[Dawn] The arrest of key Taliban leaders in Pakistan stopped a secret channel of communications with the United Nations, the former UN special representative to Afghanistan said Friday in a BBC interview.
Kai Eide, who stepped down from the post earlier this month, confirmed for the first time that he had been holding talks with senior Taliban figures and said they started around a year ago, AFP reported.
Face-to-face talks were held with "senior figures in the Taliban leadership" in Dubai and other locations, said the diplomat, adding he believed the movement's leader Mullah Omar had given the process the green light.
"Of course I met Taliban leaders during the time I was in Afghanistan," the Norwegian diplomat told the broadcaster at his home outside Oslo.
"The first contact was probably last spring, then of course you moved into the election process where there was a lull in activity."
Eide said that "communication picked up when the election process was over, and it continued to pick up until a certain moment a few weeks ago."
He was referring to the arrest of senior Taliban commanders in Pakistan in recent weeks, a move which had been welcomed in the United States as a sign of the country's increasing willingness to track down Afghan militant leaders.
But the diplomat said the detentions had a "negative" effect on attempts to find a political solution to the eight-year-old Afghan war and suggested Pakistan had deliberately tried to undermine the negotiations.
He also said there were now many channels of communication with the Taliban, including with representatives of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
Eide said these contacts were "in the early stages ... talks about talks", adding it would take a long time before there was enough confidence between both sides to really move forward.
"The effect of the arrests, in total, certainly was negative on our possibilities to continue the political process that we saw as so necessary at that particular juncture," he said.
"The Pakistanis did not play the role they should have played. They must have known about this," said Eide.
"I don't believe these people were arrested by coincidence. They must have known who they were, what kind of role they were playing -- and you see the result today."
Pakistani officials have insisted the arrests were not aimed at wrecking the talks, the BBC reported.
Taliban military commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was captured last month in the southern Pakastani city of Karachi, in what US media said was a joint operation with American spies.
Other senior Taliban commanders have also reportedly been captured in Pakistan recently.
Reports first emerged that Eide met Taliban figures after an international conference on Afghanistan in London in January.
Asked about the level of contact in the talks, Eide told the BBC: "We met senior figures in the Taliban leadership and we also met people who have the authority of the Quetta Shura to engage in that kind of discussion."
The Quetta Shura is the name given to the Taliban leadership council, which takes its name from the city of Quetta where the senior members of the militia are thought to have been based.
Asked whether the leader of the Taliban movement Mullah Omar would have known about the talks, he said: "I find it unthinkable that such contact would take place without his knowledge and also without his acceptance."
Eide stepped down from his position as United Nations representative in Afghanistan earlier this month after two years in the post which saw violence escalate and the UN role in fraud-tainted elections mired in controversy.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
unthinkable that such contact would take place without his knowledge
We can test this: let a couple go and see if their heads and bodies show up in different places soon.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Armed rebel groups in Somalia are using the Internet for fundraising and recruitment, and they achieve better results through the Web than they do on the ground, a United Nations report said.
The report by the U.N. Monitoring Group on Somalia also highlighted how the rebels use the Internet to spread information about making bombs and religious rulings.
It cited a three-day, live fundraiser in May last year and another online forum in March 2009 attended by senior members of al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam, the two main rebel groups fighting the Western-backed government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION TOPIX > AFRICA EMERGING AS A VAST LABORATORY FOR MEDIAS INNOVATION.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Friday appointed a new head of al-Azhar, Sunni Islam's most prestigious institution, after the death of its top cleric last week, the official MENA agency reported. Mubarak, who is recovering from surgery in Germany, "has issued a presidential decree appointing Sheikh Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed al-Tayeb to head al-Azhar," MENA reported.
Tayeb, the president of al-Azhar University since 2003, succeeds Grand Imam Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, who died of a heart attack in Saudi Arabia on March 10.
Al-Azhar institution -- which groups a 10th century mosque, a university and several affiliated schools -- is Sunni Islam's highest seat of learning. Its role is to propagate Islamic teachings and culture around the world.
When Tantawi died, a member of his office, Ashraf Hassan, had said that Mohammed Wasel, Tantawi's deputy, was expected to temporarily take over leading the institution until the Egyptian president appointed a new head for the body.
Since 1961, the grand imam of al-Azhar has been appointed by presidential decree, opening up the post to criticism of being too close to the government.
