CHICAGO — The Pentagon's chief said Thursday he could send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan this year than he'd initially expected and is considering increasing the number of soldiers in the Army.
Both issues reflect demands on increasingly stressed American forces tasked with fighting two wars.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates' comments came during a short visit to Fort Drum in upstate New York — an Army post that that he said has deployed more soldiers to battle zones over the last 20 years than any other unit. Two Fort Drum brigades are headed to Iraq in coming months, and a third is currently in Afghanistan.
Asked about Afghanistan by one soldier, Gates said, "I think there will not be a significant increase in troop levels in Afghanistan beyond the 68,000, at least probably through the end of the year. Maybe some increase, but not a lot."
So far, the Obama administration has approved sending 68,000 troops to Afghanistan by the end of 2009, including 21,000 that were added this spring.
The White House has wanted to wait until the end of the year before deciding whether to deploy more, but Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said that Gates does not want to discourage his new commander in Kabul, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, from taking a frank look at how many troops he needs.
McChrystal, who took over as commander for all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan last month, is expected to advise Washington in the next few weeks on his views of how to win the 8-year war.
McChrystal is nearing the end of a 60-day review of troop requirements in Afghanistan, and will soon provide that report to Gates.
The former U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David McKiernan, had told Obama that he needed an additional 10,000 troops, beyond the 68,000. The White House had put off that decision until the end of this year.
Gates and other military leaders have said they are reluctant to send many more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, because of concerns that a large American footprint there could appear to Afghans as an occupying force.
During a question-and-answer session with soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division, Gates also said he is looking at beefing up the Army with more troops. He did not say by how many, or what the plan would cost, but predicted that he'll decide as early as next week.
"We are very mindful of stress on the force," he said.
Earlier this week, Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., filed legislation to authorize the hiring of 30,000 new active-duty Army soldiers for the 2010 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. In a statement, Lieberman called it a "critical first step toward making sure that our military leaders can execute their strategy while also reducing the heavy strain on our soldiers and their families."
Most of the 200 soldiers in Thursday's short town hall-style meeting are headed to Iraq later this fall. Their commander, Maj. Gen. Mike Oates, returned from his third tour in Iraq only 50 days ago and said he is working to easing stress on soldiers and their family members who have faced a seemingly revolving door of deployments since 2001.
"What we're trying to do is help everybody receive this stress and deal with it better," Oates told reporters. "And there's a lot of room for growth there."
Gates stopped at Fort Drum on his way to Chicago, where he gave a feisty speech Thursday evening hammering Congress for trying to tack on billions of dollars for additional F-22 fighter jets to the Pentagon's 2010 spending plan.
Troop safety remained on Gates' mind, however, as he told a friendly audience of the Economic Club of Chicago that high Army suicide rates "are a reflection of the stress on the force."
Fifty-one soldiers have killed themselves since March 1, the Army reported Thursday. Still, that indicates a tapering of the extremely high numbers of suicides in January and February, when 41 soldiers killed themselves amid intense Army efforts to stem the deaths.
"My guess is, ultimately the solution to this problem is where our soldiers have more time at home, where there's less stress and where we are not putting people through four and five rotations in incredibly stressful situations, where it's in Iraq or Afghanistan," Gates said.
He also took about 15 minutes of questions from the friendly audience, during which he repeated his belief that the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, will be closed as President Barack Obama has promised. He also said anew that Pentagon lawyers are looking at whether gay troops who are outed by hostile colleagues can be protected from military discharge until Congress changes the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" law.
[Mail and Globe] Uganda on Wednesday warned that a visit by Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir could cause a "diplomatic incident" amid pressure on the country to arrest the leader wanted for war crimes.
"We wish to avoid a possible diplomatic incident that may arise as a result of a visit by President al-Bashir," East Africa and Regional Affairs Minister Isaac Musumba said in a statement to Parliament. "The government is therefore diplomatically engaging the government of the Sudan with a view to ensuring that, while the invitation to President al-Bashir still stands, a possible diplomatic incident is avoided."
Uganda had previously invited al-Bashir, wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, to visit at the end of this month. Sudan's envoy in Kampala told local media that al-Bashir was considering the invitation. But the prospects of the visit, which would be al-Bashir's first to a country party to the ICC since the warrant was issued in March, were complicated by ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's visit to Kampala this week.
