Another aircraft with a new lease on life is the venerable U-2 spy plane. The Pentagon has been trying to retire the "Dragon Lady" for more than five years, planning to replace the high-altitude reconnaissance platform with UAVs, primarily the RQ-4 Global Hawk. But delays in the Global Hawk program--and the demonstrated value of the U-2--have pushed back the Dragon Lady's departure date. And an embedded citation from - of all places - the N Y Times.
"Because of updates in the use of its powerful sensors, it has become the most sought-after spy craft in a very different war in Afghanistan. As it shifts from hunting for nuclear missiles to detecting roadside bombs, it is outshining even the unmanned drones in gathering a rich array of intelligence used to fight the Taliban."
Of course, the 548th will live on after the Dragon Lady's retirement. But that date keeps getting pushed back; the Air Force now says the first aircraft will head for the Bone Yard in 2013, but if problems with Global Hawk persist, some U-2s could be flying into the later years of this decade.
Not bad for a spy plane that made its first flight in 1955.
[Al Arabiya Latest] French President Nicolas Sarkozy has asked Sudan to take part in a Franco-African summit in May, but has made clear that Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir should not attend, the Elysee said on Monday.
Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court last year for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur, and could be arrested if he stepped foot in France, which is a staunch supporter of the ICC.
Sarkozy's office said Bashir would not be welcome.
"The president has indeed sent a letter to Omar Hassan al-Bashir to ask him to nominate the person who will represent Sudan at the Franco-African summit," said an official, making clear that the Sudanese leader himself could not come.
The summit had originally been set to take place in Egypt but France was concerned that Cairo would invite Bashir in person so reached a deal to switch the meeting to the French Riviera city of Nice, leaving Paris in charge of invitations.
Bashir had to cancel a trip to Turkey last year after Ankara came under pressure from the European Union not to host him because of the ICC indictment.
The United Nations estimates 300,000 Darfuris died and more than 2 million were driven from their homes following a 2003 rebellion, which was brutally suppressed.
Bashir, who was commander-in-chief of the armed forces during the conflict, is accused of torture and mass murder. He denies all charges of wrongdoing.
Sudan's state news agency SUNA said that in his letter to Bashir, Sarkozy had also expressed France's gratitude for the recent release of French hostages in the region.
Four French hostages were freed in the past two months in Darfur. Three were kidnapped in neighboring countries but aid sources said they were all being held in Darfur.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami yesterday alleged that Islamist militancy in the country is being sponsored by Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), and Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.
Nizami also once again blasted the media, calling journalists 'fools' and 'ignorant'.
"What Rafiqul Islam said the other day, is not tantamount to equating Prophet Mohammad (Pbuh) with me, the journalists who reported it as an equation are either fools or ignorant," Nizami said while addressing a meeting of ulemas [Islamic scholars] in Al Falah auditorium at Maghbazar of the capital.
Jamaat's Dhaka City Unit Ameer Rafiqul Islam Khan on March 17 at a discussion in the capital said Jamaat Ameer Motiur Rahman Nizami is encountering the same difficulties that were faced by Hazrat Muhammad (Pbuh) while preaching Islam.
Nizami yesterday said, "Our neighbouring country's intelligence agency RAW with the help of Mossad, the intelligence agency of the Zionist state, is sponsoring militancy in the country. The explosives and arms the militants used, all originated from India."
When Jamaat was a part of 4-party alliance government, Nizami told reporters that there was no militant in Bangladesh, rather the notion of their existence in the country was only a fiction created by the media.
Several Jamaat leaders yesterday also slammed the Islamic scholars who have been demonstrating in protest against the remarks made by Rafiq. The Jamaat leaders said the demonstrating ulemas are not real ulemas.
The meeting was presided over by Rafiqul Islam Khan.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Nizami also once again blasted the media, calling journalists 'fools' and 'ignorant'.
#1
An MP was investigated by police for inciting racial hatred over controversial comments about the burkha following complaints from a human rights association.
