KHARTOUM - Sudans president promised there would be no return to civil war in Africas biggest country on Wednesday in a speech that sought to calm tensions over a growing stand-off with the south. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir called on his political opponents to work with him for the homeland during his opening address at the annual conference of his dominant National Congress Party (NCP).
We will be patient in our political dialogue so we can achieve national unity, he told thousands of supporters who regularly interrupted him with ululations and chants of support. And I confirm that we will never go back to war as long as we have peace as an option.
And when it's not an option, he'll send the janjawid south.
A growing confrontation between Khartoum and south Sudans main party, the Sudan Peoples Liberation Movement (SPLM), has already torn apart the countrys coalition government and threatened a north-south peace deal. Southern ministers walked out of Sudans Government of National Unity last month, claiming that Khartoum was stalling on the 2005 peace agreement that ended two decades of civil war. They have given Bashir until the beginning of next year to get back on track with the peace deal on a range of points, chief among them the demarcation of Sudans contested oil-rich Abyei region.
On Wednesday, Bashir gave a measured speech that was in marked contrast to his highly charged address to government-allied militias on Saturday. Over the weekend, Bashir wore military uniform as he urged the Popular Defence Forces to open more training camps and recruit mujahedeen not for the sake of war but to be ready for anything. The SPLM deplored the speech, which it said amounted to a call for war.
Sounds like that to me.
But at the NCP conference, Bashir wore traditional robes as he called on the SPLM to come back to government. I call all the political parties to forget their own interests for the sake of the homeland. I call them to leave behind conflicts between party leaders and amongst themselves and choose dialogue and consultations for the sake of the Sudanese people and homeland.
Sounds like taqiyya for the infidels in the south.
A series of meetings between SPLM leader Salva Kiir and Bashir -- and of a top-level group of officials from both sides -- has so far failed to find a break-through.
Kiir met with senior SPLM officials late on Tuesday to decide when to hold a further meeting with Bashir to try and find a way of the crisis. Kiir on Monday told a rally of his supporters in south Sudans capital Juba that he would also never take them back to war, although he reserved the right to self-defence if attacked.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/22/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
#2
Just bring in the D-9s and remove the whole temple mount.
I'm rapidly overcoming any personal compunctions regarding the destruction of Islamic heritage sites. Muslims have demonstrated a remarkable degree of alacrity in discarding any respect for Buddhist places of worship and it's beginning to look like high time that we experience a similar abandon regarding Islam's shrines. Demolishing the al Aqsa mosque beneath waving banners stating, "Medina's Next", somehow might manage to convey a sufficiently serious message to these murderous cretins. If not, bounce Medina's rubble a few times whilst circulating a memo about Mecca. We really need to get Islam's undivided attention over the terrorism issue and I'm beginning to care less and less about how we go about doing so.
Controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen was on Thursday moved out of Kolkata and brought to Jaipur, a day after protests by a Muslim outfit in Kolkata demanding her deportation turned violent.
Official sources said the 45-year-old writer flew in here from Kolkata this evening and was discreetly taken to a safe place. Unconfirmed reports said she took an afternoon flight of 'Indian'.
Rajasthan Inspector General (Security) Meghchand Meena said Taslima is at present staying in a city hotel.
Meena said the state authorities did not get any advance information about Taslima's arrival but got a message when she was onboard the flight. Further details are awaited.
Meena however said police and intelligence personnel are in the vicinity of the hotel.
West Bengal police had suggested to Nasreen on Wednesday that she could be moved out to Rajasthan hours after the 'shutdown' by a little known All India Minority Forum triggered a large-scale violence. The Forum, which wanted Taslima's visa to be cancelled, was also voicing its protest against the Nandigram situation.
Taslima's visa has been extended to February 17. She has angered conservative Muslims by her writing and fled her homeland in 1994 after radical Muslims demanded her execution.
She was attacked up by activists of Majlis Ittehadul Muslimeen(MIM) at a book release function on August 9 in Hyderabad.
Her arrival here also came a day after Left Front Chairman Biman Bose said she should leave Kolkata if her stay in Kolkata disturbed peace. He however backtracked on his statement today saying "the state government does not have the authority to grant or cancel visa and only the Centre can do this and let the Union government take an appropriate decision on the issue."
