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allil
Archive for 200806 ( return to current blog )
Saturday June 28, 2008
Troops Aim to Defend Against Insurgent Attacks, Quell Extremists Along Afghan BorderPakistani
Taliban get ready to execute two Afghans for their alleged spying for
U.S. forces and helping orchestrate a suspected American missile strike
that killed 14 people in a border village last month, Friday, In Khar
in Pakistani tribal area of Bajour. (AP Photo/Anwarullah Khan) (Anwarullah Khan - AP) Pakistani
Taliban get ready to execute two Afghans for their alleged spying for
U. S. forces and helping orchestrate a suspected American missile
strike that killed 14 people in a border village last month, Friday
June 27 2008, in Khar in the Pakistani tribal area of Bajour. (AP
Photo/Anwarullah Khan) (Anwarullah Khan - AP)
Pakistani
army troops patrol in Peshawar, Pakistan on Saturday, June 28, 2008.
Pakistani forces bombarded suspected militant hideouts with mortar
shells Saturday as the government launched a major offensive against
Taliban fighters threatening the main city in the country's volatile
northwest, officials said.(AP Photo/Mohammad Sajjad) (Mohammad Sajjad - AP)
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, June 28, 2008; 10:11 AM
KABUL, June 28 -- Hundreds of Pakistani military and police forces
moved into the northwest city of Peshawar Saturday to head off a
possible attack on the city by armed Islamist insurgents. Pakistani
paramilitary troops, army soldiers and police began streaming into
Peshawar Friday after several contingents of heavily armed Islamist
militants were seen amassing near the outskirts of the city. Residents
and government officials in Peshawar said there is growing concern that
the capital of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province could soon fall under Taliban control.
Maj. Gen. Mohammed Alam Khattak, commander of the paramilitary Frontier
Corps, said in a televised press conference that he expects the
operation in the Peshawar area to last four to five days. Khattak said
Pakistani security forces launched the strike against militants in the
region at the request of the North-West Frontier government. "This is
an operation with the limited objectives of applying adequate force to
increase the prameters of security in Peshawar and establish the
government here where it has been challenged," Khattak said. Residents
in the nearby tribal area known as the Khyber Agency said several army
tanks and armored vehicles could be seen patrolling the streets of
Bara, one of the tribal area's main towns, as helicopters flew
overhead. In recent months, the Khyber Agency has become a hotbed of
extremist activity, and clashes involving militants there this year
have killed dozens of people. Ret. Brig. Gen. Mahmood Shah, a
former security chief in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal
Areas, or FATA, said the developments in Peshawar were "troubling."
Shah said the Taliban virtually controls the country's entire tribal
belt and now it was knocking at the doors of one of the country's most
strategically and politically important cities. "The situation demands
action from the government," Shah said. Peshawar, which is a
little more than 100 miles from the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, has
witnessed periodic clashes with Taliban militants and local warlords
within the last year. Until now, however, Pakistani authorities have
steered clear of direct or large scale confrontations with the rising
number of insurgents in the area. The strategically located
Khyber Agency, a relatively prosperous and urbanized tribal agency
compared to the rest of the six mountain agencies, is home to the
Afridi and Shinwari tribes. Named after the famous Khyber Pass, the
tribal area has for centuries been a vital trade route, leading to
Central Asia. Today, it is the key passageway for the movement of
military supplies to U.S. and NATO forces operating in Afghanistan. Peshawar
and the Khyber Agency are also located at the crossroads of a decades
long Taliban insurgency that spans the the porous 1,100 mile border
between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The city has been a hothouse of
militant extremism, playing host to numerous Islamic fundamentalist
heavyweights, including at one time al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden
and his top lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri. But within the past
two years it is lesser known Islamic insurgents and local warlords in
Pakistan's restive tribal areas who have taken center stage. More than
a half dozen top warlords with Taliban links or sympathies operate
openly in the seven tribal agencies, including the Khyber Pass agency,
Peshawar's nearest neighbor along the so-called tribal belt. In
more recent months, militant warlord Mangal Bagh Afridi has presented
the biggest threat to security in the region. Leader of the
increasingly powerful militant group Lashkar-e-Islam, Bagh, an
illiterate former bus driver, rose to power through his activism with
local trade unions in the area. Lashkar-e-Islam has
essentially formed its own shadow government in the tribal agency.
