The Foreign Secretary proposed today that the Allies should change strategy in Afghanistan to include talks with elements of the Taleban.
In a speech at Nato headquarters, David Miliband said that while it was vital to keep pressing forward with the military campaign that has started to take the battle to the insurgents, it would also be prudent to start a Northern Ireland-style dialogue with the enemy.
Mr Miliband urged Nato members to support the Afghan government and help it to play a role in working for reconciliation once the fighting stopped.
"Taleban commanders and foot soldiers face an increasingly debilitating struggle," said Mr Miliband. "We need to help the Afghan government to make more convincing efforts to fragment the insurgency."
Mr Miliband paid tribute to members of the armed forces who had died and been injured in the latest fighting. This month has been the bloodiest for the UK and Nato in Afghanistan since the invasion in 2001 after the September 11 terror attacks in New York.
Last week Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the head of the armed forces, warned that British troops in Afghanistan faced more tough fighting and more casualties in the weeks ahead. Troops taking part in Operation Panther's Claw, the latest British offensive, had faced an enormous battle to break through the Taleban defences.
Earlier today Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary, who is visiting Helmand, confirmed Britain's backing for talks with moderate Taleban leaders to help bring a swifter end to the conflict. He admitted it was not easy to argue for peace talks when British soldiers were dying.
"It is a difficult message for politicians to talk about the issues of reconciliation and reintegration when British troops are fighting the Taleban," Mr Alexander told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"But I have confidence in the good judgment of the British people. I think that people recognise from the experience of places like Northern Ireland that it is necessary to put military pressure on the Taleban while at the same time holding out the prospect that there can be a political precess that can follow, whereby those that are willing to renunciate violence can follow a different path."
Mr Alexander said he had last night pressed President Obama's special representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, to increase the amount of US support for the Afghan government. Currently the US gives less than five per cent of its Afghan reconstruction budget to the country's central administration, prefering to spend the rest according to its own priorities. Britain gives 85 per cent.
"If we do want to see sustainable development in Afghanistan, sustainable security, building up the Afghan national army, building up the capacity of the state to deliver justice, to deliver basic services like health and education, then we do need to do a better job as an international community in supporting the state," said Mr Alexander.
Pyongyang resounded with martial rhetoric on Sunday, a day before the 56th anniversary of the signing of the armistice. Vice Marshal Kim Yong-chun, minister of the People's Armed Forces, said North Korea continued to "confront the imperialists" through more than half a century since the end of the Korean War.
He claimed South Korea, the U.S. and Japan created "a touch-and-go situation, where nobody knows when a war could break out" with "a racket of sanctions and machinations for military provocations," according to the official KCNA news agency.
According to government data obtained by the Chosun Ilbo, North Korea committed 262 major violations of the armistice agreement since it was signed in 1953 until June this year. "It is North Korea that has caused the crisis on the Korean Peninsula by carrying out armed provocations on the ground, and in the sea and air," a government official said. The North committed 115 violations on the ground, 125 in the sea, and 22 in the air. The busiest years were the 1960s with 82, declining to 32 in the 1970s and 21 in the 1980s. Then they increased again to 42 in the 1990s and 72 in the 2000s.
The North has been calling for a proper peace agreement premised on the withdrawal of the U.S. forces from South Korea since the Geneva Conference in June 1954, the year after the armistice agreement.
Prof. Nam Joo-hong of Kyonggi University said, "Until the early 1980s, North Korea planned to launch an armed invasion of South Korea if the U.S. forces withdrew from the South. But since the latter part of the 1980s when communism in the Soviet Union collapsed, the North has been calling for a peace agreement to prevent a South-led unification and protect the regime."
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] As the US and South Korea prepare to hold a joint military exercise in the Korean peninsula, North Korea has vowed to give a crushing response to any US-led act of war.
North Korea's Defense Minister Kim Yong-Chun said on Sunday that the North's army is ready for 'unimaginably deadly blows' to the US and South Korea if they attack the communist state. "We will deal unimaginably deadly blows at the US imperialists and the South Korean puppets if they ignite a war, obsessed with a foolish ambition", Kim warned during a public meeting held on the eve of the anniversary of the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
The 10-day long US-South Korean maneuver is scheduled to take place on August 17-27. It will involve '10,000 US soldiers and an unspecified number' of South Korean troops. Pyongyang regularly claims such exercises to be preparations for a US invasion of North Korea.
