Tony Blair's front man confirmed on Sunday that the former British prime minister had visited Muammar Qadaffy ...a reminder that a single man with an idea can screw up an entire nation... in Libya in the months before the Lockerbie bomber was freed from jail, but insisted there was no impropriety in the contacts.
The Sunday Telegraph said it had found letters and e-mails which showed Blair, who left office in 2007, had visited Qadaffy in June 2008 and April 2009, once using the then Libyan leader's jets and bringing along an American billionaire.
The paper said Blair, prime minister for 10 years until 2007, had made no mention of the trips on his websites.
Blair's visits came ahead of the release from Scottish prison of Abdel Basset Al-Megrahi, a Libyan who was convicted of the 1988 bombing of a US-bound airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.
At the time of Blair's visits, Tripoli was threatening to cut business links with Britannia if Megrahi, a former Libyan agent, was not released, the Telegraph added.
Blair's front man said the trips were not a secret, and there had been nothing untoward about them.
"The subjects of the conversations during Mr. Blair's occasional visits was primarily Africa, as Libya was for a time head of the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... ; but also the Middle East and how Libya should reform and open up," his front man said.
"Of course the Libyans, as they always did, raised Megrahi. Mr. Blair explained, as he always did, in office and out of it, that it was not a decision for the UK government but for the Scottish Executive."
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2011 00:00 ||
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[Ennahar] A former Egyptian Minister of Tourism, Zoheir Garranah, under President Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... 's regime, was sentenced Sunday to three years in prison for issuing licenses to illegal Egyptian tourist agencies, said state news agency MENA.
Mr Garranah, who pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." , was charged with violating a decision to freeze the granting of these licenses.
He had been convicted on May 10 to five years in prison for selling public land to businessmen at lower prices, a frequent practice of officials close to Mr. Mubarak's.
Tourism, a vital sector of the Egyptian economy has experienced a real boom in recent years, before falling sharply in the wake of political turmoil at the beginning of the year.
This trial is part of the many lawsuits against former politicians and businessmen close to the government after the departure of geriatric President Hosni Mubarak in February.
Mubarak, 83, and his two sons Alaa and Gamal, are themselves being tried in a criminal court in Cairo.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2011 00:00 ||
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A member of al-Qaeda nabbed for ten years in 2008 for his part in a terror plot has been released early from prison.
Habib Ahmed, 32, was convicted after being caught smuggling code books written in invisible ink into the country. He was part of a British terror cell, headed by Rangzieb Ahmed, that police believe were planning a massacre in Britannia. But despite being nabbed for ten years in December 2008, he has now been released and is living at a bail hostel in Manchester.
During his trial the court heard how Ahmed downloaded a document called "a study of liquidation" and looked up bomb-making techniques. He also checked on the addresses of former Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, military bases and senior coppers. He was caught when British Customs found notebooks containing names and phone numbers of key al Qaeda figures as he flew from Dubai to hand them to
Ahmed was incarcerated in 2006 and so had spent five years in prison including time spent on remand.
A front man for the National Offender Management Service said: "Serious offenders on licence are subject to strict conditions and controls."
CBS Sharyl Attkisson still at it
CBS News has obtained secretly recorded conversations that raise questions as to whether some evidence is being withheld in the murder of a Border Patrol agent. Scroll down to listen to the audio in the article
The tapes were recorded approximately mid-March 2011 by the primary gun dealer cooperating with ATF in its "Fast and Furious" operation: Andre Howard, owner of Lone Wolf Trading Company in Glendale, Arizona. He's talking with the lead case ATF case agent Hope MacAllister.
The tapes have been turned over to Congressional investigators and the Inspector General. Much more at site
#3
Fox News article says the missing evidence from FBI custody can be accounted for because they removed it.
Sources say emails support their contention that the FBI concealed evidence to protect a confidential informant. Sources close to the Terry case say the FBI informant works inside a major Mexican cartel and provided the money to obtain the weapons used to kill Terry.
#4
In the 90's the media had a year long field day because a couple of CIA informants killed some nuns. As a result, Bill Clinton changed the rules on informants (we can only work with good guys -- who know nothing).
Now we have the US government GIVING guns to drug cartels resulting in 200 deaths, and a yet unknown number of US deaths, and media do their best to sweep it under the rug. If Scooter Libby can go to jail for a non-event, we should see some WH advisors in prison for an extended stay.
The 17-year prison sentence imposed on convicted terrorism plotter Jose Padilla is far too lenient for someone who trained to kill at an al-Qaida camp and also has a long, violent criminal history, a federal appeals court ruled Monday as it threw out the sentence.
