(AKI) - By Syed Saleem Shahzad - International efforts to strike a peace deal with the Taliban collapsed late Sunday when militant leaders rejected any attempt to engage in negotiations. The Taliban emphatically denied a British media report that suggested that its leadership was engaged in talks with the Afghan government to end the war and reiterated their determination to rid the country of all foreign troops.
The British weekly, The Observer, said on Sunday that the Taliban had been engaged in secret talks about ending the conflict in Afghanistan in a 'peace process' sponsored by Saudi Arabia and backed by Britain.
Nice going boys, it was supposed to be a secret ...
"The mainstream media is reporting a 'peace process' between the Taliban and the Kabul puppet administration which is being sponsored by Saudi Arabia and supported by Britain," the statement said.
Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta had previously announced at a media conference that there would be "good news" in a few days regarding a deal with Taliban leaders.
But the statement issued by the Taliban from Kabul in Pashto and later in English on Monday categorically denied any such negotiations. It rejected claims that that there were "unprecedented talks" involving a senior ex-Taliban member who is travelling between Kabul and the alleged bases of the Taliban senior leadership in Pakistan.
"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan rejects all these false claims by the enemy who is using this propaganda campaign," the statement said. "The aim of this propaganda is to create an atmosphere of disunity among Muslims in order to weaken the Ummah (Muslim faithful). Our struggle will be continued until the departure of all foreign troops."
The statement was signed by the pseudonym of 'Dr Talib' on behalf of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
It also said that former members of the Taliban who had surrendered or were under surveillance were not associated with their organisation.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Gee, they've been working with the Saudis for the past two years, and it sure hasn't seemed to help much. I wonder why that is:
http://www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com
At least they're going to the right place.
Posted by: Bill in Chicago ||
09/30/2008 20:35 Comments ||
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An Afghan ex-diplomat says the US supplies arms to the Taliban to jeopardize the security situation and have an excuse to stay in Afghanistan. Vahid Mujda, a former official with the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told IRIB that during the past two years there have been reports indicating that NATO-led forces have been helping the Taliban in some troubled areas.
On December 2007, Michael Semple, the deputy head of the EU mission in Afghanistan, and Mervyn Patterson, another EU official, were ordered out of the country after reports showed that they had offered aid and development incentives to tribal elders in the Taliban heartlands.
Mujda said the US invaded the country on the pretext of fighting terrorism but Washington actually wanted to create a base in the area to exercise pressure on its rivals and on the surrounding countries. He continued that as the next Afghan presidential election is due next year, there are reports that Washington has started direct talks with the Taliban to secure the event, adding that some meetings have been held in the UAE who is mediating the process.
Mujda did not dismiss the rumors that the US would give the Taliban an important role in the next Afghan administration. He said that the US has faced many problems in Afghanistan in fighting terrorism and drug trafficking. Moreover, the Bush administration has faced financial problems at home, thus it is possible that Washington is seeking another solution to the Afghan problem, namely through dialogue.
Meanwhile, both Afghan and Pakistani Taliban have repeatedly said that they would agree to initiate peace talks on the condition that the foreign forces leave Afghanistan.
The diplomat added although, Pakistan has disappointed Washington in brokering a peace deal with the insurgents, the US needs to remain friends with Islamabad for it is the only way logistic supplies could reach the coalition forces in Afghanistan. Furthermore, one way to jeopardize the security situation in Afghanistan is for the US to encourage more cross border attacks by the Taliban from Pakistan's territory, Mujda concluded.
This article starring:
Vahid Mujda
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
US supplies arms to the Taliban to jeopardize the security situation and have an excuse to stay in Afghanistan.
Yeah, cause its so nice, and you got all that oil. And the women are such babes.
#2
I wouldn't be surprised if the US is providing the Taliban with some arms. Like "special" bullets, where every 7th bullet has C4 instead of propellant, and fuses. Lots of fuses.
#3
The picture is a good analysis of the diplomats brain.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/30/2008 10:10 Comments ||
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#4
Notice the careful wording: "NATO-led forces have been helping the Taliban" & EU officials were ordered out of the country after offering incentives--this could be true, may even include a few select US tranzis with ulterior motives to keep us mired down there, and still not be the official US policy. Follow the money.
At least 52 Somalis died after smugglers abandoned them on a boat in the dangerous waters of the Gulf of Aden, the U.N. refugee agency said Sunday. Seventy-one people survived the 18-day ordeal.
The boat broke down within hours of leaving Somalia on Sept. 3, bound for Yemen and carrying more than 100 Somalis, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement. The crew abandoned the boat for another craft and never returned for the refugees, who threw bodies overboard as fellow passengers died, the UNHCR said.
