[Al Arabiya Latest] Afghan president Hamid Karzai pulled further ahead of his main rival in the race for the Afghan presidency, based on the latest results unveiled by the country's election commission on Saturday as Britain's prime minister made a surprise visit to troops based in the country.
Total results released so far come from 35 percent of polling stations used in only Afghanistan's second direct presidential election, which was held on Aug. 20 and has been overshadowed by claims of massive fraud.
Karzai was leading challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, by 46.3 percent to 31.4 percent with votes from around a third of all polling stations counted.
Karzai needs to win more than 50 percent to avoid a second round run-off.
Out of 2.32 million valid votes counted, Karzai won 940,558 and former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah 638,924, Daud Najafi, chief electoral officer at the Independent Election Commission (IEC), told a news conference.
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08/30/2009 00:00 ||
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Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef defended late on Saturday the policy of enticing "repentant" militants after one tried to assassinate his son, but warned there could be more and worse attacks ahead. A suicide bomber posing as a repentant militant blew himself up in the Jeddah office of security chief Prince Mohammed bin Nayef in the first known attack on a member of the Saudi royal family since al Qaeda began a violent campaign in the world's top oil exporter in 2003.
Saudi Arabia issued a list of 85 wanted suspects in February and analysts said many of them were in Yemen, including some who had been returned to Saudi Arabia from U.S. detention in Guantanamo Bay and some who had been through a much-vaunted Saudi militant "correction" programme.
"The security efforts and strategy that the country is following for reform will not change," Nayef told businessmen at a gathering in Jeddah, defending the correction programme and efforts to win over militants. "This incident will not change this policy by which we open the door for those who repent."
Al Qaeda on Sunday identified the man who tried to kill the security chief on Thursday as Abdullah al-Asiri, a wanted suspect who entered Saudi Arabia from Yemen, and gave details on how he was allowed to get so close to the prince. A statement said Asiri was flown to Jeddah from Najran near the Yemeni border after entering from Yemen to give himself up to the Interior Ministry.
"The hero martyr on the list of 85 wanted persons Abdullah Hassan Tali' al-Asiri, known as Abul-Khair, managed to enter his palace, pass his guards and blow up a package," said a statement on Islamist websites attributed to the "Qaeda Jihad Organisation in the Arab Peninsula. "He managed to get through all the inspections at Najran and Jeddah airports and travelled on his (the prince's) private jet," it said, accompanied by a picture of Asiri.
It was not possible to verify the statement, which said the Saudi government had a network of spies in Yemen of which the Yemeni government was not aware. Saudi-owned Al Arabiya TV said Asiri was a 23-year-old Saudi whose brother Ibrahim was also on the wanted list.
Prince Nayef predicted there could be more attacks. "In this country we are targeted... The situation could change and could intensify, not in terms of the number (of attacks) but rather in their nature, and that is more dangerous."
Al Arabiya quoted Yemeni Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi as saying Asiri travelled to Saudi Arabia from the Yemeni region of Mi'rib, stating he wanted to hand himself in.
[Bangla Daily Star] The present government has no authority to hold the trial of 1971 war criminals, BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury said yesterday. "This government may have the power to hold the trial of war criminals but it doesn't have the authority to do so," Salauddin said at BBC Bangladesh Sanglap at Bangabandhu International Convention Centre.
Clearly Mr. Chowdry purchased his PhD. Probably his high school diploma, as well. And quite possibly his driver's license.
The BNP leader said the trial of war criminals is a very serious issue but it has been used for political gains. "Allegations of war crimes have been brought against people for political reasons. Various ministers have accused a few people of committing war crimes but they failed to substantiate the allegations," he said.
Commenting on the issue, Awami League presidium member Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir said the people have elected the present government and it has the "sovereign authority" to punish any criminal. "The government is working on the matter and hopefully we shall get some results by December," the AL leader said.
Supreme Court lawyer barrister Tania Ameer said the government has all the authority to punish war criminals as the people had voted it to power for trying the offenders of war crimes. Maj Gen (retd) Syed Muhammad Ibrahim said if the government has the willingness to try war criminals, it can do it very easily.
