Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Happy Birthday/Daily Gam Shot
Christine Kaufmann (German) aka Debby in "Bagdad Cafe (1987)" aka Karin Steinhof in "Town Without Pity (1961)" aka Sylvia Lauretz in "Via Mala (1961)" aka Ione in "The Last Days of Pompeii (1959)" aka Livia in "Constantine and the Cross (1962)" aka Erika Jurgens in "Escape from East Berlin (1962)" aka Madeleine Charron in "Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971)" aka Mrs. Tony Curtis (for 3 years)(age 67)
Ten containers of Canadian military gear were stolen on their way home from Afghanistan and the equipment were replaced by rock and dirt, officials said Tuesday. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! Sell to Canada's Muslims: holy dirt from the pure Islamic land of Pakistan! That should put a dent in the loss.
The containers were shipped on a chartered vessel and consisted of items such as tires, tools and tents, Chris Alexander, parliamentary secretary to Defense Minister Peter MacKay, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The Defense Department has confirmed the theft, he added.
"There were no munitions of any kind in any of the containers being shipped back to Canada by sea on this route. All munitions have already been received in Canada via strategic air and sealift," Lt. Commander John Nethercott said in a statement. It's good to know at least one adult is in charge.
The shipment was contracted to A.J. Maritime Company of Montreal and contained equipment from the Canadian base at Kandahar airfield, which was closed in November.
The company packed the equipment into shipping containers and loaded them in Afghanistan, which have been shipped through Pakistan recently. Among all the 660 containers, about 180 have arrived in Canada. I don't think you're going to get them all back. Shipping overland from Afghanistan to Pakistan to load in Karachi? That's like asking toddlers to ship a load of candy from the hallway back to the kitchen.
#3
The Canadians should have some sport with this. Make the next shipment Bibles, back bacon and Moosehead. Imagine trying to unload that on the Pak black market.
A teenage suicide bomber managed to slip through tight security into police headquarters in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province Wednesday, but blew himself up before he could reach the police chief he was targeting, authorities said.
A policeman was wounded in the attack, which came less than a year after a suicide bomber successfully killed previous Kandahar police chief Khan Mohammad Mujahid in his compound, an attack the Taliban said they had ordered.
The assault raises concerns about security in an area that was the birthplace of the Taliban and has been a focus of efforts by a surge of U.S. troops to boost Afghan government control in the south.
"The 15-year-old boy had a letter for me and wanted to meet me," police chief Abdul Raziq told reporters.
"But as soon as he got near my office a policeman noticed he (had explosives) and started to shoot him," Raziq said, adding that the bomber detonated his explosives on the spot.
Raziq said an investigation was underway to see how the adolescent bomber managed to pass several layers of security with explosives strapped on his body.
#1
"I was a teenage suicide bomber" has all sorts of silly connotations. Teen angst. Peer pressure. Rebel without a clue. Driven to it by rock 'n' roll.
[Dawn] At least two coppers were killed and one maimed on Tuesday when a group of jacket wallahs stormed a government building in southeastern Afghanistan, the interior ministry said.
The group of four suicide bombers attacked the directorate of communication building in Sharana, the capital city of Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... province, a statement said.
In the course of the ongoing shootout "two coppers were killed and one maimed", while two attackers were also killed, said the statement.
"Afghan National Police are engaging in a shootout with remaining attackers", it said.
The attackers first killed a police guard at the gate before taking over the building, Paktika provincial front man Mokhlis Afghan said.
One attacker was killed in an exchange of fire with the police at the gate and second attacker went kaboom!" later in the building, killing another policeman, he added.
Governor of the province Muhibullah Samim told AFP that the attackers wanted to target an intelligence office close to the building they had taken over.
The police have surrounded the building and a third attacker has also been killed, he added.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Gunmen opened fire opened fire Tuesday on a hotel in the Egyptian resort of Taba bordering Israel, prompting Israeli tourists to flee, but there were no casualties, security sources said.
The attack was apparently a botched attempt to rob a jewelry store in the hotel, the sources said.
"At least four people in an unmarked pick-up truck tried to storm Al-Wekalah Hotel in Taba Heights," a security official said.
"Security guards exchanged fire with the gunnies who managed to flee," the source added.
The gunnies apparently were hoping to rob a jewelry store inside the hotel which is frequented by Israeli tourists.
