UPDATE: Arrest warrant has been "withdrawn" Further update: pity ...
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is suspected of rape in Sweden, where authorities have issued a warrant for his arrest, officials said Saturday. Crank up a conspiracy theory ... Hurray!! I knew this swine would go down one way or the other but this is a bolt from the blue.
The 39-year-old Australian denied the allegations on WikiLeaks' Twitter page, saying they "are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing." The Swedish cops seem to have a different view.
Assange, who has sought Swedish legal protection for the whistle-blower website, is suspected of molestation and rape in two separate cases, said Karin Rosander, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Prosecution Authority. Obviously a tool of the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy.
"He should get in contact with police so that he can be confronted with the suspicions," Rosander told The Associated Press. Mistranslation. Like the US and most civilized countries, Sweden does not arrest people on suspicion alone.
She said a prosecutor in Stockholm issued the arrest warrant on Friday. The move means police are ordered to seek his arrest as part of an investigation but doesn't necessarily mean that criminal charges will be filed.
"The next step is that we interrogate him," Rosander said. "Then we'll see what happens."
WikiLeaks has angered the Obama administration by publishing thousands of leaked documents about U.S. military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. Assange said Wednesday that WikiLeaks plans to release a new batch of 15,000 documents from the Afghan war within weeks.
He was in Sweden last week partly to apply for a publishing certificate to make sure the website, which has servers in Sweden, can take full advantage of Swedish laws protecting whistle-blowers.
He also spoke at a seminar hosted by the Christian faction of the opposition Social Democratic party and announced he would write bimonthly columns for a left-wing Swedish newspaper.
WikiLeaks commented on the rape allegations on its Twitter page. Apart from the comment from Assange, the page had a link to an article in Swedish tabloid Expressen, which first reported the allegations.
"We were warned to expect 'dirty tricks.' Now we have the first one," one Tweet said.
"Expressen is a tabloid; No one here has been contacted by Swedish police. Needless to say this will prove hugely distracting," said another. So, this tabloid seems to have a great deal of pull with the Swedish cops, and the actual, real, arrest warrant is not a figment of someone's overactive imagination.
"The Day of Judgment will not come about until U.S. Marshals seek the WikiLeaks founder (killing WikiLeaks), when Assange will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say 'O CIA, O U.S. Marshals, there is Assange behind me, come and get him'."
Afghan President Hamid Karzai personally intervened to release a close aide arrested on corruption charges and under investigation for providing cash and gifts to allies, The Washington Post reported late on Thursday.
The Post said that senior Karzai aide Mohammad Zia Salehi was also under investigation because of telephone contacts with Taliban insurgents.
Afghanistan's attorney general approved the arrest, the Post said, citing several unnamed Afghan officials familiar with the case.
Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer did not comment on the allegations, but Karzai's legal adviser Nasrullah Stankezi denied any presidential intervention to release the aide.
Karzai's intervention came after Afghan investigators opened corruption cases against Salehi and "possibly other Karzai allies inside the presidential palace," the Post reported.
The Afghan president is under intense pressure from his Western backers to tackle endemic corruption. Afghanistan is rated as the second most corrupt country in the world, better only than lawless Somalia, by watchdog Transparency International.
However, in early August Karzai ordered a review of two Western-backed anti-corruption bodies, the Major Crimes Task Force and Sensitive Investigations Office, in order to bring them "in line with Afghan and Islamic values," following complaints from prisoners under investigation.
The controversy over the two groups has created "perhaps the most serious crisis this year in relations between Afghanistan and the US," according to the Post.
Salehi was arrested after a probe lasting months by Afghan investigators, a police team trained by the US Drug Enforcement Agency, and the US government's Afghan Threat Finance Cell, the newspaper said.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on August 6 spoke with Karzai about the importance of the anti-corruption bodies, while US Senator John Kerry visited Karzai in Kabul this week to hammer the message of the importance of fighting corruption.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2010 00:00 ||
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] A year after the Lockerbie bomber was released from a Scottish prison, Britain warned Libya not to celebrate the anniversary today, saying to do so would be "tasteless, offensive and deeply insensitive".
Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi was thought to have only three months to live because of terminal prostate cancer when he was freed on compassionate grounds and returned to his homeland Libya to a hero's welcome.
But he has defied his prognosis, to the dismay of the mainly American relatives of the 270 people who died when Pan Am Flight 103 blew up over the Scottish town of Lockerbie, four days before Christmas in 1988.
Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond again defended his government's decision to free Megrahi in a round of interviews today, telling the BBC it acted "in good faith on the information that was available at the time".
"No-one could have absolute certainty (about how long Megrahi would live)," Salmond said. "That was a reasonable expectation of his life expectancy."
Earlier, the Foreign Office issued a strongly-worded statement urging Libya not to hold celebrations honouring the only man "convicted for the worst act of terrorism in British history".
"Particularly on this anniversary, we understand the continuing anguish that Megrahi's release has caused his victims, both in the UK and the US," a spokeswoman said.
"Any celebration of Megrahi's release will be tasteless, offensive and deeply insensitive to the victims' families."
She added: "We have made our concerns clear to the Libyan government."
Britain's ambassador to Tripoli, Richard Northern, has told senior Libyan government officials that any public events honouring Megrahi could damage warming ties between the two countries, the Guardian newspaper reported.
Salmond added it would be "totally inappropriate" for Libya to celebrate the anniversary.
Questions remain about the precise circumstances of the release, though, with US senators demanding more information on the case.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Britain warned Libya not to celebrate the anniversary today, saying to do so would be "tasteless, offensive and deeply insensitive".
[Ennahar] Malian authorities have resumed negotiations with the terrorist organization Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat in Saharan Sahel region, a few months of break after the successful negotiations that led to the liberation of the French spy Pierre Camatte against the release of four dangerous Boskonians who have, less than a month later, executed his compatriot Michael Germaneau.
The extradition from Nouakchott to his country of Omar Sahraoui, a Malian convicted of the kidnapping of three Spaniards in 2009, two of which are still being held by Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), is seen as a gesture that could help free the hostages.
"For AQIM, the fact that Omar is transferred to Mali is a victory. Mauritania has made a gesture. It is very important," says in Mali a source close to case of Spanish hostages, held in northern Mali.
Mauritania has always shown great firmness against AQIM and its relations were considerably strained with Mali after that country freed four Boskonians in exchange for the release of the French hostage Pierre Camatte in February,.
If this is not a fighter, Omar Sid Ahmed Ould Hamma, nicknamed "Omar the Sahraoui", however, is linked to AQIM: it is for her that he had kidnapped three Spaniards (Alicia Gamez, 39, Albert Vilalta, 35, and Roque Pascual, 50) in Mauritania on 29 November 2009.
Alicia Games, only woman, was released in March, but her two companions remain in the hands of an AQIM group led by the Algerian Mokhtar Belmokhtar, alias Belawar, who had paid "Sahraoui" to kidnap them.
Less than a week after the confirmation on appeal on August 11 for his conviction in Nouakchott to 12 years in prison and hard labor for the kidnappings as "mercenary" of AQIM, he was put on a plane to Bamako.
He was not handcuffed during the trip and was recovered by Mali security forces, who took him to an unknown destination.
"Where will he serve his sentence? Will he put in jail? Will he work of public utility? Will he put under house arrest? To all these questions, there had been no answer yet," admits a source in the Malian Ministry of Justice.
Married to a woman from Western Sahara, Omar Sahraoui, 52, was foremost a businessman, who knows all countries of the Sahel region he used to walk up and down and where he has forged links with various tribes that comprise it.
"His extradition meets several requirements, including the most important for AQIM is primarily the role of an experienced guide of Omar in this great desert, the chain of relationships built in these different countries," said Ould Isselmou Salihi, editor of Mauritanian Tahalil Hebdo specialist of Islamist organizations.
