AFGHAN President Hamid Karzai confirmed holding unofficial talks with the Taliban "for quite some time", in a bid to end the nine-year war, according to an interview transcript released today.
"We have been talking to the Taliban as countryman to countryman, talk in that manner," Mr Karzai told CNN's Larry King when asked about a Washington Post report on "secret high level talks" between the two sides.
"Not as a regular official contact with the Taliban with a fixed address but rather unofficial personal contacts have been going on for quite some time," he said in a release of excerpts from the interview, to air in full tomorrow.
Last week the Washington Post said the secret talks were believed to involve the Afghan Government and representatives authorised by the Quetta Shura, the Afghan Taliban group based in Pakistan, and Taliban leader Mullah Omar. It cited unnamed Afghan and Arab sources.
Earlier today, Afghanistan's former president Burhanuddin Rabbani was elected chairman of a new peace council, a brainchild of Mr Karzai, set up to broker an end to the war with the Taliban.
"Now that the peace council has come into existence, these talks will go on and will go on officially and more rigorously I hope," Mr Karzai told Larry King.
The Afghan leader said there had been "no official contacts with a known entity that reports to a body of Taliban and that comes back and reports to us regularly.
"That hasn't happened yet and we hope we can begin that as soon as possible," he added.
"But contacts of course have been there between various elements of the Afghan government at the level of community and also at a political level."
The High Peace Council is intended to open a dialogue with insurgents who have been trying to bring down his government since the US-led invasion overthrew their regime in late 2001.
The 68-member council, hand-picked by Mr Karzai, was set up following a nationwide conference in June and was inaugurated on October 7 amid mounting reports of secret peace talks with Taliban leaders and key insurgent groups.
[Tolo News] The Independent Election Commission announced on Saturday that more than 170 candidates were introduced to the Electoral Complaints Commission
Head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) said these candidates are still considered as suspects and decisions about them will be taken after investigations are completed.
IEC also announced that the final results of Afghanistan's parliamentary elections that were previously planned to be declared on 30th October will be delayed.
Head of the IEC, Fazal Ahmad Manawi, said the results of more than 440 polling centres have been declared invalid so far.
"The votes of polling centres that have been declared invalid in the past few days reach 142 and a total of 442 voting centres have been declared invalid so far," Manawi said.
"The recounting of votes in 334 polling centres have been ordered recently and the votes of a total of 828 vote counting centres are ordered to be recounted," he added.
Head of the IEC emphasised over its decisions about those candidates who had been introduced to the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) and added that the commission will accept no deals as well as pressures from influential people.
"We introduced 29 other candidates to the ECC recently and the total number of those introduced to the ECC so far has reached 171 people," Manawi said.
"It is worth mentioning that the candidates whom we are introducing to the ECC are termed as the ones whom we have heard complaints about; that means they are the suspected ones," he added.
IEC says the final list of names of those poll workers who were involved in electoral frauds will be announced soon.
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10/10/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
When I saw the headline my first flash was DOJ woke up from their sleep and charged every US candidate!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/10/2010 1:13 Comments ||
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CAIRO - Egypts biggest opposition movement the Muslim Brotherhood said on Saturday it would take part in a parliamentary election next month being seen as a test of government restrictions on political opponents. The party will field candidates for a third of seats in parliament 169 of 508 seats on offer Mohamed Badie, head of the Brotherhood, told a news conference in Cairo.
The Brotherhood won 88 out of 454 seats in a 2005 legislative election, its best result.
Next months election in the Arab worlds most populous country comes before an uncertain presidential election in 2011. President Hosni Mubarak, 82, has not said if he will stand for a sixth six-year term. If he does not, many Egyptians expect his son Gamal or a member of the countrys political and military establishment to stand for president.
The Brotherhood said it would announce its final list of candidates for the November parliamentary poll in a few weeks time. The number of candidates would be similar to 2005.
Some analysts have speculated the government would stop the movement contesting as many constituencies this time around.
