(AKI) - The kidnappers of the 19 tourists abducted in southern Egypt last week are heavily armed, according to government-backed daily Al-Ahram. Al-Ahram said there are at least four kidnappers and they are armed with RPG rocket-launchers.
The five Germans, five Italians and one Romanian tourist were visiting the remote desert Gilf al-Kebir area near the Sudanese border when they were abducted last Friday. The captors are believed to have taken the tourists across the border to Sudan. The kidnappers, whose nationality is uncertain, are demanding a ransom of up to 15 million dollars for the tourists' release, the Egyptian state news agency MENA reported.
It is the first time tourists have been abducted in Egypt, a country that was the target of Islamist militant bombings and shootings of tourists during the 1990s. Italian and German diplomats are working closely with Egyptian officials to free the kidnapped tourists.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Oh My God! No! The kidnappers were ARMED?! HEAVILY ARMED!?! Horrors! What kind of kidnappers ARE they anyway, barbarians?! What Is This World Coming To! Armed kidnappers! HEAVILY armed!! Who'd have thought it! (Oh, they are from the Sudan? Well, then!! Nobody expects much of THOSE people! Sniff.)
I wish the world would treat kidnappers like they used to treat pirates. Kill On Sight.
For that matter, I wish the world would treat pirates like they used to treat pirates.
Just about used up my years supply of !!! points in this one post. Got to get some more.
Got a few left over, tho. !!
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
09/26/2008 6:44 Comments ||
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#2
Here 'ya go Whiskey !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Brother-in-law's Italian, I get 'em for next to nothing.
#3
While WM gets his !! restocked, I cannot help but wonder how the melt down of the various world markets has affected Joe's CAP LOCK FLUID supply; it has to be running dangerously low.
#4
I cannot help but wonder how the melt down of the various world markets has affected Joe's CAP LOCK FLUID supply; it has to be running dangerously low.
Dubai's chief of police has threatened to create sleeper cells in Iran if it is proven that it is involved in any attempts to destabilize the Gulf region.
Lieutenant General Dahi Khalfan said that Gulf countries have the financial ability to infiltrate Iranian ranks since Iran has 15 million citizens of Arab origins that potentially could be recruited, especially given that they live in dire conditions, the London-based Asharq al-Awsat reported Wednesday.
"It is not in Iran's interest to play this game, especially that Gulf countries respect their neighbors. If they have a cell we can have thousands."
"It is not in Iran's interest to play this game, especially that Gulf countries respect their neighbors. This shouldn't come from a neighboring Muslim country," the paper quoted Khalfan as saying. "We ask them to resort to reason, but if they have a cell we can have thousands."
Khalfan's statements came in the wake of allegations by a senior Iranian defector that Iran runs a network of agents in the six Arab monarchies of the Gulf that could be used to destabilize the region. Adel al-Assadi, who was consul general in Dubai with the rank of ambassador before defecting in 2001, said Shiite Iran's Revolutionary Guards started to set up the sleeper cells right after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Tehran. Iranian Defence Minister Mustafa Mohammad Najjar denied the claim.
Khalfan expressed his surprise at Iran's threats to close the Strait of Hormuz and attack oil tankers in the case of an American or Israeli strike: "As if we in the Gulf countries are a party in the conflict. If Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz, our oil resources will be jeopardized unless we find another route for our oil tankers."
That is why Khalfan suggested reviving an idea that late Prime Minister Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum suggested in the 1980s following Ayatollah Khomeini's attack on oil tankers. His idea was to dig a canal from Ras al-Khaimah to the Arabian Sea. "If the Gulf countries do not take an action about this canal, our oil will be in danger in case the U.S. or Israel takes any rash steps," explained Khalfan.
However, he said Iran is unlikely to strike oil facilities in the Gulf and argued that it is more probable that it would attack oil tankers and blockade the Strait of Hormuz. "Plus, the whole world will stand by the Gulf countries to protect the oil and will not allow any impulsive party to ruin a wealth that the entire world depends on," Khalfan said in the interview. "The world will not come to our rescue for our sake, but rather for protecting their own security."
