Clipmarks | Kurdistan Clips

Female Fighters: We Won't Stand for Male Dominance

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 06:13:03 GMT

clipped by: dulios
clipper's remarks:

Back in 1998, the fighters say, their now-jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan declared the group "a women's party." It was initially difficult to accept, says Karim, a 42-year-old male member of the PKK.

Today, the PKK's ideology revolves around a belief that global crises and injustice are a result of millennia of male-dominated rule. Here, the women run their own assaults and have their own command structure. All tasks are shared, both on and off the battlefield. Discipline is paramount to survival, they say, and weapons are always clean and never out of reach.

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Female fighters: We won't stand for male dominance

QANDIL MOUNTAINS, Iraq (CNN) -- The women line the mountainside, locked hand in hand in their green battle fatigues, and begin dancing. It's a victory dance, they say, that is routine after raids across the border on Turkish troops.

"We want a natural life, a society that revolves around women -- one where women and men are equal, a society without pressure, without inequality, where all differences between people are eliminated," says Rengin, the head of a female battalion of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

"Women grow up enslaved by society. The minute you are born as a girl, society inhibits you," she says. "We've gone to war with that. If I am a woman, I need to be known by the strength of my womanhood, to get respect. Those are my rights. And it was hard for the men to accept this." See photos of women with guns in mountain enclave »

Tags: women, war, pkk, turkey, ocalan

Female fighters: We won't stand for male dominance

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:27:52 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

Rengin joined the PKK in this mountain enclave in 1990, when she was just 14, after she says Turkish forces killed her father. She says she wanted to fight for Kurdish rights and women's rights.

Much of the outside world views the PKK with suspicion. It's been labeled a terrorist organization by the United States, Iraq, Turkey and NATO.

Tags: women, turkey, social, rights, society

Turkish warplanes bomb Kurd bases in northern Iraq

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:27:19 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: There goes the Northern Front:

"But on the streets of Turkey, public anger has mounted with each funeral held for the slain soldiers. The anger has turned toward Turkish leaders as well. On Sunday, mourners booed Gul at a funeral in the western city of Eskisehir, and they booed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at another funeral in Armutlu village, near the capital."

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish warplanes have bombed Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq, the military said Sunday, two days after rebels killed 15 soldiers in an attack staged partly from Iraqi soil.

The planes bombed Saturday in Iraq's Avasin Basyan region and returned safely to their bases, the military said.

The military's deputy chief, meanwhile, accused leaders in northern Iraq of tolerating the rebels.

"We don't receive any kind of support from the local administration in the northern part of Iraq," Turkey's Gen. Hasan Igsiz said Sunday. "Our expectation from them is to accept that the terrorist organization is a terrorist organization and eliminate the support provided to it."

Turkey's civilian leaders have vowed to respond firmly to the rebels from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has been fighting for autonomy in the southeast since 1984.

Tags: iraq, turkey, pkk, war, terrorism, kurds, military

Kurds kill 15 Turkish soldiers

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 09:53:36 GMT

clipped by: tommy2balmy
clipper's remarks: On another note- more evidence of our success in Iraq?

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Kurdish rebels have killed 15 Turkish soldiers near Semdinli in the country's south-east, the military says.

There are frequent clashes with between troops and rebels

The soldiers died during an attack by fighters said to be from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), based over the border in northern Iraq.

Generals said 23 rebels were also killed as troops fought back in some of the most deadly clashes in months.

Turkey blames the PKK for a series of bomb attacks on its cities, and often targets rebels with air strikes.

More than 40,000 people are thought to have been killed since 1984, when the PKK launched its campaign for a Kurdish homeland in south-eastern Turkey.

Turkey has launched a number of military incursions across the border into northern Iraq since the start of 2008.

Generals accuse the PKK of using the region as a sanctuary from where to plan and carry out deadly attacks against Turkish troops in the south and eastern regions of Turkey.

Tags: iraq, war on terror, turkey, kurds, kurdistan

Strip of Iraq 'on the Verge of Exploding'

Sun, 14 Sep 2008 01:20:41 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Cont....

The long-cherished dream of many of the world's 25 million ethnic Kurds is an independent state that encompasses parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey. All but Iraq adamantly oppose Kurdish autonomy, much less a Kurdish state. Iraqi Kurds continue to insist they are not seeking independence, even as they unilaterally expand the territory they control in Iraq.

Clip Source: www.washingtonpost.com

JALAWLA, Iraq -- Kurdish leaders have expanded their authority over a roughly 300-mile-long swath of territory beyond the borders of their autonomous region in northern Iraq, stationing thousands of soldiers in ethnically mixed areas in what Iraqi Arabs see as an encroachment on their homelands.

Tensions between Kurdish forces, above, and Iraq's army have stoked fear just as years of Shiite-Sunni violence wane. (By Andrea Bruce -- The Washington Post)
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The assertion of greater Kurdish control, which has taken hold gradually since the war began and caused tens of thousands of Arabs to flee their homes, is viewed by Iraqi Arab and U.S. officials as a provocative and potentially destabilizing action.

