Photo Credit: Omar Sobhani/Reuters For the second time in less than a week, President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has picked a high-profile fight with his American allies, in the midst of a grand council that he convened to support a long-term security agreement with the United States.
American officials reacted with anger and exasperation on Saturday after Mr. Karzai publicly accused American Special Forces troops of killing civilians in a raid on an Afghan home; American officials said it was an Afghan-led raid that killed only insurgents.
Moreover, Mr. Karzai’s aides continued to insist that even if the council, or loya jirga, ratified the bilateral security agreement with the United States, Mr. Karzai would not sign it until next year, after a presidential election to choose his successor, but before he leaves office.
The remarks from the president’s camp left many people wondering why Mr. Karzai had convened a loya jirga, bringing to Kabul 2,500 Afghan notables from around the country, dismissing most employees from work for six days and locking down a city of five million so thoroughly that all roads to it were blocked for several days.
Even Mr. Karzai’s allies were at a loss to explain what he hoped to gain from the perplexing series of events around what was expected to be a straightforward deal. Mr. Karzai had earlier asked the Americans to delay signing the security agreement until a new president was elected, possibly allowing him to pass responsibility for the deal to his successor.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-11-24 01:16:142016-04-11 11:13:44Karzai Insists U.S. Forces Killed Civilians in a Raid
Photo Credit: AFP/Mark RalstonChina has tested its first stealth combat drone, state media said Friday, citing online photos of an aircraft resembling a shrunken US B2 bomber and hailing the advance toward Western-level technology.
The test flight of the “Sharp Sword” unmanned aircraft is another step in China’s years-long military build-up, with its defence spending now the second highest in the world and growing by double-digit percentages each year.
It comes weeks after Tokyo said a drone had flown near East China Sea islands claimed by both it and Beijing, ratcheting tensions between the rivals up another notch.
“The successful flight shows the nation has again narrowed the air-power disparity between itself and Western nations,” the China Daily newspaper said, adding the flight made China the “fourth power… capable of putting a stealth drone into the sky”.
Images posted online showed a sleek grey delta-wing aircraft apparently powered by a jet engine and resembling an American combat drone.
Photo Credit: APShakil Afridi, the hero Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA pinpoint Usama bin Laden’s compound ahead of the Navy SEAL raid that killed the Al Qaeda leader, has been charged with murder — for trying to save a little boy stricken with appendicitis six years ago, according to his attorney.
The bizarre charge comes as international pressure mounts on Pakistan to free Afridi, who was sentenced last year to 33 years in prison for “conspiring against the state,” a sanction western observers believe was a pretext to punish him for helping the U.S. Afridi executed a vaccination ruse that helped establish bin Laden’s presence in an Abbottabad compound, a development seen as embarrassing for Pakistan, which claimed not to know the world’s most wanted man was living openly a stone’s throw away from a military complex.
Attorney Samiullah Afridi said Friday that Shakil Afridi was charged with murder in the case of the unnamed boy, who after the doctor operated on him n 2007 in Pakistan’s Khyber tribal area. The boy’s mother filed a complaint against the doctor, saying he was not authorized to carry out the surgery because he was a physician, not a surgeon, according to The Associated Press.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-11-23 01:12:232016-04-11 11:13:46Hero Pakistani Doc Who Helped Get bin Laden Hit with Dubious Murder Charge
Photo Credit: State Department/TwitterNegotiations in Geneva over Iran’s nuclear program have “reached the final moment,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Hong Lei said Saturday.
Lei’s comment, communicated by Xinhua, came as Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi left Beijing to attend the talks.
Earlier Saturday, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle announced he would also fly to Geneva to attend the negotiations, on the heels of a US State Department announcement that US Secretary of State John Kerry would attend the talks.
Kerry’s wish to attend raised expectations that a deal to curb Tehran’s nuclear program could be in the works.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced late Friday that he was also flying to Geneva, and French diplomatic sources said Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius would join them.
