The Taliban is prepared to completely disown al-Qaeda, allow the US to retain several military bases in Afghanistan and agree a ceasefire deal to end its 11 year conflict with Nato, a major report released on Monday discloses.
The group, which was ousted by the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11, is now willing to cooperate with the US on security and take part in peace negotiations in return for international political recognition, the study says.
The report was compiled by the respected Royal United Services Institute (Rusi) following interviews with four senior Taliban figures close to the organisation's leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar. These included former government ministers, one of the group's founding members and a Mujahideen commander.
It sets out a detailed path to a negotiated settlement for Afghanistan that could allow the majority of western troops to withdraw in 2014 without the country descending into renewed chaos.
According to the report, the Taliban representatives believe there is "no natural enmity" with the Americans, and that they would be prepared to accept a long-term US military presence in the country if it helped Afghan security.
Under the plan, five US military bases could operate in Kandahar, Herat, Jalalabad, Mazar-e-Sharif and Kabul to help rebuild Afghanistan up to 2024. The Taliban figures expressed hope that military assistance would translate into economic assistance over time.
#1
Bad place for a fully loaded plane to crash full of explosives hit by rpg all troops safe and all prisoners dead or even a fully loaded helicopter on it's last leg! It would be horrible!
[An Nahar] Thirty complaints have been filed against Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, former head of Egypt's army, and his deputy General Sami Anan, for suppressing last year's popular uprising, a judicial source said Sunday.
Anan is also the subject of an additional complaint accusing him of illegally acquiring building plots near Cairo, the source said.
The complaints were forwarded by Attorney General Abdel Meguid Mahmoud to the military prosecutor's office, which will decide whether action should be taken.
If the complaints are recognized as valid, they could lead to the first trial of members of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) which ruled Egypt after the fall of president Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... until President Mohamed Morsi's inauguration.
Tantawi, Mubarak's defense minister for two decades, ruled Egypt as head of state after the former strongman's fall.
Anan, the former chief of staff of the armed forces, was number two at the SCAF, a group of 20 generals.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
As Morsi recalibrates Egypt's foreign policy -- seeking "balance," his advisers have said, and reaching out to US foes -- he is attempting to relieve Egypt's crippled economy, which has failed to rebound from its post-uprising slump.
China is now in a unique position to usurp the United States in the role of Egypt's benefactor.
"Our relations with China will increase, because our new government has some doubts about the West," said Mohamed Kadry Said, military analyst at the Cairo-based Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/10/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
China seems to be picking up all sorts of clients these days. Something tells me they won't be as forthcoming with the cash as Uncle Sugar was. Strictly quid pro quo for the Pekinese.
#7
one way of seeing this is that perhaps Morsi is impressed with the way the PRC has introduced more capitalism while covering up lots of croynism and also the pretense of communism
Posted by: lord garth ||
09/10/2012 13:09 Comments ||
Top||
#8
Is China looking at Egypt as a market for their cheaper manufactured goods? Because goodness knows, the only resource Egypt has a sellable excess these days is the body parts of the peasants and spare daughters. China is starting to feel the need for females for her excess sons....
#10
It seems to me that China is going for influence in the ME. I do not see Egypt as being a big mineral or oil resource for China. Maybe they are looking at the country as a stepping stone in a long range policy.
It is obvious that the US and China both need to get away from the ME as a source of oil, but China will not get into the joint venturing mood on alternate forms of energy with the US as she has her own agenda.
Too bad. But now is not the time, though it IS the time for us to buck up or ties with Pacific nations.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/10/2012 15:05 Comments ||
Top||
#11
Egypt is a mess that is only going to get messier. I don't know what the attraction for the Chinese would be. The Chinese may be establishing relations for the future when the price for whatever it is they want from Egypt will go down. In a few years Egypt is going to be a really bad shape. They will do deals for dirt cheap.
[Iran Press TV] Bahrain's main opposition party has accused the ruling Al Khalifa monarchy of covering up brutality against peaceful protesters.
