Hummm, Lets see, where did we put those Minnesota Somalis.....
Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden urged Somalis in a new audio tape on Thursday to topple the new President, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.
"The war which has been taking place on your soil these past years is a war between Islam and the international crusade," bin Laden said, according to the group's own English translation of the tape. "These sorts of presidents are the surrogates of our enemies and their authority is null and void in the first place, and as Sheikh Sharif is one of them, he must be dethroned and fought,"
Reuters was not immediately able to verify the authenticity of the tape, titled "Fight on, champions of Somalia" but the voice sounded like that of bin Laden.
#1
Someone needs to nuke the He$$ out of Chitral, Quetta, and the rest of the Tribal Agencies. Even if we don't get Bin Laden, it'll make him turn even more into a mole, and make his every day harder and harder. The choice of becoming radioactive gas or a Bin Laden follower may not be so enticing, either. There's nothing in Pakistan I'd lose any sleep over being denied...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/19/2009 21:22 Comments ||
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Construction of 215 km road in the western Nimroz province has encouraged Afghan merchants to shift their transportation system from Karachi harbor to Chabahar, in southern Iran. Business experts say that it would be a cheaper transit system through Chabahar harbor. Afghan Minister of Commerce, Waheedullah Shahrani says the new transit system would have positive impacts on businesses in many Asian countries.
Soon, Chabahar border will be opened for business shipments into Afghanistan. But, lack of security in Zaranj-Kabul highway which passes through the restive Kandahar, Zabul and Ghazni provinces is a concern for the merchants.
The Taliban have burned many trucks on this highway and have blown up some bridges in the recent years.
To keep their Pak masters happy ...
According to experts, Chabahar would be a cheap and the shortest transit way connecting Afghanistan to a sea harbor and through Afghanistan, it connects the Middle East countries as well. Iranian Ambassador to Kabul, Feda Hussian Maliki, said Iran will provide business facilities to the Afghan merchants.
Zaranj-Dilaram highway has been constructed by the Indian government over the past six years.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/19/2009 18:48 ||
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#1
While it would be rather cruel to the poor Afghans, the vicious pragmatist inhabiting my soul wonders if we could foment a full-on battle for A'stan between the Pakis and the Iranians? It worked fairly well for quite a while between Iran and Iraq?
Top aides to President Barack Obama are recommending that the United States combine a boost in military deployments with a steep increase in civilian experts to combat a growing insurgency in Afghanistan, senior U.S. officials said Wednesday.
Several hundred civilians from various U.S. government agencies from agronomists to economists and legal experts will be deployed to Afghanistan to reinforce the nonmilitary component in Kabul and the existing provincial reconstruction teams in the countryside, officials said.
A soon-to-be-concluded review of Afghanistan policy that Obama is expected to act on and announce next week builds on steps first endorsed by the Bush administration last year, the officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the review has not yet been completed.
Members of Obama's Principals' Committee, which is made up of the national security adviser, the secretaries of state and defense and the country's intelligence chiefs, met at the White House on Tuesday to complete their recommendations.
Top priorities in Afghanistan
Officials said counterinsurgency, reconstruction and development in Afghanistan would be top priorities.
The principals still have some work to do, according to one administration official familiar with the meeting.
"They are still trying to figure some pieces out," the official said. "(The review is) basically done but there are still elements that need to be addressed."
One part of the plan will involve naming former senior American diplomats to key posts in Afghanistan. One key official will be Francis Riccardione, a former envoy to Egypt, who will serve as deputy to the recently nominated new U.S. ambassador to Kabul, Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the official said.
Another appointment will see Peter Galbraith, a former American diplomat who has served in various hotspots, take the No. 2 U.N. job in Afghanistan, the administration official said.
The move to add hundreds of civilian aides under Eikenberry and his top staffers is similar to President George W. Bush's "surge" in Iraq but will be on a smaller scale, the officials said.
Working on an 'integrated strategy'
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday before meeting with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband that the administration was working on "an integrated strategy" to train the Afghan military and police as well as to support "governance, rule of law, judicial systems (and) economic opportunities."
Similarly, defense officials said Wednesday they expect Obama to stress the importance of the Afghanistan review's nonmilitary components.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates would not discuss details of the plan, but said "people are coming together pretty well in terms of the strategy."
Obama has committed 17,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan to break a stalemate against the Taliban and other insurgents. The president's top military advisers say the U.S. is not winning the fight there.
Many of the broad policy themes in the Afghanistan policy review already are well known, including the emphasis on nonmilitary contributions and the adaptation of successful counterinsurgency tactics used in the Iraq war.
#1
Kinda reminiscent of LBJ sending tens of thousands of US bureaucrats to Saigon to tell the Vietnamese how to do what they'd been doing quite well for a thousand years or more. It might help, but what I envision is a lot of US military pinned down "escorting" these political appointees to wherever they want to go, ripping the bottom out of combat operations.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/19/2009 2:58 Comments ||
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#2
HMMMMMM, HMMMMM, compare wid BIGNEWSNETWORK > OSAMA BIN LADEN TELLS MILITANTS TO ENTER JORDAN.
