Saturday, March 15, 2008
Islamic Jihad members killed (Al Jazeera)
Three members of the Islamic Jihad group have been killed by an Israel missile attack on the Gaza Strip.
An Israeli aircraft dropped its payload on the men as they were preparing to launch homemade rockets across the border on Saturday, Israeli army sources said.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said that the Palestinian fighters were killed after they had fired four rockets into Israel, three of which had struck without causing casualties.
Earlier, three other members of the armed group had been wounded as they prepared to launch their rockets, medics said. (Link)
US Draws Portrait of Iraq Bombers (AP)
The suicide bombers who have killed 10,000 people in Iraq, including hundreds of American troops, usually are alienated young men from large families who are desperate to stand out from the crowd and make their mark, according to a U.S. military study.
As long suspected, most come from outside Iraq. Saudi Arabia, home of most of the 9/11 hijackers, is the single largest source. And the pipeline is continually replenished by al-Qaida in Iraq's recruiters.
The study, obtained by The Associated Press, profiles the suicide bombers and their support system based in part on interrogations of 48 foreign fighters who were captured or surrendered. The U.S. command is trying to understand the system, including al-Qaida in Iraq's recruiting, training and transportation network, so it can be disrupted before the bombers strike. (Link)
Conservative Split in Iran Vote (AP)
Conservative opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a strong showing in Iran's parliamentary elections, according to partial results Saturday. The split could mean frictions between the president and former supporters disillusioned by his fiery, populist rule.
Reformists, meanwhile, claimed to have made better than expected gains even though most of their candidates were thrown out of the race by Iran's clerical leadership.
If reformists succeed in expanding the largely muted bloc of around 40 lawmakers they had in the outgoing parliament, it would be a blow to hard-line attempts to bury the movement, which calls for reducing the power of clerics and opening up to the West. (Link)
Labels: Iran
UN: Drop in Iraq Violence May Not Last (AP)
The influx of thousands of U.S. forces has driven down insurgent attacks in Baghdad, but violence elsewhere in Iraq raises questions about whether killings will continue to drop as American forces begin to leave, the United Nations said Saturday.
As security improved in Baghdad, violent attacks spread last year to other parts of the country, including Diyala Province and Mosul, al-Qaida's last urban stronghold, according to the report from the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq.
"The government of Iraq continued to face enormous challenges in its efforts to bring sectarian violence and other criminal activity under control against a backdrop of political instability," the report, which examined the last six months of 2007, said. (Link)
160 feared dead in Albania explosion (Guardian)
One hundred and sixty people, many of them Americans, are feared dead or injured after a series of large explosions at an army base on the outskirts of Tirana, the capital of Albania, officials have said.
People suffering with burns, concussions and broken limbs were rushed to local hospitals following the blasts, believed to have begun while teams were dismantling munitions at a store base. Many of the injuries were a result of flying glass or shrapnel.
"We do not know the exact number, but we fear the worst for the three teams, each of 21 people, working there at the time," said Juela Mecani, spokeswoman for the country's prime minister, Sali Berisha. "Several were US citizens."
A spokesman for the Albanian interior ministry, Avni Neza, said army and police forces were trying to reach the area in armoured cars. "Helicopters have not yet managed to land because the explosions continue," he said. (Link)
Labels: misc
'J'lem attacker targeted rightist rabbi' (JPost)
The target of last Thursday's shooting attack in Jerusalem's Mercaz Harav Yeshiva was a far right-wing rabbi, the Hizbullah-affiliated Akhbar newspaper reported Friday.
The Lebanese newspaper quoted Palestinian sources as saying that the terrorist, Ala Abu Dhaim, planned to kill "an extremist rabbi who taught in the yeshiva" but since he failed to track down the rabbi, he went on a shooting spree instead, killing eight students.
According to the sources, the group behind the attack was about to take responsibility for the murder of the rabbi, but when it became clear that the terrorist had failed to fulfill his mission, the group decided to remain silent. (Link, Cache)
Iraq violence drops, but for how long? (AP)
The surge of U.S. forces has driven down insurgent attacks in Baghdad but violence elsewhere in Iraq raises questions about whether killings will continue to drop as American forces begin to leave, the United Nations said Saturday.
As security improved in Baghdad, violent attacks spread last year to other parts of the country, including Diyala Province and Mosul, al-Qaida's last urban stronghold, according to the report from the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq.
"The government of Iraq continued to face enormous challenges in its efforts to bring sectarian violence and other criminal activity under control against a backdrop of political instability," the report said.
The U.S. military has said a 60 percent reduction in attacks followed the surge.
