LIBYA has released 90 al Qaeda-linked Islamic rebels from prison after talks between their movement and a charity run by the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, the charity said on Tuesday.
The rebels were members of the Fighting Islamic Group in Libya (FIGL) and represent one third of the group's members still held in Libyan jails, said the Gaddafi International Foundation chaired by Saif al-Islam. It gave no details of the terms of their release.
The foundation first announced the talks on Feb. 25, saying authorities were preparing to free one third of the group members still behind bars.
The FIGL announced its presence in 1995, vowing to overthrow Gaddafi and launching a violent campaign in the OPEC oil exporting country. In November 2007, al Qaeda's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri said the group had joined the militant organisation.
The 90 group members freed on Tuesday were held in Tripoli's main prison of Abu Salim, the scene of riots in October 2006 in which one prisoner died and 17 were injured in clashes with guards and police. FIGL members were among the rioters, who Libyan authorities described as "heretics", the official term they use to describe radical Islamists.
At the time, more than 100 FIGL members were serving long jail terms at the prison, including life. In January this year, Abu Laith al-Libi, a leading Fighting Group member and al Qaeda field commander, was killed in a suspected U.S. missile strike in Pakistan.
For three months, Egyptian police have embarked on periodic sweeps of downtown Cairo streets to clear them of presumed homosexuals. They're part of an effort by governments throughout the Middle East to out-moralize Islamic parties that have denounced the perceived depravity of Arab societies under autocratic rule. ``Meaningless crackdowns have become a regular thing,'' Hani Shukrallah, executive director of the Heikal Foundation for Arab Journalism says. ``If not gays, devil worshippers. If not devil worshippers, apostates. The government needs to outbid Islamic opponents as guardian of morals.'' Maybe someday they'll round up the Islamists. Everyone knows where those people hang out.
BERLIN - Germany on Monday denied reports that its federal police and soldiers had covertly trained Libyan security forces, except in one case where a sergeant has been suspended and placed under investigation. As far as we know, no federal government official and no soldier in active service took part in the planning or implementation of training programmes in Libya, government spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said.
"We know nothing! Nothing!"
The denial came as political parties across the spectrum stepped up pressure on the government to come clear on its role in the alleged training of 120 Libyan troops between December 2005 and June 2006.
Wilhelm conceded that a private Germany security firm may have trained members of an elite corps assigned to Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi. But he stressed that Berlin has never authorised any initiative to provide security training to Libyans, denying press reports implicating former chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in the scandal.
There's the big fish.
The affair has caused an outcry, partly because of suggestions of shady dealings between Berlin and Tripoli as early as 2003 when Libya was still considered a pariah nation by the West. The government must place all its cards on the table, said Wolfgang Bosbach, the deputy parliamentary leader of Chancellor Angela Merkels Christian Democrats.
Schroeder and Kadhafi discussed the matter first during a secret meeting in Cairo in 2003 and again at an official summit the following year.
Authorities in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia confirmed Friday that eight members of the regional Special Operations Squad (SEK) elite unit have been under investigation for involvement in the illicit training scheme. Since then, the matter has seen a flurry of media revelations, followed rapidly by official denials. Press reports said that members of the German police began moonlighting as highly-paid instructors for the Libyan forces, with the knowledge of the German embassy in Tripoli, following a request from Kadhafi.
Bild am Sonntag said Schroeder and Kadhafi discussed the matter first during a secret meeting in Cairo in 2003 and again at an official summit the following year. The paper said training Libyan forces was a way to repay Tripoli for its help in securing the release of three Germans who were among 21 western tourists kidnapped by extremists on the Philippine island of Jolo in 2000.
Schroeder, the foreign ministry and the foreign intelligence service, the BND, have denied the reports. The former chancellor, who was in from office 1998 to 2005, threatened to sue newspapers for printing lies. Schroeder denied meeting with Kadhafi in secret or speaking to him about training Libyan forces, saying he certainly has no recollection of giving such undertakings.
The regional interior ministry in North Rhine-Westphalia has said that the eight suspected SEK members had been relieved of their duties. It said a master sergeant in the German army and a former SEK officer, who was suspected of organising the training of Libyan forces between 2005 and 2007, were also under investigation. The sergeant was suspended in April 2006 when it became known that he was trying to recruit fellow soldiers to train Libyans, a spokesman for the defence ministry said.
Press reports have said some 30 Germans were involved and that they were paid up to 15,000 euros (23,500 dollars).
According to Der Spiegel magazine, the German private security company BDB Protection Gmbh earned 1.6 million euros training Libyan forces.
The left-leaning daily Die Tageszeitung said Monday the affair proved that Germany had two foreign policies, one official and one covert. This shows again that in Germany it remains possible to have a private, parallel foreign policy that escapes any form of official control.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
I thought Americans trained Libyan security forces back in the 70s or something like that. That's how Ghadaffi survived as long as he did when Reagan came after him.
(AKI) - Egypt's Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, has threatened to boycott Tuesday's local elections to protest against a crackdown on its members, many of them election candidates.
The election is the first to take place under the constitutional amendments passed in Egypt in March 2007. The brotherhood, considered the world's largest Islamist group, has claimed only 20 candidates will be allowed to run for 52,000 seats in cities, towns, and villages in elections across the country. But Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party is understood to be fielding candidates in every one of the available seats.
The brotherhood, considered the most powerful opposition group in Egypt, has been banned in Egypt since 1954 but its members have won parliamentary seats as independents in recent elections. The government postponed local elections for two years in 2006, when the brotherhood unexpectedly won 88 seats in the 454-member parliament the previous year. Since February 2008, the Egyptian government has arrested more than 800 of the group's members, many of them election candidates.
On Sunday Egyptian textile workers clashed with police after security forces intervened to stop a strike by taking control of a major Nile Delta textiles plant. Workers threw stones and set fire to shops as police fired tear gas to disperse protesters. Elsewhere in Egypt, protests against economic conditions have largely failed in the face of a heavy police presence.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
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Interior Minister Prince Naif said yesterday that human rights are protected in the Kingdom thanks to the implementation of Shariah. "Different executive and supervisory government agencies implement regulations that take care of the rights of the accused at the time of arrest, investigation, trial and execution of punishment," the Saudi Press Agency quoted the minister saying.
Prince Naif made this statement while receiving the president and members of the National Society for Human Rights at his office in Riyadh. During the meeting the two sides discussed issues relating to Saudi society.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#5
Who is this shariah person and why is it people keep dying. When those little girls cooked inside the school they must have been protecting the rights of the men to not be aroused by the seductive littles.
Naif - another fat arab telling others how to die.
A poll shows that 34 percent of first-year army cadets called the United States the main enemy of South Korea, a former superintendent of the Korea Military Academy (KMA) said. Kim Choong-bae, president of the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, disclosed a past survey of 250 KMA entrants to single out "the country's main enemy'' while serving as the military academy's superintendent in 2004.
