[Dawn] Afghan authorities on Tuesday said "regional spy agencies" were behind a rare suicide kaboom targeting Shia Moslems that killed more than 80 people in a veiled reference to Pak intelligence.
Attorney General Eshaq Aloko said two men had been placed in long-term storage You have the right to remain silent... over the December attack, which struck a crowd of worshippers on Ashura in Kabul.
President Hamid Maybe I'll join the Taliban Karzai ... A former Baltimore restaurateur, now 12th and current President of Afghanistan, displacing the legitimate president Rabbani in December 2004. He was installed as the dominant political figure after the removal of the Taliban regime in late 2001 in a vain attempt to put a Pashtun face on the successor state to the Taliban. After the 2004 presidential election, he was declared president regardless of what the actual vote count was. He won a second, even more dubious, five-year-term after the 2009 presidential election. His grip on reality has been slipping steadily since around 2007, probably from heavy drug use... blamed Pak sectarian myrmidon outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi ... a 'more violent' offshoot of Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistain. LeJ's purpose in life is to murder anyone who's not of utmost religious purity, starting with Shiites but including Brelvis, Ahmadis, Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Rosicrucians, and just about anyone else you can think of. They are currently a wholly-owned subsidiary of al-Qaeda ... for the atrocity, which was unprecedented on such a holy day, and urged Islamabad to act.
Aloko said the attack was planned in Pakistain's northwestern city of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, by "regional spy agencies" aimed at "provoking sectarian violence".
"Although the Jhangvi group grabbed credit, it was criminal masterminded by some spy agencies in our neighbouring countries," Aloko said.
Afghans blame Pakistain for fuelling much of the violence in their country, where the Taliban are leading a 10-year insurgency against the government and 130,000 Western troops.
The prosecutor said one of those placed in long-term storage You have the right to remain silent... came from Afghanistan's Nangarhar The unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province, which borders Pakistain's krazed killer-infested tribal belt, and was paid 10,000 Pak rupees ($100) to bring two suicide attackers to Kabul.
"One attacker went kaboom!", the second fled the area," Aloko said.
He said the two placed in long-term storage You have the right to remain silent... men both confessed over the plot and the case was now closed.
The kaboom happened at the entrance to a riverside shrine, where hundreds of Shias had gathered.
The Taliban denied responsibility for the attack, the deadliest in the Afghan capital in three years.
"The case is closed for us now. We have completed our investigation, and the case will be sent to the court," Aloko said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2012 00:00 ||
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(Sh.M.network)-Somali cabinet ministers held an extra ordinary meeting in Mogadishu and discussed the illegal roadblocks placed in parts of the city and its surrounding locations in the past 20 years of conflict and disorder.
At the end of the meeting, Abdikadir Hussein Mohammed (Jahweyn), the information minister for Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), told news hounds that Somali government ruled the road blockades to be illegitimate.
Mr. Jahweyn said that Somali Prime Minister Abdiweli Mohammed Ali, has held a meting with the national security agencies and as well as the Somali people in Mogadishu, and spoke about the latest illicit roadblocks being put in place in Banadir region and several locations beyond Mogadishu, where Al shabab withdrew last month.
"The cabinet ministers of Somali government have today agreed unanimously to take strict measures against the disturbing illegal checkpoints in Mogadishu and nearby villages under TFG control," said Somali information minister, Abdikadir Hussein Mohammed (Jahweyn).
This statement comes as Somali drives complained about an illegal money taken through the streets in Mogadishu and its neighborhoods by gunnies dressed in government uniform.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2012 00:00 ||
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Multiple sources have told Al-Jazeera that ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak suffered a stroke and is on an artificial respirator, but that he is not "clinically dead," as previous reports had claimed. Reuters and the Associated Press also cite sources saying the deposed president is on life support.
Said another way, they're just prolonging the inevitable...
According to Al-Jazeera's Mike Hanna: "We do understand from family sources that Hosni Mubarak is improving. We believe he is still in a coma."
And rather warmed over...
Earlier, the state-run news agency MENA reported that Mubarak had been declared clinically dead upon arriving at a military hospital on Tuesday evening. "Mubarak's heart stopped beating and was subjected to a defibrillator several times but did not respond," the MENA release stated.
However, senior officials, including military leaders, have now contradicted that earlier report. Gen. Mamdouh Shahin, a member of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, reportedly told CNN that Mubarak "is not clinically dead as reported, but his health is deteriorating and he is in critical condition."
