[Quqnoos] The Afghan President accused the U.S. of being involved in the Taliban's attack on the Afghan jirga.
The New York Times quoted a prominent Afghan official with knowledge of the meeting between President Karzai, the Afghan Intelligence Chief and Interior Minister that President Karzai had called link between the Taliban and the incident baseless.
"The president did not show any interest in the evidence -- none. He treated it like a piece of dirt," the New York Times quoted the former director of the Afghan intelligence service, Amrullah Saleh, as saying.
The remarks come as the president's office rejected all of the claims and called them no more than a claim.
An article published by the New York Times under the title "Karzai Is Said to Doubt West Can Defeat Taliban" quoted from a top Afghan official, who declined to give his name, that Mr. Karzai suggested in the meeting that it might have been the Americans who carried out the attack.
"We have no idea if the individual who has been quoted is real or not, and we totally reject these claims," said the deputy spokesman for the Afghan president, Hamed Elmi.
Several times, President Karzai has held secret talks with the Taliban without informing the NATO and the US outside Afghanistan, according to a former Afghan official who spoke to the New York Times.
Calling it groundless, the president's office has also denied this claim.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/14/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
He would be crazy not to: NATO has effectively said it'll start coming out of Afghanistan in a year, whether the Taliban are defeated or not. The Taliban will almost certainly still be waiting to make a move when that happens. Obama's given Karzai little option but to side with, if not the stronger horse, then the one with more stamina.
The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.
Zardari's right now trying to figure out how many zeros are in 10% of $1 trillion ...
The previously unknown deposits -- including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium -- are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.
An internal Pentagon memo, for example, states that Afghanistan could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium," a key raw material in the manufacture of batteries for laptops and Blackberries.
The vast scale of Afghanistan's mineral wealth was discovered by a small team of Pentagon officials and American geologists. The Afghan government and President Hamid Karzai were recently briefed, American officials said.
While it could take many years to develop a mining industry, the potential is so great that officials and executives in the industry believe it could attract heavy investment even before mines are profitable, providing the possibility of jobs that could distract from generations of war.
"There is stunning potential here," Gen. David H. Petraeus, commander of the United States Central Command, said in an interview on Saturday. "There are a lot of ifs, of course, but I think potentially it is hugely significant."
The value of the newly discovered mineral deposits dwarfs the size of Afghanistan's existing war-bedraggled economy, which is based largely on opium production and narcotics trafficking as well as aid from the United States and other industrialized countries. Afghanistan's gross domestic product is only about $12 billion.
"This will become the backbone of the Afghan economy," said Jalil Jumriany, an adviser to the Afghan minister of mines.
#1
I would not be going ape$hit on this report yet. I would guess that there might be much surface manifestations of orebodies, but I would like to see some geophysics and bottom line diamond core drilling before everyone goes crazy with their calculators. Sweeping statements about mineral deposits are for speculators and suckers.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/14/2010 0:13 Comments ||
Top||
#4
"The mineral deposits are scattered throughout the country, including in the southern and eastern regions along the border with Pakistan that have had some of the most intense combat in the American-led war against the Taliban insurgency."
OK, now it would be fiscally reasonable to control the country and that money. Does "The Won" still think we should leave on a set date for the Chinese to pick up?
#5
If America leaves, it leaves a better place for future generations. Just as it always has when it shows the courage to go in and clean up a hell hole. Karzai is the kind of leader who will see America as a key player, even though he hates Obama. He knows who will help him protect this treasure for Afghanistan better than anyone.
#9
Afghanistan could become the "Saudi Arabia of lithium,"
Don't let Evo Morales hear about this. He thinks that Bolivia is the king pin in lithium, so much so that he is sitting on the deposits that he has nationalized like a clucky hen and refusing to let foreign investors, especially western ones near the deposits.
Speaking of hens, he might become so distracted the he might eat some chicken and go bald and turn gay, and then where would we be?
