The UN chief confronted Sudan's embattled president on Monday with demands to allow the return of expelled aid groups to Darfur -- and was met with a defiant response as Arab leaders rallied to his side to formally reject international war crime charges against him.
The Arab League declaration is likely to boost Omar al-Bashir's willingness to challenge the West and flaunt his wide support among Arabs in opposing the arrest order by the International Criminal Court.
Al-Bashir's attendance among other Arab leaders was his boldest public snub of the ICC's decision, bringing him to the same conference hall as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for the summit's opening speeches. Ban's spokesperson, Michele Montas, said the two men were in the same room, but did not speak or interact.
"Relief efforts should not become politicised," Ban said. "People in need must be helped irrespective of political differences," he added in an appeal to resume relief efforts to Darfur.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Ban's spokesperson, Michele Montas, said the two men were in the same room, but did not speak or interact.
So exactly when and where did Ban actually confront Bashir? In the men's room? Out in the parking lot? Down by the loading dock?
Online vids! I like it! Like those wiggers and arab wannabe french gangsta rappers who exchange deaththreats and put "contracts" on each others through vids, complete with airsoft guns waved around and pitbulls and all, while living in the same city and seemingly never finding each others. Excellent! How fitting.
Somalia's opposition leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys might soon return to Mogadishu after quitting self-imposed exile in Eritrea.
Local Somali media reported on Tuesday that Aweys was now in the Sudanese capital Khartoum and held talks with two senior Sudanese officials.
They added that he was expected to leave Khartoum for Mogadishu later to offer his support to President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's new administration.
As a former chairman of the Islamic Courts Union, Aweys worked alongside with Ahmed and they later founded the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia.
Somali lawmakers convened in Djibouti in January and elected Ahmed as president to succeed embattled Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, who failed to end conflicts in the violence-ravaged nation.
Reuters quoted a close ally of Aweys in Mogadishu as saying that he was expected to arrive in the Somali capital within two weeks.
One senior Somali source in Sudan confirmed Aweys was in the country, and said it was possible Ahmed might travel to Khartoum to meet him there. He gave no other details.
Aweys is on the US list of foreign terrorists. However, he has categorically denied the US claims that he has links to al-Qaeda and is opposed to Ahmed's government.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Just can't find that high-quality henna in Eritrea, apparently.
(RIA Novosti) - The murder of Sulim Yamadayev, the former military commander of Chechnya's Vostok battalion, was organized by a criminal group, the Dubai police chief said on Tuesday. Yamadayev was shot by a lone gunman in the underground car park of the Dubai apartment block where he lived early last Saturday.
Maj. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim said in an interview with The National daily that "the murder was organized by a criminal group that has foreign links."
Cheez, foreign links are everywhere; Pakistain, Yemen, Dubai ...
The high ranking police official added that "four or five people have been detained" on suspicion of the murder, and that one of them is a Russian national.
Earlier in the day Russia's Consulate General told RIA Novosti that at least seven people were detained in connection with the murder, all of whom had Slavic surnames. "The suspects are all currently at the Prosecutor General's Office in Dubai," Sergei Krasnogor said.
A spokesman from the Russian Foreign Ministry, Andrei Nesterenko, said on Tuesday that the ministry would follow the murder investigation carefully through the consulate office in Dubai, and that Yamadayev was "not just a Russian citizen, but also a Hero of Russia."
Yamadayev was officially dismissed from his post as commander of the Defense Ministry's Vostok battalion last August over alleged involvement in the 1998 abduction and murder of a Chechen businessman.
The killing of Yamadayev is the fourth in a series of assassinations of Chechen exiles in the past six months. Sulim's brother, Ruslan Yamadayev, a former member of the Russian parliament's lower house, was gunned down in central Moscow last September. He was a prominent opponent of Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, who has denied any involvement in the killing.
Umar Israilov, who was seeking political asylum in Austria, was gunned down in Vienna on January 13 by two men. And a month later Ali Osayev, who had fled to Istanbul six years ago after the second Chechen war, was shot three times in the head near his home in the city.
The murder of Osayev followed last year's slaying of two other Chechen militants, Islam Janibekov and Gadji Edilsultanov, who were murdered in separate incidents in Istanbul. Both deaths were linked to disputes over financial assistance for Chechen separatists.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
#1
How ordinary. Did Putie use up all the polonium stash on Litvinenko?
Posted by: ed ||
04/01/2009 8:30 Comments ||
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The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday rejected a government petition seeking a stay on the High Court (HC) order granting anticipatory bail to Jamaat-e-Islami leader barrister Abdur Razzaq and asking the government not to harass or arrest him in connection with the Pilkhana carnage case.
Chamber judge of the Appellate Division Justice Shah Abu Nayem Mominur Rahman passed the order after hearing the submission by Attorney General Mahbubey Alam.
The attorney general told the court that the HC order should be stayed in the interest of a fair investigation into the carnage at the BDR headquarters.
