US: Pakistan-style truce in Afghanistan acceptable

[Dr. Shabbir]

By WhizNews

U.S. Secretary for Defense Robert Gates, center, is seen on his way to a media conference after a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Krakow, Southern Poland, Friday Feb. 20, 2009. Defense ministers are looking Friday at reforms to the alliance to help it meet modern threats, as well as the ambitions of Georgia and Ukraine, whose membership aspirations have deeply added to tensions with Russia.

US: Pakistan-style truce in Afghanistan acceptable

By SLOBODAN LEKIC

KRAKOW, Poland (AP) — U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that Washington could accept a political agreement between the Afghan government and Taliban rebels along the lines of a truce in neighboring Pakistan.

Gates' comments at the close of a NATO meeting contrasted with those of Richard Holbrooke, the new U.S. envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, who said this week that he was worried that the peace deal was tantamount to surrender by Pakistan.

On Monday, Pakistan announced it would agree to the imposition of Islamic law in the restive Swat valley in the northwest part of the country as part of an agreement aimed at restoring peace after an 18-month military campaign. The pact was spearheaded by a hard-line cleric who is negotiating with the Taliban in the valley to give up their arms.

Asked whether Washington would approve an agreement between the Kabul government and Taliban guerrillas along similar lines, Gates replied: "If there is a reconciliation, if insurgents are willing to put down their arms, if the reconciliation is essentially on the terms being offered by the government then I think we would be very open to that.

"We have said all along that ultimately some sort of political reconciliation has to be part of the long-term solution in Afghanistan," Gates said.

Afghanistan's government has said it wants to engage Taliban guerrillas who are not "hard-liners" to lay down their arms in return for a political role in the country. But representatives of the Taliban, who have made significant military gains in the last two years and now control vast swathes of countryside, say they will not negotiate while foreign troops remain in Afghanistan.

A similar deal in Swat last year collapsed in a few months and was blamed for giving insurgents time to regroup.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said at the defense meeting that a broader regional approach was needed to help put down the insurgency in Afghanistan. The focus would be on more involvement from Pakistan, but could include Iran one day, he said.

He said the suggestion does not mean that NATO plans to enter into dialogue with Iran immediately but that Tehran could be involved "at a certain stage ... in a regional approach toward Afghanistan."
U.S. Officials Outraged at U.N. Over Hamas Letter to Obama
Sen. John Kerry will not be visiting Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal during his trip to Syria Saturday and U.S. officials in Jerusalem are furious at the United Nations Relief and Works agency for its handling of the letter.
Saturday, February 21, 2009

FOXNews.com

U.S. officials are furious with the United Nations for its role in Hamas' attempt to enlist U.S. Sen John Kerry to transfer a letter from the Palestinian militant group to President Obama during Kerry's trip to the Middle East, an official source told FOX News.

The incident also has raised security concerns over how much Hamas knew about Kerry's travel plans.

Kerry turned the letter over to the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem on Friday, saying he was unaware that it was from Hamas until hearing about the letter in media reports, including on the BBC. He told FOX News on Saturday that he will not be visiting Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal during his trip to Syria on Saturday. He is scheduled to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad.

U.S. officials in Jerusalem are outraged at the United Nations Relief and Works agency for apparently handing the letter off to Kerry.

The official source who spoke to FOX News argued that if the U.N. had a letter from Hamas, it should have given U.S. officials a heads-up before the news was leaked to media organizations.

The Hamas official who wrote the letter confirmed to FOX News that he wrote Obama personally, asking him not to be biased toward Israel in its conflict with the Palestinians and to act fairly. He also said Hamas is ready to talk directly to a new American administration.

This Hamas official insists he had the backing of the group to write the letter, but it appears the official acted alone.

Kerry turned the letter over to the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem on Friday and his spokesman told FOX News that the Democratic senator was not aware that the letter was from Hamas when he accepted it from an official with the U.N. relief agency.

Kerry told FOX News that he never read the letter because it was sandwich among other promotional papers the U.N. gave him. A State Department official confirmed to FOX News that it was from Hamas and is now under review.

A potential concern was whether such a letter would violate the United States' policy toward Hamas. Obama has said his administration will not engage in diplomatic talks with Hamas unless the group renounces terrorism and affirms Israel's right to exist.

In addition, a U.S. official said there were security issues with the letter. The official who spoke to FOX News said there is concern that Hamas had advance notice that Kerry was visiting, which may raise issues of trust with the U.N. on future diplomatic trips.

FOX News' Reena Ninan and Nina Donaghy contributed to this report.
PA: US okays Hamas-Fatah government
JPost.com
Feb 22, 2009

The Obama administration has given the Palestinian Authority a "green light" to talk to Hamas about forming a Palestinian unity government, a PA official in Ramallah said over the weekend.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas...

PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh appeared together prior to the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip.
Photo: AP
Slideshow: Pictures of the week

The official said that Washington had also given Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak the go-ahead to resume his efforts to achieve reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah.

"The new administration has a different policy than that of [former US president] George W. Bush," the official told The Jerusalem Post. "The administration of President Barack Obama believes that a Hamas-Fatah government is good for stability."

Cairo has issued invitations to representatives of Hamas, Fatah and several other Palestinian groups to attend reconciliation talks that are due to begin in Cairo on Wednesday.

Fatah and Hamas officials confirmed that the Egyptians had invited them to the talks.

Hamas spokesman Mushir al-Masri said that for the talks to succeed, the PA must first release all "political prisoners" from its West Bank jails.

The talks were originally set for Sunday, but the Egyptians announced last week that they were postponing them following the failure of negotiations with Hamas and Israel over a new Gaza cease-fire agreement.

An attempt by the Egyptians to hold a similar conference in November failed because of PA President Mahmoud Abbas's refusal to free hundreds of Hamas detainees ahead of the talks.

Abbas, who visited Cairo last week, reportedly told Mubarak that he's prepared to patch up his differences with Hamas.

According one of his aides, Abbas urged the Egyptian president to set a new date for convening the Palestinian "national reconciliation" talks in Cairo.

At the conference, Hamas and Fatah are expected to form five joint committees to discuss ways of resolving their differences over issues such as control over the border crossings into the Gaza Strip, reconstructing the PA security forces and forming a new unity government.

Ahead of the planned parley, Hamas and Fatah representatives met in Cairo and Ramallah over the past two weeks in an attempt to agree on an agenda.

Fatah legislator Azam al-Ahmed, who has been participating in the talks with Hamas, said the results of the recent Israeli election, which saw the rise of right-wing parties, required the Palestinians to unite "in the face of the new challenges."

He also expressed optimism regarding the prospects of ending the Hamas-Fatah power struggle.

Another Fatah official, Ibrahim Abu al-Naja, said the fact that Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu has been tasked with forming the next government "proves that Israeli public opinion favors war and destruction."

In the wake of the "dangerous developments in Israel, the Palestinians must unite their ranks by forming a unity government," Naja said.

Meanwhile, Hamas leaders said over the weekend that Democratic Sen. John Kerry's visit to the Gaza Strip last Thursday signaled a change in US policy toward their movement.

"The visit is a move in the right direction," Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said. "We consider the visit as an indirect step aimed at ending the boycott of Hamas by the Americans and the international community."

Welcoming the apparent shift in US policy, the Hamas spokesman expressed hope that the Obama administration would "repair" the damage and injustice done to Hamas after it won the January 2006 election, when the Bush administration decided to boycott and impose sanctions on it.

However, he voiced disappointment over the fact that Kerry did not meet during his tour of the Gaza Strip with "representatives of the democratically elected government headed by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh."
British Muslims 'providing Taliban with electronic devices for roadside bombs'
British Muslims are providing the Taliban with electronic devices to make roadside bombs for use in attacks against British forces serving in southern Afghanistan, The Telegraph can disclose.
By Con Coughlin in Helmand
Last Updated: 12:16AM GMT 21 Feb 2009
British Muslims are providing the Taliban with electronic devices to make roadside bombs
British Muslims are providing the Taliban with electronic devices to make roadside bombs Photo: PA

The devices, which enable Taliban fighters to detonate roadside bombs by remote control, are either sent to sympathizers in the region, or carried by volunteers who fly to Pakistan and then make their way across the border.

Details of how British electronic components have been found in roadside bombs were given to David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, when he visited British troops at their military compound at Lashkagar, in Helmand province, earlier this week.

In a briefing on British operations in southern Afghanistan by Brigadier Gordon Messenger, the Royal Marine commander of the British battlegroup, Mr Miliband was shown examples of the crude, home-made devices that are being used in attacks against British patrols.

They included mobile phones filled with explosives, which could kill or seriously injure British soldiers patrolling on foot, and more sophisticated devices that can be used against military vehicles.

Explosives experts who have examined the devices say they have found British-made electronic components that enable Taliban insurgents to detonate their home-made, road-side bombs by remote control.

The electronic devices smuggled into Afghanistan from Britain range from basic remote control units that are normally used to fly model airplanes to more advanced components that enable insurgents to conduct attacks from up to a mile away from British patrols.

"We have found electronic components in devices used to target British troops that originally come from Britain," a British explosives officer told Mr Miliband during a detailed briefing on the type of improvised explosive device (IED) used against British forces.

When asked how the components had reached Afghanistan, the officer explained that they had either been sent from Britain, or physically brought to Afghanistan by British Muslims who had flown over.

