Saturday, February 16, 2008
Pakistan on election alert after suicide carnage (AFP)
Pakistani security forces were on their highest state of alert Sunday after a suicide car bomber killed 37 people and wounded nearly 100 at a rally for next week's critical parliamentary elections.
The government stepped up security for Monday's polls after the final day of campaigning was marred by the deadliest attack since the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto late last year.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan has seen a wave of suicide attacks since Bhutto was killed in a suicide and gun attack at a political rally in Rawalpindi, casting doubt over the authority of key US ally President Pervez Musharraf.
"Security forces are on highest alert for the smooth and peaceful conduct of the polls," Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema told AFP.
"Polling stations will be fully secured, the security of the voters will be ensured at all costs. (Link)
Labels: Pakistan
Reform head says supports concessions on Jerusalem (Haaretz)
The president of the Union for Reform Judaism, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, promised Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week that his movement would support the government if a peace treaty with the Palestinians is reached, including concessions in Jerusalem. Rabbi Yoffie told Haaretz that if the Israeli right wing mobilizes its supporters in the United States against such an agreement, the Reform Movement would respond in kind.
The issue of the involvement of Jews from outside Israel in the debate over the diplomatic process, especially over the question of the future of Jerusalem, was raised following the Annapolis summit three months ago. The American Orthodox Union angered Prime Minister Olmert by calling upon him not to consider concessions in Jerusalem, and the coalition of right-wing groups that formed to fight Olmert's plans expressed its intention to enlist the support of world Jewry in its campaign. (Link)
Suicide car bomber kills 37 at Bhutto party office as Pakistan poll nears (Independent)
A suicide car bomb killed 37 people outside a candidate's office in the violent north-west of Pakistan yesterday, the final day of campaigning for an election meant to complete the transition to civilian rule.
With the country due to go to the polls tomorrow against a backdrop of growing violence, a further 90 people were injured in the blast, which was close to the office of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) candidate in the town of Parachinar, in the Kurram region on the Afghan border. Many of those killed were supporters of the late Benazir Bhutto's party.
The bombing happened minutes after a party rally concluded. Zafar Ali, a PPP supporter at the scene, said: "Several of our party members are lying in a pool of blood. We are taking the injured and dumping them in pick-up trucks and vans to bring them to the hospital."
Also in the north-west yesterday, another suicide car bomber killed two at a military media centre. At a third location, suspected militants bombed a polling station but no one was hurt. (Link)
Labels: Pakistan
The first Arab city (Haaretz)
When the plan was born to establish Ahuzat Bait, which quickly became Tel Aviv, the Jewish community of Jaffa was involved, and even though it was a private initiative, it was considered to be an effort with national significance. Jews were building on the sands on which the first Hebrew city would be established. When Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit announced last week his initiative to establish the first Arab city in Israel, the Arab community in Israel was rather passive about it: It neither knew about it and when it heard the news, it was indifferent about it. Just a handful of Arab public figures welcomed the initiative, and they were sufficiently cautious to express their hope that the plan would actually be carried out.
It was not only Sheetrit's announcement that reflected state paternalism, but so did his style: In an interview on Israel Radio, he made it clear that his plan was meant to alter the habits of the Arab community in Israel, transforming them into modern citizens. The Interior Minister established that the traditional lifestyle of the Arab citizens of Israel is what is delaying their inclusion in the country: The new city, he said, is meant to solve a large portion of their problems, and especially allow the new generation to distance themselves from their parents' homes, not having to wait any longer for a piece of land for building a home, and adopt an advanced way of living. This way, the Arab citizens are meant to bridge the gaps dividing them from the population of the Jewish majority. (Link)
Labels: Israel
Army intervenes in Lebanon clashes (Al Jazeera)
The Lebanese army has been deployed to end clashes between rival political factions in the country's capital, Beirut, that left several people injured.
Shops and cars were also damaged on Saturday night as mainly Sunni pro-government supporters fought with predominately Shia supporters of the opposition, security sources said.
Soldiers were deployed in the Ras al-Nabei, Mazraa and Barboor areas of Beirut after supporters of Saad al-Hariri's Future group had earlier battled with Shia followers of the Hezbollah and Amal blocs, wielding sticks and throwing stones at each other.
Scores of Lebanese soldiers and riot police fired into the air to disperse the rioters and there were reports of between three and 14 people being injured. (Link)
Guantanamo interrogation chief stands by rapport-building techniques (AP)
Interrogators got intelligence from detainees that helped U.S. troops in Afghanistan attack Taliban fighters last summer - and they did it through casual questioning and not torture, the military's chief interrogator here said.
In a rare interview with The Associated Press, veteran interrogator Paul Rester complained that his profession has gotten a bad reputation due to accounts of waterboarding and other rough interrogation tactics used by the CIA at "black sites."
