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By AP Friday, Mar. 30, 2012

(TOKYO) — Japan’s defense minister on Friday ordered missile units to intercept a rocket expected to be launched by North Korea next month if it flies over Japan.

The order from Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka came at a meeting of Japan’s national security council. It followed instructions issued earlier in the week for the military to prepare to intercept the satellite rocket if it enters Japanese territory.

The Unha-3 rocket is expected to fly past western Japan after its launch from North Korea’s west coast sometime between April 14 and 16. The plan has raised concerns that a failed launch, or a falling stage of the rocket, could endanger Japanese lives or property.

A statement from the Defense Ministry said Japan would send destroyers equipped with Aegis missile defense systems to the Pacific and East China Sea and deploy mobile Patriot missile launchers to islands in Okinawa. An interceptor missile unit is also likely to be deployed in Tokyo, although the capital is well away from the expected flight path.

Seoul has also warned it might shoot down any parts of the North Korean rocket that pass over South Korean territory.

North Korea has said it plans to launch a satellite into orbit. Japan, the United States and other countries claim it is also seeking to test the capabilities of its long-range missiles, in violation of international agreements.

Japan mobilized its interceptor units and issued a similar warning to North Korea before a rocket launch in 2009, but did not follow through.

Interceptor missiles on the Japanese destroyers would serve as the first line of defense, and the land-based Patriot missiles would be a backup. Japan has successfully tested its interceptor missiles, but has never used them in a real-world situation.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2110581,00.html

This article is copyright © by admin: Sat May 18 12:33:05 UTC 2013

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Abu Rami hails from Lebanon, but his heart is in Syria these days. The 40-year-old is one of hundreds of Arabs who are fighting against the Assad regime at the side of Syrian insurgents. Many of these volunteer fighters are veterans of the Iraq war, who have now brought their holy war to Syria.

Abu Rami’s last foray into war wasn’t much of a success. Just after his unit had crossed over the border, one of his men lost his wits. The young man cowered in the undergrowth, trembled and didn’t budge. Out of necessity, the whole unit had to come to a stop: Ten Lebanese, armed with 10 Kalashnikovs loaded with 65 magazines of ammunition, had come to a standstill inside the Syrian border, without any backup.

It was pure luck that the group wasn’t spotted by a Syrian border patrol and that they didn’t come under fire. « We sent the man with the weak nerves back to Lebanon. The rest of us made it as far as Homs, » a 40-year-old man who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Rami said, two days after his return from Syria.

The protest stronghold of Homs is located around 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) from the border, and the Lebanese volunteers wanted to fight alongside Syrian rebels in the city’s Khaldiyeh district. But after they ran out of ammunition, the guerrillas had to retreat. Abu Rami says his unit is now waiting in the safety of Lebanon for its next deployment.

Abu Rami is a commander in the growing band of volunteer Lebanese fighters who are getting involved in the conflict in neighboring Syria. Most come from Tripoli, the northern Lebanese city that is largely home to a Sunni Muslim population. Their hatred of the Assad regime is rooted in the Syrian occupation of Lebanon, which only ended in 2005.

Despite the withdrawal of its troops, Syria still exercizes considerable influence over Beirut. The Shiites are also in power in the Lebanese capital, further fomenting the hatred of Lebanese Sunnis against Assad and his Lebanese allies, which including the Shiite militant group Hezbollah.

‘We Lebanese Are Part of the Syrian Revolution’

Radicals among Lebanon’s Sunnis view the insurgency in their neighboring country as a welcome opportunity to put an end to Damascus’ influence. « The struggle for freedom in Syria is our own struggle for freedom, » says Sheik Masen al-Mohammed, one of the most important Sunni religious leaders in Tripoli. « We Lebanese are part of the Syrian revolution, part of the rebellion. If Syria gains its freedom, then we will also win in Lebanon. » In addition to the political reasons, the sheik also has a key reason for encouraging Lebanese to fight in Syria. « Assad is an infidel, » the sheik says, noting that the Syrian dictator is part of the Alawite sect, which splintered from Shiite Islam hundreds of years ago. Sheik Masen views Assad as an enemy rather than a true Muslim.

In mid-February, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden’s successor as the head of the al-Qaida terrorist network, called on pious Muslims to support the insurgency against the Syrian regime. In an eight-minute video message posted on an Islamist Internet page, Zawahiri claimed that it is the religious duty of every Muslim to aid in the uprising against the « anti-Islamic regime … with everything that he has — his life, money, views and information. » He called Bashar Assad’s government a « pernicious, cancerous regime. » Zawahiri targeted his message to take up arms directly at Sunni Muslims living in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq. He urged them to rush to the aid of the oppressed people in their neighboring country.

