An Afghan tribal leader is in talks to defect from the Taliban and take thousands of armed tribesmen with him to fight alongside British forces in southern Afghanistan. The Daily Telegraph has learned that the Afghan government hopes to seal the deal this week with Mullah Abdul Salaam and his Alizai tribe, which has been fighting alongside the Taliban in Helmand province.
I've been waiting for us to do the tribal relations thing in Afghanistan as we've done with the Sunnis in Iraq. They're different situations to be sure, but we ought to be able to wheel and deal with the different subtribes in Pashtunistan, and the Taliban have been every bit as overbearing as al-Qaeda in Iraq.
Diplomats confirmed yesterday that Mullah Salaam was expected to change sides within days. He is a former Taliban corps commander and governor of Herat province under the government that fell in 2001. Military sources said British forces in the province are "observing with interest" the potential deal in north Helmand, which echoes the efforts of US commanders in Iraq's western province to split Sunni tribal leaders from their al-Qa'eda allies.
The Afghan deal would see members of the Alizai tribe around the Taliban-held town of Musa Qala quit the insurgency and pledge support to the Afghan government. It would be the first time that the Kabul government and its Western allies have been able exploit tribal divisions that exist within the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.
Nato forces in Helmand have been monitoring mounting tensions within the Taliban around the towns of Musa Qala and Kajaki. "We have been aware in the last week that guns have been pulled and different armed camps formed within the Taliban in that area," said a military source.
According to tribal elders in Helmand and Western diplomats in Kabul, Mullah Salaam had been attempting to negotiate with the Afghan government in secret. But details of the talks were leaked late last week to his erstwhile allies and this reportedly led to a split in the Taliban ranks.
Other Taliban leaders have since plotted to assassinate Mullah Salaam. "Mullah Abdul Salaam is very influential and he has the support of thousands of our tribe," said Haji Saleem Khan, the head of the Shura (or tribal council) of the Alizai in Helmand. "When the Taliban found out that he planned to join the government three days ago they tried to kill him. But they have failed.
Who wants to be the last man to die for the Taliban?
''These negotiations are still secret. We are going to see the government again today."
Ssssshhhhh .......
Another tribal leader in Helmand, Haji Abdul Rahman Sabir, the former provincial police chief, said of Mullah Salaam: "He was a very powerful figure in both the jihad [against the Soviet Union] and also the Taliban time. He is being protected by his tribe. There are 200 fighters around his house and they are waiting for support from the government. It is very important that the government helps."
A Western diplomat said that President Hamid Karzai had asked Nato forces to intervene in support of Mullah Salaam, but so far no Nato troops have been committed.
Lt Col Richard Eaton, a spokesman for British forces in Helmand, said: "The solution in counter insurgency is always ultimately political. The military can set conditions but there must be a political process and in Afghanistan that will always include a tribal dynamic."
Tribal friction and competition for power and resources in Helmand underpins the insurgent violence that has engulfed the province. The Itzakzai tribe in particular have been key Taliban supporters, principally because they have felt excluded from both provincial power and the province's lucrative drugs trade since 2001.
Some sections of the Alizai, by contrast, have been dominant within both the drugs trade and provincial power structures. Sher Mohammad Akhundzada, the former provincial governor who was allegedly a kingpin in the local drugs trade, was an Alizai. However, within the Alizai are three sub-tribes and it is one of these, the Pirzai Alizai, that Mullah Salaam controls around Musa Qala. The town is a drug-growing area and has been a centre of Taliban power since the collapse of a British-backed truce between the local government and the Taliban in February.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/30/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
The best fishing is done with live bait. Nice of Salaam to volunteer to hang on the hook for us. "no Nato troops have been committed" to his defense. Hear that, 'bunnies? He's just waiting there for your attention? (Pay no attention to those Green Berets up on the ridge, or the A-10's on hot standby nearby.
#2
"The Itzakzai tribe in particular have been key Taliban supporters, principally because they have felt excluded from both provincial power and the province's lucrative drugs trade since 2001. "
These then are a nobel tribe, even though they may have wished to be part, the fact that they were not, gives them a note in their file for special consideration. Now, if only their leadership could figure a way to capitalize on the special note attached to thier file....sometimes, being left out of something bad.....can be good. The art is in the how too of redeeming, that which chance dealt, its the whole lemons and lemonaide thing. Taliban support was the wrong course for these guys, so lets hope they figure the whole thing out.
#3
"the Pirzai Alizai, that Mullah Salaam controls around [i]Musa Qala[/i].
Probably not coincidentally where the latest NATO/coalition offensive is taking place. Either they coordinated the negotiations and the offensive, or the success thus far of the offensive has provided the opportunity and incentive for the negotiation.
#4
Much of this is window dressing until the poppy-growing issue is taken care of. That is fueling the Taliban and introducing substantial distortion into Afghanistan's rebirth. Afghanistan is not going to be a viable country until the drug trade is cut to a trickle. This will piss a lot of heavies off in the short term, but that is a pain we are going to have to deal with if we want to succeed. (Oh yeah, we are also going to have to clean out the tribal areas in paki waki land, but deal with the issues on Afghan turf first.)
(SomaliNet) The deputy of outgoing Somali premier Ali Mohamed Gedi, who resigned today, has become the countrys acting prime minister, the president told parliament today, AFP reports. "Salim Aliyow Ibrow will be the acting the prime minister of Somalia until I appoint another one," Abdullahi Ahmed Yusuf said in Baidoa, the town where parliament sits.
Yusuf was speaking moments after receiving Gedis letter of resignation. "I congratulate Mr Gedi for his decision," Yusuf said, adding that he would hold consultations with members of parliament and Somali civil society before choosing a new premier.
Gedi is a member of the Hawiye clan - the largest in the country - while Ibrow is not. For his part, Yusuf is a member of the Darod clan, the countrys second largest.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/30/2007 00:00 ||
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Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi resigned Monday following a long-running feud with the president, as the Horn of Africa nation sank deeper into a political, security and humanitarian crisis. Gedis decision to step down came amid an upsurge in violence in the capital Mogadishu that has seen thousands of residents flee fighting between Islamist insurgents and Ethiopian-backed government troops. He personally handed his resignation to President Abdullahi Ahmed Yusuf after the two men reached a deal to end the political confusion, a close aide to Yusuf told AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/30/2007 00:00 ||
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Egypt's president announced plans Monday to build several nuclear power plants the latest in a string of ambitious such proposals from moderate Arab countries. The United States immediately welcomed the plan, in a sharp contrast to what it called nuclear "cheating" by Iran.
President Hosni Mubarak said the aim was to diversify Egypt's energy resources and preserve its oil and gas reserves for future generations. In a televised speech, he pledged Egypt would work with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency at all times and would not seek a nuclear bomb. But Mubarak also made clear there were strategic reasons for the program, calling secure sources of energy "an integral part of Egypt's national security system."
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the U.S. would not object to the program as long as Egypt adhered to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and International Atomic Energy Agency guidelines.
"The problem has arisen, specifically in the case of Iran, where you have a country that has made certain commitments, and in our view and the shared view of many ... (is) cheating on those obligations," he said. "For those states who want to pursue peaceful nuclear energy ... that's not a problem for us," McCormack said. "Those are countries that we can work with."
The United States accuses Iran of using the cover of a peaceful nuclear program to secretly work toward building a bomb, an allegation Iran denies. Iran asserts it has a right to peaceful nuclear power and needs it to meet its economy's voracious energy needs.
