Britain is to spend £500 million on hundreds of heavily armoured vehicles to protect troops in Afghanistan.
The decision to acquire 600 vehicles that can withstand landmines and roadside bombs comes after criticism of the Ministry of Defence from the families of servicemen killed while on patrol in lightly armoured "Snatch" Land Rovers.
Susan Smith, from Tamworth in Staffordshire, whose 21-year-old son Private Phillip Hewett died in Iraq in 2005, is suing the MoD for providing vehicles that "gave little or no protection against improvised explosive devices".
Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, has been negotiating with the Treasury over the plan to buy the 600 vehicles, which will partly replace the Land Rovers but also add to the stock of heavier troop-carrying systems in Iraq and Afghanistan. It is hoped that the new vehicles will be in place by next spring, in time for an expected resurgence of Taleban fighting.
The sense of urgency surrounding the provision of better protection for troops was underlined yesterday when it was confirmed that 100 of the 600 vehicles would replace the Viking armoured vehicles, which came into service with the Royal Marines in 2006 and have been deployed across Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. The Viking has proved to be vulnerable to landmines. About a dozen Viking drivers from the Royal Marines and the Queen's Royal Lancers have been killed or seriously wounded by mine strikes, and steps were taken to thicken the armour under the driver's seat.
Under the new proposal, the Vikings will be replaced by 100 better-protected "high-mobility tracked patrol vehicles". The 500 other new vehicles will consist of 100 Mastiffs, a huge British-modified version of the American Cougar troop-carrier, 100 Jackals, a mine-resistant open-top vehicle, and 300 light-support mine-protected vehicles, which have not yet been identified.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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Afghanistan's foreign minister on Sunday denied reports that the government was in contact with Taliban insurgents to negotiate an end to the conflict.
Britain's Observer newspaper on Sunday said the "unprecedented talks" involved a senior ex-Taliban member travelling between Kabul, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and European capitals. "I cannot say anything about the matter that talks between the Taliban and Afghans ... are going on," Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta told a news conference when asked to comment about the report. "I deny there is any contact between the Foreign Ministry and the Taliban about the negotiations," he said when asked for elaboration. "I do not confirm such contacts," he said when pressed if any other government organ was involved in any such process. After the news conference he said with a smile he would have news on this in coming days. The report came as the Taliban have extended the scope and size of their insurgency this year, the bloodiest period since US-led and Afghan forces invaded in 2001.
Western leaders and diplomats stress the war in Afghanistan, where more than 71,000 foreign troops are based, cannot be won militarily. But talks with the Taliban had proven problematic.
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09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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Covert negotiations have begun with the Taliban in Afghanistan through a back channel Saudi-sponsored initiative, on the request of the Karzai government, a report by Jason Burke in The Observer said on Sunday.
For the past few months an incongruous figure has passed through the airports of the Middle East and Europe - a senior Afghan cleric who defected from the Taliban, the paper said. Bearded and in traditional dress, he has unsurprisingly needed the help of the Saudi Arabian and British intelligence services, among others, to pass unhindered between capitals. His mission - to talk to the Taliban leadership about a possible peace deal.
The backing given by the West to these talks is a measure of how badly things have gone wrong in Afghanistan, and how far Western governments are prepared to go to stabilise a deteriorating situation which is costing more in men, money and political capital than they ever imagined.
Invitation: The newspaper said that the Saudis accepting the invitation of the Afghan government to sponsor the initiative this summer is a measure of how concerned those who govern the traditionally leading nation of the Sunni Muslim world are about Afghanistan and Al Qaeda and the consequences they might have for the rest of the Islamic world and beyond.
This is not the first time the Saudi Arabians have brokered talks with the Taliban, and Western powers have been keen to get Riyadh more involved in Afghanistan for some time, it said. In 1998, they nearly concluded a deal with Mullah Muhammad Omar, the reclusive leader of the Taliban, to hand over Osama Bin Laden, The Observer said.
For the West, the sponsorship of Riyadh is essential. Western efforts to negotiate with the Taliban have rarely brought any durable positive results. But these most recent talks also show that, at the very least, some in the Taliban senior command are getting tired. "They've been fighting for nearly seven years, living undercover, moving regularly, unable to go back to Afghanistan without risking a violent death. Despite the bellicose rhetoric and the successes of recent months, they have lost a lot of people and there is a certain degree of fatigue," the newspaper quoted an experienced Pakistan-based observer.
The Saudi initiative has resulted in the submission of a list of demands by the Taliban to Kabul. One problem was that those demands keep changing, said one Afghan source. A second is the question of whether any potential agreement could be made to stick.
The Taliban demands are also unlikely to be acceptable to the Western powers, especially the US. Another problem would be convincing other ethnic groups in Afghanistan, who suffered heavily under the Taliban regime, to accept any deal. The Taliban published a statement on their website saying they would "fight until the withdrawal of the last crusading invader", but added that "the door for talks, understanding and negotiations will always be open" to 'mujahideen'.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Time for a graphic of James T. West...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/29/2008 11:25 Comments ||
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#2
seems too me it has went alot worse for the Taliban in afghanistan.
At least 52 Somali nationals have died in the Gulf of Aden as they tried to make their way to Yemen, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Sunday. Engine failure on the errant boat in which they were travelling left the passengers without food or water for 18 days.
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09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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A group of European tourists and their Egyptian guides who were kidnapped by armed bandits in a remote desert 10 days ago have been freed unharmed and half the kidnappers killed, officials said on Monday. "The hostages have been freed and are in good health. They are being brought to Cairo airport," Egyptian state television quoted an official as saying. The circumstances of their release were not immediately clear. The kidnappers -- whose identities remain unknown -- had demanded a ransom but the television quoted an official as saying no money had been paid. Egypt's Defence Minister Hussein Tantawi said that "half of the kidnappers were eliminated," the official MENA news agency reported.
The 19 hostages -- five Germans, five Italians, a Romanian and eight Egyptian drivers and tour guides -- were snatched while on a safari in a lawless area of Egypt's southwestern desert on September 19. Their release came after an Egyptian security official said kidnappers had agreed to let their captives go in return for a ransom, in a deal hammered out before Sudanese troops killed six hostage-takers in a shootout on Sunday. "The problem was solved. They had agreed to the ransom. It was merely a matter of receiving the hostages, but then this surprise happened," the official told AFP, referring to the shooting.
Sudanese forces killed six of the bandits and arrested two after spotting them in the Sudan-Egypt-Libya border area. A Sudanese official told AFP the bandits had moved the hostages to a hideout in Chad. A Sudan army spokesman said his forces were not involved in the release. "We had nothing to do with the hostages, we were only dealing with the kidnappers who have been killed," Al-Sawarmi al-Islam Khaled told AFP.
