A sombre milestone has been reached in the Afghanistan war after an American sailor became the 3000th member of the Nato coalition to lose his life.
The United States Defence Department announced that a serviceman had died from "complications associated with a medical condition," becoming the 3,000th casualty according to a tally compiled by the broadcaster CNN.
Most of those who have lost their lives during the more than 10 years of Operation Enduring Freedom have been American -- 1,974 to date. British troops have suffered the second highest level of deaths among coalition of 28 nations, with 414 deaths.
Fatality number 3,000 was named as petty Officer 1st Class Ryan J Wilson, 26, of Shasta, California, who died in Manama, Bahrain, on May 20. The Defence Department said that he had been assigned to the US Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain, from where he had been supporting the mission in Afghanistan.
[Nigerian Tribune] DISTURBED by the security situation in the North, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar, has told perpetrators of terrorism and related acts in the region that "enough is enough," saying the shedding of blood must stop.
The sultan, who is also President-General of the Jama'atu Nasril Islam (JNI), spoke at the opening ceremony of the JNI Central Council meeting attended by all emirs and chiefs from the region in Kaduna, on Thursday. According to the traditional ruler, "we must come back to our senses and say firmly and resolutely that enough is enough."
He chided the nation's politicians for their alleged insensitivity to the plight of the masses, adding that the level of insecurity in the northern states was slowly but surely tearing apart every fabric of the religious, social and economic life of the people. He said that all hands should be on deck in the search for peace and security in the society.
"The bloodshed must stop. Each and every one of us must come to appreciate that we cannot continue on this destructive path.
"We must open active, meaningful and sincere channels of dialogue and communication to ensure that we listen to those who have real grievances and to take genuine efforts to address them.
"But we must, as the ummah, also take a resolute stand against those who take advantage of this unfortunate situation to wreak havoc on society, in pursuit of their narrow interest.
"Allah will definitely put to shame those who seek to violate the honour and sanctity of Mohammedans. We must at all times seek Allah's intervention through prayers for there is no calamity or distress that He cannot dispel."
The sultan expressed worry over the level of poverty in the society, saying the federal, state and local governments must embark on meaningful development programmes that would make life easier and more pleasant for the majority of the people.
"The current level of poverty, especially in the northern states, cannot be acceptable in any decent society. We can hide behind our rhetoric but we cannot run away from the stark realities which characterise the daily lives of our people.
"Traditional and religious leaders must bear a special responsibility in counselling those in positions of authority at the federal, state and local government levels that governance must necessarily be equated with service to the people and that the socio-economic development of the society.
"The prosperity of the state must translate into the prosperity of the entire populace. It shall not be the exclusive preserve of the few who happen to have access to state resources.
"When we vie with one another in a democratic society, for positions of leadership, it is equally incumbent upon us to vie with each other to make leadership more meaningful to the generality of the people."
Declaring the meeting open, Kaduna State governor, Mr Patrick Yakowa, also described the current insecurity situation in the country as a challenge "that calls for the contribution of all Nigerians who desire that the nation continues as we inherited it from those who led our independence struggle.
"The JNI, being a noble organization, founded on truth and piety to educate Mohammedans, should maintain its original mandate and form with a renewed vigour and go ahead to establish much more cordial relationship with other faith-based organizations.
"This will really go a long way in the establishment of a better cordial and respectful relationship between the Nigerian Mohammedans and their Christian compatriots as witnessed during the time of the late Sardauna."
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[Yemen Post] The Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Baker al-Qiribi said on Wednesday that al-Qaeda and the Houthis are two faces of the same coin, stressing that the government will do everything it can in order to make sure" these cancer cells" don't spread.
In an interview with the Saudi al-Watan newspaper, al-Qiribi considered the Friends of Yemen meeting as a rescue rope for the Yemeni economy which is on the verge of collapse due to the one-year plus crisis that strongly impacted an already struggling economy.
Speaking about the unemployment, he said before the unrest broke out last year, the unemployment rate among the adults was estimated at 35 percent, but noted that the unemployment rate went even higher. He linked the soaring unemployment rate with the active terrorism in the country.
With regards to Iran, al-Qiribi said Tehran does not respect its neighbors and that it keeps interfering in Yemen's internal affairs."Even though we urged Iran many times not to meddle in our affairs, Iran continues to support terrorism, to foment chaos, and to ignite and fund conflicts in Yemen," said al-Qiribi.
