A group of Afghans protested on Monday against what they called the desecration of the holy Quran by British forces, the district governor said, although he and a British spokesman denied that any desecration had taken place.
Numerous people describing themselves as demonstrators and residents also telephoned a Reuters reporter in Kandahar to say around 600 people took part in the protest in Girishk district of neighbouring Helmand province.
Girishks Governor Abdul Manaf said 150 people had demonstrated in the town, but that there had been no desecration of the holy book and Taliban fighters had spread false rumours to provoke a protest. One self-described protester who introduced himself as Ghulam Muhammad said British soldiers knocked copies of the Muslim holy book out of the hands of villagers. The villagers told them that there were no Taliban hiding in the villages and swore by copies of the holy Quran they had in their hands, he said by telephone. The British soldiers threw away the holy Quran and began searching the houses.
British forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Simon Millar said a small protest had taken place, but there had been no desecration of the holy Quran. He added that a tribal council would be on Tuesday to discuss the matter.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2008 00:00 ||
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Omar Bin Laden, a son of Osama Bin Laden, has asked his father to stop killing civilians. In an interview in Cairo released by CNN, 26-year old Omar said he is talking publicly because he wants an end to the violence his father has inspired. I try and say to my father, Try to find another way to help or find your goal. These bombs, these weapons, theyre not good to use for anybody.
"Ayman, how many kids I got?"
"I dunno, Binny. 20, 30 maybe. I've lost count."
"Me, too. I got lots, so I don't need him. Have somebody kill him."
He said he hasnt spoken to his father since 2000, when he walked away from an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan with his fathers blessings. He said he has no idea where his father is, but is confident he will never be caught because locals support him. Asked if his father might be living along the Afghan-Pakistan border, he said, Maybe, maybe not. He said he and his British wife are pursuing a movement for peace. He said he doesnt consider his father to be a terrorist. When his father was fighting the Soviets, Washington considered him a hero, he said. I dont think my father is a terrorist because history tells you hes not.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
In Islam, there are no terrorists. The son of the guy who killed his two daughters in a Dallas suburb recently said his father did not do it because of Islam. It was just a domestic thing. Jaded mindset.
#6
He said he doesnt consider his father to be a terrorist.
And he does not consider any non-sunni muslim to be a civilian. The press falls for these lies over and over again. If he sympathizes with his father there can be no conversation with this man. He is the enemy.
#8
Omar Bin Laden, a son of Osama Bin Laden, has asked his father to stop killing civilians.
.....
He said he doesnt consider his father to be a terrorist. When his father was fighting the Soviets, Washington considered him a hero, he said. I dont think my father is a terrorist because history tells you hes not. khalid hasan
I consistantly go out and hit little balls hundreds of yards with a stick towards a hole and keep count of my swings. I enjoy myself and have encouraged others who have taken up the activity, but I am not a golfer.
Another fat rich kid of who wants to be a neo-hippy?
#9
An interview released by CNN could be an AQ message, as as-Sahab has been quiet lately. He's been in Africa and shows up with dreadlocks, just as other RB articles have pointed out the criminal gangs in South Africa, Kenya, and elsewhere are sporting. Where there is smoke, there is fire. The appeal to avoid killing civilians seems to answer one of the questions posed to Ayman online regarding targets, whether they should proceed against the big target in America, civilian or military. Tryng to get a UK visa would enable him to also travel with ease to former UK territories, some of which are quite close to both our southern and northern borders. Spawn of the devil.
#10
I enjoy myself and have encouraged others who have taken up the activity, but I am not a golfer.
Ben Franklin said "Golf is a good way to spoil a mornings walk".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/22/2008 15:35 Comments ||
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#11
"Beer is living proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."
And there is that at this course : )
(btw, should have had a ? at the end of #8)
#12
I share Icerigger's point of view
in this matter.
Allow me to nominate OBL's son - OMAR - for Fred's Rogues Gallery. With any luck at all perhaps a "toe tag photo" can be added in the not too distant future.
A British soldier killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan has been named by the Ministry of Defence. Corporal Darryl Gardiner, a member of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, attached to the 5th Regiment Royal Artillery and 52 Brigade's Reconnaissance Force, died after the vehicle he was travelling in was hit by a mine strike near the town of Musa Qala on Sunday.
Five other British service personnel injured in the incident were taken by helicopter to the International Security Assistance Force medical centres at Camp Bastion and Kandahar airfield.
Cpl Gardiner was taking part in an operation to disrupt enemy forces and reassure local Afghans in Helmand Province when the blast occurred. The 25-year-old from Wiltshire was evacuated by helicopter to the field hospital at Camp Bastion but died from his wounds.
Known to his friends as "Daz", Cpl Gardiner had been deployed in Afghanistan since October. A keen skydiver and member of the Army Parachute Association, he leaves behind a girlfriend, Lucy.
In a statement, Cpl Gardiner's family said they were "deeply proud that Darryl served his country". It added: "The family asks, at what is a very difficult time for them, that their privacy is respected."
The Security Services are to investigate if terrorists have got hold of military personnel files following the theft of a Ministry of Defence laptop, the Defence Secretary announced. Des Browne told the Commons that MI5 and MI6 had been asked to assess whether the incident "could lead to an increased threat to our personnel". Intelligence chiefs said the risk depended on "whether the information had fallen into the hands of extremists".
Brilliant.
Fears have been raised the documents would contain the religious identities of applicants, putting Muslim recruits particularly at risk. Six men were arrested last year over an alleged plot to kidnap a British Muslim soldier and behead him.
"I am keenly aware of the risks should the data have fallen into the wrong hands, although I emphasise that there is no evidence that it has done so," Mr Browne said.
On two other occasions MoD laptops had been stolen which contained personal data that was not encrypted.
It also emerged that on two other occasions MoD laptops had been stolen which contained personal data that was not encrypted. Mr Browne had to admit that "no steps were taken to inform those whose records were potentially at risk" although criminals had not apparently exploited the information. He admitted there were "weaknesses in the application of MoD security procedures" to databases and "shortcomings in security training".
The latest laptop was stolen from the car of a Royal Navy officer left unattended overnight in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham on Jan 9. The MoD could not "wholly discount" if the officer's vehicle had been deliberately targeted by criminal or terrorists, Mr Browne said. "Appropriate action" had been taken against the Navy officer responsible for the loss, the House was told.
All MoD laptops have encryption software that is extremely different to crack - although it would be unlikely to deter foreign intelligence services. But the stolen device did not even have the encryption installed, which Mr Browne said was "a breach of MOD security regulations".
It contained details on 600,000 people who had expressed an interest in the Armed Forces. While some entries were just a name, terrorists might have gained access to 153,000 people's personal data such as National Insurance numbers, drivers' licence details, family details, doctors' addresses and National Health Service numbers. Another 3,700 people also had banking details in records that stretched as far back as 1997.
A full investigation into the thefts will now be conducted by Sir Edmund Burton, Chairman of the Information Advisory Council The theft is being investigated by the West Midlands Police, assisted by the Ministry of Defence Police.
#1
MoD had better have a bunch of 'buyers' out there pretending to be AQ looking to obtain these laptops from the common street criminals who probably stole them.
#3
Why in the hell was he able to take the laptop out of a secured area.
This happened to me just last year, with my info along with thousands of others info through work in a laptop that was stolen out of a car. Putting us all at risk.
This being military and personal soldiers info escalates the danger all the more. Mine was a more financial worry, not life, death or national security.
This sort of thing needs to be stopped, and the guy who took it and left it in his car needs to be repremanded.
Measures need to be placed so that this can't happen again.
Posted by: Jan ||
01/22/2008 19:02 Comments ||
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Venezuela has sent 1,200 troops to its border with Colombia to crack down on smuggling amid a bitter feud between the two countries' governments. The National Guard announced the stepped-up security Monday night, a day after President Hugo Chavez ordered the military to keep people from smuggling scarce, price-controlled items like milk across the border.
Gotta keep 'contraband' like milk and bread from coming in. And refugees from leaving. Socialismo at work!
The issue has taken on political overtones because Chavez and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe are at odds over Colombia's long-running guerrilla conflict.
Venezuelans have suffered shortages of basic products like milk, chicken and sugar recently as the oil-producing country's robust economic growth has far exceeded agricultural production.
Critics say the socialist government's attempts to force down prices have contributed to the shortages by making it tough for sellers to make any profit. Some people allegedly have sought to sell their goods for higher prices across the border. The Venezuelan National Guard said Monday it seized about 550 tons of milk, rice and other foods being shuttled across the border in trucks.
Chavez announced an increase in government-set prices for milk over the weekend to try to stem shortages.
#3
The only reason behind such seizures would be to prevent free trade.
