Chinese authorities denied claims by a group calling itself the Turkistan Islamic Party that it was responsible for deadly bus explosions in Shanghai and Yunnan province ahead of the Olympic Games, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday. The group released a video threatening the Beijing Olympic Games and claiming responsibility for deadly bus explosions in Shanghai and in Yunnan's Kunming, a terrorism monitoring firm in Washington said on Friday. But Xinhua reported that a police investigation of the Shanghai blast on May 5 had nothing to do with "terrorist attacks".
The blast, which killed three people and wounded 12, was caused by inflammables such as oil, Cheng Jiulong, Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau deputy head, was quoted by Xinhua as saying. "The blast was indeed deliberate but had nothing to do with terrorist attacks," he said.
IntelCenter, a U.S.-based terrorism monitoring firm, said the group had released a video entitled "Our Blessed Jihad in Yunnan", featuring a statement by the group's leader, Commander Seyfullah, threatening next month's Olympics. "Despite the Turkistan Islamic Party's repeated warnings to China and international community about stopping the 29th Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese have haughtily ignored our warnings," IntelCenter quoted Seyfullah as saying.
Seyfullah said the group bombed two public buses in Shanghai on May 5 and "took action against police" in Wenzhou on July 17 with a tractor loaded with explosives. The group also bombed a plastics factory in Guangzhou on July 17 and bombed three public buses in Yunnan on July 21, according to IntelCenter. The Xinhua report did not specifically address the group's other claims.
"The Turkistan Islamic Party warns China one more time," Seyfullah said, according to the IntelCenter transcript. "Our aim is to target the most critical points related to the Olympics. We will try to attack Chinese central cities severely using the tactics that have never been employed." He urged spectators and athletes "particularly the Muslims" planning to attend the Olympics to change their minds.
The warning comes two weeks before the start of the Beijing Games on August 8.
#3
#2: Or those violent and radical Presbyterians.
If only! I'd love to see the day when the Presbyterians would become "violent and radical" about their religion, instead of being namby-pamby milque-toast appeasers for Christianity.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/26/2008 14:45 Comments ||
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Sen. Barack Obama urged Iran Friday to "end its illicit nuclear program" or face increased pressure from a unified international community, and he warned Tehran not to "wait for the next president" before accepting proposals to resolve a stalemate with Western countries.
In a joint news conference after conferring with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the presumptive Democratic candidate for president highlighted the "extraordinarily grave situation" resulting from Iran's pursuit of a uranium enrichment program, which the United States and its allies fear could be used eventually to build nuclear weapons. The Illinois senator said he found "uniform concern about Iran" in his meetings with leaders in the Middle East and Europe during a seven-country tour that concludes in Britain Saturday.
Obama also said that "Afghanistan is a war that we have to win" because al-Qaeda and the radical Islamic Taliban movement cannot be allowed to establish new havens for planning "terrorist attacks . . . that could affect Paris or New York."
"So we don't have a choice," Obama said. "We've got to finish the job." He said the United States "needs to send two additional brigades at least" to Afghanistan and praised Sarkozy for his willingness to send more French troops to the country.
A day after a speech in Berlin before an estimated 200,000 people, Obama used the news conference to press his call for greater U.S.-European cooperation and to portray a possible Obama administration as one that would listen to its allies and seek consensus in dealing with problems, such as global warming, that require an international effort.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Waalll, snoot to you, too, pal. If ever anyone was overwhelmed with unjustified arrogance, it's Oblabla. Give odds that within a week he'll be opining about the necessity to accommodate Iran's legitimate demands for respect for its sovereign rights. Or some such BS.
And then a fruit bat will fly up his nose and eat his brains.
{One of the above statements is wishful thinking.}
Posted by: Brian H ||
07/26/2008 1:51 Comments ||
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#2
Caption for your pic: "Admire my nostrils, peasants!"
Posted by: Brian H ||
07/26/2008 2:57 Comments ||
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#3
Photographer:
More chin please. Sir look this way please. To the right now. More chin, more, more, up, up, up,....uppity, uppity, uppity. That's it!!!
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Friday laughed shrugged off a reward for her arrest as a war criminal announced by disaffected university slackers students freeloading off Mumsy and Dadsy ahead of a visit to New Zealand. "Protest is a part of democratic society and student protests are particularly a long honoured tradition in democratic society," Rice told a news conference in the West Australian capital Perth. "And I can only say that the United States has done everything that it can to, in this war on terror, live up to our international and our national laws and obligations."
