[Bangla Daily Star] Jamaat-e-Islami leaders yesterday blasted a section of the media for whipping up propaganda and conspiring against the party.
Some newspapers distorted the remarks made by Jamaat's Dhaka city unit Ameer Rafiqul Islam Khan about Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), they said adding that it was ill motivated.
Rafiqul on March 17 at a discussion in the capital said Jamaat Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami is encountering the same difficulties as was faced by Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) while preaching Islam.
Jamaat Secretary General Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed said Awami League is also a party to the media propaganda.
About the remarks of Rafiqul Islam, Mojaheed said, "It was an attempt to divert people's attention."
He was speaking as the chief guest at a rally against "propaganda and conspiracy against Jamaat" at the city unit office of Jamaat at Paltan in the city.
"Some newspapers have tried to implicate Jamaat in criminal activities several times by publishing false and fabricated news," he said adding: "Authorities of those newspapers cannot sleep in peace if Nizami and Mojaheed are not sent to jail."
They are trying to make the war crimes an issue, he said. "Journalists ask questions about war crimes issue even though the programme they are covering is not on war crimes," Mojaheed said blasting the journalists.
"Involving Jamaat in war crimes is a blatant lie. False complainants, witnesses will be placed to blame Jamaat leaders. Some newspapers and television channels are staging plays to blame Jamaat for war crimes," Mojaheed said.
Mojaheed also said the case filed against him and Nizami were ill motivated.
Jamaat's Assistant Secretary General ATM Azharul Islam said if the lower court sentences Jamaat leaders to life, they would go to the High Court.
Rafiqul Islam Khan presided over the meeting.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Some newspapers distorted the remarks made by Jamaat's Dhaka city unit Ameer Rafiqul Islam Khan about Prophet Muhammad (PBUH),
Well that certainly is a relief -- it sounded like the honourable ameer had committed blasphemy.
Posted by: trailing wife on the other computer ||
03/22/2010 12:38 Comments ||
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The European Union will put pressure on Iran to stop jamming satellite broadcasts from the BBC and other international channels. Iran has been blocking news channels broadcast into the country from a French satellite following widespread anti-government protests there.
But it is not yet clear exactly what action the EU will take. Iranian channels broadcast into Europe could be blocked or the EU could impose sanctions on European trading in Iran.
"The EU calls on the Iranian authorities to stop the jamming of satellite broadcasting and internet censorship and to put an end to this electronic interference immediately," a statement from the EU foreign ministers said.
In February three major international broadcasters strongly condemned Iran for its "deliberate electronic interference" in their broadcasts.
The BBC, Deutsche Welle and Voice of America said the jamming began as Iran marked the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.
There is a possibility the EU will impose trade sanctions to stop the mobile network company Nokia Siemens from trading in Iran. It is reported that they sold the Iranian government technology to monitor mobile phone calls and block social networking services.
But some reports say Nokia Siemens, the joint arm of the mobile technology companies, has already said it will not sell any more equipment to Tehran.
Another option being put forward is to block Iranian broadcasts coming into Europe. This would block Iranian channels, including the English language Press TV, from being transmitted in Europe.
"The EU is determined to pursue these issues and to act with a view to put an end to this unacceptable situation," a draft EU statement quoted by news agency Reuters says.
The moves would be separate from any sanctions being considered by the US and their allies over Iran's nuclear ambitions.
#2
Boycott Siemens, and to a lesser extent Nokia.
Seimens continues to trade with Iran on several levels. They are even proud of it. They must be taught a lesson.
Siemens has their finger in many different electronic and data related businesses, so look carefully before you buy.
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
03/22/2010 9:55 Comments ||
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#3
a side note on Siemens...
I have had several friends work for them over the years... one was a 2 generation (german extraction) who spoke flawless German and was brilliant...
All of them said the Glass Ceiling in Siemens was very low for non-German Citizens and they suggested never working for that firm as they detested Americans.
#4
The Iranians may not be able to tap any addition cell phone calls, but the Germans will always be helpful in providing tunnel boring machines, WMD production materials and refineries. After all, the Germans have a well deserved reputation to uphold.