Black market trade when the white market collapses. Zim land is not too far off. It's got to be good duty cause the record shows that the bribe money in such environment is definitely effective to offset the loss of buying power of the troops not on the capital payoff Praetorian duty near El Jefe.
#5
Venezuelans have suffered shortages of basic products like milk, chicken and sugar recently as the oil-producing country's robust economic growth has far exceeded agricultural production.
I wondered what sort of economic illiterate it would take to write this sentence. Then I saw the words "Seattle Post-Intelligencer".
Russia has sent two long-range bombers to the Bay of Biscay, off the French and Spanish Atlantic coasts, to test-fire missiles in what Moscow billed as its biggest naval exercise in the area since the Soviet era.
Firing missiles off the coastline of two Nato members is the latest in a series of Kremlin moves flexing Moscows military muscle on the world stage.
Russian bombers joined aircraft carriers, battleships and submarine hunters from the Northern and Black Sea fleets for the Atlantic exercises, which come as the country enters an election campaign to choose a successor to President Putin.
The air force is taking a very active part in the exercises of the navys strike force in the Atlantic, the Russian air force said in a statement reported by Reuters. Today, two strategic Tu-160 bombers departed for exercises in the Bay of Biscay, which ... will carry out a number of missions and will conduct tactical missile launches."
There was no immediate comment from Nato about the exercise.
Mr Putin has used military manoeuvres, including controversial North Sea overflights, to revive domestic and international respect for Russias armed forces which were shattered by the chaos of the 1990s.
He has also boosted military spending, renewed long-range bomber missions and approved a plan to upgrade Russias nuclear attack forces, which he said was needed after Nato built up its forces close to Russias borders.
But some analysts note that while the sabre-rattling is popular at home, Russian military spending in absolute terms is substantially lower than that of China, Britain or France and less than a tenth of that of the United States.
Discipline is also still a major problem for Russias armed forces, which rely heavily on conscripts and outdated equipment.
Russia last month said it would begin major navy sorties into the Mediterranean, with 11 ships backed up by 47 aircraft, that would then travel to the Atlantic for exercises.
The navys flagship aircraft carrier, the Soviet-made Admiral Kuznetsov, was leading the fleet in the Atlantic where Nato were trying to keep a close eye on Russian movements, Russian media reported.
This is the biggest exercise of its kind in the area since Soviet times, a spokesman for Russias navy said, adding that more details would be released later. There was no further information about where in the Bay of Biscay, which lies off the west coast of France and the northern coast of Spain, the missile tests were due to take place.
Russias air force said turbo-prop Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bombers, codenamed Bear by Nato, would join ATO, would join the exercise on Wednesday From January 23, the aviation component in the zone where the exercises are going on will be widened and the following planes will take part: Tu-160, Tu-95, Tu-22 M3, Il-78, A-50,, the air force said.
#3
Excuse me, but does anyone care to speculate what the odds are those bombers would make it over the North Sea in one piece if there was a real war going on?
I'm just asking because I wonder if there is really any value to this exercise other than domestic propaganda for Putin?
#5
It would be a hoot if France and Spain sent a marine expeditionary force on maneuvers and landings along Bulgaria's Black Sea coast - just a joint NATO exercise after all. Sarkozy's been fairly bold to date.
#6
Russia last month said it would begin major navy sorties into the Mediterranean, with 11 ships backed up by 47 aircraft, that would then travel to the Atlantic for exercises.
Probably five times that many cannibalised to get these working.
#8
One the one part, DUBYA has made it clear times to the world that he will NOT be a lame duck POTUS vv Radical Iran + same haveing nuke weapons potential or de facto capability. IOW, DUBYA = USA MAY TAKE UNILATER MIL ACTION ANY TIME THRU 12/2008, wid first six months of 2008 as his most ideal pol acceptable time frame.
On the other part, NEITHER RUSSIA NOR CHINA HAVE FORMALLY RENOUNCED THEIR "WAR IS NOT ONLY POSSIBLY BUT DESIRED" ANTI-US AGENDA as per 2010-2020 decade > Russia approxi Year 2018 +/-, CHINA 2014 +/- [TAIWAN independence].
Lest we fergit also, RADICAL/ISLAMIST MULLAHS > OIL-RESOURCES CATACLYSM = REGIONAL-GLOBAL MUTUAL DESTRUCTION, etc > ANY AND ALL IS TO ISLAM's = ISLAMISM'S ADVANTAGE.
D *** NG IT, BUY YOUR POST-MAD, POST-APOCALYPSE CAMEL FUTURES NOW, SILLY AMERS + WESTERN CRUSADERS - ISLAM WILL RULE THE EARTH ONE WAY OR ANOTHER!
IIRC, SEAN CONNERY in THE LION AND THE DESERT [corr title?][paraph] > "When the Mountains, the Seas, and the Forests are gone, when nation had destroyed nation, ONLY THE DESERT WILL BE LEFT AND MY PEOPLE WILL STILL BE HERE".
#11
IOn, WAFF.com > MEMRI.org - Iranian website TABANAK claims that IRAN, wid help from SYRIA, CAN DESTROY HALF OD ISRAEL in the aftermath/
retaliation for any Israeli missle attack on Iran.
Iran's doctrine is based on IERREGULAR DEFENSE, ergo Israel [USA] will find it very difficult to successfully target any specific Iranian cache of missles = other weapons [nukies], LET ALONE SUCCESS DESTROY ALL OF THEM. In addition, post-Israeli attack, Iran can implement its Iran-Syria agreement on inter-nation strategic defense. ANY ISRAELI ATTACK AGZ IRAN ALSO INVITES MIL RESPONSE BY SYRIA AS WELL AS BY TERROR ORGS i.e. HAMAS [Pals/PA], ISLAMIC JIHAD, AND HIZBULLAH/
HEZBOLLAH, etc. espec from LEBANON. ANY IRAN COUNTER-ATTACK DOES NOT EVEN HAVE TO BE LAUNCHED FROM IRAN PROPER.
Compare wid FR Poster argument that in any war = attack scenario agz the USA, CHINA may decide to use NORTH KOREA as PDeniable proxy to strike and damage CONUS-NORAM based US SPAWAR, COMMWAR, andor ENERGY GRIDS-NETWORKS via EMP detonations. China will then closely scrutnize the US mil response agz NK to dtermin iff the US is weak enuff, and iff so to then attack TAIWAN [Japan, SK?].
#12
#1: Oh boy! "Aircraft carriers and battleships"! Sounds exciting!!
Actually that is a very unfair fight, the Battleships are severely handicapped here, they would be sunk far out of gun range long before they even fired a shot.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/22/2008 20:36 Comments ||
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North Korea Tuesday again blamed Washington for a deadlocked denuclearisation deal and said it would not retreat in the face of US confrontation engineered by hardliners.
Minju Josun, the cabinet newspaper, criticised the White House's failure to start the process of removing Pyongyang from its list of state sponsors of terrorism. It singled out John Bolton, former US ambassador to the United Nations, describing him as a "narrow-minded" political philistine.
"The US, which pledged ... to take our country off the list of states sponsoring terrorism by the end of last year, is still reluctant to implement the promise," the newspaper's commentary said, as quoted by the official Korean Central News Agency. "If the US really intends to make progress in denuclearising the Korean peninsula, it should fulfil its obligations. It is nonsense to say that the denuclearisation of the Korean peninsula is being delayed because we did not make a nuclear declaration, given that they fail to do what they are supposed to do."
Last week another official newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, accused US hardliners of trying to wreck the deal. Tuesday's Minju Josun resumed the attack, citing a newspaper article by Bolton in which he was said to have called for a return to a hardline policy following the delayed declaration.
"Even though expecting little from him, a narrow-minded and politically philistine figure, we cannot but point out his vicious intention to scuttle the process of denuclearising the Korean peninsula," the paper added. "We have never shrunk from the US policy of confrontation. We have always responded to the US hardline policy with an ultra-hardline policy."
North Korea has postponed the first inter-Korean dialogue of this year, citing time constraints, South Korean officials said Monday. The two sides were to hold working-level talks Tuesday and Wednesday on repairing a cross-border railway and transporting a joint cheering squad to the Beijing Olympics this year by train. But Pyongyang asked for a suspension, saying It is the start of the year and there are a few things to prepare, the Souths unification ministry said. We dont know exactly why North Korea decided to suspend this weeks inter-Korean meeting, a ministry spokesman told AFP. He refused to confirm Yonhap news agencys report that the suspension was an apparent sign of uneasiness over the next South Korean governments tougher stance on Pyongyang.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Does this mean they won't give back that 25 million it took to get them to the table initially?
