Nato plans to open a new supply route to Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia in the next eight weeks following a spate of attacks on its main lifeline through Pakistan this year, Nato and Russian sources have told The Times.
Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the former Soviet Central Asian states that lie between Russia and Afghanistan, have agreed in principle to the railway route and are working out the small print with Nato, the sources said.
“It'll be weeks rather than months,” said one Nato official. “Two months max.”
The “Northern Corridor” is expected to be discussed at an informal meeting next week between Dmitri Rogozin, Russia's ambassador to Nato, and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, Nato's Secretary-General.
The breakthrough reflects Nato and US commanders' growing concern about the attacks on their main supply line, which runs from the Pakistani port of Karachi via the Khyber Pass to Kabul and brings in 70 per cent of their supplies. The rest is either driven from Karachi via the border town of Chaman to southern Afghanistan - the Taleban's heartland - or flown in at enormous expense in transport planes that are in short supply.
“We're all increasingly concerned,” Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, told reporters on Wednesday. “But in that concern, we've worked pretty hard to develop options.”
The opening of the Northern Corridor also mirrors a gradual thaw in relations between Moscow and Nato, which plunged to their lowest level since the end of the Cold War after Russia's brief war with Georgia in August.
However, Nato and the United States are simultaneously in talks on opening a third supply route through the secretive Central Asian state of Turkmenistan to prevent Russia from gaining a stranglehold on supplies to Afghanistan, the sources said. Non-lethal supplies, including fuel, would be shipped across the Black Sea to Georgia, driven to neighbouring Azerbaijan, shipped across the Caspian Sea to Turkmenistan and then driven to the Afghan border.
The week-long journey along this “central route” would be longer and more expensive than those through Pakistan or Russia and would leave supplies vulnerable to political volatility in the Caucasus and Turkmenistan.
The US and Nato are, though, exploring as many alternatives as possible as America prepares to deploy 20,000 more troops - three quarters of them by the summer - to add to the 67,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan. Turkmenistan represents the only realistic alternative that bypasses Russia. A route through Iran is out of the question because Washington does not have diplomatic relations with Tehran. Afghanistan's border with China is too remote to be used.
An agreement with Georgia has already been signed and negotiations with Azerbaijan are “ongoing”, a Nato official said.
Nato began exploring alternative supply routes in response to political instability in Pakistan last year and reached an informal agreement with Russia on the Northern Corridor at a Nato summit in Bucharest in April. At the same meeting President Berdymukhammedov of Turkmenistan offered to allow Nato to take supplies across its territory and to establish logistics bases there, according to Nato sources.
Negotiations stalled after the Georgian crisis, as Nato suspended high-level contacts with Moscow and Central Asian countries grew wary of angering the former Soviet master.
They have since shown their independence by refusing to back Moscow's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states.
Russia, meanwhile, has been offering preferential treatment to Nato members that it considers “friendly”, such as France and Germany, the only Nato members allowed to fly supplies to Afghanistan through Russian airspace. In November Germany also became the first Nato member allowed to bring supplies for Afghanistan through Russia by railway.
Russian officials say that Moscow is ready to open the Northern Corridor to all Nato members as soon as the alliance finalises its agreements with Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The agreements cover non-military supplies such as fuel, food and clothing, and some non-lethal military equipment.
“All Nato countries will be able to use the Northern Corridor,” one Russian official familiar with the negotiations told The Times. “As far as we understand, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have agreed to it and sent the relevant papers to Brussels. We're just waiting for Nato to sign the agreements. We've done our part.”
Posted by: john frum ||
12/13/2008 13:29 ||
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#1
Nato plans to open a new supply route to Afghanistan through Russia and Central Asia in the next eight weeks following a spate of attacks on its main lifeline through Pakistan this year, Nato and Russian sources have told The Times.
Logistics, New Option: John, the Northern routes are problematic.
But A new shipping/supply route going through Indian Ports and shipping Depots would be sublime!
:)
Keeping in mind that a straight line is often the shortest distance between two points, it would be mathematically elegant to Jump off from India and GRIND our new supply route straight through Pakistan.
This new shipping/supply route kills at least several dozen rag-headed shit-birds with each armored stone.
