Typical White Person

New AG Holder Calls Whites Cowards

2009-02-19T15:13:00.001-08:00

We can't have a conversation about race because of the built-in damage done by the Democrat Party. Imagine trying to converse sincerely with a person who is filled with hate and rage because they realize how deficient they are compared to the person across the table from them.

We say things like, "I'm tired of affirmative action for people who still hate my race", and are told by the pc police that "that isn't being productive".

So where can the conversation go from there? We have sincere feelings about harmony and right behavior, but are constantly told to stifle.

Do you know how hard it is to have a sincere conversation with all of the double standards that stand between us? Blacks have had so many rules bent for them in the American society that the rest of us don't know where to begin.

You see, when white people have a family member that gets pregnant at 14, we have the emotions of shame and regret that dominate our conversations: "How could you have done that, Debbie? We taught you better than that", and so on, so forth.

The sincere emotions that we express with our own kind are seen as racist and intolerant if we were to expect the same to be said to an African American. We have been told for a couple of generations now that our emotions and expectations out of ourselves is "living in a white world", by the leaders of the African American community.

Well, when you tell people like us whites something like that, we're actually embarrassed. We look hard at ourselves and try to correct what came from the black accuser. We don't suddenly get our back up at a person and try to "flip the script" on them. We actually try to self-improve, and avoid that kind of sentiment from coming up again.

So the conversation dies there.

Meanwhile, we try to teach our young the same principles that another segment of our population doesn't take as seriously. Years go by, kids grow up to become the next generation, and the problem continues to grow.

Today, African Americans commit 70% illegitimacy in their community. Whites are at 29% here in America.

It's hard to have a conversation on the weekends when every effort you've made to be good to the African American community is thrown back in your face as "racism".

If we let you go to your own schools for an education, we're told that we're racists because we graduate more people than your schools do.

If we force bussing and desegregation to have your black children next to our white children in school, you call us racists because our white kids do better.

If we dumb down the class curriculum so that your black children can finally keep up academically, you say we're racists because they still fail the SAT exams for college entrance.

If we dumb down the SAT so that you can score better, you say that we're racists because the colleges try to teach us about "dead white men".

If we dumb down the college experience so that you can feel more comfortable, you call us "racists" because there aren't as many scientists, doctors, and engineers who are black.

Whites aren't cowards because we don't seek you out on the weekends. We're simply exhausted with trying to keep up with your latest accusation.

Cold War 21: Russian Civil Rights Lawyer And An Investigative Reporter Accompanying Him Are Murdered In Moscow

2009-01-19T14:01:00.001-08:00

Attorney Stanislav Markelov

MOSCOW – A Russian human rights lawyer renowned for his work on abuses in Chechnya was shot to death Monday by a masked gunman who followed him from a news conference, officials said. A young journalist who tried to intervene also was gunned down.

The broad-daylight shootings of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova prompted grief and outrage in a country where lawyers and journalists who challenge the official version of justice are frequently targeted.

Markelov had fought the early release of a Russian colonel whose killing of a Chechen woman in 2000 put names and faces on the gruesome rights abuses in the war-wracked region. His death Monday angered many Chechens, already upset by the release of last week of the military officer.

Colleagues drew comparisons with the 2006 killing of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya — a client of Markelov's and a fellow enemy of rights abuses in Chechnya and across former President Vladimir Putin's Russia.

"This is a horrible, frightening crime," said Tatyana Lokshina of the Human Rights Watch.

Prominent rights activist Lyudmila Alexeyeva called the shooting "a disgrace for Russia," the Interfax news agency reported.

Markelov, 34, was shot near a building where he had just held a news conference, about half a mile (1 kilometer) from the Kremlin, said Viktoria Tsyplenkova, a spokeswoman for the Investigative Committee of the Moscow prosecutor's office.

Markelov was shot in the back of the head at close range by an attacker who followed him after the news conference, wore a stocking-style mask and had a silencer on his gun — clear signs of a planned killing, state-run RIA-Novosti news agency reported, citing an unidentified law enforcement official. Police also reportedly said there were several witnesses.

Anastasia Baburova, a freelance journalist in her mid-20s who had worked for the newspaper Novaya Gazeta newspaper, was shot when she tried to intervene after Markelov was attacked, said Andrei Lipsky, a deputy editor. Another Novaya Gazeta editor, Sergei Sokolov, later said she died on an operating table.

Markelov, who represented the family of the 18-year-old Chechen woman killed by Col. Yuri Budanov in 2000, had told reporters he was considering filing an international court appeal against Budanov's early release, the RIA-Novosti news agency reported.

The colonel was freed last week with more than a year left in his murder sentence.

Budanov was convicted in 2003 and sentenced to 10 years — including time served — for strangling Heda Kungayeva. He admitted killing her, saying he believed she was a rebel sniper in the Kremlin's war against Chechen insurgents.

Budanov's case was closely watched as a test of authorities' determination to punish rights abuses in Chechnya. But he was held up as a hero by racist nationalist groups, some of whose members held rallies to support him during court hearings.

Kungayeva's father Visa Kungayev, who has taken refuge in Norway with his family, said Markelov told him when they spoke Friday that he had been threatened with death if he refused to drop the case, the Interfax news agency reported.

Budanov's release drew criticism from rights activists and lawyers, who pointed out that inmates convicted of nonviolent crimes but considered Kremlin foes — such as former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky — have been refused early release.

Defense lawyers who represent whistleblowers, Kremlin foes and Russians who claim abuse at the hands of authorities sometimes find themselves targeted, and Politkovskaya is one of more than a dozen journalists killed in Russia since Putin, now prime minister, began his 8-year presidency in 2000.

"Stanislav Markelov is yet another victim — very possibly murdered for his professional and courageous work to defend human rights," Nicola Duckworth, regional program director at Amnesty International, said in a statement.

Markelov had represented Politkovskaya, who wrote extensively about human rights violations in Chechnya. He also had represented activists who have battled abuses the Russia's military and a Chechen woman who was a victim in a 2002 hostage-taking attack on a Moscow theater.

"He was always on the front line," said Alexander Cherkasov of the human rights organization Memorial.

Cherkasov said Markelov was instrumental in another case involving alleged atrocities by the Russian military in Chechnya — the 2005 conviction of a police officer, Sergei Lapin, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison for the torture and "disappearance" of a young Chechen man.

Markelov spent months trying to persuade authorities to prosecute Lapin for allegedly threatening Politkovskaya's life. On April 16, 2004, Markelov was riding home on the Moscow subway when five young men accosted him and beat him unconscious, he told a journalist later that year.

He said one of his attackers shouted "You asked for this!"

When he awoke, his cell phone and papers on the Politkovskaya case were gone, although his wallet and cash were untouched. When he tried to report the attack, he said, police accused him of faking his injuries.

A Chechen parliament deputy, Isa Khadzhimuratov, said Monday he believes Markelov's killing was likely connected to the Budanov case. "Like a real patriot, Markelov decided to restore justice and protect the interests of his clients," Khadzhimuratov said.

One of Markelov's last clients was Mokhamadsalakh Masayev, who alleged in 2006 he was held in a secret prison in Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov's home village and subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment. Masayev was abducted in Chechnya in August; his whereabouts remain unknown.

"For victims of human rights abuses in Chechnya he was a hero," Lokshina said.

Markelov also represented the victims of a 2004 police sweep in the Ural Mountains city of Blagoveshchensk, where hundreds of residents were beaten by police. He has defended anti-fascist movements and has been threatened by nationalist groups as a result, according to Russian media and activists.

Since the late 1990s, the Federal Security Service often has tried to question Markelov as a witness to prevent him from participating in trials as a lawyer, Cherkasov said.

"When one needed a bold journalist, one called Politkovskaya, when one needed a bold lawyer, one called Markelov," said Kremlin critic and rights activist Lev Ponomaryov. (source)

ISLAMOFILE 011809: al Qaeda Camp In Africa Mishandles Plague Bacteria Meant To Deploy Against US and UK People

2009-01-19T01:38:00.001-08:00

Plague bacteria.

At least 40 al-Qaeda fanatics died horribly after being struck down with the disease that devastated Europe in the Middle Ages.

The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside.

The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East.

It trains Muslim fighters to kill British and US troops.

Now al-Qaeda chiefs fear the plague has been passed to other terror cells — or Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

One security source said: “This is the deadliest weapon yet in the war against terror. Most of the terrorists do not have the basic medical supplies needed to treat the disease.

“It spreads quickly and kills within hours. This will be really worrying al-Qaeda.”

Black Death comes in various forms.

Bubonic Plague is spread by bites from infected rat fleas. Symptoms include boils in the groin, neck and armpits. In Pneumonic Plague, airborn bacteria spread like flu.

It can be in the body for more than a week — highly contagious but not revealing tell-tale symptoms.

The al-Qaeda epidemic began in the cave hideouts of AQLIM in Tizi Ouzou province, 150km east of the capital Algiers. The group, led by wanted terror boss Abdelmalek Droudkal, was forced to turn its shelters in the Yakouren forest into mass graves and flee.

The extremists supporting madman Osama bin Laden went to Bejaia and Jijel provinces —hoping the plague did not go with them.

A source said: “The emirs (leaders) fear surviving terrorists will surrender to escape a horrible death.”

AQLIM boss Droudkal claims to command around 1,000 insurgents. Training camps are also based in Morocco, Tunisia and Nigeria.

AQLIM bombed the UN headquarters in Algiers in 2007, killing 41. Attacks across Algeria last year killed at least 70 people.

In an interview last July, Droudkal boasted his cell was in constant contact with other al-Qaeda “brothers”. (source)

Cold War 21: Putin Warns Us On The Eve Of Obama's Innauguration: Curb Your Enthusiasm

2009-01-18T14:12:00.001-08:00

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on Saturday he had noted "positive signals" about US president-elect Barack Obama but cautioned against "big expectations."
"We have watched an election campaign with great attention and we have heard and seen the positive signals which have been directed at us," Putin told German newspaper editors and journalists in Dresden, Germany.

He singled out Obama's stance on the US missile defence plan in Europe and US apparent readiness to wait on a NATO membership for countries like Georgia and Ukraine, which Russia considers its sphere of influence.

"We have heard and are fully in agreement that we have a lot in common when it comes to the solution of problems related to limiting the arms race," he said.

"We have a lot of common problems that we can really only jointly solve. The same goes for the problems in the Middle East, with Iran, the problems of non-proliferation in general."

But he also warned of the danger of raising expectations too high.

"I am deeply convinced that the biggest disappointments are born out of big expectations," he added.

He refrained from making any promises or predictions, saying Russia would be waiting for the pledges Obama had made during his campaign to be be realized.

"One needs to see what will happen in practice," Putin said. "We will see when we get there," he said. (source)

Gaza Unrest Draws To A Close

2009-01-18T11:24:00.001-08:00

An Israeli soldier covers his ears as a mobile artillery unit fires a shell towards Gaza in the early morning near the Gaza border during Israels offensive January 17 2009.

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel called off its three-week offensive in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, saying Hamas was "badly beaten," but the Islamist group vowed to fight on in a war that has killed 1,200 Palestinians in the coastal enclave.

Within minutes of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announcing that a unilateral ceasefire would start three hours later at 2 a.m. (0000 GMT) on Sunday, several missiles struck southern Israel.

An ultra-Orthodox Jew stands near the site where a rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Gaza landed in the port city of Ashdod January 16, 2009.

"Conditions have been created whereby the goals set at the launch of the operation have been more than fully achieved," Olmert said in a televised address from army headquarters.

He said Hamas's ability to fire rockets at southern Israeli towns also had been severely limited.

Olmert also cited what he described as internationally-backed understandings with Egypt, the Gaza Strip's southern neighbor, on preventing Hamas, which has smuggled in rockets through tunnels under the border, from rearming.

After 22 days of war that has killed hundreds of civilians, many of Gaza's 1.5 million people are desperate for a respite.

But Hamas officials said that until Israeli forces withdrew from the territory and agreed to end a long blockade that has crippled Gaza's economy, they would not hold their fire.

"A unilateral ceasefire does not mean ending the aggression and ending the siege," spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said. "These constitute acts of war so this won't mean an end to resistance."

But Olmert said the troops would remain in place and hit back if the Palestinians tried to fight on: "If our enemies decide the blows they've been dealt are not sufficient and they are interested in continuing the fight, Israel will be prepared for such and feel free to continue to react with force."

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hailed the ceasefire but also urged Israel to pull out its forces from Gaza rapidly.

EGYPTIAN DIPLOMACY

Olmert said the ceasefire plan responded to an appeal from Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who has been at the spearhead of international diplomatic efforts to end the conflict.

But Olmert, who will be stepping down soon after a February 10 election, Israel chose to shun a negotiated accord with Hamas and to simply hold its fire, denying the Islamists, who are committed to the destruction of the Jewish state, the deal they sought on easing Israel's punitive blockade on the territory.

Hamas's Barhoum called it "an attempt to pre-empt the Egyptian efforts ... that seek to achieve a withdrawal of the occupying forces, an end to the siege and a ceasefire."

Olmert indicated he expected an end to combat: "The campaign has proven Israel's power and strengthened its deterrence."

He also said he would work with Mubarak to tighten security on Gaza's Egyptian border -- a key goal of Israel which wants to prevent Hamas rearming through smuggling tunnels.

Despite the lack of any clear deal at this stage, Mubarak invited a pack of European leaders to a short-notice summit on Sunday that is meant to come up with ways to bolster the truce in Gaza and to ease the plight of the civilian population crammed into the 45-km (28-mile) sliver of coast. (source)

Islamofile 011409: Gaza Response Continues--Iranian Ship Destined To Hamas Is Discovered By IDF

2009-01-15T01:14:00.000-08:00

Fires erupt as the Israeli military response to Hamas' attack is seen against the Gaza City skyline.

The Navy is closely tracking an Iranian ship that has attempted several times to breach the naval blockade imposed on Gaza and transport humanitarian aid to the Palestinians.

On Tuesday, the boat docked in Port Said, Egypt, but the Egyptians refused to allow it to unload its cargo and at midnight Wednesday the boat tried sailing into Gaza.

A Navy Sa'ar 4.5-class missile ship intercepted the Iranian boat and transmitted a clear message on Channel 16 - the international communication line for ships - that it would not allow the boat to dock in Gaza.

On Wednesday morning, when it was 30 miles off the Gaza coast, the Iranian boat again tried to move toward the Strip, and the Navy again intercepted it. It then returned to el-Arish, Egypt, and two Egyptian boats prevented it from docking there.

Since that time, the boat has been sitting 30 miles off the coast of Gaza and is being closely tracked by the Israeli navy. Israel and the Egyptians have been coordinating all activity regarding the Iranian boat.

The head of the humanitarian aid group sponsoring the ship, Ahmad Navabi, said in comments aired on Iranian television Wednesday that the Israeli navy approached the cargo ship, Shahed, about 20 miles off the coast of Gaza at dawn Wednesday, and ordered it to turn back.

An Israeli warship approached our cargo ship and warned us not to approach Gaza. We could see the lights at Gaza coast. We were forced to change route toward an Egyptian port," Navabi said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that Iran had stepped up diplomatic efforts to push for an end to the Israeli assault on Gaza, state television reported.

"In the short term, the most important measures are to end (the Israeli) assault on Gaza, end the Gaza blockade and recognize the rights of the Gaza people," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying.

This is the first Iranian boat to try to reach Gaza during the blockade. On December 30, a boat carrying activists and medical supplies to Gaza was turned back after an altercation with the Israeli navy. Israeli officials said the boat tried to outmaneuver an Israeli navy ship and crashed into it, lightly damaging both vessels. (source)

Gaza Response Continues

2009-01-10T10:36:00.000-08:00

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israeli forces pounded rocket-launching sites and smuggling tunnels in Gaza Saturday and planes dropped leaflets warning of an escalation in attacks, as Palestinian militants fired at least 10 more rockets at Israel.

Egypt hosted talks aimed at ending the violence.

Flames and smoke rose over Gaza City amid the heavy fighting. The Israeli threat to launch a "new phase" in its two-week-old offensive that has already killed more than 800 Palestinians came in defiance of international calls for a cease-fire.

"The IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) will escalate the operation in the Gaza Strip," the leaflets said in Arabic. "The IDF is not working against the people of Gaza but against Hamas and the terrorists only. Stay safe by following our orders."

The leaflets urged Gaza residents not to help Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, and to stay away from its members.

Israel launched the offensive on Dec. 27 to halt years of Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel. A week later, ground troops moved in.

The dropping of the leaflets appeared to be partly a psychological tactic. Israeli defense officials say they are prepared for a third stage of the offensive, in which ground troops would push much further into Gaza, but are still waiting for approval from the government.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were discussing classified information, said the army also has a fourth stage planned that calls for a full reoccupation of Gaza and toppling of Hamas.

The Israeli military said more than 15 militants were killed in overnight fighting. It said aircraft attacked more than 40 targets including 10 rocket-launching sites, weapons-storage facilities, smuggling tunnels, an anti-aircraft missile launcher and gunmen.

In the day's bloodiest incident, an Israeli tank shell killed nine people in a garden outside a home in the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya. Separately, a woman was killed by tank fire in the nearby town of Beit Lahiya.

Israel has come under international criticism for the rising number of civilian casualties. Paramedics said the nine people killed in the garden were from the same clan and included two children and two women.

"Residents brought them to the hospital in a civilian car. They put them all in the trunk because their bodies were mangled," said hospital administrator Adham Hakim.

The Israeli army had no immediate comment, but has repeatedly accused Hamas of using civilians as human shields and launching attacks from schools, mosques and homes. Earlier this week, an Israeli attack outside a U.N. school killed nearly 40 people. Both Israel and Palestinian witnesses said militants carried out an attack from the area moments earlier.

Palestinian medical officials say roughly half of the more than 800 Palestinians who have been killed were civilians. Thirteen Israelis have been killed. Five soldiers were lightly wounded in Saturday's fighting.

Israel and Hamas ignored a U.N. resolution passed Thursday calling for an immediate and durable cease-fire that would lead to the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza.

Israel has dismissed the Security Council resolution as impractical, while Hamas, whose government in Gaza is not recognized internationally, is angry it was not consulted in the diplomatic efforts.

In Cairo, Egypt, the Palestinian Authority president urged both Israel and Hamas to agree to an Egypt-brokered truce Saturday.

After meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Mahmoud Abbas stressed that there was no time to waste in ending the bloodshed in Gaza, home to 1.4 million people.

"If any party does not accept it (the truce), regrettably it will be the one bearing the responsibility, and if Israel doesn't want to accept, it will take the responsibility of perpetuating a waterfall of blood," Abbas said.

Hamas officials from both Gaza and Syria are also in Cairo for separate talks with Egyptian officials on a truce. Israeli officials visited Cairo earlier this week.

Hamas and Abbas's Fatah party, which dominates the West Bank, are fierce political rivals, but the president still claims authority over Gaza. Hamas violently took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007.

Palestinian security officials said some of the heaviest fighting Saturday occurred on the strategic coastal road north of Gaza City, home to 400,000 Palestinians. Israeli forces moved to within about 1 mile of the city before pulling back slightly.

While Israel has largely taken control of the road, militants operate from hidden positions in the area. The road is often used to fire rockets into Israel or attack Israeli navy boats off the Mediterranean coast.

At least 10 rockets landed in Israel on Saturday, the army said. One rocket hit an apartment building in the southern city of Ashkelon, lightly wounding two people and causing extensive damage to the structure.

The offensive has caused extensive damage throughout Gaza. The United Nations estimates two-thirds of Gaza's 1.4 million people are without electricity, and half don't have running water.

The Israeli military announced a three-hour halt to operations in Gaza on Saturday to let besieged residents leave their homes and stock up supplies. Medics use the lull to rescue casualties, and aid groups also rush through food distribution.

But for the second straight day, there were reports of continued fighting during the lulls.

Israel has called for the 3-hour breaks in fighting for the past four days. But aid groups say it isn't enough time to do their work.

Salam Kanaan of Save the Children said that in previous lulls, the agency distributed food to 9,500 people - far short of the 150,000 people it serves.

U.N. official Adnan Abu Hasna said the Palestinian refugee agency would distribute aid to about 40,000 people, half of them holed up in U.N. schools that have been transformed into shelters.

All deliveries were coming from supplies already in Gaza. U.N. officials said a halt on aid shipments into Gaza through Israeli-controlled border crossings remained in effect. The ban was imposed Thursday after a U.N. truck driver was shot and killed by Israel. It was unclear when the deliveries will resume.

"As each day goes by, and for each moment that the cease-fire demanded by the Security Council is not observed, the crisis continues," said U.N. spokesman Chris Gunness.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert by phone on Friday and told the prime minister that he was disappointed the violence was continuing in disregard of the resolution, according to Ban's office.

Israel says any cease-fire must include assurances that Hamas will halt attacks and end the smuggling of weapons into Gaza through the porous Egyptian border.

Hamas has said it won't accept any cease-fire deal that does not include the full opening of Gaza's border crossings. The U.N. resolution emphasized the need to open all crossings, which Israel and Egypt have kept sealed since Hamas militants forcibly seized control of the territory 18 months ago.

Israeli leaders oppose that step because it would allow Hamas to strengthen its hold on Gaza. (source)

ISLAMOFILE 010409: Iranian Commander Wants To Cut Off Oil To Israeli Supporters

2009-01-04T23:02:00.000-08:00

TEHRAN, Jan 4 (Reuters) - An Iranian military commander called on Islamic countries to cut oil exports to Israel's supporters in response to the Jewish state's offensive in Gaza, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.

IRNA said commander Bagherzadeh described oil as "one of the powerful elements of pressure" on the Jewish state's Western backers in the "unequal war" faced by Palestinians in the coastal strip.

"Pointing at Westerners' dependence on the Islamic countries' oil and energy resources, he (Bagherzadeh) called for cutting the export of crude oil to the Zionist regime's supporters the world over," IRNA said, referring to Israel.

IRNA gave only the commander's last name but it may have been referring to Mirfeysal Bagherzadeh, a brigadier-general of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards. There was no immediate comment from other Iranian officials.

Iran, which often rails against the United States and Israel, is the world's fourth-largest oil producer and a leading member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Top exporter Saudi Arabia is a U.S. ally.

Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants battled in Gaza on Sunday after Israeli troops and tanks invaded the coastal enclave in the most serious fighting in the conflict in decades.

Israel's attacks on Gaza have sparked repeated protests in Iran, an Islamic state which does not recognise Israel.

In 1973, Arab countries directed an oil embargo at Israel's supporters in the Arab-Israeli war, causing the first oil shock. Primarily the United States but also Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal and South Africa were affected. The price of oil quadrupled to almost $12 a barrel and inflation infected the economies of other industrialised countries.

Crude is now trading at about $46 after plunging by some $100 since July on the global financial crisis and a weakening world economy.

IRNA, which did not provide direct supporting quotes, said Bagherzadeh was speaking about the measures Islamic countries could take in response to Israel's attacks on Gaza.

"Among the tactics the world of Islam can use to help the innocent Palestinian people, Bagherzadeh called oil one of the powerful elements of pressure on the Zionists' European and American supporters in the unequal war," IRNA said.

Bagherzadeh is the director of Iran's Foundation for the Preservation of Works and Publications of Sacred Defence Values, IRNA said.

Iran is embroiled in a row with the West over its nuclear programme and has in the past threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic transport route for global oil supplies, if it is attacked by the United States or Israel. (source)

Cold War 21: The Ukrainian Campaign: Medvedev Accuses Ukraine Of Stealing Gas

2009-01-03T16:46:00.000-08:00

Russia has accused Ukraine of stealing gas amid growing fears that Britain and the rest of Europe could be left in the cold.

Coming a day after Moscow cut off all gas supplies to its neighbour, the latest blow in the bitter stand-off between the ex-Soviet countries further raised the possibility of price hikes and shortages in the UK.

Russia’s monopoly Gazprom claimed Ukraine was siphoning off gas meant for other European countries.

The accusation suggested the Kremlin was in no mood for a compromise, in a re-run of the 2006 dispute that led to supply shortages across the EU.

Last night, Ukraine’s state gas company Naftogaz insisted it was not interfering with Russian gas transported through its pipelines, saying it was only diverting a small amount to maintain pressure.

But Russia refused to back down and said it was increasing exports via alternative routes, including Belarus.

‘The Ukrainian side openly admits it is stealing gas and is not ashamed of this,’ said Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov.

Britain has not yet felt any disruption to supplies since Russia’s breakdown in price talks with Ukraine led to the cut-off on Thursday.

But every day the row goes on, it raises the spectre of shortages in Britain, which began the new year shivering in sub-zero temperatures

Blaming Gordon Brown for leaving the country vulnerable to brinkmanship and power plays by foreign governments, the Conservatives have warned that the UK has only enough gas in storage to keep the country running for 15 days.

In comparison, France could last 122 days, they said.

Tory energy spokesman Greg Clark said: ' As a result of ten years of government inaction, Britain is one of the most vulnerable countries in Europe to turbulence in gas supply.'

Russia supplies around a quarter of all the gas used in Europe and about 90% of it usually flows through pipelines across Ukraine.

Although Russia maintains the cut-off will not disrupt shipments to Europe, energy experts have warned that any pipeline problems in Ukraine could have the same serious knock-on effects that hit gas supplies two years ago.

Since then, many European governments have been reducing their dependence on Russian gas.

But Britain’s reliance has quadrupled, with Gazprom providing 16% of our gas in 2007.
The EU is refusing to step in unless supplies start to suffer and has restricted its involvement to a strongly worded warning to the warring neighbours not to jeopardise supplies to European customers.

The row, however, raises new doubts about Moscow's reliability as an energy supplier and fuels suspicion in the West - already running high since Russia's war with Georgia last August - that the Kremlin bullies its pro-Western neighbours.

Russia denies politics are behind the dispute and says it is about prices and debts, but Moscow and Kiev have clashed over a drive by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to take his country into the NATO alliance.

If talks do resume between Naftogaz and Gazprom, the gulf between their negotiating positions is wide.

Alexei Miller, CEO of Gazprom, said he wanted Ukraine to pay $418 per 1,000 cubic metres (tcm) of gas, compared with the $179.5 Kiev paid in 2008. Ukraine says the most it can afford to pay is $235.

Gazprom charges about $500/tcm to customers in the EU, though that is likely to fall by up to half this year. Gas prices track oil and crude has plummeted in value.

Naftogaz said it guaranteed uninterrupted supplies of Russian gas to Europe and that it was drawing the fuel from underground stockpiles to meet its own needs.

Temperatures in Kiev yesterday were about 8 degrees Celsius below zero. (source)

Cold War 21: The Ukrainian Campaign: Gas Shut-Off

2009-01-03T16:38:00.000-08:00

MOSCOW/KIEV, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Russia was preparing to turn off gas deliveries to neighbouring Ukraine on Thursday, raising the spectre of disruptions to European Union supplies.

European states are anxious to avoid a repeat of what happened in January 2006 when, during a similar row, Moscow cut off supplies to Ukraine, causing a brief fall in gas supplies passing through Ukraine on the way to the rest of Europe.

Moscow says it will honour its contracts to supply European customers with gas, and these have enough reserves to manage without Russian supplies for days, but not weeks.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko also gave assurances to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso that there would be no disruptions to supplies to the EU, the European Commission said in a brief statement.

Pipelines that cross Ukraine carry about one-fifth of the EU's gas needs. A new cut-off could tarnish Russia's reputation as a reliable energy supplier and further undermine Ukraine's crisis-battered economy.

Alexei Miller, head of Russian gas giant Gazprom (GAZP.MM), said talks with Ukrainian officials had failed to settle a dispute over $2 billion in unpaid gas bills and the price at which Ukraine will buy Russian gas next year.

"From 10 a.m. (0700 GMT) on Jan. 1, Gazprom will completely, 100 percent, cease gas supplies to consumers in Ukraine," Miller told a news conference at the company's headquarters in Moscow late on Wednesday.

Miller, a close ally of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, said Ukraine should take full responsibility for causing the crisis.