Ocampo told reporters that Uganda has a legal obligation to arrest al-Bashir. Deputy Foreign Minister Okello Oryem was on Monday non-committal about how Uganda would respond if al-Bashir came, saying it was up to the head of the Uganda police force to take action. Ocampo also met with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
[Maghrebia] Algeria on Wednesday (July 15th) continued its campaign to secure international support for a proposal limiting the practice of paying ransoms for hostages abducted by terrorist groups, El Khabar reported on Thursday. Discussions Wednesday at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Egypt followed Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia's presentation of the proposal at the recent G8 summit in Italy.
An Algerian intelligence report said al-Qaeda terrorists in the Sahel region have collected up to 10 million euros from kidnapping westerners. Incidents include the 2003 abduction of 32 European tourists by notorious terror group leader Abderrezak El Para and the 2008 seizure of an Austrian couple by al-Qaeda. Terrorists reportedly used the funds to purchase weapons from arms traffickers in Burkina Faso and Nigeria.
While the Algerian proposal has already been adopted by the African Union, proponents say it will remain ineffective absent a United Nations Security Council resolution. Sahel countries should also be encouraged to co-operate more effectively on kidnapping cases, the Algerian report said
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
That's ironic, given the history of the Barbary Coast.
What does "limiting" mean? I can understand banning, and I can understand endorsing, but this limiting business sounds a little bit pregnant to me.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/17/2009 9:12 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Probably a kind of "Catch and Release.
Catch them, take all booty, release .
That'll make the state dependent on Pirate revenue shortly, and full partners (Quietly) shortly.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/17/2009 19:48 Comments ||
Top||
[Bangla Daily Star] The charge sheet in BDR mutiny case might be submitted in mid-September by CID, while a military investigation found 3,000 border security force jawans' involvement in the incident. That's a lotta heart failure...
"We're working hard to submit the charge sheet by August, but it might not be possible as the task is quite huge," said a source in the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) which is tasked with investigating the case.
A CID investigator said about 100 Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) jawans might have been directly involved in the killings of army officers during the mutiny. "We've yet to compile all the figures from the investigation. But I assume that the figure might be around 100," said the CID investigator wishing anonymity.
Law Minister Shafique Ahmed told reporters after an inter-ministerial meeting on Wednesday that the CID investigation is nearing completion. CID Special Superintendent of Dhaka Metro Zone Mir Shahidul Islam however declined to give an approximate timeframe for submitting the charge sheet when The Daily Star inquired. He however said, "We're focusing on fairness and speed of the investigation to ensure justice."
Investigation officer of the case, CID's Senior Assistant Superintendent Abdul Kahar Akand, said they arrested 1,706 people so far, most of whom are BDR jawans who were present at the headquarters during the mutiny, and 267 of them already gave confessional statements.
Following the mutiny in Pilkhana Headquarters of BDR in the capital, jawans of different units of the border security force across the country also came out of their barracks and mutinied, looting arms and ammunition from their arsenals on February 25 and 26. In the aftermath of the mutiny, 40 cases were filed in 28 districts outside the capital and a total of 1,721 BDR jawans were arrested on charges of mutiny outside the headquarters.
The mutiny left 74 people including 57 army officers murdered, prompting deployment of 400 CID personnel, over 1,500 Rapid Action Battalion members, around 2,000 Dhaka Metropolitan Police personnel, and many members of the army in the investigation.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
A BRITISH Muslim convert was jailed for at least 10 years today for plotting to blow up a shopping centre using his own homemade "suicide vest".
Isa Ibrahim, 20, a student from Bristol in southwest England, was arrested in April last year after police received what they described as a "landmark" tip-off from a member of the local Muslim community.
During a search of his home, police found a quantity of hexamethylene triperoxide diamine - a high explosive that can be made from household ingredients and the same substance as used in the deadly London suicide bomb attacks of July 7, 2005. Also found in his one-bedroom apartment were an electrical circuit capable of detonating the explosive and a half-made suicide vest.
Detectives said his intended target was a busy shopping centre in Bristol.
Justice Neil Butterfield gave him an indeterminate jail sentence with a minimum of 10 years, calling him "a lonely and angry young person ... with a craving for attention." With time served, he should be out in three or four years. Nice one, Justice Neil Butterfield.
Not a word about him being a murderous bastard, huh ...
Winchester Crown Court heard he turned to religion after being addicted to drugs and spent months researching Islamist extremism on the internet. He also used the Internet to find out how to make explosives from household products. The jury was told that he had described Britain as a "dirty toilet" and believed the September 11 attacks were a justifiable response to US and British aggression towards Muslims, the Press Association reported.
