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Puntland Coasties free Panama ship from pirates
Today's Headlines
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Page 2: WoT Background
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Africa Horn
Burundi completes its troops Somalia deployment
(SomaliNet) In what brings to about 3,400 the total number of African Union peacekeepers stationed in Somalia, Burundi has completed its deployment of another 850 soldiers to Somalia, an army spokesman said Tuesday.

"Burundi had already deployed some 850 soldiers to Somalia as part of AMISOM (African mission in Somalia)," Adolphe Manirakiza told AFP. "Now it has sent to Mogadishu, between October 11 and 13, a second battalion of 850 soldiers, bringing to 1,700 the number of our (Burundian) soldiers who are helping the Somalis in their quest for peace," he said.

Meanwhile on Sunday, two Burundian troops were wounded when a bomb exploded near Mogadishu airport as the new contingent was being deployed.

Uganda was the first country to contribute troops to AMISOM in March 2007 and Burundi followed in 2008, but the force is still far short of the 8,000 soldiers initially announced by the AU.
Posted by: Fred || 10/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: Islamic Courts


'Just like any business:' For Somali pirates, 'ransom represents a legal tax'
As Somalia sinks ever deeper into hunger and despair, attacking foreign ships bottle-necking into the Gulf of Aden is proving to be one of the few profitable activities in the country. Abdi Garad, who describes himself as the commander of one of the first groups of pirates who started marauding Somalia's much-frequented waters, has no qualms about listing the benefits derived from piracy.

"We enjoy life with the money we get as a ransom," he told AFP from an undisclosed location in the semi-autonomous breakaway region of Puntland.

Abdi Garad boasts a large flat in one of Puntland's main towns, owns two fully equipped SUVs, three cell-phones, a satellite phone and a laptop.

Last on his list, but maybe not least, he says he recently married two more wives to add to the lone spouse he had before launching his career in piracy.

Residents have also reported a boom in lavish wedding parties in the Puntland town of Garowe since the hijacking of mainly merchant vessels off Somalia's lawless coastline became a weekly occurrence last year.

According to experts, the surge in piracy has raked in up to $30 million in ransom money since the start of the year alone, causing jitters in world trade and attracting unprecedented attention to a forgotten country.

But Garad remains a far cry from the romantic image of the swashbuckling buccaneers that wreaked havoc in the 17th century Caribbean and claims to be engaged in a legitimate nationalist struggle.

"This is just like any business for us. We care about it just like anyone would care about their job. I have been on the ocean for a long time, not to fish but to hunt down ships in our territorial waters, which nobody will guard if I don't do it," he said.

"We're defending our waters from foreigners dumping toxic waste and plundering our sea resources. I hope the world can understand this is the responsibility of Somalis and we shall one day be rewarded for our efforts."

In Puntland's coastal villages, not everyone sees the pirates as heroic freelance coast guardsmen but most show respect for the men and their money.

"They have a lot of money and they can buy everything without even looking at the price," said Mohammad Abdi Dige, a trader in Puntland's main port and economic capital Bossaso.

"We give them supplies, medicines, food, fuel and clothes when they go to sea to stalk ships and they pay us after they obtain the ransom."


Pirates have had the chance to share the spoils, distributing the ransom money to friends, relatives and local officials across clan lines.

Bile Mohamoud Qabowsade, adviser to the president of Puntland, said such an approach has meant the pirates have built an informal network providing logistical and political back-up onshore.

"Many people like the pirates for their pockets. They have money and give to their relatives and friends. That money goes through many hands, which in return gives them support among the community," he said.
Posted by: Fred || 10/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "We're defending our waters from foreigners dumping toxic waste and plundering our sea resources. I hope the world can understand this is the responsibility of Somalis and we shall one day be rewarded for our efforts."

Ah, I get it. They're like Somalia Greenpeace...
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/15/2008 9:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Well, next time don't have your environmental operatives open the sealed containers on Iranian ships, and things will be more, uh, ecologic.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/15/2008 11:16 Comments || Top||

#3  "Legal tax", huh?

