Islamic Activist Mubarak Al-Bathali Tuesday denied receiving KD 1,000 from some youths for completing their travel formalities to Iraq and Afghanistan to help them fight jihad in these countries. This came when the Criminal Court asked Bathali about the charge against him before the court set Jan 27, to issue its verdict in the State Security case which has been filed against Bathali. Bathali's lawyer Sanad Al-Thuwaimer told the court what his client had said was just a statement during an interview which was misunderstood by some people.
Thuwaimer also said there was no criminal intent in his client's words. He added the arresting officer's investigations were not serious and requested the court to acquit his client. Bathali had already been released on KD 1,000 bail and a travel ban has been slapped against him following an interview with a local daily on May 7, 2008. In an interview with Al-Qabas daily, Bathali said he hoped to be the al-Qaeda leader in Kuwait. "However, the youths organize themselves in a way that is related to their trust in others," he said. "If someone tries to contact me and I am not available directly, I examine him and then send him to perform organized 'jihad'," he added. The session was presided over by Judge Abdurrahman Al-Darmi.
He "warns" the government to consider expelling Israeli diplomats, for example
Posters advocating terrorism have appeared near a college and a mosque in Waltham Forest -- fuelling fears that extremists are using the Gaza crisis to recruit young people.
Dr Usama Hassan, imam of the Al-Tawhid Mosque, spotted a poster saying "Jihad is the only solution" opposite Leyton Sixth Form College in Essex Road and another calling on Muslims to "rise up against Britain" close to his mosque in Leyton High Road. He removed both posters, saying: "We are making a lot of progress in combating extremism. The failed plots and convictions have made people see the complete stupidity of it all. But the Gaza crisis has the potential to undo a lot of the good progress we have made."
"Some people think it is cool to be a gangster, and for some people being a terrorist is the ultimate gangster." He also said that the economic climate has made people insecure and poor, which could also play into the extremists' hands as people are more likely to want to blame others for their plight.
Dr Hassan, was among a group of community leaders who met senior cabinet ministers, including foreign secretary David Milliband and communities secretary Hazel Blears, this week.
The imam wants to see stronger words from the UK Government and he believes the possibility of expelling Israeli diplomats from the UK should be considered. The Arab Peace Initiative, a plan which would see Israel withdraw to its 1967 borders, release Palestinian prisoners and see Israel recognised as a sovereign state, would be a potential solution to the long-running crisis, according to Dr Hassan.
He also praised Leyton & Wanstead MP Harry Cohen for his strong condemnation Israel's actions, saying a Jewish MP criticising Israel sends a "powerful" message to some extremists, who talk about a war between Muslims and non-Muslims.
#2
Dr. Hassan might have mention that in addition to muslilms turning violent because of the economic situation or the Gaza situation or love of gangsters, some muslims turn violent when they attend Islamic school and read their holy books.
#3
The current problem is due to Israel withdrawing from Gaza, so "withdrawing to its 1967 borders" wouldn't solve anything. The solution is for someone to control the Paleos. Any volunteers? I thought not.
(Yon starts the article with an update on Robert Gates; it's also a good read)
During my trip to Washington, D.C., I had a chance to catch up on some matters neglected while I was overseas. My attorney may have to file a lawsuit against Mr. Michael Moore. In May we contacted Mr. Moore, through his counsel, about Mr. Moore's unauthorized use of my work on his website. He did not respond. My attorney has written again. If Mr. Moore and his counsel continue to ignore our correspondence, we will proceed with a lawsuit.
This lawsuit, though, should not be a distraction from combat reporting; the proceedings should be easy and require almost zero hands-on work from me. But it will be potentially costly. I've never sued anyone in my life. Looks like Mr. Moore might be the first. I told one very important person recently about the possible upcoming lawsuit and he said something like, "Someone should drive a stake through that guy's heart." It won't be that bad, but copyright cases are interesting and we have to deal with them often. If you want to help me as I both prepare to return overseas and take on this lawsuit with Mr. Michael Moore, please hit the PayPal button. This lawsuit could be expensive for Mr. Moore, as well. My attorney advises that our position is strong. It is senseless for Mr. Moore to ignore this matter. Putting a stake through Moore's heart should be challenging; he doesn't appear to have one.
THE Pentagon official overseeing the tribunals for Guantanamo Bay detainees has concluded that the US military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the September 11 2001, attacks, The Washington Post reported today.
"We tortured (Mohammed al-) Qahtani," Susan Crawford said in an interview with the newspaper. "His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that's why I did not refer the case" for prosecution.
But read on and you'll see that we were coercive but we didn't torture him, as she'll admit.
Ms Crawford, a retired judge who also worked in the Reagan Administration, is the first senior Bush Administration official responsible for reviewing practices at Guantanamo to publicly state that a detainee was tortured.
President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have said that the US does not torture.
Ms Crawford told The Post the techniques used in Qahtani's case were authorised but applied in an overly aggressive and too persistent manner. "This was not any one particular act; this was just a combination of things that had a medical impact on him, that hurt his health. It was abusive and uncalled for. And coercive. Clearly coercive. It was that medical impact that pushed me over the edge" to call it torture, Ms Crawford told the newspaper.
