(SomaliNet) Somalis interim president on Thursday appointed former Somali Red Crescent officer Nor Hassan Hussein 'Nor Adde' as the new prime minister for Somalia as rally over welcoming the new premier staged in the countrys major cities. Mr. Hassan, former police colonel was appointed after long discussion in which the president had with Hawiye, the dominant clan in southern Somalia. The new premier came into the office three weeks after his predecessor Ali Gedi resigned from the post following political pressure.
I declare Mr. Nor Hassan Hussein as the new premier for the transitional federal government and I am emphasizing him to do the job fairly, said president Yusuf while speaking in a ceremony held in Somalias northwest city of Baidoa. I promise to do my job with the respect the federal constitution and I am asking for Somalis, the government institutions and the international community especially those involved in Somalia affairs to show support in solving the countrys problem, said Hassan speaking at the occastion .
The new man which came in the office is expected to come up with more flexible policy in leading the government.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/23/2007 01:14 ||
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#1
The British used to be renowned as biographers and historians. Pity that a bunch of these guys aren't interviewed about the war for publication in Britain. The MoD would probably frown on it at first, but it would do much to dispel the web of lies the British MSM has created.
By Thomas Harding, Lucy Cockcroft and Brendan Carlin
Last Updated: 2:37am GMT 23/11/2007
Injured soldiers who lost their limbs fighting for their country have been driven from a swimming pool training session by jeering members of the public.
The men, injured during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, were taking part in a rehabilitation session at a leisure centre, when two women demanded they be removed from the pool. They claimed that the soldiers "hadn't paid" and might scare the children.
The incident has sparked widespread condemnation. Adml Lord Boyce, a former head of the Armed Forces, said last night the women should be "named and shamed".
"These people are beneath contempt and everything should be done to get their names and publish them in the press," he said. "It is contemptible that people who have given up their limbs for their country should be so abused when they are trying to get fit again."
It comes after calls for the public to do more to welcome home troops back from tours of duty and to recognise the bravery of those fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The unpleasant scenes broke out at Leatherhead Leisure Centre in Surrey when the wounded veterans, who are at Headley Court Military Hospital, had to use the 25-metre public pool because the hydro-pool at the defence rehabilitation centre is not big enough for swimming.
The servicemen were about to begin their weekly swimming therapy in closed-off lanes when they were verbally abused by the swimmers.
One woman in her 30s was said to be infuriated by the lane closures saying the soldiers did not deserve to be there when she had paid. So did they, you heartless skank.
It was also reported that others complained that limbless servicemen were scaring children at the centre.
The atmosphere was said to be so tense that the soldiers' instructors removed them.
Charles Murrin, 79, a Navy veteran who saw the incident, said: "The woman said the men do not deserve to be in there and that she pays to come in the pool and they don't. I spoke to the instructor in the changing room afterwards and he was livid."
It is not the first time that Headley Court neighbours have been accused of poor behaviour.
Interestingly, Surrey was the site of the Martian invaders' initial landing in H.G. Wells's original War of the Worlds and Leatherhead was one of the places they destroyed with their heat rays and poison gas.
/Just saying
There was uproar earlier this year after residents objected to planning permission to convert a home into a six-suite hostel for injured soldiers' families to stay in. The local council later approved the building work.
A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "We are disappointed that a small number of people objected to the closure of swimming lanes so that patients of Headley Court could use them."
The incident comes weeks after the Help For Heroes appeal was launched to raise £5 million to build a full-size pool and gym at the centre.
Labour will today aim to repair its battered reputation with the Armed Forces by offering all military veterans priority NHS treatment, The Daily Telegraph has learned.
The concession, ordered by the Health Secretary, Alan Johnson, will be available to the estimated 4.8 million ex-servicemen and women, sources said last night.
I wholeheartedly endorse Admiral Murrin's call for the vile creature's name to be published.
Posted by: Angique Gonque2974 ||
11/23/2007 07:48 ||
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#1
It was also reported that others complained that limbless servicemen were scaring children at the centre
Of course, it's always in the name of the Children[tm].
Societies and governments are organized for and by the adults. We value the children, but they can not be the final arbiters of civilization. Once again the infantilization of our society by the usual suspects.
#3
The men, injured during tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, were taking part in a rehabilitation session at a leisure centre, when two women demanded they be removed from the pool. They claimed that the soldiers "hadn't paid" and might scare the children.
The soldiers paid plenty to enable these idiots to enjoy freedoms. These "whiners" making the complaint should have been thrown out of the pool for being morons. Shouldn't be allowed to play in the gene pool.
#4
Normally, I am virulently opposed to all violence against women. In this case I'm willing to make an exception. This hag needs a beat down so severe that when it's over, only her hair doesn't hurt.
#5
The answer is simple. Close the pool -- possibly the building -- to all others when the soldiers arrive, reopen it to the public after they leave. And post on the doors, the phone message, and the web site that it is because of these named women that this was done. A single naming in a newspaper report isn't nearly enough for such vile behaviour, especially in such an upscale community as Surrey, where they only read the Guardian and the Times anyway. Let there long be clucking at dinner parties over the inconvenience these women have caused everyone else by saying such things.
Posted by: trailing wife in Buffalo for Thanksgiving ||
11/23/2007 10:51 Comments ||
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#7
Sadly, the flagship nation of what is left of the Old World Western Civilization, is going down the toilet at breakneck speed. Hardly a whimper left in them. Sad to see, really sad to watch the decline in my lifetime. A cautionary tail not even noted in the last best hope of mankind.... we are too absorded in finding out what the mopes did to Natalie Holloway!
#9
Ah, that is the UK! This escaped me when I read it at first; I must say this somehow surprized me, because I thought this was in the USA, adn this clashed with the good welcomes made to soldiers in airplanes and the likes. Sadly, this doesn't really surprize me for the UK, and I'm not an anti-britons type, it's just there's been many examples already of the PC/societal decay in which that once-proud country is mirred into.
#10
We all need a strong social sanction, of the kind that used to exist in society.
What would the response from the public have been if when these women were whining, if another woman had left the crowd, walked up to them, and slapped them across the face until their noses bled?
Well, in Britain, who knows. But in America, in most of the country, the public would support it.
And this is important. We all should ask ourselves and others the question: If we are out in public, and some scumball starts not only ranting against our soldiers, but tries to oppress them, individually or collectively, what should we do?
Now soldiers are disciplined. Very few will DO anything if they are spit on by some worthless hunk of shit. There is a strong feeling among most of them, that to beat the snot of the dirtbag would somehow dishonor the uniform.
Which means it is up to us, the public, to do it on their behalf. This is because it is OUR fight, too. The creep isn't attacking the soldier as a person. They are attacking their uniform, as a symbol of our nation. No different at all than burning a US flag in contempt and hatred.
It is open season on such people.
In their puny little minds, were the soldier to fight back, then they, the creep, could play victim, and pretend that the soldier represents "the government oppressing the people."
But if someone in the crowd, a civilian, beats him until he bleeds, it is the social sanction. It is the public telling the shitbird that he is wrong. That he is the oppressor, and that they, the public, won't stand for it.
That the public supports the uniform, and the people who wears them. And the turdball can go to hell.
And any time, and any place in the future, when the worthless hunk of stool does it again, he can expect more of the same, from "WE, the people".
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
11/23/2007 13:13 Comments ||
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#12
I have an idea that will both help America and allow the oh-so-precious Brits to cleanse themselves of the undesired presence of military personnel. Some of our smarter presidential candidates are talking about a long overdue expansion of the armed forces, especially the Army and Marine Corps. We can add to the available manpower pool by granting immediate Green Card eligibility to any serving or recently-discharged British military personnel, quotas depending on our forces' manpower needs (I imagine higher numbers for ex-Army or Royal Marines, lower for RAF/RN types). Serve a hitch in our Armed Forces, get front-of-the-line eligibility for US Citizenship and the sincere thanks of a grateful adoptive nation.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
11/23/2007 16:44 Comments ||
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#13
Now soldiers are disciplined. Very few will DO anything if they are spit on by some worthless hunk of shit. There is a strong feeling among most of them, that to beat the snot of the dirtbag would somehow dishonor the uniform.
Plus they probably would rather avoid having their careers end precipitously.
#14
This differs from bull-shit like Scott Beauchamp's tales in that the Telegraph gives specific data that are subject to verfication. It is also a reputable publication, not a lefty bullshit rag, and its intended audience is not composed of glue-sniffing trustafarians and Che-buttboys.
The Leatherhead rec center is a real place and some of the eyewitnesses are pushing hard to have the perps named in public.
If that smells like BS, it's because all that MSM bong water has corrupted your olfactory lobes.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has treated the armed services with "contempt" and "disinterest", a former chief of the defence staff has told a Lords debate.
Admiral Lord Boyce said the decision to give one person - Des Browne - the jobs of both defence and Scottish secretary was an "insult" at a time of war. Another former defence chief, General Lord Guthrie, said Mr Brown had been "unsympathetic" to the military.
The government said it was "absolutely committed" to the armed forces.
As much as any Labour/Socialist party can be.
Five former defence chiefs spoke during the Lords debate, during which there were calls to improve levels of military funding. Lord Boyce said of the decision to give Mr Browne a combined role: "It is seen as an insult by our sailors, our soldiers and our airmen on the front line. And I know because I have reason to speak to them a lot. And it is certainly a demonstration of the disinterest and some might say contempt that the prime minister and his government has for our armed forces. And it shows an appalling lack of judgement at a time when our people are being killed and they are being maimed."
