President Obama has put securing Afghanistan near the top of his foreign policy agenda, but "victory" in the war-torn country isn't necessarily the United States' goal, he said Thursday in a TV interview.
"I'm always worried about using the word 'victory,' because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur," Obama told ABC News.
The enemy facing U.S. and Afghan forces isn't so clearly defined, he explained.
"We're not dealing with nation states at this point. We're concerned with Al Qaeda and the Taliban, Al Qaeda's allies," he said. "So when you have a non-state actor, a shadowy operation like Al Qaeda, our goal is to make sure they can't attack the United States."
The United States and Afghanistan are struggling to shore up security in the country, amid increasing violence. The Obama administration this year stepped up U.S. military operations in the country as the U.S. military presence begins to wind down in Iraq.
"We are confident that if we are assisting the Afghan people and improving their security situation, stabilizing their government, providing help on economic development ... those things will continue to contract the ability of Al Qaeda to operate. And that is absolutely critical," Obama told ABC News.
Rising casualties in Afghanistan are raising doubts among U.S. allies about the conduct of the war, forcing some governments to defend publicly their commitments and foreshadowing possible long-term trouble for the U.S. effort to bring in more resources to defeat the Taliban.
Pressure from the public and opposition politicians is growing as soldiers' bodies return home, and a poll released Thursday shows majorities in Britain, Germany and Canada oppose increasing their own troop levels in Afghanistan.
Europeans and Canadians are growing weary of the war -- or at least their involvement in combat operations -- even as Obama is shifting military resources to Afghanistan away from Iraq.
The United States, which runs the NATO-led force, has about 59,000 troops in Afghanistan -- nearly double the number a year ago -- and thousands more are on the way. There are about 32,000 other international troops in the country.
The new U.S. emphasis on Afghanistan has raised the level of fighting -- and in turn, the number of casualties. July is already the deadliest month of the war for both U.S. and NATO forces with 63 international troops killed, including 35 Americans and 19 Britons. Most have been killed in southern Afghanistan, scene of major operations against Taliban fighters in areas that had long been sanctuaries.
The leaders of the largest contributors to the coalition find themselves having to justify both their reasons for deploying troops and their management of the war effort. Britain, Italy and Australia are among those adding forces ahead of Afghanistan's Aug. 20 presidential election.
They say a Western pullout at this time would enable a resurgent Taliban to take over the country and give Al Qaeda more space to plan terror attacks against the West. Some emphasize humanitarian aspects of their missions, like development aid and civilian reconstruction.
#1
"I'm always worried about using the word 'victory,' because, you know, it invokes this notion of Emperor Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur," Obama told ABC News.
That would be General MacArthur to you, you communist son of a bitch. A surrender act which probably saved the lives of hundreds of thousands, possibly a million GI's and an untold number of Japanese.
Having yet another Jeremiah Wright moment. "Worried" about American success, then and of course now. The poor, helpless bastard.
#3
If victory is not the goal, defeat will be the result.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
07/24/2009 7:29 Comments ||
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#4
Personally I'd say that a stable, less corrupt than average, more democratic than average, Afghanistan with a stable non opium based economy and a small or zero American troop commi.ttment would be a victory.
Posted by: Lord garth ||
07/24/2009 8:18 Comments ||
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#5
0Bama, you moron, Hirohito never came down and signed a "surrender to MacArthur."
#6
"Like when Hitler signed that surrender at Pearl Harbor"
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/24/2009 9:57 Comments ||
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#7
Japanese representatives on board USS Missouri (BB-63) during the surrender ceremonies, 2 September 1945.
Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu;
General Yoshijiro Umezu, Chief of the Army General Staff;
Major General Yatsuji Nagai, Army;
Katsuo Okazaki, Foreign Ministry;
Rear Admiral Tadatoshi Tomioka, Navy;
Toshikazu Kase, Foreign Ministry;
Lieutenant General Suichi Miyakazi, Army;
Rear Admiral Ichiro Yokoyama, Navy;
Saburo Ota, Foreign Ministry;
Captain Katsuo Shiba, Navy;
Colonel Kaziyi Sugita, Army.
Hirohito? Nope, not there.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
07/24/2009 9:57 Comments ||
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#8
As I don't have to tell my fellow 'burgers, this sort of jaw-dropping historical illiteracy is not incidental - it reflects a very shallow intellect that is obviously unsuited for its current employment.
This one's easier to catch and guffaw at, but the bit about Churchill not using torture was even better in some ways. The familiar slander against the US, using an absurdly inaccurate historical analogy.
What our pathetic little affirmative action abandoned child "president" was trying to get at - though it's doubtful he understands it - is that "victory" in A'stan will not be clean, clear, quick, or involve formalities.
Lord Garth has it exactly right. It's a bit tricky to explain this somewhat nuanced concept of success to the public - but the failure to even try in the case of Iraq was one of Dubya's worst mistakes (the somewhat nuanced issue there being one about will and perseverance as strategic objectives, not so much explaining a fuzzy victory).
The problem isn't the word or concept of "victory," it's properly defining it in the public square as it applies to this operation. Note also how Bambi has ingested the no-military-solutions-to-military-problems silliness that hobbles many in uniform. As if, in A'stan of all places, one is going to make meaningful progress on economic development and such in a relevant time-frame, vs. killing your effing enemies and intimidating their allies.
One last thing. If one's goal is to "make sure they can't attack the US," then the proper approach is to exterminate them, and stay on offense. Another thing Dubya got exactly right, but utterly failed to hammer home until even people as dumb as NYT editors or COIN experts got it. Bambi's implied alternative is ridiculous - that somehow bringing cleaner well water to villages changes the power equation that makes/breaks the talibunnies or their creepy foreign friends. Sheesh.
#14
Afghanistan is basically feudal, not like the current nation state as we know it. There are lords with private armies with their "commanders" who assemble men under oaths of fealty.
Before any "victory" can be won, a nation state must be built.
Kabul, Afghanistan -- Military officials in Afghanistan have ordered a halt to the practice of releasing the number of militants killed in fighting with American-led forces as part of an overall strategy shift and an effort to portray to the Afghan people a different U.S. approach to the war. The decision has triggered a quiet but fierce debate among military officers, one with echoes of the U.S. experience in Vietnam, when military officials routinely exaggerated body counts and used them as a measure of success -- a practice that proved counterproductive.
