The upper house of Afghan parliament wants a London-based group pushing for the legalisation of Afghanistan's huge opium crop to leave the country, the counternarcotics ministry said Saturday. A meeting of the upper house last week decided the Senlis Council "should stop their activities in Afghanistan and leave this country," the ministry said in a statement.
The international think-tank has been pushing for Afghanistan to legalise its opium crop, which supplies up to 90 percent of the heroin used in Europe, saying crop eradication will never work. The group says opium production should be licenced and the crop used to make legal painkillers for developing countries, which it says have a growing demand for these drugs. The upper house said the activities of the Senlis Council were against a ruling by religious leaders against drugs, as well as the constitution, which also prohibits their production and use.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2006 00:00 ||
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This may eventually prove to be an effective short-term solution. Basically, to nationalize the opium industry. That is, by removing the criminal element from growing and harvesting opium, the Afghan government can quickly export a valuable crop, and use the proceeds to create more legitimate agriculture and development.
Farmers would gladly take a legal percentage, which would actually probably be higher than what they now net, after bribes, extortion and other costs. In turn, all the government would have to do is to survey their crop, to prevent skimming, and to protect the farmers from those who want to lean on them.
Ironically, the biggest opponent to such a plan would be the US and European pharma industries, who sell huge amounts of less-effective painkillers around the world at great profit.
There was a problem in past with morphine for medical use, in that doctors would carry a large amount around with them for cardiac use. However, it was discovered that atropine has a synergistic effect with morphine, so a smaller quantity of both can be used as a highly effective combination. This would be the most practical use in 3rd and 4th world countries, without huge amounts of morphine flowing around in an uncontrolled manner.
The bottom line is that it could become such a profitable enterprise in Afghanistan that it could pay for their entire national redevelopment in the space of a decade or more, allowing them to diversify away from opium.
Tunisian police beat activists trying to attend a planned meeting by the country's only independent human rights body, witnesses say. Dozens of plainclothes policemen blocked roads leading to the headquarters of the Tunisian Human Rights League and allowed no one to approach the site, the witnesses said on Saturday. Security officials traded insults with members of the league while European and US diplomats and French lawyers, who were invited to the congress, looked on.
Witnesses said police beat and kicked league activists who tried to breach the cordon. No arrests were reported. The incident was the latest in a series of what rights activists say are government abuses, including beating lawyers, jailing opponents and stifling the press.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2006 00:00 ||
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Tunisian authorities will be offering desensitization seminars and training classes shortly. Class sizes will be limited, first come, first served. Don't delay, sign your department up today!
The RABs are unique among elite paramilitary forces (which many nations have). First, the RAB members are drawn from the police (44 percent), the armored forces (44 percent) and border patrol 12 percent), and only serve for 2-3 years. While it is a temporary assignment, the troops receive up to 70 percent more pay, better food and accommodations. They also know they are part of an elite force, which does wonders for morale.
Interesting. I had thought before they were all-police in origin.
...The constant infusion of new manpower not only reduces the chances of corruption, but keeps the force fresh. Police and troops going back to their old assignments feel a lot better as well, as they have seen what honest and well executed policing can accomplish. It is hoped that the long term effect on the police, especially, will be positive.
Posted by: Phil ||
05/28/2006 18:02 ||
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honest and well executed policing
Uh huh...
Posted by: john ||
05/28/2006 19:04 Comments ||
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You gotta give them the "well executed" part. They execute a lot of criminals, and do it quite well.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/28/2006 19:15 Comments ||
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No mention of either crossfire or shutter guns. Hmmpf.
Adults in the Netherlands are disappointed with the actions of a lawmaker, according to a poll by TNS NIPO. 83 per cent of respondents believe Ayaan Hirsi Ali should resign from the lower house.
The Somali-born Hirsi Ali was first elected as a representative of the Peoples Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). She had been a target of at least one militant organization due to her critical views on Islam.
On May 15, Dutch officials revealed that Hirsi Ali provided false information when she applied for refugee status, and then when she sought citizenship. The next day, the lawmaker announced that she would leave the Second Chamber immediately. Hirsi Ali confirmed that she intends to move to the United States and work at the American Enterprise Institute.
#2
Since it varies wildly from numerous other recent polls, I call BULLSHIT! on the 83 percent figure.
IMO, Ms Ali is more than welcome in America - and I do hope she follows through and comes over here to stay. I would not begrudge her the cost of special security arrangements as her message sorely needs to be heard. It's no wonder she's not appreciated in Holland or Europe, she's a class act. They stopped producing those some time ago - now they won't even import them without throwing a shit fit over minutia. Their loss, our gain.
#3
These people's grandparents would have tipped off the Gestapo to Anne Frank's hiding place.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
05/28/2006 11:12 Comments ||
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Somebody did do so, Eric J. The Gestapo didn't figure out how to move that heavy cabinet, hinged and locked against the end of the hall all by their very own clever Aryan selves. Not to mention the many others that were betrayed before liberation. That's why my mother was hidden halfway across the country from her parent's hiding place in an Amsterdam fraternity house -- to prevent the entire family being wiped out in a single raid.
Greece's defence ministry banned US military aircraft from carrying out training missions near the Greek island of Crete in the Aegean Sea, sources on both sides confirmed on Saturday.
The Greeks asked for the manoeuvres to stop because the US planes "broke aviation rules" by not informing the local authorities about the exercises in advance, an official from the ministry, who did not wish to be named, told AFP.
The decision came after a Greek and a Turkish fighter jet collided on Tuesday near the island of Karpathos, about 75 kilometres (50 miles) east of Crete, killing the Greek pilot. Neither Athens nor Ankara accepted responsibility for the accident, with the Greeks accusing the Turkish fighter of flying into their airspace without warning and the Turks denying any such infringement.
The American planes took off from the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier, anchored at the Souda Bay US naval base on the Greek island, on Friday afternoon. "When aircraft from the aircraft carrier were flying north of Crete yesterday (Friday) afternoon, they were in contact with Greek civil aviation," Elizabeth Corwin, spokeswoman for the US embassy in Athens, told AFP.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2006 00:20 ||
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The logic escapes me.
A greek and turkish plane collide so you ban the US navy from flying?
Posted by: Matt K. ||
05/28/2006 10:19 Comments ||
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#4
I was stationed in Greece in the early 80s and their status as ally was overstated. They were more like landlords with a touch of la costra nostra thrown in for good measure. Don't get me wrong I made some good friends in Greece but the government was alway looking for a way to squeeze a buck out of the U.S. The always tried to block or Inteligence flights from flying in Greek airspace even though those planes were based in Greece (under NATO) for that specific purpose.
#5
The Greeks are looking to take some shots at encroaching Turks or at least threaten to do so. It's not a good time for U.S. planes to be wandering in without the Greeks' knowledge.
#7
This article has a bunch of BS in it. Fixed-wing ircraft don't operate from an ANCHORED aircraft carrier. Secondly, how far was the Turkish aircraft from Karpathos? If it was more than ten miles, the Turk was in international airspace, not GREEK airspace. Besides, how could two aircraft with operational radar run into each other? Something smells to high heaven here.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/28/2006 14:55 Comments ||
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Besides, how could two aircraft with operational radar run into each other?
Maybe it was Circassian vs Souvlaki chicken?
"Something smells to high heaven here."
Feta? Ouzo?
