[Tripoli Post] Egypt's first post-revolution prime minister Essam Sharaf is likely to tender the resignation of his Cabinet to the Surpreme Military Council later today Saturday, Egypt's ahramonline has reported quoting sources close to the cabinet.
This is to be discussed during the crises ministerial meeting called on by the prime minister the early hours of Saturday.
It follows the Friday of "Correcting the Path", that ended by Egyptians breaking into the Israeli embassy in Cairo on Friday. The events on Friday, and the failure in handling the protest, may have combined to force prime minister Essam Sharaf to resign along with his cabinet.
Egypt's Interior Minister Mansur al-Eissawy declared a state of high alert and the government announced it was convening an emergency meeting to deal with the crisis after police clashed with protesters who raided the building housing the Israeli embassy in Cairo.
According to the source, the cabinet is considering resignation due to their failure in handling Friday's protests.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch, Butch and the Kid finally brought their horses under control... the Interior Ministry has put police on high alert cancelling all police holidays.
Hundreds of Egyptian soldiers backed by armoured cars were rushed to the embassy district after US President President Barack B.O. Obama called on Egypt to protect the Israeli embassy.
After partially destroying a concrete wall surrounding the embassy that had been been completed a week earlier to protect the embassy against protesters, the demonstrators managed to break into one of the floors of the building occupied by the Israeli Embassy, seizing hundreds of documents, in Arabic, English and Hebrew and dumping them.
The documents, bearing the watermarks of the embassy, ranged from requests to Egyptian authorities for weapons permits for embassy security to internal correspondence on vacations.
Goodness. Earthshaking stuff -- WikiLeaks will be green with envy.
The protesters also succeeded to bring down, for the second time, the Israeli flag that had been rehoisted on top of the high rise apartment building housing the embassy and threw it to the crowd to be set on fire.
During the violence and fierce festivities with the police, which resulted in three dead, one from a heart attack, and nearly a thousand injured protesters torched police vehicles and attacked the Giza cop shoppe close to the Israeli Embassy, setting it on fire.
Hours after the violence broke out, Egyptian soldiers backed by armoured personnel carriers massed near the embassy as power was cut to street lights in several blocks around the mission. They even used tear gas n an attempt to disperse the crowd.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch, Butch and the Kid finally brought their horses under control... the Israeli ambassador and the rest of the embassy staff departed Egypt in the middle of the night, presumably recalled by Israel, with Egyptian state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
reporting that ambassador Yitzhak Levanon met with a general of the ruling military's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces before his departure, and that the ambassador appeared "anxious and even scared."
So scared that he stopped in the middle of his flight from Egypt to meet with the power behind the throne, delaying the exit of eighty-four others in order to what -- shake hands?
Levanon had only recently returned to Cairo from vacation in Israel as protests raged outside the embassy since last month.
Earlier, thousands of protesters had massed in Tahrir Square to demand reforms and an end to military trials of civilians.
Soon after, over thousand people left the square and marched to the Israeli embassy several kilometres away, chanting "Lift your head high, you are an Egyptian," using sledge-hammers and a hefty metal bar, to demolish the security wall outside the mission.
Relations between Egypt and Israel became very tense after August 18, when Israeli troops killed five Egyptian coppers as they chased Death Eaters along the border.
At the time, outraged Egyptians staged huge protests outside the embassy and called for the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador.
Egypt has asked Israel for an official apology and demanded a probe into the deaths, but the apology never arrived. This angered the Egyptians and since, have been organising unofficial protests and demonstrations against Israel.
Activists have also been calling for a revision of a peace treaty with Israel that ousted President Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... , who was regarded as one of Israel's closest allies in the region had signed.
Essam Sharaf assumed his post as Egypt's first post-revolution Prime Minister on March 3. Initially he received a warm welcome from the revolutionaries, but the many failures of his six-month government to lead the transition to democracy demanded by the revolution.
Share is also accused for failing to stand up to the effective rulers of the country, the Military Council, that has brought him and his government under increasing criticism, including calls for the cabinet's resignation.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
When times are hard and things aren't improving, it must be time to blame the Jews and start a pogrom to divert attention from those in power. What happens when the world runs out of Jews?
