Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein has vowed to bring back order to the country and pave the way for talks with the opposition. On a Monday meeting that was held behind the closed doors in south Mogadishu, Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein discussed the current situation in Bakara market and Somali peace process with the country's army officers. They talked about the ways to bring back the people who were displaced from their homes by the government soldiers and the Ethiopians for the fear of insurgencies. It was agreed not to hunt or arrest the leaders of opposition Hawiye clan led by Mohammad Hassan Haad and Ahmed Dirie Ali, the prime minister told the journalists after the meeting. Moreover, he added, it was decided not to send soldiers around the business areas and to stop looters.
The prime minister restated his willingness to negotiate with opposition groups to end a 15-month insurgency against government troops and their Ethiopian military allies.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
It was agreed not to hunt or arrest the leaders of opposition Hawiye clan led by Mohammad Hassan Haad and Ahmed Dirie Ali, the prime minister told the journalists after the meeting. Moreover, he added, it was decided not to send soldiers around the business areas and to stop looters.
They got a funny way of restoring order over there...
A Cabinet minister in Somalia's Puntland State government has called on the United States government to withdraw its naval forces from Somali shores or help in the campaign against local pirates.
Said Ahmed O'Nur, Puntland's Fisheries and Ports Minister, told Voice of America' s Somali-language program that U.S. Navy warships have been watching a hijacked ship for nearly two months without taking any military action against the pirates on board. He indicated that there is "no communication" between the U.S. Navy and the government of Puntland. According to the minister, the U.S. naval warships "allow" the pirates to go to and from the ship - Russian-registered Svitzer Korsakov, which pirates hijacked on Feb. 5. "Local fishermen are not allowed to take their boats to sea," Minister O'Nur said during the interview.
He stated that locals informed the Puntland government that U.S. sailors disembark from their warships and use small boats to fish, adding: "Who allowed them to fish along our [Somali] coast?"
The Fisheries and Ports Minister called on the U.S. Navy to withdraw its ships from the Puntland coast or "convince the [Puntland] government about what they are doing there." He also indicated that there are "many rumors" about reports of nuclear waste being dumped along Somalia's shores, which the Puntland government is to investigate.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"Who allowed them to fish along our [Somali] coast?"
#6
when they attack forein vessels in those maritime waters that goes too shit for their legal defense. if there wasn't a prob then we wouldn't have ships protecting civilian shipping
#9
when they attack forein vessels in those maritime waters that goes too shit for their legal defense.
1. Most of the attacks occur in international waters. The pirates then flee into territorial waters. It then falls to that nation to deal with it.
2. Even if the attacks occur in territorial waters, it still falls to that nation to deal with it.
You may not like it, but there's a reason the law's been around for 300+ years. It prevents other nations, non-governmental orgs, and international groups from doing objectionable things in your territorial waters, like seizing vessels or say, shelling some industrialist's beachfront house.
if there wasn't a prob then we wouldn't have ships protecting civilian shipping
I never said there wasn't a problem. And if you'd
bother to notice, those warships are protecting shipping in international waters.
Ex- Cuban president Fidel Castro says it is 'stupid' to think Cubans were involved with FARC rebels whose camp was bombed this month.
The Colombian military launched a cross-border raid on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, in Ecuador early this month. Some Mexican and international media have reported that officials were investigating whether Mario Dagoberto Diaz Orgaz, a naturalized Mexican citizen and engineering research professor in central Mexico, is a Cuban intelligence agent who helped Mexicans connect with FARC guerrillas. "The stupid intention to mix Cubans in this matter is very clear," Castro said in the statement, which Foreign Ministry officials sent by e-mail to international journalists in Havana.
Some other recent reports have also suggested that Cuban medical students were involved with the FARC. Castro denied the allegations saying that it was a 'lie concerning the possible presence of our medical students in this distant Colombian jungle'.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2008 00:00 ||
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N Korea accuses US-backed radio stations of broadcasting "provocative'' programs criticizing Pyongyang and urges a change of policy. The Radio Free Asia and Voice of America have been broadcasting more and more shows condemning the North, aiming at toppling the communist regime, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Monday.
The report called for an end to the transmissions, adding that the broadcasts prove the US is not willing to make a switchover in its Democratic People's Republic of Korea's policy. North Koreans are officially banned from listening to outside broadcasts and radios are fixed so only state programs can be chosen.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Turkey's Prime Minister stresses his loyalty to secularism, dismissing an effort by the country's chief prosecutor to disband his party. In a speech in the country's southeast Sunday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan strongly rejected the accusations that his Justice and Development Party (AKP) is anti-democratic and is trying to impose fundamentalism. The premier promised to keep up work while adhering to secular principles of his predominantly Muslim country.
Meanwhile, an influential Turkish business association which has been an open critic of the government's pro-Islamic practices, has denounced the move to shut down the AKP as 'unacceptable' in a democracy. On Friday, prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya had asked Turkey's constitutional court to impose a ban the AKP.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2008 00:00 ||
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In the days immediately after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, members of President BushÂ’s war cabinet declared that it would be impossible to deter the most fervent extremists from carrying out even more deadly terrorist missions with biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.
Since then, however, administration, military and intelligence officials assigned to counterterrorism have begun to change their view. After piecing together a more nuanced portrait of terrorist organizations, they say there is reason to believe that a combination of efforts could in fact establish something akin to the posture of deterrence, the strategy that helped protect the United States from a Soviet nuclear attack during the cold war.