The disclosure is the latest in a string of suggestions from British commanders about the connections between British Muslims and violence in Afghanistan.

In August, Brigadier Ed Butler, the former commander of UK forces in Afghanistan, told the Telegraph that there are "British passport holders" in the Taliban ranks. Other officers believe their soldiers have killed British Muslims fighting alongside the Taliban.

And last year, it was revealed that RAF Nimrod surveillance planes monitoring Taliban radio signals in Afghanistan had heard militants speaking with Yorkshire and Midlands accents

British commanders have recorded a significant rise in the use of IEDs during the past two years, partly the result of the success British forces have recorded in defeating the Taliban in conventional attacks.

"We've really hit the Taliban hard, and the only way they can respond is to rely more heavily on IEDs and similar weapons," said a British officer.

The number of IED attacks against British forces has risen from an average of 27 percent of attacks in 2007 to an estimated 55 percent so far this year. A significant proportion of the 145 British service personnel killed on active duty in Afghanistan have been killed by improvised roadside bombs.

British military officers say the devices used in Afghanistan are not as sophisticated as those used against British forces in Iraq, and that Taliban insurgents need to be able to physically monitor British patrols when carrying out attack.

Details of the British link to IEDs were provided to Mr Miliband during his 48-hour fact-finding mission to Afghanistan earlier this week where he met military and government officials to assess the level of progress being made by British and coalition forces as the current military deployment enters its fourth year.

British officials are expected to come under pressure from U.S. President Barack Obama to add to the 8,300 British service personnel currently serving in Afghanistan as Washington prepares to undertake a military surge similar to the one that was so successful in Iraq.

Mr Obama has already pledged to send an extra 17,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan this year, and he is now expected to pressure other Nato countries – including Britain – to follow suit.

The original 2001 Western invasion of Afghanistan was triggered by al-Qaeda's September 11 attacks on the US.

The Taliban regime in Kabul had sheltered the al-Qaeda leadership, which is now based in the lawless Afghan-Pakistan border region.

Some Western intelligence agencies believe Osama bin Laden's group is now able to operate largely freely in the area.

However, bin Laden is facing an ideological revolt by one of al-Qaeda's founding leaders who blames, blaming him for "every drop" of blood spilt in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, who goes by the nom de guerre Dr Fadl, helped bin Laden create al-Qaeda and then led an Islamist insurgency in Egypt in the 1990s. But after a change of heart, he has launched a public denunciation of the group.

His latest book, which has been serialised in newspapers across the Arab world, amounts to a frontal attack on al-Qaeda's ideology and on the personal failings of bin Laden and his Egyptian deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

CAIR: Calif. Synagogue Agrees to Invite Speaker on Islam

Screening of controversial film prompted Muslim request for balance

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Greater Los Angeles Area chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-LA) today said that a local synagogue that plans to screen a film claiming "confrontation between Islam and the Jews" has agreed to invite a Muslim representative who can offer a balancing perspective of interfaith understanding.

CAIR-LA's request for a balancing perspective was prompted by the February 22 screening of the film "Farewell Israel" at Congregation B'nai Emet in Simi Valley.

A web site promoting the film states: "The confrontation between Islam and the Jews began in the Prophet Muhammad's time, and continues to this day. Israel's existence recalls Islam's age old Jewish problem, first felt at Islam's inception in Medina in 624 AD: How can Islam thrive and find salvation if Jews are politically powerful? And it requires the same solution chosen by the Prophet Muhammad -- elimination of political independence of Jews and the domination of Islam over them."

SEE: Simi Valley Synagogue to Screen Film on Fundamentalist Islam

http://www.theacorn.com/news/2009/0212/faith/045.html

Farewell Israel

http://farewellisrael.com/

In a letter to CAIR-LA's request, Rabbi Michele Paskow wrote in part: "Thank you for your letter regarding our showing the film Farewell Israel. I appreciate your graciousness and concern. We are definitely interested in having a guest speaker to further our understanding of Islam."

The Muslim representative will speak at a separate event.

"Americans of all faiths have a responsibility to promote respectful dialogue and to avoid actions that will serve to create societal division and mistrust," said CAIR-LA Executive Director Hussam Ayloush. "We thank Congregation B'nai Emet and Rabbi Paskow for agreeing to have a representative of the California Muslim community to balance the inaccurate and inflammatory thesis put forward by this film."

CAIR, America's largest Islamic civil liberties group, has 35 offices and chapters nationwide and in Canada. Its mission is to enhance the understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.

CONTACT: CAIR-LA Communications Coordinator Munira Syeda, 714-776-1847, info@losangeles.cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-488-8787 or 202-744-7726, E-Mail: ihooper@cair.com; CAIR Communications Coordinator Amina Rubin, 202-488-8787, E-Mail: arubin@cair.com