THE governor of volatile Helmand province was removed from his post last night after a year of record opium production and insurgency-related violence in the province. Asadullah Wafa, who was appointed in December 2006 in hope that he would be able to stabilise the province, said president Hamid Karzai issued a decree on Friday releasing him from the post.
His removal leaves the country's key area in the battle against insurgents and narcotics without direct government representation, and comes after a series of confrontations between Wafa and British officials over counterinsurgency strategy and the crackdown on drug production. Wafa claimed that he wanted to be removed from his post and complained that he was dissatisfied with poppy eradication forces working in the province. His successor has not yet been announced. Wafa will continue as the ministerial adviser for tribal affairs.
Afghanistan last year produced 93 per cent of the world's opium, the main ingredient in heroin, and Helmand produced more than 50 per cent of the country's opium. More than 80 per cent of the province's farmers are involved in the opium trade. Helmand is where most of the 7,800 British soldiers in Afghanistan are based.
A FUGITIVE terror suspect has been flown to Scotland to face charges over setting a holiday jet ablaze. Safet Bukoshi, 34, spent last night in a high-security police cell in Paisley after being extradited from Ireland on Friday.
He will appear in court tomorrow charged with the late night attack on a plane at Glasgow Airport three years ago.
Major security concerns were raised after Albanian-born Bukoshi allegedly used a plank of wood to scale the perimeter fence before torching the twin-engine BMI Embraer 145 jet. Firefighters prevented a major explosion by controlling the blaze before it spread to the plane's fuel tanks Anti-terror experts were drafted in and incoming flights were diverted to Edinburgh as Glasgow's runways were closed for four hours. No one was injured in the fire, which happened at the international terminal.
The attacker used a plank as a makeshift ramp to get over the 10ft-high, barbed-wire fence just after 4am. Then he walked more than 500 metres past a number of parked aircraft to a BMI plane at Stand 31. His route would also have taken him directly in front of the airport security office. The intruder splashed petrol around the plane and set it alight before escaping back over the fence and fleeing in his car.
The makeshift ladder, which Bukoshi allegedly used to gain entry and escape, was recovered at the scene. Strathclyde Police obtained an arrest warrant for Bukoshi just weeks after the incident. They then worked to secure Bukoshi's extradition to face charges in Scotland. Officers liaised with Gardai bosses and the Irish Prison Service to have him flown into Glasgow.
Gardai officers detained Bukoshi at Dublin airport for one hour on Friday night before he was taken on to a flight by Strathclyde Police who arrested him on a European warrant. He is being held at Paisley's Mill Street police station from where he will be taken to the town's sheriff court tomorrow.
A Strathclyde Police spokesman confirmed last night: "Following an alleged incident in 2005, a 35-year-old man was arrested under warrant. He is expected to appear at Paisley Sheriff Court on Monday."
Posted by: Pappy ||
03/02/2008 12:33 ||
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#1
We could, oh I don't know, maybe splash some fuel around him and his plank and see what happens if we torch it.
Just out of a duty to investigate the impact of his actions, of course, and duly videotaped for the public record.
LONDON - Prince Harry, pulled out of a 10-week tour ofduty in Afghanistan for security reasons, wants a swift return to the frontline, he said an interview published Sunday, insisting he is not a hero.
You're a soldier. That's good enough for all of us.
But as the 23-year-old spent his first night on British soil since mid-December, the head of the British Army dealt his ambitions an immediate blow, saying he was unlikely to return to the fray in the near future.
The young prince said he was slightly disappointed about having to come home early, after a US website broke an embargo agreed between British media and the defence ministry not to publish his whereabouts for security reasons. And he said he was now waiting to hear from his superiors about his future role but was still keen to rejoin his regimental colleagues. As far as I see it, yeah, I would love to go back and Ive already mentioned it (to my commanding officer) that I want to go out very, very soon, he added.
But the Chief of the General Staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, said while Harrys ambitions and enthusiasm were understandable, he could not see that happening for at least 18 months. Hes just had a deployment, we wouldnt expect to send any young officer in the normal course of events who has just had albeit 10 weeks and that quite quickly for another tour, he said. So, actually the immediate prospect of Prince Harry going anywhere else is some way off in the future. It actually is hypothetical for the next 12 or 18 months whether he would or wouldnt deploy again.
