THE United States is likely to send 20,000 to 30,000 extra troops to Afghanistan by the beginning of next summer, according to the chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff. Washington is already sending some 3000 extra troops in January and another 2800 by the northen spring, but officials have previously said the number would be made up to 20,000 in the next 12 to 18 months, once approved by the U.S. administration.
"Some 20 to 30,000 is the window of overall increase from where we are right now. I don't have an exact number," Admiral Mike Mullen told reporters. "We've agreed on the requirement and so it's really clear to me we're going to fill that requirement so it's not a matter of if, but when," he said. "We're looking to get them here in the spring, but certainly by the beginning of summer at the latest."
U.S. Army General David McKiernan has asked for the extra troops to halt a growing Taliban insurgency particularly in the east and south of Afghanistan.
President-elect Barack Obama has pledged a renewed focus on Afghanistan, where U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban government in late 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
The United States now has some 31,000 troops in Afghanistan, some of them operating independently and some operating as part of a 51,000-strong NATO-led security assistance force.
#1
Any thought of some of our allies sending troops? The Germans, the Poles, the Spanish, the Romanians, why, even the French could do more, if we have to do the transport.
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/20/2008 15:16 Comments ||
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"Any thought of some of our allies sending troops?"
For what purpose? So they can continue to cower behind rules of engagement that prevent them doing anything if someone might get hurt? They probably just get in the way and are more mouths to feed/water without making any real contribution.
"Old" Europe has shown itself to be cowards except for (as usual) the Brits and the French special forces.
(SomaliNet) A coalition of aid organisations, most of them African, says it has proof that Sudanese government soldiers and militiamen are involved in mass abductions of thousands of men, women and children from Darfur. The Darfur Consortium says the victims are put to work as slave labour on farms and as sex slaves. Women and children from Darfur are reportedly also forced to work as domestic help in the capital Khartoum.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Nearly half of Somali lawmakers reportedly refused to turn up in the parliament after alleged death threats targeting the president's allies.
The no-show was triggered by a Thursday break-in into the parliament's building by unidentified soldiers and gunmen, Aljazeera TV reported on its website. The forced entry had been made to gag opposition to the parliament spokesman Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nur (Modobe)'s verdict on divisive issues, the source added.
The country's President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed sparked considerable opposition after he 'unconstitutionally' replaced Premier Nur Hassan Hussein with his own appointee Mohamud Mohamed Guled.
There is currently a gaping gulf between the parliamentarians who have rallied around the president's choice and those advocating the reinstatement of Nur Hassan Hussain; the most outstanding among them being the spokesman and a former leader of armed opposition Mohamed Nur.
On Thursday night the house of Hussein-allied MP Khadija Mohammed Diriye, who was recently appointed as a cabinet minister was raided by gunmen reported to be government soldiers, the Press TV correspondent in Somalia reported.
The recent developments have turned the southern town of Baidoa the seat of the parliament into a flashpoint.
The dismissed premier has staunchly called for the ouster of President Yusuf. 140 lawmakers joined his camp leaving out only 40 others to bring the decision into effect.
Hassan Hussein is currently in Djibouti on reconciliation efforts to meet with Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed the leader of the more cociliatory faction of the Somali opposition the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS).
The political standoff has been exacerbated by steadfast resistance on the part of opposition camps including the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) and its militiamen Al-Shabaab.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Protestors staged a shoe protest outside the U.S. embassy in London on Friday, demanding the release of the Iraqi journalist held after throwing his footwear at U.S. President George W. Bush.
Demonstrators voiced support for "courageous" journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi, who has been in custody in Baghdad since Sunday's dramatic shoe protest which made him an instant sensation in the Arab world.
Representatives of a group called Media Workers Against The War delivered a letter to the U.S. embassy urging authorities to "guarantee his safe treatment and affect his immediate release from custody."
"We as journalists believe that our colleague Muntadar al-Zaidi is guilty of nothing but expressing Iraqis' legitimate and overwhelming opposition to the U.S.-led occupation of their country," it said.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Habakkuk 2:6 Google the May 15th Prophecy and you will see the true meaning to the shoe thrower and W Bush
South Korea on Friday completed its troop pullout from Iraq, ending a four-year mission to help reconstruct the war-torn nation. The last group of 519 soldiers who had been stationed in the northern city of Arbil and a 102-member air support unit in Kuwait arrived home earlier in the day.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Throughout the 1970s, the Red Army Faction was the scourge of capitalist West Germany and Christian Klar one of its most notorious leaders--the force behind a murder spree that included the slayings of a federal prosecutor, an industrialist and the chief of a major bank. On Friday, Klar walked free from prison after 26 years--angering family and friends of victims and many Germans who recalled the fear of living through the Marxist-Leninist group's terror campaign, which killed 34 people and injured hundreds before the group formally disbanded in 1998.