Khalfan asked Iran to be reasonable and not to involve the Gulf in its conflict with Israel and the U.S. and to stop issuing provocative statements that antagonize Gulf countries. Khalfan added that incidents like the Gulf war proved that Gulf countries are all united in both distress and prosperity. "We have very strong ties. It's true we don't have big troops, but we have technology, and this is what warfare depends on. The best example is Hezbollah's war with Israel. Military show off is no longer intimidating."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
If he knew where they were, he wouldn't "Threaten",
post under "Hot air", and cross file under "Bullshit"
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/26/2008 10:44 Comments ||
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Ayaan Hirsi Ali wants to force the Netherlands to continue paying for her security. The Hague stopped providing payments for the former MP because she moved to the United States. However, she insists that the Dutch government promised to continue paying. The former politician has been receiving death threats for years because of her continual criticism of Islam.
In order to try and prove that the Netherlands did make promises on her security, Ms Hirsi Ali has asked a court in The Hague to hear a number of witnesses. The first, a former political assistant of hers, will be heard this week. Her political patron, former minister Gerrit Zalm, and the former National Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism will be questioned later. After these preliminary hearings, Ms Hirsi Ali and her lawyer will decide whether there is sufficient evidence to initiate proceedings against the Dutch state.
The Dutch government agreed to remain responsible for the security of anti-Islam campaigner Ayaan Hirsi Ali after she moved to the US, the Telegraaf reports a witness as telling a Dutch judicial hearing on Wednesday. Iris van den Berg, who worked for Hirsi Ali at the time, told the court she was present at a meeting in June 2006 where anti terrorism coordinator Tjibbe Joustra told the former MP that the state would continue paying for her bodyguards at home and abroad. No end date for this agreement was given, she says. In December, Joustra and former finance minister Gerrit Zalm will give their version of events to the judicial hearing. In the meantime, Hirsi Ali has reportedly managed to raise enough money to pay for her own security.
Military prosecutors have asked the judge who presided over the war crimes trial for Osama bin Laden's driver to order a new sentencing hearing, arguing the detainee should not have received credit for time served, officials said Thursday. The motion filed Wednesday argues that Salim Hamdan, who is eligible for release by January, cannot receive trial credit for his time detained at the Guantanamo Bay Navy base as an "enemy combatant."
"We're not looking to jack up the sentence, just to have it on a legally correct basis," said Army Col. Lawrence Morris, the chief prosecutor for the Guantanamo tribunals.
A panel of six American military officers sentenced Hamdan to 5 1/2 years in prison last month, making him eligible for release by January. The judge informed the jurors that time already served would count toward the sentence before they began deliberations.
Hamdan, the only convicted detainee at Guantanamo, was found guilty of supporting terrorism but acquitted of the more serious charge of conspiracy at the first American war crimes trial since World War II. Prosecutors recommended a sentence of 30 years to life in prison.
Hamdan, 40, could be held indefinitely regardless of the sentence. The Pentagon reserves the right to hold him and other "enemy combatants" who are considered dangerous to the United States _ even those who are acquitted or complete sentences in the tribunal system.
The motion calls for the judge to order the same jurors back to Guantanamo for a new hearing, said Air Force Maj. Gail Crawford, a spokeswoman for the tribunal system.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2008 00:00 ||
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One of the Marines cleared in the killings of Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha plans to sue his congressman today for statements he says defamed him and other members of his squad. Former Marine Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, 24, of Canonsburg, will file a civil lawsuit against U.S. Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Johnstown, who was widely quoted two years ago saying that eight Marines carried out a cold-blooded killing of 24 civilians in the Iraqi town on Nov. 19, 2005.
Charges were later dropped against all but one of the Marines, with a military prosecutor calling allegations against Mr. Sharratt "incredible."
Noah Geary, a Washington County lawyer representing Mr. Sharratt, said his client will file suit today in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh accusing Mr. Murtha of violating his constitutional rights as well as slander for statements about the Haditha incident. A 1:30 p.m. news conference has been planned to announce the suit.
