#1
Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf has offered her country as a possible location. And Frazer maintains that she's "positive" Africom will find a home on the continent somewhere. But with so much hostility, it may never feel entirely welcome.
A close analogy might be... opening a strip club at 16 East South Temple, Salt Lake City.
#4
Of course, the article is from MSNBC so the tone towards the US is negative. It would be an incredibly smart move on the part of Liberia to gain the Africom HQ on its soil : economic starter projects would be testing in Liberia; the military/security position of that country would improve immediately; and the jobs created by the building, staffing, and maintaining of such a HQ would be a major boost to the Liberian economy. Add to that the fact that several hundred US military personnel would be stationed in-country and buying the typical local junk to sent home, and you have lots of happy little businesses around the base. Plus, the local orphanages and hospitals would improve incredibly due to the US troops' support -- which is true in every country where the US has a good number of personnel.
And as for the objections of South Africa - who cares? SA is just about 10-15 years behind Zimbabwe on the decline curve, and since the ANC is kissing Mugabe's ass at every opportunity, they can rot in Hell beside him.
News about my assassination are not true and misleading, said Sudanese First Vice President Salva Kiir Mayardit on Sunday.
"I am not dead!"
He refuted local media news regarding his assassination, saying that these rumors were a hideous attempt to disrupt peace in Sudan.
"Yes, you are! It sez so right here! Now, lay down!"
The Sudanese National Congress party would put an end to these rumors, exclaimed Nayardit, urging all citizens to unite.
"Oh, yeah? Could a dead guy do this?"
Rumors about the First Vice President's assassination led most citizens to take tight precautions fearing that clashes between northern and Southern Sudanese would erupt similar to the August 2005 incidents after the death of former Vice President John Garang in a plane crash.
"Whoa! Now, that's impressive! Lemme see that again!"
Morocco's moderate Islamist party is crying foul after failing to become the largest party in the country's parliamentary elections, which were won instead by a traditional secular nationalist party, but marred by a record low turnout. Saadeddine Othmani, leader of the Justice and Development party (PJD), accused unnamed rivals of buying votes. "Money was our first enemy," he said. "We think that the PJD is the [real] winner."
International observers said Friday's vote had taken place "in an orderly fashion", though there had been "isolated irregularities". The western-backed Rabat government, anxious to burnish its liberal and democratic credentials, pledged to examine any charges of vote buying - which anecdotal evidence during the campaign suggested was common.
Moroccans had been urged to do their duty and vote, but scepticism was rife since real power rests with King Mohammed VI, who defines himself as an "executive monarch" and appoints ministers, including the prime minister, regardless of the election result. Early figures showed turnout was just 37%. The Istiqlal (Independence) party was the surprise winner, with 52 of the 325 seats in the lower house. The PJD won 47 seats, up from 42 in 2002, but the conservative, monarchist Islamists - presenting themselves explicitly as a bulwark against extremism - had hoped to win up to 80 seats, and had been expected to be the largest single party.
Tens of thousands of Algerians took part in protests against terrorism yesterday after two bomb attacks in recent days claimed by an Al-Qaeda offshoot killed at least 52 people. Demonstrations were held in Algerias major cities, including the capital Algiers, where participants gathered in a sports arena, displaying banners saying no to violence and crime. Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem was among politicians attending the rally, where speakers denounced suicide attacks as contrary to the values of Islam.
The generic Arab majority can parade and demand it stop, but the minority will continue down the path they're on. The majority let them start along that path because the hard boyz were booming Jews, then they were booming infidels. Algeria is like everywhere else in the Arab world, only worse, because their hard boyz started out cutting the throats of their neighbors.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2007 00:00 ||
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Egypt knows the dangers of Hamas, but won't aggravate things
Two years ago, no one anticipated the current situation in the Gaza Strip. What is happening now is approaching a worst-case scenario for Egypt. Egyptian officials do not conceal their assessments in this regard. In its editorials, the semi-official newspaper Al-Ahram has begun referring to "the fanatic current" inside Hamas. Repeated statements confirm that the trend toward separating Gaza from the West Bank or establishing an Islamic emirate in Gaza threatens Egyptian national security. Egyptian officials hope Hamas will understand that its actions in the strip are being watched and that there are red lines that could dictate harsh policies if Egypt's interests are negatively affected. Yet nobody wants the situation in Gaza to shift from "danger" to catastrophe.
The prevailing viewpoint in Egypt is that what happened was not an inevitable outcome of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Some analysts think that withdrawals that are carried out without sufficient political arrangements or elections conducted without attention to political realities can produce negative ramifications even though they are good steps per se. But Egypt could not oppose an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories. On the contrary, it thought that disciplined management of Gaza's affairs after the withdrawal could make it a model for withdrawal from additional Palestinian territories. Egypt played a direct role in managing security arrangements before and after the withdrawal. Security was the key.
What happened in Gaza after the withdrawal was the outcome of a series of problems that seemed uncontrollable: The performance of the Fatah movement was dreadful; Hamas thought it had a chance to govern Gaza; Israel did not provide enough support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, while he himself played dangerous games; and the influence of regional players began penetrating Gaza. The siege imposed on the Palestinian government after the elections of January 2006 confused everyone. All roads were leading to catastrophe.
Some say that Egypt could have intervened in a harsher way to control the situation and that it was more flexible than the situation required. But the Palestinians are not an easy player, the behavior of partner countries was not helpful and Egypt was reluctant to adopt pressure tactics lest it seem as if the old "Gaza governor" had come back. No one knows whether the situation would have taken another direction had Egypt applied a different policy.
Throughout, it was understood in Egypt that its policies toward the Gaza Strip were connected not only to its commitments to the Palestinian cause and its sense of responsibility toward Gaza's population but also to its own security. No country in the world would be willing to live beside a potential bomb - whether Fatah's "failed Gaza" or a radical emirate under Hamas' rule - especially when the bomb lies directly across the border from Sinai, whose sensitive status stems from its strategic location, tourist investments and the nature of its population. The challenges facing Egypt's security escalated immediately after the Israeli withdrawal. RTWT
#1
The Egyptians turned their blind eye towards the arm smuggling across the Philadelphy Rd. and the Fundo-Islamic "renaissance" in Gaza.
As the late Arafish said "Let them now drink the seawater of Gaza".
Posted by: Elder of Zion ||
09/10/2007 6:35 Comments ||
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#2
Now, now, Elder---the Egyptians are valuable allies in WoT.
#3
Yet nobody wants the situation in Gaza to shift from "danger" to catastrophe.
Didn't they get the memo? Gaza already is a catastrophe.
On the contrary, it thought that disciplined management of Gaza's affairs after the withdrawal could make it a model for withdrawal from additional Palestinian territories.
I guess they didn't get the other memo either. Gaza is the "model for withdrawal from additional Palestinian territories". All of Gaza's inhabitants need to be flushed into the Sinai as a reward to Egypt for having continually poured gasoline on the fire.
The State of Qatar signed on Sunday an agreement with France to open a branch of the French military academy Saint Cyr. Qatar News Agency (QNA) said the agreement which was signed by Military Academy Commander of Ahmed Bin Mohammad College Brigadier Hamad Bin Ahmed Al-Nuaimi and French Director of Saint Cyr project at the French Defense ministry. The agreement provides for establishment of a branch of Saint Cyr Military academy in Doha to be named-the Saint Cyr-Qatar Military Academy. The agreement was signed on sidelines of the visit of French Defense Minister Herve Morin.
#3
Several major pushes going on in the Gulf. The magic Kingdom is spending $billions to set up universities staffed by western researchers/faculty. St. Cyr is a graduate school, essentially: it takes 4yr college grads and in 2 years they earn a commission and a master's degree if I remember correctly.
So this is part of the Gulf 'buy their way into a new economic model' initiative. It's also, of course, France's way of nosing back into influence there without having had to pay the price in blood and treasure.