Al-Wefaq National Islamic Society, in a statement issued on Saturday, described the Bahraini Interior Ministry's latest communiqué as misleading and full of obviously blatant lies.
The statement said protesters behaved peacefully throughout the Friday march and posed no threat of any kind to anyone.
This is while the Bahraini security forces -- backed by masked Orcs and similar vermin and plainclothes -- violently attacked the demonstrators and used foul language, tear gas, stun grenades and batons to break up their rally, al-Wefaq pointed out.
The statement further said that Saudi-backed regime forces were ready to attack peaceful protesters with different kinds of weapons.
The Al Khalifa regime seeks to conceal committed "atrocities" against protestors in the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom through a total ban on public protests. Such a move deprives the nation of the right to freedom of expression, al-Wefaq pointed out.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Arab Spring
A woman presumed to be Kim Ok, the widow of former North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il and new leader Kim Jong-un's stepmother, was treated in hospital in Berlin recently. According to a hospital staffer, she was treated for a cervical disc and coxitis of the right side at the German capital's Charite University Hospital in May and June.
Kim stayed in a premier hotel in downtown Berlin after arriving in mid-May. She rode a Mercedes for trips between the hospital and the hotel, accompanied by a North Korean diplomat from Geneva as her interpreter. She is said to have paid cash.
Photos obtained by the Chosun Ilbo from a Korean expatriate living there last Friday show the woman sporting a coat and a pair of white sandals with a scarf around her neck. At Beijing Airport earlier she looked nondescript in black elastic pants.
Kim Ok had looked after Kim Jong-il since she was chosen for his "Pleasure Squad" in the 1980s. She lived with him since his previous wife Ko Yong-hui, Kim Jong-un's mother, died in 2004 and exercised some power from Kim senior's sickbed after he collapsed with a stroke in August 2008.
At the time, Kim Ok established a close relationship with Kim Jong-il's younger sister Kim Kyong-hui and her husband Jang Song-taek, who are now believed to be directing matters behind the scenes. "That apparently consolidated her status even after Kim Jong-il's death," an informed source said.
Meanwhile, several members of the North Korean elite including a woman believed to be Kim Baek-yon, regime founder Kim Il-sung's natural daughter, are also in Berlin for medical treatment. She has reportedly been treated for insomnia and anemia in a famous hospital since July, staying with her mother Kim Song-juk (50) in a luxury hotel in downtown Berlin. She has been spotted in the glitzy shopping mile of Friedrichstrasse there.
The North Korean elite often go for medical treatment abroad. Kim Kyong-hui had kidney surgery in Moscow in June last year.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/10/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
Vladimir Shamberg, described himself as a close friend of Svetlana, Stalin's daughter. "I believe I was the first person she saw after her father's death, and she never spoke about something fishy," he said. Shamberg said he believes Stalin's advisers failed to get him immediate medical care because they were afraid of the consequences, not because they wanted him dead. "They thought if he regained consciousness and saw the doctors, he would suspect a plot and have them all executed," said Shamberg, adding that Stalin eventually received treatment from a major in his guard who happened to be a veterinarian.
Panel participants agreed Stalin probably was not murdered, but they did speculate over the lack of medical care. "There was a motivation to letting him die,"Garthoff said. "Stalin was planning a major purge in which most of them [his advisers] would be swept aside."
[Iran Press TV] A political analyst and US war veteran says that the US is losing its influence around the world, as people are understanding its "blatant lies" said to launch wars around the world, Press TV reports.
"The CIA has just released documents which clearly indicate that the whole story of the weapons of mass destruction [about Iraq] was a fabrication. This particular situation right here speaks to that situation. They've [US politicians] lied on several occasions," Vietnam War veteran Darnell Stephen Summers said during an interview with Press TV on Sunday.
"Of course, the US role is diminishing across the planet. People are beginning to recognize... there are all of these disclosures that are coming to the forefront now. People are beginning to extrapolate. It's clear," Summers said.