"He just held innumerable press conferences, just repeatedly kept saying this was cold-blooded murder," Mr. Geary said of the congressman. While Mr. Sharratt killed three insurgents, Mr. Geary said, he followed the rules of engagement for combat.
The Haditha incident remains a political flash point in the Iraq War, with critics saying Mr. Murtha, a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam, defamed American troops.
Mr. Murtha could not be reached last night and a spokesman did not respond to a message requesting comment.
One of the Marines at Haditha, squad leader Frank Wuterich, sued Mr. Murtha shortly after the congressman's first public remarks at the beginning of 2006. That lawsuit has been in abeyance as Mr. Wuterich remains the only member of the eight-man squad still facing charges in connection with the deaths. Prosecutors accused Mr. Wuterich, the staff sergeant, of leading some members of his squad to attack Iraqi civilians as revenge for a roadside bomb that killed one Marine and wounded two others. The defendants said any civilians who died were killed unintentionally, caught in the crossfire of a battle that broke out with insurgents after the blast.
Mr. Geary said Mr. Sharratt shot three individuals later identified as insurgents.
In the year after he was cleared, Mr. Sharratt left the Marine Corps. His father, Darryl, said he telephoned Mr. Murtha's office more than 40 times seeking an apology. Sometime last year, Darryl Sharratt said, he reached the congressman personally. "He kept skirting the issue," Darryl Sharratt said. "This was right after Justin was exonerated and at no time did he acknowledge the fact that Justin was exonerated. He played the role of politician."
#1
Justin Sharratt has rights too. A congressman bullied a court to ruin his career. I do not see how Murtha's state will survive his CONTINUED career.
#2
Now Murtha is going to realize what "Semper Fi" means. He was probably absent that day during his supposed training (Probably was busy politicking).
#4
the corps should kick murtha out... and sue him for defamation of character if he ever refers to himself as a marine again...
calling him a douchebag would be complimentary.
Posted by: Abu do you love ||
09/26/2008 2:54 Comments ||
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#5
This is what happens when you exclusively surround yourself with like-minded, partisan entrenched commrades beholding to MoveOn.org and George Soros.
I would prefer a firing squad for sedition and treason since Murtha aided and abetted a foreign enemy during war with his PR remarks, but I'll take what I can get.
#7
LTC (ret) Bill Russell is running against Murtha this year.  You could consider donating to his campaign if you want to see the Murth go down.  And be sure to go to his Honor the Heroes page and watch his Defend the Heroes ad.
#9
I'm not an attorney but there is the GTLA. I have served in a couple of cases as an expert witness where a government entity was sued. I don't know whether the good Lance Corporal will be able to get much because of the Government Tort Liability Act (GTLA).
A government employee is not liable for causing personal injury or property damage, provided his conduct "does not amount to gross negligence that is the proximate cause of the injury or damage."
Maybe this falls into the category of gross negligence.
In our State, government liability is capped at $300,000.
Perhaps, the case will bring further attention to what a dipwad Murtha is and topple him out of office. One can hope. He does not serve the people well.
PAKISTANI troops have killed more than 1000 al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels, including five top commanders, in a month-long offensive near the Afghan border, the military said today.
Twenty-seven soldiers also died in the operation in Bajaur, one of Pakistan's seven lawless tribal regions along the porous frontier, said Tariq Khan, inspector general of the paramilitary Frontier Corps. "The overall toll is over 1000 militants,'' Mr Khan said who were taken by helicopter to see the scene of the fighting in remote Bajaur.
The fifth was a Pakistani commander named only Abdullah, a son of ageing hardline leader Maulvi Faqir Mohammad who is based in Bajaur and has close ties to al-Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri.
Bajaur, which borders the troubled Afghan province of Kunar, has seen some of the fiercest fighting between Pakistani forces and Islamist militants since Islamabad joined the US-led "war on terror'' in 2001. It was also the scene of a missile strike that narrowly missed Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's number two, in January 2006.
