It may be the best news for Canadian Forces since their arrival in Kandahar in 2005 -- yet it comes neither from inside Afghanistan, nor as a result of Canada's gruelling military efforts there.
In historic elections across Pakistan on Feb. 18, voters in North-West Frontier Province threw out the fundamentalist Islamic parties that have controlled the provincial government -- and provided safe haven to the Taliban -- since 2002. In their place, voters elected a coalition of moderate, staunchly secular groups including the Awami National Party (ANP), a Pashtun movement remarkable for its dislike of Islamic jihadism and the Taliban.
While the national election results -- and the victory of two opposition parties hostile to President Pervez Musharraf -- dominated headlines in Canada after the election, many experts say the vote in North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) has huge but little-understood implications for the war in Afghanistan.
It's likely to have a more profound impact on Canada's mission in Kandahar than the promise of another 1,000 troops, or the delivery of military helicopters.
"The major threat to the Taliban offensive is not from the front but from the rear -- Pakistan," says Barnett Rubin of New York University, a world-renowned scholar on Afghanistan. "As the Taliban and al-Qaida launch their spring operations in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, the political challenge to the control of their base areas is [now] their greatest vulnerability," says Mr. Rubin in a recent online commentary about the ANP victory, posted on the U.S. political blog Informed Comment: Global Affairs.
Ahmed Rashid, a respected Pakistan journalist, is equally clear about the sudden political transformation in the Taliban's zone of sanctuary. "There have been big celebrations in Kabul at the victory of the ANP, he said in a recent online interview with Harper's Magazine. "President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan will be hoping to see a real crackdown on the Taliban leadership that has been given sanctuary in Pakistan... He is particularly close to the ANP leaders whom he calls his brothers."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
"As the Taliban and al-Qaida launch their spring operations in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, the political challenge to the control of their base areas is [now] their greatest vulnerability," says Mr. Rubin in a recent online commentary about the ANP victory, posted on the U.S. political blog Informed Comment: Global Affairs.
Isn't 'Informed Comment' Dr. juan Coles bedwetting site.? If that guy told me that the sky was blue, I would look up.
KABUL - Three months after a UN appeal for more than 80 million dollars in aid to help those affected by the rise in food prices, the World Food Programme has started providing emergency food assistance to millions of needy Afghans, a statement said Friday.
Due to the surge in the price of wheat, which has risen by 70 per cent over the past year, thousands of people were facing food shortage in Afghanistan while some families in Northern Takhar and Kunduz provinces sold their babies due to extreme poverty and hunger. Between now and mid-year, WFP aims to reach 2.5 million people in both urban and rural areas of Afghanistan, the statement quoted the WFP country director Rick Corsino as saying. The agency will begin distribution this week, including wheat to 650,000 people in and around the capital Kabul, it added.
So far the WFP has received pledges for two-thirds of the 77 million dollars it requested as part of the joint appeal to deliver 89,000 tons of food to the poorest Afghans, said Corsino, adding, Distributions will be completed before the main mid-year wheat harvest as we do not want this additional food to discourage Afghan farmers from growing wheat for domestic markets and needs, it added.
#1
Of course Afghans can only eat the finest, select Durum wheat. Imported from Italy and screened by EUnicks to assure the native population it has not been genetically engineered in any way.
#2
Will the food be distributed by local Warlords, Druglords, Mullhas etc., who will take 50% off the top for them selves and then claim personal credit for what they do distribute?
Uganda cannot fulfil its offer to completely take over the peacekeeping mission in Somalia because nobody has come up with the money, the defence minister said on Friday. Uganda was the first of two countries to deploy soldiers as part of an African Union mission to Somalia, torn by fighting between the interim government and Islamist insurgents.
The African Union is supposed to pay for the force, but depends on funding from members and is short of cash. Uganda has said it could supply all 8,000 troops needed if the force is given a U.N. mandate, which would let Uganda tap a bigger pool of funding, but that has not yet happened. "We are ready to start deployments in Somalia but we have a funding problem," Ugandan Defence Minister Crispus Kiyonga said in an interview with Reuters. "There is no money to transport and maintain peacekeeping troops in Somalia as promised."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/08/2008 00:00 ||
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By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Friday, March 07, 2008 4:20 PM PT
Terrorism: The March 1 death strike by the Colombian army against FARC warlord Raul Reyes broke open a trove of contacts in his computer. So why did the name of Barack Obama turn up there?
Admittedly, it pales compared with other material from the dead thug's computer such as FARC efforts to obtain uranium or Hugo Chavez's $300 million support.
But the little Obama reference within the 15 FARC letters released by the Colombian government signals a disturbing pattern of contacts with rogue actors. It's not the first time, and Obama has yet to distance himself.
In a Feb. 28 letter, FARC chieftain Raul Reyes cheerily reported to his inner circle that he met "two gringos" who assured him "the new president of their country will be Obama and that they are interested in your compatriots. Obama will not support 'Plan Colombia' nor will he sign the TLC (Free Trade Agreement)."
The Turkish president is calling on Kurdish rebels to lay down their arms, saying Turkey will never tolerate those who engage in "terrorism."
President Abdullah Gul is ruling out any tolerance to Kurdish rebels in response to a question Friday about whether Turkey would consider nonmilitary ways to end the conflict with autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels. "First of all, the Turkish state will never tolerate those who illegally carry arms and engage in terrorism," Gul says. "Whoever has a gun in his hand should lay his weapon down; the state will never tolerate this."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/08/2008 00:00 ||
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Y'all go check out the pic at the link where some guy is volunteering to do a waterboarding demonstration. I wonder what time they will do the electric shock demonstration. And the rape demonstration. And the drilling demonstration. And the gunshot to the leg demonstration. And the maiming demonstration. Well, I guess you get the idea. In my mind the morons doing the demo just cratered their own argument.
