Taliban rebels are still crossing the border from Pakistan to attack targets in Afghanistan and the two key US allies must boost cooperation to stop them, an Afghan spokesman said on Tuesday. The comments come ahead of a planned meeting between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf in Turkey late this month to resolve months of bad blood over the insurgency. Afghanistans problem is clear. Terrorists are crossing the border from the other side of the border and carry out sabotage operations. Theyre active there, Afghan President Hamid Karzais chief spokesman Karim Rahimi told a news conference.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2007 00:00 ||
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British universities will be warned this week that they are being targeted by Islamic extremist groups looking for recruits, reports the Telegraph. A conference of chief security officers will hear that religious radicals remain active on campuses and have infiltrated at least 20 institutions, writes Philip Johnston in the British newspaper. Prof Anthony Glees, of the Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies at Brunel University, will say the threat must be urgently addressed.
The government has issued guidance to universities over how to deal with the threat. Bill Rammell, the higher education minister, said it was real, but not widespread.
But Prof Glees will tell a conference of the Association of University Chief Security Officers in Exeter that there is a danger of complacency.
We must accept this problem is widespread and underestimated, he will say. Unless decisive action against campus extremism is taken, the security situation in the UK can only deteriorate.
Prof Glees believes that extremist group al-Muhajiroun has infiltrated universities, and followers of Omar Bakri Mohammed, its founder, are still operational in several campuses. Another radical group, Hizbut Tahrir, is also active in universities and colleges.
Prof Glees produced a report last year that listed more than 20 institutions where extremist and/or terror groups had been detected.
Prof Glees was concerned that universities were so desperate to fill places with overseas students that they no longer vetted foreign applicants properly or even required hard proof of identity. Muslim organisations and some student groups challenged his claims. Student organisations maintain that radicalism is not widespread and voiced concern that singling out Muslim students could jeopardise trust and confidence between staff and students.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
See also WORLDNEWS/OTHER > GERMANY > Radics threatening to KIDNAP GERMAN CITIZENS. Rising tide of violent Islamism inside Germany.
#4
We must stop these extremists. They've been breaking in to Koran printing factories and tampering with the plates, adding all sorts of unIslamic stuff about jihad and subduing infidels. The sooner we stop this nonsense the better.
Britain is launching a new unit to fight Al Qaeda propaganda, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced on Tuesday. Blair, expected to stand down in the next few weeks amid public anger over his backing for the Iraq war, said it was time for all government departments to unite to win the war of ideas. If you want to take the fight to the terrorists youve got to defeat their propaganda and their ideas as well as their methods, Blair told a monthly news conference. The inter-departmental group will bring together research, information and communications units to generate material to rebut extremist ideology aimed at the media.
Western security analysts have pointed out that Al Qaeda and its offshoots have been very adept at using new media, publishing footage of violent executions and attacks on British forces in Iraq on the Internet within hours of them happening. Al Qaeda has its own media arm, as-Sahab, whose output has included a series of statements by its senior leaders.
Late last year a document issued by a group linked to Al Qaeda spelled out the need for its fighters to carry out a media war parallel to the military war ... because we can observe the effect that the media have on nations. Intelligence officials say Islamist groups have skilfully exploited the Internet both to spread their propaganda and to circulate know-how on topics such as bomb-making and poisons.
Asked why the job could not be left to the Foreign Office, Blair responded: Youve got to accept that today you cant do this simply by looking at these things in different compartments foreign affairs here, home affairs there. It doesnt work like that. He said greater cohesion was needed across government to match up strands of the same fight for example talking to local British communities about how to steer people away from radicalism, as well as funding schools in countries like Pakistan to compete with radical religious seminaries.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2007 00:00 ||
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As there's nothing the government does better than the public (except the military) -- maybe we should be outsourcing the propaganda task?
Posted by: Captain Lewis ||
04/18/2007 8:41 Comments ||
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Asked why the job could not be left to the Foreign Office, Blair responded: "The Foreign Office? The Foreign Office!? You must be joking. That wretched Arabist hive of scum and villainy might as well have their cheques signed by Prince Faisal." Youve got to accept that today you cant do this simply by looking at these things in different compartments foreign affairs here, home affairs there. It doesnt work like that.
BEIJING (AP) - The son of a prominent U.S.-based Chinese Muslim activist was sentenced Tuesday to nine years in prison on subversion charges, state media reported. Ablikim Abdureyim was sentenced in Urumqi, capital of the Muslim Xinjiang region in China's far west, after confessing to charges of "instigating and engaging in secessionist activities," the Xinhua News Agency reported.
Abdureyim's mother, Rebiya Kadeer, once was one of China's most prominent businesswomen but became a critic of the communist government's treatment of Uighurs, Turkic-speaking Muslims in Xinjiang. She was detained in 1999 and sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of endangering state security but was allowed to leave for the United States in 2005.
Kadeer said she had not been informed by the Chinese government or the court about the sentence and denounced the trial process and Abdureyim's conviction. She said her son was innocent. "They would not appoint a lawyer for him and didn't give him an opportunity to defend himself, and they held the hearing in secret," Kadeer said in a telephone interview from her home in Washington, D.C. "On what basis are they convicting my son?"
"He was a good boy, always kind to his mother, always shared his ammo ..."
The Urumqi court convicted Abdureyim of spreading secessionist articles over the Internet, instigating the public against the government and writing articles that distorted China's human rights and ethnic policies, the report said. He will also be denied political rights for three years, Xinhua said. Under Chinese law, political rights include free speech and the ability to gather or protest.
