The USA with it's own border challenges now well in hand Tuesday met with the federal government to express their willingness to assist Nigeria in offering modern technological assistance to fortify security at the nation's borders with the aim of curbing the activities of terrorist in the country.
The leader of the US delegation, and the Counter Terrorism Deputy Secretary, Ms. Anne Witkowsky, said the aim of the visit was to avail Nigeria of the modern technology of securing borders by showing the Personal Identifications Secure Comparison System (PICES) and the Demonstration of the PICES equipment. Witkowsky explained that the PICES equipment was a border control system with ten fingerprints, which portrays that if the name and other means of identification were falsified or the spelling was off a digit, the ten fingerprints cannot be captured.
This is crossing the red line by the Soddies. Don't they know he is a protected species, an aboriginal. The left will go into meltdown.
An Australian national detained by the Saudi Arabian government 18 months ago continues to be held in a jail outside Riyadh. There is now concern 25-year-old Shayden Thorne, who has been charged with terrorism-related offences, may face the death penalty.
Thorne was arrested in November 2011 after a laptop believed to belong to him was found to contain "terrorism-related material". Thorne's family say the laptop was borrowed from a mosque Ouch, that's a claim that would make a lot of sense, and get him off the hook in most western countries...
but security forces claim it was recovered during a raid on a gathering of extremists.
Bob Carr, the Australian Foreign Minister, has called for the incident to be settled quickly, and said "It's been going on for too long". The Saudis are willing to settle it quickly, I bet; beheadings can be scheduled seven days a week...
Carr refused to comment on Thorne's innocence or guilt.
"You are subject to the law of the country you are in. Shayden has chosen to live there for 12 years and the laws of Saudi Arabia apply to him or anyone else in his position," the 65-year-old Senator stressed.
The Saudi Justice Ministry says a special security court has issued 2,145 jail sentences for "supporting terrorism" since it was formed four and a half years ago.
The Specialized Criminal Court often tries suspects accused of affiliation with al-Qaida's local branch, which operates both in the kingdom and in Yemen.
But critics say it also tries human rights activists and other dissidents as well cases related to unrest among Saudi Arabia's Shiite minority.
It was unclear if "supporting terrorism" referred to all cases tried by the court.
Spokesman Fahd bin Abdullah al-Bakran told reporters late Friday night that the Specialized Criminal Court has already ruled in 1,080 cases and is still looking into another 419 cases that involve 2,800 suspects.
[Bangla Daily Star] The Hefajat-e Islam will lay siege to all seven entry points into the capital during its Dhaka blockade programme tomorrow to cut the city off from the rest of the country.
Leaders of the Qawmi madrasa-based organisation said they were planning to ensure the presence of around one lakh Hefajat supporters at each entry point -- Gabtoli, Tongi, Postagola Bridge , Babubazar Bridge , Kanchpur and Demra bridge, Mawa and Abdullahpur.
Apart from the Hefajat activists and supporters in Dhaka, around three lakh people from Chittagong, one lakh from Sylhet and 50,000 from Rajshahi will join the programme, hoped the leaders.
The Islamist organisation has already hired at least 3,000 vehicles, including buses, trucks, and microbuses, to bring people to Dhaka . Besides, many will come by train.
Though the Hefajat activists started arriving in the capital yesterday from different parts of the country, the majority of them will come in from today. Most of its senior leaders, including Ameer Shah Ahmad Shafi, will join the programme.
Police have said they will not interfere with the Hefajat's programme if it is held peacefully. "If they [Hefajat men] hold their programme peacefully, we'll assist them. But if they create anarchy and commit any offence, we along with the people will resist them and take legal action," Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner (public relations) of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Daily Star last night.
The Hefajat had announced the blockade programme at its rally at the capital's Motijheel on April 6 to press home its 13-point demand, which included punishment to bloggers for "defaming" Islam and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday called on the Hefajat leaders to withdraw their Dhaka blockade programme considering the ongoing rescue operation at the Rana Plaza collapse site at Savar.
Asked about the PM's call, Mainuddin Ruhi, joint secretary general of the party, said the prime minister's statement was unexpected, confusing and false.
"The government didn't meet any of our demands. The press conference was arranged to confuse the nation," he added.
Yesterday, at a press conference at the Lalbagh Madrasa in the capital, Nur Hossain Kasemi, convenor of the Dhaka city unit of Hefajat-e Islam, said Hefajat activists would lay siege to the capital after Fajr prayers on Sunday. He vowed to make the programme a success.
Several senior Hefajat leaders, however, complained that the government was already creating obstacles to foil their programme.
They claimed that the government and activists of the ruling Awami League had been instructing transport owners not to rent their vehicles to Hefajat men.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
ammo up and give them a whiff of grapeshot. Shutterguns to the front!
