Pashtun tribal elders have promised to ensure security for supplies trucked through the Khyber Pass bound for foreign forces in Afghanistan, a government official said on Tuesday. Tahab Khan, a senior government official, said elders had signed an agreement with the authorities on Monday to ensure the safety of supplies. According to transport companies, more than 20 trucks hauling containers have been attacked since June.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
ISLAMABAD - In a dramatic move, three leading insurgent Baloch nationalist groups have suspended their armed activities indefinitely, ostensibly in response to several conciliatory moves initiated by the government.
The decision was announced by Beebargh Baloch and Sirbaz Baloch, spokesmen for the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Balochistan Republican Army (BRA), while talking to journalists on satellite phones on Monday night. The PPP-led central and provincial governments have freed detained leaders and vowed to compensate for the injustice done to the people of the province in past six decades.
The announcement was greeted in Islamabad as a good omen for PPP cochairperson and front-runner in the presidential race Asif Zardari ahead of September 6 election. He has spearheaded a vigorous initiative to launch a healing process in the province that is believed to be teetering towards separation. The government has accused foreign powers of instigating the insurgency. All the three militant organisations have jointly decided to suspend their resistance movement for an indefinite period, they said while denying that the decision was the result of any deal. We want to tell the Baloch people and the world that we can stop the movement any time and can restart it when ever we decide to do so.
The groups said they are halting sabotage and subversive operations unilaterally but would wait for governments next move. The groups include the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) and the Balochistan Republican Army (BRA). They announced the truce in consultation with each other.
Aaj TV channel quoted BLA spokesman Sarbaz Baloch as saying that the group had suspended its activities for the sake of Baloch people. He denied the suspension was a result of any deal with the government. He, however, warned of retaliation if security forces did not stop the use of force against the group. He demanded the government to stop establishing cantonments and launching new rojects in the province.
A low key near-insurgency has been continuing for past some years led mainly by Baloch nationalist youth. They have largely targeted gas and electricity transmission lines and security forces. They have been demanding Baloch ownership on the natural resources of the province and stopping construction of new cantonments.On occasions they have also demanded independence for Balochistan.
They said the organisations were united for the common objective. The spokesmen said that during the suspension of the movement the three organisations would review the overall situation in the province and if the military operation and construction of cantonments were not stopped they would respond with full force. They warned that anyone found involved in spying against the Baloch movement would be eliminated. Adviser on Interior Rehman Malik said last week the government was in touch with Guzzan Baloch, militant son of Baloch nationalist leader Khair Bakhsh Marri who is believed to have been leading the separatist armed struggle from abroad. He has been assured of safe return without arrest, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
See WAFF.com > BALOCHISTAN DEMANDS/WANTS A SHARE IN THE IPI PIPELINE TARNSIT FEES.
General David Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, said declining violence in Baghdad raised the possibility that American combat troops could leave the capital by next summer. Asked in an interview with the Financial Times whether it was feasible that US combat forces could leave Baghdad by July, he said: "Conditions permitting, yeah."
His comments come as the US and Iraq hammer out the final details of a long-term security agreement that reportedly outlines a potential timeline for US combat troops to leave Iraqi cities by next summer, and the country by 2011.
"The number of attacks in Baghdad lately has been, gosh, I think it's probably less than five [a day] on average, and that's a city of seven million people," said Gen Petraeus.
While declining to comment on the details of the security agreement, Gen Petraeus said US combat forces had already pulled back from cities in 13 of Iraq's 18 provinces. The sight of US soldiers exiting Baghdad would be highly symbolic given the scale of violence that gripped the city in 2006 and 2007.
Gen Petraeus leaves Iraq later this month to become head of Central Command, which oversees US operations in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa. Before his departure, the four-star general will give President George W. Bush his final recommendation for troop levels as commander in Iraq. He will continue to help shape policy on Iraq in his new role.
Senior brass in the Pentagon have hoped conditions in Iraq would permit further reductions this autumn following the withdrawal this summer of the five "surge" combat brigades to reduce the stress on the military and free up troops for Afghanistan.
Gen Petraeus declined to outline his recommendation, but conceded that the recent unexpected withdrawal of 2,000 Georgian troops during the conflict with Russia had caused "some wrinkles". "You have to look at various contingencies and make assumptions, and in some cases if you have an uncertainty, then needless to say you hedge your bets a bit."