Abdureyim's two brothers were convicted of tax evasion last year.
Runs in the family, does it?
Alim Abdureyim was sentenced to seven years in prison and fined $62,500 while his older brother, Kahar, was fined $12,500 but not jailed. Kadeer has said the charges are all false and her sons are innocent.
"Lies! All lies!"
The Washington-based Uyghur American Association, of which Kadeer is president, said in November that during his detention, Abdureyim had been carried out of the Tianshan Detention Center in Urumqi on a stretcher, and that the group feared he may have been "beaten or tortured."
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2007 00:00 ||
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IONews. MARIANAS VARIETY > US Cdr - TAIWAN is the reason for the US military buildup on Guam and Pacific regions; + CHIN MIL FORUM Poster > claims all of China's PLAN XIA Sub missles are all pointed only at Guam, ergo no need for China to target US mainland. *The USA is hurting China's feelings by NOT getting out of future Chinese territory in Guam-Marianas-WEST/CENTPAC [besides also HAWAII + 1/2 of CONUS-NORAM]???
#3
Gromky, a friend of mine is Uighur and I still have my bicycle. He's always been a decent and very interesting guy; I learn a lot about China from him.
#4
The Chinese treat the Uighurs pretty shabbily, as they do all non-Chinese. They've been trying to "rid" China of these "unwanted elements" for the last hundred years, regardless of who's in power. Momma causes China to "lose face", so the Chinese government takes it out on her children. There IS an insurgency in Xinjiang province, but the majority of it is being waged by Uighurs and Tatars from China's neighbors to the west.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/18/2007 7:41 Comments ||
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We should discuss this with the Chinese after the Islam has submitted/gone. Just as we had to tolerate Stalin to defeat Hitler, so we will have to choose here. I nominate the Chinese as the lesser and more rational (only by comparison) evil. They can be dealt with later as was the former Soviet Union.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Members of the European Parliament told U.S. lawmakers Tuesday that CIA tactics for spiriting away terrorism suspects are illegal. The parliamentarians' briefing for House members concerned CIA renditions, the practice of grabbing terror suspects in one country and delivering them to another country for questioning.
The briefing came the same day it was disclosed that CIA Director Michael Hayden had privately complained to European diplomats last month that a European Parliament report written by a member of the delegation had exaggerated the extent of the renditions. Hayden made a case that the renditions were an essential tool that had helped the United States and European countries fight international terror, according to a Western official familiar with his remarks.
Which somehow is less important than 1) observing the proper form for appeasement and 2) not inciting violence amongst the ultra-sensitive Euro-Muslim population. Phooey.
The European delegation, which includes members of a European Parliament civil liberties panel, briefed members of two House Foreign Affairs subcommittees Tuesday. The hearing on renditions was set up by Democrats, who have sought to exert greater oversight over intelligence activities since taking control of Congress this year.
So let's hear from the Dhimmicrats who think that rendition is improper.
Carlo Fava, the author of a panel report accusing Britain, Poland, Italy and other nations of colluding with the CIA to transport terror suspects to clandestine prisons in third countries, told the members of Congress that the Parliament considers rendition ``an illegal instrument used by the United States in the fight against terrorism,'' according to testimony prepared for the hearing.
Carlo considers it that way, anyway, and that's all you need to know. Really.
As for Hayden's remarks last month, first described in The Washington Post on Tuesday, the CIA director said renditions carried out by the United States before and after the Sept. 11 attacks have all been conducted lawfully. Hayden said that the renditions had taken place with the knowledge and many times assistance of the countries where the suspects were seized, according to the Western official, who requested anonymity because the remarks were made to a private audience.
Hayden told the diplomats that detainees under CIA control had been essential to better understanding of al-Qaida for both the United States and its European partners.
You'd think people would understand that, having criticized the CIA for missing the boat on 9/11, they shouldn't turn around and criticize the CIA now for being vigilant. Well they will, won't they ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2007 00:00 ||
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#2
As during the Cold War, and in an era of global anti-US + WESTERN Nuke, Weapons, Missles, WMDS, + Tech proliferations, you just know the proliferation-happy Russians want friendly social barbecues instead of torturing suspects for information.
#4
"24" to JERICHO > nuclear bombs are gong off in America = Amerika, the USA = USSA/USR, etc. everywhere, thus Amer will be saved as long as we don't retaliate and increase the size and power of local Gubmint - you know, in order to save and protect and defend and secure Amer by making sure we are dominated iff not controlled by Russia-China + anti-US OWG, or destroyed.
#7
To the EU, anything the US does that works is considered "illegal". The bureaucrats in Brussels would LOVE to see the US crippled and humiliated, and most would help in any way they could. The EU is a territorial manifestation of the UN, and its sole duty is to harm the United States - politically, socially, culturally, and economically. Tell the unelected, unrepresentative Brussels parasites to FOAD.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/18/2007 7:46 Comments ||
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Dear EU Committee: Please show me the US law that says that CIA renditions are illegal. EU law does not apply here. If you can't show me the applicable law passed by the US Congress, then STFU.
#9
Common law - from the Norse 1000 years ago.
Legally declare someone an outlaw.
Outlaw doesn't mean they operate outside the law; it means they have no protection from the law.
Terrorists are outlaws
QED
#10
Time is on the American side. For these Euro tranzis, time is fast running out and the butcher's bill has to be paid for such insults as Lepanto and Gates of Vienna.
Posted by: ed ||
04/18/2007 14:09 Comments ||
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I too am appalled by the CIA renditions. There simply aren't enough of them happening to stem the tide of Islamisation in the West.