This article starring:
Sheikh Ahmed Mohammed Ahmed al-Tayeb
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2010 00:00 ||
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Violent jihad, or Islamic holy war, is "becoming as American as apple pie," US-born fugitive cleric Anwar Al-Awlaqi said in an unauthenticated message released Friday.
"Western jihad is here to stay," warned Awlaqi as he commented on a blonde American who dubbed herself "JihadJane" and has pleaded not guilty to trying to recruit Islamist militants to murder a Swedish cartoonist.
"Jihad is becoming as American as apple pie and as British as afternoon tea," the US-Yemeni cleric said in an English-language message posted on militant forums and released by the US-based SITE monitoring agency.
Western attempts to stop the spread of violent jihad to people who do not fit the usual profile of a potential extremist have failed, he argued, amid a rash of home-grown terrorism cases in the United States.
"Eight years after 9/11 and the declaration of war against terrorism, jihad is still reaching the shores of Europe and America. Not from the outside, but from within. Jihad is not being imported but is being homegrown," read the message attributed to Awlaqi.
He also referred to Christmas Day bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab and to Colleen LaRose, the 46-year-old Pennsylvania resident who dubbed herself "JihadJane."
"The US has spent billions to protect its airlines but they couldn't prevent Umar Farouk, and the West has been profiling until 'Jihad Jane' shattered whatever trust was left in the value of profiling," the message read.
"A blond, blue-eyed, small framed, middle-aged female. It couldn't get any further from your typical 'terrorist' profile."
Awlaqi has been cited as an influence on three of the hijackers in the September 11, 2001 attacks and exchanged emails with Major Nidal Hasan, the US army psychiatrist accused of opening fire on fellow soldiers at a Texas army base, killing 13 people in November.
The imam has also been linked to Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian student accused of trying to blow up a Detroit-bound flight with explosives in his underwear on December 25.
#1
"The US has spent billions to protect its airlines but they couldn't prevent Umar Farouk, and the West has been profiling until 'Jihad Jane' shattered whatever trust was left in the value of profiling," the message read.
I'm still in favor of profiling. And maybe we should start staking out mosques and putting the attendees on a no-fly list if they don't reveal their religious preference if they are muslim. /sarc(?)
The London Daily Telegraph and the London Daily Mail have published findings on former Prime Minister Tony Blair's Middle East financial interests as disclosed by the official UK government committee which vets former ministers' business interests.
The Daily Mail described Blair as waging an extraordinary two-year battle to keep secret a lucrative deal with a multinational oil giant which has extensive interests in Iraq', referring to the just revealed fact that Mr. Blair serves as advisor to a South Korean firm, UI Energy, since August 2008, and has made at least £20million since leaving Downing Street in June 2007.
In addition, the daily claimed, the former head of state who is now the European Quartet's envoy to the Middle East went to great efforts to keep hidden a separate £1million deal advising the ruling royal family in Iraq's neighbour Kuwait', since June 2008, reportedly with the task of producing a £1million report on the oil state's future over the next 30 years.
Candidate for president German Vargas Lleras revealed on Friday the presumed whereabouts of kingpins of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Venezuela, and furnished maps where, according to him, there are rebel camps safeguarded by Venezuelan authorities. They're on to Oogo ...
During the introduction of his proposal on comprehensive security, the candidate for political Cambio Radical party added that 60 percent of drug trafficking goes through Venezuela, Efe quoted.
"The Venezuelan territory continues being a strategic trench of the FARC," he said.
Vargas Lleras specified that the international spokesman of the FARC, Luciano Marín Arango, a.k.a. "Ivan Marquez," stays in Venezuela, as well as guerrilla chiefs Rodrigo "Timochenko" Londoño, and Hermilo Cabrera Díaz, also known as "Bertulfo Alvarez."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/20/2010 00:00 ||
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End of the beginning, or beginning of the end for Oogo?
It's the usual brilliant Obama foreign policy: stiff your friends and appease your enemies ...
THE Rudd government has been handed political ammunition to resist US pressure for more troops in Afghanistan after Barack Obama cancelled his visit next week, it was claimed yesterday. Assuming that's what Rudd wants to do ...
The White House confirmed that the President's trip had been postponed to June because of a domestic wrangle over health reform that has forced him to stay in Washington. The delay in Mr Obama's trip was the second in a week.
He faces a backlash from close observers of the US relationship with Australia, including White House supporters, who question whether Mr Obama is demonstrating his commitment to its close ally and the Asia-Pacific region. Mr Obama had previously criticised his predecessor, George W. Bush, for ignoring the region.
