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Saturday, September 12, 2009

Iran defense minister warns Arabs against US 'deception'

Iran's defense minister claims the US is trying to take full military control of the region by launching a deterrence campaign against Tehran.

"Since the beginning of the Iranian nuclear case, Washington has misjudged the situation, drawn up a wrong strategy and tried to feed it to other states," Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said Saturday.

"By maneuvering on a deterrent strategy against Iran, the US is trying to take full control of the military power of regional states," he was quoted by the Iranian Labor News Agency as saying.

"Other than robbing regional countries of their resources, the US will, in the long-term, endanger the interests of the American people with this plan."

His remarks came after US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Iran was a danger to the United States as well as regional Arab countries.

In a Monday interview with the Al Jazeera Arabic news channel, Secretary Gates asked Arab states to force Iran into giving up its uranium enrichment program through military cooperation.

"Our Arab friends and allies can strengthen their security capabilities, the more they can strengthen their co-operation, both with each other and with us, I think sends the signal to the Iranians that this path they're on is not going to advance Iranian security, but in fact could weaken it," said Gates.

Vahidi, meanwhile, advised the US not to "militarize the regional setting."

Egyptian's UNESCO candidacy opposed by Zionists

As competition for the top post at UNESCO heats up, pro-Israeli groups have engaged in an all-campaign to ensure the Egyptian candidate does not win.

Various European Zionist groups and personalities are demonizing Egypt's Culture Minister Farouk Hosni, one of the top candidates for the post, with such labels as 'anti-Semitic', extreme and “conflictual,” according to a Wednesday article in the Washington Post.

The article contributes the Jewish allegations against Hosni to the minister's alleged last year comments that he would burn Israeli books if he found them in Egyptian libraries.

"We believe his candidacy is a difficult one, a conflictual one. In the past, he has made comments that he has retracted," said Nicolas Stofermacher, the spokesman for the Paris-based European Jewish Congress.

"Those comments were of a very specific anti-Semitic nature. As a political organization that democratically represents European Jewish communities, we cannot support a candidacy such as this one."

Hosni, 71, who has served as Egypt's culture minister for the past two decades, offered his apologies three months ago as the race for heading the Paris-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization got momentum.

The famous Zionist writer and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, widely known as a propagandist for Israeli interests, has also shared his input on Hosni's candidacy through the Israeli daily, The Jerusalem Post which quoted him on Monday as saying "He does not deserve to be an international high official as the director of UNESCO."

There are also some western analysts that have come to Hosni's defense, according to the Washington Post, claiming that he would “help fill the cultural gap between the West and the Muslim world.” Some point out that Hosni has shown some “openness, such as pledging to translate works by Israeli writers.”

According to the Post article, “Egypt is beginning to renovate its synagogues, as part of the country's heritage.”

Yet, the paper argues, that the cultural minister has an ample record of “showing opposition towards Israel” by repeatedly conditioned normalization with Israel on resolving the Palestinian issue.

Nine candidates from Latin America, Europe and Africa are competing together to win the race and occupy the seat of the outgoing Japanese head Koichiro Matsuura.

The main contenders are Farouk and the European Union's external affairs commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

Govt not 'serious' over return of KPs to Valley: PK

Jammu, Sep 12 : Panun Kashmir, an amalgam of Kashmiri Pandit bodies, today said the Jammu and Kashmir Government does not seemed to be 'serious' in resolving the issue of Kashmiri Pandits returning the Valley.

‘’Government’s employment package offer to Kashmiri youths is merely eyewash and once again government has tried to play with the sentiments of the innocent pandits,’’ Dr Agnishekhar, chairman Panun Kashmir, told reporters at a press conference here this afternoon.

Dr Agnishekhar, however, said that twenty years of exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley have passed but still, the government has not cleared the dust over pandits return to their homeland.

‘’Government should come in black and white on the issue and fix a time frame for the return of pandit community to Kashmir,’’ the PK chairman added.

Meanwhile, he said Panun Kashmir is going to observe September 14 as Martyrs Day (Balidan Divas) to mark it 20th year of Kashmiri Pandits exile.

‘’Balidan Divas would be observed at Abhinav Theater in Jammu, Delhi, Pune, Hyderbad and Vadodra while a copy of memorandum would also be served to the Prime Minister’s office from different units,’’ he added.

Analysis: Shebaa Farms key to Levant hydro-diplomacy

BEIRUT, 10 September 2009 (IRIN) - The politics of the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, a rugged sliver of mountainside wedged between Lebanon, Israel and Syria, have long overshadowed what some Lebanese environmentalists call “the real issue” of the disputed area: its water resources.

Now activists are calling for hydro-diplomacy to take precedence over political maneuvering as the most effective solution to one of the key stumbling blocks to Middle East peace.

Rising Temperatures Rising Tensions, a report published in June by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), funded by the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, considers water to be a major trigger for conflict in the Middle East, the world’s most water scarce region.

Lebanon and Syria say the Shebaa Farms, measuring just 22sqkm, is Lebanese territory, though the UN has ruled it part of the Syrian Golan Heights, which lie just to the east, across water-rich Mount Hermon.

Both the Golan and Shebaa were occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967 and the Israelis say disengagement from Shebaa can only come under a peace deal with Syria and withdrawal from the Golan.

However, Fadi Comair, director-general of Hydraulic and Electric Resources at the Lebanese Ministry of Energy and Water, argues there is more to Israel’s occupation of Shebaa than military-strategic concerns: “Israel’s occupation of the Shebaa Farms has to do with control of its water.”

Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that fought Israel to a bloody stalemate in 2006, has the liberation of Shebaa as one of its strategic objectives.

Water scarcity

Meeting the water needs of their rapidly growing populations has long been an existential challenge for the governments of the arid Middle East. Climate change is making that challenge more urgent and acute.

Israel, Jordan and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) all fall well below the internationally accepted threshold of 1,000 cubic metres of water per person per year (cmwpy). According to the IISD, Israel has natural renewable water resources of 265 cmwpy, Jordan 169, and OPT just 90. Only Lebanon and Syria have water surpluses, with Lebanon having a potential of 1,220 cmwpy and Syria 1,541.

Yet supply is dwindling rapidly. By 2025 water use in Israel is estimated to fall to 310 cmwpy, while the country’s own Environment Ministry has warned that water supply may fall by 60 percent of 2000 levels by 2100.

River Jordan

The IISD report goes even further, warning that the River Jordan, which is the key supplier of water to Israel, Jordan and OPT, could shrink as much as 80 percent by the end of the century.

Such drastic scarcity makes securing water supplies vital. The River Jordan rises in Mount Hermon, fed by tributaries in the Golan Heights and Shebaa Farms, and flows into the Sea of Galilee, also known as Lake Tiberius, before continuing south where it forms the boundary between Jordan, to the east, and the West Bank. After 320km it empties into the Dead Sea.

Major tributaries of the river include the Hasbani, which flows into Israel from Lebanon, and the Banias, which flows from Syria. The River Dan, which also supplies the River Jordan, is the only river originating in Israel.

Water wars

The absence of hydro-diplomacy reflects conflict in the region. In 1965, Syria and Lebanon began the construction of channels to divert the Banias and Hasbani, preventing the rivers flowing into Israel. The Israelis attacked the diversion works, the first in a series of moves that led to a regional war two years later.

In 2002, when the Lebanese constructed a pipeline on the River Wazzani intended to supply households in southern Lebanon with water, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared the action a causus belli. In the July War of 2006, Israeli warplanes targeted southern Lebanon’s water network.

Bassam Jaber, a water expert at Lebanon’s Ministry of Energy and Water, argues the Shebaa is critical to Israel’s water needs, “especially because fresh water is critical when all sources within Israel are salty. The flows from the area help to regulate the saltiness of Lake Tiberius”.

And it is not just the direct overland flow that the Shebaa provides Israel. According to the Lebanese Water Ministry’s Comair, 30-40 percent of the River Dan’s water flows into it through underground supplies originating in the Shebaa. “Israel is worried that if Lebanon gains control of the Shebaa, it can then control the flow to the Dan river,” said Comair.

Hydro-diplomacy

As one of only eight states to have ratified the 1997 UN Convention on the Law of Non-Navigational Uses of International Watercourses, Lebanon is calling on Israel to do the same.

“Israel is not a signatory to the relevant conventions on water, which is a big problem since they are at the centre of the issue of equitable use of water and reasonable sharing,” said Comair.

Israel has already shown that water can play a role in peacemaking. Its 1994 peace agreement with Jordan included a commitment to transfer 75 million cubic metres of water per year to Jordan in return for secure borders to the east.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Energy and Water is now calling for a regional water basin authority for the River Jordan, which would include Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and OPT. “How can you reach any agreements on the equitable sharing of international watercourses if there is no cooperation?” asked Comair.

Water solutions for all?

Not all are convinced Israel’s occupation of Shebaa is primarily about securing water.

“Water is no doubt one aspect of the socio-political conflict, but it is not the main driver,” said Mutasem el-Fadel, director of the Water Resources Center at the American University of Beirut.

He points to several projects currently being studied that could solve Israel’s water needs, without requiring continued occupation of the Shebaa, such as the Red Sea-Dead Sea Canal Project, the Mini-Peace pipeline from Turkey, waste water reclamation plans and desalination projects.

“All combined they can be the water solution for all five countries in the area,” said el-Fadel.

But in the absence of hydro-diplomacy between Israel and Lebanon, the continued Israeli occupation of the Shebaa Farms will remain a key trigger to renewed conflict between the two countries.

“There will not be enough water for our generation or the next,” said Comair. “We will see social, economic, political and military conflicts - and in that order - within the next 20 years.”

