[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... has discounted reports that Eritrea supplied weapons to the Al-Shabaab ... successor to the Islamic Courts... to fight Kenyan troops last year.
A UN Security Council assessment report for December said investigations had established that Eritrea did not supply the weapons as alleged by the Kenya Defence Forces.
"The Monitoring Group also pursued its investigation into alleged arms deliveries by air to the Al-Shabaab controlled airfields in Southern Somalia in late October and early November 2011. The SEMG's preliminary assessment is that these reports were incorrect and that the alleged deliveries to Baidoa probably did not take place," the report reads in part.
Military front man Major Emmanuel Chirchir had claimed that at least three aircrafts had landed at the Baidoa airstrip in Southern Somalia carrying weapons to the orcs.
"We know Baidoa is being used to deliver weapons," Chirchir was quoted at the time and warned that Kenyan troops will shoot down any aircraft overflying Southern Somalia.
"Every time we have a delivery, we are going to take that aircraft down."
"All aircraft are hereby warned not to land in Baidoa," Chirchir said in a statement on his Twitter account.
"Anyone violating this will be doing so at their peril. Further unauthorized flying over the region will be considered a threat."
Foreign Affairs minister Moses Wetangula also summoned Eritrean ambassador to Kenya, Mr Beyene Russom to his office to explain Asmara's alleged links to the orcs.
Eritrea through its Foreign Affairs ministry vehemently denied the claims branding them as part of Ethiopia's campaign of misinformation to discredit Asmara.
On Monday, the Eritrean embassy in Nairobi demanded independent investigations into the matter.
"Eritrea has requested a full, fair and independent investigation to be conducted by UNSC to the above mentioned allegation and all other unfounded related accusations," a statement from the embassy read.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
My Somalian lodger says Eritrea does fund/Arm Al Shabaab only because Ethopia wants to takes its oil?
Posted by: Paul ||
01/17/2012 5:23 Comments ||
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#2
Paul, according to a quick google search, they've started drilling for oil in Puntland, which I thought is not where al Shabaab has been successful, and so where neither Ethiopian nor Kenyan troops have been. Am I wrong?
[Bangla Daily Star] Claiming that Sherlocks forcefully obtained signatures on the confessional statements of HuJI Founded in 1984 by Fazlur Rehman Khalil and Qari Saifullah Aktar. The Bangla branch was established in 1992 with assistance from Osama bin Laden. Recruits come mostly from Deobandi madrassahs. HuJI and Fazlur Rehman Khalil are signators of bin Laden's declaration of war on the west. leader Mufti Abdul Hannan, his counsel yesterday pleaded with a Dhaka court for discharging the accused from the August 21 grenade attack cases.
Seven other accused including former Dhaka City Corporation councillor Ariful Islam Arif yesterday filed discharge petitions with the Speedy Trial Tribunal-1.
With this, 30 accused have appealed to the tribunal seeking discharge from the cases -- one under the explosive substances act and the other for murder.
During the hearing on Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI) leader Hannan's discharge prayer, his lawyer Lutfor Rahman Sheikh told the court that his client was tortured on November 1, 2007, to sign a "so-called" confessional statement in the cases.
Based on this statement, Criminal Investigation Department (CID) had pressed charges against Hannan and 21 others in June 2008. None of the 61 prosecution witnesses, who testified in the court, mentioned his client's name, the attorney argued.
During further investigation, CID took Hannan to its Malibagh office from Sylhet jail on April 4 last year without remand. The Sherlocks tortured him heavily to make him confess to the crime implicating several others.
On refusal, Hannan was again brought to Dhaka Central Jail on April 7 and was taken to Chief Metropolitan Magistrate's Court of Dhaka that evening, maintained the lawyer.
At the magistrate's chamber he was forced to sign a written confessional statement, but Hannan still denied to give in.
Later CID forged his signature on an additional confessional statement and accordingly pressed charges against BNP Senior Vice-Chairman Tarique Rahman ...the elder son of former President of Bangladesh Ziaur Rahman Bir Uttam, and Khaleda Zia, former Prime Minister of Bangladesh. He is the Senior Vice Chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). His nickname is Pino. There are allegations that Pino took a rakeoff from every foreign investment into the country while Mom was in office... and 29 others on July 3 last year, said Lutfor Rahman.
According to the prosecution, Hannan and 11 others had earlier confessed to the crimes, narrating how and why they had planned liquidations of the then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina and her party leaders and activists.
The court so far has heard 23 discharge petitions in the cases. It has fixed January 23 for hearing the next prayer.
Twenty-four people were killed and around 200 injured in the grisly grenade attack on an Awami League rally at Bangabandhu Avenue on August 21, 2004.
The Sherlocks have accused 52 persons in the two cases. Of them, 32 are now in jail, one on bail and the rest have been absconding.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2012 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Top Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... leader Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed was involved in killing many people, including freedom fighters and intellectuals, during the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971, according to the findings of the prosecution.
The International Crimes Tribunal yesterday received the formal charge of crimes against Mojaheed after a resubmission by the prosecution.
The tribunal On December 28 last year returned the charge against Mojaheed saying that it had not been arranged properly and asked the prosecution to resubmit a formal charge in an arranged and classified manner by January 16 (yesterday).
The three-judge tribunal, headed by its Chairman Justice Md Nizamul Huq, yesterday fixed January 26 for passing an order on whether it would take the charge against Mojaheed into cognisance for trial.
The fresh charge contains 34 incidents of crime allegedly committed by Mojaheed, secretary general of Jamaat, during the war.
Yesterday after the submission, Prosecutor Mukhlesur Rahman Badal told The Daily Star that they have found proof that Mojaheed (now in jail) had been involved in the killing of eminent music composer Altaf Mahmud and well-known freedom fighter Shafi Imam Rumee.
Rumee is a son of Jahanara Imam, also known as Shaheed Janani (mother of martyr). In her highly-admired book "Ekattorer Dinguli", Jahanara Imam gave account of the days of the nine-month Liberation War and Rumee's murder.