The stabbing of a rabbi in Frankfurt by a young man speaking Arab has prompted Germany's Jewish community to renew its warnings about no-go areas for minorities in Germany, and to warn that Germany's young Muslims are becoming radicalized by hate preachers.
The head of Germany's Jewish community condemned the stabbing of a rabbi in Frankfurt on Friday night and said it made her wonder whether "no-go areas" for immigrants were emerging in western Germany as well as the east, which has seen many racist assaults since unification in 1990.
Rabbi Zalman Gurevitch, 42, was walking home from his synagogue in Frankfurt's Westend district with two guests on Friday evening when he was approached by a young man described by witnesses as being of "southern" in appearance.
The man, flanked by two women, spoke to Gurevitch in what sounded like Arabic and then switched to German and said: "You shit Jew, I'm going to kill you." He stabbed him in the stomach and ran off.
Gurevitch was rushed to hospital and underwent emergency surgery. He is now recovering and told Bild newspaper in a statement passed on by a friend: "I am much better. My wife is by my side all the time. The last thing I want is for this attack to be trivialized and swept under the carpet."
German politicians expressed outrage at the attack, which was reported in the national media.
Charlotte Knobloch, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said in a statement: "I have visited the victim in hospital and I'm shocked and angry. In light of the increasingly frequent acts of violence against minorities in this country, one has to ask whether the debate about no-go areas shouldn't be extended to other parts of Germany and not just the east."
Talk of no-go areas resurfaced after last month's attack on eight Indian men (more...) in the eastern town of Mügeln by a group of Germans shouting "Foreigners Out." The economically depressed east has seen a high incidence of attacks on foreigners ever since unification in 1990.
Dieter Graumann, the vice president of the Jewish Council, said Islamic hate preachers in Germany were partly to blame for assaults such as Friday's attack.
"We oppose leveling blanket accusations at the Muslim community because the majority of Muslims in Germany comdemn acts of violence in the name of Islam, but leading representatives of Islamic groups have to be asked what they are doing top stop hate preachers and the growing radicalization among young Muslims in this country," Graumann said in a statement.
Was he wearing Dickies overalls, with a Skoal ring in the back right pocket? If not, then choose some other adjective to describe him, because he ain't Southern!
#3
Meet Germany v2.0, essentially the same as version 1.0 only with the Koran-expansion pack already included.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
09/10/2007 18:59 Comments ||
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#4
Meet Germany v2.0...
Europe may have turned a blind eye to the muslim threat living down the street, but they've never forgotten Germany, v1.39 thru 1.45. If they thought v2.0 was about to be "released", they'd go Duke Nukem on them.
Posted by: Steve ||
09/10/2007 20:27 Comments ||
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#3
Old, old video. But it continues to remind you what a bunch of pencil necked weasels the Dhimmis are and again today they will come full frontal when they turn their backs on Petraeus and Crocker as if they weren't even there. I hope Petraeus has an Ollie North moment similar to when he testified and shut down the obnoxious Dan (One Arm) Inouye.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
09/10/2007 9:37 Comments ||
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#4
Somehow, I don't think Petraeus will chuckle when he hears about Gen. Betray Us. Thagt was a real boo boo.
Summary: On Fox News Sunday, Brit Hume asked Juan Williams, "Who are we fighting there [in Iraq] now, Juan?" then answered his own question: "Al Qaeda in Iraq. They were there before we got there, and they're there now." In fact, U.S. military and intelligence officials have reportedly stated that Al Qaeda in Iraq didn't exist before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, didn't pledge its loyalty to Osama bin Laden until October 2004, and isn't controlled by bin Laden or his top aides.
That's a pretty distorted picture Media Matters is drawing. It's intentionally distorted, of course, aimed at people who don't pay attention.
Let us take a few moments to drift back in time, to those thrilling days of yesteryear, before Zark changed the name of Tawhid wal Jihad to al-Qaeda in Iraq. Al-Tawhid, as those of us who have been looking at things besides Britney's caesarean scar know, was Zark's personal terror organization, originally established to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy and replace it with a caliphate or something. And sonofagun but al-Tawhid was also an integral part of Ansar al-Islam. We, on this very website, watched as Ansar al-Islam devolved from its earlier incarnation, Jund al-Islam, which in its turn had been planted in the hills of Beverly Kurdistan in September, 2001, which some of us consider a significant date. Jund al-Islam's al-Qaeda controller was none other than Abu Zubaydah, the second of a string of Qaeda Numbah Threes to fall on hard times.
Zark was at that time maintaining al-Tawhid as distinct from al-Qaeda. The first reference I can find to it on Rantburg is from April, 2002, when the Germans arrested 11 al-Tawhid members plotting attacks on U.S. and Israeli targets within their country. Abu Qatadah, al-Qaeda's "ambassador in Europe" was described as the group's spiritual guide. He and Zark were the organization's co-founders.
Zark's day job, when he wasn't heading his own international terror organization, was as a camp commander in Afghanistan - near Herat, if I remember correctly. That was, of course, an al-Qaeda camp. But, really, other than those few things, there's not that much evidence connecting the Iraq organization with al-Qaeda.
But, but.... Richard Perle! PNAC!
Further, the 9-11 Commission found "no evidence" that contacts between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Al Qaeda "developed into a collaborative operational relationship" before the Iraq invasion.
Apparently they either didn't look too closely at Sammy's relationship with Ansar al-Islam or they rather legalistically didn't consider Ansar al-Islam to be al-Qaeda associated; at the time it wasn't, quite, functioning rather as an allied element, like GSPC, and being made up of several other elements besides al-Tawhid.
Dick Cheney!
On the September 9 edition of Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday, following National Public Radio senior correspondent and Fox News contributor Juan Williams' statement that "the war in Iraq is serving as a recruiting tool for Al Qaeda, creating this group Al Qaeda in Iraq where it might not otherwise exist," Fox News Washington managing editor Brit Hume asserted: "That's the whole argument that you've heard all along: you better not go and take these people on in any way because it only stirs them up and creates more of them. I don't buy it."
It's the "don't resist, you'll just make it worse" argument.
Later, Hume stated, "We were also going [to Iraq] because we believed there was a terrorist connection," to which Williams replied: "And they never proved the terrorist connection, Brit."
Two words; Salman Pak. Two more words: Abu Nidal. Need two more? Abu Abbas. A few more words? Mujaheddin e-Khalq. Palestine Liberation Front. We cold go on, you know.
Prescott Bush and NAZIS!
Hume then asked: "Who are we fighting there now, Juan?" and answered his own question: "Al Qaeda in Iraq. They were there before we got there, and they're there now."
They were there before we got there. They've evolved some, and they've formed alliances with the domestic terrorist cooties. They're still the same bunch, still the same idea.
However, contrary to Hume's claim that Al Qaeda in Iraq was "there before we got there," a June 28 McClatchy Newspapers article reported that "U.S. military and intelligence officials" say "[t]he group known as al Qaida in Iraq didn't exist before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, didn't pledge its loyalty to al Qaida leader Osama bin Laden until October 2004 and isn't controlled by bin Laden or his top aides," as Media Matters for America noted.
Maybe the McClatchy Newspapers need to hire somebody who knows something about the subject.
NEOCREEPYCONS!
Media Matters has also repeatedly noted (most recently here) that the 9-11 Commission found "no evidence" that contacts between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Al Qaeda "developed into a collaborative operational relationship" before the 2003 invasion. Several other purported pre-war links between Iraq and Al Qaeda have also been debunked.
Like Zark being in Baghdad prior to the outbreak of hostilities? Like Saif al-Adel being the guy in overall charge of Qaeda ops in Iraq? All this stuff is from open source, you know.
Katrina! Cryptkeeper Karl! Valerie Plame, martyred by a desperate and cornered rabid administration!
