[Al Arabiya Latest] The Afghan government has banned live coverage of militant attacks in a bid to prevent the Taliban from exploiting television news, after one of the deadliest days for NATO troops this year.
The ban appears to apply to domestic and international news organizations, although the country's intelligence agency refused to provide details.
Afghanistan's constitution guarantees freedom of speech and media.
A spokesman said live television coverage of attacks -- such as that in Kabul last Friday which killed 16 people -- could alert militant organizations to police actions against their operatives on the ground.
"While journalists are going to the scene of ongoing attacks, they endanger themselves and also they help inform the enemy with their live broadcasts or reporting of the progress of (police) operations," Hakim Ashir, the head of the Government Media and Information Centre, told AFP.
The National Directorate for Security (NDS) refused to comment when contacted by AFP. A spokesman said only that media organizations would be "invited in small groups to meetings and the new rule will explained to them".
It reflects an earlier attempt to ban coverage of Taliban attacks during elections in August, under threat of expulsion for international reporters and confiscation of equipment for Afghans.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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Dubai's police chief plans to seek the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of Israel's spy agency over the killing of a Hamas leader in the emirate, Al Jazeera television reported.
Dahi Khalfan Tamim "said he would ask the Dubai prosecutor to issue arrest warrants for ... Netanyahu and the head of Mossad," the television said. It did not give details.
Tamim has said he is "almost certain" Israeli agents were involved in the killing of Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh at a Dubai hotel in January, calling for Mossad's boss, Meir Dagan, to be arrested if it is proved responsible. Tamim said on Monday Mossad had "insulted" Dubai and Western countries whose fraudulent passports were used by suspects in the assassination.
Dubai has asked the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation to look into prepaid cards issued by the Meta Financial Group's MetaBank which the suspects used, a United Arab Emirates newspaper said.
Citing an FBI source, The National newspaper said the investigation would look into any Israeli involvement in the killing.
"Thirteen of the 27 suspects used prepaid MasterCards issued by MetaBank, a regional American bank, to purchase plane tickets and book hotel rooms," the newspaper said, quoting Dubai police.
MetaBank said it followed proper procedures when it issued the cards.
Authorities told the bank that the suspects appeared to have used stolen passports to get employment with U.S. companies, MetaBank said in a statement on Tuesday. The companies paid the employees with prepaid cards issued by MetaBank and other banks.
MetaBank said it had launched its own review of the matter, and had so far found that it followed all bank and regulatory requirements.
The suspects authorities had identified were not on any list that would indicate their identities were fraudulent, it said.
The UAE, a U.S.-allied Arab state that backs the Palestinian drive for an independent state and an end to Israeli occupation, has no diplomatic relations with Israel.
But it has established low-level political and trade links in recent years, with some Israeli officials attending events in the Gulf Arab state. Israeli tennis player Shahar Peer competed in the Dubai Championships last month.
Members of the hit squad used fraudulent passports from Britain, Ireland, Germany, France and Australia. Residents of Israel with the same names as the suspects, holding dual nationalities, have said their identities appear to have been stolen.
The passport abuse has drawn criticism from the European Union, and some of the governments involved have summoned the Israeli ambassadors to their countries to protest.
Posted by: tipper ||
03/03/2010 06:09 ||
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#1
"You can't say that Islam is a religion of peace," Choudary told CBN News. "Because Islam does not mean peace. Islam means submission. So the Muslim is one who submits. There is a place for violence in Islam. There is a place for jihad in Islam."
#4
Choudary has been forthright on this stuff for many years.
His interview w the BBC justifying the subway terrorism was in the movie FITNA.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/03/2010 12:37 Comments ||
Top||
#5
The comment string on the original article is rife with references to verses negating his position. Note that he is a Sufi as opposed to the Sunni/Shi'ite sects that dominate the terror business. E.g. - the more liberal wing as it were.
The British government said Monday it was going to ban Somali terrorist organization al-Shabab, an al Qaeda-linked Islamist group fighting the anarchic country's transitional government. The ban would make membership in al-Shabab a criminal offense and bar Britons from raising money for the group. It must be approved by Parliament before it goes into force, but that is largely a formality.
Britain is home to one of the largest Somali communities in Europe. The most recent census put the number of Somalis living in the U.K. at about 43,000, but immigration experts believe the true figure is far higher. Mr. Abdullahi put the figure at upward of 100,000, saying many were in the country without proper documentation.
The Venezuelan government blasted as "unacceptable" an accusatory instrument furnished on Monday by a Spanish judge on alleged cooperation among the government of President Hugo Chavez, the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) and Basque separatist group ETA, reported the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release.
