UNITED NATIONS - Russia and China have delayed promised helicopters and medical units to a UN peacekeeping force in Sudan, thereby causing other countries to postpone sending troops, a UN official said. The United Nations expects 10,000 troops in southern Sudan to monitor a peace agreement signed a year ago that ended nearly three decades of civil war between rebels and the Khartoum government. But only about 4,000 have arrived.
Jan Pronk, the special UN envoy to Sudan, told a news conference on Friday that Russian transport helicopters and a Chinese medical unit were considered vital before certain nations would send troops.
Russiaâs parliament in December approved sending 200 soldiers and four Mi-8 transport helicopters, along with other equipment to Sudan on President Vladimir Putinâs request. âWe are waiting already a year,â Pronk said. âThey are essential. We need the aviation units.â
Almost like they don't want to honor their pledge or something.
Pronk acknowledged increasing difficulties getting countries to fulfill their contribution pledges in time and in recruiting additional soldiers. Promised money to help development in the south and resettle refugees also has not been delivered, including from the UN budget itself, Pronk said. But he said donors had to ensure that Sudan allocated its considerable oil resources to benefit the south, because giving money unconditionally âis a waste.â âGood economic governance is a must because it was bad governance in the past which fueled the conflict,â he said.
However, Pronk said that without international support the expectations of the people in the south would falter. âThat is a major risk. There is peace, indeed, but where is the peace dividend?â he asked.
All the Chinese want is the oil, so whatever lets them get at the oil is what they're going to do. The Russians have oil; my guess is that they're helping the Chinese for a player to be named later.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/15/2006 00:00 ||
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Although Saudi Arabia has cracked down on militants within its borders, the kingdom has not met its promises to help prevent the spread of terrorism or curb the flow of money from Saudis to terror cells around the world, U.S. intelligence, diplomatic and other officials say. One result, these critics said, is that countless young terror suspects are believed to have escaped the kingdom's tightening noose at home by fleeing across what critics call a porous border into Iraq. U.S. military officials confirm an aggressive role by Saudi fighters in the insurgency in Iraq, where over the past year they reportedly accounted for more than half of all Arab jihadists killed. And millions of dollars continue to flow from wealthy Saudis through Saudi-based Islamic charitable and relief organizations to al-Qaida and other suspected terror groups abroad, aided by Riyadh's failure to set up a government commission to police such groups as promised, senior U.S. officials from several counterterrorism agencies said in interviews.
Those officials said Saudi Arabia has taken some positive steps within its borders. But they criticized what they called the Saudis' failure to take a more active role in the global fight. Daniel L. Glaser, the deputy assistant Treasury secretary for terrorist financing and financial crimes, recalled attending a counterterrorism conference in Riyadh last February at which the Saudis declared they would be an international leader in fighting al-Qaida and in eradicating terrorism worldwide. Nearly a year later, Glaser and other U.S. officials say, those promises are unfulfilled. "They promised to do it and they need to live up to their promises," Glaser said. "They need to crack down operationally on donors in Saudi Arabia. And they need to exert their influence over their international charities abroad . . . . They have to care not just what al-Qaida is doing just within their own borders but wherever it is operating."
In response, a senior Saudi official vehemently insisted that the kingdom has taken strong steps to fight al-Qaida -- not only at home but worldwide. In a series of interviews last week, the official said the government is working closely with regional partners and the United States on operational and intelligence-gathering fronts. The official objected to U.S. criticisms about Saudi fighters playing an important role in the Iraq insurgency, and said Riyadh has done a good job of sealing off the border between the two countries. Any Saudis entering Iraq have been forced to transit through other countries, he said.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/15/2006 00:37 ||
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#1
"We have a problem with imams," the Saudi official said. "We have a hundred thousand of them. Can we stop every one? No."
Simple. Each imam that speaks out on behalf of jihadism, or even the hatred and killing of non-Mulsims, should be removed from the payroll. Immediately and without discussion. Demonstrate that the House of Saud does not support such beliefs.
As for the continued flow of suicidal idiots across the border? That would be our pack culling their herd. Or, low-cost target practice for the Iraqi trainees. Saudi choice, our result. I can live with that, for a while anyway.
#2
A question....
If an "Ocean's 11" type group was to drain some soddy charity would the FBI and Interpol care?
Its sounds like a dream op for that sort of folk.
Law enforcing agencies are yet to arrest the masterminds behind with the August countrywide serial bomb blasts although the government is continuously telling the people that hauling up of culprits involved is a âmatter of time.â
Meanwhile, police arrested some top leaders of the banned Jamaâatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and they confessed to their involvement in the heinous activities.
"Ooch! Ouch! Anything! I'll tell you anything! Does it have to be true?!"
Experts wonder why the law enforcing agencies were taking time to nab the kingpins. At least 100 cases have so far been filed throughout the country in connection with the serial bomb blasts and only 40 charge sheets have so far been submitted, sources said.
Soon after the arrest of the military commander of JMB Ataur Rahman Sunny, younger brother of JMB chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman, on December 14, the law enforcement members as well as the government had claimed that the entire network of the JMB has been broken. As no major subversive act was committed after the arrest, it appears that the government claim was partially true.
"Cheez it Muggsy, lay low for a while til we get the G-men off our backs!"
The sources said they could sense a reshuffle in the central leadership, mainly in the military wing, by going through the threat letters issued by the JMB different parts of the country.
But sources fear that the JMB is taking time for regrouping as their kingpin Shiekh Abdur Rahman and its operational wing JMJB's chief Bangla Bhai are still at large and working behind the scene.
Meanwhile, two top arrested JMB leaders including Chittagong militant commander Javed Iqbal alias Mohammad gave statements under Section 164 to the metropolitan magistrate court on Friday. Metropolitan Magistrate Maksudur Rahman first started recording of the deposition of confessional statement of Operational Commander of JMB, Cox's Bazar district Naimuzzaman at around 3:30 PM.
"Ease off the pliers a moment, Ahmed, I need to get his jibbering on tape."
After completion of recording of the one hour statement of Naimuzzaman the magistrate turned to record deposition of statement from Javed Iqbal alias Mohammad at around 6:00 PM which is still going on till filing of this report at 7:15 PM.
A source linked with the investigation said that deposition of statement of the rest two JMB leaders Monirul Islam and Rafiqul Islam also seconds-in-command to Mohammad will also be recorded in turns.
"Hand me the electric sander, Ahmed, I have another deposition to record."
The arrested JMB leaders have been produced before the court at around 3:00 PM under RAB escort and other law enforcers were also put on maximum alert.
Different satellite television channels have screened an exclusive appeal of Ataur Rahman Sunny, in which the JMB's military commander called upon his fellows to surrender and hand over their weapons and explosives to police and other law enforcing agencies. But a day after his (Sunny) appeal, an Ehsar (member of suicide squad) of JMB in Rangpur has threatened to launch fresh bomb attacks in Rangpur claiming that they were reorganising under new leadership.
Since all the old leadership is in jug or in Dr. Quincy's morgue.
Despite repeated screening of the appeal of Sunny in BTV, none of the JMB member have so far surrendered or handed over their weapons ignoring the appeal of the military commander.
Before its underground launching, the JMB has spread its organisation under the banner of Ahle Hadith Andolan led by grilled Dr Asadullah Al Galib. Shaikh Abdur Rahman's father Fazal Munshi was the founder of the party. After the death of Fazal Munshi, Dr Galib became the chief of Ahle Hadith Andolan. But soon a split took place over the leadership resulting in creation of another faction led by Shaikh Abdur Rahman.
Everyone following so far?
Later, Shaikh Abdur Rahman formed the JMB and recruited hundreds of youths from all parts of the country in the name of carrying out an Islamic revolution.
As part of the 'test case' of Jehad, Shaikh Abdur Rahman has deputed one of his influential commanders Bangla Bhai, also the member of Majlish-e-Shura (top policy making body), at Bagmara in Rajshahi where he (Bangla Bhai) let loose a reign of terror. Bangla Bhai, under the banner of JMJB, has brutally killed a number of innocent people in the name of eliminating the outlawed party.
JMB first launched countrywide serial bomb attacks on August 17 apparently to declare their presence and strength killing two people. On November 3, they launched simultaneous bomb attacks on court premises in Chittagong, Laxmipur and Chandpur also killing three people. The outfit carried out its first suicide attack on judges in Jhalakathi on November 14 killing two judges â Sohel Ahmed and Jagannath Pandey.
On October 18, a judge of the Speedy Trial Tribunal in Sylhet, Biplab Goswami, narrowly escaped a bomb attack. The suicide bombers on November 29 carried out bomb attacks at District Bar Library in Gazipur and Chittagong court leaving 13 people dead. The banned Islamic outfit carried out another suicide attack on December 1 killing a man and injuring 20 people in front of Gazipur DC office. The suicide bombers carried out their last attack on December 8 in Netrokona where 10 people were killed and many others injured.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/15/2006 00:47 ||
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Fred, LOL! That is the first meter I've seen with pi on the scale.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
01/15/2006 13:16 Comments ||
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There will be a reflection of developments in Iraq on Turkey, and Turkish Kurds will demand âtheir shareâ in the administration of the country, a senior ethnic-Kurdish politician has said. He also claimed that âefficient and authoritativeâ people from the United States asked Turkey to declare an amnesty for the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) but that the government decided instead to issue yet another ârepentance lawâ that âserved no purpose.â
ªerafettin Elçi told the Turkish Daily News that developments in Iraq have shown that federalism is the best administrative system for multi-nation countries. He said the new Iraqi constitution was âexemplaryâ for all states of the region because it will reflect on all countries there, particularly Turkey, where the most Kurds live. He said the developments in Iraq might help Turkey to overcome its âdisintegrationâ phobia.
Elçi said it was very probable that Turkey's Kurdish population will start demanding federalism in Turkey as well. Reiterating that the PKK hurt the Kurds of Turkey more than it hurt the Turks, Elçi said he was confident that a peaceful resolution to the Kurdish problem was possible.
North Korean three-star General Ri Chan Bok tells correspondent Dan Rather that if the U.S. invades his country, he will use nuclear weapons to defend it.
If you want us to believe you, you might try talking to someone other than Dan Rather.
Rather spoke to the general during a recent visit to the reclusive Communist dictatorship for a 60 Minutes report airing this Sunday, Jan. 15, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. âTell the American people that you met the general. If the United States invades our country and starts a war, the Peopleâs Army will fight to the death and defend ourselves, taking appropriate revenge,â says Gen. Bok.
