Tarek Fatah, a progressive Muslim activist from Toronto, has urged Muslims to raise their voice against the Darfur genocide. In an article published in the Globe and Mail, Canadas most influential newspaper, Fatah, a Pakistani-Canadian, decries the position taken by many Muslims that the Jews have somehow stolen the issue of Darfur.
I had no idea the Jews collectively even know where Darfur is. There aren't any Jews there, and they're not even particularly interested in Sudan. Nobody ever says "Next year, in Khartoum."
He writes, The fact that more than 200,000 Darfurians, almost all of them Muslims, have been killed in an ongoing genocide; the fact that more than a million Muslim Darfurians are displaced refugees living in squalor and fear, appears not to have registered with the leadership of traditional Muslim organisations and mosques in this country. One would have expected Muslim organisations to be leading the call for last weeks debate in (the Canadian) Parliament. One expected them to stand in solidarity with their fellow Muslim organisations and mosques in the country.
Darfur doesn't have a government, only three or four sometimes competing rebel groups. Khartoum has a full-fledged dictator, with big shoulder boards and a tin hat. Muslim organizations have a soft spot for that sort of thing.
Fatah is of the view that some kind of Arabic-Islamic ideology is being used in Sudan to ethnically cleanse marginalised citizens who are not considered true Muslims by virtue of being black.
I'd call it racism, though I can't recall having seen anyone else use the word, certainly not any Muslims. We have racism in this country, of course, though by now it usually takes a trained observer like Al Sharpton to recognize it. In Sudan it appears to the untrained observer to be flourishing, though I'm sure that the Sudanese "Arabs" they're actually mostly Nilotic aren't capable of true racism, being of the Third World and Muslim and all.
He quotes Elfadl Elsharief, a Muslim Sudanese, as saying, It is nonsense to suggest that the death, destruction and the suffering of the Darfurian people is imaginary or that Zionists are using us as propaganda. The Sudanese government-backed militias are the people who are killing their fellow Sudanese. The tragedy is that Muslims are killing Muslims.
It's just the Master Race killing the Üntermenschen. The German Nazis professed Christianity and were perfectly happy killing large numbers of other Christians. Why should Muslim Nazis be any different?
According to Fatah, for three years, the government of Sudan has been engaging in genocide of the people of Darfur. For all these years, Khartoum has invoked its Islamic credentials to stave off any criticism or censure from inside the Muslim world, falsely posturing itself as a defender of Muslim frontiers against Western imperialism. It is time for Muslims to rip off Khartoums mask of deception and speak the truth.
It's not a very big mask, not even very firmly attached. In fact, it's made of transparent material. It doesn't really take much effort to see through it, but I guess you have to be willing to do so.
Fatah quotes another Sudanese, el-Farouk Khaki, an immigration lawyer, and president of the Muslim Canadian Congress, who said, This is racism at its worst. I am an African-Canadian; I can tell you in no uncertain terms that the Darfur crisis has not made news in the traditional Muslim organisations because Darfurians are black.
Wowzers. He said the "R" word. I think I can now predict that the awakened Muslim world will... ummm... ignore him.
"Had they been Bosnian, Kosovar, Arab, Pakistani or Iranian, I can bet you, these grounds would have been full of slogan-chanting Muslims demanding justice.
I tend to doubt that. When the Bosnians and Kosovars were being killed in large numbers the Muslim world wasn't out chanting their slogans. Pak Shiites are bumped off almost every day and nobody raises an eyebrow. Iranians casually oppress each other every day and the Muslim world's on the side of the oppressors, where they usually are. Face it: the Muslim world has a fondness for the sight of blood, and they're not particular about whose it is.
"Muslims need to address their internalised racism before they ask others to respect us.
Right. They're gonna hop right on it. I'm sure the Arab League will take the lead, like they always do.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Fred, most of the people at the DC Darfur protest last week were associated with synagogues and other Jewish organizations. Hey—that's what we do.
Those willing to slaughter one group of people for racial or religious reasons will always end up trying to slaughter the Jews.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
05/07/2006 0:54 Comments ||
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Eric Jablow: Those willing to slaughter one group of people for racial or religious reasons will always end up trying to slaughter the Jews.
#4
"Had they been Bosnian, Kosovar, Arab, Pakistani or Iranian, I can bet you, these grounds would have been full of slogan-chanting Muslims demanding justice.
Really?
The Pakistani army killed 3 million Bengalis in East Pakistan, most of them muslims, citizen of their own country.
No crowd of muslims has called for justice.
The criminals of the 71 genocide live in palatial surroundings, enjoyig their retirement.
How many muslims did Saddam kill? 500,000 ?
Any protestors?
How many Kurds have been killed by Turkey? How many thousands of villages razed to the ground?
Muslims protest when they percieve a non-muslim country acting against muslims. It is perfectly all right to kill muslims if one is muslim. The problem arises when it is the kaffir.
To have the kaffir do it is to accept that islam will not conquer all, to accept that Islam is not triumphant.
Posted by: john ||
05/07/2006 10:48 Comments ||
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I'd just like to give the producers of ER a little credit here for tackling Sudan in their May sweeps and not explicitly blaming Dubya or the Jooos. Of course the little episode summary on the cable guide said "Pratt angers gun-toting militants with his arrogance", so they got that wrong, but overall it's a scary look at refugee life in Darfur.
#7
The myth isn't the matter of their existence -- that's not in doubt -- it's their prevalence. The myth claims that the moderates are the predominant -- but silent -- population inside Islam.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/07/2006 12:19 Comments ||
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Muslims protest when they percieve a non-muslim country acting against muslims. It is perfectly all right to kill muslims if one is muslim. The problem arises when it is the kaffir.
Right. it's like in Animal House: "He can't do that to our pledges. Only we can do that to our pledges."
#9
This story is not important enough to report. Better that Greta spend a couple years doing remotes from Aruba about a pretty girl getting raped and killed
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/07/2006 13:06 Comments ||
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also not reported is that during the Darfur conflict hundreds of Darfurian mosques (and some on the other side) have been burned or destroyed by explosives.
This implies tens of thousands of Korans also destroyed.
Sudan's government said Saturday that its peace accord with Darfur's main insurgent group allows it to welcome U.N. peacekeepers to the troubled region, as mediators worked to persuade the rest of the fractured rebel movement to join the process. The peace agreement, reached Friday in Abuja with one branch of the Sudan Liberation Army after two years of sporadic negotiations, aims to end ethnic bloodshed that has killed at least 180,000 people in three years and left some 2 million displaced. The suggestion that it could pave the way for a deployment of U.N. peacekeepers overturns previous rejections by Khartoum, which so far has allowed only African Union peacekeepers on the ground. The underfunded African forces have largely been ineffective in stopping atrocities and re-establishing security, leaving tens of thousands of refugees in camps with little food or water.
Decades of low-level tribal clashes over land and water in Darfur, a vast region about the size of France, erupted into large-scale violence in early 2003 with rebels demanding regional autonomy. The government is accused of responding by unleashing Janjaweed militias upon civilians, a charge Sudan denies. The peace deal calls for a cease-fire, disarmament of goverment-linked militias, the integration of thousands of rebel fighters into Sudan's armed forces and a protection force for civilians in the immediate aftermath of the war.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2006 00:00 ||
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Palestinian organization's top members meet with Egyptian officials on question of whether or not they need to be committed to truce with Israel, al-Hayat reports; Islamic Jihad leaders conclude: Truce must be reciprocal.
A delegation of senior Islamic Jihad members, headed by Secretary General Ramadan Abdullah Shallah and his deputy Ziad Nakhala, paid a clandestine visit to Cairo last week, according to a report Sunday in the London-base pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat. The Islamic Jihad members apparently met with Egyptian officials to discuss the situation in the Palestinian Authority.
According to the report, the Islamic Jihad delegation was invited to Cairo to meet head of Egyptian Intelligence Omar Suleiman. The sides discussed the question of the Islamic Jihad's commitment to the truce with Israel agreed upon among Palestinian factions before diplomatic contacts with Israel could be reestablished.
The Islamic Jihad members insisted that Israel was not keeping its side of the bargain, and continued its aggression towards the Palestinian people, targeted assassinations of leaders, siege policy and the failure to free security prisoners. The Egyptian side attempted to convince Shallah and Nakhala of the need to earn positive public opinion in the world and not give excuses for the Israeli aggression with Qassam attacks.
"C'mon guys, we need some spin here!"
At the end of the meeting, Jihad leaders said that the calm had to come from both sides.
#3
Its called [unilateral]concession, submittance, and appeasement, NOT commitment, agreement, or "calm from both sides", etc . more popularly known as POWER AND CONTROL OVER THE OTHER SIDE.
Saudi Arabia has mobilized some of its most militant clerics, including one Osama bin Laden sought to recruit as his spiritual guide, in a campaign to combat the continuing appeal of al-Qaeda's ideology in the kingdom.
The effort has targeted hundreds of young Saudis whom security forces here have tracked down and arrested as sympathizers or potential recruits. They are then subjected to an intense program of religious reeducation by clerics that sometimes lasts for months.
Saudi authorities say that about 500 youths have completed the program and been freed since it began in 2004. They remain under close surveillance. "None has been found to get reinvolved in terrorism so far," said Lt. Gen. Mansour al-Turki, spokesman for the Saudi Interior Ministry, which runs the program together with the Islamic Affairs Ministry. "Their ideology has changed, and they are convinced they were wrong."
Ministry officials denied a request to interview any of the young people. The Saudi who relayed the decision said officials worried about what they might say to a foreign reporter.
Mohsen al-Awajy, an Islamic lawyer who is known here as a former radical, was skeptical of the effect. "I'm afraid about 85 to 90 percent of those who claim they are changing their minds as a result of this dialogue might not be truthful," he said.
Turki conceded that Saudi authorities were having great difficulty curbing the appeal of al-Qaeda's ideology among young people, who he said are incited by "the daily killings in Iraq" and a constant barrage of appeals to holy war on Internet sites run by Islamic extremists. Hundreds have crossed into Iraq to join the insurgency there. "As long as the ideology is alive," Turki said, "we cannot guarantee no new terrorists will come along."
Abdel Mohsen al-Obeikan, a former militant cleric now playing a prominent part in the reeducation program, compared the challenge to the war on drugs in the United States. "You cannot stop drugs, either," he said. As soon as one terrorist group is eliminated, he said, another pops up that is even more dangerous: "We need a long time. We should be patient."
Still, Saudi authorities argue that they have made real progress in uprooting al-Qaeda inside the kingdom and that part of the reason is their efforts with the young people. But a foiled attack on Feb. 24 against the world's largest oil terminal at Abqaiq sobered U.S. and Saudi officials. "Abqaiq shows the problem is not over," said U.S. Ambassador James C. Oberwetter in an interview here.
The Internet has become the main battleground in the struggle against al-Qaeda ideology, according to three members of the counseling committee that the Interior Ministry set up to run the reeducation program. The body has 22 full-time members, who get help from 100 Islamic clerics and 30 psychiatrists.
Islamic counselors selected by the committee have succeeded in infiltrating a number of extremist Web sites and Internet chat rooms. Islamic Affairs Minister Saleh al-Asheikh told reporters in February that the government had established dialogue with 800 al-Qaeda sympathizers this way and succeeded in changing the thinking of 250.
The Saudi government established the reeducation program in 2004 after conducting three-hour interviews with 639 prisoners, according to one committee members' account of the program's origins. "We asked, 'Who do you like? Who do you read? Who are the top models for you?' " said Abdulrahman al-Hahlaq, a U.S.-educated Saudi who is on the committee.
They discovered, he said, that the most influential person was not bin Laden, a Saudi, but the Palestinian-Jordanian cleric Abu Mohammed al-Maqdisi, who was the initial spiritual guide for Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of the insurgent group al-Qaeda in Iraq. Both come from the same Jordanian village, Zarqa.
Maqdisi has written a treatise titled "Clear Evidence on the Infidel Nature of the Saudi State." He declared the Saudi government to be a kafir , or nonbeliever, thus justifying its overthrow on religious grounds. He is currently in a Jordanian prison.
"Maqdisi is a very important figure. They listen to him," said Hahlaq.
To attempt to counter his teachings, the committee sends teams, made up of three clerics and one psychiatrist or psychologist, to see individual prisoners. Visiting almost daily for months, the team engages the prisoner in religious discussions that last for hours at a time. Some detainees attend five-week courses in the fine points of Wahhabism, the fundamentalist sect of Islam that dominates Saudi society and lends crucial support to the ruling Saud royal family.
The prisoners, most of them under 30 years of age and without high school diplomas, must pass an exam before being released. The committee then helps them find jobs, go back to school or even get married. But they are required to report to the police every two weeks.
By bringing into the program well-known Wahhabi radicals who in the past have denounced the Saudi government for its close association with the United States, Saudi officials hope to give it credibility with young people. With its control of the finances of Islam in the kingdom, the government can bring pressure by threatening to close the mosques of individual clerics or withdraw their funding.
Perhaps the two best-known Wahhabi radicals are Salman al-Ouda and Safar al-Hawali. They both spent about five years in prison in the 1990s for criticizing the ruling Saud family for inviting U.S. troops into the kingdom during the 1991 Persian Gulf War against Iraq. They were among 26 Saudi religious figures who delivered a sermon in November 2004 declaring that Iraqis had a "right" and a "duty" to fight U.S. forces in Iraq.
After the sermon, Saudi authorities pressured Ouda and Hawali in particular to moderate their tone and to help the government combat al-Qaeda inside the kingdom. Hawali, the more radical of the two, suffered a stroke last year and is no longer active. Ouda has largely complied, officials said.
Another participant is Obeikan, a former radical Islamic jurist who has publicly challenged Maqdisi and bin Laden to debate their ideology with him.
In an interview at his elegant marble-faced home on the northern outskirts of Riyadh, Obeikan recounted that he twice met bin Laden here just before he was expelled by Saudi authorities to Sudan in 1991. The al-Qaeda leader sought to convince him to become the spiritual leader of a movement to overthrow the Saud royal family, "like Khomeini," he said, referring to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual leader of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
The gray-bearded sheik, dressed in a flowing white robe and a red-and-white checked scarf, said he had declined. He did make an eight-day trip to Afghanistan in 1989 to lecture in three of bin Laden's camps and join in a "token" detonation of some explosives, he said.
Now, he says he is lecturing on "why there is no need for jihad" in Iraq or elsewhere at this time. "There is a misunderstanding of Islamic jihad," he said. "What is meant by jihad is the spread of the call to Islam through peaceful means."