Russia on Tuesday warned that Ukraine's possible NATO membership will deteriorate bilateral relations and Moscow would take counter measures accordingly. "Ukraine's likely integration with NATO, if it becomes a reality," will considerably worsen the multi-faceted Russian-Ukrainian relations," Itar-Tass news agency quoted an official from the Foreign Ministry as saying.
"We shall have to take retaliatory steps," the official, requesting anonymity, was quoted as saying.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, however, said that Ukraine "remains in an open dialogue on Euro-Atlantic and NATO integration processes" and will open talks with Russia "on all disputes that it can perceive as a threat to its security."
The Ukrainian government published last week a letter to the NATO chief, pledging to seek membership of the Western military alliance. Ukrainian Defense Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov offered "concrete proposals" during a meeting with a top NATO official on Tuesday.
Relations between Kiev and Moscow have witnessed downturns in recent years due to arrays of disputes, such as Russia's surging price for energy supply to Ukraine and the latter's pro-Western policies.
#1
By far the most important thing the US can do within our power in Europe. It will effectively check the rise of a neo USSR. Between the Russians and Germans last century, half the Ukrainian population was wiped out in 30 years. The Ukrainians deserve better than to be under either of them ever again.
Posted by: ed ||
01/22/2008 13:02 Comments ||
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#2
Yawn, wake me up if they ever start shooting.
Posted by: Titus Hayes ||
01/22/2008 13:36 Comments ||
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#3
I guess you slept through the Putin inspired coup attempt during the Orange revolution. It had guns, tanks, secret police and "enforced" suicides. Would make a heck of a movie.
Posted by: ed ||
01/22/2008 13:57 Comments ||
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#4
um, given the relative uselessness of NATO in A-stan, I'm thinking they wouldn't do too well against Putie's Panzers. Ukraine may be betting a lot on what it used to be.
Posted by: Ebberert Protector of the Brontosaurs5310 ||
01/22/2008 16:12 Comments ||
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#5
Ukraine in NATO means we might send military of our own. To consult with our allies, that is.
#6
It is ridiculous to bring the Ukraine into Nato. Would we really threaten invasion if Belarus attacked the Ukraine? Not worth the bones of a Pennsylvanian infantryman.
#7
I agree with Nimble. NATO should be dissolved rather than expanded. The Europeans are wealthy enough to defend themselves and the troops sent to Afghanistan could have been sent there without the NATO structure.
#8
The question is, what DOESN'T piss the Russians off nowadays?
Either way, NATO is dead. Better to form an alliance with nations that are willing and able to create effective, deployable militarizes that are willing to accept American command on most occasions.
The Dutch government is bracing itself for violent protests following the scheduled broadcast this week of a provocative anti-Muslim film by a radical right-wing politician who has threatened to broadcast images of the Koran being torn up and otherwise desecrated.
Cabinet ministers and officials, fearing a repetition of the crisis sparked by the publication of cartoons of Muhammad in a Danish newspaper two years ago, have held a series of crisis meetings and ordered counter-terrorist services to draw up security plans. Dutch nationals overseas have been asked to register with their embassies and local mayors in the Netherlands have been put on standby.
Geert Wilders, one of nine members of the extremist VVD (Freedom) party in the 150-seat Dutch lower house, has promised that his film will be broadcast - on television or on the internet - whatever the pressure may be. It will, he claims, reveal the Koran as 'source of inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror'. In other words he's going to actually read from the Koran out loud.
Dutch diplomats are already trying to pre-empt international reaction. Your going to just *love* this.... 'It is difficult to anticipate the content of the film, but freedom of expression doesn't mean the right to offend,' said Maxime Verhagen, the Foreign Minister, who was in Madrid to attend the Alliance of Civilisations, an international forum aimed at reducing tensions between the Islamic world and the West. By bowing and scraping to your islamic overlords like good little dhimmi.
In Amsterdam, Rotterdam and other towns with large Muslim populations, imams say they have needed to 'calm down' growing anger in their communities.
Government officials hope that no mainstream media organisation will agree to show the film, although one publicly funded channel, Nova, initially agreed before pulling out. 'A broadcast on a public channel could imply that the government supported the project,' said an Interior Ministry spokesman.
In November 2004, anger and violence followed the stabbing and shooting by a Dutch teenager of Moroccan parentage of the controversial film-maker Theo Van Gogh, a distant relative of the artist.
The attacker said the killing was in response to a film about Islam and domestic violence that Van Gogh had made with the Somalian-born activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, then an MP, which showed images of naked veiled women with lines from the Koran projected over them.
From her self-imposed exile in Washington, Hirsi Ali last week criticised the new film as 'provocation' and called on the major Dutch political parties to restart a debate on immigration that has split Dutch society in recent years, rather than leave the field to extremists.
Wilders announced his plans last November, saying he was making a film to show the violent and fascist elements of the Muslim faith. The maverick politician's remarks about Islam have become increasingly radical.
Job Cohen, the left-wing mayor of Amsterdam, echoed Hirsi Ali's words and called for a debate 'so that the moderates can make themselves heard'. FYI - By banning the film - you already lost the debate - and your freedom. Your just too foolish to know it.
During a visit to the European Parliament in Strasbourg last week, Ahmad Badr al-Din Hassoun, the Grand Mufti of Syria, said that, were Wilders was seen to tear up or burn a Koran in his film, 'this will simply mean he is inciting wars and bloodshed ... It is the responsibility of the Dutch people to stop him.' Translations: You have your orders Dhimmi!
#3
freedom of expression doesn't mean the right to offend
That's the difference between the people of the old country and our ancestors from the old county who left there because of such attitudes. The whole 'independence' thing had a lot to do with offending the crown and parliament. Something they took action over. We responded. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, â That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
#4
"...but freedom of expression doesn't mean the right to offend."
Selectively endorsed tolerance compels over-the-top provocation that results in misguided retribution. Only to be followed by selective condemnation by the feckless enablers responsible for the cycle. Ahhh behold the virtues of Multi-culturalism.
The last two major wars that we had to send troops to Europe to fight was against the NAZI's. When the car bombs and beheadings begin there we will have to send troops to Europe to take out the "extremists", just like we are doing in Iraq.
All because "multi-culturalism" allowed the seeds of more violence (Islamic immigrants) in the door. Iran just warned the Dutch not to show films. Next they will assist in IED's.
A senior Iranian lawmaker warned the Netherlands on Monday not to allow the screening of what it called an anti-Islamic film produced by a Dutch politician, claiming it "reflects insulting views about the Holy Koran."
Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, promised widespread protests and a review of Iran's relationship with the Netherlands if Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders' work is shown. "If Holland will allow the broadcast of this movie, the Iranian parliament will request to reconsider our relationship with it," Boroujerdi said, according to IRNA, the official Iranian news agency. "In Iran, insulting Islam is a very sensitive matter and if the movie is broadcasted it will arouse a wave of popular hate that will be directed towards any government that insults Islam.
The Dutch ought to call that bluff: let Iran break relations. See how much it matters. The Dutch then could double-down by requiring every Iranian national in their country to either 1) request asylum or 2) leave.
Wilders calls his 10-minute film "a call to shake off the creeping tyranny of Islamicization, " and said it could air as early as this week on Dutch television. "People who watch the movie will see that the Koran is very much alive today, leading to the destruction of everything we in the Western world stand for, which is respect and tolerance," Wilders, the 41-year-old leader of the right-wing Party for Freedom, said last month in a telephone interview with FOXNews.com.
"The tsunami of Islamicization is coming to Europe. We should come to be far stronger."
And let's make sure we don't step into bed with the ultra-rights in Europe, who are just as bigoted and nasty as the Iranians.
Like other European countries, the Netherlands is struggling to cope with an influx of Muslim immigrants, and the newcomers are often relegated to working at low-paying jobs and living in high-crime ghettos. Though the Dutch boast of their culture of tolerance, tensions have been high, with some blaming rising unemployment and crime on newcomers from Muslim countries like Turkey, Morocco and Somalia.
In the late 1990s, political leaders like Pim Fortuyn, Somalian-born writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali and outspoken filmmaker Theo van Gogh seemed to tap into a growing well of resentment against Muslims and criticism of Islam. In 2002, tensions broke into outright murder when Fortuyn was shot by an animal rights activist who told the judge in the case that he was acting on behalf of the country's Muslims. Two years later, van Gogh was shot, stabbed and nearly decapitated on an Amsterdam street by Mohammed Bouyeri, a Muslim and a Dutch citizen of Moroccan descent.
Van Gogh, with Hirsi Ali, had recently made the film "Submission," a 10-minute movie that the two said depicted the abuse of women in Islamic cultures. After van Gogh's murder, the Dutch government placed public figures known for their anti-Muslim stances in safehouses.
Among them was Wilders. He hasn't been out of government protection since, a situation he said "I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy," and his views on Islam have only hardened.
