#2
Yah, Commander Moonbeam you are of the people. If, like you are child-rapers, mother-rapers, dare I say Father-Rapers. Well then. Let them have them..
Smudged thumb prints and scrawled signatures on a hastily-prepared petition are a sign of hope for Michaela Franz, whose colleagues are accused of plotting to kill an Afghan official. More than 12,500 signatures of support have been gathered in the rugged Panjsher Valley, 120 kilometres (75 miles) north of Kabul, where Franz is medical coordinator of a 100-bed hospital for the Italian medical charity Emergency.
The hospital is one of three in Afghanistan, along with 28 clinics and an orphanage, run by Emergency, which says it has treated 2.5 million people in the country in the past decade. "The people need us, that's why we are here," said Franz. "If we go, they have nothing, we are the only hospital. We will fight for it, justice will win."
Fears are growing, however, that the arrest of three Italians working for Emergency in Lashkar Gah, capital of southern Helmand province could see the charity forced to quit Afghanistan as the authorities become increasingly hostile towards foreigners. "They have not been very clever politically but what is happening to Emergency could be part of a wider trend," said a Western aid worker who asked not to be identified.
The Italians were arrested on April 10 with six Afghan colleagues, accused of being part of a plot to kill Helmand provincial governor Gulab Mangal. Emergency's international logistician Marcello Costite described the charges as "absolutely ridiculous" and called on the authorities to allow the Italians "their rights under the Afghan constitution". "We want to know if they are accused of something, and if so what it is," he told AFP.
Mangal said the three -- Emergency's medical coordinator in Afghanistan, a surgeon and a logistical technician, all being held in Kabul -- were part of a plot bankrolled by the Pakistani Taliban. Mangal also accused the Italians of being behind the death of Ajmal Naqshbandi, an Afghan interpreter who was seized by the Taliban with an Italian journalist in April 2007. Emergency officials brokered the reporter's release but Naqshbandi was beheaded. The charity has dismissed the plot claims and suggestions the arrested men were involved in Naqshbandi's death.
Aid workers and officials in Kabul said Afghan authorities, including the NDS intelligence agency, still believed Emergency was connected to the Taliban and through them was linked to Naqshbandi's death. Emergency had been incautious, they said, in treating Taliban fighters at its Lashkar Gah hospital, and allowing an international television station to interview them.
"If the biggest (NATO-led military) operation is in Helmand it is because they think there are more Taliban there than anywhere else," Costite said. "So of course we will receive them too. We don't care. We simply don't care."
Another international aid official said, on condition of anonymity, that Emergency "haven't been careful enough, perhaps because they don't understand the political climate.
"The climate for expatriates in Afghanistan is becoming much tougher, with the government becoming harder to deal with, visas harder to get," he said. He noted "undiplomatic comments" by Emergency officials, including president Cecilia Strada who described the arrests as "an action to discredit us".
"Add that together with the treatment of Taliban fighters, letting a foreign TV crew interview them and show them swearing jihad against the government, the bad PR and public accusations -- then this is what can happen," he said. "They might have excellent doctors but they are not clever politically."
The commander of NATO-led operations in Afghanistan says he has doubts about Afghan forces ability to secure the war-weary country by 2015.
German General Egon Ramms believes that the timetable set for Afghans to take over security will not be met. The handover is scheduled to begin next year.
Ramms says the Afghan army might be able to capture territories held by the Taliban -- but it can not maintain its rule in those areas.
There are currently over 120,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, and the US and its NATO allies have announced the imminent deployment of 30,000 more troops.
The US military is planning to start its withdrawal from Afghanistan next year. Germany, however, has so far refused to give a specific date for a complete withdrawal of its forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
That's OK, its mutual: the Afghanis doubt NATOs abilities too.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Sudan's first competitive elections in more than two decades "fall short" of meeting international standards, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, who has been monitoring the polls, said on Saturday.
"It is obvious that the elections will fall short of international standards," Carter said.
Carter was speaking shortly after the chief EU election monitor, Veronique de Keyser, made a similar assessment, saying the polls "did not reach international standards."
"These elections have struggled to reach international standards. They have not reached them all," the head of the EU observer mission in Sudan, Veronique de Keyser, told reporters.
She said that, especially in the oil-producing south, there had been cases of harassment and intimidation of voters "which has nothing to do with a democratic process".
Opposition groups and many local observers have accused Bashir's dominant northern National Congress Party (NCP) of rigging preparations for the poll, and said there were huge logistical problems, with names missing from voters' lists.
The elections were set up under a 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of north-south war and also promised southerners a 2011 referendum on whether they should split off and become an independent country.
The elections as a whole were marred by complexity and confusion and dominated by the ruling parties in the north and south, said a copy of the EU preliminary report seen by Reuters.
"The election process suffered from unprecedented complexity in its design and consequently from confusion in its implementation," the report said.
