A WOMAN who was trafficked across the border from Pakistan with her son, 3, was handed to an Afghan who raped her, then beat the toddler to death as she watched.
He was jailed for 20 years for murder - but the woman, Rukhma, was jailed, too. She had put up with her mistreatment for three months before going to authorities. But in December, Rukhma, who doesn't know her age but looks younger than 20, was given a four-year sentence for adultery and "escaping her house" in Pakistan.
The Taliban's fall six years ago heralded new rights for women: to go to school or get a job. Their rights are now enshrined in the constitution.
But except for a small urban elite, a woman fleeing domestic violence or accusing a man of rape herself often ends up seen as the guilty party.
"Why am I here? I'm innocent," Rukhma said, crying in a musty cell and cradling a baby daughter she bore in jail. "It is cruel to have your son killed before your eyes and then to be imprisoned."
In parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, a woman who runs away is typically suspected of having taken a lover and can be prosecuted for adultery. Leaving home without family permission may be deemed an offence.
The chief prosecutor of eastern Nangarhar province, who oversaw Rukhma's case, suggested she got off lightly. "If my wife goes to the bazaar without my permission, I will kill her. This is our culture," Abdul Qayum shouted scornfully.
His colleagues laughed approvingly. "This is Afghanistan, not America," Mr Qayum said.
Kamala Janakiram, a UN human rights officer, said that in 70 to 80 per cent of cases she has seen, a woman complaining of domestic violence is charged as a criminal. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime said many victims are forced to marry attackers or jailed for adultery, as proving rape is virtually impossible.
Women can end up in prison simply on the basis of gossip, said Manizha Naderi, director of Women for Afghan Women. Fear of returning to a violent spouse drives some women to suicide.
Rukhma is still hoping an appeal will free her.
Prosecutor Qayum is unrepentant: "She spent several nights with the man. She committed adultery. It was rape, but the woman is also guilty."
More and more, I think the advice of some here on the Burg is correct: women in that part of the world need to carry a knife, and know how to use it when put in this position. Even if it costs them their own lives, they'll make life better for all the other women.
#4
I nominate Lorena Bobbit for Ambassador for Islamic Relations. It would be amazing to see what a little cultural awareness could do for women's rights in Islamic countries.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb has started a new propaganda war targeting hiding significant human losses being subject to during April, after one year of the twin suicide blasts hitting Government Headquarters and police office in Bab Ezzouar. The same organization has denied the surrender of Mokhtar Belmokhtar.
National Army forces have undertaken heavy losses during this month inside its main fiefs, in Boumerdés province, as 10 terrorists have been eliminated while hiding inside caves in Thenia woods. In turn, a communiqué aired by Al-Qaeda yesterday has tried asserting that its members managed getting out safely from what it called the bloody battle, while trying to stick the heavy losses to the Army. Observers qualified the abovementioned communiqué as a part of a psychological war Al-Qaeda breaks out to avoid any negative impact of heavy field loss on its members spirit. However, army forces managed eliminating four other terrorists in Khenchla and Tebessa, eastern Algeria, one of them returned to terror fiefs after being released in 2006 benefiting from National Reconciliation procedures.
In this context, among 2200 prisoners released after benefiting from National Reconciliation procedures, 200 returned to terror fiefs to back up Al-Qaeda ranks.
On another side the same communiqué has rejected recognizing that Mokhtar Belmokhtar, alias Khaled Abu Al-Abbes, has split from the organization and been engaged for 1 year and a half in negotiations with security services to benefit from Reconciliation procedures, with 20 of his followers.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in North Africa
#1
Radical Islamism gener does NOT acept PARITY wid NON-ISLAMIST NON-MUSLIM WORLD NATIONS, i.e. US NOR RUSSIA-CHINA, etal.
"PARITY", however, is what it + Iran need right now 2008-2012/13 WHILE BOTH WORK TO ACHIEVE STRATEGIC NUCLEAR WEAPONS. IMO E.G. ISRAEL RECOGNIZES THIS, hence JPOST OP-ED PUNDIT CALLS FOR ISRAEL TO CONSIDER DEV DE FACTO "SECOND-STRIKE" OR BETTER NUCLEAR RETALIATORY CAPABILITY.
Pundit and alike likely is aware that, IN TIME, NUCLEAR ISLAMISM > ARSENAL POTENT ENUFF TO DETER EVEN THE US FROM MIL ASSISTING ISRAEL [Yom Kippur War]???
A number of prisoners recently released from the Spanish penitentiaries, after being incarcerated for periods varying from 3 to 4 years, are complaining about their imprisonment, as they were charged with terrorism accusations, even if the justice has proved them innocents.
