#10
actually, this being halloween and all, are we sure that it isn't Linus' Great Pumpkin, searching for the most sincere pumpkin patch in the entire world and will then bring toys to all the kidlets?????( thank you Charles Schultz)
Andre Vladimirovich Bataloff, a 27-year-old Siberian, was arrested in Afghanistan in a truck carrying 1,000 pounds of explosives
Afghan police officers working a highway checkpoint near here noticed something odd recently about a passenger in a red pickup truck. Though covered head to toe in a burqa, the traditional veil worn by Afghan women, she was unusually tall. When the police asked her questions, she refused to answer.
When the veil was eventually removed, the police found not a woman at all, but Andre Vladimirovich Bataloff, a 27-year-old man from Siberia with a flowing red beard, pasty skin and piercing blue eyes. Inside the truck was 1,000 pounds of explosives.
Afghan and American officials say the Siberian intended to be a suicide bomber, one of several hundred foreign militants who have gravitated to the region to fight alongside the Taliban this year, the largest influx since 2001.
The foreign fighters are not only bolstering the ranks of the insurgency. They are more violent, uncontrollable and extreme than even their locally bred allies, officials on both sides of the Afghan-Pakistan border warn.
They are also helping to change the face of the Taliban from a movement of hard-line Afghan religious students into a loose network that now includes a growing number of foreign militants as well as disgruntled Afghans and drug traffickers.
Foreign fighters are coming from Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Chechnya, various Arab countries and perhaps also Turkey and western China, Afghan and American officials say. Their growing numbers point to the worsening problem of lawlessness in Pakistan's tribal areas, which they use as a base to train alongside militants from Al Qaeda who have carried out terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Europe, according to Western diplomats. "We've seen an unprecedented level of reports of foreign-fighter involvement," said Major General Bernard Champoux, deputy commander for security of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. "They'll threaten people if they don't provide meals and support."
In interviews in southern and eastern Afghanistan, local officials and village elders also reported having seen more foreigners fighting alongside the Taliban than in any year since the American-led invasion in 2001.
In Afghanistan, the foreigners serve as mid-level commanders, and train and finance local fighters, according to Western analysts. In Pakistan's tribal areas, they train suicide bombers, create roadside-bomb factories and have doubled the number of high-quality Taliban fund-raising and recruiting videos posted online.
Gauging the exact number of Taliban and foreign fighters in Afghanistan is difficult, Western officials and analysts say. At any given time, the Taliban can field up to 10,000 fighters, they said, but only 2,000 to 3,000 are highly motivated, full-time insurgents.
The rest are part-time fighters, young Afghan men who have been alienated by government corruption, who are angry at civilian deaths caused by American bombing raids, or who are simply in search of cash, they said. Five to 10 percent of full-time insurgents roughly 100 to 300 combatants are believed to be foreigners.
Western diplomats say recent offers from the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, to negotiate with the Taliban are an effort to split local Taliban moderates and Afghans who might be brought back into the fold from the foreign extremists.
But that effort may face an increasing challenge as foreigners replace dozens of midlevel and senior Taliban who, according to Western officials, have been killed by NATO and American forces.
At the same time, Western officials said the reliance on foreigners showed that the Taliban are running out of midlevel Afghan commanders. "That's a sure-fire sign of desperation," Champoux said.
Seth Jones, an analyst with the Rand Corporation, was less sanguine, however, calling the arrival of more foreigners a dangerous development. The tactics the foreigners have introduced, he said, are increasing Afghan and Western casualty rates.
"They play an incredibly important part in the insurgency," Jones said. "They act as a force multiplier in improving their ability to kill Afghan and NATO forces."
Western officials said the foreigners are also increasingly financing younger Taliban leaders in Pakistan's tribal areas who have closer ties to Al Qaeda, like Sirajuddin Haqqani and Anwar ul-Haq Mujahed. The influence of older, more traditional Taliban leaders based in Quetta, Pakistan, is diminishing. "We see more and more resources going to their fellow travelers," said Christopher Alexander, the deputy special representative for the United Nations in Afghanistan. "The new Taliban commanders are younger and younger."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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In an abrupt policy shift, Saudi Arabia has signed an agreement to buy over 150 Russian-made Mi-35 Hind and Mi-17 Hip helicopters worth over $2.2 billion, ending French hopes of sealing a long-delayed sale of 148 helicopters and raising doubts about future French arms sales to the Saudi kingdom.
Sources say the Memorandum of Understanding with Russia was signed in Ryad in mid-September by members of the private cabinet of Saudi King Abdallah bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud, and follows extended visits to Russia by Saudi military delegations in February and March 2007 to appraise the capabilities of Russian helicopters and other weapons.
Sources also said that Saudi Arabia appears to have decided to buy T-90 main battle tanks and medium-range air-defense systems from Russia
The sources also said that Saudi Arabia appears to have decided to buy T-90 main battle tanks and medium-range air-defense systems from Russia, replacing previous plans to buy French-made Leclerc tanks and Aster 30 SAMP/T air-defense systems. No agreement has yet been signed for these systems, however,
Eurocopter confirmed that Saudi Arabia has opted for Russian helicopters, but said the companys future prospects in the country remained unclear. Nexter, manufacturer of the Leclerc tank, and missile maker MBDA had no comment on the status of their dealings with Saudi Arabia.
While conceding that the Saudis had signed an agreement to buy Russian utility helicopters, a senior French official told defense-aerospace.com that the Mi-17 and Mi-35 met only part of the Saudi requirement. Noting that the two Saudi customers the Armed Forces and the National Guard - would not necessarily buy the same equipment, he said that France was still in the running to sell several other helicopter types. These include naval, Combat Search And Rescue and training helicopters, he implied, for which Russian helicopters are unsuited.
Saudi Arabias decision to retain Russia as a major arms supplier is the result of two recent policy decisions made by King Abdallah bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud. One was Abdallahs decision to take direct control of major arms purchases, which were previously largely the domain of the defense and aviation ministry headed by Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz, the Saudi Crown Prince and deputy prime minister who is also Abdallahs half-brother. Sultan is said to be out of favor.
Abdallah also is loosening arms ties with France because of its insistence on large, multiple-system packages, and its stubborn arm-twisting to include weapons that the Saudis do not want
Abdallah also is loosening arms ties with France because of its insistence on large, multiple-system packages, and its stubborn arm-twisting to include weapons that the Saudis do not want, like the Rafale combat aircraft, in these packages.
