(AKI) - A senior Afghan army official and 50 soldiers have reportedly abandoned their uniforms and joined the ranks of the Taliban.
Taliban spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf announced the move in a statement published on jihadi internet forums on Tuesday. "At 10 a.m yesterday, the deputy general of the border guards, Nur Ahmad Khan Bahlawan joined the ranks of the mujahadeen together with 50 soldiers as a result of a secret relationship established for some time with the men from Nu castle in the region of Badghis."
According to the Taliban, the deserters reportedly brought two rockets and three sub-machineguns as well as a quantity of money. The official was working with the soldiers as border guards.
This article starring:
Badghis
NUR AHMED KHAN BAHLAWAN
Taliban
QARI MOHAMAD YUSUF
Taliban
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2008 00:00 ||
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(AKI) - The United States will increase its troop levels in Afghanistan over the next few months with some troops to be transferred from Iraq. President George W. Bush announced the significant policy shift during a speech at the National Defence University in Washington D.C. on Tuesday.
Under the plan he will order about 8,000 of the 146,000 US troops in Iraq to return home in February. Another 4,500 troops will be deployed in Afghanistan. "Attacks by the Taliban have increased over the past two years," Bush said. "The enemy for a free Afghanistan refuses to give up the fight."
He congratulated coalition troops for the progress made in Iraq, but warned that the progress was "fragile and reversible". Nevertheless, the US president said troop numbers would be reduced in Iraq so the military could focus on a "quiet surge" in Afghanistan where "huge challenges remain."
"This is a vast country. And unlike Iraq, it has few natural resources and has an underdeveloped infrastructure. Its democratic institutions are fragile. Its enemies are some of the most hardened terrorists and extremists in world," said Bush. He said success of Afghanistan was critical to security in the US and elsewhere.
There are currently 33,000 US troops in Afghanistan - the core of a diverse multinational force of more than 50,000 troops. Bush said a marine battalion intended for Iraq would instead be sent to Afghanistan in November, followed by an army brigade in January, comprising a total increase of 4,500 troops. "As we learned in Iraq, the best way to restore the confidence of the people is to restore basic security. And that requires more troops."
Bush also vowed to double the size of the Afghan national army over the next five years, from its current size of 60,000 troops to 120,000.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I don't notice the Donks railing on about getting out of Iraq and going into the 'real war on terrorists' in Afghanistan much anymore. Could they be afrauid that we might win there, too?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/10/2008 7:13 Comments ||
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#2
Even worse, if they think they're going to take the WH then they'll be responsible for finishing our work there. And that will take more than rhetoric.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il may be gravely ill, perhaps the victim of a stroke, U.S. and other Western officials said Tuesday after he failed to appear for a major national parade. If so, it could jeopardize the already troubled international effort to get his nation to abandon nuclear weapons.
Kim's absence from a military parade for the country's 60th anniversary lent credence to reports that the man North Koreans call the "Dear Leader" had been incapacitated during the past few weeks.
The 66-year-old Kim, who has been rumored to be in varying degrees of ill health for years, has not been seen since mid-August. Though he appears rarely in public and his voice is seldom broadcast, Kim has shown up for previous landmark celebrations.
"There is reason to believe Kim Jong Il has suffered a serious health setback, possibly a stroke," one Western intelligence official said. A senior U.S. official said fresh rumors had been circulating about Kim's health and his control over North Korea's highly centralized government.
A former CIA official with recent access to intelligence on North Korea said that even before Tuesday the agency was confident that reports of a health crisis were accurate.
The officials spoke anonymously to summarize sensitive intelligence.
The reclusive Kim took power in 1994 after the death of his father, Kim Il Sung. It was communism's first hereditary transfer of power, and both Kims are revered in a personality cult perpetrated by the country's authoritarian government.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Jeopardizing talks? Ya mean the Talks to Nowhere? So who is going to inherit the Spittle Machine after Kimmie goes to be Hitler's roommate in hell passes away?