Kevin Rudd said yesterday he was "pretty relaxed" after Mr Obama telephoned to inform him that the trip had been called off. "He'd like to have a more relaxed visit than the 24-hour whip in, whip out that the last one had come down to," the Prime Minister said on the Seven Network.
Walter Lohman, Asia policy expert for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington think tank, said Mr Obama had given up the chance to press Australia for an increased commitment of troops in Afghanistan. Mr Lohman said the US President could have requested that Australia take the command role of the departing Dutch in Oruzgan province.
The Rudd government has claimed it is not in a position to take over from The Netherlands and intends to keep troop numbers at 1550 after boosting Australia's contribution by 40 per cent last year.
"The Australians could be forgiven some coolness to American needs in Afghanistan in response to the President's cancellation," Mr Lohman said. "I mean, if the President of the United States can't pull himself away from Washington long enough to personally request that they stretch themselves in Afghanistan, I don't know how he can ask Prime Minister Rudd to stick his own neck out politically."
Patrick Cronin, senior adviser on Asian affairs with the Centre for a New American Security, said the delay in Mr Obama's trip to June was a "setback" for re-engagement with the Asia-Pacific, pointing out also that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had cancelled her trip last month following the Haiti earthquake.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/20/2010 00:00 ||
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Worse than Carter. Seriously: now it's Jimmah who's getting upset about being compared to Obama rather than v-v. Unbelievable.
[Al Arabiya Latest] Two Israeli airforce planes that made a low-level pass over Budapest this week had nothing to do with the killing of a Syrian man in the Hungarian capital on the same day, Hungarian officials said on Friday.
Denying speculation that the planes were part of an undercover mission, Hungarian government spokesman Domokos Szollar said the overflight was "routine" training that was cleared in advance with Hungary by the Israelis.
Hungarian police said they saw no link between the planes and the shooting of the Syrian man, and their investigation of his murder was confined to Hungary.
"The Israeli airforce conducted a training operation at Ferihegy airport the day before yesterday, but it was not spying or reconnaissance, merely a routine pilot maneuver, the so called touch-and-go," Szollar said.
However, a breakdown in internal communications meant the Hungarian defense ministry was not informed, and when the planes were sighted and reported in a Hungarian daily, Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai ordered an investigation.
In the early morning of the day the planes flew over, Syrian-born Bassam Trache, 52, was shot dead in his car at traffic lights on the outskirts of Budapest, and a bag or briefcase was taken by the attacker, Hungarian police said.
Budapest chief of criminal investigations Zsolt Bodnar, said speculation about a link was "in the realm of fiction."
Hungarian authorities sent no request for information to Interpol about the case, said Richard Leyrer, Hungary's chief liaison with international police associations.
"The only connection I have seen between the two cases is that they were in the news on the same day," he told reporters.
In Damascus, Syrian officials had no comment.
Nevertheless, Israeli and Arab media speculated that the fly-over was part of an assassination by Israeli agents.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Dubai police chief Ahi Khalfan Tamim demanded the DNA of the Mossad planes
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/20/2010 9:56 Comments ||
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#2
Like the Dubai assassins, these Israelis then
staged through Tehran for a debriefing...
" It was a matter of time before the losers in Washington DC and Kabul took their bureaucratic infighting public by leaking to the press. You send in the Marines, ask them to do a job nobody else has been successful doing, and what do they get? A shank in the back. My contempt for FOB-bound bureaucrats knows no limit, but at least the reporter presented a fair, easily understood accounting of the debate. Not so for my boy Dexter call it in' Filkins of the New York Times, which I will get to in a minute. "
#1
An Excellent Article. Click through - you will be glad you did.
Posted by: abu do you love ||
03/20/2010 20:24 Comments ||
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#2
I love your handle, Abu.
The guy is an outrageously good writer and sees a little more. He is like another Michael Yon, yet upon his own dime.
Look for more good war blogging.
It is not illegal to be a Soldier and Blog anymore. Take care of the troops because when democrats are destroying my country here, they are rifiling rounds down range, God forbid they get stuck out there when democrats destroy the economy.
You had better have a plan to get them home before your "leaders" ruin our ability to pay for it.
By the way, remind your fellow citizens that NATIONAL SECURITY is NOT POLITICS.
Boeing Co. may face new Western European and Russian competition for a $35 billion contract to provide the U.S. Air Force with refueling tankers.