Kim was quoted by a newspaper as saying, "While the majority ¯ or 34 percent ¯ picked the U.S., 33 percent said they regarded North Korea as the main enemy.'' He said the result was unbelievable, stressing the respondents were those who were supposed to be military officers. The KMA did not make the result public during the Roh Moo-hyun administration, which ended last February.
Kim hinted that he had been forced not to notify the public of the result, expressing uneasiness about contents of some high and middle schools textbooks.
Citing his meeting with the 250 cadet freshmen, the military expert argued that the hostile sentiment against the "ally" is due to "inappropriate'' education in schools.
We know what he means ...
In addition, according to a survey of a group of conscripted soldiers conducted by the Ministry of Defense, about 75 percent of them said they have anti-U.S. sentiment. Various polls on college students or elementary school students have shown that major enemies of South Korea include North Korea, Japan and the U.S.
Meanwhile, North Korea had been found to label the U.S. and Japan as its main enemies. There has been no document or official commentaries from Pyongyang which describe South Korea as the main enemy of the North. North Korea had reportedly defined the U.S. a "mortal enemy'' and Japan a "longstanding enemy,'' some military officials said.
#2
No problem. Just relocate our troops to somewhere else, like Okinawa, or Iraq or Afghanistan.
Let the South Koreans eat grass, just like their North Korean "friends".
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
04/08/2008 13:24 Comments ||
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#3
The devil is in the details. For example, if you asked US Democrats which nation is the main source of evil in the world, would you even be surprised if 34% said the US?
Remember that their military is conscript, but our is volunteer. This is why over 90% of our military self-identify as Republicans.
#7
I'm still for completely pulling out of the South. They can take care of themselves and at most they would need only some air support from us if the North invaded. Let them go on their own.
#10
Was this poll conducted by the same Zogby group that claimed that (almost) 100% of US troops were voting Donk this year? Enquiring minds and all....
Posted by: BA ||
04/08/2008 14:41 Comments ||
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#11
Wouldn't they miss the money our troops spend over there? Isn't that the main reason we're still in Germany?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/08/2008 14:42 Comments ||
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#13
Wouldn't they miss the money our troops spend over there? Isn't that the main reason we're still in Germany?
Abu Uluque, that was true when Mr. Wife moved us to Germany in 1991, and everyone complained about how wild the American soldiers got when they got drunk, and how they drove rent prices up beyond what ordinary Germans (meaning the speaker) could afford (meaning was willing) to pay. When we left for Brussels in 1995, almost all the bases had been shut down and evacuated; everyone complained that they couldn't afford the mortgage on that investment property given how low the rents had fallen, and all the good pubs were going out of business now that the American soldiers weren't there to buy drinks for the girls. (The rent on our house in Bad Soden am Taunus went down by 25% the day we moved out.) There really aren't all that many bases left over there.
#15
Unfortunately, as someone who agrees we should evacuate all our troops from Korea, it would create too inviting a target for the Chinese and that would have a detrimental impact on our relationship with the Japanese. So we'll stay as a trip wire, at least until Korea is reunited.
#16
South Koren schools and text books are at fault, these people are going on what they have been taught. The question is why they have been taught that?
I am all for getting the hell out anyway. We can't afford to keep borrowing money to fight the Korean war of the 1950s and the war on terror today. Our enemy isn't China or North Korea, it is Iran.
#18
As per REDDIT > JAPAN IS DYING [demographically]. Too many Senior Citizens + women proclaim to "hate sex" - may take decades to recover at the normal replacement rate, iff they ever do???
As for the SOKOR Kayyydets > remind me of ROBIN WILLIAMS' post 9-11 comedy skit, IIRC ON HOW FRANCE-EUROS ANGRILY HATE AMERICA UNTIL THE GERMAN ARMY STARTS CROSSING THE BORDER, WHEN HATE OF AMER SUDDENLY, WEIRDLY AND MYSTERIOUSLY TURNS INTO LOVE AND ADMIRATION.
#19
OTOH, and considering how closely IRAN + NOKOR have marched in-step vv Dubya-USA, its prob pragmatic to give NOKOR that same 3 to 3-1/2 Year subjective maxima timeline [r.o. 2012]to attempt to become a de facto SOVEREIGN NUCLEAR POWER ALA IRAN + OSAMA/RADICAL ISLAMISM. AGAIN HOWEVER, UNLIKE IRAN WHICH HAS THE WHOLE OF THE ME + CHAOTIC CENTRAL ASIA [now AFRICA?] REGIONS TO MILPOL MANIPULATE, NOKOR HAS MIL-SUPERIOR SOVEREIGN NATIONS = CHINA + US ALLIES ON ALL BORDERS/FLANKS. Also unlike IRAN, NET > Many PRC Maps depict NOKOR = even both KOREAS as "UNANNEXED/AUTONOMOUS" CHINESE TERRITORY(S) = PART OF CHINA. As things stand, unless is Commie Beijing is so willing the only way for NOKOR to be truly sovereign and independent is to first allow itself to be militarily blown into kimchi smithereenies by either China's PLA or the West [UN Command]. STARVE UNDER LOCAL COMMUNISM, OR DIE IN THE NAME OF NOKOR FREEDOM vv GREAT POWER [China/US-Allies] CONFRONTATION.
A Dutch court said a Dutch politician critical of Islam can compare the religion to fascism and its Prophet Mohammad to a "barbarian", as the politician is exercising his freedom of expression.
The Dutch Islamic Federation (NIF) had asked the court to ban Dutch member of parliament Geert Wilders from making such comparisons, accusing him of inciting hatred and violence against Muslims.
"The contested remarks are not seen as unlawful. The defendant's freedom of speech has been the decisive factor in this matter," the court said in a statement.
"The contested remarks are not seen as unlawful. The defendant's freedom of speech has been the decisive factor in this matter," the court said in a statement.
Wilders sparked outrage last month when he released a short video accusing the Koran of condoning violence, interspersing verses from the Muslim holy book with images of bombings. The film has sparked condemnation from Muslim nations, protests and calls for boycotts of Dutch products, but has not lead to the kind of violence that was directed against Denmark in 2006 after newspapers published cartoons of the Prophet.
The Dutch Islamic Federation had also wanted to get the court to ban the film but it had already been launched by the time its case was heard. The court said Wilders' remarks comparing Islam to fascism and the Prophet to a barbarian that he made last year did not incite hatred or violence, and said a parliamentarian should be able to express his views, even if they were extreme. "I have always believed that in the political debate it must be possible to point to the dangers of the ongoing Islamisation of the West and of the Netherlands," Wilders told ANP news agency. "I have never had the feeling that I have gone too far."
Wilders, whose right-wing Freedom Party (PVV) has nine out of 150 seats in Dutch parliament, launched a new version of his movie on the internet to address copyright issues. The new film replaces a Danish cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad with a bomb under his turban with another sketch of Mohammad carrying a bomb on his shoulder. The Danish cartoonist who drew the picture had threatened Wilders with legal action.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Kudos to the Court for upholding true rights.
Let the Islabastards seethe and make threats about a movie that shows that they seethe, make threats, AND CARRY THEM OUT.
