Bekas Perdana Menteri ISRAEL Sharon mati pada 85 . . .

Ariel Sharon (Reuters – think IN pictures @1WORLD Community)

JohnnyAdam – Bekas perdana menteri Israel ikonik tetapi kontroversi, Ariel Sharon, telah mati selepas keadaan perubatannya ketara merosot, anaknya yang mengsahkan kepada media.

Ahli politik berusia 85 tahun meninggal dunia di Tel Hashomer hospital Tel Aviv, juga dikenali sebagai Chaim Sheba Medical Center, di mana beliau telah dalam keadaan koma sejak Januari 2006 selepas mengalami strok dan pendarahan otak.

Selama hampir 8 tahun Sharon berada di atas sokongan hidup pernafasan, kadang-kadang membuka matanya dan jari bergerak. Beliau disokong oleh cecair melalui tiub makanan.

Tanda-tanda bahawa kesihatannya telah gagal mula datang tidak lama sebelum Tahun Baru, dengan jurucakap kemerosotan laporan hospital dalam keadaan perubatan Sharon. Bekas perdana menteri telah mengalami “masalah buah pinggang yang serius” selepas menjalani pembedahan, lapor radio tentera.

Laman web berita Ynet memetik sumber perubatan sebagai berkata Sharon telah dibawa ke dalam rawatan rapi sebulan yang lalu.

“Kami menentukan keadaannya sebagai kritikal, dan pasti ada ancaman kepada kehidupan beliau,” Zeev Rotstein , Pengarah Pusat Perubatan Sheba , kepada pemberita. “Perasaan semua orang . . . adalah bahawa penurunan ini adalah sangat serius.”

Pada bulan September, Sharon menjalani pembedahan untuk membetulkan sistem pemberian makanan intravena beliau.

Januari lalu, imbasan MRI neurologi mendedahkan aktiviti otak yang penting dalam otak bekas PM. Kakitangan perubatan mencatatkan tindak balas positif kepada gambar keluarga, rakaman suara anaknya dan sentuhan manusia.

Sharon, salah satu jeneral yang paling terkenal Israel, adalah seorang tokoh ikonik di zamannya, namun beberapa dasar beliau kekal kontroversi hingga ke hari ini.

Sebagai seorang komander tentera, Sharon kadang-kadang menderhaka perintah dan diikuti taktik berani dan sering berisiko dalam peperangan. Sebagai seorang ahli politik beliau dikenali sebagai “Jentolak,” lelaki yang mampu mendapatkan perkara2 yang dilakukan .

Kenaikan daripada pangkat parasutis kepada Menteri Pertahanan, Sharon memainkan peranan yang penting dalam beberapa konflik bersenjata Israel - Perang 1948 Kemerdekaan, 1956 Perang Suez, Perang Enam Hari pada tahun 1967, Perang pergeseran dan Yom - Kippur Perang tahun 1973 dan 1982 Perang Lubnan.

Pada tahun 1967, genius tentera dalam Perang Enam Hari diperolehi beliau nama “Raja Israel” dan “Singa Tuhan” bagi orang awam Israel.

Sharon meletak jawatan sebagai Menteri Pertahanan pada tahun 1983 selepas suruhan-jaya siasatan mendapati beliau secara peribadi atas gagal menghalang pembunuhan beramai-ramai pelarian Palestin di Sabra dan Shatilla kem Beirut dengan Phalangis Kristian.

Selepas bersara daripada tentera, Sharon menyertai dan kemudian membawa parti Likud, meninggalkan ia pada 2005 untuk membentuk parti Kadima yang baru.

Helang tentera , beliau yang terkenal keras - liner Israel ketika beliau dilantik Perdana Menteri pada tahun 2001.

Pada pertengahan tahun 2005 beliau berakhir 38 tahun kawalan tentera di Semenanjung Gaza selepas mengarahkan pengeluaran satu pihak tentera dan peneroka Israel dari wilayah, satu kejutan bagi mereka yang menyokong memperjuangkan Sharon pembinaan penempatan Israel di Tebing Barat dan Semenanjung Gaza.

Ex-Israeli PM Ariel Sharon dies at 85 . . .

The iconic but controversial former Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, has died after his medical condition significantly deteriorated, his son confirmed to the media.

The 85-year-old politician died in Tel Aviv’s Tel Hashomer hospital, also known as the Chaim Sheba Medical Center, where he had been in a coma since January 2006 after suffering a stroke and brain hemorrhage.

For nearly eight years Sharon was on respiratory life support, occasionally opening his eyes and moving fingers. He was supported by fluids through a feeding tube.

Signs that his health was failing started coming shortly before the New Year, with a spokesman for the hospital reporting deterioration in Sharon’s medical condition. The ex-PM was suffering from “serious kidney problems” after undergoing surgery, army radio said.

News website Ynet quoted medical sources as saying Sharon was taken into intensive care a month ago.

"We are defining his condition as critical, and there is definitely a threat to his life," Zeev Rotstein, director of the Sheba Medical Center, told reporters. "The feeling of everyone ... is that this decline is very serious."

In September, Sharon underwent surgery to correct his intravenous feeding system.

Last January, neurological MRI scans revealed significant brain activity in the former PM’s brain. Medical staff recorded a positive response to family pictures, a recording of his son's voice and human touch.

Sharon, one of Israel’s most famous generals, was an iconic figure of his time, yet some of his policies remain controversial to this day.