It had appeared that Chicago-based Boeing would have the race to itself when California-based Northrop Grumman Corp. withdrew March 8, concluding it stood little chance of winning with a tanker based on the Airbus A330 jetliner. But the parent of France-based Airbus SAS, European Aeronautic Defense and Space Co., said Friday that it was considering bidding on its own after receiving assurances the Defense Department "would welcome" a tanker bid from the company's North American subsidiary.
The Pentagon indicated it was willing to extend the May deadline for proposals in order to attract other bids, EADS said. That may allow a third party to enter the fray, a plane-maker owned by the Russian government that is poised to bid, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. That report is behind a subscription wall but suggests the Russians would put forward a modified version of the Ilyushin-96. I don't see the USAF buying a Russian tanker.
Defense officials prefer to competitively bid large, high-profile contracts to drive prices lower and reduce the likelihood of improprieties. Both are concerns with the deal to replace the Air Force's fleet of aerial gas stations, which has dragged on for nearly a decade.
Adding overseas entries to the contest may ease strained trade relations with the European Union, whose officials accused the Pentagon of protectionism. They claim the latest round of the contest was rigged to favor Boeing's smaller, American-made 767 aircraft over the Airbus A330.
While EADS hasn't decided to bid, it may be willing to pursue the deal despite the odds of success that Northrop CEO Wes Bush considered unacceptably low.
"Northrop has a different yardstick to measure this program than EADS," Allan McArtor, chairman of Airbus Americas, told the Tribune. "Their strategic interests are different."
Highly charged politics surrounding the bids have made it impossible for the government to select a plane without creating a furor. Military planners likely concluded in devising rules for the current contest that a Boeing tanker, made in Seattle and supported by Democrats, stood a greater chance of quickly gaining funding from a Democrat-controlled Congress than EADS' Republican-backed tanker, said aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia.
There are two ways that EADS or another overseas player still could succeed, Aboulafia added: "One is to use all the political leverage possible and try to change the [request for proposal]. The other is to discount your way into the market."
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/20/2010 00:00 ||
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The only reason it's like this is because BOEING are a bunch of corrupt assholes who belong in prison. The last tanker deal didn't end 'correctly' so they're trying again.
#3
It may indeed be the case the Boeing is what you've said.
However, there's a legitimate debate going on inside USAF on the requirements for this tanker. The Airbus 330 simply does NOT fit onto the sort of runways we anticipate needing to use for many conflicts over the next decade+. The Boeing plane does but is older.
Neither plane offered in the last round met the specs as written. The specs were revised a bit and the solicitation re-opened.
Is there politics involved? Is the Pope Catholic?
Yes - BOTH bidders brought political pressure to bear on the source selection. Northrup/EADS aren't exactly victims here.
#4
The A330 has a nose down pitch while parked making it a total (*$!&%) to load pallets without special jacking equipment. Tell me how this makes sense in an operating environment with limited GSE.
I like the idea of buying both the KC767 and the KC45 (A330).
Now I understand the argument against doing that; we'd have to train pilots and ground crews to service two planes, not one, keep spares for two, not one, etc.
Nonsense. The Air Force does that all the time anyway. We have multiple types of C, F and A types of aircraft, and the Air Force somehow manages to keep it all straight. We even have two types of K aircraft today (KC-135 and KC-10).
The reason for multiple types: each allows us to meet a need.
The KC767 is smaller, uses existing runways and ground equipment, and can be based closer to wherever the problem is. But it's smaller so it carries less fuel / cargo.
The KC45 is larger and so hauls more, but yes it requires longer runways, larger hangers and so on, so it won't ordinarily be brought close to the front.
We can use both. The Air Force needs to be close to the action and it needs to haul lots of stuff.
I'd buy both in a 2:1 split to the winner. Since this is the first of a planned three rounds of contract tenders, the loser of the current round has plenty of incentive to stick around for the next tender. That helps with costs, and if the Air Force decides in a subsequent tender that they need more of one type or the other they can adjust accordingly.
Politics is the art of the possible. It's possible to leave both sides happy enough (or at least minimally unhappy) by splitting the contract. That's what I would do.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/20/2010 10:39 Comments ||
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#8
Just bidding is a cheap way for the Russians to delay delivery of planes that extend US reach into their near-abroad. They never need to deliver anything. Just delay, obstruct and confuse to process.
From their perspective, there is no need to defeat what doesn't arrive.
Procuring new tankers is a real need that should be addressed immediately with a directed procurement if necessary. Then we can follow-up with a competitive bid for the future tanker at leisure.
#11
Never happen. The Chinese will copy the design and underbid the Russians.
