President Karzai bowed to international pressure yesterday by promising to amend a new law condoning marital rape and child marriage that provoked violent clashes in the Afghan capital. The Shia Family Law, signed by the Afghan President last month, appeared to reintroduce the draconian policies of the Taleban era, such as a ban on married women leaving their homes without their husbands permission. The law applies to the 15 per cent of Afghans who are Shia Muslims.
At a press conference in Kabul yesterday Mr Karzai said: The law is under review and amendments will take place. I assure you that the laws of Afghanistan will be in complete harmony with the constitution of Afghanistan, and the human rights that we have adhered to in international treaties.
His statement appeared to rebut widespread speculation that by signing the law he was pandering to conservatives before this summers delayed presidential election. Mr Karzai confirmed that he would stand in the elections, where he will be the front-runner.
Afghanistans constitution guarantees equality of the sexes and the country is also a signatory to the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. However, hardline theologians argue that all other provisions are overridden by Article Three of the Constitution, which guarantees that nothing contrary to the beliefs and provisions of Islam is permissible in Afghan law. Mr Karzais climbdown came a day after he said that he had been unaware of its content when he signed it. He made the claim when he met a group of women activists who organised a protest against the new law in Kabul last week. The protesters were attacked by a mob of male supporters of the law.
The controversial provisions were buried in the 239-page document, much of it written in dense theological jargon. Mr Karzai said that his aides had not briefed him properly about the details. Many opponents of the law have said that it did not pass through the normal channels, that would have included discussion of all the articles, because MPs were advised to let the Shia community determine the details of their own laws a right granted by the constitution.
One article stipulates that the wife is bound to preen for her husband as and when he desires. Another passage sanctions marital rape. As long as the husband is not travelling he has the right to have sexual intercourse with his wife every fourth night . . . Unless the wife is ill or has any kind of illness that intercourse could aggravate, the wife is bound to give a positive response to the sexual desires of her husband.
Article 133 reintroduces the Taleban restrictions on womens movements outside their homes, stating: A wife cannot leave the house without the permission of the husband unless in a medical or other emergency.
Article 27 endorses child marriage, with girls legally able to marry once they begin to menstruate. The law also withholds from the woman the right to inherit her husbands wealth.
When its contents were made public it was condemned widely by Western governments, with President Obama describing the new law as abhorrent.
The Afghan Government had insisted that criticism of the law was misplaced. We understand the concerns of our allies, Mr Karzai said on television earlier this month. Those concerns may be out of inappropriate or not-so-good translation of the law or a misinterpretation of it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
[Al Arabiya Latest] Violence in Sudan's Darfur region has subsided into a "low-intensity conflict," a U.N. envoy said on Monday, but the United States and its allies disagreed, according to diplomats.
Briefing the U.N. Security Council, the joint U.N.-African Union special representative to Darfur, Rodolphe Adada, told the 15 member states that around 130-150 people were dying each month due to violence in Darfur, a region roughly the size of France.
"The situation has changed from the period of intense hostilities in 2003-2004 when tens of thousands of people were killed," Adada told the council. "Today, in purely numerical terms it is a low-intensity conflict."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
#1
That the people won't venture out of the refugee camps to look for food or firewood for fear of getting murdered by the Sudan government proxies means nothing, apparently.
The ensuing starvation is 'not Violence®'.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/28/2009 8:21 Comments ||
Top||
#2
That the Sudan government threw out most of the aid agencies helps a lot to deplete the Christian & Animist populations, too. Less people to eradicate, less 'Violence®'.
Of course, that leaves the UN agencies as the 'only game in town' here. Could some form of collusion be occurring?
Hmmmm...
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/28/2009 8:49 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Must be no children left for the "peacekeepers" to molest.
[Bangla Daily Star] A draft press law that would give authorities in Sudan powers to impose heavy fines or even close down newspapers has the country's media up in arms.
Africa's largest country boasts around 30 titles in both English and Arabic published daily and representing all persuasions -- pro-government, Islamist or even communist -- showing off the country's multi-faceted political make-up.
Already newspapers are screened by state censors every night before hitting the stands, but the new bill, which was submitted to parliament last week, would impose 50,000 Sudanese pound (21,500 dollar) fines for "infractions" and allow a Press Council to close down newspapers.
"In the beginning the censors stopped you publishing certain issues, now they are asking why you do not cover (President Omar al-) Beshir's visits and pro-Beshir demonstrations," complained Al-Haj Ali Waraq Sid Ahmed, managing editor of the daily Ajras Al-Huriyya (Bells of Freedom).
"Now they are putting more of an agenda," he said.
In a recent report, the New York-based Human Rights Watch criticised the draft law as "repressive" and "vague."
It contains "many repressive provisions of the current 2004 Press and Publications Act, including strict media registration rules, vague reporting prohibitions, a National Press Council that lacks independence and has broad regulatory powers, and heavy fines and criminal sanctions for media outlets and journalists," the group said.
An embattled President Beshir is trying to rally public opinion in his fight against the International Criminal Court which in March issued a warrant for his arrest, accusing him of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the war-torn western Sudanese region of Darfur.
But journalists argue that the war in Darfur -- where are at least 300,000 people have died in six years of fighting according to the United Nations -- remains a mystery to those inside Sudan despite massive publicity abroad.
"Because of the censorship, for the ordinary people in Khartoum... Darfur is veiled," said Sid Ahmed, whose newspaper lost three consecutive editions to the censor in mid-April.
Sudan recently removed some 15 articles from proofs of the Al-Midan weekly, which preferred not to go to print under such conditions.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
[Iran Press TV Latest] A Press TV poll suggests that the continuous activity of Somali pirates has given the US an opportunity to expand its naval presence in the Gulf of Aden. Why would we need an excuse?
According to the opinion poll conducted by Press TV website, some 32 percent of 617 voters believed the piracy has helped the White House to justify its military presence outside its borders. Good Lord! A Press TV internet poll? Well, you don't get much more authoritative than that without the involvement of burning bushes.
Some 26 percent, meanwhile, believed that pirate attacks off the waters of the Horn of Africa region would not end unless a powerful and influential government took power in Somalia. The other 74 percent were inebriated or something?
After a dramatic increase of pirate attacks in late 2008, some countries including the US deployed their naval vessels in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. I remember reading someplace that Iran did, too. Maybe they left or something.
Another 19 percent of the respondents said both of the factors contributed to the problem, while some 26 percent said there were "other reasons" for the increase of pirate attacks. It's probably sunspots.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Pirates
#1
Why would we need an excuse?
We need time to program SuoerZero's teleprompter.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/28/2009 13:18 Comments ||
Top||
[Al Arabiya Latest] Abdulaziz al-Baddah had no idea what to expect after his release from the U.S. Guantanamo "war on terror" prison.
