Or maybe vice versa...
(SomaliNet) The remnants of the ousted Islamic Courts Union were responsible for the rocket attacks in the capital Mogadishu, the interior minister of the transitional federal government Mohamed Mohamud Guled known as Gacmo-Dhere said on Thursday.
Mr. Gacmo-Dhere accused supporters of the toppled Islamists of being behind the terror explosions targeting the civilians. He also blamed foreign powers on the involvement of the attacks in the capital of Somalia.
In an interview with the London based Sharqal Awsat newspaper, Mr. Gacmo-Dhere accused supporters of the toppled Islamists of being behind the terror explosions targeting the civilians. He also blamed foreign powers on the involvement of the attacks in the capital of Somalia. There are still some Islamist members hiding in Mogadishu and organizing the attack against the existence of the government and to destabilize the situation, Gacmo-Dhere said adding that the government would not tolerate such acts any longer and will take tough measures in restoring peace and stability in the city.
He stated that his government is intending that it would negotiate with some of the Islamist leaders regardless of their ranks in the Islamic Courts. My government is now conducting plans to launch massive campaign over establishing the security and stability in Mogadishu after 16 years of anarchy since 1991, he said.
Mr. Mohamud Gacmo-dhere stressed that the transitional government will use all means to get rid off the terrorists in Somalia that oppose the government. He said the security forces set up check points at all roads entering the capital Mogadishu to check all cars in and out.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2007 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) The relatives of the Islamist suspects that Kenyan government had extradited to Somalia government have asked on Thursday for the release of their beloved ones. The Islamists prisoners were reported to have been transferred into Ethiopia where they were put on jail located in Hawasa, Ethiopia.
Which is not exactly Club Gitmo ...
The family members who talked to the local media expressed concern over the condition of their sons. Ahmed Mohamed Moalim, a father of one the prisoners suspected of links with Somalias ousted Union of Islamic Courts argued that his son was innocent. My son was not one of the Islamists. He was a mechanic and he was helping people whose car has broken down somewhere close to the Kenyan border. There he was mistakenly apprehended by Kenyan police, who handed him over to Somalias transitional government and it transferred to Ethiopia, he said.
Just a pious auto mechanic with a wrench and a rifle ...
In the wrong place at the wrong time.
He implored the Somali government to let him know the condition of his son. I am very worried about the circumstances surrounding my son today he said. Mr. Mohamed called on the international and local human rights activists to encumber the issue and try to assist how the innocent prisoners would be discharged from prison.
Because if you want anything done you first have to encumber the issue ...
Earlier, Kenyan government had deported over 70 suspects in connection with the ousted Islamists to the Somalia capital Mogadishu where they were handed over to the transitional government.
"I don't wanna go! I don't wanna go!"
"Let go of the handrail!" [thump]
"Owwwwwww ...."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2007 00:00 ||
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He was...fixing a car...checking out the school system... a victim of coicumstances....there was a terrible storm...
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/16/2007 11:34 Comments ||
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#3
If he's an auto mechanic, he'd better have a hell of a lot of wrenches, my estimate is that I have somewhere around 300, and that's not nearly enough, I'm always needing some odd tool or two because the manufacturers change things every year/model or so, whatever tools worked on 2006 models will usualy not-work on the 2007's etc. since i've been doing this since 1963 I have a lot of tools that are unusable today, but I need them just often enough (on older cars) that I can't just throw them away.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/16/2007 17:49 Comments ||
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An Islamic court sentenced Mohammed Sagri to death by stoning months ago, but he doesn't expect to die any time soon. "I"m afraid, said Sagri, a 22-year-old mason who pleaded guilty to a sodomy charge in 2005. Then, staring at the floor of a jailhouse office, he added: But the sentence is unlikely to be carried out.
In Nigerias Muslim north, sentences of amputation and death by stoning are routinely imposed under Shariah, or Islamic law. But no stonings have ever been carried out, and no amputations since 2001. Analysts say thats because Shariah law was implemented as a Muslim show of strength after the presidency passed to Olusegun Obasanjo, a southern Christian.
Shariah, promoted by politicians as an anti-crime measure, applies only to Muslims, who make up about half Nigerias population of 140 million. Many Muslims initially welcomed it as an anti-crime measure, but as rampant theft by government officials continued to go unpunished, some began asking why, in an oil-rich country mired in poverty, Shariah seemed to apply only to the powerless.
Continued on Page 49
#1
Any Convictions for internet scamming? No?
Off with their hands.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/16/2007 11:36 Comments ||
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Ladan said Shariah is not just a criminal justice system but a safety net, providing family counseling and food for the poor
Both the criminal and civil justice systems have progressed far beyond 7th century Arab jurisprudence. Sharia is as outdated as the biblical pronouncements on slavery. The world has progressed far beyond those standards.
But try to convince a muslim of that...
Posted by: john ||
02/16/2007 11:56 Comments ||
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Caracas, 16 Feb. (AKI) - Venezuela - one of three US oil supplying countries whose oil industries al-Qaeda has purportedly threatened to attack - reacted sceptically to the message posted on Wednesday to the Sawt-al-Jihad (Voice of Holy War) website. Admiral Luis Cabrera, a military advisor to Venezuela's anti-American president Hugo Chavez, has questioned the authenticity of the threat. In comments cited by local media, Cabrera said it was "illogical that "al-Qaeda, which is against North American imperialism, would go against a state that is fighting, though in a different way, against that hegemony. We fight for constitutionality, legality, morality and truth - not acts of terrorism." Defence minister General Raul Baduel nonetheless announced on Thursday that Venezuela will reinforce security measures and its armed forces are "on alert."
The government also said its intelligence services have been mobilised to safeguard Venezuela's strategic resources.
The Internet message, signed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - a Saudi wing of of the terrror network - stated that "cutting oil supplies to the United States, or at least curtailing it, would contribute to the ending of the American occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan." The group threatend to attack Venezuela, Mexico and Canada's oil wells, oil export pipelines, oil rigs and oil tankers, as part of Osama bin Laden's declared policy. The authenticity of the message has not been verified. Mexico's president Felipe Calderon's office said it was evaluating the threat. The executive said Mexico's oil installations are guarded "24 hours a day, 365 days a year." The authorities have however stepped up security in the state of Campeche on the Gulf of Mexico. Officials and regulators who oversee the bulk of Canada's oil and gas production were taking a threat from al Qaeda seriously on Wednesday, but have not raised security levels. Energy regulators said they are in a state of "heightened awareness."
#1
In comments cited by local media, Cabrera said it was "illogical that "al-Qaeda, which is against North American imperialism, would go against a state that is fighting, though in a different way, against that hegemony. We fight for constitutionality, legality, morality and truth - not acts of terrorism."
This is the most succinct summary of the logic beyond the Great Moonbat Convergence I have read. So cheers for that.
#5
A: I would expect an attack on Chavez's oil soon, then, for the reason that it *isn't* logical.
I'm surprised our PSYOPS guys haven't used leaflets telling al-Q that the way to destroy America is by shooting each other in the head.
Actually, I think it's pretty logical. If they're in the business of attacking oil targets, attacking Arab ones isn't so smart, because Arabs fund terrorists, whereas Venezuelans provide moral support, at best. Western oil targets are presumably better-protected than the ones in places like Venezuela. Venezuela may not fund terrorists, but it may turn a blind eye to them - which would make Venezuela an attractive target. Attacking non-Arab oil targets raises oil prices while increasing the amount of profits made by Muslim oil producers, hence increasing the flow of donations to terrorists. It has the added beneficial side-effect of damaging the American economy.
SEOUL (Reuters) - Singing soldiers and flower shows marked the birthday of the man dubbed North Korea's "invincible brilliant commander" by state media, as regional powers wondered whether he would abide by a nuclear deal. The communist world's first dynastic leader, Kim Jong-il, 65, is the unchallenged head of the reclusive state whose economy has fallen deeper into poverty during his years in power.
North Korea reached a deal earlier this week to shut down its sole nuclear reactor in exchange for energy aid as well as other economic and diplomatic incentives if Kim decides to scrap his country's nuclear arms programme. "I find it difficult to believe that this is a strategic decision to dismantle its nukes. I see this as a tactical way of getting the heat off, getting concessions and keeping the Chinese happy," said Michael Breen, Seoul-based consultant and author of "Kim Jong-il: North Korea's Dear Leader".
With nuclear weapons, impoverished North Korea gets a seat at the table with global powers including the United States -- the nation it argues is trying to topple it and causes it to sacrifice so much to maintain its 1.2-million man military. Without nuclear arms, North Korea is just a poor country with failed economic policies, analysts said.
One among many...
Kim's main priority is to stay in power and his media has credited him with forcing the United States to make concessions through the nuclear agreement.
He is seen as a deity at home, where thousands danced in the streets of Pyongyang on Friday to mark his 65th birthday and the military hosted a gala, performing song and dance numbers for tunes such as "My Happiness is in the Bosom of the Respected General".