#6
I do find it interesting that this film has elicited far less of a violent response than did the silly cartoons. Maybe it is because the powerful muzzies who ginned up the cartoon protests don't want people in the west to take too much interest in the film and actually watch it. Maybe they REALLY don't want their fellow muzzies to watch it. Might cause some uncomfortable questions at Friday prayers (which of course would lead to the killing of those asking the questions, and that's just messy...best to be avoided if possible).
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (CNN) -- A recently disclosed memo gave U.S. interrogators the ability to use harsh methods -- what many call "torture" -- to extract information from terrorist suspects after 9/11. Around the world, critics saw it as another blow to American prestige and moral authority.
The 2003 document also invokes wartime powers to protect interrogators who violate the Geneva Conventions, for example, by the use of waterboarding -- when a prisoner is made to think he is drowning.
Half a world away, the divisive debate over whether waterboarding constitutes torture comes into sharp relief at the infamous S-21, Tuol Sleng Prison in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
This is where the genocidal regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge imprisoned and brutalized its enemies from 1975 to 1979. I visited the once secret S-21, now a museum, with Van Nath, a former inmate. He remembers being brought here blindfolded and terrified:
"I thought that was the end of my life," he told me. "In my room people kept dying, one or two every day."
Van Nath was kept in a room packed with 50 other inmates, shackled together and forced to lie down.
"We could not sit. If we wanted to sit, we had to ask permission first. No talking, whispering or making noise," he told me.
Van Nath described how male prisoners were whipped raw, their fingernails were yanked out, they were hogtied to wooden bars. Prison guards mutilated women's genitals, ripped off their nipples with pliers. And worst of all, babies were ripped from their mothers' arms and slaughtered. Watch the former prisoner recount the brutality »
Van Nath was accused of being a CIA agent and given electric shock torture, but he survived when his jailers found out he was one of Cambodia's most prominent painters. And what did they make him paint?
"Pol Pot's picture. Big pictures," he told me. "I had to paint the same one again and again. If they didn't like my painting, that would have been the end of my life."
So when Pol Pot finally fell in 1979, Van Nath returned to paint what he had really seen and heard at S-21. He did it as a memorial to the 14,000 who had been tortured and executed in the prison. It's one of the few public reminders of the regime's crimes.
Take water torture, for instance. Van Nath remembers it as if it were yesterday. I gasped as I entered a room filled with his vivid depictions.
One of his paintings shows a prisoner blindfolded and hoisted onto a makeshift scaffold by two guards. He is then lowered head first into a massive barrel of water. Another shows a prisoner with cloth over his face, writhing as an interrogator pours water over his head.
Van Nath still remembers the accompanying screams: "It sounded like when we are really in pain, choking in water," he told me. "The sound was screaming, from the throat. I suppose they could not bear the torture.
"Whenever we heard the noises we were really shocked and scared. We thought one day they will do the same thing to us."
As he talked and showed me around, my mind raced to the debate in the United States over this same tactic used on its prisoners nearly 40 years later. I stared blankly at another of Van Nath's paintings. This time a prisoner is submerged in a life-size box full of water, handcuffed to the side so he cannot escape or raise his head to breathe. His interrogators, arrayed around him, are demanding information.
I asked Van Nath whether he had heard this was once used on America's terrorist suspects. He nodded his head. "It's not right," he said.
But I pressed him: Is it torture? "Yes," he said quietly, "it is severe torture. We could try it and see how we would react if we are choking under water for just two minutes. It is very serious."
Back then, Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge cadres recognized this for what it was and used it with brutal efficiency. The Cambodian genocide ultimately killed 2 million people.
Fourteen thousand of them had passed through the gates of hell at Tuol Sleng Prison.
#2
Amanpour has made it her mission to personally destroy American troop spirit since the start. Shame and treason are two things liberals will never understand.
#3
Amanpour has made it her mission to personally destroy American troop spirit since the start. Shame and treason are two things liberals will never understand.
You may or may not be right but if these boys were real men and honestly saw anything they would sign affidavits just to get dragged into court and testify.
The problem with these liars as well as the first winter soldiers is thus. If they sign affidavits and are proven wrong (which is a given) they are guilty of perjury.
#1
Did anyone really believe that they would give anything close to a legal statement? I have read and watched (what is available) the Winter Whining II. Best I can say is that they are surprised that the U.S. Military fires REAL bullets and didn't mirandize the enemy before they killed them. On a side note some of these guys really need some professional counseling. They are not all "liars" but the most of the "testimony" they give sounds very much like a "normal" exchange of combat fire. No My Lai.
During February and March 2008, Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV aired reports on visitors from the U.S. and from Egypt who came to pay their respects at the grave of senior Hizbullah commander 'Imad Mughniya, who was assassinated in February 2008.
One visitor from the U.S. was Franklin Lamb, author, activist, and director of Americans for the Just Peace in the Middle East and who writes on websites including Counterpunch. [1] Lamb, who was described by the Al-Manar TV reporter as "persiste[nt] in his support for the just cause of the Lebanese people's resistance," has demanded that the Bush administration "prove" that Hizbullah is a terrorist organization. [2]
In the Al-Manar segment that aired March 25, 2008, Lamb expressed his support for Hizbullah and said he was "honored to be in this venerable place," and responded to criticism of his visit by U.S. Charge d'Affaires Michele J. Sison by saying that she herself should come to pay her respects.
In another segment, aired February 28, 2008, Egyptian Labor Party Secretary-General Magdi Ahmad Hussein spoke with Mughinya's father,
Franklin Lamb Visit - Aired March 25, 2008
Reporter: "Franklin Lamb, director of Americans for a Just Peace in the Middle East, has chosen the 40th day of the martyrdom of the commander Hajj 'Imad Mughniya to visit his pure tomb and place a flower wreath on it. He then strolled around the garden, asking about each martyr, including the martyr Hadi Nasrallah and his comrades. Then he responded to U.S. charge d'affaires Michele Sison, who had expressed her disgust at Lamb's offer of condolences for Mughniya's martyrdom."
Franklin Lamb (in English): "I don't know her. I heard something about her complaint that I respect the Resistance. I'm honored to be here. I believe that many Americans share my belief that the Lebanese Resistance is our Resistance too. Nobody should ask why I am here. The American ambassador should be asked why she isn't here to offer her apology and her respect to all Lebanese, because 85% of the Israeli weapons come [from the U.S.], in order to be used against the Lebanese Resistance and the Lebanese people. I am honored to be in this venerable place, which contains the bodies of the Resistance fighters. I believe that American public opinion has recently become familiar with the Resistance and its background."
Reporter: "It is well known that Franklin Lamb's wife was killed in the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in the early 1980s, when she happened to be at the embassy as part of her work in support of human rights in Lebanon. Despite this, he maintained his views and persisted in his support for the just cause of the Lebanese people's Resistance. Moreover, he considers his wife to be one of the martyrs of the Resistance." [...]
