Afghan intelligence agents have said they are investigating links between Pakistan and Taliban militants who killed 26 people in three simultaneous suicide bomb and gun raids on state offices in the capital, Kabul.
The three coordinated raids on two ministries and a prisons department office on February 11 show a new tactic by the Taliban, who have previously only attacked one target at a time.
The raids may have been inspired by last year's attacks in Mumbai, India, and were designed to cause maximum panic and publicity, but analysts said Afghan forces blunted the effect by acting quickly to kill the militants.
"As they were entering the Ministry of Justice before starting their indiscriminate killing of the civilians in there, they sent three messages to Pakistan calling for the blessing of their mastermind," Afghan intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh said.
The National Directorate of Security is investigating the possible link to Pakistan, a spokesman for the state intelligence agency said on February 12.
Since the beginning of last year, the Taliban and their allies have launched fewer attacks inside the heavily guarded capital, but those they have carried out have tended to be against high-profile targets designed to grab media attention.
The February 11 attacks also came on the eve of the first official visit to Afghanistan by President Barack Obama's new regional special representative, Richard Holbrooke.
"These suicide bombers were not the ordinary Taliban type of suicide bombers who come and blow themselves up somewhere. They had rifles as well and their aim was not to immediately explode themselves," said Haroun Mir, political analyst and co-founder of the Afghanistan Center for Research and Policy Studies.
"It was in my opinion to take hostages and continue the way they did in Mumbai, to paralyze Kabul and hopefully inflict a big blow to Mr. Holbrooke's trip to Afghanistan. This trip is a very important trip to Afghanistan."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009 00:00 ||
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More than a year after the deployment of the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur (UNAMID), the UN is still begging the international community for the helicopters the peacekeepers need to do their jobs.
In an interview ahead of UNAMID's deployment, its commander, General Martin L. Agwai of Nigeria, said he needed a minimum of 18 utility helicopters to carry out his mission successfully. Speaking in November 2007, Agwai told AllAfrica: "As of today, there is no country in the world that has volunteered to give us that capability - zero."
Nine months later, Agwai's force still had no helicopters. In response, an international coalition of activists published a report assessing which countries had the type of machine needed for Darfur.
The report concluded that six countries were best placed to supply the mission. It said that, between them, India, Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Italy, Romania and Spain could provide 70 helicopters. The report added that 14 nations in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) could come up with a total of 104 helicopters: among the bigger contributors, Italy might be able to supply 13, the Ukraine 14 and the United States 30.
This week, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reported to the UN Security Council that UNAMID's strength had grown to 12,541 military personnel, representing 64 percent of the 19,555 mandated by the UN. But with violence escalating in Darfur, he said the impact of the extra peacekeepers had been limited by "logistical constraints." Among them: the continued absence of the 18 medium utility helicopters the mission needed.
"The provision of outstanding equipment, in particular military helicopter assets, remains critical to increasing the mobility and operational impact of the mission," Ban told the Security Council. "I reiterate my appeal to member states who are in a position to provide these mission-critical capabilities to do so without further delay."
Ban did note what he called a "welcome development" - one country had offered tactical helicopters. The country? Ethiopia. The number of helicopters? Five.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
i'm sure we'll be giving them 118 brand new ones now
#3
What would be the cost for a Euro NATO country to put a helicopter support squadron into Darfur? Two dozen copters with pilots, ground crews, proper support and security would do. Perhaps each major Euro country could sign up for a year's duty. Start with France, or maybe Germany.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/14/2009 15:41 Comments ||
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A Russian daily claims Somali pirates hijacked Israeli-owned Ukrainian vessel MV Faina after a tip-off about its destination and cargo. A Georgian cell operator directed the call from the port city of Odessa, Kommersant quoted Ukrainian security sources as saying.
Pirates captured the arms-laden Faina along with its 21 crewmembers in the Indian Ocean on September 25, 2008, sparking international concern over the possible sales of its sophisticated military cargo. The ship was released after 20 weeks on February 5, when pirates received a $3.2 million ransom.
Faina's Israeli owner Vadim Alperin was accused of delaying the release by refusing to directly negotiate with pirates. Media outlets also raised questions over the real destination of the cargo, citing sources in Somalia who claimed the shipment was purchased by Kenya to arm Sudanese rebels in the Darfur region.
The Kenyan government has denied the allegations.
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02/14/2009 00:00 ||
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U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday offered North Korea a peace treaty, normal ties and aid if it eliminates its nuclear arms program and stressed her desire to work more cooperatively with China.
Speaking ahead of a trip to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China next week, Clinton also said North Koreans deserved political rights, urged Myanmar to free opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and, in a comment that may irk Beijing, said Tibetans and all Chinese deserved religious freedom.
Searching for a way to end North Korea's nuclear programs is likely to be one of the main topics on Clinton's week-long trip to Asia that will also cover the global financial crisis and climate change.