The official pointed out that fighting terrorism is not enough alone as another kind of war has to accompany it. "Another fight of ideologies and thoughts has to take place against the cut-thoats' misconceptions of Islam." Al-Qiribi said, citing the Saudi successful experiment in fighting the Islamic fascistiwith both weapons and ideologies. Fighting the thoughts and ideologies is through convincing and clarifying to the people as well as al-Qaeda Islamic fascistithat the terror network is not on the right track and that the snuffies lack understanding in Islam and its teachings.
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[Dawn] The Foreign Office reiterated on Thursday its denunciation of drone attacks, but said that Pakistain's desire for normalisation of ties with the United States remained unaffected.
"Let me also add here that the US is an important country and it is an important relationship for Pakistain and there is a mutual desire to normalise this relationship," FO front man Moazzam Khan said at his weekly media briefing while responding to a question about drone attacks and negotiations on re-engagement.
"We strongly condemn the drone attacks. We regard them a violation of our territorial integrity. They are in contravention of international law. They are illegal, counter-productive and totally unacceptable," he said.
The US has continued to pound thug targets in tribal areas with hellfire missiles from Predator drones, although the two countries are negotiating a parliamentary demand for cessation of the strikes.
The attacks, which analysts once feared could scuttle the re-engagement process, have not affected the talks. Other differences, including those over fee structure for using Pak territory for transportation of supplies for coalition forces in Afghanistan have, however, slowed down the dialogue.
(According to APP, the front man was asked why didn't Pakistain take the issue to the UN if these attacks were in breach of the international law. He said: "We want to resolve the issue bilaterally, but of course all options are open."
However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... both Washington and Islamabad acknowledged the importance of their relationship and they wanted to solve their issues through negotiations.
Asked if he was aware from where the drones were taking off to carry out the attacks, the front man said he was unaware of it.)
Several drone attacks have taken place since parliament adopted guidelines for revised terms of engagement with the US in April. The US has also ignored similar calls from Pak parliament in the past for stopping the attacks.
However, by candlelight every wench is handsome... the attacks temporarily suspended after the Nov 26 Salala incident which sent the troubled alliance into a tailspin.
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[Dawn] President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... on Friday ordered quick and stern action against those involved in killing participants of a political rally on Tuesday in Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It may be the largest city in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous... , DawnNews reported.
During a high level meeting on security with Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah and Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik Pak politician, current Interior Minister under the Gilani administration. Malik is a former Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) intelligence officer who rose to head the FIA during Benazir Bhutto's second tenure. He later joined the Pak Peoples Party and was chief security officer to Bhutto. Malik was tossed from his FIA job in 1998 after documenting the breath-taking corruption of the Sharif family. By unhappy coincidence Nawaz Sharif became PM at just that moment and Malik moved to London one step ahead of the button men. at Bilawal House, the president also emphasised on action against the criminals regardless of their political and ethnic affiliations.
At least eleven people were killed and more than 30 people maimed after unidentified armed assailants shot up an Awami Tehrik's "Mohabbat-e-Sindh" (Love for Sindh) rally in the lovely provincial capital.
The Sindh chief minister, on the occasion, presented the probe report on the May 22 incident and brought the reservations, of provincial ministers belonging to the Pakistain People's Party (PPP), into the president's notice.
The president also took notice of wall chalking by the Muhajir Suba Tehrik (Muhajir Province Movement.)
Meanwhile, ...back at the game, the Babe was wondering why the baseball kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally it hit him... Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan made an apology for not attending the meeting, as he had to leave for Dubai over MV Albedo captives' matter.
The interior minister vowed to act against the myrmidons in Bloody Karachi without any discrimination.
Earlier, some of the provincial ministers had criticised Malik over worsening law and order situation in Bloody Karachi.
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[Dawn] Pakistain and India on Friday pledged to fight terrorism together, calling it "a continuing threat to peace and security" and a block to the full establishment of normal relations.
The announcement came after two-day talks between the home and interior secretaries of the two countries at the Pak tourist resort of Bhurban.
The talks were led by the interior secretary of Pakistain, Siddiq Akbar, and the home secretary of India, Raj Kumar Singh, and included security experts from both countries.
