Muhammad Shafiq Popal is one of Afghan President Hamid Karzai's more formidable opponents — yet he isn't a chieftain, a warlord or even a candidate in the Aug. 20 Afghanistan presidential election. Just 30 years old, Popal is a rare individual in the country: a community organizer who heads the Afghanistan Youth National and Social Organization (AYNSO), an NGO that, in a nation marked by division, transcends religion, ethnicity and tribe. AYNSO's broad objective is to promote democracy and human rights. But Popal's current objective is much more specific: mobilizing AYNSO's 32,000 members to unseat Karzai, who he believes has done little to address the needs of Afghanistan's youth. "The present government doesn't understand our value," says Popal. "That has to change." Nearby, at Kabul University, Qudsia Zohab, a freshman studying literature, says her classmates spend more time on the coming election than on their coming exam. "Most of the university students will vote," she says — but not for Karzai. "There is a feeling that he doesn't work for young people." ...
Posted by: ed ||
08/16/2009 00:00 ||
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oh my... a youthful, charismatic community organizer. what could could possibly go wrong?
Posted by: abu do you love ||
08/16/2009 1:06 Comments ||
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Nothing could go wrong---not in Afghanistan (bullets not ballots).
#3
I dunno--I think this is positive. The young Afghan immigrants I have met LOVE democracy and have taken to America well. I had the privilege of observing a Pashtun wedding reception recently and the girls spent a lot of time in the bathroom touching up makeup and hairdos, while the young men sported trendy eyeware and shoes. And the couples were not segregated, danced together, and visited the bar for a drink and a smoke! Reaching the young generation is key. Karzai has been in power for nearly a decade and no one else seems to be in the wings. This is democracy in action--they don't need any more warlords or chieftains. If it gets stabilized, many of these refugees can return home with the skills they have learned in the States.
#4
I agree it's a positive sign. However, I imagine on closer examination these will turn out almost exclusively to be young city Afghans, not kids from a village so isolated it connects to the outside world only by goat trail. Kabul was long more modern than the rest of the country -- as I recall, the girls there were wearing miniskirts in the days before the Russian invasion.
At the Mirwais hospital in Kandahar, the wards are filled with the collateral of insurgency. In one room, a father stands over the bed of a little girl whose torso is swathed in bandages, her broken leg pinned together with metal rods. The girl's face is covered with shrapnel wounds. Another man, lying listlessly on a filthy bed, says he was injured by an American bomb aimed at one of the heroin processing centres in his rural village. Suddenly, the handheld radio of Red Cross worker Benjamin Nyakira crackles with the voice of a colleague. The entire hospital has run out of stocks of blood that are keeping alive the victims of homemade Taliban bombs and hi-tech Nato ordinance.
"Blood is a big problem for us," explains Nyakira.
Mirwais hospital is desperately trying to stock up on drugs, fluids and other medical necessities, as well as blood. Call them election supplies. On Thursday, Afghanistan goes to the polls to elect a president for only the second time in its history and the Taliban have threatened to cut the throats of those who turn out to vote in the Pashtun south. The insurgency against American and British troops in Helmand has been gaining momentum for months. And in Kabul and in Kandahar, Taliban bombings have scarred the campaign trail. As Muhammad Ehsan, the deputy chairman of Kandahar's provincial council, puts it: "This is not a very good time to have an election."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/16/2009 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] The military authorities have recently declared Brig Gen Chowdhury Fazlul Bari a deserter who defied repeated government orders to return from the US where he had been posted to the Bangladesh mission.
"As he was declared a deserter last month, he can now be arrested at any time if he returns home," says an army source.
After the declaration, he automatically lost his job in the army and has not been paid any salary or allowances. Besides, the source added, he would be court-martialled once he is in the country.
Earlier in May, the authorities declared Bari an officer absent without leave, more commonly known as abscondee. As he was absent without leave for 60 consecutive days, he was adjudged a deserter as per the Army Act.
The new government of Awami League-led grand alliance in February asked him to hand over charge and return to Dhaka. As he did not respond, he was called back again in April. This time, he handed over charge but did not return home.
Talking to The Daily Star over phone in June, he said he would not get back to the country anytime soon. When the newspaper tried to reach him on the same number yesterday evening, someone on the other end said it was "wrong number."
The same evening, Chowdhury Ashraful Bari Noman, Bari's brother and Habiganj BNP leader, told The Daily Star that his brother calls him and that's how they have been in contact. Noman said, "Bari told me he was never involved in any subversive activities or corruption, and [that] he will come home in future. "He lives in Washington with his family. His in-laws are US citizens."
