#1
I think the answer is going to be, they can be as securely guarded on U.S. soil as anywhere else," Tribe said.
Well now, Mr. Hahvahd Law Perfesser, I'm a little confused about that. Where is this facility going to be? I hope the answer is, right across the street from Harvard Law School, 'cause I sure don't want these boys anywhere near my family, just in case the presumption of innocence turns out to be unwarranted for any one of them. And who is going to be doing the guarding? Posse Comitatus means, I think, that you can't let the Marines do it at least without further legislation, and is it fair to ask any civilian employee of the gummint -- federal marshalls, federal protective service, whatever-- to assume a front-line role in the War on Terror?
And if you do all this for the poor lost lambs at Gitmo, isn't the next shoe going to be doing the same thing for the detainees at Bagram?
Posted by: Matt ||
11/14/2008 16:43 Comments ||
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#1
Phares has the same lack of understanding as do all RBers.
He keeps expecting there to be logic in the policies of Obama. Why would he expect that? Obama is a typical lefty who does everything on feelings (his feelings) and so long as his internal reality is aussaged phuque the real world.
Obama is partly relying on a foreign policy team made up of academics, think-tankers and Carter/Clinton retreads, partly on his politcal advisors, and partly on his ego ("make the facts fit my solution").
#5
Excellent critical but balanced article by Walid Phares. It is really an early assessment of the Obama team suggestions. Phares is mostly right on one thing. The American public has evolved. We're not in the 1990s anymore. They can't tell us "stories" that doesn't add up.
Afghanistan's Taliban, notorious for summary public executions, urged the United Nations on Thursday to press the Afghan government to stop executing prisoners on death row, citing concern about fair trials.
"Say, how's that shoe feel?"
"It's, um .. kinda tight."
Afghanistan resumed executions this week after a break of more than a year, with three Taliban sentenced for deadly attacks among nine people put to death in the past few days. Those executions followed a public outcry over rising crime. About 120 other people have been sentenced to death and their fate rests with President Hamid Karzai, who has to approve any execution order.
The United Nations and the spineless European Union have called on Karzai to halt the executions, citing concern about the standards of judicial fairness. The United Nations says Afghanistan's law enforcement and judicial systems fall far short of internationally accepted standards.
Careful Karzai or they'll send Carla del Ponte to advise you on your judicial systems ...
The Taliban leadership council said it too was worried about fair trials. "We strongly request the U.N., the EU, the Red Cross and human rights groups to earnestly prevent this barbaric act," the Taliban said in a statement on their website, accusing Karzai's government of corruption.
The Taliban, fighting to overthrow Karzai's pro-Western government, have executed dozens of captured soldiers and civilians since U.S.-led forces ousted the militant Islamist movement in 2001. During their 1996-2001 rule in Afghanistan, the Taliban executed dozens of people, occasionally staging killings in public at Kabul's main sports stadium.
In their statement, the Taliban warned the government against more executions, saying the officials responsible for them would be punished.
Right. They'll be... ummm... executed.
The Taliban have stepped up their insurgency over the past two years and crime has increased as security has deteriorated. Fed up with crime, many ordinary Afghans have called on the government to carry out death sentences.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
the U.N., the EU, the Red Cross and human rights groups ... haven't the Taliban chopped off the heads of members of these groups at different times?
A former Qantas employee who became the second person convicted under Australia's tough anti-terror laws has been found guilty in absentia of terrorism charges in Lebanon.
At a sentencing hearing in the NSW Supreme Court yesterday, lawyers for Belal Saadallah Khazaal, who has been found guilty of producing a book knowing it could assist in a terrorist act, argued that his convictions in Lebanon should not be taken into account because he was never able to put his side of the case.
Khazaal, 38, of Lakemba in Sydney's southwest, was convicted in absentia in Lebanon for his alleged involvement in funding the 2003 bombing of a McDonald's restaurant in Beirut. He was sentenced in absentia to 15 years for falsifying a passport for another Australian man who had fled to Lebanon from Australia.
