Michael M Phillips of the Wall Street Journal, doing what he does so well. You'll have to register, but it's free.
NANGALAM, Afghanistan—It didn't take long for things to fall apart.
Weeks after the U.S. Army turned over its base here in the Pech Valley to Afghan troops in March, the Afghan commander went AWOL. His deputy, suspected of being in cahoots with the Taliban, ordered his men not to shoot passing insurgents. Soon the base was alive with rumors the deputy planned to let the Taliban inside the gates.
It didn't take long for the Americans to return, either, dragged back into a valley they once considered a trophy and now wish they were rid of. Just four months after pulling out, U.S. Army troops re-occupied the Nangalam base, where they remain to this day.
The saga of the base, nestled among forbidding eastern mountains that insurgents use as a highway to and from Pakistan, is a cautionary tale as the U.S. begins drawing down its forces to leave Afghanistan's security in Afghan hands.
Egypt announced that it had finished preparation for opening the border crossing with Gazoo at Rafah on Thursday and would allow a number of Gazoo residents to exit and pilgrims on the Haj to Mecca to return, Ma'an News Agency reported on Wednesday.
Egypt had closed the Rafah border crossing since last Saturday due to Id al-Adha, the report said.
In addition to allowing travelers through the border, Egyptian authorities will also supervise the transfer of 2 tons of medical aid "as a gift from the Tunisian people to the Paleostinians" in the Gazoo Strip, according to Ma'an.
No doubt it'll come in handy repairing the ravages of leg-shootings and those underneath the rain of bullets responding to the law of gravity following celebratory gun sex. Not to mention work accidents.
Don't worry, the Union of Gazoo Tunnel Rats will get a court injunction to close Rafah by the end of today...
Rumors of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's death spread through the South Korean stock market on Tuesday, driving share prices down and causing the won to plunge against the U.S. dollar. The KOSPI hovered around the 1,915 point level, similar to Monday's close, but fell steeply at around 2:20 p.m. when the rumors hit the market. It closed down 0.8 percent (15.96 points) at 1,903.14.
The won, which had been slowly strengthening, reversed direction and closed at W1,121 per dollar, down W4.1 from the previous day's close.
As the rumor spread, shares of defense-related companies surged. S&T Dynamics, which makes weapons and aviation systems, closed up 6 percent at W15,900, while Speco, which makes fin stabilizers for naval destroyers, ended up 4.2 percent. Embedded systems developer MDS Tech gained 3.7 percent, and Huneed Technologies, which makes communication and security systems, 3.5 percent.
A Unification Ministry official said there was no substance to the rumors. "The North Korean media reported a public appearance by the old bastard Kim just yesterday," he said. "We have detected nothing unusual." The North's official Korean Central News Agency on Monday said Kim and his son and heir apparent Jong-un visited an air force base.
Kim Hak-kyun of Daewoo Securities said, "If investors had taken these rumors seriously, the market would have reacted more severely. The rumors spread through on-line messaging services and were viewed more as gossip, so the impact wasn't that big."
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
How can we tell Stumpy is alive?
Posted by: Steven ||
11/09/2011 0:11 Comments ||
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#2
Track the cognac imports...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/09/2011 0:50 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Senior officials from India and Pakistain met in the Maldives Tuesday as they prepared for a summit of South Asian nations in the remote atoll of Addu, an official said.
Maldivian Foreign Secretary Ahmed Naseer said India's foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai and his Pakistain counterpart Salman Bashir met during the meeting of bigwigs, but declined to give details.
"They met, but I cannot comment on their bilateral matters and what they discussed," Naseer told news hounds after officials met to hammer out a declaration to be approved by their foreign ministers and at the summit.
Naseer said foreign secretaries also discussed greater trade cooperation among members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and said Pakistain's decision announced last week to grant the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India had also figured in their talks.
However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... Naseer said they had also decided that any trade concessions agreed within the regional grouping should be better than the existing bilateral trade arrangements.
However, it was a brave man who first ate an oyster... he declined comment on Pakistain's MFN offer to India, the biggest member of the grouping which accounts for a fifth of humanity in one of the poorest regions in the world.
Many smaller members of SAARC, which groups Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistain and Sri Lanka, have expressed concern ...meaning the brow was mildly wrinkled, the eyebrows drawn slightly together, and a thoughtful expression assumed, not that anything was actually done or indeed that any thought was actually expended... that Indo-Pakistain tensions were hampering regional trade.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
ION DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > PAKISTAN IS RUSSIA'S "MOST IMPORTANT" PARTNER IN SOUTH ASIA [+ Islamic World]: PUTIN.