The boat eventually drifted close enough to southern Yemen that three passengers tried to swim ashore. Two alerted rescuers; the third never made it. The Yemeni coast guard rescued the survivors Sept. 21, the statement said.
Hundreds of Africans die every year trying to reach Yemen, with many drowning or being killed by pirates and smugglers in the waters separating Somalia and the Arabian peninsula. Those who survive the journey register with the U.N. refugee agency and stay in refugee camps in Yemen, while others take jobs in the cities as laborers for less than a $1 a day.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
how bad could it be too try and escape too Yemen
?
A Ukrainian vessel seized by Somali pirates off Somalia last week, which was carrying tanks and other weapons, was destined for Sudan and not Kenya as announced by Nairobi, a U.S. military spokesman said on Monday. "We have a report indicating that the cargo and the shipment was headed to Sudan," Nathan Christensen, spokesman for the Bahrain-based US Fifth Fleet, said, declining to speculate on the intended recipients.
A Kenyan defense ministry spokesman denied the US navy claim that the cargo of tanks and military supplies was in fact destined for Sudan and not Kenya. "The Kenyan and Ukrainian governments have all the documents to prove that this cargo belongs to the Kenyan government and not some unknown buyers in Sudan," defense ministry spokesman Bogita Ongeri told AFP.
Sudan is rife with potential clients, including the Sudanese army, numerous rebel groups active in the restive Darfur province as well as former southern rebels from the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM).
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2008 00:00 ||
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BRITAIN'S MI6 intelligence service is investigating how a camera holding sensitive information about al-Qaeda suspects came to be lost by one of its agents, Hertfordshire Police said today.
Media reports said the Nikon digital camera was put up for sale on internet trading site eBay and sold for just £17. Its memory had names of al-Qaeda members, fingerprints and suspects' academic records as well as pictures of rocket launchers and missiles, The Sun newspaper reported.
The camera also had detailed information about an MI6 computer system, while The Sun said 46-year-old Abdul al-Hadi al-Iraqi, being held at Guantanamo Bay after being captured by the CIA in 2007, was named in material found on the memory.
"We can confirm we seized a camera after a member of the public reported it," said Hertfordshire Police after the camera was handed into Hemel Hempstead police station. "Intelligence services are investigating," the statement added.
The incident is the latest in a series of embarrassing data losses to affect the intelligence services and the Government. Yesterday, prosecutors announced that a senior public official who left top secret intelligence assessments of al Qaeda and the security forces in Iraq on a London commuter train is due to face charges under the Official Secrets Act.
Last year, a civil servant lost computer discs containing the names, addresses and bank details of 25 million people last year, while in January, the Ministry of Defence said it had lost a laptop containing personal data on 600,000 recruits.
The Home Office said in August that a contractor had lost personal details of every prisoner in England and Wales.
#1
Do they not know about VPN networks? I mean wow, we're talking about MI6 here. If the devices were properly secured, you could leave them anywhere you wanted and nobody would be able to use them.
#5
What happened is that somebody had a SD card with all this data and stuck it in the digital camera to take some photos, then it got lost with the card in it.
Early this year, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) announced the completion of an inventory of Islamic books and videos in Muslim chapel libraries in the 105 federal correctional institutions. The inventory, which runs to 399 pages, shows a marked predominance of Wahhabi and other fundamentalist Sunni literature among the Muslim holdings of federal prison chapels. The collections also contain plentiful materials from the Nation of Islam, the extreme black nationalist movement headed by Louis Farrakhan, but Shia and Sufi works are generally absent, as are texts on broader aspects of Islamic history and culture.
This finding is significant in light of two other facts: Muslim extremists' openly stated intent to spread their ideology in prisons, and the Bureau of Prisons' own past reliance on Muslim chaplains trained in Wahhabi Islam. While no major acts of terror have been traced to recruitment in U.S. prisons, the tools necessary for extremist indoctrination remain, unaccountably, in place.
Among the authors available to inmates in federal prisons, contemporary popularizers of Islamism, including jihadist radicals, are well represented. More encouraging is the discovery that the inventory includes only half a dozen copies of the infamous Wahhabi edition of the Koran, printed in English in Saudi Arabia with interlineated extremist commentaries (see "Rewriting the Koran," THE WEEKLY STANDARD, September 27, 2004).