Further, as Think Progress noted, a September 6 report from the Congressional Research Service stated that "most of the daily attacks [in Iraq] are carried out by Iraqi Sunni insurgents," not members of Al Qaeda in Iraq.
Which doesn't address the question. The fact that the cannon fodder is the locals has nothing to do with who's in charge in the rarified upper echelons of the Islamic State of Iraq. Nor does it have anything to do with the alliances of that same Islamic State of Iraq.
Plastic turkey?
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I also think y'all are getting too caught up in trying to distinguish between different front organizations for the Moslem Brotherhood.
In the everything-I-ever-learned-I-learned-from-webcomics file, there's this strip from the Order of the Stick on the problems of shell games. Sometimes the only way to win is not to play.
#4
Again, the administration bears the blame for utter failure in communicating, correcting, educating, and smacking-down.
Remember way back when, in the early 80s, the Reagan Pentagon started producing those slick and very interesting "Soviet Military Power" pamphlets? Those and kindred items - and the aggressive public affairs campaign of which they were a part and which was persistent - helped reduce the idiocy of the "debate" in the country on related matters.
Here you have these lightweights chanting their mantras - but they're only able to do so because the administration is utterly, bizarrely, inexplicably silent on almost everything. (My favorite, baseless mantra: "no collaborative operational relationship" - let's see, did the 9/11 Commission farce find any evidence that Iraq had a lunar base? How about any evidence that Iraq was behind the Kennedy assasination? Iraqi complicity in the Manson gang slayings? No? Oh - that's right, no one claimed any such things)
Sadly, even Brit's not playing up to potential here, because if he were, he'd say something more like "Juan, there is no disputing extensive contact between Saddam's regime and AQ, there is good reason to believe some limited coordination or mutual assistance was agreed and even implemented, there was ample reason to deem Saddam's regime an intolerable threat and remove it before its WMD potential was wedded to AQ's global ambitions, and since many of Iraq's Sunnis have made common cause with AQ since our invasion there is no surprise AQ is making what it calls an important stand against the US in Iraq. It is a GLOBAL war on terrorists, and they'll appear anywhere they can where we are engaged in efforts that directly or indirectly destroy them, weaken them, or limit their options."
And since when have any purported pre-war links been "debunked"??
But why should the country and the western world be waiting for proxies in media or Congress to educate the public, clarify the confusion, and emphasize the common sense ideas supported by available information? To the additional shame of both institutions, this hasn't happened at all (leaving aside some pre-war help from the likes of Sen. Bayh and others who have since disappeared). But WTF with the US Government absent from the debate in which it is the primary participant?
It seems beyond hope that we could ever have an administration with the guts and vision to do the right and hard things, but also explain them and ruthlessly police the distortion and idiocy that are now the norm in media, academia, and "international opinion". One wonders if any of those with access to the candidates for '08 even realize this is among the biggest problems they will inherit if they're victorious ....
#6
I say leave it in. Brit might like to know that there are those out who see things his way and are paying attention to what he says. Fred's stuff is full of all kinds of good facts to support his argument, and Sea's comments contrast Fred's lucid fact-based logicical arguments with the shallow, hysterical, naive, susceptible, and all-too-coordinated moonbat counter-"arguments" that come from reading KOS with your BS filters disabled (not that there's anything wrong with it, of course).
It'll also keep Brit on his toes knowing there are those out there who can teach him a thing or two. :-)
#7
Yesterday I watched a good documentary on the Muslim Brotherhood on the History Channel. One of the experts said the MB is the originator of all the Sunni terrorist groups.
Posted by: moody blues ||
09/10/2007 7:34 Comments ||
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#8
Sea's Plame comment reminded me - I watched the move 'Breach' - the Robert Hannsen arrest story - this weekend. Thought it was pretty well done.
#9
Well, most of the people that Media Matters caters too believe that Osama and AQ are CIA controlled and are being used by Bush to seize all the oil anyway.
#11
The go to line for those who believe there was never any connection between AQ and Iraq prior to the invasion in 2003 always refer to this:
"...the 9-11 Commission found 'no evidence' that contacts between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Al Qaeda 'developed into a collaborative operational relationship' before the Iraq invasion."
Ok, I'm willing to grant as much. However, this is in now way to me a definitive statement. Just because there is no evidence of an "operational relationship" does not mean there was no relationship at all. What, exactly, delineates between an operational and non-operational relationship? Could there have possibly been a non-operational relationship, one based on the sharing of intent, aims, information and goals? A relationship that intentionally sought to remain non-operational for the obvious reasons (plausible deniability, operational security, etc.)?
It's just amazing to me that despite all of Saddam's atrocities and his known relationship with terrorists, people still would rather give him the benefit of the doubt over the POTUS. It boggles the mind!
#12
There, there, Seafarious dear. Sit down with me, and I'll make you a nice cup of chamomile tea with extra valerian. Channelling the other side of the argument can be so draining.
#13
Here you have these lightweights chanting their mantras - but they're only able to do so because the administration is utterly, bizarrely, inexplicably silent on almost everything.
If there is one single thing that qualifies as Bush planting the seeds of his own destruction, this is it. The administration's thundering silence while being smeared with every distortion and fabrication imaginable reveals an almost fatal degree of incompetence.
Second only to its own violent acts, terrorism is utterly reliant upon propaganda. Added to this is how high context Muslim societies are heavily swayed by influential speakers, even if those speakers are pathological liars. Baghdad Bob and Nasrallah are superb examples of this. As relatively well-educated Westerners, it seems preposterous to us that such transparent lies can be swallowed whole without even a hiccup.
Much of the war on terrorism continues to rely upon educating the public regarding Islam's threat. Due to overly cozy relations with Saudi Arabia, Bush simply cannot bring himself to out the Saudis as the number one financiers of global terrorism. Not only has this allowed our military role in the MME (Muslim Middle East) to be called into question, it has also engendered significant, justifiable doubtno matter how misplaced it may beas to this administration's motives and America's ability to combat global terrorism.
This is a massive failing and one that will taint Bush's historical legacy.
A California man was sentenced to 24 years in federal prison Monday for attending an al-Qaida terrorist training camp in Pakistan and plotting to attack targets in the United States. Hamid Hayat, a U.S. citizen who turned 25 on Monday, was convicted in April 2006 of providing material support to terrorists and lying about it to FBI agents. Prosecutors said he intended to attack hospitals, banks, grocery stores and government buildings.
Federal Judge Garland Burrell Jr. said Hayat had "returned to the United States ready and willing to wage violent jihad when directed to do so."
His defense lawyer, Wazhma Mojaddidi, has said those sentiments were nothing more than the idle chatter of a directionless young man with a sixth-grade education. She said the government had no proof her client had ever attended a terrorist training camp. Ultimately, jurors were swayed by a confession that was videotaped during a lengthy FBI interrogation.
"Lies! All lies! ... whaddayamean, the tape was rolling?"
Hamid Hayat's father also was caught up in the case, but a federal jury deadlocked on whether he had lied to federal agents about his son's attendance at the camp. Umer Hayat later pleaded guilty to lying to a customs agent about why he was bringing $28,000 in cash to Pakistan several years earlier.
For the Widows Ammunition Fund?
The case against the Hayats grew from a wider federal probe into the 2,500-member Pakistani community in Lodi, a farming and grape-growing region about 35 miles south of the state capital. That investigation began shortly after the 2001 terror attacks and focused on whether Lodi business owners were sending money to terror groups abroad.
As Ramadan approaches, many U.S. Muslims are worried about how they will manage to fulfill their charitable obligations without facing the charge of financing terrorism in Gaza or Lebanon.
Couldn't possibly give to the United Way or the Starvation Army. Not Islamic enough. And slipping a few bucks to a drunk won't do, no, not at all.
