Archive for November, 2009
the British soldier who smuggled himself into Auschwitz
the British soldier who smuggled himself into Auschwitz – incredible story –
Does Iran Have a Secret Nuke Weapons Network?
“After inspectors paid a visit to a once-secret Iranian nuclear facility near Qom, the Islamic Republic stuck to its guns: Hey, it’s just part of our peaceful atomic energy program!
But after taking a close look at the technical specs on Iran’s Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, two arms-control experts arrived at a different conclusion.”
Afghanistan – “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” – George Santayana
“Few American officials know the Soviets’ bitter Afghan predicament better than Mr. Gates. In the 1980s, he was the deputy director of the CIA, overseeing a massive U.S. effort to fund, train and equip the Islamic insurgents, called mujahedeen, who fought the Soviet army to a standstill.”
Full Article
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125831141804049337.html?mod=rss_Politics_And_Policy
Protests grow over digital bill
“The Digital Economy bill has sparked a wave of protest among consumers and rights groups.
Soon after the bill began its journey through Parliament on 19 November, many expressed worries about parts of it.
The bill suggests the use of technical measures to tackle illegal file-sharing that could involve suspending the accounts of persistent pirates.
Critics fear this and other powers the bill reserves could damage the UK’s growing digital economy. “
African conflicts spurred by global warming
“Africa is poised to experience a surge in civil wars, causing nearly 400,000 additional battle deaths by 2030 – all as a direct result of rising temperatures. This bold prediction is one of the most alarming results yet to emerge from attempts to discover how climate change will affect patterns of human conflict. It is already proving controversial”
Iran war games to ‘defend nuclear sites’ – but no Russian S300’s?
“Iran has begun five days of war games to simulate attacks on its nuclear sites, state media report.
The head of Iran’s air defence said the aim was to thwart aerial reconnaissance of the sites as well as air attacks. Brigadier General Ahmad Mighani said the training would also improve cooperation among different units. Iran has come under mounting pressure over its nuclear programme, which critics say is intended to produce nuclear weapons. The US and Israel have not ruled out the prospect of a military attack to prevent Iran developing a nuclear weapon. Tehran insists its programme is peaceful, and an aide to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reportedly warned Iran would retaliate to any attack with a missile strike on Tel Aviv. “
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8372985.stm
Denied Russian S-300 missiles, Iran cannot protect nuclear sites
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?p=4574050#post4574050
Taliban chief hides among Pakistan populace : Washington Times
The Washington Times
Friday, November 20, 2009
EXCLUSIVE: Taliban chief hides among Pakistan populace
Eli Lake, Sara A. Carter and Barbara Slavin THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Mullah Mohammed Omar, the one-eyed leader of the Afghan Taliban, has fled a Pakistani city on the border with Afghanistan and found refuge from potential U.S. attacks in the teeming Pakistani port city of Karachi with the assistance of Pakistan’s intelligence service, three current and former U.S. intelligence officials said.
Mullah Omar, who hosted Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders when they plotted the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, had been residing in Quetta, where the Afghan Taliban shura — or council — had moved from Kandahar after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
Two senior U.S. intelligence officials and one former senior CIA officer told The Washington Times that Mullah Omar traveled to Karachi last month after the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He inaugurated a new senior leadership council in Karachi, a city that so far has escaped U.S. and Pakistani counterterrorism campaigns, the officials said.
The officials, two of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the topic, said Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency, the ISI, helped the Taliban leaders move from Quetta, where they were exposed to attacks by unmanned U.S. drones.
The development reinforces suspicions that the ISI, which helped create the Taliban in the 1990s to expand Pakistani influence in Afghanistan, is working against U.S. interests in Afghanistan as the Obama administration prepares to send more U.S. troops to fight there.
Bruce Riedel, a CIA veteran and analyst on al Qaeda and the Taliban, confirmed that Mullah Omar had been spotted in Karachi recently.
"Some sources claim the ISI decided to move him further from the battlefield to keep him safe" from U.S. drone attacks, said Mr. Riedel, who headed the Obama administration’s review of policy for Afghanistan and Pakistan last spring. "There are huge madrassas in Karachi where Mullah Omar could easily be kept."
Mr. Riedel also noted that there had been few suicide bombings in Karachi, which he attributed to the Taliban and al Qaeda not wanting to "foul their own nest."
A U.S. counterterrorism official said, "There are indications of some kind of bleed-out of Taliban types from Quetta to Karachi, but no one should assume at this point that the entire Afghan Taliban leadership has packed up its bags and headed for another Pakistani city."
A second senior intelligence officer who specializes in monitoring al Qaeda said U.S. intelligence had confirmed Mullah Omar’s move through both electronic and human sources as well as intelligence from an unnamed allied service.
The official said that neither Osama bin Laden nor al Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri has been spotted in Karachi. The official said the top two al Qaeda figures are still thought to be in the tribal region of Pakistan on Afghanistan’s border.
But, the official said, other midlevel al Qaeda operatives who facilitate the travel and training of foreign fighters have moved to the Karachi metropolitan area, which with 18 million people is Pakistan’s most populous city.
"One reason, [al Qaeda] and Taliban leaders are relocating to Karachi is because they believe U.S. drones do not strike there," the official said. "It is a densely populated urban area."
Al Qaeda has had a presence in Karachi since at least 2001.
In late 2001, a cell likely commanded by Khalid Shaikh Mohammed — the admitted operational planner of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — abducted and killed journalist Daniel Pearl.
Mohammed, who was captured by the CIA with ISI help in Pakistan in 2003, was sent to the detention facility at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and is now set to go on trial in New York. In 2007, at a closed military hearing at Guantanamo, he confessed that he personally beheaded Mr. Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter.
Pakistani officials said they were perplexed by the U.S. reports regarding Mullah Omar and denied that the ISI had facilitated a move by the Quetta shura to Karachi.
Nadeem Kiani, a spokesman for the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, said the U.S. has not provided Pakistan with any credible intelligence regarding Mullah Omar’s whereabouts.
"We have no evidence of his presence in Pakistan," Mr. Kiani said. "If anybody in the U.S. government knows of any Quetta shura or Karachi shura, why don’t they share that intelligence with Pakistan so we can take care of the issue ourselves? We have not been made aware of any presence of Mullah Omar in the region."
He said the ISI and Pakistani military have "suffered a lot of losses fighting the terrorists" and that "people who are making these accusations have their own agendas."
"Our forces are fighting the Taliban in Waziristan and other areas," he said. "The terrorists are now killing and targeting innocent people in Pakistani cities. ISI is a very professional intelligence agency and these allegations are baseless."
Mr. Kiani added that the U.S. and Pakistan have "24-hour intelligence sharing."
Another Pakistani official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of his work, told The Times, "If Pakistan is made aware of the allegations and we do nothing, then the U.S. will know who to blame. Pakistan can take action with credible information.
"But to shift the blame on Pakistan and the security forces because Afghanistan is becoming more of a problem is not going to be helpful but have a demoralizing effect on the situation both here and there," he said.
Mary Habeck, a professor and analyst on radical Islam at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, said the reported move "suggests the Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban are one and the same thing."
She said that it also "shows the Taliban are not the marginalized group we have been saying they are. They can move into a major city in Pakistan and believe they are safe there."
And there you go kids…. the top religious film critics have spoken
“The Vatican has come out against vampirical toothy teen book’n'movie series Twilight, dismissing the epic girl loves vampire, girl loses vampire, girl becomes vampire cycle as a "deviant moral vacuum".
The Holy See’s attempt to drive a stake through the heart of the burgeoning film franchise came as it took £1.8m on its opening day in Italy.”
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