Posted by: ed ||
03/22/2010 10:51 Comments ||
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#5
Don't forget the laboratory equipment Ed. We saw tones of it in Iraq in the 1990's. All from our German and Swiss colleagues.
#6
But B, that's unfair. It's goes so much further beyond mere lab equipment.
One example: The European Union has engaged with Iran for more than a decade, doubling bilateral trade. Iran's hardliners have used their access to bolster Tehran's weapons of mass destruction programs. The Islamic Republic has incorporated components purchased from Swiss, German, Italian and Spanish firms into its biological weapons program. In March 2000, the Islamic Republic contracted with the German company Salzgitter Anlagenbau to build a 1,450 kilogram-per-hour phosgene generator. When weaponized, phosgene causes fatal lung damage.
Iran's nuclear program has also benefited. Michael Eisenstadt, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, wrote in his 1998 study, "Iranian Military Power: Capabilities and Intentions," that, in addition to overt Russian assistance, Iranian government front companies purchased centrifuges and calutrons from Switzerland and Germany.
Posted by: ed ||
03/22/2010 11:15 Comments ||
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#7
But, but, but Ed you are mistaken. There were no WMD labs, none! "W" was wrong I tell you, wrong! All of this equipment and the massive, (hundreds of hectores) remote scientific research sites, decontaminatin sites, thousands of caged primates, open-air crematoriums, etc. were for the legitimate study of the dreaded tomato blight. Dr. Taha told us that specifically! Why can you not believe?
WASHINGTON: Amid reports of massive 16-20 hour power outages across Pakistan causing public unrest, the Barack Obama administration has indicated it is open to Islamabad's plea for a civilian nuclear deal akin to the US-India agreement, notwithstanding continued disquiet about Pakistan's bonafides on the nuclear front.
The first indication of a possible policy shift by US, which had till now rejected Pakistan's entreaties for a nuclear deal, came in an interview the US ambassador to Islamabad, Anne Patterson, gave to a Pakistani-American journal in which she said the two sides were going to have "working level talks" on the subject during a strategic dialogue on March 24.
Patterson confirmed the claim of her Pakistani counterpart in Washington Hussain Haqqani, which were initially denied, that the two sides had had some initial discussions on the subject. Acknowledging that earlier US "non-proliferation concerns were quite severe", she said attitudes in Washington were changing.
"I think we are beginning to pass those and this is a scenario that we are going to explore," she told a LA-based Pakistani journal.
Another top US official, Af-Pak envoy Richard Holbrooke, was a little more circumspect. "We're going to listen carefully to whatever the Pakistanis say," he replied, when asked about Islamabad's demand for a civilian nuclear deal.
The Pakistani establishment, ahead of a wide-ranging strategic dialogue with US on March 24, has made parity with India, including a civilian nuclear deal, the centerpiece of its ramped-up engagement.
Intimations of a change in US policy came even as new reports emerged about the extent and scope of government-backed Pakistani nuclear proliferation in a book by former weapons inspector and non-proliferation activist David Albright. Successive US administrations, in an effort to absolve Islamabad and save it from embarrassment from past misdemeanors, have suggested that the country's nuclear mastermind A Q Khan acted on his own without permission from the Pakistani government or the military, but this assessment is strongly challenged by the non-proliferation community.
Talk of a nuclear deal with Pakistan also comes on the heels of the country signing a gas pipeline deal with Iran last week even as Washington was bearing down on Tehran.
The idea that Pakistan deserves its own nuclear deal to overcome a trust deficit with the United States was first proposed by Georgetown University academic Christine Fair. "More so than conventional weapons or large sums of cash, a conditions-based civilian nuclear deal may be able to diminish Pakistani fears of US intentions while allowing Washington to leverage these gains for greater Pakistani cooperation on nuclear proliferation and terrorism," Fair argued in a newspaper article earlier this year.