#7
Democracy and the rule of law in Afghanistan cannot be incubated by a few or even thousands of State Department and OGA wonks. This is just more of the same "nation building" folly. These buggers will severly inhibit any military effort and help to ensure that a victory is entirely unattainable.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/19/2009 16:52 Comments ||
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#16
Back when Eikenberry was commander in Afghanistan he tried to use Civil affairs in beefed up in a model similar to the JTF in the Philippines. He also did a pretty fair job there as commander keeping the insurgency to a minimum while America was focused on Iraq. Ambassador Ricchardione has a good understanding of COIN and FID from both the Philippines and when he was sent on assignment to Iraq. He also has a good understanding of the military and trusts the commanders. Obama has chosen probably the best two out there to go to Afghanistan, I wish Bush would have done this
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/19/2009 17:18 Comments ||
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KABUL NATOs secretary-general said 4,000 more soldiers were needed to secure Afghanistans presidential election in August and to make sure the vote was credible and fair. NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said he wanted four more battalions in place for the August 20 election. A NATO battalion is just under 1,000 troops. There are around 70,000 foreign soldiers now in Afghanistan.
The election is seen as the key test of progress in Afghanistan and the success or failure of the polls, diplomats say, will override any other events this year.
At an earlier news conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, de Hoop Scheffer said 2009 would be vital for Afghanistan and emphasized the importance of holding a fair election. Of course, these elections in a certain way ... will be a challenge, but we are there to meet this challenge, the NATO chief said. Every Afghan citizen should have the right where he or she lives, to go to the polls. If you say free, fair and credible, free means of course, free to vote for whoever you would like to vote for.
According to the constitution, the election is to be held in spring but the date was postponed until August due to the Afghan winter and to give foreign troops enough time to ensure security.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Hell, if all they want to do is fix monitor an election, wouldn't ACORN volunteers do?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/19/2009 0:18 Comments ||
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#2
The Afghanistanis have enough problems holding an election without the "help" of ACORN.
After several months of careful consideration, I've finally deciphered what "ACORN" stands for - A Cadre Of Red Nutjobs.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/19/2009 3:00 Comments ||
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A defiant Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir called on Wednesday for Darfur rebels to lay down their arms, during a visit to the conflict-ravaged region where he stands accused of war crimes. Vowing to develop the region that has been prey to six years of conflict and decades of neglect, Bashir addressed thousands of jubilant militiamen two weeks after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest.
"We want to reunify the people of Darfur and we call on all our sons and brothers who bear arms to put them down," Bashir said on his second visit to Darfur since the ICC issued a warrant for his arrest.
"We tell them you have taken up arms to demand development and development has now started and it continues," Bashir said. "Our response [to the ICC] is to bring electricity to Darfur, more buildings, schools, water, more hospitals. We want a reunification of the people of Darfur."
"It's not the US or Britain who chooses the president of Sudan but the Sudanese people," he thundered against two of the countries he sees as the driving force behind his arrest warrant.
"Oh Bashir, we sacrifice our soul and blood," the crowd shouted.
The ICC on March 4 issued an arrest warrant for Bashir for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Darfur conflict, including murder, torture, rape and pillage.
Sudan has vowed not to cooperate with the international court and taken steps to defy mounting Western criticism, including the expulsion of 13 international aid agencies. "Oh Bashir, we sacrifice our soul and blood," the crowd shouted in the village of Sabdo, near the South Darfur town of Al-Daien.
Militiaman Ahmad al-Hassan told AFP the rally of around 10,000 was made up of members of the pro-government popular defense forces, many on horseback and carrying lances. "Bashir is the hero of Sudan, we will defend him to the death," a toothless old man named Mohammad told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I guess that, as long as you're not black, Bashir is a GREAT leader for Sudan. Of course, half the population is black...
I hope Bashir wakes up one morning just in time to greet a Tomahawk missile entering his bedroom window. We'll have to have a change in the US presidency first, I believe.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/19/2009 3:02 Comments ||
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A British man alleged yesterday that he, his son and a family friend were tortured in his native Pakistan, urging the British government to push for the younger men's release. Fazal Hussain told a meeting at the Houses of Parliament that he, son Naheem Hussain, 24, and friend Rehan Zaman, 25, were arrested in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir after two members of his extended family were shot dead. He said that police officers whipped the three men's bare feet with canes over a period of two weeks in 2004. The two younger men confessed to the killings under duress, he said. Hussain said he was released from custody in 2004 after he fell ill - and after he agreed to pay £11,000 (BD5,820). The two younger men are still in custody and may face the death penalty. Meanwhile, lawyers said Britain knew about the torture but did nothing to stop it, echoing allegations of official complicity in abuse of terrorism suspects overseas.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
but, it's ok as long as it's not the US doing it
The Council of Indian Muslims (U.K.) has urged the government to refuse a visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to enter Britain because of his role in the 2002 communal riots in his State.
It said Mr. Modi had reportedly accepted an invitation to address a business event 'India Summit 2009' to be held here in May.
In a letter to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, Chairman of the Council Munaf Zeena said Mr. Modi's presence posed a "threat to inter-communal relations in the U.K."
Criticising British MPs who had shown support for Mr. Modi in the past, he asked: "How justified will [the] British government's stand be in asking British Muslims to oppose extremism while allowing someone who has been accused of genocide to be welcomed on British soil?"
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
How justified will [the] British government's stand be in asking British Muslims to oppose extremism while allowing someone who has been accused of genocide to be welcomed on British soil?