In interviews soon after his return, Harry spoke matter-of-factly about his work calling in air strikes, patrolling and firing at insurgents in Helmand province, in southern Afghanistan. You do what you have to do, whats necessary to save your own guys. If you need to drop a bomb, worst case scenario then you will, but then thats just the way it is, he said. Its not nice to drop bombs... but to save lives thats what happens.
But he rejected the tag of hero, amid fulsome praise for his work from British political and military leaders and the media. I wouldnt say Im a hero at all. Im no more a hero than anyone else. If you think about it theres thousands and thousands of troops out there, he said.
Two unconscious, badly injured soldiers one of whom lost an arm and a leg to a landmine were on his plane home, he told reporters. Those are the heroes, he said.
He also said that during his time at an operating base just 500 metres (1,600 feet) from Taliban positions, he felt secure because there was no place safer to be than in the presence of Gurkhas. Everyone is really well looked after here by the Gurkhas, the food is fantastic goat curries, chicken curries ... its really good fun, he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2008 00:22 ||
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#1
How can you not like this guy?
Posted by: Ol Dirty American ||
03/02/2008 12:32 Comments ||
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#2
Think about his parents and how hard it is for fruit to fall far from the tree.
The death of Raul Reyes marks the first time a member of Farc's ruling body, the Secretariat, has been killed in combat during four decades of fighting. "This is the greatest blow to Farc to date," said Colombian Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos. He was flanked by smiling commanders of the security forces at a press conference describing the operation that led to the death of Reyes, whose real name was Luis Edgar Devia.
The operation to kill Reyes began in the early hours of Saturday morning when the Colombian army received confirmation from a spy that the guerrilla commander was in a hamlet called Santa Rosa just across the border in Ecuador. Planes were sent to bombard the camp, followed by troops in helicopters who recovered the bodies of Reyes and another 16 rebels.
Also among the dead was Guillermo Enrique Torres, alias Julian Conrado, a Farc commander known for his music, who had released several compilations of revolutionary ballads that he wrote and sang.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe spoke to his Ecuadorean counterpart Rafael Correa informing him of the action.
Final phase
The killing of Reyes has shattered the myth of invincibility that surrounded Farc's leadership. The group's founder and leader, Manuel Marulanda, whose real name is Pedro Marin, is now in his 70s. He has survived numerous attempts on his life and previous members of the Secretariat have all died of natural causes. "This heralds the final phase of the war," said retired General Harold Bedoya, a former head of the armed forces.
What the operation shows is that the intelligence wing of Colombia's security forces has managed to penetrate even the close circles of Secretariat members.
Communication intercepts
The government has set up a network of informants, runs reinsertion packages for deserting rebels and offers handsome rewards for information. In the past few days, almost $900,000 was paid for the capture of a Farc commander with 35 years of service. All this is combined with technology and communication intercepts provided by Washington.
Roman Ortiz, an analyst with the Bogota think tank Ideas for Peace Foundation, believes this is a blow Farc will have difficulty recovering from. "This is a definitive blow to the guerrillas and one which will seriously affect their cohesion as an organisation," he said.
The death of Reyes will hurt Farc diplomatically as he was the head of the International Front, the part of the guerrilla movement dedicated to developing foreign contacts and links with like-minded organisations. During the failed peace process with former president Andres Pastrana which ran from 1998-2002, Reyes headed Farc's negotiating team, based in Los Pozos, a dusty hamlet in the 42,000 sq km safe haven that the government granted to the guerrillas as the venue for talks.
Cold War rhetoric
A squat figure, Reyes was held both in affection and a little awe by the rank and file guerrillas. He was the public face of Farc, baffling both national and international journalists with a discourse straight out of the Cold War, by then just a memory. During the innumerable interviews I had with him he never deviated from the party line, was unfailingly polite and unswervingly orthodox in his Marxist Leninism.
Reyes also played a pivotal role in the issue of hostage releases. It was he that met with Colombian senator Peidad Cordoba, who has been working with President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, securing the release of six of the 40-odd political hostages in Farc hands.
