h/t drudge
Missions by special forces and air strikes by unmanned drones have "decapitated" the Taliban and brought the war in Afghanistan to a "tipping point", the commander of British forces has said.
As long as we're talking decapitation, could we see the severed heads?
The U.N. Security Council meets the key players in the Somalia conflict on Monday to try to persuade the disparate factions to cooperate and restore order to the desperately poor and lawless Horn of Africa country.
The Somalia talks mark the start of a 10-day tour of regional hot-spots that will bring diplomats from the 15-nation council to Sudan's war-torn Darfur region, southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad and the Ivory Coast.
The meetings on Monday and Tuesday will be held in Djibouti, not in Somalia as some council members had hoped, because U.N. security officials were worried that the Security Council would be too tempting a target for armed militants.
South Africa's ambassador to the United Nations, Dumisani Kumalo, said he hoped the Somalis would seize the opportunity to prove to the Security Council that they are serious about getting their country back on its feet. Kumalo said the Djibouti meeting represented a "great opportunity" for Somalis to try to find peace and stability.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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Some 89 children detained by Sudan on suspicion of taking part in a rebel assault on the capital Khartoum appear to be in good health and have not been mistreated, the U.N. children's agency UNICEF said on Sunday.
UNICEF said that it was able to visit the children, all boys ranging in age from 10 to 17, on Saturday at a detention centre where they are being held about 100 km (62 miles) north of Khartoum. "They appear to be in good health and physical condition, and there is no evidence of maltreatment," UNICEF spokesman Edward Cawardine said. "We were satisfied that the children are being treated in an appropriate way."
The children were detained in the aftermath of a May 10 assault on the capital that marked the first time in decades of civil war that rebels from Sudan's peripheries brought fighting to Khartoum's doorstep.
Rebel forces from Darfur's Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) crossed hundreds of kilometers of desert and scrubland for a strike that was only halted at the bridge leading to central Khartoum, army headquarters and the presidential palace. Hundreds of people were arrested after the attack, including the 89 children who the government said JEM had used as soldiers. JEM denied that.
Southern Sudanese leaders, rights activists and political groups have accused of Khartoum making "arbitrary" arrests and torturing suspects since the attack, which Sudan denies.
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06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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Clerics in Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia attacked minority Shi'ites in a statement on Sunday saying Lebanon's Hezbollah was posturing against Israel to hide an anti-Sunni agenda.
The Saudi government and religious establishment has watched with alarm as the Lebanese Shi'ite group's popularity rose in the Arab world since forcing Israel to withdraw in south Lebanon in 2000 and surviving an Israeli military onslaught in 2006. Although most Arabs are Sunni Muslims, Hezbollah is generally popular in the region. Saudi Arabia sees the group, which is funded by Shi'ite Iran, as an extension of Iranian power.
"Many Muslims have been fooled by the Shi'ites' claims to be championing Islam and challenging the Jews and Americans and Hezbollah's claims in Lebanon," the statement distributed on Islamic websites said. "Those who believe their claims have not realised the reality of the infidel bases of their faith ... It was the rejectionist Shi'ites who began the practice of visiting graves and building shrines," it said, citing a major concern of Saudi Arabia's particular brand of Islam, often termed Wahhabism. "They (Shi'ites) humiliate Sunnis whenever they have the chance, in Iran and Iraq. They are destabilising Muslim countries as happened during pilgrimage and in Yemen."
Some members of a Shi'ite sect in north Yemen, to the south of Saudi Arabia, are locked in rebellion there. Iranian pilgrims making political statements have often clashed with Saudi authorities during the haj pilgrimage.
Hezbollah and its allies won a bigger seat in government after street fighting broke out between government and opposition militias last month, further alarming Riyadh.
The statement was signed by 22 clerics including the leading independent religious scholars Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak and Abdullah bin Jabreen. The Grand Mufti, who represents the government's position, was not a signatory but he was quoted in the media during last month's fighting in Lebanon saying groups who raise the banner of Islam were exposing the country to the danger of Israeli reprisals, but he did not specify Hezbollah by name.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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A man charged with being part of a terrorist plot to blow up seven transatlantic airliners denied that he planned to harm anyone, telling a London court that he and friends were making a documentary.
Oh. Well. That makes it allright then ...
Ahmed Ali, 27, testified that after spending time as an aid worker in refugee camps in Pakistan witnessing ``appalling'' conditions, he decided to make a movie to change public opinion about U.K. foreign policy. The group also planned to set off a small explosive device by the Houses of Parliament that would generate publicity for the film.
``Something like that would be sensational -- it would create mass media attention,'' Ali told a jury in London today. ``Never did we intend or think about murdering anybody.''
Sure, after all, small explosive devices have never killed anyone ...
Ali is one of eight men accused by prosecutors of planning ``almost unprecedented carnage,'' by smuggling liquid explosives onto flights for destinations in Canada and the U.S. The investigation following the arrests prompted bans on passengers bringing more than small amounts of liquids and gels onto planes.
In April, when the government opened its case, prosecutor Peter Wright said the group was almost ready to mount an attack when they were arrested in August 2006. Had the group succeeded its plot would have resulted in an unprecedented ``civilian death toll for an act of terrorism,'' he said.