And tell me, what do those cluster munitions wiping out your village represent, genius?
Posted by: mojo || 10/15/2008 11:26 Comments || Top||

#4  Not that I am defending piracy, but they do make a concerning point, especially after the report to radioactive sand on board the captured Iranian ship making everyone deathly ill. From another AP article:
ROME — Anti-Mafia prosecutors said Tuesday they are investigating a reported Mafia death threat against the Italian author of "Gomorra," the best-selling expose on the criminal underworld in Naples...
The prosecutor said the reported threat involved an attack along a highway, which also would target Saviano's police escort.

Saviano has been under police protection since 2006 when his book "Gomorra," denouncing the Camorra's hold on everything from garment industry to drug running to waste disposal, became a best-seller in Italy...Saviano said Camorra-run companies routinely win contracts to dispose of toxic waste from northern Italian industries by underbidding competitors, then dispose of it illegally and untreated in the region's rivers and dumps.(or sell it to terrorists who could use it in a dirty bomb)

Posted by: Thealing Borgia 122 || 10/15/2008 12:04 Comments || Top||

#5  Don't forget that they take hostages for Ransom. That in itself would negate their claim of 'defending their shores from toxic waste'.

If they were truely defending their shores they would demand an end to 'dumping of toxic waste'. I've never heard that little tidbit in any of their demands.

Funny how that little claim only came after they opened up the Iranian ship (which, most likely, wasn't even destined for their shores anyway).
Posted by: CrazyFool || 10/15/2008 12:43 Comments || Top||

#6  I'm still waiting for our government to deal with this people as they deserve. I know da$$$$ well BHO won't do it, so it might be awhile.
Posted by: Old Patriot || 10/15/2008 12:56 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Sharia V. Capitalisim
---They Hate our freedom, but love their Sharia --- MWO

A thriving financial sector sounds like an oxymoron these days. Even Australia's banks - among the most profitable in the world - kept a fifth of this week's interest rate cut to cushion their margins. But there is one sector that has tongues wagging in the hubs of commerce: Islamic finance.

While the Western world's financial system has been imploding, this small but rapidly growing share of world capital has weathered the storm.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: mac w only || 10/15/2008 10:51 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Just think, if we adopt their ways, the majority of us could live like the majority of them do. Wouldn't that be great! We can aspire to live in poverty! Brilliant.
Posted by: Betty || 10/15/2008 22:30 Comments || Top||

#2  ION WAFF.com > DID PAKISTAN SELL A MILITARY BASE TO AMERICA!? US-sovereign enclave = GITMO-IZATION in Pakland, allegedly only 20 kms from Federal Capital near Tarbela, and also close to Paki Nucfacs/Nucbases???
Posted by: JosephMendiola || 10/15/2008 23:20 Comments || Top||


Europe
PKK says Ankara is 'weaving plots' to divide Kurds
The military commander of the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has accused Ankara of seeking conflict with Iraqi Kurds through its charges that they are sheltering rebel fighters in their mountainous semi-autonomous region. "Turkey wants to drag the Kurdistan region into war by accusing Iraqi Kurds of harboring us," Murat Karayilan told AFP in an interview in his remote mountain hideout in northern Iraq.

His comments came as a Turkish delegation prepared to meet the president of the Iraqi Kurdish region, Massud Barzani, in Baghdad to discuss Ankara's grievances.

"Their main objective is to weaken the Iraqi Kurds' position in their disputes with Baghdad," said Karayilan, who heads the PKK's military wing in its quarter-century-old insurgency against Turkish rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast. "Turkey's bombing of our camps in the mountains is aimed at stirring up the Kurdistan region and at weaving plots on the Kirkuk issue," he added.

The Iraqi Kurds have long demanded the incorporation of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk in their semi- autonomous region, but Baghdad has opposed their claims, fearing that the province's rich revenues will give a boost to Kurdish nationalist ambitions. Turkey has championed the interests of the province's Turkmen minority, who, like the Arab settlers poured in by executed President Saddam Hussein's regime, are strongly opposed to any change in the status quo.

Turkish warplanes have been bombing Kurdish rebel hideouts across the border in northern Iraq since PKK militants killed 17 soldiers in an attack against a border outpost on October 3.

Turkish military and civilian leaders have held a series of talks on tougher action against the rebels after Parliament renewed authorization for a possible ground incursion into northern Iraq following the border attack.
Posted by: Fred || 10/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sweating, are they? Good. Little commie bastards.
Posted by: Mitch H. || 10/15/2008 7:54 Comments || Top||

#2  Whereas I suppose the PKK wants to unite the Kurds behind Vladimir Putin?
Posted by: Tranquil Mechanical Yeti || 10/15/2008 10:19 Comments || Top||


Fifth Column
Steering Committee To Seek Prosecution of Bush For War Crimes
Massachusetts law school Dean Lawrence Velvel will chair a Steering Committee to pursue the prosecution for war crimes of President Bush and culpable high-ranking aides after they leave office Jan. 20th.