Despite an official government ban, Bagh's group operates its own
pirate FM radio station as part of its effort to gain the sympathies of
the local tribesmen, recruit new fighters and terrorize their
opponents. Lashkar-e-Islam members have destroyed dozens of CD shops in
the tribal agency under orders from Bagh. Members of rival groups have
even accused Lashkar-e-Islam activists of extorting money from truckers
moving between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Although Bagh has
publicly denied any connections with the Pakistani Taliban or al-Qaeda,
his efforts to impose strict Muslim codes in Bara mark him as one of
the more ardent extremists operating in the region. A senior
Pakistani government official in Peshawar said authorities have been
aware of Bagh's exploits in the region but have refrained from moving
against him. The senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity
because of the sensitivity of the matter, said that local authorities
in Peshawar were ordered by high-ranking military intelligence
officials in Islamabad to allow Bagh to continue operating his shadow
government. "Mangal Bagh has been here for quite some time now
but it's a fact that we have tolerated him because we've been told to
do so," the senior official said. On Saturday, Pakistani
security forces in the Sipah section of Bara blew up Bagh's house,
according to residents and local officials. Officials said Bagh was not
living in the house and has fled to the remote Tirah Valley, northwest
of Bara. Paramilitary troops also destroyed Lashkar-e-Islam's
headquarters in the town of Shalobar near Bara. Shoaib Afridi, a
Lashkar-e-Islam commander, was injured and another of the group's
fighters was killed during the assault on the headquarters, according
to local media reports. Rondeaux reported from Kabul, Afghanistan. Ali reported from Peshawar. Hussain reported from Islamabad.
| | Posted by alfred at 8:15 PM - | |
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Related News
* Al-Qaida in Iraq says it was behind Anbar attack
The Associated Press - 2 hours ago
* Pentagon releases names of Marines killed by bomber
Los Angeles Times - 3 hours ago
* Al-Qaida in Iraq claims Anbar suicide bombing
Xinhua - 4 hours ago
Full coverage »
Al-Qaida in Iraq says it was behind Anbar attack
2 hours ago
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Al-Qaida's affiliate in Iraq has released an Internet statement claiming responsibility for an attack that killed more than 20 people, including three U.S. Marines.
The Islamic State of Iraq made the claim in a statement posted on a militant Web site Saturday. It says a militant blew himself up in the middle of a a gathering of the "heads of apostasy" — a reference to U.S.-backed Sunni tribal leaders.
The statement, which could not be immediately verified, did not specifically mention the three Marines killed.
On Thursday, a suicide bomber dressed in a police uniform attacked a meeting of tribal sheiks west of Baghdad. One of the Americans killed was the commander of Marines in the area.
| | Posted by alfred at 10:42 AM - | |
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Attacks in Afghanistan grow in number, complexity, report says By David Wood |Sun reporter- June 28, 2008
WASHINGTON
- After nearly seven years of war in Afghanistan, the Taliban-led
insurgency is flourishing, the Defense Department indicated in a gloomy
new report yesterday, saying the insurgents are likely to accelerate
their attacks and expand into new regions in northern and western
regions of the country.
The Pentagon's assessment came as U.S. casualties in Afghanistan rose
to 23 in June, the second-deadliest month for American forces since the
U.S. invaded weeks after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Attacks using improvised explosive devices, or roadside bombs, rose 35
percent last year, reaching 2,616 attacks, according to the report,
which provided no other measures of violence or data from previous
years.