A primary focus has become cyberspace, which is the global safe haven of terrorist networks. To counter efforts by terrorists to plot attacks, raise money and recruit new members on the Internet, the government has mounted a secret campaign to plant bogus e-mail messages and Web site postings, with the intent to sow confusion, dissent and distrust among militant organizations, officials confirm.
At the same time, American diplomats are quietly working behind the scenes with Middle Eastern partners to amplify the speeches and writings of prominent Islamic clerics who are renouncing terrorist violence.
At the local level, the authorities are experimenting with new ways to keep potential terrorists off guard.
In New York City, as many as 100 police officers in squad cars from every precinct converge twice daily at randomly selected times and at randomly selected sites, like Times Square or the financial district, to rehearse their response to a terrorist attack. City police officials say the operations are believed to be a crucial tactic to keep extremists guessing as to when and where a large police presence may materialize at any hour.
#3
From the onset, we should have had a policy of wetwork against enemy instigators, agitators and facilitators.
By now, Saudi Arabia would think it has a strange plague that afflicts Wahabbi preachers, certain princes that give money to terrorists, and other fanatics.
Something like "Kansas syndrome", where you feel perfectly healthy just before you drop dead.
Multinational companies in the NWFP have started replacing menÂ’s photos with womenÂ’s on billboards after the defeat of extremist forces in the general elections.
The images of female models on billboards have reappeared in the provincial capital after secular political parties defeated the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), ending its five year hold on the province. The Taliban and MMA activists, whose influence is still growing in the province, considered the depiction of unveiled women to be ‘un-Islamic’, and had been issuing threats that those who failed to stop this practice would face bombing.
Multinational national companies have now installed now billboards carrying photos of female models on University Road, Grand Trunk Road, Saddar Bazaar, and Surai Pul near the NWFP Assembly building. Cinemas have also started displaying billboards and posters carrying photos of actresses around the city. They had been barred from displaying movie posters by the former MMA government.
Expressing confidence in secular parties, including the Awami National Party (ANP) and the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Mohammad Faraq, a Peshawar resident, said it would take time to improve the image of Peshawar. He said the MMA had caused an irreparable loss to the Pashtun culture, adding that it had closed the doors of a state-run theatre for singers, dancers, and musicians during its five year term. The city’s only state-run theatre closed its doors long ago to singers, dancers, and musicians, who were also barred from holding public concerts because the former ruling religious alliance in the NWFP considered this to be ‘un-Islamic’.
Undeterred by allegations that it was treading in the footsteps of the ousted Taliban government of Afghanistan, the MMA tried to introduce a strict code of Islamic law by tabling the Shariah Bill and the Hasba Bill in the provincial assembly.
The Shabab-e-Mili, a Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) affiliated group, headed by Sabir Hussain Awan, a former member of the National Assembly, destroyed billboards, causing millions of rupees of loss to multinational companies. The JI is a component of the MMA. MMA activists had accused multinational companies of promoting ‘obscenity, lewdness and vulgarity’ in society.
This article starring:
Jamaat-e-Islami
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal
Shabab-e-Mili
Sabir Hussain Awan
Shabab-e-Mili
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
So does this mean we can expect a re-release of Dave Dudley's C & W hit: " Who is the girl wearing nothing but a burqua and a smile on the billboard..."?
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, chief of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), said on Monday that committees that were already working on the issue would decide his partyÂ’s share in the cabinet.
Talking to reporters at Parliament House after taking oath as a newly elected member of the National Assembly, Fazl said his party had discussed their share in the cabinet with the Pakistan PeopleÂ’s Party (PPP). He said the party had formed a committee that was working for the desired results.
Fazl said the JUI-F had joined hands with the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) to strengthen democracy in the country, adding that the coalition was unanimous in taking steps to safeguard the sovereignty and integrity of the country. He said the nomination of the prime minister was an internal matter of the PPP, reported APP.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2008 00:00 ||
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The democratic process in the country took a fresh start as 325 newly elected members of the new National Assembly (NA) met for their maiden session on Monday, amid controversy over which version of the Constitution (pre- or post-November 3), they were taking oath under.
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) member Syed Naveed Qamar, prior to the oath-taking, sought clarification from the chair on whether the members assembled would be administered oath under the 1973 Constitution. Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain said that the newly elected members would take oath under the third Schedule of the 1973 Constitution, which was the same in both constitutions. “Oath in the third schedule is [the] same for the president, the prime minister, chairman Senate, speaker NA, ministers and the members,” he said.
However, during the oath-taking, in which the newly elected members pledged to “protect and uphold the Constitution”, members of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), the Awami National Party (ANP) and the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazal (JUI-F) said the words “pre-November 3” twice before the word “Constitution”.
Of the 330 members notified to take oath, 325 were present and signed the rolls of members in alphabetical order. Shah Jahan Yousaf was the 326th person to take oath near the end of the dayÂ’s session after the Supreme Court vacated a stay against the notification of the results from his constituency, NA-20.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Anyone have a breakdown on the political power structure of this new herd?
Exiled Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen said on Monday she was leaving India because of failing health after being forced to live in a secret hideaway without any visitors for nearly four months. Violent protests by Muslim groups in November forced Indian authorities to rush out the controversial writer from her home in Kolkata where she lived for four years.
After moving her around for a while, the authorities put her in an undisclosed "safe house" in New Delhi, where she only has a mobile phone, a laptop and a television set, but no visitors are allowed. "I have not been able to see a good cardiologist for the last few months and I have a serious heart problem," Nasreen, 45, told Reuters by phone. "I also cannot see properly and need medical attention immediately."