New Zealand university bugwits students had earlier offered blood money a reward for anyone foolish enough to be carrying out a citizen's arrest on Rice after her arrival late Friday for talks with Prime Minister Helen Clark on Saturday. Auckland University Student Association (AUSA) president David Do Do said the reward of 5,000 New Zealand dollars (3,725 US) was being offered to the usual rubes for Rice's arrest for her role in "overseeing the illegal invasion and continued occupation" of Iraq.
With any luck David will someday get to live in a country that matches his rhetoric. At some point shortly after that he'll either be dead or be a refugee drifting in a leaky boat in the South Pacific.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Five grand? I'm insulted! That's cheap even for a bunch of lefty slackers. You would think that Soros or Ted Turner could spare at least a measly million or two for the comrades in Helengrad.
This offer is kind of interesting in light of yesterday's attempt by American terror-tools to "arrest" Karl Rove.
It would appear that vigilante action has succeeded the pink tank as a leading protest fad.
Btw, four of Rove's would-be captors were themselves arrested, while Rove was still free at last report.
#6
Auckland University Student Association (AUSA) president David Do said the reward of 5,000 New Zealand dollars (3,725 US) was being offered for Rices arrest for her role in overseeing the illegal invasion and continued occupation of Iraq.
Illegal invasion? New Zealand loons have the same mantra that our loons have.
Christians are considered 'Westerners' in Pakistan despite their efforts in the country's independence movement and nation building, said Community Development Initiatives (CDI) Executive Director Asif Aqeel at a seminar on Friday.
That's likely because Christians, by their outlook, are oriented to things that are traditionally associated with the West: freedom to think and freedom to question being the most important.
Provincial Minorities Minister Kamran Michael, Forman Christian College University (FCCU) Vice Rector Dr CJ Dubash, US Consulate Political and Economic Affairs Officer Antone C Greubel, St Anthony's High School Principal Shanti Maxwell and Father Abid Habid were present at the seminar, titled 'Socio-economic Challenges Faced by Christians'.
Aqeel said that about 90 percent of Christians had converted from the lowest stratum of the Hindu society, called the scheduled caste in the middle of the 19th century. He said, "It is also an interesting fact that these Christians are aboriginals and the remnants of the Indus Valley Civilisation. It was the Aryan conquest that brought these people to the status where they were considered untouchables." Keeping this heritage in mind, he said, Pakistani Muslims should understand that their fellow Christian countrymen had nothing to do with the West.
He lamented that after 9/11, churches and Christian schools had been targeted. "More than 20 Christians were abducted in Peshawar recently during worship."
At the time of independence, Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah met Christian leader Chandu Lal to get the minorities' support for Pakistan. Chandu Lal assured Jinnah of the Christian community's support, Aqeel said.
He further said Christians had supported democracy because it was the only way to transform Pakistan in accordance with Jinnah's ideals. He said the Quaid had envisioned a state where people were not discriminated on the basis of their caste, colour, creed or gender.
Dr Dubash said that nations could not grow without education and if they focused on education, they became indispensable. He added that Pakistanis should focus on learning the English language because it had become the lingua franca.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Last I heard, Pakistan students spend one third of school time studying the Koran and Arabic. And its worse in the Madrasas.
Paradox: Pakistani immigrants to the West remain Islamic; Persian (Iran) immigrants tend to abandon the Arab murder cult. Wonder why?
#2
That's likely because Christians, by their outlook, are oriented to things that are traditionally associated with the West: freedom to think and freedom to question being the most important.
I think the pink (I mean salmon, yes, salmon, that's right, it's important we all pretend it's salmon) inlining Doc is over-thinking this, in all due respect. It's most likely it's a very primal case of "Us vs Them", Christians there are not "us", therefore, they're part of the ennemy. It's not what Christians think (and IIRC, many usually are at the bottom of society thanks to paki tolerance, so I don't believe they're that "progressive" thinking, it's wishful thinking at least in some part), it's what they are.
#4
But what makes the Paks 'us' and the Christians 'them'?
Religion, of course.
Not that the Paks need any reason to get uppity and go for their shooting irons, but the Christians are different because they're a different faith. They think differently and that makes them act differently. And in Pakistan, that's all it takes.
Or just marrying the wrong cousin, I dunno ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/26/2008 10:17 Comments ||
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#5
They think differently and that makes them act differently. And in Pakistan, that's all it takes.
I don't want to seem to be nitpicking, but again, it's probable they don't even act very differently from other paks on several levels (cf. the honor killing by a Christian father a while back), though the hardwiring must be different (better education, possibly, don't know if they're indoctrined with the same mix of pak religious ethno-nationalism?).
It's not what they do, but what they are : infidels living in the land of the pure, AND, they're Christians, that is, they hail from the same religion than the Great Satan, the filthy danish dogs, all the devils that are besieging the Master Religion.