:)
Posted by: Red Dawg ||
12/13/2008 16:15 Comments ||
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#2
a new route would allow us to tell Pakis to f*ck off on the whining and sovereignty crap and cut off their aid. Let that shithole die
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2008 17:03 Comments ||
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#3
The Northern Route is as problematic as the Pak. Time to recognize that Afghanistan is, and always will be, plagued by locational obsolescence. Declare victory, withdraw, drive the Taliban and al-Qaeda out of Pakistan before they take it over, invade Afghanistan to finally destroy al-Q and the Taliban from Pakistan, if necessary.
#5
Turkmenistan can be coaxed (bribed) by laying a pipeline under the Caspian and exporting their gas at market rates. Last time I looked the Russians were generously taking the Turkmen gas at 30% of market rates (around $70-80/100CuM at the time) and selling their own gas to Europe at Euro market rates. This means $billions/year extra revenue for the Turkmens and a much higher standard of living. They are the Kuwait of nat gas. This should have begun years ago, even when Turkmenbashi was alive.
Russian nat gas at the German border (Nov 2008): $575/1000CuM )
US nat gas price (Dec 2008): $7.43/MMBtu = $265/1000CuM
Posted by: ed ||
12/13/2008 19:25 Comments ||
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#6
Non-lethal supplies, including fuel, would be shipped across the Black Sea to Georgia, driven to neighbouring Azerbaijan, shipped across the Caspian Sea to Turkmenistan and then driven to the Afghan border.
Hurray. Someone gets it. Logistics through enemy territory is supplies denied. Actually there is a train line from ports of Poti Georgia to Baku Azerbijian. It was cut by the Russian invasion and sections blown up.
Better the money goes to Georgians, Azeris and Turkomen than to Pakistan to feed and raise another generation that will try to kill us.
Posted by: ed ||
12/13/2008 19:31 Comments ||
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The US commander tasked with tackling Somali piracy, has balked at the idea of attacking the bandits from land or the air.
On Friday, the commander of the US Navy's 5th Fleet said a land or aerial attack could target civilians as the pirates are "irregulars -- they don't wear uniforms," Reuters reported. "If you're going to do kinetic strikes into the pirate camps, the positive ID and the collateral damage concerns cannot be overestimated," said Vice Adm. Bill Gortney.
The strikes amount to an easy way out of the problem, he added
The comments come while the Bush administration has presented the UN with the proposal that all the concerned parties be allowed to "take all necessary measures ashore in Somalia'' to tackle the problem.
The imposing international naval armada dispatched to the Horn of Africa for the purpose has been conflicted about arresting the suspects in the absence of a guarantee that they would be subjected to due process.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
It's primarily a Euro and Arab problem, (plus to a lesser extent India and East Asia). Let them deal with it.
#2
So according to this commander if a Pirate takes his girlfriend on a raid with him then they can't be touched. If there's a girlfriend in the boarding party then you better not shoot toward them or anything.
#3
ROE: Any small boat within 500m of a ship underway is considered a target. Within 300m it and all aboard will be fired upon and killed, the boat destroyed.
If they are boarding, kill them all. No issues that way.
As for kinetic action against those inshore? Predators, hellfires and if they have family in there, oh well. They are putting our families at risk, time to do the same to them. That's the only language they understand.
Seems this squid hasn't learned a damned thing from the land-side battles we fought in Iraq.
#4
Its not our problem. India is stepping up and doing a decent job while getting good experience that will help them and us in the future. We both stand to benefit more having an Indian navy with practical experience and a level of comfort in using it.
Posted by: Yosemite Sam ||
12/13/2008 11:41 Comments ||
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#5
India is stepping up and doing a decent job
It's the Indian Ocean, after all, not the Somalian Sea!
#6
It will be a somalian sea if the IN does not step up. I would imagine that the US is the eye in the sky for the IN and others. And that would be an appropriate role for the US.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
12/13/2008 14:04 Comments ||
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#7
Besides which, the military has long term memories of the last time the US went into Somalia and how the military was hung out to dry by the incoming Dhimmocrat President. I don't see they as trusting Hussien to be less of a rat than Billy Bob Clinton was.
(SomaliNet) Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said on Thursday that African Union peacekeepers want to withdraw from Somalia as soon as possible. The Ethiopian Premier told parliament in a surprise announcement that Uganda and Burundi, the only contributors to the AU force, wanted to withdraw their embattled peacekeepers ahead of Ethiopian troops, who are set to leave in January.
