 The Afghan government desperately needs to attain legitimacy from the recent poll to counter the effects of out-governing by the Taliban, a leading analyst says. Dr David Kilcullen, a former Australian army officer and adviser to former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, says the Taliban remain deeply unpopular, but the Afghan government is very corrupt. "I often ask Afghans 'if someone stole your goat or bicycle, who would you go to?' - they never say the police. They laugh at the idea of going to the police," Dr Kilcullen said in an address to the National Press Club. "They say the police would just beat you up for bothering them, but if you go to the Taliban, you will get it back - it might have blood on it, but you'll get it back." The counter-insurgency expert says what is needed from the recent poll is a legitimate government that Afghans believe has been fairly elected. "If you don't have a legitimate local Afghan government to support, then you don't have a counter-insurgency campaign," he said. "The most critical thing in the campaign right now is how this election plays out." Read more here,,,, Source: ABC Online 
 Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and
President Obama at the White House yesterdayBy Aaron Klein | Posted: August 18 JERUSALEM – The U.S. is seeking a deal that will set the final borders of a Palestinian state immediately and negotiate other issues, such as security and water, at a later date, according to a senior Egyptian official speaking to WND. The Egyptian official is in Washington alongside his country's president, Hosni Mubarak, who met with President Obama yesterday. The official spoke on condition his name be withheld since he was not authorized to discuss the subjects on the record yet. The Egyptian official said Obama stressed the U.S. is applying "huge" pressure for Israel to agree to a complete freeze of Jewish construction in the strategic West Bank and eastern Jerusalem. He said the U.S. is demanding a two-year freeze, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wants six months. The Egyptian official said the Palestinian Authority is seeking to use concessions from former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as a starting point in new talks with Netanyahu. Olmert reportedly offered the Palestinians not only 95 percent of the West Bank and peripheral eastern Jerusalem neighborhoods, but also other territories never before offered by any Israeli leader. The offer includes parts of the Israeli Negev desert as well as Beit Shean in the Jordan Valley just outside the Dead Sea. WND reported exclusively last November that then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice collected notes and documents from Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams to ensure the incoming U.S. administration would not need to start negotiations from scratch. PA sources said Rice's notes have already been used by Obama's team as the starting points for new Israeli-Palestinian talks. Documents noting agreements during previous Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have been used in subsequent talks, sometimes as starting points. According to both Israeli and PA sources, American officials took detailed notes of talks at U.S.-brokered negotiations at Camp David in 2000 and then used points of agreement on key issues, such as borders, during recent rounds of intense Israeli-Palestinian talks. Israeli and PA sources said Rice's notes document agreements that would seek an eventual major West Bank withdrawal and would grant the PA permission to open official institutions in Jerusalem. Source: WND
 January 17, 2009
ISRAEL is poised to call a unilateral halt to its 22-day-old offensive on Gaza after winning pledges from the US and Egypt.
The US and Egypt have agreed to help prevent arms smuggling into the Hamas-run enclave.
A senior government official said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet is expected to vote in favour of a proposal at a meeting Saturday night under which Israel would silence its guns even without a reciprocal agreement from the Palestinian group which has controlled Gaza since mid-2007.
Under the terms of the proposal, Israeli troops would remain inside the territory for an unspecified period, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity
The Jewish state expected Hamas to halt its attacks as well, the official said, but warned that "if it decides to open fire, we will not hesitate to respond and resume our offensive."
The security cabinet meeting comes amid intense international pressure on Israel to call a halt to the war which has killed more than 1,100 Palestinians, with the UN General Assembly on Friday demanding an immediate and durable ceasefire in the Gaza Strip leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
"The (Israeli) security cabinet is expected to vote in favour of a unilateral ceasefire at (Saturday's) meeting following the signing of the memorandum in Washington and significant progress made in Cairo," the government official said.
The breakthrough came after Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni signed an agreement in Washington with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice under which the United States would assist in preventing smuggling into Gaza, and a top envoy returned from talks with officials in Cairo.
"Olmert was satisfied with the results of the talks in Cairo, which answered Israel's basic requirements for a thorough answer to Israel's demands to halt rocket fire and an agreement on coordination between Israel and Egypt on the opening of the crossings" in Gaza, added the official.
However, although Olmert is in favour of the ceasefire, its approval is not certain as the security cabinet has shown previous divisions over the conduct of the war which was designed to put an end to rockets fired from Gaza.
Even as the stage was being set for a possible end to the Israeli offensive, in which at least 1,188 Palestinians have been killed, including 410 children, the military was staging a fresh wave of deadly strikes on the territory.
