The Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan Brigadier Ed Butler said on Monday that the mission of British Forces consists of operations to rebuild Afghanistan, establish stability and not chase after militias or armed rebels. Butler's statements came during a local Radio broadcast of the British Broadcast Corporation (BBC). His comment comes after a suicide attack targeted a Canadian military convoy in the Khandahar Province, south of Afghanistan, which injured two Canadian soldiers.
Butler said British Force "are not looking for trouble" referring to newly assigned British forces who headed to the troubled (Helmand) region. "Our forces there to support the operation of rebuilding the country", Butler said while denying any role of chasing after rebels. The British Brigadier also denied claims he wanted to increase British presence in Afghanistan and expressed satisfaction with the number of troops there.
It seems to me that the quickest way to establish stability is to chase after militias and armed rebels, kill them all, and then rebuild Afghanistan. If you pretend the bad guyz aren't there, they're going to follow after you and tear down everything you build, the while booming the very guys you're trying to keep from getting shot up. What do they teach in Sandhurst these days?
It hasn't been the same since they opened the Robert Fisk School for International Relations.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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What do they teach in Sandhurst these days?
Common sense. With Pakistan next door, you could be chasing bad guys 'til kingdom come, neither accomplishing the main task of rebuilding, nor eliminating the bad guys completely. There's also the notion that if the rebuilding comes first, perhaps eventually fewer bad guys will have the incentive to blow things up and attack people. Although with Pakistan next door, the probability of anything being rebuilt is very low indeed.
Posted by: Rafael ||
05/02/2006 3:19 Comments ||
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A Soldiers job is to fight. Rebuilding is done after the fight and best done by locals with help from enginers and health specalists. The fight is still on. This hearts amd Minds stuff is great on pacificed populations. It's great PR. It's not the primary job of any military occupation but Engineers.
Screw Pakistan. They needed to get with the program and they haven't Instead they are making nice with Iran. They are allowing support for the Taliban in their military and inteligence orgs. We need to write them off for subversion against India, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/02/2006 4:43 Comments ||
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the Robert Fisk School for International Relations LOL!
If Butler really believes the crap he told the BBC, then he's unfit for command in a war zone. If he's just feeding them the PCism they expect, then he's smart enough - we'll find out if he's tough enough.
Many men, many units. Some tasked to rebuilding efforts, as a reward for those local "leaders" who dial into the fact that there's a carrot if they're smart enough to avoid the stick. Some tasked to providing security, some tasked to hunting down bad guys. Duh.
Hand-wringing is NEVER the answer. Either do the job or get the fuck out of the way so someone else can get it done. Ideal situations don't exist in the real world, especially in the shithole zone. Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way.
#6
Either do the job or get the fuck out of the way so someone else can get it done.
As you wish. If by chasing bad guys casualties start mounting for Canadians, then Harper will lose the next election, and Canada might even pull out altogether. It's not what the Canadian public signed up for. I imagine the situation is comparable for the British.
Posted by: Rafael ||
05/02/2006 15:29 Comments ||
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#7
LOL. To think that soldiers might actually have to do soldier things - oh the horrors!
I realize it's a stretch, but please tell us:
What if the miscreants don't let these people go about their peaceful business?
Will they issue the appropriate protestations and then run home, per your response?
The world can be so messy and inconvenient. Be well.
#8
To think that soldiers might actually have to do soldier things - oh the horrors!
Soldiers can do many things. Soldiers can defend. Soldiers can provide security. Soldiers can actively hunt bad guys. Soldiers are also bound by the ROE. Sometimes these rules are implicitly defined by the electorate, not the military. In this case, Harper is in a weakened position. He has to tread lightly.
I realize it's a stretch, but please tell us:
What if the miscreants don't let these people go about their peaceful business?
Then at some point the question will be asked whether the situation is such that it can be saved, or even managed. If it is determined that Afghanistan is a lost cause...
Will they issue the appropriate protestations and then run home, per your response?
...then the appropriate protestations will be issued, equipment packed up, and they will simply leave.
The world can be so messy and inconvenient.
Tell me about it.
Be well.
You too.
Posted by: Rafael ||
05/02/2006 16:20 Comments ||
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RE: #8. Wow! Am I reading this right?
Having actually been a soldier, and saddled with an ROE guaranteed to do more damage to our people than to the enemy, I understand the part about soldiers and the deadly limitations placed upon them by political creatures. I also understand that repeating the obvious mistakes of the past isn't something intelligent people do, it's what fools do. In a war with no front lines or state actors there are no "safe" zones, or hasn't that occurred to Canadians? Surely it has...
"...then the appropriate protestations will be issued, equipment packed up, and they will simply leave."
That's stunning... Yes, it's all very political and sensitive, as well as inconvenient and messy...
I hate to state the obvious, but when the crazies (or is that too strong?) are not far far away in Afghanistan or Pakistan or Iraq, but are there under your noses, what will Canadians do? When the multitudes of shaheed in Montreal and Quebec and Calgary and Toronto decide the time is ripe, then where will you go?
The attitude of the response tracks downstream to the "maybe they will kill us last" variety. It has been awhile since I've seen a post (apparently) supporting a view so manifestly foolish. If that's truthfully how you and your countrymen see it, then be gone. Pronto. Same for the Brits. We should not lift a finger to help save such people from their just desserts, as they simply aren't worth the blood or treasure to save. If not, then pull your PC-shriveled rocks out of the fire and let Harper know you're no dhimmi.
Thanks for the help Canada, it's been nice. Get out of the way and let people who want to do, it do it and shut the hell up same goes for the UK as well. We don't need the transnationl socialist blather whine and whinge brigade.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/02/2006 18:33 Comments ||
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Man you're arrogant beyond belief.
It has been awhile since I've seen a post (apparently) supporting a view so manifestly foolish. If that's truthfully how you and your countrymen see it, then be gone.
Critical reading isn't your forte, is it? If you'll notice I was describing how Canadians would react to large casualties as a result of chasing bad guys, and in no way expressing my own opinion on whether we should be in Afghanistan or not.
I'll say it again in case you missed it: Canadians will not stomach large casualties, and not everyone is convinced we should be there to fight offensive battles. That doesn't mean the Canadian military will shy away from combat, and the public won't either. But if this is going to look more like an escalating, offensive war, then our troops will be pulled, I can guarantee it.
In a war with no front lines or state actors there are no "safe" zones, or hasn't that occurred to Canadians?
Sorry to burst your bubble Anonymous but you can't even convince 50% of your fellow citizens that you are on the right track. The intricacies of this world are such that not everyone will follow your policies to a T, for various reasons. That's life. Get over yourself.
when the crazies ... are there under your noses, what will Canadians do? When the multitudes of shaheed in Montreal and Quebec and Calgary and Toronto decide the time is ripe, then where will you go?
Lol. When the crazies come they will be dealt with to the best of our abilities, don't you worry. Like you give a shit anyway.
Posted by: Rafael ||
05/02/2006 21:56 Comments ||
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#12
Americans do give a shit. It takes time to string concertina wire across all that border.
Posted by: Rafael ||
05/02/2006 22:23 Comments ||
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#14
Raphael exhibits the pussification of the Gray White North - there - I've said it, believe it, and your whiny replies won't change it. I'm done defending you. Ptui
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/02/2006 22:40 Comments ||
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#15
It's not gonna be the same without you Frank.
Posted by: Rafael ||
05/02/2006 22:53 Comments ||
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#16
no it won't be...have fun, jerk
I'm in a bad mood and you made it worse. Your pusillanimous anklebiting is tiresome. Canada has heros and history to be proud of - try to live up to at least a minimal part of it or get the f*ck off anklebiting those who pick up your slack
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/02/2006 22:58 Comments ||
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#17
For the record, and for those that are new here, my opinion is that Canadians should stay in Afghanistan and play a supporting role to US soldiers and other allies, including a limited role in chasing bad guys.
Wouldn't want Frank to distort things. It's not my problem he can't read.
Posted by: Rafael ||
05/02/2006 23:03 Comments ||
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#18
He's arrogant, Rafael? I must disagree - assuming that's okay with you. You seem to be rather sensitive about that.
Regards critical reading, it's certainly not your forte as JP gave you multiple "outs", obvious points that would allow you to gracefully distance and differentiate yourself from the Canadian public on whose behalf you cavalierly spoke:
"Surely it has..."
"(apparently)"
"If that's truthfully how you and your countrymen see it, then be gone... If not, then..."
I think you were treated quite fairly. You started this with your #1, which was a play both sides bit of hand-wringing, as #5 pointed out. I agree completely with Fred.
This was priceless: "Get over yourself."
Good advice. Look up "projection" in a psychology primer.
BTW, your derisive sneering regards people who post anonymously is an irrelevant personal problem. Rafael? Yeah? You could be Dweezil McNutsucker for all I know. It's not the name that matters, it's the content of your character comments.
You've thoroughly reminded me why .com considered you a disingenuous and pointlessly argumentative bitch. I miss him.
if you weren't being such a biyotch Rafael, you would start a thread with something like this example:
my opinion is that Canadians should stay in Afghanistan and play a supporting role to US soldiers and other allies, including a limited role in chasing bad guys.
but for the sake of developing my concept please challenge my opinion.