But the inventory shows at least 280 copies of works by Abdullah Hakim Quick, a Wahhabi-oriented fundamentalist from South Africa. These include videos of Quick preaching hateful attacks on Baha'is, as well as Ahmadis, a heterodox Muslim group, and titles like Muslims Under Siege and The Importance of Da'wa in Times of Crisis. (Da'wa is Islamic missionary activity. Islamists pursue da'wa aggressively, sometimes with the explicit goal of establishing a worldwide Islamic state or caliphate.) Quick is also known for his pseudo-historical claims for an early Muslim presence in the Americas. The inventory further lists 250 items by another South African extremist, the late Ahmed Deedat, notorious as an anti-Christian preacher, with such piquant titles as Da'wa or Destruction, as well as ferocious attacks on Salman Rushdie.
Federal prison chapel libraries offer some 200 volumes by the Pakistani jihadist Abul Ala Mawdudi (1903-79) and approximately 200 copies of works by the eccentric Turkish Islamist Harun Yahya, who is known for donating books printed in numerous languages around the world, many of them expounding anti-Western conspiracy theories. It also lists 185 copies of offerings by a prominent North American fundamentalist, the Egyptian-born Jamal Badawi; 175 copies of titles by Imam Siraj Wahhaj, the preacher best known for spreading Wahhabism among black Americans; and 125 by Jamal Zarabozo, a white American Sunni radical. Zarabozo is the compiler of a retrograde 1996 collection of Islamic fatwas on the status of women.
#2
I'm sure the tin-foil hat people will have a great deal to b***h about concerning this news.
At least the US armed forces are willing to take our civil defense more seriously than our Congress is. Remember how the US Senate stopped doing business at the time of the anthrax attack? They still have no alternate places to assemble to do their business. Still no back up plan in case multiple legislators are killed or put out of commission, etc. etc. When a real crisis hits again, our surviving Congresscritters can be counted on to lie that "No one ever thought this would happen."
#3
Spousal Unit has stated low level, under the radar activity going on here in the Pac NW. includes caches of various medical and food 'stuffs.'(she works at local Navy hospital)
#4
Could be something, could be nothing, check this out:http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/20080928D
Snip:
ADDITONAL INFORMATION: Directives for Islamic terrorist attack in U.S. appear on the Internet
Although this post references a very specific date, it is never advisable to rely solely on open data, or consider a specific date as absolute. Since we published the article containing this information, however, analysts have found additional references to an event (or events) expected to occur on or about October 7, 2008. Such additional information increases the possibility that something appears to be planned around that time, or in the near term. Therefore, it is our consensus that the threat window could be anytime from the present and extend into early November. Terrorists might time an attack or attacks to take place close to our November elections, such as we saw in Madrid.
.
.
It is interesting and quite relevant that certain postings have addressed the likelihood of Arabic language forums being shut down at the time of (or perhaps as a consequence of) such an event. Members of various forums have been asking where they will meet (in terms of a forum location) after Ramadan. Obviously these posters believe something is going to happen and the forums will be taken down or infiltrated by intelligence operatives searching for information.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/30/2008 19:27 Comments ||
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#7
the forums will be taken down or infiltrated by intelligence operatives searching for information.
Will be infiltrated? Even I know the proper tense of the verb in that statement!
Barbara, you've been keeping your pantry and first aid kit stocked, and your cell phone charged, right? I keep hearing that ammunition is in short supply because of that little war we've been fighting, so you may want to consult the AutoBartender in the O Club about refilling used brass (I think that's the proper terminology.. and isn't he going to be glad I mentioned it!)
#10
Nope on the Army/Congress scenario, hellfish. But yes re: accelerated work towards having NORTHCOMM be able to coordinate with civil agencies, Red Cross etc. in case of major emergencies ranging from WMD attacks to pandemic flu etc.
No. Most seems to be coordinating with local authorities for major emergencies. For example, we've the closest medical facility in our area (the next one is 20 or so miles away), and we aren't that far from a little thing called the San Andreas fault. We also get a lot of flash flooding.
But... we're also drilling on other, more, horrific events.
Thousands of pilgrims panicked by false rumors of a bomb stampeded at a Hindu temple in western India on Tuesday, killing at least 168 people in the crush to escape.
Television footage showed dozens of bodies lying on the sidewalk, while nearby frantic people tried to revive unconscious devotees, slapping their faces and pressing on their chests. One child sat on the ground next to the body of a woman, rubbing her forehead and crying "Mother, Mother."
The disaster occurred just as the doors of the temple were being opened for worship at dawn for more than 12,000 people celebrating a key Hindu festival in the historic city of Jodhpur in Rajasthan state.
The chaos began with false rumors of a bomb, said Ramesh Vyas, a pilgrim who was standing in line.