So where are these Muslims who oppose extremism?
If they are not talking, I don't think we have to worry about them. Those who talk, love genocide.
#2
To refresh memories, the 2002 communal riots began when muslims murdered Hindu religious pilgrims on a train. Most were burned to death, I believe. That the Hindu became enraged, fought back and gave much more than they suffered galls muslims. So screw the Muslim Council.
Posted by: ed ||
03/19/2009 12:06 Comments ||
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Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told visiting North Korean counterpart Kim Yong Il on Wednesday that Beijing wants to boost cooperation with Pyongyang and promote the six-way denuclearization talks, China's state-run media reported. While Kim's visit to Beijing came amid international concerns about North Korea's plan to launch a rocket, the China Central Television report made no mention about the space mission, which some say is a cover for the test-firing of a ballistic missile.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2009 00:00 ||
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North Korea will likely carry out a ''surprise but limited'' attack on South Korea in parallel with its launch of what it calls a satellite in early April, South Korea's defense ministry warned Wednesday, according to Yonhap News Agency. ''There is a good possibility North Korea may make a surprise but limited attack on some areas along the inter-Korean border, with global attention mounting on its planned missile launch,'' the ministry said in a report presented to a special parliamentary committee on inter-Korean relations. That's about the level of brilliance we actually expect from the Kim dynasty.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
For a long time, I suspect we stayed in the South to keep the ROK from invading the North.
#3
Theres more than enuff ample anecdotal MSM-NET news evidence directly indic andor inferring the serious problems faced by Islam + North Korea. I could be wrong, but IMO once the die of war is cast, NORTH KOREA = IRAN IN THAT AN AYMMETRIC "PEOPLE'S WAR" WILL BE DESIRED AND FOUGHT TO THE DEATH.
Any so-called "takeover" of NORTH KOREA by CHINA will be the nail on the coffin of Pyongyang + PAN-KOREAN COMMUNIST-SOCIALIST MOVEMENTS.
E.G. PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM [ala AFPAKISTAN] > THIS WAR IS OVER EXCEPT FOR THE FIGHTING.
#4
If the ROK Marines of today are anything like the ones I knew in Vietnam, that would be a SERIOUS error on the part of Kim - maybe even a fatal error. While the North has about 3000 artillery pieces aimed at the South, the ROKs have several hundred MLRS systems, mobile field pieces, and a MUCH better Air Force than the North. I'd bet the South would reach Pyongyang much faster than the North could reach the VERY short distance to Seoul. The biggest problem the South would have is with the several thousand DPRK sympathizers in the South - most of whom have lived all their lives in freedom.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/19/2009 3:10 Comments ||
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#6
OP-
I'll second 'Moose's thought that we're there almost as much to keep the South from going North. I suspect an NKOR attack would be a disaster - for him - from the get go. The NKORs of today can only advance as far as their feet will take them - they've got almost no transport, and what they do have won't last long against US/ROK resistance. On top of that, their plan calls for them to capture Seoul so they have supplies - they won;t be bringing any with them other than what they can carry.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/19/2009 6:07 Comments ||
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#7
If the North attacks the South the average standard of living in the resulting unified ROK will drop by half. A sane South would rather not win as long as they don't lose or spend too much maintaining a draw.
#9
Sun Tzu would have a lot of scolding of ROK to do!!!getting caught off-guard, or suprised is synonymous with the weaker position. it should be ROK making a suprise but unlimited attack, and say "shucks, didnt mean ta" that way they could control the dynamic.
#11
*sigh* ... it wasn't a "surprise attack" ... it is a "supplies attack". They need supplies and someone overheard a conversation and it got mixed up due to various accent issues.
#15
Punishment of War Maniacs by Arms Urged
Pyongyang, March 18 (KCNA) -- The United States and the south Korean puppet war-like forces are staging the madcap war exercises across south Korea to mount a surprise preemptive attack on the DPRK from land, air and seas.
Citing data to disclose such attempts, Minju Joson Wednesday in a signed commentary stresses that the war maniacs, the aggressors, should be punished with arms, not with words.
The ongoing joint military exercises of the U.S. are, in essence, little short of instigating the south Korean puppets to ignite a war of aggression on the DPRK through preemptive attack without worrying about full support from the U.S. in "contingency," the commentary points out, and says:
What is more intolerable is that the U.S. has talked nonsense that the DPRK is "excessively reacting" to the exercises and that it should "restrain" itself.
The historical facts show that there has been no use advising or warning the U.S. and its followers to drop their reckless hostile policy towards the DPRK, though it had done so frequently that they could understand.
The U.S. imperialists' moves for a war of aggression should be countered with merciless and resolute just war for reunification. This is the truth and lesson the DPRK drew from its anti-U.S. confrontation struggle of decades.
The arms of the DPRK built up with the inexhaustible mental power of the strong revolutionary armed forces of Mt. Paektu and Songun do not show mercy.
If the enemies intrude into the inviolable territory of the DPRK even 0.001mm, its army and people would wage the most powerful and scathing, anti-U.S. sacred war, the war for reunification to root out the sources of war and successfully accomplish the historic cause of national reunification, the cherished desire of the Koreans.