Following the chamber judge's order, the HC order granting bail to Razzaq will now remain valid till April 5.
The HC on March 29 granted bail to the Jamaat leader till April 5 and asked the government not to arrest or harass him during that period.
The government on March 30 filed a petition with the Supreme Court for staying the HC order.
After passage of the SC order yesterday, Abdur Razzaq told The Daily Star at his SC bar chamber that the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on March 30 did not ask him any questions regarding his alleged conversation with BDR mutineers on February 25.
The CID only asked for my cell phone number, barrister Razzaq said, adding that during the hearing of the government petition, the Attorney General told the court that the CID had asked Razzaq questions regarding his (Razzaq's) alleged conversation with the BDR mutineers.
The attorney general tried to mislead the court by giving such incorrect information, Razzaq said.
Additional Attorney General M Enayetur Rahim, who was present for the state during the hearing, however said that the attorney general made submissions quoting media reports regarding the alleged conversation of Abdur Razzaq with BDR mutineers.
Abdur Razzaq, talking to reporters at his Nayapaltan chamber in the afternoon yesterday, said he held no conversation with any member of BDR over cell phone before or after the February 25-26 carnage.
"Unfortunately, a section of the press ran misleading and false reports on the 'so-called conversation' based on mere surmises," the Jamaat leader said.
"The only purpose behind interrogating me in connection with the BDR massacre was to humiliate me politically and tarnish my image," Razzaq said.
He also added that the reason behind the carnage must be dug out and the perpetrators punished severely.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the police would be effectively armed with modern technologies and increased manpower, including more female members, to make the cops more capable of combating terrorism and militancy.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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The UK-based controversial NGO Green Crescent was illegally operating a madrasa-cum-orphanage where the Rapid Action Battalion busted a mini ammo factory on March 24 in Bhola, say sources at the Department of Social Service.
Following the chilling arms and ammo haul from a well-furnished building of the madrasa in remote Ramkeshob village, a probe by the Department reveals Green Crescent has no permission to operate such institutions.
"Green Crescent was registered with the office of the Department of Social Service in Doulatkhan upazila in Bhola in 1999. Nothing was mentioned in its declared programmes in its charter about operating madrasa and orphanage," says an official quoting the investigation report.
Citing the probe report, the official adds Green Crescent's sphere of work was supposed to be limited in Doulatkhan municipality as per its registration. But it had set up the madrasa-cum-orphanage in Borhanuddin upazila.
"Green Crescent not only illegally set up such an institution but also stretched its activities to Borhanuddin upazila without permission of the Department of Social Service," says an official asking not to be identified.
Fasial Mostafa's father Golam Mostafa who lives in Manchester in the UK told The Daily Star earlier Green Crescent has two bank accounts with the Doulatkhan branch of Sonali Bank.
But a social service department official says Green Crescent had mentioned its bank account with the Doulatkhan branch of Uttara Bank (account no 6267).
The sources say following busting of the suspected militants' den, the Bhola district office of the Department of Social Service submitted the probe report to its head office in Dhaka on March 26.
The Rab on March 24 seized a huge cache of firearms and ammo, explosives substance, four pairs of German uniforms, and booklets on jihad, Moulana Moududi and al-Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden.
The next day a special law and order meeting held at the Deputy Commissioner's Office, Bhola decided to run spot investigations into activities of all non-government orphanages, mosques, madrasas and lillah boardings in the district.
The meeting also formed a committee comprising officials from the district administration, police, Ansar, Village Defence Party and Department of Social Service to that end.
The sources say when Green Crescent was registered in Doulatkhan it had submitted the list of a nine-member executive committee of the organisation.
According to the social service department documents, the committee members are President Abul Kalam, Vice-president Bangladeshi expatriate in the UK Faisal Mostafa, General Secretary Hasan Saifuddin Badal, Assistant Secretary Yunus Sharif, Treasurer Mizanur Rahman, Office Secretary Humayun Ahmed and members Sayem Uddin, Harunur Rashid and Zobayer Hossain.
"Though Green Crescent was supposed to inform the authorities about any changes in its executive committee, it did not do so after 2005. And recently we found some new names in the committee from the media reports," says an official.
The sources say Green Crescent authorities did not mention that they have registered an organisation in the UK by the same name.
"During registration they just mentioned that their vice-president lives in the UK," says an official in Bhola.
Another official in the capital says Green Crescent was registered with the aim to eradicate illiteracy, provide health service, social development and economic self-reliance for the poor in Doulatkhan.
But the Bhola official says medical services, relief distribution, children's parade and physical exercise on national days and feeding the poor sacrificing a dozen cows during Eid-ul-Azha were visible activities of the organisation in Doulatkhan.
The official adds Green Crescent neither informed offices of the social service department in Doulatkhan and Borhanuddin upazilas nor the executive officers of the upazilas about their new programmes in Borhanuddin including setting up a madrasa and mosque.
Sources say the social service department has sent the probe report to the Ministry of Social Welfare for further decisions and actions.