"This is a window of opportunity for Iraq," Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. chief in Iraq, said at a news conference in Baghdad.
The U.S. military in Iraq did not immediately respond to requests for comment. (Link)
Top Saudi cleric calls for writers' deaths (Reuters)
Saudi Arabia's most revered cleric said in a rare fatwa this week that two writers should be tried for apostasy for their "heretical articles" and put to death if they do not repent.
Sheikh Abdul-Rahman al-Barrak was responding to recent articles in al-Riyadh newspaper that questioned the Sunni Muslim view in Saudi Arabia that adherents of other faiths should be considered unbelievers.
"Anyone who claims this has refuted Islam and should be tried in order to take it back. If not, he should be killed as an apostate from the religion of Islam," said the fatwa, or religious opinion, dated March 14 and published on Barrak's Web site. (Link)
Labels: Free Speech, Saudi Arabia
Robert Fisk: Silenced by the men in white socks (Independent)
Shut them up. Accuse them. Imprison them. Stop them talking. Why is it that this seems to have become a symbol of the Arab – or Muslim – world? Yes I know about our Western reputation for free speech; from the Roman Empire to the Spanish inquisition, from Henry VIII to Robespierre, from Mussolini and Stalin to Hitler, even – on a pitiable scale – to Mr Anthony Blair. But it's getting hard to avoid the Middle East.
When Egyptian women cry "Enough!", they are sexually abused by Mubarak's cops. When Algerians demand to know which policemen killed their relatives, they are arrested for ignoring the regime's amnesty. When Benazir Bhutto is murdered in Rawalpindi, a cloak of silence falls over the world's imams. Pontificating about the assassination in Pakistan, Shaikh es-Sayed, who runs one of Canada's biggest mosques, expressed his condolences to "families of beloved brothers and sisters who died in the incident [sic]". Asked why he didn't mention Bhutto's name, he replied: "Why? This is not a political arena. This is about religion. That's politics." Well, it certainly is in Syria. George Bush – along with M. Sarkozy – has been berating Damascus for its lack of democracy and its human rights abuses and its supposed desire to gobble up Lebanon and "Palestine" and even Cyprus. But I always feel that Syria had a raw deal these past 90 years. (Link)
Labels: Editorial, Free Speech
Conservatives lead Iran vote (Al Jazeera)
Conservatives allied with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president, are ahead in Iran's parliamentary elections, according to partial results.
According to state television, conservatives are ahead with 108 seats against 33 for their reformist opponents in an election for Iran's 290-seat parliament.
Local media also reported that 28 million of Iran's 44 million eligible voters had cast their ballots on Friday.
The interior ministry put the voter turnout at more than 65 per cent.
Reformist leaders pushed for Iranians to vote, hoping to prevent a sweep by Ahmadinejad's allies after the country's religious leaders threw many liberal candidates out of the race. (Link)
Labels: Iran
Turkish prime minister slams attempt to ban his ruling party (AFP)
Moves by Turkey's chief prosecutor to ban the Islamist-rooted ruling party and bar the president and prime minister from politics were "an attack on the will of the nation," premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday.
"The action taken yesterday is not aimed at the Justice and Development Party but the will of the nation," he told a party meeting in the southeastern town of Siit, which was broadcast on television.
Erdogan was reacting publicly for the first time to the formal decision of Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, chief prosecutor of the court of appeals, to ask the Constitutional Court to ban Erdogan's AKP party.
Yalcinkaya, cited his grounds as being that the party was opposed to Turkey's secular system.
Erdogan, noting that 16.5 million people had voted for the AKP in elections in July, he added, "No one can say that these people are a focal point of anti-secular activities." (Link)
Labels: Turkey
Vice Premier: W. Bank outposts harm Israel's relations with U.S. (Haaretz)
JERUSALEM - Vice Premier Haim Ramon said on Saturday that Israel's failure to dismantling settler outposts in the West Bank is hurting bilateral relations with the United States.
Ramon's comment came after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday neither Israel nor the Palestinians have done "nearly enough" to meet peace commitments.
The long-stalled 2003 road map peace plan calls on Israel to remove outposts built without government authorization in the West Bank and to halt all settlement activity in the territory.
It also demands the Palestinians crack down on militants.
"Unfortunately we are not meeting our commitments, and this hurts us internationally and hurts our ability to continue with talks," Ramon told Israel Radio.
Ramon said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have delayed removing the outposts because they have been trying to "reach an understanding" with the heads of the Jewish settlements to avoid any confrontations. (Link)
Labels: Israel, Palestine, U.S.
