Stuff we knew all along, almost without thinking about it...
Canadian troops and their allies have been drawn into an ancient tribal feud that simmers beneath the conflict in southern Afghanistan. In a sample of ordinary insurgents, 42 fighters in Kandahar province were asked by The Globe and Mail to identify their own tribe, and the results point to a divide within the Taliban ranks: Only five named themselves as members of the three major tribes most closely associated with the government, suggesting that tribal animosity has become a factor that drives the recruitment of insurgents.
Five out of 42 is a smidge over 12 percent of a tiny sample size, isn't it?
"This government is a family business," said a prominent Afghan aid worker in Kandahar. "The other tribes get angry when a few tribes have all the power."
Afghan tribes often share the same ethnicity, religion, language and culture, but they're divided along ancestral lines that resemble the branches of a huge family tree. Little except bloodlines distinguishes most tribes from each other, but struggles for power among the tribes have been a source of bloodshed for centuries in this harsh land.
The small survey did not include enough interviews to draw firm conclusions about the tribal makeup of the Taliban, and the results may be biased by the tribal identity of the researcher who conducted the interviews since it would have been easier for him to find his fellow tribesmen in Taliban-controlled districts. But the findings appear to support the impression of many analysts that the Kandahar insurgency draws fighters most heavily from the tribes outside of the Zirak Durrani tribal federation, which dominates the local government.
The Taliban interviewed claimed origins from 19 different tribes, all of them part of the Pashtun ethnic group that occupies most of southern Afghanistan. The largest numbers came from the Noorzai and Eshaqzai tribes, which accounted for 16 of the 42 surveyed. Many members of those two tribes live in the most dangerous parts of the Panjwai valley, where Canadian troops have been fighting for the past two years, and they often complain about being alienated from Kandahar's government, with little representation in the administration.
The Popalzai tribe of President Hamid Karzai, by contrast, had relatively few members in the sample of insurgents. Only two Taliban identified themselves as Popalzai, and they appeared to have personal reasons for participating in the insurgency: One said his family had been bombed by foreign troops and the other said the government repeatedly eradicated his opium fields. There was a similar lack of insurgents from other tribes usually aligned with the government. "Currently there is war between the tribes," said a former Afghan intelligence officer, whose experience in Kandahar spans three decades.
But another observer said the friction between tribes still hasn't reached that point. "We don't have a true tribal war here, yet," said Neamat Arghandabi, head of the National Islamic Society of Afghan Youth, who said he remembers such feuding during the period of chaos in the early 1990s that followed the withdrawal of Soviet forces. "It's the worst," he said. "It has no borders, everybody fights each other and you have to hide your roots. But for now, it's like competition among political parties."
The fact that certain tribes are more heavily represented than others within the Taliban appears to be a touchy point with the insurgent leadership, which prefers to describe religion as the group's unifying force. The Globe and Mail's researcher was sharply criticized by Taliban when they learned he had been surveying the tribal background of insurgents.
Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, the former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, scoffed at the idea of a tribally motivated insurgency as he watched The Globe's videos at his home in Kabul. "Among the Taliban, there is no difference between the tribes," Mr. Zaeef said. "The tribe issue among Taliban is not important."
But academics who monitor Afghanistan are paying increasing attention to the issue. Thomas Johnson, director of the Culture and Conflict Studies program at the Naval Postgraduate School in California, was among the first academics to describe the tribal underpinnings of the war. Three tribes that dominated Kandahar in the years after the Soviet withdrawal, the Popalzai, Barakzai and Alokozai, all from the Zirak Durrani group, lost significant power when the Taliban swept the country from 1994 to 1996, Mr. Johnson said. In their place, the tribal groups aligned with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar installed themselves in the seats of government. The Taliban leader's own tribe, the Hotak branch of the Ghilzai federation, occupied seven of the senior positions in Mullah Omar's regime, according to Mr. Johnson's analysis.
The latest government in Kandahar has largely returned the Zirak Durranis to power, Mr. Johnson said, which reflects a tribal struggle that goes back hundreds of years.
This article starring:
Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef
Taliban
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2008 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Norwegian Ministry of Defense reported on Tuesday that its forces stationed under the framework of multi-national force in Afghanistan suffered shortage of equipment. An administrative report, issued by the Defense Logistics Agency and the Defense Supply Centre, showed that shortage was identified in armored cars which accompanied patrol cars throughout the country. Head of the Logistic Agency assured that the shortage was a result of delay in the delivery of armored cars, in addition to administrative neglect to provide temporary armored cars. He assured that the ministry was working hard to fill the shortage as soon as possible.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2008 00:00 ||
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Kuwait's public prosecutor on Tuesday questioned two Shiite members of the dissolved parliament for allegedly joining an underground group working to overthrow the government, their lawyer said. Adnan Abdulsamad and Ahmad Lari, who went to the prosecutor voluntarily, were accused of joining the previously unknown Hezbollah Kuwait, Abdulkarim bin Haider told AFP. They were also accused of spreading false news that undermine Kuwait's foreign position, he said. The two denied the charges and were later freed on a hefty 10,000-dinar (37,170-dollar) bail, pending further investigations.
Two weeks ago, the prosecution interrogated eight leading Shiites over the same accusations. It freed them on bail after detaining them for several days. The action came after activists from Kuwait's minority Shiite community last month organised a rally to mourn Lebanon's Hezbollah commander Imad Mughnieh who was killed in a car bombing in Damascus. Mughnieh is suspected of hijacking a Kuwaiti passenger plane in 1988 in which two Kuwaitis were killed. Abdulsamad spoke at the rally and described Mughnieh as a "martyr hero."
The prosecution had asked parliament to strip the two former MPs of their immunity to question them but parliament was dissolved by Kuwait's ruler last week and their immunity was automatically lifted.
The crackdown on Shiite activists triggered angry protests with the case fuelling sectarian tensions in this oil-rich emirate where Shiites form about a third of the native population of one million.
Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah on April 19 dissolved the opposition-dominated parliament calling for a new election on May 17, the second in less than two years.
This article starring:
Adnan Abdulsamad
Hezbollah Kuwait
Ahmad Lari
Hezbollah Kuwait
Imad Mughnieh
Hezbollah
Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2008 00:00 ||
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For those who think the Patriot Act is draconian, stable Denmark has some news for you ...
Campers and guests of small hotels may want to look over their shoulders next time they make a call or connect their computers to the internet, according to Information newspaper.
Denmark's anti-terror law, which took effect 15 September, requires that hotels, B&Bs and camping sites must conduct surveillance on any of their guests' activities when they use the telephone or the internet. "Hi! We're checking out, but could you tell us what this 'E-SRV/INTRCPT' charge is for?
But few places of lodging ever enforce this rule because it is too complicated and too expensive. Poul Fejer Christiansen, head of the Danish Camping Board, said that besides having to purchase surveillance equipment, campsite owners have not been given any guidance from the authorities as to how such a difficult task could possibly be carried out.
'If there isn't a free advertisement-financed solution for the owners, those expenses will end up being passed on to the guests. Someone somewhere would have to pay for it,' said Christiansen. He said that his organisation had requested a clear interpretation of the law paragraph in question from the IT and Telecommunications Board, but has yet to receive an answer.
Mike Legarth, IT spokesperson for the Conservative Party, said the law must be enforced as an important piece in battling terror action in Denmark. 'We have to monitor telephones and the internet if we want to prevent terror,' he said. 'We realise it's an expense to telecommunications companies, hotels, camping sites and citizens, but it's a necessary evil if we're going to ensure a safe and secure society.'
Red-Green Alliance's Line Barfod, who is a lawyer, disagreed and said the law is so full of holes that the paragraph on hotel and campsite surveillance is useless. 'The owners know that their guests can simply go to an internet café or public library to use the computer without being monitored,' she said. 'I think we should get rid of the anti-terror law and instead use the money to prevent terrorism through better investigations.'
