A Sudan government-sponsored initiative on Darfur will urge a ceasefire in the ravaged region and call on both sides to prepare for talks, according to draft recommendations seen by AFP on Tuesday.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
#1
Darfur may be a near term test for BHO.
Suppose terrorist groups, supported by Sudan carry out an early genocidal raid and the deaths are obvious. Will BHO emit platitudes and moral equivalence (or maybe the question will be 'how many platitudes and how much moral equivalence')?
(SomaliNet) Nigeria's most prominent militant group threatened on Monday to renew attacks on the oil sector if soldiers stormed its hideouts; however, a military spokesman denied such plans.
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) said it believed the military was planning to launch an assault on two of its camps in Delta and Bayelsa states in southern Nigeria. "This will be a big mistake as it will lead to another oil war where we are sure of a landslide victory," it said in an e-mailed statement.
Lieutenant-Colonel Chris Musa, spokesman for the military task force in Bayelsa, denied any plan to attack militant camps. "It is always a media war. They are just trying to hype the tension," he said.
MEND staged what it called a six-day "oil war," In September attacking oil installations and forcing Royal Dutch Shell to warn it might not be able to meet all its export commitments from Nigeria. The group has since declared a ceasefire and repeatedly accused the military of trying to provoke it into confrontation.
Attacks by MEND have cut Nigeria's oil output by around a fifth since early 2006. The country is currently pumping just under 2 million barrels per day, well below its capacity of around 3 million bpd, because of the insecurity and chronic funding shortfalls.
The militant group said on Sunday it would continue to hold two Britons hostage until the British government dropped plans to train Nigerian soldiers in the delta, the heart of the OPEC member's oil sector. The two captives were among 27 oil workers kidnapped by gunmen in early September.
At least 21 of the hostages have been released and MEND said it freed four others late on Sunday. But a military spokesman on Monday could not confirm the release of the four hostages.-
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
(AKI) - Five men described as devout Muslims possessed extremist material advocating violent jihad and showing images of ritual beheadings, an Australian court was told on Tuesday. The men are accused of conspiring with others to prepare a terrorist act. Crown prosecutor Richard Maidment, said they had allegedly obtained explosives and firearms.
According to The Sydney Morning Herald daily Maidment said the men possessed material "which supported indiscriminate killing, mass murder and martyrdom in the pursuit of violent jihad."
But the jury members have been told they must be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that all five agreed to the preparation of a violent act motivated by religion, politics or ideology and aimed to intimidate or coerce governments or the public. "This is a circumstantial case," Supreme Court Justice Anthony Whealy told the jury.
The government's prosecutor alleged the material found in the homes of the accused - Mohamed Elomar, Abdul Rhakib Hassan, Khaled Cheikho, Mostafa Cheikho and Mohammed Omar Jamal - showed they believed Islam was under attack and violent jihad was their religious obligation. The men, all Muslims, have pleaded not guilty.
The trial started in Sydney on Tuesday and is expected to run for nine months. "The Muslim religion is not on trial here," stressed Justice Whealy. "We Australians are very fortunate because we live in a very tolerant and open-minded society."
He instructed the jury to judge the case impartially and only on the evidence presented.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
A mosque asking that Canadian workplaces respect a strict Muslim dress code is at the same time disseminating slurs against Jews and Western societies, and warning members against social integration.
The Khalid Bin Al-Walid Mosque near Kipling Ave. and Rexdale Blvd. serves as the religious authority for eight Somali women complaining to the Canadian Human Rights Commission that UPS Canada Ltd. violated their religious rights at a sorting plant. The mosque, founded in 1990 and serving upwards of 10,000 people, preaches strict adherence to sharia, or Islamic law, and no compromise with the West.
Teachings on the mosque's website, khalidmosque.com, refer to non-Muslim Westerners as "wicked," "corrupt" and "our clear enemies."
Sometimes Jews are singled out. "Is it permissible for women to wear high-heeled shoes?" begins one posting in question-and-answer format. "That is not permissible," comes the reply. "It involves resembling the Disbelieving Women or the wicked women. It has its origin among the Jewish women."