Does the general think that the United States might attack North Korea? âWe firmly believe that the United States will carry out its policies on our country, even if they have to use military means,â Gen. Bok tells Rather. âWhat we can say to you definitely right now is that we currently have nuclear weapons,â he threatens.
Bok wouldnât show 60 Minutes cameras any of his missiles, but did show Rather his troops at the border with South Korea. There are more than 30,000 American forces on the other side. The general said that the Americans and their South Korean allies have stepped up military and propaganda exercises recently. He said itâs because of what he calls the âneo-conservativesâ in the Bush administration.
â[Neo-conservatives] are people who want to dominate the world, just like the Nazis of Germany. After striking Iraq they want North Korea,â says Bok.
'cause we need more starving people dressed in rags, ya know.
The U.S. State Department refused to discuss North Korea with 60 Minutes.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/15/2006 00:51 ||
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#2
I'm currently stationed 12 miles from the DMZ, and am not in the least bit worried about things. Mister Kim Jung Chill Ill and his homies can talk all the smack they want, but the situation will never make it that far. Im's A thinkin' that his own countrymen will take care of things internally after they finally run out of tree bark and grass Kimchee. As per them'uns attacking the South, SKor has had a 50few years to build up natural and man-made defences (Whole cities in a few cases) and formulate a rock-solid defence plan. A Rack of Stuttgarter Hofbraus says they don't make it to Seoul before they get a giant foxhole stomped in their asses.
Reporting from the front and standing by for further orders,
#4
Hey BodyGuard, are you American or Australian ? I am from Aussie and wondering how many of our guys are posted near the DMZ... I have been following all the goings on in NK for years now & am planning a trip there end of this year.
#5
â[Neo-conservatives] are people who want to dominate the world, just like the Nazis of Germany. After striking Iraq they want North Korea,â says Bok.
#6
"North Korean three-star General Ri Chan Bok tells correspondent Dan Rather that if the U.S. invades his country, he will use nuclear weapons to defend it."
Why is this news? Is there any country that would'nt say they would fight back, in whatever way they can?
#7
BillH "I see the general reads our newspapers."
No the Norks are not allowed any outside info or news (punishable by open public execution) that little jewel their came from his brief conversation with comrade Rather in which Rather explained to gerneral Bok the state of amerika under Bushitler.
#8
So I wonder how Rather will argue that Korea was Bush's fault? Gen Bok was the best ol Danny could get for an interview? Guess they are seeing him for what he is also.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/15/2006 9:27 Comments ||
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#9
Bodyguard = RB guard
Reporting from the front and standing by for further orders,
Thanks for the report, informative and funny at the same time...a two-fer!
#11
49 Pan - Kerry and the Democrats already did that - they tried their best to pin the blame on Bush for North Korea having nukes.
Odd they never mentioned HalfBrights 'no, no need to verify - we are all dishonorable here' worthless agreement with them. Nor did they cite Comrade Clinton's 8 years of ignoring the problem.
#16
Maybe there's a startup opportunity he just can't pass up in Guandong province where he was touring a few days ago. Hot market there I hear. And Dear Leader would definitely bring a unique perspective to the capital markets there.
#17
If General Ri Chan Bok granted an interview I can tell you it had to be authorized by Dear Leader and it was almost certainly scripted. FYI Pan the higher echelon folks get to read outside news and some even get Sat TV. It's only the workers that need to be kept in the dark lest they start to get any ideas.
AUSTRALIA'S Defence Force is about to embark on its biggest weapons buying spree since World War II, spending $52 billion on new planes, ships and tanks. The massive expenditure will make Australia's navy, army and air force the most powerful and high-tech military in the region well into the 21st century.
The spending splurge comes not to combat the war on terror, but because much of the Defence Force's most costly equipment is 30 years old and has to be replaced.
Pressure from international arms firms to sell Australia the big ticket items is intense. This month the new American destroyer USS Pinckney will sail into Sydney on a mission to persuade the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to splash out. The US ship has the latest anti-air warfare Aegis system and is designed to protect fleets from air and missile attack.
The ADF plans to spend $6 billion buying three such ships and is looking at a future cut-down version of the Pinckney as well as the existing Spanish F100 destroyer. The US Navy is pulling out big guns to win the contract and the ship will host Defence Minister Robert Hill and other ministers on board when it visits during the Navy's Sea Power Conference starting in Sydney on January 31.
The destroyers will be the most powerful warships in the navy, but not the biggest. Two new 22,000 tonne amphibious assault transport ships costing more than $1 billion each are to be decided on in 2007. ADF is looking at a French design that resembles a mini aircraft carrier.
The spending spree continues in the air force where the Government plans to lay out $16 billion on 100 American-built F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. But the cost is likely to blow out beyond the current $160 million per plane as the US is cutting back its orders. The F-35 is still being tested and isn't due until 2012. Defence insiders believe the Government will curtail its plans and announce next month that it will buy just 50 to 60 of the F-35s.
Big new transport planes are also on the RAAF wish list. The $200 million McDonnell Douglas built C-17 Globemaster can carry 120 troops or the heavy M1 Abrams tank, far more than the existing trusty Hercules.
New surveillance drones to help the Orion aircraft are also being considered. The US built Global Hawk unmanned drones, costing $45 million apiece, could be patrolling Australian northern waters in the next decade.
Big bucks have already been tied in by the army. In June the first of 59 second-hand American M1 Abrams tanks the ADF has bought from the US Army will arrive. The Government has just announced there will be an extra $1.5 billion in May's budget to recruit another 1500 troops for the more mechanised army. Another $3 billion is being spent on 7000 units of army field equipment such as helicopters, trucks, jeeps and trailers.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/15/2006 16:17 ||
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#1
All good for integrating the Aussies into the new post-NATO Western Defense Force. G'day, Mates.
#4
How about transferring a squadron of retiring B-1's to Australia? The airframes are less than 20 years old and will more than make up for their geriatric FB-111's.
Posted by: ed ||
01/15/2006 21:15 Comments ||
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Someone send this guy/gal a white flag with cheese.
French Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said Sunday talks should be pursued with Iran even though the country was resuming sensitive nuclear activities.
'In a situation like this, there are two options: either we will finally take steps that will isolate the country or we will try as hard as we can to talk to convince and make advances,' Alliot-Marie during an RTL-Le Figaro-LCI radio and television debate.
'If we allow the country to close in, it will also mean that IAEA inspectors will not know what is happening' in Iran, she said referring to the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency.
A spokesman for the French foreign ministry said Friday it was 'premature' to speak of sanctions against Iran for resuming sensitive nuclear activities.
Instead it was necessary to 'proceed step by step' after Thursday's meeting of the British, German and French foreign ministers in Berlin.
The European group of three had called for an extraordinary meeting of the IAEA board of governors to refer Iran to the UN Security Council.
Paris would 'continue consultations' with China, Russia and its European partners on the issue, the spokesman had said.
Officials from China, the EU, Russia and the US are to meet over the Iran nuclear crisis in London on Monday.
Alliot-Marie said that 'as long as there are a number of points which allow us to believe we can make advances we have to persevere because the day when Iran will be totally closed in we will no longer know what's going on.'
She added that Tehran should be given the opportunity to play a role on the world scene, which she said was 'a natural desire for a country like Iran'.
Iran said Sunday it was 'not scared' of being hauled before the UN Security Council and warned any sanctions over its disputed nuclear programme could cause an unexpected hike in oil prices.
The country this week resumed nuclear research -- involving small-scale enrichment to test centrifuges. It insists this is separate from full-scale uranium enrichment, which remains frozen for the time being.
Enrichment can produce reactor fuel but can also be extended to make the core of an atomic weapon. The West fears that if Iran is allowed to master the technology via this research work it would gain the know-how to make a bomb.
Britain, France and Germany have for more than two years been trying to convince Iran to voluntarily limit its nuclear activities in exchange for trade and other incentives.
But Iran has ruled out any such deal.
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/15/2006 16:19 ||
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#1
if we allow the country to close in, it will also mean that IAEA inspectors will not know what is happening' in Iran
Reality:
"We'd rather know they are building a nuke, than try to stop them."
Its pretyt obvious - why do they say such amazingly stupid things? Don't they realize that knwoing about the nukes doenst mean anything if they buidl the damendthings? They are going to USE it when they build it.
Its like telling a rapist to show you his "gun" before he rapes you instead of shooting him to stop him.
#8
Of course they surrender. The French rulers can look at the demographic figures and plainly see the native French will be the minority. They just hope to keep their heads long enough to die of old age. Screw their children.
The question is why anyone in the west still considers France an ally.
Posted by: ed ||
01/15/2006 21:56 Comments ||
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#9
When someone decides to make themselves irrelevant we should ignore their drivel. The French leadership are working hard at becomming irrelevant. Bypass them and lets get on with removing Iran's nuclear capability.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/15/2006 23:35 Comments ||
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#1
Grr...have to register to read the article. So, for the benefit of the 'burg, I will share my new login and password.
login: whatthehell
password: okfine
Maybe they have a point, however. They should ask everyone applying for citizenship their feelings about Islamofascism, just to drive home the point that it is not welcome.
Besides, now that there are idjits like that Belgian broad who blew herself up, you can't just assume an applicant for citizenship doesn't believe that crap based on their original country of birth.
#2
The Turkish immigrant community in Germany is protesting a federal state's move to impose and administer a 30-topic ?conscience test? on Muslim applicants for German citizenship.
?This test amounts to Islamophobia and discrimination on the basis of religion,? said Professor Faruk ?en, head of the German-based Center for Studies on Turkey (TAM), in a telephone interview with the Turkish Daily News.
In the German state of Baden-Wurtenberg, the use of such a ?loyalty test? for Muslim applicants who want to become German citizens was put into effect on Jan. 1. The questions in the controversial test will be asked of Muslim applicants from 57 countries, including Turkey.
Not only Turks and the Muslims Council in Germany but also some Germans reacted angrily to the test, saying it was discriminatory; however, in an earlier response to criticism, the German Interior Ministry reportedly denied discrimination against Muslims.
That's the whole story. Doesn't Germany have a state religion? or is that just state by state?
1- The constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany is based on a free democratic order. It encompasses the same values as those of the other European Union countries. The protection of human dignity and the state's monopoly on using force are also among the values. In other words, apart from cases of self-defense, nobody other than the state can use force against someone else within the Federal Republic of Germany. The state can use force due to its right stemming from the laws, for example, in ensuring gender equality. Do such principles comply with your beliefs?