While the Saudis were willing as late as the fall of 2006 to sign two or three medium-sized helicopters deals, covering 42 Fennec light helicopters, 20 Cougar Combat Search and Rescue helicopters and 10 NFH-90 naval helicopters, sources say they indefinitely postponed these plans after French officials continued to insist that the package also include Rafales, several FREMM frigates and Gowind corvettes, and Leclerc tanks.
The idea of selling comprehensive packages was pushed by the Elysée [the French Presidents office-Ed.] as a final coup for [former President Jacques] Chirac, one industry official told defense-aerospace.com. Now, Chiracs gone, weve signed nothing, and were shut out of the Saudi market for the foreseeable future. A real success for France, the official said.
France has now conceded it will not sell Rafale to Saudi Arabia. We havent discussed Rafale in Saudi Arabia. Its not a current issue, French Defense Minister Hervé Morin said Oct. 28 in Jeddah, after talks with Saudi leaders.
[France is hoping that Libya, which has contracted to upgrade its obsolete Dassault Mirage F-1 fighters, may also agree to buy the Rafale, and an agreement could be announced during Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafis forthcoming visit to Paris, possibly in December.]
The Saudis are also said to be unhappy with what they perceive as French snubs. These include the French governments failure to appoint an official of sufficiently high rank to head Sofresa, the arms export agency especially set up to handle contracts with Saudi Arabia. Frances use of local marketing networks that include individuals that are persona non grata at King Abdallahs court is seen as another snub.
Frances insistence on stuffing as many weapons as possible into arms deals has also been cited as one of the reasons why Morocco finally opted to buy the U.S.-made F-16 fighter instead of the Rafale, which Paris wanted to supply in a single package together with helicopters and corvettes.
Another factor is that the election in May of Nicolas Sarkozy to succeed Chirac as French president has not gone down well with the Saudis, who take exception at his declarations that French diplomacy would in future distance itself from its traditional pro-Arab stance.
The loss of the Saudi contracts, whose total value was estimated at well over 7 billion euros, is a severe loss for French industry, which is encountering growing difficulties in exporting its weapons in the face of cut-throat competition from the United States and Russia.
Paris is now making a last-ditch attempt to salvage at least some Saudi deals, and President Sarkozys planned visit to Saudi Arabia, in January, might constitute such an opportunity. The sale of several Airbus tanker aircraft, and possibly of a reconnaissance satellite which Saudi Arabia would share with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, are two possibilities.
The sale of Fennec light helicopters, which the Saudis need for pilot training, may finally go through simply because there is no direct Russian competitor, sources say, noting however that this sale is only worth about 300 million euros.
#1
On a more serious note, the French will be selling advanced submarine technology to the Russians. That would mean air independent propulsion so subs can operate underwater for weeks. Sensors and acoustic management so they are harder to find, the real advantage US subs had over Soviet subs.
It's French war by other means against the Anglo-Saxons, where America replaces the self-neutering English. It addition, the French have found a way around the EU arms embargo against China, Iran and other most despicable regimes. France Helps Russia Design Better Boats
Posted by: ed ||
10/31/2007 13:22 Comments ||
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#2
If you want premium oats, you'll pay a premium price. If you want oats that have already been proeessed through the horse, those are available for a bit less.
#3
The loss of the Saudi contracts, whose total value was estimated at well over 7 billion euros, is a severe loss for French industry, which is encountering growing difficulties in exporting its weapons in the face of cut-throat competition from the United States and Russia.
That incredible shrinking dollar (vs the euro, anyway) might be horrible for liberals who like to vacation in Europe, but it's sure not doing much for European export competitiveness.
#4
The big question is whether Russian, French, British or US weapons will make any difference in the Soddies ability to fight their way out of a wet toilet tissue. I suspect they could buy all the weapons they want and it wouldn't make a dime's worth of difference. It's all money down the drain just like that so-called air defense system the Syrians bought. It's like that old saying about a fool and his money. Not that I'd tell them that if I was an arms merchant.
#5
I wish the Saudis would buy more Russian stuff so we can get a good look and their "goods".
Posted by: Mike N. ||
10/31/2007 16:19 Comments ||
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#6
If I had a military like Saudi, I would buy Russian crap too. Easy to maintain, needs little training and you can get a buttload for the cash.
Against any trained western nation, it is crap and will not work well against the advanced arms the west has. However, the chances of the house of Saud fighting western style armies is very slim and they are more likely to face other arabs. So, go for the cheap ground shit, have a good air force to protect said cheap ground shit and you should do alright in a fight.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah said yesterday that Arabs want their legitimate rights™, rather than concessions from Israel. We dont want concessions. We are people with rights and we demand our rights, the king told the BBC when asked whether he expected any Israeli concessions in order to reach a Middle East peace settlement.
In an interview with British television, King Abdullah also said that Saudi Arabia had provided intelligence information to British authorities about a possible terrorist attack in the UK. We sent information to Great Britain before the terrorist attacks in Britain, but unfortunately no action was taken and you know what happened, the king said about the deadly July 7, 2005 bombings.
The BBC aired the interview hours before the king arrived in London on a state visit, the first by a Saudi king in 20 years. The king, who arrived on a pleasant and cool day, was greeted at the airport by Prince Charles, heir to the throne, and other senior British officials as well as Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal and Saudi Ambassador to the UK Prince Muhammad ibn Nawaf.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Explain again why the Two Holy Mosques still exist after 911.
Perhaps it was symbolic of the topsy-turvy relationship between the UK and Saudi Arabia, but the flag of King Abdullah's nation was flown upside down in the Mall in London yesterday.
The faux pas potentially could have sparked a diplomatic and religious storm, as Saudi Arabia's flag displays the "shahada", or Islamic declaration, and even the slightest violation is considered a desecration of Islam itself. But in the climate of pragmatic politics, it was highly unlikely the king, or any of the 12 Saudi dignitaries with him, would raise concerns, at least publicly.
It is equally unlikely that a British minister will dredge up the topic of human rights with the king during the course of the week: business with the Saudis is worth too much to the UK.
Continued on Page 49
#1
The faux pas potentially could have sparked a diplomatic and religious storm, as Saudi Arabia's flag displays the "shahada", or Islamic declaration, and even the slightest violation is considered a desecration of Islam itself.
So if I was to wipe my ass with it that would be a problem?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/31/2007 12:07 Comments ||
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#6
Seriously, CAN the Union Jack be flown upside down? The pattern looks the same to me either way?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/31/2007 12:11 Comments ||
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#7
#6 - Red Jim
Yes it can be flown upside down. Correctly flown, the wide white diagonal stripe goes upwards. Upside down, the narrow white diagonal stripe goes upwards.