#5
In the UK the police are being used as the foot soldiers of Politically Correct Guardian reading chattering classes, if there were no Muslims in the UK we would not have these awful problems.
Posted by: Dave UK ||
03/23/2010 19:42 Comments ||
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#6
Without the PC, nanny-state, 'feelings', abrogation of responsibility attitude of the UK (and EU, and now US), you would not have these problems either, and would have a contributing, beneficial population of Muslims in the country.
Ron Proser, the Israeli Ambassador to London, was summoned to the Foreign Office on Monday to be told the results of an inquiry into the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, whose body was discovered in a luxury Dubai hotel room on January 20.
Several members of the team suspected of killing him were found to be travelling on passports cloned from documents belonging to British citizens living in Israel. Other passports had been stolen from Irish, German, Australian and French citizens.
A senior Israeli diplomat would be expelled as a mark of the anger' within the Government that British passport holders had been put at risk as a result of the operation.
A ministerial statement to be made to Parliament on Tuesday will formally name the Israeli security services as responsible for the cloning of up to 15 British passports, which were copied after being taken away by airport officials.
The statement will say that it proved impossible to confirm definitively whether Mossad, the Israeli secret intelligence service, was responsible for the operation, with suspicion also resting on the Military Intelligence Directorate.
But the probe had determined for certain that the passports were cloned when British citizens passed through airports on their way into Israel, with officials taking them away for checks' which lasted around 20 minutes.
Foreign Office sources expressed frustration that there was little more that could be done to punish' Israel over the affair.
A number of those whose passports were stolen had dual British and Israeli nationality.
They include Gabriella Barney, 23, and her father Michael, 54, along with Daniel Marc Schnur, 32, Roy Allan Cannon, 62, Stephen Keith Drake, 54, Mark Daniel Sklar, 30, and Philip Carr, 35.
A number of the innocent passport holders have expressed concern and upset that their identities were used for the assassination of a senior Hamas commander, which was carried out by a team of at least 23 operatives.
#4
In Britain as a kid i was fed all this nonsense from the BBC and newspapers that Israel was the bully and the Paelos were just homeless victims!
This mindset is still prevalent across Europe.Its only going on sites like this that you learn the truth re Arab/Muslim hatred of other religions which is the source of all the problems in the Middle East!How many Christians/Jews are there left in the Middle East where the three religions were founded?
Leaving aside the fact that the deceased Mr. al-Mabhouh would have been happy to kill all of YOU, if Mossad handled this killing of a moslem in a moslem country, why has so far that moslem country arrested only some clowns from Gaza? You know, moslems?
Sincerely,
Your American cousin (who, unlike YOU, works from logic, not Jew-hatred)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/23/2010 13:38 Comments ||
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#6
The whole world admires British sense of fair play.
#10
Gentlemen don't do a great many things, including not taking advantage of the servant girls. Men who are deemed gentlemen by birth, however, have been known to break a great many of those rules when they think they can get away with it. That's why they used to be sent to the Continent or South America or Africa to sow their wild oats.
Quite probably the Brits are embarrassed because they thought their passports were copy-proof. They haven't gotten nearly as upset about the number of virgin passports stolen over the years. Of course, those are assumed to be mostly used by illegals, drug dealers, and white slavers... nothing to make a fuss over.
Posted by: trailing wife on the other computer ||
03/23/2010 17:53 Comments ||
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North Korea's worst concentration camp is a reeducation center where women who escaped to China are subjected to the most brutal treatment, NGO Good Friends said Monday. The Jeungsan Reeducation Center in South Pyongan Province has a reputation for cruelty and the saying goes that even healthy people leave as cripples.
The facility was turned into a reeducation center after the regime revised the criminal law in 2004. Before the law was revised, North Korea had four kinds of detention centers reeducation, education, confinement and labor training camps in descending order of severity.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-il himself is said to have turned the center into a kind of "Papillon" prison island, giving instructions that every prisoner's year there should feel like 10.