An official of the department says Green Crescent committed two major offences -- it expanded its programmes in Borhanuddin without government permission and kept illegal arms, ammunition and explosives in its possession.
"For these offences the government may cancel Green Crescent's registration in Bangladesh," the official observes.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea accused the United States of spying on the site of an impending rocket launch and threatened Wednesday to shoot down any U.S. planes that intrude into its airspace.
North Korea says it will send a communications satellite into orbit on a multistage rocket between April 4 and 8. The U.S., South Korea and Japan suspect the reclusive country is using the launch to test long-range missile technology, and they warn Pyongyang would face sanctions under a U.N. Security Council resolution banning it from ballistic activity.
Pyongyang, March 31 (KCNA) -- The unsavory forces hostile to the DPRK are going reckless in their moves to deter the DPRK's projected launch of "Kwangmyongsong-2," an experimental communication satellite for peaceful purposes. Japan is taking the lead in this racket though it has committed the biggest crimes against the DPRK.
Japanese authorities including Prime Minister Aso are making much ado, asserting that the above-said satellite launch poses a "threat" to their security. Ship-and ground-based interceptor missiles and monitoring means of the "Self-Defense Forces (SDF)" are being deployed in the East Sea of Korea and its vicinity.
They are asserting that in case the satellite is launched, Japan will independently apply additional sanctions against the DPRK and bring up the issue for discussion at the UNSC.
They blustered that they would "intercept" the DPRK's satellite, counting on the support from their master. But when their master flinched because of the strong stand of the Korean People's Army, they found themselves in such a miserable position as to modify their assertion by uttering that they would intercept it only when the debris of the multi-stage carrier rocket falls down on the land of Japan.
Clear is the reason why Japan is kicking up such a row to disturb the world, doggedly insisting that the DPRK's launch of satellite is aimed at developing the missile technology. The primary aim sought by Japan through this is to bring the six-party talks to collapse and delay the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and thus justify its ambition for nuclear weaponization.
Looking back on the history of the six-party talks, Japan has done only wicked and wrong things obstructive to the denuclearization of the peninsula since their very start. The whole world, to say nothing of the parties to the talks, has a common understanding of this.
Japan has opposed every effort to abide by the principle of "action for action" for the denuclearization as evidenced by its stand against the delisting of the DPRK as a "sponsor of terrorism" and persistent refusal to fulfil its commitment to offer energy.
Japan's deliberate obstruction is intended to frustrate the denuclearization of the peninsula at any cost in a bid to secure a pretext for justifying its nuclear weaponization.
Another aim sought by Japan through this is to use the DPRK's satellite launch as the best pretext for facilitating the militarization of the Japanese society and weathering its political crisis.
As the Japanese authorities admitted, they have neither guarantee nor conviction that they can intercept the DPRK's satellite.
What they seek more than anything else through their opposition to the said satellite launch is political and military aims.
In other words, they are working hard to focus the attention of the people at home disillusioned with the corrupt political landscape on "threat to security" with an eye to incite militarism, gain time to tide over the political crisis and lay a springboard from which to push forward in real earnest the moves to turn Japan into a military power including the building of a joint missile shield with the U.S. in the future.
This is the ulterior aim sought by Japan in hyping "the missile threat from north Korea."
The war blackmail and all other hostile acts Japan is resorting to, describing only the DPRK's satellite launch as the development of missile technology are little short of a declaration that Japan does not recognize the September 19 joint statement calling for embodying "the spirit of mutual respect and equality." This is, in the final analysis, an act of overturning the six-party talks.
The DPRK is not afraid of any attempt of Japan to intercept "Kwangmyongsong-2."
Should Japan dare recklessly intercept the DPRK's satellite, its army will consider this as the start of Japan's war of reinvasion more than six decades after the Second World War and mercilessly destroy all its interceptor means and citadels with the most powerful military means.
#9
Crosspatch, I think this time they mean it - if we send the RC-135s to circle over the launch site, they will shoot them down (somehow).
Of course, N. Korea isn't that big. The RC-135s and other assets can loiter in international and S. Korean airspace and see pretty much anything they want to.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/01/2009 16:48 Comments ||
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The U.S. and South Korean intelligence authorities have obtained information that North Korea has succeeded in miniaturizing nuclear bombs made using plutonium extracted from its Yongbyon nuclear complex, a senior analyst at an international research institute said Tuesday. The intelligence circles have also obtained information that North Korea produced nuclear warheads that could be mounted on medium-range Rodong missiles and they were stored in two underground facilities in the northern part of the country, Daniel Pinkston, a senior analyst at the Seoul-based Northeast Asia office of International Crisis Group, told Kyodo News.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
SAME ANALYST also says NOKOR has 5-6 PLUTONIUM-BASED ["dirty"] NUCWARHEADS for its Rodongs.
* TOPIX > NORTH KOREA WARNS JAPAN ABOUT WAR RISK [threatens to wipe out = mil destroy Japanese SDF assets whom fire at its Missle]; + NORTH KOREA THREATENS TO SHOOT DOWN US SPY PLANES.