Ibrahim denied plotting a bomb attack but pleaded guilty to a charge of making an explosive substance. He said he thought suicide bombing was wrong and had only intended to put a film of the suicide vest being detonated on the YouTube website.
He was convicted of preparing terrorist acts, making explosives, carrying out "reconnaissance" before the act, and "making an improvised suicide vest in which to then detonate an explosive substance".
Detective Superintendent Nigel Rock, who led the investigation, said it was "hugely significant" that a member of the Muslim community had provided information on Ibrahim.
North Korea's Kim Yong-nam says the six-party nuclear talks are over for good. The reclusive regime's second-highest official told delegates at the Non-Aligned Meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh that there can be no dialogue or negotiations "where the principles of respect for sovereign rights and equality are denied."
Kim claimed Pyongyang had no choice but to take "decisive measures" to further strengthen its nuclear deterrence.
The six-party nuclear dismantlement talks were suspended late last year and Pyongyang declared this April it was not returning to the talks after the UN Security Council condemned its rocket launch.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
ION WMF > RICHARD FISHER: WIth AERIAL REFUELING AND IMPROVS IN DESIGN, CHINESE PLAAF H-6K STRATEGIC BOMBERS CAN GREATLY IMPROVE THEIR COMBAT RADIUS ALMOST FOUR TIMES AND REACH GUAM
[Direct threat to the USAF, USN in PACOAS].
* SAME > TO PROTECT ITS CONTROL OF THE SOUTH CHINA SEAS AND INDIAN OCEAN "STRING OF PEARLS" MILBASES [Access to STRAITS OF MALACCAS], CHINA FIRST PRIORITY IN WAR MUST BE TO ISOLATE OR DESTROY VIETNAM"S NAVY AND REGIONAL MIL POWER.
#2
"where the principles of respect for sovereign rights and equality are denied."
Fine, grow your own food. I'm sure an equal has no problem addressing their basics in nationhood. Oh, and as to sovereignty, next time you launch over another country's sovereign airspace be prepared to watch the incoming reply.
#3
Good thought, Procopius. Sorta like children hiding behind irrelevant rules. And the adults not being wise enough to recognize it and allowing it to happen.
Go to site for some interesting links for items mentioned in this article Islamic Supremacist Group Holds First U.S. Conference
A group committed to establishing an international Islamic empire and reportedly linked to Al Qaeda is stepping up its Western recruitment efforts by holding its first official conference in the U.S. Hizb ut-Tahrir is a global Sunni network with reported ties to confessed 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Al Qaeda in Iraq's onetime leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. It has operated discreetly in the U.S. for decades.
Now, it is coming out of the shadows and openly hosting a July 19 conference entitled, "The Fall of Capitalism and the Rise of Islam," at a posh Hilton hotel in a suburb of Chicago. Hizb ut-Tahrir insists that it does not engage in terrorism, and it is not recognized by the State Department as a known terror group.
But some terrorism experts say it may be even more dangerous than many groups that are on the terror list.
"Hizb ut-Tahrir is one of the oldest, largest indoctrinating organizations for the ideology known as jihadism," Walid Phares, director of the Future of Terrorism Project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told FOXNews.com.
Phares said that Hizb ut-Tahrir, rather than training members to carry out terrorist acts like Al Qaeda, focuses instead on indoctrinating youths between ages of 9 and 18 to absorb the ideology that calls for the formation of an empire -- or "khilafah" -- that will rule according to Islamic law and condones any means to achieve it, including militant jihad.
Hizb ut-Tahrir often says that its indoctrination "prepares the infantry" that groups like Al Qaeda take into battle, Phares said.
"It's like a middle school that prepares them to be recruited by the high school, which is Al Qaeda," he said. "One would compare them to Hitler youth. ... It's an extremely dangerous organization."
Phares said Hizb ut-Tahrir has strongholds in Western countries, including Britain, France and Spain, and clearly is looking to strengthen its base in the U.S.
"The aim of this conference is to recruit within the Muslim community in America," he said. "The Middle East governments go after them, but in the U.S. they are protected, so having a base here is going to help their cells around the world."
Representatives of Hizb ut-Tahrir declined to comment when contacted by FOXNews.com.
Oren Segal, director of Islamic Affairs for the Anti-Defamation League, said the conference is cause for concern.
