[Maghrebia] In a statement posted last week-end by Al Fajr Media Centre, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb leader Abdelmalek Droukdel for the first time admitted to intentionally targeting Algerian civilians, local press reported on Monday (October 5th). Last year, Droukdel defended AQIM's deadly attacks in Algeria by claiming that the terrorist group members "were doing their best to spare the civilians".
Al-Qaeda's new statement also said the group was behind 29 attacks in recent months on Algerian soldiers and security officers in Tizi Ouzou, Lakhdariya, Boumerdes, Skikda, Jijel and elsewhere. The claim was the first to be issued regarding the incidents. Given that few casualties resulted from these rudimentary attacks, Mauritanian daily Journal Tahalil noted that AQIM terrorism has "become so insignificant that it dares not claim acts which are more and more isolated in time and space".
Droukdel closed his statement with a call for new recruits. The desperate plea "demonstrates the bankruptcy of terrorism [and] the failure of the organisation's attempts to convince people, especially youth, to join its ranks", Algerian daily Ennahar commented.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
ION TOPIX > ARE NAXAL'S TURNING TALIBAN? Adopting Taliban-style beheadin'.
* BHARAT RAKSHAK > INDIA'S MAOISTS THREAT CONTINUES TO GROW.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Arab League chief Amr Moussa said on Tuesday Arab states supported the unity of Yemen, which faces a Shiite rebellion in the north and secessionist unrest in the south, where thousands of people took to the streets to demand independence.
"(The Arab League) affirms its support for Yemen's unity, security and stability," Moussa told reporters after meeting Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
He declined to say if the Arab League would attempt to mediate in either of the two conflicts. "Any initiative or proposal must serve stability and unity ... Comprehensive national dialogue is the way," Moussa said.
Analysts fear that a northern war between the army and Zaydi Shiite Muslims, as well as frequent street clashes with separatists in southern Yemen, could create instability that al-Qaeda could exploit to carry out attacks.
Another theory is Iran could gain influence in Yemen through the Shiite rebels. Iran has denied any involvement but urged Sanaa to end the conflict peacefully.
March for independence
Meanwhile, thousands of people took to the streets of Radfan in the southern province of Abyan. Protesters held up banners calling for Arab states to protect the south, a formerly independent state that united with Sanaa in 1990.
Southerners complain of political and economical marginalization by the north, even though their region holds most of the poor country's oil resources.
Prostesters brandished the flag of the former independent state and chanted slogans urging Arab League support for a renewed breakaway.
The northern Zaydi rebels also say they suffer religious discrimination by Sunni fundamentalists who have gained in strength because of President Saleh's close ties to Saudi Arabia, which adheres to a puritanical form of Sunni Islam.
The government and the rebels have both offered ceasefires since fighting erupted in August when the government launched an operation in the north to crush them.
The fighting in the north has killed hundreds and displaced tens of thousands.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Retired BDR member Torab Ali, also a ward-level Awami League leader, yesterday confessed to his involvement before a court in the BDR mutiny on February 25-26 at Pilkhana Headquarters.
After 15-day remand in four phases by the CID investigators, the retired BDR member confessed this before metropolitan magistrate Farhana Ferdous under section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
CID's Senior Assistant Superintendent Abdul Kahar Akond, also the chief investigation officer of the mutiny case, told The Daily Star, "Torab Ali has confessed his involvement in the mutiny."
He, however, declined to disclose anything more.
With the confession of Torab Ali, a total of 416 people, including BDR men and civilians, have given their confessional statements before magistrates on different dates.
Torab was arrested on March 10, from his residence near Pilkhana in the capital.
Besides, a total of 1889 BDR jawans and 27 civilians have been shown arrested for their alleged involvement with the incidents.
Of them, 1650 BDR jawans and civilians were placed on remand by the CID.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
BHARAT RAKSHAK/TOPIX > INDIA'S NAXALITE THREAT CONTINUES TO GROW [despite New Delhi's designation as Terror Org-Movement] + MAOISTS/NAXALS VOW ALL-OUT WAR [iff India proceeds wid planned offensive].