"If North Korea is genuinely prepared to completely and verifiably eliminate their nuclear weapons program, the Obama administration will be willing to normalise bilateral relations, replace the peninsula's long-standing armistice agreements with a permanent peace treaty, and assist in meeting the energy and other economic needs of the North Korean people," Clinton said at New York's Asia Society.
While the offer echoes an approach ultimately pursued by former U.S. President George W. Bush, in emphasizing it Clinton was underlining U.S. President Barack Obama's desire to revive diplomacy with the secretive, communist nation.
However, Clinton also said she hoped North Korea, which has unleashed a salvo of bellicose rhetoric in recent weeks and is reported to have made preparations for a long-range missile test, would not engage in what she called "provocative" actions that would make it more difficult to work with Pyongyang.
Talks to end North Korea's nuclear arms program have been stalled for months. Pyongyang complains that aid given in return for crippling its nuclear plant at Yongbyon is not being delivered as promised in a six-party deal it struck with China, Japan, Russia, South Korea and the United States.
The secretive North has balked at a demand by the other powers that it commit to a system to verify claims it made about its nuclear program, leaving the talks in limbo.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
ION KOREAS, TOPIX > ARTILLERY BUILDUP SEEN ALONG KOREAN BORDERS [mainly NOKOR 100-mm Arty, up approxi 30% since 2007]; + NORTH KOREA VOWS TO "CRUSH" SOUTH KOREA ["maritme sea border" row]; + US SPY/INTEL CHIEF: NORTH KOREAN NUKES ARE FOR SURVIVAL [defensive], NOT WAR [offensive]. Nukes are NOKOR's last-ditch = final option in case of threat to regime.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is making key decisions, recovering ''significantly'' from a stroke he is believed to have suffered last August, the U.S. Office of National Intelligence said in an annual report Thursday. ''Kim probably suffered a stroke in August that incapacitated him for several weeks, hindering his ability to operate as actively as he did before the stroke,'' according to the annual threat assessment report National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair submitted to Congress. Good to hear it. How's his megalomania and his bipolar syndrome?
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
it really affected his golf game - last week he shot a 30
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/14/2009 8:01 Comments ||
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#2
Smile pls, think of em field guidance at movie time
lifter your armers like too fly over sea of fire pls
Whicher Juche year you hatched?
SEOUL, Feb. 12 (Yonhap) -- In a rare extensive military shakeup, North Korea said its leader Kim Jong-il appointed a new defense minister and chief of General Staff, spawning speculations about his intentions as cross-border tension mounts. Unusual in that it was even announced, the reshuffle reported by the state-run media on Wednesday has drawn attention because of the sensitive timing.
The new top military brass appeared to be combat savvy and are known to be close confidants to Kim, analysts said. The shakeup should not be overstretched to portend imminent military action, they cautioned, but seems to carry an intended message -- the aging leader is still in firm control of the North's military even after a reported stroke in August, and any important decisions, including missile activities and the naming of his successor, will be his own.
Cha Doo-hyeogn, a North Korea specialist with the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, a state-run think tank, said the North Korean leader maintains his absolute power by regularly changing the top military leaders. "Kim promotes the military as the nation's top priority, but he knows the danger of it. Characteristic of a regime controlled by one man, the leader does not give all the power to a single person," Cha said. "With the shakeup, Kim Jong-il is showing that he is powerful and is the only one who can decide on military action and a successor."
North Korean reports gave no background information, but the new appointees are believed to be veteran soldiers credited for their combat strategies than for their political connections, analysts said. Kim Yong-chun, new minister of the People's Armed Forces of the National Defense Commission, equivalent to South Korea's defense minister, orchestrated the North's military when its navy clashed with South Korea along the volatile western sea border in 1999 and 2002, leaving scores of soldiers dead or wounded on both sides.
The western sea border was unilaterally drawn by the U.N. Command following the Korean War, and Pyongyang insists it should be redrawn farther south.
Little is known about another new official, Ri Yong-ho, the new chief of the Korean People's Army General Staff, the counterpart to Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff. Ri's predecessor issued a warning on Jan. 17 that the North's military will take an "all-out confrontational posture" against South Korea if Seoul adheres to its hardline policy.
Seoul analysts cautioned against reading too much into the shakeup. Paik Hak-soon of the Sejong Institute, an independent think tank, said while the timing is noteworthy the North Korean leader customarily changes officials to keep their power in check. Who takes the posts is not so important, as the military is controlled by the party in the North Korean system," he said. "It would be extreme to connect this to a missile decision or a border clash."
Seoul officials described North Korea's announcement of the shakeup as "unusual." It may be an internal message aimed at drawing citizens' attention to the heightened tension with South Korea, said Lee Sang-min, an official with the Unification Ministry in charge of North Korean politics.