Meeting with El Khabar journalist in Alicante, southern Spain, they said being subject to investigations conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigations, FBI. 5 Algerian people have whose imprisonment has extended to several months after been charged of terrorism, they have been shocked by the critical situation they suffering from, after been freed. I realized that a deportation order has been issued against me, when I was at prison, said one of the freed prisoners whose name is Khaled Madani, however its innocence has been proven, while the Spanish authorities have refused indemnifying me, he added, the rest of the prisoners are prone to the same situation.
In this regard, the Algerian authorities are working in view of settling the prisoners problems, coordinating with the Algerian Consulate in Alicante, so Spain is intending deporting to their homeland, Algeria.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The FBI? Isn't that more the province of the CIA or the DoD?
Similar to yesterday's article on the same subject. So WaPo now takes leads from the Pak Daily Times ...
SEQUEDIN, France -- Samia El Alaoui Talibi walks her beat in a cream-colored head scarf and an ink-black robe with sunset-orange piping, an outfit she picked up at a yard sale.
After passing a bulletproof window, El Alaoui Talibi trudges through half a dozen heavy, locked doors to reach the Muslim faithful to whom she ministers in the women's cellblock of the Lille-Sequedin Detention Center in far northern France .
It took her years to earn this access, said El Alaoui Talibi, one of only four Muslim holy women allowed to work in French prisons. "Everyone has the same prejudices and negative image of Muslims and Islam," said Moroccan-born El Alaoui Talibi, 47, the mother of seven children. "When some guards see you, they see an Arab; they see you the same as if you were a prisoner."
Continued on Page 49
#1
I call bullshit on all the touchy-feely sociologist and apologists. Our own massive influx of immigrants in the U.S. (made up almost entirely of immigrants) never had any hand wringing sociologists to worry about "integration". Italians, Germans, Irish, Slavics of all sorts came and made a better life for themselves. There was NO welfare, no benefits, no agencies, no nuthin. But they worked, they learned the language, they married American women and eventually, in less than 80 years actually, you can't tell an Irish family from a German family from a Greek family from anyone else. We all look and speak and act the same. well, most of us at least, we still have a few square pegs out there.
#2
The difference being BigJim that muslims are taught not to fully integrate by their religious leaders so they dont lose their islamic identity.To them they are muslim first and US/UK second!
Thats the underlying problem!!!!
Posted by: Paul ||
05/01/2008 10:22 Comments ||
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#3
A religion that says it's OK to rape and pillage is not much help, either.
#4
A government that says it's okay to rape and pillage if you are from a different culture and don't know any better is a serious problem.
The fact that the prisons are filled with Muslims isn't really a problem, it has to be cheaper than having them on the dole burning up cars. If it is a problem force them to join the Foreign Legion. Send them to Africa and then lose the paperwork. Cut a deal with a North African government to rent prison space and transfer them. Problem solved either way.
#5
The real BS here is that the French let them practice their religion in prison. There should be no Korans allowed in prison, no prayer meetings and any clerics should be kept in solitary confinement. The reason for all this is that this cancer spreads more readily in prison among disaffected youth. It is, after all, the devil's book so it should not be allowed anywhere near all those little devils in training. To hell with their "rights". Are there any Bibles in Algerian prisons? Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think so. There won't be any Bibles left in France if this nonsense continues.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/01/2008 12:19 Comments ||
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#6
The mistake that the Frenchies made was in thinking all cultures are equal. Thats why they built big housing projects on the outskirts of their major towns & cities, assuming that they would develop as communities, rather than self destructing.
BigJim-ky mentions the welfare state, others mention the inculcated superiority complex.
The truth is that it is both. Both create a feeling of entitlement. Neither on their own is a cause of dysfunction; it is both right that we should care for the poor and needy and it is also right that individuals should feel that they can and should do better than the next person.
When you add an ideology which bends and breaks all moral and ethical norms, things are bound to get messy.
When you combine it with a nihilistic culture of inferiority such as is engendered by the moribund ideas of Socialism, it gets even messier.
#7
Cut a deal with a North African government to rent prison space and transfer them. Problem solved either way.
Usually works the other way around, north african gvts ask for more visas, and the french gvt obliges. Sarko did that while visiting algeria when he was interior minister; also, in 1997, Kabylie revolted against the arab central gvt (though many of the algerian generals actually are kabyls, but they're just as jacobin as the best of them), and to ease the pressure, the algerian gvt asked its french counterpart to ease the visas demands for algerian wishing to go to France. As a result, Kabylie sent its sons and daughters to France, and the pressure was off for algeria.
The details are blurry for me, because my mind is rotten, but JFM will/would/could confirm you this is true in the broad lines. Just think of an extactic shirak greeted by huge crowds of algerian Youths screaming 'visas!', 'visas!'...
North africa is VERY happy to send us its excess population, and the weight it give those former colonies onto France, through its settlers.
#5 The real BS here is that the French let them practice their religion in prison. There should be no Korans allowed in prison, no prayer meetings and any clerics should be kept in solitary confinement.
