(KUNA) -- Pakistain annd Afghanistan on Saturday renewed their commitments to continue joint strategy against terrorism and further strengthen bilateral cooperation in the economic sector as well.
Might as well make official what the Pakhtons/Pashtuns have been doing with their cousins anyway. Does following the Talib adventurers home from the raids with an armed Predator count as a joint strategy against terrorism?
Pak Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani addressing a joint presser with Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai in Kabul, capital of war-torn Afghanistan, said that "there is an equal realization that both the countries are equally suffering because of terrorism
At the rate the Pakistani Taliban are running amok, that may soon be true.
and there should be no blame game." According to the News Agency that Dare Not be Named of Pakistain (APP), the two leaders first held one-on-one meeting, followed by delegation level talks. It said that they held in-depth discussions aimed at enhancing cooperation in war against terrorism, and promoting collaboration in economic, trade and investment and building energy corridors and improving road and rail links.
The two leaders exchanged views on bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest, it said, adding, there was unanimity of views that Pakistain and Afghanistan should strengthen their existing strategic partnership for creating economic growth and job opportunities by making investments in trans-regional projects.
Opium poppies, their cultivation, refinement, and distribution, perhaps? No doubt efficiencies could be introduced into current practices, leading to increased profitability all the way down the line.
Later, addressing a luncheon hosted in his honor at the Presidential Palace, the Pak Prime Minister said that Islamabad was committed to enhance bilateral trade with Afghanistan to US 5 billion by 2015, besides building 100 primary schools and 50 basic health units.
How many of those new schools and health units (whatever those are) would be replacements for the ones burnt down by ISI-supported Afghan Taliban?
"We need to enhance customs cooperation and management for effective trade facilitation. We are committed to enhancing our current bilateral trade of US 2 billion to US 5 billion by 2015 through joint efforts," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2010 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Asharq Al-Awsat has obtained new information about the 19 Al Qaeda affiliated terrorist cells that Saudi authorities dismantled over the past 8 months, arresting 149 terrorist suspects, and particularly the roles played by non-Saudi nationals in these terrorist cells.
According to the information received by Asharq Al-Awsat from informed sources, the non-Saudi nationals who were members of the 19 dismantled Al Qaeda affiliated cells were tasked with 6 main roles.
Sources informed Asharq Al-Awsat that "the vast majority of non-Saudis nationals were a key part of the connection, communication and coordination between Al Qaeda and its different branches.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2010 00:00 ||
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Despite the grim vignette with which Wikileaks documents attempted to portray Mexican President Felipe Calderon and the state of the war against drug cartels in late 2009, a senior Mexican Army commander attempted to get a political agreement on expanded powers of the army earlier this year, according to the Mexican weekly Proceso.
Proceso reported in a Friday online edition that General Guillermo Galvan Galvan, Calderon's Secretary of Defense, met with several legislative leaders in Mexico City to forge an agreement on expanded powers for the Mexican Army in its role in the current war on drugs.
Wikileaks documents released about meetings between US state Department officials and senior officials with the Calderon government paint a grim picture of a politicians uncertain about its next step in combating drug cartels.
According to the April 16th article, Proceso reported that on April 7th, Galvan Galvan met with Ardelio Vargas, Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), Enrique Ibarra, Labour Party, and Paul Escudero, Partido Verde Ecologista de Mexico (PVEM) to ask for their support in making changes in Mexican law to allow expanded search and interrogation powers by Mexican military units in the fight against Mexican drug cartels.
Among the powers requested was a curfew in "zones of emergency" and expanded powers of interrogation by military commanders. The curfew request was to be limited in areas where drug violence was the most intense including Chihuahua, Tamaulipas and Sonora as well as other states.
But the centerpiece of Galvan's request was the ominous "state of emergency," while entails invocation of Article 29 of the Mexican Constitution, which requires consent of the Council of Ministers and the Federal Congress, politically a very high mountain for anyone to climb.
According to the article, a main contention in the meeting was that Galvan was never very clear about the exact nature of his request, except for the establishment of military checkpoints, which are currently in operation in some parts of Mexico.
Many of Galvan's requests ran counter to explicits rights set forth in the Mexican Constitution, but what probably spooked legislators the most was Galvan's hint that these expanded powers would require Mexican military presence in on the streets for between five and ten years, powers that would span the next president's term in 2012.