I have concluded those in our government don't care if we commit national suicde, just as long as they don't get criticized by those who wish us evil.
The United States could take in up to 25,000 Iraqi refugees this year -- more than three times the number it previously agreed to admit -- in an effort to provide some relief to the crisis affecting several Arab countries, the State Department said yesterday.
The department also said it plans to allow Iraqis and Afghans working for the U.S. government in their respective countries to immigrate to the United States after only three years of service instead of the current 15 required by law.
"It's fair to say that, if we get the referrals [from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees], we could resettle up to 25,000 Iraqi refugees within the president's determination this year," said Ellen Sauerbrey, assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration.
The Bush administration, criticized for resettling only 466 Iraqis since the war began in 2003, said last month that it could accept as many as 7,000 of the more than 2 million Iraqi refugees this year. The annual worldwide refugee cap set by Congress is 75,000.
In order to prevent any terrorists and other dangerous Iraqis from coming to the United States, the Department of Homeland Security is conducting detailed interviews in several countries in the region, U.S. officials said. They declined to discuss specific questions and techniques being used in the process, but said they are taking all necessary measures to screen applicants sufficiently.
Posted by: ed ||
04/18/2007 17:59 ||
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I assume Ellen Sauerbrey will personally vouch for every terrorist admitted under this travisty.
Two Detroit-area men have been charged with spying for Saddam Husseins intelligence service, supplying the executed dictators regime with information about its enemies in the United States, according to federal court documents unsealed today.
Ghazi Al-Awadi, 78, of Dearborn, allegedly told the Iraqi Intelligence Service in 1997 that he killed his son-in-law because the man belonged to an anti-Hussein political party, court documents said. Najib Shemami, 59, of Sterling Heights, allegedly provided Iraqi intelligence with information about Iraqi expatriates who might be called upon to guide U.S. troops during the invasion of Iraq and potential political candidates for the new government.
The charges were based on Iraqi intelligence documents captured by U.S. forces in Iraq. The men are believed to be the first Detroit-area residents to be charged on the basis of such documents, which were authenticated by former members of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.
On Monday, a federal jury in Chicago convicted Sami Latchin, 59, of Des Plaines, Ill., of working as an Iraqi sleeper agent, spying on Iraqi dissidents in the United States. He is facing a possible 40-year prison sentence.
Al-Awadis lawyer, Deputy Federal Defender Richard Helfrick, declined to comment. Shemamis lawyer, Juan Mateo of Detroit, said: Ive known the family for many years now. They are a hardworking Chaldean family that, in my opinion, would never do anything to hurt the United States.
Both men are charged with conspiring to act as agents of a foreign government without the approval of the attorney general, and acting as an agent for a foreign government. Shemami also is charged with violating the U.S. International Emergency Powers Act and making false statements to the FBI. The most serious charge against Shemami, violating the emergency powers act, carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The most serious charge against Al-Awadi, acting as a foreign agent, carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald Scheer freed both men on $10,000 bonds following brief appearances Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit. He ordered both men to surrender their passports.
Both men are U.S. citizens. Shemami is married, has nine children, has lived in the United States for about 40 years and is disabled, Mateo said. Al-Awadi, who lives alone in an apartment and appeared frail and hard of hearing during today's court hearing, has been in the United States since 1974, court records said. He has seven children and lives on Social Security. In 1996, he was paroled from the Michigan Department of Corrections after serving six years of a 5-to-15-year sentence for manslaughter in the stabbing of his son-in-law, Imad Muttar, in Dearborn.
The captured documents said Al-Awadi, code named Ghassan, met with Iraqi officials in 1997, offered to cooperate and said he had killed his son-in-law for belonging to the Al-Dawa Party in the United States. The documents said he provided information about a retired Iraqi physician who was planning to flee to the United States and his nephew, a major general in Iraq, who allegedly was put under surveillance as a result of Al-Awadis information.
When the FBI interview him in 2006, he denied working as an Iraqi agent, court documents said, adding that he had gone overseas in 1997, 2001 and 2002 to visit family members.
#1
U.S. Magistrate Judge Donald Scheer freed both men on $10,000 bonds following brief appearances Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Detroit. He ordered both men to surrender their passports.
Absolutely apalling, unspeakably harsh treatment for such outstanding, patriotic, welfare recipient Muztown citizens.
#4
I believe Detroit has a record of handling those who rat on the mob. The titles of the parties may have changed, but the outcome will probably be the same.
Pakistan will disintegrate and divide if former prime minister Benazir Bhutto comes to power again, MMA Secretary General Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Tuesday. He says that like it's a bad thing...
Pakistan will break up and divide if the PPP comes to power again after the upcoming general elections, Fazl, also the chief of JUI-F, told a JUI-F convention at the Auqaf Hall. Fazl said he could not understand why Ms Bhutto was unwilling to sit with the MMA. I think she doesnt want to sit with us because this will annoy the West and the US. Fazl said the US wanted Ms Bhutto in power because she had told them that General Musharraf had failed to do the task entrusted to him.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2007 00:00 ||
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And this would necessarily be a bad thing because...?
#7
I read the headline and thought of the Navy's designation of the Iowa, Missouri, and others. same result, however if those 16 inch guns could reach that shitstain.
The Lal Masjid administration on Tuesday withdrew its decision to suspend talks with the government and announced that they had resumed negotiations to try and find a peaceful end to the standoff in the capital.
