Posted on 02/26/2007 4:18:14 PM PST by DAVEY CROCKETT
No one to counter Chavez In a region where the leading ideology is Bolivarianism, there is not one leader positioned to offer a better idea for a brighter future.
Commentary by Sam Logan for ISN Security Watch (23/02/2007)
For over two decades, the prevailing ideology in Latin America was neo-liberalism, a Washington-born idea that claimed the power of open markets would lift the region’s poor from misery. It did not, and corruption ran rampant.
While democracy still remains strong, resentful voters ushered in a new generation of neo-populist leaders touting a new idea: a form of socialism, called Bolivarianism, that has slowly but surely become the loudest and most prevalent ideology.
Bolivarianism is anti-capitalist, supports nationalization, regional trade with like-minded countries and above all, suggests that a country should rely on itself or fellow socialist states, not imperialist powers, as a source of the economic growth that will lift all from poverty. It is a sort of refurbished socialism that is not a guiding light for the future.
Latin America cannot readily absorb the economic shock of open markets, nor can it get bogged down in the trappings of old socialist ideas. A blended ideology must be promoted, but the problem is that no one is strong enough to counter Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the leader of Bolivarianism.
Chavez calls it Socialism for the 21st Century. Cuba's Fidel Castro passed him the torch. Leaders around the region pay homage to their own past as socialist upstarts through hugging and laughing with Chavez on the international stage while taking care of often pro-capitalist, neo-liberal business at home.
Brazilian President Luis Inacio “Lula” da Silva is a perfect example. He has the leftist background and eye for fiscal conservatism to become a great ideological counterweight to Chavez. His politics represent an ideal blend for the region. But his politically weak position at home and strong voices from his own left deter any would be shouting match with Chavez.
Within a week after winning his second term in office, Lula visited Chavez for a photo opportunity on a bridge linking both countries. That was in November, and it looks like Lula’s administration will remain bogged down until March as he struggles to get past his party’s sordid past and form a working cabinet willing to share the same table.
Argentina of the past could have been a counter weight to the Bolivarian ideology. But since Nestor Kirchner has come to power, Argentina has become a Venezuelan puppet.
Chavez has literally bought the support of his southern neighbor with over US$3 billion in purchases of Argentine debt. The most recent purchase occurred on 16 February, when Venezuela dumped another US$750 million into Argentine government coffers.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has the politics to promote an ideological battle with Chavez. Colombia has been a model of economic growth through a mixture of neo-liberal policies and social programs. But Uribe has serious problems.
Political allies are falling like dominos due to links with former paramilitary leaders. And if Uribe took the time to speak out for neo-liberalism and against Chavez, he would be dismissed as another of Washington's puppets. Colombia is a top recipient of US aid.
The only other leader who could take up an ideological fight with Chavez is Mexican President Felipe Calderon. He has the right politics and his country has a history of not blindly supporting the US. Voting against the US invasion of Iraq at the UN is a clear indication. But Calderon won on the thinnest possible mandate. His opposition controls enough seats in the Mexican Congress to block any unwanted initiative, and his focus is on Mexican organized crime, not on verbal sword play with Chavez.
Finally, the US has launched a diplomatic offensive in the region. This is to be a year of engagement, but the US president is clearly obsessed with the war in Iraq, not with putting a muzzle on Venezuela’s leader for the sake of the region’s future. Washington is doubly discredited, first for promoting an ideology that clearly did not work, and second for doing nothing about it.
Latin America needs an independent leader willing to stand up to Chavez, but that leader does not exist on the region’s geopolitical map. Bolivarianism will continue to seep into the minds and hearts of millions across Latin America. Chavez and his pool of allies will control the headlines until the next round of presidential elections tell the world how the region has embraced this new ideology.
As Chavez puts it, Socialism for the 21st Century is just getting started. If that is true, then he will continue to trumpet his ideology until Latin Americans learn, the hard way, that Bolivarianism did not carry them much farther from poverty than neo-liberalism. Disillusionment with reality may then spread faster than hope for the future.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sam Logan is an investigative journalist who has reported on security, energy, politics, economics, organized crime, terrorism and black markets in Latin America since 1999. He is a senior writer for ISN Security Watch based in Brazil.
The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author only, not the International Relations and Security Network (ISN).
Ethiopia to shut down emigration compound used by Falashmura
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/838753.html
04:35 18/03/2007
Ethiopia to shut down emigration compound used by Falashmura
By Ayanawo Farada Sanbetu , Haaretz Correspondent
The Falashmura compound in Gondar, Ethiopia may shut down following an
order by the Gondar governor last week.