As a military commander, Sharon sometimes disobeyed orders and followed bold and often risky tactics in battle. As a politician he was known as “the bulldozer,” a man capable of getting things done.

Rising from the rank of paratrooper to Defense Minister, Sharon played a prominent part in several of Israel’s armed conflicts – the 1948 War of Independence, the 1956 Suez War, the Six-Day War of 1967, the War of Attrition and the Yom-Kippur War of 1973 and the 1982 Lebanon War.

By 1967, his military genius in the Six-Day War earned him the name of "The King of Israel" and "The Lion of God" with the Israeli public.

Sharon resigned as a Defense Minister in 1983 after a commission of inquiry found him personally liable for failing to prevent the massacre of Palestinian refugees in Beirut’s Sabra and Shatilla camps by Christian Phalangists.

After retiring from the army, Sharon joined and later led the Likud party, leaving it in 2005 to form the new Kadima party.

A military hawk, he was Israel’s prominent hard-liner when he was elected prime minister in 2001.

In mid-2005 he ended 38 years of military control of the Gaza Strip after directing a unilateral withdrawal of Israeli troops and settlers from the territory, a shock for those who supported Sharon’s championing of the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

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PEGAWAI Nuklear Menumpaskan DADAH Manakala Hagel Memberikan UCAPAN MOTIVASI . . .

Setiausaha Pertahanan Amerika Syarikat Chuck Hagel  (U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel (Reuters/Mark Wilson – think IN pictures @1WORLD Community)

JohnnyAdam – 2 pegawai Amerika Syarikat Tentera Udara yang terlibat dalam program peluru berpandu nuklear negara telah dilucutkan kelegaan keselamatan mereka dan digantung buat sementara waktu sementara tentera menyiasat tuduhan yang melibatkan dadah haram.

Kedua-dua orang - kedua-dua pegawai di kemudahan Montana mana Minuteman 3 peluru berpandu antara benua Pentagon balistik dikawal dari - disyaki memiliki dadah, wakil-wakil untuk tentera mengakui kepada pemberita lewat Khamis. Pejabat Tentera Udara Siasatan Khas telah membuka siasatan ke dalam dakwaan tersebut, dan kedua-dua pegawai yang tidak dinamakan mempunyai interim yang telah dilepaskan daripada akses kepada maklumat terperingkat.

Berita penyiasatan meletus pada saat-saat hari Khamis sebelum Setiausaha Pertahanan Chuck Hagel telah ditubuhkan untuk menyampaikan apa yang Associated Press dianggap sebagai “bercakap semangat dirancang dengan teliti” untuk missilers di salah satu dari-pada kedua-dua kemudahan lain di negara ini yang menjadi tuan rumah kuasa ICBM di tengah-tengah laporan semangat yang rendah dalam barisan mereka.

Bercakap secara langsung kepada tentera di Pangkalan Tentera Udara Warren FE di Nebraska, Hagel memberitahu missilers, “Kami bergantung kepada profesionalisme anda”.

“Anda melakukan sesuatu yang amat penting kepada DUNIA,” AP memetik Hagel sebagai berkata. “Anda telah memilih satu profesion di mana tidak ada ruang untuk kesilapan - tidak boleh.”

“Mereka merasakan banyak kali tidak dihargai,” katanya kepada wakil media selepas ‘engagement’, Los Angeles Times melaporkan. “Mereka terperangkap di kawasan di mana tidak banyak perhatian dibayar. Dan saya tahu mereka tertanya-tanya lebih daripada sekali-sekala jika ada sesiapa yang memberi perhatian.”

Tetapi di seluruh sempadan negeri di Montana di Pangkalan Tentera Udara Malmstrom, penyiasat kini dibiarkan tertanya-tanya apa kerosakan itu disebabkan oleh pelanggaran terkini dalam keselamatan akan ditanggung oleh program peluru berpandu nuklear negara.

Hanya Ogos lalu, audit kemudahan yang dijalankan oleh Mogok Perintah Global berakhir dengan Malmstrom menerima penarafan “tidak memuaskan (unsatisfactory)”, yang menghasilkan penamatan pegawai yang menjaga pasukan keselamatan asas ini tidak lama selepas itu. Kemudian pada bulan Oktober, timbalan komander angkatan nuklear Amerika Syarikat telah ditamatkan dari kedudukannya di tengah-tengah siasatan yang melibatkan penggunaan beliau didakwa cip palsu di sebuah kasino.

Pada bulan yang sama, Tentera Udara mengakui bahawa mereka telah dipaksa untuk mendisiplinkan 2 krew di Malmstrom selepas salah seorang daripada mereka telah ditangkap meninggalkan pintu renggang di kemudahan yang selamat.

Tetapi malu terkini untuk kuasa-kuasa nuke datang kurang daripada sebulan selepas Tentera Udara menerbitkan laporan yang mengejutkan (shocking report) pada Mejar Jeneral Michael Carey - pegawai yang sebelum ini bertanggungjawab bagi ketiga-tiga sayap program peluru berpandu nuklear dan 450 ICBM tentera - di mana beliau dituduh berlaku Bender mabuk semasa perjalanan Julai 2013 ke Moscow.

Bahawa laporan setebal 42 muka surat, yang diterbitkan pada pertengahan Disember, menuduh pegawai daripada minum arak “setakat yang ia kesan kelakuannya semasa taklimat” dan perlawanan lain ketika di luar negara, dan juga termasuk tuduhan bahawa beliau dilayan, dalam kata-katanya, “panas wanita,” manakala tugasan. Carey akhirnya dipecat.

