Three American soldiers were killed Friday when a man in an Afghan uniform turned his weapon against them, the US military said, in the third so-called green-on-blue attack in less than a week.
A spokeswoman said "an individual in an Afghan uniform fired on US services members in Sangin district of Helmand province. There were three US fatalities. We're investigating to determine the facts," she said, without giving details of whether the shooter had been killed, captured or escaped. Radio report suggested other police were complicit.
Posted by: Bobby ||
08/10/2012 05:58 ||
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#1
How much longer will ISAF and Washington remain in denial. Taliban bounty and post-ISAF street creds. These people are simple drug gangsters and thugs. Do they not recall their wild war stories and celebrations about famous Muj fighters and engagements, and how they hammered the Russians?
Highway 611 north to Kajaki Dam has been a tough slug. The highway, Kajaki Sufla (village) and the power station are key, strategic points.
#2
The KIAs are not getting much press because our Dear Leader and the MSM are focused on re-electing Dear Leader. Obummer is busy with another war right now. He is busy making the country safe from the likes of Mitt,Republicans, and Conservatives. It is difficult stuff attacking Mitt--got to meet with the team on a daily basis, coordinating with the press and the Super Pacs, conferencing with Axlerod, hustling money from the Hollywood crowd, getting the propaganda going with made-up stuff about Romney such as killing women, financing Bain with money from death squads, etc., conning the rubes, promising the big give-away, developing his economic plan to bail out all industry, making sure contraceptives are available from the government for all women, deflecting attention from the failures, covering up back trails, and playing golf.
Meanwhile, the relatives, children and friends of the KIA suffer back home.
#3
JQC, don't forget dodging on Fast/Furious, Black Panther prosecutions, laxing immigration enforcement, obstructing states from doing the job that the Fed gov't won't do, loosening welfare regs, and generally disregarding his Oath of Office.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
08/10/2012 12:52 Comments ||
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#6
Anyone not American is potential lethal enemy. Suggested new rules of conduct.
When in the presence of Afghan "friendlies", at least one, preferrably two sets of eyes on the friendlies with fully automatic pointed in their general direction. If a friendly makes a possible threatening move, the eyes weapon is on that threat, fingers on the trigger, so that at only a twitch of a finger the threat is eliminated at the disgression of the eyes. Helmet cam, just like police car cam stateside, records the threatening moves.
Objective Number 1 from here on, everyone comes back home alive after each person's Enduring Freedom mission is complete.
#7
Rupert,
at first I thought you were commenting on posts # 1 and #2, since THAT is also a Dear Leader tactic; especially the gun clinging, Bible-waving rubes in fly-over land....
[Tolo News] At least five Afghan civilians have been killed and six others were maimed when a passenger bus struck a roadside kaboom in western Farah province on Wednesday, provincial front man Abdul Rahman Zhwandi said.
"The passengers bus travelling from capital city of Kabul to Farah city ran over a bomb in the Bala Bulok district planted by the Taliban krazed killers," he said.
The injured taken in a nearby hospital.
No group including the Taliban has grabbed credit for the blast.
Insurgents use Improvised Explosive Device (IEDs) to target Afghan and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... troops, but most of the victims are civilians.
A United Nations ...When talk is your weapon it's hard to make yourself heard over the sound of artillery... report released on Wednesday said that there has been a 53 per cent increase in civilian casualties caused by assassinations in the first half of this year in Afghanistan compared to the same period in 2011.
The report prepared by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) demonstrates a 15 percent decrease in the number of civilian casualties from January 2012 until mid year where 1,145 people have been killed and 1,954 others have been maimed.
Anti-Government elements, according to the report, continue to target community leaders, governmental authorities and civilians that they suspect of supporting the government or military forces.
The UN has attributed 80 per cent of the casualties to anti-government groups, saying Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) account for 29 per cent of the casualties, while assassinations account for 22 per cent of the casualties. 882 people have been killed and 1,593 others maimed by anti-government elements, 14 per cent less than the same period last year.
[Tolo News] An Afghan soldier was killed by NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... troops when he tried to gun down international troops outside a coordination center in eastern Laghman province, according to NATO front man German Lt. Col. Hagen Messer.
