[Al Arabiya Latest] As British troops moved into the village newly freed from Taliban control, they heard one message from the anxious locals: for God's sake do not bring back the Afghan police.
American and British troops have launched a campaign to seize control of Helmand province, about half of which was in Taliban hands, and restore Afghan government institutions.
As the troops advance, they are learning uncomfortable facts about their local allies: villagers say the government's police force was so brutal and corrupt that they welcomed the Taliban as liberators. "The police would stop people driving on motorcycles, beat them and take their money," said Mohammad Gul, an elder in the village of Pankela, which British troops have been securing for the past three days after flying in by helicopter. He pointed to two compounds of neighbors where pre-teen children had been abducted by police to be used for the local practice of "bachabazi," or sex with pre-pubescent boys.
It's so common it has a name? It sounds like it might be better to be a girl, in some ways.
It's a Pashtun thing, not a police thing. The Taliban have them, too, and the practice achieved a bit of notoriety under Mullah Omar. Likely the turbans practicing bachabazi today, whether police, government officials, or Taliban, were playthings themselves in their youth. I suppose it kept them regular.
"If the boys were out in the fields, the police would come and rape them," he said. Unless the field was full of melons, of course...
"You can go to any police base and you will see these boys. They hold them until they are finished with them and then let the child go." I've never quite been able to see the logic of that particular perversion. Why only boys? Pre-pubescent girls have backsides, too. I think it has something to do with the fact that the boys grow up to wear turbans and lug automatic weapons around and swear Dire Revenge™ and such. Girls just grow up to work in the fields and carry heavy loads and wear burkas.
The Interior Ministry in Kabul said it would contact police commanders in the area before responding in detail.
Yes, please.
When the Taliban arrived in the village 10 months ago and drove the police out, local people rejoiced, said Mohammad Rasul, a toothless elderly farmer who keeps a few cows and chickens in a neatly tended orchard of pomegranate trees, figs and grape vines. Although his own son was killed by a Taliban roadside bomb five years ago, Rasul said the Taliban earned their welcome in the village by treating people with respect. "We were happy (after the Taliban arrived). The Taliban never bothered us," he said.
Never? Seriously??
Guess they brought their own bachabazis from Pakistain.
Before the Taliban arrived, the police had come to his house with a powerful landlord he called a "tyrant," who put a rifle in his face, searched through his compound and demanded money. "If (the British) bring these people back, we can't live here. If they come back, I am sure they will burn everything," Rasul said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
IIRC, this was a feature that got the taliban regime support in rural provinces. Wasn't the first major PR success of mullah omar hanging a couple local warlords who had been infighting over who would buttfark a young boy?
#2
A big problem is that there is no "national sense", so police are just another tribe, muscling in the locals. That's how the locals see it, and worse, that is how the police see it.
It is so entrenched that even the communist trick of training orphans to be national police had only marginal success, with the same problem in eastern Europe.
The best bet would have been if right from the onset, the US had started training tens of thousands of urban children in western oriented boarding schools, with an eye to them becoming a future generation of political, military and police leaders.
The twist would be not indoctrination, but persuasion that it is a better, more efficient way of doing things than tribalism.
[Quqnoos] Pakistani Interior Minister says top Al Qaeda leader is hidden somewhere in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border.
It's possible, I s'pose, for a given (very small) value of "possible".
In an interview with the British Sunday Times, Minister Rehman Malik of Pakistan said based on his information, Osama Bin Laden is in Afghanistan, probably in the eastern Kunar province.
If Osama was in Pakistan we would know, with all the thousands of troops we have sent into the tribal areas in recent months, Minister Malik argued. "If he and all these four or five top people were in our areas they would have been caught, the way we are searching," Malik told The Sunday Times.
That statement assumes Interior Minister's people actually want to go to the place they know Mr. bin Laden and his associates are, and put handcuffs on them instead of bringing them tea in the morning.
Afghan officials have frequently dismissed such claims, referring the root of terrorism and militancy across its border in Pakistani tribal areas.
US Attacks 'Kill Civilians'
Pakistani officials say that the US has carried out more than 40 drone attacks inside Pakistani territory in the past 10 months, killing hundreds of civilians.
Hurrah for the CIA and the American Air Force!
Previously, US top officials said the drone attacks have been highly effective in disrupting al-Qaeda's ability to operate.
"They're getting mid-level people not big fish", Malik said, crticising the US attacks. "...they (US missile strikes) are counter-productive because they are killing civilians and turning locals against our government," he further said.
Possibly the locals are beginning to realize the dangers of hosting drone targets?
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"...they (US missile strikes) are counter-productive because they are killing civilians and turning locals against our government," he further said.
Specifically, he did not go on to say, those members of the government who had asked the locals to house & entertain the targets which have been drawing fire down on their houses.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/13/2009 12:38 Comments ||
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A well-known Sudanese woman journalist is facing 40 lashes after being accused of wearing 'indecent' clothes, with 10 women already whipped for similar offences against Islamic law. Ms Lubna Ahmed Al Hussein, who writes for the left-wing Al-Sahafa newspaper and works for the media department of the United Nations Mission in Sudan, was arrested in Khartoum last week and charged with dressing indecently.
