[Al Arabiya Latest] Direct peace talks between the Sudanese government and Darfur rebel groups did not resume on Sunday as expected, with the two sides holding separate consultations with mediators instead.
"Sunday will be devoted to consultations" with Qatari mediators and the chief negotiator for the United Nations and African Union, Djibril Bassole, said Ahmed Hussein Adam, spokesman for the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), the main rebel group in Darfur.
"There will be consultations between mediators and the Sudanese government on the one hand, and mediators and the Justice and Equality Movement on the other, in which other (rebel) groups could be involved," he said.
A source in the Sudanese government delegation confirmed to AFP that there would be "no direct negotiations on Sunday with rebel groups but only consultations with the mediators."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2010 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] Former Touareg rebel leader Ibrahim Ag Bahanga arrived Saturday (January 23rd) in Algeria, El Watan reported. The head of Mali's Democratic Alliance for Change (ADC) will reportedly meet with senior government officials to express his personal commitment to reviving the 2006 peace agreement with Bamako mediated by Algerian Ambassador Abdelkrim Gheraib.
When more than 500 Touaregs surrendered their weapons last February in Kidal as part of the Algiers Accord, Ag Bahanga refused to participate. Ag Bahanga was also absent from the closed-door conference of Touareg leaders held earlier this month in Algiers.
What made him change his mind now?
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2010 00:00 ||
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#2
That is actually not a bad description. Their culture is so different from other cultures in the area. For example, the men are veiled, not the women. Very interesting, very old culture that predates the influence of the Arabs in the area.
[Bangla Daily Star] The Election Commission (EC) yesterday asked Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami to amend its constitution again, as the party's aim and objectives and some other provisions stipulated in it do not conform to the country's constitution and RPO.
In a letter to the Jamaat secretary general, the EC pointed out the provisions and asked the party to amend those, said EC sources.
The commission also sent letters to eight other political parties including HM Ershad-led Jatiya Party for amending their charters again as well in compliance with the Representation of the People Order (RPO).
Freedom Party, formed by a number of killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, will lose its registration as it failed to submit its ratified amended charter to the EC within the deadline yesterday.
"We received ratified charters of 38 political parties. Freedom Party did not submit its charter. Therefore, its registration will stand cancelled," Election Commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M Sakhawat Hossain told reporters yesterday in his office.
Jamaat's call in its charter for establishing the rule of Islam in the country through organised efforts, requires bringing drastic amendments to the basic structure of the country's constitution, said EC officials.
But the country's constitution, the supreme law of the land, does not allow the parliament to amend its basic structure, they added.
They also said a number of clauses in Jamaat's charter call for establishing the rule of Islam.
In its ratified charter, submitted to the EC on July 22 last year, Jamaat also refuses to accept the parliament's law making power sanctioned by the country's constitution, saying the people must not accept anyone except Allah as the maker of laws.
The EC officials said in the face of the commission's objection, Jamaat had deleted the clause from its provisional amended charter to get registration before the ninth parliamentary election. But later it reinstated the controversial clause in its ratified charter, they added.
"The letter sent to Jamaat cited it and requested the party to correct its charter in line with the commitment made before getting registration," an EC official said.
Jamaat also did not include in the main body of its charter the provision of keeping 33 percent posts in all committees at all levels reserved for women, and for achieving the goal by 2020. Rather the provision is mentioned in a special note in the last page of the charter.
The EC asked Jamaat to include the provision among the clauses in the main body of the charter, the commission officials said.
A new provision in Jamaat's charter allows non-Muslims to become members of the party, and compels those members to work for Jamaat's aim and objectives. The EC found the provision to be discriminatory and asked the party to 'correct' it, the officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2010 00:00 ||
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A man was injured when several shots were fired early Monday morning into the Oslo residence of Mullah Krekar, a Kurdish cleric who helped found the militant Islamist group Ansar al-Islam in Iraqi Kurdistan in 2001 while he enjoyed refugee status in Norway.