It's not REALLY all that difficult to see. The Queen may be seriously miffed at you! Manners!
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/31/2007 18:49 Comments ||
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#11
Saudi Arabia's flag displays the "shahada", or Islamic declaration, and even the slightest violation is considered a desecration of Islam itself. But in the climate of pragmatic politics, it was highly unlikely the king, or any of the 12 Saudi dignitaries with him, would raise concerns, at least publicly.
It is equally unlikely that a British minister will dredge up the topic of human rights with the king during the course of the week
'Cuz we all know that some stinking upside down bit of Koranic bullshit is equal to or worse than any violation of human rights.
Police in Sweden are asking Iraqis to identify a woman they believe lured an Iraqi dissident to a hotel room in Stockholm, where he was murdered and his body cut into 48 pieces. The suspected temptress may have been working on the orders of Saddam Hussein's regime, police believe.
The Swedish authorities are now racing against the clock to find the woman: the crime will be written off in two years, 25 years after ex-Iraqi agent Majid Hussein was killed.
A photograph of the woman, known only by her false name Jamila al-Shafej, was published on Tuesday in Iraqi media. Authorities in Sweden hope that somebody will recognize her.
"If there are witnesses in Iraq, we hope they will come forward," prosecutor Tomas Lindstrand told The Local.
Police believe that the woman was used as bait to lure Hussein into a room at the Hotel Arcadia in central Stockholm on 9th January 1985. Two men were waiting for him in the room. They killed him, chopped his body into 48 pieces and put them in two suitcases. The body parts were found two months later.
Stockholm District Court put out an arrest warrant for the woman on charges of being accessory to murder, but she was never caught.
Lindstrand says it is not known whether she is now alive of dead.
"All tracks have disappeared. The last we know is that she left Stockholm for Casablanca in Morocco on 10th January 1985. Other than that we don't know anything about her apart from the fact that she used this false name."
The original investigation ground to a halt; there was no hope of securing help from Saddam's regime. Prosecutors say the most likely theory is that the murderers were working on behalf of the Iraqi dictator.
"Since 2003 the country has opened up a bit, although it is still hard to get information," said Lindstrand. Those Swedes, they are to laugh.
As well as the appeal in Iraq, it is hoped that Swedes and Iraqis in Sweden might be able to help.
Posted by: mrp ||
10/31/2007 07:15 ||
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#1
If only Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo were alive today this would be a great Martin Beck mystery sequal.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
10/31/2007 9:41 Comments ||
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The verdict on those accused of involvement in Europe's worst Islamist terrorist attack will be announced in a Spanish court today after a trial that has lasted four months and 17 days and heard testimony from more than 300 witnesses.
Ten bombs packed with dynamite and nails exploded on four trains heading into central Madrid, killing 191 people and injuring nearly 1,800.
If found guilty, 19 men, mostly of Moroccan origin, will be sentenced on charges of planning and carrying out the bombings on the morning of March 11 2004, as thousands of commuters made their way to work. Ten bombs packed with dynamite and nails exploded on four trains heading into central Madrid, killing 191 people and injuring nearly 1,800. It was the worst act of terrorism in Europe since the bombing of a Pan Am flight over Lockerbie in 1988, which claimed 270 lives. Nine Spaniards, including one woman, are also accused of providing the explosives used by the alleged terrorists.
The eight main defendants could serve 40 years, the longest possible in Spain regardless of the sentence actually passed. Other alleged conspirators face between four and 27 years. All of the accused have pleaded not guilty.
All will serve less than ten years after time all and Y'urp-peon hospitality.
Three weeks after the bombings, seven of the alleged ringleaders blew themselves up as Spanish police surrounded them in a flat where they were hiding out, taking with them vital evidence. Among the dead were Serhane Ben Abdelmajid, known as the Tunisian and the alleged mastermind of the plot, and Jamal Ahmidan, a hashish trafficker turned fundamentalist nicknamed the Chinaman.
Enjoy hell, boys.
At least four suspects, including two who may have been central to the attack, have disappeared. One is understood to have died in a suicide attack in Iraq.
The figure who drew most attention at the trial was Rabei Osman, said to be the link between the Madrid bombers and other Islamist terrorist groups. Mr Osman, also known as the Egyptian, was arrested in Milan in June 2004 after allegedly saying in wiretapped conversations that he planned the train bombings. Mr Osman claims he has been mistranslated, and condemned the attacks during the trial.
Just a little misdirection for the benefit of us infidels. Did he say it publicly in Arabic?
Suspects accused of planting the bombs include Jamal Zougam and Abdelmajid Bouchar. The latter is said to have fled the flat in Leganés just before the alleged ringleaders killed themselves.
Rogelio Alonso, a lecturer in politics and terrorism at the King Juan Carlos university, said he believed the trial had shown that "it is possible to fight this type of [Islamist] terrorism through the courts". He also said the investigation had uncovered a link between the Madrid suspects and the wider world of al-Qaida.
It's not likely that all terrorists can be tried this way. As far as we know, there's no great secrets, no intel links, no sources compromised by the trial, and the defendants are stone cold guilty. We could have tried the 9/11 mooks, assuming any had lived, and convicted them, but look at the problems we've had with other terror-related trials in this country.
However, Scott Atran, a US academic who has investigated the Hamburg cell connected to the 9/11 attacks as well as those behind the Bali bomb attacks of 2002, and who witnessed the trial, said: "There isn't the slightest bit of evidence of any relationship with al-Qaida. We've been looking at it closely for years and we've been briefed by everybody under the sun ... and nothing connects them."
#2
Basically, there is not a sxingle one of the pieces of evidence who led t to the pre-election arrests (the ones who turned the result) who doesn't appear to have been planted, And for the post-election aarrests while somle of them were definitely islamists and up to no good the fact is that the link to the 3/11 bombings appears tenuous at best.
Did I mention that the trains were taken apart just two days after the bombings and that thus key evidence was destroyed.? Did I mention that we still don't know what explosives were used becvause no analmysis was made and that the explosive clearing experts who inspected them clzaim that it could no have been the low-velocity Goma-2 (the explosive used according to official thesis) but should have been military grade explosive (but we will never know since there was no analysis and evidence has been destroyed).
#6
I haven't followed this case all that closely, but JFM has, and he seems to think the story is not what it appears. It appears the authorities have been mis-investigating with intent, rather than just incompetence. Why would they? Who benefits? Are they just afraid to convict Islamists - that's one explanation? Or was it NOT the Islamists, but someone else, with Islamists being made the fall guys? If someone else, who? Does not fit Basque separatists style of bombings. Who does that leave? This kind of thinking makes me feel like a Troother - can anybody put together an internally-consistent story that makes sense?