Uganda immediately issued a strong denial that it was withdrawing its troops, while an AU official in Burundi said the country had only on Wednesday pledged to send another battalion to Somalia.
"They have already informed us that they would want to withdraw before we do, and we are only waiting for ships and planes to arrive in Somalia in order for them to pull out," Meles told lawmakers in Addis Ababa. "At this time, we are looking into every aspect of our withdrawal. The main issue now is to ensure that Ugandan and Burundese peacekeepers pull out safe and sound."
Uganda's deputy foreign minister Okello Oryem said he was "surprised" by Meles' statement. "This is absolutely not true and this is contrary to everything we have said. Our position has always been that if Ethiopia pulls out of Somalia, we will increase our presence there," Oryem said. "Uganda is prepared to increase its battalion if there is a need," he added.
Neither country had given any hint that it wanted to withdraw its troops from the beleaguered AMISOM force, which numbers some 3 400. Withdrawal would leave Somalia's weak transitional government at the mercy of a resurgent Islamic rebellion.
Ethiopia announced last month it was ending its two-year intervention in Somalia, where it sent some 3 000 troops in 2006 to prop up the government and clear the threat of an Islamic insurgency from its own borders. That announcement caused panic within the African Union, whose under-equipped peacekeepers are meant to take over security duties but need more time to prepare, and get up to full operational strength of 8 000.
Addis Ababa subsequently said it was prepared to delay its pullout "by a few days" in order not to expose AU forces to an onslaught by the Shebab, the Islamist insurgents who control large parts of Somalia and have been closing in on Mogadishu in recent weeks.
The AU has meanwhile been scrambling to avoid a "security vacuum" in Somalia, and on Wednesday its chief Jean Ping called on the UN Security Council to authorise the deployment of UN forces in Somalia.
At least nine AU peacekeepers have been killed in Somalia since they were first deployed in March 2007.
Meles said in his speech to parliament on Thursday that "our decision will never be reversed no matter what the international community says or does. Even if they (the peacekeepers) change their mind and stay, or even if the international community fails to provide the necessary transport service, we will do whatever means necessary to pull out without postponing.
"Similarly, the AU has also informed us that it would want its troops out before our withdrawal if we were ever going to implement our decision. The AU asked for security and support in order to ensure the safe passage of the Ugandan and Burundese troops."
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has declared "mission accomplished" in Somalia, and told parliament Ethiopian troops will be home from their controversial two-year military mission within weeks.
The Ethiopian premier also pledged Ethiopia would guarantee the safety of African Union peacekeepers in Somalia, should they choose to withdraw.
The Ethiopian leader admitted it has been impossible to crush the Islamist extremist al-Shabab forces and establish a stable government in the two years since he dispatched troops to neighboring Somalia. But he said that was not Ethiopia's objective.
That, he said, is the job of the United Nations, which gave legitimacy to Somalia's Transitional Federal Government; the African Union, which initially pledged to send 8,000 peacekeepers that he thought would quickly replace Ethiopian soldiers; and the international community.
But in answering questions in parliament, Mr. Meles said he was bringing the troops home confident they had accomplished the twin missions of preventing the establishment of a militant Islamic regime, and giving the international community time to intervene.
"Our main mission was to defuse the plan orchestrated by Eritrea, accompanied by al-Shabab, and anti-peace elements in Ethiopia, he said. "We have defused it in a way that it cannot come again. That is, if we feel there are signs it is coming back again, we can take action. We did that in the first two weeks. Our second mission was to give the international community and Somali peace forces time to accomplish their mission of bringing lasting peace to Somalia. We consider two years enough time. So we have accomplished both our missions. Unfortunately, it has not been possible to bring lasting peace to Somalia."
Urgent efforts are underway to bolster the 3,400-member AU force known as AMISOM, and possibly transform it into a U.N. peacekeeping mission. If that fails, however, and the international community abandons Somalia, Mr. Meles said he has assured Burundi and Uganda, the two AMISOM troop contributors, that Ethiopia will guarantee safe departure of the peacekeepers.
"When we intervened in Somalia, there were forces that stood by our side," he saidi. "So when we think of withdrawing from Somalia, we also think about how those countries will withdraw their troops. When we withdraw, the Burundi and Uganda forces have told us that if we withdraw, they might like to withdraw. They have told us they would need our assistance to withdraw form Somalia. They say it would be better if we escort them first, then we withdraw."
