WASHINGTON - Eight Afghan governors met Tuesday with US President George W. Bush to tell him a few unpleasant truths about the plight of their country as coalition forces fight terrorists and the Taliban. While grateful for the overthrow of the Taliban regime and the changes taking place since 2001, the governors complained about the slow pace of progress and how it was serving militants’ interests, and about the “excesses” of coalition forces.
I'd try to circulate photos and video of Bush meeting with the governors throughout the land. Let the Afghan people see the president meeting with their representatives.
The eight visitors poured out their feelings in a very civil, one-hour dialogue with Bush, who is a former governor of Texas, and before a group of reporters, including AFP, at the White House.
Asadullah Hamdam, Governor of Oruzgan province, was first to raise the thorny issue of indiscriminate arrests by coalition troops.
Bush, attempting to soften the moment by appealing to their shared experience as governors, told the group that he understood. “They come and complain to you,” he said, remembering his years as Texas governor (1995-2000). But seeing his Afghan guests’ serious demeanor, Bush added haltingly: “When somebody gets arrested that shouldn’t have been arrested you file a complaint obviously ...”
“First, we don’t even know who is arrested,” answered Asadullah Hamdan in his native language.
“If I just may,” Khost Governor Arsala Jamal politely cut in. “I think the issue is greater than that: we have 640 detainees in Bagram and like the governor said, all the governors are facing this problem.”
“Special operations is the biggest, biggest challenge and (it has a) negative impact on the people’s mind in regard to coalition forces. There is no single bigger issue than that,” Jamal added.
The governor complained about the restricted access Afghans had to AfghanistanÂ’s Bagram prison, where hundreds of suspected terrorists are held by US forces under controversial conditions. Jamal told Bush about the nightmare people arrested without charge face, and became downcast when Bush apparently failed to understand his suggestion that some operations were best carried out by Afghan rather than coalition forces.
“I got you,” Bush repeated several times.
The danger of alienation between US and NATO troops and the local population is another unsettling aspect of the Afghan conflict, as the struggle against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda continues unabated six years after coalition forces first landed.
Bush last week returned from a North Atlantic Treaty Organization summit in Bucharest with a promise from US allies that they will boost their troop contingents in Afghanistan. But the US president also stressed the need for economic and political progress in the country.
And so, Bush eagerly questioned his eight guests on how the police force in Afghanistan was doing and on the results of the mixed, civilian-military Provincial Reconstruction Teams he holds so dear and which the governors praised for rebuilding their nation. The governors also talked at length about the reigning insecurity and unemployment in their country, and the problems neighboring Pakistan poses.
“It’s hard work in Afghanistan, but I told these leaders that I think it’s necessary work,” Bush told reporters before escorting his guests to the Oval Office for a head-of-state reception.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
"You got a lot of baddies jugged at Bagram - but some of 'em is also our kin..."
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/10/2008 8:50 Comments ||
Top||
#2
..a few unpleasant truths about the plight of their country...
You mean like the foretold mass starvation that the usual critics and writers waxed about that was to befall Afghanistan if we dared to enter the country? Or the explosion of refugees that would swamp already overburden dislocation camps in Pakistan? The Awesome Humanitarian Disaster(tm)? That one?
"you got baddies in Bagram, but some guy comes crying on my doorstep that his kid is missing, and I cant tell em a thing - not only dont I know why hes being held, I dont know IF hes being held, cause we govs dont get lists of whose detained. And the dad may try to kill me, and under the local code of honor most folks where I live are gonna think its justified. I's got problems, and the fact that things arent as bad as some leftie moonbats said way back in October 2001 doesnt pay my bus fare"
#4
Bush should tell them that to address their concerns he will be remanding all the inmates to their custody and removing the troops from the country. Afghanistan has no secure logistical routes from the sea. Our mission in Afghanistan will prove to be untenable when the new Paki government provides no security for our lines of communication and covertly aids those who seek to interdict it. When we have to go to Afghanistan next time, we should do so by working with India to assure we have a secure route to the sea. Right now it seems like a Dienbienphu in the making.
#5
Yep. In addition, Pakistan is making a huge profit from the logistics and US aid. Before Sept 11, 2001, the Pakistan economy was collapsing.
I wouldn't worry about Western forces fighting the Taliban, instead pay a bounty to the Tadjiks, etc. for Arab and Pashtun scalps. Bullets and cash are easy to airlift in.
Posted by: ed ||
04/10/2008 9:47 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Hey, a few nukes will end these governors' problems once and for all. Maybe Bush should suggest it.
No, I didn't think that was acceptable, either. These guys want miracles. Maybe they should pray to Allan.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/10/2008 13:02 Comments ||
Top||
Afghanistan's government has no information on whether a wanted guerrilla leader was in a village hit by a U.S.-led air strike in the east of the country this week, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
Boy am I ever going to ululate the day this clown gets whacked. Not as much as the day Uday and Qasay were whacked, but pretty close.
I'll ululate more, but then, I've known him longer.
Afghan authorities are investigating the air attack on what the Afghan and U.S. militaries said were heavily armed insurgents in the province of Nuristan. A provincial official said more than 20 civilians were killed in the bombing.
Asked about a report that Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a fugitive pro-Taliban insurgent leader wanted by the United States, was the target of the attack, a presidential spokesman said the guerrilla leader's whereabouts were unknown. "We have no precise information whether Hekmatyar was there or not ... we are not aware as to where Hekmatyar is," presidential spokesman Humayun Hamidzada told a regular briefing.
The air strike was part of an operation involving Afghan and U.S.-led troops against suspected militants in the rugged region near the Pakistani border where Hekmatyar's followers are active. Nuristan's governor was cited as saying Hekmatyar was believed to have been at a meeting in the village. Hekmatyar was a prominent commander during the war against Soviet occupation in the 1980s and factional warring in the 1990s.
Security analysts said it was doubtful Hekmatyar would have been in the area and a spokesman for the militant commander said the report he might have been in the area was false. "Hekmatyar has never been to the area where coalition forces conducted the operation," the spokesman, Hassan Ansari, told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Hizb-i-Islami-Hekmatyar
#1
I still say that they should be able too pick up those galasses on a satellite somehow. I mean how man6y pair that thock could be in Afghanistan. And i'm about tired of hearing about how he was this folk lore hero during the soviet invasion knowing that all he was doing was protecting his drug interest in the areas
Fresh supplies been delivered to hostages and kidnappers on a luxury yacht held for the last six days by pirates off the coast of Somalia, a local rights group said Wednesday. "We have provided water and food, which the boat needed, and we will continue to give them what we can," Mohamud Abdulkadir 'John' of the Somali Tribal Rights Watch (STRW) organisation told AFP.
