KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghanistan's lower house of parliament on Saturday voted into law a revised resolution calling for an amnesty for groups suspected of perpetrating war crimes during a quarter century of fighting, but also recognizing the rights of victims to seek justice. The vote by the overwhelming majority of the members present in the Wolesi Jirga came after President Hamid Karzai revised the initial resolution which called for an amnesty from war crimes for all involved in the three decades of fighting.
The revised resolution grants a general amnesty from prosecution to all groups - rather than individual members - who led the anti-Soviet resistance in the 1980s and then plunged the country into a civil war that killed tens of thousands. The revised resolution does not protect individuals from prosecution for war crimes, so long as their alleged victims are prepared to raise charges - placing the burden of proof on those who suffered rather than the state.
The decision came a few days after Afghanistan's highest body of Islamic clerics ruled that parliament cannot issue a blanket amnesty from war crimes because only the victims of those crimes can forgive the perpetrators.
The resolution applies only to those who accept Afghanistan's Constitution and the authority of the government, meaning it would apply to some former Taliban who have reconciled with the government but not to current leaders such as Mullah Omar.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/10/2007 11:03 ||
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United Nations mission in Sudan said on Friday that it has suspended humanitarian works in Western Darfur after armed groups attacked a refugee camp run by the International agency in the troubled region. A statement from the UN mission said around 250 militiamen cornered Ardmata camp West of Darfur and kidnapped two people forcing temporary suspension. The armed group accused the two kidnapped of killing a militiaman, the statement added. The armed group have late released the abductees and handed them over to a police center, the statement said.
I gather the letter basically boiled down to "Send us some food, some cash, and some bullets, and leave us the hell alone." UN is now set to ponder navel lint, NCAA brackets.
Your feel-good headline of the day.
Sudan and Chad reached a deal here Friday on the normalization of their relation under Iran's auspices. During a tripartite meeting, the two African neighbors agreed to reopen their respective embassies and work together for solving the Darfur dispute and easing tension in border areas, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a press conference after the meeting. The meeting was attended by Mottaki, Chadian Minister of Foreign Affairs and African Cooperation Ahmad Allammi and Sudanese Presidential Adviser Mustafa Ismail Othman. It provided an opportunity for Iran to discuss ways of enhancing its ties with Sudan and Chad, Mottaki pointed out.
The actual point of the exercise.
Allammi hailed the deal as "an important step" towards confidence building between Chad and Sudan. The two countries will continue talks to resolve all remaining differences and normalize their relations, he pointed out.
And they can provide diplocover for Iranian intel, cash, and ops, he muttered under his breath.
President Ahmadinejad has called for an end to clashes between Yemenis Muslims and said "Today, unity among Muslims is vital for foiling conspiracies by the enemies of Islam."
He pointed to the conflicts among Muslims and vicious attacks carried out on them in many parts of the world and said the elements which are trying to create divisions among Muslims have basically the same origin. Speaking to Yemen's Foreign Minister, Abu Bakr Abdallah al-Qirbi on Thursday, Ahmadinejad said the Islamic Republic of Iran would not tolerate conflict among Muslims, sectarian divisions or the shedding of another Muslim brother's blood. "Islamic leaders must solve problems and work out the differences with clarity and good judgment."
Ahmadinejad reiterated Iran's interests for having full cooperation with Sana'a. "Iran and Yemen have common views on the region and Muslim world."
Yemen's Foreign Minister described the latest developments in his country and praised Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad for their leadership in the Muslim world. "Yemen wishes for productive and increasing relations with Iran and wants to use Tehran's valuable experience in different areas."
He added his government was doing everything in its power to bring the situation in Sa'de province under control where 42 soldiers have been killed and 81 wounded in rebel attacks since late January. The incidents are blamed on supporters of Abdul Malak al-Huthi from the Zaidi minority. The Zaidis are an offshoot of Shia Islam, dominanting northwestern Yemen, but they form a minority in the mainly Sunni country. The rebels do not recognize the current authorities in Yemen legitimate to rule, saying they illegally seized power in a 1962 coup known as the September 26 revolution, which overthrew a Zaidi imamate.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2007 00:25 ||
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President Ahmadinejad has had an awful lot to say, lately.
Lawmakers from China's restive western Muslim region said Friday that 18 suspects killed in a raid on an alleged terror camp in January had links to al-Qaida and the Taliban.
Shi Dagang, a lawmaker from the Xinjiang region, also confirmed that 18 people from the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, died in the raid and 17 others were arrested. "They had close connections to al-Qaida," Shi said at a news conference during China's annual legislative session. "There terrorists were trained by the Taliban in Afghanistan and sent to China by them," Shi said, adding that more than 1,500 semi-assembled grenades were seized in the raid east of China's border with Kyrgyzstan.
"They were trained overseas and sent to China by overseas terror organizations to engage in disruptive activities," Shi said, without giving specific details about the alleged links or what their goal had been.
China has said before that ETIM has links to al-Qaida, and labels the group a terrorist organization, as does the United States. China has long said that militants among the region's dominant ethnic Uighurs are leading a violent Islamic separatist movement in Xinjiang. The Uighurs are Turkic-speaking Muslims with a language and culture distinct from the majority of Chinese.
Critics accuse Beijing of using claims of terrorism as an excuse to crack down on peaceful pro-independence sentiment and expressions of Uighur identity. About two dozen Uighurs were captured by US forces in Afghanistan following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. China has demanded their return, but the United States fears they might face persecution there. Five Uighurs were sent to Albania last year after no other country would accept them.
Ismail Tiliwaldi, chairman of the Xinjiang Uighur region, told the same news conference that the government is making efforts to improve the situation in the area by accelerating economic and social development. "Xinjiang enjoys social stability and there is little room for activities of the East Turkestan terrorist forces because we now have more good guys and fewer bad guys," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2007 01:22 ||
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A LEADING Muslim cleric has blamed the devastating drought, climate change and pollution on Australians' lack of faith in Allah. Radical sheik Mohammed Omran told followers at his Brunswick mosque that out-of-control secular scientific values had caused environmental disaster.
"The fear of Allah is not there. So we have now a polluted earth, a polluted water, a wasteland," he told a meeting this year. "What are the people now crying for? The prophet told you hundreds of years ago, 'Look after the water'."
