The Pentagon Wednesday issued a downbeat assessment of the situation in Afghanistan , saying that only one in four Afghans in strategically important areas currently back President Hamid Karzai's government even as the Taliban expand their insurgency and install shadow local governments.
The report to Congress outlined some areas of progress, including a leveling off of violence during the last three months, improved counter-insurgency cooperation between Afghanistan and Pakistani and the finding that 84 percent of Afghans feel that security is good or fair.
Posted by: ed ||
04/29/2010 00:30 ||
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Pre-planned expectation management. No one is coming out of there in 2011 as the annointed one has indicated.
Saudi Arabia's top Islamic rule-makers reiterated on Wednesday that Muslims should pray in congregation in mosques. The clerics rebuffed an outspoken religious police official who nearly lost his job for saying that praying alone is fine.
The Standing Committee for Scientific Research and Issuing Fatwas Scientific research AND fatwas?
weighed in on the controversy over prayer sparked last week by Sheikh Ahmed al-Ghamdi, the reformist head of the religious police, or muttawa.
The committee cited Islamic tradition and texts to argue that congregational prayer in a mosque is a must, saying that even in a town with only three men, they must pray together, the official SPA news agency reported.
These days some newspapers publish articles by some authors who brush aside the importance of group prayer in the mosque,' the committee of top clerics said in remarks carried by the SPA.
There is no doubt that it is obligatory to follow the evidence from the Koran and the Sunnah which both call for group prayer in a mosque,' they said.
In an interview last week, Ghamdi had said Muslim men were not obligated to undertake the prayers in congregations, in or outside mosques.
That outraged the country's highest cleric Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh and within two days the president of the religious police whose cops have the duty to press men to attend prayers announced Ghamdi had been replaced. However, the announcement was mysteriously revoked hours later, with newspapers reporting that there was high-level intervention in the case.
Ghamdi also made news arguing that there was no foundation in Islamic law for Saudi rules banning mixing by unrelated men and women another key enforcement role of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or religious police.
Debate over the issue has heated up ever since King Abdullah opened a new science research university in September that allows an international body of students and professors to freely mix. Tightly restricted entry to the campus near Jeddah ensures few Saudis witness it, and the virtue-and-vice commission's enforcers are not allowed to enter.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2010 00:00 ||
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Yeah. You need to be here five times a day so we can keep tabs on ya. And,and, if you pray alone, you might get some nutty ideas.
Homicides in the Juárez drug war will soon surpass the 5,000 mark as a vicious conflict continues.
As of Sunday evening, there have been more than 760 murders this year, raising to 4,992 homicides in the Juárez area since 2008 when a drug cartel war erupted, according to a tally kept by the El Paso Times.
The war between the Sinaloa and Juárez drug cartels that began in January 2008 sparked an unprecedented wave of murder, including daytime street shootings, mutilations and massacres.
By comparison, the number of deaths in Juárez surpasses the 4,393 members of the U.S. military who have died in the Iraq war since 2003.
The killings in Juárez have been unrelenting.
On Saturday night, gunmen burst into a funeral vigil for a slain teenager and opened fire, killing three women and wounding 10 others at a house in the Independencia 2 colonia in the southern part of Juárez.
Chihuahua state police said the shooters fired 44 rounds. Police identified the dead as Maria del Carmen Rangel Chacon, 65, Sara Orosco Rangel, 46, and Ernestina Rubio Martinez, who was 55 to 60 years old.
Juárez was still reeling from the brazen ambush of a police patrol that killed six federal officers, a city policewoman and another man on Friday afternoon on a busy street.
Officials said Juárez police are on "red alert," and patrols would now be done in squads of three or four vehicles in an attempt to deter further attacks.
La Linea, or Juárez drug cartel, took credit for the deadly ambush according to a message spray-painted on a wall. The message accused federal police of working for drug lord Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman's rival Sinaloa cartel.
The Associated Press recently reported the Sinaloa cartel was believed to be winning the turf war against La Linea, which in a graffiti message denied it had lost control of the "plaza" or territory.
The Juárez mayor said recently that much of the recent violence was fighting among street gangs battling for control of retail drug distribution.
