Steve Watson, Infowars.net
June 23, 2010

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to tighten the blockade against Gaza, the castrated corporate media in the U.S. is reporting that Israeli restrictions are being eased.

Last week, Netanyahu’s office released a statement in English that vowed to “liberalize the system by which civilian goods enter Gaza” and “Expand the inflow of materials for civilian projects that are under international supervision”.

The headlines quickly followed:

“Israel Eases Restrictions on Goods Bound for Gaza Strip” (Washington Post)
“Israel to Ease Gaza Land Blockade” (New York Times)
“Israel to Ease Blockade of Gaza, Cabinet Says” (CNN)
“Israel says it will ease Gaza blockade” (MSNBC)

And on and on…

However, none of these outlets reported on the fact that Netanyahu’s security cabinet never actually reached any agreement to do anything regarding the blockade.

As Ha’aretz reported:

The prime minister’s office announced on Thursday that the security cabinet had agreed to relax Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip, but as it turns out, no binding decision was ever made during the cabinet meeting.

The prime minister’s office issued a press release in English following the meeting, which was also sent to foreign diplomats, was substantially different than the Hebrew announcement–according to the English text, a decision was made to ease the blockade, but in the Hebrew text there was no mention of any such decision.

Just hours later, Netanyahu pledged that his government intends to “tighten” the blockade, noting:

“There will be no civilian closure of Gaza but there will be a security closure. That security closure will be tightened from now on.”

A key passage of Netanyahu’s statement came with the declaration:

“We have deprived Hamas of the ability to blame Israel for hurting the civilian population [of Gaza] and our friends around the world are getting behind our decision and giving international legitimacy to the security blockade on Hamas.”

As Sherine Tadros of Al Jazeera notes, this simply gives an official status to an illegal blockade:

By changing it from a “civilian” blockade to a “military” one, in one stroke Israel pacified the international community and gained their approval (or at least a nod) for its continuing policy in Gaza.

Israel’s naval blockade remains in place and the Gazan people are not allowed to leave or export any goods:

But even if more goods are let in, even if the UN is finally able to finish its projects in the Strip, even if the land crossings start working efficiently and for longer hours – the people of Gaza are still under the whim of Israel’s decisions and 1.7 million people cannot leave.

Israel has now also asked the UN to suspend attempts to organise an international inquiry into the violent raid on the freedom flotilla to Gaza last month.

Now Iran says it intends to send a blockade-busting ship carrying aid and pro-Palestinian activists to Gaza.

With an armada of twelve or more U.S. and Israeli warships, including an aircraft carrier, making their way to the Red Sea, with former senior Israeli officials ratcheting up the war rhetoric, and with Israeli commandos training for another possible confrontation at sea, any kind of incident could spark off conflict.

Source | See also under War: US officials back away from July 2011 Afghan withdrawal deadline | Blackwater/Xe Awarded New Contract as More Afghan Civilians Said to Be Killed in an Airstrike | Iran Threatens to Stop Western Ships if Subjected to Cargo Inspection | Israel to allow limited imports to Gaza, economic siege to remain in place | Prepare for tough summer in Afghanistan, Canadian commander warns | UN Security Council imposes fourth round of sanctions on Iran | How Somalia’s civil war became new front in battle against al-Qaida | Karzai’s Afghan peace conference ends with agreement on Taliban amnesty | Afghan deployment past 2011 possible: MPs | Al Qaeda Number 3 Killed… Again | Options studied for a possible Pakistan strike by US | US acknowledges mistaken attack on Afghan civilians | North Korea reacts angrily as Seoul’s navy holds military exercises off coast | Obama starts massive US Air-Sea-Marine build-up opposite Iran | US claims Security Council backing for Iran sanctions | US drone attack ‘kills Pakistan insurgents’ | Taliban behind Times Square plot, says US AG Holder | ‘Vast’ biometric database prompts troops to open fire on vehicle, 4 unarmed Afghans killed | U.S. Troops Apologize For Wikileaks Massacre Video | Pakistan air strike ‘kills 71 civilians’ | US special forces ‘tried to cover-up’ botched Khataba raid in Afghanistan | WikiLeaks releases video of alleged U.S. helicopter attack on Reuters reporters | Afghan tension mounts as NATO offensive looms | British military intelligence ‘ran renegade torture unit in Iraq’ | Defence Department official used private contractors for spy network in AfPak | Canada wanted Afghan prisoners tortured: lawyer | The curse of Fallujah: Women warned not to have babies because of rise in birth defects since U.S. assault | 1 in 3 Killed by U.S. Drone Attacks In Pakistan Are Civilians | Finklestein: This Time We Went Too Far – Truth and Consequences in the Gaza Invasion | Israeli preparations for war with Iran troubling | NATO prepares for major Kandahar offensive, refugee camps | Afghan ministers voice anger as civilians killed in Nato air strike | White House welcomes Afghan Taliban No. 2 capture | Five civilians killed in Nato rocket attack in Afghanistan | NATO’s novel battle tactic spawns opposite effects as 12 civilians killed | NATO, Afghan troops launch largest air assault of Afghan war | Report: ‘US to expand military centers in Pakistan’ | Yemen reaches ceasefire with rebels | Marjah, Afghanistan: Countdown To A Battle | Obama threatens actions against Iran over nuclear program | UN sanctions urged over Iran’s uranium plans | U.S. deploys land and sea-based missile shield in the Gulf to deter attack from Iran | Israel denies Gaza war crimes in report to UN | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | UK: Tony Blair attempts to shift focus to Iran as ‘global threat’ at Iraq war inquiry | Blair defends decision to join U.S. in Iraq | UN in secret peace talks with Taliban | Pentagon to Send More Special Forces Troops to Yemen | Military probes beating of Afghan prisoner | Afghanistan conference agrees on exit timetable, Taliban bailout | Obama’s War for Oil in Colombia | British and US troops to launch new Afghanistan offensive | General McChrystal indicates talks with Taliban to be discussed | No new Taliban crackdowns for 6 months, Pakistan says | Congressman Ron Paul: After ‘CIA coup,’ agency ‘runs military’ | War resister released from U.S. prison | Yemen forces ‘kill Al-Qaeda chief’ | North Korea calls for peace treaty with US | ‘No intention’ to invade Yemen: Obama | American cash gives Yemen a reason to join the hunt for al-Qaeda | Canada no longer a haven for war resisters | Suspected US drone ‘kills 12′ in Pakistan | Britain, U.S. to fund Yemen anti-terror unit | For more see The Memory Hole – War

Related: Afghan deployment past 2011 possible: MPs | NATO to begin handing control to Afghans | Canadian Afghan withdrawal could pass through Pakistan | Full Afghan withdrawal ‘wrong,’ top Tory says | U.S. to press for Canada to keep troops in Afghanistan | No way to escape Afghan combat post-2011, Hillier says | Troops get non-combat role in Afghanistan after 2011 | Conservatives claim ‘no decision’ made on leaving some troops in Afghanistan past 2011 | ‘Some’ Troops to stay in Afghanistan past 2011: McKay

Agence France-Press
June 20, 2010

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates rejected suggestions Sunday that US forces will move out of Afghanistan in large numbers in July of next year under a deadline set by President Barack Obama.

“That absolutely has not been decided,” Gates said in an interview with Fox News Sunday.

His comment was the latest indication that the magnitude of the drawdown, if not the deadline itself, is the subject of an intensifying internal debate at a time when a NATO-led campaign against the Taliban is going slower than expected.

Vice President Joe Biden, an early skeptic of the US military buildup in Afghanistan, was quoted as telling author Jonathan Alter recently: “In July of 2011, you’re going to see a whole lot of people moving out. Bet on it.”

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel did not deny the Biden quote when asked about it, but, like Gates, said that the size of the drawdown would depend on conditions on the ground.

“Everybody knows there’s a firm date. And that firm date is a date (that) deals with the troops that are part of the surge, the additional 30,000,” he said in an interview with ABC “This Week.”

“What will be determined at that date or going into that date will be the scale and scope of that reduction,” he said.

General David Petraeus, the commander of US forces in the Middle East, said last week that in setting the deadline for the surge last year, Obama’s message was “one of urgency — not that July 2011 is when we race for the exits, reach for the light switch and flip it off.”

Petraeus told lawmakers he would be duty-bound to recommend delaying the redeployment of forces if he thought it necessary.

In the same hearing, the Pentagon’s policy chief, Michelle Flournoy, said a responsible, conditions-based drawdown would depend on there being provinces ready to be transferred to Afghan control, and that there be Afghan combat forces capable of taking the lead.

Officials have said that training of Afghan security forces has gone slower than expected, in part because there are not enough trainers.

Gates said he had not personally heard Biden’s comments so would not take them at face value.

“The pace… with which we draw down and how many we draw down is going to be conditions-based,” he said.
He said there was “general agreement” that those conditions would be determined by the US commander, General Stanley McChrystal, the senior NATO representative in Kabul and the Afghan government.

McChrystal has said that even though a key campaign in Kandahar was taking longer than expected, it will be clear by December whether the surge and his counter-insurgency strategy were working.

Gates complained that “there’s a rush to judgment, frankly, that loses sight of the fact we are still in the middle of getting all of the right components into place and giving us a little time to have this work.”

But lawmakers from both parties have voiced increasing concern about the situation in Afghanistan.

Diane Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that 40 percent of the country is controlled or contested by the Taliban, and the conflict is “metastasizing” with insurgent groups joining forces and sharing money.

“There is one, I think, irreversible truth: The Taliban is on a march,” she said.

“If you lose Afghanistan, Pakistan is the next step. And so what that bodes is nothing but ill because Pakistan is a nuclear (state).”

Senator Richard Lugar, an influential Republican, said saying “goodbye” to Afghanistan was not the solution.

“I think the president is going to have to redefine the plan, and when the proper time comes for that, he will have to make a decision,” he said.