A Sunday Herald Sun investigation also found clerics railing against "evil" democracy, vilifying Jews and Christians and encouraging jihad and polygamy. And in a popular DVD selling locally, a foreign sheik exhorts Muslims to take control of Australia by out-breeding non-believers.
British-based Sheik Abdul Raheem Green forbade Muslims from having fewer than four children so Australia would become an Islamic state.
Behind the closed doors of some Melbourne mosques and bookshops, sheiks push for Sharia law, declare Islam at war with the "sick" West and gloat that September 11 boosted Muslim numbers.
At a Muslim information centre in Coburg, extreme literature shares shelves with DVDs by firebrand sheiks from around the globe. The centre, run by Abu Hamza, serves Muslims in the northern suburbs. Many CDs and DVDs there feature London sheik Abdul Raheem Green, who is on an Australian Government watchlist.
On one he tells his audience to Islamise Australia through a Muslim baby boom. "The birth rate in the Western countries is going down. People are more interested in their careers . . . they don't want to have babies," Sheik Green says in one DVD. "So don't you think, Muslim brothers and sisters, we've got a bit of an opportunity here? They're not having babies any more. So what if, instead, we have the babies?
"In Canada one in three or one in four children being born is a Muslim. What does that do to the demographic shift of a Muslim population in 20 years' time?
Islamic Council of Victoria spokesman Waleed Aly said he was disappointed though not surprised by the Sunday Herald Sun's discoveries. But he said extremist speech and literature was confined to only a couple of Melbourne groups. "If I walked into (Omran's group) or (Hamza's centre) it wouldn't surprise me," he said.
Mr Aly said he believed Muslims were radicalised by "cult-like peer groups", not hate literature.
#5
How is it Mecca and the Middle East is better than all that? Isn't it a miserable wasteland of a desert, with horrendous sand storms.
Whose lack of faith is that being blamed on eh?
phfft
Posted by: Jan ||
03/10/2007 21:21 Comments ||
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A LEADING Muslim cleric has blamed the devastating drought, climate change and pollution on Australians' lack of faith in Allah.
And he blames the Cyclones bringing rainfall on what?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/10/2007 22:24 Comments ||
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At the launching of the Center for Islamic Pluralism (CIP) two years ago, TCSDaily was one of the media institutions most supportive to our work, and I have therefore chosen this venue to present a balance sheet of CIP's activities in promoting moderate Islam.
We have enjoyed significant success. But some notable obstacles remain before us. These include the vulnerability of mainstream media and even Western governments to the claims of Islamic radicals to stand as the sole representatives of the faith, and the corruption of academics that legitimize this charade.
But we also must deal with serious challenges inside the Western Muslim community. First, U.S. and UK Sunni Muslims are completely dominated by extremists - Saudi-backed Wahhabis in the first case and Pakistani-controlled jihadists in the second. Canada, which I recently visited for a series of lectures, represents an important exception to this pattern, as discussed here.
Second, Sunnis in general are taught conformity to their leadership, and stirring them to reject the radicals who exploit them is a major task.
Third, while a great number of Shia Muslims in the U.S. and Canada, with their clerics and mosques, are less orthodox in their attitudes, and sympathize with CIP against Saudi-backed Sunni terror, they are often tainted by an attraction to Iran and Hezbollah, which makes it impossible for us to sustain a cooperative effort with them. We maintain formal relations with Iraqi Shia leaders out of concern for the situation in their country, where U.S.-led coalition troops are present in the front lines for freedom. If we enlisted all the Shias on this side of the Atlantic who express warmth toward us, CIP might quickly become one of the largest Muslim organizations in North America. But before such a development can take place, Hezbollah must be curbed in Lebanon and Ahmadinejad removed from power in Teheran - the latter as a first step toward complete dismantling of the Iranian clerical regime.
Nevertheless, we have made progress. In the U.S. the CIP profile as a resource on moderate Islam has risen; we have cosponsored major events with the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars in Washington, participated in numerous international conferences and consultations, and gained relatively wide media attention. We have created a branch in England, with the noted Muslim scholar and expert on Islamic cultural heritage, Dr. Irfan al-Alawi, as our new international director for development, and are launching a second website there, with sections in Arabic and Farsi.
This guy nails the problems dead-on, but I don't think he has the solution. Much more at the link.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/10/2007 15:27 ||
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Reporters will be barred from hearings that begin Friday in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for 14 terror suspects transferred last year from secret CIA prisons, officials said Tuesday.
Interest in the 14 is particularly high because of their alleged links to the al Qaeda network. Among them is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States. He was captured in Pakistan in March 2003.
A New York-based human rights group that represents one of the 14 men accused the Pentagon of designing "sham tribunals." The organization contended that its client, Majid Khan, has been denied access to his lawyers since October 2006 "solely to prevent his torture and abuse from becoming public" and to protect complicit foreign governments.
U.S. authorities say Khan was being groomed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed for an attack inside the United States.
"We might expect this in Libya or China, but not America," the Center for Constitutional Rights said in a statement. It said Khan was subjected to CIA interrogation methods that amounted to torture. The top priority to clean up and inject professionalism into the corrupt legal profession is enact a law that lawyers must prove the allegations they so viciously throw around.
Posted by: ed ||
03/10/2007 07:11 ||
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Not only did the Pakistani government agree to launch no more land or air attacks in North Waziristan, it also agreed to the withdrawal of the army from checkposts into camps. The deal, whose original Urdu text is available with Daily Times, was signed between the North Waziristan political agent representing the NWFP governor and Tribal leaders of North Waziristan, local mujahideen and elders of the Utmanzai tribes.
The party of the second part agreed to ensure that no attacks were carried against law-enforcement agencies or on government assets and there would be no target killings. The tribal elders and others also agreed not to set up a parallel administration, and accept the writ of the Pakistani government. For the solution of political problems, they agreed to approach the political administration, which would settle all issues in consultation with the Utmanzai tribes and in line with Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR). They also agreed not to carry out any military activities across the border into Afghanistan. They agreed that foreigners would to be sent back. However, for purposes of trade and family get-togethers, as per tribal customs and traditions, the foreigners would be free to come and go. The elders also agreed not to intervene in neighbouring tribal areas nor set up a parallel administration there. Those foreigners who were unable to leave North Waziristan for reasons beyond their control, it was agreed, would abide by local customs and laws. They would also be subject to the conditions laid down in the agreement between the two sides. Any equipment, including transport, arms and wireless that the tribal side obtained during clashes, would be returned to the government.
