Afghan children are being recruited as suicide bombers, drawn into the military and used for sex by armed groups, a senior official with the UN children's agency said on Sunday.
But the conflict means that children in more than 60 percent of the country cannot be reached by UNICEF workers, agency Deputy Executive Director Hilde F Johnson told AFP on a visit to Kabul. "It is clear that there are stories and allegations of recruitment on the different sides, but we don't have enough documentation to say how bad it is," Johnson said.
A UNICEF task force was set up this year to document the problem and Johnson said it was pushing the Afghan government to better verify the ages of the men it was taking into the armed forces. There have been reports that men under the internationally accepted age of 18 are being recruited. More than 7,400 under-age soldiers were demobilised in a government programme in 2003, two years after the fall of the Taliban regime, according to the United Nations. There were also cases of children being used as suicide bombers by Taliban, a trend seen in Iraq, but the numbers had not been established, Johnson said.
Rights: After the fall of the Taliban, "people were under the assumption that Afghanistan was venturing into the post-conflict phase and that some of the aspects that were hitting children hardest would go down", Johnson said. "But I think there is a reality check that has kicked in amongst all players that this is not that case and we need to be able to respond properly in terms of verifying the violation of children's rights in Afghanistan."
Afghanistan, meanwhile, was different from other post-conflict countries, in that more boys were being abducted for "sexual services" than girls, with cases across the board, including in the government forces. Children were also being killed in insurgent and military action, with more than 230 schools attacked in the year up to June. About 570 were in prison and some were also in US military detention, according to the agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Lyric from an old Afghan song: "Across the river is a boy with a bottom like a peach, but alas I cannot swim."
We should never have sent more troops in after we ran the Talibs out. We should have just kept bombing the place regularly enough to make sure they could never reestablish any type of civilization higher than goat herding again.
#4
Grom, I'm glad George MacDonald Fraser died before he saw that pusillanimous exhibition the Royal Navy put on with the Iranians. It was clear, however, before he died that he despaired for his country. If you haven't read his Light's On at Signpost, you might find it interesting.
#5
A friend serving in Afghanistan said the men outnumber the women about 4 to 1. Those rich from the poppy trade can afford to have 4-7 wives, which serve in prison as prostitutes by proxy if caught. Women and children are freely trafficked to these camps, accounting for the "civilian" deaths. Afghanistan presents different problems than Iraq did, and different solutions must be considered....castration?
A brigade of 3,500 to 4,000 additional United States troops due in Afghanistan in January will be deployed in the east amid efforts to stop infiltration of Taliban from Pakistan, the US military said on Sunday.
The brigade has been approved as part of requested US troop reinforcements for Afghanistan's fight against insurgency that could amount to around 20,000 personnel, US military spokesman Colonel Greg Julian told reporters in Kabul.
Deployment: "The first brigade that is coming will go into the (NATO-led) Regional Command East and they are going to move into areas that are currently not covered," Julian said.
The area includes about a dozen provinces, many of which are on the border with Pakistan where Taliban and Al Qaeda allegedly have training camps and safe havens.
Guards along the porous border are being trained and 165 border posts are being built as part of a drive to stop insurgents entering Afghanistan, Julian said. "We recognise that there are certain lines or avenues that the insurgents come through (from Pakistan) and we are focusing our efforts on those," he said.
International and Afghan troops, along with counterparts in Pakistan, launched 'Operation Lionheart' along the border this month.
"This operation will help to deny the enemies of Afghanistan safe havens in Pakistan," ISAF spokesman Brigadier General Richard Blanchette said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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The Saudi government on Saturday denied reports that it has offered political asylum to Afghanistan's fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar. "No, no! You mistunderstood! I said 'Mullah Aymar!"
A foreign ministry spokesman "denies totally the report ... according to which Saudi Arabia has offered political asylum to the Taliban leader," the state news agency SPA reported.
The German news magazine Der Spiegel, in its edition due to appear on Monday, said Saudi King Abdullah had offered asylum to Mullah Omar, quoting sources close to the Kabul government. The sources said U.S. President George W. Bush and Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai pushed for the offer as part of efforts to seal a reconciliation. It did not give further details.
Saudi Arabia hosted a meeting between pro-government Afghan officials and former Taliban officials in September and on Wednesday an Afghan government official said government representatives and former members of the Taliban were expected to meet in Saudi Arabia soon for a second round of talks.
Karzai said earlier this month that he would go to "any length" to protect Omar, who has a $10 million bounty on his head, if the Taliban leader agreed to peace talks. The Afghan president has for years pushed for peace talks with the Taliban which ruled the country before a 2001 U.S.-led invasion, as a way out of a deadly insurgency involving foreign militants, including al-Qaeda.
The Bush administration has expressed skepticism at the idea that the Taliban are ready to "renounce violence and to be productive members of the Afghanistan society," according to press secretary Dana Perino, who said last Monday that "we just don't think that that's in the cards."
The Taliban, driven from government for sheltering al-Qaeda after the September 2001 terror attacks, have said they would only agree to negotiations if international troops leave Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Saudi the home/vacation home of all anti west terrorist!!!!
#5
Has he checked our Berkley? Many there would welcome him. And Spot, I'm sure some there would consider it a priviledge to get to mount Mullah Omar's goat.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/24/2008 11:02 Comments ||
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#6
The Saudis could make this a good thing. They offer asylum to Blinky, then make him a deal that he cannot refuse. He is basically under house arrest. If he starts trying to run the show from afar, some wandering lunatic in the neighborhood could take him out. All on the QT.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/24/2008 11:10 Comments ||
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#7
AP, that assumes the saudis are on the good side.
#9
Hellfish---that is the basis for the hope. If the Saudis are not on the good side, then it is just business as usual. Hope and change, hope and change. Brother, can you spare me a dime?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/24/2008 17:13 Comments ||
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#10
Either way, you can't trust muslims - taqqiya.