IIUC, Putin = VLADVEDEV is PCorrectly hinting that AFPAK is a strategic or "core" issue for Russia, as Russia is aware that ...
> Many Pakistani Polticos, mainstream Muslims support + sympathize wid the Chechyan = Caucasus + Xinjiang Muslim insurgencies.
> India is histor a Russian Cold War ally + tarding partner, + remains important for post-Soviet Russian trade - ditto CHINA.
> RUSS FEARS RISING CHINA MORE THAN THE US, BUT A TRLATERAL SINO-PAK-INDIAN MIL CONFLICT IS NOT IN RUSS ECON OR GEOPOL INTERESTS.
> Post-2014, the US-NATO still intend to keep a mil presence in Afghanistan.
> Russia still has its historical interest in having access to the Indian Ocean vee the AFPAK corridor.
> Despite its rhetoric, Rusian covertly is interested in containing or isolating Iranian Radicalism from the Caucasus + Central Asia.
[One Pakistan] A member of the Council of Islamic Ideology in Pakistain has slammed the government for allowing the Jamaat-ud-Dawa ...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba... to collect Eid donations, saying it is clearly evident that 'such thug organizations follow the government's agenda and function with its support'. Golly. You don't think they're just pretend-banned, do you?
On Eid, the government had placed no restrictions on Jamaatud Dawa from collecting animal hides after the Eidul Azha sacrifice. The group says it has set up a hundred camps for hide collection in Lahore alone.
Allama Zubair Ahmed Zaheer, a member of the Council of Islamic Ideology and a Jamiat Ahle Hadith Pakistain leader, however, said the government was giving "undue favour" to "some thug organizations".
"It is clear discrimination. It shows that such thug organizations follow the government's agenda and function with its support. No religious party should have the right to make lashkars or wage so-called jihad. How will the government stop thug groups from functioning when it is giving them a free hand to collect funds?" The Express Tribune reports.
The Pakistain interior ministry had earlier released a list of 31 banned ...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organizations, excluding Jamaatud Dawa.
Most of the organizations were already in the banned list, but People"s Aman Committee of Bloody Karachi, Shia Tulaba Action Committee, Markaz Sabeel Organisation and Tanzeem-i-Naujawanan-i-Sunnat of Gilgit-Baltistan have been added to it now.
The list has counted several thug outfits operating under new names as different organizations. Jaish-i-Muhammad and Khuddam-ul-Islam are two names of the same organization. Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistain and Tehreek-i-Jafaria Pakistain have changed their names to Millat-i-Islamia Pakistain and Islami Tehreek, respectively. They have been mentioned as separate entities.
Lashkar-i-Taiba is on the list but its changed name, Jamaatud Dawa, is missing.
A member of the JD information department, said that the group was operating roughly a hundred camps in Lahore under the name JD or the Falah-i-Insaniat Foundation (FIF).
Posted by: Fred ||
11/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Thats why this country has the most jihadi/militant groups in the world!
Posted by: Paul D ||
11/09/2011 14:35 Comments ||
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[Dawn] Another major attack on American interests in Afghanistan by Pakistain-based bad boy groups would greatly damage the alliance with Islamabad, a senior US official said on Tuesday.
The official was voicing Washington's frustrations with Pakistain and its failure to tackle safe havens in its territory that bad boy groups such as the Haqqani network use to launch attacks against NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... forces in Afghanistan.
The official specifically referred to an attack in September on an American base in Wardak province that maimed 77 American troops and a 20-hour siege of the US embassy in Kabul that killed nine.
"A spectacular raid or a set of spectacular mis-steps, which are possible, could take the relationship much more in a direction that would be detrimental for both countries," the official said from Islamabad, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the relationship.
Both attacks were blamed on the Haqqanis. The former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral, Mike Mullen, has said the Haqqanis are a "veritable arm" of Islamabad's top spy agency, the Directorate of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
The Haqqani network is a bad boy group allied with the Taliban that was started by Jalaluddin Haqqani, who rose to prominence in the 1980s receiving weapons and funds from the CIA and Soddy Arabia to fight Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
Although considered to be a part of the larger Taliban umbrella organization headed by Mullah Omar ... a minor Pashtun commander in the war against the Soviets who made good as leader of the Taliban. As ruler of Afghanistan, he took the title Leader of the Faithful. The imposition of Pashtunkhwa on the nation institutionalized ignorance and brutality already notable for its own fair share of ignorance and brutality... and his Quetta Shura Taliban, the Haqqanis maintain their own command and control, and lines of operation.