Under the new order, issued by Rear Adm. Gregory J. Smith, the military will not release specifics on how many insurgents are killed in fighting and will instead provide estimates. The change is part of a strategy to make the Afghan people feel safer, and it comes as U.S. commanders are instituting measures to avoid civilian casualties.
"We send the wrong message if all we talk about is the number of insurgents killed. It doesn't demonstrate anything about whether we have made progress," said Smith, who arrived six weeks ago to overhaul U.S. and NATO communications efforts. "We want to shift the mind-set."
Smith has asked commanders to issue fewer news releases and to focus on improvements in security where international forces are operating. "We have to show we are here to protect the people," he said.
Officers who have favored releasing such figures said they are not intended to demonstrate military progress, but to counter and even preempt extremist propaganda charging that international forces are killing innocent Afghan civilians.
"It is the first version that sticks," said Col. Greg Julian, the outgoing military spokesman. He favored releasing the information but agrees the policy should be changed under the new strategy emphasizing protection of the population.
Throughout the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the military has periodically taken to reporting numbers of insurgents killed in specific clashes. Early in the Afghan war, Gen. Tommy Franks, then the top commander, said, "We don't do body counts." But last year, amid increasing violence, the 101st Airborne Division began releasing information about the number of militants killed, and the practice soon spread throughout U.S. forces.
It was not the first time military setbacks prompted officials to release body counts. In 2005, as U.S. fortunes in Iraq spiraled downward, body counts crept into military news releases. Public affairs officials argued that, while not a measure of overall progress, casualty counts can show the success of individual missions.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Oh brother. Here we go again.
I'll spare the Rantburg community my canned rant on this one.
But it's a good reminder that within the finest military that ever bestrode the planet, incredible stupidity can still flourish.
Lessee here, in Iraq the target audiences (no pun) were utterly pragmatic, having known only hobbesian brutality and raw power in their lives. So concealing the fact we were kicking the various nitwits' asses any time we met was, uh, brilliant! Afghans, so delicate and sophisticated and unversed in the ways of serious power struggles and violence, will surely be impressed by the bizarre releases about to start coming out: "two US soldiers were wounded during operations in Paktia province .... while doing nothing in particular and certainly not harming, much less killing, any local citizens who also might be involved in rebellion against the lawful government, crime, murder, maiming of local girls daring to attend school, or international terrorism."
Additionally, WTF with the nonsense about Iraq? There was never a formal shift there - just the rambling approach of usually not reporting enemy KIA, but sometimes reporting it (usually when the profile was too high or the locale too accessible to keep details out of the news). And of course out in Anbar the USMC practiced such discipline that a diligent reader of official press releases would hardly know we'd ever killed anybody - even though Marines would die all the time.
I think this BS is just a new myth to be added to the Vietnam body count one (a reliable false reference point in "reporting" like this). Funny thing, those "exaggerated" body counts in Vietnam led, paradoxically, to a defeated insurgent force. It's almost like killing the Viet Cong, eventually, defeated them. Doesn't add up to me. Maybe I'll go eat some soup with a spoon and ask Col. Kilcullen to help me understand it all.
#2
On the other hand, you're also providing feedback to the other guy. At a certain point he can alter his behavior in attempting other techniques and tactics and get an idea what works and what doesn't, or what is at least more effective and what is just rubbish. Sending the cannon fodder boys out who just 'disappear' without any word back means they're in the dark in modifying behaviors. Personally, if they started herding their manpower like cattle to the slaughter, I wouldn't do anything to make them change their behavior.
Today in Helmand Province the US Marines protected 300 people. News at eleven.
Let's see, our casualties are climbing and we quit reporting theirs, the average dip stick concludes we're losing. The Taliban recruiters are happy and the average Afghan doesn't have a clue.
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/24/2009 9:58 Comments ||
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#5
Procopius, of course I would support any manipulation of info to deceive the enemy - I just don't see any potential for that in these bizarre concealment policies, and I'm certain it is not a motivation.
GolfBravo - exactly. Anbar, 2005/2006 ..... constant trickle of Marine casualties, mysterious absence of enemy casualties. Iraqis (and probably Afghans) DO have at least one clue: are you closing with and killing your (our) enemies, or aren't you?
The assertion that meaningful numbers of otherwise right-thinking or sympathetic Iraqis/Afghans are alienated by the killing of insurgents leaves one speechless. Anyone care to know what Shi'a thought about the death-squad rampage against Sunnis after years of terror bombings? How about the views of most Iraqis (even many Sunnis) about the Abu Ghraib shenanigans that generated a zillion NYT front-page stories?
#6
in Vietnam, when military officials routinely exaggerated body counts
IIRC North Vietnam's General Giap reported their losses post-war as pretty close to the total we had estimated - probably not the same deaths but somehow it averaged out.
#8
The US undercounted NVA KIA. At the height of the war the North Vietnamese were losing 1 out of 3 males coming of military age and more than 1 million KIA total. In other words, the Hanoi communists were bleeding their population dry.
Posted by: ed ||
07/24/2009 11:36 Comments ||
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#9
The US consistently undercounts enemy KIA, to no end of puzzlement to Asians of all varieties, for whom overcounting is the norm. However, tactically it makes sense.
The bad guyz have no reliable way to determine their strength in the field. Since many of their fighters are paid to fight, they have to send someone reliable with them to make sure they actually do fight. And if he gets killed, they don't get paid. More problems.
Not having a head count also means that executing a large scale attack means concentrating your forces out in the open. It also means you have to use a lot more couriers.
#10
Correction: in my first comment above, I obviously meant "fork" instead of "spoon"
Posted by Verlaine
anything to avoid invoking the dreaded Spork, huh?
Posted by: Frank G ||
07/24/2009 19:39 Comments ||
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#11
"But it's a good reminder that within the finest military that ever bestrode the planet, incredible stupidity can still flourish. "
You can say that again Verlaine.
It was a tragic incident I will use to illustrate this point.
It was a near miss that I didn't witness two soldiers (who were killed) pitching a tent during a routine training exercise with metal tent poles when they didnt need to except to please their equally dumb superior in a lightning storm.
I narrowly missed seeing them fry. The sheer stupidity and needlessness of this will always stay in my mind. Or the time they dropped a scaffold on a female soldier's head who had on no hard hat. All these happy stories at one military base in one year's time.
#13
Having followed this topic for years, it saddens me that the military cannot see that it isn't about the locals. It's about the people in the States. If we see out troops killed with no corresponding result, we lose hope. I have made that point to several HQ's over the years with little result.