The compound has not yet been closed following appeals by organizations
acting in the east African country to bring the Falashmura to Israel.
Ethiopia shut down the Falashmura compound in Addis Ababa two and a
half
years ago, claiming it was operating illegally. Since then, the Gondar
compound has become the main Falashmura emigration center in Ethiopia.
Delegations from the Jewish Agency and the United Jewish Communities
have visited the Falashmura community in recent weeks. An Israeli
source
said the delegations were apparently sent to calm the tension between
the immigration organizations and the Ethiopian authorities, who see
the
emigration activity as a threat.
"At the moment nothing has changed. In the past, such orders have been
canceled," a Jewish Agency spokesman said.
Terrorists disrupt train services in Pakistan
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=83229
Insurgents disrupt train services in Pakistan
Updated: Monday, March 19, 2007 at 1052 hours IST
Islamabad, March 19: Train service between Pakistan's Quetta city and
the rest of the country was suspended after a "powerful blast" blew up
railway tracks near Spizend in the province.
Advertisement
"A two-foot portion of the track was blown up in a powerful blast," a
railway official said, adding that railway traffic with the rest of the
country had been badly affected.
Railway authorities told mediapersons that the explosive device blew up
the track early yesterday, causing suspension of train services on the
main line.
In a similar act of intended sabotage, a gas pipeline in the Pir Koh
gas
field area in the province was also blown up on Sunday, causing
suspension in supply to the main purification plant.
Terror from the Deep Blue
http://www.hindustantimes.in/news/181_1953141,0008.htm
Terror from the Deep Blue
Neelesh Misra and Rahul Singh
New Delhi, March 17,. 2007
Think like a terrorist," says the security official, reaching out for
his third cup of coffee. "It will all become crystal clear."
He briskly moves an inverted pencil across a map on the table: "Here.
Here. Here. Here. Our top security establishments.
Here, look at these narrow creeks that lead up to this complex. A small
boat can slide in, almost invisible, taking a couple of men with a
rocket launcher. A short walk. And boom."
Fifteen hundred kilometres to the south, there is actually such a place
off Mumbai. A narrow channel from the sea, navigable by small boats,
leads to a landing point. It is not too far from the climb to the
Trombay Peak, which has three vital installations close by - the Bhabha
Atomic Research Centre, the BPCL oil refinery, and a container port.
Authorities secured the peak a few years ago.
But along the sprawling coastline, much of India's territory and assets
are unprotected from what is expected to be the next staging ground of
terrorism - the sea.
Last week, defence minister AK Antony told Parliament there were
intelligence reports that militants were planning attacks - a statement
that was provoked by information that Lashkar-e-Toiba and
Jaish-e-Mohammed were planning to bring in weapons through the sea, a
security official said.
If that is true, the mind-boggling logistics make the task of
preventing
it seemingly impossible.
The coastline of mainland India stretches for more than 5,400
kilometres, apart from about 2,100 kilometres of shores on more than
1,190 islands. There are 13 major ports and 185 minor ones; there are
high security installations like space centres and missile testing
sites, oil refineries, nuclear research facilities and naval bases.
There are also narrow channels, inlets, desolate landing points and
maze-like creeks where boats can land and disappear in stealth.
Satellite images cannot make out suspect boats from others.
"The sea is a dark area of India's intelligence gathering system. It
did
not get a priority because our bread-and-butter was something else,"
said MK Dhar, former joint director of the Intelligence Bureau. "You
can't make sense of coastal security when the logistics are almost
non-existent."
Vice-Admiral KK Nayyar, chairman of the National Maritime Foundation,
warns of threats emanating from 'flags of convenience' ships registered
in Panama or Liberia. Talking of the global nature of the threat, he
says, "If terrorists blow a hole in an oil tanker passing the Straits
of
Hormuz or Malacca, a direct fallout would be a steep increase in oil
prices and ship insurance."
But tell-tale signs of the threat have been piling up closer home.
Assessing the 'credible threat'
At the Cochin port in 1993, the crackling voice of a ship captain
announced on the wireless that he was carrying a consignment of AK-47
rifles for the Indian government from a Russian company. The defence
ministry did not know of any such order, and it was traced back to a
man
who had met the company's officials in Moscow pretending to be a
ministry official. No one finally turned up to take the guns.
