[Al Jazeera] A leading prosecutor in Afghanistan says he has been fired for refusing to block corruption investigations into senior government officials.
Fazel Ahmed Faqiryar, a former deputy attorney-general, told The New York Times newspaper that Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, and his allies had blocked or stalled investigations into more than two dozen officials. Learning from Eric Holder, or is it the other way around?
He said the probes included cases into cabinet ministers, ambassadors and provincial governors.
"He [Karzai] won't sign anything. We have great, honest and professional prosecutors here, but we need support," Faqiryar told the Times. "We propose investigations, detentions and prosecutions of high government officials but we cannot resist him [Karzai]."
The account has been largely corroborated by five western officials familiar with the cases, who said that Karzai and his government have repeatedly thwarted prosecutions against high-ranking officials, the paper reported.
One US official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that Afghan prosecutors had prepared several cases against officials suspected of corruption but Karzai was "stalling and stalling and stalling".
Al Jazeera's Hoda Abdel-Hamid, reporting from Kabul, the capital, said Afghanistan's attorney-general, Ishaq Aloko, had told a news conference on Sunday that Faqiryar "is well past retirement age - he's 72".
"Apparently retirement age in Afghanistan is 65. His term had been extended for a few years, but he was long overdue for his retirement," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Taking lessons from Holder's Department of Social Justice.
The little colonel marked a friendship treaty between Libya and Italy by hiring a number of Italian models and attempting to convert them to Islam. his Weirdness never fails to put on a good show. i'm sure the actresses were paid scale for this piece of theatre.
Italian politicians expressed their displeasure with this latest bit of rudeness, while the government stayed mum. maybe they were gob-smacked. Frankly, i think they were struck dumb by the insanity of their special guest.
Later there was an riding ceremony, using horses from both countries, commemorating the two years since the signing of the treaty laying out Italian payments of US $5 billion compensation for thirty years of occupation. a literal pony and trap show. Brought his own horses, riders and a big tent. He always brings his own tent.
Note: Swanimote, this was an AP article, so I summarized, leaving your in-lines intact. AP does not like it when their articles are reprinted, so we don't.
#2
RELATED > PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > NEWS.AM [Armenia] > [Times of India] GADDAFI: EUROPE [all Euros] SHOULD CONVERT TO ISLAM; + [WSJ.com] GADDAFI UPSETS SOME ITALIANS [+ Euros/Europe] BY URGING CONVERSION TO ISLAM.
ARTICS = LIBYA'S "THE COLONEL/LEADER" = UNCLE MOAMAR proclaims
* ISLAM is the "LAST" = FINAL RELIGION FOR ALL HUMANITY.
* EU should pay LIBYA EU$5.0BILYUHN iff it wants Libya to stop Any + All ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION FROM LIBYA + AFRICA [via Libyuh].
VERSUS
WAFF > [MEMRI.org] SAUDI LIBERAL:RELIGIOUS SUPREMACY IS THE HEART OF ALL CONFLICTS[Human] | MUSLIMS' SENSE OF SUPREMACY AGZ OTHERS IS NOT CONFINED TO PEOPLES OF OTHER FAITHS BUT APPLIES ALSO TO MUSLIMS OF DIFFERENT ISLAMIC SECTS.
ARTIC > NON-MUSLIMS must not only pay the "JIZYA" [poll tax] charged iff they wish to practice thier original NON-ISLAMIC FAITHS, BUT SHORT OF FORMAL CONVERSION TO ISLAM MUST ALSO OVERLY LIVE UNDER AN ISLAM-IMPOSED STATE OF PERMANENT PUBLIC HUMILIATION + SUBMISSION THROUGHOUT THEIR NORMAL LIVES. Once converted to Islam one may not change back to his previous or another Religion lest upon risk of painful Govt-Public persecution or even death.
Unlike in the US-WEST, DEDICATED GAYS-LESBIANS + ATHEISTS, etc. Socio-Cultural Alternatists are not allowed to exist + are to be put to Death ASAP.
[Gulf News] Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh has called on Yemenis to join forces to fight terror admitting that increasing Al Qaida attacks are his government's biggest challenge.
It used to be not nearly enough water for a rapidly growing population... in the wild, internecine fighting goes a long way toward killing off excess population beyond the ability of the environment to support.
Saleh said that by targeting security forces Al Qaida is trying to repeat its Afghanistan and Iraq strategy in Yemen.
It seems to me that Al Qaeda has lost in Iraq, and General Petraeus recently claimed they are on the way to losing in Afghanistan. This, my dears, is a neat demonstration of how the quality of thinking is reduced when an organization loses too many of its Number Threes in a short period of time.
They went to Afghanistan to plot. They went to Iraq to get revenge. They went to Yemen to escape the drone-zaps. When the American military gets organized in Yemen (as 'advisors' of course) and we start killing number 3's there, al-Qaeda will move to Somalia. Then Chad. Then Mauritania. Eventually they'll run out of places to go.