The guerrillas want to exchange the remainder of their prisoners for hundreds of rebels in Colombian jails. Farc has said it will not release any more hostages until the government grants it a demilitarised zone to negotiate, something President Uribe has ruled out.
While unprecedented in its scale, this is not the first time a Farc commander has been killed in a military operation, with an infiltrator pinpointing a location and the Colombian air force dropping massive amounts of ordnance on the site. In a grave blow to Farc finances the head of the 16th Front, Tomas Medina, alias Negro Acacio was killed last September in a similar operation, this time in the province of Vichada, by the Venezuelan border. He was one of Farc's drug lords, handling the exportation of cocaine, one of the main sources of revenue for the guerrillas.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/02/2008 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON - The Pentagon is planning to send about 100 US military trainers to Pakistan to assist a paramilitary force that is operating along the border with Afghanistan targeting Al Qaeda, The New York Times reported on its website late Saturday.
How about having the real Pak army show up and do its job? The Indians would only be too happy to remain quiet for a while ...
according to a 2007 CRS report, Pakistan actually outspent India in the purchase of military hardware and software in 2006 - 5.1 B$ vs 3.5 B$. The real Pak troops will remain at the Indian border.
Citing unnamed US military officials, the newspaper said that small teams of US special operations soldiers have already been sent to Pakistan to train Pakistani counterterrorism troops. But a classified plan now under review at the US Central Command would increase the contingent of US trainers to about 100, the report pointed out. These specialists will help train the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force of about 85,000 members recruited from ethnic groups living on the Pakistani northwest frontier.
The US is bringing in a small number of trainers to assist Pakistan in their efforts to improve training of the Frontier Corps, Elizabeth Colton, a spokeswoman for the US Embassy in Islamabad is quoted by The Times as saying. The US trainers will be primarily focused on assisting the Pakistan cadre who will do the actual training of the Frontier Corps troops.
A senior US military official said the trainers initially would be restricted to Pakistani bases, but could eventually accompany Pakistani troops on missions to the point of contact with militants, the paper noted.
Britain is considering a similar training mission, according to the report.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2008 00:31 ||
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The Election Commission (EC) of Pakistan Saturday officially issued results of the general elections 2008 saying it has accomplished its responsibility of holding free, fair and transparent elections.
Secretary of EC Kunwar Muhammad Dilshad addressing a press conference here said that 258 winning candidates in National Assembly, 291 in Punjab Provincial Assembly, 122 in Sindh, 89 in NWFP and 48 in Baluchistan have been notified.
He said the EC has accomplished its responsibility in the best possible manner and foreign observers and diplomats termed the polls free, fair and peaceful. He added that the schedule of by-elections would be announced soon after sessions of newly elected National and Provincial Assemblies.
President of Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), Shehbaz Sharif and Co-chairman of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) after being acquitted in legal cases against them are likely to contest by-elections.
Deputy British Ambassador in Iraq John Tiknut on saturday discussed with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani the fate of the five British hostages who have been abducted in Iraq since last May. A government statement said the two men discussed ways to release the five Britons abducted in Basra where Tiknut urged President Talabani to make an effort for their release.
Talabani expressed his solidarity and sympathy with the families of abductees and expressed full readiness to make efforts to secure their release. The statement did not reveal further details or actions taken by the government to assist in the release of the hostages after the captors had stipulated the release of nine detainees in Iraqi prisons before the Britons are released.
Egypt opened its only crossing with the Gaza Strip to receive wounded Palestinians on Sunday, a day after 54 people were killed in IDF operations against terrorists firing rockets from the territory, said a medical official.
Egypt sent 27 ambulances to the Rafah crossing to transfer 150-200 wounded Palestinians to hospitals in the Sinai Peninsula and other cities on the mainland, said Emad Kharboush, a medical official at el-Arish hospital near the Israeli border.
"We have mobilized all our efforts to receive and treat our Palestinian brothers in our hospitals," Kharboush told The Associated Press.
Sunday was the first time Egypt has agreed to open the crossing since Hamas blew up part of the border wall on Jan. 23, letting hundreds of thousands of Palestinians cross over.
Hamas wants Egypt to reopen the crossing and give the group a role in monitoring the crossing, a demand rejected by Cairo.
