Excerpts from TFA:
If MoveOn and Barack Obama really were going to bravely confront America with hard, necessary truths, they'd tell us how great $4 gas has been for us. With public transit use nationally at a 50-year high, Public transportation is usually inefficient; that is why it is usually subsidized by government, and that is why liberals want to raise taxes to further subsidize it
... traffic dropped 2.1% in the first four months of this year across the country. That mileage reduction -- along with people driving smaller cars, and more slowly, to save gas -- could mean that 12,000 fewer people will die in traffic accidents this year, according to a study by professors Michael Morrisey at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and David C. Grabowski at Harvard Medical School. Air pollution has been reduced enough, according to UC Davis economics professor J. Paul Leigh, to prevent 2,200 respiratory-related deaths over the last year. Less eating out and more walking and biking could mean a 10% reduction in obesity, according to Charles Courtemanche, an assistant economics professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. And, apparently, higher gas prices also keep econ professors employed.
Cheap gas is unfair. Driving creates huge social costs in the form of traffic, health-damaging pollution and global warming that aren't suffered solely by the person buying the gasoline.
All human interaction or action has social costs. High fuel prices have a social cost, but not to you, Joel
Governments usually set up idiotic systems to offset such social costs (emissions trading, ethanol subsidies, taco truck regulations) instead of forcing individuals to pay for their own mess by adding a tax to remedy the imbalance. That kind of tax -- the most fair kind, really -- is called a Pigovian tax, and its use is why gas costs $8 to $10 a gallon in Europe, where they have fewer road deaths even though they drive like complete idiots. Taxes are inherently unfair. They are the most basic form of tyranny. They drain people of resources and they transfer resources from those who know how best to use the money, their very resources and their substance, to those with an agenda on how to use the resouces.
If the U.S. were to slowly jack up gas taxes until we're in the $8 range, life would be better. We won't need to increase taxes to get to $8 a gallon. A liberal congress in 2008 will be enough to do so.
Why is it that actually advocating tyranny ( increased taxes) is seen as an exercise in intellectual thought? Transferring resources from the owner to the usurper only changes the agenda for the owner. The tyrant is always waiting to gain your resources.
Does it make liberals feel good to advocate transferring even more money to bloated state and federal governments? Inquiring minds like mine wanna know!
We'd not only be safer and have reduced greenhouse-gas emissions, we'd probably be happier too. Studies show that the only thing that consistently increases personal happiness is social interaction; This is a false premise. Joel thinks that Americans spend their spare time driving around and refusing to interact with other human beings. What people will do is continue to interact and demand lower energy prices.
... high gas prices have led to real estate prices falling faster in suburbs and exurbs than in cities, No Joel; real estate prices in "exurbia" and in suburbs have fallen because of the greater profit margin of building more expensive houses, which were bought then flipped. When the supply became too great, the prices plummeted. And gas had zero to do with that.
... so we may soon have more content downtown-dwellers. Those same studies show that the thing that makes people least happy is commuting, and telecommuting is way up this year. I hate commuting, too Joel. The only thing worse than commuting would be riding a publicly funded bus or mass transit system because we did not have the choice to do otherwise.
We could use the tax revenue to fund public transportation. And we'd go back to the days when driving a car was a way to show people what a rich jerk you were.
In other words, we would no longer need SUVs for that. No, Joel; you are acting like a rich jerk who apparently needs a Pruis and a Cooper Mini to show iwhat a jerk you are...
Sure, $8 gas is unfair to poor people, but so is all of capitalism. Rich people get more of the globe's resources. No one has a right to cheap gas any more than he has a right to other things needed for a full and productive life, like an iPhone or a weekly newspaper column where you can tick people off. Actually, Joel, person for person, the rich can only consume only so much of the "earth's resources" per capita.
We spent 50 years using government money to build the freeways that led to the driving-centric, mall-rat lifestyle I grew up with, so it will surely take decades more to restructure our society into something better. And as bummed as I am to pay a lot for gas, it's a fair price for improving society. I also think government should look into some kind of heavy taxation on Facebook usage. No, Joel: we didn't use government money; we used taxpayer money; money the people wanted spent and money which was used ostensibly for national defense, the main purpose the the original interstate highway act back in the 50s.
The government has no money of its own since it is unable to produce anything of value for sale. Governments only take and spend, according to politics, which is why an improved society will be one that refuses to further feed the bloated monster government has become.
#2
Sure, $8 gas is unfair to poor people, but so is all of capitalism.
Given that the LA Times is in a death spiral with their east coast cousin, you can grasp the writers wish to live in an alternate reality. However, like your usual limousine socialist, they choose not to live in Cuba, North Korea, or other hellholes examples of workers paradise. The word that comes to mind is parasite.
#4
Seems this people don't know basic economics: when transportation of goods becomes impossible then everything has to be produced locally. If you want to know what happens to standards of life look at what hapened at the fall of Roman Empire when nobility was less affluent than your average roman citizen and people starved to death by the tens of thousands.
#5
We spent 50 years using government money to build the freeways that led to the driving-centric, mall-rat lifestyle I grew up with
This is what it boils down to...an Oedipal hatred of the older generation who actually built things and got things done.
Failure and underacheiving fuels resentment. Deep down Joel must realize that the (to us unknown) man who drove the steamroller to tamp down the bed of the freeway contributed more to America and to civilization than all the words that Joel could ever hope to write.
#6
First of all, why isn't this piece of crap under 'Opinion', where it belongs? Secondly, does this idiot live in a bubble? If the government deliberately set out to raise gasoline prices, there would be a revolution the next day. Raising gasoline and diesel prices raises the price of EVERYTHING ELSE, since everything can't be grown or produced locally (try growing oranges in Grand County, Colorado, home of the "Icebox of the nation", the town of Frasier). The increased cost wouldn't be added only once, but once on raw materials, on interim products, on final products, on wholesale delivery, and on retail delivery. Finally, the schmuck at the end gets to pay the higher price all these added costs pile on the original price of the product. Quality of life goes down, because a larger portion of the average income has to be spent on essentials - food, clothing, housing, utilities and transportation. Things not absolutely essential are eliminated. So are the jobs manufacturing, transporting, and selling those non-essentials. Unemployment goes up, and so does the cost of government. Thomas Sowell would give this idiot a failing grade in Econ 101.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/11/2008 13:00 Comments ||
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#8
Just another elitist dickweed who believes that everyone else should suffer for the greater glory of his great society.
Hey, Joel, what kind of car do you drive - or do you get chauffered around town wherever you go being the hotshot columnist? Do you take an airplane whenever you go back to NYC to visit your buddies at the Gray Lady or do you take a private jet chartered for the LAT?
#9
Wonder what joel thinks about denver stuffing all the homeless onto buses so that all the convention goers, and the people who actually ride the bus to work, will have to drive?
#10
It occurs to me that Joel here is also arguing against personal ownership of motor vehicles and against the capability of an individual to travel where he wants, when he wants, and how he wants.
In the Old West it used to be a hanging offense to steal horses. A horse was a man's life blood. A horse was his muscle. A horse was his freedom to travel where he wanted, when he wanted, and how he wanted. Stealing a man's horse was equivalent to stealing the man's life and ability to make a living in some cases. If you stole a man's horse anywhere outside of a 15-20 mile radius of civilization you were probably condemning the man to a slow, lingering death due to dehydration in some areas.