He was picked up in Pakistan in December 2001 for working with the charity al-Wafa, which the United States alleges helped to fund al-Qaeda, and spent five years in the Guantanamo facility before being freed. "I wanted to come back to Saudi Arabia even if I had to face death," he said in an interview organized by the Saudi government's interior ministry. "It wouldn't be worse than what I faced in Guantanamo."
Instead, one of the first things that happened was that he was reunited with his family from Mecca. He was interviewed, investigated and given a psychological evaluation--but not at all like in the U.S. jail. "It was more humanitarian," Baddah recalled.
Then he was sent to Riyadh's new rehabilitation facility for militants, the Prince Mohammed bin Nayef Centre for Care and Counselling. There, his hate for Americans dissipated and he lost his desire to go on jihad. "How would I benefit if I killed innocent people?" he asked, dutifully echoing one of the center's mantras.
Positive brainwash
One of the first "graduates" of the innovative Riyadh facility said the key lesson learned there is that his family and country are everything and that they will decide, not him alone, what constitutes a correct jihad, or holy war. "We tell them it's not your responsibility to decide," said Turki al-Otayan, the centre's main psychologist.
"Before, I believed that my work for al-Wafa in Afghanistan could make me a martyr if I died, even if I was not fighting," Baddah said. "But now I think more about what I do. Humanitarian deeds go under the concept of jihad."
Using a select group of clerics skilled in debating Islamic doctrine, the center engages former militants, those from Guantanamo and others arrested inside Saudi Arabia, in dialogue and class discussions over what jihad is and who has the right to call one.
The answer, said center official Sheikh Ahmed Hamid Jelani, is that a jihad must be decided upon by senior Saudi clerics, agreed by the king and then permitted by the prospective militant's own parents.
The program offers ample financial and social benefits, aiming to ensure that a graduate turns to the right people when he has questions on how a good Saudi Muslim should behave.
In 2007 Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif bin Abdul Aziz gave $2,700 each to 55 Saudis who were formerly held at Guantanamo.
Western application
Last February Britain's High Court began looking into applying the Saudi rehabilitation program to give counseling to extremists.
The new British program would be modeled after the munasaha (Arabic for "advice") program in which the Saudi government enrolls repentant terrorists and returnees from Guantanamo or militant camps outside the kingdom, the London-based newspaper al-Hayat reported on Feb. 23.
The program would place an Islamic scholar or an imam in each prison to provide counseling to inmates with extremist ideologies According to High Court Judge Sir Christopher Pitchers, who headed a delegation that met with Saudi Minister of Justice Abdullah bin Mohammed Ibrahim Al Sheikh. "We will need the help of Saudi Arabia," Pitchers was quoted as saying. "However, it is the British government that should decide, not the court."
He referred to the positive results the Saudi program has yielded, especially with respect to terrorist operations. "If a terrorist attack takes place in the U.K., we could benefit from the experience of Saudi Arabia in countering terrorism. We can also help them if we can. Mutual interest is the purpose of this visit to Riyadh," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
So, like a recovered alcoholic, he could "fall off the camel" any time...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/28/2009 10:13 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Let me guess, the second they gave him another AK-47 he felt better immediately.
Future rehab consists of,
1. ammo clips, 2. ammo to load the clips, and at graduation ceremonies he's given his diploma, an RPG, then released as CURED.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/28/2009 13:25 Comments ||
Top||
#4
He's not actually "cured" until his boom belt detonates.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 14:12 Comments ||
Top||
[Bangla Daily Star] The mutineers of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) not only looted firearms, ammunition and explosives from the armoires of the border security force's headquarters, but also destroyed many of the ledger books making it difficult for investigators to make an estimate of missing weapons.
The BDR authorities, and intelligence and other law-enforcing agencies are worried about the missing weapons, mainly about the grenades, as those might fall in the hands of terrorists and other criminals causing threats to the country's security.
On April 21, the BDR authorities provided the media with an approximate detail of the looted firearms, but they could not provide any information about missing ammunition and explosives, although about two months had already elapsed since the mutiny on February 25 and 26.
BDR sources said the mutineers broke into all arsenals of all sectors, battalions, and other units at the Pilkhana headquarters, and looted indiscriminately from all the units.
According to the sources, separate ledgers of weapons are maintained by all sectors, battalions, and other units, and monthly returns about the weapons are sent to the Headquarters' Office which also forwards a copy to the central ordnance of the armed forces.
BDR Director General (DG) Maj Gen Md Mainul Islam said, "We're trying to estimate how many arms and ammunition are missing, with back-up information from different sources, and we are hopeful we will be able to complete the estimation soon."
But former BDR DG Lt Gen (retd) M Atiqur Rahman said, "It's impossible to know the exact figure, one could only imagine a figure."
Talking to The Daily Star, both the incumbent and former DGs feared that the missing weapons might end up becoming a national security concern, which was echoed by intelligence and other law-enforcing agencies too.
Col Rezanur Rahman Khan, additional directional general of Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), told The Daily Star, "We still don't know the destinations of the missing weapons. If terrorists can lay their hands on the missing grenades that might become very dangerous, as they tend to use grenades for assassinations."
"However we still don't know how many grenades are missing from Pilkhana," he added.
An assistant superintendent of police (ASP) of the criminal investigation department, who is close to the investigation, said during interrogation, a number of captured mutineers admitted that they destroyed the ledgers of weapons in an effort to make it difficult for investigators to estimate the amount of looted weapons.
Lt Gen (retd) M Atiqur Rahman said, "When I was the DG of BDR from December 15, 1977 to June 30, 1982, the army used to supply the required arms, ammunition and explosives to BDR with the approval of the home ministry. So it's possible to get back-up information from both sources."
"The missing weapons could reach the hands of terrorists and other criminals, and could even be smuggled into neighbouring countries' separatists like the United Liberation Front of Assam," said Atiqur Rahman, adding, "The fugitive BDR men with weapons are trained persons. I'm afraid it will become very dangerous if they start using those."
But Commerce Minister Lt Col (retd) Faruk Khan seemed to somewhat differ with the apprehension, saying, most of the missing weapons are small firearms, which might cause some social nuisances, but not any national security threat.
He, however, declined to give out any detail about the missing ammunition and explosives and said, "We'll give out the detail after the next meeting of the investigation committee."
The minister said, "It's not difficult to estimate the missing arms, ammunition, and explosives, as there are back-ups of the ledgers that were in Pilkhana."
According to the BDR sources, apart from looking for back-up information, they are also checking all documents regarding the arms and ammunition purchased in the past.
Talking to The Daily Star, the incumbent BDR DG, Maj Gen Md Mainul Islam, said, "It's easy to count the missing firearms, but regarding the ammunition we don't how many were used during the mutiny, and how many were taken out from Pilkhana by the fleeing mutineers."
