| 2009-01-06 |
2008-10-30
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The next administration needs to do better. The place to begin is with the candid recognition that the Global War on Terror has effectively ceased to exist.
-- Andrew Bacevich, professor of history and international relations at Boston University, in his article 'Expanding War, Contracting Meaning'
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| 2009-01-03 |
2008-12-30
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Firing rockets into civilian areas with the intent to harm and terrorize Israelis has no justification whatsoever, regardless of Israel's actions in Gaza...At the same time, Israel should not target individuals and institutions in Gaza solely because they are part of the Hamas-run political authority, including ordinary police. Only attacks on military targets are permissible, and only in a manner that minimizes civilian casualties.
-- Joe Stork, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Middle East and North Africa division
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| 2008-12-30 |
2008-02-24
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Pakistan's state-owned telecommunications company cut YouTube off the global Web
Pakistan's government ordered YouTube to be blocked because of offensive material, apparently a video depicting the cartoons about Muhammad that had been posted in a Danish newspaper.
Some reports have said the video featured several minutes of a film made by Dutch politician Geert Wilders, an outspoken critic of Islam.
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| 2008-12-26 |
2004-04
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“The truth is, there is no Islamic army or terrorist group called Al Qaida. And any informed intelligence officer knows this. But there is a propaganda campaign to make the public believe in the presence of an identified entity representing the ‘devil’ only in order to drive the ‘TV watcher’ to accept a unified international leadership for a war against terrorism. The country behind this propaganda is the US and the lobbyists for the US war on terrorism are only interested in making money.”
-- Pierre-Henry Bunel, a former agent for French military intelligence, in an Apr.-Jun. 2004 article
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| 2008-12-26 |
2001-12
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In France, Maj. Pierre-Henri Bunel was convicted by a secret French military court of passing classified documents that identified potential NATO bombing targets in Serbia to a Serbian agent during the Kosovo war in 1998. Bunel's case was transferred from a civilian court to keep the details of the case classified
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| 2008-12-26 |
2004-04
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" . . . In the Third World the general opinion is that the countries using weapons of mass destruction for economic purposes in the service of imperialism are in fact 'rogue states," specially the US and other NATO countries."
-- Pierre-Henry Bunel, a former agent for French military intelligence, in an Apr.-Jun. 2004 article
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| 2008-12-26 |
2004-04
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"In the mid-1980s, Al Qaida was a database located in computer and dedicated to the communications of the Islamic Conference's secretariat.
-- Pierre-Henry Bunel, a former agent for French military intelligence, in an Apr.-Jun. 2004 article
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| 2008-12-25 |
2004
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In India, the Hindu Right lost the election to a Congress-led alliance.
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| 2008-12-25 |
2003
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Israel and India signed a military-arms pact that included a specific training mission. Israeli forces would train four new Special Forces battalions of the Indian Army; other battalions would learn the practice of “irregular warfare” and work with the Northern Command in Kashmir.
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| 2008-12-25 |
2000-09
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In India, a team of Israeli counter-terrorism experts (invited by Advani) toured Jammu and Kashmir.
Led by Eli Katzir, an aide to Prime Minister Ehud Barak, the team conducted a feasibility study of India’s military security needs and offered suggestions for Israeli assistance.
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| 2008-12-25 |
2000-06
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“In recent years we have been facing a growing internal security problem.
We are concerned with cross-border terrorism launched by proxies of Pakistan. We share with Israel a common perception of terrorism as a menace, even more so when coupled with religious fundamentalism. Our mutual determination to combat terrorism is the basis for discussions with Israel, whose reputation in dealing with such problems is quite successful.”
-- L. K. Advani, the Home Minister of India, at a lecture at the Indian Embassy, during his visit to Israel
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| 2008-12-25 |
1995
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In Israel, L. K. Advani (the Home Minister of India, and a brigand of the Hard Right), happily received Netanyahu’s (then Prime Minister) new book, Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorism.
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| 2008-12-25 |
1992-02-29
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Israel “developed expertise in dealing with terrorism at the field level and also internationally, at the political and legal level, and would be happy to share it with India.”
-- Benjamin Netanyahu, Government spokesperson, told India Abroad
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| 2008-12-25 |
1992-02
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Israel’s Director-General of Police Ya’acov Lapidot visited India for an international police convention, and returned to Israel with news that the Indian government wanted Israeli expertise on counter-terror operations.
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| 2008-12-25 |
1992-02
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In India, Defense Minister Sharad Pawar called for Indo-Israeli cooperation on counter-terrorism.