At least 55 Palestinians were killed on Friday, including at least 10 people who died when a tank shell slammed into their house in Gaza City during a funeral wake, according to Palestinian medics.
In the Jabaliya refugee camp in the north of the territory, three daughters and a niece of a Palestinian doctor working in Israel were killed in an Israeli air strike.
"They were girls, only girls. I want to know why they have they killed them. Who gave the order to fire?" the children's sobbing father Ezzedine Abu Eish said on Israeli television.
Palestinian militants meanwhile fired over 20 rockets and mortar rounds into southern Israel on Friday, wounding five people, the Israeli military said. Over 700 such projectiles have been fired since the start of the war.
Khaled Meshaal, the exiled head of Hamas's politburo, on Friday told Arab leaders meeting in Doha that the Islamist movement would not accept any ceasefire that did not provide for a full Israeli pullout and the opening of Gaza's borders, including into Egypt.
His deputy Mussa Abu Marzuk later told Al-Jazeera television that Hamas would not make any decisions regarding a unilateral Israel ceasefire until its delegation held a fresh round of talks with Cairo on Saturday.
Clamping down on the porous Gaza-Egypt border, where hundreds of underground tunnels form Hamas's main rear supply route, has been a key Israeli demand for ending the offensive that has also wounded around 5,285 people.
After signing the deal in Washington, Livni told Israeli television that smuggling weapons into Gaza was tantamount to firing at Israel.
"They continue doing this, Israel has the right to respond," she said.
Rice said she hoped the agreement, under which the United States and Israel will step up efforts to stamp out arms smuggling to Gaza, would advance efforts to secure a ceasefire.
She said she hoped for a "ceasefire very, very soon" but could not promise one would be sealed in time for January 20, when President George W. Bush hands the White House over to his successor, Barack Obama.
"We're working ... on as quick a timeline as we possibly can in support of the Egyptian mediation," she said.
The war in Gaza has drawn worldwide protests and raised fears of a humanitarian crisis in the impoverished territory of 1.5 million people, which has been under a crippling Israeli blockade for 18 months. Source: The Australian
 WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (AP) - (Kyodo)
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Friday signed a deal intended to halt Hamas militants' arms smuggling into Gaza in a bid to realize a cease-fire there.
The memorandum of understanding "provides a series of the steps that the U.S. and Israel will take to stem the flow of weapons and explosives into Gaza," Rice said. "The MOU we sign today is...a vital component for the cessation of hostilities," Livni added.
The signing of the deal in Washington came as Israel's offensive against Hamas continued, with Israeli airstrikes pounding the northern and southern sections of Gaza.
The deal, seen as a vital element in a broad international push to end the violence in Gaza, calls for curbing the smuggling of weapons into Gaza by boosting intelligence cooperation and border monitoring.
The Palestinian death toll from the Israeli air-and-ground offensive launched on Dec. 27 has increased to at least 1,138 and there were more than 5,100 wounded, Reuters news agency reported. Source: Breitbart
 January 09, 2009
THE UN Security Council has voted to call for an "immediate, durable" ceasefire in the Gaza Strip leading to the "full withdrawal" of Israeli forces, but the US has abstained.
Fourteen of the council's 15 members voted in favour of the compromise resolution worked out in three days of intense bargaining involving several Arab foreign ministers, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.
The US abstention vote cast by Dr Rice came as a surprise as diplomats indicated earlier that they expected the text to get unanimous support.
The text “stresses the urgency of and calls for an immediate, durable and fully respected ceasefire, leading to the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza”.
It “calls for the unimpeded provision and distribution throughout Gaza of humanitarian assistance, including of food, fuel and medical treatment” and welcomes initiatives aimed at “creating and opening humanitarian corridors and other mechanisms for the sustained delivery of humanitarian aid”.
Resolution 1860 also “condemns all violence and hostilities directed against civilians and all acts of terrorism” and urged member states to intensify efforts for arrangements and guarantees in Gaza “to sustain a durable ceasefire and calm, including to prevent illicit trafficking in arms and ammunition and to ensure the reopening of the crossing points (into Gaza)”.
It “welcomes the Egyptian initiative (the three-point truce proposal unveiled by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Tuesday) and other regional and international efforts that are under way”.
Mr Mubarak invited Israel and the Palestinians to Cairo for talks on conditions for a truce, on securing Gaza borders, reopening of its crossings and lifting the Israeli blockade on the Palestinian enclave.
The vote capped a day of high drama in which Arab ministers had threatened to press for a vote on their own draft.