Tensions are high because India has been hit by a spate of bomb attacks. The latest explosions Monday night in the western cities of Malegaon and Modasa killed six people and wounded 45.
Devotees had broken coconuts as religious offerings and so the temple's floors were slick with coconut milk, causing pilgrims to slip and fall as they scrambled to escape, Vyas said. Other pilgrims had crammed a narrow 1 1/4-mile path leading to the temple, leaving little room for those fleeing to escape.
The chaos was made worse by the fact there was a power outage at the time. Some pilgrims slipped on the ramp leading to the shrine, the Press Trust of India news agency quoted Director-General of state Police K. S. Bains as saying.
At least 168 people were killed in the stampede, Naresh Pal Gangwar, the district collector, told The Associated Press. Officials said 100 others were injured. ...
Posted by: ed ||
09/30/2008 17:09 ||
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#1
Interesting --- our current Sec of State is an attractive women (who can ever forget that pic of her in "These Boots are Made for Walking" moment) who has been meeting with these guys for years....
Could it be, that Sarah is already into their OODA loop?
#6
Well, Zardari looks like a typical dirty old man to me. These guys from over there see all women as objects--meat for their own moral decadence. OF COURSE they don't see her as an equal or statesman. And they never will. It's a cultural thing. No Judeo-Christian influence, so they do whatever. Their criticizers are correct. He was inappropriate. And we expected something different from Pakistan. THANK GOD he didn't actually hug her--both for her sake and for the payback of the crazies. But I still think he's a dirty old man, and he doesn't even TRY to hide it.
(AKI) - About 20,000 people have fled fighting in Pakistan's tribal areas and sought refuge in eastern Afghanistan in recent months, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Monday. "In the last two weeks alone, over 600 Pakistani families have fled into Afghanistan," Mohammed Nadir Farhad, the UN refugee agency's spokesman, told the media in Kabul. "The majority are living with their relatives and friends, but there are some 200 families who live in the open air." Think about the implications of that...
An estimated 4,000 families started arriving in eastern Afghanistan's Kunar province as fighting intensified across the border in Bajaur Agency in Pakistan's tribal areas in recent months. They include 2,120 families in Kunar's Shigal district, 748 families in Marawara district, 706 in Dangam district and smaller numbers in other districts. About 70 percent of the recent arrivals in Shigal, Marawara and Dangam are Pakistanis.
Kunar's provincial authorities are working closely with the UN and other international organisations to coordinate and monitor the humanitarian response closely. The agency believes that the majority of the displaced families will return to Pakistan as soon as the situation in the tribal areas improves.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
When your people flee to Afghanistan, that's a new low.
#3
Looks to me like the squeeze is working. The terrorists need these human shields but are losing the ability to keep them. Things must be unseasonably hot there.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/30/2008 10:26 Comments ||
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#4
Between the civvies heading out and the gunsels heading in, must make for some helluva traffic jams.
(PTI) New Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has said that he intends to "go after Taliban and other radical forces in his country" as well as "handle" powerful bodies like the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). "It is my decision that we will go after them (Taliban), we will free this country," Zardari said, asserting that this will be his first priority, "because I will have no country otherwise. I will be President of what?"
Labelling Taliban and other radical forces as a "cancer in the society", Pakistan President minced no words to say "I will suck the oxygen out of their system so there will be no Talibs."
Asked if the assassination of his wife was motivating him to confront Islamic militancy, he said, "Of course. It is my revenge. I take it every day." "I will fight them because they are the cancer to my society, not because of my wife only but because they are cancer, Yes and they did kill the mother of my children, so their way of life is what I want to kill."
Asked if he was afraid, 53-year-old Zardari, in an interview to the New York Times, said, "I'm concerned. I'm not afraid. Because I don't want to die so soon, I have a job to do." The paper said that Zardari had a tough job ahead as "if Pakistan was the most dangerous country in the world, its Presidency is one of the world's least enviable post."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Revenge, that's a motive the Pastuns can understand.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/30/2008 10:18 Comments ||
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Pakistani military reiterates it will not allow any incursions by the US-led NATO troops into its volatile tribal region near Afghan border. There has been no change in the rules of engagement with the US forces and the Pakistani military will not permit any aerial or ground incursions by foreign troops, the security officials said at a briefing on anti-militancy operations in the North West Frontier Province and adjoining tribal belt.
The security sources said also the civilian government wanted the anti-militancy operations to "continue till the end".
The military assertion coincides with President Asif Ali Zardari's comments that Pakistan will not allow US forces to violate the country's sovereignty through cross-border raids. Zardari, in an interview with CNN broadcast on Sunday, said that Pakistan's military is capable of quelling militant elements on its border with Afghanistan, adding that Pakistani troops "can do a better job than anybody else."