Posted by: john frum ||
11/22/2007 15:14 ||
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#1
An Indian army soldier patrols the streets in Calcutta, India, Wednesday, Nov. 21, 2007. Soldiers were deployed in Calcutta on Wednesday to quell riots that erupted in the east Indian city
Posted by: john frum ||
11/22/2007 15:25 Comments ||
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#2
Posted by: john frum ||
11/22/2007 15:27 Comments ||
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Describing the increasing Indo-US military cooperation as "positive", a top Pentagon official said the growing defence links reflects the continuing and emerging relationship between the two nations. "I think there's a very positive and growing relationship between the two countries. And I think that's a very good thing," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staffs Admiral Mike Mullen said. "India is providing not just for its own people a growing economic engine which, again, I think is good not just locally, but also globally," he said at the Washington Foreign Press Centre.
Mullen noted that recent years have witnessed an increase in military-to-military contacts between the US and India. "And I think that's positive. So I'm actually very positive about the continuing and emerging relationship between the United States and India," Admiral Mullen said.
When historians write the book on George W. Bush, one of the things that will feature prominently, though overlooked today, is the reproachment and alliance with India. It's going to pay dividends over the next half-century and beyond.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/22/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Indeed, takes a Bush to go to India.
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
11/22/2007 17:14 Comments ||
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Indian High Commissioner in Pakistan Sita Parata Pall and British Political Counsellor Tom Drew held separate meetings with Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) General Secretary Maulana Fazlur Rehman at the parliament lodges, and exchanged views on the political situation of Pakistan on Wednesday.
Rehman told the Indian and British diplomats about the MMAs stance and said the imposition of emergency rule and the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) had destabilised the country. There is no possibility of free and fair elections under these circumstances, he said. The MMA is considering to boycott the elections, but the MMA supreme council will take the final decision on it, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/22/2007 00:00 ||
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The Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) Parachinar chapter said on Wednesday that the political administration had completely failed in averting the sectarian clashes. In a press release, PPPP Parachinar President Syed Riaz Hussain Shah said some elements were disrupting the peace conspiratorially.
Linking the unrest in Parachinar to the trouble in Swat, he said outsiders were responsible for disturbing the peaceful atmosphere of the area. He rejected reports of people being slaughtered by the rival sects, and said those who were spreading such rumours were intentionally misleading the people. He said no one had been slaughtered.
Blasting the killing of passengers travelling from Peshawar to Parachinar as a dastardly act, the PPPP leader said the people of the area and the country should join hands to thwart the nefarious designs of those involved in conspiring against both, the local people and the country. He appealed to the religious scholars from both sects to intervene and stop further bloodshed for the sake of humanity.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/22/2007 00:00 ||
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If they're "secure but vulnerable to militant attack" then they're not secure, are they?
Pakistan has robust measures in place to assure the security of its nuclear weapons, the Pakistan Security Research Unit (PSRU) based in the University of Bradford, UK, has said in a publication titled The Security of Nuclear Pakistan. However, it warns that Pakistans nuclear infrastructure is at increasing risk of attack by tribal and militant elements.
The paper by professor Shaun Gregory holds that despite weaknesses, which are being exacerbated by the present political turmoil in the country, Pakistan has technical, personnel reliability, physical security and secrecy deception measures in place to protect its nuclear assets. But, it goes on to outline the growing risk of Pakistans nuclear weapons safety being compromised.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/22/2007 00:00 ||
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Fragmented, outflanked by young militants and politically compromised, Pakistans mainstream Islamist leaders have only a side role to play in the crisis engulfing the country, analysts say. Since President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule, the outcry has been led at home by ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, lawyers and rights groups, and abroad by the US.
That, says Farzana Shaikh, an expert at the London-based think tank Chatham House, is due to a deeply-rooted confusion over the role of Islam in public life since Pakistans creation. When independence came, there was no clear consensus on whether Pakistan was meant to be a state for Muslims, or whether it was to be a state governed by Islamic law, she said.
The mullahs have been influential in the past, forcing Bhuttos father in the 1970s to ban alcohol and declare Friday prayer day a holiday; helping oust him in 1977; and mobilising mass protests in 2001 against the US-led invasion of Afghanistan. Analysts point to three key reasons why religious parties are not so influential this time.
They are hopelessly divided there is an Islamic fundamentalist alliance called the MMA, but its two biggest parties cannot even agree whether to take part in January 8 elections.
They have a long association with previous military regimes, notably when Pakistan backed Afghanistans mujahedin and the Taliban.
And they are losing influence to battle-hardened militants in Pashtun-dominated Tribal Areas bordering Afghanistan.