US Arab ministers welcomed the adoption as they were under strong pressure from their public opinion to secure an immediate end to Israel's 13-day military onslaught in Gaza that has killed more than 760 Palestinians. Source: The Australian
 December 28, 2008
US president-elect Barack Obama is "monitoring" the deadly violence in the Gaza strip and spoke to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about the situation, his aides said.
Obama, who takes office on January 20, "is closely monitoring global events, including the situation in Gaza," said his chief national security spokesperson Brooke Anderson.
Anderson however emphasised that "there is one president at a time," a statement Obama has said often since he was elected on November 4.
Obama also spoke by phone with Rice for about eight minutes and "discussed the situations in Gaza and in South Asia," said an aide, speaking on condition of anonymity.
In a July interview with The New York Times, Obama said he didn't think that "any country would find it acceptable to have missiles raining down on the heads of their citizens," in reference to rockets fired from Gaza into Israel.
"If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that," Obama said. "And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."
As for talking with Hamas, the Islamist movement in control of Gaza, Obama said in the interview that it was "very hard to negotiate with a group that is not representative of a nation state, does not recognize your right to exist, has consistently used terror as a weapon, and is deeply influenced by other countries.''
Punishing Israeli air raids into the Gaza Strip, launched in retaliation for rocket fire, left at least 228 dead, in one of the bloodiest days of the decades-long Middle East conflict.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said "Operation Cast Lead'' against the Islamist movement, which has also left some 700 wounded, will continue "as long as necessary." Source: The Australian from Agence France-Presse
By Tabassum Zakaria in Crawford, Texas | December 28, 2008
THE United States has blamed the Islamist group Hamas for breaking a cease-fire and urged the Jewish state to avoid civilian casualties after Israeli air strikes killed more than 200 people in Gaza.
The United States put responsibility for ending the violence on the Palestinian group which controls the Gaza Strip and which Washington considers a terrorist organisation.
Israeli warplanes and combat helicopters pounded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in a campaign that Israeli officials said may last a long time.
President George W. Bush, on vacation at his Texas ranch, spoke with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice about the Middle East situation and she issued a statement blaming Hamas for the escalation in tensions.
"The United States strongly condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel and holds Hamas responsible for breaking the cease-fire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza," Ms Rice said.
"The cease-fire should be restored immediately," she said. "The United States calls on all concerned to address the urgent humanitarian needs of the innocent people of Gaza."
At least 205 people were killed in Gaza in the bloodiest one-day death toll in 60 years of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Militants in the Gaza Strip, who have launched dozens of rocket attacks against Israel since a truce expired just over a week ago, fired more salvoes that killed one Israeli man.
White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Hamas must cease rocket attacks into Israel for the violence to stop.
"Hamas must end its terrorist activities if it wishes to play a role in the future of the Palestinian people," Mr Johndroe said. "The United States urges Israel to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas in Gaza."
The Bush administration has typically taken the position that Israel has the right to defend itself. The United States is Israel's strongest ally.
Peace Process Stalled
Mr Bush had hoped to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal before leaving office and in November 2007 hosted a conference at Annapolis, Maryland, to relaunch talks aimed at reaching agreement on a Palestinian state by the end of this year.
But the Annapolis process stalled and all sides acknowledged that there was no chance for a peace deal before the Republican president leaves the White House on January 20 when Barack Obama will be inaugurated as the new president.
Mr Obama visited Israel and the occupied West Bank in July. In an apparent jab at Mr Bush's last-minute efforts to secure peace, Mr Obama pledged at the time not to "wait a few years into my term or my second term if I'm elected" to press for a deal.
There was no immediate comment on the Israeli air strikes from Mr Obama, who is vacationing with his family in Hawaii, or his staff.
Lasting Israeli-Palestinian peace has eluded efforts by many U.S. presidents and calming tensions in that region is another issue that the new Obama administration will have to grapple with when it takes over next month, along with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and a crumbling global economy.
The United States regards Hamas as a terrorist organisation and has worked to isolate the Islamist group since it won a Palestinian parliamentary election in January 2006.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned as "criminal" the Israeli air campaign and called for the international community to intervene.
The air strikes followed a decision by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's security cabinet to widen reprisals for cross-border Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel.
Source: The Australian
Bruce Loudon, South Asia correspondent | December 05, 2008  US intelligence agencies have determined that retired officers of the Pakistan army and Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency helped train the Islamic terrorists who attacked Mumbai.
The disclosure came as Washington yesterday sent the names of four former top officials of the ISI to the UN to be placed on a Security Council list of international terrorists.
