Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has accused international media and human rights groups of conducting a smear campaign against Ethiopian troops in Somalia. Speaking to parliament, Mr. Meles vowed that the troops would remain as long as needed to support the transitional government in Mogadishu. VOA's Peter Heinlein listened to the prime minister's remarks, and reports they were notable as much for what was not said as for what was.
Prime Minister Meles confined his remarks to six scripted questions submitted by lawmakers. An attempt by one opposition politician to raise another point was overruled. The prime minister gave a detailed defense of the behavior of Ethiopian troops supporting Somalia's transitional government.
Several human rights groups have accused the soldiers of numerous atrocities during their nearly 18 months in Somalia, including an attack on a Mogadishu mosque last month that left at least 10 people dead.
In an e-mail to reporters Wednesday, a group called the Ogaden Human Rights Committee also charged that civilians from Ethiopia's Somali region, known as the Ogaden, are being forcibly repatriated, after fleeing to Somalia to escape a harsh Ethiopian counterinsurgency campaign.
Mr. Meles dismissed those reports as part of a smear campaign aimed at forcing the troops to leave Somalia. He vowed to keep them there as long as necessary. "The international media and so-called human rights organizations do say all sorts of things about our military and ourselves with a tremendous smear campaign," he said. "They do tarnish our reputation, but we will not be able to get rid of these tarnishings and smears because we leave Somalia. We should know those smears are not happening because those organizations don't know the truth, but it's because they choose to do so."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2008 00:00 ||
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Somalia pirates who hijacked a Jordanian vessel last weekend now claim that it is carrying arms to Somalia and must be opened to verify its cargo. Seafarers assistance programme coordinator, Andrew Mwangura said the new development was likely to delay the release of the 12 crew members, who include three Kenyans.
Mr Mwangura, who quoted sources that are in contact with the vessel, said the verification of the cargo may take long because the sea was too rough at the moment. "The latest allegations by the hijackers will force the owner of the vessel to open it to verify its cargo," said Mr Mwangura, noting that it is not possible to open the ship at this time because of the prevailing weather conditions.
Can we be there when they open the cargo?
"The sea is rough at the moment and we may have to wait until August when the sea calms down for the cargo to be verified... the situation at the moment is complicated and we are asking the international community to help in resolving the crisis," Mr Mwangura said.
He urged the Kenyan Government to stop transacting businesses with Somalia as a strategy to reduce piracy. "The Kenyan Government should stop illegal fishing in Somalia and the transportation of miraa in order to reduce piracy. It is discouraging that there is no Government official who appears to be concerned with the three Kenyans who are among the crew on the ship," said Mr Mwangura.
The Jordanian vessel, MV Victoria, which was hijacked by pirates off the coast of Somalia on Saturday, was carrying 4,200 tonnes of relief sugar to Somalia. The crew members are from Tanzanian, Pakistan, Somalia and Bangladesh.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Ever hear of sailing into port, Oh right, you'd get hanged.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/22/2008 14:30 Comments ||
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Diplomats said Wednesday that progress is being made in efforts to secure the release of two Austrians held by an Al-Qaeda linked group for the past three months. Wolfgang Ebner and Andrea Kloiber were seized in Tunisia by Al-Qaeda's north African offshoot but are now believed to be held in enchanting Mali. "My feeling is that we are halfway across choppy waters in a boat which we mustn't rock too much or else it could go under," Vienna's envoy in Africa Anton Prohaska told AFP. "(But) we can see the other side, it's within our reach."
The diplomatic metaphor conveys the delicacy and painstaking pace of the indirect negotiations over the pair. "Things are progressing, but slowly," added a Malian official within the negotiating team. "Contact has been made on several occasions through intermediaries. What is important is that the hostages are alive, and that the kidnappers respect their commitment to keeping them alive."
Ebner, 51 and Kloiber, 44, were taken hostage on February 22 in Tunisia's southeastern Sahara region, but are believed to have been moved to Mali. In mid-April, an Austrian envoy said negotiators had received proof that the two were still alive. Several ultimatum deadlines have passed but Austria says it still believes they can be saved.
Prohaska said negotiators "would have left Bamako already," if they didn't believe the pair would be found "safe and well."
The kidnappers have threatened to kill the hostages if attempts are made to free them by force.
That's pretty much SOP, isn't it?
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb only acknowledged responsibility on March 10. The kidnappers initially demanded the release of a number of Islamic extremists imprisoned in Algeria and Tunisia. Then they later asked for the withdrawal of Austrian troops from Afghanistan and the release of two Islamic militants jailed in Vienna, with unconfirmed press reports saying a five million euro (7.9 million dollars) ransom was also being sought. "You know full well that the state does not pay ransoms," Prohaska added. "We want to reach a humanitarian solution so that the hostages can be reunited with their families."
According to a western diplomat in Bamako, the hostages are being held in an area on Mali and Algeria's border. That complicates negotiations, because rebel Tuaregs are active in the area and operations are difficult to organise without the approval of Algiers.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
Representatives of the Islamic community of the country yesterday demanded punishment of Jamaat Ameer Matiur Rahman Nizami for war crimes he committed during the Liberation War.
The demand came at a meeting between a delegation of Islamic leaders and the Sector Commanders Forum (SCF) at the SCF office in Banani. The delegation, led by former director of Bangladesh Islamic Foundation Maulana Farid Uddin Masud, said war crimes are more heinous than corruption and for that the government should try the war criminals by a special tribunal. At the meeting they said the rule of law that the government is telling about could be ensured if they try the war criminals. The religious leaders said that there can be no peace in the country if war criminals are not tried.
LONDON The British government has officially given the go-ahead to a 3.9 billion pound ($7.6 billion) program to build two aircraft carriers for the Royal Navy. The first of the warships is planned to be in service in 2014.
Confirmation for the program to proceed will trigger the creation of a joint venture pulling together the surface warship yards of BAE Systems and the VT Group. The two companies agreed to merge the two BAE yards on the Clyde in Scotland with VTs Portsmouth facility in southern England in mid-2007, but completion of the deal was contingent on the government here confirming that the CVF carrier program would enter the production phase. The joint venture will be Britains only major surface warship builder.
The future of the two 65,000-ton aircraft carriers had been in doubt for months as the Ministry of Defence sought to balance its books in the face of a potentially significant budget overspend.
VT CEO Paul Lester signaled that the program was about to be approved when he told reporters last week at the companys annual results briefing that the government had informed them approval was imminent. Lester said at the time it would take between four and five weeks to complete the merger deal once the government had informed them it was proceeding with the program.
The two carriers, the largest warships ever built in the United Kingdom, will be constructed in modules and assembled at the Babcock International warship support yard at Rosyth in Scotland. The first warship will be named HMS Queen Elizabeth, and the second, planned to be in service in 2016, will be called HMS Prince of Wales.
The CVF program is being undertaken by an alliance of British companies comprising BAE, Babcock, Thales, VT and the MoD. The contract will be signed with the merged BAE/VT entity and a subcontract issued to the alliance. The decision is expected to secure 10,000 jobs in the British maritime industry.
In a statement issued May 20, the MoD said it had provided written assurances to industry that we are ready to sign contracts as soon as the new shipbuilding joint venture that will be part of the alliance of companies constructing the vessels has been formed.
#4
What keeps getting lost here is that in order to make the generally unproductive expenditure on a decent military force, you have to have a productive economy rich enough to afford it. What we're seeing in both the US and Europe is the shift of economic power to Asia and the consequent diminishing of the ability to pay for world-class militaries. Add to that the Euros' general disinclination to pay their way and to ride on America's defensive coattails and you've got a real problem coming up with funding.