Ms Hussein told AFP she was at a restaurant on July 3 when police came in and ordered women wearing trousers to follow them to the police station. 'They took away me and 12 other young women, including southerners,' she said, referring to women from Sudan's animist and Christian south where the Muslim north's Islamic or sharia law does not apply. 'Two days later, 10 of them were summoned to the police station in downtown Khartoum and given 10 lashes each,' said Ms Hussein, who wears a hijab or Islamic headscarf.
The remaining three women, including Ms Hussein, have been charged under Sudanese law with 'committing an indecent act or one which violates public morality or wearing indecent clothes.' If convicted, they face a mandatory 40 lashes. Ms Hussein said she did not know when her case would be heard. 'I want people to know what happened,' she said.
Unlike some countries in the region, particularly in the Gulf, women have a prominent place in Sudanese public life. Nevertheless, human rights organisations say that some laws discriminate against women.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit met officials from Darfur rebel groups on Saturday to push for peace talks between them and the Sudanese government, the state news agency MENA reported.
The meeting, in which United Resistance Front leader Baher Idris Abu Garda and heads of Sudan Liberation Army factions took part, came a week after Cairo hosted officials from the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebel group.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] A Dhaka court rejected a bail petition of detained former BNP lawmaker Nasiruddin Ahmed Pintu yesterday in connection with the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) carnage.
Judge ANM Bashir Ullah of the Metropolitan Sessions Judge's Court passed the order after defence lawyers submitted a bail petition against the lower court's rejection order.
The Detective Branch of police rounded up Pintu along with his brother-in-law Mainur Rahman Apu on June 2 from the High Court premises.
Pintu was arrested for allegedly helping mutineers flee by arranging engine boats to cross the Buriganga at Keraniganj ferry ghat during the February 25-26 carnage.
He was later taken on nine days' remand for interrogation in three phases.
Earlier, Pintu surrendered before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka on February 12 of 2007 after the crackdown by last caretaker government to detain corrupt suspects. He was released on December 29 last year on bail.
BNP-led government withdrew as many as 76 cases against him during 2001-2006.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Bangladesh and India kicked off a border conference at the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) headquarters yesterday morning, while two Bangladeshis were shot dead by Indian Border Security Force (BSF) at Chuadanga and Dinajpur frontiers.
At the three-day director general level conference between BDR and BSF, Dhaka will raise the issue of killings, wounding, and torture of unarmed Bangladeshi nationals by BSF and Indian civilians at the border.
"Once again we will request our counterpart to take measures and stop such killings and the firings," a senior BDR official told The Daily Star last night.
Four other Bangladeshis were also killed on Thursday in separate incidents of BSF firings at the border.
According to Odhikar, a human rights organisation, 50 Bangladeshis were killed by BSF firings at the border in the past six months.
An 18-member Indian delegation led by BSF Director General ML Kumawat arrived in Dhaka on Saturday afternoon for the conference, where a 22-member Bangladeshi delegation is being led by BDR DG Maj Gen Md Mainul Islam.
Discussions on strengthening joint patrols and preventing trans-border smuggling, especially of narcotics, will figure prominently at the conference. Both sides will try to strengthen the relationship through various programmes.
Bangladesh will also raise the issue of pushing in Bangla speaking Indians into Bangladesh.
Erection of fences, road construction, and excavations within 150 yards of the border line by India in the name of defence strategy, will also come into discussion, according to the discussion agenda of BDR.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2009 00:00 ||
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A power struggle could erupt in North Korea following the death of leader Kim Jong-il between his son and heir apparent Jong-un and his brother-in-law, intelligence services here speculate. The National Intelligence Service told a recent session of the National Assembly Jang Song-taek, the purported no. 2 man in North Korea, director of the Workers' Party administrative department and member of the National Defense Commission, will lead a power struggle.
The NIS said it seems certain that power in North Korea will be handed down to a third generation to Kim Jong-un. But that is expected to result in a weak power structure given Kim Jong-il's current ill health and unstable political and economic factors in the regime. Chances are that Jang and his followers could try to seize power from Kim Jong-un and his faction, it speculated.
Jang is currently helping smooth Kim junior's succession to power but apparently supported Kim's eldest son Jong-nam for the leadership at first.
The NIS said another possibility in case Kim dies before the succession has been firmly cemented is a collective leadership of party and military.
The NIS points at Kim Kyong-hee, Jang's wife and the Kim senior's younger sister, as another guardian of Kim junior.
It says Kim Kyong-hee stopped engaging in public activities after September 2003, when she was head of the Workers' Party light industry department. She had treatment for hypochondria and alcoholism. An NIS official said, "Kim Kyong-hee has been playing the role as a guardian for Kim Jong-un since she resumed her public activities as director of a party department on June 7."
