#1
The Taliban still claim responsibility + that they shot the Copter down wid an RPG.
Iff true, IMO this infers that the Chinook was on incoming approach + prob close enuff to the ground for one or more Taliban Bad Boyz to fire their RPGS, likely in volley/salvo fire given that the RPG is unguided = prone to high rates of miss the further distant a target is.
"POINT BLANK" RANGE???
By definition, IMO "point blank" infers that the Helo LZ was NOT SECURE AGZ HOSTILE PENETRATION BY ENEMY FORCES???
OTHER > Durng the Cold War the Soviets = Warsaw Pact dev an "Air Defense" RPG Warhead for use mainly agz US-NATO Helo Gunships-Transports that would detonate + release shrapnel in the air. THEY KEPT IT FOR USE BY THEIR OWN SOVIET = RUSSIAN TROOPS, AS OPPOS TO "PACT" FORCES, TO FIGHT THE WAR AGZ NATO IN THE FULDA GAP WHICH NEVER OCCURRED.
[Dawn] President Barack B.O. Obama said Saturday that the deaths of Americans in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan are a reminder of the "extraordinary" price the US military is paying in the decade-long Afghan war.
Obama's statement did not confirm the number killed or other details of the crash.
Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... said that the crash killed 31 US special operation troops and seven Afghan commandos.
But The News Agency that Dare Not be Named has learned that more than 20 Navy SEALs were among those lost in the crash.
None of those killed in the crash is believed to have been part of the SEALs mission that killed wanted terrorist the late Osama bin Laden ... who had a brief but splitting headache... mission, but they were from the same unit as the bin Laden team.
The troops from SEAL Team Six were flown by a US Army crew, according to AP military sources.
One source says the team was thought to include 22 SEALs, three Air Force air controllers, seven Afghan Army troops, a dog and his handler, and a civilian interpreter, plus the helicopter crew.
Earlier, a senior administration official said the helicopter that crashed in eastern Afghanistan was apparently shot down by beturbanned goons in the deadliest single incident of the conflict for US forces. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the crash is still being investigated.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
RIP
Posted by: chris ||
08/07/2011 0:13 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I just wish, he had really, really meant it. But then, he was secluded at Camp David, and at least, this didn't interfere with any of his "glamour" of living life.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] On a cloudless Thursday morning 13 years ago today, a brown Dyna truck left house number 43 in Runda estate, and within an hour after setting off, introduced the world to the new age of global terrorism.
The bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam were the first mega-attacks by the late Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. ... he who now sleeps with the fishes...
One of the key criminal masterminds behind the attacks was Fazul Abdullah Mohamed, a name that has become familiar to East Africans over the past decade.
Today, the world marks the first anniversary in which both of the key figures responsible for that atrocity are dead. That should bring a feeling of closure, especially to the victims.
Ms Lucy Anyango Aringo, who was maimed in the attack, summed up the reaction to the killing of al Qaeda's key figure in the region this way: "It may seem like a little thing to many. But the death of Fazul gives peace to my soul. Although his death may be painful to someone close to him, to me it provides a closure of sorts."
Continued on Page 49
This article starring:
Fazul Abdullah Mohamed
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2011 00:00 ||
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The United States is expanding its role in Mexico's bloody fight against drug trafficking organizations, sending new C.I.A. operatives and retired military personnel to the country and considering plans to deploy private security contractors in hopes of turning around a multibillion-dollar effort that so far has shown few results.
Maybe we should stop giving the cartels guns?
In recent weeks, small numbers of C.I.A. operatives and American civilian military employees have been posted at a Mexican military base, where, for the first time, security officials from both countries work side by side in collecting information about drug cartels and helping plan operations. Officials are also looking into embedding a team of American contractors inside a specially vetted Mexican counternarcotics police unit.
Officials on both sides of the border say the new efforts have been devised to get around Mexican laws that prohibit foreign military and police from operating on its soil, and to prevent advanced American surveillance technology from falling under the control of Mexican security agencies with long histories of corruption.
"A sea change has occurred over the past years in how effective Mexico and U.S. intelligence exchanges have become," said Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico's ambassador to the United States. "It is underpinned by the understanding that transnational organized crime can only be successfully confronted by working hand in hand, and that the outcome is as simple as it is compelling: we will together succeed or together fail."