No internationals were killed in the incident he said.
He did not provide any more details about the incident and said that Afghan National Security Forces need to investigate the attack.
The incident occurred one day after three NATO troops were killed in an orc attack in eastern Afghanistan on Wednesday.
According to NATO, there have been more than 20 green on blue attacks - where Afghan forces turn their weapons on foreign troops - since January.
Last year, there were a total of 21 such attacks in which 35 people were killed.
#1
After a few of these "incidents" everybody gets shifty, goes into condition orange at the drop of a suspicion and gets itchy in the trigger finger department.
#2
Which considering by now the Afghan soldiers know better, might not be a bad thing. These will get more frequent as the roll-out date nears. It's an attempt to get momentum and popular support when they roll back in as we leave treadmarks on their poppy-cursed land.
Posted by: Charles ||
08/10/2012 1:54 Comments ||
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#3
Complaints that NATO soldiers killed the poor boy without cause in 5..4..3.
[Tolo News] A Taliban-affiliated turban was tossed in the slammer Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! in a joint Afghan and NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A cautionary tale of cost-benefit analysis.... operation in eastern Ghazni province on Thursday, ISAF has said in a statement.
"Afghan and coalition security forces tossed in the slammer Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! a Taliban affiliated turban responsible for acquiring and placing improvised bombs along Highway 1 in the Andar district of Ghazni province," it said.
The Taliban bomber is also responsible for several rocket attacks against Afghan and coalition convoys in the region.
In the Nowzad district of southern Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province, joint forces placed in durance vile Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! several cut-throats and seized assault rifles during an operation to arrest a Taliban explosives cell leader today, the statement said. The Taliban leader controls an turban cell specialising in improvised bombs and suicide kabooms.
It also added that a Taliban weapons supplier and Taliban leader also were captured in the Zharay district of Kandahar province.
[Tolo News] forces of Evil trained in Pakistain are attempting to secure the northern border between Afghanistan and Pakistain, the Northern Border Police Chief General Abdul Khalil Sayed Khili said Thursday.
However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... Sayed Khili praised the Afghan border police saying that 90 per cent are professionally trained to prevent the smuggling of weapons and
narcotics.
Meanwhile, ...back at the dirigible, Jack stuck the cigar in his mouth, stepped onto the gantry, and asked Got a light, Mac?
Von Schtinken stopped short, lowering the dagger and trying to control his features. If you light that thing, Herr Armschtröng, he pointed out, his voice tense, we all die!... recently, over 800 Afghanistan National Army (ANA) soldiers graduated from the 207 Zafar ANA Corps in western Herat ...a venerable old Persian-speaking city in western Afghanistan, populated mostly by Tadjiks, which is why it's not as blood-soaked as areas controlled by Pashtuns... province.
The participating soldiers received 8 weeks training and learned to use light and heavy weaponry.
207 Zafar ANA Corps Commander Taj Mohammad Jahid said that the security forces are ready to take responsibility of western provinces in the next transition between NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A single organization with differing goals, equipment, language, doctrine, and organization.... and Afghan forces.
MOGADISHU: At least eight Somali government troops were killed when a remote-controlled bomb hit their vehicle in Mogadishu, officials said on Thursday, highlighting lingering security risks less than two weeks before the UN-backed governments mandate ends.
Somalias Islamist Al-Shabab group claimed responsibility for the attack on Wednesday evening.
Residents said the military vehicle had been destroyed by a roadside bomb in the Huriwaa district of northern Mogadishu.
A bomb killed eight soldiers and completely destroyed their pickup. Only two, including the driver, survived with injuries, Mohamed Abdikadir, a senior police officer, told Reuters.
Although Somali troops and peacekeepers of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) drove Al-Shabab fighters from most of Mogadishu in August 2011, the latest bombing shows the militants can still stage deadly attacks in the capital.
Al Shabab has threatened more attacks as Somalias three top government officials and a dozen other politicians campaign for the presidency. Last week the government foiled two would-be suicide bombers who targeted a conference hall where delegates approved a draft constitution.