The Steering Committee was organized following a conference of leading legal authorities and scholars from the U.S. and abroad convened by Velvel on Sept. 13-14 in Andover, Mass., titled "The More..Justice Robert Jackson Conference On Planning For The Prosecution of High Level American War Criminals."

"If Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and others are not prosecuted," Velvel said, "the future could be threatened by additional examples of Executive lawlessness by leaders who need fear no personal consequences for their actions, including more illegal wars such as Iraq."

Besides Velvel, members of the Steering Committee include:

Ben Davis, a law Professor at the University of Toledo College of Law, where he teaches Public International Law and International Business Transactions. He is the author of numerous articles on international and related domestic law.

Marjorie Cohn, a law Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, Calif., and President of the National Lawyers Guild.

Chris Pyle, a Professor at Mount Holyoke College, where he teaches Constitutional law, Civil Liberties, Rights of Privacy, American Politics and American Political Thought, and is the author of many books and articles.

Elaine Scarry, the Walter M. Cabot Professor of Aesthetics and the General Theory of Value at Harvard University, and winner of the Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism.

Peter Weiss, vice president of the Center For Constitutional Rights, of New York City, which was recently involved with war crimes complaints filed in Germany and Japan against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and others.

David Swanson, author, activist and founder of AfterDowningStreet.org/CensureBush.org coalition, of Charlottesville, Va.

Kristina Borjesson, an award-winning print and broadcast journalist for more than twenty years and editor of two recent books on the media.

Colleen Costello, Staff Attorney of Human Rights, USA, of Washington, D.C., and coordinator of its efforts involving torture by the American government.

Valeria Gheorghiu, attorney for Workers' Rights Law Center.

Andy Worthington of Redress, a British historian and journalist and author of books dealing with human rights violations.

Initial actions considered by the Steering Committee, Velvel said, are as follows:

# Seeking prosecutions of high level officials, including George Bush, for the crimes they committed.

# Seeking disbarment of lawyers who were complicitous in facilitating torture.

# Seeking termination from faculty positions of high officials who were complicitous in torture.

# Issuing a recent statement saying any attempt by Bush to pardon himself and aides for war crimes prior to leaving office will result in efforts to obtain impeachment even after they leave office.

# Convening a major conference on the state secret and executive privilege doctrines, which have been pushed to record levels during the Bush administration.

# Designation of an Information Repository Coordinator to gather in one place all available information involving the Bush Administration's war crimes.

# Possible impeachment of 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jay Bybee for co-authoring the infamous "torture memo."


By Sherwood Ross
Posted by: 3dc || 10/15/2008 19:48 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Sure. Go ahead. Give it a whirl. And watch your little dream go up in smoke in a nano-second. No one who matters is going to touch this.
Posted by: remoteman || 10/15/2008 19:53 Comments || Top||

#2  bwahahaha. Lefty Pr0n at it's most juvenile.
Posted by: Rex Mundi || 10/15/2008 19:55 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm not a violent guy, nor am I an ardent Bush supporter. Never have been really. However, I consider the actions of this group unamerican, and probably would support violence against them if they tried to carry this out.
Posted by: Penguin || 10/15/2008 19:56 Comments || Top||

#4  Massachusetts. Is it something in the water?
Posted by: Besoeker || 10/15/2008 20:33 Comments || Top||

#5  Is it something in the water? Other than Ted Kennedy's passenger?
Posted by: GK || 10/15/2008 20:51 Comments || Top||

#6  This election in Nov is a full court press of the Left for the control of the US, and the quantum change from a republic to a socialist state.

They have been working at this for a long time. I remember them in the 60s at the Univ of Calif Berkeley. Now they will if they can, as in the words of Chairman Mao, seize the time, seize the hour.

It is up to the American electorate, like it or not (and the many thousands of fraudulant voters) to decide if they will drink the Koolaid of the Left.

This is a defining time in the history of this republic. Like the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, WW2 and other events of our peril as a nation.