His recommendation will come during the closing stretch of the US presidential campaign in which Iraq remains a key issue. Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate, has outlined the kind of fixed timetable opposed by Gen Petraeus and other senior brass by vowing to remove troops within 16 months of taking office.
Gen Petraeus declined to say whether he would continue to voice such opposition if Mr Obama became the next commander-in-chief. "What needs to take place is a good discussion on missions, on objectives, on levels of risk associated with various courses of action and that's, I think, what will take place whoever's elected, frankly."
Overall, Gen Petraeus said Iraq was a "dramatically changed country" from when he assumed command in February 2007. He said attacks had plummeted from a daily rate of 180 in June 2007 to about 25 recently. He mused that "there is certainly a degree of hope that was not present 19 months ago".
Gen Petraeus welcomed the increased capability of the Iraqi security forces and the fact that 70 per cent of Iraqi army battalions are now taking the lead in military operations. The US military passed a milestone when it this week handed over responsibility for the former bloody province of Anbar province to Iraqi security forces. But he also urged caution, saying there were "innumerable challenges out there still. Make no bones about it". These include resolving the final status of oil-rich Kirkuk, key provincial elections, and remaining ethno-sectarian tensions. And while al-Qaeda was greatly diminished, he said, it still had the capability to deliver lethal attacks.
In recent weeks the US has grown concerned about an apparent crackdown by Nouri al-Maliki, the Shia prime minister, on some senior members of the Sunni groups. Gen Petraeus said that while it was "a concern", Mr Maliki had promised not to "cut loose" the "Sons of Iraq" who are paid about $300 a month to protect local neighbourhoods.
Gen Petraeus expressed frustration at the slow speed of integrating some of the "Sons of Iraq" into the Iraqi army, although he acknowledged that it was a "very emotional topic" for many Iraqi politicians because of previous sectarian fighting between the Shia and Sunni.
When Gen Petraeus last testified before Congress in April, he was very critical of alleged Iranian support for Iraqi militias. Asked why his command had never produced the evidence it promised to support its allegations, Gen Petraeus said the move was in deference to the Iraqi leadership who wanted to deliver the evidence privately to Tehran. Asked whether Iranian meddling in Iraq had subsided, Gen Petraeus said the leaders of the so-called "special groups" militias had fled Iraq during the recent military campaigns initiated by Mr Maliki in Basra and Baghdad. "They're in Iran, they're in Lebanon, they're in Syria and so...there's very much a wait and see attitude."
At Centcom, Gen Petraeus will also assume overall responsibility for Afghanistan. He declined to speculate about whether Afghanistan would require an Iraq-like surge of more than the three additional brigades the Pentagon currently believes are necessary. But he pointed out that the situation in Afghanistan was very different to that in Iraq.
"There are limitations in Afghanistan that are not found here...Iraq's infrastructure is still vastly greater than that of Afghanistan. So, there was an ability here to absorb a substantial number of forces in a relatively short period of time," he said. "I think, again, the infrastructure challenges, the transportation and logistical challenges, and perhaps, again, the desires of national authorities and so forth are all different. So, again, it would be very premature to speculate about what might or might not be added to Afghanistan."
Iraq has said it plans to rebuild the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, complete with a museum portraying the crimes of Saddam Hussein.
The jail, which is situated 15 miles west of Baghdad, has been closed since September 2006 after the US military handed it over to the Iraqi authorities in the wake of a prisoner abuse scandal.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said: "A part of it will be kept as a museum for showing the crimes committed by the previous regime." However, it is thought that no references to the facility's recent controversy will be made.
A committee of interior, defence and justice ministries will oversee the reconstruction, the spokesman added, but he was unable to give a timetable for completion.
Abu Ghraib housed approximately 2,000 inmates when it was closed in 2006.
A draft security deal between Washington and Baghdad on the future of US forces in Iraq is to be submitted to Parliament within 10 days, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was quoted as saying Tuesday. "The SOFA [Status of Forces Agreement] will be sent to Parliament within 10 days," he said in the Badr newspaper.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
Ma'an -- Lebanese sources confirmed the news on Tuesday that the Israeli military plans to withdraw from the Lebanese village of Al-Ghajar, on the Israeli border.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Sunday that Israel is prepared to leave the village, after receiving guarantees from UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, that part of the village would be controlled by international forces.
