(SomaliNet) Unless there is an international peacekeeping force to replace Ethiopian troops, the Somali Premier says he hopes Ethiopia won't withdraw its troops from Somalia.
The Somali Premier Nur Hassan Hussein says he wants the United Nations and international community to "avoid the vacuum" and send peacekeepers to back the country's shaky transitional government. Nur Hassan Hussein was speaking Tuesday with The Associated Press.
Ethiopia has said it will pull its troops out next month. The Ethiopians have been in Somalia since December 2006, and drove out an Islamic administration that seized control of southern Somalia and the capital. But the Islamist insurgency has grown again and now controls all of southern Somalia except for Mogadishu.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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China plans to send additional police liaisons to countries facing major terror threats in a bid to boost cooperation with local security forces and head-off attacks, the Public Security Ministry said Wednesday. The move adds to more aggressive tactics against terror threats, particularly those from activists battling for an independent Muslim homeland in the far western territory of Xinjiang.
An announcement on the ministry's Web site said police officers already posted abroad had played a key role in heading off attacks on Chinese diplomatic missions and financial institutions. The notice did not give the names of countries where attacks had been foiled or provide other details. Without naming specific nations, the ministry said police officers would be dispatched to countries where "anti-terrorism tasks are relatively heavier." Separately, it said a police unit would be sent to Australia and other countries that are home to large numbers of Chinese students and immigrants.
According to the official China Daily newspaper, China dispatched its first police liaison to the United States in 1998 and now has a total of 30 posted to 19 different countries. Police liaisons also have helped in the identification, arrest and extradition of alleged criminals allied with groups fighting against Chinese rule in the country's traditionally Muslim Turkic Xinjiang region, the announcement said.
Along with anti-terrorism, police liaisons work on drug trafficking and other transnational crimes, as well as on tracking down Chinese officials and employees of state financial institutions who have fled abroad with embezzled funds or to avoid prosecution.
#1
Interesting. I watched a Food Channel show on the Caribbean island food, where they demonstrated how to make roti. Apparently the British Empire abolished slavery in the 1830's and replaced the Africans with cheap labor from India and China. The Chinese have infused quite a bit of money into the region, as well as tainted products, as there were several deaths from cough syrup and toothpaste with melamine or some such chemical contamination in Panama. Chinese anti-terror task forces wouldn't raise much suspicion, I'm guessing, and may be quite useful to the rest of us.
#2
Double edged sword - the Chicoms always seek to keep very close tabs and strings on their ex-pats. More than one mainland Chinese has been pressured into spying for the govt when s/he didn't really want to. FWIW
#3
WORLD MILITARY FORUM > CHINA'S SYSTEM OF REGIONAL ETHNIC AUTONOMY CANNOT BE SHAKEN.
e.g. TIBET. The Chin-perceived strengths and weaknesses of the PRC's national territorial and ethnic set-up.
OTOH, INDIAN DEFENCE FORUM > LABOR UNREST SPREADS IN CHINA. Aproximately 150Milyuhn or so Chin from rural areas unable to find work or good pay in China's fast-growing, fast-industrializing major Cities???
#4
Danielle, if I recall correctly the Chinese toothpaste and cough medicine were made with a manufacturing(?) grade of glycerin, rather than food grade or medical grade. This made no sense to Mr. Wife, who commented at the time that high grade glycerin is quite inexpensive.
JosephM, I've read a number of articles recently about Chinese children of the sod, having gone to the cities for jobs and adventure, are now returning home because the jobs have gone, leaving them with nothing more than some manufacturing skills and a new approach to life.
Park Sang Hak, a North Korean defector, launches balloons bound for his homeland. They carry leaflets accusing North Korean leader Kim Jong Il of being a drinker of pricey wine, a seducer of other men's wives, a murderer, a slaveholder, a dictator and "the devil."
The South Korean government says it wishes Park wouldn't rain all this aggravation on a heavily armed neighbor, but it says it is powerless to stop him. So about the only thing that usually stops Park's balloons is a wind that won't blow north.
But on Tuesday morning here at Paju, near the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas, Park and his compatriots ran into a bunch of South Korean activists willing to fight to keep the balloons on the ground. Park's anti-Kim leaflets, they shouted, were a threat to peace on the Korean Peninsula.
A balloon-driven rumble broke out. Scores of police struggled to keep it from turning into a full-blown riot. Before it was over, Park kicked one of the counter-protesters squarely in the head -- a blow that sounded like a bat whacking a hardball. He spat on several others who were trying to rip apart bags of leaflets. He pulled a tear-gas revolver from his jacket, and fired it into the air before police grabbed it away from him.
In the end, Park's group managed to launch just one of their 10 balloons. Thousands of leaflets were torn from bags and spilled onto the ground.
Ballooning in the Korean borderlands, it seems, has become a contact sport.
Leaflets dropped this fall in the North have infuriated the government there, which is believed to be particularly sensitive to personal attacks aimed at Kim, owing to the stroke he reportedly suffered in August and the subsequent firestorm of speculation about his mental and physical competence.
The leaflets have been an aggravating factor in the North's unusually belligerent behavior this fall toward the government of South Korea. Effective this week, the North drastically cut access for South Koreans working at the Kaesong industrial complex, located just north of the border.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
So the peaceniks don't like it, eh? What ever happened to speakin' troof to powah?
#4
Forget that. I'm being old fashioned. iPods! That's it. Send 'em some iPods pre-loaded with some really good stuff. Takes a little bit of money is all. Where can I contribute?
#8
Rumor has it the boy has a taste for Hennessy XO Cognac. Not wine, granted, but in a country where the major drinks are a local liquor known as soju and beer (maekju), using wine as a synonym for cognac is probably close enough to be understood by the target audience.
Good for the balloonists. Kim Jong Il is a right bastard who deserves a Ceaucescu moment in his very near future.