Russia says the cut-off does not apply to shipments to Europe, but there could be a knock-on effect if it causes a drop in pressure in the transit pipelines or if Kiev halts flows to Europe to use them as a bargaining chip.

Germany's E.ON (EONGn.DE) and BASF (BASF.DE) and Italy's ENI (ENI.MI) are among the biggest customers for Russian gas.

However, EU states are less vulnerable to supply disruptions than they were three years ago.

Economic recession and a mild start to winter have reduced demand and left enough heating fuel in Western European storage sites to last a few days without much Russian gas, though analysts say a cut of more than a week would cause problems.

"Consumers (in Germany) need not worry," a spokesman for Germany's BDEW energy and water association was quoted as saying in Der Spiegel's online edition. "The tanks are quite full."

Countries in eastern and central Europe are likely to feel any disruption first because they are closer to the potential bottleneck in Ukraine.

Russia's 2006 dispute with Ukraine prompted calls for the EU to reduce reliance on Russian gas, but Gazprom forecasts that the EU will come to rely on Russia for as much as one-third of its gas by 2015, up from about a quarter now.

The reliability of energy supplies from Russia will top the agenda of EU ministers meeting in the Czech Republic next week.

Putin called Barroso on Wednesday, before the talks broke down, to explain possible consequences of the row for the 27-nation EU, Barroso's office said.

CUT-OFF LOOMS

Russia says the row is purely commercial, but it has in the past been accused of using energy to blackmail its neighbours. It has been fiercely critical of the drive by Ukraine's pro-Western leaders to join NATO.

Putin launched a scathing attack on Ukraine on Wednesday.

He said its leaders had snubbed an offer to buy gas in 2009 at a below-market price of $250 per 1,000 cubic metres, he alleged they would block Russian gas supplies to Europe, and said they had brought Ukraine to the verge of economic collapse.

"The situation in Ukraine is aggravated by the fact that a fight between different clans is having a negative impact on the economy," Putin said at a televised meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev.

That appeared to be a reference to the bitter rivalry between Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko and Tymoshenko.

Some Western analysts say Moscow may be trying to undermine Yushchenko's presidency in favour of Tymoshenko, who it sees as a less awkward partner. Kremlin officials say there is no reason why Russia should subsidise Ukraine with cheap gas.

Both Moscow and Kiev have much at stake. Ukraine's hryvnia currency suffered steep falls last month despite a loan from the International Monetary Fund, and the row with Russia could further hurt investor confidence.

Russia -- already viewed with suspicion in the West after its war with Georgia in August -- has also been hit hard by the global crisis and does not want to forfeit its lucrative position as Europe's biggest gas supplier.

Cold War 21: Russia Warns Of Tough Times Ahead

2009-01-03T16:34:00.000-08:00

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in his New Year address praised Russians for weathering last year's economic hardships, urging them to take heart as hard times are unlikely to be over.
"This year our country went through dramatic trials, but overcame them with confidence and dignity thanks to you, its people. I am convinced that whatever hardships lie ahead, we will be able to weather them," Medvedev said.

"Numbers on the calendar may change, but love, friendship, loyalty, compassion and mercy remain our support for all time, and give us strength not only to overcome difficulties, but to rise to new heights," the Russian leader said.

The global economic crisis threatened Russia's newly-found prosperity, as the surging stock market suffered losses of at least one trillion dollars and the ruble plunged to a three year low against the dollar, with the interior ministry warning of possible social unrest.

Russia's war with Georgia in August over the breakaway region of South Ossetia saw Moscow's relations with the West plunge to a low unseen since the days of Communist rule. (source)

Christmas In Israel, Dec 25, 2008

2009-01-03T16:12:00.000-08:00

A Palestinian man inspects the damage where a rocket fired by Palestinian militants intended for a target in Israel accidentally hit a building in Gaza City, Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2008. Palestinian Iyad Dremly, who works for the Palestinian Center for Conflict Resolution, was injured in the explosion, Palestinian sources said.

JERUSALEM – Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip bombarded southern Israel with dozens of mortars and rockets on Wednesday, sowing panic and despair there and burdening diplomatic efforts to revive an expired truce.

No Israelis were injured in the barrages. The attacks took a steeper toll in Gaza as explosives apparently misfired, wounding three civilians and killing two militants. One of the injured civilians works for a conflict resolution center.

Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules Gaza, said the bombardment came in retaliation for the deaths of three fighters in a clash with Israeli troops late Tuesday. Israel said the militants were planting explosives along the Gaza border fence.

About 60 rockets and mortars pelted southern Israel by midafternoon Wednesday, the military said. No injuries were reported, but a factory, a home and other structures were damaged. Rockets reached as far as Beit Hagdi, a small community about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Gaza City, the military said.

"We heard the alarm and the whistling as it approached, and then we heard a big explosion," said Benny Gueta, whose windows were shattered by a projectile in Ashkelon, 17 kilometers (11 miles) from the Gaza border.

"We can't live this way," Gueta told Israel Radio.

A rocket slammed directly into a house in the small community of Tkuma seconds after a father rushed his children from the living room into a bomb shelter.

The living room wall had a gaping hole and was sprayed with shrapnel. Toys lay covered in rubble and dust. A crib was pocked by shrapnel and filled with pieces of concrete.

In Gaza, meanwhile, health officials said Iyad Dremly, a Palestinian attorney who works for the Palestinian Center for Conflict Resolution, was badly wounded in an explosion that ripped through his two-story apartment building in Gaza City.

Militants were firing rockets and mortars from the area, but the military said it did not carry out any attacks on Gaza, suggesting the blast was caused by misfired explosives.

Two other civilians were hurt when a rocket landed on another house several miles to the north in Beit Lahiya, the health officials reported. Before dawn, two militants were killed in southern Gaza by an explosive they were preparing, Hamas reported.

Before the violence escalated, Israel had agreed to open cargo crossings with Gaza on Wednesday to allow in a limited amount of food, medicines and fuel, including supplies from Egypt. But military spokesman Peter Lerner said the passages would remain closed in light of the militant barrages.

Israel has maintained a strict blockade of Gaza since the June 19 cease-fire began unraveling six weeks ago, allowing in only small quantities of essential goods. Egypt has also sealed its border crossing with the territory, which is Gaza's main gateway to the outside world.

The sanctions have deepened the destitution in Gaza, home to 1.4 million Palestinians who are confined to their tiny coastal strip. Gazans have worked around the blockade by bringing in goods through tunnels dug under the Gaza-Egypt border.

Amid the violence, both sides have expressed willingness to consider reviving the truce that lapsed on Friday. Egypt, which mediated the original cease-fire, is leading the diplomatic push to renew it, and on Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called Wednesday's violence "unfortunate and difficult" and encouraged a renewal of the truce.

"Our people are facing attacks and blockade, we are making all efforts for a full truce and for the security situation to calm down," he said.

Alongside talk of restoring the truce, Israel is preparing for a large-scale military campaign against Gaza militants.

Israeli leaders have approved such an operation, but are reluctant to press ahead with a campaign likely to exact heavy casualties on both sides. Past incursions have not halted the barrages, and defense and political officials fear anything short of a reoccupation of Gaza would fail to achieve the desired results.

Israel left Gaza in 2005 after a 38-year occupation, though it still controls its border crossings.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said Israeli patience was running thin: "Our position is clear, quiet will be met with quiet but attacks against our civilians will be met by Israeli action to defend our people." (source)

Christmas In Israel, Dec 24, 2008

2009-01-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) - Thousands of Christian pilgrims gathered in Bethlehem's Manger Square on Wednesday to celebrate Christmas under the protection of security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

About 500 security men arrived from the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Jericho to provide security for the holiday. Similar deployments have taken place across the West Bank over the past year with U.S. backing.

"We expect about 40,000 visitors in Bethlehem this week," said Khouloud Daibes-Abu Dayyeh, the Palestinian Authority's minister of tourism.

The estimate includes Christians from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Israel and the rest of the world. About 900 from Gaza applied for Israeli permission to go to the site where Christians believe Jesus was born, but only 300 got it.

"It's better to spend Christmas in Bethlehem because we are close to the church. It's important to visit where Jesus was born," said 58-year-old Italian tourist Messimo Silzestri beneath a giant Christmas tree and decorations in Manger Square.

While Gaza teeters on the brink of a major crisis following the end of a six-month truce between Israel and Hamas Islamists in control of the strip, a decline in violence in the West Bank has tempted back tourists who no longer fear gunbattles in the streets.

Israel attributes this partly to the barrier it is building in and around the occupied West Bank. For Bethlehem, the barrier takes the form of a daunting concrete wall 4 meters (13 feet) high with watchtowers.

MUCH-NEEDED REVENUE

Tourism collapsed here when a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation began in 2000. But this Christmas, the Palestinian tourism minister says, hotel occupancy is rising.

"The increase in security and easier movement means we have our largest numbers, and we are making great efforts to restore tourist activity," she told Reuters in Ramallah.

"The numbers themselves are not as important as the length of stay," she added. The direct contribution of tourism to the Palestinian economy is reckoned at about $480 million a year.

Palestinians say the Israeli barrier is a major obstacle to peace that cripples trade and turns off foreign tourists.

Many visitors see the wall between Jerusalem and Bethlehem as an ugly scar defiling a Christian holy site.

"Going to the checkpoint and the barrier is really crazy. But being here, it is totally worth it," said 20-year-old Emma Serienni who was on her first visit from the United States.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert Tuesday said the Jewish state must press on with plans to complete the barrier around key parts of Jerusalem, which could be divided in a future deal to create a Palestinian state.

There is little prospect of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by the time Pope Benedict visits Bethlehem in mid-May 2009. (source)

Chavez To Venezuelans: No Mall, Bad Shoppers! 12.22.08

2009-01-03T15:35:00.001-08:00

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) -- President Hugo Chavez ordered construction halted on a major shopping mall in Caracas on Sunday, saying the government will expropriate the unfinished building.

The Venezuelan leader said it would be out of line with his government's socialist vision to allow the new Sambil mall to take up precious urban real estate -- and that unbridled consumerism isn't his idea of progress either.

Chavez said the mall, scheduled to open in La Candelaria district in downtown Caracas next year, would severely clog an area that already is so crowded "not a soul fits."

The hulking concrete and brick structure takes up an entire city block and according to the Sambil Web site was to include 273 shops.

"We're going to expropriate that and turn it into a hospital -- I don't know -- a school, a university," Chavez said to applause during his Sunday television and radio program, "Hello, President."

Constructora Sambil, the company building the mall, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It operates Sambil malls in cities across Venezuela, including another vast shopping center in Caracas.

"How are we going to create socialism turning over vital public spaces to Sambil?" said Chavez, who has nationalized Venezuela's largest phone company, electric utilities and oil fields.

The president also has urged Venezuelans to shed their materialism and their taste for designer clothes, sport utility vehicles, Scotch whisky and plastic surgery.

Chavez often urges Venezuelans to rethink their values, and the timing of his announcement appeared to be no accident -- just as Christmas shoppers packed malls elsewhere in Caracas.

He didn't preach against the buying frenzy in general, but did say at another point in his speech that "Christ was a socialist."

Consumerism has flourished in Venezuela in recent years, with the economy awash with cash and windfall oil earnings rolling in. Malls are often packed, and new shopping centers have been sprouting up quickly.

The president did not say how much the government might pay the mall's owners in compensation. (source)

COLD WAR 21: Russia Sends Warships To Cuba 12.15.08

2009-01-03T13:28:00.000-08:00

Russia said on Monday it was sending a group of warships to Soviet-era ally Cuba in its latest defiant naval move around US waters, part of a drive to revive old Cold War ties with Latin America.

The warships will visit Havana on December 19-23, the navy said, continuing a tour that has already taken in US foes Venezuela and Nicaragua and seen the ships pass through the Panama Canal for the first time since World War II.

"This will be the first visit to Cuba by Russian warships since the Soviet era," the Russian naval headquarters said in a statement.

The destroyer Admiral Chabanenko and two other ships already held exercises with Venezuela's navy in the Caribbean Sea last month.

The naval manoeuvres close to US waters are seen as a riposte to Washington's own moves in Russia's Soviet-era sphere of influence, including in the Black Sea.

US officials have said they see no military threat from Russia's naval manoeuvres but continue to keep a close eye on the situation.

The naval visit to Cuba, scene of a dramatic 1962 stand-off between Moscow and Washington over nuclear missiles, comes as tensions over US missile defence plans in eastern Europe have prompted talk of a renewed Cold War among some analysts.

Last month Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made a tour of Latin America where he visited Cuba and Venezuela and met former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, part of efforts to revive what he called "privileged relations" from Soviet times.

Last week he also received Argentinian President Cristina Kirchner, another Latin American critic of the United States.

Nicaragua's leftist President Daniel Ortega is to visit Moscow on Thursday, after he risked Washington's wrath this summer by following Russia in recognizing two Moscow-backed rebel regions of Georgia as independent.

The Russian moves in Central and Latin America follow heightened tensions over Russia's military onslaught in Georgia, a close US ally.

Russia strongly objected to US naval deployments off Georgia's Black Sea coast, accusing the United States of covertly rearming Georgia, a charge Washington denied.

On Monday the Russian navy avoided direct reference to the United States, saying that visits to Nicaragua, Panama and Venezuela signified "long-term prospects for developing cooperation among these countries' navies in the interest of building stability and trust on the world's oceans."

During the Cuba visit, residents will be welcomed aboard the Russian ships and Russian officers will lay flowers at a memorial to Cuban campaigner for independence and critic of US expansionism Jose Marti, the navy said.

Last week the navy said it was sending ships from its Pacific Fleet to join ships from the Northern Fleet for exercises with India's navy and in parallel would continue anti-piracy operations off Somalia.

Despite the growing Russian assertiveness, defence experts have said Russia's navy remains severely weakened following years of post-Soviet neglect.

That impression was reinforced by the inadvertent fatal poisoning last month of 20 people aboard a Russian nuclear-powered submarine that was undergoing tests off the Pacific coast. (source)

12.07.08 Greece Erupts

2009-01-03T13:11:00.001-08:00

ATHENS, Greece (AP) - The fatal police shooting of a teenager has set off Greece's worst rioting in years, with hooded youths rampaging through Athens and the northern city of Thessaloniki over the weekend.

Gangs smashed stores, torched cars and erected burning barricades in the streets of the Greek capital and the country's second largest city in a dramatic eruption of a long-tolerated self-styled anarchist movement.

Rioting began in several cities within hours of the death of a 15-year-old who was shot Saturday night in Exarchia, a downtown Athens district of bars, music clubs and restaurants that is seen as the anarchists' home base. Soon dozens of stores, banks and cars were ablaze. Police said 24 policemen were injured, and one remained in hospital on Sunday morning.

The violence was the most severe since rioting in 1999 during a visit to Greece of then U.S. President Bill Clinton. The last time a teenager was killed in a police shooting - during a demonstration in 1985 - it sparked weeks of frequent rioting.

The circumstances surrounding Saturday's shooting were unclear, and Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos has promised a thorough investigation and the punishment of anyone found responsible.

"It is inconceivable for there not to be punishment when a person loses their life, particularly when it is a child," he said. "The taking of life is something that is not excusable in a democracy."

Police said the two officers involved claimed they were attacked by a group of youths, and that three gunshots and a stun grenade were fired in response.

The two officers have been suspended, arrested and charged, one with premeditated manslaughter and the illegal use of a weapon, and the other as an accomplice. They are to appear before a court Wednesday. The Exarchia precinct police chief has been suspended.

A blurry video shot by a bystander from a nearby balcony that purportedly shows the incident has been shown on local television and posted on the Internet. Two sounds that could be gunshots can be heard, but the image is too blurry and distant to show the sequence of events clearly.

Pavlopoulos and Deputy Interior Minister Panagiotis Chinofotis submitted their resignations after Saturday's rioting, but they were not accepted by the prime minister.

The violence died down Sunday morning, only to begin again as afternoon demonstrations in Athens and Thessaloniki to protest the boy's death degenerated into running battles between Molotov cocktail-throwing youths and riot police firing tear gas.

In Thessaloniki, protesters attacked City Hall, two police precincts, several shops and a bank, as well Greek television channel vehicles.

Dozens of stores in central Athens went up in flames or saw their storefronts smashed. At least two buildings were destroyed by fire, as was a Ford car dealership. Streets were littered with jagged chunks of paving stones and rocks thrown at riot police, as well as shattered glass from storefronts and banks.

"I understand the anger (for the teenager's death) and the right to demonstrate it," Pavlopoulos said Sunday night. "What is inconceivable is the raw violence that undermines social peace and turns against the property of innocent people."

As darkness fell, groups of youths, some masked and others wearing motorcycle helmets, used trash cans and overturned cars to erect burning barricades in the streets around the Athens Polytechnic. Clouds of tear gas hung in the air, sending passers-by rushing for cover. Other curious onlookers peeped out from street corners, using mobile phones to snap pictures.

Local media reported several people sought treatment for breathing problems, but no serious injuries were reported.

Greece has seen frequent and sometimes violent demonstrations in recent months against the increasingly unpopular conservative government of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and his economic reforms. Karamanlis has also seen his popularity plummet due to a land scandal that has put the opposition Socialists consistently ahead in opinion polls.

Violence often breaks out during demonstrations in Greece between riot police and anarchists, who also attack banks, high-end shops, diplomatic vehicles and foreign car dealerships in late-night fire-bombings that rarely cause injuries.

The self-styled anarchist movement partly has its roots in the resistance to the military dictatorship that ruled Greece from 1967-74. The youths often take refuge inside university buildings or campuses, from which police are barred under Greek law.

The youths, who often march in demonstrations under the red and black anarchist banner, espouse general anti-capitalist and antiestablishment principles, and have long-running animosity toward the police as well as the media.

Full details of how much damage was caused in the two days of rioting were not immediately available. (source)

ISLAMOFILE 120208: Obama Is Warned Of Nuclear-Enabled Iran In His First Year

2008-12-02T15:48:00.000-08:00

Iran poses the greatest foreign policy challenge to the new president with Tehran on course to produce a nuclear bomb in the first year of an Obama administration, an unprecedented coalition of top think tanks warned yesterday.

Barack Obama must follow through on his promises of direct talks with Tehran and engage the Middle East region as a whole if he is to halt a looming crisis that could be revisited on the United States, the experts warned.

“Diplomacy is not guaranteed to work: it is not,” Richard Hass, one of the authors said. “But the other options – military action or living with an Iranian weapon are sufficiently unattractive for it to warrant serious commitment.”

The warnings came in a report called “Restoring the Balance,” a Middle East strategy for the incoming president drafted by the Council for Foreign Relations and the Brookings Institution. Gary Samore, one of the authors, said the level of alarm over the “hornet’s nest” facing the new president in the Middle East, and the need for the swift adoption of previously untested approach, had inspired the unprecedented decision to write policy for him. “New administrations can choose new policies but they can’t choose next contexts,” Mr. Samore said. “This is what they inherit.”

The report paints a grim picture of the problems in the region but asserts that Mr. Obama is still in a strong position to exploit the positives. For the first time since the Iranian revolution, the leadership in Tehran has endorsed the idea of talking directly with Washington, as Mr. Obama has suggested. Falling oil prices also provide a new opportunity, restricting Iran’s means to sponsor terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah that act as its proxy in the region.

The new administration, however, must not fall into the trap of treating Iran in isolation to the rest of the Middle East, as the previous administration did, but deal with it as part of a larger jigsaw within the region.

Syria, which has shown tentative signs of a desire for better relations with the West, and has held negotiations with Israel through Turkish interlocutors, could be the idea test case for a new diplomatic approach. “Syria is a natural candidate for direct contact,” Mr. Hass said, as part of “a greater embrace of diplomacy with out preconditions” that should be extended to Iran.

The report laid blame for much of the crisis squarely with the Bush administration, whose war in Iraq fuelled Iran’s ascendancy as a regional power. But the authors warned against an “ABB” – anything but Bush – approach, urging Mr. Obama to build on some of the changes in direction over the last two years. “Change for sake of change is not a good idea,” Mr. Hass said. “Great powers have to be predictable.”

Mr. Obama must also team up with Arab countries for an urgent push to resolve the stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, they said. Efforts by the Quartet – created “by mistake over vodkas at the Russian ambassador’s house,” according to Mr. Indyk, who was present, were necessarily limited because of the lack of Arab representation. “Time is not working in favour of a resolution,” he warned, noting the hardening of Israeli public opinion. “There is a real danger that support for a two-state resolution will falter.” (source)

Cold War 21: Russia Announces New System To Avoid US Missile Shield

2008-12-02T15:40:00.000-08:00

Col.-Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov with President Medvedev.

MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's military is planning to upgrade its missiles to allow them to evade American weapons in space and penetrate any prospective missile shield, a Russian general said Monday.
In comments to the Interfax news agency, Russia's Strategic Missile Forces chief, Col.-Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, as saying that Russia's intercontinental ballistic missiles will be modernized to protect them from space-based components of the U.S. missile defense system.

The upgrade will make the missiles' warheads capable of flying "outside the range" of the space-based system, Solovtsov was quoted as saying.

He didn't elaborate, but Russian officials have previously boasted about prospective new warheads capable of making sharp maneuvers to dodge missile defense systems.

Solovtsov also reportedly said the military will commission new RS-24 missiles equipped with state-of-the-art systems to help penetrate a missile shield. He did not specify that Moscow intended to penetrate a U.S. missile shield, but the Kremlin has fiercely opposed the U.S. plan to deploy a battery of 10 missile interceptors in Poland and a related radar in the Czech Republic.

Russia has criticized U.S. plans for space-based weapons, saying they could trigger a new arms race. Washington has resisted efforts by Russia and China to negotiate a global ban on weapons in space.

Reflecting Russia's suspicions about U.S. intentions, Solovtsov alleged Monday that the U.S. is considering the scenario of a first nuclear strike that would destroy most Russian missiles. A few surviving Russian weapons launched in retaliation could then be destroyed by the U.S. missile defense system.

Solovtsov said the concept was not feasible.

"The Americans will never be able to implement this scenario, because Russian strategic nuclear forces, including the Strategic Missile Forces, will be capable of delivering a strike of retribution under any course of developments," he was quoted by Interfax as saying.

U.S. officials have said repeatedly that the prospective missile defense system isn't intended to be used against Russia. But Russian leaders have dismissed U.S. claims that the sites in Poland and the Czech Republic are intended to counter a missile threat from Iran, saying they will threaten Russia's nuclear forces.

The day after Barack Obama's victory in the U.S. presidential election, President Dmitry Medvedev warned that Russia will respond to the U.S. plans by deploying short-range missiles in its westernmost Kaliningrad region near Poland.

Medvedev and his predecessor and mentor, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, then took a step back, saying that Russia will only make the move if the U.S. deploys the missile defense in Europe. They expressed hope that the new U.S. administration will scrap the plan.

Although windfall oil revenues allowed the Kremlin to boost military budgets, Russian arms makers have had trouble producing new weapons because of the loss of key technologies and the exodus of qualified workers. The prospective Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile for nuclear submarines, for example, has failed repeatedly over the years.

However, officials said a Bulava test last week was a success, and Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Monday the test program was to be completed next year. He said the missile has already been ordered into serial production. (source)

ISLAMOFILE 113008: As Pakistani-Indian Tensions Rise To "War Levels", Rice Visits

2008-12-02T14:30:00.000-08:00

Pakistani-Indian border.

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has appealed to India not to punish his country for last week's attacks in Mumbai, saying militants have the power to precipitate a war in the region, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

Zardari, whose wife Benazir Bhutto was assassinated by Islamist militants last year, warned that provocation by rogue "non-state actors" posed the danger of a return to war between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

"Even if the militants are linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, who do you think we are fighting?" asked Zardari in an interview with the Financial Times.

"We live in troubled times where non-state actors have taken us to war before, whether it is the case of those who perpetrated (the) 9/11 (attacks on the United States) or contributed to the escalation of the situation in Iraq," said Zardari.

"Now, events in Mumbai tell us that there are ongoing efforts to carry out copycat attacks by militants. We must all stand together to fight out this menace."

The Mumbai assaults that killed nearly 200 people bore the hallmarks of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based group blamed for previous attacks in India.

Indian officials have said most, perhaps all, of the 10 Islamist attackers who held Mumbai hostage with frenzied attacks using assault rifles and grenades came from Pakistan, a Muslim nation carved out of Hindu-majority India in 1947.

The fallout from the three-day rampage in Mumbai, India's commercial center, has threatened to unravel India's improving ties with Pakistan and prompted the resignation of India's security minister.

RICE VISIT

The White House said on Sunday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would travel to India on Wednesday, as analysts warned the United States could get ensnared in the row and it may prove to be a setback in the war on Islamic radicals on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

"Secretary Rice's visit to India is a further demonstration of the United States' commitment to stand in solidarity with the people of India as we all work together to hold these extremists accountable," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said in a statement.

Rice will arrive in New Delhi on Wednesday after attending a NATO meeting in London on Tuesday.
New Delhi has said it was raising security to a "war level" and had no doubt of a Pakistani link to the attacks, which unleashed anger at home over the intelligence failure and the delayed response to the violence that paralyzed India's financial capital.

Officials in Islamabad have warned any escalation would force it to divert troops to the Indian border and away from a U.S.-led anti-militant campaign on the Afghan frontier.

Zardari has vowed to crack down if given proof.

But security officials in Islamabad said Pakistan would move troops from its western border with Afghanistan, where forces are battling al Qaeda and Taliban fighters as part of the U.S.-led campaign against militancy, to the Indian border if tension escalated.

"It's part of the usual blackmail of the United States that Pakistan does to take more interest in India-Pakistan issues," said B. Raman, a former head of Indian intelligence agency RAW.

"They think this kind of argument will make the United States sit up and take notice of their sensitivities and do something about it," he added, referring to warming ties between Washington and New Delhi, including a nuclear accord.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Sunday he would boost and overhaul the nation's counterterrorism capabilities, an announcement which came after Federal Home Minister Shivraj Patil resigned over the attacks. (source)

US On Iraqi Presence, According To President Elect Obama: We're Out in 16 Months, But Not Really

2008-12-02T14:22:00.000-08:00

CHICAGO (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama said on Monday he believed U.S. combat troops should leave Iraq within 16 months of his taking office but he would listen to advice from military commanders.

"I believe that 16 months is the right timeframe but, as I've said consistently, I will listen to the recommendations of my commanders," Obama said after unveiling his nominees for top national security posts.

Obama said a new security pact between Iraq and the United States already put the United States on a "glide path" to pulling out of Iraq. He also noted that a "residual" U.S. force may need to remain in Iraq longer than combat troops. (source)

ISLAMOFILE 120108: Mumbai Massacre Causes Indian Leaders To Resign

2008-12-02T14:11:00.000-08:00

A second top Indian politician offered to resign on Monday as the Indian government came under intense pressure over its handling of the Mumbai attacks, which claimed at least 192 lives in a rampage by a team of well-organised terrorists.

Vilasrao Deshmukh, Maharashtra state chief minister and a member of the ruling Congress party, said on Monday he had offered to resign following the terror attacks. (source)

Somali Pirates Now Hijack A Luxury Cruise Liner

2008-12-02T14:00:00.000-08:00

The Oceania Nautica was attacked by pirates on Sunday morning.

A luxury cruise ship carrying dozens of British passengers has been attacked by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, off the coast of Somalia, en route to Oman.

The Oceania Nautica was fired at during its 32-day voyage from Rome to Singapore.

The ship – carrying 690 passengers and 386 crew – was approached yesterday by two small skiffs which fired several shots.

No one on board was hurt and Nautica's captain Jurica Brajcic was able to take evasive action and outrun the two boats.

"One of the skiffs did manage to close the range to 300 yards and fired eight rifle shots in the direction of the vessel before trailing off," said a statement by Oceania. "No one aboard Nautica was harmed and no damage was sustained."

29 Britons are on board the cruise ship, which is due to arrive in Oman today. Passengers paid an average of £15,000 for the cruise.

Last week's capture of the 330-metre Sirius Star, containing two million barrels of oil, was the largest of nearly 100 vessels to be attacked off the coast of Somalia this year.