At the pirates' request, the 32-cabin Ponant was given the essentials it needs for them to bed in during lengthy ransom negotiations. The ship remains moored in waters near a village, Garaad, on the north-eastern Somali coast, by the self-proclaimed autonomous region of Puntland.
The hostages, including 22 French nationals and six Filipinos, with early information identifying the remainder as Ukrainian nationals, were said by the STRW official to be in good health and not endangered by their captors.
"The pirates asked for food and water and we gave them what they wanted on humanitarian grounds," the representative said. "For now, we have nothing to do with this business beyond a humanitarian involvement. "The hostages are not ill and they have not been threatened by their kidnappers. We will continue to monitor their humanitarian needs," the man added.
Another member of the non-governmental organisation told AFP that the abducted Ponant crew was "in good spirits".
A French naval warship has been maintaining close surveillance of the boat with troops from the French gendarmerie's elite counter-terrorism and hostage rescue unit stationed in nearby Djibouti. President Nicolas Sarkozy has met with the families of the French hostages, with Sarkozy's foreign minister Bernard Kouchner saying "contact" has been established in a bid to negotiate a release.
Experts have told AFP the Ponant is likely in the hands of a powerful armed gang known as the Somali Marines, structured along formal army lines and enjoying tribal warlord protection with separate business associates handling ransom talks.
They may be known as 'Marines' but they aren't Marines ...
Kouchner has himself said that negotiations could take some time, with these experts warning that pirates in the area -- ravaged by conflict since 1991 -- have been known to wait weeks or longer when seeking to maximise returns from higher-profile seizures.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
Posted by: Howard UK ||
04/10/2008 03:34 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Unelected judges should not be making public policy, anywhere. Most who wear the robe, treat the office as a means to personal ideological ends. If a judge identifies him or herself as a muslim, fascist, communist, etc, and not an impartial law bound creature, then justice can't be served.
Reminder: SCOTUS judges do NOT write their own decisions; they order Law Clerks to do that. That fact was concealed until the mid seventies when a NYC law firm told the NY Times that a prospect for employment had cited several SCOTUS findings as his own work. Put in the position of either affirming or denying the claim, the robed clowns admitted that their role was merely directive.
Personal note: I have seen actual judicial affairs documents, that direct case citations that court administrators find are appropriate to specific issues that arise. Generally, judges are either liberal or conservative and use whatever tools are given to them, to jump through their chosen ideological hoops. We should replace them with computers. Data processes 24-7-365, and not the standard 4 hour judge's day.
#2
Ouch! My last entry on judicial power would look out of context to anyone who was unaware that bin Laden's fellow cockroach remains in the UK because robed savages feel he could face anti-islamist justice, should he be deported to countries that are plagued by his terror. Yah, ROBED SAVAGES.
#5
Shakespeare was right - "first, kill all the lawyers". There are a small percentage of lawyers that do good work, understand the law, and try their best to do what's right. There are too many, however, that use the John Edwards model of legal behavior. It gets worse when such "lawyers" become judges. Hangin's too good for 'em. They need to be staked to the top of our tallest mountains in their "briefs" - for about a year.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/10/2008 13:08 Comments ||
Top||
It's official...
DAMASCUS, Syria - Former President Carter will meet the exiled leader of the militant Palestinian group Hamas during a visit to Syria next week, a senior Hamas official said Thursday. The Atlanta-based Carter Center did not confirm the meeting. The senior Hamas official in Syria told The Associated Press that Carter sent an envoy to Damascus earlier, requesting a meeting with the militant group's officials, including exiled leader Khaled Mashaal. Ah'll bring mah own kneepads. And vaseline...
Hamas "welcomed the request," said Mohammed Nazzal, who said the meeting would take place April 18. Yes, yes. It will be an honor to meet the most useful idiot of them all.
Carter Center spokeswoman Deanna Congileo confirmed that Carter planned a trip to the Middle East at the end of the week but could not "confirm any specifics." Is there a plane crash planned, beacause that's the only specific I wanna know about.
A press release from the center said the former Democratic president was to lead a study mission to Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan as part of his "ongoing effort to support peace, democracy and human rights in the region." The statement said the visit would take place from Sunday until April 21. "This is a study mission, and our purpose is not to negotiate, but to support and provide momentum for current efforts to secure peace in the Middle East," Carter said in the statement. "Our delegation has considerable experience in the region, and we go there with an open mind and heart to listen and learn from all parties." Sure ya do, Jimmah. I trust ya. You ain't like the others...
Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002 for his decades of work in mediating conflicts, including the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel while he was in the White House and his humanitarian travels for the Carter Center since. Yes. So many successes. So many successes...
In Washington, the State Department said it twice advised Carter against meeting any representative of Hamas. "U.S. government policy is that Hamas is a terrorist organization and we don't believe it is in the interest of our policy or in the interest of peace to have such a meeting," spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters, adding that Washington would do nothing to facilitate Carter's talks with Hamas. He said the message had been conveyed directly to Carter in a phone call by Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch. Do y'all know who ah am, peon?
"If he decides to travel to Syria, we will provide full support befitting a former president of the United States," McCormack said. "One thing we will not do, however, is have the Department of State, in any way, engage in any sort of planning related to a meeting with Hamas." Fuck him. Give him nothing.
A Carter-Mashaal meeting would be the first public contact in two years between a prominent American figure and Hamas officials. In 2006, the Rev. Jesse Jackson met Mashaal during a visit to Syria. Why doesn't that surprise me?
Not to bellyflop into the touchy realm of partisan matters, but I think there’s broad consensus – including those who call themselves independent – that Jesse Ventura has completed his long, fascinating morph into an utter maroon.
This didnÂ’t get much press around here, but while your host was on vacation, the former governor joined the ranks of 9/11 deniers. Having read some books and applied his piercing incisive intellect to the inherent qualities of structural design, he now believes that the destruction of the World Trade Center was an inside job, and thinks that the corporate media is covering up the truth.
Apparently the energy expended in this endeavor was sufficient to burn his hair off. Either that or heÂ’s reverted to Bald Jesse to indicate he's back in Statesman Mode, because no one took Pirate Jesse seriously.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/10/2008 13:07 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
He thought the XFL was gonna make it big too.
Who gives a shit what he thinks.
#3
I saw him on H&C the other night. I never suspected him of being very smart but the logic he applies to explain his position on 9/11 is bass ackwards.
For example, he poses the following question in his argument, "Explain to me how buildings fall at the same rate of gravity?"