President Calderon will step down as Mexican president in 2012.
Galvan wanted other specific changes as well:
Authority to conduct proactive searches.
Authority to detain 24 hours suspects for interrogation and to take fingerprints.
Authority to intercept communications including powers to track websites and authority to cut electrical grids.
Authority cancel public events.
Authority to dissolve concentrations of vehicles, such as those that occurred in March and April, in Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, where suspected drug traffickers blocked downtown streets of several cities to prevent the passage of the police.
Finally, the possibility that it can declare a "state of exception" in areas controlled by the drug cartels.
What Galvan was likely aiming for was a state of emergency de facto, not necessarily de jure.
Although the article doesn't so state, with the Mexican Army already doing many of the things Galvan has requested, it seems that the request for a state of emergency may have been a last resort for Calderon. The choices may well have been as stark as the choice between the laundry list Galvan presented and invocation of Article 29; and may well have been the only path politically Mexican national politicians could stomach short of Article 29.
The likely bitterest pill for Mexico to swallow with a state of emergency is the likelihood the northern border would be sealed, an act even the US government won't consider.
According to the article Mexican politicians are still considering many of Galvan's requests.
The Mexican Congress has already placed its endorsement on the idea that the Mexican military can stem the violence by increasing the size of the army by the equivalent of four combat brigades, or 18 rifle battalions, and by increasing military salaries.
Whether this will have a positive affect of the Mexican War on Drugs without the state of emergency remains to be seen.
At the moment, confrontations between Mexican security forces and drug gangs are down and have been for about three weeks. Whether the additional firepower on Mexico's northern sector is the cause or cartels are just reloading is also an issue to be resolved in time.
It began when a woman (Aasia Bibi) made an 'I'm proud to be a Christian' comment to a coworker. The coworker complained to a cleric and a court charged Aasia with blasphemy. The Pakistan minister for minority Religion (Shabhaz Bhatti) said the blasphemy laws should be revised.
Several Islamic terrorist orgs, e.g. Lashkar-e-Toiba (a big well organized one) and Majlis Ahrar e Islam (a smaller one) have issued a fatwa calling for the assasination of Bhatti. They have also said that if the Govt of Pakistan pardons Aasia they will have a similar fatwa issued against them. A number of imans connected with mainline mosques have issued statements supporting the blasphemy laws, warning Bhatti not to defend Aasia, etc. Essentially no Imans in Pakistan (or elsewhere to my knowledge) have defended Aasia or said that the blasphemy law should be made less ferocious.
The whole issue has been ignored by the NYTimes, the WaPo, etc.
Posted by: lord garth ||
12/05/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
So saying you are proud to be Christian is blasphemy?how?
Pakistan is the home of intolerance just like its ideal country Saudi Arabia.
Could you imagine Anjem Choudhry being killed because he said he was proud to be muslim in the UK?
Pakistan need nuking or brought screaming into the 21st Century to survive.I dont think i hate any nation more than Pakistan.I pity Somalia,Iran and North Korea but this country does not help itself!The Govt isnt the problem here its the people who live within!
Posted by: Paul D ||
12/05/2010 16:11 Comments ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas has warned he may dissolve his self-rule government and ask Israel to resume full control of the West Bank if troubled peace talks fail.
Just the West Bank, though. De-facto President Abbas hasn't the power to surrender the Gaza Strip, thank goodness.
Dismantling the Paleostinian Authority would be a last resort, Abbas told Paleostine TV in an interview broadcast late Friday. If all efforts fail, Abbas said, "I will tell the Americans and the Israelis, come and put an end to all this. I can't continue like this. We have an occupation and we don't. No, keep it all and release me (from my responsibility)." However, The infamous However... his comments marked the most explicit warning yet that he's considering a step that could crush lingering hopes for a Mideast peace deal. Abbas has said that if peace negotiations collapse, the Paleostinians might seek unilateral UN recognition of a state in the West Bank, Gazoo and east Jerusalem, territories Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast War.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2010 00:00 ||
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[IranPressTV] - Head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi says the Islamic Republic has achieved self-sufficiency in producing yellow cake.