The group planned to disguise liquid explosives in soft-drink cartons and had identified daily flights from London to Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco, Washington, New York, and two to Chicago, prosecutors claim. The discovery of the plot caused temporary chaos at airports, with more than 2,380 flights from London canceled in the week after the men's arrest.
Prosecutors claim that a computer memory stick owned by Ali contained detailed timetables for the targeted flights. He is the first of the group to testify.
Another publicity stunt for the documentary, which would be posted on YouTube, was to film a sequence in which he and his friends would ``make demands in the style of al-Qaeda militants,'' Ali testified.
Just a scene in the movie, of course ...
Earlier today, Ali spoke of his experiences as an aid worker in Pakistan in 2003, working in refugee camps. Children died every day and many of the refugees, most of whom were Afghans, were ``maimed, with limbs blown off,'' said Ali, a graduate of City University in London.
#2
Being in the UK, the pansie judges will most likely be convinced by the lame excuses these con men use. After all, their prophet, the greatest con man in 1500 years is their example, and Mohammed's alter ego, "Allah", will aid them in confounding the Brit's weak judicial minds.
A dad-of-one has denied publishing a pamphlet encouraging terrorism. Amjad Mahmood, 29, and his wife Shella Roma, 27, of Chester Road, Oldham are accused of circulating a document telling others to go abroad and fight a jihad. Mahmood denied two charges, dissemination of a terrorist publication and encouragement of terrorism at Manchester Crown Court. The offences were allegedly committed between October 10 and January 31.
The couple, who have a six-month-old baby, were arrested two months ago. Roma, who fainted in the dock, did not enter pleas. She will appear before the same court for a plea and case management hearing on July 4. Mahmood's trial begins at Manchester Crown Court on August 4.
A majority of Mexicans believe the government is losing its escalating battle against drug gangs, according to a poll published Sunday.
Some 53 percent of Mexicans surveyed by the Mexico City newspaper Reforma said cartels are defeating security forces engaged in a nationwide crackdown. Only 24 percent said the government is winning, and 23 percent had no opinion. Reforma interviewed 1,515 people across Mexico on May 23-25. The poll had margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.
Mexico has seen violence soar despite the deployment of more than 25,000 troops to drug trafficking hotspots since President Felipe Calderon took office in 2006. The attorney general last month said organized crime-related homicides had jumped 47 percent this year: 1,378 deaths compared with 940 in the same period of 2006.
Calderon acknowledges that violence has increased in the northern cities of Culiacan and Ciudad Juarez, but notes that security has improved in some southern states. He said gangs also are fighting among themselves as their leadership weakens.
"It does not gratify us that the fight to regain lost Mexican territory necessarily means periods of violent confrontation," Calderon said in a speech Sunday. "But that is our strategy, and it's the right strategy."
#1
Cartel members own huge estates in Guadalajara and Colima. They keep that property by bribing select Federales. The only drug war is against upstarts who try to compete with the cartel.
Police arrested a former leader of an ethnic Albanian guerrilla group in connection with Macedonia's election day violence on Sunday in which one person was killed and nine were wounded, a senior government source said.
Agim Krasniqi was one of the commanders of the Albanian National Army in a 2001 rebellion and remained active as the leader of an armed group after peace was brokered by the West. In the last election he ran for office as part of the Democratic Party of Albanians, one of the two parties contesting the vote of Macedonia's Albanian minority.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
And what did I tell you in Macedonia when I was there?
#2
Greeks don't recognize the name "Macedonia," because they claim the residents are Slavs, not Greek. As for the Albanians, yet again we run into a case where Muslims invoke right of self-determination when they are a minority. When they are a majority, they invoke territorial integrity to justify oppression of minorities. Makes sense to a moron.
The United States is operating "floating prisons" to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees.
This is another re-hash of the various allegations against us. The Reprieve people are their usual pesky selves but they do have great PR. This keeps up and any day now the Guardian is going to find out we've been stashing detainees at Ice Station Zebra ...
Details of ships where detainees have been held and sites allegedly being used in countries across the world have been compiled as the debate over detention without trial intensifies on both sides of the Atlantic. The US government was yesterday urged to list the names and whereabouts of all those detained.
Even if we haven't done it, we'll have to confess ...
Information about the operation of prison ships has emerged through a number of sources, including statements from the US military, the Council of Europe and related parliamentary bodies, and the testimonies of prisoners. The analysis, due to be published this year by the communist human rights organisation Reprieve, also claims there have been more than 200 new cases of rendition since 2006, when President George Bush declared that the practice had stopped.
Reprieve has been particularly adament on holding that the rights of detainees matter more than the rights of innocent people ...
It is the use of ships to detain prisoners, however, that is raising fresh concern and demands for inquiries in Britain and the US.
Why? They're our ships and thus our business.
According to research carried out by Reprieve, the US may have used as many as 17 ships as "floating prisons" since 2001. Detainees are interrogated aboard the vessels and then rendered to other, often undisclosed, locations, it is claimed.
Good idea (assuming we're doing it, of course, heh). We keep total control over them, and a prisoner who tries to escape has the small matter of swimming a thousand miles home ...
Ships that are understood to have held prisoners include the USS Bataan and USS Peleliu.
Even better; the detainees are safely in the hands of an MEU ...
A further 15 ships are suspected of having operated around the British territory of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, which has been used as a military base by the UK and the Americans.