Egyptian Party Sec-Gen Visit - Aired February 28, 2008
Reporter: "Since this is a visit of the prince of the convoy of martyrs, the garden is still teeming with visitors, who have been arriving day and night, from all persuasions and from all areas - old and young arrive in order to recite the Fatiha verse over the tomb of the martyr. Since Hajj 'Imad's martyrdom transcends the borders of the homeland, the garden has received visitors from Arab countries. At the invitation of the Institute for International Studies, Egyptian Labor Party Secretary-General Magdi Ahmad Hussein came from Egypt to congratulate the father [of Mughniya] on his sons' martyrdom, and stressed that the martyrs are the models for this nation. The Egyptian delegation and the martyr's father held the following conversation":
Faiz, 'Imad Mughniyas father: "All three sons are gone, Allah be praised. If I had more sons, I would sacrifice them too. I am willing to sacrifice more. I'm even willing to sacrifice myself. In any form of Jihad, I am willing to sacrifice myself."
Magdi Ahmad Hussein: "He will plead on your behalf in Paradise."
Faiz Mughniya: "Allah be praised."
Magdi Ahmad Hussein: "You will go to Paradise and meet him there. They will plead on your behalf. The nation owes these sons a great deal. In their graves, they have a greater influence than they had in their lives. They give us inspiration. For every child who comes here - this is a school. He learns from this martyr."
#3
Could we *please* arrest this treasonous fuck the next time he tries to set foot in the US? I know it's not PC, and it's not what we do in these degenerate times, but could somebody remember that sedition in a time of war is a goddamn crime?
Or at least, it used to be.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/08/2008 11:26 Comments ||
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#4
why is he called an American activist? Shouldn't he be called a Hizbullah activist?
#5
Mitch - he doesn't need arresting - he's arrested enough. His moral development is VERY arrested, and his sense of patriotism is so arrested it hardly exists at all. Best thing that could happen is that he'd greet a Louisville Slugger with his nose, swung by an ex-lumberjack.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/08/2008 23:26 Comments ||
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Posted by: Bobby ||
04/08/2008 06:18 ||
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#1
The Slimes doesn't really know how to spin this. They don't understand the concept of patriotism or self sacrafice, so they just poke at it like its' some weird thing in a science lab jar.
#2
(To protect Lance Corporal McCain in case he is again deployed to a war zone, The New York Times is not publishing recent photographs of him and has withheld some details of his service).
oh please. The NYT is just so predictable. They publish a story that "The McCains declined to be interviewed for this article, which the campaign requested not be published." and then act as if they are being altruistic about not giving the American public his pictures - as if the Iranians could not locate them if the NYT didn't provide them to them already.
. . . The Democrats on the committee took shots at the the-surge-is-working narrative, but with their 10-minute-long bursts of disjointed questions they were not able to redefine the debate. . . . Free of fireworksexcept for a few outbursts from protesters in the audiencethe hearing was no game changer. Senator Hillary Clinton criticized the Bush administration's "same failed policies" in Iraq. But she did not forcefully challenge Petraeus and Crocker. In a low-key manner, she nudged Petraeus to state under what conditions he would "recommend to the president that the current strategy is not working." The general sidestepped the question. Clinton did not pound him for that.
The committee Democrats missed an opportunity to confront vigorously the front men for Bush's war in Iraq. It was not as if they hoisted a white flag. They did cite facts and figures that undermine the overall thrust of Petraeus' and Crocker's presentations. They raised pointed criticisms. They griped about the costs of the war. But it did not add up to much of an assault on Bush's policies. Given that congressional opposition to the war has lost much steam in the past year, perhaps this was to be expected. After all, Democrats in Congress appear to have given up on passing any legislation that would alter U.S. policies in Iraq. They know the public agrees with them on the war. (Warner noted that up to 80 percent of Americans don't believe the war was worth it.) But the Democrats have been stymied by a president who refuses to pull back in Iraq.
With Petraeus and Crocker spending two high-profile days on Capitol Hill to appear before four committees, the Democrats have a chance to undercut the White House storywhich has gained traction within the media (if not within the public)that the surge has been a success. In the opening round, they did not do much to inconvenience Petraeus and Crocker. It was not an entirely triumphant appearance for the pair, but it was good enough for anyone who favors a continuation of the current course in Iraq, and that includes their boss in the White House.
Mother Jones is a lefty propaganda rag, and David Corn is an old hippie who thinks Ted Kennedy is too conservative. I'd expect him to spin his report to say that his team won if there was any way possible to do it.
Corn says that his team lost.
I'd call that pretty good evidence that the surrender monkeys lost.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/08/2008 16:23 ||
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#1
The General didn't give them any handles to grab onto, did he.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2008 16:58 Comments ||
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#2
I'd expect him to spin his report to say that his team won if there was any way possible to do it.
No, because the current crop of Democrats are not "his team".
#5
The Donks don't want to face Petraeus in '12 or '16.
There is an old story about Ben Franklin who was the Royal Postmaster General for His Majesty's Government. The Privy Council called old Ben before them and gave him a rather nasty grilling and hammering and then the firing. Ben never forgot. One of his delights was working the Frenchies in 1777 to pay back those politicians. Careful who you abuse. Payback may be very distasteful and expensive in the future.
#7
If I'm still breathing in and out then, I'm looking forward to voting for Petraeus.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 21:10 Comments ||
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#8
No, because the current crop of Democrats are not "his team".
David CornHoleo would not pass up a chance to degraded and sabotage our Military unless Obama was CINC, John Conyers was J.C.S, NSA Director waz fat Teddy Kennedy, NRO way any commie rat bastarsd sleeper from the olde USSR!
The new coalition government will not negotiate with terrorists, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Monday.
In Muslim parlance, I think that means Israel and the U.S. Everybody else is freedumb fighters.
We will not negotiate with terrorists, but we will engage [them in dialogue] and we believe in political engagement, Qureshi told Dawn News television in an interview. He said the new government would adopt a multi-pronged strategy to combat terrorism, as military force alone was not the only solution. He said the PPP-led coalition government would engage the local population politically.
The Foreign minister said that it was a mistaken perception that Pakistan was fighting the US war on terror, adding that terrorism was affecting Pakistans people and economy. He said the new government would convince the people that the war on terror was in Pakistans best interest.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
LUCIANNE > SECRET US PLAN FOR MILITARY FUTURE IN IRAQ. Iraq = Germany-Japan in 1945 and US taint leaving.
ALso from LUCIANNE > WAPO > IRREGULAR WARFARE - BOTH FUTURE AND PRESENT. New USDOD-Army Doctrine of "3 D's" -Defense, Diplomacy, and Development.
#3
What civil war in South Africa, JosephM? The Zulus against another tribe? The Whites no longer have a monopoly on weaponry as they did in the days of apartheid.
#4
Possibly tribal in origin, tho it would more likely be a coalition of ANC hard-leftists, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), versus the current ANC establishment.