More reshuffles may follow as North Korea holds sham parliamentary elections on March 8, in which some analysts say young technocrats will be promoted to prepare for the post-Kim Jong-il era.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I don't know what to think of this article. North Korea hasn't been involved in a military operation in 50 years. They might have all kinds of "strategies" but they are all untested.
Does anyone really believe the NorKs could actually feed and fuel an army in the field for any significant period of time? I believe the country would fall over under the weight of a complete mobilization.
#5
Any extended campaign would assume Nork control of the air and that is just not happening : the Norks are lucky to get 150 hours a year in the air, they are short on spares for all aircraft, and the South Koreans have a well-integrated air defense system with Nike Hercules, Patriot, Stinger, and other missile systems. Also, the SKAF has modern fighters with modern missiles, and fly the Western standard of hours in their aircraft.
Another consideration for the Norks is just how many of their mortars and cannons will be functional once they start their super barrage : Nork Quality Assurance is not very high, and a 120mm mortar detonating in its tube eliminates that crew and weapon.
#6
The only hope the NorKs would have is to deploy more targets than we can shoot. Considering that we are going to clobber anything that is moving, and we aren't going to present them with any targets to shoot back at. We would, I assume, hammer them with stand-off weapons that are extremely accurate, possibly with additional targeting provided by drones that would be nearly impossible to see, let alone hit.
They have a military that is basically 1960's and 1970's technology. They are going to get hammered but good and not able to hit back at what is hitting them.
Their first response once their attrition rate gets too high is to simply stay still and try not to use the radio. At that point the advance stops and we have, for all practical purposes won. If they can't move, can't communicate, and don't have anything to shoot at, they won't be a very effective fighting force.
Their only hope would be that Obama is such a coward that he won't have the stomach to get involved.
SEOUL, Feb. 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's foreign minister on Thursday urged North Korea to stop its reported preparations for another missile test, warning it would otherwise face a slew of international sanctions. Yu Myung-hwan echoed strong warnings by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates against Pyongyang's latest provocative moves, saying a missile launch would "seriously imperil not only inter-Korean relations but also the security of the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia."
Intelligence reports emerged recently that North Korea is preparing to test-launch a Taepodong-2 missile, which is supposedly capable of striking the western United States.
"Such a behavior by North Korea will lead only to its isolation," the minister said in his monthly press briefing. If North Korea fires the missile, Yu said, it would constitute a clear breach of U.N. resolutions 1795 and 1718, adopted after the communist nation's missile and nuclear tests in 2006.
Good luck with getting the UN to help out ...
"I would like to use this opportunity to say again that given the the vast sanctions ...(conducting a launch) is anything but in the interest of North Korea," he said.
The foreign minister refused to comment on how prepared the North's may be to carry out such a missile test, saying it is a matter of military intelligence.
He added the North's recent behavior will be discussed in his meeting with Clinton in Seoul next week, as well as joint strategy to deal with Pyongyang's nuclear program and the future of the Seoul-Washington alliance. Clinton is scheduled to visit Seoul from Feb. 19-20 as part of her first regional tour with stops in Japan, Indonesia, and China.
The U.S. has informed South Korea that Clinton will listen to the opinions of the countries and discuss the "big picture," Yu said.
And then stab you in the back ...
"In that sense, we plan to discuss the big picture of the South Korea-U.S. alliance and talk about how to handle the North Korean issue, as well as have broad consultations on ways to coordinate policy on global agendas such as terrorism, climate change, and financial crisis," he said.
Asked whether South Korea had information on who will be Washington's envoy to Pyongyang, Yu avoided a direct answer. "I am not in a position to confirm," he said, about reports naming former U.S. ambassador to Seoul Stephen Bosworth. Foreign news agencies reported Bosworth is likely to be tapped the new U.S. envoy to six-party talks, a forum also joined by South and North Korea, China, Russia, and Japan aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear development. Reports said the U.S. is expected to announce the choice before Clinton's Asia tour.
"I just would like to say that he has expertise and a lot of experience on Korean affairs," Yu said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Having a Clinton at DoS and Bambi in charge concentrates the mind wonderfully.
VILNIUS - Lithuania is to begin talks with the United States on taking in two prisoners from the controversial US Guantanamo detention facility on Cuba, Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas said Friday. ‘On February 5 we received an official request from the United States to contribute to the resolution of the Guantanamo question,’ Usackas said.
The US asked Lithuania to ‘host two people’, he added. ‘It is a request from our close friends, a particularly important ally,’ the minister said, adding that talks would begin next week in Lithuania.
Sure hope the mooks like snow ...
A final decision would come ‘within several months,’ he said, adding: ‘Whether we decide to host these people will depend on whether they represent a danger to national security.
‘The persons concerned will also have to express their full agreement to come to Lithuania,’ the minister added.