Uh, ok. Have you ever taken a Physics 101 course, Mr. Ventura? Everything falls at the rate of gravity, it's the mass (or density) relative to air resistance created during a fall that slows down an object under the force of gravity. This is why a penny and a feather will fall at exactly the same rate in a vacuum. Given the density/mass of a building the size of the Twin Towers, it would speak to the laws of physics that they would fall at a rate close to the rate of gravity.
I respect the man and many of his libertarian views but suffice to say, he is a moron.
#5
Steroid chickens coming home to roost. Oh please yes, run for Gov again - Minnesota is just moonbat enough for a 2nd go-round.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
04/10/2008 15:37 Comments ||
Top||
#6
An average politician pandering to bottom feeders. Some are worse than others but they are all bad. They are, in the end, whores. (and I mean no disrespect to working girls by saying that)
#7
It's called a skullet. It offers no protection from the sun's rays which have obviously cooked his brain. He apparently has forgotten to wear his tinfoil hat.
Boy, he sure talks with confidence, doesn't he? He must be right.
#8
"Explain to me how buildings fall at the same rate of gravity?"
Jesse was a jock not a geek. I'll bet that Physics wasn't on his high school record. He missed the demo that millions observed. Of course in the twisted minds of the troofers, all the moon landings were staged in Arizona or the like.
#9
At what point do you, as a public figure, do some research and talk to experts before going public with asinine statements? I mean just to protect your credibility.
#10
Another thing I think Jessie is using HOllywood gravity as his base. Buildings always collapse slow enough that the hero can run out and leap to safety. That means a dramatic pause as each floor pancakes, squeeling of metal, and then another collapse.
Most troofers don't realize the weight that was coming down. The structure was meant to hold weight, not to handle the weight of every floor above slamming into it. There is a difference. Once a single floor somewhere in the middle collapsed it was over. Bin Laden knew that. If he'd aimed higher the only hope would have been to tip the tower over and that's less likely.
I also love the way the Troofers ignore the way it takes weeks to plant controlled charges and the fact that Bin Laden has taken credit more than once for the attack.
Nothing will satisfy them except daily medication and padded walls.
#11
"“Mexico, Ventura added, is ‘where you go to learn about revolution so you can bring it back home. Everyone thinks Che Guevara is dead, but I know better.’"
Okay, Mexico took 100 years to even get a two party system. As a source of revolution Mexico is pathetic. Che was from Argentina and did most of his work for Cuba and died in Bolivia. I don't think he found time to make it to Mexico. Yeah, he spoke Spanish, same difference I guess when you're a troofer facts are just annoying.
So-called pragmatists worry that they are being outmaneuvered by neocons
Sen. John McCain has long made his decades of experience in foreign policy and national security the centerpiece of his political identity and suggests he would bring to the White House a fully formed view of the world. But now one component of the fractious Republican Party foreign policy establishment — the so-called pragmatists, some of whom have come to view the Iraq war or its execution as a mistake — are expressing concern that McCain might be coming under increased influence from a competing camp, the neoconservatives, whose thinking dominated President Bush's first term and played a pivotal role in building the case for war.
The concerns have emerged in the weeks since McCain became his party's presumptive nominee and began more formally assembling a list of foreign policy advisers. Among those on the list are several prominent neoconservatives, including Robert Kagan, an author who helped write much of the foreign policy speech that McCain delivered in Los Angeles on March 26, in which he described himself as "a realistic idealist." Others are security analyst Max Boot and former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton.
Prominent members of the pragmatist group, often called realists, say they are also wary of the McCain campaign's chief foreign policy aide, Randy Scheunemann, who was an adviser to former Sens. Trent Lott and Bob Dole and who has longtime ties to neoconservatives. In 2002, Scheunemann was a founder of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq and was an enthusiastic supporter of the Iraqi exile and Pentagon favorite, Ahmad Chalabi. "It maybe too strong a term to say a fight is going on over John McCain's soul," said Lawrence Eagleburger, a secretary of state under President George H.W. Bush, who is a member of the pragmatist camp. "But if it's not a fight, I am convinced there is at least going to be an attempt. I can't prove it, but I'm worried that it's taking place."
McCain, who is aware of the concerns, said this week that he took foreign policy advice from a wide variety of people. "Some of them are viewed as 'more conservative,' quote," he said, adding, "but I do have a broad array of people that I talk to, and hear from, and read what they write."
The worry about McCain is centered among a group of foreign policy realists who have long been close to him and who lost out to the hawks in the intense ideological battles of the first term of the current White House. The group includes former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Brent Scowcroft, the national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush.
Although the concerns at this point are focused more on access to McCain than on major policy differences, there have been some substantive areas of dispute. Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was said to have been disturbed by McCain's hard-line attitude toward Russia and Russian President Vladimir Putin in the March 26 speech, according to someone who has spoken recently with Kissinger. "I have no comment on that paragraph," Kissinger said when asked directly. "You have to take my judgment from what I have written. But I am a strong supporter of the senator."
Similarly, Scowcroft is said to have expressed reservations about McCain's call for creating a League of Democracies as a complement to the United Nations. An associate of Scowcroft's said he viewed it as an effort to diminish the United Nations — a target of scorn among neoconservatives.
Philip Zelikow, a former top adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice who is not working for McCain, said it was not surprising that there were worries among the realists about the presumptive Republican nominee. "It's partly because McCain hasn't settled himself in one camp," said Zelikow. " ... But if you're in McCain's position, is it in his interest to settle the argument now? It's in his interest to embrace the largest number of Republicans and not declare that he is in favor of one faction or another."
#2
I think I respect mcCain more now. He seems willing to learn rather than stubbornly and arrogantly ass-u-me he's always right. You just don't know what you don't know.
#3
The talking heads, including those in the "think tanks" are afraid their view of the world won't prevail, so they go screaming to the media. I have no respect for such people. They are arrogant fools on a fool's mission, and deserve the disdain they reap. McCain is treating them nice - I'd put 'em in tiger cages. I am especially disappointed in Colin Powell. The fact that such a wuss was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs says a lot about the rot in our military command structure.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/10/2008 13:13 Comments ||
Top||
#4
And what president nominated the general for that position?
#7
It would be interesting to see the average age of the two camps. Based on the names I saw, I'd bet the "realists" are a good 15 years older than the "neocons" and represent a generation steeped in the Cold War and Vietnam defeatism and are no longer able to change with the times. While they do have perspective to offer, they are beyond the point where they will be intimately involved in the day to day management of affairs. Their place is being taken by a new generation whose world view is more influenced by the Cold War triumph of Reagan, 9/11 and the, MSM negativism notwithstanding, successful campaigns in Iraq.