More than half of all officers and 43 per cent of other ranks, believe the armed forces is suffering from low morale following a year of pay freezes, cuts and redundancies.
Satisfaction with life in the services has fallen, along with levels of pride and feelings of being valued.
In the RAF, only two per cent of officers many of whom are taking part in operations in Afghanistan and over Libya believe morale is high and 70 per cent state it is low.
The figures are the worst since the Armed Forces Continuous Attitudes Survey began four years ago.
Both officers and other ranks felt dissatisfied with pay, allowances, feeling valued and with the impact service life was having on their families.
The annual report looks at all aspects of military life from pay and allowances, to accommodation, personal life, leave, deployments, separation, fairness and leadership.
Just under 27,000 surveys were distributed to the armed services between February and May this year. Of those, 12,600 were returned completed, providing a response rate of 45 per cent.
The report stated that there was "prevalent dissatisfaction" with the effect of service life on spouses and partners, with 47 per cent dissatisfied and the effect of service life on children's education which had a finding 35 per cent dissatisfied.
There was also "prevailing dissatisfaction" with the amount of separation from family and friends, with 26 per cent satisfied and 37 per cent dissatisfied, a not unsurprising condition given that the armed services have been on continuous operations for the past eight years, three years longer that the Second World War.
But of all the findings contained within the 300 page report, it will be the poor levels of morale amongst both officer and men which will worry senior commanders.
#1
Conducting a written survey to gauge morale in the ranks is something akin to exiting the door of an airplane without a parachute. You've waited a bit too long remedy the problem.
#2
Oh, I suspect the leadership within the Forces knew the state of morale. But this makes it public, for the public to see and hold MOD and Parliament responsible for their choice to dismantle what is left of Britain's military capability.
#4
Britain has demilitarized so much that it is becoming reliant on companies like Xe to defend itself. Which is not terribly bad if you plan for it, but if you wait until the last minute to try and contract with somebody to forfeit their lives to save your pasty ass, there will be few takers.
Being conquered will be their final reward for listening too much to the chorus of guilt for their having been an empire. The purpose of conscience is to let you know you have been a brute, not to run your life into the ground as punishment because you had once been brutish.
#5
Britain has to decide whether it is a regional power or a world power. It has the military of the former and the political beliefs and aspirations of the latter.
But you can't be a world leader if your military is sized to be a regional power only.
Britain's military today would be hard-pressed to defend the homeland from an invader.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/11/2011 10:19 Comments ||
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#6
..because a Euro military will be as effective as the Euro banking/economic system.
Heaven is where the police are British, the cooks are French, the mechanics are German, the lovers are Italian and it is all organised by the Swiss. Hell is where the police are German, the cooks are English, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss, and it is all organised by the Italians
#7
"Britain's military today would be hard-pressed to defend the homeland from an invader."
I'm afraid it's too late for even that, Steve. Their immigration department has been assisting and welcoming the invader into their country. For years.
Posted by: Barbara ||
09/11/2011 12:25 Comments ||
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A spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Friday tried to walk back remarks that US Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske made earlier in the week when he told the EFE Spanish press service it would be better if the Mexican drug war were "demilitarized".
The walkback was released through the US embassy in Mexico City. According to Mexican press reports, Rafael Lamaitre admitted misinterpreting remarks made by US officials.
Mexican president Felipe Calderon Hinojosa's war against the cartels is entering its fifth year. Calderon has suffered severe criticisms from international as well as national sources who complain about the great number of deaths associated with Mexican organized crime.
Usually not mentioned in these protests are that 90 percent of those deaths are caused by Mexican organized crime.
Kerlikowske's unguarded remarks are astonishing as they occur as the nascent Mexican Movement for Peace and Dignity conducted a protest march which started Friday and which will last for ten days trekking its way across southern Mexico.
The movement, led by Mexican leftist poet and writer Javier Sicilia, has conducted three previous demonstrations, and has gained a seat at the national legislative negotiation table, especially as it applies to the new national security law. Sicilia himself has also gotten at least two private meetings with President Calderon.
Sicilia has advocated a number of changes in Mexican social policy, many of them so loopy the mainstream Mexican press have yet to repeat them since their airing last spring. They include legalization of drugs, returning Mexican ground forces to the barracks and a signed commitment to non-violence.
