Taliban-led insurgents are winning ever-greater public support in Afghanistan for a struggle that is taking on the character of a "liberation war" against foreign troops, a senior Pakistani official claimed Friday. The remark by the governor of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province could inflame further a war of words between Kabul and Islamabad about who is responsible for the resurgence of militant activity in Afghanistan. It could also dismay U.S. and NATO commanders who say their beefed-up military operation is designed to pave the way for badly needed reconstruction aid. Ali Mohammed Jan Aurakzai, whose province includes areas where many Taliban and al-Qaeda militants fled after a U.S.-led military coalition drove them from Afghanistan five years ago, said cross-border attacks accounted for only a fraction of the insurgency in Afghanistan....
http://www.usatoday.com
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Editor - 22:08:00 02-16-07
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 Taliban commander says 10,000 fighters are set for spring offensive 'As leaves turn green, we will unleash bloody attacks on foreign troops' |
The Taliban have deployed 10,000 fighters for a spring offensive of "bloody attacks" against foreign troops in Afghanistan, a rebel commander said on Friday. More than 4,000 people, a quarter of them civilians, were killed in fighting in 2006, the most violent year since the Taliban were ousted in 2001. NATO commanders and analysts warn that this year could be just as bad - or worse. As the winter snows melt, the insurgents have resumed their attacks, mostly in the south, where they have captured a major town and have threatened a key hydroelectric dam. Mullah Abdul Rahim, the Taliban's operational commander for southern Helmand Province - the opium center of the world's major producer - said militants would step up attacks in spring. "As the weather becomes warm and leaves turn green, we will unleash bloody attacks on the US-led foreign troops," Rahim told Reuters by satellite telephone from a secret location....
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=79594
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Editor - 22:06:00 02-16-07
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| US military planes criss-cross Europe using bogus call sign |
THE American military have been operating flights across Europe using a call sign assigned to a civilian airline that they have no legal right to use. Not only is the call sign bogus — according to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) — so, it appears, are some of the aircraft details the Americans have filed with the air traffic control authorities. In at least one case, a plane identified with the CIA practice of “extraordinary rendition” — transporting terrorist suspects — left a US air base just after the arrival of an aircraft using the bogus call sign. The call sign Juliet Golf Oscar (JGO) followed by a flight number belongs, says the ICAO, to a now bankrupt Canadian low-cost airline called Jetsgo of Montreal. But for several years and as recently as last December it has been used selectively by both the American air force and army to cover the flights of aircraft to and from the Balkans. ...
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article732439.ece
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Editor - 22:03:00 02-16-07
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| Court Refuses Medic's Discharge Claim |
A federal appeals court refused on Friday to overturn the detention of a U.S. Army medic who declared his opposition to war on the eve of his deployment to Iraq. Agustin Aguayo, who enlisted in 2002 during the run-up to the Iraq war, asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to release him from a military prison. He had sought an honorable discharge as a ``conscientious objector.'' Aguayo, who has been held in a U.S. prison in Germany since going absent without leave, said he enlisted as a way to earn money for his education. Though military operations in Afghanistan were under way and discussions about Iraq were ongoing, he said he never considered that he'd have to fight. He faces up to seven years in prison on charges of desertion and missing movement and is scheduled to face trial next month, his attorney, Peter Goldberger said. Goldberger said he would ask the appeals court to reconsider the decision. ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6421672,00.html
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Editor - 18:35:00 02-16-07
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| County houses sex offenders in trailers |
A Long Island county is dealing with the not-in-my-backyard problem by housing sex offenders in trailers away from residential areas. The program, which began this month, calls for the trailers to be shuttled to various locations on county-owned land from time to time. Suffolk County officials settled on the idea after getting complaints about otherwise-homeless sex offenders living in motels near residential communities. "We are seeking to be sensitive to communities that feel that a disproportionately large number of sex offenders have gravitated to their neighborhoods," said Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy. Under state law, social service agencies must help find housing for homeless people, including sex offenders. The county decided to place the sex offenders in 500-square-foot trailers at a cost of $85 a night — cheaper than the $100 to $200 a night it had been paying for the motel rooms....
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17191030/
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Editor - 18:30:00 02-16-07
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| Putin hands Chechnya control to militia leader |
Ramzan Kadyrov, a former rebel fighter accused of widespread human rights abuses, took control of Chechnya yesterday after being elevated from prime minister to president of the war-ravaged Russian republic. Kadyrov, 30, who controls a militia of thousands, owns a pet tiger and is said to have tortured one opponent with a blow torch, was promoted by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, late on Thursday. Mr Kadyrov's predecessor and long-time competitor, Alu Alkhanov, was ushered aside to a job the federal justice ministry. The promotion marked a coup for a young tough who has transformed Grozny into a shrine to himself with his portrait gazing down from billboards on street corners. It followed months of rumours, and intense speculation in the past two weeks, but Mr Kadyrov's rise to acting president still provoked outrage among critics who accuse his armed units of beating, kidnapping and murdering suspected militants. "This shows you Putin's contempt for the Chechens," ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/russia/article/0,,2015160,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12
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Editor - 18:28:00 02-16-07
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