[Al Arabiya Latest] The U.K. government launched a campaign against forced marriages among members of minority communities, especially in Southeast Asia and the Muslim world, according to media reports Sunday.
The campaign involves the distribution of a series of videos to instruct relevant personnel such as police officers, psychologists and schools, on dealing with forced marriage complaints, Al Arabiya reported.
The Forced Marriage Unit (FMU), a specialist body established by the Foreign Office and the Home Office, deals each year with around 1,000 complaints of forced marriages, now becoming one of the most prevalent forms of domestic violence in the U.K.
This year witnessed a 16% increase in cases of forced marriages, the majority of which come from Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi families as well as several Middle Eastern countries.
Most victims of forced marriages are females under 18. However, males are not exempt from the practice. It is estimated 14% of boys are also forced into arranged marriages.
British nationals
" It is also important to express indignation at forced marriages in front of family and friends "
Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty Organization
FMU also helps British nationals who are forced into marriage by their families while in their countries of origin.
When Homaira Abdeen returned to Bangladesh, her family tried to put her in a mental asylum for refusing to marry a relative.
"I have nothing against my family," she told Al Arabiya. "They gave me a good education and helped me with my career. Tradition is what made them detain me."
The British embassy interfered and the Bangladeshi courts issued an unprecedented ruling that Abdeen be released and go back to the U.K.
Domestic violence is not much different from the torture that takes place in detention camps like Guantanamo, said Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty Organization.
Liberty, also known as the National Council for Civil Liberties, was founded in 1934 to promote the equal treatment and personal freedom of all individuals.
"It is also important to express indignation at forced marriages in front of family and friends," she told Arabiya.
Hundreds of girls from immigrant families are suffering from forced marriages. In many cases, they are abducted and brought to their countries of origin where they cannot get help since society, including their family members, strictly abide by traditions. Usually the family forces the girl to marry a relative chosen through an agreement made with the relative's parents.
Girls are usually beaten by their parents when they refuse to proceed with the marriage. If a girl gives in then seeks divorce, she could be murdered by her father or brother since she is considered to have committed an honor crime.
An anti-forced marriage law was recently issued in the U.K. stating that parents who force their children to marry could face up to two years in jail.
The new law also states that the victim's friends or a even a police officer have the right to report a forced marriage.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Too late, the UK has parallel societies already.
Two major leaks occurred this weekend over the Iran matter.
In the first, The New York Times published an article reporting that staff at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear oversight group, had produced an unreleased report saying that Iran was much more advanced in its nuclear program than the IAEA had thought previously. According to the report, Iran now has all the data needed to design a nuclear weapon. The New York Times article added that U.S. intelligence was re-examining the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) of 2007, which had stated that Iran was not actively pursuing a nuclear weapon.
The second leak occurred in the British paper The Sunday Times, which reported that the purpose of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's highly publicized secret visit to Moscow on Sept. 7 was to provide the Russians with a list of Russian scientists and engineers working on Iran's nuclear weapons program.
Continued on Page 49
#1
When are our leaders going to realize that it is sucide to not take effective measures against toxic nations who are going through the long process of getting nukes? NKorea and Iran should have been shut down years ago. By shut down, I mean a military shut down, not a diplomatic one. Diplomacy works well with reasonable people. Boom-booms work much better with highly agressive fanatics.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
10/07/2009 13:26 Comments ||
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#2
And, of course, it has to be known all around that the spike in the price of oil that would follow war on iran would scupper not just obamacare, but the US economy as a whole. Oil price guarantees from soodia in return for smacking down iran, perhaps?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/07/2009 16:11 Comments ||
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#3
Maybe the Russians want us to smack Iran. Maybe they leaked their involvement to the Israelis through some back channel so nobody would suspect their motive. They get a much less dangerous neighbor. They get higher oil prices. They get us to do the dirty work.