He added that the West and Israel's accusations against Iran, claiming the country is seeking nuclear weapons are "just another in a long series of blatant lies to enact and initiate aggression against Iran at this point" aimed at trying to legitimize a possible attack against the country.
Israel's growing threats against Iran come as reports show many people, including high-ranking officials in Israel oppose such a war.
The war veteran pointed out that Iran was "not an aggressive nation".
"They're [Iran] not a threat to anyone that I can see. They're very peaceful people. They're people who want to live in peace," Summers said, stressing the importance of addressing certain issues regarding nations who pose real threats to the world.
"First of all, who's the aggressor here? Who has the nuclear weapons? Who is attacking defenseless people? Who has the overwhelming military superiority in the area? Those questions have to be answered. Who helped South Africa develop nuclear weapons?"
According to Summers, the US is losing its influence in the regions where a significant number of the natural resources they rely on to fuel their economy exist.
"So, they need to replace those sources. They need to guarantee those sources."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
US role diminishing across planet: US criminal, murderer, and traitor war veteran
Posted by: Large Darling of the Antelope3345 ||
09/10/2012 0:13 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Viet war protestor? Nostalia, it just isn't what it used to be.
#3
10 North Korea-Korean War
Viet Nam - same
Cuba- Bay Of Pigs Same
Afghanistan Russia- Same
Obama Administration-Holly Wood And Chicago 1950's to present the same ! Atheists and Communists
Famous ghoul unloading giving Gods soldiers a pep talk in Afghanistan a communist ghoul Obama's closest adviser.
DNC convention crapping on God and booing God
Anyone who has fought communism or lost friends or family or has themselves become hurt or crippled should really examine what is running OUR COUNTRY INTO THE GROUND! The War Is In Our Country and all have been made to look for the boogey man in other places!
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Sunday that nothing Iran does in response to Canada's severing of diplomatic ties would surprise him.
Harper also promised that Canada will work through its allies to help three of its citizens still in Iranian prisons. Questions about their fate have become a big issue following Canada's abrupt decision to close its Tehran embassy and expel Iranian diplomats from Canada.
An Iranian lawmaker said his government would have a firm response, and a foreign ministry spokesman called Harper's government hostile and racist, and said it was doing the bidding of Israel and Britain.
Harper said the diplomats were recalled because of Iran's "capacity for increasingly bad behaviour."
Harper said, "So, nothing would surprise me. But that is all the more reason why it's essential that our Canadian personnel no longer be present. Do I anticipate specific actions? No, not necessarily, but as I say, we should all know by now that this is a regime that does not stop at anything. So that's just the reality of the situation."
Canada's surprising embassy closure caused reactions across the globe and it topped the websites of two Iranian news agencies. Iran's Fars news agency said the country's parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, cancelled a planned visit to Canada to protest the embassy closure.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman accused Harper's government of "extremist" views and said it was "unwise" for Canada to have set a five-day deadline for Iranian diplomats to leave the country. The Iranian foreign ministry also called the embassy closure "unprofessional, unconventional, and unjustifiable."
#1
The closure was "unprofessional, unconventional, and unjustifiable." Don't forget racist.
Maybe somebody told the Canadiens the day the Juice were going to strike.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/10/2012 5:59 Comments ||
Top||
#2
You have five days to get your Iranian diplomats back to Iran. Your recruited agents and networks in Canada and the US can joint them, or you can hand them off to a third country. In either case, we'll be monitoring them closely.
Iraq's fugitive vice president Tareq al-Hashemi on Monday rejected his murder conviction and death sentence and ruled out returning home until he is guaranteed "security and a fair trial". Ummm... Sammy rejected his murder conviction, too. And a lotta good it done him...
"While reconfirming my absolute innocence and that of my guards, I totally reject and will never recognise the unfair, the unjust, the politically motivated verdict, which was expected from the outset of this funny trial," Hashemi told a a news conference in Ankara. "And I don't mean 'funny ha-ha'!"
