Ukraine Election Results Suspended, Identity Thefts in Dubai Murder, Baradar Betrayed

Viktor Yanukovych
Dana Milbank

"We are a nation capable of great things but we will accomplish none of them if we continue to bicker among ourselves and ignore the enormous challenges that we must confront." - Viktor Yanukovych

"Demonization of our president for partisan gain leads some deranged people to pray for his death. Hate is a cheap and easy recruiting tool, but it can be murder on a democracy." - John Avlon

ukraine election put on ice...

This world is such an interesting place, so full of contradictions. I have a link to the Ukraine's president-elect Viktor Yanukovych's victory speech, published in the Wall Street Journal. But this morning a court has accepted to consider a complaint from the person he beat, Yulia Tymoshenko. So the election results are in limbo until Feb 25, which is when the judge will issue his ruling on the complaint, which is one of fraud and ballot-box stuffing. Yulia had won the last election over the entrenched incumbent, who was none other than Viktor. Viktor has been claiming that because of his better relations with the Kremlin, he will make a better bridge between Russia and the US, putting a twist on the reason why he lost last time; that his friendship with Russian authorities was hurting the Ukraine's chances of joining the European Union and relations with other western countries like the US. also, Yulia like the power and authority and doesn't want to concede defeat. She is one tough cookie, but since her policies lost her this election, perhaps she is too tough for the Ukranian people to swallow...


fake passports cause strain on allies...

Evidently the footage of the assassination team released who killed Mahmoud Mabhouh by the Dubai police, showing members of the team doing dumb things like going into a public bathroom and wearing a fake beard when they came out, has proven to be embarrassing to the Mossad. They appear almost as bumbling as the CIA under George Bush was... And the release of the identities of 11 people who used fake passports when they left Dubai is causing a strain on relations between Britain and Israel, not to mention paranoia among citizens of other Israeli allies, who wonder if there identities have been stolen, too.  It's bad enough that international gangs of thieves steal your credit card information, now you can become an instant spy and assassin...

Seven of the passports came from British citizens living in Israel. They had the numbers and personal information taken from their passports and put on a fake passports with a picture of one of the hit men. The only way that could happen is by going into government files in the immigration offices in either country, or someone went into their houses and made photos of their passports for the information.

It is causing quite the debate inside of Israel, too: "While few people are privy to the cloak-and-dagger operations of the Mossad, senior Israeli security officials not directly involved with the affair said they were convinced it was a Mossad operation because of the motive and the use of Israeli identities. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of a government order not to discuss the case, characterized it as a significant Mossad bungle.


The suspicions ratcheted up pressure on Israel to be more forthcoming over the killing of Mahmoud Mabhouh, a man it claims supplied Gaza's Hamas rulers with the most dangerous weapons it possesses. Israeli critics pointed the finger at Mossad, accusing it of sloppiness and endangering Israeli citizens."

"I don't know why we are assuming that Israel, or the Mossad, used those passports, Israel never responds, never confirms and never denies. There is no reason for Israel to change this policy." - Avigdor Lieberman

Mabhouh was one of the founding members of Hamas, and his brother claimed that there had been three other previous attempts on his life. Israel claims that he was in the process of buying rockets from Iran to smuggle into Gaza. If set up there, they would have the range to target Tel Aviv, Israel's capitol city.

It looks troubling for Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Not only have allies been pissed off, but identity theft is a federal crime in Israel. And this is not the first time that an administration of his used assassination as a political tool: "Netanyahu's first tenure in the late 1990s was marred by the Mossad's botched attempt at assassinating the man who now is Hamas' supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal.


The affair could have unwanted diplomatic repercussions for Israel if it indeed used the foreign passports of its own nationals. Several British lawmakers on Wednesday called for the Israeli ambassador to be summoned to the Foreign Office immediately to explain what happened." In another weird twist, Israel just created a Ministry of Information and is creating a campaign its increasing negative image abroad. They want you to know that they are not a poor nation of hummus eating camel jockeys, incredibly enough, not addressing that they created an apartheid nation that has not been resolved in over 40 years.

Just another screw up that monkey-wrenches further negotiations between Palestinians and Israel, not to mention the egg on the face of the Dubai tourist industry... at least the name Dubai rhymes with the word "die" for any aspiring poets out there...

mullah baradar captured...

All of the newspapers crowed that the Afghan Pashtun Taliban's second in command, pictured covering his face with his hand at the left,  had been captured in Karachi, Pakistan in a raid with CIA and Pakistani intelligence officers: "Pakistan’s arrest of the top Taliban military commander may be a tactical victory for the United States, but it is also potentially a strategic coup for Pakistan, officials and analysts here and in Afghanistan said... Pakistan has removed a key Taliban commander, enhanced cooperation with the United States and ensured a place for itself when parties explore a negotiated end to the Afghan war."

Boy, this will change the face of the Afghan war! Maybe the loss of its strategic commander will weaken the Taliban enough to negotiate for peace! Just one small problem, of all of the Taliban commanders who have been debating whether to negotiate with the Karzai government, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was about the only major player who was in favor of it.

The ISI, or Pakistani intelligence service has known where Mullah Baradar was for some time, they used him to communicate between themselves and the Taliban, he was their friend. When they found out that the US wanted only themselves and Afghanistan to be in on any formal negotiations, their feelings were hurt and they got pissed off.

“On the one hand, the Americans don’t want us to negotiate directly with the Taliban, but then we hear that they are doing it themselves without telling us. You don’t treat your partners like this.” - senior Pakistan official

What better way to curry favor and get back in the game as a major player than to set up an ambush to give the Americans some major face? Pakistan will now be at any formal negotiations, Mullah Baradar is being kept in jail in Pakistan, where, hopefully, he won't be tortured or mistreated. They can always use the threat of turning him over to the US if he is uncooperative with them, and they want to repair the lack of trust they created in their relationship with the Afghan Taliban, which they have nurtured since their beginning.

There is evidence that Mullah Muhammad Omar and other senior leaders are suffering from Pol Pot Syndrome. In Pol's case, living in the jungle eating bark and bugs, moving constantly for years, living in constant fear of being captured made him quite crazy. You see it with just about every group that has waged warfare for a number of years; after awhile you can't talk logically and sensibly to them, they have become addicted to soldiering and killing as a way of life. This actually was an assessment of a Saudi Prince who had met with Mullah Omar to try and bring bin Laden back to Saudi Arabia for justice back in 2001, before 9/11. Previously, the Saudis let bin Laden stay in Afghanistan because he had been so annoying when he was in Saudi Arabia, they made a deal with the Taliban to let him stay only if he kept a low profile and stopped making public statements, which he ignored. Mullah Omar refused to give him up, saying that he had given him hospitality and it was wrong to betray that custom. Later, the family bin Laden's construction company expanded the caves near Kandahar for Osama to have a headquarters and to live a bit more comfortably while he was eating those bugs and bark, alienating his wife and children enough so that they would leave...

other quick tidbits...
Iran announced today that the three American hikers probably did just wander over the border when they arrested them, and that their parents were now welcome to visit them in jail until their case goes to court. Every time you think they are really the axis of evil, they throw out a bone of kindness...

And Haiti will release eight of the ten American prisoners who tried to cross the border with 33 kids they thought were orphans, and let them go home. The woman who organized the mess, Laura Silsby, and her ex-nanny will stay behind for more questioning, a clever euphemism for holding them as hostages...