#16
norks are only good as their last meal, hunger makes them mighty grouchy. the rok are well fed, have prepositioned kimchi stash buried, and US soldiers hung over enough not to care on their side. make our day!
AUSTRALIA'S most controversial sheik, Taj Din al-Hilali, has been caught on videotape kicking in a door at his own mosque before calling police to report an act of vandalism. The head imam at the Lakemba mosque, who caused outrage in 2006 by comparing scantily clad women to uncovered meat, was shown on a CCTV security tape kicking open the door just minutes before reporting the incident.
The Nine Network's A Current Affair last night broadcast the videotape from March 9, showing the incident, which Sheik Hilali initially denied.
"There is a trick in this camera. There is a trick in this film," he told ACA. See it's a lying Infidel camera
But in a letter sent by Sheik Hilali's lawyers to ACA yesterday, he admitted kicking the door, saying the damage had already been done to the door before he kicked it. "What he did do was to kick open a door to the mosque that had already been damaged by others in order to gain entry to it," the letter said.
Lebanese Muslim Association president Shawky Kassir said they had called the police "for a little problem, but we have fixed (it) and everything is under control".
The footage shows four young men locking the door behind them at 10.28pm. Nine minutes later, Sheik Hilali checks the lock and pushes on the top of the door, bending it on its hinges. After checking the corridor, he disappears from view before rushing towards it and kicking it open at 10.46pm.
It is understood the name of the suspected culprit was put forward to NSW police, but it is not known if he was interviewed by the authorities.
A NSW Police media spokesperson said they started to investigate the matter but three days later were told by a mosque official that he did not wish to take the matter any further. "The matter remains under investigation. Further senior members of the local community will be consulted to discuss the incident."
Turkish police have received United States intelligence that militants from the extremist al-Qaeda network could be plotting attacks on foreign targets in Turkey, the Milliyet newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Police spokespeople would neither confirm nor deny the report.
Milliyet said a team of 15 militants trained in bomb-making -- among them Lebanese, Palestinians, Moroccans and Syrians -- were reported to have entered Turkey from neighbouring Syria in January or February. The group, believed to be operating in the central provinces of Konya and Aksaray, could be planning attacks against foreign missions in Turkey, the daily said.
And in a separate development, it said that a suspected militant who had come from Norway was believed to have been tasked with coordinating an attack against US or Israeli aircraft. According to the information supplied by US intelligence services, senior al-Qaeda militants had decided at a recent meeting in Pakistan to focus on attack plans in Turkey and northern Afghanistan.
A Turkish cell of al-Qaeda was held responsible for four suicide bombings in Istanbul in November 2003, the deadliest terrorist attacks in Turkey so far. The suicide drivers detonated truck bombs first at two synagogues, and five days later at the British consulate and a British bank, killing a total of 63 people, injuring hundreds and causing widespread damage.
Seven men were jailed for life over the bombings in 2007, among them a Syrian national who masterminded and financed the attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Bad headline. The key sentence in the article is
Mr. Kenney this month stripped the CAF of a $447,000 grant to provide language training to new immigrants, marking the first funding casualty of the government's new hate audit.
Citing the highly publicized case involving an undercover informant who spied on an Irvine mosque, a coalition of U.S. Muslim organizations has announced it may suspend relations with the FBI.
"Muslim communities throughout the United States have made significant advances in promoting and contributing to a fair, free and pluralistic society," reads the statement from the American Muslim Taskforce on Civil Rights and Elections (AMT). "Through civil rights advocacy, civic and political engagement, and the promotion of dialogue with interfaith leaders and law enforcement agencies, Muslim Americans continue to be a positive and stabilizing force in keeping our nation safe and secure from acts of violence and foreign threats."
Muslim Americans are productive, law-abiding citizens who have naturally been allied with law enforcement, reads the AMT statement, but "recent incidents targeting American Muslims lead us to consider suspending ongoing outreach efforts with the FBI."
"In California, the FBI sent a convicted criminal to pose as an agent provocateur in several of that state's mosques. An FBI agent allegedly told one of the mosque attendees that the agency would make his life a 'living hell' if he did not become an informant."
The mosque attendee is 34-year-old Afghan native Ahmad Niazi, who was arrested at his Tustin home on Feb. 20 on five fraud and perjury counts. At his Feb. 24 bail hearing, Niazi was alleged to have talked in an unnamed informant's e-mails and recordings of initiating jihad, getting weapons, blowing up buildings, sending money overseas to the Afghan mujahedin and even calling Osama bin Laden "an angel." At the hearing, Irvine fitness instructor Craig Monteilh filed court documents identifying himself as the informant.
Monteilh had arrived at the Islamic Center of Irvine in 2006 and befriended members, including Niazi, who informed mosque leaders that Monteilh was talking about jihad or holy war. The leaders turned to the Anaheim office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which contacted the FBI while the mosque got a restaining order against Monteilh. At CAIR's behest, an FBI official later came to the Irvine mosque to reassure members the government was not spying on them.
The coalition includes CAIR as a signatory of the statement that bemoans the FBI for suspending contact with CAIR earlier this year "pending the resolution of unspecified 'issues.'" A 15-year investigation by the FBI into Hamas fundraisers resulted in convictions in December at a trial where CAIR was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator. The bureau announced the following month it was severing its once-close ties with CAIR.