The boycotts of northern polls had reduced competition in northern Sudan while in the south "a less controlled environment (led) to more confusion, clashes and intimidation."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
So, Jimmy and EU lady...what will be done about this?
HA! I almost had yas! Just kidding. We already know the answer.
International election monitors say Sudan's landmark multiparty vote, seen as a test of the country's stability, failed to meet international standards.
The presidential election -- already tainted by fraud allegations, major opposition boycotts and polling errors -- looks certain to extend the two decade rule of President Umar al-Bashir.
While hailing the election efforts as "a major step that opens up democratic space in Sudan," EU vote monitoring chief Veronique de Keyser told reporters in Khartoum on Saturday that the election had shown "significant deficiencies."
Presenting the EU monitoring mission's preliminary report, de Keyser put the turnout at around 60 percent, citing different sources.
Former US President Jimmy Carter, whose Carter Centre was one of the two major mentoring teams in the country, also said that the elections would probably "fall short of international standards that are expected of advanced democracies."
"It is too early to offer a final, overall assessment...[but] the people's expectations have not been met," Carter added.
Some 16 million people had registered for the vote, but the process was hampered by logistic problems and procedural errors, such as ballot mix-ups, to such an extent that authorities extended the election period from three to five days.
The Sudanese also cast ballots for their parliamentary and regional representatives, with southerners voting to elect their local president for the semi-autonomous oil-rich south ahead of the region's 2011 independence vote.
According to the EU monitors, Irregularities and delays were more pronounced in the south of the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2010 00:00 ||
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Only a handful of tourists wandered through the unspoiled ruins of the ancient Roman city of Leptis Magna, which edges the azure waters of the Mediterranean. It was high season, when buses should have been disgorging hundreds of affluent visitors from Europe and beyond. But among the arches and fountains, there was mostly silence.
Tour guide Saleh Krima explained why. “The Leader has called for a jihad against Switzerland,' he said on a recent day. “Now, no one wants to come here.'
The Leader is Muammar el-Qaddafi, who has ruled this nation with an iron fist for more than 40 years. His tit-for-tat fight with Swiss authorities followed his son Hannibal's brief arrest in Geneva in 2008 for allegedly beating members of his staff. The charges were dropped, but the feud has continued — a stark example of the Libyan government's unpredictability.
Since Libya's diplomatic isolation ended more than six years ago, the country has tried hard to attract foreign investors and promote tourism to diversify its oil-dependent economy. But an older mind-set — steeped in bureaucracy, old-style socialism and antagonism toward the West — is stifling its aspirations to become a North African version of Dubai, the Middle East's economic hub.
A Swiss businessman has been jailed in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, on immigration violation charges, an action widely seen as retaliation for the arrest of Qaddafi's son. Switzerland, in turn, has barred Libyan officials. In February, Qaddafi banned visas for citizens from 20 European countries in an order that was not lifted until late last month. His call for jihad, or holy war, against Switzerland came after a Swiss referendum prohibited the construction of new minarets. Since then, Libyan officials have said that Qaddafi meant an economic boycott and not an armed struggle.
Last month, Libya imposed a trade and economic embargo on Switzerland that stopped flights and halted oil exports. Libya has also withdrawn billions from Swiss banks.
Ordinary Libyans have loyally applauded Qaddafi's actions. But they have also felt the brunt of the diplomatic fallout. Travel agent Abdalla Adem has seen his business shrink by 60 percent. His main clients are Italian, Spanish, German, Belgian and French tourists. “Switzerland was wrong to treat the son of a head of state in this manner, and it was they who first barred the Libyans,' Adem said.
Libya's unpredictability extends to its efforts to change. A promised transition from a state-run economy to one in which private companies play a prominent role has been slow. In one well-publicized case, the government forcibly bought out a Canadian oil company for less than it was worth, after the company announced a big find.
Libya's old guard of politicians, internal security officials and tribal leaders are resisting political and social reforms proposed by Qaddafi's liberal-minded son, Saif al-Islam. Reforms “are moving, but not very fast,' the younger Qaddafi conceded.
Switzerland is not the only Western nation to feel the Leader's wrath in recent weeks. Although relations with the United States have improved, prickliness persists. Libyan officials were furious at their country's being added to a US security watch list after the attempted bombing of a US airliner over Detroit on Christmas Day. And when a State Department spokesman joked last month about Qaddafi's call for jihad against Switzerland, the Leader warned US oil executives in Tripoli that the comments could harm their business interests. The State Department spokesman subsequently apologized.
Billions in US private-investment dollars promised in exchange for Libya dismantling its program to develop weapons of mass destruction have not materialized, deepening the frustration of officials here. US oil companies have flocked to the North African country, but many other firms have held off, fearing the capricious business environment.
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi has urged global support for the "peaceful" policies of "wise" US President Barack Obama in his pursuit of a world without nuclear weapons.
"I appeal to everyone to give Obama time and to support his policies, as long as his program remains peaceful," Gadhafi told a gathering late Thursday in a huge tent erected in the desert near the eastern coastal city of Sirte.