Mexican Sen. Ramon Galindo of Chihuahua cited the recent arrests of federal officers accused of extorting Juárez residents and urged authorities to purge corrupt officers sent to the border city. Federal officers earlier this year took control of the federal government's anti-crime operation in Juárez.
"At these heights, the city cannot keep being treated as a laboratory for strategies," Galindo said in a statement. "Guarantees are needed that the correct thing is being done with the correct people and the correct strategy."
Though the violence has not spread into El Paso, local business leaders said more than two years of bloodshed in Juárez has become a challenge while trying to lure new companies and development to the region.
The El Paso Regional Economic Development Corp., or REDCo, has a public relations firm working to improve El Paso's image in the national and international media.
REDCo and the firm, Development Counsellors International of New York, gave a presentation to business leaders last week about the issue.
"We aren't trying to paint a rosy picture because the violence is a concern," said Bob Cook, president and CEO of REDCo, during the presentation.
But despite the violence, maquiladoras in Juárez have not reported a labor shortage, companies still plan to open cross-border factories and there is no credible data that 30,000 people from Juárez have taken refuge in El Paso, Cook said.
"I'm not blaming the press. ... The press is doing their job," Cook said.
Andy Levine, president of the New York-based public relations firm, said the goal was not to try to cover up news but to ensure that out-of-town coverage features positives about the El Paso region, such as the growth of Fort Bliss.
"We get a more balanced picture," Levine said. "And in this sort of game that is success."
Presidente Chavez isn't likely to throw away a weapon that still works.
The Venezuelan government still has ties with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a guerrilla movement, the chief of the US military's Southern Command, General Douglas Fraser, said on Wednesday.
"There is a relationship, a link, which has been documented between the government of Venezuela and the FARC. (...) As far as I know, this (link) continues," Fraser said at a news conference.
The general added that the ties would include "financial support (and) enabling (FARC) capabilities from a logistical point of view."
However, Fraser said that he had no information about the depolyment of FARC elements in Venezuela, AFP reported.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2010 00:00 ||
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Some South Korean government officials are skeptical that it would do much good to ask the UN Security Council to impose sanctions against North Korea if it is found that the North was behind the sinking of the Navy corvette Cheonan on March 26. They say since the North is already under harsh UNSC sanctions over its two nuclear tests, any further steps would have a negligible impact.
"Many people consider UNSC sanctions a panacea if the North is found to have been behind the Cheonan's sinking. But I can't agree," a senior government official said. "At the moment, we should keep all military and non-military options on the table, including UNSC sanctions."
"The North is already under harsh sanctions for its first and second nuclear tests under UNSC Resolutions 1718 and 1874," the official said. "Imposing any additional sanctions would be like adding one month to a life sentence."
Resolution 1874, which was adopted in June last year, mandates arms embargo, inspection of cargo, and financial sanctions. It bans all weapons exports and most imports, with the exception to small arms, light weapons and related materials. It also instructs member states not to provide any financial assistance to the North except for humanitarian aid as well as freezing assets related to its nuclear program.
North Korea has complained of the sanctions, saying it will not return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks unless they are lifted, but it still wasted W6 billion (US$1=W1,110) on fireworks to celebrate nation founder Kim Il-sung's birthday. That suggests there is only so much sanctions can achieve.
The atmosphere is also changing within the Foreign Ministry. Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan on April 18 said, "The UNSC will come to our mind first if the North is found to have been behind the shipwreck." But on April 20 he said Seoul should "consider all options."
A senior ministry official recalled that when a North Korean submarine infiltrated waters near Gangneung in the East Sea in 1996, the government asked the UN to adopt a resolution against the North and the U.S. put on a show of military force by sending fighter jets. "Diplomatic measures will gain strength when we put all options on the table," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2010 00:00 ||
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's youngest son and the heir apparent Kim Jong-un is already said to be busy amassing his own slush fund. Despite North Korea's dire economic difficulties, Kim Jong-il himself is said to have stashed away between US$200-300 million every year to finance his lavish lifestyle and maintain the party elite's loyalty to him.