Source | See Also under Afghanistan: Blackwater/Xe Awarded New Contract as More Afghan Civilians Said to Be Killed in an Airstrike | US May Unleash Microwave Weapon in Afghanistan | Army Preps ‘Unblinking Eye’ High Altitude Airship for Afghanistan | WikiLeaks to release video of deadly US airstrike in Garani | Prepare for tough summer in Afghanistan, Canadian commander warns | Deal reached on detainee documents — but NDP pulls out | Surprise! That Story About Afghanistan’s $1 Trillion In Commodities Came Out Just Ahead Of Major Mining Auction | US Knowledge of Aghan Mineral Bonanza Confirmed in 2002, 2007 | Military wanted detainee whistle-blower pulled from Afghanistan | Lithium, gold, iron, copper: Massive mineral discovery in Afghanistan could alter the war | Moscow opens Central Asian supply route for Afghan mission, NATO believes tide turning in Kandahar | Canada’s Dhala Dam development project hobbled by connections to Karzai security firm | Tories worked hard to paint bloody Afghan war as peace mission: MEP documents | Karzai’s Afghan peace conference ends with agreement on Taliban amnesty | Afghan deployment past 2011 possible: MPs | US acknowledges mistaken attack on Afghan civilians | Afghan president’s half-brother denies corruption | Abuses at US ‘Black Jail’ in Afghanistan confirmed | MPs reach agreement to share Afghan detainee document information | Afghan torture documents release talks get extension | Afghan authorities beat citizens on ‘whim’: Military inquiry | Omar Khadr turned down plea deal | Speaker orders Harper government to cough up Afghan detainee documents | Khadr pretrial hearings begin | Taliban fighters lay down their guns to harvest opium poppies | NATO to begin handing control to Afghans | ‘Vast’ biometric database prompts troops to open fire on vehicle, 4 unarmed Afghans killed | Censors threaten detainee hearings | Afghan torture allegations erupt in UK | Canadian Afghan withdrawal could pass through Pakistan | Canadian forces covered up shooting of sleeping 17-yr old: Afghan translator | Canada knew in 2007 Kandahar governor tortured prisoners in dungeon, bombed UN personnel | U.S. officials say Pakistani spy agency released Afghan Taliban insurgents | Taliban support strong in Kandahar: poll | Military Police begin Afghan detainee torture investigative hearings, reporters barred | US special forces ‘tried to cover-up’ botched Khataba raid in Afghanistan | Controversial use of mercenary forces surges in Afghanistan | Afghan tension mounts as NATO offensive looms | Tories table thousands more censored Afghan files | Afghan parliament says no to Karzai bid for more control over election watchdog | MacKay knew of Afghan detainee concerns: diplomat | Full Afghan withdrawal ‘wrong,’ top Tory says | Tories flood Ottawa with blacked-out documents in response to Afghan torture scandal | U.S. to press for Canada to keep troops in Afghanistan | New policy shrouds number of Canada’s Afghan campaign injuries in secrecy | Opposition threatens contempt motion over Afghan torture documents | Defence Department official used private contractors for spy network in AfPak | Ottawa anticipated Afghan torture allegations: memo | CSIS secretly interrogated Afghan prisoners | Canada wanted Afghan prisoners tortured: lawyer | Harper grilled over prorogation, Afghan detainee torture documents | Russia blames Nato for heroin surge from Afghanistan | NATO prepares for major Kandahar offensive, refugee camps | Afghan ministers voice anger as civilians killed in Nato air strike | Hamid Karzai takes control of Afghanistan election watchdog | White House welcomes Afghan Taliban No. 2 capture | Five civilians killed in Nato rocket attack in Afghanistan | NATO’s novel battle tactic spawns opposite effects as 12 civilians killed | NATO, Afghan troops launch largest air assault of Afghan war | Blackwater accused of defrauding US government, billing for hooker under ‘morale’ | Marjah, Afghanistan: Countdown To A Battle | Omar Khadr’s rights were violated: Ruling sees top court clash with Tories | Military probes beating of Afghan prisoner | Afghanistan conference agrees on exit timetable, Taliban bailout | British and US troops to launch new Afghanistan offensive | General McChrystal indicates talks with Taliban to be discussed | Killer of CIA agents in Afghanistan called for revenge for Baitullah Mehsud | Ex-Blackwater contractors charged with Afghan killings | For more see The Memory Hole – Afghanistan

Related (Airstrikes): WikiLeaks to release video of deadly US airstrike in Garani | US drone attack ‘kills Pakistan insurgents’ | CIA Drones No Longer Need a Name to Kill | Pakistan air strike ‘kills 71 civilians’ | WikiLeaks releases video of alleged U.S. helicopter attack on Reuters reporters | 1 in 3 Killed by U.S. Drone Attacks In Pakistan Are Civilians | Afghan ministers voice anger as civilians killed in Nato air strike | Five civilians killed in Nato rocket attack in Afghanistan | Suspected US drone ‘kills 12′ in Pakistan | U.S. prods Pakistan to expand offensive | Pakistan anti-Taliban offensive in South Waziristan ‘over’ | U.S. Military Joins CIA’s Drone War in Pakistan | US Air Force confirms new ‘Beast of Kandahar’ drone | German army chief resigns over Afghanistan air strike | Clinton confronted by Pakistanis over attacks by aerial drones | UN: Drone attacks may violate international law | US drone ’shot down over Somalia’ | Refugee flood reveals human cost of South Waziristan’s invisible war | ‘Taliban’ resist Pakistan onslaught | Pakistani troops assault ‘Taliban’ stronghold | Militants attack Pakistani cities | Pakistan launches air strikes before offensive | NATO pledges probe of deadly Afghan air strike; civilians killed | Pakistan remains silent as U.S. air attack kills 80 | Afghan Airstrike Video Goes Down the Memory Hole | Homing chips are CIA’s latest weapon against ‘al-Qaida’ targets hiding in Pakistan’s tribal belt | CIA: Our Drones are Killing Terrorists. Promise | US air strikes kill dozens of Afghan civilians | NATO denies air strike killed Afghan civilians | Don’t-ask-don’t-tell Policy: Pakistan and U.S. Have Tacit Deal On Airstrikes | Death toll climbs after U.S. air strike in Pakistan

Rod Nordland, New York Times
June 19, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — Ten civilians, including at least five women and children, were killed in NATO airstrikes in Khost Province, the provincial police chief said Saturday. Five other civilians were killed, as were two Afghan National Army soldiers and two police officials, in other violence around the country on Saturday.

NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said in a statement that it had carried out precision airstrikes against a large number of armed insurgents from the Haqqani network, Taliban allies operating in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

“We are aware of conflicting reports of civilian casualties from local officials and are therefore reviewing the operational details of the engagement,” the force said in a statement. “Our mission is to protect the population and we will accept full responsibility if civilians were unintentionally harmed in the intense fight against the insurgents.”

Coalition forces claimed to have killed at least 17 Taliban insurgents in six operations throughout the country, including a Taliban subcommander, Mullah Abdul Razaq. The International Security Assistance Force said Mr. Razaq was suspected of involvement in a roadside bombing that killed two American soldiers in northern Kunduz Province on Wednesday. ISAF said Mr. Razaq and “a number of insurgents” were killed on a raid on their compound in the Chahar Darah District.

Thirteen of the Taliban fighters were killed in two airstrikes in the Zadran Valley, in eastern Paktika Province, according to a spokesman for the Paktika governor’s office. Only one was an Afghan, he said; the others were Pakistani or Arab insurgents.

The United States Embassy here said Saturday that the company once known as Blackwater Worldwide has been awarded a contract worth more than $120 million to protect new United States consulates in the Afghan cities of Herat and Mazar-e-Sharif, The Associated Press reported.

The United States Training Center, a business unit of the former Blackwater, which is now called Xe Services, won the contract on Friday over two other American companies, Triple Canopy and DynCorps International, an embassy spokeswoman, Caitlin Hayden, said, according to The A.P. The one-year contract can be extended twice for three months each for a maximum of 18 months, she said.

Under the name Blackwater, the company, based in North Carolina, provided guards and services to the United States government in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, but was sharply criticized for its heavy-handed tactics in those missions.

In April, five former Blackwater executives, including a past president, were indicted on federal weapons charges. Separately, the Justice Department has opened an inquiry into whether Blackwater officials sought to bribe Iraqi government officials to continue to operate in Iraq, after a 2007 shooting involving Blackwater guards in which 17 Iraqi civilians were killed. The Justice Department is also appealing a decision last year to dismiss manslaughter charges that had been brought against five of the guards.