Outside of North Korea Kim is seen as man with a bouffant hair-do, drab jumpsuit and platform shoes who has done little to help his starving people and let the country's industry stagnate. Like his father, he has constructed a cult of personality around him.
Long groomed by his father, state founder Kim Il-sung, he gradually tightened his hold on power after the elder Kim died of a heart attack in 1994 in the midst of an earlier crisis over North Korea's nuclear programme. The younger Kim declined to assume the title of president, instead designating his father "eternal president" and opting to rule as chairman of the National Defence Commission and head of the ruling party.
North Korea's official media has said flowers come into bloom when he appears and rainbows fill the sky on his birthday. He is, it is said, a man who pilots jet fighters -- even though he travels by land for his infrequent trips abroad.
He has also penned operas, produced movies and accomplished a feat unmatched in the annals of professional golf, shooting 11 holes-in-one during the first round he ever played.
"Your birth as a bright star over Mount Paektu was the greatest event as it promised the happiness and prosperity of the Korean nation," official media said.
Posted by: Steve ||
02/16/2007 11:51 ||
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"...Extra grass rations for everybody!!!"
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/16/2007 13:07 Comments ||
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If you don't waste your money on huge ego building projects like nukes that fizzle and ego-stroking huge armyies you'd have enough money.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/16/2007 20:56 Comments ||
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A Danish court on Thursday convicted a 17-year-old defendant on terror charges and sentenced him to seven years in prison for involvement in a botched plot to blow up a target in Europe. Three other suspects in the case were cleared of offenses.
The court found Abdul Basit Abu-Lifa guilty of involvement in a terror plot uncovered in Bosnia in October 2005 with the arrest of two men allegedly preparing to carry out a terror attack.
The pair, Swedish national Mirsad Bektasevic and Abdulkadir Cesur, a Turk living in Denmark, were convicted by a Bosnian court last month of planning an attack aimed at forcing foreign troops to pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan. The exact target of the plot remains unclear.
In the Danish case, police arrested Abu-Lifa and the three others on Oct. 27, 2005, after a tip from Bosnian police. Investigators used mobile phone records and Internet chats to link the defendants in Denmark to the Bosnian plot.
A jury in the Eastern High Court said Thursday there was enough evidence to prove that all four defendants were involved in the plot, but the three-judge panel disagreed and overturned the verdicts against all but Abu-Lifa. Under Danish law, judges have the right to overturn any decision made by the jury. "It is very, very rare that this happens," said Thorkild Hoeyer, the attorney for one of the freed defendants, Elias Ibn Hsain.
Prosecutors had demanded at least eight years in prison for Abu-Lifa, a Danish citizen of Palestinian descent, but the judges gave him a seven-year sentence, citing his young age.
Imad Ali Jaloud, who prosecutors said was the leader of the group, refused to speak to media as he left the courtroom. Another acquitted defendant, Adnan Avdic, blubbered cried quietly inside the packed courtroom after it became clear he would be released. An attorney for Abu-Lifa, Anders Boelskifte, said there was no decision yet on whether they would appeal the ruling.
#3
Why am I not surprised that a panel of European judges would throw out the verdicts of the jury on the majority of the accused terrorists and free them?
#5
A Bosnian muzzi fails to kill anybody in Denmark, and nevertheless goes to jail. A Bosnian muzzi kills 5 in Uta, and this isn't considered terrorism.
Russia threatened on Thursday to pull out of a landmark nuclear arms control treaty unless the US backed away from plans to install its missile defence shield in Eastern Europe. Yury Baluyevsky, the Russian army chief of staff, said Moscow might unilaterally withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty, which forced the US and the Soviet Union to ban nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500km.
There was convincing evidence for leaving the agreement because many countries are developing and perfecting medium-range rockets, he said.
Like North Korea, Iran, Syria, Pakistan ...
But the general also explicitly linked Russias stance to the USs plans to extend its missile defence into central Europe. The Pentagon is preparing to start negotiations with Poland and the Czech Republic about hosting missile interceptors and radars. Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Polish prime minister, on Thursday expressed conditional support for participating in the system.
A senior Pentagon official said the US would resist the Russian move, which he said would have serious implications for American allies in Europe.
The INF treaty includes the right for a party to withdraw with six months notice if extraordinary events ... jeopardised its supreme interests. The State Department said Russia had not formally notified the US of any move to abrogate the treaty.
Their withdrawal would also allow NATO to put IRBMs aimed at Russia into Poland, not that such a thing would happen.
Gen Baluyevskys comments came days after Vladimir Putin, Russian president, warned that US attempts to deploy part of its missile shield in Poland could spark a new arms race. Mr Putin said the INF treaty was no longer in its interests because of proliferation of short and medium-range missiles. He rejected US assertions that the system was aimed at countries such as North Korea and Iran, not at Russia.
The US official said Russia had privately told the US it wanted medium-range missiles to counter Iranian threats while arguing publicly that the lack of Iranian missiles meant the US did not need a defence system.
Lack of Iranian missiles today. Wait til the Norks, or disaffected Russian scientists, or the Russians themselves, help the Iranians to a working IRBM system.
Col-Gen Leonid Ivashov, a former senior Russian defence official, said Moscow had every reason to pull out of the treaty. He pointed to the US withdrawal in 2002 from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty.
Yuri Solomonov, director of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology, which manufactures missiles, told Itar-Tass news agency Russia was ready to resume production of medium-range ballistic missiles. Nato officials said Russia intended to pressure Poland and the Czech Republic to reject US plans, but added that what Moscow really wanted was to be included in a European-wide anti-missile system. We are already talking to the Russians about co-operating on tactical missile defence for armies in the field, said a senior Nato diplomat.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2007 00:00 ||
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"What goes around, Comes around!" I say; When pooty- poo wanted to goad up Syria, Iran, and the NORKs, he didn't have a problem with that. Now the 'chickens are coming home to roost! Let em back out, everyone can now have the right to arm to the teeth, we can all stroll holding hands straight to hell!! If they can afford it.
#2
Russia is an arms supplier to damn near every nation which is hostile to American interests and Bad Vlad recently made it very clear that they are committed to being a thorn in our side. Since they continue to act like our Cold War nemesis, we should continue to chip off former satellites, enhance NATO, and surround them with a defensive ring.
#4
They're pulling outta SALTII? Go ahead, that give us no compelling reason left to NOT follow through with 500+ km range ATACMs/MLRS missiles all the way up to modernized Pershing IIs and GLCM/Ground Launched TacToms with ranges in excess of 3000km. This is one of the more stupider moves the Russkies have pulled
#7
..Cold War rantings at their best. This tells me that - Soviet Russian arms manufacturer propaganda aside - they really don't have anything that'll bring down an incoming missile, and if they did, they couldn't afford to deploy them. They're playing an double oldie but goodie here - knowing the fetish that the Left makes of treaties and International Law, Putie's counting on well-orchestrated 'public opinion' to stop us from going ahead with the deployment. This particular strategy has been tried twice before - first with the ERW (aka the neutron bomb) and the deployment of GLCMs and hyperaccurate Pershing IIs. It succeeded with the ERW (Carter, of course) and failed with the GLCM/Pershing deployment (Reagan/Thatcher, natch). How Bush will deal with it is a genuine unknown to me.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/16/2007 9:45 Comments ||
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#8
(Russia) How dare you show that our missles can be shot down easily, it's hurting our business, you've gotta stop it AT ONCE, we're losing Rubles and "Face".(Rant, Rave, Squawk, Fuss, fume).
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/16/2007 10:26 Comments ||
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#9
Fact is the US pulled out of the anti-missile treaty because it was made with the Soviet Union, a Nation that no longer exists. So by default we acknowledge that the Russians are basically free of every treaty the Soviets signed.
The Russians know this, but don't want to admit it, because they really don't want the US to develop a working anti-missile defense because that hampers sales.
An Egyptian terror suspect who has been waging a weeks-long hunger strike was ordered released Thursday by a judge who said he posed no threat to national security while his case was under review. Mohammad Mahjoub, 46, has spent nearly seven years in a Canadian prison without any charge against him or access to the evidence against him. He was entering his 84th day of a hunger strike Thursday to protest his treatment.
Mahjoub is accused of having belonged to the Vanguards of Conquests, a militant group with ties to the Egyptian organization al-Jihad. Mahjoub acknowledges meeting Osama bin Laden several times while he worked in a Sudanese agricultural plant owned by bin Laden in the 1990s. But he denies any links to terrorism.
Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley noted in his ruling that Mahjoub suffers from high blood pressure and hepatitis C. "The applicant today is an ailing and aging man preoccupied with his health and the lack of contact with his family, apart from telephone calls and occasional visits," Mosley said, adding that the conditions of his detention had "exacerbated" his declining physical health.
