[Tolo News] Most of the violence is carried out by members of the Hezb-e-Islami in the north, said the governor of the northern Balkh province on Monday
Speaking in a ceremony on the eve of International Peace day in Mazar-e-Sharif, the provincial capital of Balkh, the province's governor Atta Mohammad Noor told reporters that he has a lot of evidence showing that many of the militants fighting against the government in northern parts of the country are members of Hezb-e-Islami (The hard-line Islamic Party led by Gulbuddin Hekmatyar), not Taliban insurgents.
Old-fashioned gangbangers, not taqfiri/jihadi gangbangers using religion as an excuse for the exact same bad behaviour. Got it.
Hoping for long-lasting peace in Afghanistan, Balkh governor said he was concerned that Hezb-e-Islami members had penetrated in northern parts of the country trying to destabilise the region. "Many of those fighting against the government are Hezb-e-Islami members, not the Taliban," Noor said.
He hoped that no more people would be victimised by war and that the anti-government militants would soon join the Afghan peace process. The concerns come at a time when security has deteriorated in the north, and very recently Taliban had even threatened the people to boycott the parliamentary elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday his government was open to diplomatic discussions with the United States on the subject of Afghanistan and the Taliban.
Golly. That's big of him.
In an interview on ABC's "This Week" programme, Mr Ahmadinejad also agreed to discuss Iran's nuclear programme with the US and other western powers.
"I think that discussions are always good, provided they are done respectfully and based on mutual trust," Mr Ahmadinejad told the interviewer, Christiane Amanpour. "If the US administration truly wishes to alter its policies in Afghanistan, and in Iraq, and to move in a direction that serves the interest of the people of those two countries, we are always open to cooperation, as we are now."
No mention of Iran altering its policies. Clever distinction, O Little Lion of Islam.
Ms Amanpour later said that she had heard directly from President Barack Obama that he would be open to having diplomatic discussions with Iran about Afghanistan, but the Iranian leader had yet to address the offer until now.
The Iranian president is scheduled to attend the UN General Assembly in New York this week.
Mr Ahmadinejad appeared equally keen to discuss Iran's nuclear programme with the "P5 Plus One", a negotiating forum comprising the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany. "I think we will have a plan to discuss things," he said.
"But first we need to determine the shape and size of the table at which we will sit. And the menus, definitely the menus. Diplomacy is high-calorie work.
"Appearing in the same ABC programme, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Iran should return to the "P5 Plus One" forum to discuss its nuclear programme.
She noted that US-backed UN sanctions were "biting" Iran's economy, especially its financial sector, and the talks offer was a "way out of increasing opprobrium from the international community".
The Iranian regime, she said, was quite worried about the impact on their banking system and on their economic growth "because they've already encountered some tough economic times".
Secretary Clinton urged Iran to release two Americans who have been detained for more than a year on suspicion of espionage. The two Americans, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, were captured last year with Sarah Shourd when they crossed into Iran from Iraqi Kurdistan. The Obama administration has said the three Americans are hikers who mistakenly wandered into Iran, not US spies. Ms Shourd was released and allowed to leave Iran on Sept 14.
Mr Ahmadinejad said that Ms Shourd's release was "a huge humanitarian gesture" and that the two Americans still in custody "violated" Iranian law.
"The cases have to be examined," Mr Ahmadinejad said. "They violated the law." Mr Ahmadinejad said eight Iranians have been "illegally arrested" in the US and should be set free as a "humanitarian gesture".
In the U.S. or by the U.S. in Iraq? There's a big difference, you know.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
This pipsqueak has something to say about everything.
[Tolo News] The Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA) expressed concern on Monday over widespread fraud in the Afghan parliamentary elections
Ballot stuffing in favour of certain candidates, the use of forged voter cards, threats by influential candidates, men voting on behalf of women, and the involvement of some Independent Election Commission (IEC) workers in fraud were among the main challenges FEFA highlighted and urged strict actions against violators.
FEFA had 7,000 observers covering around 60 percent of polling stations.
"Our observers again witnessed and registered widespread fraud in the elections throughout the country, and also more than 300 cases of threats and pressure by local influential people against voters and election candidates were registered," Nadir Naderi, head of FEFA told reporters in a conference.
According to FEFA, Afghans under 18 have repeatedly voted in 1259 voting centres, forged voter cards have been used in 352 polling centres, ballot boxes have been filled in favour of particular candidates in 280 polling stations, and low-quality finger ink was used in 489 polling centres.
FEFA's observers have also witnessed people voting more than once in 1228 polling centres and 315 centres lacked electoral material.
