Iraqi PM meets Syria's Assad for security talks

Roueida Mabardi

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for security talks in Damascus on Tuesday, after the top US commander in Iraq said Syria's role in allowing fighters across the border remained a concern.

Maliki traveled to Syria just days after a senior US military delegation was in Damascus to discuss regional security issues, reportedly including Iraq, a meeting that irked some in Baghdad.

The Iraqi leader and Assad discussed strengthening cooperation, notably over border security and Maliki "confirmed that having a strong relationship with Syria was in the mutual interests of both peoples," according to a statement from his office.

"The two sides discussed expanding cooperation over borders, oil, gas, water, transport, and working to increase trade between the two countries by establishing free-trade zones," it said.

The two leaders also established a "high-level strategic cooperation council" that would be led by the two countries' prime ministers, and would discuss a wide variety of issues including economic and military cooperation, as well as culture and education.

Maliki invited Syrian companies to participate in the rebuilding of Iraq, which has been wracked by years of violence and sanctions, and also met Iraqis living in Syria.

The statement said Assad offered his "support to Iraq, for security, stability and sustaining the unity of the country and its people."

Maliki was accompanied by Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani and Water Minister Latif Rashid as well as top security officials.

On Monday, General Ray Odierno said that while the "flow of foreign fighters in Iraq has decreased significantly... we're still a little bit concerned with Syria's role in this."

In recent months, Iraqi officials had hailed an improvement in security at the Syrian border.

Ahead of a US troop pullback from Iraqi towns and cities at the end of June, interior ministry operations director Major General Abdul Karim Khalaf said it was now well secured and Iraqi troops should soon be able to take over patrols.

Iraq responded negatively to reports that the US military delegation which visited Syria last Monday discussed Iraqi security.

"Baghdad doesn't care for any of these meetings about Iraq without its presence," Deputy Foreign Minister Labid Alawi was quoted as saying on Sunday.

Maliki's talks in Syria also addressed water resources, amid frequent complaints from Baghdad that the flow on the Euphrates River, which runs from Turkey through Syria to Iraq, is insufficient for Iraq's agricultural needs.

The Iraqi water minister accused Turkey last week of breaking a promise to increase the flow of water.

In July, Baghdad called for talks with Ankara and Damascus over the issue.

It was not immediately confirmed whether the talks focused on the implementation of an agreement to reopen a closed oil pipeline from Iraq to Syria's Mediterranean coast.

In talks with Maliki in Baghdad in April, Otri agreed a plan to repair the pipeline.

An initial agreement to reopen the pipeline, which runs from Iraq's northern oilfields to the Syrian port of Baniyas, had been reached in August 2007 but both governments said technical problems had prevented it being carried out.

Initially shut off in 1982, the pipeline reopened in 2000 but was shut off again in 2003 following the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Before March 2003, Syria received around 200,000 barrels of oil a day from Iraq at preferential prices, enabling it to profit from sales on the international market.

Medvedev, Peres meet on Mideast tensions

MOSCOW (AFP) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev held talks Tuesday with Israeli President Shimon Peres on efforts to check Iran's nuclear program, stalled Mideast peace talks and other issues, the Kremlin said.

The informal meeting got under way at Medvedev's official residence in Sochi on Russia's Black Sea coast and was also to focus on plans long in the works for Moscow to host an international Mideast peace conference.

"The situation in the Middle East, which raises serious concern in Russia, will be at the centre of attention in the meeting," the Kremlin said in a background paper distributed ahead of the Sochi meeting.

Welcoming Peres to his residence, Medvedev said there were "more problems than one would like" in the Middle East at present that required discussion, ITAR-TASS news agency said.

Peres also said he planned to discuss "a range of issues" concerning the Middle East peace process in general and Israeli-Russian relations in particular.

Russia is helping Iran build its first nuclear power station while Israel and the United States fear Tehran secretly intends to build atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear energy program.

Tehran vehemently denies this suspicion. The Kremlin said "the situation surrounding Iran" would be on the agenda for the talks.

The Medvedev-Peres meeting comes at a moment of unusually high tension between Israel and its chief ally, the United States, over differences on how to deal with Iran and control Jewish settlement activity.

Russia was "working actively" to ease international tensions over Iran's nuclear program, the Kremlin said, and this issue would be examined in detail during Tuesday's talks.

Russia and Israel were also in agreement on the need to fight efforts to "falsify history," specifically denial of the Holocaust and of Russia's decisive role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II, the Kremlin said.

"Attempts to rehabilitate Nazis and their supporters are unacceptable for us," it added, without elaborating.

Tuesday's visit to Russia was the first by Peres since he was elected Israeli president in June 2007.

Israel ministers agree to halt settlement tenders

by Ron Bousso



JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel's hawkish premier on Tuesday agreed to curtail construction in the occupied West Bank in a gesture to Washington that critics said fell far short of US demands for a settlement freeze.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Housing Minister Ariel Atias agreed no new tenders for settlement construction in the West Bank should be issued until early 2010.

But Palestinians and other critics dismissed the move as insignificant, pointing out that construction continues on the ground in a number of settlements in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory.

"Since the government took office five months ago, it is an indisputable fact that no new tenders have been issued in Judea and Samaria, that is the reality," Atias told public radio, using the Hebrew name for the West Bank.

"It is an attempt to reach understanding with the US administration."

But officials stressed this did not amount to a formal government decision. They said the agreement included annexed Arab east Jerusalem, whose fate is one of the thorniest issues in the stalled Middle East peace talks.

"We believe there is no reason to strain relations with the United States and, as a gesture, we decided to temporarily suspend the issuing of new tenders for construction in the West Bank," an official told AFP.

He said this demonstrated "Israel's willingness to move forward with the peace process."

US President Barack Obama's administration has been pressing for a freeze of settlement construction as a vital step towards reviving peace talks that were relaunched in November 2007 but produced no tangible results before they again came to a halt just over one year later.

Israel had insisted it could not impose a total freeze as it needs to allow for "natural growth" and the row has brought relations with the United States, its closest ally, to their lowest ebb in years.

"Defence Minister Barak believes that Israel must be sensitive to the US position and not let the pressure increase further," an official said.

The announcement comes ahead of planned August 26 talks in London between Netanyahu and US Middle East envoy George Mitchell.

A government official stressed that "not a single tender has been issued" since the Netanyahu government took office on March 31. In the first eight months of 2008, 588 such tenders were issued.

But Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat insisted Israel "is playing with words in speaking of a freeze in housing construction tenders while continuing construction of 2,500 new houses in the settlements".

"Israel must stop all settlement activity without any conditions," he said.

The anti-settlement Peace Now group issued a similar statement, though it put the number of settlement homes under construction at 1,000.

"This means that on the ground there is no settlement freeze. A real freeze is the end of all construction, even those yet to be completed," it said.

The group confirmed that Israel has not issued any tenders for West Bank housing construction in months, but said government-sponsored construction only represents 40 percent of all construction in the occupied territory.

The Yesha settler council slammed the decision, saying it was "a dangerous process contradicting the wishes of the Israeli voters and the clear promises made by the prime minister before the elections.

"This is a surrender before the decrees of the American administration," it said in a statement.

About half a million Israeli settlers live in the West Bank, including east Jerusalem. The territory is home to more than three million Palestinians.