The first consignment of yellow cake was shipped from Gachin mine in Bandar Abbas, southern Iran, to Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility (UCF) under the surveillance of the International Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA), Salehi said in an exclusive interview with Press TV on Sunday.
o a bigger uranium mine at Saghand, in central Iran, to be opened when funds are obtained
o Saghand's known reserves are estimated at more than 1.7 million tons of medium quality ore. The mine, about 300 miles (480 kilometers) south of Tehran, has a production capacity of 132,000 tons of uranium ore per year. It consists of an open pit with minimal reserves and a deep mine nearby.
o Iran announced discoveries of new uranium deposits in 2006 at three sites in the central areas of Khoshoomi, Charchooleh and Narigan.
The head of Iran's atomic energy organization said on television Sunday that Iran had achieved the ability to produce its own yellow cake, uranium powder that is a step in the process for creating nuclear fuel.
Ali Akbar Salehi said the breakthrough, using uranium ore mined in southern Iran, signified the country's full self-sufficiency in the production of uranium, cutting out the need for imported material.
The announcement comes on the eve of talks on Iran's nuclear program Monday in Geneva and may be aimed at bolstering Tehran's bargaining position. It also follows attacks Monday on two Iranian scientists, one of them Majid Shahriari, who was killed in what Iran described as a Western or Israeli operation.
"The enemies and ill-wishers have always tried to create despair and disappointment among our youth, academicians, engineers and our nation, but today we witness the delivery of the first batch of yellow cake that is produced inside the country," Salehi said at a news conference broadcast on state television.
Salehi said the announcement meant Iran would be attending the upcoming talks "with power and authority and that we do not seek favors from any party."
[Iran Press TV] The US-backed UN court probing the liquidation of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri has asked for images Israeli had taken from the scene of the crime.
The Special Tribunal for Leb (STL)'s investigative committee requested from Tel Aviv surveillance images, captured on February 14, 2005, when a massive car booming in the Lebanese capital of Beirut killed the Former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri alongside more than 20 other people, Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar reported.
Quoting a former member of the committee, the newspaper said, the request had been made under prosecutor Detliv Mehlis -- who was replaced in 2006.
Israeli reconnaissance aircraft violate the Lebanese airspace on an almost daily basis. The spy drones transmit pictures and footage to Tel Aviv.
In an August speech, the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbullies's Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah presented evidence proving that Israel had criminal masterminded Hariri's liquidation.
Hizb'allah's truth? Have they been getting into Photoshop again?
The televised address featured a video captured by Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as recorded confessions by Israeli fifth columnists, substantiating that Tel Aviv had been behind the killing.
If so, perhaps Hizb'allah leadership would be wise not to bring Israeli attention to themselves, if Israel is as capable and brutal as claimed.
Tel Aviv has so far reportedly refused to provide the committee with information about the attack. However, The infamous However... Al Akhbar revealed last week that Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman had admitted to Tel Aviv's involvement in the tribunal.
Someone at IranPressTV has gotten hold of a shipment of the good stuff from Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2010 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... leader Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... on Saturday warned that there is a global conspiracy to destabilize Leb and accused the international community of seeking to create a clash between Hizbullah and the Special Tribunal for Leb.
"Let them tell us why there is a Court that wants to condemn Hizbullah, and then there are media leaks for the benefit of Hizbullah. Why?" asked Aoun.
"The truth is this: There is an international conspiracy to destabilize Leb," Aoun told a student delegation representing the victorious alliance from the Lebanese American University.
"That is why they do not want to refer the false witnesses' issue to the Court because this would lead to the truth," he thought.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2010 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Information in Leb confirms that Soddy Arabia and Syria have intensified their efforts to delay the Hariri tribunal issuing its final decision in conjunction with pressure being exerted by the March 8 Alliance to reach a compromise [with the international tribunal] ahead of the forthcoming indictment.
In this context, Future bloc MP Ammar Houri told Asharq Al-Awsat that "the compromise being cooked up today, and the discussions that are taking place, are confined to one single point and that is what is going to happen following the indictment." Houri said that "we are trying to reach a certain formula that will help the country avoid violence, discord, and rhetoric that leads to the unknown, following the issuance of the [international tribunal's] indictment. However there will be no compromise on the date or content of this decision, and there is no possibility of this being raised."