The prosecutor said, "The then Pak occupation army confined six people including Altaf Mahmud and Rumee at the Old MP Hostel in Nakhalpara area of the capital in August 1971.
"Mojaheed and his superior Motiur Rahman Nizami ...During the liberation war of 1971, Nizami formed the Al-Badr Force and acted as its supreme commander. The Al-Badr militia took active part in rape, extortion, looting and killing of Bangladeshis who supported the liberation, including a pre-planned massacre on December 14, 1971, when the Al-Badr militia along with Pakistan Army rounded up hundreds of doctors, professors, writers, and other Bengali intellectuals, and executed them... on August 30, 1971 told the occupation army to kill the confined people before the then Pakistain president Yahya Khan had declared amnesty for "separatists" and "myrmidons" (freedom fighters).
In September, 1971, Yahya declared amnesty asking the myrmidons and separatists to surrender.
The prosecutor said the occupation force and their collaborators led by Mojaheed had killed 50 to 60 men and women after looting and setting fire to 300 to 350 houses in Hindu dominated Baidyadangi and Majhidangi villages of Charvodrason Thana in Faridpur district in mid-May, 1971.
Mojaheed, the then secretary of East Pakistain Islami Chhatra Sangha, had provoked and instigated the then Pak occupation force and its collaborators -- Razakar, Al Badr, Al shams and other organizations -- in killing pro-liberation people by delivering speeches in different places of Rangpur, Bogra, Comilla and Faridpur in 1971, according to the prosecutor.
Badal said Mojaheed, the then commander of Al Badr, was also involved in the killing of intellectuals on December 14, 1971, two days before Bangladesh won its independence.
He said Mojaheed and Nizami, then president of East Pakistain Islami Chhatra Sangha, were involved in conspiring with the occupation army in committing atrocities and crimes against humanity.
The International Crimes Tribunal has so far received the formal charges against former Jamaat-e Islami ameer Ghulam Azam, its present Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami, Nayeb-e Ameer Delwar Hossain Sayeedi ...Islamic orator and politician. He was a former Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2008, and is one of the most prominent leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami... , and Assistant Secretaries General Muhammad Kamaruzzaman and Abdul Quader Mollah and BNP leader Salauddin Quader Chowdhury in connection with their alleged crimes against humanity.
[Bangla Daily Star] A prosecution witness yesterday told the International Crimes Tribunal that Jamaat-e-Islami ...The Islamic Society, founded in 1941 in Lahore by Maulana Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, aka The Great Apostosizer. The Jamaat opposed the independence of Bangladesh but has operated an independent branch there since 1975. It close ties with international Mohammedan groups such as the Moslem Brotherhood. The Jamaat's objectives are the establishment of a pure Islamic state, governed by Sharia law. It is distinguished by its xenophobia, and its opposition to Westernization, capitalism, socialism, secularism, and liberalist social mores... leader Delwar Hossain Sayeedi ...Islamic orator and politician. He was a former Member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Bangladesh from 1996 to 2008, and is one of the most prominent leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami... along with other collaborators handed his three sisters to the Pak occupation force in 1971.
"They picked up three of my sisters and handed them over to a Pak soldiers' camp in Pirojpur," said the witness in his late sixties in an emotion-choked voice.
"They were raped at the camp... and sent back home after three days..." uttered the witness before breaking into tears.
He mentioned the names of his sisters but the tribunal requested the media not to reveal those. The Daily Star has also kept from publishing the name of the witness in compliance with its editorial policy.
A few days after his sisters returned, the collaborators led by Sayeedi forced him and his family members to convert to Islam, he alleged.
"They forced me, my parents and siblings to convert to Islam and made us say prayers at the mosque," he said.
The three-member tribunal led by its Chairman Justice Nizamul Huq finished recording the deposition and the cross-examination of the prosecution witness.
He is the thirteenth prosecution witness in a case against Sayeedi regarding crimes against humanity committed during the Liberation War.
Sayeedi was present at the dock during the proceedings. He is among six Jamaat and two BNP leaders who are facing charges of crimes against humanity at the court.
According to the witness, before his sisters were taken, Sayeedi along with some other collaborators came to their house and looted it.
After they were forced to convert to Islam, all his family members went to India except for him, he said.
Apart from his family, the collaborators led by Sayeedi converted some 100 to 150 Hindus including Narayan Saha, Nikhil Paul, Sunil Paul and Haran Bhowmik, the witness alleged.
"After being converted, they named me Abdul Gani," said the witness, adding that the collaborators used to give him a tupi (cap) and a tasbih (used to keep track of repetitive utterances) whenever he was taken to the mosque.
After the Liberation War, he returned to his original religion, the witness added.
The witness said Sayeedi was his neighbour living in a rented house in Parerhaat during the War.
After the prosecution witness finished his testimony, Sayeedi's defence started cross-examining him.
Defence counsel Mizanul Islam asked the witness whether he had submitted the list of valuables the collaborators had looted from his house during the war to the investigation officer of the tribunal.
"They looted everything, even the brooms. What should I write on the list!" was his response.
Islam later asked the witness whether he had atoned for converting to Islam after he retained his original religion.
The witness responded: "I became Moslem to save my life. So, atonement was not required."
At one point of the cross-examination, Islam told the witness that his national identity card puts his date of birth on July 8, 1963.
The witness replied: "Either I had said it wrong or they wrote it wrong."
The answer prompted a discussion in the court with the defence saying if the date of birth on the ID card is true, the witness was seven during the Liberation War instead of 27 as he claimed.
At this, the court said it is also observing the issue, while the prosecution said they would clarify it during their argument.
Islam also asked the witness whether he had requested the authorities concerned to correct the mistake. The witness said he did not.
Islam also told the witness that his three sisters were very young during the War.
But the witness denied it.
The tribunal is scheduled to record the deposition of fourteenth prosecution witness Abdul Halim Babul today.