This article starring:
ABU SAID AL MASRI
al-Qaeda
ABU SULEIMAN
al-Qaeda
MANARAS
al-Qaeda
MAULVI FAQIR MOHAMAD
al-Qaeda
MULLAH MANSUR
al-Qaeda
Posted by: tipper ||
09/26/2008 03:21 ||
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#1
They probably aren't counting all those underarmed, undershod Frontier Corps troops, the ones the various militant groups have been kidnapping in droves for the purpose of beheading practice.
The Pakistan government should check alleged illegal activities in 'a handful madrassas', United States Consulate Principal Officer Brian Hunt said on Thursday. He also asked religious scholars to impart teachings of peace and tolerance to their students, Dawn News reported. During his visit to the Jamia Maqsoodia in Lahore, Hunt said that most of the madrassas were contributing to the society by educating the poor but a handful of people were misusing the institution. The US diplomat said it was important to recognise the services of these charitable madrassas.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
That's the hand with a thousand fingers handful.
In an emotional address to the United Nations General Assembly, President Asif Ali Zardari demanded a United Nations investigation into the murder of Benazir Bhutto to reassure the people of Pakistan that the international community cares about them and to prove that the UN charter of justice is more than rhetoric.
A good deal of the president's long address was devoted to the memory of the fallen leader, whom he credited with enunciating the 'doctrine of reconciliation', which he compared with the Marshall Plan that had rebuilt a war-ravaged Europe. He urged the UN to move forward quickly on the murder investigation so that the people of Pakistan and the world will know once for all who took away 'one of the greatest women in history'.
Zardari said, "The Bhutto doctrine of reconciliation is a roadmap not only to a new Pakistan, but to a new era of peace and co-operation between East and West, between people of all faiths, a roadmap that if followed will avoid a clash of civilisations and clash of religions that is the terrorists' ultimate goal. The Bhutto doctrine is the new century's equivalent of the Marshall Plan that saved Europe after World War II."
Zardari said Pakistan is a victim of terrorism and its people have begun to wonder if they stand alone. Pakistan has lost more soldiers in this war than all the 37 countries that have their forces in Afghanistan. Pakistan, he pledged, will never surrender to terrorism or succumb to it and was now reaching out to the entire civilised world for support. In a reference to the violation of Pakistan's sovereignty, Zardari said, "Violating our nation's sovereignty is not helpful in eliminating the terrorist menace. Indeed this could have the opposite effect." He said, "Attacks within Pakistan that violate our sovereignty actually serve to empower the forces against which we fought together." He said Pakistan would work patiently to persuade leaders in FATA and the Pukhtunkhwa province to accept the writ of government and turn their back on terrorists.
Zardari said Pakistan would work together with Afghanistan and the NATO forces stationed there to ensure the safety of 'our common border'.
In the sole reference to Kashmir, he said, "We will continue the composite dialogue with India so that our outstanding disputes are resolved. Whether it is the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir, or co-operation on water resources, India and Pakistan must accommodate each other's concerns and interests, we must respect and work with each other to peacefully resolve our problems and build South Asia into a common market of trade and technology."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
You're president of the country where it happened. There's a guy who bragged about it who lives in your northwest frontier provinces. Work it out yourself, sovereign.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
09/26/2008 8:40 Comments ||
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#2
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone...the UN!
Wait a second. Where are we going?
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed on Wednesday to resume the strained peace process with new talks to be scheduled within three months. The leaders of the nuclear-armed nations agreed that their foreign secretaries "will schedule meetings of the fifth round of the composite dialogue in the next three months," a joint statement said after the summit at the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting.
The talks were Zardari's first with Singh since the widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto won a presidential election this month to replace military leader Pervez Musharraf, who resigned under threat of impeachment. The two leaders also called for an ongoing ceasefire to be "stabilized."
Tensions have escalated along the common border since last July when New Delhi accused "elements" in Pakistan of involvement in a suicide car-bomb attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul that left at least 41 people dead.
Singh and Zardari also agreed that a special meeting of a joint anti-terrorist mechanism be held next month to address "mutual concerns," including the bombing of the embassy.
"Both leaders acknowledged that the peace process has been under strain in recent months," the statement said. "They agreed that violence, hostility and terrorism have no place in the vision they share of the bilateral relationship, and must be visibly and verifiably prevented," it said.