The biggest problem with that situation is that with the speed of modern war, you've pretty much got to fight with what you've got; there isn't a lot of time to ramp up production. If the cupboard is damned near bare when the balloon goes up, the outcome is almost predetermined.
Posted by: Thaimble Scourge of the Pixies4707 ||
05/22/2008 18:34 Comments ||
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#5
Pappy, my understanding is that these are fleet class carriers, not French/Italian style escort/light class carriers. I recall that they're to fly the naval version of the JSF.
They still need escorts.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/22/2008 19:22 Comments ||
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#6
VARIOUS MIL FORUMS/NET > AFAIK, despite the go-ahead, the Brits are still considering sharing the CVF's utility wid the other Euros, espec FRANCE = FRENCH NAVAL AVIATION. Proposed ventures include BRIT-FRENCH, ANDOR ALL-EURO COMBINED AIR WINGS + SHIP CREWS + ROTATING CAPTAINCY, espec Carrier Air???
Years ago, a shadowy Internet figure who often went by the name Abu Banan gained notoriety as the Canadian-based godfather of an Internet outfit known for disseminating jihadist propaganda. The Globe and Mail has learned of a murky probe that spanned several years, saw a Canadian Islamic preacher with the same Arab name 'Abu Banan' questioned frequently by agents from CSIS and ended in criminal charges that nobody, including the father of three, seems to have anticipated.
#2
It belongs on page 1 of every Canadian newspaper and magazine. I hope the dude does time for this. His fellow inmates will show him a really good, good time.
???
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday defended as "successful" the US administration's policy on Iran after Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama criticized its approach.
Though she sought to stay out of the presidential campaign, Rice told reporters that the United States and other powers agreed on what she considers a common, effective approach to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
"I will note that the Iranian problem is not just America's problem, it is an international issue, and it is an issue on which the international community is united in confronting Iran with choices before it," Rice said.
Flanked by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, a US ally on Iran and other issues, Rice recalled that Tehran must either halt its enrichment of uranium in return for economic benefits or face international isolation.
With its continued defiance, she said, the UN Security Council has adopted three sanctions resolutions against Iran while the United States has taken punitive measures of its own.
And Iran has paid an economic price with the "drying up" of international investment in its oil industry, economic infrastructure and export credits, the secretary of state said.
"I think this is called a successful multilateral coalition of states that have the same view" that Iran should be rewarded for its cooperation or isolated for its defiance, Rice said.
She added: "I would like to see what other options there are for the international community, given that this policy is one that I think is the best course for us."
Obama has been taking aim at Republican presidential candidate John McCain over his and President George W. Bush's policy toward Iran, including their stated refusals to engage Washington in high-level negotiations with Tehran.
"Thanks to George Bush's policy, Iran is the greatest threat to the United States and Israel and the Middle East for a generation. John McCain wants to double down on that failed policy," Obama said.
Rice refused to comment for now on Iran's offer to the United Nations to enter "serious and targeted" negotiations with world powers on a wide range of issues, including nuclear energy.
She said she needed to talk first with the other countries involved in the negotiations to encourage Iran to halt nuclear enrichment. Those countries are China, Russia, France, Britain, and Germany.
Miliband echoed her remarks.
"We don't want to get into a verbal rhetorical volleyball with these issues. They are too serious for that," Miliband said before traveling with Rice on Thursday to California to visit high-tech companies.
"We will all be looking very carefully obviously at the Iranian letter, but we will also be very clear that our own package needs to be addressed very very carefully by the Iranian regime," he said.
Miliband declined to say when and where the "refreshed" package of proposals -- which the six powers announced earlier this month in London -- would be presented to Iran.
Posted by: gorb ||
05/22/2008 03:16 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
The president has forced Britain, France and Germany to stay on-side, since after all only their successful negotiations with Iran for denuclearization will keep him from doing another American Cowboy thing; the quietly demanded bank boycott of Iranian government and private accounts has severely hobbled Iranian efforts to buy stuff or sell oil to most of the world; the Iranian armed forces have been living on their nerves for a few years, seeing American invasions overt or covert in groups of deadly airplane crashes, the murder of unpopular local clergy, and an excess of squirrels; Iranian trainers, officers, money bags, and bomb-makers keep making the international news when they arearrested or even kiled in the wilds of Shiite Iraq; and finally, Hizb'allah has incurred the anger and resentment of most of the Lebanese, after their precipitous kidnapping last summer resulted in the as-yet unrepaired destruction of the Shiite side of Lebanon, ie on the Israeli side of the Litani River, not to mention this year's unsuccessfu coup attempt.
I'd say President Bush's policy is far from unsuccessful.
#2
The success or failure of Bush's Iran policy hinges on only one issue, their successful development of nuclear weapons. I'll wait till December to reach a conclusion
#3
I will give them this: somehow they've put enuff asschewing and arm twisting on China to temporarily stem their appetite for Iranian crude. Japan probably taking delivery also. How long can they hold with oil in short supply ? Anyway, working now with Iran stockpiling oil in offshore tankers. Sure would be a shame if one of these sunk, wouldn't it ? Course the enviros would flip out, but maybe they'd forget Global Warming for a month or two.
#6
TW, as usual I find much to agree with in your post. It is easy to cast off Bush's Iran policy as a failure and in many ways, it certainly appears as a failure on the surface.
Yet below the surface, Iran is in the midst of a brewing economic crisis. This could easily domino into civil unrest of an order the powers that be Iran will find difficult to control. This could very will result in regime change on it's own.
Furthermore, Iran has gone to great lengths to stymie our efforts in Iraq and the efforts of the Iraqis themselves. This is a fact that has already come to light but few have paid much attention. It will continue to come to light as things in Iraq improve and Iraq gains the confidence to confront Iran's duplicity.
That is why I think the true measure of Bush's Iran policy has much to do with Iraq. Should we succeed in leaving a thriving democratic ally in place of Saddam's tyranny, it will surely prove to be a major strategic victory for the US vis-a-vis Iran. It's little wonder that Iran is doing everything it can, outside of invading Iraq themselves, to prevent that from happening.
When we prevail in Iraq, and the path to victory is now before us, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised that Iran starts whistling a different tune entirely.
#7
You make me blush, eltoreverde. Especially since what you wrote as a putative follow up is so much more useful than my glittering generalities -- especially the squirrels. I'm still coming to terms with the hysteria over the squirrels.
A local imam who pleaded guilty to immigration fraud charges faces sentencing in federal court. Muhammad Masood is the former spiritual leader of the Islamic Center of New England's mosque in Sharon. The arrest of Masood and another local imam in November 2006 prompted an outcry from local Muslims who accused the government of charging the men simply because they are Muslim.
Masood is a citizen of Pakistan and has lived in the United States for about 20 years. He admitted lying to immigration officials after he applied to become a permanent U.S. resident in 2002. Federal prosecutors have agreed to recommend a sentence of three years probation, with no prison time, when Masood is sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court. Masood's guilty plea could lead to his deportation.
Posted by: ryuge ||
05/22/2008 05:54 ||
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Top|| File under: Global Jihad
#1
Muhammad Masood's brother is Hafiz Saeed, the head of the granddaddy of Pakistan's terrorist orgs Lashkar-e-Taiba. Something too inconvenient for the Worcester Telegram to mention?
Posted by: ed ||
05/22/2008 10:14 Comments ||
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#2
Something too inconvenient for the Worcester Telegram to mention?
I used to get the Sunday T&G for the comics and coupons (didn't even bother reading any of the rest of it), but dropped them like a hot rock when I found out they're owned by the NYT.