This expertise of the Sahel presents "incalculable benefits which everyone could enjoy," said Ould Salihi. His extradition "may be significant in the process of liberation of the Spanish," he said.
Abu Al Maali, Mauritanian expert of Islamists issues of the Nouakchott Info daily, stresses the "importance" that the extradition of "The Sahrawi Omar" represents for Belmokhtar.
He can thus "show to mercenaries and smugglers working with him to ensure their protection" and "strengthen his audience among the local tribes with whom he remains closely linked," he says.
If Belmokhtar is considered by experts as one of AQIM money man than as a religious, sources in Mali have recently stated that he was "under pressure" of a radical branch of AQIM headed by another Algerian Abdelhamid Abou Zeid.
The latter, responsible for the deaths of two Western hostages, Briton Edwin Dyer and French Michel Germaneau, Belmokhtar would require the execution of the Spaniards in retaliation for a franco-Mauritanian military raid conducted on July 22 to try to find Germaneau which had killed seven of his men.
This article starring:
ABDELHAMID ABU ZEID
al-Qaeda in North Africa
MOKHTAR BELMOKHTAR, ALIAS BELAWAR
al-Qaeda in North Africa
OMAR SAHRAUI
al-Qaeda in North Africa
OMAR SID AHMED ULD HAMA
al-Qaeda in North Africa
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2010 00:00 ||
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North Korea smuggled state-of-the-art measuring equipment used in long-range rockets and missile launchers from China in April. "Smuggle" is a term of convenience here ...
Citing an unnamed source, a Seoul-based daily said a Chinese company forged documents to illegally export the machinery to North Korea, an activity banned under UN Security Council Resolution 1874.
Pyongyang is also believed to have imported prohibited materials related to weapons of mass destruction as well as luxury goods through routes in China, Japan, Mongolia and Russia.
In June two Japanese nationals were arrested by local authorities for attempting to export hydraulic shovels to the North, as a substitute for a missile launcher.
Officials in Seoul have informed Washington of the latest developments.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/21/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
SOUTH KOREA is still demanding a formal apoogy for the CHEONAN attack from the DPRK before it agrees to any resumption of nuclear talks.
#2
WMF > USDOD MAY SEND US TROOPS TO NORTH KOREA TO COUNTERBALANCE ANY INTERVENING CPLA FORCES IN CASE OF NORTH KOREA GOVT, NATIONAL COLLAPSE OR BREAKOUT OF DPRK-ROK MIL CONFLICT.
[Al Arabiya Latest] A Norwegian administrative court on Friday said a ban on police women wearing the Islamic headscarf was illegal, in response to a government refusal last year to allow officers to don the hijab.
The Norwegian Equality Tribunal said in a non-binding opinion that the ban ran counter to the country's freedom of religion and anti-discrimination laws by depriving a whole category of women from access to the police profession.
"The official objective is for the police to mirror Norwegian society as a whole," the tribunal wrote in its ruling.
"The society is multi-cultural and diverse, and the police should also illustrate this diversity, precisely to allow it to maintain trust at large" among the population, it added.
After a Muslim woman said she wanted to become a police officer but did not want to remove her hijab, Norway's centre-left government last year first approved a police decision to allow its female officers to wear the Islamic headscarf.
However, the ruling coalition quickly back-tracked after the decision sparked outrage and charges from the largest member of the opposition, the far-right Progress Party, that it was allowing the "gradual Islamization" of the country.
The main police union also said at the time it was against the plan, calling for the police uniform to remain neutral.
"The Islamic headscarf will certainly weaken the uniform's neutrality to a certain extent," head of the tribunal Trude Margrethe Haugli conceded Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
No point of fighting Jihad without dealing with "western" Jihad facilitators first.
#2
If you're stupid enough to insist on giving crimials something to use to hold on to you while they beat the hell out of you, don't blame the cops - blame the administrative court.
If you live....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
08/21/2010 20:07 Comments ||
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Pakistani courts have yet to convict a single person in any of the country's biggest terrorist attacks of the past three years, a symptom of a dysfunctional legal system that's hurting the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaida at a critical time. Almost as if it were planned that way ...
