UNITED NATIONS - Saudi Arabia said Wednesday that it was ready to sign key nuclear safeguards agreements, including a protocol which the UN nuclear watchdog is considering eliminating as it could help a country avoid inspections.
Saudi Arabia sent a letter to the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "on March 9, 2005 attached to an authorization from the goverment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to sign the comprehensive safeguards agreements and the small quantities protocol," Saudi disarmament official Naif Bin Bandar Al-Sudairy said in a speech to a UN conference on the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The safeguards agreement authorizes the Vienna-based IAEA to inspect a country's nuclear facilities, under the NPT, which joins five nuclear-weapons states with 183 non-nuclear-weapons states.
Saudi Arabia is among the 27 NPT non-nuclear-weapons states, which as of January had failed to sign comprehensive safeguards agreements. IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming said the agency welcomed all countries agreeing to comprehensive safeguards.
But the small quantities protocol (SQP) that was designed to make things easier for the inspection process has proved to be a mistake as it leaves the IAEA with "only very limited means to evaluate any potential nuclear activities," according to a confidential IAEA report obtained by AFP.
"That little brick of plutonium? Bah, it's nothing."
A diplomat close to the IAEA said the SQP, offered since 1971, was out-of-date in an era marked by secret nuclear programs discovered in Iran, Libya and North Korea and where the bar is higher for suspicions of possible atomic activities.
Saudi Arabia, for instance, is not believed to be a direct non-proliferation threat but there have been reports that in a crisis it could use its financial clout to get Pakistani nuclear technology, or even Pakistani weapons, from abroad, or from countries it backs such as Pakistan which does have nuclear arms. Saudi Arabia has said these reports are false.
"Lies! All lies!"
The confidential report said the IAEA would be asked to consider at a meeting in June not allowing "the conclusion of any further SQP's."
The SQP allows NPT signatory states to be exempted from requirements to notify the IAEA of design information for certain facilities and of stocks of natural uranium up to 10 tons. This "small" amount is still enough to make enough enriched uranium to produce at least one atom bomb. In its confidential report, a so-called non-paper circulated to the 35-nations of the IAEA board of governors in February, the agency said the SQP protocol could cut off inspections in countries that have not signed the additional protocol to the NPT that authorizes wider inspections.
Even with the additional protocol, however, loopholes would remain, leaving a state spared under the SQP from having to provide certain design information or "intial reports on all nuclear material." "Most importantly, APs (additional protocols) do not provide for access to carry out ad hoc inspections to verify such reports," the confidental IAEA report said.
The report called on IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei to ask states that have signed the small quantities protocol to "rescind" it. The protocol "would cease to be operational" and the state concerned would than have to "provide an initial report on nuclear material ... including small quantities," the report said, noting that this would be brought up at the June IAEA board of governors meeting.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Tony Blair won a historic third term as prime minister in British general elections yesterday, an exit poll said. However, his Labour Party will have a reduced parliamentary majority of 66, down from 161 last time, according to the poll for main television broadcasters the BBC and ITV. The exit poll forecast Blair's Labour won a 37 percent share of the vote, with the main opposition Conservatives on 33 percent and the Liberal Democrats, who opposed the Iraq war, on 22 percent. "There is going to be a Labour government," Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott insisted on BBC Television.
Counting in 645 parliamentary districts was continuing through the night, and the winner would not be officially confirmed at least until this morning. Blair's campaign for re-election was dominated by a furious debate about his credibility in the wake of the divisive Iraq war. A reduced majority could raise questions about his ability to complete his third term.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2005 20:53 ||
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...Already, however, one prediction of the naysayers seems to have been confounded. Our experience is that turnout at the polling stations is marginally up from the last election and, given the massive increase in postal votes, this suggests that turnout is going to be significantly up.
Reports from colleagues and other sources indicate that this phenomenon is nation-wide, but it would be wrong to believe that this necessarily favours Zanu New Labour. Our impression is that the Labour vote is on the slide, and the votes are going variously to the Lib-Dims and Conservatives, with the greater proportion going to the party with the greatest chance of winning â hence the mixed messages from the polls.
Further, the run-up to the this election has been characterised by the highest pre-election proportion of âdonât knowsâ or âundecidedsâ in living memory, up to 25 percent on the eve of poll. This has, undoubtedly, slewed poll results....
The bodies of two pilots who were killed after their plane exploded mid-air, scattering debris over several kilometres, have been removed from the crash site. Police have identified the pilots as 43-year-old Clive Roger Adamson of Wellington and 41-year-old Tony Drummond of Auckland. They were on a mail run from Auckland to Blenheim when their NZ Post Metroliner exploded and crashed east of Stratford in South Taranaki around 10.15 Tuesday night.
The aircraft was reported to have disappeared from radar screens at the Christchurch air traffic control at about 10.20pm, a spokesperson at the Rescue Co-ordination Centre New Zealand said. Emergency crews worked in heavy rain and wind to locate the wreckage. Locals said the plane appeared to explode in mid-air. The Hunger family said a huge roar shook their house and they saw a flaming ball in the sky which looked like a meteor. Jeff Hunger said there was an "almighty burst of light" and then the plane dropped out of the sky and the flaming wreckage looked like "teardrops." The plane passed over their house and exploded in a great orange flash. This attracted people from around the area with police having to set up road blocks to cordon off the area. No indication this was terrorism, but it highlights a major vulnerability. There must be thousands of flights a day that carry mail and packages.
Posted by: phil_b ||
05/05/2005 1:29:38 AM ||
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A court in The Hague turned down a demand by a dozen plaintiffs who wanted to force the Dutch government to arrest US President George W Bush when he visits the Netherlands on Saturday, the judgement made public Wednesday said. Bush will be in the south of the Netherlands this weekend to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe.
The plaintiffs, mostly left-wing organisations and activists, accused Bush of "numerous grave violations of the Geneva Conventions". They also said the president is responsible for the deaths of civilians in Afghanistan and Iraq and Washington's refusal to recognize the International Criminal Court (ICC), the world's first permanent war crimes court. In the judgement, dated on Tuesday, the court said that the case was political and that the demands "could have far-reaching consequences for US-Dutch relations".
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2005 00:00:00 ||
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#1
''...far-reaching consequences for US-Dutch relations''.
#7
I don't know about Dutch, but I'd bet they're all European. They are the ones who make these idiotic gestures and think going to court is the way to solve everything.
Those who arrived from the south and east would more likely to engage in direct action. See Vincent Van Gogh.
#11
A court in The Hague turned down a demand by a dozen plaintiffs who wanted to force the Dutch government to arrest US President George W Bush when he visits the Netherlands on Saturday
Well, that is certainly a relief. For the Dutch, I mean.
#14
I don't think the Zuyder Zee exists anymore, it would have to be regular seawater from the North Sea coming through the broken dykes. We wouldn't do that though, we'd just send in a couple of armed Secret Service guys to pick him up -- using Black Helicopters, of course. I mean, what would the Dutch do about it, blow their bicycle horns in protest?
Congress has become fed up with so-called "527" groups' ability to collect and spend unlimited contributions to influence federal elections, and some members are demanding that the groups disclose the names of their donors. Republican Reps. E. Clay Shaw Jr. and Mark Foley of Florida and Phil English of Pennsylvania are supporting the 527 Transparency Act, which would force the quasi-political organizations to report monthly financial reports of contributions and expenditures to the Federal Election Commission. The groups already are required to report that information to the Internal Revenue Service. "An organization comes up with a name -- Citizens for Fair Government or another name -- and they hide, and you don't know who is behind them," Mr. Shaw said. "We've been ravaged with problems as a result of these organizations." Mr. English called the disparaging advertisements produced by some 527s "sucker punches" to unsuspecting politicians. The 527 designation refers to the IRS code section that regulates such nonprofit groups.
"I think we can put this simple but strong transparency law in place to reclaim the integrity of our political process," Mr. English said. Because the groups are not required to reveal their donors, Mr. Foley said, he and others have felt helpless to respond to the ads even if they agree with them. "I would like to know who is paying for ads in my district, urging Mark Foley 'to reform Social Security' or 'tell Mr. Foley to vote for this.' They may be positive ads, but I want to know," he said.
The transparency bill also would establish penalties for organizations that do not report by increasing by 30 percent the excise tax on contributions that are not reported. The groups already must pay a 35 percent excise tax for unreported contributions, but Mr. Shaw said the additional 30 percent would create more disincentive. "We are trying to make sure and impress upon them that noncompliance is not a good plan," Mr. Shaw said. If the organization cannot pay the taxes, then the members of its board of directors could be liable. In addition, if the groups fail to comply, the gift tax exemption accorded to donors would be invalidated.