"I consider the verdict a medal on my chest," he said. "... which is not precisely the same as a rope around my neck..."
An Iraqi court on Sunday sentenced Hashemi to death by hanging for murder and he said it had demanded his return back home within 30 days. "Oh, yeah. Sure. I'm buying my bus ticket now..."
He branded the sentence "the final phase of the theatrical campaign" carried out by his political rival, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and "his politicised judiciary". "I mean, I wudn't even there! How can you have a trial if I wudn't there?"
Hashemi, one of Iraq's top Sunni Muslim officials, was accused of running a death squad and he and his bodyguards had faced around 150 murder charges. "Hmpf. Wudn't nearly that many deaders. Not nearly."
He took refuge with his family in Turkey in April and said he would consider going back to Baghdad only if his security was guaranteed and if he was guaranteed a fair trial. "And 'fair' means I win!"
"If the fair court is guaranteed tomorrow even, if the United Nations... assures me fair court in Baghdad, I'm ready to attend tomorrow. No problem," he said at the press conference where he spoke both in Arabic and English.
"But all what I need is security, a fair court according to the Iraqi constitution which is not available for the time being."
Hashemi said he had appealed to the United Nations to establish a joint court with Iraq, calling for the UN to send judges directly to Baghdad to investigate the case.
"And I will welcome any verdict" by such a court, he said.
Asked if he would appeal Sunday's verdict, Hashemi said he had sent letters to the United Nations and its human rights agency but had not seen any " tangible action."
The fugitive vice-president also lashed out at the international community for its "very slow" response to the deadly violence in his country, and for "not taking tangible measures to stop or to tackle the real tragedy in Iraq."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2012 12:39 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
A Baghdad court sentenced in absentia Sunday Iraq's vice president, Tariq al-Hashemi, to death on terrorism charges, a judge said, DPA reported.
Al-Hashemi, who left the country before the trial began on May 3, was charged with running a death squad and involvement in the assassination of security officials and a lawyer. Al-Hashemi, Iraq's most senior Sunni Muslim official denied the charges, calling it a political ploy on the part of the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Al-Hashemi first sought refuge in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq in December, after an arrest warrant was issued against him. Later, unconfirmed reports said he went to Turkey then Qatar.
His current whereabouts are unclear. And likely to remain so...
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/10/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
[An Nahar] The Yasser Arafat Foundation said Sunday there was "no need" for more proof the Paleostinian leader was poisoned in what appeared to be a stance against French plans to exhume his body.
"Since the formation of this Foundation, it has forcefully held on to the fact that Yasser Arafat died abnormally after being killed by a poison which was unidentified at the time," it said in a statement.
"The Foundation does not see a need here for more proof."
The statement was issued just days after a delegation of French magistrates said they would travel to the West Bank to investigate following claims Arafat may have succumbed to poisoning by the radioactive substance polonium.
No date has been given for the trip which would involve forensic officers exhuming the body and taking samples for laboratory testing in an investigation sought by Arafat's widow Suha.
Speaking to Agence La Belle France Presse on condition of anonymity, a source from the Foundation said they would only agree to a further examination of his body if it was conducted as part of an international investigation committee.
"If there is an international committee, we will agree to the body being checked," he said, without explaining further.
Arafat died in a French military hospital near Gay Paree on November 11, 2004 and French experts were unable to say what had killed him, with many Paleostinians subscribing to the belief that he was poisoned by Israel.
Arafat's nephew, Nasser al-Qidwa, who heads the Arafat Foundation, has long insisted that Israel was behind his uncle's death but a Paleostinian investigation into such allegations ruled out poisoning, AIDS and cancer.
Last month, French prosecutors opened a murder inquiry into Arafat's death after Al-Jazeera ... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means the Peninsula, as in the Arabian Peninsula. In recent years it has settled in to become slightly less biased than MSNBC, in about the same category as BBC or CBS... news channel broadcast an investigation in which Swiss experts said they found high levels of radioactive polonium on his personal effects.