Pointing out that such attacks are counter-productive, Zardari said the US should share intelligence so that Pakistani forces could act against militants on the country's soil.
Pakistan has angrily protested the missile strikes in recent weeks, which have resulted in the killing of innocent civilians, including women and children.
Zardari and army comments came after Pakistani and US troops exchanged fire along the Pak-Afghan border last week during which - according to Washington's claims - two US military helicopters came under fire.
Anger in Pakistan has been rising since the US began conducting cross-border commando raids as well as stepping up the number of attacks from unmanned Predator drones in the tribal region. Pakistani leaders including the president and premier have lashed out at the United States over alleged violation of its air and ground space and killing of innocent civilians.
The political analysts believe that though there's no war going on between the US and Pakistan yet, but recent exchanges involving American and Pakistani forces are sounding like a sputtering fuse that's growing ever shorter.
Washington's unilateral strikes inside Pakistan in the recent time have triggered sovereignty debates within the corridors of the parliament in Islamabad. Pakistan has gone on to make official complaints that their backing to the US during trying times has not been reciprocated.
The media quoted a Pakistani diplomat saying, "We expected we would be abandoned once again - but we never imagined it would happen so soon."
Some experts are seeing Pak-US alliance to be under significant strain for the first time in the last six decades.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2008 00:00 ||
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Balochistan Chief Minister (CM) Nawab Aslam Raisani on Monday notified the dropping of eight cases pending against Baloch nationalist leaders Nawab Khair Baksh Marri and his son Nawabzada Harbiar Marri, Dawn News reported.
The channel said that the move was in accordance with the government's policy of reconciliation in the province. According to the channel, the CM issued an official notice stating that all cases, except one murder case, against the Baloch leaders had been dropped.
The channel said the move was a part of the Pakistan People's Party-led government's efforts at reconciliation in the province. The government has dropped eight of the nine cases registered against the Baloch leaders. The only case still being pursued is the murder case of Balochistan High Court judge Justice Nawaz.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2008 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD -- First Lt. Justin John, 6-foot-4 and built like a linebacker, plopped down on a sofa in front of Ibrahim Suleiman al-Zoubaidi, one of the leaders of the mainly Sunni armed groups that have helped the U.S. military quell violence in Iraq since last year.
Zoubaidi, a small man armed with a revolver, had one thing on his mind: This week officials of Iraq's Shiite-led government will assume authority over the groups, which have been backed by the United States.
"They will kill us," Zoubaidi declared. "One by one."
Across Baghdad, leaders of the groups speak about the transition in similarly apocalyptic terms. Some have left Baghdad, saying they fear that the Iraqi government will conduct mass arrests after the handover. Others are obtaining passports and say they will flee to Syria.
#2
It is, after all, the Washington Post, so they must be negative. Read the article, though, and there is plenty to be positive about. It's just that transitions are difficult, and trust must be earnt by both sides. During the process, the American Armed Forces is closely supervising and highly involved.
#3
This is a good reminder to me that we can argue the merits and demerits of this and other moves. First Lt. John will have to live or die with this change. I hope his prophecy is wrong.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/30/2008 10:34 Comments ||
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#4
One thing to remembr is that Arabs tend to speak in appocaliptic terms. Either the sky is falling or the things are going incredibly well.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
09/30/2008 11:27 Comments ||
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#5
Al, are you sure you are not talking about our democratic congress?
Iraqi Premier Nuri al-Maliki said Monday that the government was ready to compromise to reach a security accord with the United States, saying the country still needs US troops despite the recent drop in violence. The speech came after a deadly spate of attacks took the lives of 35 Iraqis Sunday night.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Maliki said neither he nor Iraq's Parliament will accept any pact that falls short of the country's national interests. A poorly constructed plan would provoke so much discord inside Iraq that it could threaten his government's survival, he said.
Maliki said, however, that he was firmly committed to reaching an accord that would allow US troops to remain in the country beyond next year. "We regard negotiating and reaching such an agreement as a national endeavor, a national mission, a historic one. It is a very important agreement that involves the stability and the security of the country and the existence of foreign troops. It has a historic dimension," he added.
Supporters of popular cleric Moqtada al-Sadr oppose the accord, arguing that US forces should leave Iraq as soon as possible. Neighboring Iran has also been speaking out vociferously against a long-term US presence in Iraq.
Maliki also noted with gratitude the high cost paid by American taxpayers and by the US military and the forces of other coalition members to secure Iraq's freedom and liberty over the past five years.
