FORT BRAGG, N.C.--The leader of an Army special forces team "grinned" as he held the ear of an Afghan man he suspected of being an insurgent after he shot him and left his body in the desert, a Green Beret testified Tuesday.
The testimony by Sgt. 1st Class Ricky Derring came at a military hearing for his team leader, Master Sgt. Joseph D. Newell, who could face court martial on a murder charge in the March 5 killing of the Afghan civilian. Derring said Newell returned to the spot where he left the man's body and "made a stabbing motion and I could see his arms cutting." Newell then walked back to the team's vehicle with the man's ear in his hand, Derring said. "He shook the ear and grinned," Derring said.
Under cross examination by Newell's civilian attorney Todd Conormon, Derring said he didn't actually see Newell cut off the man's ear.
The Article 32 hearing that is expected to last two days is similar to a civilian grand jury. It is not used to decide guilt, only whether there's enough evidence to court martial Newell, who was assigned to the Fort Bragg-based 3rd Special Forces Group. The Army has not released details about Newell such as his age, hometown and how long he has served.
Derring said his team was escorting a convoy of supplies in Helmand province, when they spotted two civilian cars in the distance. The soldiers fired a warning shot and went to investigate.
Derring, a 50-caliber machine gunner on the team, said Newell asked the man through an interpreter whether he was an insurgent or had improvised explosive devices. He questioned him about a photo of a weapon on his cell phone. "Joe was asking him questions: Where did he get the phone, was he placing IEDs, was he Taliban," Derring testified during a hearing at Fort Bragg, a sprawling Army base near Fayetteville.
Derring said the man answered no. But Derring said he, Newell and the interpreter believed the man was an insurgent because Taliban forces often use cell phones to communicate and call in their locations.
Newell drew his gun and shot him, left him in the desert, then returned and cut off his ear, Derring testified. Newell took the body to another place in the desert, "and kicked and over his face a little bit," Derring said.
Derring responded to Conormon's questions about hard feelings between Newell and other team members. Derring said they would argue about tactics and other matters, adding that Newell had to assert himself because he was a newer member of the team.
Derring said he was upset about the shooting and later told another sergeant what had happened. "He basically said Master Sgt. Newell had a screw loose," Derring said.
Newell later talked to Derring about the killing, during which Derring told Newell he never wanted to be in that kind of situation, Derring said. "He told me, 'Don't worry, nothing will come of it.' He said, 'if it does, I'll just say I was attacked,'" Derring testified.
#3
Well, my half-orc collected fingers or a piece of flesh for a trophy and wore it on a necklace of every kill he made. It really pissed of the Paladin and got his holy knickers in a knot.
Nouakchott, 12 August(AKI) - Mauritania's military junta consulted the United States, France and Israel before toppling elected president Sidi Cheikh Ould Abdallahi in last week's coup, Al-Qaeda's North African arm has claimed."The latest coup in Mauritania could never have succeeded without the agreement of America, France and Israel," said a statement posted on Tuesday to Islamist websites. The message is signed by Abdel Malik Droukedel, leader of the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb and dated 10 August.
Several Al-Qaeda cells are believed to be present in Mauritania. The country's security forces in April recaptured five suspected Al-Qaeda militants including a fugitive accused of killing four French tourists last December, officials said. The 24 December killing of the French tourists and a shooting attack against the Israeli embassy in Mauritania's capital Nouakchott in February raised fears of a rise in Islamist militant violence in the Saharan state
"For this reason, we warn Muslims to be wary of all forms of unbeliever democracy, because they are just a ploy by the Zionist-Crusader alliance to trick you," read the statement."O people of Mauritania, you need to get back to Islam and and don't hesitate to wage holy war (Jihad) to fight the Jews and the Christians together with the apostate governments," the message continues.
The military junta set up a 'State Council' which has promised to hold free and fair elections in Mauritania "as soon as possible." The 'State Council' is led by the head of Abdallahi's presidential guard, Mohamed Abdel Aziz.
Mauritania has had a long history of military coups since it gained independence from France in 1960. In 2005, a military junta overthrew authoritarian President Maaouya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya, who had ruled the country since 1980. But the junta only ruled until the country's first presidential election in 2007 and did not stand in those polls.
#2
DLR- It really isn't 'new' per se, as there have been stirrings in the country for the last year and many people have been talking about when it would happen. Where I have been living has been full of talk about what the new government would be like before there was even a coup.
But the fact that is unsurprising does not make it any less grave. Close attention needs to be paid to this situation as Mauritania has a long record of human rights violations. The most recent news from www.seneweb.com is that the UN and Senegal are going to continue to repatriate the refugees from the last time that Mauritania decided that black Africans were not allowed to live in their own country and forcibly removed or killed much of the southern population of the country. There is still slavery in the desert of black Africans by Arab Africans.
Mauritania is an unstable, racist, Islamic state. It may not be news to us, but it is highly dangerous all the same.
(Xinhua) -- Mauritanian coup Monday have released the prime minister and three officials arrested in the coup, according to reliable sources.
The Mauritanian military staged a coup on Wednesday in the capital of Nouakchott, arresting President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi and Prime Minister Yahya Ould Ahmed Waghf. The leaders of Mauritanian coup military said in a statement that they released the prime minister and three officials, including Interior Minister Mohamed Ould R'zeizim. All four of them are allies of President Abdallahi and were arrested five days ago, reports from agencies reaching here said.
The coup came as Abdallahi have fired several top army officers.
The prime minister's health condition is good, according to local media.
The president is still detained in Nouakchott and his whereabouts is unknown, reports said.
Soon after the coup was staged last week, soldiers in the country announced the establishment of the State Council, saying that Abdallahi was no longer president. The State Council issued a statement, saying that the council will be led by Mauritanian's former presidential guard chief Gen. Mohamed Ould AbdelaAziz, according to reports. The coup came as Abdallahi have fired several top army officers and the country has been in a political crisis.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2008 00:00 ||
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So now they can expect what in Mauritania? More of the same? I wouldn't be shocked to hear that the people weren't overly excited either way.
Georgia may have no natural resources to speak of, yet it has become a key player for Europe, due to 155 miles of pipeline that snake across its territory.
The Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline is the only practical route for carrying Caspian oil to Western markets that avoids Russia a treasured asset for the a European Union trying to reduce energy dependence on Moscow.
The BTC, which connects Baku in Azerbaijan, via the Georgian capital Tbilisi with Ceyhan, a port on the south-eastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey, was once billed as the "pipeline of peace". Now it finds itself on the fringes of war zone as Russian and Georgia face off.
