[Dhaka Tribune] BCL has become a menace to society. And they must be reined in before things deteriorate further
Too many times, BCL members have been the root cause of violence at university campuses and elsewhere.
The hacking of Sylhet Government Women’s College student Khadiza Akhter Nargis, only 23 years old, at the hands of Badrul Alam, a BCL leader at Sylhet University of Science and Technology, is the latest among many such incidents.
Time and time again BCL members and leaders have wreaked havoc on otherwise peaceful university campuses, hurting countless innocents.
Khadiza now lies at death's door in a Dhaka hospital, desperately fighting for her life.
In July, Chittagong University was subjected to BCL’s brutality, leaving three injured, and hurting the university’s day-to-day activities, leading to class suspensions.
And in June, a BCL leader was killed during a spout of gunshot violence between aspiring members.
And who could forget the downtrodden image of Muhammad Zafar Iqbal last year after the student political organization’s members assaulted a group of teachers who had been demonstrating peacefully outside of the SUST campus?
The pattern here is clear: Bangladesh Chhatra League ... the student wing of the Bangla Awami League ... has become a menace to society. And they must be reined in before things deteriorate further.
Chhatra League has been given enough chances to get their act together, and they have repeatedly flouted the law in the name of politics. An association with the political party in power does not an immune organization make.
No more blood should be spilled at the hands of these hooligans posing as student leaders. The government and the police need to rein in these thugs and make sure we have no more Khadizas struggling to stay alive.
This has to stop and it has to stop now.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/09/2016 00:00 ||
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[Dhaka Tribune] Dead people usually do not speak from their graves. When they do, we should try to listen very carefully. That is why we need to decipher the latest Bangla video and the article on Bangladesh published by the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... The video features the martyrdom statements of the five Gulshan attackers, while the article was ostensibly written by Abu Dujanah al-Bengali (real name Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury) ‐ infamous dead people speaking from their graves warning and threatening about the next major IS attack.
What the video (released on September 23, via Arabic Nashir) and the article (published on October 4, in Rumiyah magazine) have in common is the ominous promise of continual attacks against the "kuffar" (disbelievers), "murtadin" (apostates), "taghut" (proponents of the secular state) and "crusaders" (foreigners) in Bangladesh. According to an infographics, published earlier in Naba magazine and now republished in Rumiyah, ISIS itself estimates that 42% of the victims of its attacks in Bangladesh are Hindus and Buddhists; 27% are Christians; 19% are apostates and atheists; 12% are Shia Moslems.
There is also the hint that attacks will now be reoriented more against foreigners. As Tamim Chowdhury put it in his article in Rumiyah: "Let the Crusader nations know that as long as they fight the Islamic State, their citizens will not be able to enjoy any peace and safety in any part of Bengal."
But now that Tamim aka Abu Dujanah (former head of military and covert operations of the soldiers of the Khilafah in Bengal, as mentioned in Rumiyah) is dead (killed by the security forces in Narayanganj on August 27), who is in charge of coordinating the next series of attacks?
This is where we once again turn to Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif (pseudonym), the elusive ameer of IS in Bangladesh. Abu Ibrahim is the person who, in an interview published in the 14th issue of IS’ Dabiq magazine, gave an account of what ISIS aims to achieve in the "land of Bengal." He is the person who is still in charge -- the man behind the curtain, plotting the next act in the spectacle of brutality.
If the security czars in Bangladesh are serious about uprooting IS (Neo-JMB or New JMB, as identified by the police) and stopping the planned slaughter of religious minorities and foreigners, they must now focus on this man and try to reveal his real identity. The rumour that Tamim Chowdhury was Abu Ibrahim was started by a Bangladeshi journalist too close to the spooks, and later recycled without question by other journalists, researchers and officials.
This was despite the fact that Bangladeshi officials knew Tamim’s actual kunya, (jihadi nom de guerre) that he was not Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif but Abu Dujanah al-Bengali. As Sanwar Hossain of DMP’s counter-terrorism unit recently told the New York Times ...which still proudly displays Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... : "We have known for a while that this is how Tamim was referred to."