2- What do you think about the following statements: âDemocracy is the worst rule. Humankind has experienced nothing worse than democracy. In order to get rid of democracy it is necessary for human beings to understand that democracy will bring no benefits.â
3- Some films, plays and books offend the religious sensitivities of people of different religions. In your opinion, what methods should be employed for the prevention of religious sensitivities from being hurt?
4- What do you think about criticism leveled at a religion? Is it acceptable? Can you cope with this?
5- Political parties and associations that are against the Constitution are banned in Germany. Despite this, would you support a banned party or association? If you do, under what conditions?
6- âWives should obey their husbands but if they do not, then husbands have the right to beat their wives.â What do you think about such opinions?
7- Do you think a husband not allowing his wife or daughter to go out is acceptable behavior?
8- In the face of violence among a couple in Germany, the police can step in and have the right to keep the guilty party outside the home for a couple of days. What do you think of that?
9- Do you see gender equality in Germany under the law as progress? If men do not accept this, then what should the state do?
10- In Germany, everyone can do a job that they want in accordance with their education and abilities. What do you think of that? In your opinion, should some jobs be only handled by men while some others only by women? If you say âyes,â which jobs should be handled by only women or men and why?
11- In your opinion, which jobs should never be done by women? Are there any jobs that would make you uneasy because of a female boss?
12- In Germany, everyone makes their own decision on whether they want to be examined by a male or female doctor. Under some circumstances, there is no time or chance to make a choice, for example, during emergencies or changes in shift. In such a situation, if you are a male would you accept to be examined by a female doctor, or if you are a female would you accept to be examined by a male doctor?
13- Some families are against their adult daughters working in a field of the daughter's choice or marrying a man the family doesn't approve of. What is your approach to this? What would you do if your daughter wants to marry a man of a different religion or if she wants to do a job that you do not approve?
14- What do you think about families who make their children marry by force? Do you think that such marriages concur with human honor?
15- Sports and swimming lessons are a part of basic school education in Germany. Do you approve of your daughter taking part in these classes? If you say âno,â then why not?
16- What do you think about your children taking part in school field trips?
17- Your adult daughter/wife wants to dress in the same way as the other girls and women in Germany. Would you try to prevent her from doing so? If you say âyes,â how would you do so?
18- A question for female applicants for citizenship: If your daughter wants to dress in the same way as German girls, what would you do?
19- If your daughter/sister says she was subjected to sexual harassment, what would you do as a father, mother, elder brother or sister?
20- If your son or brother tells you that his feelings were hurt, what would you do as a father, mother, elder brother or sister?
21- Do you think the Constitution provides an individual with the right to change his religion and lead a life with a different religion? What do you think about an individual who is punished (for example, rejection by family) when he/she converts to another religion?
22- You learned that a terrorist operation is under way. How would you act? What would you do?
23- You heard about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and March 11, 2004 attacks in Madrid. In your opinion, were those who carried out the attacks terrorists or freedom fighters? Explain your answer.
24- Newspapers usually cover stories of honor killings. How do you approach this issue?
25- How do you evaluate a man in Germany being married to two women at the same time?
26- What do you think about a married man in Germany returning to his native country and marrying another woman there?
27- Some people think the Jews are responsible for many evil actions in the world and even believe that the Jews were behind the Sept. 11 attacks in New York. What do you think about such assumptions?
28- Your daughter applied for a job in Germany but her application was rejected. Later you heard that an African from Somali was hired for the same position. How would act in the face of such a situation?
29- How would you react if your adult son said he was a homosexual and he wanted to live with a man?
30- Some politicians in Germany are known to be homosexual. What do you think about homosexuals in Germany working in state institutions?
#7
They are protesting because they don't have a conscience and don't want the rest of us to find out.
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
01/15/2006 12:08 Comments ||
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#8
Too late, Al - we already know.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
01/15/2006 12:23 Comments ||
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#9
Make the questionnaire a standard part of the application process, for all. There are, unfortunately, plenty of non-Muslims who also find equality and freedom objectionable. #27 on Steve's list would tar much of the world's media, and many who already hold German citizenship. It would be very interesting for a survey of German citizens to be done using these questions. I sense a lovely PhD project here. ;-)
#15
Nimble> Have the mohammedans developed a problem with lying on official forms?
I suppose it depends on the "mohammedan" in question.
More importantly, the point isn't whether an individual can tell a lie on a form. The point is making sure that people have studied the expectations of civilised behaviour.
Even lying about them adequately will mean they have to know what they are, and provide justifications for their opinions that are believable. Hopefully obvious copied answers will not be accepted.
The last question might ensnare many a Christian...
If these Christians have a problem with gay people working in state institutions, then they shouldn't get citizenship either IMO.
#16
It's interesting to compare this German attempt to instill reflection and adoption of their norms with the US citizenship process. The former focuses on beliefs. The latter makes sure that the candidate for citizenship understands how our government works and is familiar with the Constitution so that his/her oath of allegiance is an informed one.
The general requirements for administrative naturalization include:
a period of continuous residence and physical presence in the United States;
residence in a particular USCIS District prior to filing;
an ability to read, write, and speak English;
a knowledge and understanding of U.S. history and government;
good moral character;
attachment to the principles of the U.S. Constitution; and,
favorable disposition toward the United States.
We tend to believe that if these apply, you can bring a variety of beliefs and customs to our society and we'll be fine.
Aris, that's one difference between your comment re: gays in government and how we see things here. We might differ among ourselves on that question, but so long as we all can honestly and in good faith support the Constitution and our processes for representative government, that's fine. It's how we've absorbed and both changed and been changed by several massive waves of immigration in the last 125 years (especially) without losing our essentially American character as a society. Indeed, that immigration has only enriched us over time.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah will meet with US Vice President Dick Cheney here later this week, US Embassy deputy spokesman Andrew Mitchell said yesterday. Mitchell said that the vice president would also visit Egypt, Pakistan and Afghanistan in this tour.
Wonder if he's carrying a briefcase to each meeting?
âThe talks between King Abdullah and Cheney will be held on Tuesday,â said Mitchell. He said the talks would focus on key issues of mutual concern, including bilateral relations and the situation in the Middle East and Iraq.
and perhaps points east??
That's an absolutely plain vanilla agenda. My guess is that the subjects of conversation would be Syria â the Soddies will be meddling big time as soon as it becomes obvious it's going to explode â and Iran. I'm sure the Soddies have no objection to Iran getting thumped, but it looks like there might be Israeli involvement in the process and that will tighten the royal sphincter. The other issue of concern to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques would be discomfort at seeing yet another member of the Axis of Evil drop. He's got to know that we have the axis mapped and that there weren't only three members. Iran going down moves Arabia up on the list.
Mitchell said that Cheney was due to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Jan. 17 before he travels to Kabul to represent the US at the opening session of the Afghanistanâs new parliament.
... the subject to be Hosni's efforts in smoothing Assad's path to oblivion...
Cheney will stop in Pakistan to see the relief and reconstruction efforts being made by the US Agency for International Development in the wake of the Octoberâs devastating earthquake. He will deliver a horse's head to meet with Pakistani President Parvez Musharraf. In Oman, the vice president will hold talks with Sultan Qaboos to discuss bilateral and regional issues of common concern with special reference to the war on terror.
#1
even if arabia is bumped up on the axis of evil list, that signifies nothing.
America cannot depose the princes and 'liberate' the seething islamist fanatic population. They are the enemy.
The US wastes a lot of energy sucking up to the Saudis. You don't suck up if you don't need to.
The house of saud doesn't feel threatened by the US. They hold our balls in their hands. They can shut off the oil any time they want. They have bezillions of our oil dollars reinvested in gold and other financial instruments. The rulers are not dependant on us. But we are dependant on them.
#2
The Saudi's don't operate independently of us. If they cut off our oil, they lose all their revenue, we don't lose all our oil. They need that revenue to keep bribing their own people and feeding their life style. I doublt they are any more interested in riding camels than we are horses. And if they cross us, their treasuries are worthless. So I'd say our financial interests are aligned. It's how they spend their dollars on ideology that's the problem. If we take out the hit men, they'll just have to spend them differently.
#3
Given a large enough quarrel, the princes of the house of Saud could live without the petrol dollars now, they have diversified their assets.
If they had to flee their country they could live very nicely in south america or europe somewhere with their billions.
My point is that it doesn't matter if Saudi Arabia is on the axis of evil, the US cannot invade and depose the government as it did with Iraq.
To de-evilise Saudi Arabia would take a full-scale occupation force with martial law and forced re-education. This is because the enemy IS the civilian population.
In Iraq, the enemy was Saddam with a neutral or only moderately anti-US civilian population.
Saudi Arabia has a moderately anti-US ruling royal family with a rabidly militant Islamist US and Jew-hating population.
America can not invade Saudi Arabia, the US does not have the strength or manpower to put that teeming rat-infested nation under martial law.
It does have another option: to nuke it. That is theoretically possible but the US population would lack the will in any future I can forsee.
#4
Anon1:
That's a little excessive. I have a more modest proposal.
1. Set up the REA. No Arabs or moslems allowed.
2. Make Mecca and Medina uninhabitable so no hadj money flows in.
No need to kill every person in the area. They will have no money, no power.
#6
You folks are missing a major point, money is no good if you can't use it.
Having Billions in banks is more worthless than if you had some cash, freeze the banks, and at least the cash you have on hand can be used for toilet paper.
Gold and Jewels are even more useless, can't even wipe with them.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/15/2006 11:25 Comments ||
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#7
sorry, mate they own the banks, or at least a sizeable chunk of a few of them.
#8
Anon, yes, but if the other banks will not trade with their banks, same thing.
You can't eat money, jewels, gold, etc.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/15/2006 15:24 Comments ||
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#9
Watch the libs....Cheney, from the united states of Halliburton...
Posted by: Captain America ||
01/15/2006 18:40 Comments ||
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#10
anon, there are about 12,000 royals now and every one of them expects to live like the oldest generation and resent the ones who do. Even among the older brothers - ESPECIALLY among the older brothers -- the knives are out since the old king's death.
We don't have to invade or nuke them IMO. The real issue is keeping them sufficiently stable in the short run that their chaotic collapse doesn't come at a bad time for our economy or other moves in the region.
That's not 'sucking up' ... it's just doing what we can to sequence the various crises we have to deal with. JMO ...