Lawyers for Guantanamo detainees, however, allege their clients have been subjected to temperature extremes, sleep deprivation and threats at this U.S. military base in southeast Cuba.
Wearing a blue-striped business shirt without a tie and looking more like a harried executive than a top interrogator, Rester groused that his line of work is "a business that is fundamentally thankless."
He sat hunched over a table in a snack room inside the building where the top commanders keep their offices. In an attempt to keep personnel from blabbing about intelligence-gathering, a poster showed a picture of a hooded gunman and the words: "Keep talking. We're listening" - today's version of the World War II-era admonishment that "Loose lips sink ships."
"Everybody in the world believes that they know how we do what we do, and I have to endure it every time I turn around and somebody is making reference to waterboarding," Rester said. He insisted that Guantanamo interrogators have had many successes using rapport-building and said that technique was the norm here. (Link)
Danish MPs refuse cartoon apology (BBC)
Two days before the scheduled trip, Tehran demanded the MPs condemn the cartoon on their arrival in Iran.
The row follows the arrest on Tuesday of three men for allegedly planning to murder Danish cartoonist Ko Vestigal.
The following day, 11 Danish papers reprinted his drawing depicting the Prophet with a bomb in his turban.
A condemnation and apology would help convince the Iranian people that Denmark's authorities had distanced themselves from the action, Iran's parliament said in a letter to Danish MPs. (Link)
Labels: Iran
Attacks in Baghdad fall 80 percent: Iraq military (Reuters)
Attacks by insurgents and rival sectarian militias have fallen up to 80 percent in Baghdad and concrete blast walls that divide the capital could soon be removed, a senior Iraqi military official said on Saturday.
Lieutenant-General Abboud Qanbar said the success of a year-long clampdown named "Operation Imposing Law" had reined in the savage violence between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs dominant under Saddam Hussein.
"In a time when you could hear nothing but explosions, gunfire and the screams of mothers and fathers and sons, and see bodies that were burned and dismembered, the people of Baghdad were awaiting Operation Imposing Law," Qanbar told reporters.
Qanbar pointed to the number of dead bodies turning up on the capital's streets as an indicator of success. (Link)
Labels: Iraq
UN Posts Refugee Official in Baghdad (AP)
The United Nations refugee chief said Saturday he is sending a representative to Baghdad to help millions of displaced Iraqis return home, showing a strengthened U.N. commitment to deal with the crisis and confidence in recent security gains.
U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres also pledged to increase his group's staffing level in Baghdad from two to five people.
"We are here because we are deeply committed to do more and to better," Guterres said at a joint news conference with Iraq Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. "We have confidence in the future of Iraq."
As Guterres made his promises, the top Iraqi commander for Baghdad, Lt. Gen. Abboud Qanbar, said the number of bullet-riddled bodies found daily has dropped from at least 43 to about four under a year-old U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown in the capital.
(Link)
Free press watchdog slams Arab media 'charter' as bid for censorship (Haaretz)
A new Arab "charter" to coordinate media control is an attempt by autocratic governments to squash already limited freedom, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Saturday.
Arab governments, led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, last week adopted a satellite broadcasting charter, which will entrench state control over broadcasts and curtail political expression on the airwaves across the region of some 300 million people.
The charter, signed by information ministers in Cairo, bans broadcasting material seen as undermining "social peace, national unity, public order and general propriety," criticizing religions or defaming political, national and religious leaders.
If a broadcaster violates the charter, the host government can suspend or revoke its broadcasting license. There has been a proliferation of private satellite channels in recent years, with the total number of outlets estimated at around 300. "This is an unacceptable move on the part of autocratic governments to rob viewers of the already small amount of broadcast freedom they have enjoyed on private television," CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon said in a statement.
"Arab governments should immediately disavow this shameful document and hold their countries to international standards for freedom of expression," the New-York based group said. (Link)
Labels: Arab Leauge, Free Media
Hamas airs "confessions of pro-Abbas plotters" (Reuters)
Hamas screened purported confessions on Saturday that it said proved Palestinian rivals had plotted to kill the Islamists' leader in the Gaza Strip.
But aides to Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed the allegations as lies produced under torture.
"I was told that if I blew myself up against ... Haniyeh, they would take care of my family," a young man named as Ahmed al-Dbaki and described as a would-be suicide bomber said in a film clip shown at a televised Hamas news conference in Gaza.
Among nine others whose edited video statements were screened to journalists by Hamas's security chief, one described as a senior security officer for Abbas's secular Fatah faction spoke fluently for several minutes of how he oversaw a plot to kill Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader in Gaza. (Link)
Iranians urge Dutch to ban film (BBC)
The Iranian government has intervened to try to stop the screening of a film in the Netherlands about the Koran.
The Iranians say that the film, by the Dutch member of parliament Geert Wilders, is offensive.