The start of Ramadan sometime next week coincides with the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks which prompted anti-terrorism crackdowns that many here say unfairly target Muslims. Six major Muslim charities operating in the United States have been shut down after being designated as fund raisers for terrorist organizations and several others have been raided or closed. "These are indirect ways of having Islamic charities close down without due process," said Dawud Walid, director of the Michigan branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. "It scares away the donors and even some employees."
There has also been a very suspicious pattern of raids taking place just ahead of Ramadan when Muslims typically do the bulk of their required giving known as "zakat", said Shereef Akeel, a lawyer who represents two of the raided charities. In 2004, Missouri-based Islamic American Relief Agency was shut down in the days leading up to Ramadan because of alleged ties to the militant Palestinian group Hamas and Al-Qaida. It was indicted in March for providing aid without a license in Iraq while the country was under U.S. sanctions.
In 2005, federal agents knocked on the doors of prominent Detroit-area Muslims and asked them if they were planning on donating to Michigan-based Life for Relief and Development and other charities. And in 2006, Life was raided and every local television station was on hand to capture images of federal agents carting away computers and boxes of documents.
While it is important to ensure that charitable funds are not diverted to terrorist activities, the federal government's inability or refusal to provide hard evidence against the charities has created a backlash, said Akeel.
Especially since many Muslims have stopped donating to overseas programs out of fear that the money will be either frozen or tied up in legal fees and that they could be held liable for inadvertently funding terrorism. "What we have done is compromise our image and our standing abroad," he told AFP. "There's no better PR than when you have American organizations on the ground."
Life for Relief and Development has managed to keep operating despite the bad publicity from the 2006 raid, said administrative director Mohammad Alomari. But it had to go to court to prevent its bank from flagging it as a money launderer or terrorist financer when the charity's account was closed shortly after the raid. It was back in court last month to stop the Justice Department from charging it 115,000 dollars in copying fees so it could get its documents back.
While charges have not yet been filed, the charity believes it is being investigated for work it did in Iraq while the country was still under sanctions. It has managed to avoid being tied to terrorism because it carefully followed all regulations and chose not to come to the aid of orphans in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, Alomari said. "People in the Muslim community are scared. They have to give zakat. But how do you give it? Do you give it only to the mosque? Do you give it to a friend who takes it overseas? The avenues of giving are narrower," Alomari said in his suburban Detroit office. There used to be a lot of different organizations. We certainly weren't the largest. But by default now we're the largest because they closed down the other ones."
Federal officials say they are committed to protecting legitimate charitable work and only target organizations when they have strong evidence that the money is being misdirected. "These actions are not going after people who are sending legitimate funds for legitimate purposes and are accidentally swept up," said Molly Millerwise, a Treasury Department official. "Every one of our charitable designations that has been tested in U.S. court has been upheld," she said.
The nation's largest Muslim charity, Texas-based Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development, is currently in court defending itself against allegations of funding terrorism by supporting Hamas. In late July, the Treasury Department froze the assets of Michigan-based Goodwill Charitable Organization after it was declared a front for the anti-Israeli militant group Hezbollah.
The Treasury department has worked closely with the charitable community to develop guidelines that will help them ensure their funds are not being misdirected towards terrorist activities, Millerwise added. "The charitable sector and the U.S. government share the same goal: we want charitable giving to continue but we don't want the money going to terrorists," Millerwise said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2007 00:00 ||
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Seemingly taunting Osama bin Laden, President Bush's homeland security adviser said Sunday the fugitive al-Qaida leader is "virtually impotent" beyond his ability to hide away and spread anti-American propaganda.
His organizational pee-pee just hangs there, limp and lifeless.
The provocative characterization came just days after bin Laden attracted international attention with the release of a video in which he ridicules President Bush about the Iraq war and reminds the world that he not been captured.
We're probably not trying to capture him, if y'know whudda mean.
Ahead of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes, White House aide Frances Fragos Townsend made a clear attempt to diminish the influence or the perception of the man who masterminded those attacks. "This is about the best he can do," Townsend said of bin Laden. "This is a man on a run, from a cave, who's virtually impotent other than these tapes."
In appearance on two Sunday talk shows, she used the "virtually impotent" reference both times, suggesting the language was chosen with careful purpose. "We know that al-Qaida is still determined to attack, and we take it seriously," Townsend said. "But this tape appears to be nothing more than threats. It's propaganda on their part."
Townsend was considerably more direct than even Bush in rebuking bin Laden. The president responded to bin Laden's tape last week by saying it was a reminder that the world is dangerous and that Iraq is part of the war against extremists. He never identified bin Laden by name.
However, comma...
The consensus of the nation's top intelligence analysts is that bin Laden's terrorist network is anything but impotent. Terrorism experts say the network is regrouping in the lawless Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. The latest National Intelligence Estimate says al-Qaida is growing in strength, intensifying its efforts to put operatives in the United States and plotting against U.S. targets that will cause massive casualties. The U.S. is in a "heightened threat environment" and al-Qaida is the most serious threat, the analysts found.
The tape was the first time bin Laden had appeared in a new video since 2004. In the recording, bin Laden tells Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end. He makes no overt threats and does not directly call for attacks. "While he may be physically contained, his influence is not bounded by any physical barriers," said Thomas Sanderson, an authority on terrorism at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Obviously, in a sense, it does not matter that we've got him trapped in a cave. He has sent forth enough messages to incite violence worldwide against us," he said in an interview Sunday.
Townsend said experts are doing a technical analysis, looking for clues about bin Laden's health and whereabouts. "There's nothing overtly obvious in the tape that would suggest this is a trigger for an attack," she said.
She emphasized another finding from the intelligence estimate released in July that worldwide counterterrorism efforts have constrained the ability of al-Qaida to hit the U.S. "We ought to remember, six years since the tragedy of the September 11th, we haven't seen another attack," Townsend said.
More than 3,000 people died on that day in 2001, the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. Tuesday's anniversary has renewed questions about whether the country is safer today. "Six years later, we are safer in a narrow sense: We have not been attacked, and our defenses are better," wrote the chairmen of the independent Sept. 11 commission, Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, in Sunday's Washington Post. "But we have become distracted and complacent."
Townsend disputed that assessment. She said the government has made considerable progress in protecting the country. "We are safer than we were in 2001," she said.
The anniversary of the attacks comes in the same week that Bush is expected to announce the next stage of U.S. involvement in the war in Iraq. The war is portrayed in starkly different terms by Bush, who sees it as vital to stopping al-Qaida, and by his critics, who view it is as unrelated to the terrorist attacks. "This is an insult to everybody in the world that this man is still sending his tapes," said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., of bin Laden. "And it is the real failure because Iraq has nothing to do with Osama bin Laden in the beginning."
Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona who has stuck by Bush's war strategy nevertheless described bin Laden as a "great danger." "He continues to communicate, he continues to lead, and he continues to be a symbol for them of leadership in this radical hatred and evil radical Islamic extremism," McCain said.
Taunting bin Laden as "virtually impotent" would likely not provoke him to respond, because his strategy of attacks involves lengthy planning that would not be derailed by a single comment, said Sanderson, a senior fellow at CSIS. But such a comment could prove incendiary to like-minded followers of bin Laden who see themselves as a "vanguard of a global assault on the United States," he said. "A provocation like that," he said, "is not helpful."
Townsend appeared on "Fox News Sunday" and CNN's "Late Edition." Kerry and McCain were on "This Week" on ABC.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
"Continues to be a symbol of leadership" > which is precisely why, for the USA + Western World, Osama's life or death needs to be absolutely verified beyond all doubt. He's alive, or he isn't - iff alive, the Osama I know and fought with agz the Soviets will attack the USA!
"Vanguard of a global assault on the United States" > move along, boyz, once again the USA is obviously NOT in a WAR TO THE DEATH here.
Just FYI only > RIAN > WORLD NOT READY FOR FREE INVESTMENT, + UK NEWS > IRAQ NOT ONLY A WAR BUT A LOOMING DISASTER FOR THE USA + WORLD. 'Tis a Bad omen for Western-style Global Democracy-Libertarianism. FREEREPUBLIC > best way to promote JIHAD is for Muslims to get along along wid their neighbors in peace [like CHICOMS?].