Answering to a query, Salauddin said there is no need to depute army officers to the Bangladesh Rifles as they have other duties to perform. Commenting on whether the border security force should be run by its own officers, the BNP lawmaker said the government should make arrangements so that the BDR has its own officials from now on. Criticising the army officials for their role during the tenure of the last caretaker government, Salauddin said, "The army tried to teach us politics during the two-year rule of the last caretaker government. They had resorted to extortion and run their own businesses." Salauddin was imprisoned on charge of corruption during the tenure of the last caretaker government.
Responding to a request from Maj Gen (retd) Ibrahim not to blame the army as a whole for the guilt of a 'few officers', Salauddin said, "Those who have done such things were not a few, they were many in number."
On the functioning of parliamentary standing committees, Alamgir said the committees have been made effective in this parliament as it is vital for ensuring accountability of the government. Referring to the issue, Salauddin said, "It's positive that Awami League has taken initiatives to make the parliamentary standing committees effective."
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08/30/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
"This government may have the power to hold the trial of war criminals but it doesn't have the authority to do so,"
Technically, the same could be said of the American participation in the Nuremberg Trials. If the Constitution is/was the law of national government authority and power, the ex post facto clause would preclude an American court from overseeing any crimes other than those on the books before the trials. That doesn't preclude other powers from performing the deed [just like rendition], but it makes the US participation an expansive and interpretive bending of Constitutional legal principles.
The British government decided it was in the overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom to make Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the Lockerbie bomber, eligible for return to Libya, leaked ministerial letters reveal.
Gordon Browns government made the decision after discussions between Libya and BP over a multi-million-pound oil exploration deal had hit difficulties. These were resolved soon afterwards.
The letters were sent two years ago by Jack Straw, the justice secretary, to Kenny MacAskill, his counterpart in Scotland, who has been widely criticised for taking the formal decision to permit Megrahis release I read rumors about this years ago & didn't believe them until the plans to return al-Megrahi to Libya were publicised.
[Kyodo: Korea] A South Korean fishing boat and its four crew detained by North Korean authorities last month after straying across the maritime border were returned to the South on Saturday, South Korean maritime police said.
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08/30/2009 00:00 ||
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DURING the past year a small ship bristling with computers and seismic equipment has been crisscrossing the Gulf of Sidra, in the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast. Its mission: to help to find BP's next offshore oilfields.
The company's search for oil off Libya and in a 20,000-mile area in the west of the country potentially offers as much as £15 billion in new revenue. But less than two years ago it was feared that the deal could founder -- and the reason was wrangling over Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi, the jailed Lockerbie bomber.
BP was finally given the go-ahead six weeks after a volte-face by the British government to include Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya under which prisoners could serve out sentences in their home countries. Jack Straw, the justice secretary, revealed this decision in a letter to his Scottish counterpart. He cited "wider negotiations" and the "overwhelming interests of the United Kingdom". Let's just say I finally understand all those jokes about Jack Straw putting the national back into socialism.
Sources in the UK and Tripoli said last week that those wider interests included BP's hoped-for share of Libya's untapped oil and gas reserves. The decision to include Megrahi in the prisoner transfer arrangement was seen by Libyan officials as paving the way for his release -- and BP's much-coveted deal was finally ratified.
BP last week denied the agreement was influenced by talks over prisoner transfers and specifically Megrahi. But other sources insist the two were clearly linked. Saad Djebbar, an international lawyer who advises the Libyan government and who visited Megrahi in jail in Scotland, said: "No one was in any doubt that if alMegrahi died in a Scottish prison it would have serious repercussions for many years which would be to the disadvantage of British industry."
Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, said last weekend: "The idea that the British government and the Libyan government would sit down and somehow barter over the freedom or the life of this Libyan prisoner and make it form part of some business deal ... it's not only wrong, it's completely implausible and actually quite offensive." Usually, if some fourth-world Iman up in the Swat Valley said a lie of this magnitude, the highlighted bit on Rantburg would read "And then his lips fell off."
Frankly, it's offensive to me that these allegations about the British government are apparently true. But oh well.
The detailed correspondence seen by The Sunday Times confirms that the Lockerbie bomber's fate was regarded by the UK government as pivotal to relations with Libya. It also shows how anxious the government was to curry favour with Colonel Muammar Gadaffi by being seen to open the way for Megrahi's release.