In July, President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... and Suha Arafat both gave their consent for samples to be taken from his remains, which are buried in a mausoleum in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Fatah
#1
I want to know of all of the names of the boys he infected with Aids. Pull his ass up from the grave if you need a reckoning. He was all-ways a scum-hole - His victims remain anonymous.
#2
The Yasser Arafat Foundation said Sunday there was "no need" for more proof the Paleostinian leader was poisoned in what appeared to be a stance against French plans to exhume his body.
Which makes me wonder what they're afraid they'll find.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/10/2012 5:53 Comments ||
Top||
#3
It tells me they don't think there's any polonium, Mike.
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/10/2012 6:03 Comments ||
Top||
#4
They know damn well there's no polonium, and never was.
#5
For reference: Polonium-210 has a half life of 138.376 days. Since Arafat's death in 2004 any Polonium on his personal effects or in his body would have decayed to to about 1/2000000 the original amount by September of 2012. The decay product is non-radioactive Lead-206.
Naturally occurring lead is a mixture of isotopes.
The natural abundance of Lead-206 on Earth is 24.1%.
(Ma'an) -- Dozens of protesters closed down several streets in Tulkarem and Ramallah on Saturday, a Ma'an correspondent said, as protests against rising living costs continue across the West Bank.
A main road in Tulkarem was blocked with rocks and burning tires and protesters in Ramallah closed off several streets in the city center.
PLO official Wasel Abu Yusef told Ma'an that if the Paleostinian street does not feel any immediate solutions to the financial crisis then the situation will escalate.
The Paleostinian Authority must review the Gay Paree Protocol, an economic agreement between the PLO and Israel, as well as trying to set up a security net to decrease prices and taxes, Abu Yusef added.
On Saturday, President Abbas reiterated that Israel and some Arab countries share the blame for the PA's financial crisis.
The Paleostinian Authority, he said, will not seek to stop the popular protests as long as they remain peaceful and do not harm public interests. However, nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... he stressed that the government would not allow any attacks on public property.
Paleostinians have taken to the streets this week in mass demonstrations against price rises and unemployment, and protesters in cities across the West Bank have called for PA Prime Minster Salam Fayyad ...Fayyad's political agenda holds that neither violence nor peaceful negotiations have brought the Paleostinians any closer to an independent state. The alternative to both, violent negotiations, doesn't seem to be working too well, either... 's resignation.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
The U.S. is "not setting deadlines" for Iran and still considers negotiations as "by far the best approach" to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing nuclear weapons, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
While Clinton said in an interview yesterday that economic sanctions are building pressure on Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week the sanctions aren't slowing Iran's nuclear advances "because it doesn't see a clear red line from the international community."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "We're not setting deadlines."Asked if the Obama administration will lay out sharper "red lines" for Iran or state explicitly the consequences of failing to negotiate a deal with world powers by a certain date, Clinton said, "We're not setting deadlines."
"We're watching very carefully about what they do, because it's always been more about their actions than their words," Clinton said in the interview with Bloomberg Radio after meetings at an Asia-Pacific forum in Vladivostok, Russia.
Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak have indicated that as Iran proceeds with its nuclear work and negotiations stall, Israel may have no choice but to launch a preemptive strike in self-defense. Iran's leaders have denied Israel's right to exist.
While the U.S. and Israel share the goal that Iran not acquire a nuclear weapon, Clinton said there is a difference in perspective over the time horizon for talks.
"They're more anxious about a quick response because they feel that they're right in the bull's-eye, so to speak," Clinton said. "But we're convinced that we have more time to focus on these sanctions, to do everything we can to bring Iran to a good-faith negotiation."
Clinton has said that Iran, which depends on oil for more than half of its government revenue, is losing billions of dollars from lost oil sales due to sanctions.