The kidnappers had demanded that Germany take charge of payment of a six-million-euro (8.8-million-dollar) ransom to be handed over to the German wife of the tour organiser, one of those snatched. Egypt's independent Al-Masry Al-Yom newspaper had quoted a German negotiator as saying the release had been delayed because the kidnappers were seeking assurances they would not be arrested. The negotiator added that the bandits had said they would release five women after payment of the ransom and hold on to the rest until they secured an escape route, the paper said.
After their kidnap, the group was first moved across the border to Sudan to the remote mountain region of Jebel Uweinat, a plateau that straddles the borders of Egypt, Libya and Sudan, before the bandits took them into Chad, according to Sudanese officials. Sudan says the kidnappers belong to a splinter Darfur rebel group, the Sudanese Liberation Army-Unity (SLA-Unity). An SLA-Unity spokesman denied his group's involvement, but warned that the hostages might be harmed if force were used against the bandits.
#1
Hostages freed unharmed, no ransom paid, and half the kidnappers killed....while I would like to believe this story, I have my doubts. Seems more likely that if there were kidnappers killed it was over how the ransom was to be split up.
Mostly Soviet-Afghan War veterans, they claim they formed a 15-member convening committee in May as the caretaker administration gave them the go-ahead after a probe found nothing that could link them to any subversive campaign.
Kazi Azizul Huq, an adviser of the newborn organisation, told The Daily Star, "The intelligence agencies gathered that we have no relations to any terrorist networks.
"The government however set some conditions. Those include ones that say the party must run as per the country's constitution, and not resort to violence to implement Shariah law."
Last Friday, IDP held an Iftar party at the city's Diploma Engineers Institution. It was attended by party leaders and guests including Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, editor of weekly Blitz and a campaigner for Israel, Amar Desh Assistant Editor and Human Rights Forum General Secretary Sanjeeb Choudhury, PK Barua of Bouddha Kristi Prochar Sangha and Chitta Francis, a representative of Christian community.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) Commissioner Naim Ahmed told The Daily Star that they allowed IDP to arrange the function as it was a religious one. Replying to a query, he said they will definitely go for a closer examination before giving the organisation permission to arrange any political programme.
Sheikh Abdus Salam heads the convening committee. It was under his leadership that a group of Afghan War veterans launched HuJi at a press conference at the National Press Club on April 30, 1992.
Sources close to IDP said the outfit's ultimate objective is to establish Shariah law in the country. Azizul Huq, on the other hand, said, "Our goal is to run the country as per the Charter of Medina that gives equal rights to all citizens irrespective of religion and ethnicity."
He said they want to introduce Shariah (the body of Islamic religious law) only for the Muslims. Other religious and ethnic minorities may follow the existing law of the land and norms of their communities. "We don't want to impose anything on anyone. We'll put the Islamic laws into practice only if the people grant us an electoral mandate to amend the constitution," Azizul continued. "Even those of Muslims who won't want to follow Shariah will have the freedom to follow the existing law."
He said the government had suggested they [IDP] take measures to convince the international community that their move to launch the outfit had no relations with extremism. The suggestion came in view of the fact persons behind the new party had involvement with HuJi, an outfit that was banned by the government for terrorism in October 2005.
Azizul said Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury and Dr Richard L Benkin, an American citizen, helped in efforts to portray IDP in a positive light across the globe especially in the developed countries. In an e-mail to this correspondent, Dr Benkin confirmed the statement. He said, "Mr. Huq is correct. Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury and I continuously try to bridge the gulf between religious communities throughout the world and always look for opportunities to promote a positive image of Bangladesh worldwide.
"Mr. Huq and I met for hours one day in Dhaka many months ago and recognised our common belief in God and faith. We also..... 'agreed to disagree' in the spirit of interfaith understanding and democracy.
"The newly formed Islamic Democratic Party opens the door for Muslims to separate themselves before the entire world from radicals and terrorists while at the same time affirming their strength in the Muslim [Islam] faith."
Shoaib, who was arrested at Zia International Airport in November, 2003 and charged with sedition in January, 2004, told The Daily Star, "The government gave permission to launch Islamic Democratic Party and host the Iftar party under the state of emergency. It's a green signal, and it allowed IDP to shed the names of HuJi and Islamic Gono Andolon."
This article starring:
Sheikh Abdus Salam
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh will have to bring fundamental changes to its constitution to get registered with the Election Commission (EC) so that it qualifies for participating in parliamentary polls. If the party changes its constitution to conform to the registration criteria, it will definitely lose its characteristics as an Islamic political party.
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09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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(PTI) A Senior Conservative Party leader today said the party, if voted to power, would force Muslims to assimilate into the British society and would ban groups of the community even if they solely engage in political activities.
Speaking at the start of Party Conference in Birmingham, David Cameron's security adviser Dame Pauline Neville-Jones said her party has "plans to force Muslims to integrate into British Society." In a deliberately populist tone, she said her party would ban Muslim groups even if they are not involved in violence or promoting violence and solely engage in political activities which are widely accepted from other communities.
She also made threats against Islamic charities and announced that her party would ban sharia courts from operating in the UK, though earlier this year the Lord Chief Justice Lord Phillips has welcomed some sort of sharia based arbitration for settling disputes.
Meanwhile, party leader David Cameron announced that his party has a "clear plan" to get Britain through this time of economic instability.
At the conference, Cameron said that his government would legislate to protect savers' deposits up to 50,000 pounds and, in the event of a bank collapsing, get them their money back within seven days.
He also disclosed his plans of giving more powers to Bank of England so that it could take over, reconstruct and administrate banks which get into difficulty.
Cameron said his party would set up an "Office for Budget Responsibility" which would monitor public finances and hold the Government to account.
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09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
This article puts it a bit more strongly than the Conservatives did. link
Unacceptable cultural practices will be challenged by a Tory government, and everyone will be expected to speak English as part of measures to "fix society", a shadow minister said today.
Sayeeda Warsi, the Conservative shadow minister for community cohesion and social action, attacked the "decade of state-driven multiculturalism" under Labour, which she said had played on people's differences and sown cultural divisions at the expense of shared British values. Warsi, a Muslim, said Labour had sought "selfish political advantage" by presiding over a decade of state-driven multiculturalism, which has played on differences. She said: "It has sent out the message that we're not sharing a society, we're just cohabiting a space. It has led people to retreat into separate cultures rather than reach for a shared community... and their obsession with self-appointed community leaders and crude use of patronage politics has led to communities divided against each other, with people losing that inner instinct of what it is to be British."
