Pakistan must stop militants crossing the border to attack targets in Afghanistan, otherwise the Kabul government will take action, Afghan presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada told a news conference on Tuesday. We request Pakistan not to allow terrorist groups to use its soil against Afghanistan, otherwise Afghanistan is obliged to take action in order to defend its nation and people, Hamidzada said. Pakistan said only its forces would tackle militants on its soil.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2008 07:22 ||
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According to the World Bank, Afghanistan produces 90 per cent of the world's illegal opium. The Taliban in Afghanistan made more than $100 million in 2007 from imposing taxes and providing protection to the countrys huge opium trade, the United Nations anti-narcotics chief said Tuesday.
Speaking to BBC radio, Antonio Maria Costa of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC] said Afghan insurgents collected a 10 per cent tax on the earnings of opium poppy farmers and processors in Taliban-controlled areas.
There were also other ways that the group skimmed money from the more than $1 billion generated last year by Afghanistan's opium trade, Costa said. Afghanistan now trades very little raw opium; it is a heroin producer. One source said they rake in $3.5 billion.
'One is protection to laboratories and the other is that the insurgents offer protection to cargo, moving opium across the border,' he said.
Since the Taliban were forced from power in Kabul by a U.S.-led invasion in 2001, Afghanistan has become the worlds leading producer of opium. Why refer to same as a 'US led invasion' when it operated under UN sanction, and NATO's collective security provision? Afghanistan NEVER stopped producing Heroin under the Taliban. In exchange for UN aid, they torched some Tajik owned fields.
By some estimates, more than 90 per cent of the worlds heroin originates in the opium poppy fields that can be found in almost all 34 Afghan provinces. Baloney. The UN website reports near total success in opium eradication in all but Karzai's protected Pashto areas.
U.S. troops ignore poppies in south True, and they don't like it. There is no way a John McCain government would put up with an enemy being allowed to use profits from a drug, to finance the murder of NATO troops. Once a soldier...
In the last years of Taliban rule in the country, the extremist militia had all but wiped out opium production, calling it un-Islamic and punishing drug dealers. But poppy farming has surged since then and Afghan militants are using money from the drugs trade to fight NATO troops in the country, officials say.
Anti-narcotics efforts in post-Taliban Afghanistan have failed to stem the narcotics trade with farmers and processors last year producing a record 8,000 tonnes of opium.
U.S. troops in the south of the country are now instructed not to interfere with poppy crops, according to a report this week by the Associated Press from Helmand province, one of the prime sources of Afghan opium.
'Poppy fields in Afghanistan are [like] the cornfields of Ohio,' U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Jerry Stover told an AP reporter embedded with his platoon in Helmand. 'When we got here, they were asking us if its OK to grow poppy, and we said, Yeah, just dont use an AK-47 [assault rifle].'
Production is expected to be lower in 2008, the UNs Costa told the BBC, because of drought and a glut on world markets from record harvests in earlier years.
'Last year, Afghanistan produced about 8,000 tonnes of opium,' he said, 'The world in the past few years has consumed about 4,000 tonnes... This leaves a surplus. It is stored somewhere and not with the farmers.' Probably Pakistan. That country has 2 million users; as does Iran. Pakistanis did much of the Heroin production, prior to the Karzai protection racket.
It is not known whether these stockpiles are held by traffickers, corrupt Afghan officials and politicians, or the Taliban themselves, but they represent hundreds of millions of dollars, Costa said, raising fears that even more money could be spent on fighting NATO and Afghan troops. I smell an election issue.
#1
I thought part of the reason for the drop in the poppy crop was farmers switching over to more lucrative (to them) wheat production in response to current shortages world wide.
#2
I read about the switch to wheat somewhere. There is also a nasty virus that has crippled wheat production in Egypt and has spread to Iran and Pakistan. I believe Iran is a big producer and if the reports are true it should increase discontent about the inflationary price of food in that country. Meanwhile here in Kansas wheat production may set new records as yields are high even on dry land farms in the south west.
#4
I found this on "Defense of the Realm" website, part three on how to win the war in Afgan.
"Interestingly, there is anecdotal evidence that wheat production, in times of high demand, is more profitable than poppy growing. The gross income from selling raw opium might be higher, but the process is highly labour-intensive, requiring more inputs. Thus, with commodity prices at record highs, the current "global food crisis" provides a unique opportunity to promote a long-term switch from opium to food." If you are not familiar with this website it is very good information on the UK military.
According to a new report by the US magazine, Foreign Policy, and the Fund for Peace, which promotes sustainable security, Somalia has been ranked as the most unstable country in the world. Monday's annual report said seven of the top 10 states on the list are in sub-Saharan Africa.
The report said Sudan was named as the second most unstable state, due to the continuing crisis in Darfur and the country's growing number of refugees. The index uses 12 social, economic, political, and military indicators to rank 177 states in order of their vulnerability to violent internal conflict and the deterioration of their civil society.
Bangladesh suffered the most drastic decline in the past year, rising to 12th on the list after a year of internal political crisis and the effects of a deadly cyclone that left 1.5 million people homeless. Israel and the occupied West Bank got into the index's top 60 - at No. 58 - for the first time, just behind Angola and Georgia. Iraq improved slightly from last year and is now the world's fifth most unstable country.
But the report warns that any improvements there could only be temporary and do not reflect long-term or permanent changes.
"In many ways, Somalia has failed already as the unpopular transitional government lacks control of the streets of Mogadishu - much less the rest of the country," the report's authors wrote. Somalia, at the tip of the Horn of Africa, has been without a functioning central government since Mohamed Siad Barre, the former leader, was overthrown in 1991.
The top 10 most unstable states according to the report are: Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Chad, Iraq, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Pakistan and the Central African Republic.
#5
Foreign Policy, and the Fund for Peace need to get with the program. You just know that if the UN had authored this report its "rapporteur" would have ranked the USA in the top 5.
Posted by: Scott R ||
06/25/2008 6:45 Comments ||
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#6
Zimbobwe is only number 3?
Cheez, look at the competition ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/25/2008 8:10 Comments ||
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#7
Paul: Hey, at least Zimbabwe has an intact central government and isn't being invaded or insurged against. As far as I can tell, they've got a leg up on the Anarchy Formerly Known As Somalia, or even Chad.
Of course, that's just the rubric of stability, which isn't the be-all end-all of statesmanship. By most rational standards, Zimbabwe's moving quickly into a Tacitian state of peaceful desolation.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/25/2008 9:07 Comments ||
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#8
Yes, Mitch H, Zimbabwe is a distant third from Somalia, which has a huge lead in instability because of its inherent high entropy, heh.
Posted by: Alaska Paul at Copper Center, Alaska ||
06/25/2008 10:51 Comments ||
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#9
Haven't they been the most unstable for about 15 years now?