Turkish prosecutors say AK Party seeks Islamic state (Reuters)
State prosecutors demanding the closure of Turkey's ruling AK Party accuse it of trying to turn the country into an Islamic state, according to the text of their indictment quoted on Saturday by Turkish media.
The 162-page file, sent to Turkey's Constitutional Court on Friday evening, marks the latest shot in a long-running feud between the fiercely secular elite, which includes judges and army generals, and the religiously-minded government.
The prosecutors' move has raised investor fears of possible political and economic instability in Turkey, a European Union candidate, though a final court verdict may take many months. (Link)
Labels: Turkey
Poverty not biggest factor driving Afghan drug crop (Reuters)
Afghan poppy farmers are some of the richest in the country, so poverty is not a big factor driving drug production in Afghanistan which last year produced 93 percent of the world's opium, a United Nations report said.
Despite millions of dollars spent to eradicate the crop and encourage farmers to turn to others, opium production has risen sharply since U.S.-led and Afghan forces toppled the hardline Islamist Taliban government in 2001.
But some of the poorest Afghan farmers do not grow the poppies from which opium is produced, while those on some of the richest farmland are the biggest producers of the drug which is processed to make heroin and exported to the West.
"Poverty does not appear to have been the main driving factor in the expansion of opium cultivation in recent years," said a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) received by Reuters on Saturday. (Link)
Labels: Afghanistan
Police arrest dozens after clashes in Iraqi city (Reuters)
Iraqi police arrested dozens of members of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr's Mehdi Army militia on Saturday, hours after two policemen were killed in gunbattles in the southern city of Kut, police said.
Clashes this week between Iraqi security forces and the militia in Kut, 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Baghdad, have raised fears a ceasefire called by Sadr may unravel, although the violence has so far been confined to Kut.
It is the first major violation of the seven-month-old truce, which has been credited by the U.S. military with helping to reduce violence between majority Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims that has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis. (Link)
Labels: Iraq
Palestinian Forces' Training Marred by Delays, Politics (Washington Post)
A U.S.-funded program to train and equip Palestinian security forces is mired in delays, a shortage of resources, and differences between Israelis and the Americans over what military capabilities those forces should have once deployed in the territories.
Weeks into the course, which began in late January, U.S. and Jordanian instructors had yet to receive essential training equipment, including vehicles, two-way radios, dummy pistols, rifles and batons, and a U.S.-designed curriculum, Americans with close knowledge of the program said. Because of Israeli concerns, the group of more than 1,000 Palestinian trainees has not been outfitted with pledged body armor or light-armored personnel carriers. The shortages and delays have forced U.S. and Jordanian trainers to improvise their way through the program, including purchasing pistol-shaped cigarette lighters for use in arrest drills and using their own cars for driver training. One of the Americans said, "In short, we are faking it." (Link)
Labels: Israel, Palestine, U.S.
Author jailed for writing ethnic romance as Iran's censors crack down on dissent (Independent)
While much of the world responded with scepticism and confusion to yesterday's parliamentary elections in Iran, inside the country coverage has been crippled by the tightening of an already oppressive regime.
The limits on freedom of speech are not confined to the election period though, but part of a censorial onslaught being felt across Iran's cultural landscape.
The closure of newspapers and the jailing of journalists has become commonplace. But for the first time, a prize-winning young novelist has been sentenced to jail for the behaviour of his fictional characters. Directives from the National Security Council containing the latest Islamic guidelines land on the desks of Iranian editors once or twice a week, and they are in no doubt that they must comply. They have been told in the past that any mention of Hizbollah, or of the Syrian President Bashar Assad, is strictly off-limits.
But a recent classified directive broke new ground by decreeing in minute detail how to report on every story. It was unprecedented even for the radical nationalist government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iranian sources say it is part of an almost surreal trend of censorship. (Link)
Labels: Iran
In This Election, Ahmadinejad Ally Is Now a Critic (NY Times)
During Iran’s presidential election campaign in 2005, Mohammad Khoshchehreh was one of the biggest boosters in Parliament of the candidacy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Mohammad Khoshchehreh, a member of Iran’s Parliament, in his office at the School of Economics of Tehran University.
Mr. Khoshchehreh, an economist and urban planner, appeared frequently in public on behalf of Mr. Ahmadinejad, criticizing the economic performance of his main opponent, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president.
But within three months of Mr. Ahmadinejad’s winning the election, Mr. Khoshchehreh had become one of his most outspoken critics. Less than three years later, with parliamentary elections coming up on Friday, many other former supporters have also become critics, and there is much anger over unemployment, inflation and fuel shortages in this oil-rich country. (Link)
Labels: Iran
Friday, March 14, 2008
Ban says Hariri tribunal ready to conduct trials (Daily Star)
The Special Tribunal for Lebanon to try suspects in the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and related crimes will soon be a reality, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon announced on Thursday.
