Archive for July 19th, 2007
U.S. demands Pakistan act against militants, threatens intervention
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An ambush of a military convoy that killed 17 troops near the Afghan border Wednesday pushed the death toll in a series of attacks to at least 101 Pakistanis in the past five days — and brought President Pervez Musharraf, according to a local newspaper headline, to a “Moment of Truth.”
The Bush administration, after publicly demanding that Musharraf rein in militants linked to al Qaida, on Wednesday threatened to launch attacks into Pakistani territory if it sees fit.
“We certainly do not rule out options, and we retain the option especially of striking actionable targets,” said White House spokesman Tony Snow. “But it is clearly of the utmost importance to go in there and deal with the problem in the tribal areas.”
Facing domestic political pressure for staying in power while in uniform — he is also the nation’s top general — Musharraf has relied heavily on the Bush administration as a source of political support. But with Washington now demanding that Musharraf use force in tribal areas, he is struggling to appear decisive while avoiding a civilian bloodbath or more military carnage.
Musharraf recently moved thousands of Pakistani troops to volatile tribal strongholds like North Waziristan, where a Taliban council said earlier this week it was abandoning a peace deal with the government. It was in that area that a large group of gunmen opened fire on troops Wednesday, killing 17 soldiers and wounding 13, according to military officials.
It was unclear how the militants were able to kill so many soldiers. One military official said a roadside bomb hit a convoy before the shooting started, and another said that snipers were used. Of the 101 Pakistanis killed since Saturday, 79 have been security personnel or recruits slain in tribal regions.
The situation would seem to call for a crushing military response, especially in a part of the world where appearing weak or hesitant is often taken as an opportunity to attack.
But some Pakistanis worry that the military could be stepping into a trap, that to open up a full military assault would only embolden hardcore Islamists in an area famed for supplying the jihadist fighters who helped defeat the Soviet Union in Afghanistan during the 1980s, and who are currently battling U.S. and NATO forces in that same country.
At the same time, the need for some sort of a crackdown has become increasingly apparent. The latest U.S. intelligence reports say the border regions have become a sanctuary for al Qaida and Taliban leadership planning future attacks against the United States and its allies.
Assistant Secretary of State Richard Boucher made it clear at a press briefing in Washington that while the White House supports long-term development of the tribal regions — the United States has pledged $150 million a year for the next five years to help the Pakistani government do so — there is a strong desire for military intervention.
“I think first and foremost we have to remember that some military action is necessary, and will probably have to be taken,” Boucher said Tuesday.
Yet recent evidence suggests that sending in the army to confront militants in Pakistan may lead others to take up arms.
When special commando units cinched their cordon around an Islamabad mosque last week, several Pakistani religious leaders warned that a stack of dead bodies in a place of worship — no matter how radical — would risk tumult. The commandos went ahead with their raid, and at least 75 people inside the mosque compound — hardcore Islamic fighters and innocents alike — were killed in two days of heavy fighting.
The operation wrapped up Wednesday, and by Saturday the apparent backlash had begun.
Troops across the border regions were targeted with suicide bombers, machine-gun fire and roadside explosions.
“People in that area are really angry and annoyed with what happened” at the Islamabad mosque, said retired Lt. Gen. Hamid Gul. “If our military moves in there it will have to fight its way through and that will be very bad — you cannot do reconstruction in that sort of environment, and you will lose the battle for hearts and minds.”
Many analysts here worry that if the military takes too strong a role, it would risk killing innocents and help al Qaida and Taliban leaders win more support in local villages, paving the way for a push into outlying areas.
“You can’t just start bombing and targeting areas with civilians living around there,” said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, a top Pakistani military spokesman. “It would be playing right into the hands of the militants and extremists.”
A large Pakistani military operation in the tribal regions, coupled with American officials’ calls for action, could lead many Pakistanis to believe that Musharraf is acting as a U.S. surrogate, said analysts and officials in Islamabad. That in turn, they said, would make it easier for radical Islamists to legitimize terrorist attacks as strikes against a Western conspiracy to control an Islamic state.
“The U.S. lawmakers are absolutely oblivious of the ground realities,” said Gul, the retired general. But, Gul said, Musharraf’s political base has been badly shaken recently — by the controversial suspension of the Supreme Court’s chief justice, and then the mosque raid — and he might bend to American pressure to launch large-scale military strikes in the border region.