#2
Until they successfully test at least one bomb, I am going to take such stories with a grain or two of salt. Really big grains. They can't "miniaturize" something they don't have to begin with.
#3
ION WORLD MIL FORUM > IIUC CHINA HAD EMERGENCY DEPLOYED TWO SQUADRONS OF F11B FIGHTER-ATTACK PLANES TO HAINAN ISLAND IN AFTERMATH OF "USS IMPECCABLE" NAVAL STANDOFF; + CHINA'S PLAN: C-803 MISSLE CAN EASILY DEFEAT THE US AEGIS SYSTEM.
* ION WORLD NEWS > CHINA SAYS IT IS NO THREAT TO INDIA.
** Also on WMF > WHY CHINA MUST BE CONCERNED ABOUT NORTH KOREA? IIUC KOREAS = China's historical FLASHPOINT OF MILPOL CONFRONTATION, SUCCESSES OR FAILURES, VEE MAJOR WORLD POWERS [ Russia, Japan, UK-Euros, USA]. MODERNIZING BUT STILL-WEAK CHINA FEARS RUSSIAN MILITARY REACTION TO ANY NORTH KOREA-INDUCED, MULTI-NATION NORTHEAST ASIAN WAR AND CHINA'S FAILURE TO CONTROL NORTH KOREA [PRC Proxy]???
#5
Crosspatch is right that they haven't successfully tested a bomb yet, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't miniaturize the components and cross their fingers. Indeed, given that they're really just an extortion/blackmail outfit, they only need the fear that they could succeed in order to get what they want. Lil' Kimmie has always been willing to play the crazy man card.
#8
Please shoot at America, your little pissant nation has been an irritant too long.
Shoot at america and vanish from the face of the earth. you little insignifigant flea.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/01/2009 12:59 Comments ||
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#9
We'd have to have a president with the will to shoot back, RJ. The current office-holder would probably surrender.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/01/2009 16:04 Comments ||
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#10
WAFF > JAPAN REWRITES NORTH KOREA'S SCRIPT. UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES > A succee NOKOR LR Missle launch could easily induce REVIVED/STRONG JAPAN = JAPANESE MILITARY???
The foreign ministers of Japan, South Korea and the United States reaffirmed their consensus in separate bilateral talks Tuesday that should North Korea go ahead with a rocket launch, the issue should be taken up at the U.N. Security Council, sources involved in the talks said. Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone met with his South Korean counterpart Yu Myung Hwan on the sidelines of a donor conference on Afghanistan in the Hague. Nakasone later held bilateral talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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A federal judge yesterday ordered the United States to release a prisoner from the Guantanamo detention center who is accused of hiding out with Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. US District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle issued a one-page judgment ordering the release of Yasin Muhammed Basardh, a 33-year-old from Yemen. The judge didn't say why Basardh should be let go, but she said it was explained during a closed hearing in her courtroom earlier in the day.
According to charges filed by the military in 2004, Basardh is a member of the Taliban who trained at a terror camp in Afghanistan that bin Laden visited. The government alleged Basardh fought against the United States or its coalition partners, and fled to the Tora Bora region in November 2001, where he stayed in a cave with bin Laden. He later left for Pakistan and was captured by the Pakistani military, according to the government. Basardh told US officials that before going to Afghanistan he spent time in Saudi Arabian jails for dealing drugs. He said other drug dealers who had repented persuaded him to train for jihad in Afghanistan.
Basardh filed a habeas corpus petition challenging his detention four years ago. Justice Department attorneys had argued that he was an enemy combatant and therefore being legally held at the US naval base in Cuba, but the details of his case were kept classified and sealed by the court.
Basardh has requested asylum in the United States because his cooperation with US officials has led to threats on his life. He has said he gave classified information against high-level members of Al Qaeda. "These threats against my life are continuously happening from the detainees here, from some high-ranking detainees," Basardh told a military hearing, according to a transcript. "I can't go back to my country." But Huvelle's order specifically instructs the government to "take all necessary and appropriate diplomatic steps" for Basardh's release, suggesting that he may be heading to another country.
#4
Besoeker he will brpobably get a house near uds, i can add too the video 1 bullet bought lgally form a gunshop in the US can kill him in a instant, and how did that stupid bitch become a judge
The CIA is attempting to recruit more spies by advertising on the internet, radio and television, and by holding meetings with American Muslims to make up a severe shortage of Arabic speakers.
In a bid to fulfil a pledge by George W. Bush, the former President, to expand the agency's clandestine arm, advertisements have been placed on websites such as Career Builder, and on the online versions of The Economist and The Washington Post.
Leon Panetta, the new CIA director, will meet Muslim groups in cities such as Detroit to spearhead personally the new drive to recruit Arabic speakers. He recently lamented the fact that only 13 per cent of CIA officers speak a foreign language, and just 22 per cent come from minorities.