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02/14/2009 00:00 ||
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Little more than a year after U.S. spy agencies concluded that Iran had halted work on a nuclear weapon, the Obama administration has made it clear that it believes there is no question that Tehran is seeking the bomb. They made that position pretty clear in the election campaign.
In his news conference this week, President Obama went so far as to describe Iran's "development of a nuclear weapon" before correcting himself to refer to its "pursuit" of weapons capability. That's clarifying, not correcting. The One does not make mistakes.
Obama's nominee to serve as CIA director, Leon E. Panetta, left little doubt about his view last week when he testified on Capitol Hill. "From all the information I've seen," Panetta said, "I think there is no question that they are seeking that capability." And we know Penatella has a lot of intelligence background and experience to draw upon in reaching that conclusion.
The language reflects the extent to which senior U.S. officials now discount a National Intelligence Estimate issued in November 2007 that was instrumental in derailing U.S. and European efforts to pressure Iran to shut down its nuclear program. U. S> and European? Seemed like it was all Bush at the time. Now the CIA is going to have to change its mind again so The One can implement Bush's policies after throwing some bones to the useful idiots who got him elected?
As the administration moves toward talks with Iran, Obama appears to be sending a signal that the United States will not be drawn into a debate over Iran's intent. "Ich gewann."
"When you're talking about negotiations in Iran, it is dangerous to appear weak or naive," That's going to be a pretty tall order for Bambi given what has gone down in the last month.
said Joseph Cirincione, a nuclear weapons expert and president of the Ploughshares Fund, an anti-proliferation organization based in Washington. Hmm. Wonder what their pressers said a year ago.
Cirincione said the unequivocal language also worked to Obama's political advantage. "It guards against criticism from the right that the administration is underestimating Iran," he said. Those fools on the right are always suckers for falling in line behind policies that are rational and in the nations best interest even if they don't help them politically. What fools. Bwahahahaha.
Iran has long maintained that it aims to generate electricity, not build bombs, with nuclear power. But Western intelligence officials and nuclear experts increasingly view those claims as implausible. Fingers in the air.
U.S. officials said that although no new evidence had surfaced to undercut the findings of the 2007 estimate, there was growing consensus that it provided a misleading picture and that the country was poised to reach crucial bomb-making milestones this year. What has changed? Hmmm. Let me get a CIA analyst to see if we can figure this out.
Obama's top intelligence official, Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence, is expected to address mounting concerns over Iran's nuclear program in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee today. Maybe he can tell us what has changed since January 19th, 2009.
When it was issued, the NIE stunned the international community. It declared that U.S. spy agencies judged "with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program." Traitors.
#3
but he made big speeches and promised alot of shit. I thought he was the greatest thing since sliced bread, i 'm beginning too wonder if he will even want another term after the first month of this one
#5
Been said before - Obama represents the final triumph of style over substance, but now even the style is slipping. I suspect theres a lot of buyer's remorse out there with more to come.
Posted by: Hupaiting Scourge of the Apes6083 ||
02/14/2009 13:32 Comments ||
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#6
For the Big O administration, it is a race between total control of the country and collapse of the administration.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
02/14/2009 14:01 Comments ||
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#8
Obama scares me more than Pakistan.The damage he and the donks have already done to our childrens future is immense, with more to follow.....
Wait till we seem the accommodations coming for mooselimbs here, and a renewed focus on "right-wing domestic terrorists", right after the fairness doctrine passes and what's left of the actual American people realize what has been done to permanent end the Republic. As we organize and dissent, Domestic Terrorism becomes the focus, then gun control, then......
US President Barack Obama will soon tell Pakistan about a new American strategy on drone attacks, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Friday. According to a private TV channel, the foreign minister told a British radio station that Pakistan had already demanded that the United States stop drone attacks in the Tribal Areas. He said Pakistan had fully cooperated with the US in the war on terror.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009 00:00 ||
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Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar has denied that US drone attacks in the Tribal Areas are being carried out from Pakistani airbases. "We do have the facilities from where they can fly, but they are not being flown from Pakistani territory. They are being flown from Afghanistan," he told a private TV channel. About comments by the US Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Diane Feinstein, Mukhtar said, "I do not know on what she based all this."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009 00:00 ||
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A military operation is not the only solution to the Swat situation, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Friday, adding that other measures would be taken to tackle the situation. He told journalists after a meeting at the Planning Commission that every step would be taken, with consultation of the provincial government, to restore peace in Swat. Asked about whether Pakistan expects a similar response from India over the Samjhota Express tragedy, as the latter did for the Mumbai attacks, the premier said additional information has been sought from India. He said that action would be taken accordingly after receiving the information. Regarding the award of tickets to the Senate, the premier said a board appointed by the Pakistan People's Party had decided on the people to be nominated.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009 00:00 ||
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The government has no alternative except to use force against the Taliban to end militancy in the country, President Asif Ali Zardari said on Friday while vowing to eliminate the insurgents.