The camp has since 1999 been used to detain female defectors. The North tightened controls for fear of regime collapse amid the famine of the 1990s, which sent many fleeing hunger and starvation. China regularly cooperated in the atrocity by sending refugees back to the North. Short of space at political camps, the regime started to put women in the Jeungsan camp.
Hundreds of female inmates reportedly suffer malnutrition there, and two or three die every day. Their bodies are wrapped in plastic and buried in mass graves. One former inmate who was detained there in 2004 said that other inmates who saw mass graves with piles of human bones and bodies came away with permanent psychological scars.
A former official of the Ministry of Public Security who defected said, "The Jeungsan Reeducation Center is notorious because many more inmates die there than at any other concentration camp due to the unbearably hard labor and malnutrition."
Jeungsan consists of 10 divisions, each of which is made up of seven to 10 groups. Each group normally has 40 to 50 inmates. A relatively healthy inmate is chosen as a capo who controls other inmates under the supervision of security guards. Those caught attempting to escape or committing infractions there are not publicly executed as at other political prison camps but are tortured or killed out of sight.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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Sounds like North Korea is pushing hard to get a spot on the U.N. Human Rights Commission.
Posted by: Oscar ||
03/23/2010 4:58 Comments ||
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#3
It's a "progress"...
They used to punch baling wire through the deportees clavicles or wrist bones, drag them into
a ditch and shoot them right there
in full view of the Chinese border guards.
Maybe the Chinese government complained
about the psychological problem this caused
to their border guards...
...as a Mideast peacemaker. At the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)meeting that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was to address Monday evening. It's an Ay Pee article, so you can read the details at the link.
Secretary Clinton is entering into this Israel-bashing stuff with great enthusiasm. One might be driven to assume her philosemitic posturing was only for the votes in her adopted home state of New York, abandoned now that she has achieved an appointed position.
Posted by: trailing wife on the other computer ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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Sec. of State Clinton accuses Israel of undermining US credibility
#6
Sorry, this administration lost overseas credibility back with Hondorus; unless she means Israel by not backing down lowers the value of an administration promise to Israel's hostile neighbors for a reign-in of Israel?
Because we know she cannot be talking about herself, as said the clintons lost personal credibility a long, long time ago.
#13
What odds that the Canadian left will try to subpoena her before she can return to the US, or wait for her next visit and subpoena her before she can speak?
#14
You can expect anything from these Human Right Commissions...they are stooges for Islam.
A small village in Quebec put up a sign:
"We dont lapidate women in Herouxville"
Leftists had a cow!
It was a major made up "scandal"!!!
But finally, they lost.
A line was drawn...thanks for Ann Coulter
to test if the muslim leftards will try to cross it!
#17
TOPIX > AL QAEDA ON THE RUN OR RISING IN THE US?, as illustrated by so-called "JIHAD JANES" + OTHER BURQUA BAD BOYZ PRIOR.
Once again, YEAR 2012 + PAN-ISLAMIST NUCLEARIZATION > THE YEAR AMERICA = AMERIKA, the MIGHTY USSA = WEAK USRoA SSR, FINDS OUT IFF THE FUTURE OWG-NWO + GLOVAL SOCIALIST ORDER WILL BE PRO-AMERIKA-VERSUS-ANTI-AMERIKA, PRO-USSA-VERSUS-PRO-USRoA, ...........@.
FLASH: Ann Coulter Ottawa speech shut down... 2000 protesters surrounding building with rocks and sticks -- pulled fire alarm in building. Cops shut it down! Blogs calling for Coulter to be hurt. MPs were banned from going, Coulter denounced by an MP in the Parliement.
More details at the embedded "Cops shut it down!" link.
Posted by: trailing wife on the other computer ||
03/23/2010 23:19 Comments ||
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#20
Im pretty sure little Francois A-Houle does not need to travel with a bodyguard, she said.
A suspected Al Qaeda organizer once called "the highest value detainee" at Guantanamo Bay was ordered released by a federal judge in an order issued Monday. The government may appeal.