#5
Pappy - the most coherent evaluation I've seen show 14 "sides", each against at least three of the others, and no more than two able to work with each other. I don't see any way peace can continue in southern Africa - not just South Africa - more than a couple of more years. Zimbabwe is set to implode, the mess called the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) can't stop fighting, the Tutsis and Hutus still hate each other in Rwanda, a lot of the problems in Zimbabwe are spilling over into Zambia and South Africa, the Mozambique is a powderkeg waiting for a match, and the tensions in Angola are just under the surface. That crazy king in Lesotho hates the king of Swaziland, and both hate South Africa. There isn't any stability in the whole damned continent other than the stability of dead bodies.
To the Paks, everyone but a pakistani is a terrorist, especially the Indians. To the Indians, everyone west of the demarkation line is three bricks shy of a load. The US is beginning to understand how the Indians came to their current conclusion.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/08/2008 23:37 Comments ||
Top||
Detained nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan said on Sunday that he took the blame for passing atomic secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya four years ago to save his country. I saved the country for the first time when I made Pakistan a nuclear nation and saved it again when I confessed and took the whole blame on myself, Khan told AFP. Even Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Mushahid Hussain said I saved Pakistan by accepting the whole blame myself.
Members of the new government have indicated that they may consider freeing Khan, but Khan said he had had no contact with them. No government official has so far contacted me about my release nor I would contact any of them to do so, Khan said. You had better ask this question of the government.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
If what he's implying is true, Pakistan gave nuclear materials and info to rogue regimes. He may very well have saved Pakistan in that case.
Hamas-Iraq: Al-Qaeda in Iraq is Subservient to Iran; 'The U.S. is Our Main Enemy, But a More Dangerous Enemy is Iran'
In a March 26, 2008 interview with the Qatari daily Al-'Arab, the spokesman for the Iraqi Sunni jihad organization Hamas-Iraq, Ahmad Salah Al-Din, accused Al-Qaeda in Iraq of regarding most Iraqi resistance factions as its main enemy, of subservience to Iran, and of receiving from it weapons, funds, training, and medical care for its wounded. Salah Al-Din added that in the past year Al-Qaeda in Iraq had become considerably weaker and smaller.
The following are excerpts from the Al-'Arab article on the interview:
Al-Qaeda in Iraq Has Its Own Agenda, Which Transcends the Borders of Iraq
"Regarding the reasons for the confrontation with Al-Qaeda, Salah Al-Din stated: 'We do not regard Al-Qaeda [in Iraq] as a resistance organization, since it has its own agenda which transcends the borders of Iraq. This has been clear since Abu-Mus'ab Al-Zarqawi vowed allegiance to Osama bin Laden because after the occupation of Iraq, Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad,(1) which was under Al-Zarqawi's command, was close to all Iraqi resistance factions and even planned to join forces with Al-Jaish Al-Islami. However, after Al-Zarqawi's vow of allegiance to bin Laden was publicly announced, things changed considerably: Al-Qaeda began openly spreading its ideas, goals, and hatred, and accusing of heresy anybody who took part in the political process, including Sunni Arab parties.
"'Following Al-Zarqawi's assassination, Al-Qaeda intensified its aggression against Iraq's resistance factions, until they became its primary [targets]. A confrontation ensued between [Al-Qaeda] and most of the Iraqi resistance factions, including the Thawrat Al-'Ishrin brigades after Al-Qaeda had the audacity to murder Hareth Al-Dhari, the nephew of Sheikh Hareth Al-Dhari, secretary-general of the Council of Muslim Clerics in Iraq.'"
The Real Al-Qaeda Commander [in Iraq] is Abu Ayub Al-Masri
"Salah Al-Din accused Al-Qaeda of being subservient to Iran, [claiming] that they had [extensive] evidence to that effect. He said: 'We found Iranian [currency], toman, at an Al-Qaeda headquarters that we uncovered. We have also captured Iranian weapons, not to mention audio and video recordings containing announcements by Al-Qaeda fighters that they had received training in Iranian military camps and that Al-Qaeda wounded were being transported to Iran for medical treatment.'
"Salah Al-Din claimed that Al-Qaeda's real commander [in Iraq] was Abu Ayub Al-Masri, and that [Abu 'Omar] Al-Baghdadi(2) was an Iraqi figure to whom many [words and deeds] are attributed solely to create the impression that [Al-Qaeda is a genuinely] Iraqi organization. He said that [Abu Ayub] Al-Masri had been rescued from arrest by an Arab intelligence apparatus using a diplomatic vehicle belonging to the Iranian Embassy... Salah Al-Din explained that as of late, Al-Qaeda in Iraq had considerably diminished in size so much so that today it can be said to constitute 15 percent of what it was a year ago, [and that therefore, even] if Al-Qaeda has begun launching suicide operations, these [operations] are not proof of its strength...'"
Iran Wants to Eradicate Our Beliefs and to Change the Demography of the Sunni Regions, Particularly Baghdad
"[In conclusion,] Salah Al-Din stated, in the name of Hamas-Iraq: 'The U.S. is our main enemy, but a more dangerous enemy is Iran. The U.S. wants [our] oil, and possibly it wants to establish military bases [on our soil], or to remain [in Iraq] for many years to come while Iran wants to rule, [and] to eradicate and change [our] beliefs and ideas, [and] aspires to alter the demography of the Sunni regions, particularly Baghdad.'"(3)
Endnotes:
(1) Al-Tawhid Wal-Jihad was the name of Al-Qaeda in Iraq before it vowed allegiance to bin Laden.
(2) Al-Baghdadi is the "Emir of the Islamic State of Iraq."
(3) Al-'Arab (Qatar), March 26, 2008.
#2
Se also TOPIX > TRUDY RUBIN: IRAN CRUCIAL TO ANY IRAQ DEAL/NEGOTIATION, + IRAN EXPANDS UNRANIUM ENRICHMENT PROGRAM - INSTALLS 6000 NUCLEAR CENTRIFUGES; + US-IRAN WARMING, CHINA-IRAN COOLING.
Also from TOPIX > NEWSFRONT/LE MONDE - IRAN CONTINUES WEAPONS PROGRAM [NucWeapDev], after 2003 and despite pro-Iran US NIE Report as per FRENCH INTEL sources.
The official spokesman for al-Sadrs office on Monday denied that Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr had referred the dissolution of al-Mahdi army to Shiite clerics, describing reports in this regard as inaccurate.
He also denied that Sadr was in Teheran. Then he denied that Sadr had been wearing Depends the last two weeks.
Shiite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr did not think of dissolving al-Mahdi army, Sheikh Salah al-Ubeidi told Aswat al-Iraq Voices of Iraq (VOI), noting that we have no right to interfere in freezing or dissolving al-Mahdi army because it is an exclusive right of Muqtada al-Sadr.
Al-Ubeidi had said that any effort to prevent Sadrists from political participation would be unconstitutional.
Allowing the Sadrists to conduct their criminal enterprises is likely also unconstitutional ...
(as of 1145am EDT Apr 8) Aides to Muqtada al-Sadr say the anti-American Shiite cleric is calling off a mass rally in Baghdad Wednesday.