Egypt has called for a return to a 2005 agreement that gives Israel and the European Union monitors a supervisory role.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/02/2008 16:16 ||
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Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has suspended contact with Israel in protest at an assault on Gaza which has killed about 100 people, an aide says.
The suspension came amid angry demonstrations in Gaza and clashes with Israeli troops in the West Bank.
Israeli PM Ehud Olmert vowed to carry on the assault, which came in response to militant rocket attacks on Israel.
The violence intensified on Saturday, when nearly 70 people were killed in one of Gaza's bloodiest days in years.
Local doctors said at least 13 of the Palestinians were civilians, including eight children.
At least another five people were killed overnight in Gaza.
Egypt said it had opened its border crossing with Gaza and was letting critically injured Palestinians across to get medical attention. Reports say at least 100 people will be allowed in.
The fighting has drawn international calls for restraint, with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the US urging both sides to halt the violence.
But Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said his country needed to prepare for an escalation of its air and ground operations in Gaza.
Rocket attacks on Israel have continued despite the assault on Gaza. Uri Bar Lev, police chief in southern Israel, told the BBC that the border town of Sderot had been targeted by 15 rockets so far on Sunday, and that 10 people had been injured.
He added that about 50 rockets were falling on the town each day. One Israeli died in an attack earlier this week.
Palestinian rockets have reached as far as the Israeli town Ashkelon, 16km (10 miles) from the Gaza Strip.
GAZA - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Israel for using excessive force in the Gaza Strip and demanded a halt to its offensive after troops killed 61 people on the bloodiest day for Palestinians since the 1980s. Addressing an emergency session of the Security Council in New York after four days of fighting in which 96 Palestinians have been killed, many of them civilians, Ban also called on Gazas Islamist militants to stop firing rockets.
While recognising Israels right to defend itself, I condemn the disproportionate and excessive use of force that has killed and injured so many civilians, including children ... I call on Israel to cease such attacks, said Ban. I condemn Palestinian rocket attacks and call for the immediate cessation of such acts of terrorism, he said.
There. That should do it.
But with public anger boiling in Israel, there was no sign the government was ready to call off an offensive that took troops deeper into Gaza on Saturday and in larger numbers than at any time since Israel ended a 38-year occupation in 2005.
#1
I'd "shoah" like to see the Israelis go Hamas one better: blow down the Rafah border wall, force every Gazan into Egypt, and then immediately rebuild it higher--with no gates. Any Gazans they find hiding out after the expulsion--catapult them over the wall onto the Gyppo side. Then bulldoze everything in Gaza as fast as possible so there's no place for the UN idiots like this Sork nitwit to claim they can return to, and tell the same UN scumbags that rather than condemning Israel, they would be better off dealing with the Gazans so recently returned to their former rulers. Boil lanced, problem solved.
The usual suspects would bitch, moan, gripe, etc.--and then accept it, just like Congo and Darfur. The world respects power and decisiveness, just as it always has and always will. The Israelis just need to DO IT!
Posted by: Ho Chi Whimp8387 ||
03/02/2008 7:33 Comments ||
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#2
He's growing into Kofi's shoes. Anyone check his bank account lately?
#4
Demanded, indeed! I would have expected a hand-written note on creme colored paper accompanied by a green bean casserole.
Everyone is getting upset at the nation of Israel deploying its military might to kill a single Palestinean baby but this is actually good practice for the Paleos who seem to be God's Stupidest Children.
When you are an actual state, you don't get to rocket your neighbors with impunity. No Oops!, no mulligans, no blaming it on the militant wing of the National Library, it's just you, baby! You and your angry neighbors. Think of it as a practice exercise in self-government. And try to pay attention, especially to that cause and effect business.
UNITED NATIONS - The Security Council is set to vote Monday to marginally tighten UN sanctions against Iran over its refusal to freeze sensitive nuclear fuel work. The 15-member council was scheduled to hold consultations from 10:30 a.m. (1530 GMT) Monday ahead of the vote to adopt a third sanctions resolution which was slightly amended by its Western sponsors late Friday.