WASHINGTON (AFP) US commanders are considering an accelerated drawdown of US forces from Iraq, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday, softening his opposition to president-elect Barack Obama's 16-month timetable. "I am less concerned about that timetable," he told a news conference at the Pentagon a day after Obama announced Gates had agreed to stay on as defense secretary in a Democratic administration.
Gates said US commanders were already "looking at what the implications of that are in terms of the potential for accelerating the drawdown and -- and in terms of how we meet our obligations to the Iraqis."
Here it comes ...
How Gates would handle his differences with Obama over the pace of the drawdown has been a key question ever since advisers to the president-elect suggested he might be asked to work in an Obama administration. He acknowledged that being the first defense secretary ever to be kept on by a newly elected president, much less one from another party, makes his a "unique situation."
"I think the president-elect has made it pretty clear that he wanted a team of people around him who would tell him what they thought and give him their best advice. I think he has assembled that team," he said. "There will, no doubt, be differences among the team. And it will be up to the president to make the decisions," he said.
Gates made clear that he intends to be a full participant, not just a wartime placeholder while Obama and his administration get settled. "I have no intention of being a caretaker secretary," he said.
He said he and Obama agreed his tenure would be open ended.
Gates has insisted in recent months that he could not conceive of conditions under which he would stay on. But he met discreetly with Obama for the first time on November 11 in Washington after the president-elect had visited President George W. Bush at the White House. "We actually met in the fire station at National Airport and they pulled the trucks out so that our cars could go in," Gates said. "I spent a long time hoping the question would never be popped," he said. "I then hoped he'd change his mind. And yesterday it became a reality."
All other political appointees at the Defense Department are subject to replacement by the new administration, he said. Gordon England, the deputy defense secretary announced he would be leaving.
Gates wrapped his position on Iraq in some ambiguity. He said that while Obama had repeated his desire to get US combat troops out by the end of 2011, "he also said that he wanted to have a responsible drawdown."
"And he also said that he was prepared to listen to his commanders," he said. "And it's within that framework that I think it is agreeable," he added.
Gates emphasized that a timetable calling for the withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq by the end of 2011 already had been set under a status of forces agreement reached with Baghdad. "It's a longer one, but it's a definite timetable. So that bridge has been crossed," he said. "And so the question is how do we do this in a responsible way. And nobody wants to put at risk the gains that have been achieved with so much sacrifice on the part of our soldiers and the Iraqis at this point," he said.
Gates concurred with Obama's view that South Asia is the region that now poses the greatest threat of attack to the United States, observing that "we basically have our foot on the neck of Al Qaeda in Iraq."
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Surrendering a significant US military presence in Iraq, to include rights for action against regional adversaries, would be probably the greatest strategic blunder in US history. Not to mention a betrayal (of dead Americans and allied Iraqis) comparable to the abandonment of S. Vietnam.
#4
The One wants to end the $ 12B per month drain on the budget that the Iraq war is causing. Gates is a RINO. A man who comes to us from the Central Intelligence buraucracy. He has no military background or foundation. He who will turn on General Petraeus and the military as will The One when the time is right.
Excerpt from The Failure Factory:
Even in May 2008, when the pressure led Obama to equivocate somewhat (he said, for instance, that he wasn't sure "Ahmadinejad is the right person to meet with right now") - featured prominately on the Obama campaign's website - proudly and unabiguously declared, "Obama is the only major candidate who supports tough, direct presidentual diplomacy with Iran without precoditions" (emphasis added). But the same month Obama received support from a seemingly unlikely source: President Bush's defense secretary, Robert M. Gates. On May 14, Gates told a reporter that he favored the conciliatory approach to Iran expoused by liberal New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman - an approach that happened to run counter to the administration's stated position. We need to figure out a way to develop some leverage with respect to the Iranians and then sit down and talk with them." Gates said. The defense secretary explicitly proposed making consessions to Ahmadinejad's radical regime.
A bipartisan Congressional committee report released on Tuesday has warned that the US is at risk of a nuclear or biological warfare attack in five years' time.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Perhaps more importantly, IIUC this REPORT urges POTUS-ELECT BARACK to take a strong Policy(s)stance = action ASAP vee IRAN, NORH KOREA, and SSSSHHHHHHHHHHH ALL-ROADS-INTERSECT-IN-PAKISTAN PAKISTAN, in order to preclude or prevent such an event.
WHile IRAN steadily nuclearizes, the Militants-Terrs hope that US-ASIAN GEOPOLITICS + CORRECTNESS, ETC. WILL INDUCE THE US TO CONTAIN ITSELF TO AFGHANISTAN-PAKISTAN, ESSENS LEAVING THE JIHAD [mostly] FREE TO ATTACK AND DESTABILIZE LARGE AREAS OF MAINLAND ASIA + OTHER, BUT ESPEC ASIA [Russia, China, India = NUC/WEAPTECHS, MANPOWER, SUPPOR].
#2
Mayans already have Congress beat by centuries. Dec. 21, 2012 game over, or they ran out of paper....
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Nikolaevsk, AK ||
12/03/2008 4:08 Comments ||
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#3
"It is more likely than not that a weapon of mass destruction will be used in a terrorist attack somewhere in the world by the end of 2013," the report read.
#4
We will know quickly afterwards when the Iranians have a nuke.
It will go off in some city in the US.
I hope the sissies and limp wrists in DOS eventually realize that you cannot negotiate for peace with people who want to die.
Every diplomat in the world who has a tuxedo and a martini shaker has been to Teheran and tried negotiating with Ahmendinutjob and they are still working on the freaking nuke. When do these morons that keep wanting to talk and make nice finally realize that Iran wants a nuke because their apocalyptic version of Islam wants a war?
I hate to say it but we will have a city somewhere in the US, Britain, Spain or Germany DISAPPEAR in the next TWO years if we don't turn those nuke sites in Iran into sheets of nuclear glass.