"While they're not, for the most part, engaging in violent activities, and they publicly say that they're against violence, there have been examples around the world where people who have spun off of this group have engaged in violent activity," Segal told FOXNews.com. "That's why they're banned in several Arab and Central Asian countries, as well as Germany and Russia."
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is one of the group's most famous alumni, New Statesman journalist Shiv Malik reported, citing intelligence sources. In addition to plotting the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he also is implicated in the World Trade Center bombing of 1993, the Bali nightclub bombings and the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.
Malik's report, the public policy institute the Nixon Center and the counter-extremism think tank the Quilliam Foundation agree that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was the leader of Al Qaeda in Iraq until he was killed in June 2006, also was once a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir.
They say other former members include Asif Muhammad Hanif, a British man who blew himself up outside a bar in Tel Aviv, killing four people (including himself) and wounding more than 50; and Omar Bakri Mohammed, a radical cleric currently banned from Britain who praised the 9/11 attacks, raised funds for Hezbollah and Hamas and called for attacks on the Dublin airport because U.S. troops transfered there on their way to Iraq.
Segal said Hizb ut-Tahrir is becoming more active online in the U.S. -- particularly on social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace -- and now it may be able to add a significant number of Americans to its ranks.
But former member Ishtiaq Hussain said Hizb ut-Tahrir is repackaging itself as a moderate organization as a tactic, while in reality it is "extremist."
"They don't recognize countries like Israel, for example; they don't believe Israel should exist," Hussain, now a trainer for the Quilliam Foundation, told FOXNews.com. "Some of their leaders have denied the Holocaust, and they believe homosexuals should be thrown off the highest building. ... It's actually a very dangerous group."
Hizb ut-Tahrir itself has also published writings that seem to contradict its tenet of non-violence.
In his book, "How the Khilafah Was Destroyed," Sheikh Abdul Qadeem Zalloom, the former global leader of Hizb ut-Tahrir, says anyone who rules by a non-Islamic system should "either retract or be killed ... even if this led to several years of fighting and even if it led to the killing of millions of Muslims and to the martyrdom of millions of believers."
Hizb ut-Tahrir's official ruling on the permissibility of hijacking planes says, "If the plane belongs to a country at war with Muslims,
And one of the organization's more recent leaflets, published in March, calls for the declaration of "a state of war against America."
But, despite these threats and calls to action, Hizb ut-Tahrir remains off the State Department's terror watch list, and it is free to host the Khilafah Conference and any other event like it.
"In other parts of the world where they're really very active, they've drawn tens of thousands of people to some of their events," Segal said."It'll be interesting to see to what degree they'll be welcomed here."
#1
Interesting to see Islam offered as an alternative to capitalism.
Islam encompasses a religion, legal system, political system and sexual disorder.
Capitalism is an economic system.
So is Islam expanding out to economic theory as well, or is this just sloppy terminology?
Just because Islam has a political component doesn't mean it can't employ its choice of economic systems. The communist Chinese have done a plausible job mixing an oligopolistic dictatorship with capitalism.
#5
O(Shit) to be the opening speaker?
It's his home turf.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/17/2009 19:42 Comments ||
Top||
#6
ION TOPIX > IRAN: "DEATH TO RUSSIA" CHANTED AT FRIDAY PRAYER; + RUSSIA: RAIDS CONTINUE AS DOUBTS GROW OVER NURSI BAN [pro-Islamist = Radical Xtremist pamphlets, etc. spreading].
The government has virtually shelved a US-aided, multi-million dollar plan to reform madrassas considered nurseries of terrorism, as it has failed to garner the support of clerics. Oh, wotta surprise.
The government initiated the project in 2002 in a bid to introduce a more secular curriculum in madrassas. The project sought to introduce computer skills, science, social studies and English into the overwhelmingly religious curriculum at thousands of madrassas across the country. "Iffen it hain't in the Koran it hain't worf larnin'!" Utility: "We had a huge budget of Rs 5,759 million ($71 million) to provide madrassa students with formal education but we could not utilise it," Education Ministry spokesman Atiqur Rehman said. "The dough's really much happier in Switzerland!"
"The Interior Ministry held talks with various madrassas... but many of them refused to accept the government's intervention," said Mufti Gulzar Ahmed Naeemi, a senior official of the mainstream Sunni clerics alliance, Jamaat Ahl-e-Sunnat. As a result, the government has failed to meet the target of reforming around 8,000 religious schools within five years. Golly. That Pak gummint missed a target date. Shucks.