#10
If America leaves, it leaves a better place for future generations. Just as it always has when it shows the courage to go in and clean up a hell hole.
Like Haiti? Hellholes are such for a reason. The, to us, beneficent aspects of American culture are exactly what Binny and Al Q hate. They enjoy living in the stone age. Building a large mining industry will only provide them more targets closer to home. When they change their minds, we can do business. We can afford to be patient.
#15
The Chinese already have mining rights to copper in the northern part of the country.
And they will be first in line for the rest (see Iraq).
Posted by: ed ||
06/14/2010 7:34 Comments ||
Top||
#16
Well, from the eco-nut point of view, mining of any kind is bad and destroys the environment, just so wealthy, racist Republicans can drive SUVs and drink bottled water and leave garbage all over the environmentalists' nature.
This is why they have systematically blocked all oil, coal and natural gas development in the US, and try to make mining as difficult and expensive as possible.
In other words, these dumbasses think that corn comes from cans.
#17
The Chinese already have mining rights to copper in the northern part of the country.
Seems to me that the claim is a bit dubious since the Afghan minister who set up the agreement with China got sacked after he accepted $30M or so from the Chinese to sign the agreement.
Personally, I'd be sorely tempted to tell the Chinese to go pound sand right after I told them that I was going to keep their money as compensation for attempting to bypass the Afghan government.
-For one, look at all the infrastructure you would have to build in the most remote area of the world.
-You still have the world's most backward, violent, criminal, misogynistic, people living on top of these treasures. A people who in my opinion are proving themselves not worth saving.
-Operational logistics will be extremely expensive financially and militarily.
America has unexploited resources right here. With our partners Canada, vast resources off shore we haven't even explored. There is nothing in Afghanistan that will prove worth the effort.
#20
Rail line, through one of the nastiest, most heavily-cragged sections of the Hindu Kush? I mean, the Chinese don't even have a decent highway along the Wakhan Corridor. It might be cheaper to just maintain their vile little sub-Saharan deals.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/14/2010 13:11 Comments ||
Top||
#21
If this is true we shouldn't have told them. They would have never figured it out for themselves in a million years and then we could leave them in the poverty they deserve. As for Americans and other Western powers attempting to exploit this wealth - good luck. It's gonna be a helluva a war. Let's have a study to determine if it would actually be more of a financially sound course of action to pull out altogether so we could stop bribing the Paks.
#22
Up untilthis report, Mindanao wasthe largest untapped mining area. Israel, China, and Spain have all tried to go in there and the muzzies, after all the money is dolled out, blow up the mines. I expect Afghanistan will be no different.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/14/2010 19:28 Comments ||
Top||
#23
Actually it has been known for quite some time that these minerals are there. This is the first time that a detailed study has been done and it was done by the Pentagon as an anti-insurgent study to get the Afghani economy off opium production. The logistics are a nightmare though.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
06/14/2010 21:08 Comments ||
Top||
[Al Arabiya Latest] Fighting between Somali government troops and police has killed at least 13 people and injured 14 in Mogadishu after soldiers tried to rob civilians, police said on Sunday. The clash occurred on Saturday in Hamarjajab district, in the south of the capital.
"The clashes came after some of the government troops started to rob a civilian car and the police were trying to stop it," Abdullahi Moalim Kerow, a police officer, said.
The clash resulted in the deaths of nine soldiers and four civilians who were not involved in the fighting but were caught in the crossfire.
"We have collected bodies of nine government troops ... and three unidentified civilians. The injured have been taken to ... hospital and the fighting has stopped," Kerow said late on Saturday. "This kind of clashes among the government troops is unfortunate and has been repeated so many times, claiming the lives of nearly 100 troops since January."
Ten civilians were wounded and one of them later died, Ali Muse Abdi, the coordinator of ambulance services in Mogadishu, told Reuters.
Elsewhere, al-Shabaab regained control the strategic central town of Baladwayne from Hizbul Islam.