Lal Masjid chief cleric Maulana Abdul Aziz on Monday announced the suspension of the talks after two army helicopters flew over the mosque and adjacent Jamia Hafsa madrassa, took pictures of unveiled girl students and sprayed a gas on them that caused suffocation. He saw the incident as a prelude to a crackdown on the mosque and its two madrassas.
However, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, Azizs brother and deputy, told Daily Times on Tuesday: We hope the talks will move forward in the right direction. I request Chaudhry Shujaat to institute an inquiry into the helicopter surveillance flights and spray of chemical gas on Jamia Hafsa.
After the announcement that talks were back on, a committee, comprising clerics Maulana Nazir Faroqee and Maulana Zahoor Alvi chosen by Ghazi, along with Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Chaudhry Muhammad Ali, Capital Development Authority (CDA) Member (Planning) Nusratullah, Auqaf Department Deputy Director Malik Afsar and a representative of PML President Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, visited the demolished Al-Safa Mosque in I-8 and met with the prayer leader of the mosque.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2007 00:00 ||
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Damn, somebody actualy listened, I suggested retch gas last week.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/18/2007 6:15 Comments ||
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Some 350 opposition activists were arrested from the twin cities on Tuesday, before the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) resumes the hearing of the presidential reference against Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry today (Wednesday). Opposition parties said they would go ahead with plans to stage peaceful rallies across the country, including outside the Supreme Court (SC) building in Islamabad, while the government warned of stern action if the protestors disturbed law and order.
On Tuesday, police arrested at least 270 opposition activists, mostly of the PML-Nawaz and Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, in Rawalpindi to thwart their protest plans. Hanif Abbasi, MMA MNA from Rawalpindi, has reportedly gone into hiding.
Islamabad police arrested around 80 activists of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) including Mian Muhammad Aslam, an MNA from Islamabad. The JI workers were shifted to Jhelum and Aslam to a rest house near Simly Dam.
Opposition leaders said the protests would go ahead despite the arrests. The PPP will rally from its central secretariat despite the fact that hundreds of our workers have been arrested in Rawalpindi, PPP MNAs Nayar Hussain Bukhari and Ghulam Murtaza Satti told a press conference in Islamabad.
The government is hunting for our workers and we have asked them to go underground, PML-N Information Secretary Ahsan Iqbal told Daily Times.
MMA Secretary General Liaquat Baloch said that thousands from his party would take part in the demonstration on Constitution Avenue, led by Qazi Hussain Ahmad.
Meanwhile, the administrations of Rawalpindi and Islamabad finalised security arrangements and deployed more than 3,000 security personnel in the twin cities.
Four walkthrough gates have been installed on Constitution Avenue for people proceeding to the SC. The district administration has banned the entry into Islamabad of private vehicles carrying loudspeakers.
Islamabad Deputy Commissioner Chaudhry Muhammad Ali said that activist carrying party flags would be denied entry into the SC building and trespassers would be arrested. And the government warned that any violence outside the SC would be dealt with with an iron hand. In view of possible violence, the district administration announced a local holiday for schools and colleges today.
Meanwhile in Karachi, the Sindh High Court issued an order to the entire legal fraternity to observe a full-day strike to protest against the presidential reference against the chief justice. The SHC has issued orders to all the lawyers registered with it as well as the Karachi Bar Association to conduct a complete strike on Wednesday, Advocate Taeeba said. Protesting lawyers will march towards Chief Ministers House.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2007 00:00 ||
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Activists of banned militant organisation Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) are conspiring for the release of their imprisoned colleagues from various jails through violent means, according to intelligence reports submitted to the Interior Ministry.
Daily Times has learnt that the intelligence reports revealed that SSP leaders have directed the organisations district presidents to tell their jailed colleagues to create trouble in jails. The intelligence reports said that SSP presidents of southern Punjab districts, Lahore, Gujranwala, Karachi, Sukkur and Dera Ismail Khan have been directed to help their jailed comrades escape from police custody on their way from jails to courts.
Sources told Daily Times that 48 SSP activists have been imprisoned at Adyala Jail and eight of them are on death row. Most of the SSP activists have been detained in Lahores Kot Lakhpat Jail, the Bahawalpur Central Jail and jails in Karachi, the sources said. The sources said that the National Crisis Management Cell had directed the provincial authorities of the Prisons Department to stay vigilant and foil any escape attempt by the sectarian activists.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2007 00:00 ||
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A clerics convention on the protection of madrassas declared on Tuesday that suicide bombings were un-Islamic and must not be encouraged. A declaration made at the convention organised by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) NWFP, accused secret forces of plotting suicide attacks against Muslims. Nearly 2,000 clerics from across Pakistan participated in the convention. The declaration said that movements like the ones started in Malakand and Khyber Agency and in some parts of the country in the past were initially peaceful, but later turned to militancy and violence because the activists took the law in their hands.
It said that a dangerous situation was developing following an announcement by Islamabads Lal Masjid administration that they would enforce Sharia. They said that the Lal Masjid administration was trying to exploit peoples sentiments. They demanded that the government resolve the issue through talks and avoid the use of force. However, the clerics unanimously declared that no person should challenge the writ of the law.
NWFP Chief Minister Akram Durrani said no madrassa in the province and the tribal areas was involved in terrorism, adding that some secret forces were creating law and order problems to bring a bad name to the provincial government.
AFP adds: The clerics convention also opposed enforcement of Sharia by force. They also declared illegal and un-Islamic threats to hairdressers against shaving off beards and attacks on video shops in the name of curbing obscenity in the NWFP. Looks like the big turbans can smell a shitstorm on the way and they're reaching for umbrellas.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2007 00:00 ||
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A clerics convention on the protection of madrassas declared on Tuesday that suicide bombings were un-Islamic and must not be encouraged.