Saudi Arabia has arrested 701 Islamists in the past six months on suspicion of plotting attacks on oil industry installations, the interior ministry announced on Wednesday. Security forces 'carried out several operations against followers of the deviant ideology and arrested a total of 701 people of various nationalities,' said a ministry spokesman, quoted by the official SPA news agency. Of those arrested since the start of the year, '520 are still being held for their implication in the organisational and ideological plans of the deviant ideology'.
'Deviant ideology' is the term used by Saudi officials to describe Al-Qaeda.
Deviated from official Wahhabbi ideology in exactly what way ...
Last July, the interior ministry announced that it had started forming special security units to protect the country's oil infrastructure from terrorist attacks. In April 2007, the ministry said 172 terror suspects had been rounded up along with weapons and cash. Some of the militants were allegedly plotting airborne attacks on oil facilities and army bases. Security forces thwarted an alleged Al-Qaeda attack against Saudi Arabia's massive Abqaiq oil processing facility in February 2006. Two members of the security forces and two assailants were killed.
(Bloomberg) -- North Korea may deliver its list of nuclear plants and materials to China on June 26, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, a move that will allow the six- nation disarmament forum to resume.
``There is word that they would try to do that by Thursday,'' Perino said at a briefing in Washington yesterday. ``This is a deadline that the North Koreans themselves have put out there. We'll see if they decide to do that.''
While the declaration is a step toward achieving the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, it will have to be ``reviewed and considered verifiable'' before the process moves on, she said.
The six-nation talks have stalled since Kim Jong Il's regime missed a Dec. 31, 2007, deadline to declare its nuclear plants and programs under an agreement with the U.S., China, South Korea, Japan and Russia. China may be able to announce news about the declaration ``very soon,'' the U.S. chief nuclear negotiator Christopher Hill said in Beijing yesterday without elaborating.
``We're getting very soon to the North Korean submission of their declaration,'' Hill said. ``These six-party talks are coming up soon and let's hope that they can move the process along and get us to the end goal here, which is denuclearization.''
Nobutaka Machimura, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, said in Tokyo today that he's aware of reports that North Korea may make the disclosure on June 26.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2008 07:23 ||
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#1
"North Korea may deliver its list of nuclear plants and materials to China on June 26.."
Or not.
"Pages 7-1653 were unfortunately lost before they could be delivered to our brethren in the Middle Kingdom. These pages were most likely eaten by peasants " - NKor Official choosing to remain anonymous"
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
06/25/2008 15:16 Comments ||
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#2
Islamist Militants > have threatened to expand Terr Opers/Attacks agz targets throughtout NORTH ASIA, ostensibly IMO to DIVERT FROM NUCLEARIZING IRAN = PAN-ISLAMIST/MUSLIM NUCLEARIZATION + WEAPONIZATION via REGIONAL "GREAT POWER" CONFRONTATION [NOKOR + TAIWAN]???
* NORTH KOREA > has threatened to stop or withhold NUCLEAR COOPER unless it receives FOOD-ECON GUARANTIES.
* E.g. TAIPEI TIMES OP-ED > "MCCAIN'S "LEAGUE OF DEMOCRACIES" IS A DANGEROUS IDEA/CONCEPT, or Title to that effect. Author argues that MCCAIN intrinsic desires to isolate and minimize the roles of moderniz but still-weak RUSSIA, CHINA, + SCO [read - ASIA] vv undoubtedly to be US-WESTERN-led LEAGUE OF DEMOCRACIES, and which will further promo + entrench US-Western IMPERIALISM at Asia's expense???
WASHINGTON Ever since the Army lost its warplanes to a newly independent Air Force after World War II, soldiers have depended on the sister service for help from the sky, from bombing and strafing to transport and surveillance. But the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have frayed the relationship, with Army officers making increasingly vocal complaints that the Air Force is not pulling its weight.
In Afghanistan, Army officers have complained about bombing missions gone awry that have killed innocent civilians. In Iraq, Army officers say the Air Force has often been out of touch, fulfilling only half of their requests for the sophisticated surveillance aircraft that ground commanders say are needed to find roadside bombs and track down insurgents.
The Air Force responds that it has only a limited number of those remotely piloted Predators and other advanced surveillance aircraft, so priorities for assigning them must be set by senior commanders at the headquarters in Baghdad working with counterparts at the Air Forces regional command in Qatar. There are more than 14,000 airmen performing tasks on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, including Air Force civil engineers replacing Army construction engineers.
But now in Iraq, the Army has quietly decided to try going it alone for the important surveillance mission, organizing an all-Army surveillance unit that represents a new move by the service toward self-sufficiency, and away from joint operations. Senior aides to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates say that he has shown keen interest in the Army initiative much to the frustration of embattled Air Force leaders as a potential way to improve battlefield surveillance.
The work of the new aviation battalion was initially kept secret, but Army officials involved in its planning say it has been exceptionally active, using remotely piloted surveillance aircraft to call in Apache helicopter strikes with missiles and heavy machine gun fire that have killed more than 3,000 adversaries in the last year and led to the capture of almost 150 insurgent leaders.
The Army aviation task force became fully operational last July with headquarters at Camp Speicher, in the north-central city of Tikrit, and focuses its efforts on insurgents planting roadside bombs. But it also has located and attacked insurgents in battles with American and Iraqi troops, and has supported missions of the top-secret Special Operations units assigned to capture or kill the most high-value targets in Iraq.
The battalion is called Task Force Odin the name is that of the chief god of Norse mythology, but it also is an acronym for observe, detect, identify and neutralize. The task force of about 300 people and 25 aircraft is a Rube Goldberg collection of surveillance and communications and attack systems, a mash-up of manned and remotely piloted vehicles, commercial aircraft with high-tech infrared sensors strapped to the fuselage, along with attack helicopters and infantry.
The Army cobbled together small civilian aircraft, including the Beech C-12, and placed advanced reconnaissance sensors on board. Also assigned to the task force are small, medium and larger remotely piloted Army surveillance vehicles, including the Warrior and Shadow, with infrared cameras for night operations and full-motion video cameras. All are linked by radio to Apache attack helicopters, with Hellfire missiles and 30-millimeter guns, and to infantry units in armored vehicles.
Civilian casualties are always a risk in air raids, particularly those attacking bomb-placing teams that operate in cities and villages. Army officials declined to say whether they believed the casualties from the new Army raids included innocent civilians, but they sought to pre-empt some criticism by screening an aerial surveillance video that they said showed the precise nature of the raids. The video showed an insurgent who had escaped attack and hid in a courtyard a few feet from a grazing mule. It then showed Apache helicopter fire killing the insurgent, while the mule was left grazing beside the corpse.
In contrast to Predators, which are assigned by the top headquarters for missions all across Iraq, Task Force Odin is on call for commanders at the level of brigade and below, an effort by the Army to be responsive to the needs of smaller combat units in direct contact with adversaries and a clear sign of rivaling concepts with the Air Force.
#1
C-12 and a lot of the fixed wing Army aviation stuff is ELINT/SIGINT birds (liek the Guardrail mission equiment).