On Monday, Judge Eloy Velasco, of the Spanish High Court, the highest criminal authority, said in an indictment that the ETA's help to train FARC members had the Venezuelan "government cooperation," AFP reported.
According to the indictment disclosed on Monday, involving six presumed ETA members and seven FARC members for their alleged cooperation and murder attempt, both groups were plotting in Spain against Colombian VIPs, including President Alvaro Uribe.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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North Korea seems to have suspended the state-sponsored drug trade last year but continues to trade in counterfeit dollar bills and cigarettes, the U.S. State Department claims.
The annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report released by the department on Monday said, "Hard-to-detect fake US$100 notes made only by North Korea turned up in 2008 and 2009 in San Francisco and the South Korean city of Busan, although it was unclear how long the notes had been in circulation," AFP reported.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Well, look at the bright side. As long as the Norks are forging US dollars then they still have some value.
Posted by: Kelly ||
03/03/2010 10:19 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Isn't #1 Son looking out for the family counterfeiting interests in Macao?
#4
ION WMF > [tennis game]CHINA BACKHANDS THE US: NORTH KOREA TO STUDY OPTIONS TO DEVELOP, IMPLEMENT CHINESE-STYLE SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES IN EIGHT MAJOR NOKOR CITIES OR AREAS.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is suffering from depression, according Ha Tae-keung, the head of Open Radio for North Korea. Just wait til he gets to greet Himmler ...
"Kim gets angry and fretful so often that his aides don't dare to look him in the face when reporting to him," Ha claimed on Feb. 25. "He has also cut the number of on-the-spot guidance tours by less than half" so his third son and heir apparent Jong-un is undertaking them on his behalf.
Pavel Ovsyannikov, the principal conductor of the 21st Century Orchestra of Moscow, visited Pyongyang in September to give a performance and later told a Japanese newspaper Kim smoked Marlboro cigarettes and "had a strong grip" when he shook his hand. He also said that Kim had a sharp memory and used both hands freely. This led to speculation that Kim has recovered his health.
But Ha claimed depression often leads to like excessive drinking and smoking. "It's true that he appears as if he has recovered his health, but in fact, his health is deteriorating."
Ha said Kim junior is being briefed by major agencies, while Pak Nam-gi, who has been dismissed from his post as the director of the Planning and Finance Department of the Workers Party for the recent bungled currency reform, has been replaced by a close aide to Kim Jong-un. "It seems that transition of power has been nearly completed," he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Just wait til he gets to greet Himmler ...
Maybe Himmler will share his pineapple with Kimmie.
#3
Kim smoked Marlboro cigarettes
Were they counterfeit? (see above article about counterfeit money and cigs)
New slogan: So good, even Comrade Kim can't tell the difference!
#4
ION FREEREPUBLIC > DESPERATE NORTH KOREANS RIOT OVER FOOD. FREEP Sources repor that food riots + anti-Govt street confrontations are starting, slowly spreading.
* TOPIX > NORTH KOREA WANTS TO RENEGOTIATE ITS 1961 DEFENSE TREATY WID CHINA.
#5
ION NOT-NECESSARILY-UNRELATED, TOPIX > USA > [Behold] THE CONQUERING EMPIRE HAMBURGER MAP: PICK YUR METAPHOR WISELY.
YUDDA THUNK DAT INFAMOUS NET SATELLITE "BLACK/
BLACKOUT MAP" OF NORTH KOREA = USA, iff youse didn't know "BLACK" WAS MCDONALD'S + COUNTRY WAS AMERICA = AMERIKA.
YOUR MOTHERLY COMMIE SONIC DRIVE-IN, JACK-IN-THE-BOX, BURGER KING, + prolly local MOM-N-POP NEED A MAJOR COW/BURGER JIHAD AGZ ARROGANT MALE BRUTE FASCIST MICKEY D'S???
[Kyodo: Korea] North Korea has acknowledged the failure of the currency reform it conducted last November, saying it caused confusion in the supply of money and the distribution of goods, sources familiar with China-North Korea relations said Tuesday.
North Korea made the acknowledgement in a note sent to its diplomatic missions abroad in mid-February, the sources said.
The note urged North Koreans to ''get united and overcome the difficulty,'' they said.
It is rare for North Korea to acknowledge a failure of economic policy.
The acknowledgement suggests the failure dealt a severe blow to North Korea's efforts to rebuild its economy, a key to achieving Pyongyang's goal of ''opening the gate to a great, prosperous and powerful socialist nation'' in 2012.
North Korean officials ''do not need to deny'' the confusion sparked by the redenomination of the currency when explaining it externally, the note said, according to the sources.