This information was not revealed to the jury in his NSW Supreme Court trial, at which he was convicted in September of producing a book described as a "do-it-yourself terrorism guide" containing an assassination hit-list that included US President George W. Bush.
In the first conviction of its kind in Australia, Khazaal was found guilty of the offence of compiling a book knowing it could assist in a terrorist act. However, the NSW Supreme Court jury failed to reach a verdict on a second charge against Khazaal of attempting to incite a terrorist act. On that basis, Khazaal's barrister, George Thomas, argued that any sentence handed down to his client must be at the lower end of the scale.
Khazaal was arrested and charged in June 2004 over the publication on the internet of a 110-page book titled Provision on the Rules of Jihad - short judicial rulings and organisational instructions for fighters and mujahideen against infidels. He was among the first people charged after the federal Government introduced tough new terrorism laws in late 2003.
The book listed various means of assassination, including letter-bombs, booby-trapping cars, kidnappings, poisonings and shooting down planes. The book also contained a hit-list of officials and countries to be targeted, including Australia and the US.
In the Supreme Court yesterday, Khazaal's close friend and doctor Tamir Khalil said Khazaal was suffering from medical ailments including a possible neurological condition that might have affected his behaviour at the time of the offence. Dr Khalil said he had known Khazaal for many years and had never known him to display any violent tendencies, or even to talk about violence. But the doctor said Khazaal's medical history indicated a possibility he might have a tumour on his brain and this should be investigated.
Khazaal's wife, Mervat, gave evidence, telling the court her husband spent a lot of time working with angry Muslim youths, trying to protect them from their own emotions. "He tried to cool them down," Ms Khazaal told the court. She described her husband as a lovely man who was honest and generous and respected her.
During the trial, US terrorism expert Evan Kohlmann described the book as a do-it-yourself guide to terrorism aimed at people who did not have Osama bin Laden's telephone number.
Khazaal will be sentenced at a date to be fixed next year.
#1
I considered putting this under the Syria-Lebanon-Iran (or possibly even the International) heading, but since most of the information was about Aussie court proceedings, I filed it as Down Under. If it gets moved, I will take note for future reference.
#2
But the doctor said Khazaal's medical history indicated a possibility he might have a tumour on his brain and this should be investigated.
Big deal. My own doctor told me cadaver studies have revealed that approximately 20% of adults have an unsuspected micro-adenoma (which I believe is defined as a benign tumor under 1 cm diameter) in their brains. The reason that the micro-adenomas are unsuspected is that almost always they cause no problems whatsoever. They can generally be discovered easily by MRI scan. By making that statement Mr. Khazaal's lawyer was playing good odds while saying nothing whatsoever pertinent to the case... in my amateur opinion.
Beverly Giesbrecht, a West Vancouver woman who converted to Islam in 2002 and adopted the name Khadija Abdul Qahaar, was on a freelance assignment for the Al Jazeera network when she was abducted in northern Pakistan this week. Ms. Giesbrecht, a former magazine publisher in British Columbia who runs a website that is critical of the U.S.-led war on terror and the mainstream media's coverage of it, had ventured into the highly dangerous North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, when she was taken at gunpoint out of a taxi, along with her translator.
A few weeks before she was seized on Tuesday, Ms. Giesbrecht, whom friends described as "tough and fearless," appealed through her website, Jihad Unspun, for financial help to get out of the country. "As you know, the JUS team is in Pakistan making a documentary film and shoring up direct contacts for our news report which have become very weak in recent years due to third-hand reporting and a variety of other challenges," she said in an open letter. "Pakistan is now erupting into a full-scale war zone. We have been in some very sensitive areas and even Islamabad is now locked down. As foreigners we must leave the country however we do not have the funds to get out," she wrote.