The judge said he was satisfied that Mahjoub would not pose a danger to national security, but emphasized that conditions of the release mounted to "a form of house arrest." Mahjoub must wear an electronic monitoring device, post $27,945 bail and live with his wife in Toronto. Supporters said it would take several weeks before Mahjoub is freed.
Mahjoub was ordered deported in 2004, but a judge stayed the order, convinced he might be tortured if forced to return to Egypt. Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms forbids Ottawa from deporting anyone to a country where that person may face torture. But under Canada's "security certificate" program, the government can detain and deport immigrants without filing charges and without providing them or their lawyers with evidence if they are deemed a threat to national security.
Mahjoub, Mahmoud Jaballah and Hassan Almrei have been detained under security certificates for several years. Egyptian-born Jaballah and Almrei, a native Syrian, are accused of having ties having ties to bin Laden's al-Qaida network. Two other Muslims detained under certificates have been released on bail.
Mohammad Mahjoub, has been waging a weeks-long hunger strike
nowadays its no longer clear what a hunger strike or fast is because so many posers have gone on so called "strikes" that when outed only gave up sacrificed chocolate or chutney from their daily diet.
Mohammad Mahjoub 46
Hep C
(guessing) probably has stage 2 or 3 fibrosis so a "fast" might actually improve his condition. no salt, meat, etc.
Jarret Brachman recently told a class of West Point cadets that many Americans had an unsophisticated image of Islamic terrorists - that they live in caves, "you know, beating the women over their heads." On the contrary, the U.S. is fighting a far more technologically savvy enemy - one adept at both propaganda and Power Point - said Brachman, the director of research at the United States Military Academy's Combating Terrorism Center. "This is a war of information," he said.
The enemy distributes video games in which players shoot down American soldiers with President Bush's face, he said. The enemy also produces the "Mujahedeen World Cup" for the Web, complete with a U.S. troop vehicle exploding as announcer shouts: "Goooaaalll!"
When they are not teaching cadets, the small group of academics at the Combating Terrorism Center, known as the CTC, publish analytical papers on al-Qaida and other terror networks that have landed on newspaper front pages and the desks of U.S. policy makers. The group's central tenet is as old as war itself: Know your enemy. "We have not been focused on the power of ideas, or been as sensitive to the power of ideas as much as they have," said Brachman, a former CIA analyst. "So how do we move forward from that? It starts with knowing who our enemy is, what they're saying."
Brachman's reading list touches on everything from the Quran to captured al-Qaida documents to angry postings on jihadi Web sites. Such readings are grist for CTC reports that interpret the operations and intentions of terror networks. In November, for instance, CTC fellow William McCants edited the Militant Ideology Atlas, which ranks the most influential thinkers in the jihadi movement. The most cited figure is not Osama bin Laden, but Sayyid Qutb, an Egyptian executed in 1966 who is a sort of intellectual godfather to modern terrorists. The list is rounded out by other thinkers, many of them not well known to the public.
This sort of opposition research is already done by jihadists, who have studied U.S. homeland security bureaucracy down to the number of FBI branch offices and special agents.
The CTC's research portrays the jihadi movement as rife with internal fractures and intellectual inconsistency. Brachman said the question for the U.S. is how to expose the internal fractures. The CTC's report "Stealing Al-Qa'ida's Playbook" argues that direct engagement with the U.S. has been good for the jihadi movement because it rallies locals and drains American resources. The report, written by Brachman and McCants, suggests the U.S. work indirectly through groups with more credibility in the Middle East. The government could, for example, fund a media campaign that broadcasts images of attacks that killed Muslim children.
Meanwhile, Brachman can take solace in making an impression on the West Point cadets who will soon lead patrols in Iraq and Afghanistan. "In Iraq, it's not about kicking doors down," senior cadet Matthew Hubbard said after a recent class. "It's about seeing the same faces day after day."
The CTC has captured the attention of terrorists. Brachman said one jihadi site warned that the center was compiling "a frightening amount of information." A paper by the CTC's Brian Fishman on Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was posted on a Web site in Arabic, along with Fishman's picture and a description of him as a "cursed infidel." "I took it as a compliment," Fishman said.
A Palestinian university that receives U.S. funding counts among its students senior members of the Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror groups, WND has learned.
One Brigades leader openly enrolled at the college Al-Najah University in the northern West Bank town of Nablus described the school as a main jihad recruiting ground. Another terror leader told WND he was studying chemistry at the university to learn how to enhance the deadly effects of suicide bomb belts.
This week, Al-Najah hosted a law conference at which the trial of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was deemed "illegitimate," America's war in Iraq was slammed as "illegal" and Saddam was hailed for encouraging insurgents to "fight American occupation."
Since September 2004, the United States Agency for International Development has provided $4 million to Arkan, a Palestinian program that funds law schools at several universities in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including Al-Najah University. The Arkan program is entirely funded by USAID.
Last Sunday, the Arkan section of Al-Najah University hosted a law symposium called "The trial of the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein, and the American role in this trial a witness testimony from the courthouse." The conference featured Saddam defense attorney Curtis Dobler as well as a Palestinian professor Nabil Alawi. According to the Al-Ayyam Palestinian newspaper, during his lecture, Dobler called Saddam's trial "illegal and vindictive since it took place during the American occupation of Iraq."
Saddam Hussein's defense team gave to the courthouse a memorandum of 300 pages which confirms the illegality of this trial, since it took place during the period of the illegal American occupation of Iraq," said Dobler, according to a translation by Palestinian Media Watch. Dobler said Saddam "did for the Iraqis a kind of justice and encouraged them to fight against the American occupation of their country in his death."
Israeli security officials say Al-Najah University is one of the most important recruitment grounds for West Bank terror organizations. The Israeli Defense Forces a number of times has raided the college and arrested terror suspects. At least 15 Palestinians who carried out suicide bombings the past six years attended the school.
One senior leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, told WND many Brigades leaders study at the university, which he described as a "recruitment center for jihad." The senior leader said he is currently studying sports education.
A leader of the Islamic Jihad terror organization said he is studying chemistry to enhance his terror group's bomb-making capabilities. He said others in the chemistry department manufacture explosives for Palestinian groups.
Islamic Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has taken joint responsibility for every suicide bombing in Israel the last two years, including a bombing two weeks ago in Eilat and an attack in Tel Aviv last April that killed eight Israelis and American teenager Daniel Wultz.
According to the U.S. Foreign Operations Bill of 2006, it is illegal to fund universities which the Secretary of State "knows or has reason to believe advocates, plans, sponsors, engages in, or has engaged in, terrorist activity."
A USAID spokesman told WND the organization provides funds to Al-Najah's law school indirectly through the Arkan program. USAID has a history of funding anti-American Palestinian projects.
WND first reported last month a northern West Bank street funded by USAID was renamed for Saddam after his execution. Zacharias Zubeidi, leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Yaabid, told WND the city changed the name on the U.S.-funded street to show "Saddam Hussein is still alive." "We will honor his memory until the American and Zionist occupation is driven from our land," Zubeidi said.
WND reported USAID also reconstructed roads and municipalities in areas in the Gaza Strip controlled by Hamas. In a WND interview, Hamas Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar thanked USAID for its efforts.
According to Palestinian Media Watch translations, after USAID funded road projects in the West Bank city of Jenin in 2004, a central street there was named after the first Iraqi suicide bomber, who killed four American soldiers in Fallujah. The mayor of Jenin reportedly participated in an anti-American dedication ceremony in which speakers blessed the "resistance of the residents of Fallujah"
Also, a USAID-funded Palestinian sports center was named after Salef Khalef, operational head of the Black September terror organization, which was behind the killing of two U.S. diplomats in Sudan in 1973 and the massacre one year earlier of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich.
US congressional debate on Iraq took a rare turn as the Senate's leadership opted to cut into lawmakers' time off to hold a vote Saturday on President George W. Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq.
"Democrats are determined to give our troops and the American people the debate they deserve, so the Senate will have another Iraq vote this Saturday," said Senate Harry Reid, leader of the Democratic majority, with legislators due to take a one-week break from Saturday.
Republicans didn't move for cloture, you did.
The vote will resume debate cut off February 5 on a non-binding resolution on Bush's plan, announced in January, to send 21,500 additional combat troops.
Cut off by Reid after the motion for cloture failed. Republicans were willing to talk, well, forever.
"We will move for a clear up or down vote on the House resolution which simply calls on Congress to support the troops and opposes the escalation," Reid said.
Maine Republican Senator Olympia Snowe, who supports a text disapproving of Bush's new plan for Iraq, voiced concern Wednesday at the idea of heading home for a break. "We are expecting to adjourn next week for a recess. I thought to myself: Why? Why, so we will get back to Iraq before we know it? ... The troop surge isn't going to wait. The Iraqi war doesn't take a recess. Our men and women aren't taking a recess," Snowe said. "Why can't we debate now and vote on these issues? Are we saying we are simply not capable of talking?," she asked.
Not one dime for her or the RSC.
Democratic Senator Charles Schumer, referring to Republicans who have said they are eager to debate on Iraq, said: "We're calling their bluff."