President Bush is poised to veto legislation that would bar the CIA from using waterboarding a technique that simulates drowning and other harsh interrogation methods on terror suspects. The president planned to talk about the veto in his Saturday radio address.
Bush has said the bill would harm the government's ability to prevent future attacks. Supporters of the legislation argue that it preserves the United States' right to collect critical intelligence while boosting the country's moral standing abroad. "The bill would take away one of the most valuable tools on the war on terror, the CIA program to detain and question key terrorist leaders and operatives," deputy White House press secretary Tony Fratto said Friday.
The bill would restrict the CIA to using only the 19 interrogation techniques listed in the Army field manual. The legislation would bar the CIA from using waterboarding, sensory deprivation or other coercive methods to break a prisoner who refuses to answer questions. Those practices were banned by the military in 2006, but the president wants the harsh interrogation methods to be a part of the CIA's toolbox. I guess that leave Starbucks.
Backers of the legislation, which cleared the House in December and won Senate approval last month, say the interrogation methods used by the military are sufficient. Of course they did.
"President Bush's veto will be one of the most shameful acts of his presidency," Sen. Edward Kennedy, Panderer-Mass., said in a statement Friday. "Unless Congress overrides the veto, it will go down in history as a flagrant insult to the rule of law and a serious stain on the good name of America in the eyes of the world." I guess you prefer the kind of bloodstain that comes along with getting attacked on your own soil. I wonder what you'd say if a Donk president thought waterboarding was cool.
He noted that the Army field manual contends that harsh interrogation is a "poor technique that yields unreliable results, may damage subsequent collection efforts, and can induce the source to say what he thinks the (interrogator) wants to hear." Personally, I think barbequeing someone alive is a harsh technique. Waterboarding is for cubscouts. Please don't take the manual out of context.
"How do you start a letter like this? How do you end it?"
On a raw November morning here, along the wild frontier bordering Pakistan, Lt. Col. Michael Fenzel spoke those words as he sat down to write to a father who would never see his son again.
Images ran through the colonel's mind. His own two toddler boys, growing up quickly every day he is away at war; the parents of Private First Class Jessy Rogers, whose own child would be forever 20 years old, his age when insurgents detonated a bomb under his Humvee.
Lt. Col. Fenzel, commander of the 1st Battalion (Airborne) of the 503rd Infantry Regiment, started writing, then stopped again. He pressed his forehead into his palms. "Jesus, this is hard," he said.
Many things have changed during hundreds of years of American warfare. But much as they did during the Revolution, Army commanders still write letters, often by hand, to soothe the bereaved, share stories of the good times and -- perhaps -- describe the circumstances of death.
The letters began as a common courtesy among militiamen fighting for independence from England in the 18th Century. Shortly after World War II, the task became obligatory. After the next of kin is notified, via telegram or a knock on the door, the dead soldier's commander is to write a detailed letter explaining what happened.
"The letter should show warmth and a genuine interest in the person to whom it is addressed," instructed the 1948 Bureau of Naval Personnel Manual, in its concise, six-paragraph passage on the matter.
These days, Chapter Eight of Army Regulation 600-8-1, "Preparation and Dispatch of Letters of Sympathy, Condolence, and Concern," has grown to eight pages. The rules can be chillingly specific. "Avoid unfitting compliments and ghastly descriptions," they say. "Do not send photographs depicting casualties."
That's not much help to a commander who sent a soldier to his death. RTWT - and have kleenex handy
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/08/2008 16:26 ||
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The Khan Research Laboratory (KRL) Hospital administration on Friday didnt allow Qazi Hussain Ahmed, chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), to meet detained nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan.
The hospital is named after the nuclear scientist. Later, Qazi told reporters that Dr Qadeer should be appointed as president of Pakistan in light of his services to the nation. It is the consensus decision of the nation that Dr Qadeer should be appointed as president of Pakistan, Qazi said. He also urged the leadership of the winning parties to visit the nuclear scientist and learn how he was doing.
Qazi condemned the detention of Dr Qadeer, adding that he used to receive messages from the scientist in the past but now they had been stopped.
He said the whole nation was concerned about the health of Dr Qadeer. Earlier, Qazi Hussain Ahmed addressed protesters outside Faisal Mosque, and condemned Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/08/2008 00:00 ||
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Demonstrations were held in all the countrys main cities on Friday to protest against the republication in Danish newspapers of a cartoon caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad (PTUI), which caused outrage across the Islamic world two years ago, Reuters reported.
Angry rubes protesters torched effigies of the Danish premier and his countrys flag. They marched through streets across the country after Friday prayers, demanding the government snap diplomatic relations with Denmark, AFP adds.
The cartoon, one of 12 that prompted riots in many Muslim countries in 2006, was republished by a number of Danish papers at least 17, according to AFP last month to show solidarity with the cartoonist after three men were arrested on suspicion of plotting to kill him, said Reuters.
Rallies were held in Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore, Multan and Quetta, where speakers demanded that the blasphemers be punished and Danish products be boycotted.
In Islamabad, Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed criticised the government for not taking the matter, AFP reported.