#2
One would think that the government would be the one to conduct surveillance on people. Isn't this just a blanket ability for hotels, etc to spy on people. You're talking the serious ability to misuse whatever information is gained from private monitoring of internet and telephone.
Here in the US, they put you in jail for that kind of thing.
A speech glorifying acts of violence in the name of Allah given at an alleged terrorist training camp in Ontario encouraged a group of Toronto men to attack the West by decreeing that the "new Rome" must fall, according to evidence revealed yesterday in a Crown factum. "Rome has to be defeated. And we will be the ones that do it," reads a transcript of a call to arms given to more than a dozen recruits gathering inside a tent north of Toronto, according to trial evidence revealed yesterday.
The speaker said they were the barbarians inside the gate of North America.
Trying to motivate recruits, all wearing camouflage at the camp, the speaker said they were the barbarians inside the gate of North America. According to the Crown filings, he said: "This is our life's mission. And Allah has already purchased us, lives and our wealth in exchange for heaven." The jihadist exhortation - a centrepiece of the Crown's case that was recovered as police seized video from one of the suspects' computers - was entered in evidence yesterday. The documents were filed in a publication-ban motion as a trial began against a 20-year-old suspect in Brampton, Ont.
The accused was rounded up with 17 others on June 2, 2006, and alleged to be part of the "homegrown" conspiracy that's become known as the case of the Toronto 18. At the time, a defence lawyer's quip - that his client stood accused of plotting to storm Parliament and behead the Prime Minister - garnered many headlines. But while one or more suspects were apparently caught on tape musing about the possibility of such an attack, there's never been any indication this was an actual plot.
Charged with attending a terrorist-training camp in a wooded area north of Toronto, the accused was under 18 at the time of arrest. His identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Mr. Justice John Sproat of the Ontario Superior Court further shrouded details of the case yesterday, banning publication of any evidence that might identify 14 adult accused whose trials remain months or years away. They also stand accused of involvement in terrorist training. As well, half of the adults are accused of plotting multiple bombings against government targets, in an alleged bid to get soldiers of the Canadian Forces out of Afghanistan.
Other evidence revealed yesterday involved conversations touching on detonators and bomb materials. But Judge Sproat asked that many of these details be placed under a publication ban, given that the young offender is not accused of that end of the conspiracy. (Charges against three other young offenders were dropped months ago.)
Two Crown witnesses briefly attended proceedings yesterday. The star informant, Mubin Shaikh - outspoken about how he was a paid infiltrator who led military training at the camp - was told to be prepared to testify in late May. A new witness, a participant of a follow-up camp, has also agreed to testify for the Crown.
Prosecutors will have to prove recruits were indeed learning terrorism, which makes the call-to-arms videotape transcript very significant. "We're going to kick it off man. We're here to get the rewards of everybody that's come after us," the speaker said. "God willing if we don't get a victory, God willing our kids will get it. If not them, then five generations down somebody will get it ..."
He told the group their hearts must stay with the training camp, even when they returned to their jobs, families and schools. "You go back, you're living with society and you have to put on that face, you know, that we're a bunch of peace lovers," he said. The transcript indicates there was laughter in the tent. He continued: "So although our bodies will be with the non-believers roaming around going to work, trying to get money, sucking up to your boss and this and that ... [But] our mission is greater. Whether we get arrested, whether we get killed, whether we get tortured, our mission is greater than just individuals."
Then, describing North America as a fortress designed to keep out Muslims, he pointed out that his group was already inside. "Here we are. We entered your lands, we already started striking cause you know what, this training is striking at them!" More transcripts at link.
In his boyhood, around the age of thirteen, Dick had a recurring dream for several weeks. He dreamed he was in a bookstore, trying to find an issue of Astounding Magazine. This issue of the magazine would contain the story titled "The Empire Never Ended", which would reveal the secrets of the universe to him. As the dream recurred, the pile of magazines he searched grew smaller and smaller, but he never reached the bottom. Eventually, he became anxious that discovering the magazine would drive him mad (as in Lovecraft's Necronomicon or Chambers' The King in Yellow, promising insanity to the reader). Shortly thereafter, the dreams ceased, but the phrase "The Empire Never Ended" would appear later in his work. Dick was a voracious reader of religion, philosophy, metaphysics and Gnosticism, ideas of which appear in many of his stories and visions.
Throughout February and March of 1974, he received a series of visions, which he referred to as "two-three-seventy four" (2-3-74), shorthand for February-March 1974. He described the initial visions as laser beams and geometric patterns, and, occasionally, brief pictures of Jesus and of ancient Rome. As the visions increased in length and frequency, Dick claimed he began to live a double life, one as himself, "Philip K. Dick", and one as "Thomas", a Christian persecuted by Romans in the 1st century A.D. Despite his history of drug use and elevated stroke risk, Dick began seeking other rationalist and religious explanations for these experiences. He referred to the "transcendentally rational mind" as "Zebra", "God" and, most often, "VALIS". Dick wrote about the experiences in the semi-autobiographical novels VALIS and Radio Free Albemuth.
Hillary Rodham Clinton's lies about risking her life under sniper fire during a visit to Bosnia as first lady have infuriated the US military brass and troops.
"She has no sense of what a statement like that does to soldiers," fumed retired Maj. Gen. Walter Stewart, the former head of the Pennsylvania National Guard. "She is insulting the command in its entirety," he said yesterday.
Clinton came under fire after saying she "misspoke" about what happened during the trip and claimed it was the first time she erred in describing her visit - an assertion Barack Obama's campaign quickly disproved by finding at least three prior occasions over the last few months where she's claimed there was sniper fire.
Stewart, who was assigned to the Army's European headquarters at the time of Clinton's visit in 1996, called her statements "really astonishing." "Believe me, heads would have rolled all over" if the military put the then-first lady at "unacceptable risk," added Stewart, who is supporting Barack Obama.
Air Force Lt. Gen. Buster Glosson, a John McCain supporter who ran the air attack in the first Gulf War, said, "It bothers me any time anyone running for the highest office in the land fabricates a story.
"That should bother any American, whether you're military or nonmilitary."
Another source, a former Army analyst who was stationed abroad when dignitaries visited, said, "You know, we have soldiers overseas now who are getting shot at by real bullets from real enemies who really want to kill them.
"Getting shot at by snipers is not something you forget - or make light of," he added. "If getting shot at by sniper fire qualifies you to be president, then there are thousands of guys in the military right now who are way more qualified than Hillary Clinton to be our next president."
#1
On 9/11 the secret service just entered Cheney's office, lifted him of the ground and carried him to a bunker.
Anyone thought that the Secret Service would let president's wife and daughter go into a danger zone? Abnd in case the Secret Sevice people
had allowed Hillary to go, that they would have allowed her to go without helmet or flak vest?
#2
SOP is their plane would not had landed - in any case, US Fed-DOD covert teams would also had been there in advance at every stop to cover the plane's approach, stay, and final departure, not to mention Hillary and delegation. Also, iff need be, US TEAMS > have the authority eliminate by armed force any known or perceived armed real threat to the US POTUS delegation, wid or widout the consent the consent of the local host Govt. NOT THAT THEY WILL DO SO, BUT THEY CAN AND HAVE THAT LEGAL AUTHORITY IFF NEEDED. THIS IS ONLY US-SPECIFIC SOP, NOT ALLIED NOR LOCAL HOST NATION.
IOW, FIRST LADY HILLARY WOULD'VE BEEN SHOT AT ONLY BY "SURPRISE" OR "SUDDEN UNKNOWN ACTION", AND ESPEC ONLY IFF A HOSTILE ELEMENT(S) HAD SOMEHOW PENETRATED HER US, etal."WIDE AREA/PERIMETER" DEFENSIVE SCREEN. Her plane would normally not been allowed to land in any uncontrolled environment.