The government agreed to the following: the release of all those arrested during operations while vowing not to arrest them on the basis of past incidents; restore all earlier government-given privileges; remove all new checkposts on roads and post levies, as in the past, at old checkposts; return transport and other equipment, including arms, captured during operations; end all land and air operations, and settle disputes according to traditional methods; pay compensation for the loss of innocent lives, damage to personal property etc suffered during operations; in keeping with tribal traditions, place no restrictions on carrying of arms, but maintain restrictions on possession of big arms; withdraw the army from checkposts to camps as an initial step in the implementation of the agreement. Also sought to be established under the agreement was a 10-member committee made up of ulema, advisers and the political administration. The committee was to be a means of maintaining continuing liaison between the government and the Utmanzai tribes.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2007 01:34 ||
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#1
They agreed because the ISI is neck deep in this bad shit!
An important meeting of the Pak-Afghan Peace Jirga Commission, scheduled for today (Saturday), has been delayed till March 12 in the wake of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhrys removal by President General Pervez Musharraf. Official sources told Daily Times that the commission was to hold its first meeting today (Saturday), but it had been delayed till Monday owing to the recent development in the country.
Mondays meeting will be presided over by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao and also attended by his Afghan counterpart Syed Ahmed Gilani. Balochistan Governor Ali Mohammad Jan Orakzai, Minister for States and Frontier Regions Sardar Yar Mohammad Rind and Cultural Minister Dr Ghazi Ghulab Jamal are members of the commission from the Pakistani side. The commission will discuss the role of NATO forces in Afghanistan and the law and order situation in the border and tribal areas.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2007 01:30 ||
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Starve the UN phony refugee camps and feed the mullahs to razorbacks, and then there will be peace.
The Iraqi judge who sentenced Saddam Hussein to death for crimes against humanity has fled to Britain where he is seeking political asylum, Al Jazeera has reported.
Presiding judge Rauf Rasheed Abdel Rahman has applied for asylum for both himself and his family in the past few days, the Doha-based channel said citing a British official it did not name. The channel's London correspondent said Abdel Rahman had been in Britain since December on a tourist visa. A spokeswoman for Britain's Interior Ministry declined to comment on the case. "We won't comment on individual cases. We won't confirm or deny whether someone has claimed asylum in the UK," she said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2007 00:42 ||
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#1
Hmmm. Doesn't make sense. Raouf's a Kurd who had his stuff well squared away up north (his frequent and extended "breaks" up there were a major factor in making the Dujayl case last nearly a year). Don't see any reason he'd need to bug out. He was/is a hero in Kurdistan for his role in trying/dispatching the demon from Tikrit - can't see that he'd have any reason, security or otherwise, to flee. Of course there could be the lifestyle question - but if that's it, WTF with the UK - ahemm, the US would be a much better, and equally welcoming, new home.
Tehran's Friday prayer leader says the United States shares the blame for the death of Shia pilgrims slain in Iraq. Speaking at the largest Friday prayers in Tehran, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said, "While thousands of pilgrims go barefoot to Karbala, a bomb suddenly explodes killing and dismembering hundreds of people. The United States is jointly responsible for the blood that is spilled."
On Tuesday, at least 150 pilgrims were killed in an attack in Hilla, south of Baghdad, while other pilgrims have also been gunned down en route to Karbala. Millions of Shia are on pilgrimage to the Iraqi holy city of Karbala for the Arbaeen ceremonies marking the 40th day after the anniversary of the death of Imam Hussein (AS), Shia Islam's third Imam, who was martyred in the seventh-century.
Ayatollah Jannati denounced the terrorists attacks against innocent Iraqi civilians under what he said was the "protection of the United States and Great Britain, who act with the cunning of a fox."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2007 00:30 ||
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This is what our military and our diplomats have to deal with every damn day. I hope this warrant is a sign of progress, and not a backdoor way for the Sadrists to eliminate a rival.
An arrest warrant was issued against MP Abdul-Nasser Al-Janabi from the Iraqi Accord Front (IAF), said high-ranking sources on Friday. Meanwhile, First Deputy Speaker of Iraqi Parliament Khaled Al-Attiyah said the Supreme Judicial Council had submitted to the parliament a request to lift Al-Janabi's immunity.
Speaking to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Al-Attiyah said the parliament's presidential panel would meet on Monday to include the request in the upcoming session's agenda. During a parliamentary session, Al-Maliki accused Al-Jananbi of being liable for the abduction and killing of about 150 Iraqis, adding he had a file containing evidence regarding Al-Janabi's role in terrorist acts. On his part, MP Abbas Al-Bayati said the council had requested lifting the immunity of some MPs because of previous charges brought up against them by citizens.
He said the request to lift immunity of some MPs would result in interrogation orders, not arrest warrants, noting that the stance against those MPs was legal, not political.
On the other hand, the front feared the court's role was politically motivated not judicial, and its spokesperson, MP Saleem Abdullah, said the judicial order to lift Al-Janabi's immunity should not be political. Political sources said Al-Janabi and some of the front's MPs were accompanying Iraqi Vice President Tariq Al-Hasehmi on a visit to Jordan and Syria.
Perhaps Mr. Janabi will choose to remain in Damascus to, um...take the waters or somesuch.
The judiciary warrant against Al-Janabi might start a chain for a list that includes many wanted persons, including political figures igniting Iraq's unrest.
Iraq's parliament had lifted the immunity of MP Mishaan Al-Jaboori who turned against the government and dedicated his television channel, Al-Zawra, to lauding terrorist acts in Iraq.
#1
It's a mistake to think that sandmonkeys can get their shit together and create a better world for themselves. Odly enough, Europeans seem to be falling into the same hole. Everyone lives for the moment, rather than for the good of the country. And now it's apparently happening here as well among our own donkeys. Boggles, indeed.
I think you can figure out where this is going...
BETHLEHEM, West Bank (AFP) - Reaching for peace, a French artist this week hung the same huge portraits of Israelis and Palestinians making silly faces across the cities of the two warring peoples. The artist known, simply as JR, hoped his oversized portraits, hung in public squares and on both sides of Israel's controversial West Bank separation barrier, would send a message of coexistence, understanding and humanity. Well...maybe....nah. But the message received, like much else in the intractable conflict, depends on whom you ask."We don't want to see Israelis' faces. We don't want to remember them," said Sabrine al-Ayan, 27, a Bethlehem resident, looking at the portraits hung on the barrier, which in her hometown comes in the shape of a huge concrete wall. Damn. Couldn't have seen that coming.