The NIS predicts that Kim Jong-un will officially be declared his father's successor in 2012, the year North Korea has designated as the start of building a "powerful nation," in the latest slogan. It said it will take some time to formalize the succession given Kim Jong-un's lack of political experience and problems at home and abroad.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/13/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Lets hope it leads to a collapse. All it takes is a few greedy generals, and some tacit promises from the Chinese.
#5
What are some good ways to help destabilize this transition?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/13/2009 11:23 Comments ||
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#6
Well, suspicious foreign news reports like this one is a pretty good start. I'd be willing to bet that the kernel of this report was planted by one of Jang's rivals, hoping to get him in dutch with the rest of the elders.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/13/2009 12:23 Comments ||
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U.S. Ambassador to Korea Kathleen Stephens says Seoul and Washington need to negotiate changes to their nuclear agreement based on the understanding that peaceful nuclear development is important to Korea. In an interview with Yonhap News Agency, Stephens said that although Korea has not yet officially requested such talks she sees the negotiation as part of a continuous discussion as science keeps advancing.
This comes amid a push in Korea to build more nuclear power plants while the agreement in place with the U.S., due to expire in 2014, prevents Korea from reprocessing its nuclear fuel.
Just the message we need to keep sending to China -- if you can't curb your dog, South Korea becomes poised to go nuclear.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/13/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
We should hold similar talks with Japan ... and Taiwan.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has pancreatic cancer, South Korean broadcaster YTN said on Monday in an unsourced news flash. Kim's health is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the reclusive communist state. It's not good to speak ill of the dead. I'm not sure why this is so, but I'll keep my lip buttoned when he finally turns titzup, assuming this isn't just another rumor. I called it yesterday. Pancreatic cancer, huh? He's going to be in a lot of pain before he dies ... I believe pancreatic cancer will kill you deader than Tut within a year of diagnosis. With the best of medical care you can stretch it to something under 365 pain-filled days.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I sure hope his doctors don't find out that all they need to cure that is about a quart of Drano.
#2
As I understand it, Kim Jong-il hit several holes in one the first time he played golf,So put him in a laboratory and I bet he can come up with a cure on his first try.
Officials say they are learning of an increasing number of cases in which immigrant parents in Finland are forcibly sending teens back to their home countries to de-westernize them.
Assimilation does work, as long as the kidlings don't get sent back to Swat ...
The Finnish Red Cross as well as social welfare offices say that every year dozens of parents who believe their children are becoming too westernized send their offspring back to African, Asian and Middle Eastern states.
Leena-Kaisa Ã…berg, head of the refugee and immigration section at the Finnish Red Cross, says school teachers rarely question the sudden absence of students with immigrant backgrounds. "In some cases sports coaches are the ones who look into these disappearances," says Ã…berg.
Authorities say these types of matters often fall beyond their jurisdiction, as parents are responsible for minors.
Janne Kanerva, a legislative counsellor at the Justice Ministry, says it's not a crime if both parents decide to send their child abroad.
Because his father Earl Woods was a member of the U.S. Army's Special Forces in Vietnam, Tiger Woods has made a special point to honor U.S. military veterans at the AT&T National golf tournament near Washington. Two so-called "Wounded Warriors" helped Tiger officially open the tournament.
Tiger Woods has made a point of honoring both active duty and reserve military by offering them free tickets to the AT&T National tournament. His father, the late Earl Woods, served in the Special Forces in Vietnam and Tiger says the country owes a great debt to its military, especially those wounded in combat.
"You know, it hits home when you see one of them come out and to see what they are dealing with on a daily basis, and what they have to go through because they are putting their lives on the line for us, and unfortunately have had something happen," said Tiger Woods.
Singer and actress Jessica Simpson, who has visited several overseas military posts to entertain for the USO, sang the national anthem and the U.S. Army's "Screaming Eagles" Parachute Demonstration team delivered the national flag and the balls for a ceremonial tee off to open the tournament.
Woods, U.S. Army Major Ken Dwyer and Staff Sergeant Ramon Padilla walked to the first tee to hit the first shot and officially kick off the event.
Major Dwyer and Sergeant Padilla wore the characteristic red shirts of the Wounded Warriors group. Both men were also missing their left hands and used special clubs adapted to their prostheses. Major Dwyer, who lost his left arm after being struck with a rocket-propelled grenade in Afghanistan three years ago, said teeing off with Tiger Woods was something special.
"To be honest with you, it was not anything [I expected], and I certainly expected not to hit a shot that went that straight," said Major Dwyer. "It was probably the best shot I have hit in weeks. Like I said, I expected to be wounded, but when I got up there, no."
Major Dwyer's wife Jenny says the Wounded Warrior Program has greatly helped her husband and others injured in combat. "They have done so much to bring guys out to these events and it gives you a sense of life outside of being wounded," said Jenny Dwyer. "And that life is enjoyable and wonderful, and all the great activities that you can still do. And it does not matter if you are wounded. Life goes on and is great."