In his Rumiyah article, Tamim Chowdhury quite possibly gave a hint about the timing of the next major attack by quoting a verse from the Qur’an (9:5): "And when the sacred months have passed, then kill the mushrikin wherever you find them and capture them and besiege them and sit in wait for them at every place of ambush."
In 2016, Islamic sacred months will be over by the end of October. Is IS planning to strike again after that? Abu Ibrahim al-Hanif could have given us a clear answer. And, that is why he needs to be identified, fast.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/09/2016 00:00 ||
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I strongly reject the idea that there is some kind of moral obligation to abandon Trump. A high status male who's not really monogamous - the horror!
...As Peter Ingemi, who refuses to let himself "be played" (thanks to Instapundit), puts it,
Right now a lot of people are forgetting that for good or I’ll the only thing standing between us and the financial, military, security, cultural and constitutional rights disaster that a Hillary Clinton administration would be is Donald Trump.
See also Ed Driscoll on the 1990s' "It's just sex", with Kathy Shaidle pointing out that
If ’it’s just sex!!!’ in 1995, then it’s ’just sex’ in 2005, and this year and every year forever. THEY made that rule. Make your enemy play by his rules -- remember your Alinsky.
“From whence shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall some trans-Atlantic military giant step the earth and crush us at a blow? Never. All the armies of Europe and Asia … could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in the trial of a thousand years. No, if destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men we will live forever or die by suicide.”
Posted by: Matt ||
10/09/2016 19:55 Comments ||
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Selected Excerpt: [Wash Times] On his past comments about women: "I see that you have to reach back 20 years to try to find something with which to attack me, and I understand it since you cannot run on your record. But this country has big problems -- which were created in large part by you, the current president and your party. I am here to offer the American people concrete solutions that will directly improve their lives and restore America to greatness.
"But if you'd like to discuss the treatment of women, I'm more than happy to talk about your husband's long record of rape and sexual assault, and your dogged efforts to smear and destroy the women who were involved with or accused your husband of such crimes."
Any of those rejoinders would have done the trick, but he chose a gentler path to show that he’s not Dr. Strangelove. Having accomplished that, he is now free to attack and inflame her without being penalized.
If Mrs. Clinton thinks the final two debates are going to resemble the first one, she may face a very unpleasant surprise.
#3
One of the more salient facts about Trump's unfortunate remarks is that when the lady in question said "No" he stood down. I say it's one of the more salient facts but MSM seems to ignore it.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/09/2016 15:06 Comments ||
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[PJ] The wizards of smarts in the political arena are telling us Donald Trump's campaign is over because of recently leaked tapes of a private conversation from 2005 that was disparaging to women. The comments are so offensive, they say, he's not fit for office. At least no one died. From the moment the tapes were made public, the drumbeat to Trump's personal walk of shame began. Politicians who formerly endorsed him fled in terror, not wanting the soiled stain of sexual stigma attached to them. NeverTrumpers descended in holier-than-thou glee as they declared how noble and right they've always been not to support such a despicable man. And the left has been howling like puritanical wolves, condemning him for his immorality and sexist treatment of women.
I find this reaction to Trump's private conversation rather ironic. It's ironic coming from a secular culture that long ago declared objective morality dead. It's ironic coming from politicos and media bottom-feeders who defended the abusive and disgusting behavior of Bill Clinton, not when he was a private citizen but when he was a sitting president.
#2
Politicians who formerly endorsed him fled in terror, not wanting the soiled stain of sexual stigma attached to them
Could it be that the threat of having their own infidelities and indiscretions examined has suddenly become real? Is their exodus an antidote? Roger Ailes, General Petraeus... comments ?
Having someone refer to a region of the female anatomy with a term sometimes used to describe a feline.... how vulgar and crass. Who could ever do such a thing?
Excuse me. I must leave the room. The 'castrati,' which way did they go ?
Plus the girls ( I could be wrong, but I'm not ) seemed to like it.