Sicilia began his movement only days after his son was murdered in a drug related incident in Morelos state in late March.
In the statement released Friday the spokesman admitted that Kerlikowske's remarks could be interpreted as critical of Calderon's policy of using the Mexican military to fight organized crime.
The statement said that Kerlikowske agrees the use of military forces in Mexico is "temporary and transitional".
The statement also reiterates US support of Calderon's strategy in fighting orgainzed crime.
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/11/2011 8:49 Comments ||
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#2
US Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske doesn't seem to be "the sharpest razor blade in the apple".
He has come out with some real Biden quotes in recent weeks, like condemning medical marijuana because it encourages the young to smoke marijuana.
To which some wit responded: "Yeah, seeing granny huff on a bong to stave off vomiting during painful chemotherapy just has 'party' written all over it."
#4
"US Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske doesn't seem to be "the sharpest razor blade in the apple'"
That pretty much sums up the entire Bambi Administration. :-(
Posted by: Barbara ||
09/11/2011 12:42 Comments ||
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#5
Those of us out here in the People's Republic of Pugetopolis (AKA the Seattle area) knew from way back that Kerlikowske was an incompetent douchebag. Here's how he began his tenure as Seattle police chief. Money quote: The police stood by and did nothing as a group assaulted a female teenager; when a bystander, Kris Kime, attempted to protect her, the group beat him to death.
It was at Kerlikowske's orders that the cops stood and watched Kris Kime being murdered; afterward, many SPD rank and file referred to him as "Girlikowske." He followed up this first magnificent achievement by allowing the area's "urban youth" community to turn large swaths of downtown Seattle - including the formerly upscale Westlake Center shopping district - into open-air drug supermarkets.
Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
09/11/2011 13:07 Comments ||
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#6
Yes I remember seeing that in the news. Girlikowske wasn't the only one culpible - Seattle Mayor Paul Schell (The same one who allowed the Anarchist of the WTO riots to use a vacant building as a base - but cancelled the Y2K celebration for families in Seattle Center for a vague fear of a possible attack) was in on it too.
The United States and most South American countries are having a growing problem with Islamic terrorists. The U.S. has identified an increasing number of individuals and groups in South America that are providing support (financial, media, recruiting) for Islamic terror groups. But South American governments refuse to prosecute these individuals, at least not for terrorism. The terrorist supporters can be prosecuted for more common criminal behavior. But South American governments like to point out that there have been very few Islamic terror attacks in their territory. That was also true for many European countries, for a long time, for the same reason; an unofficial truce with Islamic terrorists. The deal is simple. In return for no attacks within a particular country, Islamic terrorists would be given asylum, or otherwise allowed to set up shop as long as it was done quietly.
But a more threatening new base area for Islamic radicals is developing in Venezuela. There, leftist president Hugo Chavez has not only established close diplomatic relations with Iran (and Cuba, North Korea and radical groups throughout the region), but has allowed Iran to set up terrorist operations in South America. Regular commercial flights from Iran to Venezuela (via Syria, to accommodate Hezbollah) carry people, cash and whatever else Iran wants to move. No questions asked, no visas required.
#1
An arrangement that says if an attack happens, and the planning occurred in your nation you will be held accountable as a participant in that attack should wake a few people up.
#5
In Afghanistan current policy is says that the state sponsor i.e. the Taliban will not be held accountable.
The objective is to get the Taliban to negotiate an orderly transition to a unity government where they will hold political power with the blessing of the US & NATO.
Bin Laden was a privateer, not a state actor.
That's not a scary precedent for Chavez, Castro and Ortega & his Sandino-Gangsters.
#1
Can't specifically ID the weapon systems (I'm an old ex-squid, not an army or marine type)...but except for the RPG's, most of the stuff looked like it was borrowed from these folks. As for Kimmie's goose-stepping cuties, I couldn't help but notice that a couple of the ladies out in front (the officers, presumably)...well...bounced about most entertainingly.
Posted by: RIcky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) ||
09/11/2011 1:29 Comments ||
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#2
So, you are saying Kimmie's cuties are each carring a pair of Mark 36C bazookas as they march? ;-)
#3
Ummm, tractors pulling hay wagons, war era Dodge(?) power wagons.