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#1
Pak fighting terror, nobody fall for that still?
[Dawn] The son of slain Pakistain leader Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... said on Thursday that ex-military ruler Pervez Musharaf "murdered my mother," as he vowed to play a bigger political role in his homeland "in any way I can."
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, son of current President Asif Ali President Ten Percent Zardari ... sticky-fingered husband of the late Benazir Bhutto ... , said Musharaf sabotaged his mother's security when she returned to her homeland in 2007, and said he is confident of his own security in Pakistain.
"I'm confident that the Pak government will provide me with the adequate security, unlike the government at the time that sabotaged my mother's security in Pakistain," he told CNN in an interview.
The 23-year-old, who returned to Pakistain last year after studying at Oxford, said her liquidation was due to a combination of thugs, and Musharraf's regime.
"Al Qaeda issued the instructions to do it, the Taliban... carried out the actual attack, while Pervez Musharaf purposely sabotaged my mother's security when he knew there was going to be attacks, so she would be eliminated.
"He murdered my mother. I hold him responsible for the murder of my mother," he added. "He'd threatened her himself in the past. He said: 'Your security is directly linked to our relationship and our cooperation.'
"When he imposed emergency, and it was clear that he was pulling the wool over our eyes. He was not interested in returning democracy to Pakistain. And my mother started to speak out more against him, the security decreased."
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[Dawn] Pak lawyers said Friday they would appeal the conviction for treason handed down by a tribal court to a surgeon recruited by US intelligence to help find the late Osama bin Laden ... who used to be but now ain't...
A tribal court in Khyber Wednesday placed in long-term storage Drop the rosco and step away witcher hands up! Shakeel Afridi for 33 years for agreeing to try and collect DNA for US intelligence in their bid to locate Osama.
Afridi ran a fake vaccination program designed to collect bin Laden family DNA from the compound in the town of Abbottabad ... A pleasant city located only 30 convenient miles from Islamabad. The city is noted for its nice weather and good schools. It is the site of Pakistain's military academy, which was within comfortable walking distance of the residence of the late Osama bin Laden.... , where the al Qaeda leader was rubbed out in a US raid in May 2011.
"We have requested the Khyber administration to provide us with the documents related to the trial and conviction, and once we get them, we will file an appeal in the office of the commissioner of the Frontier Crimes Regulation," lawyer Samiullah Afridi told AFP.
The lawyer, general secretary of the Peace Movement, a civil society group against militancy, said his organization did not believe the doctor committed any crime, but had instead worked "to help eliminate terrorism".
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[Dawn] The Supreme Court on Friday directed the authorities to pay equal compensation to the heirs of all 103 people killed in the Lal Masjid operation, DawnNews reported.
A three-judge bench of the apex court, comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Jawwad S Khwaja and Justice Khilji Arif Hussain, issued the ruling while hearing a number of cases relating to the Lal Masjid incident.
During the hearing, Justice Khwaja said that those killed in the operation were innocent as the police could not produce any criminal records against them.
Moreover, Islamabad police submitted two reports pertaining to the operation in the court.
Addressing the deputy attorney general, Chief Justice Iftikhar said the court had directed the government to compensate the heirs of those killed in the operation. He inquired of the deputy attorney general as to how the authorities determined who was innocent and who was not.
The deputy attorney general said the heirs of those who were waging war against the state were not compensated. Responding to which the chief justice said: "It was a small matter...no one was waging war against the state."
The court then ruled that compensation be paid to the heirs of all 103 people killed in the operation and directed the police to register an FIR of the killings.
The hearing was adjourned for a period of two weeks.
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[Dawn] The anti-Taliban Adezai Qaumi Lashkar has stopped supporting the law enforcement agencies, blaming Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... government for weakening coordination between police and different peace bodies in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar.
Addressing a presser here on Thursday, chief of Adezai Qaumi Lashkar Dilawar Khan said that they would stop supporting law enforcement agencies immediately against Taliban as provincial government was not serious to get support of armed volunteers against turbans.
"The government instead of supporting us against beturbanned goons has decided to withdraw police guards from the leaders of the peace body and leave them at the mercy of turbans," he said.