But it would rule out any protracted ops against any interest Putin and his successors deem not in their interest. No flying tankers, no extended air ops.
And America could have saved a fortune by buying MiG-23s instead of F-15s, T-72s, K-whatever subs, and those plutonium thingies that make earth shattering kabooms.
Or we could have gone home in 1945.
Posted by: ed ||
03/20/2010 15:32 Comments ||
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#12
Re: the tanker and everything else.....
What happened to the grown ups? The children are not doing so well.
Posted by: Kelly ||
03/20/2010 16:07 Comments ||
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The federal judge overseeing litigation between the city and workers at ground zero on Friday rejected a settlement, telling lawyers that it did not provide enough compensation to plaintiffs and needed to be renegotiated under his supervision. The decision by the judge, Alvin K. Hellerstein of United States District Court in Manhattan, came in a hearing barely a week after the settlement was announced following more than six years of legal maneuvering. The settlement provided for payouts totaling $575 million to $657.5 million in cases filed by some 10,000 rescue and cleanup workers who say they suffered health damages from toiling at ground zero after the 2001 terrorist attack.
"This is no ego trip for me," Judge Hellerstein told a packed but hushed courtroom moments after hearing emotional testimony from some of the plaintiffs. "This is work. I will preside over a process that's fair."
The judge had previously given signs that he intended to closely oversee how the settlement was carried out to ensure that individual workers were treated fairly. On Monday he issued an order stripping lawyers on the two sides of sole authority to choose an administrator and a medical panel to evaluate the plaintiffs' claims and said court approval would be needed.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/20/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION DAILY TIMES.PK > INTELLIGENCE WARNS OF ATTACKS ON US CITIZENS [+ Retired Members of the various Secret Services].
and
TOPIX/WORLD NEWS > MUELLER: AL QAEDA REMAINS COMMITTED TO ATTACKS ON THE US, ACQUIRING WMDS, + NTI: GLOBAL SECURITY NEWSWIRE - AL QAEDA STILL PURSUING WMDS [for Terror, anti-US future Strikes], FBI CHIEF SAYS.
* Also from NTI:GLOBAL SECURITY NEWSWIRE > MILITANT CLAIMS TALIBAN WORKING ON [developing] ANTHRAX BOMB IN AFGHANISTAN.
* TOPIX > IRAN AS AN AL QAEDA BASE. Despite any outsanding Shia-vs-Sunni + Diplom rhetoric, issues to the contrary, AL QAEDA + IRAN have a YEARS-OLD Agreement for Iran to be used as a MAJOR AL-QAEDA POINT OF FACILITATION [Logistics].
#2
"This is work. I will preside over a process that's fair."
It is a civil not criminal case. If the legal representation of both parties have agreed what is 'fair', the judge should have no standing. Unless there is criminal malfeasance and conspiracy between the lawyers, the matter is settled. Instead we have 'social justice' at work. Yes, dear King, pray tell what is 'fair'.
#3
Judges do have the right and I agree with what this judge is doing. Both parties were playing the inside game; they agree to a dividing of the boodle so that the lawyers do better than anyone else. The judge has every right to put the lawyers in their place, and frankly, I wish more judges would do that.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/20/2010 10:43 Comments ||
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#4
Agree. This is the kind of class action litigation where the lawyers make out much better than the aggrieved. Bankruptcy is much the same.
#5
Then the judge has the power to hold the lawyers in contempt and punish them so if he finds they have absolved themselves of their 'duty' to their clients. Will we see that?
NEW DELHI: Condemning the illegal abduction and detention' of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) spokesman Azad, human rights activists and writers on Friday demanded that the arrested leader be produced before a court of law.
In a joint statement, they also demanded that the Central government immediately halt its war on people, named Operation Green Hunt, and initiate dialogue with organisations concerned.
Citing information by the CPI (Maoist)'s Central Committee to poet Varavara Rao that Azad remained untraceable from March 12, they said there was a strong possibility that the spokesman was arrested near Mumbai on the day and kept in illegal custody by Andhra Pradesh police.
Given the history of the Andhra Pradesh police and its special anti-naxal force Greyhounds and intelligence wing of the police in gross human rights violations, whereby, it has repeatedly resorted to fake encounters and custodial killings, there are grounds to believe that his life is in grave danger.' It said last week the media reported that two senior CPI(Maoist) leaders, Sakhamuri Appa Rao and Kondal Reddy, who were arrested by Andhra Pradesh police from Maharashtra, were abducted, subjected to brutal torture and killed in cold blood.'
