Posted on 05/17/2005 5:51:18 PM PDT by TexKat
In this photo provided by the USO, country music star Toby Keith, right, plays with Scotty Emerick, left, during a United Service Organizations (USO) performance at Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq for U.S. troops, Tuesday, May 17, 2005. (AP Photo/Mike Theiler, USO)
In this photo provided by the USO, country music star Toby Keith signs his autograph on the camouflage uniform of a U.S. soldier after a United Service Organizations (USO) performance at Forward Operating Base Danger, near Tikrit, Iraq for U.S. troops, Monday, May 16, 2005. (AP Photo/Mike Theiler, USO)
(AFP)
17 May 2005
AMMAN - Eight Jordanian Islamists were charged on Tuesday with seeking to attack tourists in Jordan and planning strikes against Jews, in the latest terror trial to take place in the kingdom.
They were charged at a special security court with “plotting to carry out terrorist acts and preparing unauthorised actions that risked exposing the kingdom to hostile actions as well as damaging its relations with a foreign state.”
The chief prosecutor said the suspects, who have been accused of plotting attacks in Israel, had sought to carry out “military operations outside Jordanian territory.”
Jordan is one of only two Arab countries -- Egypt being the other -- to have full diplomatic relations with Israel.
One of the defendants, Abdelmoti Abdelaziz Abu Moeleq, who resides in Syria, is still on the run. He was condemned to death in Jordan in 1997 for assassinating a Jordanian diplomat, Naeb al-Maaytah, in Beirut in 1995.
The charge list alleges that the eight plotted attacks against tourists in the towns of Irbid and Al-Hosn and also wanted to strike against tourist buses in the north of the country.
It alleges they tried to recruit new members in Jordan so they could be sent to the Syria-based Moeleq for training and preparation for carrying out attacks against Jews in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Several suspected terror cases are currently before the Jordanian courts, including one that implicates the Jordan-born Al Qaeda frontman in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, for planning a failed chemical weapons attack.
(AFP)
17 May 2005
DAMASCUS - Syria on Tuesday demanded that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice provided proof of her renewed allegations that Damascus is supporting insurgents fighting in neighbouring Iraq.
“Who are these terrorists and where is Rice’s proof for repeating these accusations against Syria? No one will say,” the official Tishrin newspaper said.
“What is important (for Washington) is that Syria remain under pressure in order to satisfy American neoconservatives and Israelis.”
After a surprise visit to Iraq, Rice on Monday again accused Damascus of supporting “foreign terrorists” in the violence-wracked country and pledged to renew US pressure on Syria.
The United States, which last May imposed economic sanctions on Damascus, is “going to go back and look again at what the neighbours can do, particularly the Syrians, to stop support for these foreign terrorists (in Iraq),” she said.
“We believe they are gathering on Syrian territory and coming across.”
US officials have frequently accused Syria of aiding the Iraqi insurgency by supplying foreign fighters, or by failing to prevent militants from crossing the border into Iraq.
In her remarks Monday, the US secretary of state added that Damascus is “out of step with the rest of the region.”
But the Tishrin newspaper retorted: “Rice wanted to inform us that US forces count on staying in Iraq, that pressure on Syria will follow, that the neoconservative vision has not changed, and that people must ally themselves (with the United States) if they want to avoid American punishment.”
Earlier this month, US President George W. Bush renewed the sanctions which place restrictions on air travel from Syria and ban the export of arms and most US-made products to Syria.
Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Dean Acheson Auditorium
Washington, DC
May 17, 2005
(10:40 a.m. EDT)
Remarks with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw After Meeting
Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Washington, DC
May 17, 2005
(6:30 p.m. EDT)
(Al-Mada) Insurgents have killed two Karbala-based reporters with Al-Mada newspaper, Najim Abid and Ahmed Adam. Their bodies were found at Mahmudiyah hospital. Al-Mada blames the ministries of defence and internal forces and the multilateral forces for allowing insurgents a free hand in the "triangle of death" (area around towns of Latifiyah, Mahmudiyah and Yusufiyah south of Baghdad) to kill hundreds of innocents. Al-Mada hopes the government will become more serious about pursuing insurgents who target good people who are serving their country.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
LIMESTONE, Maine — In a new round of military base closings planned by the Pentagon, jobs will be lost and local economies will suffer. But one former base in Maine is coming back to life, thanks to operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The former Loring Air Force Base in Limestone is now the Maine Military Authority, a sprawling facility in which hundreds of Humvees are being rebuilt for the U.S. Army and National Guard 20 hours a day.