Stealing a people's ability travel freely puts the citizens of this country in the same boat as Soviet Russia and China. Nazi Germany limited freedom of travel for its non-party member citizens as well.
Is that what you want, Joel? Really? A society where freedom of travel is restricted to the very elite and the very rich? Where travel is restricted except to a special few or those possessing the proper "papers"?
'Cause that's what you're really saying here from my POV.
#12
Translation: Things would be a whole lot better if we were to just go back to living on the Government's plantation, doing what the government tells us to do (for very little money since Gov't will take most of it in taxes) so that the Government can get rich off the sweat of our brow.
Didn't we already try that with a good segment of our population - back in pre-civil war days in the 'old south'?
After the Afghanistan government, it is Army Chief General Deepak Kapoor's turn to indicate that the resurgent Taliban-ISI combine could be behind the terror attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul, which left four Indians and 50 others dead on Monday.
The possibility of Pakistan's ISI being involved in the ''well-planned and pre-meditated'' suicide bombing on the Indian mission cannot be ruled out, said Gen Kapoor on Thursday. ''Obviously, it was the work of elements inimical to India's interests. We all should be able to make out who would be inimical to our interests in Kabul and our embassy there,'' said Gen Kapoor, on the sidelines of a function to hand over specialised scooters and financial assistance to disabled soldiers.
On Monday itself, in a clear reference to ISI, the Afghan interior minister had said the attack, which killed the Indian defence attache, an IFS officer and two ITBP soldiers, had been carried out ''in coordination and consultation with an active intelligence service in the region''.
Gen Kapoor, on his part said, deliberations were in progress to bolster security measures for Indian missions abroad.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2008 00:00 ||
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They're going after General Giant Epaulets?
The prosecutor at the international criminal court is widely expected to seek the arrest on Monday of the Sudanese president, Omar al-Bashir, for war crimes committed in Darfur. The prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, issued a statement yesterday announcing that he would be submitting evidence "on crimes committed in the whole of Darfur over the last five years". The statement said he would then publicly "summarise the evidence, the crimes and name individual(s) charged".
Moreno-Ocampo told the security council last month that he intended to go after top Sudanese officials, saying the "entire state apparatus" was involved in systematic attacks on civilians.
No kidding. Wage law, pal, let's see how you do ...
Legal sources and human rights activists said last night said they expected the prosecutor to name Bashir. One source with links to both the ICC and the Khartoum government said yesterday: "It's going ahead on Monday."
Reports from Khartoum said that security was being stepped up in the Sudanese capital in anticipation of an announcement, while aid workers were making contingency plans to evacuate non-essential personnel in the event of a government backlash against the international community.
I'd evacuate the essential ones too. You never know ...
"The UN has gone into panic mode," one aid official said, expressing fears that the government could retaliate by curbing or even expelling the joint UN-African Union peacekeeping force, Unamid, that is slowly deploying in the region.
Alex de Waal, an expert on Sudan at the Social Science Research Council in New York, said it was unclear how the Sudanese president would react. "The word is from those very close to Bashir that Bashir is obsessed with the idea that the world is out to get him. He already feels he has been humiliated and made to look weak," De Waal said.
And we all know what happens when a Moose-limb is humiliated and made to look weak ...
Moreno-Ocampo will be presenting evidence to a pre-trial tribunal at the ICC on Monday. It will be up to that tribunal to decide whether to pursue an indictment, a decision that could take several weeks. The security council would then decide whether to take any action on any subsequent arrest warrant.
And after a year or two they'd approve the warrant, which would go to Interpol, which would serve it when it was safe to do, after which Bashir would be dragged off to a high-class villa in Holland to await Carla del Ponte as his prosecutor in front of the court. I can see that happening in about, oh, 2018 or so ...
The ICC issued warrants last year for two Sudanese suspects, a government minister and a militia commander, for organising attacks in Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million have been made homeless since a revolt broke out in the western Sudanese province in 2003. Bashir has refused to cooperate, vowing the suspects would be handed over "over my dead body".
I rather imagine he has the same dim view of a warrant with his own name on it ...
Britain's foreign secretary, David Miliband, met Bashir on Wednesday in Khartoum and urged him to cooperate with the ICC, but it is thought unlikely that the Sudanese leader would drop his defiant stance.
'unlikely' is Guardian speak for 'no chance in hell'.
British policy is to support the work of the ICC, but officials are concerned about the impact of an announcement not only in Darfur, but also on a fragile peace agreement in southern Sudan, which could collapse entirely if the radical elements of the southern Sudanese Peoples Liberation Movement turn it against a power-sharing agreement with Bashir. British officials are likely to avoid comment until and unless the court issues a warrant.
David Hoile, the head of a pro-Khartoum lobby group, the European-Sudanese Public Affairs Council, said: "The perception in Khartoum is that the ICC is on dodgy ground legally. The official policy is to ignore it. I've heard the argument in Khartoum that it's white man's justice. It's focused entirely on Africa, and has done nothing on Iraq or Afghanistan."
The Euros have their big brother handling those ...
"If the ICC go after Bashir, it will have very negative effects. It tells the rebel movements in Darfur to wait it out and the government will be changed by the ICC. The whole thing is not going to turn out well," Hoile said.
Tom Porteous, the London director of Human Rights Watch, said the organisation "has been documenting human rights abuses in Darfur since the beginning of the conflict in 2003 and certainly since 2005 we have had enough evidence that very serious war crimes and crimes and humanity have been committed. And we have recommended that the ICC investigate right the way up the chain of command, including Omar Bashir."
Moreno-Ocampo's office will be presenting its new case amid intense controversy over its role. Its prosecution of a Congolese warlord, Thomas Lubanga, collapsed this month when the court ruled it had wrongly withheld evidence that could help the defence. Lubanga's release was blocked by the ICC's appeals chamber.
William Schabas, the head of the Irish Centre for Human Rights at the National University of Ireland, said: "This is a very decisive moment for the court. It has been going through a terrible period, this could revive its image and make people feel it's a robust dynamic institution, or it could be another blow."
Or they could do lunch ...
...and have Carla Del Ponte warming up in the bullpen.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/11/2008 00:00 ||
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The fiancée of one of the leaders of the failed July 21 suicide attacks in London has been sentenced to three years in jail for helping him escape in a burka. And, yes, it did make his ass look fat...
Fardosa Abdullahi gave her fiance her mobile phone handset, provided a scarf and handbag for his disguise and accompanied him to Golders Green coach station where he fled to Birmingham dressed as a woman. And I'm sure it made a lovely ensemble...
Yassin Omar's family persuaded her to contact police but she claimed she did not know where he was and it was not until six days after the bombings that police caught up with the bomber when they raided a house in Birmingham where he was found standing in a bath with a rucksack on his back. Is that a rucksack on your back, or are you just glad to see me?
But Abdullahi claimed she had been pressurised by Omar and her family into the engagement, four days before the attacks, and into helping him escape. Come here, dear, so I can show you my lovely acid collection...