Lord Guthrie said: "In my experience... he [Gordon Brown] was a most unsympathetic chancellor of the exchequer as far as defence was concerned - and the only senior Cabinet minister who avoided coming to the Ministry of Defence to be briefed by our staff on our problems." He added: "And I think really that he must take much of the blame for the very serious situation we find the services in today."
#1
No surprise here. Brown has always been an enigma of British politics. Just ask Blair. He is very shallow and it will begin to show in the next by elections.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
11/23/2007 6:59 Comments ||
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COPENHAGEN (AFP) - - A Copenhagen court on Friday sentenced two suspected Islamist militants to 11 years in prison and a third to a four-year jail term for planning terrorist bombings in Denmark.
The men were found guilty of acquiring chemicals and laboratory instruments to make triacetone triperoxide (TATP) explosives, often used by Islamist suicide bombers.
TATP devices were used in the July 2005 London bombings.
Mohammad Zaher, a 34-year-old Dane of Paleostinian origin, and Ahmed Khaldhahi, a 22-year-old Iraqi Kurd, were sentenced to 11 years each, while Abdallah Andersen, a 32-year-old Dane who converted to Islam, received a four-year sentence. Nothing sez danish like "abdullah andersen"... We sure live in multiculral times, at least in the West, I don't know of many saudis named Christen Sørensen Suleiman Al Ghamdi...
The three had risked life in prison.
A fourth man on trial, a 19-year-old Dane named Riad Anwar Daabas, was acquitted.
"There is every indication that the group had concrete and serious discussions about three possible targets in Copenhagen: the city hall square, the parliament and political meeting (areas)," prosecutor Charlotte Alsing Juul said Friday, insisting the plans "endangered state security."
She had called for the men to be sentenced to between 10 and 14 years behind bars.
The four men on trial, who frequented a mosque known for its radical interpretations of Islam, were part of a group of nine arrested in a September 2006 swoop in Odense in central Denmark.
Six of them were released, including Daabas, while the three others have been held in custody since then.
The Danish intelligence agency PET revealed in April that a Dane identified only as Lars had infiltrated the group to obtain information. PET had paid the man 84,000 kroner (11,750 euros, 16,700 dollars) for the information.
Lars, 33, who had converted to Islam and went by the name Youssouf, was a former municipal employee who wrote the intelligence agency an email in December 2005 stating that he had met radical Muslims at the Odense mosque.
The agency considered him credible and he was hired as an informant and equipped with hidden microphones and recording materials, according to Lars's testimony.
The defence argued that Lars had encouraged the group to do and say things they would not normally have done, and said he had bought and paid for the chemicals used to make explosives.
Lars was considered an active member of the group, and helped identify potential targets, the defence lawyers said.
Judge Folmer Theilmann however said Thursday that the court considered Lars a "credible" witness and a "good citizen".
The trial was the second terrorism-related case held in Denmark.
In the first case, which wound up in February, a Copenhagen jury found four young suspected Islamists guilty of planning terrorist attacks in Denmark or Europe.
However, the judges overturned the decision and acquitted three of the four.
Justice Minister Lene Espersen, acting on the recommendation of Denmark's prosecutor general, meanwhile ordered one of the acquitted to appear in a retrial with a new judge and jury.
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands. The planned peaceful demonstration by the Dutch Nationalist People's Party (NVB) in Amsterdam-West has been scrapped.
The far-left Parool newspaper describes the NVB party as a group of 'rightwing-extremists'.
Dutch mayor Job Cohen who negotiated with the NVB about the venue, had wanted to limit their activities to a small square behind a train-station - but the group wanted to demonstrate specifically against the black-racist violence in the Sloterwijk neighbourhood itself.
A (black) Dutch policewoman was recently forced shoot a 22-year-old Maroccan Bilal B. after he had stabbed another female police officer to death and was attacking her next. That's interesting, I don't remember reading the two coppers were female, and that one was black. I wonder if this was a motivation for the choice of the attempted victims, see just below?
Clearly the Maroccan didn't like to see female police officers, or perhaps he was carrying out a terrorist attack against a Dutch policestation in an overwhelmingly Muslim-neighbourhood. (Good old apartheid hey?)
Whatever the underlying reasons for the man's murderous attack, the local Moroccans started torching cars in Sloterdijk and otherwise making a noisy nuisance of themselves, targetting the property of Dutch indigenous citizens.
Cohen told the NVB leadership that he 'feared even more violence from left-wing radicals' if the Dutch citizens were to hold their anti-violence demo in Muslim-dominated Slotervaart itself.
The NVB said 'we were not going to be fobbed off shouting into thin air from a little far-away square tucked away behind a railway station to demonstrate against this racist violence which Dutch citizens in Sloterwijk are being targetted with."
Their previous demo on the Suriname Square in Amsterdam West ended in 'a rowdy fistfight' according to the left-wing Parool newspaper during which at least three NVB-members were attacked and injured.
It is claimed that the Dutch police had been present ' in large numbers ' but left-extremists and Ajax-hooligans had somehow still managed to attack the Dutch patriots 'in large numbers', it is being reported.
Three of the NVB members were injured in this 'little left-wing fracas', the newspaper claims.
It's been reported elsewhere that Amsterdam's mayor was just awarded an honorary degree by a university in the city of Nijmegen. Source URL
#1
The far-left Parool newspaper describes the NVB party as a group of 'rightwing-extremists'.
Yes, of course, they are always attacking the police with knives like the Jihadists.
Dutch policestation in an overwhelmingly Muslim-neighbourhood
Ah yes, that neighborhood is no longer a part of the Netherlands, per the Muslims.
Cohen told the NVB leadership that he 'feared even more violence from left-wing radicals' if the Dutch citizens were to hold their anti-violence demo in Muslim-dominated Slotervaart itself.
You want to stand up to the bad guys, unless you are a coward.
It is claimed that the Dutch police had been present ' in large numbers ' but left-extremists and Ajax-hooligans had somehow still managed to attack the Dutch patriots 'in large numbers', it is being reported.
Another demonstration by the right wing under police protection saw the Jihadis attacking the demonstrators with crow bars and knives in the parking garage.
US historian and former congressman for Louisiana David Duke is touring Spain this week to promote his latest book, 'Jewish Supremacism. My Awakening on the Jewish Question', which has recently been translated into Spanish and released by Ojeda Publishers.
He's not a former member of Congress, he's a former member of the Louisiana State House of Representatives. Doesn't anyone fact-check anymore?
This former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, who founded the white supremacist group National Association for the Advancement of White People (NAAWP) in 1980, visited Valladolid on Monday and Zaragoza on Wednesday to give conferences organized by the Spanish far-right political and social movements National Alliance and National Democracy.
Speaking on Monday before a packed auditorium in Valladolid, Duke denied being a white supremacist, and spoke up in favor of freedom of speech. "No people or nation should oppress others. Every country has the right to be independent and to preserve its heritage" in areas such as art and cultural and artistic development, argued Duke.
The former Congressman also explained that when he speaks "of Jewish supremacism" he is not referring to all Jewish people. Instead, he insisted that his words only target "Jewish extremists and those who try to impose their supremacy."
Uh-huh, sure. Bigot.
Duke's arrival in Spain coincides with a growing debate on the rising presence of extremist far-right groups with a racist agenda in the country.
During his Valladolid lecture, Duke specified that he is not visiting Spain to speak up "against anybody in particular," and stressed that he simply aims to "remind people that Spain has the right to continue fighting to preserve its essence" and its identity, within the realms of human rights and freedoms. Nonetheless, he then warned that "Spain is suffering the greatest threat to its people's heritage and freedom since the Moorish invasion of 711."
On Monday Duke also spoke of the "crisis" Europe is going through due to the gradual destruction of its cultural heritage, and criticized the current Socialist government in Spain for its overly relaxed immigration policies. "Unless this massive immigration" stops, "all of the planet's identities" will be diluted in places like Spain, Europe and the United States, he said.
Posted by: lotp ||
11/23/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
"Doesn't anyone fact-check anymore?"
Just bloggers and Pajama News, lotp.
You expected it from the MSM? Silly you.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/23/2007 1:09 Comments ||
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#2
In 1968 Duke was photographed in a Nazi uniform. He changes rhetoric but not his sick ideology.
#4
This is really dangerous stuff. This is the offical meeting of the far right and the far left.
People used to say that when the "European Street" becomes inflamed, it will be really ugly. I just couldn't see it. But clearly this is the form and shape it will take. Mark my words this is going to get ugly at a very fast pace.
I suspect that the Muslim immigrants will be the first to become victims of this rising mob pogrom. Radical (and moderate) Muslims will quietly cheer these groups initially because of their anti-semetic rhetoric, but all of this zionist stuff is just the cloak that allows this left/right convergence to pass go and collect 200 angry, torch bearing Europeans. No, I'm not underplaying the threat to jewish Europeans which is self-evident. Everyone will get burned if this fire isn't put down.