"Now these terrorists are targeting the security forces in the same way as they did in Afghanistan and Iraq, but they will not succeed," he stated. "The drug traders here come from terrorist groups and the politicians, who are members of the terrorist Al Qaida organisation, allow them to make drug deals, exporting drugs from Afghanistan all over the world."
Speaking at a gathering of scholars and Quran students in Sana'a's Al Saleh grand mosque on Saturday, Saleh said: "These terrorists have nothing to do with Islam and its tolerant values, so we all must fight them. They fight Allah, religion, the nation and development."
Meanwhile, Yemeni military officials on Sunday rejected reports that foreign troops are involved in fighting terrorists.
"We are surprised at groundless allegations in several media reports lately on the presence of British soldiers and on the arrival of US forces to aid the fight against terror in Yemen," the defence ministry's website quoted a Yemeni official as saying.
The official said that Yemen's cooperation with the "US or other countries" in fighting terrorism is "restricted to the exchange of information which facilitates its hunt [for] terrorist elements and handing them over to justice."
Hours earlier, Al Qaida gunmen struck a security patrol in the southern city of Ja'ar, killing eight soldiers and setting their bodies on fire, Deputy Governor Ahmad Galib Al Rawi said on Sunday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2010 00:00 ||
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[Gulf News] The Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh called upon religious scholars and all Yemenis for fighting Al Qaeda in his country.
"There's enough fightin' for us natives to do here! We don't need them furriners to fight in our lands, we can do that ourselves!"
"These terrorists have nothing to do with Islam and its tolerant values, so we all must fight them because they fight Allah and religion and the nation and development," said Saleh on Saturday in a gathering of scholars and Quran students in Al Saleh grand mosque in Sana'a.
Saleh said Al Qaeda in Yemen is trying to do the same way as in Afghanistan and Iraq in targeting the Yemeni security forces.
"Now these terrorists turn to target the security forces in the same way as it is in Afghanistan and Iraq but they will not succeed," he said.
"The traders of drugs are from the terrorists, the politicians in the terrorist Al Qaeda organization allowed them to do business in drugs starting from Afghanistan to any place in the world."
For its part, Al Qaeda which is in an open war with the security forces since the beginning of this year, claimed responsibility for several attacks on security forces and killing and injuring dozens of them in Abyan province over the last few weeks.
Published on websites under the title 'Al Qaeda operations in the State of Abyan', the Al Qaeda attributed statement said, "We would like to inform our Muslim brothers, who are oppressed by the apostate regime, of a number of operations carried out by Mujahideen of Al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsular in the State of Abyan, in the city of Zinjubar."
The statement mentioned five operations only in Zinjubar city in which more than 15 soldiers were killed during the month of August.
Eight soldiers and a government official were killed on Saturday when Al Qaeda suspects attacked a security check point in Ja'ar, Abayan province.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
called upon religious scholars and all Yemenis for fighting Al Qaeda in his country.
I'm not holding my breath. Yemen has been a haven for terrorists for a long time and little has been done about the problem. The USS Cole was bombed on October 12, 2000 while it was harbored and refueling in the Yemeni port of Aden. Yemen is the current home of Anwar al-Awlaki, the U.S.-born imam whom Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan consulted before the Ft. Hood massacre. Also didn't the Times Square bomber and Christmas Day underwear bomber also have ties with this imam? It seems like Yemen officials could nab this guy if they wanted to.
#2
You mean Al-Awlaki (spelling), JohnQC? He's up in the hills somehwere, protected by his fierce fellow tribesmen. It the Yemeni government forces could get to him, they wouldn't have been fought to a draw by the Shiites at one end of the country and the association of Al Qaeda in Arabia and the wild tribesmen at the other.
Terrorist outfits are plotting a rail mayhem to coincide with the London 2012 Olympics, it has been revealed.
Muslim prisoners are getting calls from terrorist masterminds instructing them to do Trackwork courses so that they use a prison-training scheme to sabotage train networks from the inside, reports the Daily Star.
It has been reported that the jailed extremists are joining NVQ courses run by the training firm Trackwork, which is backed by Network Rail.
They are expected to use their qualification to land jobs maintaining Britain's railways after their release.
Within a period of six months in 2007, 500 ex-cons started rail jobs and 400 stuck with them.
A 39-year-old inmate, who has been released from Lindholme Prison, claims they see it as a perfect way to infiltrate the system and mount a terror attack.
"Many prisoners have mobile phones. And in the 14 months I was inside I heard six Muslims getting calls from terrorist masterminds instructing them to do Trackwork courses," the paper quoted the inmate as saying.