"Quickly moving into those areas to try and change the population and flying KRG flags in areas that are specifically not under the KRG control right now -- that is counterproductive and increases tensions,"

Tags: iraq, war, kurdistan, violence, explosion, i hate to be right sometimes

US to Finance and Build Large Airport Near Iran

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 00:42:50 GMT

clipped by: sahara

Clip Source: blog.puppetgov.com

Puppetgov: So let’s have our hard earned taxes go to something like this instead of helping fellow Americans or our crumbling infrastructure. (see story following this one) Had Enough?

The Kurdistan Regional Government has allocated 1,500 acres of land near Iran’s border for the construction of a large US-financed airport.

The airport is to be built in a town called Halabja situated about 11 kilometers from the Iranian border in the northern Iraqi province of Sulaimaniyah, our Press TV correspondent reported from Irbil on Monday.

This is while most political analysts and economists believe that the location is unsuitable, because a small town like Halabja does not need such a large airport, particularly one so close to the border.

“The airport is very large and Halabja is a small town. It doesn’t need to build a big airport like this in an area that is near the border,” Abdulkhaliq told Press TV.

constructing an airport near the border ‘raises doubts in people’s minds’.

Destination: World's Dangerous Places...

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 07:11:03 GMT

clipped by: mugofcoffee

Clip Source: www.usatoday.com

By Jayne Clark, USA TODAY

They're considered dangerous, distant and difficult. The U.S. State Department warns against visiting, and your mother probably would, too. But for a certain breed of American traveler, destinations more associated with trouble than tourism are the place to go.

And where there's demand, there's usually someone happy to supply. Here's a look at new developments on the tourism front in some of the world's current hot spots.

New guide to Iraq

Southern Iraqis head north to escape the heat, but for Western visitors, "it's completely virgin territory," Soriano says. "There are places in Iraqi Kurdistan where they've never seen a non-Iraqi."

Sold-out tours to North Korea

New turf in Afghanistan

Travelers who find exotic locales such as Nepal a "been there, done that" destination are turning their sights toward Afghanistan.

Richard Perle, War Criminal, Back into Iraq for Oil

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 02:01:37 GMT

clipped by: zizzy

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

The Wall Street Journal reports that neoconservative war architect Richard Perle is getting back into Iraq:

Influential former Pentagon official Richard Perle has been exploring going into the oil business in Iraq and Kazakhstan, according to people with knowledge of the matter and documents outlining possible deals.

Mr. Perle, one of a group of security experts who began pushing the case for toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein about a decade ago, has been discussing a possible deal with officials of northern Iraq's Kurdistan regional government, including its Washington envoy, according to these people and the documents.

Think Progress remembers that Perle "resigned from his position on the Defense Policy Board in an attempt to 'defuse a controversy over charges he stood to profit from the war in Iraq.'"

Military: US Troops Killed Iraqi Newspaper Editor's Son

Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:22:21 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Cont...

Tensions have been rising in Kirkuk as minority Kurds step up efforts to incorporate the diverse city into their semiautonomous territory in northern Iraq despite objections from Arab and Turkomen factions.

Clip Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

People gather next to a site of a bomb explosion in Karbala, 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, July 25, 2008. Iraqi authorities say a bomb explosion aboard a minibus has wounded nine civilians in the Shiite holy city. (AP Photo/ Ahmed Alhussainey)

BAGHDAD — The U.S. military said Friday that bullets fired by American soldiers killed the 14-year-old son of the chief editor of a U.S.-sponsored newspaper during a gunbattle this week in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

The military said Arkan Ali Taha was hit when soldiers came under heavy gunfire from a passing taxi and shot back. The boy was riding in the cab and the driver was later taken into custody, the statement said.

The father said his son was not involved with extremist groups and didn't know how to use weapons. He said the boy had hired the cab to bring a set of keys to the newspaper.

Tags: iraq, war, mosul, kurdistan, military, u.s.

Obama Agrees with Permanent Iraq Bases

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:27:01 GMT

clipped by: blueridge
clipper's remarks: near Iran border. But will anyone criticize this position?

Clip Source: feeds.bignewsnetwork.com

Kurds ask for US bases to be built near Iran border

As part of a long-term security agreement with Iraq, US forces could be stationed in Kurdistan.

The Iraqi government and the head of northern Iraq's regional Kurdish administration, Massoud Barzani, have suggested to military officials that US forces be permanently based in Kurdistan.

On hearing the request, US Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama said it would be appropriate to redeploy US troops there in the future.

Tags: obama, iraq, iran, war

Ten Kurdish rebels killed in clashes in SE Turkey

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:59:41 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: Success....

Clip Source: news.yahoo.com

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Ten members of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed in clashes with Turkish military forces in southeastern Turkey late on Friday, security sources said on Saturday.

Six were killed in the firefight which broke out in a rural region of Siirt province after Kurdish guerrillas detonated an improvised explosive device under a minibus carrying schoolchildren, injuring two people.

