Fourteen years after the ouster of authoritarian President Siad Barre in 1991 and the subsequent descent of the country into chaos, Somalia remains a lawless patchwork of warring fiefdoms. Terrorist networks have flourished in Somalia and neighboring countries, contributing to the deadly synchronized bomb attacks on the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, and the 2002 tourist hotel bombing in Mombasa that was planned to coincide with the (failed) shooting down of an Israeli passenger jet with a surface-to-air missile. In the absence of a functioning government, Somalia risks becoming a hub of al-Qaeda's East African network.
Somaliaâs descent into terror came with the emergence in 2003 of an elusive independent jihadi network with loose links to al-Qaedaâs East African franchise headed by Tariq Abdullah (a.k.a. abu-Talha al-Sudani). These local jihadists are engaged in low-intensity warfare characterized by massacres, intimidation and assassinations. The most visible aspect of their reign of terror came with the murder of the Italian nun Annalcna Tonelli in Boroma in the Somaliland region and the desecration of an Italian cemetery in the capital, Mogadishu. Despite their small numbers, these local jihadists unleashed a new wave of terror in Mogadishu and other frontier towns like Mandera.
The involvement of former al-Itihaad combat veterans in the new jihadi network, however, has led to the mistaken belief that this network represents a resurrection of the revolutionary movement of al-Itihaad al-Islaami, which was most active in Somalia during the first half of the 1990s. It is this false assumption that led to the group being labeled "al-Itihaad."
The new jihadi network headed by Ayro differs significantly from al-Itihaad in a number of ways. Whereas al-Itihaad had a clear hierarchy and direction and was motivated by political ideology, the new jihadists are organized in decentralized and compartmentalized networks that each contribute in a small way to urban terrorism operations. The vague hierarchy and direction of the movement coupled with the multi-layered cellular nature of its operations make it difficult to infiltrate this network or identify its sympathizers. Another major characteristic that sets this movement apart from al-Itihaad is its undeclared political and ideological goals. The networkâs known leaders also lack the religious authority that distinguished al-Itihaadâs leadership [2].
Al-Itihaad first rose to prominence in the early 1990âs when it successfully capitalized on the demise of the Siad Barre regime and the subsequent descent of Somalia into deepening chaos and misery. Islamic charities, especially those sponsored by Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states, were of key importance to the group. Al-Itihaad used money raised by charitable networks to establish military training camps, cement its ties with other Islamic terrorist organizations and fund terrorist operations against Ethiopia to force the secession of the Ogaden region, which al-Itihaad claimed as Somali land. The group was intent on reclaiming what they perceive as Somali territory from Ethiopia and establishing a Wahhabi emirate in Somalia.
Ethiopian retaliatory military operations and pinpoint raids against al-Itihaad's Somali bases in early 1997 destroyed the movementâs political and military infrastructure and damaged its operational capabilities. This eventually led to the groupâs disbandment [3]. The heavy losses that it suffered in its confrontation with Ethiopian forces in the mid-1990s set the stage for a gradual change in jihadi discourse. Since al-Itihaad's disbandment, many former jihadists and sheikhs renounced the use of violence and jihad, instead promoting a nativist Islamic ideology that, on the one hand shuns terrorism while on the other emphasizes even greater adherence to shariah law. A small faction of al-Itihaad veterans, however, still provides logistical support and serves as a communications linchpin for al-Qaeda operatives in Somalia and neighboring countries. Yet disruptions in the flow of cash from Islamic charities in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf have severely curtailed their activities.
Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, an expert document forger and bomb builder, tops the list of the most dangerous and most wanted terrorists in Somalia. Counter-terrorism officials have been stymied for years by this deadly and elusive Comoros islander, a conspirator in the 1998 al-Qaeda bombings of U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 231 people. He is also believed to have played a role in the Mombasa attacks (Crisis Group Africa Briefing Nº 95).
Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu-Talha al-Sudani are another two of the most-wanted al-Qaeda suspects. Nabhan is believed to have owned the vehicle used in the attack that destroyed an Israeli-owned hotel near the Kenyan resort of Mombasa. He has been able to remain at large in part because he has support from some well-armed friends in Mogadishu. He is also related by marriage to a warlord in Baidoa. Al-Sudani is also believed to be in Mogadishu where he married a Somali woman. Other al-Qaeda suspects include Ali Swedhan, Issa Osman Issa, Samir Said Salim Ba'amir and Mohamed Mwakuuuza Kuza. The foreign jihadi contingent is suspected to benefit from the support and protection of the Ayro network (Ibid.).
The detection and capture of these well-protected foreign members of al-Qaeda and their local collaborators constitute the prime challenge for Western, Ethiopian and Kenyan intelligence and counter-terrorism agencies. The United States has stepped up its counter-terrorism efforts in the region by establishing a new command center in the neighboring country of Djibouti to oversee regional counter-terrorist operations. The Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) conducts surveillance flights and works with regional and local counter-terrorism officials to deny safe havens and material support to al-Qaeda and its local affiliates.
The complex effects of the U.S. war on terrorism in Somalia and its unintended results are not all positive. The United States and its allies have scored major victories by detaining key jihadists, but widespread allegations of arbitrary arrests, prolonged detentions and abductions of terrorist suspects (who later turned out to be innocent) continue to undermine counter-terrorism operations. The kidnapping and prolonged detention of innocent people has alienated many Somalis who are already mistrustful of the U.S. war on terrorism. The U.S. alliance with a number of Somali warlords adds to these feelings of mistrust and anger (Ibid.). Confronted by a vicious cycle of chaos and anarchy, the U.S. needs warlordsâ cooperation and man-power to maximize its chances of hunting down fugitive jihadists (VOA News, February 23, 2004). Yet there is a real danger that by empowering warlords like Mohammed Qanyare Affra, Osman Ali Atto, Muse Sudi Yalahow, and others, the U.S. might end up empowering the true source of Somaliaâs problems [5].
Some warlords are motivated by criminality and lucrative deals promised by association with U.S.-led counter-terrorism initiatives in the region. Faction leaders arbitrarily round-up innocent Somalis and Arab foreigners in the hope of linking them to terrorist groups.
The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) for Somalia, established in October 2004, has been actively seeking to exploit the international âwar on terrorismâ to discredit its opponents and critics [6]. At numerous occasions, the TFG blamed terrorist attacks on its Islamist adversaries when the evidence pointed to the contrary. Disturbing evidence has emerged that incriminates TFG supporters in the murders of BBC producer Kate Peyton, a Somali woman working for an international NGO and two Somali footballers (Crisis Group Africa Briefing Nº 95). The evidence of seeming cooperation between the assassins and members of the TFG reveals new details on the âdirty warâ raging in Somalia between jihadists and counter-jihadist organizations. Death squads, disappearances and torture raise the risk of exacerbating chaos and empowering Islamic militancy in Somalia.
Notes
1. Yet there is growing speculation that Ayro, who is believed to be between 28 and 30 years old, may be not be the leader of this new jihadi movement. There are multiple reports that identify Ahmed Abdi Godane, alias Ibrahim al-Afghani, a former al-Itihaad leader, Afghan veteran and al-Qaeda associate as the actual leader of the group. See Crisis Group Africa Briefing Nº 100, âSomaliaâs Islamists,â December 12, 2005.
2. According to International Crisis Group, this new jihadi network, believed to be headed by Ayro, has no known name, its membership is largely clandestine and its aims are undeclared. Crisis Group Africa Briefing Nº 95, âCounter-Terrorism in Somalia: Losing Hearts and Minds?â July 11, 2005.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006 02:01 ||
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#1
I could do better than this off the top of my head. Somalia is now three countries. Somaliland in the north. Puntland in the centre, and a rump Somalia in the south. The former are relatively stable although poor. The violence and chaos is largely restricted to rump Somalia and mostly results from fighting over the goodies that come with international and UN recognition. This analysis is crap.
Suddenly, your attention is caught by a bright light above the darkening horizon...Within a few seconds it has become a searing flash. Your clothes burst into flames...followed a moment later by a deafening crack. The ground heaves, and a blast wave flings you forward... A fiery mushroom cloud drifts over you now, carried by the southerly breeze, blazing rainbow colors magnificently. As solid rocks become froth and reddish-black molten glass rains down, you too become part of the spectacle-and not in a happy way.
Deep in the legendary Empty Quarter of Saudi Arabia-the Rub' al-Khali-lies a strange area, half a square kilometer (over 100 acres) in size, covered with black glass, white rock and iron shards. It was first described to the world in 1932 by Harry St. John "Abdullah" Philby, a British explorer perhaps better known as the father of the infamous Soviet double-agent Kim Philby...Judging from the traces left behind, the crash would have been indistinguishable from a nuclear blast of about 12 kilotons..
This event probably occurred less than 500 years ago.
#4
Is it radioactive, if so what isotope?
Irridium means a meteor air-burst as in Tunguska.
Any other isotope could be a small nuke, remember humans have been around a whole lot longer than recorded civilization.
There's another anomoly in the British Isles, a series of vitrified walls that all face out to sea, as if there was an air-burst out to sea and the walls facing that way melted, no idea if any radioactivity was tested for.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/18/2006 21:32 Comments ||
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The top U.S. envoy to talks on North Korea's nuclear program made a surprise trip to Beijing on Wednesday, which South Korean media reports said could mean he was meeting his counterpart from Pyongyang.
Christopher Hill made a whistle-stop tour through Tokyo, Seoul and Beijing last week to meet negotiators on six-party talks, who group the two Koreas, the United States, Japan Russia and host China, and who last met in November.
His visit on Wednesday came as North Korean leader Kim Jong-il was believed to have crossed back into North Korea by train from China ending a rare international trip conducted under a heavy veil of secrecy.
The U.S. embassy in Beijing confirmed Hill had returned to Beijing for one day, following visits to Vietnam and Cambodia, and said he would meet Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who is also the former ambassador to Washington.
When asked if he would be meeting any representatives of North Korea an embassy spokeswoman said: "Not that I know of."
But South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the abrupt change in schedule could indicate that Hill was meeting the North's top nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan, in Beijing.
The six countries were meant to meet again early this year to try to make progress on North Korea's agreement in principle to dismantle its nuclear weapons in exchange for aid and security guarantees.
But with Pyongyang angry at the United States over Washington's crackdown on its finances, the future of the talks is uncertain.
The United States has clamped down on companies it suspects of helping North Korea with counterfeiting, money laundering and the drug trade, and says sanctions are a separate matter from the six-party talks.
But North Korea has threatened to boycott the nuclear disarmament talks until the sanctions are lifted and said on Tuesday that Washington wants to bring down its communist leadership with the financial penalties.
(CNN) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has paid an "unofficial" visit to China, the country's KCNA news agency reported Wednesday.
The announcement ended weeks of speculation about Kim's whereabouts and whether he had made the trip. It was not immediately known whether Kim remained in China or had returned to North Korea.
Kim and Chinese president Hu Jintao "had an in-depth exchange of views on international and regional issues of common concern," KCNA reported.
"Both sides fully appreciated the positive results made in several rounds of the six-party talks in Beijing, and unanimously agreed to consistently maintain the stand of seeking a negotiated peaceful solution to the issue and push forward through sustained joint efforts the process of the six-party talks so as to contribute to the eventual and peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula."
Kim, the news agency reported, noted that North Korea's commitment toward the goal of a denuclearized Korean Peninsula had not changed. "He pointed out that the DPRK would join Chinese comrades in the efforts to seek away of overcoming the difficulties lying in the way of the six-party talks and steadily advance the talks."
Hu, in a banquet given in Kim's honor, pledged to continue to support North Korea in its efforts to "develop and grow strong and prosperous," the news agency reported.
#1
Both sides fully appreciated the positive results made in several rounds of the six-party talks in Beijing, and unanimously agreed to consistently maintain the stand of seeking a negotiated peaceful solution to the issue and push forward through sustained joint efforts the process of the six-party talks so as to contribute to the eventual and peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula.
Translation: the Chinese jerked Kim's leash. They know that with Iran pushing on our remaining nerve re: homocidal maniacs with nukes, it is not the time to let the NORKs run loose.
Posted by: too true ||
01/18/2006 12:13 Comments ||
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#2
IIUC China has a lot to lose as well with a shutdown of oil exporting from the gulf, which could easily happen in an uncontrolled escalation (i.e. NK does something irrational - more than usual)
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2006 13:03 Comments ||
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#3
"Both sides fully appreciated the positive results made in several rounds of the six-party talks in Beijing, and unanimously agreed to consistently maintain the stand of seeking a negotiated peaceful solution to the issue and push forward through sustained joint efforts the process of the six-party talks so as to contribute to the eventual and peaceful settlement of the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula."
"Positive results"?!? Only if you regard complete and total stalling, heel-dragging, dissimulation, postponement and delay any sort of seeking a solution. China has purposefully exacerbated the Korean crisis as a counterweight to American military dominance in the East Asian quadrant. One can only hope that Kim's generals cap his worthless @ss eventually see the wisdom of a united democratic peninsula rather than further extension of communist deprivation and economic stagnation.
#4
"Positive results"?!? Only if you regard complete and total stalling, heel-dragging, dissimulation, postponement and delay any sort of seeking a solution.