Sentencing her two three years in jail, Judge Paul Worsley QC, said: "The message must go out that this court will not go soft on those who assist terrorists even those who are young, vulnerable and under pressure, as you undoubtedly were." He sounds like the judge in Reefer Madness...
The court heard that Abdullahi suffered from severe post traumatic stress disorder after a serious assault when she was six in Somalia and had suffered from "on-going difficulties within her family and a further traumatic event at the age of 12" which led to treatment at the Royal Free Hospital in North London. "serious assault"?, Somalia? a "traumatic event at age 12"? ... "Free Hospital"? Spare burqa? Well since she's had such a tough life, she should have no problem doing time.
Medical reports from five different doctors concluded that she heard the "psuedo hallucinatory" voice of her attacker and that that voice had changed to Yassin Omar's voice after her engagement. In Iran, they'd stone her to death.
Judge Worsley said there was no evidence that Abdullahi was a suicide risk and added: "I can reduce the prison sentence due to circumstances but prison it must be for anyone who assists those who want to kill and maim on a scale not to be contemplated." Good grief Sure. But let's cut her some slack. Right, Judgey Wudgey?
#1
But Abdullahi claimed she had been pressurised by Omar and her family into the engagement, four days before the attacks, and into helping him escape.
Hugo Chavez is offering to help mediate possible peace talks between Colombia and The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
I think Ribbentrop offered to mediate between the Sovs and the Germans, too.
Chavez says he spoke with recently released hostage Ingrid Betancourt and she urged him to join her in seeking the freedom of all captives held by FARC. He said in a televised speech Wednesday "we are willing to help" with any negotiations on hostage releases and peace efforts.
The Venezuelan president played a key role in negotiations that prompted the FARC to release six hostages earlier this year. But Colombian President Alvaro Uribe abruptly ended his involvement in November after accusing him of overstepping his mandate.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Impotant Chavez wasted $300 million on the FARC and he didn't get 1 hostage out of the hundreds.
A federal government official who dispatched an envoy to Guantanamo Bay to visit al-Qaeda suspect Omar Khadr says his department lost an early bid to keep the teenager out of the controversial U.S. prison camp. In an interview, Gar Pardy, Pardy on, Gar!
the now retired head of consular programs for the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, said that in 2002-03 "we were fighting for Omar [Khadr]," whom he regarded as too young for Guantanamo. Such an awkward age, too old for the madrassa and too young for Gitmo.
"I wanted to use his age as the largest club we had to beat up the Americans on," Mr. Pardy said. But he added that Canadian initiatives to protect the prisoner's rights got lost among departments and officials with competing priorities.
Officials in Ottawa are bracing for the imminent release of classified DVDs showing Canadian-led interrogations of Mr. Khadr.
While pressure is building for Canada to repatriate the 21-year-old, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is standing firm. "Mr. Khadr is accused of very serious things. There is a legal process in the United States," Mr. Harper said in Japan yesterday. "He can make his arguments in that process."
The tapes were never supposed to be released but Foreign Affairs was ordered to disclose them after a Canadian judge, Mr. Justice Richard Mosley, agreed with lawyers for Mr. Khadr and, separately, with various news media including The Globe and Mail and CTV, that there was a justification. The footage promises a rare glimpse inside the secretive U.S. prison camp and Canada's intelligence-gathering practices.
Raised in Afghanistan in what's been called an "al-Qaeda family" of Canadian citizens, Mr. Khadr was shot and captured as a 15-year-old combatant during a July, 2002, battle in which he is alleged to have killed an American soldier.
In the months after his detention, Washington rejected Canada's first overtures concerning Mr. Khadr, Mr. Pardy said. "We were opposed to the transfer; we wanted him back here," said Mr. Pardy, who added that in September of 2002 DFAIT sent a diplomatic note to Washington urging that the then-teenager be kept out of Guantanamo Bay. "Our approach was we were going to try to leave him in Afghanistan." The bid failed. Mr. Khadr was soon sent to Cuba and the fallback plan, according to Mr. Pardy, was to figure out a way to get a Canadian envoy to "see Omar, touch him, talk to him a bit." Sounds like a fun first date you had planned, Gar.
At the time, the Pentagon was saying Geneva Conventions, and not Vienna Conventions, were in play, which meant that foreign federal agents might get to see the prisoners, whereas foreign diplomats would not. Canada, like Britain and Australia, was left to come up with a way to work around that, Mr. Pardy said.
Calling the decision a "Hobson's choice" between not going at all and sending down someone with a security background, Mr. Pardy explained that he reached out across his department to its intelligence branch, to assign a 30-year veteran with a track record in Middle East postings to the job. "I wanted to get somebody like Jim Gould to go in there," Mr. Pardy said, describing his colleague as "more than a second-best [option]."
The idea was sellable to the Americans, but even so, "getting Gould down there was a hell of a battle," Mr. Pardy said. Mr. Gould - who is now retired and is not commenting - testified last year at the Senate committee on national security and defence. "I was the liaison officer in Washington for three years dealing with the American agencies in trading information," he said. "The more we have, the more we receive."
The problem with the Guantanamo visit, however, is that courts are now finding that intelligence imperatives may have overrode humanitarian considerations. Mr. Pardy suggests that DFAIT was even surprised to learn that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service - a much more active spy agency - would accompany Mr. Gould on his inaugural February, 2003, trip to Cuba. When Mr. Gould was interviewed about his first visit in a book on the Omar Khadr case, he said he was initially under orders from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to let CSIS take the lead and not say anything during three days of interviews with Mr. Khadr.
Documents released this week show that Mr. Khadr cried during these interviews and ripped off his shirt, pointing to his bullet wounds, recanting any admissions he made as purely the product of "torture." Mr. Gould did make several observations as to the prisoner's physical and psychological condition, and also tried to secure some medical attention.
Other records released this week show that Mr. Gould was made privy to a U.S. criminal investigation task force's files concerning Mr. Khadr, and later asked the teenager questions about his family and armed jihad. During a March, 2004, solo visit, Mr. Gould was briefed that U.S. military officials had softened up the teenager with a sleep deprivation strategy in "an effort to make him more amenable and willing to talk," according to newly disclosed documents.
Because the interviews continued, DFAIT is being faulted - in stark language - for the overstep. "The practice described to the Canadian official in March, 2004, was, in my view, a breach of international human-rights law," ruled Judge Mosley in a decision released earlier this spring.
Foreign Affairs officials bristle at the stark language of the series of rulings. Mr. Pardy, who retired in late 2003, contends the judges may be missing the point. "What we were concerned with was what kind of medical treatment he was getting in Guantanamo," he said. And ultimately, the blame for what goes on in Guantanamo Bay, he says, rests with the government that created it. For the longest time, neither Congress nor the judicial system played their appropriate role under the Constitution," he said. "They were all saluting the executive."
#1
Mr. Gould was briefed that U.S. military officials had softened up the teenager with a sleep deprivation strategy in "an effort to make him more amenable and willing to talk," according to newly disclosed documents.
Was his head still attached when he was deprived of sleep?
Then don't bother me with that shit.
#3
"I wanted to use his age as the largest club we had to beat up the Americans on,"
A quick Google would have shown the clown - "Oct 18, 2007 ... There are 73 Americans serving life sentences for crimes they committed when they were 13 or 14 years old.."