IIUC, back in the Olden Days, dhimmis were perceived very differently according on if they were joooooooos or Christians; jews were the arch-dhimmis, and while their status was often very low (like in northern africa, where they had to live in secluded town areas, had to walk barefooted, were to be stoned at will by the local kiddies, etc, etc), they had more leeway and could become more involved in society, like in slave trade. The Christians, on the other hand, were seen as being part of the western ennemy, even though like the jews they were the actual indigenous people, and were treated as a potential fifth column.
I think this is the exact same pattern here. If the pak Christians were a vanilla minority, they would be treated with the usual Tolerance, but, on top of that, they're dumped with the ennemies of islam (and even if the West doesn't see itself as the ennemy of islam, important thing is joe islam sees the West as an ennemy of islam). It's really not what they do. That's why when the danish mo' cartoons were published, the local rubes went into the Christian ghettos/neighbourhoods to riot and wreck havoc (remember that woman who was potentially sentenced to death because she filed a police complaint after having been stripped naked, and the local pious muslims accused her of soiling a pic of the Kaaba with feces? Not that the story was important enough for the international msm to report this, less even follow it...)... because, they were "them", regardless of what they do, think, act, believe,...
Cf. this for lot of meat on the idea of "us vs them" societies : Augean Stables » Prime Divider Societies
#6
That's likely because Christians, by their outlook, are oriented to things that are traditionally associated with the West: freedom to think and freedom to question being the most important.
Which reminds me that IIRC, arab nationalism & baathism were created and pushed mostly by arab Christians (michel aflak firstly, of course), because it was seen as a way of overcoming the disctinction between Christians and the Master Race (exactly as IMHO lotsa jews in the 19th & early 20th century embrassed socialism and marxism, because this was seen consciously or not as a way to "transcend" the distinction between the minority jews and the majority Christians by going into a larger non-disctinctive socialist utopia of some sort, this was most probably true in russia, with the predominetntly jewish bolsheviks supremos).
Again, all this was futile, and panarabism didn't help arab Christians escape their condition, because, again, it's not what they do or believe, it's what they are.
The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) peace jirga in the Tirah Valley of the Khyber Agency will meet party chief Fazlur Rehman after completing negotiations with militants on Friday.
Jirga members will inform Fazl of the progress in talks with Ansarul Islam (AI) and Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) and seek his guidance for furthering the "peace process", JUI-F NWFP Information Secretary Haji Jalil Jan told Daily Times.
Sources said that JUI-F jirga failed to break the ice mainly because of the cold response from the AI of Qazi Mahboob. A source privy to the three-day negotiations at an undisclosed location in Khyber Agency said, "No prominent leader of the AI met the jirga members during their three-day stay in the area." The source said that the jirga members managed to meet only leaders and nominees of the LI of Bara-based warlord Mangal Bagh.
The jirga, headed by JUI-F NWFP Secretary General Maulana Shujaul Mulk, had launched their peace initiative in the Tribal Areas soon after the conclusion of the Bara operation. Without being able to arrange a truce between the two warring factions despite visits to the Tirah Valley, the jirga will now make another effort to meet representatives of the AI and discuss their peace formula, said the source. More than 60 people have been killed in fighting between the two militant outfits in the remote valley during the last month.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2008 00:00 ||
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The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) will not launch operation against the NWFP government after the expiry of the deadline that they had issued, Online quoted TTP spokesman Maulvi Omar as saying. He said that the TTP had decided to "sincerely review the behaviour of the NWFP government". He said that the decision was taken during a session of Taliban Shura presided over by TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2008 00:00 ||
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The Lal Masjid administration started to conduct classes for Jamia Hafsa students in tents on Friday, as a petition demanding contempt of court proceedings against officials responsible for flouting a Supreme Court (SC) order to reconstruct the Jamia Hafsa was filed in the apex court.
Around 100 students attended the classes of Daura-e-Hadith. However, the administration announced that the city district government was forcing them to abandon their plans to conduct such classes in future.
Lal Masjid deputy cleric Aamir Saddique told Daily Times that the district government was pressuring the administration to abandon its plans to conduct future classes, while also stalling on rebuilding the madrassa, in violation of SC orders.
He said that the clerics would implement a strategy to set up the tents on the site of the demolished madrassa if the government did not meet their demands.
When contacted, Additional Deputy Commissioner Rana Akbar Hayat confirmed that the administration was trying to convince Lal Masjid clerics to abandon their tents and await a government decision. He also said: "It was not appropriate to initiate the classes in a tent village."
The court petition filed by Dr Akmal Saleemi through advocate Tariq Asad under Article 204 of the Constitution has named the interior secretary, the Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman and the chief commissioner of Islamabad as respondents.