Nasreen fled Bangladesh in 1994 when a court said she had "deliberately and maliciously" hurt Muslim religious feelings with her Bengali-language novel "Lajja", or Shame, in which she argued the Hindu minority in Bangladesh was poorly treated.
Last month, she was rushed to a hospital in New Delhi after her blood pressure plummeted from an overdose of medicines to control high blood pressure. "I always had hypertension and now it is getting worse locked up in this place," she said.
Despite the protests by Muslim groups, Indian authorities have extended her visa regularly, but not allowed her to leave the house, guarded round-the-clock by police.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2008 00:00 ||
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LONDON (Reuters) - Iraq's foreign minister poured scorn on British forces in southern Iraq on Monday, saying they were "doing nothing" and had allowed the city of Basra to be overrun by militants.
Hoshiyar Zebari, speaking in an interview with Britain's Channel Four news, said foreign troops needed to stay engaged if Iraq was to be stabilized after five years of "rivers of blood".
Zebari said British troops had "disengaged" in Basra, the country's second largest city and major port, and that "the militia, the organized crime, is actually making havoc in the city". Asked if Britain needed to re-engage, he said: "In my view they do. They should not just sit there and do nothing. There are certain responsibilities, especially at least until the end of this year," he said.
Britain had hoped to draw down at least half of the troops left in Iraq in the coming months, and possibly pull out the entire force by the end of the year, but those prospects are looking less likely because of renewed violence.
Zebari said foreign troops needed to stay. "No country can afford to just abandon (Iraq)," he said, speaking three days ahead of the fifth anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. "Over the past five years it has been five years of hope but of rivers of blood because of the conflict, because of the divisions, because of the legacy of the regime, because of the resistance we saw from extremism," he said.
#2
I'm not sure why the Iraqi foreign minister is making a fuss now, when American troops with Iraqi Army and Police are actually making inroads into the problems in Shiite Iraq. Let the British troops go to Afghanistan, where they are permitted by the Home Office to do some good.
#3
I've noticed this as a reoccurring theme. We leave an area alone for a while, the villains come out to play in the open, they also migrate there from other areas, then we swoop down and nail them.
I would not be surprised if SOCOM is gathering all sorts of intelligence on militias, AIF and criminal gangs in Basra right now. Lots of surreptitious photos and DNA samples, finding out who in the government and police are rotten, locating safe houses and foreign activities.
#4
I sure hope that is the case because Basra is a critical economic link for Iraq. There is a huge amount of work that needs to be done there. There should be about zero unemployment because of all the port reconstruction, waterway clearing that needs to be done.
When I close my eyes, I don't see Iraq. I hear it. Every night when I close my eyes and go to sleep, the quiet night is broken by the ringing memory of bombs long blown apart. I heard Iraq once in the gunshots as a man died in a bad drug deal nearby, and I hear it still every afternoon when the grade school across the fence recesses.
I still hear the music, too. . . .
Go read the rest of it.
Posted by: Mike ||
03/18/2008 09:53 ||
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#1
all along the watchtower, sky pilot, tuesday morning, muddy water, fire, clouds, hey jude, yea this stuff still happens forty years later, sometimes it scares the shit out of you, sometimes it doesn't.
#2
I hate to break it to him, but I,m getting pretty far away from my own, yett the stuff does come back.
Noise and smell. Something about those that we cannot filter quite as well. It goes straight in and wakes things up that we wish we had forgotten.
It gets less frequent as time passes, but it never gets better, just more familiar.
#3
For me, its the smell of cordite, and the smell oil makes when it burns, and the electrical smell a burning tank makes. And the dry smell. and the nasty wet dog covered in cat crap smell of the Euphrates.
#4
we human are hard wired as visual processors, and are very language centric in our auditory processing. smells and non-lingual sounds are not very important to our higher brain, so we process them at a more emotional level.
from my psych 101 class.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
03/18/2008 22:38 Comments ||
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Iraq's main Sunni bloc boycotted a Tuesday conference aimed at reconciling the nation's sectarian groups, a sign of the deep schisms still facing this country. The Sunni Iraqi Accordance Front said they will not participate in the conference until Shiite lawmakers address their political demands. They say Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a Shiite, has failed to release detainees not charged with specific crimes, has not disbanded Shiite militias and has not sufficiently included Sunni lawmakers in decision-making on security issues.
Posted by: ed ||
03/18/2008 09:41 ||
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HILLARY Clinton said the Iraq war may end up costing Americans $1 trillion and further strain the economy, as she made her case for a prompt US troop pullout from a war "we cannot win".
This week marks the fifth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, but voters now say the economy is their top issue in the campaign for the November presidential election.
Senator Clinton, the former first lady who is trying to convince voters she has foreign policy gravitas, criticised both her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination Senator Barack Obama, and the Republicans' choice, Senator John McCain. She said the war has sapped US military and economic strength, damaged US national security, taken the lives of nearly 4000 Americans and left thousands wounded.
"Our economic security is at stake," she said. "Taking into consideration the long-term costs of replacing equipment and providing medical care for troops and survivors' benefits for their families, the war in Iraq could ultimately cost well over $1 trillion."
It's the first time she's ever OVER-estimated health care costs.
It has already cost $500 billion.
Senator Clinton said that while Senator Obama insists he will withdraw US troops in Iraq within 16 months of taking office, his former foreign policy adviser, Samantha Power, had said he might not follow through on the pledge. "In uncertain times, we cannot afford uncertain leadership," Senator Clinton said.
