[Dawn] A BBC report quoted Afghan orc leader Siraj Haqqani on Monday as saying he's been approached by the United States to join the Afghan government That would have been a good thing in 2002. It'd be stoopid now.
Not that that would stop it from being true ...
Ouch.
and denying that his bad turban group was behind the killing of the top Afghan peace envoy. "No, no! Certainly not!"
The Pakistain-based Haqqani network is affiliated with both the Taliban and al-Qaeda and has been described US and other Western nations as the top security threat in Afghanistan. The group has been blamed for hundreds of attacks, including a 20-hour siege of the US Embassy and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... headquarters last month.
The group is led by Jalaludin Haqqani, but the ailing leader has relinquished most operational control to one of his sons, Siraj.
Last week, US officials accused Pakistain's spy agency of supporting the Haqqanis in attacks on Western targets in Afghanistan, the most serious allegation yet of Pak duplicity in the 10-year war.
The United States and other members of the international community have in the past blamed Pakistain for allowing the Taliban, and the Haqqanis in particular, to retain safe havens in the country's tribal areas along the Afghan border, particularly in North Wazoo.
The outgoing chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, has also claimed that Pakistain's military spy agency helped the group.
However, if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... Haqqani told the BBC Pashtu service that while the group had contacts with a number of spy agencies, including that of Pakistain, during the Soviet invasion, there are now "no such links that could be beneficial."
"Right from the first day of American arrival till this day not only Pak but other Islamic and other non-Islamic countries including America, contacted us and they (are) still doing so. They are asking us to leave the ranks of Islamic Emirates," he said referring to the Taliban leadership.
He said that the outsiders have promised an "important role in the government of Afghanistan," as well as negotiations.
Haqqani also denied that his group took part in the Sept. 20 liquidation of former Afghanistan's Caped PresidentBurhanuddin Rabbani ... the murdered legitimate president of Afghanistan... . He headed the country's High Peace Council, set up by Afghanistan's Caped PresidentHamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... to work toward a political solution to the decade-long war.
"We haven't killed Burhanuddin Rabbani and this has been said many times by the spokespersons of Islamic Emirate," he said.
Karzai's office has said a special commission investigating Rabbani's death had concluded the attack was planned in Quetta, the Pak city where key Taliban leaders are based. The delegation also said the primary assailant was a Pak citizen.
The BBC said it did not interview Siraj Haqqani directly. Working through an intermediary, the BBC drew a list of questions and received in return an audio file which it was able to verify as being him.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
And to prove our sincerely we've sent a brand new turban. Try it on, and press the red button.
[Dawn] Afghanistan's president says Pakistain has not lived up to its promises to help end the Taliban-led insurgency, but that he hopes the two countries can work together like brothers. Check cleared, huh?
More like "Don't kill me too!"
Karzai's Monday night speech carried a conciliatory tone toward neighboring Pakistain, in contrast to recent accusations that Pakistain is supporting hard boyz believed to have been behind the liquidation of Afghanistan's former president.
An Afghan commission said Burhanuddin Rabbani's ... the murdered legitimate president of Afghanistan... killing was plotted by hard boyz based in Pakistain.
Karzai says he expects the two countries will be able to cooperate because both have dealt with the violence spawned by the insurgency.
The careful language comes as Karzai prepares to depart for India, which Pakistain considers its archenemy.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Rejecting an allegation levelled by the Afghan interior minister about ISI's involvement in the liquidation of Prof Burhanuddin Rabbani ... the murdered legitimate president of Afghanistan... , Pakistain indicated on Sunday that Afghan security agencies might be involved in this and other such killings.
A statement issued by Foreign Office spokesperson Tehmina Janjua termed the Afghan minister's allegations 'baseless'.
It said Prof Rabbani, who was chairman of the Afghan High Peace Council, was a great friend of Pakistain who was widely respected in this country. He had lived here for a long time and had many friends.
Ms Janjua said the so-called evidence given to the Pak Embassy in Kabul is actually a confessional statement of an Afghan national, Hamidullah Akundzadeh, who had been accused of master-minding the liquidation.
"The concerned authority will work upon this piece of information," she said.
The Foreign Office expressed serious concern that all Afghans who favoured peace and friendly relations with Pakistain were being systematically killed and removed from the scene.