In Lahore, at five different points, hundreds of fools university and frat boys college students, joined by scoundrels political leaders and hangers-on workers of religious parties, held demonstrations, witnesses said. The simple minded rustics protesters sprinkled petrol on an effigy of the Danish prime minister wrapped in his countrys flag and set it alight amid chants of Hang the cartoonist and Expel the Danish ambassador.
We condemn the reprinting of the blasphemous cartoons which hurt Muslim sentiments across the world. The Danish government has not taken this issue seriously, rabblerousing cleric Mukhtar Ashraf told the rally.
In Karachi, a strike call was issued by various religious and political groups, and endorsed by the business community in Karachi. Shops closed and public transport was sparse, but banks and most offices remained open.
Might as well strike, there's no work anyways.
By observing this strike, the trader community has expressed its deep anger and dislike of those who committed blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad [Peace Be Upon Him], said Atiq Mir, chairman of the Alliance of Market Associations Karachi.
In Multan, angry dingbats protesters also chanted slogans against Dutch filmmaker Geert Wilders for producing an anti-Islam film, Reuters said. We demand the Danish authorities punish the blasphemers, or we will take revenge ourselves, an Islamist leader, Elmer Gantry Mufti Hidayatullah, told some 400 students in Multan, according to AFP.
In Quetta, around 1,000 people, including religious school acolytes students, took to the streets. Addressing a demonstration, former provincial health minister Hafiz Hamidullah said the cartoon was an attempt to incite Muslims to violence. If the West is not involved, it should ban such publications and the Muslim world should take a joint stand to foil such acts in future, he added.
"You should do as we say!"
Last month, the Danish envoy in Islamabad was asked to the Foreign Office, where Pakistani officials lodged a strong protest over the republication of the cartoon in Denmark. At least 50 people were killed, including five in Pakistan, in the violence that rocked Muslim countries in 2006, as protests over the cartoons, first published in late 2005, turned violent, Reuters adds.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Here is Rage Boy (TM) being hustled away into a Indian police van during a previous protest...
Posted by: john frum ||
03/08/2008 7:15 Comments ||
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#2
I hope they applied the correct apparatus to Rage Boy, once inside the van. A few blows to the facial area ought to permanently remove the teeth and disfigure the nose beyond repair.
#5
All this makes me want to do is start making wallpaper, dress materials, milk cartons and anything else that can have these cartoons depicted. Make huge banners, and comic books passed out for free distributed by airplane.
For anyone to insist that I obey their laws when they trample all over mine, to hell with them.
Posted by: Jan ||
03/08/2008 11:54 Comments ||
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#6
He can't even grow a decent beard.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/08/2008 11:59 Comments ||
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#8
The ultimate insult for a nutjob like Rage Boy is to compare his beard to his sister's (or mother's) pubic hair. Most probablly whenever we read of someone's beard or mustache being insulted this is what was said. It's a killin' insult.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/08/2008 16:36 Comments ||
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#9
looks like Ma has Buckwheat in a leglock
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/08/2008 16:41 Comments ||
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#10
why is it okay to shave your head but not your beard?
Posted by: Jan ||
03/08/2008 17:24 Comments ||
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Ahmadinejad's two-day state visit to Iraq last weekend showed the limits of Iranian influence in the newly liberated country. By Amir Taheri
It had been billed as a "triumph" for the Islamic Re public and "a slap in the face of the American Great Satan." However, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's two-day state visit to Iraq last weekend showed the limits of Iranian influence in the newly liberated country.
Weeks of hard work by Iranian emissaries and pro-Iran elements in Iraq were supposed to ensure massive crowds thronging the streets of Baghdad and throwing flowers on the path of the visiting Iranian leader. Instead, no more than a handful of Iraqis turned up for the occasion. The numbers were so low that the state-owned TV channels in Iran decided not to use the footage at all.
Instead, much larger crowds gathered to protest Ahmadinejad's visit. In the Adhamiya district of Baghdad, several thousand poured into the streets with cries of "Iranian aggressor, go home!"
The visit's highlight was supposed to be a pilgrimage to Karbala and Najaf, the "holiest" of Shiite cities in Iraq. There, Ahmadinejad was supposed to become the first Iranian government leader since 1976 to pray at the mausoleums of Imam Hussein and Imam Ali.
In the end, however, the tour was canceled amid reports that Shiite pilgrims, including thousands from Iran, were planning to demonstrate against his presence at the "holy" cities.
A more important reason motivated Ahmadinejad to drop his planned visits to Najaf - his failure to arrange an encounter with the leading ayatollahs of the "holy" city, especially Grand Ayatollah Ali-Muhammad Sistani, the leading Shiite clergyman. For a president who claims that he's the standard-bearer of a global Shiite revolution, that was one photo-op to die for.
Initially, Ahmadinejad asked that Sistani visit him at a villa that once housed the Iranian consul-general in Najaf. This is because Ahmadinejad, as Islamic Republic president, mustn't acknowledge the supremacy of any cleric apart from Ali Khamenei, the Iranian "Supreme Guide." Under Iranian protocol, the president goes to the "Supreme Guide other mullahs must go to the president.
But Sistani wasn't prepared to go to Ahmadinejad. That would have acknowledged the superiority of a secular position to a clerical one, something no grand ayatollah would do.
Eventually, a compromise was found: Ahmadinejad was to call on Sistani supposedly because the ayatollah was in poor health. This was to be an exercise in "visiting the sick," highly recommended in Islam.
At the last minute, however, Sistani's entourage insisted that there should be no pictures and that neither side should issue a statement at the end of the planned 20-minute meeting. This would've deprived Ahmadinejad of his photo op and prevented him from claiming Sistani's support for the Iranian policy in Iraq. The only solution was for Ahmadinejad not to go to Najaf at all.