As part of his support for the military, Woods also filled a special "Care Package" for soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan. One member of the crowd asked Tiger if he thought the recipients would believe the package was from him. He smiled broadly and said "I hope so."
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/13/2009 00:00 ||
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#4
Maybe Tiger can go into politics when he retires from professional golf.
Yeah - it would be interesting to watch the media try to give Tiger Woods the Clarence Thomas treatment...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
07/13/2009 12:33 Comments ||
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#5
Why would he want to retire from professional golf? He could probably dominate the Seniors Tour until he died. And it would be a lot more fun than politics.
Full article at the Wall Street Journal Online. Yes, you'll have to register, but it's free and it's worth it.
To get a sense of what U.S. drone strikes have accomplished in the past two years, recall the political furor that followed a July 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, which found that al Qaeda had "protected or regenerated key elements of its Homeland [i.e., U.S.] attack capability, including: a safehaven in the Pakistan Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), operational lieutenants, and its top leadership. . . . As a result, we judge that the United States currently is in a heightened threat environment." The media declared we were losing the war.
What changed? At least part of the answer is that the U.S. went from carrying out only a handful of drone attacks in 2007 to more than 30 in 2008. According to U.S. intelligence, among the "high-value targets" killed in these new strikes were al Qaeda spokesman Abu Layth al-Libi, weapons expert Abu Sulayman al Jazairi, chemical and biological expert Abu Khabab al-Masri, commander and logistician Abu Wafa al-Saudi, al Qaeda "Emir" Abu al-Hasan al Rimi, and, in November, Rashid Rauf. Rauf, who had escaped from a Pakistan jail the previous year, was a coordinator of the summer 2007 plot to blow up passenger planes over the Atlantic.
The argument against drones rests on the belief that the attacks cause wide-scale casualties among noncombatants, thereby embittering local populations and losing hearts and minds. If you glean your information from wire reports -- which depend on stringers who are rarely eyewitnesses -- the argument seems almost plausible.
Yet anyone familiar with Predator technology knows how misleading those reports can be. Unlike fighter jets or cruise missiles, Predators can loiter over their targets for more than 20 hours, take photos in which men, women and children can be clearly distinguished (burqas can be visible from 20,000 feet) and deliver laser-guided munitions with low explosive yields. This minimizes the risks of the collateral damage that often comes from 500-pound bombs. Far from being "beyond the pale," drones have made war-fighting more humane.
A U.S. intelligence summary we've seen corrects the record of various media reports claiming high casualties from the Predator strikes. For example, on April 1 the BBC reported that "a missile fired by a suspected U.S. drone has killed at least 10 people in Pakistan." But the intelligence report says that half that number were killed, among them Abdullah Hamas al-Filistini, a top al Qaeda trainer, and that no women and children were present.
In each of the strikes in 2009 that are described by the intelligence summary, the report says no women or children were killed. Moreover, we know of planned drone attacks that were aborted when Predator cameras spied their presence. And an April 19 strike on a compound in South Waziristan did destroy a truck loaded with what the report estimates were more explosives than the truck that took out Islamabad's Marriott Hotel last September. That Islamabad attack killed 54 people and injured more than 260 others, mostly Pakistan civilians but also Americans.
[Geo News] Amir Jamaat-e-Islami Syed Munawar Hassan Sunday said the military operation is responsible for the displacement of 3 million people and not the Taliban. Addressing JI workers after a rally called 'Go America Go' here, he said if ANP, MQM, and Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman are against the drone attacks they should part ways with the government. "The state is carrying out terrorism through inflation, unemployment and imposition of taxes," JI Chief said. Earlier, JI staged a rally from Liberty Chowk to Old Campus.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
You mean it's not George Bush's fault? But I thought ... Oh, never mind.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/13/2009 11:13 Comments ||
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CAMP HAMZA, Iraq -- There is an old adage that says, "There's always something more to be learned." On one particularly small military outpost, which dots Iraq's vast desert, American and Iraqi service members are learning the meaning of that adage each and every day.
As the Marines of Military Transition Team 0228, aboard Camp Hamza, Iraq, teach their Iraqi counterparts the finer points of modern soldiery, they find themselves stepping back and learning a few lessons of their own. "I'd have to say that outside of military views and ideas, they've definitely left me with a very different view of how important hospitality is," said 1st Lt. Gary Laughlin, operations advisor for MiTT 0228. "I know that is something that I'll carry with me for the rest of my days."
From hospitality to military philosophy and strategy, U.S. Marines and Iraqi army soldiers are exchanging ideas on a daily basis. However, the Marines said the Iraqi soldiers they are training now are very different from those serving four years ago. "I didn't see very many Iraqi soldiers during my first deployment, and what I did see wasn't the highly trained soldiers I work with today," said Sgt. Erik Lueras, operations chief with MiTT 0228. "But, when I saw them on my second deployment, I realized what we were trying to achieve. If it hadn't been for the different camouflage and AK-47 rifles, it would've been hard to tell them apart from Marines at a distance."