The latest steps come three years after the United States began increasing its security assistance to Mexico with the $1.4 billion Merida Initiative and tens of millions of dollars from the Defense Department. They also come a year before elections in both countries, when President Obama may confront questions about the threat of violence spilling over the border, and President Felipe Calderón's political party faces a Mexican electorate that is almost certainly going to ask why it should stick with a fight that has left nearly 45,000 people dead.
"The pressure is going to be especially strong in Mexico, where I expect there will be a lot more raids, a lot more arrests and a lot more parading drug traffickers in front of cameras," said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a counternarcotics expert at the Brookings Institution. "But I would also expect a lot of questioning of Merida, and some people asking about the way the money is spent, or demanding that the government send it back to the gringos."
Mexico has become ground zero in the American counternarcotics fight since its cartels have cornered the market and are responsible for more than 80 percent of the drugs that enter the United States. American counternarcotics assistance there has grown faster in recent years than to Afghanistan and Colombia. And in the last three years, officials said, exchanges of intelligence between the United States and Mexico have helped security forces there capture or kill some 30 mid- to high-level drug traffickers, compared with just two such arrests in the previous five years.
The United States has trained nearly 4,500 new federal police agents and assisted in conducting wiretaps, running informants and interrogating suspects. The Pentagon has provided sophisticated equipment, including Black Hawk helicopters, and in recent months it has begun flying unarmed surveillance drones over Mexican soil to track drug kingpins.
Still, it is hard to say much real progress has been made in crippling the brutal cartels or stemming the flow of drugs and guns across the border. Mexico's justice system remains so weakened by corruption that even the most notorious criminals have not been successfully prosecuted.
"The government has argued that the number of deaths in Mexico is proof positive that the strategy is working and that the cartels are being weakened," said Nik Steinberg, a specialist on Mexico at Human Rights Watch. "But the data is indisputable -- the violence is increasing, human rights abuses have skyrocketed and accountability both for officials who commit abuses and alleged criminals is at rock bottom."
Mexican and American officials involved in the fight against organized crime do not see it that way. They say the efforts begun under President Obama are only a few years old, and that it is too soon for final judgments. Dan Restrepo, Mr. Obama's senior Latin American adviser, refused to talk about operational changes in the security relationship, but said, "I think we are in a fundamentally different place than we were three years ago."
The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration has acknowledged to congressional investigators that her agency provided a supporting role in the ill-fated Operation Fast and Furious run by the group's counterparts at the ATF.
Michele M. Leonhart, the DEA administrator, said DEA agents primarily helped gather evidence in cases in Phoenix and El Paso, and in the program's single indictment last January that netted just 20 defendants for illegal gun-trafficking.
The development marks the first time another law enforcement agency has said it also worked on Fast and Furious cases other than the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is under two investigations into why it allowed at least 2,000 firearms to be illegally purchased and then lost track of the guns' whereabouts.
Nearly 200 of the weapons showed up at crime scenes in Mexico, and two semi-automatics were recovered after a U.S. Border Patrol agent was slain south of Tucson.
Leonhart made the acknowledgement in a letter to Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the senior GOP member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. A copy of the letter was obtained Friday by The Times.
Leonhart wrote that her agents in Phoenix and El Paso were "indirectly involved in the ATF operation through DEA-associated activity. "
She added, "the DEA El Paso Division responded to a duty call in March 2010 from ATF for assistance in conducting an ongoing surveillance operation in the El Paso area as part of Operation Fast and Furious."
But she said her agents in Phoenix "had the most notable associated investigative activity, though DEA personnel had no decision-making role in any ATF operations." That included helping obtain phone numbers and addresses, issuing subpoenas for information on the phone subscribers, and paying linguist costs of $128,000 to help translate intercepted calls.
Her agency further helped in the "round up phase of the case with the execution of search warrants, participated in debriefing some of the 20 gun-smuggling defendants who were arrested in the Phoenix area, and attending the Jan. 25 press conference announcing those arrests.