The North Korean minister also said that Pyongyang would retaliate against tough new UN sanctions imposed on the communist nation following its missile and nuclear tests. "We will mercilessly and resolutely counter the enemy's sanctions with retaliation, it's all-out war with all-out war," Kim said.
After North Korea conducted a nuclear test on May 25, the United Nations Security Council voted for a new round of sanctions against Pyongyang, including an expanded arms embargo and beefed up inspections of air, sea and land shipments going to and from North Korea.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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Turkish police scuffle with Uighur protesters briefly near the Chinese Consulate in Istanbul condemning violence in China's Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region.
The protests follow the July 5 clashes between the Uighur and the Han Chinese in Urumqi which claimed more than 200 lives and injured one thousand more.
Dozens of Uighurs shouting 'Allah Is Great' tried to break through police barricades on Sunday to reach the gates of the consulate. The state-run Anatolia news agency said the demonstrators set a Chinese flag on fire and were sprayed with pepper gas by the police.
Safer to protest in Istanbul, huh guys?
The agency said that the police later allowed the demonstrators to leave a black wreath at the consulate in protest.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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Let's see if I can re-write a Asso. Pres posting:
A Virginia man convicted of joining al-Qaida and plotting to assassinate then-President George W. Bush is due back in court for resentencing.
Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, who grew up in the Washington suburb of Falls Church, was convicted in federal court in 2005. He's scheduled to be in a Virginia courtroom Monday morning.
(2 paragraphs deleted)
Last year an appeals court ordered his resentencing, saying his original 30-year term was too lenient. I think I got the point across.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/27/2009 06:32 ||
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#1
I was so clever, I forgot to check the menus.
Please re-post to page 2, Home Front. Sorry.
Done at 9:42 ET.
-- trailing wife
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/27/2009 6:37 Comments ||
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#3
Man gets life for Bush kill plot
A US national was sentenced to life in prison on Monday for joining an al-Qaeda plot to assassinate then-president George W. Bush, court officials said.
Ahmad Omar Abu Ali, 28, had been sentenced in 2006 to 30 years in jail but that decision was overturned at too "lenient'' by an appeals court.
The US-born Abu Ali was convicted in late 2005 on six charges, including providing material support to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
Prosecutors said Abu Ali plotted with an accomplice to either shoot Mr Bush or kill the US leader with a car bomb.
Abu Ali was arrested in 2003 by authorities in Saudi Arabia, where he was studying.
He was held in Saudi jails for two years before being extradited to the United States.
Abu Ali says he was tortured into confessing to the Mr Bush plot by Saudi authorities.
#4
"I would like to remind you that you too will appear before the divine tribunal with me and everyone else," he said in a brief statement to U.S. District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee. "That day there will be no lawyers ... If you are comfortable with that, you can decree what you will."
There is a widening rift between the Punjabis and Pashtuns in Pakistan, which, if it aggravates, can lead to a civil war like situation there believes former chief of India's external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) Anand Kumar Verma. He was in the city to attend a function organized by Bhonsala Military School to mark 10 years of the Kargil victory.
"The rift between the two ethnic groups is slowly widening due to the current conflict there. The Pashtuns consider themselves very different from the Punjabis. If this continues, Pakistan's central leadership will have to divert its forces towards resolving its internal troubles and keep aside the anti-India agenda," Verma told TOI on the sidelines of the function.
Moreover, most Pashtuns are not as radical as the Punjabis, because of the influence of Sufism in their culture, Verma said. "It is the Punjabis who nurture anti-India sentiments more than other ethnic groups in Pakistan such as the Pashtuns, Balochis or Sindhis. Also, the current onslaught in the Swat Valley is also not liked by the Pashtuns, who form over 20% of the Pakistani army, he added.
On charges of RAW's involvement in terrorist attacks in Lahore, Verma said the question does not arise as the Waziristan militant leader Baitullah Mehsud has already owned responsibility for it. "They (Pashtuns) want to create trouble in Punjab, for retaliation against Punjabi action in their area," he pointed out.