The Iranian justice minister, Gholam Hussein Elham, wrote to his Dutch counterpart, Ernst Hirsch Ballin, calling for a ban.
Mr Hussein Elham said freedom of speech should not be used as a cover for attacking moral and religious values. (Link)
Labels: Iran
Lebanese PM: 'Open war' on Israel would harm Hezbollah (Haaretz)
Lebanon's western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Siniora said that Lebanon has no interest in declaring an "open war" on Israel as this would harm Hezbollah in addition to the Islamic and Arab causes, Lebanese reports quoted him Saturday as saying.
"I don't believe we have an interest to wage an open war worldwide because this would be harmful to Hezbollah as well as to the Islamic and Arab causes," Siniora was quoted as telling the Lebanese satellite channel Future TV.
"We have had an earlier experience. We must not repeat this experience," Siniora said in reference to the July 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.
In his remarks, Siniora echoed Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, who on Thursday declared "open war" on Israel after accusing Jerusalem of masterminding the assassination of top Hezbollah commander Imad Muganiyah in a car bomb blast in Damascus late Tuesday. (Link)
Labels: Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon
Karzai under foreigners' influence: Afghan paper (Reuters)
President Hamid Karzai is under the influence of foreign powers and troops led by NATO and the U.S. must set a firm date for their departure from Afghanistan, a government-run daily newspaper said on Saturday.
The remarks are the first of their kind in an Afghan paper about Karzai and foreign troops in Afghanistan, where there is frustration over growing insecurity and rampant corruption.
"...It should be said that the Afghan nation reacts seriously, despite its difficulties, when the national interests of their country are exposed to foreign danger and have never accepted and nor will accept a protege government," Anis said. (Link)
Labels: Afghanistan, NATO, U.S.
U.S. Struggles to Tutor Iraqis in Rule of Law (NY Times)
A mob had gathered by the time the F.B.I. agents arrived at the house where an assassin’s bomb killed nine people last year, narrowly missing a deputy prime minister. Fearing their own lives might be at risk, the agents gave themselves no more than 30 minutes to collect evidence.
As agents worked inside the house, an Iraqi police commander outside ordered the arrest of a man on the fringe of the crowd, according to American agents who were at the scene. The man later confessed to complicity in the attack. The case, if it could be called that, was quickly closed. (Link)
Syria Denies Joint Iran Investigation (AP)
Syria denied Iranian claims that the two countries would conduct a joint investigation into the assassination of a top Hezbollah commander, the Syrian state news agency reported.
Imad Mughniyeh, who was one of the world's most wanted fugitives, was killed in a car bomb in the Syrian capital Tuesday night. He was accused of masterminding attacks that killed hundreds of Americans in Lebanon in the 1980s.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Reza Sheik Attar announced the joint probe on Friday, according to Iran's official news agency.
But a Syrian official dismissed the report as "totally baseless" and said Damascus would conduct the investigation alone, Syria's state-run news agency reported late Friday. It did not name the official. (Link)
Labels: Hezbollah, Iran, Syria
An Iranian Revolutionary, Dismayed but Unbowed (NY Times)
REVOLUTIONARIES know exactly what they want to tear down, but often lack the ability to predict what will come next. That was true of Ebrahim Yazdi and many of his allies in the Iranian revolution who now, three decades later, still savor the memory of the day the shah fled Iran, but struggle with the bitter reality that they have been spit out, marginalized and rejected by what it is they helped create.
Iran celebrated the 29th anniversary of its Islamic Revolution this month, but there are many fathers of that revolution, like Mr. Yazdi, who have not been part of any official celebration.
“Of course this is not a monarchy, it’s a republican state,” Mr. Yazdi said during an interview in his living room, where he reflected on the government he helped to establish. “However, the political system, basically, is a despotic one. Many basic rights and liberties are continuously being denied. Therefore, one inspiration behind the revolution, restoration of people’s sovereignty, democracy and so on, hasn’t been achieved — yet.” (Link)
Labels: Iran
Friday, February 15, 2008
Robert Fisk: The remnants of war in the desert sands (Independent)
Don Sheridan rang me a few days before his death. I was walking on the Beirut Corniche when my mobile purred and there was my 78-year-old Irish friend, calling, as he often did when life was dangerous in the Middle East, anxious to know that his friend Robert was still safe and well.
Don was not well. He sounded fragile. Last time I saw him, he was recovering from his second heart attack in 10 years and looked thinner, more drawn than usual. But his temper was as strong as steel. "Bloody Bush," he called the US President – and you have to put the full emphasis on the word "bloody" to capture the power of Don's expression. "Bloody Blair," he'd say, condemning Blair's part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Don knew the Middle East – he'd worked there for decades as a geologist and oil explorer – and understood long before 2003 that the Anglo-American adventure would end in disaster. But I was troubled by his voice on the phone.
