Up to 2.000 pirates are now believed to be sailing forth from its (Somalia's) lawless coastline, carrying out anything up to half a dozen attacks per week and earning an estimated $30 million in ransoms last year alone. They operate mainly along a traditional clan basis - the system of close family loyalties that has made Somalia all but ungovernable as a nation, but which provides a perfect social template for crime Mafias.
The simple modus operandi of modern day piracy also suits them well. Besides a couple of motor launches, all that is needed is a few Kalashnikovs and perhaps a rocket propelled grenade launcher, weapons easily available in a country wracked by civil war. Even the sailing expertise required is limited. Most pirates steer these days not by the stars, but by hand-held mobile GPS systems - the nautical answer to the satnav - allowing them to range far out to sea without getting lost. Otherwise, little, prior planning is needed: the Gulf of Aden is so packed with shipping that targets can simply be chosen at random.
The Maersk Alabama, which originally had 21 American sailors on board, shows how much potential there is for major disaster. US television networks are treating it as a tale of all-American heroism, focusing on how the ship's crew managed first to take one of their attackers prisoner, and how Capt Phillips then selflessly volunteered for a hostage-swap. They could so easily, however, be reporting a tale of all-American tragedy.
#2
Quit feeding them and won't have tyo worry about American aid ships getting hijacked.
Posted by: ed ||
04/12/2009 10:39 Comments ||
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#3
Fifteen thousand in Somalia is the equivalent of $250,000 in the US - a small fortune. They also don't pay taxes, and have little overhead other than gas for their boat and shells for their Kalashnikovs.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/12/2009 13:15 Comments ||
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#4
It's booming cause there's little downside. When this happened two hundred years ago, the Europeans did nothing (except pay ransom and protection money). It took the President of a small country called the United States and an American naval commander named Stephen Decatur to put an end to the depredations of the pirates.
Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said yesterday that Bangladesh is a secular country with a Muslim majority. She made this observation in reply to a question whether Bangladesh is a moderate Muslim country as termed by many foreign diplomats.
In 1951 the Hindu population of Bangladesh was 22%. Today it is less than 9%
The landslide victory of the secular forces in the last general election also proves that people of this country do not subscribe to fundamentalism, she opined.
How she managed to keep her lips on after those statements I'll never know ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/12/2009 00:00 ||
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A controversial preacher of hate banned from America and linked to the 9/11 terror attacks is to lecture young Muslims in Birmingham.
Anwar Al-Awlaki has been named as an Al Qaida supporter by the US Department of Homeland Security. But the Iman, an American citizen who currently lives in Yemen, is due to front a two-day seminar on Islam in Birmingham over the Bank Holiday weekend of May 24-25. Al-Awlaki will not appear in person but his speech will be broadcast by videolink, and tickets are already available online for £70.
Birmingham Labour MP Roger Godsiff, who represents Sparkbrook and Small Heath, said he was concerned about the event and would be contacting the Home Office about it. There are more than enough experts on Islam within the UK and I find it disquieting that somebody should be invited to contribute to a seminar when he has been allegedly associated with terrorism and banned from the US, he said.
In a rant called The Constants of Jihad, which is posted on popular video sharing website Youtube, Al-Awlaki rages against the West and calls for holy war to spread Islam. Every single government in the world is united to fight against Islam, he says.People try to find a way of bailing out of jihad because they do not like it. The reality of war is horrible and thats why people try to avoid it. But fighting is proscribed upon you, it is an instruction from Allah.
The speech, which has been viewed more than 3,500 times, was watched by a gang of five terrorists as they hatched a plot to kill US soldiers at the Fort Dix facility in New Jersey. The militants, who were convicted last year of conspiracy, will be sentenced later this month. Al-Awlaki is also said to have influenced the September 11 plane hijackers.
Charles Allen, Americas undersecretary of Homeland Security for intelligence and analysis, described Al-Awlaki as an al Qaida supporter, and former spiritual leader to three of the September 11 hijackers.
