[Iran Press TV Latest] Afghan president begins a four-day visit to the US, seeking to heal the rift between the two countries following his recent blunt criticism of the role of US and its Western allies in Afghanistan.
President Hamid Karzai will hold talks with US President Barak Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates during his Washington visit, billed by a Karzai spokesman as "extremely important."
More than a dozen Afghan government ministers accompany the president in his high-profile trip, according to a statement by Karzai's presidential office.
Washington is reported to regard Afghan president's visit as an important opportunity to show off that the two countries remain in good terms, after relations suffered a major setback following Mr. Karzai's unusually candid remarks last month blaming Washington and its Western partners for engaging in election fraud in the disputed national poll that eventually led to his victory over Karzai's Western-backed rival, Abdullah Abdullah.
"This visit is an opportunity to discuss issues related to reintegration and reconciliation with President Karzai and his team so that we have an understanding of what our shared objectives are in this area, and what an Afghan-led process would look like moving forward," said White House Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes, quoted by The Financial Times Sunday.
With almost nine years into the US-led offensive in Afghanistan, Washington seeks to sooth the resentment over President Karzai's remarks and to strengthen bilateral ties ahead of a major military operation in Kandahar -- a Taliban stronghold - following the redeployment of 50,000 extra troops in Afghanistan.
The war on Afghanistan, spearheaded by the US under the banner of bringing peace and security to the war-ravaged country, has left tens of thousands of civilians dead. Yet the country remains unstable amid growing militancy that reportedly stems from climbing civilian casualties inflected by the US-led forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2010 00:00 ||
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Wonder if the most intelligent POTUS ever will have him to dinner and serve shellfish with red wine?
#1
And in other news a small earthquake at General Patton's grave disrupts visitors. Listening devices confirm the General is swearing and flipping in his grave.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/10/2010 18:57 Comments ||
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Too bad Veep Biden couldn't be there to see it.
Posted by: ed ||
05/10/2010 20:02 Comments ||
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....sort of tells you which Americans and institutions the Russians still have respect for.
The South Korean military has started preparing to resume psychological warfare against North Korea if it is found that the North had a hand in the sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan on March 26. The campaign, which consisted chiefly of loudspeaker broadcasts across the demilitarized zone, was suspended in June 2004 under an agreement in inter-Korean military talks.
Defense Minister Kim Tae-young has reportedly suggested a joint anti-submarine exercise in the West Sea as a way of a show of force to U.S. Forces Korea Commander Gen. Walter Sharp.
So the Norks sink a SKor sub, and the SKors and the US respond by conducting a joint exercise. Boy, that'll show Kimmie who's boss ...
"Military authorities are considering ways of resuming psychological warfare," a high-level government source said Friday. "The Joint Chiefs of Staff is reviewing the preparation period and budget required, and deciding the intensity of psychological offensives."
Anti-submarine exercises have so far mainly been conducted in the East Sea, but the Cheonan's sinking has prompted plans to hold them in the West Sea as well to warn the North off further attacks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2010 00:00 ||
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An anti-submarine exercise would presumably involve submarines as the "red" force.
The great thing about submarines is that you can't see what they're doing.
There are calls from within the U.S. Congress to put North Korea back on a blacklist of states sponsoring terrorism after the sinking of South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan. Radio Free Asia, citing a Congress official, said members are pushing for a bill or resolution to list North Korea again.
Republican Congressmen have already discussed the matter. Another persuasive piece of evidence will be a recently foiled assassination attempt on the former secretary of the North Korean Workers' Party Hwang Jang-yop, who defected to the South in 1997.
Republican Representative Eric Cantor said if North Korea was involved in the sinking of Cheonan, then Congress should take the necessary steps.
The South Korean Embassy in Washington believes that as soon as the investigation of sinking is complete, there will be movement in Congress to put North Korea back on the list.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2010 00:00 ||
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Beijing will accept the findings of a probe into the sinking of the South Korean Navy corvette Cheonan on March 26, President Lee Myung-bak on Friday told Grand National Party leaders including Chairman Chung Mong-joon and new GNP floor leader Kim Moo-sung.