The petitioner prayed the court that, apart from initiating contempt of court proceedings, the respondents should also be ordered to reconstruct the Jamia Hafsa. He said that until it was completely reconstructed, the students should be accommodated at the Jamia Faridia.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
And here I thought Reconstruction ended in SC in 1877... :))
He is reclusive like Taliban leader Mullah Omar and popular like al-Qaeda's Osama bin Laden, and he pledges his allegiance to both. This is Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, whom the Pakistani security agencies have tried their best to engage, but he remains defiant, so much so that he is even suspected of being an agent for India's Research and Analysis intelligence agency.
Baitullah, who operates in the South Waziristan tribal area on the border with Afghanistan, has frequently fallen out with the Afghan Taliban for directing his jihadis against the Pakistani security forces rather than sending them to Afghanistan.
Initially, this pleased American and European intelligence agencies as he turned the tide from the Afghan battlefield to Pakistan. But now Baitullah is viewed with extreme suspicion as he has proved to be a man who always achieves what he sets out to do, and jihadis from around the world are flooding into his camps to be trained for global jihad. This in turn has allayed the fears of the Afghan Taliban, who realize they will be ensured a smooth supply of fighters to Afghanistan. For these reasons, Baitullah is now a marked man.
Over the past few months, Pakistani security agencies and coalition leaders from Afghanistan have shared intelligence in an attempt to track down Baitullah and pinpoint where he gets his resources, but he remains elusive.
All the same, this has not diminished his effectiveness. Last week, for instance, security forces were sent to the Hangu district of North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) after the government announced it was reneging on peace deals and launching an all-out offensive against militants in NWFP. Mehsud called a meeting in South Waziristan of all powerful commanders from the Pakistani tribal agencies and announced that the minute any attack was mounted anywhere against militants, offensives would be launched against the Pakistani security forces in the tribal areas as well as on the federal capital, Islamabad, and on the leadership and allies of the leading party in the ruling coalition, the Pakistan People's Party.
Further, President Pervez Musharraf and his associates and anyone connected with the storming in Islamabad last year of the radical Lal Masjid (Red Mosque), which was pro-Taliban, would also be targeted.
Subsequently, the Pakistani security agencies advised the government to immediately withdraw the forces. The reasoning was that Pakistan could withstand pressure from the United States to act against militants, but it could not win a showdown with Baitullah. A high-level meeting presided over by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani agreed.
The problem now is to hunt down Baitullah, who is also wanted in connection with the assassination last year of former premier Benazir Bhutto and other attacks.
Using Baitullah's differences with some regional commanders - Baitullah comes from the Mehsud, one of the four sub-tribes of the Waziri - Pakistan tried to erect a web of opposition around him, but none survived. The Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) also tried to sow seeds of enmity against Baitullah, without success. Haji Omar, once a powerful chief of the Taliban in South Waziristan and also a Wazir, tried to challenge Baitullah's command, but he now lives in exile in North Waziristan, without forces or resources.
Haji Nazeer, another Wazir, who runs the biggest Pakistani Taliban fighting network in Afghanistan, also tried to confront Baitullah, at the behest of the security forces, but he failed. Last month, Baitullah drove out all tribes related to Haji Nazeer from South Waziristan.
Now that Baitullah is unchallenged in South Waziristan, he aims to broaden his network. He has raised his presence in neighboring North Waziristan and the biggest network of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Haqqani faction, has no choice but to side with Baitullah.
The Swat Valley's Mullah Fazlullah has also announced Baitullah as his chief mentor, and after wiping out the ISI-backed Shah group from Mohmand Agency, Baitullah's men are calling the shots in Orakzai Agency, Mohamand Agency and Darra Adam Khail in NWFP.
With each consolidation of Baitullah's power, Islamabad, along with its Western allies, becomes all the more convinced that he has to be eliminated, otherwise there can never be any sustained military operations against militants in the tribal areas. His demise would also lead to the disintegration of the Taliban's and al-Qaeda's networks in the tribal areas, leaving only weakened stand-alone outfits.
Baitullah is well aware that he is now public enemy number one. A senior Pakistani affiliate of al-Qaeda, now close to Baitullah, told Asia Times Online, "It is not Baitullah Mehsud's style to hide when people sniff around him. He will open the floodgates of offensives and if there is a conspiracy between Islamabad and the political and military leadership, they will taste Baitullah's response."
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
You choose the pie and you will get cake death.
(APP): Advisor to Prime Minister on Interior Rehman A Malik said on Friday said upto 40 commanders of Al-Qaeda including Amjad and Rafi had been arrested during operations in Hangu and Bara, while 17 security personnel embraced martyrdom.