Especially now that this gruesome tactic is being used by Muslims against other Muslims. So long as it was only against the hated Jews it wasn't a problem. This is just more of the usual opportunistic crapulence.
Here's a suggestion, why don't you take your beloved Yusuf Qaradawi and string him up from a lamp post real soon. You can thank that waste of skin for his fatwas condoning murder bombings. That's one of the only ways you can prove your determination to end this disgusting practice. To be clear, lip service ain't going to cut it. Offing your radical imams is what it will take.
The clerics convention also opposed enforcement of Sharia by force.
Now that the no-fun hard boyz are in town you've all realized that things get a little squirrely. Too fucking bad. Of course, no mention is made of simply overpopulating an area and then democratically imposing sharia law at that point, even if it means misery for any Infidels. Once again, it's all lip service until they begin racking and stacking the hard boyz.
#3
These statements are non-positives. Isn't a non-positive permitted for taquiyya, or do I remember incorrectly?
In any case, I'll bet everything I own that if these clerics would not relinquish an area that was forced to be Islamic in the past if they found one any more than I am about to donate my property to the Indian tribes who were here long before I was.
To me it seems like they are doing the minimum possible to mitigate that $hitstorm that Fred mentioned. Does the language for this fatwah seem as forceful as usual for something they are truly against, or was it intended for external consumption only?
#5
The same madrassahs from which the Taliban are traditionally recruited. Too many parents asking where the sons entrusted to said clerics' care have disappeared to, perhaps?
BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki said on Tuesday that a panel of experts would examine the cases of the thousands of detainees held in US and Iraqi jails and free those with no charges to answer. In a statement released after a cabinet meeting in Baghdad, Maliki said: A committee specialised in reviewing detainees affairs in the prisons run by Iraqi authorities and multinational forces had been formed.
The judiciary will set free all those who havent been charged while those charged would be sent before the judiciary, he said.
In the four years since a US invasion overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein, thousands of suspected criminals and insurgents have been rounded up, while Iraqs judicial system has failed to keep up with the case load. And, in some cases, security detainees are held without trial in a process which has been condemned by human rights groups. Iraqi interior ministry forces have also been accused of maintaining secret prisons.
You'd think the HR groups would want us to run Abu Ghraib again.
Last year, the Iraqi ministry of human rights estimated that there were 28,000 prisoners in Iraq, just over half of them in US military custody.
Those are the ones trying to kill our people.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/18/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Are trying to determine iff any Wascaly Wabbits got themselves arrested under false pretenses in order to save themselves from being sent to North Korea???
#2
Don't suppose they're planning to run a tandem program in which victims of the detainees have an opprtunity to press charges and make identifications? No of course not, release them all, they're all innocent babes.
BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Tuesday the withdrawal of ministers loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had not weakened his government and he would name technocrats to replace them soon.
"Nope, nope, not a drop of blood spilled, nope ..."
The withdrawal does not mean the government is witnessing weakness, Maliki told reporters after a regular cabinet session in his first public remarks on the walkout.
Maliki said the appointment of technocrats would help the government escape from (sectarian) quotas and also helps in choosing ministers who are professionals and politicians. In the near future, the names of the ministers will be announced ... from the independents, technocrats and those who believe in a new Iraq, Maliki said.
Malikis administration is dominated by sectarian parties drawn from the countrys Shiite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish groups. Iraqis have long complained that the sectarian makeup of the national unity government has hindered Maliki, forcing him to tread carefully to keep his various constituencies happy, and turned ministries into personal fiefdoms of political blocs.
Analysts had said they did not expect the walkout to affect the day-to-day performance of Malikis government since the ministers did not hold any key portfolios, but it could increase pressure on him to draw up a troop withdrawal timetable, a demand of many terrorist Iraqis four years after the US-led invasion.
Many of these Iraqis would be pleading for us to return if we leave too early.
The Sadrists, who form the single biggest parliamentary bloc in the ruling Shiite Alliance, called on Maliki to appoint non-partisan independents, a move the prime minister welcomed.
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04/18/2007 00:00 ||
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Good. Now act like it and start smacking down all of the militias, regardless of sect or alliances.
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has his back against the wall. Last month, 15 members of the Fadhila party left the Shiite Alliance - al-Maliki's most important power base. Later, all six ministers of the movement led by the radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr left the government. Now al-Maliki has been forced to dismiss Defence Minister Abdul Kader al-Obeidi - a Sunni. Otherwise, the Iraqi Accord Front, which with 44 seats is the strongest party in parliament, threatened to withdraw its seven ministers as well as Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zubai. This would have meant the final break-up of the government. 'Al-Maliki will remain in office for another few months at most,' politicians were speculating at the Arab Summit in Riyadh in late March, where Iraq was represented by two Kurdish politicians - President Jalal Talabani and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
In fact, the Shiite prime minister is increasingly struggling to juggle US strategy, the power interests of rival Shiite parties, the influence of Iran, the Kurdish strive for independence and the constant criticism from dissatisfied Sunnis.
Officially, the Sadr movement has justified its resignation from the government with al-Maliki's refusal to provide a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq. But there is another reason why the Sadr followers are distancing themselves from the prime minister. In February and after hesitating for a long time, al- Maliki finally succumbed to pressure from Washington. Since then, US troops and the British military can more or less do as they wish in raids and attacks on the Sadr movement's militia. The US and Iraqi Sunnis have accused the Mahdi Army of murdering thousands of Sunnis solely on the basis of their religious beliefs.