"I heard the 2012 Olympics talked about. I didn't hear anything about blowing up trains, but I did hear of plans to halt the network. They thought bringing the network to a standstill would cause more devastation than actually killing people," he added.
The Network Rail said providing jobs to the released inmates was the biggest factor in stopping them re-offending and costing taxpayers billions. (ANI)
The Director of Special Forces, a major general who cannot be named, will meet with reserve SAS soldiers this week to inform them that their services are no longer required. Already more than 40 veteran SAS men have been given their marching orders after the Army said it can no longer afford to pay them.
While British special forces are seen as one of the greatest global assets Britain has to offer and are particularly coveted by the US, they are expensive accounting for an estimated £2 billion out of the £37 billion MoD budget. However, like the rest of defence the SAS has had to make cuts and getting rid of the "old and the bold" and part of the TA is seen as the best solution. As a result of the Strategic Defence and Security Review, under which the Ministry of Defence has to make cuts of between 10 and 20 per cent, the SAS will also lose either 21 SAS or 23 SAS, its two TA battalions who also contribute to the war in Afghanistan.
"Sadly the director (DSF) is going round this week to talk to people because it looks likely we are going to lose a reserve regiment," an SAS source said. "This is modern times and all we can really afford is the fighting young blades who deploy on operations. DSF is doing the sensible thing and is looking at them in the eye and saying the pot is this big and here are the options and this is why.
"It very unfortunate and inevitably will take something away from UK special forces but that is the reality of it."
There has also been outcry that the SAS is losing its most experienced men who have served on operations since September 11th. Special forces troops are given special exemption to serve beyond their contracted 22 years as recognition of their contribution to national security. The system is called "continuance" and the troops are found jobs on operations desks or backroom work. But with defence cuts and more numbers of men staying in the regiment as a result of the poor economy the older troops have been told to move on.
The decision has been criticised as "ludicrous" by SAS insiders although the men have accepted that "their time is up". Some of the soldiers, who are in the 40s, have been involved in some of the toughest fighting against the Taliban in 2001 and Iraqi insurgents from 2003.
It is believed that the reductions were ordered before the current government came into power.
Throughout the Army there are currently moves to get rid of "dead wood" as it has reached nearly 100 per cent manning for the first time since the last war. A further time bomb facing commanders is the potential dismissal of more than 4,000 badly wounded troops from Iraq and Afghanistan who will never be able to deploy on the front line.
Former SAS officer Colonel Clive Fairweather said: "I'd hang on to the special forces, to every bit of experience they've got, even if they are grey-haired, old dogs -- it's what's in their heads that's important. I would really fight hard to keep those guys."
But Col Tim Collins, a former infantry commander who served in the SAS, said it had come to the point where "the experience they bring is no longer needed on operational tasks".
"At the age of 45 or 50 you are no longer swinging through windows dishing out death. The regiment is a young mans game and in fairness the old and bold have had a good run."
The regular SAS was disbanded at the end of the Second World War but reformed to meet fight the Malayan Emergency in the early Fifties. Is Blackwater hiring? Screw Blackwater. They should start their own company.
#1
Appears the much larger problem is a recruitment programme which has failed to bring younger men into the ranks. Cutting back on Territorials is probably just a first step in planned reductions. A very sad day in a long list of sad days for our cousins.
#7
Whoever is elected has a huge job undoing all the donky shit in and aound Congress, theirentire time will be spnt undoing legislation, no time to introduce more.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/30/2010 17:26 Comments ||
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BEIJINSHENYANG, China, Aug. 29 (Yonhap) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong-il stopped over in Harbin, Heilongjiang Province, on his way home from a surprise trip to China, sources said Sunday. Kim arrived in the city at midnight and stayed near Songhua River before paying a visit to a historic site there symbolic of the anti-Japanese movement by Kim Il-sung, the North's late founding leader and father of the current leader, sources in the city said.
Pray for a bad joint in the rails ...
"We are trying to figure out through various channels the background of Chairman Kim's Harbin visit," one source said.
The North Korean leader is expected to leave Harbin for Pyongyang around 10:00 p.m. on Sunday or 6:00 a.m. on Monday, as the Harbin train station is planned to be under access restrictions during those times.
Kim's visit to Harbin came as the communist country's leader was believed to be headed to a third destination in China instead of returning home. Kim's special train left the Chinese city of Changchun around 9:15 p.m. Saturday in what was believed to be a departure for home. As of Sunday morning, however, there were no signs the train had entered North Korea via the Chinese border cities of Dandong or Jian, the two most likely rail gateways in which the train had been expected to pass through.
Kim's "special train appears to have taken a different route," a diplomatic source in Beijing said, raising the possibility that the reclusive leader could have headed further north to the cities of Yanji or Tumen in northeastern China near the border with North Korea.
Makes it harder to mine the tracks ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/30/2010 00:00 ||
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Surrender. Fold. Toast. Put a fork in the SKors ...
