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POPSSaudi Royal Air Force carries strikes against Yemeni rebels
The same dynamic has played out in various forms in Lebanon, where Iran supports the Shiite militant Hezbollah and Saudi Arabia favors a U.S.-backed faction, and in Iraq, where Saudi Arabia and Iran have thrown support to conflicting sides in the Sunni-Shiite struggle. A top Saudi government adviser confirmed "a large scale" military operation underway on the Saudi-Yemeni border with further reinforcements sent to the rugged, mountainous area. "It is a sustained operation which aims to finish this problem on our border," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. He said Saudi troops were coordinating with Yemen's army, but Yemen's defense ministry denied the Saudis were inside the country. The northern rebels, known as Hawthis, have been battling Yemeni government forces the past few months in the latest flare-up of a sporadic five-year conflict. They claim their needs are ignored by a Yemeni government that is increasingly allied wit
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POPSGay in Iraq The first comment in response to this article : webparent, Tulsa (8/17/2009 7:29:30 AM) "While I do not agree with such measures I also do not agree with homosexuality......these Sunni's are following the way of the curan and the bible. Maybe people should reconsider not being gay. Whether its their choice or not is irrelevant. They can make a change. If nothing else they can be celibate. It is not the natural way of life nor is it in god's will. I and others will pray that this torture stops and new choices are made." Read more at source...
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POPSIraqi Puppet Government Falling Apart? The U.S. supported government of Nouri al-Maliki appears to be facing a serious challenge, couple with proposals to ask U.S. troops to leave a year earlier than already agreed upon. Maybe it's some consolation to know that you can murder hundreds of thousands of people in a war started with deliberate lies, but it can't last forever. This Bush, neo-con created house of cards will fall. It's just a question of when.
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POPSHuman Rights Watch condemns gay 'social cleansing' in Iraq This makes me sick what they are doing to these innocent men.... I cannot believe the news some days - it makes me want to crawl back into bed. How is it that people are so evil to do these things to innocent people? This is equivalent to what Hitler did to gay men...he tortured them....
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POPSHard-Line Force Extends Grip Over a Splintered Iran “It is not a theocracy anymore,” said Rasool Nafisi, an expert in Iranian affairs and a co-author of an exhaustive study of the corps for the RAND Corporation. “It is a regular military security government with a facade of a Shiite clerical system.” The corps has become a vast military-based conglomerate, with control of Iran’s missile batteries, oversight of its nuclear program and a multibillion-dollar business empire reaching into nearly every sector of the economy. It runs laser eye-surgery clinics, manufactures cars, builds roads and bridges, develops gas and oil fields and controls black-market smuggling, experts say. Its fortune and its sense of entitlement have reportedly grown under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Since 2005, when he took office, companies affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards have been awarded more than 750 government contracts in construction and oil and gas projects, Iranian press reports document.
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POPSU.S. frees 5 Iranian diplomats held since 2007 Two and a half years in prison without any charges being filed, without any evidence being presented, without any rights to a lawyer, no chance to defend yourself from accusations, all contact with family, friends, your own government or agencies like the Red Cross cut off No clearing of their name. This is classic injustice, another example of USA hypocrisy and cruelty, phony face and double-standards. Why all the concern on the media about Iranian election results and almost zero coverage about USA violations of its own principles? The answer, of course, is strong forces of neocon conservatives, warmongering Republicans and Zionist extremist are once against pushing for war against Iran.
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POPSObama Reaches Out To Apartheid Regime Purging Jewish Families From Yemen the Palestinian and Israeli, stopping building settlements and his confession of the Palestinians' rights and that security of Israeli is linked to a just solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Less high on Yemen's list: closing the terrorist camps that their intelligence services use for political ends, up to and including the targeting of domestic opponents: Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh faces crises on many fronts. A southern populist uprising in the six governorates of the former PDRY has taken on separatist overtones. At the same time, the northern Saada war with Zaidi Shiite rebels may erupt for the sixth time since 2004. As a result, Saleh has embarked on a strategy of empowering Islamic militants who, in exchange, have been given a free hand over some local populations. At least those camps don't then become safe havens for international terrorism. Think how awkward that would be.
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POPSHundreds stage anti-US rally in Pakistan Hundreds of people staged rally against the United States in the Pakistani eastern city of Lahore on Sunday and the speakers urged the government to quit the so-called US-led coalition.
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POPSSomali mosque mortar attack sees toll hit 39 A mortar shell hit a mosque in the Somali capital Mogadishu, killing at least 14 people and raising to 39 the death toll from fighting between Islamist and government forces that flared up on Thursday.
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POPSBahraini Shias petitions king to change naturalization policies Islamic Shias, leftists, and Pan-Arab groups hope to have between 250 to 300 prominent figures sign their names over the next 10 days to an appeal to King Sheikh Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa calling for an end of what they called an alleged "political naturalization" scheme by forces in the government.