Abu Qatada, once described as "Osama bin Laden's right hand man in Europe", cannot be extradited to Jordan the European Court of Human Rights has ruled. In a landmark judgment, the court said that Qatada would not receive a fair trial if he was returned to his native Jordan where he faces charges that he plotted bomb attacks on two hotels and providing finance and advice for another series of bomb attacks to coincide with the Millennium.
The court said there would be a violation of his right to a fair trial under Article Six of the European Convention of Human Rights, "given the real risk of the admission of evidence obtained by torture at his retrial."
Was he tortured or are they worried about the threat of torture?
It is the first time that the Court has found that an expulsion would be in violation of Article 6, which reflects the international consensus that the use of evidence obtained through torture makes a fair trial impossible.
Qatada, 51, whose real name is Omar Mahmoud Mohammed Othman, has been convicted twice in Jordan in his absence for conspiracy to carry out bomb attacks on two hotels in Amman in 1998, and providing finance and advice for a series of bomb attacks in Jordan planned to coincide with the Millennium. The cases were to be retried.
He was first arrested in 2002 and is currently held in Long Lartin jail after breaching his bail conditions.
#3
Okay, send him to the Netherlands, or wherever the European Court of Human Rights meets. One small rule: if he ever leaves that country for any reason, or if the Court ever relinquishes its custody, he's fair game and an open target for ANYONE.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/17/2012 15:17 Comments ||
Top||
Radical Islam remains the most serious threat faced by Norway despite the attacks by an Islamophobe extremist who killed 77 people last summer, the chief of the security police said on Tuesday.
Janne Kristiansen, head of Norway's Police Security Service, said her agency would focus on broad-based dangers from home-grown Islamic extremism even though threats against public officials have risen since the July attacks, which targeted Norway's left wing.
"In recent years we have seen a development in which (Muslim) people raised in Norway become radicalized, and for whom Norway and Norwegian society are the enemy," she told a news conference. "These people have a lot of contact with extreme Islamists abroad. They travel to training camps in conflict areas and they travel to participate in armed combat before returning to Norway."
By George I think she gets it...
Responding to critics who have said the police are neglecting the threat from right-wing militants like Anders Behring Breivik, who admitted carrying out the July 22 attacks, she said the threat they represent is far smaller.
"The number of violent right-wing extremists is still low," she said.
She added that a rising tide of hate-filled debate on Internet sites brought "a significant source of uncertainty" to her overall threat assessment.
Politicians and their parties, she said, have seen a rise in the number and severity of threats since the July attacks and should expect the problem to continue when Breivik's high-profile trial begins on April 16.
#1
2001 was a record in crimes of rape in Norway 109. Oslo had just about all of them. Three in other cities. 2011 was a record year for the cinema theater visits. The Troll Hunter (Trolljegeren) is a movie they have produced and it is the number one sold DVD Blue Ray product. Oil sales kept economy humming. They expect overall sales of oil to decrease 2012. They have introduced scanners at airports seeing increased potential for problems. Like England many who have fought in Arab spring are coming back to do whatever they will do. One English speaking person was amazed how well the Libyan rebels spoke English. Even had local sound to it.
#4
The more I think about it, the more Breivik's attack impresses me as a brilliant strategy, to the point where I half wonder if he developed the whole plan on his own.
Just looking at it as a military operation, he covered the bases as if he had followed a Soviet unconventional operational plan, which was the Russian version of the operations order that has long been used by the US military.
Importantly, he included a few details found in the Soviet scheme *not* found in the US version.
This is why I paid a great deal of attention to the assertion that he had traveled to a paramilitary training camp in Belarus several times. If they taught him planning there, that is the kind of planning they would teach him.
And were it a well planned operation, it performed like clockwork, doing exactly what he wanted it to do.
As an aside, this type of planning was first devised by Sun Tzu, and his basic format remains relatively unchanged as the best scheme ever devised to plan military operations. It is used by every modern army.
On the surface, the Navy's cherished fleet of 11 active aircraft carriers seems safe from President Obama's budget slashers.
Conventional wisdom says the requirement to cut $488 billion from the Pentagon within 10 years will not necessitate banishing a single carrier because the president's military strategy focuses on two carrier-dependent regions: Asia, where China is building a robust navy, and the Persian Gulf, where Iran threatens to block international oil shipping.
As Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta prepares to introduce the strategy's first budget next month, the Navy has been in a furious fight behind the scenes to protect only 10 carriers, sources familiar with the issue told The Washington Times. The sources say that, while the fiscal 2013 budget may well continue 11 carriers, the Navy will be down to 10 or even nine carriers within in the next five years.
A carrier typically transports about 80 aircraft and leads a battle group comprising 7,500 sailors, a guided-missile cruiser, two guided-missile destroyers, an attack submarine and a supply ship. Eliminating one carrier battle group would save billions of dollars. In addition, the Navy complements its carriers with amphibious-ready groups of warships, helicopters, fighter jets and Marines for sea-land operations. Some of those groups also might be scrapped.
A scenario discussed inside the Navy: Reduce the carrier fleet by retiring the flattops short of their 50-year life spans, and continue to build more advanced carriers at the Newport News, Va., shipyard at seven-year intervals instead of launching one every five years.
Reducing one carrier would set off a fight in Congress, which under law has required the Navy to maintain 11 active flattops. A source familiar with the discussions said the Obama administration would not want to take up that fight until after November's presidential election, given the importance of Virginia and its 13 electoral votes.
In general, the Navy has three carriers at sea, three returning from six-month deployments, three preparing to be deployed and two in some type of overhaul. For example, the USS Ronald Reagan, commissioned less than 10 years ago, is going into dry dock this month for a year of extensive repairs.
Under Mr. Panetta, the Pentagon has clamped down on the release of any details about the budget -- following the model of predecessor Robert M. Gates, who forced senior officials to sign nondisclosure forms.
But sources say a $488 billion in mandated savings will come from two principal sources: cutting the Army and Marine Corps ground forces by more than 100,000 troops combined and reducing the purchase and delaying the procurement of big weapons systems, such as the F-35 fighter.