“He is so weak internally that he needs the American support,” Gul said.
It’s one of the few things about which many officials in both the government and in opposition parties agree.
“The more the United States approves of such actions, the more problems we have with the public,” said one senior Pakistani government official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of U.S.-Pakistan relations. “It needs to be purely our own internal matter.”
Imran Khan, a former Pakistani cricket star turned political upstart who has been vocal in his criticism of Musharraf, said approximately the same.
“Extremism is rising, because you don’t fight extremism with a man perceived as an American stooge, you don’t fight extremism with suppression — you fight it with a genuine democratic process,” said Khan, a parliament member. “The tribal areas are out of his control, whatever leverage he had is gone now.”
The violence has not been limited to the mountain passes of Pakistan’s borders.
On Wednesday, at least 15 people were killed and dozens were wounded by a suicide bomber at a political rally in Islamabad. The scene was a panicked rush of shattered glass, pools of blood and police officers picking up bomb fragments and flesh. Witnesses said the bomber detonated near a group of traffic police who were keeping an eye on the crowd.
One man being led out of a local hospital, after seeing the dead and wounded, sagged into his friends’ arms and wailed that “Musharraf is a dog.” A policeman inside the hospital was lying in his own blood, and missing both legs. He said nothing.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/world/story/18140.html
Comments : The Plan for the US is to create a new state with a part of pakistan and a part of Afghanistan, in the place called warzasistan and to make civil war betweent shiaa and sunnis in pakistan in order to neutralise the Paks A-Bomb, don’t worry Al-CIAda is in charge for anothers blacks opérations. See the US futurMap of central Asia.
Leo
Bear Stearns Warns Hedge Fund Investors of Total Loss
Bear Stearns Warns Hedge Fund Investors of Total Loss (Update1)
By Yalman Onaran
July 17 (Bloomberg) — Bear Stearns Cos. told investors in one of its hedge funds that they won’t get any money back after creditors forced it to sell assets at depressed prices, according to a letter sent by the firm.
While a second fund still contains “sufficient assets to cover the $1.4 billion it owes the New York-based firm, there’s “very little value left for the investors, Bear Stearns said in the two-page letter, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News from a person involved in the matter. Bear Stearns bailed out that fund last month with $1.6 billion in emergency funding.
The situation underscores the severity of the shakeout in collateralized debt obligations, securities that the funds used to bet on subprime mortgage loans. Bear Stearns said in the letter that the funds faced “unprecedented declines” in bonds that were rated AAA or AA, the two top investment grades.
“That has implications for credit weakness in the next several days and weeks, said Peter Plaut, an analyst at New York-based hedge fund Sanno Point Capital Management. “There’s going to be more risk aversion.
Bear Stearns spokeswoman Elizabeth Ventura declined to comment.
Shares of Bear Stearns have dropped 14 percent this year, sliding further as the crisis in subprime mortgages deepened and the two funds flirted with collapse. The risk of owning corporate bonds issued by Bear Stearns surged today to the highest since November 2002, according to credit default swap traders.
Borrowed Money
The fund that now has nothing left for investors, the High- Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage Fund, had $638 million of capital as of March 31, according to performance reports sent to clients at the time. The second fund, called the High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Fund, had $925 million.
Both funds made leveraged bets in an effort to boost returns. The enhanced fund borrowed about $11 billion, or almost 20 times its capital. Its sister fund, the one Bear Stearns bailed out last month, borrowed almost $9 billion.
That second fund has lost about 91 percent of its value this year, according to a person with direct knowledge of its performance who declined to be identified because the figures aren’t public.
“During June, the funds experienced significant declines in the value of their assets resulting in a loss of net asset value, Bear Stearns said in today’s letter. “In light of these returns, we will seek an orderly wind-down of the funds over time.
To contact the reporter on this story: Yalman Onaran in New York at yonaran@bloomberg.net
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&refer=home&sid=aTWcpRkJovJ0
Dollar Slumps to Record Low Versus Euro on Bear Stearns Losses
By David McIntyre and Stanley White
Wait Until September
Any gains in the yen may be limited by speculation the Bank of Japan will delay raising interest rates while it gauges the impact of subprime loan defaults. The U.S. is Japan’s largest export market.