Reprieve will raise particular concerns over the activities of the USS Ashland and the time it spent off Somalia in early 2007 conducting maritime security operations in an effort to capture al-Qaida terrorists. At this time many people were abducted by Somali, Kenyan and Ethiopian forces in a systematic operation involving regular interrogations by individuals believed to be members of the FBI and CIA. Ultimately more than 100 individuals were "disappeared" to prisons in locations including Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Guantánamo Bay.
At the same time, and this is purely a coincidence of course, Kenya and Djibouti got safer. Unfortunately there was no noticeable effect on Somalia, but perhaps we didn't detain enough ...
Reprieve believes prisoners may have also been held for interrogation on the USS Ashland and other ships in the Gulf of Aden during this time.
The Reprieve study includes the account of a prisoner released from Guantánamo Bay, who described a fellow inmate's story of detention on an amphibious assault ship. "One of my fellow prisoners in Guantánamo was at sea on an American ship with about 50 others before coming to Guantánamo ... he was in the cage next to me. He told me that there were about 50 other people on the ship. They were all closed off in the bottom of the ship. The prisoner commented to me that it was like something you see on TV. The people held on the ship were beaten even more severely than in Guantánamo."
Standard lie #2, they were beaten, tortured, yadda-yadda ...
Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve's legal director, said: "They choose ships to try to keep their misconduct as far as possible from the prying eyes of the media and lawyers. We will eventually reunite these ghost prisoners with their legal rights.
"By its own admission, the US government is currently detaining at least 26,000 people without trial in secret prisons, and information suggests up to 80,000 have been 'through the system' since 2001. The US government must show a commitment to rights and basic humanity by immediately revealing who these people are, where they are, and what has been done to them."
Not likely, since the terrorists are not concerned the least with 'rights' and 'humanity'.
Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on extraordinary rendition, called for the US and UK governments to come clean over the holding of detainees. "Little by little, the truth is coming out on extraordinary rendition. The rest will come, in time. Better for governments to be candid now, rather than later. Greater transparency will provide increased confidence that President Bush's departure from justice and the rule of law in the aftermath of September 11 is being reversed, and can help to win back the confidence of moderate Muslim communities, whose support is crucial in tackling dangerous extremism."
The Liberal Democrat's foreign affairs spokesman, Edward Davey, said: "If the Bush administration is using British territories to aid and abet illegal state abduction, it would amount to a huge breach of trust with the British government. Ministers must make absolutely clear that they would not support such illegal activity, either directly or indirectly."
A US navy spokesman, Commander Jeffrey Gordon, told the Guardian: "There are no detention facilities on US navy ships." However, he added that it was a matter of public record that some individuals had been put on ships "for a few days" during what he called the initial days of detention. He declined to comment on reports that US naval vessels stationed in or near Diego Garcia had been used as "prison ships".
Jeff, Jeff, you've already told them too much. Let them dream this up on their own, they'll feel better ...
The Foreign Office referred to David Miliband's statement last February admitting to MPs that, despite previous assurances to the contrary, US rendition flights had twice landed on Diego Garcia. He said he had asked his officials to compile a list of all flights on which rendition had been alleged.
CIA "black sites" are also believed to have operated in Thailand, Afghanistan, Poland and Romania. In addition, numerous prisoners have been "extraordinarily rendered" to US allies and are alleged to have been tortured in secret prisons in countries such as Syria, Jordan, Morocco and Egypt.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Actually, I have it on good knowledge that they are being held on the space station. The recent broken toilet? Yep, koran flushing.
Posted by: ed ||
06/02/2008 1:44 Comments ||
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#2
I don't find the sources listed in this article in the least.
But, I will say, that we've had eight years to figure this stuff out. Why we don't have a coherent plan to deal with accused terrorists STILL is mystifying to me, and an indictment of the current administration.
We'll never be able to 'prove' there are no 'secret' prisons...
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/02/2008 6:21 Comments ||
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#5
Mizzou Mafia, if we lack a 'credible' plan to deal with terrorists it's because they (deliberately) fall through the cracks in international agreements which presuppose that attacks will be made by sovereign states.
If you have a brilliant proposal for doing so that the current administration has missed, we're breathlessly awaiting enlightenment. I haven't heard one yet and I work with people who deal with counter-terrorism every day.
#7
lotp, I have a suggestion. Stop taking prisoners. I have another suggestion. Announce that we will begin to run the war pursuant to the Geneva Conventions and that terrorists will receive summary executions. Then implement the policy.
#8
If you have a brilliant proposal for doing so that the current administration has missed, we're breathlessly awaiting enlightenment.
Shoot illegal combattants and people who violate the rules of war like wearing of uniforms, not uising hospitals and religious buildings.
Very important is, educationg people that theses are part of the Genava Conventions. That teh Ganeva conventions were for protecting civilians and not for giving an edge to bad guys. That in aorder to avoid that, they allow between other things the freing of the hands of the pother ide when one side violates them them and the shooting of the offenders. That these proviosna re essntial for protecting civilains since they remove the incentive to cheat.
I admit ikt is a un uphill struggle since we havce to revert the work of decades of communist-inspired propaganda aimed at tying the hands of western armies when fighting Vietcong, FLN, Khmer Rouges and similar pseudo liberation movements.
#10
How about this. Shoot illegal combatants on site. BUT, just before you shoot them take them somewhere and interrogate the secretly. After that is done, finish the shooting process. Win win.