The Muslim Brotherhood is a big group and if we wanted to compete for the biggest number of seats, we could have, said Mohamed el-Katatni, head of the movements parliamentary bloc. However, we see that the regime opposes the Brotherhood and this causes political uncertainty which we want to avoid in the coming period, he added.
"Please don't kill us!"
The Brotherhood is by far the largest opposition bloc in Egypt but is not recognised officially as a political party. It gets around the ban on religious groups taking part in official politics by running candidates in parliament as independents.
Many opposition groups, and some Brotherhood members, have called for a boycott of the elections.
Thus guaranteeing that Gamal gets the job ...
The movement said in June it was backing a signature petition calling for constitutional reform organised by former U.N. nuclear watchdog Mohammed ElBaradei.
As awful as El-Baradei is, I could see him as the Egyptian president instead of Gamal. He'd do less harm ...
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10/10/2010 00:00 ||
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British news weekly The New Statesman has published an advertisement accusing the BBC of having a pro-Israel bias. The ad, a letter signed by 232 activists, claims that the BBC has demonstrated a consistently pro-Israel bias during its coverage of the Gaza flotilla incident specifically.
The BBCs decision to broadcast uncritically Israeli film of the attack reflects a consistently pro-Israeli bias in its coverage of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, the ad stated.
It was signed by a number of Israel-hating leftists including Liberal Democrat peer Jenny Tonge, Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, Methodist Church minister Stephen Leah, Palestinian academic Nur Masalha and Israel-born academics Avi Shlaim, Moshe Machover and Haim Bresheeth along with many involved in the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel.
The ad, organized by a group called the Campaign to end BBC bias on Palestine but asking for donations to a radical group called Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, was rejected by The Independent and The Guardian for legal reasons.
A Facebook protest page set up by one of the wingnuts, Cheryl Filasteen Abdul, said that the Independent wouldn't publish the ad because it was based on opinion and not facts.
The advertising department there does not seem to appreciate the virtues of a free press, because they kept telling me it was based on opinion not facts, she said.
The Guardian also refused to publish the letter without changes in the text. Legal have just got back to me and said that well only be able to run your ad if you can make a few changes to the copy, Jennifer Melmore from the Guardians advertising department told the activists in an email last month.
#1
Of course the left tend to exaggerate how extremist both of these organizations are. In their mind, a group of grandmothers calling for lower taxes are *identical* to Nazi brown shirts.
#2
Damn, the commenters on that article have a really warped notion about the Tea Party, too. But then, if all they know is what they have read in the mainstream media, it's understandable.
Head-shakingly bigoted, ignorant and arrogant with it ... but understandable.
A man who posted an online video of himself burning pages from the Koran then urinating on it to put out the flames will face trial over incitement to religious hatred. The unidentified man, in his 30s, was tracked through his IP address and phone number to his flat near Strasbourg, France.
'He claims full responsibility. He says he's not a right-wing extremist but that in France he can burn the Koran, just as he can burn a Winnie the Pooh book, without worrying about the consequences,' said Strasbourg deputy prosecutor Gilles Delorme.
In his online film, the blogger is seen sitting in his living room wearing a devil's mask as he tears pages from a copy of the Koran to make paper airplanes.
He then throws the airplanes at two boxes that have been turned upside down to resemble New York's Twin Towers, before burning the book on his balcony and urinating on it.
The man, whose telephone number is visible in the images, faces up to five years in prison.
CFCM - the French Muslim Council - says it plans to file a complaint against the blogger but called on Muslims in the country 'to remain vigilant' and face such provocations with calm.
France is already on heightened alert for potential attacks following a number of bomb threats across Paris, as well as last month's kidnapping of five French hostages in Niger by al Qaeda's North African arm.
Global outrage among Muslims was sparked last month when Florida preacher Terry Jones threatened to hold a high-profile protest burning of the Koran, triggering violent protests in Afghanistan in which one individual was shot dead.