A Conservative government would ensure British history was taught properly "so young people know who we are as a nation", and everyone living in Britain would have to speak English, she said. Support for community groups would be given on the basis of their effectiveness, not just their faith or ethnicity. She added:" Good neighbours look out for each other. That's why we will tackle unacceptable cultural practices, not turn our backs and say it's sensitive and none of our business."
A big difference from forcefully assimilating Muslims in the UK, I think.
#4
The most important thing the English government could do to restore national pride is to get rid of the archaic "Britain" or downright silly "United Kingdom", and properly call their country "England".
If they mean "England and Scotland and Wales and Northern Ireland", then they should say so in those terms.
Their flag is not the Union Flag, it is the St. George's Cross. Their language is English. Their currency is the English Pound.
#9
That's a laugher. You'll never get it done. Get some rusty barges to dock. Herd their stupid asses on board and tell them they're floating back to Pakland. Yeh, and good luck, mateys, cause you assdraggers might need it.
#10
There is precedent, once criminals were sent to Austrailia, why not some forgotten island that England owns, but is nowhere near "Civilization(Translation, no industry, no ships or boats they can seal, only hand tools,) they'd NEVER get a seaworthy ship built for all the infighting.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/29/2008 17:17 Comments ||
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#11
seal/steal fat fingers.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/29/2008 17:19 Comments ||
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Probably won't do so well with the Finsbury Park mosque crowd, but the rest of the Brits will love it. Fins Park folks vote Labour anyway, so no loss there.
Jury selection is expected to begin Monday in the case of five men accused of plotting an armed attack on Fort Dix. Once the trial starts, the key question will center on whether the men would have actually committed the attack on the Army installation in New Jersey. The federal government argues that the May 2007 arrests of of Serdar Tatar, Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer and the brothers Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka saved lives. But defense lawyers contend there was no plot and that the government paid an informant to get them to discuss one. The trial will be watched closely because it represents a type of pre-emptive prosecution that's grown more common in U.S. terrorism cases since the 9/11 attacks.
Prosecutors have begun walking jurors through what they consider some of the most provocative and damaging documents that the government has amassed against the five accused Holy Land Foundation charity organizers. FBI Special Agent Lara Burns continues her testimony today on the web of connections she says the agency found between the former Richardson-based foundation once the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. and the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian-based Islamist group that the government says is the parent organization of Hamas.
Last year, the government failed to secure any convictions against the defendants on charges that they funneled more than $12 million to Hamas after the U.S. declared it a terrorist group in 1995. Last year's three-month trial ended in a hung jury after 19 days of deliberations on what was widely considered a mountain of disjointed evidence. During the first week of the retrial, for which the government has pared the number of charges against the defendants, prosecutors appeared to be taking more time to surround the testimony with context, even asking Ms. Burns to spell difficult Arabic names for jurors, most of whom are taking notes.
Last week, Ms. Burns told jurors that Hamas political leader Mousa Abu Marzook whom the U.S. has designated a terrorist lived in this country in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She said he led a committee of Palestinians that answered to the Muslim Brotherhood. The group was tasked with marshaling "media, money and men" to support the Palestinian resistance against the Israeli occupation, according to prosecution court documents.
Prosecutors reopened what they characterize as a trove of Muslim Brotherhood archival material seized primarily from the home of unindicted co-conspirator Ismail Elbarasse. The government says those documents prove that Holy Land was founded to be the primary fundraising arm of Hamas. Among the documents prosecutors showed jurors last week was what they said was a 1991 Muslim Brotherhood strategy paper describing its plans for the U.S. The Brotherhood sought "a kind of grand jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and sabotaging its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions," the document states.
Mr. Elbarasse allegedly was a confidant of Mr. Marzook. Prosecutors last week showed jurors a $100,000 check they said was signed by Mr. Marzook, written out of the joint account he shared with Mr. Elbarasse to the fledgling Holy Land Foundation about two months after it relocated from California to Richardson in 1992. Mr. Marzook is related by marriage to defendant and Holy Land co-founder Ghassan Elashi, already serving prison time for business-related crime in connection with Mr. Marzook. Mr. Marzook is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land case but faces other federal charges in Dallas and Chicago. He is believed to be living in Syria, where he is Hamas' No. 2 political leader.
The government says some of its evidence came from a covert search the FBI performed at the Virginia home of unindicted co-conspirator Abdelhaleem Ashqar. Documents obtained from his home were not acquired with a traditional search warrant, but were secretly photographed, with permission from then-U.S. Attorney Janet Reno, by agents gathering intelligence on Hamas activities. Mr. Ashqar, formerly an assistant business professor at Howard University in Washington, was acquitted in early 2007 on charges of supporting Hamas. But he was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison for refusing to testify before a Chicago grand jury about his alleged Hamas ties.
Jurors last week also saw a video of a fiery speech from defendant Mohammad El-Mezain, advocating violent jihad by Palestinians against Israelis. Some of the tapes in the government's possession had to be refurbished after they were dug up from the back yard of a Virginia home once lived in by another unindicted co-conspirator, Fawaz Mushtaha. Prosecutors say a man who bought the home after Mr. Mushtaha left found a cache of tapes when he dug up the yard for a home improvement project. When neighbors told the homeowner that immigration officials had previously raided the house, he contacted federal authorities and turned over the videos. Mr. Mushtaha was a member of the same Palestinian folk band Al Sakhra, or "the rock," as defendant Mufid Abdulqader. The band played at several Holy Land fundraisers, some of which allegedly included fiery speeches by Islamic clerics.
Even as Delhi Police has not found Indian Mujahideen's signature in Saturday's Mehrauli blast, intelligence agencies are looking for possible SIMI (IM's parent body) footprints in the incident taking cues from what the outfit's leaders -- including its general secretary Safdar Nagori -- claimed before Madhya Pradesh cops five months back. Nagori had told police during his interrogation in April that SIMI had 125 hardcore cadre who were trained in its camps at Dharwad in Karnataka during 2005-07 and subsequently fanned out to run independent sleeper cells across the country.
"Even though 25-odd SIMI activists have been arrested since then, over 100 of its men must be prowling in different cities with their modules remaining intact in Delhi as well where they have some illegal Bangladeshi nationals on their rolls as foot soldiers," said a senior official referring to Nagori's 50-page interrogation report.