AU Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra is in New York for talks with U.N. secretary-general and Security Council ambassadors about ways of preventing a collapse of Somalia's transitional government after Ethiopia leaves.
African Union diplomats in Addis Ababa said the international community is showing a heightened awareness of the severity of Somalia's crisis. The U.N. Security Council is said to be preparing a ministerial-level meeting on Somalia next week. The African Union Peace and Security Council will hold a similar session the following week.
Even so, diplomats said it would take months to replace the several-thousand Ethiopian troops who are going home, much less to bring the AMISOM force up to its authorized strength of 8,000, or to transform it to a more robust U.N. peacekeeping mission.
In what are seen as significant political developments, the leader of the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia returned to Mogadishu this week after a two-year absence, and the transitional government's parliament is assembling for a meeting Saturday aimed at affirming a power-sharing deal.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
Sounds like the Ethiops figure it's not going to get any better, and decreased American support is coming after Jan 20, so conditions will likely get worse. Better to leave now when it is not quite as obviously not 'Mission Accomplished.' Will this be the model we use in A'stan?
(AKI) - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday paid tribute to the 17 staff members killed by Al-Qaeda in the Algerian capital, Algiers, on the first anniversary of the terrorist attack.
"Terrorists have taken these noble individuals from us," Ban said. "But they can never extinguish our hopes for global harmony nor our conviction that working together is the only path to a better world."
Ban also noted that before the attack on the UN offices, terrorists struck the Algerian Constitutional Court, inflicting terrible casualties there.
In the attack, a car bomb destroyed the offices of the UN Development Programme and damaged those of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the Algerian capital. A second blast targeted the court.
Al-Qaeda's Branch in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility for the bombings.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Obviously lessons learned from political and military engagements of Vietnam, and the middle east are not enough. God help us if we get bogged down in Africa.
#2
We've been in Africa since shortly after 9/11 if my memory is correct, Besoeker. Special Forces, mostly, training the locals to protect their countries against branch of jihadi idiots. I'm glad there are reports of success.
#3
On a related topic, a family source in Jos, Nigeria, reports that:
1. voting had been peaceful; the violence arose after the voting but before results;
2. A mosque was telling people over the loudspeaker to ignore the authorities and loot in the name of jihad
3 Estimate at least 30,000 homeless, with many in makeshift camps or cared for by relatives
4. Estimate at least 1000 dead
5. The Media distorted events, as usual
In the interest of protecting the family source I am deleting my usual nym
A militant Muslim cleric banned from living in this country is continuing to lecture to his followers in the UK twice a day.
Omar Bakri Mohammed has been delivering sermons on the internet chat room PalTalk from his home in Lebanon, where he is exiled. Between 30 and 50 users log on every morning and evening to listen to what is usually a 30 minute speech. He then opens the discussion board up for questions, which he answers directly.
While monitoring this chat room Sky News heard Bakri tell his followers that no Muslim should join the Pakistan Army, but rather should support the Mujahideen - Muslims fighting a jihad, or Holy war. He also told them it was "haraam" (or prohibited) to wish work colleagues "Merry Christmas". In other recent sermons Bakri called on his followers to "disobey British law" and to "fight and die for islam", in order to step up an Islamic state in the UK.
Syrian-born Bakri was banned from re-entering the UK in 2005, after his presence was deemed by the Government not to be "conducive to the public good". Authorities believe the 50-year-old founder of the now-outlawed radical group al-Muhajiroun is a direct threat to national security. His use of the internet to continue to address his British followers has raised questions over the relevance of UK anti-terror legislation.
Logging on to the chat room, SkyNews asked Bakri if addressing his followers in the UK via the internet made a mockery of current terror legislation? "The terror legislation of the British Government, of any government, is irrelevant, unimportant, insignificant for me", he said. "They deport me, or they they prevent me from returning back to Britain, or prevent people entering the UK, they think that [is] going to make them stop communicating? If they stop the internet we will communicate by phone. Will they stop every call in the world?"
Bakri also gives regular speeches to gatherings in London via video link or over the phone. Two weeks ago he spoke to around 60 followers at a meeting in a restaurant in Southall, West London. The gathering had been due to take place at a council run building in Southall, but the local authority was tipped off that he was to address the meeting and decided to withdraw permission to use the building. Police were posted outside, looking for those handing out leaflets, but despite the last minute change, organisers were quickly able to rearrange the meeting at the alternative venue.