FEFA said despite full security measures taken by the Afghan National Security Forces during the elections, more than 276 violence related incidents were recorded.
"Electoral fraud was committed throughout the country by those still related to the illegal bad turban groups or the leaders of such groups," Naderi said.
"There are powerful people who are used to creating fear among the people," he added.
The lack of international observers and the delay in vote counting in 243 polling stations were among other challenges during the elections.
The Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA) urged president Karzai to strongly support the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) to follow and investigate the issue and to order the judicial institutions to put violators on trial.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2010 00:00 ||
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[Tolo News] The United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon Saturday admired the large-scale participation of Afghan citizens in the parliamentary elections
Mr Ban Ki-moon noted that the participation of over 2,500 election contestants, including 400 women was a significant step for the civil society of Afghanistan.
He also admired the efforts of the Afghan National Security Forces for maintaining security during this democratic process that took place in more than 5,000 polling centres.
Mr Moon also condemned the reported Taliban attacks and expressed condolence to the families of those who lost their lives in attacks aimed at disrupting the Afghan polls.
Meanwhile, the US embassy in Kabul in a Press Statement on Saturday congratulated the people of Afghanistan for a "fully Afghan-led parliamentary elections under extremely difficult circumstances".
The Press Statement adds that the Afghan election was "protected by competent and brave" Afghan security forces and the voters showed their courage to "take ownership of their future and shape their government."
According to the statement, the US government has expressed sympathies with those killed or wounded during the electoral campaign period and in the Taliban attacks on the elections day.
The US has pledged support to Afghanistan's election process that is "free, credible and transparent" and Afghans are the "ultimate judge" of Saturday's elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2010 00:00 ||
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Ay Pee sumamrized: Ayatollah Hussein al-Najati is Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani of Iraq's representative. The Bahraini government has revoked his citizenship, and that of his family, as part of the crackdown on those suspected of being Shiite agitators.
[Geo TV] Deputy Convener Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) Coordination Committee, Dr. Farooq Sattar Monday said a fresh wave of assassinations has been started to undermine peaceful atmosphere of the city ... such as it was...
and held the 'government, particularly, Provincial Home Ministry' responsible for it.
Dr. Farooq Sattar, flanked by other members of MQM Coordination Committee, said this while addressing a press conference here at MQM headquarters.
"Attempts are being made to disturb the peace of this fair city since last night and this has resulted in the untimely and lamented demise of two MQM workers so far," he said.
He said similar to the previous occasions, MQM is once again being linked with the fresh incidents of assassinations.
Issuing appeal to the people for remaining calm, Dr. Farooq Sattar said the murder case of Dr. Imran Farooq has been forwarded to the court of Allah.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2010 00:00 ||
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BAGHDAD / Aswat Al-Iraq - Iraqs Bar Association has decided on Sunday to adopt the defense of an Iraqi citizen, who killed a number of American soldiers recently, according to a statement of the Association.
The defense of life and land are among the most-sacred rights that must be respected and adopted by everybody. The occupation imposed on our beloved Iraq has forced slavery on our people and their free sons. Iraqis have been born free, refusing humiliation and slavery, so the honest sons of our people have risen to defend the land and the honor of the people and to resist the occupation forces, the statement said.
The statement concluded that the case of the Iraqi citizen Kaisar Saadi Ramadan, enters within the said principles, having been sent to court under charges of killing a number of occupation soldiers. The Iraqi Lawyers and their Association, being the honest sons of this good land, have decided to adopt the Associations decision to defend the said Iraqi citizen and for a committee of lawyers to defend him free of charge, as well as following up his case before the law till the its last phase, bearing all its expenses.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/21/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"The defense of life and land are among the most-sacred rights that must be respected and adopted by everybody. The occupation imposed on our beloved Iraq has forced slavery on our people and their free sons. Iraqis have been born free, refusing humiliation and slavery, so the honest sons of our people have risen to defend the land and the honor of the people and to resist the occupation forces," the statement said.
C'mon. We're basically outta there. If we wanted to own it, we would.
This defense rings almost as hollow as some of defenses I've seen here in the US for terrorists.
#5
This is an interesting test for the Iraqi government. That is, will they crack down on such public displays of radicalism, or will they let it slide? Either way brings challenges.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/21/2010 19:20 Comments ||
Top||
#3
could be overstating the case a little - where are the foreign governments demanding the return of their citizens...
but it does sound dreadful:
"It is is easy, explains Bello, to carry out a sexual crime against a foreign girl, in her first days away from her family, in a place where no police have ever visited. And this is what happens, and has happened.