#11
Much of what we know about the covert terror networks has come from prisoner interrogation.
Then give the illegal combatants a choice. Intel or implementation of 'sterner' side of the GC.
We have to implement the sterner side against Illegal Combatants or the GC will have no value - and that would endanger the very civilians the GC is supposed to protect.
Ask the civilians of Iraq if the GC has helped to protect them while they were under Al-Quaeda occuation.
#16
Interrogate them, then launch them out the back of a C-130 at 33,000 over the middle of the Atlantic. Get the intel without the hassle of keeping them prisoner.
#19
Besides skirting the Geneva Conventions to their own purposes, the terrorists also use Maritime Laws to their own advantage, ie. piracy and the pursuit thereof. And with all these climate change generated storms, who knows how many could be lost at sea? If true, its brilliant!
#20
The US should treat all but the top level guys as POW and hold them until the end of hostilities (the war may never end, sucks to be them). They should be held in a POW camp similar to what we used with the NAZIs with the knowledge that bullshit, riots or attempts to escape will result in people being shot.
#21
Why would anyone believe a second hand witness, member of a group whose lies listed in the group handbook? The key bit to me was the statement that the prison hulk inmates are being beaten even more severely than at Guantanamo. Only they aren't beaten at Guantanamo. QED.
#24
Trailing Wife, so you're saying that if they are beaten with a feather they are beaten more severely than at Guantanimo which seems fair assuming there is any they anyway.
#27
if they are beaten with a feather they are beaten more severely than at Guantanimo
Anything being infinitely more than nothing, if there are detainees on the theoretical American prison hulks, and if there are theoretical prison guards there, and if the theoretical prison guards daydream about beating the theoretical detainees, it's more severe than Guantanamo, rjschwarz. Does that help? ;-)
#28
Sink em, dead men tell no tales. LOL My guess is that in order to help with interrogation our guys may have convinced some of the yoobs they were on board a ship. The they tell them they are in INTERNATIONAL waters and had no legal recourse and might as well cooperate. FYI the run of the mill jihadi aint that edumacated and is easily fooled.
Washington has pinpointed the frontier areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan as the most pressing points in which to win the war on terror, according to a BBC report released on Sunday.
United States Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told the BBC that successes against Al Qaeda should not lead to a weakening of resolve. Addressing Oxford University students during his visit to the UK, Chertoff said extremists had hijacked the language of Islam to mask an ideology that in some respects has more in common with the fascist organisations of the 1930s.
He questioned whether Pakistans rulers had the right strategy to respond, the report said.
Chertoff claimed the US had succeeded in pushing back Al Qaeda-in-Iraq and argued that Muslims in Iraq were now reacting against indiscriminate militant violence.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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So alarmed is the Pentagon, that Defence Secretary Robert Gates plans to send US ground forces into the FATA are being rapidly advanced, writes journalist Eric Margolis in his syndicated column read worldwide. Apparently, Washingtons criticism of Islamabads recent peace deals in the tribal territories has sharply intensified. American conservatives are claiming Pakistan has sold out to Al Qaeda and Taliban, and is sheltering Osama Bin Laden and his cohorts.
US fears: Margolis writes about Washingtons desperate efforts to keep President Pervez Musharraf afloat because it fears that a fully civilianised government in Islamabad would be more responsive to anti-American sentiment in Pakistan and wash its hands of the war on terror at a time when more, not less, Pakistani support is needed to help US troops in Afghanistan confront the Taliban summer offensive.
Musharrafs slow-motion fall from power has also wrong-footed Washington because it was counting on using US bases there in the event of an attack on Iran, reveals Margolis. The US capitol is again buzzing with rumours of an impending air campaign against at least 3,000 targets in Iran that will be launched sometime before November elections to boost the fortunes of the embattled Republicans. Israels American supporters are waging an all-out campaign for war against Iran. This week, they began running TV commercials claiming Iran was attacking the United States.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Consider the source: Margolis is the secular son of 2 Albanian Muslims. He is a strong partisan of Kashmiri ethnic cleansing of Hindus, and an opponent of the Afghan intervention. When a video of bin Laden surfaced in late 2001, he said it was a Pentagon fabrication. The US has only intervened in Pakistan in hot pursuit operations and those co-ordinate with Pak authorities. They aren't going to change that policy. As for Iran, November would have been an ideal time to attack. Ergo: President Bush is leaving that problem to his successor. However, it is true that Bush opposes the old strong-man cultivation doctrine. Frankly, I believe that in Muslim tyrannies, democracy is nothing more than an elite tool. We could use an Arab Somoza.
#2
Hummm...
Emergency Summer offensive RED-LIGHT-WOT-DANGER!
+
President Pervez Musharraf must be kept afloat
=
Pervert & Co. are sniffing up for More Hard Cash.
#5
Margolis, heir to the Jameson Vitamin fortune is notorious for his pro-muslim pro-jihadi leanings. He has many friends in the Pak officer corps. He just loves to write about their "dark eyes" etc.
Posted by: john frum ||
06/02/2008 15:53 Comments ||
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LAHORE The Election Commission yesterday allowed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif to contest the by-election to be held on June 26, rejecting appeals against their candidature. PML-N Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal told reporters at the Raiwind residence of the Sharifs that the Election Commission had communicated its decision to the PML-N leadership.