On Tuesday, Ugandas military, which provides the bulk of peacekeeping force, said it had deployed an air force contingent to reinforce the troops in their fight against Al-Shabab.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2012 00:00 ||
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CAIRO: Police and gunmen clashed yesterday in the Sinai town of El-Arish, Egyptian TV said after the authorities vowed to crush a surge in militancy, although state news agency MENA denied the report.
The state-owned television said there were clashes outside a police station in the north Sinai town a day after reported air strikes killed 20 militants in a neighbouring village. However MENA said later that a security official denied reports that the... police station in El-Arish came under fire, in an account backed by witnesses who said they did not see or hear any clashes.
MENA said that a man driving a unlicensed car had fired several shots in the air on the street housing the police station, without aiming at it.
Elements from the armed forces and interior ministry supported by the air force began a plan to restore security by pursuing and targeting armed terrorist elements in Sinai, and it has accomplished this task with complete success, it said.
Wednesday's reported air strikes in Tumah village the first in the peninsula for decades came as security forces massed near Rafah on the Gaza border for what they called a decisive confrontation with the militants. A senior military official in Sinai said 20 terrorists were killed in Apache helicopter raids and when soldiers stormed Tumah.
He said the militants were trying to escape when the helicopter targeted their vehicles.
Other security officials in the north of the peninsula reported air strikes near the town of Sheikh Zuwayid, close to the village.
But wait, there's more political intrigue:
The fallout from Sunday's attack, the deadliest for Egyptian troops in decades, spread to Cairo where President Mohammad Mursi sacked his intelligence chief and two generals. Mursi's opponents have used the deadly Sinai incident to attack the Islamist president, whose Muslim Brotherhood has good relations with the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip.
Security officials say Sunday's attack against a border guard outpost that killed the 16 soldiers took place under cover of mortar fire from Gaza.
Officials close to the president, who did not attend the funeral, said he was outraged by the military and security's failure to secure the protest, which in part prompted Mursi's decision to fire the generals.
Before being sacked on Wednesday, intelligence chief Murad Muwafi, himself a former governor of North Sinai, issued a rare public statement saying his agency had forewarned of the weekend attack. But he also said the intelligence did not specify where the attack would take place, and he had passed it on to the relevant authorities, adding that his powerful agency's role was only to collect information.
Mursi is thought likely to have reached the decisions with the military top command, which ruled the country between Hosni Mubarak's ouster in February 2011 and Mursi's inauguration as his successor in June.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2012 00:00 ||
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#1
Wednesday's reported air strikes in Tumah village
BOGOTA: A leader of a major Colombian drug trafficking organization, with alleged ties to Mexico's feared Zetas cartel, was arrested yesterday in the northeastern city of Medellin, Colombian authorities said.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos cheered Erikson Vargas's arrest as a fatal blow to the Oficina de Envigado crime group and told reporters the suspect will be extradited to the United States.
Police said he was arrested in Medellin in an operation in which another member of Vargas's group was killed and several others arrested. He had significantly altered his appearance, they added.
Vargas is one of the biggest criminals in recent years in Colombia, Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon said, adding that he was behind many of Colombia's murders in the last decade.
Police said in recent years Vargas had also developed relationships with the Zetas a cartel behind much of the violence that has gripped Mexico in recent years to deliver drugs to the United States and Europe. He is facing charges of conspiracy to murder, forced displacement, extortion and drug trafficking.
Vargas assumed leadership of the Envigado organization after the November 2011 arrest of its previous leader, Maximiliano Bonilla, in Venezuela. Bonilla, known as Valenciano, was extradited to the United States in December 2011.
Based in the northeastern region of Antioquia, the Envigado crime group is considered one of the most potent of Colombia's drug trafficking organizations. The group was formed in the 1980s by Pablo Escobar, the notorious leader of the Medellin cartel.
After his death, control of the group passed to the Self-Defense Units of Colombia, a rightwing paramilitary group that was later disbanded as part of a peace process.
Posted by: Steve White ||
08/10/2012 00:00 ||
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[Ma'an] Suspected Kurdish forces of Evil ambushed a Turkish military bus in western Turkey on Thursday in an attack which police said killed one soldier and maimed at least 11 people, adding to a recent upsurge in separatist violence.