Senator Obama, who routinely scolds Senator Clinton for having voted for a 2002 Senate resolution that authorised the war, fired back. "I think Senator Clinton has a lot of chutzpah, as they say, to in some way to suggest that I'm the person who has not been clear about my positions on Iraq. I have been opposed to this war from the start," he told PBS.
Senator McCain, who has clinched the Republican presidential nomination, drew fire from Senator Clinton as he visited Iraq as part of a Middle East and Europe swing this week that he hopes will remind Americans of his national security credentials.
She accused Senator McCain of joining President George W. Bush in pushing a "stay the course" policy that would keep US troops in Iraq for 100 years. "They both want to keep us tied to another country's civil war, a war we cannot win," she said. "That in a nutshell is the Bush/McCain Iraq policy. Don't learn from your mistakes, repeat them."
Senator Clinton said if elected she would convene military advisors and ask them to develop a plan to begin bringing US troops home within 60 days of taking office next January.
Senator McCain is a big backer of President Bush's troop build-up in Iraq, credited for slowing the death toll there. He told CNN that if Senator Clinton started bringing home troops, "al Qaeda wins".
#2
gotta love how they keep trying to top each other with a shorter timeline for pulling out. Pretty soon, they'll be promising to pull out, retroactively to 2003.
Meanwhile the troops continues their successful efforts
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/18/2008 2:10 Comments ||
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#3
Can't never did! The attitude of losers everywhere.
#4
Meanwhile, the Six O'Clock news last night featured a piece on how Iraqis polled thought they were better off now, and would be still better off next year. Fortunately, the Dems don't watch the news.
Not surprisingly, 73% of Iraqis polled want the US out of Iraq, but only 38% want them out now. Not that far apart from the US, I think.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/18/2008 6:12 Comments ||
Top||
#5
"Our economic security is at stake," she said.
Clever. Linking her position with the new number one concern of the people. I guess we can't afford to win the war!
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/18/2008 6:14 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Dhimocrats, party of surrender and appeasement combined with higher taxes and socialism.
#11
Wars and war spending are temporary events. No doubt Iraq is causing a spike in Federal spending. But entitlement programs, like those both Hillary and Obama propose, (and the one Bush stupidley enacted) are perpetual. Thus, her solutions will do far more to bankrupt this country than anything the war has done/will do.
#12
It doesn't really matter, Remoteman, since our current Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid obligations are already slated to bankrupt us unless they become rescue nets for the very poor instead of entitlements for thee and me. What's a few more bankruptcies under the circumstances? ;-)
#13
Personally, I don't care what traitors like Mrs. Shag-the-Intern think. She's a proven liar, owned by the Chinese, and not someone I would trust to tell me the house is on fire without verification.
Honestly, the Clintons remind me more and more of movie gimmicks like Jason and Freddy. The movies are pointless because the bad guys are unkillable, no matter what you do. Stupid, pointless and a waste of time.
The sooner people realize just how irrelevant they are, the sooner they will fade away, gathering dust in a closet. Separate closets...since Bill's would need interns.
#14
#8 I see this as a Freudian slip, which amounts to "We cannot win." She's not talking about the Iraq occupation.
Ever wonder if she's talking about the Iraqi Occupation but actually the "we" in question refers to the anti-war folks. Or even worse to the anti-American element.
Instead of a Britney Spears ring tone, Shehadeh Shehadeh's cell phone emits a recording of a speech by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. "Our entire family has turned Shi'ite," he boasts.
Last week, Israeli security forces operating in the West Bank town of Bethlehem killed his father, Mohammed Shehadeh, who was a senior commander in Islamic Jihad. "My father decided to become a Shi'ite after he was deported to Marj Al-Juhur in Lebanon in 1992," the son recounted. "He met there with all sorts of Shi'ite people and he saw that the oppression the Shi'ites have had to endure is very much like the oppression that the Palestinians have suffered."
According to the 19-year-old Shehadeh, his father eventually came to "respect the Shi'ite commentary on the Koran." He equates his father's actions with those of Imam Hussein, whom Shi'ites believe to be Prophet Mohammed's true follower. "My father decided not to surrender and chose a martyr's death, just like Imam Hussein, who fought at Karbala," he said, referring to the 680 C.E. clash in what is now Iraq, which proved to be one of the most significant battles in Muslim history. In it, Hussein ibn Ali, Mohammed's grandson and one of the founding fathers of the Shi'ite sect, was slain by Yazid I, the Umayyad caliph.
Sitting in his house in Bethlehem's Wadi Maali neighborhood, the young man entertained a group of friends, all devout Muslims filled with extremist zeal. They were there to mourn his father's loss with him.
The son is outspoken about his disdain for Israelis. "The Jews killed the prophets," he reiterated several times in his conversation with Haaretz. "Some Jews are all right and my father valued them, like Neturei Karta," he conceded, referring to a fringe ultra-Orthodox sect that is rabidly anti-Zionist. "But most Jews are the enemy. Even in your soccer matches, you scream that you want war."
They are all dressed like Israeli youths their age. Yet throughout the eight years of the intifada, they have not seen a single Jewish Israeli. The Jewish neighborhood of Har Homa in East Jerusalem, just a few kilometers away across the separation fence, might as well be on another planet.
The son said that his father was not a member of Hezbollah, but did identify with the organization. He did not deny that his family received a telephone call from Nasrallah's office in which Hezbollah offered it financial assistance.