Whether Saudi youth are listening is far from clear. Awajy, the onetime radical lawyer, estimated the influence of clerics such as Obeikan as "insignificant."
Toby Jones, who has written several reports on Saudi politics for the Brussels-based research and advocacy organization the International Crisis Group, said that Obeikan has solid religious credentials. "When he speaks, even the radicals listen," he said. Jones said he doubted, however, that the cleric was changing many minds among those "leaning toward jihad or at least supporting jihadism." He noted that the Islamic jurist has been pilloried regularly by Islamic militants in satirical Internet postings.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/07/2006 00:23 ||
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#1
This is like counciling militant anarchists to become doctrinare communists. It is a distinction without a difference.
And that 100% success rate is a bit suspicious (to say the least.)
#2
Taqiyya: Speaking is a means to achieve objectives. If a praiseworthy aim is attainable through both telling the truth and lying, it is unlawful to accomplish it through lying because there is no need for it. When it is possible to achieve such an aim by lying but not by telling the truth, it is permissible to lie if attaining the goal is permissible..., and obligatory to lie if the goal is obligatory. ...One should compare the bad consequences entailed by lying to those entailed by telling the truth, and if the consequences of telling the truth are more damaging, one is entitled to lie
-Ahmad ibn Naqib al-Misri
The failure to tackle the radicalisation of young British Muslims played a leading role in provoking the London bombings on July 7 last year, official reports are expected to say this week.
MPs and senior civil servants will claim that many Muslims growing up in Britain have too little incentive to turn their backs on Islamic extremism.
The claim is set to be among the main findings of two big studies into the 7/7 attacks, which left 52 innocent people dead last summer; one is by MPs on the Intelligence and Security Committee, the other by Home Office officials.
Both reports are expected to be published within days and will be the first in a series of investigations into the attacks on three Underground trains and a bus; the failed attacks on the Tube two weeks later; and the shooting dead of Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent Brazilian, by policemen.
Meanwhile, the Tories have criticised the Government for not sanctioning a full, independent inquiry into the atrocities.
The reports will attempt to make a connection between disaffected, alienated young Muslims, growing up in impoverished surroundings, and the ability of Islamist extremists to exploit them.
The report by the Intelligence and Security Committee is expected largely to clear the intelligence agencies of errors of judgment in the run-up to the bombings, and blame the failure to thwart the attacks on a lack of resources. Individuals are not expected to be singled out for blame.
MPs studied in detail a claim that MI5 had two of the bombers under scrutiny, Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, both of whom are thought to have made trips to Pakistan. It is thought, however, that the Pakistani authorities only fully co-operated with their British counterparts after the bombers had struck.
Khan, the ringleader of the suicide gang, and Tanweer, are thought to have linked up with other extremists in Pakistan, but the question of whether the London attacks were carried out on the orders of al-Qaeda is not thought to be answered by either report.
The ISC study, in particular, is expected to conclude that while the bombers shared an "ideology" with al-Qaeda, how much, if any, practical contact they had is still uncertain.
Many of the most sensitive findings in the ISC report, however, are expected to be blacked out for security reasons.
MPs are also expected to recommend a transparent and public warning system for the threat posed by terrorist attacks. At present, threat levels are determined by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, but the information is not routinely made public.
Patrick Mercer, the Conservatives' homeland security spokesman, said: "Many of these recommendations are sensible and long overdue but it does not get away from the fact that we must have a full independent inquiry. It is the only way to get to the bottom of all this."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/07/2006 00:25 ||
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how about prison? Hard time in north Scotland? Big rocks into little rocks? Is that worth it, Mo?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/07/2006 0:37 Comments ||
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The reports will attempt to make a connection between disaffected, alienated young Muslims, growing up in impoverished surroundings, and the ability of Islamist extremists to exploit them.
Ignorance, hurt feelings, membership in a religion that encourages murderous revenge for hurt feelings and the guys down at the mosque who offer to allow you to wreck Dire Revenge.
Ignorance, anger at not being able to participate in activities that non-muslim youth can, membership in a religion that encourages killing people who make you angry and the guys down at the mosque who offer to train you to wreck Dire Revenge>
Ignorance, intense jealousy of others who do not have to submit to a religion that suppresses and oppresses and who have the freedom to choose how they live, membership in a religion that instructs you cannot have such freedom and that you will not be happy until the entire world is enslaved by islam and the guys down at the mosque who offer to strap the bomb belt on you.
Most people are taught as children to live by the laws and do not need incentive to avoid embracing genocidal murder. Obeying a simple law do not kill is good enough for most.
Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks has moved another step closer to being granted British citizenship after the British Court of Appeal announced it would refuse any further appeals by the Government. The British Government had lost two previous appeals to Royal Courts of Justice.
Hicks is pinning his hopes on British citizenship as a way out of the Guantanamo Bay detention centre, where he has spent the past four years. The British Government has successfully lobbied for the release of nine of its British nationals. David Hicks's father, Terry, says the British Government will be under pressure to do the same for his son if he is granted citizenship following the latest legal victory, announced on Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2006 00:00 ||
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UK friends please stop this stupidity. Really I am pleading you do more than give lip service to this. It's bad enough your press trashes my country on a daily basis. That your national funded broadcaster and it's web site misrepresent the facts about my country on a daily basis. That it broadcasts propaganda agaisnt my nation as a matter of routine. This stupid stuff has to stop.
Please force your government to stop it. Please do something about it. If the US was carrying out anti-UK propaganda on a international basis as daily matter of routine you would be flaming us and screaming about cutting ties . This trash is in your papers everyday.
If our law courts were taliking about granting US citizenship to a terrorist captured on the field of battle you would be beside yourselves. Please force the government of the UK to stop this action
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 4:45 Comments ||
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Suppose he is given citizenship...
Does that bind the UK government to pressure the US to relase him?
Does that bind the US government to release him?
No.
Gitmo is a US facility. Considerations of US national security, not diplomatic notes, should determine who gets released and who gets a needle in the arm.
Posted by: john ||
05/07/2006 10:08 Comments ||
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I feel sorry for any country who has to put up with Hicks and his babbling father.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/07/2006 20:13 Comments ||
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Hicks' ass belongs to Uncle Sam. If the Brits insist on having him, they try an SAS raid. Otherwise, they are welcome to continue their mental masturbation.
Posted by: ed ||
05/07/2006 21:11 Comments ||
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Brazil has joined the select group of countries with the capability of enriching uranium as a means of generating energy.
A new centrifuge facility was formally opened on Friday at the Resende nuclear plant in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian government says its technology is some of the most advanced in the world. The official opening follows lengthy negotiations with the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the IAEA.
Brazil has some of the largest reserves of uranium in the world but until now the ore has had to be shipped abroad for enrichment - the process which produces nuclear fuel. In future some of that enrichment will take place in Brazil.
The government says that within a decade the country will be able to meet all its nuclear energy needs.
Brazilian scientists insist their technology is superior to that of existing nuclear powers. They claim the type of centrifuge in use at Resende will be 25 times more efficient than facilities in France or the United States. Sensitivity over that technology led to a standoff two years ago with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN watchdog.
Keen to protect its commercial secrets, Brazil was reluctant to give inspectors full access to its facilities and politically the negotiations were complicated by simultaneous concerns about Iran's nuclear plans. But in the end Brazil and the IAEA agreed a system of safeguards to ensure that the new facilities would not be channelled into weapons production.
Friday's opening at Resende is being hailed as a major step forward in Brazil's development and it comes amid renewed concerns about energy supplies in South America. Last week Bolivia announced plans to nationalise its gas reserves, prompting fears of price rises. As a big importer of Bolivian gas, Brazil sees nuclear energy as one of several strategic alternatives.
Posted by: john ||
05/07/2006 09:44 ||
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So what are these "super secret" centrifuges apt to be like? Or is talking about that a no no?
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 23:24 Comments ||
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They are comparing their centrifuges with a different enrichment processes (gas diffusion). The US has the largest, highest speed centrifuges and until the Brazilians learn to make carbon composite rotors, they are spinning PR.
Posted by: ed ||
05/07/2006 23:32 Comments ||
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It souunded like "super secret probation" the first time this came up. Glad to see someone else thinks it's smoke and mirrors.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 23:56 Comments ||
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has stepped into an increasingly bitter power struggle between the two most powerful officials installed by Moscow in the war-torn province of Chechnya, AFP reported.
Putin is backing Chechen President Alu Alkhanov as a last counterbalance against the growing influence of the provinces powerful Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, who unofficially controls a force of several thousand armed men, the liberal Kommersant daily said.
At a news conference in Moscow on Saturday, a day after he and Kadyrov met with Putin, Alkhanov said: I have been elected by the Chechen people and I continue to exercise my office. The president restated to me that the federal centre wants political peace and goodwill in Chechnya.
Last month, several people were injured in a shoot-out between security forces loyal to Kadyrov and Alkhanov outside a government building in Grozny, the provinces capital. Kadyrovs press service later attempted to minimize the clash, saying it was no more than a run-of-the-mill incident that started after an argument between two bodyguards.
Kadyrov, 29, is the son of Chechnyas late pro-Moscow leader Akhmad Kadyrov, who was assassinated in a bomb attack in May 2004. According to the law, he cannot take up the post of president of the province until he reaches the age of 30 in October.
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in Kazakhstan yesterday. He refrained from harsh commentary on the state of Kazakh democracy. The main topic of his negotiations in Astana is energy, in particular a natural gas pipeline along the floor of the Caspian Sea bypassing Russia.
During his meeting with Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, Cheney was generous with compliments. We are grateful to you for the work you did in Afghanistan and Iraq and for your cooperation in the global fight against terrorism. Kazakhstan has been a friend and an important strategic partner of the United States. All America has been impressed by the progress Kazakhstan has made in the last 15 years, Cheney said. Those words contrast sharply with the statements he made about Russia a day earlier in Vilnius. There, Cheney sharply accused Moscow of weakening democracy. No similar accusations were made by Cheney against Astana.
Cheney plans to meet with leading Kazakh opposition members during his visit, including Galymzhan Zhakiyanov, leader of the Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan Party, who was recently released after serving a four-year prison sentence. The Kazakh Interior Ministry forbade Zhakiyanov to leave his home in Almaty to meet with U.S. vice president in Astana yesterday, however.
Cheney did not comment on the incident and stuck with the more important matter. It was clear that the key question in the negotiations was the possibility of building a pipeline along the Caspian Sea floor, which would make it possible to export hydrocarbons from Kazakhstan through Turkey to Europe, bypassing Russia. European Commission representative on energy Andris Piebalgs was also in Astana yesterday to lobby for Kazakhstan's inclusion in the already extant Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum natural gas pipeline. If that project, which the European Union is prepared to finance, is implemented, Russia will lose control of Caspian natural gas and Europe will have an alternative source of energy supplies.
Another topic that may be included on the agenda of the negotiations is the inclusion of Kazakhstan in the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline. That pipeline began service last year and is a favorite of the U.S. administration, after Washington lobbied for its creation for ten years. Nazarbaev was present the ceremonial launching of the pipeline and stated at that time that Kazakhstan was ready to connect to it.
Cheney's negotiations in Astana are a logical continuation of Washington's new policy toward Russia, as Cheney formulated it the day before. In Vilnius, he stated that the region of the Baltic and Black Seas are the arena of the standoff between Russia and the West, and now the U.S. vice president has extended that line to the Caspian Sea. Cheney expressed indignation in Vilnius at Russia's energy blackmail and he continued his campaign against it in Astana. Cheney said after meeting with Nazarbaev that the U.S. does not consider Russia its enemy, but as a regional ally. Nonetheless, it is concerned about a certain resistance by Russia to democratic processes. He noted that his opinion coincided with that of the leaders of the countries represented at the Vilnius summit. Cheney continued that Russia is seen as using its control over energy resources as a political tool to pressure the countries whose leader assembled in Vilnius this week.
Nazarbaev, who is eager to preserve good relations with both Moscow and Washington, commented in response that there is no confrontation between Moscow and Washington, rather a friendly exchange of ideas.
#1
Call me a cynic by this strikes me as an ill-fated attempt. Turkey will backstab us, Russia will sabotage it, and Kazakhstan will change leaders and nationalize it.
This seems a bit to me as if someone back at the turn of the last century came up with some great idea to increase the numbers of whales to insure the supply of whale oil into the 20th Century.
If we dont help the EU secure alternative supplies then all of EU will become highly vulnerable to Russian will. May not change their military alliance but in diplomatic scenarios they will go with Russia over US, knowing at the end of the day Russia if mad could cut or double their energy killing their economy and the US cant do anything to help short go to war a true "war for oil".
And as for the whale oil jab remember 2b fossil fuels are going to be with US for at least another generation 30+ years as the primary source. Even if we discovered the silver bullet today say hydrogen it will take at least 30 years to retool the entire infrastructure from the refinery, gas station, gas hauling trucks rail road cars, mechanics, the old dude at the corner who still things gas is better. Just track you gallon of gas back all the way down the chain understanding every item will have to be scrapped and replaced with a new item of different specs.
If we dont want a Imperialist Totalitarian Russia holding the Western EU balls and even more so on Eastern EU heart not even to mention places like the Baltic states and the Caucasus we need to use our clout and the EU money to help.
There is a rumor old Putty is going to take over their state super oil/gas company while the current head of that company shifts to the Russian presidency. Think back recently when a gas pipeline to Georgia a (US ally) conviently broke in the middle of the worst part of winter and gas going to Ukraine just happened to need a 300% increase right after they flipped over to (US ally) in the middle of the winter this is a taste of the future.
Russia has a history of embargos punishing the populations remember E Berlin.
Six North Koreans granted refugee status by the United States arrived there on Friday, a senator has said. It is the first time the US has accepted refugees from the country since it passed a law making it easier for North Koreans to apply.
The group, which arrived from an unnamed Southeast Asia nation, included four women who said that they had been the victim of forced marriages.
North Korea's human rights record has been strongly criticized by the US. In October 2004 President Bush signed the North Korean Human Rights Act, which offered US support for human rights groups in North Korea and for refugees leaving the secretive state.
It earmarked $24m (£13m) a year for such causes and made North Koreans eligible for asylum in the US. Previously, they had been treated as citizens of South Korea, which still technically claims sovereignty over the whole peninsula.
"This is a great act of compassion by the United States and the other countries involved," Senator Sam Brownback said of the refugees' arrival, according to the Associated Press. The senator, who is one of the co-sponsors of the law, said the arrival of the group showed that "the act is working".