Of course it was coercive. That was the point. We were trying to persuade him to talk so we coerced him. That doesn't make it torture.
Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told the Post in an email that the agency's reviews of the interrogation of Qahtani, the alleged 20th hijacker, concluded the interrogation methods at Guantanamo, including the special techniques used on Qahtani in 2002, were lawful at the time.
Ms Crawford dismissed war crimes charges against Qahtani in May 2008 but he remains at Guantanamo.
So if it was lawful, why refuse to prosecute him?
Ms Crawford said he was dangerous and that she would be hesitant to say "Let him go".
And if it was unlawful, why refuse to let him go?
Qahtani was denied entry into the US a month before the September 11 attacks and was allegedly planning to be the plot's 20th hijacker, the article said. He was captured in Afghanistan in January 2002 and transported to Guantanamo.
Ms Crawford said she sympathised with intelligence officials who were urgently gathering information in the days after 9/11. "But there still has to be a line that we should not cross. And unfortunately what this has done, I think, has tainted everything going forward," she said.
And just where is that line? Do you get to decide where it is or does the law? We had laws and you just told us what we did was lawful? So where's the line, and why are you refusing to do your job?
Ms Crawford told the newspaper that Mr Bush was right to create a system to try unlawful enemy combatants captured in the war on terrorism. But, she said, the implementation was flawed.
According to her. This is all about her feeling good about herself. And she doesn't tell us how it's flawed. Not just President Bush but the Congress tried twice in writing laws to cover the unlawful combatants. Both times the USSC knocked them down but didn't tell us how to make the process legal. Thanks.
President-elect Barack Obama, who takes office next Wednesday, is expected to issue an executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. Defence Secretary Robert Gates also favours shuttering Guantanamo.
The prison is unlikely to shut until after US officials settle a myriad of legal and logistic issues, including a solution on where to house its occupants.
Note that Ms. Crawford won't be any help there ...
#1
m>U.S. authorities had acknowledged that al-Qahtani was subjected to waterboarding by CIA interrogators and that he was treated harshly at Guantanamo. Al-Qahtani in October 2006 recanted a confession he said he made after he was tortured and humiliated at Guantanamo.
The alleged torture, which he detailed in a written statement, included being beaten, restrained for long periods in uncomfortable positions, threatened with dogs, exposed to loud music and freezing temperatures and stripped nude in front of female personnel.
In the interview published by the Post on Wednesday, Crawford said: "His treatment met the legal definition of torture. And that is why I did not refer the case" for prosecution.
Found HERE. Fails to meet my definition of torture.
#2
"This was not any one particular act; this was just a combination of things that had a medical impact on him, that hurt his health. It was abusive and uncalled for. And coercive. Clearly coercive. It was that medical impact that pushed me over the edge"
Remember this definition. Never forget. For when the Donks institute universal health care, this will be the consequence with bureaucrats operating the system as they have done in Europe and Canada.
#5
I don't see any specifics here. Peed on his Koran? Meow meow meow meow-meow meow meow meow?
Naked pictures of Roseanne? Or are we supposed to take her word for it?
The closing of the US "war on terror" prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, does not necessarily mean that child soldier Omar Khadr will return to Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says. Khadr, who was captured in Afghanistan in 2002 at age 15, is the last Westerner held at the US naval base. His trial is due to open on January 26.
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01/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
child soldier Omar Khadr
...who can kill just as well as an adult soldier. We have a saying in the lower 48, "do adult crimes, do adult time." Your actions nullify the 'child' part.
#1
Got halfway through the interview, and not much new, except maybe the emphasis on cyber. An attack on the banking system would no doubt cause some kind of run on the banks, but it seems to me that with FDIC guarantees and daily backup of account data on permanent media, depositors' accounts could be recovered.
The incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator John Kerry, said on Monday he will push for tripling non-military US aid to Pakistan, putting that country and Afghanistan at the top of his panel's agenda in the new Congress.
"I think it is essential," Kerry said in the telephone interview with Reuters. "They (Pakistan) have a huge economic crisis. If anything winds up being one of the triggers for chaos in the country, it's going to be the economic implosion, as much as anything else."
Jawn apparently doesn't understand how fungible money is in Pakistain, particularly with President Ten-Percent around ...
Biden, a senator from Delaware and the outgoing chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, takes up his new office with president-elect Barack Obama next week. He visited both Afghanistan and Pakistan in the last few days.
The Pakistan aid bill Biden authored last year with Indiana Republican Senator Richard Lugar would have authorised a tripling of non-military aid to Islamabad, to $1.5 billion annually, for five years. The cash was to go to help improve schools, build clinics, drill wells and reform police in Pakistan. In his former post as a senator from Illinois, Obama also signed on as a co-sponsor.
Improve schools that the girls can't attend and in which the main topic will be memorization of the Quran. Build clinics that women can't use and in which polio vaccines will be banned. Drill wells because Pakistain is brimming with oil. And reform police because the Pak police are so amenable to and eager for reform.
"We will be reviewing that ... we are going to be focusing on that very quickly," said Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat who visited Pakistan in December and met President Asif Ali Zardari.
The Biden-Lugar measure was passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in July but never got a vote in the full Senate.