Algeria's Milk Production Is Expected To Continue Flourishing Through To 2013

Algeria is the second largest country in Africa and one of the largest in the world, with a population of 34mn, of which a quarter of the population is employed within the agricultural sector. As the government has strove to diversify the economy away from an overwhelming reliance on the services and energy sectors, this drive has become more and more difficult, owing to various separate, yet mutually exacerbating factors; some external, some domestic. The Algeria Agribusiness Report Q4 2009 takes a look at industry fundamentals as securing food supplies throughout the Arab world increasingly focuses the attention of state leaders.

Prior to the severing of French stewardship in 1962, Algerian agriculture was heavily comprised of European owned farms, while Muslim farm laborers accounted for 87.5% of the farm population.

During this time Algeria was virtually self-sufficient in cereal crops, yet this rapidly deteriorated once the last colonial managers had left the farms, which were subsequently run as state-owned enterprises.

Moreover, the rise of the hydrocarbons industry, namely natural gas and oil, was a major contributing factor in soil erosion and neglection of the farming industry, which has led the industry to its current dynamic where import dependency, food subsidies and input shortages are a mainstay of the economy.

Improving rural productivity has become more pertinent to policy-making decisions in recent years, as food security concerns have heightened. A new law was implemented in 2007 with the intention to maximize the potential of the sector by realigning policy orientation. The programme focused on such areas as improving food safety frameworks; the efficient use of natural resources; a central feature of the programme has been intensifying and improving the performance of the dairy industry, through supporting small producers to enhance yield volumes, as well as quality and storage facilities. This initiative, in accordance with the Agricultural Development Programme (PNDA), has helped the producers of fresh milk improve fundamentals, enabling production growth to keep pace with local demand.

Continuing the positive 16.58% growth recorded from 2004-2008, we foresee milk production continuing to flourish through to 2013. The low prices currently hindering dairy farmers across the globe is having little effect in Algeria; the country produces only for domestic consumption and local demand shows little sign of waning. This underpins our assertion that y-o-y growth will be recorded in each and every year of the forecast period starting in 2009. However, the dairy processing subsector, despite the growing popularity of such products within households, is failing to keep pace with the development of the whole milk industry. This will result in a widening deficit as imports continue to flood the economy. The adoption of modern technology and processes largely hold the keys to improving the outlook of processed dairy goods, as well as effective marketing and distribution channels.

French who fled Algeria return to their roots

By Lamine Chikhi

DELLYS, Algeria (Reuters Life!) - After sailing half way around the world to the small Algerian port where he was born, Gilbert Gambardella stepped off a boat and back in time.

Gambardella was a young man when he left Dellys in 1964, two years after Algeria shook off 130 years of French colonial rule.

His family were pieds noirs ("black feet"), French nationals born in Algeria whose ancestors were European settlers or North African Jews.

Indigenous Muslims turned against the pieds noirs after a traumatic and bloody war for independence and about 1 million of them emigrated to France. Many left in panic and took only what they could pack into a suitcase.

Gambardella became a mathematics teacher in French-held New Caledonia in the southwest Pacific. After he retired, he used email to track down a friend in Dellys, who urged him to return.

At 77, Gambardella made the months-long voyage back to Algeria with a friend, not knowing what he would find left of his past.

"I thought that nobody would remember me. I was wrong. Dozens were at the port to greet me," he said, holding back tears. "Even the mayor, whose father was a friend of mine, was there -- it was incredible."

"My father was born here. I was born here. My wife was born here and three of my children. Dellys is part of me and I am part of her," he said. "Now I can die. I will have no regrets."

The pieds noirs made up about 10 percent of Algeria's population and had a favored status under the colonial regime. But many mixed freely with Muslim neighbors and shared some of their customs and habits, especially in the countryside.

"We were very close to them (pieds noirs). They were Algerians in a way," said Abdelaziz Saidoud, 72, a former independence fighter. "They loved our food, our traditions, our culture but they were against our independence."

Hundreds of thousands lost their lives in the eight-year war, many of them members of the National Liberation Front (FLN) and their sympathizers.

Algeria is still demanding an apology from France for what it calls a "cultural genocide" committed by French colonialists.

VISITS GROWING

Foreigners avoided Algeria during an Islamist insurgency in the 1990s but peace has mostly returned and 400 to 500 pieds noirs are now returning to Algeria for short visits each year, according to trip organizers.

Dellys mayor Rabah Zerouali is trying to encourage more returns and boost tourism to his town, which suffered from being on the edge of Kabylie, the heart of the insurgency.

During his four-day stay, Gambardella found more faces from the past when his old friend Ali Kerbouche, 75, invited him to eat couscous and bouzelouf (lamb's head) at his home in their old neighborhood of La Marine.

"The elders know me very well. I was a maths teacher and the goalkeeper of the Dellys football team," Gambardella said. "The youngsters looked at me as if I were a piece of archaeology."

On his second day in Dellys, Gambardella went to the cemetery to visit his father's grave.

"Several pieds noirs lived in Dellys," said Mokfi Rabeh whose father was a friend of Gambardella. "Despite the war of independence, the two communities respected each other. We were very close."

Kerbouche said of Gambardella: "He is French but he behaves like an Algerian. He belongs to this land. We will always welcome him and will be happy to receive him here."

Hamas lawmaker slams Mitchell's Mideast regional tour

An Islamic Hamas movement lawmaker slammed Friday U.S. peace envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell's visit to the region, saying it is a preamble for more concessions at the expense of the Palestinian cause.

Salah al-Bardawil, a Gaza Hamas lawmaker, said in a press statement that "Mitchell's visit to the region is a preamble for new Palestinian concessions to move forward the stalled so-called peace process."

"Hamas is afraid that Mitchell's visit to the region will enforce the Palestinian side to offer more concessions at the expense of the Palestinian people's legitimate rights," said al-Bardawil.

Mitchell will arrive at the region Saturday evening, where he will hold talks with Israeli government officials and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian officials in the West Bank.

"We look at Mitchell's visit and the U.S. role through our understanding of the Palestinian cause. Our philosophy is based on ending the Israeli occupation soon instead of pushing the stalled peace process," said al-Bardawil.

Mitchell would try again to pressure on the right-wing Israeli government to freeze construction in Israeli settlements, as Abbas and the Palestinians insist that there would be no resumption of peace talks until Israel halts all settlement activities.

U.S. President Barack Obama has been exerting efforts to resume the stalled Middle East peace process, in which the Israeli settlement activities are major obstacles for the resumption of the process.

Protests greet Israeli singer Noa in Spain

MADRID (AFP) - – Around 50 pro-Palestinian activists Friday staged a protest at a concert by Israeli singer Noa in Barcelona over what they said was her support for the Israeli offensive in Gaza earlier this year.

The activists stood up, whistled and booed, waved Palestinian flags and scarves and held up signs reading "Boycott Israel," Spanish media reported.

Several thousand others however drowned out the protests with applause at the show in a city park, part of celebrations marking the national day of the northeastern region of Catalonia.

Noa sang a song in the Catalan language and issued an appeal for peace in the Middle East.

"My dream is to attend and sing at the signing of the peace treaty between Israel and Palestine. I will never abandon this dream," she said in the Catalan language.

A leftist-ecologist party in Catalonia, the ICV-EUiA, has also criticized her alleged backing for Israel's three-week offensive in Gaza, launched last December, in which more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died.

The head of the semi-autonomous government, Jose Montilla, sought to downplay the protest.

"It was two dozen people who have done a disservice to the Palestinian cause," he told reporters afterward.

Any chance for justice for victims of the Gaza war?

Over the past few months, international and local human rights groups have documented numerous serious violations of the laws of war, some of them amounting to war crimes, before, during, and since Israel's military offensive in Gaza last December and January. My own organization, Human Rights Watch, strongly criticized Israel for the shooting deaths of Palestinian civilians carrying white flags and the illegal use of white phosphorus munitions, and Hamas for firing rockets indiscriminately into civilian areas of Israel.
Israeli and Hamas officials have dismissed these criticisms as biased and unfounded. Neither has displayed any readiness to conduct prompt, thorough, and impartial investigations into these serious allegations, as international humanitarian law requires. Nor has either shown a willingness to hold accountable, through fair and credible prosecutions, those responsible for ordering or carrying out attacks against non-combatants.
Investigations and prosecutions are important to ensure respect for the  core principle of distinction underlying the laws of war- the need for warring parties, whether regular armies or armed groups, to distinguish at all times between civilians and combatants, and never to target or indiscriminately harm civilians. When serious violations occur, justice is essential to establish the truth, provide an effective remedy to the victims, and discipline or punish those responsible.
Investigations and prosecutions also can deter unlawful behavior and protect civilians from intentional or reckless attack. A striking example of the constructive impact of investigations comes from Iraq. Before early 2006, when Gen. Peter Chiarelli took charge of U.S. Army day-to-day operations, U.S. soldiers were reportedly killing Iraqi civilians at checkpoints at the rate of about one a day. After Gen. Chiarelli ordered that all such fatal shootings be investigated, their frequency dropped by 85 percent.
When a state fails to exercise its obligation to investigate allegations of serious wrongdoing by its forces, international investigation and prosecution is an alternative. This is the rationale underlying the establishment of the International Criminal Court (ICC). But Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute establishing the ICC, and the Palestinian Authority (PA) may lack standing with the ICC, depending on how the ICC's prosecutor chooses to treat the PA's petition seeking his assumption of  jurisdiction over the recent war.Â
Should the prosecutor reject the PA's petition, the ICC could still assume jurisdiction  if the UN Security Council were to refer the Gaza situation to the ICC, although referral would be difficult to achieve politically given the veto power of the permanent members of the council.
One potential bridge to ensure that justice is done is the UN Fact-Finding Investigation headed by Justice Richard Goldstone of South Africa, which is scheduled to make its findings and recommendations public in mid-September. The UN Human Rights Council established the investigation in January, but because of the flagrantly biased terms of its mandate - to look at only alleged Israeli violations - no reputable independent investigator agreed to participate. In late March, Justice Goldstone agreed to head up the investigation after re-negotiating its mandate to include serious violations by Palestinians as well. Israel nonetheless refused to cooperate, but Goldstone's team, after gaining access to Gaza via Egypt, heard testimony from Israelis (and West Bank Palestinians) in Geneva.
We don't know what next steps the Goldstone team will recommend, but one useful way forward would be the establishment of a UN mechanism to monitor and report on how Israeli and Hamas authorities discharge their obligation to investigate serious violations committed by their forces and hold accountable those responsible. UN member states should press Israel and Hamas to meet this obligation to ensure credible justice for the alleged crimes. In the event that the parties fail to do so, the international community should strongly back international prosecutions.
At stake is not only justice for the victims of laws-of-war violations in Gaza and Israel, but efforts more generally to ensure that perpetrators of serious international crimes are held to account. The ICC has attracted criticism from some African and other states because its investigations and prosecutions have so far focused on African perpetrators of alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, most prominently Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir. Any failure of key players like the US and EU to take steps to ensure justice for serious crimes committed by an ally like Israel would reinforce perceptions that the laws of war have consequences only for those without powerful friends.