In 2002, the Bangladeshi authorities at Chittagong made a major arms
seizure. Security officials say it was linked to India. "We suspect
that
the weapons were meant for militants in the north-east," says Hormis
Tharakan, who recently retired as chief of the Research and Analysis
Wing (RAW).
Al Qaeda has had limited success so far on the maritime front. The
group
tried in the past to set up a sea attack unit, but were slowed down two
years ago when its maritime wing head Al-Masiri was arrested. Still,
the
apprehensions are acquiring a sense of urgency. Last month, the main
training journal of the Al Qaeda - Mu'askar al-Battar - exhorted its
followers to carry out maritime terror attacks in the region.
The Institute for Analysis of Global Safety, a Washington-based
organisation focusing on energy security, says terrorists are
increasingly looking at striking at oil and gas installations.
In India, if there is a single point where such fears have converged,
it
is the Bombay High, India's largest offshore oilfield located off the
Mumbai coast.
"If operatives of a terror group are on a kamikaze mission, the
oilfield
will be history," says Admiral Arun Prakash, who retired as navy chief
last November.
B. Raman, former RAW additional secretary and a counter-terrorism
analyst, recounts that in 1992, a militant from the Babbar Khalsa group
allegedly told the police during his interrogation that during his
training in Pakistan, he was asked to join the Mumbai Flying Club, take
a solo flight and crash his aircraft into the Bombay High.
Sam Bateman of the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in
Singapore says that apart from those scenarios, "in the longer term,
presumably there will be more nuclear installations requiring
security".
But for now, international attention is on the containers that carry 90
per cent of the world's trade. The US has launched a trans-continent
Container Security Initiative, which entails the screening of
containers
at foreign ports before they are brought to the US. Officials from the
US held talks in India last week to push the project. Some exporters
say
there might be no other way.
"The US has moved ahead, and looking at the present scenario I think
there should also be checks of containers coming to India from foreign
ports," says Subhash Mittal of the Federation of Indian Export
Organisations, who was part of last week's talks.
Undersea cables, that form the backbone of India's Internet
connectivity, are another vulnerable asset. "What makes it of greater
concern is that they are in the open sea. If someone wants to get at
them, frankly, it is not that difficult," says Kiran Karnik, head of
the
National Association of Software and Service Companies. He adds: "It is
not a top-of-the-mind concern yet."
Maritime terrorism certainly does not seem top-of-the-mind for
governments. No wonder the navy describes the scenario in the Indian
Ocean Region as "fragile peace".
Guarding the assets
The National Democratic Alliance government launched an ambitious
coastal security plan that would give large vessels and other equipment
to state police forces, and help set up coastal police stations. The
states are responsible for the security of the coastal expanse up to
the
maritime boundary. It was to be implemented first in Gujarat and
Kerala.
But the project never took off.
The Coastal Security Scheme was revived in 2005 by the current
government, which promised to spend Rs 372 crore in five years.
However,
only Rs 13 crore was released in 2005-06, and Rs 10 crore last year,
according to the defence ministry. In the first year, critical areas
such as Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Pondicherry and Daman and Diu
got no money at all.
But some steps are being taken. India is seeking a port facility at the
Sittwe estuary in Myanmar for better surveillance.
The Coast Guard has increased its presence in the region. India has
also
signed a treaty with 13 other countries to share information and fight
piracy in Asia. The strengthening of radar surveillance is being
considered.
"All that will help, but we have to make our moves fast, because the
mathematics of this game is against us," said the security official in
New Delhi, making an invisible circle over the Bay of Bengal. "The sea
does offer one comfort, though - unless you want to give up your life,
it is hard to get away."
Islamic group urges German hostages' release in Iraq
March 19, 2007
Image taken from a video posted on the Internet shows two German
hostages in Iraq. The Kataeb Siham al-Haq (Righteous Arrows Battalions)
has threatened to execute the hostages if the Berlin government fails
to
withdraw its troops from Afghanistan. The Islamic Council for Germany
has called for the i
An Islamic group in Germany called for the immediate release of two
German citizens abducted in Iraq, in an interview published on Sunday.
"The kidnapping has nothing to do with the nature of our religion and
also finds no justification in the Koran," the chairman of the Islamic
Council for Germany, Ali Kizilkaya, told Bild am Sonntag.
"I call on the kidnappers in the name of humanity: Let the innocent
hostages go immediately."
Hannelore Krause, who is 61 and married to an Iraqi doctor, and their
20-year-old son Sinan, who works at the Iraqi foreign ministry, were
seized on February 6.