Dawn Dearden, a DEA spokeswoman in Washington, declined to comment further Friday on the DEA's role in Fast and Furious. "The letter stands on its own," she said. "We're still in a fact-finding mode, so there's not much more we can say."
#2
"Gunwalker" is a real can of worms created by this administration. Cocaine walked to the U.S. as a part of this operation? Also there are rumblings about guns walking to Honduras.
There is a rot in the land. Holder has got to go--probably higher too.
Oh that we all could generate the same hated toward him as is generated toward Casey Anthony..... he changed the outlook of many Americans about our military.... and now he walks, toward dollars, as the media surrounds him.
A former guard termed a ringleader in the physical abuse and sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq was released from prison Saturday.
Charles Graner Jr., a U.S. Army reservist, served 6 ½ years of his 10-year term at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, said Army spokesperson Rebecca Steed. Graner, from Uniontown, Pennsylvania, was credited with good conduct.
He served his prison term as a private, with no salary, and was to be dishonorably discharged after release.
He was convicted in January 2005 of indecent acts, dereliction of duty, conspiracy to commit maltreatment and assault consummated by battery.
#1
Who was Graner's commanding officer? The higher-ups are a better target for our scorn and contempt. The more attention we pay to Graner, the more we line his/his agents' pockets.
#2
They were lex. They were guilty of dereliction of duty in omission. There's an old adage "that which doesn't get inspected, doesn't get done". They flew their desks rather than execute management by walking around. Careers were ended. You really think any employer wants to see that in someone's resume? Future options have been minimized.
#3
Careers ended? Not enough. They'll bury the memory in public and go on with their lives. There should have been something done on the record, at least a less than honorable discharge.
1) Imprisoning terrorists who should have been executed.
2) Insufficient personnel for the assignment.
3) Lack of an NCO chain of command.
4) Indifference or criminal malignancy by the responsible officers.
Junior enlisted personnel (Graner held the rank of Specialist), cannot be *fully* blamed even for war crimes in the absence of NCO and officer leadership. While they can still be blamed for their actions, their NCOs and officers are fully *responsible* for the behavior of their junior enlisted personnel.
Therefore, if a private commits a war crime, and are punished with a year in prison, their NCO and officer should get at least two years. And it continues up the chain, with the resignation of their commanding officer as well, and maybe the resignation of his commanding officer.
#6
After the Vietnam war, a lot of people thought of a clever way to ensure there would never be controversial wars again. They figured that if we simply hollowed out the professional active duty military and pushed most functions into the reserves and national guard, we'd only enter wars that had major public support.
Unfortunately, there were a few flaws in that theory. Our active duty military spends a great deal of effort and time instilling and reinforcing strong habits that guide action under the stress of combat situations. Those habits were not deep and fresh in the bulk of the officers and enlisted at abu Ghraib.
Moreover, the Vietnam war was the last example of the kind of warfare epitomized by WWII - draft large numbers of people, rush them through some training, push doctrine and knowhow into detailed op orders and narrow job lanes and let the professionals at the top try to coordinate that into an effective force.
And then, of course, there are things like cell phones with cameras and daily links back home, which challenge (to put it mildly) old notions re: chain of command and information flow.
Yes - there were officers who should have been held more accountable for what happened at abu Ghraib. But the roots go back farther and deeper and still have not been addressed.
#7
"A Lot Of People" who were primarily led by Colin Powell, who never had to answer for the deficiencies of his Grand Strategy; they were all someone else's fault, of course.
#8
"You really think any employer wants to see that in someone's resume?" I believe employers can no longer ask for that information. Nor can it be given if requested of former employer. That's what I have been told anyway.
#9
Note well, its a resume. If you're apply for a job to toss hamburgers, they're unlikely to ask for one as much as fill out a employment form. If you are seeking a job that entails substantive competitive applications and a salary that is consummate with that, you submit a resume.
#10
After the Vietnam war, a lot of people thought of a clever way to ensure there would never be controversial wars again. They figured that if we simply hollowed out the professional active duty military and pushed most functions into the reserves and national guard, we'd only enter wars that had major public support.