Ban has reportedly informed the UN Security Council that preparations are complete for the start of trials.
"The stage has begun for launching of trials," Ban said in a report to the Security Council.
The process of establishing the Special Tribunal includes the selection of the judges, the appointment of the prosecutor, the finalization of a headquarters agreement with the Government of the Netherlands enabling the tribunal to be based in that country, and agreement on a building near The Hague to house the tribunal. (Link)
Doha talks demand action on human trafficking (AFP)
A conference in Qatar has urged Arab states to step up the fight against human trafficking, seen as widespread in the oil-rich Gulf region. Delegates called for an agreement within the framework of the Arab League "to combat human trafficking in all its forms," according to a statement issued at the close of the conference late Thursday. They urged the Riyadh-based Gulf Cooperation CouncilOil-Producers-Buying-Spree 
(GCC) to take the lead in boosting "coordination and cooperation among member states to enhance measures to fight human trafficking."
The two-day conference was organized by Qatar and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Delegates called for "a network to exchange information and expertise under the supervision of the Arab League," and the inclusion in school and university curricula of material on fighting the phenomenon. Five of the six GCC member states - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia - are on a US blacklist of countries where trafficking in people is rampant. (Link)
Labels: GCC, Human Trafficking
Qatar opens doors to its first church in time for Easter (Daily Star)
Just in time for Easter, Christians in Qatar got their first church on Friday, joining fellow believers in many other Gulf countries who have long been able to worship in their own churches rather than homes or other venues.
An exception is Saudi Arabia, which adheres to a rigorous doctrine of Islam known as Wahhabism. The ultra-conservative kingdom bans all non-Muslim religious rituals and materials.
In contrast, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and the UAE host churches that cater to hundreds of thousands of expats and, in some cases, tiny local communities.
Ironically, Qatar also adheres to Wahhabism but it has opened up to other faiths in the past decade. (Link)
Labels: Freedom of Religion, Qatar
Polls close late in Iran elections (Al Jazeera)
Iranians have been voting in polls expected to consolidate conservative control of parliament after the mass disqualification of reformist candidates by a hardline vetting body.
Polling stations closed at 11pm (1930 GMT)on Friday, five hours later than planned, to allow more people to cast ballots.
Mostafa Pourmohammadi, the interior minister, said some results would be announced on Saturday, but those from the capital Tehran might take longer.
He said turnout exceeded the 50 per cent of four years ago, while another official said it had topped 60 per cent. (Link)
Labels: Iran
Al-Qaeda suspect sent to Guantanamo (Al Jazeera)
The United States has said it is holding an Afghan national suspected of helping arrange the escape of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda leader, from Tora Bora in late 2001.
Bryan Whitman, Pentagon spokesman, said on Friday that Muhammed Rahim was turned over to the US military by the CIA and then transferred to the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
"He helped prepare Tora Bora as a hideout for Osama bin Laden. He assisted al-Qaeda's exodus from the area in late 2001," Whitman said.
Bin Laden is believed to have slipped past US and Afghan forces near the Pakistan border, and has eluded capture ever since.
The Pentagon spokesman would not say when or where Rahim was captured or how long he had been held by the CIA, but said he was transferred to Cuba earlier this week. (Link)
Labels: Al Qaeda, Guantanamo, U.S.
Rice: Neither Israel nor PA have done nearly enough to implement road map (Haaretz)
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday neither Israel nor the Palestinians have done "nearly enough" to meet their obligations under the 2003 road map for Middle East peace, making it difficult to sustain the U.S. push to end the conflict.
"I have not hidden the fact that I think that there is a lot of room for improvement on both sides concerning road map obligations," Rice told reporters as she flew to Santiago, her final stop on a two-day trip to Brazil and Chile.
"Frankly, not nearly enough has happened to demonstrate that the Israelis and the Palestinians fully understand ... what is a very clear view to me -- that without following road map obligations and without improvements on the ground, it's very hard to sustain this process," she added.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak drew fire Friday from the Palestinian Authority for failing to attend the first trilateral meeting with a U.S. envoy to discuss the implementation of the long dormant road map. (Link)
Labels: Israel, Palestine, U.S.
Muslims nations: Defame Islam, get sued? (AP)
The Muslim world has created a battle plan to defend its religion from political cartoonists and bigots.
Concerned about what they see as a rise in the defamation of Islam, leaders of the world's Muslim nations are considering taking legal action against those that slight their religion or its sacred symbols. It was a key issue during a two-day summit that ended Friday in this western Africa capital.