Meanwhile, the army sources said if he was clean and had not done anything wrong, why he chose to be a deserter despite holding a top rank. They, however, declined to say if they had any specific allegations against him.
About a month back, when Bari was still an officer absent without leave, the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence suggested that the foreign ministry cancel his diplomatic passport.
Now that Bari's diplomatic passport has been revoked, the ministry needs to take diplomatic measures to bring him back to the country, said some other sources.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Bari deserter, faces now court-martial
Speaker english he is not?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/16/2009 13:38 Comments ||
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SEOUL, Aug. 16 (Yonhap) -- North Korea on Sunday denounced an upcoming South Korea-U.S. military exercise as a "maneuver for a nuclear war" and warned it will react with "merciless retaliation."
South Korea and the United States are scheduled to stage the Ulji Freedom Guardian exercise from Monday through Aug. 27. North Korea has typically blasted such joint drills as war preparation, while the allies say they are purely defensive.
"The maneuvers for a nuclear war projected by the U.S. imperialists and the Lee Myung-bak group of traitors are by no means a demonstration of military muscle of a defensive nature," a spokesman for the Panmunjom Mission of the Korean People's Army said in a statement.
Only "naive children who have just started learning the four rules of arithmetic" would believe the South Korean-U.S. logic, the unidentified spokesman said. "Through these nuclear war exercises the American master and his servant seek to openly call for escalating their 'sanctions' and 'pressure' upon the DPRK (North Korea)," he said.
"Should the U.S. imperialists and the Lee Myung-bak group threaten the DPRK with nukes, it will retaliate against them with nukes," the spokesman warned. "If they tighten 'sanctions' and push 'confrontation' to an extreme phase, the DPRK will react with a merciless retaliation of its own style and an all-out war of justice."
A little flat in the middle but nice finish with 'merciless retaliation of its own style'. I'd give it a 5.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Maneuvers for nuclear war? What maneuvers? The only kind of maneuvers I could imagine would be those making a beeline straight away from Pyongyang.
#4
"Through these nuclear war exercises the American master and his servant seek to openly call for escalating their 'sanctions' and 'pressure' upon the DPRK (North Korea)," he said.
Posted by: ed ||
08/16/2009 12:44 Comments ||
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NOKOR is threatening MUTUAL NUCLEAR RETALIATION in this new threat, i.e. iff "attacked" by US-SOKOR wid Nukes it will respond militarily wid agz same wid its own Nukes.
* ION WORLD NEWS > BALLISTIC MISSLE DEFENSE IN THE PACIFIC AND AGZ IRAN.
[Kyodo: Korea] South Korean President Lee Myung Bak said Saturday his country is ready to offer massive aid to North Korea by launching five major projects if Pyongyang abandons its nuclear ambitions. The South Korean leader also called on North Korea to begin a dialogue on reducing conventional weapons, saying, "If the South and North Korea reduce their arms and troops, they will be able to save enormous amounts of money and this will also help them develop their economies."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Kurdish rebels waging a separatist campaign against Turkey called on the government Friday to accept a peace plan their jailed leader is due to announce, a pro-Kurdish news agency.
"We...call on the Turkish state and government to respect the political will of the Kurdish people" who have sided with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its leader Abdullah Ocalan, the rebel group said in a statement. The PKK "will support to the end" Ocalan's roadmap for a democratic solution, the Firat news agency quoted the statement as saying.
Ocalan, serving a life sentence on a prison island in northwest Turkey, had been expected to announce his proposals on Saturday, the 25th anniversary of the start of an armed campaign against Ankara.
But after his Istanbul-based lawyers met him Friday on Imrali Island -- where he has been held in solitary confinement since his arrest and conviction in 1999 -- a spokesman said the plan had not been finalized.
"The roadmap is not ready yet," Cengiz Kapmaz, spokesman for Ocalan's defense team, told AFP. "The lawyers will return to the island on Wednesday."
Ocalan's expected plan coincides with a government effort to draw up a package of reforms to win over the Kurdish community and encourage the rebels to lay down arms.
Kurdish activists and politicians have called on the government to take Ocalan's proposals into consideration but in a newspaper interview last month Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu dismissed the idea, saying the solution would come from Ankara.
Ankara categorically rejects dialogue with the PKK, which it lists as a terrorist organization.