The international community views all settlements in lands occupied during the 1967 Six Day War -- including annexed east Jerusalem -- as illegal.

Huckabee says 2 states in Holy Land 'unrealistic'

By STEVEN GUTKIN, Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM – Former U.S. presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee said Tuesday there is no room for a Palestinian state "in the middle of the Jewish homeland" and Israel should be able to build settlements wherever it wants — taking a stance firmly at odds with Washington.

A three-day tour of Israel, hosted by a far-right group of religious nationalists, is taking Huckabee to some of the most contentious hotspots in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict including a West Bank settlement outpost that even Israel's hard-line government considers illegal and an east Jerusalem housing project that the Obama administration has demanded be halted.

Huckabee's opposition to a Palestinian state puts him at odds with the accepted wisdom of both Democrats and Republicans — and to some degree even with conservative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has come out in favor of some form of Palestinian independence.

Speaking to a small group of foreign reporters in Jerusalem, Huckabee, seen as a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2012, said the international community should consider establishing a Palestinian state some place else.

"The question is should the Palestinians have a place to call their own? Yes, I have no problem with that. Should it be in the middle of the Jewish homeland? That's what I think has to be honestly assessed as virtually unrealistic."

The politician, a Southern Baptist preacher and a two-time former governor of Arkansas, praised Israel for giving Muslims access to Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock — also the site of the ancient Jewish temples — even though the presence of a mosque there "could be considered an affront."

"Israel is a place where they're going to allow other cultures and religions, but don't ask the Jewish people whose homeland it is to completely yield over their ability to live within the context of their country," said Huckabee.

President Barack Obama is calling for a complete freeze on Israeli settlement activity on lands the Palestinians claim for their would-be state.

Washington appeared to receive at least partial satisfaction on Tuesday, when Israeli officials confirmed that their government has quietly stopped giving approval to new building projects in the West Bank. The move does not add up to a settlement freeze, however, because previously approved projects are still being built.

Huckabee is being hosted by the Jerusalem Reclamation Project, a pro-settler group seeking to bolster the Jewish presence in traditionally Arab east Jerusalem, where Palestinians hope will serve as their future capital. Their activities, some of them funded by American millionaire Irving Moskowitz, are aimed at blocking the division of the city as part of any future peace deal.

Huckabee said he welcomed a demonstration Monday night by anti-settlement protesters outside the Shepherd Hotel, the site of a planned housing project in east Jerusalem which the Obama administration has demanded be stopped and where the Moskowitz family hosted Huckabee for dinner.

He called the freedom to protest an "affirmation of everything that is wonderful and great about Israel and the United States."

During his tour, Huckabee will also visit the site of a planned neighborhood near Jerusalem that has also drawn U.S. ire and which Palestinians say will slice their future state in half. He will also travel to Hebron, the traditional burial place of the Biblical patriarch Abraham and the focus of particularly acute tensions between Muslims and Jews.

Bomb attack kills 7 in Kabul; UN staff among dead

By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – A suicide car bomb attacked a NATO convoy Tuesday on the outskirts of Kabul, killing at least seven civilians and wounding more than 50 people, officials said. Afghans working for the United Nations were among the dead and wounded.

The attack occurred two days before national elections in which Afghans are to select a new president. The Taliban have denounced the election and warned people they would be at risk if they go to polling stations. Hours before the suicide blast, two mortar rounds struck near the presidential palace in Kabul, the U.S. military said.

NATO announced Tuesday that its forces would refrain from offensive military operations on election day and would undertake missions only if they were "deemed necessary to protect the population."

The suicide attack on the road, close to a British military base, killed seven civilians and wounded 50, a statement from the Ministry of Interior said.

NATO said "reports indicate" that both Afghan civilians and NATO troops "were killed and wounded in the blast" near a NATO convoy. The statement did not elaborate.

The head of the U.N. mission to Afghanistan, Kai Eide, said in a statement that two U.N. staff members were killed and one was wounded. All were Afghans, he said. It was not clear if the U.N. dead were included in the ministry's toll.

British troops were guarding the site of the explosion as rescuers rushed the wounded to hospitals. An Associated Press reporter at the scene saw British soldiers collecting what appeared to be body parts from the roof of an Afghan home.

About a dozen private vehicles were destroyed near the road where the attack happened. People used their hands to dig through the rubble of damaged buildings. Families carried the wounded away from the scene.

U.S., NATO and Afghan security forces are on high alert this week because of the Thursday vote. President Hamid Karzai is favored to win but faces a stiff challenge from former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah. About three dozen candidates are in the race.

Elsewhere, a suicide bomber struck the gates of an Afghan army base in the southern province of Uruzgan, killing three Afghan soldiers and two civilians, provincial police chief Juma Gul Himat said.

U.S. military spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias had no details of damage or casualties from the attack on the presidential compound.

Neither Karzai or anyone else was wounded in the attack, said deputy presidential spokesman Hamid Elmi. He said the rounds probably hit "somewhere around the compound," but he had no further details.

Attacks in Afghanistan have risen steadily the last three years. In a speech Monday in Phoenix, President Barack Obama said U.S. troops would help secure polling places so that the elections can go forward and Afghans can choose their own future.

Obama said peace in Afghanistan "will not be quick" and "will not be easy." He added that the United States still has a deep interest in the long-term outcome.

"This is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defense of our people," Obama said.

Ahmadinejad Wants ‘Power Holders, Wealthy’ Brought to Court

By Ladane Nasseri

Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who pledged to root out corruption in his country, called on the judiciary to bring certain powerful and affluent people to court.

“If power holders and the wealthy are taken to court, there would be no place left for those who hold lower ranks to commit any wrongdoings,” Ahmadinejad said, speaking yesterday at the inauguration of the new head of the judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, state-run Press TV reported. He didn’t identify those he recommended for prosecution, nor what charges they may face.

Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of the June 12 presidential election, which defeated candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karrubi say was rigged. The vote was followed by protests over Ahmadinejad’s re-election, mass arrests and a deepening of divisions among Iran’s political elite.

During his campaign, Ahmadinejad accused former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and his family of corruption and opulence. Rafsanjani’s daughter was temporarily detained after speaking to a crowd at a Tehran post-election protest.

Rafsanjani had indirectly backed the campaign of Mousavi, the leading presidential challenger, and has condemned the government’s crackdown on the opposition since the election in the Shiite Muslim-led nation.

Rafsanjani, a cleric, also heads the Assembly of Experts. The panel of 86 senior clerics, directly elected by the people, has the power to choose Iran’s supreme leader, oversee his work and potentially depose him.

Ahmadinejad, who was sworn in on Aug. 5 for a second term, promoted himself as a modest man. He was initially elected in 2005 after promising to distribute the country’s oil wealth to the poor.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps have accused opposition leaders Mousavi, Karrubi and former President Mohammad Khatami of playing the “main role in planning and executing” the post- election unrest and called for them to be prosecuted.

U.S. Troops May Be Sent To Iraq's Arab-Kurdish 'Trigger Line'

2009-08-17

American forces' assignment would be to build trust and bridge the gap between feuding Arabs and Kurds in northern Iraq. Al-Qaeda is exploiting the split between the two sides, says a U.S. official.

In an effort to defuse mounting Arab-Kurdish tensions, the U.S. military is proposing to deploy troops for the first time in a strip of disputed territory in northern Iraq, the top American general in Iraq said today.

