[Quqnoos] Afghan MPs have accused the US government of 'shameless' election meddling and pushing incumbent Karzai to accept a coalition government
A number of Afghan parliamentarians called on the US government and the international community on Sunday to allow the announcement of the final results of the disputed election.
The US Embassy has dismissed the allegations of its involvement in holding back the announcement of the election outcome.
The accusation comes after a group of Afghan MPs paid a visit to the US Embassy on Saturday, calling on American diplomats to not interfere in the election process any further.
"The US has a significant role in the current situation," said a member of the Lower House, Arian Yoon, "They shouldn't interfere in the election affairs or in the electoral fraud panel's work, but they have started a shameless meddling."
The final certified results of the election were expected to be announced on Sunday, but they have further been delayed indefinitely.
The 20 August poll was marred by allegations of widespread fraud that provoked disputes in and outside Afghanistan.
According to the preliminary results announced last month, President Karzai won 55 percent of the votes and main challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, received 28 percent.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Wonder if Bambi is into "power-sharing" at home ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/20/2009 8:41 Comments ||
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U.N.-backed fraud investigators on Monday threw out nearly a third of President Hamid Karzai's votes from the August election, undercutting his claim of victory and stepping up the pressure for him to accept a runoff.
The Obama administration has been holding off on a decision to send more troops to Afghanistan until a credible government is installed in Kabul.
Both Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the U.N. secretary general signaled on Monday that a resolution was near.
Clinton said Karzai planned to announce his intentions on Tuesday, adding that she was "encouraged at the direction the situation is moving."
A spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he spoke with Karzai and the Afghan leader assured him he will "fully respect" the constitutional process even if it means a runoff against his top challenger, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.
The findings by the Electoral Complaints Commission dropped Karzai's votes to 48 percent of the total, below the 50 percent threshold needed for him to avoid a runoff, according to calculations by independent election monitors.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] United States President Barack Obama on Monday unveiled a new strategy on Sudan, offering incentives if the Khartoum government worked toward peace, but said it faced tougher steps if it failed to act.
"Our conscience and our interests in peace and security call upon the United States and the international community to act with a sense of urgency and purpose," Obama said in a statement.
Unveiling the new U.S. policy toward Sudan, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said genocide was taking place in Darfur and the U.S. focus would be on protecting civilians, helping displaced persons and ensuring that militias were disarmed.
"First, we must seek a definitive end to conflict, gross human rights abuses and genocide in Darfur," Obama said, in the statement issued as the State Department unveiled a new U.S.-Sudan strategy.
"If the Government of Sudan acts to improve the situation on the ground and to advance peace, there will be incentives, if it does not, then there will be increased pressure imposed by the United States and the international community."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] The Juba Declaration, signed at the Friendship Hall in Khartoum, stirred controversy in Sudan as it stipulated that the fate of Southern Sudan is to be determined by a small majority vote, according to press reports Sunday.
The declaration, signed by Sudanese President and head of the National Congress Party (NCP) Omar al-Bashir and Deputy Chairman of Sudan's People Liberation Movement (SPLM) Dr. Riek Machar, granted Southern Sudan the right to hold a self-determination referendum with two thirds of the registered voters.
The agreement sparked debates as it was seen as a sign of an imminent secession of the south, the London-based Asharq al-Awsat reported Sunday.
The agreement transcended the disagreements between the two parties and focused on the importance of holding the self-determination referendum on time, said NCP leader professor Ibrahim.
"The relevant authorities will look into the Referendum Bill which will later be referred to the National Assembly [Sudan's parliament]," he told the paper.
The ongoing dispute between the two parties was primarily about SPLM's insistence that the self-determination referendum be held in 2011 as scheduled with a simple majority vote (50+1), whereas NCP wanted an absolute majority (more than 71 percent ).
Sudan's political scene is now ready for partition, said Joseph Melwal, Minister of Tourism in Sudan's National Unity Government, established in 2005 following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), and Chairman of the southern United Democratic Salvation Front (UDSF).
