[Tolo News] Insurgents go to Pakistain for trainings and then are sent back to Afghanistan to carry out attacks, a top US military official in South-west Command said Thursday.
Why did he decide to say that?
Richard P. Mills, commander of Regional Command-Southwest, said the little evidence we have does not point out more to Iranian involvement in southern provinces, but it doesn't mean it's impossible.
Let's not mention that weapons shipment we watched Iranian agents deliver across the border a while back, 'k?
A top Afghan military commander in southern Afghanistan warned that it would not be possible to ensure security in the country, till Iran and Pakistain are not held back to have their men step up attacks here.
The meaning of that second clause may take a moment to parse, but could we do as well in Pashto?
Military officials in Helmand province accused Iran and Pakistain and in particular Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of escalating insurgency in Afghanistan.
"I have said it a hundred times before and I say it once again that the attacks are designed in Pakistain and Iran," Gen. Sayed Mulook, commander of 215 Maiwand Corps, told TOLOnews.
The local bad boys not being clever enough to think of such things on their own, poor dears.
Military officials claimed that beturbanned goons have access to same kind of equipment used by the Afghan forces.
"We have very little evidence that the Iranians are involved here in Helmand province and in Nimroz province," said Gen. Richard P. Mills, commander of Regional Command-Southwest. "The much support they receive is out of Pakistain. Where exactly it comes from I don't know, but I do know that beturbanned goons go to Pakistain where they get money, where they can sell their drugs they bring out of Afghanistan and where they are able to refresh themselves."
"And they go there for guidance from their leadership because their leadership is frightened and their leaders refuse to come back to Afghanistan where they belong," the US General further said.
Well, sure. Those foreigners in Afghanistan actually hit the things they aim their guns at. Being afraid is a very reasonable response. Afghans used to be known for that, but seem to have lost the skill.
Gen. Mills said the top leaders of Taliban are in Pakistain enjoying in safe and luxury houses, but prefer to have their men keep fighting here in Afghanistan.
Except the UAVs are in the habit of finding those safe houses, while the Air Force tends to drop in on the more exciting battles on the Afghan side. It's enough to make a thinking man take up piracy.
A US senior training advisor in the south said Afghan forces have grown potentials to undertake responsibility for security by 2014.
"I believe that we are well on track to be able to turn over the security responsibility for this regional command in the Helmand River valley," said Terry Walker, Regional Command Southwest training advisor.
It certainly is an idea...
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
US Military in Field Says Pakistan Supports Insurgents
Because Pak is holding a CIA agent and threatening him with trial and execution. It's a oneupmanship in rhetoric. However, the Paks believe its a bluff from the appeaser in chief, so until the thing escalates into a full blown invasion of Pakland, they're not going to pay any attention.
[Tolo News] If the prolonged Afghanistan election crisis is left unaddressed, it would increase the risks of "civil war" in the country, International Crisis Group said Thursday.
President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai should terminate the special election tribunal immediately, because it "lacks a clear legal mandate", ICG said in a news briefing released on Feb. 23th.
International Crisis Group is an independent and non-profit organisation covering around 60 crisis-hit countries in four continents.
Perhaps their attention has been a bit attenuated these past many years, then, that they should suddenly draw such an astounding conclusion.
The present crisis over the parliamentary election has significantly weakened President Karzai's government, the briefing said.
It said the problem will end up leading "disenfranchised" Afghans to join the Taliban side.
"The warning signs that the September 2010 parliamentary polls could destablise the country were readily apparent months before the election were held. But Afghan leaders and the international community chose to turn a blind eye," said Candace Rondeaux, Crisis Group's Senior Analyst for Afghanistan.
"Flaws in the process were ignored in favour of maintaining the false narrative of greater momentum in the battle against the Taliban," the analyst further said.
ICG urged the parliament to immediately place electoral and constitutional reform at the top of their agenda.