Five months ago, he called for the Koran to be outlawed in the Netherlands. "I believe our culture is much better than the retarded Islamic cultures," he told FOXNews.com. "Ninety-nine percent of the intolerance in the world comes back to the Islamic religion and the Koran."
Though he refuses to claim the mantle of van Gogh's successor, Wilders clearly sees himself as continuing the controversial filmmaker's work. He acknowledges the similarities between "Submission" and his own 10-minute work. "I have so much respect for van Gogh's movie, aimed at one part of the Koran, women's bodies, one very bad part of the Koran," Wilders said. "I will use not only that theme but many others. Of course at the end it is a different movie."
Though Wilders has remained steadfastly vague about the specific contents of his movie, saying he wants to maximize the "moment of the broadcast itself," he added that it will include "images and parts of real-time movies that really happen in the Netherlands and the U.K. and the Middle East, the intolerance of the Koran that is still alive and vivid today."
Wilders, raised Catholic but long an atheist, said he's working with professors who are experts on the Koran and Islamic culture, professional filmmakers and scriptwriters to complete his film, which he hopes to broadcast this week on "Nova," a popular news program on Dutch public television. If "Nova" refuses to air the program, he said, he will broadcast the movie using the air time his political party is guaranteed by the government.
The Dutch government, which is protecting Wilders, has publicly warned him about the potential for violence at the completion of his film and has expressed concern over his personal safety. The government is also concerned about peace within the country and interests abroad. In 2005, cartoons printed in a Danish newspaper led to Danish embassies being set on fire, multi-million-dollar anti-Danish consumer boycotts in the Middle East, and hundreds of deaths in riots across the Muslim world.
"The government is taking the announcement of this movie quite seriously," said Floris van Hovell, a spokesman for the Dutch Embassy in Washington, D.C. "Obviously, because the movie hasn't been made, we cannot say anything about the movie until the movie has been shown, but the message Mr. Wilders has told us he wants to portray is disturbing."
Asked if the government plans to beef up security, Van Hovell last month said the government is making a concerted effort to reach out to the Muslim community in the Netherlands and the larger Muslim world. "We're explaining that in the Netherlands you have freedom of expression, and that at the same time the Dutch government is very concerned about the message Mr. Wilders supposedly wants to portray in his movie," van Hovell said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The Dutch then could double-down by requiring every Iranian national in their country to either 1) request asylum or 2) leave.
Wouldn't requesting asylum for ulterior motives fall under the domain of taquiyya?
Or are you just trying to get them deported in two stages? :-)
I especially like this statement:
"The tsunami of Islamicization is coming to Europe. We should come to be far stronger."
The muslim equivalent of a Freudian slip. I hope folks the world around are paying attention. Someone let me know if it shows up in the MSM with any conviction. Ha ha! Just kidding!
Hopefully this will raise enough eyebrows to make a difference, but it takes the head of the dinosaur quite a while to figure out that the tail has been chopped off, and by then it's too late.
#2
To really monkey wrench the whole thing, somebody should start passing out fliers advertising an "Anti-Muslim film festival".
The first flier would be to announce that interested parties should *make* anti-Muslim films. Then, a second flier announces that a bunch of films have been entered in the contest, and a third flier announces the "winners" of the film contest, and what the films portray.
The best part is that no films actually have to be made or exhibited. Just described.
The grand prize winner is "Mohammed, the insane pedophile and secret Jew".
First place is to the movie "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who eats pork and wipes with his right hand".
Second place, "Homosexual orgy in the mosque".
Third place, "Muslim women humiliating Imams".
The only part that needs to be figured out is where the film festival is supposedly held?
The Hague? Moscow? Copenhagen? Who deserves the most crap for being dhimmis?
#3
And let's make sure we don't step into bed with the ultra-rights in Europe, who are just as bigoted and nasty as the Iranians.
If the ultra-rights come to power they will make everything the arabs have been trying to do look like a picnic. Europeans tend to be much more thorough.
The problem is that no mainstream political parties are prepared to acknowledge there is a problem which is to say nothing of the establishment parties whose specific aim is to destroy national identity. Given the alternatives, there can be no surprise if people turn to a "strong man". Mark Steyn warned us about this; it is happening.
#4
I just made the below comment at a couple of other posts regarding Europe.
Here we go again.
The last two major wars that we had to send troops to Europe to fight was against the NAZI's. When the car bombs and beheadings begin there we will have to send troops to Europe to take out the "extremists", just like we are doing in Iraq.
All because "multi-culturalism" allowed the seeds of more violence (Islamic immigrants) in the door. Iran just warned the Dutch not to show films. Next they will assist in IED's.
#6
And let's make sure we don't step into bed with the ultra-rights in Europe, who are just as bigoted and nasty as the Iranians.
*Throws up hands* in ONE respect, the ultra-rightists are correct: There IS a threat from people who have come into the country and have not assimilated. ANY action on our part to stop that threat is going to please them at SOME level, even though privately they will think we're wimps and not going far enought. Alas, it's getting to the point that ANY APPROVAL by a rightist on ANYTHING is the kiss of death to any truly RATIONAL and REASONABLE politician. Combine with rabid PC enforcers who will damn such politicians unless they forswear ANY action whatsoever against any member of a "protected", "downtrodden", "misunderstood" minority.
Damned if you do, damned if you don't, and paranoia about what would "please" or "displease" the ultra right ANED the minorities is the damn cause.
#7
Though the Dutch boast of their culture of tolerance, tensions have been high, with some blaming rising unemployment and crime on newcomers from Muslim countries like Turkey, Morocco and Somalia.
#11
To be clear: if the ultra-rights take control of Europe and then have a knock-down, drag-out fight for the life of Europe with the Islamofascists, I won't be bothered to contribute one life or one dime.
It'll be red-on-red, as far as I'm concerned, fascist on fascist. They can fight to an extremely bloody draw.
I can't stand fascists be they Islamic or 'Christian' or anything else.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/22/2008 18:32 Comments ||
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#12
Be nice if we could secure the nukes before it happens tho.
It's an alarmist headline, but the meat of the article is the recommendations by the generals about the sorts of problems we've noted in the past with regard to NATO.
The west must be ready to resort to a pre-emptive nuclear attack to try to halt the "imminent" spread of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, according to a radical manifesto for a new Nato by five of the west's most senior military officers and strategists.
Calling for root-and-branch reform of Nato and a new pact drawing the US, Nato and the European Union together in a "grand strategy" to tackle the challenges of an increasingly brutal world, the former armed forces chiefs from the US, Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands insist that a "first strike" nuclear option remains an "indispensable instrument" since there is "simply no realistic prospect of a nuclear-free world".
The manifesto has been written following discussions with active commanders and policymakers, many of whom are unable or unwilling to publicly air their views. It has been presented to the Pentagon in Washington and to Nato's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, over the past 10 days. The proposals are likely to be discussed at a Nato summit in Bucharest in April.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
All together now - "Yoohoo, Dubya, can we have a draft now"!?
#3
Joe drive by a High School at about 3PM on a weekday and tell me whether you think 90 percent of the male specimens would be helpful to the armed forces. Vietnam got especially ugly once the people that shouldn't have been there took the field. The 101 airborne at Ripcord was not the same outfit as the one that held in Bastogne.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/22/2008 1:25 Comments ||
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First-strike, pre-emptive, preventative: Whatever you want to call it, it has always been on the table, but there is almost certainly some specific reason that top brass on both sides are suddenly discussing it in public.
I don't think these assertions are aimed at each other, either, but at the same mutually perceived threat. Something is up, and it has the strategy mavens rattled. Iran? the PRC? Pakistan? Something we don't know about?
Just to pull one out of the hat, both NATO and Russian planners may have identified a potential need for an electro-magnetic pulse attack to essentially shut down a hostile country in a single blow.
Another possibility is the need to destroy a cache of nasty bio-weapons with a virtual guarantee of 100% sterilization, something only a nuke could do.
(As several have guessed, I have been posing as Gromomble Oppressor of the Iowans8916. Time to come out of the closet, I suppose).
Posted by: Thomas Woof ||
01/22/2008 8:43 Comments ||
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#8
tell me whether you think 90 percent of the male specimens would be helpful to the armed forces.
During the Algerian war French paratrooper colonel and former SAS Marcel Bigeard was handled a particularly mediocre regiment of draftees. First thing he did was making them physically fit ie sport, sport, sport. In no time the once mediocre draftees were getting better results against the Algerian FLN than even his former para regiments. (BTW Bigeard didn't stop his daily runs until eighty three or eighty four).
#9
JFM... yes, but Bigeard came along well before ethnic street gang activity, "stress cards", grievances to the IG/legal offices, and sensing sessions. Reinstitution of mandetory military conscription in the United States would create a disaster and sea of draft dodgers and renegades. Jimmy Carter killed it, its dead.