"I was told of such rape cases by women who are not Jewish: a female European leftist activist, a female Red Cross volunteer and a young Arab woman from Yafo, he says.
"These are not just cases of rape carried out to satisfy lust, he writes. Usually, they are carried out systematically in order to make the girl pregnant and then take her as a wife after she converts to Islam, of course. We know about this system from the stories of women who underwent a similar process within Israel and escaped to Europe. But it is hard to escape from the Palestinian territories. Sometimes these women some of whom are no longer young are never allowed to leave their homes unaccompanied, in order to forestall their escape.
If someone were to compare the list of foreign female activists who enter Judea and Samaria to the list of those who leave, Bello claims, the magnitude of the phenomenon would be proven. Everyone knows about it, but no one dares talk about it. The Palestinians have been turned into martyrs.
#4
The Arabs sure come out the losers in that deal. Maybe they marry crazy leftists to Arabs on the edge of a nervous breakdown, in the hopes that it will drive them to become suicidal-bomber.
[Gulf News] Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas said Monday he would not take part in US-backed peace talks "for a single day" if Israel did not extend a freeze on colony building at the month's end.
So much for the negotiations. Not that it matters anyway, since neither party cares at this point, and anyway Hamas has vowed not to be bound by any decisions.
"The negotiations will continue as long as the colony (construction) remains frozen, but I am not prepared to negotiate an agreement for a single day more," Abbas told AFP.
Abbas is due to give a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York this week about "efforts to end the Israeli occupation of Paleostinian land since 1967 to create an independent Paleostinian state with [occupied] Jerusalem as its capital," his front man Nabeel Abu Rudaina said.
Israel and the Paleostinians began long-awaited peace negotiations under US mediation on September 2.
But so far Israel has stubbornly refused to extend the partial 10-month ban on new construction, and the Paleostinians have vowed to pull out of the talks if building resumes.
The deadline for the end of Israel's freeze on colony construction is widely accepted as September 26, exactly 10 months and a day after the original cabinet decision.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2010 00:00 ||
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Yar! It's the PLO's job to be murderous and obstructionist, not those Muslim Brotherhood upstarts in the Gaza Strip! (Although we call ourselves the Palestinian Authority now, and let our more earnest members play at being a real government, 'cause that's what brings in the money these days.)
(Xinhua) -- A Paleostinian official on Monday accused the Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, movement of trying to introduce itself to the international community as an alternative to the Paleostine Liberation Organization (PLO).
Member of the PLO Executive Committee, Hanan Ashrawi, told Voice of Paleostine radio that Hamas "is trying to open dialogue with the United States and European countries by several means in order to gain legitimacy and the recognition of the United States. "
She pointed out that the PLO recognizes the Hamas as part of the general Paleostinian political system. "Hamas should behave like part of the Paleostinian system as a whole and not as an alternative to the PLO," Ashrawi added.
The Paleostinian people "do not de-legitimize Hamas, yet Hamas behavior turned the international positions against it," Ashrawi said.
On Sunday, Gazoo's Hamas rulers said they had sent a letter to the U.S. administration, seeking a contact channel with Washington, which classifies the Islamic movement as a terrorist organization.
In a statement, the secretariat-general of the Hamas government said the letter urged the U.S. "to open a mutual dialogue and end the double standards the U.S. administration uses in dealing with the Paleostinian cause."
The letter also demanded that the B.O. regime "lift its veto on Paleostinian reconciliation." Hamas accuses Washington of pressuring President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah movement not to reconcile with Hamas, though Fatah had accepted an Egyptian plan to bury the hatchet with the Islamic movement.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2010 00:00 ||
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The Palestinian Authority on Sunday reaffirmed the death penalty for any Palestinian found guilty of selling land to Israelis. The decision came in response to a ruling by a Palestinian court according to which such acts were only a "minor offense."
The land law, which was originally put in force by Jordan between 1948 and 1967, carries the death sentence.
In 1997, the PA announced that it would seek the death penalty for any Palestinian convicted of selling land to Jews or Israelis, in accordance with the Jordanian "Law for Preventing the Sale of Real Estate to the Enemy." According to the 1973 legislation,
Possibly the reporter got the year wrong, there.
the sale of property to Jews or Israelis constitutes a crime against state security and well-being, punishable by death and the confiscation of the culprit's possessions.
The PA later drafted its own law to replace the Jordanian statute. The law is called the "Property Law for Foreigners." It describes the sale of land to "occupiers" as an act of "national treason." Although the PA has thus far refrained from executing those convicted of selling land to Jews, there have been many extrajudicial killings of Palestinian suspects over the past decades.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that "the future belongs to Iran," and challenged the United States to accept that his country has a major role in the world.