The government has suggested to China that the resumption of six-party talks about North Korea's nuclear program could proceed alongside discussions about the North's sinking of the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan, it emerged Friday.
Seoul had so far dug in its heels over the resumption of the talks unless the North apologized for the attack. But some government officials expressed worries that Seoul could not stall the six-party talks indefinitely if Pyongyang and Beijing agree to give priority to them.
So forget the six-party talks. It's not like anything is going to come of them anyway. Besides, the Norks have demonstrated the profit to be made by being unreasonable ...
Foreign Ministry officials last Friday briefed Wu Dawei, the visiting Chinese chief nuclear negotiator, on Seoul's new position.
"Realistically, there is zero possibility of the North admitting its involvement in the Cheonan sinking and apologizing for it," a government official said. "But at the same time we can't just let it pass, which is what the North wants."
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/30/2010 00:00 ||
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VARIOUS NET > the ROK won't formally mention or demand an "CHEONAN Apology" from the DPRK, THE ROK JUST WON'T AGREE TO ANYTHING THE DPRK DEMANDS???
[Al Jazeera] North Korea's leader is reportedly heading home from northeastern China, where he is said to have secured massive economic aid and diplomatic support for his country.
South Korean media said Kim Jong-il left a hotel in the city of Changchun on Saturday morning, possibly along with Kim Jong-un, his son and heir apparent.
YTN TV and Yonhap news agency said a convoy of about 20 cars, protected by 10 Chinese security vehicles, stopped by an international food exhibition site and a cinema set before leaving the city.
Earlier, a container lorry believed to be carrying luggage belonging to Kim's entourage left for the city's railway station where his special train was on standby, Yonhap reported.
Succession rumours
Reports said the ailing Kim had travelled to China to secure diplomatic and financial support for an eventual handover of power to his son.
The 27-year-old is widely tipped to be elected to the North's leadership at a rare party meeting early next month.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya] Turkey's new military chief, a quiet, hardline secularist, takes command on Friday of a force that sees itself cornered by EU-driven reforms and an emboldened government with roots in political Islam.
A realistic assessment.
The change of command in NATO's second biggest army comes as the ruling AK Party takes on the judicial establishment, another bastion of the secularist opposition, in challenges analysts say will define the future of the Muslim democracy.
General Isik Kosaner, who was trained as a commando officer and worked in intelligence, will be tested among other things by trials of senior military officers charged with plotting to overthrow the government and a surge in a decades-long separatist conflict in the southeast.
His appointment as chief of staff this month came at the end of several days of tension in the Supreme Military Council, a body dominated by generals but chaired by the prime minister, in which the government blocked the promotion of some top officers.
"He has a difficult job ahead of him," said analyst Wolfango Piccoli from the Eurasia consultancy group.
"There is discontent in the ranks at government-military relations and PKK violence is on the rise," Piccoli said, referring to an increased campaign of violence by Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) separatist guerrillas.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION TOPIX > RUSSIA GOING TO CONSOLIDATE ITS POSITIONS IN THE SOUTH CAUCASUS.
* SAME > HERITAGE: RUSSIA WAS ABLE TO CREATE SUCH A SITUATION THAT NEITHER ARMENIA NOR AZERBAIJAN COULD TAKE ANY ACTION WITHOUT IT.
Could be a problem in the U.S. too since assimilation into Western society and adoption of its values doesn't seem to occur readily. Instead muslims transport their culture to the Canada and the U.S. and live isolated in their own communities with their own customs. Westerners are not invited into this culture. That we don't understand them is understandable. They then yell that we don't understand them and we are islamophobic. Islamaphobia is the catchall bogus term for "victimhood." Muslims are going to have to do a lot to change this. It is not incumbent upon us to just accept this culture in view of terrorism against the West history--with questions asked by Westerners and no questions answered by Muslims.
#2
great article! really interesting. the home grown threat is high everywhere it seems. they are embedded and seeking to change us to their ways or use our open societies against us
#3
The thing is, we don't hear much from those who have assimilated into Western society and aren't interested in causing trouble... or who just aren't interested in causing trouble. And we hear plenty from those who find it rewarding to wage the soft jihad of the the law.
#4
we don't hear much from those who have assimilated into Western society and aren't interested in causing trouble
Indeed. The silence is deafening. Remember all those vain post-9/11 hopes for "moderate muslims" to rise up, make themselves heard, condemn the islamists? It's going on a decade now, and all we hear are ... crickets.
#6
I think in the case of muslims who are assimilated and making a good living in North America, a whackjob extremist family member is something they really don't want. Hopefully, they dime them out to FBI...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
08/30/2010 11:27 Comments ||
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#7
Thanks, anon1. There is an organization in Toronto that's been speaking up -- several of the leaders have gotten death threats, and a number of individuals who are on the speaking circuit. The Lackawanna Six were turned in by family members and the head of the mosque congregation, if I recall correctly... and recently those two nice young gentlemen in Philadelphia (?) were turned in by one of the fathers, who was furious.