#7
It isn't but this has nothing to do with the sentence. The sentence was not reflecting neither a weakness against terrorism nor "dount benefits accused", it reflects that the whiole investigation was a lie aimed at covering up for the fabrication of false evidences and an agit-prop campaign by the Spanish socialists in order to alter the result of elections.
#8
"it is possible to fight this type of [Islamist] terrorism through the courts"
Trust a craven Spaniard to utter such complete and total balderdash.
does anyone seriously believe that "law enforcement" is the way to fight terrorism?
Spot on, er ... Spot. You fight terrorism by killing terrorists, their sponsors, equippers and financiers. You keep killing them in large numbers until all attacks cease. Using the legal system to fight terrorism is like going deer hunting with an accordian.
#10
This just in...
"A Spanish court has convicted three of the eight men accused of playing a central role in the 2004 Madrid train bombings and sentenced each of them to almost 40,000 years in prison."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/31/wspain431.xml
#11
You don't fight terrorism by killing phone resellers or petty criminals with no relation to Islamism not even as propagandists, messengers or other support roles.
WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan will discuss ways to counter Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq when they meet in Washington next week, the White House said on Tuesday. Turkish officials had already gone public with Mondays meeting, which comes amid concerns about a possible Turkish military incursion into Iraq against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.
Bush and Erdogan will discuss joint efforts to counter the PKK, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. We have a joint desire, a joint need to make sure that the PKK is eradicated, that they are stopped, she said.
I think it's going to take more than a joint statement. The Turks are unhappy and they want the PKK stomped, and the Iraqi Kurds, as good friends as they are, won't do it. So it'll have to be us.
Erdogan said he would tell Bush that Turkey expected urgent, concrete steps from the United States against the Kurdish rebels.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
Also from NOWPUBLIC > CUBA > CUBA WARNS US AGAINST [US forced]REGIME CHANGE. Cuban Commies warn will defend Cuba wid Force - also demand respect from Dubya-USA.
#2
But the university is only one of a number of areas where an overstretched military, involved in two losing wars, is in a desperate search for new ideas.
Whoa! Dont let any creeping bias slip in now. Emkay?
He noted that, as part of an instruction course named "Combat Hunter", the marines have brought in "big-game hunters" to school their snipers in the better use of "optics".
Some experienced hunters schooling snipers on the use of high-magnification scopes. Perish the thought!
Outraged by the statement, one Sergeant Ramsey K Gregory wrote a letter to the publication asking, "Just what was meant by that comment about the inner city? I hope to God that he's not saying that people from the inner cities are experts in killing each other and that we all just walk around carrying guns."
No, never! We were just trying to fan some flames of indignation about how the Marines manage to kill Americas enemies.
... the implicit comparison of enemies in urban warfare, today largely Iraqis and Afghans, to animals that are hunted and killed as quarry
Hey! They act worse than animals, why not treat them like it as well?
"We're hunting them down, one at a time"
Which happens to be a really big part of the problem. We need to be hunting them down thousands at a time in their mosques and madrassas.
Nor is there anything new about Americans treating racial and ethnic enemies as the equivalent of animals to be abused or killed.
Especially when these racial and ethnic enemies display far less civility than even those animals do at their very worst.
Today, the slurs of the Vietnam era have been replaced by "haji" and "raghead"
Far be it from the author to mention how we in the West are routinely called, pigs, dogs or monkeys by our Islamic enemies. Heaven forefend that there might be some sort of balanced viewpoint regarding this.
That program of instruction is, however, just one recent example of an undercurrent within the military's institutional culture that implicitly reduces people to animals.
See above.
Last month, a piece in the Washington Post, for example, drew much media attention when it came to light that US Army snipers from the "painted demons" platoon of the 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division allegedly took part in "a classified program of 'baiting' their targets" to lure insurgents within their sniper scopes.
Just doing their job now, arent they?
After all, when you "bait" a trap (or a hook), it's to lure an animal (or fish) in for the kill. But "bait" for a human?
Honor killers, bomb vest murderers and car bomb drivers use no such vocabulary. No, not ever!
Nick Turse needs to spend some time in the killing fields. Im confident his viewpoint would shift 180º in a few seconds. But, maybe, thats just me.
#4
But good hunters respect their prey; one needn't read fiction more broadly than Kipling to know that, although clearly Mr. Turse has not done even that much. He reminds me of Isaac Asimov's description of decadent archeologists who weigh one scholar's writings against that of another's to determine history, rather than going to the site to dig things up. (Foundation, of course)
#6
Nick Turse is the associate editor and research director of Tomdispatch.com. His first book, The Complex, an exploration of the new military-corporate complex in America, is due out in the American Empire Project series by Metropolitan Books in 2008.
One of the men charged in an alleged plot to kill soldiers during a raid on Fort Dix is expected to plead guilty Wednesday. Federal prosecutors have portrayed Agron Abdullahu as having the smallest role among the six men arrested earlier this year.
Abdullahu is charged only with weapons offenses punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The other defendants are charged with conspiring to kill military personnel. On tapes made by government informants, Abdullahu told the others that Islam opposes the killing of civilians and it would be "crazy" to attack a military base.
A group of men accused of plotting to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower were in the final stages of forming a homegrown terrorist cell dedicated to waging an Islamic holy war before they were arrested, a prosecution terrorism expert testified in a Miami courtroom Tuesday.
Raymond Tanter, a Georgetown University professor and terrorism scholar for 40 years, said suspected ringleader Narseal Batiste and the other six had nearly completed the "radicalization process" and moved toward acts of terrorism before their arrests in June 2006.
Hallmarks of this process include religious conversion, operation within a military-style hierarchy and adoption of goals shared by al-Qaida and other terrorist groups to destroy US landmarks, Tanter said. The final stage - which he called "jihadization" - means the group is ready to plan, recruit and prepare for an attack.
Evidence introduced at trial shows that Batiste "was talking only about violent jihad" and not other meanings of the Arabic word, such as self-examination, Tanter said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
CAIR attacked that group - black Americans - for not being Muslims. However, CAIR actively works for release of the Gitmo terrorists. Maybe non-Arabs need to think twice about accepting the Arabist murder cult.
Local Taliban leaders on Tuesday marked the first anniversary of an airstrike on a madrassa in the Damadola region of Bajaur Agency in which around 80 people, whom the government claimed were terrorists, were killed on October 30, 2006. The Taliban leaders vowed to continue jihad against the US and its allies. Jihad against infidels will continue, Taliban commander Maulana Faqir Muhammad told a gathering in the Umerai area in Bajaur agencys Mamoond tehsil.