However, aside from Pakistan's proliferation footprints and ties with Iran, there is also the small matter of getting such a nuclear deal past the 44-member Nuclear Suppliers Group, which made an exception for India but might find Pakistan more unpalatable. The US-India deal itself remains to be fully implemented more than five years after it was first conceived.
Some experts also question whether Pakistan has the capacity to buy or absorb any nuclear power reactor given that the country is broke. But then, even signaling a shift in US policy is something that might mollify Pakistan for now. In fact, even Fair's recommendations of a conditional nuclear deal was seen in some Pakistani quarters as a conspiracy to penetrate and neutralize the country's nuclear assets.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/22/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Deals with someone with multiple personality disorder. A real recipe for success. Go for it.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/22/2010 1:38 Comments ||
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#2
They don't need a deal, Pakistan has lots of nuclear tech already; look at all the bombs they've been selling everyone.
They're the biggest source of proliferation on the planet.
JERUSALEM During a visit here on Sunday, the Obama administration's Middle East envoy, George J. Mitchell, extended an invitation for the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, to speak with President Obama in Washington this week. The offer for a face-to-face meeting on Tuesday, which was accepted, was widely seen as a sign of an alleviation of the recent discord over new Israeli plans for Jewish housing in disputed East Jerusalem that had soured Israel's relations with the United States.
The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, also met Israeli leaders after touring Gaza on Sunday, and he expressed his strong support for the expected start of indirect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Signifying the change in tone between Jerusalem and Washington, Mr. Mitchell told the Israelis on Sunday that the relationship between the United States and Israel is strong and enduring, that our commitment to Israel's security is unshakeable and unbreakable.
And that's the way it's going to remain,' he added.
Mr. Mitchell's visit, put off from last week, followed Mr. Netanyahu's response to American demands of Israel to help reconcile. Mr. Netanyahu conveyed Israel's response in a telephone call to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton late Thursday and in a letter over the weekend.
Mr. Netanyahu is traveling to Washington on Monday to address a meeting of a pro-Israel lobbying group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. He has made it clear that he offered no concessions on Israeli building in East Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel after its capture from Jordan in the 1967 war and which the Palestinians claim as the capital of a future state.
White House officials concluded that given the escalating tensions between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government, it would behoove Mr. Obama and Mr. Netanyahu to meet face to face since they will both be in Washington at the same time, a senior administration official in Washington said Sunday.
It's not a matter of driving home any points, but it's always important that there be an understanding of where the president is' on the push for substantive negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, said the official, who is not authorized to speak publicly about the negotiations.
A second senior administration official, also speaking on grounds of anonymity for the same reason, said that Mr. Obama wanted to raise the peace talks with Mr. Netanyahu in the coming meeting.
The things they'll talk about is how we advance what we believe is a core U.S. national interest, which is peace in this region,' this official said, and how we can assure that neither side takes steps that would undercut the trust that's going to be vital to ensuring that the talks, which have just begun, succeed.'
In remarks at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, Mr. Netanyahu said: Our policy toward Jerusalem is the same policy of all Israeli governments in the past 42 years, and it has not changed. From our point of view, construction in Jerusalem is like construction in Tel Aviv.'
But he has agreed to a preliminary discussion of core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, such as the future of Jerusalem and the question of the Palestinian refugees, in the American-brokered indirect negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. Mr. Mitchell said Sunday that he hoped to get those talks under way in full course.'
In order to show good will, Mr. Netanyahu is also ready to release Palestinian prisoners and to ease the restrictions on the flow of goods into Gaza, Israeli officials said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/22/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Obama will be so full of himself after this health care vote he wont listen to a single thing Netanyahu has to say.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/22/2010 0:25 Comments ||
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#2
There will be war again in the ME, because Iran and its proxies smell weakness by the US. Obama has pushed Israel under the bus. Israel sees an existential threat and cannot back down on this one. The deck of Obama cards will come down. It is going to get ugly on all fronts.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
03/22/2010 1:37 Comments ||
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#3
Netanyahu knows Soetoro will do nothing about Iran. This visit will be an opportunity for Netanyahu to make one last plea for bunker busters bombs, refuelers, and permission for Iraqi overflights. He'll get none of it. Israel will go it alone and if escalates we'll have a nuclear war in the ME. This may very well be the crisis which suspends the November elections.