Source | See Also under Afghanistan: US May Unleash Microwave Weapon in Afghanistan | Army Preps ‘Unblinking Eye’ High Altitude Airship for Afghanistan | WikiLeaks to release video of deadly US airstrike in Garani | Prepare for tough summer in Afghanistan, Canadian commander warns | Deal reached on detainee documents — but NDP pulls out | Surprise! That Story About Afghanistan’s $1 Trillion In Commodities Came Out Just Ahead Of Major Mining Auction | US Knowledge of Aghan Mineral Bonanza Confirmed in 2002, 2007 | Military wanted detainee whistle-blower pulled from Afghanistan | Lithium, gold, iron, copper: Massive mineral discovery in Afghanistan could alter the war | Moscow opens Central Asian supply route for Afghan mission, NATO believes tide turning in Kandahar | Canada’s Dhala Dam development project hobbled by connections to Karzai security firm | Tories worked hard to paint bloody Afghan war as peace mission: MEP documents | Karzai’s Afghan peace conference ends with agreement on Taliban amnesty | Afghan deployment past 2011 possible: MPs | US acknowledges mistaken attack on Afghan civilians | Afghan president’s half-brother denies corruption | Abuses at US ‘Black Jail’ in Afghanistan confirmed | MPs reach agreement to share Afghan detainee document information | Afghan torture documents release talks get extension | Afghan authorities beat citizens on ‘whim’: Military inquiry | Omar Khadr turned down plea deal | Speaker orders Harper government to cough up Afghan detainee documents | Khadr pretrial hearings begin | Taliban fighters lay down their guns to harvest opium poppies | NATO to begin handing control to Afghans | ‘Vast’ biometric database prompts troops to open fire on vehicle, 4 unarmed Afghans killed | Censors threaten detainee hearings | Afghan torture allegations erupt in UK | Canadian Afghan withdrawal could pass through Pakistan | Canadian forces covered up shooting of sleeping 17-yr old: Afghan translator | Canada knew in 2007 Kandahar governor tortured prisoners in dungeon, bombed UN personnel | U.S. officials say Pakistani spy agency released Afghan Taliban insurgents | Taliban support strong in Kandahar: poll | Military Police begin Afghan detainee torture investigative hearings, reporters barred | US special forces ‘tried to cover-up’ botched Khataba raid in Afghanistan | Controversial use of mercenary forces surges in Afghanistan | Afghan tension mounts as NATO offensive looms | Tories table thousands more censored Afghan files | Afghan parliament says no to Karzai bid for more control over election watchdog | MacKay knew of Afghan detainee concerns: diplomat | Full Afghan withdrawal ‘wrong,’ top Tory says | Tories flood Ottawa with blacked-out documents in response to Afghan torture scandal | U.S. to press for Canada to keep troops in Afghanistan | New policy shrouds number of Canada’s Afghan campaign injuries in secrecy | Opposition threatens contempt motion over Afghan torture documents | Defence Department official used private contractors for spy network in AfPak | Ottawa anticipated Afghan torture allegations: memo | CSIS secretly interrogated Afghan prisoners | Canada wanted Afghan prisoners tortured: lawyer | Harper grilled over prorogation, Afghan detainee torture documents | Russia blames Nato for heroin surge from Afghanistan | NATO prepares for major Kandahar offensive, refugee camps | Afghan ministers voice anger as civilians killed in Nato air strike | Hamid Karzai takes control of Afghanistan election watchdog | White House welcomes Afghan Taliban No. 2 capture | Five civilians killed in Nato rocket attack in Afghanistan | NATO’s novel battle tactic spawns opposite effects as 12 civilians killed | NATO, Afghan troops launch largest air assault of Afghan war | Blackwater accused of defrauding US government, billing for hooker under ‘morale’ | Marjah, Afghanistan: Countdown To A Battle | Omar Khadr’s rights were violated: Ruling sees top court clash with Tories | Military probes beating of Afghan prisoner | Afghanistan conference agrees on exit timetable, Taliban bailout | British and US troops to launch new Afghanistan offensive | General McChrystal indicates talks with Taliban to be discussed | Killer of CIA agents in Afghanistan called for revenge for Baitullah Mehsud | Ex-Blackwater contractors charged with Afghan killings | For more see The Memory Hole – Afghanistan

Related: Tucker Bilderberg 2010 Wrapup: Attack on Iran discussed, World Treasury Dept delayed | Iran has ‘fuel for 2 nukes’: UN report | Israel rejects UN call to come clean on nuclear program | MIddle East arms treaty a go despite US ‘deep regret’ over focus on Israeli nuclear arsenal | Disclosure of apartheid-era warhead negotiations with South Africa tip Israel’s nuclear hand | Obama starts massive US Air-Sea-Marine build-up opposite Iran | US claims Security Council backing for Iran sanctions | Iran brokers deal with Turkey for uranium enrichment | Dublin Trilateral attendees let slip need for world govt, war with Iran, Bilderberg oversight | UN-led uranium deal still on table: Iran | Robert Gates says White House lacks plan to deal with Iran nuclear threat | China sells petrol to Iran while talking at UN about sanctions | Nuclear summit urges anti-terror treaty | Enriched uranium going back to U.S.: PM | Iran unveils new uranium centrifuges | Barack Obama to limit use of US nuclear weapons | Russia claims breakthrough in historic nuclear reduction agreement with US | Israeli preparations for war with Iran troubling | Russia to push ahead on Iran missile deal | Iran could be making nuclear warhead, says new director of IAEA | US media omission: Iran calls for global nuclear disarmament | Obama threatens actions against Iran over nuclear program | UN sanctions urged over Iran’s uranium plans | Western powers voice scepticism over Iran uranium offer | U.S. deploys land and sea-based missile shield in the Gulf to deter attack from Iran | UK: Tony Blair attempts to shift focus to Iran as ‘global threat’ at Iraq war inquiry | Chomsky says Israel, ‘US military base’ | Russia has no evidence of Iran nuclear bomb-Putin | IAEA members question Iran nuclear intel authenticity | US military could strike Iran, but at what cost? | Another War in the Works | Iran to allow nuclear site inspection | Iran plays into Obama’s hands with disclosure of nuclear facility | UN approves nuclear ‘disarmament’ resolution | Obama scales back missile defence shield in Europe | Israel ‘will attack Iran this year’ if West does not cripple Tehran with sanctions | Brookings Publication mentions possibility of ‘Horrific Provocation’ to Trigger Iran Invasion | Blast at Iranian mosque raises tensions in run-up to presidential election | Netanyahu: We may be forced to attack Iran | Proposed Missile Shield seen as Provocation by Russia | Neo-cons still preparing for Iran attack | Russia threatens to ’strike’ Poland in wake of U.S. missile plan | Cheney Considered False Flag Operation to Justify War with Iran | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Israelis ‘rehearse Iran attack’ | Israeli official says attack on Iran ‘unavoidable’ | Bush ‘plans Iran air strike by August’ | U.S. Navy starts exercises in Gulf waters | U.S. National Intelligence Estimate: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work in 2003 | Cheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran | U.S. sending third aircraft carrier to the Middle East | US aircraft carriers in Persian Gulf | Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: US Indirectly Funding Al-Qaeda Linked Sunni Groups in Move to Counter Iran | How the USA Gave North Korea The Bomb | Former CIA Officer – US Plans Nuclear Attack On Iran

Kurt Nimmo, PrisonPlanet.com
June 17, 2010

Iran’s parliament has warned it will respond in kind to inspection of its ships under a fourth round of sanctions imposed on the country by the UN Security Council. A new round of sanctions are being drafted by the United States and the European Union.

“We warn the US and certain adventurist countries that if they are tempted to inspect Iranian air and ship cargos, we will take tough action against their ships in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman,” said Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani on Wednesday. Larijani said any retaliatory move would be part of the country’s policy to defend national interests, according to the Fars News Agency.

Larijani said the Iranian parliament “calls on the government to not lessen the level of uranium enrichment below 20 percent since these countries have violated the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and refused to provide 20-percent enriched fuel for Tehran’s research reactor.”

Belgium’s Le Soir newspaper reported that European Union foreign ministers have agreed on a new package of EU sanctions against Iran. The new round of sanctions to be discussed at an EU summit on June 17 are in addition to sanctions imposed by the United Nations. Le Soir said the new EU sanctions will include a freeze on investment in Iran’s oil and gas sector and a ban on technology and equipment transfer.

The EU has imposed visa bans on senior officials such as Revolutionary Guards head Mohammad Ali Jafari, former Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar and former atomic energy chief Gholamreza Aghazadeh, and on top nuclear and ballistic experts.

On Wednesday Obama added several dozen Iranian individuals and organizations to its sanctions blacklist. The list includes 90 ship names that Iran’s international shipping company has allegedly been using to evade sanctions, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The sanctions passed on June 9 permit the West to board cargo ships headed to and from Iran. The new sanctions target at least three entities managed by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines and 15 belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

“Even if one Iranian ship is stopped for security-check, we will act likewise and thoroughly inspect any (western) ship passing through the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz,” member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Hossein Ebrahimi said.

In response to increasing on the country, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed to punish the West and force it to “sit at the negotiating table like a polite child” before beginning talks with it. He said his country would build four new nuclear reactors.

The inspection of vessels sets the stage for possible military incidents at sea between Iran and the U.S. Navy.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva told the Security Council the situation developing at the United Nations may result in the same sort of fiasco that led to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, supposedly over its alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Brazil’s representative in the council was pointedly critical of the West’s disregard for the opportunity for a breakthrough provided last month by the Tehran declaration between Iran, Turkey and Brazil regarding a swap of fuel for Iran’s medical reactor in the Iranian capital, Asia Times Online reports.