Their bodies were taken to two separate Andhra Pradesh districts, with police claiming they were killed in encounters.'
Such illegal acts of repression have been regularly committed by the Andhra Pradesh police in the name of countering naxalism, and Azad might also meet a similar fate,' the statement said.
The signatories included writer Arundhati Roy, Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan, and People's Union for Democratic Rights' Asish Gupta.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/20/2010 14:37 ||
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WASHINGTON: Pakistan is coming up with a bill of $ 35 billion for its efforts in the war on terror and a wish-list that includes a nuclear deal similar to the US-India agreement as it prepares to engage Washington this coming week in what officials from both sides say is the most comprehensive dialogue in their bilateral history.
Turning the US mantra that Pakistan should "do more" in the war on terror, Pakistani officials, in an aggressive turnaround, have said Pakistan has done enough and it is now the United States turn to do more, as they set off to Washington for talks on the heels of what they claim is unprecedented success against the Taliban.
Pakistan has "captured" nearly half the top Taliban leadership, including the organisation's No.2 Mullah Baradar, in recent weeks in the run-up to the talks. Although U.N and Afghan officials accuse the Pakistanis, who were hosting the Taliban leadership, took them in to sabotage peace talks being held outside Islamabad's patronage, U.S officials said on Friday that they were "gratified" by the arrests.
"We are extremely gratified... he is where he belongs," the Obama administration's Af-Pak envoy Richard Holbrooke said about Baradar's arrest by Pakistan as he previewed the upcoming talks with reporters at the State Department on Friday, adding, "And many other people have been picked up or eliminated, and this is putting much more pressure on the Taliban. And this is a good thing for the simplest of reasons: It is good for the military efforts that are underway in Afghanistan."
Holbrooke also endorsed a central role for the Pakistani military at the talks, asking "how can you have a strategic dialogue without including the military?" In a move that has caused some disquiet in Pakistan itself, the country's army chief Pervez Ashfaq Kiyani and spy chief Ahmed Shuja Pasha are members of the delegation, ostensibly led by Pakistan's foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi. Kiyani is said to have set the agenda for the talks in preparatory meetings in Pakistan.
"If we have a strategic dialogue in our country, we're going to include the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff or some other representative. So we are very pleased that General Kayani is part of this delegation. We think that it's one country, one government, one team. It was their decision and we welcomed it," Holbrooke said. Washington in recent weeks has noticeably cooled down its criticism of the over-arching role played by the Pakistan military in the country's affairs.
Pakistan's wish-list for the Obama administration includes not only speeding up disbursements in bilateral aid under the Kerry-Lugar package and Coalition Support Funds, both of which are audited for more precise use and claim, but enhanced support for its economy, particularly in the energy sector. Vast swathes of the country are now under 8 to 12 hour power cuts and Islamabad is presenting this as one reason why Washington should offer a civilian nuclear deal to Pakistan similar to the US-India deal, although experts say Pakistan has no capacity to absorb or implement such an agreement even if it were to pass international scrutiny.
US officials remain non-committal about the deal. "We have a very broad and complex agenda in these talks... and we're going to listen carefully to whatever the Pakistanis say," Holbrooke said cautiously when asked about a possible nuclear deal. In fact, no one in Washington takes Pakistan $ 35 billion claim as its total cost in the war on terror arrived at during internal deliberations in Islamabad last week, seriously.
But Holbrooke held out the prospect of enhanced aid in other areas and sectors, promising a few surprise announcements. "This is not a photo op, although you will have an opportunity to take a photo. This is an intense, serious dialogue bilaterally between the US. and Pakistan," he said in a hurried briefing at the state department that followed a White House meeting of principals where, Holbrooke said, -- "almost every senior person in the United States foreign policy community was in the room" to discuss US policy for the region.
Pakistan too is striving to broad-base its ties with the US on the same lines as India's expansive engagement, covering sector beyond security. Indicative of the broad agenda for the March 24 talks, the Pakistani delegation led by Foreign Miniser Qureshi includes Minister of Defense Mukhtar Ahmad, Finance Minister nominee Abdul Shaikh, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Social Issues Wazir Ali; Advisor to the Prime Minister on Agriculture and Water Majidullah; the Chief of Staff of the Army General Kayani and his delegation of military advisors; Ambassador Hussain Haqqani; Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir; and Secretaries of Information Technology, Water and Power, Finance, Agriculture, Defense, among others.