A two-judge election tribunal of the Lahore High Court had given a split mandate on the issue on Saturday and had referred the matter to the Chief Election Commissioner, the only relevant authority on the subject. Under the law, in case a tribunal gives a split judgment, the returning officer's decision prevails.
The PML-N has welcomed the Election Commissions decision. However, now, the Sharifs think that somebody could file a writ petition before the Lahore High Court to get both the PML-N leaders out of the race. The Sharifs have discussed the matter with their legal aides and finalised their strategy.
NNI adds: Sharif had earlier refused to fight the case in the court as he did not want to appear before judges who had taken oath under the PCO issued by President Musharraf when he proclaimed emergency in November last year.
Both Sharif and his brother, Shahbaz, had filed nomination papers to run in the by election. Sharif's PML-N secured the second most number of votes in the February 18 parliamentary elections and has also formed government in Punjab. PML-N ministers quit the federal cabinet after the ruling coalition failed to meet its deadline for the restoration of judges sacked by President Musharraf in September last year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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An ultra conservative Muslim seminary in India, which is said to have inspired the Taliban, issued a fatwa, or edict, against terrorism during a meeting attended by thousands of clerics and students. The Darool-Uloom Deoband, a 150-year-old institute controlling thousands of smaller Islamic seminaries in India, vowed late on Saturday in New Delhi to wipe out terrorism, a senior rector said. "Islam rejects all kinds of unjust violence, breach of peace, bloodshed, murder and plunder and does not allow it in any form," rector Habibur Rehman said.
When did that start?
Teachings of the Deoband school and its strict interpretation of Islamic law have spread to many countries, including Britain and Afghanistan. But Deoband has always denied any connection with the Taliban and many experts describe the Taliban as their "naughty children," who twisted their ideology.
"Oh, yasss! What they learned from us is nothing like what we teach!"
Muslims make up about 13 percent of India's officially secular but predominantly Hindu population giving it the third largest Islamic population after Indonesia and Pakistan.
Analysts described the meeting and fatwa as a significant step towards addressing terrorism and bringing relief to India's 140 million Muslims, who feel the acts of some individuals were tarnishing the image of the community as a whole.
"That's right, Dean Wormer! A few bad apples spoil the whole barrel!"
During the rally, thousands of clerics and students wearing white skull caps and spotless tunics cheered as Rehman read out a statement: "The religion of Islam has come to wipe out all kinds of terrorism and to spread the message of global peace."
So they should begin hunting down the Talibs and killing them any time now, right?
Rooters of course neglected to mention this:
"However, it was when the deputy rector of Deoband, Usman, came down heavily on "the dual policy of America" that the massive crowds cheered the most. "Whenever Christian and American interests are hurt in any part of the world, they take prompt action to set things right even at the cost of human lives. They maintain silence though when Muslims are the victims," he said, further criticizing the US for its support to Israel. "
The faithful should take note that we 'take prompt action to set things right'. And remember what that might entail.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Yah, but the didn't fatwa against jihad. Last I heard, Sipah-e-Sahaba was a Deoband terror group.
Baghdad, Jun 2, (VOI) 81,397 detainees and prisoners have been released under the General Amnesty Law endorsed by the Iraqi government released since its implementation in February 2008, the official spokesman for the Supreme Judicial Council said on Monday.
81,397 detainees and inmates from different parts of Iraq have been freed by the Amnesty law until Sunday June 1," Abdul-Sattar al-Berqdar, spokesman for the Supreme Judicial Council, told Aswat al-Iraq Voices of Iraq (VOI).
The spokesman noted 18,951 inmates were set free, 37,912 detainees were release on bail while the number of wanted persons, though included in the law, reached 24,534 detainees.
The formed committees examining the files of detainees included in the amnesty law kept extended their operations to include more detainees, he added.
In February 2008, the Iraqi Parliament enacted the General Amnesty bill that allows the release of Iraqi detainees, according to certain terms and conditions, exclusively from Iraqi detention centers.
The Iraqi Presidential Council ratified the Law on March 27, 2008, and it was implemented on the same month.
Major General Douglas Stone, U.S. official responsible for the detention centers, had said that more than 23,000 Iraqis are detained in U.S. detention centers in Iraq, including 240 Arab citizens and 500 teenagers years less than 17 year.
SYDNEY - Australian troops ended their combat mission in Iraq on Sunday and are withdrawing from the country, Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said. The 550-strong force will leave their base in southern Iraq, fulfilling a promise made by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd ahead of his election last November to bring troops home from the conflict by mid-year.
The Overwatch Battle Group and the Australian army training team formally ceased operations at a ceremony at Camp Terendak at Tallil, the Australian Defence Force said in a statement.
In Iraq, local governor Aziz Kadoum Alwan said the soldiers left Dhi Qar and Muthanna provinces after a flag-lowering ceremony. The Overwatch Battle Group soldiers had been based at Tallil air base, about 300 kilometres (186 miles) south of Baghdad, where they had been providing security training for local forces, and carrying out reconstruction and aid work.
Fitzgibbon said the withdrawal of the troops would close another chapter in Australian military history. Our soldiers have worked tirelessly to ensure that local people in southern Iraq have the best possible chance to move on from their suffering under Saddam's regime and, as a government, we are extremely proud of their service, he said in a statement.