#4
I read another article about an Iranian nuke scientist disappearing in Saudi during the Hajj, connecting it to the report on Qom. Defected or kidnapped? And by whom?
Then I got this e-mail:
Today, Israel is once again in grave danger. By Iran's nuclear threat, to be sure.
The first threat is the real and growing possibility that the United Nations will shift the nuclear spotlight away from Iran and on to Israel in an effort to force Jerusalem to disclose and dismantle its alleged nuclear weapons and join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Israel does not openly acknowledge having atomic weapons. But the U.N. Security Council could pass a resolution forcing Israel to allow international inspectors in. If Israel refused to comply, she could be subject to diplomatic isolation, crippling economic sanctions, and even international enforcement (that is, a coalition of nations ready to go to war over the issue, just as the U.S. led a coalition in 2003 to force Iraq to comply with U.N. resolutions regarding weapons of mass destruction.)
IAEA chief Mohammed ElBaradei publicly raised this as a serious possibility Monday, saying, "Israel is the number one threat to the Middle East given the nuclear arms it possesses." The Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens also had a must-read column in yesterday's paper explaining how this scenario could come to pass in the not-too-distant future.
Keep in mind: President Obama is making global nuclear disarmament his top foreign policy priority. He just chaired a U.N. Security Council meeting to push this agenda. It is increasingly conceivable that he will try to force Israel to "play by the same rules" as everyone else and disarm unilaterally, even though Israel has never threatened to "annihilate" a neighbor. Such a resolution against Israel could be introduced into the U.N. by Russia. The coalition against Israel could be led by Russia and Iran. Should this happen, we could begin to see the prophecies of Ezekiel 38-39 come to pass in fairly short order. While it is too early to conclude that is what is happening now, it is not too early to intensify our prayers for the peace of Jerusalem, according to Psalm 122:6.
#5
Two conclusions can be drawn. First, the Israelis no longer need to add to their knowledge of Russian involvement; they know what they need to know. And second, the Israelis do not expect Iranian development to continue much longer; otherwise, maintaining the intelligence capability would take precedence over anything else.
A leading Al-Qaeda militant on Wednesday called on Muslims worldwide to defend Uighurs in China's restive northwestern region of Xinjiang. He told Uighurs to prepare for a holy war or Jihad and urged a "vast media campaign" to raise awareness of their fate at the hands of "oppressive" China.
In the video posted to jihadist websites, Abu Yahya al-Libi appeared to launch a frontal assault against China.
"This massacre is not being carried out by criminal Crusaders or evil Jews who have committed crimes against our nation," al-Libi stated.
"Today, a new massacre is being carried out by Buddhist nationalists and communists against the Muslim population in eastern Turkestan," said al-Libi.
Islamists call Xinjiang East Turkestan. Uighurs are Muslims native to Xinjiang province, and have cultural ties to Turkic peoples in Central Asia.
"There is no way to remove injustice and oppression without a true return to their (Uighurs) religion and ... serious preparation for Jihad in the path of God the Almighty and to carry weapons in the face of those (Chinese) invaders," he said.
"It is a duty for Muslims today to stand by their wounded and oppressed brothers in East Turkestan ... and support them with all they can," al-Libi added.
Al-Libi claims terrible crimes are being perpetrated in Xinjiang "which nobody can see," urging a media campaign to give these crimes the same visibility as those "carried out by westerners against Muslims."
He also accused China of using "satanic ways" to oppress Muslims in the province and replace them with other ethnicities while "looting their wealth and undermining their culture and religion."
"Tens of thousand of people have been silently killed to prevent a revolt. The communist Chinese government has tried to eliminate all links between eastern Turkestan and the Islamic nation by sending colonisers to constantly reduce the number of Muslims," he stated.
Another tactic China is using to exterminate Muslims is calling the province Xinjiang instead of eastern Turkestan, just as Palestine's name as been changed to Israel, al-Libi argued.
He described China's presence in Xinjiang as an "occupation" and claimed the colonisation of the province has made the Muslim population a minority.
"The Chinese have closed all the Islamic schools, forbidding the study of the Muslim religion. They have arrested and killed all the Muslim leaders," he said.
Xinjiang is also the province where China is carrying out the largest number of nuclear experiments, al-Libi alleged.
"Thousands of people have died from the radiation emitted by the many nuclear missiles that have been launched and the experiments carried out in the area," al-Libi concluded.
Uighurs make up 8 million people out of Xinjiang's population of 20 million. It covers one-sixth of the country and is relatively sparsely populated.
A total of 197 people were killed over several days of unrest in Xinjiang in July and rioting in the capital Urumqi. Most of those who died were from the Han Chinese majority. The great restraint and magnanimity shown by the United States after 9/11 might lead Muslims to a fatal miscalculation.
If AQ were to be successful in hitting China hard, I don't think the question whether their speech or their actions might offend Muslims would have a high priority among the Chinese. Their response would not be a "Hearts and Minds" campaign.
The Chicoms are among the worst totalitarian killers of the 20th century; they're presently enabling the hell of North Korea. I have zero sympathy for them. Yet this clash might turn out to be a control experiment with which we might judge the appropriateness of western policy vs the Arab-Islamic world.
#1
"The Chinese have closed all the Islamic schools, forbidding the study of the Muslim religion. They have arrested and killed all the Muslim leaders,"
Interesting idea, that.
PS the Uighurs already tried an uprising in July, it didn't work.
#2
"Their response would not be a "Hearts and Minds" campaign."
The chinese dont have military forces in a country thousands of miles from China. The places they crack down hard on people, are places within the (internationally recognized, like it or not) boundaries of the PRC, which also are adjacent to traditional Han China, from which they can flood either Tibet or "east turkestan" with Han Chinese.
#3
NEWS > PALAU GETS READY TO TAKE/ACCEPT SIX UIGHURS.
versus
FREEREPUBLIC POSTERS > 7.8 to 8.1 MAGN QUAKE in VANUATU this AM > POSTER > "THAT PART OF ASIA IS BREAKING UP.
GEOPOL + GEOLOGICALLY > as said before, IMO the settlement of the UIGHURS is symbolic of the [anti-US]competition, expansionsim, and coming conflict in ASIA-PACIFIC between CHINA + RADICAL ISLAM. REGARDLESS OF THE PALAU UIGHURS' GUILT OR INNOCENCE IN THE GWOT + ISLAMIST JIHAD AGZ US-WEST, THEIR ESTABLISHMENT IN GUAM + WESTPAC IS A DECISIVE "GATEWAY" FOR THE OCCURRENCE OF FUTURE VIOLENT ISLAMISM + OTHER RADICALISM IN MY PART OF THE WORLD.
Ala SAMOA QUAKE + TSUNAMI [Guam > future coming KAMALEN EVENT], TRUBLE IS COMING TO GUAM-WESTPAC.
D *** Ng IT, MORIARITY, WHO SAYS THERES NO GOD = GUAM TAOTAMONAS???
#5
"XINJIANG ...China carrying out the largest number of nuclear experiments" > thus of course, RADICAL ISLAM would NOT be interested in any NUKULAARISM???
#6
"He told Uighurs to prepare for a holy war or Jihad and urged a "vast media campaign" to raise awareness of their fate at the hands of "oppressive" China."
Go for it, Al-Q. I'm sure you'll prevail over the billion-plus Chinese who don't place too high a value on human life, and even less on yours.
Your cause being so holy and all....
Ya'll want extra butter with that popcorn? :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/07/2009 20:49 Comments ||
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#7
"The Chinese have closed all the Islamic schools, forbidding the study of the Muslim religion. They have arrested and killed all the Muslim leaders," he said.
This is the time-tested Chinese formula for dealing with rebellions. Kill the leaders. If that doesn't work, then kill some of the followers. And if even that doesn't work, then carry out general massacres. During the mid-19th century Panthay Rebellion, the Chinese massacred 70,000 Muslim rebels after they had surrendered. During the 19th century Taiping Rebellion, they slaughtered 100,000 semi-Christian rebels, post-surrender. In East Turkistan, I'm sure they'll have no compunction about burying as many imams as they need to keep the peace. For starters, that is... It's purely pragmatic - China's aristocracy will do what it has to do to quell the opposition - no more than it has to, but also no less than it has to.
When it became apparent they'd been defeated on the battlefield that was Iraq, Al Qaeda moved their effort to Pakistan and Somalia -- the Magreb does not seem to have been a winning cause, partly because of extensive Algerian experience with their now rebranded hard boyz and partly because of quiet American involvement. Could it be that this new call a tacit admission that Pakistan is also not a winnable battlefield? Somalia doesn't seem to be much good except as a playground and ongoing piracy fundraiser -- no caliphate is going to emerge from that semi-anarchy.
[Kyodo: Korea] North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has expressed readiness to return to the stalled six-party talks on ending Pyongyang"s nuclear ambitions if its relations with the United States improve, the North Korean and Chinese official media said Tuesday. During talks Monday with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Pyongyang, Kim ""expressed our readiness to hold multilateral talks, depending on the outcome of the DPRK-U.S. talks. The six-party talks are also included in the multilateral talks,"" the official Korean Central News Agency said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People"s Republic of Korea.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Pakistan's parliament will Wednesday debate a 7.5 billion dollar US aid bill as criticism mounts that money aimed at helping the nation battle Islamist extremism comes with too many strings attached.
Turn it down then ...
US Congress last week voted to triple aid to Pakistan over the next five years, with funds earmarked for building schools, roads and democratic institutions -- measures aimed at stemming a growing Taliban insurgency.
But opposition politicians say the bill places too many conditions on the aid, including trying to curtail the South Asian nation's nuclear programme and putting too much pressure on Pakistan alone to battle militants.
"The bill has put Pakistan and its people in the dock," said Mushahid Hussain, secretary general of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, the political party aligned with the former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
The bill, he said in a statement, accused Pakistan "of all sins under the sun including cross-border terrorism and nuclear proliferation."
Posted by: ed ||
10/07/2009 09:42 ||
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#1
of all sins under the sun including cross-border terrorism and nuclear proliferation."
#2
putting too much pressure on Pakistan alone to battle militants.
Make up your mind--worse than a woman! You request aid so you can take care of your internal problems then complain when we expect you to do it. We'd be glad to have at it--just step out of the way!
Just give us the money; don't ask questions. We will, heh, heh, take care of it. If we didn't have to deal with Pakistan and their exported terrorism I say dump this $hit hole and forget it. Unfortunately, we can't do that. This war is like swallowing spit; once you start you can't stop.
#8
"The bill has put Pakistan and its people in the dock," said Mushahid Hussain, secretary general of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, the political party aligned with the former military ruler Pervez Musharraf.
Member of the opposition engaging in pointless obstructionism to annoy the govt and make political hay, knowing it will pass anyway. Pakistan not the only place that happens, eh?
[Geo News] Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Ameer Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam called on President Asif Ali Zardari at Aiwan-e-Sadr. Current political situation was discussed during the meeting. According to Geo News, Muaulana Fazlur Rehman again demanded President to make Islamic laws in the country in the light of the recommendations made by Council of Islamic Ideology (CII). He also expressed his reservations on the possible operation in Waziristan. President Zardari assured him to remove all of his reservations.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2009 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The body of a Christian health worker turned up in a field two days after he was kidnapped -- prompting several more Christian families to pack up and leave their ancient homeland in northern Iraq, AP reported.
At least 10 Christian families have left Kirkuk in recent weeks, fearing kidnap-for-ransom gangs that have turned their sights on Christians in one of Iraq's most ethnically diverse cities.
The recent violence and abductions have prompted Kirkuk's archbishop to demand government protection from what he has called religious-driven 'terrorism.'
Attacks are not new against Iraq's small but historically significant Christian community, whose roots stretch back to the early centuries of the faith and include areas mentioned in the Bible.
The departures are just the latest in an exodus of Christians in Iraq, who have been targets of sectarian violence since the US-led 2003 invasion.
Christians first began leaving Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War, during the economic sanctions and repression under Saddam Hussein, who pushed more Islamist policies. But the trickle turned to a flood after Saddam was toppled and the violence escalated.
Thousands of Christians have fled northern Mosul to join relatives abroad or as part of the more than 2.7 million people who have been displaced since the war began.
But the violence in Kirkuk resonates with special concern for Iraqi officials. The city -- the hub of Iraq's northern oil fields -- is at the heart of a political and cultural struggle between Kurds, Arabs and Turkomen. The rivalries are so bitter that Kirkuk was excluded from provincial elections earlier this year and there are worries about increased tensions before balloting for parliament in January.
Kirkuk's smaller minorities, such as Chaldean and Assyrian Christians, increasingly worry about being caught in the middle.
'We think there is a political nature to these kidnappings, which is meant to force us to leave Iraq,' said Kirkuk's Chaldean Archbishop Lewis Sako on Monday.
A day earlier, the body of Imad Elia, a 45-year-old employee at Kirkuk's health directorate, was found dumped in a field south of the city, about 180 miles north of Baghdad. He was shot in the chest and authorities believe the captors kept shooting into his body after he was dead.
Elia was kidnapped two days before, but his family was unable to pay the ransom demands, Sako said.
Last month, a well-known Christian pediatrician was kidnapped in Kirkuk, but released after his family paid the kidnappers $100,000.
There have been no clear clues on the background of the gangs. But Sako pointed the finger at extremists who he claims want to drive out Kirkuk's remaining 10,000 Christians.
'These acts are really malicious. Extremists are using religion as a pretext to target Christians,' he said. 'We call upon the government to provide necessary protection to Christians because these acts are meant to frighten Christians out of the country.'
Last year, gunmen stormed two Christian homes in Kirkuk in separate attacks, killing three people. In his sermon to mourners, Sako said the slain Christians were victims of 'terrorism.'
Rand Anwar, a Christian journalist in Kirkuk, also accused government security forces of failing to protect Christians.
'Police failed to catch a single criminal involved in the crimes committed against Christians in the past years. Not a single one. ... And now these kidnappings. Police do not protect us nor do they care about our problems,' Anwar said.
But Kirkuk police Maj. Gen. Jamal Tahir called the charges 'baseless.'
'There is no flight of Christians from Kirkuk because of violence. Christians normally leave willingly to other areas or other countries to live in better conditions but not because of any escalation of violence especially in Kirkuk's Christian neighborhoods,' Tahir said.
The last official Iraqi census in 1987 found 1.4 million Christians in the country. Now, according to the 2008 US State Department report on International Religious Freedom, that number has dropped to between 550,000 and 800,000.
Some estimate the number is even lower: only 400,000, according to the German Catholic relief organization Kirche in Not.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Following the brief arrest on Tuesday of Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement Northern Branch, for incitement, at least two government ministers say that Salahs entire movement should be outlawed.
...Salahs deputy, Camel Hatib, who has been termed a dangerous man by former Northern District Police Chief Alik Ron, is also in Israel sights.
MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) wrote to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, asking that an investigation be opened against Hatib for incitement to racism and violence. Hatib, interviewed on Army Radio, said, The Al-Aksa Mosque and the Temple Mount are not holy to Jews and they are forbidden from praying there... It cannot be that an Ethiopian policeman, a Negro, will stop a Moslem from praying at the Al-Aksa Mosque.
#2
Hang him in the center of the square around Al Aksa mosque and shoot anyone who tries to interfere. It's time Israel quit playing games with its Arab troublemakers.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/07/2009 14:43 Comments ||
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The Israeli air force scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday after a light aircraft flew into restricted air space over its nuclear reactor in the southern Negev desert, the military said.
The warplanes intercepted the aircraft and forced it to land at a nearby airstrip, where the two pilots were handed over to civilian authorities for investigation, an army spokeswoman said.
Police had no immediate comment but Israeli media reported that the two men, from central Israel, claimed to have lost their way.
Aircraft are forbidden from flying over the reactor near the desert town of Dimona.
#5
Why? There's no reason to try to fly over Dimona unless you're trying to do mischief. The photos are readily available on Google Earth.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/07/2009 14:45 Comments ||
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#6
Yup sounds like a test of response, bet they expected to just fly away.
I'd personaly consficate their plane and hand out lengthy prison terms, then when repeated, shoot them down.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/07/2009 21:49 Comments ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas was on Tuesday "seriously studying" the possibility of asking that a United Nations Gaza war report be passed on to the Security Council, a senior Palestinian official said as he accused Tel Aviv of deliberately creating tension in East Jerusalem to tighten its grip on the disputed city.
"President Abbas is seriously studying the possibility of asking the Arab and Islamic bloc to officially take the Goldstone report to international bodies, including the U.N. General Assembly and the Security Council," chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP in a phone call from Amman.
The move appeared to mark a change in position, as the Palestinian delegation on Friday backed a move at the U.N. Human Rights Council to defer a vote on whether the report should be passed on.
Erakat said Abbas's decision came "in light of the controversy that has arisen" around the report, which accused Israel and Palestinian armed groups of committing war crimes during the three-week land, air and sea assault on Gaza that Israel started on Dec. 27.
"We want to discuss the report in international bodies so they will take decisions on what emerged in the report, in order to insure that the crimes committed by Israel against our people are never repeated," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
See also BHARAT RAKSHAK > IS GAZA TURNING INTO ANOTHER WAZIRISTAN?
* ION SAME [paraph] > PREPARE PLANS FOR POSSIBLE SEPARATE HOMELAND FOR MUSLIMS: CENTRE TOLD [Bangladesh-suppor Muslim groups in NE INDIA].
Ma'an/Agencies - Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council Aziz Duwaik called for the resignation of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, following the failure of Palestinian leadership to demand action on the UN-mandated Goldstone report on Israel's Operation Cast Lead.
Duwaik was quoted in the English language Israeli news page Ynet, in an un-sourced interview. He was reported to have called for the establishment of national Palestinian commission, separate from the recently organized Abbas-mandated committee, to investigate the issues which saw the deferral of a resolution that could have seen Israeli leaders and Hamas militants tried for war crimes committed during the winter war that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and 9 Israelis.
The Hamas leader, who was released from Israeli prison only months ago after almost three years in detention without charge, suggested the Arab League to take responsibility for governing during the interim period to following Abbas' dismissal.
"The Goldstone Report was the straw that broke the camel's back -- It's time that Abbas clears his seat and leaves the leadership of the Palestinian people for others," Dweikat was quoted as saying.
Dweik's position as PLC speaker has been contested by members of the legislature in the West Bank since his release from Israeli prison. A staunch unity supporter, Dweik said he would work for Palestinian unity whether he sat as PLC speaker or not.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2009 00:00 ||
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Ma'an -- Hamas-backed police in the Gaza Strip threatened to arrest anyone involved in the deferral of international action on the United Nations report on war crimes in Gaza on Tuesday.
Police official Rafiq Abu Hani said during a Gaza news conference that if anyone linked to the decision to reverse the Palestinian Authority's (PA) support for Judge Richard Goldstone's report enters the Strip, they could be arrested. He said this could happen even if Hamas signs a unity deal with Fatah, which controls the PA in the West Bank.
"The police are legally considering the possibility of filing a lawsuit on behalf of the families of the police martyrs to sue Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas," Abu Hani referring to the hundreds of police who were killed in Israel's attack on Gaza last winter.
The withdrawal of a motion to refer the report from the UN Human Rights Council to the Security Council, the official said, showed "disregard for the blood of the martyrs."
Abu Hani also urged human rights organizations to investigate the issue.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Rival Palestinian factions are to sign a long-delayed reconciliation deal in Cairo on Oct. 26, Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said on Monday after meeting Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.
"We agreed to hold a meeting for Palestinian factions in Cairo on Oct. 25 before signing a reconciliation agreement on Oct. 26," he told a joint press conference with his Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh.
"Arab officials and maybe officials from outside the Arab world might attend the signing of the agreement as witnesses."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Iran's Finance Minster described the dollar as a "detriment" to global economy adding that consensus is building among other nations as well that currencies other than the dollar should be used in the oil trade.
"Some of the countries right now accept this idea," Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Shamseddin Hosseini told reporters on Tuesday
"But this is one of the subjects that needs more discussion and (to be) agreed on by everyone," he said on the sidelines of the semiannual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Istanbul, Turkey.
Earlier in September, Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the replacement of the US dollar by the euro in the country's foreign exchange accounts.
Iran had announced earlier that the euro would replace the greenback in the country's oil transactions. The country has also called on other OPEC members to ditch the sinking dollar in favor of the more credible euro.
Meanwhile, the Persian Gulf Arab states have recently started secret talks with Russia, China, Japan and France "to end dollar dealings for oil", a new report reveals.
According to the report, written by Independent's Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk, the proposal was to replace US dollar for crude oil trade by a basket of different currencies over a period of nine years until 2018.
Russia and Saudi Arabia have denied the report by the independent, which caused the dollar to fall towards the year's lows against the euro and the yen.
"Generally, we believe that the dominance of the dollar in the global economy is to the detriment of everybody," Hosseini said. "We are not alone in this belief."
Iran has significantly profited from replacing the US dollar by a basket of foreign currencies, the head of Iran's Central Bank said on Tuesday.
"The basket of currencies has been adjusted by Iran's Central Bank in a way that it comprises of a set of different currencies," Mahmoud Bahmani told Mehr news Agency, adding that due to the initiative, the country would not lose on the whole after the devaluation of certain currencies.
He added that the Iranian Central Bank regularly examines all the developments in the currency market and acts appropriately.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/07/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
What other curency is stable?
Gonna use Zimbucks?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/07/2009 12:29 Comments ||
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#2
He added that the Iranian Central Bank regularly examines all the developments in the currency market and acts appropriately.
I wonder how much of that "acting appropriately" is currency manipulation.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/07/2009 18:59 Comments ||
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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.
A leading Al-Qaeda militant on Wednesday called on Muslims worldwide to defend Uighurs in China's restive northwestern region of Xinjiang. He told Uighurs to prepare for a holy war or Jihad and urged a "vast media campaign" to raise awareness of their fate at the hands of "oppressive" China.
[Geo News] Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Ameer Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam called on President Asif Ali Zardari at Aiwan-e-Sadr. Current political situation was discussed during the meeting. According to Geo News, Muaulana Fazlur Rehman again demanded President to make Islamic laws in the country in the light of the recommendations made by Council of Islamic Ideology (CII). He also expressed his reservations on the possible operation in Waziristan. President Zardari assured him to remove all of his reservations.
The Israeli air force scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday after a light aircraft flew into restricted air space over its nuclear reactor in the southern Negev desert, the military said. 
Ma'an -- Hamas-backed police in the Gaza Strip threatened to arrest anyone involved in the deferral of international action on the United Nations report on war crimes in Gaza on Tuesday.
