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And be the beginning of more problems there…
Daily Archives: 08/15/2009
Pakistan: threat to Pakistani nuclear arsenal is real say experts
And that threat can eventually change Western priorities in Afghan war.
“If we think Pakistan is more important than Afghanistan, which it definitely is because of nuclear weapons, because of 170 million people, because of millions of Pakistani migrants in Britain and Canada and elsewhere, then that has to have some repercussions for our Afghan strategy and for our stabilizing strategy for Pakistan.” .
And how are Western countries to do that IF Pakistani Govt doesn’t want ANY kind of foreign interference?
Ransom demand made of missing ship’s owners
A ransom demand has been made of the owners of the missing cargo ship which passed through the English Channel after being hijacked by pirates.
The whereabouts of Arctic Sea, carrying £1 million worth of timber and a 15-strong Russian crew, continues to remain a mystery.
It had been thought the ship was spotted off the coast of the Cape Verde islands yesterday, more than two weeks after it disappeared.
But reports from Russia claimed officials were unable to confirm whether the sighting was the missing ship.
Ransom demand made of missing ship’s owners – Times Online
The demanded ransom is worth 1.5 million, threatening with killing the crew if demands are not met.
But the mistery remains, specially because no one knows the cause of its disappearance:
There has been huge speculation over the reason for its disappearance, ranging from pirates to a mafia dispute to a commercial quarrel.
So conspiracy theories have arisen: from piracy to “secret cargo” or “nuclear weapons”, are, according to the Web, the causes of its disparation.
Now, that a ransom has been demanded it’s clear that is a kidnapping. But its author or authors remain unclear.
US: And Holder chose Zogby
For closing speaker at a July 20 Justice Department conference marking the 45th anniversary of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. A really shocking choice of speaker:
Holder (current US Attorney General) turned to Arab American Institute (AAI) President James Zogby (more here). It’s a curious move because – despite his generally favorable public image – an examination of Zogby’s record shows he is an apologist for Muslim Brotherhood-linked groups like the Muslim Students Association (MSA) and terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hizballah. On top of that, he is a strident foe of the federal government’s efforts to cut off funding for terrorist organizations, including efforts by Holder’s department.
Zogby’s address barely touched on the significance of the Civil Rights Act. Instead, Zogby used his speech to settle some partisan political scores and depict himself and other Arab-Americans as victims — of murder; death threats; “blacklisting” and “harassment;” “stereotypes;” “defamation;” and even harsh U.S. immigration laws that turned his father into an illegal alien.
(…) Zogby defends the Saudi Arabian government despite its longstanding role in funding radical Islamist groups and terrorism. In a 2005 article, he asserted that “anti-Saudi propaganda has become a tool to smear critics and target efforts to build ties between Saudis and Americans.”
Furthermore, in 2004, when Palestinian organizations refused to sign a pledge stating that U.S. foreign aid would not be used to support terrorism, Zogby questioned the very concept of barring material support for terrorism. Requiring groups to do so “compromises the ability of the humanitarian organizations to function,” he claimed. (What??? ).
via Zogby’s Free Pass :: The Investigative Project on Terrorism.
After Brennan’s consideration of Hizbullah, this doesn’t surprise me too much…
Russia: 17 citizens, 2 terrorists killed in (another) surge of violence
The situation in the south of Russia has never being peaceful at all, but these last days has been specially violent:
Interfax news agency said, quoting local police, that one serviceman was wounded when a checkpoint near the Interior Ministry headquarters in the regional capital Makhachkala came under sniper fire. He later died in hospital.
"Supposedly these are the snipers who have been shooting at policemen in the last few days," Interfax quoted an unnamed police official as saying.
Police blocked traffic out of the city. Two hours after the first incident, gunmen fired shots at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Makhachkala, killing one policeman and wounding another, news agencies said.
On August 13, seven women were shot dead in a sauna in Daghestan and, in separate attacks, eight policemen and two separatists were killed in northern Caucasus region, which saw a sharp upswing in violence in recent weeks.
Two Policemen Killed In Russia’s Daghestan – Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty © 2009
Medveded visited last June the region, after another surge in crimes’ rate.
Medvedev told a meeting of Russia’s Security Council in the capital, Makhachkala, that more than 300 terrorist acts have taken place in Daghestan so far this year.
He added that 75 security officers and 48 locals have been killed in fighting in the republic in the past five months.
Medvedev called last week’s assassination of Interior Minister Adilgirey Magomedtagirov "a challenge to the state" and urged investigators to find those who organized the killing.