The neighbors launched peace efforts in 2004 after nearly going to war a fourth time over Islamist militant attacks in India linked to a nearly 20-year revolt against Indian rule in Kashmir that Pakistan supports, at least politically. While ties have warmed, the two sides have made no significant progress on their dispute over the Muslim-majority region they both claim.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
What is there to talk about? First things first. Stop making jihad and then you can talk.
The world knows the "Taliban" as armed fighters who have unleashed a wave of violence in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, including devastating suicide bomb attacks by them and their allies, the most recent on the luxurious Marriott Hotel in high-security Islamabad last week.
But not all taliban wield guns. In seminaries scattered over the restive, northern parts of Pakistan, taliban - an Arabic-based word that means student in Pashto, the language of Pakistan's Pakhtoons and Afghanistan's Pashtuns - study the Koran and swear by peace.
"Yes. I'm proud to be a talib. Because being a talib I am able to study Koran and teach it to others," says Rahimdad, 21, from the Darul Uloom Islamia seminary in Khairabad village of Mardan district, 120 kilometers north of this border city, when asked if he was a talib.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Technically taliban is plural for taleb, student in Arabic. I don't know if taleb/taliban is specific to students in religion or if students in say mathematics would get the same appellation of taliban.
What we call Taliban were intially the "students" trained in the Deobandi Madrassa (Deobandi is a city in Pakistan) or in one of its subsidiaries.
The Deonadi madrassa has been a cesspool of fundamentalism since XIXth century.
#2
so just because some taliban are likeable, all taliban should be liked? Just as stoopid as "because some taliban are terrorists, then all taliban are terrorists."
If you're complaining about the bad connotations that the word is getting, blame the muslims who are giving it a bad name, not the non-muslims who are using the name the bad taliban call themselves.
The Iraqi Red Moon Shaped Thingy Crescent, the country's leading humanitarian organization, has been crippled by allegations of embezzlement and mismanagement, including what Iraqi officials call the inappropriate expenditure of more than $1 million on Washington lobbying firms in an unsuccessful effort to win U.S. funding.
The group's former president, Said I. Hakki, an Iraqi American urologist recruited by Bush administration officials to resuscitate Iraq's health-care system, left the country this summer after the issuance of arrest warrants for him and his deputies. He and his aides deny the allegations and call them politically motivated.
The Red Crescent oversees the largest humanitarian operation in the country, with thousands of employees and an annual budget of $60 million funded in large part by the Iraqi government. The group has ceased nearly all its humanitarian work in recent months after the government froze its assets. The agency, which distributed more than 35,000 emergency food packages in June, handed out just 2,000 in July.
The crisis at the Red Crescent -- detailed in interviews, internal agency documents and investigative reports -- illustrates many of the challenges Iraq faces as its leaders seek to assert more control over security, reconstruction and humanitarian work. Iraqi officials point to Hakki and other former exiles brought to Iraq by the U.S. government as one reason that key institutions remain inefficient and corrupt.
"We are supposed to be an organization that helps people, and instead we have been infected by a culture of corruption," said Abdul Kareem Aboud al-Humeidi, a critic of Hakki who was elected interim president of the Red Crescent this summer. "If the whole world is so concerned about the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, why has no one fixed the problems at the Red Crescent?"
In several telephone interviews from Beirut, Hakki said his expansion of the organization's size and budget has helped millions of Iraqis. He called the probes a ploy by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to purge him and other allies of former prime minister Ibrahim al-Jafari from top jobs in the country.
"I risked my life to come to Iraq and build the largest and the only effective organization working in the country," said Hakki, 64. "I will not stand by and let the Iraqi Red Crescent be destroyed."
Hakki's management practices caused alarm among his colleagues shortly after he arrived at the Red Crescent. A former adviser to Saddam Hussein's Health Ministry, Hakki fled the country in 1983 and eventually settled in Florida, where he became a U.S. citizen. He developed a urology practice, taught at the University of South Florida and became known for his patented work on prosthetic penile implants.