Yes, of course.
That was the goal all along.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/18/2006 14:10 Comments ||
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AWB agreed to pay bribes to corrupt Iraqi officials, deciding that it could explain the deals to the Howard Government after the Iraq war, according to evidence before an inquiry into the scandal.
Counsel John Agius produced an AWB memo outlining a plan to pay more than $US2 million to a man who would later become the Six of Hearts in the US's pack of cards of "Most Wanted Iraqis", and to discuss it with Canberra.
The money, which was to be paid just months before Australian troops went to war in Iraq, was secretly added to the price of Australia's wheat contracts, which were then passed to the UN for approval.
The AWB memo said managing director Andrew Lindberg - who was under fire yesterday for releasing, then withdrawing, a misleading statement to the ASX - should "tell the Australian Government about the deal at the appropriate time". It noted that "timing of such a disclosure" was unlikely to be "until after a war with Iraq".
The memo said the war "may allow us a further chance of renegotiation with a new regime" in Iraq.
Mr Lindberg was asked 12 times whether he agreed to deceive the UN by inflating the cost of the wheat contracts.
The first 11 times he said "No, no, no, no" and "I don't know" and "I don't recall" and "I can't remember" before conceding the point, saying: "We had to, we had to, we had no option."
He said former Iraqi trade minister Mohammed Medhi Saleh - captured during the war and now believed to be in Abu Ghraib prison - had insisted the money be paid or he would not allow Australian wheat stranded at the port of Umm Qasr to be unloaded.
The trade minister claimed the wheat was contaminated with iron ore, and that it would cost $2 million to clean.
Mr Lindberg conceded that he never believed the wheat was contaminated, but that he agreed to inflate the cost of future contracts with Iraq, to cover the "cleaning fee".
Opposition trade spokeman Kevin Rudd said the federal Government had been warned about the kickbacks to Saddam in 2000.
"What happened here?" Mr Rudd said. "Did the Government just turn a blind eye to this?
AWB also hatched a plan to extract more than $8 million from the UN to cover an old debt that was due to Tigris Petroleum, a Melbourne-based company with links to BHP.
It was unclear whether Tigris - which is run by former BHP employees who are seeking oil deals in Iraq - was aware that the deal contravened UN sanctions.
Senior counsel John Agius asked Mr Lindberg if anybody suggested that money be paid to make the contamination issue "go away".
But Mr Lindberg was adamant. "No, no, no, no," he said.
"Nobody suggested a monetary settlement?" Mr Agius said.
"No, no, no."
Mr Agius then produced documents that suggested otherwise and, under intense questioning, Mr Lindberg conceded: "I think there was an agreement, yes."
"By you?" Mr Agius asked.
"Yes."
"In the presence of (international sales manager Michael) Long?"
Indonesians haven't quite mastered the democracy thing.
The group of West Papuans who arrived on Queensland's Cape York yesterday have accused the Indonesian Government of genocide. They were spotted by a coastwatch patrol near the Mapoon Aboriginal Community north of Weipa about 2:00pm AEST yesterday. The group of 30 Papuan men, six women and seven children displayed a banner on their 25-metre canoe, asking for help to save West Papua.
The Immigration Department says it cannot confirm if the group has sought asylum.
The Federal Government says the group are being held in immigration detention. Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone says arrangements are being made to move and process them. "If they are going to make an asylum claim, we'll hear the asylum claim," she said.
Torres Strait Island journalist Damian Baker took photographs of the arrival and he says the asylum seekers' message was clear. He says there was a banner calling for the West Papuans to be freed from genocide at the hands of the Indonesian Government. "The banner said 'Save West Papua people soul from genocide, intimidation and terrorists from military government of Indonesian - also, we West Papua need freedom, peace love and justice in our homeland.'
Mr Baker says the group appeared to be in good health. "They seemed pretty healthy and in good nick," he said.
Pamela Curr from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre says there is no doubt that the West Papuans are seeking asylum. "These are the children of community leaders who have either been persecuted imprisoned or disappeared," she said.
She is concerned they will be moved to Christmas or Manus island detention centres for processing. "We're asking that that not happen," she said. Ms Curr says the group can be assessed in Australia where they can take advantage of community and church groups' assistance.
#1
Rowing a 75 footer that distance on the open sea is hard and dangerous work. If the Auzzies have no room for them, fly em to the States. We can use a few more people with that level of determination and motivation.
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy has proposed a jaquerie citizen volunteer force to fight growing crime and hooliganism spilling from the urban ghettoes of the country. The sans coulottes "citizens' reserve" would be unpaid and storm the Bastillepatrol the "sensitive areas," he said. Critics immediately pointed out that such a force would have no legal authority and no weapons to resist aggression in the areas where they might be considered police informers.
If they set up a Directory, that would give them legal authority, wouldn't it? They could rename all the months, too.
The proposal comes a day after Mr. Sarkozy announced a plan to create an Old Guard a railway force of 2,540 police and paramilitary gendarmes that would secure trains across various jurisdictions. The need for such a force arose after a mob of more than a hundred youths, thought to be North African immigrants, terrorized passengers on atrain running from Nice to Lyon in southern France on New Year's Day. On Sunday, a group of young rappers occupied the small Chenay-Gagny railway station, immobilized a Paris-bound train and blocked other lines until they were dispersed by Royalists a tear-gas barrage.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2006 10:26 ||
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#1
Sounds like a good idea to me. Militia is going to be needed rather soon in France and the EU in general the Muslims already have their gangs and religious groups and openly claim themselves not part of their host nations.
Immigrants are foreigners that come to become whatever nation they go to Invaders are foreigners that come to take over territory and reshape the nation they go to.
#2
Muslim hooligans apply for the volunteer force. France feels it must hire them because to do otherwise would show they weren't serious about their one stand since the riots earlier this year-improving integration and opportunity for Muslim youths. Mulsim youths form the bulk of the volunteer force.
Pick up where we left off on the Nice to Lyon trains...
France rejected Iran's request for more talks on the Islamic republic's nuclear program, saying Wednesday that Tehran first must suspend its atomic activities.
Iran asked for a ministerial-level meeting with France, Germany, Britain and the European Union, but its decision to resume some uranium enrichment-related activities "means that it is not possible for us to meet under satisfactory conditions to pursue these discussions," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Denis Simonneau said in Paris. "Iran must return to a complete suspension of these activities."
U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas "Monty" Burns supported the idea that Iran should suspend its program and return to talks. "There is a consensus that Iran should turn back, return to negotiations and suspend its nuclear program, that would be exxxxxxcelent" Burns told reporters in Bombay, India, during a South Asia tour. "But that's not the path Iran is on now." Or ever was.
Burns repeated U.S. demands that the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency refer Iran to the Security Council - where it could face sanctions - for resuming research on centrifuges used in uranium enrichment. Russia and China oppose sending Iran to the Security Council. Earlier Wednesday, Iran's foreign minister told state radio the nation's chances of being referred to the Security Council were slim. Manouchehr Mottaki did not give a reason for his view, but emphasized that Iran wanted to restart taqiya negotiations with Britain, France and Germany.
The European states, with U.S. backing, were calling for a Feb. 2 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency to discuss taking action against Iran following Tehran's decision earlier this month to resume small-scale enrichment of uranium - a process that can produce material for atomic reactors or bombs. A draft resolution for the meeting, read in part to The Associated Press in Vienna, Austria, says Britain is proposing that the 35-nation IAEA refer Iran to the Security Council, but it stops short of calling for punitive measures. Instead, the draft urges the 15-nation council to press Tehran "to extend full and prompt cooperation to the agency" in its investigation of suspect nuclear activities.
Other members of the IAEA board, including Egypt, also are cautious about Security Council involvement. "In view of the overall situation, we regard the possibility of the hauling of Iran's nuclear case to the Security Council to be weak," Mottaki told Iranian radio. "During the past 10 days we have tried to relay our message to all relevant parties, including the Europeans, about readiness of Iran to negotiate on the production of nuclear fuel."
Mottaki said he hoped European countries would avoid taking steps that might actually work could only worsen the current situation â an apparent reference to U.S. and European talk of sanctions.
The United States accuses Iran of trying to secretly build nuclear weapons â a charge Iran denies. Britain, France and Germany have been trying to persuade Iran to import nuclear fuel, but Iran has rejected this.
Meanwhile, a delegation of Israeli security experts was in Moscow on Wednesday to meet with Russia's Security Council and Foreign Ministry in futile hopes of winning Russian backing for Security Council referral and Chinese veto.
#3
No, based on my experience the French will slither around to find a way to make a deal with a sleaze. But once they say no, going back would be a stain on their Sacred Honour. That's why I'm surprised they walked out before the Iranians. I suspect there's some intelligence behind that we'll find out about in 50 years. Ahmedijihad doesn't realize how thin the ice is.
ROME (AP) -- Rome prosecutors sought help from the United States on Wednesday in locating an American soldier believed to have shot an Italian secret service agent at a checkpoint in Iraq last year. So far, the United States has not responded to Italian requests to trace the soldier's identity and hometown, prosecutor Erminio Amelio said.
"The U.S. never answered any of our requests. We did not receive any cooperation," Amelio told The Associated Press. "They have never answered and we don't think they ever will."
His name is Joe. G.I. Joe. You might remember him, he kicked the Germans out of your sorry excuse for a country.
The U.S. Embassy in Rome said it had no immediate comment.
It's not like the military would trust the State Department with that info.
Prosecutors intend to charge the soldier in the death of Italian agent Nicola Calipari, who was killed by U.S. gunfire as he was heading to Baghdad airport on March 4 after securing the release of an Italian hostage. Another agent and the freed hostage, journalist Giuliana Sgrena, were wounded.
"There's no persecutory intention against a person or the United States," Amelio said. "We're checking on facts and responsibilities."
He added that Italian paramilitary police had been asked to locate the soldier so prosecutors can notify him of the end of their investigation, a preliminary step before requesting an indictment, possibly on murder and attempted murder charges.
You want him? Try and take him.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2006 08:41 ||
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#1
"There's no persecutory intention against a person or the United States," Amelio said.
...before requesting an indictment, possibly on murder and attempted murder charges
So they plan to indict, but not persecute. I'm just a little American housewife -- this is too subtle and complex for me. Maybe if he'd said prosecute instead of persecute... I really need to learn Italian one of these days.
#2
"There's no persecutory intention against a person or the United States," Amelio said. "We're checking on facts and responsibilities.".
Just like our own bureaucrats in the states no longer use the term 'suspect' rather now a 'person of interest'.
How about if the Commanding General, in the Iraqi theater of operations, asks the State Department to pass on a formal request to appear before a full Article 32 investigation held concurrent with Iraq prosecuters on the cooperation with known insurgents by members of the Italian secret service? Think you'd be glad to participate?
#3
Condi ought to go on National TV and say: âNot only NO, but HELL NO.â She should then extend her hand palm out. Trust me Ameilo, if we were attempting to Kill that bitch Sgrena you would have never found the bodies.
#5
Sure, just as long as we get those terror suspects from the Achille Lauro, and some other guys we find fascinating.....
Then we'll get right on it. You bet.
But if you want to start looking for him in the meantime, have at it. His name is Harry Butz. Don't forget his accomplice, Al Cohol. Go to the Bible Belt, and tell anyone that you are looking for Harry Butz and Al Cohol. Happy Hunting, paisano!
#6
frustrating what fuckwits we have as "allies". Seems to be stretching that term to Clintonian limits
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2006 14:23 Comments ||
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#7
So far, the United States has not responded to Italian requests to trace the soldier's identity and hometown, prosecutor Erminio Amelio said.
Your waiting is over Rome. Go F*** YOURSELVES! Next time you see a US Army checkpoint, slow down and then come to a stop or you'll be Caliparied, capiche?
#8
Not sure why, but this image immediately came to mind. I guess I'm just a visual guy. Perhaps someone will translate into Italian so there are no misunderstandings.
#10
This is at least in part part of the runup to the Italian elections in ?March?. (I should go look that up but don't have time right now.) Berlusconi is coming back strong against the left and Prodi, or was a few days ago IIUC.
Nearly two years after the March 11, 2004 terrorist attacks in Madrid, new militant Islamist cells continue to be disrupted in Spain on a regular basis. In 2004, Spanish Police detained almost 100 jihadists. The trend continued in 2005 with more than 80 Islamic militants apprehended. In the latest arrests, on January 10, 2006, Spanish police detained 20 suspected Islamic militants alleged to have recruited sympathizers to join the Iraqi insurgency. The alleged militants were detained during pre-dawn raids in and around Madrid, Barcelona and the Basque town of Tolosa. These staggering figures do not even include the significant roles played by common delinquents and ideological sympathizers. This period has illuminated several emerging characteristics of jihadi groups that will affect the long-term evolution of Islamic terrorism in Spain.