The nearly 500 employees — up from nine on re-opening day — strip the vehicles down to the frame, upgrade suspensions and transmissions, and install new or rebuilt engines as well as bulletproof glass and tires.
While the Humvees aren't reinforced with armor there — that happens overseas — every bolt and bracket is replaced, along with seat belts, seat cushions, decals and data plates......Excerpt
The European Court of Human Rights says that guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan did not get a fair trial.
ISTANBUL, TURKEY - Responding to the decision of the European Court of Human Rights last week that Turkey should retry jailed Kurdish guerrilla leader Abdullah Ocalan, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sounded a definitive note.
"Whether this case is reopened or not, the matter is a closed one for the nation’s conscience," he said.
As head of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Mr. Ocalan has long been public enemy No. 1, characterized as a kind of Marxist-Leninist Osama Bin Laden. A bitter war between Turkey and Ocalan’s PKK killed more than 30,000 people in the 1980s and 1990s.
Hostilities ended in 1999, when Ocalan was captured, tried, and condemned to death. The sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. Ocalan rejects the charges, saying he is a political leader.
In an 11-6 ruling, the ECHR found that Ocalan’s trial "was not tried by an independent and impartial tribunal" and had violated European conventions on human rights. Turkey’s government and judiciary must now weigh the ECHR’s call for a retrial.
For most Turks, Ocalan’s guilt is an open-and-shut case. But observers here say that a new trial for the PKK leader, who still has the support of many Kurds, could reignite the Kurdish debate.
Meanwhile, many Turks see the ECHR decision as further proof that Europe is not listening to Turkey’s concerns and is intent on breaking up the country by giving increasing rights to minorities.
Turkey’s handling of a retrial could, these observers say, shape the drive to join the European Union (EU) and the still-volatile Kurdish issue. "Politically [the case] is not a closed chapter," says Dogu Ergil, a professor at Ankara University. "A retrial will reopen the question of the Kurdish issue, but not in a positive way. The first reaction will be a nationalist upsurge and rejectionism."
After Ocalan’s capture, the PKK retreated to northern Iraq. But the group, thought to have some 5,000 members, called off a cease-fire last year, claiming Turkey was not seeking "lasting peace." Recent months have seen clashes between Turkish troops and PKK guerillas.
Meanwhile, EU-driven reforms dealing with cultural and linguistic rights have helped bring a sense of greater freedom among Kurds, though some Kurdish leaders say tensions persist.
"We cannot say that everything is OK because of the EU reforms," says Reyhan Yalcindag, a Kurdish lawyer who is vice president of Turkey’s non-governmental Human Rights Association. "The Kurdish question is still unresolved."
Ihsan Dagi, a political scientist at Ankara’s Middle East Technical University, warns that a new Ocalan trial would fan both Turkish and Kurdish nationalism. "This could lead to instability and tension in Turkish politics," he says.
Turkey’s government must now also manage the impact the retrial debate may have on EU-related reforms. Recent polls suggest that public support for EU membership has dropped to 63 percent from 75 percent a year ago.
Public response to the ruling has been relatively quiet. A demonstration in support of Ocalan in the largely Kurdish city of Diyarbakir attracted some 1,500 protesters.
The ECHR is not an EU body, but is connected to the Council of Europe, the continent’s top human-rights watchdog. Still, the court draws its legitimacy from the European Convention on Human Rights, which Turkey has signed and to which all EU members must be party. Defying the court would have serious implications for Turkey’s EU bid.
"As a member of the Council of Europe and because of [its EU] candidate-country status, it is evident Turkey will have to comply with the decision of the European Court of Human Rights," EU enlargement commissioner Olli Rehn said recently.
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party, which has made joining the EU a top priority, finds itself caught between European demands and pressures at home.
In an interview with a Turkish newspaper, opposition leader Deniz Baykal rejected a retrial. Turkey’s powerful military, which has been more vocal about its displeasure with some of the EU demands, also stepped into the fray.
"Nobody can expect an institution which gave thousands of martyrs to stay impartial," Ilker Basbug, deputy head of the general staff, recently told reporters.
Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan pictured September 1993. Turkey pledged to respect a European court ruling condemning the 1999 trial of jailed Kurdish rebel leader Ocalan.(AFP/Joseph Barrak)
Sistani talks of Sunni-Shia unity
Filed under: Iraqi Politics— News Feed @ 3:33 pm
(Al-Sabah) Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari has said that the supreme Shia leader in Iraq, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has affirmed the brotherhood between Sunni and Shia communities, and that he said the Sunnis must take part in drafting the constitution. He said Sistani blessed the new cabinet and voiced hope that it would create rule of law and security and do away with insurgent violence. Jaafari said the insurgents are completely isolated as the Iraqis are an educated people. On other matters, the prime minister said the death penalty would be reintroduced and de-Baathification was still the official policy, with differences only on how to implement it.
(Al-Sabah is an independent publicly-owned daily. This report was summarised by Ali Kadhim Marzook in Baghdad for the Institute for War & Peace Reporting)
A yellow ribbon is tied around a mailbox outside the home of kidnapping victim Douglas Wood in Alamo, California, May 9, 2005. Wood, 63, an Australian engineer residing in California, was seized by militants in Iraq who threaten to kill him if Australia does not pull out their troops. (Kimberly White/Reuters)
Australian Iraq hostage to be released soon -media
CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian held hostage by Iraqi militants could be released within 24 hours, Australian radio reported on Wednesday, quoting the leader of Australia's Muslims, Sheikh Taj al-Din al-Hilali.
A journalist for Australia's SBS Arabic radio service, Majida Abboud-Saab, said Sheik al-Hilali, in Iraq to try to free 63-year-old Douglas Wood, had told her he had spoken to a man who said he represented the militants holding the engineer.
"They said that they were willing to release Douglas Wood," Abboud-Saab told Southern Cross Broadcasting on Wednesday.
"They are not placing any conditions on his release. He (al-Hilali) is very convinced and he is very optimistic and he is very happy about the fact that they have agreed to release Douglas."
A spokesman for al-Hilali, Keysar Trad, told Reuters he had not been able to speak with al-Hilali to confirm the report, but the Muslim leader had given medication needed by Wood to a man who said he would deliver it to the militants.
Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has said that Wood, who is married to an American, may have been kidnapped up to two days before a two-minute video was delivered to news agencies on May 1.
The militants demanded that Australia start withdrawing its troops from Iraq or they would kill Wood.
Australia's conservative government, a staunch U.S. ally that was among the first to join the war on Iraq two years ago, has stood firm on its refusal to give in to the militants.
A new batch of 450 Australian troops is due to arrive in southern Iraq in the coming weeks to provide security and train the Iraqi army. They will take the total number of Australian troops in and around Iraq to about 1,400.
Wood's family have launched a newspaper and television appeal in Iraq and has also set up a Web site www.thewoodfamily.info .
Wood's brother, Malcolm, has pledged an undisclosed donation to the people of Iraq and has asked the group holding Wood to tell them how they would like the money to be spent. He denied it was a ransom payment.
(Al-Mashriq) Furious Iraqis have torched a barber’s shop belonging to a Palestinian who is alleged to have participated in the latest bombing of Baghdad al-Jadeeda. Eyewitnesses said large numbers of people, possibly including relatives of the victims, attacked the shop in the centre of Baghdad al-Jadeeda and set fire to it. Since the explosion, local people have been placing candles and flowers on the graves of those killed.
(Al-Mashriq is published daily by Al-Mashriq Institute for Media and Cultural Investments. This report was summarised by Ali Kadhim Marzook in Baghdad for the Institute for War & Peace Reporting)
18 May 2005 01:49:54 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Jack Kim
SEOUL, May 18 (Reuters) - Rare talks between North and South Korea broke for a day on Wednesday without progress on bringing Pyongyang back to international negotiations to end its nuclear ambitions, a top South Korean official said.
South Korea has pressed the North for two days for a pledge to return to six-country talks, but has failed to win a commitment, Vice Unification Minister Rhee Bong-jo was quoted as saying in a pool report from where the talks were being held.
"North Korean nuclear programmes are unacceptable," Rhee was quoted as saying in Kaesong, a city just north of the fortified Demilitarised Zone that bisects the divided Korean peninsula.
Tensions have mounted over North Korea's nuclear weapons plans in recent weeks after some U.S. officials said North Korea may be preparing for a nuclear test.