#4
OTOH, RUMORMILLNEWS > RFK ASSASSINATION FORENSIC CONFERENCE > was RFK killed by his own SECURITY GUARD, as per forensic evidence on number of shots fired, gun type, and bullets',body position/angle, etc. vv RFK???
#4
Should have waited until the general elections.
Posted by: ed ||
03/26/2008 10:45 Comments ||
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#5
ed, its all about timing. Right now Hillary is saying to the truebelievers that Obama is weakened and a far less viable candidate. Doing this now, points out that Hillary isn't that more viable, keeping the energy level up on the liberal fratricide. Name that movie -
"An anonymous, but deadly man rides into a town torn by war between two factions, the Baxters and the Rojo's. Instead of fleeing or dying, as most other would do, the man schemes to play the two sides off each other, getting rich in the bargain."
#6
I agree it's about timing. McCain just wasted one of his biggest pieces while Hillary and Obama were busy tearing each other apart. All he did was draw attention, and fire, to himself when he should be sipping margaritas and watching the fireworks. And for little or no effect. In the general election, he could have brought this up and hammered Hillary for weeks with it.
Posted by: ed ||
03/26/2008 11:31 Comments ||
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#7
Fistful of Dollars, of course
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2008 11:35 Comments ||
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#8
Ed, I disagree re: timing.
Remember - Petraeus will be back in front of Congress shortly. McCain is setting up an interesting dynamic re: those publicized hearings.
#9
If McCain wanted to set Hillary up for a short term play like the Petraeus testimony, then he should have gotten one of his surrogates (a senator on the Defense subcommittee would be perfect) to bring it up 3 days before the hearings. In the general election McCain could have used this as an opening salvo to bring up the litany of anti-military postures and foreign policy naivety of the Clintons. For McCain to bring this to the fore twice will have the stink of beating a dead horse.
Posted by: ed ||
03/26/2008 12:17 Comments ||
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#10
It think this reinforces the perception McCain shoots first without thinking it through.
Posted by: ed ||
03/26/2008 12:19 Comments ||
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#11
Looks like we have some frustrated political consultants here. :-)
#15
Jez, I get tired of all these demands for an apology. If someone says something you dont like go after the comment and show why it is wrong. In this case, Senator McCain should just make observations about Senator Clintons statements until she feels compelled to defend herself.
Posted by: Dan Canaveral ||
03/26/2008 16:57 Comments ||
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#16
I'm sure General Petraeus gives a rat's patootie about an apology from Hillary. He is a little too busy to be bothered with an apology. What's it worth anyway?
Is it just me, or is this...nuts? This is the first in a three-part series on the outsourcing of passports
The United States has outsourced the manufacturing of its electronic passports to overseas companies including one in Thailand that was victimized by Chinese espionage raising concerns that cost savings are being put ahead of national security, an investigation by The Washington Times has found.
The Government Printing Office's decision to export the work has proved lucrative, allowing the agency to book more than $100 million in recent profits by charging the State Department more money for blank passports than it actually costs to make them, according to interviews with federal officials and documents obtained by The Times. The profits have raised questions both inside the agency and in Congress because the law that created GPO as the federal government's official printer explicitly requires the agency to break even by charging only enough to recover its costs.
Lawmakers said they were alarmed by The Times' findings and plan to investigate why U.S. companies weren't used to produce the state-of-the-art passports, one of the crown jewels of American border security. "I am not only troubled that there may be serious security concerns with the new passport production system, but also that GPO officials may have been profiting from producing them," said Rep. John D. Dingell, the Michigan Democrat who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Holy shit, I agree with John Dingell. This is serious...
Officials at GPO, the Homeland Security Department and the State Department played down such concerns, saying they are confident that regular audits and other protections already in place will keep terrorists and foreign spies from stealing or copying the sensitive components to make fake passports. "Aside from the fact that we have fully vetted and qualified vendors, we also note that the materials are moved via a secure transportation means, including armored vehicles," GPO spokesman Gary Somerset said. So...nuthin to see here. Feel free to put your heads back in the ground. We've got it all taken care of...
But GPO Inspector General J. Anthony Ogden, the agency's internal watchdog, doesn't share that confidence. He warned in an internal Oct. 12 report that there are "significant deficiencies with the manufacturing of blank passports, security of components, and the internal controls for the process." The inspector general's report said GPO claimed it could not improve its security because of "monetary constraints." But the inspector general recently told congressional investigators he was unaware that the agency had booked tens of millions of dollars in profits through passport sales that could have been used to improve security, congressional aides told The Times.
Decision to outsource
GPO is an agency little-known to most Americans, created by Congress almost two centuries ago as a virtual monopoly to print nearly all of the government's documents, from federal agency reports to the president's massive budget books that outline every penny of annual federal spending. Since 1926, it also has been charged with the job of printing the passports used by Americans to enter and leave the country. When the government moved a few years ago to a new electronic passport designed to foil counterfeiting, GPO led the work of contracting with vendors to install the technology.
Each new e-passport contains a small computer chip inside the back cover that contains the passport number along with the photo and other personal data of the holder. The data is secured and is transmitted through a tiny wire antenna when it is scanned electronically at border entry points and compared to the actual traveler carrying it.
According to interviews and documents, GPO managers rejected limiting the contracts to U.S.-made computer chip makers and instead sought suppliers from several countries, including Israel, Germany and the Netherlands. Mr. Somerset, the GPO spokesman, said foreign suppliers were picked because "no domestic company produced those parts" when the e-passport production began a few years ago.
After the computer chips are inserted into the back cover of the passports in Europe, the blank covers are shipped to a factory in Ayutthaya, Thailand, north of Bangkok, to be fitted with a wire Radio Frequency Identification, or RFID, antenna. The blank passports eventually are transported to Washington for final binding, according to the documents and interviews.
The stop in Thailand raises its own security concerns. The Southeast Asian country has battled social instability and terror threats. Anti-government groups backed by Islamists, including al Qaeda, have carried out attacks in southern Thailand and the Thai military took over in a coup in September 2006.
The Netherlands-based company that assembles the U.S. e-passport covers in Thailand, Smartrac Technology Ltd., warned in its latest annual report that, in a worst-case scenario, social unrest in Thailand could lead to a halt in production.
Smartrac divulged in an October 2007 court filing in The Hague that China had stolen its patented technology for e-passport chips, raising additional questions about the security of America's e-passports. Oh. Well. That might be important...right?
Transport concerns
A 2005 document obtained by The Times states that GPO was using unsecure FedEx courier services to send blank passports to State Department offices until security concerns were raised and forced GPO to use an armored car company. Even then, the agency proposed using a foreign armored car vendor before State Department diplomatic security officials objected.
Concerns that GPO has been lax in addressing security threats contrast with the very real danger that the new e-passports could be compromised and sold on the black market for use by terrorists or other foreign enemies, experts said. "The most dangerous passports, and the ones we have to be most concerned about, are stolen blank passports," said Ronald K. Noble, secretary general of Interpol, the Lyon, France-based international police organization. "They are the most dangerous because they are the most difficult to detect." Mr. Noble said no counterfeit e-passports have been found yet, but the potential is "a great weakness and an area that world governments are not paying enough attention to."
Lukas Grunwald, a computer security expert, said U.S. e-passports, like their European counterparts, are vulnerable to copying and that their shipment overseas during production increases the risks. "You need a blank passport and a chip and once you do that, you can do anything, you can make a fake passport, you can change the data," he said.
Separately, Rep. Robert A. Brady, chairman of the Joint Committee on Printing, has expressed "serious reservations" about GPO's plan to use contract security guards to protect GPO facilities. In a Dec. 12 letter, Mr. Brady, a Pennsylvania Democrat, stated that GPO's plan for conducting a security review of the printing office was ignored and he ordered GPO to undertake an outside review.