"The whole conflict is not being waged over the pipeline. The reasons are definitely geopolitical," explained Natalia Leshchenko, a Russia analyst at Global Insight. "However, the Russians know the pipeline is important to Georgia and may try to damage it. They have the capability to do so."
As fighting raged over the weekend, Georgian officials said Russian fighter jets had targeted the pipeline, but missed. "This shows that Russia has not just targeted Georgian economic outlets but international economic outlets," said Economic Development Minister Ekaterina Sharashidze, tying her nation's fate firmly to that of the West. There was no independent confirmation of the raids although BP, with a 30 per cent stake in the project, were unaware of explosions.
The security of the pipeline was already in the spotlight after an attack on a Turkish section by Kurdish separatists last week, and the Russian/Georgian conflict will not ease those concerns. The pipeline runs 35 miles from the South Ossetian border.
The European Union is keen to wean itself off Russia, which supplies a quarter of its oil and half its natural gas, and is targeting central Asia, one of the world's few untapped oil provinces.
The BTC pipeline, which cost $4bn to build, is the heart of that effort. It was bitterly opposed by Moscow, which feared an easing of its energy stranglehold and a dilution of influence in the region.
The pipeline, which featured in the James Bond film The World is Not Enough, can pump around a million barrels a day. Lesser amounts of crude flow through Baku-Supsa line. Gas also transits Georgia through the Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum pipeline, which provides over 6.5 billion cubic meters a year. But it is not so much quantity as comfort.
"For Europeans, an alternative supply route is psychological reassurance. It's having a route that does not go through Russia," said Ms Leshchenko. "But the other countries the pipeline passes through may ultimately prove more unreliable."
There are plans afoot for another gas EU route, the Nabucco pipeline, which is meant to transport non-Russian gas and pass through territory independent of Moscow. Until recently Georgia was the ideal candidate.
"But if Georgia is no longer a safe passageway, then all of these schemes for diminished dependency on Russia go up in smoke," says Michael Klare, author of Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet: The New Geopolitics of Energy.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/12/2008 12:31 ||
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The European Union needs to come up with the cash to build a pipeline from Iraq to Europe, through Turkey. They also need to start paying a lot more to build up their militaries, as what Russia is doing in Georgia is a direct threat to all of them. The "Cold War" may be over, but Putin is just idiot enough to think he's another Joseph Stalin - but without the "empire" to sustain his ambitions.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/12/2008 21:14 Comments ||
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(Xinhua) -- The United States said Monday it will not remove the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)from the list of state sponsors of terrorism until the DPRK agrees to a way to verify its nuclear weapons program. The United States will not do so until the DPRK agrees to a "strong verification regime," State Department official Robert Wood said.
Monday is the earliest date that the United State could take the DPRK off the list of state sponsors of terrorism after the DPRK submitted its nuclear declaration in June and blew up the cooling tower as the first step to dismantle its nuclear programs and facilities.
According to media reports, Dennis Wilder, U.S. National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs, said Sunday that a delisting on Monday would be "unlikely." Under an agreement reached at the six-party talks in Beijing in February last year, the DPRK agreed to abandon all nuclear weapons and programs and declare all its nuclear programs and facilities by the end of 2007, in exchange for diplomatic and economic incentives.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Extremist, which is Boston Globese for "terrorist"...
WASHINGTON - She was a tiny woman with big convictions. While her fellow students at MIT read newspaper articles about the massacre of Muslims in Bosnia in the 1990s, Aafia Siddiqui sprang to action, giving slide shows and rousing speeches to collect donations for their cause. While other women from traditional Pakistani families stayed home after marriage, Siddiqui juggled the demands of motherhood, a doctoral dissertation at Brandeis, and a Roxbury-based nonprofit organization she established to spread Islamic teachings.
But yesterday, federal prosecutors in New York alleged that Siddiqui's activism had become extremism. US officials say that the 36-year-old mother of three became an Al Qaeda operative who ended up in Afghanistan and attacked US soldiers who had come to interrogate her. "She is a high security risk," said Christopher Lloyd LaVigne, assistant US attorney, told a judge at a hearing yesterday.
Now, those who knew Siddiqui in Boston are struggling to understand how the MIT graduate and trained neuroscientist could pose "a clear and present danger to America," as the FBI alleges. "Something went awry," said Abdullah Faaruuq, imam of Roxbury's Mosque for the Praising of Allah, to which Siddiqui donated Korans and other books. Speculating that she may have been mistreated, Faaruuq said: "She was not at that mindset when I knew her. I don't what could have led to that."
Intelligence officials believe that Siddiqui, considered the world's most-wanted female before her arrest, became affiliated with Al Qaeda while in Boston. Though the FBI had sought her in 2003, she returned to her native Pakistan with her children and went underground before agents found her, according to interviews with US officials and documents from the FBI and the director of national intelligence. US officials say she eluded them until last month when she was arrested with an unidentified teenage boy in Ghazni, Afghanistan. Local police caught the two outside the provincial governor's compound with chemicals, maps, and documents on explosives, according to court papers. "They were here for suicide bombing," an Afghan official in Ghazni told the Globe in a telephone interview last week. "Both of them were looking like they were prepared for suicide."
Siddiqui is also accused of shooting at US officials who had come to interrogate her. She allegedly grabbed an M-4 rifle and opened fire; she was wounded when a soldier returned fire.
Last week, FBI officials brought her to New York for trial in the attempted shooting. The teenage boy, who relatives fear might be Siddiqui's son, remains in Afghan custody, according to the Afghan official. Siddiqui appeared in court in a wheelchair yesterday. A judge ordered her held without bail, but granted her access to immediate medical care.
Her attorney, Elaine Whitfield Sharp, said Siddiqui is innocent, swept up in the war on terrorism. Sharp also accused the US government of secretly holding her client for years. "She doesn't know how many years, but it was the same location, and her captors were Americans, and the treatment was horrendous," Sharp said in a telephone interview Friday after a three-hour meeting with Siddiqui in a New York detention center. Sharp would not say how Siddiqui turned up in Afghanistan, saying, "Long story, can't tell you that." Drinking again, Elaine?
The mystery of Siddiqui's whereabouts for the last five years adds yet another twist to the bizarre tale of her transformation from an MIT student activist to international terrorism suspect awaiting trial in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center.