A U.S. soldier who deserted to Canada will not face persecution if he returns to the United States, Canada's refugee agency ruled Wednesday.
National Guard Sgt. Corey Glass, 25, says he fled to Toronto in 2006 after serving in Iraq because he did not want to fight in a war he did not support. "What I saw in Iraq convinced me that the war is illegal and immoral. I could not in good conscience continue to take part in it," Glass said Wednesday. "I don't think it's fair that I should be punished for doing what I felt morally obligated to do."
Glass, who's still on active duty and is considered absent without leave, applied for refugee status at the Canadian border in August 2006 on the grounds of objection to military service.
But Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board denied his application for refugee status Wednesday, prompting the Canadian Border Services Agency to issue a June 12 deportation order. The agency says it evaluates each case on its own merits to determine whether the applicant faces a "well-founded fear" of persecution or cruel and unusual punishment if he returns to his home country.
"All refugee claimants have a right to due process," said Danielle Norris, a spokeswoman for Customs and Immigrations Canada. "When they have exhausted all legal avenues, we expect them to respect our laws and leave the country."
Glass, of Fairmont, Indiana, says he joined the National Guard believing that he would be deployed only if the United States faced occupation. After he returned from his first tour of duty, he said, he tried to leave the Army but was told that desertion was punishable by death. Penalties for desertion range from a demotion in rank to a maximum penalty of death, depending on the circumstances, said Maj. Nathan Banks, an Army spokesman. If we can't prosecute Pelosi or Carter for meddling with foreign affairs, I somehow doubt he'll get more than a bit of time in the brig and a DD.
"The first thing we try to do is rehabilitate and retrain the soldier to see if we can keep him," he said. "Remember, we're at war, so everybody counts. When you decide to desert, you let everybody down."
Banks said that it is up to the deserter's commanding officer to decide on an appropriate punishment if the soldier refuses to return.
Members of War Resisters Support Campaign in Canada, which is providing transitional support to Glass and at least 13 other deserters in Canada, are holding out for a political avenue of appeal through the Canadian House of Commons.
In December, the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration adopted a motion calling on the Canadian government to initiate a residency program for conscientious objectors who have left military service "related to a war not sanctioned by the United Nations." The motion has yet to receive approval from the entire House of Commons.
Norris says the agency has received about 40 applications for refugee claims from U.S. deserters since the Iraq war began in 2003. Of the claims that have been addressed in public, only five have made it to the country's Federal Court of Appeals, a venue of last resort. All five appeals were rejected, according to Norris.
The high court has yet to rule on its sixth challenge of this kind from Army combat engineer Joshua Key, who fled to Saskatchewan with his wife and four children in 2005. "This has been our home for three years now. It's a lot like the U.S., and it's as close to the U.S. as you can be," said Key, who served on the front lines in Falluja before he returned to the United States in 2002.
As close to the U.S. as you can be without any of the responsibility for the land of your birth. He pro'ly said that with a smile, too.
Key said that fleeing to Canada was a difficult but obvious choice when faced with returning to Iraq. "There was nothing but violence and innocent civilians dying in our hands for no justification," Key said. "We became the terrorists." So if we can prove that this isn't the case, will you pick up a rifle and get to work?
#1
Glass, of Fairmont, Indiana, says he joined the National Guard believing that he would be deployed only if the United States faced occupation.
so dickweed gets to determine the terms of his deployment? What part of his oath did he not listen to?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2008 8:00 Comments ||
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#2
actually, he didn't listen to much of it, did he? I could've phrased that better...
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/22/2008 8:01 Comments ||
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#3
I cannot believe that Canada will not help this poor soul like they did hundreds of others during vietnam. This gentleman exercised his morality in a conscientious objection to an illegal and immoral war. God Bless Canada and DO NOT succumb to the pressures of the U.S!
#4
I didn't know Venezuela is offering refuge for conscientious objectors against this unjust war, venezuela
which has transparent vote counting (unlike our own), highly developed democratic institutions (not tattered ruins like ours), and scrupulously lawful, beneficial leadership, that believes that education, medical care and social justice for the poor are human RIGHTS (unlike our "fuck the poor" leaders who have robbed us all blind).
I hope that the war resisters out there who need a place to go know the truth about Venezuela. It's not all that easy to know the truth, given the relentless lies and slander against Venezuela by the Bush Junta and the corporate news monopolies. And I hope that they are aware of Chavez's offer.
#5
Who says America wants him back? Perhaps threatening to send him to Gitmo will help resolve this matter.
Posted by: ed ||
05/22/2008 8:18 Comments ||
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#6
You're just the type of person Chavez is looking for, JM. Please consider moving permanently today.
Posted by: ed ||
05/22/2008 8:21 Comments ||
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#7
A. The "sarge" doesn't seem the like the brightest bulb on the tree.
B. Let these losers stay there, with the provision being, they're shot if the try to come back.
At the gut level, actual reality, desertion has nothing to do with politics, let alone a pathetic rehash of moth-eaten 60s memes. It is running out on your mates, abandonment and betrayal in a deeply personal sense. It is worse than treason because it is so personal.
Deserters are scum. Hang or shoot all of them.
#12
I'd go to venezuela, but there are unavoidable issues, for me... apart from State-enforced socialismo, rampant crime and economic meltdown, its leader is a swarthy, overweight man with porcine eyes, always looking like he's sweating profusely, and who makes all kind of weird statements like he doesn't control himself. Kinda like a latin american mussolini, but without the chin.
My standards are very low (sarkozy...), but I expect my Elites to be of at least of average quality, if not better! Thankyouverymuch.
#15
A5089, Hugo is an Indian. He, like most Central and South Americans has more Native American blood than European. In Hugo's case, maybe no European blood.
Yup, as I've said before, my impression is that he's playing an ethnonationalim chord in his marxism and populist demagoguery, IE, the "true" (indian) venezuelian "have nots", vs the supposedly european "have"; it seems to be the same with morales, too.
#17
He can stay in Canukistan for all I care. If they deport him to the US, toss him in the stockade for a few years and then boot him with a dishonorable.
#18
JM3447, unless you're kidding about Venezuela, you really should talk to some Venezuelan ex-pats. I used to work with one, and he absolutely despises Hugo and all he stands for.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
05/22/2008 12:11 Comments ||
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#19
You don't just go running off to Canada, there are procedures for this sort of thing. You can press your case and get assigned domestically, or reassigned to a unit that is not combat related, but humanitarian in nature. This guy is just a spoiled little coward that bugged out and ran to canada where he thought he'd thumb his nose at the Army. For making himself a pain in the ass I think they owe him a long vacation, Kansas is nice this time of year.
#20
Expect some more of these guys to be coming back to you soon. The Conservative minority government can turf them out and the Liberal opposition won't do anything about it for fear of overturning the government and forcing a federal election that they can't win.
#21
"I don't think it's fair that I should be punished for doing what I felt morally obligated to do"
Great big DUH to this pinhead. Moral obligations HAVE A COST! If you are not prepared to pay them then shut the hell up about morals.
Tell that "I dont think its fair" to the bus riders in Selma, tell that to the victims of the USSR who were in the Gulag, tell that to Sait Maximillian Kolbe who died in a Nazi concentration camp... the list goes on and on.
Whinging bastard. Have the courage to stand for your belief, and the courage to face the consequences like a man.
#22
He was probably hoping to hang out in Canada until President Obama can pardon him, just like Jimmeh pardoned all the Viet Nam draft dodgers and deserters.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
05/22/2008 14:03 Comments ||
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#23
Jimmeh pardoned Slick Willie?