No. After the first Iraq War Congress and the Executive cut the active Army from 950,000 to 750,000, then on to 480,000. At the same time Congress protected the National Guard from similar cuts. The senior leadership of the Army told both the Executive and Congress, that the next time we went to war the Guard and the reserve were going as well. At the same time both branches took the 'Peace Dividend' leaving barely enough funding for active duty training and sustainment. Throw in stretching what was available for the reserve and Guard force that were not subject the the downsizing and you had even less means to achieve training and readiness. Go back to the last years of the 90s and read issues about readiness and manning.
It's never helped that the Guard Bureau is nearly a separate branch in DoD and has historically been resistant to being held to the same standards as the regulars. The last ten years has seen a lot of reform and turn over in personnel as the units have had to come up to standards to meet the missions. The initial shake out was, as usual, painful.
#11
I think we're saying much the same thing, P2k. It certainly is true that the active Army was gutted, which does impact training and readiness. But my experience with the guard and reservists early in the 2000s (very limited, yours is no doubt deeper and more informed) suggests that their training and readiness was, in fact, even poorer.
Regarding officer accountability, roughly 25 percent of the adverse punishments to date have been applied against officers, who make up about 16 percent of the total Army force. While there are still officer cases that remain open, to date, the Army has taken the following actions against officers in the ranks of brigadier general to warrant officer:
Brigadier General - Promotion vacated, relief from command, one letter of reprimand
Colonel - One non-judicial punishment
Lieutenant Colonel (four officers) - Two letters of reprimand, two non-judicial punishments
Major (three officers) - Three letters of reprimand, one non-judicial punishment
Captain (10 officers) Three courts-martial, one other than honorable discharge, five letters of reprimand, one non-judicial punishment
1st Lieutenant (four officers) Two courts-martial, one letter of reprimand, one non-judicial punishment
2nd Lieutenant (two officers) - One other than honorable discharge, one letter of reprimand
Chief Warrant Officer 3 - One court-martial
Chief Warrant Officer 2 - One court-martial.
NB - a special and general courts martial convictions are considered a federal felony conviction.
[Dawn] Apparently beset by a new wave of violence in Bloody Karachi, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement ...English: United National Movement, generally known as MQM, is the 3rd largest political party and the largest secular political party in Pakistain with particular strength in Sindh. From 1992 to 1999, the MQM was the target of the Pak Army's Operation Cleanup leaving thousands of urdu speaking civilians dead... agreed in the National Assembly on Friday to ideas to "deweaponise" the city and send a parliamentary panel to investigate recent killing sprees there.
Ideas for what is called "deweaponisation", or searching and seizing illegal arms, in the violence-plagued city had long been floated by both friends and foes of the MQM, to be countered by the Bloody Karachi-based party with its demand for a more daunting nationwide deweaponisation.
And proposals for sending an all-party fact-finding parliamentary committee to Bloody Karachi came from other opposition parties and a government-allied party without a response from either the MQM or the PPP-led coalition government.
But on Friday, MQM parliamentary leader Farooq Sattar came out with what looked like a grudging acceptance of both proposals after launching a tirade against the government, which his party was allied with until June, for allegedly backing what he called a nexus between Islamic fascistiand underworld mafia to harm his party's prospects in next general elections at the risk of a civil war in the country's commercial hub.
"Whatever the National Assembly decides I will be with you," he told the house while referring to proposals, mainly from the main opposition Pakistain Mohammedan League-N party and the government-allied Awami National Party, for sending to Bloody Karachi a parliamentary fact-finding committee, which he said should find ways to "save the hen that lays the golden eggs".
But he also called for the formation of a judicial commission to investigate and assess damage from recent waves of violence for paying compensation to sufferers and the formation of a Sindh Assembly committee to oversee operations by paramilitary Rangers to maintain peace in the city.
While talking of proposals for deweaponising Bloody Karachi, Mr Sattar first called for taking up a private bill his party had moved earlier this year -- which also sought a total ban on importing weapons and ammunition -- and then said: "You may do deweaponisation (in Bloody Karachi if you want), but first there should also be decriminalisation or demafia (operations)," he said, assuring the house of his party's cooperation for restoration of peace in Bloody Karachi and for what he said in a couplet "planting a tree of love".