Born to an educated, religious family in Karachi, Siddiqui spent years volunteering with the United Islamic Organization, a charity run by her mother, according to fund-raising e-mails she sent to friends in 1995 which The Boston Globe has obtained. She moved to the United States as a teenager in 1990, joining her brother, an architect in Houston, and her sister, a neurologist. In 1991, after transferring from the University of Houston, Siddiqui arrived at MIT, wearing Western clothes but covering her hair with a scarf in the Muslim tradition. She quickly honed her activist skills, using the Internet and delivering passionate appeals to raise funds for Islamic causes. In one instance, she organized financial sponsorships for Muslim widows and orphans in Bosnia. "Kindly fill the pledge form and return to Al-Kifah," she directed a group of potential donors in an e-mail. The message appears to refer to the Al-Kifah Refugee Center in Brooklyn, which the Justice Department has accused of diverting charitable funds to militants. She helped establish the Dawa Resource Center, a program that operates out of Faaruuq's mosque, distributing Korans and offering Islam-based advice to prison inmates.
Faaruuq's wife, who asked that her name not be used, said that Siddiqui gave powerful speeches at conferences in the Boston area urging women, especially new converts to Islam, to embrace traditional Muslim customs, including wearing the headscarf and declining to shake a man's hand. "She shared with us that we should never make excuses for who we are," said Faaruuq's wife. "She said: 'Americans have no respect for people who are weak. Americans will respect us if we stand up and we are strong.' "
Around the time she graduated from MIT in 1995, Siddiqui married Muhammad Khan, an anesthesiologist from Karachi who became a resident at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. At first, the couple seemed happy, hosting friends for meals in their apartment on St. Alphonsus Street in Roxbury. Shortly after her marriage, Siddiqui gave birth to a son and bore a daughter, Maram Bint Muhammad, in September 1998 at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center. But the arranged marriage soured within a few years when Khan disapproved of his wife's activism, according to a 2005 Vogue Magazine profile titled, "The Most Wanted Woman in the World."
In the spring of 2002, months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, FBI agents questioned the couple about their purchase of night-vision goggles, body armor, and military instruction manuals, according to Sharp. The Globe probably thinks they were for bird watching...
Months later, the family returned to Pakistan, where Siddiqui and Khan divorced just before the birth of their third child, according to Sharp. Siddiqui then married an Al Qaeda operative known as Ammar al-Baluchi, the nephew of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, according to documents from the director of national intelligence.
In March 2003, Mohammed was arrested in a predawn raid in Islamabad. He and Baluchi were held for years in secret US detention and are now awaiting trial at Guantanamo Bay. Within weeks of Mohammed's arrest, Siddiqui's photo appeared on the FBI website as a person wanted for questioning.
Afraid the FBI would find her in Karachi, Siddiqui told her family she was taking her children to Islamabad to stay with an uncle, but the family never arrived, said Imran Khan, a Pakistani cricketer turned politician."She was petrified because the FBI had put her on a most-wanted list," said Khan, who said that Siddiqui's uncle asked him to help find her.
With her whereabouts unknown, sketchy reports in Pakistani papers suggested that she had been arrested in Pakistan and was turned over to the Americans, prompting anti-US protests in Pakistan. Amnesty International listed Siddiqui as possibly among the "ghost prisoners" held in secret by the US government. Her anguished mother traveled to the United States in search of clues. But yesterday, US officials vehemently denied that Siddiqui had been in American custody until her recent arrest. Dean Boyd, a Justice Department spokesman, called the allegations "absolutely baseless and false." A CIA spokesman also denied that she had been detained. "For several years, we have had no information regarding her whereabouts whatsoever," said Gregory Sullivan, a State Department spokesman on South Asian affairs. "It is our belief that she . . . has all this time been concealed from the public view by her own choosing."
A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday dismissed former CIA analyst Valerie Plame's lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney and several former Bush administration officials for disclosing her identity to the public. The Court of Appeals in Washington dealt another setback to the former spy, who has said her career was destroyed when officials blew her cover in 2003 to retaliate against her husband, Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson.
Plame's outing led a lengthy criminal investigation, which resulted in the conviction of Cheney's top aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, for perjury and obstruction of justice. President George W. Bush commuted Libby's 2 1/2-year prison sentence last year.
Plame and Wilson sought money damages from Cheney, Libby, former White House aide Karl Rove and former State Department official Richard Armitage for violating their constitutional free speech, due process and privacy rights.
But a three-judge panel of the appeals court upheld a federal judge's ruling that dismissed the couple's lawsuit. The court ruled Cheney and the others were acting within their official capacity when they revealed Plame's identity to reporters.
#1
The only one who did anything was Dick Armitage. Why did the court allow the others to remain in the suit? How about an appeal on whether the "outting" even qualified under the law as being illegal? That was never made clear, at least to me.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
08/12/2008 15:45 Comments ||
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This whole affair has been a damned disgrace. Plame and her husband should be stripped of their citizenship, taken to the Mex border, and have their asses literally kicked the last 100 yards across it. Fitzgerald should be suffering the same treatment. They persecuted and damn near bankrupted an innocent man, Scooter Libby, when they knew BEFORE THEY EVER STARTED THE PROSECUTION who had said Plame was CIA. They never went after that guy, Armitage, because they knew Plame wasn't covert so he hadn't done anything illegal.
Plame, that "child of the 60's" Wilson POS, and Fitzgerald: all are traitors and lying criminals who deserve serious punishment. Unfortunately for America, they probably won't get it. The best we can hope for is that this lawsuit cost them some serious cash.
New Delhi: Expressing concern over the increasing number of illegal immigrants in the national capital, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday said they pose a danger to India's internal security, and dismissed a petition by a Bangladeshi national against her deportation.
Justice S L Bhayana dismissed Razia Begum's petition and upheld the Foreigners Regional Registration Office's (FRRO) decision to deport her and four of her family members back to Bangladesh.
If someone is able to obtain a passport, ration card, election identification card and nationality certificate by illegal means, it doesn't meant that one is an Indian national, until and unless one gets his nationality through legal means, court said.
Razia Begum and four others of her family were arrested from Khanpur area of south Delhi on December 28, 2007, by the deportation cell of the FRRO.
The police recovered a fake ration card, election I-cards and nationality certificates from them.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/12/2008 17:18 ||
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See also IRNA > INDIA's ASSAM STATE SOUNDS MAXIMUM SECURITY ALERT.
Probably when the situation is as bad as it is there. In other words, after it is too late. The scope of the B'deshi illegal alien problem in India dwarfs our problems here.
They're everywhere, and they are the main source of cheap labor.