Police without basic investigative skills such as the ability to lift fingerprints, and prosecutors who lack training to try terror cases, are some of the main reasons cited. Another daunting challenge: Judges and witnesses often are subject to intimidation that affects the ability to convict. Almost as if it were planned that way ...
The legal system's failure to attack terrorism is critical because it robs Pakistan of a chance to enforce a sense of law and order, which militants have set out to destroy. Almost as if it were planned that way ...
It has "caused a sense of terror and insecurity amongst the members of society," said one of the country's top judges, Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khawaja Mohammad Sharif.
The legal failures also call into question the government's ability to fight terrorism in any way except by using the army in military offensives or human rights groups alleged through targeted extra-judicial killings.
The United States has said repeatedly that its success in Afghanistan and throughout the troubled region depends on strong help from Pakistan against militants.
Pakistani army offensives and US missile strikes have killed some suspected terrorist suspects in recent years in the rugged northwest near the Afghan border, where militant leaders and senior operatives are based. The head of the Pakistani Taliban, the group blamed for many of the 20 biggest attacks, was killed in a drone strike last August, for example.
Indeed, human rights groups have accused security forces of carrying out hundreds of assassinations of suspected extremists or sympathisers in the Swat Valley, which the army reclaimed from the Taliban last year, rather than even trying to prosecute suspects in court. Almost as if it were planned that way ...
Authorities deny the allegations, saying they do try to use the legal courts. But their record is dismal. Almost as if it were planned that way ...
[Dawn] Pakistain said it will clamp down on charities linked to hard boys trying to exploit anger among flood victims, amid fears their involvement in the relief effort would undermine the fight against groups like the Taliban.
While Pakistain's government overwhelmed by the scale of the disaster has struggled to reach aid to millions of people, Islamic charities with much smaller resources have moved in swiftly to fill the vacuum.
It would not be the first time the government has announced restrictions against charities tied to turban groups. Critics say any banned organisations often re-emerge under new names, with authorities uninterested in stopping their operations.
"The banned organisations are not allowed to visit flood-hit areas," Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Rooters.
"We will arrest members of banned organisations collecting funds and will try them under the Anti-Terrorism Act."
Pakistaini President Asif Ali (Ten Percent) Zardari and a senior US senator warned on Thursday that bad boys were trying to promote their cause during the floods, similar to what happened after an earthquake in Pakistain Kashmir in 2005.
More than 4 million Pakistainis have been made homeless by nearly three weeks of floods, making the critical task of securing greater amounts of aid more urgent.
Eight million people are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.
US Senator John I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry, who visited flood-hit areas with President Zardari on Thursday, said action must be taken to prevent anyone from exploiting frustrations.
"We need to address that rapidly to avoid their (Pakistaini's) impatience boiling over, and people exploiting that impatience and I think it's important for all of us to understand that challenge," Kerry said, in a clear reference to the Taliban. "We also share security concerns."
In a sign of growing concerns over the ramifications of the floods, Kerry said $200 million from the $7.5 billion US aid package for Pakistain over five years, which he co-authored, would be diverted to the relief effort.
Zardari, who drew a hail of criticism after he left on a trip to meet the leaders of Britain and France as the disaster unfolded, also said bad turbans could capitalise on the floods.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
If my religion says I must rob or rape or kill are laws that prohibit my doing so illegal? How about if it only 'suggests' I do these things? What if it requires YOU to feed and support me - must you do so?
Awami National Party (ANP) leaders demanded on Friday Karachi be handed over to the army as the police and Rangers had failed to stop killing of Pakhtuns residing in Karachi.
The ANP leaders asked the chief justice of the Supreme Court to take suo motu notice of target killing during the past two years in Karachi.
The ANP leaders and workers offered ghaibana namaz-e-janaza of ANP Sindh leader Obaidullah Khan Yousufzai at Bacha Khan Markaz and held a condolence meeting.