Gen. Ray Odierno said the proposal would see U.S. troops deployed alongside Iraqi security forces and Kurdish peshmerga militiamen on the Arab-Kurdish fault line in northern Nineveh province, which has been the scene of several recent high-profile bombings.

Their goal, he said, would be to build trust between Iraqi security forces representing the Baghdad government and Kurdish militia answerable to the Kurdish regional government at a time when a spike in bombings attributed to Al Qaeda in Iraq has sent tensions between the two administrations soaring.

"What we have is al-Qaeda exploiting this fissure between Arabs and Kurds in Nineveh ... and what we're trying to do is close that fissure," he told journalists at his headquarters at Camp Victory on the edge of Baghdad.

Though the plan is still not finalized, Odierno said he had discussed it recently with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki and with Masoud Barzani, the president of the regional government, and that both had been receptive to the idea.

The push into the area by American forces would not be large, and Odierno said he did not envisage it delaying the withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops from Iraq by next August. Because the area is mostly rural, the deployment would probably not fall outside the terms of the joint security agreement that require U.S. forces to pull out from urban areas by June 30, he said.

"It won't be full-on if we do it. It will just be to build confidence, then we will slowly pull ourselves out," he said. "As we deliberately withdraw our forces, you will see that there will be less forces withdrawn from the north than any other place. It's a recognition of where we think the bigger problem areas are."

The deployment would not come at least until September, when a committee is due to meet to discuss the proposal.

The plan has potential risks, among them that U.S. troops could find themselves bogged down in the region if Kurds and Arabs have not resolved their differences, said Sam Parker of the U.S. Institute of Peace.

"Depending on the size and nature of the force involved, this could pose difficulties for U.S. plans to withdraw combat forces by August 2010 and all U.S. forces by the end of 2011," he said.

The status of an arc of territory stretching across Nineveh province, through the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and into the province of Diyala lies at the heart of what has proved the most intractable problem still threatening the stability of northern Iraq.

Kurds claim the territories belong to their autonomous region of Kurdistan. After the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime and the disintegration of the Iraqi army in 2003, Kurdish peshmerga moved into the areas, giving them de facto control. But Arabs claim the territories are theirs, and as the Iraqi government has grown in strength, Arabs increasingly have asserted their claim.

A string of recent bombings targeting the minority Turkoman, Shabak and Yazidi communities has seen both sides accuse the other of responsibility. There also have been several tense standoffs in recent months between Iraqi security forces and peshmerga along what has been dubbed the "trigger line" marking the divide between Arabs and Kurds.

U.S. commanders fear such incidents could escalate into full-blown conflict if the tensions are allowed to fester. Odierno said the purpose of injecting U.S. forces would be to enable the two sides to learn to work together.

"I think they'd all feel more comfortable with us there," he said.

But there's also a danger that the presence of U.S. troops will provide a disincentive to the parties to find a political solution to their differences, said Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group.

"As a short-term measure, it's very good, because it shows American commitment to addressing this issue," he said. "In the longer term, it could make the parties more dependent on the U.S. at a time when the U.S. is planning to withdraw. It shouldn't be a substitute for U.S. diplomatic pressure to find a political solution to the problem of the trigger line."

In the meantime, Iraq's government is pressing ahead with a referendum on the security agreement that could force U.S. troops to leave Iraq sooner than expected. The Iraqi Cabinet finalized a draft law establishing the mechanisms for the referendum to be held on Jan. 16, the same day as national elections, according to a statement by government spokesman Ali Dabbagh.

The referendum, promised as part of a deal sealing the Legislature's approval of the agreement in December, was delayed until the same day as the January election to save effort and money.

If voters reject the security agreement, U.S. forces will have one year to pull out from Iraq, which means they would have to be gone by January 2011, 11 months earlier than anticipated.

Source: Free Internet Press.
Link: http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=22560.

Russia's Medvedev Fires Ingushetia's Police Chief Following Suicide Blast

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sacked the head of Ingushetia's police after a suicide bomber killed at least 19 people Monday.

"Today's terror attack in Nazran could have been prevented," Medvedev said on Russian State TV, and "this indicates, among other things, that the Ingush law enforcement agencies had not been working well enough."

"The police failed even to protect itself," he said.

The suicide bombing outside a police headquarters in Nazran in the Russian republic of Ingushetia, killed at least 19 and injured about 60 people, including 10 children, the Investigation Committee of the Russian Prosecutor's Office told CNN.

There were conflicting reports about the death toll, however. The duty officer at the Ingushetia branch of the Russian ministry for Emergency Situations had higher numbers.

"According to our information, 20 were killed and 118 were hurt, 65 of whom were hospitalized, others managed without doctor's assistance," he said.

Both sources however admitted those numbers might not be final because fire brigades and rescue workers are still cleaning up the debris and extinguishing pockets of fire at the exploded building.

"The fire virtually destroyed the building. There may still be people in the debris," an emergencies ministry spokesman told RIA Novosti.

"At about 9 a.m. local (1 a.m. ET) a suicide bomber driving a truck stuffed with explosives rammed into the gate of the police station," Kaloi Akhilgov, a spokesman for Ingushetia's president, told CNN. "It was a powerful explosion. Windows and balconies were broken in several residential buildings around the police station, injuring many people."

Russian State TV reported the explosives were equivalent to about 200 kilograms (441 pounds) of TNT, citing the Investigation Committee of the Russian Prosecutor's Office.

Ingushetia's president called the attack an attempt by Islamist rebels to undermine stability in the republic.

"There is no doubt that militants did that to boost their significance. It was an attempt to undermine stability and to sow panic," said President Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, who ordered tightened security around local government buildings and declared a three-day mourning period for blast victims.

In Moscow, Medvedev ordered Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev to take steps to protect police in Ingushetia, the Kremlin press office reported. He also offered condolences to the families of the bombing victims.

Yevkurov is being treated at a rehabilitation center near Moscow following an assassination attempt in June. He suffered a severe brain concussion, fractured ribs and a ruptured liver.

An Islamist suicide bomber rammed into his motorcade in Ingushetia. His driver and bodyguard were killed.

Ingushetia is a small Russian republic bordering Chechnya in the North Caucasus, just north of Georgia.

An impoverished province of mostly Muslims, Ingushetia has suffered for almost a decade from overflowing unrest in neighboring Chechnya.

It is battling a low-level insurgency with Islamist rebels who launch frequent attacks on Russian servicemen and law enforcement officials.

In response, Russia has launched a counterinsurgency campaign that has been criticized by human rights group for abuses such as arbitrary detentions and extra-judicial executions.

Karzai, the Pashtuns and the Taliban

Afghanistan's Pashtun majority is extremely unhappy with the Karzai administration because -- despite the fact that Karzai is a Pashtun -- it is dominated by non-Pashtun ethnic minorities, especially Tajiks, notes Robert Dreyfuss.

The prospects for Afghanistan's election on Thursday are murky, at best.

The Taliban are threatening to disrupt the vote in areas south and east of Kabul, where they are strong, and say that they will take reprisals against anyone who votes. "Afghans must boycott the deceitful American project and head for the trenches of holy war," said a communique from the Taliban. The Taliban, which is overwhelmingly Pashtun, is apparently counting on its ability to persuade or intimidate Pashtuns to stay away from the polls, which could doom or weaken Karzai.