"You need to encircle them, not let them have free travel, prevent them from trying to get into Afghanistan," the US official said.
"Cut them off from funding. Cut them off from information. And let them know that there will be a price to be paid from both the Americans and the Paks if you do what you did at the embassy in Kabul, or in Wardak."
The official said she was not expecting a Pak military offensive against the Haqqanis.
Mullen's allegation outraged the Paks, but they later said they do maintain contacts with the Haqqanis, as do many spy agencies, but do not support them.
"We have never paid a penny or provided even a single bullet to the Haqqani network," ISI chief Lieutenant-General Ahmed Shuja Pasha told Rooters days after the attacks.
The Paks are equally frustrated with the United States. Pak officials often complain that Washington woos Islamabad only when it needs something and that it does not care about Pakistain's other problems, such as its staggering economy, lack of development and disputes with India.
In a two-day visit to Islamabad in October, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as The Woman to Call at 3 a.m. and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another John C. Calhoun ... said Pakistain needed to "squeeze" the Haqqanis in a bid to limit their ability to attack NATO troops and bring them to the negotiating table.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Prominent international human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... lawyer Clive Stafford Smith was impressed by the 16-year-old boy who wanted to draw attention to civilian deaths caused by US drone strikes in Pakistain.
Tariq Aziz had volunteered to take pictures of people killed by the remotely piloted aircraft to help Stafford Smith highlight what he calls illegal killings.
Three days later, on Oct. 31, he and his 12-year-old cousin were themselves killed by a drone missile strike in the North Wazoo region on the Afghan border, Stafford Smith said.
For the veteran lawyer, the deaths highlighted major flaws in the CIA-run drone campaign, which US officials say is invaluable in the war on jihad boys.
"What they did to Tariq was absolutely disgusting," he told Rooters in a telephone interview.
Stafford Smith made his name defending death row inmates in the United States and prisoners at the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A life dedicated to law-fare...
He considers the drones as "scandalous" as the secret US bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam War.
Eighty Pak rustics, including Aziz, recently met Stafford Smith and other Western lawyers for the first time, in the Pak capital, Islamabad, to complain about the drones.
The United States has sharply stepped up the number of drone attacks in Pakistain's unruly ethnic Pashtun areas in the northwest, along the border with Afghanistan.
In 2009, when President Barack This is a teachable moment Obama took office, there were 53 strikes, compared with 42 over the previous four years. In 2010, that number jumped to 118, followed by 68 this year, according to the New America Foundation.
The think tank's statistics raise doubts about the success of the drones. It estimates as many as 471 non-combatants were killed by drone strikes in Pakistain between 2004-2011, a 20 percent non-militant fatality rate.
US officials point to the deaths of senior al Qaeda and Taliban figures as proof the drones are highly effective, and no American troops are needed on the ground.
Missile-armed drones are playing a greater role than ever in US counterterrorism operations, as Obama winds down land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Washington's focus expands to jihad boy havens in countries such as Pakistain.
Stafford Smith says the strategy will cause more civilian deaths and create additional enemies for the United States.
"When you have warfare with no political costs at all, it becomes much too easy to resort to violence," he said, adding his goal was to raise international awareness about the suffering caused by drone strikes.
"What we are seeing in Waziristan is a process that is alienating the population just as napalm in Vietnam did and it's achieving very little benefit."
Stafford Smith drew parallels between Guantanamo and the drone campaign in Pakistain, arguing both detentions and strikes were often based on dubious intelligence. He suspects the death of Aziz was a prime example of that.
"We as America offer large bounties to different informants and these informants would sell their own mothers," said Stafford Smith, 52, a dual US-British citizen who is the director of Reprieve, an organization that advocates for prisoners' rights.
"We don't have proof but this (Aziz's death) was the result of some Pak informants who want to show their paymasters they are doing their jobs. So they make up a story and a poor kid dies."
Drone "pilots" based in the United States move joy sticks around as they watch live video feeds of jihad boys, who are killed with the push of a button.
"We keep talking our way into a system of warfare that was in our science fiction nightmare 30 years ago and we really need to have an open debate on it," said Stafford Smith.