On his own website, set up to distribute his lectures around the world, Al-Awlaki tells followers: We will implement the rule of Allah on Earth by the tip of the sword, whether the masses like it or not.
His Birmingham lecture, entitled Virtues of the Sahabah, is being hosted by an education group called the Al Wasatiyyah Foundation, which describes itself as a non-political, non-partisan body. Ours is a vision to cultivate and awaken the generations of believers to exemplify the Sunnah (way of the prophet) wholeheartedly and to implement Islam in its totality, a statement on their website says. We stand firmly against any calls to compromise and all efforts to undermine the sound aspirations and beliefs held by the Muslim community.
#1
ION NOT BRITAIN, WAFF > SIKHS DEMAND RIGHT TO WEAR TURBANS IN US ARMY; + RUSSIA DOES NOT RULE OUT NATO MEMBERSHIP; + STOP NATO/EURASIAN CROSSROADS: THE [South]CAUCASUS IN US, NATO WAR PLANS [Strategic/Pivotal region for control of World Energy + Transport routes, espec as per South Caucasus = Armenia, Azerbaijan, + Georgia former SSRS].
The UK must distance itself from American foreign policy if Pakistani youths are to be prevented from growing up hating Britain, according to the government's social cohesion minister.
The comments by Sadiq Khan, who has just returned from a fact-finding trip to Pakistan, follow the arrests of 12 men - 10 of whom were Pakistani nationals - in the north-west of England last week on suspicion of planning a terror attack. They are likely to be given short shrift from Number 10, which has been keen to ally itself to the Obama administration. Earlier this month Gordon Brown stressed the two allies were united in their fight against terrorism in Pakistan.
But Khan, London's first Muslim MP, said the UK must differentiate itself from the US after attending meetings at universities in Pakistan. "I listened to the anger and pain over the challenges that young people growing up in Pakistan face, including the anger and frustration over US drone attacks," he said.
The attacks by unmanned US drones have provoked fury in Pakistan, where scores of militants have been killed in the country's remote border regions, along with innocent civilians.
"The anger and frustration at the drone attacks was huge," Khan said. "The view they [the students] had was that the UK was somehow responsible for this. They haven't understood this was purely a US matter. They lumped us together with the US, which to me is a poison. It demonstrates to me we have a big problem."
Khan, whose parents are from Pakistan, suggested the UK should look to reach out to disaffected Muslim youths by emphasising the close links between the two countries. "Much of the Pakistani population doesn't realise the good we are doing," Khan said: the UK is to double aid to Pakistan to £180m by 2011.
Crucial to winning hearts and minds, Khan said, was dismantling the perception that the US and the UK were one and the same over foreign policy. Acknowledging the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq had mobilised Muslim opinion against the UK, Khan said: "Because of things that happened in 2003, there is an uphill battle. We need better to explain that there has been a distinct change in UK foreign policy.
"For example, this month the last troops will come home from Iraq: that's very different from the US. The drone attacks are US, not UK; our development policy doesn't have the strings that come with US aid."
Khan's comments come as ministers seek to increase the numbers of security officials in Pakistan to help in vetting those applying for visas to Britain. At present there are fewer than 10 security service officers assessing the backgrounds of more than 20,000 applications a year. "At present, we are reliant on a small number of officials who do the ground work; that is reliant on the Pakistani government giving us what it knows. That should improve in the near future, and can be done with the co-operation of Pakistan," a Home Office source said.
Government figures show that 42,292 student visas were issued to Pakistanis between April 2004 and April 2008.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/12/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
A distinguishing attribute of a failed state is the refusal to accept responsibility while placing the blame for any unhappy event on someone else. This is especially true in Pakistan. A distinguishing attribute of Muslim politicians and mullahs is the refusal to face reality or tell the truth. And this is also true of Muslim politicians and mullahs in Britain, Europe and the USA. Consequently, for those who see the situation clearly it has become patently obvious that Islam is a failed religion.
#4
Repair begins with deporting muslims. Pakis first.
