Belgrade, May 27
Ratko Mladic is fit enough to face genocide charges in The Hague, a Belgrade court ruled today, after the Bosnian Serb wartime general’s son said he appeared too frail after more than 15 years on the run.

The court said Mladic, arrested on Thursday in a Serbian village, had until Monday to appeal against extradition to the international criminal court to be tried over a massacre in Srebrenica and the siege of Sarajevo during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war.

European officials hailed his capture, at a farmhouse belonging to his cousin, as a milestone on Serbia’s path towards the European Union and said they expected his extradition within 10 days.

His son, speaking after what he said was his first meeting with his father in years, said he was too ill. “We are almost certain he cannot be extradited in such condition,” said Darko Mladic. “He is in very bad shape. His right arm is half paralysed. His right side is partly numb.”

The once burly and aggressive Mladic, 69, moved slowly and with a slight limp when he appeared before an investigative judge at the special war crimes court in Belgrade on Thursday.

Mladic’s lawyer later told reporters the court had halted the questioning because his client was “in a serious condition. He is hardly responsive”. An official described him as looking disoriented and tired.

“Dead man arrested,” ran several Serbian newspaper headlines on Friday, with a picture showing a pale and wizened Mladic, the last of the three men accused of instigating ethnic cleansing during the 1992-95 war in Bosnia to be held accountable.

Officials say Mladic has high blood pressure, heart disease and a kidney stone and his son said he had suffered strokes which had left two scars on his brain, although he said his father recognised the family and knew he was in detention. Judge Maja Kovacevic said the medical team had determined that he was fit for further proceedings. “Mladic’s lawyer was delivered the extradition papers and he has until Monday to appeal,” she said.

Israel’s hardline Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems to have emerged triumphant from a standoff with US President Barack Obama over the Middle East peace process.

Netanyahu visited Washington this week for talks with Obama on the latest developments surrounding the stalled peace process with the Palestinians. The visit triggered a crisis in relations between the Obama Administration and Netanyahu, particularly in wake of the US President’s call for a two-state solution on the basis of the border that existed before the 1967 Middle East war.

The crisis actually started before Netanyahu’s arrival in the US, when Obama delivered a speech at the State Department in which he talked about the 1967 lines as the basis for a two-state solution. Obama’s speech angered not only Netanyahu, but also many American Jews, who accused the US President of siding with the Palestinians in their conflict with Israel.

The crisis deepened when Obama and Netanyahu had a tense meeting in the White House a few days later. US officials were quoted as saying that the meeting was anything but friendly and noted that differences between the two men were as wide as ever.

Some Israeli and American political analysts believe that the root of the crisis lay in an invitation to Netanyahu to deliver a speech before the Republican-dominated Congress. Obama’s Middle East address at the State Department was an attempt to steal the show from Netanyahu’s anticipated appearance before the Congress, the analysts said.

But in the light of widespread criticism from the Netanyahu government and many American Jews, Obama was forced to soften his tone toward Israel. In a speech before the power pro-Israel Jewish lobby group AIPAC in Washington, Obama sought to placate his critics by stating that he was not demanding an Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines -which Netanyahu has described as indefensible borders for the Jewish state.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s argument is that any such withdrawal would reduce the heart of the country to a five or six mile wide strip flanked on the one side by the Mediterranean and on the other by hostile Arab armies.

Obama went even further in an attempt to soften the pill by declaring his opposition to the Palestinian Authority’s plan to ask the UN in September to recognise a Palestinian state along the 1967 lines. Netanyahu’s supporters now give credit to their Prime Minister for the change in Obama’s rhetoric. They claim that during the White House meeting, Netanyahu gave the US President a “lecture” about the history and geography of the region and managed to convince him to oppose the Palestinians’ bid at the UN.

Moreover, they claim that it was Netanyahu who persuaded Obama to endorse Israel’s stance against the reconciliation agreement between the Palestinian Fatah and Hamas factions that was signed in Cairo in early May.

By all accounts, it was Netanyahu’s appearance before Congress that seemed to have turned the tide against Obama. After receiving more than 25 standing ovations, Netanyahu was able to laugh all the way back to Jerusalem, much to the dismay of Obama and his team. 