Reports from Pakistan yesterday said the former ISI director-general Hamid Gul - appointed to the post when assassinated leader Benazir Bhutto was prime minister - had confirmed his name was included on the list the US had sent to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The US is calling on Pakistan to arrest and turn over to India at least some suspects in the Mumbai outrage, but Pakistan was unlikely to oblige amid escalating tensions between the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in New Delhi before travelling to Islamabad last night, pressed Pakistan to show "resolve and urgency" in finding those behind the assault.
A senior diplomat briefed on the US position said Washington was conveying a stronger and more specific message privately to Islamabad.
"The Indian Government is under a lot of pressure from their public for not doing more to prevent this attack ... and they need for their political purposes to point to something demonstratively that's been done," the diplomat told the Wall Street Journal. "An arrest by Pakistan is a big statement. Ideally there'd be some sort of extradition" to India.
But Pakistan has refused to hand over any of the 20 people demanded by India, citing a lack of an extradition treaty between the two nations.
India's Defence Minister,AK Antony, summoned army, navy and air force chiefs to an emergency meeting yesterday to warn them of intelligence showing that more terror attacks from the air and sea may be imminent.
At the same time, Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee again stressed that all options - including a possible cross-border military strike - remained open against Pakistan.
The submission of the names of the former officers of Pakistan's premier intelligence agency and the claims of ISI and army involvement in training the Mumbai terrorists are not directly related, but fan the tension over allegations of Pakistani involvement - by commission or omission - in the events leading to the Mumbai massacre last week, which left at least 173 people dead.
Reports yesterday said the Pakistani Government regarded the US move to include ISI officers on the list of international terrorists as "part of an international conspiracy to target the ISI".
The ISI, described as "a state within a state", has long-standing ties to the al-Qa'ida-linked Lashkar-e-Toiba (Army of the Pious) militants accused of being behind the attack, and the relationship is believed to continue despite the installation of a democratic government in Islamabad.
General Gul, who the US wants placed on the UN terror list, is fiercely anti-American and an outspoken supporter of the Taliban. He served as director of military intelligence under former military dictator Zia ul-Haq and was appointed to the top job in the ISI when Bhutto was prime minister in 1989. Last year, he was named by her as one of those responsible for the first, unsuccessful, attempt to kill her when she arrived home in Karachi after years of exile abroad.
A former US Department of Defence official said yesterday that American intelligence agencies had determined that former officers from Pakistan's army and the ISI helped train the Mumbai attackers. The New York Times said the official added that "no specific links had been uncovered yet between the terrorists and the Pakistani Government".
But India's charge against Pakistan is not that the new Government was directly involved in the attack but that it has not clamped down on rogue elements in the ISI and the army.
The Indian Foreign Minister said yesterday there was no doubt the terrorists had come from, and were co-ordinated, by Pakistan.
"What action will be taken bythe Government will depend on the response we have from thePakistan authorities," Mr Mukherjee said.
He said he had told Dr Rice "that there is no doubt the terrorists were individuals who came from Pakistan and whose controllers are in Pakistan".
Dr Rice delivered some cautionary words to India, warning any response to the attacks "needs to be judged by its effectiveness in prevention and also by not creating other, unintended consequences or difficulties". India has denied rumours it was massing troops at the border. Source: The Australian
 Rhys Blakely, Mumbai | December 04, 2008
INDIAN police interrogators are preparing to administer a "truth serum" on the sole Islamic militant captured during last week's terror attacks on Mumbai to settle once and for all the question of where he is from.
The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has urged Pakistan to cooperate "fully and transparently" with investigations into the Mumbai attacks.
The mystery of the man dubbed "the baby-faced gunman" has weighed heavily on India's relations with Pakistan as the nuclear-armed neighbours dispute each other's accounts of his origin.
Police interrogators in Mumbai told The Times that they have "verified" that Azam Amir Kasab, who was captured after a shoot-out in a Mumbai railway station on Wednesday night, is from Faridkot, a small village in Pakistan's impoverished south Punjab region. They say that the nine dead gunmen are also Pakistani.
Disputing that account, President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan told CNN last night: "We have not been given any tangible proof to say that he is definitely a Pakistani. I very much doubt it … that he is a Pakistani."
He added: "The gunmen plus the planners, whoever they are, (are) stateless actors who have been holding hostage the whole world."
Proof that the militants were Pakistani would rapidly escalate the pressure on Mr Zardari's government to take action or risk a backlash from allies including the United States.
Police interrogators in Mumbai told The Times that they are poised to settle the matter of Kasab's nationality through the use of "narcoanalysis" – a controversial technique, banned in most democracies, where the subject is injected with a truth serum.