An excellent analysis in the New York Times by Dexter Filkins notes that the Pashtun vote is critical to Karzai's chances on Thursday: "Five years ago, Mr. Karzai rode to an election victory on a wave of support from his fellow Pashtuns, who make up about 40 percent of Afghanistan's population."

Karzai, who is himself a Pashtun from Kandahar, the Taliban's stronghold, is working hard to get Pashtuns to the polls. Ahmad Wali Karzai, the president's brother and the wily head of the Kandahar provincial council, told Al Jazeera in an interview: "Pashtun votes are extremely important, because Pashtuns are the majority in Afghanistan. I don't think, without the Pashtun votes, no one can win."

But are the Taliban truly opposed to the election? It isn't clear. According to Amrullah Saleh, Afghanistan's intelligence chief, deals have been made with Taliban commanders in "lots of provinces," the New York Times says, to allow the vote to proceed -- and, presumably, with Taliban-leaning and Taliban-influenced Pashtuns voting for Karzai. Saleh says that this "diplomatic effort" and "softer approach" allows the Karzai regime to appeal to the Taliban's low-level commanders and sympathizers without using violence, and he said that the accords that have been struck "show that cohesion in the command of the Taliban is broken."

Hard to tell if that's true or, on the contrary, if the Taliban can muster the cohesion to oppose the elections in the 45 percent of the country they're said to control. Personally, I have no idea. In a brilliant New York Times op-ed today, "Afghanistan's Tyranny of the Minority," Selig Harrison points out that Afghanistan's Pashtun majority is extremely unhappy with the Karzai administration because -- despite the fact that Karzai is a Pashtun -- it is dominated by non-Pashtun ethnic minorities, especially Tajiks, who control the armed forces, the intelligence service, counter-narcotics forces, and more. It's the remnants of the old Northern Alliance that control Afghanistan, Harrison reminds us, including Tajiks, Uzbeks, Hazaras, and other minorities who hated the Taliban's rule during the 1990s through 2001. (The NA, you'll recall, was supported by Russia, India, and Iran, while Pakistan's ISI supported the Taliban.)

Karzai may be trying to appeal to the Pashtuns, but he's not helping his case by showering favor on thuggish, anti-Taliban warlords. His Tajik running mate, a former defense minister named Mohammad Fahim, is intensely disliked by Pashtuns. And just this week, he allowed the violence-prone Abdul Rashid Dostum, an Uzbek warlord, to return from exile in Turkey; in 2001, Dostum was responsible for the murders of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in northern Afghanistan. By positioning himself so closely to Fahim and Dostum, Karzai is blatantly appealing for the non-Pashtun minority votes from Kabul and the northern half of the country. This is ugly ethnic politics at its worst.

Yesterday, in the only campaign debate in which Karzai took part, he took the occasion to reiterate his calls for negotiation with the Taliban, a position that seems to reflect Amrullah Saleh's comments. And Karzai, despite his Tajik and Uzbek allies, has consistently called for talks with the top Taliban leadership, not just its mid-ranking commanders and tribal leaders. Despite such calls, however, it's hard to pull off while Karzai (a) remains in thrall to the Northern Alliance and (b) seems prisoner of the US counterinsurgency effort. In the debate, Karzai said: "Afghanistan...was totally lost. I saved it."

That is at least an exaggeration.

Afghans living in Pakistani towns to return to cast votes in presidential election

Afghans living in bordering Pakistani are likely to return to their country to cast the votes in the coming presidential election, local people told Xinhua Tuesday.

Chaman is a city located in Pakistan's southwest Balouchistan province and borders Afghanistan's Kandahar province where large number of Afghan refugees have been living for a long time.

Presidential candidates are paying special attention to the Afghan refugees in Chaman. Days ago, a brother of President Karzai addressed a mass rally of about 8,000 Afghans in Chaman, urging them to come for polls and vote for Karzai.

Some supporters were holding portraits of Karzai, others were chanting slogan in his favor.

Though campaigners of other Afghan presidential candidates have not visited Chaman, there are many posters on the streets of the city.

The city is a 30-minute drive to the Afghan district of Spin Boldak next to Afghan-Pak Friendship Gate on the border. Kandahar, the second largest city of Afghanistan is about 70 miles to Chaman.

Abdul Basit, 28, said to Xinhua, "We can have the opportunity to cast our votes for the future of our country."

"Presidential candidates are promising their supporters that campaign vehicles will pick them from border and take to the polling station to the next town inside Afghanistan and be taken back after casting their votes," he said.

It is also possible that many Afghan refugees living in Pakistan's tribal areas close to their homeland would come to their country on the election day.

Unlike the previous Presidential election in 2004, Afghan refugees and expatriates living out of the country will not be facilitated to cast their votes for presidential race 2009 in the countries they live.

The prominent presidential candidates, in their TV ads and online messages, try to attract the expatriates and persuade them to return to their hometowns in the country to participate in the presidential and provincial council elections held on August 20.

It is very unlikely that even a small number of 2.5 million Afghan refugees living in Pakistan, or 2 million in Iran would return for vote.

There are about 800,000 well-off Afghans living in Europe and the US and some presidential candidates are particularly focusing on Afghan expatriates in West to return to Afghanistan for the polling day.

Some prominent candidates are even offering their relatives and supporters in West the return tickets and accommodation costs.

However, this time, according to Noor Mohammad Noor, the spokesman for Independent Election Commission (IEC), enabling Afghan refugees living in Pakistan and Iran to cast their votes in host countries requires 50 million U.S. dollars and it is difficult to obtain such a budget.

Afghan warfare gets wired in quest to spare lives

By HEIDI VOGT, Associated Press Writer

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan – Sgt. 1st Class Gregory Henson goes out on patrol with a computer on his back and a joystick in his holster. He also carries a rifle, but the military is hoping he'll soon have less need for it.

A wired generation of U.S. soldiers is about to battle-test a high-tech weapon calculated to reduce civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

A key component is the "Dragon Egg," a softball-sized robotic camera that can be thrown over a hill or into a building without endangering troops. It rights itself like a Weeble Wobble toy and delivers a 360-degree view through its four tiny cameras. If any innocents are in the area, the soldier can mark the spot using his backpack computer to ward off an air strike.

"You don't have to enter a room. You don't have to worry about the first man in the room," said Sgt. Mike Fraser, who has been trained on the use of the cameras made by La Verne, Calif.-based Octatron Inc.

The idea is to bring down the Afghan civilian death rate, which is stoking public anger and draws denunciations from President Hamid Karzai after each incident.

In one of his first actions since taking over as head of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley McChrystal issued a tough new rule on airstrikes: If there's any chance of endangering civilians, back off, even if it means the Taliban get away.

With the new technology, "we can put a no-fire area over a mosque or a school," said Col. Harry Tunnell, commander of the 5th Stryker brigade that deployed to southern Afghanistan this summer as part of the 21,000 additional U.S. troops ordered in by President Barack Obama.

The Ft. Lewis, Wash.-based brigade is putting the computer system, called "Land Warrior" by manufacturer General Dynamics, into its first large-scale use in Afghanistan, distributing it to vehicle commanders or other team leaders, meaning it will be carried by about one in every five or seven soldiers in the brigade of more than 5,000 people. Each combat platoon of a few dozen soldiers will all receive a Dragon Egg kit.