Notice the civilians in the long street scenes are lined up 1 deep? Only the close shots have clusters. I also noticed some of the same outfits in the cluster shot cutouts.
#6
a bunch of 12.5 heavy machine guns mounted on the 50's version of a Soviet deuce and a half. In the begining looked like a few Grail rockets a couple of howitzers, then later lots of short range unguided artillery rockets. Some small 20 or 30mm anti aircarft stuff. What interesting is no air force fly over and no Armour or personnel carriers. Costa Rica could put on a better military parade.
Posted by: retired LEO ||
09/11/2011 22:38 Comments ||
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Norks were towing what appeared to be D-10 152mm towed, WWII vintage.
Living off the state but wanting an Islamic state where they would have to work.oh the irony.
Posted by: Pablo ||
09/11/2011 17:40 Comments ||
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The group of around 100 men shouted "USA terrorists", brandished anti-American placards and chanted through a loudhailer.
Around 100? Pathetic. They could probably get a bigger crowd to demand free beer on Sundays. For that matter, remember the anti-war marches they used to get? Photos of an endless sea of humanity, all hating the U.S. for whatever it was at the moment. This is laughable -- a very good sign.
Muslim lawmaker issues "Final Fatwa" to end extremism; right-wing politician Geert Wilders responds: "What we need is a fatwa to end Islam".
AMSTERDAM - On the eve of 9/11, a Dutch Muslim politician has launched a campaign calling on Muslims around the world to stop blindly following decrees issued by a handful of extremists, and to start thinking for themselves.
Tofik Dibi, a member of parliament for the opposition GreenLeft Party, said that as a "normal, ordinary Muslim", he wanted his "Final Fatwa" to ensure that the debate about Islam included a more "reasonable, free-thinking Muslim voice".
Groups will hold joint protests "to defend Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the Jewish state of Israel."
In advance of Paleostinian diplomatic moves at the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... next week, two of the leading Christian groups in Europe have joined forces to counter mounting pressure on the Jewish state.
Christians for Israel International, headquartered in Nijkerk, the Netherlands, and the Brussels-based European Coalition for Israel, will hold joint protests on September 13 in The Hague and September 19 in Brussels, with the stated aim being "to defend Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the Jewish state of Israel."
"As Christians, we feel it is our task to be obedient to God, and to warn the nations to respect God's illusory sovereignty," Andrew Tucker, executive director of Christians for Israel International, told The Jerusalem Post. "We simply cannot remain silent while the nations are planning to give Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria to Israel's enemies."
Tomas Sandell, the founding director of the European Coalition for Israel, concurred.
"During previous periods in history Christians have -- by and large -- failed the Jewish people. This time we want it to be crystal clear that there are those out there who disagree with the UN plan to divide Jerusalem and unilaterally create a Paleostinian state along the 1967 lines," he said.
In recent months, the two organizations have convened high-level conferences in six European countries, where Dr. Jacques Gauthier, a Canadian lawyer and human rights ...which often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... advocate and author of the book Sovereignty over the Old City of Jerusalem, made the case for Israel to various European leaders and journalists.
The groups have also published and distributed a series of articles in Dutch, German and English highlighting the legal, historical and biblical rights of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, which they have made available on a website aimed at Christians called www.whyisrael.org.
And this week, the Christians for Israel's German branch will deliver a declaration of support for the Jewish state to the German government which was signed by 40,000 people.
"We do everything we can to inform decision-makers and others about the historical background and the solemn pledges made to the Jewish people under international law," Sandell said. "Most people, including those in government, have no idea."
Asked why Christians would invest so much time and effort on behalf of Israel, Tucker said, "We realize that Israel's God is our God, and Israel's destiny is also our destiny."
Posted by: Frank G ||
09/11/2011 08:41 ||
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#1
I still think it would be a good idea for Israel, more or less quietly, to become Greece's best buddy. While they couldn't bail Greece out, they could do many small friendship deals that would mitigate much of its misery.
For example, preferable trade deals, and when there is a bumper crops of some food, stabilize the price by giving the extra. Little things like that can go a very long way in cultivating national friendship.