He also urged the people of the country to come forward with information for arrest of the fugitive BDR men, and for recovering the missing weapons, saying, "We've already supplied the details about the fugitives to all intelligence and law-enforcing agencies."
Senior ASP Abdul Kahar Akand of CID, who is the investigation officer (IO) of the BDR mutiny case, said, "We're not sure whether the missing weapons have already reached the hands of terrorists and other criminals."
He however added that it does not mean that all the missing weapons have already reached the hands of criminals, as some of those are still being found abandoned at different places in and out of Pilkhana.
Replying to a question, he said they have been interrogating arrested BDR jawans abut the looted weapons.
Azim Ahmed, director of the intelligence wing of Rab, told The Daily Star, "We've been working to detect the destinations of the missing weapons."
Lt Gen (retd) M Atiqur Rahman said once looted weapons go underground, those tend to change hands.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
[Bangla Daily Star] A female BNP leader of Hazaribagh and her two sons were arrested Sunday night on charge of organising a procession in favour of BDR mutineers near Pilkhana during the February 25-26 BDR mutiny. Charges of abetting BDR jawans to flee from Pilkhana were also brought against the detainees Suriya Begum, the local BNP leader, and her sons Sumon and Jewel.
Meanwhile, the police headquarters yesterday sent papers to the police stations concerned to file 40 sedition cases in 27 districts in connection with the mutinies at different BDR units. Earlier on Sunday, the government approved of filing sedition cases against the BDR mutineers.
Sources in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) said a CID team picked up the three from their 21/4 Birbal Kachhra house near the Bay Tannery at Hazaribagh around 8:00pm on Sunday after one of the security guards of the tannery told the National Committee, formed by the government to probe the incident, about their involvement.
Later, a Dhaka court placed Suriya on a two-day remand while her sons Sumon and Jewel on a three-day remand each after they were produced before the court yesterday afternoon with a prayer for five days remand for each.
The same court yesterday also placed 25 suspected BDR mutineers and a civilian on a five-day remand each in the mutiny case. The court also ordered to send five other BDR jawans to jail after they were placed before the court on completion of their different terms of remand.
Meanwhile, five more BDR jawans yesterday made their statements under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code confessing to their involvement in the BDR carnage. They are sepoys Siddik Alam, Mohsin Ali, Abdur Rashid, Shamim Al Mamun and Sumon Mian. With yesterday's statements of five BDR men, a total of 50 BDR jawans have so far made confessional statements.
Besides, the CID interrogated 40 suspected mutineers inside the Pilkhana yesterday about their roles during the BDR carnage. After getting the approval from the government, police headquarters sent papers to the police stations concerned to file 40 sedition cases.
Commerce Minister Lt Col (retd) Faruk Khan told The Daily Star that the government approved it at a meeting on April 26. Sources said around 1,000 BDR members from 40 sectors and battalions would be made accused in the cases.
According to sources, the BDR authorities provided information and lists of the BDR units where the BDR men took part in the mutinies. Following the information and lists, the police headquarters sent a letter to the home ministry seeking approval to file sedition cases. The home ministry has already given permission in this regard.
ARREST OF SURIYA
Sources in the CID said Suriya Begum organised a procession in Hazaribagh area in favour of BDR rebels on February 25 while her two sons provided fleeing BDR jawans with cloths. An employee of a shop near Suriya's house wishing anonymity said Suriya used to organise BNP processions in the areas but he could not say whether she organised any procession during the BDR mutiny.
Suriya is the wife of late Abdus Salam, a retied BDR Sepoy. Locals could not say immediately which post Suriya holds in the Ward unit, but said she contested for the post of councillor as a BNP-backed candidate in the last Dhaka City Corporation election.
With the latest arrest, 19 civilians have so far been arrested in connection with the BDR mutiny case. The arrested persons include ward Awami League leader Torab Ali.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
[Bangla Daily Star] The trial of war criminals is not a trial of Jamaat-e-Islami, State Minister for Liberation War Affairs ABM Tajul Islam said. Criticising remarks of Jamaat leaders on the trial of war criminals issue, the state minister said, "Jamaat leaders have been making negative remarks since the initiative to try war criminals was taken. We are trying the war criminals not Jamaat leaders...why does this irritate them?" Probably because the two are one.
He was speaking to a private TV channel after a meeting with the principal staff officer of the army at his ministry office yesterday. He said, "They say that the nation is being divided in the name of trial of war criminals and conspiracy is being hatched to harass Jamaat politically. If they are innocent, why are they making such a fuss about it? People of the country want the trial of war criminals and the trial will take place in the country."
He said cases filed against war criminals across the country would be brought under the purview of the trial process and the list of freedom fighters would also be corrected. "Special allowances would be given to freedom fighters who served in the army," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
[Bangla Daily Star] A company commander of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) was injured yesterday as Indian Border Security Force (BSF) opened fire on a BDR patrol team near Taluigachha border under Sadar upazila in Satkhira.
BDR and BSF traded gunfire following the incident at Laxmidari border under Sadar upazila. Injured BDR company commander Nayek Subedar Shamim Reja of Taluigachha company was taken to Satkhira Sadar Hospital in a critical condition. Later he was moved to Jessore Combined Military Hospital as his condition deteriorated, hospital sources said.
Sources said the incident happened as a BDR patrol team led by Nayek Subedar Shamim chased a group of smugglers who were trying to enter Bangladesh territory with smuggled goods from India. BSF men of Amudia camp under Swarupnagar police station of India, opposite Taluigachha camp under Sadar upazila, opened fire indiscriminately on BDR patrol team while it reached Kamarbari area. The incident left the BDR man Shamim Reja seriously injured as he received bullet in his left hand.
Gunfire between BDR and BSF continued for half an hour from 7:45am to 8:15am at Taluigachha border, sources added. Mahbube Rashid, deputy assistant director of 41 Rifles Battalion, told the Daily Star that they sent a protest letter condemning the BSF attack on BDR men.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Doncha just hate it when three-letter acronyms can't get along?
Posted by: Mike ||
04/28/2009 14:27 Comments ||
Top||
Reporting from London -- Three men accused of helping suicide bombers who killed 52 people in a 2005 attack on London's transportation system were acquitted today of the most serious charges they faced, a second defeat for prosecutors in the case.
The jury found Waheed Ali, Mohammed Shakil and Sadeer Saleem not guilty of carrying out a reconnaissance mission to help the four bombers who boarded three subway trains and a bus with homemade explosives July 7, 2005.
Ali and Shakil were convicted of conspiring to attend a terrorist training camp in Pakistan, a lesser charge, and were scheduled to be sentenced tWednesday.
The verdicts ended a three-month retrial of the men, whose previous proceedings last year resulted in a hung jury. The three defendants have been the only people charged so far in the attacks.
Under British double jeopardy laws, any further trial of the same defendants would have to be based on new evidence, said a spokesperson for the Crown Prosecution Service, adding that it was "technically possible but very rare."