Several Israeli holidaymakers quickly evacuated the premises heading home across the border, the security official said.
Taba in the Sinai peninsula is a choice destination for Israeli tourists.
In September, Israel restricted its citizens from traveling to Taba for "security reasons," the prime minister's office said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Gunmen shot eight people dead in northern Nigeria Tuesday and a mob torched an Islamic school in the south, as a nationwide fuel strike and growing religious tension rattled Africa's oil-rich giant.
The two-day old general strike has not yet affected the output of Africa's top oil producer but it has paralyzed the country and sent the government, already battling a brutal campaign by an Islamist group, into crisis mode.
Suspected members of the Death EaterBoko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. Currently wearing a false nose and moustache and answering to Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad, or Big Louie... sect gunned eight people down in a pub as one of Nigeria's most respected voices, Nobel prize in literature laureate Wole Soyinka, warned the country was heading towards civil war.
A doctor in Potiskum, a town in the northern state of Yobe, said eight bodies were brought to the morgue after Death Eaters stormed a pub and opened fire before speeding away on a cycle of violence.
"The bodies included five coppers, a bartender, a customer and a 10-year-old girl," the doctor said.
The police confirmed the shooting but did not provide a casualty toll.
Earlier, attackers burnt part of the central mosque complex in the southern city of Benin, where festivities earlier killed five, bringing to 11 the number of people killed in incidents related to the strike over two days.
"We have recorded so far five deaths -- on both sides, those that have been attacked and the attackers," said Dan Enowoghomwenwa, secretary general of the Nigerian Red Thingy in Edo state, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
He said 10,000 people were also displaced by the violence.
Witnesses said an Islamic school adjacent to the mosque was burnt on Tuesday as was a bus parked next to it.
The attacks in Benin city started on Monday amid street protests against soaring fuel prices, when a crowd separated from the main demonstration to attack another mosque and terrorized residents of mainly Hausa neighborhoods.
Hausas are the largest ethnic group in Nigeria's north and are overwhelmingly Moslem.
The Red Thingy official could not specify who was behind the attacks, only saying there were "indigenes" targeting northerners.
"Indigenes" sounds like the modern version of "benighted natives" and other terms, none of which are considered polite.
Africa's most populous nation is roughly divided between a predominantly Christian south and mainly Moslem north.
Recent violence targeting Christians in the north and blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram has sparked fears of a wider religious conflict as well as warnings from Christian leaders that they will defend themselves.
Fears run high that the strike will fan sectarian tensions and Soyinka, who became Africa's first laureate of the Nobel for literature in 1986, warned in a BBC interview that Nigeria was heading towards a conflict akin to the 1960s war.
"It's not an unrealistic comparison -- it's certainly based on many similarities ... We see the nation heading towards a civil war," the writer said.
Elsewhere in the country, gangs set up burning roadblocks, police fired tear gas and businesses shut in the many parts as the national strike over fuel prices paralyzed Nigeria.
As thousands erupted into the streets to protest soaring petrol costs, youth gangs set up roadblocks of burning tires along major roads in the economic capital Lagos and threw stones at cars while extorting cash from drivers.
Protesters marched through the streets to the sound of blaring afrobeat music, sometimes with soldiers clapping and taking pictures.
One person brought a goat wrapped in a union flag while others carried a mock coffin labeled "Badluck", a play on the name of President Goodluck Jonathan ... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... . Protesters encouraged those watching from the roadside to join in.
Jonathan met his security chiefs in the capital Abuja as he faced the toughest challenge since rising to the job in 2010, battling on two fronts against social protests and Boko Haram.
The indefinite strike follows the government's controversial move to end fuel subsidies on January 1, which caused petrol prices to more than double in a country where most of the 160 million population lives on less than $2 a day.
"We will not call off the strike until the government listens to the voice of reason and rescinds its decision," said Daniel Ejiofor, a 41-year-old labor activist at the protest in Lagos.
On Monday, police and protesters clashed and six people were killed as tens of thousands demonstrated nationwide.
The government says it spent more than $8 billion on subsidies in 2011 and needs the savings from scrapping the subsidies to improve the country's woefully inadequate infrastructure.
Nigerians view the subsidies as their only benefit from the nation's oil wealth and lack any real trust in government after years of deeply rooted corruption.