Eager to boost its bid to join the European Union, Ankara has in recent years granted the Kurds a series of cultural freedoms, including the inauguration of a Kurdish-language public television channel in January. Kurdish activists however say the reforms are inadequate and argue that a general amnesty is crucial to encourage PKK fighters to lay down arms, a proposal the government has so far rejected.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Proof that Islam is not a precondition for vicious stupidity, although this bunch keep it in the family rather than exporting it around the world. I am so grateful my parents emigrated across the ocean!
[Geo News] The process of repatriation continues as 368 more families returned to Swat, Buner, Lower Dir and Shangla. According to Emergency Response Unit (ERU), 163 families including 54 from Jalala Camp returned to Shamozai area of Swat on government-arranged transport. 85 families returned to Buner, 117 to Lower Dir and 3 to Shangla. ERU said 223,683 families had gone back to their respective areas in Malakand division during July 13 to August 15.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2009 00:00 ||
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[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira and NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain on Friday reiterated the government's resolve that the operation against militants would continue till the elimination of the last militant in the Malakand Division.
In his speech at the Wadudia Hall in Saidu in connection with the Independence Day, Qamar Zaman Kaira said the government would utilise all its resources to resolve the problems being faced by the people of Swat.
He said by arranging such a grand show in the main town of the valley, the people of the area had conveyed to the world what peace really meant to them. He referred to the jubilation aired by the media from the roads and streets of Mingora on the eve of the Independence Day and said it was the biggest encouragement for the nation.
Mian Iftikhar Hussain said the government had taken steps to bring peace to Swat, but the militants, instead of laying down their arms, had intensified their activities. He said the government even promulgated the Nizam-e-Adl Regulation, but the militants captured Buner and announced to establish their tyranny across the country.
Iftikhar said this left the government with no other option, but to launch the operation against the 'terror mongers'. Referring to the killing of Baitullah Mehsud, he said other militants would also meet the same fate.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Unnerved by bombings that have killed hundreds this summer, many Iraqis are losing faith in their own security forces and fear the Americans are leaving too quickly.
The misgivings about the U.S. pullback from the cities, and even about the Dec. 31, 2011 deadline for a full withdrawal, come at a time when a senior U.S. officer has suggested the Americans declare victory and leave even sooner.
Iraqis, including military commanders, believe their security forces aren't ready to act alone.
Posted by: ed ||
08/16/2009 13:21 ||
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Sorry, guys. YOU said you wanted us out, so we're leaving.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
08/16/2009 15:32 Comments ||
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They said they wanted us out after they saw that Obama was going to pull us out anyways. I think a lot of it was just trying to put a good face on things.
The pull back should have been more gradual: more mixed patrols, more Americans in the background but helping out, etc. This was precipitous and it sent the wrong message.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/16/2009 16:20 Comments ||
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#3
Never underestimate the instinct of the left to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Posted by: ed ||
08/16/2009 13:20 ||
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This comes under the category of the truth hurts, and the truth hurts Arabs more than most people.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
08/16/2009 13:33 Comments ||
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Early on, the US could have solved a bunch of problems by including an intelligence squad along with combat units, to catalog every Iraqi they met, and issue them an high security ID card.
All the Iraqis would see on the front of the ID card would be their picture, and the back would have an encrypted 2D matrix barcode, that can have up to 1,000 characters, so no one else could read their card.
They would be asked their name, religious sect, tribe, and how many adults and children in their family, and their names. Then put their fingers and thumbs in a box that would scan their prints.
Finally a cheek swab DNA sample. From that point, they would be in a secure US military database, and their ID card could be checked with a scanner. It would serve as their voter ID, ration card, public census, internal passport, and tax record.
Iraqi police and military would have limited access scanners to quickly tell if there were outstanding warrants on an individual, and if they were in their local area or not. Anyone without an ID would be checked with the database, and if lost or stolen, it could be replaced immediately.
While a lot of work on the front end, it would have made the rebuilding of Iraq much faster.
Planned and practiced, no doubt. Decision made, quite possibly. But at the moment that the honourable ambassador was speaking, to his knowledge such a strike is not being considered by those from whom he gets his official information.
Hamas said over the weekend that it won't tolerate the presence of rival Islamist groups in the Gaza Strip and warned that its security forces will continue to use an iron fist to foil attempts to establish such organizations.
The warning followed a bloody weekend during which 28 Palestinians were killed and more than 120 were wounded in 28x72 = wasabi popcorn
fierce clashes between Hamas militiamen and security forces on the one hand and members of the hitherto unknown Jund Ansar Allah ("Soldiers of the Companions of God") group. It seems Jihadis have the same problem as automakers.