Some BOJ board members said it’s necessary to watch the U.S. housing market, according to minutes released today from a meeting held June 14-15. Some policy makers also said lower oil prices are placing “stronger downward pressure” on consumer prices, the minutes showed.
The central bank’s nine board members voted unanimously at that meeting to leave interest rates at 0.5 percent. The BOJ decided 8-1 to keep policy on hold at a meeting July 12.
“The market has priced in a rate increase in August, but the BOJ may not move until September, said Kengo Suzuki, a currency strategist at Shinko Securities Co. in Tokyo. “The minutes show more uncertainty about the U.S. economy and Japanese inflation. The yen could be sold to 124 against the dollar and 174 per euro by year-end, he said.
To contact the reporter on this story: David McIntyre in Sydney at dmcintyre2@bloomberg.net ; Stanley White in Tokyo at swhite28@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: July 17, 2007 22:44 EDT
bloomberg.com
Goldman, JPMorgan Saddled With Debt They Can’t Sell
Goldman, JPMorgan Saddled With Debt They Can’t Sell (Update2)
By Caroline Salas and Miles Weiss
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JPMorgan logo
July 17 (Bloomberg) — Goldman Sachs Group Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and the rest of Wall Street are stuck with at least $11 billion of loans and bonds they can’t readily sell.
The banks have had to dig into their own pockets to finance parts of at least five leveraged buyouts over the past month because of the worst bear market in high-yield debt in more than two years, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Bankers, who just a few months ago boasted that demand for high-yield assets was so great that they would have no problem raising debt for a $100 billion LBO, are now paying for their overconfidence. The cost of tying up their own capital may curb earnings and stem the flood of LBOs, which generated a record $8.4 billion in fees during the first half of 2007, according to Brad Hintz, the former chief financial officer at New York-based Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.
“The private equity firms, being very tough negotiators, are unlikely to let the banks off the hook, said Martin Fridson, chief executive officer of high-yield research firm FridsonVision LLC in New York. “They’ll say that’s your problem and that’s why we’re paying you: To take risk.
As the market began to turn sour last month, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup Inc., Lehman and Wachovia Corp. had to buy $725 million of bonds that Goodlettsville, Tennessee-based Dollar General Corp. was selling to finance Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. purchase of the company for $6.9 billion. All of the securities firms are based in New York, except Wachovia, which is located in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Bonds Tumble
Those bonds are probably worth 94 cents on the dollar, or $43.5 million less than when they were sold on June 28, according to Justin Monteith, an analyst at high-yield research firm KDP Investment Advisors in Montpelier, Vermont. KKR completed the acquisition of Dollar General on July 9.
Bear Stearns Cos. strategists estimate that about $290 billion of deals still need to get funded, including those of Greenwood Village, Colorado-based credit-card processor First Data Corp. and energy company TXU Corp. of Dallas.
The question is “how much yield are the brokerage firms going to have to eat, said Hintz, who is now an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York. “What they’ve committed to is not current trading rates in the market. If I have a problem it doesn’t mean I can’t place the problem, but it’s going to cause a mark-to-market loss.
Record Sales
Acquisitions by private equity firms such as New York’s KKR and Blackstone Group LP helped push sales of high-yield bonds and loans worldwide up more than 70 percent during the first half of the year to a record $708 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. High-yield, or junk, bonds are those rated below Baa3 by Moody’s Investors Service and BBB- by Standard & Poor’s.
The investment banking fees generated by LBOs in the first half amounted to almost two-thirds of the $12.8 billion paid by LBO firms to Wall Street in 2006, data compiled by Freeman & Co. and Thomson Financial show. In the race to win deals, the five largest U.S. investment banks more than tripled their lending commitments to non-investment grade borrowers during the past year to $174 billion, according to their regulatory filings.
KKR co-founder Henry Kravis in May called it the “golden era” of buyouts at a conference in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The extra yield investors demanded to own junk bonds rather than Treasuries shrank to a record low of 2.41 percentage points in June from the peak of more than 10 percentage points in 2002, according to index data from New York-based Merrill Lynch & Co. The spread has since widened to 3.07 percentage points.
No Escape
For loans rated four or five levels below investment grade, the spread over the London interbank offered rate shrank to 2.12 percentage points in February from more than 4 percentage points in 2003. It has since widened to 2.72 percentage points.