In response, the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, an umbrella organization of many Muslim groups, suspended outreach to the FBI in February. The coalition statement called the FBI's shunning of CAIR and other Muslim groups and disseminations of false accusations "McCarthy-era tactics" that "are detrimental to a free society." The coalition also expressed fears that "counter-intelligence programs are quelling lawful dissent," and that the FBI's actions could "negatively impact U.S. interests" given President Obama's "initiative of dialogue with the Muslim world."
Statement signatories also include: Islamic Educational Center of Orange County; American Muslim Alliance; American Muslims for Palestine; Islamic Circle of North America; Muslim Alliance in North America; Muslim American Society-Freedom Foundation; Muslim Student Association-National; Muslim Ummah of North America; and United Muslims of America.
So nice to have old friends in high places...
Prison officials are easing restrictions on John Walker Lindh, the Californian captured by U.S. forces in Afghanistan who became known as the "American Taliban," according to government documents. Among other changes, officials are expanding the number of people who can contact Lindh, who is serving a 20-year prison term without possibility of parole in a medium-security prison in Terre Haute, Ind.
Lindh pleaded guilty more than six years ago to charges of supporting the Taliban and carrying a rifle and two hand grenades onto the battlefield in Afghanistan, where radicals fought the Northern Alliance aligned with U.S. forces.
In late 2001, images of a dirty, dreadlocked Lindh wounded by a shot to the leg and being carried on a stretcher captivated the public and set off waves of speculation about the first American citizen apprehended while fighting alongside the Taliban. Lindh's relatives depicted him as a misguided youth who fell victim to bad influences. Ah, yes. "Misguided youth"...
His case later became a cause celebre for human rights groups that sought without success to overturn his prison sentence. Lindh's parents asked President George W. Bush to commute their son's prison sentence, but Bush rejected the request in one of his final acts in office in January.
According to a Justice Department document, all "special administrative measures" in place against Lindh will expire Friday as part of a gradual easing of restrictions on the 28-year-old. Prosecutors in Virginia and FBI officials approved the move, the document said.
Under federal prison guidelines, the attorney general can authorize a warden to impose conditions on inmates to protect national security and to prevent leaks of classified information. The measures include "placing an inmate in administrative detention and restricting social visits, mail privileges, phone calls, access to other inmates and to the media," according to a description on the Federal Bureau of Prisons Web site. The attorney general's authorization expires after one year but can be renewed if the intelligence community determines that an inmate continues to pose a threat, the said.
James Brosnahan, a San Francisco attorney for Lindh, did not have an immediate comment.
D. Anthony West, President Obama's nominee to lead the Justice Department's Civil Division, also assisted in Lindh's defense. The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on West last week but has not scheduled a vote on his nomination.
The decision to ease restrictions on Lindh does not signal similar changes for other prisoners convicted on charges related to terrorism, according to a government source, who said that Lindh has won back other small privileges since he reported to prison four years ago. The Justice Department declined to comment.
As part of his plea, Lindh agreed to cooperate with authorities and promised not to accept money for his life story, an unlikely journey that transported him from a childhood in Silver Spring to his study at mosques and religious schools in Yemen and Pakistan.
Lindh has spent time in a prison north of Los Angeles, where another inmate allegedly assaulted him, and at the "supermax" facility in Florence, Colo., which has held Unabomber Ted Kaczynski and late Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
Relatives of former CIA officer Johnny Michael Spann, who was killed in an uprising in the prison at Mazar e-Sharif, where Lindh was held after his capture, advocated for a stiffer prison term when Lindh was sentenced in October 2002.
#2
"A handful of children play in the mud and muck before rows of rusty old trailers and a few women in full burqas saunter along the rutty dirt road that leads to the heart of the squalid Muslim compound.
................. Sewage seeps from septic tanks and outhouses into the creek that flows at the base of the settlement. Bags of rotting garbage remain stacked between the trailers. And the once pristine countryside is now littered with junk cars, moldy mattresses, empty tanks of propane, and old appliances."
#5
Sewage seeps from septic tanks and outhouses into the creek that flows at the base of the settlement. Bags of rotting garbage remain stacked between the trailers.
Shut them down as a health hazard to the region -- stream pollution and vermin attractant. Send in the building inspectors to ensure electric, gas, and water supplies were properly installed and maintained, and that the housing meets local regulations. Require all the inhabitants to undergo a rigourous training course in hygiene and sanitation. Check the children for head lice infestations, malnutrition, and school attendance or comparable private education -- there are standard tests for home schooled children, I'm sure. Foster out the children if they haven't been cared for to the standard required by state and federal laws.
This is what local communities are good at. Enforce the bloody laws already on the books, please.
Security is being tightened throughout the country after agencies sounded an alarm about Pakistan-based terror groups plotting to target Indian leaders in the run-up to the general elections.
Top level government sources said there had been a greater amount of "chatter" among Pakistan-based terror groups against top leaders of Indian political parties. "The aim apparently is to target certain leaders", whose deaths or injury would cause the greatest amount of upheaval in India. They include Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, L K Advani, Narendra Modi, J&K chief minister Omar Abdullah and Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa.
The intercepts, which confirm that Pakistan was yet to start a clampdown on terrorist groups using its territory to attack India, have jolted authorities to provide all leaders under "Z+" cover with additional security. Home minister P Chidambaram had recently acknowledged the threat of terrorists targeting politicians on the campaign trail.