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/04/2013 11:52 Comments ||
Top||
[Bangla Daily Star] Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums.. yesterday clarified the government's position on the 13-point demand of the Hefajat-e Islam.
"We've already gone through your [Hefajat's] demands. Many of these have already been implemented while some are in the process," Hasina said, addressing a presser at her official residence Gono Bhaban.
The Hefajat's first demand is a reinstatement of the phrase "Absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah" in the constitution as one of the fundamental principles of state policy.
Responding to this, Hasina noted the constitution begins with Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim [In the Name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful].
"This is a verse of the Holy Koran. No other sentence could be more appropriate," she said, adding it demonstrates faith in Allah.
The PM also mentioned that Islam is now the state religion.
The Hefajat-e Islam, a Chittagong-based Islamist organization, at a rally in the capital on April 6, gave the government three weeks to meet its demands. Otherwise, the group threatened, it would lay siege to the capital tomorrow.
The demands include a law providing for capital punishment for maligning Allah, Islam and Prophet Muhammad (PTUI!) and engaging in smear campaigns against Mohammedans.
Speaking on the subject, the prime minister said the Information and Communication Technology Act, 2009 and Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) contained the provision of punishment for the offence.
The PM then tuned to the Hefajat's third demand -- stop all propaganda and "derogatory comments" about Prophet Muhammad (PTUI!) by the "atheist leaders" of Shahbagh movement, bloggers and other anti-Islamists; arrest them and ensure stern punishment to them.
She said the government had already locked away Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! four bloggers for making "derogatory comments" against Prophet Muhammad and they would be prosecuted if found guilty.
On the fourth demand, "Stop attacking, shooting, killing and persecuting the Prophet-loving Islamic scholars, madrasa students and people united by belief in Allah," the PM firmly said no such oppressive action has been taken.
Discussing the Hefajat's fifth demand for the release of "all the arrested Islamic scholars and madrasa students", Hasina said individuals, including Jamaat-Shibir elements, engaged in anti-state activities, had been arrested.
"If you have any knowledge of the arrest of any innocent person, give us the list. The government will release them with the highest priority."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[3 views]
Top|| File under:
[Pak Daily Times] South Korea on Friday withdrew its last remaining workers from a joint industrial zone in North Korea at risk of permanent closure due to soaring military tensions.
It is the first time that Seoul has pulled out all its workers from the flagship project since it was opened in 2004, underscoring the severe deterioration in relations between the two Koreas.
The Kaesong Industrial Zone -- located 10 kilometres (six miles) north of the frontier -- was once a rare symbol of cross-border cooperation, but has fallen victim to the stand-off on the Korean Peninsula.
Seoul last week ordered all remaining South Koreans to leave after Pyongyang banned entry by southerners, pulled out its own 53,000 workers and rejected the South's call for talks on the impasse.
Most South Koreans had left by early Tuesday, and the last seven workers returned Friday after several days of talks with the North over issues such as unpaid wages for North Koreans, the Unification Ministry said.
Seoul sent two vehicles loaded with cash over the border as the last workers returned, to make the payments demanded by Pyongyang.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[1 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
So, ransom paid and workers freed.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
05/04/2013 9:29 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Better split the sheets, SKor. Your Nork neighbors are frog in a box mental.
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
05/04/2013 12:00 Comments ||
Top||
#3
first SKor demand for any peace progress or food? Pay double that ransom back - in legitimate currency.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/04/2013 12:33 Comments ||
Top||
#4
It will be a lot harder for NK to find qualified replacement workers for that factory than it will be for the 'displaced' SK folks to find new jobs. Dunno who does a better job of foot-shooting, the NorKs or the Gazookians.....
[Pak Daily Times] Two tossed in the calaboose Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out! persons allegedly picked up by the intelligence agencies from Butkhela, Malakand, in 2009 and 2010 were produced before the Supreme Court for the first time on Friday after their arrest.
A three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry had ordered the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa ... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... government to produce the two accused before it on May 2. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Secretary Ghulam Dastagir, Home Secretary Azam Khan and Additional Advocate General (AAG) Naveed Akhtar appeared before the apex court that had taken up the petition moved by right activists Asma Jehangir.
One of the detainees, Muhammad Ibrahim, was locked away Keep yer hands where we can see 'em, if yez please! on n September 11, 2010, from Butkhela, whereas the other, Hidayat Shah, was arrested on December 23, 2009. Both were later sent to the internment centres set up under the Action in Aid of Civil Power Regulations (AACPR) 2011 promulgated by President Asif Ali Ten Percent Zardari ... husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, who has been singularly lacking in curiosity about who done her in ... in exercise of his powers under Article 247 of the constitution.