He faces an uphill battle. US policy makers are encouraged by drone operations like the one that killed US-born jihad boyholy manAnwar al-Awlaki ... Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, zapped in Yemen, al-Awlaki was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Yemen. He was an Islamic holy man who was a trainer for al-Qaeda and its franchises. His sermons were attended by three of the 9/11 hijackers, by Fort Hood murderer Nidal Malik Hussein, and Undieboomer Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He was the first U.S. citizen ever placed on a CIA target list... in Yemen in September.
But Stafford Smith believes "justice" will prevail.
"In the early days of Guantanamo Bay people said 'no one will pay attention'. It was difficult," he said. "I have no doubt the American people and everyone else will recognise what's going on here and put an end to it."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Näwaz Shärif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. on Tuesday linked the release of confessions made by hit mans involved in the violence in Bloody Karachi with a formal permission granted by the Supreme Court, DawnNews reported.
Mr Malik informed the media that more than 100 hit-men were tossed in the slammer and all of them had admitted to their crimes.
He claimed that peace had fully been restored in the port city.
The interior minister said that an investigation team was going to be constituted to probe networks of banned outfits operating from jails.
He said that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had been directed to launch a countrywide operation to stop the use of mobile phones and internet service being provided illegally to the prisoners in different jails.
"There are reports that jail inmates are using these facilities in connivance with the jail authorities," he added.
The interior minister also held a meeting with President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... at the Bilawal House.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/09/2011 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Iraq's Interior Ministry has denied that a detainee, called Kazim Munshid, has died under torture, but said he died after committing suicide in southern Iraq's Muthanna Prison, according to an Interior Ministry statement on Monday.
"Kazim Munishid, detained according to an Investigation Judge, had committed suicide," the Ministry statement reported, adding that an investigation committee had been formed to investigate the reason of his death, and his body was sent to the related Justice Medical Department to reach the real reason for his death.
Press reports had pointed out recently that Munishid has died due to torture in one of the prisons of Southern Iraq's Muthanna Police Directorate, following his detention during the last campaign against elements of Iraq's former ruling Baath Party elements.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/09/2011 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: The process of the US troops withdrawal from Iraqi territories is taking place continuously and in a routine manner, an Iraqi Miliary source said on Tuesday. They're going to miss us when we're gone.
"The the US troops withdrawal is taking place in a routine manner and according to a plan, prepared by the American forces, that is taking place through the highways in central and southern Iraq towards the strategic highway, allocated for the foreign forces in Iraq since 2003," the Iraqi military source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.
He said that the American forces "are carrying out their logisticappliances, along with other goods and soldiers through the Startegic Highway," adding that "the American forces would head after their departure from Basra to Safwan, 60 km to the south of Basra, towards Kuwait.," confirming that the Strategic Highay had not witnessed any violence acts during the withdrawal.
Noteworthy is that the Strategic Treaty, signed between Baghdad and Washington in 2008, the American forces were to completely withdraw from Iraq by the end of December next.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
You should never give up the land you conquer.
The American pattern for the last hundred years is to 'liberate', not conquer. The Philippines were already scheduled for independence when the Japanese invaded and occupied the islands in '41-2. After retaking them in '45, they gained their independence in '46. Puerto Rico has had numerous votes for independence, statehood or retention of commonwealth. The only land 'retained' in Europe or the Pacific was to bury our dead. It's best phrased by the character Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain in Gettysburg - This is a different kind of army. If you look at history you'll see men fight for pay, or women, or some other kind of loot. They fight for land, or because a king makes them, or just because they like killing. But we're here for something new. This has not happened much, in the history of the world: We are an army out to set other men free. America should be free ground, all of it, from here to the Pacific Ocean. No man has to bow, no man born to royalty. Here we judge you by what you do, not by who your father was. Here you can be something. Here is the place to build a home. But it's not the land. There's always more land. It's the idea that we all have value, you and me. What we're fighting for, in the end... we're fighting for each other.
No, reminding us what makes us who we are. Preserving our values and identity isn't automatic when we spend a decade+ cheek and jowl with those who do not share them - a struggle you and your country also know.
Yeah. The American Indians would raise the same issue. But, really, there were so few of them and so many of us that it was inevitable. Sorry. Would you really prefer that California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas were still a part of Mexico today? Of course, with people like Obama running things, they're likely to be reconquered anyway. Sometimes it feels like California already has been.