But how are you, Don? I asked. "Oh, you know, up and down," he replied. He said that twice, and I sensed that he was a little frightened. Not of death. I think that Don, like me, regarded the institution of death as pretty mundane. But he was fearful of leaving his lovely wife Catherine and their four children and their glorious Georgian home above Sorrento Bay south of Dublin.
(Link)Labels: Editorial
U.S. Forces Accused of Killing Relatives of Iraqi Ally (Washington Post)
Residents and officials in a rural area of northern Iraq said U.S. forces on Thursday night killed six relatives of the head of a Sunni tribal group that has allied itself with the Americans, but the U.S. military said it had received no reports of such an incident.
In the Zaab area, west of Kirkuk, hundreds of people took to the streets to mourn the dead, who included a woman and a child, and to demand that U.S. forces release the tribal leader, who local officials say was detained in the assault.
"There was a great mistake that took place last night and pushed the American forces to commit a massacre against this family, which supported the security and the stability and was a victim of the terrorists," said Col. Muhammad Muhsin Jumaa al-Jubouri, the Zaab police chief. (Link)
Evolution Of a U.S. General In Iraq (Washington Post)
When Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno first came to Iraq in 2003, the division he led was quickly accused of overly aggressive tactics that did more to fuel the insurgency than quell it.
But over the past 15 months, Odierno has earned a very different reputation. Even some of his critics now say his tenure as the No. 2 military official in Iraq -- a position he handed over this week -- reflects a newfound understanding of counterinsurgency doctrine and the necessity of using nonlethal tactics to reduce violence in Iraq.
"General Odierno has experienced an awakening -- I've now completely revised my impression of him," said retired Army Col. Stuart A. Herrington, who wrote a 2003 report for the military that identified Odierno's unit as "the major offender" in carrying out indiscriminate detentions of civilians. "He recognized that his guys were very, very heavy-handed before and realized tactics had to change." (Link)
We can persuade Taliban to be peaceful - expelled UN man (Guardian)
Two-thirds of the Taliban-led insurgents in Afghanistan can be persuaded to abandon violence, according to a British aid worker expelled from the country for opening talks with some of those allied to the militant group.
Michael Semple, a UN official arrested by the Afghan government on Christmas Day last year, said he was confident that most Taliban-linked insurgents could be absorbed into Afghanistan's reconciliation process.
In his first interview with a British news organisation since he was forced to leave Afghanistan by the government of President Hamid Karzai, Semple defended his role in talking to elements linked to the Taliban. Until 2003 he had been a senior political adviser to the British embassy in Kabul.
Semple told the Guardian that he and the EU official Mervyn Patterson, who was also expelled, were victims of local politics. He said a local leader in Helmand province falsely blamed them for talking to what he described as "one of the irreconcilables" in the conflict. They had, he said, opened no such channel to al-Qaida-linked Taliban. (Link)
Labels: Afghanistan, U.N.
U.S. meets Iranian official to discuss 'terror' funds (Reuters)
In a departure from usual policy, a senior U.S. Treasury official met Iranian representatives in Paris last month as part of a multinational gathering to discuss "terror financing," said U.S. officials on Friday.
Senior Treasury Department official Daniel Glaser was given permission by the Bush administration to attend the January 24 meeting, as required by U.S. policy because contacts with Iran are usually forbidden, said a senior official, who spoke on condition he not be named.
Glaser, who is the Treasury Department's Deputy Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes, co-chaired with Italy a Financial Action Task Force (FATF) meeting to discuss money laundering and how to crack down on the financing of terrorism.
"To my knowledge, they did not have one-on-one meetings (with the Iranians)," said the senior U.S. official. "It was something agreed within the U.S. government that Glaser could attend," he added. (Link)
Ownership Dispute of Saddam's Yacht (AP)
For sale: A palatial pleasure yacht with swimming pools, opulent salons and, should the winds of war blow, a rocket launcher and mini-submarine.
The sale of the 269-foot Ocean Breeze, built for Saddam Hussein and docked on the French Riviera, could be thwarted, however, if Iraq can prove it belongs to someone in the late dictator's entourage - and now, therefore, to the government in Baghdad.
A court hearing will likely be held in March to determine the rightful owner.
The government in Baghdad suspects the yacht, which French authorities seized on Jan. 31, is still Iraqi. But the posh yacht brokerage firm Nigel Burgess says other owners, whom it will not name, have asked it to sell the vessel. The price has reportedly been set at $35 million. (Link)
Labels: Iraq
Iraqi PM: al-Qaida Chased From Baghdad (AP)
Iraq's prime minister said Friday that U.S. and Iraqi troops have chased al-Qaida in Iraq out of Baghdad in the year since a security crackdown began, and he promised to pursue insurgents who have fled northward.
Underscoring the rising violence in northern Iraq, a double suicide bombing targeted Shiite worshippers as they left weekly prayer services in the city of Tal Afar, killing at least four people and wounding 17, officials said.