Vote: Political analyst Shafqat Mahmood said religious parties could likely muster only around five to 10 percent of the vote. The people of Pakistan are not essentially pro mullahs. Their role in overall politics has never been as decisive as in some other countries, he told AFP.
In 2002, when Musharraf needed electoral support, he was supported by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam and JUI leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman favours taking part in the polls. But while the JUI has more clerics in its fold than the other main Islamic party, the Jamaat-e-Islami, its style playing big-time politics, sending women to parliament, among others has alienated many people who want them to stick to their role as mullahs, said analyst Rahimullah Yusufzai. Like the secular opposition, said Chatham Houses Shaikh, the religious right is deeply fragmented.
In Balochistan and the Tribal Areas meanwhile, those now holding sway are young commanders with experience in Afghanistan. They are calling all the shots. They are willing to make sacrifices. They have hundreds of fighters. They have weapons and resources, Yusufzai said.
This article starring:
Jamaat-e-Islami
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam
analyst Rahimullah Yusufzai
Farzana Shaikh
Maulana Fazlur Rehman
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam
Political analyst Shafqat Mahmood
Posted by: Fred ||
11/22/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
Opposition parties are trying to convince Benazir Bhutto to boycott the 2008 general elections, and are confident that they will succeed in evolving a consensus among themselves on boycotting the polls, a source told Daily Times.
Boycotting is easier than actually participating in an election. It's kinda like walking out of parliament, only you never get there to do it.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif telephoned Benazir on Wednesday and tried to convince her to boycott the elections, the source said. Nawaz told Benazir about his stance on the restoration of democracy, and his refusal to meet President General Pervez Musharraf during the latters recent visit to Saudi Arabia. Nawazs claim that the government had tried to contact him at least three times since Ramazan had been denied by the government.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/22/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#2
Hit it again Zenster!!
It doesn't matter what uniform or suit Musharraf has on at any given time, but what he's going to do with that scepter under his pillow each morning. Bhutto should NEVER agree to any route(literally)laid out by the Government less she repeat the JFK setup!
#3
Are we happy with the emergency rule? No, were not. Do we, do I understand how important he is in fighting extremists and radicals? I do. And do I believe that hes going to end up getting Pakistan back on the road to democracy? I certainly hope so,
I get so sick and tired of the press selectively quoting to suit their agenda. Bush makes a perfectly good quote here. If he were Obama or Hillary, they would be falling all over themselves to make sure they wrote it in the best light, but for Bush they distort what he said. This reminds me of the China sensorship article, gutting words of their meaning. spit.
#4
"the JFK setup" do you mean assasinating Diem? That worked out really good. Remember that Bhutto was not all that the press is making her out to be now.
Posted by: Thrairt Oppressor of the Lichtensteiners6029 ||
11/22/2007 12:33 Comments ||
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#5
I guess Goerge looked into his soul, likehe did with Putin.
Former premier Nawaz Sharif has said that he is determined to return to Pakistan within two days and that President General Pervez Musharraf visited Saudi Arabia to discuss the issue of his return with the Saudi king, BBC reported on Wednesday.
Nawaz told BBC that he was expecting a call from Saudi authorities within a day or two so that he could return to Pakistan. If I have to return to Pakistan then I must return within the next two days because I will need three days to file my nomination papers, he said.
[The Saudi government] feels very strongly that I have a duty to perform in Pakistan and a role to play, Sharif told AP.
That's an oblique way of saying, 'get lost'.
However, he said he did not know whether Saudi leaders had actually communicated that to Musharraf when he held talks with them in Riyadh on Tuesday, or if Musharraf had agreed. Nawaz said he had failed in a telephone conversation with Pakistan Peoples Party Chairwoman Benazir Bhutto on Wednesday to convince her to boycott the polls.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/22/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
and dead in three...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
11/22/2007 9:16 Comments ||
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It's hopeless, then. Anything the Beeb backs is doomed. Pakistan delende est. Let the Army, the taliban and A-Q destroy each other, and then divide the country between India and Afghanistan.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/22/2007 14:01 Comments ||
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ISLAMABAD - Pakistani authorities have released more than 5,000 lawyers, political workers and rights activists who were arrested under emergency rule, an aide to the law minister said on Wednesday.
A total of 5,757 people have been detained since President Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency on November 3, said Sarwar Hayat, an aide to caretaker law minister Afzal Haider. Some 5,134 people have been released up to 7:00 pm (1400 GMT) today, he said.