Iranian oil exports dropped 66 percent in July from a year earlier, to less than 1 million barrels a day, as the U.S. and the European Union tightened sanctions, according to a report by Rhodium Group, citing customs data. Rhodium estimates exports at about 940,000 barrels a day, compared with 1.7 million barrels a day in June and 2.8 million in July 2011, the New York-based economic research group said Sept. 5 in an e-mailed report.
The U.S., European allies and Israel accuse Iran of seeking an atomic bomb capability. In its report last month, the IAEA said it "is unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities." The IAEA said it hadn't detected any material being diverted from Iran's 16 declared nuclear facilities.
#1
Nope, no deadlines - other than the implicit one at the end of the Iranian nuke development program.
As for "it's always been more about their actions than their words", is there some reason to think they don't mean what they say?
Note: if your answer was "They'd be crazy to do that!", then you just flunked the section on Evaluation Functions in Game Theory class.
Hint: your eval func and your opponent's are not necessarily the same
using the rule of 72 would seem to indicate that they've got just over 1 week before they are in real strife.
Iran's currency plunged nearly eight per cent to a new record low against the dollar on Monday, but the dramatic drop was being suppressed within the country on mobile phone text services and some exchange websites.
One money changer told AFP by telephone that the street rate around midday (3.30pm Singapore time) was 26,400 rials to the dollar, sharply lower than the 24,000 rate late on Sunday. The Mehr news agency reported a rate of around 26,000.
Mobile telephone text messages that included the word "dollar" in English or in Farsi were censored, with the message not being received, AFP noted. The Farsi word for "foreign money" was also blocked.
But text messages containing the words "USD", "euro" or the $ symbol were all transmitted and received normally. Such text blocks on the word "dollar" were implemented before in Iran, on Jan 10, when the rial also dived precipitously. The country's two main mobile phone service providers, MCI and Irancell, claimed at the time they were not filtering messages.
[An Nahar] Iranian authorities on Sunday advanced different arguments as to why they believed Canada abruptly cut diplomatic ties, pointing the finger at Israeli influence or Tehran's hosting of a recent summit rather than Ottawa's stated reasons.
"Canada's action is in line with the interests of the Zionist regime (Israel) as it seeks to boost of its relations with the (Israeli) regime," Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told a closed-door session of parliament, according to the Mehr news agency.
Canada was also upset that U.N. chief the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon ... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan... had attended an August 30-31 summit of non-aligned countries in Tehran, Salehi said, according to the ISNA news agency.
Parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani told the session, according to the ILNA agency, that "Canada's badly thought-out behavior shows it is nervous."
He said Canada's decision was in response to Iran's "economy of resistance," which officials say is weathering severe Western economic sanctions.
Larijani also pointed to the non-aligned summit, saying "Western countries are seeking to portray Iran's hosting of the summit as unconventional."
The arguments showed that Iran's authorities saw ulterior motives behind Canada's surprise decision announced on Friday to close its Tehran embassy and to order Iran's diplomatic staff out of Ottawa.
Officially, Canada said its step was because it views Iran "as the most significant threat to global peace and security in the world today."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Iran has been funding violent Muslim student groups, radical ultranationalist separatist parties in Quebec and various antisemitic Khomeinist groups across the country through its embassy in Ottawa.
#2
So will we see other Western nations closing their embassies and decamping? I doubt it unless they have reasons more pressing than anger like say. . . .
#3
It is this simple totally destabilize the Middle East let Russia and China fight over it and Russia gets it's own gigantic Mexico. Pull all the troops out of Korea China won't know what to do or North Korea! Pull out of Africa and let the inbred socialists in Euro Trash ville deal with their own crap for real! Bring the troops home secure the north and south/ area around Panama Canal carrier group on the east and west of canal! Troops on border north and south also creates economy for our economy and jobs! let Canada stick to beer, exotic dancers and back bacon something they are good at! Sit back and give them back all of the problems they have tried to suck us into over the years and laugh at them and India will just get caught in the middle and Pakistan and them can nuke each other! We televise it by sat and eat popcorn the end!