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POPSIraq insists on US leaving cities by June 30 Iraq's government Monday ruled out allowing U.S. combat troops to remain in Iraqi cities after the June 30 deadline for their withdrawal, despite concern that Iraqi forces cannot cope with the security challenge following a resurgence of bombings in recent weeks.
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POPSOil prices stall Iraq security Oil prices should be fixed at $4-5 gallon to ensure that there is sufficient investment in alternative energy. That would be political suicide...
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POPSIraq Elections Marked by Voter Apathy The piece continues: "There was a mood of apathy before the elections," said Ali al Adeeb a Shiite legislator from Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's party. "Many asked themselves what is the good? Why should we vote and for what? The enthusiasm came as the elections got closer." This represents a drop from 76% in 2005 to 51% Saturday. It's bad news that they're already reaching American levels of voter apathy, since it means that democracy isn't seen as all that effective. High voter turn out should continue in a young democracy, until the populace begins to take it for granted. The piece cites the ongoing occupation as well, suggesting that people see the government as a puppet regime.
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POPSYemen To Train Freed Gitmo Terrorists The center would accommodate the inmates and their families, the paper said, citing well-informed official sources. A Saudi man released from Guantanamo after spending nearly six years inside the U.S. prison camp is now the No. 2 of Yemen's al-Qaida branch.
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POPSAttack on Iran would threaten U.S. army in Iraq Cont... To this happy picture, a Likud government in Israel that looks likely to be elected to power in the general election of Feb. 10 might add a war with Syria and an open U.S. break with Pakistan, driven by Pakistani popular anger at the United States for its alliance with a Likud-led Israel under the direction of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. That would cut the main U.S. supply line for the war in Afghanistan over Pakistan-controlled air space -- again forcing a withdrawal.
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POPSObama Victory Alters the Tenor of Iraqi Politics Over all, however, there was a new tone of optimism. “The atmosphere is positive with the American attempt to preserve the sovereignty of the Iraqi nation,” the government’s spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, told the news channel Al Arabiya. He praised the inclusion of a new provision stating that Americans would not launch attacks on Iraq’s neighbors from Iraqi soil. “There’s going to be a significant presence, but they are not going to be ‘combat’ forces,” said the administration official. “The other thing we witnessed through the Bush period was that when the Iraqi politicians couldn’t reach a compromise, Bush interfered,” Mr. Habeeb said. “I don’t think Obama will do that; he will not try to set the Iraqi agenda,” he said. “I think the politicians will have to be mature enough to solve their own problems and dare to make compromises.”
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POPSSafer Iraq Attracts Foreign Investors Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's crackdown on Shiite militias this Spring led to a thaw in relations with Sunni governments in the Gulf. That has encouraged investors such as Aqeela to turn to Iraq without fear of falling out of favor with their own governments, says Majed Michel, vice president of the Iraqi American Chamber of Commerce. The projects seek to address long-standing needs in Iraq, such as a severe housing shortage and under-investment in public utilities. Najaf is visited by millions of Shiite tourists a year but infrastructure there is poor. "This is an extraordinarily undercapitalized society," said Todd Schwartz, an economic counselor at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. "There's no question that Iraq can absorb $74 billion and hundreds of billions more." There is plenty of money available as well, added Schwartz, in Gulf monarchies awash in petrodollars.
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POPSA possible US troop withdrawlment from Iraq?! I'm wondering why this didn't make a bigger splash in the news. Or was I just out of touch that day? This seems like a pretty big deal, if you ask me. I'm not really for or against time lines or withdrawalment because I'm not privy to all the info & far from being a war expert but still, this seems like it would be a pretty big deal to most Americans.
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POPSIraq Takes Aim at Leaders of U.S.-Tied Sunni Groups Cont.... Even before the new pressure from the government, many Awakening members were growing frustrated — and at an especially delicate time. United States and Iraqi negotiators have just completed a draft security agreement that next year, Iraqi officials say, would substantially pull American forces back from cities and towns to be replaced by Iraqi security forces. Awakening members complain, with rising bitterness, that the government has been slow to make good on its promises to recruit tens of thousands of its members into those security forces. General Perkins said only 5,200 members had been recruited in a force of about 100,000.
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POPSText of McCain Editorial rejected by the NY Times This editorial was a written response to Obama's editorial. It was rejected. continuing.. "Perhaps he is unaware that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has recently certified that, as one news article put it, “Iraq has met all but three of 18 original benchmarks set by Congress last year to measure security, political and economic progress.” Even more heartening has been progress that’s not measured by the benchmarks. More than 90,000 Iraqis, many of them Sunnis who once fought against the government, have signed up as Sons of Iraq to fight against the terrorists. Nor do they measure Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki’s new-found willingness to crack down on Shiite extremists in Basra and Sadr City—actions that have done much to dispel suspicions of sectarianism."
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