Top Democrats pressed their case that the U.S. should cut their losses and pull out of Iraq, disregarding warnings by Gen. David H. Petreaus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker that a retreat will plunge the region into chaos.
Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat, pushed the two men, who were giving testimony for a second day. "Iraq was invaded on incorrect information," said Mr. Skelton. "The turbulent aftermath following the initial military victory was not considered despite warnings of the aftermath, including two such warnings from me. Now we are in our sixth year of attempting to quell this horrendous aftermath."
Gen. Petraeus, who was scheduled to give the war report mandated by the Democrat-led Congress, said the U.S. troop surge had drastically reduced violence and helped the Iraqi government take control of about half the country's 18 provinces.
When pressed by Mr. Skelton on how the Iraqi Security Forces are handling the current uprising in Basra and Sadr City, a Shi'ite neighborhood in Baghdad, led by factions of Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, Gen. Petraeus said he would give them a "B" or "B-" letter grade. The top commander said that Iraqi government and military have gained control of the port areas of Basra but still have pockets of insurgency that they need to get under control. "The Iraqi Security Forces took control of the ports ... they have also taken control of key areas," Gen. Petreaus said. "There are still some militia strong holds."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
A lot of Donks are in safe districts and could call for the invocation of Satan himself and still be reelected [for example John Murtha]. Newt failed when he didn't press the Contract with America call for a Constitutional Amendment for term limits. It should at least gotten out of Congress for the States to consider.
#4
Isn't the 24 hour rule up re: Saddam's WMD's in Syria? Fox has hours of comments to replay concerning the neocon's and the unjustified, illegal war. Or is this a Rove plot to throw the election by holding out until they all hang themselves?
#5
Treason in high office used to be a hanging offense. The entire Democrap party needs to be sent for 'remedial education' - in a Marine boot camp. The survivors may actually learn something.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/10/2008 13:15 Comments ||
Top||
#6
And today W backed up Petraeus in that the troop withdrawals have been 'paused.'
ESAD demoweenies!
A Saudi prisoner today denounced the war-crimes case against him as a politically motivated "sham" and had himself removed from the courtroom in symbolic protest.
Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza Al-Darbi, whose brother-in-law was among the Sept. 11 hijackers, informed the military judge hearing his terror conspiracy case that he wanted neither legal representation nor to be present at his trial.
Good. Things ought to move right along then ...
Al-Darbi, 33, has been charged with conspiracy and material support for terrorism for allegedly training with Al Qaeda and plotting to attack ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Al-Darbi, whose war-crimes case is one of seven inching their way toward trial by the military commissions, has yet to enter a plea and made clear he wouldn't be returning for future sessions.
The plea is 'nolo contendre', the judge decides based on the evidence the prosecutor puts forward, and the sentence becomes obvious.
He arrived in court in the white tunic and blue canvas shoes denoting a compliant detainee and politely told the judge, Army Col. James Pohl, that he neither wanted to be represented by the military lawyer assigned to his case nor by any civilian attorney. "History will record these trials as a scandal," Al-Darbi said. "I advise you, the judge, and everyone else who is present to not continue with this play, this sham."
Another detainee charged with attempted murder in a grenade attack that wounded two U.S. National Guardsmen in Afghanistan also refused to cooperate last month. Mohammed Jawad, a 23-year-old Afghan who had to be dragged from his cell for a March 12 arraignment, said he would boycott proceedings he considers illegitimate.
Excellent! That's another one done and it's not even lunch time yet ...
Pretrial hearings have begun for two other defendants and three await arraignment, including one this week. Prosecutors have announced their intentions to try seven other Guantanamo prisoners but have yet to serve them with the war-crimes charges announced as long as two months ago. Among those cases awaiting activation are capital charges against Sept. 11 alleged mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five others accused of roles in those attacks.
The Army lawyer assigned to defend Al-Darbi, Lt. Col. Brian Broyles, is required by military commissions rules to represent the absent defendant anyway. But Broyles said he would seek guidance from his bar association in Kentucky, as well as from the Army judge advocate general corps, on whether ethical standards would prohibit his representation of a client who doesn't want him. Broyles faces a dilemma if he is ordered by the judge to defend Al-Darbi and advised by legal ethicists against an active role. "There's every possibility that I'll end up being a potted plant," Broyles said.
I'm sure you're a decent guy and a good lawyer, but don't lose sleep over this, okay? As a lawyer you should know by now that if your client wants to be a mook you can't stop him.
In his brief address to Pohl, Al-Darbi repeated lies claims that he had been abused while in U.S. custody in Afghanistan. Broyles had told journalists last month that he'd been told by Al-Darbi that an Army counterintelligence specialist had beaten him and left him hanging from handcuffs during interrogations at Bagram Air Base north of Kabul. The soldier, Pfc. Damien Corsetti, was court-martialed in 2006 for abuse involving another detainee.
Broyles indicated any trial of his client would probably be bogged down in procedural wrangling for months. Al-Darbi has never been determined to be an unlawful enemy combatant, a necessary step before the tribunal can claim jurisdiction in the case. None of the allegations against Al-Darbi tie him to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. His brother-in-law, Khalid al-Mihdhar, was one of the five Al Qaeda hijackers who commandeered American Airlines Flight 77 on Sept. 11, 2001, and plowed it into the Pentagon.
This article starring:
Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed Haza Al-Darbi
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
Mohammed Jawad
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
Don't worry, kid, we're gonna give you a fair trial, followed by a first-class hanging.
#3
I wasn't aware that prisoners could dictate to the judge where and how things were going to be done in court. When you are summoned by the judge, I though you had to stand tall in front of the man, never knew there was an option there. I think these guys are just putting off the inevitable.
#4
Should have shot the bastard in the field like the Geneva Convention allows.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
04/10/2008 12:20 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Pound sand Achmed!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
04/10/2008 16:17 Comments ||
Top||
#6
big jim you have the option as a US citizen in a US court too stand tall and be reasonable in front of a judge or get your ass thrown into jail or removed from your own trial.And fluse what's bad is that we will, never hang any of them but feed and medicate their asses until their sentence is up because of the liberal shitheads who say that capital punishment iS BADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
A human rights group said Tuesday that the CIA transferred at least 14 terrorism suspects to Jordan for interrogation after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Human Rights Watch reported that the U.S. ally in the Mideast served as a proxy jailer for the CIA until at least 2004. "The Bush administration claims that it has not transferred people to foreign custody for abusive interrogation," said Joanne Mariner, the group's terrorism and counter-terrorism director. "But we've documented more than a dozen cases in which prisoners were sent to Jordan for torture."