Kini sebagai nasib dua pegawai Malmstrom terletak dalam penyiasatan Tentera Udara, program peluru berpandu itu sendiri telah sekali lagi terjejas oleh tuduhan yang meli-batkan anggota tentera di tengah-tengah salah satu program Pentagon yang paling sensitif.

Bulan lepas , Pejabat Bajet Kongres yang dianggarkan bahawa pelan pentadbiran semasa untuk kuasa nuklear negara akan kos ke atas sebanyak $ 355 bilion dalam dekad akan datang.

Hagel tidak menyentuh siasatan dadah dalam ucapan beliau di Nebraska, yang dilaporkan kepadanya hanya beberapa minit sebelum dia ditangani penonton.

Nuclear officers busted for drugs while Hagel gives motivational speech . . .

Two United States Air Force officers involved in the nation’s nuclear missile program have been stripped of their security clearances and temporarily suspended while the military investigates allegations involving illegal drugs.

The two men - both officers at a Montana facility where the Pentagon’s Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missiles are controlled from - are suspected of possessing narcotics, representatives for the military admitted to reporters late Thursday. The Air Force Office of Special Investigations has opened a probe into the allegations, and both unnamed officers have in the interim been relieved of their access to classified information.

News of the investigation broke on Thursday moments before Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was set to deliver what the Associated Press considered a “carefully planned pep talk” to missilers at one of the two other facilities in the country that hosts ICBM forces amid reports of low morale within their ranks.

Speaking directly to the troops at the F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Nebraska , Hagel told the missilers, "We depend on your professionalism.”

"You are doing something of great importance to the world," the AP quoted Hagel as saying. "You have chosen a profession where there is no room for error - none."

“They do feel unappreciated many times,” he told members of the press after the engagement, the Los Angeles Times reported. “They are stuck out in areas where not a lot of attention is paid. And I know they wonder more than occasionally if anybody's paying attention.”

But across the state border in Montana at the Malmstrom Air Force Base, investigators are now left wondering what damage could have been caused by the latest breach in security to be suffered by the nation’s nuclear missile program.

Just last August, an audit of that facility conducted by the Global Strike Command ended with Malmstrom receiving an “unsatisfactory” rating, which yielded the termination of the officer in charge of the base’s security force shortly thereafter. Then in October, the deputy commander of the US nuclear forces was terminated from that position amidst an investigation involving his alleged use of counterfeit chips at a casino.

That same month, the Air Force acknowledged that they had been forced to discipline two crew members at Malmstrom after one of them was caught leaving a door at the secure facility ajar.

But the latest embarrassment for the nuke forces comes less than a month after the Air Force published a shocking report on Major General Michael Carey - the officer previously in charge of all three wings of the nuclear missile program and the military’s 450 ICBMS - in which he was accused of going on a drunken bender during a July 2013 trip to Moscow.

That 42-page report, published in mid-December, accused the officer of consuming alcohol “to the extent that it impacted his conduct during briefings” and other outings while overseas, and even included allegations that he entertained, in his words, “hot women,” while on assignment. Carey was ultimately fired.

Now as the fate of the two Malmstrom officers rests in the Air Force investigation, the missile program itself has been yet again jeopardized by allegations involving military personnel at the heart of one of the Pentagon’s most sensitive programs.

Last month, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the current administration’s plans for the nation’s nuclear forces will cost upwards of $355 billion during the next decade.

Hagel did not touch on the drug probe during his remarks in Nebraska, which was reported to him only minutes before he addressed the audience.

READ MORE: http://on.rt.com/xqks4w

Hampir 500 TERBUNUH dalam PERTEMPURAN Antara PEMBERONTAK SYRIA dan Al-Qaeda . . .

Pejuang Free Syrian Army pusat pemeriksaan manusia untuk menghalang ahli-ahli Negara Islam al-Qaeda - gabungan Iraq dan Levant (ISIL) daripada memasuki kejiranan Masaken Hanano di Aleppo 7 januari 2014. (Free Syrian Army fighters man checkpoints to prevent members of the al Qaeda-affiliated Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from entering Masaken Hanano neighborhood in Aleppo January 7, 2014. (Reuters/Jalal Alhalabi – think IN pictures @1WORLD Community)

JohnnyAdam – Hampir 500 orang, termasuk 85 orang awam, terbunuh semasa dalam per-tempuran antara kumpulan pemberontak dan cawangan Al-Qaeda di Syria pada minggu lepas, sebuah kumpulan aktivis dilaporkan.

Balai Cerap Syria berasaskan Britain bagi Hak Asasi Manusia menyatakan bahawa sekurang-kurangnya 482 orang telah mati sejak pertempuran antara sederhana dan puak pemberontak arus perdana berbanding Negara Islam Iraq dan Levant (ISIL) dipergiatkan pada 3 Januari.

Kumpulan ini menambah bahawa 157 individu adalah dari ISIL, 240 yang lain tidak daripada puak lebih sederhana dan 85 orang awam.

Pada mulanya, Negara Islam Iraq dan Levant (ISIL) telah berjuang di sebelah yang sederhana untuk menggulingkan Presiden Syria Bashar Assad dalam konflik yang bermula pada Mac 2011.