Fortunately Chuckles likes to talk, so he'll get a lot of opportunities.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2007 00:00 ||
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Are we saying we are simply not capable of talking, thinking, working, acting, doing anything at all constuctive?," she asked
#2
Yeah, lets hurry this thing up. Those troops want to know as soon as possible who the asshats in Congress are so that when they come back home they can be involved in the 08 races.
Posted by: Jack is Back ||
02/16/2007 16:17 Comments ||
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#3
Another reason I like Giuliani...
Giuliani: We have a right of free speech in this country and we elect people to make decisions. Here's what I would prefer to see them do, though, if you ask me what's my view on that. The non-binding resolution thing gets me more than are you for it or against it. I have tremendous respect for the people who feel that we either made a mistake going to war, who voted against the war, who now have come to the conclusion, changed their minds--they have every right to that--that it's wrong. You should, in a dynamic situation, keep questioning. What I don't like is the idea of a non-binding resolution.
King: Because?
Giuliani: Because there's no decision.
King: But it's a--making a--it's a statement.
Giuliani: Yes, but that's what you do. That's what Tim Russert does. That's what Rush Limbaugh does. That's what you guys do, you make comments. We pay them to make decisions, not just to make comments. We pay them to decide. . . . And maybe it's because I, you know, I ran a government and I tend to be a decisive person. I like decisions. And I think one of the things wrong with Washington is they don't want to make tough decisions anymore.
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that President Bush lacks the authority to invade Iran without specific approval from Congress, a fresh challenge to the commander in chief on the eve of a symbolic vote critical of his troop buildup in Iraq.
Pelosi, D-Calif., noted that Bush consistently said he supports a diplomatic resolution to differences with Iran "and I take him at his word." At the same time, she said, "I do believe that Congress should assert itself, though, and make it very clear that there is no previous authority for the president, any president, to go into Iran."
Why would you think he'd go into Iran without the consent of Congress?
He got consent prior to invading Afghanistan.
He got consent prior to invading Iraq.
The man has a track record. So do you, Nancy.
dministration critics have accused the president of looking for a pretense to attack the Islamic republic, which is also at loggerheads with the United Nations about what Tehran says is a nuclear program aimed at developing energy for peaceful purposes.
Defending U.S. intelligence that has pinpointed Iran as a hostile arms supplier in Iraq, Bush said, "Does this mean you're trying to have a pretext for war? No. It means I'm trying to protect our troops."
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I understand the politics behind why the Congress will not up or down it's support for the President, in a binding vote of record; but I can't understand for the life of me why "W" won't just go to the Congress and get the 'Consent' up or down, and if it's down, pull back the Umbrella Force and declare they won't go back unless a 2/3s vote of "GO" from both chambers hit his desk thereafter!
#3
*boggle*
Has this 'lady' ever done anything useful and positive in her life ? She just seems to me to be a sniping, ineffective, self promoting, narcissist megalomaniac.
GW is on the money yet again .. "Does this mean you're trying to have a pretext for war? No. It means I'm trying to protect our troops."
Although I'm sure, him, like us, would love to knock ten bells of sh1t out of the MM.
#4
Where is the Congressional concern about Iran's efforts to murder our troops and continue to destabilize Iraq? Or does the Moonbat Party think President Bush is responsible for Iran's hatred of the West as well?
#7
Even before congress completes its debate on these confetti resolutions that many believe signals weakness to friends and foe alike, the Democrats are already looking to neuter the Executive branch on another battle front. Perhaps they should debate a Sense of the Congress/Senate resolution that unequivocally states that Irans opaque nuclear endeavors are completely unacceptable. Just a suggestion.
#9
Of course he has the authority to invade Iran. It's called the War Powers Resolution, and Democrats forced it down the throat of a Republican president. Here's how it goes:
SEC. 4. (a) In the absence of a declaration of war, in any case in which United States Armed Forces are introduced--
(1) into hostilities or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances;
(2) into the territory, airspace or waters of a foreign nation, while equipped for combat, except for deployments which relate solely to supply, replacement, repair, or training of such forces; or
(3) in numbers which substantially enlarge United States Armed Forces equipped for combat already located in a foreign nation; the president shall submit within 48 hours to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and to the President pro tempore of the Senate a report, in writing, setting forth--
(A) the circumstances necessitating the introduction of United States Armed Forces;
(B) the constitutional and legislative authority under which such introduction took place; and
(C) the estimated scope and duration of the hostilities or involvement.
(b) The President shall provide such other information as the Congress may request in the fulfillment of its constitutional responsibilities with respect to committing the Nation to war and to the use of United States Armed Forces abroad
(c) Whenever United States Armed Forces are introduced into hostilities or into any situation described in subsection (a) of this section, the President shall, so long as such armed forces continue to be engaged in such hostilities or situation, report to the Congress periodically on the status of such hostilities or situation as well as on the scope and duration of such hostilities or situation, but in no event shall he report to the Congress less often than once every six months.
SEC. 5. (a) Each report submitted pursuant to section 4(a)(1) shall be transmitted to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and to the President pro tempore of the Senate on the same calendar day. Each report so transmitted shall be referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House of Representatives and to the Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate for appropriate action. If, when the report is transmitted, the Congress has adjourned sine die or has adjourned for any period in excess of three calendar days, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate, if they deem it advisable (or if petitioned by at least 30 percent of the membership of their respective Houses) shall jointly request the President to convene Congress in order that it may consider the report and take appropriate action pursuant to this section.
(b) Within sixty calendar days after a report is submitted or is required to be submitted pursuant to section 4(a)(1), whichever is earlier, the President shall terminate any use of United States Armed Forces with respect to which such report was submitted (or required to be submitted), unless the Congress (1) has declared war or has enacted a specific authorization for such use of United States Armed Forces, (2) has extended by law such sixty-day period, or (3) is physically unable to meet as a result of an armed attack upon the United States. Such sixty-day period shall be extended for not more than an additional thirty days if the President determines and certifies to the Congress in writing that unavoidable military necessity respecting the safety of United States Armed Forces requires the continued use of such armed forces in the course of bringing about a prompt removal of such forces.
(c) Notwithstanding subsection (b), at any time that United States Armed Forces are engaged in hostilities outside the territory of the United States, its possessions and territories without a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization, such forces shall be removed by the President if the Congress so directs by concurrent resolution.
The upshot: Unless Congress specifically forbids it, the President has 60 days to do what he wants, after which the Congress has another chance to vote up or down on hostilities. The Congress might do just that; but in the meantime, the President has the authority to conduct military operations as he sees fit. Practically speaking, this is plenty of time to bomb the shit out of Iran's nuclear facilities and bases feeding the Quds Brigade into Iraq, and maybe send in some raiders to drive the point home. Pelosi, Murtha, Levin et al. are blowing smoke, and they know it. Does W know it too?
Consider this: People of my generation remember the Iran Hostage Crisis with a sense of rage and shame. What's more, Bush is a lame duck and has poll numbers in the toilet. In other words, he's got nothing to lose. As such, he might as well do the best thing possible for the security of the region, and stick a thumb in the Democrats' eyes to boot.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
02/16/2007 10:22 Comments ||
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#10
Bugger, forgot the URL: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/warpower.htm
Posted by: Jonathan ||
02/16/2007 10:24 Comments ||
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#11
Is this a version of the "Big Lie'?something so outrageous nobody questions it?
She just has no possible conceot of "Law" Does she, Thinks everything is subject to change by her whim?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/16/2007 10:45 Comments ||
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#12
concept, dammit
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/16/2007 10:46 Comments ||
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#13
Re: the War Powers Act - its Constitutionality has yet to be decided by the SCOTUS, and everything I've ever heard/read on the subject is that the WPA would die a very quick, final death if it were ever to actually go to SCOTUS. The only reason it hasn't happened yet is because no Republican President has needed/wanted to push the issue and no Democratic President has been held to it (The Bosnian intervention should have been a prime case for the WPA if there ever was one, but the media and Democratic congresscritters never pushed it).The Dems know that, and if they invoke the WPA they'll be banking on two things: one, the American public's complete lack of knowledge regarding the Constitution and two, that the Administration would back down from a Constitutional crisis. Don't forget that a victory for the Dems in a fight over the WPA wouldn't just tie President Bush's hands - it would tie President Hillary's hands too.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/16/2007 15:06 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON A powerful Democrat and Iraq war foe said he intends to introduce legislation in the coming weeks that would effectively end President Bush's plans to send 21,500 more troops into Iraq by setting limits on which troops can be sent.
Using an unusual medium a recorded interview posted on the Internet Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., said his bill would prevent troops from being sent back to Iraq too soon or too poorly equipped. Troops being sent back to Iraq for another tour would have to stay in the United States at least one year before being redeployed. The bill would also end "stop-loss" policies by preventing the president from retaining troops in Iraq after their enlistments expire.