Mubarak's health had been failing since he was sentenced to life in prison on June 2, after he was convicted of failing to prevent the killing of protesters in a February 2011 uprising against his rule.
Doctors at the prison hospital used a defibrillator twice on June 11 after they could not find a pulse on the deposed leader. An AP story at the time said Mubarak "was slipping in and out of consciousness, was suffering from high blood pressure and breathing difficulties, and was in a deep depression, according to security officials at the prison."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2012 07:45 ||
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#1
Ariel Sharon has been in a permanent vegetative state since January 2006. Given Egyptian medicine, I don't think Mubarak will come close to that record.
Top security officials denied reports by Egyptian state media Tuesday that former President Hosni Mubarak whose health reportedly had been deteriorating since he was sentenced earlier this month to life in prison was clinically dead, saying instead that he was unconscious and had been placed on life support.
In any case, Egypts fourth president, now 84, appeared to be entering his final days, just after Egypt concluded its first free presidential election to name his successor. Initial results suggested that Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Morsi had prevailed narrowly in last weekends runoff, marking the end of a state governed by former military commanders and the start, many hoped, of democratic reforms.
[An Nahar] Nigeria's main Christian body on Tuesday said attacks attributed to Islamist group Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... suggested a "systematic religious cleansing" and harshly criticized the government over its response.
"The bombings are clear indications that the Jamaatu Ahlisunnah Lidda'awatiwal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram, has declared war on Christians and Christianity in Nigeria," a statement from the Christian Association of Nigeria said.
"In fact, the pattern of bombings and gun attacks suggests to us a systematic religious cleansing which reminds Christians of the genesis of a Jihad."
The group also harshly criticized Nigeria's government for what it described as a befuddled response to Boko Haram's insurgency, which has killed hundreds.
"Since these terrorist acts began, nothing the president, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, has done has been reassuring that the end to this spate of bombings and gun attacks is in sight," the statement said.
"On the contrary, his utterances after each bombing and killings, even if unwittingly, seem to have cast a hallmark of weakness on his presidency and an escalation of the terrorist acts."
Three suicide kabooms hit churches in Kaduna state in Nigeria's north on Sunday, leaving at least 16 dead and sparking reprisals that saw Christian mobs roam the streets with machetes, burning mosques and killing dozens more.
A total of 52 people were killed in the violence.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2012 00:00 ||
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[Yemen Post] Ali Nasser Mohammed, the former South Yemen President, urged President Abdurabu Mansour Hadi ...the second and possibly the last president of Yemen, successor to former President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... to uproot terrorism from Yemen and offered him, the army, the martyr's family as well as all Yemeni people his sincere condolences on the death of the Southern Military Region commander, Salem Qatan, who was killed on Monday by al-Qaeda jacket wallah in the southern port city of Aden.
In a blurb, Mohammed condemned the attack that targeted Qatan in Aden and said that the attack came as retaliation for the recently defeats of the turban group in the southern provinces of Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... and Shabwa by the Yemeni army.
He further hailed the role of the armed forces in the victory over al-Qaeda in the southern part of the country, arguing that this victory will help Yemen restore stability and security.
"The suicide kaboom that killed Qatan will be added to the black record of the terror network as it killed both soldiers and civilians in Abyan, Shabwa and elsewhere in Yemen," said Mohammed in the statement.
He called for mobilizing all the national and international community efforts to eliminate the terror network of al-Qaeda and eradicate it right from the roots, stressing terrorism will not be eradicated from Yemen unless all the national and international efforts are unified in order for Yemen not to be a failed state that threatens the national, regional and international peace and security.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2012 00:00 ||
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A number of friends and high-profile supporters posted £240,000 bail for Mr Assange, including film firector Ken Loach, filmaker Michael Moore, investigative journalist John Pilger and Jemima Khan, who could now lose their money.
Asked whether she was "on the hook" for his breach of bail, Khan replied on Twitter: "Yes. I had expected him to face the allegations. I am as surprised as anyone by this."
SEOUL -- A severe dry spell in North Korea is expected to exacerbate chronic food shortages in the poverty-stricken nation where the U.N.'s food agency says 3 million people are in urgent need of food aid, a South Korean expert said Wednesday.
If you try to feed them the Nork army will steal it all...