I guess a lot of people don't realize that the Army has had its own aviation for a while - and the UAVs are just the latest addition.
USAF inability to be responsive to tactical needs is why the Army attack helicopter was born. It is a hell of a quicker response when you call on air support from 4th squadron of the same regiment instead of some zoom that may or may not show and if he does, he flies too high to hit things accurately as often as integral (rotary) assets can.
The major exceptions to this are the A-10's: those guys run with the ground forces and work hand-in-glove with the ground and heli units, always have been down in the weeds. They know how talk and work the Army way on ground targets, and are hella responsive compared to fast movers.
Simple as that - the USAF is too busy with its other missions - air superiority, strategic strikes, strategic/theater level recon, and air transport.
The Army falls lower on the USAF priority list - the USAF wants to do its own recon first, and will not task assets to Army requests until it believes it has filled what it needs.
Unfortunately this means the Army gets starved out - because what the Army needs is not what thte USAF thinks the Army needs.
So I cannot blame the Intel unit for putting that together. We put together Tactical Exploitation units way back when, when the TO&E of standard MI/CAV had nothing for our unique needs. So we hammered them together out of LRRP, Interrogation, EW/SIGINT, GSRs, Tac Jammers and some mobility assets.
#3
And what a lot of taxpayers don't understand that craft like the Apache are responses to not having an A-10 in the inventory and those that the AF controlled constantly on the chopping block. So we end up with funding both for their dysfunctional institutional behaviors.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/25/2008 12:20 Comments ||
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#5
The greatest issue is the LT, POST-WOT, OWG-NWO missions-scopes of the various US Armed/
Uniformed Services. DITTO FOR BOTH US ALLIES + FOES + NEUTRALS/MODERATES.
US + RADICAL ISLAM > WOT = WAR FOR POST/ANTI-COLD WAR "STATUS QUO" + OWG-NWO, hence NO SIDE GENER DESIRES ANY FORM OF MUTUAL "STALEMATE" REGARDLESS OF PC DIPLOM RHETORIC TO THE CONTRARY.
No US-Allied Pol wants to be blamed for NUCLEAR TERRORISM, as symbolized in a NUCLEAR IRAN + "SUITCASE/MINI-NUKES"; while Islam = Radical Islam desires to modernize + expand, and prelude any USSR-style event of self-obsolescence and implosion [dynamic self-extinction].
DARE COLD WAR "REVOLT OF THE GENERALS/ADMIRALS" now devol 2008-2012 into "REVOLT OF THE POLITICIANS/NEW ORDER", ala PRO-WAR "ANTI-STATUS QUO/NEW ORDER"???
Look for the Union label. It don't say Hanes until this guy sez it sez Hanes.
Prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has appointed Maulana Hamid Saeed Kazmi as Adviser to the Prime minister on Religious Affairs. Maulana Kazmi thanked the prime minister and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari for their confidence in him. He vowed to do his best and to contribute to further improvement in the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Maulana Kazmi is also secretary general of the Nizam-e-Mustafa party, which contested in the recent general elections as a coalition partner of the PPP. He has been elected twice as member of the National Assembly, and in the recent elections he was elected from Rahimyar Khan.
Pakistan features among the worlds 10 most dysfunctional countries, according to an annual survey released on Monday. The Failed States Index places Pakistan in the ninth slot moving it three notches up from its last years position as the 12th most failed state of the world. The top 10, in order, are Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Chad, Iraq, Congo, Afghanistan, Ivory Coast, Pakistan and the Central African Republic. The index is compiled annually by the independent magazine Foreign Policy and Fund for Peace, an independent research organisation.
CONTRAST:
Congress approves $150m democracy dividend for Pakistan
Pakistan was cleared by the United States House of Representatives on Tuesday to receive a democracy dividend of $150 million from the war supplemental budget for 2008-2009. This amount will be in addition to allocations Pakistan is to receive under the regular budget for 2009 for which a total of $901 million has been requested by the administration. The measure has already been approved by the Senate and it only now remains to send it for the presidents signatures. Both Senator Joseph Biden and Senator Richard Lugar had proposed that Pakistan be given a democracy dividend to mark its return to civilian rule.
Militants operating in Khyber Agency have started kidnapping people for social and religious reasons, Daily Times learnt on Tuesday.
Police sources told Daily Times that Peshawar has always been prone to kidnapping for ransom due to its proximity with the Tribal Areas, but with the sway of militant outfits in Khyber Agency, a new kind of kidnapping for religious and social motives has grown.
Many involve Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) chief Mangal Bagh in solving disputes, who meets with the complainant and defendant to settle problems. The LI chief charges both parties 2 percent of amount of money involved in monetary disputes.
The sources said that militant outfits LI and Amar Bil Maroof Wa Nahi Anil Munkar were taking actions on public complaints submitted through applications. They said that these outfits wanted to eliminate compact disk (CD) businesses and other un-Islamic activities on religious grounds.
They usually warn someone involved in an un-Islamic activity and if he does not refrain himself, then they abduct him. If the kidnapped person guarantees that he would stop the practice, then they let him free, they said.
Abduction: The groups have abducted dozens of people including those associated with black magic, amulets, prostitution and others, and freed them after they guaranteed in writing that they would not indulge in such activities in future.
Amar Bil Maroof kidnapped two PESCO officials over the amount of load shedding in the area, but released them soon after.
Sources also said that kidnapping of 16 Christians from Academy Town was carried out due to the fact that they were living in a compound, which had previously housed a madrassa and the kidnappers wanted the place to be given to Muslims.
LI armed men had taken the kidnap victims to Bara and they were freed on Sunday, while a Muslim who rented the house to the Christians is still in their custody. The NWFP government suspended several police officials after the kidnapping incident including City Police Chief Attaullah Wazir.
While the government was quick to take action against the police, it is yet to take action against political authorities of Khyber Agency, where such attacks originate.
The banned Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) has once again rolled up its sleeves and started getting active across Pakistan, and especially in Karachi, but with a new name Ahle Sunnat wa Aljamaat Pakistan (ASWJP) which roughly translates into The Sunni Party.
It has started by requesting Sunni people to voluntarily shut down their businesses and offices on Youm-e-Shahdat (the day of martyrdom) of Hazrat Abu Bakar Siddique (RA) on the 22nd of Jumadi-Uthani, June 27. Hazrat Abu Bakar Siddique (RA) was one of the closest companions of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH). He was also the first Caliph in Madina when the first Islamic government was established.
The central information secretary of the SSP and ASWJP, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Nadeem, told Daily Times on Tuesday that they had started work in the name of the ASWJP because of the ban on the SSP. The case against the ban is in court, he added.
The ASWJP has planned programs across the country, including Karachi city, on Youm-e-Siddique-e-Akbar (RA). Instructions have been given its activists.