"The north and the south have not been working together for such a long time," he told Asharq al-Awsat. "It is hard now to talk about unity."
Joseph Okelo, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and leader of the southern Union of Sudan African Parties (USAP), seconded Melwal's opinion. "All Southerners, whether in the south or north of Sudan or outside the country, want secession," he told Asharq al-Awsat. "The conflicts that took place lately made secession a must."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
A good thing, unless you are the United Nations where territorial is sacrosact, or one of the third world despots that depends on the UN's stand.
Local Muslim activists have taken issue with reports that an al-Qaeda terrorist cell in South Africa planned to disrupt the 2010 Fifa World Cup and said they rejected any such plan as Contrary To Islam.
"As committed citizens of this country, we pledge unequivocal support to the government and its security forces (and) to assist in whatever way we can to avert any attack on our people or visitors to our country during the World Cup," a statement by the International Peace University of South Africa (Ipsa) said.
The statement, supported by the Muslim Judicial Council, was issued after a symposium on extremism at the Ipsa offices in Rylands yesterday.
It said South Africans should guard against "information peddlers who mislead the public with information that has no basis in fact".
The statement followed recent reports of an intercepted telephone conversation between a Somali in Khayelitsha and a radical group in Somalia. The conversation was apparently about plans to attack United States government and civilian targets in South Africa in retaliation for US military strikes on al-Qaeda leaders in Somalia.
It led to US offices in South Africa being closed for three days.
Ipsa member Rashied Omar said that the reports of the al-Qaeda terror network were unsubstantiated and devoid of truth, and created a bad image of Muslims here and abroad.
The Somali Community Board of SA said Somalis in South Africa already suffered discrimination and brutal attacks, and that unfounded allegations could lead to them being marginalised further. That one probably is true, seems like south african blacks have an "one-size-fits-them-all" answer to immigration, IE necklacing.
The board's Western Cape chairman, Abdirashid Aafi, said this could also result in Ethnic Profiling of Somali refugees.
Ipsa deputy rector Ighsaan Taliep said papers delivered at the symposium would be submitted to the intelligence ministry and statements made yesterday would be sent to all mosques in South Africa.
Seraj Hendricks, imam at the Azzavia Mosque in District Six, said: "The media should critically examine its sources." Maybe CNN could consider that ...
[Al Arabiya Latest] Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh accused Shiite northern rebels of taking money from Iranians and of plotting to create a Shiite zone along the Saudi borders.
"These are outlaws and terrorists... who are in the pay of foreign forces and execute a foreign agenda," Saleh said, according to a text issued on Monday by state news agency Saba of a television interview.
"Their finances come from certain Iranian dignatories... but we do not accuse the government," he said, citing documents seized and confessions of rebels captured during the fighting between the army and the rebels, which has been raging since early August.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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HATE preacher Anjem Choudary sparked fury yesterday after calling for the Queen to become Muslim. He demanded an Islamic revolution across Britain.
Choudary, 42, said Her Majesty - head of the Church of England - should convert to ensure her place in paradise.
He also wants to see senior members of the Government switching faiths. Choudary, a key henchman of rabble rousing cleric Omar Bakri, said: "We invite everyone from the Queen, to the ministers, to the Parliament, to the aristocracy, to the ordinary person in Britain to embrace Islam.
"Save yourself and your children in this life from misery and prepare them for a great destiny in the hereafter."
He made his call during an internet rant to promote a march in London later this month supporting Sharia law.
The ex-lawyer also made a scathing reference to the next general election, declaring: "Britain does not need a new leader, it needs a revolution - an Islamic revolution."
Labour MP Andrew Dismore said: "It'd be laughable if we didn't know that some take this man seriously." A Muslim group branded Choudary an "extremist nut".
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I'd rather the Queen order, "Off wit 'is 'ead!"