Here's a challenge to you RD: Try to respond to any comment with which you don't agree, without using condescension. Or at least, try to take it like a big person when fire is returned.
Posted by: Rafael ||
05/02/2006 23:32 Comments ||
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Somali leaders expressed concern at reports that Washington is financing a group of powerful Mogadishu warlords who have styled themselves as an anti-terrorism coalition. The warlords have been involved in several bouts of fighting with militia linked to Islamic leaders. About 100 people have been killed in the violence, the worst in Mogadishu in years.
The perception of US involvement has given rise to fears that Mogadishu's militia battles are shifting from the commercial to the ideological, and creating a new arena for Islamic militants to fight what they call Washington's war on Islam.
The US has been rumoured to have paid the coalition in exchange for help tracking down al-Qaeda militants who move freely in Somalia. "We have no official communication but these rumours are everywhere," Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi said.
The US has never directly confirmed or denied suggestions that it backed warlords.
"We do not expect the American government to just pump dollars to Somali people to create problems. They are our friends and we expect friendship from them," Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan added.
We tried friendship once, remember?
The two leaders were speaking in Baidoa after meeting with Kjell Magne Bondevik, the UN Special Humanitarian Envoy for the region, who was assessing the effects of drought. Both Somali leaders, who recently patched up a rift that paralysed their interim government for a year, expressed hope they will soon be able to move to Mogadishu from a temporary base in Baidoa.
But the renewed fighting has complicated the prospect by raising security concerns and threatening the delicate reconciliation between the prime minister and parliament speaker.
The interim government two weeks ago voted to make Baidoa its new seat, after more than 1000 militiamen were persuaded to move out to make it secure. It is the government's second base inside Somalia after it first moved back home to Jowhar, north of Mogadishu, last year. Until then, the fledgling administration had not left neighbouring Kenya, where it was formed in late 2004 after two years of peace talks.
Bondevik said many still see Somalia as a synonym for "chaos and war and lack of security. I urge you to create a new image of responsible and responsive parliament and government that cares for its people."
The government's new-found unity and reconciliation efforts are moving toward that end, Hassan said. "You see that we are standing side by side."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 00:16 ||
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Bondevik said many still see Somalia as a synonym for "chaos and war and lack of security. I urge you to create a new image of responsible and responsive parliament and government that cares for its people."
The authorities in Saudi Arabia have begun a campaign to weed out terrorist literature from public libraries in the kingdom, local daily al-Watan reports. The daily said that in the conservative city of Buraida, north of the capital, several libraries were offering copies of a reference book on how to make bombs used by Jihadi combattants. The text also reportedly described bomb making techniques, intended to kill the infidels.
The newspaper said that this book and others that the newspaper had managed to borrow from the library have since been removed.
#3
Yeah. Someone learning how to make bombs is more likely to use them locally. Let me know when the books calling non-muslims monkeys and pigs and exhortations to kill the infidels and to enslave and rape the women are removed.
Posted by: ed ||
05/02/2006 20:09 Comments ||
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#4
Finally getting a clue that this is going to boomerang on them?
A Canadian court has ruled that a young man born in Jerusalem has no right to have Israel listed on his passport as his birthplace.
Canada does not recognize Israel`s annexation of Jerusalem after the Six Day War in 1967.
'The fact that I was born there, in Israel, to me that`s a fulfillment of the Jews saying for years, thousands of years, `next year in Jerusalem,`' Eliyahu Veffer, 18, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. 'That had been fulfilled with me by being born there.'
In an affidavit, Veffer said the government is denying his right to exercise his religion. The government denied that, saying Jerusalem-born Christians and Muslims also would be unable to list Israel as their birthplace.
Justice Konrad von Finckenstein said that granting Veffer`s wish might be construed as a softening of the Canadian position that Jerusalem is currently an occupied city and hurt the country`s ability to participate in negotiations.
'Passports do not deal with, nor are they a reflection of, a person`s roots, heritage or belief,' Finckenstein said.
SAN DIEGO Authorities took 54 suspected illegal immigrants into custody early Monday morning after the driver of a van packed with passengers drove it over a spike strip and across the U.S.-Mexico border at San Ysidro, then headed north in the southbound lanes of Interstate 805. The van, which was able to keep going after running over the spike strip because its tires were filled with silicone gel, struck a vehicle near the border crossing before its driver continued the wrong way on I-805 around 3 a.m., Border Patrol spokesman Michael Bermudez said.
After driving north in the southbound lanes for several miles, exiting and re-entering the freeway, the van's driver began driving north in the northbound lanes of I-805 at the 47th Street ramp. The van left the freeway at Imperial Avenue and was heading south on I-805 near 43rd Street when its right rear tire started to shred and the driver pulled over. After the driver stopped, the people in the van began to run away, Bermudez said. Border Patrol agents found the driver in a nearby trash bin, while the passengers were detained near the vehicle, Bermudez said. He said the driver and the passengers were believed to be citizens of Samoa Mexico. Bermudez said he did not know the make or model of the van.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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They were just trying to get to the illegal alien rally.
#2
A van headed northbound near the border with 54 passengers and silicone filled tires that fails to pull over...... Can't you just feel the police racial profiling?
#3
Major candidate for a beehive round. It would only take one or two to put an end to this "running up the wrong side of the Interstate" game. Park a National Guard M-60A5 in the median, with an IR searchlight and targeting software.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/02/2006 17:53 Comments ||
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I wonder if the MSM will make noise when one of the wrong-way drivers kills some Americans. Unfortunately, they will blame the Border Patrol for actively chasing the illegal vehicle and "causing the vehicle to flee into the oncoming lanes". Maddening.
BS, Editor says. If they had one, they'd have tried to use it.
Islamabad, 2 May (AKI) - Osama bin Laden possesses a "dirty bomb" and nuclear devices bought on the Russian black market prior to 2001, according to Hamid Mir, the journalist who interviewed bin Laden shortly after the 11 September attacks. "Material useful for building a dirty bomb was smuggled from Russia to Georgia and then on to Afghanistan," Mir said in an interview with the website of satellite network al-Arabiya. He added that the device was built with various materials, including uranium, by an Egyptian engineer known as Saad. "I met this engineer only once, in 2000, when the Taliban controlled Kabul" he said. In the interview, Mir also said the Saudi terror leader had changed his mind at the last minute on the idea of making one of the hijacked 11 September planes crash into a US nuclear plant. This next part has a ring of truth to it.
The Pakistani journalist, also said he has precise and up-to-date information on how the Saudi terror leader lives. "Last September I met the bodyguard of Osama Bin Laden, Abu Hamza, who told me that he had married an Afghan woman with whom he had three children. On the same day he told me of the death of one of Bin Laden's wives during childbirth in a mountainous zone where there were no doctors. It seemed that her death was not a major problem for bin Laden as death in childbirth is quite frequent among Afghan women," Mir recounted. It is unclear to which of bin Laden's wives his bodyguard was referring, even if it seems probably it was the daughter of Abu Hafs al-Masri. Reasonable, we've had many reports of al-Qaeda arabs marrying into Afghan and Pakistani tribes. Builds family bond and gives cover and protection.
Abu Hamza al-Jazeeri - an Algerian who in 2003 was in Iraq but later returned to Afghanistan - also indicated that combatants go from Afghanistan to Iraq and back through Iran. Middle management and the gunnies, I'd wager the bigs stay put in their safe houses
Regarding the life of bin Laden and his followers in Pakistan, bin Laden's body guard recounted that the Arab fighters bought food from the local Pashtun tribes who sell them bread, milk and meat. Probable
"Abu Hamza told me that Osama bin Laden keeps in touch with his fighters and follows news via satellite television and the statements which appear on the Internet. He is well and spends his days praying and reading the Coran inside a cave," he continued, adding that he had left the Afghan mountain stronghold of Tora Bora at the end of December 2001. Asked how he could be informed about what is going on in the world from inside a cave, the journalist replied: "Where he is located, he can listen to the radio, and al-Qaeda has four bases in the main cities of Pakistan from where he can see the satellite channels and he can use Internet." "Bin Laden's envoys regularly prepare reports with the main news developments and send them to his hideout," he added. I read that as he's in a remote region where he gets radio only. His boyz in Pakistan collect news briefs from TV and the internet (Hi, Osama!) and send them to him via courier. He in turn would give them messages to relay to the troops from back in Pakistan. Sounds about right.
"After leaving Tora Bora he spent much time in the mountainous region dividing Pakistan and Afghanistan, then he was in Khost, Konar, Baktia, Baktika and in Waziristan. That border area is safe, while that with Iran is not," he said, noting that one of bin Laden's sons, Saad, lives in Iran. Another probable
Regarding bin Laden's relationship with Jordanian militant and leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Hamid Mir said the two men are in regular contact. "They communicate through CDs - inside which are compressed files in which there are the plans of operations to be carried out. They are carried to and from by couriers passing through Iran," he concluded. Possible, we captured one of Zargawi's messages to Binny. I wonder if he means a compressed text file hidden on a music CD? That would pass through most normal security measures
Posted by: Steve ||
05/02/2006 08:49 ||
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I wonder if he means a compressed text file hidden on a music CD? That would pass through most normal security measures
Take a music CD and rip it to a raw audio file. Take a text file. Now, replace the low-order bits in the audio files with bits from the text file:
AB1,bit0 = TB1,bit0
AB2,bit1 = TB1,bit1, etc.
