But I thought Islam was compatible with Modern Christian Values®
Good job I'm an educated and religion loathing individual or I may have been convinced of these pigshit lies.
#4
Just noble brown-skinned people engaging in their quaint and charming local customs. Nothing to see here; move along. Oh, and MultiCulturalism Uber Alles!
#5
But if the Pope even suggests that people should wait until marriage to have sex, watch the spittle fly from the usual gang of idiots condemning him for interfering with people's lives.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
01/29/2011 16:06 Comments ||
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Rooters, so no text, but it's just a short blurb anyway saying they've arrived at the airport in Tel Aviv. Ay Pee and the J'lem Post have a little more detail here
The American government secretly backed leading figures behind the Egyptian uprising who have been planning "regime change" for the past three years, The Daily Telegraph has learned.
If we had a CIA worth anything no one would ever have heard of this until it was over and we wanted to take credit, just so we could remind thugs elsewhere in the world that they would be next.
The American Embassy in Cairo helped a young dissident attend a US-sponsored summit for activists in New York, while working to keep his identity secret from Egyptian state police.
On his return to Cairo in December 2008, the activist told US diplomats that an alliance of opposition groups had drawn up a plan to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak and install a democratic government in 2011. He has already been arrested by Egyptian security in connection with the demonstrations and his identity is being protected by The Daily Telegraph.
The disclosures, contained in previously secret US diplomatic dispatches released by the WikiLeaks website, show American officials pressed the Egyptian government to release other dissidents who had been detained by the police.
Once again Justin Assange is the enemy of freedom and democracy in the world.
The US government has previously been a supporter of Mr Mubarak's regime. But the leaked documents show the extent to which America was offering support to pro-democracy activists in Egypt while publicly praising Mr Mubarak as an important ally in the Middle East.
In a secret diplomatic dispatch, sent on December 30 2008, Margaret Scobey, the US Ambassador to Cairo, recorded that opposition groups had allegedly drawn up secret plans for "regime change" to take place before elections, scheduled for September this year. The memo, which Ambassador Scobey sent to the US Secretary of State in Washington DC, was marked "confidential" and headed: "April 6 activist on his US visit and regime change in Egypt."
It said the activist claimed "several opposition forces" had "agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition to a parliamentary democracy, involving a weakened presidency and an empowered prime minister and parliament, before the scheduled 2011 presidential elections". The embassy's source said the plan was "so sensitive it cannot be written down".
Ambassador Scobey questioned whether such an "unrealistic" plot could work, or ever even existed. However, the documents showed that the activist had been approached by US diplomats and received extensive support for his pro-democracy campaign from officials in Washington. The embassy helped the campaigner attend a "summit" for youth activists in New York, which was organised by the US State Department.
Cairo embassy officials warned Washington that the activist's identity must be kept secret because he could face "retribution" when he returned to Egypt. He had already allegedly been tortured for three days by Egyptian state security after he was arrested for taking part in a protest some years earlier.
The protests in Egypt are being driven by the April 6 youth movement, a group on Facebook that has attracted mainly young and educated members opposed to Mr Mubarak. The group has about 70,000 members and uses social networking sites to orchestrate protests and report on their activities.
The documents released by WikiLeaks reveal US Embassy officials were in regular contact with the activist throughout 2008 and 2009, considering him one of their most reliable sources for information about human rights abuses.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Mubarak just appointed Omar Suleiman as Egypt's first VP, with his sons fleeing to London. The former spy chief has lefty Gen. Wesley Clark support...hmmm. Positive democratic transition or major crackdown coming??? And we know how the tranzi plans worked so well in Iraq...billions are still unaccounted for there. Egypt is the 4th largest recipiient of US aid, too.
#2
The memo, which Ambassador Scobey sent to the US Secretary of State in Washington DC, was marked "confidential".
Excuse me folks, but a confidential memo isn't very secret at all.
Ambassador Scobey questioned whether such an "unrealistic" plot could work, or ever even existed.
Sounds to me like the ambassador didn't take this very seriously and America's involvement has been minimal.
Mountain out of mole hill.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
01/29/2011 12:42 Comments ||
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#3
Meeting = backing? Words = backing? My interpretation of "backing" has always been money + training + weaponry. We "backed" the Afghan opposition during the Soviet-Afghan War. We "talked" with the Egyptian opposition to figure out what they were about.