Pertempuran di antara pemberontak telah tersebar di utara Syria sejak minggu lalu. Keganasan terbaru berlaku pada hari Jumaat di wilayah Aleppo, selepas ISIL membunuh seorang doktor tempatan.

Nusra Front, yang juga berkongsi ideologi radikal tetapi kebanyakannya terdiri daripada pejuang tempatan , bersatu dengan beberapa kumpulan-kumpulan serpihan lain untuk melancarkan serangan balas terhadap ISIL di seluruh negara.

Terdapat telah kebencian sebelumnya ke arah kumpulan - dianggotai kebanyakannya dengan pejuang bukan orang Syria - untuk rejim keras ia telah dikenakan ke atas kawasan kawalan di negara ini sejak memasuki perang tahun lepas.

ISIL juga terlibat dalam konflik di Anbar Province Iraq, yang merancang untuk bersatu dengan Syria yang untuk membentuk khilafah. Kumpulan tentera yang dikenali sebagai sayap jihad yang paling radikal pemberontak Syria. Negara Islam Iraq dan akar Levant kita kembali ke tahun-tahun awal Perang Iraq. Ia telah ditubuhkan pada bulan April 2004 oleh pelampau Sunni, dan kemudian berjanji setia kepada Osama bin Laden.

Pada masa itu, ISIL dipanggil Al-Qaeda di Iraq. 2 tahun kemudian kumpulan itu dijena-makan semula sebagai Negara Islam Iraq. Pada tahun 2013, ia telah mendapat kehadiran yang kuat di utara Syria, menambah ‘Levant’ namanya.

Pada hari Jumaat Majlis Keselamatan PBB mengkritik serangan pengganas terkini di Iraq dan diterima pakai Penyataan pertama tahun baru, menyatakan sokongan kepada kerajaan Iraq dalam menentang keganasan.

“Majlis Keselamatan kesal kerasnya peristiwa baru-baru ini di bandar-bandar Ramadi dan Fallujah di wilayah Anbar di Iraq. Majlis Keselamatan mengutuk serangan yang sedang dilakukan oleh Al-Qaeda affiliate, Negara Islam di Iraq dan Levant,” kenyataan itu.

“Majlis Keselamatan menggesa rakyat Iraq , termasuk puak-puak Iraq, pemimpin tempatan dan pasukan keselamatan Iraq di wilayah Anbar, berterusan, berkembang dan mengukuhkan kerjasama mereka terhadap keganasan dan keganasan.”

Pelampau Syria merekrut Barat

Kembali di Syria, konflik telah berkembang dan ‘Preoccupying’ minda pemimpin-pemimpin DUNIA.

Pengarah FBI mendedahkan bahawa mengesan yang Amerika yang telah pulang dari Syria telah menjadi antara tertinggi keutamaan memerangi keganasan biro ini. Menurut pegawai kanan memerangi keganasan, kumpulan pelampau Islam di Syria yang mem-punyai kaitan dengan Al-Qaeda cuba untuk mengenal pasti, merekrut dan melatih rakyat Amerika dan Barat yang lain yang telah mengembara di sana, dan ingin mempunyai mereka melancarkan serangan apabila mereka telah pulang ke rumah.

Pegawai Amerika Syarikat mengatakan bahawa sekurang-kurangnya 70 rakyat Amerika sama ada mengembara ke Syria atau cuba sejak perang saudara sejak 3 tahun lalu. Jumlah bilangan yang tidak pernah didedahkan sehingga Khamis.

Perang saudara Syria telah menjadi sebuah magnet untuk orang Barat yang mahu berjuang dengan pemberontak terhadap kerajaan Presiden Bashar Assad.

Dalam pada itu, Presiden Amerika Syarikat, Barack Obama membuat keputusan sama ada untuk menyambung semula bantuan ketenteraan tidak membawa maut kepada pembangkang sederhana Syria. Amerika Syarikat menghentikan penghantaran bulan lalu selepas gudang dipenuhi dengan peralatan telah dirampas oleh Barisan Islam, satu gabungan pejuang pemberontak itu berakhir dari Tentera yang disokong Free Syrian Army.

Pakar memberi amaran mengenai meneruskan bantuan yang tidak membawa maut. “Amerika Syarikat menyediakan bantuan maut melalui Jordan, CIA dan melalui Turki untuk pembangkang. Tetapi pembangkang berpecah-belah, tidak berupaya dan elemen-elemen yang lebih radikal, terutamanya, pejuang asing telah diambil alih pembangkang dari segi pertempuran. Dan tidak dapat dielakkan apa yang akan berlaku jika anda mula lulus senjata kepada pembangkang, mereka akan jatuh ke tangan pelampau,” penganalisis keselamatan dan bekas pegawai Pentagon Michael Maloof memberitahu RT.

Nearly 500 killed in fighting between Syrian 

rebels and Al-Qaeda . . .

Almost 500 people, including 85 civilians, were killed during in-fighting between rebel groups and an Al-Qaeda branch in Syria in the past week, an activist group reported.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that at least 482 people were dead since the fighting between moderates and mainstream rebel factions versus Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) intensified on January 3.

The group added that 157 individuals were from the ISIL, 240 others were from more moderate factions and 85 were civilians.

Initially the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were fighting on the side of the moderates to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad in a conflict that began in March of 2011.

The fighting between the rebels had spread across northern Syria over the past week. The most recent violence broke out on Friday in the province of Aleppo, after the ISIL killed a local doctor.