Speaking of the joint statement by Manmohan Singh and Yousuf Raza Gilani recently, Verma said, "India need not be too optimistic on its improving relationship with Pakistan. The positions on both sides are too rigid, as if frozen in granite."
Verma points out, "Pakistan would not settle for anything except the Kashmir valley itself which has been the main agenda of its hate campaign's against India. The demand for it would continue. The officer recruits who had entered the Pakistani army at the time of General Zia-ul-Haq, who nurtured radical Islamism, are now becoming two-three star generals. All of them are strongly motivated by such radical ideology."
"Nine corps commanders in Pakistan determine all major policies. The past shows that their judgments are not always rational. Pakistan's nuclear programme is entirely India centric. Statements by responsible individuals in Pakistan suggest that these elements have, at times, been desperate to put atomic weapons to use. The declared nuclear doctrine of Pakistan does not prohibit first use, and so India has to keep its fingers crossed," Verma said.
Despite all this, though, Verma said India will have to keep engaging Pakistan in talks. It is heavily dependent on US funding, and India can exploit the situation to its advantage on vexed issues, he said.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/27/2009 16:04 ||
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Murad Ali, one of five schoolboy suicide bombers rescued from a Taleban training camp, looks haggard beyond his 13 years.
He was thrilled at first when he was given a gun, but Murad told The Times last week of his ordeal at the hands of the Islamists, who have kidnapped 1,500 children like him to prepare for their fatal missions.
Murad was studying in class five in Mingora, the main city in northwest Pakistan's Swat Valley, when the Islamists abducted him and took him to their remote mountain base in Chuprial. Looking drained in his smudged clothes and dirty sandals, he gave a glimpse into the short life that awaits boys who are taken by the Taleban.
The next stage of his training included 16 hours a day of physical exercise and psychological indoctrination. "My instructor told me that martyrdom is the biggest reward of Allah," Murad said quietly.
The instructor, of course, was too busy instructing young boys to become a martyr himself ...
Another boy, Abdul Wahab, 15, said that the Taleban lured him to the camp from his studies at a madrassa -- Islamic school -- in Mingora. "I was told that it was a religious duty of every Muslim to get training to fight the enemies of Islam," he said.
He said that he did not appreciate what he would be asked to do. "I panicked when a few days later I was told that I would be getting training for suicide bombing," he said.
The Army believes that between 1,200 to 1,500 boys as young as 11 who were trained in Swat to become suicide bombers were recruited after the Pakistani Government signed a peace deal with the Taleban in February, handing over control of the valley to the militants.
The boys were rescued after the Taleban were forced to abandon their camps. Many are still missing, however, having been sold to militants in other areas.
"We are trying to track them down," said Brigadier Tahir, the commanding officer in Mingora. "We are not sure how many of them are still alive."
The Taleban turned to children as potential suicide bombers because they were impressionable, less likely to be detected, and better able to reach their targets.
"They are told that the Pakistani Army has become an enemy of Islam, as it is fighting for Christians and Jews," said a senior official involved in the interrogation of potential suicide bombers who have surrendered or been captured.
On the day of a planned attack, the designated suicide bomber is taken to a mosque to be congratulated for being chosen by God. "Sometimes he is also heavily drugged before the attack," the official said.
The children were told that they should not allow anyone, even their parents, to get in the way of jihad. "You must not hesitate even to kill your parents if they are on the wrong side," said Kurshid Khan, 14, who was selected for training which could have taken him to South Waziristan.
Pakistani intelligence officials said that 70 per cent of suicide bombers were trained at the camps run by Qari Hussain, who is Baitullah Mehsud's most trusted lieutenant. Mr Hussain often boasted that he could convince anyone in ten minutes to become a suicide bomber.
They believe that many of the children trained at Mr Hussain's camps have carried out attacks on US and Nato forces in Afghanistan. A recent UN report said that 80 per cent of the bombers involved in attacks in Afghanistan came from camps in Pakistan.
The army has set up a rehabilitation centre for the children to help them to return to their former lives. Murad is back in Mingora.