"The President's political survival and that of the Afghan government depend on the ability of all stake-holders to reduce the trust deficit between the Afghan people and their government by adopting genuine reforms," said Robert Templer, Crisis Group's Asia Programme Director.
But Karzai's Office said the special tribunal has been formed to bring an end to the crisis.
"We don't expect ICG or any other international organisation to interfere in our domestic judicial affairs. All the courts in Afghanistan have been formed based on Afghan's political structure," Deputy Spokesperson to President Karzai, Seyamak Herawi said.
"The tribunal is legal and it's formed to end a crisis rather than creating one," Mr Herawi said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... Head of Afghanistan Civil Society Forum Thursday said the Afghan House of Representatives has turned into a house of "disunity".
The tensions over house speaker election would stoke fires of ethnic, racial, regional and lingual differences if the present situation continues, Head of civil society forum Mohammad Aziz Rafiyi said.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2011 00:00 ||
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The Guardian compiles a list of Libyan government officials who have broken with Qadaffi, with quotes. Too bad they didn't break with him three or four decades ago; we could have respected them then. I have a couple here, and hit the link for the rest.
Some of the former Libyan ministers and diplomats who have turned on the regime of Muammar Gaddafi
Abdurrahman Shalgham, Libyan ambassador to the United Nations
Previously a Gaddafi loyalist and a long-standing friend of the dictator, Shalgham pleaded with the security council to "save Libya" from its leader.
He said he "could not believe" Muammar Gaddafi's troops were firing on the protesters, and backed sanctions against him. In an impassioned speech, he said the protesters were asking for their rights. "They did not throw a single stone and they were killed. I tell my brother Gaddafi: leave the Libyans alone." When Shalgham finished addressing the security council, he was embraced by his weeping deputy, Ibrahim Dabbashi, another former Gadaffi loyalist, who had defected days earlier. Dabbashi described Gadaffi as a "madman" who would never resign.
Mustafa Abdel-Jalil, former justice minister
Resigned last week and said he expected Gaddafi to make good on his pledge to die on Libyan soil. "Gaddafi's days are numbered," he said. "He will do what Hitler did he will take his own life." He also told a Swedish newspaper that he knew that Gaddafi was employing foreign mercenaries. "I knew that the regime had mercenaries before the uprising," he said. "The government decided in several meetings to grant citizenship to the [mercenaries] from Chad and Niger. That was something that I objected to."
Abdel-Jalil claims he has proof that Gaddafi personally ordered Abdelbaset al-Megrahi to carry out the Lockerbie attack in 1988. Libyan efforts to get al-Megrahi home in 2009 were motivated primarily by Gaddafi's desire to "hide" the truth ahead of the bomber's appeal against his sentence, he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2011 14:23 ||
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7.07pm: Some quotes from Liam Fox, the defence secretary: "I can confirm that two RAF C130 Hercules aircraft have evacuated more than 150 civilians from desert locations south of Benghazi."
He added that the frigate HMS Cumberland was on her way back to Benghazi from Malta to evacuate any remaining "entitled persons" from there. Cumberland has already evacuated 207 British and other citizens to Malta.
Fox said the destroyer HMS York has arrived in Valletta to take on board stores in order that she can assist with the evacuation effort as required.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the Hercules planes were being met by a team of consular officials and Red Cross staff in Valletta.
6.32pm: More breaking news from Libya: the operations of the British embassy in Tripoli have been temporarily suspended and its staff evacuated on the last government-chartered flight, which has just taken off for Gatwick carrying 53 British nationals.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2011 14:17 ||
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#1
Meanwhile, back in the colonies, OBumble cannot even get the right size boat ordered and lacks the ballz to send US military aircraft in to evacuate Americans.
Speaking of military aircraft, how is that C-17 in Argentina thing playing out? appears to have dropped off the face of the world....