Opponents of Klar's release argue he has never expressed regret for his crimes, nor explicitly distanced himself from the Red Army Faction mantra that it was justified in its brutal response to what it viewed as capitalist oppression of workers and U.S. imperialism in West Germany.
"That a hardened criminal who was handed six life sentences could be released under such circumstances may be legally justifiable, but remains very difficult to accept," said Stephan Mayer, a lawmaker for the conservative Christian Democratic Union.
German law is based on the principle of rehabilitation and it is very common for convicted murderers to serve less than 20 years for life sentences. Several other former members of the Red Army Faction have also been released.
Only one former member of the group, Birgit Hogefeld, remains in prison. She will be eligible for parole in 2011.
Yet as a ringleader of the group's second generation, which carried out the "German Autumn," an especially bloody period of leftist violence in late 1977, Klar is perhaps Germany's most prominent former left-wing terrorist to walk free.
As the decades have passed, the Red Army Faction has become the stuff of pop culture, giving rise to a string of television dramas and feature films, many of which have faced criticism for glamorizing the era and portraying the young killers as Robin Hood-type characters.
Several of the group's symbols, such as its trademark machine gun and red star, have found their way into fashion items, from T-shirts to infant's bodysuits marked "Terrorist."
The latest movie, "The Baader Meinhof Complex," directed by Uli Edel, came out in September and has been chosen as Germany's contender for a foreign-language Oscar nomination--despite criticism from families of the gang members that it misrepresents the group and is too violent.
In its early years RAF was often referred to as the Baader-Meinhof gang, after leading members Andreas Baader--who killed himself in prison after failed efforts to secure his release through extortion--and Ulrike Meinhof, who also committed suicide in prison.
Under Klar, the so-called second generation of the group went on to bomb U.S. military targets and assassinate a string of business and political figures.
Among the murders for which Klar was convicted were those of chief West German federal prosecutor Siegfried Buback, industrial association head Hanns-Martin Schleyer, and Dresdner Bank chief Juergen Ponto--all carried out in 1977.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
There's probably a tenured professorship awaiting him at University of Illinois.
Or - perhaps he will be recruited into a respected position within the Obamanation administration, as Homeland Security official, or something like that.
Hundreds of protesters in Balochistan on Friday burnt an Indian flag and an effigy of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, underscoring mounting tensions following the Mumbai terror attacks. Tribal elders, politicians and residents attended the anti-India rally in Chaman. "India wants to steal our water in Kashmir, and that is why it is piling pressure on Pakistan following the attacks in Mumbai," local politician Naseer Ahmed Bacha Khan told protesters. Pakistan has claimed India is building dams in the Himalayan region in violation of a 1960s water sharing accord brokered by the World Bank. Khan said the Pakistani people had been angered by India's alleged recent violations of Pakistani airspace, which prompted Islamabad to summon India's deputy ambassador on Thursday to lodge a formal complaint. India said Tuesday that the peace process with Pakistan was on hold, but reiterated it was not preparing for war.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2008 00:00 ||
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India may have ruled out the military option against Pakistan in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks, but the international intelligence community continues to believe that strikes in Azad Kashmir and elsewhere could still take place, according to the Times of India that cited a report by the global intelligence service Stratfor. "Indian military operations against targets in Pakistan have in fact been prepared and await the signal to go forward," said the report.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2008 00:00 ||
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India on Friday hinted that Islamabad had 'failed' to deliver on promises of not supporting terrorism, and said it was "obliged to consider the entire range of options that exist" -- with a plan to approach the United Nations Security Council once again under consideration in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks. They went through the motions of shutting JuD down and everybody knew it at the time. We'd seen the show before. And the second act was unchanged from the previous performance.
The latest Indian statement could lead to tensions akin to the situation immediately after the Mumbai terror attacks. It could lead to Pak getting clobbered, too. Sending gunnies to shoot up a city in a neighboring country can be considered an act of war.
Displeased with President Asif Ali Zardari's statement that "there is still no real evidence that the terrorists who attacked Mumbai came from Pakistan", Which is pretty much the synopsis of act two...
