The Canadian military says the chief of Canadian forces in Afghanistan, Brig. Gen. Daniel Menard, has been relieved following allegations of an inappropriate relationship.
Canadian Col. Simon Hetherington made the announcement early Sunday. He said Menard's dismissal would not have an impact on Canadian operations in southern Afghanistan.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Afghan officials say the US forces has not done enough to repel a Taliban attack that led to seizure of a town near Afghanistan's eastern border with Pakistan by the militants.
Janissaries?
The Taliban took control of Barg-e-Metal in Nuristan Province, following a heavy gun-battle with Afghan security forces on Saturday.
A lawmaker from Nuristan, Hawa Alam Nuristani, told Press TV that all connections with the district have been cut since the morning. Nuristani says the Afghan forces have been under heavy attacks by thousands of Taliban militants in the volatile area for the past two weeks.
That seems rather a lot.
She criticized the US-led forces for failing to provide the Afghan police in the region with required military assistance in order to protect the town.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed that 28 policemen were killed, while 8 others have been taken hostage in the lead up to the takeover.
Making friends wherever they go, that's what jihadis do.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#2
if the afghans are such fierce fighters it'ss about time thier troops take control of their own provinces
Posted by: chris ||
05/30/2010 2:57 Comments ||
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#3
The fighters are only "fierce" if they are on the other side...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
05/30/2010 8:45 Comments ||
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#4
more specifically, it's Bush's fault.
That's BS young person with lacka knowledge, Bushitler would have sent mighty mechanized forces to smite hell outa the population and render them sterile.
#8
CORRECTION: Uh...Thanks Frank and Shipman. I wuz thinking everyone could see the invisible (super-duper snarc on) more specifically, it's Bush's fault (super-duper snarc off).
On a side note...anymouse's Marine is headed out on his 2nd deployment to the ME.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Sudan on Saturday barred three activists from leaving the country to attend a conference on the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has issued an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir for war crimes.
It was part of a crackdown on political freedoms that had flowered a little in the run-up to April elections, which were marred by opposition boycotts citing fraud and returned Bashir's National Congress Party to power with a massive majority.
The activists, including Saleh Mahmoud, a Darfuri lawyer who won a human rights award from the European Parliament, said they had their passports confiscated at Khartoum airport and were prevented from heading to the conference in neighboring Uganda.
"This is obviously a violation of our freedom," Mahmoud told Reuters. "We were told we can go to the political office of the national security force after a week to collect our passports."
With him was the daughter of the last democratically elected leader of Sudan, Mariam al-Mahdi, and another lawyer, Bukhari Ja'ali, he added.
"This conference is targeting Sudan," said a Sudanese security source, who did not give further details.
The May 31-June 11 conference will review the treaty which formed the ICC and discuss the court's impact on victims and peace and justice. The ICC has mostly focused on African conflicts whose governments referred cases, including Uganda's long-running Lord's Resistance Army rebellion.
Sudan's Darfur conflict was the first case to be referred to the court by the U.N. Security Council in 2005. The ICC has since issued arrest warrants for a junior government minister, an allied Darfur militia leader and last year Bashir himself, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
After mostly non-Arab rebels took up arms in early 2003 accusing Khartoum of marginalizing remote Darfur, a counter- insurgency campaign drove more than 2 million from their homes.
The United Nations estimates the humanitarian crisis has killed 300,000 people.
Khartoum puts the death toll at 10,000 and rejects the ICC's jurisdiction. Bashir reacted to the arrest warrant by expelling 13 aid agencies working in Darfur, accusing them of spying for the court.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
[Maghrebia] Recent student activism at the Emir Abdelkader University of Islamic Sciences in Constantine has some educators fearing a return of Islamist fervour like that which preceded Algeria's Black Decade.
The university's Free Union of Students on May 19th forced the relocation of a campus lecture by Abdelhamid Mehri, a politician and former secretary general of the National Liberation Front (FLN).