Sorry, OP - I couldn't resist such superbly pointed questions, LOL. :)
#12
Mmmmm. Circassian chicken. I have a lovely recipe for that, from a Turkish girlfriend:
Boil one chicken with a little salt in just enough water to cover.
While the chicken is boiling, in a food processor finely chop 500 g (1 lb.) walnut meats just until it starts to become oily, then add and chop up 250g (8 oz) stale white bread and 5-6 cloves garlic. Dump mixture into a bowl, then stir in enough chicken broth (probably almost all of it) to make a smooth paste. Let chicken cool enough to handle, then tear meat into small pieces -- cutting up the meat makes for the wrong texture -- and stir into bread/nut mixture. Eat with slices of crusty baguette.
Note: this recipe makes precisely twice as much as needed for a party dip, for which it's pretty topped with a sprinkle of paprika and a drizzle of good olive oil. Freeze the rest until the next time, up to six months.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2006 20:36 Comments ||
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I've got some in the freezer, Frank. I'll drop by the O Club in a moment, and if you pick up a nice baguette, figure about an hour for it to be defrosted and ready. ;-)
#15
OP: I can vouch for at least one occasion we launched F-4's and A-6's while at anchor. Tomcats could do so also, but had to carry minimum fuel and hit the tanker as soon as they were airborne. I do not know if the F-18s can do it, but I suspect the Es and Fs can.
Does the CNN have problems with translation from Arabic to English or is it a case of deliberate twisting of facts? Well Duuuh! If all your 'journalists' and all your translaters are on the other side then...
Yesterday Iraq's and Iran's foreign ministers had a joint press conference in Baghdad after which the CNN ran a headline that reads "Iraqi minister defends Iranian nuclear program" and wrote:
"Iran has a right to develop nuclear technology and the international community should drop its demands that Tehran prove it's not trying to build a nuclear weapon, Iraq's foreign minister said Friday."
"Iran doesn't claim that they want to obtain a nuclear weapon or a nuclear bomb, so there is no need that we ask them for any guarantee now," Hoshyar Zebari said after meeting with his Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki."
I wasn't there at the press conference but I was able to find an audio clip of the same part of minister Zibari's statement through Radio Sawa, and what he said here is so much different from what the CNN claimed he did (my translation):
"We respect Iran's and every other nation's right to pursue nuclear technology for research purposes and peaceful use given they accept [giving] the internationally required guarantees that this will not lead to an armament race in the region "
Listening to the 2nd version of the story (in Zibari's own voice) it is clear that Iraq recognizes Iran's right to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes exclusively and is moreover asking Iran for guarantees, not the other way around CNN!
Posted by Omar @ 17:06
Posted by: DanNY ||
05/28/2006 00:00 ||
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This sort of lie is likely repeated, day in, day out, across the entire spectrum of MSM outlets. I appreciate ItM for publicizing this one - and I hope it's picked up by someone and drummed. Fox and MSNBC should run with it, for mercantile reasons alone - and if it happens it would be A Good Thing, regardless of the motive.
#5
This is cool - the MSM getting taken to the cleaners, and following on the heels of the recent Apple-blogger decision, this can only be bad news for them.
About time too - they've had a responsibility to report events in an impartial, non-biased way for years and have dropped the ball repeatedly.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
05/28/2006 14:45 Comments ||
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For the 5206th time.
Thanks, Grom - I'd totally lost count.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/28/2006 14:57 Comments ||
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The real question is whether the number of lies CNN tells is finite, and if not, whether it is countably or uncountably infinite .
#10
Now, now, the Left-MSM can watch and scrutinize us, the Right-Conservatives can't do the same back, and at their leisure while we need their permission. Compromise = CONcession, Absolute Neutrality/Sobjectivity = Absolute Reality-Objectivity. Can't we all get along, can't someone else do it, can't you take care of me wid out me having to do the same for you???
#11
Perfesser, would you be a dear and give the link again? Wikipedia doesn't seem to think it exists, and I'm not clever enough to search it out. Thanks!
Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., told "This Week with George Stephanopoulos" in an exclusive appearance that reports a group of U.S. Marines may have killed 24 Iraqi civilians following an IED explosion in Haditha, Iraq, was "worse than Abu Ghraib," calling their actions war crimes committed "in cold blood." This cluck is turning into a tail gunner Joe. He and Jefferson are almost as stupid as Hastert and Frist. Perhaps the trunks won't lose the election.
Murtha, a Marine veteran who six months ago called for the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, added, "There's has to have been a cover-up. There's no question about it." It's not the crime that's so bad, it's the cover-up. That's it, Tail Gunner Jack. Like the guy in the garage told you, Follow the Money.
But for Murtha, the ranking Democrat on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in the House, the damage to U.S. interests in Iraq may already be done. And he was proud to do it.
"I will not excuse murder and that what's happened," Murtha told ABC News chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos. "This investigation should have been over two or three weeks after the incident." We don't need no stinkin' presumption of innocence. We don't need no due progess. Git a rope and string 'em up.
Murtha said, "There's no question about what happened. The problem is: Who covered it up, why did they cover it up and why did it take so long?"
"We cannot allow something like this to fester," said Murtha, a decorated veteran of the Marines. "[The military has] got to put the blame where it goes."
Murtha contends photographic evidence of the incident proves beyond a doubt that the Marines at Haditha committed war crimes, making it critical the military take prompt action. Cause photos never lie and tell the whole story.
"These kind of things have to be brought out immediately," he told "This Week," "because if the Marines got away with it, other Marines might think it's okay." Yeah, all the Marines I know have just been waiting to get the green light to open up on civilians. That's the way they train 'em, righ Jack?
The congressman doesn't know how far the blame will go.
"That's what we're trying to find out," he said. "It goes right up the chain of command right up to General Pace. Did he know about it? Did he cover it up? I'm sure he didn't, but we need to find out." I'll bet he's sure.
Warner pleaded for a "sense of calmness" as the military conducts their investigation, but Murtha contended, "I understand what happened, but I don't excuse what happened." The omniscient one.
Describing the scene in Haditha, Murtha said, "I hear that one of them was even in English asking for mercy."
"We've already lost the direction in this war," Murtha said. "It's an isolated incident, but that's why it's so important to get it out." You've lost your direction, Jack. Be real careful about accepting speaking invitations from veterans' groups from now on. Nobody makes amps that powerful.
#2
"This investigation should have been over two or three weeks after the incident."
NB: Murtha and his ilk would go apeshit if we had tried -- and executed -- al'Qaeda, Taliban, and Saddam Fedayeen war criminals that quickly.
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/28/2006 16:30 Comments ||
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Most Americans would find Murtha a disgusting political hack who disgraces his own military career.
Even if the investigation does conclude that our marines were guilty, Murtha uses the situation to hyperventilate, to score political points. Only the Shehan crowd would support his bit.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/28/2006 16:37 Comments ||
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Now we know where the "congressional aids said" and "congressional sources say" leaks baouth this are coming pull his security clearance post haste.
It's fools like this turd who are our enemies just as much as AQ. "Backstabber John" ought to be this piece of fecal matters new nick name.
#5
As I sit here in tears watching MSN show on our fallen troopers and surfing Rantburg I see Murtha's name. I have not read the article, nor do I need to. He's spouting how our greatest Americans are bad, hoping to relive some disenfrachised dream of his. Screw him, lets get his opponent elected and put some honot back in congress.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/28/2006 20:04 Comments ||
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Reminds me of the Fawlty Towers "The Germans" episode in which Basil (John Cleese) falls all over himself trying not to mention "the war" in the presence of German guests and fails miserably.
http://www.fawltysite.net/episode06.htm
Seriously, are the Turks really worth all this arse kissing? I think not.