#6
Btw, my reading of the evolution of the rightwing here in France, at least from what's I've seen online, since I'm definitively a customer for their websites, is a "leftization" of the discourse, anti-US, anti-imperialist (pépé le pen decries the upcoming french "surge" in afghanistan, is favorable to iran getting the Bomb,...), anti-capitalist, true to that to a continuing "red-brown" line since WWII, the most evident example being the Front National's new orientation.
And while there was already a definite antisemite side to the french white nationalists, I'm reading more and more comments, posts, etc, etc,... about the joooooooooos, about sarko (whom I clearly don't like, but not for THAT) who is of course a joooooooooo (while I'm pretty sure he's a nominal catholic), a stooge of the international jooooooory, etc, etc.
In fact, the tendancy (that probably existed mostly online, to be frank) that was pro-US, pro-Israeli, anti-islam, has disappeared, and now, you've got pure old-school euro-antisemites, USA-haters like hervé ryssen that have become local internet beacons, the free-markets & pro-US show hosts of the only conservative french radio who have been evicted after a putsch, a converging of the tiny national-bolsheviks, national-revolutionaries, and far-leftist groups,...
This p*sses me off, because this is stoopid, and suicidal, what we need here is a REAL right, to break off with the "french model", not some "gaucho-lepenisme" which is actually in full continuation of it, and drags along all the two-bits losers of the ideological war.
#9
Just remember that the Nazis were actually the National Socialist party of Germany. The extremes are more representative of each other than the centers.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
11/23/2007 7:02 Comments ||
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#10
Just remember that the Nazis were actually the National Socialist party of Germany.
#11
a5089, I share your concern about the Right's antisemiticism. It's almost like ' we don't have the energy to fight the new real threat, so we will fight the old phoney threat, i.e. the Jews'.
As Lubos Motl pointed out recently, Jews dominated physics in the 20th century and the science of physics shaped the 20th century in ways unimaginable to our grandparents. In a very real sense, we owe our modern world to the Jews who and whose decendants died in Hitler's holocaust. And the tradegy isn't that 6 million Jews died, it's that 6 million people and their decendants, lost to us, would have changed the world further and in ways we can't imagine, because Hitler deprived us of that future.
#12
Apparently attendance for this event held the same week was very good this year because of immigrations concerns and Zappy planning to rewrite Spanish history more to his socialist liking. Nothing is ever settled in Europe, or any other third world area. I would not be surprised to see a Plantagenet Liberation Front emerge in England soon.
#15
NS, reminds me of a friend of mine, who was what I would now call a faux rightist, who sent postcards from Belfast talking about the Front for the Liberation of West Britain (FLOB). Special Branch arrived at his door in pretty short order. My point being, there are plenty of fanticist pretenders out there.
#17
People can describe Hitler as a "leftist" until they are blue in the face. This never explains why it was Germany's conservative parties - not its socialist parties - that put him into power.
Corporate interests might be described as "leftist", they certainly mitigate against personal freedom, but it is a stretch. Old patrician families and their aristocratic interests - including the land owning Church - supported Hitler and his ideological cousins in Spain and Italy; no gymnastics makes those people "leftists".
#18
For that matter, how's he different from US sec-State comparing "Plaestinian Struggle" to the USA civil rights struggle & Abbas to MLK?
No difference Troll, we hate Joooooooooooooooooos!
There feel better now?
Have a TrollHouse Cookie.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
11/23/2007 13:16 Comments ||
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#19
I like to compare Germany to Mexico in that regard.
For example, in Mexico, it could be a death sentence to be a communist. But at the same time they hosted Trotsky, were very friendly to Cuba, and were full of revolutionary rhetoric and art. Mexico was even ruled by the PRI, the Institutional Revolutionary Party.
In Germany, Munich was heavily dominated by the communists before the rise of the Nazis. And as with Mexico, Hitler in power had a love/hate relationship with communists.
The bottom line is that fascists always thought of themselves as "socialist-fascist"; which today we might call "socialism lite". Fascist economics didn't try to nationalize industry and run it, like the socialists, but to co-opt its purpose to supporting the state through "private-government partnerships". It saw individualism as a threat, as did the socialists; but Nazism was powerless against group action. They never suppressed any mob that protested them, once they were in power, only individuals.
Stalin's Soviet Union, at first, was of the same mind towards the Nazis. Stalin even thought of them as a buffer to capitalism and liberal democracy; an insulation of another oppressive authoritarian regime being preferable to dangerous liberty.
So yes, Hitler was a leftist. But not as left as those who embrace socialism. The only way he could have been a right winger or reactionary in Germany would have been if he was a monarchist.
Think of him as a "socialist-fascist", or "socialist lite."
#20
In 1930s Europe, Socialism was very fashionable and popular amoungst the moneyed classes. A lot like today in fact. The opposition to Socialism/Hitler, as today, came from the working and middle classes.
#21
#13 So, how's he different from Europe leading intellectuals talking about "neo-cons"?
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2007-11-23 07:49|| Front Page|| ||Comments Top
#14 For that matter, how's he different from US sec-State comparing "Plaestinian Struggle" to the USA civil rights struggle & Abbas to MLK?
Posted by g(r)omgoru 2007-11-23 07:51
The more I think about these posts, the more I have to agree. Soft antisemitism and moral blindness pave the way for the fierce open haters of the far right and far left to gain ascendancy in public discourse.
Posted by: Ulomoque Protector of the Hatfields2940 ||
11/23/2007 22:32 Comments ||
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#22
Soft antisemitism and moral blindness pave the way for the fierce open haters of the far right and far left to gain ascendancy in public discourse. Well said.
Anonymous5089, thanks for the links, I'll enjoy reading later tonight.
#1
Here's a guy who was passed over, almost reprimanded and who couldn't carry Petraeus' jock strap. He is one of many General's who were given free reign but lacked the intellectual curiosity to do something outside of barracking and reacting. Now the Dems think he is the smartest guy in the room. Sorry, he had his chance and blew it.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
11/23/2007 7:04 Comments ||
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#2
Grant enters Richmond. George McClellen could not be reached for comment.
#3
Too bad about this fellow. He served faithfully for many years.
However, evidentally he didn't have the emotional and intellectual ability that was needed for the Iraq situation. His relationship with Bremer was toxic and that created many problems for the troops. His monitoring of his subordinates was incompetant which led to mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners (and video of such mistreatment).
The burgeoning Muslim population in Quebec is organizing itself to avoid "exaggerated" demands for special treatment and rein in "preachers of hate," the Bouchard-Taylor commission heard yesterday. "The Muslim community is large, but distinctions must be made," said Abdallah Annab, president of a Moroccan group, which represents many of the 1,500 Muslims in the Eastern Townships region of Quebec. His association prepared its brief with the Sunni Muslim association in Sherbrooke. "But we do suggest that there be limits to what (Muslim) preachers say. They should adapt to the reality here and understand the realities of Quebec society," Mr. Annab said. The commission is seeking ways to better integrate cultural and religious minorities into Quebec.
#1
He's just discovered that there's no support for radical islam in Quebec and that if they don't all shut up and ditch the radiacism they'll get their a@@es kicked. No support from the locals means no support from the pols. Remember the first rule of hockey: If you can't beat 'em in the alley then you can't beat 'em on the ice. Winter's here.
well, then, as our Canuckistan Sniper said: they'll eventually learn crosschecking and high-sticking without being on skates. I'd recommend a) a good dental plan, and b) a flight plan out with minimal belongings
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/23/2007 16:24 Comments ||
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#4
they'll eventually learn crosschecking and high-sticking
The only "stick" work Muslims know involves dynamite.
President General Pervez Musharraf sought to justify his emergency rule on Thursday, saying that foreign militants based in Pakistan were planning terrorist attacks around the world.
He said Pakistan had to get our own house in order and then show its efforts to the West. Foreigners are sitting here and are planning terrorism all over the world, he told participants of an interactive programme, Aiwan-e-Sadr Sey on PTV, reported AFP.
We have caught people who had maps of European countries and targets there. They (the West) are asking us to eliminate these people, said Musharraf. We are also concerned because these people are also carrying out suicide bombings inside Pakistan.
We have to put our own house into order and then talk to the West. They recognise our efforts, Musharraf said.
Gen Musharraf also asked the nation to support the countrys law enforcement agencies against extremists and terrorists for Pakistans safe and secure future, reported APP. He said the countrys armed forces were well equipped and fully prepared to protect the country, however it faced the greatest threat from internal extremists and terrorists.
The president said the government was spending billions of rupees on several development projects in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, adding that there was a need to allocate more funds to undo the neglect of past. He said the country did not want to engage in an arms race, adding that it would continue to maintain its minimum defence deterrence.
No martial law: He said there was no martial law in the country and the civil government was working smoothly and was in a transitionary phase towards complete civil rule. He said he had always believed in an independent media, adding that independence also comes with responsibility.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2007 12:31 ||
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#1
so,,, he finally admits Osama is in Pakistan... kind of sort of...
ARY One World resumed its broadcast at 7pm Thursday, after an 18-day blackout, said a statement issued Thursday. ARY One World, part of the ARY Digital-Free Zone, resumed its transmission from Dubai. Media Free Zone Executive Director Dr Amina Al Rustamani said that 9 channels of ARY Digital would be operational from there. ARY Digital Free Zone has a long-standing partnership with the Dubai Media City and their business interests are our priority, it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2007 12:00 ||
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Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed has failed to convince Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to boycott the general elections scheduled for January 8. Fazl prevailed over Qazi yet again at the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Supreme Council meeting here on Thursday.