Maliki also said the government would be offering a compromise on the thorny issue of legal jurisdiction for US forces in the country involving some limited immunity for US forces. "We have proposed that the legal jurisdiction would be ... with the Americans ... when the troops are performing military operations," he explained. "When they are not performing a military operation, they are outside their camps, the legal jurisdiction would be in the hands of the Iraqi judiciary."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Once again, enlightened self interest, reasonableness and largesse rear their ugly heads.
The Germans finally begged the US to keep at least some military presence in Germany, because the total loss to their economy if the US pulled out all at once was estimated to be around $500B a year, about 1/6th of their GDP.
The Iraqi government on Monday said it will allow doctors to carry guns in self-defense, pledging that they will not be detained during security operations. "Stick 'em up!... Higher!... Now stick out your tongue!... Further!... Now say 'aaaah'!"
The cabinet agreed to grant weapons permits to doctors in the light of the killing by insurgents of a large number of professional people since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. "The cabinet decided to allow each doctor to carry one weapon to defend himself," the statement said. Doctors will not be detained during security operations unless the health ministry has been informed.
In a move seen as an attempt to prevent the emigration of skilled people, the government is also offering better housing for doctors and a review of taxes imposed on professionals, the statement said.
In July, Iraqi doctors in the southern oil city of Basra staged demonstrations demanding better protection for them after a colleague was kidnapped in the region.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
How do you tell the difference between Dr. Death and Dr. Good at a checkpoint? In Basra, it seems to me that anyone not having self protection is vulnerable to kidnap and slaughter. How about carry licences issued to people who pass background checks? It might shake up the bad guys to know that they could get killed by anyone in a crowd. Works in our cities. Might work in Basra.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/30/2008 10:05 Comments ||
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#2
i thought everyone in Iraq carried weapons anyway
U.S. European Command (EUCOM) has deployed to Israel a high-powered X-band radar and the supporting people and equipment needed for coordinated defense against Iranian missile attack, marking the first permanent U.S. military presence on Israeli soil.
More than a dozen aircraft were required to transport an AN/TPY-2 X-band radar to Israel. (U.S. Missile Defense Agency) More than a dozen aircraft, including C-5s and C-17s, helped with the Sept. 21 delivery of the AN/TPY-2 Transportable Radar Surveillance/Forward Based X-band Transportable (FBX-T), its ancillary components and some 120 EUCOM personnel to Israel's Nevatim Air Base southeast of Beersheba, said sources here and in Stuttgart, Germany.
Among the U.S. personnel is at least one representative from the Missile Defense Agency (MDA), though officials said the agency had little to no say in the deployment decision. MDA involvement has been confined to providing equipment and advice on technical aspects of its deployment, one official said.
The Raytheon-built FBX-T system is the same phased-array radar that was deployed to northern Japan with the U.S. Pacific Air Forces (PACAF) in 2006. The high-powered, high-frequency, transportable X-band radar is designed to detect and trackballistic missiles soon after launch.
Its ancillary gear included cooling systems, generators, perimeter defense weaponry, logistics supplies and dozens of technicians, maintenance specialists and security forces to operate and defend the U.S. installation.
EUCOM has repeatedly deployed troops and Patriot air defense batteries for joint exercises and Iraq-related wartime contingencies, but has never before permanently deployed troops on Israeli soil.
A EUCOM spokesman declined to comment. MDA officials referred questions to the U.S. State Department, which did not provide comment by press time.
An Israeli military spokesman said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) enjoys long-standing strategic cooperation with all branches of the U.S. military.
"This cooperation is varied and comes in multiple forms, and it is not our practice to discuss details of our bilateral activities," he said.
Nevertheless, in previous interviews, U.S. and Israeli officials confirmed that the X-band deployment plan was approved in July, first by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his Israeli counterpart, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi; and then by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
The radar will be linked to the U.S. Joint Tactical Ground Station (JTAGS), which receives and processes threat data transmitted by U.S. Defense Support System satellites. According to U.S. and Israeli sources, JTAGS will remain in Europe, but its essential cueing data will stream into the forward-deployed X-band radar, where it instantaneously shares information with Israel's Arrow Weapon System.
Once operational, the combined U.S. and Israeli system is expected to double or even triple the range at which Israel can detect, track and ultimately intercept Iranian missiles, according to Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, director of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency.