At the same time, a new front is opening in Basra. In the southern Iraqi oil city, a serious power struggle has broken out between the various Shiite parties, in which the alliances are not entirely clear. The only thing that is certain is that the Fadhila party, which supplies the governor of the city and is steering an independent course in Baghdad as well as Basra, is coming increasingly under pressure.
Al-Maliki was selected as prime minister after the parliamentary elections in December 2005 because he seemed to be a centrist. Unlike other members of the Shiite majority, he does not have a particularly close relationship with Tehran. His Dawa party also has fewer armed men than the Sadr movement or the third largest Shiite party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI).
Yet, by now hardly anyone believes that the present government will last much longer. On the one hand, because more than 500 civilians have been murdered or blown up in Baghdad over the past two months despite the new security plan. On the other hand, because the US Democrats are exerting pressure on President George W Bush over the Iraq dilemma, which might finally mean that al-Maliki will have to leave.
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04/18/2007 00:00 ||
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Yes, it is Eason Jordan's site. However, I have been reading it closely for several weeks and they do a good job of sourcing.
The organization known as the Islamic State of Iraq has apparently issued a recorded statement from its alleged leader, known as Abu Umar al-Baghdadi, on the occasion of the four-year mark since the US invasion. In the statement, the so-called emir of the al-Qa'ida linked group, seems to respond to divisions reportedly emerging in the ranks of armed Sunni groups, calling for the mujahidin to preserve their unity. He also mocks US forces' performance on the battlefield, and argues that the Iraq war has not turned out the way its planners had intended.
In the call for unity, the statement reminds the mujahidin that: It was not us, O servants of God, who violated your mothers, and sisters and daughters in Abu Ghraib, and put it out on the television screens, to humiliate you, adding It was not us who raped Sabrin in plain daylight, referring to the Sunni woman who claimed she had been raped by Iraqi Interior Ministry forces.
Highlighting the alliance between the Iraqi government and the American forces, Baghdadi says, Those who did these things agree on the preservation of the system of the occupation.
As the IHT has earlier reported, using a translation prepared by the SITE Institute, Baghdadi also says, "We swear to you we don't shed the protected blood of Muslims intentionally. If I hear otherwise, I will set up a council of judges . . . so even the weakest person in Iraq could take his rights, even if from my blood," he said.
On one point, Baghdadi expresses agreement with US officials, saying that he concurs with those who say that Iraq has become a university for terrorism, saying As for the military aspect, believe one of their demons who said, if Afghanistan is a school for terrorism, then Iraq is the university for terrorism. Building on the theme, Baghdadi announced the graduation of the largest batch in Iraqi history of officers of jihad for Gods behalf, to the highest global degree. Indeed, the studies are continuous, summer and winter, day and night, he said.
He added that the fear of the US Marines had faded in the hearts of the mujahidin, saying that the fighters had become thousands, after having been very few in number at the fall of the previous Iraqi regime.
Elsewhere, he says, It was not Bushs assumption, nor the assumption of those who planed his futile war that the people of Iraq would start to compete, not to offer flowers and obedience . . . hundreds ask for death that they may live with God, referring to suicide operations including suicide bombings, in a clear counterpoint to the US and Iraqi claims that many of the suicide bombers that have struck in Iraq are foreigners.
As for the women of Iraq, who have shed tears asking martyrdom operations, we forbid them from implementing the objectives that men can implement, excepting in special circumstances that make it difficult for men, Baghdadi continues: "the war has emptied the American budget at the expense of social security, health, and education spending, saying that those responsible, naming Donald Rumsfeld, George Tenet, and John Bolton, will sit in the defendants bench.
On the military front, Baghdadi announces for the first time that the Islamic State of Iraq has gained the capabilities to produce its own missiles,
As earlier announced by the SITE institute, the recording is Baghdadis longest recording yet, at nearly 42 minutes.
China and Switzerland have informed Palestinian officials they will deal with the new Palestinian unity government made up of the moderate Fatah movement and the Islamic militant Hamas group, the information minister said yesterday. Both nations said their policy had not changed, and both have dealt with Hamas in the past, but the development appeared to reinforce a Palestinian effort to win recognition for their new government. Special envoys from the two countries met recently with Foreign Minister Ziad Abu Amr.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
No surprise here. Two brutally mercenary nations want to make nice with some vicious thugs. BFD.
#4
What Pappy said. China is hungry for raw materials as their economy expands, and plans to be hungrier yet. They've been buying up or locking up oil all over the world -- there was a bit of a stink when it was noticed they'd bought up a significant chunk of Canada's oil sands or something, not so long ago. If I recall correctly, they're elbows deep in the messes in Sudan, Nigeria, etc, helping to create situations that drive out the Western companies and ingratiate themselves with the ruling oligarchies.
Hezbollah on Tuesday accused moderate Arab states and the Lebanese March 14 majority coalition of selling out Palestine, seeking to "normalize" relations with Israel and backing an alleged scheme to create a U.S.-controlled Middle East. The Hezbollah position was announced by Mohammed Raad, leader of the party's parliamentary bloc, in a statement to reporters at Parliament headquarters in downtown Beirut, a few meters from the makeshift tent city erected by the opposition since Dec. 1 with the declared objective of toppling Premier Fouad Siniora's majority government. Raad was responding to a statement released late Monday by the Moustaqbal ( Future) movement of MP Saad Hariri, a leader of the March 14 majority which criticized Hezbollah's weapons as "illegitimate."