Analysts said the tension in Nigeria contributed to rising oil prices, with the barrel of Brent North Sea crude gaining 82 cents to $113.27 in early afternoon trade.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
See also TOPIX > JONATHAN: BOKO HARAM VIOLENCE WORSE THAN [1960's = Biafran] CIVIL WAR. Nigerian nation heading towards potential second Civil War.
* SAME > [MLPND Group]NIGER DELTA MILITANTS WARN BOKO HARAM [retaliation for killing Christians + Southerners], THREATEN OIL INSTALLATIONS.
* SAME > BOKO HARAM MEMBERS ARE IN GOVT: PRESIDENT. Have an established presence in various levels of Govt-Public Power + Authority.
* SAME > BOKO HARAM: SHARIA OR MILITANT WING OF [dynastic = permanent rule]NORTHERN POLITICIANS?
* SAME > BLOGAFRICA: WHY WE NEED TO KEEP AN EYE ON NORTHERN NIGERIA?
versus
* SAME > NO JOBS, EURO-CRISIS THREATEN SOUTH AFRICA ECONOMY: IMF.
* SAME > [OpEd]ZIMBABWE: KILL THE BOER INDEED!
* SAME > EXPERTS: SOUTHERN AFRICA NOT IMMUNE FROM [spread = expansion of] JIHAD VIOLENCE.
Boko Haram + Al-Shabaab-led or inspired Jihad could expand into Southern Africa by 2015.
h/t Gates of Vienna
..."After the suspect was taken into custody, he reported that he knew he must do something extreme to draw attention to Islam and himself, so he planned to shoot police officers," May said.
#1
Gadsden, AL, right next door to Anniston, to what used to be Fort McClellan, HQ to the Chemical Corps, or more to the point, HQ to the Military Police.
Most of their police are ex-MPs, and are deadly shots. Novices lay down a curtain of lead, but real experts only fire bullets that matter, or none at all.
This is the only area I've ever seen a bunch of cars with brass FOP medals. Those are only given to "platinum" donors to the widows & orphans fund.
#2
So his version of "jihad" was to get himself shot and killed by police, then he would get to go straight to heaven and claim his 72 Madeline Halfbrights?
[Iran Press TV] At least four people have been killed in a US liquidation drone strike in Pakistain's northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border, security officials say.
The attack occurred late on Tuesday night.
US liquidation drone operations were halted in November 2011 after NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all.... Arclight airstrikes on two Pak military border checkpoints in Mohmand ... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... agency killed 24 Pak soldiers.
The Arclight airstrikes sparked angry protests across the country. Pakistain's military issued new directives and warned the Pentagon that it would shoot down drones if they violate Pak airspace.
Pakistain also closed the border crossings that were used to transport supplies to US-led forces in Afghanistan and ordered all US personnel to vacate a remote airfield 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... province.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] Unknown motorcyclists bumped off a Mehsud primitive in Zafarabad area in the limits of Dera Township cop shoppe on Monday, police said.
According to the FIR lodged by Ayaz Khan, resident of Zafarabad Colony, his grandson Sher Mohammad was watching a football match in a nearby playground when two unidentified armed assailants riding on a cycle of violence opened fire leaving him critically injured.
He told police that the accused persons beat feet after the incident.
The injured Sher Mohammad was taken to DHQ Hospital Dera where he pegged out.
The motive behind the killing could not be ascertained.
Meanwhile in Landi Kotal, Khyber Agency, unidentified gunnies kidnapped a transporter from Kuktarhel area late on Monday evening, sources said.
They said that Niamat Wali was kidnapped at gunpoint in front of his house at around 9pm. It was learnt that the kidnapped person was allegedly involved in stealing goods from NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... containers.
Nobody took responsibility for the abduction nor had anybody threatened Niamat Wali, family sources said.
In another incident, a passer-by was injured when a bomb planted on the roadside went kaboom! at Ali Masjid on Monday evening.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2012 00:00 ||
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[Dawn] A key commander of banned but still somehow murderously active Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) was tossed in the slammer on Tuesday by the security forces in Nowshera, DawnNews reported.
According to polices sources, the TTP commander Abdul Qayyum was tossed in the slammer after a raid who allegedly was involved in murders of KP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar's son and SHO Risalpur Taj Mir Shah.