Destroy from within = by any means necessary except war.
#6
Had the doctors' plot in England, the latest German plot, the airport and army base plots all gone to fruition, Mr. bin Laden's latest video would have been a master stroke. Al Qaeda and its allies and wannabes are putting an awful lot of effort into absolutely no result whatsoever, and meanwhile even with the help of the Left and the media what they've previously proclaimed their key battlefield -- Iraq -- is steadily being lost to the infidels.
Afghanistan is a sentimental favourite, of course, but fluidly changing portions of some provinces of that semi-barbaric, non-Arab hinterland does not impress as the center of the Caliphate Restored.
#7
I hope the key word is 'virtually' and not 'impotent'. I first thought the statement could provoke Islamists into action, but maybe the phrase was referring to the virtual source of the video. One can only hope that the cybertrackers are virile enough to snuff the vitriolic taunts once and for all.
Sammy's turban always makes me think he's wearing a bunny suit and some mean guy tied his ears in a knot.
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (S) chief Senator Maulana Samiul Haq on Sunday said that the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) parliamentarians would neither support General Pervez Musharraf in the presidential elections nor would resign from the present assemblies.
Talking to reporters at Shairanwala, he said that the presidents wrong policies had made Pakistan a vulnerable state. He said that his party would make seat-to-seat adjustment with like-minded political parties in the upcoming general elections. He said that his party had differences with the MMA on Legal Frame Work Order (LFO) and 17th amendment.
He said that whenever there would be a chance, his party would work for elimination of these illegal and unconstitutional amendments from the constitution. He said that there was a little chance that the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) would be converted into a political alliance because every component party of the movement had a different set of mind.
However, he made it clear that APDM was united on a two-point agenda; one was to oppose General Musharraf and the other was to restore true democracy in the country. He said that his party would welcome Nawaz Sharifs return; however, it was the responsibility of the Supreme Court to get its verdict implemented.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2007 00:00 ||
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Safi tribe and local Taliban on Sunday reached on an agreement due to which Taliban were bound neither to target any government installations nor to kidnap any security personnel. A large number of Tribal elders and local Taliban took part in the Jirga.The agreement will be finalised today (Monday) . It is also mentioned in the agreement, if the government take action against local Taliban without any reason, the Safi Tribe will not adhere to the agreement. In this case, the Safi Tribe will support local Taliban. One of the Jirga participant said that aim of the Jirga was to restore peace in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2007 00:00 ||
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Renowned Jihadi Commander Moulana Obaidullah, who is included among the missing people has returned home after gap of four-years. According to details, Jihadi Commander who has played proactive role in Kashmir and resident of Basti Malook Multan Moulana Obidullah was taken away from his house on 26,11.2003 on Eid-ul-Fiter. Afterward he was transferred to an unknown place. His relatives also filed petition in the Supreme Court against the intelligence. But intelligence Agencies totally denied to take the responsibility. Supreme Court also took suo moto action against the missing people. Later, he was released.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2007 00:00 ||
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The terror threat on Hyderabad looms large as, like Kashmir, Pakistan-based terrorist groups consider the erstwhile princely state an unfinished agenda of partition. Addressing a conference in Lahore days before the twin blasts in the city, chief of political affairs of Jamat ud-Dawa (JD), Lashkar-e-Taiba's public face, Hafiz Abdul Rehman Maki called for the liberation of Hyderabad, Manvadar and Junagadh. "We launch a jehad for the liberation of Hyderabad, Junagadh, Manvadar, and other areas that were supposed to be part of Pakistan at the time of partition. Our relationship with India is that of revenge," he said.
The conference was also addressed, over phone, by chairman of the break-away faction of the Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani. Earlier, on August 14, JD had issued Pakistani maps showing Hyderabad, Manvadar, J&K, Junagadh, and Bangladesh as parts of Pakistan. This was done, according to JD's website, to tell Pakistanis that it is their duty to liberate these areas, and until this was done Pakistan is incomplete. Slamming Pakistani rulers, JD chief Hafiz Mohammad Sayed said: "They have allied with evil; they have no right to celebrate Independence Day. The day reminds us of supreme sacrifices and martyrdom. Pakistan is duty-bound to liberate Kashmir, Junagadh, Manvadar and Hyderabad."
He said JD's stand on Kashmir hadn't changed, and that jehad was the only solution. Back channel diplomacy, bus services, trade and commerce are not going to work, he said.
The statements haven't come as a surprise. "This is part of LeT's established agenda, and they have articulated it repeatedly. In 2000, JD head Hafiz Mohammad Saeed declared Kashmir was a gateway to capture India and that campaigns in Hyderabad (and Junagadh) were the highest priorities," executive director, Institute for Conflict Management Ajai Sahni said.
Makki had, at the same meet, proclaimed the formation of a new unit in Hyderabad to liberate Hyderabad from India. From this stage onwards, there has been an augmenting effort by LeT and other groups, including Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) and the Harkat-ul-Jihad Isalmi Bangladesh (HuJI-B), to increase activities in the South. "For this, they also set up a core unit in Hyderabad in 2004," and added, "attacks on Hyderabad are the unfolding of this long-term strategy."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Choudhary Rahmat Ali, who actually coined the word Pakistan, had other territory in mind.
Posted by: john frum ||
09/10/2007 15:34 Comments ||
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#2
According to the Pakistani writer Khalid Hasan
"Rehmat Alis concept of Pakistan was nebulous, impractical and fantasy-ridden. It was to include the entire northwest of India, Kashmir, the Kathiawar peninsula, Kutch, and several enclaves deep within UP, including Delhi and Lucknow. There were to be two independent Muslim states besides Pakistan: Bangistan comprising Bengal and Assam in the east and Osmanistan in the south. These two were to form a federation with Pakistan. The 243 principalities or Rajwaras were to be divided among caste Hindus and others and then herded together in a ghetto called Hanoodia. As for the Sikhs, they were to be pushed into an enclave called Sikhia. Other races and religions were to inhabit an encampment by the name of Hanadika. Every non-Muslim was to remain subservient to the master race he called The Paks. And yes, the subcontinent was to be renamed Dinia. He did not say how he was going to bring all that about."
Posted by: john frum ||
09/10/2007 15:35 Comments ||
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#3
Ok, John Frum, give us an example of something---anything---that other people own & Muslims don't want.
PDF file: As delivered by the good general
U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker began briefing Congress today on their assessment of the security situation in Iraq.
Seriously, if "worse" answer wasn't essentially uniform across such a wide variety of questions one might be more inclined to believe the results.
More than 2,000 Iraqis were questioned in all 18 provinces. About 70% of Iraqis believe security has deteriorated in the area covered by the US military "surge" of the past six months, an opinion poll suggests.
The survey by the BBC, ABC News and NHK of more than 2,000 people across Iraq also suggests that nearly 60% see attacks on US-led forces as justified. This rises to 93% among Sunni Muslims compared to 50% for Shia.
The findings come as the top US commander in Iraq, Gen David Petraeus, prepares to address Congress. He and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker are due to testify about the effects of the surge and the current situation in Iraq.
The poll suggests that the overall mood in Iraq is as negative as it has been since the US-led invasion in 2003, says BBC world affairs correspondent Nick Childs. The poll was conducted in more than 450 neighbourhoods across all 18 provinces of Iraq in August, and has a margin of error of + or - 2.5%.
It was commissioned jointly by the BBC, ABC and Japan's NHK.
#3
The BBC? Give us the raw data to analyze, and we'll see. I wonder if how many real people were actually interviewed, I suspect the BBC have not thought to check.
#4
These polls are useless. Iraq is still a country where the wrong response to a question can get you killed. That's not to say that walking down the street can get you killed. But political opinions are still best kept private.
