[Tolo News] Ethnic and lingual differences hampers the process of electing a parliament speaker, temporary head of the house said Wednesday.
While calling for a need to change the internal principles of the house, Mohammad Sarwar Osmani, Temporary Head of the house, said flaws in the regulations approved by former members of the house is another challenge.
Mr Osmani said the only way out is to bring some changes in the internal regulations of the house and after the changes are made, either Mohammad Yonus Qanooni, the former head of the house, or Abdul Rab Rasul Sayaf would be leading the Afghan House of Representatives. Rasool Sayyaf is a Saudi tool. He vouched for the two Arabs who assassinated Ahmed Shah Masood. Qanooni is, I believe, a Tadjik. He was interior minister when the Talibs were first thrown out. I understand he's actually a pretty good guy.
"We have a tribal society and efforts should be made to get rid of ethnical and lingual problems," Mr Osmani said.
Some MPs said there are some discussions in progress between Qanooni and Sayaf over the parliament seat.
"Besides these two [Mr Qanooni and Sayaf] there are some other circles trying to have their own man selected as head of the house," said Kamal Nasir Osuli, an Afghan MP.
Afghan legislators have been voting for nearly two weeks to have a head in the house but without success.
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02/11/2011 00:00 ||
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There is, however, a growing perception that Washington does not have much of a say in Cairo, WSJ said.
Noooooo, really?
"The mystique of America's superpower status has been shattered," said Steve Clemons, director of the American Strategy Program of the New America Foundation, who has attended two meetings with the National Security Council on Egypt.
Arab and Israeli diplomats also pointed out that Mubarak no longer trusted the Obama administration since it had categorically sided with the opposition after eight days of the protest and just stopped short of asking him to resign.
On the other hand, the White House had been reaching out to Suleiman and the military, the newspaper pointed out.
"I don't think Mubarak trusts too many people from the US anymore," the Arab diplomat said. "It looks like Omar Suleiman is the right point of contact, but they're all ticked off with the US position, which they view as throwing Mubarak under the bus".
We only do that to our friends, Hosni, you should be honored.
#2
The one guy not mentioned in all of this, but should be, in re the White House, is Manuel Zelaya. Remember him?
He is currently living in the Dominican Republic. Right next door to Haiti. Even his bud Chavez didn't offer him a home. Nor did old man Fidel or his bro.
#3
This Administration has the habit of pointedly insulting or avoiding leaders they've taken a dislike to, while courting subordinates they believe will do as told. Remember how Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was was summoned and put in a spare room to work out a way to comply while President Obama went off to dinner alone with his family? But the Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, head of the Labour party, was winded and dined the several times he came to the U.S. to meet with the DoD, and President Obama even took time out from his busy schedule to poke his head in and join for an unscheduled discussion of issues. Barak was supposed to be so flattered that he'd persuade his boss to stop building 'settlements' and sign over the captured territories to the Palestinians for vague statements about trying to keep the peaces.
Now the administration is playing the same game with Egypt: "We don't like the guy in charge, so he might as well just go away and leave things to the guy we like."
#4
...the actual implementation reflects somebody with the experience of two years in the Senate, who had never navigated outside of academia and Chicago tit-for-tat politics. So Mubarak is/is not a dictator, must leave now/yesterday/sometime soon as he serves as sort of a figurative leader/a critical transition player/a suspicious counter-revolutionary inasmuch as the U.S. must lay down conditions/advise only/respect Egyptian prerogatives, as private conversations with Egyptians are spilled to the press, Obama suggests the Cairo desire for freedom somehow channels his own support, and Biden, Clinton, and Obama contradict one another hourly.
#6
"The mystique of America's superpower status has been shattered,"
WRONG it's a deliberate Plan by our Moron In Chief.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/11/2011 11:58 Comments ||
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#7
Honduras
Falklands
Egypt
Three opportunities to vote present.
I am a bit young, but how similar is this to Diem (not culturally or strategically, but international politics)...other than as so far the ending for Diem?
The US political model is about smooth transition of power, I guess one thing which bothers me is by quickly supporting an abrupt change of power if the fire had spread quickly would the US position de fact support whatever domino consequences against Israel, S.A., Iraq? Karzai can point at this and say see, I am right to not put complete trust in current US policy.
Puppy blender, again
American officials said Mr. Panetta was basing his statement not on secret intelligence but on media broadcasts, which began circulating before he sat down before the House Intelligence Committee.
#3
It could be worse. He could've prepared by watching PMSNBC or CurrentTV.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/11/2011 7:56 Comments ||
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#4
He had to watch CNN or the equivalent, to make sure he was caught up on the latest events line of Bull.
FIFY.
The fact that someone is basing our intel on what is the latest - not necessarily true - 'narrative' to come out of the mouths of CNN is somewhats terrifying.
#5
Bet there was a time when the US could have had fairly decent intell on what was happening, but since this Administration threw the regime under the bus, Panetta has to rely on ABC News& in WDC. Betrayal is a bitch.
Posted by: Jack Salami ||
02/11/2011 9:05 Comments ||
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#6
What you end up looking like when you rely on CIA CNN.