The government now faces new questions over its exact role in trade talks and whether or not it favoured Megrahi. William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, is calling for full disclosure of whether commercial contracts for oil were discussed as part of the negotiations for the Libya-UK prisoner transfer treaty.
In the 1980s -- after the shooting of a British policewoman outside the Libyan embassy in London and the Lockerbie bombing which claimed 270 lives -- Libya was an international outcast. But the past decade has seen a remarkable transformation, with the country dismantling its weapons of mass destruction.
Tony Blair helped with Gadaffi's diplomatic rehabilitation, taking high-profile trips to Libya in 2004 and 2007. At the second meeting, when an unkempt and unshaven Gadaffi met Blair in a tent in the desert, it was announced that the two countries had agreed a memorandum of understanding covering civil and criminal legal co-operation, extradition and prison transfer.
Questions were immediately asked whether the arrangement would cover Megrahi, who was convicted in 2001 for taking part in the bombing and sentenced to life imprisonment. Downing Street insisted the agreement would not lead to his release. "The memorandum of understanding agreed with the Libyan government does not cover this case," said a spokesman at the time.
During Blair's 2007 visit, BP signed its exploration deal with Libya's National Oil Corporation. "This is a welcome return to the country and represents a significant opportunity for both BP and Libya to deliver our long-term growth aspirations," said Tony Hayward, BP group chief executive, who signed the contract with Blair looking on.
The prisoner transfer agreement -- and specifically the fate of Megrahi -- were inextricably linked with the BP deal. Six months after Blair's trip, and with Gordon Brown in No 10, the Libyans were frustrated that the prisoner transfer agreement had not even been drafted. The BP contract was also waiting to be ratified.
The key reason for the delay in the prisoner transfer agreement was Megrahi. Lord Falconer, who was Blair's justice secretary, had told the Scottish government in a letter on June 22, 2007 that "any prisoner transfer agreement with Libya could not cover al-Megrahi".
Straw, appointed justice secretary by Brown, set out his favoured option for excluding Megrahi in another letter the following month.
The Libyans were furious and the BP deal -- in which £545m would be spent on exploration alone -- was an ace in their hand.
"Nobody doubted that Libya wanted BP and BP was confident its commitment would go through," said Sir Richard Dalton, a former British ambassador to Libya and a director of the Libyan British Business Council. "But the timing of the final authority to spend real money on the ground was dependent on politics."
The Libyans insisted that Megrahi must be covered by the prisoner transfer agreement. The government relented and Straw was forced into a U-turn. "I have not been able to secure an explicit exclusion," he wrote in a letter to Kenny MacAskill, his Scottish counterpart.
"The wider negotiations with the Libyans are reaching a critical stage and in view of the overwhelming interests for the United Kingdom, I have agreed in this instance the [prisoner transfer agreement] should be in the standard form and not mention any individual."
Six weeks later BP announced its deal had been ratified.
Negotiations over the release of Megrahi had been spearheaded by Gadaffi's son, Saif. He was also courting influential figures and financiers in Russia, America and the UK to improve his country's image and forge new business links.
Brown Lloyd James, a public relations firm with offices in London and New York, has opened an office in Tripoli. It is reported to have placed articles by Colonel Gadaffi in American newspapers. The firm would not comment last week.
One of the firm's founders is Peter Brown, an old friend of Mandelson. The business secretary, who has stayed with Brown on the Caribbean island of St Barts, said this weekend that he could not recollect discussing Libya with anyone from Brown Lloyd James.
It is perhaps inevitable that the high-powered and wealthy figures who mix with Saif Gadaffi also pass through Mandelson's orbit. Mutual associates include Lord Rothschild, his son Nat, and the Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska, whose company Rusal has interests in Libya. I'm reminded of Lenin's saying that we would eventually sell them the ropes to hang us with. I wonder if these are the sorts of people they had in mind.
To Deripaska and Nat Rothschild, Saif Gadaffi is an invaluable business contact. They were invited to his 37th birthday party in Montenegro, where they are both investors in a new marina development. I wonder, now, it's not as if any of those particular people need the money. They have lots of opportunity to make money via other schemes, stuff not open to the average joe because of their wealth and influence. Their opportunities for rent-seeking are virtually boundless; they don't have a need to enter into schemes that involve releasing mass murderers and getting public attention. But they go ahead and do it anyway.