With the money, North Korea would be able to import between 400,000 to 600,000 tons of rice, which would be enough to cover half the country's food shortage of 1 million tons of rice per year.
Key departments within the Workers Party are pressuring agencies under their control to offer "loyalty funds" for the successor, a source familiar with North Korean affairs said. "A separate company has been established under the leadership of Kim Jong-un to secretly amass foreign currency."
The source said Kim senior uses his slush fund to finance his expensive tastes, build monuments in his own honor and buy gifts for his loyal aides. Faced with increasing difficulties bolstering his slush funds under international sanctions, the Kim is said to have issued an ultimatum to his top officials in February, saying from now on he would judge their loyalty based on the amount they contribute to the fund.
The North is estimated to have imported more than $100 million worth of high-quality liquor, cars and other luxury goods in 2008. And also on the list are pet dogs, which the Kim family are said to adore. Kim buys dozens of German shepherds, Shih Tzus and other breeds from France and Switzerland every year. He also buys dog food, shampoo and other pet products as well as medical equipment for the dogs and has foreign veterinarians check their health.
Before nation founder Kim Il-sung's birthday on April 15 this year, Kim imported around 200 high-end cars from China at a cost of some $5 million. A North Korean source said secret funds are also used to finance nuclear missile development and other state projects Kim Jong-il orders personally.
It is difficult to estimate the total amount of Kim's slush fund. Experts can only guess that Kim has stashed huge sums of money in Swiss or Luxembourg bank accounts, as did other dictators like former president of the Philippines Ferdinand Marcos and ex-Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. The international press estimates Kim's slush fund to be worth around $4 billion.
Kim started amassing his slush fund as soon as he was picked as the next leader of North Korea in 1974 to be able to buy the loyalty of top officials. A special department within North Korea's Workers' Party called Room 39 which manages Kim's slush fund by collecting the loyalty funds, exporting local staples including pine mushrooms and operating stores in hotels. A large portion of the $100 million to $200 million North Korea makes each year from exporting weapons, producing counterfeit dollars, smuggling fake cigarettes and selling drugs are also put into Kim's slush fund.
A North Korean source said a lot of the cash profits generated by the joint tourism business with South Korea end up inside Kim's personal slush fund too, judging by the fact that Daesong Bank and Zokwang Trading, which do business with the South, are both controlled by Room 39.
Early this year, Kim appointed his high school friend Jon Il-chun to head Room 39. Jon was made the chief of a state development bank North Korea opened recently to lure foreign investment. A South Korean government official said there are suspicions that Kim is diverting some of the profits of the state development bank into his own slush fund as well.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2010 00:00 ||
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If the IRS can crack the Swiss and Lux banks and make them give it up on American depositors, why cant' they rip off a two bit tyrant for all his pocket money?
A U.S. expert on North Korea said that China's investment in the economic zone of Rajin-Sonbong in the North may provide the leader of the reclusive country a chance to sustain the current leadership.
Scott Snyder, a senior associate of the Asia Foundation, claimed that Beijing's decision to invest in the North is likely to be aimed more at helping Kim Jong-il maintain power by financing new sources for hard cash at a time when the nation is going through economic difficulties.
Meanwhile, authorities in China's Jilin province say they have reached an agreement to lease the Rajin-Sonbong port for a decade.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2010 00:00 ||
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Loyola Law School professor David Glazier, a former Navy surface warfare officer, said the pilots operating the drones from afar could in theory be hauled into court in the countries where the attacks occur. Thats because the CIAs drone pilots arent combatants in a legal sense. It is my opinion, as well as that of most other law-of-war scholars I know, that those who participate in hostilities without the combatants privilege do not violate the law of war by doing so, they simply gain no immunity from domestic laws, he said.
I hate to agree with the bastid, but I suspect he's right. The bloody CIA has no business engaging in USAF combat related activities.
#8
Good point. Since the targets are illegal combatants they don't get Geneva Convention protections. (Not that it would stop the ACLU, UN or liberal judges...).
US President Barack Obama has announced a series of educational and business exchanges in an effort to improve ties between the US and the Muslim world. Mr Obama unveiled his plans to Muslim entrepreneurs from 50 countries at a summit hosted in Washington.