However, the interception of a cruise ship is far less common. The Gulf of Aden is regularly crossed by cruise ships and the waters are patrolled by anti-piracy forces.

The last such incident involving a cruise ship occurred in November 2005 when the liner Seabourn Spirit was fired upon with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades, injuring one crew member.

A spokeswoman for the Passenger Shipping Association - which represents Oceania Cruises - described the incident as a rarity, and maintained that cruising was a safe way to travel.

"Safety is of utmost importance to all cruise companies," she said.

"Each ship must follow security standards and procedures to ensure the well-being of passengers and staff, and they liase with national security and intelligence agencies."

The size of cruise ships means that it can be difficult to board them from smaller vessels. When threatened, some liners possess long-range acoustic devices (LRAD), which emit high frequency noise, to deter potential attackers.(source)

ISLAMOFILE 120108: Mumbai May Have Five More Terrorists At Large

2008-12-02T13:33:00.000-08:00

Indian Black Cat Commando Rhys Blakely in Mumbai

At least five terrorist gunmen might have escaped the carnage in Mumbai and could strike again, it emerged yesterday as a video surfaced showing the capture of the gang’s sole known surviving member.

The prospect of more killers added to public anger at the Indian Government’s lax handling of the worst terror strike to hit the country in 15 years.

The security forces claimed that only ten militants – nine of whom were killed and one caught alive – were behind the coordinated attacks that claimed nearly 200 lives. Rakesh Maria, a joint commissioner of police, said: “Their plan was just to cause maximum damage and return with hostages protecting themselves.”

However, a hijacked Indian fishing boat used by the gunmen had equipment for 15 men on board when it was discovered adrift – suggesting that several gunmen could still be at large.

“Fifteen winter jackets were found, fifteen toothbrushes,” a police source said. “That more terrorists are loose is possible.”

Ajmal Amir Kasab, the only gunman to be caught alive, said during police questioning that 24 men were trained in camps in Pakistan for the mission, according to a leaked account of his police interrogation.

He has since claimed, apparently, that only ten made the final trip to Mumbai, including him. Police are continuing to question the 21-year-old, who has said that he and his accomplices planned to kill 5,000 people.

Security experts say that a force of ten heavily armed men could carry out an operation on the scale of the Mumbai strike only if they received extensive training and local support.

Investigators believe that at least five or six additional people were immediately involved in preparing for the attacks by organising logistics and carrying out reconnaissance.

Grainy mobile phone footage broadcast yesterday by Sky Television sheds little light on the militants’ methods, but it documents the capture of the “baby-faced gunman”.

It shows Kasab’s last stand: a small crowd is seen shouting and beating a man lying on the ground in a Mumbai street as police officers, blowing whistles and waving long sticks, try to restore order.

Police say that Kasab arrived with the other militants in two dinghies that moored on the seafront by the Gateway of India, near the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. The militants then commandeered several cars and set off towards ten different sites across the city.

Kasab and one other gunman, Abu Ismail, headed straight for Chhat-rapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai’s main railway station, where they opened fire with AK47s, killing dozens. It was there that he was photographed, holding his AK47 in one hand, in an image that has been seen around the world.

“They were right there,” recalled Sebastian D’Souza, the man who took the photograph, pointing to the spot on the platform where he first saw the gunmen. “They never raised their guns, they were very cool. They just kept firing from their hips,” he told Sky News.

“I saw lots of people shot dead, just lying there, nobody caring for them,” he said. “If somebody had engaged them in some crossfire . . . ” But no one did, so Kasab and his accomplice moved on to Cama hospital, according to Mumbai police.

There he and Abu Ismail shot dead three of India’s top police officers who were rushing to the scene in a vehicle. The terrorists continued on their shooting spree, firing shots in the air at the Metro Cinema until their vehicle suffered a puncture.

Kasab and Abu Ismail then stole a golden Skoda Laura and were driving it towards Chowpatty beach, a popular evening destination for families in south Mumbai, when they were intercepted by a police team.

Abu Ismail was killed in the shoot-out, while Kasab was shot in his hand, according to police. It was then that he was attacked by the mob as shown in the mobile phone footage.

Initially he pretended to be dead, and was being taken to hospital when a police officer realised that he was breathing, according to Indian media reports. They said that when he reached hospital he told staff there: “I don’t want to die.” Later, after a police interrogation, he reportedly said: “Now I don’t want to live.” (source)

ISLAMOFILE 113008: Surviving Victim Of The Mumbai Massacre Recounts What He Saw

2008-11-30T14:50:00.000-08:00

MUMBAI, India (AP) _ The only gunman captured after a 60-hour terrorist siege of Mumbai said he belonged to a Pakistani militant group with links to the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, a senior police officer said Sunday.

The gunman was one of 10 who paralyzed the city in an attack that killed at least 174 people and revealed the weakness of India's security apparatus. India's top law enforcement official resigned, bowing to growing criticism that the attackers appeared better trained, better coordinated and better armed than police.

The announcement blaming militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba, threatened to escalate tensions between India and Pakistan. However, Indian officials have been cautious about accusing Pakistan's government of complicity.

A U.S. counterterrorism official had said some "signatures of the attack" were consistent with Lashkar and Jaish-e-Mohammed, another group that has operated in Kashmir. Both are reported to be linked to al-Qaida.
Lashkar, long seen as a creation of the Pakistani intelligence service to help fight India in disputed Kashmir, was banned in Pakistan in 2002 under pressure from the U.S., a year after Washington and Britain listed it a terrorist group. It is since believed to have emerged under another name, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, though that group has denied links to the Mumbai attack.

Authorities were still removing bodies from the bullet and grenade scarred Taj Mahal hotel, a day after commandos finally ended the violence that began Wednesday night.

As more details of the response to the attack emerged, a picture formed of woefully unprepared security forces. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised to strengthen maritime and air security and look into creating a new federal investigative agency — even as some analysts doubted fundamental change was possible.

"These guys could do it next week again in Mumbai and our responses would be exactly the same," said Ajai Sahni, head of the New Delhi-based Institute for Conflict Management who has close ties to India's police and intelligence.

Joint Police Commissioner Rakesh Maria said the only known surviving gunman, Ajmal Qasab, told police he was trained at a Lashkar-e-Taiba camp in Pakistan.

"Lashkar-e-Taiba is behind the terrorist acts in the city," he said.

A spokesman for Pakistani President Asif Zardari's spokesman dismissed the claim.

"We have demanded evidence of the complicity of any Pakistani group. No evidence has yet been provided," said spokesman Farhatullah Babar.

In the first wave of the attacks, two young gunmen armed with assault rifles blithely ignored more than 60 police officers patrolling the city's main train station and sprayed bullets into the crowd.

Bapu Thombre, assistant commissioner with the Mumbai railway police, said the police were armed mainly with batons or World War I-era rifles and spread out across the station.

"They are not trained to respond to major attacks," he said.

The gunmen continued their rampage outside the station. They eventually ambushed a police van, killed five officers inside — including the city's counterterrorism chief — and hijacked the vehicle as two wounded officers lay bleeding in the back seat.

"The way Mumbai police handled the situation, they were not combat ready," said Jimmy Katrak, a security consultant. "You don't need the Indian army to neutralize eight to nine people."

Constable Arun Jadhav, one of the wounded policemen, said the men laughed when they noticed the dead officers wore bulletproof vests.

With no SWAT team in this city of 18 million, authorities called in the only unit in the country trained to deal with such crises. But the National Security Guards, which largely devotes its resources to protecting top officials, is based outside of New Delhi and it took the commandos nearly 10 hours to reach the scene.

That gave the gunmen time to consolidate control over two luxury hotels and a Jewish center, said Sahni.
As the siege at dragged on, local police improperly strapped on ill-fitting bulletproof vests. Few had two-way radios to communicate.

Even the commandos lacked the proper equipment, including night vision goggles and thermal sensors that would have allowed them to locate the hostages and gunmen inside the buildings, Sahni said.

Security forces announced they had killed four gunmen and ended the siege at the mammoth Taj Mahal hotel on Thursday night, only to have fighting erupt there again the next day. Only on Saturday morning did they actually kill the last remaining gunmen.

At the Jewish center, commandos rappelled from a helicopter onto the roof and slowly descended the narrow, five-story building in a 10-hour shooting and grenade battle with the two gunmen inside.
From his home in Israel, Assaf Hefetz, a former Israeli police commissioner who created the country's police anti-terror unit three decades ago, watched the slow-motion operation in disbelief.

The commandos should have swarmed the building in a massive, coordinated attack that would have overwhelmed the gunmen and ended the standoff in seconds, he said.

"You have to come from the roof and all the windows and all the doors and create other entrances by demolition charges," he said.

The slow pace of the operations made it appear that the commandos' main goal was to stay safe, Hefetz said.

"You have to take the chance and the danger that your people can be hurt and some of them will be killed, but do it much faster and ensure the operation will be finished (quickly)," Hefetz said.

J. K. Dutt, director-general of the commando unit, defended their tactics.

"We have conducted the operation in the way we are trained and in the way we like to do it," he said.

Singh promised to expand the commando force and set up new bases for it around the country. He called a rare meeting of leaders from the country's main political parties, hours after the resignation of Home Minister Shivraj Patil.

"In the face of this national threat and in the aftermath of this national tragedy, all of us from different political parties must rise above narrow political considerations and stand united," he said.

President George W. Bush told Singh in a telephone call that "out of this tragedy can come an opportunity to hold these extremists accountable and demonstrate the world's shared commitment to combat terrorism," White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in a statement.

Among the foreigners killed in the coordinated shooting rampage in India's financial capital were six Americans. The dead also included Germans, Canadians, Israelis and nationals from Britain, Italy, Japan, China, Thailand, Australia and Singapore.

Sahni called for an overhaul of the nation's police force — the first line of defense against a future attack — providing better weapons, better equipment and real training.

R.R. Patil, the deputy chief minister of Maharashtra state where Mumbai is located, said the government was "taking all action to ensure that this will never take place again." (source)

Cold War 21: Russian Communists Admit That The World Economic Crisis Is Good For Them

2008-11-30T13:28:00.000-08:00

Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov greets the audience during Party's annual congress in Moscow, November 29, 2008.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's Communists expect the global financial crisis will cause social unrest and help them challenge for power, the party's leader said on Saturday.

Gennady Zyuganov told the party's annual congress the Communists should make maximum use of the growing public discontent caused by the economic downturn to try to restore their political strength.

"The wind of history is blowing in our sails again ... At this time of crisis the world of imperialism is starting to die. We are standing on the threshold of political and social shifts," Zyuganov said in a 2-hour speech opening the congress.

Russia's Communists ruled the Soviet Union for eight decades and remained a major opposition force for several years after the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991.

But the party has since lost much of its authority and many analysts say it is too weak to seriously challenge for power.

The Russian authorities are trying to minimise the impact of the financial crisis by promising billions of dollars of state aid. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has pledged higher social payments to the needy and lower taxes for business.

"The authorities are clearly not coping with managing the country ... A mass social protest is brewing and it is hard to predict now when and in what shape it will explode," Zyuganov said.

The Kremlin has acknowledged the crisis will lead to a rise in popular discontent, challenging the massive popularity that Putin secured in eight years as president and handed on to his successor, Dmitry Medvedev.

Medvedev has ordered police to stamp out any social unrest arising from the crisis and Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev has said higher unemployment could lead to a rise in crime.

"We should secure the support of society well before the political crisis comes ... We have to squeeze everything we can from this situation," Zyuganov said.

Zyuganov trailed far behind Medvedev at the presidential election in March and his party's contingent in parliament is dwarfed by the pro-Kremlin majority.

Many Russians associate Communist rule with empty shelves in the shops and endless queues.

Russia has been among the biggest losers from the global financial crisis. The benchmark RTS stock exchange has fallen about 70 percent since peaks in May, and the rouble has been hit by tumbling prices for oil, Russia's main export.

The impact on ordinary people so far has been limited, partly because share ownership is not widespread and few people have private pensions. But firms in some sectors have started laying off staff.

Russia's liberal opposition movement, Solidarity, also predicts that the fallout from the economic crisis will force Putin and Medvedev from power by 2012. (source)

Somali Pirates Seize Indian Vessel, British Safety Guards Escape Then Rescued

2008-11-30T13:08:00.000-08:00

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) - Somali pirates hijacked a chemical tanker with dozens of Indian crew members Friday and a helicopter rescued three British security guards who had jumped into the sea, officials said.

A warship on patrol nearby sent helicopters to intervene in the attack, but they arrived after pirates had taken control of the Liberian-flagged ship, according to Noel Choong, head of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Malaysia.

The ship master had sent a distress call to the piracy reporting center, which relayed the alert to international forces policing Somali waters, Choong said. No details about how the pirates attacked or the condition of the crew were available immediately.

Choong said the ship was being operated out of Singapore.

Still on board were 25 Indian and two Bangladeshi crew members, said diplomats who could not be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media. The British security guards escaped by jumping into the water, said a news release issued by their company, Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions.

The company said it was aware of the incident on the chemical tanker it identified as M/V BISCAGLIA.

"We have been informed by coalition military authorities that three of our unarmed security staff were rescued from the water by a coalition helicopter and are currently on board a coalition warship in the Gulf of Aden," the company statement said.

German Defense Ministry spokesman Thomas Raabe confirmed that a naval helicopter lifted three people out of the water in the Gulf of Aden at about 4 a.m. Friday morning and deposited them on a French ship.

Germany and France have ships in the area as part of a NATO fleet which, along with warships from Denmark, India, Malaysia, Russia and the U.S., have started patrolling the vast maritime corridor. They escort some merchant ships and respond to distress calls.

The ship hijacked Friday was the 97th vessel to be attacked this year off Somalia, where an Islamic insurgency and lack of effective government have contributed to an increase in pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden.

Ships "must continue to maintain a 24-hour vigil and radar watch so they can take early measures to escape pirates. Even though there are patrols, the warships cannot be everywhere at the same time," Choong said.

Pirates have become increasingly brazen in the Gulf, a major international shipping lane through which about 20 tankers sail daily.

Forty ships have been hijacked this year, including a Saudi supertanker loaded with $100 million worth of crude oil Nov. 15.

Pirates demanding multimillion-dollar ransoms hold 15 ships and nearly 300 crew, Choong said.

Somalia, an impoverished nation in the Horn of Africa, has not had a functioning government since 1991.

ISLAMOFILE 113008: At Mumbai, Indian Policemen Hid And Didn't Fire Their Weapons

2008-11-30T12:24:00.000-08:00

A gunman walks at the Chatrapathi Sivaji Terminal railway station in Mumbai, India, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2008.

It is the photograph that has dominated the world's front pages, casting an astonishing light on the fresh-faced killers who brought terror to the heart of India's most vibrant city. Now it can be revealed how the astonishing picture came to be taken by a newspaper photographer who hid inside a train carriage as gunfire erupted all around him.

Citizens and police officers walk during the funeral procession of Hemant Karkare, the chief of Mumbai's Anti-Terrorist Squad, who was killed by gunmen,photograph seen, in Mumbai, India, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008.

Sebastian D'Souza, a picture editor at the Mumbai Mirror, whose offices are just opposite the city's Chhatrapati Shivaji station, heard the gunfire erupt and ran towards the terminus. "I ran into the first carriage of one of the trains on the platform to try and get a shot but couldn't get a good angle, so I moved to the second carriage and waited for the gunmen to walk by," he said. "They were shooting from waist height and fired at anything that moved. I briefly had time to take a couple of frames using a telephoto lens. I think they saw me taking photographs but theydidn't seem to care."

Unidentified relatives of Bimolchandra Singh, Oberoi Trident hotel's manager who died during Mumbai shooting, wail as his body arrives at Imphal, India, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008.

The gunmen were terrifyingly professional, making sure at least one of them was able to fire their rifle while the other reloaded. By the time he managed to capture the killer on camera, Mr D'Souza had already seen two gunmen calmly stroll across the station concourse shooting both civilians and policemen, many of whom, he said, were armed but did not fire back. "I first saw the gunmen outside the station," Mr D'Souza said. "With their rucksacks and Western clothes they looked like backpackers, not terrorists, but they were very heavily armed and clearly knew how to use their rifles.

A woman cries as the body of Hemant Karkare, the chief of Mumbai's Anti-Terrorist Squad is taken for cremation in Mumbai, India, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008.

"Towards the station entrance, there are a number of bookshops and one of the bookstore owners was trying to close his shop," he recalled. "The gunmen opened fire and the shopkeeper fell down."

Kavita Karkare, right, wife of Hemant Karkare, the chief of Mumbai's Anti-Terrorist Squad, arrives for his funeral in Mumbai, India, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008.

But what angered Mr D'Souza almost as much were the masses of armed police hiding in the area who simply refused to shoot back. "There were armed policemen hiding all around the station but none of them did anything," he said. "At one point, I ran up to them and told them to use their weapons. I said, 'Shoot them, they're sitting ducks!' but they just didn't shoot back."

Relatives and neighbors mourn as they attend the funeral of Haresh Gohil, a 16 year old boy who was killed by gunmen near Chabad-Lubavitch center,also known as Nariman House in Mumbai, India, Saturday, Nov. 29, 2008.

As the gunmen fired at policemen taking cover across the street, Mr D'Souza realised a train was pulling into the station unaware of the horror within. "I couldn't believe it. We rushed to the platform and told everyone to head towards the back of the station. Those who were older and couldn't run, we told them to stay put."

The militants returned inside the station and headed towards a rear exit towards Chowpatty Beach. Mr D'Souza added: "I told some policemen the gunmen had moved towards the rear of the station but they refused to follow them. What is the point if having policemen with guns if they refuse to use them? I only wish I had a gun rather than a camera." (source)

ISLAMOFILE 113008: Sole Surviving Mumbai Terrorist Exclaims That He Belongs To Pakistani Group Lashkar-e-Taiba

2008-11-30T07:19:00.000-08:00

The only terrorist captured alive after the Mumbai massacre has given police the first full account of the extraordinary events that led to it – revealing he was ordered to ‘kill until the last breath’.

Azam Amir Kasab, 21, from Pakistan, said the attacks were meticulously planned six months ago and were intended to kill 5,000 people.

He revealed that the ten terrorists, who were highly trained in marine assault and crept into the city by boat, had planned to blow up the Taj Mahal Palace hotel after first executing British and American tourists and then taking hostages.

Mercifully, the group, armed with plastic explosives, underestimated the strength of the 105-year-old building’s solid foundations.

As it is, their deadly attacks have left close to 200 confirmed dead, with the toll expected to rise to nearly 300 once the hotel has been fully searched by security forces.

Yesterday, Kasab chillingly went through details of Wednesday night’s killing spree across the city, which ended when he was cornered by police.

He pretended to be dead, which probably saved his life. It was only when he was being transferred to hospital by ambulance that his accompanying officer noticed he was still breathing.

Once inside Nair Hospital, Kasab, who suffered only minor injuries, told medical staff: ‘I do not want to die. Please put me on saline.’

And as Indian commandos ended the bloody 59-hour siege at the Taj yesterday by killing the last three Islamic gunmen, baby-faced Kasab was dispassionately detailing the background to the mayhem.

He described how its mastermind briefed the group to ‘target whites, preferably Americans and British’.

Some of the militants, including Kasab, posed as students during a visit to Mumbai a month ago, filming the ‘strike locations’ and familiarising themselves with the city’s roads.

One police officer said: ‘That, thankfully, never happened because we managed to stop them.’ Police insist that Kasab confessed to being a member of the Pakistani terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has denied involvement in the carnage, and claimed he and the others were trained in the Muslim country.

Intelligence analysts are keeping more of an open mind, however. And some political observers point out an unhelpful tendency by the Indian authorities continually to blame ‘Pakistan elements’ without solid evidence.

Some speculative reports emerging from New Delhi even suggested Pakistan’s intelligence services had a hand in training the terrorists.

Meanwhile, claims that up to seven of the terrorists could have been British men of Pakistani origin, who had connections to West Yorkshire, were being widely discounted.

A top Indian official, Maharashtra state chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, said there was ‘no authentic information’ to suggest that any British citizens were involved.

The UK Foreign Office also said there was ‘no evidence’ that any of the terrorists were British.

One report suggested that one of the terrorists had been working at the Taj hotel as a kitchen porter for up to eight months before the attacks and had produced a British passport during his job interview. But this was strongly denied by the hotel management.

Scotland Yard detectives arrived in Mumbai yesterday, but only to lend their assistance and expertise to the investigation.

According to the account of Kasab’s interrogation, given by police sources, the terrorists were trained over five months in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, then had a month off before the attacks. At some stage, they also received intensive instruction in ‘marine assault’ operations

Kasab and the nine other terrorists, who communicated using BlackBerry mobiles, began their journey to Mumbai on November 21.

Initially unarmed, they left an isolated beach near Karachi in a small boat, before being picked up the following day by a larger vessel.

At this point they were each given eight hand grenades, an AK-47 rifle, an automatic pistol and ammunition. And in anticipation of a lengthy siege, they also carried dried fruit.

Kasab told police that the group then hijacked a fishing trawler bearing the name Kuber near the maritime boundary between Pakistan and India.

Four of its crew are missing while the fifth has been found dead, apparently beheaded. Its owner and his brother are being questioned by police.

On November 23, after reaching Porbandar in the Indian state of Gujarat, 310 nautical miles from Mumbai, the insurgents were intercepted by two coastguard officers. The group hoisted a white flag and allowed the two men to board their boat.

According to Kasab, one of the militants then attacked one of the officers, slitting his throat and throwing him overboard. The other man was forced to help the group reach their destination before being executed as the vessel drew near to Mumbai.

For most of the journey, Kasab’s friend, 25-year-old Abu Ismail, a trained sailor, steered the vessel using GPS equipment. Three speedboats met the Kuber a mile and a half from the Mumbai seafront on Wednesday. After waiting for the light to fade, they moved off, later transferring to two inflatable dinghies to go ashore.

The two groups then split up. Four men went to to the Taj hotel, two to the Jewish centre of Nariman House, Kasab and another man set off by taxi towards the railway station, and two headed for the Leopold restaurant.

While his colleagues were executing hostages at the Taj, Kasab and Ismail first opened fire with their assault rifles at around 10.20pm, killing dozens of people standing at Chhatrapati Shivaji railway station.

The Harbour Bar at the Taj Mahal before attack.

The Harbour Bar after the attack.

Then they hijacked a police 4x4, killing the two officers inside. Kasab told investigators they continued their killing spree by attacking a petrol station and blowing up a taxi before being stopped.

‘I have done right,’ he told investigators. ‘I have no regrets.’

One police source said: ‘He [Kasab] was telling our people this in a most dispassionate way and responded to the horror their faces betrayed by shrugging his shoulders, as if it was all of no real consequence.’

Sources said tests on Kamal’s blood and urine showed he was under the influence of drugs to help keep him alert during the long battles with Indian security forces.
Guests who had been holed up during the three-day siege at the Taj hotel told of their ordeal yesterday.

Briton Richard Farah, who was trapped in his room before being rescued by commandos, hid his passport in his false leg after terrorists were reported to be seeking British and American passport holders.

‘I saw all the blood and broken glass and shrapnel. Tons of blood and shoes, people’s shoes, women’s shoes, men’s shoes,’ he said.

‘In the last few hours there were so many explosions and the floors shook.

I said, 'I’m a goner,' because it was right below me.

Eventually, we got to the lobby. I’d hidden my passport in my leg. If they had come to get me they wouldn’t have found it.’

Evidence was emerging last night that the the gunmen killed their victims early in the siege and fooled Indian security forces into thinking that they were holding hostages.

At the Sir J.J. Hospital morgue, an official said that of the 87 bodies he had examined, all but a handful had been killed during Wednesday night. (source)

ISLAMOFILE 112708: Mumbai Terrorists Are UK-born Pakistanis

2008-11-28T07:26:00.000-08:00

At least five Jewish hostages held by Islamic terrorists in a Bombay appartment block have been killed, an Israeli diplomat has said, as it emerged that two of the attackers in India's commercial capital may have been British-born Pakistanis.

"Five bodies of hostages have been found. They are Israeli nationals," Eli Belotsercovsky, deputy chief of mission at the Israeli embassy in New Delhi, told the AFP news agency.

After a day of drama during which Indian commandos blasted their way through the six-storey block to rescue an unknown number of hostages at a Jewish outreach centre, it was unclear whether any had survived.

An Israeli rescue service which had sent a mission to help with the siege at the Chavad Lubavitch centre said that it thought all the hostages had been killed. "Apparently the hostages did not remain alive," the Zaka service said in a brief statement, quoting its staff in Bombay. It did not identify the hostages or say how many may have died.

The death toll from the co-ordinated terror attacks today reached at least 143, seven of them foreign, including one Briton.

The Chief Minister of Maharashtra state, Vilasrao Deshmukh, said today that two British-born Pakistanis were among eight gunmen arrested by Indian authorities.

Both Gordon Brown and David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, played down the claim but without denying it outright. "It's too early to say whether any of them are British," Mr Miliband said.

The Times witnessed an Indian air force helicopter dropping no less than 17 commandos onto the roof of the block, Nariman House, at dawn this morning. Throughout the day, the building was rocked by gunfire and explosions as the commandos fought to gain control of the block floor by floor and reach the Jewish centre.

When commandos began to emerge from the building this evening, crowds waiting in the street outside began to celebrate the end of the siege - until they were warned that the site had not yet been fully secured.

Hundreds of people flooded into the streets surrounding the centre, cheering and applauding commando units who emerged from the building with their assault rifles raised. A military spokesman with a loud hailer appealed for the crowds to move back, saying the operation was not "fully over". Hasan Gafoor, the Bombay police chief, said that security personnel were still moving through the building "floor by floor, checking that everything is all right".

Indian special forces, meanwhile, gave their first account of the mission to liberate the Taj Mahal Palace, one of two luxury hotels seized by the terrorists. They described a sequence of running battles with gunmen in corridors and rooms strewn with dead bodies and seriously injured guests - battles which appeared to be coming to a climactic end this evening as the last one or two militants hung on against the security forces.

But officials claimed success in ending a siege of the luxury Oberoi hotel, where as many as 30 people had been held hostage. Commandos killed two gunmen as they seized control of the tower today.

"The hotel is under our control," Mr Dutt said. He said that 24 bodies had been recovered from the hotel, pushing the confirmed death toll from the coordinated attacks up to 143.

In New Delhi, a Government minister explicitly pointed the finger at Pakistan for the first time. "Preliminary evidence, prima facie evidence, indicates elements with links to Pakistan are involved," Pranab Mukherjee, the Foreign Minister, told a press conference. In Bombay, officials said that one of the militants arrested was a Pakistani national.

The Pakistani Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, responded with a call to India not to play politics with the Bombay attacks. "Do not bring politics into this issue. This is a collective issue. We are facing a common enemy and we should join hands to defeat the enemy," he said during a visit to the Indian town of Ajmer, which hosts an important Islamic shrine.

Nevertheless, Islamabad agreed to an Indian request to send the head of its military intelligence service, the ISI, to India to share information on the attacks.

The investigation into the al-Qaeda-style terror attacks is focusing on a fishing vessel that was found off the city's coast with a dead body aboard. It is thought that the vessel was used by the terrorists before they climbed aboard a smaller boat to land at Colaba, the tourist area in southern Bombay where the gunmen's targets are clustered.

The nationality of the dead man found on the boat is unknown, but one theory being pushed by many inside India's intelligence apparatus is that the boat's origin was Karachi, in Pakistan.

The gunmen were well trained and well prepared, apparently scouting targets ahead of time and carrying large bags of almonds and dried fruit to keep up their energy.

"It’s obvious they were trained somewhere ... Not everyone can handle the AK series of weapons or throw grenades like that," a senior office of India’s Marine Commando unit told reporters, his face wrapped in a black mask to protect his identity, told reporters today.

"These terrorists were very well informed regarding the layout of the hotel. In no time they vanished and were gone elsewhere. The kept moving around the hotel," the officer said.