"Look, we can spend $12 billion a month in Iraq, or we can spend over a couple of years $1.5 billion to reduce the potential of terror in the very place where the top terrorists live," Kerry said. "It's not a very complicated equation as far as I'm concerned."
That's because you're wrong ...
Kerry said that Pakistan as well as Afghanistan, where the United States plans to send more troops to quell an insurgency, "are going to need some very rapid attention".
Other items on the Foreign Relations Committee agenda will include the Middle East, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Russia, China and nuclear non-proliferation, Kerry said. He hoped the panel could take up the CTBT "at the appropriate moment".
During the presidential campaign, Obama pledged to reach out to the Senate to secure the ratification of the CTBT at the "earliest practical date".
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01/14/2009 00:00 ||
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Visiting British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in India on Tuesday he believes the Mumbai terror attacks were not directed by Islamabad -- contradicting Indian statements that the South Asian rival's state agencies were 'involved' -- but called on Pakistan to 'act properly' in bringing the perpetrators to justice.
"I have said publicly, I don't believe the attacks were directed by Pakistani state ... and I think it is important to restate that. What is important is the approach of Pakistani state towards the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LT)," Miliband said while addressing a joint press conference with his Indian counterpart, Pranab Mukherjee.
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01/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#4
Milliband - the moron who said, apparently in all seriousness, "Israel is a democratic state and as such should be held to a higher standard than the terrorist organisation Hamas" (to paraphrase), a few days ago in the Commons. Typical fatuous Labour politician nonsense. So terrorist organisations are supposed to get a free pass to be bestial at the expense of fellow democratic states? Jumped up little freak...
#5
Given that it isn't Britain that has the evidence, but the US, and and given that the US has already presented the evidence to the governments of India and Pakistan, and assuming that none of the parties involved bothered to show the evidence to the British expert upon whom Secretary Miliband depends to tell him what he thinks about such technical matters, the honourable foreign secretary neatly demonstrated the phrase "talking through his hat".
#7
ION ISRAELI MILITARY FORUM > SPANISH INTELIGENCE SAYS PAKISTAN HELPED ARM THE TALIBAN.
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUMS > PAKISTAN IS UNAWARE OF THE [STRATEGIC] MARTIAL CHALLENGES FROM INDIA. India is covertly planning to TAKEOVER OR SEIZE LOC AREAS TO END ISLAMIST FLOWS FROM SAME, AND THUS END OR REDUCE REGIONAL + DOMESTIC ISLAMIST MILITANT THREATS To INDIA, even iff means INDO-PAKISTANI CONVENTIONAL ANDOR NUCLEAR WAR??? ALso desires to end or reduce BANGLADESH MIGRATION PROBS INTO INDIA via steering of BANGLA towards pro-India/Peace/Regional democratic secularism vee FSDSAARC Cooper Treaty[Federation of Secular Democratic SAARC Nations]. DITTO FSDSAARC FOR MYANMAR. INDIA DOES NOT TRUST THE PRO-CHINA GOVT. OF NEPAL/TIBET given Nepal's historical ties to India.
* NEPAL/TIBET > COMMUNIST PARTY OF NEPAL [CPN] ACCUSES US, INDIA OF COVERT INTERFERENCE IN NEPAL GOVT. AND NATIONAL AFFAIRS.
President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the resolution of all outstanding issues between Pakistan and India is vital for durable peace in the region, a private TV channel reported on Tuesday.
According to the channel, President Zardari called for resumption of the composite dialogue process, which had broken off after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November last year.
Zardari expressed these views during a lunch hosted for New Delhi's TERI University Director General Dr RK Pachauri at the Presidency.
Indian High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal, Federal Minister for Environment Hameedullah Afridi, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Assef Ali, Planning Commission Adviser for Science and Technology Ishfaq Ahmed, Water Resources Special Adviser Kamal Majidullah, former WAPDA chairman Shamsul Mulk and former information minister Javed Jabbar were also present.
Issues related to energy cooperation, science and technology and environment also came under discussion. Zardari said greater bilateral cooperation in the fields would only be possible if outstanding issues were resolved first.
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01/14/2009 00:00 ||
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Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani says the dossier provided by India on the Mumbai attacks constitutes 'information' and not evidence. Ohfergawdsake. Just let it drop, why don'tcha?
"All that has been received formally from India is some information. I say information because these are not the evidence. This needs to be carefully examined," he told lawmakers in the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, in Islamabad on Tuesday.
India has provided Pakistan data from satellite phones used by the attackers and what it describes as the confession of a surviving gunman, part of a dossier of evidence.
"Serious, sustained and pragmatic cooperation is the way forward. The information provided by India on January 5, 2009, has been sent to the Ministry of Interior for necessary inquiry in accordance with the law," Press Trust of India quoted him as saying.
He also referred to Pakistan's proposal for conducting a joint investigation with India into the incident. "India has, however, not responded to our proposal. We hope they will see merit in it and accept a joint inquiry," Gilani added.
He also ruled out handing over any Pakistani national found to be linked to the Mumbai attacks to India or any other country, saying such suspects will be tried in the country according to Pakistani laws.