Posted by: ed ||
10/20/2009 0:28 Comments ||
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#2
Actually I'd rather the Queen personally castrate him, then preside over his drawing and quartering...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
10/20/2009 0:43 Comments ||
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#3
Methinks its more likely to be "OFF WITH HER HEAD", iff she + Royal family refuse???
A Pakistani citizen was sentenced yesterday to 37 months in prison for using his Philadelphia-based money-transfer business to send more than $2 million to a bank in a Taliban-controlled territory in Pakistan, federal prosecutors said.
Habib Khan, 49, who has lived in the United States illegally for the last five years, transferred the money to a bank in Swat region, where his brothers distributed the funds. At least one of his customers used Khan's business to pay ransom for a kidnapped family member.
Prosecutors said it was unlikely that Khan could have dispensed the millions of dollars without paying a tribute or a bribe to Taliban officials. In addition, Khan never obtained a license to operate the business and never registered the business with the federal government, as required by law.
Khan, convicted in April, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Joel H. Slomsky to pay a $126,000 fine and serve three years of supervised release following his prison term. One would think ICE might intervene at the end of the sentence to expel the illegal Mr. Kahn. Perhaps the reason for the supervision is to keep him from disappearing while ICE gets the paperwork filed.
A rising number of Western recruits, including Americans, are travelling to Afghanistan and Pakistan to train at paramilitary camps, The Washington Post reported on Sunday.
Citing unnamed US and European counterterrorism officials, the newspaper said the flow of recruits has continued unabated in spite of an intensified campaign over the past year by the CIA to eliminate Al Qaeda and Taliban commanders in drone missile attacks.
Since January, at least 30 recruits from Germany have travelled to Pakistan for training, said the report, citing German security sources.
About 10 people returned to Germany this year, fuelling concerns that fresh plots are in the works against European targets, the paper said.
"We think this is sufficient to show how serious the threat is," the newspaper quotes a senior German counterterrorism official as saying.
Exploit: German officials say Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders are trying to exploit domestic opposition in Germany to the war.
Training: US and European counterterrorism officials say a rising number of Western recruits -- including Americans -- are travelling to Afghanistan to attend paramilitary training camps.
German security services have been on high alert since last month, when groups affiliated with the Taliban and Al Qaeda issued several videos warning that an attack on German targets was imminent if the government did not bring home its forces from Afghanistan. There are about 3,800 German troops in the country.
The videos all featured German speakers who urged Muslims to travel to Afghanistan and Pakistan to join their cause.
Last week, German officials disclosed that a 10-member cell from Hamburg had left for Pakistan earlier this year. The cell is allegedly led by a German of Syrian origin but also includes ethnic Turks, German converts to Islam and one member with Afghan roots.
Other European countries are also struggling to keep their citizens from going to Pakistan for paramilitary training.
European security officials have warned for many years of the threat posed by homegrown radicals who have gone to Afghanistan and Pakistan to wage jihad. Officials in some countries, such as Britain, said they have successfully cracked down on the number of would-be fighters going to South Asia. But others, such as Germany, are seeing a significant increase and struggling to contain it.
In a recent report, the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service said there were a "growing number of indications" that more Europeans were attending camps in the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
"With the extremist agenda of those allies becoming more international, at least at the propaganda level, the threat to the West and its interests has intensified," the report found.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Don't suppose we could, y'know, whack the camps?...
Yes, apparently quite a few, Redneck Jim. The jihadis have been recruiting for about five years among converts who won't draw notice at the airport. So keep an eye out for jittery young white males with their legs crossed hard.
The leader of Maoist rebels in India has vowed to unleash a "tornado" of violence if the government goes ahead with a planned large-scale offensive against his insurgent forces.
Yes, yes, of course. A veritable hurricane, in fact, with death and destruction as far as the eye can see, blinded as it is by the debris carried by the driving rain. Whew -- that extended metaphor has quite exhausted me. I think I'll sit quietly now with a cup of tea and a small boy to fan me.