After seeing how the Iraqi soldiers had been transformed, Lueras knew he wanted to be part of the team involved in this training effort. Currently, Lueras is on his fourth deployment, and this is his second as a MiTT member.
The collective goal of the MiTTs is to train and mentor the IA and Iraqi Police forces to increase their effectiveness. "The Coalition is trying to establish the Iraqi army and police forces as a professional force," said a senior Iraqi officer with the 28th Brigade, 7th Iraqi Army Division. "We prioritized retraining all of our more experienced men first; this way they could move on and train newer members of the army."
Noticeable improvements have also been seen in the Iraqi logistical system. When walking across Camp Hamza, it is hard not to notice new military vehicles that are being cleaned and refueled. "My professional opinion is that the [Iraqi] army has made a significant improvement over the past few years," said Laughlin.
At the Iraqi army compound his transition team shares with the 28th Brigade, Laughlin sees the increased professionalism even in salutes exchanged between officer and enlisted personnel. "People now are talking about, 'What is victory in Iraq?'" said Laughlin. "But it was only a few years ago that victory for us was getting Iraqis to put their uniforms on and not go on unauthorized absence. Now, they're planning brigade-sized operations."
"We want to be like the Marines," said an Iraqi officer. "We're getting the volunteers, we're seeing the motivation, and that's a start. The 7th Division started from nothing, but now, working with the Americans, we see that we share the same destiny. Our victory is their victory, their victory is our victory."
When asked what was left to teach the IA and where they would go from their current position, Laughlin replied, "By this point, it's just the small things to work on - professionalization. Beyond that, it's up to them. It's their country." Walking off to speak with his Iraqi counterpart, Laughlin strolls past rows of Iraqi tactical vehicles, cleaned and ready for their next mission. An Iraqi sentry snaps to attention as Laughlin passes. In the distance, Iraqi noncommissioned officers blow whistles and wake their men up for another day of soldiery. This is the new Iraqi army.
#3
Oh Boy, While I love Sock Puppets and I make a pretty good one myself, I had to give a correct answer to post........spoil sports!! I mean we could have a lot of fun with this.
Anyway, I always thought that the end game in Iraq was not Saddam or Al Qaeda but creating a wedge between Iran and Syria that would be able to apply pressure to both of those countries. A viable democracy with a professional army and a working economy are more dangerous to Syria and Iran than anything we can put in the middle east. I do not think it is a coincidence that the kangaroo court elections in Iran were greeted with riots this time around when they were not four years ago.
Also the oil reserves that Iraq has and there is significant geological data that says there are vast unexplored reserves in the north between Mosul and Kirkut and to the west of Kirkut, are a threat to the KSA. With a pro US or semi pro US regime in Iraq, and those oil reserves in Iraq available, the Saudis have far less leverage on us and are open to more diplomatic hardball by us.
It is not just killing terrorists that will determine "victory" in Iraq, it is the end game, the end of business as usual in the ME by KSA, Syria and Iran, brought on by a viable democratic government with a professional army in Iraq.
Posted by: James Carville ||
07/13/2009 14:33 Comments ||
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#4
Good comments from Carville(ugh!, can't you come up with a better handle?) and Procopius. The balance of power in the Middle East is changing, let us hope for the better.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
07/13/2009 14:46 Comments ||
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#5
Given the enemy activity that is still ongoing in Iraq, this professional army still has to prove it can get the job done and keep the people of Iraq safe. Too many bombings of late.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Lawmakers loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr held up a vote on Saturday to approve a deal allowing British troops to remain in Iraq longer than previously agreed to help the local navy protect oil platforms.
The deal would permit up to 100 British troops to remain beyond June 30, the withdrawal date set in a previously approved British-Iraqi security pact.
A source close to deputy speaker Khalid al-Attiya said that the session was suspended shortly after it began when lawmakers loyal to the cleric, who galvanized Shiite opposition to the U.S.-led foreign presence in Iraq, walked out before a planned vote on the deal.
With no quorum, the session could not formally continue, but parliament is likely to take it up again at a later date.
Aqeel Abdul-Hussein, head of the Sadr bloc in parliament, told reporters afterwards that Sadr supporters opposed any agreements backing the presence of foreign troops. The deal "is an extension of occupation forces which no noble person can accept ... We call upon our people to support us in this challenge," he said.
Both Britain and the United States reached deals with the Iraqi government, which were approved by parliament, to allow their troops to remain in Iraq after a United Nations mandate expired at the end of 2008.
The U.S. deal requires the withdrawal of the approximately 130,000 U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2009 00:00 ||
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Member of the British House of Commons George Galloway told the press Monday he was planning to organize a new solidarity convoy to Gaza that would include Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
Galloway was in Egypt Monday to sponsor the Lifeline 2 anti-siege convoy, which is scheduled to enter the Gaza Strip through its Rafah crossing along with 200 American solidarity activists.
The MP explained that he would continue to organize solidarity convoys, calling for lifting the siege imposed on Gaza. He revealed that Israeli lobbyists had sent three requests to US Attorney General Eric Holder trying to stop the vessel, which were all rejected.