Iraqi security forces are blocking al-Sadr's followers from traveling to the capital from the southern Shiite heartland where he enjoys wide support.
Two aides in al-Sadr's office in the holy city of Najaf told The Associated Press that the rally had been canceled. They spoke on condition of anonymity pending an official announcement.
Al-Sadr had called for a "million-strong" protest to mark the fifth anniversary of the capture of Baghdad by U.S. troops.
#1
Reality finaly set in?
It would be a "Turkey Shoot".
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/08/2008 14:10 Comments ||
Top||
#2
he couldn't get anywhere near that many supporters. Just like the Million Mom March and Farrakhan's Million Bow-Tied-Racists March. They must be expecting ZimBob-like numbers inflation
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2008 19:06 Comments ||
Top||
#3
He called it off, but somehow I doubt reality has set in. :-)
Warning: Danger, Will Robinson, it's ABC News Reporting
Iraqi Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has threatened to lift a ceasefire of his Mehdi Army militia while indefinitely postponing a mass anti-US demonstration.
Despite the ceasefire which Sadr called last August, his followers have clashed with Iraqi government troops and US forces in the south of the country and Baghdad in recent weeks, leading to Iraq's worst violence since the first half of 2007.
"If it is required to lift the freeze (ceasefire) in order to carry out our goals, objectives, doctrines and religious principles and patriotism, we will do that later and in a separate statement," he said in a statement on his website.
He postponed indefinitely a "million-strong march" called for Wednesday to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, which had raised the prospect of unrest coinciding with testimony in Congress by the top US officials in Iraq.
"I call those beloved Iraqi people who wish to demonstrate against the occupation to postpone their march, out of my fear for them and my concern to spare their blood," Sadr said. "I fear that Iraqi hands will be lifted against you, although I would be honoured if the Americans were to lift their hands against you," he said.
Aides to Muqtada "Tater" al-Sadr called Monday for dialogue to resolve a violent standoff with the Iraqi government, saying that the radical Shiite cleric would disband his militia if senior religious leaders ordered it. That wouldn't be a promise I'd expect to see kept. Tater wants to be Nasrallah too much.
Aide Hassan al-Zarqani said from Iran that al-Sadr will consult Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani and other top Shiite clerics if the government continues to pressure him to disband the militia or see his candidates banned from upcoming elections.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki warned al-Sadr on Sunday to disband his militia or face a ban from politics. You have politix so you don't have shootouts. If you're intent on having shootouts, then why would you need politix?
Al-Zarqani said in a telephone interview that al-Sadr "will obey" if al-Sistani, the highest Shiite authority in Iraq, and the other clerics recommend that he do so. The Sadrists had said earlier that a move to ban them from elections would be unconstitutional. Al-Sadr aide Salah al-Obeidi said al-Maliki doesn't have the authority to make such a decision because the issue is up to Iraq's Electoral High Commission and parliament. "We are calling for dialogue as a way to solve problems among Iraqi groups," al-Obeidi told AP Television News in the holy city of Najaf. "Al-Sadr's office affirms that the door is open to reach an understanding regarding these problems."
This article starring:
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani
Hassan al-Zarqani
Mahdi Army
Muqtada al-Sadr
Mahdi Army
Nouri al-Maliki
Salah al-Obeidi
Mahdi Army
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Mahdi Army
#1
Is Sadr trying to sow division among the Shiites?
#2
To 'finish him off' would require a violation of Iranian Airspace and sovereignty. Western Think-Tanks aren't sure whose authority would be required for such a breech of International Law in the assassination, and the repercussions resulting there with, at the UN Security Council!!
Last September, U.S. Army General David Petraeus assured Congress that Iraqis would be able to end the bloody rivalry between Shiite groups in the oil-rich south by themselves. Late last month, the U.S. carried out air strikes to help struggling Iraqi troops fighting a Shiite militia for control of the southern city of Basra.
Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, likely will have to explain why his optimism proved misplaced when he returns to Congress this week to defend his call for a pause in withdrawing troops once soldiers sent for last year's ``surge'' of reinforcements are brought home.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph Biden said his panel will ask Petraeus tomorrow what the troop surge accomplished and what the U.S. will do next. That's ``not just a tactical question of U.S. force levels,'' Biden, a Delaware Democrat, told reporters on April 1. Congress wants to know what policy the U.S. will undertake to ``leave behind a self-sustaining government.''
Petraeus's testimony may raise the prominence of the Iraq War as a divisive presidential campaign issue. All three major candidates — Democratic Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and Republican Senator John McCain — plan to question the general at the hearings. The general also will also appear before the Senate and House armed services committees and the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[9 views]
Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
#1
Well, seeing how Tater's now crying uncle, all he has to do is cite the facts.
#4
WAFF.com Poster Thread > US PLANS INDEFINITE ROLE IN IRAQ.
ALso from WAFF > RUSSIAN MIL BASE FOUND/
DISCOVERED INSIDE ESTONIA BORDER.
OTOH, compare wid MOSCOWTIMES [paraph] > PUTIN HINTS AT RUSSIAN BREAKUP OF UKRAINE? + PUTIN TRIES NATO OFFENSIVE; + KOMMERSANT: RUSSIA'S ENLARGEMENT EASTWARD IS A DIRECT SECURTY THREAT.
FOX NEWS this AM > PUTIN > reportedly argued that Russ will do anything to STOP UKRAINE + GEORGIA, espec UKRAINE? [Russ breadbasket = food], FROM JOINING NATO. UKRAINE's + GEORGIA's NATO Bids reportedly to be RECONSDIERED FOR NATO ADMISSION IN DECEMBER 2008!?
Hamas official hints [April 8] at another Gaza border breach (AP)
A leading Hamas official says Gazans will storm into Egypt and Israel if they don't lift their embargo of the territory.
Khalil al-Haya says Palestinians in Gaza can no longer bear being confined to the strip and subjected to shortages of food, power and substandard health care[Hillary call your office on that health care thing]...
#5
If they do, I'll bet the shopkeepers won't sell them a damn thing this time, they're still recovering all the counterfeit cash from last time.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
04/08/2008 14:17 Comments ||
Top||
#6
The Israelis have some CIWS units. Just put these in front of the gate with a low-trajectory fire angle and I think the Paleo's will think twice about storming the gate.
#7
Is there ANY pol in Israel with the balls to resist such a tactic? If I'm reading Yoni Tidi (he's a good Israeli blogger, for those who don't know who he is) right, his answer is "NO!"
Hamas will set it up so that women and children are in the lead and will take the most casualties. Israel needs to tell the world loud and clear BEFOREHAND that they will take whatever action needs to be taken, up to and including artillery and air strikes, to prevent ANYONE from breaching their border with Gaza.
Moreover, if there are casualties resulting from such action, the fault lies with those who chose to try a forcible invasion of a sovereign state, not with the defenders.
#8
Compare wid TOPIX [old/paraph] > GAZA PALESTINIANS: WE WILL KILL OURSELVES.