Will anyone other than President Obama be permitted to lecture the group?
Posted by: ed ||
04/29/2010 00:08 ||
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Goat sex aid peddlers meet b hussein o...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/29/2010 0:23 Comments ||
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Must be part of Barry's 4-6 million new or saved global jobs campaign.
KARACHI: The government will register a case against former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf in light of the findings of the UN report on the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Secretary General Senator Jahangir Badar said on Wednesday. Not happening: Perv knows too much ...
Is he even in the country, available to be arrested? The last I heard, he was in England, for some reason.
The PPP leader was addressing a press conference along with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah at the Chief Minister's House. Badar said a case would be registered against the people who were responsible for the killing of Benazir Bhutto and two committees had been formed by the prime minister and the inspector general of Punjab Police to look into this matter.
The senator said the PPP would unmask the killer of Benazir Bhutto but the party did not want to get revenge from anyone. He told the media that the inquiry into the assassination of the former prime minister would be done according to the aspirations of the people. "What language is that?"
"Tripe."
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2010 00:00 ||
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NEW DELHI: India has won the right to interview David Headley, a key planner of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks who is currently being held at a US jail, the Indian embassy in Washington said in a press statement issued on Wednesday.
India has been demanding access to Headley to interrogate him over the attacks, which it blames on Pakistan-based terrorists. India's Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam met with US Attorney General Eric Holder in Washington on Tuesday to press for a chance to question Headley.
"The two partners agreed to take suitable steps to facilitate direct Indian access authorities to David Headley as soon as possible," the Indian embassy said in the statement.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2010 00:00 ||
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THIMPHU: A thorough investigation will establish why and how a female Indian diplomat posted in Islamabad has spied for Pakistan, India's foreign minister said on Wednesday.
Junior diplomat Madhuri Gupta, who worked in the information service of the Indian embassy, was arrested by police last week after coming under suspicion.
Indian Foreign Minister SM Krishna told reporters Gupta was facing a joint probe by police and Home Ministry detectives. The investigations are going on and we will have to wait until it is complete and then we will find out what was the motive and what was the modus operandi,' Krishna said. That is the reason why she was called back and she is now in police custody and that only shows the seriousness of the issues involved,' Krishna said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2010 00:00 ||
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WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.S. military official says the Navy had a close encounter with an Iranian surveillance jet last week in the Gulf of Oman.
The official says the jet buzzed a Navy aircraft carrier, the USS Eisenhower, coming within about 1,000 yards of the ship. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter, said the April 21 incident occurred in international waters.
The jet was described as a maritime patrol aircraft generally used for surveillance.
The official says "there was nothing threatening about the aircraft itself or how it presented itself."
The official could not confirm reports by NBC and CBS that the jet made three passes over the Navy ship. Ay Pee so this is all ya get. 1000 yards is close. Too close. I dunno, the Phalanx system, I hear, works well at that distance ...
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/29/2010 10:11 ||
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Deacon - any video of Phalanx tests on jet-sized objects? I recall seeing tests against the more typical targets - missiles, etc., but a Mig within 1000 yds is a pretty large object for the Phalanx to stop entirely.
Still, might be enough to reduce it to shrapnel, but why would the CV cut this so close?
#3
I don't have any videos of Phalanx. The Iranian jet was in International airspace so there really was nothing the Eisenhower could do. Seems like a dry run for a Kamakazie attack to me.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
04/29/2010 14:48 Comments ||
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Would it be an act of war to shoot paintballs at the airplane? Counting coup, so to speak.
#5
Re #1 - When I was on active duty in 1972, my ship was one of the test beds for the Phalanx. We did a test where an F-4 towed a target for us to shoot at (and deliberately miss, so they could use it again). What I recall was that the Phalanx seemed to fill the air with bullets. Any target at 1000 yards would have been reduced to very small sized chunks of shrapnel.
I wonder also how close the shadowing F-18 was to the Iranian jet. Or was it just keeping it in its missile sights?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
04/29/2010 17:54 Comments ||
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Counting coup, so to speak.
Heh. Tag! You're it.
