[Al Jazeera] Mahmood Karzai, brother of the Afghan president and shareholder of Kabul Bank, will repay $1m in loans with interest to the troubled lender, Al Jazeera has learned.
Good. Next time be wise and restrain your cupidity to the level or petty pilferage instead. The successful parasite does not kill its host.
Karzai and minority shareholders at the bank, which has been embroiled in controversy over allegations of corruption among its top bosses, are all in the process of handing back loans, people familiar with the situation told Al Jazeera. However, The infamous However... the total sum to be returned is not known.
The move comes shareholders' efforts to regain control of the lender from Afghanistan's central bank. Afghan authorities seized operations at Kabul Bank earlier this month following allegations that its former chairman, Sherkhan Farnood, misappropriated funds.
Farnood has been ordered to hand over more than $150m in luxury villas and condominiums in Dubai that he allegedly bought with the bank's money for various Afghan elites, including Mahmood Karzai.
The villas, some located at the posh Palm Jumeirah development in the Arabian Gulf, had been held in the name of Farnood and his wife. After authorities threatened to arrest him, Farnood agreed to transfer the properties to Kabul Bank.
The Afghan government was reportedly forced to pump "millions" of dollars into the bank as customers queued up to withdraw money after Farnood was forced to step down.
Now, further details about the level of funds channelled into pet projects are coming to light.
Sources told Al Jazeera that Farnood made loans worth $90m to his airline Pamir Air and $70m to natural gas operations of Hasseen Fahim, the brother of Afghanistan's first vice-president Mohammad Qasim Fahim. Those figures are in addition to the $160m spent on properties in Dubai, the sources said.
But in a move to help clean up the bank's image, shareholders are now calling for the money given to rescue the bank to be converted into a "soft loan", sources told Al Jazeera.
They also want to talk to international investors, including banks, about taking a stake in Kabul Bank, in a bid to improve its operations.
Officials from Afghanistan's central bank, which is to remain in control of Kabul Bank for the next 18 months, could not be reached for a comment.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Afghanistan's election authorities have cancelled votes cast at dozens of polling centres in the recent parliamentary poll after finding evidence of fraud, an electoral official said Thursday.
Fazil Ahmad Manawi, head of the Independent Election Commission (IEC) said any IEC agents found responsible for fraud would be prosecuted.
"The commission has invalidated the votes from 39 polling centres," Manawi told news hounds.
Ballots cast at another 38 polling centres would be recounted due to suspicion of fraud, he said. He did not give the exact number of cancelled ballots but said each polling centre had between 1,200 and 7,200 ballot papers.
The detected fraud ranged from ballot-stuffing to multiple voting, he said, adding that at some polling centres, ballots had been evenly divided between two candidates.
Manawi said he would investigate election workers responsible for the polling centres where most of the fraud detected so far took place.
"The election was a national event, lots of money has been spent on it, lots of lives were lost," he said, referring to Taliban violence that cost around 22 lives.
"We won't allow any wrong doing. Anyone found involved in fraud will be held accountable. You will see lots of our staff being introduced to relevant legal authorities for investigation," he told news hounds.
Afghanistan held its second post-Taliban parliamentary election on September 18. Final results are expected late next month.
Former warlords accused of war crimes, illegal militia leaders and corrupt ex-government officials joined more than 2,500 candidates in the race for the 249 seats in the lower house of the parliament.
The election took place amid violence and intimidation from the Taliban, and widespread expectations of fraud following the presidential poll last year in which more than a million ballots were cancelled due to irregularities.
Most of the fraudulent ballots were in favour of Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai, who was returned for a second five-year term.
Early this week, the IEC cancelled all votes cast at another two polling centres after finding evidence of fraud in a partial recount.
Cancelling the ballots is likely to intensify concerns that the election could descend into a fiasco of fraud similar to the presidential poll.
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10/01/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya] One year after female university students were banned from sitting for the exam while wearing the face veil, two Egyptian universities issued a decree to ban face-veiled professors from teaching.
The Cairo-based Ain Shams University and Fayoum University southwest of Cairo announced that female professors wearing the face veil, also called the 'niqab,' will not be allowed into the classroom unless they show their faces.
Dr. Maged el-Deeb, President of Ain Shams University, denied allegations that the ban is a reflection of the persecution from which veiled professors suffer.
"Fully veiled professors are not going to be banned from working at the university," he told Al Arabiya. "They will only not be allowed to teach."
Deeb added that professors wearing the niqab will be involved in administrative work like proctoring during the exams.