Land Warrior comes with a viewfinder that drops over a soldier's eye and displays an aerial map marked with roads and towns, along with icons designating hostile forces and civilians. Soldiers pinpoint locations with satellite data and type notes into the system using a thumb keyboard that looks like the sliced-off bottom half of a Blackberry.

Satellite and radio links then spread the data between Stryker assault vehicles, aircraft and foot soldiers wearing the computers. If a soldier marks a vehicle or a house, it is seen instantly by anyone else in the brigade who has the system.

The 5th brigade soldiers started training with the system in June, about a month before they deployed.

It isn't perfect. Too much information can swamp the computer screens, for instance when blue dots that pinpoint a U.S. force's whereabouts become so numerous that they merge into one large dot — a "blue booger" in soldiers' parlance.

Also, the computer adds eight pounds (3.6 kilograms) to a soldier's standard 45 to 55 pounds (20 to 25 kilograms) of equipment. But Lt. Sam Bonnette says he likes "that I know where my guys are at on the ground."

Some soldiers are retrofitting the gear, sticking computers designed to sit inside body armor into backpacks so they can swing on and off easily. None of them has yet used the equipment in battle, so it's still a collection of fun or cumbersome gadgetry, depending on which soldier you talk to.

The soldier-mounted system was used by one battalion in Iraq, but never in Afghanistan, says Maj. James Dooghan, the brigade's executive officer.

The system used in Iraq weighed at least 10 pounds (4.5 kilograms) and involved a lot more parts. It also lacked full GPS capabilities and didn't have the thumb-keyboard to send text messages, said Roger Spears, who manages the Land Warrior program for General Dynamics.

Coupled with the growing use of pilotless planes, Land Warrior highlights the changing nature of 21st century warfare. It comes at a time when Marine commanders are saying killing the Taliban is a lesser priority than winning friends among the civilian population — a major paradigm shift for a force that prides itself on its ability to fight.

Lt. Col. William Clark, commander of the 8th Squadron, 1st Cavalry regiment which is heading to this southeast town on the Pakistan border, put it this way: "My goal is not to go to Spin Boldak and shoot everything I see. I lose by doing that."

NATO to keep guns quiet on Afghan election day

By FISNIK ABRASHI, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – The NATO-led force in Afghanistan said Tuesday it will halt offensive operations during this week's presidential election, and the country's fragile security was underscored when two mortar rounds struck near the presidential palace in Kabul.

The military alliance's decision follows a similar order to Afghan forces by President Hamid Karzai, who has called for an election day truce.

Millions of Afghans are expected to vote Thursday for president and provincial councils amid threats from the Taliban that they will disrupt the poll. U.S., NATO and Afghan forces will be stationed around the country to help protect the vote, but will not be carrying out offensive operations.

"In support of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) who lead the security efforts during the electoral process, only those operations that are deemed necessary to protect the population will be conducted on that day," the NATO-led force said in a statement.

Two mortar rounds, meanwhile, hit early Tuesday near the presidential palace in Kabul, the U.S. military said.

U.S. spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias had no details of damage or casualties from the attack.

Neither Karzai or anyone else was wounded in the attack, said deputy presidential spokesman Hamid Elmi. He said the ordinance probably hit "somewhere around the compound."

"I can't see any damage in the palace right now," Elmi said.

The incident follows Monday's insurgent attacks that killed a U.S. service member and an American civilian working for the military. The military death brought to 22 the number of U.S. troops killed in August.

Thousands of U.S. Marines are pushing ahead with their largest-ever operation in Afghanistan as they try to secure parts of southern Helmand province, a major Taliban stronghold. A number of insurgent groups also operate in eastern Afghanistan, a mountainous area that borders Pakistan.

Attacks in Afghanistan have risen steadily the last three years. In a speech Monday in Phoenix, President Barack Obama spoke of fierce fighting against Taliban and other insurgents leading up to the elections.

He told a veterans group that U.S. troops are working to secure polling places so that the elections can go forward and Afghans can choose their own future.

Obama said peace in Afghanistan "will not be quick" and "will not be easy."

He said the United States still has a deep interest in the long-term outcome.

"This is not only a war worth fighting. This is fundamental to the defense of our people," Obama said.

But a powerful Afghan insurgent leader said Afghans can decide their fate "without any trusteeship."

"America has to realize that it will not achieve victory in its war in Afghanistan through increasing the number of its soldiers in this country or through the sham elections," Gulbuddin Hekmatyar told the al-Jazeera news network in a Sunday evening interview.

Hekmatyar was a favored "freedom fighter" in the 1980s when the U.S. backed rebel groups trying to push the Soviet Union out of Afghanistan. Now his militants are committed to fighting international and U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Shooting of Sunni militant leader sparks riots in Pakistan

MULTAN, Pakistan (AFP) – The leader of a banned Sunni Islam militant outfit was shot dead in southern Pakistan on Monday, sparking sectarian rioting in Pakistan's biggest city Karachi, police said.

Allamma Ali Sher Haideri was killed along with one of his associates in the shooting at Pir Jo Goth village, Khairpur district, in southern Sindh province, senior police official Pir Muhammed Shah told AFP.

He said the attacker was killed after Haideri's guards returned fire, and that several of Haideri's men were wounded in the incident.

Haideri led the Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), a Sunni extremist outfit blamed for a string of sectarian attacks across Pakistan against Shiites.

The killing sparked rioting in the volatile southern port city Karachi, the capital of Sindh province, where angry mobs burnt a bus and a car and fired gunshots into the air, witnesses and police said.

"One of our police officials and two others were injured in the firing by the armed men during rioting," city police chief Waseem Ahmad told AFP.

He said police arrested seven men belonging to SSP from a city mosque, and recovered weapons and ammunition from their possession.

Shah said earlier that all shops and business had also shut their doors in Khairpur district, around 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of Karachi.

"We have deployed a maximum police force in the district while paramilitary Rangers are also there to help us," he said.

Life came to standstill as strikes were observed in towns across Sindh province and in parts of neighbouring Punjab province, residents said.

"Police... were deployed in sensitive areas and we are protecting the life and property of the people," said Salman Chaudhry, the police chief in Jhang town, where SSP was formed in the early 1980s.

Shiites account for about 20 percent of Pakistan's mostly Sunni Muslim population of 160 million. More than 4,000 people have died in outbreaks of sectarian violence in Pakistan since the late 1980s.

Pakistan captures spokesman for Baitullah Mehsud

By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD – Security forces have captured the Pakistani Taliban's top spokesman in an operation near the Afghan border, intelligence officials said Tuesday.

The seizure of Mauvi Omar, a high-profile figure in the Taliban, was the latest blow to the militants after the reported death of top leader Baitullah Mehsud in a U.S. missile strike Aug. 5 and Monday's capture of another leading commander.

Three intelligence officials said Tuesday that Omar was seized in a village in the Mohmand tribal region Monday night while he was traveling in a car with two associates to South Waziristan, a Taliban stronghold.

Local tribal elders assisted troops in locating Omar in the village of Khawazeo, the intelligence officials said. Pakistan army or government spokesmen were not immediately available for comments.

As the official spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Omar frequently called journalists to claim responsibility for terrorist attacks in Pakistan.

The intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media, said Omar's arrest would likely be publicly announced later Tuesday.