Sources told Daily Times that despite Qazi taking a hardline during the meeting, Fazl remained adamant and the council decided to leave the decision of boycotting the elections to the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) platform. Fazl argued that the MMA should not opt for a boycott unilaterally, and that it would be premature to make any such decision at this point. The council decided to let candidates of the six-party alliance file their nominations independently, and decide on joint candidates later, if the MMA decides to contest the elections. The council directed intending candidates to obtain nomination papers from concerned returning officers concerned for national and provincial seats, and decided to field one candidate from each constituency on the basis of recommendations from the heads of the component parties. The council also decided that efforts would be made to generate consensus on a candidate from the national and provincial constituencies if the APDM agreed to contest rather than boycott the elections.
File for reserved seats by Nov 24, rest by 26: Each component party was asked to convene meetings of their parliamentary boards and file nomination papers for the reserved seats for women and minorities by November 24. The remaining nomination papers should be filed by November 26, they decided. The council also agreed that there was no time to bargain over seat-to-seat adjustments within the alliance component parties, and decided that this should be put on hold till after the filing of nomination papers. The heads of the MMA component parties also agreed they would retain the option of boycotting the elections if the other opposition parties decided the same.
They also decided to consult the Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz on the boycott option.
They decided that the MMA leadership would try to forge a grand alliance of opposition parties against the ruling regime, despite agreeing to file nomination papers. The sources said the APDM could call an all-parties conference likely to be chaired by Justice (r) Wajeehuddin because of his impartiality. They also said the MMA suggested that opposition parties should bring their joint candidates against the regimes candidates if the APDM decided to contest the elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2007 11:58 ||
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As many as 62 percent of people believe that the Pakistan Army should have no role in politics, compared with 55 percent in June, according to a nationwide public opinion survey conducted by a Pakistani organisation on behalf of the United States International Republican Institute (IRI).
The public standing of the Pakistan Army has declined although it still enjoys wide respect. The poll, which was conducted in the first week of September, shows that 70 percent of the respondents look favourably upon the army down from the standard 80 percent in previous surveys conducted in September 2006 and March and June 2007.
Judiciary enjoys more support: The media, with an approval rating of 80 percent, is now Pakistans most admired institution. The standing of the judiciary rose from 51 percent in March to 77 percent in September, the first time any institution rated more favourably than the army. That, however, was before the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) resulted in reshuffling of the superior courts.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2007 11:54 ||
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#1
The real question is whether they want to have the Taliban or al Qaeda involved in politics. My feeling is that you'll get a majority in both instances.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz President Shahbaz Sharif has denied any deal between his elder brother and former premier Nawaz Sharif and the Saudi authorities for the return of the Sharif family, reported Dawn News on Thursday. The private channel quoted Shahbaz as saying that important members of the Sharif family including himself and his elder brother were preparing to return to Pakistan and hoped a major development in that regard could happen possibly within 24 hours.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2007 11:49 ||
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Former premier Nawaz Sharif has secured an agreement with Saudi Arabia to let him return to Pakistan, PML President Chaudhry Shujaat said on Thursday. There is some deal with Saudi authorities for Nawaz to come back, said Shujaat. He told Dawn News that Nawaz would be back in Pakistan before the general elections despite President Musharrafs resistance. We are ready to face him and he has to face the people, Shujaat told Dawn News.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2007 11:49 ||
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The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is quite hopeful that former exiled prime minister Nawaz Sharif will return to Pakistan by the end of this month and will lead his party in the upcoming general elections, said PML-N Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal.
I talked to Nawaz yesterday and he was quite upbeat about his return within the next few days, Iqbal said, adding that Saudi authorities were exerting pressure on Pakistan for Nawazs return, especially after the return of former premier Benazir Bhutto. A final date for his arrival, however, could only be announced today (Friday) after his meeting with Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, Iqbal told Daily Times. He said Nawaz had left for Jeddah to hold a meeting with King Abdullah along with his son Hassan Nawaz and son-in-law Captain (r) Muhammad Safdar.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2007 11:47 ||
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More than a hundred protesters were arrested across Balochistan on Thursday as the province observed a complete shutter-down strike against the killing of Nawabzada Balach Marri, a Baloch nationalist leader.
Police rounded up around fifty protesters in Quetta, most of whom had come from Sariab, where Balochis are in a majority. Fifteen protesters were arrested in Gwadar, where the Balochistan National Party, National Party and the Baloch Students Organisation had called for a complete strike. Ten leaders of the National Party were detained in Panjgur district where police used tear gas and baton-charged the protesters. Dozens of protesters were arrested from other provincial districts including Khuzdar, Dalbandin, Turbat, Sibi, Panjgur, Mustung, Noshaki. Life came to a stand still in these districts while protests were largely peaceful.
A state of red alert has been declared in Quetta with 4,000 police personnel and the Frontier Corps (FC) deployed at different locations. Around 70 mobile teams will continue to patrol Quetta, the citys police chief Mohammad Akbar said.
In Quetta, a complete shutter down strike was observed in the Baloch-populated areas where protesters burnt two government vehicles and pelted stones at official buildings. Shops, banks and business centres remained closed. The city government had announced the closure of all educational institutes on Thursday.
However, life continued as usual in the rest of the city. Supporters of Balach Marri also blocked many roads, including the RCD and Mekran Highways for many hours. Meanwhile, three bomb blasts took place in Hub, Balochistans industrial town, and Sibi, suspending power supply to many parts of Hub township and damaging the local post office.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2007 11:44 ||
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Pakistan was ordered suspended from the Commonwealth Thursday "pending restoration of democracy and the rule of law" in the country. A key committee of the Commonwealth decidied that the situation in Pakistan, despite some improvement, "continued to represent a serious violation of the Commonwealth's political values." leaving it with no choice but to suspend the country. While it welcomed a promise by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to resign as head of the army and his decision to release detainees, it expressed concern over the continued detention of journalists, lawyers and human rights activists, as well as continued suspension of the constitution and the independence of the judiciary.
The 53-nation organization carried through with a threat to exclude Pakistan from its activities following a day-long meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, made up of nine Commonwealth members including Canada. "This decision was taken in sorrow, not in anger," said British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who added that he and his colleagues believe that "democracy and the rule of law are the best allies of security and stability in Pakistan."
Helena Geurgis, Canada's junior foreign minister, also welcomed the decision indicating it had been taken after a long and gruelling session. She said it was important to reinforce the Commonwealth's commitment to democracy. Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon said it had been "a difficult issue" to resolve, adding "maybe we exhausted ourselves talking about it."
Pakistan, the world's most unstable nuclear power,
nice phrasing
had pleaded for more time Thursday and argued that it was making progress toward restoring democracy. But as she entered a Commonwealth meeting earlier today, Ms. Guergis said Pakistan's time had run out.
"We will welcome them back with changed circumstances, insh'allah."
Posted by: lotp ||
11/23/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Does that mean Pakistanis can be deported from Commonwealth countries just on the grounds of being Pakistani? Work fast - the might get the suspension lifted!
Shiites in S. Iraq Rebuke Tehran
Petition Calls for U.N. Probe Into Iran's Influence, Sheiks Say
By Amit R. Paley and Sudarsan Raghavan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, November 22, 2007; Page A25
BAGHDAD, Nov. 21 -- More than 300,000 Shiite Muslims from southern Iraq have signed a petition condemning Iran for fomenting violence in Iraq, according to a group of sheiks leading the campaign.
"The Iranians, in fact, have taken over all of south Iraq," said a senior tribal leader from the south who spoke on condition of anonymity because he feared for his life. "Their influence is everywhere."
[the 300k number is almost certainly exaggerated and the groups supporting this petition range from the awful to the murky; nonetheless, everything has to start somewhere]
#1
It's pretty obvious that the US has been intensely wheeling and dealing with the Iranians behind the scenes. Except for Nutjob and his cabal, there are a lot of pragmatists at the higher levels, more than willing to make discreet deals.
Security Is Better, But Freedoms Are Tempered by Fear The wapo is the leftwing paper, isn't it?
By Sudarsan Raghavan
BAGHDAD, Nov. 22 -- Iraqis are returning to their homeland by the hundreds each day, by bus, car and plane, encouraged by weeks of decreased violence and increased security, or compelled by visa and residency restrictions in neighboring countries and the depletion of their savings.
Those returning make up only a tiny fraction of the 2.2 million Iraqis who have fled Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. But they represent the largest number of returnees since February 2006, when sectarian violence began to rise dramatically, speeding the exodus from Iraq.
Many find a Baghdad they no longer recognize, a city altered by blast walls and sectarian rifts. Under the improved security, Iraqis are gingerly testing how far their new liberties allow them to go. But they are also facing many barriers, geographical and psychological, hardened by violence and mistrust.
Days after she returned from Syria, 23-year-old Melal al-Zubaidi and a friend went to the market on a pleasant night to eat ice cream. It was a short walk, yet unthinkable only a month ago for a woman in the capital. Still, her parents were nervous, and Zubaidi wore a head scarf and an ankle-length skirt to avoid angering Islamic extremists.
The Zubaidis, a Shiite Muslim family, have yet to pass another boundary. When they fled Iraq five months ago, a Sunni family took over their large house in Dora, a sprawling neighborhood in southern Baghdad. When the Zubaidis returned this month, they were too scared to ask the new occupants to leave. So they rented a small apartment in Mashtal, a mostly Shiite district.