Source | See also under Militarization: US May Unleash Microwave Weapon in Afghanistan | RCMP wrong to use Taser on Dziekanski: final Braidwood report | Canadian Forces exercise to be held in High Arctic with American, Danish troops | Israel to allow limited imports to Gaza, economic siege to remain in place | WikiLeaks to release video of deadly US airstrike in Garani | Internet ‘kill switch’ proposed for US President | Prepare for tough summer in Afghanistan, Canadian commander warns | Bloody Sunday report released, UK soldiers may face prosecution over ‘72 massacre of Irish | U.S. seeks international organization in battle against cyber terror | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | FAA Experiments With Integrating Drones in Civil Airspace | JTF2 Commandos prepare for G20 with secret night raids, frighten Brockville residents | Harper bending to U.S. on sole-source fighter purchase, documents reveal | Gaza flotilla attack: activist releases new footage | Toronto G20 weekend: Private security fast-tracked, traffic jams, heavy police presence, but no sonic weapons | G8/G20: Cell phones to be jammed as motorcades move through Huntsville, Toronto | G20: Eastern Avenue Protest Jail | G20 Security unbridled: Cops bring out artillery as civil rights observers preach vigilance | Troops Invade Chicago (for Training) | UN Security Council imposes fourth round of sanctions on Iran | Security company hired by RCMP for G20 not licensed in Ontario | Ottawa to spend $9-billion in sole-source deal for U.S. fighter jets | Security unit shows off G8 plans for Huntsville | How Somalia’s civil war became new front in battle against al-Qaida | America would send troops to G8/G20 if required | Construction begins on Toronto G20 security barrier | Freedom flotilla assault timeline unclear, Israel holding confiscated video evidence | Harper’s Privy Council message control system is unprecedented, critics say | Bilderberg Agenda Revealed: Globalists In Crisis, Supportive Of Attack On Iran | Israel’s seizure of Gaza aid boat Rachel Corrie sparks further condemnation | Obama secretly deploys US special forces to 75 countries across world | Autopsy: Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range | Gaza flotilla activists unarmed: Canadian | Bilderberg 2010: The security lockdown begins | Australia recording features for facial recognition | CIA drone killings trouble UN rights expert | Toronto police show off G20 summit security | Mounties shun ‘sound cannons’ in urban settings ahead of G20 | Prospective G20 prison camp medics told patients may be faking | Gaza flotilla attack: British activists tell of abuse by Israelis | U.S. to Join South Korean Military Exercise Off North Korea Coast | Al Qaeda Number 3 Killed… Again | Lieberman Bill Gives Feds ‘Emergency’ Powers to Secure Civilian Nets | IDF: ‘Activists threw stun grenades’ | Israel to deport all detained aid flotilla activists by end of day | Ex-Mossad agent: Gaza flotilla raid ’so stupid it’s stupefying’ | Global arms spending tops $1.6T | 1,100 private security guards to work G8-G20 summits | Knesset member and eyewitness: Israel fired before boarding ship | Iran has ‘fuel for 2 nukes’: UN report | Israeli troops attack ship carrying aid to Gaza killing 16 | Israel rejects UN call to come clean on nuclear program | Options studied for a possible Pakistan strike by US | US acknowledges mistaken attack on Afghan civilians | MIddle East arms treaty a go despite US ‘deep regret’ over focus on Israeli nuclear arsenal | Police detail G20 security zone | Cyber Command: We Don’t Wanna Defend the Internet (We Just Might Have To) | Israeli navy prepares for action as activists’ flotilla nears Gaza | Infrastructure security plan unveiled | Pentagon: Let us monitor your network or else | Toronto Police to take up to $100-million of G20 security funds | Homegrown terrorist threat to be part of new US National Security Strategy | Toronto police buy four ’sound cannons’ for G20 | North Korea reacts angrily as Seoul’s navy holds military exercises off coast | Toronto and Muskoka G8/20 Summit security costs hit $1.1B | Obama sending 1,200 troops to Mexico border | North Korea to sever ties with South | US appoints first cyber warfare general | Disclosure of apartheid-era warhead negotiations with South Africa tip Israel’s nuclear hand | The Toronto G20 Police State Crackdown | Darpa’s Self-Learning Software Knows Who You Are | Toronto police agree to erase security zone pass info after G20 | Obama starts massive US Air-Sea-Marine build-up opposite Iran | Toronto streets get 77 more surveillance cameras for G20 | Canada’s navy cuts coast patrol fleet in half | NSA head confirmed as chief of US cyber command | US drone attack ‘kills Pakistan insurgents’ | Predator drones to begin flying Texas border patrol in a matter of months | Pentagon Turns to Brain Implants to Repair Damaged Minds | Keeping America Safe: SWAT Team Storms Family Home, Shoots Pet Dogs, Over Small Bag Of Marijuana | CIA Drones No Longer Need a Name to Kill | Fighter jets buzz Toronto, Muskoka in G20 test runs | Couple Arrested At U.S. Border For Asking Questions | RCMP unveil new stun gun rules: Verbal warning, imminent harm required | Downtown Toronto To Be Transformed Into Locked-Down Police State This Summer | Police State Canada 2010 and the G20 Summit | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Launch of secret US space ship masks even more secret launch of new space missile platform | Waterloo firm creates ‘flying robot spies from the skies’ for global law enforcement market | U.S. combat jets buzzing Ont. border city | ‘Vast’ biometric database prompts troops to open fire on vehicle, 4 unarmed Afghans killed | U.S. Troops Apologize For Wikileaks Massacre Video | Toronto police disclose Tasers often used on mentally ill | UN-led uranium deal still on table: Iran | Afghan torture allegations erupt in UK | Militarized police integrate with private security for G20 Toronto concourse drill | Danger Room What’s Next in National Security Prospective U.S. Cyber Commander Talks Terms of Digital Warfare | Pakistan air strike ‘kills 71 civilians’ | Canada knew in 2007 Kandahar governor tortured prisoners in dungeon, bombed UN personnel | White House approves assassination of cleric linked to Christmas bomb plot | Small army to protect Toronto during G20 summit | Feds mulling plan to turn Parliament Hill into high-security zone | Barack Obama to limit use of US nuclear weapons | Controversial use of mercenary forces surges in Afghanistan | Afghan tension mounts as NATO offensive looms | US Airline Security Moves to Known Threat Descriptive Profiling | Recent mass grave of the ‘disappeared’ uncovered in Columbia | Cop Cleared By Grand Jury For Tasering Great Grandmother During Speeding Stop | Officers suspended after using Taser on 10-year-old | Raid on ‘unheard of’ Hutaree militia puzzles small town | The prison spending boom | Full Afghan withdrawal ‘wrong,’ top Tory says | Ontario report rewrites stun gun rules, somewhat | FBI raids in Washtenaw, Lenawee counties tied to Michigan militia group | Massive fortress Ottawa in the works | UK: Police Taser use ‘doubled’ in third quarter of 2009 | U.S. to press for Canada to keep troops in Afghanistan | Russia claims breakthrough in historic nuclear reduction agreement with US | Toronto G20 summit security to be ‘massive’ | British military intelligence ‘ran renegade torture unit in Iraq’ | RCMP needs 5,500 rooms during G20 summit | U.S. cybersecurity bill introduced in Senate | Body scans eventually mandatory, TSA official says | Planned random DUI checkpoints a violation of rights | Secret Document Calls Wikileaks ‘Threat’ to U.S. Army | Defence Department official used private contractors for spy network in AfPak | Public Safety Canada announces national plan to centralize operations in state of emergency | While Government Treats Citizens As Terrorists, Mexican Military Invades U.S. | Chicago police expanding Taser use | Cyberattacks push CSIS to reach out to business | An American Detention Bill You Ought to Read More Carefully | Canada wanted Afghan prisoners tortured: lawyer | Military trials possible for Sept. 11 terror suspects | Fingerprints Now Required to Shred (That Means Skateboard, Dude) | United States weighs massive expansion of Internet monitoring | UK: Mobile fingerprint scanner for English and Welsh police | Plan to put more police on Toronto transit | 1 in 3 Killed by U.S. Drone Attacks In Pakistan Are Civilians | Israeli preparations for war with Iran troubling | Downtown Toronto to become a fortress for G20 summit | Pentagon Discloses Hundreds of Reports of Possibly Illegal Intelligence Activities | Australia to fingerprint, face-scan visitors from Muslim nations | G8/G20: Gearing up for the biggest security event in Canadian history | Toronto braces for G20 disruption, Ottawa to pick up security tab | The truth about the Mossad | Iran could be making nuclear warhead, says new director of IAEA | USA: Fourth Amendment Trashed As Airport Tyranny Hits The Streets | RCMP to test Taser cameras | Report: France ‘deliberately’ used soldiers as ‘nuclear guinea pigs’ | UK Police use spy drone for first domestic arrest – without airspace clearance | Global security to top agenda of G8 foreign ministers | Five civilians killed in Nato rocket attack in Afghanistan | NATO’s novel battle tactic spawns opposite effects as 12 civilians killed | Russia to push ahead on Iran missile deal | Obama Making Plans to Use Executive Power | NATO, Afghan troops launch largest air assault of Afghan war | Report: ‘US to expand military centers in Pakistan’ | Vancouver police shut down several blocks, shopping mall to blow up fishing rod | Marjah, Afghanistan: Countdown To A Battle | Future police: Meet the UK’s armed robot drones | Obama threatens actions against Iran over nuclear program | Troops Randomly Patrol Streets In Pittsburgh in Wake of Snowfall, Respond To “Domestic Disputes” | CFB Trenton commander charged with murder | UN sanctions urged over Iran’s uranium plans | Elite Toronto police squad stops and questions thousands | Pentagon Looks to Breed Immortal ‘Synthetic Organisms,’ Molecular Kill-Switch Included | US Interrogation Squad Doing ‘Scientific Research’ | Domestic threats biggest Olympic security concern: expert | Washington DC transit system holds anti-terror drills | Hitchens: North Korean’s stature, worldview stunted by authoritarian hate and ignorance | U.S. deploys land and sea-based missile shield in the Gulf to deter attack from Iran | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | UK: Tony Blair attempts to shift focus to Iran as ‘global threat’ at Iraq war inquiry | Winnipeg police caught on video beating man | Blair defends decision to join U.S. in Iraq | Crotch bomber bill before Congress: Treat all ‘terrorism suspects’ as enemy combatants. Domestically. | Toronto Star Columnist Fiorito: The cops came and took my gun | Pentagon to Send More Special Forces Troops to Yemen | Military probes beating of Afghan prisoner | Obama’s War for Oil in Colombia | Pentagon calls for ‘Office of Strategic Deception’ | British and US troops to launch new Afghanistan offensive | The War on Terrorism and the Countdown to the 2010 Olympics | General McChrystal indicates talks with Taliban to be discussed | UK police plan to use military-style spy drones | UK: Photographers protest over terror search laws | Texas Schoolkids Tagged With GPS Tracking Devices | No new Taliban crackdowns for 6 months, Pakistan says | Congressman Ron Paul: After ‘CIA coup,’ agency ‘runs military’ | Olympic surveillance cameras causing concern | BATF Notice Bans Private Gun Sales In Texas | Regina police probe RCMP torture claims | War resister released from U.S. prison | Yemen forces ‘kill Al-Qaeda chief’ | UK: Anti-terror stop and search policy ruled illegal by European human rights court | Obama Executive Order Stokes Martial Law Fears | A North American Security Perimeter Coming Into View | North Korea calls for peace treaty with US | ‘No intention’ to invade Yemen: Obama | US Domestic Espionage Alert: Spy Drone Discovered | American cash gives Yemen a reason to join the hunt for al-Qaeda | Canada no longer a haven for war resisters | Ex-Blackwater contractors charged with Afghan killings | Airport security starts in the parking lot | PM Harper downplays detainee torture scandal, prorogation | Suspected US drone ‘kills 12′ in Pakistan | Body scanners coming to Canadian airports | UK: Full-body scanners being ordered for airports, says Gordon Brown | Group slams Chertoff on conflict of interest in scanner promotion | Britain, U.S. to fund Yemen anti-terror unit | For more see The Memory Hole – Militarization

Steve Gutkin, Associated Press
June 17, 2010

JERUSALEM—An Israeli decision Thursday to ease its blockade of Gaza under intense international pressure could spell the beginning of the end of the chokehold that has hurt ordinary Gazans far more than their militant Hamas rulers.

The order to allow in all foods and some desperately needed construction materials brought calls for Israel to go much further and did little to quell the global outcry over the deadly flotilla raid May 31 that tried to bust the embargo.

With a naval blockade in place and Israel giving no indication it will lift a ban on Gaza exports, Palestinians dismissed the move as cosmetic.