Crowther worked for Sandler O'Neill and Partners on the 104th floor of the South Tower. Witnesses report that after the plane hit, Crowther, with a red bandanna covering his mouth and nose to protect him from debris, reentered the building at least three times to rescue people. Emphasis added. Had he merely led the first group of people to safety, we would rightly consider him a hero, and he could rightly consider it a good day's work. What makes the story, and the man, extraordinary is that he didn't. He turned around and went back in, when he was under no duty to do so.
He is directly responsible for saving the lives of at least 12 people....Crowther, with members of the FDNY, had been on their way back up the South Tower when it collapsed.
Posted by: Mike ||
09/11/2011 09:02 ||
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Long piece from the Jerusalem Post about quiet actions making big difference. Also, why we love lawyers.
Lawsuits in US courts are exposing the role played by international banks in financing terrorism.
In a recent ruling that sent shockwaves through the Western financial world, the New York District Court revealed that Clearstream, a Luxembourg subsidiary of Deutsche Borse bank, is being sued by 1,000 victims of international terror attacks as part of a larger lawsuit against Iran.
Plaintiffs in the suit, known as Peterson vs. Iran, are suing Tehran over its alleged funding of Islamic Jihad, the Hezbollah paramilitary wing that perpetrated the 1983 US Marine Barracks bombing in Beirut. They allege that Clearstream, one of the worlds largest international securities depositories settling cross-border transactions, helped Iran move millions of dollars in frozen assets out of the US banking system.
According to The Wall Street Journal, court documents had been sealed until recently for national security reasons and to honor strict Luxembourg banking rules.
The lawsuit, brought under US anti-terror legislation, is one of a string of ongoing actions that legal experts say are exposing the role played by international banks in helping finance terror.
One of the largest and most influential of the antiterror funding suits is Almog vs. Arab Bank, filed by survivors and family members of victims of attacks by groups including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
While usually only US citizens can file complaints in US courts, in the case of Arab Bank the judge has allowed other nationals including citizens from Israel, Russia, Ukraine and France to join.
Arab Bank, which is headquartered in Amman, is accused of aiding and abetting terrorist acts by providing extensive banking services for several organizations that gave money to suicide bombers families.
Among those organizations is the Saudi Committee, which is alleged to have routed over $100 million raised in a Saudi-government-supported campaign to Palestinian terror groups.
According to Prof. Reuven Paz, an Israeli expert on Islamic movements who has been involved in 18 of the terror-funding lawsuits, Arab Bank acted as a pipeline that channeled funds to Gaza bank accounts.
Arab Bank transferred the money to the families of Hamas martyrs killed in the second intifada, said Paz.
According to the Arab Bank complaint, the Saudi Committee paid money into an Arab Bank account opened for the family of Izz Ad-din Shuhail Ahmad al-Masri, the Hamas suicide bomber who murdered 15 people and wounded 130 in the 2001 Sbarro bombing in Jerusalem.
Arab Bank is also alleged to have set up an administrative process whereby the relatives of suicide bombers had to receive official certification of their deceased family members martyr status before receiving funds.
According to attorney Richard D. Heideman whose Washington firm Heideman Nudelman and Kalik, PC, represents American terror victims in several civil actions although Arab Bank filed a motion to dismiss the suit in the US District Court of New York, the judge overruled that in a published opinion and has allowed the case to proceed. It is expected to go to trial.
WHATEVER THE final outcome of these civil suits in terms of damages settlements for terror victims and their families, lawyers and regional experts agree they are raising public awareness about the global reach of terror funding, as well as making it increasingly harder for Hamas and Hezbollah to route funding through international banks.
We believe these lawsuits are of crucial importance because they put facts about terrorism and the funding and sponsorship of terror organizations on public view in public courts, Heideman said.
Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of Tel Aviv-based NGO the Israel Law Center, who is involved in a number of civil cases against terror sponsors in the US courts, agrees with Heideman that terror funding lawsuits are effective.
The lawsuits have sent a shockwave through the international banking community, she said.
She also pointed to several UK banks, including Barclays and Lloyds TSB, which had provided accounts to charities that were giving money to terror groups.
Those accounts were closed, Darshan-Leitner said. As a result of the lawsuits, banks stopped providing financial services to areas where terror groups work, like Gaza. So the suits have also affected Hamass government operations there because Hamas now cant get money for its activities.