Never underestimate these guys. To them politics is war. The ends justify the means. They are the True Believers. McCain better get his head out of you know where and join the fight for the soul of the country. Because that is what this election is.

Not only will the party in power make the laws, but their patronage will extend everywhere. The courts will be restocked with sympathizers of the socialist state. The military will be purged of patriots and be loaded with sycophants. The schools will become indoctrination centers. That is the future with the Left.
Posted by: Alaska Paul || 10/15/2008 20:52 Comments || Top||

#7  He's still in the race. It isn't really a shutout like the Big O's camp keeps saying. You've just heard it SO much from the MSM that you are experiencing the Jedi Mind Trick effect that they have paid hundreds of millions of $$ to implement.
Posted by: bigjim-ky || 10/15/2008 22:53 Comments || Top||

#8  Having spent my youth in Assachoosetts, I can reliably inform you that "Velvel" is Ass-speak for Poopoo.
Posted by: Thrusong Sproing3473 || 10/15/2008 23:13 Comments || Top||

#9  Thanks Dean Velvel for the names of your people.

They can go on the list of people to be executed as traitors when the next civil war starts.

Enjoy kicking at the end of your rope as a domestic enemy when the day comes.
Posted by: OldSpook || 10/15/2008 23:42 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Waterboarding Memos - Again
The Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency's use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspects - documents prompted by worries among intelligence officials about a possible backlash if details of the program became public.

The classified memos, which have not been previously disclosed, were requested by then-CIA Director George J. Tenet more than a year after the start of the secret interrogations, according to four administration and intelligence officials familiar with the documents. Although Justice Department lawyers, beginning in 2002, had signed off on the agency's interrogation methods, senior CIA officials were troubled that White House policymakers had never endorsed the program in writing.

The memos were the first - and, for years, the only - tangible expressions of the administration's consent for the CIA's use of harsh measures to extract information from captured al-Qaeda leaders, the sources said. As early as the spring of 2002, several White House officials, including then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Cheney, were given individual briefings by Tenet and his deputies, the officials said. Rice, in a statement to congressional investigators last month, confirmed the briefings and acknowledged that the CIA director had pressed the White House for "policy approval."
I haven't read the rest, to see if there was a point to this, beyond another opportunity to bash Bush.
Posted by: Bobby || 10/15/2008 06:08 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  you beat me to it Bobby.

I skimmed through most of it - you pretty much nailed it. This looks like a case of CIA CYA then a little blame Bush. They wanted the admin to expressly endorse waterboarding so they'd have a paper trail. How this becames a story I don't know - some folks in the CIA need to be cleaned out methinx.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 10/15/2008 8:09 Comments || Top||

#2  BH6, if Obama wins they'll be 'cleaned out' alright: they'll be promoted.
Posted by: Steve White || 10/15/2008 9:08 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm afraid this is a part of trying to lay the groundwork for a "paper trail" to bring Bush, etc. up on war crimes.
Posted by: Sherry || 10/15/2008 10:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Steve, yeah, I'm expecting a full on Planet of the Apes scenario in this country if the One gets elected.
Posted by: Broadhead6 || 10/15/2008 10:37 Comments || Top||

#5  Well, if the dems really want to energize the opposition and piss off a whole lot of voters (who, strangely enough probably want them to focus on the present and future, not the past) then they should proceed with a war crimes trial of Bush and Cheney. They will have two years in office and then will be flushed. The Republican machine will be rolling in money. Sort of a Dirty Harry moment..."Go ahead punk, make my day!"
Posted by: remoteman || 10/15/2008 12:39 Comments || Top||


Home Front: WoT
Lawyers Criticize Quality of Guantanamo Interpreters
Something was being lost in interpretation. Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi, a Saudi national accused of war crimes and murder for his alleged role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was speaking in Arabic. Ralph H. Kohlmann, a Marine colonel and military judge at Guantanamo Bay, was listening to a simultaneous interpretation in English.

At a recent pretrial hearing, Hawsawi, according to his military lawyer, wanted to discuss the potential responsibilities of his attorneys and the implications of representing himself before the military commission. Those in the courtroom, however, often heard head-scratching sentences such as, "In the beginning of the timing of the laws, I said there is no difficulties base."

