[Dawn] Afghanistan wants the United States and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... to agree to stop carrying out night raids on Afghan homes as a pre-condition to the Kabul signing a strategic partnership with Washington, President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... said on Wednesday.
Night raids, which foreign troops say are one of their most effective weapons in the fight against bad turbans, are a major cause of friction between Karzai and his Western backers.
The Afghan leader has said repeatedly he wants them to be stopped.
"We want a strategic partnership but with specific conditions: our national integrity, no night raids, no house searches," Karzai told a meeting of around 2,000 Afghan political and community leaders in the capital city Kabul.
The strategic partnership agreement, still under discussion between Washington and Kabul, will govern American involvement in Afghanistan after the deadline for the exit of foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.
Afghanistan is also negotiating similar agreements with Britannia, La Belle France, Australia and the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... , Karzai said.
A September report by social research groups said the number of night raids, and the confusion caused by darkness, means they often pose a disproportionate risk to civilians.
The rules covering night raids, used to target bully boyz who hide among the Afghan population, and air strikes have been tightened considerably over the past two years but they still cause great resentment among the ordinary Afghans.
Karzai was speaking on the first day of a four-day meeting, known as a loya jirga, or grand assembly.
The jirga is consultative rather than legislative, but it is discussing some of the most sensitive subjects in Afghanistan, the scope of a US military presence after 2014 and the idea of peace talks with the Taliban.
"They (the US) want military installations, we will give them.
It is in our national interest (and) will draw more money and training of our soldiers," Karzai said.
The Taliban, who say they will not engage in peace talks until all foreign troops have left Afghanistan, have dismissed the meeting as a ploy to rubber-stamp what they see as foreign interference.
They have already tried to disrupt the gathering, even though Kabul is under a security lockdown for the meeting.
On Monday, security forces rubbed out a jacket wallah before he could set off his explosives near the site of the jirga.
In June last year, bully boyz disrupted the start of a "peace jirga", firing rockets at the tent where the gathering was held in the west of the Afghan capital.
No one was hurt.
Despite the presence of more than 130,000 foreign soldiers, violence across Afghanistan is at its worst since the Taliban were toppled by US-backed Afghan forces in 2001, according to the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit...
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) says there has recently been a fall in the number of attacks by bad turbans, but that data excludes attacks that kill only civilians and attacks on Afghan cops operating without international troops.
Karzai, who switched between speaking Afghanistan's Pashto and Dari languages when addressing the jirga, likened Afghans to lions on several occasions.
"Americans are more powerful, have more money, a greater population, but we are the lions," he said, bringing applause from the delegates.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
I wouldn't be surprised if Karzai ripped off his mask and was really Mullah Omar.
Netanyhu meets Kenyan counterpart Odinga in Jerusalem; two countries sign memorandum of understanding over homeland security. Israel has promised to help Kenya fight against al-Qaida linked members, according to the office of Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, who on Monday wrapped up a four-day visit.
"Kenya got the backing of the top leadership of the State of Israel in its war to rid its territory of fundamentalist elements, with President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu declaring that they will help Kenya in its struggles to secure its borders," Kenya's prime minister's office said.
It said the two countries had signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation on matters of homeland security.
In his meeting with Odinga, Netanyahu promised to help build "a coalition against fundamentalism" that includes neighboring states such as Ethiopia, South Sudan and Tanzania, according to the Kenyan prime minister's office. Israel and Kenya must stand together against this fight, Netanyahu told Odinga, according to Odinga's office.
Peres also pledged his support, and said his country would help Kenya with internal security and food production.
Odinga asked both Israeli leaders for help with vehicles for border patrols and equipment for sea surveillance. Israel could help Kenyan police detect terrorists so it could destroy their networks, Odinga said, according to his office.
[Bangla Daily Star] Counsels for Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedi ...Islamic orator and politician. He was a former Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2008, and is one of the most prominent leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami... walked out of the International Crimes Tribunal yesterday as its chairman, Justice Nizamul Huq, sat for hearing Sayedee's petition to review the tribunal's decision of framing charges against him. Walking out of court isn't the best way to plead your case...
After the defence counsels walked out, the court rejected the review petition, considering that it was not moved before it. See what I mean?