On the Israeli side of the wall, retired Israeli mechanic Abraham Tishler, 68, likes the message. "When you have Israeli and Palestinian faces like that the spirit is about peace, not war. And they're funny to look at," he said.
JR says he is "around 25" and refuses to give his last name because he tries to "stay as mysterious as possible." ...and as alive as possible.
He shot the photographs over 15 days in December after deciding that ordinary Israelis and Palestinians were being lost in the media's blinkered coverage of militants and soldiers."We realized these two peoples look the same, they eat the same, they drive crazy the same, but both sides think something about the other that is basically wrong," he told AFP. "So we decided to put them face to face."
Intent on humanising the warring parties, he asked Israelis and Palestinians to make silly faces just inches away from his 28mm lens. He blew the prints into seven by four metre (23 by 13 feet) posters and hung them with 20 kilogrammes (44 pounds) of wallpaper glue this week. The same portraits have been hung on both sides of the divided. Among them are a rabbi crossing his eyes and a turbaned sheikh grinning. There is also a balding and monkish man named Brother Jack; Lital, an Israeli gas station attendant wagging her pierced tongue at the camera; and Ishtar, who works for an NGO in Ramallah, holding two clenched fists to her furrowed brow like the horns of an angry ram. Shot at uncomfortably close range, the subjects' playfully contorted faces appear swollen, bulging, and distorted -- the conflict as seen through the mirrors of a carnival funhouse.
But for Palestinians, who have seen their lives upended by the separation barrier that smashes through their neighbourhoods and olive groves, the message of peace rings hollow. In their silly expressions and exaggerated smiles, Yussuf Ghattas, 45, a Bethlehem jeweller, sees only Israeli scorn and derision. "I feel like the Jews are laughing at us. The Jews are always laughing at us," he said. Mom, the Jews are laughing at me...again!
Reut Bulbul, an Israeli reservist standing watch a few hundred metres from where JR hung his photos on the Israeli side of the separation barrier, sees something different. "The photos are very beautiful," said the 24-year-old physical fitness instructor who is doing her biennial week of reserve soldiering. "They let people see that all of these kinds of people can live together," she said, as she guarded a wall built to ensure as little mixing as possible between the two peoples.
Israel is still building the 700 kilometre (435 mile) long barrier, made up of concrete walls and razor wire fences, which it says is necessary to protect the country from suicide bombers. For the Palestinians, the wall is a land-grab, jutting into the territory they see as their future state.
JR, who said he has funded the project out of his own pocket, hoped his pictures will calm, rather than stoke tensions here. The boyish-faced artist made a career of turning public places into art galleries. In 2005, he hung silly-faced portraits of Muslims living in Paris's suburbs in the city centre after a series of riots. I wonder if they burned them down?
He set about his latest project after deciding that ordinary Israelis and Palestinians were being lost in media coverage focused on militants and soldiers. "All we ever see is terrorist attacks and army incursions," he said, wearing a black fedora and munching apple strudel along the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem's Old City. "We came here and we found normal people. We could touch them. People start laughing at the faces and then stop seeing the other people as monsters," he said.
The intention struck a chord of understanding in Tishler, the retired Israeli mechanic. "When you have Israeli and Palestinian faces together like that, the spirit is about peace, not war. And they're funny to look at," he said.
But Ilias Sayid, 51, a Palestinian dentist whose office looks out at the wall and the recently hung portraits, isn't laughing or reconsidering his view of Israelis. "With these pictures the wall has gone from ugly to uglier," he said. "Instead of Israelis with crooked teeth, why didn't they put pictures of Haifa Wahbi" he asked, referring to the pretty Lebanese pop-music starlet. How about JR puts up giant pictures of goat's assholes on the Pali side next time, Ilias? Bet you'd like that.
#1
"They let people see that all of these kinds of people can live together," she said, as she guarded a wall built to ensure as little mixing as possible between the two peoples
nice spin - actually the wall is intended to make sure that "mixing" doesn't include body parts, exploded apart by the Paleo death cult fuckers. Nice reporting, assholes
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/10/2007 10:05 Comments ||
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#2
JR says he is "around 25" and refuses to give his last name because he tries to "stay as mysterious as possible
Also guarding against the possibility that some Muzzi decides to take offence and Theo-van-Goch the artist.
JENIN, West Bank (Reuters) - Fatah gunmen shot at the convoy of a minister from the rival Hamas movement in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the first factional violence since Palestinian unity talks began a month ago. Bored?
And here I was afraid of what might happen to the Trucefire.
Officials from both sides said Wasfi Kibha, minister of prisoner affairs, was unharmed in the shooting near Tubas, a town near the West Bank's largest city of Nablus. The incident sparked a gun battle in the area between Hamas and Fatah members in which one person was lightly wounded, Hamas sources said. Somebody drop their gun?
Fatah, headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, and officials from the ruling Hamas faction offered different accounts of the incident which occurred despite predictions by Hamas members that a joint government deal with Fatah was near. They did it!
No, they did it!
No, they did it!
Kibha told Reuters that Fatah gunmen had stopped his car at a makeshift checkpoint outside Tubas."Without warning they shot at my car," he said. His convoy turned around and headed in the opposite direction, toward the West Bank town of Jenin. Run away! Run away!
A Fatah official said their gunmen had opened fire only after armed members of a Hamas-led police force accompanying the minister's car had shot toward them. A Palestinian photographer was injured by a bullet fragment in the head, the official said. Must've been aiming at his foot.
In Gaza City, gunmen stormed the campus of the pro-Fatah Al Quds University, and shot and wounded a student council member from Fatah, a Palestinian security source said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Gaza shooting. Hillbillies? Frat boys from Gaza State?
Hamas denies it has any police in the West Bank. Fatah has accused Hamas of seeking to build such a force there. Disagreement over the Hamas police force in Gaza is a major obstacle to the sides wrapping up talks over a unity government. Reminds me of the old Saturday Night Live "Ex Police" skit...