The Muslim leaders are attempting to demand redress from nations like Denmark, which allowed the publication of cartoons portraying the Prophet Muhammad in 2006 and again last month, to the fury of the Muslim world.
Though the legal measures being considered have not been spelled out, the idea pits many Muslims against principles of freedom of speech enshrined in the constitutions of numerous Western governments. (Link)
Labels: Islam
U.N. assembly tells Armenia to get out of Azerbaijan (Reuters)
The U.N. General Assembly on Friday demanded that Armenian forces withdraw from all occupied territories in Azerbaijan, but key mediators in the Azeri-Armenia dispute rejected the non-binding resolution.
In an Azeri-drafted resolution, the assembly called for "the immediate, complete and unconditional withdrawal from all the occupied territories of the Republic of Azerbaijan."
Although the largely symbolic resolution was adopted, only 39 out of 192 members of the U.N. General Assembly voted for it. Seven countries, including Armenia, the United States, France and Russia, voted against it. (Link)
Move to ban Turkey's ruling party (Al Jazeera)
A state prosecutor has asked Turkey's highest court to shutdown the ruling AK Party for anti-secular activities.
Turkish television channels quoted Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, the court of appeals chief prosecutor, as saying he wanted senior party members, including the president and prime minister, banned from politics for five years.
Yalcinkaya said a government move to lift a ban on women students wearing the Muslim headscarf at universities amounted to anti-secular actions.
Turkey, which is seeking European Union membership, is predominantly Muslim but an officially secular system. (Link)
Labels: Turkey
Islamic summit to censure Israel and shun terrorism (Reuters)
A summit of leaders of Muslim states will condemn Israel for "war crimes" against Palestinian civilians and reject terrorism as against the teachings of Islam, a draft of a communique to be adopted on Friday said.
Wrapping up a two-day meeting in Senegal, the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) also called in the document on wealthy member states to finance a $10 billion solidarity fund aimed at fighting poverty, especially in Africa.
After several days of difficult negotiations, the OIC leaders were set to approve a new charter to give a more active role to the Islamic body, which critics say has failed to back up its words with action in the past.
The draft Dakar declaration obtained by Reuters called for Iraq's sovereignty and security to be respected. (Link)
Labels: misc
EU demands Israel halt all construction in W. Bank, E. J'lem (Haaretz)
European Union leaders on Friday condemned Israeli plans to build hundreds of new homes in a West Bank settlement, and called on Israel to act swiftly to keep peace efforts alive.
"The EU reiterates that settlement building anywhere in the occupied Palestinian Territories, including East Jerusalem, is illegal under international law," the bloc's presidency said in a statement after a summit of EU leaders.
"Settlement activity prejudges the outcome of final status negotiations and threatens the viability of an agreed two-state solution. The European Council therefore urges Israel to take immediate action in particular on settlements and outposts," the leaders said.
Israel said on Sunday that plans to build a total of 750 homes in Givat Ze'ev, a settlement near Jerusalem, were being revived. (Link)
Robert Fisk: The cult of the suicide bomber (Independent)
Khaled looked at me with a broad smile. He was almost laughing. At one point, when I told him that he should abandon all thoughts of being a suicide bomber – that he could influence more people in this world by becoming a journalist – he put his head back and shot me a grin, world-weary for a man in his teens. "You have your mission," he said. "And I have mine." His sisters looked at him in awe. He was their hero, their amanuensis and their teacher, their representative and their soon-to-be-martyred brother. Yes, he was handsome, young – just 18 – he was dressed in a black Giorgio Armani T-shirt, a small, carefully trimmed Spanish conquistador's beard, gelled hair. And he was ready to immolate himself.
A sinister surprise. I had travelled to Khaled's home to speak to his mother. I had already written about his brother Hassan and wanted to introduce a Canadian journalist colleague, Nelofer Pazira, to the family. When Khaled walked on to the porch of the house, Nelofer and I both realised – at the same moment – that he was next, the next to die, the next "martyr". It was his smile. I've come across these young men before, but never one who so obviously declared his calling.
His family sat around us on the porch of their home above the Lebanese city of Sidon, the sitting room adorned with coloured photographs of Hassan, already gone to the paradise – so they assured me – for which Khaled clearly thought he was destined. Hassan had driven his explosives-laden car into an American military convoy at Tal Afar in north-western Iraq, his body (or what was left of it) buried "in situ" – or so his mother was informed. (Link)
Labels: Editorial
Barak skips three-way talks (Al Jazeera)
The US general overseeing Israeli and Palestinian compliance with the long-stalled peace "road map" is holding his first three-way meeting in occupied Jerusalem, but without Israel's defence minister in attendance.