I rather suspect that no one in the CVBG was asleep at the switch and at the slightest sign of misbehavior a whole shitstorm of disapproval would be unleashed
A good pic of the Hawk T2 is here. Wonder if the Iraqis could also use it as a light attack craft.
The Iraqi Government is in talks to buy 24 Hawk trainer jets for up to £1 billion in a deal that would be the country's first large arms purchase from the UK for more than 20 years. Military insiders have told The Times that officials from the Iraqi Air Force will be in Britain in May and June to test the Hawk, which is used by the Royal Air Force to train fast-jet pilots.
The BAE Systems Hawk is being considered alongside jets from Korea and Italy as Iraq starts to rebuild an air force that was destroyed by coalition forces during the Gulf War. The deal could be worth £500 million initially, rising to £1 billion over the life of the aircraft once servicing and maintenance contracts are included.
If Hawk wins the Iraqi competition, it will be a significant milestone in the rebirth of an aircraft that some analysts had written off. Declining orders for Hawk had forced Europe's largest defence company to cut 450 jobs at Brough, near Hull, two years ago.
Separately, India is set to order another 60 Hawks in addition to the 66 it has already booked. That deal could be announced within weeks. BAE has entered a joint venture with Hindustan Aeronautics to assemble the Hawk in India, but a large portion of the work will be done in the UK.
Poland is also considering a new fleet of trainer aircraft and even France, which has traditionally bought only domestic military aircraft, has expressed an interest in the Hawk. The Chinese and Russians are also said to be eyeing this potential market but Hawk benefits from being associated with the RAF and the Red Arrows, which also use the aircraft.
Hawk's revival has in large part been driven by a lack of competition. Many aerospace companies have abandoned trainer jets because of a lack of orders and the cost of developing new models. Some countries outsource pilot training to other air forces, although this can be expensive.
The main rivals to Hawk are Korea's T50, which is a more expensive supersonic aircraft, and Italy's Maki 346, which is still only a prototype.
The Hawk was introduced in 1976 but the RAF is flying the T2 version, which was introduced last year and is an almost entirely new aircraft.
The interest from Iraq comes as the country starts to rebuild its armed forces. The country has signed a contract to buy up to 15 Beechcraft T-6A turbo-prop aircraft from the United States to provide initial flight training for pilots. However, fast-jet training is also required before Iraqi pilots can climb into fighter jets and officials have begun a search for a suitable aircraft.
BAE's predecessor British Aerospace was in talks with the Iraqis in 1989 to sell 50 Hawks. This deal was blocked by the British Government amid concern that the aircraft could be converted for combat missions, which would have contravened arms restrictions put in place during the Iran-Iraq war.
#2
There is a whole range of armed Hawk variants, up to the single seat Hawk 200, which is a specialized combat aircraft with APG-66 radar (same as the F-16) among many other items of combat equipment.
Ordinary trainer Hawks can carry a center-line gun pod and have two 1000 lb capacity underwing hardpoints.
The front-runner in Iraq's recent parliamentary elections on Wednesday called for the formation of an impartial, internationally supervised caretaker government. The interim government will prevent the country from sliding into violence and counter what he says are efforts to change the vote results. I think this means that Allawi is losing and knows it ...
Former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite whose cross-sectarian coalition narrowly won the most votes in the March 7 polling, said that disqualifying candidates and holding recounts is an attempt to steal the will of the Iraqi people.'
The call comes after an Iraqi court charged with investigating election-related complaints disqualified one of his candidates over alleged ties to the former regime. Election officials confirmed that another nine winning candidates, including seven from Allawi's list and one from al-Maliki's, were being investigated. Hamdiya al-Hussaini of the election commission told The Associated Press that the court is expected to decide on the fate of the nine others by Monday.
Disqualifying Allawi's candidates would favor incumbent Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's State of Law bloc, which came in second-placed, losing out to Allawi's coalition by just two seats. If the seven Iraqiya candidates and their votes are thrown out, it could change the seat count in the new 325-member parliament and potentially hand al-Maliki's coalition the lead.
Certainly what is going on is a theft of the Iraqi will and democracy, jeopardizing the safety of the country,' Allawi told Iraq's al-Sharqiya channel. We will call for the forming of a new interim government.'