"They also have the right to do research and any other academic activities with the support of the university."
The new decision, Deeb added, is yet to be authorized by the University Council and the Higher Council of Universities, but it will take effect as of the current academic year.
"We want the professors to get used to the new situation from now so it won't be shocking when the decision comes out officially."
Fayoum University president Dr. Ahmed al-Gohary agreed with the professors' view regarding the face veil being personal freedom, yet objected to imposing it on the students.
"The face veil hinders contact between the professor and the students," he told Al Arabiya. "In this case, it no longer becomes a personal freedom since the professor imposes it in the classroom and violates the rights of her students."
Gohary added that students do not feel comfortable when they are taught by a face-veiled professor. "They are just not that outspoken about it."
Lawyer Nizar Ghorab, who defended face-veiled students banned from entering the campus, said applying the ban on professors is a similar violation of personal freedoms.
"In addition, such bans inflict substantial financial and moral damages on the professors," he told Al Arabiya. "That is why university presidents who imposed these ban have to be prosecuted and dismissed."
The controversy about the niqab on campus started last year when face-veiled students were banned from sitting for the exams. Students went to court and the ruling came in their favor, yet not all universities abided by the court's decision.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2010 00:00 ||
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[Al Arabiya] Medical experts testifying before Congress Wednesday slammed the diagnosis that led to the controversial release of Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi, who is still alive more than a year after being told he had just weeks to live.
"I'm not the least bit surprised that Mr. Megrahi is alive today, and it should come as absolutely no surprise to the cancer specialists who cared for Mr. Megrahi either," said James Mohler, an oncology specialist who testified before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations committee.
The only man convicted in the bombing, Megrahi was freed by Scotland's devolved government on compassionate grounds, after being diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer and given just three months to live.
More than a year later, the convicted Libyan terrorist is still alive however, sparking fury among Americans who believe he should never have been released in the first place.
Mohler said it is clear that the diagnosis used to free him was deeply flawed.
"It would be very difficult to give a three-month prognosis to a patient who was able to negotiate a flight of stairs," said Mohler, referring to widely broadcast video images that showed Megrahi descending aircraft stairs upon his return to Libya.
Another physician at the hearing, Oliver Sartor, concurred with Mohler's assessment, and said he likely would have given a patient in similar condition who had received chemotherapy treatment -- as Megrahi had according to some documents -- a prognosis of around 19 months to live.
Megrahi was convicted for his role in the 1988 downing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland which killed 270 people, most of them U.S. nationals.
His released has galled politicians like U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, who chaired Wednesday's hearing and called the Libyan's release a "miscarriage of justice."
"The release on compassionate ground was deeply deeply flawed," said Menendez.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
So it was all about politics and money, eh? Oh noes! I'm like sooo totally disillusioned.
#2
I realize it sounds rather harsh, but I could envision a special..... gasthaus in Flossenburg reopening for a short time if Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi were to be made available.
[Arab News] Prince Khaled bin Sultan, assistant minister of defense and aviation for military affairs, urged Saudi armed forces Wednesday to learn lessons from last year's military encounter with Yemeni intruders in order to avoid mistakes in the future.
Addressing senior military officers and commanders, the minister also emphasized the importance of training to improve the combating capabilities of Saudi forces as well as their physical fitness.
He reassured the officers that Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, is in good health and is spending his vacation outside the Kingdom. He emphasized the Saudi leadership's desire to strengthen armed forces by acquiring advanced weapons.
"Efforts are under way to modernize the various branches of the armed forces in the coming days," the prince said while commending the efforts of the military in defending the Kingdom's borders.
Prince Khaled saluted the valor displayed by Saudi forces in fighting Yemeni infiltrators who attacked a border post and occupied some villages in Jazan last November.
He paid tributes to the Saudi officers who were killed and injured while fighting the rebels. "We have sent some injured officers abroad for advanced treatment. I am personally following up on their condition," he said.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... the Finance Ministry announced recently that it had spent about SR900 million on food and accommodation for Jazan's displaced people after the Yemeni intruders attacked Saudi villages along the southern border.
"We have taken a number of measures to provide housing to all the displaced people," the ministry said in a statement following reports that some of these displaced people have been asked to vacate hotels and furnished apartments by the end of Ramadan.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
apparently being fat and incompetent trumped being part of the Master Race™ when it came to battling armed rustics.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/01/2010 8:31 Comments ||
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Ecuador was under a state of siege Friday, the streets quiet with the military in charge of public order, after soldiers rescued President Rafael Correa from a hospital where he'd been surrounded by police who roughed him up and tear-gassed him earlier.