The meeting on Friday attended by General William Frazer comes amid a recent surge in violence and failed commitments on both sides.
Representatives of the sides arrived on Friday morning at Jerusalem's King David Hotel.
The Palestinians sent Salam Fayyad, their prime minister, while the Israelis sent Amos Gilad, a lower-level defence ministry official.
Israel has been expecting unusually strong criticism from the US for not fulfilling obligations under the "road map", particularly with regard to settlement building. (Link)
Labels: Israel, Palestine, U.S.
Iraq Christians mourn kidnapped cleric's death (Reuters)
The leader of Iraq's minority Christians urged them on Friday not to be cowed and to be "steadfast" in their faith after the kidnapped Chaldean Catholic archbishop was found dead in northern Iraq.
The abduction and death of Paulos Faraj Rahho, 65, was the most high-profile attack on Iraq's Christians, who have been targeted by al Qaeda, since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
"I ask the people of the church to be steadfast and patient," the Chaldean patriarch of Baghdad and leader of Iraq's Christians, Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, told hundreds of mainly Christian mourners who crowded into a church near Rahho's home village north of Baghdad to pay their last respects.
Rahho was abducted on February 29 after gunmen attacked his car and killed his driver and two guards. His body was found in a shallow grave in eastern Mosul on Thursday. (Link)
Labels: Iraq
Iranian Elections See Spotty Turnout (AP)
Only a handful of voters showed up at many polling stations in Tehran on Friday in Iran's parliament elections, a sign of frustration with a vote that hard-liners allied with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad are expected to dominate.
Where lines formed in the capital, it was at a few major mosques, where most voters backed pro-Ahmadinejad candidates.
Iran's reformist movement, which seeks democratic changes at home and better ties with the West, was largely sidelined in the race after most of its candidates were barred from running by Iran's clerical leadership.
With reformists crippled, the race is instead a test of Ahmadinejad's support among conservatives, some of whom have been disillusioned with the president since he came to office in 2005. Ahmadinejad could face a challenge from moderate conservatives in presidential elections next year. (Link)
Labels: Iran
Iraq archbishop kidnappers wanted $1 million: police (Reuters)
Kidnappers of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop found dead in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul had demanded a $1 million ransom, a senior police official said on Friday.
Paulos Faraj Rahho, the archbishop of Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, was abducted on February 29 after gunmen attacked his car and killed his driver and two guards.
Rahho's body was found in an empty lot in eastern Mosul on Thursday and is due to buried on Friday. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has blamed al Qaeda for his death.
"Reports reached us that there were talks between the kidnappers and relatives of the kidnapped archbishop ... we heard that a ransom demand reached $1 million," said Brigadier-General Khaled Abdul Sattar, the police spokesman for Nineveh province, of which Mosul is the capital. (Link)
Labels: Iraq
Bush Closer to Bombing Iran (The Progressive)
The odds of Bush bombing Iran have gone up dramatically this week.
There’s just no other way to rationally interpret the resignation of Admiral William Fallon as head of Centcom.
Fallon resigned, and more likely was pushed out, after Esquire published an article on him entitled “The Man Between War and Peace.” It said he was the one standing in the way of Bush bombing Iran.
He’s not standing in the way any longer.
Actually, his rival, General David Petraeus, is now more powerful than ever. And as the Esquire article noted, Petraeus has said: "You cannot win in Iraq solely in Iraq."
Fallon seemed to understand the risk he was taking when he took the job as head of Centcom. He told Esquire: "Career capping? How about career detonating?"
Fallon’s fate as a weathervane for war with Iran has been clear since the time of his confirmation, when he told a source that an attack on Iran “will not happen on my watch.”
His watch just stopped.
He also said, a the time, “There are several of us trying to put the crazies back in the box.” (Link)
Canada extends Afghan mission (Al Jazeera)
Canada's parliament has voted to extend its 2,500-strong troop deployment in volatile southern Afghanistan to 2011, as long as Nato allies back them up.
Lawmakers voted 198 to 77 to keep Canadian battalions in Kandahar for another three years, provided Nato sends 1,000 reinforcements, drones and helicopters to bolster Canada's force now on the ground, as requested.
Otherwise, Canada will withdraw next year at the end of its current mandate.
The outcome of the vote was closely watched by Nato countries, concerned that if Canada rejected an extension of its military mission, an allied exodus of Afghanistan could follow. (Link)
Labels: Afghanistan, NATO
Poll: 50% of Jews don't want Arab neighbors (JPost)
Fifty percent of Jews polled do not want Arabs living in their neighborhoods, even though 69% would welcome a friendship with an Arab. Conversely, 56% of the Arab public supports living in Jewish neighborhoods and 85% would welcome having Jewish friends.