Mohamedou Ould Slahi was accused in the 9/11 Commission report of helping recruit Mohammed Atta and other members of the Al Qaeda cell in Hamburg, Germany, that took part in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Military prosecutors suspected Slahi of links to other Al Qaeda operations, and considered seeking the death penalty against him while preparing possible charges in 2003 and 2004.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson granted Slahi's petition for habeas corpus, effectively finding the government lacked legal grounds to hold him. The order was classified, although the court said it planned to release a redacted public version in the coming weeks.
Robertson held four days of closed hearings in the Slahi case last year.
Brig. Gen. John Furlow, who helped lead a Pentagon-ordered investigation into detainee abuse at Guantanamo Bay, has testified that Slahi was "the highest value detainee" at the offshore prison and "the key orchestrator of the Al Qaeda cell in Europe."
Plans to try him by military commission were derailed after prosecutors learned that Slahi had been subjected to a "special interrogation plan" involving weeks of physical and mental torment, including a death threat and a threat to bring Slahi's mother to Guantanamo Bay where she could be gang-raped, officials said. Although the treatment apparently induced Slahi's compliance, the military prosecutor, Marine Lt. Col. V. Stuart Couch, determined that it constituted torture and evidence it produced could not lawfully be used against Mr. Slahi.
This article starring:
Mohamedou Ould Slahi
Posted by: trailing wife on the other computer ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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Fine, let him F&*KING go. Our sorry assed leadership will destroy our nation before they can put another strike together.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
03/23/2010 1:24 Comments ||
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#4
Mohamedou Ould Slahi needs to send a glossy picture of himself and a resume to Obama. Mohamedou Ould Slahi can then get an appointment as a Whitehouse Czar on defense matters!
#6
Embed a tracking device and release in the Pakistan tribal areas for return to his buddies. I suspect the usual 'sky is falling' accident is possible.
GAUHATI, India (AP) - The Indian military has a new weapon against terrorism: the world's hottest chili. After conducting tests, the military has decided to use the thumb-sized "bhut jolokia," or "ghost chili," to make tear gas-like hand grenades to immobilize suspects, defense officials said Tuesday. I grew some. Made some 5 gallons of Chili with one. Jeebus! I burned for a week!
The bhut jolokia was accepted by Guinness World Records in 2007 as the world's spiciest chili. It is grown and eaten in India's northeast for its taste, as a cure for stomach troubles and a way to fight the crippling summer heat. If you eat some of one you will sweat gallons.
It has more than 1,000,000 Scoville units, the scientific measurement of a chili's spiciness. Classic Tabasco sauce ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville units, while jalapeno peppers measure anywhere from 2,500 to 8,000. It's hotter than Satan's Toejam.
"The chili grenade has been found fit for use after trials in Indian defense laboratories, a fact confirmed by scientists at the Defense Research and Development Organization," Col. R. Kalia, a defense spokesman in the northeastern state of Assam, told The Associated Press. The chili I made turned out to be a grenade, all right. A Gut Grenade. I won't go into details.
"This is definitely going to be an effective nontoxic weapon because its pungent smell can choke terrorists and force them out of their hide-outs," R. B. Srivastava, the director of the Life Sciences Department at the New Delhi headquarters of the DRDO said. It'll probably make them want to crawl 10 miles over broken glass to get to some icewater.
Srivastava, who led a defense research laboratory in Assam, said trials are also on to produce bhut jolokia-based aerosol sprays to be used by women against attackers and for the police to control and disperse mobs.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
03/23/2010 11:37 ||
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that guy on Man vs. Food ate some hot wings with a sauce made with these things, it blistered his face on the first bite!
Posted by: chris ||
03/23/2010 13:06 Comments ||
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#2
The chili I made turned out to be a grenade, all right. A Gut Grenade. I won't go into details.