The group said its 36-page report was based mainly on information from former Jordanian prisoners who had been held with non-Jordanian terrorism suspects. It said five of the suspects sent to Jordan were now at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The report is here. For each case, the pattern of the allegations is simple: each 'claimant' was arrested in a foreign country, 'held' for some time in that country by U.S. agents in cooperation with the country in which the claimant was arrested, and then flown to Jordan for interrogation.
Now you'll be shocked to discover this, but as you read through each 'case', you'll find that not a single source is named. There's no one person brave enough to say, publicly, "I saw this on such and such a day and location." Further, not a single US agent is named. I guess it's because they're all CIA agents and all have better cover than Valerie Plame, but there isn't a single specific charge against a single American.
And you'll be further distressed to learn that few of the claimants are currently available to make their allegations personally, though the blessed HRW assures us that each has been truncheoned by both the evil Americans and the almost-as-evil Jordanians. Some are indeed residing currently in Guantanamo, where I'm sure they're being further tortured by clean cells, warm showers and good food three times daily.
The group charged that Jordan commonly tortured suspects. Jordanian State Minister for Information Nasser Judeh called the findings "baseless and untrue," the official Petra news agency reported. The CIA declined to comment on the report. But spokesman Paul Gimigliano called such transfers, or renditions, a "lawful, valuable tool."
"The United States does not transport individuals for the purpose of torture," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
all the prisonersd just happen to be Jordanian. maybe they where in jail there before the US caught them else where
A new U.N. Human Rights Council official assigned to monitor Israel is calling for an official commission to study the role neoconservatives may have played in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. On March 26, Richard Falk, Milbank professor of international law emeritus at Princeton University, was named by unanimous vote to a newly created position to report on human rights in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs. While Mr. Falk's specialty is human rights and international law, since the attacks in 2001, he has devoted some of his time to challenging what he calls the "9-11 official version."
On March 24 in an interview with a radio host and former University of Wisconsin instructor, Kevin Barrett, Mr. Falk said, "It is possibly true that especially the neoconservatives thought there was a situation in the country and in the world where something had to happen to wake up the American people. Whether they are innocent about the contention that they made that something happen or not, I don't think we can answer definitively at this point. All we can say is there is a lot of grounds for suspicion, there should be an official investigation of the sort the 9/11 commission did not engage in and that the failure to do these things is cheating the American people and in some sense the people of the world of a greater confidence in what really happened than they presently possess."
Mr. Barrett, who is the co-founder of the Muslim-Jewish-Christian Alliance for 9/11 Truth, said in an interview yesterday of Mr. Falk, "I would put him on a list of scholars who are sympathetic to the 9/11 truth movement." He added, "Unlike most public intellectuals today, he is both honest and very, very knowledgeable in that he understands the probable reality of 9/11. He understands that the evidence that it was a false flag operation is very strong."
The narrative that the attacks from 2001 were a "false flag" operation is a recurring theme in the literature challenging the consensus that 19 Al Qaeda hijackers flew commercial jets into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. False flag refers to espionage or covert actions taken by one government made to seem like the work of another. The false flag thesis has it that the Bush administration is somehow responsible for the September 11 attacks as a pretext for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Mr. Falk yesterday did not return e-mails and phone calls asking for a comment. But in 2004 he wrote the foreword to the book "The New Pearl Harbor," by David Ray Griffin. Mr. Griffin has posited that such an inside job is the likely explanation for the attacks. In the preface, Mr. Falk writes, "There have been questions raised here and there and allegations of official complicity made almost from the day of the attacks, especially in Europe, but no one until Griffin has had the patience, the fortitude, the courage, and the intelligence to put the pieces together in a single coherent account."
When asked for a comment about the appointment of Mr. Falk, a former American ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton said, "This is exactly why we voted against the new human rights council." A spokesman for the American embassy at the United Nations offered no comment yesterday when asked. A spokeswoman at the United Nations, Nancy Groves, yesterday also declined to comment. "I would not make a comment on how the member states vote on appointments. It is their council, they make their decisions," she said.
Mr. Falk's selection to the post as rapporteur has already prompted the government of Israel formally to request that Mr. Falk not be sent to their country. The Israeli press has reported that he may even be barred from entering the country. The deputy permanent representative of Israel to the United Nations in New York, Daniel Carmon said, "We are asking the U.N. not to send him. We cannot agree to Mr. Falk's entrance into Israel in his capacity as the rapporteur."
One reason the Israelis are concerned about his appointment is that Mr. Falk has compared Israel's treatment of Palestinian Arabs to the Nazi treatment of Jews in the holocaust. In an April 8 BBC interview, Mr. Falk said he stood by the Israel-Nazi comparison. The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, issued a statement yesterday saying, "This was clearly a singularly inappropriate choice for this position. Falk's startling record of anti-Israel prejudice should have been enough to preclude him from a position where an unbiased observer is needed to report on the status of human rights in the territories."
In a February 16, 1979, op-ed for the New York Times, Mr. Falk praised Ayatollah Khomeini and bemoaned his ill treatment in the American press. He wrote, "The depiction of him as fanatical, reactionary and the bearer of crude prejudices seems certainly and happily false."Nearly nine months later, student followers of Khomeini invaded the American embassy in Tehran and held 52 diplomats hostage for the following 444 days.
#5
All the more reason the throw out the UN. It has become so corrupt and rotted that it is a cancer on the planet. No more money for the UN. no more property, and no admission of ANYONE for UN intot he USA. Let them go to Belgium.
#10
The ultimate purpose of the troofer claims is to facilitate the Islamo-fascist campaign to destroy Israel and the United States and exterminate or enslave their people.
This is incitement to genocide, the same offense for which the Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher was tried and lawfully hanged in 1946.
The ability of the media-industrial complex to substitute their own self-serving standards of free speech for those prescribed by common law and the Constitution is the only thing preventing similar action against troofers and other genocide advocates.
The power of the "mainstream media" is fading. Their 50 year reign of cultural terror is almost over.
Remember Streicher, troofers: Follow his path, share his fate. You are living on borrowed time.
#11
Blast those dastardly neocons, but who the hell are they ? I know, they are the followers of the dreaded Macacca, who lives in the minds of the leftists anti-American homos of MSM.
Isn't it weird how the left has invented it's agenda ? Global warming, neocons, the evil Halliburton Empire, SUVs, all must be isolated and destroyed.
#14
I understand the UN building is undergoing a 3 year renovation, Shame if "Careless Workman" should "Accidentaly" start a fire.(Hint, Hint)
I don't think the NYC FD has jurisdiction inside he UN building, they'd have to get unanimous permission before going inside, and the UN has NEVER done anything Unanimously, so just watch it burn and stand by for any fires that leave the UN's "Sacred and Inviolate" grounds.