The three-member tribunal termed the walkout "unwarranted" and "unbecoming". "Bailiff! Whack his pee-pee!"
[WHACK!]
"Ow-w-w-w-w-w!"
The tribunal on October 3 framed 20 charges against Sayedee including genocide, killing, rape, arson, abduction and torture in 1971. Sayedee filed a petition on October 27 with the tribunal for reviewing the order. The tribunal then fixed yesterday for hearing the review petition.
Defence counsel Tajul Islam told news hounds that they will continue boycotting the tribunal till Justice Nizamul abstains from the trial proceedings or the tribunal disposes of a defence petition seeking explanation as to how he could continue the task as the chairman.
The defence counsels submitted the petition before the tribunal through its Deputy Registrar Mesbahuddin Ahmed in the morning.
The prosecutors told news hounds that they are considering taking legal action against the counsels for Sayedee, as they have committed contempt of court by walking out of the tribunal proceedings.
Prosecutor Zead-Al Malum said there is no provision in the law or the constitution over walking out of the court. The defence counsels walked out of the tribunal in order to obstruct the trial procedure, he said.
The tribunal yesterday also fixed November 20 for hearing the petition for explanation from the tribunal on what reasons Justice Nizamul chaired the tribunal.
It also rejected another petition submitted by the defence yesterday seeking adjournment of all proceedings against Sayedee till disposal of the petition that sought the explanation.
The petition says the tribunal's Chairman Justice Nizamul may be biased in the trial proceedings as he was a member of the secretariat of People's Enquiry Commission that investigated allegations against him [Sayedee] and some others in 1993-1994.
During yesterday's proceedings, Tajul Islam told the court that they felt embarrassed as Justice Nizamul sat for chairing the tribunal, although they have brought many allegations against him.
Justice Nizamul told Tajul that he did not refuse to discharge his duties, as he has not got the copy of the disposal order.
Prosecutor Syed Haider Ali opposed Tajul, saying that placing argument on a matter that has been disposed of is against the law.
Meanwhile, ...back at the secret hideout, Scarface Al sneeringly put his proposition to little Nell... from a press briefing at the Supreme Court Bar Association yesterday afternoon, barrister Abdur Razzaq, principal counsel for Sayedee, said that if Justice Nizamul does not quit the tribunal, they might move to the Supreme Judicial Council for his trial.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2011 00:00 ||
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that an attack by Syrian army defectors on an intelligence complex resembled civil war and renewed Moscow's call for talks between Assad's regime and its opponents. He said such talks should take place at the Arab League headquarters. The citizenry is trying to throw Pencilneck and his Baathists out. Pencilneck and his Baathists are trying to kill anybody who opposes them. If that's not civil war, what would be? Far better to have Pencilneck and the citizenry talk at Arab League HQ. First item on the agenda: making sure Russia gets paid for all recent purchases...
After a meeting with India's Foreign Minister in Moscow, Lavrov told reporters, "We see television reports that say some new force, the so-called Free Syrian Army I believe, organized an attack on a government building... belonging to the Syrian armed forces. This is already completely similar to real civil war."
Russia has called on Assad to more quickly implement promised reforms but says his opponents share blame for the violence. Russia joined China last month in vetoing a UN Security Council resolution that would have condemned Assad's regime.
Turkey has no plans for cooperation with Iran to build nuclear power plants, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz told reporters on Wednesday, a day after a senior Iranian official had floated the possibility.
Mohammad Javad Larijani, a foreign affairs adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khameini told Reuters in New York on Tuesday, that Tehran was willing to share its nuclear technology with neighboring countries, suggesting it could help Turkey build an atomic power plant.
"Iran developed a very sophisticated nuclear science and technological capability, which we are quite ready to share with ... neighboring countries and friendly countries in the region," the official, Mohammad Javad Larijani, said. "Turkey is for years trying to have a nuclear power plant but no country in the West is willing to build that for them."
Turkey has ambitious plans to build up a civil nuclear production capability and has been in talks with Russia and Japan about it. Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is is among the firms interested in a Turkish deal. Last year Turkey awarded Russia's Atomstroyexport a contract for the country's first nuclear power plant at Akkuyu on the country's Mediterranean coast.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/17/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
I wouldn't trust an Iranian civilian nuke plant design to begin with.