Welcome to the Great Sunny South were people believe if you do adult crimes, you do adult time. There are still people who believe in justice for the victim rather than hand wringing for the perp.
#4
These people still don't get it. This POS had to actually GO to Afghanistan (since he was a Canadian citizen), take up arms against both the Afghanistan government AND the International forces, and actually SHOOT at someone. Since he a) wasn't a member of any recognized government military force,
b) wasn't wearing "distinguishing clothing", I.E. a uniform,
and c) was "waging war against recognized military forces of a recognized nation (or nations), he is NOT a prisoner of war (who have rights under the Geneva Convention), but an "unlawful combattant" - I.E., a "jihadi". He has NO "legal rights", and hanging him, regardless of his age, gender, nationality, language, or ethnic background, is a "permitted action" under the Laws of War. The Canadian military knows this; the Canadian civilian "government" doesn't have a clue.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/11/2008 13:49 Comments ||
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#5
#4 Actually, I believe that a firing squad is the preferred method of execution of illegal combatants.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
07/11/2008 16:23 Comments ||
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#6
#4 Please note that it was the Liberal government of the day that was ramrodding this effort in 2002 to 2003. Please also note that the CURRENT conservative minority government isn't having any of it.
ALEXANDRIA, VA.- The end result of the ruling by a federal judge in Alexandria, Va., may mean Sami Al-Arian is one step closer to being deported. Al-Arian was transferred to a Virginia jail nearly two years ago by federal authorities, who sought his testimony in a case against an Islamic charity. But the ousted USF computer science professor has refused, and has been hit with several contempt-of-court charges.
A federal judge there ordered Al-Arian released pending a trial on another contempt charge. But she has refused to block immigration authorities from detaining Al-Arian as a prelude to his deportation.
In 2005, after a six month trial in Tampa, Al-Arian was acquitted on eight counts and the jury deadlocked on the remaining nine counts. He later pleaded guilty to one count of of aiding the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a designated terrorist group. The deal included his deportation after serving his sentence. Gaza or Bust, you bag of shit...
United States intelligence officials say there has been an increase in foreign fighters travelling to Pakistan to join Al Qaeda-linked militants in the country's Tribal Areas, the New York Times reported on Thursday.
US intelligence and military sources told the newspaper that dozens or more Uzbeks, North Africans and Arabs from Gulf states had moved into Pakistan in recent months, strengthening the Al Qaeda forces which were backing the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan.
A US military spokesman in Baghdad told the Times that there had been a corresponding drop in the number of foreign fighters entering Iraq, now less than 40 a month compared to up to 110 a month one year ago.
"The flow may reflect a change that is making Pakistan, not Iraq, the preferred destination for some extremists from the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia who are seeking to take up arms against the West," the Times wrote, citing the officials.
Worsening situation: NATO Commander in Afghanistan Gen David McKiernan said the situation in Pakistan's north-western border areas, where Al Qaeda and other Islamic insurgents are based, had worsened.
"The porous border has allowed insurgent militant groups a greater freedom of movement across that border, as well as a greater freedom to re-supply, to allow leadership to sustain stronger sanctuaries, and to provide fighters across that border," McKiernan told the Times.
A US defence official told the Times that the flow of foreign fighters into Pakistan had increased "from a trickle to a steady stream", especially after Pakistan's government cut back Tribal Area operations in March and launched talks with the local leaders in hopes of halting militant activities.
While the numbers of foreign fighters in Afghanistan is still relatively small, the increase adds to US worries about the revival of Al Qaeda and the rise in Taliban attacks on US and NATO coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Dadfar Spanta told the UN Security Council on Wednesday that a key factor behind the worsening security in his country was "the de facto truce" in Pakistan's Tribal Areas between the government and autonomous tribal groups.
The resurgence of militants and Al Qaeda in the Pakistani Tribal regions, and Islamabad's truce with area leaders, were posing a deep dilemma for US policy makers and the US military, US experts say.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
If we're lucky, maybe the "foreign fighters" will start throwing their weight around with the locals, piss them off, and end up being butchered by them like the Uzbeks were a couple of years ago.
#2
Wait until they congregate in large numbers, then napalm the entire group. Tally the numbers of foreign fighters the ISAF kills, and take a strip one foot wide and 100 feet long from Pakistan for each of them. Sooner or later, Pakistan will get the message that allowing this sh$$ to happen will not be tolerated and put a stop to it, or the southern border of Afghanistan will become the Indian Ocean. Either works for me.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/11/2008 13:53 Comments ||
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#3
Fair's fair - lets us put some foreign fighters in the FATA. Pakistan doesn't seem to mind.
Posted by: Pearl Jeager2939 ||
07/11/2008 22:45 Comments ||
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The military will start the process of pulling out troops from Swat district from August, but complete withdrawal will not take place until the Awami National Party-led government "certifies marked change in ground situations from a security perspective", a military source said on Thursday.
Under the May 21 peace deal with Mullah Fazlullah's militants in Swat, the NWFP government agreed to the "gradual withdrawal" of security forces but did not provide a timeframe for the complete pullout of the army. "The army will maintain some level of army presence in Swat as long as the provincial government needs it," the source, requesting anonymity, said.
The source said that the military was pushing the civilian government to improve its own policing system so that soldiers could be withdrawn from conflict zones. He said the army should be used as a last resort.
According to the source, the military has also offered to train several units of an elite police force in different phases. "This elite force can be ready for deployment within two months and their skills will help the army's withdrawal," the source said.
Referring to the military's 'inaction' against suspected militants burning girls' schools, police stations and government buildings, and killing people even after the announcement of the peace deal, the source said that the military could not take any action without approval of the provincial government.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2008 00:00 ||
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Pakistan's government has reached a new peace agreement aimed at stopping a militant group from threatening the northwestern city Peshawar. Government representatives released details of the agreement on Thursday, after tribal leaders agreed to guarantee that the local extremist group would leave a key town just outside the provincial capital Peshawar and stop hostilities against the government.
Tribal elder Malik Hashim was a member of the delegation and spoke to VOA by telephone from Khyber agency, where the talks took place. He said the leader, Mangal Bagh, promised that his people will not attack official government offices or paramilitary forces in both the settled and rural areas of Khyber.
Pakistani paramilitary forces launched operations in Khyber in late June after locals complained bands of extremist fighters had moved into settled areas and began harassing people and enforcing strict moral codes. There were also increased sightings of Taliban militants in Peshawar during this time.
The paramilitary forces met little resistance but have since stayed in the region during the talks to provide security. The head of Pakistan's interior ministry, Rehman Malik, said Thursday that some of those troops would now begin leaving. He said not all of the paramilitary forces will withdraw - those who remain will ensure the militants do not return.
"Hey! Are you a militant?"
"Nope, not me."
"What about that AK?"
"What about it?"
"Hokay, you can pass."
Afghan, NATO and U.S. officials have been critical of similar peace agreements the Pakistani government has struck in recent months, saying withdrawing troops and striking peace deals have mainly allowed Taliban fighters safe refuge to launch attacks in Afghanistan.