Posted by: James Carville ||
12/03/2008 10:43 Comments ||
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#5
It appears to me that this situation is almost the same as Chamberlain faced during 1936. Hitler made threats, and Chamberlain, remembering the horrors of WW1, would do almost anything to avoid that situation again.
Hitler knew this and gave Chamberlain a worthless piece of paper, and Chamberlain projected all his hope and change on it and declared the Munich Agreement a success.
Similarly, Dinnerjacket makes threats of nuclear war, building nukes, firing missiles, and gets the diplos on both sides of the pond in a tizzy. The only thing is that Dinnerjacket has no intention of making an agreement with the West. He plays the limp wristed diplos like a fish, while he buys time for U2235 enrichment and who knows what weapons development or plutonium process or acquisition to take place.
This is pure mass denial on the part of the West. The diplos and leaders all hope against all evidence that DJ won't get a nuke.
The US is in transition, and she is perceived as weak and preoccupied. DJ is in a good position, except that his pet project is costing lots, and he is running out of money.
I do hope that we and/or Israel have plans and assets in place to neutralize the threat. DJ may be full of threats and bluster, but if he is not total BS, he could also have a nuke. Saddam did not have a nuke, but it was not because he was not trying.
DJ has made public threats. The leaders in the West have not acted upon those threats, which is totally irresponsible.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Nikolaevsk, AK ||
12/03/2008 12:33 Comments ||
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#6
I predict that there will be 4-6 major terrorist incidents inside the US during Obama's term, including a Beslan type incident. And 1-2 of those will be WMD strikes.
In return, we will do much as Clinton did, lob protests and UN resolutions and maybe a few cruise missiles.
In response, I predict that mosque burning will be the new sport and the initial stages of Cowboy's and muslims. You will also see muslim enclaves in the inner cities growing much like they are in france with the same sorts of effects.
#8
AP - another link is that the Iranians may be facing an economic meltdown at home (already starting without the deep resources of other countries to pull out of the spiral), and facing internal discord, may try that age-old "external enemies"tactic to distract. I see Iran lashing out more to keep internal control than jihad-exportation
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/03/2008 19:50 Comments ||
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#9
Good point, Frank. I see this whole thing as a big race, Nukes, Bankruptcy, Jiihad, Pi$$ed off masses. It is a sh*t tsunami.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Nikolaevsk, AK ||
12/03/2008 21:14 Comments ||
Top||
#10
ION NEWSCIENTIST > [Scientists]MEGATHRUST EARTHQUAKE COULD HIT ASIA AT ANY TIME.
As times before, "CLIMATE/LAND CHANGES" = REGIONAL-GLOBAL DIASPORAS = induce or cause many people vee INDONESIA, EAST-SOUTH ASIA TO MIGRATE TO GUAM-WESTPAC IN SEARCH OF RECOVERY AND A NEW LIFE, AND EXCLUSIVE = NOT COUNTING THE ANTICIPATED US MARINE RELOCATION TO GUAM FROM OKINAWA OR OTHER LOCAL US MIL BUILDUP.
* FYI GUAM BUILDUP > JAPAN is refusing to fund the construx of a US-desired new airfield in suppor of the realignment of US forces in Japan, + JAPANESE LABOR UNION ON OKINAWA is now protesting the transfer of US Marines to Guam [want absolute assurances/guaranties on US $$$ benefits for MILBASE WORKERS, + right of curr Japanese Base employees to transfer and find Base(s)work on Guam and remit $$$ back to Japan-Okinawa].
MUMBAI: Even as India seeks Dawood Ibrahim's extradition yet again, the don is ensconced safely in his plush bungalow in Karachi.
Security agency sources told TOI on Wednesday that it's business as usual for the underworld kingpin. A few days ago, a couple of his relatives, including Salim Ansari, flew to Pakistan (using their valid Indian passports) to meet him. Sources said the don was so confident that he would not be touched by the Pakistani establishment that he had made no changes in his daily routine.
He continues to phone his contacts in Mumbai. Recently, a contact who fronts for him in the real estate business reportedly sent Rs 120 crore via hawala, sources in the government stated. The hawala channel between Mumbai and Karachi remains busy.
Indian security agencies are keeping close tabs on Dawood's movements, as are their counterparts in the US intelligence establishment. It's on the basis of detailed inputs from them that India maintains that Dawood Ibrahim is in Pakistan. But central agencies question why the Maharashtra government has not taken any action against the D-company here.
"What's the point of asking Islamabad to hand over Dawood when we're not doing anything to destroy his empire in Mumbai and other places in India?" a senior official asked.
Mohammed Ali, who holds sway in the docks and is a key member of the Dawood Ibrahim network, continues to operate with impunity. Even after the November 26 terror attacks, his smuggling racket remains unchecked. Despite strong indications that it provided logistical assistance to the attackers, the police insist there was no local support. At the same time, they do not rule out Dawood Ibrahim's involvement.
Meanwhile, security agencies are hoping the US will move on Lashkar-e-Taiba leaders, including Abu Hamza and Hafeez Syed. An email sent to a TV channel was traced to an LeT hideout near Muridke in Pakistan's Punjab province. The phone intercepts of the LeT terrorists who executed the Mumbai massacre also reveal their links to Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Posted by: john frum ||
12/03/2008 15:15 ||
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#1
My hope is that somewhere in this world, there is a Tomahawk cruise missile with Dagwood's name and address programmed in.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Nikolaevsk, AK ||
12/03/2008 15:45 Comments ||
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#2
Tomahawks are too merciful--he'd never know what hit him. I hope the Indians send a very patient taskforce in that will slllooowwwllly extract every detail, nail by nail, digit by digit, leaving the tongue only until he talks.
Yikes again!
PAKISTAN was bracing last night for a retaliatory airstrike by India against the sprawling headquarters of the al-Qa'ida-linked Lashkar-e-Toiba terrorist organisation near Lahore. This site should have been bombed flat the day it opened.
As Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari warned the LET militants "had the power to precipitate war in the region", India demanded that Islamabad hand over a list of about 20 people, including India's most-wanted man Dawood Ibrahim.
India's military chiefs were exerting strong pressure on the country's political leaders to give permission to attack the headquarters, an 80ha site at Muridke, close to the Punjab capital of Lahore, just across the border from India.
The reports came as the Indian Government summoned the Pakistani high commissioner in New Delhi yesterday to demand "strong action" against the Pakistani militants who it says were responsible for last week's attacks on Mumbai. New Delhi warned Shahid Malik that India expected Islamabad to take "swift action" to deal with the evidence of involvement by LET operating from bases inside Pakistan.
India demanded that Islamabad extradite Ibrahim, a fugitive Mumbai mafia don who it believes has links to LET, the terrorist group long allied to Pakistan's ISI spy agency. India also asked for Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, the LET founder, and Maulana Masood Azhar, the head of militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad, who was freed in exchange for passengers on a hijacked Indian Airlines flight in 1999.
Ibrahim, Mumbai's most notorious underworld don, is the head of D-Company, a feared crime syndicate, and one of the world's five most wanted men. He is widely believed to have worked closely with al-Qa'ida. He is also thought to have masterminded the 1993 Mumbai bombings, a series of 13 explosions that claimed 250 lives.
The heavily guarded LET complex near Lahore, known as the Markaz-e-Taiba (Holy Centre), includes mosques and madrassas with more than 3000 students. Theoretically it is the headquarters of the Jamaat-ul-Dawah Muslim welfare organisation that is closely identified with LET.
Saeed, the LET founder and spiritual leader, lives in the complex.
Reports yesterday said that if India attacked the complex -- possibly to kill Saeed -- an attempt would be made to justify the action by pointing to the way in which the US was launching pre-emptive strikes inside Pakistani territory using unmanned drones to kill al-Qa'ida and Taliban targets.
Indian sources have confirmed that investigators have established strong links between the group of terrorists who attacked Mumbai and the LET leadership inside Pakistan. Intercepts of calls made on a satellite telephone used by the group before they disembarked from the "mother ship" that brought them from Karachi shows a series of calls made to Muridke. This could be the new information I was asking about in a comment on another story about the apparent hardening of Indian attitudes.
Indian officials said that all the militants were from Pakistan and that the only one captured alive had admitted to being part of LET.
Yesterday, the surviving terrorist, Ajmal Amin Kamal, in a new interrogation by Indian investigators, again linked the Mumbai attack to LET, saying he had joined the organisation at the behest of his father to raise money for his family. He named an LET commander who, he said, paid his father for his services.
Pakistan reluctantly announced a formal ban on LET in 2002 after coming under strong international pressure to clamp down on the organisation. This followed a spectacular attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001, launched by LET together with the Kashmir-based JEM.
Although still technically outlawed in Pakistan, LET has managed to expand its membership and activities and has also established itself in other countries. To get around the formal ban on its activities, LET renamed itself Jamaat-ud-Dawah, which gained considerable influence across Pakistan as a result of the "welfare" work it did after the devastating 2005 earthquake in Kashmir. The US Government has also classified Jamaat-ud-Dawah as a terrorist organisation and said it is no more than an "alias" of LET.
Indian investigators are convinced there is no doubt of LET's involvement in the Mumbai outrage.
Mr Zardari insisted the militants who attacked Mumbai were "non-state actors" with no links to any government.
Reports yesterday said India received warnings in October from US intelligence of a possible terrorist attack "from the sea" on targets in Mumbai. Unnamed American intelligence officials told US television news service ABC that they had warned their Indian counterparts in mid-October of a potential attack "from the sea against hotels and business centres in Mumbai". One intelligence official even mentioned specific targets, including the Taj Mahal hotel, ABC said.
#2
"To get around the formal ban on its activities, LET renamed itself Jamaat-ud-Dawah, which gained considerable influence across Pakistan as a result of the "welfare" work it did after the devastating 2005 earthquake in Kashmir."
Humanitarians -- just like Hamas.
Yikes! This appears to directly contradict an earlier statement from the foreign ministry that military action was not under consideration.
Any of you Sub-continent mavens care to take a swing at which statement is more likely to reflect a real position? Is it possible that something came to light during the few hours between the statements to harden the Indian position?
NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday said that it would not rule out military option to deal with continued terror threat emanating from Pakistan, in what marked a significant toughening of posture in the wake of the Mumbai attack.
Highly placed sources in the government said India was contemplating putting on hold the peace process if Pakistan didn't respond adequately to India's demand for verifiable action against those behind the attack on Mumbai and on a list of wanted terrorists. Significantly, official sources stressed the military option was on the table, contradicting reports that the foreign minister had earlier in the day ruled out such a course of action.
The assertion came on a day when Pakistan proposed a joint probe into 26/11 even as it has threatened to withdraw troops from the Afghan border for redeployment on the border with India -- a ploy to get US to lean on New Delhi not to ramp up tensions.
While the jury may still be out on whether or not India can exercise the military option in response to the Mumbai attack, the assertion indicated that the government, facing angry public opinion, wants to keep Pakistan on tenterhooks regarding any plan to attack terrorist camps in PoK.
Sources said that Pakistan needed to act quickly on the demarche to prevent the peace process from derailing. "We are waiting for Pakistan's response before we take the nexy step. All we can say now is that if Pakistan doesn't respond, it will jeopardise the peace process," said a senior official, adding that a conducive atmosphere was required for dialogue and that this was lacking now.
Speaking at a functionn, foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee said on Tuesday that sovereign nations had the right to protect their territorial integrity by taking appropriate action even though he refrained from stating directly that India was contemplating military strikes. While Mukherjee tried to strike the right balance by stating that he did not want to talk about the military option yet, senior officials were soon deployed to quell the perception that it had been taken off the table.