During a visit to Israel in early August, Obering said the X-Band radar could add precious minutes to the time in which Israel has to respond to incoming missile attacks. "The missile threat from Iran is very real, and we must stay ahead of the threat ... that's why we're working so hard with all our allies to put the most optimized, effective, anti-missile capabilities in place," Obering said. "In the context of Israel, if we can take the radar out here and tie it into the Arrow Weapon System, they'll be able to launch that interceptor way before they could with an autonomous system," he added.
Ilan Biton, a brigadier general in the Israel Air Force (IAF) reserves and former commander of the nation's air defense forces, could not comment on the latest developments associated with the X-band radar. However, he said that an IAF air defense brigade established during his 2003-06 tenure has continuously demonstrated its ability to interoperate well with American forces.
"We advanced tremendously on multiple levels and have developed very impressive cooperation," Biton said at a Sept. 22 conference in Herzliya. Referring to bilateral Juniper Cobra air defense exercises and the 2003 deployment of Patriot batteries prior to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Biton noted: "At the human level, we've developed a common language and at the technical level, we've put in place the interfaces that allow our systems to speak to one another."
The end result, according to Biton, is a combined ability "to manage battles, execute debriefs and implement corrections, all in real time."
As U.S. public affairs officers last week mulled whether to publicly disclose the Israel deployment, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at a U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York, continued to defend his country's nuclear enrichment and missile development program.
"Iran's [nuclear] activities are peaceful," Ahmadinejad said Sept. 23, adding that in Israel, "the Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse."
A U.S. government source said the X-band deployment and other bilateral alliance-bolstering activities send parallel messages: "First, we want to put Iran on notice that we're bolstering our capabilities throughout the region, and especially in Israel. But just as important, we're telling the Israelis, 'Calm down; behave. We're doing all we can to stand by your side and strengthen defenses, because at this time, we don't want you rushing into the military option.'"
But in Israel, frustration is mounting at what is roundly perceived as a lack of international resolve to halt Iran's nuclear weapons drive. At a Sept. 21 meeting of the Israeli Cabinet, an Israeli military intelligence officer reported that Iran is accelerating the pace at which it enriches uranium, and that Tehran already possesses possibly half of the fissionable material needed to produce its first nuclear warhead.
Reflecting Israeli concern about the ineffectiveness of sanctions against Tehran, Brig. Gen. Yossi Baidatz, head of Military Intelligence's research department, reported: "The international front against Iran is weak and not consolidated, and isn't putting enough pressure on the regime to stop enriching uranium."
According to selected excerpts from the briefing released by the Israeli Prime Minister's office, Baidatz warned that Iran is "galloping toward a nuclear bomb." He added, "The sanctions have very little influence and are far from bringing to bear a critical mass of pressure on Iran."
#2
These systems offer Israel early warning of preemptive Iranian attack as well as warning of an Iranian counterstrike. I suspect EUCOM has just bought Ahmadinejad a little time.
Israel's interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel must give up virtually all the occupied West Bank including east Jerusalem, insisting in an interview published on Monday this was key to achieving peace with the Palestinians.
Olmert, in a caretaker role since quitting on Sept. 21, said he was breaking new ground in calling for a broad pullback from the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians hope to establish a state, and in the annexed Golan Heights, which Syria wants back. "(I am saying) what no previous Israeli leader has ever said: we should withdraw from almost all of the territories, including in East Jerusalem and in the Golan Heights," Olmert, who resigned over corruption allegations, told Yedioth Ahronoth.
"We will leave a percentage of these territories in our hands, but will have to give the Palestinians a similar percentage, because without that there will be no peace," he said.
"Including in Jerusalem," he said in reference to the predominantly Arab eastern part of the Holy City which Israel occupied and annexed after the 1967 war and which Palestinians want as the capital of their future state.
The Israeli daily called it a "legacy interview", published on the eve of the Jewish new year, in which Olmert went further in making offers for peace than he ever did publicly when he was in active office, with greater power to see them carried out.
The statement is expected to stir deep controversy. Israel officially considers Jerusalem its "eternal, undivided" capital, a view Olmert -- a former mayor of the city -- said he shared for many years.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2008 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
Olmert doesn't get it. The so-called Palestinians don't want peace or even a state, they just want to eradicate the jews (from the earth). Olmert just needs to shrivel up and go away.
#4
Obama Ehud Olmert is businessman, community organizer and politician.
Olmert purchased a home on Cremieux Street in Jerusalem for which he is thought to have paid well below market value. In return, Olmert is suspected of using his position as mayor of Jerusalem to extend favors for the contracting company "Alumot," the firm which built his home. The prime minister has denied any wrongdoing in the matter.
#5
Hopelessly naive. Much like many American Democrats who have never studied, and in fact abhor studying history. The very old rationale they use is that history is the greatest enemy of socialism. The few that engage the study do so only in the effort to corrupt it and destroy its credibility.