Veteran FBI agent Danny Coleman, who served for years as the bureau's ranking expert on Osama Bin Laden, Ayman Zawahiri and the rest of the Qaeda inner circle, doesn't get too excited when he hears a report of Zawahiri's demise â such as the one that briefly grabbed headlines on Saturday before Pakistani officials shot it down.
"Three years ago, somebody gave me a skull that was supposed to be his," says Coleman, who recently retired. It was a nice try. "It had a prayer burn on the forehead" the ex-agent says. "Zawahiri has a very distinctive one on his forehead."
But with a $25 million reward at stake, Coleman says, "I like to have some proof." According to law enforcement and military sources, the Egyptian government has provided the U.S. with DNA from Zawahiri's brother, who is languishing in an Egyptian prison. That gives U.S. intelligence a scientific means to positively identify the fugitive Qaeda leader.
The tests, run at the FBI laboratory in Washington, were definitive, and negative. "It was just some poor guy somebody dug up," says Coleman.
In a part of the world where people can be killed for trinkets, the astronomical U.S. bounty on Zawahiri â plus whatever the CIA is offering from its discretionary slush fund â has no doubt inspired countless bounty-hunters and snitches peddling dubious information. It's too soon to say whether the tip that caused the U.S. to target a benighted village in northwest Pakistan was real or just another false lead. In fact, the identities of those who died in the strike may never be established to the satisfaction of the U.S., given the difficulties of obtaining unbiased witness accounts and the even more formidable obstacles to recovering tissue and other forensic evidence from the rubble.
Even if Zawahiri was to have been killed in the strike, Coleman believes his loss would not be a crippling blow to al-Qaeda. Zawahiri is certainly a radicalized, visceral killer, driven by "a deep down hatred" honed by his experiences in an Egyptian prison. Coleman believes the Egyptian contingent of al-Qaeda demonstrated a bloodlust unusual even among the committed jihadists. Many graduates of Qaeda camps had no qualms about carrying out bombings, but few matched the Egyptians' readiness to spill blood up close, through shootings and stabbings. "The Egyptians were always more doers than talkers," says Coleman. They were capable of extraordinary violence which the other people in al Qaeda weren't capable of, necessarily."
But for all Zawahiri's ruthlessness, his crankiness undermined his effectiveness as a leader of the organization â leadership in al-Qaeda, like any legitimate organization, requires people skills that seem to have eluded the Egyptian physician. "He couldn't lead his own family round the block," says Coleman. "He's a very disagreeable person. He's capable, he writes well, he's a pretty good speaker, but he's an incredibly disagreeable person. In terms of actually leading anybody he's not that good. He likes to fight with people, so it's hard for him to lead. "
Bin Laden is beloved by those in al Qaeda who know him and work with him. But while many in the movement may have a high regard for Zawahiri's education and intellectual skills, Coleman says, they just don't like the man.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/15/2006 00:00 ||
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The US has hit back at Mexico for criticising a proposal by Washington to build a border fence and make illegal immigration to the United States a serious crime. On Friday, Tony Garza, the US ambassador to Mexico, criticised statements by Mexican officials comparing the fence with the Berlin Wall and denied that the initiative violated the human rights of migrants trying to improve their lives.
The Berlin wall was built to keep East Berliners from going into West Berlin, and it was built by the East German gummint. I think we went over this reasoning a bit earlier, when we examined the statement "Socrates is a man, therefore all men are Socrates" and found it lacking in sense.
Last month, the US House of Representatives approved a bill that would put up additional barriers along the US-Mexican border, a plan Vicente Fox, the president of Mexico, quickly opposed and compared with the Berlin Wall.
The man's a real pioneer, bringing fallacioius thinking to new levels of tedious...
Garza said the bill would help enforce immigration laws and criticised Fox's historical allusion. "Comparisons ... to the Berlin Wall are not only disingenuous and intellectually dishonest, they are personally offensive to me," Garza said in a news release. "The Berlin Wall was built to keep its own people trapped inside, and was created by an oppressive authoritarian government."
That's what I said, which was admittedly a mere statement of the obvious...
The proposed law, which has yet to be passed by the US Senate, would make illegal migration a felony. Thousands of people are thought to cross the 3200km Mexican-US border illegally every day, some risking their lives, in search of low-paying jobs in the United States. "There is no human right to enter another country in violation of its laws," Garza said. "More robust efforts by the Mexican government to create well-paying jobs for its citizens would dissuade many from making the dangerous and illegal crossing to the United States."
There's a white glove in the face.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2006 00:00 ||
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#5
Sad thing is - Mexico has the resources and position next to the US to be a first world country, if they would take the boot off the neck....xenophobia, kleptocracy, lack of universal education, latin nationalistic machismo all contribute to the detriment of the country
Build the Friendship Fenceâ¢...faster
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/15/2006 13:34 Comments ||
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#6
Once again, all we have to do to stem the tide of illegals is to make it illegal to wire money to Mexico. They come to the US to make money to support their families in Mexico. When the f**king post office competes for the business of remitting the wages of illegals back to Mexico, the Government is not serious about the problem. Freezing the flow of money would be a lot quicker and cheaper than building the fence. Build the fence but hit the root cause first.
Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmad condemned the Thursday night missile attack in Bajaur Agency and said it was carried out by US fighter planes.
Right on schedule...
Addressing a press conference on Saturday, he said that the government was killing its own citizens to please America and 'other foreign masters' and the army had failed to protect citizens' life and property. He denied reports of Ayman Alzawahiri's death and called them the government's excuse.
Qazi said the aerial spy mission was going on for about three days and had worried the area's residents. He said that a foreign media representative told him that American fighter planes were involved in the attack and Bajaur Agency MNA Sahibzada Haroon Rashid told him that he had heard bombing sounds in his house two kilometers from the place of attack. He said 18 bodies were recovered from the debris, including three children and five women and 13 of them belonged to the same family. He denied the government's claim of seizing dead bodies of five foreigners.
He demanded US forces' immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan and Pakistan, and said they had ruined peace in the region and were killing innocent villagers. Qazi warned that the tribal people may react to the 'continuous provocation' to jeopardize Pakistanâs security.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2006 00:11 ||
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US Undersecretary for Political Affairs R Nicholas "Monty" Burns will be visiting India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka from January 16-25. An official announcement on Friday said: âOn his inaugural trip to Pakistan, Burns will meet senior Pakistani officials and opinion leaders to discuss broadening the US-Pakistan bilateral relationship, review Pakistanâs progress towards full democracy, explore ways to foster greater regional cooperation and express the United Statesâ continued support for earthquake relief and reconstruction efforts.â According to State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, the trip was originally planned as primarily focused on US-India relations. In India, he would talk about how the July 2005 US-India agreement on civil nuclear affairs is to be implemented. He would also discuss Iran with his Indian counterparts.
âLast time around at the (International Atomic Energy Agency) Board of Governors, they (India) voted with other countries to find Iran in non-compliance. At the upcoming emergency session of the Board of Governors, weâll see how these other countries vote. Weâre not going to prejudge how any particular country is going to vote at this time, but ⊠we believe we have the votes in the IAEA Board of Governors to send this matter to the Security Council.â The two sides will discuss how to strengthen their strategic partnership.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2006 00:00 ||
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KHAR, Pakistan - Pakistani police tear-gassed tribesmen who burned down a US-funded aid agency office Saturday after the deaths of 18 villagers in an airstrike targeting Al Qaedaâs number two, witnesses said.
An estimated 5,000 people had gathered at a stadium near Khar, the main town in the Bajur tribal zone, close to the village of Damadola where Fridayâs attack happened, an AFP reporter said. Some demonstrators set fire to the offices of Associated Development Construction, a non-governmental organisation funded by the US Agency for International Development, an official at the aid group said. âThey have attacked our office in reaction to the deaths on Friday and put it on fire, it is badly damaged,â site engineer Fazal Maibood told AFP.
The mob had also stolen hundreds of bags of cement, and up to 20 tonnes of steel construction material were damaged by the fire, he added.
Expect lots of building collapses in the next earthquake.
Hundreds of tribal policemen had been deployed in Khar and other nearby towns to keep order, witnesses said.
Police later fired tear gas shells to disperse the mob after the crowd headed towards a music and video cassette market, while security forces fired two shots in the air, the AFP reporter said. Security men were also seen thumping arresting young tribesmen and bundling them into the backs of vans.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/15/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Fella need's a visit from Dentists Sans Anesthe
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan is to summon the US envoy to the foreign office in protest at the deaths of 18 people in an airstrike apparently targeting the deputy leader of Al Qaeda, officials said on Saturday. âA strong protest has being lodged with the United States. The US ambassador is also being summoned to the foreign office,â President Pervez Musharrafâs spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP.
The Pakistani foreign ministry said it had lodged a protest with US Ambassador Ryan Crocker. âAccording to preliminary investigations there was foreign presence in the area and that in all probability was targeted from across the border in Afghanistan,â the ministry said in a statement.
It's safe to say you guys didn't have a hand in it.
âAs a result of this act there has been loss of innocent civilian lives which we condemn. The investigations are still continuing,â it added.
We're sorry about the wimminfolk and the kids. We're sorrier that grown men hide behind wimminfolk and kids.
Separately Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid condemned the incident, without directly pointing the finger at the United States. âWe deeply regret that civilian lives have been lost in an incident in Bajur agency,â he said.
âWhile this act is highly condemnable we have been for a long time striving to rid all our tribal areas of foreign intruders who have been responsible for all the misery and violence. That situation has to be brought to an end.â Rashid added that residents in the semi-autonomous tribal regions were responsible for cooperating with the government to drive out foreign militants.
That's for us; there isn't a chance in the world that they'd do it, of course.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/15/2006 00:00 ||
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The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Thursday categorically denied media reports that the 26-member western alliance was discussing to take military action against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
"On Iran, let's be clear. There has been absolutely no discussion in NATO of military action," NATO spokesman James Appathurai told reporters in Brussels. "Obviously NATO does not have a lead when it comes to negotiations surrounding the question of Iran's nuclear program," he said. The spokesman added that NATO fully supports the EU-3 and the IAEA in their efforts to negotiate a solution to Iran's nuclear program.
#1
Why should European countries discuss any military plans outside of their own borders? They have no offensive abilities that can reach Iran other than the British nuke subs. I suspect the French ones are targeting more British sites than Iranian. Mostly the remaining Euro forces are follow on type organizations incapable of fighting their way in. Even then the usually mode of operation is to hunker down and carefully not upset the locals. So 'Action Against' isn't really in their skill sets.