Omar's capture was the second high-profile arrest of a senior Taliban figure this week.

On Monday night, police said they arrested a militant commander and close Mehsud aide who was being treated in a private hospital in Islamabad, the capital.

Militant commander Qari Saifullah, who also has links to al-Qaida terrorists, told police he had been wounded in an American missile strike in South Waziristan, said two police officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information. It was unclear if it was the same strike believed to have killed Mehsud.

Gaza: Children Have a Way With Miracles

By Mohammed Omer

AMSTERDAM, Aug 16 (IPS) - Call it that choice between looking at the half-full or half-empty part of the results. And it is almost half; 55 percent of schoolchildren passed their exams in Gaza this year.

The results in the humanities section in the exams, the Tawjihis as they are called, were 4 percent better than last year, and in the sciences they were better by 2 percent. So much for the impact of the Israeli bombardment last December-January, on most of the children anyway.

Hanan Al-Manameh scored 99.4 percent in science, the sixth highest in the exams conducted both in Gaza and the West Bank. "The war and the siege on Gaza will not break us down," she tells IPS on phone from Gaza City. "The war didn't put an end to the school year, and it didn't kill the motivation inside me."

Mahmoud Al-Segali, 18, scored 99.5 percent. "My family had to move from one shelter to another while Israeli F-16s bombed the houses around us. Then, and later, we have been short of electricity, and short of paper, but I still managed my dream result."

School children are getting used by now to studying without paper – and that's not because they have computers. "I had to use my textbooks as my class notebooks as well," says secondary student Dua'a Khalil. The siege has brought shortage of paper among other things.

Of the 47,469 students who passed the exam, 1,189 scored more than 90 percent. They had to survive more than three weeks of Israeli bombing – though that killed many children. Disruption came earlier after hundreds of teachers went on strike. Many were threatened with salary cuts as a way of exerting pressure on Hamas (the teachers in Gaza are paid by the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank).

"The results of the secondary school exams of this year have a special meaning, because it was difficult and full of obstacles and blood during the aggression on both the West Bank and Gaza," Hamas de facto Prime Minister in Gaza Ismail Haniyeh said at a rare public appearance to honour students who had excelled. The government also awarded certificates posthumously to 23 high school students and to 12 teachers killed during the Israeli bombing.

But then, there is the other half that failed. No doubt the successes, and the overall improvement in the pass percentage can be summoned as argument that the Israeli bombing made no difference. But there is no simple statistical way of determining such an effect. Some children are more affected by such upheavals than others; that's just the way children are.

What is doubtless is the mountainous difficulties in the way, for those who overcame them, and for those who could not. And these are not the sort of difficulties children face in many schools around the world.

"Gaza has suffered severe shortage of paper; many books did not arrive till late in the year, and some did not arrive at all," Gaza-based education ministry spokesman Khalid Radi told IPS. "Supplies of ink and paper are no longer available."

Many teachers "are concerned about students' inability to concentrate, and this has become worse after the war on Gaza." Sometimes it is a far more basic issue than concentration, says Radi. "In many schools children can't see what is written on the blackboard because of inadequate lighting due to shortage of electricity."

Seventy-five new schools were due to be constructed in Gaza, but the Israeli siege means there are now no construction materials to build them with. The average number of children in a classroom has meanwhile risen from 40 to 55. Thirteen schools in Gaza were demolished in the bombing, 176 were damaged.

Diab Jumma, 18, is among those students who did not clear the exam. "My mother fainted when she heard," he says. "It's not that I don't have the time to read, but when I do I am just not able to understand. I get nightmares about the bombing, and when I sit to read a book I find it hard to collect my thoughts and put them into studies."

Such problems are common, deputy minister for education Dr. Yousif Ibrahim tells IPS. He speaks of the Al-Samnouni family. "How is it possible for a student to focus when he has seen the flesh and blood of his parents' body stuck on the walls of a room of what was once his home?" Twenty-eight members of that family were killed in the bombing.

And yet Gaza's results are comparable with those in Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria, says Dr. Ibrahim. "And imagine, in those countries they have all the budgets, the stability, the means to create a proper atmosphere for education."

But some children will always triumph. And they set their own standards for success. Al-Segali with his 99.5 percent marks failed in his own way. "It was his handwriting that prevented him from getting that extra 0.5 percent," says Dr. Ibrahim. "He must work on that."

5th century skeleton found in Byzantine cathedral in Syria

London, August 17 : An archaeological team has unearthed a cathedral with a skeleton remains in it in Tal Al-Hasaka site, north eastern Syria, dating back to the Byzantine era during the 5th century.

The cathedral ,which dates back to the Early Christianity Era, is 18 meters long, and includes a four meter wide northern hall, a 6.5 meter wide middle hall and a three meter wide southern hall, Al-Hasaka Archeology Director Abdul-Maseeh Baghdo, told the Global Arab Network.

It also includes two column bases, and the floor is inlayed with reddish-yellow baked clay.

In the cathedral’s northern hall, an entrance leading to the service area was discovered where a grape squeezer and a skeleton of a human who died of torture were found.

The excavation team also found the cathedral’s stairway exit consisting of four steps, with another four steps facing them the opposite way.

Moreover, the team found intact columns reaching five meters in height with ornaments, as well as the cathedral’s collapsed ceiling which was built from baked clay and basalt stones.

A bimah - a platform where a religious preacher stands - was uncovered, confirming that this site is a cathedral, according to the Archeological director.

Subway excavation uncovers Algeria's past

'No one could have imagined that the earth was hiding these relics'

By Christian Lowe

ALGIERS - Work to build a subway line through Algeria's capital has given archaeologists a chance to uncover traces of their country's ancient history that they thought had been erased by French colonial rule.

When engineers closed off part of Algiers' bustling Martyrs' Square to build an underground railway station, archaeologists seized the opportunity to investigate the site and, beneath layers of concrete, found a 5th century basilica.

They also found Ottoman-era metal forges and recovered cannonballs and a primitive pistol - an echo of the period in the 16th and 17th century when Barbary pirates used Algiers as a base to terrorize shipping in the Mediterranean Sea.

Historians are excited because the finds give a rare glimpse of the heart of ancient Algiers, the lower Kasbah, which was partially destroyed by 19th century French occupiers to make way for a parade ground and the colonial seat of government.

"This is our heritage," said Kamel Stiti, director of the team of Algerian archaeologists working on the site, as he sat in his office at the dig, a dusty steel container the other side of a metal fence from a busy bus stop.

"No one could have imagined that the earth was hiding these relics," he said. "Little by little we are in the process of rediscovering ... the Algeria which resisted colonization."

For centuries Algeria's coastline, with its fertile farmland and strategic ports, has attracted waves of invaders: Phoenicians, the Romans, Arab rulers, Ottoman governors and finally France, which ran Algeria until independence in 1962.

But now Algerian historians are focused on studying the indigenous cultures that lived alongside the occupiers — part of the process of forging a national identity after French rule and a war of independence that killed around a million people.

Native cultures
The dig, on a section of Martyrs' Square that until a few months ago was a bus depot, has largely confirmed what archaeologists had found at sites elsewhere in Algeria.

Research there has uncovered evidence of habitation by successive generations of Amazigh societies, the indigenous people of Algeria and large parts of North Africa.