The amount of cereal crops harvested in the June-July season is forecast to sharply drop due to the unusually long drought, said Kwon Tae-jin, a senior researcher at the state-run Korea Rural Economic Institute in Seoul, in a report.
"Because of severe drought, North Korea is expected to run into a big problem in harvesting corn this year," Kwon said, adding it could prompt the price of other crops to rise.
Harvesting of other crops such as wheat, barley and potatoes is also expected to "significantly fall," Kwon said.
According to a report by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which was posted on its Web site on Monday, drought has affected some 17 percent of North Korea's total farmland.
"Any drop in production is likely to add to the shortfall of food supplies and worsen food insecurity in the country," FAO said in the report. The FAO report concluded that, "Three million vulnerable people, mainly living in the five most food-insecure provinces of Ryanggang, Chagang, North Hamgyong, South Hamgyong and Kangwon, are in urgent need of international food assistance, due to an inadequate food production."
Such assessments were at odds with the stance of the South Korean government. Commenting on North Korea's food shortages on Tuesday, Seoul's Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae said, "Our general assessment is that (the North's food situation) is not so serious as to fall into a level of crisis."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2012 00:00 ||
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South Korea and the U.S. are reportedly planning to combine their separate missile defenses here. Seoul is saying that the combined system will not be integrated into the U.S.-Japan missile defense system, but a certain degree of integration seems inevitable since the U.S.' missile defense systems in South Korea and Japan are linked.
The two sides are considering linking Seoul's air and missile defense cell, which will be built in Osan, Gyeonggi Province in late December, with the U.S. Forces Korea's Patriot air defense missile system.
The foreign and defense ministers of the two countries in Washington last Friday "agreed to seek ways to strengthen combined defense posture against a mounting threat of missile strikes from North Korea," a government source here said.
"From now on, the two countries will cooperate in detecting and identifying North Korea's missile bases and facilities while continuing to discuss the extension of the range of Seouls ballistic missiles and the number of anti-air missiles the two countries would keep," the source added.
The new combined system will include PAC-2 Patriot missiles, medium-range Cheolmae-2 surface-to-air missiles, Hyunmu-3 cruise missiles and Aegis destroyers from South Korea, and USFK's PAC-3 Patriot missiles and surveillance systems.
But the source said this will be "different" from the U.S.-Japan missile defense system against long-range ballistic missiles. "The U.S.-South Korean system will combine air defense and surveillance systems of our military and the USFK, whose operational range covers only the Korean Peninsula."
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Well alrighty then - America's GODZILLA [Matthew Broderick's], Nippon's GODZILLA, ETAL. + ROK's GORYEA/GOJURYEA monsters all together agz China's ????
PAUL BUNYAN + BLUE OX "BABE"???
Did Beijing Cinema ever dev a Bambi-crushing Giant Monster???
Thousands of people are starving to death in North Korea's South Hwanghae Province even though it is the country's rice bowl, according to a defector.
Just because they labor over it and grow it doesn't mean they get to eat any of it. Silly people...
"Villages in remote mountains can resort to slash-and-burn farming to survive, but in lowland areas where there are only cooperative farms, 30 to 40 people in each village starve to death every year," said Choi Myong-chol (not his real name), who used to handle crop harvests in Haeju, South Hwanghae Province. "The reason is that their entire harvest is confiscated," he told the activist website NK Reform.
The Tokyo Shimbun reported in April that 20,000 North Koreans starved to death in South Hwanghae Province after Kim Jong-il's death. "The reality there is that farmers have no choice but to hide rice during the harvest to survive," Choi said. This has happened every year. "This year, authorities appear to have taken extra measures to seek out rice the farmers had hidden," he added.
Choi said the reason for the starvation is the unrealistic crop output goals set by the regime every spring. Cooperative farms in South Hwanghae Province are ordered to produce six tons of rice per 10,000 sq. m, of which the farmers are promised two tons. But the actual amount that is harvested is only two to four tons, which leaves nothing for the farmers.
Harvested rice is distributed first to elite security and intelligence forces and then to ordinary soldiers. Farmers steal rice even under close watch because they would starve otherwise. They apparently steal between 1.5 to 2 tons per 10,000 sq. m of farmland, or about half of the crop.
Wreckers...
The regime is aware of the practice and sniffs out and confiscates around 30 percent of the stolen rice, leaving some 5,000-7,000 people to starve to death every year in the region.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
"5000-7000 people ... every year" > IIUC, short of de facto econ integration + ultimately reunification wid the ROK, oer time the DPRK may have no choice but to import massive numbers of Chinese nationals as Farmers. etc. to replace those whom starved to death = too weak to work???