When the Sirius Star and its US$100 million crude oil cargo and 25 crew were hijacked by Somali pirates nine days ago, one country was ready to respond immediately.
After Indian shipowners and seafarers unions outlined the pirate threat, New Delhi moved with laserlike focus. The navy dispatched a warship to the region in mid-October, and its personnel have in recent weeks foiled three attempted hijackings and sunk a pirate mother ship the only country to do so.
The Somali pirates have wreaked havoc increasingly so in the Gulf of Aden and along the coast of Somalia in recent months. Piracy in the region has tripled this year, according to the International Maritime Bureau, with more than 120 attacks resulting in 40 hijackings, hundreds of hostages and at least seven dead crew. Estimates of Somali pirates 2008 ransom income range from $30 million (Dh110m) to $150m.
More at link......
Posted by: Everyday A Wildcat(KSU) ||
11/24/2008 09:41 ||
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#1
In just a few weeks, India can get recognition as a major world power. And they know it.
A few years ago, Somali pirates menacing Africas east coast sometimes demanded tens of thousands of dollars for the safe return of a hijacked vessel and crew. Now they often seek $1 million or more. The reason: Ship owners keep paying.
If you do pay, you are continuing to encourage future attacks, said Pat Adamson, an official at MTI Network, a London-based crisis-management company that has advised the owners of most of the hijacked ships. Unless there is a cash payment, your seafarers will lose their lives.
A fresh example of owners acceding to ransom demands emerged on Nov. 22, when Mare Maritime Co. SA said it had paid a sum it declined to disclose to free its Greek chemical tanker, the MV Genius, and 19 crew members almost two months after Somali pirates seized them in the Gulf of Aden.
Last week, pirates demanded a record $25 million for the Saudi Arabia-owned Sirius Star seized off the coast on Nov. 15 -- $1 million for each crew member. The ship also holds more than 2 million barrels of crude worth about $100 million, probably covered by insurance. Negotiations on that ransom are still ongoing, said Andrew Mwangura, head of the East Africa Seafarers Association, said by phone from Mombasa.
Hijackings by Somali pirates in the Gulf of Aden region have leaped this year, with more than 581 crew members taken hostage from January to September, compared with 172 in all of 2007, according to the International Maritime Bureau.
Before the Sirius Star incident, ransom demands had hovered between $500,000 and $2 million, up from tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent years, said Chatham House, the London-based international affairs group, in a report last month.
The increasing income does more than just make the pirates more brazen. The more ransom they receive, the more sophisticated their operations become, said Will Geddes, managing director of ICP Group, a London-based security company.
Geddes estimates Somali pirates may have accumulated $100 million in ransom since the 1990s, booty that will make their attacks more effective.
These boys can buy some fast, powerful boats, which can get them out quickly and easily into the channel, he said. The Somali pirates also have access to the perfect arms fair -- Mogadishu, the capital of a nation wracked by civil war since the 1991 ouster of Mohammed Siad Barre. It occurs to me that 'supply' of piracy will never saturate the demand side of the equation; the willingness of shipowners to pay ransoms, and piracy may well be a permanent feature of the region for the foreseeable future or at least until Somalia gets sorted out, which won't be any time soon.
#1
IIRC, ION NOT-CAPT-JACK SPARROW see REDDIT > RUSSIA has proposed that an INTERNATIONAL/JOINT COALITION OF STATES mount major LAND ATTACK OPERS AGZ SOMALI PIRATE BASES???
#2
...or international shipping through the area comes to a halt as insurers refuse to issue paper. Over grazing has a tendency to leave the land barren, and the grazer usually doesn't take note of the decline till its too late. Pirates meet the Tragedy of the Commons.
#3
When, oh when will people learn that allowing and paying for bullies to exist will bring about only more bulling?
I swear, this issue is as old as humankind and we still haven't learned from our mistakes.
Sink everything that isn't registered, arc-light the "safe havens" and ports and let the villagers know if they harbor pirates, their village gets plowed under too. I guarantee this shit would end nearly overnight.
#4
Egypt could lose millions in revenue from the Canal. People are willing to pay a tenth or more of a billion dollars for protection, but not a cent for defense. They have it backwards.
We do not need a land invasion. Just a flyby with lots of ordinance. The Saudis ought to grab one of their handy Imams and issue a fatwa against Muslims committing piracy aginst fellow muslims. Worth a try, but in the meantime, hire some mercs to deal with the pirates. Hedging your bets, so to speak.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/24/2008 11:15 Comments ||
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#5
Saudis can just say they and theirs for 3 generations will not be permitted hajji to Mecca.
(sort of like the pope excommunicating somebody in the middle ages...)
If they don't respond - underlings or family might.
#7
As I understand it, nearly all ships sail under 'flags of convenience'. Why don't we declare that any ship that sail under US registration, will get the full support and protection of our military? Seems like it might be good for business. The pirates seem easy enough for us to quickly bring under control.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/24/2008 12:47 Comments ||
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#8
just pay the Indians too do it . I t would be cheaper and you wouldn't have too hear the human rights ppl bitching
Posted by: chris ||
11/24/2008 13:01 Comments ||
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#9
Why don't we declare that any ship that sail under US registration, will get the full support and protection of our military?
Because, Richard, our Congress has added so many rules, regulations, stipulations and restrictions on shipping that US-flagged shipping is all but dead. That's why so many of these ships are registered under "flags of convenience". ALL US-flagged ships have to have at least two officers who have graduated from the Merchant Marine Academy, all but the lowest ABs have to belong to the Merchant Seamans' Union, there are so many regulations, many of which contradict one another, that they add MILLIONS to the cost of running a ship. Again, go back and "thank" FDR for most of this sh$$. The three presidents who have done the most to damage this country were Woodrow Wilson, FDR, and Jimmy Carter. Billy Cliton doesn'teven make the cut. Obama has a LONG way to go to outdo any of these three.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/24/2008 13:34 Comments ||
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#10
Is there going to be a bailout for the pirate unions if they can't raise ransoms anymore because of hard times?