Most of the concern has focused on militants in North and South Waziristan, where Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud has vowed to launch attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan. In Khyber agency, northeast of Waziristan, there has been concern over militants threatening an important overland transit route for commercial trade as well as supplies for NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2008 00:00 ||
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Pakistan's army spokesman accused Indian forces of violating a 2003 cease-fire in Kashmir on Thursday, but a top Indian official denied the country's army had fired on Pakistan's positions in the disputed Himalayan region.
Pakistan's Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said the Indian army fired mortars and small arms without any provocation in the Battal sector of Kashmir. Pakistan's forces returned fire, he said. The local Pakistani commander lodged a protest with his Indian counterpart, Abbas said. The army's director general of military operations later spoke to his Indian counterpart to set up a meeting on the matter, he said.
"The Indian army opened fire at 2 p.m. today without any provocation, and our forces deployed there also returned fire," Abbas said. "The Indian army is to be blamed for the breach of cease-fire."
And the dead infiltrators?
Indian army spokesman Lt. Col. S.D. Goswami denied its forces targeted Pakistani positions, and claimed Pakistan-based militants had opened fire on Indian forces as the militants tried to slip into Indian-controlled Kashmir.
"A group of militants fired on our troops during an infiltration bid. Our army returned the fire and foiled the infiltration bid," said Goswami. He said that in a separate incident Thursday in the same area, Pakistani soldiers opened fire on Indian positions but: "We didn't retaliate."
Abbas declined to respond to the Indian allegations.
The frontier has been largely quiet since the 2003 cease-fire between India and Pakistan, whose relations have warmed amid a peace process launched in recent years. Oh, yeah? Whatta you smoking, because I want some.
Nearly a dozen Islamic rebel groups also have been fighting for Kashmir's independence from India or its merger with Pakistan since 1989. More than 68,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the conflict.
The gunfire came days after a suicide bomber blew up his vehicle outside the Indian Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, killing at least 58 people. Indian diplomats say the attack was an attempt to discourage Indian aid projects in Afghanistan, which have totaled US$750 million since 2001.
Afghan officials put the blame for the blast on a regional intelligence agency -- widely seen as a reference to Pakistan. Pakistan has denied any involvement, insisting it wants stability in the region and good relations with India.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/11/2008 00:00 ||
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BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Property prices are creeping higher, shops are staying open later and more schoolchildren are skipping class to help out in their parents' businesses.
Three months after a security crackdown in Iraq's oil capital of Basra, there are signs of economic revival. But investment to help secure the peace faces hurdles from bureaucratic inertia, lack of technical skills and foreign businesses' uncertainty about whether the calm will hold.
"If you get security, you get everything," Mizher Salam, a 32-year-old furniture store owner, said while taking a break from putting together bed frames.
With violence in Iraq at four-year lows, Basra is an example of the obstacles the country faces as it edges toward recovery from the turmoil that followed the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. But business owners said decrepit infrastructure, including electricity limited to a few hours a day, was the biggest hindrance, especially during summer heat that hit 43 degrees Celsius (110 Fahrenheit) this week.
"We don't want something impossible. Electricity, security and a good job. That's all," said Falah Hassan, the 24-year-old manager of a food store on the bustling Route 6 highway.
Creating jobs and improving power and water supplies would be the best way to build on a government offensive in late March and April that broke the grip Shi'ite militias had held on Iraq's second-biggest city, officials say. "People are now looking forward to the next phase, the next stage of their lives, when Basra will become more prosperous," provincial governor Mohammed al-Waeli told Reuters.
U.S. Commanders in Iraq Warn of Security Dangers, See Logistical Nightmare
Whatever nuance Barack Obama is now adding to his Iraq withdrawal strategy, the core plan on his Web site is as plain as day: Obama would "immediately begin to remove our troops from Iraq. He will remove one to two combat brigades each month, and have all of our combat brigades out of Iraq within 16 months."
It is a plan that, no doubt, helped Obama get his party's nomination, but one that may prove difficult if he is elected president.
So even the MSM has figured it out, and Senator Flip-Flop is trying to balance the Kos Kiddies with the need to be elected. Good luck with that ...
Military personnel in Iraq are following the presidential race closely, especially when it comes to Iraq. The soldiers and commanders we spoke to will not engage in political conversation or talk about any particular candidate, but they had some strong opinions about the military mission which they are trying to accomplish, and the dramatic security gains they have made in the past few months.
We spent a day with Maj. Gen. Jeffery Hammond in Sadr City. He is the commander of the 4th Infantry Division, which is responsible for Baghdad. Hammond will likely be one of the commanders who briefs Barack Obama when he visits Iraq. "We still have a ways to go. Number one, we're working on security and it's very encouraging, that's true, but what we're really trying to achieve here is sustainable security on Iraqi terms. So, I think my first response to that would be let's look at the conditions.
"Instead of any time-based approach to any decision for withdrawal, it's got to be conditions-based, with the starting point being an intelligence analysis of what might be here today, and what might lie ahead in the future. I still think we still have work that remains to be done before I can really answer that question," Hammond said when asked how he would feel about an order to start drawing down two combat brigades a month.
Asked if he considered it dangerous to pull out if the withdrawal is not based on "conditions," Hammond said, "It's very dangerous. I'll speak for the coalition forces, men and women of character and moral courage; we have a mission, and it's not until the mission is done that I can look my leader in the eye and say, 'Sir, Ma'am, mission accomplished,' and I think it is dangerous to leave anything a little early."
That's a clear, cogent and (I think) correct analysis, and if President Flip-Flop sez, "two brigades a month regardless" he's going to blow any chance of respect he has with the military.
That phrase, "sustainable security," is something you hear a lot in Iraq. Lt. Gen. Lloyd Austin, who is the operational commander of all U.S. forces in Iraq, says he has seen things improve significantly here.
As for Obama's stated plan to bring home the troops within 16 months, Austin said, "I'd have to see the entire plan. I'd have to understand the strategic objectives of the leadership, and based on those strategic objectives, come up with operational objectives. It's very difficult to comment on one way or the other, whether one plan would work or one plan wouldn't work. Right now, we are helping the Iraqis achieve sustainable security, and helping them to increase the capability of the Iraqi security forces, and we are making great progress along those lines."
On the streets of Baghdad, where a suicide bomber had struck just days before, Capt. Josh West told us he wants to finish the mission, and that any further drawdown has to be based on conditions on the ground. "If we pull out of here too early, it's going to establish a vacuum of power that violent criminal groups will be able to fill once we leave," West said.
That's the key point, isn't it -- we don't want to let the criminal element run the place, since they'll invite the extremists back in.
Capt. Jeremy Ussery, a West Point graduate on his third deployment, pointed to his heavy body armor as we walked in the 120-degree heat, saying, "The same people keep coming back because we want to see Iraq succeed, that's what we want. I don't want my kids, that hopefully will join the military, my notional children, to have to come back to Iraq 30 years from now and wear this."
But Ussery added, "You can't put a timetable on it -- it's events-based."
Success on the battlefield is not the only complication with Obama's plan. Physically removing the combat brigades within that kind of time frame would be difficult, as well.