Galloway also refuted Israeli accusations that he was pro-Hamas. "I was never pro-Hamas, yet I am pro-democracy, through which Hamas rose to power."
With regard to the participants joining Lifeline 2, Galloway pointed out that it comprises a congressman from the Democratic Party representing New York, in addition to a father and brother of the Democratic Party's executive director, as well as another former lawmaker.
#5
D*mn! I was hoping they'd go by boat. More 'opportunities' that way.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/13/2009 15:13 Comments ||
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#6
So, just who are the NY 'rat congress-traitor and the father-son 'rat tag-team who will be joining the other 2 stooges on this jaunt?
The "former lawmaker" they mentioned would probably be Cynbat the Sailor McKinny, no doubt spoiling for revenge after her recent stay in an Israeli jail.
[Iran Press TV Latest] The EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana calls on the UN to recognize a Palestinian state by a set deadline even if Israel refuses to do so. The European Union's top diplomat made the remarks on Saturday during a speech in London, while the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have reached a deadlock.
"After a fixed deadline, a UN Security Council resolution should proclaim the adoption of the two-state solution," Solana said.
He added that the declaration should specify borders of the Palestinian state, the fate of Palestinian refugees, control over Jerusalem (al-Quds) and security arrangements, Reuters reported on Sunday.
That would cause Israel to walk out of the UN. If GWB were president it would cause us to walk out right behind them. Bambi? He'll offer the Paleos a permanent seat on the Security Council ...
Solana went on to say that the EU would accept the Palestinian state as a full member of the UN, and set a calendar for the implementation. "It would mandate the resolution of other remaining territorial disputes and legitimize the end of claims," he said.
Solana stressed that Israel should return to the borders it maintained before the 1967 Six-Day War, during which it occupied the West Bank and other territories.
Mediators should also set a timetable for a final peace agreement between the two parties. "If the parties are not able to stick to it (the timetable), then a solution backed by the international community should be put on the table," he emphasized.
The Palestinian Authority says it will resume negotiations with Israel only after all the illegal settlement constructions in the West Bank are stopped. Tel Aviv, however, says that it will continue constructing housing units within the existing settlements to meet the needs of its 'natural growth'.
The EU, along with the United States, Russia and the United Nations, is part of the Quartet charged with brokering the Middle East peace negotiations.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
I wouldn't go so far as to advocate Solana actually getting shot. But I've often thought that not enough modern politicians have been properly beaten as children, and would show considerable improvment when presented with the prospect of the occasional public tar-and-feathering, pour encourager les autres.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/13/2009 12:27 Comments ||
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#3
so the UN will dictate borders, disposition of Jerusalem, and the unification of WB and Gaza? Will they enforce it as well? The EU thinks too much of themselves
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/13/2009 13:42 Comments ||
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#5
And the Basques could be recognized as a separate state with diplomatic, trade and arms concessions. For that matter so could Northern Ireland, Scotland, Belgium, Corsica, Sardinia, Catalonia, Lapland, pissy ethnic and religious minorities, Greek shitheads, Trace, Cypress, lots of places in East Europe, even tinier fragments of the Balkans, non territorial groups like the Anarchists/Red Brigades, or that matter the islamic caliphates of Paris and Marseilles. This is just off the top of my head. This is not an area the Euros want to get into a pissing contest.
Posted by: ed ||
07/13/2009 19:46 Comments ||
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#6
OK, so here's what happens. Hamas will never accept the borders that the UN says are the borders. And then even if and or when the UN says they are, Hamas sends some rockets into Israel. That is called a declaration of war. Then Israel overruns the West Bank and sends all of the Paleo's to the Gaza Strip. And poof, they have the West Bank back because Palestine had to concede they lost the war. Again.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Palestinians reject any deal between Israel and the United States that would allow even limited Jewish settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, a top Palestinian negotiator said on Sunday. "There are no middle-ground solutions for the settlement issue: either settlement activity stops or it doesn't stop," Saeb Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed that message in a letter on Saturday to U.S. President Barack Obama.
Erekat was responding to reports that Israel and the United States were discussing a compromise that would allow some building in existing settlements under what Israel terms "natural growth" to accommodate expanding families.
A U.S. official denied on Wednesday a report in the Israeli daily Maariv that said Washington had agreed to the continued construction of 700 buildings, containing 2,500 housing units, in West Bank settlements despite its call for a total freeze to spur peace efforts.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
So other than the Israelis and the Paleos not being on board, we have a deal.
[Al Arabiya Latest] About a hundred Indonesian Muslims held a mass prayer session in the capital Jakarta on Sunday to protest over unrest between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese which left more than 180 people dead.
One hundred? A huge crowd, indeed.
They were very large Indonesian Muslims. Most were over 400 pounds.
"We Muslims in Indonesia feel the pain and struggle of our Muslim brothers and sisters and pray for their well-being. We urge the Indonesian government to tell the Chinese government to stop this brutality," a Muslim coordinator Jamal Aldin told AFP.