The first two distinguishing characteristics are the increasingly mixed nationalities in these networks and the proliferation of individuals of Maghrebi origin, especially Moroccans and Algerians. When the first Armed Islamic Group (GIA) and then Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC) cells were detected in Spain in the 1990s, the cells were characterized by their national homogeneity: all members were Algerian. The few jihadi Moroccans in Spain were integrated into the Syrian-dominated Abu Dahdah network. According to a senior Spanish police official, until that point, cooperation between Algerians and Moroccans had not developed because many Algerians considered the Moroccans weak, cowardly and untrustworthy. Conversely, the Moroccans viewed the Algerians as extremely violent (Personal Interview, January 2004). These prevailing attitudes seem to have been pushed aside in favor of a more multi-national approach. The reasons for this change are not presently clear, but it is likely that counter-terrorism efforts and the globalization of jihad have been the main driving factors.
The dissolution of the Abu Dahdah network at the end of 2001 had the inevitable consequence of elevating those who, at that time, had maintained a low militant profile into positions of greater prominence [1]. They were people of varying backgrounds, including Syrians, Tunisians, Moroccans and Algerians. In addition, some of them, like the Algerian Allekema Lamari or the Syrian Almallah brothers, played very important roles in the formation of the Madrid attacks group.
After the attacks of 2004, similar configurations have occurred in subsequent disruptions of jihadi cells. This was the case in a network that formed in various Spanish prisons, and which was disrupted in November 2004. The prison network was apparently preparing a new campaign of attacks in Madrid and included both incarcerated members and those who had already been released. There were also the June and December 2005 disruptions of two large recruiting and support networks for the jihad in Iraq. Besides these networks, there were further detentions of other smaller more homogeneous cells composed of Moroccans, Algerians, and Pakistanis.
Detentions are not only revealing the diversity of cells, but are also showing that Moroccans are increasingly assuming leadership roles. For example, the last network to be unraveled by police in 2005, allegedly included 11 Moroccans, an Iraqi, a Saudi, an Egyptian, a Belarusian, a Ghanaian, an Algerian, and a Spaniard (Office of Information and Social Relations, Home Office, Spain, December 19/21, 2005). Moreover, in the latest arrests on January 10, 15 out of the 20 alleged militants are thought to be Moroccans.
The increasingly diffuse boundaries of these groups are not solely explained by the dismantlement and disintegration of older networks marked by more homogeneous national character (e.g., the Algerian GIA and GSPC; the Syrian Fighting Vanguard; or the Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group [GICM]) and their consequent reconstruction from dispersed elements. What has also contributed to this interconnection between radicals of distinct nationalities is the more global political agenda of the jihad, which is overshadowing the previous national priorities. The disruption of Maghrebi networks involved in support activities for foreign jihads exemplify the threat posed by these networks to Iraq, North Africa, and other European countriesâas well as the threat of globalized jihad to Spain itself.
It is probable that the complexities of these Spanish networks will be compounded as groups previously focused on national jihads, such as the Algerian GSPC, attempt to extend their operational networks by partnering with other jihadi groups. The overtures of mutual assistance and affiliation from al-Qaeda to national groups has resulted in the call for the establishment of an âal-Qaeda Organization in the Arab Maghreb,â which, while attempting to act as an umbrella organization, might also serve to support the continued interrelations between expatriate communities in Spain (Al-Hayat, December 8, 2005).
Another new characteristic is the increasing prevalence in the number of individuals whose initiation into jihad occurred after settling in Spain. In the 1990s, militant jihad was an imported phenomenon, as cells that found refuge in Spain were principally involved in the support of jihad in other countries, primarily Algeria. Nevertheless, over the past years, the conversion to jihad has become an increasingly indigenous phenomenon.
A possible contribution to this problem has been the high immigration levels from the countries of the Maghreb, especially Morocco. The official figures place the total number of Muslim immigrants at close to a half-million, but the actual number is likely to be over one million [2]. The overwhelming majority of these immigrants are honest workers who came to Spain to improve their livelihoods. Nevertheless, a small minority are sympathetic to Islamic militants, thus enabling the recruitment drives of clandestine jihadi networks.
The radicalization of Muslims living in Spain constitutes an enormous challenge for the future. One of the areas of significant concern is the numerous Islamic centers espousing radical and militant interpretations of Islam. Recently the contents of an intelligence report concerning the state of radical preaching at Islamic centers was leaked to the press. The report notes that of the approximately 600 mosques and other Islamic centers, roughly 10 percent propagate radical ideas. In addition, six of them are thought to be in the orbit of Takfir wa al-Hijra (El Pais, December 19, 2005).
Takfir wa al-Hijra (Excommunication and exile) is not so much an organization but an ideological current of Salafist jihadism, to which many of the members of the aforementioned Spanish networks adhere. With origins in the Middle East and the Maghreb, Takfir ideology justifies indiscriminant killing and is characterized by its clandestine nature and willingness to engage in prohibited activities (e.g. drinking alcohol in public and eating pork) as a means to deflect attention from its membersâ subversive activities. As in other European countries, Takfiri recruitment in Spain has fed on individuals previously engaged in delinquent activities and has had significant success. Spanish police have estimated that around 50 incarcerated Salafi jihadists are Takfiri. [3]
The final characteristic of jihadi groups in Spain is the continued planning of Spain-based jihadi groups against targets within Spain. The hurried withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq by the new government of President Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, which assumed power following the Madrid attacks, has not diminished the terrorism threat. In fact, there have been at least four foiled terrorist attacks since the withdrawal. One of these groups was composed of Pakistanis who had relationships with important members of original al-Qaeda cadres (El Pais, December 19, 2005). The other three networks were primarily composed of members with familial origins in the Maghreb. In addition to these groups, Spanish police arrested two Moroccans related to the Madrid attacks network in December 2004, who were in possession of a camera with photographs of a nuclear power plant (El Pais, December 15, 2004).
The continued hostility is perplexing on the surface, considering the distance that has developed between the Bush Administration and the Zapatero government. There are several grievances that explain this hostility. They are, inter alia: the presence of Spanish troops in the NATO mission in Afghanistan; the repeated detention of scores of influential jihadists since 1995 and the continuing âoccupationâ (as jihadists see it) of the cities of Melilla and Ceuta on the North African coast.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006 02:00 ||
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Not to mention the continuing occupation, as the jihadists see it, of Muslim Spain, Muslim France, the rest of Dar al Harb, Saudi control of Mecca and Madinah, and whatever other grievances their little minds can think of. Lots of data there, but the conclusions are a bit weak.
The capital of the European Union was in the midst of a historic celebration on May 1, 2004, when security officials learned of a sudden emergency: An airliner that had departed Norway with 186 passengers aboard had possibly been hijacked and was headed this way.
On the same day that the union expanded its borders to admit 10 new member countries, an Air Europa Boeing 737 en route to Spain did not respond to an urgent series of radio calls from air traffic controllers as it flew over Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands before entering Belgian airspace.
With fears mounting that the plane might launch a kamikaze attack on E.U. or NATO headquarters in Brussels, three countries scrambled fighter jets but had trouble intercepting the aircraft as it rapidly crossed one national border after another.
Then a flight attendant looked out the window of the airliner and saw two French Mirage 2000s flying alongside, prompting the Air Europa pilots to get on the radio and report that everything was fine. The incident ended peacefully but exposed Europe's vulnerability to a Sept. 11-style hijacking and the difficulties in coordinating a multinational response to a fast-breaking terrorist threat.
The European Union exists in large part to harmonize policy among its members. But when it comes to dealing with a hijacked airliner, those countries cling to a patchwork of contradictory rules and regulations.
In Sweden, it is forbidden to shoot down a civilian plane under any circumstances. Germany recently passed a law that gives the defense minister the authority to open fire on a hijacked plane, but the measure is being challenged in court.
Four East European countries lack their own air forces and rely on neighbors to patrol their skies, making the chain of command still more complicated. Some other countries won't divulge their policies, citing national security.
On a continent where many countries are so small that planes can pass through their airspace in minutes, aviation and security officials say the conflicting approaches make it almost impossible to prepare an adequate defense against hijackers bent on crashing a plane into a target.
"It's a very, very complex issue to come to a conclusion on because there are so many partners involved," said Bo Redeborn, director of security affairs for Eurocontrol, the agency that oversees European air traffic. "We're not there yet, that's clear. Some states are much more ready than others. We are best prepared to fight the last war. We're seldom prepared to address threats we haven't seen before."
Europe has some of the busiest air traffic corridors in the world. With passenger flights on the increase and a heightened sensitivity toward security since Sept. 11, 2001, there's also been a big jump in the number of hijacking false alarms. Reports of traffic controllers losing radio contact with pilots for a prolonged period have roughly doubled since 2002, according to Eurocontrol.
There are no hard statistics on how many such cases in Europe have escalated to the point where military intervention resulted, because countries don't pool the information. But Eurocontrol said fighter jets have been scrambled 19 times in the past two years to intercept airliners that lost touch with its air traffic control center in Maastricht, the Netherlands. The center monitors air traffic in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of Germany, tracking about 25 percent of the flights that pass through Europe each day.
During the Cold War, West European nations relied on NATO to defend against a Soviet air attack. While NATO has since expanded to take in many of the former Communist states of Eastern Europe, it lacks the authority to shoot down hijacked civilian airliners, now a far more likely threat than attack by a foreign military. That decision is explicitly left to individual countries.
"This is an awfully difficult subject," Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, NATO's secretary general, said in a September meeting with a small group of reporters in Berlin. "The notion of national sovereignty is very strong. To go after civilian airlines with passengers on them, we'll defer on that."
NATO still monitors the skies for intruders, civilian or military, and will scramble jets on the orders of local officials. It has also supplied AWACS surveillance aircraft to guard against terrorist attacks at more than 20 high-profile international events since the Sept. 11 attacks, such as the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens and the funeral of Pope John Paul II at the Vatican last year.
"We are very well served by our ability to identify threats. We've got the communications, we've got the radars," said a senior NATO official in Brussels who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Our ability in Europe to see and understand what is going on is probably as good as anywhere in the world. Our ability to put an aircraft in the sky very quickly is also very good. The difficult bit comes when you have identified a renegade aircraft."
The European Union has had little success on this issue. Gijs de Vries, the bloc's counterterrorism coordinator, said security officials are working to improve Europe-wide readiness for a hijacking, but he declined to discuss details. "I can't get into any of that," he said in an interview last year.
Giles Merritt, director of New Defense Agenda, a Brussels research organization that specializes in security issues, said European leaders have placed a higher priority on intelligence-gathering and prevention. Many officials don't see shooting down an airliner as an option under any circumstances, he said.
"Let's assume some jihadist group did get their hands on a civilian plane and they were headed to the Eiffel Tower," Merritt said. "And that there was enough time for a French leader to make a decision on how to respond. No politician wants to be the guy to pull the trigger on 200 innocent people, just on the suspicion that it will crash into something. His career would be over."
European counterterrorism officials said they don't take the threat of a hijacked airplane lightly, however. French investigators believe that an Algerian radical group schemed to fly an airplane into the Eiffel Tower in the mid-1990s; the iconic structure is still considered a major target for a terrorist attack.
British and U.S. officials said last fall that they had uncovered an al Qaeda plot to hijack an airplane in Eastern Europe and crash it into Heathrow Airport in 2003. Details of that case remain sketchy.
After a man commandeered a small plane in Frankfurt in 2003 and threatened to crash it into the European Central Bank in the city's downtown, Germany approved a law that gives its military the green light to shoot down a hijacked airliner. Last year, a suicidal pilot crashed a small plane in front of the Reichstag, the German Parliament building in Berlin. No bystanders were hurt, and investigators ruled out terrorism as the motive.
The German air force said it scrambled jets 20 times last year to chase after planes that had lost radio contact for prolonged periods; none of the incidents turned out to be a hijacking. But many lawmakers have expressed misgivings about the new law, citing a clause in the German constitution that forbids the state to take the life of any German citizen. The Federal Constitutional Court, Germany's highest judicial body, is scheduled to rule on the measure later this year.
Burkhard Hirsch, a former vice president of the German Parliament who is a plaintiff in the case, cited the inherent risk of making a mistake when dealing with a hijacked airliner. He referred to the case of a passenger on a flight to Munich who reported having a bomb and threatened to blow up the plane. Two fighter jets were promptly dispatched, but held their fire. When the plane landed, it turned out the passenger didn't have any explosives, only a mobile phone.
"If I get on an airplane, I don't like the idea that the minister of defense has the right to shoot me down," Hirsch said. "There's a difference between government and God. God knows what our fate is. The military and flight controllers do not. Nobody on earth has the right to play God."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006 01:36 ||
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So manyFuckin Duh stories, today. I choose this one.
#2
Mebbe we should do an lh thingy and have a Fuckin Duh Watch - daily FDW's - on all the remarkably self-evident stories. Those with a delicate nature could use MotO (Master of the Obvious).
Belgium's prime minister told President Bush on Tuesday that while the United States has improved its relationship with Europe in the last year, "there is certainly a lot of work still to do."
... and guess who's expected to do it?
Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said he told Bush that the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay is driving down public opinion of the United States in Europe. He said Europeans want court trials for suspects being held indefinitely at the camp on Cuba's eastern tip.
Like we gave the werewolves after WWII?
"The president responded that that was the goal at the end of the whole process," Verhofstadt told reporters as he left the White House after a meeting with Bush. "I think it's a very important thing to say that to the American president, that that is certainly an important thing to do."
I think it's a fine idea, something to do when the WoT's over...