"In order to accomplish our vital intelligence mission we want to market our employment opportunities to speakers of Arabic, Russian, Korean, Pashtu and Urdu," George Little, a CIA spokesman, told The Times. "We want to emphasise to those communities that we welcome first-generation Americans to apply. They bring critical language skills and a knowledge of culture to support our intelligence mission."
A typical recruiting advertisement recently posted on the Chronicle of Higher Education's website is headlined "Central Intelligence Agency, National Clandestine Service Careers, Linguists. You Can Make a World of Difference. Are you up to the challenge of achieving our mission abroad?" It adds: "This career track offers rewarding, fast-paced, and high-impact challenges." The CIA is also advertising on the social networking site Facebook and YouTube.
Earlier this month Scott White, third in command at the CIA, held meetings with Arab-American and Chaldean-American representatives in Detroit, which has heavily populated American Muslim suburbs. He told the groups that he would bring Mr Panetta to a future meeting.
Mr Little said that the CIA holds about 2,000 recruiting events a year, often at universities across the country. It also advertises for recruits on billboards at airports. Last year, the agency received about 120,000 applications. This year it is on course to receive at least 180,000.
#3
Like the OSS used to recruit in Nazi Bier Halls. Or not. Hey CIA, what about all the native Arabic speaking Christian and other nonmuslim refugees in the US who have a stake in actually winning?
Posted by: ed ||
04/01/2009 9:06 Comments ||
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#4
"Are you up to the challenge of achieving our mission abroad?"
Quite ironic. Probably the same line used by the jihadists to get them to move to infiltrate immigrate to the States. Note to Klingons: Please order lots of extra graph paper, oil up all of the spare polygraph machines, and vacuum the prayer room. The new recruits are inbound.
#7
Please order lots of extra graph paper, oil up all of the spare polygraph machines
Doesn't matter. The machines only measure stress when you lie, and there's nothing wrong with a Muslim lying to an infidel.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
04/01/2009 11:49 Comments ||
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#8
Yemenite Jews speak Arabic, Persian Jews speak Farsi. There are lots of the latter in this country, some of the former, although the Arabic-speaking Yemenite Jews are probably older generation, unlike the Persians. (The Jews for some reason kept the Persian appellation, while the rest plumped for calling themselves Iranian. Perhaps one of the Rantburgers will have some idea why, but I don't.)
#9
He recently lamented the fact that...just 22 per cent come from minorities.
Well, I'm glad that the layers of fact-checkers in the Times were able to come up with the important contextual point that the "minority" (i.e. "non-white") population of the US weighs in at 26%. (WARNING!: Wikipedia! ) Therefore the CIA is actually doing pretty well in that regard.
#10
The USDOD-INTEL teaches a man Russian + German to fight the Cold War, or to meet former KGB[FSB] Babe ANNA LONGINOVA etc., thusly of course they send you to IRAN-CONTRA + AFGHANISTAN.
[Geo News] [Geo News] LAHORE: Chief Minister Punjab Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif has said that a commission will be formed to investigate into Manawan attack on police training center. He was addressing to PML-N activists that had gathered in CM camp office here to celebrate the restoration Shahbaz Sharif as Chief Minister of Punjab. Shahbaz said investigation agencies had informed the than Punjab government well in advance about the possibility of attacks on security agencies' training centers and terrorists' threats posed on the headquarters of police and other security forces but government paid no heed to warnings remaining blind to threats and turned deaf ears. Punjab CM vowed to bring the responsible authorizes to justice and announced the formation of a commission to investigate the incident. He was hopeful of introducing revolutionary packages for the poor people of Punjab including students, farmed, patients, and poor people in provices.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Taliban insurgents vow to turn major Pakistani cities into a battleground after they established their rule over the north-west regions.
Claiming responsibility for the Monday's bloody attack on a Lahore police academy on Tuesday, the chief of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsude warned a campaign of terror will continue while Pakistan collaborates with the United States.
Around a dozen assailants raided a police training centre on the outskirts of Lahore shortly after sunrise Monday. The lethal raid left more than two dozens people killed and around 100 others wounded.
The attack came four weeks after the Sri Lankan national cricket team narrowly survived an attack in the city centre.
"We claim responsibility for the attack. This was in retaliation to the ongoing drone attacks in the tribal areas. There will be more such attacks," Mehsud said.
He also claimed responsibility for the March 23 suicide attack outside a police station in Islamabad. The suicide bomb blast rocked a police station in the capital and marred celebrations for the 69th anniversary of Pakistan National Day. The blast killed one policeman and two civilians.
Pakistani authorities in early March agreed to establish Taliban rule in the troubled northwestern Swat Valley. Moderate forces however are concerned that the agreement will increase extremism in Pakistan.
Taliban militants have now set up an administration with courts, taxes, patrols and checkpoints in the troubled Swat region.