Straw in the eye, etc, etc...
- Look at US prisons, and see if there isn't an islam problem there (even with fringe sects like the NOI)
and
- Gitmo. Koran handled with gloves, prayer rugs, halal meals,... all this for actual, islam-motivated terrs. Kinda like giving free copies of "My kampft" to german POW. So I don't think the USA, or any other western country (all are suffering from thre same PC debilating disease, some more se), are in any position to criticize.
#9
- Gitmo. Koran handled with gloves, prayer rugs, halal meals,... all this for actual, islam-motivated terrs. Kinda like giving free copies of "My kampft" to german POW. So I don't think the USA, or any other western country (all are suffering from thre same PC debilating disease, some more se), are in any position to criticize.
I'm not saying we are. I'm just saying we should stop it. All of us.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/01/2008 14:45 Comments ||
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#10
Same thing in the USA but here the majority are Mexicans.
Posted by: James Samuel ||
05/01/2008 15:02 Comments ||
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#11
no the bad part is none of them will serve any lenghty sentences as say a pot head would over here
Appears to be instigated by the hack leadership of the union. Also appears to be highly illegal.
SAN FRANCISCO, May 1 --The International Longshore and Warehouse Union today struck West Coast ports from Southern California to the Pacific Northwest, bringing cargo operations to a virtual standstill, as the Union's leadership defied orders from the independent Coast Arbitrator to "notify its Locals and members of its contractual obligation and direct all members to report to work as they normally do during the day shift on May 1, 2008."
This work-stoppage, illegal under the ILWU-Pacific Maritime Association contract, comes just two months prior to the expiration of the current labor agreement. PMA spokesman Steve Getzug said today's actions raised the question of whether this was an attempt to leverage contract negotiations. He also expressed concerns that the ILWU might use slowdowns as a negotiating tactic, as they have in the past.
A year ago, in a press release announcing early contract talks, ILWU President Robert McEllrath said: "The ILWU is likewise committed to good faith negotiations and is hopeful that the parties can reach a conclusion to negotiations without transportation disruptions from either side." Today's action, Getzug said, raises concerns about whether those hopes will be fulfilled."Shutting down the ports in defiance of the contract and the arbitrator's order in no way benefits an already-fragile U.S. economy," Getzug said. "We have a lot of serious issues to resolve at the bargaining table, and the nation cannot afford uncertainty about the reliability of the West Coast ports."
Today's action, which essentially shut down all major ports along the coast, culminates a series of events that began when ILWU members passed a resolution opposing the U.S. war in Iraq.After seeking permission under contract rules to stop work during the day shift on May 1st, ILWU leaders later retracted their request, and claimed that any decision not to work on May 1st would be made by individual workers.
Yet the facts show a coordinated effort by the Union to shut down West Coast ports. The ILWU has publicized, through its website and newsletter, plans for a coordinated protest. The president of the coast's largest longshore local yesterday sent a recorded message to members that stated: "I'm calling to let you know the entire longshore division will not work the day-side on Thursday, May 1st." At other West Cost ports, ILWU officials reportedly told members not to work. The leadership has failed to do as it was instructed by the Coast Arbitrator: to inform members that May 1st is a regular work-day.
"We are severely disappointed that the Union leadership failed to keep its end of the bargain," Getzug said. "The Coast Arbitrator -- essentially the Supreme Court on the waterfront -- has ordered the Union to treat today as a normal work-day, but the Union appears to have done the opposite."
This action comes despite a series of arbitration rulings against the ILWU. The Coast Arbitrator, jointly appointed by the PMA and ILWU to resolve labor disputes, ruled yesterday: "There shall be no unilateral concerted job action or illegal work stoppage." He further required the Union to instruct its members to work as normal.
The West Coast ports are a huge economic engine, supporting eight million U.S. jobs and accounting for 11 percent of the U.S. GDP. ILWU members are among the highest-paid blue-collar workers in the nation; average full-time wages for fully registered workers are $136,000. A rich benefits package, including pension and health care, costs more than $50,000 per worker. Nearly 15,000 registered longshore workers are employed at West Coast ports -- an increase of more than 4,000 since 2002.
SAN FRANCISCO -- An arbitrator Wednesday ordered for the second time in a week that the International Longshore and Warehouse Union must tell its members to report for work Thursday despite scheduled protests against the Iraq war along the Pacific Coast, including San Francisco.
During a phone hearing with union representatives and officials with the Pacific Maritime Association this morning, Coast Arbitrator John Kagel announced the order.
According to Kagel's proceedings, he previously ordered the union on April 24 to inform its locals and individual members that they must work a normal day Thursday.
The Maritime Association, who employs the port workers, approached Kagel again because of information that came to light about what the union was reportedly telling its members.
"It was clear to us today that the ILWU is saying one thing and doing another," said association spokesman Steve Getzug.