Just before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration asked Hakki to return to Baghdad. At the time, the administration sought to fill positions in Iraq with Republican supporters; Hakki has donated $13,800 to Republican candidates and party organizations since 1988. Jafari, Iraq's premier from mid-2005 to mid-2006, appointed Hakki to lead the Red Crescent. Jafari declined to comment for this article.
"We were impressed with him at the beginning. He was an American and an academic," said Humeidi, then a member of the board of directors.
But Hakki soon clashed with the head of the society's accounting division, Faiza Fadhil Whayeb, who insisted that Hakki and his deputies put out all contracts for competitive bidding, according to Humeidi and other agency officials. Hakki refused, they said. In an interview, Hakki said it was sometimes necessary to avoid time-consuming bidding procedures because of the pressing need and the difficulty of working under wartime conditions. Whayeb said she could not comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2008 00:00 ||
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I'll bet Blair's sister in law is glad she got the hell outta there instead of waiting for her "friends" to come get her.
NICOSIA (Reuters) - Foreign activists who planned to sail to Gaza in defiance of an Israeli blockade have delayed their trip to late October, an organizer said on Friday. Members of the U.S.-based Free Gaza Movement had planned to sail to the Palestinian territory from Cyprus this week, but said they were held up while attempting to find a boat. Good planning. If you're gonna sail some place, who needs a boat?
There were also poor weather conditions in the eastern Mediterranean, and activists did not want their trip to coincide with the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan next week, a spokeswoman said. Ah, yes. Ramadan. Wouldn't wanna screw up Ramadan.
"The only analogy I can think of is like showing up with 22 people you don't know for Christmas dinner," said Greta Berlin, a spokeswoman for the Free Gaza Movement. Or 22 idiots who don't have a clue.
"We want to get past Ramadan, and the seas are very rough at the moment so we are going to postpone it until the third or fourth week of October," she said. ...and the dog ate our maps.
#2
In the meantime Black Sudanese are being massacred and raped without antone of those nice people of the SA Free Gaza movement losing any sleep at it.
#3
Winter weather in the Med can get pretty dicey as well; might want to make sure that boat you find has all the seams well-caulked ( or not as the case may be)
(AKI) - The Israeli government has decided to set up a new authority to tackle the threat to national security posed by Islamist terror groups, Israel Radio reports.
The authority will be headed by the Israeli Defence Ministry's anti-terrorism chief. Its members will include the chiefs of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency and its domestic spy service Shin Bet, as well as its security forces. The authority's purpose is to provide assistance and coordination between the various agencies. It will meet when required and at least twice a month.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2008 00:00 ||
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Political posters are to start being removed from the streets of Lebanon as part of ongoing reconciliation efforts between rival factions, parliamentary majority leader Saad Hariri vowed on Thursday. "They will be removed within three days... first from the Beirut district and then throughout the rest of Lebanon as soon as possible," Hariri told reporters after meeting with parliament speaker Nabih Berri.
Beirut's streets and buildings are plastered with posters, party flags and portraits of martyrs and political leaders both dead and alive, emblematic of the intense divide among feuding clans. The posters have often led to violent incidents. Last week, two people were killed over the hanging of a political banner in the north of the country.
Lebanon's rival political leaders have been working toward reconciling their differences in recent weeks ahead of a national dialogue that will set the tone for parliamentary elections due next year.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2008 00:00 ||
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A senior Iranian official says Iran is not obliged to answer allegations of weaponization studies by the US at the international nuclear agency.
Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said all issues raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regarding Iran's nuclear activities have already been answered. He said Iran sees no obligation to answer what is claimed in the studies the US is asserting Iran carried out.
Addressing an IAEA meeting in Vienna, the chief UN nuclear inspector, Mohammed ElBaradei, said he believed Iran is withholding information needed to explain 'serious' intelligence, alleging that the Islamic Republic had pursued 'studies of weaponization.'
The former Iranian chief nuclear negotiator added that after Iran's cooperation, it was expected that the IAEA head make a more far-reaching probe into this issue. He said the same path taken to answer the previous six questions raised by the IAEA could have solved any questions regarding these new purported studies.