Last week, the US special envoy on North Korean human rights, Jay Lefkowitz, told a hearing that the US needed to do more for North Korean refugees.
"We will press to make it clear to our friends and allies in the region that we are prepared to accept North Korean refugees for resettlement here," he said.
Ten of thousands of North Koreans are believed to have crossed the border into China, but they face repatriation if caught by the Chinese authorities.
In July 2004, more than 460 refugees arrived in South Korea on a special flight from an unnamed third country, thought by analysts to be Vietnam. Since then, there have continued to be incidents where North Korean refugees have targeted foreign missions or schools in China, seeking passage to South Korea or the US.
Pyongyang, May 5 (KCNA) -- Pyongyang-based papers Friday in editorials dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland (ARF) call for dynamically advancing the revolutionary cause of Juche, guided by the idea of single-minded unity, which represents a symbol of Songun Korea and its dignity and future. The seven decades since the foundation of the ARF on May 5, Juche 25 (1936) represent a glorious history in which the single-minded unity of the Korean revolutionary ranks around the one central figure has been steadily cemented on the basis of the monolithic idea and a proud course in which they have brought about world-startling miracles and changes in the efforts to accomplish the socialist cause with the might of unity, Rodong Sinmun says, and goes on:
The tradition of single-minded unity, the tradition of the great national unity provided in the crucible of the anti-Japanese war has been successfully carried forward by leader Kim Jong Il and its might has remarkably grown strong under his leadership. The leader, the Party, the army and the people in the DPRK are single-mindedly united to form a community linked with the same destiny. The whole Party has been modeled on the Songun idea, the entire army shares the same idea, intention and destiny with the supreme commander and the army and the people achieved the perfect unity in idea and in the fighting traits on the basis of the spirit of devotedly defending the leader. This is the true picture of the single-minded unity in the DPRK.
The tradition of unity established in the early period of the revolution has been confidently carried forward and has fully displayed its vitality generation after generation despite all sorts of ordeals and tests of history. This is the stirring reality that can be seen only in the DPRK led by the great leader.
The DPRK army and people will successfully accomplish the cause of building a great prosperous powerful nation of Juche, singled-mindedly united around the headquarters of the revolution headed by Kim Jong Il just as all the Korean people resolutely turned out in the anti-Japanese national united front movement to defeat the Japanese imperialist aggressors and achieve the historic cause of the country's liberation under the leadership of President Kim Il Sung. It is the oath taken by the DPRK army and people with faith on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the ARF. It is a firm guarantee for the prosperity of the country and the victorious advance of the cause of Juche to firmly unite around Kim Jong Il. All the people should fully display the might of our single-minded unity in the general march of Songun revolution just as all the Koreans fought in close unity during the anti-Japanese war.
Minju Joson calls for accomplishing the revolutionary cause of Juche and the cause of national reunification as early as possible by successfully carrying forward the idea of the great national unity set out by the President and the exploits performed by him.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2006 00:00 ||
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ARF ARF!!!
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/07/2006 0:08 Comments ||
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#2
I detect self-plagiarism .... or Jr.High-level composition
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/07/2006 0:30 Comments ||
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#7
Remember the good olde days when we revelled in the NORK KCNA prose and scored them like figure skaters and wrote detailed critiques---for a source of innocent merriment?????
Now they are just shells of their former selves. Where is the bite, the originality, where it the LUUUV?
I pine for the good olde days, sigh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/07/2006 14:06 Comments ||
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#8
Now they are just shells of their former selves.
Yeah, we haven't had a "Sea Of Fire" in over a year.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/07/2006 16:35 Comments ||
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#9
Notice it's gone from Army First to Juche to I'm So Ronery...
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/07/2006 19:00 Comments ||
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Chancellor Angela Merkel became the first German leader to speak at the annual gala of one of the largest US Jewish groups, in what was seen as a symbolically important event.
Merkel's appearance Thursday at the 100th anniversary of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) brought an affirmation of Germany's unique postwar ties with Israel, shaded by the shared history of the Holocaust. "I dare say that they could have hardly imagined that 100 years later we would be welcoming the elected leader of Germany as the keynote speaker for this auspicious occasion," said AJC executive director David Harris. One of the AJC's founders was a German immigrant.
Merkel, a centre-right Christian Democrat, received a warm welcome from 1,500 people in the audience, who rose to their feet and enthusiastically applauded at the end of her speech. Harris said the strides Germans and Jews have taken since the end of World War II had made his organization "so eager" and "so determined" to invite Merkel to address the gala. She was joined by US President George W Bush and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
The AJC was created following the large-scale repression of Jews in Russia and has offices around the world, including in Berlin, dedicated to stopping anti-Semitism. The AJC viewed the invitation to Merkel as a further step toward reconciliation between Germany and Jews 61 years after World War II and the Holocaust ended.
Merkel directly confronted the "reign of terror" of Nazi Germany, saying that the Holocaust made it Germany's duty to combat anti- Semitism, racism and xenophobia. She also praised the AJC for building bridges between American Jews and her country. "Through the Holocaust, Germany deprived itself of an important part of its cultural and intellectual identity," Merkel said.
Merkel also used the high-profile appearance before the American Jewish community to underscore Germany's commitment on foreign-policy issues important to Israel. She said Iran cannot be allowed to develop nuclear weapons and that Hamas must recognize Israel's right to exist and renounce terrorism. "The decision lies with Hamas," she said, adding that Germany will not relent on the importance of a safe, secure Israel - a commitment shared by German chancellors of the left and right since 1945. "It's an immovable underpinning of German foreign policy," she said.
Harris praised Merkel, who grew up in then-communist eastern Germany before east and west reunited in 1990, as a "cherished friend" of the US Jewish community. "Who could have foreseen even a few years ago against the tragic backdrop of the history of the 20th century that a new chapter in German-Jewish relations would be written in the inspiring way it has?" Harris said.
FREMONT At the United Muslim American symposium in Newark, Muslim-American leaders discussed the rhetoric regarding Iran, the war in Iraq and the image of the United States in Islamic countries.
But some also expressed concern that "United 93," a new film about the last moments of the last hijacked plane to crash on Sept. 11, 2001, could stir up anti-Islamic sentiments.
Safaa Ibrahim, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations, took her staff of four women wearing a hijab, the traditional Muslim head scarves, to a Thursday matinee.
As a civil rights advocate, Ibrahim said, she wanted to see the movie after reports that several young Muslim-American women in Arizona were verbally assaulted by two people who said they had seen the movie recently. Ibrahim said she knew the movie would stir up emotions, but she did not expect that all of the members in her group would walk out in tears.
"We thought it was important to see the movie to find out how it comes across," Ibrahim said. "But it dredged up a lot of emotions. We were watching it as Americans and as Muslims and it hurts us to see our fellow Americans hurt, and see people hurt others, acting in the name of Islam."
At the April 29 symposium, Suhail Khan, associate director for congressional affairs at the Department of Transportation and a former White House aide under President Bush, recalled his experience working at the White House on Sept. 11.
Today, Khan said he still remembers that day "moment by moment," adding that the movie touches a raw nerve. He said he had not made up his mind about whether it is too soon to produce such a film.
"Five short years after 9/11, we're seeing a movie produced that purports to relive the horrific moments of 9/11 and Flight 93," Khan said. "I haven't made up my mind about that issue, honestly. I do feel, obviously, that it will stir up anti-Muslim sentiments. But, I mean, it's hard to make the situation worse."
Ibrahim said the opening scene of the movie, where hijackers are reading the Quran, "sent chills up my spine."
"It only reinforced my hatred and resentment toward Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida and reminded me of how much they've hurt Muslims and scarred our faith," Ibrahim said. "I have so much anger toward these guys. The movie only reinforced that. I understand why it makes others angry. It doesn't feel good to watch what happened and see innocent families die. It's senseless."
But Ibrahim added that the movie also reinforced how much has changed since the events of Sept. 11.
"On 9/11, I was working at a high-tech firm and I wasn't wearing a hijab," Ibrahim said. "Now I'm wearing a hijab and dedicating myself to preventing people from trying to ruin the name of my faith. That day helped us grow and made us more civic-conscious."
Khan agreed: "My sense is that the opportunity is still there to educate non-Muslims. Just as we had hate crimes after 9/11, we also had an outpouring of brotherhood and friendship with non-Muslims who stood by the Muslim community and stood by their neighbors and friends. ... I think you need to look at the positives and educate friends about the realities of Islam."
#1
"It only reinforced my hatred and resentment toward Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida and reminded me of how much they've hurt Muslims and scarred our faith," Ibrahim said. "I have so much anger toward these guys. The movie only reinforced that. I understand why it makes others angry. It doesn't feel good to watch what happened and see innocent families die. It's senseless."
This is the "reality of Islam" about which you must educate your friends. This is the reality of Islam that muslims must face and conquer.
It's not good enough to ask infidels to ignore these murderous lunatics among you and aplogize for our rage at the inaction of your moderate members; give you all big hugs.
I'm glad some eyes were opened by seeing the film. Now understand that these islamists are YOUR problem and start eliminating them and removing the fanatics that spawned them.
#3
"On 9/11, I was working at a high-tech firm and I wasn't wearing a hijab," Ibrahim said. "Now I'm wearing a hijab and dedicating myself to preventing people from trying to ruin the name of my faith.
#4
I saw U93 last night. These bozos better consider their words carefully. There were no hate crimes after 9/11, though one would not be surprised had there been. U93 is also a very neutral portrayal of the events. More of a documentary without narration. If they're stirred up now, they'd better be very afraid of what happens when we get stirred up. Cause it ain't happened yet, except for Boeserker.
#5
i don't really care if it does stir up up anti islamic sentiments. Tough shit your buddies did the crime now you all must pay for it. Also, has anyone really heard any BIG muslim group in the US say anything bad about Osama or his other raghead friends?
#6
problem is, there's lots of evidence out there to "stir up anti-islamic" sentiments. why don't they do anything to foster "pro-islamic sentiments" besides complain? oh...and blame the joooos.
#9
I hear Oliver Stone is going to have Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, and Foghorn Leghorn hijack the planes in his 9/11 movie. Hopefully it won't "stir up" Cartoon Americans...
#12
Like I said before, Muslims better get a Reformation going with Islam, or the world will eventually have to do it for them. And it won't be pretty. It will be costly to both sides, but the problem WILL be resolved.
Like the Fram filter guy sez: "Pay me now, or pay me later."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/07/2006 14:21 Comments ||
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Spot on 6, spot-on (unfortunately).
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
05/07/2006 14:34 Comments ||
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I like the bit about a couple of Muslims being "verbally assaulted".
Um, guys, that's not assault. That's a couple of people acting like asses.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/07/2006 14:53 Comments ||
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#15
Muslim-American leaders discussed the rhetoric
I don't care! But it dredged up a lot of emotions
Again I don't care! That day helped us grow and made us more civic-conscious
What I hope you learned is that America will not stand for Islamic hate and stupidity. She is lucky we did not nuke Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Mecca, and the whole religion of hate off the face of the earth once and for all!!! Just keep pushing us and we will remove Mecca tha way Islam removed Buddah in Afghanistan.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/07/2006 15:38 Comments ||
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"Verbally assaulted?" I'm surprised that's all that happened. Muslims NEED to be made uncomfortable. They NEED to see that the rest of us are mad as hell about their murdering coreligionists trying to impose dhimmitude on the rest of us. They NEED to understand that not stopping those bastards representing their religion as a death cult is going to result in a situation for all Muslims that they will all bitterly regret. It's been all one way so far because of the tolerance of the West. When that snaps, AND IT WILL, if the Muslims don't reform, the backlash will make Srebrenica look miniscule by comparison. And when it does, and they've been driven from the West by fire and sword, the Muslims will have no one to blame but themselves.
Posted by: mac ||
05/07/2006 18:10 Comments ||
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And when it does, and they've been driven from the West by fire and sword, the Muslims will have no one to blame but themselves
bet they still blame the Joooos....odds?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/07/2006 19:18 Comments ||
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"On 9/11, I was working at a high-tech firm and I wasn't wearing a hijab... Now I'm wearing a hijab and dedicating myself to preventing people from trying to ruin the name of my faith."
Is is it just me, or is this a little like walking around Honolulu wearing a kimono after Pearl Harbor?
#19
U93 does not besmirch Islam. Muslims have DEFINED Islam. Not all Muslims you say? So what? The 10% (20%, 50%?) make the rest of you irrelevant.
Buses in Israel, A Seder or wedding or Bar Mitzvah in Israel. Beslan. School girls in Indonesia. Bombings in London, Madrid, Bali, Philipines, Egypt...
My family will NEVER live under Sharia. My wife and daughter will NEVER wear a burqua. Regardless of what EUnuch or our own spineless politicians say or do.
#1
Navy doesn't have any kind of combat training to speak of, that's why we have Marines.
It's a division of responsibilities thing.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/07/2006 9:47 Comments ||
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The Marines were added to SOCOMs little empire, so the Navy is looking to something that it can turn to without having to ask 'mother may I' from another bureaucrat. Naval landing brigades have a long history in the world's big navies. They know they're not going to get funding for separate facilities to do the training anymore, so that is why they're using other services' facilities.
#4
It's about time every person in uniform received some combat training, including small-unit tactics. There are no front lines any more, and haven't been since about 1975. Anybody and everybody wearing a uniform is a target, anywhere they live. They need to have the ability to fight back and win.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/07/2006 16:54 Comments ||
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One step beyond Schoomaker's "every soldier a rifleman".
#6
The Marines who trained us had a saying that the most dangerous thing in the world is a squid with a gun. Back in the early 80's my base formed an unofficial platoon strength reaction force using second (third?) hand M14's and such with "minuteman" personnel. Operating on a shoestring (goat rope?)- we were pretty good, at least during training. But we were not Marines. Not even close.
Posted by: Squid with a gun ||
05/07/2006 19:15 Comments ||
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#7
The best usage of these new Naval Landing Forces/Brigades is the temporary defense of [US-controlled]vital port areas and ships from limited conventional ground attack(s), be it from uniformed enemy milfor unit(s) or from armed terrorists.
Even with Zacarias Moussaoui's trial in federal court complete, legal experts don't expect to see top captured al-Qaida operatives brought into civilian courts soon, or perhaps ever.
Moussaoui, the inept al-Qaida conspirator who was in jail on Sept. 11, 2001, was sentenced this week to consecutive life sentences after a 4 1/2-year legal battle that cleared hurdles many thought were insurmountable.