He was addressing a meeting jointly presided over by the president and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to review the situation in FATA and Swat.
The president said the Taliban wanted to impose their political agenda on the people of Pakistan through use of force, adding that the government and the people would never allow a handful of insurgents to do so. Paying tribute to the bravery and patriotism of the members of law enforcement agencies, he said many of them had laid their lives on the line and many more had been injured in the line of duty. "They are our heroes," he said.
ISI chief: During the meeting, sources said Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha gave a detailed briefing on the current situation in Swat and FATA and the ongoing efforts of law enforcement agencies to restore normalcy in the troubled areas.
The participants expressed satisfaction with the ongoing fight against the Taliban, and vowed to continue until the Taliban had been removed and the government's writ had been restored.
Earlier, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the COAS called on the president at the Presidency and discussed various security concerns. They also discussed the Indian response to the Pakistani investigations and said Pakistan was committed to bringing anyone involved in the Mumbai attack to justice.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009 00:00 ||
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Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud has severed contacts with Swat Taliban chief Mulla Fazlullah for "unknown reasons", a 17-year-old boy who has left the ranks of the Taliban revealed on Friday, a private TV channel reported.
The boy, seeking anonymity, told the channel that he had met Fazlullah three times and had quit the Taliban at his father's insistence.
He disclosed that about 12,000 Taliban, including 2,000 aged between 11 and 15 years, were being trained at a facility run by the Taliban in the mountains of Swat. He said most of the recruits belonged to poor families and had volunteered to fight for the Taliban. The boy claimed that the Taliban in Swat were 'receiving' weapons from Dir, Bajaur Agency and Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009 00:00 ||
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Zaki ur Rehman Lakhvi, an alleged mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, was given in the custody of Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) team which conducted the Mumbai probe. According to sources of the investigation team, Lakhvi was in the custody of intelligence agencies until now but after the registration of an F.I.R, his custody was handed over to investigation team for further interrogation. Sources further told that parents of Ajmal Kasab, lone surviving gunman captured during the Mumbai attacks, had been shifted to Islamabad. The investigation team is involving activists of the banned outfits in the probe for arresting two others accused Abu Hamza and Abu-al-Kama. They will be arrested soon, sources told. "Yep. Yep. All we gotta do is round 'em up! How many guys named 'Abu Hamza' are there in Pakistain, anyway?"
Lakhvi is likely to be produced before an Anti Terrorism Court on Saturday, seeking his physical remand. "Bailiff! Nail his foot to the floor!"
[BANG! BANG!]
"Owwww!"
This article starring:
ABU AL KAMA
Lashkar-e-Taiba
AJMAL KASAB
Lashkar-e-Taiba
ZAKI UR REHMAN LAKHVI
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009 00:00 ||
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Pakistan on Friday urged India to "come clean on multiple facets of the Mumbai tragedy" and expose those responsible for acts of "commission and omission" to help uncover full facts and bring the perpetrators to justice. Boy, I am such a dullard! For the life of me, I can't understand why, if Pakistain -- or "plausibly deniable non-state actors" send kill teams to India, why India has to "come clean" and expose people responsbile for acts of "commission and omission."
Responding to a statement by Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee at Lok Sabha, the foreign office said Pakistan expects India to come clean on multiple facets of the Mumbai tragedy. They aleady said that once...
It also demanded India to "expose the names of persons and entities in India who were also responsible for acts of commission and omission in a transparent manner." Pakistan said the reality of Mumbai attacks were increasingly getting mixed with compulsions of domestic politics in India. Actually they're not. Pak is trying to obfuscate them into some sort of mixture, but it's a success only in the minds of Pak politicians and generals, retired or otherwise.
Mukherjee told Lok sabha, a day after Pakistan's response to the Indian dossier; "Authorities in Pakistan have to choose the kind of relationship that they want with India in future; much depends on actions in the Mumbai case reaching their logical conclusion." Sounds like they've made their choice, doesn't it?
The spokesman said Pakistan has so far refrained from commenting on Indian internal affairs. "We have acted with a high sense of responsibility and exercised restraint," he added. "Mukherjee's remarks are essentially a rehash of the standard Indian line against Pakistan and in complete variance with the imperatives of a serious approach to uncover the "full facts "relating to Mumbai attacks and bringing the perpetrators to justice," the foreign office statement said. I think the standard Indian line against Pakistain is that they're all nuts. Events to date seem to bear out that assessment.
The Spokesman said "we have a distinct sense that the reality of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, which were whole-heartedly condemned by the international community and Pakistan, is getting increasingly mixed with compulsions of domestic politics in India." To the extent that parties within India want something done about the attacks, which were on their sovreign territory. Some parties are more timid than others, and still others are looking toward their own political gain, but nobody's harboring warm fuzzies toward Pakistain except for possibly Dar ul-Uloom Deoband.