Bags belonging to the terrorists contained hundreds of rounds of ammunition and grenades were recovered. A Mauritian national Id card, apparently that of one of the gunmen, was also found, together with seven credit cards and more than US$1,000 in cash.

The officer said that the Taj had been filled with terrified civilians, making it very difficult for the commandos to fire on the gunmen. "To try and avoid civilian casualties we had to be so much more careful," he said. "Bodies were strewn all over the place, and there was blood everywhere."

The commando added: "They were the kind of people with no remorse - anybody and whomsoever came in front of them they fired." (source)

ISLAMOFILE 112708: Mumbai Death Toll Climbing

2008-11-28T06:37:00.000-08:00

"At least six foreigners have been killed and the death figure has gone up to 101 now," Ramesh Tayde, a senior police officer told from Mumbai's control room.

In one of the most violent terror attacks on Indian soil, Mumbai came under an unprecedented night attack as terrorists used heavy machine guns, including AK-47s, and grenades to strike at the city's most high-profile targets -- the hyper-busy CST (formerly VT) rail terminus; the landmark Taj Hotel at the Gateway and the luxury Oberoi Trident at Nariman Point; the domestic airport at Santa Cruz; the Cama and GT hospitals near CST; the Metro Adlabs multiplex and Mazgaon Dockyard -- killing at least 101 and sending hundreds of injured to hospital, according to latest reports.

The attacks have taken a tragic toll on the city's top police brass: The high-profile chief of the anti-terror squad Hemant Karkare was killed; Mumbai's additional commissioner of police (east) Ashok Kamte was gunned down outside the Metro; and celebrated encounter specialist Vijay Salaskar was also killed.

The attacks appeared to be aimed at getting international attention as the terrorists took upto 40 British nationals and other foreigners hostage. The chairman of Hindustan Unilever Harish Manwani and CEO of the company Nitin Paranjpe were among the guests trapped at the Oberoi. All the internal board members of the multinational giant were reported to be holed up in the Oberoi hotel.

Two terrorists were reported holed up inside the Oberoi Hotel. Fresh firing has been reported at Oberoi and Army has entered the hotel to flush out the terrorists.

An unknown outfit, Deccan Mujahideen, has sent an email to news organizations claiming that it carried out the Mumbai attacks.

The Army and Navy in Mumbai were put on alert. 65 Army commandos and 200 NSG commandos were being rushed to Mumbai, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said.

The Navy commandos too have been asked to assist the police. Special secretary M L Kumawat is in constant touch with the state police.

Some media reports attributed the attack to Lashkar-e-Taiba. There were also unconfirmed reports that some of the terrorists came in by sea. A boat laden with explosives was recovered later at night off the Gateway of India.

Well after midnight, sources said two of the terrorists were shot and wounded at Girgaum in south Mumbai. The two were driving in a commandeered silver-coloured Skoda car. Earlier, these men had sprayed bullets from a police Bolero, outside the Metro Adlabs multiplex.

The attacks occurred at the busiest places. Besides hotels and hospitals, terrorists struck at railway stations, Crawford Market, Wadi Bunder and on the Western Express Highway near the airport. Several of these places are within a one-km radius of the commissioner of police's office.

"This is definitely a terrorist strike. Seven places have been attacked with automatic weapons and grenades. Terrorists are still holed up in three locations Taj and Oberoi hotels and GT Hospital. Encounters are on at all three places," said Maharashtra DGP A N Roy.

St George's Hospital and G T Hospital were said to have received 75 bodies and more than 250 injured people, additional municipal commissioner R A Rajeev said. Bombay Hospital got two bodies and 30 injured people were admitted there; Cooper Hospital, Vile Parle, got three dismembered bodies.

Three of the deaths occurred inside the Taj and one G T Hospital attendant died in a shootout inside the hospital. There were reports of people cowering under tables and chairs at both the Taj as well as G T Hospital.

Metro Junction resident Manoj Goel said: "My brother, Manish, died in the firing at Colaba's Hamaal Galli." Cops fired back at the men -- probably from one of the Lashkar groups, dressed in black and with backpacks and SRPF, Crime Branch, ATS and teams of military commandos were summoned to the spot. Train services at CST were suspended and all roads leading to and from south Mumbai were blockaded.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh cut short his Kerala visit and was returning to Mumbai. He described the situation in Mumbai as "very serious".

Deshmukh promised "stringent action" against the assailants but the mood across Mumbai was not so optimistic.

There were reports of firing around several landmark buildings in the Colaba-Nariman Point area, including the Taj hotel, Oberoi and other tourist attractions and pubs like Leopold's. The top floor of Oberoi was said to be on fire amid reports of blasts in the area and blood-smeared bodies were being brought out of the Taj lobby.

Terrorists were said to be holed up at the Taj as well as G T Hospital and cops scampered to cordon off these places. A white flag was seen fluttering from an Oberoi Hotel window around 11.20 pm, where a blast was said to have occurred.

The blast on the Western Express Highway -- near Centaur Hotel outside the airport -- occurred in a taxi, deputy commissioner of police Nissar Tamboli said.

The firing and bombing started close to the Gateway of India. The gunbattle then moved on towards CST and raged on for over an hour from 10 pm, sending commuters running out of the station.

The assailants also fired into the crowd at CST and people on the trains and then ran out of the station themselves and into neighbouring buildings, including Cama Hospital, after being challenged by cops.

SRPF personnel then entered the iconic BMC building -- just opposite CST -- to take aim at the assailants, BMC commissioner Jairaj Phatak said. "We fear some of the assailants are still inside the station and we want to catch them if they come out,'' a police official said.

Vikhroli police station senior inspector Habib Ansari was on his way to work from his Colaba home when he saw two armed men, with sophisticated weaponry, trying to run into bylanes near the Gateway of India."I rushed back to Colaba and all policemen, including GRP and RPF personnel, were called up," he added. (source)

ISLAMOFILE 112708: Iran Announces That It Has Over 5000 Centrifuges

2008-11-28T06:09:00.000-08:00

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran announced Wednesday it now has 5,000 centrifuges operating and enriching uranium, the country's latest defiance of U.N. demands to halt is controversial nuclear program.

Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said Iran will continue to install more centrifuges and enrich uranium to produce nuclear fuel for future Iranian nuclear power plants. In August, Iran said it had 4,000 centrifuges running at its plant in the central city of Natanz.

Uranium enriched to a low level is used to produce nuclear fuel, but further enrichment makes it suitable for use in nuclear weapons.

"At this point, more than 5,000 centrifuges are operating in Natanz and enriching uranium," said Aghazadeh, who is head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. He spoke to reporters during an exhibition of Iranian nuclear achievements at Tehran University.

Flaunting Iran's defiance of international demands, Aghazadeh said the Islamic Republic will never suspend enrichment.

"Suspension has not been defined in our lexicon," he said.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a report last month that Iran was installing, or preparing to install, thousands more of the machines that spin uranium gas to enrich it—with the target of 9,000 centrifuges by next year.

IAEA officials could not be immediately reached for a comment Wednesday, but Iran has previously said it plans to move toward large-scale uranium enrichment that will ultimately involve 54,000 centrifuges.

Former U.N. nuclear inspector David Albright said the additional centrifuges announced Wednesday were expected.

"Expect another 1,000 to start enriching soon," said Albright, president for the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security. "As Iran runs centrifuges more and more, it's just going to get better at it."

Earlier this month, the IAEA estimated Iran had around about 1,400 pounds of low-enriched uranium. U.N. officials have said Tehran would have to produce a little more than twice that to begin enriching it to the level needed to produce a nuclear weapon.

The United States and some of its allies accuse Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons, and the U.N. Security Council has imposed three rounds of sanctions on Iran for its refusal to freeze its uranium enrichment program.

But Tehran denies it is trying to build bombs and insists it has the right under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to enrich uranium and produce reactor fuel.

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said had not seen the report on the new centrifuges but stressed that Iran was continuing to pursue enrichment and reprocessing capability.

"They are continuing to try to perfect the technologies that could lead to a nuclear weapons technology. And that is what the international coalition that we have put together ... is trying to stop," she told reporters.

At the exhibition in Tehran, Iran for the first time put on public display one of its P-1 centrifuges, and officials at the exhibition explained the machine to visitors. During the enrichment process, uranium gas is spun in a series of centrifuges known as "cascades" to purify it.

Aghazadeh also said Iran had made "good progress" in constructing a 40-megawatt heavy-water reactor near Arak in central Iran.

"The heavy water plant is experiencing a production beyond its capacity," he said without elaborating.

Western countries have repeatedly called on Iran to stop construction of the reactor, fearing it could be used as a second track toward building a warhead.

When it is finished, the Arak reactor could produce enough plutonium for a nuclear weapon each year, experts have said.

Aghazadeh also claimed Iran has conducted research on nuclear fusion, but he didn't provide more details on the research other than to say it started "long ago."

Nuclear fusion, the process behind the hydrogen bomb, is more powerful than fission and scientists have long tried to harness it as an energy source.

Also Wednesday, Iranian state television reported that the country successfully launched a second rocket into space, following up on the first such launch in February.

The rocket, entitled "Kavoshgar 2," or Explorer 2, made it to the lower reaches of space and returned to earth 40 minutes later on a parachute. It wasn't clear when the launch took place, and no other details were available.

Iran has long held the goal of developing a space program, generating unease among world leaders already concerned about its nuclear and ballistic missile programs. (source)

ISLAMOFILE 112708: Mumbai Terrorist Attack Targets American And British Travellers

2008-11-28T05:29:00.000-08:00

Gunmen have carried out a series of co-ordinated attacks across the Indian city of Mumbai (Bombay), killing 101 people and injuring 287 more.

At least seven high-profile locations were hit in India's financial capital, including two luxury hotels where dozens of hostages are being held.

The buildings are now ringed by troops. Gunmen are also said to be holding people captive in an office block.

Police say four suspected terrorists have been killed and nine arrested.

As day broke in Mumbai, the situation on the ground was still confused with reports of gunfire and explosions at between seven and 16 locations.

The city's main commuter train station, a hospital, a restaurant and two hotels - locations used by foreigners as well as local businessmen and leaders - were among those places caught up in the violence.

Commandos have surrounded the two hotels, the Taj Mahal Palace and the Oberoi Trident, where it is believed that the armed men are holding dozens of hostages.

In other developments:

• Fire crews evacuate people from the upper floors of the Taj Mahal Palace, where police say a grenade attack caused a blaze

• The head of Mumbai's anti-terrorism unit and two other senior officers are among those killed, officials say

• The White House holds a meeting of top intelligence and counter-terrorism officials, and pledges to help the Indian government

• Trading on India's Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange markets will remain closed on Thursday, officials say.

"The terrorists have used automatic weapons and in some places grenades have been lobbed," said AN Roy, police commissioner of Maharashtra state.

Local TV images showed blood-splattered streets, and bodies being taken into ambulances.

One eyewitness told the BBC he had seen a gunman opening fire in the Taj Mahal's lobby.

"We all moved through the lobby in the opposite direction and another gunman then appeared towards where we were moving and he started firing immediately in our direction."

One British tourist said she spent six hours barricaded in the Oberoi hotel.

"There were about 20 or 30 people in each room. The doors were locked very quickly, the lights turned off, and everybody just lay very still on the floor," she said.

A BBC correspondent outside the landmark Taj Mahal Palace said there were gunshots between police and the armed men, and that 11 officers were killed in the skirmishes.

Eyewitness reports suggest the attackers singled out British and American passport holders.

If the reports are true, our security correspondent Frank Gardner says it implies an Islamist motive - attacks inspired or co-ordinated by al-Qaeda.

A claim of responsibility has been made by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen.

Our correspondent says it could be a hoax or assumed name for another group.

The motive is far from clear - but the attacks come amid elections in several Indian states, including in disputed Kashmir.

On Thursday, reports said five gunmen had taken hostages in an office block in the financial district of Mumbai.

There has been a wave of bombings in Indian cities in recent months which has left scores of people dead.

Most of the attacks have been blamed on Muslim militants, although police have also arrested suspected Hindu extremists.

Mumbai itself has also been attacked in the past: in July 2006 a series of bomb attacks on busy commuter trains killed almost 190 people and injured more than 700.

Police accused Pakistan's intelligence agency of planning those attacks, which they said were carried out by an Islamist militant group, Lashkar-e-Toiba.

Pakistan rejected the allegation, saying there was no evidence that its intelligence staff were involved.

But the latest shootings come at a time when ties between India and Pakistan have improved.

Just days ago Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari told a summit in Delhi that Pakistan would not be first to carry out a missile strike on India.

The two countries have a joint anti-terror mechanism whereby they are supposed to share information on terrorist attacks. (source)

ISLAMOFILE 112708: al Qaeda Develops Attack Plans For American Holiday

2008-11-28T04:58:00.000-08:00

NEW YORK (AP) - Police bolstered security in subways and trains Wednesday after the government warned that al-Qaida suicide bombers were contemplating an attack on New York's mass-transit systems during the holiday season. An internal memo obtained by The Associated Press says the FBI has received a "plausible but unsubstantiated" report that al-Qaida terrorists in late September may have discussed attacking the subway system.

The internal bulletin says al-Qaida terrorists "in late September may have discussed targeting transit systems in and around New York City. These discussions reportedly involved the use of suicide bombers or explosives placed on subway/passenger rail systems," according to the document.

"We have no specific details to confirm that this plot has developed beyond aspirational planning, but we are issuing this warning out of concern that such an attack could possibly be conducted during the forthcoming holiday season," according to the warning dated Tuesday.

A person briefed on the matter, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the intelligence-gathering work, said the threat may also be directed at the passenger rail lines running through New York, such as Amtrak and the Long Island Rail Road, which are particularly busy with Thanksgiving holiday travelers.

A federal law enforcement official said there's no indication that anyone involved in the planning is in the United States. That official also spoke on condition of anonymity because it involved intelligence-gathering.

While law enforcement stepped up patrols around subways and trains, many commuters around the city were unfazed by the news and had not even heard of the threat.

"If you get scared that means they win," commuter Omid Sima said on the platform of the subway below Rockefeller Center. "There's always been terror warnings. I can't change my life because of that."

The Big Apple's tightly packed passenger trains and subway cars have long been a source of concern for police officers - and a tempting target for would-be terrorists - but there is often disagreement as to how seriously authorities should take specific intelligence reports.

The city has more than 450 subway stations that handle millions of commuters every day.

A Pakistani immigrant was arrested and convicted for a scheme to blow up the subway station at Herald Square in 2004. There was also a planned cyanide attack on the subways by al-Qaida operatives that authorities say was called off in 2002; another aborted al-Qaida plot to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge in 2003; and a plot to bomb underwater train tunnels to flood lower Manhattan, which was broken up in 2006 by several arrests overseas.

Three years ago, authorities weighed reports that bombers might try to use baby strollers to bring explosives into city trains. Many security officials later concluded that was a false alarm.

NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said they have received an unsubstantiated report and as a result have "deployed additional resources in the mass transit system."

While federal agencies regularly issue all sorts of advisory warnings, the language of this one is particularly blunt.

Intelligence and homeland security officials are working with local authorities to try to corroborate the information "and will continue to investigate every possible lead," the memo says.

Rep. Peter King, the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said authorities "have very real specifics as to who it is and where the conversation took place and who conducted it."

"It certainly involves suicide bombing attacks on the mass transit system in and around New York and it's plausible, but there's no evidence yet that it's in the process of being carried out," King said.

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said the warning was issued "out of an abundance of caution going into this holiday season."

No changes are being made to the nation's threat level, or for transit systems at this time, he said.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko confirmed only that his agency and the Homeland Security Department issued a bulletin Tuesday night to state and local authorities, and the information is being reviewed.

Cold War 21: U.S. Missile-Warning Satellite Fails

2008-11-25T00:48:00.000-08:00

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Northrop Grumman Corp U.S. military satellite used to track enemy missiles stopped working in mid-September, underscoring the urgent need to keep a program for replacement satellites on track, a defense official and several analysts said on Monday.

The U.S. Air Force had no comment, but Space News reported on Monday that the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer John Young has signed a memorandum asking Congress to provide $117 million in funding in fiscal 2009 for a new satellite to hedge against a potential gap in satellite coverage around 2014.

"There is no gap today in U.S. missile warning, but the apparent loss of a satellite means there is an increased danger of a gap down the road because the redundancy of the existing constellation has been diminished," said Loren Thompson at the Virginia-based Lexington Institute.

Thompson said he had learned of the problem with the Defense Support Program (DSP) satellite from several sources, and it underscored the urgency of getting the new Space Based Infrared Satellite (SBIRS) system being developed by Lockheed Martin Corp into orbit.

"There's a sense of renewed purpose. We need to be sure that the SBIRS launches proceed as scheduled," agreed one defense official, who asked not to be named, adding that the loss of the satellite posed challenges for the DSP constellation.

Theresa Hitchens, who heads the Washington-based Center for Defense Information, said several amateur astronomers had reported that DSP 23, the last of the U.S. missile-warning satellites built by Northrop, and launched in November 2007, had stopped transmitting in mid-September.

The defense official said it was unclear what caused the failure, but said the explanations could range from defective parts to natural phenomenon, and possibly, although unlikely, an intentional attack. There was also a chance that the problem stemmed from the satellite being hit by debris in space.

The U.S. government has launched 23 DSP missile-warning satellites into space since 1970, and experts estimate that six to 10 are still working, about double the number needed to watch the entire Earth at once.

The satellites have generally lasted longer than initially expected, which makes it even more troubling that the newest of the DSP satellites would have developed trouble a year after its launch, said the official and the analysts.

SBIRS PROBLEMS

"The DSP constellation is starting to degrade now, that's not a surprise. But it wouldn't even be a concern if SBIRS weren't so screwed up," said Jonathan McDowell, astronomer with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

The SBIRS program has seen its share of problems, including delays due to technology challenges, and Lockheed is rewriting software for the satellites after software problems prevented communication with a smaller satellite once it went into orbit in late 2006. The U.S. government shot down that satellite last February, saying its toxic fuel tank posed a potential threat.

The first SBIRS sensor is already in space on board a classified satellite in highly elliptical orbit, but the first dedicated satellites are not due to be launched until 2010.

The SBIRS program was launched in 1996 with an eye to launching the first satellites in 2004 at a cost of $4.2 billion. The program has been restructured several times and its price tag is now seen at well over $11 billion.

The defense official said the success of the first SBIRS payload in space was good news for the next satellites being developed for geosynchronous orbit.

But it was prudent to secure additional funding to ensure that the U.S. military was able to maintain its ability to spot enemy missiles, the official added.

Hitchens said some amateur astronomers, who use optical and radio telescopes to track objects in space, suggested the DSP satellite may have been adrift in geosynchronous orbit, which could pose a danger to other satellites operating in that orbit, she said.

The defense official downplayed that possibility, and said the failed satellite also posed no imminent threat to human life, as was the case with the NRO satellite. (source)

Cold War 21: Russians Ships Almost At Venezuela's Shores

2008-11-25T00:29:00.000-08:00

Russian cruiser at dock.

Russian warships approached Venezuela Monday for upcoming joint maneuvers -- Moscow's first military presence in the region since the Cold War -- as Washington closely monitored the situation.
Venezuelan defense officials said the ships, including the nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great and destroyer Admiral Chabankenko, would arrive on Tuesday.

The joint exercises were to coincide with a two-day visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to Venezuela, the strongest US critic in the region.

Medvedev was due to arrive Wednesday and meet fiercely anti-liberal President Hugo Chavez on Thursday, before heading to communist Cuba.

Analysts see Medvedev as bringing a defiant message to Washington's doorstep, in the wake of Russian outrage at US plans to install a strategic missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, and support for the brief Georgia war in August.

The maneuvers will start on Wednesday in port and take place at sea on December 1, Venezuelan Operations Command chief General Jesus Gonzalez told journalists.

"It's a natural exercise that we've carried out with various countries, and many others carry out," the general added.

A Russian naval spokesman said in Moscow that the exercises would include operation planning, helping ships in distress and supplying ships on the move.

"If the Venezuelans and the Russians want to have, you know, a military exercise, that's fine, but we'll obviously be watching it very closely," US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday.

"I don't think there's any question about who ... the region looks to in terms of political, economic, diplomatic and as well as military power," McCormack added.

The US has expressed concern, however, about Russian arms supplies to the oil-rich OPEC country.

The two countries have signed 4.4 billion dollars in bilateral arms deals signed since 2005, including radars, 24 Sukhoi-30 planes, 50 helicopters and 100,000 Kalashnikovs.

Medvedev was expected to expand arms deals during his visit, as well as economic and energy ties, including plans for a joint civilian nuclear reactor.

"Russia is a friend which held out a hand to us," Gonzalez told AFP in a recent interview.

"We want to be very strong, but in a highly dissuasive direction. So that any country in the world thinks not once but 10 times before coming here."

In September, two Tu-160 Russian strategic bombers carried out training for several days in Venezuela.

The Russian warships were due to sail into La Guaira, near Caracas, and Puerto Cabello in northern Carabobo state.

The fleet includes five aircraft and several small ships, and Venezuela will provide eight aircraft and 11 ships, Gonzalez said Monday, adding that 1,150 Russian forces and 600 Venezuelans would take part in the exercises.

"Nations frequently exercise with each other. Russia is free to exercise peacefully with anyone that they want to exercise with," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Monday.

"But also people note through these exercises the company that nations keep." (source)

The New Face Of The European Union

2008-11-25T00:23:00.000-08:00

PRAGUE — In the 1980s, a Communist secret police agent infiltrated clandestine economics seminars hosted by Vaclav Klaus, a fiery future leader of the Czech Republic, who had come under suspicion for extolling free market virtues. Rather than reporting on Marxist heresy, the agent was most struck by Mr. Klaus’s now famous arrogance.

“His behavior and attitudes reveal that he feels like a rejected genius,” the agent noted in his report, which has since been made public. “He shows that whoever does not agree with his views is stupid and incompetent.”

Decades later, Mr. Klaus, the 67-year-old president of the Czech Republic — an iconoclast with a perfectly clipped mustache — continues to provoke strong reactions. He has blamed what he calls the misguided fight against global warming for contributing to the international financial crisis, branded Al Gore an “apostle of arrogance” for his role in that fight, and accused the European Union of acting like a Communist state.

Now the Czech Republic is about to assume the rotating presidency of the European Union and there is palpable fear that Mr. Klaus will embarrass the world’s biggest trading bloc and complicate its efforts to address the economic crisis and expand its powers. His role in the Czech Republic is largely ceremonial, but he remains a powerful force here, has devotees throughout Europe and delights in basking in the spotlight.

“Oh God, Vaclav Klaus will come next,” read a recent headline in the Austrian daily Die Presse, in an article anticipating the havoc he could wreak in a union of 470 million people already divided over its future direction.

An economist by training and a free marketeer by ideology, Mr. Klaus has criticized the course set by the union’s departing leader, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. The ambitious Mr. Sarkozy has used France’s European Union presidency to push an agenda that includes broader and more coordinated regulation by the largest economies to tame the worst of the market’s excesses.

Even those who worry about Mr. Klaus’s potential role as a spoiler concede that his influence over policy in the European Union will be circumscribed, given his largely symbolic functions as president in the Czech Republic.

But Mr. Klaus’s sheer will and inflammatory talk — the eminent British historian Timothy Garton Ash once called him “one of the rudest men I have ever met” — are likely to have some impact.

“Klaus is a provocateur who will twist his arguments to get attention,” said Jiri Pehe, a former adviser to Vaclav Havel, Mr. Klaus’s rival and predecessor as president.

To supporters, Mr. Klaus is a brave, lone crusader, a defender of liberty, the only European leader in the mold of the formidable Margaret Thatcher. (Aides say Mr. Klaus has a photo of the former British prime minister in his office near his desk.)

To his many critics, he is a cynical populist, a hardheaded pragmatist long known as a foil to Mr. Havel, the philosopher-dreamer, and a troublemaker.

Mr. Klaus declined to be interviewed for this article. His office called a list of proposed questions “peculiar.”

As a former finance minister and prime minister, he is credited with presiding over the peaceful 1993 split of Czechoslovakia into two states and helping to transform the Czech Republic into one of the former Soviet bloc’s most successful economies.

But his ideas about governance are out of step with many of the European Union nations that his country will lead starting Jan. 1.

While even many of the world’s most ardent free marketeers acknowledged the need for the recent coordinated bailout of European banks, Mr. Klaus lambasted it as irresponsible protectionism. He blamed too much — rather than too little — regulation for the crisis.

A fervent critic of the environmental movement, he has called global warming a dangerous “myth,” arguing that the fight against climate change threatens economic growth.

Perhaps his greatest ire has been reserved for the European Union. In 2005, he called for it to be “scrapped.” Now, he is a vocal opponent of the Lisbon Treaty, which aims to help Europe become more of an international player, but which he argues will strip countries of sovereignty.

On a state visit to Ireland this month, Mr. Klaus incensed the government and annoyed many in his own country by publicly praising Declan Ganley, a businessman and political activist who was influential in persuading a majority of Irish voters in June to reject the treaty.

And while other European leaders have criticized a newly assertive Russia, Mr. Klaus has forged close ties with Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin and recently distanced himself from the Czech government’s criticism of Russia over the war with Georgia in August.

Those who know Mr. Klaus say his economic liberalism is an outgrowth of his upbringing. Born in 1941, he obtained an economics degree in 1963 and was deeply influenced by free market economists like Milton Friedman.

Mr. Klaus’s son and namesake, Vaclav, recalled in an interview that when he was 13, his father told him to read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn to better understand Communism’s oppressiveness.

“If you lived under communism, then you are very sensitive to forces that try to control or limit human liberty,” he said in an interview.

In 1989, during the Velvet Revolution to overthrow Czechoslovakia’s Communist leaders, Mr. Klaus offered his services as an economist to Civic Forum, the group opposing the government. When the new government took control, he became finance minister. But his relationship with the dissidents quickly soured.

Mr. Havel recalled in his memoirs that Mr. Klaus had an aversion “to the rest of us, whom he had clearly consigned to the same Dumpster, with a sign on it saying ‘left-wing intellectuals.’ ”

In 1991, Mr. Klaus founded a new center-right party, the Civic Democratic Party, which won elections in June 1992, making him prime minister. His radical privatization strategy — including a voucher scheme later emulated in Russia, where it led to the amassing of vast wealth by a few oligarchs — was marred by allegations of corruption, with Mr. Havel accusing Mr. Klaus of “gangster capitalism.”

Ladislav Jakl, now Mr. Klaus’s pony-tailed private secretary, said that the main difference between the leaders was that Mr. Havel sought to give people goodness whereas Mr. Klaus was determined to bestow freedom.

Mr. Klaus was forced to resign as prime minister in November 1997 after a government crisis caused by a party financing scandal. And in 2002, he was forced to resign as party leader when his party lost a second election.

But Mr. Klaus later decided to run for the presidency and won by a slim margin in 2003. He has since gained in popularity, and was re-elected this year by the Czech Parliament.

Bohumil Dolezal, a leading commentator who once advised Mr. Klaus, said Mr. Klaus’s greatest talent was his ability to appeal to average Czechs, who imbibed his easy populism along with their beers.

“Czechs have a deep and hysterical past full of injustice, and Klaus is a master at tapping into this,” Mr. Dolezal said, adding that the office of the presidency, despite its limited powers, lends the aura of emperor-king.

“Even if a horse was president of the Czech Republic, it would have a 50 percent approval rating,” he said. “And Klaus is surely much cleverer than a horse.” (source)

COLD WAR 21: Venezuela Elections Show Growth For Opposition Party

2008-11-25T00:09:00.000-08:00

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela's growing opposition and President Hugo Chavez's left-wing party shared the spoils from weekend elections as they jostled for political momentum in the OPEC nation on Monday.

The multi-party opposition eroded Chavez's dominance of regional politics, winning six top posts that govern over almost half of the population, although his Socialist Party took a clear majority of state races.

The results make more challenging Chavez's goal of changing the law to run for reelection in 2012. The opposition defeated that move in a referendum vote last year and gained some extra ground on Sunday.