Cutting back to 10 carriers would save the Pentagon additional billions of dollars. A carrier's payroll for a crew of officers and sailors, not counting its air wing, is about $225 million annually.
In fact, the Navy will soon undergo a 10-carrier trial. When the USS Enterprise is retired in November, 10 carriers will be active until the USS Gerald R. Ford becomes operational in 2015. Congress granted the Navy a waiver for the 33-month breach of the law.
"They're going down to 10 for programming reasons," Mr. Thompson said. "It is supposed to be temporary, but I think during the period the Enterprise is gone and the Ford class has not arrived, the Navy may grow accustomed to operating with only 10 carriers."
Mr. Thompson said carriers face three basic challenges.
"First of all, they have become extremely expensive to build and operate," he said. "Secondly, some countries, such as China, are developing the capacity to target and disable them from long distances. And, thirdly, the advent of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and unmanned aircraft will make it easier to accomplish air missions from other sea-based platforms."
Mr. Obama's strategy echoes that of his first defense chief, Mr. Gates. The strategy announced this month downplays the chances of a big land war, saying that active forces will be shaped to fight a limited ground conflict of a short duration.
The Gates imprint may well show itself when it comes to carriers.
"Do we really need 11 carrier strike groups for another 30 years when no other country has more than one?" Mr. Gates asked during a 2010 speech to the Navy League, a naval support association.
Advocates of aircraft carriers note that the White House often asks in crisis, "Where are the carriers?"
"China is going great guns to develop a maritime superiority," said Jon Ault, a retired Navy pilot who served on eight carrier deployments. "Imagine 20, 30, 40 years from now, when the U.S. is down to its last two or three battle groups. A fatigued 40-, 50-year-old carrier gasping for breath and a nuke shipbuilding industry that no longer exists. Works for China, perhaps not so well for us."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/17/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
"20, 30, 40 years from now" > by then the US-led OWG-NWO plans to rely on effective Spacestrike + Space MDS, + the early, simplistic beginnings of Earth-to-Moon/High Orbit travel.
The FORD-class CVNF is likely the last ocean-going Carrier classs before the USNavy-DOD switches oer to Space/Starships - the seven seas will become the purvue of Global Security Submarines + LCS-style light Surface Ships.
WHO'S THE WALKING PERT CLUSTERFUCK(S) THAT KEEP MAKING RIDICULOUS ARGUMENT(S) THAT OUR FUTURE OWG-NWO = SPACE GOVT-ORDER WON'T NEED NUC POWER ANYMORE, THAT HUMANITY IS GOING INTO DEEP SPACE RELYING ON "GREEN FUELS"???
First thingys come first, as one has to learn how to crawl before he can walk before he can run before he can fly before ....
> Universal Govts-Perts consensus on PEAK EVERYTHING, i.e. Curent + Future National, Global Reserves.
> The Russians [+ India] need to stop crashing.
> China will ultimately likely have to give up Communism.
> Indjuh will have to decide iff Indians, Hinduism, + Space are compatible concepts.
#3
I strongly suspect that the next carrier will be a "drone carrier", considerably smaller and a lot faster, likely launching from the sides and recovering on the flattop, which as a dual purpose will be able to take some manned aircraft as well, such as ECM and helicopters.
A critical design element will be their ability to avoid-defeat incoming high speed anti-ship missiles, torpedoes and mines.
#4
Maybe a submarine carrier? The Japanese managed to build a couple for WW 2, but never used them. In any case, stealth requirements by then may well make anything we have obsolete, much like the dreadnought class battleship did when it appeared on the scene.
#5
Moose, what you are suggesting could be a Wasp-sized ship with a smallish flight deck. Or make it MUCH smaller (about the size of one of these baby flat-tops the Euros like) and limit it to drones and a few helicopters. Good news is that those would be a lot cheaper than a Ford-class fleet nuclear carrier, and perhaps you could build a bunch of them.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/17/2012 15:08 Comments ||
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#6
Note that the MQ-47B is not a lot smaller than the lawn dart, but it does have triple the range. So carriers probably won't get smaller unless they carry fewer aircraft. A small carrier CBG will require the same escorts as a big carrier CBG. And the crew difference, (i.e. personnel costs) between a large and small carrier probably isn't that great.
So the big carriers will hang on until one is sunk or the UCAVs get significantly smaller.
#7
Biggest problem I see w/ the idea of smart ships is damage control; yes sensors can detect a pipe rupture or a hull breach, even a fire. but it require manpower to effect a repair or an 'on the fly' reroute/re do of fire boundaries, hose runs.
after living through 2 major fires on 2 different CV(n)s, the training of the crew enables us to react and do things the robo boat couldn't ( like toss a full LOX bottle over the side when it was engulfed in a pool of burning JP-5, for instance)
#8
One possibility might be a semi-submersible. It would surface to travel quickly, as well as to launch or recover its drones, but when under attack it could quickly lower itself below the surface.
#9
"Drone Carrier" > The Euros + Russia + Some in Asia appear to favor the MISTRAL-class designs, while as per the USN I believe we will see the future in the Navy's new mobile Landing Platform Ships.
I still hold that iff the US Navy-DOD have to cut the ENTERPIRSE + one or more NIMITZS', THEN GIVE 'EM TO THE BRITS = NATO FOR USE AS MULTI-PURPOSE VESSELS, ESPEC AIR + TROOP RR CARRIERS.
[POTUS FDR GIVING CHURCHILL 50 US DESTROYERS FREE-N-CLEAR here].
The UK's MoD + RN's anticipated timelines = gaps for the two CVF QUEEN LIZZIES is too risque' to allow.
[Dawn] Although it was a chilly, drizzly Sunday, there was no let-up in hectic political activities in the capital, with apprehensions about developments on Monday in relation to the order the Supreme Court may issue in the NRO implementation case, the memo issue judicial investigation and the debate and vote on a resolution tabled in the National Assembly on Friday by the ruling coalition.