"There is a need to take stock of the direction taken by Afghan intelligence and security agencies," the spokesperson said, adding that the Afghan interior minister had not mentioned that the assassin had stayed for four days in the guesthouse of the High Peace Council managed by Afghans close to Prof Rabbani.
"The assassin was also apparently not body searched before the meeting. These facts are also part of the confession handed over to the embassy by the Afghan intelligence."
The spokesperson said Afghan Interior Minister Bismillah Mohammadi had not highlighted the fact that the assassin and his handler had been roaming around in Kandahar and Kabul for quite some time.
The foreign ministry deplored the statement by Mr Mohammadi and said Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... himself had offered to cooperate in the investigation during his visit to Kabul for offering condolences to Prof Rabbani's family and the Afghan people and government.
"Pakistain has unequivocally condemned the act of terrorism that led to the shahadat of Prof Burhanuddin Rabbani. Pakistain reiterates its commitment to peace and stability as well as to mutual respect."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[al-Arabiya] Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, the man convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing that killed 270 people, said his role in the attack had been exaggerated and the truth about what really happened would emerge soon.
Megrahi, released from a Scottish prison two years ago because he was suffering from terminal cancer, spoke to Rooters from a bed at his home in Tripoli. Looking frail and his breathing laboured, he said he had only a few months, at most, left to live.
"The facts (about the Lockerbie bombing) will become clear one day and hopefully in the near future. In a few months from now, you will see new facts that will be announced," he told Rooters Television over the pinging of medical monitors around his bed.
"The West exaggerated my name. Please leave me alone. I only have a few more days, weeks or months."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
"The West exaggerated my name. Please leave me alone. I only have a few more days, weeks or months."
Nope. If you really are dying, I want whatever is left of your time to be spent wondering if some very well armed and highly motivated men are going to come through the window and hasten your time to commune with Allah.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
10/04/2011 5:46 Comments ||
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#2
If what he saids is true and his role in the 1988 Lockerbie bombing was exaggerated, surely that means he had a role?
For a map click here. For a map of Nuevo Leon state, click here. For a map of Monterrey, click here
A total of 261 municipal police agents were dismissed in Santa Catarina, Nuevo Leon, according to Mexican news accounts.
El Universal reported Monday a press conference announcing the firings.
The cause for dismissal is said to be loss of confidence. A total of 124 police officers were dismissed for taking time off during a military operation a week ago.
In place of the dismissed officers, Mexican Army and marine units are patrolling the town. A total of 62 police agents and 42 traffic police agents are retained to provide security for the suburban of Monterrey.
Mexican military units completed an arrest sweep of more than 157 police officers over last weekend, arresting police in Apodaca, Pescaderia and Minas.
An excerpt:
An ugly momentum is building in the South China Sea, where an official Chinese newspaper called last week for war against Vietnam and the Philippines to uphold China's assertion of sovereignty over the mineral-rich seabed, estimated to hold 7 billion barrels of oil and 900 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
The lead article in the Chinese Communist Party newspaper Global Times Tuesday carried the headline "The time to use force has arrived in the South China Sea; Let's wage wars on the Philippines and Vietnam to prevent more wars."
"The South China Sea is the best place for China to wage wars," the article said. "Of the more than 1,000 oil rigs there, none belongs to China; of the four airfields in the Spratly Islands, none belongs to China; once a war is declared, the South China Sea will be a sea of fire [with burning oil rigs]. Who will suffer the most from a war? Once a war starts there, the Western oil companies will flee the area, who will suffer the most?"
#1
So .. what are the air and water defenses like around the Three Gorges? Enough to withstand whatever Vietnam, the Philippines and any allies could do?
Posted by: Water Modem ||
10/04/2011 0:32 Comments ||
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#2
Kinda puts the Vietnam War into a whole new perspective.
#3
And since Taiwan didn't get the F-16s they were supposed to because Bambi refused to authorize it, the ChiComs are getting a bit bolder. and The One can only bow and scrape. Michelle must have his balls in a jar on the WH mantle, cause he sure isn't using them. spineless phuck.
#5
The Three Gorges dam is incredibly vulnerable to cruise missile strikes because of the poor quality of concrete used in it. It is much more brittle because of that, and would be likely to fail from impact damage, let alone explosive damage.