Despite the fact that the union previously said participating in the protests was voluntary, Getzug said there was "increasing information that the union is telling union members not to show up for work."
But, according to Kagel, "the union maintains that the information received by the employers (the Pacific Maritime Association) is hearsay and thus not to be credited."
"The reason why the Pacific Maritime Association has taken the steps ahead of tomorrow is because any disruption on the water is unacceptable," said Getzug. He added that "thousands of jobs are affected beyond the waterfront."
One of many protests planned for Thursday in California, Oregon and Washington will be in San Francisco, where workers are scheduled to meet at the local union office at 10 a.m. before marching along Embarcadero to Justin Herman Plaza for a noon rally. Scheduled speakers include Danny Glover, Cindy Sheehan and Daniel Ellsberg.
Clarence Thomas, an executive board member of San Francisco-based International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 said, "This is an historic event, the first time in recent memory American workers have stopped work to stop a war."
Posted by: Harry Bridges ||
05/01/2008 14:03 Comments ||
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#4
And the union propaganda...
(SAN FRANCISCO, CA) More than 25,000 longshore workers at 29 west coast ports are exercising their First Amendment rights today by taking a day off work and calling for an end to the war in Iraq.
Longshore workers are standing-down on the job and standing up for America, said ILWU International President Bob McEllrath. Were supporting the troops and telling politicians in Washington that its time to end the war in Iraq.
McEllrath says rank-and-file members made their own democratic decision in early February when Longshore Caucus delegates voted to take action on May 1. Employers were notified of the plan, but refused to accommodate the unions request despite plenty of advance notice. The employer group, represented by the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) consists of large carriers and port operators, most of which are foreign-owned.
Big foreign corporations that control global shipping arent loyal or accountable to any country, said McEllrath. For them its all about making money. But longshore workers are different.
Yep. They'll work for nuthin I'll bet. As long as it's for...America.
"Were loyal to America, and we wont stand by while our country, our troops, and our economy are destroyed by a war thats bankrupting us to the tune of 3 trillion dollars. Its time to stand up, and were doing our part today.
#6
They are committing treason by hampering the war effort deliberately through their actions. Execute all of them, from the dock workers to the Union/Mob bosses.
#8
Grab the Union leaders and lock 'em up for 50 years. Tell the Longshoremen they work one day without pay for each hour they miss reporting for work. Tell them that anyone establishing a picket line can and will be arrested, and will NEVER be allowed to work the docks again. Hire their replacements and tell the union they can no longer organize the dockworkers. Also inform all and sundry they are paid to work, not to take part in partisan political activity. Foreign policy is the responsibility of the Executive branch, with advise and consent from Congress. Today, everyone wants to be the self-anointed leader. They all need to get a concrete life preserver, taken 10 miles offshore, and allowed to swim back.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/01/2008 15:54 Comments ||
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#9
Oh, the hell with that shit. The longshoremen are an anachronism. With the new automated ports, we're talking about what, a couple thousand country-wide? Fire the lot of them, replace them with college hires. Things 'll go slow for a while until the new 'uns train up to speed. How long did it take to replace the air traffic controllers? It's the same class of labor.
And more importantly, the containerized and secured environment means that the longshoremen have lost the leverage they used to hold via monkeywrenching and traditional waterfront thuggishness.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
05/01/2008 16:48 Comments ||
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#10
PMA spokesman Steve Getzug said today's actions raised the question of whether this was an attempt to leverage contract negotiations. DUH!?!
#11
This is one of the last of the hard-core Marxist unions, still living in the shadow of Harry Bridges, the Stalinist thug who ran the Bay area longshoremen for many years and to whom the local regime has actually dedicated a plaza.
During WW2, Bridges and his thugs initially opposed lend-lease and did everything possible to disrupt aid to Britain and support Hitler. Once the Soviet Union was attacked, however, they reversed themselves 180 degrees, signing a no-strike pledge and actually loaning their "resources" to help geniunely abusive bosses break strikes outside the industry.
Communist unions allied to Bridges also engaged in widespread sabotage in the early stages and seriously delayed the introduction of the war-winning North American P-51 aircraft.
There is a body of opinion here in Texas that the Trans-Texas Corridor and other overland NAFTA routes are actually aimed at bypassing the obstructionist and disloyal unions who control many American ports, allowing most maritime commerce to go through Mexican ports.
#16
Ed's correct - as in "throwing a monkeywrench in the gears"
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/01/2008 19:52 Comments ||
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#17
Sabotage is a term of French origin coined during the railway strike of 1910, when workers destroyed the wooden shoes, or sabots, that held rails in place, thus impeding the morning commute.
#22
WAFF.com > RUSSIA TO GET EIGHT NEW BE-200 AMPHIBIOUS PLANES [firefighting]; + AE 142 BACK IN SERIES PRODUCTION [from 2007].