Burn audio files to a new CD.
I'd bet you wouldn't be able to hear a difference between the original and the new CD, but someone who knew there was a message on it could recover it quite easily.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/02/2006 9:37 Comments ||
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#2
I read that as he's in a remote region where he gets radio only. *chuckle*
#3
If they had a dirty bomb or a nuke, they'd use it on the nearest convenient target.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/02/2006 10:24 Comments ||
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#4
A "dirty bomb" is a joke. Technically, if you get *anything* radioactive and tie it to a piece of explosive, you have a "dirty bomb". This does not mean it can do squat, contaminate a large area, or pose even a minimal health risk. Compare it to a bag of ordinary dry dust tied to a block of dynamite.
A serious "dirty bomb" has to not only have a type of explosives designed to disperse your radioactive particles, it has to have the right kind of radioactive isotope, it has to be detonated in just the right place with just the right weather conditions.
And most of all, it must have publicity.
If it is not publicized, unless it is a very advanced weapon that will actually make people sick and die quickly, nobody will notice it. The rain will wash the radioactive particles down the sewer like dust.
There are many commonly available industrial chemicals that if detonated would be far more lethal and create much worse contamination.
(As a side note, the first Soviet "nuclear" missile was a dirty bomb. Literally, it was a warhead filled with nuclear waste. Didn't even have conventional explosives. It would land with a 'splat'.)
#5
read that as he's in a remote region where he gets radio only
you think that's funny kufr? I only get Rush Limbaugh, that infidel Dr. Laura, and Michael Savage. If I had an explosive vest I'd be tempted to use it!
#7
Dirty bombs are another scare blown way, way out of scope by the press. They are difficult to do and as Amoose said, you have to have the right stuff to kill and sicken people. There is radioactive waste all over the place where uranium was mined. It is known as Uranium mine tailings (I've worked to help clean up the stuff). Even though it is labeled radioactive, the radiation is Alpha and Beta with very little Gamma. You can walk all over it and be fine. The big danger is the heavy metals used to process the Uranium, such as Mercury and Arsenic. Highly toxic crap. However, put in a bomb it would be next to worthless unless you inhaled a large portion of dust so the Alpha particles can do their work. Not a lot of casualties per bang.
#9
(As a side note, the first Soviet "nuclear" missile was a dirty bomb. Literally, it was a warhead filled with nuclear waste. Didn't even have conventional explosives. It would land with a 'splat'.)
AFAIK, the first nuclear weapon to appear in public text was a dirty bomb. One of Heinlein's stories had both sides spreading radio isotopes to kill troops.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
05/02/2006 11:09 Comments ||
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Think they'll ring the doorbell before they set it on fire and throw it on some guy's porch?
#12
Abu Hamza, who told me that he had married an Afghan woman with whom he had three children. On the same day he told me of the death of one of Bin Laden's wives during childbirth in a mountainous zone where there were no doctors.
I call Bullshit, It's been known a very long time that Osama has to have Dyalisis on a regular basis, a place with NO doctors would be the LAST place Osama would be hiding.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/02/2006 13:35 Comments ||
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#13
not a joke:
did anyone see the dirty bomb version with an Egyptian who was "there" and lost an eye [bona fides] when they tested it [dirty bomb] in Kabul 1980s?
#14
I call Bullshit, It's been known a very long time that Osama has to have Dyalisis on a regular basis, a place with NO doctors would be the LAST place Osama would be hiding.
Dunno. I've heard the dialysis story is fake.
Keep in mind, if it came from the CIA, it might have come from Scheurer, etc.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/02/2006 18:12 Comments ||
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#15
nuclear devices bought on the Russian black market prior to 2001
BS.
They would used these devices if they had them.
Would Osama hesitate one second if he could detonate a nuke in Manhatten?
There is no black market. If there was such a market for nukes, Iraq would have bought them, Iran would have bought them, Libya would have bought them.
These are nation states with billions of dollars to spend, air force transport aircraft to ferry the weapons, diplomatic immunity for their "cultural attaches" intelligence operatives, scientists at universities to work on them etc.
None of them has bought a nuke because none are for sale.
Posted by: john ||
05/02/2006 18:13 Comments ||
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#16
Concur with your assessment John. Kinda like Viagra, if ya got it, you'll prolly use er.
Pakistani police said Monday they would investigate a statement purportedly from Al-Qaeda which claimed a deadly suicide bombing in March, but cast doubt on its authenticity.
The bombing on March 2 killed five people including an American diplomat in the southern city of Karachi just before US President George W. Bush visited the country.
An Internet statement, signed Al Qaeda, of the Afghanistan Jihad (holy war), promised a summer of hell for US troops in Afghanistan.
Dozens of suicide operations have been carried out in Pakistan and Afghanistan within the large Al-Qaeda campaign against Zionists and Crusaders, including the attack against the US consulate in Karachi a day before the arrival of the biggest Crusader (Bush), it said.
The statement vowed that 2006 would be decisive and that this summer would be hell for Crusader soldiers and their agents among the renegades.
Karachi police chief Niaz Siddiqui said the claim came almost two months after the attack. I seriously doubt the authenticity of the claim, he told AFP.
He said an investigation into the attack was continuing but no major clues had been yet found. Investigators will look into the statement but serious doubts are there over its authenticity.
No organisation had previously claimed responsibility for the March 2 attack. A month later, in another suicide bomb blast during a religious gathering in Karachi, more than 50 people were killed.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 00:18 ||
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MIRANSHAH: The Taliban on Monday agreed to cease anti-government attacks after a three-member Tablighi delegation asked local mujahideen to not attack during tablighi congregations starting on May 4. The Tablighis said their talks with the local Taliban were successful, and they had announced a truce till May 11. They said they expected cooperation from the government as well, in that it would not launch any attacks and relax a curfew. Clashes between militants and security forces have killed 324 militants and 56 soldiers since July 2005.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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Sort of like ent moots, but without the dynamic action and the soft cuddly participants.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - With no clear sign the United States can win U.N. support for sanctions against Iran, the Bush administration said on Tuesday it could work instead with like-minded nations to punish Tehran for its nuclear programs.
The United States, which has its own sanctions on the Islamic republic, is lobbying for the United Nations Security Council to impose international sanctions on Iran but faces resistance from veto holders Russia and China.
"If for whatever reason the council couldn't fulfill its responsibilities, then I think it would be incumbent on us, and I'm sure we would press ahead to ask other countries or other groups of countries to impose those sanctions," John Bolton, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, told a House of Representatives government reform subcommittee.
Diplomats have said the United States could seek to persuade Iran's European trade partners to sanction Tehran if it fails to win support for wider sanctions at the council.
Under sharp questioning from Democrats who said President George W. Bush appeared intent on war with Iran, Bolton dismissed as "fiction" news reports that the United States has covert forces in Iran. He said Bush was focused on diplomatic remedies.
Washington says Iran is pursuing a nuclear program to develop weapons, while Tehran insists it is only for civilian energy needs.
Bolton, along with U.N. ambassadors from France and Britain are expected to introduce a new Security Council resolution this week. It would require Tehran to abandon uranium enrichment, invoking Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, making compliance mandatory.
Bolton raised the prospect that Russia and China could abstain rather than veto the Chapter 7 resolution.
"While it would be desirable to have a unanimous Security Council when we adopt this resolution under Chapter 7," Bolton said, "it's not impossible that we would proceed without them."
This is more of a threat to the UN than to Iran. The big winner could end up being an enhanced NATO with global membership.
Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak provoked a political storm recently when he declared that the Shia Muslim communities in Iraq and elsewhere in the Arab world were more loyal to Iran than to their own states.
As denunciations poured in from Shia leaders stressing the Shia's historic nationalism, Mr Mubarak tried to calm the fury, saying he was referring to spiritual following rather than political allegiance.
But no effort at damage control could conceal the underlying anxiety that prompted the comments in the first place, two years after Jordan's King Abdullah, a fellow Sunni leader, caused uproar by warningof an emerging "Shia crescent".
Arab rulers are increasingly frustrated by a changing political order in the Middle East, where the Shia are for the first time in power in Iraq and Shia militias are now engaged in the sectarian conflict with the Sunni minority.
But their fears have been compounded by the muscle-flexing of Shia Iran, a traditional rival now determined to pursue a nuclear programme and consolidate its alliance with Syria, the Shia in Lebanon and some radical Palestinian factions, forming a radical anti-western axis in the face of the more moderate pro-western and Sunni-dominated Arab states.
"Some Arab factions connect the Shia to Iran and are afraid of the Shia as a threat that could pave the way for Iranian control of the Arab world," says Lebanon's Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, a leading Shia religious authority with followers across the region. "There is a Sunni world in the Arab world, and there is a history, bloody and complicated towards the Shia."
But it is a big political mistake to suggest the Shia's allegiance is to Iran, he charges. The Shia crescent only "lives in the imagination" of those who have a "complex against the Shia".
