Syrian Soldiers Killed in Clash With Defectors

Associated Press
BEIRUT — Dozens of soldiers and security forces were gunned down by suspected army defectors in southern Syria, a deadly ambush that comes as President Bashar Assad increasingly appears unable to manage the crisis, activists said Tuesday.

Monday’s hours-long clash in the southern province of Daraa came on a particularly bloody day in Syria, with as many as 90 people killed across the country. The brazen attack by the army defectors suggested a new confidence among troops who have sided with the protesters and highlighted the potential for an armed confrontation to escalate.

The U.N. estimates the regime’s military crackdown on an 8-month-old uprising has killed 3,500 people in the past eight months. November is shaping up to be the bloodiest month of the revolt, with well over 300 people killed so far.

The latest death toll was compiled by sources including British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Local Coordination Committees activist coalition and morgue officials.

Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the observatory, confirmed that 34 soldiers were killed in an ambush in Daraa, the birthplace of the uprising that began in mid-March, inspired by successful revolts in Tunisia, Egypt and later Libya.

Although activists say the protests have remained largely peaceful, with demonstrators calling for the regime’s downfall, an armed insurgency has developed in recent months targeting Assad’s military and security forces.

Assad is facing the most severe challenge to his family’s four-decade rule in Syria, with former allies as well as Western nations using increasingly harsh rhetoric in urging him to stop his bloody crackdown. On Tuesday, Turkey said it no longer has confidence in the Syrian regime and warned Assad that his brutal crackdown threatens to place him on a list of leaders who “feed on blood.”

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s comments were a blow to Syria, because the countries once cultivated close ties. But Turkish leaders have grown increasingly frustrated with Damascus over its refusal to halt the attacks on protesters.

Adding to the blow, Turkey also on Tuesday canceled plans for joint oil exploration in Syria and threatened to cut electricity supplies after a spate of attacks on Ankara’s embassy in Damascus and consulates the cities of Aleppo and Latakia.

On Monday, Jordan’s King Abdullah II said Assad should step down for the good of his country, the first Arab leader to publicly make such a call.

That prompted pro-government protesters to converge on Jordan’s embassy in Damascus, with three of them scaling the fence and ripping down the Jordanian flag — the latest in a string of attacks on foreign missions. Jordan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Kayed said no one entered the embassy and no injuries occurred.

Monday’s bloodiest attacks were in Daraa province, along the Jordanian border, including the attack that killed 34 soldiers. According to the observatory, 12 defectors and 23 civilians also killed in the area.

A resident near the town of Khirbet Ghazaleh in Daraa province said he heard more than four hours of intense gunfire. He asked that his name not be used for fear of government reprisals.

Another witness, who is an activist in the area, said he counted the bodies of 12 people, believed to be civilians killed by security forces’ fire.

“I saw two army armored personnel carriers, totally burnt,” he told The Associated Press by telephone. He also asked for anonymity out of fear for his safety.

In the restive city of Homs, the morgue received 19 corpses, all of them shot.

Other activist groups had slightly different figures of those killed, a common occurrence because the Syrian government has prevented independent reporting and barred most foreign journalists.

Details gathered by activist groups and witnesses are key channels of information.

Syria’s crackdown has brought international condemnation, but Damascus generally had been spared broad reproach in the Arab world. That changed Saturday, with a near-unanimous vote by the 22-member Arab League to suspend Syria, and the situation appeared to be spiraling out of Assad’s control.

Earlier Monday, Syria struck back at its international critics, branding an Arab League decision to suspend its membership as “shameful and malicious” and accusing other Arabs of conspiring with the West to undermine the regime.

The sharp rebuke suggests Damascus fears the United States and its allies might use the rare

Arab consensus to press for tougher sanctions at the United Nations.
Assad says extremists pushing a foreign agenda to destabilize Syria are behind the unrest, not true reform-seekers aiming to open the country’s autocratic political system.

Syrian defectors protected by Turkey illustrate split between the countries

[The presence of Free Syrian Army troops in Turkey could be considered an act of war.  Turkey is walking the knife’s edge as America’s proxy in the Middle East.  In this persecution of Syria, as well as in the challenging of Israel’s interests in the Mediterranean, Turkey is doing exactly what America wants, while risking war with neighbors of comparable military strength, not including Israeli nuclear capabilities in this judgment.]

By RUTH SHERLOCK AND PATRICK J. MCDONNELL

Los Angeles Times

Published: November 2, 2011

ANTAKYA, Turkey — From his heavily guarded enclave inside Turkey, a leading Syrian defector says he is heading an armed rebellion against the regime of President Bashar Assad.

The brutality of the regime in Syria left him and others no choice but to switch sides, says Col. Riad Assad, leader of a force called the Free Syrian Army.

“We are the future army of a new Syria,” the colonel, who is not related to the president, said in an interview. “We are striking Assad’s regime and his army in many spots.”

The colonel’s boasts of strikes against Syria are impossible to verify, as is his contention that more than 10,000 Syrian soldiers had deserted and taken up arms against their nation.

But one thing is clear: The emergence of the armed defectors, enjoying Turkey’s apparent protection, is the most dramatic sign yet of Turkey’s abrupt split with its ally in Syria.

On Tuesday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan — who has assailed Syria for what he termed a brutal crackdown on protesters — hailed the resistance movement, reported the Turkish daily Zaman.

“I believe the Syrian people will be successful in their glorious resistance,” Erdogan declared at a party meeting.

Turkey plans to impose economic sanctions against Syria, Erdogan has said, joining the European Union and the United States. Turkey also has hosted members of a political opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Council, which was formed in Istanbul last month and demands the Syrian president’s ouster.

Longtime adversaries, Syria and Turkey in recent years had become close allies, cooperating in economic, military and other spheres, as a resurgent Turkey sought to bolster its standing as regional power.

But Damascus’ clamp-down on Syria’s Arab Spring-inspired protests has caused a deep rupture that has reshaped area geopolitics. Syria’s close ally, Iran, has voiced displeasure with Turkey’s new hostility toward Syria.