Paz believes the Arab Bank action is so far the most effective of the civil lawsuits, in terms of its impact on terror funding.
One of the most successful fights against global Jihad has definitely been in the world of finance, he said. And one of the results is that terror groups have become more cautious about their financial activity.
Although Arab Bank denies knowingly providing support to terrorist activity, it has frozen the accounts of the Saudi Committee.
Arab Bank is in a panic, Paz added. It is a very large private bank in the Arab world, and it is a very important basis of the Jordanian economy. It even had relations with the Bank of Israel. If Arab Bank collapses, it will hurt Jordan and the West Bank.
According to Paz, the Arab Bank lawsuit has also been effective in impacting other governments in other Gulf States.
Governments like Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Gulf states were afraid to be harmed economically and financially, he said. And also, of course, they are linked economically and financially to the USA.
As far as the banks themselves are concerned, Paz said the lawsuits were forcing them to look more carefully at who their clients were.
The problem is to prove the banks involvement in the transfers, he added. In many cases the banks are just passive.
THE GLOBAL nature of banking operations means that even non-US banks must face the consequences of transferring funds to terror groups or to NGOs connected with them.
Several more Western banks are also facing terror-funding lawsuits.
According to Heideman, in a separate action, German bank Commerzbank is also being sued for allegedly providing financial services to Hezbollah through various front organizations. In that action, Commerzbank is accused of providing financial services to the Orphans Project Lebanon in Germany, which plaintiffs claim collected funds and transferred them to the Martyrs Foundation, a Lebanese Hezbollah front.
The judge overruled the motion to dismiss filed by Commerzbank, and that case is expected to proceed to trial as well, Heideman noted.
After the Arab Bank suit revealed that even Middle Eastern banks were vulnerable to terror-funding lawsuits, some Hamas financial operations moved to China, where Hamas is not considered a terror group.
However, in what has been called a huge precedent for Israeli terror victims, a judge in the Supreme Court of the State of New York recently gave the green light to a lawsuit against the Bank of China by 84 victims of Hamas rocket attacks.
The plaintiffs in that suit allege that a Hamas operative maintained a bank account in Beijing, through which he transferred large sums of cash to Hamas accounts in Gaza.
Initially Chinese authorities refused to freeze the accounts, as the country does not consider Hamas a terror organization. However, Chinas policy on Hamas does not prevent the Bank of China being sued in the US courts under US antiterror legislation.
Bank of China has a branch in New York, so it must act according to US rules on terror funding, and as a result of the lawsuit, China has closed Hamass account, added Darshan-Leitner.
[Dawn] As a solemn nation observes the 10th anniversary of the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Pakistain made a feeble attempt on Saturday to reach out to the American public, telling them that it was a victim, not perpetrator of terrorism.
Of course you are, dear. Just sit down here, and Mama will bring you warm milk in your special cup.
In Washington, President Barack B.O. Obama said the attacks had made America stronger. "As a resilient nation, we will carry on," he told Americans on the eve of the anniversary of the attacks.
And wrote an opinion piece especially for the Times of India to tell the world's Muslims America is not at war with them. He does not appear to have written anything for Dawn, oddly enough.
Nearly 3,000 people died on 9/11 in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. On Sunday, Mr Obama will travel to all three sites to mark the anniversary. Former president George W Bush will join him in New York.
"Yes we face a determined foe, and make no mistake -- they will keep trying to hit us again. But as we are showing again this weekend, we remain vigilant," he said.
Mr Obama also noted that "across the Middle East and North Africa a new generation of citizens is showing that the future belongs to those that want to build, not destroy".
He forgot to mention Asia, where Pakistan is. How very odd. It could be a fault of his understanding of geography, though -- Americans are supposed to be particularly bad at that.
On Saturday, America's leaders dedicated a national memorial to the 40 passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Then president Bush, his predecessor Bill Clinton, current Vice President Joe Foreign Policy Whiz Kid Biden The former Senator-for-Life from Delaware, an example of the kind of top-notch Washington intellect to be found in the World's Greatest Deliberative Body... and their spouses joined families of the victims at the dedication.