There is some bafflement in Tripoli that British ministers are not talking up the possible business opportunities of an even more cordial relationship.
Djebbar said: "Britain can continue with this political absurdity [of recriminations] or get their businesses to take advantage of the goodwill towards them." Words fail me.
Megrahi said public focus should be on identifying the perpetrators of the Lockerbie bombing. In an interview published yesterday, Megrahi, who insists he is innocent, said: "We all want to know the truth. I support the issue of a public inquiry." Maybe he can team up with OJ.
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08/30/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
If Labour makes it to the next elections, it is going to be massacred. If a vote of no confidence brings the government down sooner, Labour may drop to fourth place in the parliament.
WASHINGTON -- The United States has accused Pakistan of illegally modifying American-made missiles to expand its capability to strike land targets, a potential threat to India, according to senior administration and Congressional officials. The charge, which set off a new outbreak of tensions between the United States and Pakistan, was made in an unpublicized diplomatic protest in late June to Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and other top Pakistani officials.
The accusation comes at a particularly delicate time, when the administration is asking Congress to approve $7.5 billion in aid to Pakistan over the next five years, and when Washington is pressing a reluctant Pakistani military to focus its attentions on fighting the Taliban, rather than expanding its nuclear and conventional forces aimed at India.
While American officials say that the weapon in the latest dispute is a conventional one -- based on the Harpoon antiship missiles that were sold to Pakistan by the Reagan administration as a defensive weapon in the cold war -- the subtext of the argument is growing concern about the speed with which Pakistan is developing new generations of both conventional and nuclear weapons.
Continued on Page 49
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08/30/2009 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The Taliban claimed on Friday responsibility for Thursday's suicide attack near the Afghan border that killed 22 guards and said it was their first revenge for their leader's death.
A suicide bomber struck a security post near Torkham on Thursday evening killing 22 Khasadar guards and wounding over a dozen others.
On Thursday, a group namely 'Dr Abdullah Azzam Brigade' had claimed responsibility for the attack. The Azzam Brigade, based in Orakzai tribal region, is affiliated with the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and is named after the fiery Palestinian scholar, Dr Abdullah Yusuf Azzam, who was killed in a car-bomb blast in Peshawar's University Town on Nov 24, 1989.
On Friday, the TTP came forward to claim credit for the atrocious attack.
'We claim responsibility for the blast,' TTP spokesman Azam Tariq said in a telephone call from an unknown location.
'This is our first response since the death of our chief Baitullah Mehsud,' Tariq told AFP. 'We will continue similar attacks in the future also.'
He said 'the victims of the suicide attack were all those supporting the United States. Anybody supporting the US is our enemy.'
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08/30/2009 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] Political administration, on the directive of Interior Ministry, has beefed up security at Pak-Afghan border following the Torkham suicide attack. Fresh review of the security situation at Pak-Afghan border is being undertaken and in this regard additional forces have been stationed at check posts besides deployment of intelligence men. Security forces stationed at the border have been strictly directed to remain alert. People visiting the government offices including that of Tehsildar will be frisked in detail, sources added.
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08/30/2009 00:00 ||
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[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Former chief of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt-Gen (retd) Hameed Gul on Saturday disclosed that the PPP could have got landslide victory in 1988 elections, if the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) had not been formed.
Talking to a private TV channel, he said: ìYes, we had such reports and apprehension of massive PPP victory.î Gul said they feared that the PPP was returning to power after the execution of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. I take the responsibility of forming the IJI, though it was not my idea,î Hameed Gul said.
He said that even during Benazir Bhutto's first visit to the ISI headquarters he told her about his role in forming the IJI. "We wanted the PPP opponents who had affiliation with the GHQ to unite them on one platform," Gul said. He said 'emergency' was one of the options in 1988 after General Zia ul Haq's plane crashed, but it was decided to go ahead with November 16 election despite request from opponents of the PPP to postpone it.
He disclosed that even former Soviet Union sent a message to Pakistan that the 1988 elections could be sabotaged. Gul said: "This is for the first time I am disclosing that former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev sent his envoy with a message regarding apprehensions of sabotaging the 1988 election through foreign intervention."