In an interview published in the weekly magazine Open, Mupalla Laxman Rao, better known as Ganapathi, said any offensive might secure some early gains but insisted that the rebels would eventually triumph. "Although the enemy may achieve a few successes in the initial phase, we shall certainly overcome and defeat the government offensive," Ganapathi was quoted as saying in the magazine's latest edition.
Open said the interview was conducted at an undisclosed jungle location in eastern India, part of a vast, Maoist-affected region known as the "red corridor". The corridor includes areas of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal states, and runs south through Orissa, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
The states' police and paramilitary forces will be in the frontline of the planned anti-rebel offensive, which official sources say is likely to begin in November and involve hundreds of thousands of security personnel.
Ganapathi, a 59-year-old former schoolteacher, said the operation would provoke a mass response. "People will rise up like a tornado under our party's leadership to wipe out the reactionary blood-sucking vampires ruling our country," he said, branding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister P Chidambaram "terrorists".
Singh has described the Maoist insurgency, which began as a peasant uprising in 1967, as the single greatest threat to India's internal security. The Maoists say they are fighting for the rights of the rural poor and local tribes, but officials accuse them of using intimidation and extortion to collect money and to control impoverished villagers.
"This region is the wealthiest as well as the most underdeveloped part of our country," said Ganapathi, who is one of the most wanted men in India and is known to change his location frequently. "These (government) sharks want to loot the wealth and drive the tribal people of the region to further impoverishment," he said.
Maoist-linked violence has already claimed more than 600 lives this year with rebels staging a series of raids against police targets, despite some successes by security forces in arresting or killing a number of senior cadres. "It is true that our party has suffered some serious leadership losses, but we were able to inflict serious losses on the enemy too," the rebel leader said. "Overall, our party's influence has grown stronger and it has now come to be recognised as the only genuine alternative before the people," he added.
Last month, the prime minister rebuked regional police chiefs for failing to stem the insurgency, but analysts say the real problem has been the lack of a cohesive strategy. Although the federal government has ruled out the use of the military in the anti-Maoist offensive, it has made it clear that the operation will be coordinated from New Delhi.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Looks like Anita Dunn has another very quotable group to admire.
Posted by: ed ||
10/20/2009 0:44 Comments ||
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#2
WMF > INDIAN DEFENSE MINISTER AK ANTHONY: INDIA READY TO DECLARE WAR ON TALIBAN [Haikimullah Mehsud].
* SAME > IRAN IRGC COMMANDER AL-JAAFARI: IRAN READY TO MILITARILY INVADE PAKISTAN IFF ISLAMABABD FAILS TO ARREST JUNDALLAH ATTACKERS OR STOP CROSS-BORDER TERROR STRIKES INTO IRAN.
IRAN demands that NO TERRORISTS MUST EXIST = ALLOWED TO OPERATE ANYWHERE INSIDE PAKISTAN.
#3
Ala STARS-N-STRIPES > The good news for OSAMA + RADICAL ISLAM is that the USA doesn't have enuff troops available to support MCCHRYSTAL'S "LOW RISK" OPTIONS.
HMMMMM, HMMMM, IRAN + INDIA + CHINA = ONLY EEEEVVVVVEEEERRRRRRYYYYBBBOOODDYYY, D *** YOU, WANTS TO SEND TROOPS = ARMIES TO INVADE OR SURROUND AFPAK - ONLY THE RUSSIANS ARE MISSING!
[The News (Pak) Top Stories] Islamabad has informed Tehran that Jundallah (or Soldiers of God), the Pakistan-based anti-Shia militant outfit, which has claimed responsibility for the October 18 deadly suicide attack in Zahedan, targeting Iranian Revolutionary Guards, is carrying out coordinated terrorist operations with the help of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LJ), to undermine Pak-Iran ties.
According to well-placed interior ministry sources in Islamabad, the explanation has been conveyed to Tehran after the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad alleged that Sunday's mayhem in Tehran had been plotted from neighbouring Pakistan. Ahmadinejad had further alleged that Abdolmalek Rigi, the chief of the Jundallah, who has claimed responsibility for the attack, operates from Pakistan.