The military has been redeploying troops for years, and Maj. Gen. Charles Anderson, who would help with the withdrawal, told us as we toured Camp Arifjan in Kuwait, "We have the capacity to do a minimum of two-and-a-half brigade combat teams a month -- can we expand that capacity? Sure. Can we accelerate? It depends. It depends on the amount of equipment that we bring back. And it's going to depend on how fast we bring them out."
It is the equipment that is the real problem. In the kind of redeployment that Anderson is talking about, the troops head home, but much of their equipment stays behind. Two combat brigades means up to 1,200 humvees in addition to thousands of other pieces of equipment, like trucks, fuelers, tankers and helicopters.
And 90 percent of the equipment would have to be moved by ground through the Iraqi war zone, to the port in Kuwait, where it must all be cleaned and inspected and prepared for shipment. This is a place with frequent dust storms, limited port facilities and limited numbers of wash racks. While Anderson and his troops have a positive attitude, several commanders who looked at the Obama plan told ABC News, on background, that there was "no way" it could work logistically.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/11/2008 10:18 ||
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#1
I wonder if Barry will be walking around all decked out in his digital camouflage with matching helmet and flak jacket for the photo ops? Could be his "Duke in a Tank" moment.
#2
Im glad Barry is taking more sensible positions. The Kossacks can get all inflamed that he isnt what made him special, hes just a pol. I said all along he was really just a pol, no different from Clinton or from a Repub pol in that sense. Sure, I was mad as hell that Clinton lost on the false pretenses that Barry was NOT a pol.
But Hillary is done and over. If Barry is becoming MORE like Hillary - more pragmatic, more of a pol, and more centrist - then thats GOOD, and screw Kos and DU. And Jesse "smoked almonds" Jackson, while we're at it.
He isn't. He is still the far left communist and pacifist we all know. He is just talking the game to get the vote and won't walk the walk after he wins.
#5
he's going to blow any chance of respect he has with the military.
What would Obama do with that? He has no use for it. What he wants is American defeat, no ifs ands or buts about it. First, because America disgusts him, and second, to make sure that Bush doesn't leave a positive legacy. Heck, Congress doomed South Vietnam in precisely the same way, simply to spite Nixon.
The bodies of two U.S. soldiers missing in Iraq for more than a year have been found, their families said Thursday night. The military would not immediately confirm the report.
The father of Army Sgt. Alex Jimenez, of Lawrence, Mass., said the remains of his son and another soldier, Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, of Waterford, Mich., had been identified in Iraq.
Jimenez, 25, and Fouty, 19, were kidnapped along with a third member of the 2nd Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division during an ambush in May 2007. The body of the third seized soldier, Pfc. Joseph Anzack Jr. of Torrance, Calif., was found in the Euphrates River a year later.
Jimenez's father, Ramon "Andy" Jimenez, said uniformed military officials came to his home in Lawrence on Thursday to tell him the body of his son and some of his son's personal effects had been discovered. Fouty's stepfather, Gordon Dibler, said military officials came to his Oxford home Thursday to break the news.
Andy Jimenez told The Associated Press through a translator that the news "shattered all hope" the family had to "see Alex walk home on his own."
"Every day that he's been missing has been a day of `what could have been' ... but after hearing the news today ... I'm still in shock," Dibler said.
The soldiers' families, who had become friends over the past year, were notified around the same time and had been in touch. The Pentagon generally waits 24 hours after notifying the next of kin before making a release public.
Lawrence Veterans Services Director Francisco Urena, who was at the Jimenez home Thursday and translated for the soldier's father, said the family was given no details on the discovery of the bodies or the nature of the soldiers' deaths. Dibler said Fouty's body was found in the Iraqi village of Jurf as Sakhr.
Fouty was identified using dental records, Dibler said, adding that the bodies of both soldiers were taken to Dover, Del., where military officials are expected to perform further tests to positively identify both men and determine a cause of death.
"It's a very sad relief," he said. "But I know I have to go forward, not just for our family, but for the other men and women who are still doing their job over there."
Urena said the Jimenez family expected to receive Alex Jimenez's body in five days.
"He's very thankful for everybody from the community in Lawrence and throughout the U.S. who have provided him support during the difficult time the family has been through during the past 14 months," Urena said of Andy Jimenez.
The three soldiers, from the Fort Drum, N.Y.-based 10th Mountain Division, disappeared May 12, 2007, after insurgents ambushed their combat team 20 miles outside Baghdad. An Iraqi soldier and four other Americans from the same unit were killed in the attack.
LONDON - Britain's Ministry of Defence has agreed to pay nearly three million pounds ($6 million) in compensation to a group of Iraqi civilians beaten and tortured by British troops in southern Iraq in 2003. The settlement, the first of its kind on such a scale paid by Britain to detainees in Iraq, follows years of legal proceedings brought by lawyers representing nine Iraqis, including the father of one who died while in British custody in the southern city of Basra.
The claimants will share 2.83 million pounds said, Leigh Day, the law firm representing them. "Our clients have been through hell over the last few years and this settlement will go someway to enabling them to have some semblance of a decent future life," Martyn Day, a senior partner with the firm, said in a statement.
The Ministry of Defence admitted in March that its troops had breached the human rights of the Iraqis, an admission that opened the way for negotiations on a settlement. In a statement, the ministry described the settlement as amicable and said it had been made along with an apology. "It is right that compensation has been agreed through mediation," a spokesman said. "The army has done a great deal since these cases to improve procedures and training."
The men were rounded up when British troops carried out a raid on a hotel in Basra in September 2003 looking for insurgents. They were detained for more than 36 hours, during which time they were violently interrogated, beaten and abused. One of the men, Baha Musa, the hotel receptionist, died after receiving 93 injuries, including a broken nose and broken ribs. He was 26 at the time and left two children. His wife had died two months earlier from a brain tumour.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/11/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Iraq to pay Britain nothing for saving their sorry asses from a Nazi dictatorship.
BAGHDAD - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan pledged on Thursday to boost ties with Iraq and urged the region to do more to help the Baghdad government rebuild after years of war. Erdogan is the first Turkish leader to visit Iraq in nearly 20 years. The Turkish leader said both Baghdad and Ankara wanted to form a "security area that would eliminate terrorist threats between the two countries".
Relations have often been strained by Kurdish PKK rebels who use northern Iraq to launch attacks into neighbouring Turkey.
"With regards to the terrorism of the PKK, we received support from the Iraqi government ... and the regional Kurdistan government in northern Iraq," Erdogan said at a news conference in remarks translated from Turkish into Arabic.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/11/2008 00:00 ||
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KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait said Thursday it would soon name an ambassador to Iraq in view of the improving security in the neighbouring country. The move to send an envoy to Iraq was in line with similar decisions taken by Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait's Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Jarallah told the state news agency KUNA. Kuwait, Bahrain and UAE are members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, a political and economic alliance that also includes Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman.
The move is another diplomatic triumph for the Iraqi government after the UAE named an ambassador to Baghdad and scrapped debts owed by Iraq estimated to be seven billion dollars, including interest payments.
It's a good week for the Iraqis. Increasing number of Gulf states are getting on board, the Turks are more willing to talk, the debts are being forgiven, and the al-Qaeda deaders are becoming just that in Mosul.