By acknowledging the problem, Pyongyang is believed to have been attempting to ease the sense of alarm among foreign companies about trading with and investing in North Korea.
A senior South Korean Unification Ministry official quoted visitors to Pyongyang around the Feb. 16 birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as saying they saw no signs of confusion over currency at shops, hotels and restaurants in the capital.
On Nov. 30, North Korea redenominated the won, knocking two zeros off its bank notes.
Despite the redenomination, Pyongyang failed to curb inflation and caused confusion in the supply of goods, the sources quoted North Korea as telling Chinese investors and trading partners.
Rice prices, for example, effectively rose by 15 to 30 times after the redenomination. According to South Korea's Unification Ministry, the price of rice came to 300-600 won, or 30,000-60,000 old won, per kilogram after the redenomination, compared with 2,000-2,500 won before Nov. 30.
The sources said North Korea also told Chinese investors and trading partners that it carried out the currency reform ''without sufficient preparation.''
When carrying out the redenomination, North Korea launched a ''price adjustment committee'' to set prices for goods and price caps for products sold in markets. But delays in the work made it difficult for authorities to fix new prices, forcing some shops to suspend operations for nearly a month, diplomatic sources in Pyongyang said.
Similarly, the new won's exchange rates against the dollar, the euro and other currencies were not made public until early February, the sources said.
According to official rates, the dollar traded at 100 won, the euro was quoted at 140 won and the yuan fetched 14 won, marking sharp depreciation of the won compared with levels prior to the redenomination.
North Korea admitted that information about the currency reform had been leaked prior to implementation.
The leak prompted some of the new rich in North Korea to try to move their money to China and other countries, fearing that their foreign currency holdings might be confiscated.
The action prompted security authorities to tighten control of the border with China late last year, sparking speculation that the North Korean leader might visit China as early as in January.
Senior officials of the Workers' Party of Korea and aides reported directly to leader Kim Jong Il about the confusion resulting from the failed currency reform, leading to the dismissal in January of Pak Nam Gi, director at the party's Financial Planning Department, and others involved in the project, according to diplomatic sources in Beijing.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION NEWS KERALA > seems ORDINARY RUSSIAN CONSUMERS + WANNABES no longer have trust in their own country's RUBLE CURRENCY, + now prefer to use US DOLLARS OR OTHER MAJOR INTERNATIONAL CURRENCY???
Italian magistrates on Tuesday issued new terrorism charges against a Libyan immigrant suspected of setting off a bomb outside a military barracks in the northern Italian city of Milan last October. Mohammed Game will now be charged with an act of terrorism using an explosive device.
Game was arrested after the blast on 12 October last year and charged with attempting to carry out a massacre and carrying and making explosive devices.
Both he and an Italian soldier were injured in the blast, and Game has been in custody ever since.
Thirty-five-year-old Game (photo) was reported to have exploded a home-made bomb hidden inside a toolbox at the entrance of Milan's Santa Barbara barracks.
He allegedly entered the courtyard of the barracks on foot, where he was confronted by a military guard.
Game is then accused of detonating the rudimentary explosives, which were reportedly made of solid nitrate.
An Italian soldier was slightly injured and Game lost a hand and his eyesight in the attack.
The toolbox where he allegedly hid the bomb was said to have contained two more kilogrammes of explosives, and according to reports, it only partially detonated.
Had the entire load detonated, there would definitely have been deaths, investigators said.
Two more North African suspects were arrested in mid-October in connection with the bombing after police questioned Game's family.
The Egyptian suspect, named as Abdel Hady Abdelaziz Mahmoud Kol, allegedly helped Game reach the barracks.
The Libyan suspect, named as Mohamaed Imbaeya Israfel, allegedly helped Game to obtain explosives.
Game attended Milan's Viale Jenner Mosque and had lived in Italy for many years. He has an Italian partner and three children.
He complied a 'dossier' containing information on Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and other government ministers, the Italian investigative weekly L'Espresso reported last November.
Posted by: tipper ||
03/03/2010 06:24 ||
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Top|| File under: Global Jihad
See video at link
Five Muslim soldiers at the center of an investigation at Fort Jackson are now facing penalties.
The Army has discharged four of the Muslim soldiers accused of plotting to poison food at the South Carolina post. A fifth soldier was removed from active duty.
Yet sources close to the investigations say the men did not make any effort to poison food and that allegations of their disloyalty were inaccurate.
So why were they discharged?
Posted by: tipper ||
03/03/2010 06:11 ||
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NEW DELHI: The contention by US Special Envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke that Indians were not the target of the latest Kabul attack has come as a surprise to the government here.