#7
Panetta's big goof here was that he offered his opinion in open testimony. (Not smart) With that said; it may be discomforting for some to accept but, historicaly in fluid situations, alot of intel is gathered from media reports. That's right folks, high level decisions may have been made as a result of Anderson Cooper's reportage. And if you find that unnerving, just think, Al-Jizz has been the big dog in Cairo since this all started.
#11
The fact that someone is basing our intel on what is the latest - not necessarily true - 'narrative' to come out of the mouths of CNN is somewhats terrifying.
Terrifying indeed! From reports, Obama was also watching developments in Egypt on CNN on Air Force One on the way back from "campaigning" in Michigan.
Mohamed ElBaradei, who has emerged as a leader of the opposition movement against President Hosni Mubarak, posted comments online within the last hour warning that the country has become volatile.
Egypt will explode," ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and retired diplomat, posted on Twitter. "Army must save the country now."
In statements posted earlier in the day, ElBaradei vowed continued protests and complained of violence by Mubarak's government.
"We shall continue to exercise our right of peaceful demonstration and restore our freedom & dignity. Regime violence will backfire badly," ElBaradei wrote. "Threats of violence against participants in peaceful demos reveal the ugly face of a regime terrified of its own people."
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02/11/2011 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Many Algerians believe their country needs new people at the helm to restore hope and create jobs, but change must be smooth because after years of Islamist strife in which 200,000 died they cannot face more turmoil.
Algerians have watched with fascination the revolts in Egypt and neighboring Tunisia, and opposition groups say they will defy a police ban and hold a protest march in the capital on Saturday inspired by the popular uprisings elsewhere.
But so far there are few indications that the planned protest, organized by a coalition of civil society groups, some trade unionists and small political parties, has captured the imagination of people in the street.
"Change yes, chaos no," said Aicha Chikoun, a 48-year-old employee at a post office in central Algiers.
"We must never forget the years of blood and tears during the 1990s when hundred of people were killed and beheaded daily," she told Rooters.
Algeria plunged into chaos in 1992 after the military-backed government scrapped a legislative election which a radical Islamist party was poised to win. According to independent estimates, 200,000 people were killed in subsequent violence.
"There are not enough coffins," Algerians used to say as the corpse count climbed at the peak of the war.
In the past few years the violence has subsided, though Orcs and similar vermin linked to al Qaeda carry out sporadic shootings, ambushes and kidnappings outside the big towns.
The return of relative security has given Algerians the opportunity to think, for the first time in years, about their standard of living and many are deeply unhappy.
They are angered by high unemployment, poor housing, high prices and corruption. They ask why they have not felt more benefit from the billions of dollars in oil and gas revenue the government spends on public projects.
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, trying to stop mass protests from erupting, promised last week to allow more democratic freedoms, lift a 19-year-old state of emergency and generate more jobs.
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[Maghrebia] The Ennahda Movement, banned under former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, held a presser in Tunis on Monday (February 7th).
"The movement is committed to democracy and to the people's right in choosing their president through elections," said party leader Rachid Ghannouchi, who returned to Tunisia on January 30th after 22 years of exile.
"On the agenda of the movement are: building on the gains achieved by women, as manifested in the Personal Status Code (CSP), improving women's lives and underscoring their positive role on the political, social and cultural arena, so they could effectively take part in advancing society," he said.
The party speech focused on modernism, respect for human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... and the need to preserve the gains of freedom achieved by Tunisia. According to Ennahda, these values are in line with the Islamic precepts.
The Islamic party showcased their structures, made up of a president, a founding council and an executive office. They also presented their statute, which was registered a week ago at the Interior Ministry to secure a permit for engaging in legal work. Engineer Ali Laaridh was selected as head of the founding council and engineer Hammadi Jbeli as secretary-general.
"The movement will be holding its conference within a month. Abdel Latif Al-Mekki, a student leader, was charged with heading the conference," Ghannouchi said.
Asked about the prerequisites for membership in the party, the leader explained that "they include being at least 18 years of age, not belonging to any other party and obtaining the recommendation of three members in the party."
Ghannouchi also emphasised that "the movement is currently seeking to expand the makeup of its founding institution, so it would include qualified resources from across the country".
Sahbi Atig, professor of Islamic sciences and member of the party executive office, said during the conference, "Some are striving to dress us in a non-Tunisian guise. That is not acceptable. We are a national Tunisian movement that combines the values of Islam and those of modernism. We adopt a moderate line of thinking."
For his part, Hammadi Jbeli responded to the charges levelled against the movement, accusing it of burning down the headquarters of the former ruling party, the Constitutional Democratic Rally, in which one person was killed. "What happened then was because of individual violations and the Movement condemned the incident," he said.
"We cannot deny that we made mistakes," said Ghannouchi. "Who does not? But we are learning from those mistakes so we could build a better homeland for all of us."
According to Ettajdid Movement member Adel Chaouch, "Fear of the Islamic movement in Tunisia goes back to twenty years ago, particularly that during that time, the movement had two types of discourse, one that was decidedly hard-line and the other ambiguous."
"At present, it is in their best interest to change the tone of their discourse, and that they are convinced of. They are also learning from their mistakes and want to reassure Tunisians. Further, their support of the CSP is another reassurance," he said.
Chaouch added that "in an Islamic state, there must be a form of expression that represents the Islamic trend. It does not make sense to alienate a large proportion of the Tunisians. All opinions must be accepted. So why can't the Islamic Ennahda Movement have a role to play on the political arena? But, admittedly, the movement is still feared by the elite in Tunisia."