Mr Sattar alleged that a conspiracy to destroy peace in Bloody Karachi had begun with the formation of the present government in 2008 -- though his party was part of this government -- and said the latest round of attacks on his party's supporters was meant to avenge its second separation from the ruling alliance in late June.
And he said he had a list of 500 "gangsters" who he alleged had been let loose on his party without any obstruction from police and challenged the government to give a list of and act against any "black sheep" found even in his party of being responsible for violence.
The MQM has been sitting on the opposition benches after it left the government at the centre and in Sindh, though the party's Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad Khan withdrew his resignation last month.
But support to it from other opposition parties has been little more than desk-thumping cheers to its criticism of the government while they all had disagreed to its opposition to the revival of what is known as "commissionerate system" in Sindh, which restores five districts of Bloody Karachi, and none of them backed MQM leader Altaf Hussain's demand two days ago for calling up army in Bloody Karachi.
One opposition party, the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islami, on Thursday even rejected the proposal, which Mr Sattar said was meant only to have a neutral force to oversee law-enforcement rather than a takeover of the city.
He said the PPP's administrative moves were meant to deprive the MQM of at least five National Assembly and 12 provincial assembly seats.
The debate, in which five other politicians from both sides of the house spoke on the day, will be resumed on Monday when the house meets at 1pm.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2011 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
08/07/2011 14:00 ||
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#1
Tater Vows attacks if the sun rises tomorrow.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/07/2011 15:09 Comments ||
Top||
#2
AL-SADR
versus
* WAFF > [Debka = Gaza] NEW HAMAS COMMAND FORCE TRAINED BY IRAN, i.e Al-Qods/Quds Force aka IRGC aka Iran.
ARTIC = Alleged force seemingly intended by AL-Qods = Iran to be "defensive", + to be able to defeat or destroy any invading Israeli forces. or at least make the Israelis pay a heavy price in combat casualties. SIMILAR FORCES DESIRED TO BE STARTED OR SET UP BY AL-QODS WIDIN NEXT SIX MONTHS [EOY 2010 = Jan. 2011]???
Two men said to belong to "Al-Tawfid wal Jihad" Islamist group nabbed in Gazoo City after Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, says they were behind recent spate of rocket fire.
On Friday, the IAF struck five targets in the Gazoo Strip, following several strikes earlier Thursday, which came in retaliation to the rocket attacks coming from Gazoo.
The IDF Spokesman's Office confirmed that the IAF struck four terror tunnels and one terror activity base in the central Gazoo Strip. Another target was struck in the southern strip. A statement added that the precision strikes were identified as hitting their targets.
Two Grad-model Katyusha rockets slammed into southern Israel late Wednesday night. The first rocket went kaboom! near Kiryat Gat and a second one inside Ashkelon city limits, causing damage to a road.
Residents in areas in which sirens were heard rushed into safe areas and shelters to take cover. Five people were lightly maimed while running for shelter and were evacuated to Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon.
On Monday, a woman from a Beduin village was moderately injured by shrapnel from a Paleostinian rocket fired at southern Israel from Gazoo.
There are places where journalists pay a high price for speaking truth to power.
PA's Preventative Security Force in W. Bank arrest Majdoleen Hassouneh's brothers in attempt to put pressure on her to turn herself in. Paleostinian journalists in Nablus told The Jerusalem Post that Hassouneh was wanted by the PA security forces for covering a sit-in strike organized by families of Paleostinians held in Paleostinian jails in the West Bank.
Hassouneh's friends and colleagues have launched a Facebook campaign in solidarity with her and in protest against the PA government's measures against Paleostinian journalists and freedom of the media.
One journalist pointed out that he and his colleagues have come under heavy pressure from the PA security forces in the West Bank to refrain from reporting about stories that could embarrass the PA leadership. Last year, two journalists from Bethlehem were tossed in the clink by PA security agencies -- one for reporting about the dispute between PA President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... and Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan, and the second for allegedly ridiculing the PA president on his Facebook page.
A bit overwrought, as the genocide in question referred to a crowd of civilians in front of his unit, but nonetheless.
Ahmed Khalaf, a lieutenant in the Syrian army said that he was ordered to command his soldiers to shoot indiscriminately at everyone in Deraa, including women and kiddies, London based Asharq Alawsat reported on Saturday.