Mukherjee told the parliament that India will continue to review the situation, including Pakistan's responses "and will take further steps that we deem necessary to protect our people." Twist it as you will, that sez they haven't dropped the matter, and they're not going to let Pak drop the matter.
The foreign office spokesman said "the Government of Pakistan expects India to come clean on the multiple facets of the Mumbai tragedy and expose the names of persons and entities in India who were also responsible for acts of commission and omission in a transparent manner." That's the third time they've repeated that, word for word.
The spokesman said Pakistan has offered India a hand of cooperation. "We do so in the interest of regional peace and security," the statement said. Then his lips fell off.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Steel don't burn, come clean and let the troofers set you free.
Thousands of people on Friday marched through streets of Mingora to demand an end to the ongoing military operation in restive Swat valley. Despite heavy rains, thousands of protestors gathered in Odigram area, on the outskirts of Mingora to register their protest. They called for government to immediately halt the military operation and make all out efforts for the restoration of peace in the troubled valley. The protestors were holding placards and banners inscribed with slogans of Shariah. They chanted slogans in support of Shariah law.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009 00:00 ||
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Iraq's senior cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has suggested his anti-US movement could return to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's Shia alliance. "If there is an intention to reform policies and put in new systems and controls that are not ethnic or sectarian or partisan and include all political powers ... we are with this idea," Sadr said in a Friday prayers message read out in mosques.
Found out you're irrelevant, eh ...
He also urged all Iraqi factions to join hands to make the new policies take effect, and defeat the enemies of the nation. That'd be us, of course.
The remarks follow Iraq's January 31 provincial elections, in which Sadr-backed candidates became the second-largest party next to Maliki's allies in several provinces, including the capital Baghdad.
Sadr's comments echo a call the premier following the polls, in which he urged political parties to work together to strengthen provincial councils and help rebuild the war-torn country. "The hearts of Iraqis no longer have patience with the lack of services" in the country, Sadr said. "Alliances should not be with the former sectarian power that has brought us previous wars and hunger, and should also avoid the powers that tend towards the former regime," he added.
The Free Independent Movement, backed by Sadr, has said that it may return to the United Iraqi Alliance, which includes Maliki's Dawa party, under the conditions. In September 2007, 32 Sadrist lawmakers quitted the United Iraqi Alliance, complaining that Maliki had stopped seeking their consultation after a dispute over a timeline for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/14/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
of course, Mooky is still hiding in Iran, right? P*ssy
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/14/2009 8:07 Comments ||
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#2
Maybe he'll come home for spring break. Anyone seen his grades? What's the situation with the scholarship? Does he have a letter-sweater yet? If not, why not?
Only 288 were innocent civilians, the report says. The Palestinians reported 1,330 fatalities but did not submit their names.
The intense three weeks of fighting, which erupted on December 27, has killed more than 1,300 people and injured thousands in Gaza. A shaky cease-fire was being implemented by both sides and a formal deal for a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas could be signed by next week, according to Hamas officials.
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Hamas deputy leader Moussa Abu Marzouk said on Thursday that his organization supports an 18-month truce with Israel, though it would not be linked to a prisoner exchange deal to free kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Schalit.
Reuters quoted Abu Marzouk as saying that the Egypt-mediated truce would be announced in the coming two or three days. "It will be in a short period, God willing... within two days," he said.
Abu Marzouk, in Cairo for truce talks with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, told Al-Jazeera that Hamas was waiting for Israel to approve the details of the emerging agreement.
Taher Nunu, another member of the Hamas delegation in Egypt, also said the cease-fire would be officially announced within three days. "Most of the obstacles preventing us from consolidating an agreement have already been solved," Nunu said, adding that the agreement would ensure an end to the fighting with Israel and the opening of the crossings into Gaza.
Earlier, a senior Egyptian official said "the discussions with Hamas representatives in Cairo were very successful" and an agreement would be signed as early as Thursday night.
The delegation also included Hamas "Foreign Minister" Mahmoud Zahar and Gaza legislator Salah Bardawil, an Egyptian official said.
Hamas would accept an 18-month truce if Israel stopped its "aggression," i.e. attacks, lifted its blockade and opened the Israeli border crossings with the Gaza Strip, the official said earlier Thursday.
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#1
Israel needs too grow some balls and tell them FOAD , sorry but Schalit is dead and they are still using him as a bargaining chip
(AKI) - The Islamist Hamas movement says it's ready to release kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and endorse a long-term truce with Israel, according to a report by Arab daily, al-Hayat. The report said Hamas would endorse the Egyptian-brokered deal providing Israel agreed to the list of prisoners Hamas is seeking in exchange for Shalit.
Shalit would be freed as part of a prisoner exchange with Israel that would see as many as 1,000 Palestinians, including women and children released. The move would be part of a broader 18-month truce between Hamas and Israel, due to be reached within two days.