Oversupply? Dislike of competing with foreign manufacturers? Government takeover? Or Pinto engines that are unsafe at any speed?
Red and green wire problems transcend the assembly line, it would appear.
The Hamas government was obliged to act against Jund Ansar Allah (Soldiers for God), de facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said publically following overnight clashes between the ultra-Islamist group and Hamas police.
"Members of the group had worked against the government, described it as unreligious and armed themselves in opposition," the de facto Prime Minister said at a conference on Saturday. "These were radicals who blew themselves up in the midst of security officers," he said.
Deputy Head of Rafah police department Ra'fat Salamah wrote on the police website that de facto government police were forced to take action when fighters from Jund Ansar Allah opened fire on Rafah residents and security personnel.
He also noted that "none of the outlaws are left in Rafah," saying that at least 90 were arrested as of Friday evening, and promising that life in the area had returned to normal.
Haniyeh described the group as one that took advantage of youth and infused them with "strange ideas" based on acting against so-called atheists in a violent way. In all ways, he added, this came about because of the Israeli siege on Gaza, and the war Israel perpetrated against the people of the Strip.
Of course it's the fault of the juices. What isn't?
He said the dire conditions fostered negative thinking in younger generations.
Six de facto government police and one Hamas leader were reportedly killed in the clashes that arose after the Jund Ansar Allah took over a Rafah city mosque and, along with hundreds of armed supporters,
Hundreds? How long has this little group with strange ideas been organizing itself?
declared the city of Rafah an Islamic Emirate. Another six civilians were confirmed dead, including two young girls. Ten others from the ultra-Islamist movement including Jund Ansar Allah leader Sheikh Abdul Latif Moussa were also killed.
Sources said two loud explosions were heard during clashes, reportedly Jund Ansar Allah fighters bowing themselves up amidst Hamas police.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Ma'an -- Nativity Church deportee in Gaza Fahmi Kan'an appealed to the Palestinian factions holding captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, asking that they include the matter of the exiled detainees during swap negotiations.
In 2002 39 Palestinians were deported from Bethlehem after a month-long siege of fighters in the Nativity Church. Twenty-six of the fighters were deported to the Gaza Strip and the rest to locations across Europe in a deal that saw them saved from Israeli pursuit or prison.
Over the past seven years, deportees have appealed to the Palestinian Authority, Palestinian president, international community, and other organizations to convince Israel to allow them back to the West Bank, where their families remain. Two months ago when the Rafah crossing opened several detainees left the Strip, intending to fly to the Jordanian capital Amman, where they would reunite with their families and settle down. The men were turned back at the Amman Airport then held in Egyptian custody for days until they were escorted back to the Strip.
Kan'an's request to the group came after unconfirmed news reports about a nearing prisoner-swap deal, despite Hamas' assurances that a recent delegation to Cairo talked strictly about reconciliation with Fatah, the main party in the West Bank.
Deportees who are now in the Gaza Strip complained about living under very dire conditions due to the siege on the Strip, the last Israeli military offensive, and Israel's refusal to allow their families to visit them in Gaza.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2009 00:00 ||
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Iran expanded its mass trial of opposition supporters Sunday, adding 25 more defendants including a Jewish teenager who are accused of involvement in unrest over the disputed presidential election. The adding of defendants, which brought the total number to 135.
The defendants in the trial include a former Iranian vice president and other former senior government officials linked to the country's pro-reform movement, French and Iranian-American academics, employees of the British and French embassies, and an Iranian-Canadian reporter for Newsweek magazine. They are charged with plotting a "soft revolution" against the Islamic theocracy and some made public confessions that the opposition charges were coerced.
Posted by: ed ||
08/16/2009 13:09 ||
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State television said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader, has appointed Sadeq Larijani, a hardline cleric, as head of the judiciary for the next five years. Larijani is brother of parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, and a member of the Guardian Council constitutional watchdog.
The appointment is not seen as directly related to turmoil following disputed presidential elections in June. However the judiciary is playing a key role in events, most recently with the trial of 100 reformist activists.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/16/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran will put on trial seven members of the banned Baha'i religion on charges of spying for arch-foe Israel, the official IRNA news agency reported Saturday.
Six of the seven Baha'is were detained in May 2008 on security related charges, while another was arrested in March of last year. Iran had previously linked the group to Israel, saying they had received orders from Tel Aviv to undertake measures against the Islamic system.