Commenting in the Times of London, Andy Hayman, assistant commissioner for London's Metropolitan Police from 2005 to 2007, wrote that the trial "probably represents the last throw of the dice for the police investigation in 7/7. It is frustrating . . . knowing that people who aided and abetted the murders of 52 innocent people remain at large."
The accused, Britons of Pakistani origin who come from the Beeston area of Leeds in northern England, all admitted to being friends of the four men who carried out the bombings, but they denied charges of conspiracy to cause an explosion. They were accused of scouting the capital for possible targets with two of the four bombers on a trip to London in December 2004.
The jury was shown homemade videos and heard evidence from secretly recorded conversations that showed the accused were close friends of the four bombers: Mohamed Sidique Khan, Shahzad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain, and Germaine Lindsay.
Ali, 25, and Shakil, 32, were arrested at Manchester airport in 2007. They were about to board a plane for Pakistan where, according to prosecutors, they planned to attend a terrorist training camp.
However, the prosecution failed to provide convincing enough evidence for the jury to convict Ali, Shakil, and the 28-year-old Saleem of conspiracy to cause explosions.
Posted by: ed ||
04/28/2009 18:59 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
Should have a Lawfare subheading
The president cannot avoid trial of a lawsuit brought by five former CIA captives, who allege they were tortured, by proclaiming the entire case a protected state secret, a federal appeals panel ruled today.
Both former President George W. Bush and President Obama's Justice Department lawyers had argued before federal courts that a lawsuit brought by former Guantanamo prisoner Binyam Mohamed and four others should be dismissed in the interests of national security.
The lawyers argued that "the very subject matter" of the allegations that U.S. agents kidnapped and tortured terrorism suspects was entitled to the protections of the president's state secrets privilege. In a move that surprised many human rights groups, the Obama administration declined to revise the Bush lawyers' claims that the case needed to be dismissed to protect national security.
The three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the executive privilege claim was excessive and the case could go to trial. The lawsuit by the five alleged torture victims is against Jeppesen Dataplan, a Boeing Co. subcontractor accused of complicity in the men's mistreatment for having flown them to secret CIA interrogation sites after they were nabbed abroad by federal agents.
Previous lawsuits alleging abuse were brought against the U.S. government and dismissed by the courts presented with presidential claims of state secrets privilege.
Mohamed v. Jeppesen Dataplan now goes back to U.S. District Court in San Francisco for trial, with the U.S. government, which is backing Jeppesen, free to argue that specific documents or pieces of evidence can be protected from disclosure if they pose a genuine national security risk, but not the entire case, said the opinion.
"By excising secret evidence on an item-by-item basis, rather than foreclosing litigation altogether at the outset, the evidentiary privilege recognizes that the executive's national security prerogatives are not the only weighty constitutional values at stake," said the unanimous opinion written by Circuit Judge Michael Daly Hawkins, an appointee of President Clinton. ...
Binyam Mohamed The items Mohamed admitted include the following:
1. The detainee is an Ethiopian who lived in the United States from 1992 to 1994, and in London, United Kingdom, until he departed for Pakistan in 2001.
2. The detainee arrived in Islamabad, Pakistan, in June 2001, and traveled to the al Farouq training camp in Afghanistan, to receive paramilitary training.
3. At the al Farouq camp, the detainee received 40 days of training in light arms handling, explosives, and principles of topography.
4. The detainee was taught to falsify documents, and received instruction from a senior al Qaeda operative on how to encode telephone numbers before passing them to another individual.
At a minimum, therefore, we know that Mohamed has admitted being an al Qaeda-trained operative.
Mohamed claims that he was not going to use his skills against America. Mohamed told his personal representative that "he went for training to fight in Chechnya, which was not illegal." In 2005, Mohamed's lawyer echoed this explanation in an interview with CNN. "He wanted to see the Taliban with his own eyes," Mohamed's lawyer claimed. "I am not saying he never went to any Islamic camp," the lawyer conceded, but he "didn't go to any camp to blow up Americans."
There are obvious problems with this quasi-denial.
The al Farouq training camp was responsible for training numerous al Qaeda operatives, including some of the September 11 hijackers. Al Qaeda used the al Farouq camp to identify especially promising recruits who could take on sensitive missions. According to the 9/11 Commission Report, this is what happened with members of al Qaeda's infamous Hamburg cell. Some of the future 9/11 suicide pilots also first expressed an interest in fighting in Chechnya, but ended up being assigned a mission inside the United States.
This is what the US government, or at least the parts of it that investigated Mohamed's al Qaeda ties, believes happened to Mohamed. In the unclassified files produced at Guantánamo, as well as an indictment issued by a military commission, the Department of Defense and other US agencies have outlined what they think happened during Binyam Mohamed's time in Afghanistan and then Pakistan.
According to the US government's allegations, Osama bin Laden visited the al Farouq camp "several times" after Mohamed arrived there in the summer of 2001. The terror master "lectured Binyam Mohamed and other trainees about the importance of conducting operations against the United States." Bin Laden explained that "something big is going to happen in the future" and the new recruits should get ready for an impending event.
From al Farouq, Mohamed allegedly received additional training at a "city warfare course" in Kabul and then moved to the front lines in Bagram "to experience fighting between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance." He then returned to Kabul, where the government claims he attended an explosives training camp alongside Richard Reid, the infamous shoe bomber.
Mohamed was then reportedly introduced to top al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah. By early 2002, the two were traveling between al Qaeda safehouses. The US government alleges that Mohamed then met Jose Padilla and two other plotters, both of whom are currently detained at Guantánamo, at a madrassa. Zubaydah and another top al Qaeda lieutenant, Abdul Hadi al Iraqi, allegedly directed the four of them "to receive training on building remote-controlled detonation devices for explosives."
At some point, Padilla and Mohamed traveled to a guesthouse in Lahore, Pakistan, where they "reviewed instructions on a computer ... on how to make an improvised 'dirty bomb.'" To the extent that the allegations against Mohamed have gotten any real press, it is this one that has garnered the attention. Media accounts have often highlighted the fact that Padilla and Mohamed were once thought to be plotting a "dirty bomb" attack, but that the allegation was dropped, making it seem as if they were not really planning a strike on American soil.
Indeed, all of the charges against Mohamed were dropped last year at Guantánamo. But this does not mean that he is innocent. As some press accounts have noted, the charges were most likely dropped for procedural reasons and because of the controversy surrounding his detention. According to US government files, Padilla and Mohamed were considering a variety of attack scenarios.
Zubaydah, Padilla, and Mohamed allegedly discussed the feasibility of the "dirty bomb plot." But Zubaydah moved on to the possibility of "blowing up gas tankers and spraying people with cyanide in nightclubs." Zubaydah, according to the government, stressed that the purpose of these attacks would be to help "free the prisoners in Cuba." That is, Zubaydah wanted to use terrorist attacks to force the US government to free the detainees at Guantánamo.