In power for almost a decade, the popular anti-U.S. president won 17 of 22 states, but the opposition held onto the two states it won at the last regional elections four years ago, picked up three more and won the powerful mayoralty of the capital Caracas.

Opposition candidates were helped by widespread voter complaints the government has done too little to control some of the world's worst murder rates and Latin America's highest inflation rate.

The overall mixed results triggered a public relations battle as each side fought to seize the momentum by persuading Venezuelans it was the victor in an election where a high 65 percent of voters cast ballots.

The outcome of the post-election tussle could determine whether Chavez has the backing to realize his reelection goal or follow through on threats to spread his nationalizations program by seizing assets from landowners or food companies.

Chavez had campaigned frenetically saying his political future was at stake, and he claimed victory on Monday.

"The (revolutionary) flame is stronger today," he said. "This is a great victory for the party ... and now we will focus on the task of deepening and extending our project."

Still popular for spending freely on the majority poor, the man who calls former Cuban President Fidel Castro his mentor vowed to press his drive toward socialism despite plummeting income from Venezuela's main export, oil.

His party said the political map was still painted the red of Chavez's self-styled revolution and that his allies tallied about 1.5 million more votes overall than the opposition.

But emboldened by its second electoral advance in 12 months, the opposition celebrated that it now governs over Venezuela's most populous areas in a coastal "electoral corridor" that is often key to winning Venezuelan elections.

The opposition's wins in major urban centers enhance its visibility and its chances of building credibility that it can meet voters' demands for better services such as trash collection.

SPACE IN THE CENTER

Leopoldo Lopez, a young star of the opposition who the government blocked from standing with legal technicalities, said the election showed Venezuelan politics had finally shifted after years of Chavez's dominance.

"The main lesson from the election is that there is a sentiment of plurality among voters that is over and above the government and the opposition," he said. "We need to build an alternative for a different Venezuela that brings people together in the center."

Chavez, whose military formation was in a tank division, has sought to polarize the electorate.

In the campaign that he wanted to turn into a plebiscite on himself, he threatened to jail opposition leader Manuel Rosales, cut funds off to areas won by the opposition and even warned he could deploy tanks if the rich "oligarchs" beat his TV star pick in one state.

Controlling the judiciary, Congress and state companies, he eavesdropped on opponents and aired their conversations on state TV hoping to embarrass them.

Chavez has stripped some powers from elected officials, including authority over the police and hospitals in Caracas, and threatened to create government posts to oversee them.

"This reduces the importance of the gains made by the opposition as it will make it more difficult ... to build on them to mount a serious challenge to the regime down the road," Goldman Sachs senior economist Alberto Ramos said. (source)

COLD WAR 21: Venezuela Elections Held

2008-11-25T00:05:00.000-08:00

Residents wait to cast their ballots outside a polling station in Caracas, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2008. President Hugo Chavez sought to hold on to his dominance in state and municipal elections Sunday, facing an opposition aiming to win back power in key states and cities.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez's opponents made important gains in Venezuela's local elections, capturing the Caracas mayor's office and three of the most populous states, but his allies won a strong majority.

With more than 95 percent of votes counted, pro-Chavez candidates kept gubernatorial posts in 17 states, while the opposition won five states. Chavez trumpeted his party's domination of Sunday's vote as a sign to continue driving Venezuela toward "21st-century socialism."

"The people are telling me: 'Chavez continue down the same road,'" he said, hinting that he has not abandoned plans for constitutional changes that would expand his powers, push the economy toward socialism and allow him to run for re-election indefinitely.

Voters rejected the president's proposed overhaul of the constitution last year but Sunday's results clearly encouraged Chavez, who famously described U.S. President George W. Bush as the devil at the United Nations and has cultivated relations with U.S. antagonists in Cuba as well as Iran and more recently Russia. (source)

Cold War 21: Chavez Announces That The Russians Are On Their Way

2008-11-24T23:32:00.000-08:00

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that Russian warships will soon reach his country's Caribbean coast for joint naval exercises.

Chavez said the Russian ships "will enter Venezuelan waters within a matter of hours." He didn't say exactly when the ships are to arrive.

It's the first such deployment by the Russian navy in the Caribbean since the Cold War. Russia is sending the nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great, the destroyer Admiral Chabanenko, and logistical vessels including a tugboat and a supply ship.

The Russian navy said the two warships will visit the Venezuelan port of La Guaira starting Tuesday, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. It said the ships are scheduled to hold joint exercises with Venezuela's navy starting Dec. 1.

Chavez is also expecting a visit by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev starting Wednesday as part of a Latin American tour.

Chavez has been boosting ties with Russia while tensions with the U.S. have grown, and he has bought more than $4 billion in Russian weapons. (source)

Cold War 21: Medvedev Likes Obama's Weakness On Missile Issue

2008-11-24T23:27:00.001-08:00

LIMA, Peru (AFP) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Sunday he believed US president-elect Barack Obama could change Washington's position over a hotly contested plan for a US missile defense shield in Eastern Europe.

Asked if he saw a chance of a shift on the issue under Obama, Medvedev told reporters: "I think there are chances, because if the position of the current administration on this question looks extremely inflexible, the position of the president-elect looks more careful."

Striking a positive note about relations with the next US administration, Medvedev referred to the Obama team's refusal so far to establish its position on missile defense, after Poland claimed the matter was already decided and the project would go ahead.

"It shows at least our future American partners are thinking about this.

"They don't have a once-and-for-always prepared template for solving this problem.

"It means dialogue is possible.... A change of position is possible," Medvedev said.

The Russian leader was speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Lima, at which he met US President George W. Bush on Saturday.

Washington insists the proposed missile defense facilities to be established in the Czech Republic and Poland are directed purely at "rogue states" such as Iran and not against Russia's vast arsenal.

Medvedev earlier this month announced he would deploy Iskander missiles to the western exclave of Kaliningrad in response to the US plans, although he has indicated this could be reversed in the event of a US change of heart.

On Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed Russia wanted a complete abandonment of the US plans and said US promises to ease Russian concerns had so far been empty.

"There has been no easing of our concerns," Lavrov told reporters, adding that Russia would set out its formal position at talks in December.

"Our concerns can only be removed by one thing -- the renunciation of plans for unilateral establishment of a missile defense system and an agreement to work together from scratch," he said. (source)

ISLAMOFILE 092208: Iraqi Minister Says "Pirates Will Infest Gulf If US Quits Iraq Too Soon"

2008-11-24T23:18:00.000-08:00

Iraqi Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim al-Obeidi, seen here in 2007, warned on Saturday that the Gulf would be infested by pirates and Iraq left at risk of attack by its neighbours if US forces leave the country too soon.

Iraq's defence minister warned on Saturday that the Gulf would be infested by pirates and Iraq left at risk of attack by its neighbours if US forces leave the country too soon.
"Coalition forces are currently protecting the Gulf, and our navy will not receive its first ships until April 2009," Abdel Qader Jassem Mohammed al-Obeidi told a press conference in Baghdad.

If those forces "withdraw precipitously, our gulf will become like the Gulf of Aden, where there have been 95 acts of piracy," he said.

Obeidi was addressing journalists on his support for the controversial military pact that would allow US troops to remain in Iraq until the end of 2011, a deal now being considered by the Iraqi parliament.

The minister did not enlarge on his remarks or explain how the Gulf would become prey to pirates when one of its littoral states, Bahrain, is home to the US Navy's Fifth Fleet.

The Gulf, which supplies the bulk of world oil imports, is also bordered by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Iran, all of whose navies patrol the waterway.

Somali-based pirates have in recent months been plaguing shipping in the Gulf of Aden and in the Indian Ocean off the east coast of Africa.

Obeidi also said Iraqi territory risks being attacked by neighbouring states, referring to Turkey's bombing of Turkish Kurdish PKK rebels in their mountain hideaways of northern Iraq.

"Today, Iraq is the target of bombing from abroad but it is limited because the (US-led) coalition represents a dissuasion force," he said.

"If it not there any more, the whole country risks being the target of shooting, even (the southern port of) Basra, and they will justify their actions by referring to information on a PKK base there," the minister said.

Obeidi also said his country has turned into "a battleground for different foreign intelligence services," without naming any countries.

"Iraqi security forces, backed by the coalition, must impose a limit on their activities, of which Iraqis are the victims," the defence minister added. (source)

ISLAMOFILE 112108: Islamists On Trail Of Somali Pirates

2008-11-24T23:00:00.000-08:00

Six of the eight pirates handed over by British authorities to Kenyan police in Mombasa are seen in this frame grab November 19, 2008. The British navy captured the Somali pirates after the attempted hijacking of a Danish cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden on November 11.

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Dozens of Somali Islamist insurgents stormed a port on Friday hunting the pirates behind the seizure of a Saudi supertanker that was the world's biggest hijack, a local elder said.

Separately, police in the capital Mogadishu said they had ambushed and shot dead 17 Islamist militants, in the latest illustration of the chaos in the Horn of Africa country that has fueled a dramatic surge in piracy.

The Sirius Star -- a Saudi vessel with a $100 million oil cargo and 25-man crew from the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Croatia, Poland and Britain -- is believed anchored offshore near Haradheere, about half-way up Somalia's long coastline.

"Saudi Arabia is a Muslim country and hijacking its ship is a bigger crime than other ships," Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow, an Islamist spokesman, told Reuters. "Haradheere is under our control and we shall do something about that ship."

Both the U.S. Navy and Dubai-based ship operator Vela International said they could not confirm a media report the hijackers were demanding a $25 million ransom. That would be the biggest demand to date by pirates who prey on boats in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean off Somalia.

A pirate identifying himself as Jamii Adam told the Saudi-owned Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that negotiations were taking place with the ship's owners, saying the ransom demanded was not excessive but declining to give a figure.

He said it had cost the pirates $500,000 to seize the vessel. "We bore many costs to hijack it," he said.

Iran's biggest shipping firm said gunmen holding a Hong Kong-flagged ship carrying wheat and 25 crew members had set demands for its release, but it did not reveal what they were.

An upsurge of attacks this year has forced up shipping insurance costs, made some firms go round South Africa instead of via the Suez Canal, brought millions in ransom payments, and prompted an international naval response.

Pirates released a commercial vessel with 19 crew on board which had been hijacked in September, Andrew Mwangura of the East African Seafarers' Association said on Friday.

Mwangura said the crew were Romanians, but the Romanian authorities denied this. Interfax news agency said the crew included six Georgian citizens.

SOMALI NATION 'AT STAKE'

In Mogadishu, police said they laid in wait and shot dead 17 fighters from the militant al Shabaab insurgent group during an attempted attack on a senior official.

The Islamists have been fighting the government and its Ethiopian allies for about two years. They launch near-daily guerrilla strikes in the capital and control most of the south, including a town just nine miles from Mogadishu.

Islamist leaders deny allegations they collude with pirates and insist they will stamp down on them if they win power, citing a crackdown when they ruled the south briefly in 2006.

Some analysts, however, say Islamist militants are benefiting from the spoils of piracy and arms shipments facilitated by the sea gangs. Analysts also accuse government figures of collaboration with pirates.

The elder in Haradheere port told Reuters the Islamists arrived wanting to find out immediately about the Sirius Star, which was captured on Saturday about 450 nautical miles off Kenya in the pirates' furthest strike to date.

"The Islamists arrived searching for the pirates and the whereabouts of the Saudi ship," said the elder, who declined to be named. "I saw four cars full of Islamists driving in the town from corner to corner. The Islamists say they will attack the pirates for hijacking a Muslim ship."

In Mogadishu, al Shabaab gunmen drove to the home of the local Madina district chairman early in the morning, but found police officers lying in wait, witnesses said.

"We got information before they left their hideouts and we were able to surround them," said a police spokesman. "Thirteen of the dead bodies lie in the street near the chairman's house."

Residents said the al Shabaab fighters wore black scarves round their heads with Arabic script reading "God is great."

Somalis are traditionally moderate Muslims, and analysts say al Shabaab -- which Washington has listed as a foreign terrorist organization with close links to al Qaeda -- does not have deep popular support, despite having the upper hand militarily.

Somalia has been without effective central government since the 1991 toppling of a military dictator by warlords.

The capture of the Sirius Star has caused panic around the world, with the rampant piracy threatening to become a further drag on trade at a time of global economic downturn.

Kenya's Foreign Minister Moses Wetangula summoned foreign ambassadors in Nairobi to appeal for their countries to make all efforts to end the menace. "Act now and not tomorrow," he said. (source)

ISLAMOFILE 112008: Saudi Arabia Throws In The Muslim Card On The Pirate Dilema, Somalia Pirates May Reduce Ransom Demand for Tanker

2008-11-24T22:49:00.000-08:00

Nov. 24 (Bloomberg) -- The Somali pirates who hijacked an oil-laden Saudi Arabian supertanker said they may reduce their demand for a $25 million ransom and vowed to defend themselves if an attempt is made to free the ship.

“Negotiations are smoothly ongoing between us,” Abdi Salan Ahmed, a pirates’ representative, said in a telephone interview today from Harardhere, a northern Somali town controlled by Islamist militias near the ship’s anchorage. “There may be some type of ransom reduction but I can’t confirm it now.”

The tanker, the Sirius Star, belongs to Saudi Arabia’s state-owned Vela International Ltd. and is carrying 2 million barrels of oil valued at about $110 million. It was hijacked Nov. 15 about 420 nautical miles (778 kilometers) off Somalia, along with 25 crew members from Britain, Poland, Croatia and Saudi Arabia.

Spurred by the willingness of ship owners to pay ransoms, hijackings in the Gulf of Aden region and elsewhere leaped this year. Some 581 crew members were taken hostage worldwide from January to September, compared with 172 during the same period in 2007, the International Maritime Bureau says. Ransoms have grown to more than $1 million per ship on average, compared with tens of thousands of dollars a few years ago.

Yemeni Vessel Hijacked

Somali pirates hijacked another ship in the Arabian Sea, a Yemeni cargo vessel, the Associated Press reported today.

The hijacking of the Saudi Arabian-owned oil tanker, the largest vessel ever seized, may prompt Western and Arab countries to get tougher.

Last week, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization said it is reassessing its operations in the region; Russia said it’s likely to add to its one ship in the area; Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said his country would contribute to the NATO force, though he didn’t specify how.

There are currently 15 warships in the region, including four NATO vessels, and ships from India, Malaysia and Russia. The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan has a task force in the area and a European Union fleet is expected to reach the zone next month. The navies of India, Russia, Britain and Germany have all battled pirate vessels in the last 14 days alone.

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said the union’s mission -- called Atalanta and involving five or six warships -- “will have rules of engagement that will be robust and all means to protect, to deter, and will include the use of force,” at a news conference in Brussels today, Agence France- Presse reported.

Diverting Vessels

Frontline Ltd., the world’s largest operator of supertankers, is talking with “a few” oil companies about diverting vessels from the Suez Canal to avoid the pirates, Jens Martin Jensen, interim chief executive officer of the company’s Oslo-based management unit, said by phone today.

A.P. Moeller-Maersk A/S, Europe’s largest shipping line, said Nov. 20 it would halt shipments through the Gulf of Aden, which is flanked by Somalia and Yemen and leads to the Suez Canal. TMT Co. Ltd., BW Shipping Managers Pte and Euronav NV are also considering diverting deliveries.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the alliance isn’t considering using a naval blockade to combat piracy, after maritime companies called for action.

“As far as NATO is concerned this is not in the cards,” he said at a news conference in Brussels today. Security Council resolutions “do not include these kinds of actions.”

Peter Swift of the London-based International Association of Independent Tanker Owners (Intertanko) had suggested that the UN should coordinate naval action off Somalia, AFP reported.

Higher Costs

Customers hiring very large crude carriers, or VLCCs, pay about $1.95 a barrel to ship oil to Europe from the Persian Gulf around South Africa, compared with about $1.20 through the Suez Canal, Bloomberg calculations show.

Sheikh Abdulaahi Osman, a commander of the Islamic Courts Union group in Harardhere, which is located in the semi- autonomous Puntland region, yesterday warned the pirates holding the Saudi ship they face armed conflict if they don’t release it.

“Saudi is a Muslim country and it is a very big crime to hold Muslim property,” Osman said. “I warned again and again those who hold the ship must free it unconditionally.”

The Somali pirates have taken the Sirius Star farther out to sea, anchoring it 16 miles north of Harardhere, U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet spokesman Lieutenant Nate Christensen said by telephone from Bahrain today. The Fifth Fleet hasn’t had any communication with the pirates or the ship, he added.

Extra Militiamen

Last week, extra militiamen began arriving in Harardhere to help the pirates holding the ship to bolster their defenses.

Negotiations between Vela and the pirates may end in three or four days, with the raiders possibly accepting a ransom of between $6 million and $7 million, Asharq al-Awsat reported, citing an unidentified person close to the talks.

“We are confident the tribal elders are capable of persuading these persons to back down on their demands and release the tanker because Somali society is a tribal one, ruled by traditions and anyone who rejects these is ostracized,” Nabil Khalaf Ashur, Saudi envoy to Kenya, told the Saudi-owned newspaper.

Vela has declined to comment on the ransom demand or the negotiations. The Saudi foreign minister confirmed that talks were under way last week.

The Sirius Star was bound for St. Eustatius in the Caribbean Sea on its original course.(source)

Cold War 21: China 'using cyberwarfare to challenge US power'

2008-11-24T22:30:00.000-08:00

The report accuses China of using its foreign exchange reserves, built up through "heavy-handed government control" to buy influence.

In one recent example, a government sovereign wealth fund agreed to use the reserves to loan money to Costa Rica in return for its dropping diplomatic recognition of China's rival, Taiwan.

Meanwhile, it has built up its army of cyber-spies to such an extent that it can launch attacks "anywhere in the world at any time".

The number of attacks on US government, defence companies and businesses rose by a third in 2007, to 43,880 incidents affecting five million computers, according to the claims by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Some were so sophisticated that they might be impossible to counteract, or even detect. Meanwhile, its space programme, targeted at what one Chinese military strategist called "America's soft ribs", was steadily increasing the vulnerability of US assets.

"China is intent on expanding its sphere of control even at the expense of its Asian neighbours and the United States," it said.

Pentagon and other Washington studies have accused China of using computer hacking to steal information and threaten disruption to both civil and defence services before, and particularly since an alleged co-ordinated attack in 2002, code-named by the US "Titan Rain", downloaded huge quantities of information.

The Chinese government vociferously denies being involved in such attacks.

But the current report comes at a time of great American unease that China will benefit from the global financial crisis to cut into its economic, political and even military dominance.

A separate US study published yesterday said that by 2025 America would probably have to share world leadership with India and China.

The increased attention given in the report to China's economic policy is another sign of that unease.

China has been accused of keeping its exchange rate too low, boosting its exports artificially and using the dollars it is forced to buy as a result of the policy to lend back to the United States, exacerbating the recent credit bubble.

"Rather than use this money for the benefit of its citizens – by funding pensions and erecting hospitals and schools, for example – China has been using the funds to seek political and economic influence over other nations," Larry Wortzel, the Commission chairman, said at the report's launch.

The regular publication of such reports over the last six years with cross-party backing – the committee consists of six Democrats and six Republicans – has not deterred President George W Bush from pursuing ever closer business and diplomatic relations with China, a policy set in place by his father, the first President Bush.

China is waiting anxiously to see whether an Obama presidency brings less hawkishness on international relations, or a more protectionist trade policy, which Beijing fears.

The commission called for legislation pressuring China to raise the value of its currency and to demand its main sovereign wealth fund, China Investment Corporation, disclose investments it is making in the United States.

"China appears far less likely than other nations to manage its sovereign wealth funds without regard to political influence that it can gain by offering such sizeable investments," the report said. (source)

Somali Pirates Disable Yemen

2008-11-24T22:23:00.001-08:00

BEIRUT, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Somali pirates preying on shipping in the Gulf of Aden have struck most often off the coast of Yemen, an unstable, impoverished Arab state that has few resources to tackle the maritime scourge.

Ships often take sea lanes near Yemen to avoid proximity to pirate lairs in lawless Somalia or its breakaway Somaliland and Puntland regions, but there is no sign of Yemeni involvement in the attacks, diplomats in Sanaa and some analysts say.

They do not exclude links between Somali pirates and some of the several hundred thousand Somali refugees and migrants in Yemen, but cannot confirm theories that pirates have forged ties with criminal networks there during years of people-smuggling.

Many analysts, however, regard Yemen's own chronic problems as a major potential threat to order in the Horn of Africa.

"Future instability in Yemen could expand a lawless zone stretching from northern Kenya, through Somalia and the Gulf of Aden, to Saudi Arabia," concluded researcher Ginny Hill in a paper issued by London's Chatham House think-tank on Wednesday.

A European diplomat in Sanaa said the Yemeni government had grave concerns about maritime insecurity, in part because of the risk that it could damage efforts to attract foreign investment.

These include offshore oil exploration and a liquefied natural gas terminal due to operate next year, both seen as vital to counter declining oil output. Oil now accounts for 90 percent of export earnings and 75 percent of state revenue.

Despite Western training and assistance, Yemen's tiny coastguard and navy is ill-equipped to patrol its 1,906 km (1,191 mile) coastline, even against the crammed boatloads of Somali refugees smuggled to its shores every year.

"At the last count, the Yemeni navy had 15 ships, nine of which were operational. Only two have deepwater capacity," said another Sanaa-based diplomat. "Yemen lacks the ability to really police the deep water in the Gulf of Aden area."

Pirates operating across ocean expanses have defied the foreign navies trying to stop them -- they showed their reach last week by seizing a Saudi supertanker with a $100 million oil cargo 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa, Kenya.

A naval force with NATO and European Union components guards a shipping corridor in the Gulf of Aden. U.S., French and Russian warships are also deployed off Somalia.

CRIMINAL NETWORKS

Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein told Reuters on Wednesday naval patrols alone could not stamp out pirates whom he linked to unidentified "criminal networks" beyond Somalia.

Such networks operate out of the United Arab Emirates, not Yemen, said Michael Weinstein, a Somalia expert and professor of political science at Purdue University in the United States.

"The major business interests abetting and controlling the piracy to a great extent are based in the UAE," Weinstein said, describing them as diaspora Somali entrepreneurs without known links to political or militant Islamist groups.

He said the pirate gangs were based mostly in Puntland and attributed the spike in attacks to a collapse of authority in the region, which claimed autonomy from Somalia in 1998.

"The Puntland regime, which had been seen as relatively stable, has basically crumbled," he said. "The administration there is honeycombed with officials with links to the pirates."

The piracy gangs, he added, were mostly from the Darod clan and were cooperating across sub-clan conflict lines, rather than following "the normal Somali model of internecine strife".

For Yemen, the main impact of Somalia's troubles so far has been the flood of refugees escaping chaos, war and insecurity.

About 32,000 survived the perilous sea crossing in the first 10 months of this year, according to the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR). At least 230 people had died and 365 were missing.

It is a measure of their desperation that they take such risks to reach Yemen, grappling with 27 percent inflation, 40 percent unemployment and 46 percent child malnutrition.

"Yemen's collapse has been predicted for years but the country has muddled through," Hill wrote for Chatham House.

"However, Yemen's window of opportunity to shape its own future and create a working post-oil economy is narrowing as oil production falls closer to consumption levels."

"State failure" in Yemen would dim peace prospects in Somalia and endanger security across the region.

"Piracy, smuggling and violent jihad would flourish, with implications for the security of shipping routes and the transit of oil through the Suez Canal," Hill wrote. (source)

ISLAMOFILE 111908: Iran Is Stckpiling Enriched Uranium, Says The UN's IAEA

2008-11-24T16:08:00.001-08:00

Iranian rocket test earlier this year

Iran is forging ahead with its nuclear programme, the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog reported on Wednesday, deepening the dilemma facing US president-elect Barack Obama over his campaign promise to engage with Tehran.

The latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency reveals that Iran is rapidly increasing its stockpile of enriched uranium, which could be rendered into weapons-grade material should Tehran decide to develop a nuclear device.

The agency says that, as of this month, Tehran had amassed 630kg of low enriched uranium hexafluoride, up from 480kg in late August. Analysts say Iran is enriching uranium at such a pace that, by early next year, it could reach break-out capacity – one step away from producing enough fissile material for a crude nuclear bomb.

“They are moving forward, they are not making diplomatic overtures, they are accumulating low enriched uranium,” said Cliff Kupchan, an analyst at the Eurasia Group, a risk consultancy in Washington. “These guys are committed to their nuclear programme: if we didn’t know that, they just told us again.”

The IAEA report also says there has been a breakdown of communication between the agency and Iran over alleged research on an atomic weapon. “The Iranians are making good progress on enrichment but there is absolute stone-walling on past military activities,” said Mark Fitzpatrick of the International institute for Strategic Studies. “It’s very disappointing.”

The progress chalked up by Iran increases the difficulties for Mr Obama, who campaigned on promises of talking to America’s enemies, although during the election he scaled down his initial vow to meet Iran’s leaders to a more general commitment to consider doing so if it advanced US interests.

“Obama faces a real dilemma,” said the Eurasia Group’s Mr Kupchan. “He must decide whether to pursue diplomacy quickly in light of rapid Iranian progress or whether to wait in the hope of a more moderate Iranian leadership after Iran’s June presidential election.”

European diplomats have responded favourably to Mr Obama’s suggestion of US engagement with Iran, although they are keen to avoid unilateral US actions that would rip up the approach fashioned by the permanent five members of the UN Security Council and Germany.

IAEA officials said relations between the organisation and Iran had deteriorated so much there had been no contact between them for over two months, UN officials said on Wednesday.

”We had gridlock before but then at least we were talking to each other. Now it’s worse. There is no communication whatsoever, no progress regarding possible military dimensions in their programme,” a senior UN official said.

Ahead of Wednesday’s report, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, the Iranian president, signalled that his country would press ahead with its nuclear program.

In a speech broadcast on TV, he said the US and its major allies wanted to deprive Iran of “honor and independence” by pressuring the country into halting its uranium enrichment work.

“Now the great powers are disappointed, as they have not the least bit of hope to break the Iranian people down,” he said. “If great powers seek to take over Iran’s rights, Iranian people will slap them so hard that they won’t find their way back home.”(source)

ISLAMOFILE 111908: Iran Bans More Than 5 Million Web Sites

2008-11-24T16:00:00.000-08:00

Two Iranian women work at an Internet cafe in Tehran in 2004. Iran has blocked access to more than five million Internet sites, whose content is mostly perceived as immoral and anti-social, a judiciary official was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

Iran has blocked access to more than five million Internet sites, whose content is mostly perceived as immoral and anti-social, a judiciary official was quoted as saying on Wednesday.
"The enemies seek to assault our religious identity by exploiting the Internet," Abdolsamad Khoram Abadi, an advisor to Iran's prosecutor general, was quoted by Kargozaran newspaper as saying.

The Internet "inflicts social, political, economic and moral damage, which is worrying," he said, adding that "social vice caused by the Internet is more than that by the satellite network," Mehr news agency reported.

With about 21 million users, the Internet is widely popular in Iran, which information ministry officials say ranks among the top 20 user countries.

In recent years, Internet service providers have been told to block access to political, human rights and women's sites and weblogs expressing dissent or deemed to be pornographic and anti-Islamic.

The ban has also targeted such popular social networking sites as Facebook and YouTube, as well as news sites.

Iran's reformist press was hit by a massive crackdown in 2000, and many journalists turned to blogging after their publications were shut down.

The closures have continued under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, elected in 2005, and have targeted newspapers and other media, including web sites and news agencies, of all political persuasions.

Conservatives have also warned against "cyber imperialism" targeting developing countries.

In its latest edition, Sobh-e Sadegh, the publication of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, said, "The Internet, satellite (channels) and text messages played an important role in colour revolutions in Serbia, Ukraine and Georgia."

The weekly said Internet search engines Yahoo and Google, BBC and CNN televisions and even international news agencies including "Reuters, Associated Press, UPI, AFP and DPA" operated as "tools of diplomacy conducted through media."