The US delegation, led by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton includes Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mullen, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Deputy Secretary of State Jack Lew, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Neal Wolin, National Security Council Senior Director David Lipton, Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Marantis, the Administrator of USAID Raj Shah, myself, Ambassador Anne Patterson and Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy Judith McHale, Under Secretary of Defense Michele Flournoy and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense David Sydney, among others.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/20/2010 13:52 ||
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Hat Tip to CounterterrorismBlog
Mark Hosenball at Newsweek, being one of the few reporters left in the business who has any idea who Nada is and why he is important,wrote a good summary of the issue, including the fact that the U.S. had to sign off on the action at some level.
Despite the sign-off at the UN, Nada remains a designated individual on the U.S. sanctions list. Who knows for how long?
United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday that the Obama administration's decision to ramp up pressure on Israel over construction of Jewish homes in East Jerusalem was bringing results. For whom?
In an interview with BBC television, Clinton was asked whether escalating the tone with Israel had paid off. She said: "I think we're going to see the resumption of the negotiation track and that means that it is paying off because that's our goal."
Over the past two weeks Israel has sought to cool American ire over plans for 1,600 new homes in Ramat Shlomo, a Jewish neighborhood that lies beyond the Green Line in East Jerusalem. Clinton had described the announcement, which coincided with a visit to Israel by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and led Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to pull out of scheduled U.S.-mediated peace talks, as an "insult".
It was now the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's duty to overcome opposition within his coalition government and ensure that the stalled negotiations moved forward, Clinton told the BBC.
"I think what the prime minister has said repeatedly is that his government and he personally are committed to pursuing these negotiations and he just has to make sure that he brings in everyone else," she said. "That's his responsibility and it's not something that the United States can or is interested in doing."
Over the past few days the U.S has signaled its desire to move beyond the row over Ramat Shlomo and focus on restarting so-called the 'proximity talks' between Israel and the Palestinians.
Palestinian officials told The Associated Press on Friday that it appeared unlikely Abbas would defy mounting international pressure for a return negotiations.
Israel also seems willing to return to the negotiating table.
At a news conference later Friday following a meeting of the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators in Moscow, Clinton indicated that Netanyahu is ready to address U.S. concerns.
"What I heard from the prime minister in response to the requests we made was useful and productive," she said.
Clinton said she expects to see Netanyahu in Washington next week, where both are to address the annual gathering of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
President Obama had planned to be out of town during Netanyahu's visit but canceled his trip to remain in Washington for a vote on his health care overhaul. According to reports on Friday, the president has scheduled a last-minute meeting with Netanyahu.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/20/2010 00:00 ||
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Banana republic time. Admin seeking to divert attention from colossal failure at home with a foreign saber rattling episode. Over housing. Against an ally.
Indonesia has won praise for cracking down on Islamist militants behind a string of deadly attacks and at the core of the fight have been the heavily armed black-clad officers of its anti-terrorism unit -- Detachment 88.
A symbol of improved security cooperation with Western nations, the unit has gained somewhat of a cult status among many Indonesians, particularly after live television images of dramatic sieges ending in a hail of gunfire.
Posted by: ed ||
03/20/2010 16:14 ||
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CHANTILLY, Va. -- A pro-democracy activist jailed for months in Myanmar after trying to visit his sick mother in prison arrived home in the United States on Friday, capping weeks of discussions between the ruling military junta and the U.S. State Department.
Nyi Nyi Aung (nee nee ong) was reunited with his fiance at Washington Dulles International Airport. He gave Wa Wa Kyaw (wah wah chaw) a long hug and said he was thankful to be home. Still, the homecoming was bittersweet, he said.
"My freedom is not really the point. We want to try to reach freedom for Burma," Nyi Nyi Aung said, using the other name for Myanmar. "My family and friends all stay in prison, so I feel not really happy."
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Posted by: Steve White ||
03/20/2010 00:00 ||
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ION NOT-AN-ERROL-FLYNN-MOVIE, DAILY TIMES > [old = 03/13/10 event]REBELS KILL 20 MYANMAR SOLDIERS IN SHAN STATE ARMY AMBUSH [SSA Militant Group].
"PREMPTIVE" AMBUSH???
* TOPIX > KAREN MILITANTS: HIGH RISK OF RENEWED CONFLICT BETWEEN REBEL GROUPS AND MILITARY GOVT, as due to the latter encroaching = sending in armed Army-Police troops into PRO-CEASEFIRE REBEL-MILITANT AREAS, INCLUD BUT NOT LIMITED TO "KAREN"-HELD TERRITORIES.