Yet the announcement was an unmistakable sign of Israeli leaders’ extreme discomfort with the damage the bloody flotilla raid has done to their country’s international standing — and an indication the blockade’s days may be numbered.

Israel made its decision after consultations with U.S. and European officials, and a week after President Barack Obama called the embargo unsustainable and urged that it be scaled back dramatically.

Mideast envoy Tony Blair, who helped work out the deal with Israel, called it a “good start.” The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said Israel must “make sure that many, many more goods can get in to Gaza” and added that “the detail is what matters.”

In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner welcomed the announcement, saying the Obama administration wants to see “an expansion of the scope and types of goods into Gaza . . . while addressing, obviously, Israel’s legitimate security needs.”

In Gaza, the decision was met with skepticism and anger.

“We want a real lifting of the siege, not window-dressing,” said Hamas lawmaker Salah Bardawil.

The blockade, imposed three years ago after Hamas violently overran Gaza, has devastated the seaside territory’s economy, costing tens of thousands of jobs, shuttering factories and preventing Gazans from rebuilding homes and buildings destroyed in Israel’s bruising military offensive against Hamas last year, aimed at stopping daily rocket attacks.

Israel’s decision to ease the chokehold also reflected its leaders’ tacit acknowledgment that the blockade has failed to achieve any of its goals: weakening Hamas, keeping weapons out of Gaza, and winning the release of a 23-year-old Israeli soldier, Gilad Schalit, held captive by Hamas-linked militants for four years.

In one of the major changes approved Thursday, Israel will allow in more construction materials to repair the war damage, provided they are used for civilian projects carried out under international supervision, government and military officials said.

Israel has barely allowed in materials such as cement and steel, fearing Hamas militants could use them to build weapons and fortifications.

Israel has said before that it would be willing to allow in cement under international supervision. But it took the direct intervention of UN chief Ban Ki-moon to get in cement last month for a single UN housing project, following years of delay.

The extent to which Israel’s latest announcement would be implemented on the ground remained unclear.

“There have been many words in the past,” said UN spokesman Chris Gunness. “We need to judge the Israeli authorities by their deeds, not their words.”

An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israel would immediately permit all food and household items into Gaza. Israel has previously allowed a narrow and constantly changing list of authorized food items.

While the Israeli move seemed to buy Israel some time with the international community, it appeared unlikely to significantly change the quality of life in Gaza.

Most food items prohibited by Israel already enter Gaza through smuggling tunnels along the southern border with Egypt — though it’s likely they’ll be cheaper if they can come in legally.

More critically, an Israeli government statement made no mention of easing bans on exports or the import of raw materials needed for industry.

There also was no word on how much construction material would be allowed in, or whether Israel, along with Egypt, would ease a border closure that has prevented nearly all of Gaza’s 1.5 million people from exiting the area. Egypt has slightly relaxed the restrictions over the past two weeks.

Blair, who represents the quartet of international Mideast mediators, said efforts were under way to find a way to reopen Gaza’s border crossings with European and Palestinian participation. The EU helped monitor Gaza’s southern border with Egypt until Hamas took power in 2007.

Perhaps most significantly, Israel signalled it had no intention of lifting the naval blockade at the centre of the recent firestorm over its deadly sea raid.

A government statement saying Israel “will continue security procedures to prevent the inflow of weapons and war material” meant the naval embargo will remain in place, said an Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Thursday’s decision came in response to heavy criticism of the blockade since Israel sent naval commandos to intercept a pro-Palestinian flotilla sailing to Gaza in late May.

Naval commandos clashed with activists on board one of the ships, killing nine Turks, and drawing widespread condemnations. Both sides have said they acted in self-defence.

Source | Alternate Coverage | See also under War: Prepare for tough summer in Afghanistan, Canadian commander warns | UN Security Council imposes fourth round of sanctions on Iran | How Somalia’s civil war became new front in battle against al-Qaida | Karzai’s Afghan peace conference ends with agreement on Taliban amnesty | Afghan deployment past 2011 possible: MPs | Al Qaeda Number 3 Killed… Again | Options studied for a possible Pakistan strike by US | US acknowledges mistaken attack on Afghan civilians | North Korea reacts angrily as Seoul’s navy holds military exercises off coast | Obama starts massive US Air-Sea-Marine build-up opposite Iran | US claims Security Council backing for Iran sanctions | US drone attack ‘kills Pakistan insurgents’ | Taliban behind Times Square plot, says US AG Holder | ‘Vast’ biometric database prompts troops to open fire on vehicle, 4 unarmed Afghans killed | U.S. Troops Apologize For Wikileaks Massacre Video | Pakistan air strike ‘kills 71 civilians’ | US special forces ‘tried to cover-up’ botched Khataba raid in Afghanistan | WikiLeaks releases video of alleged U.S. helicopter attack on Reuters reporters | Afghan tension mounts as NATO offensive looms | British military intelligence ‘ran renegade torture unit in Iraq’ | Defence Department official used private contractors for spy network in AfPak | Canada wanted Afghan prisoners tortured: lawyer | The curse of Fallujah: Women warned not to have babies because of rise in birth defects since U.S. assault | 1 in 3 Killed by U.S. Drone Attacks In Pakistan Are Civilians | Finklestein: This Time We Went Too Far – Truth and Consequences in the Gaza Invasion | Israeli preparations for war with Iran troubling | NATO prepares for major Kandahar offensive, refugee camps | Afghan ministers voice anger as civilians killed in Nato air strike | White House welcomes Afghan Taliban No. 2 capture | Five civilians killed in Nato rocket attack in Afghanistan | NATO’s novel battle tactic spawns opposite effects as 12 civilians killed | NATO, Afghan troops launch largest air assault of Afghan war | Report: ‘US to expand military centers in Pakistan’ | Yemen reaches ceasefire with rebels | Marjah, Afghanistan: Countdown To A Battle | Obama threatens actions against Iran over nuclear program | UN sanctions urged over Iran’s uranium plans | U.S. deploys land and sea-based missile shield in the Gulf to deter attack from Iran | Israel denies Gaza war crimes in report to UN | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | UK: Tony Blair attempts to shift focus to Iran as ‘global threat’ at Iraq war inquiry | Blair defends decision to join U.S. in Iraq | UN in secret peace talks with Taliban | Pentagon to Send More Special Forces Troops to Yemen | Military probes beating of Afghan prisoner | Afghanistan conference agrees on exit timetable, Taliban bailout | Obama’s War for Oil in Colombia | British and US troops to launch new Afghanistan offensive | General McChrystal indicates talks with Taliban to be discussed | No new Taliban crackdowns for 6 months, Pakistan says | Congressman Ron Paul: After ‘CIA coup,’ agency ‘runs military’ | War resister released from U.S. prison | Yemen forces ‘kill Al-Qaeda chief’ | North Korea calls for peace treaty with US | ‘No intention’ to invade Yemen: Obama | American cash gives Yemen a reason to join the hunt for al-Qaeda | Canada no longer a haven for war resisters | Suspected US drone ‘kills 12′ in Pakistan | Britain, U.S. to fund Yemen anti-terror unit | For more see The Memory Hole – War

The Globe and Mail
June 15, 2010

Lt.-Gen. Marc Lessard says insurgent activity has spiked

Related: Iran has ‘fuel for 2 nukes’: UN report | Israel rejects UN call to come clean on nuclear program | MIddle East arms treaty a go despite US ‘deep regret’ over focus on Israeli nuclear arsenal | Disclosure of apartheid-era warhead negotiations with South Africa tip Israel’s nuclear hand | Obama starts massive US Air-Sea-Marine build-up opposite Iran | US claims Security Council backing for Iran sanctions | Iran brokers deal with Turkey for uranium enrichment | Dublin Trilateral attendees let slip need for world govt, war with Iran, Bilderberg oversight | UN-led uranium deal still on table: Iran | Robert Gates says White House lacks plan to deal with Iran nuclear threat | China sells petrol to Iran while talking at UN about sanctions | Nuclear summit urges anti-terror treaty | Enriched uranium going back to U.S.: PM | Iran unveils new uranium centrifuges | Barack Obama to limit use of US nuclear weapons | Russia claims breakthrough in historic nuclear reduction agreement with US | Israeli preparations for war with Iran troubling | Russia to push ahead on Iran missile deal | Iran could be making nuclear warhead, says new director of IAEA | US media omission: Iran calls for global nuclear disarmament | Obama threatens actions against Iran over nuclear program | UN sanctions urged over Iran’s uranium plans | Western powers voice scepticism over Iran uranium offer | U.S. deploys land and sea-based missile shield in the Gulf to deter attack from Iran | UK: Tony Blair attempts to shift focus to Iran as ‘global threat’ at Iraq war inquiry | Chomsky says Israel, ‘US military base’ | Russia has no evidence of Iran nuclear bomb-Putin | IAEA members question Iran nuclear intel authenticity | US military could strike Iran, but at what cost? | Another War in the Works | Iran to allow nuclear site inspection | Iran plays into Obama’s hands with disclosure of nuclear facility | UN approves nuclear ‘disarmament’ resolution | Obama scales back missile defence shield in Europe | Israel ‘will attack Iran this year’ if West does not cripple Tehran with sanctions | Brookings Publication mentions possibility of ‘Horrific Provocation’ to Trigger Iran Invasion | Blast at Iranian mosque raises tensions in run-up to presidential election | Netanyahu: We may be forced to attack Iran | Proposed Missile Shield seen as Provocation by Russia | Neo-cons still preparing for Iran attack | Russia threatens to ’strike’ Poland in wake of U.S. missile plan | Cheney Considered False Flag Operation to Justify War with Iran | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Israelis ‘rehearse Iran attack’ | Israeli official says attack on Iran ‘unavoidable’ | Bush ‘plans Iran air strike by August’ | U.S. Navy starts exercises in Gulf waters | U.S. National Intelligence Estimate: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work in 2003 | Cheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran | U.S. sending third aircraft carrier to the Middle East | US aircraft carriers in Persian Gulf | Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: US Indirectly Funding Al-Qaeda Linked Sunni Groups in Move to Counter Iran | How the USA Gave North Korea The Bomb | Former CIA Officer – US Plans Nuclear Attack On Iran

Louis Charbonneau and Patrick Worsnip, Reuters
June 9, 2010

Iran’s UN ambassador said the push for sanctions over his country’s nuclear program showed that some countries “prefer confrontation”

UNITED NATIONS — The UN Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions on a defiant Iran on Wednesday over a nuclear program the West suspects is aimed at developing the means to build atom bombs.