Police said guards at the Juwad mosque prevented a worse casualty toll by opening fire on the two attackers, one of whom was an elderly man, before they could reach the bulk of worshippers emerging from the building.
In remarks broadcast on state television, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki hailed what he called a "victory in Baghdad" and thanked the U.S. military and its allies for "standing with us in defeating terrorism."
"Today our forces are locked in battle against outlaws in Nineveh and we are chasing them," he added, referring to the northwestern province where Iraqi officials say al-Qaida in Iraq has regrouped. Tal Afar is in Nineveh province. (Link)
Several killed in Gaza blast (Al Jazeera)
A senior member of Islamic Jihad and six other Palestinians have been killed in a blast in the Gaza Strip, according to doctors and witnesses.
Ayman al-Fayed was killed when an Israeli missile struck his home in Bureij Palestinian refugee camp near Gaza City on Friday, Islamic Jihad said.
A military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said that Israeli forces had no involvement in the incident.
"We did not undertake any operations on Friday against the Gaza Strip... We are not involved in what happened at Bureij tonight," she said. (Link)
Graziano reports Israel's border violations to UN (Daily Star)
Commander of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Major General Claudio Graziano said on Friday his organization sent the UN a report outlining Israeli violations of Lebanese territories and airspace. "UNIFIL has also sent a strong-worded letter to Israel denouncing violations," said Graziano following a meeting with Premier Fouad Siniora.
"We discussed the situation in South Lebanon, in addition to bilateral ties with the Lebanese Army, and we informed the premier that everything was under control in the southern region," Graziano said.
On Friday Graziano also met with commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces General Michel Suleiman.
One Lebanese man was shot dead and another one wounded by Israeli gunfire on the eastern outskirts of the border town of Ghajar last week. (Link)
Fadlallah blames US for prolonging political crisis (Daily Star)
Senior Shiite cleric Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah lashed out at the United States on Friday accusing it of obstructing "any sort of solution" to the 14-month-old political deadlock in Lebanon. "The US has worked on weakening the Arab initiative aimed at solving the crisis in Lebanon and stirring political as well as sectarian tensions among the Lebanese," Fadlallah said during his Friday sermon at the Imam Hassanayn Mosque in Haret Hreik.
The Arab three-point plan calls for electing the head of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) General Michel Suleiman as president, the formation of a national unity government, and the drafting of a new electoral law for the 2009 parliamentary poll.
"The situation in Lebanon is going from bad to worse and the US and its Lebanese allies should be held responsible for the deadlock in Lebanon," he said.
Fadlallah added that the Lebanese live "in a state of fear and uncertainty because they no longer stand united." (Link)
Analysts expect Hizbullah to deal 'major blow' to Israel (Daily Star)
Wednesday's assassination of Hizbullah senior commander Imad Mughniyeh will spark a new round of violence in the region, as Hizbullah is certain to retaliate in spectacular fashion, thereby provoking further security fallout in Lebanon, a number of analysts told The Daily Star on Friday.
The aftershocks of Mughniyeh's killing could even increase the chances for civil strife here, said Ahmad Moussalli, a professor of political science and Islamic studies at the American University of Beirut.
"We are close to a major conflict," he said. "We are at a point of some kind of war. It's very dangerous. You will see Hizbullah hardening its [domestic] position, rather than softening."
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's words at Mughniyeh's funeral on Thursday about an "open war" between Hizbullah and Israel were not a mere fulmination fueled by the moment, Moussalli added. (Link)
Labels: Hezbollah, Israel, Lebanon
We'll nuke Iran - Bush promises Israel (Presscue)
US President George W. Bush promised Israel's opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu that the United States will join the Jewish state in a nuclear strike against Iran, Israel Radio reported today.
Former Prime Minister Netanyahu, opposition Likud party's hardline chairman who opposes the US-backed Annapolis peace process, reiterated to President Bush his stance, that a pre-emptive nuclear strike against Iran's nuclear installations was the only way to stop the Islamic nation's nuclear weapons ambitions.
"I told him my position and Bush agreed," Netanyahu told Israel Radio.
During their 45-minute meeting at King David hotel in Jerusalem Netanyahu also told Bush that "Jerusalem belongs to the Jewish people and will remain under Israeli sovereignty for eternity."
President Bush issued a stark warning to Iran over Strait of Hormuz incident, saying that "all options are on the table to protect our assets." (Link)
----------------
The Strait of Hormuz incident is being falsely used to beat the drums of war. The event has been debunked, and President Bush is well aware of that.
Updated Wrong Link
- We are trying to find a direct transcript of this statement to ensure accuracy.Update- For now, please consider this story unsubstantiated. We have been unable to locate an actual transcript, and Israel Radio does not seem to keep archives of its radio stream. In fact, the only articles concerning this, seem to be reposts of Presscue's article. The closest we have been able to corroborate that President Bush is planning a nuclear strike (if it comes to it), is a Seymour Hersh article.