End of Problem.
IfTheywant to rebuild be sure NO american money finances the rebuilding, and ABSOLUTELY NO FOREIGN WORKERS Hire Americans or leave it rubble.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/10/2008 20:26 Comments ||
Top||
The Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) in Fallujah city of Anbar province organized on Wednesday a peaceful demonstration that condemned the 5th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
"50 demonstrators participated in the demonstration," Mohammed Hussein al-Zobaee, a senior leader of the IIP and member of Anbar provincial council told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI).
"We consider April 9 a day of invasion, occupation, and robbery of the treasuries of Iraq and its people," he added.
The demonstration lasted for around one hour, at al-Jumhoriya street, center of Fallujah, and near the IIP's head office in the city.
#1
The AP said a review of Hussein's work and contacts also found no evidence of any activities beyond the normal role of a news photographer. Hussein was a member of an AP team that won a Pulitzer Prize for photography in 2005
The top two U.S. officials in Iraq accused Iran, Syria and Lebanon's Hezbollah on Tuesday of fueling recent fighting in Baghdad, saying Tehran and Damascus were pursuing a "Lebanization strategy" in Iraq. "The hand of Iran was very clear in recent weeks," U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David Petraeus, said at a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Iran denies U.S. charges that it is stoking violence in Iraq and instead blames the bloodshed on the presence of 160,000 U.S. troops. But Petraeus told lawmakers that Iran's Qods Force and Hezbollah were funding, training, arming and directing renegade Shi'ite groups he blamed for recent deadly rocket and mortar attacks in the Iraqi capital. "Unchecked, the special groups pose the greatest long-term threat to the viability of a democratic Iraq," said the four-star general.
Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker appeared before the Senate to discuss security and political progress in Iraq and the prospects for U.S. force withdrawals. Crocker said Iran and Syria were using a political strategy in Iraq similar to one he said they have employed in Lebanon, by seeking to co-opt elements of the Shi'ite community as "instruments of Iranian force."
"They're using that same partnership in Iraq, in my view, although the weights are reversed, with Iran having the greater weight and Syria the lesser. But they are working in tandem together against us and against a stable Iraqi state," the ambassador said.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: IRGC
The Foreign Ministry said Tuesday that it will not allow the United Nations official appointed to investigate Israeli-Palestinian human rights to enter the country, after he stood by comments comparing Israelis to Nazis.
Richard Falk is scheduled to take up his post with the UN Human Rights Council in May, but the Foreign Ministry said it will deny Falk a visa to enter Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, at least until a September meeting of the council.
At that meeting, Israel intends to ask the council to expand the envoy's mission to include investigating Palestinian human rights abuses against Israelis. The mandate currently allows him to monitor only human rights violations by Israel in the Palestinian territories.
Israel will also express its displeasure with the council's choice of Falk as investigator. "If he already believes Israel is like the Nazis, how fair will he be?" said a Foreign Ministry spokesman. Israel has objected for years to what it perceives as anti-Israel bias by many UN bodies.
According to a Tuesday posting on the British Broadcasting Corporation's Web site, Falk defended statements he made last summer equating Israel's treatment of Palestinians with Nazi treatment of Jews during the Holocaust. He told BBC News that Israel has been unfairly shielded from international criticism. The Foreign Ministry spokesperson called Falk's comments "unacceptable and, in fact, a little strange."
"To compare Israel to the Nazis is not just a total falsehood, it's also a personal insult to everybody," he said, adding that the choice of Falk is indicative of the Human Rights Council's negative attitude toward Israel. "Of all the people to be able to appoint, to find somebody who compares Israel to the Nazis is very bizarre and outrageous," he said.
This article starring:
Richard Falk
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
He only will investigate Israel for violations , if logic works, only Arabs are humans...
The UN are a bunch of lunatics.
Posted by: Ana ||
04/10/2008 9:23 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I'd let him into Gaza. And I'd make sure he stayed there. For a long, looooong time.
(Xinhua) -- Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Wednesday that Hamas is to be held responsible for the attack in an Israeli terminal bordering the Gaza Strip. "Hamas controls Gaza and can stop any terrorist activity launched from there," Livni said after meeting with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. "Israel will not deal with the question of which organization carried out the attack. Hamas is the one responsible."
The remarks came after several Palestinian gunmen infiltrated the Nahal Oz border terminal from the Gaza Strip and opened fire, killing two Israeli civilians and injuring two others. Three Palestinian militant groups claimed responsibility for the deadly attack, not including Hamas. However, local daily Yedioth Ahronoth quoted an Israeli official in Jerusalem as saying that Hamas was "a complete and central figure" in this attack, taking part in "authorizing it, planning it and perhaps even more," and the group "will pay the full price on this aggressiveness." The stance was also mirrored by Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev, who said Hamas is "responsible and will be held accountable."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
(Xinhua) -- Ahmed Yousef, an aide to the deposed Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haneya denied on Wednesday that Hamas or the government is seeking to create a crisis with Egypt. However, Yousef said in a statement that "the volition of defying the imposed blockade on Gaza can't be postponed and the Palestinian people can't accept to die before the sight and the hearing of the entire world."
"This blockade is part of the international collusion against Hamas movement and Prime Minister Ismail Haneya in order to overthrow the government. The blockade is an Israeli and American pressure to achieve this goal," said Yousef.
Yousef threatened that "if the blockade continues imposed on the Gaza Strip, we will be obliged to open a hole on the wall of the blockade and breach the borders because our people are dying." "There will be no settlement in the region if the blockade is not ended, and we will left it either by war or by peace," said Yousef.
On Tuesday, Khalil el-Hayya, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza, also threatened to storm the borders with both Israel and Egypt and break a ten-month blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip. Israel imposed a strict blockade on the Gaza Strip and considered the enclave a hostile entity after Hamas militants routed President Mahmoud Abbas' security forces and took control of the vicinity in mid-June last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/10/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
Iran will inaugurate a new uranium ore processing plant in less than a year in Ardakan, central Iran, a top nuclear official said Wednesday. ... Faghihian said the new plant at Ardakan is to have a capacity to produce 70 tons of yellowcake a year.
Iran has a smaller ore concentrate plant near the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, which opened in 2006. Authorities have not said how much ore the Bandar Abbas plant can produce, though it is believed to be less than the planned new facility.
...
Faghihian said Iran has so far pumped out about 360 tons of the gas it needs for uranium enrichment and keeps the materials at the Isfahan facility. Check. GPS programmed.