Sources said during his Monday's telephonic conversation with President Asif Zardari, his Iranian counterpart expressed deep concern over the failure of the Pakistani authorities to proceed against the Jundallah network in Balochistan and elsewhere despite having been provided specific intelligence information by Tehran. He said the Tehran attack could have been averted had Islamabad acted in time on the Iranian intelligence information.
Gosh, they have trouble with that, too? I don't know what to think!
While responding to the Iranian allegations, the ministry of interior has informed the concerned authorities in Tehran through the Pakistani ambassador that the October 10 Fidayeen attack on the General Headquarters of the Pakistan Army was also a coordinated operation which was carried out jointly by a select group of highly trained militants belonging to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan with the help of at least two Punjab-based militant organisations ñ the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and the Jaish-e-Mohammad. The authorities in Islamabad have conveyed in their post-Sunday-attack talks with their Iranian counterparts that the enemies of Iran and Pakistan are common and are trying to sabotage the recently signed Pak-Iran gas pipeline project. The Iranian authorities were also apprised of the intelligence reports regarding a recent meeting between Abdul Malik Rigi and some top notches of the TTP.
The October 18 suicide attack was not the first such incident blamed on Pakistan. On May 28, 2009, Jundallah had carried out a deadly suicide bombing inside the Amirul Momenin Mosque in Zahedan, in Sistan-Balochistan province of Iran, killing 25 people. Pakistani ambassador to Tehran MB Abbasi was subsequently summoned by the Iranian foreign ministry and told that three Pakistanis - Haji Noti Zehi, Gholam Rasoul Zehi and Zabihollah Naroui have already confessed to smuggling explosives into Iran from Balochistan and passing them over to the suicide bomber. The trio was subsequently hanged in public in Zahedan on May 30. Almost a week after the hanging, hundreds of Baloch women and children took out a protest rally in Quetta on June 9, 2009 and threatened to target the Iranian nationals in Pakistan, as a reaction to the execution of the five Baloch nationals by the Iranian government.
Jundallah, also known in Iran as the Rigi group (after its ringleader, Abdul Malik Rigi), is a rebel militant group of Iranian Baloch, who claims to represent their minority's rights in Iran's southeast province of Sistan-Balochistan. Their hideout is in Pakistani Balochistan. Iran directly blames Jundallah for a series of cross-border guerrilla operations that have been going on since 2003, killing mostly Iranian soldiers and border guards. In the wake of the October 18 suicide bombing in Tehran, Islamabad faces tremendous pressure to arrest and extradite Jundallah chief Rigi, who is believed to be based in Balochistan. While asserting that the Pakistani law-enforcement agencies were making efforts to dismantle the Jundallah network from Balochistan, authoritative sources in the ministry of interior pointed out that the militant organisation in question has actually stepped up its anti-Iran activities following the June 15, 2008 extradition of Abdul Hamid Rigi, the brother of Jundallah chief, Abdolmalek Rigi, from Pakistan to Iran. Rigi is now being tried by an Iranian court on terrorism charges.
Initially, patronised by late Taliban commander Nek Mohammad, the Pakistan chapter of Jundallah usually draws its cadre from Jihadi and sectarian groups like the Sipah-e-Sahaba and the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
Lt-Gen Ahsan Salim Hayat, former corps commander of Karachi, was one of those high-profile personalities to have been targeted by the Pakistan chapter of Jundallah on June 10, 2004, killing 11 people including seven Army personnel when his convoy was ambushed near the Clifton bridge. Interestingly, there are those in the Pakistani establishment who insist that Jundullah was actually created by the mastermind of 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Muhammad. He was arrested in March 2003 from Rawalpindi and handed over to the Americans, after which Jundallah went wild. Soon after the Karachi attempt on the corps commander, the police were able to apprehend a group of Jundullah terrorists headed by an Arab, Musab Aruchi, who turned out to be a nephew of Khalid Sheikh with a million dollars on his head.