Defense lawyers questioned how fair it was for Moussaoui to face a potential death penalty while a handful of so-called "high value" al-Qaida captives, like Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and coordinator Ramzi Binalshibh, are held at secret locations with no charges.
Prosecutor David Raskin told jurors: "True, they don't face the death penalty now, but they are giving information. What do think is going to happen to them when the information runs dry?"
Raskin's colleague David Novak went further: "They're going to face justice, just like this defendant does, when their interrogation time is over."
But neither Raskin nor Novak said specifically where these enemy combatants would face justice U.S. civilian courts or military tribunals or elsewhere.
"The successful conclusion of the Moussaoui trial reaffirms that even those in military detention may at some point by tried in a civilian court," Georgetown University law professor Viet Dinh said in an interview. That option was bolstered by "the way they found to protect the rights of the defendant and the government's interest in keeping some secrets," added the former top Justice Department official.
But speaking Friday to European counterparts in Austria, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales wasn't just keeping the civilian court option open.
"There are cases in which our criminal justice system is the appropriate way to deliver justice," Gonzales said. "But there also are instances in which the national security of the United States requires a military response such as detaining enemy combatants and making use of military commissions."
Some doubt the Moussaoui experience will open the courtroom door for other terrorists.
Bill Goodman, legal director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has arranged lawyers for enemy combatants detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, dismissed the promises of Raskin and Novak as mere "lawyer talk."
"They have no idea what's going to happen to those people," Goodman said.
Goodman believes Moussaoui's trial "shows civilian courts are absolutely equipped" to handle terrorist cases. The Bush administration's military commissions, just beginning trial work at Guantanamo, fail to protect defendants' rights, he said. The legitimacy of those commissions is before the Supreme Court, expected to rule before July.
But Goodman doubts the government wants to use civilian courts for terrorists because U.S. judges wouldn't stand for the abuse allegedly used to extract confessions from al-Qaida operatives. Confessions obtained under torture or many forms of duress are inadmissible in U.S. courts.
For instance, Mohamed al-Qahtani, the "20th hijacker" who missed participating in the Sept. 11 attacks, confessed to his role only after he was threatened with dogs, forced to wear a bra and a thong, and interrogated 18 to 20 hours a day for over a month, according to a military investigation. More extreme techniques have allegedly been used against Shaikh Mohammed.
"The conditions and circumstances of their secret detention and the question of whether they have been tortured would make a trial in civilian court very difficult," said Lawrence Barcella, a longtime federal prosecutor now in private practice.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who presided over Moussaoui's trial, said the experience proved civilian courts can solve problems posed by unruly defendants, records that number over a million documents, and the government's need to keep some evidence secret.
Many had questioned "whether this case should have been tried (at all), whether it should have been tried in this courthouse or in a military tribunal," Brinkema noted.
Trial lawyers "had to work around classification issues that were at one point, we all thought, insurmountable," she said. Yet "this evidence was able to be brought together in a format and presented openly in a public court of law."
One issue that threatened to derail the trial was how to accommodate Moussaoui's right to call captured enemy combatants to testify in his defense. An appeals court agreed with the government that bringing them to court or even allowing Moussaoui's lawyers to question them would endanger national security. Defense lawyers were forced to rely on summaries distilled from their interrogations.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers also crafted declassified substitutes for some documents and even showed the jury two secret documents that weren't read aloud or put in the public record.
Dinh said the case of Jose Padilla shows that military detainees can still end up in civilian courtrooms. Once accused of plotting to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in a U.S. city after the Sept. 11 attacks, Padilla a U.S. citizen arrested in Chicago was held in a military prison without charges for 3 1/2 years. Last year, he was transferred to civilian court to face less sensational charges of helping provide recruits, money and supplies to Islamic extremists worldwide.
Whether other detainees follow Padilla into court will depend on what procedures were used in their detention and how much evidence prosecutors were able to obtain independently of the interrogations, Dinh said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/07/2006 00:31 ||
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When we are done pumping these terrorists for all the info we can get out get out of them put as bullet in their brain. No military trials. No Civilian trials. No lawyers, No Judges(who are lawyers too), no grandstanding Senators or Congressmen pontificating(who are often lawyers) to foul it up as only lawyers can do. A bullet in the back of teh skull and an anonymous grave.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 7:12 Comments ||
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#2
Anonymous grave, hell.
Sharks gotta eat, too.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/07/2006 12:01 Comments ||
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The army is pretty lukewarm about demilitarising Siachen
Will Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf succeed in demilitarising the strategic Siachen Glacier and turn it into "a mountain of peace"? The feedback from the Indian establishment is that the ongoing dialogue with Pakistan is on course, and an agreement is being worked out which could lead to troop withdrawal by India from the highest battlefield in the world.
But is the army amenable to such a move? The alarm bells have begun ringing in army headquarters which has conveyed its "deepest concerns" to the Prime Minister's Office
(PMO) on the Siachen issue. A tight-lipped Vice-chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General S. Pattabhiraman, told Outlook: "We have expressed our concerns and observations to the government. And I am sure the government will keep these concerns in mind."
The army's position is that unless certain safeguards and conditions favouring India are put in place, it would be a strategic blunder to withdraw from the positions that it currently holds in Siachen. The army believes that any troop withdrawal that gives the advantage to Pakistan would compromise national security. In fact, in a presentation to the PMO, the army top brass have made the following observations:
* It would be unwise to withdraw from the present Indian position on the Saltoro Ridge where India is in command
* If there is a withdrawal from the glacier, it must be after the two armies' positions have been authenticated both by India and Pakistan jointly on a map as well as on the ground
* The agreement must have a clause giving each side the right to take "appropriate action" if there is any violation of the position on ground
* The withdrawal, if any, must be to a position which gives Indian troops ample time to redeploy. The Pakistanis have better roads while none exists on this side. Therefore, any withdrawal must be decided keeping in mind the number of hours it would take either side to deploy to their present positions.
But is the government factoring in the army's concerns? So far, army HQ has kept its fingers crossed on a subject that could provide the government diplomatic success on a "substantial issue." Many feel the upcoming talks on Siachen between the Indian and Pakistani defence secretaries on May 25-26, this year, could be the final round of negotiations before the PM announces an agreement during his Pakistan visit later this year.
However, senior army officers caution that once withdrawal is effected, reverting to the present positions, which the army has held since 1984, would be close to impossible. Points out a serving general: "In military terms, it would be nothing short of a suicide mission to win back those heights in the event of a violation by Pakistan. Can we base an international agreement with Pakistan that is dependent on its goodwill? Or, should we come to an agreement that ensures that we remain in a position of strength?"
So far, the nine rounds of defence secretary-level talks between India and Pakistan have proved to be inconclusive. While India wants its present position on the Saltoro Ridge authenticated, Pakistan wants the maps to be made part of the annexures without any mention of the present positions in the agreement. Indian observers feel that if the maps are not authenticated and merely included as annexures they will lack any legal sanctity which can be enforced if there are any violations. "In the light of what happened in Kargil such a legal sanctity is imperative before any agreement," a senior army official said.
The army insists on such conditions as the Saltoro Ridgeahead and west of Siachenwas won by the army in 1984 with great difficulty. Soldiers had never operated at such altitudes and holding position ever since has involved huge human and financial costs.
"It is a misnomer that we are actually battling over Siachen," says former vice-chief of army staff Lieutenant General Vijay Oberoi. The focus is on Saltoro Ridge and its strategic importance is considerable.
The Indian army sits on the ridge west of the Siachen Glacier and is in a dominating position overlooking Pakistani positions. If Indian troops pull out, it would leave Ladakh's Nubra Valley open to attack from Pakistan and offer it a gateway into the Kashmir valley through Leh. In other words, vacating the present Indian position without proper safeguards would be a military disaster.
Oberoi is one of those who believe that any such agreement without authentication of the present positions would be an unmitigated disaster. "In a mountainous region, as per international conventions, the watershed serves as the international boundary. And Saltoro, which we hold, is the watershed."
Sources familiar with the Indo-Pak talks also say that there has been considerable disagreement on the clauses that have to be included to ensure that
a withdrawal does not lead to future violations by either side. Points out Lieutenant General R.K. Nanavatty, who was a brigade commander in Siachen and retired as the Northern Army commander: "If we withdraw, then there must be a clause that ensures that any violation will give either side the right to launch military operations anywhere along the LoC or the international boundary." Nanavatty also insists that India must continue to hold a presence on the 73-kilometre-long Siachen glacier right up to Indra Col in the north.
Another concern expressed by army headquarters pertains to the fact that the Chinese maintain a major presence in the Shaksgam Valley, a part of PoK which was "illegally ceded" to China by Pakistan. This has proved to be a major cause of worry to the army as Pakistan has been demanding that both armies withdraw to the pre-1984 lines. Which means the whole areafrom the Saltoro ridge to the Nubra river in the eastbecomes a demilitarised zone. This would leave India vulnerable to a China-Pak attack. For the army, such a demand is unacceptable. Such is the alarm in South Block that tacit approval has been given to several think-tanks to write to the prime minister pointing out the folly in withdrawing without adequate safeguards.
Which is why everyone agrees that authentication of present positions and an internationally-accepted assurance coupled with deterrence is the only way forward. "Even a suggestion to withdraw otherwise would be absurd," says Air Commodore Jasjit Singh, director, Centre for Air Power Studies. "Once authenticated, we must declassify these maps so that the international community knows what the Indian positions were before the withdrawal. This will give sanctity to any agreement that we might sign. After all, we must remember that the ingress into Kargil by Pakistan occurred despite the presence of authenticated maps in the 1972 agreement," he adds.
With a near-unanimous and vocal opposition to a withdrawal from Siachen by the army, the government is bound to have a rethink on the issue in the coming months. Army headquarters is hopeful that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's efforts to bring peace to the glacier will not end in yet another Himalayan blunder.
Posted by: john ||
05/07/2006 12:09 ||
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#1
Pakis have better roads in the area - that's bad. I'd be working like mad on the Indian side to improve logistics to the area.
#2
Terrain on the Indian side is pretty formidable.
If the Indian army vacates the high ground and Pak troops capture it, they will be almost impossible to remove.
There is a history of Indian expectations of Pak goodwill.
Indira Gandhi gave back captured territory at the Tashkent conference, released 90,000 POWs, in exchange for a promise to convert the LOC to an international border.
Her father Jawalharal Nehru gave the lions share of water under the Indus Water treaty to Pakistan, in the hope that it would encourage friendship.
Another PM, IK Gujral stopped all RAW activities in Balochistan, allegedly handing over names of operatives, in exchange for a Pak promise to rein in militants.
It seems Manmohan Singh is simarly inclined.
Part of the problem may be the shared history of these generations of leaders. They were born in the Raj era - British India and have fond memories of the time before partition.
Younger Indians have no longing for lost brothers. They only know Pakistanis as the enemy. They grew up under constant terrorist attacks and are far less likely to trust Pakistan or even care about "peace" or normalized relations.
Posted by: john ||
05/07/2006 13:28 Comments ||
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#3
I wouldn't trust a Pak to take out my trash - You don't see many Indian incursions across the LOC to kill innocents? They're Muslim, and honor bound to lie
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/07/2006 13:55 Comments ||
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#4
Do their next rounds of nuke testing under the glacier in an attempt to shift it or make it unstable.
ISLAMABAD - Visiting Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy- Rey on Saturday announced the closure of the visa section at the Swiss embassy in Islamabad as a probe continued into applications abuse. We are compelled to do so following complaints of maltreatment and harassment of visa applicants and alleged involvement of some of its employees in human trafficking, she said at a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Khurshid M. K.
Switzerland was in a difficult situation as a result of abuse of visa procedure, she said, and the visa office would remain closed until further order.
The decision came after the Swiss Foreign Ministry last month ordered a probe into alleged sexual harassment of two Pakistani women in exchange for visas by local visa official Ashar Francis last March. While Asher is in police custody, Pakistani authorities were reported to have approached Interpol for the arrest of another former visa assistant and a retired army Major Arshad, who was Ashars alleged accomplice and fled to London.
Sexual harassment of Pakistani women? Does Pakistan even have a law on that?
The Swiss minister said the criminal activity had not only damaged her countrys interest and goodwill but also represented an act against those people who wanted to go to Switzerland.
Calmy-Rey said there was a little doubt that the embassy had been targeted by a criminal network also engaged in human trafficking. We are already cooperating and have agreed to further cooperate on the issue with Pakistan, she said.
Kasuri said their talks had focused on the complaints of visa applicants as well as alleged involvement of some employees of the Swiss Embassy in human trafficking. I have stressed the point that rights of genuine travelers from Pakistan must be protected and respected, he added.
Both of them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/07/2006 00:06 ||
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#1
Sexual harassment of Pakistani women? Does Pakistan even have a law on that?
Yep. If you're not her father, brother, or husband, you don't have a right to rape her.
PESHAWAR: NWFP Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan will soon receive his new 2006-model luxury car, which is worth Rs 5 million, said the Islami Jamiat Lawyers Forum on Saturday. Advocate Ghulam Nabi Khan, the leader of the forum, said the car had reached Karachi and would be handed over to the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) parliamentarian in Peshawar soon. Having a luxurious car, he said, was a clear violation of the MMA's manifesto and the pledges that the party had made during the elections. "The MMA promised to follow Islamic principles when they came into power, which seem to have been forgotten now," he said, adding that MMA parliamentarians, especially ministers, would be ashamed using cars worth merely Rs 1.5 million to Rs 2 million. He demanded the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leadership act against the NWFP Assembly speaker's extravagance, since such a huge amount could be used for the welfare of the poor and helpless.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2006 00:00 ||
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#5
Oh Allen, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends,
So Allen, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz ?
Posted by: Steve ||
05/07/2006 16:40 Comments ||
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#6
O al won't yur buy me a color teevee
I'm counting on you pal
MULTAN: Students from an Islamic seminary protested on Saturday against the death of a Pakistani in a Berlin jail by burning German flags and vowing to continue his jihad. Amir Cheema, 28, died in custody after he was arrested in Germany on March 20 on charges of attempting to kill the editor of a German newspaper, Die Welt, for reprinting caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) first published in Denmark last year. Around 300 students of Jamiat Taliba Arabia, one of many seminaries run by Jamaat-i-Islami, blocked traffic in the centre of Multan city, burned German flags and denounced Germany, Denmark and the United States as "infidel states".