The leaders of Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Uruguay, Colombia and Venezuela rushed to Buenos Aires for an emergency session of the continent's fledgling UNASUR defense union, meeting with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez and her husband Nestor Kirchner, the union's secretary general.
Early Friday, they resolved to send their foreign ministers to Quito and issued a resolution saying that they "energetically condemn the attempted coup and subsequent kidnapping of President Rafael Correa Delgado."
They also called for those responsible to be tried and convicted, and warned that in the event of new threats to the constitutional order, they would immediately close frontiers and air traffic, suspend commerce and cut off energy supplies and other services to Ecuador. You knew this part was coming -- Both Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia alleged in Buenos Aires on Friday that the United States was somehow behind the police rebellion.
#3
It's interesting how bass-ackward press coverage of Latin and South America is.
Just ask any recent college grad, or MSM viewer or reporter, to name the four largest SA countries, or the two largest in Central American. Odds are they'd get less than 3 of them.
Mexico is spiraling into chaos, but so much of the focus is on the failing leftists of SA, and so little on the increasingly successful right and center-right countries.
Sure bad news leads, but we don't need to give Hugo a forum (much as the current administration seems inclined to), and Ecuador and Bolivia are not as far degraded as Venezuala, let alone Cuba. They can still self-correct, much as their "leaders" seek to prevent it.
Meanwhile, what's the latest bad political news from Brazil, Colombia, Peru or Chile? How about Guatemala or Honduras?
Someday Ecuador will be a rich country; chance alone indicates they'll stumble into a competent leader at some point, and she won't need to do much.
ECUADOR was plunged into crisis overnight as troops seized the main airport and police stormed the Congress, forcing the government to declare a state of emergency and denounce an attempted coup. About 150 renegade troops seized a runway at Ecuador's international airport in the capital of the South American nation, as dozens of police protested against a new law which would strip them of some pay bonuses.
President Rafael Correa, 47, a leftist ally of his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez, swiftly denounced what he called a coup bid, and sought refuge in a hospital after failing to calm tensions in an occupied barracks.
"It is a coup attempt led by the opposition and certain sections of the armed forces and the police," Mr Correa, who has governed the country since 2007, told local television. "If anything happens to me, they will be responsible," he said, blaming sections of the opposition and troops loyal to former president Lucio Gutierrez for the unrest.
As tear gas was used on the streets of the capital to try to beat back crowds of police protesters, the government declared a state of emergency.
Security Minister Miguel Carvajal said the armed forces "have received instructions to maintain public order and guarantee the rights of citizens". He said that "not all the police are in insubordination" despite the wave of unrest.
Dozens of police units took over government buildings in the country's other two main cities, Guayaquil and Cuenca, and Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino blamed the insurrection on "sectors aiming to overthrow the government".
#1
how long before he appeals for military help from fellow Bolivarians Hugo and Evo?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/01/2010 8:27 Comments ||
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#2
When do they resort to "Bush did it!!"?
Posted by: Alan Cramer ||
10/01/2010 9:12 Comments ||
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#3
The Army of the Bolivarian Republic has bigger fish to steal fry, no forces can be spared from watching THE EMPIRE and it's invasion plans. (and yes in Rainbow it was Yellow)
Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where ||
10/01/2010 20:35 Comments ||
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#4
:-( Ship
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/01/2010 20:38 Comments ||
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#5
Meh, you're right Frank.
Good nite.
Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where ||
10/01/2010 20:52 Comments ||
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#6
SHIP:)
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/01/2010 21:03 Comments ||
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#7
President Rafael Correa, 47, a leftist ally of his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez, swiftly denounced what he called a coup bid, and sought refuge in a hospital after failing to calm tensions in an occupied barracks.
[Dawn] Two centre-right parties agreed on Thursday to ban the burqa in the Netherlands as the price for parliamentary support from the anti-Islam Freedom party for their minority government.
The Netherlands would become the second European Union country to ban the burqa after France, in what many see as a shift to the right which has dented the bloc's reputation for tolerance and may increase security risks.
"Nice little country ya got here. Sure be a shame if something happened to it."
The agreement tightens the rules on immigration and boosts the number of police officers in a sop to far-right Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders, who is on trial in the Netherlands for inciting hatred against Mohammedans.
His party made gains in a June election despite being seen as racist by many Dutch people, forcing the Christian Democrat and Liberal parties to turn to him for parliamentary support.
"We want to stop the Islamisation (of the Netherlands)," Wilders told a news conference, adding the measures would cut non-Western immigration by half.