I was getting numbers from Iraq based on a FOIA request that the USA Today did. Then they informed me that they were no longer tracking those numbers. I believed that to be a lie since I have never heard of a bureaucracy stopping counting anything.
#14
IIRC North Vietnam's General Giap reported their losses post-war as pretty close to the total we had estimated - probably not the same deaths but somehow it averaged out.
The Vietnamese numbers for their dead were higher than the American numbers. I think the stuff about American numbers being exaggerated are a crock. Americans think lying is a big deal. The average non-American does not. When people talk about GI's exaggerating numbers, they are relaying the words of someone who knew someone who fudged the numbers (a lot like the atrocity tales - as in made up stories about commonplace American atrocities - being retailed).
#15
The US consistently undercounts enemy KIA, to no end of puzzlement to Asians of all varieties, for whom overcounting is the norm. However, tactically it makes sense.
Strategically, it doesn't. Asians exaggerate enemy dead in order to keep up the number of fresh recruits, and to boost national (civilian) morale. Not having an enemy body count simply crushes civilian morale.
Twelve suspected Somali pirates have been charged with hijacking a Yemeni oil tanker earlier this year, according to Yemeni authorities.
The suspects were seized when Yemeni forces retook control of the vessel, which had been attacked while sailing from the port of Mukalla to Aden. One of the tanker's crew was killed during the hijacking and a second remains missing.
The Somalis are the latest suspected pirates to face justice in Yemen. Earlier this month, 22 Somalis went on trial after being handed over to Yemen by international naval forces.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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Nairobi Somali militant group Harakat Al Shabaab Al-Mujahideen has issued a decree which calls for all foreign agencies and humanitarian organisations to be registered based on an Islamic criteria.
The Militant group Department of Political affairs and regional administrations said on the decree send to diplomats, NGOs and foreign agencies will be informed of the conditions and restrictions on their work and how their work may continue. "Any NGO or foreign agency found to be working an agenda against the Somali Muslim people or against the establishment of Islamic state will be immediately closed" the statement reads.
The group also accuses western nations, who donate for Somalia's peace and relief efforts. The group said the fund is to oppress and massacre Somali Muslim people. Recently, a Somali Islamic militia group closed down three United Nations offices in Somalia.
The militia group controls most of Somalia and has declared Islamic states in some of the regions.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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CARACAS, Venezuela A plan to increase the American military presence on at least three military bases in Colombia, Washingtons top ally in Latin America, is accentuating Colombias already tense relations with some of its neighbors.
Guess who ...
Venezuela, Ecuador and Nicaragua, which are members of a leftist political alliance that is led by President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and backed by his nations oil revenues, have all criticized the plan, saying it would broaden the military reach of the United States in the Andes and the Caribbean at a time when they are still wary of American influence in the region.
Despite a slight improvement in Venezuelas relations with the United States in recent months, Mr. Chávez has been especially vocal in lashing out at the plan. Speaking on state television here on Monday night, he put Venezuelas diplomatic ties with Colombia under review, calling the plan a platform for new aggression against us.
Colombias foreign minister, Jaime Bermúdez, on Tuesday defended the negotiations, which are expected to produce an agreement in August, asking neighboring countries not to interfere in Colombias affairs. We never expressed our opinion in what our neighbors do, he said, pointing to Mr. Chávezs attempts to strengthen ties with non-Western nations. Not even when the Russian presence became known in Venezuelan waters, or with relations with China, he added.
The United States has been negotiating the increase of military operations in Colombia in recent weeks, faced with Ecuadors decision to end a decade-long agreement allowing E-3 AWACs and P-3 Orion surveillance planes to operate from the Manta Air Base on Ecuadors Pacific Coast.
While American antidrug surveillance flights would sharply increase in Colombia, the worlds top producer of cocaine, the agreement would not allow American personnel to take part in combat operations in the country, which is mired in a four-decade war against guerrillas. A limit of 800 American military personnel and 600 American military contractors would also remain in place, officials involved in the talks said.
Still, depending on how the accord is put in place, American troop levels in Colombia could climb sharply. The United States currently has about 250 military personnel in the country, deployed largely in an advisory capacity to Colombias armed forces, William Brownfield, the United States ambassador to Colombia, said last week.
Colombia, which has already received more than $5 billion in military and antidrug aid from the United States this decade, has found itself isolated diplomatically as Mr. Chávez presses ahead with his efforts to expand Venezuelas oil diplomacy while eroding American influence in the hemisphere.
Other countries chafe at Colombia for different reasons. Colombias diplomatic relations with Ecuador have soured since Colombian forces carried out a raid on a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, rebel camp on Ecuadoran territory last year. A festering boundary dispute with Nicaragua has also made for tensions between Colombia and Nicaraguas president, Daniel Ortega, an ally of Mr. Chávez.
But with Venezuela itself, Colombia remains locked in a complex game of interdependence.
Its sales of manufactured and agricultural goods to Venezuela remain resilient despite Mr. Chávezs occasional outbursts directed at his ideological opposite, Colombias president, Álvaro Uribe. And faced with disarray in its oil industry, Venezuela relies on imports of Colombian natural gas, narrowing the possibility of a severe deterioration in ties between the two countries despite their sharply different views of cooperation with the United States.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2009 00:05 ||
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#1
A festering boundary dispute with Nicaragua has also made for tensions between Colombia and Nicaragua's president, Daniel Ortega, an ally of Mr. Chavez.
Gotta consult the atlas to learn about this. Maritime boundary perhaps, or does Panama play a role or have a say in this?
Posted by: ed ||
07/24/2009 10:41 Comments ||
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#3
Colombia's diplomatic relations with Ecuador have soured since Colombian forces carried out a raid on a Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, rebel camp on Ecuadoran territory last year.
Relations have been souring since Ecuador gave the rebels sanctuary.
#5
Is this the Providence Island which was the "other" Puritan colony, mostly known for its use as a base by Calvinist corsairs? My grasp of the geography of that corner of the Caribbean is a bit fuzzy.
And damn, but Nicaragua has a lot of border disputes for such a small country.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
07/24/2009 12:51 Comments ||
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#6
Compare wid WMF > AS THE US DECLINES, CHINA FEARS JAPAN WILL TRY TO BECOME THE LEADING OR DOMINANT NATION IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC; + CHINA'S "FIRST ISLAND CHAIN" STRATEGY IS STEADILY BECOM OBSOLETE: AS CHINA MILITARILY AND ECON MODERNIZES, IT WILL VENTURE TOWARDS THE "SECOND CHAIN" AND BEYOND ["2nd Chain" = Ogasawara Islands, Guam-Marianas Islands, Yap Islands, etc.].