The recent violent attacks have widely been seen as insurgents' efforts to expand the area of conflict to the centre of the country.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Interior Ministry Chief Rehman Malik have said the militants want to take over the whole state of Pakistan. "This is an attack on Pakistan," Malik said referring to Lahore incident, adding that "There are two choices, to either let the Taliban take over your country or to fight it out. At this time the nation must unite and show its unity."
Malik said this region was 'full' of thousands of trained militants. Elements trained by 28 outlawed militant organizations operating in the country were multiplying day by day.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: TTP
#1
TOPIX > US DRONE ATTACKS PROVE PAKISTAN'S WEAK GOVERNMENT; + PAKISTAN'S ISLAMIC PARTY [Jamaat-e-Islami Party] SAYS US/OBAMA DECLARES WAR ON PAKISTAN, by accus PK of suppor and being an AL QAEDA + TALIBAN, ETC. MILTERR STRONGHOLD.
A top Indian court declares Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt ineligible to contest elections due to his conviction in the 1993 Mumbai bombings.
The Supreme Court in New Delhi on Tuesday refused to suspend his conviction in connection with the 1993 Mumbai blasts case, PTI reported. "We are not inclined to suspend his conviction," a Bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said.
Dutt was convicted under the Arms Act and sentenced to six years in jail in July 2007 by a court for buying weapons from bombers who attacked the port city of Mumbai.
He is the most high-profile of 100 people convicted in connection with the lethal bombings. The actor, who found fame playing gangsters, has said the weapons were necessary in order to defend his family during the 1993 Hindu-Muslim riots. He is out on bail at present and wanted to stand as a Samajwadi Party candidate in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
India's parliamentary elections, the world's largest exercise in democracy, begin in less than three weeks. Under Indian electoral laws, anyone who is given a jail sentence more than a period of two years is not eligible to contest elections.
Around twelve bomb blasts rocked several sites across Mumbai in April 1993, killing 257 people and wounding over 700 others.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Pakistan Muslim League-N chief Mian Nawaz Sharif said on Tuesday the new U.S. administration was much better than the previous one, but needed to understand his country''s concerns as it battles extremism. He said reaction to President Barack Obama''s new plan for Pakistan and Afghanistan, announced last week, had been "mixed" in the country. "As we are very willing to address the concerns of all our allies and friends, I think they should also understand our problems and handicaps," he told a foreign news agency at the Raiwand. "It has to be reciprocal." To a question, he rejected charges against ISI, saying there was not "any room for any suspicion of the ISI". He also called for an end to American drone attacks on tribal regions, which have led to civilian casualties and inflamed anti-American sentiment. "Some of the policies followed by President Bush have given rise to a lot of anti-American feeling in Pakistan," Sharif said. Â"For example the drone attacks are affecting our relationship. The people of Pakistan have criticised them very severely. It damages the sovereignty of our country. On this issue the United States of America must move carefully."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
FBI scientists were unable to match bullets from a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting to guns carried by Blackwater Worldwide security guards, according to laboratory reports that leave open the possibility that insurgents also fired in the crowded intersection. The FBI lab reports, obtained by The Associated Press from someone not involved in the criminal case, allow for both possibilities.
Investigators recovered .30-caliber bullets from a survivor, a Blackwater truck and around Baghdad's Nisoor Square. Scientists could not determine whether those bullets came from .30-caliber Blackwater machine guns. The AK-47 rifles favored by many Iraqi insurgents also fire .30-caliber bullets.
Nobody disputes that Blackwater guards fired, but accounts vary on whether the convoy of armored trucks was attacked. Iraqi witnesses and some members of the Blackwater convoy told authorities they saw no insurgent gunfire. Radio logs show Blackwater guards repeatedly reporting incoming fire during a hectic eight minutes in which one truck was disabled.
The government's case does not hinge on whether Blackwater was fired on, since prosecutors say the guards violated their rules of engagement even if they did take fire. But any evidence that Blackwater was attacked would help the guards argue they fired in self-defense. The inconclusive lab reports do little to sort out the discrepancies. The documents do not prove the government's argument that Blackwater was unprovoked. Nor do they prove that Blackwater was attacked.
Instead, the reports reveal the difficulty FBI agents faced in an investigation that began two weeks after the shooting. In the U.S., investigators would analyze bullets from the dead bodies. But Muslims typically bury their dead within 24 hours, so when the FBI arrived, such analysis was impossible. Iraqi autopsy reports, if they are done, are not usually as thorough as those in the United States. The FBI lab reports give no indication that investigators recovered any bullets from dead bodies.
Further complicating things, investigators found Yugoslavian and Chinese cartridge cases in the square. Neither U.S. troops nor Blackwater use such ammunition. But shootings are not uncommon in Nisoor Square and those shells could have been left behind before or after the Blackwater shooting. "Even if they didn't find anything except Blackwater cartridge casings, because of how insecure the scene is out there, people could have come in and picked up anything they wanted," said Michael Haag, a forensic scientist and instructor who reviewed the lab reports for the AP.