Israel is the world headquarters of the Baha'i religion, because the Jews support freedom of religion and the Shiites don't. Every Baha'i is supposed to make pilgrimage there sometime in his/her life, like Muslims go on Haj. One signs up, then goes on the week assigned, a year or more later. Only Baha'i are allowed on the headquarters property.
"The trial of seven arrested Baha'is accused of espionage for Israel and insulting sanctities will be held on Tuesday," deputy Tehran prosecutor Hassan Haddad said.
Haddad said that the suspects were also charged with making "propaganda against the Islamic republic of Iran" and that they will be prosecuted in a revolutionary court.
The Baha'i International Community has said they were members of a committee that tends to the needs of Baha'is in Iran. The Baha'i International Community represents the faith worldwide, operating under a governing council which is based in Israel, according to its website www.bahai.org.
Baha'is say hundreds of their followers have been jailed and executed since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution. The government denies it has detained or executed people for their religion.
No, of course not. Perish the thought! It's just that the Baha'i are all apostate Muslims -- even the ones that converted from Judaism, Christianity, or Other -- and therefore deserve what they've got coming to them. As for the other non-Muslims, submission is their job, so they might as well shut up and get on with submitting.
Baha'is consider Bahaullah, born in 1817, to be the last prophet sent by God. This is in direct conflict with Islam, the religion of the vast majority of Iranians, which considers Mohammed to be the last prophet.
In late 2008, Iran reported the hanging of a Baha'i man for rape and adultery.
The European Union has expressed "serious concern" about the continuing systematic discrimination and harassment of Iranian Baha'is on the grounds of their religion.
The Baha'i faith originated in Iran 150 years ago and Baha'is say the faith has 5 million adherents worldwide, including an estimated 300,000 or more in Iran.
Iran held this month two mass trials of detainees arrested over unrest that erupted after the country's disputed June presidential election.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"Iran to try seven Bahais accused of spying not being muslim"
#2
You almost got it parabellum
"Not being Muslim Enough"
there, fixed it for you.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
08/16/2009 13:50 Comments ||
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#3
The Baha'i are not Muslim at all... They're kinda sorta the Unitarians of Islam, as far as I can tell. At their worship services someone reads a selection from their collected book of readings that strikes him or her as appropriate somehow, then all ponder silently until someone else reads whatever strikes him/her as at the moment meaningful for whatever reason, after which all ponder some more. Perhaps they get more excited on holidays, but trailing daughter #2 saw no evidence of it.
Hezbollah's leader says Israel does not have the military might to destroy the resistance movement adding that if the regime bombards Beirut they will strike back Tel Aviv. "I have a question to ask all political and military experts as well as analysts. In your eyes, are the Israeli army and the ruling government capable of attacking Lebanon and breaking the resistance? I tell you that they are not," Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech to mark the end of the third anniversary of Israel's 33-day war on Lebanon in 2006.
Nasrallah made the remarks after Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak hinted at Tel Aviv's intention to launch another offensive against Lebanon. "We tell the Israelis today that if they bombard Beirut or the southern suburbs we will strike Tel Aviv," he added.
Nasrallah said Lebanon's victory in the 2006 war proved that the Israeli army was no longer undefeatable. "Lebanon must have a deterrent armed force. When we have such a force, we can tell the Israelis that they will not be able to achieve their goals."
Israel is unlikely to attack Lebanon, Nasrallah reiterated, asserting at the same time that any Israeli attack, whether it came from ground or air, would surely be repelled by the resistance no matter how modern the Israeli military system would be.
After receiving a crushing defeat in the 2006 war, the Israeli army has been planning to upgrade its military system including its tanks. Israeli military officials said earlier that Tel Aviv was to equip its Merkava IV tanks, one of the world's strongest tanks, with a new anti-missile system capable of intercepting incoming missiles. Hezbollah fighters had destroyed several Israeli Merkava tanks during the war.
Nasrallah also pointed to the recently held maneuvers by the Israeli military, saying that the resistance could hit any Israeli cities in case of an attack. He also said that the Lebanese would all stand united to foil any Israeli plot 'aimed at disintegrating' the country.
The Hezbollah leader said Israel's ongoing threats against Lebanon were 'psychological warfare' and served to sow discord among Lebanese parties to hinder the formation of a new cabinet. Tel Aviv "is (rather) seeking to pressure the Lebanese government against Hezbollah's participation in the new Cabinet," he said.