* SAME > "USS HAWAII" VIRGINIA-CLASS SSN ARRIVES AT PEARL HARBOR. OF 60 PLANNED "VIRGINIA" SUBS, USN WILL BASE 31 IN THE PACIFIC AT HAWAII AND 22 AT GROTON CONNECTICUT. Ship Specifications and Ability of the Virgina-class SSN to transit the PANAMA CANAL LOCKS from the Atlantic Ocean. MISSION SCOPE OF THE VIRGINIAS IN THE PACIFIC CAN ONLY BE AGZ CHINA [Recce, Mil/WarOps].
North Korea on Thursday rejected as "nonsense" an incentive package flagged by the U.S. in return for complete and irreversible denuclearization.
Oh well. We tried. Bring on the sanctions.
At a press conference at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Phuket, Thailand on Thursday, the director-general of the North Korean Foreign Ministry's international bureau Ri Hung-sik said the offer would be "nothing but a replay of the Bush administration's policy of complete, verifiable, irreversible dismantlement" of North Korea's nuclear weapons and programs. "The so-called comprehensive package is nonsense," he said. "In essence, the current crisis is the outcome of the U.S.' deep-rooted hostile policy. How can the U.S. talk about a package deal without abandoning its hostile policy and guaranteeing security and peace for us?... How can we barter security and sovereignty for a few pennies without assurances?"
He added the North was indifferent to UN Security Council sanctions, having already been under sanctions for half a century. He reiterated six-party talks on its nuclear program "are already dead."
During the forum earlier, chief North Korean delegate Pak Kun-gwang, a roving ambassador of the North Korean Foreign Ministry, said the U.S. had threatened the North for more than half a century and was still continuing to supply South Korea with weapons of mass destruction. The "anachronistic hostile activities" of the U.S. and South Korea are the "main culprit of the destruction of peace" in Asia and the Pacific, and the North's nuclear weapons purely aimed at the "maintenance of peace and nuclear deterrence."
But Ri left some room for bilateral talks, saying the North had no intention to hold talks with Japan but did not oppose talks with the U.S. Everything depends on the U.S., he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
They have decided that the US isn't going to do anything so there really isn't any need to even engage in talks or listen to any "incentives". They have decided that there is no "or else" involved. Basically, they are calling our bluff and we are broke and can't afford a war.
#2
ION WAFF > NORTH KOREA TESTED WEAPONS ON HANDICAPPED CHILDREN [Natural/Genetic defect = Kiddies, etal. become automatic State
"volunteers" for BIOWAR, CHEMWAR TESTING]. Progeny of NORK MilPol Elites are NOT IMMUNE SAFE from said "volunteerism". NK's greatest single threat to US-SOKOR, etc stems from its huge BIOWAR + BIOCHEM MIL ASSETS/STOCKPILES, NOT ITS INFAMOUS ARTY OR LR MISSLES.
#3
Tested on "defectives"? Not a surprise, given a fascist system so keen on blood purity that they despise their southern cousins as mongrels because of their association with Westerners.
THE man who aims to one day reshape Pakistan and lead his fellow Pashtun tribesmen into a Greater Afghanistan came tantalisingly close to forsaking his troubled nation for Australia.
Pediatric surgeon Said Alam Mehsud in 1993 received an offer he felt was too good to refuse from a Melbourne hospital. He was all poised to pack up his life and move but for the violent objections of his family.
"It is something I still regret," he tells The Weekend Australian in his bare office in a dilapidated building in Peshawar's former artists' colony.
It is entirely possible that Pakistan may one day too come to regret his decision. The fiery doctor now leads the Pashtun Awareness Movement, a nationalist group whose ultimate goal is to extinguish the Durand Line dividing Afghanistan and Pakistan.
He advocates the creation of a Pashtunistan that stretches from Afghanistan, through Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas and North West Frontier Province to the Margalla Hills above Islamabad and south through Baluchistan.
The Peshawar-based group, which Mehsud says takes in all levels of Pashtun society, relaunched after a five-year hiatus on to Pakistan's political scene two months ago. It staged a risky public rally through the streets of the North West Frontier Province capital to protest the imposition of terrorism on the Pashtun people and the exploitation of their natural resources by Pakistan's "Punjabi hegemony".
The concepts are far from new. Pashtun nationalism has been an enduring theme throughout Pakistan's troubled 62-year history. But the timing of the latest push is crucial.
A weak central government, a military struggling with wars on several fronts and a terrorised and demoralised, 35 million-strong Pashtun population add up to a potentially nation-splitting conflagration.
The push for a Pashtun nation is rooted in regional history. It was the Pashtun who founded Afghanistan and ruled over a large area of what is now Pakistan until their defeat by the British in 1847. The British then imposed the Durand Line but could only maintain peace with the Pashtun by granting them autonomous status in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
That status was respected by successive Pakistan governments until 2002 when former US president George W.Bush pressured Pakistan into sending its army into FATA in pursuit of al-Qa'ida militants suspected of launching the September 11 attacks.
Since then the FATA region has become a global powerbase for al-Qa'ida and the Taliban.
But analysts say it was Pakistan's fear of Pashtunistan, and Afghanistan's role in the nationalist movement, that led it to support jihadists fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan, and eventually the creation of the Taliban.
Mehsud insists the Taliban, despite being drawn almost entirely from Pashtun ranks, is the arch-enemy of his people and says defeating terrorism is his movement's primary aim, above any push for secession or autonomy.
He blames the Islamic extremism of the Taliban, and the Pakistan Inter Service Intelligence Agency he says is their master, for the destruction of Pashtun culture as it once existed: its language, romance poetry and songs .
"We're a hostage nation begging for our lives and our security. If we are able to convey to the world the actual feelings of this (Pashtun) nation we can defeat terrorism."
Rustom Mohmand, a former NWFP chief secretary turned analyst, agrees the Pashtun are at an historical low point — squeezed by militants, the state and by its US and NATO allies.
"It's the Pashtun that are getting hurt, whose lands and villages are being destroyed, who have been persecuted, jailed and tortured," he says.
But, he adds, the "lofty" concept of Pashtunistan is no longer supported by the masses. "The Pashtun want a life of dignity, job opportunities, peace and access to justice."