The 15-nation council passed a resolution that was the product of five months of talks between the United States, Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia. With 12 votes in favor, it received the least support of the four Iran sanctions resolutions adopted since 2006.

The four Western powers had wanted much tougher measures — some targeting Iran’s energy sector — but Beijing and Moscow succeeded in diluting the steps outlined in the 10-page resolution.

“This council has risen to its responsibilities. Now Iran should choose a wiser course,” U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told the council after the vote.

Iran denies Western allegations that it is seeking nuclear weapons, insisting that its uranium enrichment program is for peaceful energy purposes only.

The resolution calls for measures against new Iranian banks abroad if a connection to the nuclear or missile programs is suspected, as well as vigilance over transactions with any Iranian bank, including the central bank.

It also expands a UN arms embargo against Tehran and blacklists three firms controlled by Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines and 15 belonging to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The resolution also calls for setting up a cargo inspection regime similar to one in place for North Korea.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Tuesday that individual states will likely move quickly to pass their own measures that go beyond the UN sanctions.

Annexed to the draft resolution is a list of 40 companies to be added to an existing UN blacklist of firms whose assets around the world are to be frozen on suspicion of aiding Iran’s nuclear or missile programs.

The new blacklist includes only one individual, Javad Rahiqi, head of an Iranian nuclear center where uranium is processed. His assets will also be blocked and he will face an international travel ban.

The focus of heated last-minute negotiations, the new blacklist that emerged on Tuesday morning contained 41 firms, including two banks. By the end of the day China had demanded the deletion of one bank, the Export Development Bank of Iran.

Brazil and Turkey voted against the resolution. Their UN envoys said before the vote that they saw no reason for more sanctions against Tehran.

Turkey and Brazil last month revived parts of a plan brokered by UN nuclear inspectors in October for Tehran to part with 1,200 kg (2,600 pounds) of low enriched uranium (LEU) return for special fuel rods for a medical research reactor.

They said the deal bolstered the case against sanctions. But the United States, Britain, France and Germany say the deal did nothing to change Tehran’s refusal to suspend uranium enrichment in defiance of five Security Council resolutions.

Lebanon had made clear it was unable to support the resolution because the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah is in the government. It abstained in the vote.

Iran’s LEU proposal also raised concerns, Russia, France and the United States said in a note to the U.N. watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency, diplomats said on Wednesday.

Iran had proposed to part with no more LEU — potential atomic bomb material if enriched to a very high purity level — than it did under the original October deal, even though its LEU stockpile had almost doubled since then, they said. Iran had also begun refining uranium to a higher level in February.

The first two Iran sanctions resolutions, adopted in 2006 and 2007, passed unanimously. The council approved a third set of sanctions in 2008 with 14 “Yes” votes and one abstention.

Three rounds of punitive measures aimed at Iran’s nuclear and missile industries have hit its economy hard but failed to persuade its leadership to halt its nuclear program or come to the negotiating table.

Instead, Iran continues to enrich uranium at increasingly higher levels, despite occasional hints of possible military action against its nuclear sites by Israel or Washington.

Iran’s U.N. ambassador, Mohammad Khazaee said on Tuesday that the push for sanctions showed that some “prefer confrontation” and Iran would react in an “appropriate” way.

Source | Alternative coverage 1 2 | See also under Militarization: Security company hired by RCMP for G20 not licensed in Ontario | Ottawa to spend $9-billion in sole-source deal for U.S. fighter jets | Security unit shows off G8 plans for Huntsville | How Somalia’s civil war became new front in battle against al-Qaida | America would send troops to G8/G20 if required | Construction begins on Toronto G20 security barrier | Freedom flotilla assault timeline unclear, Israel holding confiscated video evidence | Harper’s Privy Council message control system is unprecedented, critics say | Bilderberg Agenda Revealed: Globalists In Crisis, Supportive Of Attack On Iran | Israel’s seizure of Gaza aid boat Rachel Corrie sparks further condemnation | Obama secretly deploys US special forces to 75 countries across world | Autopsy: Gaza flotilla activists were shot in head at close range | Gaza flotilla activists unarmed: Canadian | Bilderberg 2010: The security lockdown begins | Australia recording features for facial recognition | CIA drone killings trouble UN rights expert | Toronto police show off G20 summit security | Mounties shun ‘sound cannons’ in urban settings ahead of G20 | Prospective G20 prison camp medics told patients may be faking | Gaza flotilla attack: British activists tell of abuse by Israelis | U.S. to Join South Korean Military Exercise Off North Korea Coast | Al Qaeda Number 3 Killed… Again | Lieberman Bill Gives Feds ‘Emergency’ Powers to Secure Civilian Nets | IDF: ‘Activists threw stun grenades’ | Israel to deport all detained aid flotilla activists by end of day | Ex-Mossad agent: Gaza flotilla raid ’so stupid it’s stupefying’ | Global arms spending tops $1.6T | 1,100 private security guards to work G8-G20 summits | Knesset member and eyewitness: Israel fired before boarding ship | Iran has ‘fuel for 2 nukes’: UN report | Israeli troops attack ship carrying aid to Gaza killing 16 | Israel rejects UN call to come clean on nuclear program | Options studied for a possible Pakistan strike by US | US acknowledges mistaken attack on Afghan civilians | MIddle East arms treaty a go despite US ‘deep regret’ over focus on Israeli nuclear arsenal | Police detail G20 security zone | Cyber Command: We Don’t Wanna Defend the Internet (We Just Might Have To) | Israeli navy prepares for action as activists’ flotilla nears Gaza | Infrastructure security plan unveiled | Pentagon: Let us monitor your network or else | Toronto Police to take up to $100-million of G20 security funds | Homegrown terrorist threat to be part of new US National Security Strategy | Toronto police buy four ’sound cannons’ for G20 | North Korea reacts angrily as Seoul’s navy holds military exercises off coast | Toronto and Muskoka G8/20 Summit security costs hit $1.1B | Obama sending 1,200 troops to Mexico border | North Korea to sever ties with South | US appoints first cyber warfare general | Disclosure of apartheid-era warhead negotiations with South Africa tip Israel’s nuclear hand | The Toronto G20 Police State Crackdown | Darpa’s Self-Learning Software Knows Who You Are | Toronto police agree to erase security zone pass info after G20 | Obama starts massive US Air-Sea-Marine build-up opposite Iran | Toronto streets get 77 more surveillance cameras for G20 | Canada’s navy cuts coast patrol fleet in half | NSA head confirmed as chief of US cyber command | US drone attack ‘kills Pakistan insurgents’ | Predator drones to begin flying Texas border patrol in a matter of months | Pentagon Turns to Brain Implants to Repair Damaged Minds | Keeping America Safe: SWAT Team Storms Family Home, Shoots Pet Dogs, Over Small Bag Of Marijuana | CIA Drones No Longer Need a Name to Kill | Fighter jets buzz Toronto, Muskoka in G20 test runs | Couple Arrested At U.S. Border For Asking Questions | RCMP unveil new stun gun rules: Verbal warning, imminent harm required | Downtown Toronto To Be Transformed Into Locked-Down Police State This Summer | Police State Canada 2010 and the G20 Summit | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Launch of secret US space ship masks even more secret launch of new space missile platform | Waterloo firm creates ‘flying robot spies from the skies’ for global law enforcement market | U.S. combat jets buzzing Ont. border city | ‘Vast’ biometric database prompts troops to open fire on vehicle, 4 unarmed Afghans killed | U.S. Troops Apologize For Wikileaks Massacre Video | Toronto police disclose Tasers often used on mentally ill | UN-led uranium deal still on table: Iran | Afghan torture allegations erupt in UK | Militarized police integrate with private security for G20 Toronto concourse drill | Danger Room What’s Next in National Security Prospective U.S. Cyber Commander Talks Terms of Digital Warfare | Pakistan air strike ‘kills 71 civilians’ | Canada knew in 2007 Kandahar governor tortured prisoners in dungeon, bombed UN personnel | White House approves assassination of cleric linked to Christmas bomb plot | Small army to protect Toronto during G20 summit | Feds mulling plan to turn Parliament Hill into high-security zone | Barack Obama to limit use of US nuclear weapons | Controversial use of mercenary forces surges in Afghanistan | Afghan tension mounts as NATO offensive looms | US Airline Security Moves to Known Threat Descriptive Profiling | Recent mass grave of the ‘disappeared’ uncovered in Columbia | Cop Cleared By Grand Jury For Tasering Great Grandmother During Speeding Stop | Officers suspended after using Taser on 10-year-old | Raid on ‘unheard of’ Hutaree militia puzzles small town | The prison spending boom | Full Afghan withdrawal ‘wrong,’ top Tory says | Ontario report rewrites stun gun rules, somewhat | FBI raids in Washtenaw, Lenawee counties tied to Michigan militia group | Massive fortress Ottawa in the works | UK: Police Taser use ‘doubled’ in third quarter of 2009 | U.S. to press for Canada to keep troops in Afghanistan | Russia claims breakthrough in historic nuclear reduction agreement with US | Toronto G20 summit security to be ‘massive’ | British military intelligence ‘ran renegade torture unit in Iraq’ | RCMP needs 5,500 rooms during G20 summit | U.S. cybersecurity bill introduced in Senate | Body scans eventually mandatory, TSA official says | Planned random DUI checkpoints a violation of rights | Secret Document Calls Wikileaks ‘Threat’ to U.S. Army | Defence Department official used private contractors for spy network in AfPak | Public Safety Canada announces national plan to centralize operations in state of emergency | While Government Treats Citizens As Terrorists, Mexican Military Invades U.S. | Chicago police expanding Taser use | Cyberattacks push CSIS to reach out to business | An American Detention Bill You Ought to Read More Carefully | Canada wanted Afghan prisoners tortured: lawyer | Military trials possible for Sept. 11 terror suspects | Fingerprints Now Required to Shred (That Means Skateboard, Dude) | United States weighs massive expansion of Internet monitoring | UK: Mobile fingerprint scanner for English and Welsh police | Plan to put more police on Toronto transit | 1 in 3 Killed by U.S. Drone Attacks In Pakistan Are Civilians | Israeli preparations for war with Iran troubling | Downtown Toronto to become a fortress for G20 summit | Pentagon Discloses Hundreds of Reports of Possibly Illegal Intelligence Activities | Australia to fingerprint, face-scan visitors from Muslim nations | G8/G20: Gearing up for the biggest security event in Canadian history | Toronto braces for G20 disruption, Ottawa to pick up security tab | The truth about the Mossad | Iran could be making nuclear warhead, says new director of IAEA | USA: Fourth Amendment Trashed As Airport Tyranny Hits The Streets | RCMP to test Taser cameras | Report: France ‘deliberately’ used soldiers as ‘nuclear guinea pigs’ | UK Police use spy drone for first domestic arrest – without airspace clearance | Global security to top agenda of G8 foreign ministers | Five civilians killed in Nato rocket attack in Afghanistan | NATO’s novel battle tactic spawns opposite effects as 12 civilians killed | Russia to push ahead on Iran missile deal | Obama Making Plans to Use Executive Power | NATO, Afghan troops launch largest air assault of Afghan war | Report: ‘US to expand military centers in Pakistan’ | Vancouver police shut down several blocks, shopping mall to blow up fishing rod | Marjah, Afghanistan: Countdown To A Battle | Future police: Meet the UK’s armed robot drones | Obama threatens actions against Iran over nuclear program | Troops Randomly Patrol Streets In Pittsburgh in Wake of Snowfall, Respond To “Domestic Disputes” | CFB Trenton commander charged with murder | UN sanctions urged over Iran’s uranium plans | Elite Toronto police squad stops and questions thousands | Pentagon Looks to Breed Immortal ‘Synthetic Organisms,’ Molecular Kill-Switch Included | US Interrogation Squad Doing ‘Scientific Research’ | Domestic threats biggest Olympic security concern: expert | Washington DC transit system holds anti-terror drills | Hitchens: North Korean’s stature, worldview stunted by authoritarian hate and ignorance | U.S. deploys land and sea-based missile shield in the Gulf to deter attack from Iran | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | UK: Tony Blair attempts to shift focus to Iran as ‘global threat’ at Iraq war inquiry | Winnipeg police caught on video beating man | Blair defends decision to join U.S. in Iraq | Crotch bomber bill before Congress: Treat all ‘terrorism suspects’ as enemy combatants. Domestically. | Toronto Star Columnist Fiorito: The cops came and took my gun | Pentagon to Send More Special Forces Troops to Yemen | Military probes beating of Afghan prisoner | Obama’s War for Oil in Colombia | Pentagon calls for ‘Office of Strategic Deception’ | British and US troops to launch new Afghanistan offensive | The War on Terrorism and the Countdown to the 2010 Olympics | General McChrystal indicates talks with Taliban to be discussed | UK police plan to use military-style spy drones | UK: Photographers protest over terror search laws | Texas Schoolkids Tagged With GPS Tracking Devices | No new Taliban crackdowns for 6 months, Pakistan says | Congressman Ron Paul: After ‘CIA coup,’ agency ‘runs military’ | Olympic surveillance cameras causing concern | BATF Notice Bans Private Gun Sales In Texas | Regina police probe RCMP torture claims | War resister released from U.S. prison | Yemen forces ‘kill Al-Qaeda chief’ | UK: Anti-terror stop and search policy ruled illegal by European human rights court | Obama Executive Order Stokes Martial Law Fears | A North American Security Perimeter Coming Into View | North Korea calls for peace treaty with US | ‘No intention’ to invade Yemen: Obama | US Domestic Espionage Alert: Spy Drone Discovered | American cash gives Yemen a reason to join the hunt for al-Qaeda | Canada no longer a haven for war resisters | Ex-Blackwater contractors charged with Afghan killings | Airport security starts in the parking lot | PM Harper downplays detainee torture scandal, prorogation | Suspected US drone ‘kills 12′ in Pakistan | Body scanners coming to Canadian airports | UK: Full-body scanners being ordered for airports, says Gordon Brown | Group slams Chertoff on conflict of interest in scanner promotion | Britain, U.S. to fund Yemen anti-terror unit | For more see The Memory Hole – Militarization