Guantanamo has become a symbol in Europe for what many people see as Bush administration excesses in hunting down and interrogating potential terrorists. The United States says the detainees are suspected Taliban or al-Qaida operatives or soldiers, but lawyers and rights groups say many were victims of circumstance who are not violent.
But so far they haven't offered any proof. And the results with the bad boyz we've let go suggest quite the opposite.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2006 00:00 ||
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He's a bastard. I swear Live from Brussels posted what he said around 2/13/02 about how the goal is to neuter US.
#5
The Belgians are very smart people and we shouldn't underestimate them. After all, they were able to build a large, expensive bureaucracy to employ their citizens and get 24 other countries to pay for it.
... which is all very nice, except that he also offered to sprout wings and fly to the moon...
Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II, once volunteered to go to Afghanistan to kill or capture Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as a gesture to the United States, a newspaper report said Tuesday.
The mass-circulation Hurriyet published excerpts from letters Agca wrote from prison over the past few years before his release last week after a quarter of a century behind bars in Italy and Turkey. In a letter dated September 1, 2000, addressed to the then head of Turkish intelligence, Agca wrote of U.S. help to Turkey in capturing Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan in Kenya the previous year. "America gave us Ocalan as a gift. Let's give them bin Laden in return," wrote Agca, then jailed in Istanbul, one year before the September 11 attacks in the U.S., Hurriyet reported. "I'm ready to go on my own to Afghanistan, penetrate bin Laden's organization and hand him over to America, dead or alive," he wrote. "I really hate terrorism. If I become a national hero in America, this will be to the great benefit of the Turkish nation and the Turkish state," he wrote.
Many consider Agca, 48, to be deranged, while others believe he is a sly operator playing the madman. He has pronounced himself as the reincarnation of Jesus Christ, and Hurriyet said some of his letters were signed "The Messiah." In another letter, he wrote that he refused a Vatican offer of $50 million and the title of cardinal to convert to Catholicism. "I'd rather be a monkey in Africa than a king at the Vatican," he reportedly wrote.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2006 00:00 ||
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COLIN Powell yesterday warned that Iran was heading down the same path as Iraq had done before the 2003 invasion and could not be trusted to tell the truth about its nuclear programme.
The former United States secretary of state said he believed Iran posed a serious threat to the rest of the world in the same way that Iraq had done, and he refused to apologise for the action the US took against Saddam Hussein's regime.
However Mr Powell, who was in Glasgow to address a Jewish group, admitted that the military campaign against Iraq was based on "bad intelligence" and that it was now clear that Saddam had not managed to amass any stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction.
In an interview with The Scotsman, Mr Powell said it was clear that negotiations with Iran had come to a dead end and efforts now had to concentrate on preventing it taking the same path as Iraq had done.
"We are trying to keep it from being that way," he said. "Iraq actually had nuclear weapons capability that they were within a couple of years of bringing to weapons status. The UN found that after the war, even though Iraq denied it."
But he questioned whether Iran could be trusted: "Iran has a nuclear energy programme, they say, but the concern is that for so many years they have denied full access to what they are doing and have deceived the international community.
"Should the international community believe that it is simply an energy programme for a nation that is awash with oil?"
It was Mr Powell who was sent to the UN to present the case for going to war against Iraq, a case which was based on intelligence which later proved to be badly flawed, but he said he did not believe the backlash over Iraq would hinder attempts to deal with Iran. "I think there is no dispute within the international community that over the years Iran has not been forthcoming with information concerning its programmes," he said.
He went on: "This is not just a judgment of US intelligence - the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency] has made that judgment and even Iran itself has acknowledged gaps in the information it has provided over time, so there is sufficient reason to take what the Iranians are doing with some scepticism and suspicion."
But the retired general, who was chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff during the first Gulf War, said he did not believe that the case had yet been made for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. "We are not planning any military action. Everybody seems to be talking today about war," he said. Instead, he argued, Iran should be referred to the UN Security Council.
"We have been trying to get it to the Security Council for years. Our friends in the EU wanted to follow a different track and we supported it for the last two years, but now that track has run into a dead end and I think there is a strong consensus that [Iran] ought to be referred from the IAEA to the Security Council."
Questioned about which country posed the greatest threat, Saddam's Iraq or present-day Iran, Mr Powell said that Iran needed to be taken seriously, just as Iraq had been.
"They both are serious. Iraq was a serious matter in that for a dozen years it ignored all the UN resolutions that were in place against it. It had a history of using chemical weapons and a record of pursuing nuclear and biological and chemical technology," he said. Where the US had gone wrong on Iraq, he said, was in believing the intelligence reports that it had stockpiles of WMDs.
"We had bad intelligence. But I have no second thoughts about the claims we made, that this was a nation that had those intentions."
And he added: "The only error in our intelligence was that we thought they had stockpiles and it turned out when we got into the country and looked there were no stockpiles.
"So that was an error in our intelligence. But there was no error in the judgment we made that this was a country that had the intention of having such weapons, had them in the past, had the capability to develop them and if left to their own devices ... they would have returned to such developments. Neither President Bush nor Prime Minister Blair or a number of other leaders were prepared to take that risk."
Mr Powell said he was glad Saddam's regime had been toppled and he expressed surprise that so many people remained focused on what had happened in Iraq in the lead-up to the war, rather than concentrating on the future of that country.
"We ought to be looking at the fact that the Iraqi people are desperately trying to put down an insurgency so that they can have a freely elected government that can operate in peace," he said.
He added: "They have had elections in the face of bombs, in the face of terror incidents, and they still come out to vote, they come out to join the police force, they come out to join the military. Rather than celebrating that, we have this constant argument about the intelligence issue of several years ago. We ought to be looking forward."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006 01:51 ||
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"Iraq actually had nuclear weapons capability that they were within a couple of years of bringing to weapons status. The UN found that after the war, even though Iraq denied it."
#2
"The only error in our intelligence was that we thought they had stockpiles and it turned out when we got into the country and looked there were no stockpiles.
Looks like CP is going re-revionist. A new believer or a new spin on the evidence? I don't get it.
#3
Was Colin Powell called in to Bush's meeting with retired Secretaries of State? If so, he may be responding to a polite dressing down plus new insider information.
The U.S. intelligence focus on Iraq's nonexistent weapons of mass destruction may have contributed to the Bush administration's failure to anticipate the insurgency that followed the U.S. invasion, former Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer said Tuesday.
"The fact that there would be some resistance was anticipated. What really caught us by surprise was its intensity," Bremer told a Manhattan audience, when questioned about why U.S. leaders mistakenly expected a friendlier reception in Iraq.
"I suppose an argument would be that the intelligence resources were almost entirely devoted to WMD and not to this question of the insurgency," he said.
The ex-diplomat, Iraq's occupation chief in 2003-2004, spoke as part of a promotional tour for his memoir of his 14 months in Baghdad, "My Year in Iraq."
In his book, Bremer complains that too many U.S. intelligence resources were expended for too long in 2003 on the hunt for Iraqi unconventional arms, the stated reason for the U.S. invasion. He notes that in mid-2003 the weapons hunters, the Iraq Survey Group, had a staff of 1,400 intelligence analysts and others.
But the futile WMD hunt went on for many months after the insurgency gained strength before intelligence officers were finally shifted over to working on the insurgency.
On a related subject, Bremer told Tuesday night's audience he does not expect a major drawdown of U.S. troops from Iraq in 2006.
When James F. Hoge, the host and editor-in-chief of the journal Foreign Affairs, suggested some believe as many as 50,000 troops might be withdrawn this year, Bremer demurred.
"I would be very surprised if he (President Bush) is operating on a number like 50,000," Bremer said.
The Pentagon thus far has announced a drawdown of only 7,000 troops, which would cut the number of U.S. military in Iraq to about 130,000 by March.
"We would all like the Iraqis to be more and more responsible for their own security," Bremer said. But, he said, "they've got a ways to go."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006 01:41 ||
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Sheesh...more resmume padding. Wadda maroon.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
01/18/2006 4:33 Comments ||
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"I would be very surprised if he (President Bush) is operating on a number like 50,000," Bremer said.
I was "very surprised" when President Bush put you in charge over there Paul.
The White House on Tuesday refused to discuss a U.S. airstrike at a Pakistani village that has prompted outrage in the country but said Washington would continue to work with Islamabad to hunt members of al Qaeda.
"I don't ever get into discussing any specific operational activities or even alleged operational activities," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.
"Pakistan is a valued ally in the war on terrorism. We work closely with Pakistan and others to go after al Qaeda and bring their leaders to justice. We will continue to do so," he said.
Protests erupted in Pakistan after a U.S. airstrike last Friday that Pakistani and U.S. sources said was aimed at al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri. It killed at least 18 people, including women and children, in a village near the Afghan border.
U.S. officials believe that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Zawahri are hiding along the mountainous border region.
"Al Qaeda continues to seek to do harm to the American people," McClellan said. "There are leaders who we continue to pursue and we will bring them to justice. The American people expect us to do so and that's what this president is committed to doing."
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006 01:21 ||
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ISLAMABAD â Pakistan âcannot accept any action within our countryâ such as the US missile attack â apparently aimed at Al Qaedaâs No. 2 leader â that killed civilians in a border village, the prime minister said yesterday.
So go find and kill Zawahiri yourself. We won't mind, really we won't.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, however, stressed that Pakistanâs relationship with the United States remained important and reiterated he was pressing ahead with an official visit to Washington. He is due to depart Pakistan later yesterday.
He made the comments surrounding the purported CIA strike targeting Ayman Al Zawahiri in a joint Press conference with former US president George H.W. Bush, who is currently touring Pakistan as the UN secretary-generalâs special envoy for the relief effort in areas affected by Octoberâs monster earthquake. âPakistan has committed to fighting terrorism but naturally we cannot accept any action within our country which results in what happened over the weekend,â Aziz said. âThe relationship with the US is important, it is growing,â Aziz said. âBut at the same time such actions cannot be condoned.â
Many in this nation of 150 million people oppose the governmentâs backing of the United States, and there is increasing seething frustration over a recent series of suspected US attacks along the porous and ill-defined frontier aimed at militants.
No frustration, however, at the ISI/Taliban attacks along the same border.
âMy trip to the U.S. is there on schedule because we want to engage on many issues, including how we fight terrorism, and this incident will also be discussed,â Aziz said at a joint news conference with the former U.S. president.
Earlier in the day, Pakistanâs Cabinet condemned the loss of life, and Aziz said that he would take up the matter with US President George W. Bush, when he meets him later this month.
I'd love to be the fly on the wall for that one.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/18/2006 00:00 ||
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What the PakiWakis will and won't "condone" is pretty fucking flexible, methinks.
#3
Pakistan won't accept repeat of âCIA airstrikeâ
Fine, next time make it a full Air Force carpet bombing. We've got an endless list of change-ups to deliver. Pakistan's ISI makes the Saudis look like trustworthy friends.
#5
Which begs the question as to why we're so ballsy there and so timid elsewhere.
Or, perhaps, why we are so open there and so secretive elsewhere. Are you quite certain our guys had nothing to do with the recent airplane crash in Iran that was full of Iranian generals? ;-)
#6
Which begs the question as to why we're so ballsy there and so timid elsewhere.
Because the Pakistani government was eyeballs deep in the 9/11 attacks and Musharraf knew if that if their involvement became general knowledge (i.e. covered by the major news networks), the US would be at war with Pakistan. For example the head of the ISI, Gen. Mehmood Ahmed, wired $100,000 to Mohammed Atta via Ahmed Omar Sheikh. The same Ahmed Omar Sheikh that cut off Daniel Pearl's head because he was pursuing Pakistani involvement. I found it an interesting coincidence that Gen. Ahmed was on Capitol Hill the day of the attack and had ringside seats to watch it all. And that is why I think Flight 93 targetted the White House, not Congress.
Posted by: ed ||
01/18/2006 19:53 Comments ||
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BS for domestic consumption only. Embarrassing to Perv, et al that some of the bodies were "of interest" as the FBI sez of Hatfill....
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2006 21:08 Comments ||
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Are you quite certain our guys had nothing to do with the recent airplane crash in Iran that was full of Iranian generals?
Actually, it is far more likely that the crash (and its sabotage) was a direct result of internal dissension or strife between Ahmadnejad and Kahmeini. If not that, there is still the problem of the Revolutionary Guard's recent refusal to fire upon crowds of Iranian demonstrators. Too bad these internecine squabbles aren't likely to balloon into total anarchy within Iran anytime soon.
Suspicious crafts: January 12 2006 at 1815 LT in position 06:30N - 056:20E, off east coast - Somalia/Arabian Sea. An unidentified craft approached a general cargo ship underway. Ship increased speed and altered course. Craft also increased speed and headed towards ship. Ship further increased speed and craft was left behind.
Recently reported incidents:
January 15 2006 at 2200 LT at Dumai anchorage, Indonesia. Five robbers boarded a product tanker at stern. Alert crew mustered and robbers escaped empty handed in their boat.
January 13 2006 at 1848 UTC in position 06:02.46S - 106:53.27E, Tg. Priok anchorage, Indonesia. Two robbers armed with long knives boarded a container ship at stern from an unlit boat. D/O raised alarm and crew mustered. Four shore security guards on board pointed their guns at the robbers who jumped overboard and escaped empty handed in their boat waiting with three accomplices. Port control was informed.