« It is the duty of every Muslim, every Arab to fight the infidels, » Sheik Masen also stated. « There is a holy war in Syria and the young men there are conducting jihad. For blood, for honor, for freedom, for dignity, » he preached during a sermon delivered in a warehouse filled with spare parts. In his normal life, Sheik Masen operates an auto repair shop.

But these days he has little time for selling fan belts. Every minute, new applicants arrive in his oil-covered garage. The majority are Syrian refugees hoping to find lodging, a job and help. « We are sister peoples, and the enemy of the Syrian people is also the enemy of the Lebanese, » the sheik says, providing a rationale for the efforts of the fighters on behalf of Syrians who have been driven from their homeland.

Abu Rami claims that between 100 and 150 Lebanese have traveled to Syria in recent months to fight alongside the rebels. He has been responsible for two deployments involving his men, he visits the wounded at the hospital and he discusses strategy with those fit for combat. Abu Rami was trained to become a television technician, but he quit his job in order to devote himself to the battle in Syria.

Rebels Need Weapons and Ammunition, Not Reinforcements

Abu Rami first took up contact with the rebels in Syria last summer. He soon began crossing the border regularly for combat missions. In recent months, he was captured once for a short time and also wounded on another occasion. During what has now become one year of fighting, he has risen to become a leading figure in the network of Lebanese volunteer brigades that are in combat in Syria.

Sheik Masen claims that the Syrian conflict is becoming increasingly international. « We know of Palestinian, Libyan and Yemen fighters who are active there, » he said. Iraqis are also fighting in Syria.

The situation hasn’t become as explosive the period in the Iraq war when thousands of volunteer fighters flooded into the country in 2006 to wage war against the American occupiers, Sheik Masen says. It’s not fighters the Syrian rebellion is lacking — it simply doesn’t have enough ammunition or weapons, he says. « We currently have 20 men willing to fight for each weapon in our possession. They need weapons and ammunition — not reinforcements. »

The Lebanese say they try to help the rebels in whatever ways they can. « We send as many supplies as we can, » Masen says. But he adds that, after one year of fighting against Assad, the black market for weapons in the Middle East has dried up. « It is high time that major Arab powers like Saudi Arabia intervene and start officially delivering weapons. That is their duty as Muslims, » he says.

First European Joins Fight Against Regime

Sheik Masen expresses hope that the situation in Syria will soon be like Iraq was and that Arabs from all nations will join forces to battle the regime. « If we get to that point, then we will be able to mobilize tens of thousands of Lebanese, » he says.

« I have a long list of telephone numbers of men who want to go to war in Syria, » Abu Rami says, adding that most are experienced fighters. « Of the Lebanese who are deployed now, around 60 percent already fought in Iraq, » he says. Men who once did battle against American soldiers, and were branded as al-Qaida terrorists, are now fighting on the side of Syrian insurgents, whose victory over Assad would be entirely welcomed by the West. Still, the involvement of foreign jihadist fighters makes it more difficult to differentiate between good and evil in the Syrian conflict.

Last week, the first European fighter voluntarily crossed the border and entered into Syria to fight alongside the Free Syrian Army against the Assad regime. He was « a Frenchman who had just turned 24 and comes from a wealthy family, » reports Abu Rami. « He just turned up here with his credit card in hand. » Abu Rami says he tried in vain to talk the man, whose parents are Algerian, out of it. « He bought a gun, we gave him a short bit of training and then he went in with one of our units, » he says.

Still, Abu Rami doesn’t believe the regime will fall anytime soon. « You will first get married when the problem in Syria has been taken care of, » he says jokingly to one of his subordinates. « In other words, in 50 years. »

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,824875,00.html

This article is copyright © by admin: Sat May 18 12:33:05 UTC 2013

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By Scott Van Wynsberghe

Massive artillery barrages and waves of tanks. That’s not the way most of us think of the Vietnam War. But so it was 40 years ago today, on March 30, 1972, when North Vietnam started the end game for its sister-republic, South Vietnam. The attack launched by Hanoi — which it called the Nguyen Hue Offensive, but was dubbed the Easter Offensive by Americans — overturned the image of the Vietnam War as an endless series of tactical raids and ambushes. What went wrong for the South back then remains ominously instructive for Afghanistan today.

The road to 1972 was a tangled, gruesome mess. Vietnam started the 1900s as a French colony, but the Second World War disrupted European empires in the Far East, setting the stage for native revolts. When Vietnamese insurgents rose up in 1945, they did so largely under a communist banner, thereby embedding the struggle in the larger Cold War narrative, and drawing American attention.