Sleuths also observed that Nagori's disclosure about the outfit's camps in Dharwad not taking up explosive training in detail may explain why the Mehrauli bomb appeared to be a crude one -- a handiwork of someone not well trained. Nagori had mentioned that the training for bomb-making remained exclusive for a select group of persons (who might have been arrested) and some others who had gone to Pakistan to learn the art. He told his interrogators that there were 30-40 trainees in Karachi during 2006-07. Similarly, Nagori and others had mentioned during their interrogation that special training in "bike riding" had been given to SIMI activists.
Taking cue from such disclosures in April, IB sleuths now wonder whether the same bikers who got training in Dharwad camp had carried out the blast in Mehrauli -- a possibility which is being looked into now, particularly when Delhi Police continues to grope in the dark for leads.
The home ministry has, meanwhile, postponed a northern zonal council meeting which was scheduled to be held in Shimla on Monday and instead called senior cops of anti-terrorist squad (ATS) of different states to discuss the terror issue here in the wake of Saturday's blast.
CMs of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and HP and representatives of Delhi, Chandigarh and J&K were supposed to attend the gathering in Shimla. Sources in the ministry said the meeting of ATS cops would mainly be with the IB sleuths who have been coordinating with the state police in conducting operations in the wake of serial blasts here on September 13.
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09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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President Asif Ali Zardari has said Pakistan will initiate a trial against Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden or his second-in-command Aiman Al-Zawahiri, if it captures them, Geo News reported on Sunday. The channel quoted the president as telling CNN that the two Al Qaeda leaders could also be handed over to the US to face trail if 'friends advise' Pakistan to do so. Zardari said those who killed his wife former premier Benazir Bhutto could also target him. "Those who killed my wife are also after me," he said. Zardari said US incursions into the Federally Administered Tribal Areas would be counterproductive. The president ruled out the possibility of a war between the two countries. "Friendly fire is a normal thing even among US soldiers," he said.
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09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
1) They won't be captured by the paks, though they may eventually be captured in pakistain.
2) Revolving door graphic alert if they are "captured" by the paks...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/29/2008 11:20 Comments ||
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#2
i think they would be stepping into one hell of a pile of shit if they didn't turn them over too the US
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is likely to announce in the next 48 hours the names of fact finding commission members who will investigate the assassination of the late Benazir Bhutto, according to Arab television ARY One World report on Sunday. According to the channel, the commission will be sent to Islamabad after the members are formally announced. It also reported that President Asif Ali Zardari and Ban Ki Moon had earlier agreed on the formation of an international autonomous commission to investigate Benazir's death, at a meeting at the UN General Assembly on September 26.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
10 months after the assassination, they're getting a commission ready "in 48 hours."
Brewster Rockit demonstrates the UN at work:
http://www.gocomics.com/brewsterrockit/2008/09/28/?campid=0&ssns=9&
Tribal representatives from different walks of life on Sunday launched a FATA-based think tank -- Qabaily Pohan -- for realization of peace, better governance and development of the Tribal Areas. The think tank would act as lead policy council for review and recommendation of policies and rules of governance conceived and developed for the tribal region. The think tank would educate and facilitate the FATA-based stakeholders on the challenges and options to realize the shattered peace and development of tribal people. The FATA steering council would also maintain policy advocacy for devising favorable policies at government and community levels for FATA development at large. The board of governors would initially comprise 10 members representing the core FATA sectors. The think tank's strength would be increased later on. Naveed Ahmad Shinwari, Chief Executive Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (CAMP), is the pioneering chairman of the think tank.
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09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The think tank would act as lead policy council for review and recommendation of policies and rules of governance conceived and developed for the tribal region. The think tank would educate and facilitate the FATA-based stakeholders on the challenges and options to realize the shattered peace and development of tribal people.
There is a mission statement worthy of ACORN and The One.
(PTI) New Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari is keen in trying to improve Indo-Pak relations and it came through clearly during his talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but it remains to be seen whether he will be able to implement anti-terror measures, official sources said today.
The sources said the joint statement after Zardari-Singh talks was a great step where Zardari was willing to say something in public to take on terrorism.
With Zardari making it known that he is only a 14-day president, India was not anxious to put him on the dock on terrorism issues, the sources said.
The President is committed but it remains to be seen whether he will implement the anti-terror measures, the sources said. Pakistan's resolve to jointly fight terrorism along with India was music to India's ears, the sources said.
The sources said both Bush and Singh were not sure if Zardari will be able to deliver on his promises.
Giving some more inputs on the talks between the Prime Minister and US President George W Bush, the sources said Iran did not figure and the Indian delegation was surprised when it did not come up. The sources said there was no attempt to impose ideas on India and there was no pressure on what positions it should take on international issues.
With Bush in the midst of strategies to deal with financial meltdown, sources said National Security Adviser M K Narayanan was asked by the Prime Minister to get in touch with his US counterpart Stephen Hadley and explore the option of shortening the meeting of the two leaders and cancelling the dinner if required to enable the President to be focussed.
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09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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The investigators tracing the financiers of terror modules in Uttar Pradesh appear to have stumbled upon a complex jigsaw related to the funding of terror groups. They have found that apart from Hawala networks, funds were also being routed through bank accounts in the form of drafts, making it all the more difficult for IB sleuths to trace the real source of such finances.
ATS sources said that one of the suspected financiers, an Azamgarh-based businessman, is learned to have provided Rs 1 lakh to the terror module busted in Delhi. These funds were used by the module to coordinate their terror plans.
"Apart from Hawala, it seems these people have used their business bank accounts to forward the cash," said a senior ATS officer. The modus-operandi could be similar to the one exposed by Central probe agencies in Kashmir with the arrest of one Shahabuddin of Rampur, UP, a few years ago.
Shahabuddin was found with 22 bank drafts valued at Rs 15.5 lakh. It was later revealed that these drafts were issued by an ISI-controlled business firm in the Middle East and were meant for some wholesalers in Delhi and Mumbai. These wholesalers used to supply goods worth the amount received through draft to retailers in the Valley. Once the goods were sold by the retailers, the sales proceeds were passed on to terror groups.
"Suppose an establishment selling Banarasi sarees in Varanasi receives a draft worth Rs 70,000 from a firm in Middle East," explained a source. "The Varanasi businessman would then hand over sarees worth the draft amount to a retailer from, say, Azamgarh. This Azamgarh retailer will sell the sarees and hand over the sales proceeds to the terror group," the officer said.
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09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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U.S. special operations forces have paused ground operations in Pakistans tribal areas, but military and civilian government officials differ over why the cross-border raids have been halted.