"We reached 507 madrassas only, spending Rs 333 million and the rest of the [money] -- Rs 5,426 million has lapsed," Rehman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani visited Wana on Thursday to seek the support of Ahmedzai Wazir tribes against Baitullah Mehsud, the chief of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan. "No action is being taken against Mehsud tribes. Instead certain steps are underway against those elements who have not only been openly challenging the writ of the government but also have accepted the responsibility of terrorist activities in various parts of the country," the governor told a jirga of Ahmedzai Wazirs.
The governor sought the tribes' support for peace, offering fast-track development in their areas, suggesting they should stand up against the militancy. "Maintenance of law and order is a must to ensure (fast-track) development," the governor told the jirga.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
The international community should make efforts to bolster aid to the more than two million people displaced by the anti-Taliban offensive in the NWFP, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes said on Wednesday. "Give us lotsa money to spend on them!"
Addressing a press conference on his return from a four-day visit to Pakistan, he said donors had committed the remaining 42 percent of the $543 million aid requested by the UN to help the displaced. Holmes, also the UN under secretary general for Humanitarian Affairs said, however, that amount would cover food and other basic emergency needs for only a few weeks. Much more would be needed to sustain relief efforts through to the year's end, particularly if the fighting intensified and led to a massive outflow of people from South Waziristan, as was expected in the coming weeks, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
The Punjab government on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that if the federal government provides it with fresh evidence against Jamaatud Dawa (JD) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, it could take back its application for the withdrawal of their petition.
Appearing on notice, Punjab Advocate General Raza Farooq told this to a three-member bench of the SC, consisting of Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Muhammad Sair Ali and Justice Jawwad S Khawaja, which was hearing pleas against a Lahore High Court (LHC) decision ordering the release of Saeed and aide Col (r) Nazir Ahmed from house arrest.
The federal and the Punjab governments had filed separate appeals in the SC against the LHC order of June 2, 2009, that freed Saeed and Nazir from house arrest.
However, the Punjab government later filed an application in the SC, withdrawing its plea, saying that Saeed and Nazir had been placed under house arrest on the directives of the federal government and that it later failed to provide sufficient evidence to maintain the arrest.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Geo News]Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Thursday that operation against militants will continue till elimination of last terrorist and no compromise would be made on the government's writ.
Talking to media persons here at police rest house after his detail visit to DI Khan city, he said that operation is only against militants and terrorists and it is not against a particular group or sect. He said that militants' back has been broken in Swat and Malakand Division.
He commended the supreme sacrifices of security forces and law enforcing agencies in Malakand Division and said that the whole nation is united against militancy and terrorism. The Interior Minister said that the country's is passing through difficult time and it is the need of hour to promote inter-faith harmony, demonstrate unity and cohesion among our ranks to frustrate the nefarious designs of anti-state elements.
Rehman Malik said that the government's utmost obligation is to maintain peace and law and order in the country and the government is utilizing all available resources in this regard. He said that no compromise would be made on government's writ. Rehman Malik said that military operation is only against terrorists and has rejected the impression that it has been launched against a particular tribe or sect.
He said that Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsood has no choice but to lay down arms in his own interest. The government will come hard against militants and they will not be allowed to challenge the writ of government.
NWFP Chief Minister Ameer Haider Khan Hoti, Deputy Speaker National Assembly Faisal Karim Kundi, Senior Minister Bashir Bilour, Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain, IGP NWFP Malik Naveed, elites of the area, leaders of the sunni and shia community and members of Amn jirga D I Khan were present on the occasion.
Earlier, he met with the delegation of peoples belonging to various segments of the society and reviewed the law and order situation in DIKhan.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
[ADN Kronos] Members of a United Nations inquiry investigating the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto arrived in Pakistan on Thursday. Senior officials from the interior ministry and the foreign office met members of the commission on their arrival.
Led by Chile's ambassador to the UN, Heraldo Munoz, the team includes a former Indonesian attorney general and a former senior Irish police officer.
The inquiry will last six months and investigate the "facts and circumstances" of Bhutto's death.
The former prime minister was killed in December 2007 as she left a party rally in Rawalpindi. The government has accused Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud of ordering Bhutto's murder.
"The staff, working under direction of the commissioners, will gather information, collate relevant material and conduct interviews," said a UN statement released on Thursday.
The members of the commission were expected to be in the country until 19 July.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
To keep in mind in case there is a large terror incident over the weekend.