[Al Arabiya] The deputy to Osama bin Laden issued al-Qaeda's second message since the Egyptian uprising, accusing the nation's Christian leadership of inciting interfaith tensions and denying that the terror network was behind last month's bombing of a Coptic church in Alexandria that killed 21 and sparked protests.
Perish the thought!
The message Friday from Ayman al-Zawahri, the No. 2 leader of the terror network, comes amid renewed Mohammedan-Christian tension over the slaying of a Coptic priest and a dispute involving a monastery.
I imagine that's the monastery the Egyptian army has been attacking, after knocking down the front gate. They like to shout, "Allahu akhbar!"
But the pro-democracy tone of the protests, led by secular liberals, contrasted greatly with the Islamic state al-Qaeda envisions.
Qaeda denies bombing
In the latest video, al-Zawahri devoted much of the time to the Mohammedan-Christian divide. But he denied that his group was behind the Alexandria bombing, according to a transcript by the SITE Intel group, a U.S. group that monitors cut-thoat messages.
Ahead of the bombing, thug Islamic websites affiliated with al-Qaeda circulated lists of Coptic churches in Egypt and Europe - including one that was hit on New Year's - along with instructions on how to attack them.
"To start, I want to explain that al-Qaeda has no connection with the kaboom that happened in the church in Alexandria," he said.
"The first among those who are responsible for setting the situation ablaze is the leadership of the Coptic Orthodox Church under the leadership of the one called Pope Shenouda III," he said.
Of course. Had the Copts not been there, allowing themselves to be led by that man, the church need not have been attacked. Thus it is that they are at fault.
He blamed the church leader for spreading "belief that the Mohammedans have occupied Egypt and they must be driven out as they were kicked out of Spain" in the 15th century.
As if the Copts would dare so much as think such a thing!
Al-Zawahri accused the Copts of trying to establish an independent state in Egypt.
Does anyone actually believe such arrant nonsense?
On Tuesday, a Coptic priest was killed in southern Egypt, triggering street demonstrations by several thousand Christians. The priest was found dead in his home with several stab wounds.
About 3,000 protesters scuffled with Mohammedan shop owners Tuesday night and smashed the windows of a police car in the city of Assiut.
The next day, around 2,000 Copts gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square to protest reports that an Egyptian army unit had attacked a desert monastery earlier on Wednesday. The protesters said that a military unit using armored vehicles had demolished newly-built fences surrounding the old monastery. They claimed that the soldiers fired live bullets at monks.
Egypt's military council, which has been ruling the country since the Feb. 11 ouster of Mubarak, said the soldiers were removing "some walls that had been illegally built on the road and on land owned by the state."
Calls for more attacks
"If we are not able to produce weapons equal to the weapons of the Crusader West, we can sabotage their complex economic and industrial systems and drain their powers, which fight without a cause, until they run away fleeing," Zawahiri said in the audio message, according to the US-based SITE monitoring service.
He complained that the Mohammedan world trails behind the West in technological know-how and military weaponry.
That's not all the Mohammedan world trails behind.
"Therefore, the mujahideen (holy warriors) must invent new ways, ways that never dawned on the minds of the West," Zawahiri continued. "An example of this brave and courageous thinking is the use of airplanes as a mighty weapon, as happened in the blessed invasions in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania."
Good luck with that. Except for the American airplanes (once) and the London trains (once), the rest seem to have been painful or embarrassing fizzles. It doesn't seem as though your Allah likes you very much.
The 9/11 attacks left nearly 3,000 people dead when Al-Qaeda Death Eaters slammed airliners into New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania.
According to AP, Zawahiri's first message, delivered Feb. 18, made no mention of the protests or Hosni Mubarak's fall from power. Al-Qaeda had advocated for the destruction of Mubarak's regime - and al-Zawahri, an Egyptian doctor, was part of a failed cut-throat uprising against the former president in the 1990s.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... according to AFP, Zawahiri's first message last week addressed the popular uprising that led Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak to step down after three decades in power. Al-Qaeda has long advocated that violence is the only way to overthrow regimes.