"Allah knows that I really dislike having to ask but please know how hard we work for Allah. We have managed to get very good material out of the country to our production group but our physical safety is now paramount. I make this personal and urgent appeal to you to send whatever [c]ontribution you can to assist us to return to Canada and Britain (I am Canadian, our other member with me is from Britain and we also have some local Pakistanis who cannot leave the country I am afraid). As a woman, I have already had a few close calls in the tribal areas as kidnappers and thieves are running loose even in Peshawar."
Ms. Giesbrecht, 52, left Vancouver on April 7 and flew to London, going on to Lahore, Pakistan, on Aug. 4.
Mamoona Malik, a spokesperson for the High Commission for the Islamic Republic of Pakistan in Ottawa, said Ms. Giesbrecht's visa application was supported by two letters from Al Jazeera, verifying she was doing freelance work. One of those letters was signed by Phil Rees, a former British Broadcasting Corp. foreign correspondent who runs his own documentary film company and who identified himself as news director, London, for Al Jazeera. The second letter was signed by Scott Ferguson, programming director for Al Jazeera. Al Jazeera officials did not respond to calls yesterday.
"The letters say that she'll be working with Mr. Phil Rees and she will be reporting on the new government and the wider political situation, including the war on terrorism ... in connection with a documentary ... Democracy in Pakistan: The High Price of Freedom," Ms. Malik said.
The first report of the abduction appeared Tuesday in The News International, an English-language Pakistani newspaper. That story was quickly picked up by other news agencies and began circulating on the Internet. Ms. Malik said that as of yesterday morning, the Pakistan High Commission in Ottawa had not heard from the Department of Foreign Affairs about the case. Lisa Monette, spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs, has confirmed a Canadian has been abducted and said officials are in discussions with Pakistani authorities, but has refused further comment.
On her website, Ms. Giesbrecht explained that she converted to Islam in 2002 after beginning to research the reasons behind the terrorism attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "I became obsessed with finding out what was really going on," she said. She said she launched the website to provide an alternative to mainstream news coverage of events. "We do not promote 'terrorism,' we publish both sides of the news from primarily third-party sources and we operate within the law," she stated.
Glen Cooper, a friend for 20 years, said Ms. Giesbrecht has been attacked for the pro-Islamic slant on her website, but she is not a propagandist. "Bev is a reporter," he said.
Peter Ladner, who is running for mayor in Vancouver, said he met Ms. Giesbrecht in 1988, when she worked for him as sales manager for the monthly magazine Vancouver Business Report, a publication she later bought. "I'm extremely shocked," he said of her abduction. He described her as a "very tough woman," but added he is deeply worried about her safety. "It doesn't look good," he said.
#4
Converted at age 46? Some sort of new midlife crisis crap?
In the seventies, she would have been a leftist radical, maoist or similar brand of marxist revolution, but islam is the new "Strong Horse"... so she converted, and there probably was a lot of "lost" westerners like her, in Europe as well as in the USA, people who found an outlet in islam, militant or not, to "escape" (what passes for) modernity and that they hate in some way or an another.
Again, a classical article (about th emore political aspect of that): The Reds, The Browns and the Greens or The Convergence of Totalitarianisms
#5
Hmm. Wandering around in an area that servicemen and women wouldn't go to without air cover and superior firepower, and probably without an approved male relative as an escort, to boot.
I'm sure Al Jazeera will be busting @ss to get her out of there. Not.
#6
Wandering around in an area that servicemen and women wouldn't go to without air cover and superior firepower, and probably without an approved male relative as an escort, to boot. Must have a death wish. Or maybe this is yet another ransom demand scam to raise $ for the Jihad.
Could be a white woman traveling around, and that without proper escort, with pen paper knows how to read write, might have ipod or other music device. "But I'm Canadian I mean you no harm";
"Canadians try to kill us! You are curfew violation! You read and dance! I keeelll you!"
"wait Achmed, she is white we could try to sell her..."
#1
Wel-l-l, WOT > WAR FOR PRO-US/ANTI-US OWG-NWO = "GLOBALISM", including NATIONAL-GLOBAL SOCIALIST ORDER, among other.