While Hizbul Islam and al-Shabaab have fought together against the government in Mogadishu, they are rivals in other parts of the country.
"Al-Shabaab is in full of control of the town. Their fighters are everywhere. There was no confrontation at all. The Hizbul Islam in town has been disarmed," Adam Mohamed, a resident of Baladwayne, said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/14/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
A Swiss businessman, held in a Libyan jail for four months, has arrived back in Zurich.
Max Goeldi was at the centre of a long-running diplomatic row between the two countries. He and another Swiss businessman were held after the son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was arrested in Switzerland in 2008.
Correspondents say Mr Goeldi's release may allow a line to be drawn under the two-year-long row.
He boarded a plane back to Switzerland on Sunday following his release from jail on 10 June. Travelling with Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey, he landed at Zurich in the early hours of Monday morning.
Max Goeldi was sentenced in February to four months in prison for violating Libyan immigration rules. Libya also took other measures, widely regarded as retaliation for the arrest.
The row began when Hannibal Gaddafi and his wife were arrested in Geneva in July 2008 accused of assaulting two servants while staying at a luxury hotel. Although the charges were later dropped, Libya cancelled oil supplies, withdrew billions of dollars from Swiss banks, refused visas to Swiss citizens and recalled some of its diplomats.
The dispute worsened when a Swiss newspaper published leaked police photos of Mr Gaddafi. Under an "action plan" mediated by Germany and Spain, Switzerland apologised for the "unlawful publication" of the photos, which constituted a "breach of confidentiality under Swiss law".
Mr Goeldi, the manager of an engineering firm, was held along with Rachid Hamdani, who works for a construction company. They were later released on bail and then convicted in absentia while sheltering in the Swiss embassy in Tripoli.
Mr Hamdani was later cleared but Mr Goeldi was taken to prison in February after a tense stand-off outside the Swiss embassy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/14/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Libya and Libyans in general and the Gaddafi clan in particular now enjoy de facto blanket immunity.
Whatever they do to citizens of western nations, whatever crime they commit on western territory, whatever diplomatic convention they violate, there won't be any negative consequences.
It is true European "conservative and hawkish" leaders like Berlusconi and Sarkozy have been exposed as spineless appeasers. However the same is true for the Obama administration.
A state department official mocked Gaddafi's announcement of jihad against Switzerland. The Libyans demanded an apology for that insult and days later the state department did apologize profusely.
Was that euro style appeasement? Or was this an implicit endorsement of terrorist attacks on Europe?
Looking at this episode, why should any potential adversary fear the consequences of an attack against western nations?
Tribesmen in Yemen's east have agreed to cease harbouring al Qaeda suspects and to stop carrying out acts of violence, a tribal source and the government said on Sunday.
The agreement came at a meeting on Saturday between leaders of the Abida tribe and Yemen's interior minister, Major General Mutahar Rashad al-Masri, hours after an attack on an oil pipeline in Marib province where the tribe is based.
The tribal leaders pledged during the meeting to "stop harbouring people wanted by security forces or who are accused of belonging to al Qaeda", a tribal source said.
"The agreement also allows technical teams to begin repairing the pipeline, and stipulates that armed tribesmen remove checkpoints blocking the road between Marib and Sanaa to official vehicles and tankers," the source said.
Meanwhile, state media quoted Masri as saying "leaders of the Abida and Al-Ashraf (tribes) expressed their willingness to aid the state in pursuing wanted elements, and in condemning acts of sabotage committed by outlaw elements against public interests".
Tribal sources said on Saturday that tribesman used a bulldozer to expose the pipeline, then blew it up, in response to a Yemeni army raid on the home of a tribal chief accused of sheltering al Qaeda members. On June 5, a Yemeni army colonel and two soldiers were killed in an attack on a convoy en route to Safar oil field, in an attack attributed to al Qaeda.
Gunmen, meanwhile, shot dead a senior security official in south Yemen, and two soldiers died defusing a bomb near a southern army camp, officials and witnesses said on Sunday.