One of Shehadeh's friends said that many Palestinian opinion leaders are now joining the ranks of the Shi'a. He named Issa Batat, one of the Islamic Jihad's senior commanders in the Bethlehem area, who is serving a sentence inside an Israeli prison, and Mohammed Kawamleh, a Jihad member who is still wanted by Israel's security services.
Turning to the political implications of his father's assassination, Shehadeh Shehadeh said: "What have you achieved by killing my father? You made a mockery, as always, of the Palestinian Authority."
Mohammed Shehadeh, 45, was a former member of Fatah who later became a senior officer in the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad. He was killed last Wednesday night along with Imad al-Kamel, Issa Marzouk and Ahmad al-Balboul, also from Bethlehem. They were ambushed in one of the town's suburbs by Israeli troops dressed in civilian clothes and driving a civilian car.
The Israeli raid came at a delicate time for the PA and its president, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah. Egyptian mediators were trying to broker a truce that would calm the hostilities between Israel and Hamas in and around Gaza, a truce that Abbas had called for after violence spiraled there earlier this month. "Our prime minister, Salam Fayyad, went to meet your Defense Minister Ehud Barak. And whom did they send? Amos Gilad [a lower-level official]. Barak won't even see Fayyad," the younger Shehadeh said, referring to last week's meeting of a trilateral monitoring committee on the peace process. "So you killed one Mohammed Shehadeh. But as former Hezbollah leader Abbas Mussawi said, each time a drop of blood falls to the ground from the body of a shahid [martyr], Allah knows how to use that drop. Now all of Bethlehem will become Mohammed Shehadeh."
Outside the Shehadeh household, pessimism, frustration and desperation are everywhere. It seems that the people of this relatively peaceful West Bank city have given up all hope of seeing results from the attempt to revive the peace process that the United States, Israel and the PA began at last year's Annapolis Summit. They view the process as dying rapidly, making way for another round of violence with Israel.
Shehadeh's funeral, which he shared with the other three assassinated militants, was one of the largest the city has seen in recent years. Palestinian security forces estimate that it was attended by no less of 250,000 people. "Me and my friends, we led this current intifada," said Abu Dib, who is serving in one of the PA security forces and says he is wanted by Israel for his role in the violence. "We are tired already. But these boys, they were 10 years old when the clashes began. Now they're 18, and they know nothing but war and violence with Israel." Abu Dib speaks of "a whole new generation that grew up in the territories" and is more violent and radical. "They will be the ones who will lead the next confrontation," he predicted.
This article starring:
Al-Quds Brigades
Islamic Jihad
Abbas Mussawi
Hezbollah
Abu Dib
Fatah
Ahmad al-Balboul
Islamic Jihad
Imad al-Kamel
Islamic Jihad
Issa Batat
Islamic Jihad
Issa Marzouk
Islamic Jihad
Mohammed Kawamleh
Islamic Jihad
Mohammed Shehadeh
Islamic Jihad
Shehadeh Shehadeh
Islamic Jihad
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2008 19:30 ||
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#1
Good news! Your entire family has just qualified for a one way ticket to the 9th ring of hell - complete with pork fat wrap followed by a refreshing dog urine soak...for eternity!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/18/2008 23:32 Comments ||
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The Palestinian Authority is planning to mark Israel's 60th anniversary by calling on all Palestinians living abroad to converge on Israel by land, sea and air.
The plan, drawn by Ziad Abu Ein, a senior Fatah operative and Deputy Minister for Prisoners' Affairs in the Palestinian Authority, states that the Palestinians have decided to implement United Nations Resolution 194 regarding the refugees.
Article 11 of the resolution, which was passed in December 1948, says that "refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which, under principles of international law or in equity, should be made good by the Governments or authorities responsible."
The initiative is the first of its kind and is clearly aimed at embarrassing Israel during the anniversary celebrations by highlighting the issue of the "right of return" for the refugees.
Entitled "The Initiative of Return and Coexistence," the plan suggests that the PA has abandoned a two-state solution in favor of one state where all Arabs and Jews would live together.
"The Palestinians, backed by all those who believe in peace, coexistence, human rights and the UN resolutions, shall recruit all their energies and efforts to return to their homeland and live with the Jews in peace and security," the plan says.
"Fulfilling the right of return is a human, moral and legal will that can't be denied by the Jews or the international community. On the [60th] anniversary of the great suffering, the Palestinian people are determined to end this injustice."
Abu Ein's initiative, which has won the backing of many PA leaders in Ramallah, calls on all Israelis to welcome the Palestinians "who will be returning to live together with them in the land of peace."
The plan calls on the refugees to return to Israel on May 14, 2008 with their suitcases and tents so that they could settle in their former villages and towns. The refugees are also requested to carry UN flags upon their return and to be equipped with their UNRWA-issued ID cards.
The Arab countries hosting Palestinian refugees are requested to facilitate the return of the refugees by opening their borders and allowing them to march toward Israel. The plan specifically refers to Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, whose governments are asked to provide logistic support to allow the refugees to carry out their mission.
Palestinian refugees living in the US, EU, Canada and Latin America are requested to use their foreign passports to fly to Ben-Gurion Airport from May 14-16. The plan calls for the Palestinians to hire dozens of boats flying UN flags that will converge on Israeli ports simultaneously.
To ensure international backing, the plan calls to invite world leaders, the UN secretary-general, journalists and legal experts from around the world to declare their support for the Palestinians' "right of return." The Palestinians, in return, would promise to practice their right peacefully and to denounce terror and violence.