Posted by: ed ||
04/12/2009 10:18 Comments ||
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#5
It must aggravate the hell out of the Hindus who live in Britain, peacefully, employed, hard working and successful, being lumped together with Pakistani Muslims who are just a royal pain in the ass, as both "Asians".
Britain's prisons have almost no, zero Hindus in them; but a majority of prisoners for serious crimes are Pakistani Muslims. The number of Hindus on the dole is below average for any other ethnic group, but Pakistanis go after every scrap of handout they can get.
Yet, according to the PC British, both are "Asians".
At least 100,000 people have marched through the British capital to demand an immediate end to the Sri Lankan military offensive against fighters from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). Protesters in London on Saturday demanded a truce in the Indian Ocean island, saying that civilians were increasingly being placed in danger by the conflict.
"As they increase the onslaught, more and more civilians are dying. They don't differentiate between civilians and Tigers," Khalyan Ganeshamoorthe, one of the protesters, told Al Jazeera.
Tigers never were much interested in differentiating between civilians and military themselves ...
Some demonstrators waved red LTTE flags, while others carried a mannequin representing a dead woman on a stretcher, with a sign reading "Caused by government force".
The ethnic Tamil community in Britain numbers around 250,000 to 300,000 people and in recent weeks it has organised several large protests in London to put pressure on the British government, the former colonial power in Sri Lanka, to act.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/12/2009 00:00 ||
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Members of the alleged Al Qaeda cell suspected of plotting a Bank Holiday terror atrocity worked for a firm based at Manchester Airport. At least one drove vans for a cargo company which has access to sensitive locations.
A further two had passed security industry checks which enabled them to guard premises overnight, further raising fears that members of the gang - all but one of them Pakistani students - were planning to infiltrate high-profile targets before an attack.
The revelations came as police continued to question the 12 suspects and search properties across the North West, including one being examined as a possible bomb factory. It was further claimed that some of the men have links to the terror group accused of the devastating Mumbai attacks in India which left more than 170 dead. The group, Lashkar-e-Taiba, or Army of the Righteous, was also blamed for the Lahore cricket atrocity.
At least two of the arrested men had worked for Manchester Airport-based delivery firm Cargo2Go, the Daily Mail can reveal. Hamza Shenwari, who was seized by an anti-terror squad while driving down the M602, and another suspect are believed to have worked on a selfemployed basis, using their own vans to deliver packages for the firm, which serves airports around the country.
Directors of Cargo2Go confirmed the two men had worked there but refused to comment on whether any had been given such training. 'They weren't directly employed by us, they were selfemployed,' said director David Hough, who lives in Stockport. 'They would have had their own vans - we give them the logo and then they do the work. We're trying to get to the bottom of exactly who these men are.'
Two more of the suspects were seized while working as security guards at a Homebase DIY store in Clitheroe, Lancashire. The pair were named by the firm which employed them as Umar Farooq and Johnus Khan.
A Homebase spokesman confirmed that all its guards were required to have clearance from the Security Industry Authority, which has been ridiculed in the past for allowing 5,000 illegal immigrants to work as guards. A spokesman for the authority said foreign applicants would normally be granted a licence if agencies in their home country did not report that they had a criminal record.
And the ISI made sure these four were reported clean ...
The pair had been staying at a nearby bed-and-breakfast but are believed to live in Liverpool. They worked for Newcastle-based Sky Interserve UK Limited, to which the Homebase security role was sub-contracted.
Sky Interserve boss Muhammad Haroon Rashid, 26, himself a recent immigrant from Pakistan, said Farooq had lived in Britain for at least five years and was studying hotel management, but that he had not met Khan. 'I was really surprised to hear they had been arrested and linked to terrorism,' he added. 'I have spoken with friends of theirs and they think it is a mistake.'
A flat in the Edge Hill area of Liverpool where Farooq lived was yesterday being searched by police. It was the second raid on flats in the same rundown block where police have been hunting possible bomb-making materials. Sources said no significant finds have so far been made.