Some bankers even speculated that $100 billion LBO was possible, a scenario that is now “definitely” off the table, said Stephen Antczak, high-yield strategist at UBS AG in Stamford, Connecticut. Wall Street’s confidence in its ability to finance just about any deal led buyout firms to remove clauses in their purchase agreements that would allow them to back out if their banks couldn’t come up with the financing.
Just three of the 40 biggest pending LBOs have an escape clause that lets the buyer back out if funding can’t be arranged, said Mike Belin, U.S. head of equity derivatives strategy at Deutsche Bank AG in New York. A couple of years ago, a majority of deals included a financing contingency, Belin said, based on his research.
“If you were a credit officer or a risk manager who said `No’ to virtually anything over the last few years you were wrong, Hintz said. “So did they take it too far? Well, yeah. But that’s part of any cycle. The issue is did they take it too far and is it going to hurt their earnings.
Tribune Clause
Tribune Co.’s agreement to be bought by billionaire Sam Zell is one of the three acquisitions with an escape clause. Zell or Tribune can back out of the purchase if funding can’t be obtained “on the terms set forth in the financing commitments” or on similar terms, according to regulatory filings.
Zell agreed to pay $25 million to Tribune, owner of the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, should the financing fall through. Tribune spokesman Gary Weitman said banks have “fully committed” to the deal.
The market for high-yield bonds and junk-rated, or leveraged loans began to crack in June as concerns that LBOs were becoming too risky coincided with a slump in the market for subprime mortgages that caused the near-collapse of two Bear Stearns hedge funds.
Junk Losses
Junk bonds lost 1.61 percent last month, the most since March 2005 when General Motors Corp. forecast its biggest quarterly loss since 1992 and the debt lost 2.73 percent, according to Merrill Lynch.
Investors refused to buy bonds to finance purchases of companies including Dollar General and ServiceMaster Co., forcing bankers to either buy the bonds themselves or extend a loan to make up for the securities that weren’t sold.
In most deals, investment banks promise to provide loans to the buyer. They then seek other lenders to take pieces of the loans and find buyers for bonds. When buyers vanish, the banks must either buy the bonds themselves or provide a bridge loan to the borrower, tying up capital that would otherwise be used to finance more deals. The banks typically parcel out portions of bridge loans to reduce their risk.
Lending Commitments
Citigroup, the biggest U.S. bank, reported that its securities and banking division recorded an expense of $286 million in the first quarter to increase loan-loss reserves to account for higher commitments to leveraged transactions and an increase in the average length of loans.
Lehman reported on July 10 that its commitments for “contingent acquisition facilities more than doubled in the quarter ended May 31 to $43.9 billion, exceeding its stock market capitalization of $39.1 billion. Lehman said its commitments contain “flexible pricing features that allow it to charge more if market conditions deteriorate.
Goldman Sachs more than doubled its lending commitments to non-investment grade borrowers to $71.5 billion in the year ended May 31.
Citigroup spokeswoman Danielle Romero-Apsilos, Lehman spokeswoman Tasha Pelio and Goldman Sachs spokesman Michael Duvally, either declined to comment or didn’t return phone calls.
ServiceMaster Bonds
JPMorgan failed to sell $1.15 billion of bonds for Memphis, Tennessee-based ServiceMaster on July 3. The banks provided ServiceMaster, the maker of TruGreen and Terminix lawn-care products, with a bridge loan to make up for the failed bond sale. ServiceMaster is being bought by private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice Inc. for $4.7 billion.
KKR and New York-based Clayton Dubilier this month completed their $7.1 billion purchase of Columbia, Maryland-based US Foodservice, a unit of Dutch supermarket company Royal Ahold NV, even though junk bond investors refused to buy $1.55 billion of bonds and $3.37 billion of loans to finance the deal, according to estimates from New York-based Bear Stearns.
Deutsche Bank led the bond offering, which included $1 billion of “toggle” bonds that would have allowed US Foodservice to pay interest in either cash or additional debt. KKR and Clayton Dubilier relied on loans to complete the deal, according to S&P’s Leveraged Commentary and Data unit.
`Beyond Our Risk’
“Many of these things are beyond our risk desires,” said Bruce Monrad, who manages $1.5 billion of high-yield bonds at Northeast Investment Management Inc. in Boston.