He was speaking during commemorations marking the anniversary of the bombing by American planes on April 15, 1986, of Tripoli and the eastern city of Benghazi which killed 41 people, including Gadhafi's adoptive daughter.
Then President Ronald Reagan ordered the raids in retaliation for the bombing blamed on Libyan agents of a Berlin disco in which a US serviceman was among three people killed.
"We have confidence in our son Baraka ["chance" in Arabic] Obama and, if he continues his wise and peaceful policies, we will help and support him so that they succeed," Gadhafi, dressed in white suit and black shirt, told the crowd of around 1,000 people.
At the same time, the Libyan leader urged Washington to change its policies toward the Palestinians so as to garner support in the Arab world, saying "the Arabs hate the US" because of its support for Israel.
He said Obama "should abandon his naive solution" to the Middle East conflict through his support for international peace efforts which aim to create two separate states -- one for Israelis and one for Palestinians. Such a solution, Gadhafi said, has "no chance of succeeding."
Instead he proposed the creation of a single democratic state for Israelis and Palestinians -- an idea floated before the UN General Assembly last September.
US-Libyan ties have been improving since 2003, when Gadhafi renounced the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and agreed to compensate families of the victims of the 1988 plane bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Are these the accolades that Obama has been so desperately seeking?
#3
Are these the accolades that Obama has been so desperately seeking?
In a word: yes.
Criticism from Israel, UK, etc. and approving noises from the likes of Gadhafi, shows that he's on the way to righting the historic wrongs of America and the West. He still needs to do some more work to get the Iranians on side, but he'll do what it takes. Once the oppressed non-whites are content, multi-polarity is in place ('whether we like it or not the US is a military superpower') and Evil Whitey can't boss anyone else around any more, his work here will be done. And the world will be a peaceful place, like a utopian village where the sun always shines and maybe everyone talks Chinese. Basically some kind of c*** like that.
#5
Who? I mean I know this Quedaffy guy but who is he talking about?
Seriously for a minute, this is what is called faith based politics. You know, if we all just wished or prayed hard enough then, tadah!, Obama will become it. Suspension of reality, its made fun of in a form called Arab Street, to believe 5 opposing ideas before noon is for the newbies. But, the common theme for said opposite ideas believed is self service otherwise known as whats in it for me. Its how one justifies a handout or unprovoked aggrevement. "Its not that I'm a shithead, its that this other person won't give in order to let me be." Ignoring the case that if said shithead were the other person they would be complaining of mooching but again, its about the self lazy attitude which victimization so easily mines.
[Bangla Daily Star] Sepoy Moin, who first attempted to kill the former BDR DG, is still at large, but his 623 colleagues from 13 Rifle Battalion were hauled before the Special Court-5 as alleged mutineers yesterday.
Subedar Major Sheikh Zubaiyer, an old bearded man in uniform, was sitting on the first seat in front row dock along with the alleged mutineers. He drew special attention yesterday as he allegedly coordinated dumping of 10 officers' bodies into a mass grave at a vegetable garden.
As the BDR special courts are only dealing with the charges of mutiny, the prosecution did not place charges for grievous offences committed by many of the 623 accused.
But some BDR officials and lawyers who are involved in the persecution told The Daily Star many of these alleged mutineers were involved in the carnage during the 33-hour mutiny on February 25-26 last year.
Around half a dozen of the accused were directly involved in the killing of the army officers in and out of the Darbar Hall in Pilkhana where they were sitting yesterday to face trial as the paramilitary force set up the court at the place of occurrence.
Prosecutor of the case Lt Col Akhter Hamid Khan, who is also the commanding officer of 13 Rifle Battalion, during his brief submission told court, "Most of the accused are colleagues of Moin, one of the conspirators of the mutiny."
He said the accused are initiators of the mutiny and most of the members of the battalion supported Moin to start the mutiny. They did not inform their higher authorities about Moin's plan, he added.
The prosecutor told The Daily Star 1,164 BDR men were in the 13 Rifle Battalion during the mutiny and over half of them have been accused in this case.
Twenty-three BDR jawans stay out of arrest since mutiny. Of them, 8 including Moin are from 13 Rifle Battalion who have not been included on the accused list, Col Khan said.
"As the BDR Act, 1972 doesn't allow trying any accused in absentia, the eight on the run including Moin have not been accused in this case. They will be tried separately once they are arrested," the prosecutor told The Daily Star.
Col Khan told the three-member court headed by BDR DG M Mainul Islam that 172 of the accused of 13 Rifle Battalion were in the Darbar Hall on that day to attend Darbar of slain DG Shakil.
But the 172 left Darbar Hall disobeying the DG's order, then took up arms and ammunition breaking into the armoury and opened fire and charged grenades.
The prosecutor told the court some of them killed army officers, destroyed evidence after the killings, dumped the bodies and held hostage the officers' family members.
