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Posted on 08/01/2007 10:32:19 PM PDT by nwctwx
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THANKS Velveeta.
He is definitely off the very deep end.
Oh lovely, thanks Vel.
Yep and I’m not sure if I should think of this as another warning or just his usual propaganda?
I’m leaning towards the usual propaganda.
http://www.truthusa.com/IRAN.html
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=irgc
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1881281/posts
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/14/AR2007081401662_pf.html
“U.S. to Designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard as Terrorists”
By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 14, 2007; 9:14 PM
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=47047
“Troops Play Important Role in Horn of Africa Mission, Chairman Says”
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “DJIBOUTI, Aug. 14, 2007 – American servicemembers based in the Horn of Africa are doing an important job that has many implications for the future, the chairman of the Chiefs of Staff said here today.”
Britain is stepping up counter-terrorism cooperation with countries in South Asia and Africa to thwart al Qaeda attempts to train Britons overseas and send them back home to commit attacks, a senior official said.
The aim is to counter a perceived al Qaeda preference for deploying Western volunteers on their home soil, even when they have trained abroad or volunteered for foreign theatres such as Pakistan, Somalia or Iraq.
The source said British authorities are now working with a number of countries including Pakistan, Afghanistan, India and Bangladesh to keep tabs on suspected militants planning to pick up training abroad and then apply it back home. While officials refuse to name the African countries involved, analysts and media reports have cited South Africa as a popular transit point between Britain and South Asia.
Excerpted
http://africa.reuters.com/top/news/usnBAN448224.html
No-fly zone enforced over New Delhi: Al Qaeda alert for India on Independence Day
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
NEW DELHI: India deployed aircraft, combat troops and tens of thousands of security forces on the eve Tuesday of its 60th anniversary of independence after new threats by Al Qaeda and separatist rebels, officials said.
Excerpted
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\08\15\story_15-8-2007_pg4_15
Terrorising English-speaking elite: Terrorists planning hostage-taking at private schools
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
LAHORE: The Interior Ministry has directed police to tighten security around English medium schools in the country after intelligence reports showed extremists planning hostage taking at private English medium schools, the BBC reported.
According to a report seen by the BBC, insurgents got this idea from the Beslan School siege in North Ossetia, Russia in which 335 people were killed - most of them children. The report said the objective behind such an attempt was to stop the government from conducting operations like the one against Lal Mashjid and Jamia Hafsa.
Excerpted
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007\08\15\story_15-8-2007_pg1_4
Major offensive on Pakistan-Afghan border
Aug. 14: U.S. and Pakistan troops have mounted a major offensive on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border tonight against Taliban and al-Qaida strongholds. NBC’s Jim Miklaszewski reports.
The link for the train details, was posted and translated here, by Struwwelpeter.
Sorry that I was not clearer, when I sent the link to you L.R.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1853040/posts?page=3369#3369
I am sure the Struwwelpeter is pleased that you found it of use.
ranian Unit to Be Labeled ‘Terrorist’
U.S. Moving Against Revolutionary Guard
By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 15, 2007; A01
The United States has decided to designate Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, the country’s 125,000-strong elite military branch, as a “specially designated global terrorist,” according to U.S. officials, a move that allows Washington to target the group’s business operations and finances.
The Bush administration has chosen to move against the Revolutionary Guard Corps because of what U.S. officials have described as its growing involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as its support for extremists throughout the Middle East, the sources said. The decision follows congressional pressure on the administration to toughen its stance against Tehran, as well as U.S. frustration with the ineffectiveness of U.N. resolutions against Iran’s nuclear program, officials said.
The designation of the Revolutionary Guard will be made under Executive Order 13224, which President Bush signed two weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to obstruct terrorist funding. It authorizes the United States to identify individuals, businesses, charities and extremist groups engaged in terrorist activities. The Revolutionary Guard would be the first national military branch included on the list, U.S. officials said — a highly unusual move because it is part of a government, rather than a typical non-state terrorist organization.
The order allows the United States to block the assets of terrorists and to disrupt operations by foreign businesses that “provide support, services or assistance to, or otherwise associate with, terrorists.”
The move reflects escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran over issues including Iraq and Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Iran has been on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism since 1984, but in May the two countries began their first formal one-on-one dialogue in 28 years with a meeting of diplomats in Baghdad.
The main goal of the new designation is to clamp down on the Revolutionary Guard’s vast business network, as well as on foreign companies conducting business linked to the military unit and its personnel. The administration plans to list many of the Revolutionary Guard’s financial operations.
“Anyone doing business with these people will have to reevaluate their actions immediately,” said a U.S. official familiar with the plan who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the decision has not been announced. “It increases the risks of people who have until now ignored the growing list of sanctions against the Iranians. It makes clear to everyone who the IRGC and their related businesses really are. It removes the excuses for doing business with these people.”
For weeks, the Bush administration has been debating whether to target the Revolutionary Guard Corps in full, or only its Quds Force wing, which U.S. officials have linked to the growing flow of explosives, roadside bombs, rockets and other arms to Shiite militias in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan. The Quds Force also lends support to Shiite allies such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah and to Sunni movements such as Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Although administration discussions continue, the initial decision is to target the entire Guard Corps, U.S. officials said. The administration has not yet decided when to announce the new measure, but officials said they would prefer to do so before the meeting of the U.N. General Assembly next month, when the United States intends to increase international pressure against Iran.