Pakistani President Musharraf put him under house arrest for his nuclear weapons deals. Ex-CIA chief Tenet described him as being "at least as dangerous as Osama bin Laden." Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadir Khan is under a gag order, but in SPIEGEL, his wife accuses the government of calling the shots.
The villa, built on a hill covered with lush vegetation and well removed from the hectic life in the capital, could be an idyllic place. Monkeys play in the garden, and the air-conditioned rooms are filled with comfortable rattan furniture. But the people living there perceive it as a prison. The authorities have installed cameras in each of the rooms and at the entrance. Armed men guard the residents around the clock. Men on motorcycles patrol the grounds and 50 police officers and intelligence agents are assigned to the villa.
It's called "preventive protection." Whether the master of the house and his family are being protected from the public or the public from them remains unclear. They have been under de facto house arrest for four-and-a-half years. But now something sensational has happened.
The villa is the home of Abdul Qadir Khan, 72, who lives there with his wife and a granddaughter. Khan is the man former CIA Director George Tenet once called "at least as dangerous as Osama bin Laden." He is the man his enemies call "Dr. Strangelove," an allusion to the Stanley Kubrick film "Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," in which insane US officers trigger a nuclear war. He is also the man considered the father of the Pakistani nuclear weapons program -- a man considered proven of having committed the crime of having dealt in nuclear components and blueprints on the international black market, with such dubious countries as North Korea, Iran and Libya.
Khan also had contacts in Saudi Arabia. In fact, that country's defense minister even visited his research laboratory in Kahuta once. And, according to Western intelligence agencies, the al-Qaida terrorist organization is believed to have approached Khan through middlemen. In a televised speech in February 2004 the scientist, once decorated with his country's highest honors, delivered a tearful public confession of wrongdoing. In a detailed report, the American foreign intelligence agency, the CIA, concluded that there was irrefutable evidence that Khan had brokered the delivery of gas ultra-centrifuges for enriching uranium, and even detailed instructions for a "nuclear starter kit," to the Libyan capital Tripoli. Some of the merchandise, shipped on board the German freighter "BBC China," was still packaged in plastic bags labeled "Good Looks Tailor, Islamabad." Washington issued an ultimatum to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who depended on billions in US military aid, to which Musharraf complied by forcing Khan to deliver his public confession.
The contrite Dr. Strangelove said that he had acted of his own accord and for profit reasons. Musharraf accepted the apology in person, on live television, shaking his head as if to underscore his disapproval. It was soon clear that a deal must have been struck: a mild sentence in return for Khan's agreement not to speak to the press or to United Nations nuclear experts.
Khan kept up his end of the bargain for four years, to the chagrin of the nuclear detectives at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, which received nothing more than the occasional written, and apparently censored, responses to its detailed questions. Even the Americans were unable to gain access to this dealer of death on the global black market. But a few weeks ago Khan, weakened by cancer surgery and apparently ready to clear the air, began giving telephone interviews to the domestic and international media. SPIEGEL also spoke with Khan in July. In some of these interviews, the godfather of proliferation said unequivocally that he had been pressured to deliver his 2004 confession, and in doing so had protected other players.
By that point, Musharraf had apparently realized that the situation was about to spin out of control. It is unclear whether he was simply lucky or, despite the new, democratic government, which has been trying to put him out to pasture, still wields sufficient power. In any event, he found a judge on the Islamabad High Court who issued a ruling in his favor on July 21. Khan's attorney had petitioned to have his client's house arrest lifted, but now the pendulum appeared to be swinging back in the other direction instead. Judge Sardar Aslam reinforced the restrictions and stressed that Khan is barred from "saying anything about the nuclear issue to any journalist," or even from discussing the topic with his friends.
Khan will not challenge the verdict. If he did, he would risk a prison term and would probably lose contact, once and for all, with the few friends who are still permitted to see him, albeit by appointment only and under supervision.
But if President Musharraf, 65, believed that he could now close this embarrassing chapter, he was mistaken. Pakistan's "father of the nuclear bomb" found a new way to inform the world about his extremely disconcerting business deals. He permitted his wife, who was apparently familiar with the details of his nuclear secrets, to publicize Khan's version of the story through SPIEGEL, in the form of a dossier she handed over to the magazine.
Hendrina Khan, known as Henny, 66, was born in South Africa, raised by Dutch parents in Rhodesia and married the Pakistani scientist in The Hague in 1964. She moved around Europe with him, from West Berlin, where he attended the city's Technical University under a scholarship for highly gifted students, to the Dutch city of Delft and then to the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, where he obtained a Ph.D. degree in metallurgical engineering in 1972.
It soon became clear that the interests of the young Pakistani were focused on nuclear technology, and he went to work in the Dutch city of Almelo, where the firm URENCO was building a state-of-the-art uranium enrichment facility. He managed to enter the sanctum of nuclear energy literally overnight, gaining access to the source of nuclear engineering of which every aspiring bomb-builder dreams. Security restrictions were extremely lax, and Khan spent many an evening making countless photocopies -- until, one day, he sensed that he had been found out. According to witness testimony, after hastily leaving for Pakistan in late 1975, Khan had his wife Henny, who had already given birth to two daughters by then, collected blueprints he had secretly made of the novel Dutch centrifuge technology. In 1983, a Dutch court convicted him to four years in prison in absentia for industrial espionage.
Khan, who had apparently already joined the Pakistani intelligence agency in Europe and had already attracted the CIA's attention, stood to benefit greatly from the copied know-how. He was convinced that Pakistan needed a counterweight to its archenemy, India. Khan, a self-professed "deeply devout Muslim and Pakistani patriot," saw himself as something of an atomic Robin Hood. He wanted to provide his backward country with nuclear weapons and, later on, to pass the technology on to other underprivileged nations, especially in the Islamic world.
Khan found an enthusiastic champion in then-President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The Pakistani people would "eat grass if necessary" to acquire the bomb, Bhutto said, and he set up a research laboratory for the gifted scientist in Kahuta, 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the capital. In May 1998, only a few weeks after India's successful nuclear tests, Pakistan successfully detonated its own bomb, a triumph that earned "Dr. Strangelove" the country's highest decorations and made him a national hero.
In her dossier, Hendrina Khan denies that her husband made millions with his black market deals and used the money to buy expensive real estate in Islamabad, Dubai, London and Timbuktu, as the Pakistani government has claimed. She also denies that there was an Iranian connection, which Western experts believe is certain, and admits to only two North Korea trips, whereas insiders have counted no fewer than 12. As clearly and understandably partisan as the scientist's wife is, and as rosy the picture she seeks to paint of him and his endeavors is, this does not detract from the credibility of her central accusation that her husband only ever "executed the instructions he was given" by the government.