Maulana Nadeem said that Sunni people should put up signs at their workplaces saying, The shop/office is closed on 22 Jumadi-Uthani (June 27) on Youm-e-Siddique-e-Akbar (RA). The party has started distributing handbills among people and letters to business communities and traders. They have, Maulana Nadeem added, assured us that the shops and offices would be closed on June 27.
A central Siddique-e-Akbar Conference would be organized on June 26 after Isha prayers at Qayumabad by the SSP and ASWJP where the chief of the ASWJP, Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi, and others would address the audience.
A Siddique-e-Akbar (RA) rally would be organized on June 27 after Jumma prayers from Lasbela to Numaish Chowrangi. The SSP was banned in 2002 by the government and most of its leaders were arrested. The leaders were released in 2003-04 and started limited work under ASWJP. It organized a rally in April 2008 in Karachi after surfacing after six years.
Threatening to maim and murder their fellow students, of course! Oh, and also holding signs and "shouting slogans" when told to pack their bags and amscray.
LAHORE: The Punjab University (PU) Vice-Chancellors office on Tuesday, received an application from PU Institute of Administrative Sciences (IAS) student Muhammad Ahsan, alleging that Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT) workers Sabir Shah, Muhammad Usman and a few others who live in the university hostels illegally, entered his room in hostel number 15 and threatened to kill him.
Ahsan told Daily Times that he was a worker of the University Students Federation (USF). He said that Sabir Shah, who belonged to the Tribal Areas, was living in the university illegally. He said Shah had threatened to kill him if he participated in any political activity. Ahsan asked the PU administration to protect him in this regard, especially since the USF workers had planned a protest against the IJT in the PU hostel.
He added that Shah was living illegally in room number 50 of hostel 15, but no action had been taken against him. He quoted Shah as saying that he was here to take revenge in response to the university administrations action against IJT workers.
According to a PU official, two cases had been registered against Shah. PU official spokesman Dr Mujahid Ali Mansoori said that when he found out about the incident, he asked students to submit an application for a disciplinary action.
IJT Nazim Rana Zahid said that the administration was using the USF against the IJT. He said that cases against Shah did not matter as there were cases registered against the administration too. PU Hall Council Chairman Dr Saeed Ahmed Nagra said that he did not know of any such incident.
Protest by IJT: A number of IJT workers on Tuesday protested against PU Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran in front of the Lahore Press Club for expelling their workers from PU.
Zahid said that the PU administration was victimising their workers and they would raise their voices against the administration at every platform. He said that the administration was taking revenge from them for trying to hold a book fair in the varsity. He said that the administration had expelled 11 IJT workers who were final year students.
Dr Mansoori said that allegations had been proven against the expelled IJT workers in the disciplinary committee and if the victims thought they were innocent they could use their right to appeal.
A number of IJT workers from various departments gathered in front of the Lahore Press Club and shouted slogans against the administration and the VC. Students held posters and demanded their workers be re-admitted in the university.
France decided to close down its French school and renowned cultural centre for an indefinite period due to security reasons, diplomatic sources told Daily Times on Tuesday.
The decision was taken by the French embassy a fortnight ago and both the school and the cultural centre were asked to quietly pull down shutters, the sources said.
French Ministry: Sources said the embassy was asked by the French Foreign Ministry to close both the facilities due to the worsening law and order. The French also feared attacks on their installations as it prepares to send 700 additional troops in Afghanistan to join the NATO/ISAF forces battling insurgency in Afghanistan. The school located in the high security Diplomatic Enclave was scheduled to close for summer break on June 21, but the embassy decided an earlier closure after the attack on the Danish embassy.
The Alliance Francaise cultural centre, situated in F-7/2 sector has been closed down as it is very close to the Belgian embassy and a UN agency, the sources said. Experts informed the board of governors in a meeting that in case of an attack on the Danish embassy or the UN building, the building of the centre would also be destroyed, sources said.
The board of governors of the centre met on Tuesday evening and decided to continue French language classes in a school in F-8. They also discussed the possibility of relocating the centre to the Diplomatic Enclave to provide better security. French embassy spokesman Adrien Arbouche was not available for his comments on the closure of the school and the cultural centre. Earlier both the school and the centre were closed down for one year in 2002 when terrorist attacked the Convent school in Murree.
At least 12 protesters were injured in clashes with police in Muslim-majority Indian Kashmir Monday as local anger mounted over the provision of land to visiting Hindu pilgrims, officials said.
Or not.
They included three people who were part of a stone-throwing crowd outside Srinagar's main mosque who were apparently hit by retaliatory police fire.
"Innocent as the day is long, mr. Reporter Man! Make sure you write that down!"
Srinagar, the main town in the Indian part of the divided Himalayan region, has been gripped by demonstrations since the local government decided last week to allocate land to a Hindu trust assisting an annual pilgrimage to a mountain grotto.
"We had to open fire on stone pelting youth, which led to three persons being injured," a police official told AFP on condition he not be named. Local police inspector Bashir Ahmed confirmed shots were fired but said authorities were "investigating who fired at the protesters." Doctors said nine other people were being treated for injuries sustained from tear gas and police baton charges against a string of protests around Srinagar.
The doctors said the three men who suffered gunshot wounds were in critical condition. Police also put several senior separatists under house arrest to prevent them from leading protests and raided the home of prominent hardliner Syed Ali Geelani, an AFP reporter said.
Oh how we wish someone got careless with a cigarett and burned the place down. Geelani is one bad dude, and a major source of the Kashmiri jihad.
The government last week said the land was being transferred to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board so it could build "temporary structures" for tens of thousands of Hindu pilgrims who trek to a Himalayan cave every year.
Separatist politicians say building accommodation for pilgrims at the base of the mountain will ruin the fragile ecology of the area and also "reinforce India's occupation" of part of the disputed region. Hindus consider the cave shrine of Amarnath, which sits at an altitude of 3,800 metres (12,800 feet), as an abode of the god Shiva. In previous years, authorities have erected tents for pilgrims. But last year more than 400,000 pilgrims visited the cave, prompting demands for better facilities and more permanent structures. But even secular, pro-India political groups have called for revocation of the order to give land to pilgrims.
"It would be dangerous to allow the situation to drift any further. As a minimum required action, the state government should forthwith cancel the order," former chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed said, stroking his beard thoughtfully.
Baghdad, June24, (VOI)-A spokesman for Baghdad security plan on Wednesday said around 9000 awakening council members were appointed as Baghdad police personnels.
The number of awakening council members(Sons of Iraq) appointed as policemen has come to 9000, Brig, Gen. Qassem Atta, spokesman for Baghdad security plan, told Aswat al-Iraq-Voices of Iraq(VOI).
The spokesman noted integrating Sons of Iraq into police personnels is ongoing, but he did not elaborate the whole number of awakening council across Baghdad areas.
Awakening councils are mostly Sunni groups that turned against al-Qaeda network in Iraq(AQI)and have helped US-Iraq forces to wrestle power from the AQI in many western and central Iraqi areas.