Iran's program has prompted a slew of Mideast countries to announce plans of their own in part simply to blunt Tehran's rising regional influence. "A lot of this is political and strategic," said Jon Wolfsthal, a nonproliferation expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Egypt is highly sensitive to the fact that Iran hopes to open its Bushehr nuclear plant next year, said Mohamed Abdel-Salam, director of the regional security program at Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. "(Iran's) regional role, as well as Iran's political use of the nuclear issue, have added to Egypt's sensitivity," he said. Other Arab countries' recent nuclear announcements "added extra pressure on Egypt not to delay any more."
Jordan, Turkey and several Gulf Arab countries have announced in recent months that they are interested in developing nuclear power programs, and Yemen's government signed a deal with a U.S. company in September to build civilian nuclear plants over the next 10 years. Algeria also signed a cooperation accord with the United States on civil nuclear energy in June, and Morocco announced a deal last week under which France will help develop nuclear reactors there. ...
Doesn't sound so peaceful after all.
Posted by: ed ||
10/30/2007 12:47 ||
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#1
Dang it. If they want it for purely peaceful reasons they should go for pebble bed reactors. Otherwise it is just asking for problems.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it had confirmed that a man convicted over the al Qaeda bombing of the U.S. Navy ship Cole in 2000 was still in prison in Yemen despite reports of his release.
U.S. officials were troubled by reports last week that Jamal Badawi had been released from prison, saying he should remain in jail and putting on hold plans to give the country a $20.6 million grant. "We were able to physically confirm today the presence of Jamal Badawi at a prison in Aden," said U.S. State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos. Earlier, the State Department said it did not know where Badawi was.
Badawi, whose death sentence had been commuted to 15 years in prison over the attack that killed 17 U.S. sailors in the southern port of Aden, is one of 23 inmates who escaped from a jail in the Yemeni capital Sanaa in 2006.
One of the key planners of the attack on the destroyer Cole, Badawi turned himself in about two weeks ago and his relatives told Reuters on Friday his sentence had been commuted to house arrest and they had visited him at his Aden home. The United States made no secret of its displeasure at this, saying it would find it "disturbing" if the report was true. On Monday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said flatly "this is somebody that needs to be behind bars."
Or at least tell us the address, with GPS coordinates.
Yemen, a poor country on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula that is the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, is viewed in the West as a haven for Islamist militants.
The Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S. government corporation that provides assistance to poor countries that meet certain policy benchmarks, on Friday said it was putting on hold plans to give Yemen a $20.6 million grant. While the MCC did not explicitly tie the decision to the report that Badawi had been let out of prison, a senior U.S. official said the two were "perhaps not unrelated."
Yemen was to receive the money to help it fight corruption and improve performance on MCC's indicators that measure the rule of law, political rights and fiscal policy. If it met the benchmarks, Yemen could be eligible for more U.S. assistance. An agreement formalizing the grant was to have been signed on Wednesday but the MCC last week said it would postpone the grant and was "currently undertaking a review to determine the country's future status with MCC."
Books calling for the beheading of lapsed Muslims, ordering women to remain indoors and forbidding interfaith marriage are being sold inside some of Britains leading mosques, according to research seen by The Times.
One book, Fatawa Islamiyah, which urges the execution of apostates, was found in bookshops at Regents Park mosque and at the huge East London mosque in Whitechapel. Muhammad Abdul Bari, the secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), is the chairman of the East London mosque.
The researchers said that they found further controversial works during visits to mosques in Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Oxford and High Wycombe.
The Times has learnt that five of the books that were acquired by researchers had been also found in searches during Scotland Yard antiterrorist investigations since 2001. About half of the books collected were in English raising questions about the emphasis placed by the Government in combating extremism by training more English-speaking imams. The other publications were in Arabic or Urdu. The report, The Hijacking of British Islam, is published by the conservative Policy Exchange think-tank and was written by Denis MacEoin, a Fellow at Newcastle University and expert on Islamic issues.
The researchers found hardline material at a quarter of the 100 mosques visited during the project.
The report said: On the one hand, the results were reassuring: in only a minority of institutions approximately 25 per cent was radical material found.
What is more worrying is that these are among the best-funded and most dynamic institutions in Muslim Britain some of which are held up as mainstream bodies. Many of the institutions featured here have been endowed with official recognition.
A key theme of the books was a strident sectarianism which told Muslims that they should remain separate from other faiths and resist integration. The report stated: Simply put, these notions demand that the individual Muslim must not merely feel deep affection for and identity with his fellow believers and with all that is authentically Islamic. The individual Muslim must also feel an abhorrence for nonbelievers, hypocrites, heretics, and all that is deemed unIslamic. The latter category encompasses those Muslims who are judged to practise an insufficiently rigorous form of Islam. Most books stopped short of calling for violence. But they created a climate of intolerance and contempt for nonMuslims that could be exploited by violent jihadists, the researchers said.
The report called for a radical overhaul of Britains relationship with Saudi Arabia, which it argued has a powerful and malign influence over British Islam and sponsored the export of fundamentalist Islamic doctrine.
Regents Park mosque said that the bookshop on its premises was run by a private company. Yunes Teniaz, of the London Central Mosque Trust, told The Times: The bookshop is franchised to a separate organisation. These books express their authors opinions and not those of the London Central Mosque Trust.
Inayat Bunglawala, the MCB assistant secretary-general, said: Bookshops sell a variety of publications and we live in an open, democratic society where it is not illegal to sell books which contain antiWestern views.
Fundamental views
Extracts from works found on sale in British mosques
And if he apostatises after that, his head should be chopped off, according to the Hadith: Whoever changes his religion, kill him.
(Fatawa Islamiyah Islamic Verdicts, volume 5; reported found at the East London mosque and the London Central mosque)
Whoever takes part in stoning a married adulterer is rewarded for that, and it is not fitting for anyone to abstain from it if a ruling of stoning is issued.
(Fatawa Islamiyah Islamic Verdicts, volume 6; reported found at the East London mosque)
Some Kinds of Women Who Will Go to Hell
1. The Grumbler the woman who complains against her husband every now and then is one of Hell.
2. The Woman Who Adorns Herself.
3. The Woman Who Apes Men, Tattoos, Cuts Hair Short and Alters Nature.
(Women Who Deserve to Go to Hell: East London mosque; Muslim Education Centre, High Wycombe)
#8
On the one hand, the results were reassuring: in only a minority of institutions approximately 25 per cent was radical material found.
No, it is NOT reassuring. The 75% where these materials were not found were probably tipped off before the researchers arrived.
What is more worrying is that these are among the best-funded and most dynamic institutions in Muslim Britain some of which are held up as mainstream bodies. Many of the institutions featured here have been endowed with official recognition.
Funding is no doubt from the Soddies.
The only question here is what will it take for the UK to wake up?
#9
The report called for a radical overhaul of Britains relationship with Saudi Arabia, which it argued has a powerful and malign influence over British Islam and sponsored the export of fundamentalist Islamic doctrine.
Here is the only reassuring part of the report. It sounds like somebody is at least beginning to understand. How about starting with a law that forbids Soddy funding for mosques in the UK?
Chancellor Angela Merkel has joined a growing movement to criminalize forced marriages in Germany, which is growing less tolerant of practices among Muslim immigrants that clash with the nation's liberal social values.
Forced marriages are generally imposed by young women's families to keep them from dating. Prosecution is rare and must take place under assault laws that also outlaw threats and coercion. Women's' groups have been increasingly pushing for forced marriages to be specifically criminalized, to ease prosecution and to send a strong signal that the practice violates German laws and traditions.
"I completely agree that forced marriages should be punishable as a criminal act," Merkel said in a speech at a women's conference held by her conservative Christian Democrats over the weekend, surprising and pleasing activists.
"We are thrilled that the chancellor has made such a clear statement," said Sibylle Schreiber, a spokeswoman for the women's rights group Terre des Femmes. "Finally she's given a signal to the people that forcing your daughter into marriage is a crime."