Nasrallah also strongly called on the Lebanese security and intelligence services to double their efforts to track down and arrest Israeli-linked spies. Lebanon has been engaged in disbanding what it believes to be Israeli spy networks as part of a four-month crackdown on espionage activities.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
When the rubble bounces and Harb el Dhimma World Community screams itself hoarse...
#3
If more than three missiles hit Tel Aviv, Israel will nuke all of Lebanon - not just the Litani valley or the Bekaa valley. Lebanon will die, and all the Hezbullies with it. The Israelis have been in this situation before, and they are da$$$$ sure not going to allow it again. Yeah, the "world" will hate them forever, but it already does, so what's the beef?
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
08/16/2009 16:49 Comments ||
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The President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is going to address the Iranian nation on his cabinet make-up at a live TV broadcast.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will give further details about his next administration and his possible choices to fill Iran's ministerial posts on Sunday afternoon at a live television broadcast on the state-run IRIB TV 1, the Fars news agency reported.
In a letter to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, some 202 Iranian parliamentarians warned the Iranian President about the make-up of his new cabinet as he has so far avoided consultation with the Majlis (Parliament) in forming his next administration.
"Your colleagues ... must be practically committed to the constitution and leadership, have revolutionary spirit ... adequate experience and expertise," read the letter.
The lawmakers highlighted that Ahmadinejad's ministers must meet these conditions if he wanted their 'maximum cooperation and effort during the vote of confidence' for his ministers.
This is while President Ahmadinejad has vowed to make 'considerable changes' to his government, including appointing younger people.
He has also pledged to work to improve the economy, stamp out corruption and combat the country's high inflation rate.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Amid talks of the emergence of an opposition political party in Iran, top figure of the nascent Green movement Mir-Hossein Mousavi confirms taking preliminary steps to establish the party.
The leading opposition figure Mousavi made an official announcement on Saturday affirming that he was working to forge a new political party to pursue his political goals.
In a meeting with members of the Islamic Association of Iran's Medical Society, Mousavi made public the name of his party -- the Green Path of Hope Association.
"The color green is the symbol of this movement; its slogan is demanding the impeccable implementation of the Constitution, and innumerable self-motivated independent societies form the body of this movement," Mousavi explained.
The defeated presidential candidate had earlier said that the establishment would give a legal political framework to the Green movement, adding that by forming this body he sought to "defend the rights and votes of citizens that were crushed in the election."
Following the June 12 vote, hundreds of thousands of Mousavi's green-clad supporters took to the streets asserting that the presidential election was "rigged".
At least 30 people were killed in the unrest, according to officials, while nearly 4,000 hundreds of protestors, political activists and journalists were rounded up over the course of opposition demonstrations. Some 300 protesters remain in custody.
Earlier, one of Mousavi's senior aides, Alireza Beheshti, said that forming a party would pave the way for the 67 year-old opposition figure to keep up his protests against the results of the 10th presidential election through a new platform.
"The establishment of this front is on Mir-Hossein Mousavi's agenda," he told Iran's Labor News Agency (ILNA). "We will soon announce its establishment."
By forming a party Mousavi will have the right to call political rallies and demand government permission for them.
The move comes as many Principlist figures along with senior members of the powerful Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) have demanded that Mousavi and his supporters be barred from further participation in Iranian politics.
Meanwhile, one influential Principlist figure, Habibollah Asgaroladi, head of the Islamic Coalition Party, has so far endorsed the creation of a Mousavi-led political party.
"Establishing a party to voice one's ideas and political perceptions is a wise move," Asgaroladi said in July.
However, many Principlists in the country see the move as a chance in which defiant Mousavi would eventually acknowledge the legitimacy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election victory and his government.
"If Mousavi considers the government to be legitimate and asks for permission (to set up the party), then it is a good and positive move and we will welcome it," said Mohammad-Reza Taraghi, a member of the Principlist Islamic Coalition Party.
Mousavi, however, continues to strike a defiant tone making clear that protests against the disputed re-election of President Ahmadinejad "will not end."
The former prime minister said that he would not give in to "pressures" that he said were aimed at "making me change my position regarding the annulment of the election."
Posted by: Fred ||
08/16/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] Amid a persistent volley of opposition allegations that protestors had been raped in Iranian prisons, Iran's Judiciary tasks a committee to obtain evidence on the claims.
Leading opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi broached the subject of "jail rape" in a letter to Head of the Assembly of Experts Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani on July 29.