Christian Democrat political leader Maxime Verhagen defended the draft agreement, which has yet to be endorsed by his party.
"This cabinet will assure our freedom, for everybody and everybody in the same way, man, woman ... Christian or Mohammedan," he said.
But Mustafa Ayrance, president of the Turkish Workers Union in the Netherlands, said minorities had suffered an enormous setback. Mohammedans make up about 6 percent, or 1 million of the 16 million population of the Netherlands.
"I fear groups will turn against each other. The tensions in society will increase and we are not accustomed to that. Our country has room for everyone," he told news agency ANP.
Under the proposals, the country would be able to bar entry to radical religious leaders, while convicted immigrants will be expelled sooner and more often and immigrants will lose their temporary residence permit if they fail an integration exam.
Sounds fair to me. Immigration is a privilege, not a right.
Not according to Obama's aunt.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2010 00:00 ||
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US Congressmen decried their inability to stop websites set up by jihadi organizations. "Can we? Yes. Will we? No," said Representative Brad Sherman, "It is more likely we will tie ourselves up in knots than we'll do anything useful," added the chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade.
He said bureaucrats and civil rights organizations made it difficult for the government to get the legal tools needed to eliminate the sites.
Sherman spoke out against YouTube at the hearing for allowing Yemeni terrorists to post jihadi videos with English subtitles. "I don't know how much money YouTube makes, how much its executives make, but they are endangering people throughout America for their own profit. And it's not about (YouTube's) loyalty to the concept of the First Amendment, it's about their loyalty to money," he said.
Sherman questioned whether authorities should maintain the groups' online outlets to gather information or get rid of them, asking if the United States is "going to be a polite country or safe country."
He surmised that the United States was "manifestly unable to take down these sites through cyber attack because we are restrained by our own politeness."
Gregory McNeal, a law professor at California's Pepperdine University, testified that there was no legal avenue that allows the government to shut down jihadi websites and that "civil liberties opposition groups . . . would see this as a threat to free speech."
McNeal recommended taking them down through blacklists maintained by the US Treasury and State Department, but also saying that it would be difficult because authorities would have to verify the websites were maintained by those specific groups.
"The Supreme Court has never spoken on crime-facilitation speech... there's always a challenge between drawing the line between merely informative speech and speech that facilitates a crime with the intent of doing so," he said. "Is it surmountable? No. Because unless there's a triggering event like an attack that was prompted by a video (on an extremist website), it's easier to keep the status quo. Sadly, we often wait for an attack before we take action."
McNeal on Wednesday told the hearing that the only way to persue jihadis online was to pressure the Internet service that hosts their websites, and hope they voluntarily remove them.
[Al Jazeera] A disputed Indian holy site in the ancient city of Ayodhya claimed by both Mohammedans and Hindus is to be divided among three religious groups, a court has ordered on Thursday. Sounds rather Solomonic to me...
The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court issued the much anticipated order on Thursday. Each of the three judges in the case - SU Khan, Sudhir Agarwal, and DV Sharma - issued their own summary of the judgement.
The judges gave control of the main disputed section of the site, where a mosque was torn down in 1992, to Hindus. Other parts of the site will be controlled by Mohammedans and another Hindu sect. Hope it's fundamentalist Vedics, with horse sacrifices and swilling soma and that sort of stuff...
Officials urged all communities to remain calm and respect the high court's verdict.
The News Agency that Dare Not be Named news agency quoted a lawyer for the Mohammedan community as saying he would appeal the ruling. A final decision could take years to emerge. Court cases in India are sometimes passed down from father to son to grandson... 'Partly disappointed'
The main Mohammedan group contesting the religious site said it was "partly disappointed" by the verdict. "There's another part of us goin' 'woo-hoo!' though..."
"The suit of Mohammedans were liable to be dismissed. But they are still entitled to one third of the site," Zafaryab Jilani, the lawyer for the Babri Masjid Action Committee, told news hounds.
"We can say we are partly disappointed not fully because some of the stand of the Mohammedans has been vindicated."
Authorities in India tightened security across the country in advance of the ruling, with the police arresting more than 7,000 people as a preventive measure.
"Security measures have been enormous," Al Jazeera's Divya Gopalan reported from Lucknow.
"In the financial city of Mumbai we have seen over 10,000 coppers on the streets. So far we haven't heard of any unrest yet," she said.
The demolition of the mosque in the 1990s led to one of the country's worst riots since independence.