GNP spokesman Cho Hae-jin quoted Lee as saying, "Once the outcome of an objective, scientific investigation of the Cheonan sinking is known, we will consult with China as I promised during the last Seoul-Beijing summit. The Chinese government will accept the findings and assume a role."
Commenting on North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's visit to China last week, Lee said, "It seems that his visit was arranged because he'd repeatedly requested it since early this year."
"I also understand that China postponed Kim's visit for a few days because they felt there could be a problem if Chinese leaders met him before they talked to me first," Lee added. Lee met with Chinese President Hu Jintao on April 30, and Kim visited China on May 3-7.
Lee was apparently trying to put rumors to rest that Kim's visit caused diplomatic friction between Seoul and Beijing. A senior presidential official said, "China is awaiting results of the probe. It will of course assume a role once the results are out."
The Chinese and North Korean leaders apparently did not have a full discussion of the North's return to six-party nuclear talks, making it less likely that Beijing will throw its weight 100 percent behind Kim if North Korea is found to have been behind the sinking. Cheong Wa Dae believes that the findings will be out in mid-May.
Lee did not specify what "role" China is to play.
Simple: Lee kowtows, and China accepts that ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2010 00:00 ||
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TOPIX/NEWSMAX > US: WORLD LOOKING AT KOREA MOVES [US links resumption of SIX-PARTY NUC TALKS TO OUTCOME OF "CHEONAN" PROBE].
* WMF > CHINA WARNS NORTH KOREA IT CAN LONGER COUNT ON ABSOLUTE/TOTAL CHINESE SUPPORT [in all things]; + CHINA FEARS POST-CHEONAN SUDDEN CHANGES IN TWO KOREAS, MASSIVE US-ROK-JAPAN MIL STRIKE ON NORTH.
BAGHDAD The United States voiced confidence on Sunday that Iraq was headed towards a new government two months after a deadlocked election, but said no frontrunner had yet emerged to lead the war-torn country.
Electoral officials said results from the nation's March 7 vote should be certified within a week, with totals from all but one province sent for ratification. A recount in the lone exception, Baghdad, is more than half done.
The release of full results could still hit snags as the status of several successful candidates remains in doubt over their alleged ties to ousted dictator Saddam Hussein's banned Baath Party.
However, Christopher Hill, the US ambassador to Baghdad, said the pace of political progress had "quickened" in the past week and an end was in sight.
"The counting (in Baghdad) is going faster and we do expect it to be over by the end of the week," he told reporters at a briefing in the Iraqi capital, noting that certification of results before the end of May was possible. "Obviously, certification is not the beginning of the end but rather the end of the beginning."
Hill said the merger of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's State of Law bloc and the religious Iraqi National Alliance (INA) on Wednesday had created a "Shiite mega party," but noted that the choice of a new premier was unclear.
"The issue of who will be the prime minister is yet to be determined and obviously it will be a subject of great competition in the weeks ahead," he added.
Earlier on Sunday, Qassim al-Abboudi, a spokesman for the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC), told AFP that results for 17 of Iraq's provinces, all except Baghdad, had been sent to the supreme court for approval.
Abboudi added that three of the eight seats reserved for minorities would also be sent to the supreme court for ratification, with five Christian seats and seven national compensatory seats being held back.
The results were sent to the court at the request of the presidency council, made up of President Jalal Talabani and Iraq's two vice presidents. If all of those results are ratified, 245 of parliament's 325 seats will have been finalised.
Preliminary nationwide results have shown that the Iraqiya bloc of secular ex-premier Iyad Allawi won the most seats with 91, followed closely by Maliki's State of Law with 89.
The INA, a coalition led by Shiite religious groups, finished third with 70. State of Law and the INA's coalition falls four seats short of a parliamentary majority.
Authorities have, however, been carrying out a manual recount in Baghdad, Iraq's biggest electoral constituency with 68 of the 325 parliamentary seats up for grabs, since last week. IHEC chief Faraj al-Haidari, speaking on Iraqiya television, said 6,191 ballot boxes from a total of 11,000 in Baghdad had been recounted and that the job would be completed on Friday. Preliminary results showed Maliki won 26 seats in the capital to Allawi's 24, while the INA won 17.