"We did not have any clue where he went," said Mohammad Salman, his father. "I was horrified when I was told that my son could be a suicide bomber."
[Mail and Globe] Iraqi Kurds voted on Saturday in polls expected to keep President Masoud Barzani in power in Kurdistan and unlikely to allay voters' worries about corruption or end a feud with Baghdad over land and oil.
Ballots were provisionally counted after voting was extended for one hour in the largely autonomous region. A final tally is expected to take at least two or three days.
Turnout was high, at 78,5% across Kurdistan, the Electoral Commission said. Women smiled as they showed purple-stained fingers to TV cameras after voting.
Barzani, a former guerrilla leader, looked certain to defeat five competitors, the first time the relatively peaceful northern enclave has elected a president directly.
The region's powerful ruling parties -- Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) and the Democratic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd -- are running jointly against 23 alliances of smaller parties.
"The process was carried out successfully," Electoral Commission chief Faraj al-Haidari said in a news conference. "Generally speaking, there were no violations, no polling station closed and the process was never interrupted."
During the campaign, Kurdish leaders have churned out fiery rhetoric on claims to territories they contest with Baghdad's Arab-led government.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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The Martyrs Brigades, a group of West Bank Palestinian insurgents, said it was "very upset" that it appeared in the film starring Baron Cohen's flamboyant Austrian homosexual character and would "respond in a suitable way", according to a statement published on the Right-wing website called World Net Daily.
In the film, Bruno, a television journalist interviews Ayman Abu Aita, who is claimed in the movie to be the leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.
Mr Baron Cohen's character implores Mr Abu Aita to capture him, saying, "I want to be famous. I want the best guys in the business to kidnap me. Al-Qaeda is so 2001."
Mr Abu Aita and his associates were angry by his portrayal according to the statement published by the Jerusalem bureau of the World Net Daily.
"We reserve the right to respond in the way we find suitable against this man. The movie was part of a conspiracy against the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades," the statement read.
"According to what we checked there was was no meeting about the real context of the film," the statement added "This was a dirty use of our brother, Ayman, and we don't accept that the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is part of the film."
A lawyer for Mr Abu Aita said that he was tricked into appearing in the film and was no longer involved with the Martyrs Brigades, it was reported. He added that Mr Abu Aitas planned to file a law suit against the 37-year-old British comedian.
Mr Baron Cohen has reportedly tightened his security following the publication of the statement.
#1
Cohen could never buy this kind of publicity. I wonder if he folds or doubles down.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
07/27/2009 16:12 Comments ||
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Mr Abu AitaÂ’s lawyer, Hatem Abu Ahmad, has said that he is preparing a legal action against Baron Cohen and Universal Studios, alleging that the terrorist reference could get his client in trouble with the Israelis and that the homosexual association could get him killed by the Palestinians.
Mr Abu Ahmad said: “This joke is very dangerous. We are not in the United States, we are not in Europe, we are in the Middle East and the world operates differently here.”
#3
We should have started with ridicule like this on September 12, 2001. But no, the media wouldn't allow it, the only bad ones are ourselves. I'm actually surprised Cohen did this, considering the idealogical ramifications.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Hamas has ordered female lawyers in the Gaza Strip to wear the headscarf in court, Palestinian officials said on Sunday. But the decision by Supreme Court Chief Justice Abdul-Raouf Halabi, which takes effect on September 1, was slammed by the territory's bar association. "We refuse to comply with the decision," said Salamat Bessisso, president of the association.
The headscarf, or hijab, is compulsory for women in Iran and Saudi Arabia and has seen an increase in recent years in other Muslim countries. It is considered a symbol of women's modesty in Islam.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] The social networking website Facebook blocked fan pages of ousted Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah.
All fan pages bearing the name of the Hamas leader were deleted and no reasons were given to justify this action, said the administrator of Haniyah's fan pages.
The administrator warned that Facebook might take similar steps toward fan pages of other Hamas leaders like politburo chief Khaled Mashaal whose fan page has more than 17,000 members. One of Haniyah's pages had more than 10,000 members.