The Iranian thus ended up like a devout Catholic leader who goes to Rome but fails to visit the Vatican or call on the pope.
He had already been obliged to cancel a visit to Samarra, where the "Hidden Imam" disappeared in a well on 941 AD. Ahmadinejad had hoped to visit the ruins of the golden-domed Mausoleum of the Two Imams that was bombed by al Qaeda in 2005 and 2006 and announce a plan to rebuild the mausoleum.
The project is of special importance to Ahmadinejad, who claims to be in direct contact with the "Hidden Imam." (Last year he told his Cabinet that the "Hidden Imam" had accompanied him to the United Nations and filled the General Assembly's hall with a green light during his speech.)
But two days of demonstrations against Ahmadinejad's planned visit by the people of Samarra forced him to strike the city off his itinerary.
Nor did Ahmadinejad's presence in Baghdad go as smoothly as he'd hoped. A good part of the Iraqi political elite, including Cabinet ministers and members of the parliament, boycotted functions held in his honor. Tehran has branded the boycotters as "Saddamites and Sunnis in fact, a good number of Shiite politicians, including the leaders of the Fadila (Virtue) Party, also stayed away.
Protest marches against Ahmadinejad weren't limited to predominantly Sunni Arab cities such as Mosul, Kirkuk and Fallujah. Thousands of people also turned out in Shiite-majority Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, to oppose the visit and condemn the Islamic Republic's intervention in domestic Iraqi affairs.
The visit's political side was equally disappointing for Ahmadinejad. He failed to persuade the Iraqi leaders to stop negotiations with America on long-term arrangements ensuring US commitment to new Iraq for several more years. Nor did he succeed in obtaining cast-iron guarantees that new Iraq won't seek to renegotiate aspects of the 1975 Treaty with Iran. (Iraqi President Jalal Talabani told an interviewer last year that the treaty, signed by Saddam Hussein, doesn't reflect the interests of the Iraqi people.)
Ahmadinejad's visit also failed to produce results on such perennial Irano-Iraqi problems as the fate of thousands from both sides who remain missing in action since the 1980-88 war, and plans for reopening the Shatt al-Arab border estuary to allow a revival of maritime transport in that corner of southwestern Iran.
The Iranian visitor failed on another issue close to the heart of Iran's ruling mullahs: the handover of some 4,000 members of the Mujahedin Khalq (People's Combatants), an armed Marxist-Islamist group who live under US protection in a camp northeast of Baghdad. The Iraqi leaders paid lip service to the idea of getting rid of the "terrorists" but offered no timetable for expelling them, let alone handing them over to Tehran and certain death.
#2
It's a damned shame that the local Sunni welcoming committee didn't arrange to have a car bomb with Ahmadinejad's name on it positioned along his itinerary route. A damned shame, and missed opportunity.
#1
"Residents are becoming increasingly alarmed about security, saying that killings, kidnappings and other crimes have increased significantly since British forces turned over responsibility for the city at the end of last year."
That is the price of (1) not taking enough responsibility about ones neighborhood or / and (2) mentality, where interests of own clan are put higher than ones of the country. It is enough for majority to fail the democracy, and it is not democracy any more that is best for the population.
Bringing democracy to Middle East seems to me bit like building of communism in former soviet union; the price is very, very high and few are willing to pay it.
But it is definitely worth paying the price if the positively thinking inhabitants would have enough chances to "pursue the happiness" and have enough freedom to build their communities in the territory, thus providing competition to inflexible regime (tribes, communism, dictatorship whatever) and success stories to those who bother to put efforts.
Isnt't there any other resources (knowledge, services) but oil, that can buy US,UK or other peacekeepers to protect the communities? Or is it lack of initiative from one or another side.
#2
It's so magnificently simple, tell the coalition forces where the bad guys are and they will come and kill them. No more bad guys. Otherwise, enjoy the situation you are perpetuating.
Thousands of people in the Israeli capital are mourning the eight victims of Thursday night's shooting inside a Jewish religious school. The attack was the worst in Israel in two years and it shocked many Jerusalem residents.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas is denying earlier claims that it was responsible for the attack.
Police say the attacker was shot dead - and identified him as a 25-year-old Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem. Israel has restricted travel from the West Bank, where the gunman lived, until Saturday evening. The Palestinian militant group Hamas is denying earlier claims that it was responsible for the attack.
The White House Friday, urged Israel and the Palestinians to continue peace talks, despite the attack. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suspended talks Sunday after Israeli strikes killed more than 120 Palestinians in Gaza. He later renewed his commitment to the peace process after meeting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Mr. Abbas and other world leaders have condemned the school shooting.
An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said the attack was aimed at killing chances for peace, but he vowed peace talks will continue. The shooting follows weeks of escalating violence by Palestinian militants and Israeli forces. In the Egyptian Sinai city of El Arish on Thursday, Egyptian officials met with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and a U.S. envoy. They discussed a proposed truce between the militant groups and Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/08/2008 00:00 ||
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The UN Security Council failed to reach an agreement overnight Thursday on issuing an official condemnation over the deadly shooting attack in Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva because of Libyan opposition. "Most members (of the council) wanted to condemn (the attack) but Libya blocked it," Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, told reporters.