#2
Under no circumstances do you want an ambassador who says what he thinks and believes. That is as wrong for him as it is for an elementary school teacher who wants to politically rant at 10 year olds instead of teaching them.
An ambassador should only state the official policy of the US government. If he doesn't have an official policy to state, then he says "no comment", or "I will make inquiries and get back to you." He does not make policy at all, he relays policy to other governments and back, as undistorted as possible. He is a courier.
The old joke was of the US ambassador at a hostile dinner, in which every other person seated at the table berated the US and the ambassador personally in the rudest and crudest of ways, to which he always responded, "Please pass the sweet and sour shrimp", despite the fact that the shrimp was sitting on the table directly in front of him.
Many times, the ambassador is even forbidden direct contact with representatives of the country he is in, because of some spat, and the embassy will only receive their "second-tier" diplomats to talk to our second-tier diplomats.
In this case, the ambassador made the deadly mistake of taking sides in a dispute with one country friendly to the US, against another country friendly to the US.
I'm not sure which Bush administration official said this when he took over the job, but it makes the point clear. He called his subordinates into his office, one at a time, then pointed to a world map on the wall and said, "What's your country"
They would respond "Thailand", or "Japan" or whatever.
Then he would say, "No. Your country is the United States. Do not forget that."
#3
I agree. This is an excellent example of why we do not need to recruit State employees from Ivy League schools - and pay through the nose for their "services". As a promulgator and distributor of the elected President's policies, we could fill State with lobotomized robots and it would work far more effectively in the interests of our country.
#4
Under no circumstances do you want an ambassador who says what he thinks and believes.
I call BS in this case. The ambassador was stating objective reality. Have we gone so far into dhimmitude that we're not allowed to tell the truth?
Posted by: Robert Crawford ||
05/28/2006 13:30 Comments ||
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#5
Whoa boys, hold on there just a second. All the details in the story don't quite add up to the conclusion.
For starters, the link details the protest letter which was dated 5/23/2006, while the original comments were specified as made in February 2005.
First question - how is the imminent recall based on the comments from 15 months ago? Maybe a few more factual details would help before we get into the deep weeds of ill intent.
Second - there don't seem to be too many direct quotes from the parties, and a whole bunch of double and triple hearsay. Let's try making a passing effort at evidentiary reliability.
All that said, the Turks do need to acknowledge reality, in this, and several other areas.
#6
Since I literally believe the State Dept should be disbanded and a simple URL passed around instead, I must admit I'm torn between my natural state of total smartass - and asking how this is really dhimmitude... Ah, well, it's immaterial in the final analysis.
RC - I believe we end up at the same place when I say that we should pull no punches regards US policy - and the reality of history - on our website. History needs far less "explanation" than the nuance bitches suggest, IMVHO. And we need no State Dept assholes to smooth away / nuance US policy. This is how it is, Mr Foreigner. We already know you don't give a rat-fuck about the truth, so we don't care if you "like" it or not. Thank you for your inquiry. Your IP block has been logged.
#7
We need a State Department. We need an effective one.
Moose is absolutely right: the ambassador is our representative to that country. He/she doesn't make policy. Ambassadors gather information from the host country and disseminate our official position to that country.
ES 6836 has a point; we need to know what happened. Assuming the facts stated to be true, If I were President (not going to happen) and an ambassador of mine did this, he/she would be on the next plane home. If a political appointee, he/she would become the next general port inspector for Omaha, and if a career diplomat, he/she would become my assistant 6th liasion officer in Zim-Bob-We (can't think of a better punishment).
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2006 14:09 Comments ||
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#8
So the US ambassador to Germany can't refer to the Holocaust cause we're friendly with Germany. The ambassador to Cambodia can't refer to the Cambodian genocide. The ambassador to Rwanda (or more to the point Bolton in the UN) can't refer to the genocide in Rwanda. And G*d forbid, no one should say anything about Darfur.
Sorry, perhaps I just don't get diplomacy. I fail to see anything wrong with calling evil; 'Evil'. And as for our 'friends' in Turkey - when we needed them in 2003 they told us to FOAD. As far as I'm concerned, they're not our 'friends' and not our 'allies'. If they need anything, they should get it from their 'pals' in Paris. And lots of luck with that.
#9
LOL. Gathers information. Good one. Definitely worth the expense and resources. LOL.
Look at the function. Look at the effectiveness. Look at the ROI. Look at the alternatives. More efficient means are all over the place.
You're too nice a guy, Steve White :) I once felt the same way and then realized, watching State torpedo Bush in his frist term, that I'd either been born about a century too late or I needed to rethink the "whole thing". Don't get me wrong - I admire those who've managed to avoid cynicism and remember the original intent of such things as diplomats and ambassadors. My grandfather, the best example of a rock-solid American I ever knew, would've agreed with you. But that was then - every institution and every function thereof should be constantly re-evaluated and, where superceded by events and innovation, revamped or abandoned. Nostalgia is a luxury. The State Dept is at least 50 years out of date, not to mention a nest of seditious vipers hell-bent on imposing their LLL agenda. Who says we need it, as constituted? Who says we need Ivy League Moonbats to staff it? Who says it can't be replaced with something better? You didn't make much of a case, in fact, just asserted Conventional Wisdom. I happen to thoroughly disagree, heh. But you're a Good Guy, so I hope I was civil enough in doing so, as no offense is intended, just the challenge to that CW.
#15
I think we can do with out a State Department as long as we have no go areas for Caucasians in Washington D.C. and many US urban areas. Send the state department appointees and workers there to teach in the schools and provide city services. If foreign nations need to talk with us let them come here.
#16
This is how it is, Mr Foreigner. We already know you don't give a rat-fuck about the truth, so we don't care if you "like" it or not. Thank you for your inquiry. Your IP block has been logged.
I must be slow again today. I don't understand that bit at all.
#17
trailing wife (interesting name!) I presume you understood that I suggested we need no "State Dept" per se, staffed and housed all over the world, and those who wish to know the interests and policies of the US could visit a website for such information. In light of that assertion, does the part that you referred to still elude you?
We presume they can read. We can present the information in any requested language. We know that the truth is often an elusive thing with some societies and governments cleansing and revising it to suit themselves - and expecting others to operate within their chosen fantasy version. Much of what State does is play this game. On the pages of the website, we eliminate it. We present the US policy and back it up with history as needed or requested, but not spun to anyone else's tune. And they can take it or leave it.
#18
Here in Aus the US Ambassadors position was vacant for 14 months 'till March of this year. No-one noticed 'till it was pointed out.
Most people regard the position as a sinecure for political services rendered.
#19
Agree, tipper. I've only found embassies and consulates useful for getting additional pages added to my passport and for applications for absentee ballots.
I do read the Register every day, but I only rarely read Mickadeit's column. As I said in a recent comment, the MSA at UCI has been out of control for a long time. When I was getting a grad degree there in the late 90's they were already very confrontational with the Jewish student organizations and were using their "newspaper" to prominently make attacks on the Christian faith. I was tempted to make some crack about cleaning my guns, but then you realize that it's not going to be an insurrection. It'll be a sniper or a suicide bomb. Situational awareness is much more important.