Flanked by other leaders of the peace body, Mr Khan said the lashkar had been raised by people on the directives of provincial government. He said that 105 volunteers of the lashkar including its founding chief Haji Abdul Malik were killed and hundreds were maimed in turbans' attacks but government was not ready to recognise their services.
"If police guards are withdrawn then the lashkar leaders will be unable to move as government doesn't allow private guards on roads and Taliban will take advantage of the situation," he said.
Mr Khan said that entire responsibility would rest with the provincial government if any loss was inflicted on the lives and properties of the peace volunteers.
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[Times of India] A key US Senate panel has voted to impose pointed and punitive cut in aid dollars to Pakistain for its continued support to state-engineered extremism, although the country described bluntly by one politician as a "terrorist state" will still get at least $ 1 billion in American taxpayer money for 2013. So all it really is is an indignant sniff, with no slap actually on the way.
Angered by a Pak court's sentencing of a doctor who helped the US nail the late Osama bin Laden ... who doesn't live anywhere anymore... to 33 years in prison (for high treason), the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday voted for a symbolic but token $ 33 million cut in aid -- a million for each year of the sentence. It's that "high treason" charge that sticks out. Treason involves providing aid and comfort to your nation's enemies, not to its allies. There are other charges that could be made if it's just a matter of divulging military secrets or something along that line ‐ serious enough stuff, but not quite to the level of selling out the state.
The cut came on top of the panel voting to withhold nearly a billion dollars in proposed assistance subject to Pakistain re-opening NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... supply routes, although it still left more than $ 1 billion on the table for a country that has publicly castigated the US for killing a universally reviled terrorist. They pretend that it's not the killing of bin Laden but the violation of sovereignty that has them up on a high horse. The fact that Binny was living comfortably just thirty miles from Islamabad for nine years, within sight of the nation's military academy, illustrates the speciousness of the argument.
Further reductions have been threatened if Pakistain does not change course. That could actually happen. Given the prevalence of Short Attention Span Syndrome, the cuts would be made, then quietly reinstated somewhere between three and six months later.
The Senate action reflected growing American anger over issues ranging from the NATO supply route stand-off to the sentencing of Dr Shakil Afridi, all of which, some US politicians suggest, show that Pakistain is in league with hard boyz rather than with the United States. It's the strong horse-weak horse thing again. The Paks see the B.O. administration precipitously leaving Afghanistan. We haven't left in a huff over the stoopid remarks Karzai comes up with when he's high or because the Afghan army's developed the habit of occasionally potting an infidel whenever they're feeling particularly devout. Nor have we announced we're staying until the last Talib's been rooted out and shot, his corpse publicly burned, and the flames peed on by the Marines. Instead B.O. has abandoned the "good war" for domestic political reasons, giving the enemy a withdrawal date to hold out until. We're going to be out in two years and the Paks are lining up with what they see as the victors, expecting to call in their markers with the new regime.
"We need Pakistain, Pakistain needs us, The problem is that they don't think they do need us.
but we don't need Pakistain double-dealing and not seeing the justice in bringing Osama bin Laden to an end," Lindsey Graham, ... the endangered South Carolina RINO... a Senate Republican who pushed for the additional cut in aid said, while calling Pakistain a "schizophrenic ally." They're a puffed-up Islamic pipsqueak of a nation. They see themselves as a power to rival India and Iran. They see Afghanistan as their vassal state and their influence spreading from Burma into Iran and up into Central Asia. The fact that they're an ignorant tribal culture run by an oligarchy of feudal kleptocrats, ignorant holy men, and scheming wannabe military dictators escapes them. They've started and lost four wars with India, on one of which they lost "East Pakistain" -- now Bangladesh -- and they still think their military's second to none. Their politicians are equally inept, and the holy men moreso. Yet they still think they're a world power in the making and an example to the rest of the Islamic world.
Lawmakers on the House side have been less kind. Following the sentencing by Pakistain's pro-jihadi courts of Dr Afridi, who helped the US locate bin Laden, Caliphornia Congressman Dana Rohrabacher said "This is decisive proof Pakistain sees itself as being at war with us." Picked right up on that, didn't he?