The London-based Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat daily newspaper quoted a Lebanese official as saying that the Lebanese authorities expect Israeli forces to withdraw soon from the village.
The Yasmina Bouziane said she hoped UNIFIL would soon reach an agreement between the Israelis and the Lebanese on the village in preparation to implement UN resolution 1701, which authorizes UN troops to police the ceasefire in Lebanon.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
One day they will find themselves withdrawing to the Mediteranean (sic). :((
(AKI) - The Israeli army recently expelled 91 Africans who crossed the border into Israel from Egypt - in violation of its own procedures, the Jerusalem Post daily reported on Tuesday.
In an affidavit presented to an Israeli court on Monday, obtained by The Jerusalem Post, the state admitted that the illegal immigrants, had been deported to Egypt on four separate occasions between 23 and 29 August.
The immigrants reportedly came from Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia.
"We clarified to the officers in the field that they did not act in accordance with the binding commands regarding 'coordinated return,'" Lt.-Col. Yoel Strick, who is in charge of most of the border between Egypt and Israel, wrote in Monday's affidavit.
The army is required to decide within three to six hours whether to expel illegal African immigrants entering Israel, on the basis of their replies to a standard questionnaire completed by the soldier who intercepts them.
The Israeli state stressed that the expulsions had been conducted in coordination with Cairo and added that Egypt had informed Israel the illegal migrants would be dealt with by Egyptian legal authorities.
Hotline for Migrant Workers attorney Anat Bendor charged, however, that Egypt had not guaranteed that the Africans would not be returned to their home countries.
Sudanese refugees from Darfur face the threat of death, while the UN refugee agency has issued orders stating that all countries must grant temporary asylum with the right to work to refugees from Eritrea.
"The policy of 'coordinated return' grossly violates Israel's legal obligations towards refugees fleeing for their lives," Bendor said, cited by the Jerusalem Post.
"And the first one is the prohibition to return refugees to the place where their lives are in danger or where they might be tortured."
The affidavit filed Monday was attached to a response by the state on behalf of the Defence Ministry after a group of human rights organisations headed by the Hotline for Migrant Workers asked the court for an interim injunction to suspend the "coordinated return" procedure until it ruled on the core of the petition to prohibit the procedure altogether.
In May, the Israeli state informed the High Court that it was training soldiers to carry out the immediate expulsion of Africans, in coordination with Egyptian authorities and in accordance with regulations prepared by the high command.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
standard questionnaire
Are you a professional with a salable skill? Do you have a job? Do you have medical insurance? Do you have any money? Then go back to where you came from and sort it out. We're full up!
Ma'an -- Hamas denied reports on Tuesday that the exiled head of its political bureau, Khalid Mash'al, has moved his office from Damascus to Sudan, asserting that relations between the Islamic movement and Syria are still strong. "Our relation with Syria is strategic and deep," said senior Hamas leader Isma'il Radwan.
Radwan was addressing a report published in a Kuwaiti newspaper that Mesh'al had moved his operation to Sudan at Syria's request.
Unity talks
Radwan also denied that his movement received an official invitation from Egypt to Palestinian reconciliation talks in Cairo. All Hamas learned, he said, was that Egypt will host a Hamas delegation during the last ten days of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan for bilateral talks with the Egyptians who will by then have completed talks with a Fatah delegation.
The Reconciliation dialogue in Cairo ended its first week as the Egyptians held bilateral talks with the Islamic Jihad delegation, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), who rejected a proposal to deploy troops from Arab states in the Gaza Strip.
Radwan said that that proposal was meant to "blow up the dialogue and end it before it starts."
The idea of sending some form of international forces to Gaza had been floated as an interim step towards unifying administrative control between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. "Let these forces go to the West Bank and Jerusalem. Let them free the holy places," he said. Radwan highlighted that no pressure had been placed on his movement with regard to the proposed Arab force.
"If the Egyptians succeed to hold a meeting between President Mahmoud Abbas and Khalid Mash'al, reconciliation attempts could work out after the Eid Al-Fitr [at the end of Ramadan]," Radwan explained.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
Ma'an -- Palestinian leaders will not sign a peace agreement with Israel that does not guarantee the status of East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state, said Palestinian chief negotiator Ahmad Qurei on Tuesday.