#10
Reserving the right to initiate nuclear attack was a central element of the west's cold war strategy in defeating the Soviet Union. Critics argue that what was a productive instrument to face down a nuclear superpower is no longer appropriate.
No need to double-check whether these same critics used to argue deterrence against a nuclear superpower was inappropriate. "Critics". What a joke. And the press lets them get away with this lying rhetoric every single time.
#11
AC, after having been in Iowa, they deserve to be oppressed. (re: your other nym).
JFM, they Drills can no longer PT anyone until they drop. The days of "I will PT you unitl *I* get tired" are gone. And with it, the "wall to wall counseling" that such people needed as well.
The military is set up only for peopel that asked to be and want to be there. To force people who do nto want to be there would break the system that has produced arguably the best military we have ever had.
Why are the SF, Seals, Rangers, etc, looked up to? Because they go thru hell in training. Why do they do that? Because everyone there asked to be there, no backing down.
#13
All together now - "Yoohoo, Dubya, can we have a draft now"!?
I told you, Joe, you have to wait until Hillary becomes president. Yeah, I know, she's a dhimmicrat. But those are exactly the kind of careless, shaky, panicky people who will not think twice before imposing their will on young men and sending them into some misguided adventure. We've already seen that people like Clinton, Reid, Pelosi, Murtha, Kennedy and Kerry don't give a rat's ass about the troops. You think it's the party of peace? That's like calling Islam the Religion of Peace. The dhimmicrats care about power and nothing else.
The peace through superior firepower strength policies of Republicans like Nixon and Reagan are far more likely to keep us out of war than the namby-pamby policies of soft-headed morons like Carter and Clinton. I've said it before:
Wilson, WWI; Roosevelt, WWII; Truman, Korea; Kennedy/Johnson, Vietnam; Clinton, Bosnia and Kosovo. Some might even say it was Clinton who got us into Iraq and Afghanistan by paying more attention to Monica than he did to threats like Saddam and bin Laden.
It was Eisenhower, a Republican, who ended the war in Korea. It was Nixon, a Republican, who got us out of Vietnam then turned around and negotiated SALT with Brezhnev. You know these guys weren't soft. Just a little smarter is all.
But then, who was it who left Iran to the Mad Mullahs? Uh-huh.
#14
By insisting on "special rules" for its forces in Afghanistan, the Merkel government in Berlin was contributing to "the dissolution of Nato".
NATO has already lost in Afghanistan.
They criticized the US for going it alone, and said they would go in and help. They thought it would just be a reconstruction job and the Taliban were out of the picture. However with the failure to stop poppy production and the failure of Pakistan in the Tribal Area, the Taliban are now resurgent.
Only Australia, Britain, Canadian, Holland and US troops are engaged in fighting . The rest may as well not be there.
The recommendations in the "Manifesto" are not going to happen. The left would take to the barricades and most of the people in Europe don't want NATO to anything that might help the US, especially if it going to result in a loss of life.
So the countries of the Baltic who have joined, or are considering joining NATO, such as the Ukraine (see posting above), may ask if NATO wont fight in Afghanistan, where will they fight? especially if Russia starts throwing their weight around.
Would the Europeans just stand back and make the US do all the heavy lifting?
#15
Well, several eastern European countries sent troops to Iraq and many of them were in combat roles. On most days I despair about NATO, but *if* it can be turned around, it would help enormously in the tough years we have ahead of us.
#16
We'd be better off in the future with ad hoc bi-and multi-lateral coalitions of the willing than an ossified, inert, unguided Nato. It served well and was the longest and most successful alliance in history. But its duty is done and like other old soldiers, it should just fade away.
(Xinhua) -- Fatiha Mejjati, the "black widow" of Al-Qaeda warned recently that France would be the "target" of terrorism attacks and would be "punished soon," French daily Le Parisien reported on Monday.
Mejjati is the widow of Karim Mejjati, a French-Moroccan killed in April 2005 in Saudi Arabia. Karim had been suspected of masterminding the terrorism attack on March 11, 2004 in the Spanish capital Madrid that left 195 people dead. In an exclusive interview with the daily, Mejjati, who now lives in the Moroccan city of Casablanca, said France would be "punished" for "its fidelity to the United States."
"France will no longer be set apart nor be protected", she said, adding French foreign policy is currently aligned with that of the United States and France's political independence in the period of former President Jacques Chirac no longer exists.
Referring to French President Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to Saudi Arabia, Mejjati said the trip was to sell arms to fight Muslims. She also warned French troops should retreat from Afghanistan, otherwise they will be attacked in revenge.
After having arrested 14 terrorism suspects on Saturday, Spanish police warned France and the United Kingdom of attacks during the visit of Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. Musharraf is on an eight-day visit to Europe, visiting Belgium, France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom from Jan. 20.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Naughty boys! You must be punished. And after the spankings, the ...
#2
I wonder if the French would make good assassins?
Maybe they could subcontract with the Hungarians to seek out and whack individuals like this broad. It would be complementary to the rest of the WoT that there be no safe place for loud mouths like this to spout without worrying that they would soon be pushing up daisies.
#4
I just made the below comment at a couple of other posts regarding Europe.
Here we go again.
The last two major wars that we had to send troops to Europe to fight was against the NAZI's. When the car bombs and beheadings begin there we will have to send troops to Europe to take out the "extremists", just like we are doing in Iraq.
All because "multi-culturalism" allowed the seeds of more violence (Islamic immigrants) in the door. Iran just warned the Dutch not to show films. Next they will assist in IED's.
The group of alleged Islamist extremists arrested in Barcelona at the weekend were planning suicide attacks on Spanish soil allegedly under orders from Al Qaeda in Pakistan, AFP quoted press reports as saying.
But the Spanish pulled out of Iraq. Why would al-Qaeda be mad at them?
Citing sources close to the investigation, the daily El Periodico de Catalunya said the terrorist action averted on Saturday ... was decided several months ago by the central Al Qaeda network in Pakistan. Those who gave the order are to be found in Pakistan. They were preparing suicide attacks. Those that came here were ready to commit suicide, it said.
Among the 12 Pakistanis and two Indians arrested during the night of Friday to Saturday, several had made recent trips to Pakistan, according to the papers source. The group received an order to carry out an attack in Barcelona from figures high up within the Al Qaeda hierarchy during a meeting at a training camp in Waziristan.
Announcing the arrests on Saturday, Spains Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba declared that an imminent attack by highly organised radical Islamists had been foiled. Here we are looking at a well-organised group who were going beyond ideological radicalism to acquiring materials to make explosives and therefore eventually to carry out violent attacks, he said. During our searches, we found various materials which could be explosives or be used to make explosives, he told a press conference in Madrid. Four timing devices as well as computer equipment were recovered.
The intelligence suggested the possibility that a terrorist action was being prepared on Spanish soil, in Barcelona to be precise, Rubalcaba said. Police then detected an organised group suspected of gathering materials used to make explosives, and decided immediately to swoop, he said. He added that it was probable that some of the 14 were innocent.
The terror suspects will appear in a Spanish court this week, a judicial source said on Monday amid press reports that they were planning an Al Qaeda ordered suicide attack. Under Spanish law a terror suspect can be held without being charged for up to five days. Earlier, Spanish police had asked the National Court for more time to question 14 suspected Islamic militants detained on suspicion of planning a terror attack in Barcelona, AP quoted a court spokeswoman as saying on Monday.
A court spokeswoman said police had asked for an extension of 48 hours and that the detainees were not likely to be brought before investigative magistrate Ismael Moreno until Wednesday. The extension is permitted under Spains anti-terrorism laws.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2008 00:00 ||
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The Pentagon is considering Gen. David H. Petraeus for the top NATO command later this year, a move that would give the general, the top American commander in Iraq, a high-level post during the next administration but that has raised concerns about the practice of rotating war commanders.
A senior Pentagon official said that it was weighing a next assignment for Petraeus and that the NATO post was a possibility. He deserves one and that has also always been a highly prestigious position, the official said. So he is a candidate for that job, but there have been no final decisions and nothing on the timing.
The question of General Petraeuss future comes as the Pentagon is looking at changing several top-level assignments this year. President Bush has been an enthusiastic supporter of General Petraeus, whom he has credited with overseeing a troop increase and counterinsurgency plan credited with reducing the sectarian violence in Iraq, and some officials say the president would want to keep General Petraeus in Iraq as long as possible.
In one approach under discussion, General Petraeus would be nominated and confirmed for the NATO post before the end of September, when Congress is expected to break for the presidential election. He might stay in Iraq for some time after that before moving to the alliances headquarters in Brussels, but would take his post before a new president takes office.