Nusra Front, which also shares a radical ideology but is composed mostly of local fighters, united with several other splinter groups to carry out reprisal attacks against ISIL throughout the country.

There had been previous resentment towards the group – staffed predominantly with non-Syrian fighters – for the harsh regime it has imposed on controlled areas in the country since entering the war last year.

ISIL is also engaged in conflict in Iraq's Anbar Province, which it plans to unite with Syria to form a caliphate. The military group is known as the most radical jihadist wing of the Syrian rebels. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant’s roots go back to the early years of the Iraq War. It was established in April 2004 by Sunni extremists, and then pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

At that time, ISIL was called Al-Qaeda in Iraq. Two years later the group was rebranded as the Islamic State of Iraq. In 2013, it gained a strong presence in northern Syria, adding ‘Levant’ to its name.

On Friday the UN Security Council criticized the latest terrorist attacks in Iraq and adopted its first statement of the new year, expressing support for the Iraqi government in its fight against terrorism.

“The Security Council deplores in the strongest terms the recent events in the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah in Anbar province in Iraq. The Security Council condemns the attacks that are being perpetrated by Al-Qaeda affiliate, the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant,” the statement read.

“The Security Council urges the people of Iraq, including Iraqi tribes, local leaders, and Iraqi security forces in Anbar province, to continue, expand and strengthen their cooperation against violence and terror.”

Syrian extremists recruit westerners

Back in Syria, the conflict has been growing and preoccupying world leaders’ minds.

The FBI’s director revealed that tracking Americans who have returned from Syria has become among the bureau’s highest counter-terrorism priorities. According to senior counter-terrorism officials, Islamic extremist groups in Syria with ties to Al-Qaeda are trying to identify, recruit and train Americans and other westerners who have travelled there, and looking to have them carry out attacks once they have returned home.

US officials say that at least 70 Americans have either travelled to Syria or tried to since the civil war started three years ago. That number was never disclosed until Thursday.

Syria’s civil war has become a magnet for westerners seeking to fight with rebels against the government of President Bashar Assad.

In the meantime, US President Barack Obama is deciding whether or not to resume non-lethal military aid to Syria’s moderate opposition. The US halted shipments last month after warehouses filled with equipment were seized by the Islamic Front, a coalition of rebel fighters that broke off from the US-backed Free Syrian Army.

Experts warn about resuming the non-lethal aid. “US provided lethal assistance through Jordan, CIA and through Turkey to the opposition. But the opposition is fragmented, incapable and more radical elements, principally, the foreign fighters have taken over the opposition in terms of the fighting. And inevitable what will happen if you start to pass weapons to the opposition, they will fall into the hands of the extremists,” Security analysts and former Pentagon official Michael Maloof told RT.

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Taliban, mesyuarat Kerajaan Afghanistan utk Rundingan DAMAI yg rahsia, tetapi dengan tidak ada kemajuan – laporan

Bekas pejuang Taliban memaparkan senjata mereka kerana mereka bergabung tenaga kerajaan Afghanistan dalam satu majlis di wilayah Herat pada 2 Mei 2012. (AFP Photo/Aref Karimi – think IN pictures @1WORLD Community)

JohnnyAdam – Wakil-wakil kerajaan Afghanistan dan Taliban sekali lagi bertemu dalam rundingan rahsia untuk perjanjian damai, namun tidak ada pihak melihat harapan rundingan yang berakhir dengan perjanjian, mencadangkan laporan.

Sekurang-kurangnya dua menteri Afghanistan telah bertemu dengan wakil-wakil Taliban di Emiriah Arab Bersatu semua sebagai Pakistan telah melepaskan (releasing) berpuluh-puluh tahanan Taliban dalam usaha untuk memulihkan rundingan damai, kata seorang pegawai Taliban kepada AP. Namun, perbincangan tidak berkembang, pegawai itu berkata, dan yang Taliban telah teguh oleh siaran banduan.

Sebagai tentera asing bersedia untuk meninggalkan negara ini pada akhir 2014, perjan-jian damai amat penting dalam memastikan Afghanistan tidak diturunkan ke dalam perang saudara lagi. Tetapi di sebalik dihidupkan semula, walaupun rahsia, perbincangan, kedua-dua Taliban dan kerajaan Presiden Afghanistan Hamid Karzai tetap teguh dalam kedudukan degil mereka pada rundingan.

Amerika Syarikat telah mengaku dengan Karzai untuk menerima daya sisa tentera asing untuk tinggal di negara ini selepas tahun 2014, untuk membantu pasukan keselamatan Afghanistan. Tetapi Karzai berkata sebelum dia akan menerima terma Perjanjian Kesela-matan 2 Hala, rundingan damai rasmi mesti diperbaharui. Pada masa yang sama, Karzai telah enggan bercakap dengan wakil-wakil Taliban selagi ia memanggil dirinya “Emiriyah Islam Afghanistan,” yang presiden Afghan melihat sebagai penghinaan kepada pihak ber-kuasa kerajaan itu.

Rasmi Taliban tanpa nama memberitahu AP bahawa kumpulannya akan menerima pengantaraan tidak langsung antara kedua-dua pihak, sebagaimana yang telah dilakukan pada tahun 1989 yang membawa kepada pengunduran tentera Soviet dari Afghanistan.