And once again, Virginia, we learn why the DPRK wants Nukes, + why it may be in the ROK's strategic = "core"? interests to [covertly] want the DPRK to have Nukes???
In the wake of President Barack Obama asserting executive privilege to withhold Operation Fast and Furious documents from Congress, the Department of Justice has withdrawn a second statement made to Congress because it was inaccurate.
During last weeks Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Holder had alleged that former Attorney General Michael Mukasey knew of gunwalking during the George W. Bush administration.
An attorney general who I suppose you would hold in higher regard was briefed on these kinds of tactics in an operation called Wide Receiver and did nothing to stop them nothing, Holder told Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn during that hearing. Three hundred guns, at least, walked in that instance.
After the hearing, Grassley wrote to Holder asking him to provide evidence to back up his blaming Mukasey.
Instead of being able to facilitate evidence, though, according to Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassleys office, Holder and the DOJ have now retracted that statement.
This is the second time in nearly seven months that the Department has gotten its facts wrong about gunwalking, Grassley said. Attorney General Holder accused Attorney General Mukasey, without producing any evidence, of having been briefed on gunwalking in Wide Receiver. The case Attorney General Mukasey was briefed on, Hernandez, is fundamentally different from both Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious since it involved cooperation with the Mexican government. Attorney General Holders retraction should have included an apology to the former Attorney General.
In his original request for evidence that supported the statements, Grassley said if Holder could not back the claim, he owed Mukasey an apology. Holder did not include an apology in the retraction. Its unclear if the attorney general will apologize to Mukasey for the now-retracted statement. Holder spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler wouldnt answer when The Daily Caller asked her.
In his eagerness to blame the previous administration, Attorney General Holder got his facts wrong, Grassley added. And his tactic didnt bring us any closer to understanding how a bad policy evolved and continued. Bad policy is bad policy, regardless of how many administrations carried it out. Ironically, the only document produced yesterday by the Department appears to show that senior officials in the Attorney Generals own Department were strategizing about how to keep gunwalking in both Wide Receiver and Fast and Furious under wraps.
The first time Holders DOJ withdrew a statement to congress because of its inaccuracy was when now-former Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote to Sen. Grassley on Feb. 4, 2011, telling him that the DOJ and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives never allowed guns to walk. It wasnt until several months later that Holder withdrew that false statement.
All F & F news should be under 'Home Front: WoT and WoT Background, since it involves our government providing guns to narcoterrorists who then used them to kill innocent Mexican citizens and American law enforcement officers. Thx.
President Obama has granted an 11th-hour request by Attorney General Eric Holder to exert executive privilege over Fast and Furious documents, a last-minute maneuver that appears unlikely to head off a contempt vote against Holder by Republicans in the House.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is expected to forge ahead with its meeting on the contempt resolution anyway.
House Republicans appear to be charging ahead with a high-drama contempt vote against Eric Holder, after GOP Rep. Darrell Issa said the attorney generally failed to produce the documents he requested for the probe into the Justice Department's botched Fast and Furious operation.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. ET on Wednesday. Barring a last-minute document dump from Holder, lawmakers are poised to vote on a contempt resolution following debate this morning.
If the vote proceeds, Republicans have more than enough votes on committee to pass the resolution. However, Holder would not be considered to be held in contempt of Congress unless and until the full House approves the measure.
Issa and Holder have been going back and forth since last week over Issa's request for documents. Issa, R-Calif., indicated a willingness to postpone the vote after Holder indicated a willingness to make compromises and supply some documents in response to House Republicans' subpoena.
But Issa told reporters after a roughly 20-minute meeting with Holder Tuesday that the attorney general instead briefed them on the documents in lieu of delivering them.
Issa told Fox News that Holder didn't provide "anything in writing," and said the family of murdered Border Patrol agent Brian Terry wants the documents as much as he does.
"We want the documents. Brian Terry's family would like the documents that are responsive to how in fact their son was gunned down with weapons that came from lawful dealers but at the ... behest of the Justice Department," Issa told Fox News.
Weapons from the Fast and Furious anti-gunrunning operation were found at Terry's murder scene.
Issa suggested earlier Tuesday that the vote could still be up in the air.
"The deadline will always move to the last minute," said Issa, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. "We're not looking to hold people responsible. We're looking for document production."