Mr. Krekar, whose birth name is Najmuddin Faraj Ahmad, was at home with several other people when shots were fired through a window shortly before 2 a.m., according to an Oslo police spokeswoman, Unni Grondahl. Mullah Krekar's son-in-law, who was not identified by name, was struck in the arm during the shooting but his injuries were not life-threatening, Ms. Grondahl said. Afterward, the injured man was taken away in an ambulance while Mullah Krekar and the others left in a police vehicle.
The gun was apparently fired from a sheltered outdoor corridor providing access to the cleric's fifth-floor family apartment in Oslo's Toyen district. Soon after the bullets were fired, the police spokeswoman said, two men were seen running. A short time later, in a secluded parking lot nearby, the police discovered a burning car and began investigating whether it was connected with the shooting.
Mr. Krekar, 53, was granted refugee status here after the Gulf War of 1991 but traveled frequently to Kurdistan in the 1990s. After several armed groups joined forces to form Ansar al-Islam in December 2001, he emerged as its leader, calling for an independent, Islamic Kurdistan, according to court documents here. The United States accused the organization of being a link between Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda. That accusation, later partially discredited, was used to help justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq by American forces.
Mr. Krekar's militant activities abroad caused a furor here when they came to light in 2002. He has claimed that his leadership of Ansar al Islam ended later that year, but in 2007 Norway's Supreme Court ruled that he remained a threat to Norwegian security as a result of continuing ties to the radical group or its offshoots.
Since 2003, the Norwegian authorities have sought to deport him but have been stymied by a lack of assurance from Iraq that he would not face the death penalty in connection with lethal bombings and other violent acts attributed to Ansar al-Islam. Under Norwegian law no one can be sent abroad to face capital punishment. Terror-related criminal charges in Norway were dropped in 2004 for lack of evidence, and he has lived freely in Oslo since then, although his activities have been monitored. His wife and four children obtained Norwegian citizenship in 2000.
Moussa Ali Hamdan drove a flashy SUV into the Deptford Mall parking lot for the lunchtime meeting.
Authorities say that he was there to buy stolen goods, and that he told the seller he wanted bulk quantities of prepaid cell phones, laptops, Sony PlayStations - even cars. Anything that was available.
Hamdan didn't know it, but he was negotiating with an FBI informant on that winter day in 2007. Authorities could have arrested him then, but they suspected Hamdan was a central figure in a terrorist cell in the United States.
The investigation eventually would include dozens of national-security advisers from many federal agencies and stretch from Hamdan's West Collingswood apartment and Cinnaminson workplace to the crowded streets of Beirut, Lebanon. President Obama and then-Gov. Jon S. Corzine were briefed on the case.
Late last year, the investigation led to the indictment of 26 alleged Hezbollah operatives and sympathizers. Sixteen people were arrested, including a Hezbollah weapons-procurement officer. Hamdan escaped to his native Lebanon. Two defendants are scheduled to appear in court tomorrow.
"These cases show the breadth of criminal activity engaged by those who oppose us," U.S. Attorney Michael L. Levy said in a statement.
A review of Hamdan's activity in New Jersey, nearly a hundred pages of indictments, and conversations with intelligence-community sources with knowledge of the investigation offer a detailed look into what authorities say were the alleged terrorist organization's U.S. fund-raising and weapons-buying operations.
"The indictments are very significant," said Matthew Levitt, a terrorism expert at the Washington Institute. "Hezbollah has long had financial-support networks inside the U.S., but seeing it laid out in the details of this indictment is nonetheless startling."
The investigation began with a 911 call. In April 2006, Philadelphia police received a call from the 1300 block of Magee Avenue in the Northeast. A group of men who appeared to be Middle Eastern were loading carpet into white work vans with Michigan tags. It was late, and the men were acting suspiciously, the caller said.
Posted by: Tom- Pa ||
01/25/2010 09:43 ||
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#1
I understand they blew up the Chicken Man in Philly last night.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
01/25/2010 19:30 Comments ||
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The case against Pakistani citizen Aafia Siddiqui, who is charged with attempted murder of FBI agents and US military personnel, is beginning to unravel as witnesses have offered conflicting accounts in testimony delivered at her trial. So sez Iran Press TV.
The long-awaited trial of Siddiqui began in a federal courtroom in New York on Tuesday.