The lecture was moved from a main hall to a smaller venue after protests by the group, which has also protested against clothing styles, behaviour and exhibitions it calls un-Islamic.
Students who try to enforce their code on others should be summarily expelled, as they've demonstrated failure to understand the purpose of a university. Ditto for teaching staff... and in Algeria as well as here at home.
That's easier to do at the University of the Maghreb versus the University of California ...
Mehri's speech marked National Student Day, a secular celebration. The union of Emir Abdelkader students wants only religious events on campus, and their moves echo past protests. "What took place reminded me of when we were university students in the early 1980s," one university official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Magharebia. "At that time, students of the Islamic current...disrupted any activity organised...to mark that historical day".
"These movements that come...on the student day are not innocent," he added. "It's a tool of pressure backed by certain entities that want to manage Algerian universities according to their own ideas."
The protesters issued a statement including demands for the incorporation of "sharia subjects in...the university's new majors" and an end to "immoral violations". Their protest included refusing to enter lecture halls and department offices.
"We won't accept any unveiled girls at the Islamic university," a representative of the students, Omar Medahi, told the local press. "Some of them wear immodest clothes. Also, we won't permit...meetings that have nothing to do with the characteristics of the Islamic university".
"Today, we're demanding an internal law for the Islamic university that includes its special characteristics, where there's no place for immoral behaviours or nakedness," he added.
The protesters earlier took issue with medical exhibitions, and many were angered when expatriate Algerian singer Amel Wahbi sang patriotic songs at an April 16th campus event.
The university's president told the local press that he was surprised by the most recent protest, especially because administrators were not notified in advance. "Their demands are not objective and are irrational," Abdellah Boukhelkhal said, adding that the university is state-owned and will keep its doors "open to everyone".
One student contacted by Magharebia for comment on the protests said his classmates were simply defending the "sanctity" of the campus. "Some [university] visitors don't find it an embarrassing thing to smoke...or throw cigarette butts everywhere," added Mohammed, whose last name was withheld to protect his privacy. "Also, some female visitors come with their full make-up on, and in this way they offend us in public."
But other students said they opposed the protests and felt that outside interests were manipulating events. "Since the Free Union of Students didn't give notice about the protest, then the decision must have come from above and in an urgent way against Mehri, from parties that have an interest in creating chaos," said Othmane, 23. "It's also immoral to prevent female students from studying if they're unveiled; guidance is to be endowed by God, not through compulsion."
"What took place at the university confirms that things were confused because of the attempts of some people to politicise what the students want," said Nabila, 24. "A university is a university and a mosque is a mosque."
"What's this reactionary thought and backwardness?" she added. "Weren't the years of fire and the Black Decade that Algeria lived through enough for us?"
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] A Dakar conference on Sahel-Saharan terrorism and drug trafficking ended Wednesday with a unanimous condemnation of ransom payments to terrorists, APS reported on Thursday (May 27th). Delegates also rejected swapping hostages for convicts. The event aimed at examining the links between African terrorist groups and organised crime networks.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
A newspaper loyal to Zimbabwe's ruling party is accusing the U.S. of trying to stop international sales of Zimbabwean diamonds. If only The Sunday Mail quotes an e-mail from a U.S. State Department official urging the international diamond control body to ban Zimbabwean diamonds. The paper calls it "a well-orchestrated Western-led campaign" against the regime of President Robert Mugabe. Can you say "manufactured crisis"?
An official from the international diamond control body, Abbey Chikane, claims documents -- possibly including the quoted e-mail -- were stolen from his luggage by Zimbabwean security agents earlier this week. Hmmm, "international diamond control body" vs. ZimBob security agents...what could go wrong?
Kimberley Process investigators have previously recommended Zimbabwe's suspension over their findings of illicit trading and human rights abuses. AoS at 1515 CT: link fixed.
Tension between the Muslim community and the Mail & Guardian newspaper eased this week after the paper apologised for publishing a cartoon depicting prophet Muhammad. It published the cartoon, by popular and controversial cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, better known as Zapiro, last Friday. It showed the prophet seated on a psychologist's couch complaining that "other prophets have followers with a sense of humour".