"We have accepted the truce with the Israeli side for a year and a half, in which the six crossings between the Gaza Strip and Israel will be opened, while Israel has to stop any military aggression," said senior Hamas leader Mousa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, quoted by Egypt's state news agency MENA.
However, Marzouk said that Israel still had to agree to the list. "We want the release of our detainees in exchange for Shalit," said Marzouk, adding that Hamas has already submitted its preferred list of names of Palestinian prisoners. "If Israel agrees to our list, we will make the deal."
However, Hamas has demanded the release of 1,400 prisoners, but diplomats have said Israel would free closer to 1,000.
The truce says that Egypt must open the Rafah border crossings under supervision from international monitors and border guards. Turkey may also send a force to oversee operations at Rafah. There would also be a 300-metre buffer zone established along Gaza's border with Israel.
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The Israeli military said rockets fired from the Gaza Strip landed in southern Israel, causing no damage or injuries on Friday, a day after Hamas said it had accepted an Egyptian-brokered 18-month truce with the Jewish state, which Egypt would announce in 48 hours, a senior Hamas official said.
Senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzuk said after meeting with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman that Hamas had accepted the truce in return for the lifting of the Israeli blockade of Gaza.
"We have agreed to the truce with the Israeli side for one year and a half (in return) for the opening of all six passages between the Gaza Strip and Israel," MENA quoted him as saying.
Egypt will announce the agreement after contacting Israel and Palestinian factions, he said.
Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told AFP in Jerusalem that he did not wish to comment.
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#1
Hamas sees truce with Israel within 48 hours
Preparations to celebrate Truce(TM) with massive qassam salvo are well underway?
Trying to quiet her crying infant son, the young mother grabbed her 11-year-old's hand and told him to follow her. Starting out at dusk, they spent hours hiding in the jungle terrain, crouching amid the crossfire between the Sri Lankan army and Tamil Tiger rebels.
Like thousands of other civilians stuck in the epicenter of the seemingly final battles of this civil war, Sashi Kumari Selvarajha's family was struggling to flee through marshlands and across the front lines, hoping for safety, she said through tears. But just as they crossed the line, she said, rebel forces open fire.
"We started running on Monday night. But we didn't think it was safe. So we stopped to sleep in the jungle. As the sun rose, we fled. But my husband and mother-in-law got killed," said a distraught Selvarajha, 31, as she unloaded her bags at a crowded camp for the war-displaced in government-held Vavuniya District, where 2,000 haggard and dehydrated civilians arrived Wednesday. "I'm never going back to that place."
Hers is a rare firsthand account of the harrowing flight of thousands of civilians to this heavily fortified frontier town. It came as the Sri Lankan army said it would end a largely ineffective "safe zone," which health officials and diplomats said had been shelled by both sides. Instead, troops would set up a new safe zone on a 7.5-mile-long strip of land on the northeastern coast where civilians were already seeking refuge, Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara, a military spokesman, said Thursday.
Most civilians who flee the fighting are put into military-run camps that officially do not allow outsiders. Stone-faced and red-eyed relatives line up behind sandbags, coils of barbed wire and machine-gun nests as soldiers check their identity papers before they can find missing loved ones.
A brother and sister stood weeping inside the camp and told how their 41-year-old father was shot dead when they attempted to cross into government-held areas. Their mother and sister are fighting for their lives in Vavuniya's hospital.
"We lost our father. We lost everything," said Rasendran Nitha, 17, who huddled with her brother, Rasendran Radanraj, 20. "We don't know what to do. We desperately need peace in Sri Lanka."
As the army continues its offensive to end the 25-year-long rebel war, the Sri Lankan government has come under increasing international pressure to halt its offensive and allow an estimated 250,000 civilians trapped in the northern Wanni region safe passage.
The government has refused and also says the number of trapped civilians is lower. It argues that the Tigers, known for their frequent use of suicide bombers, are using civilians as human shields, a claim that rebels deny but that diplomats and human rights workers here agree is taking place.
Letting up on the fighting would allow the rebels to escape along with the displaced, President Mahinda Rajapakse's government has said. The United States has labeled the Tigers a terrorist group. The government says tens of thousands of civilians have fled the ever-shrinking coastal strip controlled by the Tigers, now estimated at less than 61 square miles.
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The United States signaled a willingness on Friday to slow plans for a missile defense shield in eastern Europe if Russia agreed to help stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
Plans for the shield have contributed to a deterioration in U.S.-Russian ties over the past few years, but the new administration of President Barack Obama has said it wants to press the "reset button" and build good relations with Moscow.
"If we are able to work together to dissuade Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapons capability, we would be able to moderate the pace of development of missile defenses in Europe," a senior U.S. administration official told Reuters.
It was the most explicit statement yet by an administration official linking the missile shield to Russia's willingness to help resolve the international stand-off over Iran's nuclear program.