I think P2K is right though. After WWI and WWII we could have colonized France, Italy and Germany. We could have claimed the Philippines, Japan and countless Pacific Islands for our empire. We could have colonized all of North Africa. But we didn't.
I think the problem we face now is after we liberate the people of Iraq or Afghanistan we think we have to help them build stable, democratic nations and it may not be realistic because these people are simply not capable of such a thing. Iraq, maybe. Afghanistan, I don't think so, ever. We can't afford it either. So the mess we leave behind is likely to be just as bad as it was before we went in there.
I think if we end up going to war against countries like Iran or Pakistan the goal should be to destroy them. Period.
The Defense Ministry has completed the construction of 65 kilometers of fence along Israel's border with Egypt in face of a significant increase in the number of infiltrations by African migrants.
According to statistics obtained on Tuesday, an additional 40 km of fence will be erected by the end of 2011 and the section of 230 km slated for closure will be completed by September, 2012.
The government had initially planned to complete the project by the end of 2013 but Defense Ministry Dir.-Gen. Udi Shani decided several months ago to hire a number of contractors to work simultaneously in a bid to speed up the project.
Defense officials said that the increase in infiltrations in recent months was understood to be part of an effort by African migrants interested in reaching Israel to do so before the fence is completed. None of the infiltrations have taken place where there is a fence and the IDF recently sent troops from the Golani and Givati Infantry Brigades to try and climb the 5-meter fence and they failed.
In addition to the actual physical barrier and due to the growing terror threat Israel faces from the Sinai, the Defense Ministry is also planning to deploy sophisticated radar systems along the border that will be able to alert IDF troops of potential infiltrations before an infiltrator actually reaches the fence.
#4
Can't repeat as necessary. Israel gets one shot at this. They might be able to take their one shot over a couple days, but after that the doors will be closed.
The map Water Modem puts up has issues. It's not clear that Erdogan and the Turks will permit overflights, and the Turks have a half-way decent air force (we helped train them). Jordan can at least track Israeli flights even if they know better than to put planes in the air.
But Israel has tricks besides (or along with) air strikes. They have some decent drones. They have Dolphin-class subs in the Arabian Sea (supposedly) that are supposedly armed with missiles that supposedly can reach deep into Iran. Israel further has demonstrated an ability and will to insert field agents and special force teams into Muslim countries to do all sorts of stuff.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/09/2011 12:26 Comments ||
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#5
I get a bad, bad feeling that our leaders are a bunch of Neville Chamberlains...asleep at the switch and there's about to be a train wreck.
#9
If Israel only gets one chance then they should bury the entrances and take out EVERY power plant in the country. Whack that single gasoline refinery the Iranians have as well.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
11/09/2011 17:43 Comments ||
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#10
Set the refineries and LNG plants ablaze. That will crater their economy.
#11
Eh? What a great plan!
'Encourage' Iran to put all of it's fissionable materials, and devices to make same, together in a common underground facility.
Didn't we see here that Israel was 'given' some of those 20,000lb Bronco Billy Belt Busters a little while back? Who's gonna bet the Saudi's have some too?
#12
Look this is simple. Either it is important or not. If it is, then Israel says, we are about to nuke Iran into the stone age, and anyone who doesn't agree might just get some too.
Be bold and issue the ultimatum.
Then either you get what you want, or you don't.
If there is one country on Earth ready to go old testament on someone it would be those Israelis.
[Iran Press TV] A senior Iranian politician says Iran's geopolitical position ensures that the slightest act of aggression against the country will drive oil prices through the roof.
Member of the Majlis (Parliament) National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Mohammad-Karim Abedi said on Tuesday that Iran will be the one to take the final decision if it is militarily attacked and such an attack would increase oil prices by threefold.
Abedi's remarks follow November 6 remarks by Israeli President Shimon Peres, who threatened that an attack against Iran was becoming "more and more likely."
The United States and Israel have repeatedly threatened Tehran with an attack under the pretext that Iran's nuclear program may have a covert military aspect.
Tehran has categorically refuted the West's allegations, saying as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
Iranian officials have promised a crushing response to any military strike against the country, warning that any such measure could result in a war that would spread beyond the Middle East.
"Just as the Socialist economy disintegrated, today, the Liberal economy is falling to pieces, and that is the reason the US and the Zionists [Israelis], who have maintained their inauspicious existence through threats and intimidation opt to threaten nations," Fars News Agency quoted Abedi as saying.