SIgnificance here is that as OWG FREE = SPECIAL ZONES are de facto established, MAJOR PORTS IN CONUS-NORAM, CENTAMER, + SOUTAM will prob set up AIR + OFFSHORE CORRIDORS = SECURITY ZONES COMPLETE WID HI-TECH WMD DETECTION SYSTEMS + REMOTE PLATFORMS CAPABLE OF QUICKLY EFFEC SCANNING WHOLE PLANES AND SHIPS, INDIVID ANDOR IN GROUP "TRAINS", WID MINIMAL LEAD TIME.
Russ "DUAL USE" Ampibs planes, HVACS, etc. may had finally found a peacetime utility-niche as per OWG Trade??? RECENT NET NEWS ABOUT THE US DHS DESIRING TO GET AMER's MILLIONS OF BOATERS INVOL IN NATIONAL SECURITY POINTS/HINTS TOWARD THE ABOVE DIRECTION.
Here's the ad that Amnesia International is putting out as their part of an effort to undermine the WoT. It shows some guy who volunteered to be waterboarded.
Then they talk to some guy who is just fine and still walking around today claims he was waterboarded by the US who is trying to get the practice banned.
I'm waiting for the next AI ad that shows some guy who volunteered to be barbequed alive or be decapitated in an effort to extinguish that practice, too. In fact, perhaps this idea for their next ad ought to be brought up at the next White House press conference.
AFAIAC, the only way you are going to get someone to talk before that ticking bomb goes off is to scare the crap out of them. It's going to be unpleasant, period. I'd say first go through the legal fight to decide that something has to be done in the case of the ticking bomb, then give people the choice of what method to use. And no, I'm not going to wait until they come up with technolgy to read someone's mind against their will. We need this now, not 100 years from now.
I wonder if Amnesia International will remember that I have a right to live too.
#4
In the words of Michael Levin, the gentleman at the end of the video (of course it's at the end, this is CNN after all):
"There has to be firm rules, it has to be to protect the innocent. It has to be non-punitive, it's got to be done preventively. And I don't see how you can honestly say that there are certain techniques you just can't use to save thousands of innocent lives. It seems absurd."
We're talking about the potential lives of thousands of innocent civilians, even tens of thousands, being at stake. In other words, get real people. This isn't some make-believe, hollywood summer blockbuster where it all happens on a big white screen and when the credits roll you get to laugh about the ridiculous dialogue but, wow, those special effects were insane, and that one scene where the guy jumps off the building right before the bomb goes off and...
No. That's most definitely not what we're talking about here.
#5
From what I understand, US Military personnel who go through SERE school (Survival, evasion, resistance and escape) are or at least were subjected waterboarding or something similar.
A few years ago, I saw a show on TV that showed volunteers who took part in a training exercise. They were each given a piece of "information" on some kind of simulated plot. The interrogators job was to put the details of the plot together. Since the subjects were volunteers, they knew or should have known that the interrogators could not really hurt or kill them. It turned out that one of the most effective techniques was for the interrogator to pretend to be their friend.
As long as terrorists know that we can't hurt or kill them, they can resist a lot. Having Congress take that sort of thing off the table means that the terrorists can be trained to withstand more than they would normally. If they believed, based on rumor, or actual cases, that we might do anything to them, they might be a little more willing to talk. For example, seeing their buddy shot in front of their eyes would probably loosen their tongues a bit when the gun is pointed at them. Knowing that the worst we can do to them is to ask them sternly means that we are less likely to talk.
I am not suggesting torture for the sake of torture. The kind of torture that John McCain and many other POWs went through in North VietNam may have broken down some men eventually. There are better ways.
Also, as I have said several times before, these people that we capture are NOT POWs under the Geneva Conventions. They are illegal combatants, and can be summarily executed. Anything we do to them where they continue to breathe is a kindness to them and should be done only at our convenience.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
05/01/2008 22:54 Comments ||
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#6
Oh, I thought at first this was "Al", as in Gore.
What bizarre theory was he going to submit as to how waterboarding causes global warming?
Tehreek-e-Ittehad Qabail (TIQ), a tribal organisation in North Waziristan, on Wednesday extended its support to the Taliban, claiming that they have maintained peace in the troubled region. Addressing a press conference at the Peshawar Press Club, TIQ President Malik Syed Mian Gul alleged that the government was trying to create a rift between the Khasadars (tribal police) and the Taliban of North Waziristan. Gul, who is also the national councillor of North Waziristan, claimed that the political administration of the agency had not paid the salaries of Khasadars for 10 months.
He alleged that the political administration was trying to force the Khasadars to take the law into their own hands, adding that this could disturb the peace established by the Taliban. Mian Gul said that the Taliban had restored peace in the agency and it might be disturbed due to the unjust and inhuman attitude of the political authorities. He demanded that the government release the salaries of the Khasadars at the earliest, saying that law and order would be difficult to restore if it deteriorated.