He said he was not aware of the conditions to hand over power to former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, but said he was asked to brief her before she was handed over the power. "Benazir wanted a briefing from the Establishment so I was sent for this purpose and the meeting took place at her friend's house in Karachi, which lasted over two hours, and I told her that the Afghan Jihad had not ended yet. There were two or three other things, which I briefed her and she said she understood the situation," he said.
He denied "Midnight Jackal" as intelligence plot and said it was Imtiaz's personal plan. "No agency was involved but Imtiaz himself," Gul said. The ex-ISI chief denied he ever sent a message to MQM chief Altaf Hussain to join IJI and rejected the allegation of former Intelligence Bureau director, Brig (retd) Imtiaz.
"I never sent Imtiaz to Altaf with a message to join IJI but to express concern over allegations of collection of ìBhattaî by some elements," he said. He predicted the victory of Afghans in Afghanistan and the US exit, but expressed concern over post-US Afghanistan situation and said a weak government was going to be set up there. "We failed to give up political system in Afghanistan after Soviet Union left and now I don't see much will happen after the US exit, but Afghans will win," he added.
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08/30/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets of Najaf on Saturday for the funeral of powerful Shiite politician Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, as his body arrived for burial in the southern shrine city.
Hakim's coffin, draped in an Iraqi flag, was earlier paraded in the nearby holy Shiite city of Karbala, where crowds also gathered ahead of a funeral ceremony.
Meanwhile Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki arrived in Baghdad to offer his condolences on the death of Hakim as well as recent truck bomb attacks in the capital that killed nearly 100 people.
Hakim, 60, who died in a Tehran hospital on Wednesday after a 28-month battle against lung cancer, was hailed as "leader of the fight" against the tyrannical reign of ousted dictator Saddam Hussein, when his body arrived home on Friday.
Iraqi leaders and other officials gathered at Baghdad airport to receive his body from Iran. Some sobbed audibly, and flowers were thrown on Hakim's coffin as it was carried off the plane.
A sea of people, some waving black banners, walked alongside Hakim's hearse towards a revered Shiite mosque in Baghdad.
The former head of the Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council (SIIC), Iraq's largest Shiite political party, was one of the principal leaders in exile of the opposition to Saddam, who waged a devastating 1980-88 war against Iran.
In 1982, Hakim helped to establish an opposition movement in Iran against Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime and only returned to Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.
A scion of one of the traditional leading families among Iraq's Shiite majority, Hakim took over the leadership of his party in August 2003 after his brother Ayatollah Mohammed Baqr al-Hakim was assassinated in Najaf.
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08/30/2009 00:00 ||
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Ma'an - Thousands of Palestinians attended a funeral procession for the father of Hamas leader in exile Khaled Mash'al in the Jordanian capital of Amman on Saturday.
Abed Ar-Raheem Mash'al died at 91 on Friday in Jordan, and was buried there on Saturday.
At his funeral was Salim Az-Zanoun, head of the Palestinian National Council (PNC), who expressed condolences on behalf of President Mahmoud Abbas, who hours earlier departed Amman for Qatar.
Senior Jordanian figures were also in attendance, including the secretary-general of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The elder Mash'al's son Khaled entered the kingdom on Saturday after he was granted special permission by Jordan's King Abdullah. The Hamas leader had been banned from entering for over ten years.
The Hamas chief was not scheduled to hold any official meetings during his stay. According to an aide, Jordan considers the visit purely humanitarian, a rare exception to its hard-line stance on the Islamic movement.
Jordan and Hamas have had poor relations since five of the Islamic movement's members, including Khaled Mash'al, were expelled to Qatar in 1999. In 2006, Jordan charged others with smuggling weapons from Syria.
On Friday, de facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called Mash'al to extend his condolences, as other Hamas officials expressed sympathy for the exiled leader's family.
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08/30/2009 00:00 ||
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Ma'an -- President Mahmoud Abbas will start a five-day visit to Arab and European countries in an effort to explain the Palestinian attitude toward a resumption of peace negotiations with Israel.
"No peace until them Juices withdraw to ten meters into the Mediterranean Sea. All the rest we consider occupied territory."
He arrived in Amman on Friday, from where he was to depart later on Saturday.
The tour comes ahead of the United Nations General Assembly meeting scheduled for September. Palestinians suspect US President Barack Obama may announce his vision for reactivating the peace process in the region.