#5
This may very well be the crisis which suspends the November elections.
Here? Get serious. If we can have elections in a civil war we can have one when the Israelis and Arabs or Persians have yet another war. It may well prove to be the equivalent of the assassination of an Austro-Hungarian archduke, but we'll still have elections.
Serious eh? When 52% voted for a muslim sympathizing liberation theologist, and socialist and over 40% still agree with his presidential policies, how much more "serious" would you like to get?
#11
I doubt if even the Dems are suicidal enough to try something with the November election - we had valid elections throughout the Civil War, Confederate states' elections were simply ignored as invalid. Any attempt at stopping elections would be viewed by a majority of the public as a coup de etat and would NOT be supported by the American military.
#12
And I am including the vast majority of the National Guard in that military category : simply refusing to obey an illegal order would shutdown any Governor trying to enforce said coup.
[Al Arabiya Latest] U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon crossed into the Gaza Strip on Sunday for an hours-long visit as part of a regional tour aimed at reviving the Middle East peace process, an AFP reporter said.
Ban crossed through Erez crossing that links Israel and the Palestinian enclave. He was met by a small group of people waving Palestinian flags.
Ban was to make his second visit to the Gaza Strip since the 22-day war ended in January 2009 as part of a regional tour aimed at reviving the peace process, which ground to a halt when the fighting broke out.
"I'll go to Gaza... to express my solidarity with the plight of the Palestinian people there and to underscore the need to end the blockade," Ban told reporters in the occupied West Bank on Saturday.
Israel tightened its blockade on Gaza after the Islamist Hamas movement violently seized power there in June 2007, and has said the border closures are necessary to contain the group, which is pledged to its destruction.
But Ban insisted ahead of a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres on Saturday that the closures imposed "unacceptable hardships" on civilians.
"I understand and share Israel's concerns about the challenges posed by Hamas, but Israel's blockade continues to impose unacceptable hardships while empowering extremists," he said.
"I am confident the blockade can be lifted while addressing Israel's legitimate security concerns."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"I am confident the blockade can be lifted while addressing Israel's legitimate security concerns."
#3
"...I understand and share Israel's concerns about the challenges posed by Hamas..."
no he doesn't
when he admits that Hamas has an explicitly genocidal policy and works 24/7 to implement, then he maybe will understand
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/22/2010 5:10 Comments ||
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#4
I am confident in that peace will be possible the day Palestinians have a good reason for making peace like having to choose between missiles and food because we will be no longer footing the bill, like having to pay a million dollars (Reagan dollars) for every missile or attempt of infiltration, like refunding us every cent of international aid used on terrorism or in indoctrinating their children for genocide. Sixty years is enough!!!!
[Ma'an] Fatah Central Committee member Nabil Sha'ath said Sunday there will be no return to talks with Israel until a full settlement halt is upheld, following a meeting with the PLO executive and leaders of Palestinian factions in Ramallah.
In reference to the recent killing of four Palestinian teenagers in Nablus, Sha'ath said "we will not be dragged behind Israeli escalation that wants us to enter into armed confrontation. Israel is trying to force such a confrontation to cover up its denial of Palestinian rights."
"Israel is acting with obsession and insanity in its confrontation against the popular struggle in the territories. We, in the West Bank and Gaza, realize well how dangerous a return to armed conflict could be, so we are alert," he told Ma'an.
The meeting, headed by PLO secretary-general Yasser Abed Rabbo, discussed the US stance toward talks with Israel as well as the International Quartet's position.
"The committee is waiting for [Middle East envoy] George Mitchell's response toward Israel's latest settlement project as well the US stance," Sha'ath said.
The Fatah official said Mitchell with meet with President Abbas on Monday in Amman, where the Ramallah leadership "will ask Mitchell about the US stance on building 1,600 settlement homes in East Jerusalem and possibly delaying the project for three years."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2010 00:00 ||
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[Straits Times] FORMER president Joseph Estrada on Sunday ignored a 'fatwa' by Muslim elders branding him an enemy of Islam and warned separatist rebels of an 'all out war' if he wins re-election to the post.