Israelis Set Up New West Bank Settlement (AP)
Nine Israeli families staked out homesteads in a valley deep in the West Bank on Friday and promised to bring more settlers to the area that the Palestinians want for a future state.
Palestinian charges of bad faith over the move were fueled by reports that the Israeli government has awarded permits for more Jewish housing in an east Jerusalem neighborhood.
The wildcat action at Maskiot, in the northern West Bank, was funded in part by a private American group and is just one of recent Israeli actions to anger Palestinians as peace negotiators try to reach a final treaty.
President Bush hopes to get the sides to complete a deal by year's end, but Israeli settlement activity and Palestinian failure to rein in militant violence are widely seen as stumbling blocks.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that the government has issued permits for construction of 307 Jewish homes in the Har Homa area of east Jerusalem. That drew sharp comment from a leading Palestinian peace negotiator.
"In the morning there are new violations at Har Homa and then in the afternoon we hear of caravans in the northern West Bank," Saeb Erekat said.
When announced in December, plans for the east Jerusalem units prompted criticism from the U.S. and marred peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians as they were getting under way after seven years of bloodshed. (Link)
Hezbollah's most secretive operative (BBC)
Imad Fayez Mughniyeh was a secretive figure, who for decades managed to elude attempts by US spies and special forces to capture or kill him.
He was wanted by the United States and Interpol in connection with bloody attacks around the world.
Some US officials dubbed him the "faceless terrorist", because few outside his closest circle knew for sure what he looked like.
The FBI's picture of him on its most wanted list was 20 years out of date, and he is believed to have undergone plastic surgery to dramatically alter his appearance since then.
Mughniyeh has been in hiding since the end of the 1980s. Until Osama Bin Laden appeared on the radar of US intelligence, he was one of the world's most hunted men. (Link)
Labels: Hezbollah
Pakistan's political parties explained (CNN)
Pakistan will hold parliamentary elections Monday, with political parties competing for 272 seats in the National Assembly.
The elections were due to take place in December of last year but were postponed after the assassination of Pakistan People's Party chairman, Benazir Bhutto.
In 2008, 49 political parties applied for poll symbols with the Election Commission. Outlined are the main contenders. (Link)
Labels: Pakistan
Britain powerless over Saudi threats, BAE review told (Guardian)
Britain was powerless to respond to threats by Saudi Arabia that it would withdraw intelligence cooperation unless a corruption investigation into arms deals with BAE was halted, a lawyer for the Serious Fraud Office told the high court today.
Philip Sales QC, appearing on behalf of the director of the SFO, Robert Wardle, said that since Saudi Arabia was not subject to British law, nothing could be done.
He said it was legitimate for Wardle to take into account the fact the state "did not have the resources to meet the threat in the ordinary way".
Two judges are presiding over a judicial review of the decision to drop the investigation in December 2006.
Previously secret files revealed yesterday how investigators were told they faced "another 7/7" if they did not respond to the threats. (Link)
Secular-Islamist Clash in NW Pakistan (AP)
A showdown is shaping up in Pakistan's turbulent northwest between secular-minded ethnic Pashtuns and those who support Taliban-style Islamists - a conflict that is likely to sharpen regardless of which side wins Monday's elections.
Politicians and analysts fear the vote for a provincial assembly, which is being elected at the same time as the national parliament, will produce a coalition powerless to curb the frontier region's slide toward domination by Islamic militants.
Five years ago, hard-line religious zealots swept to power in North West Frontier Province's regional government. They capitalized on Pashtun anger over the U.S. invasion that toppled the Pashtun-dominated Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan as well as President Pervez Musharraf's move to sideline mainstream political parties opposed to his military rule.
The result, in effect, was an open door policy for al-Qaida and Afghan Taliban fighters. Their move into the province, especially its autonomous tribal belt, allowed them to regroup and recruit followers among religious Pashtuns on this side of the border. (Link)
Hamas tells Egypt its ready to discuss truce with Israel, Shalit deal (Reuters)
Hamas said Friday it has told Egyptian officials it would consider a cease-fire with Israel if it lifted its blockade of the Gaza Strip and ceased military operations in the West Bank and Gaza.
Hamas also discussed with Egyptian officials this week the possibility of a prisoner deal that could lead to the release of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit, seized by Hamas in a 2006 raid, in exchange for Israel freeing several hundreds of Palestinians from its jails, Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri said.
Sources close to Hamas said Egypt, which brokered a year-long truce between the Islamist group and Israel in 2005, had wanted to explore Hamas' position before holding any possible talks with Israel.