If confirmed as a Kurdistan Workers Party attack, the ambush in the Aegean province of Izmir would represent a widening of the conflict with the PKK beyond its regular field of operation in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
The violence is a headache for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan as he seeks to limit the impact on Turkey of the conflict in Syria, where the PKK is exerting growing authority in some areas and receiving arms from Syrian forces, according to Ankara.
"This is unfortunately another example of the steps taken in widening terrorism," Erdogan told news hounds in his first comments on the attack.
PKK rebels detonated explosives on the road before firing on the bus at 8 a.m. near Foca, a small resort town on the Aegean coast where there is a naval base, Dogan news agency said. The soldiers in the bus returned fire, it said.
Police declined to comment on who could be behind the assault and there was no immediate claim of responsibility. Attacks on military vehicles are common in southeast Turkey, but are rare in the rest of the country.
Television images showed the bus with its windows blown out and glass strewn across the road, and Sherlocks in white overalls searching the scene.
Wounded soldiers were taken to a nearby hospital, a police spokeswoman said. It was unclear if the 11 maimed people included any civilians.
The attack occurred at a time of intensified festivities between the army and the PKK, whose 28-year-old armed struggle has cost more than 40,000 lives, most of them Kurds.
Assad arming PKK?
The rebels have fought for autonomy in the southeast since 1984. Turkey, the United States and the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... list the PKK as a terrorist organization.
Clashes are focused east of the Syrian border. Turkish officials believe Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... is arming PKK rebels, following a sharp deterioration of ties between the two countries since the start of the Syrian uprising 17 months ago.
Erdogan has become one of Assad's most vocal critics.
Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu repeated the allegations about Assad arming the PKK while traveling to Myanmar overnight, according to Turkish media.
"Assad gave them weapons support. Yes - this is not a fantasy. It is true. We have taken necessary measures against this threat," Davutoglu was quoted as saying.
Turkish armed forces have clashed with PKK fighters around the remote, mountainous district of Semdinli, close to the borders with Iraq and Iran, since late July after the forces of Evil set up checkpoints in the area.
Erdogan said 115 PKK forces of Evil had been killed in the fighting there so far. Journalists and other non-residents have been barred entry to the area.
Murat Karayilan, the acting PKK leader, said last week the group was changing tactics with its battle in Semdinli, according to Firat News, a website close to the orcs.
Instead of their traditional hit-and-run ambushes on Turkish security forces, PKK fighters will remain positioned in Semdinli in an attempt to form a stronghold there, he said.
[Dawn] TIMERGARA: Nine hard boyz were killed and 13 others injured when security forces repulsed a cross-border attack in Dir Lower tribal region on Thursday.
According to official sources, a large number of hard boyz intruded into Pakistain from Afghanistan shortly before sunset and attacked a security check-post near Teripao Kandao.
A gunbattle between the attackers and security personnel took place which continued for over half an hour, the sources said, adding there were no casualties among troops.
However, there's more than one way to skin a cat... two security personnel died when a landmine went kaboom! near the border area.
The report could not be confirmed from independent sources.According to a recent report of ISPR, there have been more than 70 such attacks by hard boyz during the past two years in which several coppersbit the dust.
A key associate of the Swat ...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat... Taliban chief Mullah Fazlullah, and an important commander of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain Swat, was set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... from the Akora Khattak area of Nowhsera on Thursday, official sources said.
According to intelligence sources, the security forces had arrived from Swat and had carried out a search operation in Marhati area in the remits of Akora Khattak Police station and set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... the bully boy commander Ihsanullah Ihsan.
Ihsanullah Ihsan, the sources said, belonged to Shangla district of Swat and in addition to being a close aide of Fazlullah, was also his personal driver.
Deputy Superintendent of Police Akora Khattak, expressing ignorance about the incident, said the operation might have been carried out by some other "sensitive agencies".
The sources said that army personnel from Swat had arrived and carried out the operation in Nowshera while even the local police was not informed about it.