Other suspects include 22-year-old Abid Naseer, who lived with Shenwari in a terrace house in the Cheetham Hill area of Manchester. Another, Sultan Sher, was arrested at the nearby Cyber Net Internet cafe alongside a man so far named only as Tariq. Police in Liverpool seized another suspect, Abdul Khan, 26, who had been studying English at the now-defunct Manchester College of Professional Studies.
Although 11 of the suspects arrived in Britain on student visas, only one is known to have attended a reputable institution, a 26-year-old studying accountancy at Liverpool John Moores University. The suspects, who are being questioned at police stations around the North of England, are aged from their mid-teens to their early-40s.
The alleged links to the Mumbai terror cell emerged from Pakistani intelligence sources, who claim to have supplied some of the suspects' names to Britain in the first place. They say these names - among a list of 36 - were obtained during questioning of four terror suspects arrested in Pakistan three months ago, and examining emails and phone calls.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/12/2009 00:00 ||
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They worked for Newcastle-based Sky Interserve UK Limited, to which the Homebase security role was sub-contracted.
Sky Interserve boss Muhammad Haroon Rashid, 26, himself a recent immigrant from Pakistan
One can only hope the local CIA agent has already broken into Sky Interserve's home office, to examine files, computers, and phone records, preparatory to further searches. This sounds like good detective work was done, then the bad guys were watched until the last minute, so that convictions would actually be obtained from British judges.
UN Security Council's five permanent members approved a presidential draft statement condemning North Korea's recent rocket launch, but its approval by the full council is scheduled for Monday afternoon, the council president Claude Heller of Mexico told reporters following a council informal meeting on Saturday.
The P5 - US, UK, France, China and Russia - along with Japan, which feels "most threatened" by such launch, met earlier in the day and approved the draft text. No agreement was reached on a draft resolution because of Chinese and Russian opposition.
While a council resolution is binding, a statement read out by the council president in an open meeting or to the press outside the council chamber are not ending.
Japanese UN envoy Yukio Takasu admitted that his delegation had no choice but to accept the draft presidential statement and not not push for a draft resoslution because "equally important is unity of the council," adding that he is "grateful" to the Chinese delegation for showing flexibility in accepting this "strong message (statement)."
The council would condemn in the draft statement when it meets next Monday North Korea's launch last Sunday of a rocket "in contravention" of council resolution 1718, reminding the country that it "must fully comply with its obligations" under that resolution and demanding that it no longer conduct any launch. The draft also threatens North Korea to "adjust" the sanctions already imposed on Pyongyang in 2006 by designating more entities and goods for sanctions by April 30.
"So there!"
Expressing its support to the six-party talks, among the two Koreas, Japan, China, Russia and the US, the council would also express its desire for a peaceful and diplomatic solution to the situation and welcome efforts by members states to facilitate a solution through dialogue.
US UN envoy Susan Rice told reporters following the informal meeting that the draft statement she presented to the other council's 10 non permanent members for consideration sends a "clear message" to North Korea that its launch of the rocket will not be treated "with impunity and will have consequences." She added that the whole council supported the draft but have to get back to their capitals, expressing hope that they will send the same message to Pyongyang when the council meets on Monday for "swift action." Heller also described the draft statement as an "excellent basis" for consensus and contains "good elements" and sends a "clear and strong message," insisting that it is "important that the council acts in a "unified manner."
OTTAWA - The Palestinian Authority demanded this week the cancellation of an exhibition of Dead Sea Scrolls, which it said were stolen by Israel from Palestinian territories, Canadian media reported.
Or else they're going to seethe and roll their eyes ...
Top Palestinian officials called on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to step in to cancel the exhibition, which is set to open in June at Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), according to the Toronto Star newspaper.
"The exhibition would entail exhibiting or displaying artifacts removed from the Palestinian territories," said Hamdan Taha, director-general of the archaeological department in the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, reported the Star on Thursday. "I think it is important that Canadian institutions would be responsible and act in accordance with Canada's obligations," Taha wrote in the letter to Harper.
Can't have any of this nonsense about God speaking to people prior to Mo' getting the word ...