Some politicians say concern about 527s highlights the inadequacy of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act enacted in 2002. "The fact is, we are now stuck with a complex and convoluted law that does not ban, or even reduce, soft money in the federal political system, but it does impose significant burdens on individuals and groups seeking to be involved in the political process," said Rep. Bob Ney, Ohio Republican and chairman of the Committee on House Administration. Mr. Shaw said that his bill does not have support from any Democrats, but that the measure has a better chance of passing than proposals that would limit the amount of money donors can contribute to 527s.
"The courts have been clear that any limits on contributions constitutes a violation of free speech," Mr. Shaw said.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2005 11:04:49 AM ||
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#1
Remove the limitations on donations but force public disclosure of all donations in a detailed and timely manner.
Posted by: too true ||
05/05/2005 11:42 Comments ||
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I think they should not be allowed to get donations from front groups either -- like the 'Tides Foundation' which Teresa (Hines-Kerry) uses to donate to terrorist-linked groups like CAIR.
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Tuesday that President Bush's decision to invade Iraq encouraged North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il to produce nuclear weapons...
Posted by: Anonymoose ||
05/05/2005 9:52:19 AM ||
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#1
And the blackmail NK used on you to finance their weapons program didn't?
Madam Albright, please stop talking and using my oxygen. Thank you.
#3
Heck - blame Bosnia and Kosovo. The crummy thing about those interventions is that they weren't even in the American interest. It bought us no friends in the Muslim world, and it certainly bought us no friends in the Christian world.
#6
Blah, Blah, Blah. She knows that she'll never have a possition of power again no matter what. Albright's damaged goods; even a Democrat administration isn't going to touch her. She's working her way into pundit-land.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/05/2005 14:08 Comments ||
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The continuing ''talking points'' of the Dems that Hillary started with ''they didn't have nukes until this administration took office.'' Keep listening for this message -- say it enough and that makes it true
#11
There was a saying by some French philosopher to the effect that we'll know true sexual equality has been reached when an incompetent woman is promoted to a position of great responsibility.
Federal agents arrested a Pentagon analyst on Wednesday, accusing him of illegally disclosing highly classified information about possible attacks on American forces in Iraq to two employees of a pro-Israel lobbying group.
The analyst, Lawrence A. Franklin, turned himself in to the authorities on Wednesday morning in a case that has stirred unusually anxious debate in influential political circles in the capital even though it has focused on a midlevel Pentagon employee.
The inquiry has cast a cloud over the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which employed the two men who are said to have received the classified information from Mr. Franklin. The group, also known as Aipac, has close ties to senior policymakers in the Bush administration, among them Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is expected to appear later this month at the group's annual meeting.
The investigation has proven awkward as well for a group of conservative Republicans, who held high-level civilian jobs at the Pentagon during President Bush's first term and the buildup toward the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and who were also close to Aipac.
They were led by Paul D. Wolfowitz, the former deputy defense secretary who has been named president of the World Bank. Mr. Franklin once worked in the office of one of Mr. Wolfowitz's allies, Douglas J. Feith, the under secretary for policy at the Pentagon, who has also said he is leaving the administration later this year.
According to a 10-page F.B.I. affidavit accompanying the criminal complaint, Mr. Franklin divulged the secret information about the potential attacks at a lunch on June 26, 2003. Officials said he was dining with two of Aipac's senior staff members. The lunch was apparently held under F.B.I. surveillance. Four days later, federal agents searched Mr. Franklin's office and found the document containing the information.
Later, agents found dozens of classified documents at his home. The affidavit did not describe the subject matter of the documents, but said 38 were classified Top Secret, about 37 were classified Secret and approximately eight were classified Confidential. The dates on the documents spanned more than three decades. The affidavit did not indicate whether the information that was disclosed would have placed American troops at risk, and it offered no details about the gravity of the information that might have been compromised.
Other people who have been officially briefed on the case said that while Iraq was discussed at the lunch, most of the conversation centered on Iran.
Friends of Mr. Franklin, an advocate of a tough approach to Iran, say he was worried that his views were not being given an adequate hearing at the White House. They also say he wanted Aipac to help bring more attention to his ideas.
The two Aipac employees at the lunch were not identified in the complaint, but officials said they were Steven Rosen, formerly the group's director of foreign policy issues, and Keith Weissman, formerly its senior Middle East analyst. They remain under scrutiny, officials said, and supporters of the two men said they feared that they might be charged as well.
Lawyers for Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman have said the men did nothing wrong. On Wednesday, Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Mr. Rosen, said, "Steve Rosen never solicited, received, or passed on any classified documents from Larry Franklin, and Mr. Franklin will never be able to say otherwise." John N. Nassikas, a lawyer for Mr. Weissman, declined to discuss the case.
For its part, Aipac has been advised by the government that the group itself is not a target of the investigation, according to a person who has been briefed on Aipac's legal strategy.
Still, the organization recently took action to distance itself from the two men. Two weeks ago, Aipac said it had dismissed Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman after months of defending them. On Wednesday, Patrick Dorton, a spokesman for the group, declined to discuss the case.
Mr. Franklin, 58, was suspended last year, as was his security clearance, but he had been rehired in recent months in a nonsensitive job. He has been employed by the Defense Department since 1979 and is a colonel in the Air Force Reserve.
He made a brief appearance on Wednesday in federal court in Alexandria, Va., and was released on $100,000 bond. A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for May 27. If convicted, Mr. Franklin could be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison. One of Mr. Franklin's lawyers said that he expected his client would plead not guilty.
Associates of the influential circle at the Pentagon that had been headed by Mr. Wolfowitz attributed the scrutiny of Mr. Franklin to the continuing struggle inside the administration over intelligence. They said they had been unfairly attacked by critics at the country's intelligence agencies with whom they had clashed since before the war in Iraq.
They have said other efforts to embarrass them include one last year when American officials said Ahmed Chalabi, the leader of the Iraqi National Congress and a longtime ally of Pentagon conservatives, told Iranian intelligence officials that the United States had broken its communications codes. A federal investigation into who might have provided the information to Mr. Chalabi remained unresolved.
Friends of Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman said the two men have been singled out unfairly. The friends say the men operated no differently than many corporate representatives, lobbyists and journalists in Washington who cultivate sources inside the government to barter information about competitors, personal gossip and, sometimes, classified intelligence.
But Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman had regular discussions with Israeli officials about the Middle East, and investigators have long said that they believed that the Aipac employees had veered into the area of national security, meeting with Israeli officials, including intelligence agents, although the affidavit made no mention of Israel as a recipient of any information.
The absence of any mention of Israel appears to reflect the acutely sensitive relationship between two allies with close political, military and intelligence relationships. Israel says it has banned espionage operations against the United States, but American counterintelligence officials have said that Israel still spies on the United States, looking for technological data and inside information about American thinking about the Middle East.
After Mr. Franklin's arrest, the Israeli foreign minister, Silvan Shalon, said in an interview on Israel's Channel One that Israel had no role in the case. But American officials confirmed a report by The Associated Press report from Jerusalem on Monday that said F.B.I. agents had interviewed a former senior Israeli intelligence official, Uzi Arad, about the Franklin inquiry.
At the heart of the government's case against Mr. Franklin is the lunch he had in June at a restaurant in Arlington, Va. At the lunch, Mr. Franklin spoke of the information related to potential attacks on American forces in Iraq, the affidavit says.
The affidavit said Mr. Franklin told the two men that the information was highly classified and asked them not to "use" it. There is no indication that Mr. Franklin provided any documents to the two men.
The affidavit, signed by Catherine M. Hanna, a F.B.I. agent, said Mr. Franklin had engaged in other illegal acts. The complaint said he disclosed government information to an unidentified foreign official and journalists. In addition, investigators found 83 classified documents in his home in West Virginia. The documents were stored throughout the house in open and closed containers, and one was in plain view.
After the search of his office in June 2003, Mr. Franklin, according to the affidavit, admitted that he had told Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman about the classified document. He also began cooperating with the government, but he later reversed that decision. Investigators pursued espionage charges against Mr. Franklin for more than a year, but Wednesday's complaint charges him not with spying but with the lesser offense of illegal disclosure of classified information.
A senior Justice Department official, while not ruling out the possibility of future espionage charges, noted that such charges required an intent to act on behalf of a foreign power. "That is not the case here," the official said. "He was charged with the appropriate crime here, and that's the crime the investigators believe he committed."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/05/2005 12:46:34 AM ||
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Well there is classified material and then there is serious stuff.
#1
Demoted? Does that mean she can only go on B-list shows to accuse her superiors for her f*&k-ups?
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2005 20:39 Comments ||
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#2
The Army has screwed this up. First Lynndie can't cop a plea becasue she's innocent and now Karpinski gets a demotion? Only the guys go to the slammer?
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
05/05/2005 20:56 Comments ||
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#3
well, it seems Graner was the ''mastermind''.... to use the term very loosely....
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/05/2005 21:01 Comments ||
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Remember, nearly all of the photos were taken in one night, to celebrate Lynndie's 21st birthday. One glorious, out of control evening...