If General Petraeus is shifted from the post as top Iraq commander, two leading candidates to replace him are Lt. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, who is running the classified Special Operations activities in Iraq, and Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, a former second-ranking commander in Iraq and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gatess senior military assistant.
By this fall, General Petraeus would have served 19 months in command in Iraq and would have accumulated more than 47 months of service in Iraq in three tours there since 2003. In the NATO job, General Petraeus would play a major role in shaping the cold-war-era alliances identity, in coping with an increasingly assertive Russia and in overseeing the allied-led mission in Afghanistan.
General Petraeus, 55, has been criticized by Democratic lawmakers opposed to Mr. Bushs decision to send additional combat forces to Iraq. A NATO post would give him additional command experience in an important but less politically contentious region, potentially positioning him as a strong candidate in a few years to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, several military officials said. They and some others who discussed the potential appointment declined to be identified because they were speaking about an internal personnel matter.
Some experts, however, say General Petraeuss departure would jeopardize American efforts in Iraq, especially since the No. 2 officer in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, is scheduled to complete his tour and leave Iraq in mid-February.
General Petraeus should stay at least through this year, said Anthony Cordesman, a military specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. We really need military continuity in command during this period in which we can find out whether we can transition from tactical victory to some form of political accommodation.
We have in Petraeus and Crocker the first effective civil-military partners we have had in this war, Mr. Cordesman added, referring to Ryan C. Crocker, the United States ambassador in Baghdad. Gen. George W. Casey Jr., General Petraeuss predecessor, served nearly three years in the top Iraq job before becoming Army chief of staff.
There has been speculation that General Petraeuss next post might be as head of the Central Command, which has responsibility for the Middle East region. That would enable him to continue to influence events in Iraq while overseeing the military operation in Afghanistan and developing a strategy to deal with Iran. The Central Command post is currently held by Adm. William J. Fallon. Admiral Fallon, through a spokesman, denied that he intended to retire from the military in the next several months.
General Petraeus, through a spokesman, declined to comment on a possible NATO assignment. Geoff Morrell, the senior Defense Department spokesman, said no decision had been made.
Trying to guess General Petraeuss next assignment is the most popular parlor game in the Pentagon these days, Mr. Morrell said. Where and when the general goes next is up to Secretary Gates and President Bush, and they have not yet decided those matters. However, they very much appreciate his outstanding leadership in Iraq and believe he has much more to contribute to our nations defense whenever his current assignment comes to an end.
Of the potential successors for General Petraeus, Generals McChrystal and Chiarelli would bring contrasting styles and backgrounds to the fight. General McChrystal has spent much of his career in the Special Operations forces. He commands those forces in Iraq, which have conducted raids against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the mainly Iraqi group that American intelligence says has foreign leadership, and against Shiite extremists, including cells believed to be backed by Iran.
In June 2006, Mr. Bush publicly congratulated General McChrystal on the airstrike that killed Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian terrorist who was the head of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. The Pentagon does not officially acknowledge the existence of some of the classified units that General McChrystal leads, and Mr. Bushs comments were a rare acknowledgment of the role those troops played in a high-level mission.
General McChrystal, a 53-year-old West Point graduate, also commanded the 75th Ranger Regiment and served tours in Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf war in 1991 and in Afghanistan as chief of staff of the military operation there in 2001 and 2002.
He was criticized last year when a Pentagon investigation into the accidental shooting death of Cpl. Pat Tillman by fellow Army Rangers in Afghanistan held the general accountable for inaccurate information provided by Corporal Tillmans unit in recommending him for a Silver Star. The information wrongly suggested that Corporal Tillman, a professional football player whose decision to enlist in the Army after the Sept. 11 attacks drew national attention, had been killed by enemy fire.
General Chiarellis strengths rest heavily on his reputation as one of the most outspoken proponents of a counterinsurgency strategy that gives equal or greater weight to social and economic actions aimed at undermining the enemy as it does to force of arms. General Chiarelli, 57, has served two tours in Iraq, first as head of the First Calvary Division, where he commanded 38,000 troops in securing and rebuilding Baghdad, and later as the second-ranking American officer in Iraq before becoming the senior military aide to Mr. Gates.
In a 2007 essay in Military Review, he wrote: Unless and until there is a significant reorganization of the U.S. government interagency capabilities, the military is going to be the nations instrument of choice in nation-building. We need to accept that reality instead of resisting it, as we have for much of my career.
General Petraeuss last post in Europe was as a senior officer for the NATO force in Bosnia, where he served a tour in 2001 and 2002. He did a great job for me as a one-star in Bosnia, said Gen. Joseph W. Ralston, who served as NATO commander at the time and has since retired. He would have the credibility to keep Afghanistan focused for NATO.
#1
With all due respect to General Petraeus, one would think his considerable talents were better focused on something other than keeping Warsaw Pact tanks from streaming through the Fulda Gap which, after all, is the mission of NATO.
#2
So, they want to move the man in charge out of an active war zone where he is making a difference and into a 'prestigous position' in charge of do-nothing nato?
I thought that was something done with ineffective bosses/generals? Or this a roundabout way to remove him from theatre for a less capable general in charge of Iraq? This is about career and politics and pisses me off on many levels.
#4
Someone needs to take a two by four and slap the Army senior command. This is war not peacetime. Rotation is done to get experience in preparation for the 'Big One'. New bulletin for the 'managers' at Army, this is the 'Big One'. You suspend the peacetime 'business' as usual personnel management approach. You keep the successful commander in the position till you win.
And no. NATO is not a reward for what he did achieve. Army Chief of Staff is the reward [though in the case of a real fighter, it might not be].
#8
Could be. Or it could be related to Gates' comments recently to the effect that NATO troops are not getting the training and doctrine they need for counterinsurgency.
If Petraeus were given that job and a 4th star, it would not only validate his approach to the surge in Iraq but would also carry weight with NATO allied forces. I know, I know ... I too despair about NATO on most days. But on the other days I remember that insofar as we have productive working relations with western European countries, it's often through the militaries.
And with the Ukraine and other central / eastern countries wanting in, his leadership there might be really influential.
Which would carry over to a role as Chair of the Joint Chiefs as well.
But, I'm *hoping* those hollow armies can be reconstituted. Based on my limited experience, there are some good people in uniform over there. If the fecal by products hit the rotating air mover soon, they may make the difference in holding off the hordes vs. the Islamists gaining control of NATO and French nukes.
If anyone could help them manage that, it would be Petraeus.
#20
At this point, NATO is more tail than tooth. Why waste the man's talents just to punch his card on the way to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff?
#21
General Petraeus is already our, and NATO's, senior military commander. POTUS knows this, even if the Joint Chiefs and the democratic party, let alone Western Europe, don't quite realize it.
Nothing new about this. For most of the Civil War Grant and Sherman were #1 and 2, and for most of WWII IKE, MacArthur and Nimitz were in similar, ostensibly subordinate, positions.
Barring a weird military reversal, or wildly radical domestic changes (Pelosi or Reid, but probably not HIlary or Obama) Gen. Petraeus's accomplishments are pretty well set in stone, and his only non-military choice is whether he goes into elective politics.
#23
Petraeus' appointment can be read as a real threat to Nato. If he comes back to the US after his tour, it will be to a farewell debriefing to Congress or the JCS, probably as Chairman. If he damns the Euros with faint praise, especially after the inevitable post election attack, it could have serious repercussions for the alliance, such as it is. The Euros problem is that they have no political will to be a constructive player in the WOT or in any other war, regardless of how courageous their utterly under-equipped military personnel are. If Petraeus reveals what the Euro emperors are wearing, it would make my day.
As to DCOS, the appointment of Casey showed that there is still too much room for deadwood in the Army. DCOS would only constrain his freedom and continue to make him subject to the deadwood. Petraeus needs freedom from that establishment if he is to affect change in it.
#24
Damn it, give him his fifth star, that'll settle a lot of DoA in house politics quickly. It also sets a precedent that results do count, just doing your time CYA'ing and moving on doesn't.
Residents of several Brooklyn Heights buildings were evacuated Sunday after police found several explosive devices and a cache of weapons in one apartment.
A 31-year-old man who lives on the fourth floor of 58 Remsen St. went to Long Island College Hospital at about 12:45 a.m. Sunday morning with a gunshot wound to the hand. Police said the wound was self-inflicted and possibly caused by a handgun or a similar type of firearm.
When police searched the man's home, they found the explosive devices as well as several weapons. The apartment building, as well as neighboring buildings, were evacuated while police conducted their investigation.
A police spokesman said it wasn't clear if the explosive devices were active or duds; the bomb squad planned to take them to a police range for further testing.
The man was released from the hospital and is being held for questioning. He has not yet been identified.