Party's provincial ministers, members of the provincial assembly (MPAs) and provincial office bearers attended the meeting to express resentment over Yousafzai's target killing and demanded the federal government and the Sindh government stop target killing of Pakhtuns in Karachi.
ANP Provincial General Secretary Tajuddin Khan said Pakhtuns should set aside political differences and unite for their survival saying extremist forces and terrorists would wipe them out if they did not unite.
Provincial Minister for Livestock Hidayatullah Khan, party's Provincial Deputy General Secretary Mukhtar Ali Khan, MPA Shagufta Malik, District Bar Peshawar President Raza Ullah Khan advocate and other ANP leaders condemned the murder of Yousafzai, demanding the Sindh government conduct judicial inquiry.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2010 00:00 ||
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The courts have yet to convict a single person in any of the country's biggest terrorist attacks of the past three years, a symptom of a dysfunctional legal system hurting the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda at a critical time.
Police without basic investigative skills, such as the ability to lift fingerprints, and prosecutors who lack training to try terrorism cases, are some of the main reasons cited. Another daunting challenge: Judges and witnesses are often subjected to intimidation that affects the ability to convict.
The legal system's failure to attack terrorism is critical because it robs Pakistan of a chance to enforce a sense of law and order, which terrorists have set out to destroy. It has caused a sense of terror and insecurity amongst the members of society, said Khawaja Muhammad Sharif, chief justice of the Lahore High Court.
The legal failures also call into question the government's ability to fight terrorism in any way except by using the army in military offensives or -- human rights groups alleged -- through targeted extra-judicial killings. An Associated Press review found no convictions in the 20 largest and most high-profile terror attacks of the last three years.
Many of the court cases connected to those attacks -- which have killed nearly 1,100 people -- have dragged on for years, or have yet to make it even past the investigation stage and into the courts. The handful of cases that have been decided have all resulted in acquittals -- though many of these defendants remain in custody while they are investigated in other cases, court officials said.
The lawyers and law enforcement officials said weak investigations conducted by poorly trained and resourced police officers made it very difficult for prosecutors and judges to convict. "I think the man who really plays the most critical role is neither the judge nor the prosecutor, but it is the investigating officer who is in charge of the case who sits in the police station," said Ahmer Bilal Soofi, a legal commentator.
Prosecutors not only face similar threats, they lack the training needed to take on terror cases, are poorly paid and do not have the resources to carry out their jobs successfully, said Muhammad Jahangir, the chief prosecutor in Punjab.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and former premier Iyad Allawi have resumed negotiations aimed at forming a government after falling out briefly over a sectarian row, senior politicians said on Friday.
Iraq has drifted in a dangerous political vacuum since a March election produced no outright winner. Attacks by insurgents have raised fears of a return to broader violence as U.S. troops end combat operations this month.
Osama al-Nujaifi, a senior member of Allawi's Sunni-backed Iraqiya, said Allawi had agreed to resume talks with Maliki's Shiite-led State of Law bloc after breaking off talks because Maliki described Allawi's group as Sunni, rather than cross-sectarian.
"Allawi received a letter the day before yesterday from Maliki regarding the last stand made by Iraqiya. I am not aware of the details of the letter but Allawi considers that the letter is sufficient to reconcile and overcome the situation," Nujaifi told Reuters.
Ali al-Dabbagh, a senior State of Law member, said he visited Allawi on Thursday to restart negotiations and handed him two proposals -- one on forming a coalition government and the second on political and administrative reform.
"We are seeking to bring together Allawi and Maliki in a private meeting to bring things back to its normal course and to have serious negotiations started between the two lists," Dabbagh told Reuters.
"We are making a new approach. It talks about creating an equation for partnership."
Allawi and Maliki have been locked in a tussle over who has the right to form the next government. Talks on working together began after Maliki failed to overcome resistance among many of his Shiite allies to his ambitions for a second term.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2010 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] A senior member of the outlawed Iraqi Baathist party, Mohamed al-Dulaimi, informed Asharq Al-Awsat that efforts to unify the two wings of the Baathist party, the Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri wing and the Mohamed Younis al-Ahmed wing, have ended in failure. Al-Dulaimi also revealed that there have been reports that al-Douri has been practically "clinically dead [i.e. on life support] for four months."