Sources said the comments were surprising considering the fact that the Afghan government has clearly stated that attack was against Indians and carried out by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), whose sworn agenda is to target Indian interests.
Holbrooke had told reporters in Washington yesterday that he did not "accept the fact that this was an attack on an Indian facility like the (Indian) embassy. They were foreigners, non-Indian foreigners hurt. It was a soft target. Let's not jump to conclusions." The Taliban might have been aiming the blast at the Paks. Or the Bilderburgers. Or the Ruritanians. You never know.
The sources here wondered on what basis Holbrooke made the statement.
Seven Indians, including three Major-rank army officers, associated with developmental projects were killed and nine others, including four army officers, were injured in the assault that was reminiscent of 26/11.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai has termed it as an attack on Indians. He's just the president of Afghanistan. What would he know?
Afghanistan's intelligence service has said that the attack was directed against Indians and gunmen had detailed knowledge, including names, of Indian guests at the two hotels -- Park Residency and Noor Guest House, which were targeted in Kabul on Friday last.
"We are very close to the exact proof and evidence that the attack on the Indian guest house ... is not the work of the Afghan Taliban but this attack was carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba network, who are dependent on the Pakistan military," the Afghan intelligence agency's spokesman Saeed Ansari said in an interview.
According to sources, the attackers, after detonating an explosion, stormed the two hotels and hunted for Indians staying there. One of the attackers, speaking in Urdu, even was calling his targets by name, according a report in Washington Post.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/03/2010 16:36 ||
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#1
The sources here wondered on what basis Holbrooke made the statement.
Simple
India was a friend of Bush.
Bush is the enemy.
Therefore, India is our enemy.
#2
ION NEWS KERALA > ARTIC claims that PAK GOVT-ARMY continues to openly urge, call for Talib participation in peace talks includ POWER-SHARING, BUT AT SAME TIME CONTINS TO DROP PROPAGANDA LEAFLETS IN OUTLYING TRIBAL REGIONS PROCLAIMING THE TALIBAS LINK, COLLUSION WID INDIA'S GOVT + RAW INTEL AGENCY.
And yet anuther Barbecue bites the dust.
* SAME > US GENERAL BARRONS: UP TO 36,OOOO TALIBAN "FIGHTERS" IN AFGHANISTAN, exlusive of roughly 900 considered as in top leadership. HOWEVER, NOT ALL TALIB "FIGHTERS" [NON-TOP LEADERSHIP FIELD FORCES = ARMED INDIVIDUALS] FIGHT OR WAGE JIHAD-INSURGENCY FOR THE SAME PERSONAL, IDEO REASONS.
#3
OOOOOPPPSIES, SKYNET-MATRIX' BAD, that should be 36,000, NOT 36,0000 or 360,000. POTUS BAMMER hasn't bailed out our PROTO/FUTURE OWG SKYNET-MATRIX = STARFLEET COMMAND yet as per operating bytespace.
D *** NG IT, AND CAPT KIRK'S IN CANADA FOR THE WINTER OLYMPICS!
#4
OOOOOPPPSIES, SKYNET-MATRIX' BAD, that should be 36,000, NOT 36,0000 or 360,000. POTUS BAMMER hasn't bailed out our PROTO/FUTURE OWG SKYNET-MATRIX = STARFLEET COMMAND yet as per operating bytespace.
D *** NG IT, AND CAPT KIRK'S IN CANADA FOR THE WINTER OLYMPICS!
[Al Arabiya Latest] Sitting in his living room, Iskander Witwit opens a dossier with documents he says exonerate him of the charges against him: that he is a supporter of Saddam Hussein's banned Baath Party.
With just days to go before Iraqis cast their ballots in the March 7 parliamentary poll, the 64-year-old deputy governor of Babil province is still not certain he will be allowed to run. He feels persecuted and insists he is the victim of a conspiracy.
"I am in pain, this is a conspiracy against Iraq's patriots," he says while sipping from a glass of tea and smoking a cigarette in his house in Hilla, capital of Babil about 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of Baghdad. "If I am a Baathist, then everyone is a Baathist."
Witwit's case, he was originally barred from running for election for alleged links to the Baath, was later reinstated, and may be barred again, highlights the country's highly controversial "de-Baathification" program.
He was one of 511 election candidates barred from running for office by the Justice and Accountability Committee (JAC), a much-criticized body led by Ahmed Chalabi, who is himself running for parliament on a rival slate to Witwit's Iraqiya list.
Witwit was reinstated, he holds up a document to prove it, but the JAC says it has new information about him that could lead to him being barred once again.