The presence of the Syrian Free Army inside Turkey has shone an international spotlight on the regional rift.

Col. Assad said in an interview Monday that his forces are conducting ambushes and other “high quality operations” against security forces “in cities across Syria.”

The group’s weapons, the colonel said, are limited to what fleeing soldiers can scrounge from the regular army. He acknowledges that the defector force lacks the military might to pose a threat to the Syrian army, with some 200,000 troops.

The appearance of armed rebels inside Syria has posed somewhat of a quandary for the Syrian opposition movement, which kicked off more than seven months ago with peaceful street demonstrations. Advocates insist the revolt remains non violent and continues to eschew armed insurgency.

Activists say armed rebels constitute a tiny minority of those opposing the regime. But some observers fear an increasing militarization of the conflict and a slide toward civil war.

The scenario in Syria remains in sharp contrast to what happened in Libya, where a military crackdown against protesters quickly evolved into an armed insurrection against the government of Moammar Gadhafi.

The Syrian uprising’s public face as a besieged protest movement has helped win it sympathy worldwide, including in Washington, where the Obama administration has called for Assad to step down. The United Nations estimates that more than 3,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed.

The Syrian government has blamed “armed groups” and “terrorists” for fomenting unrest in Syria and killing more than 1,000 security personnel. It has depicted defectors as traitors and denied reports from the opposition that military morale is low and that soldiers have refused orders to fire on civilians.

In September, Syrian television broadcast an interview with another high-ranking defector, Lt. Col. Hussein al-Harmoush, who retracted comments that the army had been forced to shoot at civilians.

Harmoush also had defected to Turkey. How he ended up on Syrian TV remains unclear. The Turkish government denied allegations by Syrian activists that Turkey handed Harmoush over to Syria.

Turkish authorities, who maintain that their role is humanitarian, have gone to considerable lengths to insure Col. Assad’s safety.

No journalists are allowed to enter the camp where Assad and fellow defectors reside. Any interviews must be arranged through the Turkish Foreign Ministry. A reporter in Antakya, the closest city to the camp, was only allowed to speak with the colonel by telephone.

In the interview, Assad declined to say whether his forces were conducting cross-border operations from Turkey. He appealed to the international community to impose a “no fly zone,” similar to what the North Atlantic Treaty Organization enforced over Libya. He also called for a “buffer zone” inside Syria that would provide protection for fleeing civilians _ and create a haven for his forces.

“We don’t have the ability to buy weapons, but we need to protect civilians inside Syria,” the colonel said.

NATO officials have said the alliance has no intention of intervening in Syria. Turkey, a NATO member, has not moved to create a buffer zone inside Syrian territory.

President Assad told the British Sunday Telegraph that Western action against his strategically situated nation would trigger an “earthquake” that would “burn the whole region” and possibly cause “another Afghanistan, or tens of Afghanistans.”

Special correspondent Sherlock reported from Antakya and Times staff writer McDonnell from Beirut.
___

Distributed by MCT Information Services

The Dominoes Are Falling In Europe

[Italy is taking France down with it.]

France draws fire after “alarm bells” warning

By Daniel Flynn and James Mackenzie

PARIS/ROME | Tue Nov 15, 2011 11:06am EST

PARIS/ROME (Reuters) – France came under heavy fire on global markets on Tuesday reflecting fears that the euro zone’s second biggest economy is being sucked into a spiraling debt crisis after a warning that Paris’s failure to adapt should be “ringing alarm bells”.

Nervous markets also showed concern about whether Italy’s Mario Monti and new Greek leader Lucas Papademos, unelected European technocrats without a domestic political base, can impose tough austerity measures and economic reform.

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has predicted the 17-nation currency bloc will be in a mild recession by the end of the year, a view underlined by data showing the economy barely grew in the third quarter and faces a sharp downturn.

“The risks of a technical recession have increased and we expect the economy in Germany to shrink at least in one quarter, most likely in the first quarter of next year,” said economist Michael Schroeder of German economic research institute ZEW.

On the markets, Italy’s 10-year bond yield rocketed back above 7 percent, pushing its borrowing costs to a level widely seen as unsustainable in the long term and which helped trigger the fall of Silvio Berlusconi’s government last week.

Spain’s Treasury paid yields not seen since 1997 to sell 12- and 18-month treasury bills.

French 10-year bond yields have risen around 50 basis points in the last week, pushing the spread over safe haven German bonds to a euro-era high of 173 basis points.

French banks are among the biggest holders of Italy’s 1.8 trillion euro public debt pile.

The urgency of resolving the debt crisis was underscored by a think-tank report saying triple-A rated France should also be “ringing euro zone alarm bells” as it could not make rapid adjustments to its economy.

In New York, U.S. stock index futures fell sharply on Tuesday morning after the rise in European bond yields, the drop caused by fears in the United States that Europe’s debt crisis was mushrooming into a wider systemic problem.

“THREAT TO THE WORLD”

President Barack Obama’s top economic adviser said the European debt crisis was the leading risk to the U.S. recovery.

“Clearly, Europe is a tremendous concern,” Alan Krueger, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, said.

“It is important they act quickly, because it is a threat not only to Europe and the U.S., but the world as a whole.”

But Greek conservatives set themselves on a collision course with the European Commission, refusing its demand to sign a pledge to meet the terms of a bailout designed to save the country from bankruptcy and safeguard the euro zone.

Members of the New Democracy party, a key player in Papademos’s new crisis coalition government, said they would not bow to “dictates from Brussels” to give a written guarantee to honor the bailout.

With the survival of the 17-state currency zone in its current form now at risk, EU governments have until a summit on December 9 to come up with a bolder and more convincing strategy, involving some form of massive, visible financial backing.

The debt crisis is likely to make matters worse in the next months with nations such as Italy, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain forced to adopt politically unpopular cuts to stop the bond market driving them toward default.

Economists say there is no visible growth strategy in place to counter those austerity measures.

After last week’s disastrous week for the euro zone’s third biggest economy, Italy’s Monti appeared to win a key breakthrough on Tuesday when Angelino Alfano, secretary of Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) party, emerged from the talks saying moves to form a government would succeed.