Qayyum was taken to Qazi's guesthouse an undisclosed location for investigation after arrest.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2012 00:00 ||
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An Iranian "nuclear scientist" who worked at Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility has been killed in a bomb attack on his car in Tehran, with officials immediately blaming Israel.
Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, "has been working as the deputy in charge of commerce at the Natanz site," said a posting on the website of Sharif University in Tehran, from which Ahmadi Roshan graduated around a decade ago.
The killing of Roshan was similar to previous assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists that Tehran has blamed on Israel and the United States. Both countries have denied the accusations.
"The responsibility of this explosion falls on the Zionist regime," the governor of Tehran province, Safar Ali Bratloo, told Iran's Arabic-language Al-Alam broadcaster.
"The method of this terrorist action is similar to previous actions that targeted Iran's nuclear scientists," he said.
The car was attacked outside the east Tehran campus of Allameh Tabatai University, where Roshan was reportedly a lecturer.
#3
He was a university lecturer - maybe a student didn't like the grade he got.
Or maybe somebody lower in the food chain was creating space for a promotion.
Or maybe Allan was sending a message.
#4
Another report has him identified as a "Iranian university professor specializing in petroleum."
And this raises some interesting questions. First of all, of course, is that his title might be a cover for nuclear activities.
However, most of Iran's petroleum production is centered in Khuzestan, in the southwest, next to Iraq. It is Arabic in character, not Persian, and the Arabs have long been treated as second class citizens by the Persians. It is a restive region, and the Persians have been brutal putting down the Arabs there.
This guy might have been seen as very important to the continued Persian exploitation of "Khuzestan's oil", by the Arabs who live there, and maybe was responsible for Arabs being displaced so that exploration could be conducted.
#10
Looks like the sanctions are beginning to work as well.
0812 GMT: Currency All-is-Well Alert. State news agency IRNA has no news on the Iranian currency this morning, but it does feature an interview with an official, noting the rise in interest rates to 20%. The effort is to reduce the flow of cash in the economy, but the official says it will increase capital investment by banks in an "impressive market".
0749 GMT: Economy Watch. With Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani declaring that "price increases would impose a heavy burden on the shoulders of the people", the Majlis has passed a bill which limits the rise in cost of State-provided services and goods --- such as energy --- to 20% in one year.
#11
Natanz is located approx. 300 miles from the Iran-Iraq border where most of the Iranian arabs live. I doubt the Arabs had anything to do with it.
My most likely scenarios are:
1) The Iranian cyberpolice caught him being 'indiscreet' about the nuclear program.
2) He was one of the guys who carried Stuxnet inside the firewall, and now he's being punished.
3) If he was in charge of commerce at the site, he was responsible for selling the output. This may be the result of a 'price disagreement.'
4) The rebels or Mossad have identified him as a nuclear scientist and eliminated him.
Posted by: Frozen Al ||
01/11/2012 10:57 Comments ||
Top||
#12
Sucks to be an Iranian nuclear scientist. I think if I was Iranian I'd aspire to be a carpet weaver.
#14
Ebbang,
After the Shah of Iran was deposed, there was an exit by a large number of Iranian intellectuals (doctors, professors, engineers, etc.,), many of whom came to the US. We gained and the Islamic republic lost, big time.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/11/2012 12:47 Comments ||
Top||
#15
We'll know the West is getting serious about terrorism when the Saudi money men start having accidents too.
Woggut,
Amen.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/11/2012 12:48 Comments ||
Top||
#16
It does suck to be an Iranian nuclear scientist. Job security is non-existent.
On the other hand, he might have been driving a Chevrolet Volt made by Govmint Motors. In which case there are some positives about the Volt.
Posted by: Mike Ramsey ||
01/11/2012 18:45 Comments ||
Top||
#20
I'll go with "What is option # 4 above", Alex.
Pretty damn sweet!
Posted by: Slomp Oppressor of the Faeries1490 ||
01/11/2012 20:19 Comments ||
Top||
#21
Latest ...
TOPIX > IRAN LAWMAKER: DEATH OF NUCLEAR SCIENTISTS PROVES IAEA LEAKED INFO TO IRAN'S ENEMIES. Read, US + Israel, as illustrated or symbolized by Roshan death.