A provincial official said Jalal al-Uthmani, a senior security official in the flashpoint Abyan province, was killed outside his house in a hail of gunfire on Saturday. In neighbouring Dalea, two soldiers died on Sunday when a bomb they were trying to defuse outside the gate of an army camp exploded, witnesses and local officials said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/14/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: al-Qaeda in Arabia
#1
And I agree to win the Powerball lottery on Wednesday night...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/14/2010 9:23 Comments ||
Top||
#2
That depends on what the definition of harbor and al-Qaeda is.
Prince Mohammed bin Nawaf refutes Times of London report saying Saudi Arabia practiced standing down its anti-aircraft systems to allow an Israeli bomb run.
Saudi Arabia would not allow Israeli bombers to pass through its airspace en route to a possible strike of Iran's nuclear facilities, a member of the Saudi royal family said Saturday, denying an earlier Times of London report.
#2
Did someone leak the story in order to kill the agreement?
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
06/14/2010 19:24 Comments ||
Top||
#3
that report is credible, given the Turk alliance with the Ayatollahs. Wahabis despise Turks almost as much as they hate Shiites. Maybe more. However, Winter attacks would have been better. As for the Russians, surely they would know the dangers of a nuclear Iran. I detect some doble-cara diplomacy, which could be in the US interest.
Mexican journalists are calling the weapon seized in this shootout Friday night an Uzi, but it doesn't look like one. Click the link for the pic. UPDATE: Abu do you love sez its a TEC-9
Chihuahua, Chihuahua municipal police exchanged gunfire and then arrested two men they say are connected to a number of armed robberies and attacks in the city, according to the Mexican news daily La Polaka.
VÃctor Alfonso Mendoza Chavez, 22, and Ulises Ponce Baray, 19, were arrested by Chihuahua municipal police after they fired a submachine gun at the police following a car chase. Authorities say the two men are connected to El Pelón criminal gang, two members of which are already serving time.
The gang has been tied to recent armed robberies and shootings including the robbery of the Extra convenience store at Palestina and Carruaje, Oxxo convenience store at Lombardo and Juarez, a food store at Lombardo and Juan Pablo, an attack on a woman near the intersection of calles Zubiron y Lombardo, and the bar El Macoy.
According to the translation, three suspects robbed an unidentified person of his money at Avenida Palestina at about 2213 hrs, then fled aboard a large sedan. Police later found the car parked near the San Carlos bar where they robbed four more people there and at a shop.
Police were not hit and they returned fire hitting Mendoza Chavez in the leg. The submachine gun was found to have ten 9mm rounds in the magazine and one in the chamber.
A young boy going to a store to buy a soft drink was shot in the head in the crossfire between rival gangs in south Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Saturday, according to the Mexican news daily El Porvenir.
Poor darling. May this vicious idiocy soon be brought to an end.
A special operations task force under the command of the Pentagon is currently in place south of the border providing advice and training to the Mexican Army in gathering intelligence, infiltrating and, as needed, taking direct action against narco-trafficking organizations, claims a former CIA asset who has a long history in the covert operations theater.
The U.S. unit, dubbed Task Force 7, since early 2009 , according to the CIA operative, has helped to uncover a warehouse in Juarez packed with U.S. munitions and under the control of drug traffickers; provide critical intelligence that led to the raid of a Juarez sweatshop that was manufacturing phony Mexican military uniforms; worked with the Mexican military in uncovering a mass grave near Palomas, Mexico, just south of Columbus, New Mexico; and, behind the scenes, cooperated with the Mexican Navy in hunting down a major narco-trafficker, Arturo Beltran Leyva -- who was killed by Mexican Navy special forces last December during a raid on a luxury apartment complex in Cuernavaca, Mexico.
"This task force [one of several in place in Mexico] is pretty heavily armed and is embedded with the Mexican military," says Willaim Robert "Tosh" Plumlee, a former CIA contract pilot who flew numerous missions delivering arms to Latin America and returning drugs to the United States as part of the covert Iran/Contra operations in the 1980s. "These are boots on the ground ... seven to eight of them [in Task Force 7], working in a civilian capacity, meaning they are not in uniform."