Sunday's appeal came after Krause's husband and Sinan's wife made an
emotional plea for their release in a video message broadcast on
channels in Germany and the Arab world Friday.
Other News
And German President Horst Koehler last week also called for their
release in a video broadcast.
Earlier this month, a militant Islamist group in Iraq called the Kataeb
Siham al-Haq (Righteous Arrows Battalions) threatened to execute the
hostages unless Germany pulls its troops out of Afghanistan.
Germany has nearly 3,000 troops in northern Afghanistan, where it
commands the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.
http://www.terra.net.lb/wp/Articles/DesktopArticle.aspx?ArticleID=33540\
8&ChannelId=4
http://www.terra.net.lb/wp/Articles/DesktopArticle.aspx?ArticleID=33540\
8&ChannelId=4
Islamists walk out of parliament after row
March 19 2007 at 02:13AM
By Abdel-Sattar Hatita
Cairo - Over 100 mainly Islamist lawmakers walked out of Egypt's
parliament on Sunday to protest government moves to push through
constitutional laws that opponents fear will entrench the ruling
party's
grip on power.
The parliament, dominated by President Hosni Mubarak's National
Democratic Party, is expected to approve the proposed amendments with a
vote on Tuesday. A public referendum on the proposed changes would then
be held early next month.
Analysts say the measures, which went to debate on Sunday, appear to
target the Muslim Brotherhood, the country's largest opposition
movement, because they include a ban on political work based on
religion
and give the state sweeping security powers.
London-based Amnesty International has called the proposed laws "the
greatest erosion of human rights" since emergency laws were reinstated
in 1981 after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. The
government
has said the amendments are part of political reforms.
"We have decided to boycott these sessions to clear our conscience ...
and let the National (Democratic) Party bear the responsibility before
the people," Mohamed el-Katatny, head of the Brotherhood's parliament
bloc, told reporters after leaving the parliament session.
More than 100 lawmakers of the 454-seat legislature, mainly Islamists
and a handful of independents, protested outside parliament as the
session got underway. Some carried yellow banners saying the laws spelt
the end of free elections and civil freedoms.
"Judgment Day will be tough on you," independent legislator Alaa
Abdel-Moneim told ruling party lawmakers before leaving the chamber.
Majority leader Abdel-Ahad Gamaleddin criticised the opposition walkout
as "intellectual terrorism".
One banner, next to an opposition lawmaker who was praying, read: "No
to
the constitutional coup."
At the heart of the opposition's fury over the amendments is an
anti-terrorism clause that gives police greater arrest powers and wide
authority to monitor private communications. The amendments would also
weaken the role of judges in overseeing elections.
Some political analysts say the authorities want to stop the
Brotherhood, whose members won 88 parliament seats in 2005, before it
makes more electoral gains that could help it eventually mount a
serious
political threat to the ruling party.
Security forces have arrested 47 Brotherhood members over the past
week,
cranking up a three-month crackdown that has seen the group's
third-in-command Khairat el-Shatir arrested and charged along with 39
others of money laundering and terrorism.
Around 270 Brotherhood members are now in detention
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=nw2007031823\
4939958C188879
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=nw2007031823\
4939958C188879
IRGC Writer: Iran Capable of Kidnapping Americans, Israelis in Europe
From The Sunday Times
March 18, 2007
Iran to hit back at US ‘kidnaps’
Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv
IRAN is threatening to retaliate in Europe for what it claims is a daring undercover operation by western intelligence services to kidnap senior officers in its Revolutionary Guard.
According to Iranian sources, several officers have been abducted in the past three months and the United States has drawn up a list of other targets to be seized with the aim of destabilising Tehran’s military command.
In an article in Subhi Sadek, the Revolutionary Guard’s weekly paper, Reza Faker, a writer believed to have close links to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, warned that Iran would strike back.
“We’ve got the ability to capture a nice bunch of blue-eyed blond-haired officers and feed them to our fighting cocks,” he said. “Iran has enough people who can reach the heart of Europe and kidnap Americans and Israelis.”
The first sign of a possible campaign against high-ranking Iranian officers emerged earlier this month with the discovery that Ali Reza Asgari, former commander of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds Force in Lebanon and deputy defence minister, had vanished, apparently during a trip to Istanbul.
Asgari’s disappearance shocked the Iranian regime as he is believed to possess some of its most closely guarded secrets. The Quds Force is responsible for operations outside Iran.
Last week it was revealed that Colonel Amir Muhammed Shirazi, another high-ranking Revolutionary Guard officer, had disappeared, probably in Iraq.