The prosecution has around hundred witnesses in support of the charges against the accused and have photographs and video footages where it is evident that 36 of the total accused were involved in the mutiny along with other hundreds.
After submission of the prosecutor, the president of the court briefed all the accused about the relevant laws regarding mutiny, their rights and how they will proceed with the functions of the court.
Two other members of the court are Lt Col AKM Golam Rabbani and Major Sayed Hasan Taposh. Deputy Attorney General Mohammad Ullah Kislu was present at the court with the judges as representative of the attorney general.
The court adjourned its proceedings till 10:00am on October 13 and the day has been fixed for hearing on charge framing.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2010 00:00 ||
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At least we have them on record now.
SEOUL, April 17 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Saturday denied involvement in the recent sinking of a South Korean warship that left 38 sailors confirmed dead and eight others still missing, claiming such suspicions have been fabricated by the South Korean government.
"Failing to probe the cause of the sinking of the ship, the puppet military warmongers, right-wing conservative politicians and the group of other traitors in South Korea are now foolishly seeking to link the accident with the north at any cost," a defense commentator at the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in a statement.
"The military warmongers are getting more undisguised in their moves to link the accident with the north though it was caused by their fault," said the statement, carried by the KCNA.
It marked the first time the North has officially denied involvement in the March 26 incident.
The statement said the North considers the event a tragedy as it claimed the lives of many Koreans.
"Though the sunken large ship belongs to the South side, we have so far regarded the accident as a regretful accident that should not happen in the light of the fact that many missing persons and most of rescued members of the crew are fellow countrymen forced to live a tiresome life in the puppet army," it said.
It also said the South Korean administration was trying to lay the blame on North Korea in an attempt to divert the attention of the public from its own mistakes ahead of the June 2 local elections in South Korea.
"It is prompted by its ulterior intention to get rid of the worst ruling crisis caused by the 'state management failure,' the statement said. "Another sinister aim sought by the puppet regime in floating the above-said story is to justify the persistent and anachronistic policy towards the DPRK and shirk the blame for having driven the inter-Korean relations to the worst crisis," it added.
South Korean investigators said on Friday that an external explosion was the most likely cause behind the sinking of the 1,200-ton Cheonan patrol ship near the disputed Yellow Sea border with North Korea.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2010 00:00 ||
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NET POSTERS > are attempting to investigate any COVERT CHINESE ROLE in the CHEONAN sinking. given the sojourn of 8-20 vessels of the PRC's NORTH CHINA SEAS FLEET into the region. IIUC the OKINAWA PLAN Group was only part of a larger PLAN force sent into the South Chin Seas???
Also, JAPAN is repor that RUSS sent TWO TU-95MS STRATEGIC BOMBERSon an alleged training flight off Japan circa April 15th???
[Geo News] Secretary General of Jamat-e-Islami Liaquat Baloch Saturday said a judicial commission should have been set up to investigate into the murder of Ms Benazir Bhutto, but Pakistan People's Party does not appear serious in getting to the culprits.
Addressing a press conference, he said having a probe conducted by the UN has not only wasted money and time but the exercise also provided protection to the murderers.
Liaquat Baloch said the people of Hazara are not happy with the new name of the province; their reservations must be addressed.
He said the government has failed in resolving the problems of price hike, unemployment and load-shedding.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2010 00:00 ||
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CHENNAI: The immigration authorities at the Chennai airport were surprised to see Parvathi, mother of slain LTTE leader Prabakaran, when she landed from Malaysia with a valid medical visa at the airport here on Friday night.
The reason: her name was on the 'Warning Circular' list of the Union government. Whenever a person's name finds a place in the list, the visa issuing authorities must obtain the approval of, or consult, officials of the Home Ministry before issuing him or her a visa. Though Ms. Parvathi's name was on the list, she got a medical visa.
Sources in the Immigration said both Velupillai and his wife Parvathi were living in Tiruchi till 2003.
Soon after they migrated to Colombo, the Tamil Nadu government requested the Centre, in the same year, to ban their return. Accordingly, the Union government banned their entry into the State and put their names on the list.
Ms. Parvathi was sent back to Malaysia by the same flight.
Posted by: john frum ||
04/18/2010 00:00 ||
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What about National Guard using Ground Surveillance Radars we used to use back in the day? A lot fo them were Vietnam era PPS-5, but they did the job, and were easily operated form a vehicle.
They had plenty of range, and were good at spotting man sized target, and the open ground along most of the southern border is pretty good for using RF like that. It seems with all the data processing and imaging technology advances we should be able to put together a solid man-portable, long range, wide area GSR.
#2
At this point, the border states don't have the money to deploy their Guard, or maintain such systems if they were still available. Arizona certainly doesn't. Nor does California.
#3
Pappy, the border states could get VOLUNTEERS for the job if they would just back them up (volunteer patrolers, not shooters, unless absolutely necessary.)