The other problem has to do with the pollsters. What kind of Iraqi pollsters do left-wing foreign journalists tend to hire? People who agree with them. What kind of people tend to agree with them? Anti-American Iraqis of all persuasions.
#6
Since the Shia are 65% of the population and the Sunni Arabs 10-15%, the BBc's stated result (60% support attacks) unless at least 70% of the Kurds, Turkmen and Assyrian Christians support attacking Americans. Not gonna happen Clive, but a brave attempt at propaganda. Now tell us how the English yobs are mercilessly persecuting the poor peace loving Mohammedans in Blightly by parading around short skirts and stuffing their faces with pork pies.
Posted by: ed ||
09/10/2007 15:37 Comments ||
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#7
I don't know the politics of the Japanese newsgroup NHK, but the other two are so far left they have to look right to see anyone else. I wouldn't trust them to tell me the sky was blue on a sunny day.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/10/2007 17:15 Comments ||
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#8
I have heard that the surge has cost us support in the Shia community because they would like to be left alone to exterminate the Sunnis and be done with it.
The fact that we are interfering with their (admittedly logical) plan is costing us friends.
(but yes, I think they also were very selective in who they gave the poll to)
Al
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
09/10/2007 18:55 Comments ||
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More than 14,000 employees in Iraqs Interior Ministry have been sacked for failing to respect human rights, the government said on Sunday, rejecting a report by a U.S. panel that accused the police of sectarianism. The Jones report is incomplete and does not depict the real picture in Iraq, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said, referring to the assessment of the independent commission headed by General James Jones, the former top U.S. commander in Europe.
The panel recommended that the Iraqi National Police force, widely seen by Iraqis as Shiite dominated, should be scrapped and reorganised because of sectarianism within its units that made it operationally ineffective. It also said corruption and sectarianism were rife in the Interior Ministry, which oversees the police.
The U.S. military in Iraq has said it will study the report and see where it can make adjustments to its police training programme but that it is unlikely to agree to the force being rebuilt from scratch.
Dabbagh defended the performance of Iraqs security forces and said serious efforts were being made to clean up the police, which has long been accused of colluding in sectarian violence against minority Sunni Arabs. Until yesterday more than 14,000 members of the Interior Ministry have been removed from their positions because they dont respect human rights or because they are believed linked to militias and armed groups, he told a news conference in translated remarks.
All nine national police brigade commanders and 17 out of 24 battalion commanders have been sacked and replaced, U.S. and Iraqi officials have said previously.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
hmm. That seems like both a good and bad idea. 14,000 out of work corrupt individuals is lotsa mean, armed and angry individuals.
#3
Since the most respected part of the Iraqi government is the military, which is approaching full strength, their government should provide lateral transfer with time-in-grade from their army to the police.
This could flesh out their middle management ranks of their police quickly with proven quality personnel.
#4
I'm a little wary of the stated reason "failing to respect human rights". That could mean a lot of different things, some of which are wholly justified and some of which are just the effeminate fantasies of lesser intellects.
#5
I'm under the impression that the Iraqi bureaucracy is vastly overstaffed. The economy has been improving steadily -- surely educated people should be able to find jobs in the private sector.
Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari urged Iraqs neighbors yesterday to prevent terrorists and killers from crossing into his country and warned that the violence in Iraq could spill across its borders into other nations.
Being Arabs, they can't think far enough ahead to guess that Iraq - always a regional power - won't always be in its present state. Ask Tiglath Pileser.
Zebaris comments came during the opening of a daylong conference that brought to Baghdad officials from all of Iraqs neighbors and other Middle Eastern countries, as well as representatives from the United Nations and the Group of Eight industrialized nations.
It picked up from the first such conference in March, which saw the first direct US-Iranian talks since the war began, focusing on border problems, Iraqi refugees and energy issues, including oil supplies. Despite our emphasis on national reconciliation at home we also need to reconcile with our neighbors, with the international community at large, Zebari told the group. And this is critical period for us that we need your support and your commitment especially for our immediate neighbors.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
If Iraq can be normalized, its oil secured and continuing progress made in opening up the Alberta tar sands it is conceivable an operation into saudi could proceed without a hiccup in the oil markets.
An al-Qaida commander who escaped from a U.S. prison in Afghanistan appeared in a new videotape Sunday criticizing Hamas and other Islamic groups that he said prioritized nationalism and electoral politics over jihad, or holy war.
Hamas is focused on the creation of an independent Palestinian state rather than al-Qaida's vision of a worldwide Muslim community ruled by Islamic law. Like al-Qaida, the Palestinian movement advocates violence to achieve its goal, but has also participated in elections alongside the moderate Palestinian Fatah group.
"We caution some of the Islamic groups, among them Hamas, which are risking the bloods of their sons ... to cleanse and purify their jihad of contemporary jihadi pollutants," said Abu Yahia al-Libi in the 90-minute videotape. "Patriotism, nationalism, shared unity, the supreme interest and other slogans ... none of these have any space in the religion of Allah the Glorious and the Great," he said, criticizing groups such as Hamas for "abandoning jihad and jumping into the ballot boxes."
The authenticity of the videotape could not be verified, but it was released on a Web site commonly used by Islamic militants and carried the logo of Al-Sahab, al-Qaida's media arm.
Al-Libi, wearing a white traditional Arab robe and a black turban, also ridiculed the U.S. for its troubles in Iraq and Afghanistan, claiming the country's power and prestige was in decline.
"America, which is one of the major evil spirits of the age, was only a few years ago bragging about its power and boasting of its army and materiel, at a time when everyone was subordinate to it and submissive to its resolutions," said al-Libi, whose nom de guerre means "the Libyan" in Arabic. "But today, where is America? Where is the vanity and arrogance of the American army and its policymakers?" he added. "And moreover, where is the value of the American soldier whose killing used to make headlines in all the media but who today is dragged in the streets of Baghdad, hung on the bridges of Fallujah, rolled on the rocks of Afghanistan and burned to coals in the middle of its capital, Kabul."
Al-Libi praised the resurgence of Taliban militants in Afghanistan, who have made a comeback following a U.S.-led invasion in 2001 that ousted them from power.
Since his escape in 2005, al-Libi is believed by Western and Afghan intelligence to have run training camps for suicide bombers and fighters in eastern Afghanistan along the border with Pakistan. Afghan police said at the time of his escape that his real name is Abulbakar Mohammed Hassan and that he is a Libyan.
#2
The usual "not Islamic enough" crapfest. This is priceless. On one side we have Arab nations demanding that the Palestinians be given a homeland and on the other we have Arab terrorists denouncingas did Ayatollah Khomeininationalism as interfering with the global transcendance of Islam. No other group has ever outdone Islam in exhibiting the old "Floor Wax/Dessert Topping" split personality mindset.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed on Sunday to continue military operations in the Gaza Strip targeting Palestinian militants in the Hamas-ruled territory.
Id like to express my appreciation to the armys and the defence establishments unrelenting operations aimed at getting the terrorists and their leaders in the Gaza Strip, Olmert told the weekly cabinet meeting. This is a continuing and incessant activity which we will pursue. Olmerts statement came one day after the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas claimed that Israeli special forces captured a senior commander of the movements security forces.
Mohawah al-Qadi, a senior member of Hamass armed wing and commander in its paramilitary Executive Force, was nabbed on Friday by undercover troops in the town of Rafah in southern Gaza, it said. But a spokesman for the Israeli army told AFP that we have no knowledge of any such operation.