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2006 00:00 ||
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SRINAGAR: At least 10 people were injured in Indian held Kashmir on Saturday when police fired teargas shells and baton-charged hundreds of students as protests erupted over a suspected prostitution ring involving local officials. Local newspapers and television channels have been reporting details of a racket they say provided prostitutes for politicians, police officers and bureaucrats. "Expose people ... stop pushing innocent girls into the sex trade," protesters shouted outside the Kashmir University campus in Srinagar. On Friday, an angry mob ransacked the house of a woman suspected of running the prostitution ring, before razing it to the ground and setting fire to her belongings. The woman and three others were detained by police for questioning after pornographic videos and video clips on mobile phones showing nude Kashmiri girls were circulated in Srinagar. The investigation has been handed to a federal Indian agency to probe accusations that senior officials were involved.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2006 00:00 ||
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President George W Bush said on Friday, in an interview with financial news network CNBC, that the September 11 passenger-revolt against hijackers on board Flight 93 had struck the first counter-blow to "World War III". "I believe that it was the first counter-attack to World War III. It was unbelievably heroic of those folks on the airplane to recognise the danger and save lives." Bush lamented that bad news from Iraq was drowning out what he called good news on the country's economy. "The problem is that we're in war, and sometimes it's hard for people to get a positive message about the economy when they're troubled by... scenes of violence on the TV screens. " That the US economy had created 138,000 new jobs in April, he said, was "an indication that this economy's still strong".
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Just like W to mis-count. I thought that we won WW III when the Soviet Union disintegrated and that WW IV began on 9/11.
#4
Technically it's WWIV as cold war was WWIII fought through a series of proxy wars. This war feels a lot hotter.
I think the folks who fought in Korea and Vietnam would differ. I'm calling it World War Version 4.0, The Islamic Fascist War.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/07/2006 16:45 Comments ||
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#5
As alleged Rightist, Conservative, Nationalist, Fascist and Democratic as Commie STALINIZATION, SOVIETIZATION, LENINIZATION, MAOSIFICATION, and COMMUNIZATION, etal. And now you know why, vv the MSM, surprise surprise Sgt. Carter the Dems are blaming Dubya and the GOP-Right for any each every and all Alternatist agendas in America, ergo the MSM and Hollywierd keeps putting out Secularist, Alternatist, "God = Religion is fake",
Scientifist = Realist/Pragmatist "Reality/
Celebreality", etc. TV Shows, GETTING CLINTONIAN SOCIALIST AMERICA'S MAINSTREAM READY FOR THE EMPIRE-SOCIALIST WORLD ORDER AMERICA MUST VOLUNTARILY = FORCIBLY GIVE UP AND NOT RULE!?
Pakistan is not doing enough to help root out Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders who have found safe haven in its lawless tribal lands along the Afghan border, a senior US security official said on Saturday. Most Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders are in Pakistan, and while the United States did not know where Osama bin Laden was hiding, he was probably on the Pakistan side of the border, said Henry Crumpton, State Department coordinator for counter-terrorism.
Pakistan, a vital US security ally, has arrested hundreds of Al Qaeda members and lost hundreds of its troops battling militants. But Afghan officials have complained insurgents were able to gather support and launch raids from the safety of Pakistani territory. Violence has intensified in parts of Afghanistan in recent months to its worst level since US and Afghan opposition forces ousted the Taliban in 2001. Has Pakistan done enough? I think the answer is no, Crumpton told a news briefing in the Afghan capital, Kabul. Not only Al Qaeda, but Taliban leadership are primarily in Pakistan, and the Pakistanis know that, Crumpton added.
It is totally absurd: ISPR Pakistan army spokesman dismisses as absurd a statement by US counter-terrorism envoy that Pakistan is not doing enough to arrest Islamic militants. It is totally absurd, Major General Shaukat Sultan, the chief of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), said on Saturday. No one has conveyed this thing to Pakistan, and if someone claims so, it is absurd, he said. Also, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao rejected a statement by Henry Campton regarding presence of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan and said that Islamabad would take action if it had any information about the presence of Qaeda or Taliban remnants. Talking to a private TV channel late on Saturday, Sherpao expressed wonder over the statement by Campton with regard to Pakistans role in the war on terrorism.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
IMO, Pakistan is doing a lot on generating and supporting terror.
#3
Pakistan can do more against terrorism, says Afghan FM
Updated at 2100 PST
KABUL: Pakistan could do more in the fight against terrorism; Afghanistan's foreign minister said Sunday after Islamabad rejected as absurd a similar statement by a top US counter-terrorism official.
Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta, sworn in last week, said however that his country appreciated Pakistan's cooperation against Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants trying to topple the Afghan government.
"I think our brother country Pakistan can do something more against terrorism but I am very happy that we have had very strong cooperation against terrorism and for security and stability building in Afghanistan," Spanta told reporters.
"We know the sources of terrorism are outside Afghanistan to have sustainable success in this region, I think it is immediately necessary that we work together and closely with Pakistan against terrorism," he said.
Posted by: john ||
05/07/2006 16:05 Comments ||
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US Ambassador to Ankara Ross Wilson yesterday said that Turkey conducting a cross-border operation into Iraq wouldnt be wise.
Meeting with diplomatic correspondents, Wilson said that Turkeys activities in northern Iraq had somehow been declared and obtained acceptance by the authorities of Iraq and the coalition.
There are many terrorist camps in Northern Iraq and more than 4,000 PKK terrorists have been using Iraq as a base to attack Turkey and other neighboring countries, yet the US forces have done no concrete measures against the PKK terrorists. Turkey says that if the US or the Iraq cannot secure Turkey-Iraq borders, Turkish forces would do so. The US authorities, including the President had promised to remove the PKK terrorist camps from the Northern Iraq, yet the words have not been fulfilled.
The US ambassador said that there was an ongoing dialogue between the two countries on the terrorist PKK presence in Northern Iraq and called on all countries neighboring Iraq to show respect to the country. The recent surveys show that the Turkish people think that the US and the Iraqi Kurdish leaders support the PKK terrorism against Turkey.
Asked about the upcoming visit to Ankara of Irans top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, Wilson said that during US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rices recent visit to Ankara, Turkish authorities openly declared that Turkey doesnt want to see any nuclear weapons in Iran and that it should cooperate fully and return to the negotiating table, adding, I expect these to be among key messages to be conveyed by Turkish authorities.
The Iranian forces has recently started a military campaign against the PKK camps, and many PKK terrorists were killed by the Iranian forces. Many more PKK terrorist were also detained by Iran last week. Iran urged Turkey for joint military operations against the terrorist movements in the region while the US and the EU declared that they were against any Turkish military operation against the PKK. Dr. Sedat Laciner, head of the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization (USAK), says that the Turkish people and the state have been disappointed by the Western position vis-à-vis PKK and Turkey. "Combating terrorism is a right for Turkey and the US and the EU should only support Turkey's struggle against the terrorists" Dr. Laciner added. Laciner argues that the EU in particular sends wrong signals to Turkey:
"Joost Lagendijk, Co-President of the joint EU-Turkey Parliamentary Commission, says that the EU is against the PKK and Turkish military operation against the PKK: So he perceives the PKK and Turkish security forces as equal sides. This is not the right attitude Turkish people has expected from the EU. All states, including the United Kingdom, United States, France or Spain, use military forces against terrorism when they face terrorism. The EU countries do not consider the PKK as terrorist because they are free of the PKK violence. The West names terrorism as terrorism when they become victims of terrorism. Belgium, Sweden, Denmark and many other countries allow the PKK activities in the name of democracy and free speech. Yet they have no such a tolerance against the Islamist terrorists. They have no problem with the Kurdist terrorism, because it does not damage their national interests. Iran helps Turkey in combating against terrorism more than Turkey's allies in the West. As far as the PKK camps are in Iraq under the US rule, Turkish-American relations will be undermined".
Last week the PKK attacked the school bus and injured 11 children. Attacking children is not a new method for the PKK. In the late 1980s the PKK used to attack Kurdish villages in southeastern Turkey, killing women, children and old men. The terrorist organization used to justify its attacks by saying the victims were members of families who'd collaborated with the Turkish state.
#1
Continued British occupation of forts in the Northwest Territories [the future Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, and Wisconsin] after the American War of Independence and meddling with the locals did wonders for Anglo-American relations for generations. Guess people can't learn from others mistakes.
The Turks used to be 'bad asses'. However, I think someone elses army is getting re-world, hands on experience with the best in the world. I wouldn't really want to put the consequences into a test sometime in the future. Particularly since they've alienated the Iraqis new sponsor.
You can always count on the NYT to find the dark lining in a silver cloud.
An effort by the American military to discredit the terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi by showing video outtakes of him fumbling with a machine gun suggesting that he lacks real fighting skill was questioned yesterday by retired and active American military officers.
The video clips, released on Thursday to news organizations in Baghdad, show the terrorist leader confused about how to handle an M-249 squad automatic weapon, known as an S.A.W., which is part of the American inventory of infantry weapons.
The American military, which said it captured the videotapes in a recent raid, released selected outtakes in an effort to undermine Mr. Zarqawi's image as leader of the Council of Holy Warriors, formerly Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, and suggested that his fighting talents and experience were less than his propaganda portrays. But several veterans of wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, as well as active-duty officers, said in telephone interviews yesterday that the clips of Mr. Zarqawi's supposed martial incompetence were unconvincing.
The weapon in question is complicated to master, and American soldiers and marines undergo many days of training to achieve the most basic competence with it. Moreover, the weapon in Mr. Zarqawi's hands was an older variant, which makes its malfunctioning unsurprising. The veterans said Mr. Zarqawi, who had spent his years as a terrorist surrounded by simpler weapons of Soviet design, could hardly have been expected to know how to handle it.
"They are making a big deal out of nothing," said Mario Costagliola, who retired as an Army colonel last month after serving as the operations officer for the 42nd Infantry Division in Tikrit, Iraq.
An active-duty Special Forces colonel who served in Iraq also said that what the video showed actually had little relationship to Mr. Zarqawi's level of terrorist skill. "Looking at the video, I enjoy it; I like that he looks kind of goofy," said the Special Forces officer, who was granted anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on military matters. "But as a military guy, I shrug my shoulders and say: 'Of course he doesn't know how to use it. It's our gun.' He doesn't look as stupid as they said he looks."
The release of the captured video reflected the dueling public relations efforts between the American-led forces fighting in Iraq and the terrorists and insurgents. It also reflected increasing interest by the military and civilian strategists in trying to ridicule Mr. Zarqawi.
"In Arab and Muslim societies, pride and shame are felt much more profoundly than they are in Western culture," said J. Michael Waller, a professor at the Institute of World Politics, a graduate school in Washington. "To find video like this that can cut him down to size and discredit him is a real way of fighting terrorism." A paper written by Professor Waller advocating the use of ridicule against the insurgents has been circulating at the Pentagon and among military commanders with experience in Iraq recently, according to several military officers.
But the retired and active officers said the public presentation of the tape did not address elements that were disturbing, rather than amusing: the weapon was probably captured from American soldiers, indicating a tactical victory for the insurgents. And Mr. Zarqawi looked clean and plump.
"I see a guy who is getting a lot of groceries and local support," said Nick Pratt, a Marine Corps veteran and professor of terrorism studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Germany. "You cannot say he is a bad operator." He added, "People should be careful who they poke fun at."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/07/2006 00:28 ||
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#1
"In Arab and Muslim societies, pride and shame are felt much more profoundly than they are in Western culture,"
Except that their values are screwed up upside down. E.g., honour killing where there's no honor palpable in such - none by by the measure of the Golden Rule wrt human civilization understood by all other civilized nations.
It's their excessive indulgent narcissistic distortion of shame and pride. Something that is also unappeasable.
But it somehow doesn't seem to quite cover the NYT point of view....
More like "Every silver lining was made from precious minerals stolen from Mother Earth by overworked, underpaid, abused wage slaves to line the pockets of the rich, fat-cat capitalists starting with Cheney-Halliburton and oiloiloil"
Somebody here can do better than that!
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/07/2006 8:48 Comments ||
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#3
Schizophrenics feel paranoia more deeply than normal people therefore we should indulge their fantasies and not let reality intrude because it might further upset them.
#4
well in reality most arabs or middle easy=terners wouldn't have known that it was an older version of the weapon and it hw difficult it is too use if the asswipes had kept their mouths shut.Since when do ex soldiers and active ones have too open their mouiths too help the enemy when their friends are over there still fighting?
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 10:59 Comments ||
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#6
I said yesterday fuck the NYT and these idiots commenting on their behalf. I'd poke fun at zarki all day on Arab t.v. and send these tapes right to Al Jizz. I'd also show every sheik in the al anbar this tape. Nick Pratt, you asshole, you ought to know better.
"The weapon in question is complicated to master, and American soldiers and marines undergo many days of training to achieve the most basic competence with it."
-that is bullshit. Besides cleaining the damn thing and remembering to keep your palm to the sky when pulling the charging handle it's actually a pretty easy weapon to operate.
God! Why do you put so many assholes on the planet at the same time?!
Kurdish separatists have threatened hit-and-run attacks on Iran, which it says plans to bomb their positions in Iraq to gain Turkey's support against the US. Cemil "Cuma" Bayik, the de facto leader of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), said: "We have the right to launch attacks against Iranian forces."
It's what's known in the trade as a "legitimate right™".
The PKK has fought Turkey for years in its battle to establish an independent state in the majority Kurdish southeast of the country. He said recent Iranian artillery shelling of PKK camps in Iraqi Kurdistan meant that the rebel group's battle could spread to Iran. "We are on the defence. If we're not attacked we won't either. We believe politics and democracy are a better path," Bayik said. But Bayik said PKK "intelligence reports" suggested that Iran was preparing to shell rebel positions again. "We aren't capable of facing them in open battle. We'll make hit-and-run raids with our Kalashnikovs, rocket-propelled grenades, machine guns and mortars," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2006 00:00 ||
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ISLAMIC scholars are to meet in Doha later this week to draw up a fatwa (religious edict), obliging the Muslim faithful to help the Palestinian government headed by Hamas.
Influential cleric Dr Yusuf al-Qaradawi said the May 10-11 meeting would help both the Palestinian people and their government, hit hard by US and EU funding cuts because of the Islamist groups refusal to recognise Israel.
Ulemas (scholars) as well as other Muslim and Palestinian leaders will "draw up a fatwa on the duty of the Ummah (Muslims) and of governments" towards the Palestinians and the Hamas cabinet, Qaradawi told a press conference yesterday.
The fatwa will refer to financial aid to the Palestinians as well as offering them moral support.