A previous event in a council-run venue in Tower Hamlets, East London, had gone ahead without intervention from the local authority. However, because Bakri now lives abroad, he is free to say almost anything he likes without fear of prosecution here.
Intelligence analyst Crispin Black warned that this is a dangerous scenario: "It's always been difficult, but it was previously less difficult because he was here, and they could count the number of people at his meetings and find out who they were. But now this is growing exponentially, it's much more difficult for the authorities to keep track of."
At the latest meeting Anjem Choudary, a London-based lawyer who is an organiser and spokesman for Bakri, said the Government could not stifle the voice of Muslims. Mr Choudary said: "He is now accessible every morning on chat rooms and in the evening, as well as addressing people at conferences, seminars and lectures. The authorities will try their best to try to silence his voice, however, need is the mother of all creativity."
A Home Office spokesman said the gatherings must still remain within the law - and if speakers crossed the line between free speech and incitement, the organisers risked being prosecuted.
North Korea balked yesterday at agreeing to a written plan for verifying its nuclear claims, handing President Bush a diplomatic defeat and the incoming Obama administration a new diplomatic headache.
Bush took a gamble two months ago when he agreed to remove North Korea from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, based on spoken assurances from Pyongyang that it had agreed to a verification plan. At the time, there were signs North Korea was planning to restart its shuttered nuclear plant or even conduct a nuclear test, and administration officials were desperate to avoid a crisis in the final months of Bush's presidency.
U.S. officials at the time asserted that North Korea had privately bent on two key issues: potential access to facilities not included in Pyongyang's nuclear declaration and permission for inspectors to take environmental samples from facilities to determine how much plutonium had been produced. The State Department publicly distributed a statement titled "U.S.-North Korean Understandings on Verification" that listed six key points, but it declined to release the text of the claimed agreement.
Yesterday, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher R. Hill told reporters in Beijing that four days of talks this week had failed because North Korea "was not ready to reach a verification protocol with all the standards that are required." But U.S. officials acknowledge now that most of the purported agreements announced two months ago were simply oral understandings between Hill and his North Korean counterparts.
Before Bush announced he was taking North Korea off the state sponsors of terrorism list -- a significant diplomatic carrot for Pyongyang -- Hill submitted a memorandum to North Korea's mission to the United Nations outlining his understanding of the oral agreements. The North Korean officials did not object to Hill's summary, U.S. officials said, but they would not commit to it in writing.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
ION OBAMA "new diplomatique headache", WORLD MIL FORUM > IIUC OKINAWA GOVERNOR: SENKAKU ISLANDS [Chin = DAOYU Islands] BELONG TO CHINA, ISHIGAKI CITY, OKINAWA PERFECTURE.
* ALso appears some CHINESE MIL FORUM Posters are upset about SOUTH KOREA ranking high on the list of nations which dislike or hate China > opine that KOREANS IN TIME PAST WERE "SAVAGES"???
#3
I don't blame them...they're looking at the weak, flaccid, incoming Obamanation and saying, "we can roll these guys." If you thought the Dear Leader beat clinton, richardson, and half-bright like a drum, wait till you see what they do to Obama.
The Norks snookered the Carterites, the clintonistas coming out with all the carrots and non of the sticks....I take that back, the Norks used the sticks to beat the leftist appeasercrats into submission.
India should give consular access to Ajmal Kasab if he is indeed a Pakistani national, a private TV channel quoted Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Nations Abdullah Hussain Haroon as saying on Friday. According to the channel, Pakistan's envoy to the UN said if it was determined that Kasab, the sole captured gunman in the Mumbai attacks was a Pakistani national, then the first step would be consular access to 'this person who claims to be a Pakistani'.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Jama'at-i-Islami (JI) Rawalpindi Chapter on Friday condemned the law-enforcement agencies crackdown on Jamaatud Dawa and termed it a move of the government to please the US and India by imposing a ban on a social welfare organisation.
Rawalpindi district JI Amir Raja Abdul Waheed Advocate in a statement said Jamaatud Dawa was a social welfare organisation and working for the welfare and education of the poverty stricken people of the country. He said crackdown on the Jama'at was a clear violation of human rights.