#5
Anything we discuss in NATO get to the French. I doubt if we will have anything to do with the French and perhjaps the Germans in the run up to action. They simply are not credible allies.
Once an oppressed minority under Saddam Hussein, the Kurds of Iraq's north are now the kingmakers, hosting a string of visiting politicians from Sunni Arab and Shiite Muslim factions for consultations on shaping a future government.
The Dec. 15 national elections gave a lead role to the largely secular and independence-minded Iraqi Kurds because a two-thirds majority is needed to control parliament and no group is expected to come close to that.
Accounting for about 15 percent of the country's people, the pragmatic Kurds say they will work with anyone willing to offer them something in return. Independence is their ultimate prize - even if the politicians don't say it publicly.
Final election results may be released in the coming week, and the Kurds are set to win about 55 seats in the 275-member parliament and will likely mediate between the majority Shiites and minority Sunnis in cobbling together a coalition government.
The current governing religious Shiite bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance, is expected to have as many as 130 seats, but that is far below the 184 needed to rule on its own. Sunni groups are heading for around 50 seats, while former Prime Minister Ayyad Allawi's secular bloc could get 25.
Right now, religious Sunnis and religious Shiites are not happy with each other.
The Sunnis boycotted the first post-Saddam election last Jan. 30 and they complained of electoral fraud and voter intimidation in last month's vote.
Shiites say the Sunnis complain too much about the election and should be concentrating on the politics of forming a government.
"The (Sunni coalition) Accordance Front has been making threats of violence to change the results," Hussain al-Shahristani, a senior official in the United Iraqi Alliance and deputy speaker in the outgoing parliament, told The Associated Press. "They must understand that they cannot use violence to force their way into government."
Ending the deadlock is where the Kurds come in.
"Kurds in Iraq are an important part of the Iraqi equation," said Kamran al-Karadaghi, chief of staff to Jalal Talabani, the first Kurd to be Iraq's president and leader of one of the two main Kurdish political parties.
"After Saddam's fall, Iraqi Kurds abandoned their semi-independence to become part of a new Iraq ... a very effective part of it," al-Karadaghi said.
Following the election for an interim legislature a year ago, Talabani helped broker often bitter negotiations between the Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni communities, leading to the government of current Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, who is a Shiite.
"Of course the Kurds are an important factor now ... They will occupy a big chunk of the assembly," said Nassir al-Ani of the Accordance Front, the main Sunni Arab coalition.
He and two colleagues from his group met at year's end with Kurdistan regional President Massoud Barzani in Irbil to talk about the shape of a future government.
Al-Ani said his delegation asked Barzani to "put pressure on other parties" to meet Sunni demands for greater minority rights.
The Sunnis are demanding that voting be held again in some provinces, including Baghdad - the country's largest with 59 seats in parliament.
Sunnis also are seeking Kurdish help in pressuring Shiites to accept amendments to the constitution adopted by national referendum in October, including a provision that keeps the central government weak in favor of strong provincial governments.
However, the leader of the fundamentalist Shiite religious bloc, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, insisted Tuesday that Shiites would not allow any substantive constitutional changes.
Al-Jaafari, the prime minister, also visited Barzani for talks as did al-Hakim, who also met with Talabani.
Al-Hakim's talks in the north focused on who should get the top 12 government jobs, including Cabinet posts. The meetings were also widely seen as part of an effort to force Sunni Arab groups to come to the bargaining table.
The Shiite bloc needs the Kurds to form a government.
The Kurds may want Shiites to agree to more powers for the president as a counterbalance to Shiite strength. The constitution gives nearly all executive powers to the prime minister, and Talabani has indicated he is not interested in a second term if the presidency is not given more authority.
"All the main political groups, especially the alliance, is talking about Talabani as a president for the next four years. If they really want him to be president, they should accept" his condition, al-Karadaghi said.
Kurdish leaders say privately that they do not favor al-Jaafari remaining as prime minister. Talabani and al-Jaafari did not get along in the eight months of the interim government. Talabani, in particular, felt al-Jaafari sought to monopolize power and threatened him with a "no confidence" vote in the interim legislature.
Talabani said recently that there was an agreement in principle on a forming national unity government with representatives of all the factions, but that striking a deal would be harder than after last year's election. "The devil is in the details," Talabani told reporters.
Kurdish politicians say they enjoy good relations with both Shiite Muslims and Sunni Arabs, even though for decades the Kurds - who are mostly Sunnis - suffered under the brutal regime of Saddam, also a Sunni.
But Kurdish leaders still have grievances. The Iraqi constitution allows their region autonomy close to independence, but not - for the time being - the oil city of Kirkuk. However, the Kurds can drill for oil and own any newly discovered reserves.
Distrust of both Sunnis and Shiites persists among the Kurdish population, a majority of whom want independence, not federalism. More than 2 million people favored independence in an unofficial referendum last January.
Iraq's neighbors, notably Turkey, fear such a move would inspire their own Kurdish populations to renew separatist struggles.
For 13 years after the end of the 1991 Gulf War, Kurds lived in a semiautonomous region under the protection of Western warplanes, and Kurdish language and customs flourished.
Many Sunni Arabs, who comprise an estimated 20 percent of Iraq's population and have long opposed Kurds' aspirations, are beginning to accept the notion of a Kurdish federation in the north - as long as the rest of the country doesn't follow their example.
"We don't want to carve up the country into different parts," said al-Ani, the Accordance Front official. "But the Kurdish federation is a fact on the ground. Kurds have their own ethnicity, customs and traditions."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/15/2006 01:17 ||
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#1
I rather like this development. Nice work, Kurds, and thanks for being willing to be the grownups here.
Radical Shiâite cleric Moqtada Sadr emphasised his hostility towards the US-led forces in Iraq and said he was ready to help make them leave peacefully, in a rare interview broadcast on Friday.
Sadr called on the Iraqi government to âget rid of the occupationâ when he spoke to the Al-Arabiya television channel in Saudi Arabia, where the young cleric had been taking part in the annual hajj pilgrimage for the first time.
The firebrand leader said he was willing to help rid the country of foreign forces by taking part in âprotests, strikes and peaceful marches.â He also accused the US military of creating the presumed leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, who is blamed by US and Iraqi officials for some of the worst attacks in the country. âAs long as the occupation remains in Iraq, Zarqawi will continue to harm the security and stabilityâ of the country, Sadr said.
As for political wrangling taking place following the December 15 general election, Sadr insisted he was above politics. At the same time, he indicated he would help bring together the different Iraqi political groups to create the next government, but warned this would be impossible to do under the occupation.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/15/2006 01:02 ||
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#1
assassinate this one. he has caused problems. he is young, he will cause problems for another half a century if his spittle-flying rabid islamist mouth isn't silenced by a clod of earth
BAGHDAD - A powerful Shiite leader said on Saturday Iraqâs new government should reflect the results of last monthâs general election rather than an undemocratic consensus between political parties.
The comments by Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, head of the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) coalition, came as political wrangling between Iraqâs majority Shiites, minority Sunni Arabs and the Kurds gets underway to form the countryâs first full-term government since the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003. A consensus-based government âsignifies the end of democracy, the end of giving power to the majority and of the elections,â Hakim told the publicly-funded Al-Sabah newspaper.
The UIA coalition of Shiite parties, headed by Hakimâs Supreme Council of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq (SCIRI), appears to have won the most votes in the December 15 election, according to initial indications.
Wotta coincidence. No wonder he wants everyone to respect democracy. This time.
Rejecting consensus politics, Hakim called for a more representative government based on the results of the election. He indicated that Sunni Arabs and Kurds would be invited to take part in the government, but only on the terms of the winning Shiite coalition.
As a result, said Hakim, the country would also enjoy a viable opposition -- crucial in a democracy. âWe think there are sections of the Iraqi population who must take part, at the moment, in the planning and executionâ of the political process, he said. âTherefore, we believe their participation is necessary in the formation of the next government.â
However, the Shiite leader also defended the existence of a âgenuine opposition to complete the structure of the democratic system.â
Until they do something he doesn't like.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/15/2006 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD - The chief judge overseeing the Saddam Hussein trial has no plans to step down, and a news report suggesting that he will is âbaseless,â another judge on the Saddam tribunal said on Saturday. Rizgar Mohammed Amin, the presiding judge of a five-judge tribunal overseeing the Saddam case, has no plans to step down before the completion of the trial, two judges told The Associated Press on Saturday.
A recent news report citing an anonymous source close to the judge said he would hear one more session of the trial and then resign. One of the judges who spoke to AP sits on the five-judge panel with Amin hearing the Saddam trial. The second judge is on the committee that will likely hear the next case against Saddam concerning the Anfal Offensive that killed some 180,000 Kurds. Both judges spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
The judge on the committee studying the Anfal case told AP that Amin wasnât likely to serve for that trial because a five-judge panel has already been selected and is studying the case.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/15/2006 00:00 ||
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EFL
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said Sunday he has no intention of running again after his current term as chairman of the PA expires in 2008, also predicting sweeping changes from this month's parliamentary election. "meet the new boss, same as the old boss"
Speaking to reporters in Ramallah, Abbas said the new Palestinian parliament to be elected on January 25 will offer a "new type" of democracy, welcoming the participation of other factions in the race. His ruling party Fatah has controlled the Palestinian Authority since the first parliamentary election in 1996.
Abbas was elected a year ago to replace Yasser Arafat, who died on November 11. "The presidency is four years, and it is possible (legally) to go for another term," Abbas told reporters. "But from now, I say, this ... will not happen."
Abbas, 70, said the next election should be for a vice president as well as a president, but that would require parliamentary action. Or a plurality of automatic weapons
On concerns that the parliamentary elections may be marred with violence, Abbas repeated that he ordered his security forces to prevent anyone with a gun from getting close to the polling stations. Other than normal "poll workers"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/15/2006 16:58 ||
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"We'll negotiate [with Israel] better than the others, who negotiated for 10 years and achieved nothing," Sheikh Mohammed Abu Tir, second on the Hamas national list for the Palestinian parliamentary election, told Haaretz recently.
Abu Tir does not dismiss future negotiations with Israel. He makes a great effort to explain to Israel and the world, which are attempting to come to terms with his organization's expected good showing in the elections later this month, that Hamas is playing by new rules.
"For instance, now we allow the two-point conversion."