Details of the soldiers' return to Australia were not immediately available, but a spokesman for the minister said it would be completed by the government's deadline of mid-2008. They will be moved home over the course of the next month, he said.
Canberra will still have 1,000 personnel deployed in support of the war but only a small security and liaison force will remain in Iraq itself. Most will be working from nearby countries on two maritime surveillance aircraft and a warship which helps patrol offshore oil platforms.
Goodbye and thank you, mates.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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As I recall, Australian troops had responsibility for 40% of Iraq during and after the liberation. Mostly the empty bits, but still a lot of real estate.
They did their country proud.
The Middle East Newsline has confirmed that the Bush administration, driven by a 2009 deadline for an independent and sovereign Palestinian state, has been transferring millions of dollars in cash to Palestinian Authority (PA) military commanders. "Every major operation is preceded and concluded by cash transfers to Palestinian commanders at a variety of levels," a PA security source said. "Some of these commanders have already become rich just over the last six months alone."
PA commanders have quietly acknowledged that their forces were unprepared to battle dissidents of the Fatah movement as well as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. But they said that U.S. security coordinator Lt. Gen Keith Dayton has been pressuring the PA to demonstrate its ability to take over security responsibility from Israel throughout Judea and Samaria. The result, the sources said, have been several well-publicized PA troop deployments in Jenin and Nablus over the last six months. In each case, the PA undertook one or two operations, attended by the Israeli and foreign media, to tout Palestinian security capabilities. "When the cameras left, the security situation returned to what it had been before," another security source said. "But the PA commanders received envelopes full of U.S. dollars."
In Nablus, the sources said, discipline has declined as officers outnumber soldiers. They said 300 officers and 200 soldiers have been deployed in Nablus since late 2007. In Jenin, the PA deployed 600 National Security Force and Presidential Guard troops under the command of Maj. Gen. Suleiman Umran. The troops, the sources said, were rushed from a training program in Jordan to battle suspected Palestinian insurgents and, in their first operations, began shooting civilians. "It was chaos," a PA security officer recalled. "At one point, field officers called the commander and said one of the shot civilians was dying. The commander said 'Let him die. I don't care.' Another officer with the commander learned that this man was his cousin and began shouting at the commander to take the injured man to the hospital."
The PA has replaced most of its command structure with those loyal to Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. They said this has alienated many veteran commanders who have resisted Mr. Fayyad's authority. "Dayton has helped install a whole new set of commanders who are loyal to the United States and by extension Fayyad," a PA security source said. "The old guys are gone and the new commanders get paid for each operation that satisfies Dayton." British and French intelligence agencies have also been helping in the effort to enhance PA security forces.
What this means is that there are entrenched, Western-trained Palestinian troops in the hills overlooking Israel's population centers, from Netanya to Tel Aviv on the coastal plain to Jerusalem itself. The latent and unexpressed fear in Israel is that Netanya, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem will soon feel the brunt of light artillery attacks from Judea and Samaria, much the way that Sderot and Ashkelon have suffered from Gaza-based artillery attacks.
#6
The "mainstream" Israeli media is all rather left wing. Sources like Jpost are not part of the Israeli mainstream. In fact, last time I checked Jpost had no print edition and was English only.
So if you want support for lunatic policies vis a vis the Palestinians, the mainstream Israeli media will serve just as well as our own venerable NYT.
#9
Jpost not only has a print edition, they have a special weekly edition for outside Israel. Yes it is English only, but its still totally mainstream, lots of Israelis read English (not only ones from English speaking countries, but most college educated Israelis) JP is a major paper.
I get same impression from YNET, the website of the Hebrew lang Yedioth, also mainstream. Maarive unfortunately has discontinued their english language website. Haaretz is by no means typical of the Israeli MSM, and of course even Haaretz has some moderate to conservative commentators. Really, I think I know the Israeli media as well as any of the non-Israeli regs here, and my impression is that on THIS issue the right wings pubs stand alone.
#11
Daddy got the English language Jerusalem Post all during my childhood, for some reason. Perhaps they didn't mail out the Hebrew edition to Buffalo, NY. They did rather pile up when he was writing grant proposals and the subsequent publications, though.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert yesterday delayed a key Cabinet decision on an Egyptian-mediated truce with the Hamas in and around the Gaza Strip. This is an issue that has to go through the security Cabinet, Olmert was quoted as saying by a senior official. This is a serious and weighty issue with far-reaching consequences.
The premier delayed the planned yesterday departure to Cairo of senior Defense Ministry official Amos Gilad, who represents Israel in the indirect talks. At this stage we will not send any envoy to Egypt before holding a security Cabinet consultation, Olmert told his Kadima party ministers before the weekly government meeting.
The premier, who faces a graft investigation that threatens his political future, leaves today on a three-day visit to the United States and will not convene the powerful security Cabinet before next week, his office said. Our commitment is clear that the situation in the south cannot continue and the security Cabinet is the only authorized body to make decisions on the issue, Olmert was quoted as saying.