Yay for the demotion, but, yeah, Jan shoulda gotten a general court. Her career is over.
#5
I am no expert in the UCMJ, but a demotion is the last thing I expected. My guess, only a guess, is that she was offered a chance to retire as an O-8 in exchange for dropping all charges against her, and she declined.
I actually expected her to get a wrist slap and then told she can stay static in her career, for she will never gain another command the rest of her carer.
Hopefully some active duty folks will come to the fore and 'splain this.
#6
I was listening to the some local radio guys talk about how Graner had to have some sort orders to follow because he was too stupid to do this on his own. I contend that you donât have to be smart to be a deviant and given the photos that were provided it seemed there was a nest of deviants and Graner was the LEADER. The reason he was found out was because someone who wasnât a deviant couldnât stand by and let it go on. They were having some weird sexual-deviant experiences and it was allowed to go because the higher ups didnât bother to check up on them. I find it really hard to believe that Military Intelligence depended on a Sp4 Army Guard Member to âsoften upâ common criminals to extract God knows what marginal information. The General Karpinski claims that she had no âJurisdictionâ on that part of the prison and it was outside her chain of command. This doesnât square well with the DOD policy of One Base, One General, One Commander policy. Even if there was a Secret MI operation to âsoften upâ people on her base the General should have know about it. Apparently the special courts martial also felt she should have known and they donât believe the Shadowy MI personnel story any more than they did at Granersâ trial.
NEW YORK -- In a federal court brief filed late last night, the American Civil Liberties Union challenged the government's claim that turning over photographic evidence of detainee abuse in Iraq would violate the Geneva Conventions.
"Until now, this administration has shown only contempt for the Geneva Conventions, and it has built its policies dismissing the application of international humanitarian law," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "It's simply astounding that the Defense Department has now invoked the Geneva Conventions to suppress evidence that prisoners have been abused. The government cannot cloak its attempts to protect itself from public embarrassment in a newfound concern for the Geneva Conventions." This is on the ACLU's website. I used to support the ACLU but the past 20 years I have had nothing but contempt for them. The seem to pick only the causes that will get them the most money and publicity. There is a lot more at the link.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
05/05/2005 2:03:36 PM ||
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The Amerikan Communist Labor Union is a self serving, glory hog, bloted waste of a burocracy. In the beginning of the organization, it was a wonderful thing. Now, a sad waste of its former self.
#3
In a federal court brief filed late last night, the American Civil Liberties Union challenged the governmentâs claim that turning over photographic evidence of detainee abuse in Iraq would violate the Geneva Conventions.
Out of curiosity, what the phuque would the ACLU care about non-U.S. citizen combatants incarcerated on foreign soil??
''Itâs simply astounding that the Defense Department has now invoked the Geneva Conventions to suppress evidence that prisoners have been abused...''
Hell, y'all claimed that the prisoners in question were covered by the Geneva Conventions, didn'tcha?
EFL
An Army sergeant who left his Georgia post six months ago was tracked down at his parents' home after a notebook with anti-American and anti-Semitic writings was found in his discarded backpack. Karim Iraq, 25, was arrested as a deserter and is being held without bail at the Palm Beach County Jail, sheriff's officials said. An unfortunate name indeed.
His father said the soldier fled Fort Stewart after the Army extended his enlistment because he had soured on the U.S. military mission in Iraq. The father said the soldier was also harassed over his Palestinian heritage. ``He was feeling rejected or discriminated against for the last year or so.... He said he'd been made fun of all the time. He never fit in. They made fun of his name. They always looked at him like he's an outsider,'' Zayed Iraq said. Queue: Violin Queue: ACLU Queue: CAIR
He made sergeant. He had to have something going for him. He had to have fit in for a while. My understanding is that few odd-balls make sergeant these days.
Karim Iraq was arrested Tuesday, a day after the backpack was found Monday at a gas station within miles of his parents' home in this West Palm Beach suburb. The father said the bag was probably left there by a burglar who had broken into the soldier's truck days earlier. Authorities said a notebook inside the backpack contained handwritten notes cursing the military, freedom and the United States. A message reading ``Die you know who you are!!!'' appears with an image of the Star of David in a circle with a line through it.
Handwritten means it can be compared to known samples of his handwriting. Plus fingerprints on the note book.
I think Leo Strauss planted the notebook.
``He's a dangerous guy with anti-American slogans and a deserter. It's someone we want to get off the street immediately,'' sheriff's Capt. Gregory Richter said.
This fellow is going to have a jury of E-7s and E-8s. It isn't going to go well for him.
Queue: Thunder and lighting Queue: ACLU Queue: CAIR
The arrest of a top deputy to Osama bin Laden this week raises anew an issue that has bedeviled Bush administration officials for some time: what will America ultimately do with captured Al Qaeda leaders after they have been milked for all the intelligence they have to offer?
The apprehension in Pakistan of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, reputed to be Al Qaeda's No. 3 commander, is only the latest in a series of "big catches" announced by U.S. counterterrorism officials since the American invasion of Afghanistan in the fall of 2001. Spirited away to secret locations overseas and reportedly subjected to extreme interrogation techniques under the murkiest of rules, the captured Al Qaeda leaders include most of those believed to be directly responsible for the September 11 terror attacks—with the notable exception of bin Laden and his top deputy Ayman Al-Zawahiri.
But even as President George W. Bush today hailed al-Libbi's arrest as a "critical victory in the war on terror," a number of top counterterrorism officials are increasingly frustrated over the lack of any plans to put top Al Qaeda leaders on trial—either in special military tribunals that were authorized by Bush in November 2001 or in civilian courts.
Sources tell NEWSWEEK that administration lawyers have made virtually no headway in resolving the dilemma. In part, this is because of continued arguments by the U.S. intelligence community that "high value" prisoners such as 9/11 master planner Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who was captured in March 2003, may still yield useful information about Al Qaeda plans and operatives that can help thwart future attacks.
But that line of argument becomes harder to sustain as time goes on and the information known to captured detainees such as Mohammed, Ramzi bin al-Shibh (another key 9/11 planner) and Mustafa Ahmed al-Hawsawi (the alleged 9/11 paymaster) becomes inevitably outdated. "At a certain point, whatever residual intelligence value they have is far outweighed by their value as defendants," said Brad Berenson, a former White House lawyer who worked on President Bush's order authorizing the creation of military tribunals in the fall of 2001. Berenson now advocates a mass Nuremberg-style trial of Al Qaeda leaders.
Another reason for pressing the issue relatively soon, some officials say, is the recent guilty plea of accused 9/11 co-conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui. His case now enters a new phase in which prosecutors will argue that Moussaoui, who played a peripheral role in the 9/11 conspiracy at best, should be executed while the actual architects of 9/11 remain alive indefinitely—with no apparent plans to even put them on trial.
Aside from the fundamental inconsistency in the U.S. government's position, the lack of trial plans for top Al Qaeda leaders could gravely undermine the position of prosecutors in court: under federal death penalty law, if defense lawyers can establish that Moussaoui's superiors such as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi bin al-Shibh are in U.S. custody and are not facing death, it would count as a "mitigating factor" that could help Moussaoui avoid execution.
The internal tensions over what to do with top Al Qaeda leaders became briefly visible last year when FBI Director Robert Mueller told reporters that the bureau was gathering evidence for use in a possible military tribunal case against Mohammed and other high-value detainees. "I would expect that there would be tribunals at some point," said Mueller in response to a reporter's questions about whether Mohammed and others would face trial.
But within hours of those remarks, Mueller aides and administration officials quickly moved to tamp down any speculation that trials of the real perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks were anywhere close to happening. In fact, administration officials told reporters, no decisions had been made—or were even being contemplated.
If anything, the difficulties in bringing top Al Qaeda leaders to trial have only grown since then. The constitutionality of the military tribunals authorized by Bush is being challenged in the federal courts by lawyers for accused detainees. Even more significantly, in the wake of the Abu Ghraib scandal, there have been a series of disclosures that White House and Justice Department lawyers approved the CIA's use of a number of extreme interrogation techniques against top Al Qaeda detainees. These include "water boarding"—in which a prisoner is strapped down, forcibly pushed under water and made to believe he might drown. Some lawyers say any trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and others—even in military tribunals—would open the door for their defense lawyers to potentially embarrass the U.S. government by introducing evidence to suggest that their clients had been tortured by CIA interrogators in violation of international law.
In part, the Bush administration may dodge the bullet in the case of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, or "the Libyan," as he is known, by simply deciding not to press for custody of him. The Al Qaeda commander was captured by Pakistani security forces after a firefight on Monday involving a group of terrorist operatives in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.