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/10/2008 0:59 Comments ||
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I don't know NK that well, but Kimmie's boys seem to be less up to snuff than Uday and Quesay were. I'd have to think that, despite the supposed strength of dynastic politics, some general might hazzard a move on the Disney fanboy and the other clown when we get close to a succession situation. Plus, the folks who live there might be getting wind that their cousins down south get to eat protein every once in a while and that can be awfully tempting after a couple decades of grass stew.
I hope it collapses and SK and China have to pick up the mess as they should. We just need to secure the nukes. I am skeptical that forcing China and SK to administer this economic basket case is in any way a geopolitical failure for the US despite what all the smart geopoliticians say. I see no downside to fomenting the regime's collapse at a point of weakness and uncertainty despite what SK wants.
Getting rid of another rouge state might be a good way for W to ride out of town. Just saying.
#6
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is believed to be recovering from recent surgery, South Korea's spy agency said Wednesday, as the communist nation rejected reports questioning Kim's health as a "conspiracy plot."
Speculation has intensified that Kim may have taken ill after he missed a parade Tuesday commemorating the communist state's founding 60 years ago. That followed weeks of being absent from public view and rumors that foreign doctors were brought to the isolated nation to possibly treat him.
On Wednesday, South Korea's National Intelligence Service reported to a parliamentary committee that it obtained intelligence reports showing Kim recently had surgery for an unspecified circulatory problem, and his condition had much improved, an agency official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing office policy, did not elaborate.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency, citing lawmakers briefed by the spy agency, reported that the 66-year-old Kim suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, but he remains conscious and "is able to control the situation." The NIS also reported to lawmakers that Kim is in a "recoverable and manageable condition," and that the North is not in a "power vacuum," Yonhap said. NIS officials said they could not confirm the Yonhap report.
Residents of a Sydney suburb on Tuesday denied they were racist for objecting to a Muslim school but supporting plans for a Catholic school nearby, local media reported. The Camden/Macarthur Residents' Group, set up earlier this year to fight a proposed Quranic Society Muslim school, said the yet to be approved Catholic school "ticked all the boxes."
"Catholics are part of our community so we should be supporting it on this basis alone," group president Emil Sremchevich told the Sydney Morning Herald. "Why is that racist? Why is it discriminatory? It's very simple: people like some things but don't like other things. Some of us like blondes, some of us like brunettes.
"Why is it xenophobic if I want to make a choice? If I want to like some people and not like other people, that's the nature of the beast."
The Quranic Society said the group's stance was racially motivated. "Everyone can see there is a double standard... No one knows anything about the Catholic school and they say, 'Yeah, give it a tick already'. I think racism is affecting this," spokesman Issam Obeid told the paper.
The residents' group opposed the building of the 1,200-student Muslim school in rural Camden in Sydney's southwest earlier this year. Ahead of one heated public meeting, pigs' heads on stakes were placed on the proposed site with an Australian flag draped between them.
Camden council said the Islamic school was rejected in May on planning grounds, and religion had nothing to do with it. The Catholic proposal for nearby Cawdor would be treated the same way, it said.
Camden mayor, Chris Paterson, said the proposed Catholic school differed from the Islamic school because it would be built on grounds already owned by the church, zoned for school use and housing an existing school.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Is kangeroo meat 'clean' for Muslims?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
09/10/2008 7:18 Comments ||
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#2
Ahead of one heated public meeting, pigs' heads on stakes were placed on the proposed site with an Australian flag draped between them.
More than two dozen people, including 10 policemen, were injured in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) on Tuesday when police clashed with hundreds of demonstrators in fresh protests against Indian rule, police and witnesses said.
Police opened fired and used tear gas shells to disperse hundreds of stone-throwing demonstrators shouting "La ilaha illalah" (There is no god, but Allah) and "We want freedom," officials in Srinagar said.
Tear gas: According to AP, the security forces fired tear gas and used bamboo batons to disperse hundreds of angry demonstrators protesting the killing of a man by the Indian troops.