(AKI) - Hundreds of thousands of Shia pilgrims on Thursday were making their way to a holy shrine in the Iraqi capital Baghdad to commemorates the death of a revered imam. The pilgrimage reaches its climax on Saturday, Arabic satellite TV network Al-Arabiya reports. Millions of pilgrims are expected over the next few days to gather at the shrine of the 8th-century imam Musa al-Kathim, an alleged descent of the Prophet Mohammed.
Authorities view the pilgrimage as an important test for Iraq's security following the withdrawal last month of US soldiers from urban areas and the death of 1,000 people during a stampede on a bridge near the shrine in 2005.
Police checkpoints have been set up and many roads have been closed in a bid to avoid violence in the northern Baghdad neighbourhood of Kazimiyah, where the shrine is located, and the government has banned motorcycles and wheeled carts until Sunday.
Shia pilgrims from all over Iraq were reported to be travelling to the shrine on foot, by car, bus, motorbike and truck.
A REPORT released yesterday warned of the risk of another Bali bombing-style attack by terrorists.
The report, released just 24 hours before bombs were detonated at the Marriott and Ritz-Carlton Hotels in Jakarta, said another attack was becoming increasingly more likely as more Jemaah Islamiah members were released from prison.
News.com.au's story from yesterday:
A REPEAT of the 2002 Bali bombings is becoming increasingly likely as more Jemaah Islamiah members are released from prison, according to a new report.
A growing number of jihadi members of hardline Indonesian group JI are being released from jails and they might urge further terrorist attacks, the report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) said.
A growing number of jihadi members of hardline Indonesian group JI are being released from jails and they might urge further terrorist attacks, the report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) said.
Members of JI were behind the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings which killed 225 people, including 92 Australians.
"We argue that two recent developments - the current leadership tensions and the release from prison of former JI members - at least raise the possibility that splinter factions might now seek to re-energise the movement through violent attacks," the report said.
The report authors, Noor Huda Ismail from the Jakarta-based International Institute for Peacebuilding and Carl Ungerer from ASPI, said that although the possibility of another attack like the Bali bombings remains low, it will continue to grow.
"There is evidence that some of these (former prisoners) are gravitating towards hardline groups who continue to advocate al-Qaeda style attacks against Western targets."
The report, based on interviews with former members and prisoners, said that more than 100 JI followers have been released from prison.
The report also said that militants from the southern Philippines moving to Indonesia could help breed a "new generation of radicalised fringe groups".
"Together with regional countries such as Australia, the Indonesian Government, religious and community leaders will need to take effective action in order to stem the emergence of these radical movements."
After bombing attacks in Bali in 2002 and 2005, JI became more "mainstream" and began opposing violent actions, the report said. Small groups of members still support jihad.
Tens of thousands of government opponents packed Iran's main Islamic prayer service Friday, chanting "freedom, freedom" and other slogans as their top clerical backer Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani delivered a sermon bluntly criticizing the country's leadership over the crackdown on election protests.
Outside, police and pro-government Basiji militiamen fired tear gas and charges thousands of protesters who chanted "death to the dictator" and called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to resign. Dozens were arrested, piled in trucks and taken away, witnesses said.
Plainclothes Basijis stood in front of a line of riot police and pumped canisters of tear gas, which young protesters with green bandanas over their faces kicked away across the pavement, away from the crowds. Some set a bonfire in the street and waved their hands in the air in victory signs.
The opposition aimed to turn the Friday prayers at Tehran University into a show of their continued strength despite heavy government suppression since the disputed June 12 presidential election.
Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims to have won the election, sat in the front row of worshippers, attending for the first time since the turmoil began. Many of the tens of thousands at the prayers wore headbands or wristbands in his campaign color green, or had green prayer rugs.
In his sermon broadcast live on radio nationwide, Rafsanjani reprimanded the clerical leadership for not listening to people's complaints over the election, which was declared a victory for Ahmadinejad despite opposition claims of fraud. "Doubt has been created (about the election results)," Rafsanjani said. "There is a large portion of the wise people who say they have doubts. We need to take action to remove this doubt."
Rafsanjani couched his sermon in calls for unity in support of Iran's Islamic Republic. But his sermon was an unmistakable challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who declared Ahmadinejad's victory valid and ordered an end to questioning of the results. Rafsanjani said the dispute has split clerics and warned of "crisis."