Were this a straight news story, I might lead with, "The FBI appears to be actively studying Muslim student groups at UCI as part of an intense surveillance program to detect potential terrorists." But I'm not as surprised that the FBI is doing this - as well as other aggressive anti-terrorist activities in Orange County - as I am that the FBI would tell us.
"There are a lot of individuals of interest right here in Orange County," Rose said. "We are quite surprised." The FBI has ramped up in O.C., creating three anti-terrorist units, focusing on al-Qaida, non-al-Qaida foreigners and domestic suspects. She talked about planting bugs and closed-circuit TV cameras, and examining computer use and e-mail. "We can't afford to come in after the fact," she said, talking about the need to be proactive. She added, "Are we doing all these technologies? Yes, we are." Approvals for searches and eavesdropping bypass the normal warrant system, going through an accelerated and secretive federal court, although she said that judicial hurdle is "not easy."
Gross said his office is taking an "Al Capone approach" to going after suspected terrorists. That is, if he can't get them on a terrorist charge, he works with other agencies to find something like a tax charge. Inter-agency cooperation is at an all-time high, he said. "The CIA was never in our office (before 9/11); now they are in our office all the time," said Gross, who works at the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in downtown Santa Ana.
Club members did a good job of drawing out about as much as Gross and Rose were willing to give. They wouldn't talk about specific numbers of suspected terrorists or associates in Orange County, but Rose did say: "We live in Irvine. I can't tell you how many subjects' names come up, and they live right down the street from me." (Later, it was clarified she meant down the streetfiguratively - in the general area.) Asked whether citizens should be worried about the activist Muslim students at UCI, Rose said, "That is another tough question to answer" - which I took to mean she has an answer but doesn't want to single out one group. She did say the FBI is aware of large numbers of Muslims at both UCI and USC. "I think we need to be concerned with everybody, including our next-door neighbor," she said, adding the FBI gets frequent calls from people who want to tell them about situations like a Muslim neighbor who is changing his license plates or the guy who has nothing in his apartment but a mattress and five computers. The previous sentence is the best advice in the whole article.
"I can't tell you how many" tips like that paid off, she said.
What about racial profiling concerns? someone asked. That would be a mistake, she said. "We have our own American-raised individuals who have converted to Islam," she said, as well as Arabs coming to the U.S. who are trying to Westernize their appearance and pass for Hispanic.
#1
I'm not as surprised that the FBI is doing this - as well as other aggressive anti-terrorist activities in Orange County - as I am that the FBI would tell us.
That's been the problem all along - the FBI allows the bad guys to flourish under their protection - so that they can gather information. I understand the concept and it's necessary to a degree, but they have always carried it waaay too far, allowing the bad guys to grow and root to the point where it no longer matters if you get the kingpin anymore because the organization is established to the point where individual leadership no longer matters.
In effect - they allow the bad guys to form an army, train it and really establish itself in order to see who the leaders are - but at that point - it doesn't matter anymore when the leaders are taken down - the army remains.
Maybe now they are finally getting a clue that this method is ultimately counter productive.
#2
What about racial profiling concerns? someone asked. That would be a mistake, she said. "We have our own American-raised individuals who have converted to Islam," she said, as well as Arabs coming to the U.S. who are trying to Westernize their appearance and pass for Hispanic.
The key line to my mind is; "We have our own American-raised individuals who have converted to Islam,"
And this is from someone in the FBI. Interesting, very interesting.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
05/28/2006 6:45 Comments ||
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#3
hint to UCI - might need to watch your campus politics. Subsidizing terrorists while keeping Methodist Bible worshippers and ROTC out might just bite you in the fundraising ASS
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2006 20:13 Comments ||
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LONDON - More than 60 minors, some as young as 14, have been held as prisoners at the US detention facility for suspected terrorists at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, a London-based human rights group claimed in a report published on Sunday. Those detainees were under 18 when they were captured by US forces, and at least 10 of them still being held at Guantanamo were 14 or 15 when they were seized, held in solitary confinement, subject to repeated interrogation and allegedly tortured, the charity Reprieve was reported as saying.
Reprieve, which couldn't find child abuse in the Sudan, Mauritania or Saddam's Iraq, and can't be bothered with the execution of minors in Iran, nevertheless found the time to complain about Gitmo.
Britains Independent on Sunday (IoS), which carried the allegations, suggested the charges could threaten the United States relationship with its closest ally in the war on terror, Britain. We would take a very, very dim view if it transpires that there were actually minors there, it quoted a British government official as saying.
An unnamed source, to be followed by more unnamed sources.
Unnamed government sources said the allegations directly contradicted Washingtons assurances to London that no minors were held at Guantanamo.
Reprieves legal director and a lawyer for a number of detainees, Clive Stafford-Smith, told the newspaper the United States could have broken not only its own laws but all human rights conventions by putting children in adult jails. There is nothing wrong with trying minors for crimes, if they have committed crimes, he said.
These weren't crimes, these were youts of 16 and 17 with rifles in their hands.
The problem is when you either hold minors without trial in shocking conditions, or try them before a military commission that, in the words of a prosecutor who refused to take part, is rigged.
The 'shocking conditions' are better than any Brit prison, I'll wager.
Stafford-Smith said that even if it were proved the 10 still held there-- who are now all thought to have turned 18 -- were involved in fighting, they should be treated differently from adults.
'cause it's completely different if a 16 year old shoots you, everybody knows that.
According to the newspaper, Washington has admitted that only three Guantanamo inmates -- later freed -- were ever treated as children. The US military also admitted that 17 of those on the first definitive list of detainees released earlier this month were under 18 when they were captured, it added.
But Stafford-Smith said Reprieve had "someone's say-so" credible evidence from other detainees, lawyers and the International Red Cross that an additional 37 juveniles were under 18 when they were taken to Cuba. A US Pentagon spokesman quoted by the newspaper said no one now being held at Guantanamo was a juvenile and rejected arguments that normal criminal law applied to the facility.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2006 00:01 ||
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#1
But in Britain, you are expected not to disturb burglars in the process of relieving you of your possessions, and certainly not do them any physical harm, which could open you to a lawsuit or prosecution.
#5
It's this kind of bullshit that gets good people killed. We've seen youths as young as eight or nine holding and using weapons, acting as suicide bombers, and doing other combat-related activities in Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, India, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel, Lebanon, Sudan, Kenya, and Somalia. An armed terrorist is an armed terrorist, regardless of their age. This British group should all get a rifle-butt square in their teeth, so they'll actually do some THINKING before they open their yaps again.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
05/28/2006 15:13 Comments ||
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AHMEDABAD, India, 29 May 2006 At least 30 people were hurt in clashes between Hindus and Muslims in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state.
Police officer B.C. Modi said hundreds of people were involved in the clashes and that most of the injuries were caused by stones or burning missiles. The violence in Ahmedabad follows Hindu-Muslim riots in Baroda , also in Gujarat state, early this month which killed six people and left scores wounded.
Gujarat saw widespread communal rioting in 2002 which left over 1,000 people, mainly Muslims, dead. Human rights groups said the toll was more than double that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2006 20:02 ||
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The people of West Bengal have voted in the Communist Party for the seventh successive time. Humphrey Hawksley has been in the capital, Calcutta meeting the new communists.
Subodh Roy, I see when he stands up to greet me, is a small yet powerful figure. He holds the edge of his newspaper down on the desk top, to stop the overhead ceiling fan blowing it about.
At 88, his voice is soft, difficult to hear above the noise of traffic horns and bustle from the poor Muslim neighbourhood outside. But his confidence is unwavering.