Deny involvement in Swat: They said they wanted peace in all areas and denied their involvement in Swat violence. Maulana Faqir said mujahideens struggle against the US and its allies would continue. It is impossible to restore peace in the country till General Pervez Musharraf remains in power, he said. Maulana Inayatur Rehman, Maulana Muhammad Daud, Maulana Sultan Muhammad and Maulana Muhammad Karim condemned the Swat army operation, saying the government was killing innocent people at the behest of America and pushing the country towards lawlessness.They demanded the government stop the military operation in Swat.
The Taliban leaders said they were not involved in Swat violence as they believe in peace. They said that some elements were posing as mujahideen and carrying out terrorist activities to bring a bad name to them.
They said these elements would be unmasked and punished. Maulana Abdullah, Maulana Rahimullah and Maulana Aitzaz Ali also demanded the government stop load-shedding in the area.Separately, militants blew up two Levies checkposts in the Pusht and Tarakai areas in Salarzai tehsil, 25 kilometres north of agency headquarters Khar. Security forces retaliated with mortar firing. However, there was no loss of life on either side.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
What is load-shedding? and why is the government doing it? If these boys don't like it then it must be a good thing. These Taliban guys seem so innocent. Can they actually believe that anyone will accept their line that they are peaceful dudes? Incredible.
Federal Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani said on Tuesday that some politicians are directly supporting terrorism and they would be exposed very soon. He told this to a delegation of Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) and Bara Press Club here. RIUJ President Afzal Butt was leading the delegation.
Durrani said it was not only the government that is facing terrorism threats, but the media is also not free from such intimidation. The entire nation must unite against terrorism, he said. He said the government is providing full protection to journalists of NWFP and the Tribal Areas. If we want to effectively root out terrorist and extremist tendencies from our social fabric, the media will have to come forward with a plan to form an alliance against this menace, he added.
According to Online, Durrani said it is a credit to the present government that it has provided full freedom of expression to the media. He said all illegal FM channels in the Tribal Areas would soon be banned. Muhammad Ali Durrani said the government has prepared a comprehensive strategy plan for the NWFP and Tribal Areas. The government has also increased the number of law enforcing agencies in NWFP, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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#1
MMA by any chance????
Posted by: Paul ||
10/31/2007 10:25 Comments ||
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A tense calm prevailed in Swat district on Tuesday following a temporary ceasefire between militants and government forces on Monday
"It's calm, Sarge!"
"Too calm!"
as a 25-member local jirga won support from the militants and the security forces for a permanent ceasefire, officials and elders said.
"We quit! Don't kill us!"
"Us, too!"
"Brothers in Islam!"
"Compadres!"
"Whut's that mean, varmint?"
"Who're youse callin' a 'varmint?'"
"Go fer yer guns, infidel!"
[BANG! BANG! BANGETY BANG!]
We have separately met military officials and a Taliban commander to win their support for a permanent ceasefire in the Kabal area, Israr Ahmed, a key jirga member, said after the meetings. He said the jirga had meetings with Colonels Sarfraz and Jawad and Taliban commander Akbar Hussain to discuss the possibility of a ceasefire in Kabal and surroundings. Both sides extended their full cooperation and from tomorrow (Wednesday) onwards Kabal bazaar will be reopened, Awami National Party leader and jirga member Fazle Maullah told reporters. Under the proposed permanent ceasefire deal, the jirga said, the army would restrict itself to Kabal Golf Ground whereas the militants would remove their bunkers and leave the bazaar.
Maulana Sirajuddin, spokesman for Maulana Fazlullah, who is heading militancy in Swat, said the temporary ceasefire was reached on the governments request, adding that the government didnt made any contact for a permanent ceasefire.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: TNSM
President General Pervez Musharraf has warned that if terrorists and extremists do not understand the language of dialogue, they will be dealt with by use of force.
In between ceasefires, of course...
He said at the inauguration of the Islamabad-Peshawar motorway on Tuesday that if terrorism was not stamped out, it would put national integrity into jeopardy. He said the government was trying to initiate dialogues to resolve the situation in Swat. The president said that those opposed to development in the country were behind the Rawalpindi attacks.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Two years ago on October 29, three blasts ripped through the Capital killing 65 people and injuring over 200. On the second anniversary of the Delhi blasts, those behind the attack still remain at large. The police say three of the eight operatives involved in the blasts have been arrested but there has been no headway in tracing the prime suspect in the case, Lashkar-e-Taiba operative Abu-al-Kama. Reports suggest he is holed up in Pakistan but Delhi Police has been unable to approach the Interpol for his arrest, owing to the lack of knowledge about his exact whereabouts.
This article starring:
Abu-al-Kama
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Lashkar e-Taiba
A court in India's Gujarat state has sentenced eight people to life in jail for murder and other crimes committed during religious riots in 2002.
The men, all Hindus, were found guilty of burning seven Muslims to death. Three were also found guilty of rape. Three others were convicted of lesser crimes and jailed for three years each. At least 1,000 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in the riots, which were among India's bloodiest since partition in 1947.
Those found guilty by the sessions court in the western city of Godhra included leaders of the hard-line movement, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, Hindu World Council). Chandradeep Parmar, a member of the right-wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was also convicted.
There were 40 defendants - 29 were acquitted by the court.
The trial related to an attack on the family of a Muslim man, Sheikh Firoz Bhai, in the village of Eral in Panchmahal district on 2 March 2002. Firoz Bhai, who works as a driver, survived as he was not at home when the attack took place. The attackers burnt alive his wife, daughter, niece, parents and maternal grandparents. Firoz Bhai told the BBC the court's punishment was inadequate and he would appeal.
Posted by: john frum ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Iraqi Kurds on Tuesday blamed the Turkish military for the failure of talks between Baghdad and Ankara over Kurdish rebels and urged fresh dialogue to end their uprising. Kamel Shaker, a top Iraqi Kurdish leader, said the talks collapsed because of a tough Turkish military stance. The failure of the meeting in Ankara was due to the intransigent attitude of the Turkish military which believes that if it meets with representatives of Kurdistan, they would lose face, he said. Shaker, a hardline communist leader, said the Turkish military refused to acknowledge the two Kurdish members of the Baghdad delegation, Sifin Dezaie and Imad Ahmed, during the talks. The military is adamant in its view, he told AFP at his office in Arbil, the capital of the autonomus Kurdish government of northern Iraq. They do not want to meet with the representatives of Kurdistan, or have a dialogue with president Massud Barzani. They do not want Kurdistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
NOWPUBLIC > TURKEY IS DEMANDING US MILITARY INTERVENTION. Agz Kurds, or else. Somebody, anybody control = rein in the Kurds and thier attacks, or they will.