"The Greatest Threat to Mankind"
President Musharraf, who controlled everything and everyone (after coming to power in a military coup in October 1999, he became president and continues to hold this office today, only resigning from his post as commander-in-chief of the military in November 2007), is likely to have sanctioned, perhaps even ordered, deals with North Korea and Iran. He apparently deceived his Western allies. Even though Pakistan did not sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Musharraf once said that Pakistan had to "prove to the world that we are a responsible nation and do not permit the spreading of nuclear weapons." Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohamed ElBaradei and US President George W. Bush agree that proliferation is the "greatest threat to mankind."
The news could hardly come at a less favorable time for Pakistan ("The Land of the Pure"), a country of 152 million people. The Islamic Republic, flanked by crisis-torn Afghanistan and its eternal rival India, faces international criticism as a hotbed of Islamist violence. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier recently accused Pakistan of often being a "starting point for terrorism in Afghanistan." US presidential candidate Barack Obama has said that he would launch military strikes without consulting with the regime in Islamabad if he had precise information about the whereabouts of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden on Pakistani soil.
Even the Bush administration, long soft on Musharraf, is now taking a tougher approach. In early July, it sent CIA Deputy Director Stephen Kappes to Islamabad, where he presented the Pakistani government with evidence of cooperation between the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, and Islamists in Afghanistan. Both US experts and their Indian counterparts are convinced that ISI agents were involved in the attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul on July 7, in which 54 people died. Taped conversations even allegedly prove that they acted with the approval of their superiors. "Pakistan's Army leadership and the Pakistani establishment" organized the insurgency, Kabul's intelligence chief, Amrullah Saleh, told SPIEGEL last week.
Pakistan is on the edge of an abyss, as reports from the last 30 days indicate. In Swat, the former tourist paradise only 200 kilometers (124 miles) from the capital, fanatics burned down 21 girls' schools and the country's only ski resort. In Waziristan, the tribal area where the central government has almost no say anymore, terrorist leader Baitullah Mehsud had 22 envoys from the capital killed when they came to the region to negotiate a ceasefire on behalf of the government. Dozens of new al-Qaida training camps in the border region represent "a direct and serious threat to Afghanistan, as well as to the entire West," says CIA Director Michael Hayden.
The Pakistani economy is also in disarray. In Multan, as in other major cities, there have been spontaneous and bloody riots in response to hours-long power outages at temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), as well as to a roughly 20-percent rise in the price of gasoline and staple foods in only one month. Foreign investors are pulling out and the stock market is plummeting.
The hopes that had been pinned on Pakistan's new civilian government, which came to power less than half a year ago in relatively free and fair elections, have almost disappeared. The coalition between the Pakistani Peoples' Party and the Muslim League, bitter foes for years, seems paralyzed. The intelligence agency remains a state within a state, while the army is ultimately in control. When Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani proudly proclaimed, in late July, that he had placed the ISI under the supervision of the Interior Ministry, military leaders dismissed his statements within hours. Ashfaq Kayani, 56, the new army chief, whom Washington values greatly, is seen as Pakistan's new strong man.
The coalition parties agree on one thing: their aversion to the president. Musharraf can expect to face impeachment proceedings soon for abuse of power, after the governing parties agreed last Thursday to introduce them. Musharraf even had to cancel his trip to Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games there. The 60 insubordinate judges the president fired during the national state of emergency he imposed last November are to be reinstated soon -- a development that a large majority of Pakistanis will welcome. But whether the parties will manage to scrape together the two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament needed for an impeachment remains questionable.
The entire country is abuzz with rumors. Is Musharraf fighting back? Will he dissolve the parliament? Or will he even attempt another coup, even though, in recent opinion polls, 83 percent of Pakistanis want to see him retire and Musharraf himself said in a SPIEGEL interview in mid-January that he would resign "on the day I am convinced that the majority of the people no longer want me?" Or will he go in to exile in Turkey?
It cannot be ruled out that a dossier from Islamabad will be the political nail in his coffin, a document written by a woman who fears for the life of her husband, one of the fathers of the Pakistani bomb.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/12/2008 07:52 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the blame for the worlds very first nuclear exchange will be laid at this assholes doorstep.
#3
President Musharraf - like other Pakistan patriots - knows that A Q Khan is a national treasure. What you refer to as "proliferation" is only global equalization in face of American imperialism. You are Pakistan's player piano; keep the money coming in and we will keep the buildup and united front work going until the U.S.A. is only a bad memory.
Something's going to be "only a bad memory," all right--that garbage dump you came from. Why do you think we're cozying up to India now, bud? It's because the decision has been made that your country is an abject failure and cannot be trusted with big boys' toys.
Pakiwakiland is going to be invaded, dismembered, and brought back under Indian control, and the Hindus are going to teach you Muzzies some manners. Hindus and Sikhs have been waiting to pay you back for all the crap you've caused since 1947, and they're going to pay you out with serious interest. It's going to put Jinnah's "Direct Action Day" in the shade, and you folks have long since earned every bullet and tulwar stroke.
When it's over, maybe you can get a job selling tickets for the right to piss on Jinnah's grave. There will be a long line of folks willing to pay for the opportunity.
The United States has agreed to provide assistance to Pakistan to effectively eliminate networks financing terrorism and strengthen the enforcement of Pakistan's Money Laundering Ordinance. The US would help in enhancing Pakistan's monitoring capabilities and in strengthening the role of the State Bank of Pakistan in this regard.
Daniel S Sullivan, Assistant Secretary, US Bureau of Economic, Energy and Business Affairs told reporters that the third meeting of the Pakistan-US Economic Dialogue held here discussed issues relating to further deepening the bilateral economic partnership and developing a long-term, broad-based economic relationship that would benefit the citizens of both the countries.
Senior officials of the US departments of state, commerce, treasury, the office of the US Trade Representative, the US Agency for International Development, and the US embassy participated in the dialogue.
Trade: The two sides discussed a wide-ranging agenda, including macroeconomic policy, labour, intellectual property rights, energy, agricultural cooperation, eliminating terrorism finance networks, reconstruction opportunity zones (ROZs), a GOP scholarship proposal, foreign assistance and FATA development, regional cooperation and transit trade, private sector cooperation, and a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT).
"Negotiations on BIT were stalled in 2006 and it is a breakthrough that both the countries have agreed for resumption of these negotiations, as the conclusion of this agreement would help promote cooperation in many areas especially economic relations," Sullivan added. Economic experts from both sides would meet for in-depth negotiations on BIT and would try to conclude their deliberations expeditiously.