Several people, including soldiers, were injured in the clashes, officials and doctors said. The protest in Srinagar started after a memorial service for 23-year-old Javed Ahmed Bhat, who was killed on Saturday during another demonstration in the city.
Police admit shooting Bhat with a rubber bullet, and say he later died of his wounds.
At least six protesters, one with bullet wounds, were brought to a Srinagar hospital on Tuesday, according to Reyaz Ahmed, a doctor. He gave no other details.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I wonder if India would be interested in a couple of AC-130s for muslim crowd control...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/10/2008 11:33 Comments ||
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The United States is targeting innocent people in Pakistani tribal area of Waziristan, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Tuesday.
ARY One World quoted the prime minister as saying that the government will not make any compromise on Pakistan's sovereignty and integrity.
According to the channel, Gilani said that Pakistan was passing through a difficult phase, but would not give in to any pressure. The prime minister said that he had discussed issues related to co-operation between Pakistan and Afghanistan in his meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The Afghan president was in Islamabad on Tuesday to attend President Asif Zardari's oath-taking ceremony.
US drone missile strikes in the Tribal Areas have increased in the last few days. At least 17 people were killed in a drone missile attack in North Waziristan on Monday, while a similar attack on two houses in the agency's Garvek village on Friday killed three children and two women. On Thursday, a missile strike killed five people in North Waziristan.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
They're all innocent. There is no evil except white, Anglo-Saxon oppressor evil. All actions against the evil oppressor are sanctioned by allen. There is only one God, and Mo is his prophet.
How'm I doin'?
Posted by: Dhimmi Bobby ||
09/10/2008 5:58 Comments ||
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#2
"Pakistan's sovereignty and integrity" - I do not think these words mean what you think they mean
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/10/2008 7:00 Comments ||
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#3
Just like everybody in the Pen is innocent, or got railroaded, or had a bad lawyer, ya know...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
09/10/2008 8:02 Comments ||
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#4
'US is targeting innocent people being used as human shields by our boys in Waziristan'
#5
Gee, seems as though we can sneak through the "porous" and "rugged" border too and kill people before running back to the protection of our compounds in another country.
How do they like it now?
I hope they get a lot more.
(AKI) - Former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, held hostage for over six years by left-wing guerillas, is among 18 terrorism victims who will on Tuesday attend an historic United Nations forum in New York.
The forum is being convened by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the UN's headquarters and will also be attended by 10 experts.
As well as Betancourt (centre in photo), Ashraf Al-Khaled, whose wedding in Amman, Jordan, was marred by terrorist bombings in November 2005 is among victims from all over the world who are due to attend, the UN said.
The event will serve as an opportunity to put a human face on the suffering of survivors and their families, according to Robert Orr, Assistant Secretary General and Chairman of the UN's Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force "Terror not only dehumanises its victims, but also the societies it affects," Orr said. "We have all heard the voices of terrorists; too seldom do we hear the stories of their victims."
The forum also seeks to change the "often-strained dynamics" between governments, who at times react defensively to criticism for not doing enough to help victims, and the victims themselves, who often feel their needs are not sufficiently addressed. It "will also provide a starting point for building a grand coalition against terrorism," Orr said.
It is not intended to be a political event, but is "solely designed to focus on concrete ways to better support victims of around the world," Orr stated. "It will take strong partnerships between governments, civil society, and most importantly, the voices of victims of terrorism to move us ahead."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
So Mr. Woodward it wasn't just Bush that prolonged the war. Perhaps it was the military leadership (Casey) that was unable to adapt to the situation on the ground. Bush said he would let the military run the war unlike LBJ, and what did he get? Bush can be blamed for a lot of things, but he stayed firm and demanded victory and yes I am one of the 30% that like this president.