California Man Pulled Off Plane in North Korea, Detained, Son Says
By Chelsea J. Carter, CNN
An 85-year-old American man on an organized tour of North Korea was pulled off a departing plane in Pyongyang just minutes before it was to depart, the man’s son told CNN on Wednesday.
The family has had no contact with Merrill Newman of Palo Alto, California, since he was detained on October 26, his son Jeff Newman said.
“This is a misunderstanding. My father is a (Korean War) veteran and wanted to see the country and culture he has been interested in for years,” Jeff Newman said. “He arranged this with a travel agent that was recommended and said was approved by the North Korean government for travel of foreigners. He had all the proper visas.”
The U.S. State Department is working to resolve the matter with North Korea’s top ally, China. Ambassador Glyn Davies, the U.S. Special Representative for North Korean Policy, met in Beijing for several hours on Thursday with his Chinese counterpart.
“We are working very hard … to try to move this issue along,” Davies said, following the session. “We certainly think that North Korea should think long and hard about (this) and understand that for the United States this is a matter of core concern for us.”
Read more from this story HERE.
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Photo Credit: GOH CHAI HIN/AFP/Getty U.S. Issues Harshest Travel Warning in 18 Years Against North Korea
by Max Fisher
The State Department has long cautioned Americans about visiting North Korea, but on Tuesday it went a big step further, issuing a blanket warning against all American travel to the country. This was the first such State Department warning since North Korea began allowing American tourists in 1995, immediately raising the question: why?
The travel warning cited, somewhat cryptically, “the risk of arbitrary arrest and detention of U.S. citizens in North Korea.” It noted that two Americans traveling on valid visas have been previously arrested. But neither of those was especially recent. Eddie Jun Yong-su was arrested in November 2010, allegedly for illegal missionary work, and released in March 2011. Kenneth Bae was arrested in November 2012 on similar charges and is still being held.
The travel warning does not explain what, if anything, has happened since last November that led the State Department to elevate its warning. A State Department spokesperson said that they could not comment due to U.S. privacy laws but emphasized that travel warnings of this severity are typically in response to “chronic” threats to U.S. citizens. Some early, unconfirmed reports are emerging that an elderly American man may have been detained.
A rising number of Americans visits North Korea every year on heavily orchestrated, state-monitored tours, a source of hard currency for the government there. The vast majority travel without incident. But, as NKNews.org editor Chad O’Carroll explained earlier today, the potentially lucrative business has attracted new tourist companies, some of which have little experience with North Korea’s complex and highly sensitive restrictions. A source in the North Korean tourism industry suggested to O’Carroll, “Tourists traveling with some of the newest companies could be more likely to unwillingly fall afoul of North Korean laws.”
A little before noon, U.S. Eastern Time, the San Jose Mercury News reported that an 85-year-old man from Palo Alto “has been detained in North Korea for more than three weeks” after North Korean authorities removed him from the plane that was to fly him out of the country. The report identifies the man as Merrill Newman, which is significant, as previously arrested Americans have been of Korean descent. The story also quotes a State Department spokesperson as declining to confirm or deny the story and saying only, “We are aware of reports that a U.S. citizen was detained in North Korea.”
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-11-21 03:13:272016-04-11 11:13:52U.S. Korean War Veteran Arrested in North Korea (+video)
Photo Credit: REUTERS/OMAR SOBHANIThe United States and Afghanistan reached a draft agreement on Wednesday laying out the terms under which U.S. troops may stay beyond 2014, one day before Afghan elders are to debate the issue.
A draft accord released by the Afghan government appears to meet U.S. demands on such controversial issues as whether U.S. troops would unilaterally conduct counterterrorism operations, enter Afghan homes or protect the country from outside attack.
Without the accord, Washington has warned it could withdraw its troops by the end of next year and leave Afghan forces to fight a Taliban-led insurgency without their help.
Thousands of Afghan dignitaries and elders are due to convene in a giant tent in the capital Kabul on Thursday to debate the fate of U.S. forces after a 2014 drawdown of a multinational NATO force.
“We have reached an agreement as to the final language of the bilateral security agreement that will be placed before the Loya Jirga tomorrow,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in the U.S. capital, referring to the gathering.