Congress created it. Congress funds it. The governors can use them in internal emergencies, but the governors can be overridden if the President wants to use the unit (as Mike Dukakis found a generation ago).
If a governor put the Guard on the border (assuming it was lawful to do so in the first place), Bambi could simply activate that unit for national (or overseas) duty.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2010 17:52 Comments ||
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Congress created it.
That's like saying the Congress created GM. The states created the malitias. The Congress took them over and called it the National Guard.
#6
the border states could get VOLUNTEERS for the job if they would just back them up
Yes, and if I had two fully functioning legs, I could attend the School of Ballet Arizona.
The harsh reality is that politicians and law enforcement don't like the concept of volunteers doing what should be a state/federal task. It indicates a problem that the politicians and LE are either not equipped, funded or inclined to deal with, and it inflames certain groups that might react at election-time (especially if they do back up the volunteers). One just has to look back at the Minutemen for that one.
My remark was about OS's suggestion the National Guard using Ground Surveillance Radars. Again, as good an idea as it is, the border states don't have the money; it's unlikely the federal government would step in and fund any deployment.
#11
OTOH WMF > THE PROCUREMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, DATAS IS THE MAIN PRIORITY OR GOAL OF TERRORIST ORGANIZATIONS IN THEIR PLANS TO ATTACK MAJOR CITIES AND DEVELOPED AREAS.
The Bombs must first follow the Data-Info Collection.
The Iranian president has called on the US to withdraw its troops from the Gulf region and Afghanistan.
"The region has no need for alien troops and they should return home and let the regional states take care of their own affairs," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech marking the country's annual Army Day on Sunday.
"They must leave the region and this is not a request but an order, and the will of the regional nations," he said.
He said the deployment of US and Nato troops in Iraq and Afghanistan under the pretext of fighting terrorism had not only failed, but also increased insecurity in both countries.
Israel will 'collapse'
The president also said that Israel, the "main instigator of conflict" in the Middle East, was on its way to collapse and that regional powers wanted it uprooted.
"This is the will of the regional nations that after 60 odd years, the root of this corrupt microbe and the main reason for insecurity in the region be pulled out," Ahmadinejad said.
He said that except the "Zionist regime (Israel)," Iran considered all other countries as "friend and brother" with whom the Islamic state wanted peaceful co-existence.
On the day that Iran was exhibiting its latest military hardware, Ahmadinejad vowed that the country would use all its military potential in case of any armed aggression.
Ahmadinejad's comments came a day after he called for the formation of a new international body to oversee nuclear disarmament during a two-day summit on civilian nuclear energy in Tehran.
Nuclear summit
The summit, which is continuing on Sunday, is seen as a counterpoint to a major conference in Washington earlier this week, in which Barack Obama, the US president, outlined his nuclear strategy.
Iran criticised the 47-nation nuclear security summit on the grounds that the US holds one of the world's largest stocks of nuclear weapons.
Iran was not invited to the conference as the US fears its nuclear programme could be a cover for the production of atomic weapons.
Tehran says it is entitled to continue work on its controversial uranium enrichment programme. It strongly denies it is seeking nuclear weapons, saying its atomic programme is for meeting civilian energy needs.
#1
It is the primary strategic goal of Iran to get the US out of the entire middle east in any way possible. Because once the US leaves, Iran figures it can dominate the region.
This also means that it sees the biggest primary threat to this control the US aircraft carrier groups, with the secondary threat being the US bases in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bahrain and Kuwait.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon have expressed support for Iran's nuclear program and stated that Israel should be forced to dismantle its nuclear weapons.
Iraq? Was that wise? The other two are currently wholly owned subsidiaries of Iran, so their stance was dictated.
Speaking at the nuclear disarmament conference in Tehran on Saturday, the foreign ministers of the three countries insisted that Iran has the right to develop nuclear technology meant for peaceful purposes, just like every other country.
They also called for a diplomatic solution to the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.
Who was it that said, "War is an extension of diplomacy by other means"?
"We support Iran's pursuit of peaceful nuclear technology," the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) quoted Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem as saying.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Ali al-Shami said Iran's nuclear program is peaceful and Iran is not violating the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.
How on earth would Lebanon know?
"We reject any threat against Iran and insist on Iran's right to use peaceful nuclear energy," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said.
The three foreign ministers urged Israel, which is the only player in the Middle East with a nuclear arsenal, to sign the NPT.
The only way to bell the cat is if he puts in on himself.
They also said that all of Israel's nuclear weapons must be dismantled and Tel Aviv must allow IAEA inspectors to visit its nuclear facilities.
It is believed that Israel has a stockpile of at least 250 nuclear warheads.
Oddly enough, every time that number is quoted, it goes up. I remember when it was seven or eight. Israel's bomb assemblers must be like unto gods.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION TOPIX > ISRAEL WARNS SYRIA OVER HEZBOLLAH MISSLES [Warns Syria of immediate retaliation = attack + bomb Syria back to the Stone Age iff the Hezzies fire their SCUDS at Israel].