According to Abu Tir, the movement's decision to enter the elections - as well as the decision to remove from its election platform sections in its constitution calling for Israel's destruction - are not only tactical measures. Rather, they represent a strategic shift. "In the past, it was said that we don't understand politics, only force, but we are a broad, well-grounded movement that is active in all areas of life. Now we are proving that we also understand politics better than the others," Abu Tir said.
"And we've also seen that the Israelis have more force than we'll ever have. Let me tell you, my brothers, that the light came on after the last helizap," he added.
Abu Tir, 55, from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Umm Tuba, does not have a high media profile in either the West Bank or Israel. However, he is considered one of Hamas' most prominent individuals. He was released from an Israeli prison about six months ago, after spending most of the last 30 years in administrative detention or serving sentences for membership in a terror organization, weapons possession and directing the activities of the Hamas military wing, Iz al-Din al-Qassam. Following his release, Abu Tir was recruited by the Hamas leadership to head its national list after the group's Gaza leader, Ismail Haniyeh. "The use of the word muqawama [resistance in Arabic, used by Hamas and many other organizations to signify the armed struggle] in the platform does not necessarily refer to weapons and the use of force," Abu Tir said.
"What else could it mean?"
"Um, .. we're working on that. We'll let you know."
When asked whether Hamas would negotiate with Israel after the elections, he said, "We will not give Israel the justification and the legitimacy to occupy our lands." But he immediately added that "we are not saying 'never.' The question of negotiations will be presented to the new parliament and, as with every issue, when we reach the parliament it will be discussed and decided in a rational manner."
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/15/2006 16:13 ||
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#1
Hamas to talk with Israel? What, their boomers will say "Hope you suffer unbearably" to their civilian victims?
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon underwent a successful tracheotomy Sunday to help wean him off a respirator that has been helping him breathe since he suffered a massive stroke 11 days ago, hospital officials said, but he remained in a coma. The surgery, conducted under general anesthesia, took less than an hour as doctors cut a small hole in Sharon's neck to insert a tube directly into his windpipe.
The hospital said that before the throat surgery, Sharon had a brain scan, which showed his condition was "unchanged since the previous scan, carried out last Thursday."
Sharon also had been taken off the last of the sedatives that have kept him in a medically induced coma Saturday evening, but he was still unconscious, according to the statement.
Outside experts said the tracheotomy was necessary because the plastic tube that had connected his windpipe with the respirator would have started to cause damage.
Sharon's comatose state and the tracheotomy do not bode well for the prime minister's future, said Dr. Philip Stieg, chair of neurosurgery at the Weill-Cornell Medical College in New York. It is becoming more probable as time passes that Sharon will either remain in a vegetative state or have low abilities to think and reason, said Stieg, who is not involved in Sharon's care.
"It suggests that the brain damage is as serious as we thought it was based on earlier reports and now its all playing out," Stieg said. "He's not turning the corner, he's not waking up ... they're having to do more things to keep him alive."
Doctors said Saturday that Sharon had activity on both sides of his brain.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/15/2006 13:58 ||
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The Palestinian president has said legislative elections would be held as scheduled on 25 January if Israel did not prevent the vote in East Jerusalem, and that Hamas could only participate in any future government if it recognised the Oslo peace accords. Interviewed by Aljazeera on Saturday, Mahmoud Abbas said he expects the Israeli government to accept the holding of elections in Jerusalem in accordance with the terms agreed on by the Palestinian and Israeli authorities during the 1996 vote.
On the issue of Hamas's participation in the polls, Abbas said the democratic option could not be partitioned, and whoever emerges victorious in the election will become a member of the legislative council, but on the basis of the existing authority which in turn is based on the Oslo accords and the peace option.
Israel has already made clear that it will not allow campaigning in East Jerusalem by Hamas, which has carried out the majority of attacks against Israel in the past five years and refuses to recognise Israel. "Hamas is now participating in the elections according to a certain basis, and not any other basis from the past," Abbas said in the interview.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2006 00:00 ||
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Batten down the hatches, boys, and prepare for full-bore crazy. That is all.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's attorney has emerged as the leading architect of foreign policy in Israel in wake of his client's massive stroke. Dov Weisglass, Sharon's attorney and adviser, has been maintaining Israel's contacts with the United States and other Western powers, particularly in the area of Palestinian relations. Weisglass has also convened Israeli military and security chiefs to plan for Palestinian legislative elections on Jan. 25. "It can't be that Weisglass is running the country," Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, a critic of Sharon, said.
Weisglass's influence has been heavily criticized by the parliamentary opposition. Parliamentarians have pointed to Weisglass's continued professional involvement with projects in the Palestinian Authority, including the Austrian-owned casino in the West Bank town of Jericho.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2006 00:00 ||
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A mind is a terrible thing to waste. Tomorrow's Jakarta Post reports:
A thick cloud of suspicion hangs over the country's pesantren (Islamic boarding schools), with many convinced they are a breeding ground for terrorists.
The second Bali bombings last October, in which several boarding school alumni were implicated, were followed by discussion of the mass fingerprinting of students, as well as revisions to the curriculum to avoid the sowing of hatred.
2 other pics for Frank to consider LOL. I wonder if Darth Bolton made an impression on el Baradai or if he realizes just how close things are to going up ....
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/15/2006 16:55 ||
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couldn't decide on "Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious" pic or One of the meter pics/pegged needle
what a tool....
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/15/2006 16:57 Comments ||
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Someone musta finally gotten through his Helm of Ignorance and Shield of Blindness with the Clue-bat.
A ROW between pro-Syrian Hizbollah guerrillas and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has plunged Lebanon deeper into a political crisis that has paralysed the Government and divided the country along sectarian lines. In an unprecedented attack, Jumblatt accused Shiite Muslim Hizbollah of hiding behind its "weapons of treachery", capping a month-old campaign against the group that is under pressure to disarm in line with a UN resolution.
Hizbollah, close to Syria and Iran, responded with a biting attack against Mr Jumblatt, the most outspoken critic of Syria's domination of Lebanon after the 1975-1990 civil war.
"Which are the weapons of treachery, the weapons of the resistance or those of Walid Jumblatt? The arms that liberated and protected Lebanon or those that destroyed, expelled, burned, killed and committed massacres?" it said referring to his role as a warlord during the war. "If treachery was embodied as a man in these bad times, it would be Walid Jumblatt".
The standoff spilled over into a public slanging match after a flurry of diplomatic efforts failed last week to reach a compromise over a U.N. inquiry that has implicated Syria in the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in February.
#2
A perhaps obtuse question: has there ever been a period of time, however brief, when Lebanon's political sector has not been in pending, actual, or temporarily patched up crisis?
A secret document obtained by Iran Focus shows that recent political developments in Syria and Lebanon have aroused deep anxiety among the top commanders of Iranâs Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), who see the events as âa direct threat to the national securityâ of the Islamic Republic and who want to speed up the development of nuclear weapons.
The document, provided to Iran Focus by a reliable source in Iran, is a political analysis of the situation by the IRGC leadership prepared earlier this month for circulation among the clerical regimeâs top officials. The paper, entitled âRecent occurrences in Syria and their effects on the regionâ, warns that the ârapidly changingâ political climate in the Middle East, particularly in Syria and Lebanon, would be âsignificantly detrimentalâ to Tehranâs interests.
The IRGC leadership identified the United States military presence in the Persian Gulf region as âthe root of evilâ and said âgreater measuresâ were needed to counter it.
âFrom a strategic point of view, any change in, or destabilisation of, Syria will reduce or eliminate the calculations and reach of the Islamic Republic of Iran to counter the threats posed by the Zionist regimeâ, the Revolutionary Guards commanders said, referring to Israel.
âThe plot that is being implemented in Lebanon with quickening steps aims to change the political makeup of the country and its officials and their positions, so that they force Hezbollah to accept the new imposed realitiesâ.
Elsewhere in the report, Iranâs nuclear program is highlighted as the ânext targetâ of the international community. The paper argues that the West will attempt to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear capabilities and that the Islamic Republic must push forward with its nuclear advancements in order to ensure its survival.
The paper concludes by saying, âAltogether, in all the regions mentioned from Syria to Iraq, and Lebanon to Palestine, the desire of Arab leaders to remain in power in return for cooperating with America brings with it active and potential threats which directly threaten Iranâs interests and national security, while at the same time progressively and quietly limiting the areas that are within our reach and weakening our regional tools and assetsâ.
âThese two points, when considered alongside other active threats, can be significantly detrimental to the Islamic Republicâs interests and security. Vigilance, wisdom, and well-planned and comprehensive measures are required to deal with these threatsâ, the top IRGC commanders noted.
#2
âFrom a strategic point of view, any change in, or destabilisation of, Syria will reduce or eliminate the calculations and reach of the Islamic Republic of Iran." [the period goes right there]
Heh, it's no secret - it's called the Bush Doctrine.
#4
If this info is true then it pretty much settles the question. Iran want nukes. We is the rest of the world going to do about it?
Iran has no business in Lebanon. Every effort should be made to get rid of it's agents in Lebanon. They have what amounts to a private army that this hostile to the will of the majority of the population. That has got to go.
As Iran rushes towards confrontation with the world over its nuclear programme, the question uppermost in the mind of western leaders is "What is moving its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to such recklessness?"
Political analysts point to the fact that Iran feels strong because of high oil prices, while America has been weakened by the insurgency in Iraq.
But listen carefully to the utterances of Mr Ahmadinejad - recently described by President George W Bush as an "odd man" - and there is another dimension, a religious messianism that, some suspect, is giving the Iranian leader a dangerous sense of divine mission.
In November, the country was startled by a video showing Mr Ahmadinejad telling a cleric that he had felt the hand of God entrancing world leaders as he delivered a speech to the UN General Assembly last September.
When an aircraft crashed in Teheran last month, killing 108 people, Mr Ahmadinejad promised an investigation. But he also thanked the dead, saying: "What is important is that they have shown the way to martyrdom which we must follow."
The most remarkable aspect of Mr Ahmadinejad's piety is his devotion to the Hidden Imam, the Messiah-like figure of Shia Islam, and the president's belief that his government must prepare the country for his return.
One of the first acts of Mr Ahmadinejad's government was to donate about £10 million to the Jamkaran mosque, a popular pilgrimage site where the pious come to drop messages to the Hidden Imam into a holy well.
All streams of Islam believe in a divine saviour, known as the Mahdi, who will appear at the End of Days. A common rumour - denied by the government but widely believed - is that Mr Ahmadinejad and his cabinet have signed a "contract" pledging themselves to work for the return of the Mahdi and sent it to Jamkaran.