The threat from Al Qaeda in several former strongholds in Baghdad has been significantly reduced, but criminals who have established an "almost mafia-like presence" in some areas pose a new threat, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said Sunday.
The commander, General David Petraeus, stressed, however, that the terror organization remained "a very dangerous and very lethal enemy" - a comment underscored by the abduction Sunday in Baghdad of 10 Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders who had joined forces against Al Qaeda. "Its presence has been significantly reduced, and its activity and freedom of action have been degraded," Petraeus said at a U.S. base near Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, 130 kilometers, or 80 miles, north of Baghdad.
He singled out success in what had been some of the most volatile Sunni neighborhoods in Baghdad, including Ghazaliya, Amariya, Azamiya and Doura. But, he said, "Al Qaeda remains a very dangerous and very lethal enemy of Iraq. We must maintain contact with them and not allow them to establish sanctuaries or re-establish sanctuaries in places where they were before."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Iraq
#1
FARK.com > REUTERS > biggest prob for US soldiers, at least for now, is high blood pressure, bad backs, and bad knees, etc., NOT being kiiled or wounded by insurgents???
JERUSALEM - Israel escalated its threats on Tuesday to invade the Hamas-run Gaza Strip in response to Palestinian rocket fire after a plan to impose economic sanctions drew objections from legal experts and foreign powers.
At some point it's time to stop talking and start thumping ...
Since quitting Gaza in 2005, Israel has mounted regular commando raids and air strikes on rocket crews but the salvoes have not ceased. Islamist Hamass takeover of the territory in June stoked calls in the Jewish state for a big military sweep. Every passing day brings us closer to a broad operation in Gaza, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak told reporters. We are not looking forward to it (and) we would be happy if circumstances prevented it.
Israel, which controls official Gazan border crossings, began reducing the amount of fuel pumped to Gaza this week. It also wants to reduce power supplies but has put that on hold. The sanctions, which were put together by Barak, prompted UN and EU delegates to urge Israel not to impose collective punishment, illegal under international law, on Gazas 1.5 million residents.
Because one or two of them might be innocent ... maybe ...
Weighed against an invasion of Gaza is Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmerts upcoming peace conference with Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas under US auspices. While Olmert may want calm, he is also under pressure from right-wing coalition partners to hit Hamas hard.
The present situation will not last, Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon, a close Olmert confidant, told Reuters when asked during an interview about a possible Gaza invasion. I prefer that we use sanctions. I believe that the implementation of sanctions will be effective. But we have our doubts about it, he said, but added: If they (Hamas) stop sending rockets over, our need for the weapons of sanctions, or other weapons, will not be an issue.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
See also STRATEGYPAGE > THE COLLECTIVE THREAT. Synopsis of Israel's probs wid HAMAS in Gaza.
#4
The sanctions, which were put together by Barak, prompted UN and EU delegates to urge Israel not to impose collective punishment, illegal under international law, on Gazas 1.5 million residents.
I fail to see how refusing to supply fuel and power to a warring enclave constitutes punishment collective or otherwise. We have been overcome by a catastrophic stupidity and a deliberate inversion of all decency and morality. One thing you can say for the arabs: At least they know how to treat the enemy.
#5
We have been overcome by a catastrophic stupidity and a deliberate inversion of all decency and morality.
Yup, Excal. It's as if the criminal justice system's penchant for treating criminals better than victims has somehow infected the military mind. Islam's middle name is "collective punishment", but woe betide us should we dare to consider saucing goose and gander alike. At some point, the West must realize that Muslims interpret our humanitarian restraint as a reward for their indecency. In no way have the Palestinians abandoned one whit of their terrorist activities. Yet, we must endure the hideous spectacle of Bush seeking to gift them with another $400,000,000 despite their continued violation of all agreements and absolutely ZERO progress towards peace. Welcome to the kaliyuga.
#7
I don't like this idea of "invading". It seems that Isreal may be succesful, but in the end it would end up being pointless when they hide. Far more effective would be a general bombardment with artillary on area's known to support Hamas STRONGLY. As in where they live. And government offices. And 'accidently' mosques.
Posted by: Charles ||
10/31/2007 10:36 Comments ||
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#8
I fail to see how refusing to supply fuel and power to a warring enclave constitutes punishment collective or otherwise.
The existing framework of international 'law' does not have a category for terrorism that is systemic and sponsored by state powers. Therefore it does not recognize the existential threat posed to Israel by Hamas-led and sponsored attacks, nor by its stated policies.
So technically speaking, shutting off fuel and power arguably is a collective punishment issue.
Not sayin' it makes SENSE, mind you - just that the status quo WRT international agreements can be read that way. They need changing, fast - but the will and agreement isn't there to do so in any productive way IMO.
The government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is resigned to Hamas retaining control over the Gaza Strip for at least a few years, a senior Israeli official told FOX News on Tuesday, adding that the Jewish state is equally determined, when timing allows, to press a military solution to expel the terrorist group from the Palestinian territories.
Gaza is history, the official said glumly over Starbucks lattes and muffins in a downtown hotel suite prior to a whirlwind day of meetings with top Bush administration officials. Palestinian children in the West Bank soon will have textbooks in which they learn that the Gaza Strip is a piece of land that used to belong to the Palestinian Authority.
This gloomy assessment of the prospects for rolling back Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza, which accounts for 5 percent of the Palestinians' land but 40 percent of their population, comes less than a month before the Bush administration is to host a Mideast peace conference in Annapolis, Md., and as Israeli security officials cite an alarming increase in the smuggling of weapons and terrorists through porous Egyptian crossings into Gaza.
An Israeli Embassy official in Washington told FOX News the Egyptians three weeks ago allowed 85 Hamas terrorists and 30 affiliated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad, all trained in Iran, to cross into Gaza and deploy in positions close to the Israeli border.
Testifying before the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, Yuval Diskin, the head of Shin Bet, Israel's internal security service, detailed how Palestinian terrorists have smuggled more than 112 tons of explosives into Gaza since Israeli occupation forces withdrew from the strip in 2005, with 70 tons, or roughly 63 percent of the total, coming just since Hamas' coup in June.