Netanyahu visited Russia - Israeli deputy PM

GENEVA, Sept 12 (Reuters) - Israel's deputy prime minister confirmed on Saturday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had visited Russia but declined to elaborate on the affair, which has triggered media accusations of official disinformation.

"He was in Russia. It created some controversy about the way it was published in Israel," Dan Meridor told Reuters in Geneva on the sidelines of a conference about global issues hosted by Britain's International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"The content was not discussed in public. Some things are better discussed (privately)," added Meridor, who is also Minister of Intelligence and Atomic Energy.

Netanyahu angered some Israeli newspapers on Thursday over what they described as lies issued by his office about a secret flight to Russia.

Explaining why he had disappeared from public view for a day, a statement issued on Monday by the prime minister's office quoted his military attache as saying that Netanyahu had visited a security installation in Israel.

Israeli media reported he had toured a facility of the Mossad intelligence agency. But on Wednesday, Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Netanyahu had, in fact, flown secretly to Moscow to voice concern over the possible sale of Russian anti-aircraft missiles to Iran.

Reports of the Moscow visit followed the interception by Russian warships of a cargo ship off West Africa last month. Media reports, denied by Russia, said the Arctic Sea was carrying to Iran S-300 missiles that were detected by Israel.

The air defence missiles issue has been a sore point in relations between Moscow and Israel, which has lobbied Russia to pull away from selling them to Iran, saying they could protect nuclear facilities if Israel was to launch air strikes.

Qatar Airways expands routes and frequencies

Dubai (Zawya): Qatar Airways, one of the Arab region's heavyweight airlines, is in the midst of expanding its routes and frequencies across its destinations, the airline's officials announced in Dubai on Thursday.

"We will be stepping up our frequency to existing destinations," Ali Al Rais, vice-president of commercial for GCC, Levant and Iran, told the media.

The airline will add two new destinations in India. The first will be Amritsar on October 11 and the second will be Goa on October 25.

"India is a key market for us," Al Rais said. With the two new stops, the airline will have 10 destinations in India.

Its destinations in Eur-ope will see a big jump in frequencies as well. Madrid, Athens, Stockholm and Zurich will see an increase from twice weekly to daily flights, while Paris will have two daily flights starting next month.

Australia will be the latest addition to the airline's destinations. It will begin flights to Melbourne on December 6. Early next year, Sydney will also be served by the Qatari airline.

"Australia has been in our radar for a while now," Al Rais said, adding, "This will not be the end of our expansion."

On the Doha-Melbourne route, the airline will fly three times a week, using a new Boeing B777-200 long-range aircraft, which is expected to be delivered later this year.

The service will soon become daily early next year, following the delivery of a second long-range Boeing - the airline's fourth - from the aircraft manufacturer's US plant in Seattle.

The airline currently operates 56 flights from Dubai International Airport. From its hub in Doha, it flies to 82 destinations in Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, the Far East and North America.

Al Rais said that the airline has aircraft from both plane manufacturers - Boeing and Airbus.

Currently operating a fleet of 69 aircraft, it will almost double the number to 110 aircraft by 2013.

The airline has ordered 80 Airbus A350s, 24 Airbus A320 family aircraft, 60 Boeing 787s and 32 Boeing 777s.

It is also a customer of the superjumbo A380 for which it has placed an order of five aircraft and will begin to take delivery in 2012.

Jordan's Geopolitical Dilemma in a Changing Middle East

A decade after he succeeded his legendary father Hussein bin Talal as the fourth Hashemite king of Jordan, Abdullah II has emerged as a deft Arab statesman who has steered his country amid one of modern Arab history's most traumatic geopolitical moments.

George Bush's Iraq invasion, a bloody insurgency and civil war, the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the second Palestinian intifada and collapse of the Oslo/Madrid peace process, Al Qaeda's terrorist outrages, the Hamas takeover in Gaza and subsequent fratricidal bloodshed with Fatah and, above all, Iran's resurgence as a powerbroker in Iraqi-Lebanese Shia politics have created the most dangerous regional milieu for the Hashemites since Jordan lost East Jerusalem and the West Bank in the Six Day War in June 1967.

While King Abdullah is committed to political reform, the shock of Al Qaeda terrorist bombings at the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels in central Amman proved that it is quixotic to expect political liberalization at a time when the Hashemite kingdom faces myriad external, existential national security threats. Economic reform was the original template when King Abdullah first acceded to power in 1999, symbolised by Jordan's entry into WTO, free trade agreement with the US and the privatization of Jordan Telecom. However, the pathological experiences of the post 9/11 Middle East meant that national security, not economic and political reform, once again defines policy choices in Jordan. As was the case during the reigns of all his predecessors in Amman's Basman palace, state power in King Abdullah's Jordan derives from the royal court, the impeccably trained and efficient General Intelligence Department (mukhabarat) and the loyal, East Bank tribal and Bedouin army, not an elected parliament dominated by political parties opposed to Jordan's strategic alliance with the US, peace treaty with Israel and diplomatic rapprochement with Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

The American invasion of Iraq was an unmitigated disaster for Jordan. The Hashemite kingdom, not blessed with Saudi Arabia's oil riches or Egypt's huge population, is the ultimate strategic sandwich in the Arab world, a kingdom brutally exposed to all the tragedies and horror of the Middle East. The creation of Israel in 1948 forced the then impoverished Hashemite kingdom to accept hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees. Bush's invasion of Iraq has forced Jordan to house and feed 750,000 Iraqi refugees at a time when inflation, unemployment and poverty afflict so many Jordanian citizens.

As Iraq degenerated into a Hobbesian nightmare after 2004, Jordan lost its privileged access to the Iraqi export market and crude oil subsidies from the Saddam regime. Uncle Sam's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan inflamed anti-US passions across the Arab and Islamic world and exponentially raised the domestic policy cost of Jordan's historic ties to Britain and the US.

The global financial crisis has only accentuated the structural economic vulnerability of Jordan to lower phosphate/potash prices, tourism revenues and remittances from the Jordanian diaspora in the GCC. The influx of almost a million Iraqi refugees, stratospheric oil prices and the removal of fuel subsidies have exposed Jordan's population to an inflation spiral and severe fiscal constraints. These macroeconomic pressures are only compounded because the Jordanian dinar is pegged to the US dollar, making it impossible for Amman to devalue its way out of the most vicious economic downturn since Jordan defaulted on its foreign debt two decades ago. Jordan has negotiated a resumption of the discounted Iraqi crude oil imports it lost after the fall of the Saddam regime in 2003, but the transit/re-export trade via the Red Sea port of Aqaba is nowhere near its heyday during the UN sanctions era of the 1990's. This is the reason Jordan's trade deficit is a shocking one third of GDP, among the worst trade metrics in the Arab world.

The tragic fate of the Hashemites symbolizes the tragedy of the Arab world in the past century. Sharif Hussein bin Ali, whose ancestors were the hereditary emirs of the Hejaz for millennia, lost his dream to be crowned the King of the Arabs when he was double crossed by Britain and France at the Versailles peace conference. Winston Churchill created Iraq and Jordan as consolation prizes for the Hashemites after Sherif Faisal was driven out of Syria by the French. His grandson Faisal II was murdered with the entire Iraqi royal family in a July 1958 military coup. King Abdullah I of Jordan, the current king's grandfather, was assassinated outside Al Aqsa Mosque after the 1948 debacle with the Zionists. King Hussein never achieved his lifelong dream of a final negotiated settlement with Israel and the return of Arab Jerusalem. Modern Jordan, with its liberal, civilized ethos and its evolving constitutional monarchy, is the last surviving remnant of Sharif Hussein's lost dream.

Metro 'could lift rent by up to 10 per cent'

(Zawya): The price of property near Dubai Metro stations could command a premium of up to 10 per cent as the mass transit system draws more people off the roads.

People looking for homes will consider its proximity and access to public transport as the city shifts away from its reliance on private cars.

Rents have already witnessed a marginal rise, but the possible impact of the Metro is still speculative, industry analysts told Emirates Business.

However, any rent rise could be tempered by the Real Estate Regulatory Agency watchdog, which currently does not factor in Metro stations in its rental price index.

Jesse Downs, Director of Research and Advisory Services at Landmark, told Emirates Business: "The impact on prices so far has been marginal. This is because the market is still unclear about the anticipated Metro usage patterns at the outset and how usage patterns will evolve over time.

"On an average, I could imagine a five to 10 per cent average premium developing over the initial one or two years of operation. Of course, the actual premium will depend on the residential location and specifics of the development and individual buildings.

"For the [Metro] commuters, the office location will be a critical factor. Some popular commercial and residential areas are becoming increasingly congested with limited parking available. The Metro will be most advantageous to residents living and/or working in such areas.

"Actual Metro use and impact on realty prices will also depend on unknown factors like Salik. For example, if Salik fees increase, this could trigger more widespread Metro use and then prices would adjust accordingly."

The Metro is expected to have an eventual impact on commercial prices and rents. On increased use of the Metro, offices with easy access to stations will gain a premium.