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/22/2008 19:57 Comments ||
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GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - An Afghan detainee was dragged from his cell to his first pretrial hearing at Guantanamo on Wednesday, then refused to participate, telling the judge he felt "helpless."
Mohammed Kamin joined a growing detainee boycott of the war-crimes trials at the Guantanamo Bay Navy base in southeast Cuba. The military judge, Air Force Col. W. Thomas Cumbie, said Kamin tried to bite and spit on a guard on the way to the courtroom.
So he didn't feel completely helpless ...
In his first public appearance since arriving at Guantanamo in 2004, Kamin wore a heavy beard and the orange prison uniform reserved for noncompliant prisoners, his ankles shackled above his sneakers.
Kamin is accused of placing missiles near U.S.-occupied areas in Afghanistan.
I'm trying to figure out how he was taken alive. Must be our good nature ...
He allegedly trained as an al-Qaida operative in 2003 and spied on American military bases before he was captured later that year. He denied having any connection with al-Qaida or the Taliban and said the charges against him are false. "The trials are yours, the courts are yours. How can I trust you? I don't expect anything good from you," Kamin said through a Pashto translator. "I am helpless. You have the force."
"If'n I wuz back home I'd have the force!"
As the judge asked whether he understood his rights, Kamin said he put his trust only in Allah. "I wait for his decision, that is enough," he said.
He said we should hang you.
Kamin became the sixth detainee to announce a boycott of the war-crimes trials. Only one inmate, Canadian Omar Khadr, is fully cooperating with his defense team. If convicted, Kamin faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
This article starring:
Col. W. Thomas Cumbie
MOHAMED KAMIN
al-Qaeda in Yemen
OMAR KHADR
al-Qaeda in Yemen
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/22/2008 00:00 ||
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[3 views]
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#1
You can be moved around the easy way - or the hard way.
Flashback to the Drill Sergeant/Blackhat "You drop and give me push-ups until I get tired".
He probably can't bite as effectively if you kick his teeth in. Then drag him by the ankles, face down. That should reduce his gumming radius.
The United States asked Pakistan to arrest and bring to justice a Taliban militant commander Islamabad was negotiating with to underline its commitment to the "war on terror."
The commander, Baitullah Mehsud, who has been accused by the CIA of masterminding the assassination in December of ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, has been negotiating with the new Pakistan coalition government.
The government, led by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, has pledged to completely overhaul Islamabad's counter terrorism pursuit after defeating US-backed President Pervez Musharraf's political allies in February elections.
US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte told a congressional hearing Tuesday that Washington was concerned over the negotiations with the Taliban, whom US and NATO troops are fighting in neighboring Afghanistan.
He said Washington had repeatedly cautioned Islamabad about the talks despite a pledge from Gilani's government not to give "free space" to the extremist group using remote tribal areas as safe haven to attack Afghanistan.
Asked by a lawmaker how Washington would gauge any counter terrorism success notched by Pakistan, Negroponte said "one of the metrics" was a lessening of cross border attacks into Afghanistan.
"Another would be if you saw the government operating effectively against some of these militant extremists, like for example bringing Baitullah Mehsud, the head of this extremist group in South Waziristan, capturing him and bringing him to justice, which is what should happen to him," Negroponte said.
The United States, he said, was concerned there were "elements" in the Pakistan government pushing for a negotiated settlement with the Taliban, ousted from power in Afghanistan by US-led forces after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
"We hope that they proceed cautiously and not accept an outcome that will give extremist elements the ability to use the FATA (Federally Administered Tribal Areas) area with impunity to carry out attacks on Pakistan, on Afghanistan or the United States or the rest of the world," he said.
"There is a lot at stake here and we have made that point repeatedly," Negroponte said.
Citing a previously failed deal with militants in the FATA region, he said: "We have some skepticism about their ability to enforce any such arrangement."
Negroponte's concerns came despite an assurance by Pakistan Prime Minister Gilani, after talks with US President George W. Bush in Egypt at the weekend, that his government would not negotiate with militants unless they laid down their arms.
The Bush administration has warned that Al-Qaeda was rebuilding itself in Pakistan's FATA and North West Frontier Province, both on the border with Afghanistan.
Negroponte, a former US intelligence czar, also said that tripartite border coordination arrangements had been established to closely coordinate counterrorism operations among the United States, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
This three-way border coordination nexus "can focus exclusively on these common border issues between Afghanistan and Pakistan," he said.
He said there was also an effort underway under the auspices of the US National Security Council "to look at the border region in its entirety" as part of the counter terrorism drive. "The aim of course is to try and find ways to deal most effectively and support our friends in dealing as effectively as possible with this terrorist threat," he told reporters, without elaborating.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
The United States asked Pakistan to arrest and bring to justice a Taliban militant commander Islamabad was negotiating with to underline its commitment to the "war on terror."
The army will remain in the restive Tribal Areas and settled areas of the NWFP but will change its positions to facilitate the local population, Information Minister Sherry Rehman said on Wednesday. There will be no reduction of army in the restive areas. The government is committed to maintaining peace. The troops will be re-deployed to new positions but will remain within a 12-hour operation range, she told reporters after a federal cabinet meeting.
Compensation: The people whose houses were damaged during the military operation will be compensated, she said.
She said the government was not talking to terrorists and militants and only negotiating with people who laid down arms. There were no exchanges or bargains over the release of Ambassador Tariq Azizuddin, she said.
The Information minister said the draft of the PPPs constitutional reforms package was still with the Law Ministry and the cabinet would discuss it after it has been presented to it. People have a right to peaceful protest but it is the governments duty to maintain law and order, she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2008 00:00 ||
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Authorities on Wednesday allowed nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan to make a rare trip from his home. Reached by telephone, Khan confirmed television reports that he visited the Academy of Sciences to offer condolences over the death of its secretary general Iftikhar Malik, a friend and former colleague. I requested and they were kind enough to allow because it was a sad occasion, Khan told the Associated Press by telephone. So I just condoled for the death of my old colleague and had a cup of tea with (another former academy official) Dr Shami and came back.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Here are wishes to Abdul so he can visit his good friend Iftikhar "in person" real soon.
United Nations // Arab-American advocates expect a UN investigation of racism in the United States to shine a spotlight on racial profiling and other policies that discriminate against people of Middle Eastern origin.
"Islamophobia" will be "high on the agenda" of the UN's visiting human rights investigator, said Kareem Shora, national executive director of the American-Arab Anti Discrimination Committee (ADC).
Doudou Diene, a UN special envoy, began a three-week investigation on Monday. He will assess "racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance" in the United States during meetings with officials, lawmakers and campaigners.
Posted by: 3dc ||
05/22/2008 00:21 ||
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#1
We'll get on that right after your report on Anti-American bias in the UN.
#3
So the UN is scheduled to unveil a report on racial discrimination smack-dab in the middle of an election cycle when a Black man is running for POTUS. Gosh what are the odds?
#6
Doudou is from Senegal (94% muslim). When he comes out in favor of churches in muslim dominated countries and bibles in every bookstore, then I might begin to take him seriously. Until then, he is a upstanding member of the Jihad By Other Means club.
Posted by: ed ||
05/22/2008 9:41 Comments ||
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#7
Once a subverted vehicle for soviets, now a vehicle for arab and muslim lawfare.
Simply put, the UN, which originally a way to freeze the WWII "allied" coallition to enforce western supremacy and values has been turned first by the commies and the "non-aligned" and now by the reinforcing alliances of the russians, chineses, muslims, and all West-haters (including tranzis), into a warmachine against those same values; the revealing event was durban in 2001, you just can't avoid realizing that fact. And, don't forget, YOU are paying all that!