* SAME > IRAN VP RAHIMI: ASSASSINATION OF NUCLEAR SCIENTISTS [e.g. Roshan] BY FOREIGN GOVTS. WILL NOT STOP NUCPROG, + will only intensify the dedication of Iran + Scientists to accomplish their country's nuke agenda.
* SAME > ISRAELI MILITARY CHIEF: IRAN SHOULD EXPECT MORE "UN-NATURAL" EVENTS IN 2012.
MILBLOGGERS = As per the above, opine that Israel is essentially admitting it carried out the hit on Roshan, ala MOSSAD = MOSSAD-LED COVERT OP???
#22
My guess is internal power struggles. Treason would be broadcast on TV and exemplary punishments meted out. Nuke work is probably the most lavish government-funded project in Iran, and anyone assigned to it is likely very connected to a powerful faction. All dictatorships, at least after the initial charismatic god emperor (in this case Khomeini) has passed on, are composed of shifting rival* factions. My feeling is that rival Iranian factions are whaling on each other, with no faction strong enough to completely eliminate another, meaning that any attempt by one faction at complete suppression could touch off a regime-wide schism and potentially civil war.
* Why rival? Because there's only a finite amount of power and resources to go around.
#23
I agree with Zhang Fei, this is likely internal Iranian politics, not Mossad or CIA. The nuclear scientists would be seen as darlings of Ahmadinejad and would be targeted by his political opposition.
#27
I think the best part of the whole deal is all the speculation about whodunnit.
Who can you trust, Imam?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/11/2012 22:27 Comments ||
Top||
#28
I agree with Zhang Fei, this is likely internal Iranian politics, not Mossad or CIA.
The only way I see Western intelligence agencies involved is in the midst of a shooting war, during which personnel losses would disappear into the daily casualty lists. Why would anyone waste highly-placed intelligence assets on assassinating replaceable personnel? And they're all replaceable - much as we're inclined to believe that the Iranian people are a bunch of Westernized individuals waiting for liberation by a Western army, the possibility is that they're just like the Egyptians, meaning that there are no shortage of Ahmedinejads waiting in the wings.
For the 0.0001% of Rantburgers who don't know the full quote:
Ambassador Andrei Lysenko: There is another matter... one I'm reluctant to...
Dr. Jeffrey Pelt: Please.
Ambassador Andrei Lysenko: One of our submarines, an Alfa, was last reported in the area of the Grand Banks. We have not heard from her for some time.
Dr. Jeffrey Pelt: Andrei, you've lost another submarine?
I think the faces of both were absolutely priceless
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/11/2012 23:04 Comments ||
Top||
[An Nahar] A U.S. ship on Tuesday rescued six Iranian mariners in the Gulf after their vessel broke down, the Pentagon said, in the latest such gesture despite soaring tensions between Washington and Tehran.
The Iranian crew, stuck before sunrise some 50 nautical miles (90 kilometers) southeast of the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr, used flares to seek help from the passing U.S. Coast Guard cutter Monomoy, according to the Pentagon.
The Iranian ship's master "requested assistance from the cutter indicating that the engine room was flooding and (the vessel was) not seaworthy," Pentagon front man George Little told news hounds.
At least one of the Iranians suffered burns from a fire onboard the troubled ship and is receiving treatment from the U.S. Coast Guard, Little said.
Pentagon officials said that the United States would repatriate the Iranians, although it has not yet been determined when or how.
The United States says that its forces routinely rescue sailors in distress regardless of nationality but officials have been eager to highlight efforts to assist Iranians amid Tehran's threats to close the crucial Strait of Hormuz.
Iran's threat -- which analysts say it may not be able to carry out -- came as the United States expanded sanctions against the Islamic regime and the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... considers a total ban on oil exports from Tehran.
Last week, the U.S. Navy rescued 13 Iranians held by pirates. Iran welcomed the gesture, despite its opposition to U.S. forces in the area.
Western powers have been seeking to increase pressure on Iran due to fears it is developing nuclear weapons. Iran insists its uranium enrichment is solely for peaceful purposes.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2012 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
"...requested assistance from the cutter indicating that the engine room was flooding and (the vessel was) not seaworthy..."