"I and other officers received orders from our commanders to carry out a genocidal operation in Deraa and were told not to spare the lives of women and kiddies."
In an interview with Asharq Alawsat, Khalaf claimed that he told his commander that he followed orders while secretly telling his soldiers not to fire on anyone. However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... when he was found out and put under house arrest he understood that he had to flee the country.
Khalaf explained that hundreds of Sunni officers are sitting in jails around Syria for refusing to obey orders to fire on civilians, and claims that "4,500 soldiers have defected in the Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... area alone."
The Gulf Cooperation Council on Saturday urged an end to "bloodshed" in Syria and called for major reforms, as international pressure mounted on Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... over its deadly crackdown on democracy protests.
In a statement, the Gulf monarchies appealed for an "immediate end to violence... and bloodshed." They urged a "resort to wisdom and introducing serious and necessary reforms that would protect the rights and dignity of the (Syrian) people, and meet their aspirations".
The bloc -which groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Soddy Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- expressed concerns over the "mounting violence and the excessive use of force which resulted in killing and wounding large numbers".
"As the council members express sorrow for the continuous bloodshed, they stress that they are keen on preserving the security, stability, and unity of Syria," the statement said.
The US-allied Gulf bloc has so far refrained from taking a firm position towards Syria as the regime of President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... carried on with its attempts to crush months of anti-regime protests.
The statement comes a day after the US, French and German leaders pledged to consider new steps to punish Syria after security forces rubbed out at least 22 people as tens of thousands staged anti-regime protests on Friday.
Around 1,650 civilians have been killed by Syrian security forces and thousands of dissenters have been tossed in the calaboose, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Group.
Scores of Kuwaitis on Friday staged two demonstrations in solidarity with Syria's people, demanding the expulsion of the Syrian ambassador and the recall of Kuwait's envoy from Damascus.
The UN Security Council Wednesday condemned Assad's brutal repression of protesters and said those responsible should be held accountable, in its first pronouncement on Syria since the protests began.
Unable to agree on a formal resolution, the council settled on a non-binding statement condemning "the widespread violations of human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... and the use of force against civilians by the Syrian authorities."
Western powers had hoped for stronger action but were rebuffed by veto-wielding members Russia and China, who feared doing so would pave the way for another military intervention like the one in Libya.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2011 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Following Iran's operations against the Party for Free Life of Kurdistan, the group says it will lay down arms if Tehran grants it the right to political activity.
In an interview with the London-based Asharq Al-Awsat, Abdul Rahman Haji Ahmadi, who currently lives in Germany, claimed that his group "is ready to lay down their arms and cease military operations against Iran," if PJAK is offered the possibility of free political activities.
In July, Iran's Foreign Ministry summoned the German charge d'affaires in Tehran Benita Kadenbach to voice Iran's strong protest against the presence and free activity of Haji Ahmadi in Germany.
Members of the PJAK terrorist group -- an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party -- regularly engage in armed festivities with Iranian security forces along the country's western borders with Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
Haji Ahmadi added that if circumstances are right "we would like to return to the country, because we want to continue the fight inside our country, not from [Iraq's] Kurdistan Region."
Haji Ahmadi admitted for the first time that the group is based in the Qandil Mountains, claiming that the "area does not belongs to any individual or government."
PJAK launches its attacks from Iraq's Qandil Mountains in the areas under the control of Kurdistan Regional Government.
The PJAK and PKK had previously laid mines in Sardasht heights near Iran's border with Iraq.
Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) deployed 5,000 military forces in the northwest of the country along its common border with Iraq's Kurdistan, and has been fighting the PJAK terrorist group over the past weeks in order to establish security and stability in the area.
This is while security forces close to President Massoud Barazani's Kurdistan Democratic Party have been transferring maimed PJAK forces of Evil to hospitals.
Through the efforts of Iranian forces, security has been restored to some extent in the region.
PJAK has lost a great of number of its positions, including tunnels and bunkers, to the IRGC.
However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... the US Consulate in the Iraqi city of Arbil has provided PJAK with new weapons, a Press TV correspondent reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/07/2011 00:00 ||
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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.
Apparently beset by a new wave of violence in 
President-for-Life Bashir 