"Security is better," said Melal al-Zubaidi, who has a degree in engineering. "But we still have fear inside ourselves."
Over the past two months, the level of nearly every type of violence -- car bombings, assassinations, suicide attacks -- has dropped from earlier this year. The downturn is a result of a confluence of factors: This year, 30,000 U.S. military reinforcements were funneled into Baghdad and other areas. Sunni tribes and insurgents turned against the al-Qaeda in Iraq insurgent group and partnered with U.S. forces to patrol neighborhoods and towns. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, seeking to improve his movement's image, ordered his Mahdi Army militia to freeze operations.
U.N. refugee officials estimate that 45,000 Iraqis returned from Syria last month, while Iraqi officials say 1,000 are arriving each day.
The returnees find a capital that offers greater freedom of movement. Shops are open later in many neighborhoods, and curfews have been reduced.
But those freedoms still come with constraints. Weddings, accompanied by honking cars and lively bands, are reappearing on the streets, but they still end before darkness falls. Visits to relatives and friends across Baghdad are more possible but still hinge on which group or sect controls each neighborhood. Some stores are selling alcohol, but fundamentalists watch for those who breach their codes.
Luay Hashimi, 31, returned to his house in Dora with his wife and three young children last month after fleeing to Syria nine months ago. Since then, 11 other relatives who also had left for Syria -- Sunnis like him -- have come back, too.
Hashimi no longer sees bodies in the street when he opens his front door. Sunni extremists no longer man checkpoints to search his vehicle for alcohol or signs of collaboration with the government or the Americans. Roads are being paved, and municipal workers are sprucing up parks and traffic circles. His patch of Dora is now a fortress, surrounded by tall blast walls that separate entire blocks.
"It's totally secured," said Hashimi, who was an intelligence officer during the government of Saddam Hussein. But a few days ago, he drove across the main highway to another section of Dora. He felt a familiar fear. "You're lost there. You don't know who controls the area, Sunni or Shia, American soldiers or Iraqi security forces. It's still chaotic."
He never drives on side streets, afraid of the unknown. On a recent day, he wanted to visit a Shiite friend in Amil, a district controlled by the Mahdi Army, whom he had not seen in a year. But his friend advised him not to come. Hashimi felt relief. "I'm afraid to go to Shiite areas," he said.
Before Hashimi left Iraq, he used to pick up a friend every day from the mixed enclave of Bayaa and take him to the security firm where they both worked. But during his time in Syria, Shiite militias cleansed Bayaa of Sunnis. "It's impossible for me to go there now," he said.
So he spends most of his days in his once-mixed neighborhood, now a mostly Sunni area. A nearby tea shop is open until 10 p.m., but all other shops close by 7 p.m. Under Hussein, they used to be open past midnight. The walled-off streets have squeezed the pool of customers. Electricity, Hashimi said, is still scarce.
Kareem Sadi Haadi, a civil engineer, did not want to return to Baghdad. Nor did most of the Iraqis he knew in Syria. He and his family had escaped there five months after the U.S. invasion. But he ran out of money after two failed attempts to smuggle his family to Europe. Two weeks ago, they returned to Karrada, the mostly Shiite district where the family once lived.
Today, they live in a rented apartment with furniture given to them by relatives. Haadi said he is shocked by Baghdad's metamorphosis -- the checkpoints, road closings, traffic jams, razor wire on buildings, and the blast walls.
"Baghdad feels like a military base," said Haadi, 48, a Sunni. "Safety without these barriers is real safety."
Although he has been back in the capital for two weeks, he has not yet seen his sister who lives in the mainly Shiite neighborhood of Alam, controlled by the Mahdi Army. She warned him that any stranger would be killed.
"Security is when I can get in my car at 10 p.m. and drive to see my sister," Haadi said.
Four days ago, gunmen kidnapped a man outside the house of Haadi's in-laws, also in Karrada.
"We don't go outside Karrada," said his wife, Anwar Mahdi, 43. "Now I am afraid to go to my parents."
As soon as they can save enough money, Haadi said, they hope to go back to Damascus. That could prove difficult. Syria now allows only Iraqis with special visas to enter.
Melal al-Zubaidi is optimistic. When she fled to Syria, she was terrified to drive through Anbar province, where Sunni militants were pulling Shiites from buses and killing them. This time, the bus drove throughout the night.
"That comforted me," Zubaidi said. "I expect that security will improve day by day. People are tired of conflict."
Still, she has lines that she is not yet willing to cross. She has not visited her old university, fearing car bombs or kidnappings. In a nation where neighbors are often as close as relatives, Zubaidi is wary of trusting people in her community. "We're still afraid to meet new people," she said. "This district is still strange for me. . . . I don't want to take risks."
She wonders when, or if, her family will return to Dora. Their old neighbors, all Sunnis, had phoned her parents, urging them to return. But they also told them that they were scared to ask the Sunni family to vacate their house.
"People are saying Dora is better, but we're still afraid to go," Zubaidi said. "We don't know that family's background."
Her mother, who once ran a preschool in Dora, is worried over one of their former neighbors there. He encouraged them to leave their house because they were Shiites. And now he says he has a friend who wants to rent her preschool, now shuttered. He insists the area is too dangerous for the family to return.
"He is always terrifying us. He told us there's always a storm after the calm," said Um Melal, which means mother of Melal, who said she feared having her name published. "We are suspicious. We can't go back, although other Sunnis are telling us to come back, and saying, 'We'll protect you.' "
She said the improved security was not the only reason for returning to Iraq. She wanted to pick up her pension payments as well as winter clothes the family had stored away. Their Syrian residency permit has not expired.
"The situation is much better, but it still feels soft, unsteady," Um Melal said. "Until now, we have not made a final decision to go back or stay. We're waiting to see what happens.
"I expect Baghdad will come back sooner or later," she continued. "But that needs time. If you want to build a wall, it takes you 10 days. But if you want to demolish the wall, it takes you 10 minutes."
Hashimi is worried that the wall could easily crumble. He recently applied to join the Iraqi police. But he doesn't trust the Shiite-led government to integrate Sunnis into the political system, the police and army. And what if the American troops leave?
"Of course, if the political process is still the same, and the Americans withdraw from Dora, in a couple of days everything will collapse again." Quagmire!
Iraqi citizens are taking back their streets from extremists by taking security into their own hands.
The Iraqi Security Volunteer program, an Iraqi project funded by the government of Iraq, allows volunteers from local communities to protect their own neighborhoods.
The ISVs receive a three-day training program at Coalition Outpost War Eagle where they learn some basic vehicle checks and how to conduct themselves on the streets, as well as weapons training with an AK-47.
"When you have local citizens patrolling their own streets, they have a sincere interest in keeping it safe," said 1st Lt. John Suh, 2nd Battalion, 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment.
According to Suh, a native of Harrington Park, N.J., these volunteers are residents of the neighborhoods they have been tasked to provide security to, and that's precisely the advantage when hiring local residents.
"People are staying out longer at night and the stores are remaining open longer," he said. "Thanks to this program, people are feeling a sense of security."
According to Suh, the program overall has proven to be a success in Adhamiyah District.
"This is a short-term fix," said Suh. "The ultimate goal is to transition these ISVs into Iraqi Policemen. So, a few months down the road, we're trying to place them in the Iraqi Police Academy. In the end, this short-time initiative will create sustainable security solutions by transitioning them into IP."
For Asef Abd Hadi Mosa Al Jabori, an ISV in Shabatkar neighborhood, being in this program gives him the opportunity to serve his community and he enjoys it.
"Become a police officer in the future is something I've always wanted to do," he said.
According to Al Jabori, though ISVs have been successful providing security, they still need the help of Coalition Forces.
"We need them to stay here a little longer until our skills and knowledge match our present need for security," he said.
The once-dreaded Al Qaeda in Iraq stronghold of Amariyah has a new boss, and he's not shy about telling the story of the shootout that turned him into a local legend and helped change the tenor of the Iraq war. Earlier this year, Abul Abed, a disgruntled Sunni insurgent leader, began secret talks with the Americans about ending Al Qaeda's reign of terror in this run-down, formerly middle-class Baghdad neighborhood, renowned as one of the city's most dangerous. He had been gathering intelligence on the group for months.
One day in late May, he said, he decided it was time to act. He hailed the car carrying the feared leader of Al Qaeda in the neighborhood, a man known as the White Lion, on one of Amariyah's main streets. "We want you to stop destroying our neighborhood," he told the man.
"Do you know who you are talking to?" said the White Lion, getting out of his car. "I am Al Qaeda. I will destroy even your own houses!" He pulled out his pistol and shot at Abul Abed. The gun jammed. He reloaded and fired again. Again, the gun jammed.
By this time, Abul Abed said, he had pulled his own gun. He fired once, killing the White Lion. "I walked over to him, stepped on his hand and took his gun," Abul Abed, which is a nom de guerre, said at his new, pink-painted headquarters in a renovated school in Amariyah, as an American Army captain seated in the corner nodded his head in affirmation of the account. "And then the fight started."