He spoke as Undersecretary of State William Burns held talks in Moscow, the most senior U.S. official to do so since U.S. President Barack Obama took office last month.
Burns signaled the United States was ready to look at remodeling its missile defense plans to include Moscow.
"(Washington is) open to the possibility of cooperation, both with Russia and NATO partners, in relation to a new configuration for missile defense which would use the resources that each of us have," Interfax news agency quoted him as saying. Burns gave no details.
In another sign that strained relations may be thawing, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would meet Russia's foreign minister in Geneva next month.
The more flexible U.S. position on its missile shield addressed one of Russia's chief complaints against Washington. Moscow viewed the plan to site missiles in Poland and a radar tracking station in the Czech Republic as a threat to its security in its traditional backyard.
U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told a security conference in Munich, Germany, last week that the United States would press ahead with the missile defense shield, but only if it was proven to work and was cost-effective.
TACKLING IRAN
The Kremlin has been pressing Washington to give ground on the missile shield in exchange for Russia helping supply the U.S.-led military campaign in Afghanistan.
But the U.S. official in Washington focused on Iran.
"The impetus for the deployment of the missile defense systems is the threat from Iran. If it is possible to address that, then that needs to be taken into consideration as you look at the deployment of the system," the U.S. official said on condition of anonymity.
The United States has led a drive to isolate Iran over its nuclear program, which the West fears is a cover to develop atomic weapons and Tehran insists is for the peaceful generation of electricity. Continued...
A ship suspected of carrying arms from Iran to Gaza had no weaponry aboard but carried material for making munitions, Cyprus said Friday. Cypriot-flagged container ship Monchegorsk suspected by US of carrying an Iranian arms shipment bound for Hamas in Gaza anchors off the Cypriot port of Limassol last month.
Defense Minister Costas Papacostas said more than 90 containers loaded with "raw material that could be used in the manufacture of munitions" would be stored at a naval base.
The Cypriot-flagged Monchegorsk has anchored off the port of Limassol since it arrived Jan. 29 under suspicion from US officials of ferrying weapons from Iran to Hamas in Gaza.
The US military said it found artillery shells and other arms aboard the ship after stopping it last month in the Red Sea. But it could not legally detain the ship, which continued on to Cyprus.
On Wednesday, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman denied reports that the ship was carrying Iranian weapons destined for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said that Cypriot authorities had inquired about the ship's cargo but accusations that weapons were on board were baseless.
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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.
More than a year after the deployment of the joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force in Darfur (UNAMID), the UN is still begging the international community for the helicopters the peacekeepers need to do their jobs.
A Russian daily claims Somali pirates hijacked Israeli-owned Ukrainian vessel MV Faina after a tip-off about its destination and cargo. A Georgian cell operator directed the call from the port city of Odessa, Kommersant quoted Ukrainian security sources as saying. 
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il is making key decisions, recovering ''significantly'' from a stroke he is believed to have suffered last August, the U.S. Office of National Intelligence said in an annual report Thursday. ''Kim probably suffered a stroke in August that incapacitated him for several weeks, hindering his ability to operate as actively as he did before the stroke,'' according to the annual threat assessment report National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair submitted to Congress.
VILNIUS - Lithuania is to begin talks with the United States on taking in two prisoners from the controversial US Guantanamo detention facility on Cuba, Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas said Friday. ‘On February 5 we received an official request from the United States to contribute to the resolution of the Guantanamo question,’ Usackas said.
Defence Minister Ahmad Mukhtar has denied that US drone attacks in the Tribal Areas are being carried out from Pakistani airbases. "We do have the facilities from where they can fly, but they are not being flown from Pakistani territory. They are being flown from Afghanistan," he told a private TV channel. About comments by the US Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman Diane Feinstein, Mukhtar said, "I do not know on what she based all this."
A military operation is not the only solution to the Swat situation, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Friday, adding that other measures would be taken to tackle the situation. He told journalists after a meeting at the Planning Commission that every step would be taken, with consultation of the provincial government, to restore peace in Swat. Asked about whether Pakistan expects a similar response from India over the Samjhota Express tragedy, as the latter did for the Mumbai attacks, the premier said additional information has been sought from India. He said that action would be taken accordingly after receiving the information. Regarding the award of tickets to the Senate, the premier said a board appointed by the Pakistan People's Party had decided on the people to be nominated.
The government has no alternative except to use force against the Taliban to end militancy in the country, President Asif Ali Zardari said on Friday while vowing to eliminate the insurgents.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud has severed contacts with Swat Taliban chief Mulla Fazlullah for "unknown reasons", a 17-year-old boy who has left the ranks of the Taliban revealed on Friday, a private TV channel reported. 
Pakistan on Friday urged India to "come clean on multiple facets of the Mumbai tragedy" and expose those responsible for acts of "commission and omission" to help uncover full facts and bring the perpetrators to justice.