Questionable profits
GPO's accounting adds another layer of concern. The State Department is now charging Americans $100 or more for new e-passports produced by the GPO, depending on how quickly they are needed. That's up from a cost of around just $60 in 1998.
Internal agency documents obtained by The Times show each blank passport costs GPO an average of just $7.97 to manufacture and that GPO then charges the State Department about $14.80 for each, a margin of more than 85 percent, the documents show. Hmmmmmm...nice markup.
The accounting allowed GPO to make gross profits of more than $90 million from Oct. 1, 2006, through Sept. 30, 2007, on the production of e-passports. The four subsequent months produced an additional $54 million in gross profits. The agency set aside more than $40 million of those profits to help build a secure backup passport production facility in the South, still leaving a net profit of about $100 million in the last 16 months. GPO was initially authorized by Congress to make extra profits in order to fund a $41 million backup production facility at a rate of $1.84 per passport. The large surplus, however, went far beyond the targeted funding.
The large profits raised concerns within GPO because the law traditionally has mandated that the agency only charge enough to recoup its actual costs. According to internal documents and interviews, GPO's financial officers and even its outside accounting firm began to inquire about the legality of the e-passport profits.
To cut off the debate, GPO's outgoing legal counsel signed a one-paragraph memo last fall declaring the agency was in compliance with the law prohibiting profits, but offering no legal authority to back up the conclusion. The large profits accelerated, according to the officials, after the opinion issued Oct. 12, 2007, by then-GPO General Counsel Gregory A. Brower. Mr. Brower, currently U.S. Attorney in Nevada, could not be reached and his spokeswoman had no immediate comment.
Fred Antoun, a lawyer who specializes in GPO funding issues, said the agency was set up by Congress to operate basically on a break-even financial basis. "The whole concept of GPO is eat what you kill," Mr. Antoun said. "For the average taxpayer, for them to make large profits is kind of reprehensible."
Likewise, a 1990 report by Congress' General Accounting Office stated that "by law, GPO must charge actual costs to customers," meaning it can't mark up products for a profit.
Like the security concerns, GPO officials brush aside questions about the profits. Agency officials declined a request from The Times to provide an exact accounting of its e-passport costs and revenues, saying only it would not be accurate to claim it has earned the large profits indicated by the documents showing the difference between the manufacturing costs and the State Department fees.
Questioned about its own annual report showing a $90 million-plus profit on e-passports in fiscal year 2007 alone, the GPO spokesman Mr. Somerset would only say that he thinks the agency is in legal compliance and that "GPO is not overcharging the State Department." Mr. Somerset said 66 different budget line items are used to price new passports and "we periodically review our pricing structure with the State Department."
Public Printer Robert Tapella, the GPO's top executive, faced similar questions during a House subcommittee hearing on March 6. Mr. Tapella told lawmakers that increased demand for passports especially from Americans who now need them to cross into Mexico and Canada produced "accelerated revenue recognition," and "not necessarily excess profits." GPO plans to produce 28 million blank passports this year up from about 9 million five years ago. A State Department consular affairs spokesman, Steve Royster referred questions to GPO on e-passports costs.
Congress to weigh in
GPO's explanations have not satisfied lawmakers, who are poised to dig deeper. Mr. Dingell, the House Commerce chairman, said The Times' findings are "extremely serious to both the integrity of the e-passport program and to U.S. national security" and he has asked an investigative subcommittee chaired by Rep. Bart Stupak, Michigan Democrat, to begin an investigation. "Our initial inquiry suggests that more needs to be done to understand whether the supply chain is secure and fully capable of protecting the manufacturing of this critical document," Mr. Dingell told The Times.
Mr. Stupak said that considering the personal information contained on e-passports, "it is essential that the entire production chain be secure and free from potential tampering." He added: "The GPO needs to make every effort to ensure that future passport components are made in America under the tightest security possible."
Michelle Van Cleave, a former National Counterintelligence Executive, said outsourcing passport work and components creates new security vulnerabilities, not just for passports. "Protecting the acquisition stream is a serious concern in many sensitive areas of government activity, but the process for assessing the risk to national security is at best loose and in some cases missing altogether," she told The Times.
"A U.S. passport has the full faith and credit of the U.S. government behind the citizenship and identity of the bearer," she said. "What foreign intelligence service or international terrorist group wouldn't like to be able to masquerade as U.S. citizens? It would be a profound liability for U.S. intelligence and law enforcement if we lost confidence in the integrity of our passports."
#4
I wonder if someone is checking out the Thai brothels while managing this contract? /s Transporting halfway around the world in order to install an antenna?
It sounds like someones idea of high security is suspenders and a belt.
#5
so much for passports that mean anything. Unph***ingbelievable that our passports are outsourced for other countries to be in charge of.
We'll need to start over with a new system and throw out all passports made up until then. For passports to be worth anything they need a much higher level of security. I'm really blown away by this. Who's running our country again?
Posted by: Jan ||
03/26/2008 19:57 Comments ||
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#6
So what's the (other than security and integrity of our stuff) problem? Covers from europe, rfids installed in Thailand and final assembly in the US.
How is that any different than, say, have the USAF pay to manufacture and stuff aircraft fuselages in europe and do final assembly in, oh I don't know, how about Alabama?
there certainly isn't any problem with security and infallibility of delivery issues with that now, is there????
LONDON - Britain for the first time included Pakistan on a list of countries of concern over human rights on Tuesday, saying there had been very little progress towards pledged improvements. Pakistan featured on a list of 21 major countries of concern like China, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe in the Foreign Offices Human Rights Annual Report 2007.
Finally got whacked enough times with the clue bat, did they?
The report says the list is not a league table of countries we consider the worst offenders but adds it focuses on countries where human rights issues cause us the greatest concern, or where we devote a great deal of attention.
The move to include Pakistan came after a recommendation from the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. During a three-page analysis of Pakistans human rights record, the FCO says: The UK is concerned about human rights issues in Pakistan...recent changes in the political landscape and the period surrounding the state of emergency declared by President Pervez Musharraf on 3 November 2007 have brought a number of human rights issues in Pakistan to the fore.
It adds that Pakistan has expressed a desire to improve its human rights record but says there has been very little progress towards the fulfilment of pledges on issues including torture and civil and political rights.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/26/2008 00:00 ||
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Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the chief of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), on Tuesday demanded the government end the ongoing military operation in the Tribal Areas and Balochistan. I demand that the military operation be immediately stopped and all political prisoners be freed, he said while speaking in the National Assembly to felicitate newly elected Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani. Fazl welcomed Gillanis announcement to release all sacked judges, saying political prisoners should also be set free at the earliest. He announced to fully support the resolution that is to be moved by the PPP to declare the hanging of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto a judicial murder. He said Zulfikar was the architect of the Constitution of 1973. The JUI-F chief said political parties would have to end the sense of deprivation among the provinces.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Jamaat-e-Ulema Islami
Senior US officials on Monday held a meeting with Pakistani officials to discuss Sunday nights explosions that set fire to oil tankers carrying fuel to US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, sources told Daily Times.
About 50 people were injured when a series of explosions triggered a huge fire that burnt 30 to 40 oil tankers parked near the Torkham border crossing on Sunday. The US delegation was concerned over security and wanted smooth transportation of fuel to the American and coalition forces in Afghanistan, a Pakistani official who attended the meeting told Daily Times.