A third Iranian general is also understood to be missing — the head of the Revolutionary Guard in the Persian Gulf. Sources named him as Brigadier General Muhammed Soltani, but his identity could not be confirmed.
“This is no longer a coincidence, but rather an orchestrated operation to shake the higher echelons of the Revolutionary Guard,” said an Israeli source.
Other members of the Quds Force are said to have been seized in Irbil, in the Kurdish area of northern Iraq, by US special forces.
“The capture of Quds members in Irbil was essential for our understanding of Iranian activity in Iraq,” said an American official with knowledge of the operation.
One theory circulating in Israel is that a US taskforce known as the Iran Syria Policy and Operations Group (ISOG) is coordinating the campaign to take Revolutionary Guard commanders.
The Iranians have also accused the United States of being behind an attack on Revolutionary Guards in Iran last month in which at least 17 were killed.
Military analysts believe that Iranian threats of retaliation are credible. Tehran is notorious for settling scores. When the Israelis killed Abbas Mussawi, Hezbollah’s general secretary, in 1992 the Quds Force blew up the Israeli embassy in Argentina in revenge.
Despite the Iranian threat to retaliate in Europe, Iraq is seen by some analysts as a more likely place in which to attempt abductions.
“In Iraq, the Quds Force can easily get hold of American — and British — officers,” said a Jordanian intelligence source.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article1530527.ece
w w w . h a a r e t z . c o m
Last update - 14:12 19/03/2007
Wives blame Israel, Turkey for Iranian official's disappearance
By Reuters
The wives of an Iranian ex-deputy defense minister who disappeared in Turkey last month blamed Turkey for his disappearance, saying Turkish security forces handed the official over to Israel, media reported.
Iran's police chief has suggested that Ali Reza Asgari, who disappeared after checking into an Istanbul hotel on February 7, was kidnapped by Western intelligence. Israel and the United States have denied any involvement in his disappearance.
"We only know that Turkish security forces have handed him over to Israel," Asgari's wife Ziba Ahmadi was quoted as saying on Monday by the ILNA news agency.
"It was America and Israel who did it but ... [the] Turkish government is responsible and they should inform us about his situation as soon as possible," Ahmadi said while she and other family members gathered outside Turkey's embassy in Tehran. Asgari's other wife Zahra Abdollahpour was also outside the embassy.
Approximately 10 of Asgari's relatives, including the two wives, gathered outside the embassy on Monday but complained they were not able to see the ambassador despite an earlier promise.
Turkish embassy officials were not available for comment.
Asgari's relatives have also previously the United States and Israel of kidnapping him.
"They say he [the ambassador] is not in Iran," Ahmadi said. "They have not given us any news about his situation."
"We, Ali Asgari's family and relatives, will come here again and disturb the calmness of the Turkish embassy until we get a response," she said.
Under Islamic law it is permitted for a man to have more than one wife, although polygamy is relatively rare in Iran.
Turkish newspapers have reported Asgari had information on Iran's nuclear program, which Western powers suspect is aimed to build atom bombs. Iran insists its plans are peaceful.
Turkish, Arabic and Israeli media have suggested Asgari has defected to the West, but Ahmadi has earlier dismissed this as rumors "spread by Iran's enemies."
A former official with Israel's foreign spy service Mossad has said Asgari had been a commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the main sponsor of Shi'ite guerrilla group Hezbollah.
The group is one of Israel's toughest regional enemies and is listed on the U.S. State Department's terrorist watch list.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/839441.html
sounds like these 2 might have been bounty hunters.
Pearl murder: Appeal after 9/11 suspect confesses
19/03/2007 03h33
AFP
The coffin of US reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi, 07 August 2002
©AFP/File - Aamir Qureshi
KARACHI (AFP) - Lawyers for a British-born militant sentenced to hang for the murder of Daniel Pearl say they will try to use a confession by Al-Qaeda operative Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to seek his release.
Mohammed, the Al-Qaeda number three who was arrested in Pakistan in 2003 and transferred to US custody a week later, admitted during a closed-door US military hearing in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to having beheaded the journalist, according to an edited transcript released Wednesday by the Pentagon.
Mohammed was never charged for Pearl's murder in trials here and his name did not even appear in the case files, a senior police officer said.
After months of investigations, police blamed the kidnapping and subsequent beheading in the southern city of Karachi on a group of Islamic militants headed by Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, also known as Sheikh Omar.