[Arab News] CAIRO: Egypt's ruling party said Thursday it was ready for a dialogue with the public but offered no concessions on the third day of anti-government protests in the country.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] Around 2000, Osama bin Laden was visiting a guesthouse in Kandahar, Afghanistan, when one of his aides approached a Tanzanian man who was staying there.
The aide said bin Laden had personally requested that the man, Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani , become one of his bodyguards.
Ghailani accepted the offer, was given an AK-47 assault rifle, and soon joined a tight cadre of about 15 bodyguards working for bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, according to Ghailani's recollection, as described in an FBI document.
He also became bin Laden's cook, taking on a task that most of the other "brothers" shunned, the FBI summary quotes him as saying.
"Most of them didn't like to cook," Ghailani explained.
Ghailani, 36, was sentenced on Tuesday in Federal District Court in Manhattan for conspiracy to destroy government buildings and property, stemming from his trial in the 1998 bombings of two American Embassies in East Africa, which killed 224 people. He was also acquitted of more than 280 counts of murder and conspiracy.
Ghailani's lawyers have said he was a naïve "kid" who was duped into assisting in the plot, while prosecutors have called him a terrorist with "the blood of hundreds on his hands."
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said in a ruling on Friday last week that there was sufficient evidence that Ghailani was a "knowing and willing" participant, and that he could have been convicted of all 224 murders.
Still, the jury saw only a snapshot of Ghailani's life, focusing on the period before the attacks. It did not learn that, according to prosecutors, he ended up training with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan; guarding bin Laden; meeting Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and seeing Zacarias Moussaoui; and encountering operatives who were among the 9/11 hijackers.
Like nobody's business
A fuller story of his life, encompassing Ghailani's childhood in Zanzibar and his association with Al Qaeda after the attacks, offers insight into how he became a trusted aide to bin Laden, and why American authorities saw him as a potential intelligence asset after his arrest in 2004.
He grew up in Zanzibar, a short ferry ride from the Tanzanian mainland, in a concrete house with a roof of corrugated iron sheets. His parents divorced, and although he lived with his mother, he had a close relationship with his father, who ran a small restaurant.
He also visited his grandfather, who lived in a nearby village and grew coconuts, cloves and other items for the local market. "He was nice to me, and easy to know," Ghailani told a court-appointed psychiatrist, Dr Gregory B. Saathoff, who evaluated him last year.
Although Ghailani's parents were not particularly religious, Ghailani recalled that his grandfather took him to a mosque.
His mother, Bimkubwa Said Abdalla, said in a recent interview in Zanzibar that she remembered how her son learned to read the Koran "like nobody's business."
Ms Abdalla, a nurse midwife by profession who works in a hospital in Zanzibar, recalled her son as a boy who studied hard and completed high school, but then fell in with the "wrong kind of people." Still more at the site, if you're interested...
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Sanaa was quiet on Friday with no sign of the thousands of protesters who had flooded the streets the previous day to demand the ouster of President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh, in power since 1978.
Reports that the protesters would stage another rally after the weekly Mohammedan prayers proved unfounded and the situation was normal for a Friday, a weekly holiday in Yemen, with no visible extra police deployment, an AFP news hound said.
Saleh, who has been president for decades, was re-elected in September 2006 for a seven-year mandate.
A draft amendment of the constitution, under discussion in parliament despite opposition protests, could allow him - if passed - to remain in office for life.
Slogans chanted during Thursday's demonstration in Sanaa were firm in demanding Saleh's departure.
"No to extending (presidential tenure). No to bequeathing (the presidency)," chanted demonstrators, insisting that it was "time for change."
Security measures at the demonstrations appeared relaxed, but were tight around the interior ministry and the central bank.
Saleh's ruling General People's Congress (GPC), meanwhile, organised four simultaneous counter-demonstrations which were attended by thousands of the government's backers.
"No to toppling democracy and the constitution," the president's supporters said on their banners.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] In his call with Qatar's Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, President Ali Saleh asked him to urge Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel to stop what he described as incitement, exaggeration and distortion of the current situation in Yemen.
Saleh said in the conversation, according to govermental sources that Al-Jazeera channel Serves Zionist and terrorist groups, adding that the media is supposed to have a noble message, which is to serve the truth, reinforce unity and peace, help face challenges and expose plots in the Arab World.