JPMorgan spokesman Adam Castellani, Deutsche bank spokesman Scott Helfman and Morgan Stanley spokeswoman Jennifer Sala either declined to comment or didn’t return calls. All the banks are based in New York, except Deutsche Bank, which is in Frankfurt.
Banks can always sell the debt if demand increases. Meanwhile, they may have to report a loss from the decline in value of their holdings, a process known as marking to market.
Banks could also lose money should they have to offer discounts on loans in order to syndicate the deals, said Tanya Azarchs, a banking industry analyst at New York-based S&P.
“I don’t think it’s going to cause banks to fail or even lead to downgrades, Azarchs said. “But I do think there will be a little indigestion and lower earnings.
The biggest concern is “hung deals, where a lender is left holding a large loan to a single borrower, said Azarchs. “Those traditionally in all the prior credit cycles have caused the greatest amount of grief for the large syndicating banks, Azarchs said.
In 1989, First Boston Corp., now part of Credit Suisse, made a bridge loan for a buyout of Ohio Mattress Co., the predecessor to Sealy Corp. The junk bond market collapsed before First Boston could refinance the loan, and the securities firm ended up owning a big stake in the bedding manufacturer.
The deal became known as “Burning Bed.”
TXU, First Data
“The thing about this business is memories are two seconds long,” said James Schell, a private equity attorney in the New York office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP.
Banks led by Citigroup committed to extend $37.2 billion in credit to fund the purchase of TXU by a group that included KKR, Fort Worth, Texas-based TPG Inc. and Goldman Sachs’s private equity group. The financing will comprise $25.9 billion of term loans and $11.3 billion in an unsecured bridge loan.
Credit Suisse, based in Zurich, is leading banks in the U.S. that have agreed to provide KKR with $16 billion of loans for its $26.1 billion takeover of First Data. The plans include an $8 billion bond sale, which is scheduled for August or September, according to a Banc of America Securities LLC research report.
For firms such as KKR or Blackstone, both based in New York, the tighter credit environment may make their acquisitions less profitable and even change the way they go after future targets. Mark Semer, a spokesman for KKR, declined to comment.
“The underwriters are going to be forced to provide bridge loans and it’s getting pretty ugly, but Wall Street deserves to get smacked around a little, said William Featherston, managing director in high-yield at J. Giordano Securities LLC in Stamford, Connecticut. “It’s been easy for so long.
To contact the reporters on this story: Caroline Salas in New York at csalas1@bloomberg.net ; Miles Weiss in Washington at mweiss@bloomberg.net
bloomberg
Russia denies violating U.K. airspace ?
UK fighters ’sent to meet Russian bombers’
Russia denies bombers planned to enter UK airspace.
From correspondents in London
July 18, 2007 09:28pm
ROYAL Air Force fighter jets were scrambled to intercept two Russian bombers heading for British airspace, The Times said today, prompting fierce denials of brinkmanship from Moscow.
The newspaper said two RAF Tornados from its rapid reaction force took off from RAF base Leeming in northern England to confront the two Tu95 “Bear” bombers after they were shadowed by F-16s from the Royal Norwegian Air Force.
An unnamed RAF spokesman was quoted as saying that the Russian bombers, based near the northern port city of Murmansk in the Arctic Circle, turned back before they reached British airspace.
The Times, which said the incident happened yesterday, said there was no evidence to suggest it was linked to Britain’s planned expulsion of four diplomats over Russia’s stance on the Alexander Litvinenko affair.
Russia yesterday promised a “targeted and appropriate” response to Britain’s move, prompted by Moscow’s refusal to extradite an ex-KGB agent suspected of poisoning the outspoken dissident in London last year.
But the daily said it smacked of “old-fashioned sabre-rattling” on the part of the Russian military and revived “the spirit of the Cold War” in the North Atlantic.
No-one at the defence ministry in London was immediately available for comment when contacted by AFP but there were swift denials from Russia.
Air force colonel Alexander Drobyshevsky was quoted by the news agency Interfax as saying: “Claims that Russian bombers were headed for British airspace don’t correspond with reality.
“Long-distance planes were making planned flights over international waters. These kind of flights have been and are carried out to train long-distance flight crews.”
Air force general-colonel Alexander Zelin told Interfax that long-distance planes hold regular flight exercises, including bomb and rocket launches.
But he added: “We plan our bomber flights in international airspace according to our military preparation programme at least six months in advance. And we warn the relevant countries in advance.