The meeting was aimed at strengthening coordination on the border and making the process of Customs clearance quicker, so that supply of goods to the American and NATO forces in Afghanistan could be made convenient, a source added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban
NWFP Governor Awais Ghani said on Monday that the government was making all out efforts to recover the kidnapped ambassador Tariq Azizuddin. He said this while talking to journalists after attending the Islamia College Peshawar convocation. However, the governor rejected the impression regarding the killing of the kidnapped ambassador. It may be remembered that Pakistans Ambassador to Afghanistan Tariq Azizuddin was abducted when he was passing through the Khyber Agency to Afghanistan in February. The authorities claimed that he had been kidnapped by the Taliban. After his abduction, the government started a search operation in the area where he was supposedly captured. However, the government has yet not been successful in finding the ambassador. It is expected that the government may launch a full-fledged operation for his rescue in the areas of Khyber Agency bordering Afghanistan. Some forces are out to destabilise the country, Ghani said, however, he added that the government was fully committed to flushing out such elements. The governor admitted that the country was facing severe law and order challenges but hoped that the situation would soon be normalised. About the Afghan crisis, Ghani said the US and NATO forces would be going out of Afghanistan one day, but the Pakistani forces would stay in the tribal belt till law and order is restored in the area.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Taliban
#1
One would expect his head was chopped off a long time ago after the AQ drills got done ruining it.
NEW DELHI: Terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) remain largely intact and continues to be used by Pakistan-based and Inter-Services Intelligence sponsored outfits such as the Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Toiba and the Al-Badr for carrying out acts of terror in different parts of India.
The Pakistan-based terrorist outfits are well organised, interlinked and have the latest hardware and communication equipment, warns the latest status paper on internal security, prepared by the Home Ministry.
The paper says the current strategy of these terrorist groups is to recruit and train local modules, and activate them when required; maintain continuous flow of finances to sustain the terror network; supply hardware through land and sea routes; target vital installations, economic infrastructure, VIPs and political leaders; attack soft targets like mass transit systems and places of worship and provoke communal tensions to create a wedge between communities.
Recent incidents suggest that the Jaish and the Lashkar use territory and elements in Bangladesh and Nepal for movement of men and material. The hand of Hujai-Bd is also noticed in some terror incidents, the status paper observes.
Taking note of the recruitment of Indian youth by the LeT and the Hujai-Bd, which has links with the LeT and the Jaish for training in Pakistan and PoK, it says that youth trained in PoK are being re-launched into India for sabotage and subversive activities.
On the overall security situation in Jammu and Kashmir, the status paper, updated till January 1 2008, says there is a declining trend in the level of violence since 2001 and infiltration declining by 7 per cent in 2007 over 2006. However, the Lashkar, Jaish, Hizb and the Al-Badr continue to attack soft targets.
In 2007, security forces killed 472 terrorists, including 106 foreign terrorists, and arrested 400 terrorists. As many as 122 terrorists also surrendered last year, the paper says and adds that 110 security personnel and 158 civilians lost their lives in terror incidents in Jammu and Kashmir.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/26/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: ISI
The massive operation by the Iraqi army in Basra could be a defining battle against Shi'ite militias. Reports from the southern city the hub of Iraq's oil industry and gateway to its main ports say fierce fighting has broken out between government forces and militias. Eyewitnesses have told TIME of several smoke plumes rising out of the city's northern districts, and the sound of explosions and gunfire. Iraqi TV channels have shown images of helicopters flying over the city, and troops sweeping through some streets. At least 22 people were killed, and 58 wounded, in the fighting.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki arrived in Basra on Monday, accompanied by his ministers for defense and the interior, to personally supervise the operation. For Maliki, this is a crucial show of force. For much of the past three years, the Iraqi government has had little influence over Basra. As British troops have steadily withdrawn from the city, it has fallen into the control of three major Shi'ite militias Moqtada al'Sadr's Mahdi Army, the Iran-backed Badr Brigades and a local group associated with the Fadila Party. The three have recently fought turf battles over large swaths of the city, claiming hundreds of lives.
Although there are over 4,000 British troops at a base outside Basra, they have done little to curb the violence. "We have a capacity to provide air and other specialist support if needed, but at this time British involvement is minimal," a British Ministry of Defense spokesman said, declining to be identified in accordance with department policy. Many Iraqis blame Basra's descent into chaos on flawed British strategy. They contend that in their haste to draw down forces, the British did little to train and bolster the local police force. Instead, many militia fighters were recruited into the police, making the force a part of Basra's problems rather than a solution.
Maliki's government has repeatedly sworn to bring the militias to heel, but this is the first major offensive it has mounted in Basra. Early reports suggest the military drive is targeting the Mahdi Army, which controls much of northern Basra. But Iraqi officials have said Tuesday the operation will continue until all militias have surrendered.
Maliki's government and the Iraqi Army desperately need a big military success. Most of the credit for the reduction in violence across Iraq over the past year has gone to the U.S. military's "surge" strategy, and to the Sunni tribes that switched sides to fight al-Qaeda. The Iraqi security forces have appeared, at best, mere spectators; at worst, they are seen as sectarian militias in uniform. A spectacular win in Basra would help give the army and police some much-needed credibility among ordinary Iraqis.
Failure to impose Baghdad's writ on Basra would have major economic repercussions already, the oil pipelines are frequently bombed and large quantities of crude smuggled out. But there's more at stake: While he directs the fighting in Basra, Maliki must also prepare himself for a political backlash in Baghdad. Two of the militias have close ties to the government: Sadr controls a large block of the members of parliament, and the Badr Brigades are the military arm of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the largest Shi'ite party. If both political blocks withdraw their support for Maliki, that would doom his government.
The Iraqi capital, meanwhile, is bracing for a fallout from the fighting in Basra. Large parts of western Baghdad have been shut down by a strike called by Sadrists. Anticipating violence from the Mahdi Army, the Iraqi Army has increased patrolling in the city and reinforced police checkpoints.
Posted by: GolfBravoUSMC ||
03/26/2008 01:52 ||
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Top|| File under: Mahdi Army
Johnson! Stop the presses!! Again!!!
Ramallah Ma'an - Head of the Palestinian negotiating team Ahmed Qurei has denied reports published by a number of news websites that three million US dollars has been diverted to a joint bank account he holds with two unknown persons. I am shocked, shocked! Who are these unknown persons I'm supposed to be splitting this with?
Qurei told Ma'an that the money is part of five million dollars given to Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organisation and the bank account mentioned in the news reports is the bank account of the Palestinian National Fund in the Arab Bank in Amman. I wuz just keepin an eye on it. So some corrupt bastard doesn't steal it. No need for "the people" to thank me. I'm glad to do it...
He said he did not know who was behind the news stories or what was the motive behind publishing such accusations and demanded legal action should be brought against those who were trying to discredit him. Look over there! Jooos!
"I would like to clarify that this amount is part of the five million dollars for the benefit of both Fatah and the PLO, and that the account number 111444/713 noted in the letter named "Adli Sadeq" to Mohammed Dahlan, is the account of the Palestinian National Fund in the Arab Bank in Jordan," Qurei told Ma'an. How do you think Mo could afford all those nice suits?
"The Account No. 21250/510 referred to in the letter refers to the account of the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah) in the Arab Bank in Jordan. The account is in the names of different persons known to the movement and the decision of the leadership since the mid-eighties and the start of the Fatah movement was to register the account in the names of different persons for security reasons," he added. Yeah, for...security reasons!! That's the ticket!!!
"This five million dollars was deposited on behalf of the late president Yasser Arafat in the name of the secretariats of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah movement," he said. I must invoke the name of Yasser. The Pali hack's "Get out of jail free" card...
Johnson! Stop the presses!!
Bethlehem Ma'an Palestinian Attorney General Ahmad Al-Mughani says he is considering taking legal action against Muhammad Rashid, a former economic advisor to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Dear Ahmad,
Call me. Let's...talk.
Regards,
Mo
The Attorney General's announcement came after news reports that Rashid is planning to invest 600 million US dollars in a construction project in the Jordanian Red Sea resort city of Aqaba. For "the people", of course! I just neglected to let "the people" know...