He slammed what he called "the duality of the West, which rejects Palestinian democracy after encouraging such a democracy just because it doesnt suit them."
"This is political hypocrisy and we reject it," he said.
Exiled Hamas supremo Khalid Mishal, Islamic Jihad chief Ramadan al-Shalah and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command leader Ahmed Jibril would attend the Doha meeting, Qaradawi said.
However, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbass Fatah faction, which Hamas trounced in Januarys vote, would not be attending, he said, citing "difficulties with Fatah representatives ... who mostly refuse to co-operate".
Qaradawi, head of the International Federation of Muslim Scholars, said the conference aimed at rallying support for the Palestinian people in the backdrop of the difficult conditions they lived today.
It would bring together Muslim scholars from all over the Islamic world to make known their stance on the "siege" clamped on the Palestinian people.
Qaradawi said he would urge the varying Palestinian factions to stand united in one trench with the Palestinian government to tackle the siege as "such action is a religious, moral and national duty".
He said he would also call on all Arab-Muslim governments and organisations not to give in to foreign pressure and to initiate support and assistance to the Palestinians.
Qaradawi warned that "any failure of Hamas as a result of the siege is a failure of the entire Muslim world".
"The conference will issue a final communique and a fatwa to explain the duty of the Arab and Muslim nations and the Palestinian factions on supporting the Palestinians and their government under the leadership of Hamas, because this is what the Shariah and reality dictate."
The conference will also set up a committee to follow up the recommendations issued by the conference.
"The silence of some of the Muslim governments toward the EU and US pressures on Hamas is treason," he said.
Qaradawi rejected the idea of disbanding the Arab League, saying that the Arab and Muslim governments are not exempted from their obligations towards Palestine which he described as the "home of the Prophets".
He hailed Qatars donations to the Palestinian people and appreciated the efforts of the charities in helping them.
"I have given a speech via cell phone to the Egyptian Engineers Syndicate. I was told that an Egyptian donated LE1.25mn (Egyptian pounds) to the Hamas government but the banks refused to transfer the money," he said.
Asked about the Islamic scholars conference, Qaradawi said the initiative was his own as well as from the scholars union.
"It was a collective initiative that found a positive response from Qatar," he said.
Regarding the concessions that Hamas should make to come to terms with the other Palestinian factions, he said he could not ask Hamas to do so "while Israel is encroaching upon the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people".
"Hamas has offered a 50-year long truce but Israel rejected it," he said.
Regarding the legitimacy of the channels that would deliver the financial aid raised by the people and governments, Qaradawi ruled that all such channels are legitimate.
#1
LOL. I guess the telethon didn't go well. They have to fatwah muzzies into donating to the Pals! Still won't work most likely. Didn't King Abdullah just make the top of Fortune's wealthiest dictator$? $25 Billion or so? Surely the "Keeper of the Two Mosques" can well afford to put food in the mouths of the rabble in the "home of the Prophets" for years to come. If he cared, that is.
GAZA CITY, GAZA STRIP -- Hundreds of Palestinians staged strikes and demonstrations Saturday in the West Bank and Gaza Strip to demand payment of overdue salaries to government workers -- the first public signs of discontent with the Hamas-led Cabinet's handling of a growing financial crisis.
The unrest occurred ahead of a meeting in Gaza late Saturday between Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas and moderate President Mahmoud Abbas. The two, involved in a power struggle since Hamas defeated Abbas' Fatah Party in January legislative elections, failed to resolve their differences but agreed to meet again Sunday.
Until now, the Palestinian public had heeded calls for patience, following the government in blaming the crisis on Western hostility to Hamas.
JERUSALEM - Israel's Mossad secret service agency killed a Palestinian wanted for airplane hijackings by feeding him poisoned Belgian chocolate over six months in the late 1970s, according to a new book, the author said Saturday. Belgium's contribution to the War on Terror...
The book, "Striking Back," is apparently the first time that details of the killing have come to light. In the book, Jerusalem's Time magazine correspondent Aaron Klein describes how Israel tracked down Wadia Haddad, an operative of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, in Baghdad. Haddad had gone into hiding in the Iraqi capital after Israel began killing Palestinian militants around the world, Klein told Israel Radio.
Suspected in multiple hijackings, including the 1976 takeover of an Air France airplane in Entebbe, Uganda, Haddad knew from earlier Israeli tactics that he could be shot or bombed as he walked the street or picked up a phone. Haddad was cautious of his every move, avoiding travel outside Iraq, said Klein. But the 309-pound food lover had a weakness: chocolate. Not on the salt and olive diet obviously...
In Baghdad of 1977, fine chocolates were rare. The Mossad, working with a Palestinian who had become close to Haddad, secretly gave him Belgian chocolate laced with poison over six months, Klein said. Mmmmmmmmmmm! Wadia like poison candy!
Haddad died in March 1978, showing only symptoms of leukemia but no signs of poisoning, Klein told the radio. "This elimination was very successful because, as soon as this person was taken out and stopped working, in effect all the terrorist activity, especially the hijacking of airplanes, ceased altogether," Klein said.
The Mossad's ability to poison has improved drastically over the years, Klein said. In 1997, Israeli agents in Jordan injected Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal with a poison that would have killed him within 24 hours. The plot was discovered, and Jordan forced Israel to provide an antidote in time to save Mashaal. I'll bet that plan doesn't have a lot of dust on it.
Since the death of Yasser Arafat in late 2004, rumors have swirled in the Arab world that the longtime Palestinian leader was poisoned by Israel. How? Maybe they saved some of that Ayds candy from the 70's?
Klein said there is no evidence that Israel killed Arafat, but that it would take years to prove that poisoning took place because of Israel's sophistication. Arafat died in a Paris hospital in 2004 of a stroke that followed a sudden deterioration in his health. Medical records have been inconclusive about the cause of death, leading some Palestinians to accuse Israel.
#7
The Mossad are saving the D-Con Burgers for last.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/07/2006 14:27 Comments ||
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#8
"You love the D-Con burgers they taste just like Umm, lamb that is it lamb."
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 14:57 Comments ||
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#9
The plot was discovered, and Jordan forced Israel to provide an antidote in time to save Mashaal.
And how exactly did they do that? I can't imagine Isreal saving his life under ANY Circumstances.
Posted by: Charles ||
05/07/2006 15:08 Comments ||
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#10
The Mossad's ability to poison has improved drastically over the years,
Yes indeed, they have developed encrypted cyber algarythems and attached them to Belgium chocolate web sites .... and other links. These algarythems create what is known as word and letter borne hemo-arrhythmia which attacks and constricts the tiny blood vessels in the reader's eyes. This totally untreatable and irreversable malady leads to color blindness (red wire/blue wire syndorne), and eventually total blindness, increased anger, fits of rage, democratic voting, and manic depression.
#1
Just a 'document'? No one willing to put their name on it? If this document had lips, they'd be on the floor. The argument that it would 'undercut Hamas' is just typical euro wishful thinking.
#2
The eurotrash who propose schemes like this always, always give away other people's money. When it comes to their personal funds, they make Scrooge look like a spendthrift.
Afrah Jowdad, 32, toyed forlornly with her four prized bracelets for the last time before handing them over to the merchant in the ancient West Bank gold market of Nablus yesterday.
"They were given to me by my husband as a dowry on my wedding day, so to lose them is to lose my best-loved memories," she said. "But I have six children and no other way to pay for food, so I have no option other than selling my bracelets."
Outside the Star Display jewellery emporium, a line of Palestinian women, in traditional hijab dress, queued patiently to sell rings, necklaces and other finery. To sell one's dowry brings shame on Palestinian families but these are such desperate days in Gaza and the West Bank that basic needs prevail over social mores.
"I have never seen anything like this: I am averaging 400,000 shekels [£50,000] of gold purchases every day," said the merchant, Abdel Hakim Hawari, 40.
The rush to sell family heirlooms in the occupied territories is the starkest proof yet of the imminent economic meltdown faced by 3.5 million Palestinians, as sanctions against the new Hamas government begin to bite.
Even before Hamas was elected, the economy was faltering and heavily dependent on financial support from Europe and America. But the decision by Brussels and Washington to withdraw funding until Hamas moderates its militant anti-Israel stance has pushed the fragile economy to collapse.
Overnight the money has dried up as 167,000 public-sector employees, the economy's largest body of earners, no longer receive wages from the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Authority (PA). The impact is all the greater for Israel's clampdown on the territories, which has stopped thousands of Palestinians from crossing into Israel to earn a living.
With Hamas refusing to condemn a recent suicide attack, aid workers fear that the isolated Palestinian government - and the limited services available to its people - may soon collapse. Aid agencies would be overwhelmed if expected to pick up the pieces.
"All the international aid agencies put together will not be able to replace the services that the Palestinian Authority provides," said David Shearer, the head of the United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs.
As government coffers empty and the flow of trade and goods into the Palestinian territories dries up, medical supplies in hospitals are running dangerously low and basic food supplies are unaffordable for most families.
Last week a group of 36 aid agencies working with Palestinians, including the British groups Merlin and Save the Children UK, wrote a joint letter to Israel urging it to fulfil last November's agreement to allow trade in and out of Gaza. Israel has remained insistent on keeping tight checks on traffic to prevent terrorist attacks.
gee, can't imagine why.
The economy of the Palestinian territories has been propped up by outside support since the early 1990s, when the PA was created out of the Oslo peace process as the future government of a nascent Palestinian state. In spite of the continued fighting that stalled progress towards creating a Palestinian state, the international community kept faith with the PA, ploughing in billions of pounds.
The World Bank estimates that only 12 per cent of the PA's economic activity was ever internally generated. The rest came from outside, either through Palestinians earning wages in Israel or foreign donor support. When Yasser Arafat, then the Palestinian leader, launched the armed intifada in late 2000, Israel closed the checkpoints to the occupied territories, reducing the income from foreign earnings to a trickle. By the time Hamas won power in January's general election, the PA was in debt to the tune of £451 million.
When aid was suspended by Brussels and Washington, Hamas asked Muslim nations for funding and won promises of tens of millions of pounds from friendly Arab nations - only to run into another problem. International banks have refused to transfer these Arab funds to the PA, for fear of being proscribed by the United States banking authorities for helping Hamas, which is on Washington's list of terrorist organisations.
They have reason to be cautious. Five years ago, when al-Aqsa Islamic Bank in the West Bank city of Ramallah was described by President George W Bush as "a financial arm of Hamas'', its global business vanished overnight. Both America and Europe agree that economic sanctions should hurt the Hamas administration, not the Palestinian people. But so far, it is people such as the Jowdads of Nablus, selling family heirlooms, who are making the painful sacrifices.
"I just don't know what is going to happen when people run out of gold to sell," said Mr Hawari, as he raked in the profits from today's high international gold prices. "This cannot go on for ever and, when it finishes, there will be trouble."
But you will no doubt be safely away, I suspect. Gold is so easy to carry when fleeing a country ....
#2
welfare queens... Israel created an oasis and a first-world economy in the desert. You could too if you had any initiative and quite your stupid whining seething ways. STFU and get about it or disappear into the sands.... either way is OK with me. No more funds!
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/07/2006 0:35 Comments ||
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#5
When people are put in a position of having to work for a living, of doing something or starving, they will often rise to the task. The Paleos now face the conundrum that for all their violence, gunman do not bring home the bacon--there is no money in it.
It would be best if no more aid is forthcoming. If they want food-grow it; don't use fallow fields to launch Qassam rockets. If you want to keep your houses, do not allow snipers to use them for cover.
Most of all, the Paleo people need to insist that the money that enters the territories be used for the people. All of it. Not a dime for war.
#6
I feel sorry for these poor dumb people, but that's the bummer of self rule. Sometimes what you think you want isn't what you need. Better luck in your next round of elections.
#8
It's funny, I recall the PA getting some prime real-estate with green-houses and farms months ago, yet I also remember them tearing it apart in celebration. Betcha they wish the place was still working now.
Posted by: Charles ||
05/07/2006 15:14 Comments ||
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#9
I'll try to skip the schadenfreude, and try to stick to pity, though it is extra effort. And pity them the more because as far as I can see their only hope for a better life lies at the far side of an exhausting bloody civil war. A conflict that is less than exhausting isn't going to burn away their "love for death." And even with such a war there's no guarantee.
Posted by: James ||
05/07/2006 23:39 Comments ||
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The Palestinian government condemned on Friday the "horrendous bloodbath" masterminded by Israel here and that ended up in the killing of five Palestinians. It said in a statement that the Israeli air raid is a criminal act and part of the permanent Israeli policy that hinges on premeditated murder and assassination. Spokesman for the government Ghazi Hamad said in the statement released here that it is not strange that the crime that unveils the ugly image of the Israeli occupation comes in the second day of coming of the new government led by Ehud Olmert to power.
Meanwhile Chief Palestinian negotiator Dr. Saeb Erekat condemned the Israeli raid adding that the Israeli assassination is programmed and comes within context of the continued Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. He warned that keeping on the Israeli aggressive policy, the continued building of the separation wall in the occupied West Bank, expanding the Israeli settlements and forcing unilateral solution by Israel would lead to "expanding the circle of bloody violence in the region".
Earlier the Israeli occupation army admitted responsibility for the air raid that allegedly targeted a training camp for militants of the popular resistance committees and killed five of them.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2006 00:00 ||
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#6
In large parts of the world, you can't be a somebody without a PhD. In anything. Generally purchased from the local diploma mill or equivalent "university." One reason the ambitious come to the West/Singapore/Taiwan, etc. to be educated is because our schools actually teach. The healing arts have nothing to do with it.
#7
TW can you tell me where to get one. I am hoping it will improve my job prospects. I am shooting for a whopping $16,500 a year in income. This ploy just might help me win that job.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 16:10 Comments ||
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#8
let me fwd some of my spam for degrees online, SPOD
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/07/2006 18:50 Comments ||
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Hamas refused to join a Palestinian delegation invited by Jordan to look into details of the discovery of arms smuggled by some movement members into the country as well as the arrest of elements who plotted to attack officials and other targets in the Kingdom. Government Spokesperson Nasser Judeh on Saturday quoted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as saying in a letter that the Hamas-led government showed no interest in participating in this delegation, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. Abbas added that Hamas wanted direct talks between the Jordanian government and the groups exiled leaders, because they were accused of the plots, Petra quoted Judeh as saying.