In the past, the Bush administration successfully pressed Pakistani authorities to turn over to American representatives—usually the CIA—high-level Al Qaeda operatives such as Mohammed and al-Shibh. But in this case, a U.S. official said, the Pakistanis have good reason to want to hold al-Libbi themselves and possibly put him on trial in Pakistan. Pakistani officials have accused him of orchestrating two December 2003 assassination attempts against Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf. Reports from Pakistan also describe al-Libbi as a major suspect in other terrorist attacks in Pakistan, including the attempted assassination of the country's prime minister last year and several bombings.
Officials in Washington say the administration appears to be content to allow the Pakistanis to hold al-Libbi—so long as U.S. interrogators get access to him. Closely allied with Musharraf, the American government is confident it will get such access.
Al-Libbi is important because some U.S. intelligence officials describe him as just below bin Laden and Al-Zawahiri in importance. Considered an Al Qaeda fixer who also had an "operational planning role," al-Libbi is said by some U.S. authorities to have moved into the bin Laden network's top leadership to replace Mohammed, Al Qaeda's top field commander.
U.S. officials say they have reason to believe that al-Libbi directly participated in the planning for post-9/11 attacks inside the United States, possibly during last year's presidential-election campaign and between Election Day and Bush's second inauguration. No such attacks occurred.
Some officials said intelligence may tie al-Libbi to an Al Qaeda computer expert who was arrested in Pakistan about a year ago. That expert was allegedly in contact with a suspected terrorist cell in London whose leaders included an associate of Mohammed who allegedly visited the U.S. prior to 9/11 to conduct surveillance of financial targets in New York, New Jersey and Washington. Officials declined to give any further details on the purported plots or threats that al-Libbi allegedly was orchestrating against the U.S. mainland.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/05/2005 12:49:54 AM ||
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''what will America ultimately do with captured Al Qaeda leaders after they have been milked for all the intelligence they have to offer?''
Three things: A wall, a blindfold, and a fiting squad.
Posted by: Mrs. Davis ||
05/05/2005 9:48 Comments ||
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Aside from the fundamental inconsistency in the U.S. governmentâs position, the lack of trial plans for top Al Qaeda leaders could gravely undermine the position of prosecutors in court: under federal death penalty law, if defense lawyers can establish that Moussaouiâs superiors such as Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi bin al-Shibh are in U.S. custody and are not facing death, it would count as a âmitigating factorâ that could help Moussaoui avoid execution.
Leave it to freakin' Newsweek to expose these issues before our enemies (I know, I know, it's all over the TV, so they already know). To me, this shows the MSM's attitude of the masses vs. the individual. There's a fine line between a planner/financier (KSM and al-Shibh) vs. those who actually carried out 9/11 (incl. Moussoui). All of them should hang/dipped in pig guts/saw their heads off w/ dull rusty knives/etc, but the top dogs have knowledge of future events (and thus, serve their purpose right now for intel), whereas the implementers probably don't (and should be put down if found guilty).
Posted by: BA ||
05/05/2005 10:13 Comments ||
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"Kofi Annan will be a very worried man," Fox News reported on Thursday, now that Congress has been given documents that may expose "damning information" about Annan's role in the oil-for-food scandal. Fox News, in an exclusive report, called it a "dramatic new phase in the oil-for-food scandal." Robert Parton, a senior investigator looking into the oil-for-food scandal, recently resigned from the commission headed by Paul Volcker, because he thought Volcker was being too soft on Annan. Fox News reported Thursday morning that Parton has just turned over his findings to congressional investigators, who have been eager to look at the evidence involving the U.N. secretary general.
The Paks bag al-Libbi, Parton is turning over the dirt on Kofi and the Spurs kicked the Nuggets ass. And it's only Thursday!
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2005 10:53:12 AM ||
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Sorry, 'scapegoat' has 2 meanings. I meant the original biblical one of purging the community of sins by casting out the goat (to whom the sins are attached) and not the more recent one of someone who is unfairly blamed.
#6
New link to expanded story here: Annan Docs Handed Over to Congress The documents were handed over after Parton was issued a subpoena by the House International Relations Committee on Friday night.
"I have directed investigators for the Committee to begin an immediate and careful examination of documents received from Mr. Parton," Rep. Henry Hyde, the committee's chairman, said in a statement. "I wish to extend to Mr. Parton my thanks for fully complying with the committee's subpoena. It is my hope and expectation that neither the United Nations nor the independent inquiry will attempt to sanction Mr. Parton for complying with a lawful subpoena."
After the subpoena was issued Friday night, Parton's attorney wrote to the United Nations and to IIC head Paul Volcker asking if they would instruct Parton to defy a Congressional subpoena. When both the United Nations and the Volcker committee refused to answer, Parton took action and, on Wednesday night, handed over the boxes of documents to a congressional committee. Those boxes contain records of Parton's investigation of Annan's actions and are believed to be damaging to the secretary-general.
Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, earlier was preparing subpoenas to force Parton and Duncan to testify. It was expected that those subpoenas could be issued as early as Thursday.
Congress has been trying to talk to Parton ever since his resignation two weeks ago. Last week, Volcker tried to block such efforts by insisting that Parton and Duncan, both Americans, had diplomatic immunity. Congressional sources told FOX News last week that they believe Volcker is terrified of the damage the investigators' testimony could do to his credibility. U.N. experts said the showdown between Volcker and Congress would be critical.
"It's also being pointed out that if Mr. Volcker is asserting that his team has U.N. diplomatic immunity, then he is admitting that his committee is not in fact independent but a part of the very organization it is supposed to be objectively investigating," said Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation.
Gardiner said it is vital for Parton and Duncan to be heard. "It's absolutely essential that these two individuals be allowed to testify before Congress to give the full picture. After all, this is a $30 million investigation being funded by the Iraqi people. They demand absolute accountability from this inquiry," Gardiner said.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2005 14:06 Comments ||
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Iran's reformist camp has launched a virulent attack against ex-police chief and top conservative presidential election contender Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf over his alleged backing of the repression of student demonstrators. Government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh, who was widely quoted in the press Wednesday, lambasted Qalibaf for having co-signed an open letter in July 1999 from top commanders in the hard-line Revolutionary Guards warning their "patience was at an end" as student-led protests gripped the capital. The letter urged the government of President Mohammad Khatami to act against the pro-democracy protests, which were eventually halted by a violent crackdown and widespread arrests.
"It is an honor for the Khatami government that those who had written to Mr Khatami saying their patience was at an end ... are today wearing slick suits and supporting progress through reforms," Ramazanzadeh said in an unprecedented personal swipe at Qalibaf. With just over a month to go before the Islamic Republic goes to the polls, Qalibaf has emerged as one of the main contenders in the race to replace Khatami - who is near the end of his second consecutive and therefore final term in office. But since resigning as national police chief to contest the June 17 election, Qalibaf has been under fire from his rivals over his past as commander of the Revolutionary Guards air force. Members of Iran's military are barred from directly entering politics, and even after retiring from the armed forces have traditionally refrained from attempting to reach senior positions in the regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Sigh. That it isn't obvious beyond the shadow of a doubt that ''reform'' is a fucking joke to Khomeini & Co makes this tool and his cohorts among the most foolish humans on the planet. Still wanking about that toothless slightly-better-than-a-Qomeini (no, that's not a typo) tool Khatami?
Oh baby, you're retarded. No election will remove the Mullahcracy, jackass. Get serious. When we hear the incredibly loud ''POP!'' - we'll know you've finally pulled your head out of your ass. Wotta tool.
CAIRO - Egyptian authorities detained about 1,000 people during nationwide demonstrations organised by the banned but usually tolerated Muslim Brotherhood in favour of political reform, judicial sources said on Thursday. Public prosecutors or state security prosecutors are questioning about 400 of them, 120 of them in the eastern Nile Delta province of Sharkia, where 12 policemen were injured in clashes during the protests on Wednesday, the sources said. The authorities are expected to either release the remaining 600 or detain them without charges, they added.
Mohamed Habib, the deputy leader of the influential Islamist group, said that the Brotherhood had counted 1,562 people still in detention from Wednesday and that the police had referred hundreds to the prosecution for possible charging.
The Brotherhood said last month that it was negotiating with the interior ministry on holding a massive demonstration that would oppose foreign intervention in Egyptian politics while simultaneously pressing for more rapid political reform. "But they rejected this idea and we of course said: 'Okay, we will stage those demonstrations or stand-ins.' We had 60,000 people over 15 provinces," Habib told Reuters on Thursday.
Independent estimates of the size of the demonstrations were difficult to obtain from areas outside Cairo but the number of detentions suggested that taken together they were the most successful protests this year in Egypt. Egypt has seen a spate of political protests this year, mostly against a fifth six-year term for President Hosni Mubarak in presidential elections expected in September. The authorities have fluctuated in their attitude towards the protests, sometimes allowing them to go ahead, sometimes thwarting them in advance and sometimes detaining participants.