Murtha, who is chairman of the defense subcommittee to the House Appropriations Committee, said he is formulating legislation with teeth because he doesn't think Bush's plan to send more troops to Baghdad and al Anbar province would accomplish the goals of bringing peace to the country or returning troops home sooner.
The Bush administration "won't be able to continue. They won't be able to do the deployment. They won't have the equipment. They don't have the training and they won't be able to do the work," Murtha said in the post on the hard left progressive Democrat-friendly Web site MoveCongress.org. "This vote will limit the options of the president and should stop this surge."
That's a message the folks at home should hear: Murtha would prefer that we send our troops in without training and equipment.
Murtha's proposed legislation drew a heated response from the House's top Republican, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, who said the bill would "cut off funding for troops in harm's way by making sure the reinforcements they need to complete their mission in Iraq never arrive."
"While American troops are fighting radical Islamic terrorists thousands of miles away, it is unthinkable that the United States Congress would move to discredit their mission, cut off their reinforcements, and deny them the resources they need to succeed and return home safely," Boehner said in a statement. "The American people will not support a strategy that involves pulling the rug out from under American troops in the combat zone by cutting off their reinforcements and forcing them to face the enemy without our full support," Boehner added.
You'd better keep saying that, because some Repubs in the House are waffling on you.
Murtha said the legislation would not necessarily deprive the administration of money but would redirect it, and it would be crafted to protect the troops, not harm them. "We need to make sure that everybody understands we're going to support the troops. We're going to give the troops everything they need. We're not going to .. make any of them vulnerable," Murtha said. "But we're going to make darn sure that they have what they need before they go over."
He supports the troops but doesn't support what they themselves believe we should be doing. He supports the troops but is willing to cut them off at the knees. He supports the troops but intends to dishonor everything they've done. Some support, huh?
By crafting legislation with those goals in mind, Murtha said, "that stops the surge for all intents and purposes."
The Pennsylvania Democrat added that he is also considering language in the legislation that would close the military prisons at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib. Murtha said his legislation would be added the defense appropriations bill, and he plans on submitting it in mid-March before the House Appropriations Committee.
Iraq isn't Vietnam, but the Democrats are sure playing like it is.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I emailed the RNC and my Reps and Senators about this treasonous crap (to no avail I am sure - I live in VA with the wobbly John Warner, moonbat Jim Moran and psychotic Jim Webb).
If Republicans don't put the hurt on the Dems for this - they serve no real purpose at all.
#2
"This vote will limit the options of the president and should stop this surge."
Its not micro-managing a war from Washington. Certainly Not! Its ahhh umm er oversight yeah oversight thats the ticket. We just feel that limiting your options is your best chance for success. Oh By the way, did we say we support the troops?
n all of the convoluted political calculations detailed by the AP, there is not a single word, by any Democrat of any stripe, about what is best for the troops, for the Iraqi people, or for the security of the United States.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/16/2007 12:37 Comments ||
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#4
What Murtha wants is probably unconstitutional anyway so Bush can safely veto it.
#5
Murtha is a traitor! Murtha is a traitor! Murtha is a traitor! Murtha is a traitor! Murtha is a traitor! Murtha is a traitor! Murtha is a traitor! Murtha is a traitor!
#6
They won't be able to do the deployment. They won't have the equipment. They don't have the training and they won't be able to do the work. This vote will limit the options of the president and should stop this surge."
In other words, Dems want to pull something slimy, and then rely on Bush's decency to get what they want.
How the f*ck do these people keep getting elected?
#8
rural PA - how do you keep sending this corrupt sack of shit to Congress?
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/16/2007 18:03 Comments ||
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#9
This is not rural PA in the Lancaster county sense. More like rural West Virginia. Look at the map. This is a designer district to re-elect a loyal party hack.
#10
I figured as much as soon as I wrote that. Hell, I live in San Diego, and my senators are Boxer (ugh!) and Feinstein (slightly less ugh!). At least I have Duncan Hunter as my Rep. I hate blanket slurs of Californians, and I tried to stay away from that in my comment
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/16/2007 18:45 Comments ||
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#11
I'm starting to believe we need term limits so at least we'll get new idiots instead of these intreanched idiots in Congress.
While were at it we need to reset voting districts to something un-gerrymandered to allow the election of non-incuments. How anout county lines.
These re-elected assholes need to be removed. I'd happily give up the few decent congresspeople to turn over the rest of the selfserving scum.
One of these days there's gonna be another revolution...
#12
Somebody need to re-arrange Murtha's face with an axe. Not the handle, the blade! I wouldn't trust this man to walk an old lady across a street that hasn't had a vehicle on it in 40 years.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/16/2007 19:39 Comments ||
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#13
This hurts from the center of my soul. These guys actually think a 70's army would be a way to control the prez. Just heart breaking. I can't even get angry.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/16/2007 22:07 Comments ||
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They're all racing to the microphones with their own plans for defeat. Murtha is a self-appointed general redirecting deployments and Biden is rewriting history.
Sen. Joe Biden (D-DE) is upping the ante of an Iraq discourse that has already engendered much bitterness between the parties. At a Brookings Institute event today, Biden announced, "The 2002 (Use of Force) authorization is no longer relevant to the situation in Iraq. I am working on legislation to repeal that authorization and replace it with a much narrower mission statement for our troops in Iraq."
#2
Biden - wotta dipswitch. Who elected him, anyway? All of you, I want to see a show of hands! Ahh, who am I to talk. Here in the People's Socialist Republic of Michigan, we keep electing Carl Levin. The shame...
ISLAMABAD: The US government has accused the Ministry of Interior of using its expensive helicopters for works other than the purpose they were given, to counter terrorism and drugs smuggling along the Pak-Afghan border.
Pakistani officials denied the allegation. Sources said the accusation was made by Anne Patterson, US assistant secretary of state for international narcotics control and law enforcement, in a recent meeting with Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao and other Pakistan officials in Washington.
Sources said Ms Patterson said the US had inside information that these helicopters were not being used exclusively to monitor the activities of drug barons and terrorists. She did not elaborate what these other uses were.
Sources said Mr Sherpao responded that this was not true, and that both the helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft provided to Pakistan by the US were being used for the purposes they were provided.
Mr Sherpao told the US officials that these helicopters were recently used for the assessment of poppy cultivation in the tribal areas of Pakistan. Sources said the US side at the end of the talks again stressed the need for efficient use of the air assets provided by the USA for border security.
Posted by: john ||
02/16/2007 06:31 ||
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The Pakis are using them for the WoT. They don't specify which side.
#4
And the US gov is shipping another 8 AH-1 Cobras outfitted with night vision gear to Pakistan. Only slightly more helpful than sending bags of money to Paleos.
Posted by: ed ||
02/16/2007 22:12 Comments ||
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DERA GHAZI KHAN: Hafiz Younus was a young, middle-class man, fond of cricket and interested in religion, who left his home in Dera Ghazi Khan three months ago. This week, his family and neighbours saw a photograph of his corpse published in newspapers by authorities trying to identify a man killed as he launched an attack on the airport in Islamabad on February 6.
He had two hobbies: preaching and studying religion and cricket, Mohammad Akbar Khan Malkhani, a councillor in Dera Ghazi Khan who knew Younus, said on Thursday. He was a very decent man. He never talked of jihad. We dont know how was he trapped by militants, Malkhani said.
It is a puzzlement, but Allan works in mysterious ways.
When he disappeared three months ago there was talk in the town that Younus, who was in his mid-twenties, had joined militants in Afghanistan, he said.
He wore black turban and belonged to Azam Tariqs school of thought.
He wore black turban and belonged to Azam Tariqs school of thought, said Hafiz Allah Bakhsh Thahim, a restaurant owner in Younus neighbourhood, referring to the leader of the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) group who was gunned down in Islamabad in 2003.
Three security men were wounded when Younus tried to force his way into Islamabad airport armed with two pistols and three grenades last week. He was killed when one of his grenades went off as he exchanged fire with police. This week, authorities published a picture of him lying on a slab in a morgue and appealed for help in identifying him.
Younus was born in Dubai where his father worked as an electrician. His family returned to Pakistan when he was 15. He married a cousin but neighbours spoke of a rocky marriage and they divorced after having a daughter. His grieving mother said she wanted his body sent home. I cried for my child for three months after he disappeared. Now he has died, but I cant see his body, his mother, Maryum Bibi, said. For the peace of my soul, please send my sons body back.
This article starring:
AZAM TARIQ
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
HAFIZ YUNUS
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm guessin' it wasn't his interest in cricket that led to him explosively decomposing.
