[Al Arabiya Latest] Women who fled violence in Sudan's Darfur region are being regularly raped in refugee camps in neighboring Chad, despite the presence of U.N.-trained forces, Amnesty International said on Wednesday.
The rights group published a report saying Chadian police supported by the United Nations were doing little to protect women and girls from sexual attacks and other violence by villagers, soldiers, family and in some cases aid workers.
A spokesman for the U.N.'s MINURCAT mission in Chad told Reuters there had been some reports of women being attacked, mostly outside camps, but he defended the police and said the security situation was improving in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Somalia's U.N.-backed transitional government has condemned the execution of two men Monday by al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants and says al-Shabab murdered innocent civilians.
Somali government spokesman Farhan Asanyo says the two Somali men executed by a firing squad in the capital Mogadishu had no ties to the government or to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, as al-Shabab alleged.
Asanyo says the men were innocent Somalis falsely accused and murdered by al-Shabab militants. The spokesman charged that al-Shabab often targets people without evidence of any wrongdoing.
The executions were carried in front of hundreds of spectators after an al-Shabab-run court found one man guilty of working as spy for the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia and the other of providing intelligence to the CIA.
Al-Shabab officials said the pair admitted their crimes before being sentenced to death.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Shabaab
#1
Look, a private militia can't sentence anyone, not having any valid claim to sovereignty. They can call themselves "courts", but there's no reason that honest journalists, let alone Voice of America journalists, should grant them the rhetorical grace inherent in the use of the terms "sentenced" "executed" "execution" or even the phrase "falsely accused". This organization commits murder under false color of judicial process, plain and simple.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
10/01/2009 20:50 Comments ||
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[Dawn] The government of Kuwait has decided to deport the 17,000 aliens residing illegally in Kuwait, including 1050 Pakistanis.
Not enough jobs for both locals and illegals, or just time for a flea bath?
According to a state run news agency of Kuwait, the Interior ministry has decided to deport 17,000 aliens of 22 countries staying illegally in Kuwait.
Among these are 1,050 Pakistanis, 3,500 Indians and 4,000 Bangladeshis. The remaining 4,000 illegal immigrants belong to North Korea,
North Korea?!?
Somalia, Yemen, Lebanon and Afghanistan among others.
After the withdrawal from Iraq in 1991, the number of people deported from Kuwait would be the largest. It is pertinent to mention here that this is the second round of deportation after 2006 when the Kuwaiti government deported 16,000 illegal immigrants.
Triennial flea bath whether it's needed or not.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[Kyodo: Korea] U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg on Wednesday restated readiness of the United States for direct talks with North Korea in a bid to bring Pyongyang back to the stalled six-party nuclear disarmament talks. ""We"ve indicated we"re prepared for direct engagement with North Korea if it is in aid of bringing North Korea back to the six-party talks,"" Steinberg told reporters after talks with South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kwon Jong Rak.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[Kyodo: Korea] North Korea on Wednesday rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution seeking to create a world free of nuclear weapons, urging the United States to eliminate its nuclear weapons first to achieve that goal. ""We totally reject UNSC Resolution 1887, too, as it is peppered with the hegemonic ambitions of nuclear powers and will not be bound to it at all,"" a Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying by the official Korean Central News Agency.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[Kyodo: Korea] North Korea has dismissed South Korean President Lee Myung Bak"s proposal called the ""grand bargain"" for addressing Pyongyang"s nuclear ambitions as ""ridiculous,"" the official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday. Lee and his advisers ""are seriously mistaken if they calculate the DPRK would accept the ridiculous "proposal" for "the normalization of relations" with someone and for sort of "economic aid","" KCNA said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People"s Republic of Korea.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Obama spewed on universal disarmament, last week. Anyone who can't see that aggressors would use that as a cover for nuclear blackmail, is unqualified to hold the office of President.
Kerala High Court today asked the Centre and the state police to report within three weeks the activities of a jihadi outfit accused of luring non-Muslim girls and converting them.
The Union home ministry and state director-general of police have been told to investigate Love Jihad, an offshoot of the pro-Muslim Popular Front of India, its spread, sources of funding and possible links with terror groups, smugglers and drug rackets. Another such outfit, going by the name Jihadi Romeos, is also said to be under the scanner, though the court order didnt explicitly mention it.