In an interview to a news channel, Mukherjee too admitted that the Mumbai attack had proved to be a setback for the Indo-Pak peace process. "There was the Kabul attack and now there is Mumbai. It has vitiated the atmosphere. We have no intention of not carrying forward the peace process, but when sentiments of the people are affected it creates an atmosphere in which business cannot be carried out as usual. These incidents, if not adequately addressed, create an atmosphere in which normal business including peace process cannot be carried out," he said.
Sources added that things had actually started to look up before the Mumbai attack. In the month after the Kabul blast, infiltration had gone down in J&K and so had the number of men killed in the Valley.
Perhaps that's a reason why the L-e-T acted ...
Mukherjee said, "We have in our demarche asked for the arrest and handover of those persons who are settled in Pakistan and who are fugitives of Indian law." India had earlier handed over a list of 20 terrorists including Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafiz Mohammad Saeed, Jaish-e-Mohammad chief Masood Azhar and Dawood Ibrahim to Pakistan.
#1
Mumbai attacks are the real revelation. Its good to see citizens on the
streets at this massive scale. However, well have to see how long we,
the common citizens, can stick together and find concrete solutions to
the immediate problems. Please check the video to see the reactions.
#2
So now we have a nuclear game of chicken. Thanks, Paks.
Both sides are now in a position where they will lose face and credibility if they back down. If the Pak government actually hands those wanted terrorists to the Indian government they will be in serious trouble with their own people. Most likely they are not even capable of doing so even if they wanted to. But if they don't and the Indian government is seen to do nothing about it they will be in serious trouble with their people. They would also lose credibility with their other neighbors in that region. They would begin to look like a big, soft target. Where is the diplomatic solution when dealing with a country like Pakistan where the government is powerless over its terrorists if not actually complicit with them? This could get really ugly.
#3
As bad as this attack was, I don't think it was serious enough to start a war. Perhaps I am being naive, but I think India will chalk this one (and earlier ones) up to experience and wait to see what happens.
Will it make them look weak? Perhaps, but in either denying India's call for justice or being unable to effectively respond to that call, the Pak government is going to look very weak or very complicit in state-supported terrorism. Neither of these is good for the Paks. Both give India clear justification to attack the next time around.
#4
#3: As bad as this attack was, I don't think it was serious enough to start a war.
were it an isolated incident, sure, but the Pakis have a laundry list of bad provocative behavior and no real inducements for teh carrot approach. They have routinely lied and supported India's internal and external enemies. They have done their best to harbor/train/arm/direct those enemies. They have absolutely no credibility. War may start to seem like the lesser damage from the thousand cuts
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/03/2008 19:58 Comments ||
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#5
WAFF/FREEREPUBLIC/TOPIX > US SETS STAGE FOR STRIKES [UNO/Internat-approved mil strikes led by India] IF PAKSITAN DOES NOT ACT [to arrest and dismantle Pak-based Terror Camps].
Also, MUSLIM ACTIVISTS DEMAND AUTONOMOUS HOMELANDS, COMPENSATION FOR BRITAIN's FAILURE TO RETURN INDIA TO MUSLIM RULE IN 1947.
The NWFP government has asked the federal government to take decisive action against a Taliban builup in Jamrud, a senior official told Daily Times on Tuesday.
"The government has to take action or we shall see Iraq-like situation in the area in the coming few months," the official said on condition of anonymity, referring to the deteriorating law and order situation in the city and growing Taliban activities in Jamrud and adjacent areas of Khyber and Mohmand agencies.
He said a high-level meeting was held in the provincial capital two days ago to discuss the situation emerging in Jamrud tehsil and on the outskirts of Peshawar. The meeting chaired by the chief minister and attended by top security officials and others discussed the prevailing lawlessness in the province and termed it a result of mounting Taliban activity in Khyber Agency.
He said the meeting had noted that Taliban from Jamrud were responsible for kidnappings and attacks on NATO supply convoys.
The official hoped that the rising Taliban-related trouble on the country's western border would reduce in the wake of tension between India and Pakistan following the Mumbai terrorist attacks. "It is because the focus will be shifted to the country's eastern border due to a threat of war from the Indian side," he elaborated. He said the United States was now pressing the central government to go for decisive action against Taliban.
The residents of Peshawar and adjacent areas are feeling insecure after the snatching of 13 trucks in Jamrud, clashes between police and Taliban in Matani and Ring Road areas and Sunday's attack on a terminal in Peshawar where 21 trucks destined for Afghanistan were gutted.
Located at a stone's throw from Peshawar, the once peaceful Jamrud area is fast becoming a strong bastion of Taliban who are operating with impunity. Their presence is not only a cause of serious concern for the provincial government, but for the residents of Jamrud as well.
The provincial government's call comes as the country has witnessed an unprecedented surge in violence and lawlessness in the insurgency-wracked Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) as well as the settled districts of NWFP in November.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Indian police believe a top member of the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba masterminded the attacks. Yusuf Muzammil, who the newspaper says is the group's head of terrorism operations against India, was among leaders thought to have talked by satellite phone with the gunmen in the two days before they arrived by boat in Mumbai, according to the report. Whoa! That hits home! I take Muzammil every time I get constipated.
An unidentified Bush administration official also told AFP on Tuesday that Lashkar-e-Tayyaba's involvement was a possibility.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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Pakistan will 'frame a response' to the Indian demand of handing over 20 of India's most wanted men, Information Minister Sherry Rehman said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. "We have to look at it formally once we get it and we will frame a response," Sherry told reporters in Islamabad. The demand was contained in a protest note handed to Pakistan's ambassador in New Delhi on Monday, Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
It's a catch-22. We want to reply but we can't figure out how Microsoft Outlook works. The Indian helpline won't take our calls unless we reply first.