Mr Estrada said he was confident the religious edict issued last week by the Bangsamoro Supreme Council, a grouping of Islamic scholars and elders in the south, would not be supported by the region's five million Muslims.
He also warned the 12,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Milf), which has been waging a bloody rebellion since 1978, to disarm or risk being crushed by the army under his command if he won in the May polls.
'I am a friend of Islam, and I respect Islam,' Mr Estrada told AFP in Manila shortly after arriving from a weekend campaign in Mindanao, where over 150,000 people have been killed in the long-running insurgency.
'However, I will not tolerate any organisation regardless of religion if they violate the law,' he said. He said the Milf must put down their weapons if they want to negotiate peace with any future Estrada government.
'I want them to disarm, and if they don't, then I will go on an all-out war against them again. We have already exhausted all peaceful remedies against them, and enough is enough,' he said. 'A president's duty is to protect the territorial integrity of the country at all cost,' he stressed.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2010 00:00 ||
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[ADN Kronos] (AKI) - The daughter of Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden has returned to Syria after being held for eight years in Iran against her will, according to pan-Arab daily 'al-Sharq al-Awsat'. Nineteen-year-old Iman Bin Laden and her Syrian-born mother Najwa Ghanem, Bin Laden's first wife, arrived in Damascus on Thursday on a flight from Tehran, the daily said.
She is now in the port city of al-Ladhaqiya, near the Turkish border, where she has been reunited with members her family, including siblings living in Saudi Arabia.
Iman Bin Laden spent the past three months inside the Saudi embassy in Tehran, where she had sought refuge. She was detained in Iran in 2002.
Iman reportedly managed to reach the Saudi embassy after escaping from her guards and phoning her brother Omar in Syria to let him know she was still alive.
She was arrested in Iran in 2002 as she tried to reach the Afghan border, together with another of her father's wives, Umm Hamza.
Six of her siblings and 11 of of Bin Laden's nephews and nieces are still being detained in Iran and have suffered physical and mental health problems, Iman has told the media.
Last November, Iman's brother Omar started a campaign in the Arab media to free her. Saudi foreign minister Saud al-Faysa reportedly played a key role in Iman's release.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei On Sunday rejected a U.S. call for engagement and full diplomatic relations saying Washington's actions were opposite to its call for dialogue.
"The new administration and president claimed interest in just and fair relations, they wrote letters and sent messages ... saying they are willing to normalize relations with the Islamic republic but in practice they did the opposite," he said in an address in the holy city of Mashhad on the occasion of the Iranian new year. It was carried by state television.
Khamenei added that the "enemies" of the Islamic republic had plans to start "civil war" after last June's elections.
Blaming the United States and Israel for much of the unrest after the presidential election, Khamenei said: "The enemies wanted to divide the people... and to create a civil war, but the nation was alert.
"If they were able to do it, the U.S. and Zionist regime would have sent troops to Tehran's streets, but they knew it would hurt them. Thus they spread propaganda and supported the rioters."
Iran was plunged into one of its worst political crises after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a vote his rivals claim was massively rigged.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/22/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Obama could try bowing deeply at Khamenei's feet. No, he symbolically already did that. Perhaps reciting the shahada? Oops, Barack Hussein already did that too. Perhaps memorizing the Koran? Been there, failed.
Posted by: ed ||
03/22/2010 9:57 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
The European Union will put pressure on Iran to stop jamming satellite broadcasts from the BBC and other international channels. Iran has been blocking news channels broadcast into the country from a French satellite following widespread anti-government protests there.
[Al Arabiya Latest] U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon crossed into the Gaza Strip on Sunday for an hours-long visit as part of a regional tour aimed at reviving the Middle East peace process, an AFP reporter said.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei On Sunday rejected a U.S. call for engagement and full diplomatic relations saying Washington's actions were opposite to its call for dialogue. 