With the zone under intense scrutiny, Germany and France posted solid growth in the third quarter, statistics released on Tuesday showed, but euro zone nations on the front line of the debt crisis fared much worse and analysts expect bleaker times ahead in the core economies.

“THIS IS ALL HISTORY”

“The key point is that this is all history,” said Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics.

“Forward-looking indicators suggest that the euro-zone economy is likely to drop back into recession in the fourth quarter and beyond,” he said.

The entire euro zone economy grew just 0.2 percent in the third quarter from the second, lifted by France and Germany, but economists were resigned to the fact the bloc was almost certainly heading for a recession.

Stagnation in Spain, Belgium and a contraction in the Netherlands and Portugal appeared to signal that the worse was yet to come and a summer growth spurt was temporary.

Monti is racing to secure support from feuding politicians to allow his cabinet of experts to speed up reform of pensions, labor markets and business regulation needed to put Italy’s finances on a sustainable footing.

Italy has to refinance some 200 billion euros ($273 billion) of bonds by the end of April, a daunting prospect

Expected to seek a confidence vote by Friday, Monti has said that he aimed to serve until scheduled elections in 2013, not just until reforms had been pushed through.

Far-reaching reforms are seen as crucial if Italy is to end years of stagnant growth, trim a debt mountain equal to 120 percent of gross domestic product and avoid the sort of crisis that forced bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal.

In Athens, Papademos said late on Monday that Greece had no choice but to stay in the euro zone, telling lawmakers reforms were the only solution.

But conservatives on whom Papademos must rely for support demanded pro-growth policies and rejected any more cuts, fueling fears of a Greek default that may force Athens out of the currency group triggering a euro zone debt meltdown.

GREECE MUST SIGN

Austerity measures had deepened Greece’s recession but reforms — including widening the tax base and fighting rampant tax evasion — could mitigate the problem, said Papademos, who oversaw Greece’s entry to the euro zone in 2002.

But New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras said he would not vote for new austerity measures and he would not sign any pledge about new belt-tightening.

The European Commission issued a stark warning to Greece on Tuesday that it must provide written confirmation to its European partners of its commitment to reforms to bring down its debt, no matter who wins the next elections.

“The Eurogroup as a whole expects Greece, the Greek political forces, to provide a clear and unequivocal commitment to the agreement … and we expect this in writing. It has to be a letter and signed,” Commission spokesman on economic and monetary affairs Amadeu Altafaj told reporters.

Most Greeks hailed Papademos’s appointment, but thousands of people angry at more than a year of austerity are expected to rally on Thursday, the anniversary of a 1973 student uprising that helped to bring down the colonels’ junta of 1967-74.

(Additional reporting by Luke Baker in Brussels; Writing by Peter Millership; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Occupy Protests Pay Inevitable Price of Leaderless Resistance, or Revolution Without Vision

“Protesters have had two months to occupy the park with tents and sleeping bags,” he added. “Now they will have to occupy the space with the power of their arguments.”

[Occupy protest leaders have all known that the moment of truth for them would one day come, no matter how much they tried to imagine a different outcome to their efforts.  Taking a stand over the idea of “taking a stand” will solve nothing for us, except to raise the overall political temperature in this country, but that is not enough.  Until the idea crystallizes or germinates into something more than just general dissatisfaction over where the country and our world are heading, there will be no “American spring.”  Until the real patriots of this abused Nation learn to stand together, despite the things which divide them, for the one cause of saving our Republic, we will see every protest effort end with a whimper.  There is one idea which must win-out over all others, but no one has as yet come close to formulating it.  So far, all we have is questions, which have no answers.  The biggest question may be–who has dismembered American economy and industry, or, why do so many of us participate in wars for profit?  Any regular reader of these pages knows that I have no answers, only questions, but, in my opinion, until we agree on what we are taking a stand for, or why we resist, then all that any of us can do is to ask the questions that our media judiciously ignores–at least until we the questioners are silenced, as well.  Maybe that will be the signal that everyone is looking for, but more than likely, when the questioners are silenced there will nothing left but the deafening silence of the Long-Range Acoustical Devices that seem to integral to ending every ill-defined protest.]

Occupy protesters, police in standoff over New York camp

Mayor Bloomberg shuts Zuccotti Park as he reviews court order issued the morning after police cleared the park of protesters

Mary Altaffer  /  AP

A demonstrator yells at police officers as they order Occupy Wall Street protesters to leave Zuccotti Park, their longtime encampment in New York, early Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2011. AP Photo/Mary Altaffer

NEW YORK — Hours after police officers descended on Zuccotti Park in a surprise sweep of the Occupy Wall Street headquarters, protesters were locked in a standoff Tuesday morning with police over a court order that would allow them to return with their tents.

A hearing on the temporary restraining order, filed by a New York City judge, was scheduled for 11:30 a.m. ET.

In the meantime, however, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told reporters Tuesday that he had not received the order and that the park would remain closed “until we can clarify the situation,” he said.

Tuesday’s court order, which was published on The New York Times website, said authorities were prohibited from “preventing protesters from re-entering the park with tents and other property previously utilized.” But Bloomberg closed the park while lawyers reviewed the order.

Overnight, hundreds of police officers, some in riot gear, made dozens of arrests in Zuccotti Park.

Some protesters were chained to trees and each other but were nevertheless removed from the park, which was cleared in less than three hours in what appeared to be a highly coordinated action.

New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said there were about 70 arrests in the park, while NBC New York’s Jonathan Dienst, who was at the scene, reported that he had counted 40 arrests along Broadway.

A few protesters, who appeared to resist and shove officers, were thrown to the ground and placed in handcuffs, he reported.Melissa Russo of NBC New York reported that residents near Zuccotti Park were not being allowed out of buildings to watch the eviction and that police were telling doormen to lock up.

Ryan Peters, 29, from Chicago, who took a leave of absence from the advertising agency where he works to tour different Occupy protests, cried as he told msnbc.com’s Miranda Leitsinger that about 30 people had chained themselves up inside the Occupy protest’s kitchen area.