The comments came in an hour-long interview with The Associated Press on the first day of his visit to the United States to attend the annual General Assembly of the United Nations that began yesterday.
He insisted that his government does not want an atomic bomb -- something he has said in the past -- and that Iran is only seeking peace and a nuclear weapons-free world.
He repeatedly sidestepped questions on when Iran would resume talks on its disputed nuclear programme, and he said anti-nuclear sanctions against his government would have no effect.
Calm and collected
Appearing calm and self-assured on his seventh trip to the United States, the Iranian president showed every sign of being in command of himself and prepared to deflect questions about his government's harsh suppression of opposition forces after last year's disputed election that returned him to a second term.
"The United States' administrations... must recognise that Iran is a big power," he said.
"Having said that, we consider ourselves to be a human force and a cultural power and hence a friend of other nations. We have never sought to dominate others or to violate the rights of any other country," he added.
"Those who insist on having hostilities with us, kill and destroy the option of friendship with us in the future, which is unfortunate because it is clear the future belongs to Iran and that enmities will be fruitless."
Ahmadinejad projected an air of innocence, saying his country's quest to process ever greater amounts of uranium is reasonable for its expanding civilian power programme, omitting that the watchdog United Nations agency involved has found Iran keeping secrets from its investigators on several occasions, including secret research sites.
He also did not acknowledge that the leaders of the political opposition in Iran have been harassed and that government opponents risk violence and arrest if they try to assemble. He did allow that there have been some judicial "mistakes."
Ahmadinejad argued that the opposition Green Movement, which has largely been forced underground, continues to enjoys rights in Iran but said that in the end it must respect "majority rule."
Government opponents "have their activities that are ongoing and they also express their views publicly. They have several parties, as well as several newspapers, and many newspapers and publications. And so there are really no restrictions of such nature."
Media crackdown
He did not mention that many newspapers have been closed down and that prominent opposition figures were put in prison and then tried after tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets claiming that the election that put him back in power in 2009 was fraudulent and stolen.
The public appearances of his rivals Mir Hussain Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi have been severely restricted and their offices recently were raided by police. Ahmadinejad said Iran is more free than some other countries.
"I believe that when we discuss the subject of freedoms and liberty it has to be done on a comparative basis and to keep in mind that democracy at the end of the day means the rule of the majority, so the minority cannot rule," he added.
Another round of international pressure in the form of sanctions would only be futile, he said. "If they were to be effective, I should not be sitting here right now."
"The United States' administrations ... must recognise that Iran is a big power. Having said that, we consider ourselves to be a human force and a cultural power and hence a friend of other nations. We have never sought to dominate others or to violate the rights of any other country."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/21/2010 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
09/21/2010 19:48 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Actually, as long as Obama is President he may be on to something.
Posted by: Kelly ||
09/21/2010 20:39 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Thus, of course, ISLAMIST IRAN = AHMADINEJAD also warns:
To wit,
* TELEGRPAH.UK > IRAN WARNS US OF WAR WITH "NO LIMITS".
ARTIC > MOUD in NYC > claims that the US has never ENTERED A "REAL WAR" [IMO read, US had fought a Real War = agz a Real Enemy yet, includ WWII]???
IMO Moud + Artic also read, US-ISRAEL-IRAN WAR WILL BE "TO THE DEATH", PROTRACTIVE + perhaps even MUTUALLY DESTRUCTIVE [ala Radic Mullahs]>; + that US WILL SUFFER SERIOUS MILITARY ANDOR TERROR ATTACKS [Nukes-WMDS, LR Missles] ON ITS OWN SOIL NOT SEEN OR EXPERIENCED BY ORDINARY AMERS SINCE THE CIVIL WAR + WAR OF 1912???
USA = NEW "IMPERIAL ROME/BYZANTIUM", + IRAN = PESKY, HARDFIGHTING PERSIANS = PERSIAN EMPIRE [includ OTTOMANS]???
#5
1960's FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE [Sophia Loren] Movie > DIVIDED/QUARRELING ROMANS-VERSUS-MASSIVE-INCOMING-PERSIAN-ARMY BATTLE SCENE = "THE PERSIANS ARE COMING, THE PERSIANS ARE COMING".
Will Roman Armies sit and watch as other Romans meet death in battle agz the Persians???
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 Free and Fair Election Foundation of Afghanistan (FEFA) expressed concern on Monday over widespread fraud in the Afghan parliamentary elections