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| 2008-12-25 |
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India is now Israel’s largest arms buyer.
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| 2008-12-25 |
2002
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India and Israel agreement to form an Indo-Israeli Joint Working Group on Counter-Terrorism, a long-standing attempt to create an entente between the armies of India and Israel, and to consolidate the immense arms trade between the two countries.
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| 2008-12-25 |
2007 / 2008
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Between 2007 and early 2008, all three Indian defense chiefs visited Israel.
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| 2008-12-25 |
2008-01
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India’s Navy Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta spent time in Jerusalem, meeting IDF heads Gabi Askhenazi and Buchris.
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| 2008-12-25 |
2007-06
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Major General Moshe Kaplinsky brought a team of IDF officers to Jammu and Kashmir, where they met senior Indian officials at the 16 Corps headquarters at Nagrota in the Jammu region near the India-Pakistan border. Kaplinsky’s team discussed the problem of infiltration, how militants from the Pakistani side enter the India. The 720-kilometer barbed wire fence, an echo of Israel’s wall, has not prevented the transit of militants. Kaplinsky came to push other, high-tech means, such as night-vision devices, to help interdict militants. En route to Israel, Kaplinsky’s team went to the Mumbai-based Western Naval Command.
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| 2008-12-25 |
2007-02
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Israel’s top army official, General Avi Mizrahi, visits India.
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| 2008-12-25 |
2008-09-10
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Israel’s top army official, General Avi Mizrahi landed in New Delhi. He met with India’s leading army, navy and air force officials before leaving for a short visit to Jammu and Kashmir. Mizrahi, a long-standing officer in the Israeli Defense Force, lectured senior Indian army officers at the Akhnur Military Base, near the Indo-Pakistan border, on the theme of counterterrorism. Later, in Srinagar, Mizrahi and his Indian counterpart, Army Chief Deepak Kapoor agreed to joint counterterrorism activities, notably for Israeli commandoes to train Indian soldiers in urban combat.
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| 2008-12-25 |
2008-11-27
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In India, in the middle of the Mumbai terrorist attacks, Imran Babar, one of the terrorists, called India TV from Nariman House. He used a cellphone that belonged to Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, the co-director of the Chabad-Lubavitch Center. The following day, Babar and his associates killed Rabbi Holtzberg and his wife, Rivka. The phone call he made was not long. Babar opened with a comment that made little sense to most people: “You call [Israel’s] army staff to visit Kashmir. Who are they to come to J &K [Jammu and Kashmir]? This is a matter between us and Hindus, the Hindu government. Why does Israel come here?”
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| 2008-12-25 |
2008-02
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in East Timor, rebel soldiers carried out an unsuccessful attempt to kill President Jose Ramos Horta, who was wounded and flown to Australia for surgery. Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped injury in the attack.
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| 2008-12-25 |
2008-12
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East Timor remains on the brink of anarchy and could easily slide back into violence
The country's dysfunctional police force, divided political leadership and weak economy has left it vulnerable to rapid political collapse
-- According to a report by the UN's Department of Peacekeeping Operations
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| 2008-12-25 |
2006
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In East Timor, the capital Dili exploded into violence when a mutiny in the armed forces pitted East against West, resulting in dozens of deaths and leaving tens of thousands of people homeless.
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| 2008-12-24 |
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Iran will send "peace-keeping" troops into Iraq at the behest of the Shia factions.
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| 2008-12-23 |
2008-05-23
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At a summit in Brazil, the leaders of 12 South American nations (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela) created the Union of South American Nations. Unasur is a regional body aimed at boosting economic and political integration in the region.
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| 2008-12-22 |
2003-12
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In Japan, the government announces decision to install "purely defensive" US-made missile shield.
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| 2008-12-22 |
2006-07
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The last contingent of Japanese troops leaves Iraq.
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| 2008-12-22 |
2004-02
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Non-combat soldiers from Japan arrive in Iraq in first Japanese deployment in combat zone since World War II.
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| 2008-12-22 |
2008-06
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Japan and China reach a deal for the joint development of a gas field in the East China Sea, resolving a four-year-old dispute.
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| 2008-12-22 |
2008-11
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General Toshio Tamogami, head of Japan's air force, loses his job after writing an essay seeking to justify Japan?s role in the second world war.
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| 2008-12-20 |
2008-12-17
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"If it built even a primitive nuclear weapon like the type that destroyed Hiroshima, Iran would not hesitate to load it on a ship, arm it with a detonator operated by GPS and sail it into a vital port on the east coast of North America."