Tension mounted Sunday between Somali pirates holding a Saudi supertanker and Islamist fighters threatening to attack them, with a week remaining for the ship's owners to meet a $25 million ransom demand. "If the pirates want peace, they had better release the tanker," Sheikh Ahmad, a spokesman for the Al-Shabaab group in the coastal region of Harardhere, told AFP by phone.
While part of the Islamist Union of Somali Courts government that brought rule to large swathes of the country in 2006, the group had made strides in clamping down on the now prolific practice.
The Sirius Star, a huge tanker carrying around $100 million worth of crude oil and owned by Saudi Aramco, was hijacked in the space of 16 minutes in the Indian Ocean on November 15. Pirates have since anchored it off their base in Harardhere, north of Mogadishu, and demanded the ransom be paid by November 30.
Al-Shabaab group, which controls much of southern and central Somalia and rejects an internationally backed peace process until Ethiopian forces withdraw, has positioned fighters in and around Harardhere in recent days. Islamist leaders have stressed that piracy is a capital offense under Islam and officially condemned the surge in acts of piracy in Somalia's waters, which has begun to disrupt international trade.
A member of the pirate group holding the Sirius Star retorted that his own men were not afraid of Al-Shabaab.
"We are the Al-Shabaab of the sea and we can't be scared by the Al-Shabaab of the land," Mohammad Said told AFP. "If anybody attempts to attack, that would be suicide."
Said announced to AFP on Thursday that his group was demanding $25 million to release the vessel, which is carrying the equivalent of almost a quarter of Saudi Arabia's daily output.
"I am not on the tanker at the moment because I am coordinating what is happening on the ground," he said. "There is a small Al-Shabaab vanguard on the ground but we also have a strong presence. Every Somali has great respect for the holy kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We have nothing against them but unfortunately what happened was just business for us and I hope the Saudis will understand," the pirate said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The Islamists are not against the piracy, just piracy of their benefactors' ships. Kinda too bad - would like to see all-out conflict between the pirates and the Islamists.
#2
Both sides have God with them. How can they lose?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/24/2008 10:52 Comments ||
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#3
Or else what? It would be a huge environmental disaster if they blew the ship just to spite each other but neither the pirates not the Islamists have any sense. If they just chopped one another, then I have no problem if they take care of the problems internally.
#4
There goes the old fishin' hole. What say you, Greenpeace?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/24/2008 11:16 Comments ||
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#5
i have feeling this is gonna end in one helluva an explosion
Posted by: chris ||
11/24/2008 13:14 Comments ||
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#6
They probably can't get 'em off the ship, but al Shabaab should remember that the pirates have a Ukraine vessel with 30+ tanks on board, plus all kinds of other goodies. It might not be the cake-walk the Islamists think it would be. I can see the potential for some SERIOUS blood-letting.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/24/2008 13:37 Comments ||
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#7
They're not all for law and order. They're trying to jump their claim.
Two British lawmakers urged the government to reveal Sunday whether it knew in advance about a U.S. missile attack in Pakistan which killed the alleged mastermind of an airplane bombing plot. British-Pakistani Rashid Rauf died Saturday when a missile hit a tribesman's house in the village of Alikhel, part of a northwestern border district that is a known stronghold of al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, a Pakistani security official told AFP.
Rauf was the alleged al-Qaeda mastermind of a 2006 transatlantic jet bombing conspiracy. He had been tracked by British, American and Pakistani intelligence ever since he escaped from the custody of the Pakistani authorities in mysterious circumstances earlier this year.
" We can investigate whether British security services had involvement in providing intelligence concerning British nationals in Pakistan, "
British lawmaker Andrew Dismore
British lawmaker Andrew Dismore, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights, will ask the scrutiny body to probe whether British intelligence services had been consulted about the missile strike, the Sunday Times newspaper reported. "This is a very serious matter, particularly if the attack was based on intelligence provided by the British security agencies. We can investigate whether British security services had involvement in providing intelligence concerning British nationals in Pakistan. I anticipate this is a matter the committee might like to follow up," he said.
"If there is any suggestion of complicity of the U.K. security services in this particular incident then that is certainly something we would want to take into account in our work on this subject," the Sunday Times quoted Dismorse.
Once again certain MPs fail to understand how the world works, and believe that they can defeat terrorism by waging law. Pakistan is beyond their reach and certainly beyond the reach of law. It's a harsh, uncomfortable fact of life, and if we don't stop people like Rauf, they're going to kill thousands of Brits -- or Americans.
The British newspaper reported that Patrick Mercer, the main opposition Conservative Party's former security spokesman, said Rauf's killing raised serious issues. "This raises the question of how much co-operation the British intelligence agencies provided in what is ultimately the execution of a British subject. The government must explain its involvement and its future policy in this area," he said.
No, the government should leave this as gray as possible, and if the Tories come to power they'd be best advised to leave it dark gray as well. Say nothing, work quietly, find the terrs and whack them.
At Rauf's family home in Birmingham yesterday the only response came from a bearded man in his twenties, according to the Sunday Times. The man, who would not identify himself, said: "I'm very angry right now, so you should leave for your own safety."
The Sunday Times quoted British officials as saying they were still seeking formal confirmation of the identities of those killed in Saturday's missile strike, but questions will be raised about what, if anything, London knew about an attack by coalition forces that resulted in the death of a British citizen.
The arrangements under which the CIA consults with Britain about such strikes, the London newspaper said, remain a closely guarded secret, given the intensity of interest in Rauf.