WASHINGTON The number of weekly attacks in Iraq has dropped from about 1,200 a week in June 2007 to about 200 a week now, the commander of the tactical unit responsible for command and control of operations in Iraq said June 23.
Mirroring this reduction in violence has been a 70 percent decrease in roadside-bomb attacks and an 85 percent spike in the number of weapons caches Coalition forces have found over the past year, Army Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, commander of Multi-National Corps - Iraq, told reporters via satellite from Baghdad at a Pentagon news conference.
I attribute most of these hard-fought gains in security to a few key factors: our Coalition forces aggressively pursuing the enemy, the improving capability of the Iraqi Security Forces, and the Iraqi people participating in the rebuilding process of Iraq, he said.
But the general tempered his optimism, characterizing security improvements as fragile gains that coalition troops are attempting to solidify as they build the capabilities of their Iraqi counterparts.
While the improved security is a great achievement, we clearly understand that our progress is fragile, and we continue to work to make this progress irreversible, he said.
The general praised coalition troops for having al-Qaida on its heels, yet he identified the organization as the primary threat remaining in Iraq. The terrorist group yesterday launched an attack in Baqouba that killed at least 15 people, including several police officers, and wounded dozens of others.
Even though we assess that they are on the run, they are still capable of launching spectacular attacks, Austin said, noting yesterdays bombing in the Diyala province city. As a result, our operations in the north are focused on defeating their capability to perform these attacks.
Austin cited recent operations in Mosul, Iraqs second-largest city, as examples of the increasing capabilities and effectiveness of Iraqs security forces. Combined forces in the Ninevah province city over the past four days detained 16 suspects, including four high-ranking al-Qaida operatives.
We continue to aggressively pursue al-Qaida and to take away their safe havens and to close off all their escape routes when they try to flee, he said.
Austin, who assumed command of Multinational Corps Iraq in February, said coalition forces will continue helping to develop Iraqs national security operators under his leadership.
I'm absolutely confident, based on the indicators from the last few months, that they'll continue to make significant improvements, and we will be with them, side by side, as they progress, he said.
Though they have made significant progress, Iraqi security forces in many instances are not yet prepared to take over day-to-day operations, thereby allowing coalition troops to assume an overwatch role, the general said.
Before Iraqi forces become autonomous, he said, they need to develop combat enablers with the capability of calling in and integrating fire support into formation. They also be capable of supporting themselves logistically, and begin using their own surveillance and reconnaissance to cull intelligence, then plan their own operations, the general said.
We are working hand in hand with our coalition partners in all parts of the country, he said. They have improved significantly, but we've been clear about saying that they're not there yet.
As Iraqi security forces mature in the midst of combating al-Qaida and Iranian-backed special groups, they meanwhile are gaining the support and confidence of Iraqi citizens, the general said. The majority of Iraqis have rescinded allegiance to extremism, he added, praising the efforts of civilian security groups like the Sons of Iraq.
Now the overwhelming majority of the population has turned against the insurgents and the criminals, Austin said. Iraqis understand that al-Qaida and outside influences are not in the best interest of their country.
Dovetailing with Iraqi security forces rise in public status has been a reduction in the number of people being held in detention. A coalition-led detainee release program has freed roughly 4,000 people who combined forces have deemed nonthreatening.
[It] demonstrates that the coalition is committed to the welfare of the Iraqi population and to reconciliation, he said.
GAZA CITY U.S. volunteers with military backgrounds have been recruited to help train the new Hamas army in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources said one of the Americans was former U.S. Army captain Fares Al Ashi.
'This information is important for the youth,' Al Ashi said during a briefing to visiting journalists in Gaza City.
The sources said Al Ashi, a specialist in explosives and weapons, had been trained in South Carolina during his years with the U.S. military. 'We give them general information about the explosives, those manufactured locally and the Israeli ones, because those people always reach the dangerous places before we, the bomb squad, do.'
Al Ashi and the other Americans were said to have been identified as Muslims who joined the U.S. military in the 1990s. The sources said the Americans relayed U.S. military methods and training to Hamas for its war against Israel.
The Hamas army has been equipped and trained by Iran. But Palestinian sources said some Muslims in the United States have provided funding and expertise to the new Hamas regime and military.
In May 2008, Hamas police launched a police training program assisted by the U.S. trainers. The four-month training course has been directed by Maj. Khalil Hejo and seven other officers. 'In the past, a brigadier general used to run this administration in addition to 250 officer trainers, but now, seven trainers and I oversee the whole program,' Hejo said. If Ashi truly was an officer in the US Army, he has to be a US citizen. Non-citizens can elist but only citizens can be commissioned.
#3
Looks like he was a Fatah guy in Gaza who switched over while the getting was good. Doesn't appear he's an American or a former US officer.
(IsraelNN.com) Fares Al-Ashi, who was trained by Americans in South Carolina when Fatah controlled Gaza security forces, is using his education to teach Hamas loyalists to be martyrs, according to the Chinese new agency Xinhua. He said he gives his trainees information about explosives as part of a new Hamas police training program.
The "martyr Aziz Massoud" course is named after a terrorist, one of the police trainers, who was killed in an IDF strike in February. "Every program should carry the name of a martyr," Al-Ashi said
The United States has trained hundreds of Fatah "militia" members who were part of the elite Presidential Guard, a private army that was envisioned as protecting Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas form a Hamas coup. However, the Americans suffered an embarrassing defeat when Hamas overran Fatah forces in Gaza last year.
A training manual distributed by American Secret Service officers, with the logo of the Counterterrorism Training Group and the U.S. government seal, was a teaching manual for Al-Ashi and other former Fatah terrorists who switched to Hamas.
#5
If Ashi truly was an officer in the US Army, he has to be a US citizen. Non-citizens can elist but only citizens can be commissioned.
Well for reserve commission it is -
(1) he is a citizen of the United States or has been lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence under the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 1101 et seq.);
Also, who were part of the elite Presidential Guard, (...) embarrassing defeat when Hamas overran Fatah forces in Gaza last year.
Again, "elite" seems to have a different meaning in some places, more akin to "political reliability", I guess. Btw, how come I've noticed the "elite" tag is seldom applied not only to say US special forces types, but also never to british royal marines or 2nd REP or similar western first-lines troops???
Would I detect a very, very subtly hidden bias from news agencies fawning over insurgents and hard boyz??? Gee.
A bad day at the Gaza Tunnel Authority.
RAFAH, Egypt: An Egyptian security official says border guards discovered seven underground smuggling tunnels at the Gaza border. The official says that some of the tunnels, found north of the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza, were used to pump fuel to the Hamas-run coastal Gaza Strip. There's a helluva work accident waiting to happen...
The official also says that police found "eleven stacks" of hashish separately near the volatile border. Smugglers had fled and left the drugs behind. Oh-oh. Someone's in serious trouble with their boss. I see "clan clashes" in the not too distant future
Police also came across an ammunition and arms cache left over from the 1967 Egypt-Israel war near the town of el-Hassana in central Sinai. Look, Anwar! A blunderbuss!