On January 21, which was the third day of the trial, Assistant US Attorney Jenna Dabbs showed jurors numerous photographs of the room of the Afghan police station where the shooting allegedly took place, and a photo of the cell where Siddiqui was held when she was first brought to the station on July 17, 2008, the independent online news network Mathaba reported.
But Carlo Rosati, an FBI firearms expert who testified in the federal court on Friday, expressed doubts whether the M-4 rifle, which was allegedly grabbed by Aafia Siddiqui to attack US interrogators in Ghazni, Afghanistan, was ever fired at the crime scene, the Associated Press of Pakistan said.
In addition, on the fourth day of the trial, an FBI agent testified that the FBI did not find Aafia Siddiqui's fingerprints on the rifle.
No Pakistani reporters were granted press credentials when opening statements began on Tuesday.
The MIT-educated neuroscientist is currently on trial, facing charges of trying to kill US soldiers and FBI agents in Afghanistan in 2008 and connections with Al-Qaeda operatives.
She insisted on the first day of the trial that she knew nothing about a plan to carry out terrorist attacks on targets in New York, The New York Daily News reported.
"Give me a little credit, this is not a list of targets of New York," she said. "I was never planning to bomb it. You're lying."
Siddiqui told jurors at her trial on Tuesday that she was held in a secret prison in Afghanistan, her children were tortured, and the case against her is a sham.
She was ejected from the federal court on the first day of her trial after making the remarks in a shouting outburst.
Siddiqui vanished in Karachi, Pakistan with her three children on March 30, 2003. The next day it was reported in local newspapers that she had been taken into custody on terrorism charges.
US officials allege Aafia Siddiqui was seized on July 17, 2008 by Afghan security forces in Ghazni province and claim that documents, including formulas for explosives and chemical weapons, were found in her handbag.
They say that while she was being interrogated, she grabbed a US warrant officer's M-4 rifle and fired two shots at FBI agents and military personnel but missed and that the warrant officer then fired back, hitting her in the torso.
She was then brought to the United States to face charges of attempted murder and assault. Siddiqui faces 20 years in prison if convicted.
However, human rights organizations have cast doubt on the accuracy of the US account of the event.
Many political activists believe she was Prisoner 650 of the US detention facility in Bagram, Afghanistan, where they say she was tortured for five years until one day US authorities announced that they had found her in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2010 00:00 ||
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#3
If the good doctor had indeed been tortured for a full half a decade, there would be marks on her body and mind. Let her get a complete physical and mental examination, televised in real time to all the political activists the last paragraph of the article claims believe that to have been her fate... and to the jury. Of course the examining doctors would be female in order to spare the good doctor's modesty from invasion by males not her husband.
/blue sky, I know. We'll treat her like a real PoW instead of the bloody-handed spy she is.
An Iraqi parliamentarian warns of alleged US plans to surrender the country to extremists, urging resistance on the part of Baghdad.
The Iraqi Press Agency (IPA) quoted female Shia lawmaker Maha al-Douri as saying that the United States aims to cede the country to Baath, the outlawed party of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and Takfiris -- both considered to be extremist groups.
Al-Douri, which serves the parliamentarian bloc associated with senior Shia leader Muqtada al-Sadr, said a recent visit by US Vice President Joe Biden had been in line with the plans.
Biden met with the Iraqi leadership on Saturday after the country's Justice and Accountability Commission barred more than 500 candidates from contesting the country's eagerly-anticipated parliamentary elections on March 7, linking some of the questionable figures to the Baath party.
The visit, some say, was aimed at reversing the decision
The IPA called Biden an advocate of Iraq's disintegration into three federal states along ethnic and religious lines, the US 2003 invasion of the country and 2001 occupation of Afghanistan.
Two of the candidates barred by the commission were Dhafer al-Ani and Saleh al-Mutlaq, who reportedly had strong Baathist orientations.
Al-Ani prompted concerns after he lavished praise on the Baath in several television interviews. Iraq's President Jalal Talabani subsequently ordered for al-Ani to be stripped of his immunity as the chairperson of the Iraqi Accordance Front, the parliament's largest Sunni Arab bloc and that he be tried in a court of law.