#2
The one that did not get it was Rummy. When a counterinsurgency model was briefed to him he called it nation building snd tried to kill the program. Rummy was just too thick to understand how to win this kind of war, Bush trusted him and allowed us to get this wrong. The generals were almost begging him to change the tactics, but rummy had us hobbled. The guy here forgets that DOD is led by civilians and generals execute civilian strategies, even if they disagree. That whole LBJ thing is bull, Rummy ran this t4his thing into the ground with his "snowflake" policies.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
09/10/2008 15:43 Comments ||
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#3
The generals were almost begging him to change the tactics, but rummy had us hobbled.
That's why as soon as Rummy was gone the generals united behind the strategy and tactics that Rummy had squelched and forced Bush to change the game plan. No wonder the donks are talking about running Casey in '12.
#4
That whole LBJ thing is bull, Rummy ran this t4his thing into the ground with his "snowflake" policies.
Go read On Strategy: The Vietnam War in Context by Col. Harry Summers. It was one of the text book used after the war in rebuilding the services. A lot of self reflections on errors committed. Somewhere in there you'll find the total number of times LBJ meet with his senior military chiefs on the issue of Vietnam was about twice.
RAMALLAH: A special Israeli ministerial task force has completed drafting a list of 450 Palestinian prisoners whom Israel would be willing to release in exchange for kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.
The Israeli daily Haaretz said the ministerial panel, headed by Vice Premier Haim Ramon, finished drafting its list on Sunday and submitted it to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Sometime in the next few days, Olmert will discuss it with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, and if the troika approves the list, it will be sent to Egypt and presented to Hamas as a formal Israeli offer.
According to the report, this is the first time Israel has submitted a list of its own, rather than merely approving or rejecting names submitted by Hamas.
However, the report added that Israel is threatening to take various active measures should Hamas continue to delay talks over Shalit, who was captured by a Hamas-led military group in a cross-border raid from Gaza in June 2006. Israeli officials sent this message to Hamas via an Egyptian mediator last week.
Of the 450 prisoners specifically requested by Hamas, Israel had previously agreed to release only about 70, and all of them appear on the list drafted by the ministerial panel. The list also includes additional names on Hamas list that Israel had originally vetoed, but whom it is now prepared to release in line with the new, more flexible criteria for freeing prisoners with blood on their hands that Ramons team approved.
Previously approved criteria had barred the release of any Palestinian involved in killing an Israeli.
#3
Irrespective of the number, each should be implanted with a C-4 boom-maker. If Shalit is returned DOA, the button should be pushed for a loud mass-Muzzie-to-virgins delivery......
(AKI) - The United Nations said on Tuesday it was removing its relief personnel from Sri Lanka's troubled north, following a government order to leave ahead of a major military offensive.
Meanwhile the International Committee of the Red Thingy Cross said tens of thousands of people had fled districts, including Killinochi, Mullaitivu and Vavuniya, under the control of separatist rebels from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.
Sri Lanka's Disaster Management Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe on Monday said Colombo could not guarantee the safety of aid workers "given the present situation".
"The ICRC has stepped up activities in the Vanni to meet the needs of the displaced," said Toon Vandenhove, the organisation's head of delegation in Sri Lanka. "Although we have been able to help a significant number of people who had to flee their homes, we are concerned about those who have already had to move several times because of the fighting. Not all have received humanitarian assistance."
In August, the ICRC distributed relief items -- including nearly 14,000 family hygiene kits, over 4,700 baby-care parcels, and other essentials to nearly 78,000 displaced people in Vanni.
Since hostilities escalated between government troops and Tamil Tiger militants at the beginning of July, more than 84,000 displaced people have received household essentials.
Only a few aid agencies, including the UN outfits, still operate inside the rebel-held Wanni district in northern Sri Lanka. Government forces are currently engaged in a major push to dismantle guerilla strongholds there. While there have so far been no reports of significant or large-scale health problems, the authorities remain on the alert for outbreaks of diarrhoea, malaria and other diseases.
"The ICRC calls on both parties to the conflict to do their utmost to spare civilians the effects of ongoing hostilities," said Vandenhove. "We are committed to staying close to those in need of humanitarian aid and to meeting their most urgent needs regardless of whether they seek refuge in government or LTTE-controlled areas."