FBI scientists also tried to match the bullets to Blackwater ammunition by analyzing and comparing metal compositions. Scientists determined the bullets and bullet fragments recovered from the scene probably came from "several different sources." But that, too, is an inconclusive finding, Haag said. Even ammunition pulled from the same box can have different metal compositions. So, the lab's finding does not prove whether Blackwater was alone in firing, he said.
#1
The documents do not prove the government's argument that Blackwater was unprovoked. Nor do they prove that Blackwater was attacked.
Yup those strange .30 cal just appeared as if by magic, no reason to think they were attacked, nope, no evidence at all. (Moron investigators)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/01/2009 13:05 Comments ||
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#2
yeah they also appeared lodged into a black water truck that was disabbled. now why would they disable one of their own vehicles in a situation where they could possibly be hung from the nearest bridge?
#3
I would need to go to the books but if the bullets are in fair condition the bullet weight and construction should not be the same between Nato and Soviet rounds. Jacket thickness, composition, shape, weight, ect. Our QC is fairly tight so I suspect someone is blowing smoke when they try to blame Blackwater using this evidence. Looks like prosecutorial problems (trying to prove guilt with no evidence) to me. Are these the same folks that charged the Haditha Marines?
The Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry in the Gaza Strip said on Tuesday that 11 policemen would be tried for offences relating to the death in custody this month of a Palestinian it suspected of dealing in drugs.
The ministry said in a statement that Ismail Haniyeh, the Islamist movement's prime minister in the Palestinian coastal enclave, had fired the 11 on Tuesday and ordered them to face courts martial over the death of 40-year-old Zayed Jaradat.
His family and human rights groups accused policemen working for Hamas of torturing him, leading to his death a day after his arrest on March 15 in Rafah, a town that supports much of Gaza's trade through a warren of tunnels under the border with Egypt.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
family threatened to shut down the ammo deliveries, huh? Sucks to be a sacrificial lamb terrorist, huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/01/2009 18:16 Comments ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Israel's hawkish Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu was set to become the country's new prime minister on Tuesday, heading a predominantly right-wing cabinet, which has sparked international concern over the future of troubled peace talks.
Returning to power 10 years after his first stint as prime minister, the 59-year-old Netanyahu presents his government to parliament Tuesday.
The Knesset opened its session after midday to confirm the new cabinet with a vote on the government expected in the hours following.
Israel's 32nd government is set to be one of its largest ever, with a new table having been ordered to accommodate some 30 ministers and up to seven deputy ministers.
Earlier in the day, Netanyahu held last-minute talks in a bid to entice another ultra-religious party into the cabinet.
Israel's Peace Now anti-settlement watchdog has called the incoming cabinet "one of the most right-wing governments ever known in Israel."
Activists planned to demonstrate outside the Knesset during the swearing-in ceremony, with banners that read: "A government of settlers is under way."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > ISRAEL's IDF PREPARES FOR ALL-OUT WAR [agz IRAN]; + TOPIX > HAS THE US LOST LEBANON?
The center's business manager has been accused of stealing $430,000 from the mosque This is the Mosque used by the diplomatic community in the embassy area of Washington D.C.
in a complicated check scam. The key witness against him is the center's director and imam, a Saudi who says he noticed the crime when he spotted too many checks being written to a gardener. He noticed it on the 58th bogus check he wrote; the first 57 he missed
The Iranian-born business manager who for many years was a close friend of the Iman
has a different story. He says the imam told him to take the money. About half was used to pay off debts and living expenses of two women who were close to the imam, and the rest was used to pay informants for tips about the mosque's security, he said.
It was enough to confound a jury, which deadlocked 9 to 3 after the business manager's three-week trial last May. the Govt will try the business manager again; the business manager has accused the Iman of perjury
Ask any soldier who's been to both countries: Afghanistan is not Iraq. It's a different war against a different enemy in a different country with an entirely different terrain and altitude.
One thing is the same, though. The Improvised Explosive Device -- the deadly "IED" roadside bombs that blew up Humvees and the soldiers inside them along the dusty roads of Iraq -- is an equally effective weapon in the rocky steeps of Afghanistan.
When the Humvee proved unable to withstand IED attacks in Iraq, the U.S. military built a new vehicle -- the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) -- to replace it. And like a neglected sibling, the troops in Afghanistan automatically acquired the MRAP as a hand-me-down. It's the wrong vehicle for the new war.
"Best vehicle in Afghanistan? Two legs. And maybe a mule to pack the .50 caliber machine gun," Arizona National Guardsman Anthony McGee said, only half-jokingly. "Breakdowns were an almost everyday occurrence."
So it's back to the drawing board. Soon there'll be a new king of the road: the MRAP All Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV), nicknamed the "Baby MRAP," which is being "designed for mobility and survivability," says Cheryl Irwin, spokeswoman for the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
As a nation at war for nearly 40 years, the Afghan landscape is peppered with an astounding variety of things that blow up. Along the bare, parched mountains near the border with Pakistan, explosives are more abundant than flowers or trees.