The probe order came as the court rejected anticipatory bail pleas of two suspected Love Jihad activists. Two girls, both MBA students, told the court that the duo had feigned love, offered to marry them but coerced them to convert. The police have also been asked to report on the alleged conversions in the states schools and colleges in the past three years.
Earlier, a special police team was set up to probe charges that jihadis were luring girls on campuses and converting them with the intention of using them for anti-national activities.
Those Predator attacks must be even more effective than I realized. Good. As it is said, you can run, but then you'll only die tired.
[Dawn] Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is not in Pakistan and the United States is only saying he is there to justify an expansion of its drone missile strikes, a Taliban commander said on Wednesday.
The Washington Post said this week US officials had expressed concern over the ability of Omar and his lieutenants to launch attacks into Afghanistan from sanctuaries around the Pakistani city of Quetta.
Pakistan has long denied that Omar or any of his commanders are based in Pakistan but it has been unable to dispel the suspicion in Washington and Kabul. Several Taliban members have been detained in Pakistan.
Mounting US concern about Omar and his so-called Quetta shura, or leadership council, comes as the United States weighs options on how to deal with an intensifying Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
Possibilities include sending more combat troops and trainers for the Afghan army and stepping up strikes by pilotless drone aircraft on militants on the Pakistani side of the border.
A Taliban commander, Hayatullah Khan, told Reuters by telephone that the entire Taliban leadership was in Afghanistan. 'Pakistan is not safe for us. More of our people have been captured in Pakistan than in Afghanistan so everybody is here including Mullah Omar,' said Khan, who said he was speaking from Afghanistan, although he declined to be specific. 'The Americans are making the Quetta shura an excuse for an expansion of their drone strikes to Balochistan, nothing else,' said Khan.
Pakistan, battling al Qaeda-linked Pakistani Taliban militants in NWFP province, to the north of Balochistan, insists that the Taliban leadership is not in present in Queta.
But many analysts say Pakistan is acting only against militants which are a threat to itself, like the Pakistani Taliban, while leaving alone those focused on fighting in Afghanistan or on targeting India.
US Ambassador to Pakistan Anne W. Patterson told the Washington Post the Quetta shura was 'high on Washington's list'.
The United States intensified its attacks by pilotless drones on militants in northwestern Pakistani border sanctuaries last year as the Afghan insurgency intensified.
The United States has launched nearly 60 strikes in northwest Pakistan since the beginning of 2008, but none has been in Baluchistan.
The strikes are deeply unpopular in a country where many people are suspicious of US designs in the region.
Pakistan officially objects to the drone attacks, saying they violate its sovereignty and the civilian casualties they inflict inflame public anger.
US officials say the strikes are carried out under an agreement with Islamabad that allows Pakistani leaders to decry the attacks in public.
Pakistan is already facing a low-level insurgency by separatists Balochistan and has decried any suggestion of an expansion of the US drone war to the province.
The US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, said in an assessment leaked to the media last week the Afghan insurgency was clearly supported from Pakistan and senior leaders of insurgent groups were based there.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
A question for you military types: in an outfit like the Taliban, fighting a decentralized war without a significant logistics component, how important are the upper echelon 'leaders'? What do they actually do beyond being figureheads?
#2
Historically, the leadership and it's cells within a counterinsurgency movement are absolutely critical to the tactical planning, coordination, resourcing, recruitment and reconstitution of the force. They are the knowledge link between the movement and it's sponsorship via state(s). It you've not done so already, have a look at the bio's of some of these people. You'll soon discover they are not illiterate village bumpkins who are oftentimes not easily replaced.
#7
I guess the government redrew the boundaries of the city to put the four-star hotel (Omar's not a member of the UN, after all) he's hiding in is "outside" the city limits.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/01/2009 19:10 Comments ||
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#8
A hotel would be too obvious, I'm guessing. More like a compound where the coming and going of subordinates wouldn't be questioned.
#9
You'll soon discover they are not illiterate village bumpkins who are oftentimes not easily replaced.