Allawi called on international organizations like the U.N., the Arab League, the EU and the Organization of Islamic Conference to help establish the impartial interim government.
But a U.N. officials in Baghdad dismissed the idea of the international community's closer involvement in Iraqi politics, saying those disputes can only be resolved by Iraqis themselves.
They don't even want the Americans talking about internal Iraqi politics, can you imagine if the rest of the international community became involved?' said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Rare sense from the UN ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2010 00:00 ||
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I dunno about "Allawi is losing", Steve. It's clearly razor close, and will be a coalition government, so I suspect all Allawi need to is hang around, and he may actually do better as the close second now who can takeover if this parliament fails. Let Maliki try and govern without a mandate and see how that works.
BAGHDAD / Aswat al-Iraq: Head of al-Iraqiya List, Iyad Allawi, held on Wednesday talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak the latest developments in Iraq and efforts to form the new government, according to Egypt's news television. If there's anyone who can guide Iraq to democracy it's Hosni ...
Mubarak received Allawi at the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh,' the television said.
The two officials tackled the recent developments in Iraq and efforts to form the new government as well as Egypt's efforts to support stability and development in Iraq,' it added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2010 00:00 ||
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means the hizbola, syrian, lebonese, palestinian, iranian war will break out within 30-45 days. israel will need to act now and, damn the US, alone. They can no longer expect support and will have to act accordingly.
RAMALLAH, West Bank - The Palestinian Authority is trying to stop Palestinians using Israeli mobile phone cards sold illegally in the West Bank, a practice which it says robs domestic operators of $100 million annually.
Any store or place or company or dealer caught (selling Israeli sim cards) will be prosecuted,' Telecommunications Minister Mashour Abu Daqqa told reporters.
The Ministry says Israel's four mobile phone operators have a market share of 12 percent in the West Bank although they do not pay license fees or taxes to the Palestinian Authority. The four companies, Cellcom Israel, Partner, Pelephone and MIRS, are effectively competing unfairly with local Palestinian operators Wataniya Palestine and Jawwal, it says. Damn the Juice for providing good service and cheap rates!
The move poses no threat to Israeli mobile transmitter masts installed in the West Bank under Israeli army control.
Abu Daqqa said Israeli SIM cards were popular with Palestinians partly because of the 3G services they offer. The Palestinian Authority has asked Israel for a wider spectrum of frequencies that would allow Wataniya and Jawwal to offer 3G services like their Israeli peers. But Israel has so far refused to grant them. Paleo prøn surfing takes a real hit on a 2G network ...
Abu Daqq said the situation was simply a form of economic colonisation' which was lucrative for the Israelis, whereas Palestinian mobile phone companies are not able to do the same sort of trade in Israel.
Some Palestinians have no choice but to use Israeli networks because of the problems Wataniya and Jawwal face erecting masts in the 60 percent of West Bank territory under full Israeli military control, where the Palestinians have no authority.
The Palestinian mobile phone market, which comprises 4 million people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, has a penetration rate of around 58 percent. The Palestinian Authority plans to license a third operator in 2013. Wataniya, part owned by Qatar Telecommunications Co began operating in November and has 200,000 users. Jawwal has seen its user base grow to 2 million since 1999. It is owned by the Palestine Telecommunications Co.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2010 00:00 ||
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There must surely be some guest speaker Jewish ice-breaker humour for General Jones in there somewhere.
RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian security forces are ready to secure the entire West Bank as part of a negotiated agreement with Israel, the West Bank security chief told reporters on Wednesday. Unless Hamas horns its way in.
How would Hamas horn their way into the West Bank?
Same way they did in Gaza ...
But aren't they a majority in Gaza?
They were after they got done killing and running off the Fatah hard boyz. Sometimes you make your own majority ...
Major General Diab Al Ali spoke a day after some 2,000 Palestinian security forces held a major live-fire drill in a suburb of Ramallah, the political capital of the occupied West Bank.
'We are ready to put a Palestinian soldier on every inch of Palestinian land,' Ali said.