#6
Also, looks like time for the Philippines to get some F-16s and Patriot missile batteries; and for Vietnam to get a bunch more of the latest Sukhois and some missile boats for oil field defenses.
1) Blowing 3 Gorges would hurt, messing up Shanghai, but it is a bb gun against an elephant. Don't count on it to be a knock out punch.
2) According to Joseph Farah, the Pentagon has suddenly shifted gears big time, if quietly, "prepping for 'tank-on-tank' war", due to "expecting something conventional, and big, coming down the pipe relatively soon."
3) The US senate is about to pass an anti-China tariff bill that could throw a wrench into the Chinese export scheme, and the Chinese are enraged about it, because this could pull the rug out from their explosive growth, and force them into a different economic mode.
4) China is getting too belligerent, too fast, and in too many directions at once. They may be looking at war as an "out" in the face of a collapsing economy. In this chaos they may very well have Pakistan as an ally, and some sympathy from Russia as long as they don't drag Russia into the fray.
5) Everybody else, however, have finally woken up to Chinese belligerence. This means India, Japan, Taiwan, SKor, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, maybe even Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore. None of the other ASEAN members are large enough to matter, however.
Oh, yes, and the United States, if there is a Republican president.
6) The US forces may be subdivided, because of Iran and Turkey cutting up rough at the same time.
#10
I don't believe Russia will be drawn into the fray.
They are allot more interested in holding their country together and building bonds with former republics. They operate in the black. The will to fight a war is not there in my opinion. I see them being an engine of growth in the near future.
#11
China has many problems. This may be a trial balloon but I doubt it. The quick rise of industry has been at a price. The bullet train wreck. The Dam construction of poor quality. The imports of products that harken back to the Japanese days of manufacturing poor quality products. Corruption is a plaque that is everywhere in this country. The printing of too much paper is the worst offense. They will not be concerned with loss of life. Their people are like blades of grass. They are not ready for war. They delude themselves. They must import coal for their steel, fuel, and industry. Like Japan if you threaten their supply of resources they will act. With or without Russia. The imperial China.
They will go it alone. Appease or oppose. A Maronite moment.
In this chaos they may very well have Pakistan as an ally
Which is less useful than having France as an ally, and more dangerous. The Pakis are likely to ship weapons to China's Muslims as be worth a damned in a fight.
They would likely, however, be enough to paralyze India.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
10/04/2011 11:58 Comments ||
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#17
From what I'm reading, it looks like Chinese labour costs, which have already gone up, are about to rise significantly as the government gets serious about workplace safety and starting a Social Security retirement scheme. Manufacturers have been setting up elsewhere rather than expanding in China anywhere, and that would accelerate the trend.
#18
Its intriguing to suggest destroying the three gorges dam but really? Destroying a dam that would in turn destroy a very populated city with minimal warning not to mention everything else between. Well I think it's unlikely in any scenerio except a war for survival (such as Taiwan might face).
Just saying, such an attack would be villified for decades around the world and could easily result in a nuclear return.
#19
If it was good enough for the Nazis, it is good enough for the ChiComs. Hell, we made movies about the guys bombing dams in the Nazi areas, 'The Dam Busters' being one.
#20
Besides, destroying the Three Gorges Dam is not a pinprick to the Chinese: it would obliterate several cities and all their factories, destroy dozens if not hundreds of miles of rail line, and render river traffic in the area unusable for a couple of years. And the Chinese are more dependent on river transport than we are.
#21
And it would subtract a very large amount of electricity from the national grid at the same time. As well, the traditional flooding problems would be back with a vengeance since the watershed areas have been flooding and drowned for years by the dam's lakes.
#22
The interesting part and the message itself is that this was said out loud. State-controlled media, and all that.
As for the economic impact, war in the South China Sea might chase away the multi-nationals, but it would also shut down China's exports to the United States - a savage blow to their economy at a time when they can ill afford it.
Fox just broke the news, the letter has been sent to Obama.
House Republicans are going to call for a special counsel to determine whether Attorney General Holder perjured himself during his testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Operation Fast and Furious, Fox News has learned.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Lamar Smith, R-Texas, is sending a letter to President Obama arguing that Holder cannot investigate himself and will request a probe by a special counsel.
The question is whether Holder committed perjury during a Judiciary Committee hearing in May. At the time, Holder indicated he was not familiar with with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives program known as Fast and Furious.