But its location — and the rare opportunity to peer beneath Algiers' densely populated streets — have meant the site is attracting keen interest. Passers-by peer through gaps in the metal fencing or clamber up lamp-posts to see what is happening.

Since archaeologists made their discoveries, work on the subway station has been put on hold.

The Algerian archaeologists, working alongside a team of French researchers, have dug two pits about seven meters deep.

Visible at the bottom of one pit are sections of mosaic from the floor of the basilica, made from ceramic pieces in green, white, blue and red arranged into intricate geometric patterns.

That structure was fresh evidence that Algeria's natives adopted Christianity. "It's true today that we are Muslims but perhaps before, the population came to worship God in the Christian style in the 5th century," said Stiti.

Tombs found underneath could be even older than the basilica: the archaeologists said radiocarbon dating on the skeleton fragments found there should reveal their age.

The cannonballs were found nearer the surface, in an area that made up part of an Ottoman-era artisans' quarter.

Five hundred years ago, craftsmen there could have manufactured the weapons the Barbary pirates used to strike fear into their victims.

"It shows the force of the region that dominated the Mediterranean for three centuries," said Stiti.

Fatah: A New Beginning or an Imminent End?

By Ramzy Baroud

This is hardly the rational order of things. An overpowering military occupation was meant to be resisted by an equally determined, focused and unyielding national movement, hell-bent on liberation at any cost and by any means. This is the unwritten law that has governed and shielded successful national liberation projects throughout history. The Fatah movement, under Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, however, wants to alter that order, meeting Israeli colonialism with ill-defined ‘pragmatism’, extreme violence with press statements laden with endless clichés that mostly go unreported, and a determined Israeli attempt at squashing Palestinian aspirations with political tribalism, factional decay and internal divisions.

Indeed, the long delayed Fatah Congress, held in Bethlehem on August 4 has underscored the obvious: the all-encompassing movement which was meant to exact and safeguard Palestinian national rights has grown into a liability that, if anything, will continue to derail the Palestinian national project. This comes at a time when the Palestinian people are in urgent need of a collective response that is strong enough to withstand Israeli military pressure and coercion at home, eloquent enough to communicate the Palestinian message to a global audience, and astute enough to galvanize international support and sympathy to the benefit of Palestinian freedom and independence.

But what we witnessed in Bethlehem was a bizarre manifestation of the discord of self-seeking and self-imposed elites vying for empty titles, worthless positions and hollow prestige. The mockery started when hundreds of additional delegates were invited to join in the already bloated number of Fatah members with the hopes that their presence would bolster the position of this factional leader or that. Oddly, the meeting place was occupied Bethlehem. The delegates of the ‘resistance’ movement must’ve passed through Israeli checkpoints and metal detectors to reach their meeting place and talk of hypothetical revolutions and imaginary resistance. Excluded were Fatah members who didn’t pass Israeli screening. Perhaps, they were not ‘revolutionary’ enough for Israeli taste.

Then the show started. One would hope to take an iota of pride in the fact that the delegates were not participants in a typical meet of conformists as is the case in ruling party conferences throughout the region. But this would be self-deceiving. The heated discussions which evolved into screaming matches, were of little relevance to the struggles and challenges facing the Palestinian people at home and abroad. It was not the plight of Gaza, nor the cause of the refugees, nor the best method of garnering international solidarity that invited the ire of most respected members. The disputes were most personal. A so-called younger generation trying to exact greater representation in the movement’s 21-strong Central Committee and the 120-member Revolutionary Council from the so-called Old Guard.

Many news reports reduced the ongoing turmoil in Fatah to sound bites and half-truths. The old recycled gibberish of ‘moderate’ Fatah was once more juxtaposed to ‘extremist’ Hamas; the latter’s violence with the former’s investment in a pretend ‘peace process’, those who want to live in peace, ‘side-by-side’ with Israel and those who want to ‘annihilate’ the Jewish State.

“Now the Palestinians – like the Israelis and the international backers of Fatah – are waiting to see the results,” reported the New York Times. True, but Palestinians were waiting for entirely different reasons.

Fatah has changed over the years. It started as a resistance movement of well-intended members, mostly students and young professionals in the 1950’s and 60’s. The young leadership was motivated by various factors, chief amongst them were the plight of the refugees, the lack of a truly independent Palestinian leadership and the failure of Arab governments to deliver on their promises to liberate Palestine. Resistance was in fact the core of Fatah’s liberation program.

One of the movement’s founders once wrote: “It was not only the experiences and the errors of our predecessors which helped guide our first steps. The guerrilla war in Algeria, launched five years before the creation of Fatah, had a profound influence on us. We were impressed by the Algerian nationalists’ ability to form a solid front, wage war against an army a thousand times superior to their own, obtain many forms of aid from various Arab governments, and at the same time avoid becoming dependent on any of them.”

Over the years, whether out of political of military necessity, internal divisions or any other factors, Fatah grew into a melting pot encompassing romantic revolutionaries and poets, wealthy elites and shifty politicians. It was a strange balance, but a balance nonetheless, which kept suspicious Palestinians hopeful that the revolutionary elements in Fatah would eventually prevail. But following Yasser Arafat’s signing of the Oslo Accord with Israel, in 1993, the millionaires and their dubious politician allies won, turning Fatah into a giant company, feeding on the empty rhetoric of ‘peace’, financed by international donors, and operated by the movement’s ‘pragmatic’ elements, who allied themselves with Israel to preserve their gains, however insignificant.

That is why “Palestinians (were) waiting”, perhaps with the hope that Fatah would once more revert to its founding principles, with a coherent national project, stipulating unity of purpose and clarity of aim. It was not that Palestinians were hungry for violent resistance and eager to blow things up, but they longed for a Fatah that would once more institute resistance as an idea, as a culture, with all of its manifestations, infused as necessary. They wanted Fatah to go back to the basics, own up to the struggle of its people, as opposed to the quisling rhetoric that turned Palestine into a collection of political tribes, each armed with NGO’s, newsletters and bloated bank accounts in various European capitals.

One wants to decry this shameful episode in the history of the Palestinian struggle, but one ought to remember that history has a way of repeating itself. The faltering Fatah that was once established to represent the aspirations of the downtrodden Palestinian refugees is now facing the same historical imperative that other failed movements have faced in the past. If Fatah fails to reclaim itself as a true national liberation movement, an umbrella that unites every facet of Palestinian society, then it will soon splinter and eventually dissolve, if not entirely disappear. But true challenge will remain; whether those who will carry the torch will learn from the “experiences and the errors of (their) predecessors.” Time will tell.

Shiite rebel leader among dozens killed in renewed Yemen clashes

SANAA, Yemen: Yemeni security forces killed a Shiite rebel leader in renewed clashes in the north of the mainly Sunni Muslim Arab country, in which dozens of troops and rebels also died, government sources said on Monday. Fighting in the Yemen’s north appeared to escalate Monday with the rebels claiming in statements to have made a number of advances, including taking control of several strategic areas in the northern Saada Province which borders Saudi Arabia.

The rebels also claimed to have launched Katyusha rockets on an army camp in Saada and promised more strikes in the future.

The rebels’ claims came after Yemen’s defense minister earlier in the day said a stepped-up counteroffensive by government troops had paralyzed the rebels’ movements and dealt them a severe blow.