Saleh's call came after Al-Jazeera's coverage of the unrest situation and protests in the country during the last few days.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] North Korean leader Kim Dear Leader Jong-Il ... hereditary dictator of North Korea. His definition of reunification isn't the same as the definition in Seoul... was against a third-generation succession of power but named his youngest son as the next leader to ensure national stability, his eldest son told a Japanese newspaper.
In a rare interview published Friday, Kim Jong-Nam, who has lived abroad for years after apparently falling out of favour with his father, also called on his half-brother, the heir apparent Kim Jong-Un, to improve North Koreans' lives.
'Hereditary succession did not happen even under Chinese Chairman Mao Zedong,' the 39-year-old told the Tokyo Shimbun in a 90-minute interview conducted earlier this month in southern China. '(Hereditary succession) does not fit socialism and my father was against it,' he said in comments translated into Japanese.
'I understand that it was done in order to stabilise the framework of the nation,' he said. 'Instability of North Korea will lead to instability of the surrounding region.'
Kim Jong-Il, 68, is seen as setting up the transfer of power to his third son Jong-Un, who is believed to be 27 and who accompanied his father on about one-fifth of his excursions last year.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
KIM JONG-NAM also repor admitted on the LOW QUALITY-OF-LIFE permeating inside North Korea, + that IHO North Korea will never give up its NucProgs as long as it is at loggerheads = feels threatened by the USA.
#3
That's not much of a choice. On one hand, all expense paid whoring and drinking and visiting Disneyland, and on the other hand, ruling over a cold, poor, starving nation, filled with paranoid military officers, and lorded over by the Chinese.
WASHINGTON Investigators have concluded that Army commanders ignored advice not to send to Iraq an Army private who's now accused of downloading hundreds of thousands of sensitive reports and diplomatic cables that ended up on the WikiLeaks website in the largest single security breach in American history, McClatchy has learned.
Pfc. Bradley Manning's direct supervisor warned that Manning had thrown chairs at colleagues and shouted at higher ranking soldiers in the year he was stationed at Fort Drum, N.Y., and advised that Manning shouldn't be sent to Iraq, where his job would entail accessing classified documents through the Defense Department's computer system.
So it was clear he had a problem, and unfortunately the Army screwed up.
But superior officers decided to ignore the advice because the unit was short of intelligence analysts and needed Manning's skills. The commanders hoped they could address Manning's discipline problems in Iraq, the officials told McClatchy, but then never properly monitored him. The result was a "comedy of errors" as one commander after another assumed someone else was addressing Manning's problems, one official said.
Investigators are now considering whether they should recommend disciplinary action against at least three officers in Manning's chain of command. Investigators must submit their findings to Army Secretary John McHugh by Tuesday.
Just like in the Fort Hood shooting case, people up the chain of command had concerns and didn't do anything -- or at least enough -- about it.
Investigators looking at Manning's case found that while the military had followed procedures in giving Manning a security clearance, more questions should have been asked about whether he should retain it once he displayed disciplinary problems.
At one point, Manning, who joined the Army in 2007, saw a mental health specialist, officials said, but it's unclear what came of that meeting. He was deployed to Iraq in 2009 and served there until he was arrested in May, shortly after the first WikiLeaks posting in April.
Wonder if the security clearance service knew about the mental health visit?
Manning, 23, isn't cooperating with investigators, and prosecutors still don't know how the hundreds of thousands of documents and files he allegedly downloaded reached WikiLeaks.
We may never know, but we can still hang him.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
But superior officers decided to ignore the advice because the unit was short of intelligence analysts and needed Manning's skills
Think a letter of the findings will be in the aforementioned superiors' personnel file for lookie when promotion and assignments come up. Nah, I don't think so either. Good old boyism triumphs over accountability.
#4
Commanders have a lot of responsibilities. It's voluntary, one can decline the assignment. If you don't want to do the job, then don't stop someone else who can and will. And yes, one of those jobs is to monitor the behavior of their troops. They rely upon the chain of command, but when one soldier exhibits abnormal and aberrant behaviors it's suppose to be get everyone's attention.
#5
Whoever his 1SG and squad leader were, they dropped the ball bigtime if this little shitbird was doing things like that - he should have at least been counseled, formally, and maybe a company grade Art15 with extra duty. With those in place, the CO and Bn Cdr would have had much more firm means to deal with the little traitor.