Walau bagaimanapun, kedua-dua pihak mempersoalkan keikhlasan masing-masing. Karzai dilihat sebagai punah untuk membuat keputusan utama sehingga bulan April, apabila penggantinya akan mengambil alih selepas pilihan raya di seluruh negara. Seli, Taliban dilihat sebagai lama menjangkakan keluar tentera asing ‘untuk mengambil kembali kawalan dan membalas dendam yang tepat untuk kekejaman yang dikatakan diketuai oleh pemimpin-pemimpin Afghanistan, seperti Naib Presiden Rashid Dostum, bekas ketua perang yang telah dituduh oleh Taliban dan hak asasi manusia Barat organisasi mem-bunuh beribu-ribu menyerahkan Taliban pada awal pencerobohan yang diketuai pada tahun 2001.

Taliban, Afghan govt meeting for secret peace talks, 

but with no progress - report

Representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban have once again met in secret negotiations for a peace deal, yet neither side sees much hope of the talks ending in an agreement, reports suggest.

At least two Afghan ministers have met with Taliban delegates in the United Arab Emirates all as Pakistan has been releasing dozens of Taliban prisoners in an effort to revive peace talks, a Taliban official told the AP. Yet the discussions have not progressed, the official says, and the Taliban has been unmoved by the prisoner releases.

As foreign troops are set to leave the country by the end of 2014, a peace deal is crucial in ensuring Afghanistan does not devolved into further civil war. But despite the revived, albeit secret, discussions, both the Taliban and Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s government remain steadfast in their stubborn positions on negotiations.

The United States has pleaded with Karzai to accept a residual force of foreign troops to stay in the country beyond 2014, to help Afghan security forces. But Karzai says before he will accept those terms of the Bilateral Security Agreement, official peace talks must be renewed. At the same time, Karzai has refused to talk with Taliban representatives as long as it calls itself “the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” which the Afghan president sees as an affront to his government’s authority.

The anonymous Taliban official told the AP that his group would accept indirect mediation between the two parties, just as was done in 1989 that led to the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan.

Nevertheless, both sides question each other’s sincerity. Karzai is seen as stalling to make major decisions until April, when his successor will take over after nationwide elections. Alternately, the Taliban is seen as eagerly anticipating the foreign troops’ exit to take back control and exact revenge for alleged atrocities led by Afghan leaders, such as Vice President Rashid Dostum, a former warlord who has been accused by the Taliban and Western human right organizations of killing thousands of surrendering Taliban at the beginning of the US-led invasion in 2001.

Presiden Afghanistan Hamid Karzai (Afghan President Hamid Karzai (AFP Photo/Aref Karimi – think IN pictures @1WORLD Community)

Bagi siaran banduan, keselamatan negara Pakistan penasihat Sartaj Aziz berkata Taliban telah tidak terjejas dalam tindak balas kepada isyarat itu ataupun telah digerakkan oleh sikap diam Karzai untuk menandatangani Perjanjian Keselamatan 2 Hala, walaupun pem-berontak ingin melihat tentera asing meninggalkan.

“Mereka [Taliban] fikir ia adalah semua drama dan dia [Karzai] akan menandatangani,” Aziz memberitahu AP.

Taliban pegawai yang mendedahkan pertemuan rahsia sudah lama diketahui oleh AP, pertubuhan berita tersebut. Pegawai itu berkata kedua-dua Taliban dan kumpulan bersen-jata yang lain sedang menyiapkan diri untuk satu lagi konfrontasi sekali tentera antara-bangsa keluar.

Katanya, kepimpinan Taliban mempunyai kepentingan dalam rundingan damai, komander menentang, yakin mereka boleh menuntut semula negara ini.

AP berkata militia berhampiran pegawai kanan kerajaan Afghanistan mendapatkan semula senjata stok simpanan kononnya hilang di tengah-tengah program pelucutan sen-jata PBB yang ditaja.

Sementara itu, The Washington Post baru-baru ini melaporkan terkini anggaran Amerika Syarikat Perisikan Kebangsaan yang meramalkan Afghanistan akan turun ke dalam keganasan awam sebaik sahaja tentera asing keluar.

Rundingan damai yang bermula 7 tahun lalu - olah mereka yang paling menonjol 3 tahun lalu di tengah-tengah tentera lonjakan Amerika Syarikat - akhirnya gagal berdasarkan pilihan Taliban hakmilik, “Emiriah Islam Afghanistan,” untuk sebuah pejabat dibuka di Qatar pada musim panas lalu di hadapan rundingan diperbaharui. Taliban berhujah nama itu diterima sebelum ia memerintah Afghanistan dari 1996 hingga 2001.

As for the prisoner releases, Pakistan national security adviser Sartaj Aziz said the Taliban have not compromised in response to the gesture, nor have they been moved by Karzai’s reticence to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement, even though insurgents would like to see foreign troops leave.

"They [the Taliban] think it is all a drama and he [Karzai] will sign," Aziz told AP.

The Taliban official who revealed the secret meetings is long known to the AP, the news organization said. The official says both the Taliban and other armed groups are gearing up for another confrontation once international troops exit.

He said that while Taliban leadership has an interest in the peace talks, field commanders are opposed, confident they can reclaim the country.

The AP says militias near to senior Afghan government officials are retrieving weapons stockpiles supposedly lost amid a UN-sponsored disarmament program.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post recently reported on the latest US National Intelligence estimate that predicts Afghanistan will descend into civil violence as soon as foreign troops exit.