India, the US, and Britain hold a Pakistan based militant group named Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) responsible for the attacks in which at least 179 people, including nine militants who carried out the terror spree, were killed.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has also rejected allegations that his government was involved in the attacks and has floated the idea of 'non-state actors' being involved.
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01/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Time for Pakistan to cease to exist. The idiots in control of the assylum now believe they have super-powers to change black to white. A few tens of thousands of tons of iron bombs over a 36-hour period may - just MAY - get their attention. Any other state that claims it's an "Islamic" state also needs to cease to exist. Those idiots can't seem to separate fact from fable, and insist the rest of us believe in the same da$%^&^ fable. May they all die from (USAF-)assisted suicide.
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01/14/2009 20:52 Comments ||
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My wife and I are gonna release a statement denouncing fat, too. That'll work, by golly.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
This may actually matter, in that India has announced willingness to send a lot of infantry to Afghanistan, which would utterly freak out the Pakistanis, and force them to redeploy their military in the most restive parts of Pakistan.
#2
Afghanistan and India as allies? But, but, but Afghanistan is Pakistan's defensive depth -- they can't ally with the Hindu enemy!!!! Not even symbolically, like in this statement.
US Vice President-elect Joe Biden, on a visit to Baghdad Tuesday ahead of Barack Obama taking over as US president, discussed with the Iraqi prime minister America's troop presence in Iraq. Officials told AFP that Biden met Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki after arriving in the Iraqi capital from Afghanistan via Kuwait on Monday and first holding talks with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
Discussions focused on the future of US forces in Iraq and improving economic relations with the administration of Obama, who will take over on January 20 from President George W. Bush.
"Talks during the meeting reviewed security and political progress ... including establishment of the law and the building of Iraqi armed forces that will take over responsibility after the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq," said a statement from Maliki's office.
Under the terms of an agreement signed between Baghdad and Washington last November, US combat forces will remain in the country until the end of 2011, but operate under the authority of the Iraqi government. The agreement requires Iraqi permission for all military operations, and that the fate of all detainees in US custody be decided by the Iraqi justice system.
Biden also expressed support for Iraq's fledgling democratic political process and the continuing steps to restore its sovereignty.
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01/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Joe, go sit in your basement office somewhere. You have no business screwing up what has been fixed already you punk.
Vice president-elect Joe Biden told Iraqi leaders on Tuesday that the incoming US administration is committed to a responsible troop withdrawal that does not endanger improvements in security, an Iraqi spokesman said.
As opposed to the irresponsible withdrawal that Bambi pushed last year?
Biden delivered the message in talks with Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki on the second day of his visit to Iraq, government spokesman Ali Al Dabbagh told The Associated Press.
President-elect Barack Obama pledged during his election campaign to withdraw all American combat troops from Iraq within 16 months of taking office and shifting the focus to Afghanistan to combat a resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda-linked militants.
Since the November election, however, the US and Iraq have signed a new security agreement that provides for all the US troops to leave by 2012, despite concerns among senior US commanders that Iraqi forces might not be ready by then to ensure stability.
Biden, a Democrat from Delaware who has been a frequent visitor to Iraq as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the agreement sets out a new strategy between Iraq and America, according to Al Dabbagh. "He said that Obama is committed to withdrawing, but he wants the withdrawal to be a responsible one. Obama does not want to waste the security gains that have been achieved," Al Dabbagh said.
Biden and South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham arrived in Baghdad on Monday after visits to Afghanistan and Pakistan. But Biden made no public comment about his meetings in the capital, leaving Iraqi officials to describe their meetings.
Biden gave assurances that the new administration would stick to the timetable in the agreement, Al Dabbagh said.
Biden held similar talks with other officials on Monday, including President Jalal Talabani and his deputy Adel Abdul Mahdi, Reuters news agency reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
One can only hope that the Iraqis and the idiotic new American leadership both get the humiliation they deserve when events force both to abandon their irresponsible and stupid zeal to waste the sacrifice of so many better people from both sides.
Nadhim Khalil wears the clothes of the cleric he is. He bears the scars of the insurgent he was. And in a country where business these days is power, he talks the speech of the merchant he has become, plying his trade in a contest for authority.
Imbued with the swagger of youth, lording over this oasis-like town on a bend of the Tigris River, Khalil has power, the fruits of a singularly Iraqi odyssey that has taken this scion of a religious family from the leadership of the local branch of al-Qaeda in Iraq, responsible for a reign that saw residents executed in the streets, into the generous arms of the American military and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, his erstwhile foes.
Khalil's analysis is blunt: He used to be on the losing side.
Continued on Page 49
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01/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I could kill them anytime
I think it's more likely that he realized that the Americans could kill him at any time.
#2
"In the beginning, the thought was that you could achieve your goal with weapons, but honestly? That investment has shown no return. That company has shown no profit."
Well give the man a Kupie doll, because I think we have a winner. If this doesn't tell you the war is over, nothing will. Iraq has huge potential and there is serious money to be made for those willing and able to take the opportunity. And the real money will only come when real peace exists. My guess is that there are a whole lot more like this guy in Iraq. A very good sign.