"There is no shared interest against Islamic terrorism," Rohrabacher maintained in a statement, contesting the bromide periodically advanced by the administration that Islamabad is an ally in the war on terror. "Pakistain was and remains a terrorist state." Personally, I regard it as very significant that Pakistain has convicted Afridi of helping to bring bin Laden to book, but that they haven't convicted even one person, don't even seem to have investigated the matter in fact, of conspiring to aid and abet bin Laden. Binny's neighbors had no idea who he was? How did he shop for groceries? Whose name was on the electric bill? He never needed shoes, clothing, medical attention, a dentist? He was so holy he had no need to go to a mosque? A family in one place for nine years that no one knew anything at all about? Come now.
These and other remarks by US politicians suggest that many of them, including Rohrabacher, who supported Pakistain for more than two decades despite its track record of rampant nuclear proliferation and sponsorship of terrorism, have turned against the country, although even now the administration and its supporters advance the idea that Pakistain is better treated as an ally rather than as an adversary. Now we seem to be down to treating them as an ally for purely tactical reasons, which brings us back to where we were when we started.
"It's Alice in Wonderland at best," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, ...Democrat Senator-for-Life from Vermont, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, source of more leaks than a plumber could keep up with... a Democrat who heads the appropriations sub-committee which voted to size down and make conditional some of the aid to Pakistain. "If this is cooperation, I'd hate like hell to see opposition." The United States, Leahy added, is "not going to invest in a country that won't help us in a reasonable way to deal with threats to our forces in Afghanistan." At least not for awhile. Not until memory fades. Meanwhile, ...back at the wrecked scow, a single surviver held tightly to the smashed prow... Washington and Islamabad clashed over the sentencing of Dr Afridi, even as the matter became a political issue in the US election season with some Republicans accusing the administration of throwing him under the bus by publicly revealing his identity and his cooperation even before he could be rescued from Pakistain. Having used him up he could be discarded. No skin off the Obama fore.
On Thursday, secretary of state Hillary Clinton ... sometimes described as the Smartest Woman in the World and at other times as Mrs. Bill, never as Another Jeremiah S. Black ... waded into the issue, demanding that Dr Afridi be released, because "his help was instrumental in taking down one of the world's most notorious murderers that was clearly in Pakistain's interest as well as ours and the rest of the world." The Pak foreign office fired back, saying the US needed to respect Pakistain's legal processes and judgments. Even when they approach the point of casus belli.
Congressman Rohrabacher meanwhile is pushing for legislation to award a Congressional Gold Medal and a US citizenship for Dr Afridi. The were also something about a $25 million reward, of which at least a part would seem to be due him.
"Secretary Clinton will have to do more than voice protests over the Afridi case. ... but she won't...
Both the Departments of State and Defense need to take punitive actions against Pakistain. Carrots are not enough when dealing with an adversary. Sticks are needed to prove we are serious," Rohrabacher said. By this point it probably needs sticks and stones.
The politician also contested arguments from advocates of aid to Pakistain that the US should draw a distinction between the civilian government and the military-intelligence cabal who are supporting terrorist groups, saying President Zardari's behavior at the NATO summit in Chicago indicates that he is either in league with the military or under their domination. Given the military's record with elected governments that's a statement of the blindingly obvious...
"Any money that goes to Islamabad will continue to end up in the pockets of people actively and deadly hostile to America," he said. "The Taliban is only the tip of the spear, the real enemy is Pakistain." Money is fungible? Who knew?
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#1
will still get at least $ 1 billion in American taxpayer money for 2013.
#2
"Any money that goes to Islamabad will continue to end up in the pockets of people actively and deadly hostile to America," he said. "The Taliban is only the tip of the spear, the real enemy is Pakistain."
At last Congress have realised this!
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05/26/2012 6:10 Comments ||
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#3
Congress is privy to the intelligence traffic and I assure you, no reasonable person could reach any other conclusion regarding Pakistan.
My own suspicions regarding Dr Afridi are rather different from some, possibly conspiratoral, but plausable nonetheless. This poor fellow Afridi might very well have become the election tool of two corrupt, self-serving political regimes simultaneously. That being the scapegoat of Pakistan's complicity in the Bin Laden take down, and a quite convenient cause de jour news destraction for our administration all rolled into one. The illusion of outing a one trick pony foreign asset, who was already outed, what a small price to pay for successful political diversions.