“These aren’t shows of force or sabre-rattling, but planned military preparations. What’s more, we make timely applications to use international air corridors.”
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22095562-38200,00.html
Russia denies bombers planned to enter UK airspace
Reuters
Published: Wednesday, July 18, 2007MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s air force commander denied on Wednesday two of his long-range bombers intended to enter British air space on Tuesday, saying the planes were on a training flight unconnected to recent diplomatic tension between London and Moscow.
Britain’s Royal Air Force scrambled fighter jets to intercept the Tupolev “Bear” bombers as they headed towards British air space, but a Defence Ministry spokesman in London said the bombers turned back long before reaching Britain.
“Our planes were flying planned flights over neutral waters,” Russian Air Force Commander Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin told the Interfax news agency. “Such flights have been carried out and will be carried out in line with a plan for training long-range aircraft crews.”
The incident, with its echoes of Cold War military standoffs, came amid a furious diplomatic row between London and Moscow.
Britain has ordered the expulsion of four Russian diplomats after Moscow refused to extradite the key suspect in the murder of a Russian emigre in London last year.
Russia’s Zelin said any suggestion that the bombers’ flights were related to recent tension between the two countries was “sheer nonsense”, Interfax added.
“We plan flights of bombers in line with a combat training programme at least half a year beforehand,” it quoted him as saying. “We resolve our domestic problems in training flight crews and do not interfere in politics.”
The Tupolev Tu-95, codenamed “Bear” by NATO, is Russia’s equivalent of the U.S. B-52 bomber and is a Cold War icon. Originally designed to drop nuclear weapons, it has been adapted for a wide variety of roles including surveillance and maritime patrol.
http://www.canada.com/
Russia denies violating U.K. airspace
14:06 | 18/ 07/ 2007MOSCOW, July 18 (RIA Novosti) – Reports in the British media that two Russian strategic bombers violated U.K. airspace are untrue, an aide to the Russian Air Force commander said Wednesday.
British media reported earlier Wednesday that RAF fighters were scrambled to intercept Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers that had taken off from an airbase on the Kola Peninsula, in Russia’s north, and were flying in the direction of the U.K.
“Reports that Russian bombers were flying towards British airspace are untrue. The long-range aircraft were on a scheduled mission over international waters,” Col. Alexander Drobyshevsky quoted Col.-Gen. Alexander Zelin, Air Force commander, as saying.
Gen. Zelin dismissed as rubbish speculation to the effect that Russian bomber flights were linked to an ongoing diplomatic flap between the two countries.
“Bomber flights in international airspace are planned at least six months ahead, and we inform all countries concerned about them in advance,” his aide quoted him as saying.
The U.K. decided to expel four Russian diplomats and suspend visa facilitation talks with Moscow after Russia refused to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, the U.K.’s key suspect in the Alexander Litvinenko murder case, citing Russia’s Constitution that does not permit the extradition of Russian nationals.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070718/69179730.html
Iraq’s new coalition: the insurgents
Iraq’s new coalition: the insurgents
Seumas Milne in Damascus
Wednesday July 18, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Insurgents from the 1920 Revolution Brigades training at Beiji, north of Baghdad.
Seven of the most important Sunni-led insurgent organisations fighting the US occupation in Iraq have agreed to form a public political alliance with the aim of preparing for negotiations in advance of an American withdrawal, their leaders have told the Guardian.
In their first interview with the western media since the US-British invasion of 2003, leaders of three of the insurgent groups – responsible for thousands of attacks against US and Iraqi armed forces and police – made clear that they would continue their armed resistance until all foreign troops were withdrawn from Iraq, and denounced al-Qaida for sectarian killings and suicide bombings against civilians.
Speaking in Damascus, the spokesmen for the three groups – the 1920 Revolution Brigades, Ansar al-Sunna and Iraqi Hamas – said they planned to hold a congress to launch a united front within the next few weeks and appealed to Arab governments, other governments and the UN to help them establish a permanent political presence outside Iraq.
Abu Ahmad, spokesman for Iraqi Hamas said: “Peaceful resistance will not end the occupation. The US made clear that it intended to stay for many decades. Now it is a common view in the resistance that they will start to withdraw within a year. “
The move represents a dramatic change of strategy for the mainstream Iraqi insurgency, whose leadership has remained shadowy and has largely restricted communication with the outside world to brief statements on the internet and to the Arabic media.