True. And in some cases it takes a while to find another "retired/on-indefinite-leave leader with military experience" who'll be accepted by the locals.
[Geo News] Veterans of Mehsud tribes in South Waziristan Agency held a Jirga with political administration to discuss various issues including the emigration of the tribes from the area, establishment of peace and re-opening the roads.
According to Jirga sources, various tribal veterans including former MNA Maulana Merajud Din, Malik Saeed Anwar, Maulana Aisamud Din and Malik Rapa Khan said the people emigrating from SWA are being pestered in various areas and also that they are facing problems due to the closure of roads.
They also demanded that a camp be set up in Dera Ismail Khan and Tank for the emigrants from SWA and they should be registered.
Addressing the Jirga, Political Agency Shahab Ali Shah said the every possible succor would be provided to the affectees.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] The United States will withdraw about 4,000 troops from Iraq by the end of October, the U.S. military commander in Iraq said in testimony prepared for a congressional hearing on Wednesday.
In his assessment of the war, General Ray Odierno will tell the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee that the United States is on track to withdraw all combat troops from Iraq by September 2010.
"We have approximately 124,000 troops and 11 Combat Teams operating in Iraq today. By the end of October, I believe we will be down to 120,000 troops in Iraq," Odierno said in an advance copy of the testimony obtained on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2009 00:00 ||
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A Mideast version of the Bernie Madoff scandal is threatening to tarnish Hezbollah's reputation in Lebanon for being incorruptible, and the powerful Shiite militant movement faces calls to bail out small investors to keep its position from being undercut.
Hundreds of Lebanese sold land or drained their retirement savings and handed over hundreds of millions of dollars to Salah Ezzedine, a Shiite businessman with connections to Hezbollah. The anti-Israeli Hezbollah is on a U.S. list of terrorist organizations and maintains the strongest military force in Lebanon. For its Shiite followers, however, it is seen as a trusted quasi-government that provides social services and aid. The group gets substantial funding from Iran and paid out millions to rebuild the Shiite heartland in south Lebanon after a devastating 2006 war with Israel.
Hezbollah has said it had nothing to do with the alleged swindle and has so far resisted pressure to rescue the investors. Nevertheless, many investors put their trust in Ezzedine, principally because of the financier's connections to Hezbollah and because of his reputation as a pious, respectable Shiite. Ezzedine's investment company promised as much as 40 percent in annual returns, according to residents of this southern Lebanese village.
Ezzedine and his partner, Youssef Faour, have been arrested on suspicion of cheating investors out of perhaps up to $1 billion, prosecutors say. Earlier this month, they were charged with fraudulent embezzlement, a crime punishable by 15 years in prison. Alleged victims included well-off Shiites but also smaller investors who sold land or pulled out savings to bundle the cash and give it to Ezzedine.
Lebanese are comparing to the swindle by Madoff, now serving a 150-year prison sentence for masterminding a multibillion-dollar scheme that burned thousands of investors.
Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah earlier this month denied the group had any connection with the financier. A parliament member from Hezbollah reportedly lost money with Ezzedine and is suing him -- a sign, the group's supporters say, that it, too, was victimized.
Still, Hezbollah is trying to ward off any blow to its status among loyalists. Nasrallah spoke recently by video link to a group of investors in the south to hear their complaints and reassure them, although he made no promises of compensation, according to an investor who lost money, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the meeting.
"I feel your pain."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
one rumor is that some Persian hotshots in Lebanon to help Hezbollah also lost some loot
another rumor is that Iran is ticked at Hezbollah for this problem and some others (e.g., sloppy work re building security infrastructure, different priorities on use of aid from Iran)and has taken over large portions of the decision making of Hezbollah
Posted by: lord garth ||
10/01/2009 11:15 Comments ||
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#2
The Hezzies and others of their ilk are completely incapable of embarrassment.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/01/2009 23:28 Comments ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran is entering talks with six world powers this week with good intentions, the Islamic Republic's chief nuclear negotiator said Wednesday even as the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Tehran broke a transparency law.
Saeed Jalili's comments, echoing those by other Iranian officials in the run-up a one-day meeting in Geneva Thursday -- described the meeting as an "opportunity and a test" for the world powers.