The method was widely used by Western intelligence agencies during the Cold War, before it emerged that the drugs used – typically the barbiturate sodium pentothal – may induce hallucinations, delusions and psychotic manifestations
Mumbai police said that their evidence of a Pakistan link includes hand grenades manufactured in the city of Rawalpindi, in Pakistan, and satellite phone calls traced back to the country.
Deven Bharti, a deputy police commissioner in Mumbai and one of the interrogators, told The Times that Kasab had shown no remorse for his part in a terror attack that had killed nearly 200 people.
"He is a 24-year-old boy with the eyes of a killer," Mr Bharti said.
"Nobody should doubt: he is a highly-trained murderer. He has told us he came to Mumbai from Pakistan to cause maximum casualties." Source: The Australian
 October 24, 2008
PUERTO VALLARTA, Mexico: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has dismissed Iran's bid to stand up for Iraq as hypocritical, accusing it of cross-border meddling that has only harmed Iraqis.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said a draft US-Iraq security pact was aimed at keeping Iraq weak to help the US “pillage” the country.
Interior Minister Ali Kordan said Tehran opposed any document that threatened Iraqi interests.
“I think the Iraqis can defend their interests without the Iranians, thank you very much,” Rice told a press conference in Mexico when asked to comment on the remarks.
“That hasn't been the happiest relationship, ever,” Rice said during a visit to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
“What the Iranians were doing was arming special groups in the south who were killing innocent Iraqis. So frankly I don't take these comments very seriously,” said Rice, alongside Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa.
Rice then reiterated that “this is a good agreement,” referring to the security pact that has been the subject of months of difficult negotiations with the Iraqis.
“It's an agreement that both protects our armed forces and will allow them to continue to support the Iraqis as they consolidate the gains that they have made on the security side,” Rice said.
It is also “totally respectful of Iraqi sovereignty,” she added.
The draft deal to replace a UN mandate expiring this year calls for US combat forces to withdraw by the end of 2011 and includes US concessions on jurisdiction over its troops accused of “serious crimes” while off duty or off base.
Iraq's cabinet decided on Tuesday to seek certain revisions to the accord, triggering warnings from top US military and political figures about the risks of not agreeing a deal.
Rice said she had no update on the talks involving the agreement from US diplomats in Iraq, because she has been busy with talks with Espinosa, which have focused on drug-related crime as well as economic and trade issues.
During a meeting in Jordan with his counterparts from Iraq, Turkey and Gulf Arab countries, Kordan, Iran's interior minister, said: “Iran opposes any document that goes against the will of Iraqis and their leadership.
“Iran opposes any document that would threaten Iraq's interests,” Kordan said.
He did not elaborate, but was apparently referring to the draft security accord.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today the pact seeks to keep Iraq weak to help the US “pillage” the country.
The US has accused Iran of “undermining” the deal. Source: The Australian
 Deborah Haynes, Baghdad
October 08, 2008
THE US is preparing to hand control of Saddam Hussein's Republican Palace in Baghdad to the Iraqi Government in one of the most symbolic examples of the country's increasing sovereignty.
Plans are also under way to turn over swaths of the Green Zone, which surrounds the palace, to the Iraqi authorities, and Iraqi forces are expected to replace US troops at some checkpoints over the next year, according to sources inside the compound.
The plans emerged as two US leaders in Iraq, ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker and US General David Petraeus, were awarded for their work with engineering the success of the troop "surge" strategy.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice awarded the men the State Department's highest honour, The Distinguished Persons Award.
The transition is part of a process in which the Iraqi Government has taken full responsibility for security in 11 of its 18 provinces as its police and army become more competent.
The move also underscores a shift in the relationship between Iraq and the US, which is moving from being an occupying power to having a regular diplomatic presence.
A new US embassy building will be the biggest of its kind in the world.
The Republican Palace, a dust-coloured building with marble corridors and a blue dome on its roof, used to be the seat of Saddam's power.
After the 2003 invasion it became the headquarters of the US-led coalition authority that ruled Iraq, remaining under US control even after power was handed to the transitional Government in June 2004.
Thousands of US, British, Australian and other foreign diplomats, soldiers and contractors work in the palace.
Many people lived at the palace, crammed into caravans around the grounds.
"The move should be completed by the end of the year," US embassy spokeswoman Susan Ziadeh said.
"Plans are under way to transfer the property back to the Iraqi Government."
An Iraqi source said that it should happen next year. It is likely that the palace will be used by the office of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
A large US-led military presence is also based at the palace. It, too, must be relocated before the Iraqi authorities can move in. The US military declined to specify when this was due to happen.