Reports of an increase in terrorist violence around the world have been distorted by the high number of civilian casualties in Iraq, and omitting those deaths reveals a decline in terrorism, a research group argued in a new report Wednesday. Civilian casualties caused by . . . terrorists?
The Human Security Brief 2007 said that without the figures from Iraq, fatalities from terrorism have declined by some 40 percent since 2001.
Disputing claims that terrorist activity is on the rise, project director Andrew Mack said that "when we look a little bit more closely at this data, the incidence of terrorism is declining."
The study by the Human Security Report Project, a Canada-based research group, analyzed and compared data from three major U.S. government-funded terrorism research institutions.
It carried data showing that global terrorism fatalities between 1998 and 2006 peaked in 2001 with the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, declined until the 2003 American-led invasion of Iraq, and then rose steadily over the next three years. OK, so far everyone is able to follow . . .
Using the same data to chart casualties while omitting Iraq, the study shows a sharp decline after the peak in 2001 and then holding relatively steady. Whoops, just lost the liberals.
"Absent Iraq, there has been no major increase in fatalities from terrorism since 2001," the study says. Despite all the dead/captured "highly trained" terrorists that have been forged in the Iraqi training theater?
Mack argued that the Iraq fatalities should fall into the category of "war crimes" or "crimes against humanity," because they have occurred during wartime. If they are pinning them on the terrorists, that's fine with me. Too bad they don't have an address to deliver the summons to.
The U.S. institutions included in the study are all government-funded: the National Counterterrorism Center, the Oklahoma City-based Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, and the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland.
Mack, who served as director of strategic planning under former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, argued that the institutions are inconsistent in their definition of terrorism. According to the study, more deaths are counted in Iraq, Afghanistan and Colombia, where U.S. interests are at risk, than in sub-Saharan Africa. Give it time.
James Ellis III, research and program director of MIPT, said his organization uses a definition of terrorism that existed long before the U.S. drew up a list of terrorist organizations. Ellis acknowledged, however, that there may be some influence from U.S. experts and media reports that label certain acts or organizations as terrorism-related. Like beheadings, executing civilians, etc?
Ellis said each group, including Mack's researchers, uses different methodologies and definitions that are highly nuanced. MIPT includes incidents in Israel and the Palestinian territories, but did not include the Israel-Hezbollah war of 2006, he said. It counts the violence in Darfur under the category of genocide, where events of the Holocaust would fall as well if they were included in the database, he said.
"We all use different methodologies," said Ellis. "We try to screen out general acts of violence, but it's not always clear ... and there's no question that the conflict in Iraq has evolved in some ways to a maybe unprecedented use of terrorism." That hard to deny, eh?
Gary LaFree, director of START, agreed that taking Iraq figures out of the data paints a different picture of global terrorism as a whole. But he maintained that the figures are relevant to the database and should not be omitted. As soon as certain parties get over their denial, they'll know how to classify them.
"I don't think anyone can continue to deny would dispute that there are important terrorist groups operating in Iraq," said LaFree.
So maybe Iraq is a great magnet for terrorists worldwide after all, eh? Here or there, baby. I'd rather it be dealt with where it started.
Witness tells of brother's execution in Iraq's Aziz trial
BAGHDAD - An Iraqi trader told a Baghdad court how his businessman brother was executed in 1992 when former deputy premier Tareq Aziz was in Saddam Hussein's regime, as witness testimony started on Wednesday. Aziz, 72, is on trial along with seven other defendants over the execution in 1992 of 42 Baghdad merchants accused of racketeering while Iraq was under UN sanctions. They could be sentenced to death if convicted.
Jasseb Saber Dhamen said he was spared because he was an amputee, but his brother Karim was rounded up from Jamila market in Baghdad's Sadr City neighbourhood and executed in July 1992. "I pleaded and they released me because I am disabled, but the next day I was told that my brother had been executed," Dhamen told the court when the trial resumed in Baghdad's highly-fortified Green Zone.
Aziz, a former foreign minister and deputy prime minister who surrendered to US forces in April 2003 shortly after the invasion, charges that people who had tried to assassinate him in the past were out to finish the job.
Wednesday's session began with Aziz protesting his Iraqi lawyer was unable to show up because the authorities were trying to arrest him. He already remains without the lawyers he had asked for when the trial opened in April.
In a hearing on Tuesday, Aziz said the trial before the Iraqi High Tribunal was a vendetta against him. "I know it is a plot of personal revenge because the people who are governing Iraq now tried to kill me on the first of April 1980 in front of hundreds of people, but they did not succeed," he told the court. "Now they are saying, "Let us do what we have failed to do in 1980'."
Aziz, the only Christian in Saddam's inner circle, said he was "proud" to have been a member of the now disbanded Baath party but that he could not be held responsible for the charges against him.
Prosecutor Adnan Ali outlined the charges against Aziz and the other defendants, including Ali Hassan al-Majid -- otherwise known as Chemical Ali who has already been sentenced to death for genocide in another case. Majid and former interior minister Watban al-Hassan were among the eight defendants in court.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/22/2008 00:00 ||
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FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq After nearly three months of reconstruction, Sayafiyah residents celebrated the simultaneous openings of the Sayafiyah Governance Center, Veterinary Clinic and Health Clinic May 20.
Like the buildings, the community itself had been in dire straits. Once a safe haven for al-Qaeda in Iraq, the community was held in bondage out of fear, said Lt. Col. R.J. Lillibridge, 1-187th Inf. Regt. commander.
The tide turned {change} for the better with the arrival of the 5th Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division in January. With the support of this unit, the beginnings of a Sons of Iraq program took shape.
When the 1-187th Inf. Regt. first arrived, Capt. Johnson said his unit began to strengthen the recently-risen SoI program and assess the areas needs. Those needs, in addition to the health and vet clinic, included restoring two water pump stations, two water treatment plants and two schools, he said.
But most importantly was the need to establish a government structure in the area. Achieving this required the creation of a city council and linking them with higher government organizations, he said.
Currently, Sayafiyah has an 11-member city council, with the council head reporting to the Rasheed Nahia council. From there, concerns are sent to the Mahmudiyah Qada and finally to the central government, Lillibridge said.
The work has begun to pay off, and the yield is shown by recent Government of Iraq involvement. The GoI rural service committee chairman, Mr. Mashadanni, has visited the area, as well as members of the Ministry of Education, Lillibridge said. Besides instilling confidence in the people about their government, these commitments pave the way for considerable relief to American taxpayer involvement. Originally, projects such as the building of the health clinic, vet clinic and governance center were funded by Commanders Emergency Relief Program funds, Lillibridge said. More than $3 million was invested into the area.
Now that Sayafiyah has a voice in the GoI, Iraqi money is starting to make its way into the rural agriculture-based society. The Sayafiyah Council has already requested funds to restore seven additional area schools.
With the GoI finally making an investment into the area, it now works to protect that investment. Because none of the days events or other improvements could have happened without security established, GoI officials are sending troops into the area to help maintain security goals and keep al-Qaeda out.
Suleimaniya, May 20, (VOI) - The Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Tuesday expected Iraqi forces would take control of security by the end of this year.
Speaking in press briefing at Suleimaniya airport before flying to Baghdad, Talabani said Iraqi forces have been progressing and enhancing their combat capabilities to take control of security of all Iraqi territories.
Next year will witness a remarkable improvement in security across the country, he added. When asked about the proposed cabinet of Kurdistans regional government, he said we must have patience, noting it would be formed soon.