IOW, ANTI-US AGENDISTS > Jan 2009 - 2012 [2016] POTUS PERIOD = REDUX, ROLLBACK, OR DESTRUCTION, ETC. OF AMERICAN NATIONAL + GEOPOL POWER + INTERNATIONAL INFLUENCES???
* Lest we fergit, World-conquering USSA = Weak Anti-Sovereign United Socialist Republiks of Amerika [USR = OWG Global SSR]??? FASCIST = MERE ERROR-PRONE ARROGANT MALE CRIMINAL BRUTE "LIMITED COMMUNIST-SOCIALIST-GOVTIST-LEFTIST",...@ETC. WHOM-WEIRDLY-AND-MYSTERIOUSLY-BUT-ONLY-COINCIDENTALLY-AND-PDENIABLY-IS-NOT-A-REAL-COMMUNIST-OR-SOCIALIST???
For POTUS-elect OBAMA = "BAMELOT", ANTI-US AGENDISTS > may mean to harm to kill BO in order to show that America = Amer Way is defective and corrupt.
D *** NG IT, WE'RE ATTACKATREATING IN IRAQ AND DON'T YOUSE ALL FORGET WHAT WE NEVER TOLD YOU = CANNOT CONFIRM OR DENY EVER TELLING YOU.
[Barry "Superman" Bostwick taking off his Eyeglasses angrily here]!
With separatist leaders in jail, Indian Kashmir votes on Monday in a multi-phase election that will test the legitimacy of New Delhi's rule of a region beset by independence protests earlier this year. Thousands of troops will guard the vote in one of the world's most militarised regions, which witnessed some of the biggest pro-independence demonstrations this year since a separatist revolt against Indian rule in the Himalayan region broke out in 1989.
But all eyes will be on the Kashmir valley, where police killed at least 42 people this year when hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri's took to the streets shouting "Azadi" (freedom) against 60 years of Indian rule. Muslim separatist leaders, many sent to jail without trial in the run-up to the vote, have called for a boycott. They say New Delhi will use draconian anti-terror laws and its thousands of troops to try to legitimise their rule.
Thousands of Indian troops patrolled the snow-covered streets of Kashmir on Friday to prevent a planned protest rally by separatists. A strike saw shops, businesses in the summer capital of Srinagar closed in protest against the elections.
New Delhi believes the separatists are a small and often violent group. The government hopes the vote will see a high turnout for the parties -- all of which broadly accept New Delhi's rule -- competing in the vote. "The gulf between New Delhi and Kashmir seems much wider today. The two never seemed so far apart," said senior Kashmiri politician and former lawmaker, Mohammad Shafi. "A strong voter turnout amid anti-India anger would boost the legitimacy of New Delhi's rule. But if they don't get it right this time it could be a disaster, it can boomerang."
The People's Democratic Party took power at the head of a coalition following the last state election in 2002, ending a two-decade rule by the National Conference. But now the state is under direct rule after the violent protests.
It will be the third vote in the state since an insurgency began in 1989. In the past, separatist guerrillas have attacked and killed scores of candidates and political workers, vandalised polling stations and attacked rallies to thwart elections. But early this year, the United Jihad Council (UJC), a Pakistan-based militant alliance fighting Indian troops in Kashmir, rejected the use of violence to force a boycott of the staggered, month-and-half-long elections this time. Instead, it urged people to hold protests against the vote.
The All Parties Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, the region's main separatist alliance, says hundreds of its supporters and activists had been arrested ahead of the polls. "Elections are ultimately projected as a sort of referendum by India," said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of Hurriyat. "That is why we have called for a complete boycott of such a process."
Even pro-India political parties say elections will not resolve the dispute in Kashmir, where officials say about 43,000 people have died in violence involving Muslim militants and Indian troops. "Elections will help to elect a government addressing the day-to-day problems of people, not the Kashmir dispute," said Omar Abdullah, chief of the regional National Conference, which recognises New Delhi's rule over the Himalayan region.