According to the summary-of-evidence memo prepared for Mohamed's combatant status review tribunal at Guantánamo, Mohamed was an active participant in the plotting. He proposed "the idea of attacking subway trains in the United States." But al Qaeda's military chief, Saif al Adel, and the purported 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (KSM), had a different idea. Al Adel and KSM allegedly told Binyam that he and Padilla would target "high-rise apartment buildings that utilized natural gas for its heat and also targeting gas stations." Padilla and Mohamed were supposed to rent an apartment and use the building's natural gas "to detonate an explosion that would collapse all of the floors above."
It may have been this "apartment building" plot that Mohamed and Padilla were en route to the United States to execute when they were apprehended. In early April 2002, KSM allegedly gave Mohamed $6,000 and Padilla $10,000 to fly to the United States. They were both detained at the airport in Karachi on April 4. Mohamed was arrested with a forged passport, but released. KSM arranged for Mohamed to travel on a different forged passport, but he was arrested once again on April 10. Padilla was released and made it all the way to Chicago before being arrested once again.
The gravity of the charges against Mohamed is rarely reported in the media. The Bush administration and US intelligence officials believed he was part of al Qaeda's attempted second wave of attacks on US soil.
Posted by: ed ||
04/28/2009 19:17 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
Three immigrant brothers involved in a plot to kill military personnel, possibly on Fort Dix, were sentenced Tuesday to spend the rest of their lives in prison.
The government had said the men were familiar with the Army post because their father's pizza shop delivered there, and it presented the case as one of the most startling examples of homegrown terrorism.
Dritan, Eljvir and Shain Duka professed their innocence in courtroom speeches before U.S. District Judge Robert Kugler handed down their sentences. Two other men were to be sentenced Wednesday.
All five were convicted by a jury in December of conspiracy to kill military personnel but were acquitted on attempted-murder charges. Four of them also were convicted on weapons offenses.
Two of the Duka brothers, Dritan and Shain, were given sentences of life plus 30 years because of one of the weapons counts against them.
Defense lawyers and the men's relatives said the sentences were expected, but the relatives also said they were unjust.
The men also were ordered to pay a total of $125,000 in restitution to the Army, which beefed up security at Fort Dix after hearing about the investigation into the plot.
Posted by: ed ||
04/28/2009 18:54 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
The men also were ordered to pay a total of $125,000 in restitution to the Army
That will certainly make a dent in current budget shortfalls... at least for the Defence Department. Still, this is good. The jury clearly understands what they're dealing with.
[Geo News] President Asif Ali Zardari has said that Pakistan is capable of dealing with terrorism. He said this in a meeting with Britain's prime minister Gordon Brown here in the President's House on Monday. President Zardari said in the meeting that the government of Pakistan is determined to deal with terrorism and extremism in the country but seek help from world community in some departments. Thanking Britain for continuous cooperation in war against terror, president Zardari said in the meeting that Pakistan would be helped in dealing with social and economic issues by strengthening economic relations between Pakistan and Britain. President Zardari urged the world community to give full support to Pakistan. He said that the students arrested in Britain be given all chances to defend themselves against the charges on them and complete their education.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Capability also needs willingness to be effective.
Throwing half-trained tribesmen and a couple of drunk generals at the problem kinda indicates a lack of the latter.
[Geo News] Pakistan Muslim League- N Chief Nawaz Sharif has stressed on the British prime minister Gordon Brown's role toward bringing and end to the US drone strike within Pakistan. The British pm met with the PML-N Chief here at Punjab House on Monday during which the two leaders had an exchange of views on various matters including war on terror. Gordon Brown on the occasion assured of his country's every possible support to Pakistan in the war against terrorism and strengthening the latter's democratic institutions. Nawaz Sharif told Brown that the drone strikes in Pakistan are inciting anti-US sentiments. He termed what he called an unjustified detention of Pakistani students in UK as regrettable. Such incidents must not affect the bilateral relations, he stressed.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
The drone attacks must be working if Nawaz is worried!
Dont worry Gordon has no power in stopping the drones!!!
[Geo News] Britain and Pakistan Monday expressed a firm resolve to jointly fight against terrorism. Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani addressing a joint press conference along with his visiting British counterpart Gordon Brown, said Pakistani nation is united in the battle against terrorism. Â"Britain and Pakistan will jointly fight the menace of terrorism,Â" he said. PM Gilani said Pakistan will continue to play its part toward stabilizing Afghanistan. To a question, he said nothing could be said about Usama Bin Laden's staying alive or dead. Replying another question regarding the issue of Pakistani students in Britain, the Pakistani Prime Minister said the matter came under discussion during his meeting earlier with his British counterpart Gordon Brown. The British prime minister on the occasion acknowledged that Pakistan continues to face the scourge of extremism and terrorism which is posing a threat to Â"the fabric of our life style.Â" He said Britian and Pakistan have always enjoyed strong bilateral ties which, he added, will only grow stronger with time. Â"Both the countries are facing a common threat of terrorism and we know that Pakistan is even more committed to fighting this menace,Â" Gordon Brown said, adding Pakistan government and its forces are taking firm action against Taliban. He said Britain is spending 10 million pounds to train Pakistani intelligence agencies on counter-terrorism. Pakistan aid for war on terror will be increased and we will also support Pakistan for promotion of education in tribal areas, he added. To a question, Gordon Brown said there are one million Pakistanis in Britain and that investigations are underway in connection with the detained students.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar on Monday warned the Taliban of military action if they did not leave Buner district. "Leave Buner or face action," the minister said while addressing a news conference in Timergara where new Malakand Commissioner Fazal Rahim Khattak was also present. The minister said the provincial government had received reports of presence of "foreign militants" in Buner, where some of the Taliban had been speaking languages the locals could not understand. The foreigners are likely Uzbeks, Chechens or Arabs. The minister said there was no military operation going on in Lower Dir, the state-run APP reported, adding that the clashes there were "retaliation to the attack by miscreants on the security forces". The armed forces were present in Malakand division "only to maintain peace and harmony", the news agency quoted him as telling the reporters.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Thats the speed bump. Move no further, Taliban.
#2
PAKISTANI DEFENSE FORUMS [paraph] > CLINTON: IFF KASHMIR BLOWS UP, ALL BETS ARE OFF; + USA: MILITANTS ARE SHIFTING FROM AFGHANISTAN TO AFRICA; + CLINTON: MILITANTS WILL NOT CEASE THEIR ATTACKS AGZ PAKISTAN AND INDIA; + US THREATENED TO ATTACK MILITANTS IN SWAT VALLEY UNLESS ISLAMABAD/PAKISTAN STOPS MILITANTS.