While the battle for power has centred on Maliki and Allawi's competing blocs, Iraq's Kurdish parties on Sunday announced a pact to negotiate jointly for posts in the new Baghdad government.
"We have agreed on a full programme for a Kurdish delegation to go and negotiate in Baghdad on our participation in the formation of the new government," said Massud Barzani, president of Kurdish-ruled northern Iraq.
The Kurdish parties, mainly Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party and Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, won 59 seats in the March election.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/10/2010 00:00 ||
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Newly launched, US-brokered peace efforts hit a snag on Monday as Israel vowed settlement building would continue in east Jerusalem, infuriating the Palestinians who protested to Washington.
"It is evident we will continue to build over the next two years in Gilo, Pisgat Zeev, French Hill," Information Minister Yuli Edelstein told public radio in reference to Jewish settlements in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, however, stressed Washington had promised to halt Jewish settlement in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem, Congrats, you just discovered Obama promises have expiration dates similar to warm milk.
Posted by: ed ||
05/10/2010 14:08 ||
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Good!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/10/2010 16:03 Comments ||
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The United States recently renewed supplies to the Israeli Air Force of GBU-28 Hard Target Penetrators and GBU-39 Small Diameter Bombs, as well as Attack Munitions (LDJAM) for more accurate targeting of bombs, debkafile's military sources report. In Moscow, Israeli president Shimon Peres said to Russian president Dmitry Medvedev Sunday, May 9, that Syria has only one object in arming the Lebanese Hizballah with missiles and that is warmongering.
That same day, US defense sources, normally chary of releasing information about US arms supplies to Israel, reported that Washington had released substantial quantities of smart bombs to different types to Israel, most of them suitable for striking Hizballah fortifications in Lebanon and Hamas tunnels in the Gaza Strip.
They fall into three categories:
1. The 2,268 kilo (5,000 pound), laser-guided Bomb Unit GBU-28 (nicknamed "Deep Throat") Hard Target Penetrator which can burrow 31 meters into earth or 6.2 meters into reinforced concrete. They can penetrate the stronger Hizballah installations or be used on Iranian nuclear weapons or missile installations, if so decided.
2. The Small Diameter 113 kilo GBU for IAF F-15I fighter-bombers, to be followed by the supplies for F-16I planes, which can be used against simpler installations, like the arms-smuggling tunnels dug by Hamas between Egypt and the Gaza Strip and Hizballah's field fortifications.
They are small enough for fighter-bombers to carry in larger numbers, but they have a 5-8 meter margin of error with no more than a 50:50 chance of hitting the target.
3. However, the Laser-Guided Joint Direct Attack Munitions (LJDAM), also on the list of arms supplies to the Israeli Air Force, directs smart bombs more accurately. Developed jointly by Boeing Integrated Defense Systems and Israel's Elbit Systems, LJDAM improves the accuracy of bombs fired from a maximum distance of 28 kilometers in most weathers.
debkafile's Washington sources report that the Obama administration decided to release this data to dispel rumors of a US arms embargo against Israel, especially of items that would enable Israel to attack Iran's nuclear installations. The GBU-28 "Deep Throat" has that capability and is one of those items.
#4
Damascus and Syrian installations should be among the first wave hit - take out their ability to resupply Hezbollah
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/10/2010 8:02 Comments ||
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debkafile's Washington sources report that the Obama administration decided to release this data to dispel rumors of a US arms embargo against Israel, especially of items that would enable Israel to attack Iran's nuclear installations.
#8
They are small enough for fighter-bombers to carry in larger numbers, but they have a 5-8 meter margin of error with no more than a 50:50 chance of hitting the target.
So in other words, they'll either blow you up or they won't............
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What kind of plane does Israel have that will carry these larger bombs?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/10/2010 10:53 Comments ||
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F-15I
Posted by: ed ||
05/10/2010 11:21 Comments ||
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Interesting trivia about the GBU-28, is that it is literally just an 8 in artillery tube from a deactivated M110 howitzer, packed full of explosives, with GPS guidance.
However, more to the point, didn't W. Bush give the Israelis a whole bunch of MOABs years ago, when Iran was first an issue? I remember some back and forth, about Israel making their own version, something like that. I think Obama canceled the transfer of some of them, but again, I'm vague on the particulars.