Declaring security challenges as the reason behind the US travel advisory for Pakistan, he said that despite the advisory, the US was promoting businesses and investment in Pakistan.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
And stop smoking, and start dieting and exercising?
#2
Again, Taliban gets a 15% cut of Helmand opium/heroin. That's $150,000,000 to buy RPGs and explosives. Pakistanis are the middle men in the Helmand-Albania-Europa trade.
Tribal elders in Kurram Agency on Monday requested the government raze madrassas involved in militant training and called for arresting all those involved in such activities.
"The governments of Afghanistan and Iran and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) troops from across the Durand Line are supporting the Tori Bangash tribes who are against Sunni Muslims," said a jirga led by Attaullah, Malik Sawab Khan and Malik Jannat Shah.
Presenting a list of suggestions to curb sectarianism in Kurram Agency, the elders said the government must take notice of foreign interference inciting clashes between Shias and Sunnis in the agency. "The governments of Afghanistan and Iran and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) troops from across the Durand Line are supporting the Tori Bangash tribes who are against Sunni Muslims," said a jirga led by Attaullah, Malik Sawab Khan and Malik Jannat Shah.
Addressing a news conference here on Monday, they claimed that armed men of the former Northern Alliance had crossed the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan and were targeting Sunnis. Attaullah said elders of the Tori Bangash tribes were drawing support from NATO troops and the Afghan government in the name of fighting the Taliban in Kurram Agency. "The fact is there are no Taliban in the agency and only Sunni tribesmen are being killed," said the elders.
They also questioned why the government had not initiated military action in the agency if the Taliban were suspected to be operating there, adding that NATO forces were being misled through false information. They said around 580 Sunni families had moved out of Parachinar, the Kurram Agency headquarters, due to the Tori Bangash tribes.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2008 00:00 ||
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[4 views]
Top|| File under: TTP
#1
Thats a start. I guess they are finally realizing those madrassa students are bomb and bullet magnets.
Besides the terrible killings inflicted by the fanatics on those who refuse to pledge allegiance to them, Al-Qa'eda has lost credibility for enforcing a series of rules imposing their way of thought on the most mundane aspects of everyday life. Sheikh Hameed al-Hayyes, a Sunni elder, told Reuters: "They even killed female goats because their private parts were not covered and their tails were pointed upward, which they said was haram. Sluts. Tempting them like that.
They include a ban on women buying suggestively-shaped vegetables, according to one tribal leader in the western province of Anbar."They regarded the cucumber as male and tomato as female. Women were not allowed to buy cucumbers, only men." They're probably jealous. Cucumber envy...
Other farcical stipulations include an edict not to buy or sell ice-cream, because it did not exist in the time of the Prophet, while hair salons and shops selling cosmetics have also been bombed. FILTHY INFIDEL ICE CREAM!
#3
Let's see now. It's okay for a Muslim man to fondle a cucumber, but not for a woman. And as far as the female goat goes, haven't these idiots heard of burkas? Jheeze! I think some Al Qaeda guys could use some religious retraing.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
08/12/2008 12:30 Comments ||
Top||
#4
C'mon, everyone knows Chunky Monkey is a zionist joooo flavor!
I guess that a Banana Split is definately off the menu then.
Jordan's King Abdullah II held talks with Iraqi leaders on Monday on the first visit to Iraq by an Arab head of state since the 2003 US-led invasion, calling for an end to sectarian differences.
The monarch went immediately on arrival in the Iraqi capital into talks with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki before meeting Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi, officials said. Discussions focused on means "to improve bilateral relations in all fields" and were "frank and positive," a foreign ministry statement said.
Maliki's hailed the ties between the neighbours. "This visit will open a new page in relations between the two countries which will help to maintain the stability and security in Iraq and all the region," he said.
Highlighting his government's progress with eradicating "terrorists and outlaws," Maliki vowed to press ahead with the necessary rebuilding of his war-ravaged country.
For his part King Abdullah said he "renewed his support to the Iraqi government and his support for the efforts to spread security, stability and reconstruction ... All Arab countries should support Iraq."
"Uniting Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish political powers is the only way to build a unified and sovereign Iraq that would be capable of serving its people and the Arab nation," King Abdullah told Abdel Mahdi. "Iraqi and Jordanian officials should exchange visits after this trip to discuss mechanisms for boosting bilateral relations in various fields and serve the interests of Jordan and Iraq," he added, in a statement released in Amman.
Discussions also included trade and ways to encourage the economic ties and Iraq's oil supplies to Jordan.
King Abdullah and his delegation, including Prime Minister Nader Dahabi, had been expected to travel to post-Saddam Hussein Iraq last month but the trip was delayed for what diplomatic sources in Amman had said were security concerns.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Very good. Of course, Maliki's first invite was his fellow Shiite, Ahmaninejad. Hashemite Sunnis can take a hint.
Jordan has trained much of the Iraqi police service. They deserve credit for that.
(VOI) - The first batch of Iraqi refugees seeking to go home arrived in Baghdad's International Airport on Monday coming from the Egyptian capital Cairo at the expense of the Iraqi government, according to al-Iraqia satellite television.
The official spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command (BOC) had said earlier that the first plane carrying Iraqi refugees is arriving at the Baghdad International Airport from the Egyptian capital Cairo on Monday. "Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had taken a decision to carry Iraqi refugees from Cairo, Egypt, aboard his presidential airplane for free," Maj. General Qassem Atta told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). "This flight will be followed by other weekly flights with the aim of facilitating the process for displaced Iraqis to return to their land," Atta added.
Maliki had instructed in early August 2008 to activate his 83rd decree to give occupants of houses belonging to displaced families one month to evacuate them.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Most of the refugees must have returned already from nearby Syria, Lebanon and Jordan if they are starting to bring back those in Egypt. Surely this must mark some sort of quagmire. ;-)
(VOI) -- Mayor of Jalawlaa district, Khanaqeen suburb, on Monday said that the presence of Iraqi army forces in some areas of the suburb, according to Operation Bashaer al-Kheir (Promise of Good), created tensions with the Peshmerga (Kurdish armed forces). He warned that the situation "may explode at any minute."
"Iraqi army troops' presence created tensions with Peshmerga forces during the last few days," Anwar Hussein told Aswat al-Iraq - Voices of Iraq - (VOI). "The situation between the two sides may explode at any minute," he said.