Iran has discovered at least three other uranium reserves in central parts of the country. The largest discovered reserve is at its Saghand Uranium Mine in central Iran, not far from the Ardakan facility. Faghihian said officials were preparing a comprehensive map of Iran's uranium reserves to pave the way for thorough exploitation.
Posted by: ed ||
04/10/2008 10:53 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Well, Iran will have the bomb in 2-3 years, if not sooner. What'cha gonna do, W?
#5
It's not like we have to invade Iran and occupy it. Just bomb the hell out of them. Sounds like an excellent opportunity to try out some of those new super-bunker busters. If that doesn't work then nuke the bastards. It's better than letting them nuke Tel Aviv or Jerusalem and they've already said that's exactly what they'll do. Doing nothing while the mad Mullahs develop nuclear weapons is highly irresponsible.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/10/2008 16:17 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Gee, Major limpdick Pappy, how about fucking nothing since he is in complete "legacy mode"?
Wrong rank, for starters.
Nothing? I dunno...
Right now, the US Fifth Fleet (on Iran's doorstep) has been supplemented by European naval forces. The kind that can be used for interdiction.
The Europeans have been the ones spearheading sanctions against the Iranians. They've also been somewhat proactive against Iranian influence in the Med. With the exception of Germany, Iran's relations with Euro countries, particularly France, have deteriorated as a result.
The Chinese (and others) have provided the IAEA with information about Iran's nuclear program. May not seem like much, but for a nation that has rountinely blocked or hindered action against Iran, it is significant. There are indications that the Chinese may not object to additional UN-imposed sanctions (at least not until a certain sporting event is over).
Iran's banking system is under extreme stress due to sanctions placed on it by the US Treasury. Internal sources within Iran indicate that people are hoarding gold. Iranian corporations are having a hard time getting letters of credit to import or export. They can't get their petrochemical industry modernized. It's also partly why Hesb'allah is now engaging in 'additional funding' activities.
While it isn't bullets flying, it is a hell of a lot more than was happening a year ago. If you're trying to get your toddler to use the bathroom instead of urinating on the carpet, it's an improvement if he urinates on the bathroom floor instead.
And guess what? None of this took place in a vacuum.
As much the Wrap-Em-In-Bacon Brigade wants to see mushroom clouds over Qom, it isn't gonna happen. At least not that way, and not until other... external conditions... rectify themselves.
Instead of smart ass and insulting comment from a Mod, how about a useful comment?
Funny, that's what I was asking you for.
BTW, I didn't comment as a mod; it would have been in gray highlight if I had.
#7
Pappy, you trust Chinese intel? The same Chinese who aided the development of Paki nukes? The same Chinese who sell us poisoned dog food and poisoned toothpaste? The commie bastards who make mischief in Nepal and India and point their own nukes at us?
I don't.
So, if I don't know how far along the Iranian nuke program is, I'm extremely uncomfortable playing the sanctions game against a government that doesn't give a rat's ass how badly their own people suffer.
This is the government that advocates death to Israel and death to America. I could tolerate all that chanting if they weren't trying so hard to find a way to actually do it.
Now I'm sure the president knows more about this subject than I do and I hope I can trust him. But knowing what little I know, if I was the president, I would start bombing immediately.
Pappy's on the money - what would you have W do in the political environment we currently have? Bomb Iran? The Donks are refusing to address the Iran issue, and barring a flagrant casus belli (i.e.: Direct Iranian military intervention - ain't gonna happen) would call for the impeachment of Bush and Cheney(!) if they had a chance - true fifth column, but Pappy's dealing in realism, not nuke-em-all-via-Arclight-then-napalm-the-rest, which, while emotionally satisfying, isn't real
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/10/2008 21:31 Comments ||
Top||
#9
Pappy, you trust Chinese intel? The same Chinese who aided the development of Paki nukes? The same Chinese who sell us poisoned dog food and poisoned toothpaste? The commie bastards who make mischief in Nepal and India and point their own nukes at us?
Do I 'trust' the intel? No. But I do consider that:
The Chinese don't do anything that isn't in their interest. They went from protecting Iran, to providing the IAEA with intel. And within a six-month time-frame.
The IAEA has been quiet about what they've received. To me that means there's some susbtance. The media would have heard about anything that wasn't and latched on like they did that one NIE.
If they did provide credible intel, and the IAEA thinks it's credible, somebody applied pressure to the right place.
So, if I don't know how far along the Iranian nuke program is, I'm extremely uncomfortable playing the sanctions game against a government that doesn't give a rat's ass how badly their own people suffer.
I'm not crazy about sanctions either, if they're used as a sole weapon instead of being used along with a host of other tactics.
This is the government that advocates death to Israel and death to America. I could tolerate all that chanting if they weren't trying so hard to find a way to actually do it.
They're not the first.
Now I'm sure the president knows more about this subject than I do and I hope I can trust him. But knowing what little I know, if I was the president, I would start bombing immediately.
I wouldn't, but I can think up a slew of ways to 'encourage' the Iranians to change their minds. But neither you or I are in that position.
Well, I don't give a flying shit what your rank is. Insinuating someone is an armchair general is insulting enough and at this point I don't care if you are the fucking flag admiral of the fifth fleet.
BTW, I didn't comment as a mod; it would have been in gray highlight if I had.
Bullshit. You are a mod, therefore you speak as one. As a former moderator myself (see the Master of Orion III webpage as it was coming out), insulting the posters is way, way, way out of line and unacceptable as a moderator. Cops don't get away with talking shit to people out of uniform, because, they are always a cop. Same goes for mods. There are no "Out of Mod" comments. You represent the sight and insulted me and really pissed me off. I know you don't care one way or another, but that is how I feel and am will to go to the Triarii with it.
Right now, the US Fifth Fleet (on Iran's doorstep) has been supplemented by European naval forces. The kind that can be used for interdiction.
There has been a fleet in the Persian gulf since the 1980s. I don't see any change in policy unless the political rhetoric is increased, I don't see an attack coming. Could be wrong, but the current and previous administrations do not attack "without warning". W could change that, but I doubt it with an election coming up.
The Chinese (and others) have provided the IAEA with information about Iran's nuclear program. May not seem like much, but for a nation that has routinely blocked or hindered action against Iran, it is significant.
I trust the Chinese as far as I can throw their collective asses. They are playing both sides against each other and will do so for America to be overstretched and cannot respond to Chinese interests, including the invasion of Taiwan, and in the Pacific. How better to do so than to release information that plays into what the administration is currently seeing in Iran. Works even better if the information is mostly true.
Iran's banking system is under extreme stress due to sanctions placed on it by the US Treasury.