Worshippers interrupted Rafsanjani with chants of "azadi, azadi" -- Persian for "freedom" -- and the cleric got tears in his eyes as he spoke of how Islam's Prophet Muhammad "respected the rights" of his people. Rafsanjani said the leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, "knew that people's vote was the most important thing in our country" and insisted it be enshrined in the founding of the Islamic Republic.
"Where people are not present or their vote is not considered, that government is not Islamic," Rafsanjani said. Now I'm the one with tears in my eyes.
He criticized the postelection wave of arrests, saying the leadership should show sympathy for protesters and release those detained. "Sympathy must be offered to those who suffered from the events... and reconcile them with the ruling system," he said. "We need to placate them."
Posted by: ed ||
07/17/2009 11:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This will continue until the thugs get a very bad defeat, preferably all the basiji killed, then they'll call out the army, and effectively start a civil war.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
07/17/2009 19:56 Comments ||
Top||
[Iran Press TV Latest] Tehran's Municipality spokesman has urged the Iranian parliament to reject a new bill that gives the Interior Ministry the right to appoint mayors.
"We hope the parliament will consider the principles of democracy and the importance of the people's entitlement to choose their preferred mayors before making it the right of the Interior Ministry," said Mohammad Hadi Ayazi on Wednesday.
At present, city mayors are chosen by the elected city -- or Islamic -- councils. However, a group of pro-government lawmakers have tabled a bill in the parliament which if adopted, would give the interior minister the power to appoint mayors in cities with populations of above 200,000.
For cities with less than 200,000 residents, the bill would require that provincial governors elect mayors with coordination of the Interior Ministry.
The bill, tabled two weeks ago, has drawn criticism from various officials and its possible adoption is seen by critics as a step in the wrong direction.
"The passing of this bill would significantly undermine the role of municipal councils, which has been greatly emphasized in the Iranian constitution," Ayazi continued. "This is why the Tehran City Council as well as the members of Islamic councils in all the other towns and large cities have opposed this bill."
Ayazi was referring to opposition to the bill by prominent members of the Tehran City Council.
Among officials who condemned the measure was Tehran City Council head Mehdi Chamran."The bid for mayors not to be appointed by the councils threatens religious democracy," Iranian daily Sarmayeh quoted Chamran as saying.
"At a time that the government seeks to delegate various tasks with the help of others and lessen its responsibilities, once again assigning the government the job of selecting mayors only questions the existence of councils."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
Israel accused Iran and Syria on Thursday of sending weapons to Lebanon's Hezbollah in violation of a UN ceasefire after one of the group's arms warehouses in south Lebanon blew up.
The Lebanese group, which is both a popular political movement and a powerful guerrilla organisation, is backed by both Syria and Iran. The conditions of the 2006 ceasefire that ended the Israel-Hezbollah war prohibit weapons smuggling to Hezbollah and forbid the group from engaging in military activities in south Lebanon.
Lebanese officials say explosions on Tuesday in a supposedly abandoned building 10 miles north of the Israeli border were caused by a fire in a Hezbollah weapons storage facility.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said on Thursday that the incident was evidence of "Iranian and Syrian efforts to continue to transfer weapons to Hezbollah in direct and flagrant violation" of the UN ceasefire that ended the war.
A senior Israeli officer told reporters on Thursday the warehouse contained short-range rockets that were smuggled from Syria. The warehouse was one of dozens of similar Hezbollah arms depots across south Lebanon and part of a "buildup" of the group's strength there, the officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity in accordance with military regulations.
The UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon on Wednesday called the incident a "serious violation" of the ceasefire.
But nonetheless there will be no repercussions for Hizb'allah.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[ADN Kronos] The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, has resigned, according to the ISNA news agency. The report said the nuclear chief had submitted a letter of resignation to president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad nearly three weeks ago. Aghazadeh also stepped down as the country's vice-president, ISNA reported.
The reason for his resignation is not known.
Iran has consistently said its nuclear programme was for peaceful purposes and denied Western claims that it wanted a nuclear bomb.
Aghazadeh previously served as oil minister before taking up his position at the atomic organisation under former president Mohammad Khatami.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Resigns, never to be heard from again? Maybe someone booked him on a recent plane flight to Armenia. I hear it's lovely there this time of year. Assuming you arrive.
#2
ION TOPIX > DIPLOMATS: IRAN WILL HAVE THE MEANS TO TEST N-BOMB IN SIX MONTHS.