These internment centres set up under AACPR near Pak-Afghan border in the Orakzai Agency ... crawling with holy men, home to Darra Adam Khel, the world's largest illegal arms bazaar. 14 distinct tribes of beturbanned primitives inhabit Orakzai agency's 1500 or so square kilometers... allow the civil government to confine persons accused of terrorism. Asma described the AACPR law as worse than the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act introduced by India in 1985. According to the prosecution both the accused are residents of Butkhela -- an area that is situated in the jurisdiction of the PATA (Provincially Administered Tribal Areas). According to a statement submitted by the home secretary, the internment authorities had recommended the trial of both accused under terrorism charges after weapons were recovered from their possession, but they were later sent to the internment centres.
The apex court, however, expressed its surprise over why the accused were not sent to the courts to face trials and noted that all during the detention, the family members of these accused were not allowed to meet them. However, today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... the home secretary assured the apex court during the proceedings that the family members of the accused would be allowed to meet them. The court directed the AAG to regulate the meetings between the accused and the family members and submit a report to the registrar of the Supreme Court for perusal by judges in chambers.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Pak Daily Times] The chief of the Pakistain People's Party Bilawal Bhutto would not be present in Pakistain on the election day.
Bilawal has already left the country and would not be addressing any party rallies or meetings due to threats to his life. Central party leader Taj Haider on Friday confirmed that consensus had been reached in the party and that, in the wake of serious threats to Bilawal's life, the party has advised him to not lead the election campaign in person. "We have already lost Benazir Bhutto ... 11th Prime Minister of Pakistain in two non-consecutive terms from 1988 until 1990 and 1993 until 1996. She was the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founder of the Pakistain People's Party, who was murdered at the instigation of General Ayub Khan. She was murdered in her turn by person or persons unknown while campaigning in late 2007. Suspects include, to note just a few, Baitullah Mehsud, General Pervez Musharraf, the ISI, al-Qaeda in Pakistain, and her husband, Asif Ali Zardari, who shows remarkably little curiosity about who done her in... and will not risk losing Bilawal. The threats to his life are very real," he said.
Haider would not say where Bilawal is right now. However, a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... sources in the party said that he had left Pakistain earlier this week and would not be returning to the country before May 11, the election day.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Pak Daily Times] Pak and Indian civil society activists have expressed sorrow on the death of convicted Indian spy Sarabjit Singh as a result of an attack on him in the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore by some fellow inmates.
"We the citizens of India and Pakistain are pained by the sad demise of Mr Sarabjit Singh as a result of a dastardly attack on him in the Kot Lakhpat jail in Lahore. ... We express our deep and heartfelt condolences for the family of the dear departed," a statement issued by PILER on Friday read. It said that given the statements by most Indian prisoners in Pakistain jails of good and humane treatment, "this unusual and inexplicable attack on Sarabjit Singh and the allegations of torture in the recent death of Chamel Singh in Pakistain jail indicate some conspiracy by vested interests to destabilise relations between India and Pakistain that were showing marked improvement in recent times".
The statement further said, "Hence we demand a thorough and complete investigation under the supervision of the UN or any independent international body. Prisoners anywhere are the responsibility of the governments and the government of Pakistain should immediately take strict and exemplary actions against all those responsible for the attack as well as the planners and conspirators. Pakistain and India should especially ensure that all steps are taken for complete protection and safeguarding all human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... of the prisoners of other country in their jails."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[8 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
[Pak Daily Times] The All Pakistain Mohammedan League (APML) of former military ruler Pervez Perv Musharraf ... former dictator of Pakistain, who was less dictatorial and corrupt than any Pak civilian government to date ... on Friday announced to boycott the general elections 2013. Can't think of a better way to lose.
Addressing a joint presser on Friday, APML Secretary General Dr Amjad and Deputy Chief Coordinator Ch Shafiq said that "biased decisions and attitude of courts and election commission" against APML chief Pervez Musharraf left APML with no other option but to boycott the polls. The returning officers, election tribunal and later courts first rejected the nomination papers of Musharraf and later banned him for lifetime from contesting polls which, they claimed, hinted at the biased attitude of these institutions.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[6 views]
Top|| File under:
[Pak Daily Times] Two Indonesians have been tossed in the clink Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! over a plot to bomb the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta, officials said on Friday, as snuffies rallying in the city called for "jihad in Myanmar" to avenge Moslem deaths.
The incidents highlight the growing anger in Moslem-majority Indonesia over a string of religious festivities in largely-Buddhist Myanmar that have left many minority Moslems dead and tens of thousands displaced.
At least one person was killed when mosques and homes were attacked in central Myanmar this week, the latest anti-Moslem unrest to cast a shadow over political reforms in the formerly junta-run country. Around 1,000 angry hardliners from the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) converged on Myanmar's embassy in Jakarta on Friday, brandishing banners that read "we want to kill Myanmar Buddhists" and "stop genocide in Myanmar".