Al-Mughanni told Ma'an that his investigation would focus on uncovering whether Rashid's money was stolen from the Palestinian Authority (PA). Rashid was formerly charged with managing the PA's investments and financial accounts. Welcome to Inshallah Financial Services. How may I help me?
Rashid, also known as Khalid Salam is suspected to have embezzled huge sums of money from the PA following Arafat's death in 2004. Ummmmm...he said it was okay. Really. Said he wanted to screw that fat pig of a wife of his out of it for stepping on his oxygen hose. Whom was I to deny the hero of Palestine his final wish?
Vice President Dick Cheney, concluding two days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, said Monday that Hamas militants and their backers in Iran and Syria are playing the role of spoiler in Mideast peace talks. "It is clearly a difficult situation, in part, because I think it's true, there's evidence, that Hamas is supported by Iran and Syria and that they're doing everything they can to torpedo the peace process," Cheney told reporters before heading to Turkey, the final stop on his 10-day trip to the Mideast.
Cheney said there's ongoing concern about the extent to which arms are being smuggled across the Egyptian border into Gaza where they're being used by Hamas to attack Israel. "It's a continuing problem," he said. "All of that obviously has resulted in the ongoing activity of launching rockets into Israel and threatening the lives of Israelis and obviously making it difficult for there to be the kind of progress that I think we would all like to see," Cheney said.
Cheney said Iran and Syria are trying to scuttle the peace process through Hamas, in the case of Gaza, and in the past it's most likely been through Hezbollah. "Hezbollah went through the dustup with the Israelis in '06. They've been completely resupplied by the Iranians, oftentimes providing materials through the Syrians and then flying materials into Damascus and then taking them by road into Lebanon," Cheney told ABC News in an interview Monday in Ankara.
He said Hamas, Hezbollah and other militant groups have significant representation in Damascus. "That's where they operate from," he said. "There's been a very close relationship over the years, obviously, between Iran and Hezbollah. I don't think there's any question but what Iran and Syria have no interest in seeing the peace process succeed. That's a conclusion that I arrived at not just on my own, but also from talking with people in the region."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I think it's true, there's evidence....
Such a profound thinker and orator. How have we been so fortunate to have found such men to lead us?
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations Dan Gillerman on Tuesday criticized the "trend" to equate the "lawful actions" of a state in defense of its citizens with the "violence of terrorists" during a bitter exchange in the Security Council's monthly meeting on the situation in the Middle East. "The misguided tendency to accept the 'status quo' of terrorism is simply unacceptable," said Gillerman. "Such parity, which is often in the name of an ill-conceived balance, undermines the strength and credibility of moderate states to bolster one another and isolate the extremists."
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon opened the meeting, urging Israelis, Palestinians and the international community to increase efforts to reach a peace settlement this year. "It is my hope that we can achieve this ambitious goal," Ban said. "I believe all of us must ask ourselves, and the parties, two simple questions: If not this, what? If not now, when?"
"This (peace) process is too important to be allowed to lose momentum through inaction or indifference, or to be overwhelmed by violence," Ban said. "It is essential that it receives the support of the international community, including this council."
The Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour, attacked Israel for its "violent occupation," the continuation of "illegal settlement building" and human rights violations. Mansour said Israel continues to ignore international law and acts without "law, morality and humanity."
Gillerman called on other nations to demonstrate collective support for the negotiations toward a lasting peace for the region. "This is the mandate of the international community. This is its calling. This is its duty," he said. "This collective resolve must be shown first and foremost by this council."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
After his term in UN is over, Gillerman can get a job teaching calculus to dogs.
"If it becomes clear to Israel that Hamas is exploiting the relative calm to build up its strength, no one can expect us to sit in silence and not react," said National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer on a tour that he organized in Gush Etzion Tuesday.
Eliezer added that Hamas learned a lesson from the IDF's recent activity and that there is "no doubt that the relative calm is a direct result of recent [IDF] operations in the Gaza Strip. We have an interest in the quiet and in neither of the two sides taking any action. Even so, we are monitoring the amount of Kassams and the amount of arms that are being smuggled through the tunnels."
Ben-Eliezer toured the area with MK Uri Ariel (NU/NRP), Gush Etzion Council head, Shaul Goldstein and Kiriyat Arba Council head Zvi Ktzubar. They toured the region in order to highlight the fact that it is located "in the heart of the Israeli consensus." According to Ben-Eliezer, "there are a few places in the country where there is a widening consensus between the Left and the Right. There is no one who would divide Gush Etzion in any possible future government, and in every future agreement it will stay in Israel's hands."
Regarding the threats made by Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah Monday in a speech marking 40 days since the killing of terror chief Imad Mughniyeh, Ben-Eliezer said he recommends not getting over-excited. "We must stand guard with the full readiness of the army for any future confrontation and ensure that the anti-missile systems that can stop the rockets Hizbullah is manufacturing are purchased or developed."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2008 00:00 ||
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Egyptian state media says 126 Palestinians who were wounded in recent fighting between IDF troops and Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip were flown to Turkey for treatment. The Middle East News Agency said the Palestinians were flown by a chartered Turkish plane after spending weeks in Egyptian hospitals. Tuesday's flight included some patients who have had their legs or arms amputated and expect to receive treatment in Turkey. Egypt opened its only crossing with Gaza last month to receive scores of wounded Palestinians after Israel's Operation Hot Winter against terrorists firing rockets from the territory.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2008 00:00 ||
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The European Commission has begun providing the Palestinians with 300 million in promised aid for public infrastructure, economic programs and refugees. The money was pledged at the Paris aid conference last December, where total pledges for budgetary support, development projects and humanitarian assistance to the Palestinians reached 5 billion. EU External Relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner said Tuesday that the European aid proves the 27-nation bloc's commitment to supporting the Palestinian Authority "in its quest for improving the lives of Palestinian people towards a peace agreement with Israel."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#4
Thank you so much to our European friends. I will light a candle for you at Arafat's tomb. He would be proud.
Just a reminder. Those account numbers are Arab Bank of Jordan, 111444/713 and 21250/510.
Once again, "the people" thank you for your most generous aid. Well, at least I do...
Posted by: Ahmed Qurei ||
03/26/2008 14:02 Comments ||
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#5
"The Wages of Terror."
It's the only damn "wages" those lazy murderous assh*les will ever earn, Bulldog. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/26/2008 14:07 Comments ||
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(KUNA) -- Israel plans to allow 600 Palestinian officers to enter the West Bank town of Jenin, Israeli media is reporting Tuesday. "The defense minister (Ehud Barak) will notify Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad of Israel's decision during their meeting Wednesday," said Yedioth Ahronot on its web page today. "The IDF will maintain military control of Jenin, while the Palestinian Authority officers will be in charge of enforcing law and order in town," the paper added, quoting Ehud Barak.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
Pals say they dont need em in Jenin, which is quiet, they need em elsewhere. Methinks Barak wants em in Jenin PRECISELY cause its quiet - if theyre sent to Nablus, the PA will push for no more IDF raids in Nablus, and Barak isnt ready for that till Nablus has been more completely cleaned out.
Middle East envoy Tony Blair says the international community must rethink its strategy toward the Gaza area ruled by the anti-Israel Hamas organization. Blair says action must be taken to get more goods and food into Gaza to ease the humanitarian crisis there, and says "the present strategy in Gaza is not working." He calls for a new strategy that "isolates the extremists and helps the people." Blair was speaking before a European Parliament panel on Tuesday. Both the United States and the EU consider Hamas a terrorist group.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
if anyone can come up with a way of getting food to the people that still isolates Hamas, Im game.