President Talabani held talks with Kurdistans regional President Massoud Barazani on the new cabinet for the Kurdish region. Kurdistan enjoys semi-autonomus rule and has had a regional government running the region since 1991.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/22/2008 00:00 ||
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Residents of Basra have begun telling stories of militia massacres
Mom says one son was killed for drinking alcohol, two others slain for their car
Authorities: Man admits to killed 15 girls, including one 9 year old
Dad in park says, "It's the first time that we have dared to come here in two years"
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
British troops have returned to the city, adopting the U.S. approach of embedding with Iraqi units as advisers. The Iraqi prime minister also has flooded the city with additional troops, bringing in soldiers from western Iraq along with their American advisers.
Why did this take so long? Remember the Brit generals ragging on the US approach earlier on? I fear they've become EUro-ized
#5
Besides which, the Brits have a situation at home that defies imagination. The quaint old Briton loosely surrounding pockets of third world milieu amid modern urban sprawl.
#6
ed: It's not their war. The Brit's are doing a lot more than any of our other allies.
The US lost 100,000 men in WWI in a war that wasn't technically our war. In WWII, we also lost 350,000 men fighting the Germans and Italians in a war that wasn't really our war either. Note that in neither instance were we attacked first by our adversaries in Europe. The Brits clearly think it's a big deal to be helping us out in Iraq, but their losses have been nugatory. I think there's this perception that we are obligated to fight their wars, but that they're not obligated to fight our wars.
#7
Welcome to the real world ZF. That's why over the last 6 1/2 years I've come to advocate bringing the troops home and raising tariffs. Maybe we will return when needed and maybe we won't. Much depends on their attitude and willingness to share the burden.
Posted by: ed ||
05/22/2008 12:34 Comments ||
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#8
embedding with Iraqi units as advisers
Some Iraqi units are willing to embed with the Brits to advise them?
States 'Why Shouldn't We Claim that Andalusia is Our Homeland?'
The following are excerpts from a speech from Damascus, Syria, by Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command Secretary-General Ahmad Jibril, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on May 9, 2008.
"Arabs And Muslims Lived For 700 Years in Andalusia - Why Shouldn't We Claim [It's] Our Homeland?"
Ahmad Jibril: "Why did they bring the [Jews] here? Can you believe they talk about historical myths, from 3,000 years ago or more, in which God promised to give Abraham the land from the Nile to the Euphrates? Just imagine, the Master of the Universe, who is absolute justice, brings these people and says to them: 'You own this land and everything on it.' Then they say that in the days of Jacob, they were given Palestine, the Promised Land.
"One should know, however, that history and archeology have yet to prove that a Jewish state was ever established on the land of Palestine, or that such a state survived and gave rise to civilizations, and so on... It is said that gangs controlled Jerusalem, Hebron, and Nablus, and that later, they were uprooted, just like any other gang. They did not give rise to a civilization. The Arabs and Muslims lived for 700 years in Andalusia. Why shouldn't we claim that Andalusia is our homeland?"[...]
"This [Palestinian] People, Which Has Made All These Sacrifices... Isn't It A Shame That It Has Such A Leadership?"
"I ask you: This [Palestinian] people, which has made all these sacrifices... The [Palestinian] mother is unparalleled throughout history. She grabs her son and says to him: Off you go, on a martyrdom operation. When the second son comes, she says: Off you go, too, and then the third son, and the fourth. A [Palestinian] girl, in the prime of life, thinking of getting married, dons an explosive belt and plunges into the Israelis. This people, from the children to the elderly... I ask you, isn't it a shame that it has such a leadership? These people are crooks, robbers, and thieves.
[...]
"Is it conceivable that the head of the negotiating team is Qure'i [Abu 'Allah], whom, by Allah, I have never seen on any battlefront? How come he is the one negotiating with the Israelis, while he and his sons are building the wall and the settlements in the West Bank? How can we trust these people to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinian people?"
Attorneys for Gisha, the Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, apparently failed to convince the High Court of Justice on Wednesday that the state was responsible for violating its promise to supply minimum levels of gasoline, diesel fuel and industrial diesel fuel to the Gaza Strip.
The court will hand down its decision in the coming days, but during the hearing, an obviously impatient Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch summed up her view of the petitioners' arguments by saying, "You are asking to assure a reservoir of fuel for Hamas so that they can conduct a war against Israel. The additional fuel that you are asking to be supplied to the Gaza Strip will not be for the benefit of the civilian population."
At another point, when attorney Sari Bashi, director-general of Gisha, maintained that international human rights organizations portrayed a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, Beinisch replied, "That is a distorted picture. They don't realize it's distorted because they don't know who it is that is preventing the fuel supplies."
Gisha and nine other Israeli and Palestinian nongovernmental organizations petitioned the High Court on May 13, saying that since April 9, the state was "acting illegally by preventing the orderly supply of all types of fuel to the Gaza Strip."
The same groups had originally petitioned the High Court on October 28, 2007, when the cabinet imposed fuel and electricity supply cuts after declaring that Gaza was a "hostile entity."
The court rejected the 2007 petition against the fuel supply cuts after the state promised it would supply 800,000 liters of diesel, 74,500 liters of gasoline and 2.2 million liters of industrial diesel per week. It maintained that this was more enough to guarantee the minimum humanitarian level in Gaza.
In the new petition, Gisha and the other groups charged that over the past month, the state had failed to maintain these levels and that the humanitarian situation in Gaza had deteriorated. According to its figures, in the five weeks starting April 4, the state allowed only 60 percent of the industrial diesel level it had promised the court. As for gasoline and solar, it had allegedly prevented any supplies from reaching Gaza for almost one month, between April 9 and May 5.
Bashi argued that in the first petition, the court had accepted the cuts on condition that the state maintained the minimal levels and that there would be no humanitarian harm to the civilian population of Gaza.
The state charged that Hamas was responsible for the shortages to the civilian population of all three types of fuels. It told the court that the Palestinians had stopped pumping diesel and gasoline from late March until April 28 because of a strike of the Gaza Fuel Association. When the strike began, the fuel depots on the Palestinian side contained 188,000 liters of gasoline and 82,000 liters of diesel, and there was no room for any more.
When the Palestinians began pumping again, Hamas took 44,000 liters of diesel and 140,000 liters of gasoline for its own purposes.
Regarding the supply of industrial diesel, which is used by the Strip's sole power station to produce electricity for Gaza City, the state provided a detailed list of the amount of fuel supplied each day between April 6 and May 15.
The Nahal Oz fuel terminal is open five days a week and closed on Fridays and Saturdays.
During the 30 work days between April 6 and May 15, the terminal was closed all or part of the day on 18 occasions including two holidays (Pessah and Independence Day.) The rest of the closures had to do, directly or indirectly, with attacks from Gaza or security alarms.
Col. Nir Press, head of the Coordination and Liaison Administration for the Gaza Strip, told the court that "security policy has not changed [since the beginning of April.] We review the situation every week. One year after the Hamas takeover in Gaza there is no humanitarian crisis."
He said that the international humanitarian organizations that claimed there was were being taken in by the Hamas. "It is the Hamas that is harming Palestinian civilian population, certainly not us. The Hamas is shooting at the fuel depots at Nahal Oz and Kerem Shalom. It is also not lacking fuel for its own vehicles."
Press added that the crisis in late April, when UNWRA announced it was halting its food supply to 650,000 Gazans, was caused by a labor strike on the Gaza side of the border. After special efforts, it was agreed that 200,000 liters of diesel would be transferred across the border for the sole use of UNWRA. According to Press, the relief organization received only 55,000 liters of the supply. Hamas seized the rest.