Them Yanks are pretty clever; drop a couple of SEALS over the side, and they swim to the (soon-to-be) disabled ship, cut a hole in the hull, and swim back. then the USN waits. after a bit, the deck gets closer to the waterline and the call for help goes out to the 'I just happened to be in the neighborhood...' Navy warship.
#2
Such playful little scamps, those SEALS. I wouldn't put it past them.
On the other hand, perhaps the Iranians are planning to close the straits with the disabled hulks of their merchant fleet. Inshallah maintenance be praised!
[An Nahar] Syria's top Moslemholy man called on rebels to lay down their arms while a Christian counterpart hit out at Western sanctions, in sermons aired by state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
on Tuesday.
Grand Mufti Sheikh Ahmed Badreddin Hassoun and Greek Orthodox Archbishop Luka al-Khouri were both speaking at an inter-faith memorial service in the capital's Holy Cross Church for 26 people killed in a suicide kaboom 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 Friday.
"I call on all those who have taken up arms... to lay them down," the mufti said.
"If you want to share power, put forward your program, without taking up arms, and if we're persuaded by it, we'll implement it," added Hassoun, whose son Sariah was killed in October in a wave of liquidations targeting figures seen as close to the regime.
Hassoun urged dissidents to make the transition from "argument to dialogue."
The archbishop, who officiated at the church service, spoke out against the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... and United States sanctions imposed on Syria to punish the regime for its deadly 10-month crackdown on dissent.
"Those who are imposing sanctions on Syrians and threatening their daily bread know neither Jesus Christ nor the meaning of democracy, neither human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... nor human values," said Khouri.
The Syrian security forces have come under mounting attack from deserters who have organized themselves into a rebel Free Syrian Army in recent months.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2012 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[An Nahar] Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... chief Nabil al-Arabi on Tuesday denounced attacks on Arab observers deployed in Syria, in which some monitors were maimed, and said he was holding the government in Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... responsible for their mission.
"The Arab League denounces the irresponsible action and acts of violence against the League's observers," Arabi said in a statement issued by his office.
"It considers the Syrian government totally responsible for the protection of the members of the observer mission."
According to Arabi "some members of the mission were victim of violent attacks carried out by pro-regime elements in Latakia and Deir al-Zour, and from elements considered to be members of the opposition in other areas."
"Some of the members of the observers' mission were maimed and their equipment was badly damaged," the statement added.
Kuwait said earlier that two of its army officers who are part of the mission in Syria were "slightly hurt" on Monday by "unidentified protesters," in the first reported attack of its kind.
The two soldiers were treated in a hospital following the incident and later discharged in good health, said Kuwait's defense ministry, cited by state news agency KUNA.
Observers from Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates were attacked while heading to the coastal city of Latakia, KUNA added, without providing further details.
In his statement, Arabi said the mission had faced a "tendentious campaign" since an Arab League meeting about Syria on Sunday and warned the mission could be halted if the attacks continue.
"The Arab League is keen on the pursuit of the mission in a secure atmosphere so as not to be obliged to freeze the operation," he said.
Arabi rejected "any pressure or provocation from any party, be it the government or the opposition" or any attempt to undermine the mission.
He also called on the Syrian government and opposition "to stop the campaign of provocation" carried out by elements close to both sides.
"The main goal of the presence of observers on Syrian territory is to find a political solution to the Syrian crisis," said Arabi.
Also on Tuesday, Russia praised Arab League observers and urged them to continue their mission in Syria, after critics complained their work served only to cover up regime abuses.
"Their deployment in this country already has a stabilizing effect on the situation, and helps obtain a truthful and objective picture of what is happening in Syria," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
"We are convinced that as a pan-Arab organization, the vaporous Arab League is designed to play a leading role in consolidating international and regional efforts to peacefully overcome the internal Syrian crisis and immediately stop any violence."
A team of Arab League monitors has been in Syria since December 26 to oversee a deal to protect civilians, but the corpse count, which the U.N. says exceeds 5,000, has kept climbing despite their presence.
Critics say the mission has been completely outmaneuvered by the government and has failed to make any progress towards stemming the crackdown. They have called for the observers to pull out.
The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) has said the observers were slow in implementing the Arab League peace plan.
The Moslem Brüderbund, which is part of the SNC, has accused the mission of covering up "crimes of the Syrian regime."