Leading Hamas member Mahmoud al-Zahar traveled to Egypt on Thursday to resume talks with the Egyptian government about the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, which Hamas militants smashed open last month seeking relief from the blockade. (Link)
30,000 Iraqi troops to secure Arbaeen (Press TV)
Iraq is to deploy over 30,000 security forces in Karbala for a pilgrimage expected to draw millions of people to the holy city, police say.
"We have put in place a plan after studying the negative and positive aspects of the last pilgrimage," General Raed Shakir Jawdat told a news conference late Thursday.
"We have enlarged the size of the cordons around the city and will deploy more than 30,000 security force members, including three rapid response brigades," AFP on Friday quoted him as saying.
"We will utilize 39 explosive detecting devices and we have supplied our forces with modern arms in place of their old ones; we have more vehicles and some security leaders were replaced by more competent ones," the general added.
"Our forces are ready to face any challenge from any armed or extremist group." (Link)
Labels: Iraq
Iran, Syria Probe Mughniyeh Killing (AP)
Syria and Iran will conduct a joint investigation into the car bombing that killed Imad Mughniyeh, a commander of their Lebanese ally Hezbollah, Iran's state news agency reported Friday.
Mughniyeh, the suspected mastermind of 1980s attacks on the U.S. Embassy and Marine barracks in Lebanon that killed hundreds of Americans, died Tuesday night in the Syrian capital Damascus.
Iran and Hezbollah blamed Israel but the Israelis denied involvement. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed in a eulogy to the slain militant on Thursday that his Shiite guerrilla group would retaliate against Israeli targets anywhere in the world.
An Iranian television station aired Friday what it said was mobile phone video footage of the blast that killed Mughniyeh. The grainy, dark images appeared to have been taken moments after his car blew up.
They show a vehicle engulfed in flames on a street at night and several people, apparently bystanders, running by. It was not possible to see whether anyone was in the vehicle in the footage taken from a distance and lasting a few seconds.
The video was shown on Iran's state-run Arabic channel, Al-Alam. The station did not say how it obtained the footage.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki met in Damascus Friday with Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa to discuss the killing.
"We discussed the terrorist crime that led to the martyrdom of one of the most senior commanders in the Lebanese Islamic Resistance, martyr Imad Mughniyeh," Mottaki told reporters after the meeting.
(Link)Labels: Hezbollah, Iran, Syria
UN official says situation in Gaza Strip 'grim and miserable' (Haaretz)
The UN's top official for welfare and humanitarian affairs said Friday that life in Gaza was 'grim and miserable' as a result of prolonged closure of the strip's borders and called for the lifting of blockades imposed after the militant Hamas movement seized control of the
territory last summer.
"These grim and miserable things are results of the restrictions placed on the Gaza crossings," John Holmes, the UN's undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told journalists during a visit to the strip.
On Thursday, Holmes said he would examine the consequences of Palestinian Qassam rocket fire on Israeli communities, as well as the damage caused to residents of the Gaza Strip by Israeli sanctions, during a four-day tour.
Holmes, said he would try and find ways to get more humanitarian aid in. (Link)
Arab media code 'risk to freedom' (Al Jazeera)
Al Jazeera has said a code adopted by Arab states to govern satellite broadcasting could shackle freedom of expression.
Arab information ministers meeting on Tuesday in Cairo endorsed the charter, which allows host countries to annul or suspend the licence of any broadcaster found in violation of the rules it sets.
The Cairo document stipulates that satellite channels "should not damage social harmony, national unity, public order or traditional values".
It says that programming should also "conform with the religious and ethical values of Arab society and take account of its family structure".
Wadah Khanfar, director-general of Al Jazeera, said in a statement issued on Friday: "Any code of ethics or governance for journalistic practices should emerge, and be governed, from within the profession and not be imposed externally by political institutions.
"Al Jazeera considers the adoption of the charter ... a risk to the freedom of expression in the Arab world." (Link)
Labels: Free Media
Hezbollah appoints successor to slain commander (Reuters)
Lebanon's Hezbollah has appointed a successor to its senior guerrilla commander Imad Moughniyah who was assassinated in Syria this week, a Lebanese security source said on Friday.
The source said the appointment was made hours after the announcement of Moughniyah's death in a car bomb in Damascus on Tuesday. He did not identify the successor who would now command Hezbollah's formidable and well-armed guerrilla army.
A joint investigation into the bombing by Syrians, Iranians and Hezbollah was well under way and suspects had been arrested in the Syrian capital, the source said.
Hezbollah and its main backer Iran have accused Israel of killing Moughniyah, who was among the United States' most wanted men. The Israeli government has denied any links, though its Mossad spy service had been hunting him for two decades.
(Link)Syria 'to name Mughniyeh killer' (BBC)
Syria has said it will soon present "irrefutable" proof of who was behind the killing of Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh in the capital, Damascus.
Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem would not discuss the ongoing investigation, but insisted the world would "soon hear the results of this mighty effort".