The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said Israeli soldiers in Executive Force uniforms hustled Qadi into a Subaru which then sped off to the Sufa crossing into Israel. Al-Qadi, seized together with his assistant Saqer Abd al-Al, was responsible for the Executive Force public relations, the group said.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2007 00:00 ||
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A one-day general strike called by President Mahmoud Abbass Fatah faction for Sunday put Gaza shopkeepers in the precarious position of having to choose sides in its bitter rivalry with Hamas Islamists ruling the territory. The business owners, who have abided by strike calls in the past to protest against Israeli occupation, found themselves weighing the personal cost of shutting down and angering Hamas or staying open and risking retaliation by Fatah. Gaza is like a ship with two captains, said one shop owner who declined to give his name. Each captain is ordering passengers to his side of the boat. In the end, the ship will sink. Fatah ordered the strike after violence on Friday in which Hamas security men, wielding clubs and firing in the air, broke up outdoor prayer meetings the once-dominant faction organised in defiance of a ban on such gatherings.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2007 00:00 ||
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Malaysian police fired live rounds to quell a riot in Malaysias Muslim heartland, wounding two men, after trying to break up an opposition rally with water cannon and tear gas, local media said on Sunday.
Local police declined to comment to Reuters on the riot, which broke out late on Saturday night in the northeastern state of Terengganu after a group of opposition parties, including the main Islamist party, held an illegal rally, the reports said.
State news agency Bernama quoted Terengganu Police Chief Ayub Yaakob as saying that a policemen had fired two shots from a pistol, injuring one man in the shoulder and another in the neck, after he was set upon during the riot.
An eyewitness told Reuters by phone the crowd of about 500 had attacked police with stones after they set up road blocks around the rally and then moved in to break it up. The two groups fought each other until the early hours of Sunday. In Malaysia, opposition parties must get police approval to stage rallies.
It was police who attacked the civilians, said Kamarudin Jaffar, a leader of Islamist party Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS), saying the rally had been staged by PAS, other parties and non-government bodies to call for free and fair elections. It was a peaceful rally... Police set up all the road blocks around the area with water cannons.
Then suddenly in the middle of the night they started using water cannons on people, he added. Malaysias prime minister is widely expected to call for an early general election late this year or early next year.
State news agency Bernama said on Sunday that 23 people had been detained and that seven, including four policemen, were injured. Bernama said the protesters had also hurled pieces of metal and wood and a molotov cocktail at police.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2007 00:00 ||
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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's supreme leader on Sunday denied his country had any plans to build atomic weapons, but the president insisted the nuclear program itself was not negotiable.
Speaking to an audience of Revolutionary Guards, the elite military unit that answers directly to him, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei made a rare direct statement that Iran is not interested in nuclear weapons. "While the Iranian nation has no atomic bomb and has no plans to create this deadly weapon, it is still a respected nation" for its spiritual and revolutionary values, he told the Guards whose leader he had just replaced.
Gotta be controlled by a holy man in a holy nation, though.
Earlier in the day, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made it clear that Iran had no intention of slowing or stopping its nuclear energy program despite two rounds of sanctions from the U.N. Security Council and increasing pressure from the United States. "Iranians are a nation of logic and dialogue but it will not negotiate about its rights with anybody," the official news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. "Enemies of this nation should known that Iran is not about to retreat."
He noted that the recent report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog which applauded Iran for its increased cooperation showed that European nations have a more positive approach to the situation than certain other countries. "There are only one or two countries that do not understand reality and they think that they can force Iranian nation to back down," Ahmadinejad said, in an apparent reference to the U.S. and Britain.
Posted by: ||
09/10/2007 06:15 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Hey, we recently acquired a bridge at a real bargain price so we couldn't pass it up. Anybody know what to do with it?
Posted by: The UN ||
09/10/2007 7:48 Comments ||
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Iran has urged Saudi Arabia to crack down on religious extremism following reports of anti-Shiite sermons by Saudi preachers, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.
It said Irans ambassador to Riyadh Mohammad Hosseini asked the head of Saudis advisory Shura Council to ensure Iranian pilgrims travelling during the holy month of Ramazan were not the victims of insults. He requested a crackdown on ignorant, deviant people in the holy mosques at Islams two holiest sites in the Saudi cities of Mecca and Medina, IRNA said. The report said Hosseini asked the councils head Sheikh Saleh Bin Humaid to take necessary measures to prevent any kind of insult to the Iranian pilgrims.
Large numbers of Iranians are expected to make the Umrah to Mecca and Medina during Ramazan.
But in recent months, Shiite Iran has expressed concern over unconfirmed reports that extremist Sunni clerics in Saudi have been issuing anti-Shiite sermons and pamphlets. The Foreign Ministry said last month Iran was probing complaints that a prayer leader in Mecca verbally attacked Shiite Muslims and implied they had nothing to do with Islam.
The region is going through a fragile and sensitive time which could lead the Islamic nation to deep division, Ambassador Hosseini was quoted as warning the Saudi official in the meeting.
Shiite majority Iran and Sunni majority Saudi Arabia have worked hard in recent years on improving relations. Saudi Arabia also has a substantial Shiite minority in its oil-rich Eastern province.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2007 00:00 ||
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The European Union should offer to help Syria control its border with Lebanon by sending equipment, training and experts to monitor against arms smuggling, EU member Spain said on Saturday.
The U.N. Security Council voiced grave concern last month about reports that arms smuggled from Syria into Lebanon were reaching Hezbollah guerrilla groups. Damascus has denied involvement. "The idea is to help Syrian authorities by sending equipment, technical assistance, training, and if necessary experts, to guarantee the control of this border," Spain's foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos told reporters after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Portugal. "If requested by the Syrian authorities, the European experts could play a monitoring role, but the effective control of the border would be the sole responsibility of Syria and Lebanon," Spain said in a document distributed at the meeting in the coastal town of Viana do Castelo.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2007 00:00 ||
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#2
DEBKA > Syria orders partial call-up of reserves after recent Israeli air penetration. WORLDTRIBUNE/OTHER > Israeli flight into Syria practice for Iran attack???
#5
And Spain has some sort of credibilty on the world stage because.....?
Cut and run like yellow cowards when your trains get bombed, and seems to me you lose any right to suggest anything when it comes to middle eastern politics. But that's just me.
Hezbollah said Sunday it wants a new president for Lebanon who rejects U.N. Security Council resolutions.
That's pretty much was the whole Lebanon mess has been about from the first, isn't it?
The stand was outlined by Hezbollah MP Hussein Haj Hassan in an address at a party-run school in the southern coastal town of Tyre. "Any president (chosen) along the lines of U.N. Security Council resolution 1559 and who vows in front of the United States to implement this resolution will be rejected," Haj Hassan said. Any President who adheres to the resolution adopted in Sept. 2004 "would be an American President and not a president for Lebanon. Such a president cannot be accepted."
Anybody who doesn't toe the Hezbollah line is an American stooge, y'see...
The resolution called for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, the disbanding of militias operating in Lebanon, including Hezbollah's armed faction known as the Islamic resistance and the election of a president for the country in line with the nation's constitution and without foreign intervention. Haj Hassan stressed that the Hezbollah-led opposition "has all the required capabilities to take the steps demanded by its masses, but has refrained from carrying out such steps out of its interest on maintaining stability."
'Nother words, "Don't push it or we'll get violent."
Haj Hassan, however, did not disclose the steps demanded by its followers.
Minister Marwan Hamade was accused of being the author of U.N. resolution 1559 and that is why there was an attempt in 2004 to assassinate him , but he has miraculously survived death. Hezbollah's insistence on having a president that is against 1559 could firmly point fingers at Hezbollah for the Hamade assassination.
For the 1.5 million Lebanese that marched on March 14 , 2005 under the banner of the Cedar Revolution this resolution( 1559) means the end of Syrian occupation and the end of the Syrian involvement in the internal affairs of Lebanon.... This is why as far they are concerned any new president for Lebanon should first and foremost strongly believe in 1559.