The TIQ president also asked NWFP Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani to prevent the smuggling of commodities, including wheat and flour, from the Tribal Areas to Afghanistan. He alleged that the political administration was responsible and that if action were not taken, the government would be responsible for the peoples response. Transfer: Gul demanded the government reshuffle the political authorities, adding that if this action were not take, the TIQ would block the roads in the agency. However, he clarified that the organisation would not launch any attacks on army convoys, as the soldiers were brothers.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban
The NWFP government has received a list of demands from the local Taliban to end the ongoing tension and restore peace in the restive Swat Valley.
According to sources in the government, negotiations between the Mullah Fazlullah-led Taliban and the NWFP government are scheduled to occur in a few days. They claimed that the intelligence agencies had forwarded the list of demands to the government.
The sources said that the Taliban have demanded the imposition of Shariah law in Malakand division, an end of all cases against the Taliban and amnesty for the local Taliban of the region. The government is considering the demands to bring peace to the region, they added. The local Taliban are also in contact with defunct Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Muhammadi (TNSM) chief Maulana Sufi Muhammad for peace and Shariah in the region. Sufi Muhammad has convened a shura meeting of TNSM on May 15 to deliberate on the peace process in the region.
Meanwhile, top local Taliban commander Muhammad Ali Shah told Daily Times that he was ready to surrender.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Sounds like surrender terms to me. If the Pak government DOES surrender, that leaves the US no other option but to crush the entire NWFP. We need some HUGE napalm, iron bomb, and precision weapon attacks on the entire area to "convince" them we have superior firepower, and the will to use it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/01/2008 15:58 Comments ||
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#2
They've already surrendered, Old Patriot. That's why our missiles occasionally make their way far over the border.
Pakistan on Wednesday denied allegations that a plot to kill Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai during a military parade over the weekend was hatched in its Tribal Areas, AP reported. Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh earlier said the plot was hatched in the Tribal Areas of Pakistan. The militants involved in the weekend plot were in phone contact with people in Pakistans Bajaur and North Waziristan tribal agencies and Peshawar, he said. Pakistan Army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said the allegation appeared baseless. Anybody can say that militants [in the Tribal Areas] have done this or that, Abbas said. How can one validate such claims? he questioned.
However, Saleh said there was no evidence that Pakistans government or its intelligence agencies were involved in the assassination attempt on Sunday. We have no evidence whether ... the operation has had any mercy or go-ahead from the Government of Pakistan and [its] special agencies, he told reporters in Kabul. There [is] very, very strong evidence suggesting that Pakistans soil once again has been used to inflict pain on our nation. Separately, Afghan security forces raided a Taliban hideout in Kabul, sparking a battle that left seven people dead, including two militants involved in the attack, and a woman and a child, AFP reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2008 00:00 ||
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Salah al-Din, Apr 30, (VOI) - The Criminal Court in Tikrit on Wednesday sentenced a senior commander of an al-Qaeda-linked group to death, a Salah al-Din police source said. The Criminal Court handed down a death sentence on Adnan Faraj, the military commander of the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq in Salah al-Din, a police source, who requested anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI).
Most excellent! Say hello to Sammy for us ...
The source pointed out the ruling was based on item four of counter-terrorism law after the suspect pleaded guilty to killing an Iraqi army officer in Dhuluyia town during the summer of 2005.
The suspect will be also tried in a number of cases after admitting involvement in several operations which were documented by judicial authorities, he added.
Adnan Faraj, a Dhuluyia resident, was arrested in late 2007 in Mosul while trying to travel abroad with a forged passport.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2008 00:00 ||
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Ninewa, Apr 30, (VOI) 113 detainees were released on Wednesday morning from Ninewa police prisons, according to the general amnesty law, said the official spokesperson of Ninewa Operations command. "Ninewa operations command released on Wednesday 113 detainees from the province's police prisons, according to the General Amnesty Law," Brigadier Khlaid Abdul-Sattar told Aswat al-Iraq Voices of Iraq (VOI).
On Tuesday, the official spokesperson for the Supreme Judicial Council said that 1613 detainees were released in the past 24 hours according to the General Amnesty Law, raising the total number of detainees released since the implementation of the law in February 2008 to more than 50,000. "The total number of detainees freed according to the law reached 50535 distributed throughout various places of Iraq," Judge Abdul-Sattar al-Berqdar told VOI. "The number until Monday was 48922 detainees," al-Berqdar said.
In February 2008, the Iraqi Parliament enacted the General Amnesty Law that allows the release of Iraqi detainees, according to certain terms and conditions, exclusively from Iraqi detention centers. The Iraqi Presidential Council ratified the Law on March 27, 2008, and it was implemented on the same month.