#3
voting for Hamas isnt being Hamas - at least some of those voters just found fatah corrupt - and some in gaza voted for Fatah or others - and some were too young too vote. I want to isolate hamas the organization (including all its wings) - feeding everyone else would not only be right, but would be good strategy - since the suffering in Gaza (including the exaggerated picture of such in the arab media) undermines Fayed/abbas in the West bank.
Im just not sure how you do it, short of landing EU troops (say) to deliver aid.
Riiiight. And voting for Hitler didn't make one a Nazi. But it did mean all the German people had to yell uncle before the war was over. The Palestinians need to yell uncle and I, frankly, don't care what it takes to make that happen.
After reading your post I can only think that "Man is the only animal who stumbles twice on the same stone"
Sixty years of pouring money on the Palestinians have ever, never produced any other result than more terrorism. And there is a strong correlation (in the mathematical sense) between the amount of money poured on the Palestinians and the number of terrorist attacks.
So by mere logic the solution is to completely cut
any aid to the Palestinians. Completely like zero dollars. It would be still better if we asked them for refunding what we have given them since 1948. You see, this would force them to earn their lives at the sweat of their brows and they would no longer have time for terrorism. THis would force them to teach marketable skills to their youngsters instead of instilling on five year olds a genocidal hate who would make SS training look moderate. Also they would be less enthousiast for terrorism once they have to pay it from their own pockets and once they know that they not us would have to pay for property destroyed by Israel's retaliatory attacks.
After that we could use the money on more deserving people like the Black Sudanese or the
Cypriots who were expulsed by the Turks and got
zero aid from UN and the western powers.
#7
Let the Saudis take care of them. Less money left for al Qaeda and Wahabi mosques in the west.
Posted by: ed ||
03/26/2008 12:30 Comments ||
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#8
"And voting for Hitler didn't make one a Nazi."
Yes, I agree.
"But it did mean all the German people had to yell uncle before the war was over. "
The political situation is far different. Germany was a state, that had to surrender, and agree to loss certain lands they held before 1939. (they also were divided, but WE in the US never said THAT was desirable)
The Pals need to accept Israel, accept the loss of any claim on anything held by Israel before 1967, and also accept modifications to the green line for the sake of Israels security. But to do that, they actually have to have a state (which, it is usually argued, is a concession TO them -but then that is to remind us that as stupid as Pal strategy has been, always missing opportunities, they DONT have a state) Thats the basis for Israels negotiations with the PA. I consider it "crying uncle" sufficient to meet Israels needs. Anything more is both unnecessary, and not feasible.
And it should be recalled, the USA itself in 1945 had several times the population of Germany, as well as UK and Commonwealth, France, and USSR joining the occupation. Most of the rest of the world supported it, and hardly anyone, not even germanys former allies, opposed it. Israel must do any occupation alone, with an unsympathetic world, and with states in the region that are either are already close to war, or will become so if Israel goes much further in making the Pals cry uncle. Even if you beleive the Pals are equivalent to Nazis (I lost a great-grandparent to the Nazis, and my wife 3 grandparents, and I DONT like that analogy) Israel simply does not have the strategic options that faced the US in 1945.
#13
that would mean allowing Pal exports from Gaza.
They have a common frontier with Egypt isn't it? About Palestinian exports; first they burn the greenhouses (given by the Jooooooos), second: they
allege they can't export anything and ask for our money. How sweeet!
BTW, look at some photos from Palestinian childs and then look at some from Darfur. Tell me which ones ae underwight.
#15
I have no sympathy, either for murderous paleos hiding behind a supportive population that has done nothing, NOTHING, NOT ONE THING, to protest ANYTHING that that regime has done, or for moralistic self-masturbators who fancy themselves masters of moral law so as to grant indulgences to the undeserving.
There is no token resistance. No graffitti, no quiet protests, no "interviews granted with voice alteration and the face in the shadows for fear of retaliation". WHO benefits if the Israelis capitulate? Do not the Paleos COUNT on those whose sole power is the pretense of absolving the guilty of responsibility> Would they not BENEFIT? With "WORTHY" supporters like Blair and his LIBERAL cohorts, why NOT hold out in COURAGEOUS SOLIDARITY?
Blather in righteous indignation if you want: someone who worries more about hungry paleos than dying Israelis has A F*CKED up moral compass.
#16
isn't "self-masturbators" redundant? Or do I have another dependent on my tax return I can declare...gonna file this weekend, please respond ASAP, Ptah
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2008 20:48 Comments ||
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#17
I apologize for offending you, lh. At the risk of offending someone else you can make the analogy one of voting for secession didn't make one a slave holder, but the entire South had to scream before slavery ended. The Pals need to have a Sherman go to the sea and make them scream. It won't stop til that happens or Israel ceases to exist.
As to the Paleos not having a state, it is due only to their own laziness, stupidity, and incompetence. No one is stopping them from forming a state and if they did, Israel would have someone to make peace with. But instead they prefer to be terrorists who prey on children. They should be made to scream.
#18
Yes, it is redundant, and no, there's only one: When a liberal wants to have a discussion, he'll talk to "me, myself, and I",and fancy he has a quorum.
#19
crap...so no write-off? LOL - just playing Ptah....
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/26/2008 22:04 Comments ||
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#20
Poor Frank. The things he has to worry about!
The Palestinians don't need a formal state in order to sue for peace, nor to negotiate regularizing their situation with Israe, who has been negotiating with Abbas for years, and Arafat before him. They've got everything in place, and have been treated as a real (Abbas/Fatah)and shadow (whatsisname/Hamas) government for years now.
Those Palestinians who want work to support their families have been emigrating since 1948, or sending off their children. Those remaining either support their war on Israel, or are trying to leave. *shrug* I've given up on the belief that anything less than clearing the Territories is going to end the terrorism.
The Yemeni-brokered agreement signed between Fatah and Hamas Sunday did not receive the approval of the Palestinian Authority leadership in Ramallah, PA officials said Monday. The officials accused Fatah representative Azzam al-Ahmed of signing the agreement without consulting with PA President Mahmoud Abbas and his aides.
However, Ahmed insisted that he did consult with the PA leadership before signing the agreement. He accused unnamed PA and Fatah leaders of seeking to "sabotage" the agreement.
The agreement, called the San'a Declaration, calls for launching dialogue between Hamas and Fatah to restore the status quo that existed in the Gaza Strip before Hamas took full control over the area in June 2007. It also calls for holding early elections and forming a Hamas-Fatah "unity government."
The agreement drew sharp criticism from many PA and Fatah leaders who remain strongly opposed to any form of negotiations with Hamas until the Islamic movement cedes control over the Gaza Strip. "President Abbas came under heavy pressure from most of his aides to reject the agreement," one official said. "The Americans and Israelis also rushed to issue threats against us."
Chief PA negotiator Ahmed Qurei said the Fatah representative had acted on his own when he signed the agreement with Hamas. He said Ahmed phoned Abbas's office for instructions, but the PA president was unable to talk to him because he was meeting with US Vice President Dick Cheney. "He tried to call the president's office several times to seek permission for signing the agreement, but everyone was busy with Cheney's visit," he said. "In the end he decided to sign the agreement on his own responsibility."
Nimer Hammad, political adviser to Abbas, lashed out at Ahmed for signing the agreement without receiving a green light from Abbas. He said the PA leadership was surprised to hear about the agreement that was signed under the auspices of Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top PLO official closely associated with Abbas, said the Hamas-Fatah agreement was 'stillborn." "We don't want dialogue for the sake of dialogue," he said. "This will only result in more confusion and consolidate the Hamas coup in the Gaza Strip. We will end up evolving in a vicious cycle."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2008 00:00 ||
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The mysterious death of an imam in Thai army custody last week has highlighted the plight of Muslim rebel suspects who say they have been tortured while detained for interrogation, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday. Torture included ear-slapping, beating with wooden and metal clubs, forced nudity, exposure to cold, electric shocks, strangulation and suffocation with plastic bags, the rights body quoted freed detainees as saying in a statement. Yet no one gets their head hacked off.