A government official told Reuters that Hussein Kamza, who led rebels in the northern Amran Province loyal to Abdul-Malik al-Houthi of the Houthi tribal group, was killed during fighting on Sunday.

Fighting in Saada between Yemeni troops backed by fighter aircraft and Shiite rebels has killed dozens on both sides since the government launched a wide offensive against the rebels earlier this month after weeks of skirmishes.

Saada is also where the rebels kidnapped 15 local aid workers last week, according to the province’s governor.

Yemen on Thursday announced conditions for a ceasefire to end its offensive, but the rebels rejected the truce offer and denied holding any kidnapped civilians.

The province has been closed to journalists, and the reports could not be independently verified.

The current round of fighting that began last week marks a major escalation in the five-year-old conflict.

The Shiite rebels complain the government ignores their needs and has allowed Wahhabis – people adhering to an ultraconservative version of Sunni Islam found in Saudi Arabia – too strong of a voice in the country. The Wahhabis, who consider Shiites to be heretics, gained influence after helping the Yemeni government win the 1994 civil war with the secessionist south.

The Yemen government has portrayed the rebels as a fundamentalist religious group supported by Iran.

The stability of Yemen – the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden – is a key concern for both Saudi Arabia and the US who worry that the lawlessness there could provide cover for Al-Qaeda militants who have sought sanctuary in the impoverished nation.

Along with rampant lawlessness, Yemen is also struggling with a worsening economy as a result of falling oil prices.

Meanwhile, also on Monday, a delegation of US senators led by John McCain and the president of Yemen discussed ways to help the impoverished Arabian Peninsula country battle another threat the country faces – that of Al-Qaeda.

The state SABA news agency said the American team and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh focused on “bilateral issues and fields of joint cooperation.” No details immediately emerged from the meeting, but McCain spokeswoman Brooke Buchanan confirmed earlier that the talks would include counterterrorism cooperation and Guantanamo detainees.

Yemen has been a professed US ally in the fight against terrorism but President Barack Obama has hesitated to send home the nearly 100 Yemeni inmates held at Guantanamo Bay prison because of Yemen’s history releasing extremists.

The country, which is the ancestral homeland of Osama bin Laden, has been the site of numerous high-profile, Al-Qaeda-linked attacks, including the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in the Gulf of Aden, which killed 17 American sailors.

The US visit comes at a particularly difficult time for Yemen.

In addition to the Al-Qaeda threat and the escalating tribal Shiite rebellion in the Saada province, Saleh’s Sunni-led government is facing a vigorous southern secessionist movement.

Threat of violence looms over Afghan vote

By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – The threat of violence looms over Afghan presidential election Thursday. And not just from Taliban militants.

Abdullah Abdullah, a former foreign minister who is President Hamid Karzai's top rival, told a crowd of flag-waving supporters in Kabul on Monday that he will win the election — "if they don't steal your votes," confident rhetoric that analysts say could stoke a violent backlash if his supporters believe they've been cheated.

Serious questions over the fairness of the balloting could result in a winner without real legitimacy — a serious problem in a country where the central government is struggling to exert control beyond the capital. The U.S. is spending millions of dollars and pressing a new military offensive this month to make sure the voting comes off well.

Abdullah, a trained ophthalmologist who has railed against government corruption, isn't the only one who expects fraud. Voting observers warn that cheating will most likely take place at polling stations in remote or dangerous areas where independent monitors won't be able to be present.

A black market for voter registration cards is said to be flourishing, and a suspiciously high number of women — far more than men — have been registered to vote in culturally conservative provinces where Karzai expects to do well among his fellow ethnic Pashtuns who form the majority there.

Mindful of the possibility of cheating, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Monday for "credible, secure and inclusive elections" and urged Afghans "to make election day secure, to eliminate fraud, and to address any complaints fairly and quickly."

"We call on candidates and their supporters to behave responsibly before and after the elections," she said in a statement.

Abdullah's core group of supporters — ethnic Tajiks — have taken to the streets before. In May 2006, a U.S. military truck crashed into a line of vehicles, sparking riots by hundreds of Tajiks who rampaged through Kabul. About 20 people were killed in the crash and subsequent unrest.

Abdullah's campaign manager was quoted last month as predicting street violence if Abdullah doesn't win, contending that Karzai can't prevail unless he steals the vote — an allegation similar to those which triggered violent protests in Afghanistan's western neighbor, Iran, after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed victory in the June 12 balloting.

Following an uproar over his comments, campaign manager Abdul Satar Murad said he was misquoted. But the language he purportedly used is almost the same Abdullah now employs on the stump.

"If there is no fraud in the election, it is clear for the nation who the winner will be and who the next president will be — if they don't steal your votes," Abdullah told thousands of supporters at Kabul's main sports stadium on Monday, the last day of the two-month campaign. Thousands of supporters energetically waved baby blue flags as Abdullah spoke, but most of the stadium's seats sat empty.

Murad told The Associated Press afterward that Abdullah's prediction of victory is correct, but that he is not stoking violence among supporters in the case of a loss.

"Indeed they will not do that," Murad said. "They will be watching the process, and if things are fair and impartial, this (an electoral defeat) is part of the game. ... There are diplomatic channels to go through and express your feelings."

Peaceful protests, though, are not part of Afghanistan's history, said Haroun Mir, the director of Afghanistan's Center for Research and Policy Studies.

"Unfortunately, in any demonstration in Afghanistan's history, the demonstration comes with violence, and if the result of the election is not acceptable for one of the candidates, a candidate that has, say, 30 to 40 percent of the vote, if there is a protest it will be violent," Mir said, alluding to Abdullah.

U.S. and NATO military commanders are planning for this possibility. Most U.S. troops are stationed in the country's south and east, but the Americans have several quick reaction forces stationed in and around Kabul.

If Abdullah supporters believe the election is stolen, they aren't likely to go file protests with the country's Electoral Complaints Commission, because they will view the body as an arm of Karzai's government, said John Dempsey, a Kabul-based analyst with the U.S. Institute of Peace.

"Some angry mobs may smash things up, even attack people, but I don't think it's going to be too widespread, and I don't think it would be too long-lasting," Dempsey said.

On the other end of the spectrum, militant violence looms over the election as well. The Taliban have warned Afghans not to cast ballots, saying that voters might be the victims of attacks on polling sites.

Rumors have circulated that villagers with indelible ink on their fingers — a fraud prevention method to deter repeat voting — could be attacked, or even have their fingers chopped off. A Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, has denied that militants would cut off fingers. But the Taliban is a loose collection of militant leaders, and individual insurgents could still carry out such attacks.

Militant threats in Afghanistan's south and east — where Taliban militants are strongest — could lower turnout among Karzai's fellow ethnic Pashtuns, boosting Abdullah's chances.

Recent opinion polls in Afghanistan point to a Karzai win, with the president leading Abdullah by about 20 percentage points. None of the polls, however, has Karzai with more than about 45 percent support, and the president needs 50 percent of the votes to avoid a two-person run-off, likely with Abdullah.

Abdullah's hard line and hints of street unrest could be a way to increase his standing if talks with Karzai to share or distribute power in a future government take place.

Such a deal would likely be welcomed by U.S. and other foreign powers that bankroll the Afghan government and are working to prop up its weak institutions. Karzai has already said that if he wins he will offer Abdullah and other top presidential hopefuls jobs in his government.