Continued on Page 49
#2
Gee, "Tosh" must have flown in some really good shit for the staff of NarcoNews. Willaim Robert "Tosh" Plumlee (age 72): Plumlee claimed to have flown John Roselli from Tampa to Dallas, arriving on the morning of November 22, 1963, on a mission to abort the assassination of President Kennedy.
Posted by: ed ||
06/14/2010 7:46 Comments ||
Top||
#3
The Bush Admin did put several covert task forces in place. I wonder if that was the case with the odd Houston incident awhile back where a man at the scene of an accident/chase claimed to be CIA, about the time they claimed Houston was arms central for the cartels?
#4
I'm suprised these operations might even be running. Considering what happened last month in congress, anything to make Mexico look bad I thought would have been axed post-haste.
Posted by: Charles ||
06/14/2010 20:45 Comments ||
Top||
French police have fined a woman driver for erratic driving caused by her Islamic headscarf, just weeks after a similar incident sparked a major political row.
Police on Thursday in Vaucluse, south France, had not stopped the driver for wearing the niqab, a veil that leaves only the eyes exposed, but for "erratic" driving, commanding officer Charles Bourillon said.
Bourillon said officers had decided to check the vehicle after it showed erratic behaviour on the road, and it was only when they signalled for the driver to stop that they saw she was wearing a niqab.
The headscarf "was bothering the driver in her manoeuvres... It was obvious she could not see a thing," he said.
Police gave the driver a ticket for $31 for driving with a reduced field of vision.
Officers then suggested that the woman remove her niqab to improve her sight, which she did.
#4
crosspatch: Now that's an idea. You must be channeling the spirit of Benjamin Butler.
Bitterly derided in the South, much like W.T. Sherman, Butler was a big city machine expert, and was put in charge of the military occupation of New Orleans. The locals decided to be pestiferous toward the Union Army, so Butler's response:
"Most notorious was Butler's General Order No. 28 of May 15, issued after some provocation, that if any woman should insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States, she shall be regarded and shall be held liable to be treated as a 'woman of the town plying her avocation', i.e., a prostitute."
However, despite their bitter hatred of "Beast Butler", it should be noted that, "In the administration of that city he showed great firmness and severity. New Orleans was unusually healthy and orderly during the Butler regime."
The Federal Aviation Administration has been asked to issue flying rights for a range of pilotless planes to carry out civilian and law-enforcement functions but has been hesitant to act. Officials are worried that they might plow into airliners, cargo planes and corporate jets that zoom around at high altitudes, or helicopters and hot air balloons that fly as low as a few hundred feet off the ground.
On top of that, these pilotless aircraft come in a variety of sizes. Some are as big as a small airliner, others the size of a backpack. The tiniest are small enough to fly through a house window.
The obvious risks have not deterred the civilian demand for pilotless planes. Tornado researchers want to send them into storms to gather data. Energy companies want to use them to monitor pipelines. State police hope to send them up to capture images of speeding cars' license plates. Local police envision using them to track fleeing suspects.
#1
Those folks who want drones flying around our airspace have never seen, or heard, a pilot when he is truly pissed off.
I remember a while back when someone proposed building a football stadium at the end of a major runway at Sky Harbor. Their logic was that "No problem, planes will just have to take off at 15 more degrees angle to avoid it!"
The local talk radio station was suddenly deluged by phone calls from irate pilots. They were very glad they had a 15 second tape delay, because what the pilots were screaming was so peppered with obscenities that it sounded like a longshoreman who had just hit his gouty toe with a hammer.
Needless to say, the FAA told the stadium builders not only "no", but "Hell no!"
I know the airspace around here is already crowded as blue blazes with normal civilian and military traffic. It is also electronic band crowded, so control systems for drones would be sketchy as well.