Exactly 56 percent respondents described Afghanistan's Taliban as "Islamic heroes fighting western occupation" in a survey conducted by Community Appraisal and Motivation Programme (CAMP) with the help of the British High Commission in Islamabad. A paltry 12.1 percent called them "a terrorist group". More than 54 percent respondents said they were "dissatisfied with life" in FATA in general. The number of satisfied people stood at 18.15 percent, according to the survey, and 17.5 percent said they were neither satisfied nor dissatisfied. Some 73.25 percent tribesmen referred to provision of justice as "the most important service" that the government should provide in their areas followed by 64.6 percent voting for education, 52.1 percent for health and 47 percent for tackling terrorism. Just 2.95 percent respondents referred to the US as a "very favourable" country, compared with 66.2 percent who called it "very unfavourable".
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
Pipping the likes of US President Barack Obama and Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud is the fourth most influential person in Time magazine's list of the '100 most influential people in the world' -- with the founder of online community 4chan.org, Christopher Poole, better known as Moot, emerging as the most influential person in the world. Three Indians -- Congress party President Sonia Gandhi, movie mogul Ronnie Screwvala and the brain behind the world's cheapest car, Ratan Tata -- also feature in the list. Obama is ranked 37, while Dalai Lama is placed at 61st.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
#1
Is oprah still number 1?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/28/2009 10:59 Comments ||
Top||
#2
wrong "O"
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/28/2009 19:13 Comments ||
Top||
[ADN Kronos] Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari, said Monday that the country's intelligence service believes Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is dead, but added they had no evidence. He was speaking at an international media conference in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. "The Americans tell me they don't know, and they are much more equipped than us to trace him," Zardari said. "Our own intelligence services obviously think that he does not exist any more, that he is dead. But there is no evidence, you cannot take that as a fact," he said. "We are between facts and fiction." I was of that opinion for awhile, too, until he started producing the occasional audio tape. Since he hasn't produced any vids, I'm guessing he's altered his appearance: ditched the turban, shaved the beard, now wears an ascot, a pith helmet, and a pince nez and answers to "Chauncy." Since he doesn't look like an Islamic Mastermind, he travels openly, using his UAE passport in the name of "Abullah Aziz" in the company of fashionably but conservatively dressed Yemeni women. The only time he's really in the Pak-Afghan border area is when he's in his Secret Headquarters outside Chitral, meeting with Evil Minions and the occasional myrmidon. Zardari was responding to reports that Pakistani Taliban in the troubled Swat valley said they would welcome Bin Laden if he wanted to visit the former tourist resort which militants control. "The question is whether he is alive or dead. There is no trace of him," said Zardari. It doesn't imply death. I could disappear not quite as easily tomorrow. "Not quite" because he's got a larger bank account.
The elusive Saudi-born Al-Qaeda leader was last seen alive in 2003. He is known to suffer from ill-health. If he is still alive, he turned 52 on 10 March. I've heard that his kidney disease is a red herring, that actually he's perfectly healthy, though the last video tape he did, in 2001 or maybe early 2002, he looked prematurely gray and pretty peaked. But then, he'd just been kicked out of his Impregnable Fastness at Tora Bora.
Bin Laden is believed to be hiding in the rugged border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan's lawless tribal areas. The US government in 2007 offered a 50 million dollar reward for his arrest.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Bin Laden will live forever. He cannot die because he is money in the bank for American intelligence agencies.
#2
Bin Laden will live forever. He cannot die because he is money in the bank for American intelligence agencies he'd be Martyr Numero Uno for the Muslim world: "Osama died for your sins"
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi asked US officials on Monday not to panic over Taliban advances along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.
Qureshi said Pakistan had sent terrorists in its tribal areas a 'clear signal' that they must lay down arms, as he sought to quell Western fears raised by a recent peace deal between the government and the Taliban in Swat.
"We mean business, and if we have to use force, we will use force. We will not hesitate," Qureshi told AP on the sidelines of meetings with his Afghan and Iranian counterparts.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week said Pakistan was "basically abdicating to the Taliban and the extremists", although she later said Pakistan was beginning to realise the threat terrorists posed.
"My response is: 'Please do not panic'," said Qureshi in response to Hillary's comments. "We have now a common enemy, and we've devised a common strategy to deal with the enemy. ... we will not surrender, we will not capitulate, and we will not abdicate," he said.
Qureshi said Pakistan wanted to concentrate more of its military forces on its western tribal regions, but that the US needed to help lower tensions between Pakistan and India.
Qureshi also applauded recent overtures by US President Barack Obama's administration to Iran on the issue of Afghanistan.
"The fact they have agreed to a regional approach, the fact they have been talking about a holistic approach, the fact that they recognise that the military option is not the only option ... that in my view is a positive development," he said.
Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta said that any talks between the US and Iran would decrease tensions and would 'without any doubt' benefit Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
A recent uptick in violence in Iraq was expected and could get worse as the country seeks to reconcile itself politically after years of bitter sectarian conflict, according to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry.
In an interview with the Huffington Post, Kerry insisted that the United States' decision to withdraw troops from Iraq remained fundamentally correct and should not be revisited. But he cautioned that the early results of these troop withdrawals -- dictated in large part by the Status of Forces Agreement between the two countries -- would likely not be pretty.
"I think there is probably going to be an increase in violence because they have not resolved their political issues," said Kerry. "That doesn't mean we shouldn't be changing our posture there. It is time for the Iraqis to stand up and take charge. But there will undoubtedly be some violence because political reconciliation that we have long said was necessary has never been achieved."
The remarks were made last Friday as Iraq witnessed a new wave of violence -- the largest since Barack Obama took office -- that claimed roughly 150 lives. The White House, like Kerry, has cited quick political progress in Iraq (pointing to elections that will be held this year) as an antidote for the rise in attacks. "The status of forces agreement demonstrates that we are not going to... have 147,000 or 145,000 troops there for eternity," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, "so that progress has to be made."
The recent suggestion to keep some troops in Mosul to help quell the violence was opposed by Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.
Troop levels in Iraq weren't the only aspect of military engagement that Kerry discussed in sensitive terms. The Massachusetts Democrat acknowledged concerns over increased U.S. engagement in Afghanistan, saying that the recent testimony of an Afghan veteran opposing the dispatch of 17,000 additional troops to that theater mirrored, in some ways, the protests he famously made of Vietnam.
"There are similarities," he said. "There are differences, too. And the differences are as important as some of the similarities... I think Corporal Reyes [the objecting Afghan war vet] very appropriately put his finger on the dilemma on conducting operations in a way that doesn't waste our effort and also wind up being counterproductive -- where you wind up creating more insurgents and terrorists and people who don't like you because of what is happening to their communities. At the same time, the others showed maybe a way forward if you are more thoughtful and sensitive in conducting your mission."
Asked for his biggest concern when it came to Afghanistan, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee replied: "whether we have lost so much time and good will that we are just behind the point [of turning this around]."