Modern pastimes are condemned. "What is the ruling on subscribing to sports channels?" another question begins. "Watching some of the female spectators, when the camera focuses on them time after time" stirs "evil inclinations," the lesson reads. "Some (players) may not even believe in Allaah."
Mosque leaders refused repeated requests for an interview. A disclaimer on the website says questions and answers do not necessarily reflect the mosque's views. But the About Us page says: "All questions and answers on this site (are) prepared, approved and supervised by (the mosque's imam) Bashir Yusuf Shiil."
The mosque's stand on the UPS case also appears contradictory. In September, a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal heard two weeks of testimony from eight mosque members alleging "Islamophobia" at the company's west Toronto plant. Three final days of testimony are scheduled for next week.
The eight women, who lost their jobs at UPS, say Islam dictates that they wear a full-length skirt for modesty. The courier company insists that any skirt be knee-length for safety, as workers climb ladders up to 6 metres high. Under their skirt, the women wear full-length trousers but say they do not want the lower part showing in case the shape of the calf can be discerned.
The complaint originally centred on the company's use of temporary workers and uneven enforcement of its safety rules.
But the key question remains: Is UPS insisting on shorter hems for safety or is it violating religious rights by denying the women permanent jobs unless they conform?
So far, no Khalid Bin Al-Walid Mosque representative has attended the sessions, but the women cited the mosque as their place of worship and religious authority, and tabled a letter from its administration. "This is to certify that the religion of Islam requires all Muslim women to cover her entire body inclusive of the legs, arms, head, ears and neck," the letter reads. "As such, (the women) would not be able to wear pants as an outfit."
On the other hand, the mosque's website teachings forbid women to work outside the home in the first place. "It is known that when women go to work in the workplaces of men, this leads to mixing with men," one such posting says. "This is a very dangerous matter," it reads. "It is in clear opposition to the texts of the Shariah that order the women to remain in their houses and to fulfill the type of work that is particular for her ...
"We ask Allah to protect our land and the lands of all Muslims from the plots and machinations of their enemies."
Two of the women making the complaint -- Dales Yusuf, 46, and Nadifo Yusuf (no relation), 36 -- said in an interview that they live in Canada now, and are free to pick and choose from Islamic law.
"We must work," said Dales Yusuf. "I'm a single parent raising my kids." Jacquie Chic, a lawyer with the Workers' Action Centre representing the women at the hearings, said neither she nor her clients were aware of the mosque's posted teachings. "I, the Workers' Centre and these women are concerned enormously about any expression of anti-Semitism or any other form of racism," she said.
Questions to the mosque about its teachings were met with evasiveness over three weeks. Mosque chairman Osman Mohamed three times agreed to an interview and three times cancelled at last minute. Imam Shiil was said to be in Saudi Arabia and unreachable. Mosque administrator Abukar Mohamed confused matters further by appearing to agree with UPS, saying: "The Quran says women must be covered -- it doesn't give you the specific clothes. But I am not a religious authority."
#1
Thanks to Fat Albert and his Global Warming, another brutally cold winter is about to hit Montreal. A little more heat would surely be welcome in these circumstances.
#2
Cripes, these people are freaks. These women should be told to stay at home or adhere to the UPS clothing guidelines. UPS should not have to adhere to their nutso religion that is so contradictory it can't be adhered to.
Or if they insist on wearing their full length dresses, give them the job of janitor and have them clean the mens shitters. At significantly reduced pay.
President-elect Barack Obama's incoming administration is considering a regional strategy to the war in Afghanistan that could include talks with Iran, the Washington Post reported Tuesday.
The newspaper, citing unnamed Obama national security advisers, also said the incoming officials support talks between the Afghan government of Hamid Karzai and "reconcilable" members of the Taliban.
Do American newspapers ever again intend to name a source?
Once he takes over as president of the United States on Jan. 20, Obama intends to renew the U.S. focus on hunting down Osama bin Laden, responsible for the deadly Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S., the Obama advisers told the Post. They said this will be a priority for the new administration and that the president-elect believes President Bush has played down after years of failing to apprehend the al-Qaeda leader.