Of the remaining 623, he said 202 were lawyers while 421 were either students or political workers. Their release is also under consideration and it is expected that they would be freed in a few days, he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/22/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
BAGHDAD - The US military on Wednesday defended its 19-month detention of an award-winning Associated Press photographer it has accused of working with insurgents in Iraq, saying he remained a security threat.
Bilal Hussein, who began working with the news agency in 2004, has been in US military custody in Iraq since he was detained in April 2006 in the city of Ramadi, 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad, according to the AP website. Since Husseins arrest, this case has been reviewed a number of times by the standing board that does periodic reviews of individuals in detention, US military spokesman Major- General Kevin Bergner told a news conference. In each instance the recommendation was to continue detention because of the continued security threat that he represented.
Bergner declined to discuss the evidence against Hussein, who took pictures for the AP in western Anbar province, which until a tribal security push began last year was the heartland of Iraqs Sunni Arab insurgency.
Earlier this week, the Pentagon called Hussein a terrorist media operative who infiltrated the AP. Berger said only that Hussein had been detained as a result of his interactions with insurgent activities.
Which is how he got all the great photos.
The military has said in the past that Hussein was detained for possessing materials used to make roadside bombs, insurgent propaganda, and a surveillance photo of a coalition installation.
AP president and chief executive officer Tom Curley said this week in a statement: While we are hopeful that there could be some resolution to Bilal Husseins long detention, we have grave concerns that his rights under the law continue to be ignored and even abused.
Military officials are expected to file a formal complaint against Hussein in Iraqs Central Criminal Court. We are now at a point where that case is to be conveyed ... for judicial consideration, Bergner said.
Hussein, 36, is just one of a number of Iraqi journalists who have been held by the US military without being charged. Reuters journalists have also been detained by the US military for months and later released without charges.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/22/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
In other news, the Coalition has killed thousands in Iraq without having charged them. In Afghanistan, the same. Rumor has it that the US killed hundreds of thousands in Korea, Vietnam, and WWII without charging them.
Uh, yeah, idiots, because IT'S A FRIGGIN' WAR, not a handsome peace-time court in the US.
The wires have always used this little snarky distortion when discussing the various times their employees have run afoul of the forces of good. I actually confronted some on it once, receiving mostly blank stares (they literally didn't even understand my point - this is sometimes the intellectual level we're up against). I hounded the military side public affairs people to talk smack and clarify the issues in an aggressive manner so that the press would have to report it, to almost no avail. There was, for a time, one wee little tidbit in press releases on related matters that pointed out the enemy's policy of war crimes (endangering non-combatants deliberately to gain military advantage) was entirely responsible for the unfortunate deaths and injuries to (uh, stupid) reporters who got caught up in cross-fires.
I hope the team in charge of Bilal's case is a little sharper than the group that looks like they will put on military commissions in Gitmo no sooner than the second Giuliani Administration ....
#2
Earlier this week, the Pentagon called Hussein a terrorist media operative who infiltrated was recruited by the AP.
Fixed it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque6305 ||
11/22/2007 10:30 Comments ||
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#3
Maybe the Italians want a crack at Bilal for the propaganda show and snapping away while an Italian was murdered.
Posted by: ed ||
11/22/2007 10:57 Comments ||
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#4
I hounded the military side public affairs people to talk smack and clarify the issues in an aggressive manner so that the press would have to report it, to almost no avail.
Yet another indicator that our propaganda experts are all brain dead.
#5
If we considered the photogs mucking about with terrorists the enemy and popped them on sight, this nonsense would have ended long ago. Our blind allegiance to peacetime rules in war is viewed as a weakness to be exploited by our enemies, who have more common sense that many in our govt, at least w/r/t fighting a war with no holds barred.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/22/2007 13:01 Comments ||
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BAGHDAD - The US military said on Wednesday Iran must prove over time it is committed to stemming the flow of weapons into Iraq, adding a note of caution after a warming in Washingtons tone towards Teheran. US officials have softened their rhetoric towards Iran in recent weeks. The US military freed nine Iranians held in Iraq.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said earlier this month he understood Iran had given Iraq behind-the-scenes assurances that the flow of weapons would stop. We are thankful for the commitment that Iran has made to reduce the flow of weapons and explosives coming into Iraq, Lieutenant-General James Dubik, head of US military efforts to rebuild Iraqs security forces, said on Wednesday. He added it had made some contribution to cutting violence in Iraq.