Russia has repeatedly sided with the regime of Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... and earlier this month sent a large Russian naval flotilla to the Syrian port of Tartus in what Damascus said was a show of solidarity.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2012 00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[An Nahar] Four hundred people have been killed in Syria since Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... monitors started a monitoring mission on December 26, and 40 people are being killed each day, a top U.N. official told the Security Council on Tuesday.
U.N. assistant secretary general B. Lynn Pascoe gave the new casualty figure in a closed meeting of the 15-member Council, according to envoys.
The U.N. had previously said that more than 5,000 people have been killed since protests against Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... started in March.
After the meeting, Western envoys stepped up calls for Russia to revive talks on a Security Council resolution condemning the Syria violence.
Russia and China vetoed a European-drafted text in October which condemned Assad's government for its deadly crackdown on protests.
Russia has since proposed a rival resolution which condemns the government and opposition violence. But there have been no talks among all the 15 council members since the start of the year.
Germany's U.N. ambassador Peter Wittig said this was "unsatisfactory" and demanded "serious negotiations" by Russia.
Diplomats said no progress was likely now until after the vaporous Arab League reports on its observer mission on January 19.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Dang, those Arab League monitors are really good shots huh? Oh, they're supposed to STOP the shooting instead of participating? Maybe they didn't get the memo or they're just incompetent like every over government over there.
I vote for incompetent although I could see Assad taking the monitors for a special early morning hunting expedition.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
01/11/2012 10:46 Comments ||
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[An Nahar] Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Trampler of Homs... on Tuesday accused foreign parties of seeking to destabilize Syria but stressed that he would not step down over increased demonstrations against him.
"We will declare victory soon," he said in a speech at Damascus ...Capital of the last remaining Baathist regime in the world... University broadcast live on state television ... and if you can't believe state television who can you believe?
"When I leave this post it will be also based upon the people's wishes," he said in his first speech since he agreed last month to an Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... plan to halt the government crackdown on dissent.
Assad repeated his claim that a foreign conspiracy is behind the unrest, and he said it was failing.
"Regional and international parties who are trying to destabilize Syria can no longer falsify the facts and events," the embattled leader said.
"They turned to liquidations... with regional and international media coverage," he said. "After all their attempts failed, the role of foreigners emerged."
Assad slammed the vaporous Arab League, saying it helped spread sectarian divisions across the country.
"The first parliament in Syria was in 1917. Where were they then?" he asked about monarchies in the Gulf.
He also threw the ball in the opposition's court saying the regime was ready to engage in dialogue with it. But opposition forces weren't willing to do so, Assad said.
"We want a national opposition, not an opposition taking orders from foreign sides," he stressed.
Turning to what he called terrorism, Assad pledged that his government would tackle it with an "iron fist."
"There can be no let-up for terrorism -- it must be hit with an iron fist," he said. "Our priority now is to regain security which we basked in for decades."
He also said that a referendum will be held in March on a new constitution to replace the current charter which enshrines his Baath party's dominant role.
"After legislation has been drawn up and a constitution... we will call a referendum... (maybe) in the first week of March." he said, adding that it would be followed by a general election.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] The Syrian National Council (SNC) branded Tuesday's speech by Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Lord of the Baath... an "incitement to violence," indicating "more criminal behavior" by the regime.
"There is incitement to violence, incitement to civil strife, some talks about sectarian divisions which the regime itself has fomented and encouraged," Basma Qadmani, a member of the SNC, the largest opposition umbrella group, said at a presser in Istanbul.
Assad blamed foreign plotters Tuesday for unprecedented 10-month-old protests against his regime and vowed to crush their "terrorism" with an iron fist.
In a rare televised address just hours before the U.N. Security Council was due to discuss the bloodshed, Assad denied the security forces had orders to open fire on civilian demonstrators even as activists said 35 more had been rubbed out.
The Local Coordination Committees, the main activist group spurring protests on the ground, said security forces rubbed out 17 people in the eastern oil hub of Deir al-Zour, 12 in the flashpoint central province of Homs, one in the central province of Hama, three in the northern region of al-Qameshli and two in the northwestern province of Idlib.
For its part, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said security forces rubbed out 10 civilians and maimed 40 others as they took part in a peaceful protest in Deir al-Zour.
"An Observatory activist in Deir al-Zour said what he witnessed today was a real massacre," the Observatory said in a statement sent to Agence La Belle France Presse.