He said the government was afraid of US and India and it launched a crackdown against the patriotic people and organisations. He demanded that the government seek clear evidences from Indian government regarding involvement of any Pakistani organisation in Mumbai incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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Aswat al-Iraq: An official intelligence source in Diala province said on Friday there was evidence that Ezzat Ibrahim al-Dori, the no. 2 man in the former Iraqi regime, is in north of Baaquba city.
The reports were confirmed by the Diala police chief and a local official. "The intelligence available for the Iraqi security forces in Diala confirm that wanted Dori is in an area in al-Khalis district, (15 km) north of Baaquba," the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Aswat al-Iraq.
He pointed out that the Iraqi security forces have intensified their presence in the area.
Dori, who was born in 1942, used to be the vice chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council during the former regime's time. He ranks 6th on a U.S. forces' pack of cards of 55 most wanted persons after their invasion of Baghdad in April 2003, pledging a reward of $10 million for information leading to capturing Dori.
Maj. General Abdelhussein al-Shimari, the Diala police chief, said security instructions have been received by the police in the province to verify the intelligence reports that indicated Dori is in al-Khalis. He said he gave orders to intensify security presence in the designated areas and set up checkpoints on the roads and streets there.
Dori had been reportedly arrested more than once, the recent of which was in April 2008. The dissolved Baath Party had announced on November 11, 2005 that Dori has died, only to deny the reports shortly after.
Dori, according to web sites speaking in the name of Baath, is now the current leader of the party that split into two wings after 2003: one of them is led by Dori and the other by Mohammed Younus al-Ahmed, a member of the so-called provincial leadership of the Baath Party of former President Saddam Hussein.
Dori is on top of the Iraqi government's July 2, 2006 list of most wanted persons, followed by Ahmed.
Meanwhile, Saja Qaddouri, the chairperson of the Diala provincial council's security committee, vouched for the intelligence reports. "There is evidence asserting the security information. Security forces during the past period have struck organizations that are considered extensions of the Baath Party like al-Awda (Return), al-Nawah (Nucleus) and al-Tahrir (Liberation)," she said.
Qaddouri pointed out that the police, three months ago, had arrested the founder of Awda in Sneija area, al-Muqdadiya district, (45 km) northeast of Baaquba, and members from Nawah and Tahrir in separate operations as part of the security plan Bashaer al-Kheir.
The Iraqi security forces have launched a large-scale security operation in Diala since July 2008 codenamed Bashaer al-Kheir (Promise of Good) with the aim of tracking down armed groups active in the province. So far the operation was not officially announced finished.
"There are strong links between hard-line Islamist groups like al-Qaeda and members of the dissolved Baath party as several leaders of al-Qaeda were present in Diala after the fall of the regime, including the leader of the organization Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi, who was killed in an air raid in 2006, as well as the so-called ministers of the Islamic State of Iraq group, like finance minister Haqqi Ismail and agriculture minister Muthanna al-Dulaimi, both were arrested," Qaddouri indicated.
She said that there are areas still under the gunmen's control, adding "suicide attacks, car bombings and improvised explosive device (IED) blasts are carried out by al-Qaeda through financial support from the Baath".
This article starring:
Ezzat Ibrahim al-Dori
Mohammed Younus al-Ahmed
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Iraqi Insurgency
(AKI) - Abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit could be released in a day if Israel agreed to release Palestinian prisoners jailed for life, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said on Thursday. Zahar told Israel Radio that the Islamist movement had not believed that the Shalit case would have continued so long.
It is now 900 days since the soldier was kidnapped in a cross-border raid at Kerem Shalom in June 2006. Hamas, said Zahar, had denied requests by the Red Cross to visit Shalit for security reasons, but added that Islam required fair treatment of prisoners.
According to media reports citing the radio interview, Zahar said Israel needed only to "gather the courage" for an agreement to be implemented and it could be done in a day.
Zahar said the only way to bring about Shalit's freedom was to release of prisoners held in Israeli jails and detainees serving life sentences in particular. He expressed hope that the formation of a new Israeli government in 2009 would fulfil Hamas' demands.
Shalit was seized by militants from Gaza in a cross-border raid on 25 June 2006. Two other soldiers were killed.