They torched the Myanmar flag, while chanting "burn down the embassy" and demanding to speak to officials inside, as hundreds of police in riot gear stood guard. "Our Moslem brothers and sisters are being attacked in Myanmar -- they are being raped and murdered," said Bambang, a 37-year-old street vendor, who like many Indonesians goes by one name. "I want jihad in Myanmar. Anyone mistreating Moslems should be killed."
The national head of the FPI, Habib Rizieq, shouted through a loudspeaker to whip up the crowd, mostly men wearing white Islamic skullcaps, as they marched on the embassy.
Earlier, officials said anti-terrorist police had detained two men suspected of planning a kaboom on the Myanmar embassy.
The suspects were tossed in the clink Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! late Thursday travelling by cycle of violence in a busy residential area in the south of the capital with five assembled pipe bombs, national police front man Boy Rafli Amar said in a statement.
The men, Sefa Riano, 28, and Achmad Taufiq, 21, planned to launch the attack on Friday, said a senior source at the country's anti-terrorist police, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered...
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under: Global Jihad
The Obama administration is trying to leverage new evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad's government used chemical weapons, and make a fresh diplomatic and possible military push with allies to end the country's civil war.
This renewed effort starts with Secretary of State John Kerry's trip to Moscow this coming week for talks with leaders in Russia, the Syrian government's most powerful international friend.
Russia, alongside China, has blocked U.S.-led efforts three times at the United Nations to pressure Assad into stepping down. The U.S. hopes to change Moscow's thinking with two new arguments, officials said: the evidence of chemical weapons attacks and, with the war now in its third year, American threats to arm the Syrian rebels.
Russia represents the most difficult diplomatic test as the U.S. tries to assemble a global coalition to halt a war that has claimed more than 70,000 lives.
Washington wants a peaceful resolution and sees U.N.-imposed sanctions against Syria as an effective tool for pressuring Assad into negotiations. With Assad's government unwilling to talk with the opposition, and Russia providing military and diplomatic backing, hopes of a negotiated transition are all but dead for now.
The stalemate and the risk of greater chemical weapons usage are driving President Barack Obama to explore new options, including military ones. But, he made clear Friday during a visit to Costa Rica, "I do not foresee
a scenario in which boots on the ground in Syria, American boots on the ground, would not only be good for America but also would be good for Syria."
Obama said at a Washington news conference earlier in the week that any new U.S. action should be taken prudently and in concert with international partners. Two days later, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said arming the Syrian opposition was a policy consideration.
Kerry's departure Monday for Russia sets the stage for some critical discussions.
[An Nahar] The U.N. Security Council is not entitled to give the green light for inspections of Syrian refugee camps in Jordan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday, seeing it as an attempt to prepare "foreign intervention".
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) "is competent for (organizing) visits of refugee camps that have been set by the U.N., the Security Council has no competence for that," Lavrov said in Slovenia.
He added: "If there was an attempt to use the Syrian refugee situation to push forward some ideas about no-fly zones, then we and China might have seen in it an attempt to prepare a foreign intervention."
The 15 Security Council member nations discussed on Thursday the possibility of sending a delegation to visit the Syrian refugee camps in Jordan but Russia and China opposed the idea, diplomats said.
Jordan this week warned that the growing exodus of Syrian refugees who had flooded over its border to escape civil war -- already over 500,000 -- was placing a "crushing weight" on the country.
The UNHCR has said the number of refugees in Jordan could reach 1.2 million by the end of the year -- equivalent to one fifth of the Jordanian population.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/04/2013 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[7 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
An accused terrorist on Friday asked to be sent to a military tribunal at his first public appearance in federal court in Brooklyn after months in U.S. custody.
Saudi-born Ibrahim Suleiman Adnan Adam Harun, 43, an alleged al-Qaida operative, told U.S. District Judge Edward Korman that he didn't understand anything about the U.S. judicial system, but a military trial made more sense to him as a "warrior."
"Even if I didn't understand the system, I know there's something I did against them because I did fight against their forces," Harun said.
Harun is accused of fighting against the United States in the early years of the war in Afghanistan, and then plotting overseas attacks against U.S. interests. He was arrested in Libya in 2005, and has been in U.S. custody since last year undergoing interrogation. He was secretly moved to Brooklyn and arraigned last fall.
Korman said he had no power to move the case to a military court. Harun, in an amiable back and forth through a translator, said, "If this is how things are going to go, I'll just shut my mouth."
He later said he didn't want to work with an attorney, telling the judge, "Your government can do anything it wants to me."
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.
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as 
North Korea
Orakzai Agency
Pervez 