“People want to fight for something that’s really important,” he said. “It makes me cry every time I think of them (the people in the kitchen) getting locked down in the park … these guys are patriots.”

Another protester, Luc Baillargeon, 29, told Leitsinger that “a few” people were treated for pepper burns and minor lacerations but he added there were no apparent signs of serious injuries. NYPD told WNBC three people were injured during the evacuations, one of whom was taken to Bellevue Hospital.

Meanwhile, a message on the @OccupyWallSt Twitter account said that city council member Ydanis Rodriguez was “beaten by nypd and bleeding from head.”

John Minchillo  /  AP

Trash is piled high near Zuccotti Park, Occupy Wall Street’s longtime encampment in New York, during the cleanup effort early Tuesday. AP Photo/John Minchillo

Regrouping?
After being evicted, several hundred demonstrators regrouped in nearby Foley Square to discuss their next move, setting up a new Twitter account.

Nicholas Frechette, 25, said he had been pepper sprayed during the eviction but was undeterred.

“We broke the night together doing something truly revolutionary,” he said in Foley Square.

The police operation in the park — known by the demonstrators as Liberty Park or Liberty Square — comes just two days ahead of a massive planned demonstration Thursday marking the movement’s two-month anniversary.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg defended the move to evict the protesters and tear down their tent city.

“Unfortunately, the park was becoming a place where people came not to protest, but rather to break laws, and in some cases, to harm others,” Bloomberg said in a statement. “There have been reports of businesses being threatened and complaints about noise and unsanitary conditions that have seriously impacted the quality of life for residents and businesses in this now-thriving neighborhood.”

“Protesters have had two months to occupy the park with tents and sleeping bags,” he added. “Now they will have to occupy the space with the power of their arguments.” 

The highly coordinated manouevre prompted firebrand left-wing film-maker and activist Michael Moore to ask on Twitter whether President Obama or federal agencies had been involved in planning the clearance in New York and other Occupy camps in Portland, Ore., Denver and Oakland, Calif.

Letters to protesters
After the raid, thousands of dollars worth of computer and camera equipment, tents and sleeping bags could be seen piled in the center of the park by sanitation workers. Police said in a statement that the items would be brought to a sanitation garage where they could be collected later.

Police earlier handed out notices from Brookfield Office Properties, owner of Zuccotti Park, and the city saying that the park had to be cleared because it had become unsanitary and hazardous.

Justin Stone-Diaz, a member of the “Think Tank” policy group set up by the protestors, told msnbc.com that police had used a Long Range Acoustic Device — a powerful speaker that disperses crowds by producing an uncomfortable sound.

Story: Police dismantle Oakland camp, protesters on march

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Desperate Bid To Make Tar Sands’ Oil Look Good By Comparison To Inhuman Wahabbis

 

 

Obama prefers Saudi conflict oil

 

 

BY EZRA LEVANT ,QMI AGENCY

 

U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at his news conference at the conclusion of the APEC Summit in Honolulu, Hawaii November 13, 2011. REUTERS/Larry Downing

Barack Hussein Obama announced America’s new energy policy: He prefers Saudi conflict oil shipped in on tankers over Canadian ethical oil in a pipeline.

It’s a bizarre decision for the president of a country with 9% unemployment, that could use the thousands of well-paying jobs that will be created building the state-of-the-art pipeline.

It’s not just jobs and the property taxes that the pipeline will pay in perpetuity. It’s the energy security. There’s no risk of a Gadhafi-style revolution in Canada.

There’s no need to spend $1 billion on a Pentagon mission to secure Libyan conflict oil, with friendly Canada to the north.

But in some ways, Obama’s decision isn’t surprising. He has adamantly opposed drilling in northeast Alaska, though his own administration estimates that would provide an additional 800,000 barrels a day, almost as much as America imports from Saudi Arabia or Venezuela.

Obama doesn’t much like drilling in the Gulf of Mexico either ­­— his moratorium there caused many deep-water rigs to move to other countries, costing more than 100,000 lost jobs in states like Louisiana, jobs that won’t come back for years.

Who benefits from Obama’s refusal to use oil from North America? The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will. Those dictatorships are on track for $1 trillion in revenues for the first time in history.

But, as luck and geology would have it, we Canadians are sitting on top of the world’s third-largest proven oil reserves — 175 billion barrels, 99% of it in Canada’s oilsands. And over the past decade, the oilsands managed to push the Saudis out of top spot for the number one source of U.S. oil imports.

The Saudis obviously hate the oilsands. So do Hollywood B-list celebrities such as Daryl Hannah and Mark Ruffalo, who have tried to use this issue to change their airhead reputations.

Obama values the Saudis’ approval ­ and Hollywood’s political donations ­more than he values American energy security.

Canada will still have enough pipeline capacity to sell all our oil to the U.S. for the next few years, even without Keystone XL. But it’s simply prudent for Canada to consider what might happen if Obama does eke out another win next year.

The biggest market for oil these days isn’t America. It’s Asia. It’s China, India, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

There is a proposal, called the Northern Gateway, to pipe oil to the B.C. coast and ship it to Asia — 550,000 barrels a day.

That would put $20 billion a year in our pockets and could cut our trade deficit to China in half. It would be a strategic blunder for Canada not to speed up the approval of this pipeline.

But there’s another idea too. Did you know that Eastern Canada actually imports most of its oil? We sell our oilsands oil to the U.S., but Eastern Canada burns Saudi oil. Russian oil. Algerian oil. We’re an oil exporter, but we also import OPEC oil.

Let’s fix that. Let’s look at pipelines running from the west to the east.

Not built by any government fiat — we don’t need another National Energy Program telling us what to do.

But let’s at least permit it.

There is an MP who proposes doing just that. She’s not a conservative. But maybe you’ve heard of her: Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.

Both Versions of the Tajik/Uzbek Border Firefight In Fergana Valley

The border guards in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, staged a gunfight

Вставить в блог

On the border of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan on Monday night skirmish between troops of both countries, no one was hurt, said a senior source in the Main Border (hcp) of the State Committee of National Security (SCNS) in Tajikistan.