Offices on Sheikh Zayed Road often only come with a very limited number of parking spaces. Usually, companies or the employees have to pay for additional parking. "Once companies can see how proximity to a Metro station can help save them and their employees both money and hassle, preferences will emerge, resulting in a premium," Downs added.

However, as the Real Estate Regulatory Agency keeps an eye on rents, no matter where a property is located, the rent still has to stay within the range defined by the calculator. Properties near the Metro may be priced towards the higher end of the range, but will not go above a limit.

Landlords in particular need to be extremely cautious before raising rental rates because that would be violating what has been set forth by the government.

All these factors need to be considered by landlords and industry specialists before any price hike happens, especially before the Metro is fully operational, say analysts.

Egypt Installs U.S. Anti-Tunnel Systems

CAIRO [MENL] -- Egypt has completed the installation of U.S. systems to detect the construction of smuggling tunnels along the border of the Gaza Strip.

Egyptian security sources said the installation was conducted by the Egyptian military and Interior Ministry. They said the effort was overseen by the U.S. Army's Corps of Engineers, which provided the equipment.

"The equipment has been tested along the Gaza border," a security source said.

Russia Uses Algeria As Weapons Waystation

TEL AVIV [MENL] -- Russia has been using Algeria as a waystation for exports to Iran and Syria.

Israeli intelligence sources said Russian defense companies have been shipping missiles and other weapons to Algeria. From Algeria, the weapons were said to be sent to Iran and Syria, both countries under Western embargo.

China sentences 3 to prison over needle attacks

By HENRY SANDERSON, Associated Press Writer

BEIJING – A court in western China's Xinjiang region sentenced three people to up to 15 years in prison Saturday in the first trials over a series of mysterious syringe attacks that led to mass protests against the local government.

The three, all ethnic Uighurs, were sentenced by the Intermediate People's Court in the regional capital, Urumqi, state media reported.

Some 500 people have reported being attacked in the city. State media said only about 100 showed evidence of being pricked. None have suffered from illness, poisoning or other effects.

Earlier this month, tens of thousands from China's ethnic Han majority took to the streets of Urumqi to demand that the government improve security, as the needle attacks raised tensions almost two months after riots left nearly 200 dead and exposed rifts between the native Uighur minority and Han Chinese.

Officials say five people died in the protests and 48 suspects were detained as suspects in the needle attacks, according to state media.

The court on Saturday sentenced 19-year-old Yilipan Yilihamu to 15 years in prison for inserting a needle into a woman's buttock on Aug. 26, a notice on the official China Court Web site.

The woman was standing buying fruit by a stall when she was stabbed. She didn't realize until she returned to work after which she told police. Yilipan was caught four hours later, the Web site said.

State-run China Central Television said the teen was about to start college and had no previous criminal record. The official charge against him was "spreading false dangerous substances," but the TV channel said the prosecution wanted to charge him on the more serious count of endangering public security by dangerous means.

The teen did not accept his verdict and plans to appeal, the Web site said.

In a separate hearing, the court also sentenced a 34-year-old man, Muhutaerjiang Turdiand, and a 22-year-old woman, Aimannisha Guliwere, to 10 years and seven years, respectively, for robbery after they threatened a taxi driver with a syringe and robbed him of 710 yuan ($103) on Aug. 29. They were also fined. The two turned themselves in to police, CCTV said.

China National Radio said all three are Uighurs, a mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking ethnic group that is the largest in Xinjiang at 45 percent of the population.

The official Xinhua News Agency said around 200 people were present at the two hearings.

Officials and state media have blamed both the deadly July rioting and the attacks on Uighur separatists bent on destroying ethnic unity, but have not publicized any evidence to support the allegations.

India, Pakistan investigate border rocket blasts

By MUNIR AHMAD, Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD – India said that three rockets were fired into the country from Pakistan overnight, but Pakistani officials said Saturday they were launched from India. No one was injured in the blasts.

The rockets struck near the border villages of Dhoni Khurd and Modey in India's Punjab state, said Himmat Singh, an inspector general of India's Border Security Force.

While shooting incidents are quite common on the archrival countries' shared border in Kashmir, they are more rare along the frontier in the Punjab. Still, there was no sign the incident would spark any major diplomatic tensions.

Singh said it was not immediately clear who had fired the rockets, but they came from the other side of the border and Indian soldiers returned fire.

"We have lodged a protest with the Pakistan Rangers and are trying to ascertain who is responsible for the rocket attacks," Singh told reporters Saturday.

Nadeem Raza, a spokesman for Pakistan's paramilitary Pakistan Rangers (Punjab), said their commander met early Saturday with his Indian counterpart to discuss the incident.

He denied that the rockets were fired from Pakistan, but said an investigation was under way.

"We are confident that the rockets were fired from India and they landed on the Indian side," Raza told The Associated Press.

The rockets fell in empty fields and did not cause any damage.

The Indian army accused Pakistan earlier this month of shooting across the border into Kashmir in an incident that killed an Indian soldier. Brig. Gopala Krishnan Murali, a senior army officer, at the time could not say whether the Indian post was targeted by the Pakistan army or suspected Islamic insurgents inside Pakistani territory.

Pakistan and India have a history of bitter relations, having fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.

Russian envoy cautions US on Afghan troops surge

By DOUGLAS BIRCH, Associated Press Writer

KABUL – Russia's ambassador to Afghanistan has some advice for top NATO commanders fighting the Taliban based on the Soviet Union's bitter experience battling Islamist insurgents here in the 1980s: Don't bring more troops.

"The more troops you bring the more troubles you will have here," Zamir Kabulov, a blunt-spoken veteran diplomat, told The Associated Press in an interview.

In 2002, he noted, there were roughly 5,000 U.S. soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and the Taliban controlled just a small corner of the country's southeast.

"Now we have Taliban fighting in the peaceful Kunduz and Baghlan (provinces) with your (NATO's) 100,000 troops," he said this week, sitting on a couch in the Russian Embassy in Kabul. "And if this trend is the rule, if you bring here 200,000 soldiers, all of Afghanistan will be under the Taliban."

Kabulov served as a Soviet diplomat in Afghanistan from 1983 to 1987, during the height of the Kremlin's 10-year Afghan war, when Soviet troop levels peaked at 140,000.

The Soviet war here, which is estimated to have cost the lives of 14,500 Soviet soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Afghans, ended in 1989 in a humiliating withdrawal.

Kabulov has little sympathy for the U.S. or NATO. He said the U.S. and its allies are competing with Russia for influence in the energy-rich region.

But the 55-year-old envoy speaks from experience, and NATO leaders have sought his advice.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the new top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, asked Kabulov a number of "precise" questions about the Soviet war at a diplomatic function last month, the Russian envoy said.

McChrystal is supervising the expansion of U.S. combat forces to 68,000 and is likely to soon request thousands of more troops. Forty-one other NATO countries have another 35,000 troops here.

Air Force Lt. Col. Tadd Sholtis, a public affairs officer assigned to the NATO commander's staff, said: "Gen. McChrystal is a voracious student of Afghan history and welcomes any opportunity to learn from people with experience in Afghanistan or perspectives on our situation here. That certainly includes the Russians."

While Kabulov called raising troop levels a mistake, he said he approved of McChrystal's overall strategy, which includes holding and clearing Taliban areas, training more Afghan security forces and better-coordinated intelligence efforts.

But he said the NATO commander faces daunting challenges.

"Gen. McChrystal is trying to do his best to make this mission a success and to reduce the number of casualties of his soldiers, which is very noble and normal," Kabulov said. "But I'm afraid at this stage it will be very difficult for him to change the direction" of the war.

The Soviet war here was by most accounts a brutal one, with Soviet forces mounting indiscriminate attacks on civilians. But in Kabulov's view, the war effort was successful overall, though crippled in the end by the decline and fall of the Soviet Union.

The U.S. and NATO, he said, made the same fundamental mistake the Kremlin made after its December 1979 invasion, when Soviet special forces killed President Hafizullah Amin and Moscow replaced Amin's Communist regime with another judged more loyal.

"We should have left Afghanistan as soon as possible after the job had been done," Kabulov said. "It should not have taken more than six months. Same as you. You came and you stayed. And all the problems have started."

In some ways, Kabulov, named ambassador to Afghanistan by then President Vladimir Putin in 2004, is an unlikely figure to be advising NATO.

The New York Times said in October 2008 that he served covertly as the KGB's Kabul resident, or top officer, during the Soviet war. But when asked about this, Kabulov insisted he was just a diplomat.

"My career was quite transparent and well known," he said. His only role in Afghanistan during the Soviet war, he said, was as the embassy's second secretary, serving as press attache, from 1983 to 1987.

While NATO has made some of the same mistakes the Soviets made in Afghanistan, in some ways the Kremlin was more successful, Kabulov said.

The Soviets, he asserted, were better than NATO at providing security in major cities and along main highways. And he said the Soviets completed more major construction and development projects.

The Soviet government bankrolled those efforts out of its own pocket, he said, in contrast to the U.S. and its Western allies, which have made what amount to charity appeals at donor conferences.

"We never arranged international conferences with high pledges of dozens of billions of dollars which never came to this country," he said.

And Kabulov said the Soviets trained and employed Afghans, rather than importing highly paid and, in his view, pampered foreign contractors. When it comes to Westerners, he said, "guards also need guards."

Afghanistan, a resource-poor, landlocked country of mountainous deserts, has long played a pivotal role in Moscow's dealings with the West.

In the 19th century, Russian and British spies and diplomats competed for access to markets here in what was known as "The Great Game." During the 1980s Afghanistan became the principal battlefield of the Cold War, as the U.S. covertly supported Muslim resistance groups fighting the Soviets.

Today, Kabulov said, Afghanistan remains a strategic prize because of its location near the gas and oil fields of Iran, the Caspian Sea, Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.