The magazine accused the European Union of seeking to "develop anti-Iranian cyber space" by supporting dissident bloggers.

Despite a strict ban on satellite television, dishes dot many Iranian rooftops and people have access to dozens of Persian-language channels, including the Voice of America, broadcasting a daily dose of politics and entertainment.

Islamic republic officials have been concerned about BBC Persian-language television which is yet to be launched and warned against interviewing or cooperating with such media.

The head of Iran's state-run television recently said that 30 percent of Iranians watch satellite channels, but observers say the figures are likely to be higher. (source)

ISLAMOFILE 111908: US Strike On Nov 1st Kills al Qaeda Propaganda Chief

2008-11-24T15:51:00.000-08:00

An unmanned Predator drone. A major Al-Qaeda operative of Arab origin was among six militants killed overnight in a suspected US missile strike in northwest Pakistan.

A major Al-Qaeda operative of Arab origin was among six militants killed overnight in a suspected US missile strike in northwest Pakistan, a senior security official told AFP Wednesday.

Security sources identified the militant as Abdullah Azam al-Saudi, a senior member in Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

"He was a senior commander of Al-Qaeda and was involved in recruiting and training of fighters," the senior official said.

According to US intelligence shared with Pakistan, al-Saudi was the main link between Al-Qaeda's senior command and Taliban networks in the Pakistani border region, an Islamabad-based senior security official said.

"He was the man coordinating between Al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders on this side of the border, and also involved in recruiting and training fighters," the official told AFP.

He is the second high-profile Al-Qaeda operative killed in recent US missile strikes in Pakistan's rugged tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

Egyptian Al-Qaeda operative Abu Jihad al-Masri, described by the US as Al-Qaeda's propaganda chief, was killed in a missile strike in Pakistan in the early hours of November 1.

He was among several rebels killed when two missiles fired by a suspected US spy drone hit a truck in the North Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan, security officials said. (source)

ISLAMOFILE 111908: Al Qaeda's Number 2 Leader Chastises Newly Elected Obama

2008-11-24T14:59:00.000-08:00

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri is criticizing Barack Obama in a new message, calling him a demeaning racial term implying that the president-elect is a black American who does the bidding of whites.

Al-Zawahri says in an audio message, which appeared on militant Web sites Wednesday, that Obama is "the direct opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X. He calls Obama a "house negro."

The audio plays over still pictures of al-Zawahri, Malcolm X praying, and Obama with Jewish leaders.

In the first public al-Qaida comment about Obama's electoral victory, al-Zawahri adds that Obama's plan to shift troops to Afghanistan is doomed to failure, because Afghans will resist. (source)

Here is the entire speech from al-Zawahiri:

TRANSCRIPT: English Translation of Zawahiri Message
Wednesday, November 19, 2008

In the Name of Allah, and all Praise is due to Allah, and Prayers and Peace on the Messenger of Allah and on his family, Companions and allies.

Muslim brothers everywhere: Peace be upon you and the Mercy of Allah and His blessings. As for what comes after:

Barack Obama has won the presidency of the United States of America, and on this occasion, I would like to send several messages.

First, a message of congratulations to the Muslim Ummah on the American people’s admission of defeat in Iraq. Although the evidence of America’s defeat in Iraq appeared years ago, Bush and his administration continued to be stubborn and deny the brilliant midday sun. If Bush has achieved anything, it is in his transfer of America’s disaster and predicament to his successor. But the American people, by electing Obama, declared its anxiety and apprehension about the future towards which the policy of the likes of Bush is leading it, and so it decided to support someone calling for withdrawal from Iraq.

The second of these messages is to the new president of the United States. I tell him: you have reached the position of president, and a heavy legacy of failure and crimes awaits you. A failure in Iraq to which you have admitted, and a failure in Afghanistan to which the commanders of your army have admitted. The other thing to which I want to bring your attention is that what you’ve announced about how you’re going to reach an understanding with Iran and pull your troops out of Iraq to send them to Afghanistan is a policy which was destined for failure before it was born. It appears that you don’t know anything about the Muslim Ummah and its history, and the fate of the traitors who cooperated with the invaders against it, and don’t know anything about the history of Afghanistan and its free and defiant Muslim people. And if you still want to be stubborn about America’s failure in Afghanistan, then remember the fate of Bush and Pervez Musharraf, and the fate of the Soviets and British before them. And be aware that the dogs of Afghanistan have found the flesh of your soldiers to be delicious, so send thousands after thousands to them.

As for the crimes of America which await you, it appears that you continue to be captive to the same criminal American mentality towards the world and towards the Muslims. The Muslim Ummah received with extreme bitterness your hypocritical statements to and stances towards Israel, which confirmed to the Ummah that you have chosen a stance of hostility to Islam and Muslims.

You represent the direct opposite of honorable black Americans like Malik al-Shabazz, or Malcolm X (may Allah have mercy on him). You were born to a Muslim father, but you chose to stand in the ranks of the enemies of the Muslims, and pray the prayer of the Jews, although you claim to be Christian, in order to climb the rungs of leadership in America. And so you promised to back Israel, and you threatened to strike the tribal regions in Pakistan, and to send thousands more troops to Afghanistan, in order for the crimes of the American Crusade in it to continue. And last Monday, your aircraft killed 40 Afghan Muslims at a wedding party in Kandahar. As for Malik al-Shabazz (may Allah have mercy on him), he was born to a black pastor killed by white bigots, but Allah favored him with guidance to Islam, and so he prided himself on his fraternity with the Muslims, and he condemned the crimes of the Crusader West against the weak and oppressed, and he declared his support for peoples resisting American occupation, and he spoke about the worldwide revolution against the Western power structure.

That’s why it wasn’t strange that Malik al-Shabazz (may Allah have mercy on him) was killed, while you have climbed the rungs of the presidency to take over the leadership of the greatest criminal force in the history of mankind and the leadership of the most violent Crusade ever against the Muslims.

And in you and in Colin Powell, Rice and your likes, the words of Malcolm X (may Allah have mercy on him) concerning “House Negroes” are confirmed.

You also must appreciate, as you take over the presidency of America during its Crusade against Islam and Muslims, that you are neither facing individuals nor organizations, but are facing a Jihadi awakening and renaissance which is shaking the pillars of the entire Islamic world; and this is the fact which you and your government and country refuse to recognize and pretend not to see.

As for the third message, it is to the Muslim Ummah. I tell it: America, the criminal, trespassing Crusader, continues to be the same as ever, so we must continue to harm it, in order for it to come to its senses, because its criminal, expansionist Crusader project in your lands has only been neutralized by the sacrifices of your sons, the Mujahideen. This, then, is the path, so stick to it.

As for the fourth message, it is to the lions of Islam, the Mujahideen. I tell them: may Allah reward you in the best way for your historic heroics, which have ruined America’s plans and rendered its projects ineffective. So be firm and resolute. Your enemy’s stagger has begun, so don’t stop hitting him.

And I say to my brothers the Mujahideen in Iraq in general and the Islamic State of Iraq in particular, and to its Amir, the towering mountain Abu ‘Umar al-Baghdadi: your enemy has admitted defeat, and the forthcoming stage is expected to be dominated by conspiracies and betrayals in order to cover the American withdrawal, so you must persevere, for victory is in an hour of perseverance.

And I tell my brothers, the lions of Islam in Somalia: rejoice in victory and conquest. America is gathering its wounds in Iraq, and Ethiopia is looking for a way out, and for this reason, the stage of conspiracies and machinations has begun. So hold tightly to the truth for which you have given your lives, and don’t put down your weapons before the Mujahid state of Islam and Tawheed has been set up in Somalia.

And I tell all Mujahideen everywhere: the Hubal of the age has begun to falter and recede, and Allah has granted you success and honored you by making you the most important cause of that, so be resolute on the path of Jihad until you meet your Lord while He is pleased with you.

And my fifth message is to all the world’s weak and oppressed. I tell them: America has put on a new face, but its heart full of hate, mind drowning in greed, and spirit which spreads evil, murder, repression and despotism continue to be the same as always. And the Mujahideen of Islam, by the grace of Allah, continue to be the spearhead of the resistance against it to restrain it from injustice, aggression and arrogance.

As for my final message, it is to the American people. I tell it: you incurred defeat and losses from the foolish actions of Bush and his gang, and at the same time, Shaykh Usama bin Ladin (may Allah preserve him) sent you a message to withdraw from the lands of the Muslims and refrain from stealing their treasures and interfering in their affairs. So choose for yourself whatever you like, and bear the consequences of your choice, and as you judge, you will be judged.

And our final prayer is that all praise is due to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, and may Allah send prayers and peace on our Master Muhammad and his family and Companions.
(source)

Somali Pirates Hijack Thai Fishing Boat, 16 Crew

2008-11-24T14:50:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI (AP) - Separate bands of pirates hijacked two ships and captured their crews, while yet another opened fire on an Indian navy ship before being driven off - clear signs that the brigands roaming the Gulf of Aden are becoming bolder and more violent, officials said Wednesday.

A Thai ship with 16 crew members and an Iranian cargo vessel with a crew of 25 were hijacked Tuesday in the Gulf of Aden, where Somalia-based pirates appear to be attacking ships at will, said Noel Choong of the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Malaysia.

"It's getting out of control," Choong said.

The incidents raised to eight the number of ships hijacked this week alone, he said. Since the beginning of the year, 39 ships have been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden, out of 95 attacked.

"There is no firm deterrent, that's why the pirate attacks are continuing," Choong said. "The criminal activities are flourishing because the risks are low and the rewards are extremely high."

The pirates used to mainly roam the waters off the Somali coast, but now they have spread in every direction and are targeting ships farther out at sea, according to Choong.

He said 17 vessels remain in the hands of pirates along with more than 300 crew members, including a Ukrainian ship loaded with weapons and a Saudi Arabian supertanker carrying $100 million in crude.

A multicoalition naval force has increased patrols in the region and scored a success Tuesday when an Indian warship destroyed a suspected pirate ship that had opened fire off the coast of Oman.

The Indian navy said the pirates fired on the INS Tabar after the officers asked it to stop to be searched. Indian forces fired back, destroying the ship and then chased one of the speed boats, which was later found abandoned. The other escaped, according to a navy statement.

Despite the stepped-up patrols, the attacks have continued unabated off Somalia, which is caught up in an Islamic insurgency and has had no functioning government since 1991. Pirates have generally released ships they have seized after ransoms are paid.

NATO has three warships in the Gulf of Aden and the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th Fleet also has ships in the region.

But U.S. Navy Commander Jane Campbell of the 5th Fleet said naval patrols simply cannot prevent attacks given the vastness of the sea and the 21,000 vessels passing through the Gulf of Aden every year.

"Given the size of the area and given the fact that we do not have naval assets - either ships or airplanes - to be everywhere with every single ship" it would be virtually impossible to prevent every attack, she said.

The Gulf of Aden connects to the Red Sea, which in turn is linked to the Mediterranean by the Suez Canal. The route is thousands of miles and many days shorter than going around the Cape of Good Hope off the southern tip of Africa.

The Thai ship, which was flying a flag from the tiny Pacific nation of Kiribati but operated out of Thailand, made a distress call as it was being chased by pirates in two speedboats but the phone connection was cut off midway.

Wicharn Sirichaiekawat, manager of Sirichai Fisheries Co. Ltd., told The Associated Press that the ship, the "Ekawat Nava 5," was headed from Oman to Yemen to deliver fishing equipment.

"We have not heard from them since so we don't know what the demands are," Wicharn said. "We have informed the families of the crew but right now, we don't have much more information to give them either."

Of the 16 crew members, Wicharn said 15 are Thai and one is Cambodian.

The Iranian carrier was flying a Hong Kong flag but operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines.

On Tuesday, a major Norwegian shipping group, Odfjell SE, ordered its more than 90 tankers to sail around Africa rather than use the Suez Canal after the seizure of the Saudi tanker Saturday.

"We will no longer expose our crew to the risk of being hijacked and held for ransom by pirates in the Gulf of Aden," said Terje Storeng, Odfjell's president and chief executive.

Saudi Arabia, the world's leading oil producer, has condemned the hijacking and said it will join the international fight against piracy. Despite the fact that its government barely works, Somali officials vowed to try to rescue the ship by force if necessary.

The supertanker, the MV Sirius Star, was anchored Tuesday close to Harardhere, the main pirates' den on the Somali coast, with a full load of 2 million barrels of oil and 25 crew members. (source)

ISLAMOFILE 111808: Israel Declares Herself Ready For Iran's Nukes

2008-11-24T14:38:00.000-08:00

Brig.-Gen. Ido Nehushtan, commander of the Israeli Air Force.

"We are ready to do whatever is demanded of us" in order to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, IAF commander Maj. -Gen. Ido Nehushtan told German magazine Der Spiegel in an interview published Tuesday.

Nehushtan told the magazine that whether a military strike is eventually decided upon is a political question and not an issue of Israel's military capabilities.

A strike against Iran's nuclear facilities "is a political decision," the IAF commander said, "but if I understand it correctly, all options are on the table… The Air Force is a very robust and flexible force. We are ready to do whatever is demanded of us."

When asked by the paper whether the Israeli military was able to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities, which are spread around the country and partly located underground, Nehushtan said, "Please understand that I do not want to get into details. I can only say this: It is not a technical or logistical question."

"Modern technology is one thing, but the biggest advantage we have is our soldiers and officers. Israel is a small country. We neither have a big population nor natural resources. Our biggest asset is our human resources. And it is the Air Force that makes best use of it," he said.

Nehushtan then addressed the new reality in Lebanon since the integration of Hizbullah into the government in Beirut several months ago.

"Hizbullah has been part of the Lebanese government since this spring. It is not a fringe terror organization - it is supported by the state. Militarily, Hizbullah is stronger than the regular Lebanese army. If they attack us, we might react differently [to how we did in the 2006 Second Lebanon War]," he said.

Asked about deploying missile defense systems to protect Israelis from the Kassam rockets and mortar shells fired from Gaza, as well as the Iranian threat of ballistic missiles, the IAF commander described Israel's huge investments in missile defense as an "insurance policy."

"Each type of rocket requires a different defense system. Up until today, only the Arrow System, is functioning. It can intercept ballistic missiles. In order to defend ourselves against the short-range rockets of Hamas and Hizbullah, we are building the Iron Dome system. In response to the threat of medium-range rockets, we are developing a system called David's Sling. This is all very expensive. It is like an insurance policy: You pay a lot, even if nothing happens. But if something then does happen, then you are satisfied with the investment," he explained. (source)

Cold War 21: Cuba's Raul To Visit Venezuela

2008-11-24T13:44:00.000-08:00

CARACAS, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Cuban President Raul Castro will soon visit Venezuela, the communist-run island's main trade partner, on his first oversees trip since assuming power from his brother Fidel Castro.

Socialist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who supplies Cuba with cheap oil and calls Fidel Castro his mentor, said on Tuesday Raul Castro would visit the OPEC nation in the next few days, symbolizing the nation's close ties.

"I am pleased to say that Raul Castro, who has not left Cuba as president of Cuba, has told us in the last few days that he has been invited to visit Brazil, China, Russia and other countries but that he is not going to visit any other country before coming to Caracas," Chavez said at a speech to supporters.

It was not clear when Raul Castro would visit.

Chavez has tentatively organized for Nov. 26 a summit of Latin American leftist presidents in an alliance he leads to promote trade and economic cooperation between like-minded nations, including Cuba.

Such a trip would be a day before Russian President Dimitry Medvedev visits Chavez to oversee joint navy warship exercises in a visit that evokes memories of the Cold War.

Chavez, whose political allies face tough elections on Sunday for regional posts in Venezuela, will use the presidential visits to burnish his anti-U.S. credentials.

Raul Castro took over power when his older brother fell ill in 2006. He officially became president in February.

Chavez has a much warmer personal relationship with Fidel Castro and he frequently visited his bedside after Castro underwent emergency intestinal surgery.(source)

Gandhi's People Know How To Deal With Pirates

2008-11-24T13:18:00.000-08:00

The Indian Navy has said that one of its warships in the Gulf of Aden has destroyed a pirate ship in the area.

INS Tabar, an Indian frigate dispatched last month to the area to protect the country's merchant fleet, attacked the pirate 'mothership' when it refused to respond to warnings.
Indian officers said they had seen pirates walking about on the large ship carrying rocket propelled grenade launchers.

The latest drama in the perilous stretch of water came as Somali pirates who captured a Saudi supertanker narrowly failed in hijacking a British ship.

The British tanker Trafalgar was suddenly surrounded in the Gulf of Aden by at least eight speedboats.

It was rescued when the German frigate Karlsruhe on patrol 12 miles away sent a helicopter to scare off the pirates who fled at high speed.

Meanwhile pirates are expected to a record ransom of more than $10million for the release of the Saudi oil supertanker hijacked off the Kenyan coast.

Negotiations over the Sirius Star, packed with two million barrels of crude oil worth $100million (£67m) - enough to supply the whole of France for a day - were said still not to have opened formally.

Meanwhile a Greek carrier and a Thai fishing vessel were the latest to be captured by pirates this week.

Yesterday the Delight, a Hong Kong-flagged ship, loaded with wheat bound for Iran, was captured off the Yemen coast, the latest raid in the Horn of Africa's perilous waters.

In Bahrain, a U.S. Navy spokeswoman said the Hong Kong-registered ship belonged to Iran's state shipping lines.

Today the Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein said naval patrols would not stop piracy and appealed for more help to tackle criminal networks.

Officials involved in the release of previous ships claimed that 'electronic monitoring' showed the Somali pirates who have take the Sirius 'were talking' of at least $10million (£6.7m).

The biggest ship ever hijacked and her crew of 25, including two Britons - a senior officer and the chief engineer - has been anchored off the Somali coast near a pirate stronghold. All the crew are safe, the ship's operator Vela International said.

Two more vessels, a Hong Kong cargo ship and a fishing boat, were seized in the Gulf of Aden.

The other vessel, a fishing boat registered in Kiribati, was carrying a crew of 12, the International Maritime Bureau said. Its owners lost contact with the IMB this morning.
Pirates in the area have now attacked more than 90 vessels this year and successfully made more than £60 million from ransom demands.

But nothing compares with the daring hijacking of the 318,000-ton Sirius Star, three times the size of an aircraft carrier, which was boarded 450 nautical miles southeast of Kenya's Mombasa port, way beyond the range of previous attacks.

Andrew Mwangura, co-ordinator of the East African Seafarers' Association, which monitors piracy in the region, said : 'The world has never seen anything like this ... The Somali pirates have hit the jackpot.'

There are fears the hijackings will send oil prices soaring as carriers have to take a longer and safer course around the Cape of Good Hope and the southern tip of Africa, adding an average of two weeks and millions of pounds to the journey.

About 13 per cent of Middle East oil and gas passes the Somali coast and insurance costs have risen tenfold as a result of piracy in the eastern Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.

The seizure was carried out despite an international naval response to the growing piracy crisis, including warships from the NATO alliance and European Union, to protect one of the world's busiest shipping areas.

U.S, French and Russian warships are off Somalia and the Royal Navy frigate HMS Cumberland, which yesterday handed other pirates over to the Kenyan authorities, opened fire killing two hijackers last week.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said his country would throw its weight behind a European-led initiative to step up security in shipping lanes off Africa's east coast.

'This outrageous act by the pirates, I think, will only reinforce the resolve of the countries of the Red Sea and internationally to fight piracy,' he said.

According to Western officials in East Africa, the Sirius Star was taken in an elaborate and carefully planned operation that began several days ago with the capture of a Nigerian tug.
This was then used as the pirates' 'mother ship' with at least two speedboats aboard.

The tug was able to travel without attracting suspicion and, crucially, far further out into the ocean than any pirates have ventured previously.

The pirates are suspected of targetting the Sirius Star and received details of the shipping lane in which it was travelling from 'contacts' operating in the Gulf of Aden over a satellite telephone.
After those on board the tug made visual contact with the £65 million tanker, the two speedboats with up to a dozen pirates aboard were launched and quickly 'closed in' on the vessel.

Each boat had at least one satellite telephone with which to keep in touch with the 'mother ship' or command vessel.

Rocket propelled grenades are then said to have been fired at the bridge with the warning the ship would be attacked unless it allowed on a 'boarding party'.

Officials say that pirates with RPG's and Kalishnikovs are then believed to have clambered aboard using ropes fired on to the deck.

The fully-loaded supertanker was low in the water and therefore easy to board while crews are strictly instructed not to resist once arms have been employed.

'Once the Captain slowed, the immediate fate of the ship was sealed, it took about 20 minutes' an official based in the Kenyan capital Nairobi said.

The 1,092 ft tanker, which was only launched in March, is expected to head later tomorrow for the port of Eyl, the pirates' headquarters and safe haven in the northeast of Somalia.

While more pirates will go aboard, most of the crew from Croatia, the Phillipines, Poland and Saudi Arabia as well as the two Britons, will then be taken ashore and split into at least two groups to make the prospect of a rescue less likely.

In the past, hostages say they have been well treated.

To many in Somalia the pirates are heroes and yesterday Somali fishermen and villagers watched in astonishment as the Sirius Star was anchored off Harardhere, a pirate stronghold some 265 miles by land from their headquarters at the port town of Eyl.

Abdinur Haji, a fisherman, said: 'I have been fishing here for three decades, but I have never seen a ship as big as this one.

'There are dozens of spectators on shore trying to catch a glimpse of the large ship, which they can see with their naked eyes.'

The seizure of the vessel, three times the size of an aircraft carrier, followed another high-profile strike earlier this year by the pirates when they captured a Ukrainian ship carrying 33 tanks and other military equipment.

Ammunition and rifles are said to have been taken off for use by the pirates.

They are still holding that vessel and about a dozen others, with more than 200 crew members hostage.

Given that the pirates are well-armed with grenades, machine guns and rocket-launchers, foreign forces in the area are steering clear of direct attacks.

Ship owners are negotiating ransoms in most cases.

Middle East energy analyst Samuel Ciszuk said this would almost certainly be the case with the Sirius.

'Due to Somalia's status as a failed state and the anarchic nature of politics in the country, the negotiators have no other option but to respond to the pirates.
There is no government which can intervene.'

The ransoms are always paid in cash - and in US dollars. They are delivered by 'middle men' usually employed by European and US security companies who receive a form of diplomatic accreditation to move through Kenya.

Sometimes, the cash is actually handed over aboard the seized boat.
Within 24 hours the boat and the crew are then released. The pirates have not once taken the money and failed to release their hostages.

While the ransoms keep rising and the hijackers become better armed with weaponry and expertise purchased with their booty, officials say there is little option but to pay up.

Ransoms are usually a fraction of the cost or a ship or cargo, crews have always been released unharmed and only one in 600 ships using the East African waters is attacked.

The latest in a surge of pirate hijackings has highlighted the vulnerability of even very large ships and the inability of naval forces to intervene once bandits are on board.

In a related incident, eight pirates have been arrested on the high seas by British sailors from HMS Cumberland, after they attacked a Danish merchant vessel. Three pirates were also killed.

They are likely to face charges in a court of law in Kenya. (source)

Cold War 21: Chinese Land Seizures Provoke Protests

2008-11-24T13:09:00.000-08:00

BEIJING (AP) - A crowd of 1,000 people stormed a local Communist Party headquarters in northwest China, smashing cars and clashing with police following a land dispute, government officials said Tuesday.

At least 60 people—officials, police, and protesters—were injured in the riots, according to a statement on the government Web site of Longnan city, where the unrest occurred.

The protest initially began Monday with just a small group of people complaining about the demolition of their homes to make way for a new road in Longnan in Gansu province, according to an official from the local Communist Party surnamed Wang.

But by nightfall, the crowd swelled to as many as 1,000 as more people joined the demonstration, the city's statement said.

"Instigated by a small number of people with ulterior motives, some unlawful people started to storm the city government building and attacked government officials from the petitioning office," it said.

Protesters attacked police and officials with stones, steel pipes and bricks. They also set fire to motorcycles, bicycles and buildings, according to the statement.

After attempting to calm the crowd, police "had no option but to disperse the unlawful elements with force," it said.

By early Tuesday morning, the situation was "under control," said Wang, who like many Chinese officials would give only his surname.

Protests are common in China over land seizures and corrupt officials. Local government officials often confiscate land for infrastructure and housing projects, with little or no compensation. (source)

Cold War 21: China Passes Japan as Biggest U.S. Treasuries Holder

2008-11-24T13:06:00.000-08:00

Nov. 18 (Bloomberg) -- China surpassed Japan in September to become the biggest foreign holder of U.S. Treasuries, as foreign investors sought the relative safety of government debt as stocks plunged 9.1 percent that month.

Total net purchases of long-term equities, notes and bonds increased a net $66.2 billion in September from $21 billion the previous month, the Treasury said today in Washington. Including short-term securities such as stock swaps, foreigners bought a net $143.4 billion, compared with net buying of $21.4 billion the month before.

China led all foreign official investors in September by posting a net increase in U.S. Treasuries for the sixth month in the past seven, bringing its total ownership close to $600 billion. Japan was a net seller of Treasuries for the fourth month in the past six.

“The details of the report paint a much more positive picture of cross-border investments than expected,” said Michael Woolfolk, a senior currency strategist at Bank of New York Mellon Corp. “China, along with others, is showing more demand than anticipated for U.S. assets.”

Economists predicted international investors would buy a net $27.2 billion of long-term securities in September, based on the median of seven estimates in a Bloomberg News survey.

China leapfrogged Japan, increasing its Treasury holdings by $43.6 billion to $585 billion, the report said. Japan, now the second-largest foreign owner of U.S. government debt, reduced its holdings by $12.8 billion to $573.2 billion.

China Demand

China’s ownership of U.S. government debt has doubled since July 2005, while Japan’s holdings are down from a peak of $699 billion in August 2004.

Foreign demand for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other U.S. agency debt increased from a month earlier. Purchases of long- term agency debt totaled a net $6.2 billion, compared with net sales of $8.7 billion in August.

The Treasury’s figures include both agency debt and mortgage-backed securities and aren’t restricted to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac bonds. Mortgage-backed securities of Ginnie Mae and corporate debt of the Federal Home Loan Bank System are also included in the report.

Stocks plunged and Treasuries rose in September as Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson negotiated for two weeks with Congress over a $700 billion plan to address the worst financial crisis in 70 years.

Stocks, Corporate Bonds

International purchases of U.S. stocks totaled a net $11.5 billion, compared with net sales of $982 million in August. Foreigners sold a net $7.6 billion of corporate bonds, compared with net sales of $13.1 billion a month earlier.

Net purchases of Treasury notes and bonds increased to a net $88.9 billion, compared with $30.6 billion a month earlier. Net foreign official buying of Treasury bonds and notes totaled a net $4.9 billion, after net purchases of $4.8 billion the previous month.

The Treasury’s reporting on long-term securities captures international purchases of government notes and bonds, stocks, corporate debt and securities issued by U.S. agencies such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy mortgages.

The dollar rose 1.9 percent in September after a 4.5 gain the previous month, according to a trade-weighted index of major currencies. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index in September had its worst month since 2002, falling for the fourth time in five months.

U.S. Treasuries

The yield on the benchmark 10-year note averaged 3.68 percent, compared with 3.88 percent in August. Treasuries returned 1.8 percent in September, the most since a 2.5 percent gain in January, according to Merrill Lynch & Co.’s U.S. Treasury Master index.

The U.K., which through London acts as a transit point for international investors, especially those in the Middle East, bought $30.3 billion of Treasuries, bringing holdings to $338.4 billion.

Some economists say the difference between the trade gap and securities purchased by foreigners is an indicator of how easily the U.S. can finance its external obligations.

The U.S. trade deficit shrank in September by 4.4 percent to $56.5 billion, the smallest in almost a year. The gap narrowed as a weakening economy restricted demand for foreign goods such as automobiles and televisions. (source)

Saudis label pirates 'terrorists' after $100m loss

2008-11-24T12:22:00.000-08:00

The northeast coast of Africa is experiencing an upsurge in pirate activity. There have been at least 83 acknowledged attacks off Somalia and in the Gulf of Aden this year. Some vessels are now being protected by military vessels, such as this Dutch Special Forces monitoring an aid shipment of grain to Somalia.