But a handful of countries across the Middle East and North Africa are now roiled by popular revolts against longtime autocratic rulers.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
DRUDGEREPORT > seems AL-QAEDA = AQAP aka AQIY is calling on Muslim to REVOLT AGZ ANY + ALL [despotic]ARAB RULERS, + stop replacing ONE DICTATOR WID ANOTHER.
[Asharq al-Aswat] The news of a Libyan private jet, reportedly carrying the wife of Hannibal Gaddafi, the model Aline Skaff, being denied permission to land at Beirut international airport on 21 February, has been the subject of media reports and public speculation in Libya.
Aline Skaff, aged 29, is a Lebanese national, who married Hannibal Gaddafi in 2003 in Copenhagen, after the two met in Paris. Gaddafi and Skaff have a 6-year old son named Hannibal Jnr.
One of Aline Skaff's relative's informed Asharq Al-Awsat that "she [Aline Skaff] was not on board the airplane which was denied permission to land at the [Beirut] airport a few days ago, but rather it was her brother and sister who were on board, who were in Libya. The relative added "they have entered Lebanon, but Aline has yet to return, but nobody can prevent her from entering [Lebanon], for she is Lebanese, and has the right to enter her country whenever she wants."
Aline Sakff's relative added "she [Aline] was in Lebanese two months ago, and she often visits her village [in Lebanon], where she is protected by heavy security, being accompanied by more than 5 security guards. This is because Hannibal is very concerned about the safety of his son from Hezbollah and the Amal movement due to the Imam Moussa al-Sadr case."
Relations between Libya and Lebanon were strained following the disappearance of Imam Moussa al-Sadr, chairman of Lebanon's Shiite Islamic Council, who went missing during a visit to Libya in August 1978. Reports allege that the Libyan regime had him killed, although Libyan official said that Sadr had left the country for Italy.
Aline Skaff's relative also told Asharq Al-Awsat that "she owns a large palace in the Adma region, and she is active in her village, and participated in the last municipal and parliamentary elections."
The relative added that despite everything being reported in the media, "her husband [Hannibal] is very loving and treats her well...and Colonel Gaddafi himself respects her and loves her and always plays with his grand-children."
Hannibal Gaddafi has a long, turbulent history in the press; he allegedly mistreated two servants at a Geneva hotel, which led to his arrest and a diplomatic schism between Switzerland and Libya. In December 2009, police were called to London's Claridge's hostel after staff hears screaming from Hannibal's room. His wife was later found to be suffering from facial injuries, but no charges were brought against the Libyan leader's son after she claimed to have sustained the injuries in a fall.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2011 00:00 ||
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"...his arrest and a diplomatic schism between Switzerland and Libya"
It also involved threats of WMD genocide against Europe, threats of Jihad (i.e. state sponsored terror attacks against Switzerland), hostage taking, credible threats to storm the Swiss embassy etc.
If the Pakistanis observed this affair they might have gotten the idea that disregard for diplomatic law carries no penalty.
Back then, a US diplomat mildly mocked Gaddafi. The Libyans were furious, demanded an apology. And the promptly got their apology.
And yes, the integrity of a Swiss embassy in an Arab/Muslim country is a direct concern of the US. Switzerland is currently representing the US in Iran.
Still, history works in mysterious ways, and justice might still prevail, which in Hannibal Gaddafi's case would involve hard-assed Hizbullies, pliers and a blowtorch.
Posted by: Unort Lover of the Lichtensteiners1768 ||
02/26/2011 4:42 Comments ||
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#2
It also involved threats of WMD genocide against Europe, threats of Jihad
Time to eliminate this threat. Shouldn't be all that difficult but on the other hand, if BO is impotent to make a decision about Somali pirates--doubtful he will doing anything but examine his options until the Libyan people take care of their festering problem.