The incident occurred near the Uzbek city of Bekabad (Tashkent region) and near the Tajik city of Khujand, the checkpoint “Bekabad”, 400 kilometers north of Dushanbe, reports “Interfax” .

“A resident of Sughd Tajikistan attempted under cover of night to cross the border illegally in the direction of Uzbekistan, but Uzbekistan’s National Security Service soldiers saw him and opened fire,” – said the source.

Tajik border guards began to shoot in response to the air of wanting to distract their Uzbek counterparts.

“They were afraid for the life of the offender and, therefore, decided to do it this way” – the source said.

According to him, employees of the GPU SCNS Tajikistan themselves arrested the offender and handed him over to police. Most likely, the offender will be put on trial for attempted illegal crossing the state border.

“There is nothing forbidden – no weapons, no drugs – the offender is not found”, – said the source.

Another version of the hold state border guards Protection Committee (KOGG) National Security Service (SNB) of Uzbekistan.

According to Uzbek media, the offender was captured by them.

“In the attempt to break the state border of Uzbekistan, a group of drug traffickers from Tajikistan, was mortally wounded soldier Sgt. Tadjiev Uzbek National Security Service” – quote media representative KOGG NSC.

According to him, at the scene was found heroin weighing 3.8 kilos.

KOGG NSC claims that drug dealers maintained barrage fire Tajik border guards.

“We strongly protest against the actions of the Tajik border guards, which merge with the crime at the border, and call for a thorough investigation of this incident”, – emphasized in Uzbekistan.

Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are linked uneasy relationship. Flights between the two countries not in 1992, after independence, the two republics. In 2001, the first official Tashkent, Dushanbe and then introduced a visa regime between the two countries.

At 1283-kilometer Tajik-Uzbek border in 2001-2002, after the deterioration of relations between the two countries have been emplaced. Tashkent explained his actions a desire to protect its territory from the militants of illegal armed groups.

To get to the cities of Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, residents may only via third countries or by car through the checkpoints at the borders.

In Tajikistan, denied information on the smuggling of heroin in Uzbekistan

Dushanbe, November 15 – RIA Novosti, Lydia Isamova.Information about Uzbekistan’s border guards trying to smuggle 3.6 kilograms of heroin through the gate “Hashtiyak” (checkpoint on the Uzbek side, “Bekabad”) is not the case, said Tuesday the head of RIA Novosti press center of the Main frontier of the State Committee of National Security of Tajikistan Hushnud Rakhmatullayev.The representative of the State Border Protection Committee, the National Security Service (NSS KOGG Uzbekistan) said on Monday that on the part of the Uzbek-Tajik border in the vicinity of Bekabad (Tashkent region) on Sunday at 21.20 local time (20.20msk), Uzbek border guards foiled another attempt by a major transportation drug shipments to the territory of the republic. According to him, while trying to arrest a group of smugglers, soldiers of Border Troops Uzbek National Security Service came under fire from the Tajik border guards.As a result, mortally wounded soldier on the border troops contract Uzbek National Security Service sergeant Taji. At the scene found a large consignment of contraband, in particular – heroin weighing more than 3.8 kilograms, the official said KOGG Uzbek National Security Service.

“The drugs at the scene that took place November 13 at the frontier” Hashtiyak “(northern Tajikistan), was found”, – said Rakhmatullayev.

According to him, indeed that day took place on the smuggling, as from Tajikistan to Uzbekistan tried to smuggle a party appliances.

“Illegal crossing equipment was protected by Uzbek border guards, who entered the territory of Tajikistan,” – said Rakhmatullayev.

He noted that on 13 November, a group of armed Uzbek border guards, despite repeated shouts Tajik counterparts in Uzbek and Russian languages ​​and warning shots to have violated the state border.

“Tajik border guards were forced to open fire on, and their actions are entirely consistent with the requirements of the Charter of the Border country,” – said the head of the press center.

According to him, November 14 at the scene was pogranpredstavitelskaya meeting with representatives from the military prosecutor’s office in Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. “After inspecting the scene Uzbek officials have concluded that there had been smuggling appliances, organized a citizen of Uzbekistan, and no question about drugs was not” – said Rakhmatullayev.

He said that all the citizens of Tajikistan, involved in this incident of smuggling were detained, but in fact the incident under investigation.

In conclusion, the head of the press center said that it was not the first time that the Uzbek side falsely accuses border guards in Tajikistan to drug trafficking.

Tajik/Uzbek Border Post Firefight

[SEE:  New mini-Cold War Heating-Up In Southern Central Asia?]

New ‘post-Soviet war’ starts in Central Asia

Baku, Fineko/abc.az. The first war, after completion of civil war in Tajikistan, has begun in Central Asia. Yesterday, its first shots were heard at the border between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The Main Frontier Department of the State Committee of National Security of Tajikistan reports that checkpoint Bekabad in 400 km north of Dushanbe, a resident of Sogd region of Tajikistan attempted under cover of night to cross the border illegally in the direction of Uzbekistan, but Uzbekistan’s National Security Service soldiers saw him and opened fire. Tajik border guards began to shoot in response into the air wanting to distract their Uzbek counterparts.

They feared for the life of the offender and, that is why decided to do it this way. Tajik border guards detained the offender themselves and handed him over to police. The offender was found nothing illegal – neither weapons nor drugs.

Another version is brought by border guards of the Committee of State Border Guard of the National Security Service of Uzbekistan: in the course of the attempt to break through the state border of Uzbekistan by a group of traffickers from Tajikistan it was mortally wounded soldier Sgt. Tadjiev of the Uzbek National Security Service. At the scene of the incident it was discovered heroin with weight of 3.8 kg. Uzbek border guards claim that the drug dealers were protected by barrage fire of Tajik border guards.

“We strongly protest against the actions of the Tajik border guards, who merge with the crime at the border, and call for a thorough investigation of this incident,” it is stressed in Uzbekistan.