The failed Fast and Furious operation attempted selling thousands of guns to arms dealers along the U.S.-Mexico border to trace them to leaders of drug cartels. However, many of them showed up in crime scenes.
Congressional investigators have been trying to determine if and when high-level Justice officials knew about problems with the operation.
Holder said Issa rejected what he thought was "an extraordinary offer."
"We offered the documents that we thought would resolve the subpoenas," he said. "The ball is in their court."
The contempt vote in the oversight committee will likely pass considering Republicans outnumber Democrats 22 to 16.
GOP House leadership has given Issa the green light to proceed how he sees fit, sources told Fox News, which suggests the vote would reach the House floor.
Holder called for the Capitol Hill meeting late Monday in a possible attempt to make a deal with Issa and avoid the contempt vote.
Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the House oversight panel, said he after the meeting he is confident that Justice officials are not attempting a cover-up by withholding documents.
Holder's letter stated the Justice Department "has offered a serious, good faith proposal to bring this matter to an amicable resolution in the form of a briefing based on documents that the committee could retain."
Issa had demanded to see a trove of documents on the controversial Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation. He also wants to know who prepared a now-retracted letter from Feb. 4, 2011, in which the department claimed the U.S. did not knowingly help smuggle guns to Mexico, including those found where Terry was killed.
Issa wrote back to Holder later Monday requesting he deliver roughly 1,300 documents pertaining to the Feb. 4 letter.
The letter also stated Holder needed to deliver a description of all the documents he will not produce. Issa said the log is "essential for the committee to determine whether the department has substantially met its obligations" -- a statement he repeated Tuesday after the meeting.
#4
Appears the Obama White House just kicked it up a notch, but how can he make such a declaration when some documents have already been released? Releasable documents... non-releasable documents? Sort of begs the question about White House non-involvement, does it not.
#8
Besoeker - are you making nominations for "Under The Bus"?
Posted by: Bobby ||
06/20/2012 11:42 Comments ||
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#9
No Bobby, just saying there are strict protocols regarding the shipment of weapons by the USG across international borders. It is just beyond belief that some sort of inter-agency coordination did not take place with regard to F&F.
If no inter-agency coordination took place...then where is the US State Department and CIA outrage? Crickets.... only crickets. There is very likely much, much more to this story.
#17
I wonder if he fully understood what he was getting himself into.
The Junior Senator from Illinois is far too detached from reality to understand the consequences of any of his actions. This is just another of many moves on his part that makes that clear. His job, he feels, is to "take care of" his choom gang. That is all that gangsters know to do. This is another example of the current gangster government.
Repeat after me, Champ and Eric: it's not the crime, it's the cover-up.
Take your lumps. Release the documents. Fire some folks and reassign some more. Take the hit in the press.
All that is preferable to the festering wound that F & F has now become. Now you've got the media, even MSNBC, wondering what's going on. What's in those documents. Did Champ see them. Does executive privilege stretch to documents the White House supposedly never saw. And what's in those documents.
Nice going. You turned a sordid, small-scale scandal into a major scandal.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2012 13:13 Comments ||
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#19
This man may have to finish out the current term as President. (doh!)
#20
I doubt it. Less than five months left until the election, it would take longer than that, particularly since there is a long summer recess, to come up with articles of impeachment and a trial. It would be faster to simply keep digging for as much documentation as they can and get it exposed to the light of day and letting the people decide in November.
#21
There were pundits during Obama's first year in office who said he would likely not finish his first term. Impeachment is most unlikely. Resignation or declination of the nomination is much more plausible. Keep an eye on the Hildebeast and Slick.
Looking from the outside, crosspatch, seems to me people decided a long time ago. To wit, Obama's core constituency couldn't care less. And the other side has plenty without F&F.
#25
They are just running out the clock, hoping for a win in November, and hoping to take the House (dreamers). I expect pardons issued that give enough cover if they do not stay in office. The damage done by this gang has permanently diminished our trust in the DOJ, State, BATFE, DEA, IRS, FBI, and many other agencies. And it was hard to even think that some of those agencies could get lower in the esteem of the American people.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
06/20/2012 13:55 Comments ||
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#26
p.s. crosspatch, IMO, removing Holder is critical if you don't want to have a third world style elections.
#28
Whatever it takes for justice to prevail. Preventing that loser from someday being nominated to the Supreme Court would be a definate plus as well.