Most people believe al Qaeda in Iraq is finished. After boasting last Fall that they would establish a safe zone in western Iraq, and failing to do anything close to that, the Islamic terrorists lost whatever credibility they had left. Most of the terrorist bombings these days are the work of Iraqi Sunni Arab organizations, who still believe that if you make the Iraqi Shia Arabs mad enough, they will get so nasty that neighboring Sunni Arab nations will feel compelled to invade. This plan has split the Sunni Arab nationalists, mainly because the invasion shows no sign of happening, and the brighter terrorists point out that the Saudi army is unlikely to win against the Americans. In a trend that began two years ago, Sunni Arab factions are continuing to battle each other. U.S. troops stand aside when they encounter "Red-on-Red" fighting, then deal with the winner. Standard doctrine calls for US troops to withdraw out of the line of fire, occupy a secure location from which the engagement may be observed, and make popcorn.
Meanwhile, the Iraqi Shia Arab militias, especially the Sadr forces (the Mahdi Army), have lost whatever unity and discipline they once had. When your #1 leader runs away and leaves you behind to die gloriously for the lost cause, it has a bad effect on morale.
Factionalism has taken over as several of Sadr's lieutenants compete for popularity and territory by driving Sunni Arabs out of Baghdad neighborhoods. Most of Iraq's Sunni Arabs have been chased from their homes since 2003, and that process has accelerated in the last year. The Iraqi Sunni Arabs are quite wealthy compared to Iraqi Shia, and the Shia gangs have been fighting each other over the loot, and the power. Gang war, literally, because many of the militiamen moonlight as gangsters (or vice versa).
While the number of terror bombings has been declining in the past year, the crime rate has not, and most people in central Iraq are looking forward to the "Battle for Baghdad." Brigades of troops are arriving from the Kurdish north and Shia south, and more American troops can be seen on the streets. There are more raids in Baghdad. But all the average Iraqi wants is safer streets, fewer kidnappings and a little peace and quiet. Just like everyone else.
Realizing that that kind of paradise is not likely to be found in the Middle East, Baghdad has been suffering a major brain drain in the past year, with the most educated fleeing for foreign countries. Europe and North America are preferred destinations, but any place with a lower crime rate will do. Which is evidence of the universality of certain aspects of human nature, not of an "unwinnable quagmire."
Posted by: Mike ||
02/16/2007 06:58 ||
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Please, don't confuse Lard Ass Murtha with facts.
Redacted by moderator. Comments may be redacted for trolling, violation of standards of good manners, or plain stupidity. Contents may be viewed in the sinktrap.
#3
Darth, I'm jealous. I have yet to have a post that earned a trip to the sinktrap.
Posted by: Mike N. ||
02/16/2007 9:20 Comments ||
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#4
1. Ive heard alot of good news from Strat Page over the last 3 years. Does anyone track their old punditry?
2. At least until the surge began, the alleged weakness of the insurgency had not sufficed to reduce the death toll from bombings and torture-killings in Baghdad, or nationally, which was as high as ever. If SP wants to be taken seriously they should reconcile this.
3. Nonetheless, the death toll HAS declined in the last few days, with the surge really getting going in a big way. The challenge is going to be converting that into longer lasting gains.
#6
then deal with the winner.
Standard doctrine calls for US troops to withdraw out of the line of fire, occupy a secure location from which the engagement may be observed, and make popcorn.
This war can't last forever, boys. There is a limited supply of popcorn and virgins to go round.
#7
I don't usually agree with LH (as he well knows) but he's got a point here: Strategypage is consistently optimistic even when optimism is not warranted. For the time being, I'm taking about as much salt with Strategypage postings as I do with stories from Debka.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
02/16/2007 9:58 Comments ||
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#8
No they aren't. They are losing where it matters: in American public opinion.
#9
They are losing where it matters: in American public opinion.
Absolutely true. The WOT & OIF are doomed. I heard Paul Harvey today call Murtha pro-war and a 'gentle Catholic grandfather' who 'avoids the limelight'. Gag!
#10
I got a sinktrap visit about 6 months ago, it seemed benign to me, i've posted worse since and no more visits, I guess whoever was moderating that day had a bad morning?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/16/2007 11:44 Comments ||
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#11
Back in 80's in college I stumbled across A Quick and Dirty Guide to War from Jim Dunnigan of Strategypage, and it was an interesting look at the various conflicts around the world. He updated the book every 5 yrs or so after that, and I would check the new revisions out from the library to check out his updates. He was right more often than wrong (although he hedged his bets in most cases with enough alternative views that *something* was probably going to be correct). He also was working on a 5 or 10 year time horizon, so when he says "someone is winning" he was talking over the long haul, not specifically about individual skirmishes.
My opinion is that he has decent sources (better than I have or the MSM lets on, such as Austin Bay) and that he is right more often than not, although he probably has a soft spot for the home team that isn't properly characterizing the MSM's influence on the US voters.
#12
Kind of reminds me of Michael Moore's Detroit.
Sometime's it amazes me what you can learn on this board. Can you imagine if Fred was running the MSM? LOL! Hell we would have invaded Iran and France by now.
#13
I thought the insanity of the 60s and early 70s were forever buried in the "Lessons Learned" of how you DO NOT conduct a war. Yet, here we are again.
#14
On the sinktrap: guaranteed visit there if you advocate the killing of Americans. That's a bright-line issue for all of the moderators. It's wrong, it's not appropriate, and it potentially sets us up for real trouble (e.g., with law enforcement). Don't do it.
Repeat: don't do it.
You want bin-Laden whacked, the mods are with you. Advocate the death of an American politican/public figure/goof-ball, no matter how odious, and it's sinktrap land. Or banning.
I hope I'm making the appropriate impression here. We simply cannot and will not allow it on the Burg.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2007 15:01 Comments ||
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#15
Dunnigan's got more sources than God.
This is the same Jim Dunnigan of Strategy & Tactics magazine fame (a wargame in every issue). Back in the day S&T used to be "it" for accurate, interesting, and involving wargames. The Pentagon, it is said, and other military institutions, used to use S&T wargames for training purposes (one of the their games "The Next War" was said to have been modelled in accordance with Pentagon wishes and "NATO Division Commander" was said to have been used as a training tool for future theater commanders).
Dunnigan's got sources in the Pentagon, in the gaming community, in the intelligence community, in the line officers and soldiers, and a lot more.
I'd trust his information way before I trusted anything coming from almost any other source.
#16
I wasn't advocating it, I was saying that we don't have the public will to win this war until the traitors are taken care of first. I know many a marine that if they could do it, they would.
They would have arrested the Murtha idiot and/or strung him up back in WWII.
#18
Closh Cheatle9268---Re: Paul Harvey. I heard the same thing this morning. I started feeling the boiler pressure rising at an alarming rate. I started focusing on breathing so the radio would survive. I am really surprised and angered by what Harvey said. Murtha is a seditious clown that shoots off his mouth. Take a look at what he said about the Marines in the brig at Camp Pentelton before they were even charged with murder. Totally inappropriate, totally out of line. I will stop there before I get a trip to the sinktrap.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/16/2007 17:42 Comments ||
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#19
Reply to Harvey and the radio station that distributes it. Provide cites. FORCE them to acknowledge his perfidy
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/16/2007 18:06 Comments ||
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#20
WILCO, Frank. I will send you a copy of my email after I do that tonight. Grrrrr.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/16/2007 18:30 Comments ||
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#21
I would believe that we had the full will to win when the Marines shoot Murtha.
Iran's secretive Quds Force, accused by the United States of arming Iraqi militants with deadly bomb-making material, has built up an extensive network in the war-torn country, recruiting Iraqis and supporting not only Shiite militias but also Shiites allied with Washington.
So Iranians are operating in Iraq. But Iran denies it. That means they can't protest too much when we kill these Quds Forces hard boyz, right?
Still unclear, however, is how closely Iran's top leadership is directing the Quds Force's operations - and whether Iran has intended for its help to Shiite militias to be turned against U.S. forces. Iran likely does not want a direct confrontation with American troops in Iraq but is backing militiamen to ensure Shiites win any future civil war with Iraqi Sunnis after the Americans leave, several experts said Thursday.
The Quds Force's role underlines how deeply enmeshed Iran is in its neighbor - and how the U.S. could face resistance even from its allies in Iraq if it tries to uproot Iran's influence in the country. The Quds Force - the name means "Jerusalem" in Farsi and Arabic - is the most elite and covert of Iran's military branches. Over the past two decades, the corps is believed to have helped arm and train the Hezbollah guerrilla group in Lebanon, Islamic fighters in Bosnia and Afghanistan, and even Sudanese troops fighting in south Sudan.
The force is part of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, which are separate from the regular military, report directly to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and are tasked with protecting the Islamic government. The Quds Force, formed in the 1980s and picked from the very best of the Guards, is its special branch for operations outside Iran. "What Quds does is very specialized, the most dangerous work, operating underground," said Mahan Abedin, an Iran expert and the research director at the London-based Center for the Study of Terrorism.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2007 00:00 ||
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#2
My neighbor was captured by Chinese forces and spent a number of years as a guest of the NKors many years ago. When his unit reported seeing Chinese forces, the response from their superiors was that they must be mistaken, because if Chinese forces were indeed carrying out attacks on US forces, the US would have to go to war with China.