Habib said: "We had hoped the security would be more responsive, more peaceful and civilised, because in our view it is their job to protect demonstrations, not to suppress them." The response of the authorities to the Muslim Brotherhood challenge differed from place to place. In the northeastern province of Damietta, demonstrators have been ordered detained for four days for questioning on suspicion they belonged to a banned organisation and organised an unlicensed protest.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2005 4:41:00 PM ||
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Interesting piece by Bernard Lewis, not quite an islam apologist (though I'm told he's supposedly an armenian genocide denier... any confirmation on that?), on islamic societies, dictatorships, freedom, and democracy. Informative, and somehow hopeful. Long, 6 pages, article at link, hat tip Belmont club
A little backround on Graner, just about what we figured.
FORT HOOD, Texas, May 5 (Reuters) - One night, Staci Morris awoke to find then husband Charles Graner holding a large knife to her throat and openly pondering whether to kill her. In subsequent days, he pretended nothing had happened. "He's like my Hannibal Lecter, he really is. He's the monster in my life," said Morris, who has two teenage children from her 10-year marriage with Graner, the central figure in the Abu Ghraib abuse of Iraqi prisoners.
Graner's unpredictability helped undo a plea bargain deal this week for Lynndie England, a fellow reservist and ex-lover with whom he has an infant son. Subpoenaed but not called to testify, Morris described England's reaction and her own sometimes bizarre life with Graner in an interview after the case collapsed on Wednesday. "He screws up everything, doesn't he?" a disappointed England told Morris about Graner after the judge ruled that trial would have to start from scratch in the future. Pictured in infamous photos holding a leash to a naked prisoner's neck attached by Graner, England had pleaded guilty, only to see the judge declare a mistrial after Graner's testimony contradicted her plea.
Morris, 34, a nurse who has remarried and lives outside Pittsburgh, said the former U.S. prison guard now serving a 10-year sentence would proudly e-mail his children photos showing tough treatment of Iraqi prisoners. He would send photos of "these beat up prisoners and blood and talk about how cool it was - look what daddy gets to do," she said, adding that she did not show them the correspondence. Graner transmitted pictures of the mentally ill prisoner who was the man at the end of England's leash. In one photo the man was covered in his feces.
"The whup ass ran like a river," Morris quoted Graner as saying about the frequent beatings of prisoners. "He had complete contempt for prisoners; as far as he was concerned they had no rights," she added in summing up his attitude as a U.S. corrections officer in Pennsylvania. Some of the e-mails Graner sent to family and friends were cited in his January court-martial.
Many of the abuse photos which badly damaged America's image abroad showed Iraqi men being sexually humiliated, such as being forced to masturbate and simulate fellatio. Asked how Graner might have thought to stack seven naked Iraqi prisoners into a human pyramid, Morris said: "He's obsessed with this kind of stuff." "He is a sexual deviant," she said. "He was very sexually strange, into very strange things." As their relationship was faltering, Graner twice set up covert video surveillance of Morris's bedroom - and then told her about it. On other occasions Graner recounted to guests invented tales about their sexual exploits, Morris said.
Yet the same man could be unusually charismatic and engaging, prompting a military superior at Abu Ghraib to describe Graner as a chameleon. Just weeks ago while in prison, Graner married another woman implicated in the scandal, Megan Ambuhl. She was also his lover in Iraq and pleaded guilty to abuse charges, but was not sentenced to prison.
"He is very charming guy," said Morris, who met him while both worked at a Mexican restaurant in 1989. Later in their relationship, Morris obtained three court protective orders to prevent abuses such as when he threatened a knife on his sleeping wife.
Military officials denied requests to talk with Graner during England's trial, during which she said he had pressured her into appearing in photos. Graner's lawyer declined to comment on his prison conditions and a letter sent to Graner at Fort Leavenworth prison has not received a response. "He said 'I'm just trying to decide. You're not really happy with me. Maybe I should end it for you," she recalled.
When the news of American abuse of Iraqi prisoners spread last year, Morris said she knew Graner was involved because of his e-mails, and she struggled to tell their children. "How do you explain something like that? My daughter, all she wanted to know was why," she said. "I had them in counseling again."
After a military court sentenced their father to 10 out of a maximum 15-year sentence, the children remained bitter. "They thought he didn't get enough time," Morris said.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2005 2:06:24 PM ||
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After a military court sentenced their father to 10 out of a maximum 15-year sentence, the children remained bitter. ''They thought he didn't get enough time,'' Morris said.
They'll turn out fine, I think.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/05/2005 15:38 Comments ||
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The man sounds like a textbook psychopath. Thank goodness he'll be put away before he does real damage.
This photo was posted at LGF yesterday. Today, in his blog, photographer Michael Yon tells the story . . .
Major Mark Bieger found this little girl after the car bomb that attacked our guys while kids were crowding around. The soldiers here have been angry and sad for two days. They are angry because the terrorists could just as easily have waited a block or two and attacked the patrol away from the kids. Instead, the suicide bomber drove his car and hit the Stryker when about twenty children were jumping up and down and waving at the soldiers. Major Bieger, I had seen him help rescue some of our guys a week earlier during another big attack, took some of our soldiers and rushed this little girl to our hospital. He wanted her to have American surgeons and not to go to the Iraqi hospital. She didn't make it. . . .
Go read it all.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/05/2005 12:37:23 PM ||
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Via Blackfive yesterday -- Michael Yon completed SF training at 19 years of age! Read him if you haven't been doing so -- great insight. He's been traveling Iraq
#4
There couldn't be any less press coverage on this if it had happened on the far side of the moon. No blogs, I never see this photo.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/05/2005 13:45 Comments ||
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Fox did have Michael Yon live this morning about 8:45 EST talking about this. He talked of the sadness and anger of the soldiers at the attach involving kids.
#8
Soldiers are in a unique position when they grieve, for unlike the ordinary person, they can act with burning ferocity, great sympathy and compassion, and intensity to prevent such things in the future. This gives them a depth of feeling that civilians rarely experience.
May 5, 2005: Recently, a U.S. Department of Defense web document was found to contain classified information that was supposed to be blacked out, but wasn't. The culprit in this case was the Adobe Acrobat program, its editing tools, and a military user that did not fully understand how to use Acrobat. This has happened before, not just with PDF (Acrobat) files, but also with Microsoft WORD files (where stuff needed for the "undo" function stay in the file unless you go to the effort to flush them out, which few people do.)
Another source of leaks is people putting lots of classified material on their laptops, which then get lost or stolen. It's unclear if this has actually resulted in the bad guys actually getting their hands on the sensitive material. Such stolen laptops are using sold as stolen laptops, not repositories of classified data.
Some of the most damaging leaks are done the old fashioned way, by having someone say the wrong thing at the wrong time. Politicians often do this, and frequently do it deliberately. But there are also a lot of accidental releases of valuable stuff by people who should know better. The most notable, and damaging, example was in the late 1990s, when civilians getting a guided tour of NSA (National Security Agency), were told by a staffer that the NSA was listening on Osama bin Laden's satellite phone conversations. That got into the news, and shortly thereafter, Osama stopped using his satellite phone. Sometimes you don't need a computer to screw things up faster.
Posted by: Steve ||
05/05/2005 11:20:35 AM ||
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I've always liked backup tapes, myself. Small, easily tranported, and anonymous. Grab a blank and swap labels. Even if it's called for use, it's likely to be considered an error that tape # so-and-so is data-free.
Dr Ibrahim, also known as Dr Taufiq and Abul Farraj Al Libbi, has been in contact with Osama bin Laden and Aiman Al Zawahri and knows their whereabouts, intelligence sources told Daily Times on Wednesday.
"He established his headquarters in Karachi after the arrest of Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, a top Al Qaeda leader, and was working as chief of operations in Bin Laden's network," they said.
Abul Farraj's name as an important Al Qaeda operative surfaced after President General Pervez Musharraf disclosed that he had masterminded an attack on him. However, Pakistani and US intelligence and operations teams could not gather enough evidence to implicate him.
He was born in Libya in 1965. His real name is Ibrahim, but used the pseudonym Taufiq while operating inside Al Qaeda. His father's name was Farraj due to which he adopted another pseudonym Abul Farraj.
The 40-year-old Farraj came for jihad to Afghanistan in the 1980s. During his training with Al Qaeda, he was introduced to Bin Laden and Muhammad. Later, he was asked to recruit Arab militants for the militant organisation.
After the Soviet's left Afghanistan, he married a Pakistani woman and settled in the tribal areas. Sources say that Bin Laden appointed him his personal assistant and Al Qaeda's chief of operations in North Africa. "He and Bin Laden spent some time together in Sudan as well," said the sources.
When Bin Laden and Al Zawahri went into hiding after the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Muhammad became Al Qaeda's chief of operations and Farraj worked under him. After Khalid Sheikh's arrest, he ultimately became the chief of operations. "Later, he shifted his base of operations to Karachi and when the Pakistan Army started operations in Waziristan, he arranged his colleagues' safe passage," said the sources.