After US president Barack Obama warned the book-burning could endanger lives and act as a recruiting tool for al Qaeda, it was cancelled
#3
What pathology is it that means every Muslim I've met or read about can never forgive or forget anything? Oh, wait, it must be that Christian trait of forgiving the tresspasses of others that is MIA from their religion. If burning a Koran could ever even qualify as a tresspass in a free society. If I was God, or a referee, I'd call out of bounds on team Muslim and bench their entire team.
On Sept. 15, DC District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly denied the petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by a Kuwaiti detainee held at Guantanamo named Fayiz al Kandari. The ruling remained classified until late September, when it was released online. Al Kandari and his attorney have repeatedly claimed that he was a mere charity worker in Afghanistan in 2001. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly disagreed, finding that al Kandari's story was "implausible" and "not credible."
Great, fine, but why is a federal judge involved in the first place? Kandari was captured in a war zone and jugged at a military prison camp. He should not be subject to review by a civilian court.
In particular, Judge Kollar-Kotelly found that al Kandari was overly evasive for a man who claimed to be innocent. Both during his interrogations at Guantanamo, and even in his declaration to the court, al Kandari refused to explain what he was up to during a "missing" two-month period in Afghanistan. This in and of itself was not enough to reject al Kandari's petition, the judge determined, as detainees have "no burden to prove" their innocence in habeas proceedings.
But they have every burden to explain who they are and why they're in a war zone if they're in front of a military tribunal, which is where Kandari should be.
Judge Kollar-Kotelly found, however, that al Kandari's "repeated unwillingness to provide details as to his time in Afghanistan is nonetheless inconsistent with, and undermines the credibility of, his claim that he was an innocent charity worker who became inadvertently trapped in Afghanistan in the wake of September 11, 2001."
#1
"Though details were not released, a public summary cited discrepancies between Hasan's performance and his personnel records. The review recommended that his superior officers be held accountable"
Yes, his superiors should have engaged the enemy in close combat, even if that combat is a load of derogatory paperwork against the enemy, Hasan, as it were.
In remarks that are likely to embarrass Islamabad, the former Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, said on Saturday that Pakistan regarded terror groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) as "mujahideen" fighting for the "rights" the Kashmiri people.
General Musharraf defended militant groups saying that they were simply fighting for the "freedom" and "rights" of Kashmiris and it was important that the Kashmir dispute was settled.
"From our point of view, LeT is fighting for the rights of Kashmiris and there is great public support in Pakistan for groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba," he told NDTV adding that anyone "fighting in your part of Kashmir" was a "mujahideen" for Pakistan.
Asked whether killing innocent people was not terrorism, the former President retorted that Indian Army was also killing civilians. "Isn't Indian Army also terrorist?" he asked.
However, he admitted that the attack on Indian Parliament and the Mumbai bombings were acts of terrorism.
About his remarks to a German magazine last week that Pakistan trained militants groups to fight in Kashmir, he said he did not mean that they were trained during his tenure.
"I didn't say that. I said certain things which were taken as such," he said pointing out that "mujahideen groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen" came into being in 1989 after the "freedom struggle started in Kashmir."
'To say that I was doing this ...this argument has to be killed I was nothing at that time. I was just a Brigadier," he said.
Challenged on his description of LeT as "mujahideen," he insisted that for Pakistan it was a group of freedom fighters.
"Yes, yes," he said.
Asked about how close India and Pakistan came during his presidency in reaching a deal on Kashmir, he said: "We were as close as drafting a final pact for a solution. Final drafts were exchanged through the back channel and [Prime Minister] Manmohan Singh agreed with my four-point formula."
[Pak Daily Times] Talal Bugti, the Jamhoori Watan Party president, has announced head money of Rs 1 billion and hundred acres of farmland on former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf for his crimes against humanity.