"After a bitter summer of turmoil, Kashmir will put the credibility of the world's largest democracy to (the) test this winter in possibly the country's toughest state elections ever," the Hindustan Times newspaper said.
The CIA says Osama Bin Laden is isolated from the day-to-day operations of al-Qaeda, but that the organisation is still the greatest threat to the US.
CIA director Michael Hayden said the Saudi militant was probably hiding in the tribal area of north-west Pakistan. Mr Hayden said Bin Laden was "putting a lot of energy into his own survival" and that his capture remained the US government's top priority. In a speech to the Atlantic Council on Thursday, Mr Hayden said: "[Bin Laden] is putting a lot of energy into his own survival, a lot of energy into his own security."
"In fact, he appears to be largely isolated from the day-to-day operations of the organisation he nominally heads."
However, Gen Hayden added: "If there is a major strike on this country, it will bear the fingerprints of al-Qaeda."
The CIA believes progress has been made in curbing al-Qaeda's activities in the Philippines, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
However, Mr Hayden said other areas were showing an increase in activity, including:
East Africa: "Al-Qaeda is engaging Somali extremists to revitalise operations... al-Qaeda could claim to be re-establishing its operations base in East Africa"
The Maghreb: Attacks have worsened since the merger in 2006 of al-Qaeda and the Algerian militant group, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC). The GSPC has renamed itself al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
Yemen: Saw an "unprecedented number of attacks" in 2008, and could become a launch-pad for attacks in Saudi Arabia
Pakistan: Safe haven has allowed al-Qaeda to train a "bench of skilled operatives"
Nevertheless, the CIA chief said the hunt for Bin Laden remained the top priority of the US security forces.
"His death or capture clearly would have a significant impact on the confidence of his followers - both core al-Qaeda and unaffiliated extremists throughout the world," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Sammy was last seen working for ACORN in the Detroit metro area.
Despite being sentenced to death six years ago by an Anti Terrorism Court for the gruesome murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, Sheikh Ahmed Omar Saeed is lucky enough to have dodged the gallows.
The Sindh High Court is yet to decide his appeal against the sentence even though the case hearing has been adjourned for over 100 times since 2002.The 38-year-old American journalist travelled to Pakistan in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks to work on an investigative story about the alleged intelligence links of some Pakistani militant leaders. He was abducted from Karachi on January 23, 2002, before being beheaded by militants.
The killers of Pearl, including Sheikh Omar Saeed, a London School of Economics graduate-turned-Jihadi, and three of his accomplices -- Fahad Naseem, Salman Saqib and Sheikh Adeel -- were put on trial on April 22, 2002. Almost three months later, the Karachi court handed down capital punishment to Omar Saeed Sheikh while his three accomplices were sentenced to life in prison.
The accused had instantly approached the Sindh High Court by lodging appeals against the Anti Terrorism Court verdict. But their appeals have not yet been decided for inexplicable reasons despite a lapse of 75 months and over 100 adjournments.
Currently languishing in a Hyderabad jail, the accused had instantly approached the Sindh High Court by lodging appeals against the Anti Terrorism Court verdict. But their appeals have not yet been decided for inexplicable reasons despite a lapse of 75 months and over 100 adjournments.
However, Omar Sheikh's defence lawyer sees nothing unusual, saying that appeals in murder cases usually last for years. Rai Bashir maintains that the Pearl case had already taken a new twist. He plans to use the confession by the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khaled Sheikh Mohammad, that he was the one who had beheaded Pearl.
Khaled Sheikh Mohammad had made this confession in the FBI custody, the transcript of which has already been made public by the authorities. Rai Bashir says he would use Khaled's testimony as evidence that his client did not kill Pearl. "What we had been saying for so many years in the appeal is that Omar was innocent and he had not committed that murder. We are happy that this version has been verified by none other than the Americans after the arrest of Khaled Sheikh Mohammed," maintained Rai.