Electioneering, when leaders are forced to reach out to people, disregarding the precautions they are required to take, can be a security risk for them, providing the sniper the room to take aim and the suicide bomber to reach the target. Former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi was killed while campaigning in Tamil Nadu in the 1991 Lok Sabha elections. More recently, Benazir Bhutto was killed because of an explosion set off by a suicide bomber at an election rally.
The central government on Wednesday sent out a fresh advisory to all state governments to increase security at political rallies and meetings, especially those where leaders were going to be present.
In a message sent to directors general of police, the home ministry said all necessary steps like securing neighbouring high-rise buildings, manual frisking, putting door-framed metal detectors and total sanitisation of the place must be carried out in letter and spirit at all rallies where top leaders would attend.
Besides, political parties have also been asked to pass all information pertaining to travel plan and rallies of prominent leaders to the state police concerned. Sources in the ministry said the state police would, in turn, pass on the information to the Centre for coordination with intelligence and security agencies. The Multi-Agency Centre (MAC) will also coordinate with subsidiaries in the states, which receive information from their intelligence outfits.
Election times present leaders who face terror threats with a dilemma. The risk facing them requires the scaling up of security measures, but many of them are loath to follow the drill for fear of being seen as removed from their constituency. Rajeev Gandhi's assassination is a case in point.
The former PM often disregarded security agencies to mingle with the crowd, following widespread criticism that the security detail guarding him walled him off from people.
The new security bandobast will involve close coordination with state police and intelligence network. The ministry also asked states to ensure installation of CCTV cameras at rallies and political meetings, all over the venue and not just at the dais. Effort is also being made to sensitise political parties to the risk. They have been asked to inform the security agencies about VVIP movement well in advance for them to be security compliant. These rules, they insisted, would have to be followed.
The government is also setting up an elaborate security system of Indian missions in "sensitive" countries after the Indian embassy in Kabul was hit by a suicide bomber in July 2008. Missions in countries on India's periphery will be initially secured before taking the process to other parts of the world.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2009 00:00 ||
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Despite a peace accord with TNSM and opening of qazi courts in Swat, NWFP government is still unable to start anti-polio drive in Swat district, where about 376,000 kids were awaiting polio drops.
National Immunisation Drive (NID) officials told Daily Times that the NWFP government had cancelled anti-polio drive (March 16-18) in the district because of negative propaganda by some elements and unrest in the district.
They said kids would get polio drops after complete peace was restored to the district. Dr Iftikhar said NID had included district Swat in a plan for immunisation against polio.
The NWFP government on May 21, 2008, signed an agreement with Swat Taliban in which the Taliban had agreed that the government could resume drives against contagious diseases including polio but the government had yet to be able to resume anti-polio drive.
TTP Swat Chief Mulla Fazlullah had been airing propaganda through his illegal FM radio station that polio drive was a Jewish/American conspiracy to 'sterilise' Muslims and told people not to give their kids polio drops.
Dr Iftikhar said about 50 percent areas of Bajaur and Mohmand Agencies were being covered during in the recent polio drive.
Dr Khalid, senior surveillance officer of WHO, said the recent surge in polio cases was due to law and order situation which made all immunisation drives harder. He said about 700,000 children missed polio drops in every such campaign.
He said most of the cases were of P-3 type and its linkage could be found in cross-border movement with Afghanistan.
He said the WHO had allocated Rs 22 million to each vaccination campaign.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
TTP Swat Chief Mulla Fazlullah had been airing propaganda through his illegal FM radio station that polio drive was a Jewish/American conspiracy to 'sterilise' Muslims and told people not to give their kids polio drops.
President Obama and his national security advisers are considering expanding the American covert war in Pakistan far beyond the tribal areas to strike at a different center of Taliban power in Baluchistan, where top Taliban leaders are orchestrating attacks into southern Afghanistan.
According to New York Times, senior administration officials, two of the high-level reports on Pakistan and Afghanistan that have been forwarded to the White House in recent weeks have called for broadening the target area to include a major insurgent sanctuary in and around the city of Quetta.
Mullah Muhammad Omar, who led the Taliban government that was ousted in the American-led invasion in 2001, has operated with near impunity out of the region for years, along with many of his deputies.
The extensive missile strikes being carried out by Central Intelligence Agency-operated drones have until now been limited to the tribal areas, and have never been extended into Baluchistan, a sprawling province that is under the authority of the central government, and which abuts the parts of southern Afghanistan where recent fighting has been the fiercest. Fear remains within the American government that extending the raids would worsen tensions. Pakistan complains that the strikes violate its sovereignty.
Many of Mr. Obama's advisers are also urging him to sustain orders issued last summer by President George W. Bush to continue Predator drone attacks against a wider range of targets in the tribal areas. They also are recommending preserving the option to conduct cross-border ground actions, using C.I.A. and Special Operations commandos, as was done in September. Mr. Bush's orders also named as targets a wide variety of insurgents seeking to topple Pakistan's government. Mr. Obama has said little in public about how broadly he wants to pursue those groups.
Several US administration and military officials stressed that they continued to prod the Pakistani military to take the lead in a more aggressive campaign to root out Taliban and Qaeda fighters who are attacking American forces in Afghanistan and increasingly destabilizing nuclear-armed Pakistan.
