News

Saudi King Relents: Women to get vote.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia has granted the kingdom’s women the right to vote for first time in nation-wide elections, about to happen in 2015. Observers speculate that this move is to quell the growing political unrest spreading all over the Middle East, and to placate international spectators who’ve been calling for democracy throughout the Middle East.

The king made the announcement in a yearly speech on Sunday before his advisory assembly (or Shura Council), that Saudi women will be able to run for office and cast votes in the 2015 municipal elections. Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz said that women will also be appointed to “join the all-male” Shura Council, which is selected by Abdullah. Saudi Arabia held its first-ever municipal elections in 2005. The kingdom will hold its next municipal elections on Thursday, but women will not able to vote or run for office at this time.

From a strategic stand point, King Abdullah has taken his time to give in to the demands of his people so that the Saudi Arabian Government projects an image of strength. But this new development is surely going to run afoul with the hardliners, and it could potentially cause conflicts within the Government. Intelligence sources, who wish to remain anonymous are waiting and watching to see the reaction and possible blow back this move could bring.

U.S. to deploy Predator drones in Turkey.

The U.S. is probably going to install Predator drones (made by General Atomics) on Turkish soil, Tayyip Erdogan the Turkish prime minister said on Friday. Turkey has been insistent on mounting drones in an escalating war against Kurdish rebels. United States shares drone surveillance data from northern Iraq with Ankara to aid its fight against Kurdish rebels who have bases in Iraq. The two nations have been discussing the possible deployment of Predator drones after the U.S. forces leave Iraq.

Erdogan said the two allies have arranged “in principle” the deployment of the drones in Turkey, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported. Turkey has offered to buy or lease the drones from the United States, Erdogan said. “Our negotiations will continue,” Anatolia quoted Erdogan as saying.

“The developments are moving toward an agreement.” Turkey is currently using Israeli manufactured Heron drones against the Kurdish rebels who have been fighting for autonomy in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast area since 1984. They have stepped up attacks on security forces in recent months. The Turkish government has hit back with airstrikes on suspected rebel bases in northern Iraq.
Turkish paramilitary police on Friday defused a powerful bomb thought to be planted by Kurdish rebels on a bridge in the countries southeast, and police also averted a likely attack in western resort town popular with foreign tourists. The attempted attacks came a day after police detained a suspected Kurdish rebel bomber. Kurdish rebels have stepped up attacks in Turkey intensely. Friday’s thwarted attack stoked more fears a day after a Kurdish militant group, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, took responsibility for a car bomb attack nearby a school in the Turkish capital of Ankara that killed three people and wounded 34 on Tuesday. The Turkish paramilitary police, acting on a tip, discovered 125 kilograms (275 pounds) of booby-trapped explosives planted on a highway bridge between the cities of Bingol and Elazig in the country’s southeast. The explosives, containing ammonium nitrate and C-4 plastic explosives, were stashed in four large gas canisters as well as a pressure cooker, the governor’s office in Bingol said.
The thwarted attack came a day after anti-terror squads apprehended a suspected bomber in a raid in the western holiday town of Bodrum, seizing 2.1 kilograms (4.6 pounds) of plastic explosives, unnamed police sources say. The suspect was is the prime suspect in a small bomb attack in the Mediterranean resort town of Kemer that wounded 10 people, including four Swedes on Aug. 28. Police refused to comment on the alleged arrest.

The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, which also claimed the bombing in Kemer, had promised more attacks in retaliation for what it called the Turkish government’s “war” against the Kurdish people, according to pro-Kurdish sources.

“Our cross-border operations will continue in the same way as long as there is terrorism,” Erdogan stated. Erdogan also implied making arrangements to further create a strategic relations with neighbouring Iran to fight against the Kurdish rebels. A cell of the Kurdish rebel group is also fighting against Tehran from their main base on Qandil Mountain, which sits on the Iranian-Iraqi border. “There are steps that we can jointly take together with Iran,” Erdogan said. “We already have intelligence sharing.” Erdogan said Turkey would only halt its military drive if the rebels “lay down their arms.”

The prime minister last week confirmed reports that government officials met with agents of Kurdish rebels in Europe. The secret talks, which apparently failed to produce any real results, came to light after websites this week posted an audio recording from an alleged 2010 meeting.

The rebels intensified their attacks on Turkish targets in mid-July, accusing the government of not giving in to their demands, including appeal for autonomy, and education in Kurdish language — which Turkish Government fears could divide the country along ethnic lines. In a nationwide crackdown on alleged Kurdish rebel sympathizers, police on Friday detained the mayors of the towns of Sirnak, Idil and Silopi in the Kurdish-dominated southeast, bringing the number of Kurdish suspects arrested so far in this week to more than 80, sources say.

News Corp. contagion to hit Sir Paul Stephenson.

Sir Paul Robert Stephenson the Commissioner of London’s Metropolitan Police Service is now under pressure from Prime Minister David Cameron and Mayor Boris Johnson for his decision to hire the former executive editor at News of the World Neil Wallis (who has since been arrested for his role in the News of the World phone hacking scandal), as an adviser to the Metropolitan Police Service.