The newspaper reported that several Obama advisors and senior military strategists share the opinion that the administration of George W. Bush "has been hampered by ideological and diplomatic constraints and an unrealistic commitment to the goal of building a modern democracy" in Afghanistan.
A more realistic goal would be to help build a stable Afghanistan that rejects Islamist extremism and does not threaten U.S. interests, the officials told the Post. None of the Obama advisers or the military strategists would speak openly, "citing sensitivities surrounding the presidential transition and the war itself," the Post said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#1
A chance to send Secretary of State John F Kerry to Kabul. No doubt his charm will pacify all the violent elements in Iran and Pakistan.
#2
George W. Bush "has been hampered by ideological and diplomatic constraints and an unrealistic commitment to the goal of building a modern democracy" in Afghanistan
Gee. That's funny. I heard W mention as soon as all this started and on several occasions afterwards that the intention was to install a democracy, but that we shouldn't expect it to look like what we're used to. I guess I don't understand English as well as I thought.
#4
This "regional strategy" stuff sounds sophisticated, but it's really, really stupid, especially the "talking with Iran" part. Besides, I've seen it all before - newly elected Democrat presidents coming up with some lame policy just to contrast themselves with the former Repub president.
Posted by: me myself and I ||
11/12/2008 6:32 Comments ||
Top||
#5
several Obama advisors and senior military strategists share the opinion that the administration of George W. Bush "has been hampered by ideological and diplomatic constraints and an unrealistic commitment to the goal of building a modern democracy" in Afghanistan.
The Party is much more comfortable with dictators than democracies. Ignorant third world serfs need to be led by their betters.
GUWAHATI - Twelve days after the wave of bombings in Assam that killed 83 people and wounded 300 more, police on Tuesday said evidence suggests the involvement of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) in triggering the explosions, rejecting earlier theories of Islamist terror groups being directly involved in the attacks.
Police and officials of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the serial bombings of October 30 claim to have almost reached the final stage of the investigations with all evidences pointing towards the NDFB, in a ceasefire with New Delhi since 2005. The sequence of events before and after the explosions in Guwahati (three blasts), Kokrajhar, Barpeta, and Bongaigaon are sensational.
Investigators have found that three Maruti cars used in the Guwahati bombings were all purchased by NDFB cadres, while a motorbike used in the Bongaigaon blast was also owned by a NDFB rebel. No police official, however, would like to come on record. According to investigators, plans for executing the serial blasts were chalked out by NDFB chairman Ranjan Daimary, believed to be based in Bangladesh. Daimary was apparently unhappy over the slow progress of the peace talks with New Delhi and did the planning with the support of the Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami (HuJI).
The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) had a minimal role in the blasts, officials said. “The NDFB masterminded the bombings with the ULFA giving a helping hand to the terror strike with support from the HuJI. But it was the NDFB that is primarily responsible,” a police official said, requesting not to be named.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Bodo? For a minute there I was thinking "Norway", where the only Bodo I know exists.
India needs to break a few "liberation groups". Begin in Bangladesh, where the money and the ideology comes from.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/12/2008 11:45 Comments ||
Top||
Dulaim, Iraq - Dulaim is an Iraqi village transformed. Where masked gunmen from Al Qaeda in Iraq once imposed their will with killings and even stole irrigation pumps, today numerous Iraqi Army, police, and local Sunni militia checkpoints attest to new levels of security.
The change has been dramatic. It is the result of this farming hamlet deciding last January to change sides, reluctantly turning away from Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and toward US and Iraqi forces.
But despite recently paying a high price for that shift, this village is determined not to turn back.
AQI struck in late September, killing 22 in the most lethal attack in a year in troubled eastern Diyala Province.
Instead of fear or failure, however, the unexpected response has been a recommitment to fight.
Among the dead was Sheikh Thamir Hassan Ali, the man who last year was forced by AQI to flee this village. He was then brought back in January by US Army helicopter in a predawn operation that the Monitor joined.