Terrorism has not been ruled out, police said. Officers took several items, including a computer processor and a fascimile machine, out of the apartment building.
#1
Officers went to Ivan Ivanov's apartment after he reported being shot on Sunday evening, police said. Investigators, who said the wound to his finger was self-inflicted, discovered what appeared to be a homemade bomb and several other devices and weapons.
A police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing, said Ivanov told police he planned to use the explosives on a fishing trip, detonating the devices underwater to bring the fish to the surface.
...
Police were also trying to reach Ivanov's roommate, a medical anthropologist and associate professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Residents of the Brooklyn Heights building said the professor was doing research out of the country.
Posted by: ed ||
01/22/2008 7:50 Comments ||
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#2
Ivan Ivanov? Like John Johnson?
Gotta be an alias.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2008 8:36 Comments ||
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#3
Linguist, of Jewish descent, in the habit of scrawling antisemitic messages on nearby synagogue and house walls. Bulgarian green card holder, all according to AP link
#4
A Bulgarian Jew named Ivan Ivanov? Why does that not sound right? That's according to his attorney, BTW. If my client was a Jew-hating synagogue-defacing Bulgar with a thick accent and a walk-up full of pipe bombs, I might make up some crap about him being Jewish himself so as to catch some psychiatric hang-time on the plea bargain. Even if I had to make up a Jewish great-grandmother or something to make it stick.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
01/22/2008 13:46 Comments ||
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#5
Don't know about the name, but George Soros grew up a Hungarian Jew in a family that hated religious Jews and and ran messages for the Nazis rounding up Jews (although he says he didn't know the content of them at the time, when he was 13 yrs old).
And 'Soros' wasn't the original name -- his father changed it from Schwarz. So there's some precedent of sorts ....
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has asked US Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice to put the Musharraf government on notice that nothing other than a completely clean election process will be acceptable.
In a letter to Rice, the co-chairman warns that there will be negative consequence if there is evidence that the voting and vote tabulation processes have been compromised in any way. He has also called on the US and other members of the international community to dispatch observers to Pakistan.
There should be no restrictions on the observers ability to conduct exit polls, nor should the observers have to provide advance information to the government of the polling stations they wish to visit. He has also asked Rice to send strong messages to Islamabad asking for the lifting of all remaining restrictions on journalists, political parties, lawyers and opposition party activists. Those still in jail on trumped-up charges, should be released and neutral local administrations. The present partisan governments at the centre and in the provinces must be replaced, while the Election Commission that has no representation from two of the four provinces should be reconstituted.
Zaradri has asked Rice to urge the government to provide adequate security to candidates and observers not only on election day but in the critical days leading up to the election.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
The only way "Rice" could help, is to give a 5 pound bag to each and every voter at the polls after voting. (No preference, give to all who show up and vote.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/22/2008 20:52 Comments ||
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Officials said on Monday that security forces had seized a suicide jacket and bomb-making material from the house of one of the suspects arrested in connection with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
Intelligence agents raided the house of Sher Zaman, the alleged handler of 15-year-old Aitezaz Shah, and found the jacket, a switch-lever, detonators and 500 grams of explosives, a security official said, requesting anonymity. The matter is being investigated at a very high level, a local police official, requesting anonymity, told AFP. The raid was conducted in Dera Ismail Khan, where both suspects had been detained.
Shifted to Islamabad: Separately, APP quoted ARY One World as saying that the two suspects had been shifted to Islamabad for further investigation. The channel reported that more arrests are expected in the light of initial investigation and efforts are being made to trace the contacts of suspects with Baitullah Mehsud. It also said that the suspects were not directly involved in the Karsaz incident in Karachi, but had abetted in the crime.
Meanwhile, investigators probing into Benazirs assassination have sought custody of the three suspects. Punjab police AIG Abdul Majeed told Daily Times that he hoped to question them soon but had not received custody from the arresting intelligence agency yet. Sources in the investigation team have revealed that they have contacted a representative of the intelligence agency for permission to grill the three suspects.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"he also had a supply of Obama campaign pamphlets"
/Bill Clinton
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/22/2008 20:49 Comments ||
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The Sindh Home Department has declined to be involved with an exhumation and autopsy of the body of Benazir Bhutto without the consent of her family, according to well-placed sources in the Sindh Home Department. The Punjab Home Department has apparently written it with the request. Sources said that Sindh replied that as the assassination took place in the Punjab, the cases investigation officer should contact the Bhutto family himself to acquire permission.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
A soldier killed over the weekend south of Baghdad was the first American casualty in a roadside bomb attack on a newly introduced, heavily armored vehicle, a military spokeswoman said Tuesday.
Extremely effective considering the numbers and time in theater.
The V-shaped hull of the huge MRAP Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected truck is designed to deflect blasts from roadside bombs, a weapon that has killed more American soldiers than any other tactic used by Sunni insurgents and militia fighters in Iraq.
The soldier who died Saturday was the gunner who sits atop the MRAP vehicle. Three crew members tucked inside the cabin were wounded. The vehicle rolled over after the blast and it was not clear how the gunner died from wounds in the explosion or in the subsequent roll-over.
A huge blast to overturn a 15 ton vehicle. Either way, if the Army used the Air Force's enclosed turret, the gunner likely would have survived.
Maj. Alayne P. Conway, deputy spokeswoman for the 3rd Infantry Division, said the attack and the death were under investigation.
There now are more than 1,500 of the costly vehicles in service in Iraq and the Pentagon is working to get at least 12,000 more, using $21 billion provided by Congress. MRAPs cost between $500,000 and $1 million, depending on their size and how they are equipped.
The sophisticated vehicles are being built and put into service in a bid to provide soldiers and Marines more protection than is offered by armored Humvees, which have flat bottoms that absorb the shock waves from a blast. The bottom of an MRAP also is 36 inches above the ground, while Humvees sit much closer to the roadway.
Posted by: ed ||
01/22/2008 08:18 ||
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
Interesting what we are learning about armored trucks in Iraq.
BAGHDAD - Iraqs parliament gave a first reading on Monday to a draft law that offers a general amnesty to thousands of detainees held in US and Iraqi prisons in a bid to boost national reconciliation.
This is the last big law they need to have, besides the oil revenue sharing and the De-Ba'athification act.
The detainees, mostly Sunni Arabs, are being held without charge. Most have been detained for more than a year on suspicion of backing the anti-US insurgency. Their detention is seen as fuelling animosity between the Shia and Sunni communities in Iraq and the US military in particular has been strongly advocating their release in the wake of a growing alliance of Sunnis with American forces.
MPs said the bill will not apply to those sentenced to death or convicted of terrorism, premeditated murder, kidnapping, robbery with aggravating circumstances, ïncest, drug trafficking, forgery, rape, sodomy or the smuggling of antiquities. It will also not apply to anyone formally charged with these crimes.
Sadiq Al Rikabi, an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki, said when the cabinet approved the bill on December 26 it would apply to as many detainees as possible, including those held for corruption and other financial crimes. The second reading of the law is scheduled for four days time whereafter it will be put to the vote.
Around 26,000 detainees are held in two US prisons and thousands more in Iraqi-run detention centres. The US military holds the detainees at Camp Cropper near Baghdad international airport and at Camp Bucca near the southern port city of Basra.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/22/2008 00:00 ||
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Israel refused to reopen crossings or allow crucial fuel supplies into Gaza on Monday, despite UN warnings that vital food aid could be suspended within days.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
My box of tissues is empty. Guess I'll have to cry in the sink. /sarc
Maybe I've missed it, but I haven't seen a single word in the MSM about how stocks of fuel for hospital generators have been squandered elsewhere or are being held political hostage, along with the folks who could use the services of their hospitals right about now.
Is Israel also refusing to allow Egypt to ship some diesel in for these generators?
And they are mad at Israelis? Look within, proud Paleostinian idiots. As usual, there is no thought behind your anger. You should all be marching to your leaders houses with molotov cocktails in hand and gathering up every rock and bit of rubble along the way for use when you get there. They did this to you, and you have allowed this to be done to you, either actively or passively.
Get your guns. Snipe the bad guys. Turn them in. Cut their tires and brake lines. Kill their kids. Anything to make their lives miserable.
And Israel should be doing their best to help take tips. Make the same number they call to get permission to work in Israel or to get hospital treatment work also for taking tips. Safety in numbers for those who turn in the bad guys.
#3
No way. Then humanitarian aid would consist of long range missiles and armor. At least with smuggling tunnels there is a size limit to the weapons they can push through.
Posted by: ed ||
01/22/2008 9:04 Comments ||
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(Xinhua) -- An emergency meeting of the Arab League (AL) Council started here on Monday to discuss the continued Israeli raids and siege on the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian official MENA news agency reported.