Security forces said the clashes began after they launched an operation to find the group responsible for the attack.

They also said two PKK members were killed in a clash in Hakkari late on Friday and two other militants were killed in Bingol.

Nearly 50 members of the separatist PKK and six soldiers have been killed this week.

More than 40,000 have been killed since 1984 when the PKK took up arms to carve out an ethnic homeland in primarily Kurdish southeast Turkey.

Turkey considers the PKK a terrorist organization, as does the European Union and the United States.

Tags: turkey, iraq, kurds, kurdistan, terrorism, terrorist, war, war on terror, pkk

Pentagon Covered in Oil

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 01:34:58 GMT

clipped by: katsteevns

Clip Source: www.tomdispatch.com

The Pentagon and the Hunt for Black Gold

The Oil Deal Nobody Wants to Talk About

by Nick Turse

House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform found that Hunt Oil had pursued "an oil deal with the regional Kurdistan government that ran counter to American policy and undercut Iraq's central government."

Despite its officially stated policy of warning companies like Hunt Oil "that they incur risks in signing contracts until Iraq passes an oil law," the State Department in some cases actually encouraged a deal between the "Texas oil company with close ties to President Bush" and Kurdistan that "undercut" Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government in Baghdad.

Hunt has taken in increasingly larger sums of taxpayer dollars from the Pentagon -- $39.6 million in 2005, $52.2 million in 2006, and, in 2007, a whopping $70 million. (Hunt Refining did not return telephone or email messages seeking comment for this article.)

BUSH FUNDING TERRORISTS IN IRAN

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 04:50:28 GMT

clipped by: A53GG4

Clip Source: www.afterdowningstreet.org

BUSH FUNDING TERRORISTS IN IRAN

Submitted by davidswanson on Sat, 2008-07-05 10:18.

Iran

By Sherwood Ross

The recent surge of terrorist violence in Iran likely is being funded in part by the Bush administration with the support of Congress.

According to a report in the July 7-14 issue of The New Yorker magazine, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh says the U.S. reportedly has been funding the Iranian dissident terrorist group Mujahideen-e-Khalq, or M.E.K.; the Kurdish separatist Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, or PJAK; and, according to some sources, the Jundallah, or Iranian People’s Resistance Movement.

“Hardly a day goes by now we don’t see a clash somewhere,” retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Sam Gardiner is quoted by Hersh as stating. “There were three or four incidents over a recent weekend, and the Iranians are even naming the Revolutionary Guard officers who have been killed.” Gardiner has taught strategy at the National War College and is monitoring the violence in Iran.

Tags: politics

U.S. officials condoned Kurdish oil deal

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:37:56 GMT

clipped by: ratilfar
clipper's remarks: From the article....

"Kurdish officials have clashed with Baghdad over the national oil law, which will determine how contracts are awarded and how revenues are distributed. The northern Iraqi region has signed several exploration deals with foreign firms, which Baghdad says are illegal."

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

WASHINGTON - U.S. officials condoned Hunt Oil Co. efforts to obtain an exploration deal with Iraq’s Kurdish regional government, contrary to public statements discouraging it, according to documents cited by a congressional committee.

When the agreement was announced in September, it was criticized as undermining efforts to strengthen Iraq central government, which still had no national oil revenue-sharing law.

Bush administration officials expressed public concern and denied any knowledge of the contract.

On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman released e-mails and letters obtained by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that appeared to show the opposite.

“Contrary to the denials of administration officials, advisors to the president and officials in the State and Commerce Departments knew about Hunt Oil’s interest in the Kurdish region months before the contract was executed,” Waxman, a California Democrat, wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Tags: oil, iraq, kurdistan, empire, u.s.

An American in Albania

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:13:38 GMT

clipped by: CrazyRedHead
clipper's remarks: ...The Albanians of Montenegro were lucky, I thought as we approached the customs agents, to live under Josip Broz Tito's relatively lenient communist system in Yugoslavia instead of suffering Enver Hoxha's full-bore Stalinist regime just a few miles away in Albania proper. Hoxha, who ranks among the most thoroughly oppressive tyrants in history, made Tito's dictatorship look libertarian....

Clip Source: www.michaeltotten.com

“Mister, where are you from?” said a little girl.

“America,” I said.

“Yay!” The kids cheered.

Albania is fanatically pro-American, which is perhaps a bit counterintuitive to many Americans since it is at least nominally a Muslim-majority country. The conventional assumption that Muslims hate Americans everywhere isn't true.

“You should have seen President Bush’s face when he came to Albania,” an ethnic Albanian man later said to me in Kosovo. “All over Western Europe he was met by protests, but the entire country of Albania turned out to welcome him. He was so happy. You could see it on his face.”

Albanian pro-Americanism resembles that of both Poland and Iraqi Kurdistan. The unspeakably oppressive communist regime pushed Albanians strongly into the U.S.-led Western camp

More kids tugged at me and wanted their pictures taken. It was overwhelming, and more than a little bit startling.

Tags: europe, albania, politics, america, travel, photography