Conservative Merkel takes a stance that helps in the WoT, and in the process wins over the feminists. Count this as a two-fer.
Approximately 3.3 million Muslims live in Germany, 70 percent of them of Turkish origin. Many lead secular lifestyles but some make strong, even extreme, efforts to preserve conservative values.
In recent years, several courts have upheld state-level bans on headscarves for Muslim women teaching in public schools. Immigration laws now require that foreign spouses be at least 18 years old and already have a basic knowledge of the German language. The state of Baden-Wuerttemberg has proposed federal legislation criminalizing forced marriages. It passed twice, most recently in February, but has not been taken up by the lower house. Women's activists were hopeful that Merkel's push would accelerate the process.
Serap Cileli, a Turkish-German writer whose book "We Are Your Daughters, Not Your Honor" documents her escape from a forced marriage at age 24, welcomed Merkel's initiative but said it was important to address the immigrant community directly. "As long as we don't teach the fathers, husbands and brothers to let the women live self-determined lives, this wound will never stop bleeding," Cileli said.
Women's groups and experts on immigration in Germany said it was difficult to tell how many women marry after threats or abuse, but enough flee such arrangements that several shelters remain busy. Along with Baden-Wuerttemberg, the states of Lower Saxony, and Berlin have started shelters, hot lines and online counseling. North Rhine-Westphalia has made it mandatory for all high school students to learn that forced marriage is illegal in Germany.
The impetus behind pressure to marry is found in conservative families' opposition to dating and premarital sex considered affronts to family honor. Such pressures are also behind so-called honor killings of women by family members, often brothers or husbands. The Federal Crime Office counted 55 such cases from 1996 to 2005.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/30/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Conservative Merkel takes a stance that helps in the WoT, and in the process wins over the feminists. Count this as a two-fer.
When multiculturalism and feminism clash (and it usually does) on what side do the whores fall upon? By not uttering a single peep in opposition to female genital mutilation, they declare themselves the inferiors to male feminist bigots.
#3
I've said it before: Forced and/or arranged marriages run counter to concepts that Darwin advanced about evolution and natural selection. In other words, if you are the Turkish equivalent of Sean Connery you do NOT want to get stuck to some 300 hundred pound, mustachioed sweat hog. Conversly, if you are the Arab equivalent of - oh, I dunno - Raquel Welch you do NOT want to get stuck with some 100 pound, drooling, buck toothed, bald headed moron. It gets even worse if said moron is your cousin which I understand is often the case in these arrangements. It's bad for the gene pool. Now, try to tell that to a good Muslim who would argue that Darwin blasphemed. We still have people in our own culture who have trouble with Darwin. But science is not on their side. Three cheers for Chancellor Merkel.
Canadian officials are taking the unprecedented step of asking a judge to install closed-circuit video cameras inside a terrorism suspect's family home, arguing national security necessitates the scrutiny. Crown lawyer Donald MacIntosh said in an interview yesterday he hopes the Federal Court will approve the heightened surveillance, though he knows of no jurisdiction that has tried it. Having raised the proposal orally last week, he said he intends to submit a formal argument before a hearing next month.
Lawyers acting for Mahmoud Jaballah, an Egyptian asylum-seeker who already lives under extremely strict house arrest, are resisting added surveillance and fighting for increased liberties. In fact, the Federal Court is currently weighing his proposal that he be let out of his Toronto home to teach school lessons to Muslim children.
Canadian officials accuse Mr. Jaballah of playing a "communications relay" role in a major terrorist massacre - al-Qaeda's 1998 African embassy bombings. His potential access to fax machines, computers and telephones inside his family home, where he lives with his wife and five children, deeply worries the government.
Mr. Jaballah, who was never charged with a criminal offence, spent nearly all of 1999 to 2007 in jail. Attempts to deport him to Egypt, a country known to torture fundamentalists, failed on humanitarian grounds. Like four other alleged al-Qaeda-affiliated foreigners held under controversial "security certificate" powers, he has recently agreed to live under extraordinary surveillance, in return for being let out of jail.
Past measures have included the suspects submitting to being followed by federal agents during their few weekly excursions, having their calls monitored, staying away from computers and having video cameras installed - but outside the home. Never before has any Canadian prisoner on bail been known to have had to countenance cameras inside the household.
Mr. Jaballah's main sureties, who are to ensure he lives up to his conditions, are his 22-year-old son, who is a student, and his wife, the acting principal of a Toronto Islamic school. Mr. Jaballah, who co-founded the school, hopes to resume teaching there. His wife said in an interview that Mr. Jaballah would teach math and sciences; his son said his father would teach Arabic. Crown lawyers are fighting the proposal to let Mr. Jaballah teach. "The school, parents, and children would need to be informed that the applicant is a national security risk," writes a government official in court documents.
When Madam Justice Carolyn Layden-Stevenson ordered Mr. Jaballah freed last spring, she stated she did so with great reservations concerning Ms. Al-Mashtouli who "previously lied to the court" about her husband's history. The judge expressed higher hopes that the 22-year-old Ahmad Jaballah could watch his dad. Yesterday, he said the government's plan was unnecessary. "There is no reason to install cameras or video-conferencing equipment, it's just ridiculous," he said. "...My mom she wears a veil; being at home, if there's a camera, it restricts her movement."
Officials have expressed concern the family has, on certain occasions, failed to lock up a laptop or fax machine that Mr. Jaballah could use.
Judge Layden-Stevenson has ruled that there "are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr. Jaballah was a senior member of [Egyptian al-Jihad] who acted as a communicator among terrorist cells." She said late-1990s records have never been adequately explained: "Although provided with the opportunity to address the 72 calls to Yemen, the 47 calls to Azerbaijan, the 75 calls to London, England [to an alleged al-Qaeda front] ... and the 20 calls to the United Kingdom, Yemen, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan within a two-day time frame, Mr. Jaballah either failed to do so or was evasive."
#2
"Never before has any Canadian prisoner on bail been known to have had to countenance cameras inside the household."
Whoaa this has Reality show hit written all over it. Sign his kids up for hockey lessons, assign him a Jewish public defender; then add a couple of Mounties as security guards. Then sit back and watch the hilarity ensue.
#3
Send him to Kenya. I'm sure families of the 200 dead or the 5000 wounded would like to have a panga word with him.
Posted by: ed ||
10/30/2007 11:51 Comments ||
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#4
I remarked in another thread last week that these "Security Certificates" are a thing that NO Canadian government will ever give up. They give the government virtually unlimited power over any individual that they get in their sights. Watch out! When we Canadians get upset enough we turn more N@zi-like than Adolph and his crew ever were. But we're really nice and polite about it.
#5
Set three cameras he knows about, and a dozen he doesn't. Smoke alarms are good disguise.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/30/2007 12:20 Comments ||
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#6
Mahmoud Jaballah, an Egyptian asylum-seeker
Fer phuque's sake, he's not even a citizen! Slingshot his sorry terrorist ass back to Egypt where they can "interrogate" this worthless sack of shit 24/7/365.
#4
Bush needs to realize that in the Good Terrorist - Bad Terrorist scenario there is no Good Terrorist. What ever happened to the "No Negotiating With Terrorists" stance? This represents nothing more than another idiotic round of Arab appeasement. Effing get over it.
#8
It would do the American leadership class much good to study our history, specifically "Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute!".
Posted by: ed ||
10/30/2007 13:57 Comments ||
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#9
I, for one, think there will be no peace until the Palestinans are forced to refund every single penny since 1048 and pay damages to their victims be they Israeli, neutrals or even Arabs.
Giving them money only persuades them that terrorism pays (how much has been given to the victims of Sudan arabo-islamic supremacists?) and allows them to fund terrorism instead of feeding themselves.