I'll betcha a dollar nobody suggested they stop rocketing Sderot.
The meeting at the level of permanent delegates was presided by the Algerian ambassador to the AL Abdel Qader Hajjar and attended by AL Secretary General Amr Moussa, said the report. The meeting of the Cairo-based Arab bloc is set to hammer out a comprehensive Arab plan including political and diplomatic steps on facing the Israeli strikes on Gaza which have killed at least 37 Palestinians.
These strikes, naturally, have nothing to do with the daily rain of Qassams. That's entirely a separate matter, not even open for discussion.
Earlier on Monday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urged Israel to stop its military operations and siege on Gaza which have caused not only Palestinian lives but also escalated humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories.
Has he mentioned the rockets to Hamas yet? Oh, that's right. It's not them. It's those Islamic Jihad and PRC guys. Nobody can control them. So really, Israel should just learn to live with the occasional bit of high explosive wafting form Gaza. You know what those Arabs are like.
The main power station that supplies Gaza electricity completely stopped on Sunday night due to fuel shortage.
Anybody got a cardiac splint? I think my heart just broke.
Israel on Thursday decided to tightened a closure that has been imposed on Gaza since mid June last year, when Hamas took control of the coastal strip. All crossings leading to Gaza have been closed down. Since Thursday, Israel has been barring fuels and basic food products from reaching the coast strip, in retaliation to ongoing makeshift rocket attacks carried out by Palestinian militants from Gaza against Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
After the meeting the all adjourned to a 20 course dinner of fine food and juices served by houris.
Lebanon's former president Amine Gemayel said today that the opposition is neither interested in a solution nor in negotiating the Arab league initiative . Gemayel during a press conference at his residence in Sin El Fil told reporters : "Every time we make a new offer they try to knock down and ask for more . Even if we agreed to their demand of a veto in the government they will still insist on other impossible demands."
The issue is no longer about partnership as is being claimed by the opposition . The issue is about destroying all the Lebanese institutions and changing the regime in Lebanon and this we see as a coup against Taef , the National Charter and the constitution. He added
Gemayel said all the opposition is trying to do is pave the way for a Hezbollah Mini state in Lebanon. Gemayel said the speech of Nasrallah is clear when he described the Israeli human body parts in a revolting language that disgusted the Lebanese people. Nasrallah acted as if he is Lebanon and completely disregarded the role of the state.
Gemayel said , the March 14 alliance cooperated fully in the most positive manner with the Arab initiative and we found that our own views were identical to those of the Arab league . Gemayel described the clarifications of Arab league chief Amr Moussa as fair to all.
Gemayel said that March 14 has accepted to give up its right of an absolute majority in return for the opposition's approval to abandon its veto power demand. Gemayel also stressed that the majority adheres to the nomination of army commander Gen. Michel Suleiman as President.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
TOPIX > BUSH CALLS FOR END TO FOREIGN INTERFERENCE IN LEBANON; + COUNTERTERRORISM BLOG >
SYRIAN JIHADISTS AND HEZBOLLAH ARE TWO ARMS FROM SAME/COMMON BODY.
About 40 percent of the 7,200 people who have registered to run in Iran's March parliament election "have a record" with the authorities, a senior official said Monday, an indication they would not be allowed to run.
Alireza Afshar, head of election headquarters, did not elaborate on what kind of record they had, but hopefuls in past votes in a similar position were barred.
A pro-reform politician said having a record meant being blocked from standing. The result of the election will have no direct impact on who is president, or on policies such as Iran's nuclear program, which is ultimately determined by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But political analysts say the outcome may influence the debate, and could give President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad more political challenges.
The electoral statement, carried by ISNA news agency, may add to concern among reformists that many of them will not be allowed to take part in the vote because of an official vetting process. "Out of 7,200 registered about 3,000 had intelligence (ministry) and judiciary records, which is more than the previous parliamentary election, when there were about 1,800 who had records," Afshar told ISNA.
The comments suggest these hopefuls would not even be reviewed by the conservative-controlled Guardian Council, which vets candidates and which has stopped hundreds of reformist candidates in the past. Reform-minded opponents of Ahmadinejad hope to benefit from growing disenchantment with the hardline leader in the March 14 election.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/22/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
A short while ago there was an issue w/Stephanie Coyote (DemDork-Frisco) about not letting the Marines shoot a recruiting video on California street or some such. The Marines had to go to Marin and take a shot of the GG Bridge and computer generate or superimpose the SDT in front of it. I thought you guys might like the video, I just received it today through my chain of command. Impressive ad IMHO, but of course I'm naturally biased.
#1
Thanks, BH, very impressive. Readers, be sure to pull down the "America's Marine Tour" from the menu for background info.
The incident:Peter Coyotes Wife Blocks Marine Commercial
#2
It's already been broadcast. I saw it the other day during the Patriots game. Also commented on it to the 20 or so folks I was watching the game with who, of course, had no idea San Fran ever pulled that shit.
Thank you, MSM...
#3
Yeah, I saw it too, but didn't make the connection tu3031 did. Of course, the big bridge at the end could've been the Golden Gate, but you can't see the city at the other end of it.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/22/2008 11:41 Comments ||
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#4
I first saw the ad during the game also - not ashamed to admit it it made me misty-eyed. Only later did I connect it with the SF filming BS. Makes the ad even more poignant, IMO.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
01/22/2008 17:18 Comments ||
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#6
I'm sure the MSM will tag the lack of response to the next big one that hits Sanfran as 'Katrina Burnout' rather than 'if you think you're separate from the rest of us, you just do on your own' attitude that a lot of America is going to have. They'll never play that meme of 'why to they hate us' game on themselves. They're exempt. They're liberals.
#7
Peter Coyote is no better. Even seen any of his PBS environmental films? I remember one of them that had some kind of so called expert, said she was from the College of Minneapolis. Turns out she works at some podunk downtown community college.
Steve and Steph would make nice Dhimmis. Guess we could consider them ones already. To bad they both seem to be nice folk. Will never understand the hate liberals have for people who are willing to die to protect them. Madness.
#8
Could we draft Liberals only?
Set up a "special" Corps, (The pinko Pussies?) send them into combat as trained as possible,
It would give the most of them a wake up call, the others would just die.
Problem solved.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/22/2008 20:28 Comments ||
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#9
I'm surprised noone has yet mentioned Heinlein's idea. No one gets to vote except military Veterans, (Including retirees, but NOT washouts or other failures)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
01/22/2008 20:31 Comments ||
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#10
Could we draft Liberals only? Set up a "special" Corps, (The pinko Pussies?)
Better yet - allow them set up the New Lincoln Brigade. All volunteer. They can pay for everything - arms, equipment, training - out of pocket. Or get the someone else to pay for it all.
Strong and Beautiful tribute to the Best,
The United States Marines!
~:)
If America ever needs intelligent dedicated warriors who are willing to put their lives on line to defend America and the US Constitution It will call The United States Marines.
If America ever needs a selfish narcissistic shit bird to crap on America It will call Stephanie Coyote.
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.
A group of Afghans protested on Monday against what they called the desecration of the holy Quran by British forces, the district governor said, although he and a British spokesman denied that any desecration had taken place. 
A British soldier killed by a roadside bomb in southern Afghanistan has been named by the Ministry of Defence. Corporal Darryl Gardiner, a member of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, attached to the 5th Regiment Royal Artillery and 52 Brigade's Reconnaissance Force, died after the vehicle he was travelling in was hit by a mine strike near the town of Musa Qala on Sunday.
North Korea has postponed the first inter-Korean dialogue of this year, citing time constraints, South Korean officials said Monday. The two sides were to hold working-level talks Tuesday and Wednesday on repairing a cross-border railway and transporting a joint cheering squad to the Beijing Olympics this year by train. But Pyongyang asked for a suspension, saying It is the start of the year and there are a few things to prepare, the Souths unification ministry said. We dont know exactly why North Korea decided to suspend this weeks inter-Korean meeting, a ministry spokesman told AFP. He refused to confirm Yonhap news agencys report that the suspension was an apparent sign of uneasiness over the next South Korean governments tougher stance on Pyongyang.
A senior Iranian lawmaker warned the Netherlands on Monday not to allow the screening of what it called an anti-Islamic film produced by a Dutch politician, claiming it "reflects insulting views about the Holy Koran."
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari has asked US Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice to put the Musharraf government on notice that nothing other than a completely clean election process will be acceptable.
Officials said on Monday that security forces had seized a suicide jacket and bomb-making material from the house of one of the suspects arrested in connection with the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.
(Xinhua) -- An emergency meeting of the Arab League (AL) Council started here on Monday to discuss the continued Israeli raids and siege on the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian official MENA news agency reported. 