The newspaper carried the cartoon after the Muslim Council of Theologians had failed to prevent it from being published. It is against Islamic practice to depict Muhammad in a drawing or painting. It provoked outrage among Muslim organisations and individuals, who banded together to form the United Muslim Forum of South Africa and request a meeting with the newspaper's management. The forum comprises representatives of the Muslim Judicial Council, Media Review Network, Muslim Lawyers' Association and various Islamic clergy.
After the meeting with the Mail & Guardian management, editor Nick Dawes and chief executive Hoosain Karjieker said the newspaper had "communicated its regret and apologised at the meeting for the harm caused by the publication of the cartoon".
"The newspaper in no way intended to cause injury or to associate itself with Islamophobia, which it repudiates in the strongest possible terms," they said. "We have learned an enormous amount since the publication of the cartoon about the depth of reverence in which Muslims hold the prophet. We invite community leaders and ordinary readers to communicate their devotion in our pages, as some have already begun to do." They added that, in light of the reaction to the cartoon, the newspaper would refrain from publishing images of the prophet while it reviewed its editorial policies on religious matters. "This review process will be informed by consultation with religious leaders, including, but not limited to, the United Muslim Forum of South Africa. We commit during the review period to honouring the prohibition on representation of the prophet."
Iqbal Jassat of the Media Review Network and spokesman of the forum said they appreciated the deep sense of humility shown by the newspaper. "It was a wonderful moment to have achieved this without any acrimony, and we were able to reinforce and keep an absolute commitment to freedom of expression," said Jassat. ?!
He added that, despite the tension, the meeting ended in "good spirit". He said the forum members had argued that the depiction of Muhammad had violated the constitution, but they did not want it to be perceived as an attack on freedom of expression.
Council of Muslim Theologians secretary-general Ebrahim Bham said they were satisfied with the outcome of the meeting. "In the greater interests of the country, the parties have been able to reach some form of understanding of one another's position."
This week, the newspaper carried an article by Na'eem Jinnah, editor of a Muslim community newspaper, who said "Muslims do have a sense of humour". In response, Zapiro commented in a new cartoon strip, which showed him seated in front of a psychologist talking about reaction to his cartoon. "I'm sorry I'm being linked to that juvenile Islamophobic Facebook campaign. And I'm sorry if anyone's linked me to the Islamo-phobia of the US 'war on terror'. Or the burqa and minaret bans in Western Europe."
He said Muslim clerics told him they were in favour of freedom of expression, except for drawings of the prophet. "Making exceptions for religious censorship is hard for a cartoonist." He tells the psychologist he "may have to live with the contradictions". Then his phone rings and he promises his editor he will not draw another Muhammad cartoon. "Just a 188-word Muhammad essay."
[Bangla Daily Star] UN rights experts on Friday urged Pakistan to do more to protect religious minorities after an attack at two places of worship in the country that killed some 80 people.
"The government must take every step to ensure the security of members of all religious minorities and their places of worship so as to prevent any recurrence of today's dreadful incident," three UN experts said in a statement.
"In Pakistan and elsewhere, Ahmadis have been declared non-Muslims and have been subject to a number of undue restrictions and in many instances institutionalised discrimination."
"This emboldens opinion makers who wish to fuel hatred and perpetrators of attacks against religious minorities."
The statement was from Asma Jehangir, a special rapporteur on freedom of religion; Gay McDougall, an independent expert on minority issues; and Philip Alston, a special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
The international Red Cross also condemned the Lahore attacks, calling them part of an alarming wave of attacks on civilians.
"The ICRC strongly condemns such deliberate attacks against civilians, of which the only purpose can be to spread terror among the population," said Jacques de Maio, the International Committee of the Red Cross head of operations for South Asia.