Iran's dominant "Twelver" sect believes this will be Mohammed ibn Hasan, regarded as the 12th Imam, or righteous descendant of the Prophet Mohammad.
He is said to have gone into "occlusion" in the ninth century, at the age of five. His return will be preceded by cosmic chaos, war and bloodshed. After a cataclysmic confrontation with evil and darkness, the Mahdi will lead the world to an era of universal peace.
This is similar to the Christian vision of the Apocalypse. Indeed, the Hidden Imam is expected to return in the company of Jesus.
Mr Ahmadinejad appears to believe that these events are close at hand and that ordinary mortals can influence the divine timetable.
The prospect of such a man obtaining nuclear weapons is worrying. The unspoken question is this: is Mr Ahmadinejad now tempting a clash with the West because he feels safe in the belief of the imminent return of the Hidden Imam? Worse, might he be trying to provoke chaos in the hope of hastening his reappearance?
The 49-year-old Mr Ahmadinejad, a former top engineering student, member of the Revolutionary Guards and mayor of Teheran, overturned Iranian politics after unexpectedly winning last June's presidential elections.
The main rift is no longer between "reformists" and "hardliners", but between the clerical establishment and Mr Ahmadinejad's brand of revolutionary populism and superstition.
Its most remarkable manifestation came with Mr Ahmadinejad's international debut, his speech to the United Nations.
World leaders had expected a conciliatory proposal to defuse the nuclear crisis after Teheran had restarted another part of its nuclear programme in August.
Instead, they heard the president speak in apocalyptic terms of Iran struggling against an evil West that sought to promote "state terrorism", impose "the logic of the dark ages" and divide the world into "light and dark countries".
The speech ended with the messianic appeal to God to "hasten the emergence of your last repository, the Promised One, that perfect and pure human being, the one that will fill this world with justice and peace".
In a video distributed by an Iranian web site in November, Mr Ahmadinejad described how one of his Iranian colleagues had claimed to have seen a glow of light around the president as he began his speech to the UN.
"I felt it myself too," Mr Ahmadinejad recounts. "I felt that all of a sudden the atmosphere changed there. And for 27-28 minutes all the leaders did not blinkâŠIt's not an exaggeration, because I was looking.
"They were astonished, as if a hand held them there and made them sit. It had opened their eyes and ears for the message of the Islamic Republic."
Western officials said the real reason for any open-eyed stares from delegates was that "they couldn't believe what they were hearing from Ahmadinejad".
Their sneaking suspicion is that Iran's president actually relishes a clash with the West in the conviction that it would rekindle the spirit of the Islamic revolution and - who knows - speed up the arrival of the Hidden Imam.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/15/2006 01:16 ||
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Iranâs hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended on Saturday his previous comments calling for the destruction of Israel and rejected criticism from Unites States President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the issue.
In several demagogic speeches since his taking office last year, Ahmadinejad had claimed that the Holocaust was a âmythâ and declared that the Jewish state had to be âwiped off the mapâ. Iran was twice censured at the United Nations Security Council for the presidentâs comments.
In his first press conference since taking office, which was broadcasted live on state television, Ahmadinejad defended his statements and said that the U.S. was seeking to âwipe Palestine off the mapâ. âBut you will not be able toâ, Ahmadinejad insisted. âIf we look at a map from seventy years ago, we will see that Israel never existedâ.
Asked about the U.S. and German leadersâ positions, the Revolutionary Guards commander-turned-President said, âEveryone is free to make comments, but I ask this: are these two individuals supporters of Israel or not? If they are then they are also liable for their crimesâ.
He said that those who support Israel must be prosecuted for war crimes, so âthese people better watch what they sayâ.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/15/2006 01:03 ||
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President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said here on Saturday that civilized Iran does not need nuclear weapons.
âWe are a civilized and ancient nation, and a nation that has culture and logic does not need nuclear weapons,â Ahmadinejad told reporters at a news conference.
Nuclear weapons are sought by people who intend to solve everything through force and bullying, he underlined.
âUnfortunately, today people face rulers who think they have more rights than other nations because their arsenals are stocked with nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons.â
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Charter and the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), all member states have the right to gain access to nuclear technology meant for peaceful purposes and no pretexts can be used to infringe on these rights, even inspections, he pointed out.
âEach year, tens of new nuclear power plants are constructed, but a few Western countries which have nuclear weapons are questioning Iran, even though, with unprecedented inspections and supervision, there is not the slightest evidence against us.
âThey think they have the power and want to deprive Iran of its rights. They clearly announced that they are against research. They want to monopolize nuclear energy and impose their policies on other nations.
âThese countries supplied Iranâs previous regime with weapons and power plants and helped (its attempts) to master the nuclear fuel cycle, but after the victory of the Islamic Revolution they changed course and stood against us, they imposed sanctions on us and equipped Saddam Hussein with chemical weapons in the (1980-1988) war against Iran.â
Ahmadinejad defended Tehranâs move to restart nuclear research, saying that research is not limited and that the move is neither a violation of the NPT nor its additional protocol.
âResearch is necessary for a dynamic nation. How can you halt a countryâs scientific progress?
âDespite the technological progress in the world, a few Western countries are mentally living in medieval times and say you don't have the right to scientific progress,â AFP quoted him as saying.
âI tell those few Western countries that today it is time for you to create confidence. The time has passed for the language of bullying, domination, and relying on your nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.
âIt has become obvious for us that they donât want Iran to achieve scientific progress. They openly acknowledge that they are against research. Is this not a medieval approach? They want to govern the 21st century with medieval ideas.
âYou must have a better understanding of the Iranian nation and government; otherwise, you will regret your future actions. You need us more than we need you.â
Iran seeks dialogue and respects international law, the president said, adding that so far there have been 1400 man-hours of inspections of Iranâs nuclear sites and that now it is the Westâs turn to build confidence.
Ahmadinejad noted that Iran will not be deflected from its right to develop nuclear technology by referral to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
âIf they want to destroy the Iranian nation's rights by that course, they will not succeed.
"Even if the Security Council becomes involved, it will not help resolve the issue. We are not interested in going down this path, but if some people insist on depriving the Iranian people of their rights, they should know that such a thing will not happen."
The president criticized European countries for imposing a âstickâ policy on Iran and threatening to send the country to the UN if it did not consent to their proposals.
He stated that the IAEA should not be forced to enter political dealings, adding that the UN Security Council belongs to all nations and should not be used as a tool by a few countries.
"Why are you harming the reputation of international bodies? Why are you employing the Security Council? Is it your device to use? Doesn't that endanger world security? Doesn't unilateralism endanger security?
âWe are not interested in creating tension or in useless talks. Naturally, our nation will not accept anything imposed on it. It is our definitive right to have nuclear technology.
âWe are the only nation that invited (the West) to set up a partnership with Iran and to supervise the countryâs nuclear activities if they lack confidence. We are also ready to be their partner and to supervise their activities.
âYou fill your arsenals (with nuclear weapons) but prevent us from conducting research.â
Elsewhere in his remarks, Ahmadinejad said Iran seeks to develop peaceful ties with the entire world.
He said that the Islamic Republic pursues an active foreign policy based on justice.
âWe neither oppress anyone nor will submit to oppression ourselves. We seek justice and peace for all nations.
âWe believe that lasting peace can only be achieved based on justice and spirituality. An imposed peace under the shadow of swords and nuclear, biological, and chemical arsenals will not be permanent.â
Ahmadinejad attacked arrogant rulers for causing suffering, saying, âLeaders who believe they can create peace for themselves by creating war for others are mistaken,â the BBC reported.
He said Iran seeks to further develop ties with regional states, adding, âWe defend the territorial integrity, security, and independence of all countries, including neighboring states.
âWe believe neighboring states can solve their problems by themselves and that world powers should withdraw and allow them to make their own decisions.â
The president also announced that Iran is prepared to hold scholarly dialogue with those who claim to uphold human rights.
âYou canât define a specific framework for human rights and impose it on the world.
âWe are ready to dispatch committees to these nations and accept committees from them to assess the human rights situation on both sides and to inform the public about the contents of the committeesâ reports.
âThese committees will be sent to their secret prisons, they will observe the election process, the discrimination against religious minorities, the economic measures that are taken against the nation, and the decisions which are made to support terrorists.â
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/15/2006 00:53 ||
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âWe are a civilized and ancient nation, and a nation that has culture and logic does not need nuclear weapons,â Ahmadinejad told reporters at a news conference.
Pronunciation: 'si-v&-"lIz
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -lized; -liz·ing
transitive senses
1 : to cause to develop out of a primitive state; especially : to bring to a technically advanced and rationally ordered stage of cultural development
Oh yeah, that's a REAL good description of Iran since 1979.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
01/15/2006 15:30 Comments ||
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Iran's hardline Interior Ministry has decided to control and crackdown the NGOs by preparing a list of groups that it claims are planning to overthrow the Islamic regime. Conservative Qods daily has exposed a plan by the ministry to deal with Iranian NGOs. Based on Qodâs report, the Interior Ministry has accused some NGOs of misusing money, supporting members of the former government of Khatami and secretly communicating with foreign agents.
During the last days of President Mohammad Khatami's reform government, Ashraf Boroujerdi, social affairs deputy at the Interior Ministry had stressed the existence of plans to fight NGOs and their so-called activities against Iran's national security.
It seems that through the news regarding the interior ministry's list of NGOs, the fundamentalist and hardline government of Ahmadinejad is exposing its strategies aimed at slaughtering the NGOs.
With 20 million votes, Khatami became the first president after the revolution who regularly and systematically emphasized on the establishment of a civil society in Iran. Eight years ago the media and political analysts took note of the call for the establishment and institutionalization of a civil society in Iran. In order to institutionalize the reform movement in Iran, Khatami's aides advised him to pay more attention to non-political and civil institutions and paved the way for the formation of NGOs that blossomed in Iran's short-live reform period. A Ministry of Interior official asserts that more than 10,000 active NGOs were established during Khatami's eight-year presidential term. During the last months of Khatami's government, the interference of semi-military and security shadow groups, prevented the activities of many NGOs while also intimidating activists through interrogations and even arrests.
But things have come a long way and have changed drastically since the victory of the current hardline administration. Instead of strengthening the status of the NGO, some government officials today call for strengthening the religious and Islamic organizations. In the same light, the new government has shown a familiar intolerance towards the media and non-government political and student organizations, threatening them with closures and suspension of activity.
A number of media editors too have expressed their concerns over the crackdown of NGOs and have called the pressures a plot to limit the free flow of information between Iranian institutions that operate in the global intellectual arena.