A big part of the problem is that the U.S. government and the media listen to CAIR and Imam Rauf, and not those truly speaking against the jihadis.
#8
Muslim assimilation is indeed rare in the West.
As rare as Christian churches in Iran & Saudi Arabia.
There are two kinds of muslims really.
1) Terrorists
and
2)Terrorist enablers
Over 80% of the mosques in America are Wahabbi run or controlled.
According to the FBI.
Very hard to penetrate from a cultural or religious point of view.
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
08/30/2010 15:51 Comments ||
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#9
Raymond Boisvert, CSISÂ’ assistant director, said investigators want to understand each suspectÂ’s path to radicalization
What a load of bullshit!! There's only one thing they need to understand and that is that Islam is a cult headed up by a psychopath and needs to be eradicated! Monitor the fucking mosques and when they find one that preaches jihad, close it down then burn it!!
#12
We won't know the truth for 50 years at best. However, numerous conspiracies have been foiled by the authorities over the last 10 years. I doubt that it is because the NSA, CIA and FBI have seamlessly coordinated their efforts with the innumerable police forces in the country, let alone each other. In at least 1 case it was because an immediate family member dropped the dime on the nut. If there is cooperation going on, it is in no one's interest to publicize it. The absence of any successful activities by any but lone nutters indicates to me that there has been cooperation.
Now the imported imams from SA, Pak, et. al. are another story.
[Pak Daily Times] Hadiya Bibi sits paralysed in a wheelchair donated by a religious charity, its wheels coated in mud caused by flooding. Over a year ago she was paralysed by a shell she said the army fired at terrorists. The government never provided compensation, and now Hadiya is turning to terrorists and religious charities to help her cope after raging waters swept away her meagre belongings.
"I registered for help with the authorities because of my injury and nothing happened. Now everything is gone. The religious charities will help me," she said, as members of the Al Khidmat charity spoke with flood victims about their needs. Pakistain's worst-ever natural disaster has made more than six million people homeless and now fears are growing that disease and malnutrition will inflict more suffering and add to a corpse count of around 1,600. And while floodwaters might be receding, anger continues to rise over the government's slow response. Authorities are still absent from many towns and villages one month after the monsoon floods struck. The speed and efficiency with which religious charities, some with suspected links to terrorists, have helped flood victims worries government officials and the US, which wants a stable Pakistain because of its role as a frontline state in the war on terrorism. Officials from both governments have warned the Taliban will try to exploit the disorder and misery to gain recruits.
The success of religious parties in providing aid points out the failures of the federal and provincial governments, which like many before them, are widely viewed as corrupt, inefficient and neglectful. Al Khidmat is linked to Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), the most influential religious party in Pakistain. JI members fought in the jihad against Soviet occupation troops in Afghanistan. But it is not believed to have ties with the Taliban or other banned groups. Nevertheless, its relief efforts have helped discredit the government because of its relative efficiency. Al Khidmat rushed to villages like Margala after floods flattened two-storey concrete homes like pancakes and filled shops with five feet of mud even though they were shuttered. Approximately every two days, the group provided sacks of sugar, rice, cooking oil, flour and tea to families of six, enough for a week.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
they can have all the goodwill they want
how many years did the West give grain and money - and what did we get? no thanks and islamist bombers
keep the goodwill, we've got nukes instead. Fly planes into buildings again and Mecca gets it.
Posted by: American Delight ||
08/30/2010 4:03 Comments ||
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#4
i did not realise until now that Fred was being sued by a gold-digging copyright bastard. Pakistan doesn't need your coin but Fred does. Donate to Fred and keep Rantburg alive!!
The reported return to Baghdad of one of the bloodthirstiest killers in Iraq, a Shiite known as Abu Deraa, from safe haven in Iran could signal an escalation in an already ferocious sectarian war between Shiites and Sunnis as U.S. forces withdraw.
The Asharq al-Awsat newspaper has reported that Abu Deraa, who fled to the Islamic Republic in early 2007, was back in Sadr City. Abu Deraa, which means "Father of the Shield" in Arabic, is a nom de guerre. His real name, depending to whom one talks, is either Ismail al-Lami, twice married with at least a dozen children, or Ismail Hafidh.
#1
Likely the first of many Iraqi villains that will try to triumphantly return from Iran, Syria and Jordan. Hopefully the Iraqi Interior Ministry will scoop up the lot of them, and deposit them before a judge, who will send them away for decades, excepting the minority who will meet the hangman.
BAGHDAD - US President Barack Obama's message this weekend that Iraq would 'chart its own course' may have been welcome news for war-weary Americans, but it has fuelled anxieties about the future among Iraqis.