Sheikh Thamir's death highlights the challenges that persist across Iraq in trying to snuff out AQI – and in maintaining the morale of the Sons of Iraq (SOI), also known as Awakening guards. The US-supported Sunni militias have fought AQI, but face continued violence and an uncertain future as the government, this week, takes over paying their salaries.
The Shiite-led government was to make its first payments on Tuesday in Baghdad to more than 50,000 members of the SOI, many of them former Sunni insurgents stood up and paid for by US forces. But for months, concern has grown among Sunnis and US officers alike that the government – long opposed to the SOI concept – would renege. Some US units, worried about a resurgence of AQI attacks if the SOI were to be disbanded or not paid, have set aside cash to fill any initial gaps.
The saga of Dulaim is playing out against an overall uptick of violence. A female suicide bomber killed five on Monday in the provincial capital, Baquba. In Baghdad, three died in explosions on Tuesday; 28 were killed the day before, when three successive blasts ripped through a market.
"We will finish and kill Al Qaeda. The key thing we need is support of the coalition," says Sheikh Mohammad Hussein, whose father and younger brother were key SOI leaders in the Dulaim area killed in the Sept. 24 ambush with Sheikh Thamir.
"I will take my father's job to protect [my village] from bad guys and fight against [AQI]," says Sheikh Hussein of the district 20 miles northeast of Baghdad. "Now Al Qaeda is very weak in this area, but there are snipers and incidents."
Sheikh Thamir once held such optimism, though Diyala Province had long been an AQI stronghold. In 2006 and 2007, no US or Iraqi troops made it along roads laced with bombs to this remote village of 300 Sunnis. AQI operated with impunity, publicly killing one man who opposed them, imposing strict new social rules, and forcing villagers into a pact to reject any US or Iraqi military presence.
The U.S. military in Iraq is abandoning -- deliberately and with little public notice -- a centerpiece of the widely acclaimed strategy it adopted nearly two years ago to turn the tide against the insurgency. It is moving American troops farther from the people they are trying to protect.
Starting in early 2007, with Iraq on the brink of all-out civil war, the troops were pushed into the cities and villages as part of a change in strategy that included President Bush's decision to send more combat forces. The bigger U.S. presence on the streets was credited by many with allowing the Americans and their Iraqi security partners to build trust among the populace, thus undermining the extremists' tactics of intimidation, reducing levels of violence and giving new hope to resolving the country's underlying political conflicts.
Now the Americans are reversing direction, consolidating in larger bases outside the cities and leaving security in the hands of the Iraqis while remaining within reach to respond as the Iraqi forces require.
The U.S. is on track to complete its shift out of all Iraqi cities by June 2009. That is one of the milestones in a political-military campaign plan devised in 2007 by Gen. David Petraeus, when he was the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and his political partner in Baghdad, Ambassador Ryan Crocker. The goal also is in a preliminary security pact with the Iraqi government on the future U.S. military presence.
The shift is not explicitly linked to U.S. plans for increasing its military presence in Afghanistan, but there is an important connection: The logistical resources needed to house and supply a larger and more distributed U.S. force in Afghanistan have been tied up in Iraq. To some extent that will be relieved with the consolidation of U.S. forces in Iraq onto larger, outlying bases that are easier to maintain.
These moves coincide with priorities expressed by President-elect Obama during his campaign: reducing the U.S. military commitment in Iraq and putting more resources into Afghanistan. It also fits with Petraeus' view that a more robust counterinsurgency approach is needed in Afghanistan, meaning not only a larger number of troops but also getting them spread out into more villages.
It's also part of the plan Bush and Petreaus developed, but you can see how Josh Marshall at TPM is already trying to give Obama credit for something he didn't do.
But it also points up a major gamble in Iraq -- namely, that the Iraqis are ready to handle the insurgency themselves.
Stephen Biddle, a senior fellow for defense policy at the Council on Foreign Relations and an occasional adviser to Petraeus, is among those who worry about the consequences of excluding U.S. forces from the cities. "It gets us out of the way" should Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki decide to use Iraqi security forces to crush the U.S.-allied Sunni neighborhood militia groups who have been instrumental in attacking extremist elements of the insurgency, Biddle said in an e-mail exchange. Al-Maliki sees those militiamen, whom the U.S. has dubbed "Sons of Iraq," as an internal threat to Shiite political predominance.