Al-Douri said Iraq should not bow to US demands as submission equaled ignoring the country's sovereignty and violating the Iraqis' civil rights.
Meanwhile, a new classified document, obtained by some Iraqi parties from the Baath leaders based at home or abroad, says that the Baath is after staging a comeback on the political stage through a coup.
The subversive plan is to be implemented in cooperation with some Arab states and coordination with a number of current Iraqi political heavyweights, it added
The document has named some famous Iraqi political figures, specially Allaw and Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi as advocates of a Baathist return, claiming the two are secretly contacting the Baath leaders and the Arab countries disappointed by the current political trend in Iraq.
It also referred to secret liaison between some Baath leaders and American officers without giving details.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Ala TOPIX, 2010-N-BEYOND > TURKEY, RUSSIA, + IRAN will likely engage in more Regional or Geopol sparring over influence in the CAUCASUS???
Iraqi lawmakers have demanded the withdrawal of a UK-made bomb detection device after the British government said it doesn't work and its manufacturer was arrested on suspicion of fraud.
The Iraqi prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, tonight ordered an investigation into the mass purchase of the ADE651 wand, made by ATSC, which had been sold in bulk to Iraqi security forces, before Britain imposed an export ban last week amid new doubts about its effectiveness.
The security and defence committee of the Iraqi parliament alleged that there had been corruption in the tendering process, which has seen some ministries stand by the devices despite a spate of devastating attacks in which car bombs passed through multiple checkpoints that had used the detector.
The US military has been scathing, claiming the wands contained only a chip to detect theft from stores. The claim was based on a study released in June by US military scientists, using x-ray and laboratory analysis, which was passed on to Iraqi officials.
"The examination resulted in a determination that there was no possible means by which the ADE651 could detect explosives and therefore was determined to be totally ineffective and fraudulent," Major Joe Scrocca, a US military spokesman in Baghdad, told the Associated Press.
The US military, and private contractors that guard Baghdad's international zone and airport road, use tried-and-tested sniffer dogs to keep explosives out. But elsewhere in Baghdad, police or soldiers man virtually every checkpoint with one of the wands, which retail at around $40,000 (£24,840) each.
Hussein al-Falluji, a member of the security and defence committee, said: "These devices have caused nothing but big problems in Iraq. They have failed to detect bombs and thousands of Iraqis have been killed it has been proven they are a 100% failure."
The furore erupted after a BBC Newsnight investigation took the wand to a Cambridge University computer lab, which demonstrated beyond doubt that it contained nothing that could detect components used to make explosives. Despite the scientific condemnation, the Iraqi interior ministry was standing by its bulk purchase of around 3,000 devices, claiming it had successfully detected 773 bombs.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/25/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Arch-skeptic and self-styled Bad Astronomer Phil Plait has been on the case since last fall. This is shaping up to be the woo/pseudoscience scandal of the century since the device is supposedly based on dowsing technique and the death toll is at least in the hundreds.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday defended the construction of an underground barrier on the border with the Gaza Strip as a matter of national security and sovereignty.
"The works and reinforcements on our eastern border are a matter of Egyptian sovereignty. We do not accept a debate on the issue with anyone," Mubarak said in a speech to mark Police Day.
"It is the right of the Egyptian state, and even its duty, its responsibility. It is the right of every state to control and protect its borders," he added. Don't tell Harry Reid that ...
Khaled Meshaal, exiled leader of the Palestinian Hamas movement which has controlled Gaza since June 2007, recently called on Egypt to halt construction of the barrier.
Hamas tries to rally Arab and international public opinion against the barrier, calling it the "death wall." Protests were staged at Egyptian embassies in Lebanon and Jordan this month.
Mubarak said Egypt has plenty of documented information" that "rhetoric campaigns" to attack his country were organized in "a sister country," but would not bow down before "blackmail."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Mubarak said Egypt has plenty of documented information" that "rhetoric campaigns" to attack his country were organized in "a sister country," but would not bow down before "blackmail."
"Rhetoric Campaigns"
Wow, the most creative thing I've ever heard come out of the mouth of an Arab leader that actually makes sense... I wonder if he's been reading Sowell's latest book.