As part of the same set of decisions, according to senior civilian and military officials familiar with the internal White House debate, Mr. Obama will have to choose from among a range of options for future American commitments to Afghanistan.
His core decision may be whether to scale back American ambitions there to simply assure it does not become a sanctuary for terrorists. Â"We are taking this back to a fundamental question,Â" a senior diplomat involved in the discussions said. Â"Can you ever get a central government in Afghanistan to a point where it can exercise control over the country? That was the problem Bush never really confronted.Â"
A second option, officials say, is to significantly boost the American commitment to train Afghan troops, with Americans taking on the Taliban with increasing help from the Afghan military. President Bush pursued versions of that strategy, but the training always took longer and proved less successful than plans called for.
A third option would involve devoting full American and NATO resources to a large-scale counterinsurgency effort. But Mr. Obama would be bound to face considerable opposition within NATO, whose leaders he will meet with early next month in Strasbourg, France. At the very time the United States is seeking to expand its presence in Afghanistan, many of the allies are scheduled to leave.
As for American strikes on militant havens inside Pakistan, administration officials say the Predator and Reaper attacks in the tribal areas have been effective at killing 9 of Al Qaeda's top 20 leaders, and the aerial campaign was recently expanded to focus on the Pakistani Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, as well as his fighters and training camps. American intelligence officials say that many top Taliban commanders remain in hiding in and around Quetta, but some Afghan officials say that other senior Taliban leaders have fled to the Pakistani port city of Karachi.
Missile strikes or American commando raids in the city of Quetta or the teeming Afghan settlements and refugee camps around the city and near the Afghan border would carry high risks of civilian casualties, American officials acknowledge.
Thom Shanker contributed reporting from Washington, and Carlotta Gall from Islamabad, Pakistan. Wednesday, March 18, 2009 10:23
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Can't these things be MIRV'd?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/19/2009 0:19 Comments ||
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#2
Are they (finally) going to strike at the heart of the problem, the ISI in Islamabad? If not, it's a waste of time and effort.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/19/2009 3:13 Comments ||
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#3
Imagine the screams if W had done this. The MSM is hilarious.
Israeli negotiations to free Palestinian terrorists from prison, in exchange for an Israeli soldier (Gilad Shalit) seized on the Gaza border three years ago, revealed that 65 percent of terrorists freed in earlier exchanges subsequently returned to terrorist activities. Under these circumstances, it is more difficult for Israel to release Palestinians. This, despite the fact that the released prisoners are supposed to promise to no longer engage in terrorist activities, or go into exile.
The recidivism numbers came from an Israeli study of past exchanges. In 2004, Israel released 436 prisoners in exchange for a kidnapped Israeli civilian, and in 1982 1,150 were released for three Israeli soldiers.
Currently, Hamas is demanding up to 1,400 terrorists in return for the Israeli soldier they hold. But based on past experience, this would put over 700 terrorists back to work. That, based on past experience, will result in over a dozen Israelis dead in future terrorist attacks. Still, Israel is willing to make a lopsided exchange, but not as lopsided as Hamas demands.
Posted by: ed ||
03/19/2009 06:44 ||
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Egypt has been urging Europe and the US to deal with whatever government is agreed on by the rival Palestinian factions negotiating in Cairo, an Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday.
"We have been adopting this position in the past weeks in order to allow for a different dynamic altogether," Hossam Zaki said. "We want the Europeans and the United States to deal with this government formed by the Palestinians and not to put obstacles in this domain and repeat the mistakes of the past. This is what Egypt is trying to do."
"You have to deal with the government and accept what the Palestinians are accepting," Zaki said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said earlier this month that America's conditions with respect to Hamas "have not and will not change."
The Islamist organization must renounce violence, recognize Israel and agree to abide by previous agreements entered into by the PLO, she said.
When asked whether Egypt thought Israel would recognize a government that included Hamas without the movement recognizing the State of Israel, Zaki replied: "I don't know and the issue is not whether Israel lives with it....This is not the main concern. Israel is the occupying power. It doesn't have to be accommodated on each and every thing."
Hamas and Fatah have been trying to reconcile and form a national unity government. However, they have been wrangling over how to address past Palestinian agreements with Israel. The formation of a PA unity government is seen as key to moving ahead with reconstruction in Gaza after Israel's recent offensive there.
Egypt has been mediating the talks, which have hinged on whether Hamas has to "commit" itself to past PLO agreements with Israel or if it could just "respect" them. The language is sensitive because Hamas, which calls for Israel's destruction, is wary of wording that could convey an implicit recognition of Israel.
The main issue, Zaki said, was to allow the PA to form a government of consensus and for it to be accepted by the international community.
Zaki said that after the Palestinians agreed on a unity government in 2006, the West refused to deal with it and radicalization ensued. "The dynamics that followed showed that this has put more extremism in the ranks of the government, and in the Authority and in public opinion in Palestine," he said. "This mistake should not be repeated again."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2009 00:00 ||
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says Tel Aviv has agreed to return the strategic Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to Syria in return for peace.
In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, Assad said Wednesday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert accepted a full Israeli withdrawal from Golan Heights during indirect peace talks held under Turkish mediation last year.