It was the beginning of the end for Al Qaeda in Amariyah. The next day, a firefight erupted. Al Qaeda fighters closed in on Abul Abed. Most of the 150 men who had joined him fled. Holed up in a mosque with fewer than a dozen supporters, Abul Abed thought the end was near. "The blue carpet was soaked red with blood," he recalled. Then the imam of the mosque called in American help.
A friendship was born.
Now Abul Abed, a swaggering former major in the Iraqi army and reputedly a top leader in the influential Islamic Army insurgent group, reigns supreme in Amariyah -- with considerable help from the U.S. military. Still wearing the White Lion's pistol tucked into his belt, he commands his own 600-member paramilitary force, called the Knights of Mesopotamia. He receives $460,000 a month from the U.S. military to pay, arm and equip them. They wear crisp olive green uniforms with smart red and yellow badges bearing the Knights' horse-head logo. They are well-armed, and some have flak jackets.
But they don't really need them. Since the Knights drove Al Qaeda out of Amariyah after a two-month battle, the neighborhood has become largely safe. "You can move freely in Amariyah at any time of the day or night," Abul Abed said. "You can even see women without head scarves, wearing tight jeans!"
Men like Abul Abed have helped change the face of the war. Following in the footsteps of the late Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, the tribal leader who led the Sunni revolt that drove Al Qaeda from the base of its operations in Iraq's Anbar province, more than 70,000 people, most of them Sunnis, in 148 groups have joined in the so-called Awakening, or Sahwa, movement, according to the U.S. military, turning against Al Qaeda and turning to the Americans for help.
Since Abul Abed's fight in Amariyah, some of the most feared Baghdad neighborhoods, including Abu Ghraib, Fadhil, Ghazaliyah, Dora and Adhamiyah, have followed suit, forming their own brigades of Knights, welcoming the U.S. military and receiving U.S. money.
Abul Abed is coy about his insurgent connections. He gave his real name as Saad Erebi Ghaffouri al-Obaidi, though he is known across Baghdad as Abul Abed. U.S. officials, Amariyah residents and Sunni leaders say he was a prominent commander in the Islamic Army. He described himself as a former Iraqi army major who "went into business" after the regime fell. He won't say what business.
But he acknowledged that many of his men once fought Americans and now work closely with them. "They recognize that they made a big mistake," he said. "They realize that they were on the wrong path and that they wasted many chances with what they did."
The implications of creating this network of trained, armed paramilitaries loyal not to the government but to an assortment of local strongmen have yet to be played out. U.S. officials said they are relieved that the revolution within the Sunni community has helped to sharply reduce the number of attacks. According to the military, attacks in Iraq fell 55 percent between March and October.
The U.S. wants to absorb the Sunnis who have joined the Awakening movement into the Iraqi security forces, but so far the Shiite-led government has hesitated, concerned that they will one day turn against the government. If the government continues to frustrate the Sunnis, U.S. officials are concerned their new allies could go back to the insurgency.
Self-fulfilling prophecy there. Get them integrated into the security structure and get the economy moving smartly, and 90% of your problems go away.
"That's the big intangible that makes me nervous," said Col. Martin Stanton, who oversees the reconciliation and engagement effort. If there is no progress on getting the paramilitaries regular jobs with the security forces and delivering services to Sunni areas, Sunni frustrations will continue to mount, he said.
"The question is, what's the break point? ... How long before people start getting sick of it and start checking out?" he said.
Abul Abed said the Sunni revolution has gone too far for that. "Americans are our protectors and saviors," he said.
The real enemy of Iraq, he says, now is Iran. He pulled out his mobile phone to show pictures he has saved of the bodies of his four brothers, who were kidnapped and murdered in 2005 by what he suspects was a Shiite death squad with ties to Iran. One of them had a nail driven into his head. Another was missing a hand. "Even animals wouldn't do that," he said, his face darkening. "Iran is so deeply infiltrated in Iraq, the problem here still cannot be solved. Iran wants to demolish us. If the Americans leave, then you can count Iraq as a second Tehran."
Tell that to Harry and Nancy.
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11/23/2007 01:39 ||
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#1
He pulled out his pistol and shot at Abul Abed. The gun jammed. He reloaded and fired again. Again, the gun jammed.
Still wearing the White Lion's pistol tucked into his belt
Might want to get that thing checked by a gunsmith if you're going to carry it...it seems it failed its former owner at a crucial time...
Israelis support the upcoming Annapolis peace conference next week, but don't believe it will help bring an end to the conflict, a poll showed Friday.
Almost 70 percent of Israelis support holding the conference, but roughly the same number - 71 percent - believe it won't help move along the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, according to the poll conducted by the Dahaf Research Institute and published Friday in Yediot Ahronot.
Though Israelis tend to support negotiating with the Palestinians, they remain skeptical about the chances for peace and back relatively hard-line negotiating positions, the poll showed.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said the sides can reach a final peace agreement by the end of 2008, but 82 percent of Israelis don't believe that will be possible, the poll showed.
Asked if Israel should agree to dismantle most of its West Bank settlements - one of the key Palestinian demands - 55 percent said no. Two-thirds of respondents said Israel should not agree to compromise on control of Jerusalem, which is another central demand from the Palestinians who want the eastern part of the city as capital of a future state.
The US military has stepped up chartering of tankers and requests for extra fuel in the US Central Command area, which includes the Gulf, shipping and oil industry sources say.
A Gulf oil industry source said the charters suggested there would be high naval activity, possibly including a demonstration to Iran that the US Navy will protect the Strait of Hormuz oil shipping route during tensions over Teherans nuclear programme.
The US Navys Military Sealift Command (MSC) has tendered for four tankers in November to move at least one million barrels of jet and ship fuel between Gulf ports, from Asia to the Gulf and to the Diego Garcia base, tenders seen by Reuters show.
It usually tenders for one or two tankers a month to supply Gulf operations, which include missions in Iraq.
The MSC, asked for comment, confirmed the tenders and said there was nothing abnormal about current requirements in the Gulf, where it has a large military presence and which is home to the US Navys Fifth Fleet.
A fifth hire request was recently cancelled, it said.
Fuels specified to be moved between Gulf ports include JP5, high flashpoint jet fuel, used to power F18 fighters aboard aircraft carriers.
They have been very active, said a ship industry source, familiar with the MSC tender process, who asked not to be named.
Out of the multiple charter requirements they issue, they usually do maybe one or two (tankers) a month in the Gulf. They were quiet over the summer months, he said.
The US regularly carries out naval exercises in the region, moving aircraft carrier strike groups in and out of the Gulf to counter what it says are provocative military manoeuvres by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz and to reassure its Gulf allies.
Iran, which denies Western charges that its nuclear power programme aims to produce arms, has threatened to disrupt oil flows through the Strait if attacked.
According to US figures, oil flowing through the Strait, at the entrance to the Gulf along Irans coastline, accounts for roughly 40 percent of all globally traded oil supplies.
Only last week the navy conducted an exercise to counter potential mine-laying by an unnamed foe in Gulf waters. At the same time the Enterprise aircraft carrier strike group concluded a three-day exercise in anti-submarine warfare skills.
The source in the Gulf, with 50 years of experience in the oil industry, said the charters were indicative of extra US military requirements for fuels.
Bahrain, for example, has confirmed that there are additional volumes being requested by the US Defense Energy Support Center, including JP5, the Gulf source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
One of the largest commercial tanker hires is on a time-charter basis, the length of time a ship is sought, stipulating a period of 90 days to carry a range of fuels between locations in the Gulf and the Gulf of Oman.
The time charter, which begins in early December and allows for multiple journeys in Gulf waters, is to carry a minimum of 310,000 barrels of jet and marine fuel, some of it JP5.
Whats most interesting is the time-charter in the Gulf. Its a big ship and here we have a commitment for a lot of movement of fuels, backwards and forwards down to the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman, the Gulf source said.
This confirms there is going to be a lot of activity, possibly a serious demonstration to Iran that the military means to protect the Hormuz Strait, he said.
He pointed out that Saudi Arabia had already promised US forces long-term fuel supplies this year, known as term tenders.
In February, oil industry sources told Reuters Riyadh had raised the amount of jet fuel earmarked for the military from 1.5 million barrels last year to close to eight million in 2007.
Apart from the time charter, MSC has also tendered for commercial tankers to move 235,000 barrels of marine diesel from South Korea to Jebel Ali and Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates and 310,000 barrels of JA1 jet fuel from Bahrain to Mesaieed in Qatar. Both tankers are required in November.
A separate requirement is for a tanker to move 147,000 barrels of ship fuel from Singapore to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean, close to the Gulf and Arabian Sea.
MSC has ships stationed there, known as Maritime Prepositioning Squadron Two, used to support combat operations.
In the past the United States has used the British Indian Ocean territory for long-range bombing raids on Iraq and Afghanistan. Fuel movements have provided advance clues of US intentions.
MSC, the defense departments transport arm, supplies US forces with its own large fleet of ships, but significantly increases the use of merchant shipping to carry armour and fuels prior to a major exercise and during a war.
#2
Damn we ran outta jet fuel in the ME? Haliburton snapping it up and making money with it somehow. Coals to NewCastle? Sand to Saudi Arabia, kookery to Fleet Street? Wheels in wheels. The answer is in the crop circles.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
11/23/2007 13:21 Comments ||
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#3
thanks Rooters. Fuckwits. Ifn this is public info, it's because we wanted it known, I reckon...