#21
George, that is partly (all $24.34 in taxes paid) my money and I really don't want it going to terrorists that will kill kids and civilians, m'kay? How about throwing it off a bridge into a river instead? It still is a waste and no one dies! Well, unless some poor guy in a canoe is going under the bridge at that moment, but you get my drift.
Can we PLEASE get a real conservative president in?
#22
This is right up there with the amnesty for illegals on the stupid scale. If he wants to give money to poor people, there are enough in this country. If he wants to help poor people overseas, give it to the military and tell them to kill bad guys with it. Fewer bad guys makes everyone's life better.
Interesting profile of a soccer mom who taught herself Arabic and goes online at jihadi websites to gather information and sow confusion. One story that tickled my fancy:
Much of Rossmiller's success can be credited to her understanding that the chattiness and chumminess that often cinches digital friendships applies in terrorist chat rooms just as it does in Yahoo Nascar forums. This skill was on display when she struck up an online correspondence with a jihadist in the Middle East named "Hakim" (for Rossmiller's protection, his name has been changed).
On this mission, Rossmiller assumed the identity of a particularly murderous terrorist known as Abu Musa. She befriended Hakim, who lived in a country bordering Iraq and was looking to travel there, possibly for martyrdom, with 10 other people. The talk quickly turned to personal travails, and soon Hakim was complaining about the biggest obstacle to his desired glory as a martyr: his mother. Hakim, it turned out, lived alone with her, and, because of that, was having trouble finding the time to go fight in Iraq. "I am trying to send her to live with a brother of mine who lives in a country close by," he wrote, "if Allah will." (The cliché of the reactionary blogger as angry vigilante plotting schemes from his mother's basement appears to be universal.)
Hakim seemed to be a big fan of orotund flourishes, and Rossmiller happily indulged him. "Brother in Allah... I still pray to Allah that my message arrives to you and you are in the more perfect of the health and the good health and protected from the eyes of the spies and polytheists and the cross slaves," she wrote him in Arabic. Hakim also happily filled out the bayat form, giving Rossmiller all his real data, including address and phone numbers.
As usual, Rossmiller, aka Abu Musa, bragged about participating in events at which her presence couldn't easily be corroborated (such as fighting in Fallujah a few weeks before). But then Abu Musa made a mistake: He told Hakim he was located in a village that turned out to be just a cab ride away from Hakim, who then wanted to visit. Rossmiller had already alerted her contact in the federal government about Hakim. Now, this contact explained, he needed her to play for time while he contacted local authorities. Suddenly Abu Musa found himself summoned to Syria for an important mission.
When Abu Musa returned after a week, Hakim was briefly suspicious but then returned to being chatty and revved up for jihad. Abu Musa had ordered him to create a new email account and a new password so they could be safe. "And he's a good boy," Rossmiller says. "Here, he's made an email account. I love the password. 123456." Soon, Hakim is comfortable enough to tell Abu Musa that he and his friends are ready to go to Iraq and that he needs some ingredients for a bomb .
This email is amazingly long, detailed, revealing, and inadvertently funny. Sure, he'd need "1000 sulfur Match sticks," potassium nitrate, acetone, glycerin, and potassium permanganate. But he also wanted a food processor, a fan, a hair dryer, two cell phones, a remote control, a knife, and Scotch tape. Abu Musa agrees to send a contact to meet in the public area of an upscale neighborhood, and Hakim gives specific details as to his dress and appearance. Hakim is hopeful, praying for "Allah's mercy and its blessings and pray to Allah that it keeps us and protects us from the cunning of the enemies." And then, his last words: "We meet on our date God willing."
"All I know," Rossmiller says, "is that he showed up, and it played out to script." He led his new contact to a warehouse where the other brothers were training. The local authorities took over from there. . . .
Go read it all.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/30/2007 00:26 ||
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#1
It gives me chills just to think of her daring.
#2
Aren't the Israeli's sort of organized around this? I believe they have a number of agents doing cyber-spying and entrapment [the good kind of entrapment as far as I am concerned.] Also, these Jihadis are really wannabees it seems and probably young kids in Paleoland, Pakiwakiland and Europe trying to act tough.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/30/2007 12:30 Comments ||
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Former assistant secretary of state for South Asia to represent Pakistan for $1.2m
Pakistan has got itself yet another lobbyist at a yearly cost of $1.2 million, which brings the number of those it has been using to sell itself on Capitol Hill and in the corridors of the government to two, though there could be more.
The other firm representing Pakistan here is Van Scoyoc Associates, which is paid $55,000 a month. We continue to represent the embassy and work with the ambassador and his team on a daily basis, according to Mark Talvarides, vice president for Van Scoyoc and lead lobbyist on the contract.
Pakistans representative:The new lobbyist for Pakistan is a firm called Cassidy and Associates, and the person who would be carrying Pakistans flag will be former assistant secretary of state for South Asia, Robin Raphael. Raphael, who retired from the foreign service a few years ago, earned the permanent ire of the Indian government and the Indian-American community for questioning the authenticity of the instrument of accession allegedly signed by Maharaja Hari Singh, which, India maintains, put the seal of approval on the states accession to India. That is a position accepted neither by Pakistan nor the people of Kashmir, nor the United Nations for that matter. This correspondent was present at the press conference where the erstwhile assistant secretary made her observation, which caused an uproar in India. She was instructed never to repeat that bit again and she did not. The only other government Cassidy works for is Eqatorial Guinea
Year-long contract: According to records filed with the Justice Department, the contract with Pakistan has a years validity. However, other things being equal, there is every likelihood of its being renewed. Cassidys work will involve lobbying and public relations campaigns promoting Pakistans status as an important strategic partner of the US, according to The Hill, a small publication devoted to congressional coverage.
Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, fist secretary at the Pakistan embassy, told The Hill, We thought we had some challenging issues and we thought we should add another lobbying firm. Robin Raphel, who is also senior vice president at Cassidy, stressed Pakistans necessity as an ally for the American counter-terrorism strategy. We need to recognise it is not easy what Pakistan is trying to do here in assisting us in the fight against the terrorism in the region, she said. She said her job would be to make sure all relevant parties have the facts, adding, I think its clear there is a less than perfect understanding of Pakistan here.
Benazir Bhuttos Pakistan Peoples Party is represented by BKSH and Associates and its affiliate Burson-Marsteller LLC to promote fair elections in Pakistan. Pakistan Embassy first secretary Baloch told The Hill, We believe there is common ground between her party and the government.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/30/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Cassidy and Associates = Robert Byrd, Pork, etc. Once caught using money appropriated to a non-profit corp. for research work to do more lobbyying to raise more money. Thus the famous Byrd amendment and disclosure that you are lobbying using someone elses money than the US governments. I think the year was around 1988 or somewhere close. Think about it - up until then lobbyists never spent a dime -they used OPM - yours.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/30/2007 13:09 Comments ||
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#2
Robin Raphael's husband was the US ambassador to Pakistan. He died along with the dictator General Zia Ul Haq in the infamous 'crash'.
Apparently Raphael thought India had a part in this.
India was pretty much under the radar for most in DC and for a few years the Senate didn't even confirm an ambassador. Robin Raphael ran the show from Foggy Bottom and, unnoticed by higher ups, regularly offended India by arranging Kashmiri 'dialogues'. The Hurriyat Conference is basically her creation. She was notorious for making provocative statements against India.
This seriously colored Indian perceptions of Washington's intent.
It took active engagement at the Presidential and SOS level to remove the Indian mistrust of the US caused by Raphael.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/30/2007 17:46 Comments ||
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#3
It was her questioning of the instrument of accession that really irked the Indians.
These instruments were specified in the UK's Indian Independence Act of 1947. Each of the hundreds of princely states had to accede to either India or Pakistan.