Considered at one point to be a candidate for Secretary of State, Kerry has instead managed to make an imprint on Obama's foreign policy from his perch atop the foreign relations committee. On the issue of the day, his support for an independent commission to investigate the Bush administration's detainee interrogation techniques could impact whether such investigations actually taking place. "I think it is a mistake to do it in Congress," he says. "I think it should be done by some quiet and eminent person [who will] conduct an investigation and release a report on it."
On a broader level, Kerry has been a voice of cautious (or realistic) support for the White House's policies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, pushing the need for improved governance in the former and greater diplomatic and economic resources in the latter.
His viewpoint of counter-terrorism operations, in particular, has been meticulously detailed since he laid out the policy proposal way back during the dog days of the 2008 presidential campaign. The outline is similar to that which Kerry advocated during the '04 election and for which he was ridiculed by his GOP opponents. But with the public of a slightly different political mindset when it comes to counter-terrorism operations, an approach that doesn't lean entirely on the military but pushes for better intelligence and a stronger law enforcement component is no longer derided as insufficiently macho.
"Those statements were true then and they were true today," Kerry said of this once-lambasted call to make terrorism more of a law enforcement issue. "The people who fought it displayed the kind of ignorance and arrogance of our policy that has gotten us into a lot of trouble. The fact is had they been more honest about it rather than exploiting the war, we would be in a better place today. So I stand by my comments. A military component and military actions are needed at times. But the key to being victorious is to have the best intelligence in the world."
They were unlikely comrades in arms: the security guard and the stockbroker who stepped out of the shadows of the insurgency to fight Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Abu Maarouf, wiry and good with a gun, headed a hit squad and waged a tribal rebellion against insurgents who had turned the revolt against the Americans into a brutal, thuggish affair. Abu Azzam, heavyset and fond of tailored suits, led secret talks with the Americans that helped forge an alliance with the U.S. military in Abu Ghraib, the no man's land between Baghdad and Fallouja.
The story of Abu Maarouf and Abu Azzam offers a rare window into the birth and slow death of the Sons of Iraq, the U.S.-backed corps of Sunni fighters who helped end the country's civil war.
Today, Abu Maarouf is on the run, hunted by the Iraqi army and the group Al Qaeda in Iraq. Afraid of midnight raids and ambushes, he sleeps some nights in irrigation ditches. Many say it's a miracle he's still alive.
His old cohort Abu Azzam spends his days inside the blast walls of the hermetic Green Zone in meetings with officials from Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's office.
The divergent fates of these two former Sunni insurgents highlight the major unknown about the intentions of Iraq's Shiite-led government: Is it reaching out to former Sunni insurgents such as Abu Azzam in the true spirit of "national reconciliation," or in hopes of splintering the movement?
And will the government's campaign against men such as Abu Maarouf succeed in snuffing out potential rivals? Or is it planting seeds for a long-term Sunni revolt?
The crackdown also points to a significant change in the U.S. forces' onetime policy of nurturing and protecting the Sons of Iraq. As the Iraqi government has arrested some of the movement's leaders, forced others into exile and failed to deliver jobs for rank-and-file fighters, the Americans have regularly deferred to Baghdad's wishes as they hand over responsibility for the country's security.
"I worked with the American forces very hard, but in the end they pushed me aside. That's what they've done," Abu Maarouf said on a recent day in his home village of Alrifoosh, not far from where hooded gunmen once patrolled. He worried that fighters, angry over the government's actions, might now be open to joining Al Qaeda in Iraq.
The Americans, who once wrote the paychecks for 100,000 fighters with the militias, say their hands are tied.
"We are just walking on eggshells. We are afraid we are going to violate the security agreement," a U.S. military officer said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
Publicly, military spokesmen point to an Iraqi government commitment to find jobs for the fighters, but breeze over the recent pattern of arrests and the fact that there is only one year of funding to absorb the Sons of Iraq into state jobs, with no guarantees those jobs will exist after 2009.
"They [the government] are breaking the back of these organizations," the U.S. officer said. "They are going after the key leaders, and once they eliminate the key leaders, the members will drift away. The problem is some of them will drift back to their old groups."
#1
The problem is that Al-Maliki's Dawa party is the smallest of the 3 Shia parties in parliament. The other two are closer to Iran and much less commited to "reconciliation" and more committed to revenge.
If Al-Maliki wants to hold his coalition together, he's going to have to hold off on helping the Sunnis until the elections are over.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
04/28/2009 14:29 Comments ||
Top||
[Al Arabiya Latest] The Grand Sheikh and scholars at Egypt's al-Azhar University refused Monday calls by the Minister of Endowments to visit Occupied Jerusalem with Israeli entry visas.
Minister of Endowments Mahmoud Hamdi Zaqzouq stirred controversy in Egyptian religious circles when he called upon all Muslims to visit Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa Mosque to force the world to recognize it as the capital of Palestine.
The Scholars and the Grand Sheikh of al-Azhar, the world's leading Sunni Muslim institution, declined to respond to Zaqzouq's call and argued that a visit to Jerusalem with Israeli entry visas would be the equivalent of recognizing the occupation as being legitimate.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
[Iran Press TV Latest] Israeli police have arrested seven people who are suspected of operating websites to encourage Israeli youth not to join the military.
The seven, allegedly operated websites that posted materials against enlisting in the Israeli military, Haaretz reported.
They also provided advice for those interested in dodging Israel's mandatory military draft through training how one can pretend to be psychologically unfit to join Israel's mandatory military service.
"The main part of the investigation has focused on locating those persons who are operating the two websites where violations to article 109 of the criminal law, incitement for draft evasion, are being carried out," said Superintendent Nimrod Daniel, chief of investigations in the Yarkon District Police.
"It may be that these persons have explanations, but according to the law this is a criminal violation that is punishable by five years imprisonment," he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
[Beirut Daily Star: Region] US President Barack Obama's administration has asked Congress to allow continued aid to Palestinians, even if officials linked to Hamas become part of the government, The Los Angeles Times reported Monday. The move has alarmed congressional supporters of Israel, the paper reported.
Under the existing law, any US aid would require that the Palestinian government recognize Israel, renounce violence and agree to follow past Israeli-Palestinian agreements. Hamas does not meet these criteria.
The daily said the administration had requested the changes this month as part of an $83.4 billion emergency spending bill that also contains funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The bill would also provide $840 million for the Palestinian Authority as well as for rebuilding Gaza after the Israeli military assault earlier this year.
But the Obama administration is not sure how to deliver the aid to Gaza because of the restrictions on dealing with Hamas, the report said.
The Palestinians are watching for signs that the new Democratic team at the White House might be more sympathetic to Palestinians than the administration of former President George W. Bush, The Times said.