India is planning to demand that the Security Council monitor the steps taken by Pakistan against the Lashkar-e-Taiba and individuals charged over the Mumbai attacks. "If a country cannot keep the assurances that it has given ... it obliges us to consider the entire range of options that exist to protect our interests and people from this menace (terrorism)," said External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee without naming Islamabad.
In his message to an international conference -- Mukherjee said although Pakistan had been giving assurances, Indian appeals had been ignored.
Mukherjee said the Mumbai attacks "reflect the extent to which the terrorists have spread their network in the neighbouring country". He also hinted that Pakistani agencies may have 'assisted the Mumbai terrorists'. Mukherjee noted that 'multiple centres of power' had emerged in Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2008 00:00 ||
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The Sindh government decided on Friday to keep a ban on the entry of 175 ulemas and orators including nine prominent ones from different cities who are coming to Karachi for Mohrram-ul-Harram.
The decision was taken to avoid sectarian violence and hatred, and to maintain religious harmony in the city. These ulemas and orators will not be allowed to enter the city for the next three months and those who violate orders will be deported from the city.
According to Sindh Home Ministry sources, the decision was made by the Sindh Home Department after getting secret reports given by the Karachi police and intelligence agencies. The orders will be implemented from December 28 till the last week of March 2009.
The most prominent Ulemas are Maulana Ahmed Ludhyanvi, Maulana Ali Sher Haidri and Maulana Masoodur Rehman of Ahle Sunnat, Islami Tehreek Chief and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal Vice President Allama Sajid Naqvi, Punjab's prominent religious figures Maulana Ishaque, Allama Riaz Hussain, Allama Ghazanffar Abbas, Allama Tajddin and Tehreek-e-Nifaz Fiqa Jafferia Leader Allama Maqbool Hussain.
The sources also disclosed that a strict ban was also imposed on distributing hate spreading material, sectarian wall-chalking and arranging any program without getting a No Objection Certificate from the local administration.
According to Ahle Sunnat Spokesman Maulana Abdul Ghafoor, the ban was against the law because the constitution of Pakistan allows each and every citizen to enjoy basic rights.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq -- The written apology sent by famous Muntather al-Zaydi, a local TV reporter who threw a pair of shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush at a press conference in Baghdad a few days ago, to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will not affect the trial and the investigation, a closed source said on Friday, noting that al-Maliki has only the right to give up his personal right.
"Al-Zaydi presented a written apology o al-Maliki, asking him to pardon him, reminding him that he visited him at his house in 2005 to make an interview with him," the source told Aswat al-Iraq, asserting that the apology will not affect the trial.
Bush quickly ducked when a pair of shoes was hurled at him Sunday during a joint press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone.
Several media personnel and intellectuals gathered on Wednesday in front of the headquarters of the Iraqi journalists' syndicate in the capital Baghdad calling on the press institution to mediate for the shoeman's release.
Zaydi, 29, has worked for al-Boghdadiya since its establishment in the wake of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. He was kidnapped late last year by unidentified gunmen while stepping out of his home in al-Bab al-Sharqi area, central Baghdad. Four days later he was found lying on the ground near auto selling stores in al-Nahda square, Baghdad, at a late night hour. Zaydi is considered one of the journalists outspokenly criticizing the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq. He had written several reports opposing the U.S. military presence in the country. To Iraqis, the incident represented a major insult to the U.S. president.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in Iraq.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
12/20/2008 11:48 Comments ||
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I think this guy ought to get at least a week of jail time. Throwing shoes just ain't cricket. (Although he seemed to have a pretty good arm. Maybe he ought to take up rugby).
The Balkan sate of Macedonia has completely pulled out its soldiers from war-torn Iraq, marking the end of its participation in the Iraq war.
President Branko Crvenkovski, Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski and Defence Minister Zoran Konjanovski presented medals during the welcome ceremony of the soldiers in the Macedonian capital of Skopje. The soldiers received 98 US medals and a letter of gratitude signed by US President George W. Bush.
Around 480 Macedonian troops have served in Iraq since 2003, when the United States attacked Iraq. The troops were deployed in Taji, a town about 70 kilometers north from Iraq's capital, Baghdad.
Two other Balkan states, Albania and Bosnia, announced the withdrawal of troops earlier this week.