US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said US efforts to issue a statement condemning the attack "in the strongest terms" failed because Libya sought to link it to its own resolution urging condemnation of Israel over the IDF operation in the Gaza Strip last week. Khalilzad criticized Libya, saying that a terror attack specifically targeting civilians could not be equated to military operations aimed at stopping rocket fire.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
How can the UN be expected to agree on issuing an official condemnation when so many of the members are still caught up in celebration? The US should immediately withdraw its membership to this worthless tit assemblage and start charging rent per square footage for the hangers-on. The entire activity would probably be dismantled in 6 months.
#4
Poll: Unhappiness with U.S. world position
WASHINGTON, March 5 (UPI) --
More Americans are unhappy with the U.S. position in the world than at any time since Sept. 11, 2001, a Gallup Poll released Wednesday indicated.
The survey found that 68 percent of American who responded said they were dissatisfied with the position the United States holds in the world while 43 percent said they believe the United States is viewed favorably by other nations.
Gallup said in a statement that the figures were split along partisan lines with 85 percent of Democrats unhappy with the U.S. position compared to 60 percent of Republicans who said they were satisfied. Dissatisfaction among Democrats grew sharply following the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The exact meaning of the U.S. "position" in the world wasn't defined.
The telephone poll was conducted in mid-February with 1,007 U.S. adults and had margin for error of 3 percentage points.
Looks like the UN is looking for some bogus justification in the media to represent their corrupt and despicable constituents again, but most Americans really don't give a hoot what the world thinks!!!!Why don't they all move back to Europe and create the borderless multicultural Utopia they envision and regulate themselves to death?
Malaysian police fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse an angry crowd of people, mainly supporters of an Islamic party, following clashes over alleged unregistered voters in Saturday's general election, police said. Police arrested 22 supporters of Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) after they were attacked with bottles, sticks and stones, and the windscreens of three police cars were smashed, witnesses said. The incident, the worst violence in the election so far, took place in Rusila, the power base of PAS President Hadi Awang.
"We strongly condemned the police action," PAS Deputy President Nasharudin Mat Isa told Reuters. "I think there must be some provocation." PAS said several of their supporters were hospitalised for injuries. They included Hadi's 31-year-old son Kholil, who sustained facial injuries.
Police said the fracas broke out after police detained Kholil for questioning in a dispute over confiscated identity cards seized by men, believed to be PAS supporters, from about 70 passengers of two buses entering Rusila. "They have damaged three police cars. We have managed to keep the situation under control," Terengganu police chief Ayub Yaakob told private broadcaster TV3.
Thailand says it is investigating an alleged Russian arms dealer, known as the "Merchant of Death," as his lawyer in Moscow and U.S. authorities struggle over his future fate.
Federal prosecutors in New York want Thailand to deport Viktor Bout to the United States where he is accused of trying to sell weapons to a leftist rebel group in Colombia. But, Bout's lawyer, Viktor Burobin, says his client should be returned to Russia. Speaking Friday, in Moscow, Burobin called Bout's arrest Thursday at a luxury hotel in Bangkok "unacceptable" and "deceptive."
Only reason I can think of to ship him back to Russia would be if he had diplomatic immunity and was declared PNG. If so, then Russia would have quite a bit to answer for, wouldn't they?
Thai authorities say they have yet to decide if Bout will first face trial in their country on charges of giving weapons and financial support to terrorists. Bout could face up to 10 years in a Thai prison if convicted. Federal prosecutors in New York have charged him with conspiring to provide material support to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
The 41-year-old ex-Soviet air force officer has been accused of trafficking weapons to war-torn countries, especially in Central and West Africa. One of his alleged clients was former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who is now on trial for war crimes. Bout also was suspected of selling arms to Islamic extremists in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Bout has been investigated in several countries, but has never been prosecuted.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/08/2008 00:00 ||
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Really? For how long has he had this moniker? Since his arrest?
Posted by: john frum ||
03/08/2008 13:07 Comments ||
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#3
That high-pitched noise you may have heard (but couldnt quite identify) the other night was the collective sphincterpucker of lever-pullers from around globe upon hearing of Viktors detention. There are reasons Boris hasnt seen the inside of a cell during his entire career. First, simply said are connections in very high places. Funny thing how enormous wealth gets you access to those types of people. Next thing to consider is that this is a guy that knows how to collect the right kind of dirt. The KGB made an art form just out of unflattering photos of drunken parties in Baltic piss-bars. You can imagine what kinds of little ditties this guy has squirreled away. And of course, if he was to drop dime on some those pesky little proxie-wars it could get embarrassed. Check out the callous toad Hugos actions in the last week. (Im not sayin Im just sayin.) And the most important reason is he is just too damn valuable. Bout the man may be currently in the jug however Bout the organization hasnt been grounded yet. Chances are the plans are already in the works for another belly-buck into next hot-spot. Expect Viktor to be a vapor very soon.
Three suspected foreign militants arrested last month in connection with an alleged plot to bomb embassies in Metro Manila are in the custody of military intelligence officers and undergoing questioning, according to sources in the Philippine National Police.
Intelligence operatives who asked not to be named identified the militants, suspected to be members of the al-Qaeda terrorist organization, as Khalil Hasan Al-Alih and two others known only by their aliases, Salman and Wahid. Salman, who agents said hailed from a Middle Eastern country, and Wahid, an Indonesian, were arrested in Davao City between February 15 and February 29. Al-Alih, a Jordanian who was also using a Kuwaiti passport, was arrested last February 15 at the Manila International Airport.
They are currently under the custody of the militarys Intelligence and Security Group (ISG), according to PNP sources, held on suspicion that they belong to an al-Qaeda sleeper cell planning to launch bombing attacks on US, British, Australian and Israeli embassies in Manila.