But director Mohamed ElBaradei said in a televised interview Iran broke a U.N. transparency law by failing to disclose much earlier a nuclear plant being built for uranium enrichment, agency.
Iran reported the site to the International Atomic Energy Agency on Sept. 21. Western powers said Tehran was forced to do so after learning they were about to discover a plant whose construction began 3-1/2 years ago.
"We are entering the talks with a good will," Jalili said on Wednesday at Tehran's international Imam Khomeini airport. He is secretary of the Supreme National Security Council.
Western diplomatic sources have said the newly disclosed plant was hidden inside a mountainside on a former Iranian Revolutionary Guards base near the Shiite holy city of Qom. It heightened suspicions of a covert Iranian aim to develop atomic bombs, they said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
[Iran Press TV Latest] With the possibility of an upcoming Israeli attack on Iran receiving fresh media attention, Saudi Arabia denies offering overflight clearance to Israeli fighter jets.
The denial came after the Daily Express claimed that Saudi officials, in a closed-door meeting with British Intelligence Chief Sir John Scarlett and his Israeli counterpart Meir Dagan, had agreed to allow Israeli bombers use their airspace for a strike on Iranian nuclear sites.
Saudi officials were quick to deny the reports on Wednesday, demanding that the newspaper print a correction and apologize by the means of compensation.
Details of an Israeli attack on Iran through Saudi Arabia were first revealed by John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, who has vocally advocated war on Iran on countless occasions.
Bolton, who says he held secret talks with Saudi officials during a recent visit to the Persian Gulf, recently told the Sunday Times that it would be "entirely logical" for the Israelis to use the Kingdom's airspace to attack Iran.
"None of them would say anything about it publicly but they would certainly acquiesce in an overflight if the Israelis didn't trumpet it as a big success," he added.
While Saudi officials deny having diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv, an Israeli defense source recently confirmed that the Mossad spy agency maintained "working relations" with the kingdom.
Lebanon's Al-Manar TV station has also revealed that Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi Secretary General of the National Security Council, has played a leading role in securing cooperation between Saudi and Israeli intelligence agencies
For years, Israel has threatened to bomb Iran's nuclear installations, but the likelihood of an attack has significantly increased after the country announced that it is laying the groundwork for its second enrichment facility in Fordu south of the central city of Qom.
Dodging scrutiny over its own arsenal of up to 200 nuclear weapons, Israel accuses Iran of refining uranium for military purposes.
Iran, however, continues to dismiss the allegation, saying its nuclear activities are solely aimed at peaceful energy production and under close monitoring by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
STARS-N-STRIPES > NEW IRAN NUCLEAR SITE NEAR MILITARY BASE.
Wihc again shows why an ISRAELI COMMANDO GROUND OPER WOULD BE BOTH LARGE-SCALE + PROBLEMATIC.
* PAKISTANI DEFENCE FORUM [07/2008?] > RUSSIA-CHINA WARN USA THAT ANY ISRAELI [nuclear] ATTACK AGZ IRAN MEANS "WORLD WAR". MEDVEDEV = "World War would be our response".
#2
If Israel used the Saudi airspace and muddled up the Saudi military air com system the way they might be able to do,, there really wouldn't be much that the Saudis could do about it (other than deny that Saudi space was used and blame Syria and the Iraqis.
Posted by: lord garth ||
10/01/2009 11:19 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Kerala High Court today asked the Centre and the state police to report within three weeks the activities of a jihadi outfit accused of luring non-Muslim girls and converting them.
[Geo News] Veterans of Mehsud tribes in South Waziristan Agency held a Jirga with political administration to discuss various issues including the emigration of the tribes from the area, establishment of peace and re-opening the roads.
A Mideast version of the Bernie Madoff scandal is threatening to tarnish Hezbollah's reputation in Lebanon for being incorruptible, and the powerful Shiite militant movement faces calls to bail out small investors to keep its position from being undercut.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran is entering talks with six world powers this week with good intentions, the Islamic Republic's chief nuclear negotiator said Wednesday even as the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Tehran broke a transparency law.