This confrontational attitude and policies have raised the concerns of social activists as well. They believe these intuitions will form the foundations for social and civil justice, and eventually pave the way for people's participation to protect their rights and interests.
Ahmadinejad's hard-line government does not believe in NGOs and prefers to provide the masses with ideology and rather than with modern organized organizations. The plot to crackdown such activities revealed itself when the government announced its plan to formally review the legal files of the NGOs.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/15/2006 00:51 ||
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#1
Damm I feel sorry for everyone in Iran that on election day voted against Ahmandinejad. The clensin be a comin. Their screwed
Iran's Ambassador to Dushanbe Nasser Sarmadi Parsa said on Saturday that the upcoming visit of Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov to Tehran would open a new chapter in expansion of economic and cultural ties between the two countries. The Tajik president would arrive in Tehran on Monday to attend the tripartite summit to be also attended by his Iranian, Afghan counterparts.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2006 00:18 ||
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Lebanon's Islamic resistance movement, Hezbollah, said Jan. 13 that the group is concerned about a recent statement released by al Qaeda, in which it claimed responsibility for rocket attacks launched into Israel from southern Lebanon. Hezbollah's deputy secretary general, Sheikh Naim Qassem, said in an interview published by Christian Science Monitor newspaper that Hezbollah is frustrated with al Qaeda's intrusion onto its traditional territory. Qassem said Hezbollah, a Shiite organization, has been closely monitoring the development of militant Sunni Islam in the region, stressing that southern Lebanon should not become an "arena for settling scores."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/15/2006 00:18 ||
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That's pretty bad when hezbollah tells you to nix the pointless violence. AQ is running out of friends , and quick.
Former Syrian vice president Abdel-Halim Khaddam, a fierce critic of President Bashar al-Assad, told a German magazine he was forming a government in exile and believed Assad would be forced from power this year.
Prior to 9-11-06...
Khaddam, who now lives in Paris, told the weekly Der Spiegel on Saturday that Assad was facing growing pressure from economic problems at home and the international investigation into the killing of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri. "His fall has already begun. I don't think his regime will last out this year," Khaddam, who accuses Assad of ordering Hariri's murder, said. The former vice president, for 30 years a confidant of Assad's late father, Syrian leader Hafez al-Assad, left the government in June.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2006 00:16 ||
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#1
this guy's from the shammar tribe and will continue to promote cross border instability as its good for the smuggling business--also he's the quai d'orsay's boy and we all love the franch n'est pas--they wouldn't do anything to hurt our interests in the mideast --would they?--support uncle rifat--he be da one
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI ||
01/15/2006 4:10 Comments ||
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pushed back at President Bush and European leaders on Saturday, insisting Iran will press ahead with its nuclear program despite the threat of economic sanctions because "ultimately they need us more than we need them."
At a news conference that lasted more than two hours, a confident Ahmadinejad posed a question to Western governments: "So why do you strike a mighty pose? I advise you to understand the Iranian nation and revolution in a better way. A time might come that you would become regretful, and then there would be no benefits in regretting."
Ahmadinejad's remarks, broadcast live on international news networks, brought to a confrontational close a week in which Tehran defied a U.N. watchdog agency by resuming nuclear research that had been suspended for 2 1/2 years after going forward in secret for almost two decades. Iran's removal of seals on nuclear equipment at its enrichment plant at Natanz and preparations to resume research brought a cascade of criticism, with Bush saying Friday that the prospect of an Iran armed with nuclear weapons was "a grave threat to the security of the world."
Diplomats from the United States, Europe, Russia and China are scheduled to gather in London on Monday to discuss shifting Iran's file from the International Atomic Energy Agency to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions.
Ahmadinejad, a hard-line conservative who took office in August, said Iran remained open to negotiation and to foreign partnerships that would ensure it was not diverting uranium to a weapons program. His statements reflected positions already established by the unelected officials steering the Iranian government's strategy, a consensus approach ultimately guided by the country's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The defiant notes struck again and again by Ahmadinejad vividly described the chasm that separates Iran and the Western powers struggling to contain its nuclear ambitions.
Ahmadinejad called it "laughable" that his assertions that Israel be "wiped off the map" and his reference to the Holocaust as a "myth" may have seeded doubts about the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program.
"We don't need nuclear weapons," Ahmadinejad said, noting that religious doctrine restrained Iran from unleashing its own stocks of chemical weapons when Iraq gassed Iranian troops during the 1980s. "Nuclear weapons are pursued by those who want to solve everything by bullying everyone."
He challenged the United States to open its own nuclear facilities to U.N. inspection. Reversing a warning Western leaders leveled this week at Tehran, he advised Washington and Europe "not to isolate yourself anymore in the family of nations."
"They confront us and deal with us in a very harsh and illegal language, but ultimately they need us more than we need them," Ahmadinejad said.
"They're telling us you should build confidence, trust. Let me tell you, for two and a half years that point was made. Now I tell you, it is high time for the E.U. countries to provide some trust for us.
"We have to understand they do not want the Iranian nation to have technological programs."
The argument goes to the heart of Iran's rationale for pursuing a nuclear program despite its vast petroleum reserves. Leaders of the theocratic government, which regards itself as the leader of the Islamic world, say they are defying the relatively recent colonial past and hearkening back to the era when Muslims pioneered discoveries in medicine and mathematics.
"One should always try to acquire knowledge from those who possess it," Khamenei, who holds ultimate power in Iran, told an audience of Muslim pilgrims last week. "However, the Islamic world should try not to remain a student all the time. Rather, it should make use of its talents and make optimal use of its innovation and abilities to make scientific advances."
Many ordinary Iranians, frustrated by high unemployment and a chronically troubled economy, add that they consider technology to be synonymous with development. But while public support for the nuclear program remains high, some are discomfited by their president's strident tone.
"He doesn't know foreign policy, and it's making trouble for Iran," said Ali Reza, 32, who has a bachelor's degree in economics but earns his living ferrying passengers around Tehran in his sedan.
"It's like having a car accident in a place where you don't know the people. You shouldn't jump out of the car screaming. If you do things calmly, you might get away without paying anything at all. The other way, you might end up getting beaten."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/15/2006 00:16 ||
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#1
If you do things calmly, you might get away without paying anything at all. The other way, you might end up getting beaten
Ted Koppel acknowledged Friday that he met with a rep from the soon-to-launch English-language al-Jazeera television network before deciding to work for Discovery Channel after he left ABC's "Nightline."
"I make it a habit always to listen to people first before I say no," Koppel told The Reporters Who Cover Television at Winter TV Press Tour 2006. "None of your business," Koppel snapped when a reporter asked what al-Jazeera had put on the table.
The questions kept coming; Koppel got testier. "Come on!" he said, "I routinely meet with some of the nastiest people in the world. . . . I meet with terrorists, I meet with murderers behind bars." But, of course, not to talk about going to work for them, one reporter noted with, we presume, some degree of accuracy.
Koppel said that he was "fascinated" by what the al-Jazeera rep had to say but that he and Bettag did not "entertain the idea for 38 seconds. I know it's fashionable just to look at al-Jazeera as a propaganda outlet for al Qaeda," Koppel said Friday, but "we have been covering the Middle East for many, many years . . . [and] al-Jazeera is a huge step up from where the Arab world's journalism has been over the past 40 years." Koppel said that it "may be possible" that al-Jazeera is "more inclined toward anti-American stories perhaps than American networks are" but that he suspects that will not be true of the new network "if they want to make any progress with their English-language outlet here in the United States."
If Al J plays their cards right they can get the Move-On.org audience, the Kos kids and many others to tune in. The interesting thing is who they will get to advertise on their station.
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.
UNITED NATIONS - Russia and China have delayed promised helicopters and medical units to a UN peacekeeping force in Sudan, thereby causing other countries to postpone sending troops, a UN official said. The United Nations expects 10,000 troops in southern Sudan to monitor a peace agreement signed a year ago that ended nearly three decades of civil war between rebels and the Khartoum government. But only about 4,000 have arrived.
Law enforcing agencies are yet to arrest the masterminds behind with the August countrywide serial bomb blasts although the government is continuously telling the people that hauling up of culprits involved is a âmatter of time.â
North Korean three-star General Ri Chan Bok tells correspondent Dan Rather that if the U.S. invades his country, he will use nuclear weapons to defend it.
AUSTRALIA'S Defence Force is about to embark on its biggest weapons buying spree since World War II, spending $52 billion on new planes, ships and tanks. The massive expenditure will make Australia's navy, army and air force the most powerful and high-tech military in the region well into the 21st century.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah will meet with US Vice President 
The US has hit back at Mexico for criticising a proposal by Washington to build a border fence and make illegal immigration to the United States a serious crime. On Friday, Tony Garza, the US ambassador to Mexico, criticised statements by Mexican officials comparing the fence with the Berlin Wall and denied that the initiative violated the human rights of migrants trying to improve their lives.
Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Qazi Hussain Ahmad condemned the Thursday night missile attack in Bajaur Agency and said it was carried out by US fighter planes. 
US Undersecretary for Political Affairs 
KHAR, Pakistan - Pakistani police tear-gassed tribesmen who burned down a US-funded aid agency office Saturday after the deaths of 18 villagers in an airstrike targeting Al Qaedaâs number two, witnesses said.
BAGHDAD - A powerful Shiite leader said on Saturday Iraqâs new government should reflect the results of last monthâs general election rather than an undemocratic consensus between political parties.
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon underwent a successful tracheotomy Sunday to help wean him off a respirator that has been helping him breathe since he suffered a massive stroke 11 days ago, hospital officials said, but he remained in a coma. The surgery, conducted under general anesthesia, took less than an hour as doctors cut a small hole in Sharon's neck to insert a tube directly into his windpipe.
A ROW between pro-Syrian Hizbollah guerrillas and Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has plunged Lebanon deeper into a political crisis that has paralysed the Government and divided the country along sectarian lines. In an unprecedented attack, Jumblatt accused Shiite Muslim Hizbollah of hiding behind its "weapons of treachery", capping a month-old campaign against the group that is under pressure to disarm in line with a UN resolution.
Iranâs hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended on Saturday his previous comments calling for the destruction of Israel and rejected criticism from Unites States President George W. Bush and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the issue.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad pushed back at President Bush and European leaders on Saturday, insisting Iran will press ahead with its nuclear program despite the threat of economic sanctions because "ultimately they need us more than we need them."