-- Ehud Barak, Defense Minister of Israel, speaking at a conference of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University
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| 2008-12-20 |
2003-03-31
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Frank Koza, chief of staff in the 'Regional Targets' section of the NSA sent a memo with orders to staff at the agency to step up its surveillance operations 'particularly directed at... UN Security Council Members (minus US and GBR, of course)' to provide up-to-the-minute intelligence for Bush officials on the voting intentions of UN members regarding the issue of Iraq.
The memorandum makes clear that the target of the heightened surveillance efforts are the delegations from Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Mexico, Guinea and Pakistan at the UN headquarters in New York - the so-called 'Middle Six' delegations whose votes are being fought over by the pro-war party, led by the US and Britain, and the party arguing for more time for UN inspections, led by France, China and Russia.
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| 2008-12-20 |
2003-01-27
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UN's chief weapons inspector Hans Blix produced his interim report on Iraqi compliance with UN resolution 1441.
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| 2008-12-19 |
2008-12
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Pentagon resources and U.S. troops may be used if needed to quell protests and bank runs during an e
"Widespread civil violence inside the United States would force the defense establishment to reorient priorities in extremis to defend basic domestic order and human security."
-- U.S. Army War College's Strategic Institute in a report
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| 2008-12-19 |
1961
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Experiment published by Yale University professor Stanley Milgram
In the experiment volunteers were asked to deliver electric "shocks" to other people if they answered certain questions incorrectly.
Milgram found that, after hearing an actor cry out in pain at 150 volts, 82.5 percent of participants continued administering shocks, most to the maximum 450 volts.
The experiment surprised psychologists and no one has tried to replicate it because of the distress suffered by many of the volunteers who believed they were shocking another person.
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| 2008-12-18 |
2007-05-10
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“What sets us apart from our enemies in this fight… is how we behave. In everything we do, we must observe the standards and values that dictate that we treat noncombatants and detainees with dignity and respect. While we are warriors, we are also all human beings”
-- General David Petraeus
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| 2008-12-18 |
2008-12-15
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"I was aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the process cleared, as the agency in effect came in and wanted to know what they could and couldn't do. And they talked to me, as well as others, to explain what they wanted to do. And I supported it."
-- -- Dick Cheney, Vice-President USA, in an interview with ABC News in response to the question: "Did you authorize the tactics that were used against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?"
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| 2008-12-18 |
2008-12-15
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"On the question of so-called torture, we don't do torture. We never have. It's not something that this administration subscribes to. Again, we proceeded very cautiously. We checked. We had the Justice Department issue the requisite opinions in order to know where the bright lines were that you could not cross.
The professionals involved in that program were very, very cautious, very careful -- wouldn't do anything without making certain it was authorized and that it was legal. And any suggestion to the contrary is just wrong."
-- Dick Cheney, Vice-President USA, in an interview with ABC News
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| 2008-12-18 |
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Pakistan's military-age population (men of military age) is about 20 million.
This is far greater than those of other Muslim military powers in the region.
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| 2008-12-18 |
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Pakistan has one of the world's youngest populations.
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| 2008-12-18 |
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Turkey will be a failed state ...
... the current regime in Turkey will collapse
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| 2008-12-16 |
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"Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from men."
-- Ayn Rand
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| 2008-12-16 |
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And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
-- Wlliam Butler Yeats, The Second Coming
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| 2008-12-16 |
2008-12-09
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"Preventive action must be taken immediately to offset the persisting and wide-ranging violations of the fundamental human right to life, and in view of the emerging situation that is producing a humanitarian catastrophe that is unfolding day by day.
Israel still maintains its Gaza siege in its full fury, allowing only barely enough food and fuel to enter to stave off mass famine and disease
Such a policy of collective punishment initiated by Israel to punish Gazans for political developments within the Gaza Strip constitutes a continuing flagrant and massive violation of international humanitarian law."
-- Richard Falk, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, in a statement
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| 2008-12-16 |
2008
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"The most significant reality was that the bomb promoted a culture of violence which . . . acquired the form of a monster with innumerable heads of terror
[ ... ]
Because of this bomb, we can definitely destroy India and be destroyed in its response. But its function is limited to this."
-- Pervez Hoodbhoy, Pakistani nuclear physicist
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| 2008-12-14 |
1978
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The USA vetoes a United Nations resolutions that condemnes the Israeli human rights record in occupied territories (97 to 3).
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| 2008-12-14 |
1978
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The USA vetoes a United Nations resolutions that criticises the living conditions of the Palestinians (110 to 2).
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