After Saudi mediation, Hamas and Fatah agreed a month ago to forge a joint coalition cabinet, largely ending weeks of bloody factional fighting centered in the Gaza Strip in which more than 90 people were killed. No money has changed hands yet, I assume. Both sides must be getting cranky.
Abbas said on Thursday a unity deal was "99 percent" agreed although he had not yet agreed with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas who would be interior minister, a post that controls the powerful security services. Saeed Seyam, the current interior minister from Hamas, said the movement has demanded its police force remain intact under any unity deal, pending a reorganization of the other security forces now dominated by Abbas's Fatah. "The executive force will remain until the other security services are restructured," Seyam said in Gaza. Until then, rest up, rearm, reload...
Posted by: Mike ||
03/10/2007 16:02 Comments ||
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Fatah gunmen had stopped his car at a makeshift checkpoint outside Tubas."Without warning they shot at my car," he said. His convoy turned around and headed in the opposite direction,
Something wrong with this story. if you're STOPPED, then you get shot at, there's no time to turn around and flee, much less turn a whole convoy, he should be dead if his story is true, since he's obviously NOT, the tale's a lie.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/10/2007 21:58 Comments ||
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Hamas was hoping to conclude a deal to return to Israel the kidnapped IDF Cpl. Gilad Schalit, Israel Radio reported Friday overnight. A Hamas spokesman said the movement saw a connection between the return of Schalit and the successful establishment of a unity government in the Palestinian Authority. The spokesman said, however, that even if a deal regarding the return of Schalit was not reached, talks regarding the unity government would succeed.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2007 01:18 ||
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"Half-past never will do fine, or at least until I get more of my assets safely to Switzerland."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accepted a request by Prime Minister-designate Ismail Haniya for more time to forming a national unity government, Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad said on Friday. The spokesman said Haniya asked Abbas to extends the legal period of forming a national unity government for two more weeks. The legal period of forming the government expired today. Hamad also noted that government-formation process was going well and encouraging, adding that positive atmosphere during recent meetings between the two leaders stood against all obstacles in forming a national unity government. Regulations regarding extended periods give no more than five weeks to forming a government.
#1
Palestinian Unity: 1/512 Miles
Palestinian Unity: 1/1024 Miles
Palestinian Unity: 1/2048 Miles
Palestinian Unity: 1/4096 Miles
Palestinian Unity: ...
Today, Muslims major responsibility is to strive to maintain unity and prevent the perilous dominance of the infidel over the Islamic Ummah.
Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Tehran Substitute Friday prayer leader addressing the worshippers at Tehran university campus on Friday pointed to the enemies dividing policies and said The policy of divide and rule has been the principle policy of the global arrogance in the past two centuries. The Sunni-Shiite split is hardly our invention.
Chairman of the State Expediency Council added The reason why this policy has been boosted in recent years is because of the rise of Islamic awareness and Islamic movement in the world after the victory of the Islamic revolution and establishment of the Islamic Republic in Iran. This is what frightens the enemies most. Don't mistake annoyance for fear.
After the fall of the Soviet Union the Americans tried to make the world a unipolar one, and Bushs 'Great Middle East Plan' has been devised for this very purpose. They labeled Iran a member of the Axis of Evil since Iran is the axis of Islamic independence and fighting the infidel... Okay, now expect us to fight back.
#2
3dc - sometimes the only way to get kids to accept responsibility is to apply consequences for bad behavior. We haven't done that with Iran, so the bad behavior continues. Iran needs a good spanking, just like some kids who always act up. Discipline is one way in which limits are set and behavior modified. Time to get on the stick.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/10/2007 11:48 Comments ||
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#3
Iran is overextended. And they are starting to feel the heat. You f*ck with us, we f*ck with you. It's coming home to roost. BTW, you made your payment yet for Bushehr?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/10/2007 13:27 Comments ||
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#4
We should name the mullahs or gov accounts in Iran that we would actively look the other way if they were robbed. Give the list to all the mobs on the planet.
Riverine Squadron 1, based at Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Va., deployed March 8 after a year of intense training with Marine forces.
The deployment marks the first for a riverine squadron since the Vietnam War.
More than 100 riverine sailors deployed to the Middle East to integrate with Marines from the II Marine Expeditionary Force to conduct maritime security operations along rivers and other inland waterways: denying the use of the maritime environment as a venue for attack; a haven for insurgent activities; or the illegal transportation of weapons, people or material in Iraq.
The combat skills training at Camp Lejeune (N.C.) with the Marine Corps and firefight introductions training took us from blue water sailors -- open water Navy -- to become an expeditionary force, said Cmdr. William Guarini, commanding officer of RIVRON 1.
Our goal is to help the Marines and other units well be working with to facilitate stability in the area, said, Lt.j.g. Joshua Sprubeck, team officer for RIVRON 1.
Full of the mixed emotions that come with a deployment, members of the squadron feel they are ready to get under way.
Im kind of excited and kind of scared, but Im ready to get over there and do my job, said Petty Officer 1st Class Michael Cherry.
Sprubeck echoed Cherrys sentiments.
We're feeling a little bit of excitement, a little bit of fear of the unknown but we're chomping at the bit to go. All the guys are ready to roll, said Sprubeck.
RIVRON 1 received specialized training in a number of areas including cultural and language skills presented in realistic combat scenarios, and small unit riverine craft training -- all to help prepare them for the challenges they may face in the field.
The training that weve received has been awesome, said Chief Petty Officer Mike Gaspar, command career counselor for RIVRON 1. There were a lot of young men that came here new to this kind of thing. They came here with open minds and did really well with the training that prepared us well for the mission."
Three riverine squadrons under one riverine group commander serve as a ready force for the Joint Force Maritime Component commander. Each squadron consists of specially designed craft configured to operate in a hostile environment. Water craft will have multiple crews for near continuous operations and lift capacity for a small tactical unit.
These sailors are ready to go, said Guarini. They are motivated to be here, they are excited, and they give me energy just seeing their enthusiasm.
The Navys riverine force is part of the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command, a global force provider of adaptive force packages of expeditionary capabilities to joint warfighting commanders. NECC serves as a single functional command to centrally manage the current and future readiness, resources, manning, training, and equipping of the Navy Expeditionary Force.