In turn, this is why Democrats are so arrogant and ignorant about things like foreign policy and economics. They convince themselves that all their ideas are new and untried, and they are filled with trust of the untrustworthy.
When the stock market crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didnt just talk about the princes of greed. He said, look, heres what happened.
-- Senator Joe Biden, to Katie Couric
Israel on Monday condemned the renewed Iranian-backed Arab effort to isolate it at a UN atomic watchdog assembly. Arab League states prepared to table a resolution called "Israel's nuclear capabilities" urging all Middle East states not to test or develop atom bombs and not to stand in the way of a regional nuclear-free zone.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2008 00:00 ||
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[5 views]
Top|| File under:
Another Zionist Secret Weapon...
Following are excerpts from a sermon by Saudi cleric Muhammad Al-Arifi, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on September 12, 2008.
Muhammad Al-Arifi: Studies conducted in Tel Aviv and in the Palestinian lands occupied by the Jews showed that they plant Gharqad trees around their homes, because the Prophet Muhammad said that when the Muslims fight the Jews, each and every stone and tree will say: Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. The only exception is the Gharqad tree, which is one of the trees of the Jews, and if they hide behind it, it will not reveal their presence. According to reports of people who went there and saw it with their own eyes, many Jews plant Gharqad trees around their homes, so that when the fighting begins, they can hide behind them. They are not man enough to stand and fight you.
#3
This guy has mentionned Muhammd without telling the mandatory "Peace snd Blessings upon him". What kinds of false muslmims are the Saudis who haven't killed him on the spot?
(AKI) - Syrian authorities said on Monday that a suicide bomber with links to a militant Islamist organisation was responsible for the bomb attack that killed 17 people and injured 14 others in Damascus. Oh, y'mean it wasn't the Mossad and the CIA? Don't tell me we have someone competent manning the Middle East desk at Langley ...
The bomber entered Syria in a vehicle from a neighbouring Arab country the day before the blast, said the state-run news agency SANA on Monday. The report did not state from which country he had come. My guess would be Iraq, maybe possibly Jordan. What would yours be?
Syria shares borders with Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Israel. The 220 kilogrammes of explosives were reportedly packed in a large sports utility vehicle and detonated by the suicide bomber who had links to the 'Takfiri' ideology of Islam, some members of which were arrested earlier, claims SANA. The Takfiri ideology reportedly urges Sunni muslims to kill anyone who is thought to be an infidel or one who renounces his faith. My guess, on no more evidence than that, would be remnants of Zarqawi's al-Tawhid...
The explosion took place at the junction between Damascus international airport and a popular Shia shrine frequented by Iranians, Iraqis and Lebanese, called Sayyida Zeinab. The blast was the deadliest in Syria since the 1980's by Islamist militants and was the third major attack this year.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/30/2008 00:00 ||
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[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Red on red. Looks good to me.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/30/2008 9:57 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Feel free to have a Pan Arab war. But keep it to yourselves.
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.
An Afghan ex-diplomat says the US supplies arms to the Taliban to jeopardize the security situation and have an excuse to stay in Afghanistan. 
At least 52 Somalis died after smugglers abandoned them on a boat in the dangerous waters of the Gulf of Aden, the U.N. refugee agency said Sunday. Seventy-one people survived the 18-day ordeal. 
BRITAIN'S MI6 intelligence service is investigating how a camera holding sensitive information about al-Qaeda suspects came to be lost by one of its agents, Hertfordshire Police said today.
Thousands of pilgrims panicked by false rumors of a bomb stampeded at a Hindu temple in western India on Tuesday, killing at least 168 people in the crush to escape.
(AKI) - About 20,000 people have fled fighting in Pakistan's tribal areas and sought refuge in eastern Afghanistan in recent months, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said on Monday. "In the last two weeks alone, over 600 Pakistani families have fled into Afghanistan," Mohammed Nadir Farhad, the UN refugee agency's spokesman, told the media in Kabul. "The majority are living with their relatives and friends, but there are some 200 families who live in the open air."
BAGHDAD -- First Lt. Justin John, 6-foot-4 and built like a linebacker, plopped down on a sofa in front of Ibrahim Suleiman al-Zoubaidi, one of the leaders of the mainly Sunni armed groups that have helped the U.S. military quell violence in Iraq since last year. 
(AKI) - Syrian authorities said on Monday that a suicide bomber with links to a militant Islamist organisation was responsible for the bomb attack that killed 17 people and injured 14 others in Damascus.