A teenaged daughter of Osama bin Laden has been allowed to fly out of Tehran where she had taken refuge in Saudi Arabia's embassy, a Saudi-financed newspaper reported on Friday. Asharq Al-Awsat said Iman bin Laden arrived in Damascus on a commercial flight on Thursday together with her mother Najwa al-Ghanem, the fugitive Al-Qaeda chief's first wife.
Posted by: ed ||
03/20/2010 09:47 ||
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But they aren't holding them, Kofi Thinese2517. they are simply spending national funds to carefully safeguard what might otherwise be thought of as hostages for Al Qaeda good behaviour against attacks from CIA squirrels and Mossad nuclear physicists. Really! ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife on the other computer ||
03/20/2010 13:20 Comments ||
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You mean mossad doesn't have its own squads of nuclear physicist squirrels?
#4
I've had to miss a few Mossad planning meetings recently, dear Snowy Thing. Sometimes one's family's needs must come first. But I'll look into that, the first chance I get.
Posted by: trailing wife on the other computer ||
03/20/2010 13:31 Comments ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Russia on Friday warned Iran it was missing out on a chance to start a broad dialogue, as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton again sought to win the Kremlin's assent for tougher stance on Tehran and as she annopunced that both Moscow and Washington were "on the brink" of signing an arms deal.
Iran's defiance over its nuclear programme means the country is wasting a chance for talks to find a solution, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said alongside Clinton after her talks with President Dmitry Medvedev.
"It is letting an opportunity to establish dialogue with the international community slip away," Lavrov said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2010 00:00 ||
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WORLD NEWS > ARABS [ + UZBEKS, PUNJABI Talibs, etal.] THROW IN THEIR LOT WITH "GLOBAL TERRORISTS" IN WAR AGZ THE INFIDEL.
* SAME > THE WARS OF TRIBES AND FAITH [Violent = Militant ETHNO-NATIONALISM in variable World regions-States including but not limited to the FORMER SOVIET SSRS]; + BRITAIN: ISLAMIC FOREIGNERS COMPRISE 75% OF ALL TERROR PLOTS AGZ IT.
The UK = Britain remians the Euro-State most at risk for Terror.
[Al Arabiya Latest] EU nations are determined to take action to end Iran's "unacceptable" jamming of satellite broadcasts and Internet censorship, according to a text agreed by European ambassadors in Brussels.
"The EU calls on the Iranian authorities to stop the jamming of satellite broadcasting and Internet censorship and to put an end to this electronic interference immediately," said the text prepared for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.
"The EU is determined to pursue these issues and to act with a view to put an end to this unacceptable situation," the EU nations added in the document seen by AFP.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/20/2010 00:00 ||
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"If the Iranians do not bend to our demands, we will hold committee meetings and write hostile memos!"
Boeing has successfully completed the preliminary design of the U.S. Navy's Free Electron Laser (FEL) weapon system, a key step toward building a FEL prototype for realistic tests at sea.
During the preliminary design review held March 9 to March 11 at a Boeing facility in Arlington, Va., the company presented its design to more than 30 U.S. government and National Laboratory representatives. This electric laser will operate by passing a beam of high-energy electrons through a series of powerful magnetic fields, generating an intense emission of laser light that can disable or destroy targets.
"The Free Electron Laser will use a ship's electrical power to create, in effect, unlimited ammunition and provide the ultra-precise, speed-of-light capability required to defend U.S. naval forces against emerging threats, such as hyper-velocity cruise missiles," said Gary Fitzmire, vice president and program director of Boeing Directed Energy Systems.
"The successful completion of this preliminary design review is an important milestone in developing a weapon system that will transform naval warfare."
In April 2009, Boeing was awarded an Office of Naval Research contract valued at up to $163 million - with an initial task order of $6.9 million - to begin developing FEL.
The Navy is expected to decide this summer whether to award additional task orders to Boeing to complete the FEL design and build and operate a laboratory demonstrator.
Boeing Missile Defense Systems' Directed Energy Systems unit in Albuquerque and the Boeing Research and Technology group in Seattle support the FEL program. The company has partnered with U.S. Department of Energy laboratories, academia and industry partners to design the laser.
Boeing is developing laser systems for a variety of defense applications. Besides FEL, these systems include the Airborne Laser Test Bed, the High Energy Laser Technology Demonstrator, and Laser Avenger, among others.
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.
Boeing Co. may face new Western European and Russian competition for a $35 billion contract to provide the U.S. Air Force with refueling tankers.