January 11 2006 at 0500 LT at JICT terminal, pier no. 1, Jakarta, Indonesia. Four robbers boarded a container ship at stern by climbing emergency towing wire. They entered engine room via steering gear flat. They stole engine spares and lowered them into a waiting boat. Duty officer raised alarm and robbers escaped. Incident reported to authorities and police boarded for investigation.
The Arab world's two major powers urged Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday to give negotiations more time in the growing diplomatic conflict over Iran's nuclear program.
As Cheney wound up a meeting with Saudi King Abdullah at his ranch outside Riyadh late Tuesday, officials close to the talks said the monarch had spoken of "the necessity of giving negotiations a chance" before pressing for Iran's referral to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions.
Cheney got a similar message from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak when they met earlier Tuesday in Cairo. Neither spoke to reporters, but Mubarak's spokesman said Cairo would "wait and see whether there will be a consensus" on dealing with Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
"We call for Iran to show more flexibility and cooperation, and we call for a continuation of dialogue with Iran," presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad said.
He declared Egypt could not "ignore our long-standing principled position ⊠which refuses to put all this fuss and focus on the Iranian nuclear program without looking at Israel's nuclear arsenal. We cannot give support to a resolution unless it makes reference to the universality of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, and unless it is free of double standards."
Israel neither denies nor confirms it has nuclear weapons, but is widely believed to have them.
Washington is lobbying the 35-member IAEA Board of Governors to refer Iran to the Security Council over its recent decision to break U.N. seals on nuclear equipment and resume small-scale enrichment of uranium a process that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors as well as material for atomic bombs. Egypt is a member of the IAEA board.
The U.S. drive against Iran has met resistance from Russia and China, which hope for a compromise. They say Iran had not ruled out having its nuclear fuel processed in Russia, which would allow greater oversight. Russia and China are among the five permanent members of the Security Council who have veto power over any resolution.
While many Persian Gulf leaders are concerned over Iran's nuclear program, Saudi Arabia and Egypt in particular fear putting Iran before the Security Council could sharpen the confrontation, and both say the West should do more about Israel's nuclear arsenal.
Awad said Cheney and Mubarak did not discuss Egyptian domestic issues. The vice president had been expected to broach democratic reforms after Egypt's recent parliamentary elections, which were marred by violence and police blockades of polling stations in opposition strongholds.
The talks in Saudi Arabia were joined by intelligence chief Prince Mogrin bin Abdel Aziz, Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal and the Saudi ambassador to Washington and former intelligence boss, Prince Turki bin al-Faisal.
Reporters had no chance to ask questions of the U.S. or Saudi leaders. But the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh later posted a statement on its Web site saying they "discussed bilateral and regional issues of common interest." It gave no other details.
The king and Cheney also discussed Iraq, ways to keep the Israeli-Palestinian peace process afloat after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke and the standoff with Syria over charges it was involved in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The United States is demanding that Damascus show greater cooperation with a U.N. inquiry into Hariri's killing. Arab leaders worry Washington is using the probe to try to remove Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose security officials have been implicated in the death.
The U.S. Embassy statement said Cheney also "met briefly with Lebanese Parliamentarian Saad Hariri," the slain prime minister's son. Saad Hariri is close to the Saudi ruling family and he has Saudi citizenship and a home in the country.
Arab diplomats said ahead of the Cheney-Abdullah meeting that the Saudis were expected to present Cheney with a deal in which Assad would end interference in Lebanon and extend cooperation with the U.N. investigation in exchange for an end to U.S.-led Western pressure on Assad's regime. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the discussions.
On Iraq, Arab nations want to ensure a strong representation for the Sunni Arab minority in the new government after victories by the country's Shiite majority in Dec. 15 elections. Most of the Arab world outside of Iraq is dominated by Sunnis.
Late Tuesday, Cheney flew to Kuwait to pay his respects to the ruling family after the death Sunday of Emir Sheik Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006 01:44 ||
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"You have nothing to worry about. We'll veto any legislation requiring enhanced mileage, we're only funding pie-in-the-sky hydrogen cars, and we won't build any more passenger rail capacity."
Sunni Arabs will be offered six Cabinet posts in the new Iraqi government, equaling their representation in the 36-member interim government elected last January, according to Iraq's national security adviser. The Shi'ite grouping that won a plurality in elections last month, according to preliminary results, will ensure that "there will be no government without the inclusion of the Sunnis," Mowaffaq al-Rubaie said in a telephone interview from London.
Election officials, meanwhile, announced that preliminary results from the parliamentary elections -- with Sunni-led parties winning 18 percent of the vote -- would be substantially unchanged when final results are announced later this week. Inclusion of the Sunnis, a group that has dominated Iraqi governments since the 1920s, is seen as vital to stemming a Sunni-led insurgency that has bedeviled efforts to rebuild the country. "People believe their inclusion may well quell the insurgency and will help form a strong government," Mr. al-Rubaie said. "This is not nominal; it is a meaningful inclusion."
The British-educated Shi'ite said it had not been decided whether the Sunnis would be allocated one of the two crucial security positions -- interior minister or defense minister. But he said that in his personal opinion, those posts should be awarded based on the merit of the candidates, not the political affiliation.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2006 00:00 ||
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The Kurds should start building their Southern Friendship Fence immediately. It will help to simplify things later, methinks.
I don't much care about the remainder, the Arab areas. Since Iran has decided to go for broke in committing suicide, it makes the fears and worries over the Shi'a and the influence of Qom, at least partially, moot for the moment. What will eventually shake out after the decap / denuke campaign is somewhere far beyond the mist. There may be 5 or 6 "countries" that fall out of this shitstorm, eventually. Some of them may even glow in the dark.
Jordanian border police are turning away hundreds of Iraqi vehicles daily at the Karama border crossing, often without explanation, creating huge parking lots of frustrated travelers in the Iraqi desert. At Queen Alia International Airport, just south of Jordan's capital, Amman, Iraqi passengers are ushered into a room and interrogated before being allowed to enter the country. And some Iraqis who used to be able to get 30-day visas to Jordan are now being allowed to stay just a few days at a time.
Gee. Golly. Gosh. Shucks. I wonder why?
The security restrictions being applied to Iraqis stem from the bombings of three Amman hotels on Nov. 9. The attacks -- which killed 59 people, most of them Jordanians -- were carried out by three Iraqi suicide bombers; a fourth Iraqi's explosive belt failed to detonate. Jordanian security officials say the extra measures are necessary to keep out would-be terrorists.
Oh. Yeah. There is that, isn't there?
Jordan's government spokesman, Nasir Judah, confirmed that the country had imposed new border restrictions on Jan. 2 that prohibit vehicles with Iraqi license plates from entering the country. As a result, Iraqi commercial drivers are effectively prevented from taking passengers to and from Jordan, and private vehicles with Iraq's signature black license plates are stopped at the border. The only Iraqi vehicles allowed into Jordan are those with white license plates, which can be obtained only after the owner puts funds into a trust equal to the value of the car.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2006 00:00 ||
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It's too bad the Iraqis don't guard their borders to incoming traffic that way...
Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in his first policy statement Tuesday that he hopes to start working on a final peace deal with the Palestinians after Israel's March 28 elections, and hinted that Palestinians in Jerusalem might not always be under Israeli rule. Olmert became acting premier January 4 after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke. Sharon's condition remained unchanged Tuesday evening, said Hadassah Hospital spokesman Ron Krumer. Sharon, still in a coma, is in a critical but stable condition, Krumer said.
Olmert-watchers say he is more amenable to talks than was Sharon, who didn't consider the Palestinians to be trustworthy negotiating partners. "I hope that after [January 25 Palestinian] elections results are in, and after our election results are in, that I will able to enter into negotiations with Abu Mazen ... on a final status agreement between us and the Palestinians," Olmert told a news conference. A condition for resuming the talks, Olmert said, would be Abbas' disarming of militant Palestinian groups - the same condition Sharon had long set before embarking on his unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2006 00:00 ||
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A condition for resuming the talks, Olmert said, would be Abbas' disarming of militant Palestinian groups
The recent upsurge of unrest in southern Thailand has increased concerns that the countryâs Malay Muslim provincesâPattani, Yala and Narithiwatâmay be emerging as a new front for cross-border terrorism in Southeast Asia. In particular, regional and western authorities fear that outside militants, including cadres with ties to Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and the broader international jihadist movement could be establishing a logistical and operational foothold to further the objectives of international Islamists. Yet while the nature and tempo of violence in southern Thailand has certainly changed over the last 24 months, there is no firm indication that this transformation is the result of external influences.
The nature of the current conflict in southern Thailand differs in several key respects from the limited, sporadic and largely ad-hoc insurgency that was waged throughout the 1980s and 1990s. First and foremost, the intensity of violence today is of a far higher order than in the past. During 2004, 878 attacks were recorded in the region, which represents a 25 percent increase over the average annual incident rate for the 1990s. Total casualties were 841, including 325 deaths and 516 injuries. Figures in 2005 have continued to exhibit a rapidly escalating trend. Between January and September some 1,084 assaults took place, killing 367 people and wounding another 282 (Interview, Chulalongkorn University, November 2005).
Besides intensity, there are indications that the militants have developed the means to both produce and deploy larger, more powerful bombs. One improvised explosive device (IED) that was detonated in a car trunk on the Thai-Malay border in February 2005, for instance, weighed 50 kilograms. This stands in stark contrast to earlier rudimentary IEDs, most of which were in the 5 and 10 kg range and usually packaged in simple everyday items such as shopping bags, Tupperware lunch boxes and PVC tubing (Interviews, The Nation and Australian Embassy [Bangkok], November 2005).
In line with a higher tempo of violence, the mechanics of individual operations has steadily improved. This has been most apparent with cell phones, which are now routinely used to trigger improvised IEDs. These mechanisms are far more effective than the older, Chinese-made analogue clocks that extremists have traditionally relied on, not least because they allow for external detonations in clear line of sight of a specific target and at a particular time (Janeâs Intelligence Review, May 2005). In addition, attacks are now routinely being integrated and executed along a full modality spectrumâoften embracing coordinated bombings, arson, assassinations and random shootingsâto maximize overall impact.
The audacity and range of attacks has also expanded. In January 2004, one of the most brazen robberies ever to have taken place in the south occurred when a group of roughly 100 unidentified Muslims raided a Thai army camp in Narithiwat and made off with over 300 weapons, including assault rifles, machine guns and rocket propelled grenades (Far Eastern Economic Review, January 27, 2004). Two equally bold operations followed quickly on the heels of this now infamous foray. The first occurred on March 30 and involved masked gunmen who descended on a quarry in the Muang district of Yala and successfully stole 1.6 tons of ammonium nitrate, 56 sticks of dynamite and 176 detonators (Janeâs Intelligence Review, May 2005). The second, known as the Krue Se Siege, took place on April 28 when machete-wielding militants attempted to overrun a string of police positions and military armories in Pattani. Over 100 attackers were ultimately killed in the incident, 31 of whom were shot after seeking refuge in the central Krue Se mosque.
More recently were the April 2005 simultaneous bombings of the Hat Yai International Airport, the French-owned Carrefour supermarket and the Green Palace World Hotel in Songkla. The three attacks generated widespread concern throughout the country, not least because they represented the first time that Malay extremists had struck outside the three separatist provinces and focused on venues liable to have consequences for wider Western and/or international interests (The Bangkok Post, April 4, 2005).
Finally, the nature of the current bout of instability in the south has been marked by an explicit jihadist undertone not apparent in past years. Reflective of this have been frequent attacks against drinking houses, gambling halls, karaoke bars and other establishments associated with Western decadence and secularism; the distribution of leaflets (allegedly printed in Malaysia) specifically warning locals of reprisals if they do not adopt traditional Muslim dress and observe the Friday holiday; and the increased targeting of monks and other Buddhist civiliansâoften through highly brutal means such as burnings and beheadings (2005 witnessed six decapitations)âin an apparent Taliban-style effort to undermine society by fostering religious-communal fear, conflict and hatred (Interviews, The Nation, November 2005).
Commentators have expressed concern that the altered and more acute nature of unrest in the Malay Muslim provinces could be indicative of growing external extremist penetration involving radicals with links to both JI and (through this movement) the broader global jihadist network. In particular, these officials remain worried that a process of fanatical Arabisation similar to that which has occurred in Indonesia and the outlying Moro areas of the Philippine archipelago may now be taking place in Thailandâs deep-south, possibly heralding the emergence of a new strategic theater for anti-Western terrorist attacks in Southeast Asia (Interviews, November 2005).
Compounding these fears are reports that money from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Pakistan is increasingly being channeled to fund the construction of local Muslim boarding schools (or âponoh,â known as pondoks in Malaysia and pesenteren in Indonesia), private colleges and mosques dedicated to the articulation of hardline Wahhabist and Salafist teachings. A number of prominent clerics alleged to be connected to international Islamist elements have been tied to these institutions, including Ismail Yaralong (a.k.a Ustadz Soh, who is widely suspected of acting as spiritual inspiration for the Krue Se Siege) and Ismail Luphi (who has been directly connected to convicted Bali 2002 bombers Ali Ghufron and Amrozi) (Interview, The Nation, November 2005). A 2004 assessment by Thai military intelligence suggests there are at least 50 educational establishments scattered throughout Pattani, Yala and Narithiwat that have been decisively penetrated by Islamist forces to recruit and/or train their students for holy war (Janeâs Intelligence Review, November 2004).