#4
PAKISTANI DEFCNE FORUM > HALF OF GAZA'S PALESTINIANS ARE TEENAGERS OR YOUNGER. Author - IDF is successful in Gaza because are fighting Muslim = Paleo teens, tweens + kiddies.
A U.S. military plan to ship munitions from a Greek port to a U.S. stockpile in Israel has been canceled due to the conflict in the Gaza Strip, the Pentagon said on Monday.
The United States Navy's Military Sealift Command issued a tender on December 31st for a ship to deliver 325 standard 20-foot containers of ammunition on two separate journeys from the Greek port of Astakos to the Israeli port of Ashdod in mid-to-late January.
Air Force Lt. Col. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said, "I can confirm that the U.S. munition shipment has been delayed and that EUCOM (U.S. European Command) is developing an appropriate course of action to deliver the items to the U.S. stockpile in Israel."
AL-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden called for jihad over the Israeli offensive in Gaza in a new audio tape that appeared on Islamist web sites today.
The tape was dated in the current Islamic month.
Egypt continued on Tuesday to urge Hamas to accept its cease-fire proposal for the Gaza Strip. Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman told Hamas representatives to the talks in Cairo that the organization would have to commit to a one-year cease-fire. Hamas officials told the Egyptians that it would be willing to accept the proposal if the changes demanded by the organization are made.
Spain's Foreign Minister, Miguel Moratinos, met with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Sunday. He told her that the Egyptian proposal calls for renewing the cease-fire at the end of one year. Moratinos said that Suleiman and Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told him on Monday that the cease-fire "is a matter of a few days." He added that neither side wants the fighting to continue after United States President-elect Barack Obama takes office on January 20.
Moratinos noted that Syria's President Bashar Assad has expressed willingness to aid Egypt in its talks with Hamas, and to use his influence with Hamas political bureau head Khaled Meshal, who is based in Damascus, to accept Cairo's proposal.
London's Al Hayat newspaper reported on Tuesday that Hamas officials in Gaza said their organization would be open to the deployment of Turkish forces in the Strip, citing their trust in a fellow Muslim state. That report was not confirmed by other sources.
Al Arabiya television reported that Hamas officials at the Cairo talks asked for clarifications regarding the timing of the Israel Defense Forces withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, as well as the reopening of border crossings into Israel, as specified in the Egyptian proposal.
Egypt's proposal calls for an immediate and indefinite cease-fire, with Israeli troop withdrawals and the border crossing reopenings to be subsequently determined in negotiations. These two stages are to be followed by the renewal of talks between Hamas and Fatah toward Palestinian national reconciliation.
Maher Taher, a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine official representing the Palestinian organizations in Syria at the Cairo talks, utterly rejected the Egyptian initiative, which he said calls for a cease-fire of 10 to 15 years, the deployment of international forces in Gaza, and the suspension of weapons manufacturing and all smuggling into Gaza.
The Cairo talks are expected to continue despite the fact that the Israeli representative, Amos Gilad, postponed his attendance there once again.
Egyptian sources told Haaretz on Tuesday that Hamas is under Syrian and Iranian pressure not to accept the Egyptian proposal. "We want a cease-fire," one Egyptian official said. "Afterward everything else can be put on the table - the Israeli withdrawal, an end to the rocket attacks and the smuggling."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2009 00:00 ||
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This is more about Egypt letting Hamas know that Hamas needs to respect Egypt more than Hamas loves Iran.
Yes, it is true that Egypt will not do a perfect job of stopping Gaza from importing rockets and launchers. And yes Egypt will continue allowing (even funding) vile anti Jewish propaganda on Egyptian TV. But there is likely to be a qualitative change in the situation between Gaza and Egypt (already has been getting there).
#12
Israel needs to answer that the first rocket shot off, even if it doesn't manage to get over the wall, restarts Operation Cast Lead. A hudna can go both ways, since is it by intent a temporary cease fire.
Arab leaders attempted to find a solution Tuesday to bring to an end Israel's 18-day blitz on the Gaza Strip as Qatar called for an emergency summit, Egypt's president headed to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait MPs urged the government to ban Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas from attending an upcoming economic meet. "A solution! We must find a solution!"
"I've got it! Hamas could quit random rocketing of Israeli communities!"
"No. That'd never work."
"Sorry. I got carried away."
Qatar requested an emergency Arab League summit to discuss the situation in Gaza but no other countries have so far agreed, Arab League spokesman Abdel-Alim al-Abiyad said. "Yes! We need a summit! An Arab summit, with all that implies!"
"Nah. I don't think so."
"Hokay. We need something else."
Saudi Arabia said another meet in Qatar would be "inappropriate" and stressed that leaders should focus on the Arab summit to be held in Kuwait on Jan. 19. Doha, the only Gulf Arab country that has ties with Israel, had called for an emergency Arab summit to be held the same day. "Competing Arab summits would be twice as ummm... whatever Arab summits are."
The leaders of Saudi and Egypt agreed to discuss the events in Gaza at the Kuwaiti summit. "Yes! We must discuss!"
"Discuss what?"
"Events, I guess."
"We do not see it as appropriate to hold another summit," Ahmad al-Qattan, Saudi's permanent representative at the Cairo-based Arab League, Al Arabiya TV. "Certainly not on the same day."