Pakistan, faced with a valid signed instrument for Jammu and Kashmir claimed it was forged decades later,, an absurdity since it was witnessed and signed by the last Viceroy of the Indian Empire, Lord Louis Mountbatten, cousin to Queen Elizabeth.
Raphael's repetition of Pakistani propaganda seriously damaged Indo-US relations.
Madeline Albright did her bit to screw things up as well.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/30/2007 17:56 Comments ||
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A BBC documentary shown last [Sunday] night came under attack from one of Indias largest Islamic groups for linking their movement to Osama Bin Laden and extremist Muslim groups around the world, the Guardian reported on Monday.
It reported the Deoband school, whose main madrassa Darul Uloom lies 90 miles north-east of Delhi, said it had allowed a television crew making a three-part documentary called Clash of Worlds into its grounds to explain its message of peace and historic role in Indian affairs.
However, Muslim scholars in Delhi became alarmed to hear the programmes presenters talk of their part in the anti-British uprising in the nineteenth century being similar to the role played by Osama today, it said. Mohammad Anwer, a spokesman for the Deoband school, said he had protested to the films producers about the link with Osama and many other mistakes, Guardian said.
We protested at the time but it made no difference. We do not advocate violence nor are we asking others to do violence, the Guardian quoted Anwer as saying.
Cleric annoyed: According to the Guardian, clerics in Delhi have also been incensed that their creed has been termed an Indian version of Saudi Arabias Wahhabi school, seen as a hardline, revivalist form of Islam. Gods Terrorists, the book written by Charles Allen, a historian and one of the documentarys presenters, advances the theory that the hidden roots of modern jihad and the Wahabi cult spring from the subcontinent, the paper said. However, this goes against the grain of contemporary thinking on the subject, the Guardian reported, and added that many accept the Deoband school as strict but essentially law-abiding.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/30/2007 00:00 ||
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Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) chief Maulana Fazalur Rehman is negotiating with the government to abolish the graduation condition for members of Parliament, Advocate Abdul Karim Kundi told the Supreme Court (SC) on Monday.
Kundi, who is counsel for MNA Mufti Ibrar Sultan, said the JUI chiefs negotiations were in the final stages and said he was hopeful that the graduation condition would be removed by the next elections.
Judgement reserved: A three-member bench of the SC, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry reserved its judgement in a case disputing the madrassa degrees of two Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal MNAs, Mufti Ibrar Sultan and Gul Muhammad Dumar, after completion of arguments. The court was hearing the petitions of the two MNAs after the election tribunal disqualified them from running.
Abdul Karim Kundi and Ibrahim Satti appeared on behalf of Mufti Ibrar and Gul Muhammad Dummar, respectively. They argued that the graduation condition was ultra-vires to the Constitution and should be abolished forthwith, as it violated the rights of over 150 million non-graduates of the country by declaring them ineligible to contest general elections. Kundi said it was likely that the condition would be abolished at the conclusion of ongoing Fazal-government negotiations.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/30/2007 00:00 ||
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Foreigners are responsible for creating a disturbance in Swat Valley but their names cannot be disclosed, said NWFP Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai on Monday. However, he denied that Taliban operatives from Waziristan were in Swat.
Talking to reporters after performing the groundbreaking ceremony of FATA House here, he said the Swat situation would be resolved before general elections and they would not be delayed. He said a military operation was the final option and the government was trying to resolve the Swat situation through a jirga.
Earlier, Orakzai called on Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz at Prime Ministers House to discuss the Swat situation. Aziz told the governor that the government was assisting the provincial government in maintaining peace in Swat through dialogue and consultation.
Orakzai also called on President General Pervez Musharraf, who requested the provincial governments help in maintaining security in the countrys Tribal Areas. According to Online, the president said security forces had launched an operation in Swat on the provincial governments request to help maintain law and order.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/30/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
The crux of the problem in Pakistan is the dreaded ISI which double plays the West......
Example from an atrticle i read today below....
Among the friendly Pakistani military generals and a few civilian leaders there is a group of popular serving and former military men, especially in the dreaded Inter Service Intelligence, who regard themselves as the saviors of Islam. They oppose secularism and do not wish Bhutto back. Apparently the United States forgot about this group, which publicly and privately opposes any U.S. involvement in Pakistani affairs, let alone allowing Bhutto to rule them. The elite Mohajir and political grouping of the Punjabi establishment also support this powerful group.
Hamid Gul and his cronies need dealing with!!!!
Posted by: Paul ||
10/30/2007 13:31 Comments ||
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This wouldn't have happened with Chirac in office. I highly recommend the hotair video of Sarko's interview with 60 minutes where he walks out. I wonder what Dominique's been doing lately after the Chirac led government, she was so pretty.
France and the US have dismissed a finding by the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog Mohammed ElBaradei that there is no evidence of Iran building a bomb.
French Defence Minister Herve Morin challenged Iran to allow UN inspectors unlimited access to sites. A White House spokeswoman said Iran was "enriching and reprocessing uranium, and the reason that one does that is to lead towards a nuclear weapon".
Mr ElBaradei said on Sunday that Tehran was years away from developing a bomb. Did I say years? I meant days. The UN translator must be on the fritz again.
#1
France and the US have dismissed a finding by the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog Mohammed ElBaradei that there is no evidence of Iran building a bomb.
#2
Not if but when iran sets off a bomb, in addition to the obvious military response by the US, I want that bastard elbaredei and the whole iaea sued into the stone age for corruption, incompetence, malpractice and conspiracy...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/30/2007 8:17 Comments ||
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#3
There has always been something surreal about having a muzzie as the head of the UN nuclear agency.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/30/2007 9:27 Comments ||
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#4
"the UN's nuclear watchdog Mohammed ElBaradei"
"...dog Mohammed..."
Do I hear seething anyone?
#7
Besides numerous Net reports on covert and overt Iranian purchases = acquisition of various miltechs, Baradei needs to remember that many Muslims, including but not limited to Radical Islamists-Xtremists, desire PARITY IFF NOT SUPERIORITY-DOMINANCE VV GLOBAL JUDAISM + GLOBAL CHRISTIANITY. As a class, they do not = will not accept Islam-Mohammedanism as being a contempor "low-end" or "also-ran", etc. branch of Divine/World Monotheism and Faith. WOT > among other thingys, is a WAR FOR [minima]PARITY/BALANCE AMONGST WORLD MONOTHEISM =
-ISMS, the "HUMAN FAMILY"!?
A letter home from a soldier in Iraq:
So far, it's been an effing boring deployment. [My wife] asked what I wanted for Christmas, and I said "Insurgents." I don't know that we've necessarily turned the corner out here, but they're definitely on their heels and reeling. With all due respect, may your deployment continue to be uneventful, at least in the friendly casualties department.
Posted by: Mike ||
10/30/2007 07:52 ||
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#1
Well, you're going to get your wish. But it will be Tallibunnies. I expect the deal will be to extract a few brigades back to USA or a Marine EF. Trade them laterally for another outfit or two to go to Afghanistan. NATO members outside of Canada and Britian are peaked out and why the hell would you count on the Dutch, Belgians, French and Germans to do anything that mean't killing people? So, you may not personally get your wish, but someone less bored will.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/30/2007 9:06 Comments ||
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#2
Well, if we go after Iran, he might get his wish in spades.