Related: Two men arrested at JFK, were attempting to find terror group to join | Obama secretly deploys US special forces to 75 countries across world | US drone ’shot down over Somalia’ | US Africom ‘has no hidden agenda’

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, The Guardian
June 7, 2010

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad reports from Mogadishu where presence of US drones reveals western anxiety over country’s conflict

On a side street off Mogadishu’s Wadnaha Road frontline a young officer is explaining the unwritten rules of the city’s intractable civil war as his men exchange fire with an unseen enemy.

The fighters shooting at him are from the Hizb al-Islam, he explains. He knows this because they fight longer than al-Shabab, the other main Islamist group besieging Somalia’s tiny government-held enclave, but also because they told him. “We have friends there. They tell us before they leave their base that they are going to attack. When they want to fire mortars they tell us so we can take cover.”

If the conflict that has turned Mogadishu into a virtual no-go zone for 19 years occasionally resembles a grim farce, there is nothing farcical about the scene around us.

Nearby lies an array of flip flops in different shapes and sizes and always in singles: blues, reds, purples, tiny plastic ones with flower designs and large leather ones attesting to previous skirmishes, advances and retreats. A jungle of trees and shrubs has taken over the deserted street so that the soldiers have to push the branches with their elbows and guns to make a path. Houses and shops are shattered, empty and riddled with bullet holes.

Somalia is the world’s invisible conflict, and perhaps its least comprehensible. Since January last year, when Ethiopia pulled out of the country, the Islamist government of Sharif Ahmed has been locked in an attritional struggle with al-Shabab, a more radical offshoot of the Islamic Courts movement, the alliance of tribal sharia courts which once controlled most of southern Somalia. The government is also under attack from Hizb al-Islam, many of whom fought alongside Ahmed against the Ethiopia.

Al-Shabab and Hizb al-Islam control most of Mogadishu and south and central Somalia, having squeezed the internationally backed government into a sliver of land defended by an African Union force. But it is hard to keep up with the shifting frontlines of this conflict: when I was in Mogadishu last May the government controlled all of Wadnaha and Factory roads, the main arteries that cross the city.

Soon after I left, the commanders and their troops in that area joined the opposition, and the government lost three miles of territory including the camps at the ministry of defence and the stadium.

When the warlord Yousuf Neda Adi switched sides again – this time rejoining the government with his troops – the government line stretched back and gained another few hundred metres. But Adi now believes the government may have been behind a recent assassination attempt against him.

But there is more at stake here than a few square miles of territory. Al-Shabab have established themselves as the Somali franchise of al-Qaida, aspiring to be named as al-Qaida in Somalia – just as with jihadi groups in Yemen and Morocco. They are imposing a regime of extreme sharia law on the areas they control that makes the Taliban seem moderate. Western security experts, Somalis living abroad and local fighters say the country is fast becoming the favoured destination for wannabe jihadis.

The addition of the whine of US drones to Mogadishu’s symphony of tank, mortar and machine gun fire is evidence of the deep anxiety the conflict is causing in Washington and other western capitals. As one minister told me over a breakfast of goat liver, bananas, papayas, chapattis and sweet milk tea: “For the first time in many years the international community is interested in Somalia, not because of our suffering but because of al-Qaida. The British and the Americans are interested in helping us because they see the anarchy in Mogadishu is hitting them back home.”

Beheading video

Abdey Qadir is a tall figure with small, sunken eyes and a thick beard that grows only under his chin, giving him the appearance of a fierce goat. He is an intelligence officer in the Amniyat or security division of al-Shabab.

We meet in a room on the government side of the frontline. He pulls a Chinese mobile phone from his pocket, fiddles for a bit, then holds it in his giant hands and shows me a grainy bluish film.

A man dressed in a white shirt and dark trousers is lying on his stomach on the ground. He is blindfolded with a black cloth, his arms tied behind his back. Another man is standing astride him, one foot pinning his shoulder to the ground. The victim’s feet shake but he is silent and his mouth is closed. There are trees around and the person who is filming shouts “Allahu akbar. Allahu akbar.” The “executioner” pulls the man’s short hair up, the head lifts, he stretches his right arm under his neck and starts cutting from left to right. In short fast moves, the knife moves up and down, in and out. The body shakes and a pool of blood flows calmly and gathers under the head. The executioner pulls the knife to the right and then goes back to the start and cuts deeper this time to separate the head.

The film stops and there is a thick cold silence in the room.

“We killed him because he was a spy,” Abdey says calmly. “We captured him trying to cross from the government lines.”

Qadir explains that the practice of beheading and removing limbs, for which al-Shabab have become notorious, has been an important element in establishing the group’s grip on large areas of the country.

“One of the reasons for our strong name is not only the war, it’s the strong fierce rule that is based on cutting heads as punishments for the crimes,” he says. “We have gained respect. We implement a strong rule that no one can deviate from which has also made us very popular with Arab and other mujahideen. We have courts all the time that implement sharia, but when we are in the middle of war and the fighter captures the traitors and the apostate soldiers of the government then we implement the sharia immediately and cut the head.”

Qadir tells me proudly that he doesn’t himself carry a gun.

“My duties are to bring news, watch the people who move weapons to the government side from the weapons markets and find the enemies of al-Shabab in our area … To kill people you don’t need a gun … Not always.”

I ask him why he fought a government that imposed sharia on Somalia and is led by one of their former allies in the Islamic courts movement. “According to our beliefs Somalia was never an Islamic country – it has to be liberated from the apostasy. After that we move to Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti … The resistance never stops at specific borders.”

Al-Shabab’s origins date to the mid-1990s when a group of militant jihadis split from the Itehad al-Islami, the main Islamist organisation at the time, in Somalia and later joined a loose alliance known as the Islamic courts.

The more militant elements in the alliance gave Ethiopia, ever nervous about the Islamist presence on its doorstep, the pretext to invade.

Ethiopia’s occupation was backed by the US but after a war of insurgency led by the courts alliance, the Ethiopians withdrew, handing security to the African Union.