The official, who supervised the operations, says the finds were made Tuesday and Wednesday. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to talk to the media. I'll talk to ya, but I can't talk to ya. Okay?
The Quartet of Middle East peacemakers called Tuesday for a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza terrorists to be respected "in full" and voiced hope that the truce will last.
Doing the same thing over and over again and being suprised when you get the same old results used to be the definition of insanity.
The Quartet - made up of the US, the European Union, the UN and Russia - issued its call at a meeting that came after Islamic Jihad terrorists fired three Kassam rockets into southern Israel. It was the first such attack since the cease-fire took effect last week. In a statement, the Quartet "expressed its continuing support for Egyptian efforts to restore calm to Gaza and southern Israel and welcomed the period of calm that began on June 19." It "urged that the calm be respected in full and expressed the hope that it would endure, and lead to improved to improved security for Palestinians and Israelis alike, and a return to normal civilian life in Gaza.
Normal civilian life in Gaza is equivalent to most other places' looney bin.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2008 07:23 ||
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#1
Preping the ground for condemnation of IDF retaliation?
One year after the violent split between Hamas and Fatah, talks are once again underway. Mohamed Abdel Azim travelled to Damascus for EuroNews to talk to Hamas exiled leader Khaled Meshall on the major issues affecting the group. They discussed its links with other countries and the role of the European Union in the region. Here is our exclusive interview with Khaled Meshaal.
EuroNews: Do you agree with the idea of freeing Israeli soldiers and talking to Fatah?
Khaled Meshall: Concerning the soldier Gilad Shalit, as you know its Olmert who prevents negotiations. Its Olmert and his entourage who keep putting up road blocks. He doesnt respond to our demands. We have agreed to the Egyptian mediation plan and when we get into naming prisoners to free Israel refuses to talk. When Israel accepts our demands, we will free the Israeli soldiers we have as soon as we can. We have no interest in keeping him.
EuroNews: How true is it secret contacts exist between Israel and Hamas?
Khaled Meshall: We dont have secret contacts and we dont have contacts with the enemy Israel.
Euronews: Is it imaginable that direct or indirect negotiations between Hamas and Israel could take place at the moment?
Khaled Meshall: The conflict with Israel has to be managed in a global way and when Israel becomes mature and accepts the rights of the Palestinians, then we will decide to adapt our position.
EuroNews: What of the negotiations already initiated between Mahmoud Abbas and Ehud Olmert?
Khaled Meshall: Olmert issues vetoes on the 1967 borders, on Jerusalem, on the demolition of the occupied settlements and on the right of our return. What is the value in negotiating in the face of all these red lines?
EuroNews: The value being to test the willingness to create a Palestinian state?
Khaled Meshall: You saw Bushs recent visit to the region and his speech at the Knesset. He slapped down the region and aligned himself with Israel. Although Olmert negotiates with Abbas, its to distance himself from internal problems and make Israels public image more attractive.
EuroNews: Is it possible in the future that Hamas could entertain negotiations with Israel?
Khaled Meshall: Israel has to announce in a clear way that it accepts a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, including Jerusalem without settlements, and the right of refugees to return. Without this, we will never agree.
EuroNews: In that case, would you be ready to recognise Israel?
Khaled Meshall: No, the question of recognition is out. I have already said we would be able to sign a truce. There are other formulas, but we have already stated recognition is not one.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2008 07:23 ||
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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert addressed the renewed Qassam rocket fire from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, saying 'this is a blatant unequivocal violation of the understandings in the cease fire agreement.'
'But we're not gonna do anything about it...'
Islamic Jihad militants in the Gaza Strip fired four Qassam rockets into southern Israel Tuesday afternoon, breaking a six-day-old truce between Israel and Hamas, which calls for an end to rocket fire and to Israeli military operations in the Strip. Two Israelis were lightly hurt in the Qassam attack and two others were treated for shock.
Deputy Prime Minister and Shas chairman Eli Yishai voiced his outrage at the Qassam attack on Tuesday, saying that it was proof that the truce was merely virtual. 'This is what we were afraid of. It was unequivocally proven to us that there isn't anyone to talk to, and there is certainly nothing to talk about. These are the buds of Hamas' growing strength which we need to nip immediately.'
It's the usual crap. They've got a truce with Hamas, but not with everybody else.
MK Yisrael Katz (Likud) also responded to the cease fire violation charging that the government had failed. 'We abandoned Gilad Shalit and we didn't get a cease fire, which was broken before it even began. The government must respond immediately with outstanding force to the rockets fired on Sderot, otherwise is will lose its power of deterrence and the residents of the Negev will be totally abandoned.'
While Islamic Jihad said it would abide by the cease-fire, the group has also said it would reserve the right 'to respond to the Zionist violations' of the truce. The rocket attacks were in apparent response to an Israel Defense Forces raid on the West Bank, in which two Jihad militants were killed. The cease-fire agreement does not include or limit IDF activities in the West Bank.
Gaza's Hamas rulers issued a statement saying that they were still committed to the cease-fire with Israel, despite the small militant group's obvious violation of its terms. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas official, responded to the attacks by urging 'all Palestinian factions to abide by the calm agreement,' adding: 'Hamas is keen to maintain the deal.'
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2008 07:23 ||
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#1
When is this poster child for post-birth abortion gonna give it up? its like he is the second coming of Jimmah; 'cept Jimmah is still using up air and creating carbon feetprints.
Egypt assured Israel on Tuesday that the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt will remain closed until a deal is reached that secures the release of Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, an Israeli official said. "We received assurances that Rafah crossing will not open until [Gilad] Shalit's case is solved," said a senior official who took part in the meetings in Sharm el-Sheikh between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The leaders also discussed arms smuggling into Hamas-run Gaza during the meeting, held on the sixth day of an Egyptian-mediated truce between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, where gunmen affiliated with Hamas have been holding Shalit for two years.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2008 07:23 ||
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#1
The private tunnels, however, will continue to pay toll as usual.
MKs Avigdor Lieberman (Israel Beiteinu), Arieh Eldad (NU-NRP) and Arieh Eldad (NU-NRP) all separately responded on Tuesday afternoon to the firing of Kassam rockets from the Gaza Strip that violated the Gaza cease-fire. "The surrender agreement with Hamas has achieved its aims - security and legitimacy before the international community for Hamas, and a continuation of terror against residents of the South," said Lieberman.
Tuesday's attack, according to Lieberman, "confirms that the government is not capable of dealing with the issue of security." He went on to express support for a bill to disperse the Knesset. The first reading of the bill will be brought for a vote on Wednesday.
Eldad echoed similar sentiments. "After the government surrendered to Hamas and agreed to a cease-fire, after we agreed to open crossings before freeing [kidnapped IDF solider] Gilad Schalit, the Arabs told [us] what they think of the government of Israel and fired Kassams at Sderot," he said. "There's no doubt - this government has no right to exist," he went on.