Ever been to a Frat Party ( Kappa Alpha, ourselves and our favorite Phi Mu girls ? Lots of girls, and they weren't forced to attend. And most had enough IQ or they wouldn't Be College girls.
OR the nearest College to the Marine Corps Base at Quantico ? Mary Washington College ( yes, I think so. Fine Southern girls ) and a moonlight tour of the Fredericksburg battlefield and dancing at Dinner at the local Inn. Then a short drive back to the Barracks at OCS at Camp Barrett?
Healthy PT on the following morning and a two mile run before breakfast. Lots of sweat and hormones. And Girls have them too. Or have you forgotten?
#5
That's why, IMO, you Americans need Trump and not a bunch of castrati who turn to jelly when a leftard starts screaming "racist" or "sexist".
Yep, g(r)omgoru, you are right. I think many Americans have their eye on the ball from what I can tell. It's mostly the MSM, and the Donks who are calling for Trump's scalp with faux indignation. They are a bunch of phony hypocrites shilling the Dem Party and Hillary. A case where the stone throwers are worse than the sinners.
#6
It's mostly the MSM, and the Donks...and the RINOs.
After affairs d'Bill, talk vs actions, your morality has no meaning if you even deal with Hillary when you express your faux outrage/disgust concerning Trump's utterance. PC light is still PC.
Exactly. And even if we don't we're sure as hell thinking that way. We were hard wired that way from birth. Would you like it better if Trump did not find women attractive in the least? Sorry ladies, most of us try to behave like gentlemen when you are present but in our heads we are all rutting pigs. Even Paul Ryan. Even the milquetoast Jeb Bush. And most especially Bill Clinton.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
10/09/2016 15:16 Comments ||
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#11
So, 'it's just sex' when it's done by a Democrat - got it!
#12
Let's take the 30,000 ft level view from Wretchard T. Cat on FB:
If the moral price of political victory is supporting a Ted Kennedy or Bill Clinton then winning is losing in terms of governance. But some make that choice reasoning that's how things go. You accept certain side effects as the cost of doing business and hope they don't kill you.
The problem is one day you can't stomach it. 2016 may mark the moment whem everything the DC diner serves is finally too disgusting to eat.
You'd like to walk away but where do you go? For some, it's "such terrible food and such small portions too."
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
10/09/2016 17:20 Comments ||
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#13
Anybody, and I do mean anybody, who claims they're going to vote for Hillary Clinton because Trump isn't moral enough to hold the office should be bitch-slapped. I don't care if they're somebody's grandmother, a scout-troop leader, or a first responder. Any person on this planet that dares to even broach the issue of "morality" while brushing past Hillary Clinton is a stone-cold, brain-dead, moron.
#14
Apparently talking bluntly about the habits of "star-f*ckers" disqualifies you for the presidency, but a lifetime of protecting multiple rapists doesn't.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
10/09/2016 23:34 Comments ||
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[The Hill] Two prominent evangelical leaders are reiterating their support for Donald Trump after a new audio tape revealed the GOP presidential nominee making lewd comments about women.
Family Research Council head Tony Perkins told BuzzFeed News his support for Trump is about conservative policy stances, not personal values.
"My personal support for Donald Trump has never been based upon shared values, it is based upon shared concerns about issues such as: justices on the Supreme Court that ignore the constitution, America’s continued vulnerability to Islamic terrorists and the systematic attack on religious liberty that we’ve seen in the last 7 1/2 years," Perkins said.
And Faith and Freedom Coalition president Ralph Reed cited abortion, the economy and the Middle East as keys to his continued backing of Trump.
"Voters of faith are voting on issues like who will protect unborn life, defend religious freedom, create jobs, and oppose the Iran nuclear deal," said Reed.
"Ten-year-old tapes of private conversation with a television talk show host rank very low on their hierarchy of concerns," he added. Low priority is dead on! Our concerns should be about what we've been through for the last eight years and what the next four to eight could potentially bring. Ungentlemanly, lewd and tawdry, yes. Criminal NO!