Imagine if you will this scenario; following the Pakistani elections and much Obama adminisration pressure, Dr. Afridi's 33 year sentence is commuted to time served. Dr. Afridi and Chen Guangcheng, two highly media saturated, made for news human rights victories in a single election year. Amazing no?
Wouldn't it be something if Dr. Afridi was just a fall guy for covering an internal leak and they just threw the whole thing out there, and it stuck on account of the smaht diplomacy squad? I'm not throwing tin foil hats about, but here is a place where a leading political candidate is murdered in broad daylight and no witnesses, yet this doctor was rounded up quite quickly.
#5
Who called Pakistan schizophrenic? Ah, right, Lindsey Graham. Pak gets US boodle no matter how hard or how often they stab us in the back. Shitty, conniving, duplicitous? Yep. And far more rational than we are.
[Jerusalem Post] If technology upgrade effort is successful, fewer batteries would be required to defend Israel's borders.
The IDF is working to increase the range of the Iron Dome counter rocket defense system, with the aim of enabling it to intercept longer-range rockets, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
To achieve the improved performance, the IDF is focusing on two tracks -- technological upgrades to the system as well as modifications to the Israel Air Force's operational doctrine.
The Iron Dome was originally designed to defend against rockets at a range of 4-70 km.
Each battery consists of a mini multi-mission radar manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries and three launchers, each equipped with 20 interceptors called Tamirs.
The radar enables Iron Dome operators to predict the impact site of the enemy rocket and decide not to intercept it if it is slated to hit an open area. Each interceptor costs between $50,000-100,000 and usually two are fired at rockets slated for interception.
"This is significant since it would allow us to intercept more rockets with less batteries," a senior defense official explained.
The system recently underwent a series of tests in conjunction with manufacturer Rafael to determine its ability to intercept longer-range rockets.
The IDF currently operates four Iron Dome batteries and plans to deploy an additional two within the coming year. Last week, the United States announced that it will provide Israel with $70 million in immediate aid for the purchase of additional Iron Dome batteries.
Since its deployment last year, Iron Dome batteries have intercepted over 90 Katyusha and Kassam rockets fired into Israel from the Gazoo Strip. The new aid package comes after the B.O. regime gave Israel $205 million in 2011 and comes on top of the $3 billion Israel receives in annual foreign aid from the United States.
BEIRUT (Ma'an) -- President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... said Thursday that Paleostinians in Leb should not arm themselves, as they are under the protection of the Lebanese state and its military, local media reported.
An interesting concept. Why d'you suppose he decided to utter it now?
"The weapons of Paleostinians in Leb are illegitimate. We do not want them inside or outside camps. We respect the law and we are [under] the protection of the Lebanese state and army," Abbas was quoted as saying.
According to Beirut-based Now Leb news agency, Abbas told the An-Nahar newspaper of "permanent" cooperation with the Lebanese government to maintain security in Paleostinian refugee camps.
The president also voiced hope that the lives of Paleostinians in Leb would be "easier", adding that they did not "want to be naturalized."
In March, Abbas gave his approval to several resolutions affecting Paleostinian refugees in Leb, in an effort to improve their situation.
One recommendation was to integrate security and civil branches in refugee camps into one national security institution to be headed by security official Subhi Abu Arab and supervised by secretary general of camps in Leb Fathi Abu al-Aradat.
There are currently over 400,000 Paleostinian refugees registered with UNRWA in Leb and the fragile sectarian composition of Lebanese society makes their presence a sensitive issue.
Refugees in the country have long suffered discrimination and are deprived of basic rights.
[Bangla Daily Star] Sri Lanka's ex-army chief Sarath Fonseka is barred from political office for seven years, despite being freed from jail on Monday, his lawyer said on Thursday. Comes as a surprise, huh?
Fonseka stood against President Mahinda Rajapaksa in a presidential election two years ago, lost and was imprisoned shortly afterwards.
Fonseka's lawyer, Nalin Laduwahetti, says that the terms of his release prevent him from running for office.
They are trying to secure a full pardon for the chief. The President has remitted Fonseka's two-and-a-half year jail sentence for corruption, but has not pardoned him or annulled the sentence already served.
This means he is subject to a seven-year restriction of his civic rights.
The government is interpreting the Constitution to rule that he can vote but cannot contest an election in that period.