[Dawn] Israel's prime minister declared on Sunday that his country would retain parts of the West Bank forever a statement that infuriated Palestinians and could complicate the year-old peace mission of a visiting US envoy.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid claim to disputed territory just hours after meeting with George Mitchell, the Obama administration's Middle East envoy. Mitchell has been shuttling between Israeli and Palestinian leaders since late last week in hopes of breaking a deadlock over construction in Israeli settlements.
''Our message is clear: We are planting here, we will stay here, we will build here, this place will be an inseparable part of the state of Israel for eternity,'' Netanyahu proclaimed at a tree-planting ceremony celebrating the Jewish arbor day at a settlement just south of Jerusalem.
Netanyahu's participation Sunday in tree-planting ceremonies in two West Bank settlements near Jerusalem were an apparent attempt to soothe Jewish settlers who vehemently oppose his decision, taken under intense US pressure, to slow West Bank construction.
Both settlements lie within areas Israel wants to keep in any final agreement with the Palestinians. ''We are here and we will stay here and build here as part of sovereign Jerusalem,'' he said.
On the eve of Mitchell's arrival last week, Netanyahu said Israel would want to retain a presence in the West Bank even if a peace deal is reached with the Palestinians in order to protect Israel's heartland from missile attacks by militants.
The Palestinians claim all of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, for a future independent state and say settlements undermine this goal. They have refused to resume peacemaking until all settlement construction stops, something Netanyahu has refused to do.
Following his meeting with Mitchell, Netanyahu told his Cabinet he had heard ''a few interesting ideas'' on renewing peace talks. The US official later left Jerusalem for another meeting later in the day with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in neighboring Jordan.
Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rdeneh said Netanyahu's tree-planting Sunday undermined peace prospects.
''This is an unacceptable act that destroys all the efforts being exerted by senator Mitchell in order to bring the parties back to the negotiating table,'' he said. Contacts with the Americans would continue, he said, but a return to negotiations with Israel appeared unlikely anytime soon.
In a meeting with Mitchell Friday, Abbas stood firm by his demand for a total settlement freeze. Netanyahu has imposed some restrictions on construction in the West Bank, but has not ended it. And he hasn't put any limits on building in east Jerusalem, home to sacred Jewish, Muslim and Christian sites and claimed by the Palestinians as their future capital.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem shortly after capturing it along with the West Bank from Jordan in 1967. Today, nearly 200,000 Israelis live in Jewish neighborhoods built in east Jerusalem. The international community does not recognize the annexation and views the neighborhoods to be settlements.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Dont you get bored with what the Palestinians want?
Who really cares what they want. They are all going to have to move to Brazil eventually anyway.
The "settlements" work....keep it up. Twenty years from now the Palestinians can have just about as much space as a Stamp Collection. That's why they dont like the Settlements...its effective. Build a Mall , put up some cement check points, issue yarmulkes to everybody with a big smile and hang a mezuzah on your dog.
Screw the Palestinians. Hand 'em a brochure and a plane ticket. And "peace process" your French ass.
AMMAN - Ten alleged Islamist extremists accused of plotting to carry out attacks against Jordan's army and intelligence service last year pleaded not guilty at the start of their trial on Sunday.
The 10 men, who embrace the takfirism ideology, pleaded not guilty today at the (military) state security court to charges of plotting to carry out terrorist attacks in the kingdom in 2009,' a court official told AFP. They were arrested last year after allegedly attempting to attack army posts in Jafr and Azraq, east of the kingdom, as well as intelligence officers in Zarqa,' near Amman, he said.
Takfirism, which is outlawed in Jordan, encompasses the belief that non-practising Muslims, labelled infidels', are a danger and should be be eliminated.
The Jordanian suspects, who face the death penalty if convicted, also plotted to attack liquor stores in Amman, Rusaifeh and Zarqa as part of their jihad (holy war) in Jordan,' the official added. They wanted to kidnap the sons of intelligence officers to press the authorities to release some prisoners, including Sajida al-Rishawi,' he said.
Iraqi would-be female suicide bomber Rishawi was sentenced to death in 2006 over her role in triple hotel attacks in Amman in 2005 that killed at least 60 people. She is still on death row.