"Stalin," I said. "Was he a good leader?"
"Yes. Yes. Stalin was strong," he says, his eyes straight on me.
"And Mao Tse-Tung of China?"
"Yes, Mao. He was good. He fought for communism, too, in the Chinese way."
"But I thought communism had failed?" I said.
"No. No," replies Mr Roy. "We will get it right this time."
We are in the headquarters of the Communist Party of West Bengal where the meeting room is adorned with portraits of Stalin, Marx, Engels and Lenin. There is a bust of Mao and a painting of Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh, with red banners of the hammer and sickle stretched across the walls. The place has a spring in its step, because the chief minister, Buddhabed Bhattacharya, huddled in a nearby room, is celebrating his Communist Party's seventh consecutive election victory, with a vastly increased mandate.
He is brimming with new ideas on how to re-apply communism to make it work and he is not looking West towards the World Bank or Wall Street for advice, but East towards China. "The main thing China has done," he says, "is to allow different types of ownership: state ownership, collective ownership - even private ownership and foreign investment. That's what we're planning."
"But you're a democracy," I question. "China says it achieved its success precisely because it isn't one."
"Yes," he smiles ruefully.
"We know the one party-state won't work here. The Chinese economy has an inner strength so they are bargaining from a position of strength. We are still begging."
All around Calcutta huge billboards advertise designer clothes, mobile phones and dream homes. Down on the streets, though, nothing much seems to have changed. A textured blend of chaotic humanity still reigns.
It is as if India - as a vast competing developing nation - is paying lip-service to China's success, but deep down, it does not actually want it. "The thing about China," says an urbane middle-aged woman in one of Calcutta's modern shopping malls, "is that the people have no human rights."
"Yes," adds a young man next to her. "We're not ready to sacrifice human rights to get people out of poverty. Absolutely not."
That is all very well coming from someone not in poverty, but outside Calcutta, I find two women, heaving sacks of rice along a village track. This is the India where 80% of people live on less than two dollars a day. China has got that down to less than half - meaning that millions and millions have clawed their way out. To achieve anything like that, India will have to attract foreign money.
But, right now, foreign investors risk £35bn ($65 bn) a year in autocratic China but only £2.5bn ($4.5bn) in democratic India.
Why? You just have to look at the tangle of electrical cables clustered on the sides of buildings and huge signs asking people to report the theft of electricity. Any multi-national company investing in India's power industry would have to deal with the fact that a quarter of all India's electricity is stolen. And no-one seems to be doing much about it.
So I ask the two women, who have put their rice down by a hut: "Would you be happy to forfeit your right to vote if it meant improving your living standards." "Vote," they say. Villagers gather round, shaking their heads. "Vote," they all say. "Vote."
"If we choose the right people, then our lives will improve," says one. "Did you all support the Communist Party?"
"Ninety per cent of it," says another. "They are very good."
"But then... " I begin to challenge, and stopped, because India is not like China with its obsessive pursuit of wealth and the future. Each of the villagers turns out to have an individual dream which they feel this society gives them the freedom to pursue - at least a bit. One man sees himself as a poet. Another wants a breakthrough as a singer. And as for the Communist Party, well it has given them all small plots of land.
China's boom has raised questions within the developing world as to whether human dignity should be measured by material wealth or freedom, and it is trying to prove that in the early stages you cannot have both. That has led many Indians to question whether their own country has too much democracy.
Returning from the village, a demonstration blocks off one of Calcutta's main intersections dominated as it happens by a statue of Lenin. We divert down small roads, crammed with market stalls. Walking through the crowd, head high, eyes curious, arms swinging confidently and oozing self esteem, is a man without a stitch of clothing on. Those around - mothers, children, shoppers, traders - do not flinch.
In China - in fact, in most places in the world - he would be arrested.
But this is India, where freedom and human dignity are measured in a different way
Posted by: john ||
05/28/2006 15:57 ||
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#1
The Commies, Leftists, and Left-leaning Anarchists, Governmentists, and Policrats, etc. still havinga difficult time saying the world FASCIST or FASCISM, let alone acknowledging that the same is the new Communism. Iff its NOT Communism/Leftism-Socialism > is "ANTI-FASCISM", its alleged ALTERNATISM or ALTERNATIVISM.
#2
What is not mentioned in this story is the so called "scientific rigging" that takes place. The communists are expert at manipulating the voting registers.
They also encourage illegal immigration and provide the illegals with false documents. Instant loyal voting bank.
There are twenty million illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in India, most of them muslim.
Posted by: john ||
05/28/2006 20:00 Comments ||
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It was from an urgent call from his Indian counterpart Atal Bihari Vajpayee that he first learnt about the invasion of Kargil by Pakistani troops, the then Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif disclosed on Sunday, squarely blaming Gen Pervez Musharraf for the 'misadventure' for which he would like the military ruler to be tried.
"Mr Prime Minister, what is happening" in Kargil, an indignant Vajpayee asked him over telephone in May 1999, according to the 56-year-old Pakistani leader who said that he had got to know about the Kargil operation only then.
Almost all Pakistani Corps Commanders were also unaware of the "ill-conceived, ill-planned and ill-executed misadventure" of Musharraf and "just two or three of his cronies", Sharif, who is living abroad in exile for over six years, said in an interview here days after he and another former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto came together and pledged to topple Musharraf.
Through the Kargil operation Musharraf, the then Chief of the Army Staff, had "sabotaged" the understanding reached by him with Vajpayee at Lahore to resolve all Indo-Pak problems including Kashmir, Sharif said.
The Pakistani leader finds it ironic that India should be talking to Pakistan's military ruler. "You are talking to the same Musharraf (who did Kargil). I fail to understand", he said.
A 36-point Charter of Democracy signed on May 14 by Sharif and Bhutto for restoration of democracy in Pakistan includes a proposal to set up a Commission to fix responsibility for Kargil and identify causes that led to it.
Those involved would have to be brought to book, Sharif asserted, after saying that a high-level Commission, "something higher than a Judicial Commission" would be set up by a democratic government to go into the Kargil episode.
Does that mean that Musharraf could face trial? "It is very clear. The clause (in the Charter) says that the Commission will fix responsibility and then (those found guilty) would conceivably face trial", the former Pakistani Prime Minister said.
Sharif cannot forgive Musharraf for Kargil because that had brought India and Pakistan very close to a war. "The Indians could have done anything at that time because they were attacked without any rhyme or reason", he said.
Recalling his frantic July 4, 1999 meeting with President Bill Clinton in Washington, Sharif said he had sought the US leader's good offices to resolve the matter amicably. But he refused to say whether Musharraf had pleaded with him to rush to Washington as Indians were beating back the Pakistani intruders.
Sharif sees Musharraf as a "very impulsive man, erratic in his behaviour and not a very stable person".
"India should not be doing business with any usurper or a military dictator... India should condemn such (military) takeovers whether in Pakistan or elsewhere", he said.
By inviting Musharraf to the Agra Summit India had conferred legitimacy on the General. "To me it amounted to recognising a military dictator although his rule is still unconstitutional, unlawful and immoral. Why should you talk to a man like that", the Pakistani leader asked.
Nonetheless is he happy with the Indo-Pak peace process? "Well, the foundation of all these were laid when I was the Prime Minister. Mr Vajpayee was very kind to visit Pakistan and the foundation was laid then by us. Things started moving then. But, of course, the Kargil episode came in between", he replied.