He also plans to use Musharraf's published memoirs in defence of Omar Sheikh. "President Pervez Musharraf's book 'In the Line of Fire' will be mustered for an appeal against my client's conviction because it indicated that alleged September 11 mastermind Khaled Sheikh Mohammed and another man had killed Pearl," the lawyer further maintained.
However, contrary to his lawyer's contention, the hard fact remains that at his initial court appearance in April 2002, Sheikh Omar had almost confessed to his crime by stating before the court: "I don't want to defend myself. I did this. Rightly or wrongly, I had my reasons. I think our country shouldn't be catering to American needs."
Sheikh Omar is a British citizen of Pakistani descent who had first served five years in prison in New Delhi in the 1990s in connection with the 1994 kidnapping of three British travellers. However, he was released from captivity in 1999 along with the defunct Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Maulana Masood Azhar, and eventually provided a safe passage to Pakistan by the Taliban regime, after the Indian government was forced to accept the demands of the hijackers of the Indian Airliner IC-814.
Two years later, on February 12, 2002, he was arrested in Lahore on the charge of Pearl's kidnapping.
He was not arrested but had actually surrendered to Brig (retd) Ejaz Shah, a former chief of the Punjab chapter of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).
He, however, told the court that he was not arrested but had actually surrendered to Brig (retd) Ejaz Shah, a former chief of the Punjab chapter of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).
Subsequent Western media reports blamed Sheikh Omar for working for Pakistani agencies under the name of Mustafa Mohamed Ahmad, who had wired $100,000 to the official ringleader of the 9/11 terror attack, Mohammad Atta, from a Saudi Arabian account of the Standard Chartered Bank.
On October 6, 2001, a senior US government official told the CNN that American investigators had discovered that Omar, while using the alias Mustafa Muhammad Ahmad had sent about $100,000 from the United Arab Emirates to Mohammed Atta. Hardly a month after the money transfer was discovered, the then director general of the ISI, General Mahmood Ahmad, was sacked. It was later reported by the American media that the FBI was further investigating General Mahmood Ahmad's role.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Dan Darling had some interesting comments on this guy back in the day...
The political administration warned the Mohmand tribes on Thursday of imminent military operation if they did not sever ties with local and foreign Taliban.
It also asked Taliban to lay down weapons and surrender, officials told Daily Times.
"We warn the Mohmand tribes to sever ties with Tehreek-e-Taliban's Abdul Wali group as the government is planning action against the group," the Mohmand Agency administration warned the population in pamphlets. "Get all elements of Abdul Wali group out of your homes, otherwise they will be targeted by helicopters and jet bombers." The warning comes as 50 percent of the population in Machni area left their homes following a troop build-up in the area close to Mohmand Agency.
"We inform the people of Mohmand Agency that the (outlawed) Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has attacked Islam and Pakistan by killing innocent Muslims. The TTP has [hurt the cause of] Islam more than ever before," the Urdu language pamphlet read.
Taliban hideouts: Security forces continued pounding suspected Taliban hideouts in the Shnow Ghundo, Spray, Juma Khan Koroona, Kas Koroona and Mullah Ghani Baba areas in Machni, officials said. Details of Taliban casualties were not available.
Responsibility: Also on Thursday, Taliban in Machni claimed responsibility for Wednesday's suicide attack on a security forces camp in Charsadda district. "We have carried out the attack to avenge killing of innocent people by the military," Abid Khair Khwahee, purported spokesman for the Taliban in Machni area, told reporters by telephone. The Shabqadar Bazaar in Charsadda district was closed on Thursday and the Peshawar-Ghalanai highway remained closed for traffic.