Arab governments are requested to provide both financial and political backing for the initiative. The plan stresses that the Palestinians can no longer expect to achieve the "right of return" at the negotiating table with Israel. "We must take matters into our own hands," it states. "Negotiations, slogans and UN resolutions are not going to bring us our rights."
#1
I think the Israeli's need multiple unit's of those sonic and laser "less-than-lethal" crowd control units placed at strategic locations on the borders. Mix and match just to keep the PA guessing. (The one's our military lawyers don't have the nerve to use)
#3
"The Palestinians, backed by all those who believe in peace, coexistence, human rights and the UN resolutions, shall recruit all their energies and efforts to return to their homeland and live with the Jews in peace and security," the plan says.
``It disappoints me that people don't want to contribute,'' said Lieutenant Reut Eisenberg, 21, who is responsible for youth programs in the southern Israeli towns under daily rocket attack from the Gaza Strip. ``People are no longer ashamed of the fact that they don't serve.''
It's an issue Israel says the nation can't ignore as it fights Hamas in Gaza, watches Hezbollah militia mass rockets on its northern border and faces threats from Iran. Opponents, who produced their own video titled ``A Real Israeli Doesn't Evade the Truth,'' say many young people refuse to serve because the army doesn't take care of soldiers and oppresses Palestinians.
Israeli men are required to spend three years on active duty once they reach age 18. Women spend two years in the army. More than one in four draft-age men and almost half of women avoided the draft last year, according to the Israel Defense Forces. In 1990, 18 percent of men and 33 percent of women didn't serve.
Arabs, ultra-Orthodox Jews enrolled in seminaries and married women are exempt from the draft. Young people also avoid service if they have low test scores or criminal records, or are found to be emotionally unfit.
``There is a danger in draft dodging, especially to the extent we see it now,'' said Sharga Brosh, director of the Manufacturers Association of Israel, who endorsed the ads with Israel Discount Bank Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Giora Offer.
Celebrities now openly talk about how they evaded the draft, as more lenient rules on psychological exemptions and the rising number of Orthodox Jews who opt out increase the number of youths who avoid service, said Reuven Gal, a former chief military psychologist.
The 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon ignited public debate about the topic. ``It brought up the whole issue that some people risk their lives and even lose their lives and others don't do any service at all,'' Gal said.
There is also more awareness that service to the state doesn't have to be in uniform, Gal said. ``Military service was so predominant we almost forgot there are also other ways to serve society, the nation and your community,'' said Gal, head of a government program to place draft-age people in civilian service.
Perhaps you can tell everyone how you're such a good dhimmi.
The conscripts are Israel's first line of defense and provide trained personnel for reserve units, in which men serve until their early 40s. Uniformed teenagers, M-16s slung over their shoulders, fill cafes and shopping malls and mingle with tourists in Jerusalem's Old City.
Active duty forces number about 177,000, and the reserves can add 445,000, according to the Middle East Military Balance published by Tel Aviv University's International for National Security Studies.
Yet evading military service is becoming less of a taboo in a country where army service has traditionally been a prerequisite for many jobs, according to Brigadier General Eli Shermeister, head of the army's education corps. ``Israeli society is going through global processes based on individualism with less emphasis placed on the collective,'' Shermeister said at a conference in January.
Among the young people who received exemptions last year, 11 percent of men and 33 percent of women were released on religious grounds. A third of the women who received religious exemptions made fraudulent claims, Shermeister said. Of the men, almost half were let out because of emotional problems.
The army is tightening the rules on emotional exemptions, making the process longer and setting up special committees to hear cases, said Captain Noa Meir, a military spokeswoman. ``We live in a country where we don't have the privilege of canceling the draft,'' Meir said. ``We are surrounded by enemies and that hasn't changed.''
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Someone should explain in very small words to conscientious objectors like Elisha Baskin what would happen to her if the IDF were not there.
#2
People who don't want to do the heavy lifting involved in being free will end up unfree - or dead. Hey, everybody makes choices. Just don't whine about the consequences, eh, Elisha?
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/18/2008 10:31 Comments ||
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Israeli attacks in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have boosted the popularity of the Islamist group's leader Ismail Haniyeh among Palestinians in the territory and in the West Bank, according to a poll on Monday.
The survey by the West Bank-based Palestinian Centre for Policy and Survey Research showed that if new presidential elections were held, Haniyeh would receive 47 percent of the vote compared with 46 percent for President Mahmoud Abbas of the rival Fatah faction.
The figures represented a sharp strengthening of Haniyeh's popularity. He served as prime minister in the Hamas-led government Abbas dismissed after Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from Fatah in June.
The centre's previous poll, in December, gave Gaza-based Haniyeh just 37 percent of a potential presidential vote compared with 56 percent for Abbas, whose peace efforts with Israel are opposed by Hamas.
The latest poll was conducted shortly after Israel ended an offensive in the Gaza Strip in early March that killed more than 120 Palestinians, almost half of them were identified as civilians. Israel said the operation was aimed at stopping cross-border rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
According to the survey, Hamas's breaching of the Gaza Strip's Rafah border crossing with Egypt in January also contributed to Haniyeh's popularity among Palestinians. "These developments managed to present Hamas as successful in breaking the siege and as a victim of Israeli attacks," commentary accompanying the poll said.
Lack of progress in Abbas's peace negotiations with Israel also gave Hamas a boost, the poll indicated.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
Fine. Everyone's been rueing hamas' success at the polls. Get Fatah out of the way politically, then the final bargain can be struck with the creatures the paleos vote for. I don't think the bargain will look much like they hope it will...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
03/18/2008 10:34 Comments ||
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#3
Think how popular he'd be if an Israeli Hellfire opened up his head like his buddy Yassin...
Delegations from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Hamas have headed to Sanaa for separate talks with Yemeni authorities. The talks on a Yemeni initiative are aimed at healing a rift between PLO and Hamas. The Yemeni initiative calls for a return to the status quo that existed before the Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in mid-June.
The PLO, which is led by Authority Chief Mahmoud Abbas, plans to tell Yemeni authorities they would be ready to hold talks with Hamas if the group accepts the full initiative, particularly" a return to the situation that prevailed before June 15, 2007," according to a statement distributed by the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Meanwhile,spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri stressed Hamas will meet only with the Yemeni authorities, but not with PLO representatives. The PLO was expected in the Yemeni capital on Monday night. Officials from Hamas were due on Wednesday, said the officials.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#3
Christians - mainly foreign workers - account for almost 4% of the Saudi population. Estimates of the number of Roman Catholics range up to 900,000.
Gotta love it. The Soddies need foreign workers because they're just as decadent as the Europeans they so despise. Those workers will be just like the Pakistanis in UK. Just like the Turks in Germany. Just like the Algerians in France. Just exactly what the Soddies deserve. Keep turning them screws, Your Holiness. We can dream, can't we?
#4
The workers will be different than those examples because the Saudi's routinely abuse their workers and take away passports and that sort of thing. Things the west would never do or accept if it was better known.
My guess is these "churches" will be very humble, so humble as to appear like normal houses.
#5
I suspect this is related to the initial call by the muslims for 'dialogue' and the Saudis' attempt to look respectable; essentially a 'put up or shut up' move by the Vatican.
Make sure you pay your tax on them, good little dhimis. Accidents happen you know.
I don't think so, given the politics of the situation. Also, Dhimmis pay tax if they're the inhabitants of a conquered territory.
However, the churches are likely be heavily regulated or subject to direct government control. Like China does...
On December 1, 2007, the National Council of the Damascus Declaration, the umbrella organization of Syrian opposition forces and parties, held its first assembly in Damascus. It was the largest conference of the Syrian opposition since mid-2005. Syrian authorities responded with a wave of arrests, beginning December 9, 2007, detaining dozens of Damascus Declaration activists. In addition, an incitement campaign was launched against the organization and its leaders.
While Syrian officials made little reference to the arrests, a Syrian opposition site reported that when asked about them during a meeting with UNESCO Secretary-General Koichiro Matsuura, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad replied that the detainees "had conspired with foreign embassies and received funds in order to undermine [Syria's] internal stability and ignite civil strife, so as to propel Syria towards the same fate that has befallen Iraq." He added, "Their case will be decided by the court."
The Syrian government press also ignored the arrests, except to deny statements by U.S. Senator Arlen Specter and Congressman Patrick Kennedy who, following a visit to Syria in late December 2007, said that Assad had promised them that the prisoners would be released. The press's denial cited a "senior media source" as stating that "a foreign official is permitted, at most, to ask about the general situation [in Syria], and to listen to the reply. But nobody may interfere in Syria's domestic affairs."
"Both the Palestinian and Lebanese people believe that Palestinian refugees in Lebanon should live inside a Palestinian state," said David Welch US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, during a US House Foreign Relations committee hearing titled "Israel's disengagement from Gaza".
"I think Palestinians and Lebanese alike see the future of those people inside a Palestinian state," Welch said. "I hope that can be realized, because that would, I believe, also help Lebanon."
He added "I think sometimes when I hear from Lebanese their concern about these folks might be pushed upon them, that presents a lot of issues of insensitivities for Lebanon, particularly at this time." Welch said that getting Lebanon to a better situation is a "very serious enterprise for us."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#4
How long did Israel control the West Bank and Gaza? Did they just dream that the problem would go away? They should have built subburbs along the Jordanian border and emptied out the refugee camps.
#5
Israel should say they would agree to the right of return as soon as Russia and Poland agree to return East Prussia to Germany. When a nation starts a war sometimes they lose territory. In this case the Palestinian Arabs lost homes within Israel but the get to keep the West Bank and Gaza. Next time they start a war with genocidal intent they will not be so lucky.
I'd use the term genocidal intent very often as well as historical linkages to the Germans. And if the Arabs are gonna play the game that the Palestinians are somehow different I'd blame the previous wars on the Palestinian Arabs (since the wars were started on their behalf) rather than on Arab neighbors.
MP Michel Murr, a key member of Aoun's reform and Change Parliamentary alliance, has called today for a meeting of the alliance, and warned that "if the meeting will not take place, I will resign today from the alliance."
General Aoun responded, "we are not going to call for a meeting of the alliance." If Murr meant what he said, this spells a divorce between him and Aoun.
Murr said "I will return to my own base in the Metn region and will be completely independent. After all I have been independent for 30 years."
Murr has been very critical of Aoun's role in blocking the election of a president. Murr has insisted on several occasions that Lebanon should have a president before the summit in Damascus.
The news today did no not come as a complete surprise. Many political analysts in Lebanon saw this coming. Murr said he and Aoun will remain friends.
The summit is scheduled for March 29-30, and the election of a president, which was postponed sixteen times, is now scheduled for March 25th. Murr does not expect the presidential election to take place as scheduled, and said he is against the representation of Lebanon by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. He added, "only a Christian Maronite president should be representing Lebanon at the summit."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2008 00:00 ||
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Lebanon's independence and sovereignty is guaranteed "100 percent" by the Bush administration, according to the leader of the Lebanese Forces who met with top U.S. government officials in Washington last week.