Russia has a major stake in NATO's success in Afghanistan, Kabulov said. If the alliance withdraws before Afghanistan is stabilized, he said, the aftershocks could weaken Moscow's allies throughout former Soviet Central Asia.

But the Kremlin has bitterly opposed NATO's expansion into former Eastern bloc and former Soviet countries, and has accused the alliance of trying to encircle and weaken Russia.

Kabulov said Russia has questions about NATO's intentions in Afghanistan, which he said lies outside of the alliance's "political domain." He suggested that Moscow is concerned that NATO is building permanent bases in the region.

"We agreed and supported the United States and later on NATO operation in Afghanistan under the slogan of counterterrorism" after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., he said.

"And we believed that this agenda is a genuine one and there is no other hidden agendas. But we are watching carefully what is going on here with the expansion of NATO's military infrastructure in all of Afghanistan."

From Russia's perspective, Kabulov said, NATO should accomplish its goals in Afghanistan and quickly leave.

"We want NATO to successfully and as soon as possible complete its task and to say goodbye and to go back to their own geographical and political domain," he said. "But before their departure they should help establish a real, independent, strong, prosperous, peaceful Afghanistan with self-sustainable government."

NATO's Sholtis said the purpose of the alliance's presence in Afghanistan is "not some kind of imperial project," but an effort to stabilize the country.

"U.S. and NATO officials have been clear that we have no long-term interest in a military presence in Afghanistan," he said.

Despite quiet, Lebanese, Israelis fear conflict

By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Writer

BEIRUT – Despite one of the quietest periods in decades along the Israel-Lebanon frontier, people on both sides of the border seem to fear that another eruption of violence is only a matter of time.

Sporadic flare-ups — like the exchange of fire on Friday — remind residents how easily fighting can be sparked. And an ongoing war of words between Israel and Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah guerrillas has some convinced that one or the other of the two sides is planning a revival of the brutal war that they fought in the summer of 2006.

"This peace that you see today is not real. It is extremely fragile, it can blow up any minute, just as it did in 2006," said Salam Jalbout, a 45-year-old Lebanese Christian merchant who lives in the predominantly Shiite town of Khiam near the border.

Jalbout, whose house, shop and car were partially destroyed in the fighting three years ago, said the uncertainty was keeping badly needed investors and tourists away. "The situation is not reassuring at all," he said.

People south of the border in Israel are only slightly more optimistic.

"The residents are a little worried but they are brave heroes," said Jacky Sabag, mayor of the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, the target of Friday's rocket fire.

"We do not fear another war, and I hope there won't be one, but if there will be one then the city is ready and the residents are ready," said Sabag, whose town was hit by hundreds of Hezbollah rockets and emptied of most of its residents in 2006.

The 2006 war began when Hezbollah guerrillas attacked an Israeli border patrol, killing five Israeli soldiers and taking two of the bodies back into Lebanon. Israel retaliated with a massive bombardment and sent troops over the border, as Hezbollah fired rockets into northern Israel. The fighting killed around 1,200 Lebanese and 160 Israelis and devastated large parts of south Lebanon, the country's Shiite heartland.

But since the fighting was halted under a U.N. resolution, the border has enjoyed perhaps its most prolonged period of relative calm since the 1970s. Though Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah has boasted of rebuilding its arsenal of rockets, it has not fired across the border since the cease-fire. That has led to some to believe it is wary of sparking destructive Israeli retaliation that would undermine its support among the Lebanese — particularly now that it's playing a greater role in Lebanese politics.

The quiet has not been complete. Three times this year, Palestinian militants have fired rockets over the border into Israel, though they have caused no deaths. On Friday, two rockets were fired into northern Israel, prompting Israeli artillery fire against the launch area in southern Lebanon. There were no reports of casualties.

It is nothing like the violence during Israel's long occupation of southern Lebanon — or even during the years following Israel's 2000 withdrawal, when heavy exchanges continued to erupt. But it keeps residents on edge — as do persistent warnings from each side about the warlike intentions of the other.

In mid-July, a suspected Hezbollah arms depot exploded near the Israeli border, which Israel said was proof the group was rearming and stashing weapons in populated villages.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the Lebanese government it would be responsible for any attack launched from its territory, and his defense minister, Ehud Barak, said Israel would "go after not only Hezbollah but the entire state of Lebanon."

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, in turn, warned that his fighters would hit Tel Aviv if Israel attacks Beirut. Marking the third anniversary of the war this summer, Nasrallah said his men are now capable of striking any Israeli city — a boast that is largely supported by Israeli intelligence assessments.

Nasrallah has said that his group now has more than 30,000 rockets and has "surprises" in store.

Israel has also been preparing. In early September, a field intelligence unit known as Shahaf — Hebrew for "Seagull" — completed a large training maneuver with an eye toward war along the border, and other combat units have been regularly training for a guerrilla war in Lebanon's villages and thick underbrush.

Israel is also concerned Hezbollah could obtain anti-aircraft weapons, possibly Russian-made SA-18 shoulder-launched missiles, Israeli defense officials say.

Israel, whose aircraft currently enjoy unchallenged superiority over Lebanon and regularly violate Lebanese airspace with flyovers, has signaled unofficially to Lebanon and Syria that it will not accept the arrival of such weapons, the officials said, with the clear implication that this could lead to renewed fighting.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release that information to the media.

In Lebanon, Hezbollah expert Amal Saad-Ghorayeb said war at some point is probably inevitable.

Hezbollah has "re-imagined its strategy, arsenal and thinking to pose an even greater threat to its enemy to the south," she wrote in a recently published article entitled "The Hezbollah project: last war, next war."

"The movement has already set the strategic bar very high for itself for the next round of conflict," she wrote.

But Hezbollah might not want to hurt its political status in Lebanon by provoking Israel's wrath again, said Israeli analyst Yossi Alpher.

Israel's recent rhetoric directed at Lebanon has been aimed at making sure the Lebanese know they will all pay a price for any attack — and Hezbollah seems to have understood the message, Alpher said.

"There is really no indication that Hezbollah and Iran are planning something in the near future. But you never know," he said.

The Afghan Historical Background and the Impetuous Outburst of the British Ambassador

Afghan Resistance Statement
The Afghan Historical Background and the Impetuous Outburst of the British Ambassador

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

Ramadan 19, 1430 A.H, September 10, 2009

In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate

In recent months, Mujahideen have dealt a crushing blow at American and British forces in all parts of our country. As a result, hundreds of invading soldiers have lost their lives. The graph of military capability and war tactics of the invaders has lost its splendor and credibility in the eyes of the public of their countries. Still, they have recently resorted to image-boosting propaganda and assertions in order to manipulate the views of the public of the world in their favor and make up for the setbacks they have faced in the field.

In this context, we can refer to the assertions of the British Ambassador in Kabul who says that the British soldiers will remain in Afghanistan for one generation.

The best and reasonable retort to the outburst of the British Ambassador would be no more than that he should go through the history and the historical background of the Afghans once again. Any invading power which has made aggression against this land, has faced ultimate defeat. Those who opted for encountering the Afghans, have only gained disgrace and obloquy. British invaded Afghanistan not once but thrice. However, each time it faced defeat. These ground realities written in golden letters, are now part of our history.

We fought the Britain from 1839 to 1919 and ultimately, gained independence and defeated the enemy after 80 years.

Today our determination is stronger than that; have best military training and best weapons comparing that time; to top it all we have preparedness for a long war.

The former Soviet Union claimed, the Red Army was invincible but faced defeat at the hands of the Afghans and completely disintegrated. Many other countries got independence thanks to that. Today USA, the Britain and their allies are bent on subjugating Afghanistan. They are in a total self-delusion and their brain seems not working normally.

The Britain should look at the fate of their forefather, Dr.Bridom who moribundly reached Jalal Abad. Still his ignorant grandson is saying that the Britain's will remain in this country for one more generation. It seems the British powers that-be are nearing the edge of perdition and the Almighty Allah will bestow this pride on the Mujahid Afghans to show to the world once again how they can bring the invaders to knees.

It is better for the leadership of America and Britain to reverse their aggressive policy of militarism which they had been following for the last eight years and stop behaving like two only masters of the world in the aftermath of the disintegration of the former Soviet Union.

They should understand that reaching this daydream, they will have to face tremendous resistance and will require of them long time to traverse this impregnable way. Still with no success.

Before all, Afghanistan will prove to gulp them down. Therefore, if they do not opt for a peaceful way of the Afghan issue and think this is a shame for them, then they will meet their fate of disgrace by force. They will go into disintegration and would be obliterated from the map of the world like the former Soviet Union which is now a story of the past.

Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan

Israel in Africa

Galal Nassar

Tel Aviv's promises to African states are the gloss on an exercise in extreme cynicism, writes Galal Nassar

September 10, 2009

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, at the head of a huge convoy of Israeli political, military and security advisers and a train of merchants and representatives of major Israeli companies, has gone knocking on the doors of five sub-Saharan African nations. Africa's 54 nations have rebuffed Israel's diplomatic overtures for decades. Today the Netanyahu administration obviously believes it stands a chance to breach that wall. After all, some Arab countries now recognize Israel. Not least of these is Egypt, the rock that had long dashed the dream of Golda Meir and her successors to foray into Africa and feed on its abundant sources of wealth.

Now, not only are many African nations prepared to thaw their relations with Israel, some have already begun to explore the possibility of strategic cooperation. Tel Aviv fully appreciates the vast potential Africa offers. In addition to copious natural resources Africa represents strategic depth for the Arab world, for which reason Israel has been instrumental in arming some African regimes and aggravating crises among others, including Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea and South Africa. Israel has also used parts of the continent for its military and scientific experiments, in the course of which it has ruined agricultural land, spread corruption and sown misery.