Press also said that even after the Gaza Fuel Association strike ended on April 28, the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah refused to order gasoline and diesel fuel between April 30 and May 5 and between May 12 and May 15. This, explained Press, was because Hamas had blocked the transfer 30,000 liters of diesel for an international water purification project in southern Gaza. The fuel had been available since April 14, when Israel agreed to supply that amount over and above the weekly quota. Press said that while human rights groups had charged that Gaza was pumping sewage into the Mediterranean because of the fuel crisis, the fact is that it had been doing so all along. The water purification project is aimed at stopping the dumping.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2008 00:00 ||
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"No one will defend us apart from ourselves," opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu said Wednesday. "History won't give the Jewish people a second chance," Netanyahu said at the opening of the World Congress of Russian Speaking Jews.
That multilateral thing does't work real realiably, does it?
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Pragmatic ISRAEL = IDF must be crapping in their parts over Hizbollah [read, IRAN] winning full veto power over any Lebanese Govt. decisions. Israel may no longer be able to conduct any sort of mil ops = war agz Lebanese Terror Groups of Syria [read, NUCLEAR SYRIA?] WIDOUT CONSIDERING A MIL RESPONSE FROM IRAN. And, PRO-IRAN/ISLAMISM MILITANTS have begun acting up in JORDAN.
ASYMMETRIC ISRAELI-IRAN CONFLICT > Iran may intend and decide to firstly use any new strategic weaposn agz the IDF ala IRAN-IRAQ WAR "WAR OF THE MISSLES/SCUDS", in order to give any anti-Israeli GROUND OPPOSING FORCES A BETTER CHANCE OF SURVIVAl-VICTORY. * NET > VARI MIL ANALYSTS - Large IsLamist Iran doesn't need a MASSIVE FIRST STRIKE TO DESTROY TINY ISRAEL.
ALso, TOPIX/DRUDGE/OTHER > IRAN NUKES SPARKS MIDDLE EAST NUCLEAR, ARMS RACE [13 ME Nations].
Whether 1:12 or 1:13, etc. Israel will be outnumbered.
NETANYAHU IS RIGHT TO WORRY, and is why Israel had expressed a desire to JOIN NATO + US GMD-TMD.
(Xinhua) -- Israeli officials on Wednesday dismissed a statement by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem that Israel has promised to withdraw from the Golan Heights to the borders drawn before the 1967 Six Day War, local daily the Jerusalem Post reported.
Shortly after Israel, Syria and Turkey confirmed the existence of Ankara-mediated peace talks, Moallem said Damascus has received Israel's commitment for a withdrawal from the highland to the June 4, 1967 line.
However, Israeli officials in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office denied the claim, according to the report, saying "as Olmert has said in the past, Syria knows what Israel demands of it and Israel knows what Syria expects it to do."
Meanwhile, another Israeli daily Ha'aretz quoted an official as saying that Olmert has given Syria a "formula" for the Golan Heights which the Syrian side wanted, but the details remain secret.
The Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981, plays a key role in the peace process between the two neighbors, which broke off in 2000 when Israel refused Syria's request for a full withdrawal.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2008 00:00 ||
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Hundreds of business and political leaders are attending a conference aimed at boosting the stagnant economy in the occupied West Bank through private investment.
And where would your money be safer than in Ramallah?
Harare.
The first ever Palestine Investment Conference, which started on Wednesday in Bethlehem, is aimed at encouraging investor interest by showcasing business opportunities and projects.
Robert Kimmitt, the deputy US treasury secretary, is leading a US delegation to the three-day event. Kimmitt said that the US administration hopes the conference will bolster a push to establish a Palestinian state. About 1,200 businesspeople, including 500 Arab and foreign participants, are expected to attend the conference. Amongst those attending are Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, and Tony Blair, the current envoy of the Middle East diplomatic Quartet, which is monitoring the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
low wage area, close proximity and access to the thriving Israeli economy. It actually makes some sense.
Hat tip Belmont.
Israel Radio's Paris correspondent Gil Michaeli has just reported that the French Court of Appeals has overturned the libel judgment against Phillipe Karsenty and has determined that Karsenty did not libel France 2 correspondent Charles Enderlin when he reported that the 'death' of 12-year old Mohamed Al-Dura at Netzarim in the Gaza Strip in September 2000 may have been staged, and that it was unlikely that the death was caused by IDF soldiers.
Awwwww, no, not more Fatwa Confusion! I thought they were gonna do something about this?
Leading Sunni cleric Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, who heads the Union of Muslim Scholars, has issued a fatwa permitting the building of churches in Islamic countries for Christian citizens and residents, provided that there is a real need for it and that the authorities agree. He also permitted Muslims to participate in the construction. Now see, there's a good union hack guy. They take care of each other.
But...uh-oh...
However, a Saudi Wahhabi cleric close to the royal family, Abdul Rahman Al-Barak, ruled that the Christians and Jews of our time are infidels and should be treated as such. NO CHURCH FOR YOU!
#1
Given that the only choices to be given to infidels are conversion, dhimmitude, or death, the Saudi princes' pet cleric's ruling is likely a bit more revealing than they intended.
Iraq dramatically increased the official size of its oil reserves yesterday after new data suggested that they could exceed Saudi Arabias and be the largest in the world.
The Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister told The Times that new exploration showed that his country has the worlds largest proven oil reserves, with as much as 350 billion barrels. The figure is triple the countrys present proven reserves and exceeds that of Saudi Arabias estimated 264 billion barrels of oil. Barham Salih said that the new estimate had been based on recent geological surveys and seismic data compiled by reputable, international oil companies . . . This is a serious figure from credible sources.
The Iraqi Government has yet to approve a national oil law that would allow foreign companies to invest. Mr Salih said that the delay was damaging Iraqs ability to profit from oil output, robbing the country of potentially huge revenues. With oil selling for more than $125 dollars a barrel and demand rising, Mr Salih is frustrated that Iraq still struggles over the establishment of a regulatory framework. There is a real debate in the Government and among political leaders about the type of oil management structures we should have. I am for liberalising this sector and allowing the private sector to come in to develop these vast resources.
BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell and Total have been queuing for rights to exploit Iraqi reserves. Mr Salih confirmed that Iraq was negotiating the outlines of two-year deals with some of the companies. He was optimistic that a draft law could be approved in the near future.
We need to recognise after so many decades of mismanagement of the oil industry that we need to call a spade a spade, he told a group of delegates at the World Economic Forum in Sharm el-Sheikh. We can regulate it, but we need private investment to develop Iraqs production capacities. He said that Iraq was pumping 2.5 million barrels of oil a day at present, earning about $70 billion (£35.9 billion) in revenue this year.
The price of oil bounced back to record highs yesterday when Opec refused to increase supplies following Saudi Arabia's promise to the US that it would provide an extra 300,000 barrels a day. In New York, the price of light, sweet crude for June delivery rose from $125.92 to US$126.35. In London, Brent crude for July delivery was up 82 cents at $125.81 per barrel
#1
"The Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister told The Times that new exploration showed that his country has the worlds largest proven oil reserves, with as much as 350 billion barrels."
CHINA will be eyeing this. Hope Iraq realizes it has better friends in the West . . .
#2
...but we need private investment to develop Iraqs production capacities.
Ya hear that congress? That is opportunity knocking. So lay off the oil companies, stop trying to do "windfall" taxes, tell them to head to Iraq and shut the fuck up.
#6
And that should put to rest the notion that the war was for oil. We have given what is possibly the world's largest oil reserve back to the citizens of the country. It is their oil, we could have "taken" it, but we gave it to them.