Meanwhile, Iranian TV has broadcast a video reportedly of Tuesday's bombing.
On Thursday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah blamed Israel for the blast and warned it was ready for "open war".
Israel has rejected the claims, but nonetheless has put its embassies around the world on high alert and boosted troop deployments on the Lebanese border. (Link)
Labels: Hezbollah
Loss of core support means Musharraf's party faces disaster (Independent)
Chaudhry Tahir could scarcely have sounded more confident. "The Chaudhrys are great people," he said of his high-profile cousins who lead the pro-Musharraf Pakistan Muslim League-Q. "We're going to get 200 seats out of 342."
Encircled by supporters on the lawn in front of his office, he said: "The party is popular across Pakistan."
Few outside or even within the party that has ruled Pakistan for the past five years share his view. As Pakistan lurches through the final week of election campaigning, all the opinion polls suggest that the party created by President Pervez Musharraf to buttress his military rule does not enjoy such good fortune.
Indeed, they reveal that support may stand as low as 12 per cent as a resurgent opposition continues to feed on the President's increasing unpopularity.
Amid the falling numbers, the PML-Q is doing everything it can to maintain its once powerful standing. This – according to widespread accusations – includes tilting the electoral playing field in its favour through fair means and foul. (Link)
Labels: Pakistan
Is the US really bringing stability to Baghdad? (Independent)
People in Baghdad are not passive victims of violence, but seek desperately to avoid their fate. In April 2004, I was almost killed by Shia militiamen of the Mehdi Army at a checkpoint at Kufa in southern Iraq. They said I was an American spy and were about to execute me and my driver, Bassim Abdul Rahman, when they decided at the last moment to check with their commander. "I believe," Bassim said afterwards, "that if Patrick had an American or an English passport [instead of an Irish one] they would have killed us all immediately."
In the following years, I saw Bassim less and less. He is a Sunni, aged about 40, from west Baghdad. After the battle for Baghdad between Shia and Sunni in 2006, he could hardly work as a driver as three-quarters of the capital was controlled by the Shia. There were few places where a Sunni could drive in safety outside a handful of enclaves.
What happened to Bassim was also to happen to millions of Iraqis who saw their lives ruined by successive calamities. As their world collapsed around them they were forced to take desperate measures to survive, obtain a job and make enough money to feed and educate their families. (Link)
Afghan journalist jailed for translating Koran (Independent)
In the Soviet-occupied Kabul of the late 1980s, Ahmed Ghous Zalmai was a charismatic television and radio host, the people's favourite enemy of the state. He survived the Soviet tyranny – but would not be so fortunate under the Western-backed "democracy" of President Hamid Karzai. Since October 2007, he has been in prison for helping to distribute translated copies of the Koran.
Afghanistan in the 1980s was a police state and a generation of intellectuals and educated or influential people was already decaying inside the notorious Puli Charkhi prison.
Mr Zalmai started the first Afghan open talk radio called "Voice of the People". Callers didn't have to identify themselves and Mr Zalmai took their complaints to the relevant authorities, demanding a response. The programme was eventually brought under control, but the precedent was set; Mr Zalmai was already hosting other programmes. (Link)
Labels: Afghanistan
Militants bomb Gaza YMCA library (BBC)
Gunmen have attacked the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Gaza City and blown up its library, burning thousands of books, its director says.
Eissa Saba said 14 men overpowered the centre's two security guards before placing bombs in the library and main office. The latter did not explode.
The YMCA in Gaza City is open to Palestinians from all communities. (Link)
Labels: Palestine
Quake shakes Mideast, causes injuries in Lebanon (Reuters)
An earthquake shook the Middle East on Friday, damaging buildings in south Lebanon where three people were injured.
The earthquake of magnitude 5.0 had an epicenter 15 km northeast of the Lebanese coastal city of Tyre, according to the U.S. Geological Survey Web site (www.usgs.gov).
The tremor was felt across Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories and in the Syrian capital of Damascus.
A Lebanese man and two Palestinians were injured in Tyre when a balcony fell on top of them, the Lebanese National News Agency reported. (Link)
Palestinians say Israel not meeting commitments (Reuters)
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki accused Israel on Friday of failing to meet commitments made at peace talks relaunched at a U.S.-hosted conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November.
Malki, who also called for international pressure on Israel, said "nothing has happened" since the peace talks.
"Israel maintained its policies and actions on the ground as if nothing really happened ... We cannot allow Israel to behave the way it behaves, action has to be taken and international intervention has to be made," he said in a speech to Palestinian ambassadors to European capitals.
He was speaking in Ankara where he is holding talks with Turkish officials.
Palestinian leaders have voiced frustration at what they call Israel's failure to keep its commitments to freeze Jewish settlement activity and to ease checkpoints that limit Palestinian mobility in the West Bank.