Despite substantial U.S. support, France was defeated in 1954. The ensuing peace accord produced two independent Vietnams, not one: a northern entity backed by China and the Soviet Union, and a southern one increasingly aligned with Washington. By the start of the 1960s, the North was actively stoking violence in the South. Escalation led to the commitment of hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops beginning in 1965. But the wild mayhem of Hanoi’s so-called Tet Offensive of 1968 seriously eroded American resolve. And this brings us to the first Afghan parallel.

That NATO forces in Afghanistan have lost much of their will to fight is clear. Canada, for example, currently restricts itself to training the Afghan military. In the United States, 69% of Americans now tell pollsters that the United States should not be at war in Afghanistan, up from 53% just four months ago. More than two thirds of Americans think the fighting in Afghanistan is going “somewhat badly” or “very badly.” Four months ago, less than half of surveyed Americans said as much. Almost everyone agrees that the goal must be to teach Afghan politicians and military commanders to stand on their own.

And so it was in South Vietnam. U.S. president Richard Nixon, who assumed office in 1969, championed “Vietnamization,” which meant building up South Vietnam to the point where American troops could leave in good conscience, as victors. According to contemporary accounts in Time and Newsweek magazines, the period from 1969 to early 1972 saw the United States provide South Vietnam with 1,100 aircraft, 46,000 vehicles and almost a million small arms. As well, over 12,000 South Vietnamese officers were sent to the United States for advanced instruction. By the spring of 1972, the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) officially had 492,000 personnel, while local militias deployed another 513,000 — more than a million soldiers in total. At that point, the U.S. military presence was down to 100,000, only 7,000 of which were actual ground troops (although U.S. advisers were spread throughout South Vietnam’s forces).

Things looked good. Guenter Lewy, one of the many chroniclers of the Vietnam War, has pointed out that most enemy attacks in 1971 occurred in areas containing only about a quarter of South Vietnam’s population. Orrin DeForest, a former CIA officer who served in the military zone around the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), declared in a 1990 book that the National Liberation Front guerrilla movement (NLF, often referred to as the Viet Cong or VC) was so weak in late 1971 and early 1972 that it could not replace losses through Southern recruitment alone and had to bring in Northerners, a practice that bred resentment in the ranks.

Much of Saigon’s strength was, however, a façade. Lewy discovered that over 140,000 of its military personnel deserted in 1971 alone. Gabriel Kolko, another expert on the war, estimated that at least a 10th and maybe a quarter of the rank and file was composed of “ghost soldiers” who only existed on paper. Both phenomena were symptoms of corruption — the next Afghan similarity.

That Afghanistan is extremely corrupt is beyond doubt. Last year’s most explosive allegation, for instance, involved a politically connected bank fraud that involved almost a billion dollars. In its 2010 rankings, the NGO Transparency International ranked Afghanistan as the world’s third most corrupt nation (behind only Myanmar and Somalia). Many of the fighters who are ostensibly part of the national security establishment are actually hired guns who answer to local warlords, who themselves ignore Kabul and earn money from the drug trade. None of these forces can be relied on to fight independently in any sustained battle against the Taliban, once the Americans leave.

In South Vietnam, the system run by president Nguyen Van Thieu often valued cronyism over competence. “By the most cautious estimates,” Kolko claimed, “fully two-thirds of all generals and colonels were corrupt.” Writers Kolko, Alfred McCoy, and Neil Sheehan have described how three successive commanders of South Vietnam’s Central Highlands zone attracted accusations of serious misconduct in the early 1970s.

Even beyond the issue of graft and incompetence, the fight against communism in South Vietnam was regularly undermined by a tendency towards atrocity. The Tet Offensive, of course, produced the still-shocking photo of the summary execution of a VC prisoner. In the Easter Offensive, the notorious picture would be that of Kim Phuc, a shrieking, naked girl whose village had been mistakenly hit by a South Vietnamese air strike. (Many years later, she would move to Canada.) Afghanistan has yet to generate comparable images. But the recent massacre committed by an unhinged U.S. soldier, in combination with errant air strikes that kill civilians, show how the Afghan war effort also sabotages itself.

The offensive that Hanoi started on March 30, 1972 was a calculated gamble. Although continued guerrilla war was a fading proposition, South Vietnam still looked vulnerable as the U.S. gradually withdrew. The North opted for a conventional invasion against the South’s largely paper army, with the once-celebrated VC in only a supporting role.

According to historian Stanley Karnow, the North mustered some 120,000 soldiers of its People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) for the attack. Many were concentrated on the border between the two Vietnams, while the rest moved through the neighbouring — and equally embattled — countries of Laos and Cambodia to hit South Vietnam in the Central Highlands and the area just northwest of Saigon. Tanks and artillery figured prominently.

Obviously, Afghan analogies start to break down here, since the Taliban rebels have never fielded such an army. The last time they did was in late 2011, when it was smashed to bits with precision-guided American bombs. But whatever the tools of war, all that matters in such equations is whether or not government forces are willing to actually fight. In Vietnam 40 years ago, as in the Afghan army of today, the martial impulse ran quite thin.

That many South Vietnamese soldiers did bravely oppose the north’s offensive should be emphasized, since so much attention has been focused on the cowardice that ensued. G.H. Turley, a former U.S. Marine Corps officer who was a key military advisor near the North Vietnamese border at the time, paid tribute to South Vietnamese marines in a 1985 book. Neil Sheehan has acknowledged the gallant stand at Kontum in the Central Highlands by an ARVN unit, the 23rd Division. Parts of another division, the 5th, were joined by a battalion of ARVN rangers in the very stubborn defense of the besieged town of An Loc, near Saigon.

Alas, the rest of the record was grim. On the North Vietnamese border, most of the ARVN 3rd Division either surrendered or fled, setting off a chain reaction that included the loss of the city of Quang Tri and the slaughter by PAVN artillery of a retreating column of other troops. In the Central Highlands, the ARVN 22nd Division disintegrated under the direction of a crooked, inept general and an arrogant U.S. advisor, the controversial John Vann (both of whom died in the offensive). Meanwhile, the 21st Division moved so slowly to rescue the 5th at An Loc that Newsweek called the performance “lackadaisical.”

Fortunately for Saigon, airpower was the one option that the U.S. was still willing to use in abundance, and Karnow suspects that almost 5,000 sorties by B-52 bombers over the South during the fighting played a critical role in preventing complete defeat. By mid-1972, the situation had stabilized enough such that the South was able to counterattack, leading to the recapture of Quang Tri in September — but the damage had been done.

Although each side reportedly suffered at least 100,000 casualties, it was the South that emerged the weakest. To stave off the Northern onslaught, Saigon stripped several quiet sectors of their garrisons, and the VC happily re-infiltrated those locales, initiating a big revival. In 1973, a fed-up Washington pushed the South into a peace agreement that was really just a pause before the final conquest, which occurred in 1975.

In the end, the fatal combination was Western exhaustion, local corruption, and some degree of morale-sapping atrocity. What Saigon was in 1972, Kabul could be soon.

National Post

http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2012/03/30/scott-van-wynsberghe-will-afghanistans-war-will-end-in-the-same-way-as-vietnams/

This article is copyright © by admin: Sat May 18 12:33:05 UTC 2013

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Despite all the uproar generated by President Barack Obama’s open-mike comments to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the nuclear summit in Seoul, no one should be shocked that election-year calculations play a major role in international politics. It is perfectly understandable that, in gearing up for what will be a tough and challenging re-election campaign, Obama would prefer not to have to deal with crises now if they can be postponed until after the ballots have been cast. This same logic has driven efforts to persuade Israel not to launch a strike on Iran, which might have immediate and drastic consequences for the U.S. economy in the months prior to the November ballot.

Moreover, a campaigner cannot be a good statesman, particularly in an environment where a willingness to search for mutually acceptable solutions is attacked by domestic opponents as weakness. The kind of compromise that permitted the New START treaty to move forward, for instance, would be impossible for Obama to repeat over the coming months, so Moscow does not stand to gain much by pressing hard for concessions over missile defense at the forthcoming NATO summit in Chicago. Of all people, Vladimir Putin, set to return to the Russian presidency in May, should understand this dynamic perfectly. His harsh attacks in recent months on U.S. policy, which caused some Western analysts to declare the demise of the U.S.-Russia “reset,” were part and parcel of an electoral strategy designed to strengthen Putin’s nationalist credentials.

The question is whether Putin, and other foreign leaders, are anxious to do Obama any favors. Do they want to help the president by postponing potentially troublesome matters until after the presidential election? Or have they calculated that having a different occupant at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue come January 2013 is more in their interests?

Part of the problem they face in trying to answer this question is the difficulty of pinpointing who the “real” Barack Obama is. On the campaign trail in 2007 and 2008, then-Sen. Obama often sounded like a Democratic version of George H.W. Bush: a pragmatist who would focus on rebuilding America’s relationships — not only with close allies, but also with other major powers that had prickly relations with Washington but whose cooperation would be essential for moving forward on any sort of global agenda. Steve Clemons has argued that Obama’s “tilt toward a realist course in foreign policy” in the first years of his administration worked. But the military intervention in Libya threw that interpretation of Obama’s foreign policy orientation into doubt, raising the possibility that his realist pragmatism was driven by expediency more than by principle: Given a low-cost, no-impact option, Obama was willing to get in touch with his inner George W. Bush and push for a revamped version of the “freedom agenda.”

Obama’s comment to Medvedev that he would have “more flexibility” after November raises a fundamental question: flexibility to do what? The remark could imply that, on a wide variety of issues, the president has personal policy preferences that he has sublimated over the past several years because they might threaten not only his re-election bid but the re-election of some of his key supporters. It could also create the impression that once he secures a second term, the proverbial gloves would come off, allowing him to implement significant changes in U.S. policy. Of course, the president would still be checked by Congress, particularly if the Republicans retain control of at least one chamber. But he might also try to utilize a growing panoply of executive powers, some ironically bequeathed to him by his predecessor, to push the ship of state in a different direction.

That means that over the coming months, we can expect pundits and analysts alike to try and predict who the “real Obama” will be if elected to a second term. Interestingly, Daniel Drezner has argued that, far from reverting to their “ideological bliss point,” recent second-term presidents have, if anything, “tacked away from their starting point” — a decidedly contrarian corrective to the prevailing opinion that a second-term Obama presidency would move in a more liberal direction.

But if the Obama of 2013 is not likely to be the Obama of 2009, there are no guarantees that Obama’s Republican challenger will be any more predictable and consistent. Given the current trajectory of the GOP primary campaign, former Gov. Mitt Romney is on track to become the Republican nominee. Yet, for those searching for consistency, Romney is also a puzzling cipher. In his last run for the Republican presidential nod, and in the early stages of seeking the 2012 nomination, Romney had crafted a businessman-technocrat persona — a problem-solver, not an ideologue. He portrayed himself as someone who would examine policy with the steely-eyed glance of a corporate CEO concerned with the bottom line, not fidelity to a dogmatic orthodoxy. As this approach proved to be less than appealing to the party faithful who vote in the primary contests, Romney jettisoned it in favor of depicting himself as “severely conservative,” fleeing from the mere suggestion that he might be a “moderate” northeastern “country club” Republican. But in suggesting last week that Romney’s primary campaign policy positions could be erased like a drawing on an Etch-a-Sketch, to be replaced by new positions developed to appeal to general-election voters, Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom opened up the question as to who the “real Romney” is.

The dilemma faced by Putin, and many other world leaders, is to decide who they would rather do business with. Obama’s relationship with Putin got off to a frosty start when Obama visited Moscow in 2009. And no matter how badly Obama may want to salvage what he can of the reset, the camaraderie he developed with Medvedev will not be duplicated once Putin is back in the presidential chair. Meanwhile, Romney has taken a sharply anti-Russian line, particularly in recent days, identifying Russia as the premier geopolitical threat to the United States. But it bears noting that as a candidate, George W. Bush expressed similar skepticism on Russia before developing a close personal connection with Putin after the Ljubljana summit in the summer of 2001.

So for global leaders, it is not simply a question of predicting whether Obama or Romney will win the November election, but trying to determine “which” Obama or Romney will take office. Will the pragmatic or ideological sides win out? Ultimately American voters will have the final say at the ballot box. In the meantime, leaders from around the world will have to prepare for all eventualities.

Nikolas K. Gvosdev is the former editor of the National Interest, and a frequent foreign policy commentator in both the print and broadcast media. He is currently on the faculty of the U.S. Naval War College. The views expressed are his own and do not reflect those of the Navy or the U.S. government. His weekly WPR column, The Realist Prism, appears every Friday.

Photo: President Barack Obama meets with then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin outside Moscow, Russia, July 7, 2009 (official White House Photo by Pete Souza).

http://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/articles/11789/the-realist-prism-global-leaders-left-guessing-who-the-real-u-s-president-will-be-in-2013

This article is copyright © by admin: Sat May 18 12:33:05 UTC 2013

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By Tahir Qadiry BBC Persian, Kabul

For economic and social reasons, many Afghan parents want to have a son. This preference has led to some of them practising the long-standing tradition of Bacha Posh – disguising girls as boys.

When Azita Rafhat, a former member of the Afghan parliament, gets her daughters ready for school, she dresses one of the girls differently.

Three of her daughters are clothed in white garments and their heads covered with white scarves, but a fourth girl, Mehrnoush, is dressed in a suit and tie. When they get outside, Mehrnoush is no longer a girl but a boy named Mehran.

Azita Rafhat didn’t have a son, and to fill the gap and avoid people’s taunts for not having a son, she opted for this radical decision. It was very simple, thanks to a haircut and some boyish clothes.

There is even a name for this tradition in Afghanistan – Bacha Posh, or disguising girls as boys.

« When you have a good position in Afghanistan and are well off, people look at you differently. They say your life becomes complete only if you have a son, » she says.

There has always been a preference for having sons in Afghanistan, for various economic and social reasons.

Ms Rahfhat’s husband, Ezatullah Rafhat, thinks having a son is a symbol of prestige and honour.

« Whoever came [to our house] would say: ‘Oh, we’re sorry for you not having a son.’ So we thought it would be a good idea to disguise our daughter, as she wanted this too. »

Azita Rafhat is not the only mother who has decided to do this.
Not girlish

Many girls disguised as boys can be found in Afghan markets. Some families disguise their daughters as boys so that they can easily work on the streets to feed their families.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Elaha

If my parents force me to get married, I will compensate for the sorrows of Afghan women and beat my husband so badly ”

Elaha Girl who lived as a boy

Some of these girls who introduce themselves as boys sell things like water and chewing gum. They appear to be aged anywhere between about five and 12. None of them would talk to me about their lives as boys.

Girls brought up as boys do not stay like this all their lives. When they turn 17 or 18 they live life as a girl once again – but the change is not so simple.

Elaha lives in Mazar-e Sharif in northern Afghanistan. She lived as a boy for 20 years because her family didn’t have a son and reverted only two years ago when she had to go to university.

However, she does not feel fully female: she says her habits are not girlish and she does not want to get married.

« When I was a kid my parents disguised me as a boy because I didn’t have a brother. Until very recently, as a boy, I would go out, play with other boys and have more freedom. »

She has returned reluctantly to her gender and says she has done it only because of the social traditions.

« If my parents force me to get married, I will compensate for the sorrows of Afghan women and beat my husband so badly that he will take me to court every day. »
Common story
Girl disguised as boy selling water in Kabul Many girls dress as boys so they can go out to work in the streets

Atiqullah Ansari, head of the famous blue mosque in Mazar-e Sharif, says the tradition is about appealing to the divine.

He says those families who do not have a son disguise their daughters as boys for good luck so that God gives them a son.

Mothers who do not have sons come to the shrine of Hazrat-e Ali and ask him to grant them sons, he adds.

Atiqullah Ansari says that according to Islam the girls who live as boys must cover their heads when they come of age.

In Afghanistan, stories like this have become more common. Almost everyone has relatives or neighbours who have tried this.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

You cannot change a girl to a boy for a short period of time – it’s against humanity”

Qazi Sayed Mohammad Sami Balkh Human Rights Commission

Fariba Majid, the head of the Women’s Rights Department in the northern province of Balkh, used to go by the boy’s name Wahid.

« I was the third daughter in my family and when I was born my parents decided to disguise me as a boy, » she says.

« I would work with my father at his shop and even go to Kabul to bring goods from there. »

She thinks that experience helped her gain confidence and helped her get where she is today.

It is not surprising that even Azita Rafhat, mother of Mehran, once used to live as a boy.

« Let me tell you a secret, » she says. « When I was a kid, I used to live as a boy and work with my father.

« I experienced both the world of men and of women and it helped me to be more ambitious in my career. »
‘Breach of rights’

The tradition has existed in Afghanistan for centuries. According to Daud Rawish, a sociologist in Kabul, it may have started when Afghans had to fight their invaders and for this women needed to be disguised as men.

But Qazi Sayed Mohammad Sami, head of the Balkh Human Rights Commission, calls it a breach of human rights.

« We cannot change someone’s gender for a while. You cannot change a girl to a boy for a short period of time. It’s against humanity, » he says.

The tradition has had a damaging effect on some girls who feel they have missed out on essential childhood memories as well as losing their identity.

For others it has been good experiencing freedoms they would never have had if they had lived as girls.

But for many the key question is: will there be a day when Afghan girls get as much freedom and respect as boys?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15262680

This article is copyright © by admin: Sat May 18 12:33:05 UTC 2013

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Les Etats-Unis ne vont appeler personne en justice parmi les militaires pour la mort de 24 soldats pakistanais en novembre l’année dernière, annonce le journal The New York Times faisant référence aux militaires américains de haut rang. Selon quotidien, l’enquête a révélé que les Américains ont lancé une attaque avec l’utilisation des drones sans pilote par erreur, sur la base d’informations qui étaient à la disposition des Forces aériennes américaines. En outre, les troupes pakistanaises auraient ouvert le feu sur les troupes de l’OTAN en premier, et ces derniers ne faisaient que se défendre.

Les Pakistanais ne sont pas d’accord avec cette interprétation des événements.

http://french.ruvr.ru/2012_03_25/69541323/

This article is copyright © by admin: Sat May 18 12:33:05 UTC 2013

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L’Israël mène des raids secrets en Iran à la recherche d’informations sur le développement des armes nucléaires ces dernières années, affirme l’hebdomadaire britannique Sunday Times.

Selon le journal, une base fixe dans le Kurdistan irakien s’utilise pour ces buts. Les derniers équipements pour obtenir des données sur l’environnement radiatif et les essais de dispositifs explosifs ont utilisés. Ces dernières années, les services de renseignement israéliens prête une attention particulière aux installations militaires dans Parchin.
Selon Sunday Times, lorsque d’une récente réunion entre Barack Obama et Benyamin Netanyahou à Washington, Netanyahou a donné « les nouvelles données sur le programme nucléaire de l’Iran, dont une partie a été obtenue dans le cadre des opérations effectuées par les forces spéciales sur le territoire iranien ».

http://french.ruvr.ru/2012_03_25/69571049/

This article is copyright © by admin: Sat May 18 12:33:05 UTC 2013

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Soldiers announced that they had seized control of Mali yesterday in an angry reaction to the government’s weak response to an uprising of Gaddafi fighters in the country’s north.

They ousted the president just one month before he was due to step down at the end of his legal term and said on national television they were suspending Mali’s constitution, dissolving its institutions and imposing a nationwide curfew.

The soldiers had complained that the civilian government had not done enough to combat a rebellion by ethnic Tuareg separatists – Azawad National Liberation Movement – made up of Gaddafi fighters, who want to carve out a homeland in the country’s northern desert.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2119163/Return-Gaddafi-fighters-armed-weapons-triggers-coup-Mali-soldiers-angered-governments-weak-response-rebel-group.html#ixzz1q0E8eq3J

Take over: Soldiers announced that they had seized control of Mali yesterday in an angry reaction to the government’s weak response to an uprising of Gaddafi fighters in the country’s north called the Azawad National Liberation Movement

They stated that the country is now under the control of the military’s National Committee for the Reestablishment of Democracy and the Restoration of the State, or CNRDR and said they were suspending Mali’s constitution and dissolving its institutions.

Mali, which supports Western counter-terrorist efforts in western Africa, has been under siege since Malian combatants, who had fought to defend the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, fled back home last year after his defeat.

They brought with them powerful and sophisticated weaponry and formed the most powerful Tuareg-led rebel group the region has known – the Azawad National Liberation Movement (MNLA).

The current whereabouts of President Amadou Toumani Toure who has overseen a decade of relative stability, is unknown but officials in his camp and diplomats said they believed he was being protected by a pocket of loyalist soldiers.

Mutinous soldiers said they would launch an attack on the parachute regiment they believe is protecting the president.

Toppled: They ousted the president just one month before he was due to step down at the end of his legal term and said on national television they were suspending Mali’s constitution and dissolving its institutions

Angry response: The soldiers had complained that the civilian government had not done enough to combat a rebellion by ethnic Tuareg separatists who want to carve out a homeland in the country’s northern desert

Mutiny:The exact whereabouts of President Amadou Toumani Toure, pictured here in November, is unknown but officials in his camp and diplomats said they believed he was being protected by a pocket of loyalist soldiers

‘We will finish it this evening,’ said one soldier at an abandoned fuel station in Bamako.

The MNLA rebels, have been fighting since mid-January for an independent north.

They have pushed government soldiers out of remote towns but had not yet threatened the regional capitals of Kidal, Timbuktu and Gao.

Mali’s Tuaregs have long complained that they have been marginalised by the southern government and have staged several rebellions over the years.

Joined by young recruits and former rebels who had been integrated into the Malian army in recent years, the MNLA fighters took over several key northern towns in just two months.

Rebels pledged yesterday to take advantage of the chaos as senior civilian and military officials in northern regions were arrested by mutinous soldiers.

Sporadic gunfire rang out in Bamako late last night and the streets were largely deserted but mutinous soldiers moved around the capital on trucks, motorcycles and on foot.

A Malian officer in the northern town of Kidal said rebels had occupied the military camp in Anefis, 100 km (60 miles) to the southwest, after government forces withdrew.

‘The army has pulled back to Gao,’ a source in Timbuktu, another main town in the north, told Reuters, asking not to be named.

‘There is no longer any military leadership. (The rebels) will take the towns in the north,’ he said.

Focus: The coup is a major setback for one of the region’s few established democracies in the volatile Saharan region and the presence of the al-Qaeda affiliate now turns a local dispute into an international security issue.

The coup is a major setback for one of the region’s few established democracies in the volatile Saharan region and the presence of the al-Qaeda affiliate now turns a local dispute into an international security issue.

Even before the Tuareg rebellion, there was frustration in the West at Bamako’s unwillingness to act against the al-Qaeda allies.

Now as the government seeks military support in its fight against the Tuareg rebels, a tougher line will be demanded.

Toure, 63, a former paratrooper who seized power in 1991, had gained the nickname ‘Soldier of Democracy’ in his West African state and had been preparing to cede power in April after an election.

Mali has been under siege since Malian combatants, who had fought to defend the late Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, fled back home last year after his defeat

Mali’s neighbours, the United Nations and world powers from Paris to Washington called for a return to constitutional rule.

The regional decision-making body ECOWAS Commission said it would not recognise the junta.

The 7,000-strong army has for weeks sought better weapons to fight the rebels.

Captain Amadou Sanogo, president of the newly formed National Committee for the Return of Democracy and the Restoration of the State (CNRDR), said the poor handling of the crisis in the north was mostly to blame for the coup.

Speaking to pan-African television station Africable, Mr Sanogo, who said he received training from U.S. Marines and intelligence, pledged not to remain in power but refused to give a timeframe for restoring civilian rule.

‘Three months, 6 months, 9 months, it will depend on the structure that we put in place for me to go back to being a soldier. Someone else will do the rest,’ Mr Sanogo said.

‘We have come asking for decent living conditions and to be treated well … we will fight for this,’ he added.

Restoring state authority to the north was the priority, he said.

But, amid reports of arrests of ministers and other senior government officials, Mr Sanogo implied that those detained would face trial for alleged crimes.

‘We are not killers. I am not a killer. But the moment was right and everyone will have to face charges before the appropriate authority,’ he said.

The events that culminated in the coup began on Tuesday morning at a military camp in the capital, where Defence Minister General Sadio Gassama came for an official visit.

In his speech to the troops, the minister failed to address the grievances of the rank-and-file soldiers.

The rebellion has claimed the lives of numerous soldiers, and those sent to fight say they are not given sufficient supplies, including arms or food.

Recruits started firing into the air on Tuesday morning.

By afternoon, troops had surrounded the state television station in central Bamako, located in southwest Mali, yanking both the television and radio signals off the air for the rest of the day.

By last night, troops had started rioting at a military garrison located in the northern town of Gao, some 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometres) away.

The government has not disclosed how many government soldiers have been killed. The toll is believed to be significant and in February, military widows led a protest, publicly grilling Toure on television over his handling of the rebellion.

On state television today the putschists announced a curfew starting at dawn until further notice and the closure of the airport.

They called for calm and said violence and pillage would not be tolerated. Their spokesman, who was identified on screen as Lt Amadou Konare, said the coup was caused by the government’s incompetence in dealing with the insurgency.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2119163/Return-Gaddafi-fighters-armed-weapons-triggers-coup-Mali-soldiers-angered-governments-weak-response-rebel-group.html

This article is copyright © by admin: Sat May 18 12:33:05 UTC 2013

hello the press room

U.S. officials say Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales is expected to be formally charged Friday with 17 counts of murder in the massacre of Afghan civilians during a shooting spree in two villages in southern Kandahar province.

Officials say he will also face six charges of attempted murder and six counts of assault in connection with the March 11 shooting spree.

Bales, an 11-year military veteran, is being held at a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, in the midwestern state of Kansas. He is alleged to have walked out of his southern Afghanistan military post under cover of darkness and gunned down nine children and eight adults.

Relatives of Afghans killed in the the shooting massacre said Friday they want Bales’ trial held in Afghanistan.

The killings further strained already shaky U.S.-Afghan relations, following a series of missteps, including the inadvertent burning of Qurans at a U.S. military base near Kabul.

Bales’ civilian lawyer, John Henry Browne, has said his client was likely suffering from combat stress and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Bales, who served three tours of duty in Iraq before being deployed to Afghanistan last December, suffered a traumatic brain injury in Iraq in 2010. A day before the massacre, he witnessed one of his fellow soldiers get his leg blown off.

US Staff Sgt. Robert Bales

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/US-Staff-Sgt-Bales-to-be-Charged-with-17-Murder-Counts-143949566.html

This article is copyright © by admin: Sat May 18 12:33:05 UTC 2013