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9286. Wombat - 12/5/2008 5:49:28 PM Lashkar and Al Qaeda were close a decade ago; there are plenty of reports of individuals going to train to join the former, and ending up in the latter.
I would question the viability of the links today. Lashkar has carried out coordinated attacks with a similar MO before in India (the attack on Parliament, for example). Pakistan has most likely never voluntarily provided training or sanctuary to Al Qaeda, they have certainly done both with Lashkar.
I would caution you against ignoring the proximate cause for the "big picture."
9287. alistairconnor - 12/8/2008 2:25:43 PM Good news from Pakistan :
Arrest of Zakiur ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the supreme commander of Lashkar-e-Taiba
It will be interesting to see how hard the Pak government can crack down on them, without generating a backlash from their own intelligence services. 9288. alistairconnor - 12/8/2008 4:23:32 PM Pakistan has most likely never voluntarily provided training or sanctuary to Al Qaeda, they have certainly done both with Lashkar.
Yes, but Lashkar and Al Q have certainly exchanged training and sanctuary. The transitive link to the ISI is not strong in an operational sense, but embarassing. Likewise, the transitive link between the ISI and the Mumbai atrocities.
Will this give the civilian politicians an opportunity to clean up the ISI? 9289. wonkers2 - 12/8/2008 5:49:47 PM Applying Bush's preemptive strike policy India has cause to attack or invade Pakistan. Fortunately, Obama will have an opportunity to deep six the Bush theory, if he's inclined to do so. My worry is that he's going along with the escalation of our original mission in Afghanistan which was to capture/kill Bin Laden into the impossible or at the very least long and costly task of subduing the Taliban and democratizing a barbaric country that doesn't want to be democratized or civilized by western standards, at least. 9290. wonkers2 - 12/12/2008 8:03:47 PM Bush Nuclear Deal with U.A.E. It sounds plausible on the surface to me. But I'm suspicious of nearly everything with Bush's name on it.??? Opinions?? 9291. vonKreedon - 12/12/2008 8:36:12 PM I share your suspicion of anything this administration does; if not outright corruption, there's the pervasive incompetence.
That being said, based on the information in the article, this looks like a smart move. The US is shown to be very cooperative and supportive of a Gulf Arab state developing nuclear energy when that state cheerfully accepts all the international safeguards one would wish to ensure that the technology does not migrate to weapon production. As the "senior U.S. official" says, "This is a real counterexample to what Iran is doing," said the senior U.S. official Thursday. "We're seeking commitments from nations within the Middle East that they're going to rely on the markets for nuclear fuel." This could work to further isolate Iran for its intransigence. 9292. wonkers2 - 12/12/2008 9:06:37 PM Our reactions were the same. Anybody else? There must be a downside!! 9293. robertjayb - 12/14/2008 12:41:35 AM AP has Mumbai gunman's confession...
Mohammed Ajmal Kasab's seven-page confession, given to police over repeated interrogations, offers chilling new details of the three-day rampage through India's commercial center that left 164 people plus nine gunmen dead.
9294. wonkers2 - 12/15/2008 6:03:32 PM Angela Merkel hasn't gotten the word on the causes and remedies for the crisis 9295. robertjayb - 12/18/2008 4:35:22 PM Brit Split...
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown rejected calls for an immediate inquiry into the Iraq war on Thursday and confirmed that Britain will start withdrawing troops from the country by the end of May.
Brown went before parliament to announce the end of Britain's involvement in the Iraq war, bringing an end to one of the most controversial episodes in recent British history.
"The fundamental change of mission will take place at the latest by May 31, 2009. At that point we will start a rapid withdrawal of our troops."
9296. wonkers2 - 12/18/2008 5:00:14 PM HOORAY! 9297. robertjayb - 12/18/2008 7:27:00 PM Oil Slides...
Crude oil for January delivery fell $2.14, or 5.3 percent, to $37.92 a barrel at 10:07 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures touched $37.71, the lowest since July 1, 2004. (Bloomberg)
9298. wonkers2 - 1/3/2009 5:04:28 PM Global Peace Index 9299. robertjayb - 1/6/2009 10:33:30 PM Israeli shelling kills 42 at school...(Reuters)
GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli shelling killed more than 40 Palestinians Tuesday at a U.N. school where civilians had taken shelter, medical officials said, in carnage likely to boost international pressure on Israel to halt a Gaza offensive.
.................................................
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry in the Gaza Strip, at least 631 Palestinians have been killed and more than 2,700 wounded since Israel began its offensive.
Ten Israelis, including three civilians hit by rocket fire, have been killed in the conflict. At least five rockets landed in Israel Tuesday, including one that hit the town of Gadera, 28 km (17 miles) from Tel Aviv. A three-month-old baby was hurt.
9300. vonKreedon - 1/8/2009 10:49:36 PM Can anyone identify the type of weapon being used in this image:
http://www.daylife.com/photo/05QtcaZe3O5A5
I've seen many instances of this on CNN, but I cannot figure out what it is. I'm hoping it's not cluster munitions. 9301. wabbit - 1/9/2009 1:17:18 AM It sure looks like a cluster bomb. 9302. vonKreedon - 1/9/2009 1:31:28 AM Not so much really. The cluster munition videos that I've seen don't show the white trail that are seen in the picture I linked and the CNN images I've watched. It sort of looks like White Phosphorus, but it seems more directed, the trails all immediately head down to the ground. And I can't figure out the purpose for air bursts of WP that far above the ground.
I've read, though I can't vouch for the veracity, that the Israelis started to produce their own cluster munitions because the ones they got from us had too high a dud ratio and because they weren't sure how long we'd keep supplying them. If so, perhaps their munitions emit a WP like trail? At any rate, I'm really curious and would like to get a positive ID on this munition. It's pretty distinctive. 9303. wabbit - 1/9/2009 2:44:07 AM I misspoke - cluster *munitions*, not cluster bombs, though bombs are shown in the linked video.
That is an interesting photo. Maybe WP is effective for producing smoke cover even from that height. There are a couple photos in these articles, none as striking as the one you found:
Israel fires artillery shells into Gaza
Israel rains fire on Gaza with phosphorus shells
No photos, but some description: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article5470047.ece 9304. vonKreedon - 1/9/2009 5:15:19 AM An unconventional use of WP as it does not look to me that it is providing particularly good smoke cover, but it does seem to be starting a lot of little fires and would certainly drive anyone under it indoors in a hurry. Thanks for the research wabbit. 9305. alistairconnor - 1/28/2009 11:14:18 AM I note with approval that Obama's first interview with foreign media was with Al Arabiya (a Dubai-based network, which has come to rival Al Jazeera in its outreach and quality of journalism).
It's mostly platitudes, but it's a start.
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