Mohamed al-Dulaimi, a senior member of the Baathist party revealed that efforts to unify the two wings of the outlawed party "ended in failure...after fresh doubts have been cast over the death of Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri." Al-Dulaimi revealed that "we have doubts about al-Douri's most recent recording" adding that "clear manipulation was detected in the last recording from al-Douri on 30 July 2010, especially the section where Salah al-Mukhtar is named al-Douri's successor." Al-Dulaimi told Asharq Al-Awsat that this confirms to the Baathist cadres that al-Douri "is either absent, being kept away, or does not know what is going on around him."
Al-Dulaimi also revealed that "efforts continued for more than a year, and these ended whilst we were waiting for the final decision from the al-Douri wing after the al-Ahmed wing completed what was required....we expected this issue to be resolved by al-Douri in the recording that he was expected to issue on 17 July 2010, but he did not issue a speech on this date as he usually does, and so we went to the senior members of the al-Douri wing and informed them that many Baathists, including those who are close to them, are saying that al-Douri has been in a critical medial condition for the past four months, and that he is practically clinically dead [i.e. being kept alive by life support]."
He added "as a result of this we informed them that by 1 August we would announce al-Douri's death, and call for a conference to take place in Qatar [to discuss unifying the party's ranks]. According to the information that we have, a number of meetings have taken place...and Salah al-Mukhtar has participated in most of them." Al-Dulaimi reiterated his accusation that on 30 July "al-Douri's disaster recording appeared to us in which he chose al-Mukhtar as his heir" and that "we have doubts about this recording."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2010 00:00 ||
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Israeli-Palestinian peace talks on a treaty establishing an independent Palestinian state can be wrapped in one year, the Middle East diplomatic quartet said Friday. In a statement, the Quartet - the European Union, the United Nations, the United States and Russia - said its members reaffirmed strong support for direct negotiations between the parties, "which can be completed within one year".
It called on Israelis and Palestinians to launch direct talks in Washington on September 2 "to resolve all final status issues and fulfill the aspirations of both parties." In Washington, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued a similar invitation. The Quartet said "direct, bilateral negotiations that resolve all final status issues" should "lead to a settlement, negotiated between the parties, that ends the occupation which began in 1967 and results in the emergence of an independent, democratic, and viable Palestinian state living side by side in peace and security with Israel and its other neighbors." Final status issues include the status of Jerusalem, border demarcation and the right of return for Palestinian refugees. The Quartet called on Israel and the Palestinians "to observe calm and restraint, and to refrain from provocative actions and inflammatory rhetoric."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
a treaty establishing an independent Palestinian state can be wrapped in one year,
Sure, if the Palestinians bargain in good faith, and both the West Bank and Gaza Strip regimes enforce the results. Since neither of those two conditions obtains, the operative verb is the conditional "could" instead of the definitive "can". All the rest of the Quartet statement is similar dangerous nonsense.
Cyprus will not allow a ship carrying women activists and aid for the blockaded Palestinian territory of Gaza to sail from its ports, the island's police said on Friday. Women activists said they planned to take aid to Gaza next week and their vessel, the Mariam, would set sail from Lebanon for Cyprus on Sunday.
Israel has said it will not allow ships to reach Gaza, controlled by the militant Palestinian group Hamas since 2007.
"Our position is clear. The arrival and departure of vessels to or from Gaza via Cyprus ports is prohibited and we will implement that decision," Cypriot police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos told Reuters.
Cyprus was used as a launch pad for activists to reach Gaza by sea from 2008 until mid-2009. Authorities introduced a ban last year, citing the island's national interests.