The JWP president made this announcement during a news conference in the presence of PML-N leader Sardar Yaqoob Nasir on Saturday. Talal said there was no truth in Musharraf's recent statements, adding that he was spreading lies from day one. Musharraf was involved in heinous crimes against the state and society such as dismissing an elected government and dissolving parliament, killing Akbar Bugti along with 70 others, the Lal Masjid incident and other crimes, adding that they were unpardonable.
He said Musharraf posed a security threat and had undermined the illusory sovereignty and integrity of Pakistain. If he was really brave, he should return to Pakistain immediately and face the criminal charges against him, the JWP president told news hounds. Talal said Musharraf was a coward and would never return to Pakistain knowing the ground realities.
He demanded Musharraf's name be sent to Interpol to bring him back to the country otherwise he would further disclose state secrets to his masters that might further weaken national illusory sovereignty.
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[Pak Daily Times] The government is considering imposing a tax on NATO supply trucks going into Afghanistan from Pakistain, a private TV channel reported on Saturday. According to sources, NATO supplies are sent to Afghanistan through Chaman and Torkham road networks. On the other hand, some 500 trucks filled from Pak refineries go to Afghanistan on a daily basis and this had been the routine since the last seven years, the channel said. Numerous highways had been adversely affected due to the heavy trucks and hence the government said it considered imposing a tax on their supply. The government might also demand a road tax from the US for the past seven years of transporting these trucks, which would amount to approximately Rs 600 million, the channel reported.
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#1
And we should deduct whatever taxes they charge from the free cash we hand over to these duplicitous backstabbers.
Charges against two Iraqis accused of the murders of six British military policemen more than seven years ago have been dropped by a judge in Baghdad, according to reports.
BAGHDAD - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on rivals to join him in a national unity government on Saturday but potential partners suggested such an alliance may be a long way off.
By the time they finish it could be time for another election. This would suit Maliki just fine since he's currently installed in the chair. Call it 'dictatorship by indecision' ...
A March parliamentary election yielded no outright winner, leaving Iraq in limbo and raising fears that insurgents would exploit the vacuum to stir sectarian tensions.
Maliki, under U.S. pressure to form an all-inclusive government, has so far only won clear support from anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. In televised remarks, he said it was time for all to show flexibility.
We must sit together and talk to each other until we reach common ground, he said. In this spirit we call on parties to come to the negotiation table. We cannot reach this point without flexibility and readiness to act in a realistic way, without giving others the right of partnership in this country.
He has a point. In western parliamentary democracies, if you can put together a majority coalition you get the job. He can pull that off if he gets the Kurds to sign on. Allawi needs to move smartly, give the Kurds what they want, and find another small party to sign on with him, or else he's out of luck.
His rivals the Sunni-backed secular Iraqiya bloc and a Kurdish coalition representing the oil-rich, semi-autonomous north responded with little enthusiasm.
A source in Iraqiya, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the party was strongly opposed to Maliki retaining his post in a new government.
Iraqiyas decision not to take part in a government headed by Maliki is final and irreversible, the source said. Currently there are no talks between Iraqiya and SOL (Malikis State of Law party) and there will be no talks as long as the candidate is Maliki.
Iraqiya, headed by former premier Iyad Allawi, won 91 seats in the March election more than any other bloc. Allawi has warned that excluding his alliance could spark bloodshed.
That puts you outside the law, pal. That's a dangerous position to be in right now.
Malikis State of Law won 89 seats and Sadr got 39, which means Maliki would still be dozens of seats short of the 163 needed for a governing majority in Iraqs 325-seat parliament.
The Kurds, who won 56 seats and could therefore act as kingmakers, also said talks may go on for some time. All I can say is that talks are still actively continuing with all blocs including SOL, said Mohsin al-Saadoon, a senior Kurdish lawmaker. We need an all-inclusive government.
Posted by: Steve White ||
10/10/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya] Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas has told Arab leaders he may seek U.S. recognition for a Paleostinian state taking in all of the West Bank should peace talks with Israel stay stalled, an aide said on Saturday.