#4
hopefully we can keep publishing "dying last words" implicating the higher-ups until even willfully-close-eyed POS's like Chris Dodds have to admit the nation of Iran is responsible for their agent's actions (don't hold your breath!)
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/16/2007 21:39 Comments ||
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An adviser to Iraq's prime minister said Thursday that radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is in Iran, but denied he fled due to fear of arrest during an escalating security crackdown. Sami al-Askari said al-Sadr traveled to Iran by land "a few days ago," but gave no further details on how long he would stay. A member of al-Sadr's bloc in parliament, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals, said he left three weeks ago. "I confirm that Muqtada al-Sadr is in Iran on a visit," said al-Askari. "But I deny that his visit is a flight."
Another lawmaker loyal to al-Sadr, Saleh al-Ukaili, insisted that al-Sadr is in Iraq and claimed the accounts of his departure were part of a "campaign by the U.S. military" to track down the elusive cleric. U.S. and Iraqi forces have increased pressure on backers of the anti-American cleric and other militants in a major security operation that began in force this week. Conflicting reports on al-Sadr's whereabouts have been exchanged for days.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Damn shame an IED didn't take him out en route to Iran. That would have been karma.
#4
He's just waitin out Bush. Murtha and Pelosie will get funds cut, troops training and moral will be down, we will go home and they will move back in, trained, refreshed and ready to go. five years is a short war for these guys. The Iran Iraq war was a ten year event.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/16/2007 22:42 Comments ||
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Israel wants to make peace with Syria, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Thursday, but he urged Damascus to stop supporting terrorism. We want to make peace with Syria, if there is a peace we will be satisfied and be happy, Olmert said in a joint news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. We especially want Syria to stop supporting terrorism and abide by the rules set up by the international community.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the new Palestinian government must openly and clearly agree with the demands of the Quartet of the Middle East negotiators. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in remarks published on Thursday that economic sanctions against Iran would force Tehran to review its nuclear programme.
Olmert arrived in Turkey late on Wednesday for a two-day visit, hoping to discuss ways to rein in Irans suspected efforts to build nuclear weapons. The UN Security Council has imposed limited sanctions on Iran, but many countries are reluctant to go further and cut all trade ties to the energy-rich country. Washington has urged European nations to follow the US in cutting such ties with Tehran. If economic sanctions were imposed, Iran would be forced to review its position, Olmert said in an apparent reference to a more robust approach to sanctions. I believe that Turkey and many other countries will need to change their ties with Iran, he said in an interview with Turkeys Milliyet newspaper.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2007 00:00 ||
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#2
Peace with Syria? First you kick the shit out of Syria, then when it lies cowering and whimpering in the corner you ask nicely 'Had enough'? That's the only "Peace" they understand.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/16/2007 10:39 Comments ||
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#3
No, no, no. Then you kick the shit out of them some more.
JERUSALEM - The United States will boycott all Palestinian unity government ministers, including non-Hamas members, unless international demands on policy towards Israel are met, a Palestinian official and diplomats said on Thursday.
Hey! A spine! Where'd we find one of those?
Some US officials had been advocating a shift in Washingtons position that would allow limited diplomatic contacts with cabinet ministers from ineffectual moderate President Mahmoud Abbass Fatah faction and other parties. But a senior Palestinian official said: The Americans have informed us that they will be boycotting the new government headed by Hamas. The Fatah and independent ministers will be treated the same way that Hamas ministers are treated.
Since they're all one and the same, that seems like a good explanation.
Diplomats familiar with discussions on the issue confirmed Washingtons intention to shun members of the unity government unless it satisfied international calls for Hamas to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace accords.
US contacts with Abbas would not be affected although diplomatic sources said relations have been strained by his power-sharing deal with Hamas Islamists, a pact that fell short of meeting the demands for the policy changes.
Abbas abruptly put off an address he was due to give on Thursday about the new government. An official said the delay was due to a dispute with Hamas. Hamas has made several unacceptable conditions which cannot be implemented. The Mecca agreement cannot be re-interpreted and must be implemented immediately without any conditions, a Palestinian official said.
Hamas is pretty good about setting unacceptable conditions; they've had decades of practice.
Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the current Hamas-led government, said on Israeli Army Radio there are a lot of problems. He cited the naming of an interior minister, a post that oversees security services, as one of them.
Another unresolved issue is the fate of Hamass 5,600-member executive police force. Fatah is pushing for the force to be broken up but Hamas wants to keep it together.
Hamas wants it to wipe out Fatah, and then the Joooz.
Complicating matters for any incoming government, top Palestinian bank officials said they would not resume transfers to the government without assurances from the United States. Western diplomats said they doubted such assurances would be forthcoming. Regional and international banks have refused to transfer funds to the Hamas-led government since March for fear of running foul of US sanctions.
We are waiting to see if the US will approve the unity government. Nobody is going to jeopardise long-term contacts with the West. It (US authorisation) has to be very clear, said the head of a major Palestinian bank.
Which is why we shouldn't give it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/16/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
"I shun you."
"Yeah, well I shun you version 2.0"
"I shun you version 2.2 for Windows."
#5
The only way to "solve" this problem is to kill or disarm all the paleostains, seal the border, and put a 24-hour curfew in effect. Wait for them to either break curfew (shoot them) or starve to death. As long as one Jew lives anywhere in the world, the paloestains will seethe and grimace - and preach, practice and teach hatred. It's been engrained into their very souls for the past 70 years, and the only way to remove it is to kill them. Genocide is a nasty word, but there's no such "race" or "nation" as paleostain. They're just arabs from different places. Either they go back where they came from, or they need to die.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
02/16/2007 19:57 Comments ||
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I concur. No more US blankets for Paleo ministers.
American officials have told the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, that they will boycott all ministers in a new coalition cabinet unless the government meets international conditions, including recognition of Israel, Palestinian officials said yesterday.
The warning indicates the extent of Washington's unease at the agreement reached in Mecca last week between the rival Palestinian groups, Hamas and Fatah. It comes just before a meeting in Jerusalem on Monday between the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, and Mr Abbas.
The boycott means that any Fatah leaders who join the new government will be shunned by US officials, and suggests that Monday's meeting is unlikely to produce a breakthrough.
However, the US will continue to talk to Mr Abbas and his office, Palestinian officials said. An official told Reuters: "The Americans have informed us that they will be boycotting the new government headed by Hamas. Fatah and independent ministers will be treated the same way Hamas ministers are treated."
Saeb Erekat, a Palestinian negotiator who met US officials last week to prepare for Monday's meeting, said: "The Americans reiterated the position that their relations with the government will depend on the government's compliance with the Quartet's principles."
The so-called Quartet of Middle East negotiators - the EU, US, UN and Russia - has said its boycott of the Palestinian government will only be lifted if the new authority recognises Israel, renounces violence and accepts past peace agreements.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I concur. No more US blankets for Paleo ministers.
How about also banning those dish towels the wear as "Do-Rags"?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/16/2007 10:52 Comments ||
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The Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, returned to Gaza yesterday to begin selecting a list of ministers for a new coalition cabinet in the wake of a rare unity agreement between the rival Hamas and Fatah factions. Khaled Meshal, the exiled leader of Hamas's ruling political bureau, writing in the Guardian today, said the agreement reached in Mecca last week offered a new opportunity for a "power-sharing process" and called on the international community to lift its financial boycott of the Palestinian authority. Under the agreement, Mr Haniyeh, himself a Hamas leader, will remain prime minister but will lead a cabinet of independents as well as figures from Hamas and Fatah.
In Mecca, Hamas also agreed to "respect" previous peace negotiations signed by the Palestinians with Israel but stopped short of recognising Israel.
In Mecca, Hamas also agreed to "respect" previous peace negotiations signed by the Palestinians with Israel but stopped short of recognising Israel - a key demand of the Quartet of Middle East negotiators.
Several important decisions remain unresolved. No one has yet been chosen to be interior minister, a powerful position with control over the Palestinian security forces. Western governments have said they are still studying the agreement. On Sunday, Israel's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, told his cabinet: "At this stage, Israel neither rejects nor accepts the agreement."
In his article today, Mr Meshal continues a series of incremental steps made by Hamas in recent months to what appears to be a more moderate position in which it calls for a Palestinian state within the occupied territories.
In a key phrase he talks of the "acknowledgement of the right of the refugees to return to their homes".The word "acknowledgement" leaves open the possibility - envisaged in the Camp David and Taba talks in late 2000 and early 2001 - that the bulk of any returning refugees would go only to the territory of the Palestinian state, not of pre-1967 Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Interested in the finances here:
- How much $ did the quartet give these jackasses before the boycott?
- How much $ do they say they need?
- KSA pledged $1B; Iran pledged $1B
- What's the shortfall?