However, a newly discovered memo dated July 2010 shows Michael Walther, director of the National Drug Intelligence Center, told Holder that straw buyers in the Fast and Furious operation "are responsible for the purchase of 1,500 firearms that were then supplied to the Mexican drug trafficking cartels."
In response to the Monday release of that and other documents, the Justice Department said Holder was confused by the question, and that he was answering about when he first learned of the "troubling tactics" of the program, not the name of it.
But House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., told Fox News on Tuesday morning that Holder saying he didn't understand the question rather than he didn't know of the program is not a successful defense to perjury.
#2
At least the House will then have grounds to vote articles of impeachment should a special counsel NOT be appointed, or, if appointed, interfered with by the Obamadministration.
#3
The bright side of F&F is that every dollar Obama spends running guns to Mexico is one less dollar to throw away on dead beat solar panel companies or to bail out insolvent banks.
#4
You have a hostile administration.
You have a hostile press, unless they smell blood and know someone is going down.
So what the House Judiciary Committee is doing is a step by step process of building a case while DOJ and O keep obstructing. It will take time, but every time the administration stonewalls, it's another nail in their coffin.
Next thing that will happen is that 10 billion documents will have disappeared.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/04/2011 16:31 Comments ||
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#5
every time the administration stonewalls, it's another nail in their coffin -- an uncanny resemblance to Watergate.
#6
Except the media was eager to look into Watergate because it involved a Republican President that they loathed. Zero is their baby and they are actively running interference on this for him.
#8
All I've got to say is that is about f-ing time.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/04/2011 17:44 Comments ||
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#9
Nothing will happen. It would be racist, you know. And the Administration is fearless about making documents disappear (maybe people too, if they seem too big a risk.) No 22 minute gap in a tape - the whole tape would be gone, and nobody could say what happened to it, maybe cockroaches or something.
Two Somali men have been sentenced to life in a US prison for their role in the deadly hijacking of a yacht off the coast of Africa in February this year. The hijack left all four American yachters dead.
Muhidin Salad Omar and Mahdi Jama Mohamed were sentenced at a federal court in Norfolk, Virginia. They were part of a 19-strong gang that seized the boat south of Oman, hoping to ransom the passengers.
More sentences are due in the case on Tuesday. Two of Omar's accomplices were sentenced to life in prison in August. Three others are charged with murder and could receive the death penalty.
'Deep sorrow'
The men that boarded the yacht had planned to bring the Americans to Somalia, but then US Navy warships appeared.
Omar, the pilot of the pirate vessel, was one of two men who came aboard a US Navy ship to negotiate. Navy officials told the pirates that they could take the yacht, the Quest, in exchange for the hostages. According to court documents, they refused and said that the hostages were more valuable.
Just so. But it was already established that y'all weren't going to get to keep them.
Mohamed, a guard on the 58-ft (17-m) boat, was cooking pasta when the shooting started, prosecutors told the court. "I'm just a poor guy trying to support his family," said Mohamed, who expressed his "deep sorrow" for the deaths, and hoped the families of the victims would forgive him.
It is reported that the gang members who pleaded guilty have agreed to help prosecutors with their cases, and possibly others, in exchange for the possibility of having their sentences reduced and being deported. Mohamed's lawyers said in court that he had agreed to help US Navy Sherlocks to build a profile of pirates.
That is, indeed, one way to express deep sorrow for aiding murderers.
The owners of the Quest, Jean and Scott Adam of Marina del Rey, Caliphornia, were rubbed out, along with friends Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay, of Seattle. The four were the first Americans to die in a spate of piracy attacks in the Gulf of Aden.
Two of the pirates were killed by US forces and another two were found dead on the pirates' vessel. It is unclear how they died.
Perhaps God struck them down. It is said to have happened before.
Summary: Memos from 2010 show some in senior positions were aware of tactics used in a surveillance operation in which firearms were allowed into Mexico in a failed effort to catch drug cartel leaders.
Senior Justice Department officials were aware that ATF agents allowed firearms to be "walked" into Mexico, according to a series of emails last year in which they discussed two undercover operations on the Southwest border, including the failed Fast and Furious program.