The museum plans a six-month showcase of 16 of the 900 manuscripts from the Dead Sea. The scrolls, some of which are as old as the third century BC, have shed light on the earliest origins of Judaism and Christianity and are considered to be one of the greatest archaeological finds of all time.
In the letter, signed by senior Palestinian government officials, the objectors argue the texts were acquired illegally after Israel annexed East Jerusalem in 1967.
"I'm just hearing about this issue," said ROM head William Thorsell on Thursday, according to the Star. "I do understand the Palestinians are making an issue of the ownership. But I'm quite certain the scrolls fall within the parameters of the law."
Pnina Shor, head of the artifacts treatment and conservation department at the Israel Antiquities Authority, maintains that the Jewish state is the rightful custodian of the Dead Sea Scrolls. "As such, we have a right to exhibit them and to conserve them," he insisted, the Star said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/12/2009 00:00 ||
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Why the Canadians never hold exhibitions detailing the Palestinian People contributions to World culture?
The CIA no longer operates any secret overseas prisons, Director Leon Panetta said yesterday, and has not detained anyone since he became chief in February. Panetta's statement, contained in a message to the CIA workforce, also said the agency will no longer use contractors to conduct interrogations or to provide security for remaining detention sites.
Referring to "black sites," as the secret prisons were known, Panetta said the agency has a plan "to decommission the remaining sites," an apparent reference to facilities still in existence but no longer operational. He said that "Agency personnel" will take charge of that process and that any outside contracts still involved in site security will be "promptly terminated."
The CIA has never revealed the locations where it secretly held and interrogated as many as 100 high-level al-Qaeda and other terrorism suspects captured overseas after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. News reports have said the sites were in Thailand, Romania and Poland, among other places. Panetta's statement was the first public acknowledgement that some of the sites still exist.
Under executive orders issued Jan. 22, President Obama ordered the closure of the secret CIA sites, along with the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and banned interrogation techniques not authorized by the U.S. Army Field Manual.
Obama did not prohibit the process known as "extraordinary rendition," under which prisoners are secretly transferred from their place of capture to another country outside the United States. Panetta said that the CIA "retains the authority to detain individuals on a short-term transitory basis" but that no such detentions "have occurred since I have become director."
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence last month launched a review of the CIA's detention and interrogation program that it said will "run parallel to a White House review to be conducted as part of President Obama's Executive Orders on detention and interrogation."
They'll conclude that 1) everything Bush did was wrong and 2) they have to keep doing it.
Panetta said the CIA will cooperate with the reviews of "past interrogation practices" and reiterated his insistence that agency officials who acted on Justice Department guidance "should not be investigated, let alone punished."
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/12/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
What about the plans re. reeducation camps for Enemies of the People?
#2
The CIA no longer operates any secret overseas prisons, Director Leon Panetta said yesterday, and has not detained anyone since he became chief in February
1 - it's been subcontracted out to foreigners while we get still get the dividends. Moving the assets off the balance sheet just like a bunch of sub-prime paper on the banks' books.
2 - Bushie did such a good job of rounding up the so many key targets that grouse hunting is miserable right now.
#3
"Bushie did such a good job of rounding up the so many key targets that grouse hunting is miserable right now."
You never saw pirates bothering Americans much during the Bush administration either, just Europeans.
Give it time.
#5
I read elsewhere that both the CIA and the military interpreted this to mean "No more prisoners". That is, there really is no more need to capture either Taliban or al-Qaeda, because none of them have anything to tell us, and we are not required by the Geneva Conventions to make them prisoners. We can execute them at will.
MULTAN: Pakistan will not accept any US aid that comes with conditions that go against the countrys interests, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Saturday.
Oh. Well. Okay. Guess we'll just keep our money here at home.
Pakistan is a sovereign country and will not accept conditions that are against its interests and stature, he added. Talking to media at the State Bank of Pakistan Multan auditorium after chairing a ceremony to mark the launch of the South Punjab Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry, he said Pakistan wants friendly relations with all its neighbouring countries, whether it is India, Afghanistan or Iran.