But Dubik and US military spokesman Major-General Kevin Bergner said it was impossible to tell exactly how much difference those commitments had made. Its important here that the commitments that have been made start to see real progress thats statistically significant, thats measurable and that is sustained over time, Bergner told a media conference.
Iranian and US officials said on Tuesday they had agreed to hold a new round of talks on security in Iraq, the fourth this year between the bitter foes after a diplomatic freeze lasting almost 30 years, but no date has been set. Bergner said he hoped the latest round of talks, following meetings in May, July and August, would focus on the commitment to stop weapons from entering Iraq. The talks will be limited to Iraqi security and will not include Irans nuclear ambitions.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/22/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
'...will be limited to Iraqi security and will not include Iran's nuclear ambitions.'
Thats like saying: "We're going to bomb the s*** out of you next March, but we can be warm and fuzzy on Iraq!" Uhh Right!
#2
US military wary of Iranian pledges on arms flow
A good candidate for "Understatement of the Week" if you ask me.
We are thankful for the commitment that Iran has made to reduce the flow of weapons and explosives coming into Iraq,
Translation: "Thanks for nothing", "Thanks for doing what you should have in the first place", or "Thanks for promising to discontinue to do something which you deny doing".
Its important here that the commitments that have been made start to see real progress thats statistically significant, thats measurable and that is sustained over time,
Am I correct then to take this to mean that the US will be happy if Iran reduces the flow of arms to the degree that the number of coalition troops that die because of these arms will be reduced by a statistically significant amount? Just askin'.
This "agreement" is pointless. Is this some kind of lame trial balloon or something to gauge MSM/public opinion? If it is, I hope they're not serious.
#1
Yeah - don't want to give the impression that Olmert won't bend over and grab his ankles (again!) when he gets there.
I don't see how anyone can think that the Palieos would ever start honoring their agreements now. Not doing so has given them huge payoffs in the past.
In Sderot, as well, the residents are waiting for Annapolis to end. No fewer than 110 Kassam rockets and mortar shells have been launched from Gaza towards Sderot and the western Negev over the past three weeks.
Ma'an The office of Palestinian Information Minister Riyad Al-Maliki accused Hamas of looting the information ministry's offices in Gaza City on Tuesday.
In a statement to the media, the Information Ministry said: "Months ago, those militias robbed all the offices, chairs and equipment, and today they complete the task by looting the rest of the ministry's properties especially the archives."
Hamas took defeated the security forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction in the Gaza Strip in mid June, and now controls all of the Palestinian Authority ministries there. Abbas dismissed Hamas from the Palestinian government following the takeover. Hamas has repeatedly offered to turn over control of government ministries in exchange for being included in a new government of national unity.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/22/2007 00:00 ||
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Ma'an The Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) is scheduled meet in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday to discuss proposal calling for the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in what is now Israel.
This is the second PLC session that Hamas-affiliated lawmakers have convened this month. The chamber was closed for months due to a political standoff between Hamas and Fatah factions. Hamas PLC member Yahya Mousa said that a decision to reaffirm the right of return for Palestinians forcibly displaced in 1948 be "historic."
28 Hamas PLC members will attend the session, who, Mousa said, will also represent another 35 legislators who are currently imprisoned in Israel. By allowing jailed lawmakers to designate surrogates to represent them at the meeting, Hamas is able to muster a quorum of the parliamentary body. Fatah, who boycotted the last meeting, has called this practice "illegal."
Mousa called on other Palestinian parties to attend the meeting, but did not say whether any groups other than Hamas would attend. He also did not say whether legislators from the West Bank would join the session by telephone, as they did during the most recent meeting.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/22/2007 00:00 ||
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Ma'an Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is planning to call a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Quartet Envoy Tony Blair to coordinate a united Arab stance ahead of the peace conference in the US city of Annapolis next week, Israeli sources reported.
The "Annapolis meeting," as Israeli and US officials are calling it, is scheduled to begin on November 27th.
The limited Arab meeting apparently not include other prominent Arab states such as Syria or Saudi Arabia. The United States sent invitations to 49 states, individuals, and international organizations on Tuesday night. The schedule for the conference is still to be determined.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/22/2007 00:00 ||
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Ma'an Palestinian Tourism Minister Khouloud Daibes and Justice Minister Ali Al-Khashan announced a new plan on Tuesday combat the phenomenon of killing women for reasons of so-called "family honor."