He is an expert in forging travel documents and used his skill to send dozens of Al Qaeda members out of Pakistan.
Intelligence sources believe that he was in contact with Al Qaeda members in different countries, including the US and UK. He can speak many languages including Urdu and Pushto. He used a satellite phone to communicate with other members, which is why intelligence agencies were unable to locate him for months.
"Intelligence agencies traced his calls several times and raided different spots in Karachi, Peshawar and Quetta, but failed to capture him because he would flee before they arrived," said the sources.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/05/2005 1:03:19 AM ||
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IT did not take long for Pakistani authorities to confirm the identity of the motorcycle riding-militant they had caught after a fierce gunfight in a remote north-western town. His skin gave him away. Alleged al-Qaeda No.3 Abu Faraj al-Libbi looked more like a businessman with his trimmed beard and smart collar and tie when his picture first featured on a Pakistani most wanted poster last year. But a very different face appeared on Wednesday in the first photograph after his capture. Not just the straggly beard and haunted look, but the facial blotching caused by the skin disorder leucoderma, or vitiligo, the condition suffered by pop star Michael Jackson. "It was easy for us to immediately recognise him because he is suffering from this peculiar skin disease and it was not difficult to know that 'yes, we've got al-Libbi", a government minister said on condition of anonymity.
Until a year ago the 40-year-old Libyan was a relative unknown. When he first came to prominence in Pakistan during interrogations after two assassination attempts on President Pervez Musharraf in December 2003, intelligence agencies only knew him as Mr BigDr Taufeeq. But investigators then rounded up a key Pakistani militant, Salahuddin Bhatti, and his grilling disclosed both al-Libbi's origins and his position in the al-Qaeda hierarchy as the operational chief in Pakistan. They soon realised that he had filled the vacuum left by the capture in March 2003 of key 9/11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Further confirmation emerged when security forces captured the terror network's computer expert Naeem Noor Khan and Tanzanian Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, wanted by the US for bombing two American embassies in East Africa in 1998. "Both Naeem and Khalfan used to get instructions from him also," a security official who was involved in the initial interrogation of the duo said. Their arrests in July last year revealed al-Qaeda had planned terror attacks in the US and Britain that led to a worldwide terror alert. "The information that we had gathered about him was that he had been getting instructions from Osama bin Laden," another security official said.
According to Pakistan and US defence officials, he became a senior member of what is left of the al-Qaeda leadership from before the US-led military campaign that removed the Taliban from power in Afghanistan. Al-Libbi is thought to have become bin Laden's lover personal assistant during the 1990s, when he was involved in providing training to militants at the Al-Farooq camp near the Afghan capital Kabul before the war, security officials said. The connections he developed there also gave him access to the funds and the manpower to mastermind a string of terrorist attacks and the ability to blend into the background of Pakistan's chaotic cities and towns. He also had a Pakistani wife.
Al-Libbi also used his contacts to evade arrest, moving from one place to the other, living in Lahore with Ghailani then the south-west province of Baluchistan and finally conservative Northwest Frontier Province.
One of his key contacts became Pakistani al-Qaeda militant Amjad Farooqi, who was gunned down by security forces last September. A recruiter of militants and suicide bombers from the ranks of Pakistan's sectarian Islamic groups and the jihad holy warriors trained in Afghan camps to fight there and in divided Kashmir, Farooqi got al-Libbi the men he needed for his terror plans. Al-Libbi also used his contacts to evade arrest, moving from one place to the other, living in Lahore with Ghailani then the south-west province of Baluchistan and finally conservative Northwest Frontier Province. It was there, in the town of Mardan, that security forces captured him as he rode on a motorcycle with another man on Monday.
Security officials now hope they can use al-Libbi's network of militants themselves to track down the rest of the al-Qaeda leadership and possibly bin Laden himself. "He is one of his closest confidants and he should be able to provide new leads about Osama," another security official said on condition of anonymity.
This article starring:
ABU FARAJ AL LIBI
al-Qaeda
AHMED KHALFAN GHAILANI
al-Qaeda
AMJAD FARUQI
al-Qaeda
DR TAUFIQ
al-Qaeda
KHALID SHEIKH MOHAMED
al-Qaeda
NAIM NUR KHAN
al-Qaeda
SALAHUDIN BHATTI
al-Qaeda
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/05/2005 12:55:43 AM ||
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''Doctor'' Taufeeq. Anybody know his background? Is this one of the western-educated guys who figured he couldn't compete? Or one of the guys with an 8th grade education?
Posted by: Dar ||
05/05/2005 9:24 Comments ||
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anon: Or one of the guys with an 8th grade education?
When guys with 8th grade educations go to developed countries, they think they've died and gone to heaven. Where they used to get paid nothing for doing menial work, they now get paid enough to afford a nice car and an apartment of their own - things that were unthinkable back home. Where blue-collar workers got treated like dirt back in the old country, Western businesses (and their customers) tend to treat menial labor with some amount of respect.
It's the educated ones (from better-off families) who suffer culture shock - where their families employed a retinue of domestic help (at dirt-cheap rates) back in the old country, they now have to fend for themselves. Where they were esteemed as educated people from good family backgrounds, their connections and qualifications are worthless in the West.
The arrest of al Qaeda's No. 3 man, Abu Farraj al-Libbi, in Pakistan promises to provide new information on Osama bin Laden's life on the run and deprives the terror network of its chief operating officer, according to counterterrorism and defense officials.
Officials said that if al-Libbi chooses to talk, he is in a position to dish out valuable information about al Qaeda's current structure, funding sources and attacks in the pipeline. And most importantly, he might provide information that could rekindle leads to bin Laden that have grown cold this year.
Al-Libbi is potentially the best source of information since the March 2003 capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed.
"As far as an information bonanza, I know that, to this day, we are still getting actionable intelligence from Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, and he has been in custody for a couple of years now," a senior defense official said.
"The real question is how loyal this guy is to bin Laden. If he's a die-hard, he may not give up much. If he's a canary, we could be getting something very soon," he said.
Al-Libbi had ascended to the al Qaeda inner circle after the arrest of Mohammed, who masterminded the September 11 attacks.
Officials said al-Libbi is thought to have had contact with bin Laden since December 2001, when a U.S.-led coalition ousted the Taliban in Afghanistan and the terrorist leader fled to Pakistan.
U.S. officials have said bin Laden, and his top aide, Ayman al-Zawahri, have spent most of their time on the run. In contrast, al-Libbi had stayed active in carrying out terror attacks until the hunt for him become so intense this summer that he, too, went underground.
Based on a tip from locals that foreigners were in the area, Pakistan nabbed the Libyan-born al-Libbi in a home near Mardan in northwestern Pakistan on Monday. The arrest was leaked to the press in Pakistan prematurely, local officials told Reuters news service.
Counterterrorism officials usually withhold information on such top arrests for weeks or months so as not to tip off other fugitives that one of their own is behind bars.
U.S. officials expressed hope privately that if residents of Mardan were willing to turn in al-Libbi, other Pakistanis might be willing to pinpoint bin Laden, for whom a $25 million reward for information leading to his capture or killing has been issued.
A U.S. counterterrorism official said al-Libbi worked for bin Laden in 2002 as chief of his U.S. and African operations before Mohammed's arrest. Al-Libbi is thought to be in his 40s and also is known as "Dr. Taufeeq."
Monday's capture was part of a broader crackdown begun by Pakistan in July after an al Qaeda computer specialist, Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, was arrested and his coded communications seized. Information on his computer led to the arrests of Islamic militants in London.
It was al-Libbi's al Qaeda cells that made two assassination attempts on Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.
"The arrest is huge and important for the United States and Pakistan because this was the mastermind behind two assassination [attempts] and deaths of 17 Pakistanis in those incidents alone," said Rep. Mark Steven Kirk, Illinois Republican, who has collected information showing al Qaeda has reaped $28 million in illegal drug profits in Afghanistan.
Mr. Kirk said the attacks on Gen. Musharraf appear to be drug-funded because "they had some of the latest weapons and equipment."
Just two months ago, Gen. Musharraf declared that he had broken the back of al Qaeda in his country and predicted of al-Libbi, "We will locate him and eliminate him, don't worry."
The U.S., under an agreement with Gen. Musharraf, has not deployed forces into the tribal areas.
But senior officials have told The Washington Times that CIA operatives, some of whom recently served in the U.S. military, are in Pakistan aiding government troops.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/05/2005 12:53:28 AM ||
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Both Pakistani and American officials described the man, a Libyan named Abu Faraj al-Libbi, as the third most senior leader in Al Qaeda's terrorist network, and President Bush called the arrest a "critical victory in the war on terror." But counterterrorism experts in Europe immediately raised questions about Mr. Libbi's importance.