#2
Imagine an airspace sharing its volume with not only civilian passenger and cargo traffic of a major metro area, but also placing hundreds of craft that have limited means to react quickly to that on coming traffic. Done every year. Not a single record of collision yet. So, what's the real hang up?
#3
my real hang up is this is just another way for law enforcement too spy on us.
Posted by: chris ||
06/14/2010 12:31 Comments ||
Top||
#4
I don't see where our border is a zone we really NEED to use drones - those are much more vital where we can't afford to have a conventional aircraft downed and the pilot captured. For border work just install some weapons & observation pod mounting points on a Cessna and offer free flight hours and you'll get all the volunteers you can handle.
#5
Procopius2k: Apples and oranges. No motorized pilot will go anywhere near a hot air balloon festival, so for the duration of the event, Albuquerque, for example, has little or no low altitude air traffic other than balloons. N.B.: collision avoidance doesn't work with hot air balloons.
BTW, if you want to attend the Albuquerque festival, I know a great place to stay where the hosts are also balloonists.
I'd also like to add that this isn't restricted to just the civilian world. The USAF and the US Army have been wrangling with each other for years over UAVs in each other's airspace.
#6
Drones or RPV's that are programed or remotely piloted. Their sensors are such that they are like looking through a straw (OK, toilet paper tube) with little or no situational awareness and a certain amount of time lag on the controls. That's why most UAV losses are mechanical failure and/or pilot loss of control during emergencies or landing.
In combat zones there is strict traffic separation between everything in the air; fast, slow, high and low movers, manned and unmanned. Most of the US is not under radar control, especially low altitude, even in fairly dense population areas. With existing systems eventually there WOULD be a collision with a manned aircraft.
#7
Reminds me of a proposal to use UAVs for shark patrol off the beaches of Perth, Western Australia. When you figure out the cost and personnel involved two 19 year olds in an old 172 is way cheaper.
Posted by: Aussie Mike ||
06/14/2010 18:43 Comments ||
Top||
An alleged criminal was killed and two others were injured in a shootout between police and a gang of criminals at the capital's Jatrabari yesterday.
The deceased was identified as Md Rinku, 30, and the injured are Zakir Hossain Swapan, 24, and Fuad Faisal John, 24.
The injured were rushed to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH). Swapan sustained bullet injury to his head and John received bullet in his left leg, DMCH sources said.
Sub-inspector of Jatrabari police station Mosharraf Hossain said six criminals traded bullets at a stage of quarrel among themselves at around 12:30pm at Kutubkhali.
They recovered the body of Rinku with bullets in his head and abdomen and sent it to Sir Salimullah Medical College Morgue for autopsy.
Police said they also fired around eight rounds of bullet.
Officer-in-Charge of the Jatrabari Police Station Moniruzzaman said the suspected criminals are from Idu group of Gopibagh. The incident occurred from a quarrel over distribution of extorted money.
Meanwhile, DMCH sources said they recovered a cocktail from the pocket of the pants of injured Swapan when they were conducting X-ray of his head.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/14/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Pakistan is buying time in North Waziristan -- gathering intelligence, building alliances and insisting any assault into the Taliban and al Qaeda fortress take place at its own time and choosing..
Buying time for what? And from whom, pray tell?
Part of the tribal belt on the Afghan border, North Waziristan is home to 350,000 people but considered a stronghold for the most dangerous terrorists in the world and largely impenetrable. It is also a rumoured hiding place of al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden. Commanders are walking a tightrope, balancing US pressure for action against fears that a major push into the hornet's nest would make enemies they cannot beat and drag Pakistan into a new wave of violence. "The army is already over-stretched after carrying out offensives in other tribal regions," one Pakistani security official told AFP. "Security forces got in touch with local tribesmen in a policy of dialogue and asked them not to harbour any insurgents, and this policy has worked," he said.