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/23/2007 17:01 Comments ||
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#4
Listen to me...the US has a top secret 'option' that calls for closing the Straits should the Iranians use biological WMDs. Chemical weapons would have a high trade winds dispersal factor. Planning to shut down the Gulf while the 5th Fleet governs may include where the US feels the shipments would go once cleared to export. Super computers such as 'Deep Blue' has run the gambit of scenarios, and more US lives will be saved by it's shutdown than forcing it open, and the logistic analysts know this!
#5
God amighty SMN! Deep Blue? Don't talk about that you fool! IT'S A SEKRET!. Actually we will use Mega Force ID Ten T backed up by Martian Assault Team Bravo (illegal aliens, but hell, they fights like mad) landing from STOL/SST launched from the BB-62 Battlegroup. Really.
And MOABs lots and lots of MOABs.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
11/23/2007 18:07 Comments ||
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#6
The MSC, asked for comment, confirmed the tenders and said there was nothing abnormal about current requirements in the Gulf ...
#7
November is practically over. What I see as a most likely scenario is the US military taking advantage of some futures contracts to save some cash or making fuel purchases ahead of congressional shutoff of funds.
There is NO WAY the US is going to launch major operations in the face of a congressional shutoff of military funding but they might be purchasing fuel early in anticipation of such a shutoff of funding to ensure adequate supply.
They might also be taking delivery of fuel purchase contracts at prices settled on months ago to take advantage of any savings that might be available now vs taking delivery in forthcoming months at higher prices.
I would guess that the military has contengency contracts that they place all the time for fuel deliver that most of the time they have no need for and sell before expiration. They would be taking delivery of these contracts due to favorable prices when the contracts were purchased relative to now.
#8
Heh, or the US could be playing Iran's game against them. By buying up refined products in the region, the US is forcing prices higher. Iran imports refined fuel products. This would put an additional squeeze on Iran by making them pay even more for imported fuel products.
More than 18,000 feet above the mountains on Hawaii's biggest island, two B-2 stealth bombers drop six 2,000-pound inert bombs on a training range below.
It's a scene being repeated monthly as the Air Force's sleek, boomerang-shaped planes use Hawaii for target practice. The aim is to make sure pilots are trained and ready to act if needed. The bombers have been assigned to Guam to deter North Korea and to fill gaps in the regional U.S. military presence created by deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
"There are very few potential adversaries in the world that don't understand and respect what this bomber capability can bring," said Col. Timothy Saffold, deputy commander of the 613th Air and Space Operations Center in Hawaii.
The B-2 bomber, which costs about $1.2 billion, is designed so that it doesn't show up on radar, giving it a unique ability to penetrate an enemy's defenses and go after heavily defended targets. It became available for military operations in 1997.
The planes have been flying test runs over Hawaii and Alaska since the Pentagon began rotating bombers through Guam in 2004. But they only started dropping inert bombs on the Big Island's Pohakuloa Training Area last month.
In the past, pilots only simulated dropping weapons over the islands. Now, they can see whether the bombs they release land where they are supposed to.
The planes are equipped to drop "smart" bombs, or weapons guided to their targets by GPS technology. But they don't use it in the Hawaii drills.
Instead, the airmen rely on gravity and extensive data on wind speed and elevation to deliver their unarmed bombs to the right spot.
Maj. Brian Bogue, deputy chief of strategy plans at the 613th Air and Space Operations Center, said such methods are extremely accurate and that there is little chance any bombs would stray off the Pohakuloa range.
Planners intentionally pick targets in the center of the range, Bogue said, adding that two miles is the closest any of the bombs has come to the range boundary.
Furthermore, because none of the bombs contains explosives, there's no danger of one going off.
During a training mission to Hawaii this month, the bombers flew about 18 hours roundtrip. Ohio Air National Guard tankers refueled the planes in midair twice along the way.
During the last refueling session before the bombers headed back to Guam, a B-2 traveling about 400 mph gently eased up to a KC-135 tanker 26,500 feet above the Pacific Ocean.
When the bomber was just 20 feet away, the tanker attached its boom to the B-2 and sent 35,000 gallons of gas into the bomber's tank.
On the way back from Pohakuloa, the bombers launched a simulated attack on Pearl Harbor to practice targeting naval assets. Part of their mission was to use their stealth capabilities to sneak past their make-believe adversary's radar and take out its defenses.
"This particular mission covers the full spectrum of what we can do," said Maj. Tim Hale, one of the pilots in the exercise.
The B-2 bombers assigned to Guam also fly to Alaska for similar training exercises at the Yukon range. Their permanent home is Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, where all 21 of the Air Force's B-2 bombers are based.
The U.S. military started rotating bombers including B-1 and B-52 planes as well as the stealth variety to Guam in March 2004.
The move compensated for U.S. forces diverted to fight in the Middle East. And it came as North Korea increasingly upped the ante in the standoff over its development of nuclear weapons.
In April 2003, North Korea told the U.S. it had nuclear weapons and might test them, export them or use them. Several months later it declared it reprocessed 8,000 spent fuel rods from a nuclear reactor. Such a move, if true, would yield enough plutonium for at least one nuclear bomb, experts say.
Bruce Bechtol, a professor at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College in Quantico, Va., said North Korea refers to the Guam bomber deployments in its propaganda, indicating it felt their presence.
Pyongyang realizes the U.S. would use the planes to respond if the North attacked South Korea, said Bechtol, an expert on air power on the Korean peninsula. It is also well aware of planes and forces the U.S. has amassed in Japan that could be used against it, he said.
"This all affects how North Korea looks at their foreign policy, how they look at the type of behavior they may engage in with their neighbor," Bechtol said. You have to practice not using GPS if your GPS has been jammed.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
11/23/2007 13:26 Comments ||
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#2
While all of this is going down; I suppose someone is keeping an eye on the Ruskies skirting the perimeters and snooping on B2 manuevers, emanations and communications?? Not all info can be gleaned from Bear satellites!
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - President Emile Lahoud said Friday that Lebanon is in a "state of emergency" and ordered the army to take over security powers, hours before he was stepping down without a successor and leaving the divided country in a political vacuum. The government rejected the move, raising tensions.
Lahoud's announcement immediately raised further confusion amid Lebanon's political turmoil, which many fear could explode into violence between supporters of the government and the opposition.
The president cannot declare a state of emergency without approval from the government, but Lahoud's spokesman said the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora is considered unconstitutional.
"The president of the republic declares that because a state of emergency exists all over the land as of Nov. 24, 2007, the army is instructed to preserve security all over the Lebanese territory and places all the armed forces at its disposal," presidential spokesman Rafik Shalala said.
The statement instructed the army "to submit the measures it takes to the Cabinet once there is one that is constitutional," he said.
Saniora's government, which has been meeting in Beirut as the announcement was made at the presidential palace in suburban Baabda, rejected the announcement.
"It has no value and is unconstitutional and consequently it is considered as if it was not issued," said a government spokesman, who asked not to be identified because an official announcement has not yet been made by the prime minister.
The spokesman said the constitution stipulates that the Cabinetnot the presidenthas the authority to declare a state or emergency and to give the army the authority to take over security.
"Any decision not issued by the Cabinet has no constitutional value," the spokesman told The Associated Press.
Last-minute efforts by French President Nicolas Sarkozy to try to break presidential elections deadlock failed as MP Saad Hariri fell short of convincing Michel Aoun to agree on a consensus candidate just one day before the election deadline.
After Sarkozy telephoned Syrian President Bashar Assad on Tuesday to push him to adhere to pledges Syria has given to France over facilitation of the elections within the constitutional framework, the French president telephoned Aoun and Hariri late Wednesday to urge them to exert efforts that would salvage Lebanon of the impasse.
Sarkozy's call also came after Assad informed the French president that Damascus has "done its job" with its allies, particularly Hizbullah and the Amal Movement headed by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri.
Asaad had also notified Sarkozy that the dispute now revolves around one complex: Aoun -- and that Damascus has no influence over this issue. Right after Sarkozy's phone calls to Hariri and Aoun, the two men met at the residence of Deputy Parliament Speaker Farid Makari in Rabieh. A statement at the end of the talks said the two leaders pledged to "keep their meetings open."
According to local media, Hariri sought to convince Aoun of the importance of the "Syrian ploy" which says the complex issue is Aoun.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2007 13:34 ||
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Leaders of the March 14 majority alliance vowed to take part in a parliamentary session scheduled for Friday to elect a new president, and rejected a proposal by Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun allowing him to name an interim head of state.
A statement issued after a meeting of the alliance leaders at Beirut's Phoenecia Hotel noted that participation in electing a new head of state is in line with legislators' "constitutional duties."
Parliament, the statement noted, is the sole authority that elects a president, chooses premiers and grants governments votes of confidence allowing them to rule.
The March 14 forces would not be lured into proposals that urge the following of an unconstitutional path, the statement added in apparent rejection of Aoun's proposal.
The March 14 forces "reject any slicing of the president's six-year term in line with article 49 of the constitution," the statement stressed. The statement noted that the election of a new president puts an end to threats of vacuum and chaos.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2007 13:31 ||
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Free Patriotic Movement chief Michel Aoun proposed Thursday a "salvation solution" to the presidential crisis that allows him to name an interim president from outside the ranks of his parliamentary bloc and movement.