Usually if something is sever enough to push beyond a company grade Article 15 (come to the BnCdr's attention), then that's when they pull your ticket.
Being weird is allowable in MI, we had one interrogator in our "Tactical Exploitation" unit who would talk to the flagpole at night from time to time, but was otherwise vary capable.
#6
Bottom line: some people screwed up, and the Army is going after them. More importatnly, Manning knew what he was doing was wrong, and did it anyway.
The little traitor should never see the light of day as a free man. reduction in rank to E-1, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, 40 to life, with a bad conduct discharge at the end.
#10
The problem of shortages of personnel, whether in absolute numbers or within MOSs, has came up repeatedly in my readings about US military disasters in Iraq. The fiasco at Abu Ghraib was due in part to a lack of enough MPs and senior soldiers to keep an eye on things, the horrible rape of an Iraqi 14 year old girl and the brutal murder of her whole family was lead by a bastard who got into the Army despite having a criminal record because the Army was short of enlistments (There is a book out reviewing the situation of the unit this bastard and his accomplices belonged to, it reports the unit had too few troops for the mission it was assigned, so they were over worked and there were leadership issues. This lead to low morale and discipline problems.), and now it comes out that Manning went to Iraq despite being unstable because there was a shortage of intelligence analysts.
So many of our problems in both Iraq and Afghanistan arose because Rumsfeld and company, plus many generals in the Pentagon and CENTCOM believed the US could not only conguer these nations but also reform their societies with a relatively small number of troops on the ground. They convinced Pres. Bush, and themselves, of this, and it is a seductive argument, its big selling point was that fewer troops on the ground was supposed to mean fewer dead soldiers. What it nearly meant was mission failure.
On a personal note, my two tours in Iraq, Fall 2003 to Fall 2004, and all of 2005 were examples of the shortage of people in general and Intel Analysts in particular. I changed MOSs when I went from the Regular Army to the Texas Army National Guard, from 11M to (then)96B. My first trip to Iraq was because the Division Rear of the 82nd Airborne did not have enough S-2 (Intelligence) folks. The 82nd had control of the Al Anbar area at the time. When I went back in 2005 (I volunteered) with another Texas Guard unit the Battalion I was assigned to had the FOB security mission as well as some VIP escort duty. The S-2 section at the FOB was one Intel trained LT , one intel analyst qualified soon to be E-5 sergeant (me), one enlisted trained on ground radar, and a cook. The cook was put in the S-2 section because she was a super fast typist. Fortunately both of the other enlisted had good heads on their shoulders so we did okay. We did 24/7 operations in the BN TOC with 2 shifts of 12 hours, two people on day shift and one on night shift. Every few months we rotated people between day and night shifts. Therefore, at times, one of these enlisted, the female cook for example, was virtually unsupervised for months on end while having complete access to the Secret Internet Network just like Manning. Again, fortunately, both of those soldiers were not traitors.
Rifle308
#12
There is no perfect. One of the lessons unlearned from the rebuild of the nadir in the 70s, is that its better to have an undermanned squad of 7 motivated and good soldiers out of 10 men, then to add two or three trouble children to fill the Unit Status Report check box on manning but who'll pull everything down.
#13
So many of our problems in both Iraq and Afghanistan arose because Rumsfeld and company, plus many generals in the Pentagon and CENTCOM believed the US could not only conguer these nations but also reform their societies with a relatively small number of troops on the ground. They convinced Pres. Bush, and themselves, of this, and it is a seductive argument, its big selling point was that fewer troops on the ground was supposed to mean fewer dead soldiers.
I could be wrong, but I think the bolded part is contrary to everything we've seen in the history of military operations. Maybe he meant fewer dead enemy soldiers.
Colleen LaRose, the woman known as "Jihad Jane" on YouTube, has changed her mind about fighting government charges that she was planning to wage jihad overseas. Her attorney said "she is going to plead guilty" at a hearing next week in a federal court in Philadelphia.
LaRose was indicted on four counts, including conspiring to support terrorists and murder someone overseas. She is alleged to have been part of a plot to kill Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks. Five others were allegedly involved, but have not been named by the government.
LaRose also also faces charges of lying to a federal agent and attempted identity theft. She faces a possible life sentence.