He insisted that his forces would not allow a repeat of what happened in Gaza in June 2007, when the Islamist Hamas movement swept forces loyal to president Mahmud Abbas out in a week of bloody street battles.
'The security forces have learned from what happened in Gaza,' he said. That might even be true, but the real problem is the rot at the top, starting with Mahmoud Abbas and extending downward from there.
He admitted that there had been problems with overlapping powers among the different Palestinian security services but said they now work as a cohesive force. Sure they do, security forces from failed thug-terrorist organizations do that all the time.
'This drill was to confirm our readiness for all the security services to work together, and it was not easy,' he said. 'But today there is no conflict of powers whatsoever.'
In the past two years, Palestinian security forces have imposed law and order in several West Bank towns that had been major militant bastions at the height of the 2000 Palestinian intifada, or uprising. But while Israel has lauded their efforts and removed some of the hundreds of checkpoints and roadblocks it maintains in the territory, it insists its own forces are responsible for the dramatic decline in violence.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2010 00:00 ||
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"we've been practicing jumping through flaming hoops and all..."
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/29/2010 10:50 Comments ||
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I wonder if they're practicing falling off of tall buildings?
WASHINGTON -- Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat carried an uncompromising message on east Jerusalem with him on his visit Wednesday to the US Capitol, declaring that there was no freeze on construction and pushing back against government interference in local projects.
"There's no freeze," he declared on the heels of reports that a de facto freeze had been imposed to allow peace talks with Palestinians to commence. "There's a demand from Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem to build, and we're not going to stop it. It's illegal to stop it."
He acknowledged a "slowdown" following the "shock" of the US "campaign" over east Jerusalem, when the Obama administration condemned Israel for approving 1,600 housing units in Ramat Shlomo during Vice President Joe Biden's visit -- an issue that set off a crisis in US-Israel relations.
Continued on Page 49
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04/29/2010 00:00 ||
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Never saw that coming, did you ...
BEIRUT -- A Hezbollah official on Wednesday slammed comments by the U.S. defense secretary accusing the militant group of having more weapons than most governments in the world, and pledged to continue arming.
We'll be number one! We'll be number one!
Lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said Hezbollah's weapons and those of the U.S. and its ally Israel are not to be compared.
His remarks, which were published by the Lebanese daily As-Safir, came in response to statements made by Defense Secretary Robert Gates accusing Syria and Iran of supplying Hezbollah with increasingly sophisticated weaponry.
"Our choice was and still is to secure all the arms of resistance that we can," Fadlallah said. "There is a great difference between weapons that only serve invasions, occupations and aggressions, such as those of the United States and its ally Israel ... and weapons of an honorable resistance that liberates, protects, and defends."
The reports prompted the Obama administration to say last week that it has repeatedly warned Syria that transferring ballistic missiles to Hezbollah could spark a new war in the Middle East. Obama's homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, expressed concern over reports of weapons smuggling to Hezbollah through Syria, calling the alleged arms transfers a "threat to the stability and security of Lebanon and the region."
Brennan, who met with Lebanese officials Tuesday as part of a visit to several countries in the region, said the only legitimate weapons in the country are those held by the Lebanese state.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/29/2010 00:00 ||
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President Barack Obama's aggressive outreach to the Muslim American community is reducing its sense of isolation, President Barack Obama's envoy to the Muslim world told a conference in Washington Wednesday evening. "We've really started to knock down that sense of otherization," said Rashad Hussain, a White House lawyer who also serves as liaison to the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Hussain defined the rather esoteric term "otherization" as a sense that many Muslims had during the Bush years that their value or danger to society was viewed solely through the prism of terrorism.
"Muslims ... sometimes feel like they don't have as much of a stake or a role in the future of the country," Hussain told the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy conference. "That's something that all of the engagement that the United States has done on these issues both internationally and domestically has helped to counter."
Hussain was the keynote speaker at the session, which marked one year since Obama's historic speech in Cairo last April, where he attempted to reset America's relationship with Muslims around the globe. In many ways, the most remarkable thing about Hussain's speech was the context in which it took place: a conference that featured explicitly "Islamist" political leaders from Algeria, Bahrain and Morocco, as well as a provocative Oxford scholar whom the Bush administration effectively banned from the U.S., Tariq Ramadan. Many Republicans, such as former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, continue to use the term "Islamist" to describe enemies of the U.S. The GOP politicians also fault Obama for failing to recognize the threat such an ideology poses to the U.S.