Recently in the neighbour republic of Ingushetia, the Construction Minister was shot killed in his office and Human Rights activists Natalia Estemirova and Zarema Saludayevna and his husband who denounced abuses in Chechenya, also have being killed. Although in the killings of HR activists is probable that the responsible is Chechen islamist President Ramzan Kadyrov, who is supported by Russian Kremlin.
Venezuela: Chávez crashes dissidents
From Diario de America (T&P Translation):
The Govt and its allies are trying to legalise violent acts like today’s savagery, August 13th, against the opposition’s peaceful march and other recent similar deeds, with the only goal of controlling Venezuelans. I know that calling Venezuelan Govt a tyranny will be considered as imaginative or even fictitious. But reality is clear in this respect.
Criminalising opinion
We can mention, on one hand, the “MSM Crimes Act“, which Chávez’s regime is trying to impose on us. Its purpose is not only to imprison or punish journalists and media executives for their way of reporting the news. No, it’s purpose, much more sinister, is to imprison any Venezuelan for expressing his own free opinions.
Their real goal is to spark dread among the population, accusing cinically the independent MSM of “attacking Venezuelans’ mental health”.
In any case, what’s more enraging is the way Chávez expresses himself lately, shouting that FARC are not terrorists or giving violent speeches, insulting or swearing at his supposed “ennemies” (“pitiyankees”, “we are going to pulverize them”, “just give them gas of the best sort”, “rubbish yankees”,…).
The kingdom of no punishment for his followers
“If you see her, don’t hesitate to shoot”. Those words, with Chávez, are pure routine. My particular experience allows me to say it clearly. Of course, this can’t be shocking at all if we consider that his strategy is precisely built on hate, on pulverising his opposition. The fortune of thinking differently is the root of this new danger that creepingly, menaces millions of Venezuelans*.
*(More information in the Spanish blog Elentir here, which shows the threatening menaces against me in the forum of a pro-Chávez site, with total impunity. Among other things, you can see screen captures of those menaces. That is, the kingdom of no punishment against his followers). [T&P NOTE: The blog post about those menaces in T&P can be found here].
Just consider another truly grave deed happened on Aug 13th: the savage behaviour of the police and Chávez’s armed gangs, against the students’ march formed by deans of university, professors, journalists, parents, just to deliver a document to the National Assembly, in which they rejected the project of a new education Law, Communist-style. Law which was passed against the majority of the Venezuelans. Several people were hurt after the brutal beatings.
One of the journalists is treated after the demonstration (Miguel Gutierrez/Ultimas Noticias/AP)
On the other hand, some days ago, it was also notorious the attack of a group of armed men riding motorcicles, friends of Chávez, on Globovisión TV Channel, attack that could have caused a massacre. The regime is speaking night and day of the arrest of this attack’s authors, whose leader is the so-called ”revolutionary colleague” Lina Ron. But of course, everyone knows that this is just a distraction and that soon they will be free again.
Massive shut of MSM
Moreover, this Castro-Chávez revolution of ”Fatherland or death” wants to accelerate the imposition of the ruling way of thinking. That’s the cause of the shut down of 34 radio stations and one TV channel. Around 200 are also threatened.
As a conclusion, in this terror escalation, the reason of everything is the regime’s urgent need of legalising adoctrination, repression and punishment on dissidents. Or, to say it plainly, to make everything they want without any Law to stop them from it.
Original article written by Martha Colmenares, libertarian blogger who has recently received death threats from Chávez’s entourage. She writes at her blog (Spanish).
Afghanistan: car bomb explodes at NATO headquarters, 7 killed
And 91 wounded:
A suicide car bomb exploded Saturday outside the main gate of NATO’s headquarters five days before Afghanistan’s presidential election, killing seven and wounding 91 in the biggest attack in the Afghan capital in six months.
The bomber evaded several rings of Afghan police and detonated his explosives on the doorstep of the international military headquarters, an assault possibly aimed at sending the message that the Taliban can attack anywhere as Afghans gear up for their second-ever direct presidential election. Militants have warned Afghans not to vote and have threatened to attack voting sites.
The NATO headquarters — where top commander U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal is based — sits beside the U.S. Embassy and shares the same street as the presidential palace. The explosion was the first major attack in Kabul since February, when eight Taliban militants struck three government buildings simultaneously in the heart of the city, an assault that killed 20 people and the eight assailants..
The Taliban had promised to disrupt Afghan elections… and they are on it…
BBC explaining the attack:
This video about the images after the attack has its embedding disabled after BBC’s petition.
Soitu.es has some photos about the damages it has caused in Spanish Ambassador’s residence, including one of an Afghan civil servant hurt in the attack.