A source says LaRose has been held in isolation from other prisoners since October of 2009. She spends 23 hours a day in her cell.
CNN says that as if there's something wrong with that...
Wilson would not talk about her situation other than to say "she's been doing remarkably well, considering the circumstances."
Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pennsylvania) said he's not surprised at her expected guilty plea.
"She's probably not the cream of the terrorist crop....[but] one doesn't have to be very bright to carry out an attack. That's why we take every one of these folks very seriously."
The Indian Navy and the Coast Guard in a joint operation on Friday, destroyed a pirate mother ship, Prantalay, off the Lakshadweep group of islands and arrested 15 pirates.
They also rescued 20 fishermen of Thailand and Myanmarese nationalities who were being held hostage by the pirates after Prantalay was hijacked by them on April 18 last year. Since its hijack, the vessel was being extensively used by the pirates to launch attacks on merchant vessels passing along the shipping lanes off the island chain. The vessel has been a risk to international shipping for many months and has carried out several attacks, said the Navy in a media release.
As reported by The Hindu on Friday, a Coast Guard Dornier aircraft on Friday shooed away two skiffs that were closing in on MV CMA CGM Verdi, a Bahama Flagged container ship, about 300 nautical miles west of Lakshadweep. Seeing the aircraft, the skiffs immediately aborted their piracy attempt and dashed towards the mother vessel Prantalay, which hurriedly hoisted the two skiffs onboard and set a westerly course to escape from the area. This action cleared all doubts of Prantalay being used by pirates as a mother vessel. Whilst the Coast Guard and Navy Dorniers continuously tracked Prantalay, Indian Naval Ship Cankarso (a recently commissioned Water Jet Fast Attack Craft) which was already deployed in the area for anti-piracy patrol, was directed to intercept and investigate Prantalay, said the Navy.
By Friday evening, INS Cankarso approached Prantalay and made all efforts to establish communication on the international Mercantile Marine Band, but the vessel did not respond and continued to proceed westwards in the hope of escaping.
According to the Navy, Cankarso fired a warning shot well ahead of the bows of Prantalay to compel it to stop in keeping with internationally accepted norms. Instead of stopping, however, Prantalay suddenly opened fire on INS Cankarso. The warship returned limited fire in self defence. Thereafter, it was observed that a fire had broken out on Prantalay (mother vessels are known to carry additional fuel drums to fuel the skiffs). Personnel were also seen jumping overboard, the Navy said.
INS Cankarso recovered 20 fishermen of Thai and Myanmarese nationalities. These were the original crew of the fishing vessel and were being held hostage for several months. Fifteen pirates were also recovered, under humanitarian considerations. INS Cankarso was subsequently joined by INS Kalpeni and CGS Sankalp. Naval and Coast Guard ships and aircraft are presently in the area searching for any other fishermen and pirates.
[Geo News] Pakistain Mohammedan League-N Chief Nawaz Sharif ... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Müslim League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf... Friday said attempts were made to involve him and his brother (Shahbaz Sharif) in the liquidation of then Governor Punjab, Salman Taseer but the Prime Minister helped foil the bids.
Addressing a book launching ceremony at a local hotel, Nawaz Sharif said: "Whispers of building a case of section 302 against me and Shahbaz Sharif were being heard." But this, he added, did not deter him from presenting his national agenda before the government.
"Now all I can do is pray that the government put it into action," the PML-N Chief said, adding, some points of the agenda can be implemented even before 45 days.
He said he considered himself not less than a prime minister even without being on the post officially.
"It is the foremost mission of me and my party to re-build Pakistain," he asserted, adding whether we get elected to power or not we will live and die for Pakistain and not make any compromise on the country's interests.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] Senior Islamic Jihad official Khalid Al-Batash said Thursday that occupation should be faced with resistance and national unity, and not negotiations.
He also called for the restructuring of the PLO following the leak of Paleostinian documents about negotiations with Israel .
The Qatar-based satellite channel Al-Jazeera on Sunday began publishing over 1,600 secret papers which reveal the PLO offered huge concessions to Israeli negotiators concerning Jerusalem and the right of refugees to return.
Al-Batash told Ma'an Radio that Paleostinian factions had held a meeting in the Gazoo Strip to discuss the documents.
Islamic Jihad called the meeting to confirm their rejection of negotiations with Israel, he said, adding that the Islamist movement proposed forming a national investigation committee to review the papers.