In the emails that the department turned over to congressional investigators, Justice Department officials last October discussed both the Fast and Furious gun-trafficking surveillance operation in Phoenix and a separate investigation from 2006 and 2007 called Operation Wide Receiver. In Wide Receiver, which took place in Tucson, firearms also were acquired by illegal straw purchasers and lost in Mexico, the emails say.
The term "gun walking" is central to the failure of Fast and Furious. Agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives purposely allowed licensed firearms dealers to sell weapons to illegal straw buyers, hoping to track the guns to Mexican drug cartel leaders and arrest them. But they lost track of more than 2,000 weapons, and the Mexican government says some of them have turned up at about 170 crime scenes there. Two were recovered at the scene of a U.S. Border Patrol agent's slaying in Arizona in December.
Justice Department officials have said repeatedly that they knew nothing of Fast and Furious tactics until ATF whistle-blowers went public this year with allegations that guns were being illegally purchased with the ATF's knowledge.
Justice Department officials, who asked not to be identified because of the ongoing investigations into Fast and Furious, said that although senior department officials knew that guns were "walked" in the Wide Receiver investigation, they were unaware that ATF agents were using similar tactics in Fast and Furious. Wide Receiver just came to the front, but has been known about from those that know.
Jason Weinstein, deputy attorney general in the criminal division, brought up both cases in an October 2010 email, apparently concerned that they were going to overlap.
"Do you think we should try to have Lanny participate in press when Fast and Furious and [the] Tucson case are unsealed?" he asked about his boss, Lanny A. Breuer, head of the criminal division. "It's a tricky case given the number of guns that have walked but it is a significant set of prosecutions."
James Trusty, acting chief of the department's organized crime and gang section, responded, "I think so but the timing is tricky too."
He said the Tucson case would be ready for indictments before Fast and Furious, and that "it's not clear how much we're involved in the main F and F case."
Either way, he added that "it's not going to be any big surprise that a bunch of US guns are being used in MX, so I'm not sure how much grief we get for 'guns walking.' It may be more like, 'Finally they're going after people who sent guns down there' "
Investigators working for Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Sen. Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, view the emails as strong evidence that Justice Department officials knew about "gun walking" tactics in Fast and Furious.
Fast and Furious ran from fall 2009 to January, culminating in charges against 20 people -- none of them cartel leaders. It was unclear whether any indictments were issued in the Wide Receiver operation.
July 2010 memos, part of weekly reports, discussed an illegal straw purchaser in Fast and Furious who bought 1,500 weapons "that were then supplied to Mexican drug-trafficking cartels."
October and November memos said that "Phoenix-based 'Operation Fast and Furious' is ready for takedown" -- several months before the investigation was officially closed.
Copies of all of the memos were heavily redacted.
Justice Department officials said Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. routinely received reports about myriad ongoing investigations around the country, and that the reports did not disclose that ATF agents were purposely "walking" the weapons. They said Issa received a similar Fast and Furious update last year.
But congressional investigators said the memos suggested Holder had hedged what he knew.
According to the emails, Holder was told generally about Fast and Furious in the memos in July, October and November 2010, well before he told congressional committees he had first learned of the program.
On March 10, Holder testified before a Senate subcommittee that he had just learned about the Fast and Furious gun-walking allegations and had asked for the inspector general's investigation. "We cannot have a situation where guns are allowed to walk," he said.
On May 3, he was asked by Issa when he first learned about Fast and Furious. "I'm not sure of the exact date," Holder testified. "But I probably heard about Fast and Furious for the first time over the last few weeks."
Justice Department officials said Holder was referring to the date when he first learned about the operational details of Fast and Furious, not the program itself.
#1
Justice Department officials said Holder was referring to the date when he first learned about the operational details of Fast and Furious, not the program itself.
So, Holder knew the "name" of the program, but no details? How does one know about a program and not know what it's objective is?
Agent: And in closing, Mr. Holder, we have one more ongoing program in Phoenix. It's "Fast and Furious.:
Holder: OK, thanks for filling me in on that one. Anyone have anything else?
[Dawn] Pakistain Mohammedan Leagues-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Müslim League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... on Monday severely criticised the government of having 'appalling' policies, DawnNews reported.
Speaking at his party's newly elected working committee's meeting, Sharif said that government manipulates members of the parliament to get resolutions passed.
The party chief blamed the PPP-led coalition government of not taking the opposition, the parliament or any political party on board on any issue.