#2
It seems like post-Saddam Iraq is just as unfriendly to the United States as before. Is it me or did we end up with no oil, no treasure, no land, and no friends out of our time in Iraq? Anybody disagree?
Posted by: Yo Adrian ||
04/18/2010 10:40 Comments ||
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#3
Conversely WORLD NEWS > IRAN: MIDDLE EAST SHOULD BE A NUCLEAR-WEAPONS FREE ZONE.
SAME > ANALYSIS: SCUDS ARE AN ODD CHOICE FOR NUMBLE HEZBOLLAH; + HEZBOLLAH LAWMAKER [Ali Fayyad]: US BLAMED FOR POTENTIAL [Israeli]WAR ON LEBANON.
* SAME > SYRIA, HIZBOLLAH: US SCUD ALLEGATIONS RALLY/FOMENTING ISRAEL ATTACK [SCUD allegations are false and is being used by the US to foster ME instability + disguise US failures in the region]???
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran slammed the United States as an "atomic criminal" which should be suspended from the U.N. nuclear watchdog on Saturday, while urging changes to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
At a two-day nuclear disarmament conference in Tehran, the foreign ministers of Lebanon, Syria and Iraq voiced support for Iran's "peaceful" atomic program and demanded that Israel join the nuclear NPT "without conditions."
At the start of the meeting, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruled out any use of nuclear weaponry as "haram," meaning religiously banned under Islam.
He branded the United States an "atomic criminal" and said it deceptively calls for non-proliferation while holding on to its own weapons and failing to confront Israel, which is widely believed to have nuclear bombs.
"The deceptive policy by the sole nuclear offender, which falsely claims to be advocating the non-proliferation of nuclear arms while doing nothing substantive for this cause, will never succeed," Khamenei said.
Iran's conference brought together representatives from 60 countries, including China, Russia, Pakistan, Iraq, Turkey and France, as well as delegates from international bodies and non-governmental organizations, according to Iranian media.
The supreme leader, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and several other senior Iranian officials took turns at the podium to warn that America's nuclear policy was endangering the world and encouraging nations to consider withdrawing from the Non-Nuclear Proliferation Treaty.
Hard-line President Ahmadinejad went a step further and called for Washington's suspension from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) along with all other nations which possess nuclear arms.
"Only the U.S. government has committed an atomic crime," said the message of the all-powerful Khamenei who formulates Tehran's foreign policy, including its nuclear strategy.
"The world's only atomic criminal lies and presents itself as being against nuclear weapons proliferation, while it has not taken any serious measures in this regard," he said.
Ahmadinejad, under whose presidency Iran has aggressively pushed ahead with a controversial nuclear program despite three sets of U.N. sanctions, attacked the present structure of the U.N. Security Council, the IAEA and the NPT.
"An independent international group which plans and oversees nuclear disarmament and prevents proliferation should be set up," he told the conference attended by several foreign ministers and U.N. officials.
He said those countries which "possess, have used or threatened to use nuclear weapons should be suspended from the IAEA and its board of governors, especially the U.S."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
you've been hit by... an atomic criminal... doo doo doo doo doo doo
Posted by: Yo Adrian ||
04/18/2010 10:42 Comments ||
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WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has warned in a secret three-page memorandum to top White House officials that the United States does not have an effective long-range policy for dealing with Iran's steady progress toward nuclear capability, according to government officials familiar with the document. Of course we don't. Bambi thought his charisma and his obvious appeal to the Mad Mullahs™ would do the trick.
I wish I found it comforting that the editors of the New York Times get as much of a thrill from leaking highly damaging information about the current administration's efforts in the War on Terror as they did about the previous administration's, despite loving the first and hating the second. But somehow, that fact of equal opportunism brings no comfort whatsoever.
But actually, we do have an effective policy: bomb every known and suspected nuclear site, plus the entire country's power structure until the rubble bounces. It's jus that our honourable president doesn't like solutions that make the ancient and picturesque landscape more picturesque.
Several officials said the highly classified analysis, written in January to President Obama's national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones, touched off an intense effort inside the Pentagon, the White House and the intelligence agencies to develop new options for Mr. Obama. Note the date: January. Think we're any more prepared today? Think we'll be more prepared in the next few months?
They include a revised set of military alternatives, still under development, to be considered should diplomacy and sanctions fail to force Iran to change course. Bambi isn't going to use military alternatives. The leak of this information is being done today so that when the Iranians do build their bomb, Bambi can 'show' everyone that we didn't have any military options available to us -- the Pentagon let him down, doncha know.
Officials familiar with the memo's contents would describe only portions dealing with strategy and policy, and not sections that apparently dealt with secret operations against Iran, or how to deal with Persian Gulf allies. Don't worry, the NYT will get hold of those sections and publish them by Wednesday ...