The report echoed previous grim assessments by Defense Secretary Robert
M. Gates and others, including retired four-star Marine Gen. James Jones,
about the lack of progress in the U.S.-led war and Afghanistan's
deep-rooted problems of violence, extremism, corruption and narcotics.
The United Nations
reported this week, for example, that Afghanistan's opium harvest
reached a record high in 2007, and that the area under poppy
cultivation actually increased 17 percent despite efforts to eradicate
the crop.
Yesterday's Pentagon report acknowledged that the concerted counter-narcotics campaign there has "not been successful."
Training and equipping Afghan's security forces have been hampered by
corruption, a shortage of U.S. and other international trainers, and by
what the report said was "a lack of unity of effort within the
international community."
"Police corruption and misconduct remain a problem," the Pentagon said
in its first semiannual report about progress in Afghanistan, mandated
by Congress last year.
Gates, among other U.S. officials, has been highly critical of the
failure by major European allies to provide trainers and other support
for Afghanistan's struggling army and police.
The United States has about 33,000 U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan,
while about 40 other countries have contributed a total of 29,150.
France is sending an additional 700 troops this summer, and Germany has
said it may send another 1,000 troops in the fall.
At a European security conference earlier this month, Gates
acknowledged that he has been "a big nag" on Europe's reluctance to
send enough forces to Afghanistan. "But for NATO to continue to be tied
up in politics ... that are irrelevant to whether we are making
progress in Afghanistan, I just don't have patience any more," Gates
said.
The upsurge in violence in Afghanistan has coincided with a decline in
violence in Iraq, and Gates noted that in May for the first time, U.S.
casualties in Afghanistan exceeded those in Iraq. But the United States
has more than four times as many troops in Iraq as Afghanistan.
U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, commander of U.S. forces in
eastern Afghanistan, told reporters this week that violence there had
increased 40 percent over the level of last spring.
Schloesser said the attacks by Taliban insurgents are increasingly
sophisticated: rather than a simple roadside bomb being detonated by a
convoy, his troops are now seeing roadside bomb detonations followed
immediately by intense enemy small-arms fire from both sides of the
road, and a second roadside bomb being detonated as U.S. reinforcements
arrive.
But in combat air operations over Afghanistan, reported daily by the
U.S. Air Force regional headquarters, U.S. and allied strike fighters
are dropping bombs and firing rockets in dozens of locations in eastern
and southern Afghanistan. This week, coalition aircraft flew between 45
and 60 close air support missions each day.
A U.S. Army mental health assessment this spring said that American
troops in Afghanistan face a more dangerous and violent environment
than in Iraq, and consequently are experiencing higher levels of stress.
According to the latest Pentagon data, 508 American military personnel
have been killed in Afghanistan since October 2001. Before this month,
the highest monthly total was in June 2005, when 25 troops were killed.
The most recent casualty reported by the Defense Department this month
was Marine Staff Sgt. Christopher D. Strickland, 25, of Labelle, Fla.
He was killed June 25 in Helmand province, a major Taliban stronghold
in southern Afghanistan. Strickland was assigned to the 1st Marine
Expeditionary Force based at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
The Pentagon report's assessment of corruption echoed remarks this week
by Afghanistan's attorney general, who told a gathering in Washington
that "we have many people who are above the law [and] we cannot touch
them."
Abdul Jabbar Sabit, at a conference sponsored by the U.S. Institute of
Peace, said powerful warlords and drug lords, as well as senior
government ministers "are too powerful for the police to arrest them."
Some of the warlords, who command well-paid militias and tight-knit
sectarian communities, could "destabilize the country very quickly, and
that is why we have not touched them," he said.
The Pentagon report also acknowledged that international development
aid has lagged. International donors provide 80 percent of the
government's expenses.
At a major donors' conference in Paris this month, Afghan President Hamid Karzai
unveiled a long-term development plan that he said would cost $50
billion. The United States has pledged $14 billion toward that goal,
but total international promises of aid reached only half of
Afghanistan's goal.