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02/11/2011 00:00 ||
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[Maghrebia] Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) issued a statement Monday (February 7th) that said the aim behind its failed Nouakchott attack was to assassinate President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. Mauritanian troops successfully defended the capital but questions were raised by some about the ability of jacket wallahs to enter the country.
"Al-Qaeda operates in a vast region extending from northern Mali to Chad," explained Islamic movement expert Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Abou El Maali. "They have also started to find a foothold in Niger; something that makes any attempt to geographically besiege them a difficult thing for the Mauritanian army or any other army."
The AQIM statement said that the gun-hung tough guys managed "to get past military fortifications and barriers en route to Nouakchott to assassinate the president", billed in the text as an "agent of La Belle France".
"[Abdel Aziz] is the first president in the region to declare war on al-Qaeda and tracks them down in their stronghold on the outskirts of the Malian desert; something that other regimes in the region have avoided," Ould Abou El Maali told Magharebia.
The analyst added that the al-Qaeda operation "was a clear message to the region's presidents, in which it warned them against any military or economic crackdown on the organisation".
"The problem is that al-Qaeda has also started to explore the Senegalese and Malian borders with Mauritania, with the aim of allowing its elements to easily infiltrate into the depth of Mauritania amid tough and complex terrain characterised by dense forests," Ould Abou El Maali said.
The Mauritanian army was making progress on securing the borders, having set up security points on the northern and eastern borders, journalist Isselmou Ould Moustaffa said. "Therefore, we notice that al-Qaeda elements this time used uncontrolled border points, such as the Malian-Senegalese borders."
Ould Moustaffa added that the AQIM message was "a political manoeuvre and nothing else". He told Magharebia that "all the data confirms that al-Qaeda's recent operation against Mauritania was not targeting the president but the French embassy and a military barracks, as shown in the official account and in the confessions of al-Qaeda elements who were nabbed".
"Al-Qaeda's announcement of the liquidation attempt against the president aims to terrorise the head of the ruling regime in Mauritania and make him feel that he is targeted," Ould Moustaffa said. "This is very obvious for a simple reason: with its operations, al-Qaeda is targeting the Mauritanian state, and therefore, is targeting the president whether it announced that or not."
Politicians were equally critical of the AQIM claim, with Union for the Republic Party front man Moktar Ould Abdellahi saying the message was "to say that they still have a presence".
"The terrorist organisations in northern Mali and the Sahara have lost the compass that has been guiding them for several months following the blows that were dealt them by the Mauritanian army. The latest operation has shown that al-Qaeda gunnies need to carry out a major operation to say that they still exist. However, The infamous However... they no longer have a presence," Ould Abdellahi said.
The president "has adopted a tough security policy against al-Qaeda", Habib Ly said. "In addition, he has organised a lot of religious gatherings aimed at convincing young people to relinquish extremism and fanaticism; something in which al-Qaeda saw as a serious, and even daring, attempts to eliminate them."
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] The Egyptian uprising needs a leader like Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the 1979 Islamic revolution which toppled the US-backed shah, former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said in comments published on Thursday.
"A leader like Imam Khomeini is needed for Egypt," Rafsanjani said in an interview with the Jomhuri Eslami newspaper, adding that only a leader like Khomeini can "resist the cheating of America."
"In the end, Americans do not want the Egyptian uprising to drag on, while Israelis are completely against the revolution in Egypt," said Rafsanjani, who is a leading supporter of the opposition to Iran's diminutive PresidentMahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad.
"By coincidence, all things (in Egypt) are like Iran" in 1979, he added.
Rafsanjani, who served two terms as Iranian president, said he was optimistic about the revolt in Egypt but stressed that the protesters needed to go the distance and be willing to endure hardships.
"If the Egyptian people continue to resist, they will succeed. It needs endurance. We too endured a lot of hardships in order to triumph over the shah," he said.
"I am optimistic, if the Egyptians continue their resistance," he said, calling on the protesters to stay united. "Division will benefit America and Israel," he warned.
Iranian officials have expressed strong support for the mass protests against veteran Egyptian geriatric President Hosni Mubarak, now in their third week, which have sent shock waves around the Arab world.
Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Egyptians to establish an Islamic state in the Arab world's most populous nation.
Once a pillar of the Islamic republic, Rafsanjani turned critic after bitterly disputed official results of a June 2009 presidential election gave Ahmadinejad outright victory over a challenger he backed.
The former president has called repeatedly for the release of political prisoners jugged during the mass protests that followed the election.
Iranian officials have backed the popular uprisings in both Egypt and Tunisia even though the authorities cracked down with an iron fist when tens of thousands erupted into the streets to protest against Ahmadinejad's new term.
Dozens of people were killed, hundreds maimed and thousands nabbed during the crackdown which divided Iran's dominant Shiite clergy.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/11/2011 00:00 ||
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Hat tip Instapundit
HONG KONG -- The United Nations' food agency issued an alert on Tuesday warning that a severe drought was threatening the wheat crop in China, the world's largest wheat producer, and resulting in shortages of drinking water for people and livestock.