The Shia - who make up about 15 per cent of the world's 1.5bn Muslims - are still discriminated against in parts of the region.
This includes Bahrain, where they are a majority ruled by a Sunni minority, and Saudi Arabia, where the dominant Wahabi Islam has long considered them to be outside the faith.
But though many Shia are sympathetic to Iran, and were influenced by the 1979 Islamic revolution, there is little historic evidence to suggest they would rush to help Iran against the interests of their own countries. Even from a religious perspective, the Shia historically looked to Iraq's holy city of Najaf, and not Iran's Qom, as the centre of learning and spiritual guidance.
It is Iraq, however, that has whipped up fears of historic suspicions turning into open, religious confrontation.
The empowerment of Iraq's Shia, accounting for more than half the population, offered a psychological boost to the Shia elsewhere in the Arab world, and was therefore seen as a source of worry for Sunni-led governments.
Iraq's jihadis, linked to al-Qaeda, have deliberately sought to provoke sectarian war to prevent the Shia from ruling the new Iraq. In recent months, however, nationalist insurgent groups appear to have joined the sectarian campaign, shifting targets more towards Shia symbols. Despite calls for restraint from clerics after the February bombing of a Shia shrine in Samarra, north-west of Baghdad, Shia militias launched a wave of reprisals, deepening religious divisions.
Moreover, Shia Islamist parties that form the largest bloc in parliament owe their political fortunes to the US, but are also close allies of Tehran. The Iranian influence has led to warnings that the Iraq war could widen into a broader Sunni-Shia conflagration. "There are signs of civil war in Iraq and we need to contain them and speak of what brings Sunnis and Shia together, because it starts in Iraq and it won't be limited to Iraq," says a senior Arab official.
Iraq may have been a more manageable conflict had Iran enjoyed better relations with its Arab neighbours. But as the Iraq crisis escalated, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, a radical president, took power in Iran, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader and ultimate decision-maker, opted for a more confrontational approach with the west over Iran's nuclear programme.
Iran has cemented its alliance with Syria, where the minority Alawites, an offshoot of Shia Islam, rule over a Sunni majority.
Tehran has also taken a more active role in Lebanon, where it backs Hizbollah, the Shia militant group, both financially and militarily. Among Palestinians, it has stepped up its support for Hamas, a Sunni Islamist group, since the radical Islamist group's victory in the January elections, and continues to back, even more forcefully, the smaller Islamic Jihad.
Iran's alliances in the Middle East, however, are neither based purely on a religious foundation, nor are they an easy tool of manipulation.
Mr Ahmadi-Nejad's anti-Israeli outbursts are designed to appeal to both Shia and Sunni across the region. And, as Mohammad Habash, head of the Islamic Studies Centre in Damascus, points out, Iran's Palestinian allies are Sunni Islamists and Syria's Alawites have never presented themselves as Shia or espoused a Shia political programme.
"There's a political crescent or an Islamist crescent but not a Shia crescent, and it's against American policies in the region," says Mr Habash.
Meanwhile, Hizbollah and Hamas have underlined they are not tools in the handsof Iran, even if their interests often converge.
Officials in Tehran and in the Arab world are hoping a national unity government now being formed in Iraq will put a lid on sectarian violence. Both sides speak of a broader dialogue, though the only signs so far are behind-the-scenes talks between the Saudis and the Iranians. With Iran's nuclear confrontation with the world community escalating, however, it will take a lot more effort to bridge the growing sectarian divide.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 00:12 ||
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#1
Shia - Sunni religious war. Nah, lets not be unreasonably optimistic.
Edited down, details on crimes and apprehensions in press release. Illustrates what crimes generate what sentences. Front-line, Iraqi insurgent 'soldiers' treated fairly leniently; foreigners more harshly, and 'officers' get life.
CCCI Convicts 12 Insurgents; Three Sentenced to Life in Prison
5/2/2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq The Central Criminal Court of Iraq convicted 12 security detainees April 19 through April 25 for various crimes including illegal border crossing, possessing illegal weapons and joining terrorist groups.
The trial court found Hassan Hamid Abdulla Muhsin guilty of joining terrorist groups to endanger innocent peoples lives and to unsettle the stability and security of Iraq and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The defendant met personally with Zarqawi ...
The trial court found Mohammed Dhaher Ibrahim Yassen Jazzah guilty of joining terrorist groups to endanger innocent peoples lives and to unsettle the stability and security of Iraq and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The trial court found Alilzaldin Redha Kadhum Al-Ubaidi guilty of joining terrorist groups to endanger innocent peoples lives and to unsettle the stability and security of Iraq and sentenced him to life imprisonment. CF apprehended him Sept. 2, 2005, for his participation in the Mosul Terror Cell through payment to the families of martyrs and distribution of anti-Coalition Forces pamphlets.
The trial court found Hussein Ali Ibrahim Khalil guilty of misprision of a felony and sentenced him to 18 months imprisonment.
The trial court found Taha Ibrahim Yassin Bakr guilty of misprision of a felony and sentenced him to 18 months imprisonment.
The trial court found Adnan Rashid Jeru Alwani guilty of possession of illegal weapons and sentenced him to three years imprisonment.
The trial court found Hazeem Abd Wais guilty of possession of illegal weapons and sentenced him to one year imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 Iraqi Dinars.
The trial court found Sabah Sarhan Anfous guilty of possession of illegal weapons and sentenced him to one year imprisonment and a fine of 50,000 Iraqi Dinars.
The trial court found Hassan Ali Abbas guilty of possession of illegal weapons and Article 27 of the Iraqi Weapons Law and sentenced him to one year imprisonment and a fine of 100,000 Iraqi Dinars.
The trial court found Fathi Mahmood Monsoor Hamdani guilty of possession of illegal weapons and sentenced him to three years imprisonment.
The trial court found Mohammed Hussein Ali and Abdel Kader Mohammed guilty of illegal entry and sentenced them to six years imprisonment each. ...both are believed to be foreign fighters.
Upon conviction, all defendants are turned over to the Iraqi Corrections Service to serve their sentences.
To date, the CCCI has held 1044 trials of insurgents suspected of anti-Iraqi and anti-Coalition activities threatening the security of Iraq and targeting MNF-I. These proceedings have resulted in 934 individual convictions with sentences ranging up to death.
#3
Since the Z-man has managed to "just barely" evade capture what, seven(?), eight(?) times, now, I strongly suspect that whether or not he knows it, he is working for us.
Sure, it's possible to flip an honest penny and get heads eight times in a row. But I am not going to place a very big wager on that happening.
While the formation of a new Iraqi government is one necessary condition to avert a civil war there, another is for the US and Iraqi governments to get control of the Shiite militias that American forces have been reluctant to fight.
American commanders have said that if a Sunni-Shiite civil war erupts in Iraq, they will look to Iraqi security forces to deal with it. Unfortunately, Iraqi security forces have become increasingly Shiite and, in the case of the police, infiltrated by Shiite militias.
As a result, the US position is tantamount to letting the Iraqis slug it out. That raises a question about the point of keeping a large US force in Iraq. But the alternative of putting American troops in the middle of a civil war would be even worse.
This predicament stems from two mistakes made after the Iraqis assumed sovereignty from the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in 2004. First, the American and Iraqi governments failed to implement the ban on militias negotiated by the CPA and enacted as Iraqi law - even though all militias except the Mahdi Army of the renegade Shiite Muqtada al Sadr agreed to the ban. Second, the Ministry of Interior, which controls Iraq's police, was allowed to fall into the hands of another Shiite militia, the Badr Corps.
Even as it combats the Sunni insurgency, the US should use whatever clout it has left in Iraq to get control of the Shiite militias. Though a long shot, the only path may be to revive and finally implement the 2004 ban on militias. The terms of that deal are:
1. Provide job training and placement for militia fighters willing to lay down their arms. Many militiamen probably would welcome such an opportunity at a time when jobs are scarce. The US and Iraqi governments should mount a large-scale program to give individuals an alternative to becoming fighters in a civil war and instead train them to do the construction work needed to rebuild Iraq's dilapidated housing and ruined infrastructure. The cost would be trivial compared with the enormous bill of a sectarian war. Europeans and others could be asked to help fund this worthy cause.
2. Permit militia fighters to join Iraq's security forces as individuals, but not in groups with their command chains still intact. This was the original intention. It means that the Ministry of Interior, as well as the Ministry of Defense, must be taken out of the hands of parties and politicians who want their militias to dominate Iraq's security forces. The US and new Iraqi governments now appear determined to place these "power ministries" under capable nonpartisan ministers.
3. Enforce the disbanding of what is left of the militias after individuals enter job training or Iraqi security services. The 2004 law states that any political party retaining a militia - such as the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq that controls the Badr Corps - should be excluded from politics, instead of being rewarded with high office. Beyond that, US and Iraqi forces must be prepared forcibly to disarm any militias that remain active. Because the Iraqi police have already been largely compromised, this means that the Iraqi Army and the US military must act jointly. The alternative is to let Shiite militias flout the law and escalate sectarian violence - just what Sunni extremists such as Al Qaeda leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi want.