A significant event was a meeting between PML-Q leaders and President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari. ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... In a terse press statement, the media wing of the presidency said PML-Q leaders Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Chaudhry Pervez Elahi had met the president and discussed the current political situation. It said that matters concerning coalition partners also came under discussion at the dinner hosted by the president.
According to sources, the meeting was of critical importance in the context of the NRO case and the attorney general's
appearance in the Supreme Court on Monday to present the government's stand on the six options given by an apex court bench on Jan 10.
The sources said it was not clear what would be PPP leaders' stance in the Supreme Court, but the PML-Q leaders were reported to have again suggested to the president to follow a middle course, instead of going for a head-on collision with the judiciary.
Chaudhry Shujaat had warned last week that in the event of a confrontation there would be only losers and no winner.
Since Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain has been actively trying to defuse the crisis over the past week and talking to all sections concerned, including the military, his meeting with the president indicated that the government was taking his suggestions seriously.
However, corruption finds a dozen alibis for its evil deeds... another unannounced meeting between the president and former law minister and the government's chief legal adviser Senator Babar Awan was equally important.
The sources said it was difficult to say whether the president would heed the advice of the Chaudhrys or that of Senator Babar Awan who is facing contempt of court charges for allegedly making derogatory remarks about the Supreme Court.
When asked about the mood at the prime minister's secretariat, a bigwig said it appeared that the government wanted `reconciliation' and might go for a compromise.
"Since it is a legal issue, one cannot be fully sure what the attorney general would say in the court on behalf of the federal government on the NRO, but it appears the government will try to address the concerns of the Supreme Court," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The National Assembly on Monday endorsed a resolution in favour of democracy originally moved by Awami National Party (ANP) leader Asfandyar Wali Khan, DawnNews reported.
Addressing the NA session, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani ... Pakistain's erstwhile current prime minister, whose occasional feats of mental gymnastics can be awe-inspiring ... said that it was a "welcome day for democracy".
"The parliament is free to elect the leader of the house. If somebody does not like us, they are free to initiate a no-confidence movement," said PM Gilani.
"I respect the courts, and I would appear before the Supreme Court on Jan 19," said the prime minister amid applause from assembly members.
"When I became prime minister, what was my first decision? I ordered the freedom of the judges under house arrest," said Gilani. "We are responsible members of the Parliament and we are committed to democracy."
The resolution asks state institutions to act strictly within constitutional "limits" while voicing "full confidence and trust" in the country's politicianship. The resolution also calls for adherence to "the basic constitutional principle of trichotomy of powers" -- in which parliament is regarded sovereign and above the executive and judiciary.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Esquimeau village our hero was receiving a quick lesson in aeronautics...... members of the Pakistain Mohammedan League -- Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistain Mohammedan League- Sherpao staged a walk out in protest.
"Speeches do not strengthen democracy," said leader of the opposition Chaudhry Nisar Ali. "There is no threat to democracy. This incompetent government is trying to support itself through this hollow resolution."
PML-N leader Ahsan Iqbal termed it a "dark day in the history of the parliament." The PML-N had proposed three amendments to the resolution on Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
For a second there, I thought NA meant North America.
[Iran Press TV] Iraq's foreign ministry has summoned the Turkish envoy to Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... over recent comments by a Turkish official about sectarian conflict in Iraq.
"The Turkish ambassador gave assurances that Turkish officials' statements were in good faith and he will inform his government in Ankara of the Iraqi position," Iraq's foreign ministry said in a statement.
Although the Iraqi officials did not specify which Turkish official the statements belonged to, the complaint apparently stemmed from remarks by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this month. Erdogan had said a sectarian conflict in Iraq, if unleashed, could engulf the entire Mohammedan world.
Turkish foreign ministry responded by summoning Iraq's envoy to Ankara on Monday.
On Friday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ... Prime Minister of Iraq and the secretary-general of the Islamic Dawa Party.... criticized Turkey, saying it is playing a dangerous role in the region.
"Turkey is unfortunately playing a role which may lead to disaster and civil war in the region," Maliki told the US-based al-Hurra television.
Tensions in Iraq heightened after an arrest warrant was issued for Vice president Tariq al-Hashimi on charges of involvement in acts of terrorism against government officials.
The arrest warrant was issued on December 19 after Hashimi's bodyguards confessed that they had assassinated several Iraqi officials and army generals over the past years on his order.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
OTOH TOPIX > FORMER DIPLOMAT: TEHRAN MAY BE PLANNING TO DIVIDE IRAQ, as a divided Iraq would be held as de facto proof of Iran's rising regional power + influence.
versus
* SAME > [2012] WAR AGZ IRAN NOT BENEFICIAL TO OBAMA.
ARTIC = US-Israel-vs-Iran war may have unpredictable consequences as one side uses force to close the Strait of Hormuz + Persian Gulf, while the other uses force to reopen same, WAR ON IRAN UNLIKELY UNTIL AFTER THE US 2012 POTUS ELECTIONS.
As per above Artic, OTOH IMO the inverse may also hold true in that Iran will have a all- year-long, Diplomatic + MSM-Net field day scoring points AMAP ALAP ATAP agz the US-Allies.
IOW, IRAN MAY CHOOSE TO FLEX ITS MUSCLES = PUSH-N-SHOVE REGIONALLY IFF IT BECOMS CONVINCED THE US WILL EITHER NOT FIGHT A WAR OR ELSE FAIL TO DO SO IN TIME TO STOP IT FROM DEV ITS FIRST NUCBOMB(S)???
BAGHDAD Iraqi authorities have detained a few hundred foreign contractors in recent weeks, industry officials say, including many Americans who work for the United States Embassy, in one of the first major signs of the Iraqi governments asserting its sovereignty after the American troop withdrawal last month.
The detentions have occurred largely at the airport in Baghdad and at checkpoints around the capital after the Iraqi authorities raised questions about the contractors documents, including visas, weapons permits and authorizations to drive certain routes. Although no formal charges have been filed, the detentions have lasted from a few hours to nearly three weeks.