The attack has alarmed some MPs who say it raises important questions about Britain's co-operation with America in the war on terrorism.
Look, if you're this squeamish, we really don't need you. We can go kill terrorists and not talk with you about it, before or after. And if a terr turns out to be a British subject, so be it.
This article starring:
Rashid Rauf
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Britain
#1
We know the country is fucked when MPs care more about the death of traitors than they do about toddlers killed basically by social services run along marxist doctrine.
#5
Clarity, the guy is dead, not living, deceased, toast, room temperature, passed on, no longer with us. I can explain it to you, I cannot understand it for you.
Posted by: Steven ||
11/24/2008 10:34 Comments ||
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Christian Klar, a former leader of the Red Army Faction terrorist group who was convicted of multiple murders, will be released early next year after 26 years in prison, a Stuttgart state court has ruled.
Klar, 56, no longer poses a threat to society, the court ruled on Monday. He will likely be released on January 3. He currently serving multiple life sentences, but will have served the minimum 26 years as of January.
Klar was convicted in 1985 of involvement in the murders of nine people and the attempted murder of 11 for the leftist terrorist group, including the murders of West Germany's top prosecutor Siegfrieg Buback and Hanns-Martin Schleyer, president of the country's employers' association.
Buback, a strong opponent of the leftist terrorist group during his term, was killed along with his driver Wolfgang Göbel, and a judicial officer, Georg Wurster, on the way to the courthouse in Karlsruhe in 1977. A motorcycle pulled up to Buback's Mercedes at a stoplight, and a passenger on the back opened fire with an automatic weapon.
Buback's murder was the first crime in a series of terrorist acts by the militant communist RAF group in their radical opposition to the West German government that came to be known as "German Autumn" in 1977.
Schleyer was kidnapped in September by the RAF and killed by his captors one-and-a-half months later after the government did not give in to their demands.
Another RAF leader, Brigitte Mohnhaupt, was released last year after the Stuttgart court determined that she no longer posed a threat to society.
The RAF, also known as the Baader-Meinhof gang after two of its leading members, emerged from the 1968 student protest movement and was committed to combatting "capitalist imperialism" in what it called a corrupt West German society. The group is thought responsible for the deaths of 34 people.
Christian Klar has shown little public remorse for his crime and caused headlines last year when he wrote in a Marxist newspaper that Europe was ruled by an "imperial pact" and that society must continue to work for the "final defeat of capital."
He asked to be paroled in 2007 but his application was turned down by German President Horst Köhler, who did not give a reason.
However, on Monday the Stuttgart court said Klar had "completely changed."
A film dramatizing the group's activities is now playing in cinemas in Germany and abroad. "The Baader-Meinhof Complex" has been named as Germany's official entry for the 2009 foreign language film Oscar. Klar is played by actor Daniel Lommatzsch in the film.
A federal appeals court expressed skepticism Monday about a judge's order releasing 17 Turkic Muslims from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, into the United States.
During oral arguments, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit indicated that a federal judge might have acted too quickly last month in ordering the immediate release of the 17 men, known as Uighurs (WEE'-gurz).
The three judges suggested that the detainees might need to formally apply to enter the country via the Homeland Security Department, which administers U.S. immigration laws. "Before they can be admitted into this country, there are immigration statutes to be addressed and petitioners haven't pursued that yet," said Judge Judith W. Rogers, who previously expressed support for the Uighurs' immediate release. Immigration Clerk: Name?
Terrorist: Achmed.
IC: How long will you be staying?
T: Not long.
IC: Purpose of visit?
T: Terrorism.
IC: Any fruits or vegetable or contraband animals?
T: No.
IC: Wait in the line to your right.
T: I KEEL You!
IC: Next.
Solicitor General Gregory Garre told the court that releasing the detainees into the U.S. was a matter for the president -- not the courts -- given questions of national security and diplomacy.
The Muslims were cleared for release from Guantanamo as early as 2003 but fear they will be tortured if they are returned to China. "It's regrettable they are in this situation, but we are active in seeking another country to take them," Garre said.
At issue in Monday's arguments is whether a federal judge has the authority to order the release of prisoners at Guantanamo who were unlawfully detained by the U.S. and cannot be sent back to their homeland.
U.S. District Judge Richard Urbina last month ordered the government to release the 17 men into the United States, noting that they were no longer considered enemy combatants. Urbina sternly rebuked the Bush administration for a detention policy toward the Uighurs that "crossed the constitutional threshold into infinitum."
The Bush administration quickly sued to block Urbina's order, citing security concerns over weapons training the Uighurs received at camps in Afghanistan. A divided D.C. Circuit court in late October agreed to temporarily halt the Uighurs' release so it could consider the government's full appeal.
That same three-judge panel heard arguments Monday. The panel was composed of Rogers, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, and Karen Henderson and A. Raymond Randolph, both appointees of President George H.W. Bush.
Roughly 20 percent of about 250 detainees who remain at Guantanamo fear torture or persecution if they return to their home countries, according to the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights. The Bush administration has long maintained that, unless another country agrees to take them, the detainees should stay at Guantanamo.
The CCR is a hard-left, Soros-funded group that would be happy to let the Uighurs stay in the U.S. but of course won't take them into their own homes ...
Two United Nations investigators recently told the D.C. Circuit court that based on their high-level meetings with foreign governments no third country agreed to provide refuge for the Uighur prisoners. "It is our view that the United States is under international law obliged immediately to release the Uighur detainees of Guantanamo," Manfred Nowak, the U.N. torture investigator, and Martin Scheinin, the U.N.'s independent investigator on human rights in the fight against terrorism, wrote in court filings.
From what countries do Manfred and Martin hail? Would those countries take the Uighurs? No? Didn't think so ...
The Uighurs case is among more than 100 Guantanamo cases currently under review by federal judges after the Supreme Court ruled in June that foreign detainees at Guantanamo have the right to appeal to U.S. civilian courts to challenge their imprisonment.