Several hundred citizens -- many in patriotic T-shirts or holding US flags -- also paid homage.
Pakistain availed this opportunity to tell the Americans that it was with them in the fight against Orcs and similar vermin "Which country can do more for your peace?" asks an advertisement published in the Wall Street Journal. "Since 2001, a nation of 180 million has been fighting for the future of the world's 7 billion."
Pakistain had first offered this ad to The New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... but they refused to publish it, forcing Pak officials to go to a business newspaper with a specialised but influential readership.
The New York Times being for the irrelevant ignorants who like to think they appreciate a finely crafted sentence, the Wall Street Journal is for those who need information on which to make decisions which will affect others.
The ad informs the American public that since Sept 11, 2001, 21,672 Pak civilians have bit the dust or have been seriously injured in an ongoing fight against terror.
The Pak Army also has lost 2,795 soldiers while 8,671 soldiers have been maimed. There have been 3,486 kabooms and 283 major suicide kabooms.
More than 3.5 million have been displaced while the country has lost $68 billion due to terrorism.
The Pak nation is "making sacrifices that statistics cannot reflect", says a caption above a picture of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who was also killed by the terrorists. "The promise of our deaders lives on," it adds.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
DEFENCE.PK/FORUMS, NEWS KERALA > MUSHARAFF: PAKISTAN COULD HAD FACED COMBINED MILITARY MIGHT OF US, INDIA AFTER 9-11, iff it did not allow US = US-NATO Milfors to use PAK as a staging area for the anti-terror fight oer in Afghanistan.
IMO Artic read, POST-911 USA = POTUS DUBYA + USDOD WAS GOING TO INVADE AFGHANISTAN COME HELL, HIGH WATER, OR EX-POTUS DAD BUSH 1's DESPISED BROCCOLI, + HAD NO QUALMS SMASHING OR RUNNING OVER PAKLAND IN THE PROCESS.
* SAME > [Wikileaks]CABLE: PAKISTANI AIRSPACE USED BY NATO MILITARY FLIGHTS [150 flights per day]. Originally was unchallenged but was later negotiated + approved between US-Islamabad.
ARTIC = also denotes that US MIlitary Containers passing into Afghanistan from Pakistan do not contain any Weapons, Ammo, or Sensitive techs of use to the MilTerr = Insurgent Groups???
* SAME > [Claim]AGHANISTAN BORDERS ARE SEALED: REHMAN MALIK, as per both flood of Afghan Refugees + espec MilTerr infiltration into PAK from same.
FYI Malik's claim is under curren dispute or disbelieved by various PAK Bloggers-Netters.
[Dawn] The government has asked the Swiss authorities to reject the plea for political asylum made by Bramdagh Bugti, who heads an outlawed Baloch rebel group, and extradite him to Pakistain.
The authorities have yet to hear from Berne about their request, but they say the initial response of the Swiss government was that of consideration.
Bugti, 30, heads the separatist Baloch Republican Party and its myrmidon wing, the Baloch Republican Army. He has been accused of attacks against settlers in Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... , government installations and armed forces.
The 'proofs' of his involvement in subversive activities have also been handed over to the Swiss officials, an official said.
But, on being questioned by Swiss authorities about Pak allegations, a Western diplomat said he denied them and alleged that he was facing threats to his life in Pakistain because of his "support for the freedom of Balochistan".
He is the second rebel leader whose asylum has been officially opposed by the government. Islamabad had previously tried to block Hyrbyair Marri's application for asylum in the United Kingdom. However, if you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to be a horrible warning... he succeeded in getting it this year after being initially rejected by the Home Office.
Bugti has been on the run since 2006 and initially took refuge in Afghanistan, where he stayed for almost four years. His stay in Afghanistan sparked a diplomatic row between Kabul and Islamabad, which had been demanding his handover.
The US and some of the Western countries, in an effort to defuse tensions between Pakistain and Afghanistan and for improving their counter-terrorism cooperation, helped him to relocate to Switzerland ...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell... , where he along with his family reached last year in October and sought asylum. A UN agency is also believed to have played an active role in facilitating his transfer to Switzerland via UAE.
According to a Pak security official Bugti traveled to Geneva on an Indian passport. The claim could, however, not be verified independently. Pakistain security agencies have long accused India of sponsoring his terrorist activities.