Sources also said Al-Alih was managing a travel and placement agency in the Malate area. Investigators are investigating the possibility that the agency is a front used to funnel funds to al-Qaeda. A source also noted that an associate of Al-Alih was arrested in 1996 in Germany on suspicion of being a terrorist. He was later released.
The US Embassy said Friday it had been informed about the police operation but refused to comment on whether US security officers were involved in the investigation. We are aware of the reported arrests, said Embassy deputy press attache Karen Schinnerer. She added that it would be business as usual in the US Embassy with regard to its consular service and other affairs when asked if changes in security arrangements were implemented because of the alleged bombing plot.
The Australian Embassy meanwhile has tightened security in its Makati City office and said it continued to coordinate with Philippine authorities in the investigation of the alleged terror plot. We are aware of the recent arrests made by Philippine security agencies of supposed members of a regional terrorist cell and of reports of alleged plots on the Australian Embassy and against Philippine leaders in recent weeks, the Embassy said in a statement.
Without giving specifics, the Australian post said it was upgrading security in its Makati office. The British Embassy for its part declined to discuss sensitive security matters but commented that the security of our staff is taken very seriously.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Grilled West Texas beef style and not Japanese tuna style, I hope.
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israeli warplanes flew over the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday, a day after an attack by a Palestinian gunman killed eight Jewish seminary students in Jerusalem, raising tensions in the volatile region.
Two Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese airspace and flew over Beirut briefly before leaving the area, a senior Lebanese security official said. Speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements, he said the planes flew at a medium altitude.
Israeli warplanes frequently fly over south Lebanon in what Israel says are reconnaissance missions. The overflights drew ground fire from Lebanese troops on at least two occasions since an Aug. 14, cease-fire ended a monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas. They have occasionally flown over Beirut as well.
Three Israeli reconnaissance planes violated Lebanese airspace in southern Lebanon Thursday, the Lebanese army said in a statement Friday.
The latest Israeli overflights come amid tensions over Thursdays attack in Jerusalem at the rabbinical seminary. Hezbollahs Al Manar satellite TV station said a previously unknown group called the Martyrs of Imad Mughniyeh and Gaza was responsible for the attack _ a claim that could not immediately be verified.
An Iranian cleric said on Friday that a new set of UN sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program was aimed at undermining next week's legislative elections. "They adopted a hasty resolution in order to influence the elections, so that people would not go and vote," Ahmad Khatami, a middle ranking cleric, said in a sermon at Friday prayers in Tehran broadcast by state radio. "But with the help of God, Iranians will surprise them, and both the US and the Security Council will be blinded" by the turnout, said Khatami. The Security Council on Monday imposed its third set of sanctions against Iran in the space of 15 months to punish Tehran's repeated refusal to suspend the process of uranium enrichment. Resolution 1803 gives Iran three months to comply with demands by the UN and its nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to make nuclear fuel and, enriched much farther, atomic weapons. Iran insists its nuclear program is solely aimed at generating energy. Iranian conservative leaders have charged that the West, led by the United States, adopted the resolution ahead of the March 14 vote to discourage people from casting their ballots and thus weakening Tehran Islamic regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/08/2008 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Nothing gets by these folks. Except that the alternative will be to disrupt the regime with bombs.
In an Internet age, Al Qaeda prizes geek jihadis as much as would-be homicide bombers and gunmen. The terror network is recruiting computer-savvy technicians to produce sophisticated Web documentaries and multimedia products aimed at Muslim audiences in the United States, Britian and other Western countries.
Already, the terror movement's al-Sahab production company is turning out high quality material, some of which rivals productions by Western media companies. The documentaries appear regularly on Islamist Web sites, which Al Qaeda uses to recruit followers and rally its supporters.
That requires people whose skills go beyond planting bombs and ambushing American patrols in Iraq and Afghanistan. "The Al Qaeda men who are coming today are not farmers, illiterate people," said Qari Mohammed Yusuf, an Afghan and self-declared al-Sahab cameraman. "They are Ph.D.s, professors who know about this technology. Day by day they are coming. Al Qaeda has asked them to come."
It was impossible to verify Yusuf's claim, although a former police chief in Yusuf's home province of Kunduz verified his links to Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Yusuf's information has proven reliable in the past.
Nevertheless, Western experts who monitor Islamist Web sites say the technical quality of Al Qaeda postings including those from Iraq and Afghanistan has dramatically increased from the grainy, amateurish images that were the hallmark of al-Sahab's work only a few years ago.
Now, postings are often in three languages Arabic, English and Urdu, the language of Pakistan where Al Qaeda hopes to draw fresh recruits. Videos look like professionally edited documentaries or television news broadcasts, with flashy graphics, maps in the background and split screens. Footage lifted from Arab and Western television is often interlaced into the videos and al-Sahab appears to have a wide-ranging video library.
A speech by deputy Al Qaeda leader Aymen Al-Zawahiri issued to mark last year's 9-11 anniversary included U.S. television interviews with wounded American soldiers, CIA analysts and talking-head journalists and experts, excerpts from a President Bush press conference, audiotape of Malcolm X, even old World War II footage all edited in to back Al-Zawahiri's case that the United States is losing the war on terror.
"What has changed dramatically is the quality, with documentaries and messages sometimes in three languages," said Rita Katz, director of SITE Intelligence Group, a U.S. terrorism research center. "They are trying to outreach to as many people as possible."