But I rather imagine you haven't any intestinal parasites any more... ;-)
Posted by: trailing wife on the other computer ||
03/23/2010 14:48 Comments ||
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#3
I dount he has intestines at all if he ate all that chili
Posted by: chris ||
03/23/2010 15:12 Comments ||
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#4
Actually water doesn't help. You need to immediately suck on a lemon or lime or drink lots of lemonade. And some bicarbonate of soda.
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
03/23/2010 16:52 Comments ||
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#5
:)
Hi ya Deacon!
I cut the ones you sent into itsy bitsy teenyy weeny little crazed Bikini. I used 1 portion (less than a milligram) in a smallish stew. The stew is still perfectly preserved in the backyard.
#9
Many years ago, I had a Mexican-American friend whose father made hot sauces strictly for hot pepper aficionados. At seven kinds of prices.
He showed me some small, berry-like white peppers about the size of a pea. His father had smuggled them North, not because they were illegal, but because they were unclassified, unknown to botanists. So they were his "secret weapon", worth a fortune in a hot sauce.
Dried and very finely ground, about one of these in a gallon of sauce, and a few drops would be more than even most hot pepper eaters could tolerate.
He said they were discovered by accident, when his father's jack burro had nibbled a few and died, rather unpleasantly.
[Geo News] Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that the citizens must take benefits from government but should not vote them it will earn them 'sawab'.
Those fighting against American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq are freedom fighters (mujahideen), he added and supported their cause.
He was addressing a rally in Fazalabad area of Dera Ismail Khan.
He criticized government for luring voters by announcing development schemes.
JUI-F chief termed PPP, PML, MQM and ANP secular parties and American agent.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that the citizens must take benefits from government but should not vote them it will earn them 'sawab'.
That sounds like Muslims in the UK all take and no give!
ISLAMABAD -- The crucial strategic dialogue, which will begin between Washington and Islamabad on March 24, is unlikely to make any major headway largely because of the US' bias in addressing Pakistan's national security concerns.
Background interviews and discussions with credible diplomatic and military sources revealed to TheNation that the US' diplomatic posturing ahead of the high calibre strategic dialogue suggested that the US's bias towards Pakistan vis-a-vis India would not let the talks to obtain some strategic value.
"The strategic dialogue process would be of no meaning, as the US authorities failed to address Pakistan's national security concerns relating to India", military sources said.
They were of the view that despite some US concessions to Pakistan as consequence of the KLB Act, future of bilateral co-operation between the two countries would largely depend on the value of the strategic dialogue in addressing Pakistan's security concerns.
"The US has ostensibly taken position that it would not address Pakistan's concerns relating to India, which shows the level sincerity being exhibited by the US officials in addressing Pakistan's national security concerns", a source said. It added that the US' lollypops to Pakistan would not be helpful in addressing Pakistan's concerns relating to strategic balance in the region until the US recognises Pakistan as a legitimate nuclear armed state.
The sources were of the view that the US' image in Pakistan could only be improved by building a trustworthy and long-term relations and that were possible only how the US addresses Pakistan's concerns relating to its national security.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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Pakistan wants the US to provide it with nuclear technology for a civilian energy programme and is to push the Obama administration this week for a deal.
Islamabad seeks a civilian nuclear deal to mirror the package granted to India by George Bush, a proposal that would prove contentious in Washington, given Pakistan's uneven record on combating extremist groups and its sale of nuclear technology to states hostile to the west, led by the former head of its programme, Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan.
A spokesman for Pakistan's ministry of foreign affairs, Abdul Basit, said today: "Pakistan is an energy-deficit country and we're looking for all sources, including nuclear, to meeting our requirements."
A team led by Pakistan's foreign minister that includes the country's army commander and spy chief is due to arrive in Washington on Wednesday for meetings with their US counterparts, including Hillary Clinton, the secretary of state, in an effort to relaunch dialogue between the two allies. Afghanistan and help for Pakistan's near-bankrupt economy will also be on the agenda.
Many experts believe Pakistan holds the key to stabilising Afghanistan and it is trying to position itself as a sole conduit to talk to the Taliban.