Egypt, whose president Hosni Mubarak travelled to Saudi to meet with King Abdullah, also rejected the Qatari proposal. "Nah. It'd never work."
Egyptian officials say Qatari and Syrian requests for a summit seek to embarrass Cairo, a reference to Egypt's attempts to broker a peace deal.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2009 00:00 ||
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Israeli troops and Hamas fighters traded fierce gunfire on the streets of Gaza City Tuesday as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the Zionist state was trying to "wipe out" his people. Israeli special forces backed by tanks and air strikes barreled their way ever deeper into Gaza's largest city, advancing several hundred meters. Right. Gaza has a population estimated at 1,481,080. 17 days of combat has resulted in approximately 1000 deaders, or about 59 a day. It's therefore obvious that at this rate in another 69 years -- a mere 25,160 or so days -- the entire population will be wiped out. That doesn't count the bunny population, of course.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Make up your mind Mahmoud. You wanna wipe out Hamas? Then shutup!
Israel on Monday expressed concern over "a wave of anti-Semitism" spreading across the world in the wake of its deadly offensive against the Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip that has so far killed more than 900 Palestinians.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni "has expressed Israel's concern about the current wave of anti-Semitic attacks in various parts of the world," her office said in a statement.
"We have received with great concern and revulsion many reports of physical, moral, verbal and other manifestations of anti-Semitic attacks towards Jews and Israeli citizens in many parts of the world," it said.
"Whatever one's opinion may be of this operation, it should never be used to legitimize hate and anti-Semitic incitement."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/14/2009 00:00 ||
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Since Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip began, Venezuela's president has openly and strongly criticized Israel and the United States for what he labeled the 'holocaust' of the Palestinian people; his outspoken rhetoric has turned him into a hero for the Arabs resisting occupation.
Venezuelan flags and portraits of Hugo Chavez have been flying high during protests across the Middle East, with people in Lebanon, Jordan and across the Palestinian territories showing their support for the left-wing South American leader.
Chavez's portrait took centre stage at protests in the Lebanese capital Beirut last week when demonstrators raised his portrait with a slogan directed at Arab leaders that read: "This is what real men are like."
Chavez's decision on Jan. 6 to expel Israel's ambassador from Caracas -- the only country apart from Mauritania to take such a step -- coupled with his outspoken criticism of the situation in Gaza have made him a hero as the Arab public feel their leaders have let them down.
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The British prime minister has called on Israel to press for a full and sustainable ceasefire in Gaza in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1860. In a telephone conversation on Tuesday, Gordon Brown told his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert that he was "deeply troubled" by the scenes of suffering Gazans and asked him to implement the ceasefire.
He said that the Israeli government should fully "respect their international humanitarian commitments" in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1860, which calls for an immediate ceasefire and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces. The 15-nation council approved the resolution last week, with 14 voting in favor and the United States abstaining.
China also expressed serious concern on Tuesday that Resolution 1860 has not been implemented or respected.
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said on Saturday that Israel should implement Resolution 1860.
Brown also spoke to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak over the telephone and asked him to press both parties to observe a full and sustainable ceasefire. In addition, the British prime minister has contacted other Arab leaders and plans to talk to Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday, his office said.
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Yeah? Like what? Winning?
The United Nations Human Rights Council is made up 47 states, ... very few of whom could withstand a human rights audit themselves ...
which make recommendations to the UN General Assembly on major human rights issues. It doesn't regard continuous random rocket attacks on civilian population centers as violations of any sort, much less 'grave.'
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#1
UN rights body accuses Israel of 'grave' violations
(AKI) - The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip after more than two weeks of military attack by Israel is dire and the number of Palestinians fleeing the besieged territory is increasing "hour by hour," the United Nations Relief and Works Agency's Arabic Spokesman in Gaza, Adnan Abu-Hasnar told Adnkronos International. "Today was one of the worst days that the Palestinians have experienced during their lives. The bombardments continued all night," Hasnar said. The heart [urp!] bleeds.
"The number of people fleeing their homes is increasing hour by hour. One Monday, 25,000 had fled. In the last 24 hours, the total has risen to 40,000," he stated. That sounds prudent.
Forty thousand people have taken shelter in UN emergency shelters and schools he said. "People are constantly feeling afraid of being bombed, Abu-Hasnar said. "No place is safe," he added.
If the current military offensive continues at its present intensity, twice as many Palestinians will be killed as died in the 2006 Israel-Gaza conflict, he warned. A total 970 Palestinians have died since the current offensive began on 27 December and over 4,200 have been injured according to Palestinian medical sources.
Already enduring an acute scarcity of food, power and a lack of cash, Palestinians are are suffering severe psychological effects from the conflict, Abu-Hasnar said. "The situation will be horrible to deal with even after the clashes stop. They are feeling trauma and panic," he stated.
The 3-hour daily humanitarian 'breathing space' during which Israel is suspending its attacks is inadequate, he said. "Gazans need more time," he emphasised. "They need an immediate stop to the military action and the permanent opening of all the crossing points to allow supplies to enter Gaza," he said.