#2
Good questions, Geoffro. Here's your answers:
1. Not enough
2. More
3. So what?
4. Incalculable. Just send Brink's trucks full of cash and weapons 'til we tell you to stop.
5. Or else.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday designated Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas to form a new government after accepting his resignation. This paves the way for installation of a unity government with the Islamic Hamas and Abbas' more moderate Fatah. Haniyeh has five weeks to form the government along the lines of an agreement hammered out last week at a summit in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Another reasurringly stupid move. These Palestinians sure know how to shoot themselves and anyone around them in the foot with impunity
#7
Seen a similar one with an Afgan Army instructor using an RPG, demonstrating to the troops on the correct useage .
Flop ! panick ! nowhere to hide / dive into .. And then he half heartedly expects to die , but the explosive fails to detonate .
Fresh pants all round !
#12
That is classic! I always had a fear of that happening when I live fired an AT-4. Fortunately, they all worked very well. But you kinda wonder when you are shooting off the stuff at the end of its life cycle.
#16
Nope, nope, the two previous linguistic experts were absolutely right, they're speaking french with that lovely québecois accent, I can assure you that 100%.
#17
To: God
From: Office of Guardian Angels
North American Division,
French Canadian Region
Military Department
Antitank Missile Section #2
Re: Merit Pay Increase Request -- Supporting Socumentation
See attached. I think we earned 10%, at least.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/16/2007 12:54 Comments ||
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The government changed direction in mid-stream on Friday, agreeing to allow Malaysia to act as a mediator to negotiate a solution to the mounting security problem plaguing the South. "Malaysia will act as a mediator in the negotiations," Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont told reporters in Bangkok.
His remarks directly reversed a statement on Wednesday by Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram that there were no plans to allow a Malaysian hand in any future negotiations - and claiming that the Malaysian premier had been misquoted on the subject by his own news agency.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on his visit to Bangkok earlier this week suggested that Malaysia could mediate between the Thai government and separatist rebels in its three southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattanai and Yala, where the majority of the population is Muslim, Malay-speaking and has strong historical and cultural ties with Malaysia.
"Whether or not the situation improves depends on negotiations," Gen Surayud said. "Negotiations are the best way to solve the problem." He praised Malaysia for acknowledging that the security problem in the deep South was an "internal issue" and for not supporting the separatists.
Mr Abdullah, during his visit to Thailand, also praised Surayud for adopting a conciliatory approach to the conflict, which has been marked by clashes, revenge killings, bombings and beheadings. Gen Surayud's conciliatory approach has yet to bear fruit.
Iranian security forces killed two Pakistan nationals near Panjgur district on Thursday and handed over 21 illegal immigrants to Pakistani authorities. Brothers Mohammad Akbar and Raham Dil from the Paroom area of Panjgur district were shot dead by the Iranian border security forces after an exchange of fire with them. The reason behind the clash was not known.
The killings angered the locals, who branded them an act of provocation by Iranian security forces. There were also reports of closure of the Pak-Iran border at Taftan, but government sources did not confirm the report. About the illegal immigrants, sources said that most of the 21 people, who had illegally crossed the border from Panjgur and Mand areas, were from Sindh and Punjab and added that agents had promised to take them to Europe via Iran and Turkey.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/16/2007 00:00 ||
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Okay, how likely is this? Anybody?
A commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Wednesday that a commando unit has engraved the military organization's emblem into the side panel of an American warship stationed in the Persian Gulf.
Nur Ali Shushkari, the head of the Revolutionary Guards ground forces, told Iranian pro-government news agencies that the symbol was etched onto the ship by the crew of a submarine that had managed to reach the U.S. vessel without detection by radar. Shushkari did not release specific details about the incident, but claimed that the operation proved that Iranian forces are following American fleet traffic in the region.
Shushkari warned the United States that if a confrontation arises, all American forces in the gulf as well as targets inside the U.S. itself would be targets for attack.
#1
Nah. Just morale-building. There's all sorts of blatantly fake news stories like this that oppressive regimes circulate. Anything to buff up the troops and make them think they're winning.
Congratulations, you've discovered 'tagging'. Welcome to 1960.
Man, not even a bad Photoshop to go with it. These guys are desperate.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/16/2007 6:09 Comments ||
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#4
...You know, it just hit me what we should do here, assuming we had the bal*s to do so: Dummy up a 'night vision' video of the sub sneaking up, starting to do their 'etchings'...then us blowing them out of the water. Then at the news conference where we show this, say that we didn't want to reveal the video because we're trying to do this diplomatically. THEN watch the Iranians soil themselves.
I know, I know...but a man can dream...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
02/16/2007 10:05 Comments ||
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#5
"Yes, Iranian commandos from the Iranian Submarine USS Kitty Hawk snuck up to an American aircraft carrier and painted their submarine's name on the side of it...you will see the proof when a ship with that name painted on the side next pulls into port"
Michelle Malkin has seen her head electronically grafted onto a photo of a bikini-clad body [ironically since she has almost a fashion model figure]. She had to cancel a Berkeley book signing in the face of 200 shouting protesters.
YouTube banned one of her videos. And she felt compelled to move after critics posted online her Gaithersburg area address and pictures of her home.... [mostly factual and thus mostly positive article - kudos to the Washington Post - also as of just a few minutes ago Michelle hadn't even posted a bit about this on her own website]
#1
Malkin has surely pissed off some the towel heads and their liberal anti-American supporters. Sometimes with biting humor and their own words. Got to love it.
Ironically I'm on a video conversation with a client in Gathersburg. We were hoping to buy her and Bryan lunch this summer.
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.
Caracas, 16 Feb. (AKI) - Venezuela - one of three US oil supplying countries whose oil industries al-Qaeda has purportedly threatened to attack - reacted sceptically to the message posted on Wednesday to the Sawt-al-Jihad (Voice of Holy War) website. Admiral Luis Cabrera, a military advisor to Venezuela's anti-American president Hugo Chavez, has questioned the authenticity of the threat. In comments cited by local media, Cabrera said it was "illogical that "al-Qaeda, which is against North American imperialism, would go against a state that is fighting, though in a different way, against that hegemony. We fight for constitutionality, legality, morality and truth - not acts of terrorism." Defence minister General Raul Baduel nonetheless announced on Thursday that Venezuela will reinforce security measures and its armed forces are "on alert."
SEOUL (Reuters) - Singing soldiers and flower shows marked the birthday of the man dubbed North Korea's "invincible brilliant commander" by state media, as regional powers wondered whether he would abide by a nuclear deal. The communist world's first dynastic leader, Kim Jong-il, 65, is the unchallenged head of the reclusive state whose economy has fallen deeper into poverty during his years in power. 
Russia threatened on Thursday to pull out of a landmark nuclear arms control treaty unless the US backed away from plans to install its missile defence shield in Eastern Europe. Yury Baluyevsky, the Russian army chief of staff, said Moscow might unilaterally withdraw from the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty, which forced the US and the Soviet Union to ban nuclear and conventional ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges of 500 to 5,500km.
WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that President Bush lacks the authority to invade Iran without specific approval from Congress, a fresh challenge to the commander in chief on the eve of a symbolic vote critical of his troop buildup in Iraq.
WASHINGTON A powerful Democrat and Iraq war foe said he intends to introduce legislation in the coming weeks that would effectively end President Bush's plans to send 21,500 more troops into Iraq by setting limits on which troops can be sent.
Iran's secretive Quds Force, accused by the United States of arming Iraqi militants with deadly bomb-making material, has built up an extensive network in the war-torn country, recruiting Iraqis and supporting not only Shiite militias but also Shiites allied with Washington.
An adviser to Iraq's prime minister said Thursday that radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr is in Iran, but denied he fled due to fear of arrest during an escalating security crackdown. Sami al-Askari said al-Sadr traveled to Iran by land "a few days ago," but gave no further details on how long he would stay. A member of al-Sadr's bloc in parliament, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals, said he left three weeks ago. "I confirm that Muqtada al-Sadr is in Iran on a visit," said al-Askari. "But I deny that his visit is a flight."
JERUSALEM - The United States will boycott all Palestinian unity government ministers, including non-Hamas members, unless international demands on policy towards Israel are met, a Palestinian official and diplomats said on Thursday.
The Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, returned to Gaza yesterday to begin selecting a list of ministers for a new coalition cabinet in the wake of a rare unity agreement between the rival Hamas and Fatah factions. Khaled Meshal, the exiled leader of Hamas's ruling political bureau, writing in the Guardian today, said the agreement reached in Mecca last week offered a new opportunity for a "power-sharing process" and called on the international community to lift its financial boycott of the Palestinian authority. Under the agreement, Mr Haniyeh, himself a Hamas leader, will remain prime minister but will lead a cabinet of independents as well as figures from Hamas and Fatah. 
Iranian security forces killed two Pakistan nationals near Panjgur district on Thursday and handed over 21 illegal immigrants to Pakistani authorities. Brothers Mohammad Akbar and Raham Dil from the Paroom area of Panjgur district were shot dead by the Iranian border security forces after an exchange of fire with them. The reason behind the clash was not known. 