#1
Might wanna keep some home. or raise new units > WORLDNEWS - CHINA ON COLLISION COURSE WITH TAIWAN + TAIPEITIMES > NEW US Pacific Commander reaffirms US commitment and protection to Taiwan. Promises to keep close eye on China. *REGNUM.RU > ARMENIAN Officio claims Iran planning retaliatory scenarios against USA/ US Air Defense-BMD? in Europe including possible attack(s) on BAKU,AZERBAIJAN, GEORGIA, REGION.
#5
I agree with Joe - we need a squadron on the Rio Grande. I'd suggest they deploy in hovercraft, since the Rio Grande is only slightly deeper than the Platte (mile wide, inch deep - too thick to drink, to wet to plow). Maybe they can stop some of the drugs and illegal aliens from crossing.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/10/2007 12:38 Comments ||
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Prime Minister Gen. Surayud Chulanont said progress has been made by the authorities in dealing with unrest in Thailand southernmost provinces, and that the violence taking place
there had by all no means involved international terrorism.
Though governments of foreign countries might have alerted their nationals of possible peril while they are in Thailand, Gen. Surayud maintained that the unrest in the turbulent provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani had not involved international terrorism as earlier feared. *whew*
Tourists could go anywhere except for areas declared unsafe by the Thai authorities, Gen. Surayud said, apparently responding to the Australian government's reaction to speculation relating to possible terrorism in Thailand. Events in Thailand's southernmost region should not be compared with those in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to the prime minister.
Gen. Surayud downplayed speculation that untoward incidents would occur on March 13, the date which marks the establishment of the so-called State of Pattani, and said the authorities have been taking varied steps to assure the safety of local villagers and officials assigned to the southern tier of provinces.
Cooperation between Thailand and Malaysia in a bid to contain regional unrest is being carried out in satisfactory fashion, especially regarding resolution of the the dual-nationality status of some Muslim residents. Evidence such as fingerprints and pictures of suspected militants, who may have shuttled themselves between the two neighbouring countries and carried both Thai and Malaysian nationality identification, had been made fully available to the authorities of both countries, the prime minister said.
Meanwhile, Gen, Surayud said government units would adjust the tactics of patrols and search for suspected insurgents throughout the region, even as understanding between government officials and local villagers would as well improve. Government officials would give clear explanations to the pre-dominantly Muslim villagers, including veiled women and youngsters, if any of their neighbours were detained for police questioning, after an untoward incident had taken place. Gen. Surayud quoted ISOC officials and the Navy chief of staff as saying the ethnic Malay Muslim villagers had recently been more cooperative with the authorities.
More funding would be shortly provided for local units in charge of security affairs and under the care of the Internal Security Operations Command and Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre, Gen. Surayud said. The prime minister added that he intended to conduct a meeting between the National Security Council and other government agencies to discuss the Deep South issue on a monthly basis and to closely follow up implementations of the government policy and schemes by government officials in a tele-conference mode.
"Besides, I'm quite sure my listening tour will charm the strictly local beheading brigade into submission", he added.
A shallow river, deep jungles and a 12-mile wall mark the divide not just between Thailand and Malaysia but between Southeast Asia's Muslim and Buddhist worlds. This ragged stretch of border is viewed by some as a potential front in the Muslim insurgency wracking southern Thailand, mysterious in its goals and undeterred either by government crackdowns or by peace overtures.
People on both sides of the border share ethnicity, language and religion -- Islam. Muslim-run soup restaurants on the Malaysian side are suspected of being funding sources for the rebels, and this has become an irritant in relations between two countries that are mainstays of the Southeast Asian alliance.
Analysts are divided over whether Thai insurgents are plugging into a broader Islamic movement or would rather confine their fight to winning some degree of autonomy. But an Associated Press investigation indicates the separatist rebellion, which has already taken the lives of more than 2,000 people, is making outside connections:
-- Young Thai Muslims -- thousands, by Thai government estimate -- are being educated in neighboring Muslim countries and the Middle East, with an unknown number returning as recruiters or actual participants in the insurgency. Some may be receiving military training while abroad.
-- Reports persist that some Indonesians or other foreigners are training and fighting with the rebels, though none has been captured and the reports are unconfirmed.
-- Islamic radicals around the world are increasingly setting their sights on the insurgency. An Arab Web site appeared in January, dedicated exclusively to southern Thailand and believed the first of its kind. Couched in Islamic rhetoric, the site backs independence for southern Thais.
-- Malaysia denies providing any support, mindful that the insurgency could infect its own predominantly Muslim population. But the Thai government is worried enough to be proposing a longer wall than the barrier the Malaysians built in Cold War times to stop smugglers and communist guerrillas.
"We know when some of them cross the border and report it to our Foreign Ministry and the Malaysian military, but nobody ever gets caught," said Lt. Chatchai Kitkhunthot in this frontier village. He was one of several Thai army officers and local officials who pinpointed infiltration and escape routes across the border on maps and the ground.
"Basically the southern Thailand conflict is becoming more regionalized. But we are at the very early stage of it," says Rohan Gunaratna, who heads the International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore and wrote "Inside al-Qaida: Global Network of Terror." Islamic militancy is spreading in Southeast Asia, he says, and "What is happening in Thailand will not be an exception."
Others disagree, likening the insurgency to the Muslim uprising in Indonesia's Aceh province, which shunned foreign help and was resolved with U.N. mediation. "They are fighting for a separate state so they don't want one which is going to be run by outsiders," says a Western official in Bangkok who is knowledgeable about anti-terrorism efforts and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The insurgents, according to the Thai military, number 3,000 to 5,000, with some 10,000 to 12,000 sympathizers out of a Muslim population of 3 million in the southernmost provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani which border Malaysia. They are secretive, brutal, effective, and "We don't know when or where they will attack next," says Col. Wichai Thongdaeng, an army spokesman in the south.
Little is known about the insurgents, or "juwae" -- the local word for fighters. They have revealed no program, leadership roster or even a name. Their only public forms of communication are threatening leaflets. But Thai intelligence officers who have interrogated defectors or captured insurgents say that at least some of the groups are fighting for an independent, Islamic state.
"If you go to work, we will kill you cruelly. We will wait for you 24 hours a day, follow you wherever you go," said one recent leaflet obtained by The AP, ordering Buddhists in one area to leave within three days. It's not known whether they left, but the insurgency has already displaced hundreds of villagers.