They have been under stress since the Iran-Iraq war and US sanctions. Their oil infrastructure has been falling apart since then. Yet they still can make new Uranium enrichment plants and 6,000 more centrifuges. I'll believe their economy has collapsed when they have people dragging Mullah bodies through the streets.
If you're trying to get your toddler to use the bathroom instead of urinating on the carpet, it's an improvement if he urinates on the bathroom floor instead.
Yet you are still cleaning pee up off the floor. Cleaning up insurgents from Iraq instead of Iran is still adding bodies to the pile.
And guess what? None of this took place in a vacuum.
No shit? Vacuums don't exist by the way. Iran is still playing us to its tune. China is still playing both countries to its tune. The faster we realize we have no real allies, the better off we are. As NISPOM says, "There are no allies in intelligence."
As much the Wrap-Em-In-Bacon Brigade wants to see mushroom clouds over Qom...
I would prefer to nuke the bastards, yes. I don't want to see my friend who has served 2 tours in Iraq and goes back in September then go into Iran. I don't want to see his daughters grow up without a father. I don't want to see more US servicemen and women sacrifice more than they have. So, yes, I would prefer to nuke them.
However, reality being what it is, even offered the chance to do so I not push the button. America could not survive as a free democracy if it pushed the button first. Retaliation, yes, but not first strike. We would truly set the world against us and lose all credibility for our claims of freedom. And, as much as it would pain me, I would order our men and women back into the hell of war knowing full well some of them would not be coming back.
So, instead of a high and mighty smart-ass remark, how about you ask what I would do to answer the rhetorical question I put forward at the beginning of this?
Visiting British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith yesterday said there are links between British and Bangladeshi terror networks. She said the two countries will form a high level joint working group that will meet in June to thrash out details of 'practical programmes' on counter-terrorism, which might include sharing of information and counter-terror training.
Smith also said during her meetings with Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed and Army Chief Gen Moeen U Ahmed yesterday, she received 'strong reassurances' from them that the stalled ninth parliamentary election will be held by the year's end.
The UK home secretary made the comments during a news conference at the British high commission wrapping up her three day visit. "Yes there are linkages between terrorism in Britain and Bangladesh," she said when asked if there is any link between terror groups in the two countries, but refused to divulge specific name of any militant group in either country. "Linkages are highly likely because of the nature of international terrorismÂ…terrorists travel widely, use dual nationalities," said Smith adding, the countries have a shared interest in helping each other tackle terrorism in both short and long terms.
When asked if her government feels that Harkat-ul Jihad al-Islami, Bangladesh (Huji-B) is a threat to Britain, she answered, "Yes." Asked if the UK is wary of any link between Al-Qaeda and Bangladeshi militant groups, she did not dismiss the notion, and said the global terror network does have the ability to work in a wide range of countries.
Earlier in the day, after her meeting with Home Adviser MA Matin, Smith said a strong and stable democracy cannot be built without defeating terrorism, while Matin said the two sides discussed cooperation, especially potential British training of Bangladeshi counter-terrorism teams, to prevent terrorist attacks on the country's aviation industry. Currently, Britain provides counter-terror training, and finances and organises counter-terror research by local think tanks, while having undisclosed counter-terrorism defence ties with Bangladesh.
Smith also said 54 cases of British nationals having been brought to Bangladesh under 'forced marriages' were reported to the high commission. The UK secretary had also attended an event on 'forced marriage' and ways to tackle the problem.
Even the State department thinks Carter has a bad idea.
HT LGF
The US State Department said on Thursday it had advised ex-President Jimmy Carter against meeting the leader of Hamas in Syria next week, saying it went against US policy of isolating the group. Carter has in recent days discussed with the State Department's point person on Israeli-Palestinian issues, David Welch, his plans to meet Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.
"We have counseled the former president about having such a meeting," said State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack, adding the advice was not to go ahead with such talks. "US government policy is that Hamas is a terrorist organization and we don't believe it is in the interests of our policy or in the interests of peace to have such a meeting," he told reporters when asked about Carter's plans.
Earlier, Hamas official Ayman Taha told Reuters in Gaza of Carter's planned meeting. "There is an agreement to hold the meeting and arrangements are underway," he said. Taha said the meeting was to be held following a request from the Carter Center in Atlanta, whose goal is to promote global peace, health, democracy and human rights.
The Carter Center had no immediate comment on the former president's trip. Carter, 83, served one term as president between 1977 and 1981. In 2002, he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
McCormack said as a former president, the US government would provide support for Carter's Syrian trip but the State Department would not take part in any of his meetings or the planning and scheduling those talks.
Al-Jazeera Television said the Syria meeting could also include former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and former South African President Nelson Mandela, also a Nobel Peace Prize winner. But Fred Eckhard, Annan's former spokesman at the United Nations, said Annan had no plans to accompany Carter to Damascus.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to Annan earlier this week about Hamas, said McCormack, who declined to provide details of the call. "Secretary Annan is well aware of our position regarding Hamas as he was a former member of the quartet," said McCormack.
#1
State Dep't is pretty ballsy about ex-presidents meeting with bad guys, but when it comes to sitting politicians, they left their spine at home. worthless hacks.
#2
State Department should have said to Carter and publicly announced:
1) Carter is meeting with a terrorist and the US can do nothing to assure his saftey. He will receive no Secret Service protection as we will not put such personnel into harm's way without appropriate protection.
2) Such meeting with terrorists during wartime constitutes a violation of the Logan Act at a minimum and if Carter chooses to return to the US, he will be subject to prosecution to the full extent of the law based on his actions in dealing with a foreign enemy.
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.
Afghanistan's government has no information on whether a wanted guerrilla leader was in a village hit by a U.S.-led air strike in the east of the country this week, a spokesman said on Tuesday.
Top Democrats pressed their case that the U.S. should cut their losses and pull out of Iraq, disregarding warnings by Gen. David H. Petreaus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker that a retreat will plunge the region into chaos.
A Saudi prisoner today denounced the war-crimes case against him as a politically motivated "sham" and had himself removed from the courtroom in symbolic protest.
A human rights group said Tuesday that the CIA transferred at least 14 terrorism suspects to Jordan for interrogation after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) in Fallujah city of Anbar province organized on Wednesday a peaceful demonstration that condemned the 5th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
The top two U.S. officials in Iraq accused Iran, Syria and Lebanon's Hezbollah on Tuesday of fueling recent fighting in Baghdad, saying Tehran and Damascus were pursuing a "Lebanization strategy" in Iraq. "The hand of Iran was very clear in recent weeks," U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David Petraeus, said at a hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