The peace negotiations that began seven years ago - though they were most prominent three years ago amid the US troop surge - eventually failed based on the Taliban’s choice of title, "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” for an office it opened in Qatar last summer ahead of renewed talks. The Taliban argues the name was accepted even before it ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

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20 tahun selepas ‘Black Hawk Down,’ penasihat tentera Amerika Syarikat kembali di SOMALIA . . .

Pasukan Amerika Syarikat dari kuasa Reaksi Quick disokong oleh helikopter Cobra menjalankan operasi mencari berhampiran Madina hospital Mogadishu 27 Julai 1993. (AFP Photo/Patrick Baz – think IN pictures @1WORLD Community)

JohnnyAdam – Tentera Amerika Syarikat telah menghantar sebilangan kecil “jurulatih beruniform dan penasihat” kepada negara tidak menentu Somalia buat kali pertama sejak tahun 1993, apabila dua helikopter Amerika Syarikat ditembak mati dan 18 rakyat Amerika telah terbunuh dalam Misi “Black Hawk Down”.

Satu sel kecil yang kurang dari 2 dozen anggota tentera Amerika Syarikat telah ditem-patkan di ibu Somalia, Mogadishu, sejak kejatuhan lepas dalam usaha untuk menasihati dan menyelaraskan dengan tentera Afrika berjuang Al-Shabab, militia Islam yang mempunyai kaitan dengan Al-Qaeda, 3 pegawai tentera Amerika Syarikat memberitahu Washington Post.

Musim panas yang lepas dan jatuh, pegawai tentera Amerika Syarikat menunjukkan Pentagon akan menjadi lebih terlibat dalam Somalia. Rasmi dasar atas Pentagon di Afrika, Amanda Dory, memberitahu Kongres pada bulan Oktober tentera Amerika Syarikat akan “meningkatkan kehadiran kami di Mogadishu seiring dengan Jabatan Negeri” tetapi tidak mengulas lanjut.

3 tanpa nama pegawai tentera Amerika Syarikat memberitahu ‘The Post Amerika Syarikat Afrika Perintah dihantar sedikit penasihat ke Mogadishu pada musim gugur untuk menyelaraskan sel dengan pasukan keselamatan Somalia dan gabungan serantau tentera Afrika.

Pentagon enggan mengulas mengenai rancangan itu.

Penugasan sulit berakhir dua dekad dasar tidak rasmi Amerika yang dilarang apa-apa jangka panjang kehadiran tentera Amerika Syarikat di atas tanah di Somalia meskipun negara itu dianggap negara yang gagal dan penuh dengan lanun dan pertubuhan Islam militan.

Namun, polisi tidak rasmi telah tidak menghalang Amerika Syarikat daripada mengambil bahagian secara aktif dalam hal ehwal Somalia. Pentadbiran Presiden Barack Obama berjalan drone pengawasan daripada negara jiran Djibouti, kadang-kadang menggunakan kenderaan udara tanpa pemandu untuk menjalankan serangan udara (airstrikes) dari langit Somalia. Di samping itu, kuasa-kuasa elit Operasi Khas telah memasuki Somalia untuk pantas serbuan keganasan dan situasi tebusan.

Agensi Perisikan Pusat juga telah beroperasi asas di Somalia untuk beberapa waktu, membiayai tentera Somalia berjuang Al-Shabab dan entiti lain. Wartawan Jeremy Scahill telah didokumenkan pergerakan berahsia CIA di Somalia. Pada tahun 2011, beliau mendedahkan kewujudan pusat counterterrorism CIA di lapangan terbang Mogadishu itu. Beliau juga dilaporkan pada sebuah penjara rahsia di Somalia Agensi Keselamatan Negara yang dibiayai, yang menurut sumber-sumber beliau, telah digunakan oleh Amerika Syarikat untuk menyoal siasat tahanan.

20 years after ‘Black Hawk Down,’ US military 

advisers back in Somalia . . .

The US military has sent a small number of “uniformed trainers and advisers” to volatile nation of Somalia for the first time since 1993, when two US helicopters were shot down and 18 Americans were killed during the “Black Hawk Down” mission.

A small cell of less than two-dozen US military personnel has been stationed in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, since last fall in an effort to advise and coordinate with African troops fighting Al-Shabab, an Islamic militia with ties to Al-Qaeda, three US military officials told The Washington Post.

Last summer and fall, US military officials indicated the Pentagon will become more involved in Somalia. The Pentagon’s top policy official in Africa, Amanda Dory, told Congress in October the US military would “increase our presence in Mogadishu in tandem with the State Department” but did not elaborate.

Three anonymous US military officials told The Post US Africa Command sent a small amount of advisers to Mogadishu in the fall to coordinate the cell with Somali security forces and a regional coalition of African troops.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the plans.

The clandestine deployment ends two decades of America’s unofficial policy that prohibited any long-term US military presence on the ground in Somalia despite the country being considered a failed state and teeming with pirate and militant Islamic organizations.

Yet the informal policy has not kept the US from actively participating in Somali affairs. President Barack Obama’s administration runs surveillance drones out of neighboring country Djibouti, occasionally using the unmanned aerial vehicles to conduct airstrikes from Somali skies. In addition, elite Special Operations forces have entered Somalia for swift counter-terrorism raids and hostage situations.