"We made it clear that unless the principle of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula is met, reconciliation and cooperation between the South and North is impossible," he said.
South Korean officials were to return home for a day on Wednesday, and the bilateral talks -- the first high-level contact in 10 months -- will resume on Thursday, Rhee said.
The talks were originally scheduled for just two days but were extended to allow both sides to try for a joint statement.
North Korea has frequently used stalling tactics in talks with the South, pushing the end of discussions well beyond schedule -- often to win maximum concessions from the prosperous southern neighbour while conceding the minimum.
Seoul hoped to use the bilateral talks to press the North back to six-country talks on its plans, nearly a year after the last international negotiations ended with no substantive progress on ending Pyongyang's nuclear programmes in return for aid and security guarantees.
Regional powers believe North Korea has one or two nuclear weapons -- and possibly more than eight. It declared for the first time in February it possessed nuclear arms and also said this month it had extracted spent fuel from a nuclear reactor, a move that could yield more material for weapons.
Rhee told the North on Monday that Seoul would prepare a new and serious offer if Pyongyang returned to the six-party talks, which also involve the United States, Japan, China and Russia.
He has declined to elaborate on the proposal.
South Korea agreed in principle to provide 200,000 tonnes of fertiliser to its impoverished neighbour, but there would have to be more discussions on the additional 300,000 tonnes requested by the North, Rhee said.
He did not say whether Seoul also agreed to provide the food aid which the North asked for on the first day of the talks.
The two sides also agreed in principle to resume stalled ministerial-level talks some time in June. Fourteen rounds of the talks since 2000 have been the forum of a wide range of bilateral issues, including political, economic and military. (Additional reporting by Saul Hudson in Washington)
AlertNet news
U.S. Army Reserve Spc. Sabrina Harman leaves the courthouse in cuffs escorted by her attorney Capt. Patsy Takemura, left, Tuesday, May 17, 2005, in Fort Hood, Texas. Harman, was sentenced to six months in prison for her role in the scandal that rocked the U.S. military's image at home and abroad. With credit for time served, Harman's actual sentence is just more than four months. (AP Photo/Jerry Larson)
Jury sentences Abu Ghraib abuser to 6 months prison
18 May 2005 00:41:42 GMT
Source: Reuters
FORT HOOD, Texas, May 17 (Reuters) - A U.S. Army reservist convicted of attaching wires to an Iraqi prisoner in a photographed scene that outraged the international community was sentenced on Tuesday to six months in prison.
A military jury at the nation's largest Army base recommended a six-month prison term for Sabrina Harman, 27, less than the maximum of five and a half years. The prosecution had asked the jury for a three-year sentence.
Harman was credited, however, with 51 days already served.
She also will receive a bad conduct discharge.
17 May 2005 23:19:50 GMT
Source: Reuters
GAZA, May 18 (Reuters) - Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip shot and killed a Hamas gunman on Wednesday near the border with Egypt, Palestinian medics said.
Israeli military sources could not confirm the death but said troops had opened fire after gunmen shot automatic weapons and anti-tank missiles at them.
The night-time incident strained a de facto ceasefire agreed by Hamas and other militant groups after the Palestinian Authority and Israel declared a truce in February.
Hamas said the gunman was on a "jihadic mission", a reference to anti-Israeli activity, when he was killed.
17 May 2005 06:47:53 GMT
Source: Reuters
KATHMANDU, May 17 (Reuters) - Nepal's Maoist rebels killed nine soldiers and policemen in the east of the turbulent Himalayan nation, an army officer said on Tuesday, the biggest loss to security forces since the king lifted emergency rule.
Details of the clash at Lekhgaon in Udayapur district, 400 km (250 miles) east of the capital on Monday, were unclear due to poor communication links with the remote area, the officer said.
"We have nine fatalities on our side. The terrorists must have also suffered losses but we have no details," the officer told Reuters, adding that some soldiers were also wounded.
Maoist rebels, fighting to overthrow the monarchy, have stepped up attacks since King Gyanendra fired the government on Feb. 1 and seized power, saying the move was vital to crush the revolt which has left close to 12,000 people dead.
The rebels aim to install a single-party communist republic in the impoverished nation of about 26 million people.
Gyanendra ended emergency rule in late April after drawing international flak for his takeover. This prompted neighbour India to resume the supply of some arms suspended since Feb. 1.
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