Pakistain doesn't have an extradition treaty with Switzerland. However, those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... the officials are still keeping their hopes about getting his asylum requested rejected and ultimately extradited.
"For extradition a treaty is not essential. A sovereign country can always extradite a foreign national on legally maintainable grounds. Such precedents also exist," a Pak official following Bugti's case explained.
But, what worries Islamabad is that Western governments have been generally sympathetic to Baloch separatists and some of them have, what some officials say: "indirectly patronized them".
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
On first glance this was a puzzler, as I read it (Kenneth) Branagh. What? The Paks hate Shakespeare that much?
Pakistani Army commanders are debating the possibility of attacking Taliban and other Islamic terror groups in Baluchistan (southwest Pakistan) and especially its capital, Quetta (where the Taliban leadership have lived openly since early 2002.) The U.S. has been pressuring Pakistan to shut down terrorist havens in Baluchistan since 2002. But Pakistani intelligence (ISI) has refused to allow that. ISI has also kept U.S. interrogators from the recently captured senior Al Qaeda recruiter and attack organizer, Younis al-Mauretani. The army leadership is also at odds over what to do with ISI. Directly confronting ISI can get you killed, as the intelligence agency controls a number of highly efficient death squads. Many military officers still support Islamic radicalism, and none want to trigger a civil war within the military.
Head of major Israeli website building company says defense systems have identified "tracks" left behind by Turkish hackers, recommends immediate security updates and raising firewalls to maximum.
[An Nahar] French President Nicolas Sarkozy ...23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. Sarkozy is married to singer-songwriter Carla Bruni, who has a really nice birthday suit... informed Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi during his visit to La Belle France earlier this week that the "regime of Syrian President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... is over," reported An Nahar daily on Saturday.
The patriarch received assurances from various French officials that "Leb and Christians minorities will not be sacrificed" for regional interests.
In addition, they affirmed to him their support of the implementation of United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... Security Council 1701 and the funding of the Special Tribunal for Leb.
However, the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... the daily noted that al-Rahi's positions on Syria were not positively received by French officials, with Sarkozy informing him during their Monday meeting that the Syrian regime is coming to an end.
The patriarch had stated on Wednesday: "Assad must be given a chance because he is implementing reforms in Syria."
An Nahar also reported that al-Rahi's talks in La Belle France addressed Hizbullah and the Lebanese government.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[An Nahar] Progressive Socialist Party leader MP Walid Wally Jumblat ... Druze politician, head of the Progressive Socialist Party, who's been on every side in Leb at least four times. He'll sell you his friends for a dollar, but family comes higher because of shipping and handling... reiterated his support for the funding of the Special Tribunal for Leb, stressing that Hizbullah can prove its innocence in the liquidation of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
He told As Safir newspaper in remarks published on Saturday: "I support its funding especially since a significant number of Lebanese believe that the international court can uncover the truth in the liquidation."
He justified his support by saying: "The international community is expecting the establishment of the tribunal and it is waiting for any Lebanese slipup."
"I am worried that it would impose sanctions on Leb should we fail to fund the STL," added the MP.
"I therefore believe that it is necessary to fund it, considering that Hizbullah chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah The satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb... has presented very valuable evidence to the investigation," Jumblat concluded.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Nunzio had his hands full of angry bleached blonde... the daily Al-Liwaa reported the PSP leader as saying that regardless of the political disputes in Leb over the STL, the government is "incapable of refusing to implement international decisions, most notably those linked to the tribunal."
He had informed his visitors the need for Leb to commit to funding the court, even if its supporters represent a minority in the current government, implying that the funding still enjoys the support of a majority of MPs.
Al-Liwaa interpreted this as an indication that Jumblat's National Struggle Front MPs still back the tribunal.
The STL has released arrest warrants against four Hizbullah members, accusing them of being involved in Hariri's murder.
The party has repeatedly announced that it will not cooperate with the tribunal, deeming it an American-Israeli product aimed at destroying it.
A dispute has recently arisen in Leb on whether the March 8-dominant government would commit to funding the tribunal.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/11/2011 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hezbollah
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.
Joe 
President-for-Life Bashir 
Walid 