The US meetings, are designed to restart talks that were last held in 2008.
Pakistan believes it has suffered from the violent fallout of US-led intervention in neighbouring Afghanistan and requires further assistance, despite a recent $7.5bn (£5bn) US aid injection.
A civilian nuclear deal, which would provide technology and fuel for power plants, could be the carrot required for Pakistan to finally cut its ties to jihad groups. A variety of incentives since 2001, including military equipment and civilian aid, have not worked, say experts.
Christine Fair, an assistant professor at Georgetown University in Washington, said: "We need a big idea for Pakistan, to transform it from a source of insecurity for the region to a country committed to eliminating terrorism and ensuring that nuclear proliferation doesn't happen again.
"We're trying to get Pakistan to do things that are in our strategic interests but not in theirs."
Pakistan craves a nuclear deal because it aspires to parity with India, say analysts.
It bristles with indignation over the perceived special treatment accorded to India, which it believes has upset the regional balance of power in South Asia.
Prof Shaun Gregory, director of the Pakistan security research unit at Bradford University, said: "Through the deal, India became a de facto member of the nuclear club and Pakistan doesn't understand why it wasn't offered the same thing. Pakistan has to position itself as an equal to India."
While Pakistan and India used to be bracketed together, Pakistan is now lumped in with Afghanistan under "Af-Pak", a diplomatic relegation, while India is lauded as a growing power.
Pakistan's past record of nuclear proliferation hangs over it, especially as its renegade scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan, continues to make revelations about his secret arms sales. Khan was placed under house arrest in 2004 but has since been released.
David Albright, a former UN weapons inspector who is president of Institute for Science and International Security, an independent thinktank in Washington, said: "Pakistan has a chance (for a civil nuclear deal) but it has to overcome some pretty serious roads. If there was a trial of AQ Khan and he was jailed, that would help."
A US-Pakistan deal could take several years to hammer out. The US-India agreement has not been not finalised, more than five years after negotiations began.
Posted by: john frum ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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if you can build bombs you can build the damn civilian side too the nukes
Posted by: chris ||
03/23/2010 16:47 Comments ||
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#2
How is Pakistan the key too stabilising Afghanistan when they can't stabilise their own country?
Posted by: chris ||
03/23/2010 16:48 Comments ||
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[Ma'an] Multiple Israeli airstrikes on Gaza seek to disturb the peace and prompt a response in order to defer attention from Jerusalem, senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahhar said on Sunday.
Addressing a commemoration ceremony for Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, assassinated six years earlier by Israeli forces, Zahhar hinted that recent projectile launches were "conspiracies plotted by some collaborators," providing excuses for Israel to strike Gaza.
"We respect resistance regardless of which factions are adopting it. Palestine belongs to all including us," Zahhar said, but reiterated his cation that Hamas "warns of some conspiracies plotted by collaborators."
According to an Israeli military spokesman, 35 homemade projectiles were launched from the Gaza Strip toward Israel since the end of the country's Operation Cast Lead in 2009. Three were claimed by members of Hamas' Al-Qassam Brigades, but later refuted by spokesmen.
Zahhar said Hamas would not abandon resistance, nor would the movement give up on inalienable Palestinian principles. However, he said Hamas was evaluating its experiences of almost four years of Gaza rule.
"Every experience should be reconsidered," he said, stressing that reconsideration "does not mean failure," but explained that it was part of the "process that Hamas initiates every year."
The Hamas official called on both the UN and the Arab League to step up efforts, demanding actions rather than words.
"Moon came to Gaza to say 'lift the siege' but [should have] taken practical steps through the UN Security Council and other international entities to end the siege," Zahhar said, noting Ban's comments were worthless "words we can't buy."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Hamas: "We's pure as the driven snow! Didn't you read the Goldstone report?"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/23/2010 18:34 Comments ||
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[Ma'an] Hamas members of the Palestinian Legislative Council in Ramallah condemned on Monday a military court sentence handed down to four of its affiliates detained in a Palestinian Authority intelligence services prison.