Qurei met with the envoy of the international Quartet, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday at Qurei's office in the town of Abu Dis, in East Jerusalem. The meeting addressed the results of recent meetings between the Palestinian and Israeli negotiators.
Qurei reaffirmed the Palestinian position that any agreement must address all the core issues, including Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees. Any agreement must address these issues in a binding way.
Qurei, the former Palestinian prime minister, also said that Israel's policies are threatening to destroy the peace process. He said settlement construction in Jerusalem aims to turn the city into a purely Jewish entity, and mentioned the controversial excavations under Al-Aqsa Mosque and in the area of the Mughrebi Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem, activity that has sparked concern that the iconic Mosque is under threat.
Qurei called on the international Quartet along with to seek a peace agreement that ends the Israeli occupation of territories captured in 1967, and guarantees the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Furthermore, he said, the question of Palestinian refugees should also be solved in accordance with UN resolution 194.
For his part, Blair expressed understanding the Palestinian attitude. He reiterated his rejection of Israel's expansion of settlements expansion and construction of new settlements. In order to achieve just peace, he said there should be tangible results, the first of which is ending Israeli occupation and giving the Palestinians opportunity to establish a democratic state.
Blair also stressed the necessity to improve economic situation in the Palestinian territories which deteriorated as a result of Israeli siege.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
"Palestine" is a Roman slur word. There is nothing historical about it. Jerusalem belongs to Israel.
Hamas has an image problem, and it's getting worse. It's gotten so bad that the 30 year old son (Mosab Yousef) of one of the Hamas founders (Hassan Yousef) has not only renounced Hamas, but has become a Christian. Mosab is fed up with the terrorism/"destroy Israel" approach the Arab world has embraced over the last sixty years. Mosad notes, as have many other Arabs, that this has not worked.
The conversion angle is something Moslems are trying to keep quiet. Mosab Yousef's father pleaded with his son to keep quiet about the conversion (which took place 18 months ago). The elder Yousef knows that this is not an isolated incident. Many young Moslems are abandoning Islam. Most do so quietly. In Iran, the clerics that run the country are shocked at secret police reports about a growing number of young Iranians who have, in effect, abandoned Islam. This sort of thing is happening all over the Moslem world, but especially in Arab countries. The people who switch to Islamic radicalism get all the headlines, not the larger numbers who just walk away from Islam are largely ignored. In the Palestinian territories, there is also a growth in the number of Sunni Moslems who are switching to the Shia version (as championed by Iran). But many other Moslems are openly distancing themselves from the conservative forms of Islam (like the well funded Saudi Wahhabism). One reason this trend is kept quiet is because Islamic militants are inclined to kill such traitors, if the switch is done too openly. Thus the elder Yousef's plea that his son keep quiet, lest he attract the murderous attention of Islamic radicals out to impose the death sentence on apostates.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/03/2008 17:56 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
The time is soon approaching for an Islamic Reformation. Both the Egyptians and the Turks have seen this coming, and there are some efforts to revise the more onerous parts of the Koran in both countries.
Ironically, the reformation will cross their sectarian lines. The modernist-secularist urban Muslims are getting fed up with being pushed around by ignorant, ultra-conservative rural peasants.
The peasants may be murderous, but the city folk can be a lot more murderous, when they set their mind to it.
Despite a renewed focus on nuclear weapons safety and management, the Air Force will forge ahead on a command intended to safeguard military and domestic networks, an Air Force cyberspace official said at the Air Force Information Technology Conference in Montgomery, AL, last week.
The Defense Department has not canceled plans to launch the Air Force Cyber Command, said Maj. Gen John Maluda, director of cyberspace transformation and strategy at the Air Forces Office of Warfighting Integration and Chief Information Officer. The service launched a provisional Cyber Command more than a year ago and planned to finish organizing the unit by Oct. 1. But the Air Force has put those plans on hold after the departures of Chief of Staff T. Michael Moseley and Secretary Michael Wynne, who were fired after two incidents involving mishandled or misplaced nuclear detonators or weapons. Because of those mistakes, DOD reviewed Air Force priorities, resources and plans for new commands, including the Cyber Command.
The Air Force has at least temporarily lost its campaign to become the primary cyberspace security operator for the military services and civilian infrastructure. But Maluda said the Air Force is not backing away from its effort to build a cyberspace command. He said the decision to postpone the official launch of the Cyber Command will not affect the Air Forces ability to control cyberspace. The command will continue to protect sensitive information and restrict access to it.