If people in the countries Lieberman is visiting think he is interested in boosting their economies, enhancing agricultural production, optimizing their vast water resources and putting Israeli technological expertise at their disposal they are mistaken. They are even more gravely misled if they believe Israel is concerned about the lives and welfare of the African people, that it is eager to improve their standards of living, rid them of the plagues of poverty, unemployment, disease and drought and to quell the fires of civil war, insurrection and internecine strife. Nor will Israel help them overcome the discrimination and the inferiority complex that it claims the Arabs have perpetuated and nurtured. Whatever Tel Aviv would like them to believe, Israel is not a safe haven for their wealth and future. Israel's concerns are exclusively shaped by its own agenda. It could not care less for the stability, welfare, safety or stability of the African people. Sudan offers the clearest proof of this. Accused by Israeli officials of arming and supporting the Palestinian resistance, Tel Aviv is working assiduously to encircle and isolate Sudan from the outside, and to fuel insurrection inside Sudan.

Israel has long been keen to capitalize on Africa's mineral wealth. It plans to appropriate African diamonds and process them in Israel which is already the world's second largest processor of diamonds. And if the composition of Lieberman's entourage is anything to go by, Israel is also interested in African uranium, thorium and other radioactive elements used to manufacture nuclear fuel. In addition it is looking for new markets for its range of lightweight weapons. It also appears that not a few Israeli military pensioners are on the lookout for job opportunities as trainers of African militias, while other members of Lieberman's delegation are facilitating contracts for Israelis to train various militias. The huge oil reserves in a number of African countries are also high on Israel's agenda, with Tel Aviv seeking a share in exploration, extraction and export operations.

Since the 1950s Israel has sought to compromise Egypt's water security by consolidating its influence over countries straddling the sources of the Nile in the central African great lakes and the Ethiopian highlands. By keeping Egypt preoccupied with its water security Israel imagines that it can diminish Cairo's role in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Towards this end Israel's Ministry of Science and Technology conducted extensive experiments and eventually created a type of plant that flourishes on the surface or the banks of the Nile and that absorbs such large quantities of water as to significantly reduce the volume of water that reaches Egypt.

Israeli concerns with Iran also feature high on the agenda of Lieberman's African tour. Israel has been keeping a close eye on the Iranian drive in Africa where Tehran, following Beijing's footsteps, has become involved in a number of major development projects. Tel Aviv is very wary of Tehran's ambitions in a continent so rich in the raw materials for producing nuclear fuel. It hopes to forge a network of strategic relations in order to check the expansion of Iranian influence in Africa. Working to its advantage are its close ties with Washington, which can use its extensive influence in Africa to smooth out many of the bumps that would otherwise hamper Israel's African drive.

Israel's ultra-right foreign minister believes he can sneak into the backyard of the Arab and Islamic world in order to deprive it of strategic depth. It is therefore essential that we expose the true nature of Israeli economic and military plans in Africa and expose their motives. The fact that Israel is physically present in occupied Palestine does not mean that the Zionist peril threatens Palestine and the Palestinians alone. Zionist designs target every corner of the Arab and Islamic world, in which they fuel crises, weave plots, exploit resources, sap expertise and generally conspire against the people. The Zionist hand can be detected behind the conflicts that rage between Arab regimes. Its espionage networks seek to infiltrate Arab and Muslim societies. Israel's scientists and experts steal our subterranean water and its merchants roam the Arab and Islamic world to either purloin or purchase uranium. Now, more than ever, Israel's military, security, economic and political tentacles have reached every corner of Africa, donning many different philanthropic façades in order to exploit Africa's hunger and desperation in order to drive the Arabs and Muslims out of a continent in which they have always been welcome. The Arab and Muslim world must act quickly to keep the doors of Africa open to it. This requires a new strategy that simultaneously stops Israel from encircling the Arab world and gaining control over its sources of prosperity and well-being.

Ten arrested over mosque protest

Ten people have been arrested during a demonstration outside a mosque in north-west London where an anti-Islamic protest was planned.

At least 1,000 people gathered outside Harrow Central Mosque as activists from Stop Islamification of Europe planned to demonstrate outside the mosque.

Unite Against Fascism were also present to "defend the mosque", they said.

Bricks, bottles and firecrackers were thrown at police officers who were present in riot gear at the scene.

Just after 2000 BST, police said there were a small number of people in the area. Mobile patrols were continuing in a bid to reassure residents.

Earlier, hundreds of youths, some covering their faces with scarves, were in the area and there were skirmishes with police as some demonstrators broke a police cordon.

Supt Julia Pendry said police had to "intervene" to stop things from "escalating".

She said: "Officers came under attack from bricks and bottles and we had to deploy our staff in protective equipment a number of times.

"Police had to take fast-time action to stop events from getting even worse this afternoon, by intervening to prevent an imminent breach of the peace.

"What played out on the streets of Harrow today is completely unacceptable to everyone," she added.

'Saddened and dismayed'

Stop Islamification of Europe (SIOE) said they planned a "peaceful protest" against the building of a five-storey mosque next to the Harrow Central Mosque.

But in a message on their website SIOE said the protest had been called off and organizer Stephen Gash had been arrested.

The posting read: "If you are on your way to the demo, don't go, it's being called off right now.

"The police can't handle the Muslim counter-demonstrators. The senior sergeant said that he doesn't want any of his policemen killed."

Nine people remain in custody after being arrested for possession of offensive weapons including a hammer, a chisel and bottles of bleach.

Another person was arrested at the scene to prevent a breach of the peace, but he was released soon after, police said.

Police also stopped a number of people, who they believed were heading for the anti-Islamist protest, from getting to the protest area.

"If the SIOE demonstration started it would have resulted in serious disorder," a statement from police said.

Councillor David Ashton, leader of Harrow Council, said: "We are saddened and dismayed that groups from outside the borough have come here and caused unrest.

"Harrow has an excellent record in community relations and we condemn those who came to our borough from elsewhere to either foist extreme political opinions on us or use religion as a cover for causing trouble."

Chavez: Venezuela to get rockets from Russia

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he has signed military agreements with Russia and is soon expecting the arrival of some "little rockets."

Chavez says the rockets reach up to 186 miles (300 kilometers) and are strictly for defense purposes.

Chavez returned Friday from a world tour including a visit to Russia, where he met with President Dmitry Medvedev.

Medvedev promised Thursday to sell Chavez whatever weapons he wants. Chavez gave Moscow a boost by recognizing the independence of two Russian-supported Georgian separatist regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Since 2005, Russia has signed contracts to sell Chavez's government more than $4 billion worth of weapons.

Taliban presence seen across almost all Afghanistan

By Paul Tait

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - The Taliban have a significant presence in almost every corner of Afghanistan, data from a policy think tank showed on Thursday, as the country lurches into political uncertainty after a disputed presidential election.

A political standoff has deepened since the August 20 poll, with President Hamid Karzai defending the ballot as honest but a U.N.-backed election watchdog invalidating some votes and ordering a partial recount amid widespread accusations of fraud.

The uncertainty coincides with the most violent period since the Taliban were toppled by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in 2001, with record military and civilian deaths testing the resolve of U.S. and European leaders.

The election, initially hailed a success after the Taliban failed to disrupt it, has since become a major headache for Washington and a test of President Barack Obama's new regional strategy to defeat the militants and stabilize Afghanistan.

A security map by policy research group the International Council on Security and Development (ICOS) however showed a deepening security crisis with substantial Taliban activity in at least 97 percent of the country.

The ICOS data, obtained by Reuters before its release on Thursday, painted an even darker picture than an Afghan government map last month that showed almost half of Afghanistan at either a high risk of attack or under "enemy control."

Based on reports of an average of one or more insurgent attacks a week since January 2009, it showed heavy Taliban activity across 80 percent of Afghanistan. A substantial Taliban presence -- one or more attacks per month -- was seen in another 17 percent of the country.

"DRAMATIC INCREASE"

A similar map released by ICOS researchers in Afghanistan late last year noted a permanent Taliban presence in 72 percent of the country and a substantial presence in another 21 percent.

In the most significant difference to previous security assessments, the latest ICOS map shows a heavy increase in areas of the north previously regarded as relatively safe such as Balkh and Kunduz provinces.

The Afghan government map, drawn up with the help of the United Nations and dated four months before the election, showed large areas of the north as either low- or medium-risk areas.

"Across the north of Afghanistan, there has been a dramatic increase in the rate of insurgent attacks against international, Afghan government, and civilian targets," said ICOS policy analyst Alexander Jackson.

A NATO air strike in a Taliban-controlled area of Kunduz killed scores of people this month, angering many Afghans and adding to tensions between Kabul and Western countries with troops in Afghanistan.

The Taliban-led insurgency has grown this year out of traditional strongholds in the south and east and has even hit the capital, Kabul. Violence escalated further before the poll.

U.S. officials are debating whether to send even more troops to Afghanistan but uncertainty over the election results and accusations that Karzai's camp has been involved in widespread fraud have made relations even icier.

Preliminary results from about 92 percent of polling stations show Karzai has passed the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a second-round run-off against his main rival, former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah.

Abdullah has warned a fraudulent outcome "was a recipe for instability." A second round was due to be held on October 1 if needed, but that would now be almost impossible to stage before the onset of winter.

ICOS President Norine MacDonald said this meant a constitutional vacuum and "government paralysis" lasting months were possible.

Venezuela's Chavez recognizes rebel Georgian regions

Alexander Osipovich

Agence France Presse

MOSCOW: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez delighted his Russian hosts on Thursday by announcing that Caracas was recognizing the Georgian rebel regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent. The shock decision – which Chavez said was effective immediately – was a triumph for Russia, which has struggled to convince other countries to follow its lead in granting diplomatic recognition to the territories.

“Venezuela from today is joining in the recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia,” Chavez said during a visit to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s residence outside Moscow.

“We soon will begin actions to establish diplomatic relations with these countries.”

Medvedev praised Chavez’s move. “Thank you, Hugo. Russia has always supported a country’s sovereign right to recognize or not recognize a state’s independence.

“But of course we are not indifferent to the fate of these two states. We’re very grateful,” Medvedev said, as the two leaders sat by a fireplace for a public appearance before the start of closed-door negotiations.