Chicago, May 27
Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley has said he is no longer proud of the 2008 Mumbai terror attack, a day after saying that he was "pleased" with it. The US said it was closely cooperating with the Indians on counter-terrorism "certainly involving Mumbai".Washington, however, declined comment on revelations about Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence's (ISI) role in the Mumbai terror attack. The plotters of Mumbai also wanted to make a Bollywood movie for launching aspiring actor Rahul Bhatt, son of film director Mahesh Bhatt, but dropped the plans because Lashkar-e-Toiba opposed it. David Coleman Headley, co-accused in the on-going Rana trial, disclosed this in his testimony on the fourth day of his deposition before a court here during questioning by Rana's attorney Patrick W Blegan. Rana, a Pakistani Canadian, was not not able to go ahead with his plans as it was against the ideals of LeT, which opposed such a move. Headley said Rahul wanted to break into movies but his father was not not helping him. "So (I) befriended him, so that they can get to bigger picture," he said.

He said he introduced himself to Rahul as a former army ranger and he had started liking him. Headley said he had, in fact, told him not not to go to South Mumbai on November 26, the day LeT sent 10 terrorists for a major terrorist attack which over the next three days killed more than 160 people. Earlier, he said there was once a talk of bringing Rahul to the tribal areas of Pakistan for "sightseeing". However, he disagreed with the defence attorney that the plan was not not to kill or kidnap him. "We invite guests and do not not kidnap them," Headley said. However, Headley agreed that forging a friendship with Rahul was against the basic surveillance and espionage teachings that he had received from LeT and ISI.

During the testimony Headly said he visited a nuclear power plant in India on the direction of Major Iqbal, a Pakistan ISI official, in April 2008. According to court documents, in September, 2008 Headley had a meeting with Sajid Mir, his ISI handler, and Abu Qahafa (while driving within Pakistan), during which Sajid informed Headley that Lashkar had dropped earlier plans for the attackers to attempt escape and instead decided that they would fight to death. Sajid explained that once the attackers knew they were going to die in the attack, LeT commanders Hafiz Sayeed, Zaki-Ur-Rehman Lakhvi and other gave lectures to the boys about the glory of martyrdom. "During these lectures, Saeed told the boys that being shot would feel like a pin prick, blood stains would be like rose petals, and that angels would come down to take their souls," the documents said. Headley said after two failed attempts to strike Mumbai in September and October 2008, the Pakistani handlers of the 26/11 accused David Headley began planning the attack on India's financial capital "more closely than ever" in early November that year. He said the first planned attack was in September, then in October and it finally happened in November. — PTI 

Washington, May 27
Mumbai attack co-accused David Headley was asked by Major Iqbal, his handler in Pakistan's intelligence agency, to lay low after the carnage and not to contact him as there was intense pressure and increased international surveillance of their activities post 26/11.

Sometime in February 2009, Headley, who has been accused of being involved in the planning of November 2008 Mumbai attacks, met Major Iqbal in Lahore who informed him that the investigation into 26/11 was intense. Headley during the ongoing trial of 26/11 co-accused Tawahhur Rana this week said Major Iqbal was a serving officer in the ISI. Iqbal has been indicted by US federal prosecutors for his alleged involvement in Mumbai attack. Pakistan has strongly refuted allegations of ISI involvement.

"Major Iqbal instructed Headley to remove any incriminating materials from his house, and to avoid contact with him," says the Government’s Santiago Proffer, which was unsealed this week.

This was also acknowledged by Headley during the questioning this week in a Chicago court. Headley told the court this week that he in fact was "disappointed "and "upset" when Major Iqbal seemed to be discouraging when he showed him the fresh surveillance videos of the planned terrorist strike in Copenhagen in early 2009. — PTI

Working on a plot more sinister than Mumbai attacks, David Headley and his Pakistani handlers, Illyas Kashmiri in particular, were to behead the heads of the hostages and throw the heads out of the window for their planned terrorist strike in Copenhagen. Luckily for the world, Headley, a 26/11 co-accused who at one stage was planning to fund and execute this attack on his own, was arrested before he could create Mumbai-like mayhem in the Danish capital.Kashmiri’s men in London who would sent terrorists for the attack in Copenhagen did not want to do go ahead because of the increased surveillance and also they encountered some problem with financing for the project, reveal new details which emerged out of the new court documents and deliberations during the first four days of the ongoing trial of Tahawwur Hussein Rana in a Chicago court this week. — PTI