The last three months have been the bloodiest for US forces, with 331 deaths and 2,029 wounded, as the 28,000-strong “surge” in troop numbers exposes them to more attacks; the death toll inflicted by insurgents is widely recognised as having been a key factor in the growing political pressure in Washington for withdrawal from Iraq.
Leaders of the three groups – who did not use their real names in the interview – said the new front, which brings together all the main Sunni-based armed organisations except al-Qaida and the Ba’athists, has agreed the main planks of a joint political programme, including a commitment to free Iraq from all foreign troops, rejection of any cooperation with parties involved in the political institutions set up under the occupation, and a declaration that all decisions and agreements made by the US occupation and Iraqi government are null and void.
The aim of the alliance – which includes a range of Islamist and nationalist-leaning groups and is currently called the Political Office for the Iraqi Resistance – is to link up with other anti-occupation groups in Iraq to negotiate with the Americans in anticipation of an early US withdrawal. The programme envisages a temporary technocratic government to run the country during a transition period until free elections can be held.
The insurgent groups deny support from any foreign government, including Syria, but claim they have been offered funding and arms from Iran and rejected it because of suspicion of Iranian motives. They say they have been under pressure from Saudi Arabia and Turkey to unite and claimed to have had indirect contacts with France about creating the conditions for establishing a political presence outside Iraq.
“We are the only resistance movement in modern history which has received no help or support from any other country,” Abdallah Suleiman Omary, head of the political department of the 1920 Revolution Brigades, told the Guardian. “The reason is we are fighting America.”
Central to the new alliance – which also includes the powerful Jaish al-Islami, Jami (the Iraqi Resistance Islamic Front), Jaish al-Mujahideen and Jaish al-Rashideen – is opposition to the murderous sectarianism that has gripped Iraq under occupation, and the role of al-Qaida in particular.
All three Sunni-based resistance leaders say they are acutely aware of the threat posed by sectarian division to the future of Iraq and emphasised the importance of working with Shia groups – but rejected any link with the Shia militia and parties because of their participation in the political institutions set up by the Americans and their role in sectarian killings.
Abd al-Rahman al-Zubeidy, political spokesman of Ansar al-Sunna, a salafist (purist Islamic) group with a particularly violent reputation in Iraq, said his organisation had split over relations with al-Qaida, whose members were mostly Iraqi, but its leaders largely foreigners.
“Resistance isn’t just about killing Americans without any aims or goals. Our people have come to hate al-Qaida, which gives the impression to the outside world that the resistance in Iraq are terrorists. We are against indiscriminate killing, fighting should be concentrated only on the enemy,” he said.
He added: “A great gap has opened up between Sunni and Shia under the occupation and al-Qaida has contributed to that.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2129645,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12
PS : And most have never recognised it.
There’s the “Resistance”
There’s Al Qaeda
and there’s Al Qaida …
and make no mistake all three are different people.
Al Qaeda is the American CIA operative.
Al Qaida is the Israeli Mossad operative.
The Resistance (in this case) is “The People of Iraq”.
The terms used by these leaders clearly spell out the fact that they know the difference.
Neal
La Systémique, Théorie des systèmes, Théorie systémique
La systémique est une formalisation de la théorie systémique, donc une méthode scientifique basé sur la logique de système.
Cette démarche (parfois nommé analyse systémique, ou approche systémique), permet de dépasser les limites du cartésianisme classique pour aborder des sujets complexes qui lui étaient réfractaires, grâce à une vision holistique. Elle peut donc s’apparenter à une science en tant que telle, mais aussi à un langage, un état d’esprit (voir Liberty Ship), voire à une philosophie.
Ce principe scientifique doit encore stabiliser son axiomatique pour s’établir en tant que science issue notamment de la cybernétique.
Le mot systémique est apparu dans la deuxième moitié du XXe siècle et découle de la Théorie des systèmes (ou Théorie systémique) qui est l’une des bases de la systémique, mais pas la seule.
L’étude formelle des systèmes est apparue au XIXe siècle avec la naissance de l’industrie. C’est à ce moment là que furent conceptualisées les notions de régulation (feed-back) et de contrôle, essentielles au fonctionnement sans risques des machines à vapeur.