Egypt has been acting as mediator because Israel refuses to negotiate directly with the Hamas movement. In exchange for stopping rocket attacks, Hamas has said it wants Israel to lift the blockade of Gaza and allow the reopening of border crossings, especially Rafah on the frontier with Egypt.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Olmert Stalls Talks With Hamas
Gotta wait and seee if he's still out of Jail.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/02/2008 17:15 Comments ||
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#2
Hamas should be firmly disabused of the notion they can get a border crossing opened by promising to stop rocket attacks. Nobody but jimmuh carter would be dumb enough to believe such a promise.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/02/2008 17:45 Comments ||
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JERUSALEM - Israel announced plans on Sunday to build hundreds of new homes in an area of the occupied West Bank the Israeli government considers part of Jerusalem, despite US and Palestinian calls to halt settlement expansion. The announcement came two days before Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sets off for Washington for a three-day visit where he will meet US President George W. Bush.
Housing Minister Zeev Boim instructed his office to publish a tender to build an additional 763 housing units in Pisgat Zeev and 121 housing units at Har Homa, an area Palestinians refer to as Jabal Abu Ghneim. Last month Boim instructed his office to publish a tender to build 286 new homes in the Jewish settlement of Beitar Illit, near Jerusalem.
Both sites are located on lands captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war, and were incorporated into the municipal borders of Jerusalem in an act not recognised internationally.
Olmert later praised the housing plan at a meeting of his Kadima faction. We need to continue to strengthen Jerusalem as the capital of the state of Israel. This government is committed to it, it has been since its first day. It has lived up to its commitment and will continue to add and expand, Olmert said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Arabs live in Israel, therefore Jews can live in the West Bank (which was last held by Jordan). End of story.
#3
I can understand Arabs wanting to live in Israel, but not Israelis wanting to live in the West Bank. Why go to a hell-hole that's going to be the center of the next peace negotiations with a fair chance that you will be evicted at some point in the next few years? I am fiercely pro-Israel but it frustrates me when they act near-sighted and unstrategically.
Posted by: John in Tokyo ||
06/02/2008 8:39 Comments ||
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#4
cause this ISNT the West Bank. These are places within the city limits of Jerusalem, a few miles from the city center. While "middle Israel" will support giving up settlements deep in the West Bank, and they MAY agree to a division of Jerusalem, its going to be VERY hard for any govt of Israel to pass a withdrawl from Har Homa and Pisgat Zeev.
Note, even the deep in the West Bank settlements, which I consider strategically and politically untenable, arent exactly hellholes. They are often built on hilltops with a far more attractive climate than Tel Aviv, with space for single family homes, etc. Yes theres a degree of danger, but there was in the development of Israel itself, and some people are okay with the risks of the frontier, if not actually desirious of it.
#5
As liberalhawk says, this is merely the expansion of current communities in the Jerusalem metropolitan area -- most likely to house those removed from the Gaza Strip -- not building new communities deep in West Bank territory. This was long since planned for and announced. It's just Reuters trying to cause trouble for Israel, not real news.
#6
to clarify - Pisgat Zeev is old, Har Homa I think was vacant land until about 4 or 5 years ago. I doubt they are specifically designated for Gaza ex-settlers, but I really dont know. the main point though, is that to Israelis these are not in the same category as WB settlements. Now I understand to Pals that they are - but thats mainly a negotiating stance, I think - so that when the PA allows Israel to keep Jewish neighborhoods in East Jer, they can wave it as a concession, in exchange for which they will expect the evacuation of Ariel and Kiryat Arba.
#7
This proves the terrorist religion of jews have never intended to make peace!!! The jewish religion is one of the most hateful and racist religions on earth!! Jewish is a religion it is NOT a people, race, culture, or ethnic group!! It is just a terrorist religion that uses a book they wrote to justify the murder of women and children to steal everything the Palestinians own!! Some day America will wake up and realize why so many races and cultures hate the jewish religion and will stop using my tax dollars to support killers!!!
Can we beat it like a bongo drum bat it around a little, Mods? :-D
Something tells me you don't pay taxes, TB - American or otherwise. And it's the paleos Arabs who are killing Jews, not the other way around. Try to keep up.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/02/2008 16:19 Comments ||
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#9
All jokes aside, this sounds like a thug magnet, bait them into attacking the house, which is loaded with armed soldiers, and has a mined perimeter.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/02/2008 17:23 Comments ||
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#10
Thravick Black6008 clearly is not a native English speaker. Likely not American either, as only a non-American or a highly educated American Progressive would care about the rest of the world's antisemitism... and an American Progressive would both know to capitalize names whether nouns or adjectives, and would use them correctly, along with commas and exclamation points. Not to mention having more than a vague idea of the name of the book written by the Jews, which is so happily shared by the Christians (see how I did that, dear Thravick Black6008?).
ROSH HANIKRA, Israel - A convicted Hezbollah spy returned from Israel to a hero's welcome in Lebanon on Sunday, and Hezbollah turned over the remains of what it said were dead Israeli soldiers, in what could be the first stage of a larger prisoner exchange between the bitter enemies.
Israeli authorities released Nasim Nisr, an Israeli of Lebanese descent, early Sunday after he completed a six-year sentence for espionage, driving him from a prison in central Israel to the northern Rosh Hanikra crossing. Cameramen surrounded the white van carrying Nisr as a blue gate swung open to shove allow him through the frontier.
Let's hope Israeli intel had wrung his brain out thoroughly ...
Hezbollah official Wafik Safa told the group's Al Manar TV station that it handed over a brown box containing what it said were the remains of Israeli soldiers killed in the monthlong Lebanon war in 2006. Nisr stood beside Safa as he spoke.