It is obvious Hezbollah wants another Lahoud but the parliament majority will no doubt reject such an option, since he ( Lahoud) is viewed as a representative of the Syrian president Basher al Assad and no one in his right mind in Lebanon wants another Syrian president.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2007 00:00 ||
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An anti-Syrian Christian leader said on Saturday Hezbollah could use armed force to stop the Lebanese parliament from electing a new president in the next few weeks. Samir Geagea, a prominent member of the ruling coalition, accused pro-Syrian Hezbollah of training Christian and Druze allies to prepare them to sabotage the election by force if it believed it would not be able to get a friendly president.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri called lawmakers this week to meet on Sept. 25 to elect a successor to pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, whose term expires on Nov. 23. But a deep political crisis means the vote is unlikely to go ahead then. The constitution says a new president should be elected between Sept. 24 and the end of Lahoud's term. "Hezbollah is playing a dangerous game," Geagea told Reuters by telephone. "Hezbollah is preparing to sabotage the presidential election session by force, armed force this time."
Geagea said Hezbollah would resort to that option if it thought that it would not be able to bring a president similar to Lahoud -- someone who would "secure its own interests and not the interests of the Lebanese people".
He said the Shi'ite Muslim group was training at its military camps in eastern Lebanon members of a group loyal to Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun and followers of Syrian-backed ex-ministers Zaher Khatib and Wiam Wahab. According to a report by Lebanese daily An Nahar each group of potential militiamen receives a six-day military training. FPM followers, also receive a two-day training on weekends at bases in the Byblos Province by former Lebanese Army officers who are members of Aoun's movement, the report added.
After the training, followers of the three factions are formed into squads of seven-ten members each armed with "Iranian-Made" Kalashnikov assault rifles, the report added. Cadets are told that the training aims at confronting forces of Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt and the Lebanese Forces , which are headed by Samir Gegea," the report added.
Such training focuses on recruits from the Aley, Chouf, Ikleem el Kharoub and southern Metn provinces in addition to recruits from the northern Metn and Kesrouan provinces, "thought at a lesser degree", the report added.
Hezbollah is the only group to keep its military arm after the end of the 1975-1990 civil war. It fought a devastating war with Israel last year in which 1,280 Lebanese, mostly civilians and 160 Israelis, mostly military were killed. The group, which has repeatedly vowed never to use its weapons in any internal dispute, did not comment on Geagea's remarks.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2007 00:00 ||
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GQ interviews former Secretary of State General Colin Powell, ret'd (exactly what one would expect) and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (swoon!). Excerpts: Powell: Isnt the new global threat we face even more dangerous?
What is the greatest threat facing us now? People will say its terrorism. But are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves. So what is the great threat we are facing?
I would approach this differently, in almost Marshall-like terms. What are the great opportunities out thereones that we can take advantage of? It should not be just about creating alliances to deal with a guy in a cave in Pakistan. It should be about how do we create institutions that keep the world moving down a path of wealth creation, of increasing respect for human rights, creating democratic institutions, and increasing the efficiency and power of market economies? This is perhaps the most effective way to go after terrorists.
So you think we are getting too hunkered down and scared?
Yes! We are taking too much counsel of our fears.
This doesnt mean there isnt a terrorist threat. There is a threat. And we should send in military forces when we have a target to deal with. We should also secure our airports, if that makes us safer. But lets welcome every foreign student we can get our hands on. Lets make sure that foreigners come to the Mayo Clinic here, and not the Mayo facility in Dubai or somewhere else. Lets make sure people come to Disney World and not throw them up against the wall in Orlando simply because they have a Muslim name. Lets also remember that this country was created by immigrants and thrives as a result of immigration, and we need a sound immigration policy.
Lets show the world a face of openness and what a democratic system can do. Thats why I want to see Guantánamo closed. Its so harmful to what we stand for. We literally bang ourselves in the head by having that place. What are we doing this to ourselves for? Because were worried about the 380 guys there? Bring them here! Give them lawyers and habeas corpus. We can deal with them. We are paying a price when the rest of the world sees an America that seems to be afraid and is not the America they remember.
Rumsfeld: If you're expecting Don Rumsfeldout of government now, on his farm, in a moment of reposeto play the bitter, angry, reflective, tragic fallen hero ain't gonna happen. If he feels any of those things, he's not showing it. (And if he did, he probably wouldn't be Donald H. Rumsfeld.) The man does not do regret. Over the course of the next few hours, he will answer every question asked of him, and even when the answer is "I'm not gonna talk about that," there's never a flash of anger. Impatience, yes, but never anger.
So do you ever feel like you've been made the fall guy with Iraq?
"No. I think anyone who's involved in a wareh, wars are difficult things, they're messy things, they're dangerous things, people die, people get wounded. And anyone who's involved, someone's not gonna like it, someone's gonna be critical of it. So Iif you're in the business I was in, uh, that goes with the territory."
It's hard to argue with this logic. But it does have the added benefit of deflecting any sort of criticism. It is also the kind of mindset that lets you sleep at night.
He goes on. "If you do anything, somebody's not gonna like it, that's inevitable. Therefore, if you want to be likedas Tony Blair said, popular, which is a terrible wordif you don't do anything, then everyone's gonna like you. And if you do do something, somebody's not gonna like it. And when you cancel weapons systems, you're gonna get a bunch of generals unhappy about it. Because that's what they spent their whole life on, working on those things, getting ready for it. That doesn't bother me. I've been changing things for decades. I went into companies and changed them. And II'm comfortable with that, I accept that, that there's gonna be opposition to things. I was asked to come into the department, by the president, to transform it. I could have gone in and not done that. And everyone would have been smiling. And the defense contractors that were doing what they were doing would be happy, the congressmen who had things going on in their districts would be happy
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.
Tens of thousands of Algerians took part in protests against terrorism yesterday after two bomb attacks in recent days claimed by an Al-Qaeda offshoot killed at least 52 people. Demonstrations were held in Algerias major cities, including the capital Algiers, where participants gathered in a sports arena, displaying banners saying no to violence and crime. Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem was among politicians attending the rally, where speakers denounced suicide attacks as contrary to the values of Islam. 
That's a pretty distorted picture Media Matters is drawing. It's intentionally distorted, of course, aimed at people who don't pay attention. 
As Ramadan approaches, many U.S. Muslims are worried about how they will manage to fulfill their charitable obligations without facing the charge of financing terrorism in Gaza or Lebanon.
Seemingly taunting Osama bin Laden, President Bush's homeland security adviser said Sunday the fugitive al-Qaida leader is "virtually impotent" beyond his ability to hide away and spread anti-American propaganda.
Safi tribe and local Taliban on Sunday reached on an agreement due to which Taliban were bound neither to target any government installations nor to kidnap any security personnel. A large number of Tribal elders and local Taliban took part in the Jirga.The agreement will be finalised today (Monday) . It is also mentioned in the agreement, if the government take action against local Taliban without any reason, the Safi Tribe will not adhere to the agreement. In this case, the Safi Tribe will support local Taliban. One of the Jirga participant said that aim of the Jirga was to restore peace in the area.
Malaysian police fired live rounds to quell a riot in Malaysias Muslim heartland, wounding two men, after trying to break up an opposition rally with water cannon and tear gas, local media said on Sunday. 
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's supreme leader on Sunday denied his country had any plans to build atomic weapons, but the president insisted the nuclear program itself was not negotiable.
The stand was outlined by Hezbollah MP Hussein Haj Hassan in an address at a party-run school in the southern coastal town of Tyre. "Any president (chosen) along the lines of U.N. Security Council resolution 1559 and who vows in front of the United States to implement this resolution will be rejected," Haj Hassan said. Any President who adheres to the resolution adopted in Sept. 2004 "would be an American President and not a president for Lebanon. Such a president cannot be accepted."
An anti-Syrian Christian leader said on Saturday Hezbollah could use armed force to stop the Lebanese parliament from electing a new president in the next few weeks. Samir Geagea, a prominent member of the ruling coalition, accused pro-Syrian Hezbollah of training Christian and Druze allies to prepare them to sabotage the election by force if it believed it would not be able to get a friendly president.