The more successful the first two measures, the easier it will be to rid Iraq of remaining militias. Conversely, the first two measures will not work without a credible threat to disband the militias.
The Kurds also have militias and must also obey the law. But Iraqi law allows most of these fighters to become official forces of the Kurdish Regional Government.
Neither the new Iraqi government nor the US can dissolve the militias by itself. This must be done in partnership and as the first order of business. The danger is that the new Iraqi government could be dominated by the very Shiite parties that control militias. However, early signs are that Prime Minister Jawad al-Maliki will not let this happen.
Now that Iraqis have created a new government, they and the US may be able to avert civil war if, perhaps only if, they implement and enforce the militia law. If they do not, keeping US troops in Iraq will get harder and harder to defend.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 00:10 ||
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IRAQI President Jalal Talabani has claimed a ceasefire is possible with seven insurgent groups after a series of meetings with US and Iraqi officials and rebel leaders.
"The Americans have entered into negotiations with some of these groups with my blessing," Mr Talabani's office said in a statement. "It is possible to reach an agreement with seven armed groups that visited me."
Mr Talabani said he was optimistic a truce could be agreed to as Iraq's leaders continued to bicker over the make-up of the new cabinet. He emphasised that the participants did not include al-Qa'ida terrorists led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi or gangs loyal to Saddam Hussein. Both groups claimed to be behind attacks at the weekend that left at least two dozen people dead.
A car bomb exploded near the National Theatre in the centre of Baghdad yesterday, killing five people, including three policemen.
It is believed US officials joined Mr Talabani in Kurdistan for a summit with insurgents, although Mr Talabani would not say when or where the meetings took place or what the deal could entail.
The spokesman of one major insurgent group, the Islamic Army in Iraq, said his organisation had not taken part in such a meeting. US officials have for several months acknowledged holding meetings with intermediaries of homegrown Iraqi insurgent groups, hoping to draw them into the political process.
Embassy officials in Baghdad said they were unaware of any new developments that suggested a deal was imminent.
"We haven't entered into negotiations. We've had talks. That's what we've been saying all along. We've met with these people," embassy spokeswoman Elizabeth Colton said.
"We've had contacts with intermediaries of these groups, encouraging them to join the political process." The contacts have served as part of a broader policy aimed at driving a wedge between the Baathists and religious extremists whose goal is to establish an Islamic state and those Iraqis who see themselves as nationalists fighting a foreign occupier.
"The Zarqawi-ists have declared a genocidal war against the Iraqi people, but there are some other groups, excluding the Saddamists and Zarqawi-ists, who have waged armed struggle in order to remove the occupiers," Mr Talabani said. "Those are the ones we are willing to have a dialogue with and include in the political process."
US President George W.Bush has often drawn a similar distinction, between the Baath loyalists and al-Qa'ida "terrorists" and the Sunni "rejectionists" who oppose the American presence in Iraq but who US officials believe could be persuaded to join the political process.
Mr Talabani's suggestion that a deal is possible could deepen the rift within the ranks of Iraq's insurgency since the contacts began in November.
The main Iraqi insurgent groups, including the Islamic Army in Iraq, the 1920 Revolution Brigades, the Mujaheddin Army and the Iraqi Resistance Islamic Front, have denied taking part in any contacts with the US or the Iraqi Government, but several of those groups have clashed openly with Zarqawi loyalists recently.
The talk of a deal follows the release last week of a videotape in which Zarqawi sought to rally Iraq's Sunni Arabs behind him, threatening death to any Iraqi who participated in the political process.
US officials said the video was an "act of desperation".
Zarqawi's group, made up largely of Iraqis but including foreign fighters, is believed to be one of the smaller insurgent organisations.
COPENHAGEN - Denmark may pull 100 soldiers out of Iraq -- a fifth of its total contingent -- during the second half of this year, according to a government report to be published on May 10, Danish media said. The report will be published on the 10th of May but no announcement will be made before then as to the number of soldiers, a civil servant at the foreign affairs ministry, who did not wish to be named, told AFP.
The document is not yet finished, and must be submitted to parliament for approval, according to the state television station TV2. There will be two procedures in the parliament before the final vote later in May probably, AFPs foreign ministry source confirmed. Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller refused to make any comment until the report was published.
The 500 Danish troops are stationed in Basra under British command. Their mandate, renewable every six months, comes to an end in June.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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GAZA - A handful of Palestinian journalists have reported receiving death threats for their critical coverage of the Islamic militant group Hamas since it began running the government in March, a press group said on Monday. The Palestinian Journalists Union said seven journalists in the Gaza Strip, mostly sympathetic to President Mahmoud Abbass Fatah party, had received threats by e-mail, phone or fax -- made in Hamass name -- to harm or kill them for their coverage.
No doubt Helen Thomas will put a call in to set things right.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri denied the group had threatened journalists, saying the calls were a fraudulent attempt to damage Hamass image.
"No, no, certainly not!"
The threats came amid a struggle for sway over the Palestinian Authority and its security forces that pits the moderate Abbas, favoured by Israel and Western powers, against Hamas, which beat Fatah in a parliamentary election in January. We are taking these threats seriously, although we do not think the Hamas movement has a policy to threaten journalists, said Sakher Abu Own from the Journalists Union, which represents journalists in the West Bank and Gaza. These threats could have been made by individuals. We have urged factions to take a position against it, he said.
"All the same, we're not doing any Gaza airport stories any more," he added.
No journalists have been harmed since Hamas took office. In recent years, some Palestinian reporters have been beaten over coverage, and a journalist who ran a government-funded magazine was killed in 2004. Victims of the violence said attackers came from various factions, including Fatah, and in one case, from Hamas. In the past year, several foreign journalists were also briefly kidnapped in Gaza.
The mainstream Palestinian media have tended to favour Fatah in news coverage. The largest media outlets, especially in radio and on the government-run television station, have been highly critical of Hamas policies since the group took office.
Some pro-Fatah media have correctly predicted the government will collapse because of financial problems after Western countries cut off aid to the Hamas-led administration. Others have slammed Hamas as unprepared to run state affairs.
Except for terrorism, that they know pretty well.
Muwafaq Matar, a journalist with the pro-Fatah al-Hureya radio station in Gaza who has criticised the performance of Hamas in government, said he had received three separate threats. The caller told me: You are part of the campaign to bring down the Hamas government, Matar told Reuters. I will blow up your head and cut off your legs if I hear you again on al-Hureya radio.
Another journalist, working for the pro-Fatah Palestine Press news Web site, said the caller who threatened him identified himself as a member of Hamass military wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades. Since Hamas came to power, they want journalists all to talk the same language, the Hamas language, said the journalist, Waseem Gharib.
Life in Paleostine sucks, doesn't it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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GAZA: A Hamas legislator said on Monday that France had denied him a visa to visit as part of an unofficial Palestinian parliamentary delegation. Salah al-Bardaweel said he would apply to other European countries to grant him a visa to join a delegation of four other Palestinian lawmakers from parties unconnected to Hamas who are visiting France, Norway, Spain, Germany, Italy and Austria. "They gave no reasons for the rejection but it was clear I was denied a visa because I am a parliamentarian from Hamas," Bardaweel said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
At last, something we, French, can be proud of.
#5
They did ole Bardaweavel a favour. Who'd want to visit Paris right now anyway? Come on over to the US, you can stay for as long as you want. No taxes, free health care, education, preference for employment, speak your native tongue, talk bad bout the gummit and gringos, march in the streets with a nice big green Hamas flag.... no problem here. Come on down!
DUBAI: Palestinian leader Mahmod Abbas said in a television interview broadcast on Monday that he does not intend to seek a second term in office. "No, no, (I just want to) complete my current mandate, if I live that long succeed in that," Abbas told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television when asked if he would run again when his four-year term expires in 2009. Abbas, who became president of the Palestinian Authority in January 2005 after the death of veteran leader Yasser Arafat, has been locked in a power struggle with the Islamist movement Hamas, which now leads the Palestinian government.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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AMMAN (JT) A group of Palestinian officials are currently in Amman to tackle the issue of arms smuggled recently by some Hamas members into Jordan, President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday. We are following up on the matter, Abbas was quoted by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, as telling reporters after a meeting with King Abdullah. We pledged to dispatch a follow-up committee, and some members of this panel are currently in Amman to address the problem.
Last month, Abbas said he planned to send a security delegation to Jordan, after authorities seized a weapons cache and arrested Hamas elements, who plotted to carry out attacks on officials and other targets in the country on orders from a Hamas Syria-based leader. Abbas was quoted then as saying that this was dangerous and surprising, adding that the affair had serious repercussions for the security and stability of Jordan. Hamas denied any involvement.
During the meeting, King Abdullah told Abbas that Jordan will invest its relations with the international community to find effective means to ensure aid to the Palestinians. Jordan sent 18,000 tonnes of medicines, medical equipment and food items as well as 30 ambulances to the Palestinians. International donors, led by the US, halted direct aid because the Hamas-led government refuses to recognise Israel.