Last week, a federal judge ordered the release of five Algerian men after rejecting government allegations that they were "enemy combatants." U.S. District Judge Richard Leon also urged the Justice Department not to appeal, saying the detainees had languished at Guantanamo long enough.
Posted by: ed ||
11/24/2008 11:55 ||
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#1
you got too be kidding me that they would even be considered too be let into this country.
Posted by: chris ||
11/24/2008 12:59 Comments ||
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#3
At issue in Monday's arguments is whether a federal judge has the authority to order the release of prisoners at Guantanamo who were unlawfully detained by the U.S. and cannot be sent back to their homeland.
There's the problem, right there. There is no determination that they were "unlawfully" detained. They were armed, on a battlefield, and not fighting for "our" side. Some jacka$$ Democratic, power-hungry (but I repeat myself) judge has "decided" they're being unlawfully detained, because they can't be shipped back to China, and there isn't any other country (including the US) that wants them. Maybe we should just slip them under the fence into Cuba when nobody's looking, and claim we don't have any idea what happened to them. Castro would probably welcome them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/24/2008 13:54 Comments ||
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#4
Tiome off for good behavior. Happens all the time with dope dealers, murders, rapists and other perverts. Who's to say that terrorists should be treated equally?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/24/2008 14:11 Comments ||
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#5
Put them up in the Lincoln bedroom of the White House starting on 20 Jan 2009.
MUMBAI: Underworld don Chhota Shakeel's younger brother Anwar Babu Shaikh, who was reportedly detained by the Abu Dhabi police for allegedly possessing narcotics and travelling on a fake passport, police sources said.
Shakeel's relations in the city told TOI that Anwar was never detained. Sources said he was allowed to go following the intervention of some influential people in UAE and Karachi, Pakistan.
Deported don Abu Salem, Anees Ibrahim and Chhota Shakeel are some of the gangsters who have managed to emerge from the grip of the UAE police after being detained in some case or the other.
Joint commissioner of police (crime) Rakesh Maria said, "We have no official confirmation of his arrest or release.'' Anwar was detained after a red-corner notice was issued by Interpol at the instance of the CBI.
The city police are on the lookout for him since 2004 in connection with several extortion cases.
Sources said Anwar was detained after he arrived from Pakistan to attend Dawood's nephew's wedding in UAE.
After the wedding, he was to fly to Mecca for Hajj. Sources said the police recovered some "white powder" from his luggage and suspected it to be drugs. However, Anwar said he did not know how narcotic substances were kept in his bag. The powder was sent for chemical analysis.
Another theory doing the rounds is that Anwar was trying to fly down to Mumbai on a fake passport to attend the wedding of the son of Shakeel's brother-in-law, Arife Bhaijan.
According to sources, Anwar headed a terror module of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence. Prior to this, Anwar had even tried to take his brother's position by giving orders to the gang's foot soldiers independently after which there was a tiff between the two siblings.
Anwar is also believed to have aided Chhota Shakeel in several operations. Anwar started as a small-time real estate agent.
While Shakeel escaped to Dubai in 1988, Anwar handled his brother's finances in Mumbai till 2000 after which he fled to Pakistan.
ISLAMABAD: A senior security official has contradicted Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshis statement that the political wing of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) has been closed, BBC reported on Monday.
Qureshi had told reporters in Multan on Sunday that the ISI political wing had been disbanded. The ISI is a precious national institution and wants to focus on counterterrorism activities, APP quoted him as saying.
Without identifying the senior official, BBC said the ISI political wing exists, but has been made inactive. The official said the staff of the department had not been given new assignments.
ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha had focused on counterterrorism during his previous assignment as the director general of Military Operations, the BBC said, and is expected to keep terrorism his top priority in his new office.
The ISI has been accused of several questionable political activities in the past, including the creation of an anti-Pakistan Peoples Party alliance in the 1988 general elections and uniting several factions of the Pakistan Muslim League to form a pro-Pervez Musharraf party in 2002. BBC said ISI officials admit that interfering with the political process had cost the agency the trust of the people.
Transformation: The security official said the ISI was going through a transformation.
The agency wants to stay away from political issues, he said. It wants to quit its past activities such as keeping an eye on politicians.
Quoting other sources in the ISI, the BBC said politicians hoping to become senators still knock at the ISIs door, and that the agency has complained people pose to have links with them to seek personal favours.
The unidentified sources also told the BBC that the ISI did not select or approve government ministers. Without naming anyone, the BBC said analysts had warned that governments might use the agency for political purposes in future because its political wing had not been closed down.
Only July 26, the Cabinet Division had issued a memorandum under Rule 3(3) of the Rules of Business of 1973, placing the ISI under the direct control of the Interior Division, but later decided to hold it in abeyance till further deliberations.
The prime minister is pleased to direct that the federal government will carry out further deliberations on co-ordinating the intelligence efforts. Till the completion of these deliberations, the Cabinet Divisions memorandum of even number, dated July 26, 2008, is held in abeyance, says an official announcement called Memorandum issued by the Cabinet Secretariat on July 29.
#1
wow, a Paki Pol lied? Whoda thunk it. And to those who object to the nym inflicting harm on the sensitivities of our Pakistani friends? Get over it. They aren't our friends. I'm not British, and we use the name all the time
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/24/2008 21:03 Comments ||
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Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), North Waziristan, on Sunday demanded that the US stop drone attacks in Tribal Areas and withdraw its troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. The demand came at its executive council meeting chaired by JUI-F, North Waziristan, Amir and former MNA Maulana Muhammad Deendar. Ulema and party office-bearers and workers also attended the meeting. The meeting passed a unanimous resolution, seeking end to the US missile attacks in tribal and settled areas and withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. The executive council called upon the Pakistan government to implement in-camera resolution unanimously passed by parliament recently and stop military operation and talk to Taliban. The party offered its services to the government saying it was ready to play an arbitrary role in ending military operations and restoring peace in the tribal region.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
#1
Quit protecting the bad guys. Then we'll talk. Clear enough?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/24/2008 11:15 Comments ||
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The political wing of the Inter-Services Intelligence has been disbanded, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told reporters in Multan on Sunday, adding that the army is performing its duties well.