Uneasy relationships link Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Flights between the two countries has been lacking since 1992, after the two republics gained independence. In 2001 at first official Tashkent and then Dushanbe introduced visa regime between both countries. Antipersonnel mines were emplaced at 1,283 km Tajik-Uzbek border in 2001-2002, immediately after deterioration of relationships between the two countries. Tashkent explained its actions with a desire to protect its territory from the militants of illegal armed groups.

 

By Signing TAPI Contract Pakistan Binds Itself To Pacification of Afghanistan

[By its negotiations with India on trade and the signing of this contract with Turkmenistan, Pakistan is committing itself to becoming part of the solution, instead of the main problem in Afghanistan.  Pakistan has to have all the gas that it can obtain from Turkmenistan, just as it also needs the gas it can acquire from Iran, even though committing itself to the American solution for Afghanistan is agreeing to forget about Iranian gas.  Signing-on with Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and India for the pipeline deal is buying into the American solution, for at least the northern half of Afghanistan.  

The treachery and the greed have no end and that is exactly what keeps this latest Great Game going.]

Key milestone reached on TAPI gas pipeline

Published: November 14, 2011

Turkmenistan leader to discuss TAPI project which the US is pushing Pakistan to adopt instead of Iran’s gas pipeline. PHOTO: APP/FILE

ISLAMABAD: In a step towards materialisation of the $7.6 billion proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project, Pakistan and Turkmenistan initiated the Gas Sales and Purchase Agreement (GSPA) on Monday, which is likely to operationalise the multi-nation project by 2016.

The two countries signed a total of five agreements and memoranda of understanding (MoUs) at the Prime Minister’s House on Monday.

Visiting Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, who earlier held a meeting with President Asif Ali Zardari, witnessed the agreements’ signing ceremony along with Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani.

GSPA is a follow-up of the “inter-governmental agreement” (IGA) signed by President Zardari, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, President Berdimuhamedov and Indian Petroleum Minister Murli Deora in the capital of Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, on December 11, last year.

The agreement on gas sales purchase relating to the TAPI gas pipeline project was signed by Managing Director of Inter-State Gas System Mubeen Saulat and Chairman of Turkmenistan Gas Trade Concern Amanali Hanalyev.

What is the TAPI gas  pipeline project?

Under the proposed project, the 1,680 kilometre-long gas pipeline, backed by the Asian Development Bank, will bring 3.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day (bcfd) from Turkmenistan’s gas fields to Multan and end at the northwestern Indian town of Fazilka.

Under the agreement, Afghanistan’s share will be 500 million cubic feet per day (mmcfd), Pakistan’s share will be 1,325 mmcfd and India’s 1,325 mmcfd.

The demand for natural gas in Pakistan has increased by almost 10 per cent annually from 2000-01 to 2007-08, reaching around 3,774 mmcfd, against the total production of 3,200 mmcfd.

According to the petroleum ministry, the demand in 2008-09 soared to 4,731 mmcfd cubic while production was 4,528 mmcfd cubic, indicating a shortfall of 203 mmcfd.

The TAPI project was initially designed to provide Turkmen gas to Pakistan through Afghanistan in an agreement signed in Islamabad in May 2002, and was known as the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan pipeline project. India was invited to join in, in April 2008.

Pakistan’s cabinet gave approval to the Gas Pipeline Framework Agreement (GPFA) for the TAPI gas pipeline project in its meeting on October 27, 2010.

According to the initial plan, the gas pipeline was to run alongside the Herat-Kandahar Highway in Afghanistan and pass through Chaman, Zhob, DG Khan and Multan in Pakistan.

Turkmenistan has the fourth largest proven gas reserves in the world.

Zardari- Berdimuhamedov meeting

During the meeting between President Zardari and President Berdimuhamedov, the two sides agreed to start direct air-links. Briefing the media, Presidential Spokesperson Farhatullah Babar said that President Zardari expressed satisfaction over the current progress of the TAPI gas pipeline project and called for ‘early realisation’ of the project.

Babar added that the president also proposed that the two countries may enter into a currency swap agreement, preferential tariff arrangement and a free trade agreement to further enhance bilateral trade and investment ties.

The other four agreements and MoUs signed by the two sides were related to cooperation between the countries’ foreign ministries, agreement on cooperation between the Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) and the Turkmen News State Service, an MoU on cooperation between Pakistan’s Ministry of commerce and Ministry of Trade and Foreign Economic Relations of Turkmenistan and an MoU on cultural cooperation.

According to the PM House, during his meeting with Gilani, the Turkmen president said that his country was ready to export 1,000 MW of electricity to Pakistan, as well as gas from a newly discovered gas field, which shares geographical proximity with Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune

Bush Was Wrong To Call for Global Democratic-Revolution

Hyde Was Right, Bush Was Wrong

HUMAN EVENTS

by Terence P. Jeffrey

Events unfolding in the Middle East are proving that Henry Hyde​ was right and George Bush was wrong on the wisdom of a foreign policy focused on promoting democracy.

When Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice​ appeared in Hyde’s House International Relations Committee on Feb. 16, 2006, she presented written testimony touting Bush’s messianic policy.

“In his second inaugural address, President Bush laid out the vision that leads America into the world: ‘It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world,'” said Rice.

She pointed to Iraq and Afghanistan as evidence that Bush’s policy had sewn the seeds that would make freedom blossom across the Middle East.

“In December, over 12 million Iraqi people voted in free elections for a democratic government based on a constitution that Iraqis themselves wrote and adopted,” said Rice.

“Today, Afghanistan has a democratic constitution; an emerging free economy; and a growing, multi-ethnic army that is the pride of the Afghan people,” she said.

“The people of Iraq and Afghanistan,” she concluded, “are helping to lead the transformation of the Broader Middle East from despotism to democracy.”

Hyde, who chaired the committee, calmly poured cold water on this.

“It is a truism that power breeds arrogance,” he said. “A far greater danger, however, stems from the self-delusion that is the more certain companion.”

“To illustrate my point,” Hyde said, “let me focus on a school of thought that has gained increasing prominence in our national debate — namely, the assertion that our interests are best advanced by assigning a central place in the foreign policy of our nation to the worldwide promotion of democracy. I call this the Golden Theory.”