Malik was talking to journalist at Chaklala Air Base while seeing off the Foreign Minister of United Arab Emirates. Secretary Interior Syed Kamal Shah was also present. The Advisor said government would go for negotiations to sort out problems of FATA, but he cautioned of stern actions should peace deals done between NWFP Government and tribals fail.
He said operation in Hangu, which was meant for establishing writ of the State there, was conducted on the request of NWFP Government.
Malik told that during his upcoming visit to USA would he discuss strategies against terrorism. He dispelled the impression that the UAE Foreign Minister came to Pakistan for any kind of reconciliation.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2008 00:00 ||
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U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has suggested that a surge in violence by the Taliban in Afghanistan had its roots in the lawless tribal areas along the border with Pakistan. The authorities in Islamabad were urged to do more to bring the region under its control.
Rice insists that despite the hostile terrain, the Pakistanis must do more. "There's an uptick in terrorism, not just against forces but against the Afghan people and in that regard everybody needs to do more but Pakistan does need to do more. That border, we understand that it's difficult, we understand that the northwest frontier area is difficult but militants cannot be allowed to organise there and to plan there and to engage across the border and so more needs to be done."
This blunt message to Islamabad comes just a few days before Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani is to meet U.S. President George Bush in Washington. The Pakistani government has said it will not allow its soil to be used by extremists or for them to launch attacks into neighbouring Afghanistan. It has also resisted suggestions that American or other foreign troops should be deployed in the region to combat the Taliban.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2008 00:00 ||
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NB : for an israeli view of islamic prisoners.
For years, extremist Iraqi detainees in U.S. custody held self-styled Islamic courts and tortured or killed inmates who refused to join them, military officials said, disclosing new details about the use of American prisons to recruit for the insurgency.
Sorta like what happens in an American maximum security pen with the gangs ...
The problem became the main catalyst for a decision to separate moderate detainees from the extremists, part of a broader reform package aimed at correcting widespread U.S. prison abuses that sparked international criticism. Yes, this is AP.
"We were having people who weren't insurgents who were being forced to be insurgents because of the power of these courts, the power of al-Qaida and other extremist groups," said Lt. Col. Kenneth Plowman, a spokesman for Task Force 134, which operates coalition detention facilities in Iraq.
He told The Associated Press Friday that the jailhouse Sharia courts formed, despite the presence of U.S guards, to enforce an extreme interpretation of Islamic law. They were then used to convict moderate inmates, who were then tortured or killed, he said.
In comments published in the Sierra Vista Herald in Arizona, Brig. Gen. Rodney L. Johnson, commander of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, put the number of detainees tried by the courts in the double-digits. Neither he nor Plowman would give specific numbers. The courts were eradicated and none has been detected in six months although some gang-related issues persist, Plowman said.
"We have a detainee population of about 21,000. You're gonna have extremists who will find a way to communicate and to form these kind of organizations," he added. But he said guards had stepped up to block efforts to form new courts.
The classification of detainees into moderate and extremist groups was part of sweeping reforms launched by the former commander of detainee operations, Maj. Gen. Douglas Stone, in a bid to overcome a series of scandals over the treatment of detainees in U.S. custody. It also was in line with a new counterinsurgency strategy by the Americans that focused on isolating the general population from the militants to stem support for the fighting.
"The problem's been apparent and when Stone took command that was one of his first initiatives--to separate out the detainees into categories like moderate, extremists etc. in order to resolve this issue," Plowman said. "There hasn't been any real Sharia court for six months or so."
Allegations of abuse at U.S. prisons escalated in 2004 with the release of pictures of grinning U.S. soldiers posing with detainees at the Abu Ghraib facility west of Baghdad. Some were naked, being held on leashes or in painful and sexually humiliating positions. That prison has since been closed, and 11 U.S. soldiers were convicted of breaking military laws, and five others were disciplined in the scandal.
Stone expressed regret over the old U.S. policies during a June 1 news conference, shortly before relinquishing command to Rear Adm. Garland Wright. "By not emphasizing population protection and the exemplary treatment of detainees, our facilities became breeding grounds for extremist recruitment. As a result, we changed many of our practices," he said.
Reforms also included educational and vocational programs in a bid to rehabilitate less dangerous prisoners, as well as increased releases under amnesty programs. Plowman said the inmates are thoroughly vetted by a series of interrogations by Muslim clerics and prison board members to determine to which category they should be assigned.