Activists launched a Facebook campaign calling for the return of Haniyah's page and demanding that the website administration stop tampering with any pages related to leaders of the Palestinian resistance, the London-based al-Hayat reported Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Why would such religious types want access to a mixed gender site where..........intermingling might occur?
[Jerusalem Post Middle East] The Arab peace initiative presents the best opportunity to address Israel's doubts about its acceptance in the region, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told his Syrian counterpart on Friday.
I suspect Israel hasn't any doubts about its acceptance in the region.
In talks with visiting Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem at the Foreign Office, Miliband said US President Barack Obama's approach to the conflict presented a "historic opportunity" for peace between Israel and Palestinians and the wider Arab world.
Whenever I hear the phrase "historic opportunity" I think of Woody, the used car salesman who thought he'd sell Mr. Wife that Chevy whose colour that brought out my eyes.
"I believe we have a genuinely historic opportunity, but also a historic responsibility because of the new approach that's been taken by the Obama administration since January, an approach which I think is wholly welcome, which is fully engaged and which is clear and consistent. President Obama has defined peace between Israel and the Arab world as being in the American national interest, a very significant statement, and I repeat today that it is in the British interest as well," Miliband told Moallem.
Speaking after the meeting, Miliband said: "We discussed today the important issue of how new direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are triggered by a freeze on settlements, an issue which has rightly assumed prominence.
No prominence, however, to the issue of cessation of Palestinian attacks on Israeli settlements, because that's not an issue to anyone accept the Israelis, and they don't count in these negotiations. What ever happened to the philosemitic Britons like Winston Churchill?
"But we've also discussed the need to address the grave doubts that exist, and fears that exist among many Israelis about whether or not they will be accepted in the region. And it's because of that fear amongst, other reasons, that I think the Arab peace initiative has particular significance and importance. With Senator George Mitchell going to Damascus tomorrow, it's been a particularly good time to have talks with Foreign Minister Moallem."
The foreign secretary spoke of the strengthening relations between Syria and the US, as reflected in the visit on Saturday by Mitchell, special envoy to the Middle East for the Obama administration, saying it represented great potential for the region as well as for imposing serious responsibilities on all parties.
Miliband also said that Syria was is in a "unique position to influence Iranian policy choices." The Islamic republic now had an opportunity to take its place in the community of nations, the foreign secretary said. "My belief is that the potential for Iran to assume an appropriate place in the international system will never be more clearly articulated than it has been at the moment. There will never be a better opportunity for Iran to assume an appropriate place in the community of nations, and I think that it's very, very important that we make clear to the Iranian authorities the significance of this moment and the significance of the policy choices that the new government [in Teheran] makes, because there is a very clear offer on the table in respect of its nuclear but also wider regional perspectives, and I think it's very important that there are no illusions about the importance of the decisions they now affect," he said.
Friday's meeting focused on bilateral relations. Miliband expressed delight with the improving ties. "The really excellent discussions that we've had today, I think, are testimony to the growing depth and breadth to the relationship between the UK and Syria," he said. "We've reviewed bilateral relations which I think are deepening on the economic and cultural front as well as on the political and diplomatic front."
"See? We are still important."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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The Arab peace initiative presents the best opportunity to address Israel's doubts about its acceptance in the region
[Jakarta Post] The police's anti-terror unit, Densus 88, is currently questioning a 50-year-old man arrested in Makassar, South Sulawesi, recently, resembling Indonesia's most-wanted terror suspect, Noordin M. Top.
"We have intensified our investigations with Densus 88. We arrested [the suspect] because he bears a likeness to Noordin M. Top," South Sulawesi Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Herry Subiansauri said on Sunday.
Police suspect Noordin was behind the recent bombings of the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta.
The new suspect carried five identity cards and two passports bearing different names, Herry said. He allegedly claimed to have used the different ID to commit several criminal acts, including stealing around Rp 100 million [US$9,900] from four banks via their internet banking services.
"We won't just believe what he said. We will cross-check this information with the four banks and will trace the flow of his money," Herry said.