"These attacks form part of a highly alarming, unacceptable series of attacks on civilians in Pakistan," he added in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Islami
[Kyodo: Korea] North Korea warned Friday it will employ ''ultra strong'' countermeasures if South Korea refers the deadly sinking of a South Korean warship to the U.N. Security Council for imposing further sanctions on Pyongyang, which has been blamed for the incident. If North Korea employs "ultra strong countermeasures," the United States and followers such as South Korea will be held responsible for the consequences, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. These idiots are busy talking themselves into a "put up or shut up" position. Unless somebody -- they probably expect it to be B.O. -- backs down from them pretty abjectly they're going to be in the position of having to restart the Korean War and being unable to sustain it. The Chinese aren't going to come boiling across the Yalu River in support of a nutcase with delusions of divinity, it's no longer the industrialized north against the agricultural south, and there aren't enough groceries in the cart to last them longer than a week. That puts Dear Leader in the position of losing face, which divinities can't get away with. He either retires or has a terrible accident or another "stroke." Whoever follows him -- Kim III -- starts from a weakened position and has to wait until short attention span syndrome kicks in before engaging in any further adventurism. "Behold! A God who bleeds!"
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Commies
#1
What can they threaten us with - a massive hunger strike?
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/30/2010 10:32 Comments ||
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#2
That's the problem with talking crazy all the time. People find it as boring as a Carrot Top comedy routine. It they had just said nothing for a long time an then talked crazy before they blew up the patrol boat they would have established some kind of causal relationship that they could have used to intimidate the current administration periodically for some goodies. Talking crazy all the time just leads to isolation. For example, people often give money to polite and coherent homeless persons. People steer clear of homeless people who are conversing with invisible entities.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/30/2010 11:44 Comments ||
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#3
They are going to hold their breath until they turn blue?
[Kyodo: Korea] South Korea"s accusation of North Korea over the sinking of a South Korean warship is ""so grave that a war may break out anytime,"" the North"s National Defense Commission warned Friday. Any accidental clash that may break out in the Yellow Sea or in areas along the de facto maritime border in the sea ""will lead to an all-out war,"" Pak Rim Su, director of the commission"s Policy Department, said at a news conference in Pyongyang.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Not happening...unless NorK tanks roll across the DMZ.
The NorK's have pulled crap like this for decades. No one of the rational powers are going to do anything but huff and puff, and bluster...and cut off trade.
Wid the rising Spectre of NUCLEAR MILITANCY-TERR = "JIHADIST/ISLAMIST BOMB", unless RADIC ISLAM + MILTERRS are defeated ot destroyed NOTHING WILL BE THE SAME VEE COLD WAR OR EVEN Y2000-PRESENT, FOR ANYONE.
#3
KIMMIE will likely move in ESCALATORY = PARALLEL GEOPOL GOOSE/LOCK-STEP wid NUC IRAN + even MILTERRS. Its to his advantage to do so.
IMO "Kimmie's War" = will NOT be limited to solely agz SOUTH KOREA - I believe he will attempt unilater MILSTRIKES AGZ HIGH-VALUE US + JAPANESE, etc. TARGETS.
E.G USN CV BGS + USMC EBG, USAF, JSDF + Tokyo or Sasebo, etc. - again, most likely in parallel wid US-ISRAEL-IRAN mil confrontation or conflict in the Persian Gulf + ME.
#4
not too mention u don't have the chinese backing you up like if the first korean war
Posted by: chris ||
05/30/2010 2:55 Comments ||
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#5
Don't be too sure of that. China still holds their leash, and China could let it slip at any time.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/30/2010 9:10 Comments ||
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#6
If they don't hit the button in the next 12 hours then this window will have passed and it'll all blow over IMHO. They can't maintain this level of readiness on both Northern/Southern borders past a certain point. This combined with weather, Osan AB runway construction, US distraction due holiday weekend, volcano near Guam compelling longer routes for bombers en route, etc offers very temporary opportunity. My bet is that they pass - again.