Pakistani officials said virtually nothing about either the circumstances of Mr. Libbi's arrest or the extent of American aid in the operation. The Central Intelligence Agency has worked extensively with Pakistani agents to search for Osama bin Laden and other Qaeda leaders in the tribal regions of the restive North-West Frontier Province.
Pakistani officials said the arrest came early Monday in Mardan, a town 30 miles north of Peshawar.
Both Pakistani and American officials seized on the arrest as a success in their joint efforts. "This is a big catch," Pakistan's information minister, Sheik Rashid Ahmed, said in a telephone interview. "We were looking for him for a very long time."
White House officials described the arrest as the most important blow to Al Qaeda since the seizure more than two years ago of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is said to have organized the 9/11 attacks.
Pakistani officials said Mr. Libbi had succeeded Mr. Mohammed as head of Al Qaeda's operations in Pakistan, and American officials said he was involved in planning attacks in the United States.
But some intelligence officials in Europe expressed surprise at hearing Mr. Libbi described as Al Qaeda's third-highest leader, pointing out that he does not figure on the F.B.I.'s most-wanted list.
There is another Qaeda operative on the list with a similar name, Abu al-Liby, also a Libyan, who was indicted for an "operational role" in the bombings of two American embassies in East Africa in August 1998. (The surname, in its various transliterations, means simply the Libyan.) That'd be Anas al-Liby, a member of al-Qaeda's ruling council has been reported as having been jugged at various points in 2002. I've never heard a straight answer one way or another as to his current status, though he is on the FBI most wanted list.
American officials, when asked about the doubts, dismissed the idea that they had confused the Libyans, saying they know Mr. Liby is on the list, and reaffirming the importance of Mr. Libbi.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/05/2005 12:43:50 AM ||
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All Pakistanis coming to work in Malaysia are assured to have no connections with militant or other unhealthy activities as they will be thoroughly vetted before being allowed to leave Pakistan's shores. Home Affairs Minister Datuk Azmi Khalid said the assurance was personally given by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz during his three-day working visit to the nation last week.
"I am very satisfied with their latest system of vetting which is slightly more advanced that ours," he said.
Azmi said under the system, each person seeking employment abroad had to undergo identification checks before they were allowed to apply for passports and visas. The four-finger (thumbs and pointing fingers) and iris scanning system ensures that there can be no falsification of identity, he told reporters after his ministry's post cabinet meeting here Wednesday.
Azmi said, besides this, Pakistan would also install a National Database Registration system at its High Commission here to enable Malaysian authorities to check if the workers had entered legally... He also assured employers that Pakistani workers were safe to employ as according to information from the 1970s, they had not given problems in the respective countries they had been employed.
He said that so far the government had approved a quota for 100,000 Pakistani workers but that there had been takers for only 1,000... the small number was because employers were not confident enough to hire Pakistanis, preferring Indonesians, particularly in the construction sector.
Posted by: Pappy ||
05/05/2005 12:27:47 AM ||
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TANK: Mehsud tribes of South Waziristan Agency agreed to the government's move to buy heavy weapons at the market price after a jirga (tribal council) met with administration officials on Thursday.
What exactly is the market price for a T-55, anyway?
Deputy Administrator Khan Bukhsh told Daily Times that the government welcomed the tribal elders' willingness to sell their heavy weapons. "We welcome Mehsud tribes' agreement and it is an historic moment to see Waziristan takes lead in the disarmament drive," Khan said.
The federal government had told the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Secretariat to launch a campaign against heavy weapons, including anti-aircraft guns, missiles, rocket-launchers, mortar-guns, antitank mines and other heavy arms, and directed it to buy them at the market price if the tribesmen did not hand over them voluntarily.
During Thursday's meeting it was decided that a second meeting of the jirga would be held on March 14 to discuss modalities for selling the weapons and arrangements for payments. "A committee will be formed at the next meeting to squeeze the gummint dupes for more dough finalise the deal."
Khan told the Mehsud tribes elders that they could keep small arms and gave a special concession to keep AK-47 rifles, popularly known as Kalashnikov, for their protection. Tribal elder Malik Akbar Ali told Daily Times that the Mehsud Jirga agreed to the government offer to buy heavy weapons from the tribesmen. "We have approved the government's offer," they said, adding that they had certain reservations regarding their security.
"Living in the tribal area close to the border (with Afghanistan) without weapons is a dangerous game to play," the tribal elders said, demanding the government provide them protection when the tribesmen were disarmed. The tribesmen also demanded money for their confiscated weapons during search operations by security forces. Khan told the jirga that he would inform the government about their demand.
"My cousin Mahmoud from Afghanistan could come over here at any time and pop me. Now whatcha gonna do 'bout that, huh? Huh?"
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2005 12:03:00 AM ||
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#1
The price of a T-55?
Does highly organized scrap metal command a premium?
#2
All depends on your local market ship. Where everyone and their mother has a light modern atw you probably couldn't give it away unless advertised as an oversized and grossly overweight industrial dutch oven. In alot of the third world it could still be a formidible ride to own.
Pakistani security forces have captured a Libyan lieutenant of Osama bin Laden suspected of masterminding two attempts to assassinate President Pervez Musharraf, officials announced Wednesday.
Pakistani Information Minister Sheik Rashid Ahmed said Abu Farraj al-Libbi was the most significant al-Qaida figure arrested in Pakistan since alleged Sept. 11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed was captured in 2003.
Some Pakistani and U.S. security officials have said they think that al-Libbi was al-Qaida's operations chief, a position once held by Mohammed. If true, he may have valuable information on pending al-Qaida plots.
Pakistani intelligence sources have also said they believe the Libyan has been in direct contact with bin Laden and his Egyptian deputy Ayman al-Zawahri.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
05/05/2005 12:05:31 AM ||
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Next target has been named. Number 4, prepare to be promoted!
#2
i presume with Al Libbis extensive ties with local Paki Jihadis there will soon be some interesting arrestings down the chain. Wonder if MMA has said anything yet.
NEW DELHI: The United States has reminded India about its concerns over Iran, as New Delhi prepares for talks on a $4 billion pipeline to bring Iranian gas to South Asia, Indian Oil Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Thursday. Aiyar said that New Delhi had "noted" Washington's concerns and hoped that the US would resolve its concerns over Iran by the time India negotiated a deal with Tehran.
By the time they finish talking, do the route survey, award the engineering contract and lay pipe, the "concerns" should have worked themselves out. One way or another.
Washington's ambassador to New Delhi David Mulford conveyed US concerns to him about a month ago, he said. "I think the United States is well aware of our energy security requirements," said Aiyar.
He said, "So long as we are sensitive to each other I don't think it will be an insurmountable obstacle either to their concerns or our being able to take the measures required for our security." He added, "We hope they can resolve their issues with Iran by the time we can resolve contractual issues." Aiyar had said on Wednesday that he planned to hold talks with his Pakistani counterpart on the gas pipeline that would help meet India's huge energy demand.
Indian officials told Indian Express on Thursday that the multi-billion dollar gas pipeline deal between India and Iran came under the scanner at a recent meeting between the Indian oil minister and the US ambassador to India. Indian officials said that US Ambassador David Mulford had conveyed Washington's reservations about the energy deal during the meeting two weeks ago. The paper claimed that although Mulford said he appreciated New Delhi's interest in the pipeline, "He felt it was his duty to highlight US concerns about Iran." He had said that Washington was facing serious difficulties with Iran on its nuclear weapons programme, with no immediate solution in sight to ending the impasse.
Washington's concerns were likely to be raised again when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits India on March 16, added the paper. A US embassy official confirmed that the issue had been raised during Mulford's meeting with Mani Shankar Aiyar but said it was part of a "broad range of energy discussions." "There was no special policy statement on the pipeline, it was a small part of discussions," he said, adding however Washington's concerns regarding Tehran were "well known".
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/05/2005 12:01:54 AM ||
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I think we should support the pipeline deal with one addition. The Indian gov has to send at least 10k ''peace keeping forces'' cough occupation forces to work the northwestern Iran area and mountaneous area for a time frame of 5+ years. South west may freak the Paks out too much besides its mostly desert anyway good M1A1 country. At which point they can protect and build the pipeline. As soon as we switch from conquer to occupation of Iran in phase 3 of the war on terror. The reality of the world is money makes it turn the right promisses to the right poeple and a nuetral fence setter is a powerfull ally. Not to mention our other concern of China would be negated if the source Iran was turned into a new ally like Iraq. Two birds one stone
#2
In the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, his police freed a Hamas militant who was seized with weapons and a rocket launcher in his car just minutes after militants fired rockets from northern Gaza at Israel in violation of the Feb. 8 truce.
That revolving door comment a day or two ago on this subject sure was on the money.