Weight, height, size -- all the advantages the MRAP afforded troops in Iraq's urban environments -- are all liabilities in a country that barely possesses paved pathways.
Last year, three Green Berets drowned when their MRAP, which is prone to tilting over on uneven terrain, rolled into a canal in southern Afghanistan. The problem was obvious, and the solution is clear: Afghanistan needs a special vehicle for its unique demands.
Enter the M-ATV.
A scaled-down, all-terrain, four-wheel offspring of the larger MRAP, the M-ATV is one of the first tactical vehicles designed specifically with Afghanistan in mind, and the Defense Department has put an urgent priority on getting it into the war zone by the end of this year.
"The M-ATV is designed to have the same level of protection as the previous MRAPs, but with the mobility of a Humvee," says Steve Field, spokesman for BAE Systems, one of several competing manufacturers designing this vehicle of the future.
Its equipment and capabilities are many:
IED jammers
V-shaped blast-dispersing monocoque hull
Significantly increased power-to-weight ratio
The ability to ford hard-bottom fresh water to depths of up to 5 feet. (M-ATV is not amphibious)
Generate 10 kilowatts of vehicle host power and export an additional 20 kilowatts for mission equipment
Turbo-charged diesel V8 engine
Shorter wheelbase for improved cross-country mobility
Lower center of gravity for increased maneuverability and to prevent rollovers
Ergonomic steering angle to "drive like an SUV"
"Runflat" tire system allowing the M-ATV to safely cruise at 30 mph on up to two flat tires
To meet future challenges, a new composite "hyperplastic" material capable of absorbing enormous amounts of kinetic energy is the new frontier for armor. This new "composite armor system" has even resisted the deadly energy formed projectile (EFP) class of IED, all while weighing 37 percent less than conventional steel armor.
It's a major victory in the "up armor" race, but in Afghanistan, the IED battle is just beginning.
Hard and rough, the M-ATV is designed with shock absorption in mind. Its independent suspension system is a break from the less flexible standard straight axle systems used in the larger MRAPs.
"This type of train allows each wheel a bit more mobility," said suspension systems guru Scott Arentz of Extremegearoffroad.com. "The independent drivetrain requires a few more parts and is more 'delicate,' but it usually gives a smoother ride."
An added bonus of the M-ATV is that it will be a money-saver. A barebones unit will cost roughly $500,000, compared to $1 million for an MRAP.
The far lighter M-ATV will also cost much less to deliver to landlocked Afghanistan. The military estimates that airlifting each MRAP into Afghanistan costs $135,000 -- and there currently are 1,800 MRAPs in the country.
"The key here is survivability," Irwin said. "We want to protect our people and give them what they need to succeed in their mission....
"I hate the term 'baby' MRAP," she said, referring to the nickname the nimble 4x4 has acquired.
And well she might. The M-ATV must hit the ground running, which is precisely what the military expects it to do. In Afghanistan, there will be no time to crawl.
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.
Somalia's opposition leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys might soon return to Mogadishu after quitting self-imposed exile in Eritrea. 
The UK-based controversial NGO Green Crescent was illegally operating a madrasa-cum-orphanage where the Rapid Action Battalion busted a mini ammo factory on March 24 in Bhola, say sources at the Department of Social Service.
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea accused the United States of spying on the site of an impending rocket launch and threatened Wednesday to shoot down any U.S. planes that intrude into its airspace.
The foreign ministers of Japan, South Korea and the United States reaffirmed their consensus in separate bilateral talks Tuesday that should North Korea go ahead with a rocket launch, the issue should be taken up at the U.N. Security Council, sources involved in the talks said. Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone met with his South Korean counterpart Yu Myung Hwan on the sidelines of a donor conference on Afghanistan in the Hague. Nakasone later held bilateral talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
A federal judge yesterday ordered the United States to release a prisoner from the Guantanamo detention center who is accused of hiding out with Osama bin Laden after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. US District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle issued a one-page judgment ordering the release of Yasin Muhammed Basardh, a 33-year-old from Yemen. The judge didn't say why Basardh should be let go, but she said it was explained during a closed hearing in her courtroom earlier in the day.
The CIA is attempting to recruit more spies by advertising on the internet, radio and television, and by holding meetings with American Muslims to make up a severe shortage of Arabic speakers. 
FBI scientists were unable to match bullets from a deadly 2007 Baghdad shooting to guns carried by Blackwater Worldwide security guards, according to laboratory reports that leave open the possibility that insurgents also fired in the crowded intersection. The FBI lab reports, obtained by The Associated Press from someone not involved in the criminal case, allow for both possibilities.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Israel's hawkish Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu was set to become the country's new prime minister on Tuesday, heading a predominantly right-wing cabinet, which has sparked international concern over the future of troubled peace talks.
Ask any soldier who's been to both countries: Afghanistan is not Iraq. It's a different war against a different enemy in a different country with an entirely different terrain and altitude.