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
10/30/2007 12:59 Comments ||
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#7
We do NOT need to "go into Iran". What we need to do is to make Iran uninhabitable. We can do that with either conventional weapons or nukes. I'd prefer a mixture - use really DIRTY nukes on their nuke sites (except Bushehr), and level the rest of the country with conventional and non-nuclear unconventional weapons (fire bombs, Agent Orange, MOABs, 500-, 1000-, 2000-, and 5000-lb conventional weapons by the tens of thousands, napalm, willie-pete, 7.62mm mini-guns, 25mm, 30mm, and 37mm cannon, AMRAAMs, Hellfires, radar seeking missiles, FAM weapons, 125mm cannon shells, 155mm artillery, 76mm naval gunfire, GMLRS, GBUs, GBLUs, 6d nails, thumbtacks, and a kitchen sink or three). Once the country's been leveled, start dropping quick-drying cement and draw parking spots.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/30/2007 13:25 Comments ||
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#8
I have repeatedly read that the youth of Iran are very pro American and copy our styles and pattern their lives after us. We do not want to slaughter them, but to help them to free themselves from the Islamofacists. We should take out their air force, and nuke sites, and force their navy to surrender or sink. We should use our Iranians to infiltrate and organize rebel movements. Then make our move to replace their religion, and form a representative government.
#1
The effort to prevent a failure of the dam has been complicated by behind-the-scenes wrangling between Iraqi and U.S. officials over the severity of the problem and how much money should be allocated to fix it.
Have you tried reminding them of what happened when the "Palestinian" politicians decided what sort of shape their settling ponds were in after the UN warned them they were in dire need of repair?
#2
Mosul Iraq: The most dangerous dam in the world
Damn! The largest dam in Iraq is in serious danger of an imminent collapse that could unleash a 3 trillion-gallon wave of water..
[sayeth the Lord] A great flood in the land of two rivers will go forth and lo, Baptise....make em a offer they can't refuse. US Army Corps of Engineers concluded in September 2006, "If a small problem [at] Mosul Dam occurs, failure is likely." Insh'allah Almost immediately after the dam was completed in the early 1980s, engineers began injecting the dam with grout, a liquefied mixture of cement and other additives. More than 50,000 tons of material have been pumped into the dam since then in a continual effort to prevent the structure from collapsing.
LOL, Check the original Contract; Grout sub-section, clause 1. cost + plus + plus + plus Seepage from the dam funnels into a gushing stream of water that engineers monitor to determine the severity of the leakage. Twenty-four clanging machines churn 24 hours a day to pump grout deep into the dam's base. And sinkholes form periodically as the gypsum dissolves beneath the structure.
toad bukkake
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
10/30/2007 5:52 Comments ||
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#3
What kind of idiot would build a dam on gypsum ie a rock who dissolves in water?
#4
The Army Corps has recommended building a second dam downstream as a fail-safe measure, but Iraqi officials have rejected the proposal, arguing that it is unnecessary and too expensive.
Please keep in mind who will be blamed if the dam collapses. Hint: It won't be the dithering Iraqi politicians sleazebags.
#9
As I read this story, I am reminded of the 3rd harbor tunnel in Boston. 15 Million dollars to build; originally estimated at 2 Million at it's inception. A combination of State and Federal Tax dollars to pay for it.
Falling 3 ton ceilings, leaks, worries about a ship running into the top of tube under the harbor. Having to replace cement walls, grout up the wazoo to stop the leaks, icicles forming on the walls in winter, water coming up through the floor. Substandard concrete, cost overruns, lawsuits, mismanagement and as the final straw, increased tolls to use the damn thing and maintain it.
The guys in Iraq didn't by chance use the same contractors?
#12
Hey Delphi, Iraq, so that's where Whitey Bulger has been hiding all these years!!
Getting his skim off their construction too!!
Here's an extra credit problem for the readers....How much of the $15 million spent on the Ted Williams tunnel go to buy off the South Boston political mafia?
#14
Take the first step, if living in Mosul, move to higher ground, about 66 feet higher. This party has just begun, wouldn't want to miss the big finish.
#15
Thank you for catching my mistake. You are correct the cost was in the Billions with a Capital B.
According to Wikipedia: The Big Dig has been the most expensive highway project in the U.S.[1] Although the project was estimated at $2.8 billion in 1985 (in 1982 dollars), over $14.6 billion had been spent in federal and state tax dollars as of 2006. [2] The project has incurred criminal arrests, escalating costs, death, leaks, and charges of poor execution and use of substandard materials. The Massachusetts Attorney General is demanding contractors refund taxpayers $108 million for "shoddy work."
Not exactly one of the shining success in Boston.
However, on the other hand, "The Boston Red Sox" brought back some of the shine to replace the awful tarnish called the Big Dig. :-)
A few years back I was in Ireland with my wife. There is a village called Barna; just outside of Salt Hill in Galway. There was a pub called the 12 Pins. It has since been rebuilt has a combination hotel, bar and restaurant. But before the rebuild though, I went in for drinks with a neighbor. The following year, the FBI reported that Whitey was seen in Ireland. Guess where? The 12 Pins in Barna. It would have been interesting experience had he been at the same time as myself and he figured out where I was from.
#17
What kind of idiot would build a dam on gypsum ie a rock who dissolves in water?
It was built in the 1980's, which puts the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Saddam Hussein regime. And since it was a dictatorship, there's no blaming anyone else...
#18
"The Army Corps has recommended building a second dam downstream as a fail-safe measure, but Iraqi officials have rejected the proposal, arguing that it is unnecessary and too expensive."
This sounds just liek the US and its politicians.
Hmm, does this mean we really have won the war? Heh.
As for the Redsox, best team money can buy, and its paid off well the past few years (2 sweeps in 3 years in the series is a pretty good accomplishment). They've become the NY Yankees with all the bought talent minus Steinbrenner.
Too bad they are in the AL where they dont play real baseball (Damn the DH) all the season. It wouldn't hurt them, they showed that in Colorado.
Yeah the Big Dig was more than expected but then it took years to get the environmental review completed so engineering could finalize. Also, didn't it go through 28 designs for the Charles River bridge before all the pols, greenies and business people could agree? Not to correct you but the submerged tunnel itself is not where the ceiling tiles collapsed but on the I-90 connector tunnel.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/30/2007 13:15 Comments ||
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#20
The project has incurred criminal arrests, escalating costs, death, leaks, and charges of poor execution and use of substandard materials.
Are they talking about the Big Dig or the war in Iraq?
#21
Couple of questions:
Are US and coalition forces out of the potential spill way / flood plain?
What is the likelihood of the jihadis launching an IFD (Improvised floating device) and have it go bang when it hits the dam?
#22
I go through those damn tunnels once a week. Every Friday night the Ted has been closed for "work" which means that at mid-night there's a backup from the Sumner tunnel (old one) back into the airport. Arggghhhh!!!
Yes it was the connector that lost its ceiling.
Also it was definitely with a B.
A friend who was one of the project engineers on the connector told some interesting stories about pay-day in Southie.
#27
"The Ted was saved, but Mary Ann and the Oldsmobile are still missing."
Damn, #25 wx! I knew about Mary Jo - there was another one?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/30/2007 18:07 Comments ||
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#28
Oldmobile confusion with the S.S. Minnow
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/30/2007 18:18 Comments ||
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#29
So its not THREE GORGES??? "Seeping... into a gushing stream" > sniff, sniff, like NOAH and the Mediterranean. D *** NG IT, the "LITTLE DUTCH BOY" FINGER TRICK doesn't work wid this one!
#1
sounds like the kurds have already been fighting a clandestine war with the Iranians and the Turks, now, faced with the real threat of actual war, they've decided to bluster a bit and tuck tail and whine prior to getting their asses in a major sling with real militaries, not cowardly guerrilla armies.
Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class Joshua Chiarini works at the base medical clinic at the Naval Academy Preparatory School in Rhode Island. There, he treats students with head colds and sprained ankles. Its about as far from Iraqs Anbar province as you can get.