The vote, initially planned for Saturday, was delayed until Monday to give the sponsors more time to try to win over four reticent council members: Indonesia, Libya, South Africa and Vietnam, which have questioned the need for new sanctions. The four non-aligned countries see the sanctions as counter-productive, fearing they might push the Islamic republic to break off cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN nuclear watchdog.
Adoption of the text is a foregone conclusion as it has already been endorsed by the five veto-wielding members of the council Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany.
So why worry about the four remaining 'non-aligned' countries? Tell 'em to get with the program.
And co-sponsors Britain and France have enough support among the 10 non-permanent members to ensure passage, which requires nine votes and no veto.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/02/2008 00:27 ||
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"There is a history of American fleet intervention in Lebanon. I think these experiences were not at all useful," [Syrian Foreign Minister] al-Moallem said.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said Saturday that a U.S. Navy deployment off the coast of Lebanon threatens security in the region and warned the United States it cannot impose its own solution to the long-running political crisis in Lebanon. "There is a history of American fleet intervention in Lebanon. I think these experiences were not at all useful," al-Moallem said.
The planned deployment of at least three warships, announced Thursday, appeared to be aimed at making an American show of strength at a time of increasing international frustration at the volatile political deadlock in Lebanon between the U.S.-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora and the Syria and Iran-backed opposition, led by Hezbollah.
State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters Friday that the warships are an important sign of U.S. commitment to security in the region. "It should provide comfort to our friends" and, for U.S. adversaries, "a reminder that we are there."
#1
Syria, Hezbollah, Amr Moussa decidedly unhappy with USS Cole visit
I have the mental picture of Lee Emry, saying through clenched teeth
"AND.....YOU....WILL....LIKE... IT"
"There is a history of American fleet intervention in Lebanon. I think these experiences were not at all useful,"
Depends on who's speaking, frankly I find YOU "Not useful", the Cole, on the other hand, is a serious bitch slap, you didn't sink it, and "Sheeeee's BAAAAACK", armed and ready, get close next time, and get ventilated.
(First deck guard, Can they swim?
Second deck guard, not full of holes like that.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
03/02/2008 1:08 Comments ||
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#2
I suspect the real reason they're upset is because the Cole is probably packing some PAC-3 anti-missile missiles. Since the Syrians can't keep the good stuff too near the border with Israel, this would seriously extend the umbrella for them.
Ironically, it would also protect Beirut if the Syrians decided to lob one on them.
#3
I wish we still had a half-dozen WWII battleships to parade up and down the coast of Lebanon. I'm sure THAT would really get Assad's knickers in a twist. There's usually a carrier in the Med as well, so they SHOULD have their knickers in a twist.
Nuking Damascus would end a lot of worries, and give Hezbollox a HUGE headache. If the Arabs and Persians don't stop their constant aggravation, Israel may decide they have no other choice.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/02/2008 15:26 Comments ||
Top||
#4
"Syria, Hezbollah, Amr Moussa decidedly unhappy with USS Cole visit."
We feel your pain> humiliation. Allow me to make a suggestion: Get all your friends from the mosque and pack them into as many boats with outborard engines as you can find. Drive and steer those boats as fast as you can toward the USS Cole. Raise your fists and voices in muzzie anger to underscore your unhappiness. Repeat as necessary. Trust me: you're all gonna meet your allah in due course. Win-Win for everyone.
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.
LONDON - Prince Harry, pulled out of a 10-week tour ofduty in Afghanistan for security reasons, wants a swift return to the frontline, he said an interview published Sunday, insisting he is not a hero.
GAZA - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned Israel for using excessive force in the Gaza Strip and demanded a halt to its offensive after troops killed 61 people on the bloodiest day for Palestinians since the 1980s. Addressing an emergency session of the Security Council in New York after four days of fighting in which 96 Palestinians have been killed, many of them civilians, Ban also called on Gazas Islamist militants to stop firing rockets.
UNITED NATIONS - The Security Council is set to vote Monday to marginally tighten UN sanctions against Iran over its refusal to freeze sensitive nuclear fuel work. The 15-member council was scheduled to hold consultations from 10:30 a.m. (1530 GMT) Monday ahead of the vote to adopt a third sanctions resolution which was slightly amended by its Western sponsors late Friday.