India's supreme court cleared the way on Tuesday for the lower court to decide on the ownership of the Babri mosque, over which the Hindus and Mohammedans have quarrelled for more than centuries. "More than centuries" sounds like it should be eons or geological ages or something like that. I don't think they've been quarreling quite that long...
Hindu groups say the mosque stood on the birthplace of their god-king Rama and was built only after the destruction of the longstanding Hindu temple by Mohammedan invaders in the 16th century. That's where they usually build their mosques, isn't it?
The dispute flared up in 1992 after a Hindu mob destroyed the mosque and nearly 2,000 were killed in rioting between Hindus and Mohammedans across the country.
Manmohan Singh, India's prime minister, has described the 60-year-old Babri mosque-Ram temple case as one of the biggest security challenges in India - in addition to the Maoist campaign and the Kashmiri separatist uprising.
In the western state of Gujarat where rioting seems to be a traditional pastime police have stepped up security at railway stations, bus terminals, shopping centres and were frisking all vehicles entering into the state.
SHS Khandwawala, Gujarat's police chief, said more than 70,000 security personnel have been deployed to ensure there is no violence in the state which witnessed nearly 2,000 deaths in 2002 violence between Hindus and Mohammedans.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Tribesmen in Pakistain's most notorious bad turban stronghold observed a shut-down Thursday to protest against a major surge in US dronezaps, witnesses and elders said.
"We are protesting against the dronezaps. Americans are killing innocent civilians but the government has completely failed to protect us,"Malik Jalal, a tribal elder and one of the strike organisers told AFP.
Shops, markets and bazaars closed in the four main towns of North Wazoo on Thursday, including the district capital Miranshah, an AFP news hound said.
Pak officials have reported that at least 21 US dronezaps have killed around 120 people in September, the highest monthly tally of attacks.
The overwhelming majority of the attacks have been carried out in North Wazoo, considered Pakistain's most notorious bastion of Al-Qaeda-linked and Taliban capos opposed to the US-led war in Afghanistan.
Most of the strikes have targeted the Haqqani network, one of the strongest US foes in Afghanistan whose leadership is based in North Wazoo.
But local tribesmen claimed the US missiles were killing civilians.
"They are attacking civilians, they are killing women, children and old-age people," Jalal told AFP.
"The government should take immediate steps to stop dronezaps otherwise it should resign," said former politician Maulana Mohammad Deendar.
Washington has classified Pakistain's tribal belt on the Afghan border as a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous place on Earth.
A covert US drone war in Pakistain has killed around 1,140 people in about 140 strikes since August 2008, including a number of senior bad turbans, but the attacks fuel anti-American sentiment in the conservative Mohammedan country.
Under US pressure to crack down on Islamist havens, Pakistain has stepped up military operations against largely homegrown bully boyz in the area.
But commanders have so far avoided a major offensive in North Wazoo, arguing that gains elsewhere need to be consolidated to prevent their troops from being stretched too thin.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
In fewer words, "Those dronezaps interfere with our Jihad!"
[Al Arabiya] United States envoy George Mitchell said on Thursday after crucial talks with Paleostinian leader the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas he would maintain intensive efforts to salvage peace talks with Israel.
Speaking after about two hours of talks with Abbas at his West Bank headquarters, Mitchell did not disclose details of their conversation, but said the two would meet again on Friday.
"We are determined to continue our efforts to find common ground between the parties to enable the direct negotiations to continue," Mitchell told news hounds. "We will continue our efforts intensively in the coming days."
He hopes to persuade Abbas to persist with negotiations despite Israel's refusal, so far, to extend restrictions on Jewish settlement building in the occupied West Bank.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton was also due to arrive later in the day to add her voice to efforts to keep Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on track.
An EU official in Jerusalem said Ashton would meet Abbas at around 8:30 pm (1830 GMT).
She will meet Paleostinian prime minister Salam Fayyad on Friday morning then have talks with Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, the official added.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
They just can't live with the idea of a Jewish state.
(Ma'an) -- The Popular Front for the Liberation of Paleostine on Thursday called on the PLO to withdraw from talks in the absence of a total end to settlement building.
The leftist faction rejected a two-month extension to the partial freeze on settlement building, which US President Barack B.O. Obama was reported to have suggested in a bid to save collapsing peace talks.
The PFLP said the extension was effectively supporting Israel's arrogance and encouraging the violation of international law, noting that settlement construction on occupied land is illegal in international law and violates the Fourth Geneva Convention.
All settlements are illegitimate and should be dismantled, including those in occupied East Jerusalem, PFLP said in a statement.