Bahrain said it would open a new embassy in Baghdad, but did not set a date. Jordan and Saudi Arabia have also signalled their intention to open their diplomatic missions in Iraq. No Arab country has had top diplomatic representation in Iraq since Egyptian ambassador, Ihab al-Sharif, was abducted and then killed shortly afterwards in 2005.
Jarallah said the new Kuwaiti embassy would likely be located in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, where the US and Iraqi cabinet and parliament and several ministries are located.
On Wednesday, Kuwait said it would hold talks with Iraq over reparations imposed on Baghdad for the invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Kuwait had previously agreed to consider Baghdad's request for reduction of compensation payments, of which Kuwait has so far received about 14 billion dollars. Iraq will still have to pay about 27 billion dollars in war reparations to its neighbour. A percentage of Iraq's oil revenues, initially set at 30 percent and then reduced to five percent, is diverted to a UN reparation body, which paid out millions of dollars in war claims to Iraq's neighbours.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/11/2008 00:00 ||
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The PA. They're the "good terrorists", right?
The Palestinian Authority has asked Israel to hand over the remains of Dalal Mughrabi, the Palestinian woman who led the March 11, 1978 coastal road attack in which 36 people were murdered and 71 wounded. On March 11, 1978, Mughrabi led a band of eleven terrorists who took boats from Lebanon and landed north of Tel Aviv. Upon landing, they met an American photographer, Gail Rubin. Their intended target was Tel Aviv so they asked her where they were. Once she told them, they murdered her.
They then hijacked a bus filled with families going on an outing, seemingly with the intent to take it to Tel Aviv. An IDF unit chased the bus and finally forced it to stop, and then the shootout began. Mughrabi and her gang started shooting passengers point-blank and then they firebombed the bus itself, trapping the passengers. At least 35 were killed, including 13 children, in what became known as the Coastal Road Massacre.
Israel is planning to deliver Mughrabi's remains, together with those of scores of Palestinians and Lebanese, to Hizbullah in the context of the new prisoner exchange between the two sides. The PA said in its request that it wanted to "honor" Mughrabi by holding a big funeral for her in Ramallah. How about a nice big airstrike on her funeral?
Azzam al-Ahmed, a senior Fatah official closely associated with PA President Mahmoud Abbas, described Mughrabi, whose family originally came from Jaffa, as a "the first Palestinian woman to carry out one of the most courageous operations in Israel." He claimed that in her will, Mughrabi, who belonged to Fatah, had asked her family to see to it that she was buried in "Palestine". Nice culture when all your big heroes are murderers.
"We want to turn Dalal's funeral into a national wedding, a major celebration," the Fatah official said. "The operation she carried out off the shores of her hometown of Jaffa was heroic and exemplary. She will always be remembered as a symbol for the Palestinian women's struggle." Hopefully, there's lots of casulties from all the gun sex.
Even if Israel refuses to deliver her remains to the PA in Ramallah, Fatah officials said they were planning to hold big celebrations throughout the West Bank to coincide with her funeral in Lebanon. Lot's of sweets will be handed out to the kiddos, I'm sure.
Ahmed also praised Lebanese prisoner Samir Kuntar for carrying out another terror attack in Israel one year after the 1978 carnage. He described Kuntar as a "stubborn and firm fighter in the ranks of the Lebanese resistance who led a very courageous operation." After taking the hostages, Kuntar's group took Danny and Einat down to the beach, where a shootout with Israeli policemen and soldiers erupted. Samir Kuntar shot the father, Danny, at close range in the back, in front of his daughter, and drowned him in the sea to ensure he was dead. Next, he smashed the head of 4 year-old Einat on beach rocks and crushed her skull with the butt of his rifle.
Since its inception, the PA has honored Mughrabi by naming many schools and various institutions after her. An article published in Thursday's edition of the PA-funded Al-Hayat Al-Jadedda newspaper hailed Mughrabi as a "living legend and a wonderful example for all women." ...and, by the way, can we have another couple of billion to support our lazy murdering asses?
The article criticized Hizbullah for agreeing to bury Mughrabi in Lebanon and not in the Palestinian territories. It said that someone like her deserved to be buried next to Yasser Arafat's grave in Ramallah. Oh, well. Maybe they can get together in hell and play gin or something?
#2
I agree. Let's have a BIG funeral, with lots of Hamas and Fatah bigwigs. Then let's have a big fireworks show, provided by the IAF. With the fireworks really close to the ground, for maximum effect.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
07/11/2008 14:03 Comments ||
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#3
Deliver her body strapped to a 10,000-lb "route clearance" bomb. Poetic justice, especially if it were delivered to Ramallah. These people are such sickos there's no cure for them. I wish we had another Australia, where we could maroon all of them for the "duration" - or until the Sun novas, whichever comes last.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/11/2008 15:21 Comments ||
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The prisoner exchange with Hezbollah is set to take place Wednesday or Thursday, at the Rosh Hanikra Israel-Lebanon border crossing, barring any last-minute changes.
The German mediator who brokered the deal, Gerhard Konrad, is expected to give Israeli negotiator Ofer Dekel the full report compiled by Hezbollah on missing Israeli airman Ron Arad Saturday, or even Friday, including clarifications requested by Israel. In return, Israel is to release a report on an Iranian journalist and three Iranian diplomats who were arrested during the first Lebanon War and executed following interrogations.
Dekel has been to Europe several times in recent weeks in connection to the report. He is expected to travel to the continent again this weekend.
Next week Israel will issue an official announcement on the plans to release Samir Kuntar and four Hezbollah militants held in Israel, in order to let those opposed to the exchange petition the High Court of Justice.
The report on Arad will be examined by Israeli intelligence officials before it is presented to the cabinet early next week, ahead of Tuesday's final vote on the exchange. Intelligence officials will present their opinions on the report to the cabinet.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2008 00:00 ||
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The Lebanese army moved on Friday into Bastara Farm, the only one of the occupied Shebaa Farms that the Israeli army evacuated when it pulled out of south Lebanon in 2000, an AFP correspondent said. Lebanese army vehicles and bulldozers could be seen moving for the first time into the farm, which lies some 300 metres (yards) away from other farms which Israel has occupied for more than 40 years. A road has been reconstructed to link this new position to other Lebanese army posts in the southeast of the country.
The Shebaa Farms, a mountainous sliver of land rich in water resources measuring 25 square kilometres (10 square miles), are located at the junction of southeast Lebanon, southwest Syria and northern Israel. Israel seized the Farms from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war when it captured the neighbouring Golan Heights which it later annexed. Ever since, the Farms have been caught in a tug-of-war over ownership. Lebanon claims them, with the backing of Damascus, while Israel says they are part of Syria.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, during a visit to Beirut last month, called for an end to the standoff. "The United States believes that the time has come to deal with the Shebaa Farms issue... in accordance with (UN Security Council Resolution) 1701," Rice said. Resolution 1701 brought an end to a devastating 33-day war between Israel and Hezbollah in summer 2006 And replaced it with a devastating peace, a UN specialty.
and called for the UN secretary general to propose a border demarcation for the Shebaa Farms.