In a clan-based society such as Somalia where it’s not uncommon to hear someone say of a close cousin: “We meet in the 10th grandfather” – or approximately 300 years ago – the militias are tribal; the forging and breaking of alliances happens according to tribal interests. Even the parliament is a tribal entity based on a sub-sub-clan representation.

Foot soldiers

Al-Shabab’s success – like other Islamist organisations – can partly be attributed to their “modern structure”, based more on merit rather than tribal loyalties. Beliefs, rituals and loyalty to the commander of the faithful replace the traditional loyalties.

Their foot soldiers are young men, radicalised by years of war, many from the marginalised tribes of the farming south that have been dominated for the past two decades by the strong pastoralist tribes. Their tribal elders can no longer offer any resemblance of respect.

“Most of the new recruits joining us now are the zealous young, their hearts are filled with passion and zeal, who can’t wait to face the enemy. They are 14, 15, 16,” said Qadir.

“They empower the young,” a writer in Mogadishu who lives in al-Shabab-controlled Bakara market told me. “They go to the young, give them power, the power to face that rotten structure of the tribe, power in the shape of a gun. Power as self esteem and belief … This is why they succeed. Now I am worried about my own young brother.”

With power, discipline and structure, al-Shabab managed to provide “security” to the local population, making it possible for people to safely leave their houses, go shopping, do business and, unlike government soldiers who are known to be little better than looters and criminals, their fighters enjoy a good reputation.

They also levy taxes from businesses and farmers and even local herders.

“We tax the people, the companies, the farmers and the herders. But we don’t use the word tax. Instead we use the term aid. We also control some ports and airports that give us revenues.

“The big money transfer companies we go to them once a month – they pay between ten thousand dollars and twenty during the war, at the time of peace few thousands only,” says Qadir.

Al-Shabab is in nominal alliance with Hizb al-Islam but they often clash with each other over control of “liberated” areas and a war of assassination is going on between the two parties. Recently they have started to outbid each other on radicalism. When Hizb banned radios in Mogadishu from broadcasting music, al-Shabab issued a statement a week later banning schools from ringing bells. After al-Shabab started getting support from al-Qaida in Yemen and other jihadi groups, Hizb called on Osama bin Laden to come to Mogadishu.

Foreign backing

Just as the government receives military and financial support from Ethiopia, Djibouti, the EU and US, al-Shabab also look abroad for money, weapons and fighters.

“The government takes support from the west so we take support from our brothers the muhajiroon – immigrants,” says Qadir. “Some are part of the fighting brigade, some don’t leave their hiding places. They work in manufacturing explosives and strategy and those are not seen.

“They are Asians, Yemenis and Arabs with American passports, but there are also many Africans – Kenyans, Tanzanians and Moroccans.” A large number of the muhajiroon arriving in Mogadishu are Somalis with western passports, he says. Some of them went on to become suicide bombers.

“We take films of the shelling and the bombing by the government and the African Union, and we show to the young in the diaspora and they come here enraged and passionate,” he says. “We have our supporters in America, Australia and in Europe. Their duty is to recruit men and bring them to Somalia. The young men, most of them haven’t seen war in their lives, go to military training for six months and then they fight.”

Another commander with Hezb al-Islam explains the dynamics of the different foreign fighters flocking to Somalia: “Most are from Africa – Nigerians, Sudanese and Zanzibaris. There are Arabs also, most of them Yemenis, and a few Asians. And there are the Somalis from Britain, Holland, Sweden and Norway.” Many of the foreigners have been trained and able to instruct Somali fighters and returning Somalis in tactics and first aid. “The foreigners, especially from Pakistan and Yemen, have a very high training. They also teach us how to make explosive belts how to plant time bombs in walls and under the floor.” Later a Hizb al-Islam commander tells me his group was also attracting fighters from abroad. “Now the foreigners coming are Arabs from Europe, from the US and from Yemen. They are very experienced fighters in directing mortar and artillery fire and very good snipers.

“The Somalis are better in open field attacks but the foreigners are better in sniping and artillery.”

Many things have changed in Mogadishu over the last year. Gone are the plastic chairs in the presidential office and in have come wooden chairs with leather padding. The air-conditioned office is by far the coldest place in Mogadishu; a sweater is needed to stop you from shivering, while outside the sweltering heat envelops everything and everyone.

Even the president looks happier. The trappings of power seem to suit him. He no longer carries the world-weary look I saw when he took office last year. His face slips easily into a confident smile. He wears a thin, gold watch encrusted with glittering gems.

But Ahmed, who was described by Hillary Clinton as “our best hope”, now rules only over a hilltop compound, the Villa Somalia, and a few adjacent streets. His government is on the verge of collapse, the parliament is split and infighting and corruption are paralysing the administration. Officers in the army say that they haven’t been paid for months, the soldiers say they have no food to eat, and a major arms dealer told me that senior officers sell him their newly supplied guns and ammunition.

“We have learned a lot in the past year,” says Ahmed, his fingers flipping the turquoise stones of a prayer bead as he speaks. “We don’t think just in terms of military offensives. We think about humanitarian services, of understanding the people and orienting them towards their sacred responsibility of their holy duty towards their government.”

Recruits

A few days after meeting him, I head back to the presidential compound to attend the army day ceremonies. On one side of the hall are dozens of newly trained recruits, all in uniforms and boots supplied by the foreign powers that trained them, from France to Sudan and Djibouti.

On the other side are officers – former officers from the army, militia commanders and warlords. In between are ministers, dignitaries and more warlords.

Thickset bodyguards in sunglasses lead the president into the room. A brass orchestra strikes up the national anthem and everyone stands. A thin and elderly officer, carrying a rusted ceremonial sword and wearing a peeling red helmet, goose steps to the front of the hall, saluting the president and the flag with his sword.

On the wall at the front a projector shows a film in sepia shades of a Somali army parade, men dressed in camouflage or beige uniforms marching in perfect rhythm, followed by tanks, trucks and artillery pieces, and planes passing in the sky, accompanied by the commentary of a deep-voiced man. The image moves from the parade ground to the stands to show the former president Siad Barre in dark sunglasses.

At this, the hall erupts in applause and cheers for the former dictator. The film was from the late 1970s, when Somalia had one of the strongest armies in Africa, explains one of the officers next to me.

After an hour of speeches and as the president takes the podium, I stand outside watching a scuffle break out among the newly trained soldiers over the scraps of leftover food from the dignitaries’ lunch inside. The Ugandan soldiers standing guard at the gate attempt to keep order but soon gave up.

Then a big explosion rocks the building. The insurgents have started shelling the Villa Somalia compound just as the president begins to speak. The soldiers keep fighting for the scraps of food but a Ugandan tank parked close to the hall starts firing back at the insurgents’ positions in the crowded markets of the city underneath. Six shells whoosh from the tank.

Eighteen people were killed and 64 injured from the shelling, I was told the next day when I went to Madina hospital. The director and the staff had spent the night in the operation room. “We did 35 operations during the night,” the director tells me.

Just another day in Mogadishu’s very uncivil war.

Source | See also under War: Karzai’s Afghan peace conference ends with agreement on Taliban amnesty | Afghan deployment past 2011 possible: MPs | Al Qaeda Number 3 Killed… Again | Options studied for a possible Pakistan strike by US | US acknowledges mistaken attack on Afghan civilians | North Korea reacts angrily as Seoul’s navy holds military exercises off coast | Obama starts massive US Air-Sea-Marine build-up opposite Iran | US claims Security Council backing for Iran sanctions | US drone attack ‘kills Pakistan insurgents’ | Taliban behind Times Square plot, says US AG Holder | ‘Vast’ biometric database prompts troops to open fire on vehicle, 4 unarmed Afghans killed | U.S. Troops Apologize For Wikileaks Massacre Video | Pakistan air strike ‘kills 71 civilians’ | US special forces ‘tried to cover-up’ botched Khataba raid in Afghanistan | WikiLeaks releases video of alleged U.S. helicopter attack on Reuters reporters | Afghan tension mounts as NATO offensive looms | British military intelligence ‘ran renegade torture unit in Iraq’ | Defence Department official used private contractors for spy network in AfPak | Canada wanted Afghan prisoners tortured: lawyer | The curse of Fallujah: Women warned not to have babies because of rise in birth defects since U.S. assault | 1 in 3 Killed by U.S. Drone Attacks In Pakistan Are Civilians | Finklestein: This Time We Went Too Far – Truth and Consequences in the Gaza Invasion | Israeli preparations for war with Iran troubling | NATO prepares for major Kandahar offensive, refugee camps | Afghan ministers voice anger as civilians killed in Nato air strike | White House welcomes Afghan Taliban No. 2 capture | Five civilians killed in Nato rocket attack in Afghanistan | NATO’s novel battle tactic spawns opposite effects as 12 civilians killed | NATO, Afghan troops launch largest air assault of Afghan war | Report: ‘US to expand military centers in Pakistan’ | Yemen reaches ceasefire with rebels | Marjah, Afghanistan: Countdown To A Battle | Obama threatens actions against Iran over nuclear program | UN sanctions urged over Iran’s uranium plans | U.S. deploys land and sea-based missile shield in the Gulf to deter attack from Iran | Israel denies Gaza war crimes in report to UN | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | UK: Tony Blair attempts to shift focus to Iran as ‘global threat’ at Iraq war inquiry | Blair defends decision to join U.S. in Iraq | UN in secret peace talks with Taliban | Pentagon to Send More Special Forces Troops to Yemen | Military probes beating of Afghan prisoner | Afghanistan conference agrees on exit timetable, Taliban bailout | Obama’s War for Oil in Colombia | British and US troops to launch new Afghanistan offensive | General McChrystal indicates talks with Taliban to be discussed | No new Taliban crackdowns for 6 months, Pakistan says | Congressman Ron Paul: After ‘CIA coup,’ agency ‘runs military’ | War resister released from U.S. prison | Yemen forces ‘kill Al-Qaeda chief’ | North Korea calls for peace treaty with US | ‘No intention’ to invade Yemen: Obama | American cash gives Yemen a reason to join the hunt for al-Qaeda | Canada no longer a haven for war resisters | Suspected US drone ‘kills 12′ in Pakistan | Britain, U.S. to fund Yemen anti-terror unit | For more see The Memory Hole – War