The overall number of detainees has fallen from a peak of 26,000 last summer to just over 21,000, according to officials. The problem was concentrated at Camp Bucca--a facility in southern Iraq that holds 18,000 of the inmates, including some of the most dangerous--and the courts were usually led by al-Qaida in Iraq, Plowman said. He said the problem had been happening since U.S. detainee operations began in 2004.
As some of you may know my best friend is an Iraqi Kurdish-American and a good friend of Jalal Talibani. What our lazy MSM does not tell you is why the Kurds are upset about the new election law.
The Parliament passed the law that does not allow elections in Kirkuk Province but instead appoints all leaders based on a formula of 25% Kurds, 25% Arabs, 25% Turkuman, and 25% Assyrians. Kirkuk is 65% Kurd and the Turkuman and Assyrians make up less than 15% combined. This was all passed with less than a quorum.
It would be like a minority of Congress telling DC it could no longer elect its local leaders. But, instead they were going to be appointed by Congress to govern the District based on a formula of 25% Black, 25% White, 25% Asian and 25% Hispanic. I'm sure the Blacks would be as upset as the Kurds are in Iraq.
BAGHDAD - Iraq's political party leaders are being asked to study objections to a draft provincial elections law and offer proposals within 48 hours.
Khalid al-Attiya, a deputy parliament speaker, says the parties and various committees are being asked to help end disputes that have held up the elections planned for this fall. A main sticking point is how to allocate local council seats in the disputed city of Kirkuk.
Saturday's move hopes to break the political deadlock and clear the way for the elections which are strongly supported by Washington as a step toward political reconciliation.
The elections were scheduled for Oct. 1, but election officials say it appears that the voting could be put off to December or later.
#1
Bad analogy, GB. Actually, Congress is SUPPOSED to appoint the government of Washington, DC. They've opted out, but the Constitution still says it's their responsibility.
I think what Baghdad's trying to do here is to ensure that the Kurds don't hold 100% of the government jobs, since they're a majority in the district. The central government could have done so in a much more respectable and discrete manner, but then, most of the Shiites aren't happy with not being 100% in charge, and many of the Sunnis feel the same way.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/26/2008 15:12 Comments ||
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#2
Fact is DC leaders are elected, so what if the congress gave their responsibility a by.
In the mean time maybe Basra should have their leaders appointed so the Shiites don't use their majority to run the place. How about Anbar, to keep the Sunni's from controlling the Province. And, how about California so the liberal Democrats would not hold control of most of the State.
The Palestinian Authority is considering cutting off its diplomatic contacts with Israel and unilaterally declaring statehood, the Arabic-language a-Sharq al-Awset daily reported on Friday. "In light of the crisis we have encountered in talks with Israel, the Authority is testing a number of options," one Palestinian official told the daily. According to the report, the Palestinian Authority is also re-evaluating how to proceed with consolidating its security services.
Salah Rafat, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) council told the daily that "The Palestinian leadership will be able to make a clear and serious decision regarding the peace process," following trilateral talks in Washington next week.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday there was still time to reach a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians by the end of 2008.
Rice said the trilateral peace talks next week between the United States, Israel and the Palestinian Authority should be closed to offer the best hope of progress.
Rice said the latest round of talks which began in Annapolis in the United States in November 2007 had laid a "firm foundation on which these two parties can finally end their conflict."
"There is still time for them, in accordance with the Annapolis, to reach agreement by the end of the year and we will keep working towards that goal," Rice told a news conference in Perth in western Australia on Friday.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
A state that still wants their electricity and fuel for free from Israel . That kind of state?
The Philippine government and the largest Muslim rebel group failed to reach a pact on Friday to create an ancestral home for 3 million Muslims in the country's south, both sides said.
Such an agreement is seen as vital for a resumption of formal peace talks, but would not guarantee the end of a near 40-year-old conflict that has killed 120,000 people and displaced 2 million on the resource-rich island of Mindanao.
"We failed to settle the old issues after two days of hard bargaining," Mohaqher Iqbal, chief negotiator of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said after talks in Kuala Lumpur brokered by the Malaysian government.
"The talks collapsed because the government was undoing already-settled issues. The signing ceremony set for August 5 was cancelled," he told Reuters. "They're trying to re-open discussions on what had been agreed upon."
Friday's breakdown came a week after both sides reported a breakthrough on the issue following several days of talks. Malaysian and Philippine foreign ministers had been due to witness the signing of the pact on August 5.
A Malaysian government source said the two sides became deadlocked over the issue of territorial rights. "To everyone's surprise, the Philippine government re-visited the territorial issues which took us 14 months to resolve," the source said. "The territorial issue ... has created an impasse and led to the collapse."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/26/2008 00:00 ||
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About 15,000 sailors will be involved in Operation Brimstone. Both the Roosevelt and Iwo Jima will be deployed in the Middle East in the coming months. The exercise is scheduled to end July 31, two days before the US-European ultimatum to Iran expires. Immediately after the Geneva talks ended in failure, the US State Department issued a statement giving Tehran the option of "cooperation or confrontation."