"I fear there will be no peace until the Israelis withdraw to the Mediterranean Sea. All the rest is occupied territory, and it is unreasonable to expect the Palestinians to negotiate until Israel makes that first gesture as a confidence-building measure."
Abbas was expected to visit Qatar, Libya, Italy, Spain, and France before returning via Cairo and Amman.
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08/30/2009 00:00 ||
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Iran said on Saturday the U.N. atomic watchdog had confirmed its nuclear program was peaceful and vowed to resist political pressure to change it while insisting it would continue enriching uranium.
"Fortunately the current IAEA report has been more positive than the earlier ones due to the new approach of the Islamic republic," the head of Iran's nuclear energy organization Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted by state television's news website as saying.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Friday said Iran had slowed its expansion of uranium enrichment and met some demands for transparency but added that allegations Tehran had researched how to build atom bombs looked credible.
Not even close to the Iranian claim.
The IAEA report will form the basis for talks on Sept. 2 of six major powers to look into harsher U.N. sanctions against Iran over its enrichment of uranium which the West fears is intended for making nuclear weapons.
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08/30/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] With Iran's parliament evaluating cabinet nominees for a vote of confidence, the president urges lawmakers to pass their judgment based on a general trust in the nominees.
"It is my humble, brotherly demand from Majlis to trust their friend and brother and leave the issue of Cabinet's efficiency to the president ... [they should only] examine the general competence [of the ministers]," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a pre-sermon speech to Friday prayer's worshippers in Tehran University.
Referring to the issue of a nightly raid on Tehran University dormitories on June 14, which was among controversial incidents in Iran's post-vote frenzy, President Ahmadinejad said, "The attack on (Tehran) University dorm and certain mistreatments in detention centers were foul deeds."
President Ahmadinejad added, however, that these act "were parts of the enemy's plot and were carried out by 'coup' elements and today we have clear evidence of the matter."
The Iranian president said the country's "security, military and intelligence forces are in the clear regarding such evil acts. Basij forces were beaten up in the streets with self-sacrifice."
President Ahmadinejad called on the country's security and judicial authorities for a severe punishment of those behind the post-election unrest that followed the June 12 vote.
"I call upon security and judicial officials to decisively and mercilessly deal with those who committed inhumane acts in the guise of friends [of the establishment] ... since they inflicted damage on the people and tarnished the image of the establishment, security and police forces."
He went further to ask for a second favor, calling on the authorities to administer justice in dealing with those who "orchestrated and provoked" the unrest and instead treat those deceived in the course of the election with "Islamic compassion".
President Ahmadinejad said that Britain's foreign secretary had predicted the demise of the Iranian state in the aftermath of the June presidential election.
"One of the foreign ministers of friendly countries told us that when I asked the Old Colonialism's (United Kingdom) foreign secretary why they interfered in Iran's affairs, he answered that 'this time the time was up for the Islamic Republic system, and this time we have worked out everything'," Ahmadinejad said Friday.
"The whole world knows that in Iran, elections are fundamental matters, and, contrary to common democracies of the world, they are not a sham or previously arranged, but, with the presence and supervision of the people," he added.
The president said that unfortunately some were deceived by the enemy's plots and played a role in their scenario and in the course of such events "some civilians were hurt and some were killed and this is the most unfair treatment of the Iranian nation and the healthy election".
Ahmadinejad said accusing the government and the establishment of "lying and fraud" is a well-recognized method of "psychological warfare."
He added that "despite countless claims they have failed to provide any evidence that undermines the result of the election."
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08/30/2009 00:00 ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] As reports claim that the United Arab Emirates has seized a ship carrying North Korean weapons to Iran, an Iranian diplomatic source moves to deny. "Reports about the seizure of a ship in the UAE have been fabricated by Zionist media outlets in an attempt to influence the outcome of the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency [on Iran's nuclear activities]," an informed political source said on Saturday.
"Now that Iran has the best level of cooperation with the IAEA, certain Western media outlets, which are influenced by the Zionist lobby, fabricate news to highlight normal relations between different countries," the source added.
The Financial Times reported that the ship was seized "some weeks ago," and identified some of the armaments as basic weaponry, including rocket-propelled grenades.
The arms had been falsely labeled as "machine parts," the
Financial Times report added.
"It would be better for us to not waste our time with such childish games designed by Israel," the Iranian source said.