In Washington, Dr Rice applauded Mr Crocker and General Petraeus, as she highlighted the "long road" in Iraq.
"It's been a very, very long road in Iraq. Harder, more difficult, and longer than we would have imagined. Certainly, harder, longer, and more difficult than I personally imagined at its outset," Dr Rice said.
"But that road has turned in a positive direction and the two people that we honour today ... these two people have been a very big part of that story."
Dr Rice described General Petraeus, who has been promoted to head of Central Command in the Middle East and has been replaced in Iraq by his former second in command Raymond Odierno, as "an intellectual warrior and a warrior intellectual".
Dr Rice said Mr Crocker was "a lion of America's foreign service". Source: The Australian
By Hossam Ezzedine
August 25, 2008 07:56pm
ISRAEL freed 198 Palestinian prisoners in a gesture to President Mahmoud Abbas as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was due in the region to spur US-backed peace talks.
Many of the detainees fell to their knees and kissed the soil as they were released outside the Israeli military detention centre at Ofer in the occupied West Bank today.
Crowds cheered and chanted Palestinian patriotic songs as the detainees were driven to the territory's political capital Ramallah for a lavish welcome at Abbas's headquarters.
The release took place just hours before Rice's scheduled arrival on her 18th visit in two years aimed at encouraging peace talks formally relaunched at a conference hosted by US President George W Bush in November.
"This is a day of joy for the fighters of freedom and independence,'' said Said al-Attaba, 56, the longest serving Palestinian prisoner who had been serving a life sentence since 1977 for killing an Israeli woman.
"It is like a wedding celebration for the Palestinian people, but our joy will not be complete until all Palestinian prisoners are released,'' he said by telephone, referring to the some 11,000 Palestinians still jailed in Israel.
Those released also included Mohammed Ibrahim Abu Ali, known as "Abu Ali Yatta'', who was jailed in 1979 for killing an Israeli student.
A member of Abbas's Fatah party, he was elected to parliament in 2006 while behind bars.
The release of Al-Attaba and Abu Ali was a rare and controversial exception to Israel's policy of not freeing those with "blood on their hands'', who have been implicated in deadly attacks against its citizens.
"This is a big day we have been awaiting for 32 years,'' said Attaba's sister Sanaa, who along with friends and family has been preparing a hero's welcome for her brother when he returns to his home in the West Bank city of Nablus.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed the release earlier this month, saying that it would bolster the Western-backed Abbas, whom he has met on a roughly fortnightly basis since the talks were formally relaunched.
"It is a gesture towards the Palestinian leadership to strengthen moderate and pragmatic forces,'' Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said.
"We hope it will contribute to a positive climate,'' he said. ``It is not easy to release prisoners, and particularly those who have been involved in murderous terrorist attacks.''
The Israeli High Court yesterday rejected a petition by relatives of attack victims who sought to block the release, saying it had not found any legal flaw that would justify its intervention in what it called a political decision.
Israel had earlier said it would release 199 prisoners, but one of those on the approved list remains in detention because of pending criminal charges.
The release is seen as a boost to Rice's efforts to push the two sides towards their stated goal of reaching a full peace agreement by early 2009.
They have made little tangible progress on resolving the core issues of the conflict, including final borders, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of the 4.6 million UN-registered Palestinian refugees.
The process has been marred by violence in and around the Gaza Strip, where the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in June 2007, and Israeli settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem.
Rice was last in Israel in mid-June, when she strongly criticised the expansion of the Jewish settlements, saying it undermined the peace process.
The latest visit will be Rice's first to the region since Olmert announced on July 30 that he will resign from his post to battle corruption allegations after his centrist Kadima party chooses a new leader in mid-September.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who has been leading Israel's negotiating team with the Palestinians, is a front-runner to replace him, as is Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz, a hawkish former general. Source: News.com.au via Agence France-Presse
 Baghdad
August 23, 2008 - 12:00AM
Negotiators have finalised a deal which will see the complete withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by 2011, ending an eight-year occupation, the top Iraqi heading the team said today.
Under the 27-point deal all US combat troops will be withdrawn from Iraqi cities by next June, said negotiator Mohammed al-Haj Hammoud.
The agreement has already been approved by US President George W Bush and now needs to be endorsed by Iraqi leaders, he added.
Baghdad and Washington had agreed to "withdraw the US troops from Iraq by end of 2011", said Mr Hammoud.
"The combat troops will withdraw from Iraqi cities by June 2009. Both the parties have agreed on this," he added. "The negotiators' job is done. Now it is up to the leaders."
The security pact will decide the future of US forces in Iraq once the present UN mandate, which provides the legal framework for the presence of foreign forces in Iraq, expires in December.