"There is nothing to buy in the shops and supermarkets. People want bread and there are long lines outside the bakeries," he said. "They cannot find milk," he said. Over half a million people in Gaza are without water, he added.
"Refugees are getting some basic staples, such as flour and sugar, but it's not enough. They used to receive thousands of types of food from Israel," he noted.
He said 90 percent of farms in northern Gaza has been destroyed and farmers also have no seeds and fertiliser as these used to be imported from Israel. In southern Gaza, most farmers have fled their homes and those who remain are afraid to go into the fields, Abu-Hasnar said.
The Palestinian health ministry in a statement on Tuesday said that as well as blankets, there is a need for soap, towels and other personal items. The ministry said was sending 10 fully equipped ambulances from the West Bank to Gaza to replace seven that Israeli forces destroyed in an attack on Monday which killed two paramedics and injured 17. It also issued a list of drugs and medical supplies that are urgently needed by Gaza's hospitals.
International Committee of the Red Cross president, Jacob Kellenberger, who visited Gaza on Tuesday, asked Israel to respect the movement of medical teams and ambulances.
Injured Palestinians have died to due a shortage of ambulances but patients are also dying because the hospitals cannot cope with the type of wounds, especially head injuries, Abu-Hasnar said. "The doctors are doing a good job but we need more of them, and more intensive care facilities and surgery rooms to treat people who have lost limbs," he stated.
The lack of electricity being experienced by one million people in Gaza is dangerous for hospitals, which are being forced to rely on generators, he said. "If these cut out, there will be a catastrophe."
During the last 24 hours, 38 injured Palestinians were evacuated through the Rafah crossing by Egyptian ambulances and five patients are due to be transferred to hospitals in Qatar, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
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#1
The problem is, they are not fleeing far enough.
(AKI) - A top human rights organisation said on Tuesday in a report that the Thai Army has used torture in the country's Muslim south in order to quell an Islamist rebellion. Burying people to their necks and near suffocation with plastic bags are some of the method of torture used by the Thai Army, rights group Amnesty International said in a report released in the capital Bangkok. "Torture is absolutely illegal and, as the situation in southern Thailand proves, alienates the local population," said Donna Guest, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Programme. What's chopping people's heads off do, Donna? AI appears to regard that with a certain amount of equanimity.
"Many of those who told us about their terrible experiences, and who continue to be traumatised by them, did so to prevent it from happening to others. The government must stop torture and bring the torturers to justice."
In the report, titled 'Thailand: Torture in the southern counter-insurgency,' the watchdog refuted the possibility that rogue soldiers are responsible for the torture and said that the army is systematically torturing to extract information.
Between 3,200 and 3,500 people have been killed in the conflict that began in January 2004 and reflects the long-standing alienation of the area's population, which is predominantly Malay in ethnicity and language and Muslim in religion.
Over 45 percent of Thai military forces - almost exclusively Thai/Laotian in ethnicity and Buddhist in religion - are currently stationed in the south where some districts of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani remain off-limits.
The watchdog acknowledged that rebels have also retaliated to serious human rights abuses - such as bombings of civilian areas, beheadings, and drive-by shootings - but argued that there is no justification for the army's approach.
Based on interviews with torture survivors and relatives of people who have been tortured, the reports documented that people are being brutally beaten, burned with candles, buried up to their necks in the ground, subjected to electric shocks, having needles stuck into various parts of their bodies, sodomised and exposed to intense heat or cold.
At least four people have died as a result of torture, Amnesty International claimed.
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#1
See. Don't call them anti-Semites. They hate all humans equally.
Iran has arrested four Iranians accused of involvement in a U.S.-financed plot aimed at toppling its Islamic system of government, the judiciary said on Tuesday. The announcement came a week before the inauguration of Barack Obama as U.S. president. In a shift from George W. Bush's approach, he has pledged to increase diplomatic efforts to engage Iran and talk directly to its leaders.
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Israel has denied Syrian allegations that it was responsible for traces of uranium found by IAEA experts at a Syrian site which Israel bombed in 2007, diplomats said. The traces, possibly remnants of pre-enriched atomic fuel, were found at the site of a Syrian building destroyed by Israel which bore similarities to a nuclear reactor, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency reported last November.
Syria alleged the traces came from the Israeli munitions used to destroy the building and the IAEA asked Israel to reply.
An Israeli official, who could not be identified by name, said Israel had replied to the IAEA since Jan. 1. "Our ambassador to the IAEA told them, in essence, that there was no possibility that the uranium found at the site could have originated with the Israel Air Force," the official said. "The response, as I understand it, basically said, 'It wasn't us', full stop," a senior Western diplomat said. "It was not a detailed response ... The nature of the response is not hugely surprising."
An IAEA spokeswoman could not confirm the exchange with Israel but said IAEA Director General Mohammed ElBaradei would give an update on the Syria investigation in February.
At the IAEA November board meeting ElBaradei urged states to share information on the bombing - an appeal to Israel in particular, which has neither confirmed the attack took place nor commented on the building it bombed. "For the agency to complete its assessment, maximum transparency by Syria and the full sharing with the agency of all relevant information which other states may have are essential," ElBaradei said.
He also said at the time it was "regrettable, indeed baffling" why there was no high-resolution satellite imagery of the site available for the period right after the bombing.