China has been essentially self-sufficient in grain for decades, for national security reasons. Any move by China to import large quantities of food in response to the drought could drive international prices even higher than the record levels recently reached. And, who knows, maybe the horse will learn to sing.
Hat tip Instapundit
French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday declared that multiculturalism had failed, joining a growing number of world leaders or ex-leaders who have condemned it.
"We have been too concerned about the identity of the person who was arriving and not enough about the identity of the country that was receiving him," he said in a television interview in which he declared the concept a "failure."
Added at 1230 CT: Here is the original AFP story that contains the quotes cited above and much more. Wow. Sarkozy gets it. Whether he'll DO anything about or not I don't know, but he understands that if you settle in France, you're supposed to become French.
It implies a lot of things. First and foremost that there is an alternative to multiculturalism, if as yet undefined. Second of all, that the local, western culture is *superior* to the imported cultures.
And that it is not the dominant culture that needs to be flexible and adapt to the imported cultures, but that it is the imported cultures that must change and integrate into their new common culture.
#2
The lefties will just change the name as they did with Manmade Global Warming to Climate Change and keep on doing the same old stick, indoctrinating your kiddies in the state monopoly schools.
#3
Are they still burning cars in the Moslem Ghetto slums around Paris? Have the Moslems adapted to the French Fries and frog legs on the menu?
How does the crepe suzette go with the burqua and the Napolean brandy this morning?
How do Moslems do in the Armed Forces of Western democracies? What's wrong with say forty percent Moslem in a US Marine Corp platoon?
You have to know who your friends are. You have to know who you can trust with the baby. " Hope and change" is bullshiite. Not everybody's values are equal. Not all religions are equal either. Some people see nothing wrong with being a shaheed. You like hot dogs and stuff down at the Deli?
You like bacon and scrambled eggs? You like seeing a big Pork section at the Supermarket? What's your final existential position on Red beans hamhock and cornbread?
How many Moslem Police in your home town?Do you want to keep it that way or get a free scholarship to Harvard? How many Moslems wearing burquas teaching grades one thru' three in your local public Elementary?
If even the French are saying it...think how multiculturalism will be acceptable in rural Missouri. What's wrong with a highschool Football team.....and all Moslem.... playing against an all Baptist team from across the county? Good game...but what about AFTER the game?
Moslems? Oh, yeah, we have so much to learn from Moslems.
Give me ten reasons why Moslems are as American as the Mississippi River. How about nine? No.. .Eight? Give me one then.
#6
"We have been too concerned about the identity of the person who was arriving and not enough about the identity of the country that was receiving him"
-brilliant line. This country should heed that. Good job Nic.
#10
Here's the Sarkozy quote that got me (from the AFP article I cite in the post above):
"If you come to France, you accept to melt into a single community, which is the national community, and if you do not want to accept that, you cannot be welcome in France," the right-wing president said.
Note the AFP sneer of 'right-wing'.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/11/2011 13:35 Comments ||
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#11
I doubt the sneer is sufficient to detract from the self-evident common sense of the balance of the sentence. In fact, it gives the term "right-wing" a certain patina of reasonability and patriotism in the eyes of most readers.
UK and France in the same week? Perhaps, my children will be able to visit Europe.
I was shocked to enter a coffee bar in Paris, europe cup was on, France vs. Portugal, I could not believe how enthusiastic the clientelle was cheering against France. If they were Portugese then I am a bag of legumes.
(reviewing the playoff bracket, they had no horse in the race so to speak, just cheering whoever played against France)
#15
Agreed, They really do taste like chicken. Decorum demanded taking them at a fancy soirée, not something worth repeating.
Posted by: Fire and Ice ||
02/11/2011 17:18 Comments ||
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#16
Frog legs are also considered a Southern dish here in the States, JFM. My mom from Georgia liked them.
I think of them the way I think of chicken wings - too many bones, not enough meat. When I eat meat, I want some actual meat in there somewhere.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
02/11/2011 18:05 Comments ||
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#17
Same could be said for rabbit. I will admit if I had to live off of rabbit I would make Watership Down look like a Barney Dinosaur storyline.
Multi-culturalism is not an ends it is a means of social engineering. In another era it would be called propagandizing the locals to colonization. Hopefully more on that after dinner.
[The Nation (Nairobi)] WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was on the sharp end of some unwelcome exposures himself today as a former ally spilled the beans on the controversial Australian and his whistle-blowing organisation.
"Inside WikiLeaks" is billed as a warts-and-all account of Daniel Domscheit-Berg's time as chief programmer and media front man for what his tell-all book calls "the world's most dangerous website."
Set for release in 16 countries from Friday, it says the "chaotic" WikiLeaks cannot protect its sources and accuses the "power-obsessed" Assange of being economical with the truth, according to leaked excerpts.
Mr Domscheit-Berg, along with others, left WikiLeaks in September complaining that Mr Assange was being autocratic and that the organisation, ironically for a group on a crusade for openness, was becoming excessively secretive.
"The book tells my time at WikiLeaks, including the ups and downs of its development while I was there. It tells a lot of positive stories, but also is very open with my criticism about what was going on," the German told AFP.
"When Julian decided to misrepresent the situation around my departure publicly, and started to discredit me with half-truths and lies, I decided to get some of the facts straight." WikiLeaks is "far too easy to attack," the 32-year-old told German magazine Stern this week, quoting him as calling Mr Assange "brilliant" but "paranoid" and a "megalomaniac."