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Tehran downplays IAEA report showing it is pressing ahead with its uranium enrichment work, saying western media seeking to turn technical issue into a political one, accuses Barak of unlawful war rhetoric.
Iran has lodged a complaint with the UN Security Council, accusing Israel of warmongering remarks that contradict international law, Iran's Fars News Agency reported on Saturday.
In a letter delivered to the UN Security Council on Friday, Iranian UN envoy Mohammad Khazayee said that comments made by Defense Minister Ehud Barak on a potential attack against Iran's nuclear sites "are considered as violation of the basic principles of the UN Charter, international rules and a move against the global endeavors to foster regional and international peace and security," according to Fars.
Khazayee added in the letter that Barak's "baseless" remarks about Iran's pursuing of nuclear weapons were made by an official of a regime which threatens international and regional peace with its nuclear arsenal.
#2
There is no international law against warmongering remarks. There isn't even international law against actually going to war. It's only against international law to wage war in proscribed ways,
Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a Tehran's Friday Prayers Imam, said in his sermons today that Iran will keep its 20-percent uranium enrichment program intact That's not what the problem is, catamite. It's inspection. If you don't agree to that expect to see your country back in the stone age. Who knows, the 12th Imam might come out of the well and help you. Won't that be fun!
"I speak on behalf of the Iranian nation that they will not be held to ransom," the influential senior cleric added.
Khatami was referring to a demand by six major powers during the unsuccessful Baghdad Talks that Iran ends its production of the 20-percent nuclear fuel. The subject will be one of the key discussion points in Moscow during the talks in mid-June.
Iran enriches uranium to the 20 percent purity to provide fuel for Tehran's Research Reactor, which produces medical isotopes for cancer patients. The country already has a stockpile of the higher level fuel to feed the reactor for the next decade.
#1
And for Missiles, and yes we know it, all stupidity aside.
Hiding behind Religion is like the Baptist Preacher who is caught leaving the Whorehouse in Handcuffs with his peter flapping in the breeze screaming loudly "I was only Praying with them", Yeah sure you were.
Posted by: Recneck Jim ||
05/26/2012 7:37 Comments ||
Top||
After two days of withering and sometimes combative nuclear talks, Iran and six world powers put a positive spin on the outcome.
Both Iran and the so-called P5+1 group of world powers spoke of "some common ground" -- most importantly a willingness by Iran to address its sensitive 20 percent uranium enrichment program, which is technically not far from weapons grade -- that will drive the next round of talks set for mid-June in Moscow.
Yet even the official statements pointed toward a chasm of mismatched expectations that has only widened in Baghdad, in Iran's view at least.
The setback risks future deadlock that could trigger another Mideast war: Israel has threatened military strikes against Iran's nuclear program, if it is not verifiably limited to peaceful purposes.
"I think it was a complete failure, in terms of content," says an Iranian diplomat inside the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"The more they talk, the worse it gets," said the diplomat about one of the final sessions. "The atmosphere is like Baghdad's weather," a reference to the sandstorm that swept across the Iraqi capital yesterday, closing the airport.
#2
Au contraire, the purpose was to delay, to buy time so as to give the parties involved a reason not to act. At this all parties succeeded in their kabuki theater to entertain the world while doing nothing.
Nearly complete success, an extra month would have been a perfect ploy, that being long enough to kick the can past election and have a better chance of the bow flex still being in office. As it is, there will be a boil over before november that the Lefty from Dutchy will have to address as some point.
Up is down, left is right -- all the usual. Not to mention another Arab nation celebrating a historic war loss to Israel.
[Jerusalem Post] Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on Friday called Israel's construction of a wall along its northern border a potent testament to the victory of armed "resistance groups," according to Leb Now.
Speaking on the anniversary of Lebanese Liberation Day, which commemorates the IDF's withdrawal from southern Leb in May 2000, Nasrallah said: "Liberation day ended the project called 'Greater Israel,'" according to Leb Now.
"The project of Greater Israel always aimed for big territory bordered by rivers," he said.
Ah, yes. That highly fertilized Arab imagination. All sorts of ideas grow there that would die from lack of nourishment elsewhere.
"These walls built by Israel along the border with Paleostine and Leb show that the project of Greater Israel is over. The project of having rivers as borders ended with having walls for borders."