Sounds like a first rush to exercise both sovereignty and security.
The crackdown comes amid other moves by the Iraqi government to take over functions that had been performed by the United States military and to claim areas of the country it had controlled. In the final weeks of the military withdrawal, the son of Iraqs prime minister began evicting Western companies and contractors from the heavily fortified Green Zone, which had been the heart of the United States military operation for much of the war.
Just after the last American troops left in December, the Iraqis stopped issuing and renewing many weapons licenses and other authorizations. The restrictions created a sequence of events in which contractors were being detained for having expired documents that the government would not renew.
The Iraqi authorities have also imposed new limitations on visas. In some recent cases, contractors have been told they have 10 days to leave Iraq or face arrest in what some industry officials call a form of controlled harassment.
Latif Rashid, a senior adviser to the Iraqi president, Jalal Talabani, and a former minister of water, said in an interview that the Iraqis deep mistrust of security contractors had led the government to strictly monitor them. We have to apply our own rules now, he said.
It's not like you guys are really good at security yet...
This month, Iraqi authorities kept scores of contractors penned up at Baghdads international airport for nearly a week until their visa disputes were resolved. Industry officials said more than 100 foreigners were detained; American officials acknowledged the detainments but would not put a number on them.
Private contractors are integral to postwar Iraqs economic development and security, foreign businessmen and American officials say, but they remain a powerful symbol of American might, with some Iraqis accusing them of running roughshod over the country. An image of contractors as trigger-happy mercenaries who were above the law was seared into the minds of Iraqis after several violent episodes involving private sector workers, chief among them the 2007 shooting in Baghdads Nisour Square when military contractors for Blackwater killed 17 civilians.
Iraqs oil sector alone, which accounts for more than 90 percent of the governments budget, relies heavily on tens of thousands of foreign employees. The United States Embassy employs 5,000 contractors to protect its 11,000 employees and to train the Iraqi military to operate tanks, helicopters and weapons systems that the United States has sold them.
The United States had been providing much of the accreditation for contractors to work in Iraq. But after the military withdrawal, contractors had to deal with a Iraqi bureaucracy at a time when the government was engulfed in a political crisis and Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, fearing a coup, was moving tanks into the Green Zone.
The delays for visa approvals have disrupted the daily movement of supplies and personnel around Iraq, prompting formal protests from dozens of companies operating in Iraq. And they have raised deeper questions about how the Maliki government intends to treat foreign workers and how willing foreign companies will be to invest here.
That might be precisely the point...
While private organizations are often able to resolve low-level disputes and irregularities, this issue is beyond our ability to resolve, the International Stability Operations Association, a Washington-based group that represents more than 50 companies and aid organizations that work in conflict, post-conflict and disaster relief zones, said in a letter on Sunday to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
As Iraqi and American officials were negotiating last summer to keep American troops in Iraq into 2012, the Iraqis refused to grant American troops immunity from Iraqi law, in large part because of violent episodes like the one in Nisour Square. Although the contractors working for the embassy are doing many of the same jobs American troops had, including training, logistics, maintenance and private security, they are not protected from Iraqi law.
Mr. Rashid, the adviser to Mr. Talabani, said Iraqis are fed up with foreign contractors. The Iraqi public is not happy with security contractors. They caused a lot of pain, he said. There is a general bad feeling towards the security contractors among the Iraqis and that has created bad feelings towards them all.
Mr. Rashid said that traveling to the United States to work was no different. Every time I go to the airport in New York they open my suitcase three times, he said. How long does it take to get an American visa?
An adviser to Mr. Maliki said that as part of the current agreement between the United States and Iraq, no Americans should be in the country without the permission of the Iraqi government.
Iraq always welcomes foreigners into the country, but they have to come through legally and in a way that respects that Iraq now has sovereignty and control over its land, said the adviser, Ali Moussawi.
Last month, two Americans, a Fijian and 12 Iraqis employed by Triple Canopy, a private security company, were detained for 18 days after their 10-vehicle convoy from Kalsu, south of Baghdad, to Taji, north of the capital, was stopped for what Iraqi officials said was improper paperwork.
One of the Americans, Alex Antiohos, 32, a former Army Green Beret medic from North Babylon, N.Y., who served in the Iraq war, said in a telephone interview Sunday that he and his colleagues were kept at an Iraqi army camp, fed insect-infested plates of rice and fish, forced to sleep in a former jail, and though not physically mistreated were verbally threatened by an Iraqi general who visited them periodically. At times, I feared for my safety, Mr. Antiohos said.
In a statement, Triple Canopy, which denied any problems with documents, said that during the detention period, company officials were in contact with employees by cellphone, and brought them food, blankets, clothing, medical supplies and cellphone batteries. All were released unharmed on Dec. 27.
The detention drew the ire of Representative Peter T. King, a New York Republican who heads the House Homeland Security Committee. His office was contacted by Mr. Antiohoss wife on Dec. 19 seeking help to get the employees released. Mr. King criticized the United States Embassy in Baghdad for failing to help release the contractors caught in a drama that he said might have resulted in part from rival Iraqi ministries battling for political primacy.
They could have been held as power plays by one Iraq department against another, but what adds to the problem is that it does not appear that the State Department is doing anything near what they could be doing, Mr. King said in a telephone interview.
The United States Embassy in Baghdad, as well as senior State Department and military officials, say that no Americans are currently being detained, and they insist the detentions and visa delays are more the result of bureaucratic inexperience than malevolent intentions.
One senior American military official said that the current disconnect between the Iraqis and the contractors was primarily an adjustment of our standard operating procedures as we adapt our people and they adapt their security forces to the new situation.
Continued on Page 49
#1
"We have to apply our own rules now," he said.
Unfortunately those Iraqi rules are those of a war of all against all, as they will shortly discover, to be followed at some point by another Saddam Hussein-type dictatorship, with or without religious overtones.
A nuclear Iran could make it tougher for Israel to act against enemies closer to home, a senior Israeli military official said Tuesday, suggesting that regional fallout would be broad should Tehran achieve bomb making capabilities.