The King said Jordan and Egypt will work at the international level to help resume the peace process and build trust between the Palestinians and Israelis. Jordan and Egypt on Saturday said they wanted to cooperate with the incoming Israeli government to help resume peace negotiations with the Palestinians and preempt Israeli unilateral moves. Israeli Prime Minister-designate Ehud Olmert said he sought to set the Jewish state's borders unilaterally if no basis can be found for negotiations with the Palestinians.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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for a brief second, I read the headline as, "Palestinian Team in Amman to Blow Up on Hamas Issue". Need more coffee.
AFP: Not only have no planes landed for more than five years, but neither have any pay cheques for the past two months.
There's nothing unusual about keeping Paleostinian employees on for five years after the last plane has landed, but it's unusual for them not to get pay checks to rake off.
At Gaza's ghost town airport, time stands still rather than flies.
No, I don't imagine the flies stand still. They seldom do. Except for the ones that die battering against dusty window panes on a hot summer's day. Then they just lay there, slowly dessicating. Sometimes I wonder: What do dead flies draw?
"Every morning, we still come to work. We just sit and wait," says Akram Mohammad, one of 500 people on the payroll of the grandly named Yasser Arafat International Airport, who have not received a dime since February.
"Sometimes I sits and thinks, and other times I just sits."
The decision by the European Union and United States to suspend direct aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) now that it is run by the radical Islamists of Hamas has meant the 140,000 PA employees went without pay in March and April.
But the airport workers went for five years without doing any work and continued to collect their pay...
But despite having their salaries suspended, the vast majority of airport employees still turn up for work everyday. "What else can we do? We can't just lounge around at home," says Akram who works in the travel information department where the phones have long since stopped ringing. "It's not as if we've got anywhere else to work either. Jobs are hard to come by in Gaza," adds Akram, whose two underemployed colleagues nod in agreement.
"We get paid just as much here as we would someplace else."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
So, do they practice losing luggage all day?
They could hold a competition with the guys at Tehran airport.
#2
Looks a lot like working as a french civil servant in that administration/social-model-the-whole-world-envies-us, except you're not paid. Bummer. So they perform an imaginary job, and they get an imaginary pay? Fair deal, no?
#4
I consider myself a fairly lazy person but I doubt I could do nothing for five friggin years. After the first two I would get the message that this is not a profitable endeavor and move onto something else. I bet they were hoping for advancement! FYI there is no way we can help these people if they are content to just sit and do nothing to help themselves. How about (while your at work doing nothing) research ways to start a business, study to better yourself, or maybe search for a better job? A total write off of human DNA.
#6
How many more salaries for no work has the international community been paying for - five years minus 2 months of pay for nothing. What a crock. Now they're bitchin about not being for doing nothing.
#7
Every morning, we still come to work. We just sit and wait
Sounds like my first tour in Germany. Worked at Borfink bunker, Nato Primary Static War Hq. Sat around waiting for WWIII to start, dust off the gear every week, exercised twice a year, got most every NATO nations holidays off. Nice job. Of course, if the balloon did go up, we figured we'd be a smoking crater within 30 minutes, Static Headquarters meaning fixed target and all.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/02/2006 13:46 Comments ||
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Jordan said Monday it was awaiting a visit by a Palestinian security and political delegation to Amman to discuss with Hamas' smuggling of weapons into the Hashemite Kingdom. Government spokesman Nasser Joudeh told a news conference both sides were discussing a date for the delegation's visit. He said the Jordanian-Palestinian relations were not affected by the arms smuggling incident by Hamas. Joudeh said contacts were ongoing between the Amman government and the Palestinian Authority at all levels, including the Hamas-led government. He said investigation was underway over the smuggling of weapons, which were seized recently. He added that Jordan was awaiting the formation of the political and security delegation by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Joudeh said Jordan would continue supporting the Palestinian people at the political and humanitarian levels.
Tehran, Iran, Apr. 30 Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appointed on Sunday a senior military intelligence official as the deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Islamic Republics ideological armed force.
In a statement carried by the official news agency, Khamenei appointed Brigadier General Morteza Rezai for the top post. General Rezai was formerly the head of the IRGCs Counter-Intelligence Directorate.
Rezai replaces Brigadier General Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr who was recently appointed as deputy Interior Minister with overall responsibility for internal security. Zolqadr is a protégé and trusted confidant of Khamenei and has had a key role in the countrys security apparatus for years. He is also a staunch ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The IRGC was founded in the early days of the Islamic revolution in 1979 as an armed force loyal to Irans clerical rulers. Its commanders directly report to Supreme Leader Khamenei and their mission is to protect and propagate the Islamic revolution. Since Ahmadinejad took office as President last year, hundreds of senior officers of the IRGC have been seconded to government ministries and state institutions to keep the civil service in line prop up the countrys civil administration as the Islamic Republic continues to defy the international community over its suspected nuclear weapons program.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Zolqadr's deputy interior minister now? The Tanzanian? Interestingly, if you look at all the IRGC occupying high offices in Iran these days, it looks far more like a traditional junta than it does a theocracy.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 0:08 Comments ||
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Senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards official Hamid Reza Zakiri On Iran's Collaboration with Iraq, North Korea, Al-Qa'ida, and Hizbullah
In the interview, conducted outside Iran, Zakiri said that Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri, leader of the Egyptian Jihad organization and Osama bin Laden's deputy, established close ties with current deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Brigadier-General Muhammad Bakr Dhu-Al-Qadr, and with current commanders of the Iranian and Al-Quds Forces, part of the Revolutionary Guards; commanders include Ahmad Vahidi and Hussein Muslih, who was former commander of the Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon. Zakiri told of bin Laden's stay in the Sudan, during the period when the Iranian Revolutionary Guards maintained an extensive presence there. According to him, Hizbullah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, under the leadership of Fathi Shiqaqi, had a massive presence in the special training camps supervised by Guards officers such as Dhu-Al-Qadr.
...................
On Relations Between Iraqi and Iranian Intelligence
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat: "It was mentioned that there are close connections between the [Revolutionary] Guards intelligence and Iraq. Is this true? Weren't the Guards in the first rank of the war against Iraq?"
Zakiri: "After the [Gulf] war, the [Revolutionary] Guards, commanded by Morteza Rezai, established commercial companies in order to provide work for the Guards personnel and the Basij [paramilitary units loyal to Khamenei that operate together with the Revolutionary Guards."
"These companies have been cooperating with the Babil Company, headed by Qusay, Saddam's son, since the mid-1990s. Along with smuggling Iraqi oil and marketing it, these Iranian companies smuggled Iraqi dates. The cooperation between the intelligence of the Guards and Iraq in smuggling and in trade stopped about a year ago. But the Guards intelligence still maintains relations with Uday Saddam's other son and with the Iraqi intelligence, and coordination between the parties on matters such as the siege on the Kurds and confronting the U.S. continues. For example, the Ansar Al-Islam organization in Iraqi Kurdistan won the support and protection of the Guards intelligence and of the intelligence apparatuses of the Iraqi regime."
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat: "There are many more questions concerning activities and secrets that you have not so far revealed."
Zakiri: "I ask to put off these questions for a while. After I arrange my situation and that of my family, and set myself up in a safe place, I will be willing to answer all your questions."
The Iranian Foreign Ministry Responds
A source in the Security and Intelligence Ministry in Tehran denied Zakiri's claims regarding the Iranian intelligence apparatuses' relations with Al-Qa'ida and with Osama bin Laden's deputy Dr. Ayman Al-Zawahiri. The source, who according to the paper wished to remain anonymous, confirmed that Zakiri "was expelled from the ministry because of his behavior, his dubious connections, and his activity in other centers without the knowledge of the Security and Intelligence Ministry." In an attempt to verify Zakiri's identity and statements, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat called Khamenei's office, but an official there refused to discuss the matter, stating that it was an internal office matter. The official also accused Zakiri of "spying, conspiring against Islam and the Islamic Revolution, and collaborating with Zionism and world arrogance [i.e. the U.S.]" The Iranian Foreign Ministry denied that Zakiri was a member of the Iranian security apparatuses, and said that it knew nothing of the recent defection of any top Iranian security official.[6]
More News Reports of Other Top-Ranking Defectors
Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported further that the Iranian reformist daily E'temad posted on the website Yek Khabar, established by 'Ali Ara Muhammadi, former top security official and deputy director of the Iranian broadcasting authority, an item according to which three top Iranian security system officials had defected recently and taken with them many documents, including video recordings with protocols of investigations of security officials knowledgeable of the assassinations.
.........more
#3
I bet he was sent there to purge any RGs who are "unreliable". The trouble is that many of them are draftees, and are kept in their barracks at all times, with just a few RG units shuttled around the country doing all the thug work.
This means that he will try to improve loyalty by arresting a bunch of blatant disloyals and executing them.
PARIS: High-ranking officials from the UN Security Council's five permanent members and Germany are scheduled to gather in Paris today (Tuesday) to decide on a common position to tackle Tehran's refusal to halt its nuclear programme. The meeting comes a day after an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, said that Iran would "give full cooperation" if the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the UNSC were to decide that Tehran's nuclear be examined by the nuclear watchdog.