In its latest report on Iran on Friday, the IAEA confirmed that the country is improving its cooperation with the agency while continuing to enrich uranium despite UNSC resolutions.
The IAEA report said that 'following repeated requests' by the agency, the UN body had been granted access to the heavy water reactor at Arak in central Iran.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Gotta say one thing for the Iranians. Their bald faced lies put even the North Koreans to shame.
Posted by: ed ||
08/30/2009 12:03 Comments ||
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United Nations inspectors are analyzing further evidence taken from a nuclear research plant in Syria's capital Damascus where unexplained uranium traces were found, the UN's nuclear watchdog said on Friday.
But the International Atomic Energy Agency said Syria was still blocking follow-up access to the desert site of what U.S. intelligence reports said was a nascent, North Korean-designed nuclear reactor meant to yield atomic bomb fuel, before Israel bombed it to pieces in 2007.
In June, the Vienna-based IAEA said particles of processed uranium showed up in swipe samples taken by inspectors at the research reactor in Damascus and that it was checking for a link to traces retrieved from the bombed Dair Alzour site.
The IAEA said on Friday it carried out an inventory verification check at the Damascus Miniature Neutron Source Reactor (MNSR) in July, collecting environmental samples of what Syria said was the source of the uranium particles.
The samples were now being analyzed with the results likely to be ready by November.
U.S. analysts have said the IAEA's findings raised the question of whether Syria used some natural uranium intended for the alleged reactor at Dair Alzour for experiments applicable to learning how to separate out plutonium from spent nuclear fuel.
Syria's only declared nuclear site is the Damascus research reactor and, unlike Iran, it has no known nuclear energy-generating capacity.
Not anymore, at least.
Syria has said that the uranium traces at Dair Alzour came with Israeli munitions used in the strike and that Israel's target was a conventional military building.
Damascus denies hiding anything from the IAEA. But the agency says Syria is withholding documentation and blocking access that inspectors need to clarify the case.
Posted by: Fred ||
08/30/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Expected findings: the site was a kindergarten + petting zoo.
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.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Afghan president Hamid Karzai pulled further ahead of his main rival in the race for the Afghan presidency, based on the latest results unveiled by the country's election commission on Saturday as Britain's prime minister made a surprise visit to troops based in the country. 
Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef defended late on Saturday the policy of enticing "repentant" militants after one tried to assassinate his son, but warned there could be more and worse attacks ahead. A suicide bomber posing as a repentant militant blew himself up in the Jeddah office of security chief Prince Mohammed bin Nayef in the first known attack on a member of the Saudi royal family since al Qaeda began a violent campaign in the world's top oil exporter in 2003.
[Bangla Daily Star] The present government has no authority to hold the trial of 1971 war criminals, BNP lawmaker Salauddin Quader Chowdhury said yesterday. "This government may have the power to hold the trial of war criminals but it doesn't have the authority to do so," Salauddin said at BBC Bangladesh Sanglap at Bangabandhu International Convention Centre. 
DURING the past year a small ship bristling with computers and seismic equipment has been crisscrossing the Gulf of Sidra, in the Mediterranean off the Libyan coast. Its mission: to help to find BP's next offshore oilfields.
Brown Lloyd James, a public relations firm with offices in London and New York, has opened an office in Tripoli. It is reported to have placed articles by Colonel Gadaffi in American newspapers. The firm would not comment last week.
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Former chief of the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt-Gen (retd) Hameed Gul on Saturday disclosed that the PPP could have got landslide victory in 1988 elections, if the Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) had not been formed.
Iran said on Saturday the U.N. atomic watchdog had confirmed its nuclear program was peaceful and vowed to resist political pressure to change it while insisting it would continue enriching uranium.
[Iran Press TV Latest] As reports claim that the United Arab Emirates has seized a ship carrying North Korean weapons to Iran, an Iranian diplomatic source moves to deny. "Reports about the seizure of a ship in the UAE have been fabricated by Zionist media outlets in an attempt to influence the outcome of the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency [on Iran's nuclear activities]," an informed political source said on Saturday. 
United Nations inspectors are analyzing further evidence taken from a nuclear research plant in Syria's capital Damascus where unexplained uranium traces were found, the UN's nuclear watchdog said on Friday. 