The Saudi Royal Family condemned Somali pirates as terrorists today after losing $100 million worth of oil in an audacious heist that saw bandits seize a supertanker in the Arabian Sea.

The Sirius Star, which was carrying two million barrels of oil, a quarter of the Kingdom's daily output, was captured with its multi-national crew, including two Britons, 450 miles off the coast of Kenya on Sunday.

The hijack was the biggest ever act of piracy in the perilous shipping lanes off the east coast of Africa. Vela International, the ship’s owners, said today that the crew were safe and that their response team was awaiting further contact with the gang.

The furious Saudi foreign minister said the banditry was akin to terrorism and demanded an international crackdown on the pirates.

Prince Saud Al-Faisal said: “Piracy, like terrorism, is a disease which is against everybody, and everybody must address it together.

“This outrageous act by the pirates, I think, will only reinforce the resolve of the countries of the Red Sea and internationally to fight piracy,” The prince suggested that several nations in the Red Sea region were willing to form a coalition to combat the ascendency of pirates in the Gulf of Aden and surrounding waters.

Last month, the UN Security Council unanimously approved resolutions calling on nations to send naval ships and military aircraft to Somalia’s coastline, and allowing foreign powers to enter Somali waters to fight piracy

A Nato flotilla of seven ships including a British frigate are already fighting piracy around Somalia. Nato, however, says its priority is escorting World Food Programme ships that deliver basic rations for three million hungry Somalis.

According to witnesses the 1,000ft hijacked ship was anchored overnight just off the lawless Somali coast. It was spotted less than three miles from the town of Harardhere, which is around 265 miles from the pirate haven of Eyl.

Abdinur Haji, a fisherman who lives near Harardhere, which is a pirate stronghold in itself, said: “As usual, I woke up at 3am and headed for the sea to fish, but I saw a very, very large ship anchored less than three miles off the shore.

“There are dozens of spectators on shore trying to catch a glimpse of the large ship, which they can see with their naked eyes.”

The 318,000-tonne tanker, three times the size of an aircraft carrier, is not only the largest ship yet to be hijacked by increasingly bold pirates, but it occurred further out to sea than any previous attacks.

Admiral Michael Mullen, the top US military officer in the region said he was "stunned" by the reach of the Somali pirates.

"I'm stunned by the range of it, less so than I am the size," said Admiral Mullen. The pirates are "very good at what they do. They're very well armed. Tactically, they are very good," he said.

Its capture raises fears that international patrols nearer the coast and in the Gulf of Aden will not be enough to protect vital trade routes as pirate gangs become ever more daring.

It has been suggested by shipping experts that the prevalence of pirates in the Gulf of Aden would force ships to take the longer and more expensive journey around the Cape of Good Hope rather than using the Suez Canal. This vessel, however, was making that very journey raising the spectre that piracy now threatens all exports leaving the Middle East via boat.

The Sirius Star carried 25 crew members from Croatia, Britain, Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia, according to a US Navy statement.

The South Korean-built ship, launched earlier this year, is operated by Vela International and registered in Liberia.

The International Maritime Bureau has reported that at least 83 ships have been attacked off Somalia since January, of which 33 were hijacked. Of those, 12 vessels and more than 200 crew were still in the hands of pirates.

Britain leads a multinational task force in the area. Last week the Royal Navy was drawn into a shoot-out with a gang attempting to hijack a cargo ship, killing two of the pirates.

The US Fifth Fleet declined to say whether military action was being considered to rescue the tanker.

Shipping experts said that a rescue attempt was unlikely because of the extreme danger both to the crew and the ship.

Somalia has lacked a functioning government since the outbreak of civil war in 1991. But the lawlessness that has prevailed since the ousting of the Islamic Courts Government in 2007 has spawned the epidemic of piracy.

Pirates guard the house of one of their leaders. Somalia has been in a state bordering on anarchy for more than a decade. Unemployment is very high and violence is part of everyday life. Piracy offers the only route to wealth for young men in the area.

The gangs’ methods vary little, even when taking a 320,000-tonne monster like the Sirius Star.

Gunmen typically approach on small speedboats, opening fire on the bridge until the ship’s captain submits and allows them on board, usually throwing down a ladder. The average reaction time between spotting the pirates and being boarded is 15 minutes.

Crews are strictly instructed not to resist attack once arms have been employed. Once captured, violence against crew members is rare.

In recent months the pirates’ arsenal has grown more deadly, with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and possibly shoulder-mounted missiles used to threaten the crew.

Pirate groups have hugely extended their reach from the coast with the use of “mother ships”, larger vessels from which they launch speedboats after they have identified their prey. While some known mother ships have been identified, other attacks are launched from ordinary dhows, traditional sailing boats hijacked from fishermen.

Negotiations with ships’ owners can go on for several months and are clouded in secrecy.

Fourteen ships with more than 250 crew members are being held as negotiations continue.

Among them is the Ukrainian arms ship Faina, which was captured in August with a cargo of 33 battle tanks, hundreds of crates of Kalashnikovs and ammunition.

Shipping companies have noticed a pattern in which new hijacks occur within days of a ransom settlement, suggesting that the gangs are acting in rotation, moving from one hijack to another as soon as the last is resolved. (source)

Cold War 21: China's Olympics Posture Over, Back To Business As Usual

2008-11-24T12:13:00.000-08:00

Chinese activist and rights lawyer Ni Yulan near her home in Beijing. Beijing authorities have issued an order to destroy the home of Ni, who has been in police custody for more than 200 days, her husband and lawyer said Tuesday.

Beijing authorities have issued an order to destroy the home of one of China's leading rights activists who has been in police custody for more than 200 days, her husband and lawyer said Tuesday.

Beijing's Xicheng court ordered developers to level the home of Ni Yulan and told the family to vacate the premises by the end of last week, husband Dong Jiqin told AFP, adding he had refused to leave.

"They stuck the demolition notice on our front door," Dong said.

"Nobody came to talk with us, there were no negotiations for compensation, no public hearings."

For over a decade, Ni, 47, has been a prominent rights activist and lawyer fighting against government-backed land grabs in central Beijing, one of the city's most sensitive social issues.

As all land belongs to the state in China, local officials enjoy immense powers to determine land-use rights, and critics say residents and farmers are often forcefully evicted in shady deals between the government and developers.

Ni was jailed for a year in 2002 for damaging public property after being arrested at a rally aimed at stopping the demolition of another courtyard home in Beijing.

Dong and rights activists said she was beaten in the 2002 arrest and has since had to walk with a cane due to injuries sustained then.

Dong and Ni's courtyard home, in an historic part of central Beijing, then also became a target for developers and she was arrested in late April as she tried to stop it from being knocked down.

Ni was charged with "obstructing official business", and she has been in custody ever since although she has not appeared in court.

An August 4 trial was postponed at the last minute as prosecutors said they needed more time to gather evidence, according to Dong.

Her lawyer, Hu Xiao, said he was pushing for the court proceedings to begin quickly.
"I saw her last month, she is physically weak and her jailing has put a lot of stress on her," Hu told AFP.

"She is a handicapped person, so we have asked the court to begin her trial as soon as possible out of respect for her health." (source)

Pirates Strike Again At Hong Kong Oil Vessel

2008-11-24T12:07:00.000-08:00

A Hong Kong cargo ship loaded with 36,000 tonnes of wheat bound for Iran was hijacked on Tuesday by pirates in the Gulf of Aden, near the Yemeni coast.

The latest example of piracy came as a Saudi supertanker, seized by pirates on Monday and laden with an estimated 2m barrels of oil, was confirmed to be anchored off the coast of Somalia.

Vela International, owner of the oil tanker called Sirus Star, said on Tuesday that they had established contact with the pirates and were seeking to ensure the safety of the 25-man crew.

The pirates seized control of the tanker on Saturday, 450 nautical miles south-east of the Kenyan Indian Ocean port of Mombasa. The attack marked a significant escalation in the scope of banditry in the region.

It is estimated that the tanker was holding more than a quarter of the daily exports from Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter. The oil would have been worth about $100m (€79m, £66.5m) at Monday’s market price but is probably of little interest to the pirates.

Meanwhile, the official Xinhua agency, citing China’s maritime search and rescue centre, said that a Hong Kong cargo ship called Delight with 25 crew members bound for Bandar Abbas port in Iran had been hijacked in the Gulf of Aden.

Pottengal Mukundan, director of the International Maritime Bureau, said on Monday that the only cargoes that had interested Somali pirates previously were the shipments of World Food Programme aid.

Instead, pirates seize vessels to extort ransoms – often of about $2m – from shipowners desperate to have their crews returned.

The tanker is about three times the tonnage of a US aircraft carrier, making it the largest vessel ever seized by pirates.

The attack also took place farther out to sea than before, signalling that the pirates have become increasingly bold, organised and able to adapt their tactics, experts say.

“It certainly represents a fundamental change in the pirates’ ability to be able to attack vessels out to sea,” said Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, a spokesman for the US Fifth Fleet, which patrols the region’s waters.

Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the joint chiefs, on Monday said he was “stunned” that the pirates were able to operate so far out at sea.

“What strikes me about this particular supertanker is how far away from Africa it was,” said Adm Mullen.

He said he is seeing an extraordinary rise in the number of piracy attempts, but the number of successful attacks has fallen.

The Navy officer said he had seen no evidence that terrorists were sponsoring some of the piracy attacks that have occurred off the east coast of Africa.

“The piracy syndicate that I have looked at in the past is pretty well backed financially. I have not seen any connection to al-Qaeda or to terrorists.”

Asked how a small number of pirates could take over such a large vessel, Adm Mullen said they were well armed and tactically very competent.

“And so once they get to a point where they can board, it becomes very difficult to get them off, because, clearly, now they hold hostages…The question then becomes, well, what do you do about the hostages? And that’s where the standoff is. That’s a national question to ask based on the flag of the vessel. And the countries by and large have been paying the ransom that the pirates have asked.”

Somali pirates in speed boats, heavily armed with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades, have been wreaking havoc in the Gulf of Aden, launching regular attacks on vessels in the past two years. But the latest incident suggests they are moving further south into the Indian Ocean as western navies increase their patrols off the waters of Somalia, experts say.

The seizure puts an end to hopes that a succession of engagements in recent weeks between international military forces and pirates might have put an end to the security crisis in the area.
While most other seizures have been of vessels heading into or out of the Suez Canal, the latest incident will raise question marks about the safety of the route from the Arabian Gulf to the Cape of Good Hope – a route taken by the largest oil tankers heading from the world’s main oil-producing regions to both Europe and North America.

The development therefore puts at risk a far higher proportion of the world’s energy shipments than the 12 per cent that shipping organisations had already considered in danger. “That route from the Cape to the Gulf was not considered the riskiest route,” said Mr Mukundan.

Cyrus Mody, manager at the International Maritime Bureau, said the pirates would probably look to move the Sirius Star to the coast of Somalia where they would anchor it and begin negotiation with the owners.

However, the pirates are likely to face challenges navigating the vast ship, which will be sitting far too low in the water to go anywhere near the coast where they have normally taken captured ships.

Mr Mukundan also warned there was a substantial danger of pollution, either if the vessel was involved in an accident through poor navigation or if the cargo was not properly cared for while it was being held.

The Sirius Star, flagged in Liberia and operated by Vela International, has a deadweight tonnage of 318,000 tonnes and sits 10m above the water level. Its 25-man crew is made up of numerous nationalities, including Britons and Saudis.

“I think they will demand good money because it’s a brand new ship,” said Andrew Mwangura, of the East Africa Seafarers’ Assistance Programme. “I think they have hit the jackpot.” (source)

ISLAMOFILE 111708: Iran Joins Venezuela in University Indoctrination Program

2008-11-24T07:22:00.000-08:00

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuela and Iran plan to start a new university program in the South American country with a focus on teaching socialist principles.

Venezuela's government says it plans to establish the University of Civilizations under accords recently signed with Iran.

Deputy Minister for Academic Development Tibisay Hung says the program will begin in Caracas at the existing, tuition-free Bolivarian University.

Hung tells the state-run Bolivarian News Agency that the aim is to promote discussion of "21st century socialism." Venezuela announced the program on Monday.

President Hugo Chavez is promising to lead Venezuela toward socialism, and in recent years has built increasingly close ties with Iran. (source)

Cold War 21: Russia Silences Reporter

2008-11-24T07:18:00.001-08:00

Red Square, Moscow

A Russian reporter who challenged alleged corruption in local government was close to death on Monday after a savage beating, a close friend said.

Mikhail Beketov, the editor of a newspaper in the Moscow suburb of Khimki, was found unconscious and covered in blood near his home on Nov. 13. He had multiple fractures.
Doctors have amputated one of his legs and have had to delay another operation at Moscow's main emergency hospital, the Sklifosovsky Institute, because his condition is so serious.

"Mikhail is floating between life and death," Lyudmila Fedotova, a friend of Beketov's, told Reuters by telephone.

"He remains in a coma. The doctors say he is the most seriously ill patient in the intensive care unit of the Sklifosovsky Institute."

"This is what happens when you oppose certain people," Fedotova said. "If they finish me off then you can write a story about that too. I am no longer scared."
Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said that threatening calls had been made to the hospital where Beketov was treated. The Sklifosovsky Institute declined to comment.

"Beketov has lost a leg and is still in a coma, but that is not all -- threatening calls were also made to the hospital where he was taken," Reporters Without Borders said.

"Violence against journalists continues to be very much in the news in Russia... This cycle of violence must stop."

Reporters in Russia risk beatings and even death if they delve into the murky world where Russian politics and business overlap. Attackers are rarely convicted and journalists say they regularly receive threats.

Beketov, owner and editor of the paper Khimskaya Pravda, was known for his opposition to plans by local officials to fell a forest to make way for a major road. He also wrote about corruption.

Those behind the killings of Anna Politkovskaya and Paul Klebnikov -- the highest-profile reporters murdered during the eight-year rule of former President Vladimir Putin -- have still not been brought to justice.

Politkovskaya was shot dead on Oct. 7, 2006 outside her flat in Moscow. The judge in the trial of three people accused of involvement in her killing opened the hearings to the public on Monday. Klebnikov was shot near his office on July 9, 2004.

A prominent reporter in Russia's Ingushetia region, Magomed Yevloyev, was shot dead in police custody in September. Investigators said a police officer had accidentally fired his gun at Yevloyev's head.

"It is impossible not to get angry when you think about these murders that too often remain unpunished," said Reporters Without Borders.(source)

COLD WAR 21: Israeli MI chief says "Low probability of war in 2009"

2008-11-24T07:05:00.000-08:00

OC Military Intelligence Chief Maj. -Gen. Amos Yadlin.

The probability of a war between Israel and its enemies over the next year is low, military intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin said Monday.

Speaking Monday at Tel Aviv University, he said the world is waiting to see how the financial crisis plays out, and how the new US administration deals with the threat from Iran. He said Iran is Israel's main threat, calling it "the regime with radical ideology and radical weapons."

Yadlin surmised that Syria might make peace with Israel, but only if Israel gives in to all Syria's demands, though even then, Syria would not cut ties with terror groups.

On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Yadlin said that Israel could deal with two entities, working toward peace with Fatah in the West Bank while confronting Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza.

Last month, Yadlin told the cabinet that if Israel's indirect talks with Syria were aimed at testing whether it might be possible to pull Damascus out of Iran and Hizbullah's orbits, then so far the test had failed.

Despite the talks, not only has Damascus not lessened its cooperation with Hizbullah, it has actually stepped up its relationship with the organization.

"[Syrian President Bashar] Assad currently trusts Hizbullah more than his own army," Yadlin said during a briefing. "Hizbullah operatives are working from within Syria. The Syrians are loosening all restraints, and [are irresponsibly giving] Hizbullah access to almost all of their strategic capabilities."

Assad "is continuing to open up his warehouses to Hizbullah," Yadlin continued, adding that Syria was "turning into the arms granary" for Hizbullah.

COLD WAR 21: Chinese spy steals shuttle launch secrets

2008-11-24T07:02:00.000-08:00

A Chinese-born physicist Monday pleaded guilty before a US court to illegally exporting space launch technical data to China, US officials said.

Naturalized US citizen Shu Quan-Sheng, admitted three charges of handing over to Beijing information on the design and development of a fueling system for space launch vehicles between 2003 and 2007, the Justice Department said. (source)

Somali pirates hijack Saudi oil tanker with Britons on board

2008-11-24T06:51:00.000-08:00

Pirates have seized the biggest booty ever taken on the high seas, capturing a fully laden Saudi oil supertanker and its multinational crew, among them two British merchant seamen.

The Sirius Star – three times the size of an aircraft carrier and carrying its full complement of two million barrels of crude oil worth at least $100 million (£67 million) – was hijacked in the early hours of Sunday 450 nautical miles southeast of Mombasa in Kenya, according to the US Fifth Fleet.

“This is unprecedented,” Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, spokesman for the fleet, said yesterday. “It’s the largest ship that we’ve seen pirated.”
Last night the Sirius Star was heading towards Eyl, a notorious pirate haven on the Somali coast, raising fears of an environmental catastrophe if the pirates run aground in waters far too shallow for the vast supertanker.

Shipping analysts said that the cost of sending freight around the world would rise after the attack as a result of higher insurance premiums and an increase in charter rates.

The Sirius Star is the latest of more than 60 vessels to be captured off the Somali coast this year, but the first supertanker. Jitters over the ease with which pirates seized crude equivalent to a quarter of Saudi Arabia’s daily output sent falling oil prices into reverse. They finished up one dollar per barrel.

Odfjell, one of the largest shipping groups in the world, responded to the attack by suspending its routes through the Gulf of Aden in favour of the longer journey around the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of South Africa, raising the prospect that one of the world’s busiest trade routes could be sidelined unless global action is taken to combat the pirate menace.

Britain leads a multinational task force in the area. Last week the Royal Navy was drawn into a shoot-out with a gang attempting to hijack a cargo ship, killing two of the pirates.

But the capture of the Sirius Star hundreds of miles to the south in the Indian Ocean, as it was heading to the US via the Cape, suggests that the Gulf pirates are simply moving into unpatrolled waters or that other pirate groups, recently dormant, have been reawakened.

The supertanker had avoided the Gulf of Aden and the Suez Canal because it is too big to pass through the canal. It is not only the largest ship to be captured but the farthest from the Somali shoreline.

The US Fifth Fleet declined to say whether military action was being considered to rescue the tanker, which is manned by 23 crew from Croatia, the Philippines, Poland and Saudi Arabia in addition to the two Britons.

Shipping experts said that a rescue attempt was unlikely because of the extreme danger both to the crew and the ship. Vela International, which operates the tanker for the Saudi state oil company, Saudi Aramco, said it had set up a negotiating team to deal with ransom demands.

“All 25 crew members on board are reported to be safe,” the company said. “Vela response teams have been established and are working to ensure the safe release of the crew members and the vessel.”

Somalia has lacked a functioning government since the outbreak of civil war in 1991. But the lawlessness that has prevailed since the ousting of the Islamic Courts Government in 2007 has spawned the epidemic of piracy.

The gangs’ methods vary little, even when taking a 320,000-tonne monster like the Sirius Star. Gunmen typically approach on small speedboats, opening fire on the bridge until the ship’s captain submits and allows them on board, usually throwing down a ladder. The average reaction time between spotting the pirates and being boarded is 15 minutes.

Crews are strictly instructed not to resist attack once arms have been employed. Once captured, violence against crew members is rare.

In recent months the pirates’ arsenal has grown more deadly, with rocket-propelled grenade launchers and possibly shoulder-mounted missiles used to threaten the crew. Pirate groups have hugely extended their reach from the coast with the use of “mother ships”, larger vessels from which they launch speedboats after they have identified their prey. While some known mother ships have been identified, other attacks are launched from ordinary dhows, traditional sailing boats hijacked from fishermen.

Negotiations with ships’ owners can go on for several months and are clouded in secrecy. Fourteen ships with more than 250 crew members are being held as negotiations continue. Among them is the Ukrainian arms ship Faina, which was captured in August with a cargo of 33 battle tanks, hundreds of crates of Kalashnikovs and ammunition.

Shipping companies have noticed a pattern in which new hijacks occur within days of a ransom settlement, suggesting that the gangs are acting in rotation, moving from one hijack to another as soon as the last is resolved.

“There are never less than ten to twelve ships being held,” said Giles Noakes, head of maritime security for the Baltic and International Maritime Council, which represents more than 2,700 of the world’s shipping companies. Last week, three ransom settlements were resolved, he said, with three more hijacks promptly taking place since Friday. “It would seem there is a cycle.”

Terje Storeng, chief executive of Odfjell, said: “We will no longer expose our crew to the risk of being hijacked and held for ransom by pirates in the Gulf of Aden.

“The rerouting will entail extra sailing days and later cargo deliveries. This will incur significant extra cost, but we expect our customers’ support and contribution.”

Mr Noakes said that several companies had already consulted Bimco – an independent international shipping association of shipowners, managers, brokers and agents – on moving to the Cape route, extending the average journey by three weeks, and that he expected more to take Odfjell’s lead.

Bimco has called on foreign governments to send more warships in the short term to work under a United Nations mandate to police the Somali coast. In the longer term, it would like a permanent UN coastguard force.

But as long as anarchy reigns on-shore, little will change at sea. “Historically you’ve never defeated piracy at sea,” Mr Noakes said. “The resolution lies ashore – in Somalia.”

Hijackers could secure $5m ransom settlement

The seizure of the Sirius Star is creating consternation among insurers (Carl Mortished and Miles Costello write). Brendan Flood, a marine underwriter at Hiscox, said that the cost of insuring hulls would rise: “This shows that nothing is off limits. You would never have expected a ship this size to be at risk. This was a long way from the area we believed to be volatile.”

A ship such as Sirius Star would probably be worth $100 million (£66.7 million), he said. The approach to modelling the risks to hulls, cargo and crews of sailing in Somali and nearby waters would have to be overhauled.

Shipowners said that charter and voyage rates would soar if more owners refused to operate in the region. According to Intertanko, the owners’ organisation, 17 tankers pass through the Gulf of Aden every day on average, carrying 7 per cent of world oil consumption.

David Partner, of Miller Insurance Services, said that the ransom would probably be talked down to $2.5 million, but the cost of settlement may be double that. (source)

But If The World Hates The US, Then How...

2008-11-24T06:29:00.000-08:00

Melissa Sconyers, who studied abroad in China, is photographed with a Chinese flag in San Francisco Aug. 11. China is the seventh most popular destination for U.S. students, according to the Institute of International Education.

Record number of U.S. students study abroad, in diverse locations

More U.S. students are studying abroad than ever before, and they're choosing an increasingly diverse array of destinations, a new report says.
A record 241,791 U.S. students went abroad for academic credit in 2006-07, up 8% from the previous year, and nearly 150% more than a decade earlier, the report says. It was released today by the Institute of International Education, a non-profit New York-based group that tracks international enrollment trends with U.S. State Department funding.

"U.S. students recognize that our world is increasingly interdependent," says Goli Ameri, assistant secretary of State for educational and cultural affairs. "There is tremendous interest on the part of other countries for Americans to study there."

A recent study finds:
•Europe continues to host the largest share of students, 57%, but that's down from the year earlier. Some of the fastest growth is occurring in Asia and Africa, where the number of students increased by 20% and 19%, respectively. By country, some of the biggest increases occurred in students going to South Africa, up 28%; China, up 25.3%; Argentina, up 26.2%; Ecuador, up 29.6%; and India, up 24.2%.
•The top three major fields of study are the social sciences (21.4%), business and management (19.1%), and humanities (13.2%). Students studying foreign languages represented 7.2% of the total; that was the only field to see a drop in the number of students going abroad.
•A trend toward shorter durations continues. More than 55% of students study abroad for periods of eight weeks or less, up from 53% the previous year. The number of students spending an academic year abroad has dropped from 5.5% to 4.4%.

Helping fuel the trend is an increase in programs and opportunities, the report says. More colleges and universities are creating partnerships with institutions abroad. Goucher College, near Baltimore, now requires all incoming students to study abroad. This summer, the former chair and vice chair of the 9/11 Commission urged Congress to approve a bill that aims to increase to 1 million the number of students studying abroad in a decade.

The United States "cannot conduct itself effectively in a competitive international environment when our most educated citizens lack minimal exposure to, and understanding of, the world beyond U.S. borders," they argued in an op-ed in The Christian Science Monitor.

Even 1 million students would be a tiny share of all U.S. students; last year, more than 17 million students were enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities.

Institute president Allan Goodman suggests 1 million may be overly optimistic. If trends continue, he says, about half that number would be more realistic.

Even then, he says, challenges await. U.S. students are increasingly choosing to study in less-developed countries, for example, but those countries are already short of space. And countries that would welcome more U.S. students aren't prepared to accommodate a growing preference among U.S. students for shorter programs.

"Where will another 500,000 U.S. students go? There is not an inexhaustible supply in other countries," Goodman says. "There is a mismatch in terms of programs and capacity." (source)

No Obama Pullout Says Iraqi Cabinet, Asks US to stay Until At Least 2011

2008-11-24T06:17:00.001-08:00

In this image released by the Iraqi government, Iraq's Cabinet votes to approve a security pact with the United States during a session in Baghdad, Iraq, on Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008. Iraq's Cabinet on Sunday approved a security pact with the United States that will allow American forces to stay in Iraq for three years after their U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year, the government said. The decision followed months of difficult negotiations and, pending parliamentary approval, will remove a major point of contention between the two allies. (AP Photo/Iraqi Government, HO)

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's Cabinet overwhelmingly approved a security pact with the United States on Sunday, ending prolonged negotiations to allow American forces to remain for three more years in the country they first occupied in 2003.

The deal detailing the conditions of the U.S. presence still needs parliamentary approval, and lawmakers could vote as soon as Nov. 24. For Iraqis, the breakthrough was bittersweet because they won concessions from the Americans but must accept the presence of U.S. troops until 2012.

"It's the best possible, available option," said government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh. He was referring to the conflict between Iraq's desire for full sovereignty and control over security and its need for American support and cooperation to achieve that goal.

Al-Dabbagh described the pact - intended to supplant the U.N. mandate expiring Dec. 31 - as an "agreement on the withdrawal of U.S. troops," and Washington welcomed the Cabinet's approval.

"While the process is not yet complete, we remain hopeful and confident we'll soon have an agreement that serves both the people of Iraq and the United States well and sends a signal to the region and the world that both our governments are committed to a stable, secure and democratic Iraq," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House's National Security Council.

There is a good chance parliament will pass the agreement with a large majority, since the parties that make up Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's coalition government dominate the legislature.

The pact was due to be completed by the end of July, but negotiations stumbled over parts pertaining to Iraqi sovereignty and judicial oversight.

Al-Dabbagh said Iraq's government has received U.S. assurances that the President-elect Barack Obama would honor the agreement, and pointed out that each side has the right to repeal it after giving one year's notice. Obama, who takes office in January, has said he would pull U.S. combat troops out of Iraq within 16 months of moving into the White House - or May 2010.

Iraq's neighbors and U.S. adversaries, Iran and Syria, oppose the pact, arguing that the immediate withdrawal of U.S. forces offered the best option for Iraq.

Iraqi policemen dance with a US Army soldier at a police station in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008. Iraq's Cabinet on Sunday approved a security pact with the United States that will allow American forces to stay in Iraq for three years after their UN mandate expires at the end of the year, the government said. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

The Iraqi government sought to allay their fears, amending the document to prohibit the Americans from using Iraqi territory to attack neighboring nations.

The Cabinet's decision was made amid violence, despite a dramatic improvement in security over the past year. Fresh attacks underlined doubts about whether Iraq's nascent security forces can stand without U.S. military support and training.

Hours after the Cabinet vote, seven people died and seven were wounded in a suicide car bombing at a police checkpoint in Diyala, a turbulent province northeast of Baghdad, according to police Col. Ahmed Khalifa, chief of Jalula police station.