Authorities arrested an Istaravshan man February 24 for failing to notify authorities of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) activities.
Sukhrob Gafurov, 32, was charged with holding religious meetings attended by IMU members at his residence from 2007 to 2009. Gafurov did not inform law enforcement of these meetings, in which IMU members called for jihad.
Meanwhile, Kyrgyz authorities have arrested a man suspected of belonging to the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir. A search of his Bishkek apartment revealed extremist literature.
It's the Wall Street Journal, so you may have to register, but the article is not behind the subscription wall. Interesting discussion thread attached.
An Army officer who accused a top general in Afghanistan of using "psychological operations" against visiting lawmakers in an article in Rolling Stone magazine was not trained in the military specialty, Defense Department officials said. The U.S. Army's Special Operations Command announced Friday that their special warfare center has no record of training Lt. Col. Michael Holmes in "psychological operations."
In an interview, Lt. Col. Holmes said he received training in information operations and how to use the psychological operation techniques but never claimed to have been trained as a psy-ops officer.
Psychological operations involve trying to influence foreign audiences. Unlike personnel trained in public affairs who are required to be truthful at all times, psy-ops and information operations officers are allowed to use deception.
Rolling Stone's war on our troops Brainwashing charge from reprimanded officers with axe to grind
"Rolling Stone magazine is engaging in a psychological operation trying to brainwash the American public," says an expert in military information operations. The magazine's Feb. 23 article, "Another runaway general: Army deploys psy-ops on U.S. senators," by Michael Hastings, is a confused attempt to create an issue where no issue exists, and a potentially libelous smear on the record of a senior military officer.
Mr. Hastings asserts that Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, the commander of NATO Training Mission Afghanistan (NTM-A) illegally employed " 'psychological operations' to manipulate visiting American senators into providing more troops and funding for the war." From the tone of the article, an unsuspecting reader could conclude that the U.S. military has secret teams of warriors employing Jedi mind tricks, or active units of "men who stare at goats." Senior military leaders are portrayed as being out to use government resources and martial techniques to dupe U.S. lawmakers.
The breathless introduction of the piece is disingenuous, asserting starkly that illegal acts took place when nothing of the kind has been charged, let alone proven.
Mr. Hastings primary source is Lt. Col. Michael Holmes, the head of the information operations (IO) unit who is portrayed in the cliched role of the selfless whistleblower bucking the system. But according to information obtained by The Washington Times, Lt. Col. Holmes is better characterized as a disgruntled soldier who had been caught engaging in alleged improprieties and is using the liberal anti-war press to strike back.
The editorial goes on to a second page , containing the kind of reportage we ought to get from so-called straight journalists. But it's appropriate that it was published as an editorial, given how very clearly the editors despise the Rolling Stone approach.
#1
getting info on the visiting congresscritters would seem to me to be a prudent move, if only to avoid a faux pas. Lt Col. Michael Holmes is toast, and an idiot for speaking out of school (and his MOS, apparently). Expect him to be the next big thang on the Lib talking points, following the Koch Bros. and WI Hitler...errrr Governor
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/26/2011 16:41 Comments ||
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There were two Tarek Mehannas on the morning of his arrest at his parents' suburban home.
One, the meek and mild college graduate who the Mehanna family, friends and neighbors saw. The other, a terrorist who conspired against the U.S. that the government saw.
Yesterday, there were still two Mehannas.
He is two men a man whose solitary imprisonment inspired about 80 supporters to be in a courthouse in Boston yesterday, and dozens more to join protesters in front of the court chanting "free Tarek."
He is two men a man who tried to indoctrinate others, promote al Qaeda, "and he has never once withdrawn from these acts," said prosecutor Aloke Chakravarty. If Mehanna were released from prison on bail before his trial next October, he would persist.
The bearded men man
OK, I'll knock it off.
in his orange jailbird outfit smiled and gave a few discreet winks and waves as he entered the courtroom.