One senior official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the memo, described the document as "a wake-up call." But White House officials dispute that view, insisting that for 15 months they had been conducting detailed planning for many possible outcomes regarding Iran's nuclear program. Name them ...
In an interview on Friday, General Jones declined to speak about the memorandum. But he said: "On Iran, we are doing what we said we were going to do. The fact that we don't announce publicly our entire strategy for the world to see doesn't mean we don't have a strategy that anticipates the full range of contingencies -- we do."
But in his memo, Mr. Gates wrote of a variety of concerns, including the absence of an effective strategy should Iran choose the course that many government and outside analysts consider likely: Iran could assemble all the major parts it needs for a nuclear weapon -- fuel, designs and detonators -- but stop just short of assembling a fully operational weapon.
In that case, Iran could remain a signatory of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty while becoming what strategists call a "virtual" nuclear weapons state. Israel is sort of like that. The world is unhappy about Israel's nukes. Think Egypt, Jordan and Turkey will complain about Iran's nukes?
According to several officials, the memorandum also calls for new thinking about how the United States might contain Iran's power if it decided to produce a weapon, and how to deal with the possibility that fuel or weapons could be obtained by one of the terrorist groups Iran has supported, which officials said they considered to be a less-likely possibility.
Mr. Gates has never mentioned the memo in public. His spokesman, Geoff Morrell, declined comment on specifics in the document, but issued a statement on Saturday saying, "The secretary believes the president and his national security team have spent an extraordinary amount of time and effort considering and preparing for the full range of contingencies with respect to Iran." "And have come up with bupkis," Mr. Morrell continued under his breath ...
Pressed on the administration's ambiguous phrases until now about how close the United States was willing to allow Iran's program to proceed, a senior administration official described last week in somewhat clearer terms that there was a line Iran would not be permitted to cross.
The official said that the United States would ensure that Iran would not "acquire a nuclear capability," a step Tehran could get to well before it developed a sophisticated weapon. "That includes the ability to have a breakout," he said, using the term nuclear specialists apply to a country that suddenly renounces the nonproliferation treaty and uses its technology to build a small arsenal.
Nearly two weeks ago, Mr. Obama, in an interview with The New York Times, was asked about whether he saw a difference between a nuclear-capable Iran and one that had a fully developed weapon. "I'm not going to parse that right now," he said. But he noted that North Korea was considered a nuclear-capable state until it threw out inspectors and, as he said, "became a self-professed nuclear state." We didn't do anything about that, either.
Mr. Gates has alluded to his concern that intelligence agencies might miss signals that Iran was taking the final steps toward producing a weapon. Last Sunday on the NBC News program "Meet the Press," he said: "If their policy is to go to the threshold but not assemble a nuclear weapon, how do you tell that they have not assembled? I don't actually know how you would verify that." But he cautioned that Iran had run into production difficulties, and he said, "It's going slow -- slower than they anticipated, but they are moving in that direction." We won't know when they're ready to hit breakout mode until they decide to do it. When it happens we won't do anything about it. I'm guessing Bibi is making the same calculation. I'm also guessing the Israelis have a plan, which is more than we have. I'm further guessing that Bambi understands that, and that in part is why he was rude to Bibi.
Mr. Gates has taken a crucial role in formulating the administration's strategy, and he has been known over his career to issue stark warnings against the possibility of strategic surprise. Some officials said his memo should be viewed in that light: as a warning to a relatively new president that the United States was not adequately prepared.
He wrote the memo after Iran had let pass a 2009 deadline set by Mr. Obama to respond to his offers of diplomatic engagement. Of course they did: they knew it was all show.
Both that process and efforts to bring new sanctions against Iran have struggled. Administration officials had hoped that the revelation by Mr. Obama in September that Iran was building a new uranium enrichment plant inside a mountain near Qum would galvanize other nations against Iran, but the reaction was muted. The next three months were spent in what proved to be fruitless diplomatic talks with Iran over a plan to swap much of its low-enriched uranium for fuel for a medical reactor in Tehran. By the time Mr. Gates wrote his memo, those negotiations had collapsed.
Mr. Gates's memo appears to reflect concerns in the upper echelons of the Pentagon and the military that the White House did not have a well-prepared series of alternatives in place in case all the diplomatic steps finally failed. In fact, just before Mr. Gates issued his warning, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, wrote an official "chairman's guidance" to his staff saying that while any military option would have "limited results" against Iran's nuclear facilities, preparations needed to be stepped up.
"Should the president call for military options, we must have them ready," the admiral wrote.
Administration officials testifying before a Senate committee last week made it clear that those preparations were under way. So did General Jones. "The president has made it clear from the beginning of this administration that we need to be prepared for every possible contingency," he said in the interview. "That is what we have done from day one, while successfully building a coalition of nations to isolate Iran and pressure it to live up to its obligations." No one -- no one -- believes Bambi will pull the trigger and hammer Iran. So go ahead and plan, but it's just a staff exercise.