Mr Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki had agreed last November to formalise such an agreement by July 31.
The arrangement was delayed due to strong opposition from Iraqi leaders over key issues such as when US combat troops would withdraw from Iraq, how many bases Washington would retain and whether American troops would be immune from Iraqi laws.
Mr Hammoud said all issues had been addressed in the deal.
He added, however, that there was a possibility that US troops could leave before 2011 or remain beyond the target date.
"There is a provision that says the withdrawal could be done even before 2011 or extended beyond 2011 depending on the (security) situation," he said.
Mr Hammoud said that even if the withdrawal does take place by 2011, some US troops could remain "to train Iraqi security forces".
He said the issue of how many bases Washington would retain in Iraq depended on the number of troops left behind for training purposes.
"The number of US military bases would depend on the size and the needs of the troops," he said.
A number of committees would also look into offences committed by American troops in Iraq.
The immunity offered to American soldiers currently in Iraq had been one of the main sticking points in the negotiations which began in February.
In a surprise one-day visit to Iraq yesterday, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the two countries were "very, very close" to finalising the agreement but had not yet clinched the deal.
Mr Zebari, however, went a step further and said the text of the deal was ready.
"We are very close, we have a text, but not the final agreement. Everything has been addressed," Zebari said yesterday.
The deal has drawn sharp criticism from Iraq's political factions, especially from the anti-American group of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
Dr Rice said that Washington had been very "flexible" in the negotiations.
"The US has gone very far in this agreement, it is a very advanced agreement," she said.
Any deal would first have to be ratified by the Iraqi parliament and the veto-wielding presidency council.
The White House said yesterday that US lawmakers would not be asked to approve the pact.
"It's not a treaty, so it would not require Senate ratification or anything like that," spokesman Gordon Johndroe told reporters at Mr Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas.
With 144,000 American troops in Iraq, the issue is politically sensitive in Washington as the November US presidential election draws nearer. Source:The Age
WASHINGTON: The US, Israel and the Palestinians agreed in talks today to strive for a Middle East peace deal without any 'shortcuts', Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said. The parties also regarded Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's announced resignation as an internal matter that would not dampen negotiations for an Israeli-Palestinian agreement. “We will not opt for an option of partial agreements, shortcuts or anything short of a full agreement on all issues,” Mr Erekat told reporters after he and chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qorei held talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. There have been reports that Dr Rice, who is to travel to the Middle East next month, is anxious to get the two sides to agree on a document of understanding on some key issues, such as borders for a Palestinian state and the right of return of Palestinian refugees to Israel. Such a document was on the cards ahead of the UN General Assembly session in September, some reports suggested, amid growing pessimism about a peace breakthrough before President George W. Bush leaves the White House in January 2009. Without citing these reports, Mr Erekat said, “Let everybody understand that we are negotiating the issues of Jerusalem, borders, refugees, security, prisoners and water and we want to achieve an agreement on all issues or no agreement.” “And this was agreed” at the trilateral talks, he said. The Israelis and Palestinians committed to forging a comprehensive deal by the end of 2008 during a conference Mr Bush hosted in Annapolis, Maryland, in November. Dr Rice, who has criss-crossed the Middle East since then to forge the deal, described the talks today as “very fruitful”. She acknowledged the difficulty of achieving a peace deal by the end of the year as targeted, but she noted growing recognition that the Palestinian question should be resolved swiftly for regional security. “The Middle East is not going to get better without the creation of a Palestinian state to live side-by-side with Israel in peace, security and democracy,” she said yesterday. “It simply isn't going to get better. And so the question is, if not now, when?” she said. Source: The Australian
 By Monty Tayloe The U.S. State Department has left it up to Fairfax County whether to continue leasing county buildings to the Islamic Saudi Academy, a local Islamic school that has operated in Alexandria and Fairfax for more than 20 years. Textbooks used by ISA were recently found by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom to promote religious intolerance and violence. "The [State Department] has not objected to the [Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia] leasing the property in question for the Academy," reads the letter to Fairfax Board chairman Gerry Connolly on behalf of Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. Although the county board voted in May to renew the school's lease, they reconsidered after the allegations by the USCIRF were released. Since the school is leased through the Saudi Arabian government, Fairfax asked the State Department to weigh in, a request that agency has now denied. "No authorization from the Department to renew the lease is required," the federal response reads, putting the ball firmly in Fairfax County's court. As of press time, county supervisors had not indicated what their next step might be. Read more ...Source: Fairfax Times