The PML-N chief also blamed the government for corruption and for intimidating behavior of US towards Pakistain.
Sharif reminded the audience that he considered President Zardari a 'threat' for democracy which he said was proved to be true.
Sharif said the present government had given the people of Pakistain nothing but humiliation. He moreover said that looking at the present state of Pakistain was heartbreaking.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2011 00:00 ||
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In which Hillary seemingly assists the Paks in muddying the Haqqani waters...
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another John Foster Dulles ... has said that the Paks have a point when they say that Pakistain alone did not create the Haqqani network, which is now killing American soldiers in Afghanistan.
Also on Sunday, the former US military chief, Admiral Mike Mullen, said that attacks on US soldiers in Afghanistan had caused him to blame Pakistain for backing the beturbanned goons who were behind those attacks.
The transcript of a Q & A session, released by the State Department, quoted Secretary Clinton as saying that the US relationship with Pakistain was critical to the ongoing stability and peace of the region, as well as the fight against terrorism.
"And I think it is important to remind ourselves that Paks have paid a much greater price in the war against terrorism and in the violence perpetrated on them over the last 10 years than, thankfully, we have," she noted.
That's because they nestled the asp that stung us in their collective bosom, and because it turns out we built better than we knew. Do recall that the expectation following the 9/11 attacks was that 30,000 would be found dead.
"Nearly 30,000 people have been killed -- civilians and military, scores of bombing attacks all over the country in places from mosques to markets to universities to cop shoppes."
Not to mention all the lives blighted by living within the circle of influence of the terror groups formed and supported by the Army of the Pure. The Pure have much to answer for.
Referring to Admiral Mullen's Senate testimony last week in which he blamed the ISI for encouraging the Haqqani network for attacking US targets in Afghanistan, Secretary Clinton emphasised the need to look at the issue from a historical perspective.
"If you go on YouTube, you can see Sirajuddin Haqqani with President Reagan at the White House," said the top US diplomat, noting that in the war against the Soviets in Afghanistan, the US government, through the CIA, funded Jihadis like the Haqqanis "to cross the border or to, within Afghanistan, be part of the fight to drive the Soviets out and bring down the Soviet Union".
"So when I meet for many hours, as I do, with Pak officials, they rightly say, 'You're the ones who told us to cooperate with these people. You're the one who funded them. You're the ones who equipped them. You're the ones who used them to bring down the Soviet Union by driving them out of Afghanistan. And we are now both in a situation that is highly complex and difficult to extricate ourselves from'. That is how they see it." The Paks, however, also have used groups in the past to support their ongoing conflict with India over Kashmire, she added.
So instead of demobilizing them when the war was over, Pakistan turned the weapon to another use, honing it to a sharper edge with their own dear little hands. How then is it America's fault these particular swords did not magically become plowshares?
Secretary Clinton said that when she took charge of her office, the Paks were also trying to basically appease the Pak Taliban who were attacking them -- trying to draw a distinction between the good cut-throats and the bad terrorists.
Since then, the US had been trying to convince the Paks that it was not in their interest to permit cut-throats to take over territory and succeeded in encouraging them to deploy troops in Fata.
"So I think it's important that we appreciate their perspective about where we both are right now," the secretary said.
"That in no way excuses the fact that they are making a serious, grievous, strategic error supporting these groups," she added.
That's why, she said, the US was "pressing and pushing on every lever that we have in the relationship" to achieve its strategic goals.
The aim was to prevent any attacks against the US emanating from Pakistain, as well as to try to help stabilise Pakistain against this internal threat, and to create the best possible circumstances for Afghanistan to be able to have control over its own future.
"Those are all extremely difficult, and we are learning it, each piece of that, every single day," she said.
In an interview to CNN, Admiral Mullen said what made him go public with his grievances against Pakistain was an increase in attacks on US soldiers and other targets inside Afghanistan. "It's not just about one country, it's about both Afghanistan and Pakistain, and part of the biggest challenge is the safe havens that the faceless myrmidons enjoy in Pakistain," he said. The admiral defined the Haqqani network as the most virulent terrorist group in Pakistain and a great supporter of Al Qaeda.
"The link between the Pakistain military and specifically the ISI is very well-known. And I have argued for the need to sever this link," he added. "That also has to do with getting control of that safe haven."