Raad said the Moustaqbal parliamentary bloc "by describing the resistance weapons as illegitimate went too far with a scheme to reconcile with the Zionists and the Americans who want to create a new Middle East." Such a new Middle East, according to Raad, "is based on recognizing the Zionist entity's (right to exist), normalizing relations with it and abolishing any opposition to or resistance of Israeli aggressions."
He charged that "most Arab regimes seek to normalize relations with the Zionist entity." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had vowed that "a new Middle East would be created, but not the one that America wants." Raad noted that the Arab peace plan, reactivated by the recent summit held at the Saudi capital of Riyadh in March is based on the original blueprint adopted in Beirut in 2002. "The original text involved concessions that are a precedent in recognizing the legitimacy of the Zionist occupation of the 1948 lands and reflected a decision to negotiate over the lands occupied in 1967," Raad said. "We will not discuss this Arab viewpoint, but describing the resistance weapons as illegitimate falls in line with the Israeli stand and the American stand. This requires explanation not just by this bloc (Moustaqbal) but by its higher authorities and masters and its masses," Raad added.
The Moustaqbal bloc's stand, according to Raad, is "very serious at the strategic level and casts doubt about the feasibility of any dialogue." He also charged the parliamentary majority of pushing the international tribunal's law to the U.N. Security Council to be approved under chapter seven of the international organization's charter. "Chapter seven will not solve the Lebanese people's problem. The tribunal is not the problem. The problem is in the government," Raad said in reference to demands by the Hezbollah-led opposition to control veto powers in any new government.
The opposition which is backed by Syria and funded by Iran does not control majority of parliament's 128-seats. The Hezbollah MP said approving the international tribunal by the U.N. Security Council under chapter seven is tantamount to "placing Lebanon under an international mandate."
He vowed that Hezbollah will declare its position regarding such an international resolution on time. However, he asked the Lebanese people: "where would our sovereignty be if Lebanon becomes open to all intelligence agencies of the world?"
Many reactions are expected to follow Hezbollah announcement on the Arab peace plan. This is the same position taken by Hamas . Both Hamas and Hezbollah are funded by Iran.
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Sheikh Mohammad el Hajj Hassan, leader of Lebanons Free Shiite Movement said the speech that was delivered last Sunday by Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah lacks sanity and objectivity. He added "the speech neither served the interest of Hezbollah nor the interest of the Shiites community in Lebanon".
Hajj Hassan added : Let me say that the fig leaf was dropped ...It was dropped several times during Nasrallah speech and clearly revealed that his plans in the region are linked to those of Iran." Hajj Hassan said that Hezbollah is doing the impossible to make sure the International Tribunal for trying the suspects in the murder of Hariri never takes place. He is doing so intentionally to protect the criminals and those behind them. He said "Nasrallah cannot figure out operating within the countrys law and order and without his arms and wants to use his arms to force his own will on the Lebanese people."
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French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday and pledged continued French support for Lebanon's independence if elected. "There will be continuity in this policy, which is a balanced policy," Sarkozy, the candidate of the governing party, said following the 40-minute meeting in Paris.
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French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Tuesday and pledged continued French support for Lebanon's independence if elected.
IOW they'll continue to light up IAF planes with their radars and bluster about Israeli violations while ignoring the Syrian/Iranian/Hezb smuggling of weapons.
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri will convene Parliament on September 25 to elect a new president for Lebanon, according to MP Ali Bazzi, a member of the pro- Syrian Amal movement, an ally of Hezbollah. Bazzi, who made the announcement on Sunday during a rally in south Lebanon to commemorate the 12th anniversary of al-Mansouri massacre in Tyre, stressed that no political stability or decisions can be reached in Lebanon without the "essential role of the resistance," a reference to Hezbollah.
Bazzi said the legislative will convene to elect a new head of state to replace President Emile Lahoud without the presence of the "unconstitutional" government, adding that only MP-ministers will be allowed to attend the September session. "No way will Speaker Berri allow it (government) to be represented in parliament," he said.
Bazzi, who is also an official in the Amal movement which is headed by Berri, criticized some leaders in the March 14 coalition "for not possessing the intention nor the will nor a national plan to work together in order to salvage the country from its current political crisis."
He assured that the political stalemate that has gripped Lebanon since the resignation of six pro-Syrian cabinet ministers in November was not over the international tribunal, but over Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government "which has lost its legitimacy."
Lahoud's term, which was extended for three years in a Syrian-inspired controversial constitutional amendment in September 2004, expires in November 2007. The presidential election and the creation of the U.N.-backed international tribunal to try suspects in the 2005 murder of former Premier Rafik Hariri are at the heart of Lebanon's domestic disputes.
Geagea says: Why wait for 6 more months?
Lebanese forces chief Dr. Samir Geagea ridiculed the announcement as too little too late, and said why should we wait for 6 more months to elect a new president, the time to do it is now. Dr. Geagea also questioned the motive of Berri when he said that the president will not be from march 8 alliance nor March 14 alliance . Geagea said the opposition acts as what is theirs is theirs alone and what is ours is to be shared with them. Geagea said if this is the case we will also want to elect a new speaker ( to replace Berri) that is neither from March 14 alliance nor from march 8th alliance .
Posted by: Fred ||
04/18/2007 00:00 ||
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Lest we fergit, SYRIA > Return of GOLAN HEIGHTS from Israel > "What armed force or diplomacy will not liberate, armed resistance [= terror] will", or words to that effect.