Even when Pak citizens are booming their citizens ...
To questions on the Swat peace agreement, he said President Asif Ali Zardari had not yet approved the Nizam-e-Adl, and it would be placed before parliament for a final decision. He said parliament is the appropriate forum to discuss the matter.
Gilani said the assassination of three Baloch leaders was an extremely condemnable act. Let us wait for the judicial commissions report in this regard, he added.
They always have to wait for a commission or a report or for the 'truth to come out', when it's patently obvious to everyone in Pak-land what's happening and who's behind it all.
To questioning, he said Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif was engaging in positive politics.
He's positively engaged in politics ...
He said there was no PML-N pressure to change the governor of Punjab. On whether the PML-N would join the government at the centre, the PM said that he would soon meet Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif to present the PPPs point of view. He added that the PML-N leadership would then put up the matter before its party for a final decision.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/12/2009 00:00 ||
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Obama will geek---he's only tough on working Americans and US allies.
ISLAMABAD: Commenting on the arrest of several Pakistani nationals in the United Kingdom, the Foreign Office (FO) on Saturday said the British government had contacted Islamabad at the highest level.
The UK has been assured of Pakistans cooperation in the case if evidence of their involvement in any criminal activity was found, an FO spokesman said. He said the Pakistani High Commission in London had been instructed to obtain precise details and also seek consular access for the suspects.
The spokesman said no one should jump to conclusions and let the law take its course, and cautioned against any steps by anyone that might single out or ostracise a community.
Perhaps if the Pak gummint and Pak community in Britain were more forward in identifying the bad boyz in their midst people wouldn't be jumping to conclusions ...
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04/12/2009 00:00 ||
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LAHORE: Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen has termed Pakistans cooperation vital in eliminating terrorism from the region, saying that he is working to fill the breach between the US and Pakistan Army, a private TV channel reported.
According to the channel, Mullen told a US newspaper that he hoped that he would succeed in bringing a positive change in Pakistans mindset. He said that Pakistan Army chief General Ashfaq Kiyani had assured him of cooperation in the war against extremism being carried out by the US in the region. I hope the confidence will soon be restored between the armies of both the US and Pakistan, he said.
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Pakistani Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani Saturday said that Pakistan would not accept any conditions harmful for national interests for the US aid.
"Pakistan is a sovereign country, a self-respecting nation and front line ally in the war against terrorism and will not accept such conditions that are against the interests and stature of the country", the Prime Minister told newsmen in eastern Multan city.
According to press reports here on Saturday Pakistan has fully displayed its defiance against the United States by urging the American authorities to not attach "intrusive" conditions to the aid they have offered. "Once again there's talk of fixing Afghanistan and Pakistan. Please do not fix us," said Pakistani ambassador Hussain Haqqani in a joint appearance with his Afghan counterpart at a Washington think-tank, the Atlantic Council. "Mistakes have been committed on all sides. But this lack of trust will be addressed by talking to us, not by beating down on us," said the Pakistani ambassador designated in Washington.
Washington has increased aid to Pakistan to USD 7.5 billion under Pakistan Enduring Assistance and Cooperation Enhancement (PEACE) Act of 2009 but has also increased accountability for every penny spent as well as added lists of do's and don'ts. The conditions include no "support to any person or group that conducts violence, sabotage or other activities meant to instill fear or terror in India" and recognizing that certain elements in its (Pakistan) establishment, specially spy agency ISI, have aided and trained such organizations over the past few decades.
Also, without directly naming disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan, the bill asks Islamabad to ensure access of US investigators to individuals suspected of engaging in worldwide proliferation of nuclear materials, restrict such individuals from any travel or any other activity that could result in further proliferation and control of the syllabus of these religious seminaries, believed to have been a breeding ground for terrorists.
SRINAGAR, INDIA - An outspoken Kashmiri separatist said Saturday he would run in Indias elections starting next week, marking a radical departure for the movement which has until now boycotted polls.