Founded in 2006, WikiLeaks caused a storm last year with major document leaks on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as publishing US diplomatic cables that have caused Washington and others considerable embarrassment.
The leaks have earned Mr Assange and WikiLeaks massive public attention and plenty of enemies.
He is currently in London fighting extradition to Sweden over allegations of rape and molestation following his arrest by British police in December, a case he says is politically motivated.
Mr Domscheit-Berg told British daily The Times that he had suggested Assange curtail his activities after Swedish authorities started investigating him.
"He saw this as an attack and suspended me," said Mr Domscheit-Berg, who at the time used the alias Daniel Schmitt.
According to leaked extracts from the book, Mr Domscheit-Berg disputes Mr Assange's claim that work on a US military video released last year of a deadly helicopter strike in Storied Baghdad cost him 50,000 dollars.
"In essence, Julian's only costs would have been rent for the house in Iceland and the price of his plane ticket."
Mr Domscheit-Berg also said that when he left he took with him important software vital to security of the WikiLeaks site and material, although he says he will not publish it via his own upcoming rival site, OpenLeaks.
"Children shouldn't play with guns," he says in the book. "We will only return the material to Julian if and when he can prove that he can store the material securely and handle it carefully and responsibly."
He also has a dig for Assange's attitude to women in the book. "Julian's main criterion for a woman was simple. She had to be young. Preferably younger than 22. And it went without saying that she couldn't question him. 'She has to be aware of her role as a woman,' he used to say."
Assange also used to "boast about how many children he had fathered in various parts of the world ... Whether he took care of any of these alleged children, or whether they existed at all, was another question."
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02/11/2011 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] India and Pakistain have agreed to resume peace talks that were broken off by New Delhi after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Indian sources said on Thursday, a step forward in improving ties that impact regional security.
The decision was made at this week's talks between the two countries' top foreign office officials in Bhutan's capital, Thimphu.
"The new talks are in effect the formal resumption of the composite dialogue," a senior Indian government official involved in repairing ties with Pakistain said, referring to a 2004 peace initiative.
A Pak government official wouldn't confirm the decision, but said there had been progress.
New Delhi suspended a 2004 grinding of the peace processor between the two sides after the attacks in India's commercial capital in 2008.
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02/11/2011 00:00 ||
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[Geo News] An Islamabad court has issued arrest warrants for ex-religious affairs minister Hamid Saeed Kazmi after Federal Investigations Agency (FIA) got evidences about kickbacks former minister received in Haj arrangements, Geo News reported.
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Here's the WaPo version of the Davis affair. Not much help on the diplomatic front but we learn more about Mr. Davis.
U.S. and Pakistani officials Wednesday offered dueling accounts of the events leading up to the arrest of an American who fatally shot two men in Lahore last month and whose continued detention is at the center of an increasingly tense diplomatic standoff between the two countries.
A Pakistani official, referring to what he said were the preliminary findings of his government's investigation of the incident, said Raymond Allen Davis fired five shots at the Pakistani men from his vehicle and then got out to shoot two more at each of them as they lay on the ground in a busy intersection during midday traffic.
A U.S. official disputed the account, saying that Davis fired five shots from the Glock handgun he was carrying, all of them from within his car at what both sides agree were probably would-be robbers.
With all the firearms and shooting in Pakistain, they're getting worked up about a couple of bullet-hit robbers?
As often-conflicting details continued to emerge about what happened on the afternoon of Jan. 27, neither side budged on the core dispute between them - whether Davis, a former U.S. Special Operations sergeant who carried a U.S. diplomatic passport - is immune from prosecution by a Pakistani court.
The United States has demanded Davis's immediate release under international treaties guaranteeing immunity for diplomats. In retaliation for his continued detention, it has suspended high-level diplomatic contacts with Pakistan and warned that a planned exchange of visits this year by President Obama and Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari are at risk, according to officials from both countries who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the sensitive matter.
Pakistan has refused to release Davis, indicating that he faces possible murder charges at a time when the government in Islamabad is encountering mounting public pressure to show that it is not being manipulated by Washington. The government has said that his status and the disposition of the case are matters for the courts there.
The Pakistani official warned against aggressive U.S. pressure against the weak civilian government there, saying that the issue could "spin out of control," and the administration should provide time for tempers to cool.
In other words, we're supposed to back down. No mention of what might happen if American tempers fail to cool, but the Paks obviously aren't worried about Bambi or Hillary.
"No one individual in Pakistan, no one organization, can afford to take an unpopular decision at this time," he said.
But another Pakistani official said that the longer the government allows the situation to continue, the weaker it appears in the face of public pressure.
In court proceedings, Davis has admitted to the shooting but said it was done in self-defense. Davis told the court that he fired on the Pakistani men after they approached him on motorcycles brandishing weapons in what he thought was an attempted robbery.
Sounds like the M.O. for a robbery, or a targeted assassination of an American official. By any chance, will the Paks tell us about the now dead 'robbers'? Wonder which extremist group they were members of.
The incident has inflamed anti-American sentiment in Pakistan, where many think that their government has been too deferential to the United States in taking part in counterterrorism operations and allowing CIA drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal belt.