India on Monday formally accused "elements" in Pakistan of being behind the recent Islamic militant attacks in Mumbai and demanded that Islamabad take "strong action."
The move came after Indian officials said investigations had shown that all the attackers involved in the 60-hour-long assault, which left at least 172 dead and close to 300 wounded, were Pakistani nationals. The attacks were also described as a "major setback" for the peace process between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
"The [ambassador] of Pakistan was called to the Ministry of External Affairs this evening. He was informed that the recent terrorist attack on Mumbai was carried out by elements from Pakistan," a statement said.
In New Delhi's first formal complaint to Islamabad, India said it "expects that strong action would be taken against those elements, whosoever they may be, responsible for this outrage."
A Jewish center was among the targets and eyewitnesses said some attackers singled out Britons and Americans in two luxury hotels. Civilians were also gunned down in a railway station, hospital and a cafe. "What has happened is a grave setback to the process of normalization of relations and the confidence-building measures," Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma told AFP.
Officials said they are convinced the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, possibly with assistance from sections within Pakistan's powerful spy service, staged the operation.
But Pakistan's government has denied it was in any way linked to the operation by the well-trained attackers. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has urged India not to "over-react."
India's ruling Congress party said any response would be "carefully considered" but made it clear that a line had been crossed. "We have been confronted by a rising tide of terrorism for some time but the attack in Mumbai was qualitatively different and calls for immediate and stern action," Congress spokeswoman Jayanti Natarajan told reporters.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is due to visit India on Wednesday, said it was crucial that Pakistan exhibit "complete, absolute, total transparency and cooperation" with the Indian investigation into the attacks. "What we are emphasizing to the Pakistani government is the need to follow the evidence wherever it leads and to do so in the most committed and firmest possible way," she told reporters accompanying her on a trip to Europe.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said she had "heard nothing that says that the Pakistani government was involved.
Pakistan has repeatedly underlined that it is fighting its own battle against Islamist insurgents, who have taken their bloody campaign to the heart of Islamabad and stressed the two nations have a common enemy. Lashkar, which has been battling Indian troops in Kashmir, was banned by Pakistan in 2002.
Public outrage in India was fueled Monday by fresh reports that clear warnings of a coming assault were ignored. The Hindustan Times newspaper said a captured Lashkar operative had told his Indian interrogators back in February that the militant group was planning an attack on Mumbai's five-star hotels.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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Pakistan on Tuesday offered to set up a joint inquiry into last week's terror attacks in the Indian city of Mumbai and said it would cooperate with India as it investigates the three-day siege of the country's financial capital.
Good thing, too. Who knows more about terrorism than the Paks?
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi extended the offer in a statement broadcast on national television, as pressure mounted from both India and the United States for cooperation in unraveling the attack. "Both countries will benefit from bilateral engagement. This is not the time for finger-pointing. Terrorism is a major challenge. It is a common enemy," Qureshi said.
The attacks by a band of 10 gunmen killed 174 and injured nearly 300.
Qureshi delivered his remarks as members of Pakistan's National Assembly held a special session in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad to discuss the country's response to the Mumbai assaults. Indian officials have pinned responsibility for the attacks on Pakistan-based elements of Lashkar-i-Taiba, a militant group linked to several previous terrorist attacks in India. The sole gunman to be taken alive, they say, has admitted that Lashkar was behind the terrorist rampage across the city.
In Mumbai on Tuesday, police commissioner Hassan Ghafoor provided new details about the elaborate attack and the men thought to be behind it. They left from Karachi via ship, he said, hijacked a fishing trawler near international waters to carry them near the Indian coast, then used rubber boats to complete the trip. They arrived with five timed bombs, two of which were placed in taxis -- a tactic to create confusion and a sign of their sophistication.
He said the investigation so far has produced no evidence that the group had "immediate, local support," or that any of its members had visited Mumbai beforehand to gather information or surveil the attack sites.
However, Ghafoor said members of the group "were trained by ex-army officers, some for a year, some for more than a year." The training took place in Pakistan, Ghafoor said, though he did not say specifically that former Pakistani officers were involved.
"It was a suicide attack," Ghafoor said. "There was no hope, no intention, of staying alive."
Sherry Rehman, Pakistan's minister of information, said that the country's top intelligence official, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, would brief a parliamentary committee meeting about possible steps Pakistan might take amid rising tension between the two countries. "We must try to dampen down the discourse of conflict and work for peace in the region," Rehman said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
It is a joke that Pakistan is offering to aid India in terror investigation.
There has been clear evidence that terrorists trained and funded in Pakistan are behind this horrific attack. And this is not new. Pakistan has been the global centre for terrorism for over two decades and India has been one of the major sufferers. Indeed, Pakistan has itself become a victim more recently, but then it was inevitable.
What is much more serious fact to consider with regards to Pakistan's offer to help in investigation is that Pak Govt is itself incapable of doing anything concrete to influence the evil ISI LeT and Al Qaeda operatives should proof be found, and should they have the willingness to act. (and they probably have little willingness given their own troubles).
Pakistan must change its ways of thinking and dealing with politics. Pak needs to be jolted into realizing that it is out of sync with rest of the world which believes in democracy, liberal values and peace.
India needs to act against these terrorists and hit them at their source. Pak Govt as it is incapable of helping india, should in the minimum not protest these acts since it is itself a victim of terror. however, knowing pak they will suddenly declare that such attacks by india are attack on pak govt. it is essentially a case of do nothing on their part, since it suits them. but it does not suit india, and does not suit the civilised world.
sorry, Pakistan, you have to shape up, ACT. or the events will run ahead of you.
Former United States secretary of state Madeleine Albright described Pakistan as an 'international migraine' on Tuesday. Usually I disagree with Madame Albright almost reflexively. This time she nailed it in one.
Counting elements such as nuclear weapons, terrorism, extremism, corruption and poor economic situation, she said that the important location of Pakistan converted every national issue into an international one. She said that the current US secretary of state, who was on her way to India, had a tough job ahead of her.