The P5-plus-Germany meeting, to be held at the political director-level, will be the first time that the six countries have convened since the IAEA reported last Friday to the UNSC that Iran was violating a UN order to halt uranium enrichment. The summit will also establish the groundwork for a foreign ministerial meeting of the six countries scheduled for May 9 in New York. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had talked tough ahead of today's meeting, saying on Sunday that the international community's credibility was at stake and that "we can either mean what we say when we say that Iran must comply, or we can continue to allow Iran to defy".
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I think I know how this ends.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/02/2006 0:29 Comments ||
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#3
I think we all know the outcome that will be the UN debate of debate of if they should debate about the debate about Iran weapons or something.
The question is is the US going to back up thier talk and marginalize the UN after this. Are we finally going to wake up to reality that a club were everyone is considered part of is basicly useless to get everyone to hold certian standards.
We need a new alliance that to be part of you must meet certian standards of freedom, democracy, and capatilism. Otherwise you cant get in. Tie the foreign aid to the new coalition and instead of paying every tin horn dictator a little humanitarian aid lets give large amounts to nations who are trying to become members so they can qualify and then become a productive member to help the alliance pickup the next member into qualification. The dictators people should starve and suffer so when freedom comes they will appreciate it.
IRNA - The Press Attache of IRI Embassy in Kuwait here on Monday denied Zionist daily Yediot Aharonet's recent claim on visit of a number of that regime's experts of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is stressed in the communique issued by the attache that the news in that daily is sheer lies, published under such conditions that the enmity of the Zionist regime with the Islamic Republic of Iran due to Tehran's adoption of righteous stands is clear for everyone. The communique reiterated, "Tehran's basic stands on the Zionist regime remain totally unchanged, and the Iranian officials have absolutely no interactions with that usurper regime."
The IRI Press Attache in Kuwait adds, "By publishing such fake stories, the usurper Zionist regime is definitely after deviating the world public opinion, and conveying the idea that Tel Aviv is on the path of naturalizing ties with the entire Islamic World.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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IRNA - Press reports on entry of Iranian border guards into Iraq at Haj Omran border point is unfounded and artificial, Iranian official said on Monday. He told IRNA that Iranian border guards are on maximum alert to confront any provocation by terrorist groups and will take any action it deems necessary to enforce border security.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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IRNA - UN Special Envoy in Afghanistan Affairs Tom Koenigs described Iran's role in rebuilding, establishing security and stability in Afghanistan "effective, basic and pivotal." In a meeting with Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi here Monday, Koenigs expressed hope that the trilateral agreement concerning return of refugees to Afghanistan can result to a huge number of returnees. Koenigs said the Afghans have had a suitable situation here and evaluated their lives in Iran " good and positive."
Pour-Mohammadi said situations in Afghanistan from economic and security viewpoints is not appropriate yet, so the return of Afghan refugees to their homeland take place slowly. He added two million Afghans are registered in Iran, and around such a figure are living here without registration, taking care of such a number of people is so difficult and out of our capability. The Iranian minister said because of war situation and security problems in Afghanistan, living there was somehow difficult and we tried to help the refugees, but now it is time for them to return to their homeland.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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IRNA: Secretary of Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) said here Monday that Iran dose not need to talk to the US.
"The U.S.? Eeeewww! Ucky! Cooties!"
Iran did not ask for talks with the US, on the contrary it was they who insisted on meeting with Iran on Iraq which did not happen, Ali Larijani said.
"But we ain't talkin' to them 'cuz we don't talk to infidels."
Larijani who was speaking at a student gathering in Tehran University responded to a question on what he meant by Iran-US not having talks saying "so far, these discussions have not taken place."
What's not to understand about that statement?
On the likelihood of Iran dropping out of the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), he said "we are not going to leave the NPT unless we are forced to do so."
Which is no statement at all, since they define "forced."
On the West's assertions that they have problems in dealing with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's government, he added "they said the same thing with the Khatami's government. The real issue is that they do not want Iran to possess peaceful nuclear technology and become a nuclear power."
Every time somebody tries to explain to you what the "real issue" is, he's trying to change the subject.
He further rejected any clandestine nuclear activities by Iran in the past years.
"No, no! Certainly not!"
"This is a big lie that Iran had hidden its activities. All of Iran's activities were announced to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," Larijani retorted.
"If they weren't listening, that's their problem."
He further said the additional budget allocated for Bushehr nuclear powerplant is to expedite its completion. He said that Iran is able to have access to nuclear-generated electricity with the completion of Bushehr, which, he reckoned to take one year.
Always assuming it's not a hole in the ground by then. Otherwise it'll take longer.
Larijani also called on the Western nations to let the IAEA Secretary General Mohammad Elbaradei carry on with his work based on international conventions. "Tehran regards NPT as a viable international document and has accepted inspection of its facilities based on the treaty. However, it also wants to carry out nuclear research and development activities within the framework of the nuclear watchdog agency." Tehran in continuing with the nuclear program has opted for a clear and transparent approach and sees no need to hide its activities, the SNSC secretary added. Larijani stressed that Iran is not looking to prove its policies through force. "We are ready for all types of discussions to secure our legitimate rights."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/02/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
He's right, stop talkin and start bombin
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/02/2006 0:31 Comments ||
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"We can say no more. If we un-tighten our lips, they'll fall off."
According to AFP, Iran was tight-lipped on Monday over military operations against Kurdish rebels based across the border in Iraq, refusing to confirm or deny its troops had crossed into Iraqi soil. "I do not confirm the entry of our forces into the territory of neighbouring countries, notably Iraq," government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters. "We have security cooperation accords with neighbouring countries and we act within the framework of these accords. There is no cause for concern over this kind of thing with neighbouring countries," he said.
On Sunday the Iraqi defence ministry said Iranian forces had entered Iraqi territory and were shelling Turkish-Kurdish Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) guerrilla positions. The ministry said Iranian troops hit a border area called Haj Umran, close to where the borders of Iran, Iraq and Turkey meet, and then entered five kilometers (three miles) into Iraqi territory. The shelling was the second military attack on the Kurdish guerrillas by Iranian forces in 10 days. The previous attack on April 20 left two guerrillas dead and another 10 wounded. Iran is bound by treaty with Turkey to fight the outlawed PKK, which has waged a 15-year insurgency against Ankara for self rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast. In return, Turkey has pledged to fight the Iranian armed opposition group, the Iraq-based People's Mujahedeen.
Turkey smiles and makes this deal with Iran.
from the JPost article: Turkey's refusal to comply with the US request was another indication of the growing tension between the two nations, which, according to Gul, have not "seen a single day of positive stability since the Islamic party was elected to power [in 2002]."
In a nutshell, speaks about the falseness and hatefulness of christianity, the need to recover the (gnostic IIRC, with Jesus not being crucified) gospel of Barnabas to disprove the christian version of the Bible, his utopia for Europe (why, coming to the Master Religion, of course!), and the polytheism of the Us president. This is what the muslim masses are eating.
"what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."
Arab intellectual of Palestinian origin George Catan discusses the discrimination against Christians in the Arab countries today, describing their deteriorating status and diminishing numbers in comparison with previous eras in the region's history. He warns that the Christian population of the region may vanish as Christians emigrate to the West rather than tolerate the backwardness and tyranny of their home countries. Further, he calls upon the Christian communities to stay put and fight for democracy and human rights in their own countries. [1]
The following are excerpts from the article:
The Spread of the Islamic Movement and Extremist Salafi Views Led to Copts' Removal From Prominent Positions in Egypt
"Christians played a key role during the Umayyad, Abbasid and Fatimid periods by [facilitating] mutual enrichment between the civilizations and introducing the thought and science of the [ancient] civilizations into the Arab world.
"During the [Arab] Renaissance, many Christians played a prominent role in introducing concepts from the Enlightenment [into the Arab world], reexamining the Arabic language, highlighting the uniqueness of Arab culture, challenging Ottoman backwardness and tyranny, and calling for the establishment of a modern state based on national, rather than religious, affiliation...
"Their unique participation [in public life] reached its peak in the 'liberal period,' during the second half of the previous century, when there were prominent [Christian] philosophers, intellectuals, ministers, parliament members and party members.
"With the ascent of the semi-secular military regimes, with their pan-Arab and socialist slogans - especially in Egypt, Iraq and Syria - there was a decrease in the participation of Christians in the political arena. Though these regimes did not persecute the Christians, their absolute tyranny was the main reason for the advent of extremist fundamentalist Islamism, which calls for [the establishment of] an Islamic state that would discriminate against religious minorities, marginalize them and encourage them to emigrate...
"The spreading of the Islamic movement and extremist Salafi views throughout Egyptian society led to the removal of Copts from the Parliament, municipalities, labor unions and [other] prominent positions, and limitations began to be imposed on the building and renovation of churches. Some [churches] were [even] attacked and burned down, and Christians were accused of heresy...
"It should also be noted that the curricula [in Egyptian schools] ignored the 600 years of Coptic history in Egypt. [Furthermore], the former supreme leader of the Egyptian [Muslim] Brotherhood called to ban [Christians] from the army and from the bureaucracy, to apply to them the Islamic law concerning dhimmis [Christians and Jews living under Islamic rule], and thus to reinstate the jizya [poll tax], turning [the Christians] into second-rate citizens."
"Are We Moving Towards Exclusively Muslim Societies?"