Arrested: Security forces arrested six suspected Taliban in Kashmir Koor in a raid on a house in Haleemzai tehsil and nine suspects from Machni.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2008 00:00 ||
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World leaders, senior diplomats and religious figures condemned extremism and terrorism Wednesday at a U.N. conference on interfaith dialogue that brought Israel and Arab countries together to promote tolerance. Your mileage will vary according to your definition of "intolerance" and "extremism."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
U.N. Faith Forum Denounces Intolerance, Extremism, Israel
BAGHDAD (AP) - Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday renewed threats to resume attacks on U.S. forces, and the country's top Shiite cleric was quoted as saying he would intervene if a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact infringed on Iraqi sovereignty.
The statements deepened unease over the deal, which would allow American troops to stay in Iraq for three more years after their U.N. mandate expires Dec. 31. Iraqi officials say they will seek a renewal of the mandate if the pact is not signed by then.
Al-Sadr's threat came in a statement by the Iran-based cleric that was read to supporters gathered for Friday prayers in Baghdad's Shiite Sadr City enclave and the city of Kufa, south of Baghdad.
"I repeat my call on the occupier to get out from the land of our beloved Iraq, without retaining bases or signing agreements," al-Sadr said. "If they do stay, I urge the honorable resistance fighters ... to direct their weapons exclusively against the occupier."
The statement did not say exactly when and under what conditions such attacks might resume.
In the holy city of Najaf, an official close to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani said the Iranian-born cleric has vowed to "directly intervene" if the final version of the agreement breached the country's sovereignty. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
Al-Sistani wields vast influence among Iraq's majority Shiites, and the agreement will virtually have no chance of being passed by parliament if he publicly states his opposition to it.
He has in the past forced the United States to scrap or revise political blueprints for Iraq, sending hundreds of thousands of supporters to the streets in 2004 to back his demand for a general election. The vote was held in January 2005.
His reported threat Friday to intervene over the security pact follows an Oct. 29 statement from his office that said the cleric wanted Iraqi sovereignty to be protected in the agreement. The escalation is likely to rattle Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who picked the negotiators who worked on the agreement with the Americans.
Al-Maliki's government has sought amendments to the draft agreement to satisfy critics who claim the text does not give strong enough guarantees to safeguard the country's sovereignty and force the Americans to leave by Dec. 31, 2011.
Al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia launched two uprisings against U.S. forces in 2004 and another one this past spring. In July, al-Sadr said he was disbanding most of the militia, but would keep a small combat unit of seasoned and loyal fighters in case they are called upon to fight the Americans again.
In Friday's statement, al-Sadr for the first time gave that unit a name: The Promised Day Brigade.
He also called on breakaway groups from his militia to join the brigade. He was apparently referring to so-called "special groups," which the U.S. military says are trained and armed by Iran to attack Americans.
Al-Sadr's statement also called on supporters to gather next week for prayers in a central Baghdad square in a show of opposition to the U.S.-Iraqi pact. Tens of thousands of al-Sadr supporters assembled in Baghdad last month to show they oppose the agreement.
#2
Sounds like that dude online who even though kicking that butt continues to just talk trash; game ends in a blowout and says, "how bout a rematch I'll get you this time". Nobody wants to replay because not only is he an obnoxious liability he has more kills against his own team than opponents.
BAGHDAD - Iraqi army bulldozers roared into a squatters' camp in Baghdad on Thursday, witnesses said, ignoring protests by people who have lived in the abandoned arms depot for the past five years. Dozens of soldiers backed by Iraqi police began dismantling the camp in the city's mostly Shiite Hurriyah neighbourhood where some 675 families -- around 4,000 people -- have lived since they fled from Sunni insurgents in late 2003.
The army would not allow reporters to enter the area, saying it was "government-owned property," but from the entrance to the camp an AFP correspondent saw troops demolish several houses.
Residents of the camp fled there in late 2003 and 2004 at the start of the sectarian violence that has engulfed the country in recent years, and ever since they have been living in crude brick and concrete shacks.
"I packed up everything, and I'm going to go and live on a street corner in Kadhimiyah," said Abu Mustafa, one of the squatters, referring to an adjacant district. A policeman living in the camp was defiant. "I will not leave, I have no choice. The soldiers must stop carrying out the expulsion order," said Haitham Joma. "I only got the eviction notice three days ago."