According to Witwit, he rose to the rank of staff brigadier when he was forced to retire in 1991 after joining in a failed uprising against Saddam in the wake of that year's Gulf War. He was never more than a "naseer", or low-level supporter, in the Baath Party, he says although the fact he rose to the rank of staff brigadier is cited by his opponents as indication that he supported the Baath party.
Witwit, a secular Shiite, adds that Saddam's regime accused him of smuggling people into neighboring Iran and of training some of his relatives to assassinate senior Baathists.
A panel of judges had previously said barred candidates could stand on the condition that their cases be examined after the election, with the possibility remaining that they could be eliminated if they were found to be Baathists. This ruling, however, was later reversed.
After the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 to oust the dictator, Witwit became Babil's governor, but was forced out amid protests from religious figures over his secularism and military background. He left in January 2004 to become one of the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority's security advisers.
He also rejoined the army after the invasion, eventually retiring in 2007 as a brigadier general. In January 2009, he ran in provincial government elections and was voted in as Babil's deputy governor.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] A team from the US army logistics have entered Iraq's semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan to train the Kurdish regional military, known as Peshmerga.
The group, headed by Colonel Brown, was received by Jafaar Sheikh Mustafa, Kurdistan's Peshmerga minister in the regional capital of Arbil, said Xebat, a Kurdish daily belonging to the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), on Tuesday.
The forces, which, according to media reports, have been tasked with providing security for the upcoming parliamentary elections, are to be trained by American forces in the region.
"We are so optimistic to start training the local forces and to supply them with necessary logistics in Kurdistan region," Colonel Brown said upon arriving in the area.
The Peshmerga, who are considered the official security force of the Kurdish region, are known for their fierce resistance to the former Saddam Hussein government for decades.
As the country is gearing up for the March 7 parliamentary elections, the Kurdistan region has turned into an intense battle ground for major Kurdish parties.
The chairman of Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission Faraj Al-Haidari said on Sunday that he expects a high turnout in the vote that will decide the 325 members of the Council of Representatives of Iraq.
Once elected, the new members of the parliament will elect the country's prime minister and president.
Also On Wednesday, Iraq's leading Shiite cleric Grand Ayatollah Ali Husseini al-Sistani called on voters to come to polls en masse and cast their votes without endorsing a particular party.
Grand Ayatollah Sistani's support is seen as essential in boosting turnout for the upcoming parliamentary election, which is widely viewed as a test of reconciliation in Iraq after the sectarian bloodshed that emerged following the US-led invasion of 2003.
The United States has not made it a secret that it opposes unity among different factions and groups within the Iraqi society. It has even made attempts to partition the country along religious and sectarian lines.
"Ayatollah Sistani sees it as critical that all people -- men and women -- who care about the future of the country and rebuilding it... participate in the election," a statement from his office said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under:
The Australian Federal Police were involved in a hit-and-run car accident in Tel Aviv early this morning, just hours after landing in Israel to investigate how three Australian passports were used in the alleged assassination of top Hamas operative Mahmoud al-Mabhouh.
Mr Mabhouh was found dead in his Dubai hotel room on January 20 in what Dubai police have alleged was an assassination carried out by Israel's foreign intelligence service Mossad.
After hiding out at the Australian embassy for most of Wednesday, the agents tried to give waiting media the slip as they tried to move to their hotel.
Instead their silver armoured Toyota Prado ploughed into Israeli cyclist Oshra Bar as it sped from the embassy's underground car park, and then failed to stop.
Ms Bar was not seriously injured, but told the Herald that she had suffered lacerations to her leg.
"I want an apology and a new wheel," Ms Bar said. "I was hit and I kind of bounced."
Ms Bar managed to get the licence plate of the SUV, which matched the licence plate of a car that was later parked in the Australian embassy car parking space.
She said she had already spoken to a lawyer and had been to hospital for a check-up.
The Australian embassy last night confirmed that it was investigating the accident but would not confirm whether the car was carrying the AFP agents.
An embassy spokeswoman said as part of the investigation embassy officials had spoken to the driver of the car. She would not say what he had said had occurred.
"We are treating this issue very seriously," the embassy spokeswoman said. "We have not been contacted by anyone who has been knocked off her bike, or by the police in Israel."
"I can confirm that an incident did occur involving one of our vehicles. But I cannot comment any further until we know more about what happened.
The spokeswoman said she did have advice from the driver as to "whether something did or did not occur".
The driver of the car, when asked if he had been involved in a hit and run accident, continued walking into the embassy offices and said: "Can you shut the door."