International Risk, a Hong Kong-based consultancy, calls the insurgency the world's "new terrorism front line," but its shadowy nature accounts in part for the differing assessments of outside involvement.
Thai leaders and intelligence officials say that loose, personal ties but no formal links currently exist between the domestic militants and networks such as al-Qaida and Jemaah Islamiyah, Southeast Asia's foremost terrorist organization. The main conduits for militancy, they say, are Thai Muslims who study in Muslim countries ranging from Malaysia to Libya, then come back and spread their knowledge in religious schools. These form the breeding grounds of the insurgency, which Thai officials believe also attract funding from the Middle East that is partly channeled into the rebels' hands.
Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra alleged that Malaysia harbored military training camps for the Thais, and some Western intelligence experts maintain that promising youths are systematically culled for training abroad, including the Middle East, and farmed out to key cells on their return.
Then there's an Indonesian connection going back to the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Thai and Indonesian militants trained together in Afghan-run camps on the Pakistan-Afghan border. Between 1999 and 2003, Thai students held regular paramilitary sessions in Bandung, Indonesia, with the top "one or two" then sent to Mindanao in the southern Philippines, another region wracked by Islamic rebellion, for more combat training, said Col. Wichai Chucherd, defense attachDe at the Thai embassy in Indonesia.
An Indonesian military intelligence report seen by The AP on the Bandung training says the presence of Thai separatists on Indonesian soil is worrying "because they could form links with Jemaah Islamiyah members who are now in Indonesia." Thai insurgents provided support for frequent visits by Jemaah Islamiyah's alleged operations chief Riduan Isamuddin, also known as Hambali, who was captured in Thailand in 2003 and is now in U.S. custody.
But no foreign fighters have been captured or killed in southern Thailand, although Thai army officers say a small number are believed to be around. Col. Pornthep Kalamphasut, deputy commander of the army's "hearts and minds" operation in the south, said some communication intercepts among the rebels have been in the Indonesian language. Col. Saksri Ngoypatphan, who commands units in two volatile districts, said defectors talk of tall non-Thais, often hooded, being involved in training.
But of greater concern among the Thai military is the winding 402-mile border with Malaysia. Crossing the frontier is easy, using such corridors as the Hala Bala Wildlife Sanctuary, an area of deep jungle, said Phuchit Saechan, the headman of Thannam Thip. His village abuts the wall that Thailand wants to replace with a 16-mile barrier.
"The border doesn't mean much. We are the same people on both sides," said Mohammad Nor Ali, a restaurant owner near the lightly policed immigration checkpoint in Rantau Panjang, on the Malaysian side of the frontier in Kelantan state. He acknowledged being sympathetic to the Thai Muslims' fight "because they are our brothers."
Gunaratna, the Singapore-based analyst, says despite official Malaysian denials, northern Malaysia "remains an active intellectual and material support base for the insurgent groups active in southern Thailand." As financing goes, it is the ubiquitous soup restaurants run by Thai Muslims in Malaysia which have lately become the issue, after Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont claimed many of them were a significant source of funding and recruitment of separatists. Malaysian authorities took offense and issued indignant denials.
Malaysia's government is aware that the insurgency could embolden its own radicals. "We must not allow any breeding ground for terrorism to exist or to be nurtured," says Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar. But Malaysia must also tread a fine line, curbing extremism without alienating its own people. Despite Thai pleas with its Muslim neighbor states for more cooperation, there have been no joint operations or even a common intelligence database.
Thailand's military regime, which overthrew Thaksin's elected government, says it has adopted a "hearts and minds" strategy rather than brute force to end the insurgency. "We want to de-couple the south from international Islamic terrorism," said Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram in an interview. "Cooperation with Malaysia is really the key."
#1
Thailand needs to cede one province to Malaysia (the southernmost one) on condition that ALL Thai muslims move to that province immediately, and STAY THERE. Any future muslim interference in Thai affairs should be met with the full force of the Thai military and political structure. The only way to live peacefully with muslims is with a thick wall between you and them.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/10/2007 12:47 Comments ||
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#2
Cede a province and they'll ask for another one. And then another one.
I can predict this.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/10/2007 14:06 Comments ||
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Three days of talks aimed at resolving a funding dispute over the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear plant in Iran ended in failure Friday, signaling yet another delay in the start-up of Iran's first atomic power plant and potentially new tension between Tehran and Moscow.
With the UN nuclear watchdog agency imposing new punitive measures against Tehran, analysts said that Russia's tough stance shows Moscow's readiness to dump support for its ally and trading partner and join the United States and other Western nations in drafting new, tougher sanctions over Iran's uranium enrichment effort.
Russia has blamed Iran for paying only a fraction of the required monthly payments of US$25 million (19 million) for construction work at Bushehr in recent months, and warned that the payment delays would push back both the reactor's launch and the uranium fuel deliveries.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2007 01:17 ||
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#1
Hopefully by the time the Mullahs decide to cough up the coin the Bushehr reactor will be in the same shape as the one in Osirak. GO IAF!
Posted by: mac ||
03/10/2007 1:37 Comments ||
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#2
Perhaps I'm being paranoid, but the thought occurred to me that this talk of non-payment could be for public consumption, and not reflect behind the scenes reality.
#3
Agreed, TW. Russia is not in it for the glory. It's the cash. I would imagine both Israel and the US are watching Bushehr for signs of imminent fueling. And they will not say anything as to what they find. We DO have a bit of aerial firepower mucking about the Gulf now.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/10/2007 13:45 Comments ||
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#4
I hope the Israelis wait for the last payment to be deposited in a Russian bank account before they blow the plant to smithereeeeeeens
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Friday he will travel to Syria next week to discuss the crisis in Lebanon. The surprise visit will be the first by a senior EU official to Damascus in more than two years.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2007 01:16 ||
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#1
Would it be too much to hope that some Islamic group will take exception-to/perceive-an- opportunity-in this visit?
Russia raised concerns about proposals to extend UN sanctions against Iran to its elite Revolutionary Guards, while China warned that reducing credit to the Islamic country could punish the Iranian people for their government's nuclear defiance. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Russia, China, Britain and France - joined by Germany, met Friday for the fourth time this week to narrow differences over new sanctions against Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. The proposals include a travel ban, an expanded list of people and companies subject to an asset freeze, an arms embargo and trade restrictions.