Military planning division chief Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel said if Tehran attains atomic weapons, that could constrain Israel from striking Iranian-backed Islamist groups in Lebanon and Gaza, Hezbollah and Hamas.
"If we are forced to do things in Gaza or in Lebanon, under the Iranian nuclear umbrella it might be different," Eshel said at a briefing in Jerusalem. He warned that a nuclear-armed Iran would set off an atomic arms race in the region, leading to "a global nuclear jungle."
Israel has been warning the world for years that Iran must not be allowed to develop the technology needed to build a bomb. It worries that a nuclear-armed Iran could threaten Israel's survival and has hinted it could strike Iran militarily if international sanctions do not halt nuclear development.
#1
If Israel allows itself to be deterred by Iran in this respect, then it might as well start arranging for the orderly emigration of its entire citizenry to the West. Because Iran will go nuclear - thanks to the unwillingness of American public opinion to force a showdown - and Hezbollah and Hamas will attack relentlessly if they get to do so without retaliation. (Bush avoided an attack on Iran because it would have meant impeachment proceedings - he had spent all of the GOP's political capital, and then some, in Iraq).
#2
IIRC LUCIANNE > Israeli think-tank is claiming that the SINAI DESERT/REGION is steadily devol into a hotbed of Terrorism agz Israel, + may becom a major bone of MilPol contention between Israel + post-"Arab Spring" Egypt [ + aligned] in time.
#3
Israel is arguing that any sharing of reliable Nuctechs to regional or international, third-party Govts. + Groups will lead to a "Global Nuclear Jungle", + that regional MilTerrs + Iran + Syria may have a combined 100,000 Rockets aimed at Israel.
Personally, I prefer "Global Nuclear Kaleidoscope".
OTOH WORLD NEWS > ISRAELI ANALYSTS: IRAN STILL MULLING WHETHER TO BUILD BOMB [Tehran also facing "unprecedented" external + internal threats to its stability + integrity].
* SAME > IRAN: OIL EMBARGO WILL BE ECON SUICIDE FOR EU.
Assault is part of a broader crackdown on Shi'ite organizations, including charities, that was sparked in part by Hamas' fear of growing Iranian influence in Gaza.
Armed Hamas men broke into a gathering of some 30 Shi'ite worshippers in the Gaza Strip last Friday and brutally attacked them, Haaretz has learned.
The assault was part of a broader crackdown on Shi'ite organizations, including charities, that has been sparked in part by Hamas' fear of growing Iranian influence in Gaza.
The worshippers had gathered in a house in the Sheikh Zayyad neighborhood, between Beit Lahia and Jabalya, to mark Arbaeen, the end of the 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, founder of Shia Islam, who was killed in 680 C.E.
Hamas militants arrested 14 of the men and beat up the rest. They continued beating the worshippers even after taking some to a hospital and others to a Hamas detention facility.
In 2011, Israeli Arabs were in involved in 67 percent of Israel's murder cases, even though the Arab sector comprises only 20% of Israel's population. That's just criminal cases
#1
If one applies the quota 'logic' so popular among the social equalitists, this just proves how biased Israeli justice is (arresting/prosecuting such a disproportionate number of Arabs.)
The threat of Iran closing the strait has reached a fever pitch, reports today's New York Times, with U.S. officials warning Iran's supreme leader that such moves would cross a "red line" provoking a U.S. response. Iran could block the strait with any assortment of mines, armed speed boats or anti-ship cruise missiles but according to Michael Connell at the Center for Naval Analysis, The immediate issue [for the U.S. military] is to get the mines. To solve that problem, the Navy has a solution that isn't heavily-advertised but has a time-tested success rate: mine-detecting dolphins. Article has lots of supporting links, so it's easier to check it out directly.
#5
Thank you again, Mr. 'Pinch' Sulzberger, for advertising our technology. Not that the use of Flipper is a state secret, just that it's not always a really wonderful thing to lay all your cards face up while you're in play.
The Persians will now kill any dolphin they find swimming about. They're probably 'haraam' anyway.
#6
The US has been training dolphins since the 1970s. Though the movie The Day of the Dolphin (1973) was a box office bomb, it impressed enough of the right people to give the US Navy the benefit of the doubt.
And the Navy used the opportunity to great advantage. Among other uses, dolphins can be deadly against enemy scuba divers (imagine being hit underwater by a 400lb dolphin at 35mph with little or no warning).
They can detect a one foot diameter object at 100 meters, and can tell if it is natural or man made.
The way they could be used against mines in simple and safe. When they spotted a mine, they give a signal from their GPS location. Then they swim a distance and give a second signal for the same mine. With triangulation, both a static and drifting mine can be located and destroyed.
#9
Hmm SEALS, dolphins , Israeli killer attack sharks , angry sea bass all converging in the Strait of hormuz . Makes for a great movie ! But I rly wanna see the mutant jellyfish shoals akin to godzilla siZe , surely they exist too ! Don't tell me otherwise ;)
Posted by: Mac in Aus ||
01/17/2012 21:56 Comments ||
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#10
and the spotted luminous shark from Life Aquatica...
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/17/2012 22:00 Comments ||
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#11
Countries that depend on shipping for their economic life blood are being foolish when they threaten international maritime law. After all, turnabout is fair play.
Of course, with ~80% of Iranian owned tonnage now flagged outside of Iran, the flagging states would have the responsibility of enforcing a total embargo, which is what might happen if Iran did succeed in closing the straits.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/17/2012 22:11 Comments ||
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#12
Just wait until Iran deploys its LR Shark, Killer Whale, or Crocodile anti-US Naval Suicide Jihad Unit???
* ION WORLD NEWS > [Bloomberg News] KEEPING STRAIT OPEN TO GET TOUGHER WITHIN DECADE [2021?] AS IRAN BOLSTERS FORCES [+ advanced MilTechs].