Also responding to the barrage, Hermesh, himself a resident of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, expressed a lack of confidence in the seemingly broken cease-fire, and called for action to protect residents of the South. "This morning [Defense Minister] Ehud Barak, during a tour near the Gaza border, said that the cease-fire was being answered with calm," he said. "I question [that] and look forward to seeing in in what way [the government] will respond to the aggression against Sderot and other Gaza-border communities."
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2008 07:23 ||
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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that indirect negotiations with Hizbullah for the release of two captured soldiers were still under way and would take time.
"The negotiations will take more time ," Olmert said before flying to Egypt for talks with President Hosni Mubarak about a third soldier being held in the Gaza Strip. However, other reports said on Tuesday that Olmert would ask his inner security cabinet on Sunday to approve a swap.
Sources close to the talks have said the swap would involve Israel releasing four or five Lebanese prisoners, including Samir Kontar, who is serving a life sentence for a deadly 1979 raid and whom Israeli officials previously described as a "bargaining chip" for the return of an Israeli Air Force navigator missing since his fighter-bomber went down over Lebanon in the 1980s. The two soldiers are believed to have been wounded during their capture and Hizbullah has provided no proof that they are still alive.
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday the two captured soldiers should return to Israel, "whether dead or alive." He also addressed a recommendation by some officials that the two captured troops should be declared dead.
"Even if the process [of proclaiming them deceased] that began yesterday comes to pass - it should not in any way stop the negotiations to bring the soldiers home," said Barak. In a move that outraged the families of the troops, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, the Israeli military's chief rabbi, Brigadier General Avi Ronsky, began the process on Monday. The rabbi is the sole authority on the matter of declaring the missing soldiers dead.
Ronsky received the relevant intelligence information and will determine whether or not do declare the two soldiers "killed in action whose place of burial is unknown." Defense officials clarified the decision on Tuesday and said it stemmed from recently obtained intelligence information. According to the officials, past intelligence indicated that one of the two captives was killed during the initial raid and the other was gravely wounded. However the new information, they said, sheds light on the past working assumption - and was therefore transferred to the chief military rabbi.
The families of the abducted Israeli reservists called on Monday evening for Olmert and Barak to bring the details of the deal to free their sons to a vote in the cabinet. At the end of a series of meetings with various members of the Israeli Knesset and the government ministers, the families said that they have "waited enough."
"At the moment, the details of the deal have been consolidated, and ministers of the government have been updated and support [the deal]," they said in a statement.
"There is no reason that the making of the decision should continue to be delayed," the statement added
The maker of the controversial anti-Muslim film Fitna, MP Geert Wilders, is afraid that he might be arrested while travelling abroad following a ruling by a court in Jordan earlier this week, reports Fridays Volkskrant.
A group calling itself The Messenger of Allah Unites Us has called for an international arrest warrant against Wilders accusing him of racism, inciting hatred and insulting Islam and Muslims, reports the paper.
The group was also behind a call for a boycott of Dutch products in Jordan earlier this year. A spokesman for the foreign affairs ministry told the Telegraaf that the court had not yet issued a warrant for the arrest of Wilders, founder of the anti-immigration party PVV.
However, foreign affairs minister Maxime Verhagen is aware of the possibility that Wilders may be arrested and has ordered an analysis of the risks the MP faces.
One option would be for Amman to ask Interpol to issue an international arrest warrant, the paper says. But more likely would be for Jordan to ask foreign countries which Wilders may visit to arrest and deport the MP.
The anti-terrorism coordinator is also aware of the situation and is fortunately taking it very seriously, Wilders told the Volkskrant. The risk of arrest limits his freedom of movement hugely and makes it impossible to carry out his work as an MP, Wilders says.
#4
Crusoting de Medici5458: Sorry. Maybe I forgot the sarc tag. Have you seen Fitna? Basically, the "contributors" to the contents of Fitna are exclusively radical muslims themselves. They're damned if they do and they're damned if they don't. Kinda fun to watch them squirm really. Especially after they figured out the position they were in, which only took them a couple of weeks of the usual car-b-ques and seething for the most part.
Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned the United States on Wednesday it would face a 'tragedy' if it attacked the Islamic Republic. 'We advise U.S. officials to be careful not to face another tragedy,' Mohammad Hejazi, a senior commander of the Elite Guards, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. 'Our last word is that if you want to move towards Iran make sure you bring walking sticks and artificial legs because if you came you will not have any legs to return on,' he said.
These guys sure do talk tough ...
Hejazi's comments followed market talk of a military strike against the country's nuclear sites.
Also on Wednesday, the influential speaker of Iran's parliament hit out at the European Union for imposing new sanctions despite diplomatic efforts to end the dispute. The 27-nation EU on Monday agreed new punitive measures targeting businesses and individuals the West says are linked to Iran's nuclear and ballistic programs, ten days after world powers offered incentives to Tehran in a bid to resolve the row.
'If you want to negotiate with Iran on the proposed package, why are you following the path of confrontation ... ,' speaker Ali Larijani, Iran's former chief nuclear negotiator, said.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana handed Iran an offer on June 14 of economic and other benefits proposed by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, Germany and France to try to convince it to halt uranium enrichment.
#1
Yeah, yeah. Stomachs roasted in hell at the hands of the, er... remind who was going to do that again.
Posted by: Grenter Protector of the Geats4975 ||
06/25/2008 8:39 Comments ||
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#2
Iran's Revolutionary Guards listed alongside the Elite Republican Guard of Saddam's army in the rating of unit effectiveness. I wonder if they get nervous twitches with every report of another success of the new Iraqi Army in operation.
#3
'Our last word is that if you want to move towards Iran make sure you bring walking sticks and artificial legs because if you came you will not have any legs to return on,' he said.
Comedy gold. But if McCain sings "Bomb Bomb Iran" the left gets a wedgie.
#9
So Reuters is the mouthpiece of the Revolutionary Guards now. How come Reuters gives more space on their wire to what Iran says than to what their own government says?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/25/2008 12:11 Comments ||
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#14
Somebody needs to tell these jerkoffs in plain, simple language that even someone raised with no knowledge of anything except the Oran can understand, that the United States will no longer stand idly by and be threatened by them no matter what they might think they can get away with.
Maybe punctuate that with a bright flashy explosion over Tehran.
I'm just sick of our government not responding to these threats in some manner.
#17
US-ISLAMIST STRATEGIC PARALLELISM + REDIRECTION > 2008-2012 POST-DUBYA POTUS PERIOD > OSAMA BIN LADEN, IRAN + RADICAL ISLAM redir their focii towards NUCLEARIZATION + WEAPONIZATION vv RUSSIA + CENTRAL ASIA/ASIA - meanwhile, the US MSM wants Dubya's POTUS successor to STOP OR RESTRAIN FIGHTING THE WOT IN THE ME + TO IMMEDIATELY BEGIN ACTION ON THE VARIOUS ENVIRONMENTALIST AGENDAS.