Macedonia has also sent small military units to Afghanistan and Lebanon.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Thank you Macedonia for your service. i hope it gave your troops valuable experience for their next deployment.
but wait, i thought Bush had decided to 'go it alone' and we had no allies... hmmm
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
12/20/2008 10:23 Comments ||
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#2
Macedonia? Macedonia you say? Well now, you can call me the Balkan Republic of Macedonia or you can call me the Former Yugoslav Republik of Macedonia or you can call me that part of the Balkans once known as Macedonia but you don't need to be calling me no Johnson Macedonia.
Iraq's shoe-throwing journalist has become a hero in the Arab world and men have started offering their daughters in marriage to the courageous man who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad on Sunday. "Yup. We need more genes like that in our pool, by Gum!"
Besides, he's got that key attribute of a good son-in-law: a job.
An Egyptian man said he was offering his 20-year-old daughter in marriage to 27-year-old Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi. The daughter, Amal Saad Gumaa, said she agreed with the idea. "This is something that would honor me. I would like to live in Iraq, especially if I were attached to this hero," she told Reuters by telephone.
Meanwhile in the West Bank city of Nablus, the head of a large family wants to reward Zaidi by taking one of his eligible daughters to Iraq along with her dowry, according to published reports.
The 500-member family had also offered $30,000 for Zaidi's legal defense.
Since throwing his shoes at Bush at a press conference, Zaidi has made front page news across the world. Thousands took to the streets in Iraq to protest his arrest and demand the government release him.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Throw a shoe and get free wives. Such a deal. Anyone care to sign up?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
12/20/2008 11:38 Comments ||
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I were you I would ask to see a photo of the bride before anything.
We had one in 2008. And we had another one in 2007. And before that, in 2006... Shall I go on? Two words I never associate with each other are "UN" and "decisive".
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I agree. Now, what would be the most biggest contribution to peace? Cut all aid (and specially UN aid: its employees have an interest in prolongating teh situation) to Palestinins. Make well that enough is enough, that they have had sixty years for finding jobs and that from now on they will have to pay their weapons from their own pocket not from ours. And that each Kassam fired will mean we will reclaim a million dollrs from what they owe us for sxty years of aid, teroorist acts against us and the costboth direct and indirect of security measures. And that it would be very unwise for them to default their payments.
Armed Islamist factions in Gaza put their men on alert on Friday after ending a 6-month truce with Israel and warned the Jewish state not to attack. But apart from the rhetoric, calm prevailed.
Masked Palestinians conducted exercises in front of television cameras in the hours immediately after the Islamist Hamas group, which controls the coastal strip, unilaterally brought an end to the ceasefire.
Egypt, which brokered the truce in June, said it had not been asked to intercede in a bid to repair it. But Russia later on Friday urged Hamas to reinstate the agreement.
"We think it is necessary that Hamas review its earlier announced decision on ending the ceasefire," Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said in a statement. Moscow viewed the move with "great concern" and warned that it could end in disastrous humanitarian consequences for Gaza inhabitants.
Blaming Hamas
Civilians on both sides seemed to shrug off the end of the ceasefire, which many in Gaza feel never delivered the expected easing of the Israeli blockade, and many in Israel feel never delivered the expected security from Palestinian attacks.
The truce has in fact been eroded almost daily since early November by Israeli raids against Islamist militants and showers of largely ineffective rockets fired into Israel from Gaza.
Egypt's foreign ministry on Friday pinned the blame on Israel for the situation in Gaza as its Islamist Hamas rulers said a Cairo-mediated truce in and around the territory had come to an end.
"The legal status of the Gaza Strip defines it as Palestinian territory that is still under Israeli occupation," the ministry said.
"Israel still controls the airspace and waters of the Gaza Strip, as well as most of its borders and access to the territory," it said in a statement.
"Under international law and the 4th Geneva Convention in particular, as the occupying power, Israel must ensure the basic needs of the inhabitants of the territory it occupies are met, such as electricity, water, fuel, food and medicine."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The truce has in fact been eroded almost daily since early November by Israeli raids against Islamist militants and showers of largely ineffective rockets fired into Israel from Gaza.
note that the Israeli raids are ALWAYS listed as first cause, not the result of Paleo attacks
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/20/2008 8:47 Comments ||
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Far-right Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday dismissed peace efforts with Syria led by interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "The concessions made by the Olmert-Livni government to the Syrians do not and will not obligate a government that I shall head," Netanyahu, a former prime minister, told Israeli public radio.