The suspect was arrested at his rented house on Jl. Pengayoman in Makassar early on Saturday morning. Police confiscated his five ID cards (all with the same picture), two passports, four debit cards, nine credit cards and a number of cell phone chips.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Book 'em, Danno. Obviously an elusive man with something to hide, if not Noordin.
CAIRO -- The Revolutionary Guard tightened its already powerful hold over Iran during the post-election turmoil, raising alarm among some Iranians that it is transforming the Islamic Republic into a military state. The Democratic Underground hasn't heard about the AP's new rules. I Googled an AP headline and noticed a DU posting, so I linked to that one, not the original AP. I'm still guilty, though, right?
The 120,000-strong force has its own ground, naval, air and missile units and is believed to be better armed and equipped than the far larger regular military. Are they about to see the Law of Unintended Consequences?
Oh Lawzy I am so surprised. Not.
Anyone at all surprised? As soon as the Old Goat™ died you knew this had to happen. The government does not enjoy the support of the people. It hasn't for a while. When the Iranian economy was decent the people were content to ignore the government and get on with their lives, even if it meant that the women had to wear burlap sacks in public.
But now the economy is in the dumpster. Short Round and Khamenei have made clear that they'll continue to hold the reins of government by force. So the Revolutionary Guards, prepared for just such an occasion, come to the front.
The Basiji are the SA. The RG are the SS. Surprised?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/27/2009 06:39 ||
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#1
Apparently, the AP was surprised.
Maube I'll go see if anyone at the DU believed this, or thought it was another Rovian plot.
Nah. Not worth it.
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/27/2009 12:41 Comments ||
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#2
I am hearing noises like the Basij are having trouble keeping people. People are being forced by their families to choose between their family or the Basij.
One thing to also remember, the Revolutionary Guard controls much of the oil and gas industry and is set to take the entire thing over:
Ahmadinejad is also seeking to appoint Brig. Gen. Rostam Qassemi, a commander of the Revolutionary Guard, as oil minister, reported Khabar Online, a news website close to parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani. Qassemi now commands a multibillion-dollar Revolutionary Guard business involved in the oil industry.
The Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, dismissed two key cabinet ministers on Sunday in the latest fallout of a bitter dispute among conservatives this is the NYTimes so nutcase radicals are called conservatives
that has exposed Mr. Ahmadinejad's political vulnerability in the wake of last month's disputed presidential election.
Mr. Ahmadinejad sacked the intelligence minister, Gholam-Hussein Mohseni-Ejei, and the Islamic culture and guidance minister, Muhammad-Hassan Saffar-Harandi. Both men had walked out of a cabinet meeting last week in protest of Mr. Ahmadinejad's promotion of a former culture minister, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who drew fierce criticism last year over comments that were friendly to Israel.
There were also reports late Sunday that two more ministers might also be sacked...as reformist factions have rallied against Mr. Ahmadinejad, his own rivals among conservatives appear to smell blood in the water, and have pressed him hard over the promotion of Mr. Mashaei.
Mr. Ahmadinejad is now in something of a quandary: he has dismissed more than half his cabinet, which means under Iranian law only if you mean "law" in the literal sense
that he must obtain a vote of confidence from the Parliament.
Posted by: Lord garth ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The BBC story about this was torpedoed when somebody suggested the ministers were sacked "Because they had been bitten by a moose."
#4
Sunday's firing and resignation were significant because both Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei and Culture Minister Mohammad Hossein Saffar Harandi are especially close to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
i.e. Short Round is p*ssing into the wind.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
07/27/2009 12:11 Comments ||
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#5
Does this mean that the rhubarb about Mashaei was Khamenei's cronies turning on Ahmadinejad? I had just assumed that it was the less-likeable Principalist backers of Rafsanjani making hay while the sun shone.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/27/2009 12:54 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has warned that Washington will not afford a nuclear Tehran, saying it will do everything in its power to avert the prospect.
Clinton alleged on Sunday that Iran was making efforts to obtain nuclear weapons as a tool to impose its power on the region but warned that the US was determined to avert the prospect of a nuclear Iran.
"What we want to do is to send a message to whoever is making these decisions (in Iran), that if you are pursuing nuclear weapons for the purpose of intimidating, of projecting your power, we're not going to let that happen," Clinton said on NBC television's Meet the Press.