'The war is not ending. The war against terrorism continues here,' Nuri Al Moussawi, a 51-year-old Baghdad resident, said. Obama said on Saturday the end of US combat operations on Tuesday, and a fall in US troop numbers to 50,000, helped fulfil a promise he made during the 2008 presidential campaign to end the 7-1/2-year war launched by his predecessor, George W. Bush.
But the failure of Iraqi leaders to form a new government almost six months after elections, and persistent attacks by insurgents, have done little to instil confidence among Iraqis.
It's about time for the American ambassador to call the various parties into his compound and crack some heads. Quietly. Let the Iraqi pols keep their pride but get a government in place.
I'm fond of J.P. MOrgan's approach: lock them all in a room without bathrooms, and don't let them out until they come up with an acceptable solution.
'The American withdrawal is hasty. The capabilities of our army have not been built yet,' Moussawi said.
Like many Iraqis, Moussawi has little faith in the abilities of Iraq's 660,000-strong police and army to protect the country. Suspected Sunni Islamist insurgents have put the domestic security forces to the test, killing 57 at an army recruitment centre on Aug. 17 and more than 60 when suicide car bombers attacked police stations around the country on Aug. 25.
But 50,000 US soldiers will remain in Iraq up to an end-2011 deadline set in a bilateral security pact Bush signed with the Iraqi government just before departing the White House.
'Those who say the war in Iraq is ending are committing a mistake' said Hassan bin Hachim 62, an Iraqi day labourer. 'The war will not end unless a real partnership government is formed that includes all the parties, and doesn't marginalise any of the parties.'
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
STRATEGYPAGE > [Combat Advisor roles] ELEVEN US COMBAT BRIGADES STILL IN IRAQ.
BAGHDAD - The European Union signed a 2.5 million euro ($3.2 million) agreement with Iraq on Sunday to help Iraqi scientists' dismantle, decommission and decontaminate nuclear facilities built under dictator Saddam Hussein.
Iraq has tried to clean up its 10 old nuclear sites around the country as US combat operations end seven years after the invasion to topple Saddam.
These are the facilities at which no nuclear work was done on a bomb of any kind, and no WMD. They're right next to the baby milk factories at which no biological weapons were made and down the street from the fertilizer factories at which no chemical weapons were made.
But the going has been slow since the work began two years ago. The EU programme to train Iraqi scientists and provide equipment will speed up the clearing operation which had been estimated to take up to 10 years. So far scientists have only cleared one site in central Baghdad.
'This contract will help boost the abilities (of the scientists) so they will be able to dismantle more complicated facilities,' Science and Technology Minister Raed Fahmy told reporters after signing an agreement with the EU in Baghdad.
Italy's Insubria Centre on International Security (ICIS), Britain's National Nuclear Laboratory (NNL) and Belgium's BelgoProcess are assisting the programme. Both NNL and BelgoProcess specialise in dismantling, decommissioning and decontamination activities, radioactive waste management and disposal.
Up to 80 Iraqi nuclear scientists will be involved in programme.
And they'll have a new career when they're done. Win/win!
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Don't forget that our Marines were guarding these "non-WMD" sites for over 8 years now. The site is bigger than 2 football fields.
The euroPEONS end up with the good end of the stick after we have done all the dirty work for them. Aholes.
(Xinhua) -- Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday said Israel would foil peace talks if it continued Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
"Israel's government would alone bear the responsibility of threatening the negotiations with failure and collapse if all forms of settlement expansions continued," Abbas said in a televised speech.
The negotiations will restart in Washington on September 2 after months of stillness amid huge opposition by most of Paleostinian factions.
Abbas said the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society, who represent the Quartet, were told about the Paleostinian position that puts any failure on Israel.
He added that the Paleostinian leadership accepted the talks after the Quartet issued its August 20 statements in which it retreated its commitment to help creating a Paleostinian statehood alongside Israel through negotiations. "The statement stressed on ending the Israeli occupation which started in 1967, including East Jerusalem, and the necessity of an independent Paleostinian state and the rejection of settlement and the need to its end," Abbas said.
The direct negotiations would tackle all outstanding issues, Abbas said, noting that these issues include the status of Jerusalem, which the Paleostinians want its eastern part as a capital, refugees, borders, settlement, security and the release of Paleostinian prisoners.
He defended his decision to go to the talks without guarantees that the settlement would be stopped. "We will not enter into mazes or go to sideline issues that would alter the negotiations from discussing the essential issues," Abbas said in his speech.
Abbas said he hopes to find a partner in the Israeli coalition government "able to make key and responsible decisions towards ending the occupation and making real security for the Paleostinian and Israeli people."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Israel should offer Abbas a favorable deal. It would scare the living sh*t out of him if peace became a real prospect. Remember Sadat?