Sajad Lone, 41, heads the Peoples Conference, a separatist group in Muslim-majority Indian Kashmir. I have decided to contest the upcoming parliamentary polls with a commitment to use this mechanism as a method to represent the voice of the Kashmiri people, Lone said. This is to take the strength and merits of our cherished (independence) aspirations to the central stage of India, where it cannot be ignored or censored.
The announcement came a day after the hardline wing of the regions main separatist alliance, the Hurriyat (Freedom) Conference, announced a campaign against participation in the general elections that kick off on Thursday.
Separatist groups have long argued that taking part in elections in Kashmir was tantamount to accepting Indian sovereignty over the scenic Himalayan region. But elections in Kashmir last year witnessed an unprecedented 60 percent voter turnout -- a figure the government in New Delhi was swift to hail as a victory for democracy and a vote for national integration.
Its a setback to the separatists as boycott is their accepted strategy, said Tahir Mohiudin, editor of the widely read Urdu weekly Chattan, or Rock.
Lone is one of Kashmirs most vocal separatists, defending the cause in television debates, newspaper interviews and seminars.
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If he wins, he gets to swear allegiance to the Indian Union.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/12/2009 12:33 Comments ||
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Five Palestinians were suffocated in a tunnel in south Gaza Strip on Saturday, a medical source said. Palestinian medics picked up five young people who were choked due to fuel leakage in a tunnel in south Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, the source told KUNA. The injured people were rushed to hospital in the city for medical treatment, he said, terming their condition as moderate.
Earlier in the day, three tunnel workers were injured in a tunnel cave-in in south Rafah.
An Egyptian security official told Haaretz over the weekend that talks on the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit were ongoing. "We have invested great effort in the past, we're investing in the present, and we will invest in the future so as to secure a deal," the official said.
Talks on the Israeli side are still being led by Ofer Dekel, who was put in charge of these contacts by former prime minister Ehud Olmert. Last week, before the Passover holiday, Dekel met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to update him on the talks' progress, shortly before Netanyahu met with the soldier's parents, Noam and Aviva Shalit. Dekel was not present at the meeting between Netanyahu and the Shalits.
Israeli security officials told Haaretz last week that Netanyahu was considering appointing another defense establishment official to Dekel's position as special coordinator. "Netanyahu has to recalibrate the system, and everyone is waiting for his decision," a security official said.
"Our contact has been Ofer Dekel. However, the selection of another person is of course an Israeli matter, and we will of course be in contact with whomever fills the position," an Egyptian official said.
Remember: like for like. If Shalit is alive, trade live Paleos. If Shalit is dead, trade only dead Paleos.
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04/12/2009 00:00 ||
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AMMAN - Jordan's King Abdullah II on Saturday told Arab foreign ministers that a unified position on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is key to a solution in the Middle East.
Ponies for everyone!
"A unified Arab position towards the peace process and speaking one language with the international community, particularly the United States, will help achieve a just peace," a palace statement quoted the king as saying. "The time factor is vital for launching serious negotiations to end the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in line with the two-state solution."
Foreign ministers from Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as well as Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa, met earlier in Amman to voice support for peace based on a two-state solution.
"Our objective is to have direct peace negotiations, establish an independent Palestinian state and resolve all regional conflicts to create stability," Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh told reporters afterwards. "The meeting aims to reaffirm the Arab world's commitment to the Arab peace initiative, the option of peace and the solution of two states, Palestine and Israel."
Even though the Paleos don't support a two-state solution.
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Iranian Army said on Saturday that its air force will soon carry out the largest military maneuver in the Islamic Republic's history.
The army's Public Relation Department said in a statement that the air force will show off its defensive and combat capabilities on April 18, marking the National Army Day celebrations.
The statement pointed out that some 140 fighter jets will take part in the military exercise, including F4s, F5s, F7s, F14s, and MiG-29 aircraft, as well as the Russian Sukhoi aircraft and Boeing 707 and 747.
It expressed the air force's readiness to defend the country and to counter foreign attacks.