"There are problems in North Waziristan where the TTP has established a presence," another senior security official told AFP. "The issue is how to handle these problems. Security forces don't want to lose the gains made in South Waziristan and north-western regions, including Swat," he said, warning that any hasty relocation of troops could lead to a deterioration in those areas. "Fears of a fierce reaction by Punjab-based terrorists, because of their links with the TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud and the Haqqani and Bahadur networks might be one reason holding the army back," analyst Imtiaz Gul said. Instead of a major assault, Gul said a North Waziristan operation would be "selective" -- at a time and on a scale of the military's choosing. For example, troops may try and "shrink the space" for local facilitators of al Qaeda, such as the TTP and Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/14/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is opposed to lifting the naval blockade of the Gaza Strip because this would bolster Hamas, according to what he told United States President Barack Obama during their meeting at the White House Wednesday. Egypt also supports this position.
Fascinating.
So the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas has more sense regarding Gaza than does Bambi. Why am I not suprised?
The issue of the Gaza flotilla and lifting the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip was the main topic of discussion between Obama and Abbas last Wednesday night.
The Gazans are mainly Egyptian, while the West Bankers are really Jordanian, etc, as I recall. So Abbas doesn't care about the supposed suffering of the Gazan people.
European diplomats updated by the White House on the talks said that Abbas had stressed to Obama the need of opening the border crossings into the Gaza Strip and the easing of the siege, but only in ways that do not bolster Hamas.
How exactly does one accomplish that? Any border opening will be exploited by Hamas to ship in weapons, ammo, concrete, etc.
One of the points that Abbas raised is that the naval blockade imposed by Israel on the Strip should not be lifted at this stage. The European diplomats said Egypt has made it clear to Israel, the U.S and the European Union that it is also opposes the lifting of the naval blockade because of the difficulty in inspecting the ships that would enter and leave the Gaza port.
Abbas told Obama that actions easing the blockage should be done with care and undertaken gradually so it will not be construed as a victory for Hamas. The Palestinian leader also stressed that the population in the Gaza Strip must be supported, and that pressure should be brought to bear on Israel to allow more goods, humanitarian assistance and building materials for reconstruction. Abbas, however, said this added aid can be done by opening land crossings and other steps that do not include the lifting of the naval blockade.
Netanyahu: Naval Blockade Will Not Be Lifted
...but is willing to ease blockade. With this declaration, Netanyahu rejected the proposal made by the foreign ministers of France, Spain and Italy, who suggested that in the future, Gaza-bound ships be searched by European inspectors in Cyprus.
I wouldn't trust European inspectors, either.
I'd trust the Danes ...
Abbas denies Haaretz report that he had asked Obama to prevent the lifting of the naval blockade on Gaza. Abbas' spokesman issued a denial on Sunday in response to the morning's report, explaining to the Palestinian Wafa news agency that the Palestinian president had told Obama that the lifting of the blockade on Gaza was like the peace process in the sense that "the president [Abbas] has raised the demand to lift the blockade in all his meetings with world leaders."
"The world should take advantage of the events of the Gaza flotilla to push Israel to lift the blockade and end the suffering of Gaza's inhabitants," The spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudaina, added.
Caught with his trousers down, methinks, and is trying to deny the evidence.
A senior Iranian lawmaker urges Moscow to "stand by its commitments" after the Kremlin made a snap decision to freeze the sale of the S-300 defense system to Tehran.
In the wake of a UN Security Council decision to impose fresh sanctions on Iran, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has reportedly assured fellow Western leaders that Moscow would shelve a long-stalled deal to deliver the S-300 air-defense missiles to the government in Tehran.
Deputy Head of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Esmail Kowsari reacted to the sudden decision made by the Kremlin on Saturday, asserting that Russia is "bound by an agreement to provide Iran with the advanced defense system."
"Russia should abide by agreements made between the two countries and deliver the system to Iran," Kowsari told Mehr news agency on Saturday.