Others, however, do not agree.
In a recent analysis of ethnic tensions in Pakistan, Selig Harrison, a regional expert with the Centre for International Policy, called for the US administration to help the Pashtun realise their wish for a united, autonomous province. He argued the current US policy of missile strikes in FATA only strengthened the militants' hand and recruitment effort by "arousing a Pashtun sense of victimisation".
"The US should support Pashtun demands to merge the NWFP and FATA, followed by the consolidation of those areas and Pashtun enclaves in Baluchistan and the Punjab into a single unified 'Pashtunkhwa' province that enjoys the autonomy envisaged in the inoperative 1973 Pakistan constitution," Harrison wrote in May.
Mehsud cites Harrison in defence of his own position.
He denies he is extremist and says rather that a set of extreme circumstances — including the terrorism and fear now gripping Pashtun people and forcing mass displacement from their tribal lands — has led to the new nationalist push.
"We will not split Pakistan if they agree with us on our autonomy," he says ominously. "If they don't, we may die but they can't keep this country for ever."
Posted by: john frum ||
07/24/2009 19:20 ||
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Pakistan said on Friday that remarks by Union Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor about a purported dossier on the alleged Indian hand in the insurgency in Balochistan were unwarranted and inconsistent with diplomatic norms.
Mr. Tharoor had rubbished Pakistani allegations of Indian involvement in its restive province as preposterous and said, deflecting responsibilities for things that are happening in the dysfunctioning of the State to their neighbours who have conducted themselves very differently is [not] a very healthy practice.
The Pakistan foreign office in a statement said that the insinuations made by Mr. Tharoor were unwarranted and inconsistent with diplomatic norms and called on both sides [to] refrain from remarks that detract from the progress made in Sharm-el-Sheikh.
The fresh war of words was triggered by a report in the Dawn newspaper that Pakistan had handed over a dossier detailing Indian subversive activities in Balochistan and in the tribal areas to India during the meeting of the two Prime Ministers at Sharm-el Sheikh.
While India has strongly denied that any such dossier was given to it, Pakistan has deliberately chosen to remain vague on the issue, neither denying nor confirming if Prime Minister Gilani gave the claimed dossier to his Indian counterpart.
However, a senior official has told The Hindu that Pakistan has not given any dossier or information on Balochistan.
Posted by: john frum ||
07/24/2009 16:32 ||
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Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has again asked the United States to stop drone attacks and respect Pakistan's sovereignty. Talking to US Ambassador Anne W Patterson, who called on him at the PM's Secretariat on Thursday, Gilani said the drone attacks must stop, as the people of the Tribal Areas were extremely upset over the attacks. Sources told Online a host of issues came under discussion, including the war against terrorism and other matters of bilateral interest. Sources said Gilani also urged the US to fulfil its promises regarding the economic development of Pakistan. They said the US ambassador assured the PM that all possible cooperation would be extended to Islamabad and the US would continue to support Pakistan in the current crisis, especially after the Malakand operation. Meanwhile, Pakistan's Ambassador to China Masood Khan called on the PM and discussed Sino-Pak relations.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
ION COUNTERTERRORISM BLOG > AQIM RESPONDS TO CALL OF ABU YAHYA AL-LIBY: "WE'RE AT YOUR DISPOSAL, O' ABU YAHYA".
Among other, AQIM vows that its JIHAD WILL NEVER END, + that it is in a [NEVER-ENDING?]RACE WID ITS WORLD MUJAHIDEEN BROTHERS [East + West of the World] TO SEE WHOM WILL BE FIRST TO HOLD ISLAMIC PRAYERS IN THE WHITE HOUSE!?
IOW, its Jihad will never, ever end until the US-World is subjugated to Islam - THE WOT = ISLAMIST JIHAD IS ETERNAL UNTIL SUCH TIME ONE SIDE WINS OR IS DESTROYED.
#3
Ok, Joe, then I see no reason to NOT strike the 296 places I have on my list with 20MT nuke weapons. Bet jihad stops THEN.
As for the drone attacks, they must be doing a LOT of good if the Paks are so insistent on stopping them. Maybe Yousuf should become a target, since he seems to want the US to stop killing Taliban/Al-Qaida in Pakistan. Maybe we need to check on where his sympathies truly lie.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
07/24/2009 21:12 Comments ||
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Senior government officials have expressed concern over killings of people with alleged links to the Taliban, in some parts of Swat, prompted by locals' eagerness to avenge their sufferings at the hands of the Taliban before May 7. "I have been told of one such incident ... a man killed a [Taliban] sympathiser," NWFP Governor Owais Ghani told Daily Times. "We should be careful not to allow this to spread," said the governor.
Military sources confirmed that such incidents had taken place in Kambar, a former stronghold of the Taliban; Kokore area near Saidu Sharif; and Mingora city. "A Kambar resident killed someone apparently for being a Taliban supporter," said the sources, and quoted the killer as saying that locals were "leading a terrible life now because of the Taliban".
According to the sources, the provincial government is anticipating that Swat residents might take on the Taliban themselves if "they get a chance to avenge the sufferings caused by the group's activities".
"One or two cases is not a problem, but if this spreads, the district may plunge into civil war ... this will be a great setback to government efforts aimed at retaking ground lost to the Taliban," said the sources.
Meanwhile, Mingora city would remain under curfew for "quite some time" as action against Taliban still in parts of Swat's border areas continues, said government sources. "There are a bunch of Taliban in the areas close to the border with Lower Dir and Buner districts ... the military is yet to flush them out," the civil and military sources told Daily Times, but refused to give a timeframe for the return of normalcy to the area.
While internally displaced persons have started returning to Mingora city, signs of normal life and confidence in the writ of the state have not surfaced yet: banks, government offices and police stations have not resumed normal operations and paramedics are hesitant to resume duty.
A densely-populated city of nearly half a million people, Mingora has been under curfew since May 8, when the army launched Operation Rah-e-Rast against the Taliban. "We are back home, but there are no signs of life," said a resident in Malookabad, referring to a ban on free movement in the city.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Revenge killings have been a part of the Pashtun experience throughout a big chunk of their recorded history. I can't see how it would suddenly push them towards civil war.
India on Thursday asked Pakistan to "show the same force" and resolve in fighting anti-India terrorists operating from its soil as it had done combating the Taliban. "Pakistan has taken certain steps like fighting the Taliban in the Swat valley," Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna told reporters when asked about Islamabad's commitment in fighting terrorists targeting India. "We expect Pakistan should go after the terrorists, who are targeting India, with the same force," he said.