Omar was arrested with three other colleagues and convicted of Pearl's murder in June 2002 by an anti-terrorism court. Seven other co-accused were punished in absentia and two of them were later killed in encounters with the police.
The court documents said they masterminded Pearl's kidnapping in an attempt to win freedom for Al-Qaeda men locked in Guantanamo Bay.
Khalid Sheikh Mohammed
©AFP/HO/File
Omar lodged his appeal at the high court of Pakistan's southern Sindh province a month after the June 2002 verdict, but the case has been adjourned more than 40 times.
"I am trying to get a copy of Mohammed's statement as it vindicates" Omar, his lawyer Khwaja Sultan told AFP this week.
This statement shows the Pakistani government wanted to implicate Omar, instead of Mohammed who was the real killer, Sultan said.
"I have got more evidence, documents from the US to prove my client's innocence," he added.
In his confession, Mohammed said: "I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the city of Karachi, Pakistan."
"For those who would like to confirm, there are pictures of me on the Internet holding his head," he said.
Pearl, 38, was the South Asia bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal when he was abducted in Karachi on January 23, 2002 while researching a story about Islamic militants.
His kidnapping triggered a massive manhunt across Pakistan, as his French wife Mariane, who was heavily pregnant with the couple's first child, maintained an anxious vigil.
At the same hearing, Mohammed also claimed responsibility for 31 plots around the world, including the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
Karachi policemen
©AFP/File - Aamir Qureshi
In an oral statement, Mohammed said Pearl's beheading was not an Al-Qaeda operation.
"It's like beheading Daniel Pearl," he said. "It's not related to Al-Qaeda. It was shared in Pakistan. Other group, Mujahedeen."
Lawyers for one of the three other Pakistanis convicted in the kidnapping and murder of Pearl said Mohammed should be brought to Pakistan and tried here for the murder.
"I can't say about the validity of the statement but it would be raised before the appeal," lawyer Malik Naveed said.
Mohammed has been kept in controversial circumstances, most of the time in complete secrecy, since his capture in Pakistan. He has no access to a lawyer and allegations have been made that he was tortured while in US custody.
The hearing of Omar's appeal was again adjourned last week until further orders due to the countrywide protests by lawyers against the sacking of Pakistan's top judge by the government.
[unknown url]
Tears in my eyes when I read about Beslan :-(
Official confirms detention of senior member of Al-Qaeda in Iraq
http://www.kuna.net.kw/home/Story.aspx?Language=en&DSNO=962649
Official confirms detention of senior member of Al-Qaeda in Iraq
BAGHDAD, March 18 (KUNA) -- Iraqi and American forces have detained a
close aide to the chief of Al-Qaeda organization in an operation in
eastern sector of the Iraqi capital, a military official spokesman
confirmed on Sunday.
The official spokesman of the law-enfocement command, Brigadier Qassem
Atta, said in a statement that Mohammad Hamad Kamal, also known as "Abu
Qutada the Palestinian," was nabbed on Palestine street.
He is a close aide to the top chief of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyoub
Al-Masri.
Security forces detained, last week, the general mufti of the
organization, Ali Hussein Al-Hayyali, northeast of the capital.
Al-Qaeda is one of the armed insurgency groups, involved in a bloody
campaign against the government. (end) ah.
http://www.focus-fen.net/?id=n108249
NATO expansion at odds with Russia's interests, top official says
19 March 2007 | 07:25 | FOCUS News Agency
Moscow. Russian Security Council chief Igor Ivanov on Sunday questioned
NATO's capability to counter emerging security threats, and said its
enlargement runs counter to the interests of Russia and the states
about
to join the alliance, Xinhua agency reports.
Terrorism is not on the ebb despite NATO's enlargement and the alliance
cannot cope with the task of rebuffing present-day threats, Ivanov told
the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a think tank that gathers
Russian politicians, officials, experts and business leaders.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/16/AR2007031600575.html
Corruption runs deep in Nigerian politics
By Tom Ashby
Reuters
Friday, March 16, 2007; 7:09 AM
ABUJA (Reuters) - A former governor of one of Nigeria's richest oil
states who is on trial for corruption, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, sees
nothing wrong in accumulating millions of dollars while in office.
The anti-fraud agency has accused Alamieyeseigha, who was impeached 18
months ago, of amassing 18 properties in three countries, six
companies,
more than $6 million in banks in four countries and even a share in an
oil refinery in Ecuador.
The former governor denies most of the charges -- he says he has never
been to Ecuador -- but is unrepentant about 1.7 million pounds ($3.3
million) frozen in British bank accounts, which he says were unused
campaign funds from elections in 2003.