Formed in 1979 and originally tasked with protecting the world’s only modern theocracy, the Revolutionary Guard took the lead in battling Iraq during the bloody Iran-Iraq war waged from 1980 to 1988. The Guard, also known as the Pasdaran, has since become an powerful political and economic force in Iran. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rose through the ranks of the Revolutionary Guard and came to power with support from its network of veterans. Its leaders are tied to many mainstream businesses in Iran.
“They are heavily involved in everything from pharmaceuticals to telecommunications and pipelines — even the new Imam Khomeini Airport and a great deal of smuggling,” said Ray Takeyh of the Council on Foreign Relations. “Many of the front companies engaged in procuring nuclear technology are owned and run by the Revolutionary Guards. They’re developing along the lines of the Chinese military, which is involved in many business enterprises. It’s a huge business conglomeration.”
The Revolutionary Guard Corps — with its own navy, air force, ground forces and special forces units — is a rival to Iran’s conventional troops. Its naval forces abducted 15 British sailors and marines this spring, sparking an international crisis, and its special forces armed Lebanon’s Hezbollah with missiles used against Israel in the 2006 war. The corps also plays a key role in Iran’s military industries, including the attempted acquisition of nuclear weapons and surface-to-surface missiles, according to Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The United States took punitive action against Iran after the November 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, including the breaking of diplomatic ties and the freezing of Iranian assets in the United States. More recently, dozens of international banks and financial institutions reduced or eliminated their business with Iran after a quiet campaign by the Treasury Department and State Department aimed at limiting Tehran’s access to the international financial system. Over the past year, two U.N. resolutions have targeted the assets and movements of 28 people — including some Revolutionary Guard members — tied to Iran’s nuclear program.
The key obstacle to stronger international pressure against Tehran has been China, Iran’s largest trading partner. After the Iranian government refused to comply with two U.N. Security Council resolutions dealing with its nuclear program, Beijing balked at a U.S. proposal for a resolution that would have sanctioned the Revolutionary Guard, U.S. officials said.
China’s actions reverse a cycle during which Russia was the most reluctant among the veto-wielding members of the Security Council. “China used to hide behind Russia, but Russia is now hiding behind China,” said a U.S. official familiar with negotiations.
The administration’s move comes amid growing support in Congress for the Iran Counter-Proliferation Act, which was introduced in the Senate by Gordon Smith (R-Ore.) and in the House by Tom Lantos (D-Calif.). The bill already has 323 House co-sponsors.
The administration’s move could hurt diplomatic efforts, some analysts said. “It would greatly complicate our efforts to solve the nuclear issue,” said Joseph Cirincione, a nuclear proliferation expert at the Center for American Progress. “It would tie an end to Iran’s nuclear program to an end to its support of allies in Hezbollah and Hamas. The only way you could get a nuclear deal is as part of a grand bargain, which at this point is completely out of reach.”
Such sanctions can work only alongside diplomatic efforts, Cirincione added.
“Sanctions can serve as a prod, but they have very rarely forced a country to capitulate or collapse,” he said. “All of us want to back Iran into a corner, but we want to give them a way out, too. [The designation] will convince many in Iran’s elite that there’s no point in talking with us and that the only thing that will satisfy us is regime change.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/14/AR2007081401662_pf.html
Syria sees weakness in Israel’s current leadership, especially the way they bungled the conflict in Lebanon last year.
W moving it up one more notch, they have been clearly identified involved in Iraq. Building the case for an Iranian strike?
Thank you nw.
This is a good move, in my opinion.
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1875105/posts?page=1126#1126
Thank you granny.
6 Shot Dead in Germany, Police Say
BERLIN - Six people were fatally shot in the western town of Duisburg, a police spokesman said Wednesday.
Five bodies were found in two cars near the train station and a sixth person died in an ambulance, police spokesman Hermann-Josef Helmich said. All six people were shot in the head, Helmich said.
Police did not know yet who could have committed the killings or what the motive might have been, he said. (snip)
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-germany-shootings,1,4951358.story
This is interesting Velveeta.
Updates appreciated.
ADDING on to post no. 1136:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKL1570737220070815
“Six men shot dead in Germany”
Wed Aug 15, 2007 6:32AM BST
BERLIN (Reuters) -
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “All six of the men, aged between 20 and 30, were shot in the head, a police spokesman said. Police had no other immediate details.
The cars were registered in a German town but some local media said the victims were not German.”
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2738654,00.html
“German State Court Upholds Headscarf Ban for Teachers”
“Teacher Brigitte Weiss, who converted from Christianity to Islam, lost the case Tuesday”
ARTICLE SNIPPET: “A court in Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia has upheld a ban on female Muslim teachers wearing headscarves in schools.
Wearing a headscarf violated a state regulation against religious symbols in public schools, the administrative court in the western city of Düsseldorf ruled on Tuesday.
The case was brought by a 52-year-old secondary school teacher, who said she would appeal Tuesday’s ruling.
The teacher had argued that her headscarf was a “fashion accessory à la Grace Kelly” that was in line with Christian-Occidental values.
The judges did not accept the argument, pointing out that since the teacher always wore the scarf, it was a symbol of her religous beliefs.
Authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia imposed a ban on headscarves in June 2006.
A similar ban was introduced in the southern state of Bavaria in 2005 with the aim of protecting children from the influence of Islamic fundamentalists.”
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