Aoun's six-point proposal also allows al-Moustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri to name a "consensus premier" from outside the ranks of his party who would be committed to the international tribunal.
The Aoun proposal includes the formation of an "entente and national unity government" where the majority would be represented by 55% of the ministers while the opposition gets a 45%-share.
Each of the majority and opposition would have the right to control two "sovereignty-related portfolios," according to the Aoun plan.
The proposed government's policy statement should include commitments to approve a new election law by which the county is the election constituency and to organize Parliamentary elections in line with the new law by no later than 2009, agreeing on a final settlement to the issue of displaced Lebanese citizens, reconsidering the by laws of the constitutional council and naming its members on a consensus base simultaneously with the formation of the government.
The Aoun plan also called for speeding up looking into appeals in the results of the 2005 parliamentary elections.
Christians and Muslims should hold equal shares in all top posts of the public sector, the plan stated.
Army Commander Gen. Michel Suleiman should maintain his post, it added.
However, if the Army Commander's post went vacant for any reason, the new president would have an "extraordinary authority" to name a successor, it noted.
The initiative goes into effect when the majority of parliamentary bloc leaders declare their acceptance of its terms, the text stated. Aoun said his proposal is valid until 10:00 pm Friday, two hours before President Emile Lahoud's term expires.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2007 13:30 ||
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#1
Sounds like there's only one person that needs to be taken out to end the electoral problems in Lebanon. If the Army won't do it, where's the CIA?v
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/23/2007 20:45 Comments ||
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Lebanon's opposition will boycott a parliament session to elect a new president on Friday with no deal among leaders on who will replace the pro-Syria incumbent, whose term ends the same day, a senior opposition source said. The anti-Syrian governing coalition said on Thursday it would go to the session to elect a replacement for President Emile Lahoud. But the boycott by the Damascus-backed opposition means there will be no two-thirds quorum for the vote.
Many fear Lahoud's departure from office with no deal on his successor could result in two rival administrations and violence in a country still rebuilding from its 1975-1990 civil war.
French-led efforts have failed to forge agreement between the governing coalition and the opposition, which includes the powerful Hezbollah. The election has already been postponed four times.
Lahoud has said he will take action before leaving office if there is no deal. Like the opposition, he says the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora is illegitimate.
Although he has not said what he plans to do, one option is asking the army to take over. "I stand by my position that this government is illegitimate and unconstitutional. If it thinks it can go on without the election because of outside backing, it will bring catastrophes on the country sooner or later," Lahoud told a Hezbollah-led delegation. "Therefore, even if I stand alone, there are duties I must perform."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2007 13:29 ||
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Lebanon again postponed an election to choose a new head of state by a midnight Friday deadline amid continuing deadlock between rival political factions and fears of a dangerous power vacuum.
The country's pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud plans to step down when his term expires at midnight, but is studying measures to ensure the country's security before he leaves, his spokesman said.
With tanks and troops on the streets of Beirut, lawmakers from the Western-backed majority and the Hezbollah-led opposition had been scheduled to convene at 1:00 pm (1100 GMT) in a last-ditch bid to pick a successor to Lahoud.
But the session was postponed, for a fifth time in two months.
"The session has been postponed until next Friday, November 30, to allow for more discussions and in order to reach an agreement," parliament speaker Nabih Berri said in a statement.
"We are for consensus and we will remain for consensus," majority leader Saad Hariri said. "We want to elect a president for six years."
The move threatens to plunge Lebanon -- suffering its worst crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war -- into further chaos.
According to Article 62 of the constitution, if no candidate is agreed by parliament to replace Lahoud, presidential powers pass to the government.
But Lahoud -- who has been head of state since 1998 -- has vowed not to hand executive power to the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, which he does not recognize. "The postponement pushed him to study measures that he has to adopt in order to protect the security and stability of the country and in order to protect the unity of Lebanon, its land, people and institutions," Lahoud's spokesman Rafiq Shalala said, without elaborating. "He will take his decision this evening before leaving the Baabda presidential palace at midnight."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/23/2007 13:25 ||
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TEHRAN (Rooters) - Iran is ready to defend itself if the West decides to attack it over Tehran's nuclear program, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards said on Friday.
"Resistance!"
Iran is in a row with the West over the Islamic state's disputed nuclear program. Western countries suspect Iran's nuclear program is a cover to build an atomic bomb but Tehran denies the charge, saying it only wants to generate electricity.
Washington has not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to resolve the standoff.
"Today, our enemies should know ... that if the Supreme Leader gives orders to foil the enemies' plots, the Iranian nation is ready to do that in any way necessary," Revolutionary Guards commander-in-chief Mohammad Ali Jafari said in remarks broadcast on state radio. "We're invicible!"
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is Iran's most powerful figure and has the last say on all state matters, including the nuclear issue.
The Revolutionary Guards are an ideologically driven force that has a separate command structure to the regular Iranian military, answering directly to Khamenei.
Guards commanders have previously said their forces could disrupt the vital oil shipping lanes of the Gulf waterway if pushed but have also said U.S. forces are too bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan to open a new front. "We're untouchable!"
Washington has added Iran's Revolutionary Guards along with more Iranian banks to a list of institutions under sanctions to isolate the country.
The United Nations Security Council has passed two sanctions resolutions against Tehran since December. Washington is now pushing for more U.N. measures but Russia and China have so far been reluctant. Quagmire!
Posted by: anonymous5089 ||
11/23/2007 07:01 ||
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#1
Iran regime know war is the only way to get their pro western population behind them!!!!
I hope we are seeing the last days of the Islamic government!!!!
Posted by: Paul ||
11/23/2007 9:32 Comments ||
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Posted by: Abu do you love ||
11/23/2007 17:28 Comments ||
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#4
I wish the US would use every ounce of available military power against Iran for 72 hours, and then listen to whatever iman survives whine and moan as they surrender. Use nukes where they're needed, and conventional weapons where they'll do the most good. Make sure Qom gets a BIG nuke.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/23/2007 20:47 Comments ||
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Visiting foreign ministers of the European Union (EU) Troika Bernard Kouchner - of France, Massimo D'Alema - of Italy, and Miguel Angel Moratinos - of Spain, said hereThursday evening they believed the Lebanese leaders needed more time to reach consensus on the new president. Wrapping up their visit to Lebanon, the three ministers urged the Lebanese leaders to pursue dialogue in order to break the deadlock as soon as possible. They hailed what they called "the new promising elements" in the initiative just declared by chairman of the Free Patriotic Movement and Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun.
Through his last-ditch effort, Aoun indicated the withdrawal of his own nomination for the post of president, Kouchner noted in a press briefing.
The Lebanese leaders can decide their future head of state and the European can only back their decision.
The EU tries to help Lebanon to be a free independent and sovereign country, Kouchner added. For his part, Moratinos urged the Lebanese leaders to pursue dialogue as a means of solving the stalemate. The Lebanese leaders must keep aware of the need to reach consensus and work together in this direction, the Spanish minister pointed out. Meanwhile, Massimo D'Alema downplayed the possibility of agreement on a new president during Friday meeting of the Lebanese parliament. He hailed Aoun's initiative, adding that the parliamentary majority took it seriously and were preparing their reply.
The visit of the Troika foreign ministers to Lebanon indicates the EU keenness on stability, independence and sovereignty of Lebanon, the Italian minister underscored. During their one-day stay here the three ministers met Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Al-Saniora, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Chairman of the Future Movement Saad Al-Hariri and Aoun. Incumbent President Emile Lahoud's term expires on Friday midnight but rival anti and pro-Syrian camps have failed so far to agree on a consensus candidate despite French-led mediation efforts.
Working from the Belgian model. We'll see.
Posted by: Seafarious ||
11/23/2007 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
By Thomas Harding, Lucy Cockcroft and Brendan Carlin
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has treated the armed services with "contempt" and "disinterest", a former chief of the defence staff has told a Lords debate. 
US historian and former congressman for Louisiana David Duke is touring Spain this week to promote his latest book, 'Jewish Supremacism. My Awakening on the Jewish Question', which has recently been translated into Spanish and released by Ojeda Publishers.
President General Pervez Musharraf sought to justify his emergency rule on Thursday, saying that foreign militants based in Pakistan were planning terrorist attacks around the world.
Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed has failed to convince Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman to boycott the general elections scheduled for January 8. Fazl prevailed over Qazi yet again at the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Supreme Council meeting here on Thursday.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is quite hopeful that former exiled prime minister Nawaz Sharif will return to Pakistan by the end of this month and will lead his party in the upcoming general elections, said PML-N Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal.
More than a hundred protesters were arrested across Balochistan on Thursday as the province observed a complete shutter-down strike against the killing of Nawabzada Balach Marri, a Baloch nationalist leader. 
Pakistan was ordered suspended from the Commonwealth Thursday "pending restoration of democracy and the rule of law" in the country. A key committee of the Commonwealth decidied that the situation in Pakistan, despite some improvement, "continued to represent a serious violation of the Commonwealth's political values." leaving it with no choice but to suspend the country. While it welcomed a promise by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to resign as head of the army and his decision to release detainees, it expressed concern over the continued detention of journalists, lawyers and human rights activists, as well as continued suspension of the constitution and the independence of the judiciary.
TEHRAN (Rooters) - Iran is ready to defend itself if the West decides to attack it over Tehran's nuclear program, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards said on Friday.