Daibes and Al-Khashan have proposed a presidential decree modify articles of the Palestinian Basic Law that are unjust towards women. Specifically, they will ask to increase sentences for men who kill their female relatives for reasons of so-called "honor."
The ministers made the announcement during a meeting of the Palestinian Working Women Society for Development (PWWSD) in Ramallah. More than a hundred women attended the meeting.
PWWSD is organizing a campaign marking the United Nations-sponsored International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25th.
Some attribute an apparent increase in attacks against women to ongoing security chaos and difficulty asserting the rule of law in stateless Palestine. In one week in October, four women were killed. A suspect in the murder of two women in the West Bank city of Qalqilia said his motivation was "family honor."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/22/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
No one has yet tried the obvious tack with these mutts of when they commit an "honor killing" to publicly hold their entire family up for scorn as "dishonorable".
In Muslim countries, this for example could include shaving the men's heads of all hair, and publishing pictures of them and the women of the family without any head coverings, in the newspapers.
Of course, depending on the local culture, this could be modified to insure that they are really humiliated.
Preliminary results from Jordans parliamentary elections showed the opposition Islamist party lost more than half its seats in an election it said was marred by fraud. Islamic Action Front (IAF) candidates won only seven of the 22 seats they fought in Tuesdays elections for the 110-seat assembly, an official source told Reuters.
The IAF won 17 seats in 2003, when it ended a boycott that had turned parliament into a pro-government talking shop and became the only real opposition in the assembly. Initial figures on Wednesday showed a turnout of 55 percent of 2.4 million eligible voters. The IAF, the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and by far the largest organised political grouping, was the only party contesting Tuesdays elections. The results consolidated the power of tribal leaders, pro-government candidates and influential businessmen tied to the royal family. Jamil Abu Bakr, deputy head of the Muslim Brotherhood, told Reuters widespread violations cast doubt on the fairness of the results.
This article starring:
Jamil Abu Bakr
Muslim Brotherhood
Posted by: Fred ||
11/22/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
I'd like it better if they lost seats legitimately, but I wouldn't be upset if they lost them by fraud either. I'd like it even better if they lost their seats, their heads, and everything in between.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday the United States will try to close a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians before President George W. Bush's term ends in January 2009, but she cautioned there is no guarantee of success. Don't know about the rest of Israelis---but me, I'm full of gratitude to President George W. Bush, and Ms Dr Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Rice said Israeli and Palestinian leaders have pledged to work for a deal setting up an independent Palestinian state before President George W. Bush leaves office. "We all know how long that is - it's about a year," Rice told reporters. "That's what we will try to do."
#1
Oh Lord of Hosts on a pogo stick, Condi, what the hell do you think you're doing? Of all the disappointments in the last few years, none matches the dizzying fall of Dubya from his sensible and gutsy Rose Garden appearance with Sharon back in '03 to the present state of neo-Clintonian MidEast "peace processing". OK, the North Korea fiasco comes close.
Mr. President, please retire the Jimmy Carter impersonation - permanently - and stick to the Harry Truman shtick you did so convincingly for several years - pretty please?
#2
"Of all the disappointments in the last few years, none matches the dizzying fall of Dubya from his sensible and gutsy Rose Garden appearance with Sharon back in '03 to the present state of neo-Clintonian MidEast "peace processing". OK, the North Korea fiasco comes close."
If a fortuneteller had told me, after Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech (the 2002 SOTU Address) that nearly six years later the Mad Mullahs in Iran, Krazy Kimmie in North Korea, and the Chinless Pencilneck in Syria would ALL still be in power, I think I would have exploded.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
11/22/2007 6:40 Comments ||
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#3
Didn't the fortunteller mention that the CIA, the MSM, and the Dimmis would all work together to destroy his policy?
Posted by: Thrairt Oppressor of the Lichtensteiners6029 ||
11/22/2007 12:36 Comments ||
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#4
George wants his "Legacy", so he's willing to screw Israel and everyone else to get it, just like Jimmy Carter.
#5
OS---right on! GWB and Condi are looking for a legacy. And what a poor choice. The Paleos have burned and made fools of administrations for decades now. Only a fool plays this game. It makes me gag, literally.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/22/2007 13:05 Comments ||
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#6
George wants his "Legacy", so he's willing to screw Israel and everyone else to get it, just like Jimmy Carter.
Word, 'Spook. I can think of few worse embarrassments than to have a legacy like Carter's. Bush seems bound and determined to have his own surgically attached albatross.