Since 2001, the United States has spent about $23 billion in
Afghanistan, most of it in training and equipping Afghan security
forces. Total international assistance has reached $30 billion, but
U.S. officials and non-governmental reports have said much of that aid
has been wasted and poorly coordinated.
david.wood@baltsun.com
| | Posted by alfred at 10:33 AM - | |
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Upon Thaw, Program's Payments to Doctors May Be Cut Almost 11 Percent Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 28, 2008; Page A03
With congressional leaders engaged in heated brinkmanship, the Bush
administration yesterday gave a reprieve to thousands of doctors
expecting to get hit Tuesday with a 10.6 percent cut in Medicare payments. The Department of Health and Human Services
will essentially freeze the current pricing system because Congress
left town yesterday for a midsummer break without approving a price
fix, Secretary Mike Leavitt announced. Congressional aides said the freeze could last 10 days.
If the legislative dispute lasts beyond the new deadline, Leavitt said
he hopes to retroactively pay doctors once the dispute is resolved. But there was no sign of cooling off on Capitol Hill.
Yesterday, each side accused the other of playing politics with
Medicare, the program that covers many health-care costs for the
nation's elderly and some people with disabilities. Feelings
were particularly raw after a Thursday night Senate vote in which
members yelled at one another on the floor and left Democrats one vote
short of the 60 needed to pass their version of the Medicare fix. "That display last night on the floor is something I've never seen," said Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.). 
Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt said the current
pricing system is being frozen because lawmakers went on a midsummer
break without approving a price fix. (By Arnulfo Franco -- Associated Press)  Enlarge Photo
Bunning, a Hall of Fame pitcher in the 1950s and 1960s, shouted
back that he has the same rights on the floor as Byrd, the
longest-serving senator in history and the chamber's leading
parliamentary expert. The exchange ended with Byrd loudly laughing. The
payment cuts to doctors are part of a 1997 balanced budget deal that
trims the money going to Medicare, but the doctors have regularly
staved off the cuts. They argue -- through their lobby, the American Medical Association, and the AARP
-- that slashed payments would prompt many doctors to drop out of the
system. Private insurance companies make a similar argument for
Medicare Advantage, a program of private fee-for-service insurers and
HMOs that is targeted in the Democrats' bill. By reducing
funding for Medicare Advantage, the Democrats would pay for postponing
the pay cut to doctors for 18 months. The legislation could result in
$14 billion less for insurers over five years, though an estimate by a
conservative House Republican caucus put the tally at $47.5 billion over 11 years. The White House has threatened a veto over Medicare Advantage cuts, arguing that the Senate Finance Committee is close to working out a compromise without cutting payments to private insurers in that program. Those negotiations, between Sens. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the Finance Committee chairman, and Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), broke down when Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) decided to push ahead with the House bill after it passed that body Tuesday by a veto-proof margin.
Aides said yesterday that no new talks had begun, and after the Senate
reconvenes July 7, it will have three days to pass a fix before the HHS
freeze is lifted. At one point during Thursday's debate, Reid
literally hopped around the chamber, predicting Democrats would hold
"at least" 59 Senate seats next year because Republicans toed Bush's
line. "I don't know how many people are up here for
reelection, but I am watching a few of them pretty closely," Reid said,
staring at the GOP side of the chamber. "I say to all those people who
are up for reelection: If you think you can go home and say, 'I voted
no because this weak president, the weakest political standing since
they have done polling, I voted because I was afraid to override his
veto' -- come on." Minority Leader Mitch McConnell
(R-Ky.), visibly angered by Reid's speech, offered temporary
legislation that would forestall the pay cuts to doctors through July,
but Democrats objected. Yesterday Jim Manley, Reid's spokesman, mocked Leavitt's 10-day delay "as nothing more than a fig leaf" to offer political cover to Republicans.
| | Posted by alfred at 6:50 AM - | |
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Friday June 27, 2008
Blog: alsbargainplace
Please review your message...