[An Nahar] Iran on Sunday hit out at talk of more EU sanctions being applied against it as "irresponsible," singling out Britannia for raising the prospect it claimed went against U.N. nuclear watchdog regulations.
Foreign ministry front man Ramin Mehmanparast issued a statement relayed by state broadcaster IRIB calling Western sanctions "ineffective" and "obsolete."
He was reacting to comments made by EU foreign ministers, meeting in Cyprus on Saturday, who said a "growing consensus" was forming to impose new punitive measures on Iran to pressure it further to make concessions on its disputed nuclear program.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/10/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
Azerbaijan, Baku -- Head of the IRI Defense Ministry's Aerospace Industries Organization General Seyed Mehdi Farahi told Fars News Agency that Iran will unveil new generated Moshkat cruise missile with 2000 km range in near future.
Farahi said Iran has started generation of cruise missiles with producing 15km short-range cruises. 15 km? We Americans spit farther than that...
Farahi said that Iran's under research and produced cruise missiles are 14 types totally.
According to his statement, Moshkat can be launched from land-based, sea-based and air-based facilities towards targets.
Head of the Defense Ministry's Aerospace Industries Organization added that the established missile shields in the region are not able to resist against Iran's mass missiles launch.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/10/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
But we have the M-29 (Improved) Davy Crockett Weapon System.
Sierra Leone has removed nine vessels from its shipping register after an investigation found they belonged to IRISL, Iran's embattled shipping line, the head of the West African state's maritime authority said on Saturday. The move comes as Western powers seek to ground Iran's global oil carrier fleet by urging countries to deny their flags to Iranian ships, part of a broader push to curb Tehran's nuclear program with economic sanctions, Reuters reported.
"The vessels were deleted as a result of the fact that the companies that registered the said vessels were actually subsidiaries owned and controlled by IRISL," Acting Executive Director of the Sierra Leone Maritime Administration Wurroh Jalloh told Reuters in an email.
He said four vessels - Alva, Amin, Tour and Benita - were removed from the register late last week and that five others had been deleted since the end of August. He did not give further details.
Iran has been trying to reflag its ships in an attempt to avoid Western sanctions aimed at choking off its oil exports, prompting the United States to pressure countries around the world to refuse any such requests. In mid-August, Tanzania announced it was de-registering 36 Iranian vessels and dropping the Dubai-based shipping agent it said had flagged them without the east African government's knowledge.
Reflagging ships masks their ownership, which could make it easier for Iran to obtain insurance and financing for cargoes and to find buyers for shipments without attracting the attention of the United States and the European Union.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/10/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under:
Study shows Shiite group branching out from narcotics, begins manufacturing, selling fake medical drug in Middle East; Lebanese authorities performing drug busts on Captagon labs, arresting top terror leaders
A new study reveals that Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah has discovered a new and original way of funding its terror activity -- counterfeit medicine.
According to the study, over the past year Hezbollah snuffies have increased the manufacturing of fake Captagon, a drug used for treating Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Although banned in most countries in the 1980s, illegally produced and smuggled Captagon -- sometimes containing amphetamine instead of fenethylline -- is a common drug of abuse in the Middle East.
Over the past year, several drug labs were uncovered in various mosques
Mosques? Surely Valium would be more appropriate in a place of worship than an amphetamine precurser... or automatic weaponry.
in Baalbeck and the Beqaa Valley in Leb.
The study suggests that Hezbollah has branched out from manufacturing and distributing drugs, and has begun producing fake medicine as a source of funding.
According to Dr. Boaz Ganor and Miri Halperin, who conducted the study, the change in Hezbollah's financial focus mainly derives from the fundamentalist aspect of the organization. "As an Islamic organization, drug trafficking is problematic," Ganor said.