After a series of meetings with representatives from the House and Senate, top officials from the Bush administration which included U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Steven Hadley, President George W. Bush's national security adviser and Elliott Abrams, deputy national security adviser, Samir Geagea told the Middle East Times in an exclusive interview last Saturday that he felt more confident regarding the future of Lebanon.
Asked if he had received guarantees from the Bush administration, Geagea replied: "Concerning independence and sovereignty of Lebanon 100 percent, clearly enough. Guarantees concerning the Lebanese state as a state; guarantees concerning their [the U.S. government's] attitude toward the Palestinians in Lebanon. They [the Bush administration] are against the Palestinian refugees remaining in Lebanon; and guarantees that they will endeavor to get the Israelis out of the Shebaa farms [in south Lebanon] and place it under U.N. auspices."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
GLOBAL SECURITY NEWSIWRE > ISRAEL PLANS MAJOR WMD DRILL; + US UNPREPARED FOR SPREAD OF NUKES [Baltimore Sun].
See also DEFENSETECH.org NEWS > ALARM OVER CHAVEZ MILITARY BUILDUP.
#2
We cannot guarantee Lebanese independence - Clinton.
Posted by: ed ||
03/18/2008 8:07 Comments ||
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#3
WAFF.com > BALTIMORE SUN [again] > US FACING NEW WORLD OF WARFARE - TERRORISM SHOWS THE LIMITES OF MILITARY,CIVILIAN FORCES. In this "brave new world", SUCCESS FOR THE US WILL DEPEND ON HOW MANY ALLIES IT HAS, NOT HOW MANY ENEMIES-ARMIES HAD BEEN DEFEATED OR SUBORNED - GOVT will exist notsomuch to impose will by force-regulation, but to effectively "shape" or win hearts-and-minds???
The General Secretariat of the Damascus Declaration accused Monday the Syrian regime of involvement in the assassination of Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh who was killed last month in Damascus. A statement issued by the Damascus Declaration headed by former MP Maamun al-Homsi stated: "It is our duty to expose the crimes of the Syrian regime and specifically the killing of Imad Mughniyah and the deception that accompanied this crime."
Mughniyeh was killed on February 12. Hezbollah has accused Israel of being behind this crime, but this was denied by Tel Aviv.
The Damascus Declaration opposition group said all facts point to the Syrian regime involvement on behalf of Israel. It has been over a month since Mughniyehn was assassinated in the most exclusive district in Syria where homes cost an average of one million US dollars and the area is full of Syrian intelligence personnel."
The statement added the "Syrian intelligence removed the car in which Mughniyeh was assassinated and cleaned completely the scene of the murder to remove all the evidence."
Homsi was arrested in 2001. He was released in 2006. Homsi is currently residing in Lebanon.
Mughniyeh's widow, an Iranian national, who was in Damascus at the time her husband was assassinated also accused the Syrian regime of involvement in the murder. She said "This is why the Syrian regime has refused the help of Iran and Hezbollah in the investigation of the murder."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I love how the wife is screaming bloody murder.
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.
A Cabinet minister in Somalia's Puntland State government has called on the United States government to withdraw its naval forces from Somali shores or help in the campaign against local pirates.
Ex- Cuban president Fidel Castro says it is 'stupid' to think Cubans were involved with FARC rebels whose camp was bombed this month. 
N Korea accuses US-backed radio stations of broadcasting "provocative'' programs criticizing Pyongyang and urges a change of policy. The Radio Free Asia and Voice of America have been broadcasting more and more shows condemning the North, aiming at toppling the communist regime, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Monday. 
Turkey's Prime Minister stresses his loyalty to secularism, dismissing an effort by the country's chief prosecutor to disband his party. In a speech in the country's southeast Sunday, Recep Tayyip Erdogan strongly rejected the accusations that his Justice and Development Party (AKP) is anti-democratic and is trying to impose fundamentalism. The premier promised to keep up work while adhering to secular principles of his predominantly Muslim country. 
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, chief of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), said on Monday that committees that were already working on the issue would decide his partyÂ’s share in the cabinet.
LONDON (Reuters) - Iraq's foreign minister poured scorn on British forces in southern Iraq on Monday, saying they were "doing nothing" and had allowed the city of Basra to be overrun by militants.
HILLARY Clinton said the Iraq war may end up costing Americans $1 trillion and further strain the economy, as she made her case for a prompt US troop pullout from a war "we cannot win".
Israeli attacks in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have boosted the popularity of the Islamist group's leader Ismail Haniyeh among Palestinians in the territory and in the West Bank, according to a poll on Monday.
MP Michel Murr, a key member of Aoun's reform and Change Parliamentary alliance, has called today for a meeting of the alliance, and warned that "if the meeting will not take place, I will resign today from the alliance."
Lebanon's independence and sovereignty is guaranteed "100 percent" by the Bush administration, according to the leader of the Lebanese Forces who met with top U.S. government officials in Washington last week.
The General Secretariat of the Damascus Declaration accused Monday the Syrian regime of involvement in the assassination of Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh who was killed last month in Damascus. A statement issued by the Damascus Declaration headed by former MP Maamun al-Homsi stated: "It is our duty to expose the crimes of the Syrian regime and specifically the killing of Imad Mughniyah and the deception that accompanied this crime."