A divided three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new sentencing hearing for Padilla, a U.S. citizen and Muslim convert convicted in 2007 along with two co-conspirators of several terrorism-related charges. Padilla, 40, was held for more than three years without charge as an enemy combatant before he was added to the Miami terror support case.
[Arab News] A study released Sunday by a global humanitarian aid organization concluded that three out of every five widows in Iraq lost their husbands in the years of violence that followed the 2003 invasion.
The study by Los Angeles-based Relief International found that about 10 percent of the estimated 15 million women who live in Iraq are widows. Among them, 59 percent have lost their husbands during the US-led war.
The study warned that criminal gangs and terrorist groups might try to recruit desperate widows, and that ignoring their suffering could lead them to prostitution, drugs and terrorism.
"The Iraqi state has neglected the widows with their enormous problems, and the solutions lie in the establishing of bodies to take care of and solve the problems of these women," the report said.
The report was released at a conference in Storied Baghdad ...located along the Tigris River, founded in the 8th century, home of the Abbasid Caliphate... where parliament speaker Osama Al-Nujaifi pledged to help widows through job opportunities, salaries and loans to help them start small businesses.
"The misery of those widows has an impact on the whole society," Al-Nujaifi said. "This catastrophe is growing, and its danger will threaten our values."
In a small room in eastern Storied Baghdad where she lives with her four children, widow Wafiya Hussein said she depends on relatives' donations to keep her family alive. Her husband was killed in a Storied Baghdad kaboom in 2009 as he was heading to work.
"I receive no assistance from the government, and I cannot work due to my illnesses," said Hussein, 41, who suffers from diabetes and high blood pressure.
"Our situation is difficult," she said, pleading for government support to help raise her children, including a crippled son.
Also Sunday, a statement by the Integrity Commission said Iraq has recovered $116 million from French bank accounts that were registered to a former official in Saddam Hussein's regime.
The commission did not identify who the Saddam aide was, or if he is still alive.
Saddam and his aides amassed huge amounts of personal wealth during his 24-year reign.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
At four per Muslin, so what?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
09/19/2011 0:52 Comments ||
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#2
Are they counting Saddam's wives as "widows"?
Posted by: American Delight ||
09/19/2011 1:26 Comments ||
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#3
Muslin, dear Jim? While it certainly is true that that modest unbleached cotton fabric has fallen from public esteem since the industrial revolution, still it scarcely seems fair to attribute death and destruction to it. ;-)
#4
Don't forget that this figure counts widows from all causes, including auto accidents, disease, murder (by bandits etc.) ... and simple old age.
Just looking at the actuarial tables for a country like Iraq, you'd expect about 15% of all married women to have been widowed in the last 7 years. This doesn't count the 4 wives thing (the later wives would tend to be aquired when the husband is older and therefore more likely to be widows).
It is true a widow's lot in the Arab world is pretty grim since remarriage is usually not an option. And many widows have turned to crime and prositution to support themselves. After the Iran-Iraq war many East European pimps set up shop in Iraq to aquire young Iraqi widows.
I.e. this situation is not new.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
09/19/2011 11:42 Comments ||
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#5
Her husband was killed in a Storied Baghdad kaboom in 2009 as he was heading to work.
So the total also includes those killed by their own.
Although that's still the fault of the US, I guess...
Posted by: Bobby ||
09/19/2011 12:26 Comments ||
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The Palestinian Authority chose the mother of 4 terrorist murderers, one of whom killed seven Israeli civilians and attempted to killed twelve others, as the person to launch their statehood campaign with the UN.
How fitting.
In a widely publicized event, the PA had Latifa Abu Hmeid lead the procession to the UN offices in Ramallah and to hand over a letter for the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon.
Palestinian Media Watch reported last year that Abu Hmeid then had 4 sons in Israeli prisons who were each serving betwePen two and seven life sentences, a total of 18 life sentences. At that time she was in the news because the PA Minister of Prisoners' Affairs, Issa Karake, decided to honor her with an award, "the Plaque of Resoluteness and Giving... inscribed with the names of her four sons who are imprisoned."
The PA minister explained then why the mother of 4 murderers of Israelis deserves such honor:
"It is she who gave birth to the fighters, and she deserves that we bow to her in salute and in honor."
The four sons are serving a total of 18 life sentences for the following crimes:
Nasser Abu Hmeid - 7 life sentences + 50 years - commander in Fatah's military wing the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades in Ramallah. Convicted of killing seven Israeli civilians and 12 attempted murders.
Nasr Abu Hmeid - 5 life sentences - Member of terror faction of Fatah, Tanzim, and convicted of involvement in two terror attacks and arms dealing.
Sharif Abu Hmeid - 4 life sentences - a member in one of the brothers' units carrying out terror attacks against civilians and soldiers. Accompanied a suicide bomber to his attack in March 2002.