"But if they end up refusing to deliver the systems, we are well capable of producing missile defense systems that are very much similar to Russia's S-300 apparatus," he noted, referring to plans in Iran to develop an air defense system that is reported to be comparable to and even more sophisticated than the advanced Russian S-300 system.
Russia signed a contract to sell Iran at least five S-300 air-defense systems in 2005, but has since wavered between delivering the systems to Tehran and Washington's demands for the deal to be scrapped altogether.
Codenamed 'the SA-20 Gargoyle' by NATO, the S-300 system is a mobile land-based system designed to detect and shoot down aircraft within a 120 km (75 miles) distance.
If delivered, military experts believe SA-20 would make Iranian nuclear sites 'invincible' in the face of any attack, notably aerial saturation bombings that could be carried out by Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/14/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
With Israel set to lay claim to natural gas fields recently discovered in the Mediterranean, the resistance movement of Hezbollah moves to warn Tel Aviv against extracting from Lebanon's resources.
It's the 943,667,281,605th most holy place in Islam, so don't touch it!!!!!11111!1!!!
Hezbollah's Executive Council Chief Hashem Safieddine said on Saturday that the movement would not allow Israel to loot Lebanese gas resources.
The remarks come as earlier this week, Lebanese parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri called for speedy action by the government to begin exploring its options in the newly discovered field off the northern port of Haifa.
"Israel is racing to make the case a fait accompli and was quick to present itself as an oil emirate, ignoring the fact that, according to the maps, the deposit extends into Lebanese waters," Berri said.
"Lebanon must take immediate action to defend its financial, political, economic and sovereign rights," he was quoted as saying by AFP.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/14/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[10 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#1
according to the maps, the deposit extends into Lebanese waters
That is actually my understanding. It's up to Lebanon to drill a well on their side and prove it. Then they and Israel need to work up a joint development plan. The Partitioned Neutral Zone along the KSA-Kuwait border has problems but is basically how it needs to go. The fields along the Iran-Iraq border demonstrate a less desirable path. I can't feature Israel & Lebanon even cooperating as well as Hussein and Khomeini did.
#2
Have fun negotiating an exploitation plan with a country you're at war with, Lebanon.
Maybe you might want to consider negotiating an actual, de jure peace? I mean, before the inevitable mid-summer war kicks off. It'd be nice to get in a bit of cheating in between the wars, even if it's only a week or two.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/14/2010 13:05 Comments ||
Top||
#3
@Mitch H. - 'Peace In Our Time' 'eh?
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
06/14/2010 14:37 Comments ||
Top||
[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran's parliament is drafting a bill on downgrading ties with the U.N. atomic watchdog, a lawmaker said Sunday after the Islamic republic was slapped with fresh sanctions over its nuclear drive.
"The bill to revise Iran's relations with the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) is being drafted," Alaeddin Borujerdi who heads parliament's commission on foreign policy and national security told state news agency IRNA.
"It will not be discussed today in the majlis," he added, referring to earlier announcements that the bill would come up for debate in parliament on Sunday.
Borujerdi had announced that parliament would discuss the bill on downgrading ties with the IAEA soon after the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday imposed new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.
On Thursday his colleague in the commission, Ismail Kosari, also said the "the majlis will adopt on Sunday a top priority bill which talks of decreasing ties with the IAEA."
Borujerdi, meanwhile, said there was no plan to downgrade ties with Russia and China after the two powers voted for the sanctions resolution.
"The relations of Iran with those two countries is good and there is no decision to downgrade ties with them," he said.
Senior Iranian officials have criticized Moscow and Beijing, long time allies of Tehran, for going along with other world powers in imposing the sanctions.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/14/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
See also NEWS KERALA > AHMADINEJAD: UN HAS LOST CREDIBILITY WID SANCTIONS.
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.
A Swiss businessman, held in a Libyan jail for four months, has arrived back in Zurich.
A senior Iranian lawmaker urges Moscow to "stand by its commitments" after the Kremlin made a snap decision to freeze the sale of the S-300 defense system to Tehran. 