The issue of U.S. raids into the tribal areas was thrust into the international spotlight by a Sept. 3 raid in Angor Adda, in the South Waziristan tribal agency, by Navy SEALs working for a Joint Special Operations Command task force.
We have shown a willingness starting this year to pursue those kinds of missions, said a Pentagon official. However, he said, after temporarily granting JSOC greater latitude to conduct cross-border missions, U.S. leaders had decided to again restrain the command, at least as far as raids using ground troops are concerned, to allow Pakistani forces to press home their attacks on militants in the tribal areas.
We are now working with the Pakistanis to make sure that those type of ground-type insertions do not happen, at least for a period of time to give them an opportunity to do what they claim they are desiring to do, the Pentagon official said, adding that this did not apply to air strikes launched from unmanned aerial vehicles at targets inside the tribal areas.
But a U.S. government official closely involved with policy in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region said the military had underestimated the Pakistani response and was reconsidering its options.
The officials comments were echoed by a field grade special operations officer with Afghanistan experience. The Sept. 3 raid was an opportunity to see how the new Pakistani government reacted, the officer said. If they didnt do anything, they were just kind of fairly passive, like [former Pakistani President Pervez] Musharraf was then we felt like, okay, we can slowly up the ante, we can do maybe some more of these ops. But the backlash that happened, and especially the backlash in the diplomatic channels, was pretty severe.
The raid represented a strategic miscalculation, the U.S. government official said. We did not fully appreciate the vehemence of the Pakistani response, which included the Pakistan governments implication that it was willing to cut the coalitions supply lines through Pakistan. I dont think we really believed it was going to go to that level, the government official said.
The militarys comments about the Sept. 3 raid sending a message represented a smokescreen, said the government official, who added that the mission was meant to be the beginning of a campaign. We miscalculated, and now were trying to figure out how to walk the dog back. One way to do that is to say, Oh well, we wanted to send a message; weve now sent that message, and so were going to not send it as much in the future, yet were still sort of leaving it on the table, because as we all know, we never admit to a mistake.
Once the Pakistanis started talking about closing down our supply routes, and actually demonstrated they could do it, once they started talking about shooting American helicopters, we obviously had to take seriously that maybe this [approach] was not going to be good enough, the government official said. We cant sustain ourselves in Afghanistan without the Pakistani supply routes. At the end of the day, we had to not let our tactics get in the way of our strategy. As much as it may be good to get some of these bad guys, we cant do it at the expense of being able to sustain ourselves in Afghanistan, obviously.
#2
the officer said. "If they didn't do anything, they were just kind of fairly passive, like [former Pakistani President Pervez] Musharraf was ... then we felt like, okay, we can slowly up the ante, we can do maybe some more of these ops. But the backlash that happened, and especially the backlash in the diplomatic channels, was pretty severe."
Doesn't sound like an officer to me. Maybe a petty officer or an ensign. Seeing how well sourced this was, maybe it was officer Rita the Meter Maid.
#7
It's a strategic pause because the NY Times reported that Bush officially OK'd attacks and raids into Pakistan and thereby got the Pakistani sovereignty feathers in a ruffle.
"If they cross our border, we'll shoot them down."
Ramadan Tales of Woe, live from the Gaza Strip...
Gaza -- Ma'an report - As Ramadan comes to a close and the final celebration of Eid Al-Fitr approaches, Muslims in Gaza are flooding into markets to buy what food and small gifts they can find and afford. They should go to the place where Blair's sister in law did her shopping. Looks like they had tons of shit. Snickers anyways...
The goods they find, however, have mostly been smuggled in through the network of tunnels that run beneath the Egypt-Gaza border. The events of Ramadan and of Eid in particular reflect the crisis brought on by the underground market and the tunnels that fuel them. So how come you waited to the last minute, Abu?
Awwww, you know...since the truce, we've been really busy at the metal shop...
The goods, however, have so far this year cost 45 Palestinians their lives, having been crushed or suffocated by the debris and gas in the underground tunnels. Families of these victims have called for the opening of the Rafah crossing so goods do not have to cost lives. Despite the high wages tunnel workers can bring home, families of the dead tunnel workers say that it is better to get the goods legitimately, and put an end to the underground trade. He told me, "Ma, don't kill the job". Shows what he knew, wise guy.
Informed sources in Gaza's security services have told Ma'an that the government plans to charge tunnel operators 40 thousand Jordanian dinars per worker that they send through the tunnels. This amount is in case of death, and will be handed over to the family of the deceased as a sort of social security. Suuuure. It's...ummmmmmmmm...for the guys. Yessirree...
That operators are willing to pay this "tax" on the life of their laborers indicates how lucrative the business is, especially given the high price of goods on the black market. Moreover, since shop owners can claim anything as smuggled in, prices can go up on any goods at any time, with the justification that they were smuggled in. So look for the smugglers label. It tells you this is an official product of the Gaza Tunnel Authority. You'll feel better paying through the nose for it.
A spokesperson for the families of tunnel victims said that Gazan youth go looking for jobs in the tunnels, since there are no other opportunities available in Gaza. "Thousands of youth," he said "have daily shifts in the tunnels" and added that 90% of those who died perished in accidents caused by Egyptian authorities trying to put a stop to the tunnel industry. Anybody in there?
Nope.
Okay. BOOM...
"Recently," he added, "Egyptian police have even entered the tunnels to arrest people." You're under arrest, tunnel boy.
Come and get me coppers!
Nah. BOOM...
All along the Gaza-Rafah border hundreds of tunnels, some barely a hundred meters apart, stretch beneath the "no man's land" separating Gaza from Egypt. The employees take home upwards of 300 US dollars per month, though the merchants are the real benefactors. Nooooo I ain't gonna work in Mahmoud's tunnel no more...
The black market industry fueled by goods arriving through illegal tunnels beneath the Gaza-Egypt border has been working overtime to fill markets with hard to find goods. Since goods have been brought in by smugglers and taxed to boot, prices are high and unemployed and poor Gazans cannot afford the goods. Hey, Mo didn't have no cheap Egyptian motorcycle, so suck it up.
Gazan mothers traditionally head to markets and shop for new clothing for children before the Eid celebrations, this year they have come home empty handed. Umm Ramez commented, "people have paid their lives for bringing goods in through the tunnels, and the cost goes right to the citizens." Hamas becomes the middleman and passes the graft onto you...
Abu Jamal, who is the bread winner of a family of five said "what drives my wife crazy is the high price of children's clothing these days. Every day she tries to buy what she needs but returns empty handed because of the high prices." He suggested that the government should begin monitoring prices, saying that local traders and merchants were gouging the people because they had no other options or places to purchase their holiday goods. So then we go to the UNRWA and get it for nothing.