In the hearing that included lawyers J.W. Carney Jr. and Janice Bassil's motion to grant bail for Mehanna, Bassil spun a tale of a simple lad who was exploring his Islamic faith and guilty only of exercising his free speech rights in translating 39 Ways to Serve Man and Participate in Jihad.
When Mehanna was arrested in 2009, federal officials said he wanted to shoot people at malls and made plans to kill two politicians. Those charges were not in the indictment released last year. In that indictment, Mehanna and Ahmad Abousamara, believed to be in Syria, were charged with giving "material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization." According to the indictment, Mehanna was a "media wing" for al Qaeda.
"For some reason, the shopping mall thing is still floating around, even though it's not in the indictment," said Mohamed Bahe of New York while he took out "Free Tarek" T-shirts in front of the courthouse. The fact it's not in the indictment "shows me it was fabricated," Bahe said. Bahe adds that he's known Mehanna for "a long time," and claimed that Mehanna was kicked out of Islamic web forums for being too moderate. "They labeled him as a modernist."
Inside the courtroom, Bassil told the judge Mehanna "we're fighting about words" Mehanna used in instant messages taken out of context. She called the case paper thin.
Chakravarty said that the defendant not only translated 39 Ways to Splode Serve and Participate in Jihad. "He tried to live it."
He said a witness will testify Mehanna, Abousamra and a third co-conspirator explored a plan to murder people at a mall, but dismissed the plan as "impractical."
Prosecutors say that in 2004 Mehanna and Abousamra traveled to Yemen in hopes of attending a terrorist training camp, which also ended in failure. That's when Mehanna turned to using his skills to spread al Qaeda's messages on the internet.
Whether this is true will be up to a jury to decide next fall.
Will they see the Mehanna prosecutors see? A man who wants infidels killed? A man who laughs when he visits Ground Zero.
Or will they see the Mehanna his supporters see? A man who has been railroaded because of his religion? A man whose words have been misrepresented? Amanda Reckonwith?
Meanwhile, the judge will have to decide which Mehanna he sees: The one who deserves bail or the one who cannot be set free.
[Pak Daily Times] Raymond Davis, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) contractor charged with double murder after shooting dead two men in Pakistain, refused to sign a charge sheet in a court on Friday and insisted he had diplomatic immunity, lawyers said.
The hearing in the murder case against Davis took place amid high security in Kot Lakphat Jail, where he is being held, and was adjourned until March 3.
"Davis refused to sign the copy insisting that he be released and claiming that he enjoys immunity," public prosecutor Abdul Samad told AFP.
Didn't we tell the Paks that bad things were going to happen if they didn't release Davis?
Samad said that Davis, who claimed he acted in self-defence when he shot the men in a busy Lahore street last month, was handcuffed during the hearing which was guarded by more than 300 armed coppers in and around the prison.
A separate legal process to determine the diplomatic immunity issues returns to the Lahore High Court (LHC) on March 14.
Samad said that the immunity case before the LHC would not affect the murder charge hearings, unless the higher court barred them from proceeding.
US Consul General Carmella Conroy and other American officials were present at Friday's hearing.
Asad Manzoor Butt, lawyer for the families of the men who were rubbed out, rejected the American's immunity claim.
"We have also received copies of the charge sheet. We will pursue this case as we want Davis to be punished for his act. We believe he does not enjoy immunity," he said.
Washington is pushing hard for Pakistain to free Davis, arguing that he has immunity and backing his claim that he acted in self-defence. The US postponed a round of high-level talks with Afghanistan and Pakistain following failed attempts to get Davis out, and US politicians threatened to cut payments to Pakistain unless he is freed.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
This is the State Dept.'s big test. They better pass.