Asked about the release of Jamaatud Dawa chief Hafiz Saeed, suspected to be the mastermind of the Mumbai attacks, Krishna said Islamabad had appealed in court against the verdict and "the law should take its course".
"Pakistan should take action against any head of a terrorist organisation working against India," the minister said.
Earlier, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said Islamabad would act against the Lashkar-e-Tayyaba (LT) if it were found guilty of involvement in the Mumbai attacks. "We will take action against LT if any proof is found," Qureshi told reporters in Phuket, Thailand, on the sidelines of a regional moot. "We are waiting for the confession statement of Kasab though appropriate channels," Qureshi said.
Krishna and Qureshi did meet in Phuket on the sidelines of an ASEAN moot, but left detailed bilateral talks for their September interaction on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA). "We exchanged greetings when we met each other at the dinner hosted by Thailand [for foreign ministers of ASEAN and East Asia Summit countries] last night [Wednesday]," Krishna had told reporters in Phuket. "Perhaps we will be meeting in New York in September. Modalities are being discussed," Krishna said. "It's unlikely we are going to be in the same room before the UNGA."
According to the India-Pakistan joint statement issued in Egypt, the foreign secretaries of the two countries would meet as often as possible ahead of the meeting between the foreign ministers in New York.
Without clearly pointing to Pakistan, Krishna drew the attention of the ASEAN to New Delhi's "terror-infested neighbourhood" and called for quicker intelligence sharing and effective cooperation to combat terrorism.
"Without naming Pakistan, I spoke about the Mumbai terror attacks. We talked about our terror-infested neighbourhood," Krishna said when asked whether he highlighted Pakistan's alleged complicity in the Mumbai attacks and other incidents of terrorism in India at the ASEAN meeting.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Thursday denied claims that Maulana Fazlullah, the architect of a brutal uprising in Swat, was wounded, and threatened to unleash renewed "holy war".
Pakistan said on July 8 it had "credible" information that Fazlullah was hurt during a blistering offensive designed to crush the Taliban in Swat. "Taliban chief Fazlullah is alive, healthy and has never been wounded," TTP spokesman Muslim Khan told AFP over the telephone from an undisclosed location. "All of the Taliban leadership in Swat are alive and are in hiding with a strategy. We will continue our jihad until the enforcement of sharia," he said. "Army artillery and tanks cannot prevent us from achieving our objective," he said.
This article starring:
Maulana Fazlullah
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has offered to try to speed U.S. approval of military equipment sales to Iraq. Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell says a meeting Thursday between Gates and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki at the Pentagon focused on the equipment Iraq needs to improve its security forces.
Morrell provided no specifics on the weapons systems discussed. But he said the talks covered air, land and sea systems, and that the U.S. wants to see Iraqi forces modernize in a variety of ways.
Mr. Maliki also met in Washington Thursday with the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry.
The Iraqi leader said these meetings come at a time of successful security-related developments in Iraq. U.S. combat troops withdrew from Iraqi cities less than one month ago on June 30 and transferred security responsibilities for urban areas to Iraqi forces.
On Thursday, Secretary Gates credited improvements in Iraqi security forces, Mr. Maliki's leadership and the Iraq-US partnership for Iraq's ability to take over security in its cities.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
BHARAT RAKSHAK > NEW MIDDLE EAST DEFENCE ORGANIZATION [MEDO] BEING SET UP UNDER THE LEADERSHIP OF THE US!?; + US VOWS TO DEFEND GULF STATES FROM IRAN [SecState Hillary].
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected on Wednesday any notion he would order Israel's barrier in the West Bank to be torn down in response to the absence of Palestinian attacks from the occupied territory.
"The separation fence will remain in place and will not be dismantled," Netanyahu said in a speech in parliament. "I hear they are saying today that because it's quiet, it's possible to take down the fence. My friends, the opposite is true," he said. "It's quiet because a fence exists."
By Jove I think he's got it ...
Netanyahu made the comments after Israel's Maariv newspaper said Palestinian officials had pressed Washington to push for the barrier to be dismantled because of an improved security situation in the West Bank. Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters he had approached the United States on the issue. "The Israelis know that the wall adds to the complexities. It's part of the problem and not part of the solution," he said.
Israeli leaders have portrayed the barrier as a temporary obstacle that could be moved once a peace agreement with the Palestinians was signed and attacks on Israel ceased.
In his speech, Netanyahu said Israel welcomed "a certain improvement in the functioning of Palestinian security forces" in the West Bank. But he added: "The fence is important."
There has been a dramatic drop in the number of attacks in Israel over the past several years, a decrease security experts attribute to the barrier, Israeli and Palestinian Authority security steps and a change of tactics by some militant groups.
No suicide bombers have struck this year. In 2008, one person was killed in Israel by a bomber whom authorities said infiltrated from the West Bank through an area where the barrier had not been completed.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The failure to erect this barrier long before the Netanya massacre - and the failure to immediately erect an expedient militarized separation zone once the decision to build a permanent barrier had been taken, and ban all movement of Paleos into Israel for the time being - remain a chilling indication of even Israel's ability to act in a suicidally stupid fashion.
Even considering removal or piercing of the barrier now would be insane.
The U.S. administration has issued a stiff warning to Israel not to build in the area known as E-1, which lies between Jerusalem and the West Bank settlement of Ma'aleh Adumim. Any change in the status quo in E-1 would be "extremely damaging," even "corrosive," the message said.
Benji should ignore this; everyone who stands up to Bambi does better in the long run ...
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed in the past to finally build the controversial E-1 housing project - as have several premiers before him, though none has done so due to American pressure. He opened his recent election campaign with a visit to Ma'aleh Adumim in which he declared: "I will link Jerusalem to Ma'aleh Adumim via the Mevasseret Adumim neighborhood, E-1. I want to see one continuous string of built-up Jewish neighborhoods."
He has also warned in the past that failure to build in E-1 would allow the Palestinians to create territorial contiguity around Jerusalem.
Just before his government was installed this spring, the media reported that Netanyahu had reached an agreement with his largest coalition partner, Yisrael Beiteinu, to unfreeze construction in E-1. However, that clause was ultimately not included in the coalition agreement.
