agencies. Washington suspects Al Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri might be hiding in Bajaur.
The official did not say whether Pakistani intelligence agencies were behind the reliable information or if the US itself was using "own human intelligence on ground" or electronic equipment to track down the terror network.
In the last eight months, the US has eliminated some key Al Qaeda operatives, including Abu Sulayman Jazairi, an Algerian operative who directed Al Qaeda's external operations, and Abu Laith al-Libbi, during drone-led strikes in the Tribal Areas. "I think the tribal people are also willing to pass on actionable intelligence on foreign elements of Al Qaeda," said a tribal elder in Azam Warsak, South Waziristan. "The same level of success is, however, not coming as far as the Taliban are concerned," the official said.
Bigger threat: He added that the US did not view the Taliban as a bigger threat than Al Qaeda. "Washington is only looking for Al Qaeda operatives and it does not like to fire expensive Hellfire missiles on other than Arab elements of Qaeda." Except for one case when the US drone killed Taliban leader Nek Muhammad in South Waziristan in June 2004, there has been no other instance to suggest how important the killing of Taliban leaders is to Washington.
"If Washington takes out the Al Qaeda threat completely and the terror group no longer poses any security danger to the mainland of America, the US may open channels with Taliban leaders in Afghanistan to find peaceful solution to the Afghan problem," the official went on to add.
Earlier, NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani had said, "political stability will only come to Afghanistan when all political power groups, irrespective of the length of their beard, are given their just and due share in the political dispensation in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008 00:07 ||
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#2
In other words, the U.S. should magically remove the Taliban problem so that Pakistan can go back to peacefully abusing the native tribes as is the custom?
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari has claimed Baghdad is getting very close to signing a security deal with the United States. "I think it is in the final stages," Zebari said in New York where he held talks with his US counterpart Condoleezza Rice on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on Saturday.
The Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) which is being negotiated by Baghdad and Washington would determine the status of US troops in Iraq after their UN mandate expires on December 31. Under the deal US forces would reportedly be granted immunity from legal prosecution in Iraq. The issue of immunity however has been a main hurdle to the finalization of the deal.
Rice and Zebari said there was progress in negotiations and they hoped for a conclusion soon, AP reported. The foreign minister also urged the country's political leaders to support the treaty saying, "it will need the support of all the political leaders to get this agreement.''
A majority of Iraqi parliamentarians and political leaders however are against signing the deal which they believe would turn Iraq into a US colony. Parliament speaker Mahmud Mashhadani had earlier said that no Iraqi official was allowed to sign the treaty unless it was ratified by two-thirds of the lawmakers.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The "US elections clause" in that document must be impressive.
Hamas has denounced a "pro-Israeli" statement made by the Middle East Quartet, saying the group is heavily biased towards the regime.
"Expressing concern over Jewish settlements and criticism of increased settler violence and then describing the legitimate Palestinian resistance as terrorism showed complicity with the Zionist occupation and the full bias in favor of it," Hamas Spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said on Saturday.
In a ministerial session in New York, the diplomatic group which is made up of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States, called on Palestinians to put an end to "acts of terrorism" against Israel.
Hamas however slammed the committee's final words saying, "It is perfectly unjust to qualify as terrorism the Palestinian resistance, which is perfectly legitimate".
Barhoum also criticized the US dominance on the group's biased decisions in favor of Israel and said the statement which "reveals very clearly the American hegemony,... aims to form a public opinion hostile to the Palestinian people and aims to discredit them".
"The US-backed crimes (in the Gaza Strip) are programmed to liquidate the Palestinian people, their cause, and their rights."
Regarding the acceleration of the Jewish settlement expansion by Israel, Hamas said "It is not enough for the Quartet to express its concern over settlements, action is needed".
Under the road map peace plan, Tel Aviv has committed not to establish new settlements in East Jerusalem (al-Quds) and the West Bank. The regime also pledged to halt all settlement activities in al-Quds and the West Bank during the Annapolis conference in November 2007.
In addition to the construction activity, Israeli military forces regularly launch operations against Palestinians in the occupied land and kill civilians. Last week the troops killed a 14 year old Palestinian boy and a 60 year old woman in the West bank.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008 00:15 ||
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#1
In other words, Hamass is upset because the "Quartet" won't give them diplomatically what they couldn't win militarily. ARCLIGHT Gaza NOW, and continue for four or five days. When it stops, ask the survivors if they still want to play "Gotcha".
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/28/2008 15:39 Comments ||
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Eight years since the start of the al-Aqsa Intifada, Israel has killed 5,389 Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
Marking the start of the second Intifada (uprising), two local Palestinian organizations, Al-Haq for Legal and Human Rights, and the Health Action Committee held a press conference in Ramallah on Saturday. During the conference the groups outlined Palestinian casualties since the second "popular uprising."
Of the 5,389 killed by Israeli forces, they said, 194 were women and 995 children. During the same time 135 Palestinian patients died at 630 Israeli military checkpoints throughout the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
The groups said that 32,270 Palestinians were injured over the last eight years, and 3,530 of those injured have suffered permanent handicaps, and at least 220 Palestinians have died waiting for treatment abroad.
General Director of the Health Action Committee Shatha Au'da, said that Israel has also destroyed entire infrastructures in Palestinian lands, from road networks, to health, government and security installations consequent to their occupation and siege strategy. He said Palestinian lands and lives have been dissected by road-blocks, concrete walls, settlements and discriminatory policies.
And they still don't get the message.
Au'da noted that Israeli settlements have expanded 30% since the November 2007 Annapolis conference alone, and from 2000, 7,934 Palestinian homes have been demolished. 450 kilometers of the wall separating the occupied West Bank from Israel proper is in place and 45% of West Bank lands are not accessible to Palestinians.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008 00:08 ||
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#5
An unnecessary, counterproductive, costly, and tragic waste. My goodness, if they'd just've signed a bloody peace deal, they'd be getting freakin' voting rights in Israel proper by now, and could vote the Jews out. Maybe it's just not heroic enough.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/28/2008 14:04 Comments ||
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#7
"An unnecessary, counterproductive, costly, and tragic waste."
That pretty much sums up everything from the 1973 Arab-Israeli (Yom Kippur) War through the present. Even with Arafat gone, the Palestinians are stuck on stupid.
#8
Over 200,99 Blacks have been killed in Sudan. People who unlike Palestinains didn't try to bomb maternities. People, that bunch of national-socialistras couldn't care less about.
The United States, Russia, China and key European powers agreed Friday to press for a U.N. Security Council resolution that renews previous demands for Iran to halt its enrichment of uranium but includes no new punitive measures to compel Tehran to do so.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/28/2008 00:24 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