Some Gazans say prices have changed from one day to the next. One woman related her experience of shopping for a winter jacket for her children. She had a little money to spend and so visited one of the "elegant" Gaza shops and asked about the price of a jacket she had her eyes on. She found the price too much, but went back the next day to ask again and perhaps bargain with the owner. When she asked the price it had doubled, and again she walked out empty handed. She also suggested that prices be monitored. They are monitoring them. How else would they know how much they can shake them down for?
#1
"A spokesperson for the families of tunnel victims said that Gazan youth go looking for jobs in the tunnels, since there are no other opportunities available in Gaza."
There used to be greenhouses there that folks could work in if i remember correctly, but they got kinda, sorta, broken-like....
TFB, idiots.
Israeli interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said a bomb attack on a pro-Palestinian historian appeared to have been carried out by a right-wing group and warned of a "bad wind" of extremism in some parts of the country. "A new ultranationalist underground is apparently active in Israel and responsible for a bombing that wounded an outspoken critic of Jewish settlement in the West Bank," Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday.
The attack on Thursday at the home of political scientist Zeev Sternhell rekindled fears that ideological friction in Israel could explode into internal violence as its leaders pursue a land-for-peace deal with Palestinians.
After the explosion outside Sternhell's home, police found posters in his neighborhood offering a one million shekel (294,000 dollars) reward to anyone killing a member of Israel's Peace Now movement, which opposes Jewish settlement on land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.
"The security agencies have been ordered to deal with this case, investigate it and act with the utmost speed to bring to justice what appears to be another underground," Olmert told his cabinet in broadcast remarks.
Olmert compared the bombing with the 1995 assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish ultranationalist and a hand grenade attack that killed a Peace Now activist in 1983.
Sternhell, a leading opponent of settlement building in the Palestinian territories, was slightly wounded by the pipe bomb that blew up at the gate to his home in Jerusalem.
A week ago, Olmert used the evocative imagery of violence against Jews in Russia in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in condemning as a "pogrom" a Jewish settler rampage in a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank. Settlers shot and wounded three people in Asira al-Kabaliya on Sept. 13 after a Palestinian stabbed a Jewish boy in the nearby settlement. "A bad wind of extremism, hate, evil, violence and contempt for state authorities is blowing through certain sectors of the Israeli public and threatening Israeli democracy," said Olmert, who is engaged in peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
In the 1980s, a Jewish underground group, acting after six Jewish seminary students were killed in a Palestinian attack, carried out bombings that maimed several West Bank mayors and a shooting in an Islamic college that killed three students. Members of the group were jailed but the sentences were later commuted by then-President Chaim Herzog.
Commenting at Sunday's cabinet session on more recent events, Defense Minister Ehud Barak echoed human rights groups in saying that settlers who take the law into their own hands in the West Bank rarely face trial and those who are prosecuted receive light penalties.
Near the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday, a Palestinian shepherd, 18-year-old Yahya Atta Bani Menna, was found shot dead and Palestinians accused Jewish settlers of killing him. Israeli police said they were investigating.
Although Olmert supports trading territory for peace, he has insisted that Israel will hang on to major settlement enclaves in the West Bank in any final peace deal and that it is entitled to continue to build homes there. Palestinians say settlements are an obstacle to peace and could deny them a viable and contiguous state in the West Bank.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Given the man's complete lack of credibility due to police investigation after police investigation - followed (most belatedly by his resignation)- I am appalled at his chutzpah.
#4
Aw, come on, give the land-for-peace thing a chance. Just because it has failed miserably every time in the past and has arguably made the situation worse does not mean it will do so again. Like they say, Nth times the charm!
#6
And, if those jewish underground people ever get caught (and they will, as I'm sure the State will put much pressure on it)... no prisoners swap for you! And no early release!
Sucks to be on the wrong side of the Leviathan.
In recent weeks, senior defense officials have been singing the praises of their Palestinian colleagues. After years of suspicion about the Palestinian Authority, Israeli officials are now convinced that the PA is resolved to deal with Hamas, which is threatening to take over the West Bank as it did the Gaza Strip. Palestinian officials admit to receiving assistance from Israel and the United States and have arrested hundreds of Hamas activists and closed down dozens of its charity organizations.
But the picture is more complicated than that. While Fatah's security professionals seek conflict with Hamas, the movement's political faction wishes to reconcile with Hamas and redirect the anger at Israel.
Eight years after the second intifada's eruption, the controversy in the PA could lead to a renewed conflict between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank. The recent incidents between extremist settlers and Palestinians could contribute to the conflagration.
Many Palestinians describe June 14, 2007 - the day Hamas forcibly ousted the last Fatah forces from the Gaza Strip - as the day the second intifada died. The Hamas takeover of Gaza jump-started several processes, mainly the dismantling of Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in the West Bank, once the backbone of the violent struggle against Israel.
Meanwhile, Hamas has agreed to a temporary cease-fire with Israel and stopped the rocket fire from Gaza. But Fatah activists say that they see the lack of progress in the peace talks, coupled with continued construction in the settlements and increased settler violence, as a recipe for renewed conflagration. This is exacerbated by their growing dissatisfaction with the PA's functioning and its helplessness in the face of Israel's infringements on Palestinian interests, whereas Hamas maintains complete control of Gaza.
Last week, Kadoura Fares, a leader of the Palestinian "peace coalition," called on PA President Mahmoud Abbas to halt the talks with Israel immediately. Fares, a key Fatah leader from the generation below Abbas, made this statement at a conference on the Geneva Initiative in Tel Aviv. He said it was inconceivable for Abbas to keep talking with Israel while construction in the settlements continued.
Fares' statement reflects the dissatisfaction felt by many Fatah members of his generation in the West Bank, such as Hussam Khader of the Balata refugee camp, a key figure in both intifadas. Younger Fatah members - people once active in the Al-Aqsa Brigades, who are in Palestinian custody because they have not yet received amnesty from Israel - also warn of an approaching confrontation with Israel.
Israeli intelligence officials do not believe the West Bank is ripe for a third intifada, because the Palestinian public is still weary of the suffering caused by the last round. It is doubtful that Fatah could sweep the masses into another violent struggle against Israel, they say.