Israeli officials estimate an additional 200 tons of explosives were already in Gaza, under the control of the Palestinian Authority, at the time Hamas seized control of the territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
The head of the UN atomic watchdog agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, on Monday pressed for a global reserve of nuclear fuel to safely meet growing worldwide demand for nuclear energy.In a report on his agencys activities to the UN General Assembly, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief said his agency was weighing a proposal for an actual or virtual reserve fuel bank of last resort under IAEA auspices for supplying nuclear fuel.
With the Iranian nuclear issue in mind, he said the IAEA was also looking at proposals to convert a national facility into an international enrichment centre or the construction of a new multinational enrichment facility under IAEA control.Tehran is refusing to heed UN Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment, arguing that it is entitled to pursue enrichment as a signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Equitable system: In his report to the UN, the IAEA chief proposed an equitable system to supply nuclear material, followed by steps to bring any new operations for uranium enrichment and plutonium separation under multinational control. He noted that there are 439 nuclear power reactors operating in 30 countries, supplying just over 15 percent of the worlds electricity. Half of the 30 reactors now being built were in developing countries, he said.
But he said, no amount of US irrational policies will be able to dissuade us from pursuing our legitimate rights to nuclear energy and interests.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#6
"our legitimate rights to nuclear energy and interests"
Sounds like a Freudian slip to me. "Our" U.N. does not have legitimate rights to nuclear energy and interests. He's sounding more like and Iranian mullah than a U.N. agency chief. Our ambassador should demand that he clarify that statement. By "our" is this clown meaning Egyptian, Islamic, third world or what?
"US irrational policies"
I've been pro-Bush all along, so it disappoints me that he hasn't done more to shrink the U.N.
#7
The UN is supposed to be closed for the next three years(Or so)sounds like a perfect time to plant thousands of "Bugs" (Visual and audio)HINT, HINT.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
10/31/2007 12:22 Comments ||
Top||
#8
By "our" is this clown meaning Egyptian, Islamic, third world or what?
#10
I'm sure the Iranians, for example, will get around to building lots of electrical distribution grids around their peaceful nuclear reactors. Real Soon Now.
Syria has reportedly warned France that unless Lebanon elects a consensus President under Damascus' terms bunker wars could take place.
The daily An Nahar on Tuesday, citing sources in Paris, said the Syrian stand was conveyed by Syrian Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa to France's Middle East envoy Jean-Claude Cousseran during their meeting in Damascus on Sunday . An Nahar said Sharaa's stance was "inflexible" in view of some Lebanese parties that are demanding a simple majority vote. It said Sharaa indicated that this would not only lead to a presidential vacuum but to domestic disputes. "The (presidential election) issue should be resolved before it turns into bunker wars," parliamentary sources quoted France's Middle East envoy Jean-Claude Cousseran as summing up the Syrian stance.
The sources pointed out that Sharaa's stand came in contrast to announcements made publicly by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem. Paris, nevertheless, remained "optimistic" that presidential election would take place within the constitutional framework, underlining U.S.' "positive reaction" with regard to France's position that calls for Lebanese national dialogue aimed at reaching a compromise President.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
IOW, Lebanon is NOT independent, NOT sovereign, and under SYRIA???
#6
I think he means when all the leaders head for their bunkers and the hard boys duke it out in the streets fighting house to house. Kind of like the good old days in Beruit.
Posted by: Steve ||
10/31/2007 7:27 Comments ||
Top||
#11
I'm sure this has just the opposite effect Syria expects. My reading of Sarcozy is that "warning" him is about the same as "warning" Bush. Syria still thinks it's dealing with Chirac. Keep it up, Pencil Head, your day is coming.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea expressed readiness to take part in Lebanon's intra-Christian meeting, stressing that holding private talks with Christian opposition leader Gen. Michel Aoun was not important. Geagea's remarks came following a meeting on Monday with Kuwaiti Ambassador Abdel Aal al-Qinaee.
"We discussed the need for dialogue among the Lebanese at all times," Geagea told reporters. "I'm willing to attend any meeting as long as everyone, without exception, attends," he said.
Geagea stressed that March 14 presidential nominees were consensus candidates. "If they (opposition) rejected them, it would be an indication they did not accept anyone," Geagea said. "Consequently, consensus for them is imposing a candidate from their side which is unacceptable for us," he added.
In response to a question as to what the cause of the delay in the long-awaited Geagea-Aoun meeting was, Geagea said: "There is no need for it."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under:
#1
I find it hard to take this guy, any guy seriously that looks like Dr. Phil.....
Lebanese central bank governor Riad Salameh said he was ready to become president if rival factions agreed to it and warned that continuing political crisis was strangling Lebanon's economic growth.
Although Salameh says he is not campaigning for the presidency, he is seen as a leading contender and someone who could be acceptable to sides whose power struggle has paralyzed government and sparked deadly violence. Asked in a Reuters interview on Tuesday if he would be ready to take up the presidency, Salameh said: "If there is an agreement or consensus, of course. But I am not going to campaign for that."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Lebanese parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri revealed on Tuesday that he has evidence of Syrian assassination plots against himself and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. Hariri made the claim in response to a question about alleged assassination plots against the leaders by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law and head of intelligence Assef Shawqat. "We have intelligence about this and we are following it up," he told reporters. "The intelligence is correct and our security services are working on it. There is cooperation between Lebanese security services and Arab security services to avoid such assassinations," he said, without specifying which countries were helping in the investigations.
Asked about Hariri's comments, an official at the Beirut office of the Western-backed Siniora said: "It is true and we have been informed about it."
Several anti-Syrian figures have been assassinated in Lebanon since Hariri's own father and former premier Rafiq was killed in a February 2005 bombing. An initial UN inquiry into that killing implicated Damascus and its allies in Lebanon, where four pro-Syrian security chiefs were arrested in late 2005. Syria has vehemently denied any involvement. Saad has been at the vanguard of Lebanese efforts to set up a UN-backed tribunal to judge those responsible for his father's death, saying earlier this month that "what is happening in Lebanon today is a destabilizing coup."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
#1
Every time a Lebanese politician gets whacked there should be a bombing run over Damascus. Just let 'em have it with thousands of good old fashioned dumb bombs. Bush should stand up and say so publicly. Let 'em know it's gonna happen and then make good on the threat.
Youth and Sports Minister Ahmed Fatfat supports an armed resistance that defends Lebanon against Israeli threats, but rejects an armed Hezbollah that he perceives as an Iranian force using Lebanon as an arena in a confrontation with the United States.