#7
The South can maintain this level of readiness for quite a while. The North cannot. The South should conduct maneuvers that force the Norks to redeploy their forces from place to place. Done properly, this would both wear out the Nork fragile infrastructure and burn up their supplies and equipment, leaving their forces exhausted and impotent long into the future.
#9
South Korea could conduct exerises and Japan and South Korea could really cut off all trade. I think that China would be forced to replace whatever food aid was eliminated.
At a certain point wouldn't the result be a ten minute NK artillery barrage. I beleive James Brady speculated that they would. I don't know that they would or what the response would be.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/30/2010 11:53 Comments ||
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#10
War may break out anytime, N. Koreas defense commission warns
#13
Just speculating, I wonder if Kim Jong Il and Iran's Nutjob made an agreement in past that if one gets into a spat, the other will cut up rough to try and divide US attention.
Right now, indications are that the real entertainment is happening in the Persian Gulf, which might explain why Jong is jumping up and down and waving his arms.
#14
Kimmie jumps up and down. Dinnerjacket gets two things going: Straits of Hormiz and his proxies Syria, Hizb'Allah, and Hamas, start the squeeze on Israel. Obama trying to deliberately isolate Israel. We have enemies internally placed to cause terror and trouble, waiting for the signal. Somebody does something stupid somewhere, and everything blows up and you have a flaming sh*tfest.
Obama has projected weakness to our enemies, alienated our allies, ignored our internal enemies, and when sh*t hits the fan, he will dither and/or freeze until someone takes charge.
We are in grave danger, boys and girls.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/30/2010 16:36 Comments ||
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#15
It took less than a year and a half for his new foreign policy to come to fruition.
JEJU ISLAND, South Korea, May 30 (Yonhap) -- The leaders of South Korea, Japan and China will concentrate their talks Sunday on regional security, including the North Korean nuclear crisis and its purported sinking of a South Korean warship in March, officials said.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao have gathered here for an annual summit among the regional powers. Wen will apparently face renewed pressure to join in blaming the North for its latest naval attack on the South.
"Major regional and global security issues will be a main agenda item" in the second-day session of their summit, one of Lee's aides said. They said the president will raise the Cheonan issue during the session.
The three-way summit is originally intended to explore ways to boost regional cooperation among the Northeast Asian neighbors, which regard the European Union as a role model. This year's event, however, has been overshadowed by the Cheonan incident.
Although the three nations have stepped up efforts to expand economic ties and other exchanges toward establishing a stronger Northeast Asian community, they do not share a common view when it comes to the region's security landscape. South Korea and Japan push for tough penalties against Pyongyang for its provocations but China cares more about stability. Beijing is concerned about the possibility of a massive inflow of North Korean defectors and a weakening of its influence in the region in case of political instability in the communist regime, experts say.
In that sense, Wen's three-day trip to South Korea, the first top-level visit by a Chinese official since the South formally pointed its fingers at the North for the unprovoked attack, has drawn keen attention especially as Seoul prepares to bring the case to the U.N. Security Council.
In a series of meetings with the South Korean president and other senior officials, Wen reiterated that Beijing will decide its position impartially. Wen is expected to maintain such a prudent position in a joint press conference later Sunday, which will be used to recap the results of his summit with Lee and Hatoyama.
Then he'll go home and reward Kimmie ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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A federal appeals court in Washington delivered a terse message on Friday to five Chinese ethnic Uighurs long held at the terror prison camp at Guantanamo Bay: Accept the US offer to resettle in a third country or stay at Guantánamo. Last fall, the Supreme Court agreed to take up the Uighurs' case to examine whether a federal judge has the power to order the government to bring Guantánamo detainees to the US as a temporary remedy for their illegal detention at the terror prison camp. Rather than hear the case, the high court vacated an earlier ruling and sent the issue back to the federal appeals court to consider in light of new developments.'
Those new developments involved the fact that all of the Uighurs had been offered resettlement opportunities outside Guantánamo.