In an apparent reference to Egypt, which negotiated the return of the Sinai Peninsula in 1979, Nasrallah touted his country's record on having achieved the evacuation of IDF forces without resorting to diplomatic methods. "The land of the south was restored to the Lebanese with dignity and without conditions," he said.
So you've rebuilt all those piles of rubble into living buildings, have you?
Hezbollah's secretary-general stated that the strategy of armed activity has been the only one to produce results. "The weapons of the resistance have accomplished [something], but the weapons of other organizations did not accomplish [anything]," he said.
Nasrallah's comments on weaponization came amidst calls in Leb for the organization to disarm to allow the state to achieve a monopoly on weapons.
Nasrallah also commented on the formation of a national-unity government in Israel, saying it was the result of internal political considerations. He warned, however, that Leb must remain vigilant against Israeli aggression.
[Jerusalem Post] - Iran has raised its potential capacity to make sensitive nuclear material by installing hundreds more uranium enrichment machines at an underground site, a UN watchdog report said, a day after world powers failed to convince Tehran to halt such activity.
The ineffective International Atomic Energy Agency also said on Friday satellite images show "extensive activities" at the Parchin military complex which inspectors want to check over suspicions that nuclear weapons-relevant research was done there.
Obtained by Rooters, the confidential report further said inspectors had found traces of uranium particles enriched to up to 27 percent at Iran's bunkered Fordow site, compared with the 20 percent level Tehran has officially reported to the IAEA.
Nuclear bombs require uranium enriched to 90 percent, but much of the effort required to get there is already achieved once it reaches 20 percent concentration, shortening the time needed for any nuclear weapons "break-out."
Obtained by Rooters, the confidential report further said inspectors had found traces of uranium particles enriched to up to 27 percent at Iran's bunkered Fordow site, compared with the 20 percent level Tehran has officially reported to the IAEA.
The quarterly report added that Iran had hooked up 368 new centrifuges in Fordow, a 50 percent increase in numbers, but that these were not yet being fed with material for enrichment.
Nuclear bombs require uranium enriched to 90 percent, but much of the effort required to get there is already achieved once it reaches 20 percent concentration, shortening the time needed for any nuclear weapons "break-out."
Posted by: trailing wife ||
05/26/2012 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
IIRC FREEREPUBLIC > IRAN: WHAT DOES 27% [Enrichment] MEAN?
and
* GUARDIAN.UK > IRAN HAS ENOUGH [stockpiled] URANIUM FOR FIVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS, CLAIMS US THINKTANK [ISIS].
Not enuff to defeat the US Fifth Fleet per se, but enough to put the nervous willys into some powerful US Congresscritters, as per thingys that go boom on Iran's beachhead(s).
[Ynet] In report deemed credible by Western diplomats, Al Arabiya says Russian fat merchantman carrying 'large amount' of weapons 'trying to conceal final destination in suspicious way', due to arrive in Syrian port this weekend.
Lightning strikes are natures method of "controlled burning" and are ecologically sound method of keep the forest floor clean and sustaining delicate plant and animal species.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A sombre milestone has been reached in the Afghanistan war after an American sailor became the 3000th member of the Nato coalition to lose his life. 
DISTURBED by the security situation in the North, the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar, has told perpetrators of terrorism and related acts in the region that "enough is enough," saying the shedding of blood must stop.
The Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Baker al-Qiribi said on Wednesday that al-Qaeda and the Houthis are two faces of the same coin, stressing that the government will do everything it can in order to make sure" these cancer cells" don't spread.
Asif Ali 
Pakistain and India on Friday pledged to fight terrorism together, calling it "a continuing threat to peace and security" and a block to the full establishment of normal relations.
The son of slain Pakistain leader 
[Dawn] Pak lawyers said Friday they would appeal the conviction for treason handed down by a tribal court to a surgeon recruited by US intelligence to help find 
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the authorities to pay equal compensation to the heirs of all 103 people killed in the Lal Masjid operation, DawnNews reported.
The anti-Taliban Adezai Qaumi Lashkar has stopped supporting the law enforcement agencies, blaming 
[Times of India] A key US Senate panel has voted to impose pointed and punitive cut in aid dollars to Pakistain for its continued support to state-engineered extremism, although the country described bluntly by one 
Lindsey Graham,
Hillary Clinton