The United States gave intelligence to the IAEA last April that Washington said indicated the Syrian site was a reactor close to being built with North Korean assistance and designed to produce plutonium for atomic bombs. Syria, an ally of Iran whose disputed uranium enrichment program has been under IAEA investigation for years, says the site was a conventional military building.
ElBaradei has urged Syria to be more open, but diplomats familiar with the issue say Damascus has still not met IAEA demands for more access and documents.
Diplomats say the IAEA investigations into Syria and Iran are unlikely to move forward before Barack Obama takes over from U.S. President George W. Bush later this month.
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#1
Actually, this shouldn't be too hard for the IAEA to figure out. The isotopic signature of the material (U and other elements) should tell the tale. Different sources and processes produre different signatures. Of course, this is the IAEA we're talking about...
A group of rabbis and other religious leaders bought advertising space in the New York Times this week to call for U.S. president-elect Barack Obama to push for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip.
The ad, placed by the Network of Spiritual Progressives and claiming to represent more than 2,800 other religious, cultural and community leaders, urges Obama to convene an international Middle East peace conference to "facilitate a lasting and just settlement for all parties."
Yeah, a peace conference, that's solve all our problems ...
Rabbi Michael Lerner {this guy, a long time left winger, was a spiritual guru to Hillary at one time)
editor of Tikkun magazine, convened the group.
#4
I like Darth's idea. ANYONE that wants to have a peace conference should have to have it in Gaza and they cannot leave till they're done. Then, when they leave, they have to move to Sderot.
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 Pentagon official overseeing the tribunals for Guantanamo Bay detainees has concluded that the US military tortured a Saudi national who allegedly planned to participate in the September 11 2001, attacks, The Washington Post reported today.
The incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator John Kerry, said on Monday he will push for tripling non-military US aid to Pakistan, putting that country and Afghanistan at the top of his panel's agenda in the new Congress.
Visiting British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in India on Tuesday he believes the Mumbai terror attacks were not directed by Islamabad -- contradicting Indian statements that the South Asian rival's state agencies were 'involved' -- but called on Pakistan to 'act properly' in bringing the perpetrators to justice. 
President Asif Ali Zardari has said that the resolution of all outstanding issues between Pakistan and India is vital for durable peace in the region, a private TV channel reported on Tuesday.
US Vice President-elect Joe Biden, on a visit to Baghdad Tuesday ahead of Barack Obama taking over as US president, discussed with the Iraqi prime minister America's troop presence in Iraq. Officials told AFP that Biden met Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki after arriving in the Iraqi capital from Afghanistan via Kuwait on Monday and first holding talks with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
Vice president-elect Joe Biden told Iraqi leaders on Tuesday that the incoming US administration is committed to a responsible troop withdrawal that does not endanger improvements in security, an Iraqi spokesman said.
Nadhim Khalil wears the clothes of the cleric he is. He bears the scars of the insurgent he was. And in a country where business these days is power, he talks the speech of the merchant he has become, plying his trade in a contest for authority. 
Arab leaders attempted to find a solution Tuesday to bring to an end Israel's 18-day blitz on the Gaza Strip as Qatar called for an emergency summit, Egypt's president headed to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait MPs urged the government to ban Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas from attending an upcoming economic meet.
Israel on Monday expressed concern over "a wave of anti-Semitism" spreading across the world in the wake of its deadly offensive against the Islamist Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip that has so far killed more than 900 Palestinians. 
Since Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip began, Venezuela's president has openly and strongly criticized Israel and the United States for what he labeled the 'holocaust' of the Palestinian people; his outspoken rhetoric has turned him into a hero for the Arabs resisting occupation. 
The British prime minister has called on Israel to press for a full and sustainable ceasefire in Gaza in line with UN Security Council Resolution 1860. In a telephone conversation on Tuesday, Gordon Brown told his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert that he was "deeply troubled" by the scenes of suffering Gazans and asked him to implement the ceasefire. 
(AKI) - The humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip after more than two weeks of military attack by Israel is dire and the number of Palestinians fleeing the besieged territory is increasing "hour by hour," the United Nations Relief and Works Agency's Arabic Spokesman in Gaza, Adnan Abu-Hasnar told Adnkronos International. "Today was one of the worst days that the Palestinians have experienced during their lives. The bombardments continued all night," Hasnar said.
(AKI) - A top human rights organisation said on Tuesday in a report that the Thai Army has used torture in the country's Muslim south in order to quell an Islamist rebellion. Burying people to their necks and near suffocation with plastic bags are some of the method of torture used by the Thai Army, rights group Amnesty International said in a report released in the capital Bangkok. "Torture is absolutely illegal and, as the situation in southern Thailand proves, alienates the local population," said Donna Guest, Deputy Director of Amnesty International's Asia-Pacific Programme. 
Iran has arrested four Iranians accused of involvement in a U.S.-financed plot aimed at toppling its Islamic system of government, the judiciary said on Tuesday. The announcement came a week before the inauguration of Barack Obama as U.S. president. In a shift from George W. Bush's approach, he has pledged to increase diplomatic efforts to engage Iran and talk directly to its leaders.