Use of the Internet enables Al Qaeda to reach a broad global audience within the worldwide Muslim community rather than having to rely on Arabic language satellite stations, whose audiences are limited to the Middle East and who exercise some degree of editorial control. "What is really amazing to me is watching how would-be terrorists living in the West are drawn in and captivated by al-Sahab videos," said Evan Kohlmann, a terror consultant for Globalterroralert.com.
He said watching al-Sahab videos eventually leads some Muslim youth in the West into "making official contact with the Al Qaeda organization."
Katz said the quality of some recent al-Sahab productions was "good enough to be on the Discovery Channel." "We are not talking about people who don't know technology," she said. "They are very skilled. Al-Sahab must have a large team of people who have specific computer skills. These type of technically adept individuals are in high demand by Al Qaeda."
At the same time, the number of top quality Al Qaeda productions is on the rise. According to the IntelCenter, a private U.S. counterterrorism organization, Al Qaeda's propaganda wing produced and posted 74 video programs last year, an increase of 16 over 2006.
"It is clear that significant resources and efforts are being expended by al-Sahab to produce and release more videos than ever before and with consistently faster turnaround times than ever previously seen," IntelCenter said in a report last year.
Interviewed in a car with tinted windows as it swerved through colorful buses and ox-drawn carts, the bearded Yusuf, dressed in the loose-fitting clothing of a Pakistani farmer, outlined how Al Qaeda has jumped into the Internet age. Instead of elaborate studios and equipment, the geek jihadis use laptops, generators and the right software to edit their material. For transmission, all they need is a high-speed Internet connection, which is available at scores of Internet cafes in towns and cities throughout Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Yusuf, speaking in Pashto through an interpreter, boasted that he once transmitted video from an Internet cafe across the street from the Afghan Ministry of Interior in Kabul.
Katz said producing propaganda videos for al-Sahab is a three-step process. The first is to shoot the video. The second step the most time-consuming is to edit and produce the material, a process which requires skilled technicians but can be done in a simple mud hut anywhere in Afghanistan or the rugged border area of Pakistan. Once the material is ready, step three is transmitting through an Internet cafe.
"The al-Sahab man doesn't have to lug his computer on his back into the cafe," Katz said. "All he needs is a small USB stick and the high-speed Internet connection."
Al Qaeda technicians have also become skilled at evading American detection techniques. Katz said they often use techniques such as "proxy servers" to disguise the point of origin. Documentaries are sent in multiple files to improve security. "The al-Sahab people know and study technology, the latest law enforcement techniques," Katz said. "They know they can transfer files and they know not to transfer the entire file, to divide it into small pieces that eventually is stored in a single location."
Yusuf said Al Qaeda maintains its own cyberspace library, storing material in a secret server or servers so that the al-Sahab members do not have to keep incriminating material on their own laptops. "There is a plan to make al-Sahab very big," Yusuf said. "It is part of the strategy. There are two parts. One is the fighting and the other part of the war is the media. We should carry out the media war because it inspires our people to come and fight."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/08/2008 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda
#3
"What is really amazing to me is watching how would-be terrorists living in the West are drawn in and captivated by al-Sahab videos,"
Ahhh, awaken my sleeper cell minions
"The Al Qaeda men who are coming today are not farmers, illiterate people," said Qari Mohammed Yusuf, an Afghan and self-declared al-Sahab cameraman. "They are Ph.D.s, professors who know about this technology. Day by day they are coming. Al Qaeda has asked them to come."
Most likely educated here in the states, just wonderful.
Posted by: Jan ||
03/08/2008 11:36 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Maybe a few highly publicized "home accidents" of the .22 caliber variety are in order, to let the geeks understand what they are playing at.
A federal judge said Friday she's inclined to dismiss a lawsuit by conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage against a Muslim rights group that reprinted his attacks against Islam and called for an advertising boycott.
Savage sued the Council on American-Islamic Relations in December after the organization posted excerpts from an Oct. 29 broadcast in which he called the Quran a "hateful little book ... a document of slavery" and said, "I don't want to hear one more word about Islam. Take your religion and shove it." His lawsuit accused the group of violating Savage's copyright by posting more than four minutes of excerpts on its Web site without his permission. He also claimed that the group was engaged in racketeering, saying it poses as a civil rights organization but is actually a "mouthpiece of international terror" that helped to fund the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. He said the Council on American-Islamic Relations was harming him by taking his statements out of context, urging visitors to its Web site to complain to his advertisers and using his material to raise money for illegal activities.
The group called his claims about its activities preposterous, denied any connection to terrorism and said in court papers that Savage was trying to "intimidate and silence (the organization) in retaliation for (its) criticism of his radio rants." Numerous companies have withdrawn their advertising from his program, the group said, including Sears, AT&T and Wal-Mart. Lawyers for the group said its use of Savage's comments to generate criticism was permitted by copyright law and protected by the First Amendment.
At a hearing Friday, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston of San Francisco said that she found much of the organization's position to be persuasive and that she had tentatively decided to dismiss the suit. She added, however, that she would probably allow Savage to refile the suit and fix its defects, which she did not specify.
Savage's lawyer, Daniel Horowitz, disputed the group's contention that its excerpting of his broadcast was protected by the legal doctrine of fair use, which allows portions of copyrighted material to be reprinted for the purposes of commentary, criticism or parody. Horowitz contended the organization had disqualified itself from protection because of its allegedly illicit motives and commercial use of the material. "It is speech, Mr. Horowitz," the judge replied.