The ICRC's relief operation in the Vanni has been financed from the organisation's 2008 budget for Sri Lanka of 27 million dollars.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2008 00:00 ||
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An Israeli minister who ran the Mossad operation to capture Adolf Eichmann has hinted that Israel might use similar tactics to kidnap President Ahmadinejad of Iran and place him on trial before an international court. Rafi Eitan, now 81, was one of the agents who seized Eichmann in 1960 and transported him from Argentina to Israel, where he was tried and executed for carrying out Adolf Hitler's "final solution" to kill European Jewry.
Such an operation, he suggested, could be ordered so that Mr. Ahmadinejad could be tried for anti-Israeli rhetoric. Mr. Ahmadinejad has made numerous vitriolic attacks on Israel, including remarks which some of his supporters dispute he ever made calling for "Israel to be wiped off the map."
Mr. Eitan suggested that the International Criminal Court in the Hague could try Mr. Ahmadinejad, although it is not clear which of the genocide and war crimes laws would apply. The comments about a possible snatch operation came in an interview with Der Spiegel, the German news magazine, when he was asked if Mossad was still in the hunt for Nazis. "That era is over," he said. "But that's not to say that such operations are completely a thing of the past. It could very well be that a leader such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad suddenly finds himself before the International Criminal Court in The Hague." Mr. Eitan described Mr. Ahmadinejad as someone who "spread poison." According to Mr. Eitan anyone who wanted to eradicate another people had "to expect such consequences. A man like Ahmadinejad who threatens genocide has to be brought for trial in the Hague," he said. "And all options are open in terms of how he should be brought."
Asked if kidnapping was acceptable, Mr. Eitan replied: "Yes. Any way to bring him for trial in the Hague is a possibility."
#1
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran has protested to the United Nations over an Israeli minister's suggestion that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad be abducted and dragged before international justice, the official IRNA news agency reported Wednesday.
"The threat of force and committing crimes such as abducting a member of the United Nations is a clear violation of international rights and is contrary to the UN charter," Iran's UN representative Mohammad Khazaei was quoted as saying in the protest letter.
Khazaei also denounced remarks by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, who said in August that Israel would use "all options," against Iran's nuclear programme.
He demanded "firm action" by the UN Security Council over the threats from Israel, regarded by Iran as one of its main enemies along with the United States.
"Firm action" by the UN Security Council? Good luck with that...
#5
Imanutjob is facing internal political complications, from the not quite as overtly nutso faction among the mullahs, and hes trying to change the subject.
#6
Would anyone miss the little twerp is he were kidnapped? Seems like a lot of people would think it was a good thing. Wasn't he active in the takeover of our embassy back in 1979?
#7
Which airport is he flying into later this month? We could just point the Israelis in the right direction and do the "hear no evil, see no evil, ..." bit for ten minutes or so.
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.
(AKI) - The United States will increase its troop levels in Afghanistan over the next few months with some troops to be transferred from Iraq. President George W. Bush announced the significant policy shift during a speech at the National Defence University in Washington D.C. on Tuesday.
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il may be gravely ill, perhaps the victim of a stroke, U.S. and other Western officials said Tuesday after he failed to appear for a major national parade. If so, it could jeopardize the already troubled international effort to get his nation to abandon nuclear weapons. 
Residents of a Sydney suburb on Tuesday denied they were racist for objecting to a Muslim school but supporting plans for a Catholic school nearby, local media reported. The Camden/Macarthur Residents' Group, set up earlier this year to fight a proposed Quranic Society Muslim school, said the yet to be approved Catholic school "ticked all the boxes." 
More than two dozen people, including 10 policemen, were injured in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) on Tuesday when police clashed with hundreds of demonstrators in fresh protests against Indian rule, police and witnesses said. 
The United States is targeting innocent people in Pakistani tribal area of Waziristan, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Tuesday.