#29
I read somewhere that the House requested some 80,000 documents. Does executive privilege mean that all 80,000 of those documents have been seen in the White House? Again I say, if it takes 80,000 documents to run an operation like F&F it's a wonder our government can function at all. Who can possibly read that much?
#30
It is just beyond belief that some sort of inter-agency coordination did not take place with regard to F&F.
Unless, of course, we are becoming our own private Pakistain. Wheels within wheels.
I see from crosspatch's pic that I'm not the first to realize we are reliving both the Carter years AND the Nixon years simultaneously. God help us all, said Tiny Tim.
ATF has 5000 employees including 10 offices in Arizona. There are probably several dozen stores in AZ that sell firearms.
The 'don't talk about this' emails and the 'here is what to say about this' emails alone probably total ten thousand or so by themselves, if you count each recipient as a document.
Then there are the 'notes to file' and the interdepartment and intradepartmental emails which probably also total ten thousand.
It adds up.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
06/20/2012 14:51 Comments ||
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#33
John Adams said, "As to the history of the revolution, my ideas may be peculiar, perhaps singular. What do we mean by the revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people, and this was effected from 1760 to 1775, in the course of fifteen years, before a drop of blood was shed at Lexington."
#34
Like a number of commenters said: Executive privilege covers communications between the present president and others. That says a huge amount. O just put the millstone around his neck. He just threw himself under the bus.
This is not breaking into some offices. This is accessory to murder of a Border Patrol agent and hundreds of Mexican citizens by weapons allowed to go to Mexican drug cartels. These are serious charges.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
06/20/2012 17:07 Comments ||
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#35
Interesting article over at Big Government on the two types of Executive Privleges (communicative and deliberative) and how this falls under the second (and much weaker) one. Also stresses how Holder will eventually lose:
It was the tape recordings of Nixon's attempt to cover up the White House involvement in the Watergate burglary that forced his resignation. He claimed the tapes were protected by executive privilege. It took several months to get his claim of executive privilege before the Supreme Court. That's what Obama is counting on-months of delay to push this case past the election.
Obama has become an outlaw who will do anything to keep his grip on power. He has already shown a propensity toward rule edict and regulation. Watch his behavior if the Supreme Court finds Obamacare unconstitutional. We are sliding closer to dictatorship every day.
#37
"Nothing happened. And if something did happen it was Bush's fault. And if something did happen that wasn't Bush's fault, we wouldn't know anything about it. And if we did know something about it, what we know would be in these documents I won't show you. Any questions?"
Posted by: Matt ||
06/20/2012 19:47 Comments ||
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#38
Obama has made a habit of bypassing Congress so can't Congress do an end run on obtaining these docs? We have cyber capabilities that can remotely access computers, NSA eavesdropping and storage for 3-5 years, and DoD surveillance from space--allowing them to stonewall until the election is over is simply unacceptable.
If nothing else, enact the secret resolution (from the Wallstreet Daily):
If we do not provide against corruption, our government will soon be at an end. George Mason, Virginia Delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention and one of Americas Founding Fathers. Mason made that declaration in 1787. Or as Lawrence Lessig says in his book Republic Lost .Sometimes an institution becomes too sick to fix itself. Not that the institution is necessarily blind to its own sickness. But that it doesnt have the capacity, or will, to do anything about it.
Understanding this, the Framers added to our Constitution an ingenious escape hatch. Although its never been used in the history of this proud country, its the only plausible strategy for forcing fundamental reform to our Congress.
Were calling it The Framers Secret Resolution. But amid all the hope, a newly liberated America was struggling to find its identity. Ironically, like its British predecessor, its early political system was rife with corruption. As Washingtons powerbase was forming, greed often trumped morals. Sounds familiar, right?
In 1787, Congress convened in Philadelphia with the sole and express purpose to make it possible for the Constitution to be amended, as needed. It accomplished this extraordinary feat in two very distinct ways:
1) By Congressional mandate.
2) By calling for a convention.
To date, all 27 amendments have come forth via the traditional route, where Congress proposes an amendment and then the states ratify it.
But, as Lessig says, Sometimes an institution, like an individual, needs an intervention from people, from friends,from outside.
Knowing this, the Framers forever etched their secret resolution onto the parchment that Congress must call a convention to consider proposals to amend the Constitution if two-thirds of the state legislators ask it to. Period! In other words, Americans can, in effect, supersede Congress if the masses can somehow all get behind a game-changing idea, and influence their local leaders to move on it. Its a daunting task. However, even though its never been done, the specter of a convention alone can scare Congress into taking action...