Biddle said that on balance he believes the risks are more likely to outweigh the benefits of sticking to the June goal.
Retired Army Col. Peter Mansoor, who served as Petraeus' right-hand man in Baghdad during the U.S. troop buildup and has written a book, "Baghdad at Sunrise," about the counterinsurgency effort, also has misgivings. He said in an e-mail exchange Tuesday that his main concern is sectarian violence. "Without U.S. forces in the cities, the Shiite and Sunni militias could once again take to fighting each other without an honest broker to keep the peace," he said. "The Iraqi army is not ready to play this role, in my view -- not yet, anyway."
Ready or not, U.S. commanders are marching steadily in that direction -- and not just in Baghdad.
Brig. Gen. Martin Post, deputy commander of U.S. forces in western Iraq, where the Sunni insurgency has sharply abated -- if not almost disappeared -- since 2007, said Monday his outfit is shutting down the U.S. base at Fallujah. The U.S. headquarters elements there are moving to al-Asad air base, a large but remote facility in the vast desert halfway between Fallujah and the Syrian border. "There's been a big effort to move all the Marine forces out of the cities," Post said in a videoconference with reporters at the Pentagon. "And so as you go throughout, from Fallujah all the way up the Euphrates River Valley, up to al-Qaim -- where we used to have Marines actually living in the cities -- we've pulled them all out."
#1
The dems and the media have been calling for the Iraqi government to stand up for a few years now. Well, we are giving them the chance. They have the capability, the question is do they have the will.
#2
I think the change was initiated last spring in Basra, when Maliki confronted the Shia thugs without our concurrence (supposedly) and before we thought the government forces were ready - and they handled the job pretty well (for an Arab army). To me that was like taking the training wheels off the bike and just running along with a hand on the back of the seat - there will be some spills but they're riding the bike themselves now.
Ten Iraqi insurgent groups have agreed to escalate attacks against U.S. and Iraqi forces to derail the proposed U.S.-Iraqi security agreement, an Internet monitoring service said Tuesday. The declaration against "the agreement of disgrace" was announced Nov. 4 in an audio speech by Sheik Abu Wael, a top leader of the Sunni militant Ansar al-Sunnah, who invited other insurgent groups to join, the SITE Intelligence Group said. The security agreement would keep U.S. soldiers in Iraq until 2012.
"Such kinds of agreements are not negated by mere statements of condemnation and denunciation," the sheik said. "Rather, there is necessity for work, jihad, fighting those forces the enemy and those who are loyal to them to recant this agreement"
In his speech, the sheik invited over 15 factions to join. Most of them posted statements accepting the invitation, SITE said. Those groups also include the Jihad and Change Front, Islamic Army in Iraq, Hamas-Iraq, and the Mujahedeen Army in Iraq, SITE said.
Parliament must approve the security deal by the end of the year when the U.N. mandate authorizing the U.S. presence expires. But the proposed agreement has drawn sharp criticism, especially within the majority Shiite community. Without an agreement or a new mandate, the U.S. military would have to cease operations in Iraq.
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni distanced herself on Tuesday from comments by outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert calling for Israel to give up most of the Arab territories it has occupied since 1967, including east Jerusalem, if it wants peace.
In an interview with army radio, Livni, who will lead Olmert's centrist Kadima party into a snap February election, said she was not bound by his policies.
"I am bound by the Kadima platform that I drafted and in which I laid down principles for negotiations with the Palestinians that the whole world can support," said Livni, who is Israel's lead negotiator in the peace talks. "It is possible to conduct the negotiations in my own way without having to arrive at the outcome raised by the outgoing prime minister," Livni said.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Olmert must have Alzheimers Disease. The arabs will NEVER give Israel any peace as long as it exists. Livni is right to distance herself from this senile old fool.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
11/12/2008 11:47 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Livni is right to distance herself from this senile old fool.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem suggested Wednesday that Israeli bombs may be the source of uranium traces that diplomats at the UN nuclear agency said were found at a suspected nuclear site.