"You can't say that you will be the governor of a wealthy state for six
years and your standard of living not improve. No way. Everyone wants
to
improve," he told Reuters in an interview from detention in a hospital
in Abuja.
"There is nobody you can probe in public office in Nigeria and not find
anything. That is not realistic."
continues.............
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21389650-38201,00.html
Mercenary flies home, signs with PR agent
By Simon Kearney
March 16, 2007 02:21am
THE Australian mercenary held in a Beirut prison for three months after
helping a Canadian mother snatch back her two children from their
Australian father arrived home yesterday.
Brian Corrigan, 38, a former Australian soldier, walked out of the
Customs hall at Sydney's international airport at 10am local time into
the arms of a waiting celebrity agent and several minders.
Wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses, an unshaven Mr Corrigan looked
very little like his pictures before his time in Beirut's Roumieh
prison. He had lost weight and his skin was pale.
Despite his agent Max Markson saying that he would not be commenting,
Mr
Corrigan could not help but express relief at being home.
"Yeah, it's good," he said.
He said his time in prison had been difficult.
"It's a Third World country. It was pretty hard. It sucked," he said.
But after a moment's pause, he thought about his answer.
"We were treated with courtesy and respect," he said.
Mr Corrigan and a New Zealander, David Pemberton, 40, were caught after
the operation that rescued Hannah, 6, and Cedar, 3, from their father
Joseph Hawach.
Mr Hawach had abducted the children, who were in the custody of his
estranged wife, Melissa, in July last year and took them to Lebanon,
his
home country. He remains in Beirut.
Ms Hawach successfully retrieved her children on December 22 and then
went into hiding in Lebanon for two months before they were spirited
out
of the country and back to Canada.
Mr Corrigan and Mr Pemberton were part of a team of four that lured the
girls back to their mother, but were caught by Lebanese authorities as
they attempted to leave the country.
They could have faced up to 15 years in prison but Mr Hawach appeared
to
have waived his rights to press for a stiff penalty and a Lebanese
court
agreed to release the pair for time served.
Mr Pemberton was a former New Zealand special forces soldier and Mr
Corrigan served in Australia's paratroops battalion.
Mr Corrigan's story has been shopped around media outlets in Australia
but Mr Markson would not reveal if a deal had been done.
Ms Hawach, now safely back in a secret location in Canada, also did a
media deal to tell her story - much of which has now been told.
New breed of censorship
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3372165,00.html
Criticizing Ahmadinejad politically incorrect among European leftists
Published: 03.04.07, 17:56 / Israel Opinion
The "Teapacks" band is planning to appear in the Eurovision Song Contest with a protest song that brings a message to mankind: It warns against a nuclear war and against insane leaders that can "push the button." Ostensibly, this is not a disputed topic, yet nonetheless, the Eurovision management is weighing the possibility of disqualifying Israel's participation.
During the Cold War, anti-war messages were received enthusiastically by the cultured world and "Teapacks" would have been guaranteed an honorable spot on the stage. The fear of a nuclear war deeply penetrated people's awareness from both sides of the iron curtain and united them in their goal to prevent delusional leaders from pushing the button.
But the Cold War is over, and with it the fear of a nuclear conflict between the superpowers. Liberal and leftist public opinion in the West, particularly in Europe, is now focusing its attention on other dangers, such as environmental pollution and global warming.
The fact that a handful of insane leaders are continuing to develop nuclear arms no longer interests them: The opposition to these leaders and to their delusional plans is viewed as a politically incorrect act. It is crystal clear to liberal leftists in Europe that humanity's number one enemy is US President George Bush, and not Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The latter has even benefited from a somewhat forgiving attitude in his capacity of spearheading the holy war against Bush's America.
And thus, with a moral distortion that an honest person would find hard to comprehend, in today's Europe it is not politically correct to sing songs against nuclear bombs, because they are likely to hurt the Iranian regime's feelings (and perhaps also the North Koreans,) and to spark a political dispute.
Other outrageous expressions disrupt the moral judgment prevalent in Europe and America. A bloodthirsty terrorist blows himself up every day in populated centers in Iraq, killing dozens and sometimes hundreds of innocent civilians, including a high number of women and children. No occupation resistance movement throughout history has ever set out for itself the goal of primarily killing its own people.
Nonetheless, thus far, not a single demonstration has been held in European cities to protest the murderous terror acts being perpetrated in Iraq. Because if this terror can in any way be attributed to the US, even indirectly, then it is right and just. At least in the eyes of the spoiled West.