The former first lady however said that the door will be still open for engagement with Iran over its disputed nuclear program.
"There's a lot that we can do with Iran if Iran accepts what is the international consensus," she said, namely that Tehran has 'a right to pursue a peaceful use of civil nuclear power' but not nuclear weapons.
Clinton had told the BBC on Thursday that both she and the US President Barack Obama believed that direct dialogue with Iran would guarantee success.
The West, spearheaded by the US and Israel, the sole possessor of a nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, accuses Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons program under the guise of enrichment activities, an allegation dismissed by Tehran.
Iran argues that unlike Israel, it is a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and has willingly opened its atomic activities to the most stringent supervision of UN nuclear watchdog inspectors, according to the terms of the NPT.
The new US administration says it wants to diplomatically engage Iran, mend ties and resolve the country's disputed nuclear program. Iran says it favors talks over its nuclear work, but has called for logical negotiations without any preconditions.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Washington ... will do everything in its power to avert the prospect.
I expect the Obama Administration will certainly attempt to avert the prospect but they'll roll over like a puppy at the actual fact when it comes to pass.
#3
No, no - worse than that. We're going to cut off diplomatic relations!
What? Why not? When did that happen?
Posted by: Bobby ||
07/27/2009 5:52 Comments ||
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#4
Clinton had told the BBC on Thursday that both she and the US President Barack Obama believed that direct dialogue with Iran would guarantee success.
I just feel so comforted knowing that our country is in the hands of such hard headed, realistic leaders. /sarc
I see it like a car in the right lane on an empty interstate with it's left turn signal flashing. It IS a 'warning signal' and it MIGHT mean 'something'. It most likely doesn't, though.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/27/2009 15:40 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] After the dismissal of Iran's intelligence minister, a lawmaker declares as 'illegal' all Cabinet sessions of the current government until President Ahmadinejad's official inauguration for his second term. "More than half of the Cabinet members have been changed. So, in less than two weeks before the government's tenure, the Cabinet sessions are illegal and cannot pass ratifications," Vice Speaker of Parliament Mohammad-Reza Bahonar told Mehr News Agency on Sunday.
According to Article 136 of Iran's Constitution, if more than half of the members of Cabinet are replaced, "the government must seek a fresh vote of confidence from Parliament."
"If such changes occur in normal conditions, the president has to introduce the entire members of the Cabinet to the Majlis and seek a vote of confidence. But within two weeks, we cannot do this," he added. The lawmaker reiterated that after President Ahmadinejad's official inauguration, the Cabinet sessions would be "legal".
Bahonar's remarks came after Ahmadinejad chose to sack Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei on Sunday. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be sworn in as the Iranian president for a second term on August 5, a day after he is officially approved by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
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07/27/2009 00:00 ||
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Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has said that the Israeli regime may launch another attack on Lebanon by the next spring.
May is such a nebulous word. The Messiah may come by next spring, too.
In a meeting with Lebanese expatriates visiting the country, Nasrallah estimated that Israel would not remain inactive, but rather, initiate an aggression on the country "sometime between the end of this year and next spring", Lebanese television channel al-Jadid reported on Saturday.
The prominent leader added that should Israel wage another war on his homeland, the Hezbollah movement would use new tactics and methods to repel the assault. He stressed that this time the group would not hesitate to attack Tel Aviv, if the southern suburbs of Beirut were hit.
That strikes me as a really bad idea.
"Tel Aviv in response to an attack on the Dahiya," Nasrallah said, referring to a suburban stronghold south of the Lebanese capital.
The Hezbollah chief may have been referring to a statement made last year by an Israeli commander, Gabi Eisenkot, who introduced a new war strategy against Lebanon's Hezbollah called the "Dahiya doctrine," Israeli sources said. According to the doctrine, Israel would use "disproportionate" force to destroy even small villages from where Hezbollah fired rockets at Israel.
The Israeli military has been under pressure over its 33-day war on Lebanon in 2006 which failed to achieve any of its stated goals including the destruction of the Lebanese resistance movement despite massive air raids on the country. The offensive killed 1100 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and about 120 Israelis mostly troops.