Georgia, which has a pro-Western government that considers the two regions to be under Russian occupation, dismissed Chavez’s move as irrelevant. “I do not think it will have any important political consequences,” Georgian Deputy Prime Minister Temur Yakobashvili told AFP.

“When such marginal and outcast politicians as Chavez and [Nicaraguan leader Daniel] Ortega take such decisions it shows that we are dealing with a political anomaly,” he said.

Until Thursday only Nicaragua had joined Moscow in recognizing the regions as independent. Like Venezuela, Nicaragua has a left-wing government friendly to Russia.

Russia recognized the two rebel regions as independent in the wake of its war last year with Georgia, but most countries around the world condemned the move and still consider them part of Georgian territory.

Abkhaz and South Ossetian separatists broke free of Georgian control in the early 1990s and enjoyed tacit support from Moscow for years, even though Russia did not formally recognize their independence until August 2008.

The recognition by Russia came after Moscow and Tbilisi fought a five-day war over South Ossetia, which plunged relations between Russia and the West to their worst low since the Cold War.

Thousands of Russian troops and border guards are now stationed in the two regions, which Moscow says are necessary to protect independence.

Abkhazia’s leader Sergei Bagapsh applauded Chavez’s decision and expressed hope that the “closest political and economic relations” would develop between his micro-state and Caracas.

Ramadan fighting in Mogadishu 'worst in 20 years' - rights group

Al-Shabaab militants amputate hands of teens accused of theft

Abdi Sheikh

Reuters

MOGADISHU, Somalia: Fighting in Mogadishu during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan has so far been some of the worst in 20 years, killing 32 civilians in four days this week, a human rights group in the Somali capital said on Thursday. The Elman Peace and Human Rights Organization said 18 women and seven children were among the dead, and that 82 civilians were wounded between this month between September 5-8 as Islamist insurgents battled the UN-backed government and African Union (AU) peacekeepers.

Western security agencies say the failed Horn of Africa state has become a safe haven for militant groups linked to Al- Qaeda who are plotting attacks across the region and beyond.

“The current human rights situation in Mogadishu is one of the worst in the last 20 years for the displacement, injuring and killing of civilians,” the Elman group said in a report.

“From September 5-8, the fighting in Mogadishu during the Ramadan fasting month is the worst [on record], according to the monitoring of Elman staff,” it said.

The group said the behavior of Islamist militants who launched attacks while civilians were breaking their fast with an evening meal, as well as firing mortar barrages from hiding places in residential neighborhoods, was unacceptable.

It also accused government forces, backed by the AU peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi, of indiscriminately retaliating by shelling civilian areas and business premises.

“Those behind the violations against civilians resulting in killing, injuring and destruction of public property must be held accountable,” said Elman’s vice-chairman Ali Shiekh Yassin.

President Sheikh Sharif Ahmad’s government controls just parts of the coastal capital and central region. Most of the south is run by Islamist insurgents including the Al-Shabaab group, which Washington says is Al-Qaeda’s proxy in Somalia.

On Wednesday, hardline Al-Shabaab fighters amputated the right hands of two teenage Mogadishu boys they said had been convicted of theft by a militant sharia court.

“We whipped another teenager for raping a lady. We also fined him $150 and expelled him from Mogadishu for a year,” said Sheikh Abdel-Basid Mohammad, an Al-Shabaab judge in the city.

The group has carried out executions, floggings and amputations before, mostly in the southern port of Kismayu.

Movies and soccer games are banned in the rebels’ territory, and men and women cannot travel together on public transport.

Al-Shabaab’s strict practices have shocked many Somalis, who are traditionally moderate Muslims, but some residents credit the insurgents with restoring order to regions they control.

Violence has killed more than 18,000 Somalis since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.5 million from their homes.

That has triggered one of the world’s worst aid emergencies, with the number of people needing help leaping 17.5 percent in a year to 3.76 million or half the population.

Source: The Daily Star.
Link: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=106348.

Somalia: Kismayo Dispute Among Islamists Deepens

Kismayo — A crisis over control of an important port city in southern Somalia has deepened after Islamist fighters divided along political lines, Radio Garowe reports.

Independent sources in the port city of Kismayo, 500km south of the Somali capital Mogadishu, reported that Al Shabaab hardliners have ordered that only "fighters loyal to Al Shabaab" can be armed inside Kismayo.

"Fighters for Ras Kambani Brigade and Anole have withdraw from the city [Kismayo] and there are military preparations going on in many neighboring districts," said a Kismayo resident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for security reasons.

He noted that the withdrawn Islamist fighters are regrouping in parts of Lower Jubba region, including Afmadow and Dhobley districts.

The dispute between Al Shabaab and the other Islamist factions deepened after Al Shabaab rulers threatened to burn down a radio station rival Islamists wanted to open in Kismayo, the sources added.

Currently, Al Shabaab-owned Radio Al-Andulus is the only radio station on air in Kismayo. The Islamist faction shut down the independent radio stations HornAfrik and Jubba earlier this year.

Sheikh Hassan Yakub, spokesman for Al Shabaab rulers in Kismayo, declined to comment on new developments during brief comments to reporters on Thursday.

But he underlined that Al Shabaaab "will not tolerate" any armed group inside Kismayo, while threatening to "overrun" any group that attempts to attack the strategic port city.

Kismayo was seized in Aug. 2008 by a coalition of clan militias and Islamist groups, including Al Shabaab, Ras Kamboni Brigade and Anole.

In Feb. 2009, Ras Kamboni and Anole merged with two other Islamist factions in southern Somalia to form Hizbul Islam as a common front to fight against Somalia's UN-backed Transitional Federal Government.

Last month, Sheikh Yakub rejected media reports and local speculation that Islamist factions were entangled in a dispute over the control of Kismayo, a city with an international airport and a port facility along the Indian Ocean coastline.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/200909110004.html.

Libyan Airline to Launch in-Flight Mobile Phone Calls

Libyan Airline will be the first African airline to offer in-flight mobile phone calls and internet access, when its new A320 aircraft are delivered in 2010. The airline has ordered for a new fleet of Airbus A320s, which will be installed with Mobile OnAir technology to allow passengers to make and receive phone-calls, send and receive text messages and emails, and access the internet, using mobile phones and PDAs. The seven new A320 aircraft, due to start flying next year will serves routes to Europe and the Middle East, with the exact destinations yet to be announced.

Libyan Airline operates flights into the UK, which is currently served by Bombardier CRJ-900 aircraft.

Mohamed M. Ibsem, Chief Executive Officer of Libyan Airlines said: "Aboard these brand new Libyan Airlines aircraft, our passengers will be able to stay in touch with colleagues, family and friends while they travel."

Libyan Airlines flies from Tripoli (TIP) Libya, to Manchester (MAN) and London Heathrow (LHR) in the UK, and mainly codeshares with Afriqiyah Airways on flights into London Gatwick (one flight per week is operated by Libyan Airlines).

Mobile OnAir is currently available on more than 8,000 flights worldwide each month, with a growing number of airlines installing the technology.

Source: allAfrica.
Link: http://allafrica.com/stories/200909100361.html.

Three Uighurs detained at Guantánamo Bay agree to Palau move

Barack Obama's plans to close Guantánamo Bay detention centre clears a major hurdle as China opposes move

Three Chinese Muslims detained at Guantánamo Bay formally accepted an offer to take up new lives in the Pacific island nation of Palau and could be moved there as early as next month, lawyers say.

They were the first among 13 ethnic Uighurs held at the US military prison in Cuba who had been offered resettlement in Palau — an arrangement that would clear a major hurdle to Barack Obama's plans to close the contentious facility.

Negotiations were still under way with the 10 other Uighurs at Guantánamo.

After months of talks with US officials, lawyer George Clarke said his two Uighur clients had recently formally accepted the offer to go to Palau.

"They're excited," Clarke said. "They want to get the heck out of Guantánamo Bay. They look forward to getting to Palau and getting on with their lives."

Eric Tirschwell, the lawyer for four other Uighurs at Guantánamo, said yesterday that one of his clients had also accepted the offer and was "looking forward to enjoying the freedom that he deserves and that he's been denied for almost eight years".

The 13 Uighurs, Turkic Muslims from far western China, have been held by the United States since being captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001. The Pentagon determined last year they were not "enemy combatants," but they have been in legal limbo ever since.

Beijing said today it considers the group suspected terrorists and wants them returned to China.

"We firmly oppose any countries receiving Chinese terrorist suspects. They should be repatriated to China as soon as possible," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

But Uighur activists claim the group faces persecution or death if they are returned there, and US officials have struggled to find a country to take them in.

In June, four Uighur detainees were resettled in Bermuda. The same month, Palau offered to take the remaining 13 Uighur detainees at Guantánamo.

Negotiations have gone on since then, with officials saying some of the issues have included the detainees' fears about the tiny country's ability to protect them from China, and whether they would be able to freely practice their religion there.

The lawyers declined to give details of the agreements struck with US officials.

A US state department official, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks with other Uighurs were continuing, confirmed "some of the Uighur detainees have agreed to resettlement in Palau" but declined to give details.

Uighurs who accepted the offer could be transferred to Palau as soon as October, Clarke said.

Mark Bezner, the top American official in Palau, said yesterday he had not yet received formal notification on the Uighurs.

Palau is a developing country of 20,000 about 500 miles east of the Philippines that is dependent on US development funds.

The Uighurs will not be eligible for Palauan passports but the government has said the men would be free to travel so long as another country accepted them. It's not clear what passports they would have.

No Uighurs currently live in Palau, though there is a Muslim population of about 400 — mostly Bangladeshi migrant workers.

Isaac Soaladaob, chief of staff to Johnson Toribiong, Palau's president, said the government had not been informed yet of any formal agreements but the country was expecting the Uighur relocation plan to go ahead.

"We know that a number of men plan on coming and we are working on the technical aspects of their arrival," Soaladaob said.