Assad said Olmert had told Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Tel Aviv would indeed have to withdraw to the pre-1967 border and that it was the right thing to do.
According to the Syrian president Olmert was about to discuss the issue with his cabinet but it was postponed because of the Gaza war. He also said that the only remaining issue was the precise pre-1967 borderline.
Syria formally suspended the Turkish-mediated indirect talks following Israel's offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Last week Assad said that Damascus will engage in direct peace talks with Israel only after Tel Aviv accepts to return the Golan Heights.
Israel and Syria have officially been at war since 1967 when Tel Aviv occupied the strategic plateau during the Six-Day War. Syria wants a full Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 border, but Israeli officials say the plateau is too strategically important to be returned. The Golan Heights gives Israel access to the Sea of Galilee -- Israel's main source of fresh water.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
News from Bizarro World, courtesy of Iranian PressTV.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Wednesday said tens of thousands of people confined to a rapidly-shrinking area under the control of the LTTE in the north of Sri Lanka have headed for the coast to escape the fighting and in search of safety, food and medical care.
The Committee said the number of civilians in the coastal belt held by the LTTE had increased drastically over recent weeks, and clean water was scarce. "The area is affected by shelling every day, and the cramped conditions and the lack of water and proper sanitation are putting people at risk of epidemics," it said.
"The humanitarian situation is deteriorating by the day," the statement quoted Paul Castella, head of the ICRC's Colombo delegation as saying. "Many of these people are forced to shelter in trenches. They are in considerable physical danger. After having been forced to move from place to place en masse for weeks or even months, they depend entirely on food from outside the conflict area."
It said that with the agreement of the government and the LTTE, the ICRC had continued to evacuate patients from Putumattalan (which is in the LTTE-held area) to Trincomalee (in the government-held area).
The ICRC-chartered Green Ocean ferry has evacuated over 4,000 sick and wounded people, together with their carers, since evacuations started on February 10. Those evacuated included over 1,400 people in need of surgery, so an ICRC medical team consisting of a surgeon, an anaesthetist and a nurse were helping Trincomalee Hospital to handle the influx.
The ICRC continues to monitor allegations concerning violations of international humanitarian law affecting civilians throughout the country. In January and February, over 3,900 people contacted the organisation with allegations concerning missing persons, arbitrary arrests, recruitment of minors, unlawful killings and ill-treatment of civilians by arms bearers.
With the cooperation of government officials and the LTTE, the ICRC has been visiting people arrested in connection with the armed conflict to monitor their treatment and conditions of detention. ICRC delegates held private talks with over 1,400 security detainees in over 70 places of detention throughout the country and provided them with clothes, toiletries and recreational items.
Separately, the military charged LTTE of continuing with mass execution of civilians who stand opposed to its separatist cause in the 17 sq.km. land stretch earlier declared as a no fire zone.
"The LTTE is cleansing-out all evidences that stand against it in light of a probable trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity. The entire area under LTTE is now a large torture chamber with almost 38,000 civilians held forcibly and against their will", it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/19/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The Committee said the number of civilians in the coastal belt held by the LTTE had increased drastically over recent weeks,
Taking hostages tends to do that.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
03/19/2009 6:09 Comments ||
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A suicide bomber behind a deadly attack that killed four South Korean tourists in Yemen was trained in lawless Somalia, just across the busy Gulf of Aden shipping route, a Yemeni security official said on Tuesday.
The bombing, which is likely to further damage the impoverished country's nascent tourism sector, came after repeated calls by al Qaeda leaders for attacks on non-Muslim foreigners in the Arabian Peninsula.
Violence in Yemen has affected foreign firms developing its oil and gas sector, while attacks on foreigners -- including kidnappings by tribesmen -- have hit tourism, diplomats say.
Yemen, the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, has for years been battling al Qaeda and similar groups, but no group has yet claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack.
The official said Aajbari had trained in Somalia, a failed Horn of Africa country that Western security services fear in could be a base for al Qaeda-linked militants.
He identified the bomber as Abdel Rahman Mehdi al-Aajbari, who left his family home in the Yemeni province of Taizz around two months ago.
In a letter to his mother delivered by one of his fellow fighters, Aajbari wrote that his family would never see him again and that he believed he was on the "true path," the official said.
Posted by: ed ||
03/19/2009 07:04 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Top aides to President Barack Obama are recommending that the United States combine a boost in military deployments with a steep increase in civilian experts to combat a growing insurgency in Afghanistan, senior U.S. officials said Wednesday.
The Council of Indian Muslims (U.K.) has urged the government to refuse a visa to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to enter Britain because of his role in the 2002 communal riots in his State.
North Korea will likely carry out a ''surprise but limited'' attack on South Korea in parallel with its launch of what it calls a satellite in early April, South Korea's defense ministry warned Wednesday, according to Yonhap News Agency. ''There is a good possibility North Korea may make a surprise but limited attack on some areas along the inter-Korean border, with global attention mounting on its planned missile launch,'' the ministry said in a report presented to a special parliamentary committee on inter-Korean relations. 
Despite a peace accord with TNSM and opening of qazi courts in Swat, NWFP government is still unable to start anti-polio drive in Swat district, where about 376,000 kids were awaiting polio drops. 
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says Tel Aviv has agreed to return the strategic Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to Syria in return for peace. 