Muhammad Abu Hmeid - 2 life sentences + 30 years - involvement in terror attacks.
A fifth son, Abd Al-Mun'im Muhammad Yusuf Naji Abu Hmeid, the one referred to as "Martyr," was a member of the military wing of Hamas, Izz A-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, and planned and carried out the ambush and murder of an Israeli intelligence officer.
PMW has not been able to determine for which crimes the rest of the sons are imprisoned.
Police have completed a major drill to test riot-response capabilities ahead of the planned Paleostinian statehood recognition bid at the UN.
Speaking at national headquarters in Jerusalem on Sunday, Insp.-Gen. Yochanan Danino said police would allow nonviolent rallies by Israeli Arabs and Paleostinians under Israeli jurisdiction to go ahead, adding that there was no intelligence information indicating planned disturbances.
"Experience has shown that we have to be ready for a sudden outbreak of violence," Israel police chief says.
"Experience has shown that we have to be ready for a sudden outbreak of violence," he said. "This exercise was held to ensure that all systems are working. We tested various scenarios again and again. We'll be happy not to use any of these measures, [but] the scenarios that were drilled were realistic." The police chief added that the terrorism threat had not changed over the past two weeks.
Cmdr. Nissim Mor, head of the Operations Branch and a former bomb squad officer, described the coming period as a "minefield without flags," saying police needed to proceed with caution.
The number of specially trained riot police had gone up by around 50 percent, from 5,000 to 7,400, with an additional 1,500 officers on standby, Mor said. The officers are assigned to 16 command and control centers across the country. Police have already beefed up their presence around Jerusalem.
Officers have been trained to deploy non-lethal riot response measures. To that end, 200,000 liters of "Skunk" liquid, which produces a foul smell and has been proven as an effective yet invested in the preparations, Mor said.
Police have identified four categories of mass events, ranging from peaceful demonstrations that do not require any response, to the most severe scenario of sustained disturbances involving the use of live fire by rioters. Set responses have been drawn up for each scenario.
#1
I wonder if they will finally roll out the Area Denial Systems, the microwave dish anti riot devices, or the Israeli clones of them, if the US has removed them?
It would be hilarious to see a mass wave of Paleos charging one of the walls, then suddenly turn back as a group and run away, indifferent to the threats of Paleo gunmen using them as cover.
Heron TP is the largest UAV in the IAF, can launch missiles; La Belle France placed an order in July.
The IAF's use of drones has dramatically increased in recent years and they are used on different fronts -- in Leb, along the Egyptian border, in the Gazoo Strip and off of Israel's coast to protect natural gas installations.
Earlier this year, the IAF decided to establish a new UAV squadron made up of Heron 1 and Hermes 900 UAVs, which according to foreign reports is capable of firing missiles.
But can they carry bunker busters, or is that still the job of flesh-and-blood pilots?
#1
That raises a very interesting question. While a typical bunker buster is carried by a C-130 or equivalent, the US innovated a completely new type of weapon, called deep digger, whose field test results (2006) were so superior, yet its technology so simple, that they shut up about it. Its tests showed even deeper penetration that with a nuclear bunker buster.
This suggests to me that the technology might be adapted by scale into smaller weapons, perhaps even small enough to be carried by a heavy lift UAV.
#2
What would happen if you strung together a stack of EFPs, spaced apart at a 'tuning wavelength', such that the first one blasted a smallish hole, and before its debris could fall in the next one hit and blasted another smallish hole in the bottom of the first, and so on?
[An Nahar] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, on Sunday said it would not back a U.N. membership bid, and warned that no Paleostinian leader had a mandate to sacrifice fundamental Paleostinian rights.
Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya, speaking in Gazoo, said the group also continued to support the establishment of a Paleostinian state on any part of "historical Paleostine" but would not seek to disrupt the U.N. bid.
The observant reader will be pleased to note the map of Palestine at the top of the Hamas logo, above the Al Aqsa mosque. Or perhaps not so pleased, depending on his tolerance for vicious fantasy...
His comments came as Paleostinian President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ... a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial... heads to New York to submit a formal bid for U.N. membership for a Paleostinian state on the lines that existed before the 1967 Six Day War.
Speaking to a meeting of the Paleostinian legislative council, Haniya warned that Paleostinian rights must be protected.
"There is no mandate for any Paleostinian leadership to infringe on Paleostinian national rights, nor is there a mandate for any Paleostinian actor to make historic concessions on Paleostinian land or the right of the Paleostinians, foremost among them the right of return," he warned.
"Given this position, we reiterate our rejection of this bid," he added.
But the leader of the Islamist group that rules the Gazoo Strip stressed that Hamas would "not place obstacles in the way of the establishment of a Paleostinian state with full illusory sovereignty."