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
08/30/2010 1:51 Comments ||
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#2
Remember when Yasser Arafat was offered a reasonable deal, Mike R.? Secretary of State Madeleine Albright literally had to chase him down the hall, he ran away so fast. And then he started the first Intifada.
A street battle in in which three people were killed in Muslim west Beirut last week has led to 10 arrests, Lebanon's army chief said. "Army operations in the area are ongoing... and we have arrested 10 persons and not just four" as was previously reported, General Jean Kahwaji told the local Arabic-language daily As-Safir. "What is required is that no one ignite a fire and then demand the army put it out."
On August 24th, a bloody street battle took place in the Burj Abi Haidar district of Beirut, with Hezbollah supporters fighting the Sunni group Al-Ahbash. The clash began as a dispute over a parking space and escalated into a battle with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades. Three were killed, including Hezbollah official Mohammed Fawaz, and 11 people injured.
Israel is planning to attack Hezbollah arms depots and weapons manufacturing plants in Syria, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai reported on Saturday.
The report is based on Western sources who asserted that Israel has increased its military force level along the northern border in the Golan Heights and Mount Dov areas.
The report cited European sources who claimed that recent Israeli unmanned aerial drone flights over Lebanon and Syria signal Israel's intentions to carry out operations in the area.
Thank you, O anonymous European sources.
Sorry -- I really shouldn't attempt sarcasm this early in the morning.
According to the report, Israel plans to attack Hezbollah weapons depots, including ones deep inside Syria that store long-range rockets.
The Al Rai report said that the situation on the Israel-Syria border is tense and that Syria could respond immediately to any Israeli attack and not demonstrate the restraint that it did after the Israeli Air Force bombed a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria in the fall of 2007.
According to the report, Syria's military is on high alert and is strengthening its anti-aircraft defenses along the border with Israel and at strategic sites within Syria.
#2
ALso from WORLD NEWS > YEME PRESIDENT [Abd. Saleh] ADMITS TO GROWING AL QAEDA THREAT [AQ desires repeat of effective AFPAK strategy in Yemen]. PRESIDENT SALEH also warns of Militant links to illegal DRUG TRADERS.
* STRATEGYPAGE > BAHRAIN + THE IRANIAN UNDERGROUND [Sleeper Cells].
* IIRC WAFF > IRAN SHOWS OFF ITS NEW GENERATION OF SOLID FUEL, SHORT-RANGE TACTICAL STRIKE MISSLES.
[Al Arabiya] Unconfirmed news from several sources in Tehran reported Wednesday the death of Massoud Rajavi, leader of the anti-government organization the People's Mujahedin of Iran.
The news of the death of Massoud Rajavi, also president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, was first posted on the website of reformist leader Dr. Mehdi Khazali and no official denial has been issued so far.
The pro-government news website Atynews also wrote that a source close to the website staff telephoned from abroad to report the death of the dissident leader.
The pro-reformist website Roozonline confirmed that the same story was reported by its sources in the Iranian capital Tehran and added that the news has since then been circulating among members of the Revolutionary Guard via mobile text messages.
Since 2003, there has been no news of the whereabouts of Massoud Rajavi. Some said he was detained in a cell adjacent to that of late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein while others said he is under house arrest in Iraq.
There were also reports that he was at the U.S. Naval Forces 5th fleet in Bahrain and that he was seen at the U.S. Army headquarters in Qatar. He was also rumored several times to have been arrested by Jordanian security.
This article starring:
Massoud Rajavi
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says corrupt monarchies and hegemonies with huge military spending are "the source of all global crises."
"Corrupt powers are not qualified to govern the international community neither theoretically nor practically," Ahmadinejad said on Sunday.
"Monarchic regimes and hegemonic powers are the source of all global crises," the Iranian president's official website reported.
"In the US, plans to allocate USD 50 billion to healthcare for the poor caused a lot of media hype and uproar, while the US military budget for 2010 is over USD 860 billion, which is eight times more than Iran's total spending budget," did not receive media attention, he added.
Referring to the problems in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan, the president went on to criticize the US and its allies for not playing a larger role in aid efforts aimed at easing the humanitarian crises in flood-stricken Pakistan, the president's website reported.
"While the Americans drop thousands of bombs on civilians in these countries on a daily basis, they avoid [seeding] humanitarian aid," he was quoted as saying.
"The result of this type of governance is either an invasion or the massacre of people," the president warned.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says corrupt monarchies and hegemonies with huge military spending are "the source of all global crises."
[Pak Daily Times] Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has been branded a 'prostitute' by Iran after she publicly attacked the country for threatening to stone a woman to death.
France's First Lady is part of a campaign to save the life of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a 43-year-old mother of two.