"But they should know that the existence of the Zionist regime [of Israel] will end forever with the smallest measure it takes against Iran," he warned.
He further rejected allegations spearheaded by the US and Israel against Iran's peaceful nuclear energy program and reminded that as a member of the international Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has the right to obtain its civilian nuclear needs.
Abedi condemned Israel's control over the IAEA ahead of the agency's upcoming report on Iran's nuclear activity, and called on Director General, Yukiya Amano to "convey the realities to the international community" instead of relying on the lies the US and Israel have hurled against the Iranian nation.
"Iran has passed the nuclear issue and we are a nuclear and independent country, and thus a war against Iran is a war against humanity and democracy," he insisted.
The Iranian politician downplayed Israeli war rhetoric against the Iran, saying the regime is "too small" for a military attack against the Islamic Theocratic Republic.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
How high do 'Burgers think oil will go if Iran gets its nuclear weapons?
#4
I think we'd see $25/gal easily before it disappeared altogether for a bit - The One would almost certainly make matters worse by trying to make sure everybody suffered 'evenly'.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
11/09/2011 5:40 Comments ||
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#5
All this does is make the speculators rich.
There is plenty of oil elsewhere to feed the world supply. We buy no oil from them. The oil speculators and the pests and vermin in the COMEX and Wall Street want everyone to believe this is what will happen...they want to be rich. I think we need to outlaw speculation on oil prices in the spot market.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
11/09/2011 9:43 Comments ||
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#7
bman yea Keystone!. Then North Dakota. We have the potential to be the worlds biggest producer. We just have to get government out of the way. Good Jobs, money in the bank, pay off China and get this country back on solid ground. The House of Saud fear the Iranians work a deal with them if you have to. Temporally, they are an Ally (hopefully). So oil will jump a little with world economies so week demand can only go up big time if we have a severe winter. Similar to when Kuwait was on fire.
#9
My problem with Keystone is it uses union labor to build a pipeline to Texas through the Ogallala aquifer and Right-to-Work states. What about processing it in North Dakota for distribution in the Midwest and beyond, creating many more jobs than just the pipeline?
#11
What about processing it in North Dakota for distribution in the Midwest and beyond
There are no refineries in ND, SD, or NE. The chance of the Obama admin approving new refineries? His moniker - Zero. There are a few small refineries in Kansas, but they can handle on a small fraction of the pipeline's capacity. The next largish refinery capacity (<1M bbl/day) is in Illinois, but if your gonna go that far, might as well just go the oil terminus at Cushing, OK (which it does).
#12
Iran exports 2.5M bbl/day and decreasing. That is about what Iraq exports and about half what Iraq is expected to export in a few years. Unless Iran expands the war to all the Persian Gulf countries, their production won't be missed, except the by kleptomaniac ayatollahs.
#15
There might be a targeting of Iran's nuke capability but IMHO there's not going to be an invasion. Oil prices would most likely go up unless production increases elsewhere.
#16
Unless Iran expands the war to all the Persian Gulf countries Most likely they intend to do just that, starting with sinking a tanker or two in the Strait of Hormuz. Just the insurance premiums for oil transports would damage the world economy.
#17
There's enough intel indicating that Iran's Quds Force assets are embedded in the Gulf nations (as well as other places). It's possible that those governments are aware of who and where those assets are, and might be ready to take action.
However, I'd bet on there being significant disruption. And the Iranians wouldn't necessarily have to sink a tanker.
[An Nahar] Special Tribunal for Leb prosecutor Daniel Bellemare said Tuesday it was premature to begin a trial in absentia against the accused Hezbullies members, demanding the Lebanese authorities to be heard in the Trial Chamber.
Leb's government, closely linked to the Iran-backed Shiite militia, has so far failed to arrest Salim Ayyash, Mustafa Badreddine, Hussein Anaissi, and Assad Sabra, wanted for the February 2005 murder of Hariri and 22 others.
"It is premature to initiate a trial in abstentia", Bellemare said in a document published on the court's website.
Last month, a judge asked the pre-trial chamber to determine whether proceedings in absentia against the four Hezbullies members were appropriate.
Ahead of a Friday hearing on the issue, the court asked both the prosecutors and defense lawyers to weigh in.
"Not enough time has been allowed for the Lebanese authorities to effect the arrests of the four accused", Bellemare said.
A previous Beirut government, led by Hariri's son Saad, cooperated with the tribunal, but in January Hezbullies toppled that western-backed coalition, largely over its support for the special tribunal.