Israel occupied south Lebanon for nearly 20 years until withdrawing its troops in May 2000, but it remained in the Shebaa. The United Nations ruled at the time that the withdrawal was complete and that the Farms were Syrian. A seven-point plan drawn up by Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora and adopted by the United Nations envisages placing the territory under UN administration while waiting for the three countries to resolve the issue.
Lebanon's President has praised Hezbollah for defending the country's sovereignty, saying labeling the group as terrorist is unacceptable. "Whoever defends his land and liberates it from occupation cannot be termed terrorist. I cannot accept this in any case," President Michel Suleiman said in an interview with France's Magazine L'Express.
Hezbies have just about won, haven't they ...
Earlier this month, the British government put the resistance group on its list of terrorist organizations, accusing Hezbollah of supporting terrorist groups in the region.
Suleiman said Hezbollah is a Lebanese political party and the national resistance is one of its wings. Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah earlier condemned the move by Britain, saying "It was a natural decision coming from a country which created the Zionist entity".
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2008 00:00 ||
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BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanon's prime minister has formed a national unity Cabinet in which Hezbollah and its allies have veto power over government decisions.
Prime Minister Fuad Saniora had been struggling to form a government since former army chief Gen. Michel Suleiman was elected president in May.
Saniora announced the Cabinet formation Friday in Beirut.
Hezbollah's veto power was part of an Arab League-brokered deal to achieve compromise between the U.S. and Western-backed parliamentary majority and Hezbollah-led opposition.
The NEFA Foundation has released a new report by NEFA Senior Investigator Evan Kohlmann titled Jihad Networks in Pakistan and Their Influence in Europe. The paper is based upon a presentation given by Mr. Kohlmann on July 10 before the III International Course on Jihad Terrorism: Contingency Plans and Response, organized by the Pablo Olavide University and the Granada University in Spain. It assesses the proliferation of jihad training camps in Pakistanparticularly in Waziristan and the region bordering Pakistani-controlled Kashmirand the subsequent impact that those training camps have had on the proliferation of terrorist networks in Western Europe.
#2
Great. The "Asian" communities of London, Paris and Berlin have a new send your angry unemployed twenty something to wakiliand summer camp. Can't wait till they get back
...and he's pissed off, dammit!
Osama bin Laden's deputy Al-Zawahri on Tuesday accused Hezbollah's Al-Manar television of starting a conspiracy theory that Israel was behind the 2001 suicide airplane hijacking against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. "The purpose of this lie is clear - [to suggest] that there are no heroes among the Sunnis who can hurt America as no else did in history. Iranian media snapped up this lie and repeated it," he said in a lengthy audiotape posted on an Islamic web site. The tape could not be immediately confirmed as authentic, but the voice sounded like past audiotapes from the terror leader. Are ya listening, Troofers?
With reference to Hamas' apparent readiness to agree to a peace agreement with Israel, pending a referendum, Al-Zawahri expressed scathing criticism, branding it was a violation of Islamic law. "As for peace agreements with Israel, they [Hamas] spoke of putting it to a referendum despite considering it a breach of the Sharia [Islamic law]," Al-Zawahri said. "How can they put a matter that violates Sharia to a referendum?" he added in the message, the second in a two-part series to answer about 100 questions put to him via online militant forums. Dear Doc. It burns when I pee. Whaddya think the problem is?
Al-Zawahri also called on Sunni militants in Lebanon to attack UN peacekeepers, whom he labeled "the invading Crusaders who pretend to be peacekeeping forces in Lebanon and not to accept resolution 1701." We can't do that, doc. How else will we get our guns in?
The Al-Qaida leader was referring to the UN resolution that ended Second Lebanon War between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah in the summer of 2006. A 13,500-strong UN force, known as UNIFIL, monitors the truce in southern Lebanon. ...and a damn fine job they do, lemme tell ya.
"The road is long but they have to break the siege imposed on them and to shove their way to Palestine," al-Zawahri said, referring to militants in Lebanon. ...and make sure you lemme know how you make out.
Lebanese Sports Minister Ahmed Fatfat told Al-Arabiya television that al-Zawahri's comments were "very dangerous and a bad omen for the Lebanese." The Sports Minister?
In the message, Zawahri also warned that Al-Qaida still has plans to target Western countries involved in the Iraq war. Asked by one of his followers if the terror group still had plans to attack Western countries that participated in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and subsequent war, al-Zawahri said "my answer is: Yes! We think that any country joined aggression on Muslims must be deterred." Asked if there are any women in Al-Qaida, the terror leader answered simply "no." They can't run too good in those sacks. What do you think we are? Like that movie where Demi Moore joins the SEALS?
The tape Tuesday was the second time that al-Zawahri has answered the more than 900 questions submitted on extremist Internet sites by Al-Qaida supporters, critics and journalists in December. In a first response earlier this month, al-Zawahri rejected the criticism of attacks by the terror network's followers, which have killed thousands, and maintained that the group does not kill innocent people. Nope. If Big Mo didn't want them dead, they wouldn't have died when we blew them up. InshAllah...
In another answer Tuesday, al-Zawahri said it was against Islamic religious law for any Muslim to live permanently in a Western country because in doing so they would have permanent stay there under the laws of the infidels. Does that mean we can start shipping them out?
Posted by: Mike ||
07/11/2008 14:35 Comments ||
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#2
The lie that 4,000 Jewish employees of the World Trade Center were given a holiday on 9-11, appeared on al-Manar TV only hours after the Muslim massacre.
South Lebanon was Christian and Druze until the UN began subsidizing Arab terror. If we had leaders with balls, we could boot Hizbollah out.
Terrorist entities like Saudi Arabia and Iran only exist because their existence serves elite interests. Damn anyone who believes the Carter' "common faiths of Abraham" BS. Ask yourselves why the fact that Muslims treat Jewish and Christian holy texts as Satanic distortions, cannot impact on your brain.
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.
The fiancée of one of the leaders of the failed July 21 suicide attacks in London has been sentenced to three years in jail for helping him escape in a burka.
Hugo Chavez is offering to help mediate possible peace talks between Colombia and The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). 
A federal government official who dispatched an envoy to Guantanamo Bay to visit al-Qaeda suspect Omar Khadr says his department lost an early bid to keep the teenager out of the controversial U.S. prison camp. In an interview, Gar Pardy,
The military will start the process of pulling out troops from Swat district from August, but complete withdrawal will not take place until the Awami National Party-led government "certifies marked change in ground situations from a security perspective", a military source said on Thursday.
BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Property prices are creeping higher, shops are staying open later and more schoolchildren are skipping class to help out in their parents' businesses.
U.S. Commanders in Iraq Warn of Security Dangers, See Logistical Nightmare
The bodies of two U.S. soldiers missing in Iraq for more than a year have been found, their families said Thursday night. The military would not immediately confirm the report. 
The Lebanese army moved on Friday into Bastara Farm, the only one of the occupied Shebaa Farms that the Israeli army evacuated when it pulled out of south Lebanon in 2000, an AFP correspondent said. Lebanese army vehicles and bulldozers could be seen moving for the first time into the farm, which lies some 300 metres (yards) away from other farms which Israel has occupied for more than 40 years. A road has been reconstructed to link this new position to other Lebanese army posts in the southeast of the country.