Chiarini joined the Navy seven years ago and estimates he has been in at least 20 gunfights. He has ridden in 30 convoys hit by roadside bombs and three suicide bombers. His squad has been fired on by insurgent snipers. He has treated more than 100 wounded Marines and has yet to lose one. So to Chiarini, what he did in February 2006 was not that different from what he did many other days in Iraq. But Marine officials thought differently.
On Oct. 22, Chiarini, a native of Coventry, R.I., received the nations third-highest award for combat valor in a statehouse ceremony attended by Rhode Islands Gov. Donald Carcieri, two U.S. senators and several state legislators.
On the morning of Feb. 10, 2006, Chiarini who was with Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines, 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit was riding shotgun in the third vehicle of a Marine patrol in Anbar when a roadside bomb detonated near the lead vehicle. That vehicle sped out of the kill zone, and four of its five occupants the gunner stayed in the turret to provide cover fire ran out to take up defensive positions. At that moment, a much larger explosion ripped into the dismounted Marines. An Iraqi interpreter, called Kenny by the Marines, had his arm nearly severed in the second blast. Then insurgents about 400 meters away pinned the Marines down with small-arms fire.
But Chiarini knew none of this. After the first explosion, the convoy had become separated, with the corpsman in one of two vehicles in the back half of the convoy. When his less experienced driver Chiarini was then on his second tour in Iraq balked at driving forward into the melee, Chiarini grabbed his rifle and medical kit and ran forward as insurgents fired at him from rooftops.
He just hesitated. I said, Screw it. I am going forward."
Dodging enemy fire, Chiarini ran 200 meters to the wounded Marines. One by one, he directed three of them to limp toward the armored Humvee, while he followed them, laying down covering fire. Then, with one hand, he carried the more seriously wounded interpreter to the rear, turning his body sideways at times to lay down cover fire.
When they reached the rear of the armored Humvee, Chiarini began treating their injuries. About five minutes later, a Marine quick-reaction force arrived from a nearby base. Once its corpsmen began treating the wounded, Chiarini grabbed his rifle again, killing several insurgents, including a 12-year-old boy who was spotted with a detonator.
All of the wounded Marines survived; a few weeks later, Chiarini ran into one of them, a corporal nicknamed Redhead, at a Camp Lejeune, N.C., pool hall. Earning the Silver Star was special, Chiarini said, but he got the most meaningful tribute he ever received for his work in Iraq not at the statehouse, but at 8 Ball Pizza more than a year ago.
Doc, I knew everything was going to be OK when I saw you come through the smoke, the Marine told him.
The chief Palestinian peace negotiator threatened on Tuesday that there would be no talks with Israel unless a deadline is set for establishing a Palestinian state the first indication the Palestinians could scuttle a U.S.-sponsored peace summit over the issue.
Palestinian officials have repeatedly said they want a detailed timeline for talks that are expected to begin in earnest after a U.S.-sponsored Mideast conference in November or December. But although Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has consistently resisted the notion of a deadline, they had never before made the matter a condition for talks. On Tuesday, lead negotiator Ahmed Qureia tightened the screws.
"The Israeli prime minister has stated that he will not accept a timetable, and we say we will not accept negotiations without a timetable," Qureia said at a news conference with the European Union's external affairs commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
He delivered the ultimatum as the two sides struggle to bridge yawning gaps ahead of the fall peace summit. It wasn't clear whether the Palestinians would really carry out the threat, or were trying to wrest concessions from Israel.
In the past, however, deadlines have been set and ignored.
No date has been set for the U.S.-sponsored summit, set to take place in Annapolis, Md., because the two sides remain so far apart on the starting point for talks. Israel wants a vague, joint statement of objectives. The Palestinians want a detailed outline that would address core issues that need to be resolved before peace can be achieved and a Palestinian state can be established.
These are final borders, sovereignty over disputed Jerusalem, and a solution for Palestinians who fled or were expelled from their homes in the war that followed Israel's creation in 1948.
Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have met several times in recent months to try to come up with a joint platform ahead of the meeting, and negotiating teams from both sides have recently entered the process.
At Tuesday's news conference, Qureia indicated the talks weren't going well. "We haven't gotten closer yet concerning the issues," he said. "We are talking in general about the issues that should be included in the document. (But) we haven't yet touched the core issues."
What the Palestinians want, he said, is "a clear and specific document, without vagueness, that lays the basic foundation for all final status issues. Without that, the conference will be hindered."
Qureia was one of the negotiators of the 1993 accord Israel and the Palestinians reached in the Norwegian capital of Oslo, which called for a final peace deal five years later. In 2007, the Palestinians are still waiting, and "we don't want to go for open-ended negotiations," he said Tuesday.
Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin said negotiations should be held behind closed doors, not through the media. "We're not at the ultimatum stage," Eisin said. "They agreed to work to go forward, and we are committed to going forward to a joint statement."
#3
I say give it to them, then the first time a pali fires a rocket or blows himself up in Israel, declare war, destroy them, kick everyone out and then annex the land.
#6
ABBAS > US-Palestinian Peace Treaty [post-Summit]should be signed within six months. ISRAELI OP-ED > ARE WE READY FOR "JEWISH PEOPLEHOOD". Going above and beyond.
Just about the only effective weapon the Paleos have is the population bomb. Some might suggest that peace and economic prosperity would bring birth rates down in Paleostine, just as it has elsewhere in the world. That ignores the essential character of the Paleos, particularly the Gazooks: children are trained from birth to be weapons and to glorify in being shaheeds. The more children you have, the more weapons you can donate to the cause. The Paleos aren't about to limit their population.
The field worker matches the villa at 5 El Balu'a Street with a building survey map, scribbles a number in blue crayon, and then offers a brief introduction to the homeowner on what the counting means. "I'm a representative of the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, and we're doing preliminary work for the census," says Raniah Haseebah, a youthful, bright-eyed statistician. "I'm giving you this questionnaire."
Palestinian survey-takers this month started going house to house for a tally that is likely to loom large over the renewed peace negotiations with Israel. But the credibility of the new census, which will also document the damage from the second Intifada in 2000, faces obstacles ranging from Israeli restrictions on pollsters' movements to charges of political meddling from the Israeli right to the skepticism of the respondents themselves.
Not to mention all the gun sex and feuds ...
In the decade since the inaugural Palestinian census of West Bank and Gaza residents, the politics of numbers has inspired support among Israelis to withdraw from most of the Palestinian territories. But since that last census, the trepidation among Israeli Jews to return the country to its narrow borders prior to the 1967 Six Day War has been trumped by fears of a "demographic problem": Israelis may one day wake up to find themselves a minority in control of a Palestinian Arab majority.
"At face value, a census is neutral, and it's in the interest of everyone to have it. But there are also political considerations," says Hebrew University demographer Sergio Della Pergola. "Demography plays a crucial role in the perception of the future and peace negotiations. The numbers count."
And the Paleos will gin the count every way they can ...
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) counted 2.6 million West Bankers and Gazans in 1997. Mr. Della Pergola expects the number to have grown to about 3.4 million. And even though Israel's population is 7.1 million, approximately one-fifth are Arab citizens and residents who identify as Palestinians. With a fertility rate that outstrips Jewish Israelis, Palestinians are expected to draw even in the not so distant future.
Still, the pressures of surviving the daily clashes and Israeli security limitations have spurred an exodus from the West Bank and Gaza a migration for which the current census is expected to offer the first definitive figures. "It's extremely important," says Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki. "The Intifada has seriously affected population figures. We don't know how many people left or how many people returned. No doubt this will be a major factor in the debate."
Paleo numbers in Mauritania must have jumped up ...
And yet, collecting the data means a number of practical hurdles for Palestinian census-takers. Though one statistics bureau official described the count as a "national project," others admit field workers have met reluctant participants in politically contested areas like the West Bank city of Hebron and East Jerusalem.