In his letter, Karroubi claimed that a number of detainees had informed him that several women and men, arrested over the course of post-vote demonstrations, were 'sexually assaulted' by their jailers.
"A number of detainees have said that some female detainees have been raped savagely... teenagers held in detention have also been savagely raped," Karroubi said, adding that they were suffering from depression and serious physical injuries after the alleged assaults.
The much-criticized allegations put forward in Karroubi's letter provoked mixed reactions inside and outside the country.
Iran's former judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Shahroudi is said to be among the many who reacted to the claims of jail rape by saying that "in detention centers under the supervision of the Judiciary, no such treatment has been carried out."
He, however, went on to urge an inquiry into the matter.
The call for investigations comes as the allegations of rape provoked strong criticism in the country.
In a sermon at Tehran University on Friday, Principlist cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami called Karroubi's claims of prison rape a "total slander against the Islamic establishment."
He went as far to call for the opposition figure's prosecution, arguing that "If someone libels the system by saying that rape takes place in prisons, then he must either prove it or, if he cannot, then the system must press charges and the public prosecutor must act."
Meanwhile, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said earlier in the week that a special Majlis (Parliament) committee tasked with probing the situation in Iranian prisons "should also look into whether 'jail rape' allegations are true or false."
He then moved to defuse the controversy by saying "the issue of detainees being sexually abused is a lie."
"On the basis of thorough and comprehensive investigations conducted about the detainees at Kahrizak and Evin prisons, no cases of rape and sexual abuse were found," Larijani said one day after he called for a probe.
The Majlis speaker also encouraged the defeated presidential candidate to come forward with evidence proving his claims of "jail rape".
Esmail Gerami Moqaddam, a spokesman for Karroubi's National Confidence Party (Etemad-e-Melli), said the former presidential candidate's would definitely provide evidence to validate his claims of jail rape.
According to Fardanews, Ayatollah Shahroudi has called on the country's prosecutor general Qorbanali Dorri-Najafabadi to dispatch a committee to Karroubi's office to exchange views about the matter and obtain the cited evidence.
Amid the already tense political situation in Iran over claims of prison rape, Karroubi has shown no sign of letting up on the issue as he went further on Saturday making fresh claims about "prisoner abuse."
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#1
They have retained O.J. Simpson as their chief investigator.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Jordan's King Abdullah II has sent a congratulatory message to Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on being sworn in to a second presidential term. According to a report published by the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN) on Saturday, the Jordanian leader wished the Iranian nation success and advancement during President Ahmadinejad's second tenure.
Western leaders, already upset by Ahmadinejad's anti-Israel rhetoric, Holocaust denial and unwavering stance on Iran's nuclear program, refused to congratulate the president on his inauguration, although their counterparts in Japan and Turkey did. Among those prominent leaders who withheld their congratulations to Ahmadinejad were US President Barack Obama, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
In a strong message to the Western leaders, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he was not awaiting their messages of recognition or congratulation. "We heard that some of the Western leaders had decided to recognize but not congratulate the new government ... Well, no one in Iran is waiting for your messages," he said. "Iranians will neither value your scowling and bullying nor will they pay attention to your smiles and greetings."
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Twenty five more Iranian protesters will go on trial Saturday as fresh claims surfaced that several protesters in jail were tortured to death while Khamenei appointed a new chief of judiciary. "The third session of the elements of recent riots in Tehran will be held on Sunday," a court statement carried by the ISNA news agency said. "In this session charges against 25 defendants...will be presented."
Iran has already put on trial 110 people charged with protesting against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The defendants include top reformists, political activists, a French lecturer and two employees of the French and the British embassies.
The trial of lecturer Clotilde Reiss has finished, although she remains in custody. Securing her release has been a diplomatic priority for Paris, with President Nicolas Sarkozy raising the case with other leaders.
Opposition leaders have denounced the court proceedings as "show trials." The hearings have angered the international community and heightened political tensions as Iran battles its worst political crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
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Nur Azlin Mohamed Yasin spends several hours a day trawling the Internet, but she is not your typical young surfer, descending into a world of bomb-making, militancy and extremism.
From her computer, she enters a world where young Muslims openly volunteer to fight against US-led coalition troops in Afghanistan or learn how to make explosives out of everyday materials. The 24-year-old Singaporean research analyst is constantly on the lookout for attack manuals, video clips of Islamist militants in training and fiery extremist chatter that could hint at an imminent assault somewhere. "This whole thing is worrying," she told AFP in an interview, referring to a growing trend of individuals imbibing radical ideas online.