A linguist working with Hawsawi's team later estimated that half of what the defendant said was rendered incorrectly by court interpreters and that Hawsawi didn't understand at least 25 percent of what was said in English.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 10/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda

#1  "I'm innocent!" translated into:
"I admit I killed them"

Hey this will only save time
Posted by: Jan || 10/15/2008 0:54 Comments || Top||

#2  ...And who, pray tell, monitors the quality of the interpreters given to the 9/11 victims?

sarc/off

Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski || 10/15/2008 5:25 Comments || Top||

#3  too be some die hard jihadist they sure bitch and whine alot
Posted by: chris || 10/15/2008 9:13 Comments || Top||

#4  7 years since 9/11 and still no big push to train and deploy interpreters of the languages of our enemies. A critical lack of effort on our part.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 10/15/2008 9:20 Comments || Top||

#5  Dirka dirka dirka dirka dirka Mohammed.
So what did he say?
Dirka dirka dirka dirka dirka Mohammed.
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/15/2008 9:52 Comments || Top||

#6  Another example of goal post moving. I suppose the coffee is sub-standard as well. Do not be mislead by the BS claims of these defense attorneys. Any excuse, however tangential, will be wielded as a weapon to undermine our country.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike || 10/15/2008 9:55 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
'Restore peace or implement shariah in Malakand'
The government should either restore peace to the Malakand Division or implement shariah law across the region, Dawn News quoted Tehreek Nifaz Shariat-i-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Sufi Muhammad as saying. According to the channel, the TNSM chief made the demand in a news conference at a rest house in Timergarah where he has been leading a protest camp for the last six days. He said the TNSM believed in a peaceful struggle for the enforcement of shariah law in Malakand. He said the TNSM was not against the government or any other political party, but said the government should honour the wishes of the locals by enforcing Shariah in the area. Sufi said he would never close doors for dialogue with the government.The channel also reported that the NWFP government had formed a committee to convince Sufi to end his protest camp.
Posted by: Fred || 10/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: TNSM

#1  Of course TNSM will ensure there is no peace.
Posted by: ed || 10/15/2008 0:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Give us peace...or we'll kill you.
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/15/2008 9:54 Comments || Top||


Embassy asks State Department to allow Aafia's mother, sister meet her
(APP): The Pakistani embassy in Washington has asked the US State Department to facilitate a meeting between detained Pakistani neuroscientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui and members of her family including mother and sister, it was officially learned Monday.
Posted by: Fred || 10/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda

#1  Sure. Just as soon as the arrest warrants are signed by a judge.
Posted by: ed || 10/15/2008 0:58 Comments || Top||

#2  Even better. Make them her roomates.
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/15/2008 10:01 Comments || Top||


UN musters aid for thousands displaced by Bajaur fighting
The U.N. refugee agency said Tuesday it is trying to provide urgent shelter and other aid for some 190,000 people who have been displaced from Pakistan’s Bajaur agency bordering Afghanistan since fighting started in mid-August.
Posted by: Fred || 10/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under: TTP


Suicide attacks in Pakistan are 'Haram' : Ulema
(APP): A meeting of Muttehadda Ulema Council (MUC) held here Tuesday issued a unanimous decree (fatwa) declaring suicide attacks in Pakistan as haram (unlawful) and Najaez (unjustified).

The meeting was attended by ulema from Jamaat Ahl-e-Sunnat, Ahle Tashee, Ahle Hadees, and the Deobandi and Barelvi schools of thought. The meeting chaired by leader of the MUC, Sarfaraz Naeemi demanded for abolishing the system of "sood" (interest) in the country.

The meeting decided to observe black day on Friday and demanded for initiating dialogue in tribal areas for restoration of peace there. They said that some foreign forces and their agents in the country were responsible for volative situation in tribal areas and terrorist activities in other parts of the country.
Posted by: Fred || 10/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan

#1  And outside Pakistain?
Posted by: ed || 10/15/2008 0:59 Comments || Top||

#2  But they're addressing taqfiris, who have no respect for their opinion as they are not pure enough in their observance.
Posted by: trailing wife || 10/15/2008 8:14 Comments || Top||


Iraq
OIC condemns violence against Iraqi Christians
The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) on Tuesday joined the US in condemning deadly attacks against Christians in northern Iraq which have been blamed for the flight of over 1,000 families. OIC chief Ekmeleddin Ihasanoglu said the violence in the northern city of Mosul was "unprecedented in the history of Iraq."
Posted by: Fred || 10/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq


Pentagon confident of deal to keep troops in Iraq
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon on Tuesday said it was confident the U.S. and Iraqi governments would agree to keep U.S. troops in Iraq after December 31, but did not say a deal would necessarily fall under a formal long-term framework.