As for the rumors that the Future bloc will not accept the international tribunal utilizing evidence from Leb's infiltrated communication network, Houri said that "the infiltration of the communication network is something that occurs in all countries, however what was revealed by the Minister of Communication about the manipulation of data must be investigated by the office of the Attorney General as soon as possible. We will not issue any early judgments on the evidence that may be put forward by the international tribunal."
A Hezbullies source also informed Asharq Al-Awsat that "there is a newly emerging Soddy Arabian effort to accelerate the reaching of a compromise [with the international tribunal] before the issuance of this indictment." The source also revealed that "Washington desires the issuance of the [international tribunal's] decision before the fifteenth of this month...whilst there is also a French -- Saudi effort to delay the issuance of this decision."
The Hezbullies source also told Asharq Al-Awsat that "the compromise that is being cooked up revolves around two main points that it seems that the Future movement are beginning to be convinced of, and these two points are the necessity of the international tribunal's decision not relying upon the false witnesses or the infiltrated communication network. These two points are part of a deal whose chances of success stand at around 50 percent."
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... Lebanese Minister of State Wael Abu Faour stressed "the necessity of the Arab efforts being exerted by Syria and Soddy Arabia to find a national consensus over the disputed issues being met with local efforts by all parties to reduce congestion and restore the climate of internal dialogue." He also pointed out that "this [effort] could help in the acceptance of any Arab initiative to protect Leb internally from any internal or external dangers."
For his part, Development and Liberation bloc MP Michel Moussa commented on these external efforts, saying "at one time, things reached a dead end internally, and so this necessitated the worthy initiatives from our friends abroad, especially Syria and Soddy Arabia." He also pointed out that "rapprochement between the two countries [Syria and Soddy Arabia] gives rise to a good atmosphere that may produce solutions."
Leb First MP Khaled Zahraman apologized for what he described as the country reaching "a state of impasse" and he stressed "the importance of internal dialogue that was lacking in the recent period taking place, which must be accompanied by external dialogue, especially with Syria, Soddy Arabia, Iran, and Turkey."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2010 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Iran's intelligence chief accused the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency of sending spies in the guise of inspectors to gather information about Iran's nuclear activities, state TV reported Saturday.
The claim was another sign that Iran has hardened its stance since the liquidation a week ago of a prominent nuclear scientist and the wounding of another. Iran is to hold talks on Monday and Tuesday in Geneva with world powers trying to persuade it to curtail key elements of its nuclear work.
Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi said staff sent by the ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency had engaged in espionage and the Vienna-based agency must take responsibility for their actions. He did not elaborate or identify the inspectors Iran was accusing.
Iran has increasingly complained in recent months about the leaking of information gathered by the agency's inspectors to U.S. officials and other allies.
"Among the individuals the IAEA sends as so-called inspectors, there are spies from intelligence services. The IAEA must be held responsible for this," state TV quoted Moslehi as saying.
Iran says Monday's killing of nuclear scientist Majid Shahriari in a bomb attack and the wounding of another scientist in a separate attack in Tehran was the part of a Western campaign to sabotage its nuclear program.
According to Iran, that campaign has included the abduction of Iranian scientists, the sale of faulty equipment and the planting of a destructive computer worm known as Stuxnet, which briefly brought Iran's uranium enrichment activity to a halt last month.
Iran's chief suspect is archenemy Israel, whose Mossad spy agency has a long history of assassinating foes far beyond the country's borders.
Moslehi again accused Israel's Mossad, Britain's MI6 and the CIA of being behind the daring attacks.
Iran has also expressed its displeasure with IAEA chief Yukiya Amano's report, issued this week, on its nuclear program. The report said Iran had fewer centrifuges functioning than previously believed, suggesting its uranium enrichment program was not progressing as fast as Iran hoped.
Iran says the IAEA should just inspect the nuclear facilities and not release details like how much uranium or how many centrifuges it has.
The U.S. and its allies suspect Iran's nuclear work is aimed at producing weapons. Iran says it only wants to enrich uranium to make fuel for power plants and not process it to the higher levels needed to make weapons.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/05/2010 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.
[Pak Daily Times] 
[An Nahar] 