A very good opportunity for resolving Indo-Pak issues was thus missed, rues Sharif, describing the Lahore Declaration signed by Vajpayee and him as a "tremendous opportunity" which was sabotaged by Musharraf's Kargil misadventure.
Asked if the General had done so because he did not support the Lahore Declaration, Sharif replied, "No. I think Musharraf and his cronies had some obsession about it (Kargil) for a long time".
Sharif dismisses as "wild ideas" Musharraf's solutions to the Kashmir issue such as demilitarization and joint control. "Solutions are not given in Television interviews. Musharraf does not know what diplomacy means", he said.
Such ideas, he emphasized, are first discussed at proper forums. "You do not give wild ideas in the Press and say that you have given solutions and the other side is not responding", he said, adding that Musharraf was "immature".
Sharif, who claims Kashmiri ancestry, said that while the Indo-Pak Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) were welcome, Kashmir also had to be resolved, to the satisfaction of India, Pakistan and the people of the State.
Benazir Bhutto, Chairperson of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League (N), have both announced that they will go to Pakistan to participate in the next year's National Assembly elections to which Musharraf responded by declaring that they would be arrested and tried.
Dismissing these as "empty threats", Sharif said that they were not deterred or worried by what the General had stated. He described Musharraf as a "traitor" who had subverted the Constitution.
Asked about the reports that the General might get himself re-elected as the President by the current National Assembly, Sharif said that he was not eligible to contest because he was still wearing the Army uniform. If he made any such move it would be gross violation of the Constitution and political parties would launch "a very effective movement" against him.
Posted by: john ||
05/28/2006 09:50 ||
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Karachi, 25 May (AKI) - Sources in northern Pakistan have told Adnkronos International (AKI) that Islamabad is rapidly reviewing its policies on Waziristan and will eventually withdraw its troops and recognise the Pakistani Taliban militants who in practice run the tribal region. A clear sign of this shift in policy is the recent appointment of retired Lt. General Ali Muhammad Jan Orakzai - widely considered a foe of Washington - as governor of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP). which borders the tribal area.
For the past four years, Pakistani security forces have been battling Taliban militants in the tribal areas of North and South Waziristan under the banner of the US-led war on terror. Tens of thousands of Pakistani troops have been deployed in the lawless tribal belt of Wazoo Waziristan, which lies on Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, in order to hunt down Islamic militants. Both Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters are believed to have fled into the area after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
However sources say that a defeat of the security forces in North and South Waziristan is inevitable. Reports say that Pakistani forces are unable to move on the ground. Even within the regional capitals of Miran Shah in North Waziristan or Wana in South Waziristan where they are based, the Pakistani troops are at the mercy of the local Taliban commanders.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2006 00:42 ||
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#1
One or two days old.
Agitprop was the consensus.
#2
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Bureau Chief, Pakistan, Asia Times
Although three older articles by Syed Saleem Shahzad are still displayed
on their main page this one is no longer there. Probably even a little
too far outside reality for even a Taliban propaganda machine like the
Asia Times.
From Najam Sethi's editorial in the Friday Times...
Now we hear that Commander Khaleelur Rehman has been given his marching orders barely a year from when he was appointed Governor of the NWFP. This is ominous. It suggests a turnabout of 180 degrees in General Musharrafs perspective on FATA, the JUI and Talibanism. The irony is that Mr Rehman took a hard line against the insurgents in FATA and against their JUI supporters in the NWFP government on the precise orders of General Musharraf. Now he has been sacked for carrying them out. Indeed, Commander Rehmans head has been offered as a sop to the very elements who, as General Musharraf recently admitted, had double-crossed the army in Waziristan taken its jirga-recommended money and used it to fuel Talibanism in the region! Unfortunately, this new flip-flop on Waziristan policy suggests dangerous trends. One, it seems to be staking Pakistans national-security interests at the altar of General Musharrafs personal political interests. It is aimed at strengthening the JUI and encouraging it to defy the pressures of its Jamaat i Islami ally to heave General Musharraf out by a series of million-man marches. Hence the recent statement by Maulana Fazalur Rehman that the JUI would participate in elections and saw no reason to abandon General Musharraf. Two, it is bound to make the US nervous because it will lead to a resurgence of Talibanism in Afghanistan. Indeed, it is almost as if General Musharraf is deliberately thumbing his nose at Hamid Karzai and the international community. Equally, since the move is simultaneously designed to bring the JUI back in power in the next elections, it should be disquieting for those at home and abroad who see the countrys future in terms of a pluralistic, moderate and democratic dispensation based on free and fair elections. Combined with General Musharrafs soft tactical spot for the jihadis, the ambiguities and contradictions in his policies are coming to the surface in the run up to the elections next year.
Posted by: john ||
05/28/2006 10:11 Comments ||
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#5
I still have a hard time seeing this as anything other than Perv abandoning the Taliban there to the U. S. Wait till they try to get into the runp of Pakistan after the U. S. and NATO implement a policy of hot pursuit.
NEW DELHI - Has the Agni III, India's most ambitious nuclear-capable ballistic-missile program, been aborted or merely put in cold storage? Keen to impress the world community of its peaceful intentions in its quest to obtain nuclear fuel and technology from the United States, France, Canada and Australia, it seems that New Delhi has made up its mind to shelve plans for big military-power credentials for now.
The government has decided to cancel the first test-firing of an Indian inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM), one with a range of 4,000 kilometers (some say up to 6,000km), which is sufficient to reach China and capable of delivering a nuclear payload.
Pressure from the US and others cannot be discounted. The United States has always been very suspicious about India's Agni program, and in 1994 persuaded it to suspend testing of the missile after three test flights. The US-backed Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) seeks to prevent the proliferation of missiles capable of delivering a 500-kilogram payload over distances of 300km and more.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2006 00:20 ||
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#1
This is the missile in question
Posted by: john ||
05/28/2006 8:31 Comments ||
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#2
Estimated 10.4 m length (without the RV), diamter 1.8m.
2 stages, solid fuel, 28 tons.
With payload of 1800 kg, range is 4400 km.
With payload of 1000 kg, range is 7200 km.
The Indian DRDO have built a submersible pontoon launcher to test underwater ballistic missile launch technology. This missile can fit that test platform.
Posted by: john ||
05/28/2006 8:48 Comments ||
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#3
Holy moley. Now yes, an SSBN would tend to rattle cages. That looks like a launch tube on a support structure?
#4
Yes but the Indian ATV project - a nuclear submarine is an SSN. It would be able to fire long range cruise missiles but would be too small for this.
And there would need to be a lot of work on navalizing the Agni-3.
An Indian SSBN would be decades away...
Posted by: john ||
05/28/2006 14:19 Comments ||
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#7
Russia may be willing to lease an SSN, but now their SSBNs.
ST. PETERSBURGThe construction of a training centre for the Indian military in Sosnovy Bor, 70 kilometers west of St. Petersburg, confirms Russias intentions to lease nuclear submarines to India, said Green World Chairman Oleg Bodrov.
Sosnovy Bor is home to the Russian Training Centre for Officers of the Russian Navy which houses working nuclear reactors of the type found on nuclear submarines. These reactors are used to test nuclear fuel and other technologies applicable to nuclear submarine reactors. A building recently went up along side the training centre, where Indian specialists will apparently be schooled.
Now, according to Green World, Leasing India two third generation multi-purpose submarines with the option to buy them, as many media reports indicated in late 2004, is apparently becoming a reality.