To a certain extent, it is reasonable to speculate that at least some outside Islamist entity has attempted to exploit the ongoing unrest in southern Thailand for its own purposes. To be sure, gaining a logistical and operational presence in this type of opportunistic theater is a well-recognized and established practice of networked movements such as al-Qaeda and JI. That said, there is as yet no concrete evidence to suggest the region has been decisively transformed into a new beachhead for pan-regional jihadism. While it is true the scale and sophistication of violence has increased, there is nothing to link this change in tempo to outside militant forces. Indeed, in the opinion of informed local commentators, the heightened intensity of attacks reflects learning and development on the part of indigenous rebel groups, possibly combined with the infusion of an increasingly competitive criminal interplay involving gambling syndicates, drug lords and corrupt members of the security forces and political elite. Moreover, these same sources are quick to point out that unlike the situations in Mindanao and Indonesia, there is no established expanse of rebel-held territory in Pattani, Yala or Narithiwat that external extremists could use to institute a concerted regimen of international terrorist training (Interviews, November 2005).
Equally, although there is a definite religious element to many of the attacks that are currently taking place in the three Malay provinces, it is not apparent that this has altered the essential localized and nationalistic aspect of the conflict. At root, the objective is to protect the regionâs unique identity and traditional way of lifeâboth from the (perceived) unjust incursions of the Thai Buddhist state and, just as importantly, the unprecedented influx of cross border movements of trade, commerce and people. As one Bangkok-based journalist puts it: âMuslims are now standing up for Muslim rights, which together with globalization, has catalyzed the insurgency [onto a more explicit] religious planeâ (Interview, Chulalongkorn University, November 2005).
Perhaps the clearest reason to believe that the southern Thai conflict has not metastasized into a broader jihadist struggle, however, is the fact that there has been no migration of violence north, much less to other parts of Southeast Asia. Indeed, there appears to have been a deliberate strategic decision on the part of rebels on the groundâincluding those associated with the Barisan Revolusi NasionalâCo-ordinate, an ad-hoc, loosely based alliance that has claimed responsibility for many of the attacks that have occurred over the last 24 monthsâto not explicitly tie the Malay cause to wider Islamic designs (Interview, The Nation, November 2005). Again, this stands in stark contrast to organizations such as the Abu Sayyaf Group and the Rajah Soliaman Revolutionary Movement, both of which claim to be fighting for Moro Muslim interests in the southern Philippines, but each of which has been directly connected to JI as well as bombings that have occurred well beyond their primary theater (such as the 2005 Valentineâs Day bombings in Manila).
As noted above, one cannot dismiss the possibility that at least some external penetration may have taken place in southern Thailand. Accurately disaggregating the extent to which this has actually taken place, however, is of vital importanceâboth as an issue of substance and policy. To inappropriately conflate local grievances and objectives with outside imperatives will not only serve to greatly complicate the possibility of peace agreements on the ground, it also risks creating the very conditions for the type of cross-border radicalism that governments in this part of the world so fear.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006 02:02 ||
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The Commies-Maoists are reportedly suppor armed/violent Islamist groups in India, Nepal, Burma and Madagascar, etc. besides of course building naval bases and airfields - iff you build it, the Chicoms will come, Grasshopper.
Regional Secretary of al-Baath Arab Socialist Party in Lebanon Assem Qanswa stressed that Syria is innocent from the heinous crime which claimed the life of former Lebanese Premier Rafik al-Hariri.
In a statement published Wednesday, Qanswa added that false masks have fallen off faces and truth is about to appear following the disclosure of all misleading tools which seek to divert the investigation from its real route. He criticized the latest statements of Waleed Jumblat against Syria and the resistance when he described its arms as treachery.
Qanswa called on all Lebanese national parties and forces to recognize how serious is the situation in Lebanon, and necessity of working to form a wide-scale national front to face the conspiracy which targets unity of Lebanon and its relations with its Arab environment, particularly Syria.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2006 09:21 ||
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits Syria on Thursday in a signal to the world that the two allies, both facing threats of referral to the U.N. Security Council, will not be cowed. The two-day visit, Ahmadinejad's first bilateral foreign trip since taking office in August, comes at a time of intense pressure for Syria and Iran, caught in separate standoffs with the international community, analysts say.
"This visit comes as part of a series of policy stances Ahmadinejad has made since taking office. Iran has already announced its support for Syria's president. This expresses clear Iranian backing for Syria in times of pressure," said Talal Atrisi, a Lebanese analyst and Iran expert. "Iran also wants to tell the world that pressure from the United States and European Union on the nuclear file will not detract it from its interest in the Syria-Lebanon-Israel front."
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has already made a point of being the first head of a foreign state to visit Iran after Ahmadinejad, a religious conservative, took office. Iran's new president seized that opportunity to vow closer cooperation in the face of U.S. pressure and is returning the visit at a time when Assad finds himself particularly isolated.
The United States and the European Union's three biggest powers, Britain, France and Germany said this month that Iran's resumption of nuclear research meant it should be referred to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions. Iran removed the U.N. seals on its uranium enrichment equipment but says it has no intention of building nuclear arms and seeks only a peaceful programme.
Syria also faces pressure from the Security Council, which passed a resolution in October demanding it cooperate fully with a U.N. inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri or risk unspecified further action. Syria has denied any involvement in the murder but has said it will not allow investigators to question Assad in the case. Lebanon has been gripped by a political crisis since Hariri's killing which has divided the country between pro-and anti-Syrian factions.
Neither Syria nor Iran face an imminent threat of military action or broad sanctions at the Security Council, but will come under more diplomatic pressure on every front, analysts say. Long fixtures on the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, Tehran and Damascus are the main backers of Lebanon's Hizbollah group, itself under pressure to disarm in line with a U.N. resolution that last year forced Syria to pull its troops out of its smaller neighbour after a 29-year military presence. Hizbollah, the only Lebanese group to keep its arms after Lebanon's 1975-1990 civil war, was instrumental in ending Israel's 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000.
Both Syria and Iran accuse the United States of seeking to force regional backing for policies that further the interests of their arch foe Israel at the expense of Muslims and Arabs. They defend Hizbollah as resistance against the Jewish state. Allies in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, Syria and Iran also face U.S. accusations that they are turning a blind eye to insurgents crossing into Iraq to derail the democratic process. Both say they are doing their utmost to control their long and porous borders with Iraq.
"Iran wants to send a message that it is not too concerned about this international pressure, that its hands are not tied because it is the United States and EU states that are split on how to pursue the threats they have made to Iran," Atrisi said.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2006 09:14 ||
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same plane mechanics as worked on the "Martyr's Special"?
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2006 10:34 Comments ||
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I wonder what the flight path from Tehran to Damascus looks like. Better not make it too direct. The skies are not very friendly in that area. An "accident" could happen. Seriously though, I wonder how this guy will get there. Must be the longest 758nm trip ever.
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Just wondering: do the Iranians do kissy-face greetings like the Arabs? If not, what's the protocol in a visit like this? Inquiring minds are not sure they want to know.
Tehran, 18 Jan. (AKI) - The Iranian government is considering transferring state funds deposited in European banks to financial institutions in Asia, in particular South East Asia, according to Iranian website Rooz-on-line. It quotes sources close to the government saying the move follows the decision by the EU negotiating team (France Britain and Germany) to press the UN's atomic watchdog refer Iran's nuclear case to the Security Council.
Getting the money out before it can be frozen or seized. Plus, the banks that stand to lose those funds will put pressure on their governments.
Another contributing factor is believed to be the decision by Italian magistrates last year to block the 700-million-dollar account of the Iranian embassy in Rome.
The main bank account of the Iranian embassy in Italy, at the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro in Rome, was frozen in November 2005 by the Rome prosecutors office on the request of a US court. The decision was fiercely criticised by the Iranian government. In a recent interview with the Italian state broadcaster, RAI, deputy foreign minister Saiid Jalili, said "this decision will weigh on the economic and trade ties between our two countries". "If your country does not resolve the situation, it will lose economic credibility" he added. Since then the bank account has been unblocked, though Rome prosecutors have not yet closed the case.
Posted by: Steve ||
01/18/2006 09:02 ||
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As I said yesterfay, if my bank won't trade with your bank, your dollars (Dinars?) are toilet paper.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/18/2006 14:23 Comments ||
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The Mad Mullah's should watch the movie "The Snowman".
Deposits in 3rd and 2nd world banks can vaporize rather quickly...
JOHANNESBURG (AFP) -- Iranian Acting Foreign Minister Mehdi Mostafavi is to hold talks in South Africa on Wednesday that are to touch on Tehran's nuclear program, the foreign ministry said.
Mostafavi is to meet with Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad in Pretoria for discussions on "political and economic relations as well as the issue of Iran's nuclear program within the context of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)," said foreign ministry spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa on Tuesday.
South Africa has repeatedly said it is trying to advance international diplomatic efforts to find a solution to the Iranian nuclear dispute.
The Iranian foreign minister is also to hold talks with Acting Foreign Minister Jeff Radebe, who is standing in for Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma while she is attending meetings ahead of an African summit in Khartoum.
Can't help but wonder if this visit includes a tour of Pelindaba. This smells badly.
Actually I was thinking that they were going to talk about testing in the Kalahari like the Israelis did in the 70s, but maybe they would like to talk to the current South African regime about either processing some of their Uranium or buying some already processed "good stuff"
Everything happens in threes, they say. The first time Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shocked and dared by declaring "Israel should be wiped off the map," many thought this might be an aberration from the inexperienced, populist president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The second time, however, Ahmadinejad only reaffirmed his political incorrectness with conviction and fervor, suggesting that "if the Europeans claim that the Zionists were suppressed during the Second World War, they can place a part of Europe at [the Zionists'] disposal." This was further reasserted a few days later with his third pronouncement, "they have created a myth today and they call it the massacre of the Jews."
The Iranian president's gaffes not only showed his deep-seated anti-Israel convictions; they were also used to further Ahmadinejad's domestic, regional, and international aims - most recently demonstrated by Iran's December 31 resumption of research in its nuclear program.
Unbeknownst to many, although Iran is a theocratic state, it is also a factional one. While Iranian institutions are dominated by ideological and conservative-minded clerics and politicians, because factionalism is virtually enshrined in the political system, not all embrace the ideological resurgence espoused by Ahmadinejad. Indeed, there has been sufficient criticism of him for supreme leader Ali Khamenei to publicly declare his support for the harried president. At the same time, a former president, and Ahmadinejad's rival in the presidential election, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has resurfaced to moderate and counterbalance the president's often contentious Western political image.
Ahmadinejad faced roadblocks from his political rivals in trying to appoint members to his Cabinet and advance certain economic policies. That is why he seized upon anti-Israel rhetoric as an
issue allowing him to curry favor with the elite. Indeed, no faction publicly criticized Ahmadinejad for using the rhetoric of a renewed, pan-Islamic revivalism better associated with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Instead, Ahmadinejad now looks ever more resilient in challenging the West by attacking Israel.
Regionally as well, Ahmadinejad has positioned himself as a champion of the Arab street. His stringent rhetoric was well received in many Arab capitals, but most importantly among Iran's regional allies. Expressing the strongest support for the president's statements was the Hamas official Khaled Mishaal. In recent visits to Tehran, Hamas leaders promised that any potential attack against Iranian nuclear facilities would be reciprocated by attacks against Israel. Despite Iran's isolation, it has bequeathed to the Israelis a proxy group strategically positioned to lash back at Israel within close proximity of the country - a group whose legitimacy may increase after the January 25 Palestinian elections.
Ahmadinejad's anti-Israel statements have also played a role in buttressing his nuclear posturing. While the president insisted that Iran's program was only for peaceful purposes, among his first foreign policy pronouncements in August 2005 was to reject the proposals of the so-called European Union-3, to resume nuclear work, and even to threaten to begin uranium enrichment. Ahmadinejad's comments earned him condemnation from the international community, but they also brought mounting Israeli pressure for a possible military strike against Iran.
The rising tension has prompted the EU-3 to join the United States in calling for the Iranian nuclear matter to be taken to the United Nations Security Council, even as they, along with Russia and China, have issued a statement underlining the importance of Iran's "fully suspending" its nuclear program. However, no one desires further militarization, and the Iranian regime is aware of the complexities of the situation. But it is also aware that economic realities, with the increasing global demand for oil, make less likely the imposition of sanctions on Iranian energy supplies.
Eagerly observing other states in the "nuclear club," the Iranians believe, in line with their nationalistic ideals, that it is the North Korean model that should be emulated. This means Iran will not only succeed in building a nuclear program, but will do so under cover of entrenched back and forth bargaining. This is the ideal scenario for Ahmadinejad, who builds up his credentials by carrying through on his nuclear ambitions.