Photo Credit: Andrew Burton/ReutersWhile many Americans have been led to believe the war in Afghanistan will soon be over, a draft of a key U.S.-Afghan security deal obtained by NBC News shows the United States is prepared to maintain military outposts in Afghanistan for many years to come, and pay to support hundreds of thousands of Afghan security forces.
The wide-ranging document, still unsigned by the United States and Afghanistan, has the potential to commit thousands of American troops to Afghanistan and spend billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars.
The document outlines what appears to be the start of a new, open-ended military commitment in Afghanistan in the name of training and continuing to fight al-Qaeda. The war in Afghanistan doesn’t seem to be ending, but renewed under new, scaled-down U.S.-Afghan terms.
“The Parties acknowledge that continued U.S. military operations to defeat al-Qaeda and its affiliates may be appropriate and agree to continue their close cooperation and coordination toward that end,” the draft states.
The 25-page “Security and Defense Cooperation Agreement Between the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan” is a sweeping document, vague in places, highly specific in others, defining everything from the types of future missions U.S. troops would be allowed to conduct in Afghanistan, to the use of radios and the taxation of American soldiers and contractors.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-11-20 02:53:072016-04-11 11:13:57Endless Afghanistan? US-Afghan Agreement Would Keep Troops in Place and Funds Flowing, Perhaps Indefinitely
Photo Credit: Alamy A Colombian baby came back from the dead more than 10 hours after being sent to the morgue.
The tiny tot – now named Milagros (Miracles) – was born prematurely in Quibdo in the Pacific state of Choco in the early hours of Wednesday, November 13, last week.
Her mother Jenny Hurtado was just 27 weeks pregnant when she was rushed to the San Francisco de Asis hospital at 2:45am.
Medics performed a C-section but, unable to find signs of life, declared the newborn deceased just 35 minutes later – at 3:20am.
Taken to the morgue, the baby was placed inside a box. Staff then waited for her fisherman father to collect her.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2013-11-19 00:42:042016-04-11 11:14:03Newborn Baby in Colombia ‘Comes Back from the Dead’ More than 10 Hours after Being Sent to Morgue
Photo Credit: Yonatan SindelIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised French President Francois Hollande’s “courageous stance” against Iran on Sunday, an indirect jab at President Obama’s push for diplomatic talks.
Netanyahu called France a “true friend” of Israel as he greeted Hollande on his first official trip to the country. France demanded last week that a preliminary deal on Iran’s nuclear program be toughened, causing it to be rejected by Iran.
“Zionism was influenced by the values of the French Revolution,” Netanyahu told Hollande, according to Haaretz. “Israel sees France as a true friend. France, like Israel, aspires for a stable Middle East that lives in peace and security.”
He told members of his Cabinet that he hoped Hollande’s visit could stiffen the resolve of other countries negotiating with Iran. Talks with Iran are being led by the permanent members of the Security Council – the U.S., France, Great Britain, China and Russia – plus Germany.
Photo Credit: AP/Ariel SchalitVisiting French President Francois Hollande vowed to maintain his country’s tough stance in upcoming nuclear talks with Iran this week, earning praise from his Israeli hosts Sunday as he began a three-day visit to the Jewish state.
Israel has repeatedly voiced concern that the emerging deal global powers are negotiating with Iran gives it too much, without guaranteeing that the Islamic Republic’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon is eliminated.
Hollande vowed to keep up pressure on Iran and not make any concessions regarding nuclear proliferation.
“If there hadn’t been sanctions, if they hadn’t been enforced, it’s clear that we would never even have had the words from Iran — and I don’t yet speak of actions — that we had in the last few weeks,” he said In a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We have a duty to resolve this problem that has been under discussions for too many years because Iran for too long has participated in discussions without taking actions.”
Netanyahu has been outspoken in his opposition to a potential deal in which the international community would ease some sanctions on Iran in exchange for some curbs on Iran’s nuclear program. The countries fear that Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon, a charge Iran denies.