Islamic groups in the world's most populous Muslim country slammed what they called 'repressive' Chinese rule and called for freedom and rights for Muslim Uighurs. "All Muslims must show solidarity to the Muslim Uighurs and pray for their safety,' the head of hardline Muslims" Muhammad Al Khaththath from the Forum Umat Islam, said in a statement.
The protests get them out in the fresh air and sunshine, and keep them too busy for more nefarious activities. A pity only 100 made this choice.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
We'll have to really start worrying when they gather to shout "Death to China!"
In a very important development, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, the most senior cleric living in Iran, and one of the top two* marja' taghlid (source of emulation) in Shiite Islam, issued a series of Fatwas, calling the Supreme Leader illegitimate and saying that he was working with the government against religion.
Montazeri has called on people to take action against this injustice, even if they have to pay a heavy price for it.
Ayatollah Motazeri, who has long been one of the most outspoken critics of Iran's hard-liners, issued the Fatwas in response to a letter that Dr. Mohsen Kadivar, a progressive cleric and a former student of his, wrote asking for answers to several pointed questions. (Dr. Kadivar was jailed a few years ago for his outspoken criticism of the hard-liners and now lives in the United States.)
The letter congratulates the Grand Ayatollah on the occasion of last week's anniversary of the birth of Imam Ali, the Shiites' first Imam, and a cousin and a son-in-law of the Prophet Mohammad.
The letter says that the anniversary has fallen at a time when peaceful protests against rigged elections have been met by injustice by the government, which has resulted in tens of deaths, hundreds of injured, and thousands of arrests -- all carried out in the name of Islam and Shiism by those who use Imam Ali's name but take the path of his enemies instead.
#4
The guy actually makes sense theologically with regards to how a government should function, which is totally unacceptable to the current theocratic rulers in Iran today.
I look for Ayatollah Montazeri to be under 'house arrest' (or worse) again very soon.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/13/2009 9:47 Comments ||
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#5
I believe the current "Supreme Leader" isn't long for that position.
Hmmm.... Someone get the keys to the crane? Or is it too soon to talk about that?
Reporting from Beirut -- A powerful cleric who has been a driving force behind the opposition movement challenging the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will lead Friday prayers this week after a two-month absence that was considered a sign of conflict within the Iranian establishment.
The semiofficial Iranian Labor News Agency reported Sunday that Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani will deliver the nation's weekly keynote religious sermon. Rafsanjani, who chairs powerful boards that oversee the office of the supreme leader and adjudicate disputes between government bodies, is the highest-profile backer of opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who lost to Ahmadinejad in an election marred by allegations of vote-rigging.
Mousavi's Facebook page said that he and his ally, former President Mohammad Khatami, would attend the prayer sermon. The Facebook page invited supporters who poured into the streets in recent weeks to attend, though Mousavi's website carried no such announcement.
News of the return of reformists and moderates to the official Friday prayer ceremony could serve as a challenge to hard-liners, led by supreme leader Ali Khamenei, on their home turf. Alternately, it could be a sign that the two sides have brokered a truce in their continuing political conflict. The election and subsequent demonstrations, attended by hundreds of thousands of Iranians, have led to numerous deaths and arrests. On Sunday, news websites and human rights groups reported the killing of Sohrab Arabi, a 19-year-old who was apparently shot in the chest by government security forces or allied Basiji militiamen during a June 15 demonstration and had been missing since. His funeral is to be held today. On Sunday, Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, army chief of staff, blamed such deaths on unruly demonstrators.
"The rioters, armed with weapons from the U.S., Israel and England, opened fire on people in a futile attempt to accuse the police and the Basiji, with the cooperation of foreign media," Firouzabadi said in an open letter addressed to Imam Mahdi, a venerated Shiite Muslim who disappeared hundreds of years ago and whose messianic return, it is believed, will herald a new age.
"Our security forces never used any arms and they were beaten up, injured, martyred and crushed under wheels," he wrote in the letter, published in multiple news outlets. "On the other hand, the rioters mourned their fake dead."
Meanwhile, five Iranian officials described as diplomats by Tehran arrived in the capital Sunday after spending 30 months in U.S. custody in Iraq after their arrest early in 2007. They were freed after U.S. forces handed them over to Iraq in recent days.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the Iranian government was entitled to sue the Bush administration "for this savage act."
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/13/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has arrived in Egypt to attend the 15th ministerial meeting of the Non-aligned Movement (NAM).
Mottaki arrived in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm al-Sheikh in the early hours of Monday to take part in a two-day ministerial meeting of NAM members scheduled for July 13-14, IRIB reported.
The Non-aligned Movement summit will start on July 11 and run through July 16. The summit will also be attended by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
The NAM comprises of 118 countries and is an international organization of states considering themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. It represents nearly two-thirds of the UN members.
The organization has so far issued several statements in support of Iran's nuclear activities.
The West, spearheaded by the US and Israel, the sole possessor of a nuclear arsenal in the Middle East, accuse Iran of pursuing a nuclear weapons program - a charge repeatedly denied by Tehran.