The Palestinian government said it was not directly involved in the issue, according to Abbas. The government recently said arrested members of Hamas received orders from one of the groups leaders in Syria to carry out attacks in Jordan. Following the discovery of the weapons cache, Jordan scrapped a planned visit to Amman in April by Mahmoud Zahar, foreign minister in the Hamas-run Palestinian government.
Judeh yesterday said the government will receive the delegation formed by Abbas. The team was expected to arrive in Amman on Wednesday, he said. The government is surprised by the refusal of the [Hamas] government to participate in the Palestinian delegation, to which we are going to present the details of a series of abuses by members of Hamas in recent years, Judeh told Agence France-Presse. He said this would include details on the confessions of people arrested as well as on the arms and missiles that Hamas elements have stockpiled in Jordan. What was seized in Jordan represents a great danger and a threat to the stability of the Kingdom, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as saying in a letter that the Hamas-led government showed no interest in participating in this delegation,
...likewise, no interest in being detained for questioning by King Ab. Even a hound knows not to return to his own vomit.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Saturday that the Middle East peace roadmap needed to be modified and called on the Palestinians to clarify their position towards its principles. "The roadmap needs to be modified because its expiry date was last year in 2005," Abul Gheit said at a conference in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.
Palestinians need to "create a clear workplan to define the Palestinian Authority's position on the principles fixed by the Quartet," Abul Gheit said. "The language of negotiation is the only way to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. If we succeed in gathering all the parties to participate... we could reach an agreement that may take several years to implement."
The international "roadmap" to peace was designed by the so-called Middle East Quartet of the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations. It was announced in 2003, with the aim of establishing by 2005 a viable Palestinian state living alongside Israel in peace.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2006 00:00 ||
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The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and prime minister, Ismail Haniya, have failed to come up with a plan to ease a financial crisis that threatens to bankrupt the Hamas-led government Abbas' adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina said after four hours of talks between the two on Saturday that Hamas had not agreed to make policy changes towards Israel that could alleviate an aid freeze by the US and Europe. "To our great regret the international community is refusing to deal with us as a whole as long as the government does not change its position. And the people are paying the price," Abu Rudeina said.
He was alluding to Hamas' refusal to accept past peace agreements with Israel or recognise Israel. Hamas has said it would acknowledge Israel's existence only if the country withdrew from the territories it occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem, let all Palestinians that fled or were epxelled in 1948 go home, and liberated prisoners. These conditions are unacceptable to Israel. "The president has been seeking to find the mechanism to end the financial crisis", Abu Rudeina said after the talks held in Gaza City. "But unfortunately a mechanism has not been reached and there are still obstacles."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2006 00:00 ||
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Tens of thousands of Indonesian Muslims packed the streets of the capital Sunday in a mass showing of support for the Hamas-led Palestinian government and demanded an end to the West's economic boycott of the beleaguered regime.
Supporters of the conservative Justice and Welfare Party, including many families with children, waved Palestinian flags and banners and collected donations.
"One man, one dollar for Palestine," read one sign while another demonstrator held a picture of US President George W. Bush with the caption: "Don't worry, he's just a monkey."
Police estimated the crowd, which filled Jakarta's central roundabout, at tens of thousands. There were no reports of incidents.
#3
They never rallied for their own 2004 Tsunami victims did they? They rather rally for Arabist terrorists though. Such is the nature of i-slam as designed - to promote the Ayrab imperial cause.
Iranians Say Suspension Of Enrichment Not On Agenda
Iran said on Sunday any U.N. action over its nuclear program would be illegal and lead to confrontation.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi also declared yet again there was nothing the international community could do to prompt Iran to suspend uranium enrichment.
Briefing reporters, he also said Iran's antagonists over its nuclear program were driven by "political motivations."
"Countries sponsoring the draft resolution (Britain, France and the United States) have political motivations," Asefi said. "It's clear that any action by the U.N. Security Council will leave a negative impact on our cooperation with the IAEA."
He was referring to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, which Iran has barred from making snap inspections as the dispute over the program has escalated.
"Intervention by the U.N. Security Council would change the path of cooperation to confrontation. We recommend they do not do this," Asefi said.
The U.S., Britain and France have expressed concern Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons under cover of its enrichment program and are trying to craft a U.N. resolution that would involve some measure of punishment should Iran fail to cease processing uranium. Russia and China, the other two veto-holding council members, have refused to agree to a draft resolution, calling for further diplomacy.
Iran insists the program is designed only to make fuel for reactors to generate electricity, and the IAEA says there is no evidence Iran has a nuclear weapons program.
"The U.N. Security Council should not take any action that it cannot later undo. We won't give up our rights and the issue of suspension (of enrichment) is not on our agenda," Asefi said at his weekly briefing.
The United States said Saturday it was prepared to bring a U.N. resolution on Iran's nuclear program to a vote with or without Russia and China's support but was still seeking to bridge differences and win unanimous Security Council approval.
"The optimism expressed Friday at the U.N. appeared to dissipate Saturday when Security Council members could not find common ground on a draft resolution designed to pressure Iran," said CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk. "With the foreign ministers from the world powers expected to meet in New York early next week, the pressure is building to find a unified position but threats to call a vote before an agreement is reached, combined with Vice President Dick Cheney's public rebuke of Russia are making the chance of a compromise position less likely."
"Either the U.K., France, and the U.S. have to move away from language of the resolution that allows for sanctions and the use of force in the future, or Russia and China as well as Qatar -- which does not have veto power -- will have to fundamentally change their position on that issue," Falk said, "or they walk away from the U.N., diminishing the pressure on Iran.
After an informal meeting at Britain's U.N. Mission, council members said they made progress in a paragraph-by-paragraph discussion of the draft resolution. Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry acknowledged, however, that the most contentious issues were not discussed in detail.
"We are still working to achieve unanimity ... but we're prepared to go to a vote without it," U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said. "We're not prepared to extend these negotiations endlessly ... I think it's realistic to consider this for a vote next week."
The resolution, co-sponsored by Britain and France and backed by the U.S., would make mandatory the previous Security Council demands that Iran suspend uranium enrichment, plutonium reprocessing, and construction of a heavy-water nuclear reactor.
The draft states that the "proliferation risk" posed by Iran constitutes a threat to international peace and security, and the resolution would be adopted under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which can be enforced by sanctions or if necessary military action.
Russia and China, which both have veto power, and some nonpermanent members contend that there is no evidence that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons as the U.S. and its allies believe and they object to the call for possible "further measures" to ensure Tehran's compliance.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed "the search for a diplomatic solution of the Iranian nuclear problem" with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement Saturday.
"It is too early to say which changes should be made to the draft resolution to satisfy Russia," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said in Moscow on Saturday, according to the RIA Novosti, ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies.
Bolton said he had told the Russians and Chinese four days ago to come up with some creative way to make the resolution mandatory without Chapter 7, and was still waiting for their proposals.
"There's no dispute about the basic course of conduct that we want Iran to pursue," he said.
But Jones Parry said he did not envision a resolution without Chapter 7.
Qatar's U.N. Ambassador Nassir Al-Nasser said after Saturday's meeting that "the text language for some delegations is very unacceptable" and he is waiting for a revised text.
Tanzania's U.N. Ambassador Augustine Mahiga said the resolution should strengthen the role of the IAEA, remove the threat of further action, and "incorporate some inducements for Iranians to cooperate."
Jones Parry said he and France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere would now reflect on the suggestions made by council members.
"We have no intention of producing a new text at this stage," Jones Parry said, adding that the co-sponsors were still open to consider possible amendments.
Neither Jones Parry nor Bolton would predict when a revised text would be introduced.
De La Sabliere said the council would meet again on Monday, ahead of a meeting Monday evening of foreign ministers of the six key players on the Iran nuclear issue the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany. Supporters of the resolution had hoped it would be adopted before that gathering.
"We are moving in the right direction," de La Sabliere said. "I think we have made some progress, but there is still a lot of work to do."
Bolton said he expects the ministers to talk about "the longer term policy that we need to pursue to stop Iran from achieving a nuclear weapons capability, and I think they could have that discussion on the assumption that this resolution will be adopted next week."
In Saudi Arabia, six of Iran's Persian Gulf neighbors urged Tehran on Saturday to be frank with them about its nuclear program.
The gathering discussed developments in Iran, Iraq and combatting terrorism, United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheik Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan told journalists.
"Iran should be transparent in dealing with the region," regarding its nuclear program, Al Nahyan said.
#1
Since Russia and China will never join with the US for a direct preemptive attack on Iran, this leaves the US with a good alternative.
To get the agreement ahead of time that if Iran attacks *first*, both Russia and China will stay neutral.
From that point on, the US needs to do two things: first, to stimulate Iran to attack first; and second, for that attack to be both obvious and ineffectual--a failure.
However, Iran is skilled at using proxies to attack its enemies. So they would want al-Qaeda to make the attack, giving Iran plausible deniability.
So there is some subtlety involved. The US trying to goad Iran into a conventional and fruitless attack; and Iran trying to hit a big enough target hard enough, but wanting to still pretend innocence.
While on the surface, using al-Qaeda seems to give Iran the advantage, remember that the US has SOCOM, an organization far deadlier and effective, at its disposal.
#2
Al-Q is already going to attack any time they can. Strike on Iran or not. So is Hezzbolah, and Hamas, and LLL and JI. The threat is already being implemented, it has for years. Do you really think they are waiting for us to bomb Iran before they attack us?
#3
NO matter when or which terror groups does the attackin', Dubya and America will get the blame anyhoo, as the Failed Left needs justification as to why alleged authoritarian Male Brute Rightist Socialist FASCISM is insufficient and not strong enough or good enough to protect or govern the future American = Amerikan, Amerikan = anti-Amerikan OWG and world order - you know, the one where America and ONLY AMERIKA must unilater and unconditionally give up its Empire, national sovereignty, and national control of its Govt., Econ, and Endowments to a coalition of extra-national governing world states. America =Amerika needs Motherly, Secular, Totalitarian, Perfectionist = Against All Sides Commie LeftSOcialism to save our defective dishonest warmongering imperialist penile-centric rapist abuser molester anti-Girley men Arrogant Male Fascist souls. UTOPIA > ALL AMERIKANS NEEDS A LAWYER WHOM NEEDS A LAWYER WHOM NEEDS A LAWYER, ............................, GOVERNMENT, AND SWORN AFFIDAVIT(S) AND PASSPORTS JUST TO GET A GLASS OF WATER!?
FOR the dwindling Jewish community in Iran, a sacred ritual is observed at 6.30 every evening as shortwave radios are switched on to listen to the daily Farsi broadcast from Israel.
Since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power last June, life for Iran's 25,000 Jews has become even more precarious as the president defiantly pursues a nuclear policy while declaring Israel should be "wiped off the world map".
Israel has long identified Iran as its biggest threat, and these concerns have grown amid repeated calls by its hard-line president for Israel's destruction.
Last Thursday, Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert issued a strongly worded warning that the Jewish state took seriously Iranian threats to wipe out Israel and would defend itself against a country the West suspects of seeking nuclear weapons.
His remarks also came as Western powers sought action by the United Nations to curb Iranian uranium enrichment and other key nuclear processes. "It is becoming a serious matter of concern for Iranian Jews should there be any military action between Iran and Israel," said Israeli broadcaster Menashe Amir.
"The Iranian regime says it does distinguish between Judaism and Zionism, but the local Jewish community knows that is a lie since it has been frequently written by extremists in religious circles that 'every Jew is a Zionist'."
While it is still the largest Jewish community in the Middle East outside Israel, a vast number of the population have fled Iran.
The first major movement came in 1948 when the state of Israel was established and the number of Jews in Iran stood at about 150,000. The Islamic revolution in 1979 prompted another movement.
"Every Iranian Jew who had the financial possibility or courage has already left, but there's still a small but flourishing community," said Amir, who moved to Israel from Iran at the age of 20 in 1959. He has been broadcasting for 46 years in Farsi for Israeli state radio.
He is all too familiar with the precarious position of Iranian Jews who are called on by the government to declare their public support for the country's nuclear policy.
"Not to mention, every time Iran publicly condemns Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories, the Jewish community is expected to issue a statement of support," he said.
Even though the regime officially recognises Judaism as an official religious minority and the Jewish community is even allocated a seat in the Iranian parliament, the reality on the ground is different.
Jewish leaders are reluctant to draw attention to incidences of mistreatment of their community, due to fear of government reprisal, along with fear of being arrested or accused of being spies. In 1999, 13 Jews were arrested in the city of Shiraz and charged with spying for Israel. While eventually all were pardoned, it exposed the fragile position of the country's Jewish community.
"While there are Jewish schools, the principals and most of the teachers are Muslim, the Bible is taught in Farsi, not in Hebrew, and the schools are forced to open on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath," Amir said, as he played Hebrew music for his listeners.
"So while the regime declares that there is freedom of religion, it is all just for the sake of appearances."
While it is impossible to gauge the programme's popularity, whenever listeners are asked to call in from Iran - courtesy of a toll-free number in Europe patched through to the Jerusalem studio - the lines are jammed.
Amir said many of those calling were clearly not Jews but Muslim Iranians, disgruntled with the regime and curious to know more about the Zionist enemy.
While the programme broadcasts items about Israel and the Jewish world, its news reports on events in Iran itself capture the listeners' interest.
Amir was quick to point out that the connection between the two countries extends back some 2,700 years when Jews were exiled to Persian territories.
But in 537 BC, after the overthrow of Babylonia, the Persian king, Cyrus the Great, freed the Jewish slaves and gave them permission to return to their native land.
"We are very aware of this, that without Cyrus the Great, Judaism today would either not exist or would be of an entirely different character, so the Jewish people owe a moral debt to Iran in memory of Cyrus's actions," he said.
But with Iran seen to be funding Palestinian militant groups including Hizbollah and Hamas, while developing its latest Shihab missile technology with the aim of reaching cities in Europe, Amir highlighted how much had changed since the revolution.
"Before 1979, ties between the Iran and Israel were so close that both worked together in developing missile technology," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/07/2006 00:56 ||
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#1
Time to dust off plans for Operation Magic Carpet II.
NEW YORK - Foreign ministers of six major powers meet here Monday in a fresh bid to map out a common strategy to force Iran to heeddemands that it halt sensitive nuclear fuel work that could be used for bomb-making. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to host her counterparts from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia as well European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana at a working dinner that will focus on Teherans rejection of repeated UN demands that it halt uranium enrichment.
I thought Russia wasn't sure if there was a problem or not.
The meeting will coincide with continuing bargaining in the 15-member Security Council on a Franco-British draft resolution that would legally require Iran to freeze all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities.