"Peshmerga forces fear that areas of Khanaqeen suburb could become isolated," he added. "Arab tribes in Khanaqeen are working with the Iraqi forces to form Sahwa (Awakening) councils," he explained. "Kurds believe that those councils, if they are formed, represent an attempt to ignore them," he asserted.
"Diyala police command decided to form a police directorate in Jalawlaa district (30 km southwest of Khanaqeen), and recruited only Arab policemen for it," he proceeded. "Those measures violate the law," he noted.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Woe the hard life of the Gaza sandhog...
GAZA, Aug 11 (Reuters) - The Islamist group Hamas said on Monday Egypt was responsible for the deaths of eight Palestinians because it used water, gas and explosives to seal a network of tunnels under its border with the Gaza Strip. Hey? Can they do that? That's...not fair!
Hamas Interior Ministry spokesman Ehab al-Ghsain criticised Egypt's anti-smuggling tactics as effective dangerous. Three Palestinians were crushed to death on Monday when their tunnel under the border collapsed, medics said. Five others suffocated on Aug 1. Look soon for Mutual of Gaza's new phamphlet, "So You're Going Into the Smuggling Business"... ... also look for triple premiums and an exclusion clause ...
Ghsain said Cairo "shares the blame" with Israel for the blockade by keeping the coastal enclave's only border crossing with Egypt closed. Nope. Certainly not your fault. Look what they made you do...
Egyptian security sources confirmed that Egypt had pumped gas into tunnels in recent months before sealing them off. Yep. Sure have. Notice that we don't seem real upset about it?
They said the gas was not harmful and was used to prevent Palestinians from trying to re-enter the tunnels. Noooo. Not harmful at all. You have our word on it, my Arab brothers...
The sources said Egyptian authorities typically informed their Palestinian counterparts once the tunnels were sealed. Yoo-hoo. Anybody down there?
Okay, boys. Give em the gas.
Egypt's Interior Ministry had no immediate comment. Yaaaaaaaaawn...
Hamas blew up the Rafah border crossing in January, allowing hundreds of thousands of Gazans to pour into Egypt to stock up on supplies. Egypt resealed the border and has stepped up patrols to prevent another breach. It appears they remember that wonderful Palestinian comradeship.
The United States and Israel have pressed Egypt to seal the tunnels to stop militants from smuggling weapons. U.S. experts have been helping Egyptian security forces look for tunnels. "We understand the American and Israeli pressure on Egypt but that does not justify the killing of people in such a manner," Ghsain said. Maybe if they used "mysterious explosions"? Would that be okay?
He defended Gaza's tunnel network, saying it was a result of the blockade. "Once the Rafah crossing opens and the blockade is lifted, the tunnel issue will be resolved," he said. Happy digging, boys.
#2
Look, Gaza used to be Egyptian territory. Let's get the Paleos an equivalent size piece of Egypt, say in the extreme south west, and then let the Egyptians back into Gaza.
Israel has offered a peace deal to the Palestinians which would annex 7.3% of the West Bank and keep the largest settlements, Israeli reports say. In return the Palestinians would be given land equivalent to 5.4% of the West Bank in the Negev desert, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
Palestinian officials confirmed that such a plan had been put forward, but called it totally unacceptable. The two sides have been in peace talks sponsored by the US since November. Israel wants a new border similar to the route of the barrier it is currently building in and around the West Bank, Haaretz reports.
The proposed deal also covers Palestinian refugees and security arrangements, as well as the future of Gaza, Haaretz says, but not the issue of East Jerusalem and the ring of settlements around it. On Monday, a delicate truce over Gaza's border was shaken when unidentified Palestinian militants fired a rocket which fell into an open area in the Israeli town of Sderot.
No-one was injured. Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak ordered crossings into the Hamas-controlled territory to be closed on Tuesday. A spokesman for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said a proposed 92.7%-7.3% split was nothing new - it had been presented by Israel earlier in the year, he said. "The only subject that was discussed seriously was the borders but we never reached an agreement. The gap is still as wide as ever," Abu Rudeineh told the BBC.
"This plan is totally unacceptable because we insisted to the Israelis that the border can only be on the basis of 1967," he said. About half a million Israeli settlers live among 2.5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, land that was occupied by Israel in the 1967 war.
The Israeli government has declined to comment on the reports. Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the Haaretz report contained baseless statements and half-truths. "They want to blame us Camp David-style for any failures in the negotiations," he said, referring to the aftermath of the peace talks in 2000.
Haaretz said it would be a "shelf agreement" implemented over considerable time.
Formation of a Palestinian state - which would be completely demilitarised - would be dependent on the retaking of Gaza from the militant group Hamas, it said. But Israel would have a free hand to develop the settlement blocs immediately, Haaretz said.
Compared to previous negotiations, Haaretz says it is more generous than what Ehud Barak offered Yasser Arafat in 2000 and but less than his offer at Taba, Egypt, in 2001. The latest talks have shown little visible progress and were dealt a further blow in July when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced he would resign within weeks as he battles a series of corruption allegations.
Posted by: john frum ||
08/12/2008 13:50 ||
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[5 views]
Top|| File under: Palestinian Authority
#1
its NOT new, but that its made in public is.
Its a very reasonable offer and almost certainly waht the final deal will look like. But a final deal cant be made between two such weak leaders.
#5
I dunno what the current proposal is, in past discussions of what might be possible it was assumed that Pal refugees would be given the right to go to the Pal state, with monetary compensation for the property losses. Certainly Jewish property losses during the "Nakhba of the Sephardic Jews" would be considered as a possible offset, as would the value of property left behind in ex-settlements. Additionally a small and defined number of Pals would go to Israel as a face saver for the Pals.
#6
As far as the Arabs (read Palestinians for political purposes) this is only one step towards their final solution. The elimination of the Jews is not from the face of the Earth at least from the land is called Israel.
Posted by: lena ||
08/12/2008 15:09 Comments ||
Top||
#7
I gotta say, I'd take that deal if I could get it in writing. Not the fairy tale, but a damned good compromise. The only problem then would be adjusting their venomous, nihilistic death cult of a culture to accept it.
#8
They won't accept it or counter offer because the dirty little secret is they don't want peace. And the rest of the Arab world doesn't either, its their reason to exist, and a way for the rulers to keep the masses from coming after them.
FILTHY ZIONIST SKUNK BOMBS!
Israeli security forces have started to use a foul-smelling liquid to disperse Palestinian protests in the occupied West Bank. Eau de Gaza...
Israeli police say the new crowd-control method, which they call a "skunk bomb," was used for the first time Friday in the village of Naalin. Palestinians have been holding almost daily protests against a security barrier that Israel is building in the area. Okay, boys. Give em the stink.