Yasser Qashlaq, an organiser of the Mariam expedition, was undeterred, saying the vessel would still leave Lebanon's northern port of Tripoli on Sunday evening. Qashlaq said Cyprus had no right to stop ships sailing to Gaza and would need to explain any ban in writing. He said on Thursday that Lebanese authorities had given permission for the Mariam to sail to Cyprus. Lebanon does not authorise ships to sail directly to Gaza because it is in a formal state of war with Israel, which controls Gaza waters.
Israel eased its Gaza blockade after an angry international backlash to its lethal seizure of the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara in May. It has said it has the right to use "all necessary means" to bar ships from reaching Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
"women activists"
Prohibited by Islam since 610AD
Posted by: Black Charlie ||
08/21/2010 9:55 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Cyprus will not allow a ship carrying women activists and aid for the blockaded Palestinian territory of Gaza to sail from its ports,
FINALLY, SOMEONE WITH BRAINS.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/21/2010 11:35 Comments ||
Top||
fail·ure noun: a person or thing that proves unsuccessful
Russian nuclear technicians, aided by their Iranian colleagues, plan to hold the official start-up of the Beshehr nuclear reactor on Saturday. The Mad Mullahs in Tehran plan mass celebrations to mark their triumph.
#4
A Debka take: http://www.debka.com/article/8984/
Excerpt: The Russian leader got away with showing the Muslim world the worth of Moscow's backing - upstaging the side show put on in Washington the day before when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D-WTF?) announced the onset of direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks on Sept. 2 - a process which the greenest of Middle East pundits appreciates as having nowhere to go.
[Jerusalem Post Front Page] Hizbullah forces should accept Lebanese Army command, Lebanese Forces party chief Samir Geagea proposed yesterday during high level defense strategy talks between Beirut officials, Lebanese media reported on Friday. His proposal was positioned as a way to solve the problem of Hizbullah's large-scale possession of weaponry even though it is a non-state actor.
Geagea's proposal also included a plan to reinforce the Lebanese Armed Forces deployment in South Leb with 3000-4000 special force troops, who could potentially be disguised in civilian dress and dispersed in urban areas throughout the region bordering Israel.
The head of the pro-Hizbullah party Loyalty to Resistance MP Mohammed Raad rejected Geagea's proposal out of hand as an attempt to marginalize Hizbullah's power base.
"The aim of Geagea's proposal is not to defend Leb, but rather to get rid of Hizbullah and its arms," Raad was quoted by Lebanese newspaper An Nahar as saying.
Israel vowed to respond harshly to further Lebanese aggression after a reserve battalion commander was killed in the beginning of August and another soldier was seriously maimed in the worst violence along the northern border since the 2006 Second Leb War.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/21/2010 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
Besides the Lebanese Army = LA, don't fergit the PA.
#4
Since Hizb'allah is the Lebanese Army, I'm sure they see no reason why they should obey the orders of a bunch of outside generals, instead of the other way round.
#6
3000-4000 special force troops, who could potentially be disguised in civilian dress and dispersed in urban areas
Such brave fighters, hiding behind women and children ensuring their deaths. Ready to blame others for the death of their human sheilds. The UN should clip this piece and refer to it when setting blame for leb civilian deaths.
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 courts have yet to convict a single person in any of the country's biggest terrorist attacks of the past three years, a symptom of a dysfunctional legal system hurting the fight against the Taliban and al Qaeda at a critical time.
[Asharq al-Aswat] A senior member of the outlawed Iraqi Baathist party, Mohamed al-Dulaimi, informed Asharq Al-Awsat that efforts to unify the two wings of the Baathist party, the Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri wing and the Mohamed Younis al-Ahmed wing, have ended in failure. Al-Dulaimi also revealed that there have been reports that al-Douri has been practically "clinically dead [i.e. on life support] for four months."
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks on a treaty establishing an independent Palestinian state can be wrapped in one year, the Middle East diplomatic quartet said Friday. In a statement, the Quartet - the European Union, the United Nations, the United States and Russia - said its members reaffirmed strong support for direct negotiations between the parties, "which can be completed within one year". 