After demolishing several shacks, the soldiers withdrew to the camp's perimeter to await further orders.
The government has offered a lump sum of 2,500 dollars to each family in the Hurriyah camp that leaves voluntarily, but there are few takers because of the cost of housing elsewhere in the capital.
Tens of thousands of squatters currently live in dozens of abandoned military sites throughout Baghdad. According to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) five percent of Iraq's 1.3 million internally displaced people live in public buildings.
Several months ago, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki decided to reclaim all public buildings, initially ordering political parties to evacuate the sites and then taking aim at the squatter communities, including those in Hurriyah. The housing ministry estimates Iraq needs some two million new housing units to replace those lost in years of fighting and to keep pace with the country's growing population.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/14/2008 00:00 ||
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The activity of the only power plant in the Gaza Strip will be suspended on Thursday evening due to insufficient fuel supplies, Hamas officials told Army Radio.
Hamas also criticized Israel for not allowing French diplomats to enter the Gaza Strip in order to report on the humanitarian situation there. "Israel is trying to prevent the world from seeing the real situation in Gaza," they reportedly said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/14/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
But on the plus side, lots more pipes to make missiles out of!
#3
Try running the generators with Hama's concentrated spittle.
Posted by: ed ||
11/14/2008 1:48 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I'm surprised that nobody has revealed to them that a little valve-grinding compound in the diesel fuel would do wonders for the fuel economy on those things . . . . :-|
#6
The world is well familiar with the "real situation" in Gaza. It resembles nothing so much as an over-crowded rat cage, where the denizens chew on each other and anything else that comes in reach.
#7
Pour a couple of quarts of alcohol into a barrel of oil and watch what happens when it burns. That's drinking alcohol, not the denatured stuff they regularly add to gasoline that's had the water removed as much as possible. If you really, REALLY hate someone, pour a couple of beers into his gas tank. Just hope his wife or other family members don't drive the same car.
It's not quite as bad as valve-grinding compound or brake fluid (transmission fluid works, too), but it's quite destructive.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/14/2008 21:10 Comments ||
Top||
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Beverly Giesbrecht, a West Vancouver woman who converted to Islam in 2002 and adopted the name Khadija Abdul Qahaar, was on a freelance assignment for the Al Jazeera network when she was abducted in northern Pakistan this week. Ms. Giesbrecht, a former magazine publisher in British Columbia who runs a website that is critical of the U.S.-led war on terror and the mainstream media's coverage of it, had ventured into the highly dangerous North West Frontier Province of Pakistan, when she was taken at gunpoint out of a taxi, along with her translator.
With separatist leaders in jail, Indian Kashmir votes on Monday in a multi-phase election that will test the legitimacy of New Delhi's rule of a region beset by independence protests earlier this year. Thousands of troops will guard the vote in one of the world's most militarised regions, which witnessed some of the biggest pro-independence demonstrations this year since a separatist revolt against Indian rule in the Himalayan region broke out in 1989.
Despite being sentenced to death six years ago by an Anti Terrorism Court for the gruesome murder of American journalist Daniel Pearl, Sheikh Ahmed Omar Saeed is lucky enough to have dodged the gallows.
The political administration warned the Mohmand tribes on Thursday of imminent military operation if they did not sever ties with local and foreign Taliban.
BAGHDAD (AP) - Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday renewed threats to resume attacks on U.S. forces, and the country's top Shiite cleric was quoted as saying he would intervene if a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact infringed on Iraqi sovereignty.
BAGHDAD - Iraqi army bulldozers roared into a squatters' camp in Baghdad on Thursday, witnesses said, ignoring protests by people who have lived in the abandoned arms depot for the past five years. Dozens of soldiers backed by Iraqi police began dismantling the camp in the city's mostly Shiite Hurriyah neighbourhood where some 675 families -- around 4,000 people -- have lived since they fled from Sunni insurgents in late 2003.