#2
I'm fascinated by how this is playing out with Pakistain behaving like a dog with a bone. John (Halp Us!) Kerry was unable to resolve it with whatever bag of goodies and threats he was kerrying (heh!). So what's the deal? Given the rug merchant culture, I'm guessing it is more than national prestige. Is Mr. Ten Percent holding out for a bigger payday? Is the ISI trying to crush the CIA once and for all? Who's on first?
#5
He's clearly a bargaining chip, so the only question is whether the Paks want us to do something less, or, more likely, they want moar of something, either weapons or bribes.
#7
He's clearly a bargaining chip, so the only question is whether the Paks want us to do something less, or, more likely, they want moar of something
Part of the ISI's demands (in addition to "respect") is a list of all CIA contractors in Pakistan and a new CIA ROE (rules of engagement). It's also rumored that the ISI wants a NY lawsuit implicating the ISI chief in the Mumbai attack quashed.
#8
Thanks, Pappy. Looking at this in terms of CIA vs ISI makes a lot of sense.
This suggests the drone strikes and whatever else the CIA is up to are having quite an impact. And the last thing the ISI would want is for their role in Mumbai to come back up on the radar.
#10
hasn't the country already been lost to Islamists already?
Not really. There's Islamists and 'islamists'.
The latter view Islam like Nancy Pelosi views Catholicism: something to parade in front of the rubes and mine for a few politically useful tenets, but ignored privately.
The former are the nut-jobs. They don't have control. Yet.
[Geo News] Jamat e Islami Secretary General Liaquat Baloch Friday said that PML-N lacked majority in Punjab, adding latter would form alliance with unification block to sustain their government in the province.
Talking to Geo News here, Liaquat Baloch said that the reconciliation between PPP and PML-N was based on double standards and both parties remained in the government for three years.
He blamed both PPP and PML-N for the current situation prevailing in the country.
Commenting over decision of PML-N for parting their ways with PPP in Punjab government, Baloch said that the decision would trigger uncertainty in the country.
He urged the coalition government to get fresh mandate from the people while accepting their defeat.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2011 00:00 ||
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The U.N. atomic watchdog has received new information regarding allegations that Iran may be seeking to develop a nuclear-armed missile, the agency said in a report voicing deepening concern about the issue. Welcome to the party.
We're relevant! We're relevant! And important, and stuff!!
#5
I'm thinking contaminants in their uranium. Too many of the wrong isotopes, and Bushehr will produce about as much energy as a half dozen D-cell batteries.
And sorting bad isotopes from good isotopes ain't easy.
#8
IIRC, the Russians built Bushehr for cash with the MMs after German firm pulled out after the Islamic revolution. There were interruptions sometimes because of *ahem* MM cash and increased cost problems. So if that is true, it is a very possible scenario that the Russians got their money and the MMs could pound sand if the uranian fuel is poisoned.
WIKI has a nice history of this goat rope project.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/26/2011 15:01 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati stressed on Friday that he is seeking to form a government that would rise up to the expectations of all the Lebanese.
He said during a popular gathering in the northern city of Tripoli: "We ask for forgiveness over the delay in the Cabinet formation because we want to establish a government that works for the whole of Leb."
"We have assumed this difficult responsibility to extinguish the flame of strife and work for stability," he continued during his first trip to his hometown since his appointment as premier-designate.
"We return to you to derive our strength and determination from Tripoli to begin a major mission to restore its role in the country so that it may once again become Leb's second capital as it always has been," he added before the popular reception that was also attended by Caretaker Economy Minister Mohammed Safadi and MP Ahmed Karami.
"Tripoli has created national leaders. It is the city of moderation and we are all in its service," he stated.
Miqati asked: "Who of us is greater than Leb? Who of us does not want justice?"
"Let us return to dialogue under the authority of the state institutions and we are committed to the constitution that was produced by the Taif Accord," he said.
"All problems have solutions and dialogue solves them all," the premier-designate noted.