That leaves only its military wing, right?
Is that different from its trouble-making wing?
"The ISI is a precious national institution and wants to focus on counterterrorism activities," APP quoted him as saying.
Responding to a question, Qureshi categorically denied the possibility of martial law, adding that the government, the parliament and the armed forces had "a unanimity of views".
India: Qureshi, who left for India later on Sunday, said he would meet his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee and other Indian leaders to discuss bilateral issues including reduced water flow in the Chenab River and the Kashmir issue.
IMF: Qureshi said an International Monetary Fund loan would pave the way for more assistance from international financial institutions. He denied an agricultural income tax was among the IMF conditions, adding such taxes were a provincial subject.
The minister said an 'expert level' meeting of the Friends of Pakistan forum is scheduled for January 13 to 16 in Islamabad, he said, and foreign ministers of the countries in the forum would be invited to Pakistan in February.
Qureshi said he could not confirm the killing of British terror suspect Rashid Rauf in a US missile attack on Saturday and the reported request of his wife for the body. He said the government would act in line with the rules if it gets such information.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: ISI
#2
Grom, the CIA has a "political" division. It's primary duty is to keep track of every member of every government in the world (except ours - that's the duty of the FBI). They basically do this to see if there are members of governments that have "shady" backgrounds, are targets for blackmail, have loyalties to other than the government they serve, and how they feel about the United States. The work is duplicated at State and DIA, which shows why we have so much trouble with our intelligence agencies.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/24/2008 14:05 Comments ||
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Those dubbed as Al Qaeda and aliens on the Pakistani land are the same people who were once called the holy warriors to defeat Soviet troops in Afghanistan, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad said on Sunday. They fought the war against Russia in Afghanistan for the cause of Islam and now were doing the same to thwart American designs in the region, said the JI chief while addressing a tribal jirga sponsored by his party.
Qazi said Al Qaeda and Taliban were not against the state of Pakistan. However, they were against the 'pro-United States governments' of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
He claimed there were no foreign fighters in Pakistan. "Anyone who is fighting in the path of Allah is my brother," he said.
Qazi said they would block the NATO supply routes through Pakistan if the foreign troops did not stop drone attacks in the Tribal Areas. He said the government was killing its own people to appease the Americans.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
#1
and what would our designs be on this region? It's a shithole and thats about it unless you're a junkie
Posted by: chris ||
11/24/2008 13:07 Comments ||
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#2
I have nothing against a nation protecting itself. My anger begins when people that reside in that nation start killing US citizens, either abroad or in the United States. That's a no-no. For that, you die. You, bright boy, deserve to die. I hope you fall victim to the next Predator strike.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/24/2008 14:08 Comments ||
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Kurdish officials this fall took delivery of three planeloads of small arms and ammunition imported from Bulgaria, three U.S. military officials said, an acquisition that occurred outside the weapons procurement procedures of Iraq's central government.
The large quantity of weapons and the timing of the shipment alarmed U.S. officials, who have grown concerned about the prospect of an armed confrontation between Iraqi Kurds and the government at a time when the Kurds are attempting to expand their control over parts of northern Iraq.
The weapons arrived in the northern city of Sulaymaniyah in September on three C-130 cargo planes, according to the three officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Kurdish officials declined to answer questions about the shipments but released the following statement: "The Kurdistan Regional Government continues to be on the forefront of the war on terrorism in Iraq. With that continued threat, nothing in the constitution prevents the KRG from obtaining defense materials for its regional defense."
Iraq's ethnic Kurds maintain an autonomous region that comprises three of the country's 18 provinces. In recent months, the Shiite-led central government in Baghdad, which includes some Kurds in prominent positions, has accused Kurdish leaders of attempting to expand their territory by deploying their militia, known as pesh merga, to areas south of the autonomous region. Among other things, the Kurds and Iraq's government are at odds over control of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which lies outside the autonomous region, and over how Iraq's oil revenue ought to be distributed.
The Kurds of northern Iraq have run their affairs with increasing autonomy since 1991, when U.S. and British forces began enforcing a no-fly zone in northern Iraq to protect the region from President Saddam Hussein's military. The U.S.-led invasion in 2003 sparked concern that Iraqi Kurds would seek independence, but the Kurds have insisted that they wish to remain part of a federal Iraq.
Neighboring countries with large Kurdish minorities, including Turkey and Iran, have said they would oppose the emergence of an independent Kurdistan, as the autonomous region is known.
Iraq's interior minister, Jawad al-Bolani, said in an interview that central government officials did not authorize the purchase of weapons from Bulgaria. He said such an acquisition would constitute a "violation" of Iraqi law because only the Ministries of Interior and Defense are authorized to import weapons.
Experts on Iraq's constitution said the document does not clearly say whether provincial officials have the authority to import weapons. However, Iraqi and U.S. officials said the Ministries of Interior and Defense are the only entities authorized to import weapons. The Defense Ministry provides weapons to the Iraqi army, and the Interior Ministry procures arms for the country's police forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
well the Kurds seem too have their affairs a little more in order.Kirkuk has been doing alot better than other large Iraqi cities for alot longer time maybe they should give it a shot a being a independent, but i have a feeling they will get greedy and it will never happen
Posted by: chris ||
11/24/2008 13:10 Comments ||
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Iraq's defense minister warned Saturday that the government would declare a state of emergency if there was no agreement to keep U.S. forces in the country past the end of the year. The threat by Abdul Qadir Muhammed Jassim appeared aimed at pressuring parliament to approve a security accord allowing U.S. troops to stay three more years.