That's certainly .. creative ...
Moallem said the leaks by the diplomats about the traces found at the site that was reportedly targeted by Israeli warplanes in September 2007 were politically motivated and aimed at pressuring Syria.
"No one has ever asked himself what kind of Israeli bombs had hit the site, and what did they contain?" he went on, adding that the United States and Israel had "similar acts" of using bombs containing depleted uranium in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Depleted uranium has a different isotope signature. Let's compare. You show us yours ...
"These media leaks are a clear-cut signal that the purpose was to pressure Syria. This means that the subject is not technical but rather political," al-Moallem said at a news conference with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
The latest nuclear accusations against Syria were disclosed by unnamed diplomats at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. They have said samples taken from a suspected nuclear site bombed by Israeli planes last year contained uranium combined with other elements that merit further investigation.
Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said Tuesday his agency is taking allegations of a secret Syrian atomic program seriously and urged Damascus to cooperate fully with his investigation. He also urged other nations with information that could help the investigation to share what they know. Elbaradei declined to comment on what the diplomats had said, telling reporters during a visit to the Czech capital of Prague only that his agency still has "a number of questions" linked to the allegations.
The US has said the facility was a nearly completed reactor that - when on line - could have produced plutonium, a pathway to nuclear arms.
Al-Moallem said the original US contention was that the alleged Syrian reactor was under construction, and not operational. "So the question is: From where the traces of enriched uranium came?"
Syria has previously denied any covert nuclear program, and al-Moallem said Wednesday Damascus was waiting for ElBaradei's report to respond.
IAEA mouthpiece Melissa Fleming said Tuesday the latest findings on Syria were "still being drafted and our assessment and evaluation is still under way." Once the process is finished, the report will be submitted to the IAEA Board of Governors ahead of its next meeting, which is scheduled to take place Nov. 27-28.
#1
The IAF is responsible for uranium traces at the nuclear site. They scattered it around in the raid from the bombing. However, Syria (and their NORK friends) provided the uranium for the party, so both sides are to blame. Now is everyone happy? Hey, we are trying to build on common ground. Work with me, people.
[insert strongly worded statement of condemnation from the UN here]
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
11/12/2008 15:44 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Well, we all agree on one thing: That Uranium should not exist at the site.
Now all we have to do is figure out who the bad guy is.
Claims that traces of uranium were found at the site of an alleged Syrian nuclear reactor which was bombed by Israel last year prompted a row about politically-motivated leaks yesterday. Mohamed El-Baradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said the UN body was taking very seriously allegations that Syria has a hidden atomic programme. But he declined to confirm that uranium had been detected.
And he'll twist himself into a pretzel to keep from confirming it.
Unnamed diplomats said on Monday that samples taken by UN inspectors from Kibar in northern Syria contained traces of uranium combined with other elements. The uranium was processed, suggesting some kind of nuclear link.
The Israelis didn't flatten it because it was a baby-milk factory ...
"It isn't enough to conclude or prove what the Syrians were doing, but the IAEA has concluded this requires further investigation," said a diplomat with links to the Vienna-based watchdog.
Melissa Fleming, an IAEA spokeswoman, said the agency was drafting its first ever report on Syria and had put it on the agenda of the agency's governors meeting at the end of this month. But she added that the IAEA's evaluation of findings from the June visit to the site was not finished and that a public verdict was unwarranted until then. "We regret that people are trying to prejudge the IAEA's technical assessment," she said. "We are, however, accustomed to these kinds of efforts to hype and undermine the process before every meeting of the IAEA board."
These folks could give Carla del Ponte lessons in obfuscating an investigation ...
The IAEA did not challenge the substance of Monday's revelations about the uranium traces. The concern is that the leak of confidential information could jeopardise future Syrian cooperation.
They've been so forthcoming so far, haven't they ...
Syria has repeatedly denied being involved in any illicit nuclear activity. But Damascus fuelled suspicions immediately after last September's Israeli air strike by razing the remains of the bombed structure it described as a military facility and then stonewalling before reluctantly allowing UN inspectors to visit it.