#42
Congress can cut the purse strings at DOJ, DOS, BATFE, WH, etc. strangle these asshats. Next year? Clean house of any bureaucrats that went along with these (and other illegal/unethical) Obama Regime schemes. Time to purge
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/20/2012 23:21 Comments ||
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[Dawn] A UN expert on Tuesday urged Washington to clarify its rules on hunting Taliban and other suspects amid a "dramatic increase" in the use of drone attacks.
The US government has carried out assassinations in countries including Afghanistan, Pakistain, Somalia and Yemen in raids and Arclight airstrikes and used unmanned drones, a report by investigator Christof Heyns said.
"The Special Rapporteur reiterates his predecessor's recommendation that the government specify the bases for decisions to kill rather than capture 'human targets' and whether the state in which the killing takes place has given consent," said Heyns.
In the document Heyns, special rapporteur on extrajudicial and summary executions, provides an update on steps taken by the United States to implement the recommendations of a 2009 report.
"No information has been made available on substantial changes to procedures ... to ensure that strikes targeting Taliban fighters were based on reliable information and did not cause unnecessary suffering and damage to the civilian population," he said.
"The Special Rapporteur again requests the government to clarify the rules that it considers to cover assassinations," the report adds.
About 300 drone strikes have been carried out in Pakistain since June 2004, according to the document.
It cited figures from the non-governmental Pakistain Human Rights Commission which said that US strikes were responsible for at least 957 deaths there in 2010.
"Although figures vary widely with regard to drone attack estimates, all studies concur on one important point: there has been a dramatic increase in their use over the past three years," said the report.
"While these attacks are directed at individuals believed to be leaders or active members of al Qaeda or the Taliban, in the context of armed conflict, in other instances civilians have allegedly also perished in the attacks." Heynes also said Washington should specify the safeguards it has in place to ensure in advance that assassinations comply with international law.
"The Special Rapporteur is seriously concerned that the practice of assassination could set a dangerous precedent, in that any Government could, under the cover of counter-terrorism imperatives, decide to target and kill an individual on the territory of any state if it considers that said individual constitutes a threat," the report said.
Posted by: Fred ||
06/20/2012 00:00 ||
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A Jordanian television producer and his two Filipino assistants who had been reported missing in the southern Philippine island of Sulu have contacted local authorities to say that they are fine and filming a documentary about the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf.
Bakr Atyani, Al-Arabiyas bureau chief in Pakistan, phoned Sulu Governor Sakur Tan and told him that they are still filming in the hinterlands of Patikul town. The trio escaped from their hostel in Sulu to secretly meet up with terror leaders in Patikul, despite warnings by officials not to interview the Abu Sayyaf.
Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo has confirmed that Atyani contacted Governor Tan. He said he would ask the Bureau of Immigration to deport Atyani and ban him from returning to the Philippines once they complete the clandestine interview with the Abu Sayyaf.
Atyanis group arrived in Sulu on June 11 and interviewed Tan and other government officials as cover for their true intention. Tan has repeatedly warned journalists not to interview terrorist groups or coordinate with authorities if they wanted to cover or film local events.
Posted by: ryuge ||
06/20/2012 05:55 ||
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#1
Does anyone find it interesting that news crews can always seem to find these people but law enforcement / military can chase them for decades without finding them?
I noticed the same thing about drug dealers. Police can't find them but any 16yo kid can find one in minutes.
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.
Afghan authorities on Tuesday said "regional spy agencies" were behind a rare 
Multiple sources have told Al-Jazeera that ousted Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak suffered a stroke and is on an artificial respirator, but that he is not "clinically dead," as previous reports had claimed. Reuters and the Associated Press also cite sources saying the deposed president is on life support.
Nigeria's main Christian body on Tuesday said attacks attributed to Islamist group 
South Korea and the U.S. are reportedly planning to combine their separate missile defenses here. Seoul is saying that the combined system will not be integrated into the U.S.-Japan missile defense system, but a certain degree of integration seems inevitable since the U.S.' missile defense systems in South Korea and Japan are linked. 
[Dawn] A UN expert on Tuesday urged Washington to clarify its rules on hunting Taliban and other suspects amid a "dramatic increase" in the use of drone attacks.
