Titles:

• British Bombs, Destroy and Rebuild
• Tunisia’s Islamists Hail Arrival of the ‘Sixth Caliphate’
• Pentagon Denies Bomb Is Intended For Iran
• Hamid Karzai Does Not Oppose US Occupation Only Night Raids

News Details:

British bombs, destroy and rebuild:

Britain that has spent almost £300 million to destroy Libya’s infrastructure is vying to win lucrative deals worth almost £200 billion to rebuild the North African state.The UK Department of Trade and Investment believes the estimated value of the contracts to rebuild Libya, in areas ranging from electricity and water supplies to healthcare and education, could amount to almost more than £200 billion over the next 10 years, British media reported.”Libya is a relatively wealthy country with oil reserves, and I expect there will be opportunities for British and, indeed, other companies to get involved in the reconstruction of Libya,” British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has said. He called on CEOs and sales directors to “pack their suitcases” and head to the war-shattered country.

Tunisia’s Islamists hail arrival of the ‘sixth caliphate’:

The English newspaper the Daily Telegraph reported: The Islamist politician likely to become Tunisia’s first democratically elected prime minister has alarmed liberals and secularists by claiming the arrival of the “sixth caliphate”, a controversial term for a Muslim empire. Hamadi Jebeli, secretary-general of Ennahda, the moderate Islamist party which romped to victory in last month’s elections, told a rally in the city of Sousse: “My brothers, you are at a historic moment in a new cycle of civilisation, God willing. We are in sixth caliphate, God willing.” Party officials, who have spent months insisting they wanted to pursue secular democratic politics rather than an international Islamist agenda, were forced on the defensive after his comments were posted on the internet. “We thought we were going to build a second republic with our partner – not a sixth caliphate,” Khemais Ksila, a senior member, said.

Pentagon Denies Bomb Is Intended For Iran:

The military’s newest and most powerful ground-penetrating bomb is not intended for Iran’s underground nuclear and weapons facilities specifically, a Pentagon spokesman said Wednesday. “The system’s not aimed at any one country,” said Pentagon spokesman, Capt. John Kirby. “It’s to develop a capability we believe we need.” The new Massive Ordinance Penetrator, known as the MOP, is able to explode 200 feet underground and designed to destroy deeply buried and fortified targets such as the ones Iran is believed to have constructed to protect its nuclear research facilities. “It gives us a far greater capability to reach and destroy an enemy’s weapons of mass destructions that — weapons of mass destruction that are located in well-protected underground facilities, without getting into specifics, to — to a magnitude far greater than we have right now,” Kirby said at a Pentagon briefing. There were three separate orders placed by the Pentagon with the final one placed in August. The bomb is said to be more than 20 feet long and 30 inches in diameter and weighs some 30,000 pounds (13,600 kilos). It is more powerful than its predecessor, the BLU-109, and is a “relatively simple weapon,” according to information posted by the military’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency. “The MOP relies on gravity to turn its massive weight into tremendous kinetic energy. Designed to penetrate supposedly untouchable facilities in one piece, the MOP will defeat our adversaries’ (weapons of mass destruction) before they leave the ground,” according to the description on the website.

Hamid Karzai does not oppose US occupation only night raids:

Hamid Karzai has told a national gathering of Afghan elders that he will not sign a much-delayed military pact with the US until night raids by foreign forces come to an end, a demand that threatens to complicate the deal. In a fiery speech on Wednesday at the opening session of a loya jirga, a grand assembly of more than 2,000 delegates held amid tight security, the Afghan president said continued US military and economic help after the end of the Nato combat mission in 2014 was vital to avoid civil war.But he presented himself as the leader of a proud country whose sovereignty must be respected, and set firm terms to be met before any deal could be concluded. “We want to have a strong partnership with the US and Nato, but with conditions,” he said. “We want our national sovereignty, and an end to night raids and to the detention of our countrymen.” Many Afghans see night raids and house searches as grave insults to the Afghan tradition of respect for the sanctity of private homes. But military commanders say such operations are an effective tool against Taliban fighters and have the added advantage of minimising Afghan and Nato casualties compared with daylight operations.An Afghan official said Karzai did not expect to achieve a complete end to night raids, but wanted Afghans to be put in charge of such operations. “That’s what needs to change to give true meaning to Afghan sovereignty and an equal partnership,” the official said.

Mullen’s spokesman admits existence of secret memo:

The spokesman for former Chairman US Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Mike Mullen confirmed the existence of a secret memo alleged to have been sent by President Zardari to Admiral Mullen. A Pakistani businessman alleged in a column in the Financial Times last month that a senior Pakistani diplomat asked for assistance in getting a message from Zardari to Admiral Mike Mullen, at the time chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. The author, Mansoor Ijaz, alleged that Zardari feared a military takeover following the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan in May and brought unprecedented public scrutiny on Pakistani leaders. Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington has offered to resign after reports that his boss, President Asif Ali Zardari, asked Washington for help to stave off a military takeover. There has been speculation in the Pakistani media that Haqqani had been involved in the conception or communicating of the memo.

22 Dhu al-Hijjah 1432
2011/11/18