Fatfat, in an interview with Naharnet, said Iran supports consensus on a Presidential candidate to avoid a sunni-Shiite confrontation, contrary to Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime that believes Chaos in Lebanon is the way to re-gain control of the Beirut decision-making. Nevertheless, he expressed belief that the various Lebanese political factions would reach agreement on a consensus presidential candidate, noting that Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun's chances in Being a serious candidate for the nation's top post have "evaporated"
Fatfat also called for pulling "Syria's weapons" out of Lebanon, stressing that bases manned by Fatah Intifada and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command are "Syrian and not Palestinian" structures because their decisions are issued by the Assad regime and not by the Palestine Liberation Organization of President Mahmoud Abbas. "We are for an armed resistance and against an Armed Hezbollah," Fatfat declared.
"Resistance is not restricted to a single party, all the Lebanese factions have resistance heritage and have a duty to resist if the resistance is targeted against Israel to reclaim the land and regain prisoners," he explained. "But an Armed Hezbollah is not accepted If these weapons have internal aims they would become hostile weapons and will be faced by tough confrontation from Lebanese (groups) that reject such a trend," Fatfat added.
He expressed "concern that this weapon is not meant to serve national goals, but rather regional (Iranian) aims."
"In other words it is an advance Iranian force in the Iranian-American confrontation, which means a return to using Lebanon as an arena for settling accounts in the region" to avoid confrontation in the Gulf or Iranian territories, Fatfat added.
He called for control by the Lebanese Army command of Hezbollah weapons, which would enable the Lebanese army to call the shots, noting "that a decision to go to war is a political decision that should be taken by the political authority and referred to the army for implementation."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/31/2007 00:00 ||
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Palestinian terrorist groups and their backers plan to hold an event to counter the Annapolis peace conference. Representatives of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, meeting in Damascus this week, agreed to reconvene in the Syrian capital on November 7 for a conference to stress their rejection of any accommodation with Israel. The planned event has been supported by Iran.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who is scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at a regional peace parley in Annapolis, Maryland in late November or early December, sent an emissary to Damascus to argue against holding the rejectionist conference. The emissary was scheduled to meet Syrian Vice President Farouk Shara on Wednesday.
Posted by: ryuge ||
10/31/2007 07:55 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
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.
In an abrupt policy shift, Saudi Arabia has signed an agreement to buy over 150 Russian-made Mi-35 Hind and Mi-17 Hip helicopters worth over $2.2 billion, ending French hopes of sealing a long-delayed sale of 148 helicopters and raising doubts about future French arms sales to the Saudi kingdom. 
The verdict on those accused of involvement in Europe's worst Islamist terrorist attack will be announced in a Spanish court today after a trial that has lasted four months and 17 days and heard testimony from more than 300 witnesses. 
WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan will discuss ways to counter Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq when they meet in Washington next week, the White House said on Tuesday. Turkish officials had already gone public with Mondays meeting, which comes amid concerns about a possible Turkish military incursion into Iraq against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.
A group of men accused of plotting to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower were in the final stages of forming a homegrown terrorist cell dedicated to waging an Islamic holy war before they were arrested, a prosecution terrorism expert testified in a Miami courtroom Tuesday. 
Local Taliban leaders on Tuesday marked the first anniversary of an airstrike on a madrassa in the Damadola region of Bajaur Agency in which around 80 people, whom the government claimed were terrorists, were killed on October 30, 2006. The Taliban leaders vowed to continue jihad against the US and its allies. Jihad against infidels will continue, Taliban commander Maulana Faqir Muhammad told a gathering in the Umerai area in Bajaur agencys Mamoond tehsil.
Federal Information Minister Muhammad Ali Durrani said on Tuesday that some politicians are directly supporting terrorism and they would be exposed very soon. He told this to a delegation of Rawalpindi-Islamabad Union of Journalists (RIUJ) and Bara Press Club here. RIUJ President Afzal Butt was leading the delegation. 
President General Pervez Musharraf has warned that if terrorists and extremists do not understand the language of dialogue, they will be dealt with by use of force. 
Iraqi Kurds on Tuesday blamed the Turkish military for the failure of talks between Baghdad and Ankara over Kurdish rebels and urged fresh dialogue to end their uprising. Kamel Shaker, a top Iraqi Kurdish leader, said the talks collapsed because of a tough Turkish military stance. The failure of the meeting in Ankara was due to the intransigent attitude of the Turkish military which believes that if it meets with representatives of Kurdistan, they would lose face, he said. Shaker, a hardline communist leader, said the Turkish military refused to acknowledge the two Kurdish members of the Baghdad delegation, Sifin Dezaie and Imad Ahmed, during the talks. The military is adamant in its view, he told AFP at his office in Arbil, the capital of the autonomus Kurdish government of northern Iraq. They do not want to meet with the representatives of Kurdistan, or have a dialogue with president Massud Barzani. They do not want Kurdistan.
The threat from Al Qaeda in several former strongholds in Baghdad has been significantly reduced, but criminals who have established an "almost mafia-like presence" in some areas pose a new threat, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said Sunday.
The government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is resigned to Hamas retaining control over the Gaza Strip for at least a few years, a senior Israeli official told FOX News on Tuesday, adding that the Jewish state is equally determined, when timing allows, to press a military solution to expel the terrorist group from the Palestinian territories.
The head of the UN atomic watchdog agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, on Monday pressed for a global reserve of nuclear fuel to safely meet growing worldwide demand for nuclear energy.In a report on his agencys activities to the UN General Assembly, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief said his agency was weighing a proposal for an actual or virtual reserve fuel bank of last resort under IAEA auspices for supplying nuclear fuel.
Syria has reportedly warned France that unless Lebanon elects a consensus President under Damascus' terms bunker wars could take place.
Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea expressed readiness to take part in Lebanon's intra-Christian meeting, stressing that holding private talks with Christian opposition leader Gen. Michel Aoun was not important. Geagea's remarks came following a meeting on Monday with Kuwaiti Ambassador Abdel Aal al-Qinaee.
Lebanese parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri revealed on Tuesday that he has evidence of Syrian assassination plots against himself and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. Hariri made the claim in response to a question about alleged assassination plots against the leaders by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law and head of intelligence Assef Shawqat. "We have intelligence about this and we are following it up," he told reporters. "The intelligence is correct and our security services are working on it. There is cooperation between Lebanese security services and Arab security services to avoid such assassinations," he said, without specifying which countries were helping in the investigations.
Youth and Sports Minister Ahmed Fatfat supports an armed resistance that defends Lebanon against Israeli threats, but rejects an armed Hezbollah that he perceives as an Iranian force using Lebanon as an arena in a confrontation with the United States. 