The Paleostinian leadership's acceptance of a ban in issuing building permits as a substitute for rejecting settlements outright was a way of legitimizing settlements, and reversing the decisions of international law, the statement continued.
Calling on the PLO leadership to withdraw immediately from talks, PFLP said the national consensus was overwhelmingly against remaining in talks while settlement building continued. The group said the vaporous Arab League should take this into account in its meeting with President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas next week.
PFLP called on the vaporous Arab League follow-up committee to respect its previous decisions and to reject US and Israeli solutions which sought to legitimize settlement activity.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
ION TOPIX > HAMAS: FATAH'S ARAFAT GAVE GREEN LIGHT TO YEAR 2000 WAR [Palestin. Intifada agz Israel].
* SAME > ASSAD WARNS AHMADINEJAD TO STAY AWAY FROM SOUTH LEBANON.
ARTIC = IIUC, ASSAD thinks MOUD risks MOSSAD-led Asaasination, etc as South Lebanon region is geographically too close to ISRAEL's Border wid IRAN???
* SAME > RISING TENSIONS BETWEEN HEZBULLAH, EGYPT + JORDAN. The Hizzies Hezzies Huzzies Hazzies, etc. believe CAIRO + AMMAN is funding + suppor SUNNI MILITANT GROUPS ON BEHALF OF TEL AVIV = ISRAEL???
[Ma'an] The Arab League follow-up committee meeting with President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas was postponed from Monday to Wednesday to give the US more time to salvage peace talks, Agence-France Presse reported Thursday.
Arab League front man Ahmed Eissa told the news agency that the meeting was delayed to "allow Paleostinian president the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas to attend the meeting, in light of the latest developments and efforts by the United States for peace talks."
Abbas is due to meet US envoy George Mitchell in Ramallah Thursday, and EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton on Friday to discuss whether he would remain in peace talks despite Israel's renewed settlement building.
The president had said he would withdraw from talks if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not extend a ten-month moratorium on settlement expansion, which expired Sunday.
So far, despite international pressure, Netanyahu has refused to renew the partial freeze, and settlers across the West Bank have resumed building.
Abbas told news hounds earlier in the week that walking out of talks was not his decision alone, but would be made in consultation with Paleostinian leaders, and backed up by a decision by the vaporous Arab League.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2010 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] The Stuxnet worm attacking computers in Iran includes a reference to the Book of Esther, the Old Testament story in which the Jews pre-empt a Persian plot to destroy them, and is a possible clue of Israeli involvement, The New York Times reported on Thursday.
A file inside the Stuxnet code is named "Myrtus," an allusion to the Hebrew word for Esther, and is a possible Israeli calling card or, perhaps, a "red herring" designed to throw investigators off the track, the Times said.
According to security software experts and analysts, Stuxnet may have been designed to target Iran's nuclear facilities and suspicions have fallen on Israel and the United States.
Iran said this week that Stuxnet is mutating and wreaking havoc on computerised industrial equipment there but denied the Islamic republic's first nuclear plant at Bushehr was among the facilities penetrated.
Stuxnet specifically attacks Siemens supervisory control and data acquisition, or SCADA, systems commonly used to manage water supplies, oil rigs, power plants and other industrial facilities.
The self-replicating malware has also been found lurking on Siemens systems in India, Indonesia and Pakistain, but the heaviest infiltration appears to be in Iran, according to researchers.
No one has claimed credit for Stuxnet and a top US cybersecurity official said last week that the United States does not know who is behind it or its purpose.
The Times noted that there is no consensus among security experts about who may be behind Stuxnet but said "there are many reasons to suspect Israel's involvement."Israel has poured huge resources into Unit 8200, its secretive cyberwar operation, and Stuxnet may be a "clear warning in a mounting technological and psychological battle" with Iran over its nuclear program, the newspaper said.
The Times said Ralph Langner, a German computer security consultant, was the first to note that "Myrtus" is an allusion to the Hebrew word for Esther.
Shai Blitzblau, head of the computer warfare laboratory at Maglan, an Israeli company specializing in information security, told the Times he was "convinced that Israel had nothing to do with Stuxnet.""We did a complete simulation of it and we sliced the code to its deepest level," he said. "We have studied its protocols and functionality. Our two main suspects for this are high-level industrial espionage against Siemens and a kind of academic experiment."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
"convinced that Israel had nothing to do with Stuxnet."
Certainly not. This worm is way too amateurish. :-)
#4
Taking a chance running this one up the flag pole after yesterday, but.... here goes:
The New York Times is marginally more respectable a news source than Hal Lindsey (or whatever his name was), Besoeker. ;-) Thank you for so gracefully accepting the ruling yesterday.