The plans for E-1 call for building 3,500 housing units, along with commercial areas and tourism sites, to create a single urban expanse stretching from Jerusalem to Ma'aleh Adumim and strengthen Israel's hold on East Jerusalem, which would then be completely surrounded by Jewish neighborhoods.
The United States has always vehemently opposed this plan, fearing it would deprive a future Palestinian state of territorial contiguity, cut the West Bank in two and sever East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank - all of which would thwart any hope of signing a final-status agreement and establishing a Palestinian state.
None of which has motivated the Paleos to, you know, negotiate ...
President Barack Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, vigorously opposed building in E-1 during the terms of prime ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert. Sharon did approve construction of a police station in E-1, and under Olmert, infrastructure work in the area continued. But neither ever approved construction of either the residential units or the commercial buildings, for fear of a confrontation with the United States.
Four years ago, after resigning from Sharon's government, Netanyahu attacked him for giving in to American pressure on E-1. "A sovereign government must build in its eternal capital," he said. "Sharon set a precedent that will lead to the division of Jerusalem."
The Obama's administration - which opposes all construction in East Jerusalem, even of a few houses - would be even more outraged by a large-scale project such as E-1.
It is demanding a moratorium on Jewish building in East Jerusalem until an agreement is reached on the city's legal status, arguing that the cumulative effect of even small-scale projects would destroy any chance of a peace agreement and arouse fierce opposition in the Arab world, especially among East Jerusalem Arabs. Small projects include the construction of 20 apartments in the Shepherd Hotel in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood or plans to build new Jewish housing in Silwan.
At Sunday's cabinet meeting, however, Netanyahu rejected this American stance. "United Jerusalem is the capital of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. Our sovereignty in it is not subject to appeal, and among other things, this means that Jerusalem residents can buy apartments anywhere in the city," he said. "We cannot accept the idea that Jews should not have the right to live and buy anywhere in Jerusalem."
Next week, three senior American officials will visit Israel: special envoy George Mitchell, National Security Advisor James Jones and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Mitchell will continue his efforts to reach agreement on a settlement freeze, including in East Jerusalem, while the other two will focus on the Iranian threat.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I did not know The One had appointed a Municipal Planning Czar.
CNN- Barely an hour's drive from the casinos of Las Vegas, a group of unassuming buildings have become as important as the trenches were to WWI. The big difference? Today's warriors are fighting without getting in harm's way, using drones to attack targets in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
U.S. Air Force fighter pilot Major Morgan Andrews is one such combatant. He kisses his wife goodbye, drives to Creech, a tiny desert air force base in Nevada, and within minutes could be killing insurgents on the other side of the world.
Andrews fights not from the seat of the F16 he joined the air force to fly but from a darkened ground control station. He pilots a remote-controlled Predator, a UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) which can spy on and attack positions and personnel without risk to its controller, shooting deadly Hellfire missiles at enemy fighters in support of fellow soldiers.
"You're talking to them on the radios as if we were in a normal airplane flying overhead," says Andrews. "You see the imagery, you know what's going on, you see what you're looking at. It's very easy when something like that is happening to project yourself there and feel a part of the battle. Like I said, your heart starts racing a little bit." Is remote-controlled warfare a good or a bad idea? Tell us what you think.
Meanwhile, intelligence analysts get to see images in real time and can identify personnel on the ground.
There are now more than 7,000 UAVs ranging from the workhorse, the Predator, and its beefier, deadlier kin the Reaper, to army drones like the tiny hand-launched Raven and the larger Shadow.
The drones are dramatically tilting the war in favor of the United States. Predators, for example, played a key role in killing al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al Zarqawi in 2006. UAVs are credited with killing more than half al Qaeda's top 20 leaders.
Now U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates wants more UAVs. Already he has said that the next generation of fighter planes -- the F-35 that took decades to develop at a cost of more than half-a-billion dollars each -- will be the last manned fighter aircraft.
Lt. Gen. David Deptula, USAF, explains that the next phase will enable a single drone to provide as many as 60 simultaneous live video feeds directly to combat troops. Some new drones will be as small as flies, others walk -- all appear destined to work with decreasing human input.
"The future of how you use these un-manned systems or remotely piloted systems is really unlimited," says Deptula, based at the Pentagon and racing to keep pace with battlefield needs as well as Gates's demands. "We need to open our minds and think more about capability and impact we are going to achieve as opposed to how we've done business in the past."
At Creech, frontline requests surged when weapons were first put on the Predator. In Iraq and Afghanistan drones have become so indispensable that missions are cancelled if they are not available
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad showed rare defiance of his strongest backer, the Iranian supreme leader, by insisting on his choice for vice president on Wednesday despite vehement opposition from hardliners that has opened a deep rift in the leadership.
Many clerics and politicians have denounced Ahmadinejad's choice for the post of first vice president, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, because Mashai said last year that Iranians are friends with Israelis. There are also concerns because Mashai is a relative of Ahmadinejad -- his daughter is married to the president's son.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered Ahmadinejad to remove Mashai, semiofficial media reported on Wednesday. Arguing for a further chance to make his case, Ahmadinejad said, "there is a need for time and another opportunity to fully explain my real feelings and assessment about Mr Mashai". Clerics on Wednesday demanded the Iranian president obey Khamenei.
Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said whether Mashai is immediately dismissed "will test Ahmadinejad's loyalty to the supreme leader". "When the exalted supreme leader takes a position explicitly, his statement must be accepted by all means and implemented immediately," he said, according to the Mehr news agency. "Those who voted for Ahmadinejad because of his loyalty to the supreme leader expect the president to show his obedience ... in practice." Iran expert Suzanne Maloney pointed out that the supreme leader has not publicly spoken on the issue and reports of his order have been leaked by hardliners through semiofficial media. "If Khamenei comes out in Friday prayers calling for (Mashai's) removal, then it would be difficult to imagine Ahmadinejad would refuse that," said Maloney, with the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Washington-based Brookings think tank. Ahmadinejad is "not looking to open his second term by picking a fight with his most important ally in the system", she said.
Mousavi's wife: Meanwhile, the wife of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has said her 62-year-old brother was among those detained after last month's disputed election in what she called a futile attempt to pressure her husband and herself. Zahra Rahnavard's comments, in an interview published by a pro-reform Iranian news agency on Thursday, were the latest in a series of defiant statements by Mousavi and his allies, who insist the June 12 presidential poll was rigged.