The subsequent bombardment and invasion of the coastal territory by Israeli troops failed to secure his release.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
so Warty-Nose is trying to pull the same trick (what is this, the 5th or 6th time Shalit was gonna get released?) on Olmert before he leaves office in shame. Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown comes to mind
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/13/2008 8:40 Comments ||
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#2
Has Ham-Ass every provided proof that he is still alive? I doubt it.
Or is Israel going to release a known murder for a desecrated corpse again?
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who hopes to become prime minister after February elections, on Friday ruled out the expulsion of Arab-Israelis after a Palestinian state is created.
"The national aspirations (of the Arabs) should be realized elsewhere, but there is no question of carrying out a transfer or forcing them to leave," she told public radio. "I am willing to give up a part of the country over which I believe we have rights so that Israel will remain a Jewish and democratic state in which citizens have equal rights, whatever their religion," she said in reference to the creation of a Palestinian state.
On Thursday, Livni drew criticism for saying Israeli-Arabs who had national aspirations should move to a Palestinian state when it is established.
"My solution for maintaining a Jewish and democratic state of Israel is to have two distinct national entities," she told a group of secondary school students in Tel Aviv in remarks broadcast by army radio. "And among other things I will also be able to approach the Palestinian residents of Israel, those whom we call Arab Israelis, and tell them: 'your national aspirations lie elsewhere.'"
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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A Palestinian poll released on Thursday showed that most residents of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip wish to emigrate, compared to 25 percent in the West Bank. According to the poll, 74 percent of Gazans support continuing the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas in the Strip that is set to end next week.
The poll also showed that most Palestinians believe Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' term should end in a matter of weeks. That indicates his support could erode if he stays on after a Jan. 9 deadline. Abbas has said that Palestinian law gives him until early 2010. His Hamas rivals reject that claim.
The poll showed that 64 percent believe the Western-backed Abbas' term should end now. Only 24 percent believe he has another year.
The poll was released Thursday by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. Pollsters surveyed 1270 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. The margin of error was 3 percentage points.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
They did a poll in Mexico and got the same answer.
#2
They want to go someplace else. Problem for them is, there is no place else on the entire planet that would even consider having their stupid, murderous, lazy, troublemaking, worthless, incompetent scum populace as immigrants. Hell, the people who know them best, the Egyptians and Jordanians, hate them worst of all their Arab "brothers."
Solution: rot and die in Gaza, Paleo chumps, courtesy of the abysmal worldwide reputation you've so thoroughly earned. Most countries would rather bring in known smallpox carriers than Gazans. The smallpox carriers would be less trouble. At least there is a vaccine for smallpox. Jihadi insanity is both contagious and terminal.
#5
...there is no place else on the entire planet that would even consider having their stupid, murderous, lazy, troublemaking, worthless, incompetent scum populace as immigrants.
Don't for one moment underestimate the gargantuan stupidity of the UK's Labour Government and its myriad 'human rights' string-pullers. As far as the UK is concerned if you're Somali, or say you are, you're welcomed with open arms.
#6
there is no place else on the entire planet that would even consider having their stupid, murderous, lazy, troublemaking, worthless, incompetent scum populace as immigrants.
Actually there are Palestiains who aren't like that. But these ones didn't remain in refugee camps for sixty years living on the dole.
A top Iranian cleric on Friday slammed U.S. president-elect Barack Obama's criticism of Hezbollah and defended the Islamic republic's support of the Lebanese Shiite group. "We are announcing it frankly, that we will defend the Lebanese Hezbollah resistance and its brave leader Hassan Nasrallah with pride," the conservative cleric Ahmed Khatami told worshippers in Friday prayers broadcast on state radio.
"They are not terrorists since they are defending their honor and independence," he said. "If Obama wants to decrease hatred, he has to stop making worthless comments. Most probably the Zionists have put down a banana skin for him," Khatami said.
Shiite majority Iran owns is a staunch supporter of Hezbollah and maintains that it provides them with moral support and not arms as alleged by two of its arch-foes, Washington and Israel. The Gun Fairy visits them every night from his workshop at the East Pole.
After the summer 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah, Iran sent money and technical expertise for reconstruction and to compensate victims. Israel says the Shiite group is now three times stronger than during the war.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/13/2008 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
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.
Aswat al-Iraq: An official intelligence source in Diala province said on Friday there was evidence that 