The trial of the 10 was adjourned until February 9.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/25/2010 00:00 ||
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U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, held his second meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 48 hours in Amman on Sunday and pledged continued efforts to ensure the creation of a "viable" Palestinian state. In remarks to reporters after the meeting, Mitchell said the United States would press ahead with efforts for the accomplishment of the "two-state solution."
However, Mitchell said that Syria and Lebanon should be involved in the peace negotiations so that all countries of the region can enjoy "normal ties."
Oh that's just brilliant. Pencilneck and his sock puppet will add so much to the peace process. Gads. Is Bambi really this stupid?
Yes.
Abbas told Mitchell during their talks that the Palestinians were committed to reaching a peace agreement based on clear negotiations and a complete cessation of Israeli activity in West Bnk settlements, according to the PA leader's aides.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat added, following the president's talks with Mitchell, that the Palestinians were intent on continued cooperation with the Obama administration regarding Midrast peace efforts.
So long as it means killing all the Joooz, he continued in Arabic ...
Erekat said that the Palestinians were making every efforts to see President Barack Obama's vision for a peace agreement brought into fruition. He cast blame on Israel for the delay in progress thus far, and urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to abandon any precondition for a renewal of negotiations.
Jordanian King Abdullah II, meanwhile, urged Mitchell to intensify efforts to achieve the "needed progress" in relaunching meaningful peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
"The monarch stressed the need for continuing U.S. efforts to ensure a resumption of effective negotiations with a view to accomplishing the two-state solution and ensuring that the needed progress is made in the peace process," according to a royal court statement said.
Mitchell and Abdullah discussed "how to surmount the obstacles facing ongoing efforts to ensure the resumption of the Palestinian- Israeli negotiations in accordance with clear criteria and references and within a definite timetable", the statement added. Abdullah also urged the U.S. to continue its support for the Palestinian Authority and President Mahmoud Abbas.
Mitchell separate meetings with Netanyahu and Abbas on Sunday, despite the appearance that his efforts to restart talks between the two sides have failed once again.
Top U.S. officials told Haaretz on Saturday that they had low expectations of any major developments. "No breakthrough is expected on the resumption of the negotiations during this visit," a source said.
And with the 'progress' Mitchell made on this trip, we won't expect a breakthrough ever.
The senior U.S. officials said they were still working on a formula that could restart talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. They say Mitchell would not be carrying a letter of assurances to Israel and the Palestinians.
"We are frustrated but not disheartened," a senior official said. "No breakthrough is expected but we are continuing with our efforts. There are still things we have not tried."
The Americans said Mitchell would continue in his efforts and did not plan to resign.
On the Israeli side, too, officials have low expectations. Netanyahu stressed to Mitchell during their meeting Thursday that the prime minister would commit to a series of goodwill gestures but would not carry them out unless the Palestinians announce that they are returning to the negotiating table. "The key to the resumption of talks is not with us but with the Palestinians," said a senior Israeli official familiar with Mitchell's recent talks
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/25/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION WAFF > CYPRUS MAY SPLIT LIKE CZECHOSLOVAKIA: TURKISH CYPRIOTS SAY.
HMMMMM, CZECHOSLOVAKIA ala SUDENTENLAND ["MUNICH" + SSSSSHHH Hitler-Stalin Non-Aggression Pact}
versus
YUGOSLAVIA > POST-COLD WAR BREAKUP + CIVIL WAR + BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA???
The Foreign Ministry on Monday announced that it had refused Belgian minister Charles Michel's request for a visa to enter the Gaza Strip.
Deputy Foreign Ministry Danny Ayalon told Michel that Israel could not accede to the demand because such a move would be seen as a gesture to the Hamas. Ayalon added that any aide Belgium planned to grant the Islamist movement would fall into the hands of militants, rather than being distributed among Gaza's needy.
Michel said in response to the rejection that European officials must be able to visit the territory to take part in the aid projects underway there. "This situation is unacceptable," he told RTL TV.
Israel has refused a number of similar requests from foreign ministers of various countries, including that of Turkey, France and the European Union's foreign policy chief. Officials can enter Gaza from Egypt, however.