Iran: row over rape and torture of dissidents continues
Some days ago, Kharroubi, an opposition leader, asked for an investigation on reports about rape and torture of detainees during unrest after the last presidential elections. But Ali Larijani, speaker of Iranian Parliament dismissed those claims. Kharoubi has hit back and said he will present evidence on those abuses:
Karroubi on Thursday criticized officials in particular Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani for rejecting the reports as a lie ‘without conducting an investigation’ into the issue.
The veteran Reformist figure said he did not expect the officials in Majlis who were tasked with probing into the issue “to deny the content of his letter within 24 hours and even before the special committee tasked with investigating the issue convenes” to give a report on the controversial matter. (
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(…) Karroubi responded to Larijani’s demand of presenting solid evidence by saying that the Parliament, at the very least, could have contacted him to know about the required information.
“Mr. Larijani had better refer the special committee probing the issue to me so that I could provide the committee with my evidence.”
He has also announced he will present evidence of those rapes.
But evidence of mistreatment and abuses continue to surface:
On August 8, a top judiciary official in Iran acknowledged that some of the protestors detained after the June 12 presidential election had been tortured. This was the first such acknowledgement by a senior government official.
Qorbanali Dori-Najabadi, Iran’s prosecutor general and the official who made the acknowledgement, said that “mistakes” were made during the interrogations, and “those who were involved should be punished.” Dori-Najabadi’s statement was made as the government held the second day of hearings for the approximately one hundred jailed protesters.
The public outrage is growing, and so they had to ackowledge the prison abuse:
Anger of the events at Kahrizak has extended far beyond just the reformist camp, with influential figures in the clerical hierarchy condemning the abuse of detainees and the three deaths known to have taken place there.
Of course, the conservatives are blaming foreigners for everything. Well, specially they are blaming PJTV author Michael Ledeen.
As I was fearing yesterday, a hard-line cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami has asked for Kharroubi’s prosecution. But:
Not intimidated by the warnings, Karroubi once again charged the government on his website Thursday with torturing those arrested for protesting alleged fraud in the presidential election. He said some of the detainees had died as a result of the torture they suffered in prison.
Just two things. Ahmadinejad, you need a burqa (absolutely confirmed this guy is a creep: those images with Supreme Leader of the Iranian Revolution blablabla Khatami are definite). Iranian fundamentalist bigots: you’re all pathetic liars.
China: online clashes due to Uighur conflict
Messages left on defaced Web sites have either supported or condemned China’s rule over Xinjiang, the western province where rioting killed nearly 200 people. Chinese government Web sites have become the latest targets, adding to online attacks against an Australian film festival and a Turkish government site.
Searches on Friday revealed a dozen Web sites of local Chinese government offices that had been defaced with messages in support of the country’s Uighur ethnic minority group.
The people who had to use those websites (I’m sure) is swearing in Aramaic.
Anyway, it’s good to always blame on “ethnic” tensions, riots which are (for the most part) religious ones (more 1, 2, 3).
CNN: Hamas guys are not "Islamic radicals"
Yesterday, Hamas crashed with some Salafists linked to Al-Qaeda in Gaza, after a Salafist cleric declared Gaza “an Islamic Caliphate”. Some time ago, bin Laden had accused Hamas of not being Islamic enough (what other accusation would there be, hein?). So CNN reports on the case and the title is:
13 die as Islamic radicals, Hamas clash in Gaza – CNN.com.
The clashes ended after several hours, after Hamas forces blew up the home of Sheikh Abu al-Nour al-Maqdessi, leader of the Salafist jihadist group Jund Ansar Allah, or Soldiers of the Partisans of God, the sources said.
So, Hamas, according to CCN, are not “Islamic radicals”. So what are they? Must be the same as Hizbullah for Mr Brennan, because they also have doctors, lawyers, etc.
About Jund Ansar Allah, GlobalJihad.net says:
A group naming itself Jund Ansar-Allah (Soldiers of the Victorious God), began to form in Southern Gaza Strip and inspired by Al Qaeda and Global Jihad announced its establishment in the Gaza Strip in 11/2008. That group is the first manned with a substantial number of Muslim volunteers from the Arab World, hardliners from Hamas and the PALESTINIAN Islamic Jihad. The group performed its first attack against Israel on 06/08/2009 (see – Nahal-Oz 06.08.09). Jund Ansar-Allah is estimated by Israeli intelligence as a well trained 400 men strong organization.
But not only CNN is whitewashing Hamas. BBC has done the same when reporting about this clash. And the Guardian:
Hamas security forces killed the leader of an al-Qaida-inspired group today in a shootout that claimed the lives of 22 people, the governing party in the Gaza Strip said.