"Firstly, the issue of drugs contradicts Islam's religious commands. Throughout the years, Hezbollah has solved this problem by claiming that the drugs were not intended for internal use but rather for exporting purposes. Thus, the drugs would only hurt the 'infidels.' However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... the fact that Islamic believers are still involved in the operation is problematic," he added.
"For Hezbollah, counterfeit medicine solves this religious issue," Ganor said.
Except that this is a stimulant commonly abused for recreational purposes in the Middle East. But then, anything is permitted to forward (Forward!) jihad, and by their addiction the purchases are performing a mitzvah.
"An additional explanation for the Lebanese organization's change of focus is completely financial. The profit to be made from distributing medication is higher than the one made in the drug business," Ganor said.
He estimated that "the profit was anywhere between 10 million to hundreds of millions of dollars a year."
Ganor further explained that over the past few years, American pressure on the terrorist organization has driven it to stop manufacturing and distributing drugs in the country.
However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... Ganor insists that despite his study, various reports still indicate that the Shiite group is still using drug trafficking in Europe, Africa and Latin America to fund its activities.
The link between Hezbollah and the Captagon drug is not a recent one. In 2006, Lebanese authorities seized two Captagon manufacturing machines that were addressed to Hussein al Mussawi, Hezbollah's Member of Parliament.
Since 2006, Hezbollah has based various counterfeit medicine labs in Baalbek and other nearby villages. These labs can produce up to millions of fake Captagon pills a day.
According to Ganor, the al Mussawi scandal led to the uncovering of additional medical drug smuggling rings.
Ganor claims that the breakthrough in the medical drug scandal, which led to more arrests of Hezbollah smugglers, derives from an intergroup conflict.
"It appears that after the Second Leb War, tensions between Hezbollah's leadership in the Bekaa Valley and the group's leadership in southern Leb increased," he said.
"Hezbollah leaders in the Bekaa Valley gathered their strength while southern Leb was in war with Israel. In their attempt to gain political and financial power, Bekaa Valley leaders began manufacturing and distributing Captagon pills."
"Work began under a religious fatwa (authoritative religious decree of Islamic law) made by Sheikh Mohamed Yazbek, a member of Hezbollah's highest Shura Council. Yazbek's fatwa legalized the manufacture and sale of Captagon pills on the condition that they were not consumed by Shiite believers," Ganor added.
Ganor suggested that the tear in Hezbollah's leadership led southern Leb's leaders to leak information on the criminal network in the Bekaa Valley, including names, medical drug labs and smuggling routes.
Authorities have recently set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock Please don't kill me! major counterfeit medicine rings in Syria, Joran, Turkey and Iraq.
"Our study shows that the origin of the counterfeit medicine ring is in Leb. From there, the Captagon drug is smuggled to Eastern Europe and the Middle East."
According to the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime, in 2009 over 23.6 tons of fake Captagon were seized in the Middle East.
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.
The Taliban is prepared to completely disown al-Qaeda, allow the US to retain several military bases in Afghanistan and agree a ceasefire deal to end its 11 year conflict with Nato, a major report released on Monday discloses.
[An Nahar] Thirty complaints have been filed against Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, former head of Egypt's army, and his deputy General Sami Anan, for suppressing last year's popular uprising, a judicial source said Sunday.
[Iran Press TV] Bahrain's main opposition party has accused the ruling Al Khalifa monarchy of covering up brutality against peaceful protesters.
[Iran Press TV] A political analyst and US war veteran says that the US is losing its influence around the world, as people are understanding its "blatant lies" said to launch wars around the world, Press TV reports.
... an Arab news network headquartered in Qatar, notorious for carrying al-Qaeda press releases. The name means 
(Ma'an) -- Dozens of protesters closed down several streets in Tulkarem and Ramallah on Saturday, a Ma'an correspondent said, as protests against rising living costs continue across the West Bank.
The U.S. is "not setting deadlines" for Iran and still considers negotiations as "by far the best approach" to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing nuclear weapons, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon
