Pakistan barred from Commonwealth - Musharraf has no credibility.

Pakistan has been suspended from the Commonwealth because of its imposition of emergency rule, the organisation has announced after a meeting in Uganda.
Secretary General Don McKinnon said Pakistan was being suspended "pending restoration of democracy and the rule of law".
Earlier Pakistan's Supreme Court dismissed a legal challenge to Pervez Musharraf's re-election as president.
The president has said he will now step down as head of the army.
Mr McKinnon said the 53-member Commonwealth had reached the decision by consensus.
Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the "decision was taken in sorrow, not in anger", and that he hoped the group would be able to welcome Pakistan back soon.


Pakistan must free judges before vote: U.N. (click here)
By Jonathan Saul
DUBLIN (Reuters) - Pakistan must reinstate all the judges dismissed under emergency rule or endure a "twisted form of democracy" where the judiciary is utterly subservient to the executive, UN human rights boss Louise Arbour said on Thursday.
Allies of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf are gearing up for an election on January 8 while his opponents are still undecided whether to boycott polls they say will not be free and fair under emergency rule, which was imposed on November 3.
Many judges and lawyers whose interpretation of the law posed the most serious challenge to Musharraf's authority, remain under house arrest or in prison.
Earlier in the day the Supreme Court, now stacked with judges friendly to Musharraf, threw out the last challenge to his October 6 re-election and paved the way for him to quit as army chief....

The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is getting temperate in all areas.

November 22, 2007
0719 gmt
South Pole

The frigid air masse over the Polar Plateau and East Antartica no longer exists. Temperature now at Vostok is - 36 Fahrenheit/-38 Centigrade. I've never seen it that warm. Negative fifty, but, never this warm.

The link at the title to this entry is to a journal article which discusses the conditions of Scott Base, when it wasn't under attack by Human Induced Global Warming. More than interesting reading.

New Zealand Journal of Geography and Geophysics, 1988, Vol. 31: 237-245.

Turkey wants to shut down refugee camps in Northern Iraq as an excuse to invade. It's similar to the objection to Palestine.

It may be that the issues between the Kurds and Turkey will end up being a very similar scenario to that of Israel and Palestine. These Middle East havens of Western presence are defendable through Western wealth and influence. Kurdistan is real. It won't go away. The 'idea' Turkey can eliminate Kurds from within their borders is to realize they are willing to commit genocide. There needs to be a recognition by the Global Community that the Kurds have been oppressed in the Middle East and they have a right to exist no different than Palestine does. It's time for a Paradyme shift regarding the Kurds and Turkey. Where is the Kurdish Arraf today?

Mexmur refugee camp grows, future remains uncertain (click on title entry)
Kurdismedia-It takes less than an hour driving west from the relative safety of Hewler (Erbil), the administrative capital of the Iraqi Kurdish autonomous region, for a traveler to reach the provincial boundaries of Hewler and end up in the Mosul province. Lying just over this somewhat artificial but nonetheless very significant border is the city of Mexmur (Mahmur or Mahmour), which hosts a large UNHCR-administered refugee camp that serves as home for thousands of Kurds originally from Turkey, the first of whom were driven from their homes in 1994.
Visitors can enter the camp after checking any weapons and leaving their passports with the armed security personnel in UN uniforms who work the entry checkpoint, a small station that flies the UN flag. A visitor is issued a pass upon entry which is used to claim his or her passport upon exit. I handed over my passport to a UN officer, an Iraqi Kurd (judging by his Kurdish accent), and was given my pass. I was number 11. I entered the camp for the second time in my life, the first being in 2004. Many things had changed but others remained much the same.
In three years time, the population of the camp had grown from approximately 7,000 to almost double that – 13,000 or 14,000 depending on who I asked. The reason? One man told me, as if I asked a slightly obvious question, that, of course, people are having babies. While the population has grown and the hospital, which opened only a few years ago, has improved, it is still quite small and unable to service complicated medical needs....
...The refugees of Mexmur are Kurds and pride themselves on their identity, and this is the reason they were originally driven from their homes. They struggle day by day to survive in the Mexmur camp, not knowing what lies ahead given the uncertain political climate and the persistent demands of the Turkish state to close the camp. While children are now born and raised in the camp, the refugees still hope that someday a just solution to their predicament will be a reality. Clocks in the camp are set to Turkish time, one hour behind the local time in Iraq. It remains to be seen if someday the thousands of refugees of Mexmur will be able to leave their current state of limbo, a perpetual state of struggle and uncertainty, and wake up to live free as Kurds in the cities, towns, and villages that their ancestors called home.
By Özgür Askeroğlu


So now to insure it's oil deliveries in maintaining Iraqi sovereignty are raiding Kurdish refugee camps to stem the violence by Turkey. Who are Turkey's 'Yes Men?' Instead of bombs, it will just be bullets and a 'northern' Baghdad.

US raids alleged PKK camp in northern Iraq (click here)

...Ankara claims that the Mahmur Camp is a safe haven for the PKK, and was demanding from the United States that the camp should be closed down.
An official of the Mahmur district, Abdurrahman Palef, said that Iraqi army and coalition forces launched the operation to the camp, which harbors around 10,000 Kurdish refugees from Turkey, yesterday morning. Spokesperson of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Turkey, Metin Çorabatır, confirmed that there had been a raid on the camp.
Palef said that the aim of the operation was �to get a head count, identity verification and see if there were any military elements at the camp," reported Doğan News Agency. "Not even one bullet was found during the operation," he said. "There are no problems."
The news of the search was welcomed by Turkey's Anti-Terror Special Envoy, Edip Başer.
Başer, a retired general noted that they had informed the United States about the situation at the camp. "I think this is the first step of the decision [to take action against the camp]. As it is difficult to separate civilians and terrorists, I think the aim is to scan residents," he said....

In most circles it's called ethnic cleansing. Turkey is attempting to remove Kurdish emcampments from within it's borders. It's impossible and while the PKK is noted by most to be a terrorist organization, so was the PLO at one time. All of Turkey is not sovereign and hasn't been for a long time.


Mahmur camp in N Iraq surrounded by Iraqi soldiers (click here)
www.chinaview.cn 2007-11-22 20:23:40
Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq
Sirnak, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- A large camp in northern Iraq has been surrounded by Iraqi army, reported a Xinhua correspondent at the Turkish-Iraqi border on Thursday.
Iraqi soldiers set up check points in front of the Mahmur camp in which people ran away from Turkey in 1990's are living, and do not let foreign people, including the members of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) to enter into the camp. Turkey has claimed that the Mahmur camp was under control of the PKK and was logistics source for the PKK.
Vehicles and people who want to enter into the camp are being checked by Iraqi soldiers.
The Iraqi soldiers dug positions near the camp to prevent foreign people from reaching it and by the way, they patrol near the camp with jeeps.
They don't let anybody, except people who are living in the camp, to enter, said Youssef Abdurrahman, the chief of subdivision of soldiers, adding, "we do check 24 hours and put the camp under control. We are checking everywhere."
"Nobody can enter and the daily life is going on normally in the camp which is closed to journalists," added Addurrahman.
Local media reported that there are nearly 10,000 people living in the camp and there is a school and hospital in it.
Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops along the mountainous border with Iraq in preparation for the cross-border operation to crush the about 3,000 strong PKK rebels in northern Iraq, which was approved by the Turkish parliament last month.
The PKK took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast. More than 30,000 people have been killed in more than two decades conflict.
Editor: Lin Li

This is a Turkish paper:
Northern Iraqi government talks about steps taken against PKK terror (click here)
Fuat Hussein, spokesman for northern Iraqi regional leader Massoud Barzani, spoke yesterday to Dogan News Agency reporters about steps that the Barzani administration had taken against PKK terrorists located in the region. Said Hussein, "The steps we have taken against the PKK are first and foremost to ensure that our citizens interests are not damaged." Hussein listed some of the steps being taken as including an increase in security control checks of people and vehicles entering and leaving the Mahmur Camp area, and as an increase in police check points in and around the Kandil Mountain area, where the PKK is known to have training camps. Hussein also noted that flight coming in to and departing from the Erbil Airport were being checked more carefully by security forces. In terms of media strictures, Hussein also told reporters yesterday that western media journalists had been forbidden from carrying out interviews with PKK terrorists in the northern Iraqi camps, as has happened quite frequently up until now.

Where will your Thanksgiving Tax Dollars be wasted? This is incredible. American military instillations are packed in like Sardines in Iraq.

The year was 2003.
The date, January 30th.
IRAQ: Amnesty calls for human rights protection (click here)
Amnesty International called on the US and UK leaders on 30 January to acknowledge the responsibility of the international community to protect the human rights of the Iraqi people when they meet this week to discuss the possibility of a military attack on Iraq. "The human rights and humanitarian situation in Iraq is extremely fragile as a result of decades of brutal repression by the Iraqi authorities of dissent and uprisings, including widespread torture and executions; the impact of over a decade of sanctions; the possibility of civilian casualties, refugee outflows and reprisal killings in the event of military intervention," it said in a statement.


Why don't we just leave the USA military in Iraq forever, so they can all stand around and analyze the latest bombing, shooting, deaths and maimings. Sound like a plan? Not to me it doesn't.

Six Dead, 22 Wounded in Suicide Bomb Attack in Ramadi (click here)
A police checkpoint was blasted on Wednesday morning by a suicide car bomber in Ramadi, Iraq. Six people were killed in the explosion and other 22 were injured, according to an Iraqi Interior Ministry official.
Also on Wednesday 40 decomposed bodies were found by the Iraqi security forces north of Ramadi, near Lake Tarthar. Among the bodies there were also women and children, the Associated Press reports.
The victims were shot and had no ID cards with them. The authorities couldn’t say when they were shot.
According to a provincial police official, Col. Jubair Rashid Naief, the bomber in Ramadi attacked on Wednesday morning. The blast killed three policemen and three civilians, and injured 13. On the other hand, U.S. military said that four people were killed, with the bomber included, and 22 were wounded.
Still, attacks decreased in Ramadi since Sunni leaders formed an alliance with the U.S. military in order to fight against al Qaeda in Iraq.
This was the biggest attack in the city since September 13, when a roadside bomb killed Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, leader of the Sunni revolt and two of his bodyguards.
The U.S. military reported also on Wednesday that an U.S. soldier and an Iraqi interpreter were killed in east Baghdad in a bombing on Tuesday. The bomb hit a U.S. military combat patrol and the officials said that the device was manufactured in Iran. Other three Americans were wounded in the blast.
The statement released by the military said: “The patrol was returning to base after conducting an escort mission at the time of the attack," CNN quotes.
According to U.S. military statement the explosion was from an “explosively formed penetrator," a sophisticated and powerful roadside bomb which is believed to be supplied to Shiite militias by Iran.
Since the beginning of the war in Iraq, in 2003, at least 3,874 US military have been killed, according to the Associated Press.
In last August the Iranians promised Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki that they will restrain the shipments of weapons to the extremists. A decline of Iranian-origin weapons has been pointed out by US commanders, but it is too soon to say if it is a significant drop.
Lt. Gen. James Dubik, the U.S. commander in charge of training and equipping Iraqi forces said: "I think that we're all thankful for the commitment Iran has made to reduce the flow of its weapons and explosives and training into Iraq.”


Why the USA even has a "World Planning" Headquarters in Conus, Egypt. And what purpose was the invasion into Iraq? WMD? You mean to tell me Bush and his Executive Branch assault force didn't know there was NO WMD in Iraq? Sure, and my name is Santa Claus.

We don't belong in Iraq.

We never did.


What a shame Centcom isn't in Iran, huh? They can't get it right, People.


The base camps are so dense in Iraq the 'labels' to their location have to be overlapped to fit them in one picture.


This is Centcom in Iraq and the USA military could not get a handle on the 'reality' of this country? Give me a break !


Iraq is the size of Texas. This is JUST Baghdad.

More than one way to skin a cat. Why not buy the banks that own the ports. Why do they persist? We don't want them meddling in the USA.

By NICHOLAS WAPSHOTT

Staff Reporter of the Sun

November 21, 2007

The Dubai government, whose purchase of six American ports sparked a political furor, is poised to acquire substantial stakes in Citigroup and other New York-based banks mired in subprime mortgage debt.

Omar bin Sulaiman, the governor of the Dubai government's investment arm, DIFC Investments, is currently on a spending spree, spurred by the bargains that have resulted from the low value of the dollar and the sinking of the stock markets caused by the subprime mortgage crisis. Last year, Dubai caused a political storm in America when its Dubai Ports World company acquired six major American ports as part of its purchase of the British company P&O. Opposition to ownership by an Arab country of such sensitive properties at a time when America is waging a war against Islamist terrorists obliged Dubai to sell the port management companies to the American insurance company AIG amid anxieties about port security....

Bush and Bernanke destroyed the country and now they are selling it out to Dubai again. NO !!! The facts are clear. The DOW and Banks are closing out their holdings and the economy is heading into a huge depression. The way Bush and Bernanke are bailing out their party is to sell the USA to Arabs instead of securing it away to insure National Security. There is no easy out for the USA. The corrupt Capitalists bought into Bush, his wars and now they are crying because the USA has become a huge house of cards. No way do we want more foreign interests owning more and more of the USA. NO WAY !!!