* SAME > STANFORD UNIV ENGINEER: CHANCES OF NUCLEAR WAR [incl. Nuke Attack agz CONUS USA] IS GREATER THAN YOU THINK. NUC-WMD TERROR EVENT(S) induces risk of POST-EVENT, RECOVERY/
HUMANITARIAN PHASE "GREAT POWER" MIL CONFRONTATIONISM, e.g. USA-VZ-RUSSIA after a nuc terror event on their soil???
[Iran Press TV Latest] Iran's Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i has warned worshippers against potential unrest in this week's Friday prayers. Mohseni-Eje'i called on worshippers to remain 'vigilant' so that the Friday prayers do not turn into a scene of 'undesirable' events, Fars news reported on Thursday. The minister however added that the capital, Tehran, currently enjoys a good security situation.
After an eight-week absence, Chairman of the Expediency Council and Head of the Assembly of Experts, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, will lead this week's Friday prayers. Supporters of Iran's opposition, who continue to reject the results of the June 12 presidential election, will reportedly take part in this week's Friday prayers en masse as defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi has announced that he will also take part.
In a statement issued by his website Ghalamnews on Wednesday, Mousavi, the country's last prime minister, who came second in Iran's June 12 presidential election, announced that he would join the lines of worshippers for this week's Friday prayers. Mousavi said he would attend the prayers as he feels 'obliged' to respond to calls concerning the path of defending the 'legitimate rights to a free and decent living.'
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Jerusalem Post Middle East] A day after an explosion uncovered a hidden Hizbullah arms cache in southern Lebanon, the IDF's Northern Command estimated that the group had turned hundreds of homes in the area into warehouses to store short- and medium-range Katyusha rockets.
The IDF released video footage taken from an Israeli aircraft, showing a home that had exploded on Tuesday in the village of Hirbet Selm - located some 20 kilometers north of the Lebanese border. The roof is seen in the footage with dozens of holes, which IDF ballistic experts said were the size of 122-mm. Katyusha rockets.
UNIFIL said that storing the ammunition was a "serious violation" of the UN-brokered ceasefire that ended the Second Lebanon War in 2006. The peace keeping force said that it considered the incident a "serious violation" of the UN resolution that ended the conflict, which specifies that there should be no presence of unauthorized assets or weapons in the area of operations.
Israeli defense officials had also accused Lebanon of violating United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701. "This is a major violation of resolution 1701," one Israeli official said. "The weaponry was stored inside a village and is proof of our longstanding claim that Hizbullah uses civilian infrastructure to hide its weaponry."
Contrary to Lebanese media reports which claimed that the cache was hidden in the village before the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Israeli defense officials said that the weaponry was recently placed inside the storehouse. According to the officials, the cache was hidden in a storehouse inside the village and contained dozens of 122mm Katyusha rockets as well as high-powered machine guns. Some of the rockets reportedly flew into the sky.
The blast took place at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, and for the first few hours, Hizbullah sealed off the area and refused to grant UNIFIL or the Lebanese army access. IDF sources said that the clearing of the home and the unexploded ordinance had taken over 24 hours.
The sources said the IDF had been aware prior to the explosion that the home was being used as a storehouse for weapons. Several months before the explosion, an IDF aircraft captured footage of several senior Hizbullah operatives entering an underground tunnel near the house and reappearing from an exit 700 m. away. "This house was connected to an entire underground network that was built right under the noses of UNIFIL and the Lebanese army," one IDF officer said. "This is a major violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701."
The Katyusha rockets that went off in Hirbet Selm were being stored in a two-story home. It was unclear on which floor they were being stored, but the home was shown on Lebanese television in close proximity to other village buildings. In addition to the 122-mm. rockets, IDF ballistic experts said it was likely that the home also contained mortar shells and additional types of ammunition.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/17/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
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.
The government has virtually shelved a US-aided, multi-million dollar plan to reform madrassas considered nurseries of terrorism, as it has failed to garner the support of clerics.
The Punjab government on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that if the federal government provides it with fresh evidence against Jamaatud Dawa (JD) chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, it could take back its application for the withdrawal of their petition.
[ADN Kronos] The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, has resigned, according to the ISNA news agency. The report said the nuclear chief had submitted a letter of resignation to president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad nearly three weeks ago. Aghazadeh also stepped down as the country's vice-president, ISNA reported.
[Jerusalem Post Middle East] A day after an explosion uncovered a hidden Hizbullah arms cache in southern Lebanon, the IDF's Northern Command estimated that the group had turned hundreds of homes in the area into warehouses to store short- and medium-range Katyusha rockets. 