Iran at present is more a military nuisance than a realistic threat to the US = US-Allied - despite possessing certain good mil capabilities, ITS NOT STRONG ENOUGH YET TO PREVENT THE US, etc. FROM FORCIBLY/UNILATER REOPENING THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ [or any area of the Persian Gulf] WIDIN A MONTH'S TIME AFTER ANY IRAN ATTEMPT TO CLOSE IT.
Truth be told, the USDOD per se could easily reopen the Strait in half the time or less save for the brouhahas of International Politics.
Iran will have a "tough response" to any country trying to endanger the security of the region, Foreign Ministry official says; military official warns Iran has "different tools to defend national interests."
A letter sent by the United States to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei warning that a closure of the Strait of Hormuz would be crossing a "red line" contained nothing new, an advisor to Khamenei said Monday. Echoing the statement, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said Tuesday that "nothing new" has taken place in Iranian-American relations.
"Our country does not seek conflict and tension with anyone," the ISNA news agency cited Mehmanparast as saying Tuesday. "We have declared that Persian Gulf security is our major priority and Iran will give a tough response to any country which intends to endanger regional security. Everything will change if anyone wants to change [the] regional climate," he added.
[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... has warned that revolt-hit Syria might "descend into civil war if the bloodshed continues," stressing that the Arab peoples "can no longer tolerate autocratic parties and rulers."
In his weekly column in his party's Al-Anbaa newspaper to be published Tuesday, Jumblat said: "The Arab peoples can no longer tolerate autocratic parties and rulers, and the freedom fighters and revolutionaries in all countries do not buy anymore the obsolete rhetoric that was used for years to control the masses."
"The Arab peoples can no longer tolerate autocratic parties and rulers, and the freedom fighters and revolutionaries in all countries do not buy anymore the obsolete rhetoric that was used for years to control the masses."
The Druze leader stressed that "the persistent attempts to promote theories about terrorism and armed terrorist groups can no longer convince the angry masses."
But he noted that "if there are gangs described as terrorist that are taking advantage of the state of chaos created by the security and oppressive solutions implemented by the regime in the face of legitimate political and social demands, that does not negate the fact that there are peoples seeking to achieve their freedom, democracy and dignity."
"There's no doubt that Syria may descend into a devastative civil war if the bloodshed continues," Jumblat cautioned, warning that "certain steps to escape forward might push things towards an kaboom in other arenas."
And as he reiterated that the Arab initiative was the most appropriate solution to the Syrian crisis, Jumblat urged Iran to "launch some kind of initiative towards the Syrian people who stood by the Iranian revolution against the Shah regime and in the face of the Saddamist attack in the eighties."
He also called on Russia to "launch a political initiative together with the countries concerned in order to pull Syria out of this crisis."
Turning to Leb, Jumblat reiterated his support for "the Resistance That'd be the Hezbullies, natch... and the defensive mission it is performing in the face of the Israeli enemy, in a manner that preserves the national Lebanese interest," stressing "the need to reach consensus over a comprehensive national defense strategy."
He also underlined that "weapons should not be used domestically."
"We are totally keen, together with the Resistance, on preserving domestic stability and civil peace, especially in this critical and sensitive moment in the region. As to the divergent viewpoints on evaluating the developments of the Syrian crisis, that should be left to direct dialogue, away from bickering in the media."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2012 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[An Nahar] Iran's diminutive PresidentMahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad's media advisor, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, has been found guilty by a Tehran court of insulting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but on Monday fought back against the charge.
"My adherence to the sage supreme leader is more apparent than the sun, and is backed by my record," Javanfekr wrote on his personal website, Javanfekr.ir.
He said he would appeal the verdict, which was delivered on Sunday by a Revolutionary Court.
The court sentenced Javanfekr to a year in prison and a five-year ban on media and political activities for references he made to Khamenei on his website in April 2011.
"I expect the judges to be fair and overturn the sentence in the appeals process," he wrote.
The conviction marks another legal twist for Javanfekr, who also runs Iran's official IRNA news agency and a state press group that prints several newspapers and magazines.
It was a setback generally for Ahmadinejad and his entourage, whose long-running battle against hardline conservative judges and politicians is intensifying ahead of March legislative elections.
Javanfekr narrowly avoided arrest in November over a separate legal case, in which he was accused of undermining Islamic values by permitting a state magazine to run articles commenting critically on the headscarf and dress Iranian women are obliged to wear.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/17/2012 00:00 ||
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[1 views]
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BEIRUT: A member of Syrias parliament has left the country to join the opposition against President Bashar Assads regime, saying the Syrian people are suffering sweeping human rights violations.
Imad Ghalioun, who represents the central city of Homs, told Al-Arabiya TV that the city, which has been one of the most restive in the uprising against Assads rule since March, is a disaster after months of being a focus of the regimes fierce crackdown.
The Syrian people are living their worst period, Ghalioun said late Sunday from Egypt.
The people of Homs are under siege and the city is disaster-stricken, he said. There is no electricity, piles of garbage fill the streets ... The sounds of shelling all night terrify children."
He added that there are many legislators who support the uprising but have not said so publicly.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/17/2012 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.
[Daily Nation (Kenya)] The 
On the surface, the Navy's cherished fleet of 11 active aircraft carriers seems safe from President Obama's budget slashers.
Asif Ali 
[Dawn] The National Assembly on Monday endorsed a resolution in favour of democracy originally moved by Awami National Party (ANP) leader Asfandyar Wali Khan, DawnNews reported.
Nouri al-Maliki
The threat of Iran closing the strait has reached a fever pitch, reports today's New York Times, with U.S. officials warning Iran's supreme leader that such moves would cross a "red line" provoking a U.S. response. Iran could block the strait with any assortment of mines, armed speed boats or anti-ship cruise missiles but according to Michael Connell at the Center for Naval Analysis, The immediate issue [for the U.S. military] is to get the mines. To solve that problem, the Navy has a solution that isn't heavily-advertised but has a time-tested success rate: mine-detecting dolphins.
Walid 
Mahmoud 
