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Asia Times Online :: South Asia news - A Taliban surrender and a mass attack A Taliban surrender and a mass attack By Syed Saleem Shahzad HERAT, Afghanistan - With the focus of the Taliban's spring offensive turning increasingly toward the northwestern provinces adjoining Iran, rather than on the southwest, the next few months could prove pivotal in the ongoing insurgency against North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led forces. "The Taliban's new focus is the northwestern region, and there will be many surprises in the coming days," Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmedi told Asia Times Online by telephone. Indeed, within the space of a few hours the surprises included the surrender of 40 Taliban and a mass Taliban attack on district police outposts.

Oprah criticized for pro-Israel stance | Jerusalem Post

The War on Consciousness : "-- We are truly in a war. It is not the war we imagine we are in, which is the way our true adversaries want it. It is not a foreign war against a foreign enemy. It is a war on consciousness, a war on our own minds. The global war on terror that is being fought around the world is an embodied reflection in the material world of a deeper, more fundamental war that is going on in the realm of consciousness itself. We have the most criminal regime in all of our history wreaking unspeakable horror on the entire planet, while simultaneously waging war on the consciousness of its own citizens - US. If we aren’t aware of this, we are unwittingly playing into, supporting and complicit in the evil that is being perpetrated in our name."

The United States' new strategy in Lebanon : "On the other hand, the Lebanese army is being tried out in a role it has not been involved in since the Taif peace agreement, until now : internal repression. What is being seen is the possibility of a future confrontation between the Lebanese army and Hizbollah, which explains why the political military movement has from the outset supported the army. In a somewhat complex statement, Hizbollah has condemned the attacks of Fatah al Islam against the Lebanese army at the same time as it has criticised the government ('we feel there is someone who wants to drag the army into confrontation and bloody fighting to serve well-known projects and objectives') and asked for a political solution to the crisis to avoid more suffering for the already hard-hit Palestinian population of the camps. (8) Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbollah's Secretary General has been more explicit, saying ' the problem in the north can be solved politicall...

The World's Top 10 Military Spenders - MSNBC Wire Services - MSNBC.com

The Daily Star - Politics - Saudi Arabia comes in ninth on latest list of global arms spenders : "Saudi Arabia was ranked ninth, spending some $29 billion in 2006, which accounts for 3 percent of world expenditures on arms. The top 15 countries accounted for 83 percent of spending."

EthiopianReview.com :: View topic - Horn of Africa alliance to defeat the Woyanne terror regime : "By Elias Kifle Ethiopian Review In a recent interview with Dimtsi Woyanne Radio, Sebehat Nega, Woyanne moneyman and senior member of the politburo, said that if all Eritrean organizations combine, their effort would not add up to what the Tigrean People’s Liberation Front (Woyanne/TPLF) did for the independence of Eritrea. According to Sebehat, the position taken by the Eritrean People Liberation Front (EPLF/Shabia) had been weak in regards to the question of independence. What he was saying in effect is that EPLF has a soft heart for Ethiopia, as it demanded only limited autonomy from the central government–not full secession as demanded by Woyanne. What an astonishing statement coming from some one who is a top leader of the party that is ruling Ethiopia, albeit illegitimately. This is not a hyperbole on the part of Sebehat. His statement is, in fact, not new to those who have been...

Woyanne puppet regime in Somalia loses key towns - Ethiopian Review News : "Militia loyal to former defence leader of the defeated Islamic Courts Union Yusuf Mohamed Inda-Adde have taken control of Bulo-Mareer and Qoryoley towns in lower Shabelle region, southern Somalia on Saturday after heavy fighting with soldiers loyal to the newly appointed governor for the region."

Ethiopia: Kangaroo court convicts Ethiopian opposition leaders - Ethiopian Review News : "A court in Ethiopia has found 38 senior opposition figures guilty of charges connected to mass protests after disputed elections two years ago."

Information Clearing House Blog - Pictures Purport To Show Two U.S. Marines Beheaded and Abused : "WARNING These images depict the savagery and horror of war and should only be viewed by a mature audience"

I blame myself for our downfall in Iraq | International News | News | Telegraph : "A former American army torturer has laid bare the traumatic effects of American interrogation techniques in Iraq - on their victims and on the perpetrators themselves. Tony Lagouranis conducted mock executions, forced men and boys into agonising stress positions, kept suspects awake for weeks on end, used dogs to terrify detainees and subjected others to hypothermia. But he confesses that he was deeply scarred by the realisation that what he did has contributed to the downfall of American forces in Iraq. Mr Lagouranis, 37, suffered nightmares and anxiety attacks on his return to Chicago, where he works as a bouncer."

Bush in "Fantasyland" : "'President Bush is rushing to deploy a technology that does not work against a threat that does not exist,' Cirincione says. 'Iran is at least 5 to 10 years away from the capability to build a nuclear weapon and at least that far from having a missile that could hit Europe let alone the US. And anti-missile systems are still nowhere near working despite $150 billion spent since the 1983 Star Wars program started and years of phony tests staged to demonstrate ‘progress' and ‘success.'' "

A Catch-22 Nuclear World - Dilip Hiro and Tom Engelhardt : "Nuclear Weapons Programs Are About Regime Survival The Iranian bomb in a MAD world by Dilip Hiro "

Hirsh: After '08, Is There a Plan B for Iraq? - Newsweek Michael Hirsh - MSNBC.com Just how long is the issue of the day in Iraq-obsessed Washington. And frighteningly, no one seems more confused about the plan than Bush himself. In two separate appearances in the last week, he alternately invoked last fall’s Baker-Hamilton report—which envisioned a substantial pullout by early 2008—and America’s South Korea occupation, which has been a robust front-line presence for more than 50 years. Which is it?

The Checkpoint Women of Israel -- In These Times : "“Most of the soldiers are very angry at us,” says Banai. “They don’t like having ‘those bitches,’ as they call us, looking over their shoulders. It’s much easier to do what you want [if we weren’t there], like being able to slip up and give an old Palestinian a slap.” Machsom, founded in 2001 by three female human rights activists, does not allow men as checkpoint-watchers. They can be translators, or drivers, or checkpoint-visitors, but checkpoint-watching is the work of women."

BBC NEWS | Middle East | US pits Iraqi Sunnis against al-Qaeda : "There are growing signs that the US is increasingly turning to a new tactic in facing the Sunni-led insurgency in Iraq. "