Interesting.
Jundallah was not without its support system in the port city of Karachi as it proceeded to avenge the arrest and handover of its mastermind after 2003. The support system included two MBBS doctors. Dr Akmal Wahid, an orthopaedic surgeon, and his younger brother Dr Arshad Wahid, a heart specialist, were convicted in 2005 by an anti-terrorism court which sent them behind bars for 18 years on charges of "causing disappearance of evidence by harbouring and providing medical treatment to activists of banned Jundallah group". There were protest marches in Karachi and Lahore by pious doctors when the two doctors were sentenced. As Dr Arshad Wahid was bailed out almost a year later, he got killed in a US missile attack in the Wana on March 16, 2009. According to recent intelligence information passed on to the ministry of interior, the Jundallah network is still active in Karachi and intends to carry out hostage taking operation for the release of its leader Sheikh Attaur Rehman alias Zubair, who is currently imprisoned in Karachi Central jail after the Anti-Violent Crime Unit arrested him in 2003 from his hideout in Model colony, Karachi.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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The Hamas children's television program, Tomorrow's Pioneers, last week included a part in which children were told it is important to know English, because it is "the language of their enemy."
Following is the transcript provided by Palestinian Media Watch:
Child host: What do you want to be in the future, Allah willing?
Child caller:A teacher of the English language.
Host: Why do you want to be specifically an English teacher?
Child: To teach children the language of their enemy. (Child host smiles.)
Host: Very nice. A great field. It is not enough for us to know our own language... We also want to study the language of our enemies, to know how to have contacts with them, and so that we can convey the message of Palestinian children...
Nassur (the bear-puppet host): Like me! Just like I know the Zionist enemy's language.
Host: Really?
Nassur: Hebrew.
Host: Okay, speak (in Hebrew).
Nassur: I can't! (Laughs). (Al-Aqsa TV, October 16, 2009)
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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Ma'an -- Founder of the Palestinian intelligence services Amin Al-Hindi excused himself from consideration for the Fatah Revolutionary Council via an official letter to Fatah leader and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, sources said.
Fatah's Revolutionary Council, meeting in Ramallah from Sunday through Tuesday, received 24 recommendations for appointments to the Council from the party's main decision making body the Central Committee. The Council okayed 19 of the recommendations on Monday.
The appointments include several Fatah-affiliated police and security services leaders.
In his letter to the council, Al-Hindi is reported to have written: "If I wanted this position, I would have nominated myself [for the council] during the [sixth Fatah] conference and obtained it democratically."
No further indication as to why he chose not to participate in the council was given.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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UN Watch Oral Statement Delivered by Colonel Richard Kemp UN Human Rights Council 12th Special Session, 16 October 2009 Debate on Goldstone Report
Thank you, Mr. President.
I am the former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan. I served with NATO and the United Nations; commanded troops in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Macedonia; and participated in the Gulf War. I spent considerable time in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, and worked on international terrorism for the UK Government's Joint Intelligence Committee.
Mr. President, based on my knowledge and experience, I can say this: During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defence Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.
Israel did so while facing an enemy that deliberately positioned its military capability behind the human shield of the civilian population.
Hamas, like Hizballah, are expert at driving the media agenda. Both will always have people ready to give interviews condemning Israeli forces for war crimes. They are adept at staging and distorting incidents.
The IDF faces a challenge that we British do not have to face to the same extent. It is the automatic, Pavlovian presumption by many in the international media, and international human rights groups, that the IDF are in the wrong, that they are abusing human rights.
The truth is that the IDF took extraordinary measures to give Gaza civilians notice of targeted areas, dropping over 2 million leaflets, and making over 100,000 phone calls. Many missions that could have taken out Hamas military capability were aborted to prevent civilian casualties. During the conflict, the IDF allowed huge amounts of humanitarian aid into Gaza. To deliver aid virtually into your enemy's hands is, to the military tactician, normally quite unthinkable. But the IDF took on those risks.