"1880-1885 CC GSA UNCIRCULATED MORGAN DOLLAR COIN SET"
On ebay now
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Item number:
320267599772 |  |
| | Item Specifics - US Coins |
| | Grade: | 7 HAVE BEEN GRADED READ DISCRIPTION |
| Mint: | Carson City |
| | Certification: | -- |
| Material: | Silver |
| | Certification Number: | -- |
| Method of Manufacture: | -- |
| | Condition: | Uncirculated |
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Featuring:
10
Beautiful 1880-CC through 1885-CC GSA Uncirculated Morgan Silver
Dollar Coins
3 of these coins have not been Graded
7 of these coins have been Graded
Free shipping if auction reaches at least $4500.00 or more (this includes insurance
where applicable)
|
Al's Bargain Place L.L.C. |
1880 CC (Carson City)
Uncirculated Morgan Silver Dollar Coin - This sweet coin has not been graded
1881 CC (Carson City)
Uncirculated Morgan Silver Dollar Coin - This sweet coin has not been graded
1885 CC (Carson City)
Uncirculated Morgan Silver Dollar Coin - This sweet coin has not been graded
1881 CC (Carson City)
Uncirculated Morgan Silver Dollar Coin - This sweet coin has been graded
I have the Card and The
Box
1882 CC (Carson City)
Uncirculated Morgan Silver Dollar Coin - This sweet coin has been graded
I have the Card and The
Box
1883 CC (Carson City)
Uncirculated Morgan Silver Dollar Coin - This sweet coin has been graded
I have the Card and The
Box
1883 CC (Carson City)
Uncirculated Morgan Silver Dollar Coin - This sweet coin has been graded
I have the Card and The
Box
1883 CC (Carson City)
Uncirculated Morgan Silver Dollar Coin - This sweet coin has been graded
I have the Card and The
Box
1884 CC (Carson City)
Uncirculated Morgan Silver Dollar Coin - This sweet coin has been graded
I have only the Card, I
do not have the box to this coin though.
1885 CC (Carson City) Uncirculated Morgan
Silver Dollar Coin - This sweet coin has been graded
I have the Card and The Box
More Important Information about these Sweet Coins
These Sweet Carson City Mint Morgan Silver Dollars rise in value from 5% to
15% per year...Probably better than the Stock Market for the next 2 Years.
The actual number of GSA HOARD United States Carson City Mint Morgan Silver
Dollar coins sold by the GSA has never been officially published into the
public record by the U.S. Government. The total sold may never be known.
However, the GSA HOARD estimates are listed by year below.
Figures for CC Morgan Dollars
1878-cc Morgan Dollar=2,272,993
1879-cc Morgan Dollar=760,123
1880-cc Morgan Dollar=722,529
1881-cc Morgan Dollar=423,485
1882-cc Morgan Dollar=1,738,000
1883-cc Morgan Dollar=1,959,518
1884-cc Morgan Dollar=2,098,638
1885-cc Morgan Dollar=376,285
1889-cc Morgan Dollar=350,000
1890-cc Morgan Dollar=2,313,040
1892-cc Morgan Dollar=1352,000
1893-cc Morgan Dollar=677,001
100%
Positive Feedback so please bid with confidence!
I GUARANTEE
everything that I sell is guaranteed genuine unless otherwise stated.
*
Items
will be mailed the next day after payment is received and processed. Winning
bidder will pay actual postage and be required to purchase insurance if
applicable.
*
Free shipping if auction reaches at least $4500.00 or more (this includes insurance where
applicable)
* Winner must make contact with me within 24 hours to confirm
how you will be paying for this auction and to confirm shipping address.
* Payment is expected within 7 days of close of auction.
| | Posted by alfred at 7:45 AM - | |
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