Jassim has been a strong supporter of the agreement, which would replace a United Nations mandate that expires Dec. 31. But his language Saturday was unusually stark. He said at a news conference that if there was a sudden U.S. withdrawal, "we shall wait for a strike against us, in our midst."
"There are armed groups that believe they are stronger than the security forces," Jassim said. He noted bluntly that some political parties maintain armed wings and suggested that foreign intelligence services were trying to intervene in Iraq's affairs.
He did not give specifics, but U.S. officials have accused Iran of supporting armed groups in Iraq. Iran has denied the charge.
The Iraqi cabinet approved the bilateral pact last Sunday, indicating that it has the support of the leaders of most major parties. But the agreement was the subject of raucous debate in parliament last week. On Friday, thousands of supporters of anti-American cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched in central Baghdad against the agreement.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is seeking a strong vote in favor of the accord to prevent it from being used against him in upcoming elections. He also wants to satisfy a demand by Iraq's most revered Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, for "national consensus" on the agreement.
The vote on the agreement was originally set for Monday but was moved to Wednesday because parties wanted more time to review it, officials said. Parliament is scheduled to adjourn in the coming week to allow lawmakers to make the hajj pilgrimage; they are not expected to reconvene until mid-December.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#2
The sad reality is that we have done everything that can be done to help Iraq, and the new US government will not be a friend to Iraq. It is better to part as friends, and for them to lock the door behind us, than to risk a US government that wants to harm them.
#3
There are a lot of 'dire consequences' for not approving things lately. Every company that goes to DC, hat in hand for money, warns of 'dire consequences'.
Hamas announced on Sunday that militant groups in Gaza have agreed to cease cross-border rocket attacks if Israel opens crossings into the coastal territory, Ma'an news reported.
The Palestinian news agency quoted Hamas official Ayman Taha as saying that the militant groups reached the deal with Israel after it was the proposal was relayed to them by Egypt.
According to Ma'an news, Taha said: "We met with factions in the Gaza Strip and told them about the request. They agreed in order to ease the influence of the siege."
The reported move came amid a flare up in cross-border violence that has threatened to scupper the five-month truce between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. In the latest violation of the fragile cease-fire, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired two Qassam rockets into the western Negev on Sunday evening, according to Israel Radio. The rocket attacks caused neither casualties nor property damage.
Meanwhile, Israel Radio also Palestinian officials on Sunday night as saying that Israel had agreed to partially open the border crossings on Monday for the entry of humanitarian goods into Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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[1 views]
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#1
Whaddayaknow. Collective punishment might work after all. I say squeeze their nuts harder.
Here's a counter-offer, boys: 4 weeks with no rockets, we open ONE crossing. Each month thereafter without rocketry experiments, one more crossing opens.
#4
As always, they've got it backwards. Israel will reopen the border crossings IF HAMAS STOPS FIRING ROCKETS. After all, that's why they closed them in the first place.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/24/2008 14:10 Comments ||
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#5
Inform the Gazans that ONE rocket and the crossing is closed for ONE MONTH, then do it.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/24/2008 14:35 Comments ||
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Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday he would call for presidential and parliamentary elections if a reconciliation deal is not reached with rival Hamas by the end of this year, a move Hamas rejected as "illegal and unconstitutional."
Abbas told members of his Palestine Liberation Organization that he would issue a presidential decree early next year but did not say when the elections would be held. "If the dialogue with Hamas fails, early next year I will call for simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections," Abbas said.
Hamas replied with: "We reject the calling of the elections because it is illegal and unconstitutional," spokesman Fawzi Barhum told AFP. "The law does not give any authority to the president on parliament and nobody can dissolve it before" elections are due in 2010, a spokesman for the Hamas administration in Gaza, Taher al-Nunu told AFP.
Hamas, which controls Gaza, won an upset victory in the last parliamentary elections in 2006 and pulled out of Egyptian-brokered unity talks with Abbas's secular Fatah faction earlier this month, accusing his security forces of rounding up its supporters in the West Bank.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
The exiled political chief of the Palestinian Hamas movement on Sunday slammed Arab and Islamic states for keeping silent over Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. "What is happening in the Gaza Strip is a tragedy. Shame on those who stay silent on the criminal blockade that has been imposed on Gaza. Shame on Arab and Islamic regimes and on the international community," Khaled Meshaal told a meeting in Syria on the right of return for Palestinian refugees - a right enshrined in international law. "Every Arab country could send a boat to Gaza" to break the blockade imposed since Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006, Meshaal said.
Boats from Cyprus carrying international peace activists have been able to do so three times in the past three months. Israel tightened the siege after Hamas pre-empted what many have described as a US-backed offensive by the rival Fatah movement of President Mahmoud Abbas aimed at ousting the Islamists from Gaza.
Various UN and EU officials, as well as scores of human rights groups, have slammed the siege as "collective punishment of a civilian population," an act that is defined by the Fourth Geneva Convention as a war crime.
On November 4 Israel shattered a five-month-old truce with Hamas by invading the Gaza Strip and killing seven members of the Islamist group. Under the terms of the agreement, which virtually halted violence in and around Gaza, Israel was to significantly ease the blockade. But the Jewish state did not honor its commitment.
In a speech Meshaal said the return of Palestinian refugees to a homeland now under Israeli occupation was "a natural right guaranteed under international law." "Anyone who compromises on the right of return is party to a great crime," he said.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), created in 1949 after the first Arab-Israeli war for Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, accords "refugee of Palestine" status to people who lived in Palestine between June 1946 and May 1948, as well as to their descendants.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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[1 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Has the Israeli drone program gotten large enough to where their drones can carry Hellfires? I know they have helicopters that do, but there are some people that just ACHE to be Hell-zapped.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/24/2008 14:11 Comments ||
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#2
If not.... how about hand grenades in a Mason jar?