The bottom line is that it is less the bomb, than the delivery system that matters. Israel has something like 11 C-130 aircraft, and 4 Boeing 707s that might be capable of dropping a bomb, if SAMs were not an issue in their flight path. (The rest of these type aircraft have been converted to tankers for in flight refueling.)
#12
debkafile's Washington sources report that the Obama administration decided to release this data to dispel rumors of a US arms embargo against Israel, especially of items that would enable Israel to attack Iran's nuclear installations.
Yet another politically motivated move.
They have to. It was reported around the Israeli press that Obama's administration had blocked all arms transfers and sales to Israel since he took office... although it was also reported that this or that sale was going to go through. I imagine the same big donors that are screaming about the treatment of Bibi Netanyahu are also screaming about the president creating another Holocaust by preventing Israel from defending itself.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Israel is trying to embarrass and challenge the United States by denying it has given a commitment to freeze an east Jerusalem construction project, an adviser to the Palestinian leader said on Sunday.
"The Israeli statement is an attempt to embarrass or challenge the U.S. administration," Nimr Hammad, an aide to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, told AFP.
An Israeli official on Sunday denied the Jewish state has agreed to halt a controversial east Jerusalem construction project ahead of the launch of U.S.-brokered indirect talks with the Palestinians.
Announcing the long-delayed start of indirect peace talks on Sunday, U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said Israel had agreed to freeze the Ramat Shlomo housing project for a period of two years.
Proximity talks were originally due to start in March but the Palestinians pulled out after Israel publicized plans to build the 1,600 home Ramat Shlomo project in annexed east Jerusalem.
The Palestinians only agreed to consider fresh talks after receiving U.S. assurances that the Jerusalem settlement expansion plan would be frozen.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/10/2010 00:00 ||
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Alternate headline "Israel trying to steal Obama's job!"
TERROR suspect Mas Selamat Kastari hatched plans to bomb targets here (ed: in Singapore) and in Malaysia as soon as he fled Singapore, says Malaysia's federal police chief, Tan Sri Musa Hassan.
Speaking with Berita Minggu, the Sunday edition of Malay daily Berita Harian, Tan Sri Musa added that Mas Selamat was waiting for his Indonesian allies to enter Malaysia before carrying out his plans.
However, his plans did not materialise because his allies, who were from the Indonesian city of Solo, backed out for fear of being captured. And Mas Selamat was captured by the Malaysian police soon after.
Tan Sri Musa did not reveal the group's specific targets for security reasons.
Speaking at the Royal Malaysian Police headquarters in Kuala Lumpur recently, he said: 'He (Mas Selamat) was waiting for this chance. If they had entered Malaysia, it would have been very dangerous for us.'
However, a raid by the Malaysian authorities at Mas Selamat's hiding place at a village in Johor did not uncover any tools or bombs, as his plans were at an early stage, said Tan Sri Musa.
Iran is focused on improving a growing arsenal of ballistic missiles but needs at least four more years to be able to target London and more than a decade to threaten the East Coast of the United States, a leading think-tank said yesterday.
The IISS said that Iran is also working to develop much longer-range weapons and noted that all of the country's ballistic missiles are inherently capable of carrying nuclear bombs.
In tandem with efforts to expand its nuclear capabilities, the Islamic Republic of Iran is making robust strides in developing ballistic missiles,' the IISS said in its report: Iran's Ballistic Missile Capabilities. The two programmes appear to be connected, with the aim of giving Iran the capability to deliver nuclear warheads well beyond its borders.'
Posted by: ed ||
05/10/2010 21:07 ||
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D *** NG IT, DAT LUCKY SHOPPING CART GETS ALL THE CHICKS!
* ION PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM > PAKISTAN TEST-FIRES TWO BALLISTIC MISSLES, DEMANDS NUKE RECOGNITION.
PAK had repor also begun indigens PLUTONIUM PRODUC, ostensibly for NucEnergy???
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.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Afghan president begins a four-day visit to the US, seeking to heal the rift between the two countries following his recent blunt criticism of the role of US and its Western allies in Afghanistan. 