According to the Hamas lawmakers, the Palestinian Supreme Court had called for the release of the four detained affiliates, identified as Muhammad Judeh Abu Shalbak, Ahmad Sh'aban Abu Kuwek, Khalid Jamil As-Seraj and Saif Al-Qadi.
"The continued security services operations and the issuance of sentences in military courts confirms that the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah does not want to reach a solution and end internal division," a statement issued by the Hamas deputies said.
The statement described the sentences as "unfair, based on false pretenses and trumped-up charges." The arrests are a policy of "resistance suppression" in the West Bank and an encroachment on freedom, they wrote.
The Hamas ministers added that the PA should support resistance at this stage, and "not suppress it."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya Latest] U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Monday that Israel's construction of settler homes in east Jerusalem and the West Bank undermines mutual trust, the peace talks and the U.S. mediating role, and accused Palestinians of inciting violence.
"New construction in east Jerusalem or the West Bank undermines mutual trust and endangers the proximity talks that are the first step toward the full negotiations that both sides want and need," Clinton said in a speech to the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC, according to her prepared remarks.
"It exposes daylight between Israel and the United States that others in the region could hope to exploit," the chief U.S. diplomat said.
"And it undermines America's unique ability to play a role -- an essential role, I might add -- in the peace process," she said.
Meanwhile, Clinton also accused the Palestinians of inciting violence by mischaracterizing the re-opening of a synagogue in Jerusalem's old city as an attack on Muslims.
"It is purely and simply an act of incitement," she said.
"These provocations are wrong and must be condemned for needlessly inflaming tensions and imperiling prospects for a comprehensive peace," she added.
The United States had previously rejected Palestinian criticism of the rededication of the historic Hourva synagogue in the Jewish Quarter of the old city.
Clinton charged that "instigators" of violence had "deliberately" mischaracterized the rededication in calling on Palestinians to defend nearby Muslim holy sites against "attacks."
The synagogue was rebuilt and reopened March 15, 62 years after it was destroyed in fighting with Jordan.
Hatem Abdel Qader, who oversees Jerusalem affairs for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah, warned after the rededication that it was "not just a synagogue."
"This synagogue will be a prelude to violence, extremism and religious fanaticism, and that will not be limited to extremist Jews but includes members of the Israeli government," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Ever hear the expression "what goes around comes around" Mrs Secretary?
AL-QAEDA chief Osama bin Laden's son issued a plea overnight for a country to accept members of his family seeking to leave Iran, where they have been held under house arrest since 2001.
After two of Omar bin Laden's siblings were released by Tehran to Syria in the past three months, he and his wife Zaina issued a statement pleading for a refuge for their other family members still in Iran, mentioning specifically Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
"The Iranian government has nowhere to send Omar's other siblings," they wrote.
"We beg of any country to help us, either from the east or the western world. These are just as much innocent victims as anyone else," they said.
"We ask again for the UAE or Qatar to please help them."
The letter named 23 people still living in the Tehran compound where the family has been held since fleeing overland from Afghanistan in 2001 ahead of the September 11 al-Qaeda attacks on the United States.
The group includes Osama bin Laden's sons, their wives, and children born both in Afghanistan and later in Tehran.
Zaina, Omar's British wife, said that including others like in-laws the entire group numbers more than 30.
Two of the family have been allowed to leave Iran. On December 25, Bakr bin Laden, 16, Osama's youngest son, flew to Damascus where he was reunited with his Syrian mother Najwa al-Ghanem, one of Osama bin Laden's several wives.
On March 17 Bakr's sister Iman, who had been living the Saudi embassy in Tehran for three months after sneaking away from the compound, also flew to Damascus.
She was escorted by Ghanem, who had been allowed to travel to Tehran to meet her. The mother and daughter had not seen each other for nine years.
Omar bin Laden says that, despite accusations from other family members and some al-Qaeda statements, the family has been treated well in Iran.