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed frustration at US-backed Middle East peace talks on Sunday on the eve of a White House meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and President George W. Bush, saying that not one issue has been resolved.
He also pledged to call snap presidential and parliamentary elections if there is no agreement with the Islamist Hamas movement, which controls Gaza, to end the rift in Palestinian ranks.
"So far we have not reached agreement on a single question - every issue remains up for discussion," Abbas told a key decision-making body of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) under whose auspices the year-old negotiations with Israel are being held.
"Even if [US Secretary of State] Condoleezza Rice or someone speaking in her name says, even if [Israeli Foreign Minister] Tzipi Livni or someone speaking in her name says that there are agreements being prepared, it's not true," he told the PLO's central council.
The Palestinian leader pointed to myriad Israeli failings to honor any of the undertakings it gave in November last year at the US-hosted conference which relaunched the negotiations. "Everyone knows that Israel has not for one moment halted the settlement construction, the building of the [separation] wall or the attacks, and nor has it allowed the opening of [Palestinian] institutions in [Occupied] Jerusalem," he complained.
By contrast, he said the Palestinians "had made efforts which had produced results and brought security and stability to towns across the West Bank."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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[0 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
Condi's gone Abu Mazen, accept it---but you get to meet Hillary.
An Iranian armed force held civil defense drills on Sunday to prepare for any hostile air strikes after Saturday's reports that the United States would activate an anti-missile radar system in Israel by mid-December.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > ISRAELI THINK TANK: IRAN MISSLE SHIELD [ADS, Anti-CM, Anti-BM Warhead/BMD] MAY BE READY IN 2009 [Summer]. S-300PMU-3 Multi-defense ADS.; + WORLD MILITARY FORUM > CHINA MAY SELL YJ-62A ANTI-CARRIER MISSLES TO IRAN.
#2
defense drills on Sunday to prepare for any hostile air strikes after Saturday's reports that the United States would activate an anti-missile radar system in Israel by mid-December.
If "they" have an anti-missile radar system in place, it's actually a shield for protecting "their" country against your (Russian/Iranian) missile systems, whilst permitting "them" to conduct an offence against you (Russia/Iran).
Because that is what you (Russia/Iran) would do to "them" if you had an anti-missile system in-place.
#4
The establishment of a sound ADA/missle defense is a precursor to offensive action. The signature of the missle/aricraft defense installation has undoubtedly alerted the Iranians to the likely IAF strike plans. I think the middle to late January is a good time to bunker in.....
A former Israeli commander says the West must consider assassinating Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to halt Tehran's nuclear program.
Former Israeli Army Chief of Staff Moshe "Boogie" Ya'alon told the Australian daily The Sydney Morning Herald that the West should consider all options to stop the Islamic Republic's nuclear drive, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Sunday. "We have to confront the Iranian revolution immediately," Ya'alon said. "There is no way to stabilize the Middle East today without defeating the Iranian regime. The Iranian nuclear program must be stopped."
"We have to consider killing him (President Ahmadinejad). All options must be considered," the Israeli official added. He claimed that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Persian Gulf littoral states would welcome any military strike against Iran.
Ya'alon said that he had been surprised when the US decided to go into Iraq instead of Iran in 2003.
Ya'alon had declared that he would join the hardliner Likud Party's list to participate in the faction's primaries.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/24/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Sorry, problem goes deeper than that. The Ayatollahs will find another rube if you get rid of the current one.
#9
I concur w/OS in that they would find another dufus to be their mouth piece. I'm still not opposed to killing the monkey anyway. I think we should be working over time to wet-work all these *ssholes. Chavez, Castro, Kim Jong-Il, etc.
#11
Wouldn't that be loverly? Anyway, what's the downside?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
11/24/2008 10:56 Comments ||
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#12
I agree with Uleck Ghibelline9225. Take out the leadership. Let them try to take out ours if they can. We have a plan for orderly transition of power and dictatorships, even with shame democratic fronts, rarely do.
Also they would likely cause a Holy War if they tried to kill "The One"
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.
Tension mounted Sunday between Somali pirates holding a Saudi supertanker and Islamist fighters threatening to attack them, with a week remaining for the ship's owners to meet a $25 million ransom demand. "If the pirates want peace, they had better release the tanker," Sheikh Ahmad, a spokesman for the Al-Shabaab group in the coastal region of Harardhere, told AFP by phone.
Those dubbed as Al Qaeda and aliens on the Pakistani land are the same people who were once called the holy warriors to defeat Soviet troops in Afghanistan, Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad said on Sunday. They fought the war against Russia in Afghanistan for the cause of Islam and now were doing the same to thwart American designs in the region, said the JI chief while addressing a tribal jirga sponsored by his party.
Kurdish officials this fall took delivery of three planeloads of small arms and ammunition imported from Bulgaria, three U.S. military officials said, an acquisition that occurred outside the weapons procurement procedures of Iraq's central government. 
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Sunday he would call for presidential and parliamentary elections if a reconciliation deal is not reached with rival Hamas by the end of this year, a move Hamas rejected as "illegal and unconstitutional." 
The exiled political chief of the Palestinian Hamas movement on Sunday slammed Arab and Islamic states for keeping silent over Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip. "What is happening in the Gaza Strip is a tragedy. Shame on those who stay silent on the criminal blockade that has been imposed on Gaza. Shame on Arab and Islamic regimes and on the international community," Khaled Meshaal told a meeting in Syria on the right of return for Palestinian refugees - a right enshrined in international law. "Every Arab country could send a boat to Gaza" to break the blockade imposed since Hamas won parliamentary elections in 2006, Meshaal said.