The paper quoted Republican Representative Mark Steven Kirk as saying that the proposal was like agreeing to support a government that "only has a few Nazis in it."
US officials insist that the new proposal doesn't amount to recognizing or aiding Hamas, the report said.
However, the request underscores the quandary faced by the Obama administration in its efforts to broker peace in the Middle East. Obama has repeatedly called for a separate Palestinian state. But negotiating a peace agreement will be difficult without dealing with Hamas, which won Palestinian elections in 2006, The Times said. Hamas, despite its election victory, was prevented from governing by Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
[Al Arabiya Latest] Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday refused to accept Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state as rival Palestinian delegations from Fatah and Hamas met in Cairo in a last bid to end feud. "A Jewish state, what is that supposed to mean?" Abbas asked in a speech in the West Bank's political capital of Ramallah. "You can call yourselves as you like, but I don't accept it and I say so publicly."
Abbas said the topic was "extensively discussed" and rejected by the Palestinians during a November 2007 international conference in Annapolis, near Washington, during which the two sides re-launched peace negotiations.
Netanyahu demanded the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state as part of an eventual peace deal. Such a move would amount to an effective renunciation of the right of return of refugees from the1948 Arab-Israeli war, when Israel was created, a cherished principle of the Palestinians.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
ION WORLD MIL FORUM > IIUC RUSSIA'S MOST ADVANCED S-400 ADS AND OTHER COMBAT SYSTEMS ARE FUNDED MAINLY/HEAVILY BY CHINA'S PLA.
Also on WMF > IIUC SINO-INDIAN WAR SCENARIO: PLAN'S INDIAN OCEAN COMBAT ROLE COULD BE DECISIVE AGZ INDIA, iff India continues to fail to dev a sizable and effective Navy; + INDIA COULD INFLICT HEAVY LOSSES AGZ CHINA IN A MAJOR SOUTH ASIAN LAND WAR WITH NO NAVAL STRUGGLE; + US-CHINA WAR SCENARIO: AS CHINA OVER TIME MODERNIZES AND IMPROVES ITS LEVELS OF TECHNOLOGIES THE BANKRUPT USA WILL HAVE TO PURCHASE MORE NUMBERS OF ADVANCED, BUT ALSO VERY COSTLY AND STEADILY OBSOLETE, F22 AND F35 ETC. COMBAT AIRCRAFT TO MILITARILY DEFEAT CHINA; + BY 2020 CHINA'S ARMED FORCES WILL BE TOO MODERN AND POWERFUL FOR INDIA [+ Japan] TO DEFEAT.
#2
Benjamin Netanyahu must be smiling and saying to his cabinet...."and there you have it."
Remember, these are the people that Barry, Carter, Rice, and the dems wish to support? Muslim hatred of the Jew is nothing new. Additional reminders can be found HERE.
#4
TOPIX > JORDAN [King Abdullah] WARNS IRAN IS EXPANDING ITS INFLUENCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST.
Iran is setting up potent shop in BAHRAIN, KUWAIT, EGYPT, IRAQ, JORDAN per se, LIBYA,MOROCCO, GAZA = PA, SYRIA, UAE + YEMEN.
Also on TOPIX > ASSAD: SYRIA WILL NOT HELP MILITANTS [i.e. HIZBULLAH, HAMAS, etal.] ATTACK ISRAEL. + SHIITE MISSIONARY ACTIVITY PROPMOTES RADICALISM IN MIDDLE EAST, ASIA.
Namely, the intentional DESTABILZ + OVERTHROW OF LOCAL GOVTS, or in the ALTERN SET-UP OF MINI-LEBANON(S) = PRO-SHIA/IRAN, ISLAMIST ENCLAVES "STATES WITHIN STATE".
[Iran Press TV Latest] Syrian President Bashar al-Assad states that Israel's withdrawal from the Golan Heights is a prerequisite for peace between Syria and Israel.
Speaking at a joint press conference with the Austrian President, Heinz Fischer, in Vienna on Monday, President al-Assad highlighted that the strategic Golan Heights will always belong to Syria and Israel's departure from Golan is the only way to peace.
Israel captured the Golan Heights following the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed the Syrian territory in 1981. Raising Damascus' ire further, Israeli warplanes destroyed Syria's al-Kibar conventional military site in 2007 blaming the country for harboring a nuclear reactor -- a claim rejected by Syria.
The Syrian leader meanwhile noted that his country opposes nuclear weapons but believes that all countries should be awarded the right to access peaceful and civilian nuclear energy.
President Fischer, for his part, outlined that Vienna backs Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations based on relevant UN resolutions.
Under the auspices of Turkey, Israel and Syria launched peace talks last May aimed at reaching a comprehensive peace agreement.
Negotiations reached a stalemate in September after the resignation of former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert.
Syria then withdrew from the talks in protest to the latest Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip -- in late December 2008 and January 2009 -- where at least 1,330 Palestinians lost their lives in the three-week carnage.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/28/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
No. No reason to give syria ability to fire down into The City.
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.
President Karzai bowed to international pressure yesterday by promising to amend a new law condoning marital rape and child marriage that provoked violent clashes in the Afghan capital. The Shia Family Law, signed by the Afghan President last month, appeared to reintroduce the draconian policies of the Taleban era, such as a ban on married women leaving their homes without their husbands permission. The law applies to the 15 per cent of Afghans who are Shia Muslims.
[Iran Press TV Latest] A Press TV poll suggests that the continuous activity of Somali pirates has given the US an opportunity to expand its naval presence in the Gulf of Aden. 
[Bangla Daily Star] A company commander of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) was injured yesterday as Indian Border Security Force (BSF) opened fire on a BDR patrol team near Taluigachha border under Sadar upazila in Satkhira.
[ADN Kronos] Pakistan's president, Asif Ali Zardari, said Monday that the country's intelligence service believes Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden is dead, but added they had no evidence. He was speaking at an international media conference in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. "The Americans tell me they don't know, and they are much more equipped than us to trace him," Zardari said. "Our own intelligence services obviously think that he does not exist any more, that he is dead. But there is no evidence, you cannot take that as a fact," he said. "We are between facts and fiction."
Zardari was responding to reports that Pakistani Taliban in the troubled Swat valley said they would welcome Bin Laden if he wanted to visit the former tourist resort which militants control. "The question is whether he is alive or dead. There is no trace of him," said Zardari.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi asked US officials on Monday not to panic over Taliban advances along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. 
A recent uptick in violence in Iraq was expected and could get worse as the country seeks to reconcile itself politically after years of bitter sectarian conflict, according to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday refused to accept Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's demand to recognize Israel as a Jewish state as rival Palestinian delegations from Fatah and Hamas met in Cairo in a last bid to end feud. "A Jewish state, what is that supposed to mean?" Abbas asked in a speech in the West Bank's political capital of Ramallah. "You can call yourselves as you like, but I don't accept it and I say so publicly."