Rahnavard, a prominent artist and academic who broke ground in the conservative Islamic state by campaigning for her husband in the election, told ILNA news agency that her brother, Shahpour Kazemi, was detained more than a month ago. Rights groups say hundreds of people, including senior pro-reform activists, journalists, academics and lawyers, were arrested during a post-election crackdown on the opposition. The authorities say most of those held have been released. A defence lawyer voiced concern on Wednesday about two other detained Mousavi backers, former government ministers Mostafa Tajzadeh and Behzad Nabavi, saying he did not know where they were being held.
Rahnavard said she and other Iranians would not believe any "confessions by force" obtained from her brother."Those who make (such legal) cases should know that by continuing such actions ... the nation will abandon them, and putting pressure on Mousavi and me will not work," she said.
Separately on Thursday, Iranian newspapers said seven members of parliament's national security commission had urged Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei to air confessions made by detainees on state television. In early July, a senior pro-reform cleric, Grand Ayatollah Yusof Saanei, said "confessions taken while in captivity and under critical conditions, are religiously, legally and logically invalid and worthless," according to his website.
Rahnavard said her brother was a telecommunications expert and not a political figure. "One cannot imagine any accusations against him, such as seeking riots or having relations with foreigners," she said. "But now we are witnessing an organised method of making cases (against people) through immoral ways ... by some people who play with other people's reputation because of their short-term political goals."
Posted by: Fred ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
TOPIX > RUSSIA AND IRAN WILL NOT ALLOW ANYONE TO GET A FOOTHOLD IN THE SOUTH CAUCASUS; + ONLYA "RANDOM" COURSE OF EVENTS CAN PREVENT IRAN FROM CONSOLIDATING ITS POWER IN REGION [read, US andor Israel milstrike].
* SAME > UPCOMING WAR: IS AZERBAIJAN SECRETLY PREPARING FOR WAR AGZ ARMENIA???
For the first time ever, the United Nations on Thursday accused Hezbollah of violating the UN-brokered cease-fire that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon war, fought between Israel and the Shi'ite militant organization.
It's sad, but the hoary joke applies: expect a strongly-worded declaration ...
The UN's Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Alain Le Roy, said Hezbollah had been operating a weapons depot in south Lebanon that was the site of an explosion last week. He told member states there was solid evidence that the cache belonged to Hezbollah, but added that it was not known whether the weapons had been stockpiled there before or after Resolution 1701, which called for the cease-fire, was passed.
Le Roy also touched upon claims that Hezbollah is disrupting the activities of UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon. He said there was evidence that Hezbollah organized the group of villagers that prevented UNIFIL soldiers from searching an abandoned building near the structure that blew up last week.
The official made the comments during an emergency closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council. The United States called the session to discuss the situation in south Lebanon following a number of security incidents in the area. The session was the first time when the UN explicitly accused Hezbollah of breaching the resolution; all 15 Security Council members, apart from Libya, agreed that Hezbollah was responsible for the violation.
A senior Hezbollah official said Wednesday, the explosion along the border with Israel was set off by old shells, not a secret arms cache.
The UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon called the ammunition that had exploded a serious violation of the ceasefire. Resolution 1701, which was accepted by both Israel and Hezbollah, called for the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon.
The Permanent Mission of Israel to the UN said Thursday the closed-door meeting was called after Israeli Ambassador to the UN Gabriela Shalev sent two letters of complaint to the Secretary-General and Security Council.
On Tuesday, the Lebanese Army said it had uncovered a militant Islamist network that had been plotting to carry out attacks against UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon and the army itself.
Posted by: Steve White ||
07/24/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
ION HIZZIES HEZZIES HUZZIES, CHINESE MIL FORUM > HEZBOLLAH? WHICH HEZBOLLAH? ARTIC Interviewee claims instigators of 07/5/2009 Uighur Rios were dedicated Members of CHIN-BASED, REGION-BASED UNDERGROUND HEZBOLLAH GROUP-NETWORK. Latter has alleged etablished covert Membership in CHINA, AFGHANISTAN, + PAKISTAN [10,000 Members as of 2008] WHOM DESIRE TO SET UP AN ISLAMIC/ISLAMIST STATE + SHARIA LAW -HOWEVER, said Hezzies do not have the support of most local Uighurs, etal. in Xinjiang = Western China. UIGHURS > XINJIANG to them is the HISTORICAL/ANTIQUITOUS "LAND OF THE UIGHURS", AND NOT + NEVER WAS "EAST TURKESTAN" {Contempor Weird Islamist, Western label]???
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.
Nairobi Somali militant group Harakat Al Shabaab Al-Mujahideen has issued a decree which calls for all foreign agencies and humanitarian organisations to be registered based on an Islamic criteria.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has again asked the United States to stop drone attacks and respect Pakistan's sovereignty. Talking to US Ambassador Anne W Patterson, who called on him at the PM's Secretariat on Thursday, Gilani said the drone attacks must stop, as the people of the Tribal Areas were extremely upset over the attacks. Sources told Online a host of issues came under discussion, including the war against terrorism and other matters of bilateral interest. Sources said Gilani also urged the US to fulfil its promises regarding the economic development of Pakistan. They said the US ambassador assured the PM that all possible cooperation would be extended to Islamabad and the US would continue to support Pakistan in the current crisis, especially after the Malakand operation. Meanwhile, Pakistan's Ambassador to China Masood Khan called on the PM and discussed Sino-Pak relations.
Senior government officials have expressed concern over killings of people with alleged links to the Taliban, in some parts of Swat, prompted by locals' eagerness to avenge their sufferings at the hands of the Taliban before May 7. "I have been told of one such incident ... a man killed a [Taliban] sympathiser," NWFP Governor Owais Ghani told Daily Times. "We should be careful not to allow this to spread," said the governor. 
India on Thursday asked Pakistan to "show the same force" and resolve in fighting anti-India terrorists operating from its soil as it had done combating the Taliban. "Pakistan has taken certain steps like fighting the Taliban in the Swat valley," Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna told reporters when asked about Islamabad's commitment in fighting terrorists targeting India. "We expect Pakistan should go after the terrorists, who are targeting India, with the same force," he said. 
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Thursday denied claims that 
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected on Wednesday any notion he would order Israel's barrier in the West Bank to be torn down in response to the absence of Palestinian attacks from the occupied territory.
For the first time ever, the United Nations on Thursday accused Hezbollah of violating the UN-brokered cease-fire that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon war, fought between Israel and the Shi'ite militant organization. 