Larijani said raising the question of weaponization studies means that an official claim has been made and now the IAEA has to investigate it.
Iran says accusations that the country has been involved in 'green salt project, high explosives testing, and the missile re-entry vehicle project' have been based on 'forged' documents and 'fabricated' data. Iran has asked the IAEA to provide the country with copies of the documents concerning the 'alleged studies'. The agency, however, says it is not 'in a position' to do so.
Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh blamed the United States on Monday for hindering the IAEA's progress by not providing enough evidence to back up its claims on Tehran's nuclear activities.
The Islamic Republic has also expressed concern that the resolution of some of the issues raised in the documents would require agency access to sensitive information about its military and missile related activities that any government would be reluctant to disclose for security concerns.
"(We do) not seek to 'pry' into Iran's conventional or missile-related military activities. Our focus is clearly nuclear material and activities," ElBaradei responded.
The IAEA chief said the 10 countries, which provided the agency with documentation related to the allegations, should share it with Iran so that the Islamic Republic can determine the factually correct parts.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2008 00:00 ||
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Lebanon's' Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has accused Israel of launching an intelligence war against Lebanon to block national reconciliation.
Berri, addressing an Iftar banquet hosted by his Amal movement on Thursday, also declared support for the agreement reached with Mustaqbal Movement leader Saad Hariri on removing banners and posters from Beirut in the next three days as a measure towards healing the nation's political rifts.
The speaker also declared support for meeting by local communities throughout Lebanon to facilitate reconciliation.
He noted that Israel was in the process of obtaining sophisticated weapons while it prevents Lebanon from acquiring night visual equipment for its army.
He said Lebanon would succeed in adopting a defense strategy in cooperation between the people, the army and the country's resistance forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2008 00:00 ||
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US President George W. Bush vows to back Lebanon's sovereignty and independence in a meeting with his Lebanese counterpart Michel Suleiman. "We're most impressed by the national dialogue that you're holding in an attempt to seek reconciliation.... Our mission is your mission: A country that is strong, and capable, and a country where people can live in peace," Bush told reporters on Thursday after talks with Suleiman at the White House.
In response, Suleiman showed appreciation for the US support for Lebanon. He also pledged to build 'a prosperous and democratic Lebanon.' "We are also here to reaffirm the need to liberate all Lebanese territories; and also to make it very clear that the future of Palestinian refugees is in their homeland, not in Lebanon," he said.
There are reports that some 400,000 Palestinian refugees are living in 12 camps in Lebanon.
Michel Suleiman was elected Lebanese President and sworn into office on May 25, 2008. His election put an end to a months-long political crisis in Lebanon. Before assuming office as president, he held the position of commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces. After LAF commander Emile Lahoud took office as president in November of 1998, Suleiman succeeded him, taking his place in December.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2008 00:00 ||
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The British newspaper The Guardian on Thursday quoted European officials as saying that the United States earlier this year refused to agree to an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.
According to the report, "European diplomatic sources" said that "Israel gave serious thought this spring to launching a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites but was told by President George W. Bush that he would not support it and did not expect to revise that view for the rest of his presidency."
The Guardian quoted the sources as saying that the issue was raised during a one-on-one meeting between Bush and outgoing prime minister Ehud Olmert during the American president's trip to Israel in May to mark its 60th anniversary.
The sources reportedly attributed the American rejection of an Israeli attack to two factors: fear of Iranian retaliatory attacks on American targets, and concern that an Israeli strike would not successfully take out Iran's nuclear facilities, which are not concentrated in a single area, and some of which are subterranean.
Haaretz reported earlier this month that the U.S. denied Israel a security aid package including "bunker-buster" bombs, permission to use an air corridor to Iran, and an advanced technological system out of concern that Israel would use it to attack nuclear facilities in Iran.
An Israeli spokesman denied The Guardian report Thursday, saying that the "unnamed European source attributed words to the prime minister that were not spoken in any working meeting with foreign guests."