A partial blockade of Iran's shores, a key element of the new sanctions, would be limited to withholding from Iran supplies of benzene and other refined oil products - not foodstuffs or other commodities. Short of refining capacity, Iran has to import 40 percent of its benzene consumption and will be forced to react to the stoppage.
Operation Brimstone boasts two striking features:
1. It will include for the first time units of the US Expeditionary Combat Command, who are trained to operate in shallow coastal waters and rivers, such as the coastal waters of the Persian Gulf and the small islands around its chokepoint, the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian Revolutionary Guards marine units are posted on these islands. The international force will have to control the islands to ensure oil shipping freed passage out to world markets.
2. The Roosevelt's decks will for the first time host French Rafale fighter jets which will share space with US warplanes, while the only French carrier Charles de Gaulle undergoes maintenance. I can't imagine that's going to be fun for the Navy. Spares and so on. Plus the unwashed French pilots will stink up the mess halls.
Does the Chicken of the Seaever get out of port?
Our military sources note that French warplanes have in the past performed short landings and takeoff drills on US carriers from the Charles de Gaulle, but never before taken part in a fully cooperative operational exercise.
This joint endeavor signifies that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is fully committed to a joint US-European military action if necessary to halt Iran's progress toward a nuclear weapon. Go Sarkozy.
#1
Plus the unwashed French pilots will stink up the mess halls.
Gee, I hope seeing all those nimble french pilots won't do too much harm to the self-esteem of all those obese, lazy americans! And I hope too that when they tell them they come from France, they will have at least an approximate idea of where the country is, and not think it's an US State from the other coast!
#2
On second thought, I should have added something about Viet Nam, because in Europe, everyone knows that the US soldier can't fight, and has to rely on technology and massive firepower to overcome even a rag-tag opponent!/see, I can do it too II
#3
All Rafale training was made in USA. Also French carroers have E-2C Hawkeyes. Oh and btw i think Rafales are better than F-18 which isnt suprising they are newer.
#4
Plus the unwashed French pilots will stink up the mess halls.
Deck-scrubbing brushes and harsh laundry soap, operated by some of the tougher Boatswain's Mates or guys from the Marine detachment, should go a long way to correcting & discouraging Frankish scrounginess...
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
07/26/2008 13:57 Comments ||
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#5
Ulolump...Most Super Hornet drivers will tell you that it's a pig...it does nothing really well, and is marginal in a lot of phases of flight and mission. I have a couple of buddies who have had some harrowing cat shots.
#7
agreed. Thanks to the French for the joint exercise. I believe Sarkozy is doing good things over there, and it's disrespectful to throw the slurs at our resident French RBers, who I like...yes, even you, Kevin ;-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/26/2008 16:47 Comments ||
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#8
Perhaps the French pilots will be kind enough to bring some tidbits for the mess hall, or whatever it's called on American carriers. I imagine the sailors and pilots will have lots of fun together making the Iranians even more nervous than they already are.
/now children, you know you love one another, so behave! ;-)
#9
Love one another? I don't think so. Perhaps if Sarkozy had not meddled in our election by paying obeisance to the Obamessiah, but I still eat Freedom Fries.
#12
Ive posted pix here of French interop flights. Its not new. But it is good to have the French on our side rather than in our way.
Watch this before you diss the french pilots. These guys can flat out fly, low and in there, star wars style.
If I were the Iranian air defense guys, this footage would give me nightmares. Without an overhead look-down radar, they'd never see these guys coming.
Pardon the crappy eurodisco. turn down the sound and just watch.
Israel has been preparing to deal with the Iranian S-300s, including practicing against S-300s operated by the Greek armed forces. The S-300 has never had any combat experience, although it looks good on paper. Russia has done a lot of realistic testing of the S-300, but never had it confront a Western air force possessing equipment designed to defeat the Russian system. So developments in Iran are being watched closely by air defense experts around the globe.
The Su-34 is 1980's technology. It first flew in 1990. It has the same engines as the Su-27 with a maximum speed of Mach 1.8.
It's a 2-seat (in a highly unusual side-by-side arrangement and the pressurized (to 10 thousand meters) cabin is large enough to allow the crew to stand up and move around during large missions and there is a small toilet and galley reportedly between the seats) dedicated fighter-bomber intended to replace the Su-24. So far, the Russians themselves have only purchased 2 of the beasts and only 70 are slated for deployment by 2015 with possibly 200 in service by 2020.