#1
I expect 34 people will be identified as suspects in this incident
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/03/2010 20:41 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Instead their silver armoured Toyota Prado ploughed into Israeli cyclist Oshra Bar as it sped from the embassy's underground car park, and then failed to stop.
Yeah, that accelerator problem again. Global acceleration. Wouldn't have happened if they'd bought a GM.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Security must be stepped up for all foreigners entering Lebanon as they could be secret agents like those who murdered a top Hamas militant in Dubai, a Hezbollah lawmaker said on Tuesday.
"We must tighten foreign passport control at the airport and elsewhere in the country," Hezbollah MP Nawaf Moussawi told AFP.
"Every Lebanese and Arab must deal with holders of foreign passports as potential spies."
Mahmud al-Mabhouh, a founder of the military wing of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, was found dead in his luxurious Dubai hotel room on Jan. 20.
Dubai police have said he was drugged then suffocated in what they say was a Cold War-style hit carried out by Israel's Mossad secret service.
British, Irish, French, Australian and German passports were used in the murder, the police said.
Moussawi slammed European states for failing to "assume responsibility for the violation of their sovereignty" over the use of their passports by Mabhouh's killers in Dubai.
"If European countries do not respect their own passport-holders... then they must expect they will be treated with suspicion," he said.
It happened in 2006
Moussawi said Israeli journalists with EU passports had also entered Lebanon in 2006 during the Shiite militant party's devastating war with the Jewish state.
"It happened in Lebanon in 2006, so the risk of it happening again is more than likely," said the MP.
Lebanese authorities have made dozens of arrests in an expanding crackdown on Israeli espionage rings launched last year.
Lebanon and Israel remain technically at a state of war, and convicted spies face life in prison with hard labor or the death penalty if found guilty of contributing to Lebanese loss of life.
Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah on Monday called for any Lebanese citizens convicted of spying for the Jewish state in a series of trials in recent months to be hanged.
Retired security official Mahmud Qassem Rafeh, 63, was sentenced to death last month for espionage on behalf of Israel.
He was also convicted for involvement in a 2006 car bombing in the southern coastal town of Sidon that killed brothers Mahmoud and Nidal Mazjoub, members of Islamic Jihad.
Admits role in killing
Moussawi comments came as a senior security source said a Lebanese man arrested on suspicion of spying for Israel has confessed to have helped in the assassination of a Hezbollah commander in 2004,
The source said Michel Abdo was arrested three weeks ago and is considered "a very important spy". He will be tried before a military court.
"His role was to facilitate the movement of the Israeli Mossad agents who carried out the assassination," the source told Reuters.
"He picked them up from a point near the sea south of Beirut and took them to his house where they planed the assassination he then facilitated their departure," the source said.
Israel, which fought a 34-day war with Hezbollah in 2006 has not commented on the arrests.
Ghalib Awali, a Hezbollah military commander, was killed by a bomb in the southern suburbs of Beirut in 2004 as he got into his car. Abdo is the second suspect to be tied to his killing.
Israel assassinated the group's leader Abbas al-Moussawi in 1992 in an air strike on his car. Lebanon has tried and convicted several people in recent years of spying on and plotting against the group.
A probe into spying for Israel has led to more than 50 arrests since April. More than 20 have been formally charged.
Lebanon, which is in a state of war with Israel, has described the arrests as a blow to Israel's intelligence-gathering in the country. Hezbollah has called for the death penalty for all suspects convicted.
Lebanese courts have handed down what were widely seen as light sentences against Lebanese who have worked with the Israeli occupation and its local militias after Israeli forces ended a 22-year occupation of mainly Shiite south Lebanon in May 2000.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[Al Arabiya Latest] Russia will back new sanctions against Iran as long as they do not create a humanitarian crisis, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said late on Monday after talks with Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev.
Medvedev said he still hoped to avoid new punitive measures, but added Russia could not wait forever for cooperation by Tehran, suspected by the West of developing nuclear weapons.
"We are optimists and we are not losing the feeling that we may achieve success," Medvedev said. "Nonetheless, if it doesn't work out ... Russia is ready to consider with our other partners the question of introducing sanctions.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] The ringleader of the Jundallah terrorist group, Abdolmalek Rigi, has confessed to having closely cooperated with the security services of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Iranian security forces arrested Rigi on February 23 while he was aboard a Kyrgyz airliner on a flight from the United Arab Emirates to Kyrgyzstan.
In his 20 hours of confessions, Rigi has revealed intelligence of high importance, including details about his ties with some intelligence agencies such as the CIA, according to the Basirat website, which is run by the Political Department of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
He has said that he closely cooperated with the security services of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The website quoted a security official as saying that on several occasions Iranian intelligence officials had the opportunity to kill Rigi but senior officials of the Islamic Republic had insisted that Rigi should be captured alive.