 High school students in the Wahhabi-led school learn that "the Jews conspired against Islam" and Sunni Muslims should shun all Shia Muslims. They also are taught that killing an apostate or an adulterer is acceptable under Islamic law. And polytheists (defined elsewhere as Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews and even Shia and Sufi Muslims) likewise can be subject to death for their transgressions. It is troubling enough to consider such lessons being ingrained in the minds of teenagers in Riyadh and throughout the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. But the same textbooks are in use in Alexandria, Va., at the Islamic Saudi Academy (ISA), a report issued earlier in June by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) found. The school issued a statement disputing the findings as "erroneous," and claiming the commission used "mistranslated and misinterpreted texts, and references to textbooks that are no longer in use at the Academy." But this week, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, which leases property to the Saudi Academy, appealed to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice for guidance. According to a local news report, Fairfax County Chairman Gerry Connolly, who signed the letter, "offered a strong defense of the Islamic Saudi Academy and accused the school's critics of slander during a meeting last month in which the school's lease was" renewed. Read more ...Source: IPT News
Following are excerpts from an interview with Hamas Minister of Culture 'Atallah Abu Al-Subh, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on June 15, 2008. 'Atallah Abu Al-Subh: Assalam Alaykum and Allah's mercy and blessings upon you. In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate. May Allah give us the strength to confront all the satans, and first and foremost, Condoleezza Rice, who has come to the region for the sixth time since the conspiracy of Annapolis – the lie most dangerous to the Palestinian people in recent months. More ...Source: MEMRI'Atallah Abu Al-Subh
Latest recipient of the Distinguished Islamofascist Award
 By Robert Spencer
A reliable source has informed me that Condoleeza Rice has approved a new lexicon for State Department usage, absolutely forbidding the use of the terms "jihad" and "jihadist" by any State Department official.
The argument, of course, is the old Streusand/Guirard claim that by using the word jihad, we're validating the jihadist claim to be waging jihad. Of course, it's ridiculous to think that the U.S. State Department carries any validating authority within the Islamic world to determine what is Islam and what isn't. This would be the first time that unbelievers have set the meaning of Islamic theology for Muslims.
Also, the claim is that by using the word "jihad," we are insulting the peaceful Muslims who are waging the daily jihad of the struggle against sin, the struggle against the dirty dishes, etc. And that's great, if that's what any Muslim actually believes is the sum and substance of jihad, but it is an understanding of jihad that is at odds with the Qur'an, the Sunnah, and all the schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Will Muslims be insulted by a reference to other Muslims using the traditional primary meaning of jihad? Answer: probably. But that doesn't negate the traditional status of that meaning, or the influence of that traditional view in the Islamic world.
I will publish more information on this when possible. Source: Jihad WatchCondoleezza Rice
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
By Aaron Klein JERUSALEM - For at least the fourth time in recent months, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice referred to the Hamas terrorist organization as a "resistance" movement during unscripted remarks with reporters, WND has learned. This time, Rice was giving a free-ranging interview two weeks ago with the Washington Times when a reporter asked her about the wisdom of encouraging democracy in countries where radical Islamists could win elections, pointing as an example to Hamas, which won Palestinian elections two years ago. Rice replied: "It's, I would say, still a story-in-progress on Hamas, in particular, because I think there's plenty of evidence now that one reason that Hamas went back to their bad old ways and took over the Gaza and overthrew the legitimate Palestinian Authority institutions is that actually they were failing at governance, and it's easier to be a resistance movement than to be a governing movement." Read more ...Source: WND
 By Calvin Woodward WASHINGTON -- Former President Jimmy Carter said he feels "quite at ease" about meeting Hamas militants over the objections of Washington because the Palestinian group is essential to a future peace with Israel. Carter, interviewed Saturday for ABC News' "This Week," airing Sunday, also said he would oppose a U.S. Olympic boycott and hopes all countries will join in the Beijing games. He spoke from Katmandu, Nepal, where his team of observers from the Carter Center monitored an election that appeared likely to transform rule by royal dynasty into a democracy with former Maoist rebels in a strong position, judging by incomplete returns. Several State Department officials, including the secretary, Condoleezza Rice, criticized Carter's plans to talk in Syria this week with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in the first public contact in two years between a prominent American figure and the group. Carter said he had not heard the objections directly, although a State Department spokesman said earlier that a senior official from the department had called the former president. "I feel quite at ease in doing this," Carter said. "I think there's no doubt in anyone's mind that, if Israel is ever going to find peace with justice concerning the relationship with their next-door neighbors, the Palestinians, that Hamas will have to be included in the process." Read more ...Source: APDhimmi Carter
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
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