[DAWN] BIG news can trigger a big debate, which is always a healthy process in itself. A well-articulated exchange of ideas has the potential to change our perceptions and positively contribute to the national discourse.
At the joint parliamentary session this week, politicians spoke their mind and a few of them asked blunt questions about the continued presence and functioning of some banned bad boy groups in the country. Probably the most interesting comment on the politicians’ criticism of the state’s inaction against these groups that appeared on social media read: "the news [we have] waited for too long."
Some media reports suggested that the state plans to mainstream banned bad boy organizations. Many, however, doubt the possibility of such an action and deem it merely distractive rhetoric. Notwithstanding the civilian government’s concerns, growing diplomatic stress and fears of isolation, they do not believe the state actually has a plan to get rid of the banned ...the word banned seems to have a different meaning in Pakistain than it does in most other places. Or maybe it simply lacks any meaning at all...
organizations. Even if such a course of action is adopted, it will take more than a decade to dilute the effect that banned groups have had on society. Some are sceptical the establishment is changing its approach or that it believes these groups can be mainstreamed. Most analysts nevertheless agree that there is now an opportunity to completely neutralise such regressive forces.
These are important views in the debate about the future of non-state actors in Pakistain. Most of them are based on a very simplistic view of the bad boy groups. There is a common perception that these proxies of the state can be rolled back easily. The fact is, many other states have nurtured bad boy movements as strategic assets, but they later discovered it was a fallacy to assume they would continue to serve as proxies.
The issue of non-state actors is extremely complex in the Pak context. Many groups tagged as proxies not only caused diplomatic problems for the country, but gradually they also took control of state narratives to emerge as a new far right that is not only interfering in ’strategic affairs’ but also shrinking the space for mainstream politics. In fact, sometimes it becomes difficult to conceive of them within the narrow framework of a ’proxy’.
These bad boy groups were not merely used as foreign policy tools, but were also allowed to restructure the national identity. Some bad boy groups reoriented existing nationalism and further narrowed it to religio-nationalism and generated hyper religio-nationalism. This happened so slowly that the risks were not assessed until the damage was done. Religious nationalism is similar to ’purification’ -- it moves towards religious extremes to attain enriching ’self-righteousness’.
It is an exclusionary process that does not shape or follow the course of traditional nationalism. Instead, as it becomes more exclusionary, elements of religious sectarianism and socio-political hate narratives become part of its defining characteristics. Many religious nationalists become more faith-centric and ’nationalism’ becomes meaningless for them. Al Qaeda and the bad boyIslamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group would be examples of such extreme entities.
As far as the probability of mainstreaming or reintegrating non-state actors is concerned, the characteristics of non-state actors in Pakistain first need to be identified. There are five types of bad boy groups existing in the country; foreign, tribal, sectarian, new urban bad boys, and conventional bad boy groups. All these have many commonalities, but it is the conventional bad boy groups that are considered the proxies once used in Afghanistan and India-held Kashmire.
If the state is really considering the reintegration of the conventional bad boy groups, a three-fold strategy contingent on one important condition must be adopted. The condition is the complete disengagement between the conventional bad boy actors and the state institutions because no reintegration strategy can work otherwise.
As the first step of the strategy, the government can offer amnesty to banned groups that agree to abide by the Constitution; quit and denounce all kinds of violence and bad boy activities inside and outside the country; shun all criminal activities, including the propagation of hate material; and most importantly, register themselves with the relevant authorities/departments. A separate mechanism for their registration and monitoring can be evolved at the federal or provincial level.
The second step would be the monitoring phase in which the groups’ activities would be restricted and monitored. They would not be allowed to issue blurbs or publish any kind of material. Those among their leaders and members found to have been involved, in their individual capacity, in any act of terrorism, hate speech and other unlawful activities, should be made to face a court of law. This phase can last between three to five years depending on the group’s profile.
The risk of attrition always remains high in these groups and many individuals and small factions continue to break away and join other bad boy groups. A rehabilitation programme for splintering members should also be created. The army is running rehabilitation centres for bad boy detainees, but rehabilitation requirements for conventional turbans are different. They need ideological and political rehabilitation as well. This is the real challenge. Does the state have the politico-ideological resources to neutralise violent ideological tendencies among the conventional bad boy groups?