In the wake of tensions between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks, Albright said that President Asif Ali Zardari was trying hard to deal with the issue at hand. She said that Zardari was working to gain control and develop a country that was a very difficult place to administer.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Pakistan is more like an international boil on the a$$ end of the body politic that needs lancing and disinfectant.
There, fixed.
Posted by: Alaska Paul in Nikolaevsk, AK ||
12/03/2008 4:13 Comments ||
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The most appropriate metaphoric illness for pakistain is Piles IMHO.
#7
Pakistan had nuclear weapons many years before the 1998 tests. They cold tested in 1983 and exploded a weapon at the Chinese Lop Nur range the next year.
They threatened India with nuclear weapons during the Brass Tacks exercise a few years later
Posted by: john frum ||
12/03/2008 14:14 Comments ||
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Love her brooch. Complements both her turkey wattle and her meaty gams ( the latter not shown so as to protect the children).
NEW DELHI - Ten terrorists carried out the attacks on India's financial hub Mumbai last week, all of them arriving by boat from Pakistan's port city of Karachi, Mumbai's police chief Hasan Gafoor said Tuesday at a press briefing. Gafoor said the one terrorist captured by the police had admitted he came from Punjab province of Pakistan.
'Investigations are at an advanced stage. I would not like to reveal further details,' Gafoor said at the televised briefing. The men were trained in Pakistan by former military men for a year and a half, the police chief said, again adding that he would not like to give locations or details at this stage in the investigation.
Gafoor sad there was, as yet, no evidence of local support, though some people were being questioned. He also said there was so far no evidence that the terrorists were using drugs, as has been reported by some media. The police found credit cards and Indian currency ranging from 2000 to 4500 rupees (40 to 90 dollars) on each of the terrorists.
The police chief also said that his department had no specific intelligence indicating the possibility of the attacks.
A team from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation was in Mumbai. 'We are sharing information with them and security agencies all over the world,' the police cief said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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thats really bad i think INDIAINS are fools they always puts blame on others specialy on PAKISTAN but the reality is some thing els, INDIANS Never proved in the past so they should see what is hapning in, who is really behind all this? may be BJP, Shucina and other extreemist HINDUS are involved or may be this was a preplaned DRAMA like WTT USA. I think this Drama was created for a Target KILLING of those Police Officers who was investigating the Male-Gaoon blast and who was exposed the Atari Train blast, so they was killed within 1st 15 mints. So shamfull Behavioer have been shown on all Indian chanells and Gvt. Officials now a days you cant make the people fool as Indian done in the past.
Posted by: David Obama ||
12/03/2008 6:15 Comments ||
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Are you perchance from the Land Of The Pure, Mr. Obama? Because that was about the prettiest bit of data-free conspiracy mongering that I've seen in quite some time. Do remember that American Intelligence has been tracing the information carried on the terrorists' cell phones; no doubt the missiles are being programmed even as we speak.
Now were you to have switched India for Pakistan in your statement -- and of course Pakistan for India -- you would have been cheered to the rafters for your astute understanding of that which is obvious even to the littlest, sheltered, Midwestern housewife... but alas, you did not do so.
Attacks fell in November to their lowest monthly level since the Iraq war began in 2003, despite recent high-profile bombings aimed at shaking public confidence, a top U.S. commander said Wednesday.
Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, the No. 2 U.S. commander here, blamed al-Qaida in Iraq for a spate of bombings that has killed nearly 50 people in Baghdad and elsewhere since Monday. The blasts took place despite an 80 percent drop in attacks nationwide since March, Austin said.
At least 33 people were killed and dozens wounded in multiple bombings Monday against Iraqi security forces in Baghdad and Mosul. Another 15 died in blasts Tuesday in the northern cities of Mosul and Tal Afar and in the southern city of Iskandariyah.
One civilian was killed and five were wounded Wednesday when a magnetic bomb attached to a minibus went off as the vehicle was carrying Education Ministry employees to work in eastern Baghdad, police said.
"What you've seen in the last several days is an attempt by al-Qaida and others to conduct high-profile attempts that are really aimed at intimidating the civilian population" and drawing media attention, Austin told reporters. "Their intent is to erode the confidence of civilians and Iraqi security forces to create a picture that things are not going in the right direction."
Nevertheless, Austin said November "saw fewer attacks than any month since 2003" when the U.S.-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussein's regime. He gave no figures.
U.S. combat deaths were down in November too, falling to one of their lowest monthly levels of the war eight. The drop suggests that extremists are focusing on Iraqi forces as the U.S. scales down its role on the battlefield.
Austin attributed the fall in violence to an increase in the number of Iraqi security forces on the streets as well as the arrest in recent months of a number of key figures from al-Qaida and Shiite extremist "special groups."
In the latest arrest, U.S. troops captured two suspected members of the Shiite militant Kataib Hezbollah and killed another during raids early Wednesday in Baghdad's Karradah district, the U.S. said. The U.S. believes Kataib Hezbollah is trained, financed and armed by Iran, a charge the Iranians deny.
"Coalition and Iraqi forces have killed or captured hundreds of individuals who played key roles in al-Qaida," Austin said. "We have also degraded the networks of the (Shiite) special groups criminals." But Austin said the continuing attacks were "still of concern" because they were aimed at killing large numbers of civilians and drawing "media attention."
U.S. troops are working more and more with Iraqi soldiers and police in hopes of improving their performance ahead of substantial withdrawals of American forces expected next year. ...
Posted by: ed ||
12/03/2008 14:57 ||
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A Qatari charity said on Monday it plans to ship one ton of medical aid to the Gaza Strip this week in a bid to defy an Israeli blockade on the tiny Palestinian territory. "We intend to send a boat in a symbolic gesture, carrying a ton of medicine to our brothers in Gaza," said Abdallah al-Nimaa, vice president of the Qatar Charity Organization.