The set to sit in solemn silence in a dull, dark dock, in a pestilential prison with a life-long lock ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... commander of the Swat Taliban, Ihsanullah Ihsan, bears no relation to and should not be confused with Ahsanullah Ahsan, front man for the TTP known to be based in the tribal strongholds of South Wazoo.
[Jerusalem Post] Police, IDF operation uncovers Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, terror infrastructure in Ramallah, two confess to 2000 lynch of IDF soldiers.
The Shin Bet, IDF and Judea and Samaria district police uncovered an extensive Hamas terror structure in Ramallah and the Binyamin region, and incarcerated Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! suspects including two men who confessed to taking part in the brutal October 2000 lynching of two IDF soldiers, security forces announced Thursday.
Arrests were made in June of Paleostinian security suspects, some of whom formed a Hamas field command in that region of the West Bank, police said.
Two of those questioned confessed to being involved in the beating to death of IDF reservists Yossi Avrahami and Vadim Nurzhitz at the PA Ramallah cop shoppe, where the two were taken after getting lost.
The two suspects were charged at the Judea Military Court on August 5, police added.
"We notified the families of the victims about the arrests after the investigation, and before publication of it. We acted with sensitivity," police front man Dudi Asraf added.
"We told the families that the Israel Police and the security forces have not forgotten their sons, and that those involved in the crime will be tried irrespective of the 12 years that passed since the crime was committed," Asraf said.
One soldier was killed while 5 others were injured in an ambush by Muslim rebels in Maguindanao Thursday afternoon.
Commodore Romeo Santiago Nebres, spokesman for the Eastern Mindanao Command, said that two military units conducting separate security patrols were attacked by members of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), a breakaway group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). The troops fought back and engaged the rebels in a gun battle which lasted until 7 p.m. Thursday.
Meanwhile, the body of a soldier reported missing hours after BIFF members attacked military detachments in Maguindanao last weekend was recovered on Friday morning.
The MILF is holding peace talks with the Aquino administration. The government has said that recent BIFF attacks won't derail the talks.
A military intelligence agent was slain in an ambush in Pattanis Saiburi district on Friday morning.
Witnesses said that Muhammad Korsafee, 28, was heading home on his motorcycle when gunmen hiding in roadside trees fired on him with M16 and AK47 assault rifles. The victim fell on the road and the gunmen came out to shoot him again at close range. The attackers then stole his 9 mm pistol and his money before fleeing.
Muhammad was a local businessman who was also serving as an intelligence agent of a special military unit in Pattani. Police blamed separatist terrorists militants.
Syrian government forces continued their aerial attacks against the besieged commercial center of Aleppo Thursday, driving many rebels from the southernmost district of the city in a fierce assault.
The government offensive comes as Syrian ally Iran hosted nearly 30 international envoys in Tehran to discuss ways to end the conflict. The conference was dismissed by the West as a large-number of Arab and Western powers were no-shows or not invited.
Heavy fighting was reported along the front lines of the southern perimeter of Aleppo in an area known as the Salaheddin district. Government forces shelled neighborhoods and bombed targets from the air in a concerted push to drive rebel fighters out.
Correspondents inside Aleppo say government forces captured chunks of territory, including parts of Salaheddin. Many rebel fighters reportedly pulled back to the Sakkour region farther north. State television claimed government forces retook several neighborhoods.
Al Jazeera TV reported that the government push was being aided by newer T-82 tanks, which are less vulnerable to attack from standard rocket-propelled grenades. Several rebel commanders also complained that they were running low on weapons and munitions.
More at the link including:
Iran's motives
Scott Lucas, a professor of international policy at the University of Birmingham in Britain, said that Iranian leaders are trying to decide what to do, now that longtime Syrian ally, President Bashar al-Assad, is in trouble.
"The Iranians are scrambling right now," he said. "They're on the defensive, and that's because over the last few weeks it's become pretty clear to them that Assad is in a very tenuous position and that he may not survive. And so if that's the case, they've got to start thinking about a plan B."
Lucas, who and edits the blog 'EA Worldview,' said Iran could be trying to "portray its conference as a counter-weight to the (much larger) Friends of Syria group" formed by the U.S. and the West.