Then let them go bother the Egyptians for permission to pass through their security wall.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/25/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Israel should note that as long as European prosecutors continue to threaten Israeli officials with arrest, using international warrants, Israel can hardly offer free passage to European officials. Quid pro quo, baby.
#4
Feckless Chas Michel attended an AIDs conference recently and said his eyes met those of Carla Bruni Sarkozy. He claimed it was coup de foudre (unforgetable moment) between the two. She failed to see the humour however and he later retracted.
#6
Precisely TW, haunted for eternity. Even if factual and I doubt it is, gentlemen should never experience le coup de foudre and tell. Falls quite squarely into the never 'monkey with another monkey's monkey' rule of personal conduct. Especially when it's the wife of a president.
#7
He claimed it was coup de foudre (unforgetable moment) between the two
Could be different in Balgium (doubt it) but in France it means definitely "love at first sight" not the kind of things Carla Bruni or her huasaband would be pleased about.
Iran has acquired surface-to-air missiles modified with chemical weapons. Western intelligence sources said Iran has acquired modified SA-2 air defense systems from North Korea. They said Pyongyang has converted the SA-2 from a surface-to-air to a surface-to-surface missile. "The North Koreans took an old clunky SAM system and turned it into a tactical non-conventional missile with excellent accuracy," an intelligence source said.
The sources said Iran was believed to have acquired the converted SA-2 in 2008. The system has been deployed along the Iranian coast near Qatar in what has become escalated regional tension.
The heritage SA-2, a 1950s-era Soviet SAM, has an interception range of 35 kilometers. But the sources said the new surface-to-surface variant could strike at distances of more than 200 kilometers, allowing Iran to conduct precision strikes on nearby Gulf Cooperation Council states. Depends on how you define "precision".
North Korea has installed a CW warhead on the modified SA-2 missile. The sources did not provide any data on the warhead, but said it could destroy strategic facilities, including desalination plants and liquefied natural gas complexes. Chemical weapons don't destroy facilities, they kill the people running them and, depending on the chemical used, keep you from getting them running again for a extended period of time. Problem is, you need to dump a lot of chemicals on a target to do the job right. Back in the day, NATO expected the USSR to use mass volleys of rockets and artillery to deliver tons of nerve agent. The SA-2 Guideline had a conventional warhead with 130kg of HE. That's a small amount of chemicals in the military sense, but enough for a terror strike.
"This has given Iran a strategic capability against Qatar," the source said.
#3
A SAM has a tiny warhead compared to a conventional surface to surface missile. I can't see the logic behind using these unless it is a last, desperate hail mary.
#4
South Korea's first SSM was a modified Nike SAM. Increased payload can be traded for less range.
I can't see the logic behind using these unless it is a last, desperate hail mary.
Flatter trajectory and muli-mach speeds means less reaction time.
Posted by: ed ||
01/25/2010 18:11 Comments ||
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#5
ION WMF > USDOD ANTI-INTERVENTION STUDY EXPLORES OPTIONS ON HOW US FORCES CAN SUCCESSFULLY FIGHT AGZ MILITANTS ON A LIMITED TACTICAL NUCLEAR BATTLEFIED-THEATER.
IIRC as INDIA = INDJUH MIL would describe it, A POSSIBLE-BUT-NOT-ABSOLUTE/REQUIRED
"UMBRELLA/OVERHANG OF NUCLEAR WARFARE-WEAPONS" BATTLE CONDITION.
IOW, the USDOD = USA is anticipating that ISLAMIST-WORLD MILTERR GROUPS WILL IN TIME DE FACTO "GO NUKULAAR", i.e POSSESS VARIOUS TYPES OF ADVANC NUCLEAR, TAC + STRATEGIC NBC-CBRN(E) WEAPONS.
"DIRTY", OR OTHERWISE.
* Lest we fergit, NEWSMAX > THE JIHADI DECADE COMETH.
Once again, the most dangerous period of the WOT for the US-WORLD LIES AHEAD OF US, NOT BEHIND US, + IS EXCLUSIVE OF ANY LT LOCAL, GLOBAL ECON PROBLEMS.