Haifa University professors Faisal Azaiza and Rachel Hertz Lazerovich conducted the survey among 501 Jewish respondents and 513 Arab respondents, which is a representative sample of the adult populations. There was no margin of error given.
In all of the categories polled, the Arabs were much more willing to cohabitate or befriend Jews than vice versa. Fourteen percent of Jews would object to any sort of friendship with Arabs while 17% would be amenable to it, but would prefer befriending another Jew. Among the Arab population, just 6% would object to such a friendship and 10% would prefer making friends with other Arabs. (Link)
Labels: Israel
Egypt Islamists in Hiding Ahead of Vote (AP)
A government crackdown has forced dozens of Muslim Brotherhood members into hiding ahead of local elections in Egypt, where the banned group has become the U.S.-allied country's most powerful opposition force by agitating for Islamic law and democratic reform.
House-to-house searches and dawn ambushes by police this month placed behind bars about 750 prominent Brotherhood members, many of whom were hoping to run as candidates in the April 8 balloting.
The sweep has even drawn the ire of the Bush administration, which, though it did not name the Brotherhood, criticized the crackdown.
The U.S. is "concerned by a continuing campaign of arrests in Egypt of individuals who are opponents of the current governing party and are involved in the upcoming local elections," White House press secretary Dana Perino told reporters Wednesday. (Link)
Labels: Egypt
Al-Qaeda issues hostage ultimatum (Al Jazeera)
Al-Qaeda's arm in North Africa, claiming to have kidnapped two Austrian tourists in Tunisia, has demanded prisoners in Algeria and Tunisia to be freed in exchange for their release.
A statement posted on a website attributed to the group gave Austrian authorities three days to comply, starting midnight on Thursday.
"The state of Austria is responsible for the lives of the two hostages in the event of the expiration of the time-period and not responding to our demands," said the statement, which included six photographs purportedly showing the hostages Wolfgang Ebner and Andrea Kloiber.
The statement's authenticity could not be independently verified although it was posted on a website linked to the group, according to online monitoring agency, SITE. (Link)
Labels: Al Qaeda
Pentagon reviewing interrogations (Al Jazeera)
The US defence department is carrying out a review of its policy on videotaping the interrogation of detainees following controversy over the CIA's destruction of some of its tapes.
Criminal and congressional investigations were started after the CIA admitted it had destroyed tapes of harsh interrogations, including those of al-Qaeda suspects.
"We want to know to what extent that they are using videotaping, when they choose to preserve it, when they choose to destroy it, what are the criteria they use for making those decisions," Geoff Morrell, the Pentagon's press secretary, said on Thursday.
The military says it does not regularly tape interrogations and so far the review has found fewer than 50 tapes.
The tapes are usually destroyed after 90 days, once the military decides they no longer serve any useful purpose, the Pentagon said. (Link)
Petraeus: Iraqi Leaders Not Making 'Sufficient Progress' (Haaretz)
Iraqi leaders have failed to take advantage of a reduction in violence to make adequate progress toward resolving their political differences, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Thursday.
Petraeus, who is preparing to testify to Congress next month on the Iraq war, said in an interview that "no one" in the U.S. and Iraqi governments "feels that there has been sufficient progress by any means in the area of national reconciliation," or in the provision of basic public services.
The general's comments appeared to be his sternest to date on Iraqis' failure to achieve political reconciliation. In February, following the passage of laws on the budget, provincial elections and an amnesty for certain detainees, Petraeus was more encouraging. "The passage of the three laws today showed that the Iraqi leaders are now taking advantage of the opportunity that coalition and Iraqi troopers fought so hard to provide," he said at the time. (Link)
Labels: Iraq
Palestinians Unite in Anger Against Israeli Attack (NY Times)
It was a display of Palestinian unity rarely seen since the militant Islamic group Hamas seized power in Gaza last summer and left the rival pro-Fatah Palestinian Authority struggling to hold on to the West Bank.
Sana Balboul, center, the wife of Ahmed Balboul, who was killed in an Israeli raid, at his funeral on Thursday in Bethlehem.
As thousands of men and women crowded into Manger Square on Thursday to attend prayers and the funerals for four local militants killed by Israeli undercover forces in a raid the day before, a general strike was observed throughout this Muslim-Christian city of 30,000 people.