The US says the site, close to the Euphrates river and the Iraqi border, was a secret nuclear reactor that was almost completed before it was attacked. Israel has never publicly acknowledged carrying out the raid but Israeli officials say privately that the attack helped restore its deterrent capability.
The mystery was compounded in August when the Syrian official charged with liaising with the IAEA, General Muhammad Suleiman, was assassinated by a sniper - a killing which remains unexplained and has fuelled speculation that he was murdered to prevent him being questioned about the nuclear issue.
This is going to make it tougher for Bambi to listen to Malley about how reasonable the Ba'athists thugs are in Damascus.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#4
This particular time??? El Baradei has headed up this feckless organization for at least a decade. That would be the same decade that the Iranians have developed a uranium enrichment capability. He is a turd.
#5
google up Amman terror bombing trucks.
The amount of stuff involved, including modified trucks and poison gas, is astonishing, as are estimates of potential casualties. There has been remarkably little followup as to where the stuff came from. I mean in public.
See, poison gas is illegal and there have never been allegations the Jordan had any.
Where did it come from?
The lack of reporting is the dog that didn't bark.
Mucho curiouso
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
11/12/2008 15:01 Comments ||
Top||
#7
remoteman is right, except that Dr. El-Baradei is an Egyptian. If I recall correctly, he headed that country's program seeking a nuclear bomb before becoming a UN bureaucrat.
A female Egyptian lawyer has very publicly recommended that Palestinian and Israeli Arab men begin sexually harassing Israeli Jewish women as a means of pressuring them to leave the region and thereby bringing about the demise of the Jewish state.
In an interview on the pan-Arab Al Arabiyah television network late last month, Nagla Al-Imam said that Israeli women "are fair game for all Arabs, and there is nothing wrong with this...this is a new form of resistance."
In its reporting on the interview, Israel National News noted that ever since signing a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, Egypt has been widely portrayed in the US and Europe as a "moderate" Arab nation dominated by secular people who reject violence and Islamic extremism.
#1
Any scholarly work on why it should be restricted to Israel?
Posted by: Richard Aubrey ||
11/12/2008 15:02 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Already been tested in various Muslim countries ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2008 16:32 Comments ||
Top||
#3
yeah all the women are attracted too the big gold chains and the 70's collared shirts
Posted by: chris ||
11/12/2008 16:51 Comments ||
Top||
#4
How's this for a response: Israeli women shoot any Arab male that even looks twice at them. Two rounds: first to the groin area, second to the head at close range, right between the eyes. Then all said Arab's relatives deported to Gaza after revocation of Israeli citizenship and forfeiture of all assets.
Spunky Israeli women who find themselves harassed should flash their bare breasts at the muzz males doing the harassing telling them they'll never get a touch or taste...followed up quickly with a timely rejoinder: All male muzz follow in the path of Mohammed: they all have small c*ck and and know not how to satisfy their women.
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.
(AKI) - Five men described as devout Muslims possessed extremist material advocating violent jihad and showing images of ritual beheadings, an Australian court was told on Tuesday. The men are accused of conspiring with others to prepare a terrorist act. Crown prosecutor Richard Maidment, said they had allegedly obtained explosives and firearms.
A mosque asking that Canadian workplaces respect a strict Muslim dress code is at the same time disseminating slurs against Jews and Western societies, and warning members against social integration.
President-elect Barack Obama's incoming administration is considering a regional strategy to the war in Afghanistan that could include talks with Iran, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. 
Dulaim, Iraq - Dulaim is an Iraqi village transformed. Where masked gunmen from Al Qaeda in Iraq once imposed their will with killings and even stole irrigation pumps, today numerous Iraqi Army, police, and local Sunni militia checkpoints attest to new levels of security. 
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni distanced herself on Tuesday from comments by outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert calling for Israel to give up most of the Arab territories it has occupied since 1967, including east Jerusalem, if it wants peace.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem suggested Wednesday that Israeli bombs may be the source of uranium traces that diplomats at the UN nuclear agency said were found at a suspected nuclear site. 