Nimaa told AFP the ship is set to sail from Doha on Friday, although he said he expects the Israeli authorities to stop the vessel from reaching Gaza, where most of its 1.5 million inhabitants depend on foreign aid. "We expect Israeli warships to bar the Qatari aid ship, however we are determined," he said, adding that the group did not request an Israeli permit.
Nimaa's doubt over the ultimate success of the trip was highlighted on Monday by Israeli authorities, who blocked a Libyan ship trying to deliver aid to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said. The Al-Marwa sailed instead to a port in neighboring Egypt. It left Libya last Monday, carrying 3,000 tons of food, medicine and other aid, Palestinian and Libyan officials said.
Israel, which has in the past allowed ships carrying humanitarian goods to dock in Gaza to avoid a public confrontation, said Al-Marwa had turned back without incident. "They understood that the navy was there and decided to turn around," said Andy David, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman. "We have a very clear policy [on the blockade] which is constantly publicized."
Palestinian officials said the vessel had left Gaza's shores and its crew was unharmed.
The Anti-Siege Committee, a Palestinian group that lobbies with Hamas backing against the embargo, accused Israel of having also blocked Al-Marwa's communications with Gaza. The ship was now docked in Egypt's Al-Arish port, the group said. "We urge all sides to pursue this intifada [uprising] of ships," said Anti-Siege Committee spokesman Ala al-Batta.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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AoS note: your comments go in yellow highlight, not brackets. Please fix in the future or posts may be deleted.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has acknowledged publicly for the first time that tumbling oil prices are gouging the country's fragile economy.
The official IRNA news agency has quoted the increasingly unpopular president as saying Iran will be forced to trim spending and generous subsidies and raise taxes... or maybe testify before Harry Reid and request a bailout.
Iran plans to send exploratory rockets into space with live animals on board, paving the way for manned space flights, a space research official said on Tuesday.
The Islamic Republic plans to build two new 1000-megawatt units at the Bushehr nuclear power complex, says a senior Iranian official.
The deputy director of the Iran Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO), Ahmad Fayyazbakhsh, said that instead of completing the second unit at the Bushehr plant, Iranian authorities have decided to build two new reactors. "IAEO officials plan to build two new units with a capability of 1,000 MW each, rather than completing the second unit of the Bushehr nuclear reactor," IRNA quoted Fayyazbakhsh as saying on Tuesday.
Work on the first unit of the Bushehr nuclear power plant is in its final stage. IAEO spokesman Mohsen Delaviz said in November that the plant is scheduled to become fully operational in 2009. "The commissioning stages of the Bushehr nuclear plant have begun, and we are hopeful that the plant will be launched in 2009, as per the agreement we have with the Russian party," said Delaviz.
Russia's Atomstroyexport has been helping Iran in the construction of a nuclear power plant capable of generating 1,000 megawatts of electricity annually under a contract signed in 1995. The Russian company also trains Iranian specialists and has so far delivered eight fuel shipments to the reactor.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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Which is worse: the fact that Iran is building nuclear power plants, or the fact that we aren't?
Argentina says it will end its $1 billlion in commecial trade with Iran over the unsolved 1994 bombing of a Jewish center in Buenos Aires.
The move was reportedly taken due to differences over recent investigations into the attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Center, which killed 85 people and wounded many others. Although no one has ever been convicted for the attack, Argentine prosecutors have accused a number of Iranian officials with involvement in the blast and have issued warrants for the arrest of 12 Iranians by Interpol.
The Islamic Republic, however, has vehemently dismissed the repeated allegations.
In 2007, Iran's charge d'affaires in Buenos Aires, Mohsen Baharvand, said the Islamic Republic would be ready to cooperate with the Argentinean government on the AMIA dossier, if certain conditions were met. "If legal guarantees are given to avoid politicizing the case, Iran will be ready to respond to all the accusations... and prove its innocence," Baharvand stated.
But if Interpol gives in to US pressure and issues arrest warrants for Iranians, Tehran may also issue similar arrest warrants, he said at the time.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is slated to discuss the Iran embargo with members of the American Jewish Committee. Argentina has the largest Jewish community in Latin America.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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Wow! After only 14 years.
Posted by: Formerly Dan ||
12/03/2008 8:56 Comments ||
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Argentina's economy is in deep trouble. Iran can't help them so its time to suck up to the U.S.
A U.N. special commission investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri reported Tuesday that it has uncovered fresh evidence that could lead to more suspects.
Hariri's killing touched off widespread protests in Lebanon, which together with intensified international pressure forced Syria to withdraw its troops after a nearly 30-year presence.
"The commission reports that it has acquired new information that may allow it to link additional individuals to the network that carried out the assassination," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wrote the Security Council.
A commission report submitted by Ban to the 15-nation council did not specify what the evidence was, but asked that its mandate be extended through February so it can continue the investigation.
The independent team of investigators headed by Canadian prosecutor Daniel Bellemare has been helping Lebanese authorities investigate 20 other bombings and assassinations in Lebanon since October 2004, and there are "links between those cases and the Hariri case," Ban said.
Hariri, a wealthy businessman who opposed Syria's influence in Lebanese affairs, died in a suicide truck bombing that also killed 22 other people on Beirut's coast.
No one has been charged, although four pro-Syria Lebanese generals have been under arrest for three years for alleged involvement in the murders.
The first U.N. chief investigator, Germany's Detlev Mehlis, has said the plot's complexity suggested that Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services had a role. Syria has denied involvement.
Bellemare's team said in its latest report that Syria "has provided generally satisfactory cooperation."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/03/2008 00:00 ||
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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.
Former United States secretary of state Madeleine Albright described Pakistan as an 'international migraine' on Tuesday.
A U.N. special commission investigating the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri reported Tuesday that it has uncovered fresh evidence that could lead to more suspects.