It has an impressive weapons loadout, but is primarily intended to be a strike bomber, not an air-to-air fighter. It's cockpit arrangement is a "glass cockpit" design and its has some impressive avionics, a rearward facing radar, and an infrared missile detection system. Maximum range w/3 inflight refuelings is about 14 thousand km, supposedly, 4 thousand unrefueled.
In air-to-air combat against the Raptor the Su-34 is dog meat.
But, let the Chinese continue to believe what they want to. It'll make their pilots that much more overconfident and that's exactly the sort of thing US pilots love.
#3
#1 ION CHINESE MIL FORUM > [IIRC] THE SU-34 CAN TAKE ON AND DEFEAT THE RAPTOR!?
Maybe at odds of 40-1, but anything less would be a disaster for the Chinese. As they'll learn, if they're not careful.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/26/2008 20:54 Comments ||
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You get the idea that the Mad Mullahs really mean it when they say 'no deal', and all the bloviating in the world by Javier Solana and the EU3 won't change a thing except give the Mullahs time to build a bomb and a missile delivery system.
TEHERAN - Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani yesterday said that Teheran would not accept any ultimatum in the talks on its nuclear programme. We have agreed to talk (with the world powers) on the issue for finding a settlement (in the nuclear dispute) and are indeed hopeful to do so, Rafsanjani said at a Friday prayer congregation in Teheran. But again they (world powers) come up with ultimatums, timetables and even threats which are unacceptable for Iran, added the moderate cleric who is one of the most vehement critics of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The five United Nations Security Council member states plus Germany have given Iran a two-week deadline to either accept suspension of uranium enrichment - and in return avail itself of Western economic and political incentives - or face further financial sanctions.
Ahmadinejad on Wednesday rejected the demand and called on the veto powers to accept realities and acknowledge Irans right to pursue nuclear projects, including uranium enrichment.
We are ready to remove all international concerns and negotiations are the best framework to do so, and to prove that Irans nuclear projects are peaceful and that Iran would never be after acquiring weapons of mass destruction due to religious obligations, Rafsanjani said.
The cleric added that during the 1980-1988 war with Iraq, although the regime of former Iraq president Saddam Hussein used toxic gas against Iranian forces, Teheran refrained from reciprocating and utilised just internationally acknowledged methods of warfare.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Definitely cruisin' for a bruisin'. There's just no talking to these bozos. Never has been any point. I doubt anyone can point to any actual benefit ever achieved through negotiations with them, other than a few cosmetic or appearances-only variations on their SOP.
Posted by: Brian H ||
07/26/2008 1:46 Comments ||
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Congressman Peter Hoekstra from Michigan has recently introduced legislation that would ban the banning by the Government of the use of various terms describing Islamic jihadists who want to wage holy war against us. The Administration has decided using such terms by Government officials somehow ârewardsâ jihadists and offends regular, moderate Muslims. This topic has been covered by the CTB fairly extensively.
Now the usual cast of jihadist apologists are deriding Congressman Hoekstra for his efforts in trying to stop what many believe is the Governmentâs PC nonsense...better to call terrorists who themselves declare their violent, murderous actions Islamic inspired jihad mere criminals. Is this argument really rather silly, or could there be something more at stake?
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
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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.
Chinese authorities denied claims by a group calling itself the Turkistan Islamic Party that it was responsible for deadly bus explosions in Shanghai and Yunnan province ahead of the Olympic Games, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday. The group released a video threatening the Beijing Olympic Games and claiming responsibility for deadly bus explosions in Shanghai and in Yunnan's Kunming, a terrorism monitoring firm in Washington said on Friday. But Xinhua reported that a police investigation of the Shanghai blast on May 5 had nothing to do with "terrorist attacks".
Sen. Barack Obama urged Iran Friday to "end its illicit nuclear program" or face increased pressure from a unified international community, and he warned Tehran not to "wait for the next president" before accepting proposals to resolve a stalemate with Western countries. 
He is reclusive like Taliban leader Mullah Omar and popular like al-Qaeda's Osama bin Laden, and he pledges his allegiance to both. This is Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, whom the Pakistani security agencies have tried their best to engage, but he remains defiant, so much so that he is even suspected of being an agent for India's Research and Analysis intelligence agency. 
The Palestinian Authority is considering cutting off its diplomatic contacts with Israel and unilaterally declaring statehood, the Arabic-language a-Sharq al-Awset daily reported on Friday. "In light of the crisis we have encountered in talks with Israel, the Authority is testing a number of options," one Palestinian official told the daily. According to the report, the Palestinian Authority is also re-evaluating how to proceed with consolidating its security services. 