US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton told reporters Saturday that the ministers would talk about the longer-term policy that we need to pursue to stop Iran from achieving a nuclear weapons capability. I think they could have that discussion on the assumption that (the Franco-British) resolution will be adopted next week and that therefore they can look at what the next steps are, he said after an informal council meeting on the draft. That avoids them getting down in the engine room with us working on this resolution. It allows them to stay up on the bridge and look ahead, he said.
Saturday Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said the Franco-British draft, which is backed by the United States and Germany, requires major changes. Moscow and Beijing object to the drafts reference to Chapter Seven of the UN charter and its suggestion that the Iranian nuclear program constitutes a threat to international peace and security. Chapter Seven can authorize economic sanctions or military action as a last resort.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/07/2006 00:03 ||
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The Russian foreign minister has said that Moscow has not decided whether Iran should be considered a threat, saying it will be guided by UN nuclear experts. Sergei Lavrov was responding to remarks from Manouchehr Mottaki, his Iranian counterpart, that Russia and China "had officially told us ... [of] their opposition to sanctions and military attacks" against the Islamic Republic.
"Shhhh! That's wasn't an official announcement!"
"We have made no such announcements. In such an important and serious area like nuclear non-proliferation, we can make a decision only based on the opinions of experts," Lavrov told reporters.
"At least in public."
"The inspections that have been held in Iran do not allow us to conclude that Iran has the technology to create weapons of mass destruction. But, on the other hand, these inspections do not allow us to make the opposition conclusion." He spoke a day after discussion started between the five veto-holding members of the UN Security Council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - over a resolution demanding that Iran curb its nuclear programme.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Last time they thought like that the enemy was almost to Moscow befre winter intervined and stopped them. When will they learn? Iran is a hostile competetor. Treat them as such.
Posted by: SPoD ||
05/07/2006 5:34 Comments ||
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#2
At the moment, they're Russia's customer for arms and way to make things difficult for the US.
Gulf Arab leaders have called on Iran to do more to show it was not trying to obtain an atom bomb, thereby saving the region from another war. Gulf Arab countries, wary of Iran's power since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, share US concern about the prospect of Iran having a nuclear bomb but fear another military conflict in the region after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. Gulf Arabs are also worried about the possible environmental effects of a US attack on Iran's nuclear plant at Bushehr on the opposite side of the Gulf, or of leakage from unmonitored Iranian sites.
"We appreciate Iran's efforts to reassure the region over its programme," Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahayan, United Arab Emirates foreign minister, said after a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Riyadh on Saturday. "But for the sake of stability and to avoid any environmental disaster, there needs to be more Iranian guarantees and we are trying to ensure this."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/07/2006 00:00 ||
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Three remarkable aspects of Osama bin Laden's latest videotape suggested that its strident tone masked an ideological crisis for Al-Qaeda. First, in his speech, broadcast on the Arab satellite network Al-Jazeera on April 24, bin Laden betrayed a need to justify his organization's terrorist mission not just to extremists, but to broader Muslim publics. In the tape, the Al-Qaeda leader spoke extensively of what he labeled the "Western and Zionist Crusade" against the Muslim community of believers, or umma. He displayed a distorted reading of events as different as the crisis in Darfur, the situation in Iraq and the Danish cartoon controversy, and attributed these events to a Western hatred of Islam. He called on Muslims to accept this as the "structuring reality" of their contemporary world. Only continuous jihad, he said, could help the umma defeat the "Crusaders."
Bin Laden's panorama of recent events and his prescription of jihad were not addressed to members or supporters of militant Islamist groups, but rather to the wider Arab and Muslim publics, in a desperate attempt to remind them of Al-Qaeda's "just" cause. It is not lost on bin Laden that a clear majority of Arabs has grown less sympathetic to his group's terrorist agenda in the last few years.
The second remarkable aspect of bin Laden's videotape was his addressing, albeit by assailing them, Arab liberals. In previous videotapes, he accused pro-Western Arab governments and official religious institutions of seducing their populations away from the path of jihad. But this time he blamed Arab liberal intellectuals and writers for betraying the true spirit of Islam. For bin Laden, the liberals disseminate "blasphemous ideas" of democracy, human rights, and moderation, and in so doing diminish the degree of popular support for Al-Qaeda's jihad. The Al-Qaeda leader's decision to open a front against Arab liberals may threaten them, but it is also a testimony to their moral and political influence in the Arab world of today.
Since 2001, Arab liberals have become more assertive in pushing for gradual democratic reform and respect for human rights as the only viable strategies to master the severe crises of Arab societies. Over the past years, their message has caught the attention of growing segments of Arab populations. There appears to be an emerging public consensus that democracy is the only viable way ahead. Bin Laden is right in fearing this development, since it undermines the logic of his terrorist agenda. Indeed, liberals in Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, and even Saudi Arabia have proven as effective in combating terrorism as various "hard" security measures. Al-Qaeda is on the defensive not only because of the geographical but also the political isolation of its leaders: Its radical, militant blueprints have lost a great deal of their appeal as Arabs have had a change of heart.
Finally, bin Laden tried to seize on Hamas' victory in the Palestinian elections. His Egyptian deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, had taken the exact opposite position. While Zawahiri claimed that Hamas' participation in elections would only serve as an act of submission to Western conspiracies by detracting Palestinians from jihad, bin Laden endorsed the Hamas government and called on Muslims to support it. However, it would be misleading to interpret this new position as an attempt to give sustenance to Hamas. Rather, it was much more a bid to ride the movement's coattails.
Taking note of the changing mood of the Arab public, bin Laden sought to return Al-Qaeda to its roots. The group was founded thanks to the support of sister militant movements. Previously, bin Laden's cadres emerged from the once-powerful Egyptian Jihad and Al-Jamaa al-Islamiyya. Today, Hamas is the front-runner among militant Islamist movements. But even at this level, bin Laden is destined to earn only minimal success, if any. A day after Al-Jazeera broadcast his videotape, Hamas' spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu Zahri, told reporters that bin Laden's comments on Hamas reflected his own views and that Hamas was interested in good relations with the West.
Arab politics have transcended the legacy of Al-Qaeda. Today gradualism, participation, and democratic reform, rather than radical violence and jihad, set the agenda. Although it's uncertain whether Arab liberals will see their dream realized, Al-Qaeda's project no longer represents an alternative.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/07/2006 00:18 ||
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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.
Tarek Fatah, a progressive Muslim activist from Toronto, has urged Muslims to raise their voice against the Darfur genocide. In an article published in the Globe and Mail, Canadas most influential newspaper, Fatah, a Pakistani-Canadian, decries the position taken by many Muslims that the Jews have somehow stolen the issue of Darfur. 
Sudan's government said Saturday that its peace accord with Darfur's main insurgent group allows it to welcome U.N. peacekeepers to the troubled region, as mediators worked to persuade the rest of the fractured rebel movement to join the process. The peace agreement, reached Friday in Abuja with one branch of the Sudan Liberation Army after two years of sporadic negotiations, aims to end ethnic bloodshed that has killed at least 180,000 people in three years and left some 2 million displaced. The suggestion that it could pave the way for a deployment of U.N. peacekeepers overturns previous rejections by Khartoum, which so far has allowed only African Union peacekeepers on the ground. The underfunded African forces have largely been ineffective in stopping atrocities and re-establishing security, leaving tens of thousands of refugees in camps with little food or water.
Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks has moved another step closer to being granted British citizenship after the British Court of Appeal announced it would refuse any further appeals by the Government. The British Government had lost two previous appeals to Royal Courts of Justice.
Brazil has joined the select group of countries with the capability of enriching uranium as a means of generating energy.
Pyongyang, May 5 (KCNA) -- Pyongyang-based papers Friday in editorials dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Association for the Restoration of the Fatherland (ARF) call for dynamically advancing the revolutionary cause of Juche, guided by the idea of single-minded unity, which represents a symbol of Songun Korea and its dignity and future. The seven decades since the foundation of the ARF on May 5, Juche 25 (1936) represent a glorious history in which the single-minded unity of the Korean revolutionary ranks around the one central figure has been steadily cemented on the basis of the monolithic idea and a proud course in which they have brought about world-startling miracles and changes in the efforts to accomplish the socialist cause with the might of unity, 
ISLAMABAD - Visiting Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy- Rey on Saturday announced the closure of the visa section at the Swiss embassy in Islamabad as a probe continued into applications abuse. We are compelled to do so following complaints of maltreatment and harassment of visa applicants and alleged involvement of some of its employees in human trafficking, she said at a joint press conference with Foreign Minister Khurshid M. K.
PESHAWAR: NWFP Speaker Bakht Jehan Khan will soon receive his new 2006-model luxury car, which is worth Rs 5 million, said the Islami Jamiat Lawyers Forum on Saturday. Advocate Ghulam Nabi Khan, the leader of the forum, said the car had reached Karachi and would be handed over to the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) parliamentarian in Peshawar soon. Having a luxurious car, he said, was a clear violation of the MMA's manifesto and the pledges that the party had made during the elections. "The MMA promised to follow Islamic principles when they came into power, which seem to have been forgotten now," he said, adding that MMA parliamentarians, especially ministers, would be ashamed using cars worth merely Rs 1.5 million to Rs 2 million. He demanded the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) leadership act against the NWFP Assembly speaker's extravagance, since such a huge amount could be used for the welfare of the poor and helpless.
MULTAN: Students from an Islamic seminary protested on Saturday against the death of a Pakistani in a Berlin jail by burning German flags and vowing to continue his jihad. Amir Cheema, 28, died in custody after he was arrested in Germany on March 20 on charges of attempting to kill the editor of a German newspaper, Die Welt, for reprinting caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) first published in Denmark last year. Around 300 students of Jamiat Taliba Arabia, one of many seminaries run by Jamaat-i-Islami, blocked traffic in the centre of Multan city, burned German flags and denounced Germany, Denmark and the United States as "infidel states".
SRINAGAR: At least 10 people were injured in Indian held Kashmir on Saturday when police fired teargas shells and baton-charged hundreds of students as protests erupted over a suspected prostitution ring involving local officials. Local newspapers and television channels have been reporting details of a racket they say provided prostitutes for politicians, police officers and bureaucrats. "Expose people ... stop pushing innocent girls into the sex trade," protesters shouted outside the Kashmir University campus in Srinagar. On Friday, an angry mob ransacked the house of a woman suspected of running the prostitution ring, before razing it to the ground and setting fire to her belongings. The woman and three others were detained by police for questioning after pornographic videos and video clips on mobile phones showing nude Kashmiri girls were circulated in Srinagar. The investigation has been handed to a federal Indian agency to probe accusations that senior officials were involved.
President George W Bush said on Friday, in an interview with financial news network CNBC, that the September 11 passenger-revolt against hijackers on board Flight 93 had struck the first counter-blow to "World War III". "I believe that it was the first counter-attack to World War III. It was unbelievably heroic of those folks on the airplane to recognise the danger and save lives." Bush lamented that bad news from Iraq was drowning out what he called good news on the country's economy. "The problem is that we're in war, and sometimes it's hard for people to get a positive message about the economy when they're troubled by... scenes of violence on the TV screens. " That the US economy had created 138,000 new jobs in April, he said, was "an indication that this economy's still strong".
Pakistan is not doing enough to help root out Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders who have found safe haven in its lawless tribal lands along the Afghan border, a senior US security official said on Saturday. Most Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders are in Pakistan, and while the United States did not know where Osama bin Laden was hiding, he was probably on the Pakistan side of the border, said 
Pakistan army spokesman dismisses as absurd a statement by US counter-terrorism envoy that Pakistan is not doing enough to arrest Islamic militants. It is totally absurd, Major General 
Kurdish separatists have threatened hit-and-run attacks on Iran, which it says plans to bomb their positions in Iraq to gain Turkey's support against the US. Cemil "Cuma" Bayik, the de facto leader of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), said: "We have the right to launch attacks against Iranian forces." 
JERUSALEM - Israel's Mossad secret service agency killed a Palestinian wanted for airplane hijackings by feeding him poisoned Belgian chocolate over six months in the late 1970s, according to a new book, the author said Saturday. 
The Palestinian government condemned on Friday the "horrendous bloodbath" masterminded by Israel here and that ended up in the killing of five Palestinians. It said in a statement that the Israeli air raid is a criminal act and part of the permanent Israeli policy that hinges on premeditated murder and assassination. Spokesman for the government Ghazi Hamad said in the statement released here that it is not strange that the crime that unveils the ugly image of the Israeli occupation comes in the second day of coming of the new government led by Ehud Olmert to power.
Hamas refused to join a Palestinian delegation invited by Jordan to look into details of the discovery of arms smuggled by some movement members into the country as well as the arrest of elements who plotted to attack officials and other targets in the Kingdom. Government Spokesperson Nasser Judeh on Saturday quoted Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as saying in a letter that the Hamas-led government showed no interest in participating in this delegation, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. Abbas added that Hamas wanted direct talks between the Jordanian government and the groups exiled leaders, because they were accused of the plots, Petra quoted Judeh as saying.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Saturday that the Middle East peace roadmap needed to be modified and called on the Palestinians to clarify their position towards its principles. "The roadmap needs to be modified because its expiry date was last year in 2005," Abul Gheit said at a conference in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and prime minister, Ismail Haniya, have failed to come up with a plan to ease a financial crisis that threatens to bankrupt the Hamas-led government Abbas' adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina said after four hours of talks between the two on Saturday that Hamas had not agreed to make policy changes towards Israel that could alleviate an aid freeze by the US and Europe. "To our great regret the international community is refusing to deal with us as a whole as long as the government does not change its position. And the people are paying the price," Abu Rudeina said.
NEW YORK - Foreign ministers of six major powers meet here Monday in a fresh bid to map out a common strategy to force Iran to heeddemands that it halt sensitive nuclear fuel work that could be used for bomb-making. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was to host her counterparts from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia as well European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana at a working dinner that will focus on Teherans rejection of repeated UN demands that it halt uranium enrichment.
Gulf Arab leaders have called on Iran to do more to show it was not trying to obtain an atom bomb, thereby saving the region from another war. Gulf Arab countries, wary of Iran's power since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, share US concern about the prospect of Iran having a nuclear bomb but fear another military conflict in the region after the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq. Gulf Arabs are also worried about the possible environmental effects of a US attack on Iran's nuclear plant at Bushehr on the opposite side of the Gulf, or of leakage from unmonitored Iranian sites.