Pakistan has a controlled democracy where the parliament is a rubber stamp, the Constitution has been put into "cold storage" and people are being repressed, Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA) leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman told the Qarwan-e-Jamhoriat, an anti-government campaign launched by the MMA on Wednesday. Fazl said the government was trying to hurry along the local council elections because it feared the MMA's growing popularity. He said that President Pervez Musharraf was acting on the United States' and anti-Islamic policies, adding that vulgarity was being promoted in the name of "enlightened moderation" and the MMA and the Pakistani people would "stop Musharraf's conspiracy against Islamic values." The MMA's campaign started from Chakwal and several vehicles with thousands of people participated in protest against President Musharraf. MMA campaigners said that Musharraf should quit the office of president and new presidential elections, under the Constitution, should be held to restore the democracy and the supremacy of parliament.
Besides Fazl, MMA leaders Prof Sajid Mir, Liaqat Baloch, Allam Abdul Jalil Naqvi, MNA Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, MNA Qari Gull Rehman, Maulana Abdullah Khan of Bhakkar and MNA Abul Khair Zubair attended the public gathering. Jamiatul Hadith leader Prof Sajid Mir called for the immediate establishment of an impartial election commission and general elections, adding that power should be transferred to genuinely elected representatives.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Pir Muhammad Shah Khagga, chairman of the National Assembly's standing committee on religious affairs, on Wednesday expressed concern over mismanagement and corruption in the Zakat disbursement system and urged the provincial Zakat ministers to initiate a strict monitoring system to eradicate corruption out of the system. Khagga said this while chairing a joint meeting of the standing committees of the National Assembly and Senate on religious affairs, zakat and ushr, a press release stated.
The committee members discussed the existing Zakat disbursement system. They proposed revamping the entire Zakat distribution system to end financial and management irregularities. They said the Zakat system introduced in 1980 was comprehensive but it had failed to achieve its goals due to mismanagement, lack of proper and regular monitoring, evaluation and surveillance system. Khagga asked the Religious Affairs Ministry to exercise its supervisory role and monitor the formation of Zakat councils to help the needy people. The committee members stressed that it was important to restructure the provincial Zakat councils. They proposed that members of the national and provincial assemblies, philanthropists and retired civil servants of good reputation be included in the councils. Khagga agreed to the proposal and formed an eight-member sub-committee with four members each from the Senate and the National Assembly. Headed by Khagga, the sub-committee would deliberate on the proposals of the committee members and suggest remedial measures.
The meeting was attended by Federal Religious Affairs Minister Ijazul Haq, Maulana Samiul Haq, chairman of Senate's standing committee on religious affairs, MNAs Ahmed Raza Maneka, Saeed Ahmad, Maulvi Noor Muhammad, Shahida Akhtar Ali, Zammurd Khan, Pir Aftab Hussain Shah Jilani, and senators Khalid Ranjha, Abdul Latif Ansari, Muhammad Abbas Komaili, Maulvi Agha Muhammad, Syed Hidayatullah Shah, and the provincial zakat ministers of Punjab, Balochistan, and Sindh.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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The Islami Jamiat Talaba (IJT), infamous for harassing Punjab University students, has proved its mettle once again after a student allegedly thrashed by it last Thursday withdrew his complaint on Tuesday. It was reported that Ayaz, a student in the first semester of a master's in the marketing programme, was beaten up in public by IJT activists for sitting with a female classmate despite repeated warnings.
IJT, a youth wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami, which operates in the university illegally, is said to have warned Ayaz against talking to female classmates several times. Last Thursday, IJT activists Hafiz Toseef and Imran Mumtaz both undergraduate students, beat Ayaz when he was sitting with a girl, eyewitnesses told Daily Times. Ayaz filed a complaint with the chairman of the Institute of Administrative Sciences and Human Resource Development and the issue was taken up by the department disciplinary committee. However, some department students told Daily Times on Wednesday that Ayaz was 'coaxed' into withdrawing his application.
The students said that this was not the first time a complaint against the IJT had been forcibly withdrawn. In October 2004, 300 Space Science Department (SSD) students, backed by the IJT, attacked students of the Social Work Department (SWD) and misbehaved with teachers. The disciplinary committee issued show cause notices to only one IJT activist and four SWD students. Ultimately, the SWD students compromised and no action was taken against the aggressors. Last week, IJT students beat up a Physics Department student for taking pictures of a female cousin who was also his classmate. Students estimated that the IJT had more than a thousand activists and sympathisers in the Punjab University.
This article starring:
HAFIZ TOSIF
Islami Jamiat Talaba
IMRAN MUMTAZ
Islami Jamiat Talaba
Islami Jamiat Talaba
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Nothing here a few dead IJT ''activists'' wouldn't begin to cure.
US President George W Bush declared on Wednesday that the capture of Al Qaeda's operational chief in Pakistan "represents a critical victory in the war on terror". During an appearance to talk about Social Security, Bush praised the Pakistani government for the arrest earlier this week of Abu Farraj al-Libbi. Bush called him "a major facilitator and a chief planner" for Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda terror network and said that his arrest "removes a dangerous enemy who is a direct threat to America and for those who love freedom. I applaud the Pakistani government for their strong cooperation in the war on terror". The president said that the Pakistanis had acted on "solid intelligence" to bring him to justice and vowing that those fighting terrorism will "stay on the offensive until Al Qaeda is defeated".
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2005 00:00:00 ||
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Palestinians head to the polls in the West Bank and Gaza Strip today in the final test of the strength between the dominant Fatah faction and Hamas before they face off in legislative elections. More than 400,000 people will be entitled to cast their ballots in 84 municipalities, the latest and largest phase of a process that began in late December when Hamas entered the democratic process for the first time.
Hamas sent shivers down the spine of Fatah's leadership in January with a landslide victory in the first local elections in its Gaza stronghold, as voters expressed their disillusionment with the incompetence and cronyism which has characterized many councils. The movement is hoping for similar results today, especially in areas of Gaza such as the southern town of Rafah. The battle between Fatah and Hamas is expected to be closer in the West Bank where elections are being held in 76 municipalities, including the cities of Bethlehem and Qalqilya. Despite the rivalry, election officials say the campaign has been conducted in a peaceful atmosphere. The Palestinians also won widespread international praise in January for successfully staging a ballot to replace the late Yasser Arafat as their president. "The campaign has taken place in a calm climate and there have been no major violations," said Firhas Yaghi, head of the local elections commission's executive bureau.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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Nice pic. Looks like a reasonable guy, huh? Probably up for a Cabinet post...
Egyptian riot police fired tear gas and clashed with demonstrators staging protests nationwide Wednesday against President Hosni Mubarak's "dictatorship," arresting more than 200 people, organizers said. Pro-reform activists have escalated their campaign for constitutional and political reforms in the country in recent weeks, with many calling on Mubarak to step down when his mandate expires later this year.
Police clashed with hundreds in the town of Fayyoum, as well as in Mansoura and Zagazig in the Nile Delta region, and fired tear gas to disperse the crowds, the opposition Muslim Brotherhood said. It said security forces arrested about 100 protesters in Fayyoum and another 100 in Zagazig in a day of coordinated rallies up and down the country it organized to press for political reforms. The Brotherhood also reported demonstrations in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria, Tanta, and Damanhour in the Delta region and in the capital, Cairo. Interior Ministry sources said police detained 80 protesters in Mansoura, 100 in Zagazig and 30 in Fayyoum. "No to dictatorship," a group of an estimated 1,000 protesters chanted outside the Fatteh Mosque in central Cairo.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/05/2005 00:00:00 AM ||
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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.
"Kofi Annan will be a very worried man," Fox News reported on Thursday, now that Congress has been given documents that may expose "damning information" about Annan's role in the oil-for-food scandal. Fox News, in an exclusive report, called it a "dramatic new phase in the oil-for-food scandal." Robert Parton, a senior investigator looking into the oil-for-food scandal, recently resigned from the commission headed by Paul Volcker, because he thought Volcker was being too soft on Annan. Fox News reported Thursday morning that Parton has just turned over his findings to congressional investigators, who have been eager to look at the evidence involving the U.N. secretary general. 
IT did not take long for Pakistani authorities to confirm the identity of the motorcycle riding-militant they had caught after a fierce gunfight in a remote north-western town. His skin gave him away. Alleged al-Qaeda No.3 
Pakistan has a controlled democracy where the parliament is a rubber stamp, the Constitution has been put into "cold storage" and people are being repressed, 
The 
US President George W Bush declared on Wednesday that the capture of Al Qaeda's operational chief in Pakistan "represents a critical victory in the war on terror". During an appearance to talk about Social Security, Bush praised the Pakistani government for the arrest earlier this week of 
Palestinians head to the polls in the West Bank and Gaza Strip today in the final test of the strength between the dominant 
Egyptian riot police fired tear gas and clashed with demonstrators staging protests nationwide Wednesday against President 