Israeli police say a water-spraying device showered the liquid on the demonstrators, forcing most to rush off to change their clothes. Eww, Mahmoud. What's that aftershave you're wearing.
Me? I thought it was you.
Israeli officials say skunk bombs are a non-lethal method of dispersing Palestinians who throw stones and fight with Israelis guarding the construction of the barrier. Previously, Israeli security forces have fired tear-gas and rubber bullets at violent protesters. Israeli officials say medical and legal authorities approved the use of the foul-smelling liquid.
Hamas is not interested in renewing talks to free abducted soldier Gilad Shalit, a senior Hamas official said Monday. The official said that as long as Israel fails to completely lift the siege on the Gaza Strip and to remove obstacles to the free transfer of goods between Israel and Gaza, Hamas would not enter into new talks.
Israeli defense sources Monday confirmed that Hamas was toughening its stance and had suspended talks on Shalit's release, infuriating Egypt and causing it tension with Hamas.
Chief Israeli negotiator Ofer Dekel has visited Cairo over the past two weeks. A Hamas delegation also visited the Egyptian capital recently and said it would not renew the talks. Hamas criticized the Egyptians, saying Cairo was unable to bring about the renewal of the negotiations at this stage. Egypt is linking the opening of the Rafah border crossing with Shalit's release, while Hamas refuses to agree to any such condition, said the Hamas official.
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There are deep differences in opinion between Egypt and Hamas on Shalit's release, the London newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reported. It said paper, senior Hamas officials blame the Egyptians for dragging out everything connected to the negotiations over Shalit, and some Hamas officials are even demanding that Germany replace Egypt as mediator in the talks.
Hamas is accusing the Egyptians of taking Fatah's side in the crisis between Hamas and Fatah, blaming only Hamas for the recent fighting between the two organizations' militant factions in Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Hamas officials vowed on Monday it would track down the parties responsible for the firing of a Qassam rocket from northern Gaza towards Israel on Monday. The rocket landed in an open area near a kindergarten in the town of Sderot, causing no injuries or damage.
Though the region has been relatively quiet since Israel signed the ceasefire agreement with Hamas and other Palestinian groups in June, intermittent rocket and mortar fire has been recorded every several days. The last rocket landed in the Sha'ar Hanegev Regional Council on Saturday. Hamas is convinced the perpetrators of Monday's attack, and other recent attacks, are gunmen employed by Palestinian merchants whose businesses suffered due to the influx of goods now entering Gaza through the Israeli border crossings. But if Hamas' suspicions are true -- then it would seem the merchants were successful in achieving their goals, as Israel has announced it will close the goods crossings on Tuesday in response to the rocket fire.
Several days after the ceasefire went into effect a volley of mortar shells was fired towards Nahal Oz. Palestinian security forces in Gaza determined the man who ordered the attacks was a sunflower seed merchant, who feared the opening of Gaza's border crossings would have a negative effect on his sales. The man was arrested.
But Hamas is also investigating whether residents loyal to the rival faction Fatah are behind the shooting.
Hamas officials stressed to Ynet that while the group was committed to maintaining the calm, it still plans to review the agreement by the end of August. Israeli estimates indicate Hamas will not violate the truce even then.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Yah, Hamas will go to any length to fight terror.
MAWASSI, Gaza - Three years have passed since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip, and in that time the economy of this coastal territory of 1.4 million people has gone from bad to worse.
Gas and food shortages are now being compounded by cash shortages as tens of thousands of people were unable to withdraw money from banks on Monday.
Still, despite their economic hardships, most Gazans insist that they prefer life here without the Israelis.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: john frum ||
08/12/2008 00:00 ||
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[2 views]
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#1
"Even our own agricultural land is barren."
"Paging Mr. Hard. Mr. Farmin B. Hard to the white courtesy phone, please..."
#2
PBMcL, partially, but not entirely. What they don't tell but what is on their minds is the fact that Hamas would come and take most of their produce as a protection payment. What's then the point of starting anything?
The U.S. Treasury on Tuesday imposed sanctions against five more Iranian entities it said had provided support or materials to Iran's nuclear and missile programs.
The Treasury said the entities, designated as proliferators of weapons of mass destruction, are controlled by or act on behalf of previously blacklisted Iranian entities responsible for uranium enrichment, nuclear development work and ballistic missile programs.
Added to the Treasury's sanctions list were the Nuclear Research Center for Agriculture and Medicine at Karaj, the Eshfahan Nuclear Fuel Research and Production Center, Jabber Ibn Hayan, Safety Equipment Procurement Co and Joza Industrial Co. The move bans Americans from doing business with them and freezes any assets they may have under U.S. jurisdiction.
Western powers fear Tehran wants to build an atomic bomb. Iran says it is only seeking to master nuclear technology to generate electricity.
"These five nuclear and missile entities have been used by Iran to hide its illicit conduct and further its dangerous nuclear ambitions," said Stuart Levey, the Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.
"Responsible financial institutions and businesses worldwide are taking steps to avoid doing business with Iranian nuclear and missile entities, as well as with the front companies and cut-outs the Iranian regime uses to disguise its activities," Levey said in a statement.
The new designations come as the United States, Britain, France and Germany are considering imposing broader economic sanctions beyond the steps likely to be considered in the next round of United Nations sanctions.
(Xinhua) -- Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah launched a verbal campaign against pro-government majority coalition which criticizes Hezbollah's adherence to weapons, LocalAn-Nahar website reported Monday. "The state which does not preserve the right of the resistance, will not preserve the interests of its people," Hezbollah member of Parliament Mohammed Raad said.
Pointing to the non-stop Israeli threat to Lebanon, Raad said that Israel has even hinted it would target Lebanon for "simply sensing that a protection force is built to protect our country."
Meanwhile, Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadllalah warned Premier Fouad Seniora against manipulating the constitution, and asked him not to go beyond unanimous cabinet decisions because "taking decisions against the resistance is no longer accepted in Lebanon," he said.
Hezbollah's campaign comes at a time when the Lebanese Parliament is debating the new cabinet policy statement to give it the voice of confidence, and amid sharp disputes regarding Hezbollah's right to resist Israel away from state control.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/12/2008 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(Xinhua) -- Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah launched a verbal campaign against pro-government majority coalition which criticizes Hezbollah's adherence to weapons, LocalAn-Nahar website reported Monday. "The state which does not preserve the right of the resistance, will not preserve the interests of its people," Hezbollah member of Parliament Mohammed Raad said. 