Despite all of this, of course innocent civilians were killed. War is chaos and full of mistakes. There have been mistakes by the British, American and other forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq, many of which can be put down to human error. But mistakes are not war crimes.
More than anything, the civilian casualties were a consequence of Hamas' way of fighting. Hamas deliberately tried to sacrifice their own civilians.
Mr. President, Israel had no choice apart from defending its people, to stop Hamas from attacking them with rockets.
And I say this again: the IDF did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.
#3
Not sure this is a good trend. War is hell. It's supposed to be hell. If we make war clean, neat and painless then why should any nation try to avoid it?
An Iranian general on Monday accused Pakistan, Britain and the US of aiding Sunni rebels responsible for a suicide attack on Sunday that killed 42 people, including seven military commanders.
The suicide bomber blew himself up at a meeting of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards and local tribesmen in Iran's Sistan-Baluchestan province. Iranian officials said the attack was claimed by Sunni militant rebel leader Abdolmalek Rigi, whose Jundullah group has been waging war against the Shiite rule of Iran for several years.
Repatriation: Revolutionary Guards Corps chief General Muhammad Ali Jafari said on Monday an Iranian delegation would head to Pakistan to deliver "proof" that Islamabad is supporting Rigi. "The delegation will ask for him (Rigi) to be handed over," Jafari was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency. Jafari also charged that Rigi takes orders from the intelligence services of Britain, Pakistan and the US. "He is supported by them and without doubt he is acting under their orders and plans," he claimed, adding, "There will have to be retaliatory measures to punish them (the US and the UK)", Fox News reported.
Not us: Washington and the UK have denied any involvement, the AFP news agency reported. "Reports of alleged US involvement are completely false," US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in a statement on Sunday. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, meanwhile, has said his country is ready to help Iran fight "terrorism". An Iranian general on Monday accused Pakistan, Britain and the US of
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
Follow up by Debka has Iran *threatening* to attack Pakistan. Now that would be interesting.
#2
Obama not having an Iranian policy is not going to stop Iran from claiming he does. Blaming others for internal dissension has a long standing pedigree amongst dictators.
#3
Follow up by Debka has Iran *threatening* to attack Pakistan. Now that would be interesting.
As Joseph Mendiola pointed out in a previous post:
HMMMMM, HMMMM, IRAN + INDIA + CHINA = ONLY EEEEVVVVVEEEERRRRRRYYYYBBBOOODDYYY, D *** YOU, WANTS TO SEND TROOPS = ARMIES TO INVADE OR SURROUND AFPAK - ONLY THE RUSSIANS ARE MISSING!
An Iranian member of parliament on Monday raised the prospect of a possible cross-border military operation into Pakistan against the terrorist group blamed for a deadly attack on the elite Revolutionary Guards. Iran has in the past alleged that members of the Jundallah group, which state media said claimed Sunday's suicide bombing in Iran, have been operating from Pakistan. "There is unanimity about the Revolutionary Guards and the security forces engaging in operations in any place they would deem necessary," ISNA news agency quoted MP Payman Forouzesh as saying, appearing to refer to agreement on the issue among lawmakers.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/20/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Conflicts brewing from one end of South Asia to the other.
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.
[Quqnoos] Afghan MPs have accused the US government of 'shameless' election meddling and pushing incumbent Karzai to accept a coalition government
U.N.-backed fraud investigators on Monday threw out nearly a third of President Hamid Karzai's votes from the August election, undercutting his claim of victory and stepping up the pressure for him to accept a runoff.
Local Muslim activists have taken issue with reports that an al-Qaeda terrorist cell in South Africa planned to disrupt the 2010 Fifa World Cup and said they rejected any such plan as Contrary To Islam.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh accused Shiite northern rebels of taking money from Iranians and of plotting to create a Shiite zone along the Saudi borders.