The resumption of nuclear research is another example of Iran pushing the nuclear envelope and thumbing its nose at the international community - on the assumption that Western threats are meaningless. Indeed, as British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw recently declared, "This is a matter which has to be resolved by peaceful means, but it will involve a good deal of diplomatic and other pressure on Iran." Such pressure would only benefit the Iranian regime if it extends the enrichment processing time and exposes a lack of unity in the international community.
Ahmadinejad's rhetoric, reminiscent of the Khomeini era, has re-energized the anti-Israel position of the clerical
establishment, its support for terrorist groups, as well as Iran's nuclear ambitions. While the international community plans, negotiates, condemns, and threatens, it is Ahmadinejad who has tactically trumped it yet again by exploiting the paucity of options it has at its disposal, to Iran's advantage.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006 03:19 ||
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Wotta load. Take care with that lumping all the West together, not to mention projecting your weak knees and incontinence, morons.
Our options, the non-ass-kissing non-Tranzi-tools out here in the West, never even contemplated either appeasing or capitulating to the insane notion that Iran should have nukes. That's wank-o-matic blather for the Jack Straw soft-power types.
In other words, our options are reality-based, so we deal with what comes, not endlessly jack off over possibilities that did not materialize. That's the chosen job of Professional DiploDancers, UN Vulture Elites, and MSM agenda-pushers, such as yourselves.
Nor has he trumped dick - the question is utterly undecided. All he has done, thus far, is scare the bejesus out of the wishful toolfools. I think it was the fact that they were sportin' Day-Glo Hot Pink kneepads from Day One that sorta gave them away.
As for the (now) endless stream of analysis such as this piece... If he's only manipulating the Iranian factionalism and hatred of Jooos for internal political gain, it does not change a thing, externally. His threats must be taken at face value - as he will be expected to deliver on them by those he has manipulated. So the nuances of how he came to power, whether or not he's a 12th Imam Looney, whether or not he agrees with the Death to Israel & America slogans painted on the missiles he now commands becomes moot. To be honest, I'm rather tired of hearing about his internal political savvy. Whether he's a stealthy sophisticated Machiavellian Iranian political figure or a simple mad country bumpkin - in the end it will be nothing more than fodder for the shitstorians to spin and jive.
We're going to defang his ass - and I hope kill off the Mullah Class in the process.
A Tip for those wild 'n crazy Mullahs, think in 3 dimensions.
#3
His threats must be taken at face value - as he will be expected to deliver on them by those he has manipulated.
Despite the incredulity I've encountered here and elsewhere, at day's end this is all that matters. Serious or not, Ahmadnejad must be taken seriously, regardless of his sincerity, so that he is held accountable for his vicious and hateful rhetoric. The spewing of such bile should not be taken lightly. Those who mean it are definite security risks and those who do not mean it still stand as inspiration to unsure individuals.
Just like with Bashir's urging jihadis to use nuclear weapons against the west. Who cares if he does not mean it? The wingnut is still provoking such thoughts in cannon fodder that is twisted enough to act upon it. Capping these rectal cavities is a priority.
Finally, Ahmadnejad has done one signal favor to the rest of the world. Those international leaders who are unable to condemn Iran's bellicose and genocidal vomiting now show themselves to be enemies of all peace-loving people. Anyone who remains silent in the face of such hatred must be consigned to the "B" list of nations ill-suited to participate on the world stage.
BRITAIN and its European allies yesterday backed away from threatening economic sanctions against Iran if the country is referred to the United Nations Security Council over its controversial nuclear programme.
As Britain, France and Germany began drafting a resolution before the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to refer Iran to the UN, an official at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said that Britain favoured a gradual, sustained build-up to force Tehran to comply with its international obligations.
âWe do not see this leading straight into sanctions,â said the official. âWe see a gradual build-up of moves that will take place over time. We are not going to [the UN Security Council in] New York to introduce punitive sanctions against Iran. That is not our approach.â
Although the UN Security Council has the power to impose sanctions, and even authorise the use of force, punitive measures are not being considered by the British.
âThe Security Council has weight and authority on the issues,â said the FCO official.
âA country cannot ignore the calls and requirements of the Security Council without cost. It brings together major players acting in concert. It can issue political calls which will have weight.â
British, French and German diplomats had begun drafting the referral resolution before the IAEA. Diplomats said that it called on Iran to âextend full and prompt co-operation to the agencyâ and called for âadditional transparency measuresâ. But it made no reference to the threat of sanctions.
The softening of the European position seemed to be aimed at wooing Moscow and Beijing, which have strong commercial links with Iran and are deeply opposed to any measures that might harm them.
âThe question of sanctions against Iran puts the cart before the horse,â said Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, whose country has a $1 billion (£566 million) contract to build Iranâs nuclear reactor. âSanctions are in no way the best, or the only, way to solve the problem.â
His view was echoed by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman who favoured âpatienceâ and the resumption of talks between Iran and the three leading European Union nations. Those talks ended last week when Iran broke a commitment to suspend nuclear research work and resumed enriching uranium, the process needed to make nuclear fuel or the core of an atomic warhead.
Iran wrote to Britain, France and Germany yesterday insisting that a compromise could still be reached. The offer, in a letter written by Javad Vaeedi, the deputy head of Iranâs Supreme National Security Council, was dismissed as âvacuousâ by the British side, which blamed Tehran for creating the conditions that made successful talks impossible.
Neither Moscow nor Beijing have made their final positions public, though how they stand in the coming weeks will be critical to the success or failure of Western diplomacy. Their policy will influence other waverers among the 35 member states of the IAEA, which will vote at an emergency meeting in Vienna in a fortnight.
British diplomats believe that at least 22 nations will vote for referral, nine will abstain and a handful of nations will oppose the move â Belarus, Cuba, Syria and Venezuela. Once that hurdle has been cleared, there will be a new dynamic at the 15-nation UN Security Council.
There is likely to be broad agreement between America, Britain, France and Germany on the need to deal quickly with Iran.
Russia and China, who as permanent members of the Council have veto powers, will be pivotal to the outcome.
It was not clear last night how Europeâs kid-glove diplomacy would be received in Washington. America has been imposing its own unilateral sanctions on Iran for nearly three decades and wants the international community to adopt a robust approach to Tehranâs nuclear ambitions.
Three Turkish tourists kidnapped in southeast Iran in December have been freed. Turkeyâs Foreign Affairs Minister, Abdullah Gul, thanked the Iranian government for helping to win the release of the amateur paragliders. Iran said that a Sunni group had abducted them but Turkey blamed drug traffickers seeking a ransom.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006 01:46 ||
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No disrespect to Dan intended, but this article is more mush from the diplomatic community via the MSM. It's almost the same as doing nothing.
#3
BRITAIN and its European allies yesterday backed away from threatening economic sanctions against Iran if the country is referred to the United Nations Security Council over its controversial nuclear programme.
A disruption in Iran's crude oil exports because of a dispute over that country's nuclear program would further crimp the already tight global oil market and lead to higher petroleum prices, the head of the U.S. Energy Information Administration warned on Tuesday.
"The market is so tightly balanced, clearly, we can't afford to lose a large supply of crude to the market," EIA chief Guy Caruso told Reuters in an interview.
Even though the United States does not directly import Iranian crude, Caruso said a cutoff of Iran's oil would affect the U.S. market because other countries that buy Iranian crude would compete with America to find new supplies.
"It's a fungible world oil market, and any disruption in supply affects everyone, because the price would go up for everyone," he said.
U.S. crude oil prices shot above $66 a barrel to a 3-1/2 month high on Tuesday, as the market fretted about the dispute with Iran and problems in Nigeria.
Caruso declined to say whether he believed a disruption of Iran's oil exports could send oil prices to $100 a barrel.
"I wouldn't want to speculate on that. Hopefully (the nuclear dispute) would be resolved without any disruption of supply," he said.
The United States and
European Union want the
United Nations Security Council to consider action against Iran to prevent, or punish, that country for moving forward with an uranium enrichment program that the West fears could lead the development of a nuclear bomb.
Iran says its uranium program is intended to create fuel to run nuclear power plants and boost electricity supplies.
Economic sanctions, which could affect Iran's oil exports, are possible but thought to be unlikely.
Iran, the world's fourth biggest oil exporter, has warned that global crude prices would go higher if the United Nations imposes sanctions.
Posted by: Dan Darling ||
01/18/2006 01:43 ||
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#3
I'm surprised the price of oil is not already over $100 a barrel. I guess the oil commodities guys don't believe the West will really do anything to stop Iran from going nuclear, and that's why they haven't bid up the price more than $66. It's time for me to take my summer vacation -- now while I can still afford the motor fuel. How much do you think the price of oil will be after Iran goes nuclear?
#4
Even though the United States does not directly import Iranian crude,
Print this in HUGE LETTERS for all the "It's about the Oil" wankers to choke over.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/18/2006 21:57 Comments ||
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#5
how's that strategic reserve going? full again? ANWR could've been online by now if the Donks and Ecoassholes were realistic patriots instead of obstructionist BDS sufferers
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2006 22:01 Comments ||
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UNITED NATIONS - If Europeans and the United States succeed in referring Iranâs nuclear program to the UN Security Council, sanctions or other enforcement actions would be a long way off, if imposed at all. But at a minimum the West is counting on a political and diplomatic embarrassment for Teheran, which this month removed UN inspection seals on uranium enrichment equipment, deepening suspicions it is seeking nuclear arms.
Otherwise Teheran would not be fighting a referral, diplomats and other experts say. âIranians are very proud and donât want to become a pariah state like North Korea,â said Edward Luck, a Columbia University professor specializing in UN affairs. âI think they would find it very unattractive.â
That sound you hear from the east is the sound of the Mad Mullahs⢠laughing their turbans off at you.
Russia, and especially China, are against imposing penalties on Iran, although Moscow has moved closer to Western views on a referral to the Security Council. Both nations, along with the United States, France and Britain, have veto power in the 15-member council.
Even if no oil embargo or blanket sanctions are enacted, the council could impose an arms embargo, a travel freeze on individuals or call on countries to reduce diplomatic ties, Luck told Reuters. Other possibilities include granting the IAEA enhanced powers to conduct intrusive inspections in Iran.
Let's give the toothless tiger a toothbrush!
Council diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case was still pending, envision a step by step approach that would very, very, very slowly ratchet up pressure.
Slowly on a geological time-scale.
The first move probably would be an appeal to Iran to abide by recommendations from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, which has sent inspectors to Iran. The council would also ask IAEA director Mohamed ElBaradei to submit a report within a month.
An appeal, then a report. The MMâ¢'s ae laughing louder.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
MadMoud has called for the wiping out of a legit fellow UN member-state and signatory, i.e. ISRAEL - call me weird but isn't this a specific kind of situation what the Founding Fathers at San Francisco wanted the UNO for.
#2
Otherwise Teheran would not be fighting a referral, diplomats and other experts say. âIranians are very proud and donât want to become a pariah state like North Korea,â said Edward Luck, a Columbia University professor specializing in UN affairs. âI think they would find it very unattractive.â
Experts say? Lol, ya sure. The most remarkable thing is that most of them probably actually believe their bullshit. I'm thinking they have very heavy callouses on their palms - a prerequisite for the Moonbat A-List - on both side of the Atlantic.
#4
The problem with the UN and the EU is that they think that threats that are effective for THEM are equally effective for EVERYONE, including power mad muslims with delusions of helping the Islamic Messiah (the Mahadi (sp?)) arrive. For all their blather about being so multiculturalist, they are showing a cultural paternalism and secularism that is blinding.
#8
As Ptah hints, if the UN or the EU or the IEAI issues a condemnation, the likely response from the mad mullarchy will be "ah-ha, the 'end times' are coming".
This isn't all bad because it makes discredits the mullarchy among those that believe in different 'end times' scenarios (I think Hamas has their own scenario) and also it creates even more snickering among the 'here and now' jihadis (al Q for example). Maybe more than snickering because disagreement leads to gunfire between the factions (or popcorn among the rantburgians).
You'd sooner get a fisherman to be abashed about exaggerating the size of his catch. Iran's convening a conference to assess 'the scientific aspect' of the Holocaust should be proof enough.
Iran urged the European Union on Tuesday to resume talks on its nuclear dispute with the West, as world powers appeared split on how to handle the crisis, with Russia and China resisting calls for UN action. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tehran should first restore the basis for negotiations by halting the nuclear fuel research it resumed last week. "Talks presuppose an obligation. The Iranian obligation was to stick to the moratorium," Lavrov said. "Now Iran [has departed from] the moratorium on scientific research." He also sent a strong signal of Russia's opposition to sanctions and indicated it is not yet ready to refer Tehran's nuclear program to the UN Security Council.
An Iranian source in Vienna said Iran had written to the EU trio proposing that talks restart immediately and saying Tehran was ready to "remove existing ambiguities regarding its peaceful nuclear program through talks and negotiations." However, a senior British official dismissed the offer, saying: "That is vacuous because the Iranians have created the conditions to make [further talks] impossible."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/18/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
"we're not done screwing with you yet! C'mon back!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2006 0:19 Comments ||
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#2
However, a senior British official dismissed the offer, saying: "That is vacuous because the Iranians have created the conditions to make [further talks] impossible."
I demand to know this official's name!
And then pin the Victoria Cross on him or make him a Knight. *applause* Such statements will make it harder for the French or German reps to pretend any of this matters.