Bodrov commented further, asking otherwise, why train some 300 Indian submariners in Russia? That constitutes 4 Akula crews.
Russian has experience in leasing nuclear subs to India. In January 1988, India leased three Soviet-era Skat classknown as Charlie class in NATO designationmulti-purpose submarines, equipped with eight nuclear missile installations. After the term of the lease ran out, the subs were returned to Russia and decommissioned.
Posted by: john ||
05/28/2006 15:01 Comments ||
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#8
The only ballistic missile the Indian Navy is likely to get its hands on anytime soon is the Prithvi-3, launched from the fantail of an offshore patrol vessel (OPV) of the Suyanka class.
Posted by: john ||
05/28/2006 15:30 Comments ||
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Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Saturday said that the government was committed to wiping out all foreign terrorists from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). The prime minister was talking to Lt Gen (r) Muhammad Ali Orakzai, the newly appointed governor of the NWFP, who called on him at the Prime Ministers House. Aziz said that the government will use all resources to wipe out terrorists as it was against all forms and manifestations of terrorism and extremism. He said that the writ of the government must be maintained in the tribal areas and the government would work with local residents to this end.
Earlier, Aziz congratulated Orakzai for assuming the office of NWFP governor and hoped that he would use his experience and energies for the development of FATA. Aziz said that the government will set up a special economic zone in FATA to bring it at par with other parts of the country. He also said that the government will allocate more funds for the progress and development of the area in the upcoming budget. Orakzai said that restoring peace and bringing a socio-economic revolution in the NWFP was his top priority.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2006 00:00 ||
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Pakistan insisted on Saturday that the nuclear proliferation case against scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan had been closed and all important information had been collected and shared with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United States.
A leading US nuclear expert insisted in his testimony before the US Congress on Thursday that the case against Dr AQ Khan was "far from closed" and many questions, especially about Iran, remain unanswered. "We have completed our investigations and shared information with the IAEA and the US. We do not have any new information to share with the US," acting Foreign Office spokesman Suhail Mehmood said while responding to the US nuclear expert's remarks.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Just means its well past time to move him to Gitmo with or without Pak approval.
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki once again failed to reach agreement on Sunday on naming a new defense and interior minister as parliament reconvened after a four-day break. Naming strong but neutral ministers is considered crucial for any plan to restore security and stability to strife-torn Iraq.
Iraqs fractious political, ethnic and sectarian parties again failed to reach agreement on who will run the interior and defense ministries, despite a promise by Al Maliki to do so within a few days of his Cabinet being sworn in just over a week ago. They will not be named today, Shia deputy Baha Al Araji said. We hope within three days.
The Shia-dominated interior ministry has been promised to that community, while Sunni Arabs are to get the defense ministry. It is hoped the balance will enable Al Maliki to move ahead with a plan to take over security around Iraq over the next 18 months and also attract army recruits among Sunni Arabs, who make up the core of the insurgency. The list however, has been whittled down to two candidates for the interior ministry and three for defense.
During what appeared to be a stormy closed-door session, deputies argued over a demand by the Shia and Kurdish coalitions to curb the power of Sunni Arab parliament speaker Mahmoud Al Mashhadani. They demand that he be obliged by parliamentary regulation to consult his Shia and Kurdish deputy speakers before taking any decisions. The demand, staunchly opposed by Sunnis, was an indication the struggle for more power and authorities among Iraqs factions. The speaker has little authority.
Which doesn't mean they won't argue for hours annd hours ...
After two closed-door sessions, the deputies decided to postpone a vote on parliaments internal regulations and code until a deal on the speaker can be negotiated, said Abbas Al Bayati, a deputy with the main Shia alliance.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/28/2006 23:30 ||
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Nasreen Siddeek-Barwari was just 13 when she entered the Fedhelia women's prison in east Baghdad. It was October 1981, and Saddam Hussein's campaign against the Kurds would soon kick into high gear. Her father, a former Iraqi military officer, was arrested after years of harassment by the secret police; one of his sons was known to be active in the Kurdish resistance up north. She, a younger brother and her mother were placed that same day in a cell with about 40 other women and children.
"It was a mix of Arabs, communists, Christians, Islamists, mainly Kurds," she recalls. "The cell was so packed we didn't have room to sleep. We were from different places politically but we were all suffering for the same reason: We were different from the regime."
"I became old then," adds the still-young Ms. Siddeek-Barwari, who earlier this month resigned as Iraq's minister for municipalities and public works after serving nearly three years under three governments. She has survived two assassination attempts (not everyone in her retinue was so lucky) and struggled, with mixed results, to reform her hidebound ministry. As she tells her story in fluent English, one begins to understand how this woman--whose personal elegance belies a hard-bitten life--can describe herself as a "realistic optimist" about her country. . . .
Go read the rest of it.
Posted by: Mike ||
05/28/2006 08:38 ||
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Hamas has rejected a deadline set by Mahmoud Abbas for talks on a plan calling for a Palestinian state alongside Israel and put its militia back on the streets. Talks on the plan, drafted by Palestinian leaders jailed in Israel, had been expected to begin on Saturday, but a Hamas spokesman said the leaders were still discussing a venue. Sami Abu-Zuhri said the meeting had not begun because "formation of the [negotiating] committee has not been finalised yet".
"Some factions want the dialogue to be held in Gaza because their representatives are there," he said. The plan implicitly recognises Israel. Hamas's charter calls for Israel's destruction and the group has rejected calls to alter its position.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Talks on the plan, drafted by Palestinian leaders jailed in Israel,
Your jail security stinks, how did this "Plan" get out of the prison.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
05/28/2006 12:48 Comments ||
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A top Russian envoy is due in Iran for talks on Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, with the world community still unable to reach consensus on how to tackle the escalating crisis. Russian National Security Council chief Igor Ivanov is expected to hold talks with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani during his two-day visit. His trip follows a meeting this week of senior officials from Britain, France, China, Russia and the United States -- the five permanent UN Security Council members -- as well as Germany -- that failed to break an impasse on how to deal with Iran although progress was reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2006 00:20 ||
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Did a check bounce?
Or are they upping their fee for obstructing any joint effort to resolve this short of US direct action?
The 'IoS' reveals today that more than 60 of the detainees of the US camp were under 18 at the time of their capture, some as young as 14
By Severin Carrell
Published: 28 May 2006
The notorious US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay has been hit by fresh allegations of human rights abuses, with claims that dozens of children were sent there - some as young as 14 years old.
Lawyers in London estimate that more than 60 detainees held at the terrorists' prison camp were boys under 18 when they were captured.
They include at least 10 detainees still held at the US base in Cuba who were 14 or 15 when they were seized - including child soldiers who were held in solitary confinement, repeatedly interrogated and allegedly tortured.
The disclosures threaten to plunge the Bush administration into a fresh row with Britain, its closest ally in the war on terror, only days after the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, repeated his demands for the closure of the detention facility. It was, he said, a "symbol of injustice".
Whitehall sources said the new allegations, from the London-based legal rights group Reprieve, directly contradicted the Bush administration's assurances to the UK that no juveniles had been held there. "We would take a very, very dim view if it transpires that there were actually minors there," said an official.
One child prisoner, Mohamed el Gharani, is accused of involvement in a 1998 al-Qa'ida plot in London led by the alleged al-Qa'ida leader in Europe, Abu Qatada. But he was 12 years old at the time and living with his parents in Saudi Arabia.