U.S. and Iraqi negotiators have been trying for months to reach agreement on a new status-of-forces agreement, or SOFA, to replace the current U.N. mandate governing the U.S. force presence, which expires at the end of the year. Both sides have said an agreement is close. But some key issues are still unresolved, including whether U.S. troops and other personnel can be tried for crimes in Iraqi courts.

"We remain confident that we will have an arrangement that allows military forces in the future to continue to assist the Iraqi government," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.

Whitman was speaking after The Washington Post reported that negotiators, fearing time is running out, have begun to consider alternatives to a formal SOFA. The newspaper said one possibility would be to extend the U.N. mandate, which would require a vote by the U.N. Security Council where there could be resistance from Russia and other countries opposed to the U.S.-led war.

President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki could also agree to leave negotiations to the next U.S. president, who will take office in January, the newspaper said.

Asked about possible alternatives, Whitman declined to say whether the arrangement he anticipates before year-end would necessarily be a SOFA. "How that final form takes shape, we'll see," he said. "We continue to work on a status-of-forces-like agreement."
Posted by: Steve White || 10/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq Opens Bidding on Oil Field Contracts
Iraq opened bidding Monday on the first round of contracts to develop its oil fields since the fall of Saddam Hussein, a move intended to jump-start a sector crucial to the country's rebuilding.

Oil fields have been looted and attacked by insurgents since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, technical experts have fled abroad because of violence and the infrastructure is creaky after years of international sanctions and neglect. Iraq needs billions of dollars of investment to increase production, experts say. "Current production is by no means meeting demand for the reconstruction of the country," Iraq's oil minister, Hussein al-Shahristani, told reporters after meeting Monday in London with representatives of three dozen international oil companies. "International companies are needed to fast-track development. The response was fairly encouraging."

Vera de Ladoucette, director of Middle East research for Cambridge Energy Research Associates, noted that the first round of bidding involves fields representing a third of known Iraqi oil reserves. "It's a huge step," she said.

Shahristani presented the oil companies with requirements for their bids on 20-year contracts to develop six major oil and two natural gas fields. Bids are due in six months and the government is expected to choose the winners in June, he said. Oil analysts estimate the contracts will lead to increases in production by 2011 or 2012.
Posted by: Fred || 10/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I'll start with $20
Posted by: chris || 10/15/2008 9:14 Comments || Top||

#2  If I remember correctly several american companies lost bids to the Chinese recently in oil reserves. This is a crucial problem that has occurred. The US is suddenly losing contracts to foreign competitors. What do we do? We sit there and look at our feet saying oh well. This is a major problem.

Bailout Solution
Posted by: Jerry || 10/15/2008 12:02 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
'Acre incident plot to displace Arabs'
Hezbollah says the latest riots against the Arab residents of Acre have been aimed at displacing Palestinians from their homeland.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the Lebanese resistance group said the Arab residents of the northern town of Acre in occupied Palestine are being subject to "an organized aggression campaign" by settler gangs and the Israeli occupation regime, which is aimed at displacing them from their land.

Clashes between the Jewish residents of the city and the Arabs erupted late Wednesday after an Arab man identified as Tofik Jamal drove his car to a Jewish neighborhood. The Jewish residents of the neighborhood claimed they were disrespected because Jamal turned up the sound of music in his car while they were observing the religious holiday of Yom Kippur. The incident turned into a mass riot against the Arabs in the city.

Jamal, who denied entering the Jewish neighborhood as a provocative act was arrested by the Israeli police on Monday.

Hezbollah said the attacks "which are carried out in coordination with the enemy's police," would not have taken place if there had not been "an international plot" against the Palestinians "to disregard the rights of the Palestinian people."