#2
Its massive military maneuver will consist of towing the jets around the airport in a big parade. Except for the F-14s, which will be towed on big dollies because the tires are all dry-rotted.
(I wish this was true, but afraid its just snark. But fun snark.)
#4
It would be the perfect day for the IAF to deal with the nuke issues, the Iranian airforce, the Iranian power grid, the iran refinery and anything else.
#5
If the Iranians do actually fly the planes in question, any guesses on how many will crash? The last time the Iranians had a big AF wargame, they lost 2 planes and had like 6 that could not take off.
The United Nations force in southern Lebanon is on its way to "disintegrating," senior defense officials warned on Saturday, after Poland announced it was withdrawing its troops from the peacekeeping force.
Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich announced on Friday during a visit to Lebanon that the 500 Polish soldiers currently assigned to UNIFIL would return home by the end of the year.
"Poland is more and more involved in NATO and EU missions. Thus we are returning from UN missions," Klich said, adding that "they ceased to play such an important role for the security of Poland as it has been the case in the past."
Last week, The Jerusalem Post reported on Israeli concerns that US pressure on European countries to expand their contribution to the NATO war in Afghanistan could lead these countries to downsize their UNIFIL contingents in southern Lebanon.
#2
An excellent opportunity for UNIFIL to be replaced by a few of the more orderly, mixed Iraqi divisions. Undoubtedly, Hizbollah would try it on against them, and the Iraqis would kick seven bells out of Hizbollah.
The Iraqis would demilitarize the heck out of southern Lebanon, and they know how. And the Lebanese Shiites would feel very safe with them instead of Hizbollah.
The Syrians wouldn't dare mess with the Iraqis. And even the Israelis would be sweetness and light to them.
By just being there, it would put a serious damper on Hamas as well. Egypt would be happier with less Iranian influence on their doorstep.
#3
The problem, Anonymoose, is that the Iraqis are not necessarily any fonder of Israel than the rest of the Muslim Middle East; Israel therefore cannot assume increased security as a result of Iraqi quashing of Hizb'allah nonsense.
#5
Oh, I'm sure the Iraqis have no great love for Israel, but this would be a national prestige assignment. The issue here really isn't Israel, but Sunni and Shiite, with a healthy dollop of Christian. In essence, what they left back home.
The situation they would be put in could be very carefully crafted, so that Iraqi Kurdish Peshmurga, who get along fairly well with Israelis, would be on the border proper. This might even result with some mutual diplomacy between the Israelis and the Kurds, which would be a good thing.
This would leave the Iraqi Shiite and Sunni to essentially take over the job of Hizbollah, being non-threatening to the Shiite Lebanese, while their Sunnis would reassure both the Sunni Lebanese and the Sunni powers that Lebanon wasn't going to be converted to a Shiite nation.
The Hizbollah would be on the outs, as would support for Hamas, and the Syrian Alawite Shiites would be wary of the the threat posed by their own Sunni majority.
Ironically, it might work very well, with the big losers being Iran and Syria. A more stable Lebanon would be the big winner.
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.
A controversial preacher of hate banned from America and linked to the 9/11 terror attacks is to lecture young Muslims in Birmingham.
The UK must distance itself from American foreign policy if Pakistani youths are to be prevented from growing up hating Britain, according to the government's social cohesion minister.
The CIA no longer operates any secret overseas prisons, Director Leon Panetta said yesterday, and has not detained anyone since he became chief in February. Panetta's statement, contained in a message to the CIA workforce, also said the agency will no longer use contractors to conduct interrogations or to provide security for remaining detention sites.
Five Palestinians were suffocated in a tunnel in south Gaza Strip on Saturday, a medical source said. Palestinian medics picked up five young people who were choked due to fuel leakage in a tunnel in south Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, the source told KUNA. The injured people were rushed to hospital in the city for medical treatment, he said, terming their condition as moderate.
AMMAN - Jordan's King Abdullah II on Saturday told Arab foreign ministers that a unified position on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is key to a solution in the Middle East.