Giuliani's view is pretty much 180 degrees from the prevailing sentiment at Wednesday's conference. "There doesn't really seem to be much of a debate about whether engagement with Islamists should happen," professor Peter Mandeville of George Mason University declared. "There really is no other alternative. The question now is about the nature of that engagement ... rather than the question of whether this is something the United States should do."
In his 20-minute speech and a subsequent Q & A session, Hussain generally stuck to Obama's rhetorical formulation of using the term "violent extremism" for what the Bush folks and just about everyone else used to call "terrorism." However, Hussain did use the T-word a couple of times. He touted the U.S. commitment to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to a diplomatic resolution of tensions with Iran, to avoiding religious- and nationality-based profiling in airport security screening and to freedom for Muslims around the world to wear Islamic garb.
In response to a question about the U.S. willingness to deal with Taliban members who are prepared to renounce violence, Hussain said, "The U.S. will engage those groups that are lawfully elected and are lawfully part of the political process and don't engage in violence, and that is a commitment that is demonstrated over a set period of time."
Pressed by a questioner urging U.S. action against Israel over its refusal to end settlement-building activity, Hussain didn't offer much to satisfy the pro-Palestinian audience. "The best way to address that issue is to get negotiations between the parties back on track again. ... It's not something that you will see this administration walk away from," he said.
Hussain did seem a tad exasperated by complaints that, despite the vaunted Muslim outreach campaign, Obama has failed to visit a mosque in the U.S. as president. "If there is this silver bullet people are looking for, that the president visit a religious center in the United States, I'm sure there will be an appropriate time for that as well," Hussain said.
Shortly after his appointment as the OIC envoy earlier this year, Hussain grabbed some headlines for a flap over comments he made in 2004 describing the Bush administration's actions against some terror suspects as "politically motivated persecutions." He initially said he had no recollection of making the remarks, but after POLITICO obtained a recording of the presentation he conceded he'd made the comments and called them "ill-conceived or not well-formulated."
#1
"...Hussain did seem a tad exasperated by complaints that, despite the vaunted Muslim outreach campaign, Obama has failed to visit a mosque in the U.S. as president..."
and if he had, there would have been complaints about other things.
Oh, and the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy is considered way, way too moderate for many (probably most) muslims. Finally, the fact that such an organization even exists is a strong indication of the problem. Imagine a "center for the Study of ... and Democracy" where the ... is any other religion.
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/29/2010 14:10 Comments ||
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#2
So ObamaGod has enough power to invent his own Words?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/29/2010 14:15 Comments ||
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#3
ObamaGod has enough power to invent his own Words?
Otherization sounds like one of those anthropology-lite cant words that communist cadres throw around during self-criticism meetings. It indicates the mindset of those with whom the president has chosen to surround himself.
They're isolated because they have a high proportion of murderous nutbags to the general population, and you can't tell which is which and they won't help.
Tends to cut down on the "oh, let's vacation in Syria this year" demographic, y'see?
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.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's youngest son and the heir apparent Kim Jong-un is already said to be busy amassing his own slush fund. Despite North Korea's dire economic difficulties, Kim Jong-il himself is said to have stashed away between US$200-300 million every year to finance his lavish lifestyle and maintain the party elite's loyalty to him. 
THIMPHU: A thorough investigation will establish why and how a female Indian diplomat posted in Islamabad has spied for Pakistan, India's foreign minister said on Wednesday. 
President Barack Obama's aggressive outreach to the Muslim American community is reducing its sense of isolation, President Barack Obama's envoy to the Muslim world told a conference in Washington Wednesday evening. "We've really started to knock down that sense of otherization," said Rashad Hussain, a White House lawyer who also serves as liaison to the Organization of the Islamic Conference. Hussain defined the rather esoteric term "otherization" as a sense that many Muslims had during the Bush years that their value or danger to society was viewed solely through the prism of terrorism.