"We are keen on Leb's unity. We are a nation and whoever wants to transform us into a sect is harming our identity and convictions," he stressed.
An Nahar daily reported on Friday that Miqati will stay in Tripoli until Sunday and would welcome visiting delegations at his residence over the weekend.
Although no official statement was made on his activities on Thursday, An Nahar said Miqati met with Caretaker Minister Wael Abu Faour delegated by Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times....
While no progress has been made in the formation of the cabinet, An Nahar said that the idea to grant the finance portfolio to Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... leader MP Michel Aoun ...a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hizbullah... began floating again.
Aoun is at loggerheads with President Michel Suleiman over the interior ministry which was part of the head of state's share in Saad Hariri's government.
An Nahar said Miqati came under pressure over the possibility of granting the finance rather than the interior ministry portfolio to Aoun. However, The infamous However... the premier-designate is seeking to keep the finance ministry with the Sunnis and give it to Safadi.
Miqati held a 45-minute meeting with Suleiman at Baabda palace on Friday after the president's return from Rome.
The two men discussed the latest developments in the cabinet formation process.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2011 00:00 ||
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[Jerusalem Post Front Page] Syria has evaded a request from the head of the UN atomic agency for access to a suspected nuclear site, diplomats said Friday.
Israeli warplanes destroyed what the US says was a secretly built nuclear reactor in 2007. Syria allowed ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors to visit the site once, but has refused subsequent requests.
IAEA chief Yukiya Amano had directly asked Syria's foreign minister in November to allow a new visit -- in an unprecedented direct request. But a senior diplomat said Friday the foreign minister's response avoided mention of that site, promising only cooperation in vague terms.
Other diplomats said that amounts to a rejection of the request
The agency is attempting to probe both Syria and Iran. It is to release reports on both nations later Friday.
The diplomats spoke anonymously because their information was confidential.
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02/26/2011 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has asked his deputy to remind group's members to avoid attacks on civilian targets, the group's No 2 said in a message posted on the Internet on Thursday.
"There are certain operations attributed, rightly or falsely, to the mujahideen, in which Mohammedans are attacked in their mosques, market places or gatherings. Me and my brothers in al Qaeda distance ourselves from such operations and condemn them," Ayman al Zawahri said in an audio recording.
Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Blinky Omar, bin Laden and others have taken similar stands earlier, Zawahri said, but added that bin Laden wanted this pointed out again.
"Sheikh Osama Bin Laden assigned me again to reiterate this matter. Therefore, I urge the mujahideen to consider the rulings of sharia (Islamic law) and the interests of Mohammedans before undertaking any jihad operation," he said.
Al Qaeda members should refrain from indiscriminate attacks on "Mohammedan or non-Mohammedans", Zawahri said, without referring to any particular attack.
Zawahri said a New Year's Day bombing that killed 23 people at a Coptic Orthodox church in Egypt was caused by church leaders' "transgressions" against Mohammedans, but he denied that al Qaeda had any links to the attack.
An al Qaeda-linked group in Iraq has frequently grabbed credit for bombings resulting in civilian deaths. Al Qaeda was behind the September 11, 2001 attacks on US cities, which killed about 3,000 people.
The recording could not be independently authenticated but it was posted on radical websites, which are often used by al Qaeda supporters and the speaker sounded like Zawahri.
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#1
No killing civilians. But infidels, Crusaders, Juice, Christians, Buddhists, the wrong flavor of Muslim and people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time are fair game.
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.
Hamid 
There were two Tarek Mehannas on the morning of his arrest at his parents' suburban home.
[Geo News] Jamat e Islami Secretary General Liaquat Baloch Friday said that PML-N lacked majority in Punjab, adding latter would form alliance with unification block to sustain their government in the province.
The U.N. atomic watchdog has received new information regarding allegations that Iran may be seeking to develop a nuclear-armed missile, the agency said in a report voicing deepening concern about the issue.
Walid 
Michel Aoun