In the square, youths held flags representing the mainstream Fatah, Hamas, the smaller, more extreme Islamic Jihad and the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The body of one of the victims, a local Islamic Jihad leader, Muhammad Shehada, was draped with the increasingly popular emblem of the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah. (Link)
Yemeni describes CIA secret jails (BBC)
A Yemeni man has described being held for nearly three years in secret CIA prisons, or "black sites", around the world and accused the US of torture.
Khaled al-Maqtari told Amnesty International he was held in isolation for more than 28 months without charge or access to any legal representation.
He said he first became a US "ghost detainee" at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq after being arrested there in 2004.
The US has not acknowledged detaining Mr Maqtari.
US President George W Bush did acknowledge the existence of black sites in 2006.
He said the prisons were a vital tool in the US "war on terror" and insisted that the CIA had treated detainees humanely and had not used torture.
In July 2007, Mr Bush issued an executive order which banned "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of terrorist suspects by the CIA, but not its operation of secret facilities. The agency has since declined to say whether it still uses them. (Link)
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Berri says poll law is last hurdle to end crisis (Daily Star)
Amid a heated debate between pro-government and opposition forces in Lebanon over the shape of the future cabinet, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri argued that the main obstacle to ending the country's protracted political crisis was the disagreement on a new electoral law for the 2009 parliamentary elections.
After multiple dialogue sessions aimed at bridging the gap between the feuding parties in order to facilitate the implementation of the three-point Arab initiative on Lebanon, the contending sides fell short of agreeing on the second and third points of the initiative.
The initiative called for electing Lebanese Armed Forces commander General Michel Suleiman as president, the formation of a national unity government, and the drafting of a new electoral law for the 2009 elections. The opposition and ruling coalition agreed on electing Suleiman, but remained at odds over the shape of the new government and the make-up of the new electoral law. (Link)
Labels: Lebanon
Crackdown on Shiites stirs sectarian tensions in Kuwait (AFP)
A crackdown on leading clerics and politicians from Kuwait's Shiite minority has stoked sectarian tensions in the oil-rich Gulf state, raising questions about its aim and timing, analysts say. Claims that Shiite activists who took part in a controversial rally in February are seeking to topple the regime "amount to a sectarian campaign by the security agencies ... against prominent figures of the Shiite community," a group of leading Shiite clerics said in a statement on Wednesday.
"If you're a Shiite in Kuwait, you have to swear five times a day after each prayer that you hate Iran and love Israel" in order to prove loyalty to the majority Sunni country, Shiite writer Abdulhameed Dashti lamented in the Arabic newspaper An-Nahar.
Some commentators have blamed the regional standoff between the United States and Iran for the crisis which began after a rally by Shiite activists to mourn Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh, who was killed in a Damascus car bombing last month, triggered the arrest of eight prominent activists. (Link)
Labels: Kuwait
Iranian artillery strikes Kurdish villages in Iraq (AFP)
The Iranian military on Thursday subjected three Iraqi border villages to an early-morning barrage of shelling, causing no injuries or damage but scaring residents, an Iraqi official said. The shells were apparently aimed at bases of militant Kurdish rebel group PEJAK, said the mayor of Zarawah, a frontier town in northeastern Iraq. PEJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan) is accused by Tehran of launching deadly attacks on security forces in northwestern Iran. "At 6 a.m. today, Iranian troops fired artillery shells at border villages inside Iraq," the mayor, Azad Wassu, told AFP by telephone. "They used long-range artillery for 30 minutes. Shells fell on three border villages. There were no casualties nor damage but residents were terrified," added Wassu, under whose jurisdiction the villages fall. Zarawah is near the major town of Qalat Dizhan, about 160 kilometers north of the city of Suleimaniyya in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region. Iran in September confirmed for the first time it had fired artillery shells on camps of Kurdish militants inside northern Iraq, saying the local authorities had not listened to its warnings. The shelling, in August, sent hundreds of Iraqi Kurds fleeing remote mountain villages near Iraq's eastern frontier. Pejak is linked to Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). (Link)
Israeli jets hit northern Gaza (Al Jazeera)
Israeli fighter jets have hit targets in the northern Gaza Strip after a dozen rockets were fired towards southern Israel, the Israeli military says.
Thursday's developments effectively ended a tacit truce respected by both sides since March 8, and came a day after the deaths of several Palestinian fighters at the hands of Israeli forces.
However, a senior Hamas official told Al Jazeera that efforts by Egyptian mediators to end the crisis between Israel and the Palestinian group were continuing.
He said they were discussing terms for reopening the Rafah crossing with Hamas and the Palestinian Authority both having a role.
Israel's army radio reported that Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian intelligence chief, was due in Israel next week to try to advance truce efforts. (Link)