The meeting was a preliminary session to open dialogue between the factions, and consultations will continue, the Jihad official added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[Pak Daily Times] Leb's prime minister designate Najib Mikati has appealed to Soddy Arabia to keep up its mediation between his country's deeply divided political camps, in an interview broadcast on Friday.
'Soddy Arabia cannot pull its hand away from Leb,' Mikati, who himself has warm ties with both Damascus and Riyadh, two key powerbrokers in Beirut, told the Dubai-based and Saudi-owned satellite television Al-Arabiya.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said earlier this month that Riyadh had abandoned its mediation efforts in Leb, after the failure of a joint bid by King Abdullah and Syrian President Bashar "Pencilneck" al-Assad ... hereditary dictator of Syria ... . 'When that did not happen, the custodian of the two holy mosques said he was pulling his hand out' from the effort, the foreign minister said.
Mikati said he would form a government of technocrats and politicians, after the refusal of the camp of outgoing premier Saad Hariri, who had strong backing from Riyadh and the West, to join the new administration. The billionaire businessman said he himself had initiated efforts to step in as prime minister after the fall of Hariri's government due to a walkout by the Shiite jihad boy group Hezbullies and its supporters.
'I took the decision, and began my calls, which at times were easy and others difficult. I talked to the (political) blocs and asked for support,' Mikati, whom critics have branded the Hezbullies premier, told Al-Arabiya. Hezbullies, which is backed by Damascus and Tehran, toppled Hariri's cabinet because of a dispute over a UN-backed probe into the 2005 murder of ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, Saad's father.
On Thursday, Hariri's camp asked for a commitment from Mikati that he would not disavow the Netherlands-based court, which is expected to indict senior Hezbullies members.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
ION KSA, DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS > DAVOS: SAUDI ARABIA HAS NO PLANS TO GIVE UP [forfeit] ITS RIGHT TO ENRICH URANIUM.
[An Nahar] United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society Secretary General the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon warned on Friday that "no one and no country" should obstruct the functioning of the Special Tribunal for Leb, calling on the Lebanese people and government to work on reaching political stability in their country.
He stressed during the World Economic Forum in Davos that the STL is "adopting an independent legal route."
"For this reason, it should be allowed to continue its work. No one or not country should obstruct the calm progress it has achieved," he added.
"Its politicization has been a cause for concern, but it is not up for politicization," Ban said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Prime Minister-designate Najib Miqati on Friday wrapped up two days of consultations with the various parliamentary blocs as part of efforts to form a new Leb government.
Miqati said there are two opposing views -- one that is requesting commitments and one is seeking the opposite.
"Our role here is to reconcile the two views," Miqati told news hounds at the end of consultations in Parliament.
He said there is "more common ground than points of disagreement," stressing that these differences could be solved through dialogue.
In response to a question on demands placed by outgoing PM Saad Hariri's Al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... Movement, Miqati said the demands are not tough.
Hariri's demands are "not impossible to meet," he believed, stressing that he is seeking to form a government that includes the various political parties.
Local media on Friday said Miqati is likely to form a government of technocrats or a "single color" Cabinet as chances that March 14 Those are the good guys, insofar as Leb has good guys... forces will join the new government looked slim after the coalition voiced suspicions over the Hizbullah-led March 8 alliance's intentions vis-à-vis the Special Tribunal for Leb (STL).
Miqati has stressed that options were still open as to whether the government would be made up exclusively of technocrats, or a mix between technocrats and politicians.
He said Hizbullah would take part in a Cabinet in which political parties are represented.
Caretaker State Minister Jean Oghassabian on Friday said there is a good chance that March 14 would not join the Miqati-led Cabinet "since we believe that March 8 has an intention to abolish the tribunal, while we believe the STL is a necessity."
Sources also ruled out the possibility of Miqati forming an expanded 30-member government, saying the business tycoon prefers to work with small groups.
An-Nahar newspaper on Friday quoted March 8 sources as saying Miqati's new Cabinet is likely to be made up of at least 24 ministers.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/29/2011 00:00 ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
WASHINGTON Investigators have concluded that Army commanders ignored advice not to send to Iraq an Army private who's now accused of downloading hundreds of thousands of sensitive reports and diplomatic cables that ended up on the WikiLeaks website in the largest single security breach in American history, McClatchy has learned.