The indirect negotiations, mediated by the Turkish government, have been suspended pending Israeli parliamentary elections scheduled for February. No agreement has been reached, and therefore no concessions have been made, and Syria has never asked Israel to make concessions, only to heed international law by evacuating occupied territory.
Netanyahu, of the Likud party, leads opinion polls ahead of the February 10 elections that will determine who will replace Olmert. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is his main competitor.
Olmert heads to Ankara on Monday to discuss the Syrian negotiations, launched in May, with Turkish officials.
He stressed on Thursday that "a peace accord with Syria is in the realm of the possible." He said the talks "have proven that there is a substantial chance to advance toward a peace agreement and they pave the way to direct negotiations."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Lord i pray that bibi would somehow be able to take control, and set aside the long olmert nightmare as a story to scare children.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
12/20/2008 10:26 Comments ||
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The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday unanimously agreed to extend for two months the mandate of the U.N. panel probing the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. The 15-member council decided to extend the mandate, which expires late this month, until next February 28 on a request by the head of the Beirut-based commission, Canadian prosecutor Daniel Bellemare.
Last month, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said in a report that the international tribunal that will try the suspected assassins of Lebanese former prime minister in The Hague could begin work on March 1.
In his briefing to the council Wednesday, Bellemare said he sought the two-month extension of his mandate "to allow the Commission to continue to function until the day the Tribunal starts to operate."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Tens of thousands of people gathered in Beirut on Friday for a mass protest organized by Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement against Israel's crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip. Streets in the southern suburbs were cordoned off as demonstrators waving Palestinian flags and yellow Hezbollah flags poured into the Hezbollah stronghold as loudspeakers blasted out a speech by its chief, Hassan Nasrallah.
"We are responsible, like all Arabs and Muslims, to completely liberate Palestine, from the river to the sea," Hezbollah's deputy head Naim Kassem told the crowd. "The Palestinian cause is a just cause," he said from a platform on a main road in the area.
" We are responsible, like all Arabs and Muslims, to completely liberate Palestine, from the river to the sea, "
Hezbollah deputy head Naim Kassem
Hezbollah boy scouts and women in black chadors carried two huge Palestinian flags while Hezbollah security personnel marched carrying photographs of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of Iran's Islamic republic.
Some protesters chanted "Death to Israel! Death to America!" as others carried placards reading "No peace if it leads to humanitarian catastrophe" and "May God protect our leader Nasrallah."
"Demonstrations aren't enough. Military action is required to eliminate Israel," said Mosbah Karout, 42, in Beirut from south Lebanon for the event.
Similar smaller demonstrations were held in cities in the south, north and in the Bekaa Valley, east of the capital.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/20/2008 00:00 ||
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Facebook has shut down a fast growing jihadist group, after it received an alert that the group was using the site to spread its radical message.
The group called the Fursan Ghazawat Alnusra, which is Arabic for "Knights in Support of the Invasion", was blocked on December 18 evening after its membership grew to about 120 in just more than one week. The group's motto or teaching to its members was to wage "Jihad to aid the religion of Allah and his Prophet."
The discovery was made by FoxNews. com, which after working closely with a former radical Muslim, who is presently dedicated to exposing cyberterror activity, gained access to the group and its content.
The group had written that its purpose was "to support Jihad and Mujihadeen", and that it started the Facebook group "to invade this Web site" and to ask "Allah to grant us Jihad and martyrdom." Adding that there would be future action: "Today we invade your sites, tomorrow your lands and homes, o you cross worshippers." The members of the group brazenly posted profile photos to identify themselves, and they included well-known members of Al Qaeda''s leadership as well as prominent Saudi clerics.
Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said that the group had been disabled, and that the company was investigating the group''s "friends" and might take further action. He said that Facebook had taken steps to increase monitoring for content supporting terrorism, but he said such actions were difficult. "Facebook is a start-up of 800 people with a user base of over 140 million," Fox News quoted Schnitt as saying. "Certainly anything that supports violence is at the top of our monitoring list," he added.
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.
Iraq's shoe-throwing journalist has become a hero in the Arab world and men have started offering their daughters in marriage to the courageous man who threw his shoes at U.S. President George W. Bush in Baghdad on Sunday.
Tens of thousands of people gathered in Beirut on Friday for a mass protest organized by Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah movement against Israel's crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip. Streets in the southern suburbs were cordoned off as demonstrators waving Palestinian flags and yellow Hezbollah flags poured into the Hezbollah stronghold as loudspeakers blasted out a speech by its chief, Hassan Nasrallah. 