Hyde, who had commanded a landing craft when U.S. forces re-entered the Philippines in World War II, and who had been a key member of both the intelligence and international relations committees at the height of the Cold War, spoke with deep experience on national security issues. His rebuttal of the Golden Theory was devastating.

It was wrong, Hyde said, to liken efforts to implant democracy today in problematic regions of the globe with what happened in Europe and parts of East Asia after World War II.

Even in Europe, he said, the U.S. needed to invest “enormous resources toward enforcing order, removing barriers, reviving economies and a host of other unprecedented innovations.

“The resulting transformation is usually ascribed to the workings of democracy,” he said, “but it is due far more to the impact of the long-term U.S. presence.”

In East Asia, too, Hyde said, “stable democratic” governments were rare where the U.S. did not have an extended presence.

Hyde argued that those who thought democracy could be grafted onto any nation on earth did not understand how deep the roots of representative government must run in a culture.

“But democracy is more than a single election, or even a succession of them,” he said. “It is a way of life for a nation, embracing its life and institutions, and all of their complexity, and embraced in turn by its people and their actions, thoughts and beliefs.

“Viewed in its more compete historical context,” Hyde said, “implanting democracy in large areas would require that we possess an unbounded power and undertake an open-ended commitment of time and resources, which we cannot and will not do.”

In his second inaugural address, Bush had argued that his policy of promoting democracy was rooted in America’s religious understanding of the nature of man.

“America’s vital interests and our deepest beliefs are now one,” Bush said. “From the day of our founding, we have proclaimed that every man and woman on this earth has rights and dignity and matchless value, because they bear the image of the Maker of heaven and earth.”

This principle — articulated in our Declaration of Independence and based on an understanding of God and man that traces back to both classical philosophy and the Bible — is undoubtedly true. But the dominant cultural forces in the very lands Bush tried to fashion into democracies deny it.

Four years after Hyde rebutted the Golden Theory, the last Christian church was razed in Condoleezza Rice’s Afghan democracy. The State Department last month published a report on religious freedom there that said “two men were in detention for conversion to Christianity.”

In Iraq, according to State, the Christian population has been cut at least in half since 2003 — and is now no more than 600,000. Christians are fleeing a country where the government has failed to protect them from sectarian acts of persecution and murder.

The State Department also reports that in Iraq’s democracy it is a crime “subject to punishment by death” to express “moral support” for “Zionist organizations.”

Last month, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Ra’i of Lebanon warned that Syria might be headed for sectarian war. “This, then, is a genocide and not democracy and reform,” he said.

In Cairo two weeks ago, the Egyptian military killed about two dozen unarmed Coptic Christians participating in a demonstration to protest the destruction of a Christian church.

“We must also be cognizant of the fact that a broad and energetic promotion of democracy may produce not peace and stability, but revolution,” Hyde said back in 2006.

“History teaches that revolutions are very dangerous things, more often destructive than benign and uncontrollable by their very nature,” he said. “Upending established order based on theory is far more likely to produce chaos than shining uplands.”

---

Terence P. Jeffrey is the author of  Control Freaks: 7 Ways Liberals Plan to Ruin Your Life (Regnery, 2010.)

Israeli Penetration of Muslim Azerbaijan

Revealing Azerbaijan’s ties with the Zionist regime; beginning of crisis

Edited by Hatamzadeh Moqaddam, translated by Katia Peltekian 

Despite the lowering of the level of relations between the countries in the Central Asian region, the Caucasus, and Asia Minor, with the regime occupying Jerusalem, during the past few days the military officials of the Republic of Azerbaijan have spoken about extensive military relations between that country and the vile Zionist regime.

Although, in view of the conditions in the region and the intensification of anti-Zionist and anti-American feelings in the Middle East and Asia Minor, the government in Baku is trying to keep hidden the details of its military collaboration with the regimeoccupying Jerusalem, nevertheless, during the past few days a number of military officials of that country have unwillingly revealed some information regarding this issue.

Uzeir Jafarov, the head of the Military Studies Center of the Republican of Azerbaijan, in an interview with a media outlet affiliated with the Zionist regime, has spoken of the purchase of pilot-less aircraft [drones] from Israel. These aircraft are not capable of carrying missiles and can only be used for intelligence andmonitoring purposes.

Another military official of that country has also recently said that 30 percent of the parts and equipment for those aircraft are manufactured by “Azerbaijan’s Azad [Free] Systems,” while 70 percent of the parts of those aircraft will be built by Israeli companies and will be assembled in the territory of the Republican of Azerbaijan. The military officials of Ilham Aliyev’s regime have stressed that Israelplays a major role in modernizing the military, security, communication, and defense capabilities of the Republican ofAzerbaijan.

This is despite the fact that the Muslim people of that country are strongly opposed to any form of interaction between their country and that unbridled regime [Israel]. This is why government officials inBaku try hard to keep their relations with the Zionist regime hidden.

In view of all this, one can find the reasons for this situation in two issues:

1- The claims of the regime of the Republican of Azerbaijan regarding Karabakh, which is a source of disagreement with its neighboring country, Armenia, have always been condemned by internationalorganizations, including the Security Council, and Aliyev’s efforts in this regard have not produced any results. In view of the support of Israeli officials for the positions ofAzerbaijanon the issue, IlhamAliyev has leaned more towards that direction, so that by signing military contracts he can, in his view, achieve a more powerful position vis-a-visArmenia.

2- The second issue concerns a matter that is of great importance to the Zionist regime; namely, the Islamic Republic of Iran. Officials in Tel Aviv have always tried to establish close relations withIran’s neighbors and to incite them to create tension, to undermine the foreign policy of our country, and to portray the Islamic Republic to the international community as a country that is full of tension. Inview of the events that have taken place during the current year in the region, which resulted in Turkey,Egypt, and Tunisia breaking off relations with the regime, the Zionists have been drawn towards roguedictators such as Ilham Aliyev.

There is no doubt that the contentious action of that country in connection with martyring some border guards of our country and engaging in media propaganda following that incident have been carriedout as the result of Zionist incitement and are in line with the same goals.