ISLAMABAD: The government said on Thursday that it has not decided whether to accept a resignation offer from its ambassador to the US over a reported attempt to enlist Washingtons help to rein in the countrys military after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
The government has summoned Ambassador Husain Haqqani to Islamabad to question him about any role he may have played in the growing controversy, which was first disclosed in an Oct. 10 column in the Financial Times, said Farhatullah Babar, a Pakistani presidential spokesman.
Mansoor Ijaz, a US citizen of Pakistani origin, said in the column that a senior Pakistani diplomat asked him on May 9, a week after US commandos killed bin Laden in a Pakistani garrison town, to pass a message from President Asif Ali Zardari to the US asking for help. Ijaz did not name the diplomat.
Zardari was reportedly worried that the US raid had so humiliated his government, which did not know about it beforehand, that the military may stage a coup, something that has happened repeatedly in Pakistans history, said Ijaz.
The memo sent to Adm. Mike Mullen, the top US military officer at the time, reportedly offered to curb support to militants from Pakistans military intelligence service, the ISI, in exchange for American assistance, Ijaz said.
The Pakistani Foreign Ministry has called the Financial Times column a total fabrication.
But Mullens spokesman, Capt. John Kirby, confirmed to Foreign Policys website on Wednesday that Mullen did receive the memo from Ijaz, but he did not find it credible and ignored it.
Haqqani said on Thursday that he did not write or deliver the memo, but offered his resignation to end the controversy.
I do not want this non-issue of an insignificant memo written by a private individual and not considered credible by its lone recipient to undermine democracy, Haqqani told The Associated Press.
Haqqani is expected to travel to Islamabad in the next few days so that the government can determine who should be blamed for the incident, Babar said. He said the government has not received a formal letter of resignation from Haqqani, and talk of what would happen to him was premature.
The controversy is said to have outraged the Pakistani army, considered the most powerful institution in the country. The army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, met with Pakistans president in recent days, but the outcome of those discussions is unclear.
Haqqanis resignation would create more uncertainty in the already troubled relationship between Pakistan and the US. The bin Laden raid in the town of Abbottabad severely strained ties, as have US drone strikes targeting militants in Pakistans rugged tribal area along the Afghan border.
A select group of Paleostinian beturbanned goons in the Gazoo Strip have undergone extensive military training recently in Iran, turning them into expert operators of sophisticated anti-tank missiles, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
The IDF believes that Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... have obtained several hundred advanced Russian-made antitank missiles -- such as the Kornet and the Fagot -- which have a range of more than 4 kilometers and are capable of penetrating armored personnel carriers and some IDF tanks.
Terrorist groups in the Gazoo Strip had a small number of these missiles ahead of Operation Cast Lead -- Israel's offensive against Hamas in 2009 -- but only used them in a handful of known instances.
"They were not trained well then, and as a result, the missiles were not effective," a senior IDF officer explained this week. "Since then, the groups have significantly increased the stockpile and have also sent specific beturbanned goons to Iran for extensive training where they became anti-tank missile experts."
The level of expertise was demonstrated earlier this year when Hamas fired a Kornet anti-tank missile at a school bus near Nahal Oz, which killed 16-year-old Daniel Viflic.
The missile was fired from a distance of close to 3 kilometers and the operator had to fire in between the Gazoo security fence and electrical cables. "He also had to hit the bus, which was not easily seen on the road," the officer said, explaining the complexities of the attack as a demonstration of the level of expertise in Gazoo.
The anti-tank missiles are obtained by Hamas in several different ways. In some cases, they are purchased directly from Russia by Syria and are then transferred to Hamas or Hezbullies.
In other cases, Hamas operatives buy the weaponry on the black market and then smuggle it into the Gazoo Strip via the tunnels it maintains under the Philadelphi Corridor.
"The Gazoo Strip is completely different today than what it was almost three years ago," a senior defense official said. "The amounts of weaponry are significantly higher as well as the type of weaponry and its sophistication."
In face of the threat, the IDF is moving forward with plans to install the Trophy active protection system on Merkava Mk 4 tanks that are in production ahead of their delivery to the 401st Armored Brigade. Two of the brigade's battalions have already received the system and the remaining battalion will finish receiving it by the beginning of 2012.