By STEVE WEIZMAN
JERUSALEM (AP) -- A Syrian site bombed by Israel in September was probably a plant for assembling a nuclear bomb, an Israeli nuclear expert said Thursday, challenging other analysts' conclusions that it housed a North Korean-style nuclear reactor.
Tel Aviv University chemistry professor Uzi Even, who worked in the past at Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor, said satellite pictures of the site taken before the Israeli strike on Sept. 6 showed no sign of the cooling towers and chimneys characteristic of reactors.
Even said the absence of telltale features of a reactor convinced him the building must have housed something else. And a rush by the Syrians after the attack to bury the site under tons of soil suggests the facility was a plutonium processing plant and they were trying to smother lethal doses of radiation leaking out.
Israel has maintained an almost total official silence over the strike, which Syria said hit an unused military installation. But foreign media reports, some quoting unidentified U.S. officials, have said the strike hit a nuclear facility made with North Korean help and modeled on the North's Yongbyon reactor.
Damascus denies it has an undeclared nuclear program, and North Korea has said it was not involved in any Syrian nuclear project.
Last month, American analyst David Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security, said commercial satellite images taken before and after the Israeli raid supported suspicions that the target was indeed a reactor and that the site was given a hasty cleanup by the Syrians to remove incriminating evidence.
Albright saw a clue in the fact that the structure was roofed at an early stage in its construction.
Other analysts have said the satellite images are too grainy to make any conclusive judgment.
But in an interview Thursday with the Haaretz newspaper - which first reported his assessment - Even compared pictures of a North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, in which a cooling tower with steam rising from it can clearly be seen, with the Syrian images, where no such structure appears.
Even told The Associated Press that another piece of evidence against the reactor theory was that satellite pictures of the Syrian installation taken since 2003 showed no sign of a plutonium separation facility, which prepares fuel for a nuclear reactor - typically a large structure with visible ventilation openings.
"It's very difficult to hide a separation plant," he said. "It's more difficult to hide a separation plant than to hide a nuclear reactor," Even added.
"In Yongbyon, the supposed sister facility in North Korea, you can see all those signs that I am pointing out that are missing in the Syrian place," Even said. "You can see the chimneys, you can see the ventilation, you can see the cooling towers, you can see the separation plant. All that is missing from this building in Syria."
Even said he believes the Syrian cleanup, in which large quantities of soil were bulldozed over the site, was an attempt to smother lethal radiation from a plutonium processing plant.
"I have no information, only an assessment, but I suspect that it was a plant for processing plutonium, namely a factory for assembling the bomb," he told Haaretz.
"Somebody made a lot of effort to bury deeply whatever remains of this facility," he told The AP. "Not just to hide it but to pile up a large mound of dirt on top of it."
Even said Syrian authorities might have taken similar cleanup action if the site had held chemical or biological weapons. But it would not have made sense for Israel to have taken the military and diplomatic risk of attacking such a facility, long a known element of Syria's arsenal.
"We know already that the Syrians have in place armed missiles with chemical weapons," he said. "They are already well-equipped in that department."
#7
STRATEGYPAGE > ISRAEL: [HAMAS] PREPARING FOR WAR; + THE UNNOTICED DEAD. Nutshell - MSM focuing on Radical Islamists = Muslim Terrorists while all but ignoring that [pro-Secular/Govtist]COMMUNISTS-MAOISTS ARE ACTUALLY KILLING MORE PEOPLE IN SOUTH ASIA [espec in bloody SRI LANKA] THAN ISLAMISTS ARE. Hamas still engaged in heavy mil recruitment for PA, espec for defense = war agz Israel???
This is pretty rich, if you remember that the baath party was originally molded after the actual nazi party, and that its members still give each other nazi salutes, much like the fatah's member (also an actual national-socialist party), or the hizbollah's.
#5
The Baathists are going pro-Bush now? Given their well-documented admiration for the original fuhrer and their harboring of escaped war criminals, that is the only possible interpretation.
The political division of the Revolutionary Guards published a report titled "Looming Damages and Threats," stating that "active cultural movements in the country are capable of damaging and threatening the regime's ideological foundations."
The Revolutionary Guards memorandum lists "feminists," "supporters of religious pluralism," "dervishes and Sufis," "radical modernist movements," "Bahaiis," and "devil worshippers" as "threats" to the regime. It also singles out non-governmental organizations (NGO's) as the most "significant element capable of instigating civil unrest and threatening the country's security."