"When the Kyrgyz pilot refused to land, two Iranian fighter jets forced the plane to land at an airport in Bandar Abbas. In order to prevent harm to the passengers, they were told to evacuate the airplane due to suspected terrorist activity on the plane," added the official, who was not named.
During the evacuation process, Rigi and his deputy, Molla Mohammad Jan, also known as Hamzeh, were arrested by Iranian security forces.
After Rigi ordered the assassination of IRGC Brig. Gen. Nour-Ali Shoushtari, Islamabad limited his activities and advised him to leave Quetta and hide in the mountains of the region, but after a while, Rigi made the necessary coordination and returned to the city, the official said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asserts that the lingering global financial crisis has exposed the dark side of the capitalist economic system in the West.
In a Tuesday meeting with representatives of the Developing Eight countries (D8), Ahmadinejad reiterated that western-style capitalism is the main reason behind the endless wave of problems plaguing global financial organizations, particularly in the US.
The Iranian President added that Western countries should face up to the fact that the greed of capitalism has pushed it into the brink of collapse.
"The whole idea of capitalism is based on emptying the pockets of world's nations to secure the interests of a selected few," he emphasized.
Ahmadinejad also urged D8 member states to drop the American dollar in their various financial dealings and business transactions in the future.
Representatives from the D8 member states have gathered in Tehran to discuss ways of promoting economic and industrial cooperation.
The D8 members consist of Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.
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03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says Iran is ready to share its scientific and industrial achievements with Islamic countries.
In a meeting with industry ministers of the Developing Eight Countries (D8), Ayatollah Khamenei said, "Islamic countries should improve their status to the level they deserve by utilizing their massive resources and their talents and through cooperation."
The Leader added that Iran was ready to continue its support for D8 by sharing its achievements with Islamic countries.
Established in 1997 in Turkey, the group consists of Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey.
The three-day D8 conference concluded in Tehran on Tuesday with member states stressing the need for further economic and industrial cooperation.
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03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Iran to share achievements with Islamic states
"Iran to give terroists the BOMB..."
China has called for more negotiations over Iran's nuclear program after Russia suggested it may consider new sanctions against Tehran.
"We believe there is still room for diplomatic efforts and parties concerned should step up efforts," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang was quoted by AFP on Tuesday.
His remarks came after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Monday he was open to new anti-Iran sanctions but was hoping new punitive measures could be avoided.
"We are optimists and we are not losing the feeling that we may achieve success," Medvedev told reporters after meeting with his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris. "Nonetheless, if it doesn't work out ... Russia is ready to consider with our other partners the question of introducing sanctions."
President Sarkozy said Russia would be onboard with US-led efforts to punish Iran for its nuclear work as long as the measures would not "create humanitarian dramas."
The US and its European allies have been pushing hard for tough new sanctions against Iran in a bid to force the country meet their demands over its nuclear program.
Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, says its program is directed at the civilian applications of the technology, including energy production.
The West accuses the country of seeking nuclear weaponry. The allegation, however, is yet to be validated by the UN nuclear watchdog, whose inspectors monitor Iran's activities extensively.
UN nuclear chief Yukiya Amano said in Vienna his agency continues to verify the non-diversion of Iran's nuclear material. He, however, accused Tehran of not fully cooperating with the watchdog.
Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, in response, said Tehran will continue to fully cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"We have fully cooperated with the agency. This cooperation will continue," Mottaki said.
He also welcomed calls for further negotiations over the issue.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
This week's balky commie dictatorship. See Russia item above.
#2
WMF > RUSSIA'S ATTITUDE CAUSES IRAN TO TURN TO CHINA ON NUCLEAR, REGIONAL DEFNESE ISSUES.
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUMS > CHINA AND IRAN SETTING UP "NO GO" WATER ZONES TO THWART US POWER; + CHINA AND TAIWAN ARE HELPING TO ARM IRAN WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS {NucTech exports].
* NEWS KERALA > [US Survey]SIX IN TEN AMERICANS BELIEVE ONLY MILITARY FORCE WILL STOP IRAN FROM GETTING NUCLEAR WEAPONS.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry has summoned Kyrgyzstan's ambassador to Tehran to protest Bishkek's denial that terrorist leader Abdolmalek Rigi was arrested on one of its airliners on February 23.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Monday that there is evidence proving that Rigi was arrested on a Kyrgyz plane.
He also censured the use of regional countries' territory as a base to threaten Iran's national security.