"Most of the deaders were youths who were demonstrating peacefully and in a civilized manner," the Britannia-based group added.
The Observatory said another two non-combatants were killed by security forces' gunfire in the central city of Homs, a bastion of the uprising against the Assad regime.
In the northwestern province of Idlib, a soldier who tried to desert the regular army was "killed by his officer in the middle of al-Wahda square in the town of Iblin," said the rights group.
In Douma, on the northern outskirts of Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... , more than 10,000 people attended the funeral of a dissident soldier who was killed on Monday, before all but about 100 of them were dispersed by the security forces, it added.
"Our concern today is that such a speech is quite indicative of the total dismissal by the regime of the international community," Qadmani said at a presser in Istanbul.
"And that is an indication that we are going in the direction of more irresponsible and more criminal behavior by the regime in the coming days and weeks."
Qadmani also said Assad's speech indicated that the regime "is breaking up with the Arab League," ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... which has sent observers to Syria in a bid to try to halt the bloodshed that the U.N. says has killed over 5,000 people.
"This is a turning point, a rupture with its Arab environment," she added in remarks in English.
"The word democracy has hardly appeared in this discourse, we have seen much speech about reforms but we haven't heard of any progress at any level since 11 months and the beginning of the revolution."
Assad's speech came hours before the U.N. Security Council was due to discuss the bloodshed in the country.
Qadmani called on the U.N. to take action to stop killings.
"Our next step therefore is to go in a speedy way to the Security Council with the support of the Arab countries which are now convinced that this regime has not cooperated during the (Arab League) mission and is quite unlikely to cooperate in any manner," she said.
"This is a message that members of the Security Council should carefully read and understand that by preventing decisive action by the council ... the regime is encouraged to continue its crimes," she said.
Earlier on Tuesday, the head of the opposition SNC, Burhan Ghalioun, expressed alarm about Assad's "dangerous speech in which he stated his determination to use violence against our own people."
"He has cut short any Arab or other initiative to find a solution to the crisis," Ghalioun said, adding the speech showed Assad's "determination to divide and push the country towards civil war."
Ghalioun called on the world community to "work to ensure the international protection of Syrian civilians," while urging the vaporous Arab League to turn to the Security Council for help.
The SNC hit out at the Arab League over their report which said the "killing has been reduced" and had recommended that a team of Arab monitors continue their mission.
Assad said that the unrest would only come to an end "when the flow of funds and weapons coming from abroad stops."
"Regional and international parties who are trying to destabilize Syria can no longer falsify the facts and events," the embattled leader said in a speech lasting nearly two hours.
He hit out at émigré opponents of his rule, accusing them of being tools of foreign powers.
"We don't want an opposition that takes signals from abroad ... We want a national opposition," he said.
Assad said that restoring security was the "absolute priority" for Syria and pledged his government would tackle terrorism with an "iron fist," after a Damascus suicide kaboom killed 26 people on Friday.
"There can be no let-up for terrorism -- it must be hit with an iron fist," he said.
"The battle with terrorism is a battle for everyone, a national battle, not only the government's battle," said Assad.
"We must deal with terrorism through all legal methods. They have struck innocents ... they are killing the Syrian people."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2012 00:00 ||
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[An Nahar] Security forces were on Tuesday searching for an "object" that Israeli warplanes dropped between the towns of Talousa and Houla in the South, the National News Agency reported.
NNA said the fighter jets dropped the object in a valley between the two southern towns.
But security forces were finding difficulty scouring the area over the presence of cluster bombs left over from the 2006 war between Israel and Hizbullah, the agency added.
The incident happened the same day the Israeli military launched drills in the occupied Shebaa Farms and Golan Heights.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/11/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Just a small frozen 'Care Package', nothing more.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
01/11/2012 10:19 Comments ||
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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.
[Dawn] At least two 
Gunmen shot eight people dead in northern Nigeria Tuesday and a mob torched an Islamic school in the south, as a nationwide fuel strike and growing religious tension rattled Africa's oil-rich giant.
Goodluck Jonathan
[Iran Press TV] At least four people have been killed in a US 
[An Nahar] A U.S. ship on Tuesday rescued six Iranian mariners in the Gulf after their vessel broke down, the Pentagon said, in the latest such gesture despite soaring tensions between Washington and Tehran.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