#5
My entirely 'civil, well Reasoned discourse' hyperlink Yahoo news clip and comment in reference to Fred's Stuxnet post was snipped from #4 as well? Was it Yahoo's bold reference to Christianity? If framed in a more Rabbinical context, could it then muster the ruler's rulings....or is it just me? I am at a complete loss. Please advise.
#7
If framed in a more Rabbinical context, could it then muster the ruler's rulings....or is it just me?
Leaving aside the absurdity of suggesting that Fred Pruitt's website, where we are guests, is anti-Christian, isn't it a little early in the day for Jew-baiting Besoeker?
#8
Guests and contributors yes indeed, and most respectful of the privilege I might add. No race baiting here, none needed with the emotion laden sensibilities that unfortunately continue to periodically surface. But please, do tell me just where do we come down? As I mentioned yesterday, how is it that we can discuss Islam and our collective concerns regarding the plight of Israel ad nauseum, but the slightest mention of Christianity gets the boot? I honestly believe we can do better, and should. You've worn me out. I must let it rest.
#9
The problem with the article you posted yesterday wasn't that it contained 'the slightest mention of Christianity' but rather that it prosletyzed a particular (and parenthetically somewhat fringe) theological position.
We don't do that for Islam, for Judaism, for Hinduism or - for that matter - for material secularism. It's not what the Burg is here for. There are plenty of other venues for that sort of thing if you feel strongly about it.The purpose of the Burg is not to proclaim an End Times sermon from a particular protestant Christian perspective - or to proclaim any other sermon, either.
And before you tell me that the opinion in that article is relevant to the GWOT, well ... taken sufficiently far so are a whole lot of opinions. We don't post those here either.
Our valued Rantburg regulars come from a range of religious and ethnic affiliations. What we all share in common is that we value Western civilization and wish both to clearly name the threats to that civilization and also to defend it against them.
#11
I have it on good authority that the Stuxnet worm is just a diversion to keep Iran from finding the real worm/virus/backdoor until it's too late.
But let's just keep it among ourselves - no point in tipping Ahma-Dinnah-Jacket off....
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/01/2010 11:59 Comments ||
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#12
Christianity, especially proselytizing Christianity, is a critical component in the fight against Islamic fascism. We must not throw out the baby with the bathwater.
Unless we are going to 'kill them all' (which I am certain we do not have the stomach for), we have to change them. Since their movement does have a strong spiritual component, an alternative spiritual component will be helpful. Could be animist or Buddhist or Hindu, but Islam shares a common heritage with Christianity and Judaism. There's too much associated emotional baggage with the latter, which leaves Christianity.
#13
This is indeed a first and I am needless to say, quite honored to be referred to as a Christian prosletyzer, if only at the "fringes."
And whom did you tell about me sinner Besoeker, and what good deeds have you done? Well sir, very few good deeds, but I wrote about you once or twice from the fringes on the Burg. Marginal Besoeker, very marginal, but the line is down again today and the table is set. Good enough my son, enter and enjoy the bobotie and Castle.
#14
Wasn't quite what I had in mind, Besoeker - meant it as a purely pragmatic comment on the value of certain groups under (non-)discussion - but, hey, if it helps you out.....
#15
I read your post after I had hit 'send.' I totally agree with your learned assessment. My cmnts were meant to lighten the load a bit, nothing more.
#16
Has anyone postulated that the virus came from surfing pr0n sites?
Surfing pr0n sites really is a good way to get STDs on your computer. So with all those repressed Shiites looking at goat pr0n it had to happen sooner or later.
#18
It's highly unlikely the Iranian's caught stuxnet from pr0n sites. Among other design characteristics, it is highly optimized to features of the specific equipment the Iranians use, burrowing down into embedded controllers inside of industrial machines.
#19
Christianity, especially proselytizing Christianity, is a critical component in the fight against Islamic fascism.
So are UAV strikes, but we don't execute them here - although we report the results from time to time. Feel free to do the same re: Xian conversions from Islam.
#21
Can't confirm it but there seems to be some buzz on the internet about the Siemens equipment/software being bootlegged. That way, if there is a patch, Iranians wouldn't have access to it. Knowing the Chicoms, that would make them vulnerable as well. I've been googling it but can't find anything definite. I'd be interested in finding out whether or not this is true. It's not nice to steal intellectual property.
#22
My OPC and SNMP buddies are telling me that this little jewel has shown up in the 'Middle Kingdom', too.