Former President Amin Gemayel said Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's latest speech was a "real shock" to the Christians more than ever, and ridiculed Hezbollah's "clever" strategy to impose its Christian ally Gen. Michel Aoun as the next president.
Gemayel said that Nasrallah's latest address, in which he revealed potential plans for having presidential elections crippled unless the pro-government March 14 coalition abides by the opposition's demands, have "raised fears among Christians." He also lashed out at Hezbollah 's second in command Sheikh Naim Qassem who said in recent remarks that presidential elections would take place "only if the ruling team and the opposition agreed on the name of the future president."
Gemayel said March 14 was "never against agreement in principle on a president who would represent all Lebanese under the guardianship of Bkirki." He said Nasrallah's wished-for strategy of avoiding pointing out Aoun during his fiery Easter speech March 8, as well as Qassem's comments were a "clever maneuver to impose Aoun as the next president." He said that this strategy contradicts with the "concepts of partnership and collaboration strongly advocated by Hezbollah."
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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.
Taliban rebels are still crossing the border from Pakistan to attack targets in Afghanistan and the two key US allies must boost cooperation to stop them, an Afghan spokesman said on Tuesday. The comments come ahead of a planned meeting between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his Pakistani counterpart Pervez Musharraf in Turkey late this month to resolve months of bad blood over the insurgency. Afghanistans problem is clear. Terrorists are crossing the border from the other side of the border and carry out sabotage operations. Theyre active there, Afghan President Hamid Karzais chief spokesman Karim Rahimi told a news conference.
British universities will be warned this week that they are being targeted by Islamic extremist groups looking for recruits, reports the Telegraph. A conference of chief security officers will hear that religious radicals remain active on campuses and have infiltrated at least 20 institutions, writes Philip Johnston in the British newspaper. Prof Anthony Glees, of the Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies at Brunel University, will say the threat must be urgently addressed.
Britain is launching a new unit to fight Al Qaeda propaganda, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced on Tuesday. Blair, expected to stand down in the next few weeks amid public anger over his backing for the Iraq war, said it was time for all government departments to unite to win the war of ideas. If you want to take the fight to the terrorists youve got to defeat their propaganda and their ideas as well as their methods, Blair told a monthly news conference. The inter-departmental group will bring together research, information and communications units to generate material to rebut extremist ideology aimed at the media. 
BEIJING (AP) - The son of a prominent U.S.-based Chinese Muslim activist was sentenced Tuesday to nine years in prison on subversion charges, state media reported. 
WASHINGTON (AP) - Members of the European Parliament told U.S. lawmakers Tuesday that CIA tactics for spiriting away terrorism suspects are illegal. The parliamentarians' briefing for House members concerned CIA renditions, the practice of grabbing terror suspects in one country and delivering them to another country for questioning.
Pakistan will disintegrate and divide if former prime minister Benazir Bhutto comes to power again, MMA Secretary General Maulana Fazlur Rehman said on Tuesday. 
The Lal Masjid administration on Tuesday withdrew its decision to suspend talks with the government and announced that they had resumed negotiations to try and find a peaceful end to the standoff in the capital.
Activists of banned militant organisation Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) are conspiring for the release of their imprisoned colleagues from various jails through violent means, according to intelligence reports submitted to the Interior Ministry. 
A clerics convention on the protection of madrassas declared on Tuesday that suicide bombings were un-Islamic and must not be encouraged. A declaration made at the convention organised by the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) NWFP, accused secret forces of plotting suicide attacks against Muslims. Nearly 2,000 clerics from across Pakistan participated in the convention. The declaration said that movements like the ones started in Malakand and Khyber Agency and in some parts of the country in the past were initially peaceful, but later turned to militancy and violence because the activists took the law in their hands.
BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki said on Tuesday that a panel of experts would examine the cases of the thousands of detainees held in US and Iraqi jails and free those with no charges to answer. In a statement released after a cabinet meeting in Baghdad, Maliki said: A committee specialised in reviewing detainees affairs in the prisons run by Iraqi authorities and multinational forces had been formed.
BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said on Tuesday the withdrawal of ministers loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had not weakened his government and he would name technocrats to replace them soon..JPG)
Hezbollah on Tuesday accused moderate Arab states and the Lebanese March 14 majority coalition of selling out Palestine, seeking to "normalize" relations with Israel and backing an alleged scheme to create a U.S.-controlled Middle East. The Hezbollah position was announced by Mohammed Raad, leader of the party's parliamentary bloc, in a statement to reporters at Parliament headquarters in downtown Beirut, a few meters from the makeshift tent city erected by the opposition since Dec. 1 with the declared objective of toppling Premier Fouad Siniora's majority government. Raad was responding to a statement released late Monday by the Moustaqbal ( Future) movement of MP Saad Hariri, a leader of the March 14 majority which criticized Hezbollah's weapons as "illegitimate."
Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri will convene Parliament on September 25 to elect a new president for Lebanon, according to MP Ali Bazzi, a member of the pro- Syrian Amal movement, an ally of Hezbollah. Bazzi, who made the announcement on Sunday during a rally in south Lebanon to commemorate the 12th anniversary of al-Mansouri massacre in Tyre, stressed that no political stability or decisions can be reached in Lebanon without the "essential role
of the resistance," a reference to Hezbollah.
Former President Amin Gemayel said Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's latest speech was a "real shock" to the Christians more than ever, and ridiculed Hezbollah's "clever" strategy to impose its Christian ally Gen. Michel Aoun as the next president.