"These attacks are aimed at completing the plans of the racist expulsion carried out by the Israeli occupation authorities, in addition to the desecration of the holiness of the al-Aqsa Mosque and the turning of part of its sacred territory into a Jewish synagogue," it concluded.
Posted by: Fred || 10/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  'Acre incident plot to displace Arabs'
That would require Israeli political class to take their head out of their asses.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru || 10/15/2008 9:46 Comments || Top||


Palestinian group vows to kill MK Lieberman to avenge Acre riots
A Palestinian militant group that assassinated an Israeli cabinet minister in 2001 said on Tuesday it plans to kill right-wing MK Avigdor Lieberman in retaliation for recent Arab-Jewish clashes in Acre.

A spokesman for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine made the threat against the lawmaker on the group's radio station. The spokesman, who identified himself as Abu Jamal, said the PFLP would act to defend Israeli Arabs. "Our fingers are on the triggers of our weapons and we know when to direct our fire ... The fate of the Zionist Lieberman will be similar to Ze'evi's," he warned.

In 2001, PFLP gunmen shot dead right-wing minister Rehavam Ze'evi to avenge the assassination of the militant group's leader, Abu Ali Mustafa.

Lieberman wants to transfer Israeli Arab towns to Palestinian jurisdiction and annex large Jewish settlements in the West Bank to Israel. He termed the Acre riots a pogrom against Jews and the start of an intifada, or uprising, inside Israel. The Palestinian news agency Ma'an on Tuesday quoted Abu Jamal as also saying that the Israel-Hamas truce in Gaza would not stop his group from responding to the violence which he said was a part of a policy of expelling Palestinians from Israel.

The tension in the mixed city began Wednesday when an Arab resident drove into a predominantly Jewish neighborhood in the city on the Jewish holy day of Yom Kippur, during which Israelis across the country refrain from driving. Outraged at what they described as a deliberate provocation, the Jewish residents assaulted the driver, sparking riots that raged in the city for five days.
Posted by: Fred || 10/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under: PFLP

#1  The Ned Lamont Martyrs Brigade?
Posted by: tu3031 || 10/15/2008 10:03 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Mindanao residents fleeing due to fighting
(AKI) - Thousands of inhabitants in central Mindanao in the restive southern Philippines are being continually displaced by fighting and natural disasters, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Tuesday.

Floods have receded in Mindanao, but crops have been destroyed and the fighting keeps creating fresh displacement on a daily basis, the ICRC said in a report. "Even though the flare-up in fighting at the end of Ramadan feared by some has not materialised, the situation of the displaced in Mindanao remains difficult," said Felipe Donoso, head of the ICRC delegation in the Philippines.

Constant skirmishes between government forces and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front rebels keep triggering displacement. "In one single day, 213 families -- more than 1,000 people -- recently arrived in the town of Datu Piang," said Perry Proellochs, ICRC delegate for Central Mindanao.

Over the weekend of 11 and 12 October, fighting broke out again in villages on the island belonging to the nearby municipality of Mamasapano. The clashes displaced several hundred people. "The displaced are moving by the truckload," added Proellochs.

Maguindanao, where Datu Piang and Mamasapano are located, is the area most severely affected by the armed conflict. In Datu Piang alone, a natural convergence point for neighbouring villages, there are over 24,000 displaced people, out of a total 41,000 displaced in Mamasapano.
Posted by: Fred || 10/15/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under: Moro Islamic Liberation Front



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Two weeks of WOT
Wed 2008-10-15
  Puntland Coasties free Panama ship from pirates
Tue 2008-10-14
  DPRK regrants IAEA inspectors access to its nuclear facilities
Mon 2008-10-13
  12 boomers among 27 zapped in Wazoo
Sun 2008-10-12
  Lankan president asks LTTE to surrender
Sat 2008-10-11
  North Korea taken off US terror list
Fri 2008-10-10
  15 dead in suicide blast at Pakistan tribal meeting
Thu 2008-10-09
  Boom Bitch Kills 10 in Diyala Province
Wed 2008-10-08
  World's Stock Markets Plunge
Tue 2008-10-07
  Iran forces down Corporate Executive ''Fighter Jet''
Mon 2008-10-06
  Saudi hosts Afghan peace talks with Taliban reps
Sun 2008-10-05
  Baitullah makes appearance amid reports of his death
Sat 2008-10-04
  US drone strikes kill 20 in North Waziristan
Fri 2008-10-03
  'Biggest suspect' in ship piracy arrested
Thu 2008-10-02
  U.S. Begins Transferring Sunni Militias to Iraqi Government
Wed 2008-10-01
  Baitullah reported titzup


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