Major General Douglas Stone, U.S. official responsible for the detention centers, had said that more than 23,000 Iraqis are detained in U.S. detention centers in Iraq, including 240 Arab citizens and 500 teenagers less than 18 years old.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Good. Sort out the relatively innocent from the truly bad, then hang the bad.
Baghdad, Apr 30, (VOI) Premier Nouri al-Maliki refused on Wednesday to apologize to former premier and head of the Iraqi National List, Iyad Allawi, for accusing the latter of standing behind the violent acts that took place in Najaf in 2007, during a Shiite religious occasion.
Al-Maliki considered this issue as purely "judicial." "If there was an insult made by the Iraqi List or the head of the Iraqi List, then it is not our responsibility to apologize for it," al-Maliki said in a press conference in Baghdad as reported by Al-Iraqiya satellite channel. "He (Allawi) must apologize, but if there was no insult, then this is not our responsibility, but rather that of the judiciary's," al-Maliki added, answering a journalists' questions.
In mid-March, lawmaker Osama al-Nujaifi of the Iraqi National List (secular parliamentary bloc) called on the government to submit "an official apology" to Iyad Allawi, after accusing him of involvement in al-Zarga events. Al-Nujaifi explained that this is a condition for the Iraqi National List before joining any negotiations with the government that aim at restoring the Iraqi National List in al-Maliki's government.
"The head of the Iraqi National List can submit a petition to the judiciary, and a committee can be formed to re-study (the accusations), but if the case is approved, judicial measures will be taken, but if it is not approved, then the judiciary will apologize," al-Maliki said.
"It is not a political case, but a judicial issue," he asserted. "This is the only case that the Supreme Judicial Council examined from A to Z, from investigation, decisions, to the ending, and neither the police nor cabinet intervened in this issue," al-Maliki asserted.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Well Maliki couldn't curse his moustache beacause he doesn't have one. However, Allawi can curse out Maliki's because he does.
Maliki HAD been increasingly isolated relying on a coalition of Shiites (his Dawa plus SCIRI) with Kurds. Theyd lost the support of the Sunni IAF and of Allawis secular list, both of which left the cabinet. Maliki retained the support of the Sadrists. Once Maliki broke with Sadr, under pressure from SCIRI, the Kurds, and the Americans, he both needed and was able to broaden his coalition again. Hes brought the IAF(Sunnis)back in, and its logical to bring Allawi back in. But evidently he and Allawi are playing some kinda game, which Im guessing is more about cabinet seats and money, but is disguised as this shit.
Baghdad, Apr 30, (VOI)- The Iraqi government plans to hand over 12 Saudi detainees to Riyadh within a security agreement between the two countries. In statements published today in Saudi daily al-Watan, Bahaa al-Araji, from the Sadrist bloc, said the government could hand over 12 wanted men who were detained in Iraq.
They were involved in implementing terrorist acts, he explained. The handover process comes within a bilateral security agreement between the two countries, the lawmaker noted.
Iraqi National Security Adviser Muwafaq al-Rubaei had said that his government handed six Saudi citizens to the kingdom last month.
Question is what happens to these mutts when they get home.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/01/2008 00:00 ||
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The precedent is that as long as they promise not to commit offenses against the House of Saud they can go free.
Palestinian factions meeting in Cairo for talks with Egyptian security officials have agreed to an Egyptian proposal for a truce with Israel starting in the Gaza Strip, state news agency MENA said on Wednesday. But a number of factions were equivocal in their support for the truce, and some said they reserved the right to retaliate against Israeli attacks.
That's usually the case, isn't it?
"All the Palestinian factions have agreed to the Egyptian proposal on a truce with Israel," MENA said, citing an unnamed high-level Egyptian official.
The official said the proposal included a "comprehensive, reciprocal and simultaneous truce, implemented in a graduated framework starting in the Gaza Strip and then subsequently moving to the West Bank," MENA added.
MENA said the proposal was part of a broader plan eventually leading to the lifting of the blockade which Israel, with Egyptian help, has imposed on Gaza since last June.
The plan includes attempts to reconcile the two biggest Palestinian factions -- the Hamas Islamists who control the Gaza Strip and the Fatah group which controls the Palestinian Authority from its base in the West Bank.
Egypt invited 12 Palestinian groups for talks to form a consensus on a proposal for a ceasefire that emerged from talks between Egypt and Hamas as part of efforts to end violence threatening talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
Israel has been killing Hamas members in Gaza and the West Bank while Hamas and other groups have been firing crude rockets across the border into Israel. Each side says it is responding to attacks by the other.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2008 00:00 ||
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TRUCE, but NOT PEACE, ergo TRUCE = "DELAYED/RESTRAINED WAR", which is basically the same as for IRAN + RADICAL ISLAM RIGHT NOW WHILE THEY LATTER BOTH NUCLEARIZE.