Hezbullies leader Hassan Nasrallah, whose bad turban party is blacklisted as a terrorist group by Washington, has dismissed the STL as a US-Israeli conspiracy, vowing that no member of Hezbullies would ever be found or set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock.
"Not enough has been done to effect the arrests because the Lebanese authorities have either been unable or unwilling to do so," the prosecutor's statement further said, adding that " the Trial Chamber must invite the Lebanese authorities to be heard and to give evidence."
The Hague-based STL, which opened its doors in 2009, is the first international tribunal which can hold trials in absentia.
It is also the first with a designated defense office responsible for protecting the rights of the accused.
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11/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... leader MP Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... stated on Tuesday that another one-way ticket awaits former Prime Minister Saad Hariri Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. if he returns to Leb, noting that the Syrian crisis is over.
He said after the Change and Reform bloc's weekly meeting: "He can say whatever he wants. Who asked him not to return? There is another type of one-way ticket if he wants to return to Leb and he knows it."
Addressing the news hounds at his presser, the MP said: "Next Tuesday you will tell me if the crisis in Syria has persisted. I believe that it is over."
On U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's ... sometimes described as The Heroine of Tuzla and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Abel P. Upshur ... statements that the U.S. administration is prepared to cooperate with Islamists in Tunisia and whether that poses a threat to Christians, Aoun noted: "Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... chief Samir Geagea ... Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005 ... spoke of Sunni-Shiite strife and attempts to thwart the Iranian ambitions in the area. The Christians are part of those attempts and the naturalization of Paleostinians will force them to leave the country."
"Is Clinton laughing at us? They oversimplify matters and if they really understood them, they would not have entered Iraq and Afghanistan," he continued.
"The U.S. is incapable of settling the conflict in Afghanistan, Iraq, and North Korea," he added.
"Israel will fail after the July 2006 war and once the U.S. launches a war, it fails," he noted.
"What is preventing them from striking a truce in Syria and then igniting the conflict all over again?" Aoun wondered.
Indirectly addressing Hariri, Aoun said: "Whoever is waiting to return to Leb after the collapse of the Syrian regime will have to wait a long time for this to happen."
On the Special Tribunal for Leb, he stated: "I am not a slave for Europe or the United States."
"We will not fund the STL as long as our questions on it to U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... and others remain unanswered," the FPM leader remarked.
Addressing demands for Hizbullah to lay down its arms, the MP said: "Once the army is granted autonomy then they may request the party to lay down its weapons, not the other way around."
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11/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Iran will kill "dozens" of U.S. military commanders for each Iranian commander murdered, if covert hits urged by two U.S. defense analysts last month are carried out, a senior Iranian military chief warned on Tuesday.
"If you kill one of us, we will kill dozens of yours," the Fars news agency quoted Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the elite Revolutionary Guards' aerospace division, as saying.
In remarks directed to the U.S. military, he stressed "you must not forget that American commanders are present and travel around in Afghanistan, Iraq and regional countries."
His comments referred to October 26 testimony by two hawkish U.S. military experts to a U.S. congressional committee looking at possible ways to hit back at Iran for an alleged plot by Iranian officials to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington.
In that session, a retired four-star general who helped plan the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq, Jack Keane, and a former CIA agent, Reuel Marc Gerecht, argued for the targeted, covert murders of Revolutionary Guards officers.
"Why don't we kill them? We kill other people who are running terrorist organizations against the United States," Keane told the panel.
The U.S. congressmen listening to them did not endorse that proposal. But several said they were not excluding any measures against Iran.
Iran made a formal protest over the experts' comments via the Swiss embassy in Tehran, which handles U.S. interests in the absence of Iran- U.S. diplomatic ties.
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11/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Iran said on Tuesday that the West had no serious proof it was developing nuclear weapons, ahead of a report by the UN atomic watchdog that is expected to provide new evidence against Tehran.
"There is no serious proof that Iran is going to create a nuclear warhead,"Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said, responding to a question about the IAEA report during a visit to neighbouring Armenia.
"The West and the United States are exerting pressure on Iran without serious arguments and proof," he said.
The IAEA report expected this week has been raised as a potential trigger for an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.
Diplomats have said that the report will focus on the Islamic republic's alleged efforts to put fissile material in a warhead and on developing missiles.
Previous IAEA assessments have centred on Iran's efforts to produce fissile material --uranium and plutonium --which can be put to peaceful uses such as power generation or be used to make a nuclear bomb.