In view of all this, one must say that as the result of the repeated failures of the regime occupying Jerusalem in its foreign policy and the heightening of public disgust towards that regime, Aliyev’sgovernment has engaged in a lose-lose game, whose evil consequences will affect Azerbaijan.

14.11.11, 09:28

Is Mossad Behind Three Massive, Lethal Ammo Dump Explosions In Four Months?

[Consider the two previous “mysterious” ammo dump explosions that have happened recently–(11 July)  Cyprus: Zygi naval base munitions blast kills 12 and five days before that (July 7) Blasts Hit Turkmenistan Town, Evacuation Ordered.  The Cyprus ammo dump explosion took place one day after the US backs Lebanon on the Mediterranean gas drilling dispute with Israel, while the Abadan blast took place later in the day after Turkmenistan rejected Israel’s diplomat nominee, claiming him to be a “Mossad spy.”  Three ammo dump explosions in just over four months–all potentially tied to Israel or Mossad.]

Intel Source: Israel Behind Deadly Explosion at Iran Missile Base

By Karl Vick / Jerusalem

Smoke rises from an explosion at a Revolutionary Guard ammunition depot outside Tehran, which, according to Iranian officials, killed at least 15 people on Nov. 12, 2011

AP

Israeli newspapers on Sunday were thick with innuendo, the front pages of the three largest dailies dominated by variations on the headline “Mysterious Explosion in Iranian Missile Base.” Turn the page, and the mystery is answered with a wink. “Who Is Responsible for Attacks on the Iranian Army?” asks Maariv, and the paper lists without further comment a half-dozen other violent setbacks to Iran’s nuclear and military nexus. For Israeli readers, the coy implication is that their own government was behind Saturday’s massive blast just outside Tehran. It is an assumption a Western intelligence source insists is correct: the Mossad — the Israeli agency charged with covert operations — did it. “Don’t believe the Iranians that it was an accident,” the official tells TIME, adding that other sabotage is being planned to impede the Iranian ability to develop and deliver a nuclear weapon. “There are more bullets in the magazine,” the official says.

The powerful blast or series of blasts — reports described an initial explosion followed by a much larger one — devastated a missile base in the gritty urban sprawl to the west of the Iranian capital. The base housed Shahab missiles, which, at their longest range, can reach Israel. Last week’s report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Iran had experimented with removing the conventional warhead on the Shahab-3 and replacing it with one that would hold a nuclear device. Iran says the explosion was an accident that came while troops were transferring ammunition out of the depot “toward the appropriate site.”(See why ties between the U.S. and Iran are under threat.)

The explosion killed at least 17 people, including Major General Hassan Moqqadam, described by Iranian state media as a pioneer in Iranian missile development and the Revolutionary Guard commander in charge of “ensuring self-sufficiency” in armaments, a challenging task in light of international sanctions.

Coming the weekend after the release of the unusually critical IAEA report, which laid out page upon page of evidence that Iran is moving toward a nuclear weapon, the blast naturally sharpened concern over Israel’s threat to launch airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Half the stories on the Tehran Times website on Sunday referenced the possibility of a military strike, most warning of dire repercussions.

But the incident also argued, maybe even augured, against an outright strike. If Israel — perhaps in concert with Washington and other allies — can continue to inflict damage to the Iranian nuclear effort through covert actions, the need diminishes for overt, incendiary moves like air strikes. The Stuxnet computer worm bollixed Iran’s centrifuges for months, wreaking havoc on the crucial process of uranium enrichment.

And in Sunday’s editions, the Hebrew press coyly listed what Yedioth Ahronoth called “Iran’s Mysterious Mishaps.” The tallies ran from the November 2007 explosion at a missile base south of Tehran to the October 2010 blast at a Shahab facility in southwestern Iran, to the assassinations of three Iranian scientists working in the nuclear program — two last year and one in July.(See photos of the semiofficial view of Iran.)

At the very least, the list burnishes the mystique of the Mossad, Israel’s overseas spy agency. Whatever the case-by-case reality, the popular notion that, through the Mossad, Israel knows everything and can reach anywhere is one of the most valuable assets available to a state whose entire doctrine of defense can be summed up in the word deterrence. But it doesn’t mean Israel is the only country with a foreign intelligence operation inside Iran. The most recent IAEA report included intelligence from 10 governments on details of the Iranian nuclear effort. And in previous interviews, Western security sources have indicated that U.S. and other Western intelligence agencies have partnered with Israel on covert operations inside Iran. Sometimes the partner brings specific expertise or access. In other cases, Iranian agents on the ground who might harbor misgivings about Israel are allowed to believe they are working only with another government altogether.

Saturday’s blast was so powerful it was felt 25 miles away in Tehran, and so loud that one nearby resident with combat experience thought he had just heard the detonation of an aerial bomb. “Frankly it did not sound like an arms depot from where I was because when one of those goes off, it is multiple explosions over minutes, even hours depending on the size of the facility,” the resident says. “All I heard was one big boom. I was sure from the quality of the noise that anyone in its immediate vicinity was dead. Something definitely happened, but I would not trust the [Revolutionary] Guards to be absolutely forthcoming as to what it was.”
— With reporting by Aaron J. Klein / Tel Aviv

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2099376,00.html#ixzz1dhR0ofmC

Taliban Spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid Answers His Phone, Even Though Isaf Claims To Have It and Him

Taliban Spokesman Denies Being Captured

By FAROUQ JAN MANGAL and ROD NORDLAND

KHOST, Afghanistan — A Taliban spokesman whose provocative and taunting media reports have often infuriated Afghan and Western officials firmly denied that he had been captured on Monday.

Reached on his usual cellphone number a few hours after Afghan officials announced his capture, the spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, angrily denied his arrest. “I am talking to you on the phone right now ,” he told an Afghan reporter who has frequently interviewed him in the past. “I am safe and sound and living in a safe place.”

The reporter said his voice matched that of the man who over the past year has been the spokesman for Taliban activities in eastern and northern Afghanistan.