The U.S. Navy has temporarily added a second aircraft carrier in the Gulf as a "reminder" to Iran, but this was not an escalation of American forces in the region, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters during a trip to Mexico, Gates flatly denied a suggestion that the presence of two U.S. carriers in the Gulf could be a precursor to military action against Tehran. "This deployment has been planned for a long time," Gates said. "I don't think we'll have two carriers there for a protracted period of time. So I don't see it as an escalation. I think it could be seen, though, as a reminder."
He declined to elaborate on his remarks and provided no details about the deployment.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Iff NO US-IRAN CONFLICT > US-Allies stays put albeit in ACTIVE DEFENSE in Iraq-Afghani; IRAN in INACTIVE/DEFENSIVE OFFENSE towards SSSHHHHHH, RUSSIA + CENTRAL ASIA, which is okay wid Iran + Radical Islam.
WE'LL FIND OUT THIS SUMMER IFF THE USA, EUROS, RUSSIA, CHINA, INDIA, etc. CAN TRULY TOLERATE NUCLEAR ISLAMISM-JIHAD???
#2
With only two groups in theater, and one of those simply passing through; Gates is correct in wanting to 'shake the skirts' of the Mullahs. With 5 Carrier Groups to start Operation Iraqi Freedom with a sixth 'floating to shore up the rear', We knew lightning was about to strike; so no tremors can be assumed as of yet. Desert Storm was backed by 6 groups with a 7th 'Floater' (WOW what a presence of real estate and firepower!!). Put 3 in and my neck hairs will begin to rise! http://www.navysite.de/navy/iraqi-freedom.htm
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/01/2008 6:26 Comments ||
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Sounds more like another example of the "send a message" school of foreign policy.
Posted by: Party of Dog ||
05/01/2008 8:35 Comments ||
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It's bad enough being bait in a trap - I sure hope the trap is set. That is, we had better have the WILL to respond with overwhelming force if attacked.
Syria will not sever ties with Iran and Hezbollah even as part of a possible peace agreement with Israel, a senior Syrian analyst who is handling the government's contacts as it relates to the peace process said on Tuesday. "It would be naive to think Syria will neglect or abandon its strategic alliances that do not stem from the Arab-Israeli conflict," the analyst, Dr. Samir Taqi, said in an interview with Al-Manar television.
When asked why Syria elected to trumpet messages from Israel and relayed by Turkey of Jerusalem's willingness to cede the Golan Heights in exchange for peace, Taqi replied that the intent behind the media campaign was "to solidify the right" of Syria to the strategic plateau it lost as a result of the Six-Day War. As such, Taqi sought to emphasize that he is personally not involved in the recent developments, but is rather providing commentary on the matter.
Israeli officials told Haaretz Taqi was very close to decision-makers in Damascus and enjoyed the confidence of the Turkish government. People who know Taqi personally said yesterday they believed he was very well-connected to the Syrian intelligence services.
Taqi served for years as an adviser to the previous Syrian president, Hafez Assad. In recent years he received the official title of adviser to the prime minister, and heads the Center of Oriental Studies, a political think tank. Prior to taking up his advisory posts, Taqi, who is a Christian, was a cardiac surgeon, who studied medicine in London. In recent years he has has frequently met with journalists and academics to discuss political issues.
Last year, the Turks welcomed Taqi's visit to northern Cyprus at the head of an unofficial Syrian delegation, when he met with with the foreign minister of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. His act aroused the ire of Greek Cypriots, who oppose recognition of the Turkish part of the island as an independent state, which only Ankara recognizes.
Haaretz has learned that Taqi was the bearer of Israel's main message to Syrian President Bashar Assad more than a week ago, following his visit to Ankara. Taqi's principal contact in Ankara is Ahmet Davutoglu, a close associate of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Taqi, in an interview broadcast on Saturday on Al Jazeera, spoke from Damascus and said Syria was interested in moving ahead in talks with Israel even during the present American administration. He said now was the time to prepare for for the pre-negotiation phase, to declare intentions and points of view, until the parties reach the point at which the Americans would be prepared to intervene.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/01/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
We won't sever ties with Iran for peace with Israel
How about "to keep alive and possibly in power"? How does that work for ya?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/01/2008 19:56 Comments ||
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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 WOMAN who was trafficked across the border from Pakistan with her son, 3, was handed to an Afghan who raped her, then beat the toddler to death as she watched.
Salah al-Din, Apr 30, (VOI) - The Criminal Court in Tikrit on Wednesday sentenced a senior commander of an al-Qaeda-linked group to death, a Salah al-Din police source said. The Criminal Court handed down a death sentence on 
Baghdad, Apr 30, (VOI) Premier Nouri al-Maliki refused on Wednesday to apologize to former premier and head of the Iraqi National List, Iyad Allawi, for accusing the latter of standing behind the violent acts that took place in Najaf in 2007, during a Shiite religious occasion.