#8
Even better, we allowed the Iraqis protection and the opportunity to obtain this new data. If it wasn't known before yesterday, President Bush certainly didn't know when he ordered the invasion in 2003.
#10
You forget, tw, that although he is severely retarded, Bushitler is an evil genius who knows all there is to know about oil. He can see underground, into the future, whatever it takes.
/pseudo-lefty rant
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
05/22/2008 12:59 Comments ||
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#11
Either way they should be angle drilling to pump up Persian Petrol. (c;
#12
If they start right now, the Iraqi government could be pumping new oil in months, at the height of the oil speculation bubble, and making huge amounts of money to rebuild with. They should have started three years ago.
#13
I am not a geologist, but looking at oil patch maps I can see a clear path of deep oil pockets, extending from the Saudi side and passing through a small part of Iran and right through Kurdish Iraq. The deepest single well is in Saudi Arabia. UAE supplies - off the patch map - are expected to run out by 2017 (hence all the investment in economic diversity). However, most of the deep pocket land area is in Iraq. And last I heard, only 15% of Iraq has been explored. Note: the largest US military airport in the world is located 50 miles north of Baghdad. There is no doubt that oil considerations determined its location. Voting for McCain will keep it there. And there is enough firepower on that base to make Iran look like the Moon.
#14
To me this is a no brainer and is going to be the engine that drives Iraq to prominence. It also is what is going to put every able-bodied male to work doing productive stuff instead of killing or planting bombs. Cripes, think about the work force needed to clear the Shatt Al-Arab waterway of derelict ships (then use the cut up steel in new buildings). The Iraqi government is going to be swimming in money pretty soon. They don't seem to be the sort to outsource the hard work (like the weenie Saudis and Kuwaitis). I see a very positive future ahead, so long as the holy men stay on the sidelines and take their cut quietly.
#15
At their current rate, it will take them over 350 years to pump it out. They'd better get to work, and hope they don't discover any more and get even further behind.
#16
We know there's progress when they announce the pipeline across Jordan to the expanded terminal off Haifa. That's just the announcement, followed shortly by negotiations with Syria and Lebanese factions to build a terminal somewhere off Levantine shores.
Let's hope the RFPs are out forcing the Syrians to decide where there cut lies - with the shiite drillers and shippers, or the shiite bombers and farsis.
Both Israel and Syria confirmed on Wednesday they are holding indirect peace talks mediated by Turkish officials. In nearly simultaneous statements officials in Jerusalem and Damascus said the two governments are talking with open minds and in good faith, with the aim of reaching a comprehensive peace agreement. Both governments thanked Turkey for its mediation efforts but neither government would discuss details of the talks.
The discussions are the first high-level talks to take place since U.S. mediated negotiations between Israel and Syria broke down in 2000 over the issue of how far Israel would withdraw from the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. The talks are also taking place as Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is facing a corruption investigation over alleged misuse of campaign funds.
Retired Israeli General Shlomo Gazit of Tel Aviv University says getting an agreement with the Syrians might not be that difficult, but getting the Israeli public to accept it will not be easy. "Both sides know what the problems are what the positions are and all that is needed is a decision," said Gazit. "Unfortunately, with the present political weakness of Mr. Olmert on the Israeli side I do not see him coming back to the Israeli public with an agreement and saying this is my blueprint and I want your support."
Senior officials from both sides including Prime Minister Olmert's Chief of Staff and senior diplomatic advisor have been meeting in Turkey since Monday. The talks are believed to have started last year after Mr. Olmert carried out a state visit to Turkey.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2008 00:00 ||
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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed in talks with a U.S. Congressional leader that a naval blockade be imposed on Iran to try to curb its nuclear program, an Israeli newspaper said on Wednesday. The Haaretz daily quoted Olmert as telling Nancy Pelosi that "the present economic sanctions have exhausted themselves" and the international community needed to take more drastic steps to stop Iran's efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.
A spokesman for Olmert declined to comment on the Israeli leader's talks on Monday with Pelosi, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, in Jerusalem. "It was a confidential discussion," said the spokesman, Mark Regev.
The prime minister's suggestions, Haaretz said, included a naval blockade of Iran using U.S. warships to limit the movement of Iranian merchant vessels. Olmert also said, according to the report, that international restrictions should be placed on Iranian aircraft, business executives and senior officials. "Iranian business people who would not be able to land anywhere in the world would pressure the regime," Haaretz quoted Olmert as saying.
On her return to Washington, Pelosi said she and the congressional delegation she led to Israel had discussed with its leaders "the threat posed by Iran".
Olmert plans to visit Washington in about two weeks for talks likely to focus on Iran and U.S.-brokered peace negotiations with the Palestinians. He has undertaken a flurry of diplomatic meetings during Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations while under criminal investigation over suspected bribe-taking, which he denies.
Regev said last week after a visit to Israel by U.S. President George W. Bush that the United States and Israel agreed on the need for "tangible action" and "additional steps" to prevent Iran from developing nuclear arms.
Olmert has stopped short of publicly threatening to use force against Iran but has said all options are on the table.
Bush has vowed Washington would stand with Israel in opposing Iran's nuclear ambitions and said in a speech in the Israeli parliament that it would be "unforgivable" if Tehran were allowed to get the bomb.
Three rounds of limited United Nations sanctions have been imposed on Iran over its nuclear program.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Enforced by the USN Caspian Flotilla, no doubt.
Posted by: Pete Stanley ||
05/22/2008 12:41 Comments ||
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#2
Now, at this late hour, they are finally starting to talk about things that may actually let them know we mean BUSINESS!
I just hope it isn't too late.
#5
Dunno, but it would certainly be fun to watch, bj-ky. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/22/2008 14:30 Comments ||
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#6
A blockade is an act of war. Better be ready to fight an all-out war if you pull a blockade. Just sayin'. Better be ready for a million exploding suicide speedboats in multiple swarms.
In other words, better not go into this thing lightly.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/22/2008 15:13 Comments ||
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#7
What kind of depression angle can you get with a CIWS (aka Phalanx). If there is much of any, then those speedboats are going to look like chew toys, pronto.
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.
Somalia pirates who hijacked a Jordanian vessel last weekend now claim that it is carrying arms to Somalia and must be opened to verify its cargo. Seafarers assistance programme coordinator, Andrew Mwangura said the new development was likely to delay the release of the 12 crew members, who include three Kenyans.
Diplomats said Wednesday that progress is being made in efforts to secure the release of two Austrians held by an Al-Qaeda linked group for the past three months. Wolfgang Ebner and Andrea Kloiber were seized in Tunisia by Al-Qaeda's north African offshoot but are now believed to be held in 
A U.S. soldier who deserted to Canada will not face persecution if he returns to the United States, Canada's refugee agency ruled Wednesday.
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) - An Afghan detainee was dragged from his cell to his first pretrial hearing at Guantanamo on Wednesday, then refused to participate, telling the judge he felt "helpless."
The army will remain in the restive Tribal Areas and settled areas of the NWFP but will change its positions to facilitate the local population, Information Minister Sherry Rehman said on Wednesday. There will be no reduction of army in the restive areas. The government is committed to maintaining peace. The troops will be re-deployed to new positions but will remain within a 12-hour operation range, she told reporters after a federal cabinet meeting. 
Witness tells of brother's execution in Iraq's Aziz trial
Hundreds of business and political leaders are attending a conference aimed at boosting the stagnant economy in the occupied West Bank through private investment.
Iraq dramatically increased the official size of its oil reserves yesterday after new data suggested that they could exceed Saudi Arabias and be the largest in the world.