Des la fin de ce siècle, l’intégration en science humaine des logiques plus vastes apparaissent avec le holisme en sociologie (compréhension de l’individu à travers les logiques sociales), et le structuralisme en linguistique (analyse du signe linguistique a travers plusieurs composants).
Dans la première moitié du XXe siècle, Ludwig von Bertalanffy théorisa le fonctionnement des systèmes biologiques (Théorie Générale des Systèmes). Sous l’impulsion de Norbert Wiener, la cybernétique fut créée en tant que “théorie de la communication” dans les années 1940 et donna naissance à l’électronique, l’informatique, ou encore la robotique.
L’approche systémique diffusée en France est essentiellement influencée par ces deux courants.
Face aux difficultés rencontrées dans l’application de la cybernétique aux systèmes sociaux (entreprises, organisations, …) Karl E. Weick (USA) et P. Checkland (Angleterre) jetèrent dans les années 1970 les bases d’une “systémique de 3ème génération”, entièrement axée sur les systèmes sociaux. Celle-ci a pris son essor dans les pays anglo-saxons mais reste relativement peu connue dans l’univers francophone.
mise en place des notions systémique avec entre autre :
- la Théorie du système général, la Cybernétique et le Structuralisme comme mouvements fondateurs,
- la Théorie du chaos, le Système complexe, le Système dynamique parmi les mouvements émergés,
- la Théorie des jeux, l’Intelligence artificielle, et beaucoup d’autres comme mouvements associés,
- la Méthodologie systémique en elle même comme démarche novatrice.
L’Equateur donne au FMI une date limite pour quitter la Banque centrale
Le Fonds monétaire international doit quitter ses bureaux de la Banque centrale équatorienne au plus tard le 15 juillet, comme il l’avait promis, a déclaré le Ministre de l’Economie, Ricardo Patino, le 11 juillet dernier. « La Banque centrale est la banque de l’Equateur, pas celle du FMI » a ajouté le Ministre. « Ils peuvent chercher ailleurs où louer de l’espace, mais ça ne peut pas être au sein de la Banque ».
Depuis le milieu des années 1970, les responsables du FMI se sont installés au sein des Banques centrales des pays du Tiers-monde, fonctionnant comme de véritables pro-consuls dictant la politique à ces pays. L’Equateur, cependant, « ne veut plus de relation avec cet organisme … et n’accepte pas ses diktats », a déclaré encore le Ministre.
Patino a aussi annoncé que la nouvelle commission du gouvernement chargée de faire l’audit de la dette étrangère du pays, commencera son travail la semaine prochaine. La commission doit décider quelle est la partie légitime de la dette étrangère et quelles sont les dettes illégitimes qui ne doivent pas être payées.
Lyndon LaRouche a commenté aujourd’hui que ce qui enrage le plus les financiers par rapport à l’Equateur, ou à l’Argentine, n’est pas tel ou tel détail concernant le problème de la dette. Ce que les financiers ne peuvent pas supporter est le moindre signe d’indépendance ou de défense de la souveraineté nationale, au moment même où l’ensemble du système monétaire international est menacé d’implosion.
Solidarité et progrès
Iran to hold military exercises in August — Defense Minister
Iran to hold military exercises in August — Defense Minister
Military and Security 7/18/2007 4:31:00 PM
Iran will hold military exercises next month in which the country will use for the first time its local military aircraft “Azarakhsh”, Minister of Defense, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, said Wednesday.
The Ministry of Defense and the Army will hold joint military exercises next month, Najjar told reporters following a meeting for the Cabinet adding that “the fighter Azarakhsh will fly for the first time in these drills besides the use of new weapons and missile.
Meanwhile, the Iranian Defense Minister referred to reports, mainly Israeli and American, that Iran had 600 missiles directed at Israel saying that “They are no more than a psychological war launched by the enemy..
We serve peace and stability in the Middle East.” Najjar played down the Israeli threats to his country saying that after the severe defeat in Lebanon last summer “Israel is launching a psychological war, but it cannot see mighty Iran.”
“We follow closely all movements by the enemy and if we see any against our land, our retaliation will be severe,”
he said, “We do not think the Israeli military can harm us and in the meantime time our armed forces are at their best.”
On boosting security cooperation with Iran’s neighbors, Najjar said “We are following up the topic with the Foreign Ministry and very soon we will have joint drills and military and defense cooperation with others.”