The U.S. military said the attack in Jalula occurred at a police station and that four police and six civilians died. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy in the reports.

Earlier Sunday, a roadside bomb killed three people and wounded seven in northern Baghdad, Iraqi authorities said.

Al-Dabbagh said all but one of 28 Cabinet ministers present in Sunday's meeting, in addition to al-Maliki, voted for the pact. The sole vote of dissent came from Minister of Women's Affairs Nawal al-Samaraie, a member of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country's largest Sunni Arab party.

She said she voted against the pact because she preferred that it be put to a nationwide referendum. She also wanted the U.S. military to free Sunni security detainees not charged with specific crimes, rather than hand them to Iraqi authorities as provided by the agreement.

The Cabinet vote followed Washington's decision last week to grant a request by al-Maliki for final amendments.

Khalid al-Attiyah, parliament's deputy speaker, said the changes removed ambiguous language that could have allowed U.S. forces to ignore a timeline for their withdrawal from Iraqi cities by June 30, 2009 and from the country by Jan. 1, 2012. The changes also tightened Iraq's control over security raids and the arrest of Iraqis.

The agreement is believed to have met Iraqi concerns over its sovereignty and its security needs as it continues to grapple with a diminished but persistent insurgency. It gives Iraq the right to try U.S. soldiers and defense contractors in the case of serious crimes committed off-duty and off-base.

Al-Attiyah said he expected parliament to vote on the agreement by Nov. 24. If parliament approves the deal, President Jalal Talabani and his two deputies must ratify it.

Iraq's parliament is due to go into recess at the end of the month or in early December because of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday, when many lawmakers travel to Saudi Arabia on the annual pilgrimage.

Parliamentary speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani canceled all leave for lawmakers and suspended foreign and out-of-town visits to ensure a quorum for the security pact vote, al-Attiyah said.

"I'm optimistic that this agreement will be passed through the Council of Representatives (parliament)," spokesman al-Dabbagh told Associated Press Television News. But he added: "You cannot guarantee 100 percent approval of anything."

An Iraqi Army soldier inspects a display of weapons seized in a raid near Youssifiyah, 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq on Sunday, Nov. 16, 2008. Iraq's Cabinet on Sunday approved a security pact with the United States that will allow American forces to stay in Iraq for three years after their U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year, the government said. The decision followed months of difficult negotiations and, pending parliamentary approval, will remove a major point of contention between the two allies.(AP Photo/ Loay Hameed)

Barring unforeseen developments, the document should receive the support of the 85 lawmakers of the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance, the 54 Kurdish lawmakers and most of the 44 lawmakers in the Iraqi Accordance Front, the largest Sunni Arab bloc.

Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, who commands the loyalty of 30 lawmakers, urged parliament in a statement Sunday to reject the agreement "without the least hesitation." The statement was read by a top al-Sadr aide on Iraq's al-Sharqiya Television.

Al-Sadr, whose militiamen battled U.S. forces in the past, has threatened to resume attacks on U.S. forces if they don't immediately withdraw from Iraq. He called for a mass prayer and protest in a central Baghdad square on Friday.

The Cabinet vote came a day after Iraq's most influential Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, indicated he would not object to the pact if it passes by a comfortable majority in parliament. (source)

Baracktoid 042

2008-10-03T13:00:00.001-07:00

Illustrating Obama's need to obscure the amount of time he was a practicing Muslim in Indonesia: Obama recalls going to the library in Indonesia and seeing a photo of a "Japanese woman craddling a young, naked girl in a shallow tub: that was sad; the girl was sick, her legs twisted, her head fallen back against the mother's breast, the mother's face tight with grief, perhaps she blamed herself..." The photo was first published in a W. Eugene Smith photo essay in Life on June 2, 1972.

The problem for Obama is that June 2, 1972, is after the date Obama wants us to think he left Indonesia.

If Obama did see the photo in Indonesia, as he said he did, then maybe his sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, is right and Obama did not leave Indonesia until 1972, or possibly even 1973.

What difference does this make?

To begin with, the puzzle just adds to the growing list of factual discrepencies or outright fabrications that Obama manufactures, very likely on an ongoing basis. Even Indonesian television reporters can't identify with certainty the addresses where Obama lived with his family. If Obama stayed longer than he says, he may have attended the Catholic school for two years and the government-run public school for two years, as he also says on page 154 of the autobiography that he did.

Two years' attendance at the government-run public school would add an additional year of Islamic studies to Obama's time in Indonesia, including mengaji, reciting Koranic verses, a study usually reserved for true believers in Islam.

-p. 67, Obama Nation, author, Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D

Cold War 21: France Says The World Is At The Abyss

2008-10-03T12:55:00.001-07:00

France's Prime Minister Francois Fillon attends a news conference in Paris in this July 24, 2008file photo. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Friday the world stood on the "edge of the abyss", gripped by a global financial crisis now threatening industry, trade and jobs worldwide.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Friday the world stood on the "edge of the abyss", gripped by a global financial crisis now threatening industry, trade and jobs worldwide.

Fillon's words echoed a growing sense of alarm sweeping EU capitals ahead of an expected U.S. Congressional vote on Friday on a $700 billion bailout plan for the financial industry. Approval is far from certain.

The House of Representatives shocked world markets on Monday by rejecting a previous draft, wary of popular anger over the housing market collapse that triggered the crisis and high risk financial ventures that collapsed under the burden.

Prime Minister Fillon, whose country is hosting an emergency summit of Italian, British and German leaders on Saturday, said only collective action could solve the financial crisis. He said he would not rule out any solution to stop any bank failing.

"The world is on the edge of the abyss because of an irresponsible system," Fillon said, alluding to widespread anger over past lax regulation of financial markets and excessive lending.

Fillon said President Nicolas Sarkozy would propose at the emergency meeting measures to unfreeze credit and coordinate economic and monetary strategies.
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet sounded an alarm on Friday's expected vote in the U.S. Congress.

"(U.S. Treasury) Secretary (Henry) Paulson's plan obviously must be passed," he told Europe 1 Radio.

"It must be. It is necessary."

Bad news mounted in the European financial sector.
In Switzerland, UBS AG, hardest hit among European banks by its exposure to subprime-related holdings, said it would cut 2,000 investment banking jobs -- on top of the 4,100 positions cut in the past year.

Worries grew that even if Washington agrees on the package, it will not be enough to resolve deeper-rooted weakness. New data showed that a U.S. recession is nearing and Europe's economy is worsening.

"Investors expect the U.S. House to approve the bailout, but even if that happens, it would have a neutral impact on the market as its effectiveness is still questionable," said Takahito Murai, general manager of equities at Nozomi Securities in Tokyo.

A collapse in the U.S. housing market and resulting "bad mortgages" has undermined confidence in the financial sector, with inter-bank lending and credit to businesses and private individuals all but seizing up. Central Banks have injected billions of dollars to maintain some flow of funds.

UNILATERAL ACTION

Divisions have emerged within Europe over the past week, with Ireland offering guarantees on bank deposits, prompting a flight of capital from British lenders to Irish banks, and Greece promising to safeguard savers' cash.

EU partners said Ireland's move could break competition rules and threatened the unity necessary to ensure an ordered approach to turmoil ahead.

U.S. payrolls data due to be released at 1230 GMT were forecast to show that businesses cut jobs for the ninth straight month in September, with 100,000 non-farm jobs expected to be lost, against a drop of 84,000 in August, according to the median in a Reuters poll of economists.

World stocks fell to a fresh three-year low on concerns the bailout would not be enough to prevent the U.S. economy and that of the rest of the world slowing further.

"Paralysis is spreading across the asset markets despite the various attempts by authorities across the globe to shore up confidence," the Calyon brokerage said in a not to clients.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the bailout package would not be brought to the floor without the votes secured to pass it.

New economic data painted a bleak picture. U.S. factory orders tumbled in August and the number of workers seeking jobless benefits rose in the latest week to a seven-year high.

Oil rose above $94, supported by expectations that the House would approve the plan, which would then be passed into law by President George W. Bush.

Wall Street endured a dismal day on Thursday, as stocks dropped 4 percent and a seizing up in money markets drove a rally in the dollar. (source)

Baracktoid 041

2008-10-03T11:04:00.001-07:00

Has Obama lost the ability to tell the difference between something that actually happened and something he invented? As we have seen, Obama also had the ability to project John Kennedy and the civil rights movement into situations that never happened, just so he could claim his birth had something to do with Camelot and Martin Luther King. How much more imagining, hypothetical lying, or just plain lying is Obama capable of doing?

-p. 66, Obama Nation, author, Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D

Cold War 21: China Monitors Text Messages

2008-10-03T10:58:00.001-07:00

Nart Villeneuve, a senior research fellow at Citizen Lab in Toronto, and Ronald Deibert, a political scientist at the University of Toronto, found the surveillance system.

A group of Canadian human-rights activists and computer security researchers has discovered a huge surveillance system in China that monitors and archives certain Internet text conversations that include politically charged words.

The system tracks text messages sent by customers of Tom-Skype, a joint venture between a Chinese wireless operator and eBay, the Web auctioneer that owns Skype, an online phone and text messaging service.

The discovery draws more attention to the Chinese government's Internet monitoring and filtering efforts, which created controversy this summer during the Beijing Olympics. Researchers in China have estimated that 30,000 or more "Internet police" monitor online traffic, Web sites and blogs for political and other offending content in what is called the Golden Shield Project or the Great Firewall of China.

The activists, who are based at Citizen Lab, a research group that focuses on politics and the Internet at the University of Toronto, discovered the surveillance operation last month. They said a cluster of eight message-logging computers in China contained more than a million censored messages. They examined the text messages and reconstructed a list of restricted words.

The list includes words related to the religious group Falun Gong, Taiwan independence and the Chinese Communist Party, according to the researchers. It includes not only words like democracy, but also earthquake and milk powder. (Chinese officials are facing criticism over the handling of earthquake relief and chemicals tainting milk powder.)

The list also serves as a filter to restrict text conversations. The encrypted list of words inside the Tom-Skype software blocks the transmission of those words and a copy of the message is sent to a server. The Chinese servers retained personal information about the customers who sent the messages. They also recorded chat conversations between Tom-Skype users and Skype users outside China. The system recorded text messages and Skype caller identification, but did not record the content of Skype voice calls.

In just two months, the servers archived more than 166,000 censored messages from 44,000 users, according to a report that was published on the Information Warfare Monitor Web site at the university.

The researchers were able to download and analyze copies of the surveillance data because the Chinese computers were improperly configured, leaving them accessible. The researchers said they did not know who was operating the surveillance system, but they said they suspected that it was the Chinese wireless firm, possibly with cooperation from Chinese police.

Independent executives from the instant message industry say the discovery is an indication of a spiraling computer war that is tracking the introduction of new communications technologies.

"I can see an arms race going on," said Pat Peterson, vice president for technology at Cisco's Ironport group, a division that provides messaging security systems. "China is one of the more wired places of the world and they are fighting a war with their populace."

The Chinese government is not alone in its Internet surveillance efforts. In 2005, The New York Times reported that the National Security Agency was monitoring large volumes of telephone and Internet communications flowing into and out of the United States as part of the eavesdropping program, intended to hunt for evidence of terrorist activity, that President George W. Bush approved after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The researchers said their discovery contradicted a public statement made by Skype executives in 2006 after the content filtering of the Skype conversations was reported. At the time the company said that the conversations were protected and private.

The Citizen Lab researchers issued a report on Wednesday, which details an analysis of data on the servers. "We were able to download millions of messages that identify users," said Ronald Deibert, an associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto. "This is the worst nightmares of the conspiracy theorists around surveillance coming true. It's 'X-Files' without the aliens."

Jennifer Caukin, an eBay spokeswoman, said, "The security and privacy of our users is very important to Skype." But the company spoke to the accessibility of the messages, not their monitoring. "The security breach does not affect Skype's core technology or functionality," she said. "It exists within an administrative layer on Tom Online servers. We have expressed our concern to Tom Online about the security issue and they have informed us that a fix to the problem will be completed within 24 hours." EBay had no comment on the monitoring.

Other American companies have been caught in controversy after cooperating with Chinese officials. In 2005, Yahoo supplied information to the Chinese authorities, who then sentenced a reporter, Shi Tao, to 10 years in prison for leaking what the government considered state secrets. The company said at the time that it was following Chinese law.

EBay created the joint venture with the Tom Group, which holds the majority stake, in September 2005. The Tom Group itself was founded in October 1999 as a joint venture among Hutchison Whampoa, Cheung Kong Holdings and other investors. In its annual report this year, the Tom Group, based in Hong Kong, said that the number of Tom-Skype registered users had reached 69 million in the first half of 2008 and revenue had increased tenfold in the last year.

The researchers stumbled upon the surveillance system when Nart Villeneuve, a senior research fellow atCitizen Lab, began using an analysis tool to monitor data that was generated by the Tom-Skype software, which is meant to permit voice and text conversations from a personal computer. By reading the data generated by the program, he determined that each time he typed a particular swear word into the text messaging program an encrypted message was sent to an unidentified Internet address.

To his surprise, the coded messages were being stored on Tom Online computers. When he examined the machines over the Internet, he discovered that they had been misconfigured and that the computer directories were readable with a simple Web browser.

One directory on each machine contained a series of files in which the messages, in encrypted form, were being deposited. Hunting further, Villeneuve soon found a file that contained the numerical key that permitted him to decode the encrypted log files.

What he uncovered were hundreds of files, each containing thousands of records of messages that had been captured and then stored by the filtering software. The records revealed Internet addresses and user names as well as message content. Also stored on the computers were calling records for Skype voice conversations containing names and in some cases phone numbers of the calling parties.

Villeneuve downloaded the messages, decrypted them and used machine translation software to convert the Chinese messages to English. He then used word frequency counts to identify the key words that were flagging the messages. The exact criteria used by the filtering software is still unclear, he said, because some messages on the servers contained no known key word.

He said that in addition to capturing the Skype messages sent between Tom-Skype users, international conversations were recorded as well, meaning that users of standard Skype software outside China were also vulnerable to the surveillance system when they had text conversations with Chinese users. (source)

Baracktoid 040

2008-10-03T10:55:00.001-07:00

Barack relates that seeing a picture in Life magazine of "the black man who tried to peel off his skin" was "violent for me, an ambush attack." The photograph told him "there was a hidden enemy out there, one that could reach me without anyone's knowledge, not even my own."

The only problem with the story is that it is all made-up.

As columnist Richard Cohen wrote in the Washington Post, this violent awakening incident that permanently altered Obama's vision was at best a fantasy. Life magazine reported no such issue ever existed. "When the Chicago Tribune told Obama that Life magazine historians could find no such story, Obama suggested it might have been Ebony--'or it might have been...who knows what it was?' " Cohen wrote. Yet the Chicago Tribune contacted the magazine, and Ebony's archivists could find no such article, either.

-p. 65, Obama Nation, author, Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D

Cold War 21: Russia Gloats That US Is Near Its End

2008-10-03T10:47:00.002-07:00

The Russian president said in a speech Thursday that the financial crisis in the United States should be taken as a sign that America's global economic leadership is drawing to a close, reiterating an argument that leaders here have been making for some time, though investors in recent weeks have been fleeing Russia and depositing money in U.S. Treasury bills.

Perhaps inevitably for a country long lectured to by the United States, Russia is using the occasion of the U.S. financial crisis to do some lecturing of its own.

President Dmitri Medvedev said Thursday that the U.S. crisis showed that "the times when one economy and one country dominated are gone for good." Speaking of the United States, Medvedev said the world no longer needed a "megaregulator."

Russia has argued that the freewheeling Anglo-American style of capitalism is to blame for the crisis, a position echoed by Germany and other Continental European nations. Medvedev even called it financial "egoism."

A drumbeat of similar pronouncements has been heard in Russia in recent days. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made a major speech Wednesday on U.S. financial "irresponsibility," blaming the plunge of more than 50 percent in the Russian stock market on the global economic slowdown and U.S. financial turmoil, rather than on any troubles endemic to Russia.

"The saddest thing is that we can see an inability to take appropriate decisions," Putin said in his speech after the U.S. House of Representatives rejected the Bush administration's bailout plan. In contrast, the Russian bailout was decided by decree.

"This is not the irresponsibility of some people but the irresponsibility of the system, which, as it is known, claimed to be the leader," Putin said.

Medvedev spoke Thursday at St. Petersburg State University during the eighth annual Petersburger Dialog, a forum devoted to developing relations with Germany and where he met with Chancellor Angela Merkel. Members of Merkel's government have also been critical of U.S. regulators.

Germany will "always support a multilateral approach" to market regulation, Merkel said, adding that officials from the European members of the Group of 8 industrialized nations would meet to discuss new market regulations, Bloomberg News reported.

But in contrast with other European countries Russia's own financial system has been in steep decline over the past weeks, and regulators suspended stock trading three times. As in other emerging markets during periods of turmoil, investors have had a tendency to pull money out of Russia and to deposit it in U.S. Treasury bills.

Since the second week in August, when the war in Georgia and political tension with the West heightened concerns about stability in Russia, $52 billion in net private capital has left Russia, according to an investor note from Goldman Sachs.

Russia has promised a total of about $150 billion for loans to banks, tax cuts and other measures. The moves seek to stimulate the economy, restore liquidity to the banking sector and return confidence in the stock market.

Still, the global credit crisis could trim about 1 percent from Russian growth next year, according to Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin. (source)

Baracktoid 039

2008-10-03T10:47:00.001-07:00

The sexual attraction of his mother to her African husband jumps out from the page, as it does once again, later in the book, when Stanley Ann visits Obama while he is at college at Columbia and insists they go together to view a film she says is one of their favorites, Black Orpheus. We discussed this incident before, pointing out that the day they went to see this film was the day Obama learned his father had been offered a scholarship from the New School in New York City that would have permitted him to bring his wife Ann and him along. Instead, as we saw then, Obama Senior took the less generous scholarship ands went to Harvard, abandoning his wife and son in Hawaii.

-p. 64, Obama Nation, author, Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D

Cold War 21: Putin Lashes Out At US For Financial Crisis

2008-10-03T10:39:00.002-07:00

The Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin lashed out at the United States today for what he said was its inability to deal with the financial crisis affecting the global economy.

In remarks unlikely to go down well in Washington, Mr Putin was especially critical of Congress's rejection of a $700 billion bank bailout – a rejection that hit Russian financial markets particularly hard.

“Everything that is happening in the economic and financial sphere has started in the United States. This is a real crisis that all of us are facing," the former president told a government meeting in Moscow.

“And what is really sad is that we see an inability to take appropriate decisions. This is no longer irresponsibility on the part of some individuals, but irresponsibility of the whole system, which as you know had pretensions to (global) leadership."

Highly leveraged Russian companies have been hit hard by the credit crunch, which has made it virtually impossible to secure borrowing abroad.

The main Russian stock indices are more than 50 per cent down from their May peaks, far outstripping losses on more mature Western markets, and trading has been repeatedly suspended over the past two weeks.

Analysts say foreign investor confidence has been hit by Russia's actions during the recent conflict in Georgia, as well as the Government's attitude towards Western energy companies trying to operate in Russia and other former Soviet states.

Mr Putin said today that Russia would allocate 175 billion roubles (£3.85 billion) of budget funds in 2009 to support the domestic financial market. (source)

Baracktoid 038

2008-10-03T10:39:00.001-07:00

The race Obama embraces is not that of his mother, although he does have that choice. Nor is the race he embraces even precisely that of his Kenyan father. The race Obama embraces is his African race. Even though Obama is not descended from a slave, the identity he seeks is African-American. Obama embraces an African-Americanism that is born out of slavery, and he embraces it as the son of a free Kenyan educated at Harvard.

-p. 63, Obama Nation, author, Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D

ISLAMOFILE 093008: Saudi Woman Defies Ban, By Driving A Car

2008-10-03T10:32:00.002-07:00

A Saudi woman at the Saudi Travel and Tourism Investment Market fair in Riyadh earlier this year. A young woman in Saudi Arabia who defied the ultra-conservative kingdom's ban on women driving has been injured when her car span out of control and plunged into a stream, a newspaper has reported.

A young woman in Saudi Arabia who defied ultra-conservative kingdom's ban on women driving was injured when the car span out of control and plunged into a stream, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The unnamed woman in her 20s "stole" her brother's car on Sunday, picked up a female friend and drove at high speed through a town in the Eastern Province before losing control of the vehicle, Al-Riyadh said.

The car hit an electricity pole and plunged into an irrigation channel. Both the driver and her friend were taken to hospital in serious condition, the paper said.

There have been several incidents reported in recent years of women being killed in accidents when they were driving in defiance of the ban -- which is just one of a host of restrictions imposed on women in Saudi Arabia.

Women's rights campaigners have petitioned King Abdullah twice in the past year urging him to lift the ban.

Women in the Muslim Gulf kingdom are legally obliged to cover up from head to toe in public, and cannot travel without written permission from a male guardian. (source)

Baracktoid 037

2008-10-03T10:32:00.001-07:00

Columnist Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times asked Obama about his Islamic education. After acknowledging that he once got in trouble for making faces during Koran study classes in his elementary school in Indonesia, Obama recited for Kristof the opening lines of the Arabic call to prayer. The opening lines of the Adhan, the Muslim call to prayer, translated, read as follows, with each line repeated twice:

Allah is supreme! Allah is supreme!

I witness that there is no God but Allah.

I witness that Muhammad is his prophet...

-p. 62, Obama Nation, author, Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D

Cold War 21: Petro Dollars At Work In Russia

2008-10-03T10:29:00.000-07:00

The world outside may be in the thralls of crisis, with house prices plunging, markets slumping and banks collapsing; but Russia's cocooned super-rich can still spare 2.5 billion roubles ($99 million) for a Moscow townhouse apartment within strolling distance of the Kremlin.

Spurred by petrodollars and booming consumer confidence, Moscow's real estate - where sky high prices can outpace Manhattan and London - has so far avoided following the local stockmarket's downward spiral, which continued Tuesday.

Property agency Agent 002 said last Friday an unnamed buyer had splashed out on the seven-storey 1,300 square meter apartment near the Kursk railway station.

"For Moscow, it's an absolute record," said Agent 002's spokesman Ruslan Barabash.
Barabash declined to identify the purchaser, but said he was an "active businessman" aged around 40 and not one of Russia's most well-known tycoons.

"It's a completely beautiful home. The design is in the 'high-tech' style," said Barabash.

The townhouse apartment, close to the Kremlin in the center of a sprawling city of 12 million people, has its own swimming pool, a children's floor and a winter garden on the roof.

NOT THE LIMIT

Although the average monthly income for Russians hovers at just below $700, a growing middle class support an active real estate market, with a smaller number of super-wealthy clustered around Moscow able to afford anything they want.

Outside some of the trendiest and most expensive restaurants in the city center and its most exclusive suburb, drivers of Bentley, Maybach and Rolls Royce automobiles can be seen idling the hours while their owners dine nearby.

"In the middle of August we observed a tendency of increasing sales for our most expensive apartments," said Barabash.

The prices are a far cry from Soviet times when Russians paid monthly rents of a handful of dollars, but lived often several families to a shared apartment or kommunalka.

Real estate analysts believe the current record could soon be broken, with demand strong at the top of the market.

"I think this is price of 2.5 billion roubles is not the limit for Moscow and in the near future there may be even more expensive sales," said property analyst Tatiana Makeeva. (source)

Baracktoid 036

2008-10-03T10:27:00.001-07:00

Even Kim Barker, a Chicago Tribune foreign correspondent, in an article focused on "debunking the myth Obama had attended a Madrassa," admitted that Barry Soetoro attended the mosque with his father to pray. Barker interviewed Israella Darmawan, Barry's first-grade teacher at the Assisi Primary School. Barker reported her as saying, "Sometimes Lolo went to the mosque to pray, but he rarely socialized with people. Rarely, Barry went to the mosque with Lolo." As much as Barker tried to diminish the fact, the evidence here and in Darmawan's earlier interview with the Los Angeles Times is that Barry Soetoro not only received religious instruction in Islam at the secular public school in Indonesia, but also went to the mosque to pray with his father even when he was in Catholic school.

-p. 61, Obama Nation, author, Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D

Cold War 21: Russia Pledges Nuclear Help To Venezuela

2008-10-03T10:21:00.000-07:00

President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that Russia will help Venezuela develop nuclear energy — a move likely to raise U.S. concerns over increasingly close cooperation between Caracas and Moscow.

Chavez said he accepted an offer from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin for assistance in building a nuclear reactor.

"Russia is ready to support Venezuela in the development of nuclear energy with peaceful purposes and we already have a commission working on it," Chavez said. "We are interested in developing nuclear energy."

Putin offered Chavez assistance in developing nuclear energy during a meeting in the Russian city of Novo-Ogaryovo last week. The prime minister did not specify what kind of cooperation he could offer Venezuela, but Russia is aggressively promoting itself as a builder of nuclear power plants in developing nations.

Russia has ramped up its cooperation with Venezuela since last month's war with Georgia, which badly damaged Moscow's already strained ties with the West, particularly the United States.

During Chavez's visit to Russia last week, a Russian naval squadron sailed for the Caribbean Sea in preparation for joint exercises with Venezuela later this year — a move that appeared retaliatory after the U.S. sent warships to deliver aid to Georgia.

The deployment is expected to represent the largest Russian naval maneuvers in the Caribbean — and perhaps the Western Hemisphere — since the Cold War.

Chavez says that stronger ties with Russia will help build a multi-polar world — a term the two allies use to describe their shared opposition to what they claim is U.S. global domination.

Since 2005, Venezuela has agreed to buy more than US$4.4 billion worth of weapons from Russia including fighter jets, combat helicopters, and 100,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles. And President Dmitry Medvedev has offered Chavez a loan to purchase additional weapons.

Chavez argues the United States and European Union do not have the right to prevent developing countries from pursuing nuclear technology, and he has strongly defended Iran's nuclear program despite the Western powers' fear that Tehran may be building nuclear weapons.

Before taking Russia up on its offer, Chavez had expressed interest in acquiring a nuclear reactor from Argentina and working with Iran, among other countries, to research nuclear energy. (source)

Baracktoid 035

2008-10-03T10:18:00.001-07:00

Researching thoroughly the many news investigative reports done on Obama's Muslim background by the mainstream media in 2007, we even find confirmation there from Obama's sister that he was Muslim in Indonesia. "My whole family was Muslim," Maya Soetoro-Ng told the New York Times when interviewed about her early days in Indonesia. "Most of the people I knew were Muslim."

-p. 60, Obama Nation, author, Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D

Cold War 21: Chavez Advises US To Write A New Constitution

2008-10-03T10:14:00.001-07:00

Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday it was the capitalist system that had caused the financial crisis in the United States and the country should come up with a new constitution.

Speaking to reporters in Lisbon on the last leg of a tour that included visits to China and Russia, he said: "I think the United States should start a constituent process to create a constituent assembly, a new truly democratic model."

A constituent assembly is a body elected to draft and sometimes adopt a new constitution.

"It was capitalism that caused the ruin" in the United States, said Chavez, who is one of Washington's fiercest critics, calling the financial crunch "the worst financial crisis in history".

"Let the U.S. empire end and let a great nation and great republic rise from the ruin ... It's time to shout 'Liberty!' again in the United States," Chavez said, calling for a new government to be free of the "dictatorship of the elite" such as big banks and corporations.

Critics accuse Chavez of running an authoritarian, Cuban-style regime in oil-rich Venezuela.

Chavez, who has signed various deals from weapons to energy this week in China and Russia also signed an agreement with Portugal's Socialist government on Saturday to buy 1 million ultra-cheap laptops for schools and 50,000 pre-fabricated houses in deals worth $3 billion.

They also signed a draft deal between Energias do Portugal and Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA for the development of a liquefied natural gas project from the Blanquilla Este reserve in northern Venezuela.

The computers, which the government started distributing in Portuguese primary schools this week at a subsidised price of 50 euros , will be delivered to Venezuela from December. They cost 285 euros in stores in Portugal.

The laptop is based on Intel Corp's Classmate PC, a cheap computer that has been adopted in various formats in countries such as Brazil and Indonesia. (source)