OTOH, WAFF.com > WAR WITH IRAN? Author Francois Heisberg of "IRAN, THE CHOICE OF ARMS" new book describes three alleged "realistic" scenarios ala NUCLEAR IRAN + GEOPOL AFTERMATH. HEISBERG > believes that based on his extens investigative research. IRAN CAN DE FACTO PRODUCE A NUCLEAR BOMB BWTN 2008 - 2010 IFF IT REALLY DESIRED/
WANTED TO AS BASED ON ITS TRUE NATIONAL INTENTIONS + AMBITIONS.
#9
Napalm through a high-pressure hose works great to put a stop to this. Only takes once. The survivors would rather walk to Libya over broken glass than face that again.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
04/08/2008 23:46 Comments ||
Top||
A senior Hamas member has warned Israel that captured soldier Gilad Shalit will not be released alive if Israel does not release 350 Palestinian prisoners. "Hamas refuses to free Gilad Shalit before the release of 350 Palestinian prisoners demanded by Hamas," Moussa Abu Marzouk, the deputy head of Hamas's political bureau, told Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas. "He will remain with us and we will negotiate over his bones."
Palestinian fighters captured Shalit in June 2006 and negotiations over a prisoner swap for Palestinians in Israeli custody have so far failed.
On Saturday, Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas legislator, warned Shalit's parents that Israel was jeopardising their son's life by not agreeing to release the Palestinian prisoners. "We emphasise to the Shalit family that [Israeli Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert and the people around him are gambling with their son's case," al-Masri said in a statement posted on a pro-Hamas website.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
Hmmm, 1 Shalit == 350 Paleos. Or if you prefer, 1 Paleo == 1/350 Israeli.
I always find these exchange rates amusing, but I can never figure out if the low value of Palestinians in jew-equivalents is due to Hamas not understanding market economics or the fact that they understand all too well.
Israel will not cooperate with the head of a UN body surveying Palestinian damages resulting from the West Bank security barrier, an official in the Israeli Mission to the UN said Monday. "This body is yet another body which is the result of the automatic majority in the General Assembly," the Israeli official said. "At the end of the day, this mandate is not helpful to Palestinians, as others are not, especially when the Israeli legal establishment does give remedy to Palestinians who claim they have been damaged by the security fence. Israel has stated since the beginning of this procedure that we are not cooperating with this UN body."
Vladimir Goryayev, the head of the UN body charged with collecting Palestinian claims of damages from the barrier, arrived in the region Sunday for a week long visit to begin establishing contacts and reviewing the situation on the ground.
Goryayev is carrying out his first visit to Jerusalem and the West Bank as Executive Director of the United Nations Register of Damage caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. UN officials said the meeting was a "technical visit" which will focus on the legal, technical and operational aspects related to the implementation of the watchdog's mandate. He will visit areas affected by the construction of the wall and meet with local officials and potential claimants.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
Executive Director of the United Nations Register of Damage caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
that's gotta be tough on the stationery bill
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/08/2008 8:08 Comments ||
Top||
(AKI) - The largest Muslim rebel group in the Philippines has endorsed a push by the European Commission to improve Manila's human rights record. At the weekend, senior members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front hailed the latest report by the commission, the executive of the European Union, that criticised Manila's human rights record. The MILF also approved the European Commission's programme to help the Filipino government improve its rights record.
On the rebel's website Luwaran, Khaled Musa, deputy chairman of the MILF committee on information, said that "the government should not snub those who wish to help protect the human rights of people in the country."
Although the Philippines government accepted the EC's offer of assistance, the chief presidential legal adviser Sergio Apostol criticised the report, and said that the EU was unfair to the Philippines government. The EU needs assessment mission came to the Philippines in June last year. Its final report, released on Friday, called for the government to properly define extrajudicial killings and improve its witness protection programme, the body which deals with extrajudicial killings, police forensic investigation and the countrys legal frameworks.
The EC report also stated that the army's counter-insurgency strategy "blurs the differentiation between combatants and non-combatants" and that the military issued orders which include a person or groups who are "suspected" of being allies of National People's Army, the communist militia-group of the outlawed Communist Party of the Philippines.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Moro Islamic Liberation Front
#1
They really need to change their name becuase everytime I see MILF... I get a completely different idea about what the article is about... and always hope there are pics...
WASHINGTON - The Tamil Tigers, a Sri Lankan rebel group responsible of killing about 4,000 people in the past two years, have quietly established a US presence to help finance their separatist campaigns, The Washington Times reported Monday. Citing various US government sources, the newspaper said the organization was trying to acquire millions of dollars worth of anti-aircraft weapons, automatic rifles, grenade launchers, ammunition, explosives and other military equipment.
The Tamil branch of the Widows Ammunition Fund. Every terrorist organization has one.
The Times said the LTTE had been conducting operations in Maryland, New York and New Jersey in an effort to help raise cash and procure weapons.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court in New York in April 2007 said the LTTE relied on sympathetic Tamil expatriates in the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia, France and other countries to raise and launder money; smuggle arms, explosives, equipment and technology to Sri Lanka; obtain intelligence about the Sri Lankan government; and spread propaganda, the report said.
Last year, FBI agents in New York arrested Karunakaran Kandasamy, described as the director of US operations, accusing him of raising money and arranging meetings between LTTE leaders in Sri Lanka and prominent US fundraisers, according to the paper. FBI Assistant Director Mark Mershon, who heads the bureaus New York field division, said at the time Mr. Kandasamy hasnt merely supported the Tamil Tigers cause, he orchestrated US support, The Times reported.
US Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said Kandasamy operated out of an office in Queens, where he raised cash by staging fundraisers for tsunami victims through an organization known as the World Tamil Coordinating Committee, according to the paper.
In Maryland, Thirunavukarasu Varatharasa, a Sri Lankan national, was sentenced in January to 57 months in prison on charges of conspiracy to provide support to the LTTE and the attempted exportation of arms and munitions, The Times pointed out.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
No surprise here, as I'd told my Army bosses to expect a TAMIL set up eventually in the USA, albeit I was expecting it in 2010 or after. IN ANY CASE< THIS ISN'T A GOOD SIGN AS IT BASICALLY MEANS THE USA SHOULD IN TIME EXPECT A NEW SOURCE, + HIGHER FREQUENCY/OCCURRENCE, OF TERROR-RELATED VIOLENCE INSIDE AMERICA.
More indica/evidencia to me I was correct in that OSAMA'S RECENT ANTI-VATICAN-EURO MSGS, + ZAWI'S, ACTUALLY SIGNALS A STRATEGIC ESCALATION.
#4
The Tamil Tigers have had sympathetic fundraisers here for years. Five or six of them were convicted a year or so ago of identity/credit card theft or the sale of cigarettes or something, in aid of providing funds for the Tigers.
(AKI) - The European Commission, the executive of the European Union, on Monday strongly condemned the suicide bombing in Sri Lanka on Sunday which killed 14 people including a government minister. "I am deeply shocked by yesterday's heinous attack on minister of roads Jeyaraj Fernandopulle near Colombo," said Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU commissioner for external relations in a statement on Monday. "I strongly condemn this suicide attack, which not only killed Minister Fernandopoulle and 14 civilians but also injured many innocent bystanders," she said.