THE west has failed to grasp the extent to which Islamic extremism is rooted in men's fear of women's sexuality, British author Salman Rushdie says in an interview to be published tomorrow.
Mr Rushdie told German weekly magazine Stern that his latest novel, Shalimar the Clown, dealt with the deep anxiety felt among many Islamic men about female sexual freedom and lost honour. When asked if the book drew a link between "Islamic terror and damaged male honour", Mr Rushdie said he saw it as a crucial, and often overlooked, point. "The Western-Christian world view deals with the issues of guilt and salvation, a concept that is completely unimportant in the East because there is no original sin and no saviour," he said.
"Instead, great importance is given to 'honour'. I consider that to be problematic. But of course it is underestimated how many Islamists consciously or unconsciously attempt to restore lost honour."
#4
Rushdie is wrong, in that such a system of "honor" is quite common among most peasants in immature societies, no matter what religion or culture.
It is tied hand-in-hand with the idea that young females are real assets to a family, assets as in property. At some point, it is even more important to "sell" them through dowry than it is to take their animals to market, as far as the family is concerned.
To start with, very young females are seen as "worthless", just extra mouths until they can be married off. So they are seen as long-term investments. Virgins have highest value, so they must be carefully protected, and this is where "honor" enters in to it. It could cost a family a fortune in lost dowry for someone to "despoil" their sellable virgin.
Over time, this basic concept of "honor" gets wackier and wackier, as neurotic and strict as the males and even older females of the household want to be. Pretty soon, *any* family failing can be interpreted as so ruinous to family "honor" that the young females must be killed.
#7
Hmmm. Having been told by 2 different expats of serious offers by Saudis to buy their daughters, well, all I can say is wrong century, pal. Hell, make that millenium.
Wacky only begins to describe how morally and ethically retarded (read: depraved) the "honor" BS is. But I believe the honor thing is the symptom, a "bug" of Shari'a which institutionalizes this shit, it's not the disease... the disease is Tribalism, IMHO.
Societies that put the premium on individuals - recognizing that this is where progress, a good thing, actually come from - revile such attitudes - as individuals are harmed, deprived of their freedom, choices, rights, regardless of how it affects any larger grouping. Those that are still Tribal have the mentality of Jean Auel's Clan of The Cave Bear. To mix metaphors, the Tribalists can go zug-zug each other.
#8
a system of "honor" is quite common among most peasants in immature societies
To elaborate: We are used to living in societies where binding contracts are pervasive. Go to the grocery store to get some soap powder and that's a legally binding contract on multiple parties.
It wasn't till I lived in Asia, I started to appreciate how much we take this for granted. Without a system of binding contracts, interactions rely on trust of the individual you are dealing with, i.e. their reputation or honor. An individual's perception of whether others view him as someone with honor becomes their over-riding concern, because without honor, they become an outcast (literally) that no one will interact with. So the honor that is protected by so called 'honor killings' is the honor of the man who is 'responsible' for the woman's behaviour and not that of the woman.
As an aside, I think this is the reason many westerners find Arab and similar cultures so attractive.
#9
More fairy tales about hillbilly Arabs not understanding the modern world. According to this crap all we need is a battallion of naked females to roam around Iraq and Islamofacists will run away in terror? Trust me on this, Achmed likes it very much that Arab women are expressing sexual freedom. Fatima's parent probably aren't that happy but the boys are burning down cities because the girls are putting out.
#11
seems Achmed the needle dick is worried the lil woman might find out that size does matter, among other things, like hygiene, personal freedom, ....
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/18/2006 20:21 Comments ||
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#12
Maybe it was Sal-bass.
"Instead of salmon, he went with bass! He just substituted one fish for another!"
#14
I think ol' Salman has a point here. The muslims throw tarps over their women so the guys aren't tempted by those wicked jezebels. The sexes are segregated so the men are not led astray by soft, sweet-smelling demons in female form. Women are not allowed to drive, which, if you have ever been a teenager, is the absolute definition of freedom. And the whole virgins-in-the-afterlife thing just reeks of insecurity. Your sexual reward is hanging out with people who know nothing about sex? I'll take the most expense whorehouse in New Orleans, thanks.
#15
I was referring to the whole Arabist thing, which has been prevalent in British upper classes for at least the last hundred years. For every Churchill who saw them clearly, there were a dozen Lawrence of Arabia types.
For a recent example read The Truth About Bravo Two Zero - worth reading for other reasons as well.
+ Cf. the islamist and converts orgs like the morabitouns, who aim (with some success) at spreading islam in south America by stressing the "islamic roots" of the latin/spanish culture (not mentioning theses "islamic roots" are due to a 800 year colonization and enslavement), and who find favorable ground in anti-Us, anticapitalist mvts like the Chiapas indians (or even in the antiglobo mvt, converting to the "religion of the poors" is the ultimate "in your face" to the Global Hegemon and the Empire).
By Frederick W. Stakelbeck
In a letter to then Russian Premier Nikita Khrushchev regarding his role in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro reflected upon the possible use of nuclear weapons during the U.S.-Soviet confrontation, âIt was my opinion that, in case of an American invasion [Cuba], a massive and total nuclear strike would have to be launched.â Given Castroâs affection for nuclear weapons, it should come as no surprise to observers that the aging terrorist has befriended Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Just last week, Ahmadinejad, a recognized anti-Semite and human rights violator, threatened unspecified retaliation against the West unless it recognized his own countryâs nuclear ambitions. âIf they want to deny us our right, we have ways to secure those rights,â he said in Tehran.
Given Castro and Ahmadinejadâs mutual distaste for the U.S. and Western-styled democracy, increased bilateral cooperation between the two countries presents serious national security concerns for the U.S. This month, Iranian Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani noted the importance of expanding Tehran-Havana relations saying both countries must come together to confront unilateralism of âthe big powerâ -- an obvious reference to the U.S.
In the past year, Rafsanjani has noted Iranâs desire to play a role in meeting the âtechnical and engineering requirementsâ of Cuba and other states in Latin America. Rafsanjani has also called Castro, âAn impressive character in contemporary history,â praising the Cuban leader for his resistance to the âhegemonic policies of the U.S. and anti-imperialism.â Not surprisingly, Cuban Ambassador to Iran Fernando Garcia pledged his countryâs support for Iranâs right to use nuclear energy earlier this month.
In a disquieting development, Castro visited Tehran in November where he given sacred Islamic texts in Spanish and was invited by Iranâs religious leadership to convert to Islam. âWe spoke to Castro for several hours and I think we even almost managed to convince him to convert to Islam,â said one source close to the meeting. âCastro is certain that the Cuban people are suffering from a lack of spiritually, and seems interested in Islam, above all the writings of Iranian leader Khomeini,â the source said.
But Castroâs initial interest in Islam actually surfaced many years ago. Shortly after Ayatollah Khomeiniâs followers drove the Shah into exile in 1979, Castro dispatched Cuban envoys to Tehran to rekindle bilateral relations, professing his admiration for the ârevolutionary role of Islam.â
The thoughts of an Islamic terrorist state located 90 miles off of the Florida coast are enough to keep President George Bush up for weeks.
Before his most recent trip to Tehran, Castro met with Iranian leader Ayatollah Khamenehi in 2001. At that time, both leaders agreed that together they could topple the U.S. âhand in hand.â Afterward, Castro said he left Tehran with âunforgettable memories,â while Iranian president Mohammad Khatami fondly noted, âThe more one befriends Mr. Castro, the more one becomes interested in him.â
Bilateral cooperation in the area of biotechnology research and production and the transfer of Cuban biological and chemical know-how to Iranian institutions, continue to attract Washingtonâs attention. Of course, Castro has rejected allegations of involvement with Iran in the manufacture of biological and chemical weapons, saying that joint operations are instead devoted to eradicating hunger and disease on the impoverished island.
In addition to biotechnology cooperation, Iran has used Cubaâs electronic transmissions jamming expertise and the Chinese equipped electronic warfare base near Havana, to interfere with U.S. sponsored pro-democracy broadcasts into Tehran. Intelligence reports over the past year have also uncovered covert cooperation between the two countries in the development and testing of electromagnetic weapons that have the capacity to disrupt telecommunication networks, cut power supplies and damage sophisticated computers. During a time of international crisis, these âe-bombsâ can be delivered by cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles or aerial bombs to the U.S. mainland. Russian, Chinese and Iranian scientists are currently working side-by-side with Cuban scientists to develop these weapons for eventual use against the U.S. communications and military infrastructure.
Finally, like other nations in the Western Hemisphere, Cuba has become increasingly dependent on Iranian oil for its daily survival. A cash-strapped Castro has already accepted a generous Iranian trade credit line with liberal repayment terms. In return, Castro has agreed to provide Iran with a strategic outpost to gather intelligence on U.S. movements in the region.
Fears are beginning to grow that Ahmadinejad sees himself as a modern day Cyrus the Great, founder of the Persian Empire, who called himself âKing of Iran and beyondâ -- a torch bearer of an Islamic world revolution and ordained leader of a revitalized Middle East. Rich with abundant energy resources and emboldened by powerful allies such as Russia and China, Tehran will continue to make a determined push in the Western Hemisphere. The possibility of a rogue nation such as Iran offering nuclear technology to friendly nations based upon preconceived prejudices, common religious or ideological differences or temporary alliances, makes the Castro-Ahmadinejad relationship even more dangerous for the U.S.
To address emerging national security concerns related to the Cuba-Iran relationship, the U.S. must first recognize the existence of dangerous regional and global anti-U.S. alliances. Second, Washington must announce to the American people and the world what it sees as a concerted effort by certain countries such as Cuba and Iran, to actively foster strategic alliances designed to undermine U.S. democratic world authority. In this regard, top U.S. diplomat to Havana Michael Parmlyâs courageous comments last month condemning Castroâs use of what he termed âBrown Shirtsâ to assault government dissidents was right on the mark.
Third, influential nations such as Mexico, Columbia, Brazil and Argentina must be persuaded that it is in their best interests to assume key roles in the fight against a new breed of âleftist revolutionariesâ such as Venezuelaâs Hugo Chavez and Boliviaâs Eva Morales, both of whom now threaten to poison significant parts of Latin America. Finally, U.S. political, economic, intelligence and military assets should be mobilized to address the expanding âquiet warâ that Iran, Cuba and others are so deftly waging in the Western Hemisphere without a hint of reprisal from the U.S.
The result of this several-tiered U.S. foreign policy will not be global hegemony; rather, it will be the deployment of a revised âMonroe Doctrineâ to address the Cuba-Iran alliance and other emerging threats to the U.S. that may arise in the near future.
For decades, Soviet defense, economic and intelligence assistance allowed Fidel Castroâs Cuba to project its own brand of Stalinism throughout Latin America resulting in the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians. More recently, the Chinese menace has identified Cuba as a âprizeâ in the game of global strategic positioning. Now Iran, a U.S. antagonist, sponsor of terror and weapons proliferator is attempting to solidify its grip on Cuba.
To ensure a safe future for our nation, Washington must recognize the âgathering stormâ on our borders and take action in own hemisphere against tyrants such as Castro and Ahmadinejad who so frequently attack freedom, peace and democracy.
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.
French Interior Minister 
U.S. Undersecretary of State 
Belgium's prime minister told President Bush on Tuesday that while the United States has improved its relationship with Europe in the last year, "there is certainly a lot of work still to do."
Suspicious crafts: January 12 2006 at 1815 LT in position 06:30N - 056:20E, off east coast - Somalia/Arabian Sea. An unidentified craft approached a general cargo ship underway. Ship increased speed and altered course. Craft also increased speed and headed towards ship. Ship further increased speed and craft was left behind.
Sunni Arabs will be offered six Cabinet posts in the new Iraqi government, equaling their representation in the 36-member interim government elected last January, according to Iraq's national security adviser. The Shi'ite grouping that won a plurality in elections last month, according to preliminary results, will ensure that "there will be no government without the inclusion of the Sunnis," 
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits Syria on Thursday in a signal to the world that the two allies, both facing threats of referral to the U.N. Security Council, will not be cowed. The two-day visit, Ahmadinejad's first bilateral foreign trip since taking office in August, comes at a time of intense pressure for Syria and Iran, caught in separate standoffs with the international community, analysts say.
Tehran, 18 Jan. (AKI) - The Iranian government is considering transferring state funds deposited in European banks to financial institutions in Asia, in particular South East Asia, according to Iranian website Rooz-on-line. It quotes sources close to the government saying the move follows the decision by the EU negotiating team (France Britain and Germany) to press the UN's atomic watchdog refer Iran's nuclear case to the Security Council. 
UNITED NATIONS - If Europeans and the United States succeed in referring Iranâs nuclear program to the UN Security Council, sanctions or other enforcement actions would be a long way off, if imposed at all. But at a minimum the West is counting on a political and diplomatic embarrassment for Teheran, which this month removed UN inspection seals on uranium enrichment equipment, deepening suspicions it is seeking nuclear arms.
Iran urged the European Union on Tuesday to resume talks on its nuclear dispute with the West, as world powers appeared split on how to handle the crisis, with Russia and China resisting calls for UN action. Russian Foreign Minister 