The idea, raised during Arab League deliberations in Libya on Friday, would place new pressure on Israel to extend a freeze on construction of Jewish settlements in the occupied territory, without which Abbas has said peace negotiations cannot continue.
Senior Paleostinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said "alternatives" to the face-to-face talks launched five weeks ago had been discussed, among them "ask(ing) the United States to recognize the state of Paleostine on the 1967 borders".
"(Another) is to study the possibility of going to the (U.N.) Security Council to get a resolution that calls upon member states to recognize the state of Paleostine on the 1967 borders," he told Rooters by telephone from the Libyan town of Sirte.
Paleostinians want a state in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and in the Gazoo Strip -- lands Israel captured from Jordan and Egypt in the 1967 war. Israel quit Gazoo in 2005 but insists on keeping all of Jerusalem -- its declared capital -- and swathes of West Bank settlements under any peace accord.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu imposed a partial 10-month freeze on settlement construction last November in what he called a goodwill gesture to get negotiations started.
But Netanyahu, whose coalition government includes pro-settler parties, has resisted international pressure to extend the moratorium past its scheduled expiry last month.
Past proposals for Paleostinian statehood to be declared without Israeli consent have been received coolly by the United States and other world powers, who want a negotiated solution though they regard the settlements as illegitimate.
The Paleostinians say settlements would deny them a viable state, which they envisage having East Jerusalem as its capital.
"I cannot specify all the alternatives that were presented by President Abbas (to the vaporous Arab League), but the president will keep working with the American administration to achieve a full cessation of settlement activities in order to restart talks," Erekat said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/10/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Do Baraq Hussein needs Congressional approval to recognize "Palestinian State"?
#2
He can recognize all he want, g(r)omgoru, but the Senate must confirm. That's why the U.S. never confirmed that horrid Kyoto thingy, for all President Clinton signed on.
[An Nahar] Arab diplomatic sources have warned against a deterioration of situations in Leb, saying "armed de facto forces may try to impose their political agenda by force."
Kuwaiti daily Al-Rai quoted the sources as saying that October 16 would be "the start of the scheme of ousting the State and the government through creating discord and security tensions in areas that are apt to stir (sectarian) sensitivities, such as the Beirut area of Tariq al-Jdideh or the city of Tripoli."
The sources added that "the Arab, regional and western countries following up on the Lebanese situation" have been directly and indirectly informed that Hizbullah and its allies "will not agree to any political settlement that contradicts with their goal of overthrowing the Special Tribunal for Leb."
"They would implement their agenda of changing the regime in case they failed in overthrowing the tribunal," the sources warned.
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[Al Arabiya] Hezbullies on Saturday called for a mass turnout to welcome Iran's President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad when he arrives on a two-day official visit to Leb next week.
"We call on you to welcome President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday at 7:30 am (0430 GMT) all along the airport road," the group's al-Manar television broadcast over a picture of a smiling Iranian leader.
"Leb is the country of resistance -- welcome to your family," said the voice-over to the television spot, which was signed by both Hezbullies and Amal, another Lebanese Shiite party that is allied to the "party of God."
Ahmadinejad's October 13-14 visit is eagerly anticipated by Hezbullies, which is planning to give him a warm welcome as well as a tour of the southern border region with Israel.
However, The infamous However... the trip has sparked controversy in Leb with some members of the pro-Western parliamentary majority calling it a provocation and the United States also expressing concern.
Ahmadinejad and Hezbullies leader Hassan Nasrallah are set to appear together at a rally in a stadium in Hezbullies's stronghold in southern Beirut.
Also, according to al-Manar TV Ahmadinejad plans to throw a rock at the direction of Israel in a symbolic gesture of defiance.
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[Arab News] Iran revealed for the first time Saturday that some personnel at the country's nuclear facilities were lured by promises of money to pass secrets to the West, but that increased security and worker privileges have put a stop to the spying.