(…) Dr Moaiya Hassanain, a health ministry official in Gaza, said a total of 22 people, including six Hamas police officers and an 11-year-old girl, were killed in the violence and a further 150 were wounded.
Hamas also confirmedthat one of one of its high level commanders, Abu-Jibril Shimali, was killed in the clashes. Israeli officials say Shimali was behind the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier three years ago in a cross border raid.
That Israeli soldier that the Guardian can’t even name is Gilad Shalit, who is yet kidnapped by Islamic terrorists.
But if you continue reading they insist on that idea Hamas vs. Islamic radicals:
Jund Ansar Allah and a number of other small radical groups seek to enforce a stricter version of Islamic law in Gaza than that advocated by Hamas.
Hmm, even stricter than passing a law to crucify Islam converts to Christianity, amputations and other extreme Sharia punishments?
Bill Roggio has more on the clash. There is a complete list of active AQ’s terrorist groups in the area.
Two years ago, there was the civil war between Fatah and Hamas. I don’t think that 400 men can fight Hamas for long, specially after Hamas has announced they have killed Jund Ansar-Allah’s “extremist cleric”, but is this a new civil war? Is going Al-Qaeda to take part in Gaza actively? What do you think?
NOTE: There is an ongoing campaign to Free Gilad Shalit:
The current campaign will utilize Twitter. ‘Tweet4Shalit’ is a virtual grassroots movement inspired by the struggle Gilad Shalit must endure daily as a prisoner of war and as a victim of Islamic extremism. ‘Tweet4Shalit’ is a 24 hour Twitter event in which thousands of supporters will sign onto Twitter to tweet the hashtag ‘#GiladShalit’ with the goal of making Gilad a top ten Twitter ‘Trending Topic’ on the day of his birth two days before his birth.
The campaign is proposed by International Civil Liberties Alliance and Jewish Internet Defense Force.
BBC: the case of Rabiah, the Australian woman who asked Bin Laden “how she could assist”
Rabiah (born in Australia) converted to Islam and decided to renounce her ‘wild child’ past and try to live the best life she could. (…) The Taliban was establishing what Rabiah felt could be a ‘true Islamic state’. Although she had some reservations, she was keen to offer her help and wrote to the Afghan-Arab’s benefactor Osama bin Laden, asking how she could assist. (The BBC, that news conglomerate that can’t fell lower… so now, it’s good to go around the world to search for a "true Islamic state" and find it in the Taliban state, one of the most progressive states in History, isn’t it?).
Rabiah became well known in the Afghan-Arab world. Mustafa Hamid – known as Abu Walid al Misri – approached her, asking if she would become his second wife.
Rabiah is adamant that when she married him she didn’t know Abu Walid was also a member of the governing council – or shura – of al-Qaeda and one of the senior leaders advising Osama bin Laden. (yeah, go figure…).
And lastly the victimization:
She remains under surveillance.
In an exclusive interview for Outlook, Rabiah told Matthew Bannister that she thinks she’s been labelled as an al-Qaeda operative because the authorities want someone to blame.
Yeah, sure. Someone who asked Bin Laden what she "could do to help" is under surveillance because "the authorities want someone to blame".
After that, marrying one of the leading AQ’s strategists was absolutely normal (PDF). In 2007 he was arrested by Iranian authorities, news which contradicted earlier reports of his death in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan: barbaric law passed against women’s rights
This is an update on this story:
Afghanistan has quietly passed a law permitting Shia men to deny their wives food and sustenance if they refuse to obey their husbands’ sexual demands, despite international outrage over an earlier version of the legislation which President Hamid Karzai had promised to review.
The new final draft of the legislation also grants guardianship of children exclusively to their fathers and grandfathers, and requires women to get permission from their husbands to work.
“It also effectively allows a rapist to avoid prosecution by paying ‘blood money’ to a girl who was injured when he raped her,” the US charity Human Rights Watch said.
Where is the “international outrage”? Have you seen Ban Ki-Moon condemning Afghanistan for passing this law? Me neither.
Ms Karokhail has a truly hard task ahead in fighting for women rights. This is tragic but it’s not something unforseen or shocking, since the Constitution included the provision that “no law may contradict the beliefs and provisions of Islam“.
European Commission refuses to congratulate re-elected Ahmadinejad
The European Commission made its stance on the disputed election win of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad clear when it released a statement saying that it had not congratulated the Iranian president and had no intention of doing so.
(…) Sweden also defended its decision to send a high-ranking diplomat to Ahmadinejad’s swearing-in ceremony.
Thank God. At least we, Europeans, have the consolation that European Commission this time has behaved better than Ban Ki-Moon… We’ll see how much time they maintain this attitude.