Russia and China, which have strong trade ties with Iran, are pushing for a narrower list of targeted companies and individuals. The two countries have often been at odds with the United States, Britain, France and Germany over how tough to be on Iran.
The United States is pushing for cutbacks on loan guarantees for companies doing business in Iran, a key sticking point for China. China's "main difficulty is with the financial and the trade sanctions against Iran because we feel that we (should) not be punishing the Iranian people," Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters after the closed meeting. "We should punish the Iranians for their activities in the nuclear field."
While stressing that Iran must face stiffer sanctions, Russian Ambassador Vitali Churkin said there had been "a lot of attention and discussion to make sure the Iranian people are not punished." "We went through the whole list of elements. There are some on which we are quite close, there are some on which there is some serious concerns and differences," Churkin said.
He declined to elaborate on the areas of disagreement. But Wang said Russia had raised concerns about specifically mentioning Iran's Revolutionary Guards in the list of entities subject to asset freezes. The elite military corps, which has more than 200,000 members and its own naval and air forces, oversees vital Iranian interests, including oil and natural gas installations and the nation's missile arsenal. It is independent of the regular armed forces and controlled directly by Iran's supreme leader. "Russia has difficulties with the name of the Revolutionary Guard because they feel it is an institution in Iran and you don't have to penalize an institution," Wang said.
Iran has refused to freeze its enrichment-related activities despite the Security Council's decision on Dec. 23 to impose sanctions. That resolution ordered all countries to stop supplying Iran with materials and technology that could contribute to its nuclear and missile programs and to freeze assets of 10 key Iranian companies and 12 individuals related to those programs.
Alejandro Wolff, the acting US representative to the United Nations, acknowledged that the scope of financial sanctions were "the main point of concern" in negotiations. But he insisted that no measures under discussion would punish the Iranian people. "Frankly, any sense that this is designed to penalize the Iranian people is completely mistaken," he said. "This is an effort to put the focus on the government for being in noncompliance with the Security Council resolutions."
Iran insists its enrichment program is peaceful and aimed at producing nuclear energy, but the US and European countries are concerned its real aim is to produce nuclear weapons. Churkin said the resolution would make "clear that the international community does not approve of movement in the Iranian nuclear program which we have been seeing."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2007 01:15 ||
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Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps says IRGC's combat capability has grown tenfold in East and West Azarbaijan and Ardebil provinces since the final years of Iran-Iraq war (1980-88).
Brigadier General Yahya Rahim-Safavi on Thursday said IRGC forces in the area possess a high defensive and restrictive power. "IRGC units have attained self-sufficiency and enhanced their capabilities in fighting land, missile, air and asymmetric wars. They are well capable of fighting back," he said. "Currently there is a high level of cooperation and coordination between IRGC and Basij volunteer forces on the one hand, and between them and the public on the other," the commander noted.
Rahim-Safavi pointed to the sensitive and complicated situation in the region and went on, "Our foreign enemies have united. The Americans are now out to win over European and Arab countries in the fight against Iran." He then referred to efforts to deprive Iran of its lawful right to access nuclear technology. The commander said he believed the U.S. is garnering support for a resolution that would portray Iran as a threat to regional security.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/10/2007 00:38 ||
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#1
Ernst Rohm, Commander and co-founder of the Nazi Sturmabteilung.
#2
I seem to remember something about a "Festung Europa" line of BS that ended with a huge thud when the Allies landed at Normandy. I'd watch my tongue, Commander - you might find you have to eat your words - with horseradish.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/10/2007 12:53 Comments ||
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#3
Yahya?
How seriously am I supposed to take a guy who sounds like a line from Patti LaBelle & the Drells?
#2
hmmm, it's certainly interesting that one can burn the American flag, but God forbid anyone from harming another's flag.
unf***ingbelievable.
These students probably feel pretty stupid not checking out what the Arabic letters meant. That should be enough punishment.
Allah is on a terrorist flag, big surprise there.
Posted by: Jan ||
03/10/2007 16:18 Comments ||
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#3
How delightful to see a university charging students for blasphemy in the twenty-first century. Only blasphemy against Mordor, of course, as the traditions of Gondor are shameful and oppressive, etc.
#4
I think they are testing this: it was not very long ago, 2 or 3 months IIRC, that the student body itself created this POS 'law.' and the faculty said at the time that they would uphold and honor the students' decision. Since it is from the Granola State, I expect these students to get punished.
#5
Just had an interesting thought: since the 'llaw' concerning desecration of the flag with allen on it applies only to students, and the university is a public facility, how would they handle non-students that were merely visiting the premises and decided it was a nice day for a Hez flag burning???????
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.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - Afghanistan's lower house of parliament on Saturday voted into law a revised resolution calling for an amnesty for groups suspected of perpetrating war crimes during a quarter century of fighting, but also recognizing the rights of victims to seek justice. The vote by the overwhelming majority of the members present in the Wolesi Jirga came after President Hamid Karzai revised the initial resolution which called for an amnesty from war crimes for all involved in the three decades of fighting.
An important meeting of the Pak-Afghan Peace Jirga Commission, scheduled for today (Saturday), has been delayed till March 12 in the wake of Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhrys removal by President General Pervez Musharraf. Official sources told Daily Times that the commission was to hold its first meeting today (Saturday), but it had been delayed till Monday owing to the recent development in the country. 
The Iraqi judge who sentenced Saddam Hussein to death for crimes against humanity has fled to Britain where he is seeking political asylum, Al Jazeera has reported. 
Tehran's Friday prayer leader says the United States shares the blame for the death of Shia pilgrims slain in Iraq. Speaking at the largest Friday prayers in Tehran, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said, "While thousands of pilgrims go barefoot to Karbala, a bomb suddenly explodes killing and dismembering hundreds of people. The United States is jointly responsible for the blood that is spilled." 
Russia raised concerns about proposals to extend UN sanctions against Iran to its elite Revolutionary Guards, while China warned that reducing credit to the Islamic country could punish the Iranian people for their government's nuclear defiance. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Russia, China, Britain and France - joined by Germany, met Friday for the fourth time this week to narrow differences over new sanctions against Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. The proposals include a travel ban, an expanded list of people and companies subject to an asset freeze, an arms embargo and trade restrictions. 
Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps says IRGC's combat capability has grown tenfold in East and West Azarbaijan and Ardebil provinces since the final years of Iran-Iraq war (1980-88). 