The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), to which Iran is a signatory, grants its members the right to develop a civilian nuclear program.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] The new U.S. administration has deluded Arabs and Muslims into believing it would chart a course away from the policies of the Bush era, one of the leading religious authorities in Shi'ite Islam said.
Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who spoke earlier this year of the "sincerity" of U.S. President Barack Obama's message to the Muslim world, criticized U.S. policies across the Middle East and in Afghanistan and urged Arabs and Muslims to forget the U.S. president's "foggy" words. "It appears that the American administration, which deluded Arabs and Muslims into believing it would tread a path different to that of the previous administration...has begun, bit by bit, to reveal its true face," Fadlallah said.
" The American president's speech, in Turkey or Cairo, is behind us "
Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Hussein
Fadlallah
"The American president's speech, in Turkey or Cairo, is behind us," Fadlallah said in a statement received on Sunday. "Practical American steps have begun to define the course the new administration is taking in dealing with our issues."
Fadlallah accused the United States of involvement in events in Iran after its disputed presidential election, adding that it aimed "to bring about a deep fracture in the Islamic Republic," where the disputed vote triggered mass protests. Fadlallah said the region had entered a new phase after events in Iran.
He also spoke of U.S. "interference" in Lebanon during and after its June election, and "negative American movement" in Iraq. In Afghanistan, Fadlallah said the U.S. administration was attempting "to show the face of America the warrior."
On the Palestinian issue, Fadlallah, who is from south Lebanon, spoke of "complete collusion" with Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
We duped THEM? I thought there was a rule against mullahs drinking booze.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran played down Saturday G8 concerns about its recent crackdown on dissident and its nuclear program while a group of Iranians protested outside the German embassy in Tehran over the murder of an Egyptian woman.
At a press conference, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran is preparing a new package of "political, security and international" issues to put to the West.
"The package can be a good basis for talks with the West. The package will contain Iran's stances on political, security and international issues," Mottaki told a news conference.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday that the Group of Eight major powers would give Iran until September to accept negotiations over its nuclear ambitions or else face tougher sanctions.
But will he be able to persuade the U.S. to go along?
In Iran's first reaction to Sarkozy's statement at the G8 summit in Italy, Mottaki said the Islamic state had not received "any new message" from the summit.
"We have not received any new message from the G8. But based on the news we have received, they had different views on different issues which did not lead to a unanimous agreement in some areas," Mottaki said.
U.S. President Barack Obama warned Iran on Friday that the world would not wait indefinitely for it to end its nuclear defiance, saying Tehran had until September to comply or else face consequences.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/13/2009 00:00 ||
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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.
[Quqnoos] Pakistani Interior Minister says top Al Qaeda leader is hidden somewhere in eastern Afghanistan, near the Pakistani border.
A well-known Sudanese woman journalist is facing 40 lashes after being accused of wearing 'indecent' clothes, with 10 women already whipped for similar offences against Islamic law. Ms Lubna Ahmed Al Hussein, who writes for the left-wing Al-Sahafa newspaper and works for the media department of the United Nations Mission in Sudan, was arrested in Khartoum last week and charged with dressing indecently. 
A power struggle could erupt in North Korea following the death of leader Kim Jong-il between his son and heir apparent Jong-un and his brother-in-law, intelligence services here speculate. The National Intelligence Service told a recent session of the National Assembly Jang Song-taek, the purported no. 2 man in North Korea, director of the Workers' Party administrative department and member of the National Defense Commission, will lead a power struggle.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il has pancreatic cancer, South Korean broadcaster YTN said on Monday in an unsourced news flash. Kim's health is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the reclusive communist state.
[Geo News] Amir Jamaat-e-Islami Syed Munawar Hassan Sunday said the military operation is responsible for the displacement of 3 million people and not the Taliban. Addressing JI workers after a rally called 'Go America Go' here, he said if ANP, MQM, and Maulana Fazl-ur-Rehman are against the drone attacks they should part ways with the government. "The state is carrying out terrorism through inflation, unemployment and imposition of taxes," JI Chief said. Earlier, JI staged a rally from Liberty Chowk to Old Campus.
CAMP HAMZA, Iraq -- There is an old adage that says, "There's always something more to be learned." On one particularly small military outpost, which dots Iraq's vast desert, American and Iraqi service members are learning the meaning of that adage each and every day.
In a very important development, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, the most senior cleric living in Iran, and one of the top two* marja' taghlid (source of emulation) in Shiite Islam, issued a series of Fatwas, calling the Supreme Leader illegitimate and saying that he was working with the government against religion. 
Reporting from Beirut -- A powerful cleric who has been a driving force behind the opposition movement challenging the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will lead Friday prayers this week after a two-month absence that was considered a sign of conflict within the Iranian establishment.
[Al Arabiya Latest] The new U.S. administration has deluded Arabs and Muslims into believing it would chart a course away from the policies of the Bush era, one of the leading religious authorities in Shi'ite Islam said.