Mahmoud Jeradat, the executive director of a census operation that includes 5,500 workers and costs $8.6 million, says he was arrested in 1997 for trying to conduct the census in Jerusalem. This year, he can't get a permit to oversee the Gaza operation. "I don't want to stand here and claim that everything is going fine and everything is going perfectly," he says. "This is something professional and technical, but in this area of the world it's political."
In that area of the world everything is political ...
The survey is also shaping up as a test of the Palestinian Authority to prove to a constituency disillusioned by widespread chaos and Hamas's takeover of Gaza that the Ramallah government can function. And because the statistics bureau is seen as a function of Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, there's always a near-certainty risk that Hamas in Gaza could decide to interfere in the effort.
Statistics bureau officials say that questionnaires delivered today will be picked up and tallied in December, and published next year.
While the Palestinian statistics bureau has won praise from Israeli and international statisticians, the agency has been charged with voodoo demographics by a group linked with the Israeli right-wing. In an article published by Bar Ilan University entitled the "Million Person Gap," researchers argued that the Palestinian statistics bureau exaggerated its population figures for 2004 by 1.3 million. Della Pergola says the article's conclusions are not supported by the evidence and notes that the authors are not professional demographers.
Yet analysts say that, ultimately, Palestinian negotiators are unlikely to marshal the demographic trends as leverage in negotiations. Such arguments would imply that Palestinians would accept a unified state with Israelis a scenario rejected by the Palestinian national movement, says pollster Mr. Shikaki.
But many believe that in the absence of a peace treaty in the short term, the shifting demographic balance, coupled with a new uprising and a Palestinian political gridlock, could also render the two-state solution impossible. If the results of the census show a rapidly expanding Palestinian population, Palestinians may rally behind a shared, binational state in which they would have the majority.
The Israelis will never allow a 'binational state', precisely because it would be suicide for them -- nationally and individually. The binational state idea is a Trojan horse designed to sell 'peace' to the gullible Left so that the Paleos can stage a 'legal' takeover. A two-state solution is one way to settle the problem; the other is continued war and expulsion of the Paleos to places like Jordan and Mauritania.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/30/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I favour a binational solution with a Palestinains state in Iran.
#3
As argued or said long ago, any new Paleo/Pals. State has to be a REGIONAL, MULTI-POLAR solution becuz Israel cannot be the only one to economically suppor said new Paleo state. The PA's real prob is notsomuch the Israelis but in convincing their MUSLIM NEIGHBORS TO DE FACTO SUPPOR A NEW PALEO STATE.
One of Asia's most notorious warlords, Khun Sa, has died in the Burmese city of Rangoon.
He had reportedly been suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure. After almost 30 years of guerrilla warfare against the Burmese government, largely funded by his drugs empire, Khun Sa signed a peace deal in 1996. He then retired to Rangoon, where he lived under the protection of the military rulers, despite the US offering $2m (£1m) for his capture.
He was once one of the world's most wanted men, with a vast drug-trafficking operation in the so-called Golden Triangle region, spanning the border of Thailand, Laos and Burma. With a private army numbering in the hundreds, he claimed to be fighting for independence for the Shan people - an ethnic minority group based mainly in Burma.
His critics say his claims to be a freedom fighter were a ruse designed to give legitimacy to his drugs empire. Relatives and former colleagues of Khun Sa, who was in his mid-seventies, said he had died within the past week. The cause of death is still unknown.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/30/2007 06:39 ||
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#1
Back in the 1980s, I saw a videotaped interview of Khun Sa made with Colonel "Bo" Gritz, with some explosive allegations in it (from the Wiki):
"In 1986, after a trip to Burma to interview drug kingpin Khun Sa regarding possible locations of U.S. POWs, Gritz returned from Burma with a videotaped interview of Khun Sa purporting to name several officials in the Reagan administration involved in narcotics trafficking in Southeast Asia. Among those named was Richard Armitage, who most recently served as Deputy Secretary of State during George W. Bush's first term as President. Gritz believed that those same officials were involved in a coverup of missing American POWs."
Actually, the last part was not correct, as Khun Sa denied knowledge of any US POWs in his enclave, but pointed the finger right at Armitage as a major leader of the international drug trade. The man who had *sent* Gritz there in the first place, as head of the new office of POW/MIA.
Khun Sa wanted Gritz to take a message back to D.C. that he was sick of the drug trade and wanted to transform his enclave into conventional agriculture with US assistance, to include farm equipment, fertilizer, pesticide and seed, but especially advisers to confirm that there was no more drugs being grown there. Khun Sa pointed out that this would cost only a fraction of the value of the drugs his enclave produced, and would slash world heroin production by a third to a half.
Gritz enthusiastically returned to D.C. to tell them of the offer, and told his story to the ardently anti-drug Senator Dennis DeConcini, who was amazed and told him that he would call President Reagan immediately with the news, then call Gritz right back. He didn't, and suddenly, Gritz became "personna non grata" in D.C. Nobody would talk to him.
Gritz, not being a complete dummy, got out of town in a hurry. Shortly thereafter, the US State Department demanded that the government of Burma attack Khun Sa's enclave with its army and take him out. Soon the Burmese newspapers were full of stories about a massive attack against the enclave by the Burmese army. But it was a lie. They didn't do squat, just put fake stories in the newspapers.
Eventually Gritz returned to the enclave to find that a new, two lane highway had been built through the dense jungle, which was now being used to haul drugs in Thai military trucks from the enclave to Thailand.
After that, Gritz made it his personal campaign to get Armitage, which Armitage was able to avoid until he finally retired, by jumping agencies as soon as a particular investigation was about to begin.
Gritz himself mentally lost it after a while, and has become something of a kook, an ignominious end to a brilliant unconventional Vietnam warrior.
A Muslim doctor, once linked to the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, is expected to draw strong support from Thailand's three southern provinces when he runs for a lower house seat at the forthcoming election.
Waemahadi Waedaoh, now a senator, will run for a lower house seat in Narathiwat, one of three predominantly Muslim provinces. Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani have also been at the centre of a bloody separatist conflict.
In 2003, Waemahadi was charged with three other Muslims over plans to bomb western embassies and tourist locations in Thailand. He was acquitted by the criminal court for lack of evidence in June 2005, after spending two years in a Bangkok prison. He is now the head of the Sajjanuphab group, which will run under the Puea Pandin party banner.
The senator told The Bangkok Post that he decided to run to offer an alternative for voters in the deep south. The doctor also expressed confidence that, if elected, Puea Pandin would be able to improve security and stability in the three provinces, where more than 2,600 have been killed since January 2004. We believe that they will be able to effectively deal with the problems in the deep south, especially the violence," he said.
Waemahadi won Narathiwats senatorial race in April 2006, after receiving 97,514 ballots out of the 294,609 polled. The candidate who won the second senate seat, a Muslim woman, received only 30,096 votes. Soon after being elected, the former general practitioner told the media that ''I want to represent the people to fight for justice.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
An Afghan tribal leader is in talks to defect from the Taliban and take thousands of armed tribesmen with him to fight alongside British forces in southern Afghanistan. The Daily Telegraph has learned that the Afghan government hopes to seal the deal this week with 
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Monday it had confirmed that a man convicted over the al Qaeda bombing of the U.S. Navy ship Cole in 2000 was still in prison in Yemen despite reports of his release. 
Chancellor Angela Merkel has joined a growing movement to criminalize forced marriages in Germany, which is growing less tolerant of practices among Muslim immigrants that clash with the nation's liberal social values. 
Foreigners are responsible for creating a disturbance in Swat Valley but their names cannot be disclosed, said NWFP Governor Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai on Monday. However, he denied that Taliban operatives from Waziristan were in Swat. 