She is accused of cheating on her husband and then helping to kill him, and is now facing capital punishment for her crimes. Ms Bruni-Sarkozy, who became President Nicolas Sarkozy's third wife two years ago, has signed a petition calling for Sakineh's release. Last week the former supermodel said: 'I just can't see what good could come out of this macabre ceremony, whatever the judicial reasons put forward to justify it.'
But Kayhan (which means 'Universe' in English), the Iranian daily newspaper which acts as a mouthpiece for the country's regime, has now accused 42-year-old Ms Bruni-Sarkozy of being a hypocrite.
An editorial in the paper points to her chequered love life, which has included numerous relationships with high-profile celebrities. Entitled 'French prostitutes join the human rights protest,' the article singles out Ms Bruni-Sarkozy and Isabelle Adjani, the French actress and friend of the First Lady who is also calling for Sakineh's release. Kayhan aims to 'defend the ideology of the Islamic Revolution' and is directly under the supervision of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government.
Iranian state television also attacked Ms Bruni-Sarkozy for her support for Sakineh, saying she was using it to try and justify her own immorality. The Elysee Palace had no formal reaction to the slurs in the Iranian media, but an insider said Ms Bruni-Sarkozy was 'deeply shocked' by the personal attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
ION STRATEGYPAGE: NBC WEAPONS: MORE URANIUM HITS THE BLACK MARKETS.
Post-2012 NUKE-WMD MILITANCY-TERRORISM here we come???
SIDE PIC > D *** NG IT, WHATS THERE TO SEE IFF SHE GLOWS IN THE DARK [MMGW = POTUS Dubya Overtanning of Skin + Bikini notwithstanding?
#2
she's a bit skinny that's to be sure. But good on her! Iran won't get far calling her a prostitute.
disgraceful treatment of women in that country
Good on Sarkozy for stripping citizenship from criminal immigrants especially polygamous men.
#4
Silly islamists. No quicker way to dissolve the red-green alliance in Europe than to call a modern woman a whore. Especially not one as classy and elegant as Madame Bruni-Sarko.
Since it was intended as a mortal insult, to which a 'real' man would reply with murder, any lesser response will be seen in the Muslim world as the acceptance of dhimmitude.
#10
Mahmoud, try to remember that France is a nuclear power with a reputation for... malleable ethics in the service of their national honor. While it is not particularly *probable* that you could goad them into nuking Qom, it isn't outside the bounds of possibility. Especially if you keep calling the wife of their president a whore.
[Memo to administrative support - make sure that Mahmoud doesn't learn the name of President Sarkozy's mother.]
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/30/2010 14:31 Comments ||
Top||
#11
HOOKER = FLOF CARLA
versus
* NEWS.AM [Armenia] > TURKEY'S PRESIDENT PICKS TOMATOES [+ Grapes] FOR WIFE.
OOOOOOOOOOOOO, you just know VALENTINE'S DAY = FEBRUARY was months ago.
Sharif El-Gamal, the leading organizer behind the mosque and community center near Ground Zero, owes $224,270.77 in back property tax on the site, city records show.
That seems rather a lot.
El-Gamal's company, 45 Park Place Partners, failed to pay its half-yearly bills in January and July, according to the city Finance Department.
El Gamal himself is an interesting character. A few years ago he was a waiter. Then he sold real estate and then became owner of a real estate company and a developer.
The delinquency is a possible violation of El-Gamal's lease with Con Edison, which owns half of the proposed building site on Park Place. El-Gamal owns the other half but must pay taxes on the entire parcel. El Gamal's spokesman essentially said, "trust us".
Posted by: lord garth ||
08/30/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
I wonder who the money is behind Sharif El-Gamal? He picked up the former Burlington coat factory for a song--around $4 million. Still that' s a lot of money for a recently transformed waiter. It would not surprise me if Bloomberg waived these taxes all in the interest of "religious tolerance (sarc)."
#3
A fly-by-night scam artist real estate developer hasn't been minding his Ps and Qs? Quelle surprise.
But since the property was wrecked by 9/11 and probably hasn't been earning to pay taxes, they've probably had ten years worth of empty pockets & unpaid taxes. IIRC, downtown Manhattan property taxes are appallingly high.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
08/30/2010 13:30 Comments ||
Top||
#4
El-Game-the-System should ask the Treasury Secretary for advice on how to handle it. I'm sure Timmy would have an answer. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/30/2010 21:23 Comments ||
Top||
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.
[Al Jazeera] North Korea's leader is reportedly heading home from northeastern China, where he is said to have secured massive economic aid and diplomatic support for his country.
(Xinhua) -- 
[Iran Press] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says corrupt monarchies and hegemonies with huge military spending are "the source of all global crises."
[Pak Daily Times] Carla Bruni-Sarkozy has been branded a 'prostitute' by Iran after she publicly attacked the country for threatening to stone a woman to death.