Noting that "poverty, corruption and discrimination" are central to the country's cultural and social vulnerability, the memorandum claims that the triangle of poverty, corruption and discrimination has given rise to a series of problems that threaten the stability of the Islamic regime, despite the supreme leader's repeated warnings.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Pappy ||
11/22/2007 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11133 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
U.S. District Judge Ann Montgomery (A Clinton appointee, perhaps?)wrote that "it is dubious that these facts would lead a reasonable person to conclude that plaintiffs were about to interfere with the crew of Flight 300."
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/22/2007 6:29 Comments ||
Top||
Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U. S. District Court, District of Minnesota Nominated by William J. Clinton on November 27, 1995, to a seat vacated by Diana E. Murphy; Confirmed by the Senate on August 2, 1996, and received commission on August 6, 1996.
U.S. Magistrate Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota, 1994-1996
Education:
University of Kansas, B.S., 1971
University of Minnesota Law School, J.D., 1974
Professional Career:
Law clerk, Hon. Gerard Reilly and Hon. Hubert Pair, U.S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit, 1974-1975
Assistant U.S. attorney, District of Minnesota, 1976-1983
Judge, Hennepin County Municipal Court, Minnesota, 1983-1985
Judge, Hennepin County District Court, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1985-1994
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/22/2007 9:19 Comments ||
Top||
#4
"The ruling is preliminary, but it gives a public relations victory to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which has backed the imams' claims and provided legal support"
Not! The burden for dismissal in all civil suits is intentionally set at a high threshold. Judging from the comments it appears that the Airline isn't looking for a "settlement". How much lattitude in the Discovery process the judge allows should be interesting.
#5
Any discovery in this case had damn well better have wide enough latitude to drive a Mack truck through it. Some of these thugs come from one of the oldest and most well established al Qaeda cells in North America.
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.
KHARTOUM - Sudans president promised there would be no return to civil war in Africas biggest country on Wednesday in a speech that sought to calm tensions over a growing stand-off with the south. President Omar Hassan al-Bashir called on his political opponents to work with him for the homeland during his opening address at the annual conference of his dominant National Congress Party (NCP).
Indian High Commissioner in Pakistan Sita Parata Pall and British Political Counsellor Tom Drew held separate meetings with Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) General Secretary Maulana Fazlur Rehman at the parliament lodges, and exchanged views on the political situation of Pakistan on Wednesday.
The Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) Parachinar chapter said on Wednesday that the political administration had completely failed in averting the sectarian clashes. In a press release, PPPP Parachinar President Syed Riaz Hussain Shah said some elements were disrupting the peace conspiratorially. 
Pakistan has robust measures in place to assure the security of its nuclear weapons, the Pakistan Security Research Unit (PSRU) based in the University of Bradford, UK, has said in a publication titled The Security of Nuclear Pakistan. However, it warns that Pakistans nuclear infrastructure is at increasing risk of attack by tribal and militant elements.
Fragmented, outflanked by young militants and politically compromised, Pakistans mainstream Islamist leaders have only a side role to play in the crisis engulfing the country, analysts say. Since President Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency rule, the outcry has been led at home by ex-premier Benazir Bhutto, lawyers and rights groups, and abroad by the US.
Opposition parties are trying to convince Benazir Bhutto to boycott the 2008 general elections, and are confident that they will succeed in evolving a consensus among themselves on boycotting the polls, a source told Daily Times.
Former premier Nawaz Sharif has said that he is determined to return to Pakistan within two days and that President General Pervez Musharraf visited Saudi Arabia to discuss the issue of his return with the Saudi king, BBC reported on Wednesday. 
BAGHDAD - The US military on Wednesday defended its 19-month detention of an award-winning Associated Press photographer it has accused of working with insurgents in Iraq, saying he remained a security threat.
Ma'an Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak is planning to call a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Quartet Envoy Tony Blair to coordinate a united Arab stance ahead of the peace conference in the US city of Annapolis next week, Israeli sources reported.
Preliminary results from Jordans parliamentary elections showed the opposition Islamist party lost more than half its seats in an election it said was marred by fraud. Islamic Action Front (IAF) candidates won only seven of the 22 seats they fought in Tuesdays elections for the 110-seat assembly, an official source told Reuters. 
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Wednesday the United States will try to close a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians before President George W. Bush's term ends in January 2009, but she cautioned there is no guarantee of success. 