At the same hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Lt. Gen. Ronald L. Burgess Jr., director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Gen. James E. Cartwright, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and one of the military's most experienced officers on nuclear matters, said that Iran could produce bomb-grade fuel for at least one nuclear weapon within a year, but that it would probably need two to five years to manufacture a workable atomic bomb. Nonsense. We did it in less time in the Manhattan Project, and we weren't sure of what we were doing. The Iranians have all the principles and knowledge. For them it's just an engineering problem.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Gates Says U.S. Lacks Strategy Will to Curb Iran's Nuclear Drive
#2
Iran and the Mad Mullahs have always had a vision of where Iran and islam is going. They are not going to stray, deviate, or negotiate from that vision--No matter what. If they negotiate in any way, it is simply Taqiyya to buy time as a part of their overall strategy. Their vision is one of domination over others. We'd better have a strategy for coping with Iran or we will have to deal with it big-time later--and the price will be high. The Donk Congress, Hollywood, and the MSM needs to dump the goal of Obama deification and look at the threat.
#4
Nearly two weeks ago, Mr. Obama, in an interview with The New York Times, was asked about whether he saw a difference between a nuclear-capable Iran and one that had a fully developed weapon. "I'm not going to parse that right now," he said.
#5
Has anybody seen that old Nostradamus documentary narrated by Orson Welles? I saw it numerous times when I was a kid and have never forgotten the ending which ( as Nostradamus supposedly predicts )actually specifies Iran as hitting the U.S. with a nuke. It was scary then (Welles did a great job) and seeing it now in my lifetime as a possibility is totally surreal. My personal opinion is that Obama and Gates should step aside if they have no plan to protect us. How does the frikkin' Secretary of DEFENSE admit to having no plan to DEFEND us?
Posted by: Yo Adrian ||
04/18/2010 11:01 Comments ||
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#6
...How does the frikkin' Secretary of DEFENSE admit to having no plan to DEFEND us?
Posted by: Yo Adrian 2010-04-18 11:01
'Cause he is the eunuch Bambi chose for the position.
#7
I think Obama's attitude toward Jacket is like Chamberlain's to Hitler: he knows that Jacket lies, but he doesn't believe that Jacket would lie to him. In that context, I think Obama's plan is predictable.
Posted by: Matt ||
04/18/2010 11:33 Comments ||
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#8
Where does Barry's pro-Muslim and anti-Semetic bent come from you ask? Could it possibly be from sitting quietly each Sunday and listening to Jeremiah Wright spew hatred for decades? Could it be from his neighbor and enthusiastic endorser the Louis Farrakhan?
#9
I guess we can reason this out in a circular fashion WolfDog but what does that have to do with a Defense Secretary that has been around long enough to know better?
Posted by: yo adrian ||
04/18/2010 12:57 Comments ||
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#10
Actually the problem is political courage.
The only wya to prevent Iran having nukes now is to strike and take out the ability for them to produce them. The problem with that precise a strike is that it does not take out the cause: the Islamic leadership. So a decapitation strike is needed as well. The problem is that leaves a lot of the machinery in place. So a full devastation of the military capacity of Iran is needed.
So once you do the analysis, you see that the only way to do this in a military manner is to take out the leadership first: a lightning strike which takes down the leadership and the communicatiosn infrastructure nearly instantly, and take down the military capacity to impose any sort of command on the populace, and after that, take out the nuclear production and storage facilities.
The bottom line: No half measures are adequate. The Iranian government and the machinery that maintains it in power must be decapitated and then sufficiently destroyed.
and in a nutshell that rules out any action by the US at this time.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
04/18/2010 14:54 Comments ||
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#12
ShockandAwe II.
It's worked before, let's do it again. The Iranian people will greet this us as um.... friends and be instantly transformed into a paragon of liberal democracy.
Or we could simply seal their coast and make all trade move overland, which would invite a cheap shot, but hey, that's been done before too.
Why don't we just go for preemptive surrender and get it over with, Shipman? President Obama the Much Beloved can inform the Israelis they have a choice of leaving or being turned into rivers of blood by text message as he flies to Tehran for his final bow.
#15
ION DEBAK > THE "NEW HIZBALLAH" BY SYRIA SPARKS MIDDLE EAST WAR FEARS | SYRIA TURNING HIZBALLAH INTO A REGULAR ARMY [Missle-armed this time = Anti-Air, Anti-Naval, LR BMS, anti-tank/Armor].
HMMMMM, HMMMMM, TANGOS = relabeled as TIAGOS/TIGOS > T-errorist, A-rmed, I-ndependent, G-overnment O-perated; or perhaps the "A" in TANGO should be changed to A-UTONOMOUS???
I chose "TAIGO" to reflect the RISE OF CHINA + CHIN = "ASIAN/ASIA-PACIFIC CENTURY".
* SAME > IRAN CLOSE TO PLUTONIUM-MAKING/PROD CAPACITY.
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