But the continued friction with the settlers - and certainly a Jewish terror attack against Arabs in the West Bank - could provide the spark, just as opposition leader Ariel Sharon's visit to Temple Mount did eight years ago. That could be pretext enough for Fatah militants, who have been hiding their weapons under their mattresses, to aim them at Israelis once again.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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The spokesman of National Security Commission of Iran's parliament said Sunday that Iran does not accept any United Nations Security Council resolution aiming at sanctions, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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Beirutis breathed a sigh of relief this weekend as political party flags, banners and pictures that once festooned the Lebanese capital's streets came down following their prohibition in support of reconciliation efforts between rival factions.
"It will calm down the youth in Lebanon," Maha Chehadeh, 31, told AlArabiya.net. "First of all it cleans our streets, also it's better because you know how emotional we are."
In a country that has seen deep political divisions played out in street clashes, political posters can often be the spark of a violent incident. Sectarian fighting spread throughout Lebanon leaving 65 killed in May after the Syria- and Iran- backed Shiite Hezbollah movement led an armed takeover of large swathes of predominantly Sunni west Beirut. A peace accord sealed later that month led to the election of President Michel Suleiman, filling a six-month void, and the formation of a national unity cabinet.
However, political tensions continue to spill over into the streets. Two weeks ago, two people were killed in fighting that broke out over the hanging of a political banner in the north of the country, leading many to see the new ban as a safety measure.
"It is a good idea because it might stop people from hurting each other, but at the same time isn't it against the notion of the freedom of expression?" said Halim Hanna, 37.
Until Friday night, Beirut's streets and buildings were plastered with posters, party flags and portraits of political leaders both dead and alive, emblematic of the intense divide among feuding clans. The political leanings and often sectarian identity of a neighborhood was immediately apparent from the party paraphernalia that decorated its streets.
The latest move, announced by parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri Thursday, has everybody talking, filling the airwaves and the press. Everybody in Lebanon is talking about it on television and in the press, said Chehadeh. "Hopefully everybody will stick to it."
An agreement between Hezbollah and its rival Future Movement saw the posters start to come down in Beirut and with a vow to continue throughout the rest of Lebanon, in the wake of Thursday's announcement by Saad Hariri, who heads the Future Movement and the parliamentary majority.
Internal Security Forces stood by on Friday night as party members carried away billboard-size pictures of Hariri and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah. Posters were ripped off walls and party flags disappeared from most of the city's streets, but some were skeptical if the move was enough.
"In principle, it's a good step. But it doesn't solve anything. You're curing the side effects and not the core of the problem," said Suha Menessa, 26. "The pictures aren't the problem, the political discourse and bickering is the problem."
Lebanon's rival political leaders have been working toward reconciling their differences ahead of a national dialogue which will set the tone for parliamentary elections due next year.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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Kuwait's interior minister urged Iran in remarks published on Saturday not to provide a safe haven for "terrorists" but said there was no proof of claims that Tehran has sleeper cells in his country. "Iran should not serve as a haven for, or bankroller of, terror," Sheikh Jaber Khaled al-Sabah was quoted as telling the Saudi daily Okaz.
It said Sheikh Jaber called on Iran "not to harbor terrorists from al-Qaeda and not to serve as a launch pad or safe passage for terrorists."
Despite the implicit accusation that Iran harbors terror suspects, Sheikh Jaber dismissed claims by two Kuwaiti MPs that sleeper cells attached to Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards were operating in the oil-rich Gulf state. "I wish the two MPs had shown the evidence they have. Intelligence (services) are present everywhere" but it is up to a country's security services to deal with them, Sheikh Jaber said. "So far we did not uncover any such" Iran-linked cells, he said.
Kuwait's defense minister on Monday dismissed as "mere rumors" a claim that spy rings from neighboring countries were in the emirate. He did not specifically name Iran, but was apparently referring to a claim by an Iranian defector that the Revolutionary Guards run sleeper cells in the six Arab monarchies of the Gulf.
Iran's Defense Minister Mustafa Mohammad Najjar has denied the allegation.
In the remarks reported by Okaz, the Kuwaiti interior minister did not rule out that al-Qaeda may have sleeper cells in Kuwait. "We do not deny this, and we do not deny that we are always on the alert, as our security forces have shown... I do not rule out the presence of (al-Qaeda-linked) groups whether in Kuwait or in the Gulf," he said.
Kuwaiti security forces fought deadly gun battles with a group linked to al-Qaeda in January 2005.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Iran urges Kuwait to STFU..... Russia urges Iran to purchase more weapons..... O'bla, bla, blama urges US citizens not to worry about Iran because it is a "...tiny country..." that doesn't "...pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us."
A senior Lebanese cleric has accused CIA and Mossad of masterminding a bombing in the Syrian capital of Damascus that killed 17 people. Sheikh Ahmad Abdel Amir Kabalan, the deputy head of Lebanon's High Shia Council, also said that it was possible some Arab countries collaborated with the US and Israel in the plot.
The bombing that took place in a southern suburb of Damascus on Saturday left at least 17 people dead and 14 others wounded. Kabalan said the terrorist attack was part of a bigger scheme to destabilize Syria and the entire Middle East region. He did not rule out the possibility that certain Arab countries which see the recent developments in the Middle East against their interests, had a hand in the blast.
The bombing was the deadliest terror attack in Syria in nearly three decades.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm shocked it took them 48 hours or so to blame the Jews...
#2
Ummm, I assume that you mean
"You're shocked the accusation wasn't in miliseconds?"
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/29/2008 9:45 Comments ||
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#3
Maybe this delay in accusations is a sign of more tolerance in the ME?
I would think the debris would still be in the air and they would be calling out the CIA on this one.
I think Syria is getting their just due dancing with the AQ devil...and maybe those smoke signals that they want to hold talks with the US are a sign they are up to their swiss bank accounts in islamonutjobs.
Posted by: James Carville ||
09/29/2008 10:51 Comments ||
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Syria's security forces were hunting Sunday for the culprits behind a car bombing that killed 17 people in an attack analysts said could have been aimed at splitting the country's alliance with Iran or deterring it from becoming too friendly with the West.
Saturday's bombing near a Shiite shrine in Damascus, one of the deadliest attacks in the country in two decades, drew worldwide condemnation, including from the United States which has repeatedly accused Syria of fueling unrest in Iraq and Lebanon.
A car packed with 200 kilograms of explosives blew up near a security checkpoint on a road to Damascus airport in what Interior Minister General Bassam Abdel-Majid called "a terrorist act." All the casualties were civilians, Abdel-Majid told state television, adding: "A counter-terrorist unit is trying to track down the perpetrators."