The Trophy system creates a hemispheric protected zone around armored vehicles such as the Merkava tank, which operated prominently in Leb and the Gazoo Strip.
Using advanced radar, the system is designed to detect and track a threat and counters it with a launched projectile that intercepts the anti-tank missile.
[An Nahar] President Michel Suleiman ...Before assuming office as President, he held the position of commander of the Leb Armed Forces. That was after the previous commander, the loathesome Emile Lahoud, took office as president in November of 1998. Likely the next president of Leb will be whoever's commander of the armed forces, too... hoped on Wednesday that the "spirit of forgiveness" would prevail, hinting that Lebanese politicians should not allow their rhetoric to go out of hands.
On the occasion of the International Day of Tolerance, Suleiman said in a statement that "honest and logical dialogue should be the only way to find a solution to problems."
Such dialogue keeps the nation away from the repercussions of turmoil abroad and helps consolidate stability and civil peace, the president said.
He hoped that "the spirit of forgiveness would prevail among everyone," urging the Lebanese to prevent the language of dialogue from becoming indecent.
Suleiman's statement came two days after two prominent Lebanese politicians debating the unrest in Syria exchanged blows on live television.
The fight broke out in a debate between al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... movement official former MP Mustafa Alloush and the head of the Lebanese branch of Syria's ruling Baath party Fayez Shukur on a talkshow on MTV station late Monday.
Alloush called Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... a liar, at which point the two politicians traded insults and hurled glasses of water at each other. Shukur then picked up a chair and tried to hit Alloush with it.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Iran is to send an "analytical" response to a report suggesting it was pursuing nuclear weapons, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Wednesday, a day before the U.N. watchdog meets on the issue.
"We have decided to draft and send an analytical letter with logical and rational responses to (ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency chief Yukiya) Amano's recent report," the Iranian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
website quoted Salehi as saying.
Salehi said the letter would be distributed to countries and international organizations.
His announcement came before a meeting of the IAEA's 35-member board on Thursday and Friday to consider the November 8 report which strongly suggested Iran was researching nuclear warheads, although it stopped short of saying so explicitly.
The United States and its allies are keen for the board to issue a resolution condemning Iran or referring it to the U.N. Security Council, according to a European diplomat in Vienna, where the IAEA is headquartered.
But Russia and China are seen as reluctant to go along, with Moscow criticizing the report and likening it to the false intelligence presented by the United States in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Israeli officials have already raised the spectra of military action against Iran's nuclear sites, based on the report.
Tehran has categorically denied it is seeking atomic weapons and dismissed the IAEA report as based on "false" information from Western intelligence services.
Salehi, who said Iran had already responded to the points raised in the report in a 117-page letter, called the IAEA report "unfair" and accused Amano of making a "hasty" move that damaged the watchdog's reputation.
However Salehi also downplayed recent comments by parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, that Iran could review its cooperation with the IAEA over the report.
"The West wants to drive us into a hasty reaction and would not mind being able to say 'Iran has left the NPT (the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty supervised by the IAEA)'," he said.
Salehi said his country remained in "contact with the agency so that the situation does not worsen."
The foreign minister was also quoted as saying that Iran's nuclear activities "are making powerful progress."
Iran is subject to four sets of U.N. sanctions and additional unilateral Western sanctions over its uranium enrichment program, which it refuses to suspend.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... is seeking to revive the "Democratic Gathering," al-Liwaa newspaper reported on Wednesday. Wally's getting tired of snuggling with Nasrallah and Berri, at least for awhile.
"He is paving way to meet with ex-Prime Minister Saad Hariri," Second son of Rafik Hariri, the Leb PM who was assassinated in 2005. He has was prime minister in his own right from 2009 through early 2011. He was born in Riyadh to an Iraqi mother and graduated from Georgetown University. He managed his father's business interests in Riyadh until his father's liquidation. When his father died he inherited a fortune of some $4.1 billion, which won't do him much good if Hizbullah has him bumped off, too. sources told the daily.
Jumblat is mending ties with old allies after he met on Tuesday a delegation from al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... movement to restore the Democratic Gathering in Mukhtara, the newspaper said.