Source: The Guardian.
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/10/uighurs-guantanamo-bay-palau.

Algerians, Freed From Guantanamo, Still Paying The Price

Seven months after his release from Guantanamo Bay, Mustafa Ait Idr cautiously sips coffee in a Sarajevo cafe. His face is still partially paralyzed and numb from when guards pinned him onto gravel and jumped on him. He is nursing a broken finger - punishment for refusing to strip naked in his cell. On another occasion, his head was held in a toilet for prolonged periods of time.

Now a free man, Ait Idr proudly displays his Bosnian I.D. Card, which was only recently reinstated. He is still unable to find employment or access his bank accounts, which were frozen shortly after his arrest in 2001. He has seen his wife twice in the past seven years; upon his release, he met his youngest son for the first time.

Ait Idr is one of “The Algerian Six,” a group of Bosnian citizens detained at Guantanamo Bay for seven years, and recently released with all charges dropped. Their story is another in a long list of stories from Guantanamo of wrongful imprisonment on unproven charges.

The Algerian men came to Bosnia in the 1990s. At the request of U.S. officials, the men were arrested in October 2001 on allegations that they were planning an attack on the U.S. Embassy in Sarajevo. According to documents filed by the detainee's American lawyers in their U.S. federal court habeas action, Christopher Hoh, then the U.S. chargé d'affaires, told then Bosnian Prime Minister Alija Behmen that the U.S. would cut all diplomatic relations if the men were not arrested.

"If we leave Bosnia, God save your country," said Hoh, according to the documents. The U.S. Embassy temporarily closed during this time. Behmen, leader of a fragile, post-conflict country, acquiesced to the demand. He noted in an interview with the Washington Post, "The only way out was to deliver them" to the Americans … We were not interested in introducing a new period of instability in Bosnia."

Within a week, Bosnian police detained “The Algerian Six”: Hajj Boudella, Lakhdar Boumediene, Mustafa Ait Idr, Mohammad Nechle, Saber Lahmar and Bensayah Belkacem.

After a three-month Bosnian investigation found no evidence linking the men to terrorist activities or justifying their detention, the Bosnian Supreme Court ordered their release. High Representative Wolfgang Petritsch, the international community's top official in Bosnia at the time, said, "the U.S. put a tremendous amount of pressure” on Bosnia to deport the men. Vijay Padmanabhan, a lawyer for the State Department, denied the charge, claiming, "The U.S. does not threaten or intimidate." Hoh did not respond to requests for comment.

On Jan. 17, 2002, Bosnian officials drove the men from the courthouse. More than 150 people had gathered outside the courthouse to protest their surrender to American officials. It would be the last time that Boudella's wife, Nadja Dizdarevic, would see her husband for seven years.

"Through the car window, he said we were only little pawns in a big political game,” she remembered, blue eyes peering from behind her gray burqa.

Three days later, stripped of their Bosnian citizenship, the men arrived handcuffed and blindfolded at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, where they spent the following seven years.

“Virtually every claim made by the U.S. government to justify our clients’ illegal rendition was eventually dropped," said Stephen Oleskey, an attorney for Wilmer Hale, the Boston law firm that in 2004 agreed to take up the case, without charge. "There was never any real evidence.”

One detainee, Nechle, was flagged because of his mandatory service in the Algerian army a decade ago, as a cook. Ait Idr was presumed dangerous because he taught Bosnian orphans martial arts. Military tribunal transcripts reveal one U.S. officer saying, "At this point, we don't know why you are being accused of being a member of the Armed Islamic Group… Do you have any idea why you are being connected with this group?"

"I don't know," Boudella replied.

In June 2008, the landmark Supreme Court case, Boumediene v. Bush, allowed enemy combatants to seek judicial review of their detention, reinstating habeas corpus. Four months later, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon released five of the men and continued detention of the sixth, Bensayah Belkacem, stating, “To allow enemy combatancy to rest on so thin a reed would be inconsistent with this court's obligation... This is a unique case.”

In a nod to the Obama Administration’s pledge to close Guantanamo Bay, French President Nicolas Sarkozy accepted the plaintiff, Lakhmar Boumediene, in May 2009, allowing him to settle in France.

Upon his release, Boumediene needed 11 days of treatment in a French hospital. During an interview in Paris, he revealed scars from shackles and nasal skin breakdown from forced tube-feedings.

“I lived in a nightmare for seven years. Even animals are treated better," he said.

Boumediene recalled the cold isolation rooms he endured without clothes and interrogation under bright lights, with Arabic translators who frequently made mistakes in translation. "I went to the bathroom shackled, with guards. They didn’t let me sleep for 16 days,” he said.

Still, Boumediene denies wanting revenge. “I have no problems with the American people. My problem is with Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. I expected more from the great democracy of the U.S., but they failed me and played games with my life.”

The remaining detainee, Belkacem, is the only European citizen still in custody at Guantanamo.

In 2001, the U.S. reportedly tapped his mobile phone conversations with Abu Zabaydah, allegedly an al-Qaeda operative. In an interview in Bosnia, Anela Belkacem, Bensayah’s wife, claims they didn't have enough money to own a mobile phone. Oleskey, the detainees' American lawyer suggests there was no cell phone. "The Bosnian police couldn't even get this number to work," he said.

Anela claims her husband "has been sacrificed… No one wants to admit they made a big mistake in detaining these men.”

The released prisoners face overcoming psychological and physical trauma, reintegrating into society and returning to fragmented lives. Nadja Dizdarevic was an avid supporter of her husband during his internment, but within months of his return, the couple divorced. “We remain good friends. People change in seven years. My children grew up overnight. They didn’t watch cartoons, they watched the news.”

Despite complete exoneration, the men’s citizenship is uncertain. Bosnia has been dragging its feet in restoring citizenship. The men only recently received their I.D. cards, but have not yet gotten their passports. They've been unable to find jobs and claim to be followed by unmarked cars regularly.

Boumediene says, “My daughter does not recognize me. I didn’t see my wife for seven years. I lost everything. Who will give me these years back?”

Currently, Belkacem remains in Guantanamo Bay custody pending his appeal, Boumediene lives in France and Nechle in Algeria. Ait Idr and Boudella are unemployed in Sarajevo, awaiting reinstatement of their citizenship and bank accounts.

Bosnia acknowledged to the Council of Europe that it breached the European Convention on Human Rights by participating in extra-judicial extraordinary rendition at the request of the U.S. The Council has accused over 20 countries of collaborating with CIA rendition flights to secret prisons.

Kashmir hardliner under house arrest: police

SRINAGAR, India (AFP) – A top separatist leader in Indian Kashmir was put under house arrest Friday to prevent protests against Indian rule during weekly prayers, police and officials said.

Police deployed at Syed Ali Geelani's residence in the summer capital Srinagar late on Thursday and he was ordered "not to attempt to break their cordon," his close aide Aiyaz Akbar told reporters.

The ailing Geelani, 79, had been set free by police on Wednesday after serving a three-month jail sentence for organizing protests against a double rape and murder case that has fueled discontent here.

The latest detention came hours after he led scores of Kashmiris in an anti-India demonstration in Srinagar.

"It is a preventive arrest to avoid any law and order problem," a police official told AFP on condition he not be named.

Police and federal paramilitaries were also deployed in Srinagar ahead of the Friday prayers of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Geelani heads the hardline faction of the region's main separatist alliance and he favors Indian Kashmir's merger with Pakistan, which holds part of the disputed region.

Last year, the hardliner led some of the biggest anti-India demonstrations in Kashmir that left more than 50 protesters dead, mostly in police shootings.

Muslim-majority Kashmir has been the scene of a nearly two-decade insurgency against New Delhi's rule that has so far claimed more than 47,000 lives.

Spain to send more troops to Afghanistan

By DANIEL WOOLLS
Associated Press Writer

Spain's government agreed Friday to send 220 more troops to Afghanistan, raising the total to about 1,000 and moving to help a hard-pressed allied coalition fighting the resurgent Taliban.

The decision now goes to parliament, which is expected to approve it.

Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said Spain wants to further contribute to the NATO-led mission to bring peace to Afghanistan. The U.S. has been urging its allies to send more soldiers.

Spain has had troops in Afghanistan since 2002. There are now about 1,200 Spanish soldiers in the west of the country, but 450 of them were sent to provide security for last month's presidential election and are due to come home when the results are known.

The government, eager for strong ties with President Barack Obama, had been hinting for months it might send more troops for the long-term. But the idea seemed to take on more urgency last week with a series of attacks on Spanish troops, including an ambush that prompted a five-hour firefight in which Spanish forces killed 13 insurgents while they had no casualties of their own.

Fernandez de la Vega said the new troops are tasked in part with providing more security for the ones already there, many of whom are involved in reconstruction efforts. She said they are going at a particularly important time because the presidential elections will be followed next year by legislative and local ones.

"In line with its international commitment, Spain is contributing to the reinforcement of the peacekeeping mission, which as you NATO is carrying out with a mandate from the United Nations," she said.

That remark shows how sensitive foreign troop deployments are in this country.

Right after taking office in 2004, the Socialist government brought home peacekeepers that the previous, conservative, pro-U.S. government had sent to Iraq. It argued that their continued presence would endorse what the government considered an illegal invasion. It later enacted a law under which all overseas troop deployments must be approved by parliament.

Now the government always takes pains to stress the Afghanistan mission is a legitimate one with an international mandate. Spain first sent soldiers when the conservative Popular Party was in power. But the Socialists have continued it.

The Popular Party is expected to go along with the new deployment, albeit begrudgingly.

Stung by Socialist criticism of Spain's involvement in Iraq under the conservatives, the Popular Party is always pressing Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero to acknowledge that the Spanish troops in Afghanistan are in the middle of a war, not keeping the peace.

A total of 87 Spaniards have died in connection with the Afghanistan mission, most of them in a plane crash in Turkey in May 2003 while returning home and in a helicopter crash in August 2005.