But, spokesman Mark Regev told The Guardian, "The need to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons is raised at every meeting between the prime minister and foreign leaders. Israel prefers a diplomatic solution to this issue but all options must remain on the table.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Iff RUSSIA is going to keep being anti-US bellicose and empowering a NUCLEAR IRAN despite recognizing that one day the same may turn agz Russia, who is Dubya to get in the way of a future RUSSO-IRANIAN NUCLEAR LOVER'S QUARREL???
#2
"Israel gave serious thought this spring to launching a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites but was told by President George W. Bush that he would not support it and did not expect to revise that view for the rest of his presidency."
In an ideal world:
Dubya: "I don't want you to launch a military strike. If it needs doing, I'll do it after the election, and I'll take out their military and leadership at the same time. You can't hit enough targets simultaneously. I can."
Lebanon's Al Mustaqbal Movement leader MP Saad Hariri declared after meeting a Hezbollah team on Wednesday that Beirut will never again be a hostage to Hezbollah weapons, but should be under state-army control. Right. They promised. You believe them.
Hariri made the announcement in addressing an Iftar banquet, hardly two hours after meeting the Hezbollah team at his Beirut residence. By meeting the Hezbollah team "we broke thick ice," Hariri said. He's meeting with a bridge salesman tomorrow morning, too. Gonna get a real good buy.
The meeting was meant to achieve a "disengagement of the popular clash," Hariri said. "We would not issue a certificate of pardon to anybody ... history would judge who caused harm to the capital," he added. "We shoulder the responsibility of safeguarding the second independence ... achieved by the March 14 alliance," Hariri said as the cheerful crowd applauded. "We want the state and the army to be the arbitrators. We don't want Beirut to remain a hostage of factional sedition," Hariri stressed.
He said the Taif accord "remains the framework that commands national tracks as well as the state base."
Hariri praised the speech of President Michel Suleiman in New York and his commitment to the international tribunal. "This speech is a new motivation for the national dialogue" he said
Posted by: Fred ||
09/26/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[4 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
"Saad Hariri declared after meeting a Hezbollah team on Wednesday that Beirut will never again be a hostage to Hezbollah weapons, ".....as long as I live! 5-4-3-2-----
#2
MP Saad Hariri declared after meeting a Hezbollah team on Wednesday that Beirut will never again be a hostage to Hezbollah weapons, but should be under state-army control.
Im quite sure Mr Hariri is just as cynical about Leb politics as we are. What is he supposed to do? Having managed to bargain a promise out of Hezb, hes trying to make it worth 1 cent on the dollar instead of zero by waving Hezbs promise around in public.
Should he wait for the 3rd ID to rescue him? The IDF? The French army?
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.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali wants to force the Netherlands to continue paying for her security. The Hague stopped providing payments for the former MP because she moved to the United States. However, she insists that the Dutch government promised to continue paying. The former politician has been receiving death threats for years because of her continual criticism of Islam. 
One of the Marines cleared in the killings of Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha plans to sue his congressman today for statements he says defamed him and other members of his squad. Former Marine Lance Cpl. Justin Sharratt, 24, of Canonsburg, will file a civil lawsuit against U.S. Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Johnstown, who was widely quoted two years ago saying that eight Marines carried out a cold-blooded killing of 24 civilians in the Iraqi town on Nov. 19, 2005.
In an emotional address to the United Nations General Assembly, President Asif Ali Zardari demanded a United Nations investigation into the murder of Benazir Bhutto to reassure the people of Pakistan that the international community cares about them and to prove that the UN charter of justice is more than rhetoric.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed on Wednesday to resume the strained peace process with new talks to be scheduled within three months. The leaders of the nuclear-armed nations agreed that their foreign secretaries "will schedule meetings of the fifth round of the composite dialogue in the next three months," a joint statement said after the summit at the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting.
The world knows the "Taliban" as armed fighters who have unleashed a wave of violence in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan, including devastating suicide bomb attacks by them and their allies, the most recent on the luxurious Marriott Hotel in high-security Islamabad last week.
The Iraqi Red 
Lebanon's' Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri has accused Israel of launching an intelligence war against Lebanon to block national reconciliation. 