In the guarded compound, "they were well treated, but had no communication with the outside world other than a TV and occasional accompanied trips outside", the statement said.
He also says none of them have al-Qaeda sympathies.
"None of the siblings liked war or violence, all they ever wanted was a normal life with a normal family. They all wanted peace," the statement said.
It listed four sons of Osama bin Laden - Osman,27; Saad, 30; Mohammed, 25; and Hamza, 19 - and one daughter, Fatima, 24, as still in Tehran. Ghanem is the mother of all the children except Hamza.
All are living in the Tehran compound with spouses and 12 children of their own, all under 11 years of age.
The statement said that Iran is willing to release them all if there is a place for them to go.
"Once we have any confirmation, the Iranians will put them on a flight. Najwa and her children will be together once again."
#2
Send in your glossy photos and resumes to Obama and stand by for Supreme Court appointments or Whitehouse Czar appointments to re-start ACORN. Wear a sombrero when you ask for amnesty as an illegal alien. Tell Nancy Pelosi you have access to free Botox. Ask to be on Hildebeast's Israel diplomatic team. The possibilities are endless - the future is yours!
[Asharq al-Aswat] Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in his new year address to the nation on Sunday accused the US president of plotting against Iran as crowds of worshippers shouted "Death to Obama!"
In his defiant outburst, the all-powerful Khamenei dismissed President Barack Obama's frequent offers of dialogue with Iran which began with last year's historic Nowrouz greeting marking the Persian new year.
Khamenei's personal tirade comes as Tehran is locked in a stalemate over its nuclear programme, with Washington pushing for a fourth round of sanctions against the Islamic republic.
He lashed out at the Obama administration in his speech, broadcast live on state television, saying after last June's presidential election, the United States had taken a "worst stand" against Tehran.
He said Obama's offer last year of a "new beginning" with Tehran turned out to be "deceptive," as he had thought at the time that it would be.
"The US government and new administration claimed they wanted to have fair and correct relations, wrote letters and sent messages and even shouted through loudspeakers 'we want to normalise relations with the Islamic republic,' but unfortunately in practice they did the opposite," Khamenei said.
"The US president called the (post-election) rioters human rights activists.
"You take the side of rioters and call it a civil movement. Are you not ashamed? You are in no position to speak of human rights. Did you reduce the killings in Iraq and Afghanistan?" Khamenei asked as worshippers, their fists raised, chanted "Death to Obama! Death to America!"
Khamenei, who is also Iran's military commander-in-chief, said that Iran "condemns" such "arrogant" powers.
"You cannot talk about peace and friendship and at the same time plot and plan sedition and think that you can hurt the regime of the Islamic republic of Iran," he said.
A significant part of his speech focused on the controversial re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying the nation's "enemies had plans" to derail the poll but that this was prevented by a massive voter turn-out.
"By resorting to violence, they wanted to change the result of the election. they wanted to trigger violence by bringing people to the arena and by burning buses... but the Iranian nation triumphed," the cleric said.
"They wanted to divide the people between majority and minority... and to spark a civil war, but the nation was alert. If they had been able to do so, the US and Zionist regime would have sent troops to Tehran's streets, but they knew it would hurt them. So they spread propaganda and supported the rioters."
Dozens of people were killed in post-election clashes between supporters of Ahmadinejad's defeated rivals and security forces. Opposition groups charge that the June election was massively rigged in Ahmadinejad's favour.
The post-election crisis shook the pillars of the Islamic regime and also caused divisions among the ranks of senior clergy.
Obama on Saturday reached out to the Iranian populace rather than to their leaders.
"Even as we continue to have differences with the Iranian government, we will sustain our commitment to a more hopeful future for the Iranian people," he said in a Nowrouz message released by the White House.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/23/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"You cannot talk about peace and friendship and at the same time plot and plan sedition and think that you can hurt the regime....
Rubbish! He does it here at home nearly every day.
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[Geo News] Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has said that the citizens must take benefits from government but should not vote them it will earn them 'sawab'.