Admiral Mullen said that the intensity of the recent events and the strategic support that the ISI and the Pakistain military "both give to the Haqqani network directly and indirectly, is what I was focused on" in the Senate testimony.
When the interviewer insisted on knowing the real reason for the admiral to go public with his complaints against Pakistain, Mr Mullen said: "As a military leader and as somebody who feels responsible for the 2.2 million men and women in uniform, the effort or actions on the part of the Haqqani network to literally kill my people is something I just can't tolerate anymore."
He said he did not expect it to stop overnight but "a concerted effort on the part of responsible people could have a big impact".
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... leader Samir Geagea ... Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005 ... stated on Sunday that Syria's Lebanese allies are sensing that the Syrian regime will be tossed, and they are therefore now, contrary to their usual practices, calling for dialogue.
He said: "They are living in a state of confusion and are trying to take all possible measures to save themselves should the regime be toppled.
He made his statements during a telephone call to the annual LF party conference in North America.
"Everyone in Leb is in a state of expectation and don't expect the March 8 or 14 camps to take any extraordinary measure in the country except caretaking, which is what they are already doing today," Geagea noted.
"The developments in Syria are a major popular revolt aimed at toppling the regime," he added.
"The road to democracy will pass through several obstacles and hardships, but in the end, history can only move forward towards the positive," he stressed.
On local developments, the LF leader said: "The situation in Leb cannot become stabilized if an electoral law that adheres to the Taef accord is not adopted."
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10/04/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... noted on Monday that the facts and figures in the 2002 report on humanitarian development in the Arab world have not changed since the report's release, hoping that the revolts in the Arab world would be able to introduce real change in the way of life of Arab people.
He said in his weekly editorial in the PSP-affiliated al-Anbaa magazine: "The lack of change can be attributed to a lack of developmental and economic policies in the Arab world."
He also blamed the ongoing Israeli occupation and lack of democracy in most Arab countries for their failure to improve the living conditions of their people.
"The Israeli occupation has served to hinder security and progress in the region on the geographic and developmental levels," the MP said.
"In addition, the occupation has also been used as an excuse to justify the obstruction of democracy in Arab countries," Jumblat remarked.
The 2002 report explained that if the political motivation was available, Arab states would have acquired the necessary means to eliminate poverty, he added.
The PSP leader lamented the fact that educational curricula in the Arab world have not been developed, saying that students are still being taught matters that have become obsolete in the age of the Internet.
"If the cumulative production of all Arab countries combined amounts to less than the gross domestic product of a European country like Spain, then what can we expect of the Arab world in the future?": asked Jumblat.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2011 00:00 ||
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what can we expect of the Arab world in the future More of the same, but even worse, is my guess.
[An Nahar] It is "a matter of time" before the Syrian regime headed by President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... is ousted from power by a popular uprising, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta ...current SecDef, previously Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.... said on Monday. "How much time?"
"Can't say for certain. Sometime between tomorrow afternoon and the next ice age, I'm guessing."
Speaking in Tel Aviv after meeting his Israeli counterpart, Panetta said Washington and other foreign capitals had "made clear Assad should step down."
"While he continues to resist, I think it's very clear that it's a matter of time before that (exit) in fact happens. When it does, we don't know," he said.
The Pentagon chief, in a visit to Israel and the Paleostinian territories on Monday, said Assad's regime had lost all credibility after a brutal crackdown that has killed at least 2,700 people, according to the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... "Any time you kill your own people as indiscriminately as they have over these last number of months, it's pretty clear that they have lost their legitimacy as a government," he said at a news conference with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
Panetta, who served as CIA director until taking over as defense chief in July, pledged the United States and other countries would keep up pressure on the regime to make way for a government more responsive to the needs of its people.
Barak also said the Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... regime's days were numbered and that Assad's fall from power would represent a "major blow" to what he called a "radical axis" of hard boyz in the region supported by Iran.
In Syria, protesters poured onto the streets in a mass show of support for a powerful opposition grouping that was launched in Istanbul, activists said on Monday.
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10/04/2011 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.
Wazoo
Two Somali men have been sentenced to life in a US prison for their role in the deadly hijacking of a yacht off the coast of Africa in February this year. The hijack left all four American yachters dead.
Nawaz Sharif
Hillary Clinton
Samir Geagea
Walid 
President-for-Life Bashir 