An Israeli security official said Hezbollah said the return of the remains was a 'gesture that had not been coordinated with Israel. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity surrounding the ongoing negotiations. Helge Kvam, a Red Thingy Cross spokesman in Jerusalem, called Hezbollah's move a 'complete surprise.
The box was handed over to Israel's army. Military doctors and rabbis were to examine the remains, which were then to be transferred to a forensic institute, the army said. The army said it has appointed a panel to contact the families of the soldiers whose remains are suspected to be in the box. Israeli media have said Hezbollah was believed to be holding the remains of 10 soldiers already confirmed killed in fighting.
Sunday's exchange added to speculation that a major swap is in the works. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah predicted last month that Israel will release prisoners it is holding 'very soon.
Nisr was convicted in 2002 of espionage. He admitted in a plea bargain to passing information to a senior Hezbollah officer. His lawyer, Smadar Ben-Natan, said Nisr's relatively light sentence showed he did not pass on any sensitive information.
Nisr, 39, was born in Lebanon to a Jewish Lebanese mother and a Shia Muslim father. Because of his Jewish ancestry, he qualified for Israeli citizenship and moved to Israel in 1992. He has a 10-year-old son from a first marriage, and two daughters, ages 10 and 7, from his current wife. Nisr was 'nervous but happy, said Ben-Natan. At the same time, she said Nisr was saddened to leave his wife and children. Nisr asked to be stripped of his citizenship in 2004, hoping he'd be included in a prisoner swap at the time between Hezbollah and Israel. Israel does not release its own citizens in such swaps.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
So the terrorist jews can spy on America and we are supposed to ignore it but they deport anyone who spies on them!! Israel is NOT a friend of America they just use us for our money and power! They are just a bunch of religious fanatics who use others for their benefit and are loyal to no one except their religion and would sell out America at the drop of a silver coin!!!!
#2
Lemme guess - IP address from the Middle East, or perhaps the DU?
Wait, I know - ObamaMama's office!
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/02/2008 16:21 Comments ||
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#3
"Thanks to cooperation and intel provided by Nasim, in return for cableTV and slightly better food, several operations were conducted and terrorists eliminated. Again, the state of Israel thanks Nasim"
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/02/2008 16:49 Comments ||
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In Ramallah, a senior Hamas official said yesterday his group was ready for talks with Fatah but without any preconditions. Yahya Mousa, the deputy head of the Hamas parliamentary bloc, said Hamas was ready for immediate talks with Fatah on any peace initiative, including the Makkah agreement. Mousas remarks came in response to a reconciliation initiative by Monib Al-Masri, head of Palestine forum and a prominent businessman, that aims to end rivalry between the two groups. He said that any reconciliation initiative should build on what was achieved during previous deals between Hamas and Fatah. The Hamas official warned that any initiative that does not recognize the results of the elections and political changes, will not succeed.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2008 00:00 ||
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Iran said on Sunday it might have to limit its cooperation with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, criticizing the agency's report which said Tehran's alleged research into nuclear warheads was a matter of serious concern.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in a May 26 report, also said Tehran should provide more information on its missile-related work. Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said Tehran believed the U.N. agency could have submitted a better report had it not been for the "continuing pressures of one or two known countries," in a clear reference to Tehran's Western foes.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/02/2008 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.
The U.N. Security Council meets the key players in the Somalia conflict on Monday to try to persuade the disparate factions to cooperate and restore order to the desperately poor and lawless Horn of Africa country.
Clerics in Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia attacked minority Shi'ites in a statement on Sunday saying Lebanon's Hezbollah was posturing against Israel to hide an anti-Sunni agenda.
A man charged with being part of a terrorist plot to blow up seven transatlantic airliners denied that he planned to harm anyone, telling a London court that he and friends were making a documentary.
A dad-of-one has denied publishing a pamphlet encouraging terrorism. Amjad Mahmood, 29, and his wife Shella Roma, 27, of Chester Road, Oldham are accused of circulating a document telling others to go abroad and fight a jihad. Mahmood denied two charges, dissemination of a terrorist publication and encouragement of terrorism at Manchester Crown Court. The offences were allegedly committed between October 10 and January 31. 
The United States is operating "floating prisons" to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees.
LAHORE The Election Commission yesterday allowed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his brother Shahbaz Sharif to contest the by-election to be held on June 26, rejecting appeals against their candidature. PML-N Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal told reporters at the Raiwind residence of the Sharifs that the Election Commission had communicated its decision to the PML-N leadership.
Baghdad, Jun 2, (VOI) 81,397 detainees and prisoners have been released under the General Amnesty Law endorsed by the Iraqi government released since its implementation in February 2008, the official spokesman for the Supreme Judicial Council said on Monday.
SYDNEY - Australian troops ended their combat mission in Iraq on Sunday and are withdrawing from the country, Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon said. The 550-strong force will leave their base in southern Iraq, fulfilling a promise made by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd ahead of his election last November to bring troops home from the conflict by mid-year.
The Middle East Newsline has confirmed that the Bush administration, driven by a 2009 deadline for an independent and sovereign Palestinian state, has been transferring millions of dollars in cash to Palestinian Authority (PA) military commanders. "Every major operation is preceded and concluded by cash transfers to Palestinian commanders at a variety of levels," a PA security source said. "Some of these commanders have already become rich just over the last six months alone."