Thomas Burke, a lawyer for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said at the hearing that the organization was entitled to excerpt Savage's words for fundraising purposes. He cited a 1986 ruling by the federal appeals court in San Francisco allowing the Rev. Jerry Falwell's organization to use copyrighted material in a Hustler magazine parody of Falwell to generate contributions. Savage's lawsuit "is about punishing (the council) for exercising its First Amendment protected rights," Burke told reporters.
#2
Agreed. Reading U.S. District Judge Susan Illston of San Francisco tells you this will get tossed out.
Too bad, I believe it's a simple and documented fact that CAIR is the mouthpeice of international terror.
#3
This Burke and anyone like him who represnets these thugs needs to be drummed out of the lawdog corps. He deserves harassment and banishmnet from further employment.
#4
The judge is bought by CAIR. Most liberal judges are bought by their special interest masters. They need to be accountable to the people, but instead they are black robed tyrants instead.
#6
I'm sure Mr. Horowitz will appeal... or file a new suit for each actionable action by CAIR. Surely CAIR has done more than one wrong thing in the past year or so?
#8
Can someone tell me why, on the merits of the case, the judge's ruling is incorrect? How can quoting Whiner for 4 minutes from a 3 hour show be at once a copyright violation and at the same time be quoting him out of context? While I'd love to see somebody stick a RICO conviction on CAIR, I'm not sure Whiner is the guy to make it happen.
#9
Numerous companies have withdrawn their advertising from his program, the group said, including Sears, AT&T and Wal-Mart
let's boycott these businesses, although I won't shop at Walmart anyway.
At a hearing Friday, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston of San Francisco
ahhhh, now it's making sense
The group called his claims about its activities preposterous, denied any connection to terrorism
I'd like to see an accounting of who gives money to CAIR. Also how the money is spent.
Posted by: Jan ||
03/08/2008 11:03 Comments ||
Top||
#10
Check out the law school the judge and the CAIR lawyer attended....inherent philosophical differences are at the root of these cases.
#12
I'd like Rantburg to be able to post, comment on, and expose videos by CAIR and similar groups without fearing copywright infringement lawsuits.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
03/08/2008 13:20 Comments ||
Top||
#13
NS - The judge is in error for the following reasons:
CAIR's unauthorized use of even four minutes of a three hour broadcast is unquestionably an act of copyright infringement. However CAIR has asserted a fair use defense to their infringement. Note that fair use is a defense to an infringement already committed not a doctrine that in certain areas or circumstances nullifies the concept of infringement itself (as many seem to believe).
The application of the Fair Use Doctrine requires the trier of fact (normally the jury in a jury trial) to consider certain factual issues and perform a multi-factor balancing test based thereon in order to determine whether the defendant's use of the copyrighted material falls within the bounds of the doctrine. The most important of these factors is the commercial nature of the use. The commercial or non-commercial nature of the use, while not dispositive, is typically more important than all other factors combined, at least in practice if not in the verbiage of the case law.
Had CAIR merely used clips from Savage's show in the normal course of their commentary without attempting to solicit donations explicitly based thereon there's little question that Savage's suit would fail. However given CAIR's seemingly at least quasi-commercial use of the clips (viz. to solicit donations) there seems to be present a very genuine issue of material fact that must be considered in light of the Fair Use Doctrine's balancing test. But it is critical to remember that in either case it falls to the trier of fact to determine the nature and extent of the defendant's infringement and to answer certain factual questions surrounding same. The disputed facts must be found by the trier if fact, it is improper for a judge to assume them away in a pretrial hearing.
The judge can properly dismiss the case only if there is no genuine issue of material fact. I've not read the pleadings but Burke's citation of Falwell combined with the judge's inclination to dismiss Savage's petition suggests to me that CAIR is attempting a sleight-of-hand: admitting commercial use so that there appears to be no genuine issue of material fact then citing Falwell as precedent to support their motion to dismiss. Since the commercial nature of the use is the most critical element of CAIR's defense, were they not in agreement with Savage there would be a material fact at issue and dismissal would be entirely improper.
However Falwell should not support a dismissal of Savage's petition because the nature of the Fair Use Doctrine requires factual findings not properly made by a judge during pretrial motions. The law hasn't changed since Falwell but the facts of the present matter necessarily differ from Falwell and therefore require an independent analysis by the trier of fact.
That said the copyright issue is almost certainly a loser for Savage. He'd have better luck with an intentional tort claim though I doubt he'd win that one either. It would, however, be quite ironic if Savage were denied his day in court since brining these sorts of weak-sauce suits in an attempt to spend their adversaries into submission is precisely the sort of tactic often employed by CAIR and their felow travellers in their quests to silence their critics.
#17
Never start a public argument with a guy who owns the microphone. This suit will be good for months of on air CAIR bashing. Do refile, do discovery, make it public on the airwaves.
Posted by: ed ||
03/08/2008 17:25 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Demonstrations were held in all the countrys main cities on Friday to protest against the republication in Danish newspapers of a cartoon caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad (
Thailand says it is investigating an alleged Russian arms dealer, known as the "Merchant of Death," as his lawyer in Moscow and U.S. authorities struggle over his future fate.
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israeli warplanes flew over the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday, a day after an attack by a Palestinian gunman killed eight Jewish seminary students in Jerusalem, raising tensions in the volatile region.
In an Internet age, Al Qaeda prizes geek jihadis as much as would-be homicide bombers and gunmen. The terror network is recruiting computer-savvy technicians to produce sophisticated Web documentaries and multimedia products aimed at Muslim audiences in the United States, Britian and other Western countries.