Nur Azlin is one of five research analysts at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies who monitor extremist websites daily to get a sense of an emerging battleground in the fight against terrorism. All of them happen to be women and their collective skills include knowledge of Arabic, Bahasa Malaysia, Bahasa Indonesia -- and geopolitical issues. "After you sit down, think about it and do a trend analysis, you say 'Oh my God! this is really happening,'" said Nur Azlin, who works for the school's International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research. "You can see the radicalisation process unfold online."
There are an estimated 5,500-6,000 websites worldwide peddling extremist ideas, according to the researchers, who work from a spartan office in a suburban university campus. Nur Azlin is tasked to monitor and analyse websites in Southeast Asia, a region that hosts notorious organisations such as the Jemaah Islamiyah movement and the Abu Sayyaf group operating in the southern Philippines. She estimates that there are around 192 extremist websites in the region, many of them individual blogs which have mushroomed since early 2008 when Internet blogging became popular.
Singapore, a staunch US ally and international finance centre, considers itself a prime target for terrorist attacks like last month's deadly hotel bombings in Jakarta aimed at symbols of Western influence. Home Affairs Minister Wong Kan Seng has warned that "self-radicalised" individuals have emerged as a new security threat. In 2007, Singapore announced the arrest of five suspected Islamic militants, among them local law lecturer Abdul Basheer Abdul Kader, who allegedly planned to pursue "jihad" in Afghanistan after getting radical ideas from the Internet.
When analyst Nur Azlin started monitoring the websites in early 2007, most of the content was in the form of articles urging Muslims to fight back against perceived oppression, she recalled. They were usually accompanied by photos like a child allegedly maimed during an attack by coalition forces in Afghanistan or by Israeli troops in Palestine.
In late 2007, computer hacking manuals started to appear on Southeast Asian websites, uploaded by individuals in online forums, she said. Forum participants, some of whom identified themselves as undergraduate students from Indonesia and Malaysia, urged each other to hack websites they considered to be promoting liberal Muslim views.
"By early 2008, we started to see bomb-making manuals and bomb-making videos," Nur Azlin recalled. With the appearance of these manuals -- taken from Arabic websites -- the reaction from forum participants got more virulent, as they goaded each other to take action rather than stay passive supporters or sympathisers, she said.
In one of the exhanges, participants tried to organise arms training but some said they did not have money to buy AK-47 assault rifles, Nur Azlin said. A group called "Indonesian Airsoft Mujahideen" stepped in and offered to facilitate their training using air rifles and paintball machines, which are widely used for play sessions at corporate training seminars in Asia. "They would rent the place much like a team-building activity," Nur Azlin said. "They used this training in the meantime that they don't have their AK-47s."
Jolene Jerard, 26, a manager at the centre, said the analysts compile a monthly report about their findings. The extremist videos they download -- now in high definition and professionally taken compared with the grainy amateurish clips of the past -- are put into a database, one of the biggest collections in Southeast Asia.
The centre shares its findings and analyses with the relevant government authorities and foreign diplomats visit the school for briefings. "The cyberdomain is an area where governments have been gradually moving into," Jerard said. "It's a changing threat landscape. I think it is increasingly becoming important and governments are definitely enthusiastic about countering it and putting enough resources in place."
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
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Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
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Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[Kyodo: Korea] South Korean President Lee Myung Bak said Saturday his country is ready to offer massive aid to North Korea by launching five major projects if Pyongyang abandons its nuclear ambitions. The South Korean leader also called on North Korea to begin a dialogue on reducing conventional weapons, saying, "If the South and North Korea reduce their arms and troops, they will be able to save enormous amounts of money and this will also help them develop their economies."
[Iran Press TV Latest] Jordan's King Abdullah II has sent a congratulatory message to Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on being sworn in to a second presidential term. According to a report published by the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN) on Saturday, the Jordanian leader wished the Iranian nation success and advancement during President Ahmadinejad's second tenure. 
[Al Arabiya Latest] Twenty five more Iranian protesters will go on trial Saturday as fresh claims surfaced that several protesters in jail were tortured to death while Khamenei appointed a new chief of judiciary. "The third session of the elements of recent riots in Tehran will be held on Sunday," a court statement carried by the ISNA news agency said. "In this session charges against 25 defendants...will be presented."
Nur Azlin Mohamed Yasin spends several hours a day trawling the Internet, but she is not your typical young surfer, descending into a world of bomb-making, militancy and extremism. 