Again, if I were in charge, the Paks would be worried about anti-Pak sentiment in this country.
The Pakistani official said his government was also angry that no U.S. official has apologized for a third, apparently inadvertent, death in the incident, that of a Pakistani cyclist run down by a car from the U.S. consulate in Lahore that unsuccessfully tried to reach Davis at the scene of the shooting before his arrest.
U.S. officials have offered incomplete and often confusing accounts of the events surrounding the shooting, Davis's identity and his assignment in Pakistan.
The State Department said Monday that Davis was a member of the "technical and administrative staff" at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad and that he had been temporarily assigned to the consulate in Lahore. Senior State Department officials have said that Davis was not supposed to carry a weapon in Pakistan, while other U.S. officials said that he was a security contractor and did have permission to carry the weapon.
According to a Pakistani police report that has been provided to U.S. officials, items recovered in Davis's car included a portable telescope, a wallet, U.S. dollars and Pakistani rupees, a digital camera, computer memory cards, a passport, a cellphone and numerous items that appeared to come from a first-aid kit, including bandages, a "cutter" and a flashlight.
Pakistani media have also reported, and U.S. officials do not dispute, that Davis also carried multiple ATM and military ID cards and what was described as a facial disguise or makeup. The Pakistani official said Davis also carried identification cards from the U.S. consulates in Lahore and Peshawar but not from the embassy in Islamabad.
So was Mr. Davis a CIA employee? If so things are really going to become sticky.
Pakistani television aired a video Wednesday that appears to show Davis being questioned by authorities after he was taken into custody. Davis identifies himself as an American and repeatedly pleads with his interrogators to help him locate a passport that he says went missing shortly after he showed it to police at the crime scene.
Perhaps the one issued from Islamabad that would clarify his diplomatic status.
He identifies himself as an employee at the consulate in Lahore, saying, "I just work as a consultant there."
The shooting, as well as ambiguous answers from U.S. officials about whether Davis was part of the CIA, have fanned speculation that the incident was not a botched robbery but a deadly confrontation between spies. A Pakistani intelligence official told The Washington Post that the motorcyclists were intelligence agents; a spokesman for Pakistan's main intelligence agency denied that Tuesday.
So they could have been ISI agents, or ISI-hired free-lancers, or ISI-paid Talibs...
U.S. and Pakistani officials agreed that the police report, written in Urdu, indicates that the two Pakistanis who were killed had robbed two individuals earlier in the day and taken their cellphones, which were found in their possession at the crime scene. These robbery victims came forward independently after seeing television coverage of the crime, saying they recognized the two Pakistanis who were shot by the U.S. official.
Perhaps the bad boys were establishing their cover. They whack the American and it looks like a robbery. We complain and the Paks point out that, after all, the bad boys had robbed others so it must have been a simple robbery, by gum! We back down (of course) and the ISI snickers as they get away with killing another American.
The report indicates that at least one of the motorcycle men cocked a weapon and aimed it at Davis while he was stopped at a traffic signal, but that neither of the Pakistani men fired. "One cocked a pistol and pointed it at him," a U.S. official said.
The two slain Pakistanis were found in possession of five cellular phones, a Rolex-style watch and four different types of currency, the report indicates.
U.S. Army records indicate that Davis, a native of Virginia, spent a decade in the military before being discharged in 2003. He is identified as a special operations weapons sergeant whose last assignment was with the 3rd Special Forces Group based at Fort Bragg, N.C.
Sounds like just the sort of man the CIA would hire. Or the State Department. Or Blackwater (Xe).
Davis also served in infantry units, as well as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force in Macedonia in 1994. Public records indicate that after his military career, Davis served as an officer of a private security firm known as Hyperion Protective Services, based in Nevada.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/11/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
"No one individual in Pakistan, no one organization, can afford to take an unpopular decision at this time," he said.
One set of Laws for me, another for thee.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/11/2011 12:05 Comments ||
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ISLAMABAD: After having maintained an ambiguous position for a week on the status of the American citizen involved in killing two youths in Lahore, the governments legal experts have started examining the issue, in an indication that at last the countrys leadership is moving closer to taking a definitive position on the matter.
The Foreign Offices legal division and the governments law and justice division have started consultations on the matter, a senior official disclosed to Dawn a day after the US embassy through a diplomatic note urged the Pakistan government to issue a certificate on the status of Raymond Davis.
According to Pakistans Diplomatic and Consular Privileges Act of 1972, the government, in case of a dispute over privileges and immunities of someone working for a foreign mission, has to issue a certification which will be deemed as conclusive evidence of that fact.
The government has so far been reluctant to come up with a clear position on Daviss status because of fears of political backlash and hurting ties with the US. Nobody wants to take responsibility whatsoever, a source said.
Sounds like Pakistain, alright, along with perhaps half the over governments in the world. But this one isn't open to negotiation. Mr. Davis either is or isn't a diplomat.
This situation led to wild speculation and added to nervousness of Washington which started exerting more pressure on the government for accepting Daviss immunity and getting him released.
An official at a background briefing clarified the apparent dichotomy between the Vienna Convention that accepts technical and administrative staff of foreign missions as diplomatic agents and the FO protocol manual that requires all such staffers to be designated as non-diplomatic staff, saying that local regulations pertained to the exceptions given in the Vienna Conventions Article 37.