Mehmanparast urged Bishkek to respect international law in the campaign against terrorism.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the Kyrgyz ambassador shortly after Kyrgyzstan said no foreign nationals had been arrested by Iran on a Kyrgyz airliner.
"Information... published in some media outlets about the detention of foreign nationals on board the Kyrgyzstan Airlines aircraft does not correspond with reality," the Kyrgyz Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued on Monday.
However, shortly after the incident, Kyrgyz aviation authorities confirmed that two people were detained after Iranian fighter jets intercepted a Kyrgyz airliner and forced it to land at Bandar Abbas airport on February 23.
The Kyrgyz ambassador also condemned the terrorist attacks carried out by Rigi's group in Iran and vowed to convey Iran's concerns to Kyrgyz officials.
Abdulmalek Rigi, the ringleader of the Jundallah terrorist group, said afterwards that he was traveling to Bishkek to meet a high-ranking US official at a nearby military base.
He stated that they were going to discuss new terrorist attacks on Iranian territory.
Meanwhile, informed sources have told Press TV that several Kyrgyz security guards were protecting Rigi and his deputy inside the plane.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM [paraph]> FORMER US SPY CONFIRMS RIGI REMARKS. Former US INTEL Officio allegedly told Rigi that IRAN was the de facto primary US focii, NOT the TALIBAN OR AL QAEDA.
Despite endorsing Western efforts to pressure Iran over its nuclear program, Russia says it still prefers to resolve Tehran's nuclear issue through diplomacy rather than sanctions.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters during a trip to Paris that there was still room for diplomacy in dealing with Tehran over its enrichment activities.
"We will concentrate all efforts on finding political and diplomatic solutions," Reuters quoted Lavrov as saying on Tuesday. "These efforts have not yet been exhausted."
Lavrov's comments come a day after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in a statement that Moscow would support a new round of sanctions against Tehran as long as they did not create a humanitarian crisis.
Russia and China, both veto-wielding members of the 15-nation UN Security Council, have strongly resisted Western calls for 'punishing Iran' with further sanctions in the past.
Over the past few weeks, Russia has appeared to be edging closer to supporting the US-prescribed package of stricter sanctions against Tehran but still seems to have reservations on the idea.
Western countries have already imposed three rounds of UNSC-backed sanctions on Iran and are currently lobbying for a fourth, which is believed to contain a "symbolic" tightening of economic measures against the Tehran government, which has insisted that any such actions will again prove futile.
World powers, most of which possess and continue to develop vast nuclear arsenals that have been tested and even used in military confrontations, accuse Iran of the "intention" to enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels and have gone to great lengths to prevent the country from producing fuel for its medical and industrial needs.
As a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran insists that it neither believes in atomic weapons, nor, as a matter of religious principles, does it intend to access such weapons of mass-destruction.
Moreover, Tehran has also repeatedly called for the elimination of all nuclear arms throughout the globe, which has been largely ignored by Western nuclear powers.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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The Hezbollah leader warns that the US embassy in Beirut engages in espionage activities for Israel, cautioning that the collaboration may lead to the "destruction" of Lebanon.
"All the information which the US embassy gathers in Beirut reaches Israel. Here we are not speaking about a normal foreign embassy which is gathering information for its own government ... When it comes to the American embassy in Beirut, it is a different story," said the Secretary General of the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance movement Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Monday.
"And so what is given to the US embassy and what reaches the Israelis, the information, all of these leads to the destruction of Lebanon. This helps the Israeli enemy to understand what is going on in Lebanon, to use this information against Lebanon and to take revenge against our country," he added.
"What is the difference between espionage networks, which give information directly, or giving information by mediation, meaning giving it to the US embassy who then gives it to the Israeli side?" Nasrallah queried.
Hezbollah has fought off bloody Israeli incursions into Lebanon in 2000 and 2006. The second round of the offensives, known as the 33-Day War, killed about 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians.
The movement is also an active member of the country's coalition government.
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03/03/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
(a) Bambi's a lot like Carter;
(b) USA no longer has an embassy in Tehran;
(c) Lebanon belongs to Hezbollah*;
(d) Hezbollah belongs to Iran.
*Thanks to George's brains and Olmert's lack of balls
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.
Dubai's police chief plans to seek the arrest of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the head of Israel's spy agency over the killing of a Hamas leader in the emirate, Al Jazeera television reported.
North Korea seems to have suspended the state-sponsored drug trade last year but continues to trade in counterfeit dollar bills and cigarettes, the U.S. State Department claims. 
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is suffering from depression, according Ha Tae-keung, the head of Open Radio for North Korea. 