"We repeat today that we are with the establishment of a Paleostinian state on any liberated part of Paleostinian land that is agreed upon by the Paleostinian people, without recognizing Israel or conceding any inch of historical Paleostine."
Hamas has made clear it will not throw its support behind Abbas's move, but has toed a cautious line, choosing not to condemn the plan directly.
Speaking during the meeting, senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said the legislative council should approach the U.N. for recognition of a Paleostinian state on all of "historical Paleostine," including areas now in Israel. He called on the council to "apply for recognition of a Paleostinian state on all the Paleostinian territory and confirmation of the right of Paleostinians to live within the borders of this state."
"We appeal to the U.N. to invalidate the entity that took the decision to establish itself on the land of another," Hayya said, in reference to Israel.
Hayya called on the international community to "apply pressure to ensure the implementation of international resolutions, particularly those that uphold the right of the Paleostinian people to self-determination."
Abbas is expected to present later this week a formal request for U.N. membership of a Paleostinian state on the pre-Six Day War lines, encompassing both Gazoo and the West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem.
The bid is fiercely opposed by Israel and the United States and has divided much of the international community, with Europe and Washington organizing last-minute diplomacy in an attempt to head off a Security Council vote on the measure.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
OK - if by 'Historical' you mean before 1942.
I believe Palistine and the 'Palistinian people' did not exist in 1942.
#7
Procopius2k: Oddly enough, there is still an organization of Prussian descent, and they are rather ticked off about how the Free State of Prussia was treated at the end of WWII.
"As part of their war aims the Western allies sought the abolition of Prussia. Stalin was initially content to retain the name, Russia having a different historical view of its neighbour and sometime former ally.
In Law #46 of February 25, 1947 the Allied Control Council formally proclaimed the dissolution of Prussia."
Thus, for the first time in history, the western democracies decided to permanently abolish another democracy. A national death sentence.
#8
Didn't UN recognition of Israel lead to the Arab declaration of war? Too bad Israel can't do a bit of turn-about is fair play and take the opporunity.
#9
no Paleostinian leader had a mandate to sacrifice fundamental Paleostinian rights.
And what are those fundamental Palestinian rights? The right to murder Jews? To have a Jew-free state? Say hell no to a unilateral UN decision for UN recognition!
BO helped set this up in his UN speech a year ago. He created the expectation; now he is going to have to live with it or veto it. No voting "present." He has put the Jewish people and Israel in great jeopardy. Rather than bring about peace in the ME, this administration has created a climate for war. The vultures are gathering around Israel.
#16
I have an old map in a family Bible that doesn't show Palestine or Israel, but it does show an area that looks like a chunk of Israel and the West Bank labeled 'Judea' - does that mean 'Land of the Jews'?
[An Nahar] 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... on Sunday warned against "any foreign intervention that threatens to fragment states in the region and increase the risk of extremism in them," in talks with a Russian delegation on a mission to help end the government crackdown on anti-regime protests.
Assad also welcomed the "balanced and constructive Russian position toward the security and stability of Syria," the state-run SANA news agency reported.
It said Assad denounced "attempts to destabilize Syria through armed terrorist operations targeting civilians, coppers, army troops and security personnel."
Assad's government blamed the protests that began on March 15 on "armed terrorist gangs."
Russia has continued to support Assad despite the crackdown on protests that the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... estimates to have killed around 2,600 people, and has been a bulwark against any Security Council resolution condemning the regime.
Ilyas Umakhanov, deputy head of Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, held discussions with Assad that were "open, trust-based and substantial," Russia's Interfax news agency said.
"It confirmed that the country's leadership understands that one can only overcome a political crisis by uniting all the country's healthy political forces."
"We once again saw for ourselves that the country's leadership intends to firmly move along the path of political reforms, create all the necessary conditions to consolidate society and all the patriotic forces of the country," the Russian senator was quoted as saying.
The Russian delegation also is due to meet parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Abrash, and plans to visit the flashpoint town of Daraa and opposition cities of Homs and Hama, according to Interfax.
The Russian delegation arrived on Saturday to try to initiate a dialogue between the government and opposition.
The opposition, meanwhile, called in Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... on Sunday for the continuation of popular protests to overthrow the "tyrannical" regime.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/19/2011 00:00 ||
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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.
A member of al-Qaeda 
A study released Sunday by a global humanitarian aid organization concluded that three out of every five widows in Iraq lost their husbands in the years of violence that followed the 2003 invasion.
The Palestinian Authority chose the mother of 4 terrorist murderers, one of whom killed seven Israeli civilians and attempted to killed twelve others, as the person to launch their statehood campaign with the UN.
[An Nahar] 
President-for-Life Bashir 