The stunning acknowledgment by Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi provides the clearest government confirmation that Iran has been fighting espionage at its nuclear facilities.
In recent weeks, Iran has announced the arrest of several nuclear spies and battled a computer worm that it says is part of a covert Western plot to derail its nuclear program. And in July, a nuclear scientist who Iran says was kidnapped by US agents returned home in mysterious circumstances, with the US saying he was a willing defector who was offered $5 million by the CIA but then changed his mind.
The United States and its allies have vigorously sought to slow Iran's nuclear advances through UN and other sanctions out of suspicion that Tehran intends to use a civil program as cover for developing weapons. Iran denies any such aim and says it only wants to generate nuclear power.
Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency quoted Salehi as saying that some nuclear personnel had access to information about Iran's plans for "foreign purchases and commercial affairs." The report did not elaborate on the precise nature of the information or the timeframe over which the spying took place.
"Now, these routes have been blocked. The possibility of information leaking is almost impossible now," Salehi was quoted as saying.
"Our colleagues were awakened. ... The personnel and managers have all reached the conclusion that this is a national issue and that we should ... resolve our problems among ourselves." Salehi is also the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. His predecessor as nuclear chief had said more than two years ago that some of the nation's nuclear scientists had been approached by the West but did not accept offers to spy.
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#1
The possibility of information leaking is almost impossible now
BEIRUT The leader of Hezbollah on Saturday accused the U.N. tribunal looking into the killing of a former Lebanese prime minister of protecting false witnesses who allegedly misled the investigation.
They likely need all that protection, too ...
The allegations come amid a Hezbollah campaign to undermine the tribunal investigating Rafik Hariris 2005 assassination. The Shiite militant group has questioned the courts neutrality ahead of indictments expected to link Hezbollah members to the slaying.
Just doing the bidding of their masters in Damascus and Tehran ...
... who won't show his precious face in public ...
cited the case of four former Lebanese generals jailed for nearly four years in connection with the killing before being released for lack of evidence last year. He noted that the court agreed to let one general see his secret case file, but the prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare, appealed the decision.
Why is Bellemare insisting on refusing to hand over even part of the files of the false witnesses? Nasrallah asked. Why is there insistence to protect false witnesses by Mr. Bellemare and the United Nations.
The Hezbollah leaders comments came three days after U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged all parties not to interfere in the work of the tribunal, a message clearly directed at Hezbollah and its ally Syria. Ban rejected any attempt to discredit the tribunal and strongly defended its work.
Great job there, Ban, great job.
With indictments expected before the end of the year, the allegations of false witnesses hampering the investigation is fueled a sharp debate in Lebanon, and the Lebanese Cabinet is expected to discuss the issue Tuesday.
Which is what the false allegations were intended to do. Those who want to stifle the UN investigation now have an excuse to do so.
Speaking about next weeks visit to Lebanon by Irans President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Nasrallah said the Iranian leader will not go to the border with Israel and throw a stone into the Jewish states as has been widely reported in Lebanon.
Since the Israelis would then be justified in shooting back ...
He added that Ahmadinejad will visit the southern town of Bint Jbeil that witnessed heavy fighting between Hezbollah guerrillas and Israeli troops during their 34-day in 2006.
Exactly which patch of pavement will his motorcade pass over, and when?
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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.
British news weekly The New Statesman has published an advertisement accusing the BBC of having a pro-Israel bias. The ad, a letter signed by 232 activists, claims that the BBC has demonstrated a consistently pro-Israel bias during its coverage of the Gaza flotilla incident specifically.
On Sept. 15, DC District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly denied the petition for a writ of habeas corpus filed by a Kuwaiti detainee held at Guantanamo named Fayiz al Kandari. The ruling remained classified until late September, when it was released online. Al Kandari and his attorney have repeatedly claimed that he was a mere charity worker in Afghanistan in 2001. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly disagreed, finding that al Kandari's story was "implausible" and "not credible."