He said that diplomatic staff, including ambassadors and counsellors, had full immunity, while non-diplomatic staff enjoyed limited immunity.
Limited immunity still means Mr. Davis comes home. He was performing his duties when he had to defend himself.
The US embassy had filed Daviss request for registration with the Foreign Office indicating him as non-diplomatic staff. But in the diplomatic note given to the FO on Thursday, the embassy insisted that his designation as non-diplomatic staff, in the request for registration, was only for compliance with the FO regulations and in no way compromised his immunity under the Vienna Convention of 1961. Besides the difference of opinion over the interpretation of immunities under the convention for administrative and technical staff, there are several other contentious matters in the Daviss case which the governments legal wizards would have to sort out.
A few slip-ups by Pakistani officials while dealing with Davis notification and subsequent registration request are quite obvious. His posting in Pakistan was notified in January last year. However, the FO did not issue a disagreement note, rather there was apparently no reply. The US embassy is now claiming Daviss immunity on the basis of that notification.
However, when the embassy submitted his registration request queries cropped up and these were communicated to it, which remained unresolved to date. Resultantly, Davis hasnt been registered as yet.
But the US embassy maintained that the FO registration was irrelevant for the immunities guaranteed under the Vienna Convention. Moreover, the Pakistani officials agreed that they took too long to decide on Davis registration case.
There are also problems on the American side. The US had filed two applications for Daviss registration one for the Lahore Consulate and the other for the Islamabad Embassy.
Which one of these requests ultimately holds would determine which Vienna Convention the one on diplomatic relations (1961) or that on consular relations (1963) would apply to Davis if he were to be ultimately granted immunity.
But the decisive factor in the case, even if the Pakistan government agrees to give limited immunity, would be a determination of the fact whether the act of fatally shooting the two alleged muggers occurred during the course of his duties.
At least for now no one is ready to speak on what Davis was doing in Mozang, Lahore, which has no diplomatic activity whatsoever.
The Vienna Conventions Article 37 states: . the immunity from civil and administrative jurisdiction of the receiving State specified in paragraph 1 of article 31 shall not extend to acts performed outside the course of their duties.
An official privy to some initial legal consultations said Davis by no stretch of imagination qualified for full immunity. The US embassy is, however, adamant that Davis is entitled to full criminal immunity and cannot be lawfully arrested or detained.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/11/2011 00:00 ||
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Pakistani officials said President Obama's national security advisor summoned Pakistan's ambassador to the White House Monday evening to deliver a threat from the president: Release Raymond Davis, an American being held in Lahore for killing two Pakistanis, or face the consequences.
National Security Advisor Tom Donilon told Ambassador Husain Haqqani, according to two Pakistani officials involved in negotiations about Davis, that the U.S. will kick Haqqani out of the U.S., close U.S. consulates in Pakistan, and cancel an upcoming visit by Pakistan's president to Washington, if Davis, a U.S. embassy employee, is not released from custody by Friday.
And cut off the money. Cut off the money and threaten to give it all to India.
The outlines of the threat were confirmed to ABC News by a senior U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak on the record. A White House spokesperson, Tommy Vietor, declined comment.
Ambassador Haqqani denied, via Twitter, that any "US official, incl the NSA, has conveyed any personal threats 2 me or spoken of extreme measures."
Davis, 36, is expected in court early Friday morning in Lahore to face charges of shooting two men on motorcycle on Jan. 25. Davis says he killed the men because they had been following his car and were trying to rob him. Video emerged Thursday of Davis showing his State Department credentials to Pakistani police officers and saying, "I'm a consultant."
Which means the worst the Paks could do is PNG him and send him home. Why hasn't the US ambassador to Pak-land been screaming night and day?
Davis is in Pakistan on a diplomatic passport, and the U.S. has demanded his immediate release on the grounds of diplomatic immunity. The stand-off between Washington and Islamabad has brought the already tense relationship between two uneasy allies to a new low.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/11/2011 00:00 ||
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I don't believe it, Obama's admin behaves as USG should?
#2
This is today's position g(r)om. By Sunday it will have changed 3 times.
Posted by: Alan Cramer ||
02/11/2011 8:36 Comments ||
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#3
Not sure how Paki jursidiction laws work but it sounds like the local turbans in Lahore have first crack at him. All Islamabad can do at this point is to make sure he doesn't eat bugs and get ruffed up.
LAHORE: The law minister in Punjab province said prosecutors would go to court today to demand a murder trial for a US official in a case that has inflamed relations with Washington.
Something very hinky is going down here. Mr. Davis is supposed to be a diplomat. He should already have been put on a plane and sent home.
He's a bloody kaffir who is insisting on being treated as equal to the Final Religion. He can sit there and learn his place.
On January 27, Raymond Davis confessed to shooting dead two Pakistani men in self-defence in broad daylight on the streets of Lahore. A third Pakistani was run over and killed by a US consular vehicle coming to collect Davis, who was instead taken into Pakistani police custody.
Washington has demanded Davis' immediate release, saying he acted in self-defence and has diplomatic immunity.
That shouldn't be open to question. He either has a diplomatic passport or he doesn't.