* Environmentalism
* Tech Transformation-Innovation
* "Totalitarian"? LIBERTARIANISM? + DIVERSITY?
* OWG = GLOBAL POLICE-WELFARE-NANNY STATE = Future GLOBAL ARMY-GOVTIST STATE.
NET > ENVIRONMENTALISM [etc. above?] IS THE NEW COMMUNISM = MARXIST CAPITALISM???
Again, EVEN MANY PRO-DEM/DEMOLEFT MEDIA PUNDITS WANT DUBYA TO ATTACK IRAN SOON = BEFORE JAN 2009.
Islamic Unity started in Tehran on Sunday in presence of 850 thinkers and intellectuals from 45 countries. The three-day conference opened with inaugural speech of Chairman of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Thinkers and intellectuals from Oman, Sudan, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan, Lebanon, Kuwait, Germany, the US, Tunisia, Syria, Saudi Arabia, France, Morocco, India, Algeria, Hong Kong, Qatar, Britain, Denmark, Iraq, Turkey, Gambia, Afghanistan , Uzbekistan , and the United Arab Emirates are among the participants in the conference.
An uneasy calm reigns in Lebanons second largest city, Tripoli, after two days of sectarian violence which killed at least nine people. Early this morning, witnesses say soldiers and policemen in armoured troop carriers entered the outskirts of the northern city scene of fighting between Sunni Muslim government supporters and Alawite gunmen close to the Hezbollah-led opposition.
The fighting has dealt a serious blow to hopes of a deal to form a national unity government after Lebanon last month ended its long-running political crisis. In a statement, the army said it would start implementing measures to restore an enduring calm and warned that it would use force if necessary to end the bloodshed.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2008 07:23 ||
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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has proposed the formation of a special court to punish world powers for their attempt to thwart Iran's nuclear program. Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying to a group of judges that a court should be formed to try and punish all "world criminals who invade the rights of the Iranian nation," according to the state IRNA news agency.
Iran considers its nuclear ambitions - which the West claims mask weapons making - as an inalienable right. Tehran has dismissed Western claims and contends its uranium enrichment is only meant for electricity production.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2008 07:23 ||
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#1
Keep it up, Short Round, keep it up...
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/25/2008 12:46 Comments ||
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Michel Suleiman, the Lebanese president, has said that festering political divisions have pushed Lebanon to the "verge of suicide". Suleiman was addressing a meeting of influential religious leaders of the country's Christian and Muslim sects and denominations.
Tuesday's meeting came a day after Lebanese troops were deployed to areas in the northern city of Tripoli where two days of clashes left at least nine people dead. Soldiers and police continue to patrol areas of Tripoli to enforce a truce after fierce clashes between pro-government and opposition supporters. Local residents who had fled returned to the densely-populated Tripoli neighbourhoods of Bab al-Tebbaneh, Jabal Mohsen and Al-Qobbe but many shops remain closed.
At the meeting, Suleiman told religious leaders that "healing their wounds and repairing broken bridges" between Lebanese communities was their goal. "The disagreements between the Lebanese today have reached the verge of suicide," he said.
Call for unity
In a joint statement after the meeting, the religious leaders stressed the need for national unity, denouncing extremism and violence. They also called on rival factions to refrain from using weapons or violence to achieve political gains. They also called for a quick formation of a national unity cabinet.
The cabinet's formation has been proving difficult due to long-running differences between the parliament majority and the opposition over the distribution of ministerial portfolios.
Suleiman was elected president as part of a peace deal signed in May to end a political stalemate in Lebanon that turned into street clashes. The so-called "Doha pact", signed in the Qatari captial, called for the formation of a 30-member cabinet in which the Hezbollah-led opposition will have veto power over government decisions.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2008 07:23 ||
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(Bloomberg) -- Iran called broadened economic sanctions by the European Union targeting the country's Bank Melli and other companies ``illegal'' and counterproductive to recent attempts to re-start talks over its nuclear work.
The EU sanctions, which follow U.S. moves and freeze assets of 15 Iranian companies in Europe and impose travel restrictions on 20 people, are ``illegal and contradictory,'' said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.
Iran is examining an incentives package, offered by the EU, in exchange for a halt to the Persian Gulf country's nuclear program. Iran, which refuses to halt its atomic work, has presented its own package to the United Nations.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/25/2008 07:22 ||
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#1
Which is why the USA should walk away from Afghanistan. The Euros will bear the consequences of failure in Afghanistan and if they are not prepared to step up to the plate then so be it. Let them live with the consequences.
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.
According to a new report by the US magazine, Foreign Policy, and the Fund for Peace, which promotes sustainable security, Somalia has been ranked as the most unstable country in the world. Monday's annual report said seven of the top 10 states on the list are in sub-Saharan Africa. 
Saudi Arabia has arrested 701 Islamists in the past six months on suspicion of plotting attacks on oil industry installations, the interior ministry announced on Wednesday. Security forces 'carried out several operations against followers of the deviant ideology and arrested a total of 701 people of various nationalities,' said a ministry spokesman, quoted by the official SPA news agency. Of those arrested since the start of the year, '520 are still being held for their implication in the organisational and ideological plans of the deviant ideology'.
Baghdad, June24, (VOI)-A spokesman for Baghdad security plan on Wednesday said around 9000 awakening council members were appointed as Baghdad police personnels.
WASHINGTON The number of weekly attacks in Iraq has dropped from about 1,200 a week in June 2007 to about 200 a week now, the commander of the tactical unit responsible for command and control of operations in Iraq said June 23.
The Quartet of Middle East peacemakers called Tuesday for a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza terrorists to be respected "in full" and voiced hope that the truce will last. 
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert addressed the renewed Qassam rocket fire from the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, saying 'this is a blatant unequivocal violation of the understandings in the cease fire agreement.' 
The maker of the controversial anti-Muslim film Fitna, MP Geert Wilders, is afraid that he might be arrested while travelling abroad following a ruling by a court in Jordan earlier this week, reports Fridays Volkskrant. 
Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned the United States on Wednesday it would face a 'tragedy' if it attacked the Islamic Republic. 'We advise U.S. officials to be careful not to face another tragedy,' Mohammad Hejazi, a senior commander of the Elite Guards, was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. 'Our last word is that if you want to move towards Iran make sure you bring walking sticks and artificial legs because if you came you will not have any legs to return on,' he said.
Islamic Unity started in Tehran on Sunday in presence of 850 thinkers and intellectuals from 45 countries. The three-day conference opened with inaugural speech of Chairman of the Expediency Council Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. 
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has proposed the formation of a special court to punish world powers for their attempt to thwart Iran's nuclear program. Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying to a group of judges that a court should be formed to try and punish all "world criminals who invade the rights of the Iranian nation," according to the state IRNA news agency. 