After being arrested in Karachi in October 2001, aged 14, he has spent several years in solitary confinement as an alleged al-Qa'ida-trained fighter.
One Canadian-born boy, Omar Khadr, was 15 when arrested in 2002 and has also been kept in solitary confinement. The son of a known al-Qa'ida commander, he is accused of killing a US soldier with a grenade in July 2002 and was placed top of the Bush administration's list of detainees facing prosecution.
"It would surely be really quite stupid to allow the world to think you have teenagers in orange jumpsuits and shackles, spending 23 hours a day locked up in a cage," a source added. "If it's true that young people have been held there, their cases should be dealt with as a priority."
British officials last night told the IoS that the UK had been assured that any juveniles would be held in a special facility for child detainees at Guantanamo called Camp Iguana. But the US admits only three inmates were ever treated as children - three young Afghans, one aged 13, who were released in 2004 after a furore over their detention.
The row will again focus attention on the Bush administration's repeated claims that normal rules of war and human rights conventions do not apply to "enemy combatants" who were al-Qa'ida or Taliban fighters and supporters. The US insists these fighters did not have the same legal status as soldiers in uniform.
Clive Stafford Smith, a legal director of Reprieve and lawyer for a number of detainees, said it broke every widely accepted legal convention on human rights to put children in the same prison as adults - including US law.
"There is nothing wrong with trying minors for crimes, if they have committed crimes. The problem is when you either hold minors without trial in shocking conditions, or try them before a military commission that, in the words of a prosecutor who refused to take part, is rigged," he said. "Even if these kids were involved in fighting - and Omar is the only one who the military pretends was - then there is a UN convention against the use of child soldiers. There is a general recognition in the civilised world that children should be treated differently from adults."
Because the detainees have been held in Cuba for four years, all the teenagers are now thought to have reached their 18th birthdays in Guantanamo Bay and some have since been released.
The latest figures emerged after the Department of Defense (DoD) in Washington was forced to release the first ever list of Guantanamo detainees earlier this month. Although lawyers say it is riddled with errors - getting numerous names and dates of birth wrong - they were able to confirm that 17 detainees on the list were under 18 when taken to the camp, and another seven were probably juveniles.
In addition, said Mr Stafford Smith, they had credible evidence from other detainees, lawyers and the International Red Cross that another 37 inmates were under 18 when they were seized. One detainee, an al-Jazeera journalist called Sami el Hajj, has identified 36 juveniles in Guantanamo.
A senior Pentagon spokesman, Lt Commander Jeffrey Gordon, insisted that no one now being held at Guantanamo was a juvenile and said the DoD also rejected arguments that normal criminal law was relevant to the Guantanamo detainees.
"There is no international standard concerning the age of an individual who engages in combat operations... Age is not a determining factor in detention. [of those] engaged in armed conflict against our forces or in support to those fighting against us."
Posted by: john ||
05/28/2006 21:03 ||
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#2
The "Independent" should really be named the "Fellow Travelers". Unfortunately, a large number of the Khmer Rouge's genocidal murderers were 10-12 years old. The fact is that you're old enough to kill, you're old enough to go to jail, or be executed.
Memorial Day will be different this year at the Vacaville-Elmira Cemetery, where Casey Sheehan, a soldier from Vacaville, lies buried. Until this week, more than two years after his death in Iraq, Casey's grave has been marked only by a small plaque. On Thursday, it received a headstone.
The elegant marble slab is thick and emblazoned with a cross and delicate thickets of trees on both sides.
"Our Casey," reads an inscription on the front. "Ever faithful, kind, and gentle, good son, beloved brother, brave soldier, dear friend, you loved your family and lived your life serving others to the end." Six icons grace the other side, representing a military insignia, the theater, Eagle Scouts, Van Halen, the World Wrestling Federation and Superman.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
05/28/2006 00:00 ||
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How sad and puny minded. Let's hope Casey can rest in peace.
Posted by: Captain America ||
05/28/2006 0:16 Comments ||
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#2
We'll see how much she and her handlers make this into a publicity circus.
Will she stand on it and denounce everything her son died for?
#3
"I didn't want to put a tombstone on my son's grave," she wrote, capitalizing the letters of the word "tomb." "I didn't want one more marble proof that my son was dead."
So I tried to kill everything my son gave his life for.
#4
Good Lord, I really think this woman is quite mad. I sincerely hope that her son can now rest in peace.
Posted by: Tony (UK) ||
05/28/2006 4:46 Comments ||
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#5
I believe that Casey's father had to arrange for it because Cindy wouldn't. (It would have taken away the "unmarked grave" element of her sad story.)
Posted by: Mike ||
05/28/2006 8:37 Comments ||
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#6
The confusion is only compounded in that the VA would provide a 'free' headstone - like the ones you see in national cemeteries. Wonder who refused that one?
#9
One thing's for sure: Casey Sheehan deserved a far better mother than the one he got.
At the very least, he deserved a mother who would at least show some respect-- even if just a little bit-- for the freedoms he believed in and was willing to put his life on the line to preserve and protect, and die in the cause of extending those freedoms to others in a distant land.
But alas, he got this stupid, narcissistic bitch instead.
RIP, Casey. A nation remembers your sacrifice and honors your service.
Posted by: Dave D. ||
05/28/2006 12:26 Comments ||
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#10
Eagle Scout and Van Halen fan. She's not worthy of her son. *SPIT*
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/28/2006 20:19 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The upper house of Afghan parliament wants a London-based group pushing for the legalisation of Afghanistan's huge opium crop to leave the country, the counternarcotics ministry said Saturday. A meeting of the upper house last week decided the Senlis Council "should stop their activities in Afghanistan and leave this country," the ministry said in a statement. 
Tunisian police beat activists trying to attend a planned meeting by the country's only independent human rights body, witnesses say. Dozens of plainclothes policemen blocked roads leading to the headquarters of the Tunisian Human Rights League and allowed no one to approach the site, the witnesses said on Saturday. Security officials traded insults with members of the league while European and US diplomats and French lawyers, who were invited to the congress, looked on.
AHMEDABAD, India, 29 May 2006 At least 30 people were hurt in clashes between Hindus and Muslims in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state.
Prime Minister 
Pakistan insisted on Saturday that the nuclear proliferation case against scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan had been closed and all important information had been collected and shared with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United States. 
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki once again failed to reach agreement on Sunday on naming a new defense and interior minister as parliament reconvened after a four-day break. Naming strong but neutral ministers is considered crucial for any plan to restore security and stability to strife-torn Iraq.
Hamas has rejected a deadline set by Mahmoud Abbas for talks on a plan calling for a Palestinian state alongside Israel and put its militia back on the streets. Talks on the plan, drafted by Palestinian leaders jailed in Israel, had been expected to begin on Saturday, but a Hamas spokesman said the leaders were still discussing a venue. Sami Abu-Zuhri said the meeting had not begun because "formation of the [negotiating] committee has not been finalised yet".
A top Russian envoy is due in Iran for talks on Tehran's controversial nuclear programme, with the world community still unable to reach consensus on how to tackle the escalating crisis. Russian National Security Council chief Igor Ivanov is expected to hold talks with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani during his two-day visit. His trip follows a meeting this week of senior officials from Britain, France, China, Russia and the United States -- the five permanent UN Security Council members -- as well as Germany -- that failed to break an impasse on how to deal with Iran although progress was reported.