"Muslims in southern Thailand live in fear of the army storming in to take their men away to be tortured," Brad Adams, Asia director at the New York-based agency, said in the statement. "The army is fighting an insurgency, but that doesn't mean soldiers can abuse people. And prosecuting troops for mistreatment could actually help calm the situation and rebuild trust with the Muslim community," Adams said. Muslims need to build trust with the Buddhists they've been slaughtering, not the other way around.
But Army spokesman Colonel Acra Tiproch said only "a small faction" of Muslim detainees had been abused and then only because they "provoked" interrogators as a ploy to demonize the Buddhist state and its troops. "Some of these suspects are well-educated and they know well how to make junior interrogators lose their patience and start beating them," he said by telephone from the Malay-speaking zone, a former sultanate annexed by Bangkok a century ago. And the land has been well-served by the benign rule of a wise king.
Nearly 3,000 people have been killed in four years of a separatist insurgency in the region, which has seen fewer attacks in the past four months. A university think-tank cataloguing the unrest attributed the decline to the deployment of more troops by new army chief Anupong Paochinda, who took office in October, and almost daily raids on suspected targets. This is a good thing.
An emergency law allows the army to hold suspects for 37 days without safeguards against abuses, which makes them "extremely vulnerable to torture, disappearance and extrajudicial killing", Human Rights Watch said. It said detainees were at the greatest risk of torture in the first 72 hours, when they are not allowed to see relatives or lawyers. But Acra said the most critical time to get forensic evidence, such as bomb stains or DNA samples, from suspects was right after they were detained. Blah, blah, blah...
Human Rights Watch said the apparent murder of Yapa Koseng -- a 56-year-old Muslim religious leader arrested last week along with five others, including a son -- highlighted the ill-treatment of Muslims in army custody. Yapa died two days after he was detained and his body was covered with bruises and burn marks, and his ribs were fractured, Human Rights Watch quoted relatives as saying. Acra said preliminary investigation found Yapa, wanted for alleged involvement in bomb attacks, was beaten up by soldiers whose friends were killed in one of the attacks. Some folks would call that "justice".
At least four soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel, had been transferred out of the region and were facing investigation, he said. "We will ensure justice is served in this case," Acra said.
The Moro National Liberation Front and the Abu Sayyaf group in Sulu appeared to have been joining forces to force the government into freeing MNLF chairman Nur Misuari, sources said yesterday.
Misuari, former governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, is under house arrest in New Manila, Quezon City. He has been detained since 2002 in connection with rebellion charges filed against him and 11 of his followers.
Sources in Camp Crame said that about 600 MNLF and Abu Sayyaf members had a meeting on March 18 at Barangay Tiis, Talipao, Sulu and discussed the release of Misuari.
The meeting was attended by MNLF commanders Khaid Ajibon, chairman of the Lupah Sug Revolutionary Committee; Ustadz Khabir Malik, Tahil Sali, Ustadz Mahmor Gardan, Nidzmi Jabbar and Hadji Idjan Adam. ASG commanders Raddulan Sahiron, Albader Parad, Angah Adja, Sihata Latip and Sahid Susukan also attended the meeting.
Police said the two secessionist groups brought with them 12 units of 60 millimeter and 81 MM mortars, two 90 and two 57 anti-tank/personnel recoilless rifles.
MNLF commander Khaid Ajibon presided over the meeting in observance of the Bangsa Moro Day on March 18. Report from Sulu police office said that the MNLF and ASG had threatened to attack several targets in Sulu towns, particularly Patikul, Panamao, Maimbung and Talipao.
ARMM police chief Joel Goltiao expressed disbelief that the MNLF plan would be joining the attack. It would be inconsistent with its intent to pursue implementation of the ceasefire agreement with the government and the continuance of the peace process, Goltiao said.
He said that the regional police did not receive any report that the two groups jointly demanded Misuaris release. But Goltiao ordered police chiefs in ARMM to beef up their defenses and to take active security measures to thwart any attack.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2008 00:00 ||
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A 49-year-old Singaporean bus driver who lied about spotting an escaped terror suspect has been sentenced to 21 months in jail for giving false information to police, court officials said Tuesday.
A district judge said she had given Ng Hang Hai a stiff sentence to deter others from misleading police hunting for Mas Selamat Kastari, the alleged leader of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militant group in Singapore.
Despite a massive police manhunt, the 47-year-old Kastari remains at large nearly a month after his escape from a detention centre.
Ng had told police he saw a man resembling Kastari boarding his bus about four hours after the suspect escaped from detention on February 27, court documents showed.
He claimed the man was wearing blue jeans and slippers, bleeding from his left leg, walking with a limp and spoke Malay with an Indonesian accent. He told police the man had scratch marks on his forearms.
Ng pleaded guilty to two charges of giving false information to the police, saying he had lied in the hopes of receiving a monetary reward.
District Judge Hoo Sheau Peng said it was "fitting to send a clear message that reprehensible and malicious conduct such as that of the accused will not be tolerated."
Hoo said however the sentence should not deter others with useful information about Kastari to report to the police.
Kastari was accused of plotting to hijack a plane and crash it into Singapore's Changi Airport in 2001 but was never charged. He was being held under an internal security law which allows for detention without trial.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
No mention that these homes were bombed because Hezbolla planted bunkers and missile firing sites in their homes and fields. Note that the reconstruction moneys seem to disappear even more quickly than those in Iraq. Funny how that happens.
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.
Canadian troops and their allies have been drawn into an ancient tribal feud that simmers beneath the conflict in southern Afghanistan. In a sample of ordinary insurgents, 42 fighters in Kandahar province were asked by The Globe and Mail to identify their own tribe, and the results point to a divide within the Taliban ranks: Only five named themselves as members of the three major tribes most closely associated with the government, suggesting that tribal animosity has become a factor that drives the recruitment of insurgents.
Hillary Rodham Clinton's lies about risking her life under sniper fire during a visit to Bosnia as first lady have infuriated the US military brass and troops. 
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the chief of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), on Tuesday demanded the government end the ongoing military operation in the Tribal Areas and Balochistan. I demand that the military operation be immediately stopped and all political prisoners be freed, he said while speaking in the National Assembly to felicitate newly elected Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani. Fazl welcomed Gillanis announcement to release all sacked judges, saying political prisoners should also be set free at the earliest. He announced to fully support the resolution that is to be moved by the PPP to declare the hanging of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto a judicial murder. He said Zulfikar was the architect of the Constitution of 1973. The JUI-F chief said political parties would have to end the sense of deprivation among the provinces.
The massive operation by the Iraqi army in Basra could be a defining battle against Shi'ite militias. Reports from the southern city the hub of Iraq's oil industry and gateway to its main ports say fierce fighting has broken out between government forces and militias. Eyewitnesses have told TIME of several smoke plumes rising out of the city's northern districts, and the sound of explosions and gunfire. Iraqi TV channels have shown images of helicopters flying over the city, and troops sweeping through some streets. At least 22 people were killed, and 58 wounded, in the fighting. 
Vice President Dick Cheney, concluding two days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, said Monday that Hamas militants and their backers in Iran and Syria are playing the role of spoiler in Mideast peace talks. "It is clearly a difficult situation, in part, because I think it's true, there's evidence, that Hamas is supported by Iran and Syria and that they're doing everything they can to torpedo the peace process," Cheney told reporters before heading to Turkey, the final stop on his 10-day trip to the Mideast.
A 49-year-old Singaporean bus driver who lied about spotting an escaped terror suspect has been sentenced to 21 months in jail for giving false information to police, court officials said Tuesday.