Saturday's blast was the deadliest since a spate of attacks in the 1980s blamed on the Muslim Brotherhood left nearly 150 dead. It came at a time that Syria has launched indirect peace talks with arch-foe Israel, moved to establish diplomatic ties with Lebanon and opened the door to improved relations with the West.
But Syria has also witnessed the assassinations of a top Hizbullah commander and a senior general this year.
The Arab League condemned the bombing as a "a criminal operation that terrorised those who felt secure, but it won't achieve its criminal goal."
Ryad Kahwaji, a Dubai-based analyst, said no group could be above suspicion because of Syria's "contradictory regional position."
"An ally of Iran, at the same time it is holding indirect peace talks with Israel on condition - according to Israel - that it distances itself from Tehran," Kahwaji told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/29/2008 00:00 ||
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Could Signal a New Phase of Iran's Relationship With Al Qaeda
Al Qaeda is consolidating its leadership in the territory under its control in Pakistan. Osama bin Laden's son and heir apparent, Sa'ad bin Laden, has returned to Pakistan from his safe haven in Iran, according to messages posted on a Qaeda jihad Web forum known as al-Hesbah. An organization that tracks and translates discussions on such forums, the SITE Institute, provided its subscribers with a summary of messages describing what it said was an escape by Sa'ad bin Laden from an Iranian prison. American counterterrorism officials, however, have considered him to be under a permissive version of house arrest since the American invasion of Afghanistan, in 2001.
The move of Sa'ad bin Laden to Pakistan tracks with the movements of other senior jihadists to the country since Al Qaeda re-established a safe haven in the 10,500-square-mile area that comprises the provinces along the border with Afghanistan. It also could signal a new phase of Iran's relationship with Al Qaeda. For the last year, public messages from the terrorist organization's second in command, Ayman al-Zawahri, have accused Iran of collaborating with America in fighting Al Qaeda in Iraq. Leaders of the Iraqi tribal uprising against Al Qaeda, however, have said Iran has collaborated with their foes.
While Al Qaeda, a Sunni Salafist organization, regards the Shiite theocracy of Iran as an apostate form of Islam, the two sides in the past have worked together through Iran's Quds Force, an elite unit of the Iranian army. In 2001, following the American invasion of Afghanistan, most of Al Qaeda's leadership fled to Pakistan. But others, including Sa'ad bin Laden and Saif al-Adel, fled to eastern Iran. In 2003, before and after the initial invasion of Iraq, Iranian and American negotiators in Geneva discussed a possible swap of the senior Al Qaeda leaders in Iran for members of an Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujahedin, who were captured in Iraq.
The American government considers the People's Mujahedin, or MEK, a foreign terrorist organization because of attacks it has carried out inside Iran. Nonetheless, the organization was the first publicly to disclose the existence of the Natanz nuclear facility in 2002, kick-starting the current nuclear standoff between Iran and the international community. Negotiations over a MEK-Qaeda prisoner swap broke off after American intelligence agencies intercepted a message from Mr. Adel, a senior Qaeda member indicted for taking part in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa, to the plotters of the May 2003 terrorist attacks in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
An American counterterrorism official told The New York Sun that America and allied intelligence services had been aware of negotiations to return senior Qaeda leaders to the group's safe haven in Pakistan from Iran for nearly a year. But the recent messages on al-Hesbah provided the final confirmation that Sa'ad bin Laden has returned to Pakistan. The SITE Institute translation of an exchange on the forum between "Asad al-Jihad 2" and "al-Gharib al-Ha'ili" suggests that the news was meant to be hidden at first from even fellow believers.
"Asad al-Jihad 2" writes: "Dear brother, we know a lot of matters, including what concerns Sa'ad, the son of Sheikh Osama, but we do not write. Did the brothers permit you to post them?!! Or is it just an effort on your part?!!" "Al-Gharib al-Ha'ili" responds: "Brother, Asad al-Jihad 2, it is not an effort. I only wrote what I was permitted to post without any details." In the next post, "al-Gharib al-Ha'ili" writes that his initial message about Sa'ad bin Laden was mistaken, but another jihadist later posted that the original information was correct. The messages contain a mention of at least four Al Qaeda leaders who have returned from Iran.
The intelligence community has suspected since June, according to ABC News, that Sa'ad bin Laden has returned to Pakistan to be with his father, who is believed to be hiding out along the Afghan-Pakistani border. A counterterrorism official told the Sun that hosting Sa'ad bin Laden was "an insurance policy for Iran," which the official said gave Iran leverage with Al Qaeda because the state was responsible for the well-being of the leader's son.
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.
Afghanistan's foreign minister on Sunday denied reports that the government was in contact with Taliban insurgents to negotiate an end to the conflict. 
Covert negotiations have begun with the Taliban in Afghanistan through a back channel Saudi-sponsored initiative, on the request of the Karzai government, a report by Jason Burke in The Observer said on Sunday.
At least 52 Somali nationals have died in the Gulf of Aden as they tried to make their way to Yemen, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Sunday. Engine failure on the errant boat in which they were travelling left the passengers without food or water for 18 days.
A group of European tourists and their Egyptian guides who were kidnapped by armed bandits in a remote desert 10 days ago have been freed unharmed and half the kidnappers killed, officials said on Monday. "The hostages have been freed and are in good health. They are being brought to Cairo airport," Egyptian state television quoted an official as saying. The circumstances of their release were not immediately clear. The kidnappers -- whose identities remain unknown -- had demanded a ransom but the television quoted an official as saying no money had been paid. Egypt's Defence Minister Hussein Tantawi said that "half of the kidnappers were eliminated," the official MENA news agency reported.
Tribal representatives from different walks of life on Sunday launched a FATA-based think tank -- Qabaily Pohan -- for realization of peace, better governance and development of the Tribal Areas. The think tank would act as lead policy council for review and recommendation of policies and rules of governance conceived and developed for the tribal region. The think tank would educate and facilitate the FATA-based stakeholders on the challenges and options to realize the shattered peace and development of tribal people. The FATA steering council would also maintain policy advocacy for devising favorable policies at government and community levels for FATA development at large. The board of governors would initially comprise 10 members representing the core FATA sectors. The think tank's strength would be increased later on. Naveed Ahmad Shinwari, Chief Executive Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (CAMP), is the pioneering chairman of the think tank.
The investigators tracing the financiers of terror modules in Uttar Pradesh appear to have stumbled upon a complex jigsaw related to the funding of terror groups. They have found that apart from Hawala networks, funds were also being routed through bank accounts in the form of drafts, making it all the more difficult for IB sleuths to trace the real source of such finances. 
Could Signal a New Phase of Iran's Relationship With Al Qaeda