Protesting Iranian actions inappropriate
The idea that Bush's policies in Iraq, and the genocide that is being systematically carried out there by Muslim terrorists, can also be protested doesn't occur to a British intellectual who fervently reads "The Independent." Just as it doesn't occur to him that he can protest against Ahmadinejad's nuclear bomb as well as pollution of the atmosphere.
Because one thing is certain: Had "Teapacks" proposed a song protesting global warming it would not have occurred to the organizers to disqualify the text. On the contrary, it would have been praised by all. We also have reasonable basis to assume that had Israel sent a utopian peace song depicting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a foolish conflict over the location of a falafel stand, our message would have been accepted by the commissars of European culture.
Yet a protest, even if just implied, against the insanity of Iran's leader, is not appropriate for the Eurovision Song Contest. Heaven forbid. It's not anti-American and therefore not politically correct.
This is how political correctness has turned into a new breed of political censorship: Censorship that bans protest against politicians preparing for nuclear wars.
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20070316-102944-2666r.htm
China, Russia oppose Darfur-abuse report
By Richard Waddington
REUTERS NEWS AGENCY
March 17, 2007
GENEVA -- China and Russia joined with Arab and Muslim states yesterday
in urging the U.N.'s human rights watchdog to ignore a report from a
mission to Darfur that blamed Sudan for continuing war crimes against
civilians there.
The two permanent Security Council members argued that the mission,
led last month by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams, failed to
gain access to the vast western region of Sudan and had not fulfilled
its mandate.
Despite warnings from Western and some African states that failure
to act would undermine the credibility of the newly formed Human Rights
Council, Muslim and Arab states and their allies backed Sudan's
assertion that the report had no legal basis.
"The so-called mission failed to make an on-site visit. The report
cannot be considered objective ... and has no legal basis," China said
in a statement to the 47-state council, which was echoed by Russia.
After initially agreeing to the mission, the government of Sudan
refused to grant visas to the five-member team because the country
objected to one of the mission members. It said the member had
previously spoken of genocide in Darfur, thus could not be objective.
The U.N. investigators, asked by the council in December to examine
reports of massive abuse in Darfur, were forced to conduct their work
from neighboring Chad and in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa,
headquarters of the African Union.
Observers estimate 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2
million driven from their homes since fighting broke out between rebels
and government-backed Arab militias four years ago in Darfur.
continued.......
Taliban makes new demands to release kidnapped Italian journalist
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200703/s1874860.htm
Taliban makes new demands to release kidnapped Italian journalist
The Taliban in Afghanistan says an Italian journalist kidnapped two
weeks ago has been delivered to tribal elders in southern Helmand
province but may be taken back if new demands are not met.
The Taliban says 52-year-old Daniele Mastrogiacomo and his Afghan
translator were handed to elders in Helmand province after the
Government freed two members of the group.
But the Taliban now says it wants another member to be released or it
will take back the Italian.
The militants have also demanded a timetable for the withdrawal of
2,000
Italian troops from Afghanistan.
A deadline of late today eastern Australia time has been set.
The Taliban has threatened to execute the reporter from Italian daily
La
Repubblica.
Study shows half of Israeli Arabs justify Hizbullah's kidnapping Israeli soldiers
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3378074,00.html
Study shows half of Israeli Arabs justify Hizbullah's kidnapping
Israeli
soldiers
Published: 03.18.07, 19:25 / Israel News
A Haifa University study showed that 49.7 percent of Israeli Arabs
justify the kidnapping of soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev by
Hizbullah.
The study also showed that 48.2 percent of Israeli Arabs justify the
rockets launched by Hizbullah into Israel. (Ahiya Raved)
Good thought, I had not considered the thought of bounty hunters.
When I reread it, I notice that it only says the woman did not have a permit for her gun.
Not very bright of them to have tried boarding with guns, unless they planned to use them on the plane, or, did they simply believe all the left press says about how poor we are doing on protecting the country?
This one will take a year or two to read "the rest of the story"...
Nord Ost and Beslan should make everyone shed tears.
As I read it, it had me on the edge of my seat, I now realize that is how Anna captured me and the other millions of readers.
I wasn't sure where the article was going, it was from that Yahoo group, and I was not expecting to see Anna.
They have covered the deaths of Anna and many of the othere strange deaths, we need to go and see what is in the files there.
As you will note, I have been busy and did not get to go and check the link you sent, will after a nap.
Hope you rested well.
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