The Met hired Wallis’ PR firm, Chamy Media,  (...) click here to Read On.

£94 million worth of marijuana found in Mexico.

MEXICO – The Mexican army has discovered what officials believe is the largest marijuana plantation in the nation, a top military official announced today. Gen. Alfonso Duarte Mugica has said the plantation which is six hours south of Tijuana is 168 times larger than Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium soccer field. It spans for 120 hectares (about 300 acres).

The tomatoes growing there provided good cover (...) click here to Read On.

Leon Panetta's visit to Iraq explained.

BAGHDAD — Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta traveled from a U.S. outpost in Afghanistan’s southern desert to Baghdad, where he sought to encourage Iraqi leaders to decide whether they want a residual American military presence beyond this year. He has vehemently refused to comment on whether the Obama administration favors the extension which would mean continued american military pressence in Iraq. Panetta has expressed his concern at a increased rate of American Soldier deaths caused by what American Intelligence officials believe are sophisticated explosive devices made by insurgents with backing from Iran.

Panetta prepared for talks with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other senior members to take place on Monday. The Iraqi government has been visibly politically divided even though it has been more than a year after national elections. Iraq has gone that long without defense or interior ministers, whose departments are responsible for critical security measures and peacekeeping such as military and police.

The approximately 46,000 U.S. infantry presence presently in Iraq are to soon depart (by the end of 2011) under an agreement negotiated in 2008 by the Bush administration, which went to war in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein’s government. Completely pulling out or keeping a weakened military presence in Iraq is a decision that will have serious consequences for both US and Iraq. One of President Barack Obama’s 2008 election campaign promises was to get U.S. military personnel out of Iraq. For Iraqis fed up with violence, a longer U.S. presence looks like a formula for further strife.

The White House is offering to keep up to 10,000 troops in Iraq next year, despite opposition from key Democrats who demand that Obama bring home the troops as promised.

Panetta spent Sunday afternoon at Camp Dwyer, a U.S. military base, air field and strategic command outpost (located in the Helmand River Valley, Afghanistan). He pinned Purple Heart medals on two Marines, had lunch with young officers, got a glimpse at an Army Black Hawk medevac unit and quizzed an Afghan army officer on commanding a unit that specializes in detecting land mines and roadside bombs.

The 73-year-old Panetta, has been the Secretary of Defense since July 1 after 2½ years of serving as the director of the CIA, he has had a reputation of holding up well under the intense pressure. But today he seemed to lose track of his current job title. While giving a pep talk to a group of Marines, he said he has always valued public service, from his time in the Army in the 1960s to eight terms as a congressman and his years in the Clinton White House, “and now as director of the CIA.”

At issue in Baghdad is whether the Iraqi government will request that the U.S. negotiate a troop extension. The scheduled departure of virtually all U.S. troops by Dec. 31 will leave the country with significant gaps in its ability to defend its own airspace and borders.

Panetta’s predecessor at the Pentagon, Robert Gates, visited Iraq in April to push for an early decision and make clear that Washington believes an extension is in both countries’ interest. Panetta, however, has seemed less willing to commit to a residual force. Speaking to reporters before boarding his plane for the flight to Iraq from Camp Dwyer in southern Afghanistan, Panetta was asked whether he intended to encourage the Iraqis to request an extension. “I’ll encourage them to make a decision” about what they want, he replied, leaving open the question of what the White House would accept. Panetta said he thinks U.S. should consider any Iraqi request and he said Obama “feels we ought to consider it as well.” Obama has said repeatedly over the past year that he is responsibly ending the Iraq war and bringing U.S. troops home this year.

Panetta said he also intended to urge Iraqi leaders to do more to go after Shiite militia groups that are using Iranian-supplied weapons to step up attacks on U.S. troops. The U.S. death toll of 15 in June was the highest for any month in the past two years, Panetta said. “That has concerned us,” he said, adding that Iraqi Shiite militiamen using Iranian weapons need to be targeted more aggressively. Pentagon officials believe the Iranians are providing more arms, such as airborne makeshift “lob bombs” and explosively formed projectiles, to give the impression of driving U.S. troops out of Iraq. Panetta came to his new job with links to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, even if he was not directly involved in military strategy. He visited both countries during his CIA tenure. Both wars have an unusually heavy intelligence component, with U.S. special operations teams taking on al-Qaida and other insurgents.

One concern about the plan to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq by the end of this year is that Iraq’s intelligence services are not yet up to the task of adequately supporting counterterrorism forces. Panetta was a member of the Iraq Study Group, created by Congress in 2006 to consider a better way forward in a war that was spiraling out of control at the time. Coincidentally, Panetta served on the group with Gates until Gates quit because he was picked to replace Donald H. Rumsfeld as defense secretary.

Panetta signed off on the group’s final report, which concluded that it was time to get all U.S. ground combat brigades out of Iraq, leaving troops to train the Iraqi army and to undertake strikes against al-Qaida cells. President George W. Bush took a decidedly different course, ordering troop reinforcements to Iraq as part of a new strategy that is widely credited for turning around the war.