Fernandopoulle was killed by a suicide bomber as he flagged off a marathon race near Colombo on Sunday. He was reportedly a vocal critic of the separatist rebels of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. The government blamed the LTTE rebels for the attack.
"The EU condemns all forms of terrorism and violence against civilians. The EU continues to believe that there can be no military solution to the conflict in Sri Lanka and only a negotiated settlement can open the way for a lasting peace," said Ferrero-Waldner.
Reports said that Sri Lankan airforce jets on Monday bombed and destroyed a base used by the Tamil Tiger rebels. The Sri Lankan defence ministry said that the airforce jets destroyed a base suspected of being used to train suicide bombers in the rebel-held north.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
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[5 views]
Top|| File under:
DEBKAfiles Middle East and intelligence sources report that President Bashar Assad has fallen out with his brother-in-law Gen. Asif Shawqat, sacked him as military intelligence chief and appointed Gen. Aly Younes in his place. Shawqat has not been seen in the capital for three weeks. Several intelligence officers were reported arrested in Damascus Monday, April 7.
The apparent downfall of Syrias strongman is seen as symptomatic of a fierce rift in the top level of Syrian government. Our Washington sources report that Assad decided at the last minute to hold back the report promised for Sunday, April 6, on the killing of Hizballah leader Imad Mughniyeh last February, until after April 17, when the US House Intelligence Committee hears the details of Israels reported Sept 6, 2007 strike on a nuclear installation Syria was building with North Korean assistance. He will the decide how to play it. Need a fall guy, just in case.
The Bush administration and Jerusalem have agreed on the materials to be revealed there. Report in the JP: An upcoming joint US-Israel report on the September 6 IAF strike on a Syrian facility will claim that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein transferred weapons of mass destruction to the country, Channel 2 stated Monday. Furthermore, according to a report leaked to the TV channel, Syria has arrested 10 intelligence officials following the assassination of Hizbullah terror chief Imad Mughniyeh.
Our Washington sources report that the US and Israel are pumping out a welter of reports in advance of potential revelations about Syrias covert nuclear activities, as well as playing up the rising war tensions with Israel, in a fresh bid to unnerve Assad into cooling his ties with Iran. These sources report that the US and Israel turned up the heat this week by a claim leaked to Israeli media that Jerusalem had warned Damascus that Israel would hold Syria accountable and make it pay for any Hizballah attack on the Jewish state or against a Jewish or Israeli overseas target. Sources in Damascus deny receiving any such warning.
Some Middle East sources report that Washington and Jerusalem are trying to turn to their advantage the falling-out between Assad and Shawqat. The Syrian ruler believes that Israels defense exercise against missile attack is also part of that effort. He assured his confidants that it will not work; he will never break off his close alliance with Iran even if it costs him a military showdown with Israel.
As to the Mughniyeh report, according to intelligence sources, the Syrian findings point the finger for the Hizballah army chiefs death in a secure section of Damascus at Israel, in conjunction with Arab intelligence services specifically the Saudi service. Gonna try linking the Saudi's with their Zionist friends? That's a new one.
The last breach with Shawqat occurred when Assad took out of his hands the final wording of the Mughniyeh report and transferred it to Gen. Younes. Some Gulf intelligence sources familiar with Damascus inside affairs report that Assad ordered the new intelligence chief to saddle Gen. Shawqat with the guilt of failing to avert the Hizballah leaders death.
Another bone of contention between the two brothers-in-law was Shawqats insistence for some months that if a limited military engagement between Syria and Israel is to be, then better now, when Damascus, Hizballah and Hamas can call the shots, rather than the summer months when the US and Israel will exercise greater control of events.
As for the sacked intelligence chiefs whereabouts, some Gulf sources familiar with the Syrian scene claim he has moved to a military intelligence base in northern Syria to be among loyalist officers and men. Going to the mattresses? Waiter, more popcorn!
His wife, Bashara, Assads sister, took herself and her children off to Paris in early March to get away from the quarrels between her husband and brother.
Posted by: Steve ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
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[7 views]
Top|| File under:
Syria is willing to help Lebanon's rival factions reach a national accord to end the ever-deepening Lebanese political crisis, the pro-Syrian Lebanese parliament speaker said Monday.
Nabih Berri, aligned with the Syrian-backed opposition against Lebanon's Western-backed government, spoke after a two-hour meeting in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar Assad. It was the first such meeting in nearly two years between Syrian president and a high-ranking Lebanese official.
Tensions between the two neighbors have increased, and Lebanon last week boycotted the Arab summit in Damascus. Lebanon's Syrian-backed opposition is locked in a power struggle with Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's government and the sharply divided Lebanese parliament has failed to elect a president since last September. "I tell our people in Lebanon, the Arabs and the world, that brothers in Syria have no conditions at all on an inter-Lebanese accord," Berri told reporters. "On the contrary, they are ready for any help they might be asked for."
Berri's remarks sharply contrasted accusations by the United States and Lebanon's anti-Syrian factions that Syria was responsible for deepening the Lebanese crisis by blocking the election of a new president. Damascus has denied the charge, while its Lebanese allies have blamed Washington for scuttling attempts to reach a solution.
Although they have decided in principle on Army chief Gen. Michel Suleiman as a consensus president, Lebanese lawmakers failed to elect him because rival sides can't agree on the shape of the future government.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/08/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Interior Minister Prince Naif said yesterday that human rights are protected in the Kingdom thanks to the implementation of Shariah. "Different executive and supervisory government agencies implement regulations that take care of the rights of the accused at the time of arrest, investigation, trial and execution of punishment," the Saudi Press Agency quoted the minister saying.
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (CNN) -- A recently disclosed memo gave U.S. interrogators the ability to use harsh methods -- what many call "torture" -- to extract information from terrorist suspects after 9/11. Around the world, critics saw it as another blow to American prestige and moral authority.
Detained nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan said on Sunday that he took the blame for passing atomic secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya four years ago to save his country. I saved the country for the first time when I made Pakistan a nuclear nation and saved it again when I confessed and took the whole blame on myself, Khan told AFP. Even Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Mushahid Hussain said I saved Pakistan by accepting the whole blame myself. 
Aides to 
Last September, U.S. Army General David Petraeus assured Congress that Iraqis would be able to end the bloody rivalry between Shiite groups in the oil-rich south by themselves. Late last month, the U.S. carried out air strikes to help struggling Iraqi troops fighting a Shiite militia for control of the southern city of Basra. 
WASHINGTON - The Tamil Tigers, a Sri Lankan rebel group responsible of killing about 4,000 people in the past two years, have quietly established a US presence to help finance their separatist campaigns, The Washington Times reported Monday. Citing various US government sources, the newspaper said the organization was trying to acquire millions of dollars worth of anti-aircraft weapons, automatic rifles, grenade launchers, ammunition, explosives and other military equipment.