In January 2007 Jumblat announced the end of his Democratic Gathering parliamentary bloc, after four MPs of the 11-member gathering decided not to back his candidate for the premiership.
He named his new bloc the National Struggle Front including MPs Ghazi Aridi, Wael Abu Faour, Akram Shehayyeb, Alaeddine Terro, Nehme Tohme and Elie Aoun.
The four MPs who are not part of Jumblat's bloc anymore are Marwan Hamadeh, Henry Helou, Antoine Saad and Fouad al-Saad.
The meeting was attended by members of the PSP leadership and al-Mustaqbal officials Ahmed Fatfat, Hadi Hobeish and Ziad al-Qaderi.
The daily reported that the meeting was held away from the media spotlight.
However, Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... sources told al-Liwaa that the gatherers discussed the latest developments concerning the Syrian turmoil and the possible repercussions of the regime collapse, the funding of the Special Tribunal for Leb probing the liquidation of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri, and the new electoral draft law.
They noted that the meeting was successful and was aimed at restoring the relations between the two sides.
PSP sources said that the meeting was to discuss the electoral draft law. Both sides agreed on coordinating their stances regarding all the issues.
Al-Liwaa reported that a delegation from the PSP leadership will meet with Secretary General of Mustaqbal movement Ahmed Hariri on Tuesday, and other party leaders in the next few days after the establishment of the PSP's new leadership council.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/17/2011 00:00 ||
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TEHRAN - A massive kaboom that killed 17 troops including an officer regarded as the architect of Iran's missile defenses last week took place during research on weapons that could strike Israel, the armed forces chief of staff said on Wednesday.
Hassan Firouzabadi, quoted by the student news agency ISNA, denied that Israeli or US sabotage was to blame. "This recent incident and blast has no link to Israel or America but the outcome of the research, of which the incident happened as a consequence, could be a strong smack to the mouth of Israel and its occupying regime," he said.
It is true that each failure can be one step closer to success. It depends, though, on whether this is a project undertaken with the aid of North Korean technicians -- whose own country's nuclear bomb effort is a bit of a fizzle - or with Russian technicians, whose national predecessor once bestrode half the world. Also whether an Israeli bug made its way into the design programs as Stuxnet and Duqu are said to have done somehow...
#2
The denial of Israeli sabotage is because an admission would be humiliating. It would be a sign that the most secure part of the Iranian missile effort has been compromised.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/17/2011 6:46 Comments ||
Top||
#3
The denial of Israeli sabotage is because an admission would be humiliating.
But would it not be equally humiliating to admit they destroyed it all, plus killed "the architect of Iran's missile defenses" due to sheer, unaided, incompetence?
#4
But would it not be equally humiliating to admit they destroyed it all, plus killed "the architect of Iran's missile defenses" due to sheer, unaided, incompetence?
If you frame it like that, yes. But that's not how the Govt will frame it. It is more like this, "the brave scientists and military were trying to advance the technology but didn't realize that a mistake had been made by a subordinate (probably a secret apostate) and were martyred in the service of the greater good."
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/17/2011 8:47 Comments ||
Top||
The Syrian army has laid mines at the border with Jordan in order to "restrict access to humanitarian asylum in Jordan for Syrians," according to an "informed source" speaking with Jordanian daily Al Ghad.
The source told Al Ghad that the mines were laid specifically to block access to citizens in the Deraa governate - the site of some of the earliest anti-government protests that took place this year - and the city of Al Ramtha.
"[Syrians] are fleeing the deteriorating security situation in their country," the source said according to Al Ghad.
More than 19,000 Syrian refugees have decamped to neighboring Turkey since violence began eight months ago between forces loyal to Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... and anti-regime activists, according to the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... . An estimated 6,000 evacuees are also residing in Leb, according to Dubai-based Al Arabiya.
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.
[Dawn] Afghanistan wants the United States and 
He hoped that "the spirit of forgiveness would prevail among everyone," urging the Lebanese to prevent the language of dialogue from becoming indecent.
[An Nahar] Iran is to send an "analytical" response to a report suggesting it was pursuing nuclear weapons, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said on Wednesday, a day before the U.N. watchdog meets on the issue.
Walid 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