[Iran Press TV Latest] A senior Iranian official said Sunday that the reason behind the animosity toward the country is its "soft power and compelling logic."
Deputy Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Baqeri told reporters in Croatia that animosity has forced the West to politicize Iran's nuclear energy program.
"Iran's nuclear stance is the full implementation of the articles of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by all countries," Baqeri added.
Iran says its nuclear program is aimed at the civilian applications of the technology. However, the West accuses Tehran of seeking nuclear weaponry.
Baqeri said as a signatory to the NPT, Iran respects and fulfills its obligation under the treaty.
He said "certain powers," including the United States, which have produced and used nuclear weapons, continue to test new generations of the weapon.
He also called upon the international community to hold responsible the governments that have provided Israel with "atomic bombs."
Israel, which has refused to sign the NPT, maintains a policy of deliberate ambiguity on whether it has nuclear weapons or not.
However, in May 2008, former US President Jimmy Carter admitted that Tel Aviv is in possession of at least 150 atomic weapons.
"The US has more than 12,000 nuclear weapons; the Soviet Union has about the same; Great Britain and France have several hundred, and Israel has 150 or more," President Carter told a press conference at the annual literary Hay Festival in Wales.
Iran, on many occasions, has called on nuclear-armed powers to rid themselves of weapons of mass destruction.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/25/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Nothing here a good earthquake can't fix. And let's turn it up to 11 this time, shall we?
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says he will soon give "good news" regarding the 20-percent enriched fuel needed for a medical research reactor in Tehran.
President Ahmadinejad told reporters on Sunday that he will announce the news during the coming weeks, which commemorate the Dahe-ye Fajr (the 10 Days of Dawn) and the lead-up to the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
"Anyone would be glad to hear the wonderful news as it is about the country's recent achievements in science and technology," said Ahmadinejad.
The Iranian President did not elaborate further on the issue.
This comes as Iran has been waiting for the West's response to a proposed nuclear deal for the research reactor in Tehran that produces medical isotopes.
The six major powers involved in nuclear talks with Iran have proposed that Tehran accept the draft deal which requires it to send most of its home-produced low enriched uranium abroad to be converted into more refined fuel for the reactor.
Citing the West's numerous breach of contract in the past, Tehran has declared that the proposal does not provide enough guarantees that the West would fulfill its commitments.
Instead, the officials in Tehran have asserted that they will accept the draft deal if the swap takes place in the Iranian southern island of Kish.
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01/25/2010 00:00 ||
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JERUSALEM - A top Israeli military commander on Sunday denied that there were rising tensions with the armed Hezbollah group along the Lebanon border a day after an Israeli minister warned of a new war. Reports of another imminent round of fighting represent a virtual escalation' with no basis in reality, Major General Gadi Eizenkot of the northern command told Israeli media at a conference in Tel Aviv.
Israel and Hezbollah fought to a bloody stalemate in the summer of 2006, with 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians, and more than 160 Israelis, mostly soldiers, killed in the war.
(Hezbollah) hasn't executed an attack since the Second Lebanon War,' Eizenkot said. But Hezbollah is getting stronger and we are preparing for all options in order to be able to act effectively.'
His remarks came the day after Yossi Peled, a minister without portfolio, said Israel was heading toward a new confrontation' with the group.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sought to dispel tensions following Peled's remarks by issuing a statement stressing that Israel does not wish at all to have a confrontation with Lebanon.' The Jewish state seeks peace with Lebanon and with all its neighbours,' the statement added.
Eizenkot said that despite the calm the Lebanese Shiite militia had doubled its arsenal of rockets since the war and warned that the Israeli response to any attack would be disproportionate.'
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/25/2010 00:00 ||
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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.
Iraqi lawmakers have demanded the withdrawal of a UK-made bomb detection device after the British government said it doesn't work and its manufacturer was arrested on suspicion of fraud.
U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, held his second meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 48 hours in Amman on Sunday and pledged continued efforts to ensure the creation of a "viable" Palestinian state. In remarks to reporters after the meeting, Mitchell said the United States would press ahead with efforts for the accomplishment of the "two-state solution." 