In reinstating its 2009 opinion, the appeals court panel said it was within the exclusive power of the political branches to decide which foreign nationals may or may not enter the US. At the time of our decision we heard only from the executive branch. Since then, the legislative branch has spoken,' the court said. In seven separate enactments five of which remain in force today Congress has prohibited the expenditure of any funds to bring any Guantanamo detainee to the United States.'
Lawyers for the Uighurs had argued that such statutes violate the Constitution by effectively suspending the ability of prisoners to challenge the legality of their detention under the principle of habeas corpus. The court replied that the statutes suspend nothing' because the Uighurs never had a constitutional right to be brought to this country and released.' This almost makes sense.
[Al Arabiya Latest] U.S. military leaders are reviewing options for a unilateral strike in Pakistan if there is a successful attack on American soil tied to the country's tribal areas, The Washington Post reported in its Saturday edition.
The newspaper said senior U.S. military officials stressed a possible strike would only be considered under extreme circumstances such as a catastrophic attack that convinced President Barack Obama that the campaign using CIA drone strikes is not working.
The officials said airstrikes would be the most effective option in reducing the threat posed by al-Qaeda and other groups, but the United States must be careful not to damage its military relationship with Pakistan to a point where it cannot be repaired.
"Planning has been reinvigorated in the wake of Times Square," one official told the newspaper.
The report comes in the wake of the failed May 1 attack on New York's crowded Times Square, which is in the city's busy theater district.
Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old Pakistani-born naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested apparently trying to flee the country on a flight to Dubai 53 hours after street vendors alerted police to smoke coming out of a vehicle there.
The van was found to contain a bomb consisting of timers, wires, fireworks, gasoline, propane tanks and fertilizer.
Shahzad is due for a federal court hearing in New York on June 1.
U.S. officials say Shahzad is connected to Pakistani Taliban insurgents and Obama has sent two senior national security aides to Islamabad to join the investigation into the May 1 car bombing attempt.
CIA-operated drones have targeted Taliban figures in Pakistan's tribal areas and the group has vowed to avenge missile strikes that have killed some of its leaders.
According to The Post, the U.S. administration is trying to deepen ties to Pakistan's intelligence officials in a bid to head off any attack by militant groups.
The two countries recently established a joint military intelligence center on the outskirts of the northwestern city of Peshawar, and were in talks to set up another one near Quetta, the paper said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
According to The Post, the U.S. administration is trying to deepen ties to Pakistan's intelligence officials in a bid to head off any attack by militant groups
Good luck dealing with the true enemy!
Posted by: Paul D ||
05/30/2010 4:37 Comments ||
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#2
Article translation: we're gonna be mean and tough, but in an only-if-we-absolutely-have-to-and-we're-gonna-lose-our-jobs-if-we-don't-because-millions-died sort of way.
[Dawn] UN rights experts on Friday urged Pakistan to do more to protect religious minorities after an attack at two places of worship in the country that killed some 80 people.
"The government must take every step to ensure the security of members of all religious minorities and their places of worship so as to prevent any recurrence of today's dreadful incident," three UN experts said in a statement.
"In Pakistan and elsewhere, Ahmadis have been declared non-Muslims and have been subject to a number of undue restrictions and in many instances institutionalised discrimination."
"This emboldens opinion makers who wish to fuel hatred and perpetrators of attacks against religious minorities."
The statement was from Asma Jehangir, a special rapporteur on freedom of religion; Gay McDougall, an independent expert on minority issues; and Philip Alston, a special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions.
The international Red Cross also condemned the Lahore attacks, calling them part of an alarming wave of attacks on civilians.
"The ICRC strongly condemns such deliberate attacks against civilians, of which the only purpose can be to spread terror among the population," said Jacques de Maio, the International Committee of the Red Cross head of operations for South Asia.
"These attacks form part of a highly alarming, unacceptable series of attacks on civilians in Pakistan," he added in a statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
SRINAGAR - An Indian Army major and four other people, including a Territorial Army soldier, have been booked for the murder of three civilians in a staged gun battle in the Indian Jammu and Kashmir April 30, police said Saturday. The army said it will initiate a probe. The state government has already ordered a magisterial probe.
The bodies of the three civiliansShahzad Ahmad Khan, Riyaz Ahmad Lone and Muhammad Shafi Lonewere on Friday exhumed from a graveyard in Kalaroos village of Kupwara district and identified by their relatives in the presence of a magistrate.
Bashir Ahmad, a former special police officer, and his accomplice Fayaz Ahmad were arrested for the disappearance of the three men belonging to Nadihal village in Rafiabad of north Kashmir. An angry mob in Nadihal village Saturday torched Lone's house.
Abbas Hussain Shah, a soldier of the Territorial Army, who is the kingpin of the conspiracy, was also arrested on Saturday, police said.
Sustained interrogation of Lone and Ahmad unravelled the entire conspiracy. Abbas Hussain Shah, a jawan of the territorial army, is the kingpin of this nefarious conspiracy,' a senior police officer said here.
He, on the behest of an army officer (major), conspired with Lone, Ahmad and Abdul Hamid Bhat to lure the three civilians. They were promised a wage of Rs2,000 per day for working as porters for the army in the Machil sector of the Line of Control (LOC) where the unit of the involved major was posted,' he said.
After they fell into Hussain's trap, the three civilians were taken to Sogam village in Kupwara where a vehicle was waiting for them to be taken to the LOC for the fake gun battle,' he added.
Police sources also said police had become suspicious of the genuineness of the LOC gunfight in Machil sector April 30 when the bodies of the three slain people were handed over to them for burial.
All the three had bullet wounds on their heads which is highly unlikely in a gunfight between the security forces and the militants. All of them were dressed in summer clothes, which is not possible for militants crossing the snowbound LOC where the gunfight was claimed to have occurred,' the police officer said.
The army claimed to have killed three terrorists in Machil sector of the LOC after foiling an infiltration bid April 30. It was also claimed that a large quantity of arms and ammunition had been recovered from the slain terrorists.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#2
I don't know why they're surprised about this. It's not like he didn't telegraph the punch. Why would Israel expect anything from this administration?
[Al Arabiya Latest] An aid flotilla bound for Gaza in defiance of an Israeli embargo was poised to set sail on Saturday, after a delay caused by technical snags and fears Israel might seize one of the ships, organizers said.
Hundreds of activists waiting in international waters off Cyprus were bracing for the final leg of their attempt to bust the Gaza Strip embargo -- a bid Israel has vowed to thwart.
Cypriot authorities prevented activists from leaving the island on Friday to join the flotilla.
"Anything related to the trip to Gaza is not permitted," said Cyprus police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos.
"We are bitterly disappointed with the Cypriot government," said Greta Berlin, a spokeswoman for Free Gaza Movement, the group spearheading the effort.
But organizers were still trying to haggle with the Cypriot authorities before midday on Saturday to try to arrange the transfer to the flotilla of a group of 25 multi-national parliamentarians waiting on the island.
"We are currently sailing to the limits of Cypriot waters to try and negotiate with authorities," Thomas Sommer-Houdeville, a French pro-Palestinian activist on board one of the vessels, said.
The Cyprus authorities "last night (Friday) detained the captains of boats that were trying to take the MPs on board," he told AFP by telephone, adding that the mariners were released shortly afterwards.
Organizers have accused the Cyprus government of reneging on an earlier agreement to let the flotilla sail from Cyprus waters, alleging Israeli pressure which Nicosia has denied.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/30/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Hope there are no 'pesky drain-plug' problems.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
05/30/2010 9:25 Comments ||
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#2
Gaza can free itself. The terms of the blockade being lifted are very simple, straightforward and easy to comprehend. Renounce violence. Recognize Israel. Adhere to agreements and treaties.
Reasonable stuff, a reasonable person might think. Needs to be demanded for all muslims, not just gazooks and their gazeekers. Reasonable infidels have had just about enough. Fedup to just about - here.
TORONTO - Israel on Saturday denounced as hypocritical' a UN resolution by members of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty calling for a conference on a nuclear-free Middle East and said it would not participate.
This resolution is deeply flawed and hypocritical. It ignores the realities of the Middle East and the real threats facing the region and the entire world,' said a statement issued by the Israeli government in Toronto, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Canada.
It singles out Israel, the Middle East's only true democracy and the only country threatened with annihilation,' the statement added. Given the distorted nature of this resolution, Israel will not be able to take part in its implementation.'
The Jewish state has reacted furiously to the agreement reached Friday at the 2010 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference, which called for a regional conference in 2012 to advance the goal of a nuclear-free Middle East. The accord specifically mentions the importance of Israel's accession to the treaty and the placement of all its nuclear facilities under comprehensive IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards.'
But it failed to make similar reference to other nations including India and Pakistan that, like Israel, are non-members of the treaty and are either known or believed to possess nuclear weapons.
The text also made no mention of Iran, which faces a new round of United Nations sanctions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment as part of a nuclear program that many in the international community fear masks a nuclear weapons drive. Tehran says the program is for civilian nuclear energy only.
President Barack Obama said Friday he supported those goals, but he criticized the agreement for its focus on Israel. We strongly oppose efforts to single out Israel, and will oppose actions that jeopardize Israel's national security,' he said.
Israeli officials welcomed the statement from Obama and clarifications from other senior US officials that the conference would not take place without Israeli consent. Still, Israel had been hoping the US would have prevented the agreement in the first place and officials had been in close, constant contact with the US in the run up to the vote.
The Israeli official refrained from criticizing the US failure ahead of Tuesday's meeting, but conceded that the American administration has changed its policy on non proliferation.'
We have not finished discussing this subject. We haven't heard the last on this subject,' the official said.
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The project became possible in the last year, after Lebanon's Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, turned away from his pro-Western allegiance and threw in his lot with the pro-Syrian camp, lining up with Syrian president Bashar Assad and Hizballah's secretary Hassan Nasrallah and buying into the military alliance headed by Iran.
Three German-built Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles are to be deployed in the Gulf near the Iranian coastline.
The first has been sent in response to Israeli fears that ballistic missiles developed by Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, a political and military organisation in Lebanon, could hit sites in Israel, including air bases and missile launchers.
The submarines of Flotilla 7 -- Dolphin, Tekuma and Leviathan -- have visited the Gulf before. But the decision has now been taken to ensure a permanent presence of at least one of the vessels.
The flotilla's commander, identified only as "Colonel O", told an Israeli newspaper: "We are an underwater assault force. We're operating deep and far, very far, from our borders."
Each of the submarines has a crew of 35 to 50, commanded by a colonel capable of launching a nuclear cruise missile.
The vessels can remain at sea for about 50 days and stay submerged up to 1,150ft below the surface for at least a week. Some of the cruise missiles are equipped with the most advanced nuclear warheads in the Israeli arsenal.
The deployment is designed to act as a deterrent, gather intelligence and potentially to land Mossad agents. "We're a solid base for collecting sensitive information, as we can stay for a long time in one place," said a flotilla officer.
The submarines could be used if Iran continues its programme to produce a nuclear bomb. "The 1,500km range of the submarines' cruise missiles can reach any target in Iran," said a navy officer.
Apparently responding to the Israeli activity, an Iranian admiral said: "Anyone who wishes to do an evil act in the Persian Gulf will receive a forceful response from us."
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
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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.
Tension between the Muslim community and the Mail & Guardian newspaper eased this week after the paper apologised for publishing a cartoon depicting prophet Muhammad. It published the cartoon, by popular and controversial cartoonist Jonathan Shapiro, better known as Zapiro, last Friday. It showed the prophet seated on a psychologist's couch complaining that "other prophets have followers with a sense of humour". 