"During its last years in power, Saddam's regime in Iraq gave the Salafi movements freedom of action, and after its fall [these movements] led the terrorist activity along with the remnants of the old regime... Among their most conspicuous actions was the bombing of six churches on a single Sunday, resulting in massive Christian emigration. Since the Gulf War, at least a third of Iraq's Christian population has emigrated [to other countries]...
"In the West Bank and Gaza, armed Islamic movements regard Palestine as a Muslim waqf [religious endowment], and call to defend the places holy to the Muslims while disregarding places holy to the Christians... The few Christian women living in Gaza have to wear a veil out of fear of the extremists. A few weeks ago, the last shop selling wines in Gaza was bombed, even though it belonged to international organizations...
"The Christians of Saudi Arabia were rooted out centuries ago. The hundreds of thousands of Christians who now work in Saudi Arabia, arriving from the neighboring countries or from far-away lands, are not allowed to build churches there. [Moreover], they risk beatings, imprisonment, and deportation, [even] if they hold their ceremonies in secret, in their own homes. At the same time, the Saudi regime uses its oil profits to build grandiose mosques all over 'heretical' Europe.
"The Christians in Lebanon have diminished from 50% before the civil war to 35% today. Christians comprise 3.5 million out of the 5 million Lebanese emigrants living in the West...
"While in ancient times, discrimination, marginalization, accusations of heresy, and persecution drove many [Christians] to convert to Islam, today they are driven to emigrate, as long as the gates remain open. This may cause Christianity to decline in its original home in the East...
"Are we moving towards exclusively Muslim societies? Will this deterioration stop here, or will it lead, after the Eastern countries are emptied of Christians, to [a state] of sectarian purity in each country? Are there solutions that will allow coexistence without the majority hating [the minorities] that differ in their religion and ethnicity? Will we progress towards integrated humanist and democratic societies that accept political, religious, and ethnic pluralism, or slide back into the darkness of old concepts out of religious, nationalist and pan-Arab narcissism?..."
"The Fundamentalists Have Defined Their Adversaries: Modern Society, Women, and Non-Muslims"
"The pan-Arab solution is no longer feasible now that the pan-Arab movements have embraced Islamism, and most of them agree that the term 'Arab' is synonymous with 'Muslim.' This excludes Christians almost completely from the dominant Islamic Arabism - to the point where, in some countries, Christian teachers have been banned from teaching Arabic, since it is the language of the Koran...
"The Christians have no political plan to [establish] a local or regional entity. The renewal of their cultural and humanist role depends on the completion of the [cultural] renaissance... which will ensure [people's] freedom to build places of worship, hold religious ceremonies, engage in peaceful religious preaching, change their religion without coercion, interpret their religious texts without accusing others of religious or sectarian heresy... [and will also allow us to] end the discrimination in the constitutions which turns the presidency into a Muslim monopoly... and the Islamic Shari'a into the basis for legislation...
"The [only] option left to the Christians is to stay put and promote [the development of] modern democratic states that guarantee human rights by [guaranteeing] full and equal citizenship to all sectors of society, and [by establishing] national unity which accepts social diversity and turns it into a factor that enriches the shared [social] fabric... In [this] interim stage, there may be liberal democratic Christian parties that will prevent religion from interfering with state affairs, and will protect freedom of worship and religious education [based on] tolerance for others...
"The fundamentalists have defined their adversaries: modern society, women, and non-Muslims. Therefore, the coalition opposing them may include secular democratic political forces, women's empowerment organizations, minorities, and global human rights organizations which promote freedoms and fight discrimination against minorities."
#5
Hum, the link worked for me yesterday and when I posted it this morning, don't know why it was changed, I guess it has moved to the archives; try this one instead now :
#6
Thanks. Interesting article. Catan is certainly unique. Last September he published an article stating that even though the Jews used the Holocaust as justification for establishing Israel, the Holocaust was still a crime.
Q. Well let me just start by asking a really simple question from what youve looked at on the internet: how significant is Abu Musab al Zarqawi or some people have actually said to me in our research for this that his role is totally exaggerated.
A. I think thats a mistake. I think anyone who thinks that Zarqawis role is exaggerated doesnt understand the way that al Qaeda functions. Al Qaeda is an organisation that works like a leach, it requires a host country from which to manifest itself. It needs a conflict, it breathes on conflict, on violence. When you see al Qaedas origins in Afghanistan, it breathes out of the Afghan civil war, it continues through the Bosnian civil war, through the Chechnya civil war, it breathes on violence and conflict. It needs military leaders. Without those military leaders, without young very militant folks like Abu Musab al Zarqawi, al Qaeda doesnt move forward. Zarqawi is the new face of al Qaeda, hes the cutting edge sword of al Qaeda he is the terrorist arm of al Qaeda right now and everyone thats willing to carry out a suicide operation, any one whos willing to crash a plain into a building, any one whos willing to blow up a bomb, that person idolizes Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Last month I was in a protest rally in London and it was made very clear by the people that were organising that rally that we must speak to the infidels and the language of Abu Musab al Zarqawi and Osama bin Laden because that is the only language that they understand. He is a symbol, he is a military leader, he is al Qaeda.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/02/2006 00:30 ||
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Thanks, Dan. It seems we have here the opportunity for major psyops, posting ersatz jihadi material which would certainly be quite dispiriting indeed. We are the most technologically adept nation on the planet, yet have ceded this info battlefield to the 7th Century Luddites. Total war should be just that - total war.
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 Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan Brigadier Ed Butler said on Monday that the mission of British Forces consists of operations to rebuild Afghanistan, establish stability and not chase after militias or armed rebels. Butler's statements came during a local Radio broadcast of the British Broadcast Corporation (BBC). His comment comes after a suicide attack targeted a Canadian military convoy in the Khandahar Province, south of Afghanistan, which injured two Canadian soldiers.
Robert Fisk School for International Relations. 
Somali leaders expressed concern at reports that Washington is financing a group of powerful Mogadishu warlords who have styled themselves as an anti-terrorism coalition. The warlords have been involved in several bouts of fighting with militia linked to Islamic leaders. About 100 people have been killed in the violence, the worst in Mogadishu in years.
SAN DIEGO Authorities took 54 suspected illegal immigrants into custody early Monday morning after the driver of a van packed with passengers drove it over a spike strip and across the U.S.-Mexico border at San Ysidro, then headed north in the southbound lanes of Interstate 805. The van, which was able to keep going after running over the spike strip because its tires were filled with silicone gel, struck a vehicle near the border crossing before its driver continued the wrong way on I-805 around 3 a.m., Border Patrol spokesman Michael Bermudez said. 
GAZA - A handful of Palestinian journalists have reported receiving death threats for their critical coverage of the Islamic militant group Hamas since it began running the government in March, a press group said on Monday. The Palestinian Journalists Union said seven journalists in the Gaza Strip, mostly sympathetic to President Mahmoud Abbass Fatah party, had received threats by e-mail, phone or fax -- made in Hamass name -- to harm or kill them for their coverage.
GAZA: A Hamas legislator said on Monday that France had denied him a visa to visit as part of an unofficial Palestinian parliamentary delegation. Salah al-Bardaweel said he would apply to other European countries to grant him a visa to join a delegation of four other Palestinian lawmakers from parties unconnected to Hamas who are visiting France, Norway, Spain, Germany, Italy and Austria. "They gave no reasons for the rejection but it was clear I was denied a visa because I am a parliamentarian from Hamas," Bardaweel said.
DUBAI: Palestinian leader Mahmod Abbas said in a television interview broadcast on Monday that he does not intend to seek a second term in office. "No, no, (I just want to) complete my current mandate, if I 
AMMAN (JT) A group of Palestinian officials are currently in Amman to tackle the issue of arms smuggled recently by some Hamas members into Jordan, President Mahmoud Abbas said on Monday. We are following up on the matter, Abbas was quoted by the Jordan News Agency, Petra, as telling reporters after a meeting with King Abdullah. We pledged to dispatch a follow-up committee, and some members of this panel are currently in Amman to address the problem. 
Jordan said Monday it was awaiting a visit by a Palestinian security and political delegation to Amman to discuss with Hamas' smuggling of weapons into the Hashemite Kingdom. Government spokesman Nasser Joudeh told a news conference both sides were discussing a date for the delegation's visit. He said the Jordanian-Palestinian relations were not affected by the arms smuggling incident by Hamas. Joudeh said contacts were ongoing between the Amman government and the Palestinian Authority at all levels, including the Hamas-led government. He said investigation was underway over the smuggling of weapons, which were seized recently. He added that Jordan was awaiting the formation of the political and security delegation by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Joudeh said Jordan would continue supporting the Palestinian people at the political and humanitarian levels.
PARIS: High-ranking officials from the UN Security Council's five permanent members and Germany are scheduled to gather in Paris today (Tuesday) to decide on a common position to tackle Tehran's refusal to halt its nuclear programme. The meeting comes a day after an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, said that Iran would "give full cooperation" if the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the UNSC were to decide that Tehran's nuclear be examined by the nuclear watchdog. 
Iran did not ask for talks with the US, on the contrary it was they who insisted on meeting with Iran on Iraq which did not happen, 