An eight-day police remand expires today, when the judge is expected to decide whether Davis should be transferred from police custody to judicial remand in prison, a precursor to a trial.
Rana Sanaullah, law minister in Punjab, said the prosecution would seek murder charges against him on Friday. "Investigators will complete their job tonight (Thursday) and tomorrow we will frame murder charges against him," Sanaullah told AFP. "Another case of carrying unlicensed weapons would also be taken up against him."
A spokeswoman for the US embassy said the detained American would have legal counsel at the court appearance on Friday.
Where's the ambassador in all this?
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/11/2011 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Iraqi lawyers called for the end of judicial corruption and prisoner abuse in a protest Thursday that was one of the biggest anti-government demonstrations in Iraq since the start of popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia.
Dressed in the black cloaks they wear in court, Iraqi attorneys led a peaceful crowd of about 3,000 through a Sunni Mohammedan neighborhood in western Storied Baghdad, where there is simmering resentment against the Shiite-led government.
Lawyers in the cities of Basra and djinn-infested Mosul also held similar but smaller demonstrations, demanding better jobs and electricity services in Iraqi homes.
"This is in solidarity with the Iraqi people," said Kadhim al-Zubaidi, front man for Iraq's lawyers' union in Storied Baghdad. "We want the government to sack the corrupt judges."
Noting recent reports by human rights ... which are not the same thing as individual rights, mind you... groups revealing secret prisons in Iraq, al-Zubaidi added: "We also demand that the interior and defense ministries allow us to enter the secret prisons ... We want to get information about these prisons."
This month, Human Rights Watch reported evidence of prisoners being held at a secret jail in northwestern Storied Baghdad within a military base called Camp Justice. The watchdog group said the prisoners were moved there in November, days before an international inspection team was to examine conditions at the detainees' previous location. Senior Justice Ministry official Busho Ibrahim denied the report.
Overcrowded, dirty and otherwise deplorable prison conditions are commonplace in Iraq. On Monday, dozens of prisoners being held in Hillah, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) south of Storied Baghdad, went on a hunger strike to protest overcrowding. About 1,600 inmates are being held at the Hillah prison, which was built to house 750, according to a police official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
In Basra, lawyers waved banners declaring, "We demand the respect of the constitution and the Iraqi laws," and "Lawyers demand the sacking of corrupt blackmailers of the people." About 200 joined the protest in the southern port city, 340 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of Storied Baghdad.
Lawyers in djinn-infested Mosul, 225 miles (360 kilometers) northwest of Storied Baghdad, staged a sit-in the Ninevah provincial court.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/11/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] The PA's call to elections is illegal, and made in contravention of Elections Law (9) 2005 because the call came from an illegitimate government, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,' Ministry of Justice said in a statement Thursday.
Paleostinians, the statement said, must refuse the call and stand in the face of an illegitimate Ramallah government, urging people to call for a boycott of the vote.
Without proposing an alternative, the statement called on international rights organizations to interfere and prevent the elections from being held.
The statement accused the Fayyad government of seizing the issue of elections and using it to intensify division. Any municipal councils derived from the new elections, the statement said, would be illegitimate.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/11/2011 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Hezbullies acted with the utmost discretion when dealing with issue of Sami Shehab, the beat feet leader of one of its cells, who had been jugged in Wadi el-Natrun prison in Egypt. A member of the Hezbullies Political Council, Mahmoud Qamati, recently confirmed the news of Shehab's escape, revealing that he was safe, although without confirming whether he had arrived in Leb. Shehab is still in hiding since news has spread of his escape from prison. Hezbullies Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, in his latest comments the day before yesterday, was keen to avoid mentioning the issue, despite the fact that the focus of his speech was the Egyptian situation. Hezbullies MPs contacted by Asharq al-Awsat refused to comment on matter, describing it as "very sensitive".
However, The infamous However... sources within Hezbullies told Asharq al-Awsat that "all we can say for sure is that members of the cell, and Sami Shehab, are fine". They expected that "they are still on Egyptian soil; otherwise they would have been officially received by the party, and given a proper welcome". The sources added that "the caution in dealing with this issue is to preserve the safety of our brethren, and their lives". Rooters news agency has quoted sources close to Shehab's family, saying that he has arrived in Beirut, but they refused to give more details.
The Hezbullies sources refused to consider Shehab's escape a victory for their party, pointing out that "what happened was the result of the Egyptian popular revolution".
They said "In the end, the issue regarding our [beat feet] brethren will be resolved diplomatically, and it will end with their release, because the charges against them could not stand on one leg".
Egyptian security sources confirmed last week that Sami Shehab, the Lebanese Hezbullies member, had beat feet. He was convicted of plotting terrorist attacks on Egyptian soil, within the framework of what was known as a Hezbullies cell. His escape happened amidst the security chaos that engulfed Egypt and its prisons, as a result of the demonstrations demanding an end to the regime. Shehab decamped from el-Natrun prison, where he was serving a 15 year sentence under a ruling issued against him and 27 other individuals on the 27th of April last year, by the Supreme State Security Court in Egypt.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/11/2011 00:00 ||
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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.
What you end up looking like when you rely on 
Mohamed ElBaradei, who has emerged as a leader of the opposition movement against President Hosni Mubarak, posted comments online within the last hour warning that the country has become volatile.
Mahmoud 