Meanwhile, later in the meeting, Nasrallah once again stressed that his organization does not carry out "security operations" outside Lebanon, rejecting US claims that the group holds a military wing outside the country.
The recent remarks come as tensions escalated between Lebanon and Israel, over the establishment of an Israeli military outpost along the country's border. The outpost sparked demonstrations across the border and the Lebanese army placed its forces on high alert. The event forced Hezbollah to ban demonstrations across the border, in a bid to prevent a possible confrontation with Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
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[Khaleej Times] TEHRAN - Iranian opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have applied for interior ministry permission to hold a mourning ceremony for demonstrators killed in protests over last month's election.
"We request permission to hold a ceremony to commemorate the 40th day after the deaths of our citizens who lost their lives following the start of the saddening events," the two leaders said in a letter to Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli.
The website of Etemad Melli, the political party of Karroubi, said the ceremony was to be held on Thursday.
The ISNA report said the organisers planned to hold the ceremony in central Tehran's Grand Mosalla, an open prayer venue where religious ceremonies are often held.
"The ceremony will have no speeches. It will consist only of recitals from the Koran and participants will be asked to pay their respects in silence," the letter carried by ISNA said.
Iran witnessed massive street protests over the June 12 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Official reports said at least 20 people were killed and scores wounded.
Following the violence that erupted during the protests, authorities banned gatherings in the capital, especially those planned by opposition groups.
Despite the ban, defiant protestors have managed to stage demonstrations but on a much smaller scale, although thousands took to the streets on July 9 on the anniversary of bloody student unrest in 1999.
The call from the two leaders came a day after they joined reformist former president Mohmmad Khatami in urging Iran's clerics to intervene to prevent "oppression" by the authorities against detained protestors.
Hundreds of demonstrators, political activists and journalists have been arrested in the post-election crackdown by security forces.
"We want you, the top clerics, to remind the authorities of the harmful outcome of not abiding by the law and prevent them from spreading oppression in the Islamic republic," the three said a joint statement released on Saturday.
They accused the regime of "savagery" and said its "interrogation methods are a reminder of the dark era of the Shah" Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was toppled in the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The reformist Etemad newspaper reported that two protestors have died in custody.
Mousavi and Karroubi, who stood against Ahmadinejad in the June poll, have rejected the legitimacy of his new government and called for a re-run of the election.
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sacked only the intelligence minister, his office said on Sunday, denying reports that he had also dismissed three other ministers.
The official IRNA news agency quoted Mohammad Jafar Mohammadzadeh, deputy communication director at Ahmadinejad's office, as saying that only Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie had been sacked. He denied reports carried by several Iranian news agencies that three other ministers too were dismissed by the hardline president.
Ahmadinejad sacked Ejeie just days before he was due to announce a new cabinet line-up in the midst of hardliner criticism over his vice presidential pick
According to earlier reports, Ahmadinejad also sacked Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Mohammad-Hossein Saffar-Harandi, Labor and Social Affairs Minister Mohammad Jahromi and Health Minister Kamran Baqeri Lankarani.
Ejeie was sacked "following a verbal quarrel between the intelligence minister and the president in Wednesday's cabinet meeting over the appointment of (Esfandiar Rahim) Mashaie," the Mehr news agency quoted an informed unnamed source as saying. Ahmadinejad named Mashaie Saturday as his advisor and head of his office after sacking his controversial deputy in the first major blow to forging a new government since his disputed re-election, the state news agency IRNA reported late Saturday.
Mashaie stepped down as first vice president earlier on Saturday after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Ahmadinejad his appointment would cause "division and frustration."
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The Foreign Secretary proposed today that the Allies should change strategy in Afghanistan to include talks with elements of the Taleban.
Pyongyang resounded with martial rhetoric on Sunday, a day before the 56th anniversary of the signing of the armistice. Vice Marshal Kim Yong-chun, minister of the People's Armed Forces, said North Korea continued to "confront the imperialists" through more than half a century since the end of the Korean War.
[Jerusalem Post Middle East] The Arab peace initiative presents the best opportunity to address Israel's doubts about its acceptance in the region, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told his Syrian counterpart on Friday. 