Lucas added that Tehran may have felt obliged to hold the meeting because Saudi Arabia will host an Organization of Islamic Cooperation meeting next week to talk about Syria.
Posted by: AU Auric ||
08/10/2012 01:00 ||
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Rebels have retreated from the key Aleppo district of Salaheddin under a deadly rain of shellfire, with the showdown battle for Syria's commercial capital raging into a second day.
"We have staged a tactical withdrawal from Salaheddin. The district is completely empty of rebel fighters. Regime forces are now advancing into Salaheddin," Hossam Abu Mohammed, a Free Syrian Army (FSA) commander, said by telephone on Thursday. "The fighters are withdrawing to (nearby) Sukari district, where they are preparing a counter-attack."
Abu Mohammed cited heavy shelling and the army's use of thermobaric bombs, which throw out a wall of fire to incinerate targets in enclosed spaces. Abu Mohammed said the shelling was "so heavy that we have a cloud of dust above Salaheddin".
State television said: "Our special forces have cleansed Salaheddin district of terrorists." But Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said: "There are still some fighters inside Salaheddin; it seems they are there to fight to the death."
FSA spokesman Kassem Saadeddine told AFP by Skype the withdrawal "does not mean we are leaving Aleppo. We have military plans to fight in the city, but we cannot reveal them." In Damascus, a security source told AFP regime forces were "advancing quickly" in Salaheddin towards Saif al-Dawla.
Michel Samaha, a close ally of Syrian President Assad, jugged over seizure of explosives, official says
Michel Samaha, a former Lebanese government minister with close ties to Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... was jugged You have the right to remain silent... near Beirut on Thursday for questioning over what the Lebanese prime minister described as security-related matters.
His arrest was connected to a seizure of explosives that were to have been used mostly in northern Leb, a region of tensions linked to the conflict in neighboring Syria, a bigwig told AFP.
"The accusations against Samaha are related to explosives, which were going to be placed in several parts of the country, especially the north," he said on condition of anonymity.
The official declined to elaborate on the alleged link between the former minister and the explosives, but said the material was not seized from Samaha's home where the arrest was carried out.
Samaha was taken into custody in the early hours. There were no official details of what he was being questioned about. His supporters said his detention was political, asking why he had been jugged You have the right to remain silent... in the middle of the night.
Elias Aoun, head of the Lebanese journalists' union, said Prime Minister Najib Mikati had told him Samaha had been held following an order from the acting public prosecutor.
Investigators had confiscated "three or four telephones, a laptop and two or three films" while searching his house in the town of Metn northeast of Beirut, Malek al-Sayyed, a lawyer for Samaha, told al-Manar TV.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati, meanwhile, told news hounds there was no link between Samaha's arrest and the Special Tribunal for Leb, set up to investigate the 2005 murder of former premier Rafiq Hariri.
Samaha has been an outspoken supporter of Assad during the 17-month-old uprising against his rule, echoing an official Syrian narrative that portrays the anti-Assad opposition as terrorists.
He served as a minister in three Lebanese governments between 1992 and 2004 - a period when Syria dominated politics and security in its smaller neighbour. Samaha is also a former member of parliament.
In 2007, he was named on a White House-issued list of Lebanese and Syrian figures suspected of working to undermine Leb's stability and the Western-backed Beirut government in office at the time.
The list included Assef Shawkat, a senior Syrian security official and Assad's brother-in-law, who was killed in a kaboom in Damascus ...Home to a staggering array of terrorist organizations... last month.
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.
BOGOTA: A leader of a major Colombian drug trafficking organization, with alleged ties to Mexico's feared Zetas cartel, was arrested yesterday in the northeastern city of Medellin, Colombian authorities said.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
...a valley and an administrative district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistain, located 99 mi from Islamabad. It is inhabited mostly by Pashto speakers. The place has gone steadily downhill since the days when Babe Ruth was the Sultan of Swat...
Deputy Superintendent of Police Akora Khattak, expressing ignorance about the incident, said the operation might have been carried out by some other "sensitive agencies".
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