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad on Monday accused Israel and the United States of seeking world support for a military strike, describing this as a "very serious mistake".
Salehi repeated Tehran's position that its nuclear programme was for peaceful purposes only.
"We have repeatedly stated that we are not going to create nuclear weapons," he said.
But the White House said Monday that it expected the UN nuclear watchdog to echo its concerns, and as is customary refused to rule out the use of military force.
Iran has so far refused to freeze its uranium enrichment activities despite several UN sets of sanctions.
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11/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Iran should show "sincerity" and "engage in serious cooperation" with the U.N. atomic watchdog, China said Tuesday ahead of a key report detailing Tehran's suspected efforts to develop nuclear weapons.
The intelligence update by the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is expected to be released this week and diplomats say it will focus on Iran's alleged efforts to put fissile material in a warhead and develop missiles.
China and Russia -- key allies of the Islamic republic -- had been urging the UN atomic agency to soften or even not issue the eagerly awaited report, diplomats told Agence La Belle France Presse last month.
But Chinese foreign ministry front man Hong Lei told news hounds on Tuesday that Tehran should "show flexibility and sincerity and engage in serious cooperation with the agency" while urging the IAEA to be "just and objective".
"China is against the proliferation of nuclear weapons and opposes the development of nuclear weapons by any country in the Middle East region," Hong told news hounds.
"It is imperative to prevent new turbulence in the Middle East security situation."
Previous IAEA assessments have centered on Iran's efforts to produce fissile material -- uranium and plutonium -- which can be put to peaceful uses like power generation, or be used to make a nuclear bomb.
The intelligence update, expected to be circulated on Tuesday or Wednesday, will likely focus on Iran's alleged efforts towards putting radioactive material in a warhead and developing missiles for delivery.
Iran, which has been hit by four rounds of U.N. Security Council resolutions, says its nuclear activities are peaceful and in the past has dismissed such allegations as fabricated.
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11/09/2011 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV] Iran has rejected the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency report about the country's nuclear program for being unbalanced and politically motivated.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/09/2011 00:00 ||
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#2
IONE more interrelated Artics on Iran + IAEA Report...
* WAFF > [Debkafile] SECOND FIRM IRANIAN THREAT. Ianian response to any Israeli attack on its NucProgs won't be limited to only Israel, which Debka interpretes as meaning Iran may strike US targets throughout the ME + Mediterranean, includ agz the US 6th Fleet = read, USN NavBases in [SOuthern] EUROPE.
* TOPIX/WORLD NEWS > [Iran MO-Offcial] NAQAVI: BATTLEFIELD WILL BE ENTIRE EUROPE + US, iff Iran is attacked.
* DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > IRANIAN FORCES TO LIBERATE PALESTINE IFF ATTACKED.
and
* SAME > EGYPTIAN CLERIC TO INVOKE JIHAD [agz Israel, US?] IFF IRAN HIT. Sheikh of the Egyptian Azmieh Conf. AALA MAZI ABDULAZAEM.
IOW, any Israeli attack = TWO/MULTI-FRONT WAR FOR TEL AVIV [+ Allied].
versus
* SAME > [POSTER OpEd = IAEA Report]] IRAN OFFICIALLY A STATE WID NUCLEAR CAPABILITY!?
The Debka Boyz believe that while the US + Israel will attempt to stop Iran NucProgs diplomatically + via UN Sanctions, + avoid any milstrikes agz Iran in the present, ULTIMATELY A US MILSTRIKE MUST OCCUR AS POTUS BAMMER HAS PROMISED THAT IRAN WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO ACQUIRE NUCWEAPS.
IOW, DEBKA = ISREAL GOVT = BESIDES ANYTHING ELSE, IT WILL LOOK VERY BAD FOR THE BAMMER GOING INTO HIS 2012 POTUS RE-ELECTION CAMPAIGN IFF IRAN FORMALLY DECLARES THAT IT HAS NUCWEAPS OR IS ACQUIRING SAME.
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.
Senior officials from India and Pakistain met in the Maldives Tuesday as they prepared for a summit of South Asian nations in the remote atoll of Addu, an official said.
[Dawn] Another major attack on American interests in Afghanistan by Pakistain-based
Hillary Clinton
Wazoo
Interior Minister 
[An Nahar] Special Tribunal for 
Michel Aoun
Hillary Clinton's 
North Korea
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