No doubt the reintegration of turbans should be a priority for the state but it should not be the only one. Comprehensively implementing the National Action Plan would serve to reduce the space for them further. These groups camouflage themselves in national narratives. They seek legitimacy from national crisis situations, such as earthquakes or floods, but regional hostilities remain their primary source of strength. Tensions between Pakistain and India in particular provide them the means to justify their existence. The result is massive confusion among the people as to who is the real custodian of the national interest.
Nevertheless, all this is for later. The first requirement is the absolute resolve of the state. When Gen Musharraf banned such groups in January 2002, it had triggered a similar kind of optimism. It was big news at that time, but with the benefit of hindsight, we know what transpired between then and now.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/09/2016 00:00 ||
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[Ynet] Analysis: Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", high value targets were hit following the rocket attack on the southern Israeli town of Sderot on Wednesday; hit with heavy, precision munitions, these attacks represent a change in IDF policy--immediately hit Hamas hard and fast after any rocket attack.
When the IDF hit high value targets in the Gazoo Strip following a rocket attack on Sderot Wednesday, Israel was continuing its strategic policy as laid out by new Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman--hit Hamas targets along the border with tanks as quickly as possible after a rocket attack (sometimes less than a minute later), while managing to bomb quality Hamas targets from the air within hours.
This is different than the former policy, where by the IDF would wait until nightfall to carry out its retaliatory attack, causing little damage. Even then, most of the attacks were on missile launch sites, sites which were dismantled anyway by the time the jets came to hit them.
By contrast, on Wednesday the Israeli Air Force hit Hamas targets with heavy bombs all throughout the afternoon. The Arclight airstrikes were exact, surgical, massive, and destroyed Hamas offensive strategic capabilities--capabilities that Hamas has been preparing since the end of the last war in preparation for the next one.
The IDF is currently evaluating the results of Wednesday's attacks on Gazoo. The air force hit targets including warehouses used for storing weapons equipment stores used by Hamas naval commandos.
These targets were identified months ago through the joint efforts of the Shin Bet and Israeli Military Intelligence. Destruction of these targets was enabled as a result of the "window of opportunity" provided by the rocket launch from Gazoo, and due to the IDF's newer, harsher policies regarding keeping Hamas from building up its offensive attack capabilities.
According to Israeli security assessments, Hamas is not interested in an escalation of violence, as it is fighting against the Salafi Jihadist organizations in the Strip, which are trying to undermine Hamas's power.
Israel is also uninterested in an escalation, despite the large scale of recent attacks. In fact, Israel wants to mitigate any chance of an escalation, especially in light of the High Holy Days, during which huge numbers of Israelis travel to the south of the country.
As such, it seems that the IDF isn’t focusing its military efforts on small terror cells that launch rockets of their own accord, thereby leaving these terror cells more or less intact. This despite the fact that Sderot has been hit four times since the end of Operation Protective Edge.
However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... according to IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot, the IDF's number one target is uncovering and destroying the Hamas "terror tunnels" that cross into Israel. Hamas allocates the majority of its budget to the construction of these tunnels. IDF efforts to mitigate the threat posed by them can be seen with new technology currently being developed and used to locate these tunnels, along with the continuing efforts of Israeli intelligence to locate and destroy these underground threats.
All this notwithstanding, though, the IDF's new method of hitting high quality Hamas targets in real time may bring about a new threat: namely, that the Hamas military wing might start a new war sooner rather than later.
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.
[PJ] The wizards of smarts in the political arena are telling us Donald Trump's campaign is over because of recently leaked tapes of a private conversation from 2005 that was disparaging to women. The comments are so offensive, they say, he's not fit for office.
[DAWN] BIG news can trigger a big debate, which is always a healthy process in itself. A well-articulated exchange of ideas has the potential to change our perceptions and positively contribute to the national discourse.