The Central Intelligence Agency has also operated a base in Somalia for some time, financing Somali forces fighting Al-Shabab and other entities. Journalist Jeremy Scahill has documented the CIA’s secretive movements in Somalia. In 2011, he revealed the existence of the CIA’s counterterrorism center at the Mogadishu airport. He also reported on a secret prison in the US-funded Somali National Security Agency, which according to his sources, was used by the US to interrogate prisoners.

Somali Al-Shebab fighters (AFP Photo/Mohamed Abdiwahab  – think IN pictures @1WORLD Community)

Sebagai tindak balas kepada kisah Washington Post pada Jumaat, beliau menulis sebarang tweet, “Amerika Syarikat mempunyai tentera ‘penasihat/jurulatih’ di Somalia selama bertahun-tahun. Tidak baru.” Menurut laporan ABC kakitangan Amerika Syarikat telah pergi ke Somalia, tetapi penempatan terbaru adalah posting tetap pertama sejak 1993.

Amerika Syarikat akhirnya mengiktiraf kerajaan persekutuan Somalia pada tahun 2013 dan menubuhkan semula hubungan diplomatik buat kali pertama sejak kerajaan Somalia runtuh pada tahun 1991. Namun Jabatan Negeri tidak mempunyai kehadiran tetap di Mogadishu.

Pada bulan Oktober 1993, satu pasukan petugas Tentera Darat Amerika Syarikat Rangers dan Delta Force komando yang terlibat dalam pertempuran sengit dengan pejuang ketua perang Somalia Mohamed Farah Aideed di Mogadishu. Amerika Syarikat berada di sana untuk menyokong misi kemanusiaan PBB. Kegagalan operasi mendorong pengeluaran Amerika Syarikat cepat dan sikap diam Washington untuk melibatkan diri dalam konflik baru di sana.

Dalam tahun-tahun kebelakangan ini, Amerika Syarikat telah membelanjakan lebih US $ 500 juta untuk melatih dan lengan daya keselamatan Kesatuan Afrika lebih 18,000 tentera di tengah-tengah huru-hara yang berterusan dan kebuluran di Somalia. Kebanyakan tentera dilatih di luar Somalia oleh kontraktor Amerika Syarikat dan penasihat tentera beruniform. Amerika Syarikat juga telah membelanjakan kira-kira $ 170 Juta untuk meningkatkan tentera kebangsaan Somalia yang sering tidak berkesan.

Angkatan Kesatuan Afrika mengawal kebanyakan Mogadishu, walaupun Al-Shabab masih memegang sebahagian besar negara. Al-Shabab telah membawa usaha pemberontak di Somalia, terhadap pemimpin-pemimpin negara yang disokong Barat, dalam beberapa tahun kebelakangan ini. Ia mengumumkan penggabungan dengan Al -Qaeda 2 tahun lalu, walaupun berapa banyak ancaman mereka kemukakan kepada Amerika Syarikat diper-tikaikan oleh penganalisis Amerika.

Al-Shabab telah ditarik dari plot keganasan berjaya di Afrika Timur, termasuk penge-pungan (siege) pusat membeli-belah di Kenya pada September yang mengakibatkan kematian 67 orang.

Walaupun laporan Washington Post bahawa “tentera yang lebih sedikit daripada 2 dozen” telah dihantar ke Mogadishu, ABC News melaporkan kemudian Jumaat bahawa “kurang daripada” 5 penasihat Amerika Syarikat kini ditempatkan di sana, menurut Jabatan Pertahanan rasmi. ABC News juga menulis sebarang tweet “penasihat telah dihantar ke Mogadishu selepas [Setiausaha Pertahanan Chuck] Hagel menerima permintaan daripada gov't Somalia & [Misi Kesatuan Afrika di Somalia].”

In response to The Washington Post’s story Friday, he tweeted, “US has had military 'adviser/trainers' in Somalia for years. Not new.” According to an ABC report US personnel have gone into Somalia, but the latest deployment is the first permanent posting since 1993.

The US finally recognized the federal government of Somalia in 2013 and reestablished diplomatic ties for the first time since the Somali government collapsed in 1991. Yet the State Department does not have a permanent presence in Mogadishu.

In October 1993, a task force of US Army Rangers and Delta Force commandos engaged in a fierce battle with Somali warlord Mohamed Farah Aideed’s fighters in Mogadishu. The US was there in support of a United Nations humanitarian mission. The failure of the operation prompted a quick US withdrawal and a reticence in Washington to engage in new conflicts there.

In recent years, the US has spent over US$500 million to train and arm an African Union security force of over 18,000 soldiers amid ongoing chaos and famine in Somalia. Most of the forces are trained outside Somalia by US contractors and uniformed military advisers. The US has also spent around $170 million to boost the often-ineffective Somali national army.

The African Union forces control most of Mogadishu, though Al-Shabab still holds most of the country. Al-Shabab has led insurgent efforts in Somalia, against the country’s Western-backed leaders, in recent years. It announced a merger with Al-Qaeda two years ago, though how much of a threat they pose to the US is disputed by American analysts.

Al-Shabab has pulled off successful terror plots in East Africa, including the siege of a shopping center in Kenya in September that resulted the death of 67 people.

Despite The Washington Post’s report that “fewer than two-dozen troops” were sent to Mogadishu, ABC News reported later Friday that “less than” five US advisers are now stationed there, according to a Department of Defense official. ABC News also tweeted “advisers were sent to Mogadishu after [Secretary of Defense Chuck] Hagel received request from Somali gov't & [African Union Mission in Somalia].”

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