They figure someone hacked Siemen's proprietary S7 and/or 3964R 'machine communications' protocol based on the equipment it was controlling.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
10/01/2010 14:59 Comments ||
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#23
"It's highly unlikely the Iranian's caught stuxnet from pr0n sites. Among other design characteristics, it is highly optimized to features of the specific equipment the Iranians use, burrowing down into embedded controllers inside of industrial machines." - lotp
Killjoy. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
10/01/2010 15:18 Comments ||
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#24
It's not nice to steal intellectual property.
In the 21st century, intellectual property steals you!
#25
No race baiting here, none needed with the emotion laden sensibilities that unfortunately continue to periodically surface.
LOL. You get 'em. SA, Georgian, Expert in all things, most of all a stone cold hater of JOOOOS, Africans, African-Americans and all things that make you wet your pants. Damn, I hate paying your lazy ass thru taxes. You are a tick..... am I right?
Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where ||
10/01/2010 20:43 Comments ||
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[Asharq al-Aswat] Hezbullies will use its position in government to try to block Leb's funding for the U.N. court investigating the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, the group's front man said Wednesday. Hezbullies's leader has said the tribunal looking into Hariri's death could indict some of the Iranian-backed group's members, fueling the country's worst political crisis in years. Hezbullies contends the tribunal has been poisoned by witnesses who have given false information.
The indictments could be issued as early as next month.
"You know our position on the tribunal, so we cannot agree to finance it," Hezbulliesfront man Ibrahim Moussawi told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named on Wednesday when asked if his party will try to block the funding in Leb's budget.
Leb pays 49 percent of the tribunal's costs, with other U.N. member states providing the remainder.
Hezbullies has a key role in the country's fragile national unity government, which is led by the slain leader's son -- Prime Minister Saad Hariri -- who heads a Western-backed coalition. The Cabinet has delayed discussions on the 2011 draft budget as politicians debate funding for the tribunal.
Hezbullies could unify the opposition to stop the funding. According to the resolution that created the tribunal, other countries would step in if Leb failed to provide its share. Still, such a decision would be a strong message that support for the tribunal is lagging.
Despite opposition to the court, Prime Minister Saad Hariri and his supporters insist the tribunal will go forward.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2010 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[Iran Press TV] Iran's ambassador to Italy says Western countries use the case of an Iranian woman convicted of adultery and complicity in murder as a political tool.
"Certain Western countries' political pressure regarding this issue is nothing but using human rights as an instrument for achieving political objectives," Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said on Thursday.
Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani was found guilty of adultery and murdering her husband in collusion with another man, Isa Taheri.
Hosseini criticized the Western media's "hype" about the case while the final verdict has not been issued yet, and said the West's double standards could be seen in a similar case, IRNA reported.
"Teresa Lewis, [an American woman diagnosed with borderline mental retardation] was executed in the US because of a similar crime," Hosseini said.
Lewis was charged with hiring two men, Matthew Shallenberger and Rodney Fuller, to kill her husband and stepson in 2002, so that she could collect $350,000 of life insurance. The two accomplices received life sentences, but the 40-year-old Lewis was sentenced to death.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/01/2010 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
Lars Vilks, the Swedish artist accused of blasphemy for his drawings of Mohammed as a dog, has been living with death threats for three years now. "I'm worth $150,000, that's what you can get for me," said Vilks.
Vilks' free press appearance, supposed to be held at Philadelphia's Union League, was cancelled for security reasons. Action News was asked not to disclose Vilks' whereabouts. He has been heavily guarded during his North American tour.
Vilks says that he should be able to create freely without fear and that jihadis should get over it.
Fat chance.
"The nature of art is transgression and provocation; you have to question what you already have, so if you're into art, this could be the outcome and you have to accept it," said Vilks.
Lars Vilks is expected to return to Philadelphia this spring. He is a key witness at the 'Jihad Jane' trial, set to begin on May 2.
#2
The courage of the artistic community is pretty stirring. They would stand with him though if the cameras were on and if he had plunged a menorah or crucifix in a bucket of urine.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
US Congressmen decried their inability to stop websites set up by jihadi organizations. "Can we? Yes. Will we? No," said Representative Brad Sherman, "It is more likely we will tie ourselves up in knots than we'll do anything useful," added the chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation and Trade.
Lars Vilks, the Swedish artist accused of blasphemy for his drawings of Mohammed as a dog, has been living with death threats for three years now. "I'm worth $150,000, that's what you can get for me," said Vilks. 