Maluda said information systems previously considered to be low risk might need more protection because they could be more susceptible to cyberattacks than non-Air Force specialists realize. For example, the Transportation Command, is one of the most-hacked DOD commands. Because the command can quickly deploy troops, aircraft and equipment across the world, any country that's unable to do that and wants to get information on how to do it has an interest in hacking into the commands systems, he said.
The Air Force has bigger ambitions for cyberspace operations than just protecting unclassified information. Maluda said it makes sense to let specialists control physical resources, such as satellites, unmanned aerial vehicles and other assets. But the networks, software and security that support those resources might better be protected and operated by cyberwar specialists such as the Air Force IT employees who heard Maluda speak. He was at least partially trying to assuage concerns about their professional future.
Military investigation into the shooting at a Lebanese army helicopter was likely to expand the hypothesis that there was more than one person involved in the attack based on testimony by co-pilot Mahmoud Abboud and other witnesses, the daily al Liwaa reported Tuesday.
It said military investigators have demanded that Hezbollah turn over three other men allegedly involved in Thursday's helicopter shooting attack which killed airman Samer Hanna in Sujud, south Lebanon.
Hezbollah on Friday turned over one suspect to the judiciary saying he was the person who opened fire at the helicopter Hanna was flying over Sujud hills.
Meanwhile, LBC television said Hezbollah is positively responding to the investigators' demands, adding that preliminary probe showed that there was no motive behind the attack.
It said the man who opened fire did so because he was suffering from tension as did the rest of his comrades who thought they faced an Israeli military airdrop.
LBC said the helicopter was hit by three bullets, one of which penetrated the windshield and killed Hanna.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
Judge Malik Abla , Examining Magistrate in the case of the assassination of Ziad al-Ghandour and Ziad Qabalan on April 23 last year, issued the charges, in which he accused five brothers from the Shamas family ( whose brother Adnan was killed on January 23 In 2007 during clashes that occurred in the vicinity of the Arab University in Beirut ) of committing the crime.
The ruling requested the death penalty for five Shamas brothers who are still at large :Muhammad , Shehadeh, Abdullah, Abbas and Ali Shamas, and also requested the penalty of hard labor for life for each of the detainees: Mustafa Omar Al Saeedy, Ayman Fouad Safwan , Wissam Ghazi Orabi, Saeb Ibrahim Al Dakkdoki for helping in concealing the crime.
The ruling also requested a jail sentence of up to three years for each of: Hanan Atwi, Abeer Kabalan, Hassan Hazeemah, Hana Ismail, Rabih Houili for concealing Ali Shamas and for refusing to notify the authorities about the crime he committed
Ziad Ghandour, 12 and Ziad Qabalan, 25 were kidnapped late April 2007 and their bodies were found 2 days later in Sidon. The crime was described as an act of revenge for the killing of Adnan Shamas, a 29-year Shia, during the anti-government riot in January this year, but the Shamas clan denied any involvement in the kidnapping and the subsequent murder.
The autopsies revealed that both Ziad's were shot in the head from close range ... Each had 3 bullets in his head. It was not immediately determined what type of weapons were used, but preliminary findings show the same weapon was used to kill both.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Say it with flowers a triple-tap...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/03/2008 7:24 Comments ||
Top||
The leaders of France, Qatar, Turkey and Syria will meet on Thursday at the request of Damascus to examine ways to move towards peace in the Middle East, an official close to President Nicolas Sarkozy said. "(Sarkozy) will end this visit with a four-way summit," the official told reporters.
In addition to Sarkozy and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the meeting will bring together Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, whose country is mediating indirect peace talks between Syria and Israel, and Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, who brokered the political deal in Lebanon.
Israeli and Syrian envoys have held talks in Turkey -- without meeting face-to-face -- on four occasions since May, when the talks were re-launched after an eight-year freeze. The last round was at the end of July.
Sarkozy is due to travel to Syria on Wednesday on an official visit aimed at reinforcing ties with Damascus after Syria helped reach a deal to end a political crisis in neighboring Lebanon, a former French protectorate.
France currently holds the presidency of the European Union, while Syria heads the Council of the Arab League and Qatar is the current chair of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/03/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
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.
Iraq has said it plans to rebuild the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, complete with a museum portraying the crimes of Saddam Hussein. 
